The Kindgom of Heaven and Hell

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Faline all but cowered at the back of the great hall. She hated meetings. They were often times full of loud angry men who had a tendency to throw things. This night was no different. The entire village had shown up, despite the raging storm outside. Every man from every family was there, shouting to be heard over the next.
Her father, the Jarl, was seated at the head of it all, one long leg draped over his ornate throne. For a while he remained silent, his eyes not one the villagers, but going from the young woman hiding under one of the tables near the door to her sister who sat on top of it, holding onto a rather heavy broad sword. He shook his head at both of them. 
Oalf sighed heavily and held up a hand to silence the crowd. "I am fully aware of the danger we now face from the outlanders. And I am aware that those who cross our borders are far from human. However, I am not sure if we warrant help from out bordering villages. If we decide to seek help, we will need to go to the king. But...he is a bartering man. I am not sure we have anything he will find worthy enough..."

Lucian's wife was tugging at their clothing, trying to remove it. She too longed to feel their skin joined together. She knew as well that soon enough the young woman's memories would return and she would be left in the darkness. 

"What in the name of the gods is going on here?" Braun's voice was little more than an angry boom as he bent down and separated the two women. He held them each in one hand, shaking his head. "How the hell are you still alive?" He growled at Serah. "Don't you know when to quit?"

Lucian was gently unlacing Faline's ornate dress, his lips brushing against each inch of creamy skin as it was revealed to him.

"She started it!" Cessily insisted childishly. "Don't you dare blame this on me!"

"Hades..." Faline's voice was much more feminine and deep with a knowledge that the tiny virgin did not yet possess. "I've missed you so much." She too was kissing his skin, desperate to get all she could out of the moment. 

Braun didn't look like he'd gotten any sleep at all. He shook his head at both women then dropped the nymph. "Sandman has been here. He was trying to keep you away from me. We need to get moving again. It isn't safe here."

Faline's dress was already on the floor as he breathed his true lover's name. "Persephone..." His brother could kill him now and he would die in bliss. She teased just like he remembered, which made it all the more painful to know this moment wouldn't last.

"No, you need to rest!" Cessily insisted sternly. "You're no good to me half asleep!" She added, folding her arms across her ample chest to prove to Braun that she meant business.

"I want to stay with you..." She whispered against his lips, her own fingers working at his belt. "Don't let the girl come back..." She hated to beg but she was desperate. She couldn't bare to leave him again. 

"It's too dangerous..." Braun stopped speaking, looking around them. "The snow..." All around them the snow was beginning to melt. All around them flowers were beginning to bloom through the thinning layers of ice. 
"It's her!" A male's voice cried from the trees above them. "Persephone is waking up! She's here!"

"It isn't my choice, you know that." Lucian breathed, lifting Persephone up once his belt was loose and carrying her back to the bed Faline had been sleeping in earlier.

Cessily didn't mean to, but her fingers suddenly reached for Braun's and squeezed tightly. "Who is Persephone?" She breathed.

"My mother can't do this to us anymore." She whispered, her breath catching as he laid her down on the bed. "I feel like I've been asleep for centuries. I don't want to share you with her." 

Braun shook his head, holding onto Cessily as he watched the nymph begin to change. Her blue hair was turning blonde and her lips a rosy red. "This isn't good." 
"It is!" The nymph cried, her voice filled with joy that hadn't been there before. "The sandman is losing his power! He won't be able to hold us here!"

"Longer than that, my love." Hades breathed as he littered featherlight kisses along the edge of Persephone's plump breasts.

Cessily had her arms a round Braun now as she watched Serah's transformation, ashamed that she was jealous of the beauty the other woman had become. It seemed she was forever in the shadow of a beautiful blond sister.

"I seem to...remember waking up...a...few times..." Persephone breathed, her slender fingers threading through his hair. "Or was that a dream. We were doing this...but it wasn't my body...it's never my body anymore..." 

