Arasgal II






History

Arasgal remembered his own birth.  First; Maelmorda melted against Sammael as he rolled him off of his body and his breaths shivered as they did finally disengage.  He curled on his side snarling at the weird kind of pain only a woman should ever have to suffer as Sammael laid him on his back.  Now Maelmorda remembered why he had chosen to take a male form! 

Maelmorda could take all kinds of pain, but this whole female aspect of his being was so new to him.  It was like a virgin getting pregnant and giving birth all inside of an hour!  "This is fucking torture... Never let yourself get knocked up Sammael... I am sure our son is worth it, but damn, if you can avoid it, DO SO!!!! AHHHARRR!!"  He knew the mechanics.  Had assisted in many births, but damn it sucked from the other side.  Mael gripped onto Sammael's arm.  "Cast oblivion over me or something, or gate him out of me!!"  Or maybe Sammael was having too much fun watching Mael suffer as women had to suffer the births of their children.  It had to hold a certain amount of fascination to him.  "Marsol?  You want Marsol to raise our kid?" he raised a brow.  You would honor him in that way for being a thorn in your side?  But of course you would... What can we do but respect those who have the guts to... to... stand... up... "  He stopped talking and just started breathing.  Teeth gritted as he felt that uncontrollable urge to push.  "Please gate him into your arms, Sammael... My pride is taking a pounding.  I would do it for you."  He smiled up at him, his hands gripping his own belly as if trying to squeeze the kid out of him.

Sammael's laughter may have been inappropriate but it was funny that Maelmorda warned him against getting pregnant.  "Now, now Mael," he said as he laid a hand gently over the one gripping his arm, "giving birth is just another natural part of life."  He so did not miss teasing Mael whenever he got the chance, be it cruel as it was now or kinder in its context. Fascinated? Hell Sam was goddamn mystified as his black eyes watched that space where the child would surely coming plopping its newly made self out soon enough. Cast or gate for him? Did Mael really think Sam that kind to pass up this moment to witness something so profoundly unexplainable? Maybe Mael was the crazy one instead of Cirgoth now, silly devil. Fingertips trailed down those smooth thighs to where this feminine part of Mael's body would be nestling that child just beyond. Touching lightly as he did to the tender flesh of Mael's woman part, as he grumbled, "Honor him? Bah. He's like a pain in my sciatica."  Then with both index fingers he would gently as possible start to slip them into that part of Mael that was about to do a whole hell of a lot of pushing cause there'll be no spells or pain killers or gating for his ass.  Not today.  "It is your pride that makes this more painful then it has to be, son of chaos," came that oh so silky voice of the demon kneeling between Maelmorda's legs where he was starting to slide his fingers into him. And then his hands, along with part of his arms if he had to. Was he going to pull the child out of Mael? Does the hard way ring any bells in this situation?  "A deep breath Mael, if you please," he said with his eyes still fixed on that gorgeously pregnant belly of the devil's, and abruptly shoving both of his hands into Mael up to his elbows if that's how much it took to see just where this child was in him.   "And hooolllllld it," he said, whether Mael took a deep breath or not didn't matter. The pain would be Mael's war badge. Heh.

Maelmorda laughed right back at Sammael as he refused to give him relief and claimed it a natural process.  "A mandevil getting knocked up by a mandemon and the word natural do not exactly make a martini, lover," he scoffed.  Mael gritted his teeth as those fingers so delicately brushed the inside of his thighs and teased along that clit to send shivers through his body.  He really was one to blend pain and pleasure wasn't he?  Mael could only laugh though it was cut with pain when he pushed those fingers inside of him to ignite a very bizarre blend of feelings.  Heh, how often was one giving birth aroused to the point of wanting to be phucked?  Never... until now.  Oh maybe it had happened somewhere, but what were the chances unless you had Sammael's sexy ass doing the tempting?  Or was it because Mael was such an impossible horn dog?  He was actually shoving against those fingers which pressed inside of him, his breaths quickening instead of slowing, and as Sammael's hand spread him it was like having his cock inside of him again, except, all fingery.  Well, the feeling was soon ripped from him as Sammael told him to take a deep breath.  Mael lifted his head to eye him with askance then howled like a banshee when he thrust both hands inside of him with his arms up to his elbows.  What he had mistaken for one hand was the fingers of two.  "Oh fuuuuuuuuuck!!!" he breathed and howled in the same breath as Sammael opened those hips wide.  Mael was NOT built for giving birth.  He had narrow hips which Sammael popped right the HELL out of place so he could get that infant's head cradled between both palms and pull.  Mael did not scream thereafter, he was slackjawed and his breaths strangled with the shock of it all.  He felt as if he had just been ripped in two pieces and he damn near blacked out, he kinda did for seconds at a time, like time strobed and he lots bits of it.  What he felt then made him weep and sob like a war child.  It was like his insides were spilling out of him in a flood of heat as Sammael's arms and the child evacuated him.  He sobbed for more moments than he would ever care to remember and then curled into himself whimpering.  He was not even really conscious of it.  It was all pure, raw physical reactions.  The bloody beast Sammael pulled out of him was winged and clawed, which is one of the reasons it had been so hellishly painful. The talons on those little wings and those needle sharp claws had raked him the entire way.  Maelmorda's eyes rolled on Sammael and the pretty little wild thing in his arms.  Even painted in blood one could tell how beautiful it... he... he-she was?  Male as far as Maelmorda could tell, but he had also seen a slit when Sammael shifted the curious thing in his arms.  It was so small... "We have to slow his growth, Sammael," he said very seriously.  "I haven't the strength... I am barely able to keep myself above the counter pane.  Can you...?"  He was clearly very concerned that its rapid growth rate would compromise his spirit.

