VERMILLION: The fall of Zaleon

Chapter 4

For a man who lived in the shadows of his brother, Dregov was a man that was evidently way fitter and way more intelligent than Stregov. Still the pair wondered as they watched Dregov from the sidelines how he always ended up succumbing to the orders of his older brother, and how by doing so, did he maintain a decent relationship with his sister. The pair had been certain that Amana hated any and everyone who dared to side against her, yet Dregov was one that she still seemed to talk to with care and respect. 

How would this tie into the plans of the immortal pair of Zaleon? Would they really be able to get Amana on their side when she seemed to be completely alright with her brother? Who knew? In the meantime the pair had decided that their next target of focus would be the second Doirekh male in the family, and so far their investigation had only raised more questions. They had yet to properly converse with the rest of the members of Vermillion, though they were sure they would not miss the chance to. Peeking a glance at each other, Eliana indicated with her eyes that they should approach the man, and nodding, Razaar led her to where Dregov and Amana stood, talking silently and casually. 

‘So what do you guys do for fun around here?’ Began Razaar, attempting to commence some really awkward small talk. The two astounded members of Vermillion halted for a moment before breaking down into fake giggles. 

‘Well it’s a world of opportunities down here’ mentioned Dregov nervously, as if there was something he wanted to say. ‘Any hobby you have you can make your own. We mostly get our inspirations from human films and movies, they seem to be the craziest kind out there’ he carried on, creating a genuine intrigue on what their lives really looked like. 

‘I don’t mean to sound rude or demeaning or anything, but don’t you get bored?’ Posed Eliana most genuinely. The siblings released a humourless chuckle, looking at each other nervously. 

‘We do, a lot of times. Albeit in the end we find something or the other to do. Though I must admit, sometimes it just feels nice to sit back and do absolutely nothing and just laze around watching movies’ responded Amana, and then the siblings decided to flip the questions upon the pair. ‘What’s it like running a combined pack? That must be stressful?’ Her tone held no form of malice, and it made it even harder for the pair to decide what to do about the woman. She was a genuine woman, someone who was nice and meant no harm, though if she was about to stick up for her brothers in the war then there would be no way they could keep her alive. Somehow they had to figure out a way.

‘Well, initially we both thought it would be a lot more challenging than running our own individual pack and community, though after joining, things seemed to have gotten slightly easier. We have the full support of our second and third, who are currently working on site, as we work off site, and altogether it seems that the workload is a lot less’ mentioned the Hybrid leader, lying her way through it. The truth was that they hadn’t touched a matter of pack and community business since before they left for to recruit the Ivory for the war, though they were lucky enough to have a great Beta and Omega team, who were overlooking everything whilst the pair focused on terminating the larger threat of the planet: the Vermillion. 

‘What does it entail to be an Alpha and Luna, and co-leaders of Hybrids?’ She then asked, as if asking them questions for an exam. The pair could only nervously chuckle as they glanced between each other and looked back at the siblings. 

‘Well, it means you need to ensure that pack and community finances are taken care of, that everyone receives an education, that everyone has employment they can earn some gold out of, if not that they still receive food and drink and have a place in the forest or at the Galon’s where they can stay’ Razaar briefly mentioned, and to the Doirekh’s it sounded an awful lot like a standard human life. 

‘Sounds interesting, hopefully we can meet your people one day’ mentioned Dregov, and Amana side-glared at him for revealing just a bit more than he should. The pair had yet to find out that both siblings were on their side, though for the time being all 4 pretended to be very much against each other, even though they weren’t.

‘Of course’ responded Eliana awkwardly, attempting to change the conversation. Before she could, however, they found themselves interrupted by Daraz, who had come to inform them that dinner had been served. Amana and Dregov walked forward, leaving Daraz slightly behind and giving the pair their opportunity to talk to the Witch before the moment would be snatched away from them. They noticed almost immediately the awkward tension between him and Amana as she walked by, and were sure they saw Dregov clench his fist as he walked by. 

