Chapter Text
A harkening angelic harmony rang throughout the hall of the cathedral. Candles all around the room. The moonlight shines in through the windows. This is unholy why did I agree to this, Sucrose thought. Father Pegg said that they must do this, that this was their only way to salvation, and that Barbatos had abandoned them. She walked down the dark stairway to the cathedral basement. The others are down there, waiting for her. People who had once claimed to be servants to Lord Barbatos.
Clearly she was the only one.
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The basement was lit with candles, and a circle was drawn out with chalk on the floor. She was handed a dark robe by one of the sisters, which she hesitantly had put on. Then she joined the others around the circle, as Father Pegg drew some symbols in chalk.
Sucrose clasped her hands together and prayed silently to Lord Barbatos, Oh lord Barbatos, please forgive me, please let me get out of this situation unharmed. When she unclasped her hands Father Pegg began to speak.
“Oh powerful demon, we pray that you will give us your salvation as our God has abandoned us!” Father Pegg says.
Sucrose glances around to look at the others trying to understand what they are thinking. From what she can tell, they are all very excited for this salvation.
To her shock the room lights up and the ground shakes.
The floor opens up and out from the pit arises the demon.
He’s around average height, and is a bit muscular. He’s dressed quite nicely wearing a black jacket with fur trim around the edges, and some black boots. He also has long crimson red hair, tied into a ponytail. What intrigues Sucrose the most about him are his large horns, and leathery wings.
“Oh powerful demon, we beg for salvation!” Father Pegg pleads, even dropping to the ground to pray to this demon.
“Salvation?” The demon says confused. Looking down at Father Pegg.
“Yes, salvation!” Father Pegg says. I can’t help but wonder how Deaconess Barbara would feel knowing how devoted these people are to a demon.
“Hm… what do I get in return?” He asks, staring unblinking at Father Pegg. Father Pegg Smiles.
“We have gold, jewels and many luxurious goods, anything you could possibly want.” Father Pegg says.
“Anything I want?” He says, questioning just what anything really meant.
“Anything, so, do you have something in mind that you want?” Father Pegg asks, and the demon looks around the room for a moment before stopping and looking at Sucrose. Why is he looking at me! What does he want from me! Oh lord Barbatos, I’m so sorry!
“Her, I want her.” He says and points at Sucrose. Father Pegg glances at Sucrose for a second before looking back at the demon.
“Of course, Sucrose, you come over here.” Father Pegg says and motions for her to walk over with his hand. Oh no! Am I going to die, I don’t want to die!
“Do you want anything else?” Father Pegg asks the demon, the demon looks around again, considering something. Before he shakes his head.
“No, she will be all I need.” The demon says and looks at Sucrose, his gaze felt like it was piercing her soul.
“You, go upstairs.” He commands her, and she quickly turns around and runs up the stairs. Once she reaches the top, she stops to catch her breath. The candles have all been put out up here. *I could run, maybe the demon will leave me alone if I run. But what
if he doesn’t, then he’ll be upset at me for running. What does the demon even want from me!?* She walks over and sits on one of the pews clasping her hands together.
“Barbatos please guide me in what to do.” She whispers, and then she hears loud screams come from the basement. Then silence. Then quiet footsteps coming up the stairs. The basement door opens and the demon looks at her. She feels a breeze on her back. A breeze? I’m inside, how did I feel a breeze? It came from behind me… if it were a stronger gust of wind it would have pushed me towards the… demon.
“What did you do?” She asks quietly, the demon glances over at her and sighs.
“I gave them salvation.” He says deadpanned. She can’t tell what he is thinking. He begins to walk off and motions for her to follow him. She quickly stands up and begins to trail behind him a few steps.
“Where are we going?” She asks. He seems nice… but maybe he’s just pretending right now.
“To the nearest gate.” He says as he walks out of the cathedral. He holds the door open for her.
She begins to speak, “There’s a lot of gates in Mond-”
“Not that kind of gate.” He interrupts her and turns to look at her.