"I don't need to grow slowly, fathers," the infant spoke up, speaking Mythemyn, the language of Acheron perfectly fluid.  Mael's lips parted and he just stared for a moment then after glancing at Sammael he trained his feline green eyes on this... true miracle again.  "Childhood is very important... It is how you learn of other beings, of what dwells within yourself, of fun and all sorts of wondrous things."  He applied himself to the child's logic. 

"I wish to be named Arasgal, after you birth father.  It is a good name." 

Maelmorda actually felt a pang of fear in himself.   The child shared their experiences.   "How much do you know about us?" Maelmorda asked him. 

"Everything, fathers." Whenever Arasgal felt Sammael also wanted to know the answer, he answered to them both. 

"Well I wish I had been a proper child, just once.  Please let us do that for you, Arasgal."  He was wondering what the hell Sammael was thinking, because he was blocking his own thoughts and feelings in case the child should grasp them.

That tiny devil, which had already almost doubled in size, looked between his two devil fathers as they tried to convince him why being a child was important.  Again words came from that small mouth that should only have been able to coo and blow bubbles.  "Proud father asks this of Arasgal out of fear, and Sinful father because it is what his mate and submissive wishes.  Fathers, you need not fear this white devil you made of love, for your love is in my heart also, and vast it is as the kingdom you call home.  Arasgal can do no wrong for he is what is best in both of you.  He is a child always in his heart, so needs not to mature slowly."

They were both so mystified by the arrival of this being.  Sammael thinking his thoughts, and there deceit did not exist the child who had named himself Arasgal.  The Morning Star had not gone by that name since he had created the Arcanon all those millennia ago.  Lucifer had a lot more names to choose from which is why he guessed their son had chosen one of his names.  It was the logical thing to do.  He was right, that was exactly why Arasgal had chosen Lucifer's past alias, that and he liked the sound of it, and the nickname Aras that came with it.  Arasgal had called him Sammael's submissive... It bit at his pride but that was what he offered himself up as to Sammael, his pet, his thrall, his whatever Sammael wanted of him.  He also called himself a white devil and that was exactly what he was.  He knew what he was.  For how many ages had Lucifer attempted to create a white devil only to fail in each endeavor, and here he and Sammael had made one quite by accident?  Would Sammael want to make a whole mob of them out of his extraordinarily powerful thrall?  Keep him barefoot and pregant until his family was quite large enough to content him?  Could others even be conceived or was it a fluke occurance?  Perhaps others would turn out quite different.  Either way, Maelmorda hoped the one son out of him was enough.  Sammael had only one other son; Caine.  He was not the seed spreading fiend Lucifer was.  Or maybe he had just been waiting for the right mate.  Who knew.

"I am hungry fathers and crave Proud Fathers blood.  May I please feed?"  He looked up at Sammael with those turquoise shot jade green eyes and then to his weary other father.  So he was a vampiric devil, Mael thought, as a child at least.  Lucifer wondered what his diet would be when he was older.