‘Daraz, we haven’t had a chance to talk. Tell us a bit about yourself, what do you do around here?’ Asked Razaar, feeling more confident around the Witch that frankly walked around with a constant scowl hanging on his face. The man awkwardly cleared his throat, as if he was in no mood to talk. 

‘I’m a reader’ he replied briefly and vaguely, giving away less than nothing. 

‘Great! What kind of stuff do you read?’ Asked Eliana, pushing for answers discreetly. The man was getting more frustrated by the minute, mainly due to his earlier rejection, though he reminded himself of his sister's words, and kept a straight face, attempting not to lose his calm. 

‘I enjoy reading about the human world’ he answered, yet again with the least detail. The great Alpha and Luna themselves were starting to lose their calm with this character that refused to give away anything, and before any more conversation could be made they arrived at the dining table, where he skipped off next to his sister, away from the pair. Eliana found herself seated next to Liem, whose smirk never failed, and Razaar sat next to Dregov, who was ready for more conversation. Deciding they would tackle different targets, the pair faced away from each other as the food was brought to their table, and began conversation with the people next to them. 

The Hybrid leader, of course, had gotten the tougher target, and was left to discover the mind of a man that simply looked, and probably was, psychotic. 

‘Eliana Genova, you look absolutely stunning, as always’ began Liem, noticing the hesitant woman attempt to speak to him. His words had only creeped her out more, though she kept a straight face, and smiled politely at him. 

‘Thank you Liem, you are too kind. Tell me, what do you do around here? Everyone else seems to be very much engaged with a human lifestyle, are you the same?’ She asked, commencing her food. He roared with laughter, taking the woman aback. Her question had been in no way comical, yet to him it seemed to be. 

‘I am not, Eliana Genova. I like to...explore my limits, and myself, I want to be a better version of myself today than the version of me yesterday’ he responded, making absolutely no sense at all. 

‘Right, that’s great indeed. How do you work on yourself?’ The woman posed awkwardly, though she had no idea what he actually meant by his words. In his mind an image of him torturing himself in front of the fire popped up, but in front of her he smiled and laughed, keeping that information locked up inside him. 

‘Like I said, I like to push myself to the limits, test my boundaries, and work on myself.’ Eliana wondered if the Vermoca could actually hear himself to understand how much of a psychopath he seemed, though she brushed it aside, wondering how to move on from the mundane topic. 

‘So, do you get lonely around here? Seeing as you’re the only one of your kind?’ She then asked with complete sympathy. Liem laughed again and it had started to bother the woman just how much the man laughed for no absolute reason. 

‘Of course not, less drama’ said the man, and Eliana had to pretend not to know what that meant, even though she knew damn well what it did. The earlier image of Elize and Amana fighting came back to mind, and the image of Daraz backing the Doirekh female into a wall did too, though she pushed it away to show only amazement. 

‘Drama? What kind of drama?’ She asked, hoping he would give away something. Though the deranged man had a way of getting away with saying things purely based on the fact that everyone else thought he was insane and he knew it, and in an effort not to reveal anything to the woman, the man continued saying random things that didn’t make sense. 

‘The kind that no one likes Eliana Genova’ he smirked, and faced away, leaving the petrified woman at a loss of words. How was one meant to have a normal conversation with this man when he was the furthest thing away from normal? Eliana smiled and kept to herself, understanding that it was pointless to get to know Liem because he was simply an odd man that was -in more ways than one could count- a creep. 

She turned her attention towards Razaar;s conversation to see if he was doing any better, and it seemed he certainly was. Conversation was flowing left, right and center with Dregov, and the woman only wished she had switched positions with her mate. 

Razaar had dived deep into conversation with Dregov on the interest of human life, and the Doirekh had wasted no time in filling in the man on why human life was so interesting after all.

‘They don’t have any magic, and yet they’ve built this entire planet, and revolutionised it with technology, magical food, vehicles and all these concepts that are so complex to us. Have you ever heard of religion? And culture? And Languages?’ He voices with enthusiasm, throwing words that the pair had never heard before. They shook their head innocently, letting the man explain ‘So similarly how we’re all divided by form, ability and the hierarchy, they are divided by culture, religion and languages’ he began, and curious, Eliana decide to raise a question.