Serah no longer seemed to notice her sister. She was looking up at the clearing sky. "It's...the sun...it's...Apollo..." She breathed. "Apollo!" She began to shout. She didn't know why it was so important or why she was scrambling to now climb the nearest tree to get high enough to see the sun. 
Braun's stomach twisted in knots as he watched all that was going on around him. He glanced down at Cessily, wondering why she didn't seem as happy as the nymph did. He hadn't even noticed her beauty, only the transformation. "This is going to end badly. I...you need to get somewhere safe. I don't know how Sandy is going to react to all this."

"I don't think any of us have complete control anymore." Hades breathed, moving his lips to brush against Persephone's smooth inner thigh now.

"Not without you!" Cessily insisted. She didn't like this sudden change, just as she didn't like to hear the name Apollo. For some reason the mention of it sent shivers down her spine.

"What about you?" Persephone asked, though she was having a hard time paying attention. "Your power seems to be holding firm..." It wasn't his power she was thinking of.

"I need to throw him off of you. Cessily, please listen to me." Braun pleaded.

"I hardly consider myself the being of power I once was..." Hades breathed. "None if us are, despite what my brothers may believe."

"He will grow bored, eventually!" Cessily insisted. "Braun, I am not running and hiding like some helpless little child!"

"Your brothers...Apollo...you...Sandman...and Chaos..." Pershphone breathed, their names beginning to slip her mind as her husband's warm fingers slid over the exposed skin of her thighs and up her flat belly. "Where are they...I can't feel their power anymore either..." She wasn't really thinking of this question. She didn't really care if he answered either. 

Braun shook his head. "I'm not asking you to run. I'm asking you to stay hidden until the time is right. You were right when you said I am weak. I'll only be able to hold him off for so long. He won't be expecting you to have stayed to fight him." He said softly, secretly hoping this was the last thing she actually did.
"He's coming!" The male voice shouted from the trees. "You'd better get down from there nymph!"

Hades didn't reply. He couldn't, as he didn't have the answer she was seeking. He had no idea what his brothers were up to, nor did he care. They weren't here,a nd that was all that mattered.

"Then hide with me, because that is the only way I am going anywhere." Cessily informed Braun firmly her delicate chin jutting out in defienace.

"Hades...hurry...I'm losing myself." Persephone begged him, all but pulling him the rest of the way on top of her. "I don't want it to be her you make love to." She added with a jealous purr. 

"Kitten," Braun sighed deeply. He wasn't sure he could allow her to hide with him. If sandman found them both there was no telling what he was going to do. Luckily that strange man was so worried about sandman he was no longer trying to mess with their emotions.

Despite the stories, hades was a good man, and a sudden fear hit him; what if Faline came back to her senses while he was making love to Persephone? Would she call him a monster and a rapeist?

"If I truly am your kitten, you won't ask me to be alone, anywhere." Cessily whispered just loud enough for the two of them to hear. "I am not afraid, Braun."

"What?" Persephone paused, her deep green eyes opening. "Why did you stop? What's wrong, Hades? Did I do something?" She sat up ever so slightly, feeling the change in her husband and wondering what was causing it. 

Braun sighed. "Grab your things. We'll just leave them here and get going. The nypmh is more trouble than she's worth any way. Perhaps with her gone that other entity won't be following us either."

"Not you." Hades breathed. "I worry I'm going to hurt Faline, she's an innocent in all of this." He added. "It feels like... I'm a monster snatching her from her crib or something."

Cessily smirked slightly, her pert nose wrinkling a little as she glanced up at Braun in triumph. "See, I'm always right."

"You're worried about a human?" Persephone asked, sitting up fully and frowning deeply. "She is not even your wife! Why would you care what became of her?" She demanded, more than a little jealous now.

Braun groaned and shook his head. "You don't make this easy on me, you know that?" He growled. He began to gather their camp up. He fully expected to get away from Sandman before he arrived to see what the fuss was about.

Hades sighed heavily and sat back a little when Persephone sat up. "That is my point, only humans nd very fragile. If she truly is a virgin, imagine her horror if I just plough her without her consent!"

"You could always just leave." Cessily replied with a shrug as she kicked sand over the fire.

