Death is too good for Father now. Far, far, far too good for him. Not only has he decided to criticize me for falling in love, but now he has to torture both me and Devin for it. I'm not saying that it's right for him to torture me for falling in love, but it is definitely not right for him to torture Devin.

I finally fell asleep last night after working most of the night to keep from going to kill Father for making Devin a slave. Especially after refusing to resurrect him for me. I was planning on going to see him this afternoon and have a few words, non-violent ones so that neither of us, and hopefully not Devin either, would get hurt. But things didn't work out that way.

I woke to the sounds of a search being conducted. Father had all of the guards on the palace grounds searching for a slave, and this had been going on since about midnight. The missing slave was, I heard, Father's current favorite.

I'm not stupid. I know that when the servants and slaves refer to Father's favorite they mean his current bed-slave. And from what I had seen yesterday, that meant Devin. I know my father; he only fucks one slave at a time, and when he tires of a slave, he takes a new one and never touches the old one again.

Part of me cheered at hearing that Devin was missing. Anything that would make Father unhappy, such as not having his current fuck-toy, was extremely pleasing to me for the mood I was in. I may have calmed down, but I was still pissed as hell at him. I just wasn't in the mood to try and kill him.

Unfortunately, I knew that Devin going missing was getting Father very, very angry. And when he did find Devin, which he would because there was no way Devin could have gotten off of palace grounds with that collar of his, Devin would be in extremely deep shit. He would be in for an extremely rough night, and most likely a beating as well.

I didn't want him getting hurt, but it wasn't like there was anything I could do about it. I may be the heir, but that doesn't mean I have any actual influence on Father when he's set on something. No, when it comes to actual ruling power, all of mine is completely dependent on Father's mood.

I didn't want to think about what might happen to Devin when he got caught, and I didn't want to be dragged into the search. I still didn't trust my emotions if I actually did find him. So I decided that I needed to take a day off. I could do that, especially since Father had suspended everything until Devin was found.

With that in mind, I went down to the ningen realm. I took my ningen form, the one that I had acquired when I went to Devin for the first time when he was only eighteen. I'm one of the few from the high realm that can actually take a fully ningen form, and I'm proud of it.

Then I went to a bar that I loved during my time with Devin. It wasn't far from where we had lived, and we both spent time there when we felt like getting away from our apartment. A bunch of his friends had liked to spend time there too, and I had gotten to know them back then too.

I wanted to get drunk, very, very drunk. I was hoping that maybe I could forget everything for a while if I got myself drunk enough. Of course, I knew that as soon as I switched back to either my full or half ryuu forms any drunkenness would be gone, because of the purely magical nature of my ningen form, but while I was in ningen form I could be nice and drunk.

Anyway, I didn't plan on going back to the high realm for a few days. I wanted to wait until Devin was found, and punished, before I went back. I figured three or four days should do it, so I wanted to spend those three or four days in a perpetual drunken haze.

My first obstacle came in the form of someone who recognized me as soon as I entered the bar. He had been a good friend of Devin's, one that I had gotten along with quite well. His name was Michael, and to be honest, he looked good for a thirty-something year old. The instant he spotted me I regretted going to a bar near what had been home, because unlike everyone else who had aged ten years, I still look like a twenty-year-old.

"Himitsu!" he exclaimed, getting up from his spot at the bar and going over to the entrance, where I was. "I haven't seen you in ages! Damn, you look like you haven't changed a bit!"

"Believe me, I have," I muttered. I raised my voice just a little, enough to be heard, to say, "Hello Michael."

"So where have you been anyway?" he asked. "No one's seen you around since Devin's accident. We were worried that maybe you had killed yourself or something. We all knew how much you cared for him."

"I went home," I said. "I had things to take care of that just couldn't wait. And I've been pretty busy since. But today I just want to get drunk."

"Something bad going on?" he asked. I nodded. "You wanna talk about it, over beer of course?"

"You wouldn't believe me," I said, and he laughed. That got me just a little angry, and I think he saw that, because he immediately apologized.

