Nikolai

Tartar (Land of The treacherous)

1970 Tartar Years Ago

"Why must you keep challenging me? I told you over and over again Harlow, Shifters go to Farnicle, then the mountain of Warzerope, then they come to Tartar after they find the gateway. It's been that way for millions of years, why fix what isn't broken."

Her flaming red hair breezes, as she paces up and down in the grey robe she insisted on wearing all the time. The dark marble tiles reflect her shadow as she moves in a rhythmic pattern around my bedroom and her addictive scent fills my air, sailing to my nose. We're in my personal chambers, a place meant for intimate partners.

And for thirty years Harlow has entered these chambers, she has laid on my bed and invaded my space, but never had we crossed the line. Never have we shared the intimacy these walls promised.

I avoided her as much as I could but there were times when she insisted I face her, I look at her, I listen. Today it wasn't her, it was me who summoned her presence. In fact, since 4 quarters have passed Harlow hadn't summoned me. I was happy to let it be, to focus on my duties. Until today.

I was sitting by my desk, content in my dark corner as I have been these last 6 months. There were issues in the 9 Realms, an increase in demon activity and it was my duty to find out if we had any cracks in hell that I needed to mend. When I received a magical telegram from Adonis, I was agitated. He was the Tempter in charge of Warzerope, a mountain city in Hell.

Adonis was no small fly on the wall, he was growing in strength but he posed no threat to me so I let his arrogance and cruelty slide and I allowed him his choice of punishment when it came to the Shifters.

He was the reason I had to summon Harlow. I avoided doing the latter because I knew there was heartbreak awaiting me if I ignored all that I knew and pursued her. And I wanted to pursue, I wanted her to be mine.

As much as I wanted to taste her lips and kiss her fiery senses into submission, she was for another, I knew it since the day she bowed to me, I knew it when she slept in my bed that first night and I touched her marble skin. Untouchable and off-limits. The very two things that made her so tempting. It was like she was my own personal hell and I didn't know how much longer I could keep fighting the temptation.

"I told you it doesn't work. They still come to Tartar and need to be chained at least three times a week. You wanted a more logical way of handling the soul trapping with the shifters and I am giving it to you but you still fail to see it," She pauses, spinning around, her hair swinging with the fast movement of her body, "We skip the mountain after Farnicle, then we bring them here and get the Elemental Guards to help me with the elixir I made, that way the Shifters souls are stuck inside their new forms, and they don't change and attack every demon they see."

I groan, "The Elixir needs Palm honey from the human world and Asguardian water. I can't keep leaving Tartar every time you need more. Nor can I keep expecting my siblings to break into Asguard so you can get your way. We only use the Elixir when we have no other choice. It's been working that way for 26 years, so what's the matter now?"

She spins and her emerald eyes hit me in the chest as her anger takes full control. A see the slight mist around her body, as she glares at me.

"What is this really about Harlow? You've never had a problem with the way I did things until the last year and you've been here for thirty years Love. And during the time when you had a problem with it, you sent Dante to me the last 9 times, and all those times I was left thinking you understood, but we end up having this same discussion, only now you have forced my hand to summon you. So cut the crap, and be honest, and tell me what is going on?"

Since she has been here I find myself more entranced each day by how alive she is. She has this innate will to live, to find solace here in Tartar. She makes me question everything I have known about Tartar, about the rules, laws, the way we did things. Harlow, The Storm Raider, Knight of Amon, a puzzle, with pieces scattered in so many corners that I could spend an eternity and still not find all of them. It frustrated me at times watching her, knowing that one day she would remember, she would recall what she lost, who she left in Eden, and I would be left alone, again, in this hell to rule the treacherous.

Truth is, I already had eons of heartbreak strapped with locks all over my Ethereal form. I have had hundreds of years to experience the taste of the taken, and I've always ended up with the arrow lodged in my vital organs, with nobody on the end to pull it out. There was always emptiness waiting for me, that in the end when I chose to rule the very hell I despised, I chose to immerse myself in the emptiness, and find peace within Tartar, and I did, I found my ability to create demons that could think for themselves, I restored orderly chaos and doing that I experienced contentment every day, until her.

"Does my loyalty to help the Shifters, now come down to a question of my sanity, my integrity?" She questions me, "Am I not allowed to care about them? To find a better solution? Is Tartar not my home?"

I sigh, and the urge to touch her and reassure her is so strong but my willpower remains stronger, and I sigh.

"They have to be chained when they get angry, it is the only way to prevent a war from erupting Harlow, you know this. None of these beings left in Tartar are innocent, they are sinners, punishments are meant to be given when they do wrong."

"But who are we to judge them? Why should you decide."

I role my eyes, "Because I am a God, the King of hell, it is what I do." This is the 5th time we've had the same conversation, I wasn't annoyed she kept ignoring the fact that I was the 'Devil' the King of Hell. But this time I knew something was on her mind.

"There are many ways to prevent a war and none of them have to be by chaining the Shifters. They should come straight to Tartar so we can teach them to control their beast. Denvar, said when he went to Farnicle, he had to travel on the path of thorns, and go through the mist of deceit and that just riled his demon up, it didn't help him control the beast, that's why he attacked the Elementals of Warzerope. I don't see why we have to follow a dumb rule that has never actually shown results besides adding an extra layer of hate to an already doomed soul." Her words are spilling out of her mouth and I catch the end of what she says and I frown getting up from my seat.

I take a close step to her and grab her upper arm.

"And I don't understand why this specific issue has you so entangled in its web so suddenly. Because I am certain early you said they should go to Farnicle then Tartar, now you saying they should come to Tartar, so you tell me love, which one is it?"

Her green eyes sparkle, and a part of me is glad she has let the fire inside her die. Having found more peace in the land of the Treacherous, Harlow was a wonder in my kingdom. I couldn't understand why she would live surrounded by monsters and criminals, so easily adjusting to our ways, accustomed to our beliefs. Yet, now something flails in her, like a sickness, eating her very thoughts, controlling her emotions.

"Why do you..." She pauses, her breathing is becoming harsh and I frown at the sudden change.

"Why do I what Harlow? Ask only when you wish for truth, not when you wish for solace," I warn her, as she stares at me.

"Why do you keep your distance for months at a time, do you not feel what I feel? In the 4 quarters I have not come to you, why did you not seek me out?" Her question leaves me at a pause.

She didn't remember why she was sent here, or why The Goddess of Knowledge removed her memories, and at first, I wanted her so badly to remember, but Harlow was simply only interested in moving on. She was set on finding her place here, in Tartar. And I never not once asked her reasoning for wanting to forget. Did the thought of her remembering inflict fear in her?

"There was no reason to summon you, until today."

"You are the King of Hell, The devil himself, you don't need to justify a reason," She yells and I have nothing else to do but look at her flushed face, her frantic chest. Her wild eyes that paints her in beauty that is so unfitting in a place like this. Sometimes her glory hurts my eyes, it pains me to see such magnificence in a place like this. Why would God do this? Why would the Almighty send her to me? Has he not done enough'?

"After 30 years in this hellhole, have you ever considered you were happy in Eden? Or the necklace on your neck meant more than just an adornment?" I question her in Ethereal tongue.

She frowns at me, but still, I hold her eyes captive, as her breathing assails my senses like a kiss on my lips.

"And have you ever considered that I don't care about my past, because I like the idea of what my present is telling me, Nikolai? You feel something for me, like I, you, and I am not ashamed to admit it."