"I cannot believe you would care about that." Persephone said darkly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Hades, she is a vessel for me and nothing more. Once I am strong enough I will take her over and she will be gone for good. Her feelings do not matter." 

"And let you get all the glory? I think not." Braun snorted. "You're just afraid I'll find that dragon egg alone. That's why you don't want me to go off without you. Don't think I can't see right through you, kitten."

"What has she done to you..." Hades whispered, speaking of Persephone's mother. "Was she truly so desperate to have you back, that she would twist your soul in such a way?"

"That dragon egg is mine." Cessily assured Braun firmly as she pulled her bow over her head to free her hands to pick up the rest of her belongings. "Make no mistake about that."

"You cannot sit there and tell me you care about the fate of a human over me." Persephone said, her chin quivering. "Has being away from me for so long begun to change your feelings for me. Are you in love with the human?"

"Say whatever will make you feel better, kitten." Braun chuckled. "In the end we both know who will bring the egg back to the king."

"No, of course not!" Hades protested, perhaps a little too quickly. "I am saying should she not be a willing party in this?"

"Exactly. Me." Cessily told Braun thinly as she packed up the last of their supplies. "I don't understand why that is so hard for you to grasp."

"I do not care!" Persephone said, slamming her hand down on the bed. "This is my vessel. I don't care about the soul that shares it. I will soon shove it out anyway and you will ferry it to the land of dead where she belongs! It is not my problem!" 

Braun grinned ever so slightly and shook his head. "You're so sure of yourself for such a little thing. "Considering I had to rescue you and all, I think we both know who will be getting the egg." He purred, patting her on the bottom as he walked on ahead of her. He didn't see Sandman, in fact he'd already forgotten the threat of him.

"You never used to think that way." Hades breathed sadly. You would often mourn the loss of the soul, even sob over the guilt it caused you to take the vessel." He added. "Has it truly been so long this time that you lost all empathy?"

Cessily was so busy glaring at Braun that she too missed the sight of Sandman. It probably wouldn't help their situation any that he considered it a great sin that Braun had just touched that which didn't belong to him, in the eyes of the immortal.
"I did not need rescuing!" Cessily huffed as she caught up with her companion. "You just came barging in like always!"

"I hate the darkness. I am tired of living in it, Hades. Your brother visits me there. It's worse than being simply asleep. I can't go back and I can't just keep closing my eyes until she is ready. I am tired of fighting. I don't want to do it anymore." Persephone whispered, pulling her knees to her chest. 

Braun laughed, placing an arm around Cessily and kissing her on the temple. "You're just jealous. It's all right. Even though you'll never be able to come barging in anywhere, you can still stand behind me and shoot those lovely little arrows. What do they call that...oh yes. Back up." He chuckled, keeping her close to him.

"Why did you never tell me?" Hades whispered, reaching out to gently tuck some of Faline's golden curls behind Persephone's ear. "I could have hurt him... A lot, made him stop whatever he was doing to you."

Cessily again tilted her head back to narrow her moss coloured gaze at Braun. "I'd be careful what I said, big guy... If I'm so small, that puts me at the right level to castrate you, wouldn't you agree?" She breathed with a playful flutter of her dark lashes.

"You care for your brothers. Even the one trying to steal power from you and Apollo." Persephone whispered, shaking her head. "I am not going to be the one to cause a rift between you. There is enough strife to last thousands of years..." 

Braun threw back his head and laughed, pulling them both to a stop and turning Cessily to face him. "I'm all for that as long as you promise to make it fun, kitten." He purred, leaning his head down to press his lips to hers.

"And I won't sit by and let them torture the one I love most in any world." Hades whispered, sliding a finger under Persephone's chin and tilting it upwards to lightly brush his lips to her own.

As always, Braun's kiss left Cessily rather weak at the knees. Her slender hands had to reach up and settle against his solid chest in order to steady herself. "You're right... If I do that... What satisfaction is there for me to have?" She purred, seeming all too much like a true kitten in that moment.