“Then what kind of gate?” She asks very curious about what he could have meant. He chuckles softly at her question.
“Gate to the underworld.” He says leading her to an alleyway she hadn’t seen before.
“Oh.” She says her face flushed. Oh my goodness, that was such an obvious answer and I didn’t even realize it. I can’t believe this. I’m so embarrassed.
“The gate is just over here.” He says and reaches to take her hands. She’s confused by this gesture until he flies off of the ground, pulling her close to him.
“AH! What's going on!” She shrieks, for a few seconds before he kisses her. Which leaves her a quiet and confused blushing mess.
“The gate is in the sky above Cider lake. As for the kiss… you were being too loud, and my hands are full.” He says and flies over to where the gate is.
“I recommend you close your eyes, the gate is very bright.” He says and she squeezes her eyes shut.
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She slowly wakes up and notices she’s not at the cathedral. She looks around the room she’s in. She’s sitting on a chair, with a tealish color to the velvet. It’s not super dark, with the light from outside coming in. She stands up and begins to walk around the building. It’s a lot larger than she had expected, but incredibly empty.
She walks into a room that looks like the kitchen and notices the demon standing at one of the counters mixing something in a bowl. He hears her walk in and glances at her.
“Oh, you’re awake. Are you hungry?” He asks. She feels her stomach grumble and nods.
“Well then sit down and I’ll share some of my food with you.” He says, pointing over at a stool she can sit at. She sits down and watches him cook for a bit.
“Um… what are you making?” She asks as he puts the batter he’s mixing away, and grabs a different bowl.
“Sourdough biscuits. They’re nice with gravy.” He says, grabbing the ready dough out of the bowl. He rolls it out on the counter top shaping them into biscuits.
“What’s your name?” She asks softly.
“Oh, I guess I haven’t told you. I’m Diluc.” He says as he puts the biscuits on a tray and puts that trey in the oven. He turns to sit on a stool close to the one Sucrose is sitting on. The silence was a bit awkward for the both of them, so Diluc went and walked off
somewhere else, leaving Sucrose alone in the kitchen.
She noticed some cookbooks laid out on the counter and grabbed one. She opened it, but she couldn’t read the language they were written in. So she spent her time trying to notice characters that look similar so she could figure out how to read it.
Diluc came back to the kitchen to take the biscuits out of the oven. He puts the trey on the stove top, and leaves it there so the biscuits can cool down. He looks over at Sucrose before chuckling. He walks over to her and flips the cookbook over. Instantly she was able to read it. She looked at Diluc in shock.
“Woah! How did you do that?” She asks and he smiles.
“I just rotated the book.” He says, causing her to blush in embarrassment. Flip the book! How did I not think of that? I’m normally not that dense, maybe this whole ordeal has made me lose my common sense.
“Well when those cool down you can have as many as you want. I’m going to warm up some gravy.” He says as he begins to heat up gravy and put it into the gravy boat. He then grabs a biscuit and pours some gravy on it and eats it. How did he eat that without burning his tongue? Maybe demons just have a better heat resistance. She sighs and waits a few minutes before grabbing one of the biscuits. She pours herself some gravy and begins to eat her breakfast.
As the two of them eat their late breakfast, there is a knock at the door. Diluc finishes his biscuit before motioning Sucrose to go somewhere else. She obliges and goes to a room out of sight of the kitchen.
Diluc was talking to whoever had arrived at the door. I can’t make out who he's talking to. Whoever it is, I guess Diluc does not want them to see me. She stood out of sight for a few more minutes; before whoever Diluc was talking to left.
“Sucrose! You can come back now, he’s gone.” He says and Sucrose walks back into the kitchen. Diluc looks exhausted just from being in the same room with the person he had conversed with. I want to ask him who he talked to, but I feel like that is an invasion of his personal life. I’ve only known him for a few hours, maybe a day.
“The person at my door was… my estranged brother. He was asking me about last night.” Diluc says, answering Sucrose’s question.
“What about last night?” She questioned, seeming as a lot of stuff had happened the night before.