"Why not?  Drain me dry for all I care, and don't mind me when I pass out," he permitted.  When Sammael set him down he crawled in next to Maelmorda against his chest, nestling ever so close, and curled those small wings around him as possessively as if they were Sammael's arms, only with the innocent intimacy of hunger.  Needle sharp fangs sliced through a nipple and Mael shut his eyes as the child began to suckle at his blood, hard at times, tugging to free his flow of blood, until each suckle filled his mouth with his father's incredibly delicious blood.  Mael was beginning to crave the comfort of a bed as waves of sleepiness washed over him.  It felt strange when Arasgal's fingers gripped against his chest to clench and unclench as he pumped that blood quicker into the wound.  He was so damn... proficient.  When Sammael lay down behind him and pressed his body against his back and ass, his arms coiled his as they wrapped both he and Arasgal.  It was such an intimate gesture on Sammael's part.  Maelmorda had no idea just how possessive and protective Sammael was of he and his son just yet.  At length he did pass out, although he could not have placed the moment when consciousness escaped him.  When he did rouse again, he would feel two someones suckling at his throat and dizzying waves of faintness.  His eyes rolled open just long enough to register the adult male tangled against him at the fore while he still felt Sammael at his back.  A little over an hour had lapsed and Arasgal had achieved adulthood, his appearance of a youth in his upper teens, and ceased to age.  Arasgal liked the way he felt and looked when he reached seventeen and had stopped his own aging process.  He was beautiful, ivory skinned, hairless but for that brunette mop of thick, shoulder length hair on his head, huge wings covered top and underside with a thin pelt of mole soft fur the same color as his hair.  His face reflected the gorgeous masculine features of both his fathers.  His muscles were lean but hard of sinew.  His scent was like a garden with no one fragrance to place, but rather an intermingling of all kinds of leaves and flowers, all pleasant.  His eyes were a true Caribbean blue, so like turquoise seas over snow white sand.  He was... perfect.

Mael roused sometime later to find himself alone.  It startled the hell out of him and he climbed his feet, swaying on them for a moment, then sneered at the sight of himself.  He was a mess, his hair tangled, dried blood streaking his skin, and as he walked towards the door all the birth and sex mess vaporized.  He did not bother with clothes as he strode out of the door and got a lock on Sammael to follow his senses to a garden with beautiful bathing pools.  There Sammael was with Arasgal, who was splashing his father and laughing.  He really did have a child's heart and spirit... didn't he?  And he seemed to lighten Sammael's spirit as well.

During the time Mael had recovered from everything that had drained him of his pith, and after Arasgal had taken from him all that he needed to grow strong, Sammael's son had talked with his father.  He had told him he wanted to stay with his fathers, and begged him not to send him away.  Who was Sammael to argue with that when he was so possessive of what was his anyway?  If Sammael was studying his son he would find the youth perfectly genuine and guiless.  There was nothing about him that was untruthful or treacherous.  It had to amaze Sammael that such a creature came out of he and Mael.  Maelmorda paused at the arched entrance to the garden to watch them play for a few moments.  He laughed when Sammael snagged Arasgal's ankle and dunked him with a brisk pull of that leg.  Aras came up sputtering and laughing then retaliated by splashing Sammael violently.  Mael shoved himself off of that stone archway and approached the two to stoop down at the edge of the pool.  "Mind if we settle a few things, Sammael?  The terms concerning Morashtar?  Do you, or do not agree to the terms I laid out?"  If Sammael needed for Maelmorda to repeat them, he would.

Arasgal looked up at his Proud Father and then laughed as Sammael caught the side of his face with another splash.  He splashed him back then fixed those disarmingly beautiful eyes on his father again.  "I am awed father that you would make such a sacrifice for your world.  Such courage as that and yet you fear me.  Why?"

Maelmorda heaved a breath.  "I fear what may become of you if terrible things should happen to you," he stated quietly.

"I can protect myself, father. If terrible things should come, as they do to most things at some time, I shall learn from it and not let it take my soul from me, I promise you.  Why would you think dreadful things will happen anyway?"

Maelmorda smiled faintly.  It was so easy to say that until the worse did happen.  "Because of who your fathers are, Arasgal."

"I am not afraid of who or what either of you are.  I love you," he said.

Maelmorda sank down to sit at the edge of the pool with his legs in the water.  "I am glad to hear that, my son," he said and looked to Sammael to answer his former inquirey about their terms.  He wanted the matter settled so he stop dwelling on it.  He also wanted to inform Galaxy of what to expect, and of the unexpected birth of his son.

After the terms were settled Arasgal nuzzled against Sammael's shoulder and draped an arm around Maelmorda.  "I would like very much to see the world and Acheron, and the people in these places.  I think I would like to see other worlds as well.  Perhaps there is a world out there which needs Acheron to rule over it.  I could find it for you, Father Sammael."

