It had been a long time since he had summoned his children into one place. Usually, he just leaves most of them be, except for Steele, Dante, and Rize, but under the new circumstances that played out lately, there was little choice but to inform them should things continue to get…sticky. As he approached the main hall, he felt for the mental connections he had made to each of the siblings before casting gateways for them to come to Discordia. Colden had yet to establish one with him, and knowing Freya, she was too into whatever she was doing to care. It wasn’t much of a concern- both were still too fairly young while the others would be more compliant. Five portals were summoned as he took his seat at the end of the long table and simply waited.

The first to show up was Steele; which made sense since he was still on the island at the time and was the closest. Xunatar’s governor wasn’t sure why he was called forth but he would see to it that he obliged. “Father.” He took his seat to the right of him before another came from another portal. Prepped and pampered, the eldest child came and looked to Xunatar and her brother. Carrie didn’t waste a word as she flew right over to her seat and waited for what was so damn important about this meeting. Then Beelze came, the scent of fresh blood filled the room. Steele shook his head while Carrie held her nose in disgust as the wild child sat next to the man. The obvious scenario was that she was in the middle of a kill when her father reached out to her. Dante came right after and yawned as he came in nothing but a pair of trousers. He had hoped to get a few winks of sleep but this call couldn’t be ignored. He seated right beside Beelze and end up slouching on her while falling asleep, to which she pushed him off onto the table

And then the final participate came in the form of Rize, taking as much time as she wished as she sluggishly took her seat beside Carrie. “Steele”, Xunatar called out while pointing squarely at Dante. He took the hint and pounded his fist on a spot of the table near him, causing the younger male snap right up. “Thank you, now my children we have much to discuss. The first being that one of your oldest brothers, Sol, had escaped his tomb and is somewhere I can’t see. You all will need to be on the lookout for that.”

Upon hearing that…that name, Steele’s usually calm look dropped suddenly and was replaced with a more frightful one. His body shook all over as Sol’s name kept coming in his mind. He had been tormented by him at an early age, obviously due to the jealousy he held for him and Carrie. Dante had still far too young to remember their cruel brother, something that he was sometimes envious of. “Why him, of all of them?”, he asked softly. “You said…that they couldn’t break out from the inside…

“Suppose I was wrong. Either that or someone released him from the outside”, his father replied.

Steele looked to his sister but knew that Carrie wouldn’t be persuaded to let that thing out. She hated him even more than he could. Still, it was a very bad thing that Sol was out. Would he continue the war that he sought centuries ago?

“It won’t be too long before the seals on his waiver and he regains his power. I suspect that he might be back in Abed, and if that’s the case then he’s probably trying to reclaim what was lost to him.”

“I knew he should have died”, Carrie retorted hastily. “Keeping him and the others alive was a foolish move. We should have killed them all.” Xunatar looked at her with narrowed eyes and immediately she kept her mouth shut. “Then you should have been strong enough to do it then, no dear girl?” She didn’t respond, biting her tongue from doing so.

“What now then?” Steele looked to the empty seats. “Freya and Colden aren’t here… we have to warn them…” Xunatar nodded and looked to Rize. “You will go and find your sister. She shouldn’t be too hard for you to locate her. And Steele, you will speak to Colden. I fear he still doesn’t completely trust me. Beelze, you will keep an eye on Akira. I think you know why.”

Then he turned to look at Dante, “You should look into traveling to Abed. You might have been too young to know of your brother, but I will recognize him immediately. Carrie, you will go to Iria and learn all you can about a new sealing spell. This time, he will not be released.”

Steele nodded, knowing that Colden didn’t know much about his father’s side of the family. A small part of him felt as though it was for the best. The family business was less than desire here.

It was insufferable that they still thought that their older brother could be detained. Carrie looked towards her father and then towards Steele and shrugged her shoulders. Back when the “war” was dying down and they had the spoils, she had strongly insisted that he and all the other traitors be killed. But Father had other plans, and they, unfortunately, included them. So the tombs were naught but a temporary punishment in hopes of them learning their lesson. Sol, she couldn’t see learning at all. His determination was nearly unmatched in strength. The Lioness leaned her head against the back of her hand, knowing that the others didn’t know the whole story.

“Sol was one of the first of our siblings, and his jealousy led to him leading an uprising when Steele and myself were still fairly young. Dante was still a child, so he’ll likely won’t remember. Father eventually ceased their movement and imprisoned them within the tombs. Prior to that, we had found the spell required to set them up into a state where their powers would be siphoned while they were kept inside. But apparently, Sol figured out a weakness to the prison, whether by smarts or pure dumb luck.”

If she was a gambling woman, it would be the latter for sure. It had taken ages to find the current spell and that was using all their pooled resources. Now, he expected her to look for a much more potent one by herself? They should still try to kill him while his magic was still weak. Given enough time, she wasn’t even sure that she could handle him at full force, though she would have been a fool to admit it.

“As you wish”, she said, a hint of bitterness dripped from her tone.

Beelze huffed at the summoning as she finished watching her kill finally submit to his fate. There hadn’t been anything personal- she just needed to eat. This fool and his henchmen had thought of her as easy prey but here she stood, blood lingering all over her. But not her own. Just as she was ready to start with the devouring, Father had to ruin the moment. She obeyed and crossed through the gate to see her prude sister and Steele. Without a care, she moved over to her seat and saw that Dante and Rize were late to the party. Nothing out of the ordinary- the three of them were so much into their vices versus Steele and Carrie who could control them freely.

The lamia’s ears perked up when learning about Sol, the brother she was sure that Carrie told her about whenever she wanted her to comply with her whims. Mainly threatening her with his presence, up to the point where she had believed him to just be a myth. But sure enough, he was real, according to both Father and Steele’s reaction. She stared holes into the older sister, wishing that she could have the opportunity to eat her and end her annoying presence once and for all. “Sounds charming.” But Carrie did have a point, however. “I hate to say it, but I do agree with her. He should have been hunted and killed. Instead, we may very well become the prey and him, the predator once more.” She wasn’t fond of that idea of being the weak one in this chase, but when Father gave them the instructions, she had to comply to it like before.


Besides, she hadn’t seen the girl that turned out to be her younger sister in some time. She looked astonished when he had mentioned her, in fact. The others would likely not know of Akira, but she was but another skeleton in his closet. Beelze slouched against her seat, her belly rumbling slightly from not taking in her kill. She could hear Rize chuckling to herself and Dante somewhat groaning at the fact that he had to go to Abed. “What’s wrong, Dante? Are you still afraid of those guards back there?” It hadn’t been too hard to figure out that he had basically taken advantage of their wives and some of their daughters and would seek his head for it. It hadn’t been too many years since he ran amuck there.

“So be it. But should harm come our way, I will make them into a meal”, she expressed with a huff.