"Sorry if I sounded rude there," he said. "It's just that you'd be surprised what I'll believe. Devin used to tell me some weird stuff about you, and seeing you now I think I might actually believe what he said."

"Weird stuff as in what?" I asked.

"Well, stuff about you not being human, and being somewhere around 500 or so years old," he said quickly. "That kind of stuff. And well, now you're back, and you look just like you did ten years ago, so maybe he wasn't just pulling my leg."

"You don't know the half of it," I said bitterly. "And, just for the record, he was telling the truth. Though I'm not sure how much of it he actually believed until just recently."

"Just recently?" he asked. "Uh, Himitsu, I hate to break this to you, but Devin's dead…"

"I know that," I said. "And that was true until about a week and a half ago too. But things work a little differently where I'm from, and he's back now. And that's why I need to get very fucking drunk today."

"Why don't we sit down, get you a drink, and you can tell me about it?" he said, and we did just that.

I told him a shortened version of what was happening. He took it all well, even the whole bringing someone back to life as an animal spirit. Even the idea of Devin as a kitsune spirit. I'm not sure how much of it he actually believed either. The important thing is that he listened, and he was sympathetic. That's what I really needed at the time, someone to listen to me, and lots and lots of alcohol.

I was very drunk by the time late afternoon hit, and that made me quite happy. Michael was still there, and we had long since switched to reminiscing about things like college, both the semester that I spent with Devin his freshman year and then after the disasters his senior year too. I was very, very drunk, and quite happy to get lost in happier memories that didn't involve my asshole father.

It was around 3:30 when a messenger from the palace showed up at the bar. She was a specially trained messenger, able to take on a ningen form solely because she might be expected to do things like this. I could tell immediately that she wasn't really a ningen, even in my extremely drunk state, and I got the awful feeling that she was there for me.

"Whadda ya wan'?" I asked, rather rudely, but I was drunk, when she walked over to me. She bowed low, ignoring my lack of politeness.

"Highness, your father requests your presence at dinner tonight," she said. "I have been instructed to make sure that you make it back to the palace in time."

"Tell 'im t' shove it," I said. "I don' wanna go."

"Please Highness," she said. "He's in a very bad mood right now because of Devin's little disappearing stunt. If I go back without you, especially since I managed to find you, then I'll probably be blamed, and punished severely."

Even as drunk and opposed to going back as I was at the time, her comment about getting punished had the intended effect on me. I didn't want her to get hurt just because of me. So I agreed.

If I could have switched forms there without terrifying everyone else in the room I would have. I did not want to be drunk when facing Father. Luckily for me, I'm not too reckless when I'm drunk. I tend to keep my head well, and so I waited until after the messenger had helped me stand, and then stagger out of the building and into a back alley, before I switched to half ryuu form.

"Thank you for agreeing to come with me Highness," she said, once she realized that I was sober. "I didn't want to have to try to take you with me by force, because I don't think I'd have a chance."

"You wouldn't," I said. "I noticed that you called Devin by name. Do you know him?"

"Not very well," she said. "He's more like a kind of celebrity to many of us, because he's the favorite right now. Well, that and the fact that he's so good looking." She looked down at the ground a little, blushing. She had reverted to her own half form, half neko, when I had switched, and I could see her tail lashing nervously. I was just glad she had heard the rumors about me being friendly and so was willing to answer my questions without a fight for information.

"Is he still missing?" I asked, hoping against hope that she would say yes. She shook her head sadly.

"I feel very, very sorry for him right now," she said. "One of the gardeners found him about an hour ago curled up and asleep in one of the less used private gardens. I saw him while they were dragging him to his Majesty's chambers. He looked miserable."

I felt like such an ass at that point. It was my fault he was so miserable. If I had just bothered to at least acknowledge him in the garden he most likely wouldn't have hidden and he wouldn't be in trouble. He probably thought that I hated him or that I didn't even recognize him. And it was all my fault for letting my anger control me.

"Highness," the servant woman said. "We really do need to get back to the palace now. The king specified that tonight is going to be an early dinner, and that he specifically wants you there."