"You wish to leave us so soon?" Maelmorda asked.

Arasgal shook his head.  "No need bides for me to leave to visit places.  I can come and go through the walks of folded dimensions and space."

"Learning that takes time, Arasgal," Maelmorda pointed out, yet he eyed him keenly as if expecting the answer which followed.

"As you suspect, I already know how, Father Lucifer.  I have the collective knowledge of both my fathers."

Maelmorda rubbed his face and his hands dropped into the water with a splash.  "And how would you use such power, Aras?"

"For good, only ever for good, and never on the worlds unless great powers were doing harm or if I might be very subtle in assisting others."

"What is good or evil is often an opinion, Arasgal," Mael tested him.

"Only to those who deceive themselves, father of chaos.  What is good and evil and all that is in between is like the truth.  It either is true or is not.  It is like you, fathers, and me, and is what simply is.  If good, or evil is questionable, then it is neutral and a matter of choice.  Father of chaos is evil when he feels he must be, and like Father of sin sometimes his logic is incorrect.  At other times Father of Sin is evil just to see what others are made of and to test one's inner strength.   At his worst he harms others because it pleases him to do so, but only because he and all his brothers were forsaken for hating the destruction of their true brothers, the demons.  He hates all who give their love to Yajmha and hates himself for serving him still by collecting those souls he is demanded by the king of Haman to take."  His gaze leaned curiously on Sammael.  "I wonder, father, why must you collect these souls?  If they are meant for Acheron, will they not find their way home on their own?  What if you refused to serve Yajmha even in this capacity?  Perhaps it is time to free yourself of Yajmha forever more and cut all ties."

Maelmorda cackled with delight and splashed Sammael.  "He has a hell of a good point, My Prince.  What the devil does my arrogant and disgustingly self-righteous brother do for you anyway?  He sure as phuck has never promised us peace.  His damn Alamascan are always on the hunt for my children and your brothers."  Mael was clueless that Yajmha had vowed that Maelmorda and any of those sired or created by Sammael would never be destroyed by Haman as long as Sammael served Yajmha.  It was well known in Acheron that Sammael still served Yajmha and how, but no one knew why, no one but Arasgal, who knew better than to speak of what he knew about Sammael or Maelmorda concerning certain matters.

Arasgal yawned and curled against his fathers to nuzzle his head between their chests.  He was suddenly very sleepy.  Like a child, he required a lot of sleep and nourishment at his current stage of development.  Though he looked like an adult, he was still maturing in other ways.  All the knowledge and chaos he contained burned a lot of energy in and of itself, and he had not built up the stamina yet to cope with it for long hours at a time.  He would crave Maelmorda's blood for some time yet to come as well; Mael's blood because the Morning Star was imprinted in his emotional being as the mother figure.  Maelmorda sighed and carressed his son's wet hair as his fangs pierced his left breast and he began to suckle on his blood.  His gut coiled and his loins quickened against Sammael.  His lids veiled his jade eyes for a moment and when he opened them again they were locked on Sammael.  It was through mind speak he expressed what was on his mind to his master.  "Funny isn't it, Sammael?  That out of the two of us, the father of chaos, and the father of sin, I am the one who cannot be trusted not to corrupt our son?  It is not him I fear Sammael, but myself, and what I may make of him.  I have never been ashamed of my thoughts or my tendencies before until now.  Do not mistake me, it is not sex I am alluding to, that I can control where he is concerned, it is his goodness.  His kind of goodness brings out the evil in me."  It was true, where Sammael had no wish to corrupt Arasgal, Lucifer craved to do just that. He hated things too pure and too good. Yajmha had seen to that.  He believed corruption was necessary, but in Arasgal's case he was certain an exception lived.  "Can someone as pure and good as our son bleed black and white into all colors, Sammael, and survive Acheron doing so?  Do you understand that I want to see if he is corruptible?   Am I the wild card in this which may make Cirgoth's dream a reality?  If so, you had better cage me from ever answering to my own compulsions where our son is concerned.  I am sure it is the wrong thing to do, yet the desire, the need to corrupt him remains."

