and some by virtue fall; Gallows

[Kushiel]

Kushiel grinned. He could always trust his mother to see the best in him, and to have misplaced faith in him, while simultaneously teasing him. It only made sense that she had a robust sense of humor, how else would she have been able to raise him and keep her sanity?

He had loved watching tails burn.

Perhaps that was why he alway took such care with his own. He knew how long it took for those things to grow back. Years, it took years,

“If an innocent child could scare them so they deserved whatever misfortune befell them.” This was another lie, and for all his dedication, Kushiel couldn’t say it with a straight face. He chortled pleasantly, reminiscing about the happy days of his childhood. 

How carefree they had been.

Kushiel, a proud member of a club reserved for the truly shameless, took his mother’s teasing in stride. He had been admiring a girl’s ass, and it had been horrendously awkward. Or at least, it would have been for another pair who had a normal mother son relationship. There’s beat to the tune of its own drummer, and Kushiel liked it that way. If she was going to be in his head she might as well know all the gritty, skeezy details.

She shouldn’t be spared from understanding the type of man she had raised. Besides, he kind of liked it when she called him a wretch. It was done with such affection, it was enough to warm a man’s heart.

“Don’t worry Mother, I will time my visits perfectly. Whenever there is important business to be done in the Chamber I’ll make it my business to be here.” If you didn’t know Kushiel, you might think he was joking. Kushiel may be a working stiff, but he didn’t intend to work himself to exhaustion. It was uncivilized.

Just as he expected she would, she wanted to know why the Chamber and not the Valley. As a child Kushiel had wondered, if he and the valley were both burning, which would his mother run to first? He liked to pretended that was why he was always setting fires, to get attention.

It was a lie of course, Kushiel had gotten more attention than he knew what to do with or how to evade. He just liked fire. Besides, Kushiel couldn’t burn, or, only his mane could. It was possible his tail could as well, he hadn’t mustered up the courage to test it.

“A man needs to be able to look at asses without his mother knowing about it. Besides, I’m sure you find it much easier to love me when you don’t have to explain why the kingdom is burning to the ground.” Kushiel paused, then continued brightly.

“But, I promise I’ll come back here first if Straia ever finds out what an awful wretch I am.“ There, an answer serious enough to silence anyone. 


Kushiel

some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall