So when he told me he wanted to take me to the Nine Heavens, that he would look after me for the rest of my life, I agreed without a second thought.
Three thousand years as husband and wife. Every one of them devoted. Every one of them tender.
Until Aldric met a mortal woman, and everything veered off course.
That woman was Elara, the one he now called his wife.
Elara was flesh and bone, purely mortal. She could not set foot in the Nine Heavens. The only way was to replace the mortal essence inside her body with celestial energy, or with the power of a god or demon.
Aldric searched every corner of the Nine Heavens and found no justification to take what he needed from anyone else.
So he turned his attention to me.
He deliberately led the others to discover my true nature as a demon goddess, then rallied all three realms under the banner of righteousness to bind me with Demonbane Nails.
I was already pregnant by then. My powers had waned, and I had no strength left to fight back.
I begged him to spare me. Begged until my voice broke. But all he left me with was a single, weightless phrase: Good and evil cannot coexist. Then he ripped the demon essence from my body and shattered my soul into nothing.
Even Soulreaper was ground to dust beneath his heel.
It was the child in my womb who saved me.
He sacrificed his own life to lock my three ethereal souls and seven corporeal spirits together before they could scatter.
After a long silence, I reformed into a physical body, but only that of a two-year-old child.
My heart was full of hatred. I knew I was no match for Aldric, yet I still set out on the road to the Nine Heavens to take my revenge.
But my bones had barely knit and my demon essence had yet to coalesce. I couldn't even defeat a minor imp.
Just as a wolf demon was about to swallow me whole, a pair of large hands scooped me into a warm embrace.
The old man whose eyes already creased with wrinkles looked down at me, heartache plain on his face. "How's a little thing like you out here all alone with nobody looking after you?"
"Don't be scared, sweetheart. This old man will keep you safe."
I assumed his kindness was a passing impulse. I never imagined he would go on protecting me for years.
The year I pieced Soulreaper back together, I was nine.
I planned to make one last trip to the Nine Heavens and drag Aldric down with me, even if it killed us both.