“He was asking me if I knew what happened to the cathedral.” He says, “there was fifteen of you said to be down there from eye witnesses and accounts from Pegg’s writings. But they only found fourteen bodies.” He sighs.
“So… he was asking about me?” She says and Diluc nods.
“I have to do some work. So, you can do whatever, just be quiet.” He says and walks off and up the stairs.
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Sucrose sighs, being left alone with pretty much nothing to do. She begins to walk around the seemingly endless manor wandering and going into different rooms to see if they have anything interesting. She stops when she notices a room with a pad of paper, a quill, and a small jar of ink, she grabs it and sits down at the desk. She then begins to write some letters to her family.
Dear Mom,
It’s me, Sucrose. I miss you a lot and I’ve only been here a day. I wonder how you and dad are doing. Is Emilia causing you two problems? Is Lucius being trouble? I hope not. I understand it's been a few years since I’ve last seen you all. Honestly you probably think I’m dead. I mean, maybe not yet but as time goes by you’ll probably presume I’m dead.
Life at the church was pretty calm and nice. Until others started to think that Barbatos had abandoned us. I had joined that group, I wanted to have others like me and well… Now I’m here, living in the home of a demon. While I do enjoy working in the church like you wanted me too, I kind of wish I was rebellious enough to disobey you. Please don’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault this happened.
Sincerely - Your Daughter Sucrose.
She put the quill and ink away as she reread the letter. She looked confused as her face felt hot. Why is my face warm? She thought as she touched her face and felt hot, wet, tears pouring from her eyes. She didn’t even realize she had been crying. Do I really miss my family this much? I didn’t cry when I left for the church, why am I crying now? She thought for a bit before coming to the answer. Oh yeah, it’s because I probably won’t ever see them again. This made her upset and she began to quietly sob.
She heard a knock on the door and she did her best to silence her sobs. The door opens and Diluc walks in. He doesn’t say anything, just pulls out a tissue from his shirt pocket to wipe away her tears. He glances at the letter she wrote and he throws the tissue away.
“Are you tired, here let's go get something to eat.” He says and helps her stand up.
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Diluc leads her to the dining room where a spread of food has been laid out. He pulls out a chair for her and she sits down.
“Eat whatever you want, I’ll have whatever you don’t.” He says as he sits down on a chair to her left. She begins to put a small amount of food on her plate with some bread, cheese and meats. After a few minutes she finishes eating, leaving the rest of the food to Diluc.
“I’ll eat this after you go to bed. Come with me.” He says and helps her stand up, she rubs her eyes.
“You know I’m not a child, I don’t need to be taken care of like this.” She mutters and Diluc sighs.
“I’m aware you're not a child Sucrose, however, I don’t want you to get hurt or sick.” He says. “However, if you don’t want me to help you just say it, I’m not going to force you to do something you don’t want.” He says, leading her down the hall to the room she was supposed to be staying at.
The two of them stop at a room and Diluc opens the door for Sucrose. It’s a bedroom, it has this feeling that it used to belong to someone else, it felt like the room of someone’s ghost, but Sucrose thinks it's very pretty, it's rather neutral in color, the bedsheets and rug are both white but it's neat and tidy. Sucrose eyes glance at the Wind-Wheel Asters that are in a vase on the desk. On one side of the room there is a closet.
“There are clothes in the closet, I don’t know how well they will fit you, but they are there if you want to change into something else. If you want to take a shower, that door on the right leads you to a bathroom.” Diluc says, closing the door and leaving Sucrose alone in the room.
Might as well take a shower. She thinks and walks into the bathroom, like the bedroom, she can’t help but feel like this room belongs to a ghost. She shakes her head and convinces herself to take her clothes off and shower. When she finishes her shower she finds something to sleep in for the night. The clothes are clearly too big for her, but she finds a t-shirt and shorts to wear. She walks over to the bed and pulls off the covers so she can lay down. She blows out the candle and falls asleep, wishing for the best for herself and her family.