Ploy

Nice

I placed the brush on the easel and went out of the room. I haven't really organized my thoughts on the matter and simply wanted to fuel my brain so I could sort out what I'd gathered.

"Not painting anymore?"

"Because you're annoying." I hurried down the stairs and went to the pantry to see if I could quickly concoct something edible.

He closed the door and followed me downstairs, "I'm not that annoying, you know."

My lips twitched in response as I could hear the displeasure in his voice as he uttered those words. I would genuinely believe it if someone else had said it — but him? I would rather believe that my brother would eat fast food than him not being annoying, and that's quite harsh, considering that my brother had always eaten "heathy" ever since he was born.

Plus, every cell in my body believes that he will always be annoying, almost as if it feels like some belief ingrained in my soul.

I stood frozen in front of the pantry, completely not recognizing the place. The door was completely open and everything inside could be seen by those outside.

"You did this?" I stared in disbelief at the person who seemed pleased at himself. His chin raised high, pointing to the sky and eyes crescent. I pointed at the pantry that seemed to be visited by the great mother of sustenance and looked back and forth toward it and at the culprit before closing the door and leaving.

"Is there anything wrong?" He patted me on the shoulder and said, "It's not like I did anything that bad." He paused and looked at me cautiously before continuing, "Plus, I think I did a pretty good job."

He gave me a smirk and his expression seemed to resemble the puppy my brother had been raising. I don't doubt that he is trying to get a praise out of me. Too bad I was locked into my own thoughts and needed a bit of air to clear my head a bit.

I walked out of the pantry and headed towards the pavilion. I had taken an apple from the dining area when I passed by earlier just to quell the hunger that seemed to devour me. And I had always prepared the tea set every time I went to and away from the pavilion.

I sat down and contemplated the things that have happened ever since I took Vhilde in. My mind had been a mess since earlier when the demon talk came up. It wasn't that I had a grudge or anything, it was just that my head would start to ache each time the word had been mentioned. It felt akin to a key that would let me see glimpses of the brewing of an impeding storm; with me not even being able to do anything about it.

The scene earlier reminded me of what I had painted when I was small. It wasn't fully the scene that I had painted as there seemed to be a few missing elements. Such as the little girl that was watching from behind the culprit of the scene and the worn-down woman that was behind a person that I could ascertain as being me.

It was wrong on many levels, as I could be sure that there wasn't a figure of a little girl watching the entire charade. Yes, a charade, it felt like an act. As if something was controlling the scenario behind the scenes. It could just be my assumption, but I felt like it had something to do with the feeling of being watched and a part of me not being me.

I gazed at Vhilde with complex eyes and asked, "Do you know anything about demons?"

Maybe it was time to talk about the subject with someone else.

He shook his head and replied, "I haven't heard anything about it." He looked at the sky and asked, "Is there something wrong?"

I placed some flower petals on the kettle and sighed, "Nothing much just..."

"Just?"

I closed my eyes and leaned on the pillar and explained, "Demons are said to be able to control a person's emotions. Normally, they don't pose that much of a problem and they could eventually live a 'normal' life but..."

"But"

I opened my eyes to look at him and let out a little chuckle. "But since demons are said to live in a place that foster negative emotions, they find the idea of positive ones intriguing. I'm not saying that all demons are bad, it's just some of them wants to go around and inspire chaos and others want to play around with people's negative thoughts."

"Did they manage to?" He looked at me with a deep gaze and asked.

"They did." I looked away and stared at the boiling water and continued, "Around twenty years ago, they worked behind the scenes and managed to spread seeds of doubt to children and some weak-willed adults. They didn't know at that time the severenity of the situation, so after managing to retrieve the people — they dumped them into this huge psyche session. After a few ins and outs and not managing to find anything wrong with them, they were immediately released."

I heard him suck in a deep breath before saying in a curious voice, "I bet that it had posed as huge problem later on."

I nodded at his words, "A huge problem. It was a wreck. Everyone turned highly superstitious and resorted to colored stones, silver, and even carrying a cross with them."

"What's with those? I have never heard of what they could be for." He seemed intrigued by my words.

"Well, for starters, colored stones, gems, crystals, whatever you want to call them were said to fend off negative energies. We didn't know about it until we heard from the neighboring town who said that it worked for them, so they decided to try it out. Silver is said to be seen as pure, so it is highly effective against impure forces. While a cross was seen as something holy because it has the same shape as a sword or dagger. And those two are known for being blessed by the guardian of war."

"Is that why the decoration of the town was a bit..."

"A hundred percent." I affirmed his words with a difficult expression. "It was not like we had that before the whole demon thing. We actually had a bit more taste before."

"Mhm, so the while demon scenario?"

I filled his cup with tea and began to explain after he did the same. It took a long while to finish unpacking the whole fiasco and it was already dark by the time we finished chatting. I had skimped out a few details that I found a bit reluctant to tell and just gave a general briefing and overview of what happened.

"I'll make us something to eat. Do you want to continue sitting here?"

I gave a slight nod and continued to watch the firewood burn. I listened to the disappearing sound of his shoes hitting the stone pavement. And thought, so he could be quite nice sometimes.