"How early?" I asked.

"Four-thirty," she said, and I panicked. It was 3:40 by then, which would only give me forty-five minutes to get ready for a formal court dinner by the time I got back to the palace. I grimaced, and she took that as a signal to get us back to the palace as soon as possible.

How I managed to prepare myself for dinner tonight in the time I had I don't know. I was still in my clothing from yesterday, not having bothered to change at any time earlier and not really caring either. I was fairly dirty as well, and I needed a shower desperately.

But somehow I managed to get myself ready for dinner in forty minutes and then get myself to the dining hall before Father arrived. In fact, I had just gotten myself seated when he entered, in full ryuu form. He looked pleased with himself, and that look grew when his gaze lit upon me, seated at the first seat to the right of the head of the table, the traditional place for the heir. The left was empty, being traditionally reserved for the queen, since my mother, and all of my brothers' and sisters' mothers are dead. The only other person traditionally allowed to sit in that seat is the king's lover, and since that position is currently only being filled by a slave, Devin, there's no one to sit there.

My first thoughts were that the only reason he wanted me at dinner tonight was to make sure I couldn't get myself more drunk and thus forget what he's doing to me some more. I was sure that he was aware of my knowing about his newest bed slave, and just who that slave is. In fact, I was pretty sure that he had guessed just why Devin went missing and why I went to get myself stinking drunk.

I spent most of the beginning of the meal trying to ignore him. It wasn't easy, since I was seated just to his right and he kept staring at me intently. I knew I was being rude, but my anger was back full force, and I didn't want to get myself in trouble by attacking him, either physically or verbally, at the dinner table. So I concentrated on the person on my right, a very boring phoenix lord who had been invited by Father to see just how wonderful our ryuu kingdom is.

And then, after dinner had been going on for about an hour and people were starting to get bored, Father decided to provide some entertainment. He stood from his spot at the head of the table, and I could feel, and see, all eyes in the room shift to him. He then made a discreet gesture to one of the servants hovering in the background, probably waiting for just that, and two burly ookami guards dragged in a very, very miserable looking Devin.

And oh, damn, did he look beautiful! Father had had him dressed in this filmy, very light and very skimpy, garment. I couldn't even identify what the fabric was, except that it was silver colored and it shimmered with every step that Devin took. He had been adored with silver and green bracelets and anklet of all sizes. The only thing around his neck was that damned slave collar though, and the blood red scale that had come off of Father's hide was clearly visible to everyone in the room.

I was distressed by the sight of the one heavier ring of metal around one of his ankles though. It wasn't silver, and there was a heavy chain attached to it that one of the ookami guards was carrying as they dragged him in. Once he was positioned where every single person in the room could see him, that guard attached the chain to the floor nearby with a snap, and the two backed into a corner. Then Father went over to Devin.

"I wanted to show everyone my newest pet," he said to the room, his tail snaking around to cup Devin's chin and force him to look around the room. "He is quite exquisite, isn't he?" There were murmurs of assent from the room. I had to stop myself from getting out of my seat and slapping Father's tail away from Devin.

"Now, I'm sure everyone is aware of the fact that my little fox went missing last night," he said. "He was a very, very bad boy and decided to hide from me, and we didn't even find him until this afternoon. Which is a shame, because now I am going to have him punished. I like a little spunk in my toys, but I cannot let him think that he can get away with disobeying me like this."

His tail was absently stroking Devin's face and hair the whole time. By the time he was done with that little speech I had to force myself to look away. It was that or shift to my own full ryuu form and try to kill Father for daring to lay his filthy claws on my Devin. I desperately wanted to bury teeth and claws in Father's throat, and I couldn't afford to do something like that. As I was looking away, I felt Father's gaze fall upon me, and I got a very bad feeling.

"I have a perfect idea for his punishment as well," he continued. "But, for this I will need my son's help. So, Zennith, please come over here."

I froze. Father never uses my given name. It's always "Son" or "boy," and never, ever Zennith. I knew that something very, very serious was up the minute that name came out of his mouth, and before I knew it I had risen to join him as he had ordered me.

