Chapter Text
Once upon a time...
Cellbit stumbles into the tavern as wet as, well, a drowned cat.
It's warm inside- uncomfortably so. The fire is roaring in the fireplace, and there are enough people in the tavern for the place to feel like the inside of an oven. The torches on the walls cast the room orange, and shadows dance on the walls.
Still. Cellbit keeps his hood up as he makes his way to the bar. He keeps his head down even as he pulls a few copper pieces out from his coinpurse and slides them to the tavern keeper with a mumbled order of a warm glass of the cheapest wine in the building.
Thunder rolls above. Lightning strikes a tree just outside of town, he can hear the tree splitting, and he can hear the start of a fire that's quickly put out by the downpour.
Cellbit taps his foot nervously against the floor. His tail, hidden beneath his cloak, twitches slightly at every sudden noise. His ears hurt.
The man next to him at the bar wordlessly slides a crust of his bread towards him.
Cellbit shakes his head, biting back a rude wrinkle of the nose. (He isn't that spoiled, but... man, the bread looks like shit.)
The man rolls his eyes and says, "Come on, take it. You look like shit, man."
The tavern keeper puts Cellbit's wine down in front of him and moves on to the next guy down the line.
Cellbit drags the mug towards him and looks down into it; his own reflection looks back at him: tired. Visible bags under his eyes, blood still crusted slightly under his nose, a split in his lip.
He takes the bread. He doesn't bite into it, though. He sort of just taps it against the counter in beat with his anxiously-shaking leg.
"Crazy storm, though, right?" the man asks.
He picks his own mug up, lifts it to his lips, takes a long, long drink from it.
"The gods must be pissed at someone," he says into his cup.
The gods, hah.
"It's the rainy season," Cellbit mumbles. "This sort of just happens."
"Really?" the man hums.
Cellbit gives him a slight nod in response.
Conversation dies.
Cellbit's wine is just as bad as he expected it to be. As he drinks, he tries not to cough it all back up.
His shoulders tense as someone new enters the tavern- the bell above the door tinkles, and the door itself creaks like a coffin. (Cellbit's coffin, gods forbid.)
The door closes. The new person walks right past Cellbit and to a table in the tavern's far corner, out of sight and out of mind.
The man passes Cellbit another chunk of bread even though Cellbit still hasn't finished his first. Or even started it. Or even really looked at it.
"You paid for it," Cellbit huffs, taking both bread pieces and dropping them back onto the man's plate. "You eat it. I can pay for my own food, thanks."
The man holds up his hands defensively. "Okay, okay! It's fine! I'm just trying to help!"
Cellbit pulls his hood up to hide his eye roll. Right. He knows better than to trust someone 'trying to help'.
("Once upon a time," He said, "there was a prince, and there was a god.")
His wine is still shit. He drinks it, anyway, if only to try and keep the man next to him from talking to him.
No dice.
Leaning against the counter, the man swivels on his stool until he's facing Cellbit fully. He rests his head on his fist, and he looks.
Awkwardly, Cellbit stares down at the bar. If he pretends hard enough, he can see little faces in the wood. They're screaming, because of course they are.
His ears flatten against his skull as the tavern's door slams open.
"Oi!" the tavern keeper shouts. "Watch it! You get the floor wet, you're mopping it up!"
Several pairs of footsteps as a group of people enter the tavern- heels, that'll be her; boots, him; bells, them.
"Close the door," Foolish orders, sounding way more confident than he probably is.
The door closes.
Slowly, carefully, Cellbit moves one hand away from the bar. He slips it under his cloak, wrapping his fingers around the handle of his knife. (His knife, his fucking knife-)
The four of them start making their ways through the tavern. Tina and Jaiden are laughing about something, Foolish is arguing over their laughter, Leo is complaining about the smell of alcohol even though Cellbit knows she's had some before. They all have.
They stay away from the bar, thank the gods.
Still. Cellbit keeps his head down. He's switched his clothes and cloak out since escaping, and he doesn't think that any of them have actually seen his face, but...
"Weird vibes," the man next to him comments.
He chews on his bread thoughtfully, adds, "Not a fan."
"Tell me about it," Cellbit snorts. (He's sure to keep his voice down; they might not know his face, but they definitely know his voice.)
("The god was just and caring," He said, "but the prince was cruel and heartless. All he cared about was power, and what could hold more power than a god?")
Leo asks her dad to pick her up. Foolish playfully groans, but he does so, because he loves her.
"You know them?" the man asks.
Cellbit tensely shakes his head. "Nah."
"Mmm." (A moment of silence as the man chews on his bread.) "Wanna get out of here? My place is way better than this."
Cellbit chokes on his wine. He coughs so hard he lets go of his grip on his knife.
"Fuck!" he wheezes.
"Whoah, look at that guy!" Jaiden laughs. "Dude, is the wine here that bad?"
"I want juice," Leo says, not remotely answering her question.
"Great idea!" Foolish cheers. "Juice for everybody!"
And then, unfortunately, terribly, horribly, he approaches the bar- boots.
"Four cups of your finest juice, my good sir!" he declares.
Tina follows him- heels. "And some information, if that's okay."
Cellbit holds his breath. His tail stiffens. His leg stops bouncing.
The tavern keeper grunts, but he doesn't argue.
Mentally, Cellbit weighs his options. He can take Tina and Jaiden on in a fight, easy. He's beaten Foolish once or twice, but he won't be able to take him down if he has Tina supporting him. Fighting Leo is out of the question.
He can run, but he's already so tired. (He thought he had run far enough in one day, but apparently not. Apparently, He sent a bunch of fucking athletes after him.)