‘Is that like having abilities?’ She posed, and he shook his head. 

‘No, it’s their belief system, actually. Different people believe in different things. Like how we believe in the flame, they believe in all different gods, and from their cultures and religions are born, and they all speak different languages in different parts of the world’ it amazed the pair how little they knew of the human world despite having spent so much time there in their simulations. They also realised that the Vermillion had grown to be more human than creatures of Zaleon after so many years of being lonely in their sector, and a part of the pair did feel bad for the strongest 6, at least some of them. They had no idea how they were supposed to eliminate people like Amana and Dregov when they seemed ordinary and genuine, though they would have to consult with Paulina about what to do. 

‘That’s fascinating, you guys seem to know an awful lot about the human world, I respect that. Do you get your human products from the basement as well?’ Asked Razaar, purely out of curiosity, and Elize watched from the corner of her eyes as Dregov answered their question. 

‘No, Elize gets those for us. She and Daraz have the capabilities to do that’ he responded, and it seemed that that information only tensed up Elize, who had tried to discreetly glare at Dregov. They had no doubt he would suffer the consequences later, and they felt terrible for him.

‘Wow, that’s impressive’ they said, directing it towards Elize, who awkwardly smiled back. 

‘What about you guys? What other capabilities do you have?’ She asked, and the pair remained silent for a moment, confused by her intentions. Did she know that they had more abilities? Surely they couldn’t know that.

‘Um, well, I’m a Hybrid, so I have the form of a Snake and a Wolf, and Razaar is a Werewolf, therefore he can shift into a Wolf.’ She summarised, as if the Witch was dumb.

‘What’s the difference between your Wolf and his?’ She then asked, and this time the Alpha stepped in.

‘Eliana is a Hybrid, that means she can switch forms from one to another, but their Snake is the more dominant one within them. Their Wolf is just another form. For Werewolves, our Wolves are a part of us, we are much larger than Hybrids, our body transforms into it whereas Hybrids only take the form. We are full grown beasts, and Hybrids only have access to both forms, including the human version of a Wolf’ He explained, and the woman could not have felt more patronised. The anger was evident in her eyes though she tried to hide it with a smile that didn’t even lift properly. Noticing this, Stregov placed his hand on her leg, and gave it a squeeze under the table to shake her out of it. 

‘Did you enjoy the food?’ Questioned Stregov, changing topics immediately to take the heat off the moment. 

‘We absolutely did, thank you for organising this, it’s been great getting to know you all a bit more’ responded Eliana with a fake grin of her own. They hadn’t gotten all the information in the world, but they had gotten something, and it was more than enough for now. 

As they returned to their chambers, they waited for everyone to be out of sight, and for Liem to be as far away as possible before transforming into their Snakes and travelling down the halls in search of Dregov’s chambers. They didn’t find his chambers, they did, however, find Dregov, lurking in a gym of his own, toning his body completely shirtless.

Razaar hissed at his mate, as if telling her to close her eyes, but she ignored him and kept watching the well sculped man lift the heavy objects above his head. They waited for a while, but saw no change, and so they returned to their chambers to have their final conversations of the night. As always they ensured that no one was around before switching back and allowing themselves to talk freely. 

‘I don’t understand, why does Dregov hide in the shadows of his brother? He’s better built that Stregov and has more charisma, what could possibly be holding him back? He loves his sister, clearly, and dislikes his brother, and if he can fight him, then why not?’ Posed the woman, and Razaar pushed the flattering comments on the Doirekh aside to focus on the mission. 

‘I don’t understand myself. Maybe he just doesn’t want conflict? Either way, this is starting to become an issue, I can’t tell how we’re supposed to get Amana on our side with Dregov with her, and I don’t even know how we’re supposed to murder someone whose not actually evil’ responded Razaar, and they circled back to the same conclusions with no solution whatsoever. 

