Sweet Dreams

"Asmodeus," Luca looks up and one-handedly closes the book, then smiling at Venus. "I'll leave it for another time, dear." Alistarr nods at his remark. "Speaking of deer, go take care of the one I just cleaned." Luca sighs, scurrying off to do as he's told. "Venus, how have you been?" She swallows the spit accumulating in her mouth. However, she keeps her composure, not willing to make herself look like a fool as she did nights before. "How can you ask that so casually?" Alistarr shrugs, sitting opposite her on the other side of the room. Giving her the space she needs willingly.

"You seem to have had an okay time talking with Asmodeus so I assumed you were over your hysterics. Unless he put a spell on you to make you feel that way." She looks in her brother's eyes for any ounce of humor but there isn't any. "No Alistarr, he didn't put a spell on me. He just... Told me what I wanted to know. What I needed to know." He hums at her, an amused eye gesture going her way as he sits up. "Again, how are you feeling? There is a tear in your dress and you've got twigs stuck in your hair. Not to mention I've never seen that coat before." She nods, acknowledging the observations. "I got lost in the forest on my way here, so I climbed a tree looking for the cabin. I bought this coat with what little money I had left before deciding to come out here." Alistarr nods, acknowledging her in return. "Are you hungry? Thirsty? Do you have any wounds that need tending?"

Venus begins to think about what Luca said to her. There is always a hidden agenda. "Alistarr, what is it you think you're doing?" Alistarr stops, blinking for a moment not fully processing what she means. Thinking before speaking. "I'm not quite sure I get your meaning." She sighs, feeling dreadful of the conversation she may be plummeting into. "Why are you asking me all this? What do you hope to gain from it?" Alistarr scoffs, surprised by his normally withheld, sister's forwardness. "That bloody demon." Alistarr curses under his breath before re-addressing his sister. "I don't wish to gain anything from you, Venus, except maybe the sound of mind that you're alright." She nods, accepting what he has said, she decides to play along. "I'm fine. Short of being frozen to death but fine. How are you?" Alistarr stands and grabs a fan, pawing at the flames in the fireplace. "That should make you more comfortable. When Asmodeus comes back I'll get him to fetch more firewood. As for me, I'm living." She thinks for a moment. It takes her a second to process what he's said. "So you aren't happy?" He shakes his head, internally relieved, and taken back that she understands. He's very patient with her questions. Even though her questions toward him are very prying and personal.

"I haven't been happy for a very long time. I have a lot of hate and anger built up in me. However, I've always believed there is a calm before a storm and in that right, once this storm is over there will be a calmness, hopefully, that will entail my happiness as well. Happiness far greater than this sadness." She's struck by her brother's poetic words, finding an off-putting foreshadowing and overbearing knowledge of greater things in both men she has conversed with so far. "Why do you both talk as though you know what will happen? What has happened? You talk like it's all just a phase and everything will work out because you've been through it before, or know it will happen?" He nods, a soft grin present on his face, his sister's openness a breath of fresh air. "Because I'm a timeless being. Things may not be a phase for you because it takes your lifetime to get over it, making the problem immediate and immensely more significant. As for me, your mortal coils are but child's play. However, I've been thrown into this mortal life without warning. So currently things are much more complicated than normal. No higher knowledge could have prepared me for this." She feels a need to correct him. To tell him he is like her, human and his "mortal coils" should be taken seriously because they have always been there. But she reflects on what Luca told her before.

"He has no wish to gain power over you. So the way I see it, listening to him is a way to become more knowing of your brother."

so in light of that, she just listens.

"What do you mean you are a timeless being?" Venus's brother smiles, no longer taking a sheepish approach to his astonishment. It warms his heart seeing that she is not fleeing from what he wishes to tell her. "Well, human bodies have a clock. A date for which they must die. They make that clock run faster by the things they do unto themselves on Earth. I am now in a human vessel but my soul belongs to an Angel. A being who cannot die unless struck down by God or killed by a stronger Angel. In short, my other vessel doesn't contain that clock and I'm immortal." She nods, silently disagreeing with, not what he said, but how he has applied it to himself. "So why are you in a human body?" Alistarr chuckles, amused by this curious banter. "Well, I want to know that myself."