I could see Devin's look of shock. He had turned to stare right at me, and there was a look of betrayal on his face. It wasn't until then that I realized that he hadn't known that I was the heir to the throne. I was the son of the person who was keeping him a slave and taking him to bed every night.

I wanted to shout out to him that I wasn't like Father. I would never hurt him the way I know that Father sometimes hurts his slaves. I love him so much, and I could never do that to him. But I didn't dare do that, because I knew that Father would never forgive me for that. So instead I headed over to where Father was, and where Devin was as well.

"It has come to my attention that my little fox had a person that he loved when he was still human," Father said to me, but loud enough for everyone else to hear as well. "Of course, you must know this already, because he was one of the humans that I had you watch over to test you before I named you heir, wasn't he?"

"He was," I said, trying to keep my anger at him hidden from my voice, and thus sounding very flat and unemotional. I saw Devin wince at that tone out of the corner of my eye. I kept my gaze focused on Father, not trusting my control if I dared look at Devin directly.

"Unfortunately he doesn't seem to be able to give up this love of his," Father continued. "And this displeases me, because I feel this is what brought on his little disappearing act last night. So I believe he needs to be punished for his stubbornness. And I want you, Zennith, to do it for me."

He signaled to one of the ookami guards that had dragged Devin in, and the man stepped forward, holding a whip in his hands. He handed to Father, who then held it out to me. I stared at him for a while, but I didn't take it.

Instead I looked at Devin. He had a look of horror on his face, and the betrayal that I had seen earlier was back full force. At the edge of my magical senses I could feel his fright, and it surprised me. I have never been an empath before, but it seems with Devin now I am. And that decided me.

"Take it Zennith," Father said, pushing the whip toward me. I frowned.

"I won't," I said flatly, and anger clouded his face.

"What did you say, son?" he asked me, his voice tight.

"I said I won't," I said. "I'm not going to whip Devin just because you're jealous. You have no right to be doing this to him in the first place, and I won't have anything to do with it."

"You are my son, and you will do what I tell you to do dammit!" he hissed at me. I just glared back, defiantly.

"I may be your fucking son," I said. "But I'm not one of your damned slaves! And I will not betray my love just because you felt you had to try and take him from me by bringing him back as your newest bed toy! Devin is mine, not yours, and he is not an object that you can do whatever you want with. I will get him away from you, don't doubt that."

And with that I took the one step that was needed to put me right in front of Devin and I kissed him. It was a kiss reminiscent of both of our most important kisses, our first one, and the first one after his senior year disasters. It almost made me forget that I was in front of my outraged father and a hall full of dinner guests, kissing my father's current bed slave. I didn't forget though, and I finally broke the kiss, leaning forward to whisper in Devin's ear.

"Hold tight, love," I said. "I'll find a way to get you away from Father, for sure."

Then I stalked away, shifting to full ryuu form as I did so. I feel more powerful, rightly, in full ryuu form, and so I figured that it would be better to be able to fight my way out if necessary. Luckily, the guards like me enough, and are afraid enough at the same time, that they didn't go after me when I tried to leave.

I could feel Father's eyes on me the whole time, watching me furiously. But he didn't try to stop me, which makes me wonder if he is afraid that I might beat him in a fight. He is getting old, while I am still in my prime, and will be for a long time. I still don't want to try just fighting with him though, because he has guards who in the end will most likely protect him because he is the King.

After I was out of the room I left the palace. I'm down in the ningen realm now, in Devin's and my old apartment. I never sold it, instead continuing to pay the rent on it so I'd have a place to go if I wanted to get away from the high realm for a while. I'm glad that I did that now, because I need somewhere to stay while I plan a way to get Devin away from Father.

This means that I'll probably never be welcome in the ryuu kingdom ever again, and possibly in the phoenix and unicorn ones too, but I really don't care. Unless Father gets himself another heir, I'll be king of the ryuu kingdom someday, and then I can go back. Until then I can be happy with Devin down here in the ningen realm, once I get him away from Father.