‘Maybe this is something that Paulina should decide? She will probably see things better than us’ she offered, and he agreed. So, the woman pulled out a piece of parchment, and began writing. 

Dear Paulina, 

Hope all is well on your side. Tonight we were invited for a fancy dinner with the strongest 6 to get to know them, and the pair of us decided that our focus for the day would be Dregov. Overall odd things have been emerging: 

Liem is an absolute creep, he gives away no answers yet asks too many questions and makes very random statements. We will focus on him next, though it will be harder than we expect since he’s so mysterious. 

Daraz is simply hopelessly in love with Amana, and after she rejected him, he just remained silent and collected. Though one is very much clear: he’s definitely on his sister’s side, and he’s not budging. We haven’t managed to have much conversation with him because he’s very vague and keeps to himself, but slowly hopefully we will be able to unravel him more. 

Elize and Stregov are stuck to the hip always: where he goes she follows and vice-versa. The pair of them have been keeping up their act pretty well, though it’s starting to become evident that they detest us, and the flame. We heard them mentioning part of their plan, to let us settle in and put our guard down before they would attack, so obviously their plan is going to fail. Elize pretends like she’s the boss and has everything together, in reality she’s just a lost little girl who wants all the attention in the world. Her and Amana really don’t get along, they hate each other, no, they despise each other. We have seen them attack each other, and it can get pretty intense. Safe to say that Amana is the only normal one who respects us and likes us and wants genuine peace. 

The only issue is: she has a good relationship with Dregov. He’s a complicated man. He’s well built and strong, could easily take on his brother, yet he lives in the shadows of his brother, despite loving his sister, he sticks to wrong, and he doesn’t even enjoy it. He’s a good man, and it’s becoming increasingly harder for us to decide what to do about both Amana and Dregov. It feels wrong to murder them both, but we’re not exactly sure if both would be willing to sit this one out. 

We were hoping you could tell us what to do. 

Like I said: our next focus will be Liem, then we will finally move on to Amana. So far the man is a creep and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better than that. We’ll keep you posted. 

Razaar and I have been keeping a low profile, investigating in our Snake forms so no one notices our presence. They have a lot of luxuries here, and it’s starting to make sense why we need to destroy the hierarchy. The Vermillion are incredibly invested in the human world, you were right, it’s a good thing we have had our training with the human world. 

We are still far from identifying how to take out any of them. Liem lives in a part of the mansion we’ve never even seen before, Dregov is always working out, Amana is locked up in her room. Daraz is whining and crying in his room about his losses and Stregov and Elize are constantly mating, even getting frisky in public. This is going to be a challenge, but we’ll get there. 

How are things there? Is Team Vienna ready and is everyone else still training around the planet? We need to organise the War summit soon with all the leaders.

Let us know what our next moves should be, thank you. 

Razaar and Eliana. 

She wrapped up the scroll, and the pair sneaked around the house, walking into the forest towards where the spies were constantly waiting. Handing the note over, they returned promptly to the mansion, and found Elize by the entrance, passing by casually, though she had probably followed them to see what they had been up to. 

‘Late night stroll?’ She asked them, as if trying to get information, and the pair decided there was no point in lying. 

‘Yeah, just went to deliver a note to the messenger for our pack and community to ensure everything is running smoothly. We may be living here now, but we are still, after all, leaders’ responded Razaar, in the hopes that it would piss her off, and it surely did. Sending a fake smile their way, she nodded briefly and stalked away from their vision. 

Once they returned to their chambers, the both of them had a laugh. 

‘Jealous much?’ Teased Eliana, shaking it off. 

‘She sure is an attention seeker’ stated Razaar, and the pair mounted into bed to get a night’s rest before more spying and analysing would take place. 

One thing was for sure: they may be very far from attacking and ensuring the end of the hierarchy, but seeing the attitudes of most the demented people out of the strongest 6 had raised their motivation to the maximum. They had suddenly begun enjoying this game of spying and pissing off Elize, and looked forward to more.