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The emperor stared at the two scouts in front of him. He wasn’t at all impressed with their report, nor with how they were staining his floors with their blood. One of them was supporting the other as he spoke, but Belos wasn’t paying much attention to what he had to say. He had already decided on the punishment.
He glanced to the side, counting the beats of the heart above him, and then he heard the door creak. His head snapped up. The scouts had apparently been too distracted, bleeding out as they were, to close the door.
They stopped talking and looked back as the door swung to the side and there stood a little witch.
Belos narrowed his eyes through the mask. He was sure he had seen that child before, what was her name? He didn’t know, but he knew where she was from, her tail was a sure sign. This was Graye’s child.
And of course he had let the girl stumble around the castle like a foal with no clue of where it was going. She probably had no idea that she had interrupted a meeting, that wasn’t very important to begin with, but the idea all by itself was insulting enough.
“Is this...Head Witch Graye’s daughter?” one of the scouts spoke up.
“I believe so,” Belos said, sighing. “Do something right for once and take that child back to him. And tell him to keep an eye on her, I have reminded him countless times not to let her wander around without supervision. She has just interrupted us.”
The scouts hesitated. True, they didn’t look like they were in any state to lead a wild little toddler back to her parents. But hell if Belos was going to get up and do it himself.
“Well?”
The girl took a step in towards the scouts, who stepped aside to let her pass. She looked them up and down, her face imitating an expression of faint concern, and then ran over to the throne, tail flicking from side to side. Belos looked down at her as she raised her arms, letting out these insistent sounds that he interpreted as her wanting to be held up.
“It may be the heart that interests her,” a scout said.
Belos raised an eyebrow. The girl pointed up at the heart as if she had understood, making a noise that mimicked its beating. “Ta-dun, ta-dun!”
He could almost laugh at that. So the girl had inherited her father’s stupidity, it seemed, but then, he could hardly judge her when she was so young. How old was she, one? Two?
He stood and picked her up, and she reached out for the heart again, wiggling in the emperor’s arms. But he didn’t hold her up to it, and instead walked past the scouts, giving them one hard stare before he left the room.
The last time he had picked up a child this small, it was when Hunter was younger, but he had grown much too heavy now. Holding the girl brought back the same irritation he felt back then, when Hunter would coo excitedly and play with the horns of his mask or whatever he thought was so interesting.
Now the girl was doing that exact same thing, reaching up for his horns while making some odd, delighted noise (purring?). He ignored her, as much as he would’ve liked to bat her away, and walked on to her father’s quarters.
He rapped on the door once he found it, seething at the stares the guards were giving him. He knew what they were thinking: what’s the emperor doing with that girl? It was below him, really, and it would be the last time he did this.
The girl tapped hard on the side of his mask, and he winced, just as the door opened and there stood Adrian Graye. His tired face lit up when he saw what Belos was holding.
“I see you’ve found the emperor, Auri,” he said.
Auri squealed to see him, her tail wagging furiously, and Belos hastily returned her to her father. Graye took her in his arms and kissed her nose, both of them purring at once.
“I’m sorry, did she disturb you?” he asked, looking up at Belos.
“Very much so,” Belos growled. “You’d do well to watch over her, perhaps I won’t be as forgiving next time as I was today. The scouts were in the middle of their reports and she walked in like she owns this castle.”
“Ah, forgive me, she didn’t know better,” Graye said. “I let her roam around so she can get steadier on her feet, and the guards seem to have no problem watching her, so-”
“The guards are not her babysitters, Head Witch,” Belos interrupted, leaning in. “If you want her to stay here then you will keep her where you can see her.”
Graye stepped back, eyes widening with surprise. “Is- is that a threat?”
“Yes.”
There was no more protest from the ridiculous man, he only bowed his head. Belos stepped back, not caring to go any further with the subject. But just as he began to leave, Graye spoke up again, though thankfully it was no argument and it was directed at Auri.
“Say goodbye to the emperor, dear,” he said, giving her a bounce in his arms. “Tell him thank you.”
Belos glanced back at them, and she waved, letting out a small, happy yelp which he took as some sort of thanks. He rolled his eyes and walked away, the laughs of his tiniest servant echoing throughout the hall behind them.