"We're looking for a guy," Tina explains. "Tall, cat ears, probably super ugly. Real bad vibes, like a serial killer on crack."
Okay, ouch.
The man snorts; Cellbit fights the urge to kick him.
"Because he is a serial killer," Foolish adds. "He's killed, like, a bunch of guys."
Something taps Cellbit's elbow.
"Here," the man whispers, voice so soft and so close that it wraps around Cellbit's spine like a snake, "you should probably eat something if you're gonna drink like this."
("The prince said to the god, 'My Lord, you must be very busy! Allow me to help you with your godly duties!'" He said. "The god, unsuspecting of the seemingly-king prince, allowed the prince to become his head priest. The prince would listen to the people's prayers, but he would not tell them to the god. Thus, the god's strength slowly began to wane, and the prince's began to grow.")
Cellbit silently shakes his head. How many times does he have to-
"His name is Cellbit," Jaiden says, walking up to the bar- bells. "And he is very dangerous."
"Your juices," the tavern keeper grunts.
"He likes wine," Leo says, because of course she does, the little snitch.
(She always used to catch Cellbit sneaking some of the sacramental wine between ceremonies, and she would always make him do something absolutely ridiculous for her in exchange for not telling Him.)
"Well, only one guy here's ordered wine tonight," the tavern keeper says. "Right here."
He taps the bartop right in front of Cellbit's head.
Dammit.
Cellbit yowls as he's roughly grabbed by the back of his cloak and yanked off of his stool. He's thrown to the floor and his hood is ripped off of his head and his arms are immediately being pinned by a perfectly-stoic-looking Jaiden, who... looks about the same as Cellbit thought she'd look, actually.
"Dude!" Foolish shouts, glaring at Tina. "I thought you said he'd be ugly!"
Cellbit sneers and hisses and kicks. The entire tavern is watching him get absolutely owned, and he knows they're all thinking the same thing: Wow, what a monster.
He Knows it.
Tina throws her arms up in the air in frustration. "I thought he would be!"
Jaiden rummages through Cellbit's cloak until she finds his knife. She pulls it out, gives him a disapproving look, and tosses it absently behind her, where it disappears from sight in the growing crowd.
"Come on, dude, did you even try?" she sighs.
Cellbit answers by trying to rip her fucking throat out with his teeth; he doesn't get very far, obviously, but he does manage to scare the crowd back a few paces.
Except for the man at the bar, who has a thin piece of bread dangling in his fingertips as he watches.
His eyes are red, Cellbit notices, finally getting a proper look at him for the first time. That's...
("The god asked the prince if the work was too hard, because he was a good god," He said. "The prince denied it and asked for more work. And so he got more, and he grew in strength as the god's strength weakened even more.")
"Wow, Cellbit, you look like shit," Foolish comments.
Leo drinks her juice judgmentally; still in her father's arms, she holds her mug with both hands and glares.
"Thanks, I feel like it," Cellbit dryly responds.
He wiggles desperately.
Tina draws her sword.
Jaiden's scythe is on her back, a familiar blue ribbon tied around it, and dull silver bells tied to that.
Foolish clicks his tongue in disapproval. "Welp, you shouldn't have killed all those people, huh?"
Those 'people' were monsters, not that any of them would ever be willing to admit it. They're in too deep, they all are. Even poor Leonarda, too young to know a life outside of what is Known.
The man from the bar hops off his stool and joins the crowd, standing right by Cellbit's head.
His boots- the bottoms and sides of them- are crusted with still-drying blood.
He winks down at Cellbit, bread still in hand.
Then, he looks at Jaiden and says, "Hold on, let me help."
He crouches and holds Cellbit's shoulders down with absolutely no strength whatsoever.
Jaiden nods appreciatively. "Thanks."
"No problem, I'm a nice guy!"
He grins, and Cellbit swears that his teeth are sharpened to a point for just a second, just a fraction of a second. He Knows it, he Saw it, he-
He sees a familiar dagger sitting on the man's belt that Jaiden hasn't noticed yet.
(That is his fucking knife-!)
("The people began to call the prince the God of Hospitality because he was so kind to them," He said. "But, in reality, he was the beginning of Chaos Incarnate. From him, all Chaos would be born, and ruin would sweep across the land.")
Cellbit closes his eyes briefly, and he Sees who the man above him truly is, and, for the first time in his entire life, he feels fear.
Still. He opens his eyes, and he whispers, "Help me."
The man's eyes sparkle, but he sighs and shakes his head and says, "I told you to eat earlier, man. But it's fine, here! Something so you don't starve on your way to prison."
He holds out the scrap of bread, dangling it just above Cellbit's lips.
"Careful," Tina jokes, "he'll take a finger off."
"Say, 'Aaaahhh'," the man teases, eyes halfway narrowed in amusement.
Cellbit, with no other choice, obeys.
It's as he swallows that the fire in the fireplace goes out. And it's as the man pats Cellbit's cheek in approval that every single torch and candle in the tavern is blown out in a sudden cold wind.
"Oooooh, shit," Foolish astutely says.
("Did the prince have a name?" he asked, more curious than he was supposed to be.
"Does it matter?" He snapped. "The lesson is to be wary of strangers, no matter how kind they may be."
"But I need to know who he is in case he finds me!"
"He won't find you, Prophet." "But what if he does? I need to be ready!"
He laughed, then, more fond than he had ever heard Him laugh before.
"All right." He nodded. "Should Chaos ever try and find you, know that you can always identify him as the prince formerly known as-")
Thunder crashes, and Chaos reigns.