The affections Arasgal gave to both of his Fathers was very disarming. Like the white devil's smile. If he had been in a heated mood, no doubt a little steam would be cooled off just by being in his son's company for a bit. It was getting weirder by the second, but not in a bad way. The answers to the question Arasgal posed him, and then Maelmorda on the matter of him still serving his arrogant brother, were left unsaid for now. Or they would have been had Maelmorda not splashed him again and got a grunt along with a downwards slap to the water of Sammael's hand to soak all three of them in a wide curtain of water. Sort of causing a tiny wave effect. Then he prodded at Maelmorda's nose, saying, "You keep splashing me and I'll throw a blasted Alamascan on your head for dinner."  It wasn't a threat but a promise. But wasn't it a good promise? An Alamascan for dinner if only the Morning Star continued this horseplay? Or maybe Sammael hadn't meant it that way? With the sudden sleepiness that overcame their son however he wound his arms around the both of them carefully, minding those gorgeous furred wings Arasgal possessed, to hold them close to himself. With their son feeding from Maelmorda, he would move through the water slowly towards the nearest wall. Carrying the both of them as the three moved lazily about, making a circle or two on their way to the wall. Where Sammael leaned his side against the cool stone surface. As Maelmorda utilized mind speak to tell him of the things that perhaps troubled and enticed him as to do with their son, the Devil would get no surprised or miffed expression from his prince. If he had not known the Morning Star as well as he did, he would have made such facial expressions, maybe even a little curt remark as to what Maelmorda was permitted to do and what not to. In reality however he did know all too well just whom posed the greater danger to Arasgal's purity, it was just a matter of how to go about avoiding such tainting that was thought on by the demon of sin. Maybe it was because of how the white devil brought out that closely guarded good side in him that made his lips set in a line before he blew a hot breath over Maelmorda's chin at the notion of caging him from his own inner urges. Maybe it was because Arasgal, and the insanity that Cirgoth had raged about, and most of all Maelmorda's mere presence that were bringing many things out of him that made him consider Maelmorda's words very carefully before he finally did answer him. 

"What would you have me encompass these 'desires' in you with; Chains; Stone; A constant state of bliss so that the mind cannot wander? Or bury you in mountains of pain every time the thought even crept into your head? Maybe just this once we'll agree on that front, to not allow this spoiling of our good son be accomplished by you or anyone else, so long as we can help it; Or I rather. And what pray tell would you do if in fact you found him incorruptible? Pure to the very end regardless of the trials life might have in store for him? What if you proved there are those rarities whose place in the grand scheme was just that, to be the unattainable? To be that ray of hope for all of us who could have forgotten how it was to be... He already sees how your mind strays to others even if he is right in front of you. Understand Maelmorda as I will do everything within my scope to stay your hand where he is concerned, but you will do all that you can to forget the world when you are with us. Call me selfish; Greedy; Vain; Fancy what you please of it, just don't make this into something none of us will be able to bare." 

Not at the end of this, at first calm and then abruptly heated, spiel of his own take on what Maelmorda had related to him, he let out an irritated sigh and then turned his black eyes on the white devil nestled between them. He hadn't expected to get so touchy over talking about Arasgal. Let alone snap at Maelmorda the way he felt he had. Maybe it was unfounded and he should have faith in his maker's ability to control himself and all those unimaginable things he was capable of. Just with his pinky finger. Yet if he weren't as possessive and so damn awe struck by the arrival of their son and having his maker finally, he wouldn't have gotten so edgy with Maelmorda about all that. It just showed how he cared when it came down to it.

After awhile of looking over Arasgal as he fed and then drifted off into sleep whenever he did, he said to the Morning Star in that mind speak, "Don't make the mistake that I wouldn't agree with you if it was anyone else's son about turning him inside out just to see how long he could bleed. But he isn't Maelmorda. He is our son; ours. Where you have Galaxy and Corwyn, I have my own. Be it just one son, I do cherish what is mine in my own way. As you are well aware, you sneak. Moving through the water like a mad man just to dunk me, bad form!" 

"I surely would not refuse a constant state of bliss, but you have my promise that I shall not corrupt our son in any intentional manner," Maelmorda agreed to Sammael's suggestion of them simply agreeing not to corrupt Arasgal.  "If the urge overwhelms me, I shall inform you and you may destroy the temptation howsoever you wish," he added. 

The devil stretched his body, arms sweeping above his head until his back was arched and his chest thrust out with his fingers steepled against the back of his head above his nape.  The pose was feline and magnetically sexy.  "I do understand your feelings for our son, believe me, beloved Sammael."  One hand then draped Sammael's shoulder.  "I am glad you wish to protect him." 