Venus thinks for a moment then comes up with what she thinks is a solution to his dilemma. "Why don't you just pray? You say you're an angel, right? God would answer you, surely!" He looks at her with pitying eyes. "If it was that simple I would have had my answer long ago. I have no right to speak to God as a human does. Even then just simply speaking to him would not do it, especially for such a demanding answer. No, you'd need at least a sacrifice for that. Not to mention I'm no longer an angel in God's grace. I've fallen. I'm a King of demons now, not a mere follower. So as my own master I have to figure things out on my own. God only tells me what I cannot do, as my father. I have no righteous path."

Alistarr's face becomes ensnared in uncomfortableness. "Or I was a King until I came here. Now, let me ask you a question. Do you know why I call these men by their real names, yet I still call you Venus?" She shakes her head concerned by the change in conversation. "I thought so, see, you aren't exactly Lilith. What I mean by that is your body looks like her spitting image when she was human. However, to put this lightly, you're a lot less like her when it comes to personality."

Venus nods and thinks, she thinks about the dream she had. So changing the subject and ignoring what he has just told her, she speaks up.

"Alistarr, I had a dream." He looks at her and is about to talk but she continues, cutting him off. "There was a woman and she looked exactly like me but she was almost completely naked, spare for some clothes made of animal fur covering her bottom half. She had a plump belly and she rubbed it, humming a tune very familiar, though I'd never heard it before this dream.

Soon a figure came into her room. Well, I say room but it was more like a cave. A filthy hovel covered in dirt, bugs, and wild animals, large ones that I couldn't identify. However, she didn't seem to care. In fact, she seemed overjoyed. Especially when she noticed this man. He was so human-like that he seemed in-human. He had this glowing blonde hair that was almost white and it looked like a slave's, curly and big, and these eyes that shined bright, like gold in the sun. His skin was dark and he looked like he worked out in the fields because he was so muscular. However he had no blemishes on him, in fact, his skin was porcelain. When he came to the girl he asked if she was pregnant. No, he stated that she was pregnant. Like he already knew. He proclaimed his love to her after she confirmed this, saying he would impregnate her as many times as she'd like. He spoke like it was some romance novel and she did the same. She was so firm with the way she spoke but loving. He was so gentle in his movements and his voice gave no ounce of authority over her. Like he was there to serve her. I think I had this dream from you telling me all that you did that night. However, that's not why I'm telling you this. I wanted to talk to you about it because it was so out of sorts for me. What I mean by that is I don't understand how I even knew what they were saying because they spoke a language I couldn't even recognize. I don't even know who that man is and I've never dreamt of someone I don't know or have at least seen once and like I mentioned earlier those animals in the dream were unrecognizable as well."

Alistarr's eyes grow large as she speaks and a thin tear rolls down his face. "Maybe Leviathan was right." "What?" After whispering that to himself Alistarr stands abruptly, walking over and kissing his sister on the forehead. "Sometimes you can be such a miracle in my life. I hope you know that." He walks away leaving her sitting in the room to contemplate what just happened.

———

"Leviathan you golden man!" Zaire throws cards onto the brown coffee table in front of him, turning toward his unexpected guest. "She did it!"

Zaire looks at Alistarr, thoroughly confused. "Who is this "she" you speak of and what has she done?" Alistarr sits next to Zaire, wrapping his arm around his shoulder. "Well my good sir, she has done what you have thought she would do. She, Venus, has remembered a part of her past. Lilith's past, my past. Of course, she doesn't know this but, a memory is a memory and I know she remembered it herself." Zaire looks at Alistarr's excited state with a questioning grin. "So you are saying Venus remembered who she is, correct?" Alistarr shakes his head a playful grin still spread ear to ear. "No, no nothing of that magnitude but she has remembered a memory of Lilith's. Something only me and her would know. When Lilith and I were about to be questioned by the angels brought forth by Adam, I had sensed she was pregnant again and she talked of this with me.

Leviathan, Venus told me in exact detail what had transpired. I had never told her of that story before. In fact, I told no one. It truly is a dream Leviathan and I mean that in the most literal sense, it came to her in a dream. She described what I looked like in my more human form. The one I used to talk to Lilith in." Zaire smiles at his friend as he listens to him. Seeing him the happiest he's ever seen him on Earth makes him overjoyed. "I'm glad, now there is only the simple part left. Find out how to make her whole." Alistarr engulfs Zaire in a full-on hug, patting him on the back as he stands. "You, my good sir, are in my favor."

"Funny Lucifer, you still insist on calling me but a man."