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31_days2005-08-06 02:11 am
of-carabas.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2005-08-06 02:11 am
[August 6] [Seimaden] Artifice of Eternity
Title: Artifice of Eternity
Day/Theme: August 6th/To the lords and ladies of Byzantium
Series: Seimaden
Character: Rauresu
Rating: PG
Marion had chosen his successor carefully. Well, not carefully, perhaps - impulsively, rather. But then, he had always done things impulsively; it kept his life interesting, for a while anyway. He had, at least, chosen his successor well. Strong. Beautiful. And with a cruel streak so terrible it put demons to shame.
Which was the problem, really. Demons, as Rauresu was quickly discovering, did not like being shamed. And to the lords and ladies of the demon world, Marion's choice of a pathetic human over one of his own kind was a slap in the face.
"You can take my title," Rauresu had told the tall, faintly shimmering woman standing before him. "I don't need it."
She'd smiled at that. "I'll take it with your life."
Which was the way of things, of course. People came to challenge the so-recently-human lord, and people failed, and people died in the trying. It took many deaths before the word spread and the challenges slowed - never quite stopped, no, but slowed. The deaths of demon lords. The deaths of minor demons hoping to gain in status. Even the odd human, though a good few of those seemed to want to kill him not for his title, but to destroy the Big Bad Demon - he wasn't always sure which, he never bothered to ask. What they wanted didn't matter; they died, just like the rest. Rauresu survived. Survived, and survived, and wondered why any human would want to live in an eternal world of artifice, passing time in endless tedious power games while in the human world generations were born, lived, died, and were born again.
He had no love lost for humanity. But he failed to see the attraction of eternity, save that it gave him more time to watch the ever changing human world in hopes of finding a certain something interesting. Something that would make life, even eternal life, worth something again.
He was, after all, Marion's successor - chosen well, if not carefully. If Marion had been careful, he might have chosen someone a little less like himself.
Day/Theme: August 6th/To the lords and ladies of Byzantium
Series: Seimaden
Character: Rauresu
Rating: PG
Marion had chosen his successor carefully. Well, not carefully, perhaps - impulsively, rather. But then, he had always done things impulsively; it kept his life interesting, for a while anyway. He had, at least, chosen his successor well. Strong. Beautiful. And with a cruel streak so terrible it put demons to shame.
Which was the problem, really. Demons, as Rauresu was quickly discovering, did not like being shamed. And to the lords and ladies of the demon world, Marion's choice of a pathetic human over one of his own kind was a slap in the face.
"You can take my title," Rauresu had told the tall, faintly shimmering woman standing before him. "I don't need it."
She'd smiled at that. "I'll take it with your life."
Which was the way of things, of course. People came to challenge the so-recently-human lord, and people failed, and people died in the trying. It took many deaths before the word spread and the challenges slowed - never quite stopped, no, but slowed. The deaths of demon lords. The deaths of minor demons hoping to gain in status. Even the odd human, though a good few of those seemed to want to kill him not for his title, but to destroy the Big Bad Demon - he wasn't always sure which, he never bothered to ask. What they wanted didn't matter; they died, just like the rest. Rauresu survived. Survived, and survived, and wondered why any human would want to live in an eternal world of artifice, passing time in endless tedious power games while in the human world generations were born, lived, died, and were born again.
He had no love lost for humanity. But he failed to see the attraction of eternity, save that it gave him more time to watch the ever changing human world in hopes of finding a certain something interesting. Something that would make life, even eternal life, worth something again.
He was, after all, Marion's successor - chosen well, if not carefully. If Marion had been careful, he might have chosen someone a little less like himself.