Sammael later conceived twin males with Maelmorda.  The twins would be born quickly as well, but not quite as rapidly as Arasgal. It was an event Arasgal was excited and eager to assist with.  The little devils gave Maelmorda so much trouble and at the same time were so quick to be born that Arasgal had to cut them out of his proud father, and as he did so his mind reached out to his sinful father to inform him that proud father was giving him twin sons and that because it was happening so quickly, he would sadly not be there to witness it unless he came immediately.  Was Arasgal attempting to guilt Sammael?  If he felt any guilt it was not Arasgal's fault, Sammael's first son of Lucifer was simply stating the facts to his father.  The twins were born three hours after conception instead of one. It was still an alarming rate of growth, but... it was an improvement Maelmorda would appreciate. Arasgal would always be the alpha, the strongest of his siblings. The twins were a complex mix of Sammael and Maelmorda which would be impressive devils by any standards. Arasgal alone knew that they had named themselves Iezael and Artax.

Arasgal was aware of all things concerning his fathers and many of their own, even that projection of Maelmorda which cackled and laughed as he was being tortured, lay like a lifeless plaything while being raped, a look of boredom maintained the rest of the time.  He emptied his projection of all ability to feel anything physically and made a mockery of Mephisto and the others' attempts to punish him.  Oh he could take it in the flesh but why bother when there was a ready alternative.  It saddened Arasgal and angered him that Father Maelmorda was being treated in that way. 

The real Maelmorda in the mean time spent time with Arasgal and his new twin brothers.  He showed no sign of what his other id was going through.  He fed the babes which matured quickly but not with near the rapidity of Arasgal. 

All the while he played the role of the good father, his other half made it clear to Mephisto and the others that they would pay for their treachery against him.  By three days end the waste of time compelled him to express how he felt about the ordeal.  "I am your superior and always shall be," he reminded those working on him out of the blue, his breaking of the silence also cracking the tedium.  "I am your maker and your ruler by Sammael's very admission of silence.  By letting me name myself as his equal that is exactly what I am, and that makes me your prince every bit as much as he.  Cease this fruitless folly or I shall have you all plunged into the cavern of souls until you rot,'" he had them know coldly.  All but Mephisto retreated from punishing him, the others unsure of whether Lucifer spoke true or not, and having no desire to spend an eternity in the cavern of souls, they chose not to involve themselves any further.  Mephisto called the others all manners of names, cowards among them, after attempting to convince them in futility to ignore Lucifer's threats.

"Call forth your true self, Morning Star, and prove yourself honestly able to withstand the punishment your equal demanded."  Mephisto challenged him, undaunted by Lucifer's threats.

"Very well, old dragon.  I shall comply as it is Sammael's wish, but you shall pay the cost for your part in it, mark my words as a vow." 

Mephisto shrugged.  "So be it."  He cared only to obey the demon prince he had pledged his loyalty and life to.

Lucifer smiled at that and phased out of the binds holding him with a cackle, hence he spirited his second self away to what he intended to be home.  A problem arose however.  Gabrian had inducted the aid of Baal, general of the infernal army to place an 'astral net of binding' around Sammael's fortress which caught projections and bound them to their true form, thus disallowing the unwary Lucifer to embark as he was caught and his true form bound, which meant so long as he was inside of Sammael's fortress, he could not project himself.  When the devil found himself within himself he growled.  "What trickery is this?" he hissed then pierced Arasgal with his jade green eyes.  "Will you look after your brothers for awhile, Arasgal?"

Arasgal nodded.  "Of course, proud father.  Is anything wrong?"

Maelmorda scoffed.  "When in the world isn't something wrong?  Is that not what makes life worth living?  The challenges which are incessant to arise?  I only have the need to speak with your sinful father."  Arasgal nodded and Lucifer leapt off the bed, dressed himself in a long black robe which he secured with a red satin belt, hence he stormed out of the room and through one corridor after another, seeking Sammael.  Arasgal appreciated that his Proud Father wanted to protect him from his pain and troubles, but Arasgal was quite aware of what he was feeling, a fact that Maelmorda clearly tried not to acknowledge.

The Morning Star and Sammael were kept frequently occupied thereafter,and without complaint Arasgal raised his younger twin brothers and bound them to himself.  They were dangerous and needed to be controled.  They loved mischief and tended to be wicked about it, although at other times they were perfect angels.  They respected Arasgal as much as an older brother as a father figure, and obeyed him, defying him only as children did to test his tolerance.  Arasgal knew they resented Lucifer and Sammael alike, for showing them too little attention, but they matured so swiftly that soon their resentment turned to cold indifference.  Their loyalty, love, and devotion belonged to Arasgal. There was evil in them but also there was love and goodness.  They were very much like their fathers.