Chapter 4: Demon Prince Lyon

Kairo panted. He paused under the frightful stare the other man gave him. His mind was still processing his situation.

It felt unreal to be falling through a vortex within his closet to land on a strange man’s lap. Yet the musky floral scents and heady aroma of seed oil coming off the man’s skin felt too real.

He opened his mouth to ask a question of his whereabouts, but before words could be exchanged, the Holy Mother Cross swelled with a brilliance that caused both men to recoil.

"Mark of an otherworldly wizard!" The other man strengthened his hold on Kairo, who squirmed about trying to free himself but was unable to do so.

Kairo slowed his breathing and closed his eyes, focusing on his heartbeats and the timing of his breaths to calm down. When he felt more in control, he opened his eyes to see more of the man who possessed an ancient aura akin to a sultan.

He suppressed the urge to blow off a stray tuft of the man’s long silky black hair from his cheek. The rest of the man’s hair tumbled about his squarish jawline and muscled, broad shoulders, revealing smooth, tanned skin.

Parts of the man’s loose silk white tunic overlapped to cling to some parts of his clammy body. The seed oil aroma was most potent around the man’s exposed firm and broad chest, and the chains of gold trimmed at the hems and dangling around his neck.

But the eyes were what captivated Kairo, like sparkling green gems peering into his soul to rip out his deep and darkest secrets.

“At least you're submissive.” One of the man’s large hands touched Kairo’s wrist. His sparkling gold and silver bracelets brushed his forearm: their otherworldly sheen made his skin tingle.

He swallowed hard, noticing the solid silver and blue-gray meteorite throne the man sat on. It was similar to ancient Mesopotamian Sharru times, with delicate engravings of gods and rulers. A formidable crescent moon and crown symbol was at its head.

The throne's dais was stout slabs of shimmering white stone. At the dais’s foot two guards in red and gold robes prostrated themselves before it. Their heads were masked in soft-cloth to conceal their identities.

"Interesting. Your spiritual sea is blocked to me, but your surface consciousness can be unveiled." The man coolly noted of Kairo as he continued to assess his threat level. He clicked his jeweled fingers with tapered nails.

Kairo yelped as a rush of icy cold energy drenched his body, as though he'd been hit with a bucket of water.

"What... is... this?" He managed to ask between huffed breaths.

"Wizard restriction," the man coolly answered, clicking his fingers again in a rapid pattern.

"Seal off the palace." His eyes narrowed toward the richly dressed groups in the shimmering, white marble throne room. They had their heads bowed and shoulders hung low. "Should I find anyone daring to speak out again, they and all their family members will be executed."

A weight of heavy silence fell on the room as his warning sunk in. They were dismissed with a flick of a hand. No one hesitated to make a clean exit from their ruler's formidable presence.

The prostrated guards rose to stand before the throne with sparking longswords held before their chests. Kairo felt tinges of freezing energy from the swords, which he suspected would cause lethal damage.

"Are you going to kill me?" He blurted with frankness.

"Oh?" The ruler glanced over Kairo's body and clothing. "You aren't from this world, I should, wizard. I don’t know why you’re here, but I intend to find out. " The man's flush-red lips twitched with a deranged smirk.

Kairo's heart raced with anxiety: just his luck to land on the lap of a crazed despot.

"I’ve read your physiology to understand your language and connection to this world. I will rip out more of the truth from you." One of the ruler's hands firmly squeezed Kairo's hips as he pulled him closer and pressed a kiss onto his forehead to perform a soul search.

A rush of trivial details about the man, his language and world rushed into Kairo’s mind. He learned that the man was Demon Prince Lyon who was the sole surviving heir of a continent called Lucasyna. He was currently in a civil war with his father. All of his supporters were gathered in his country called Misculanious, and a place known as the Palace of Princes.

“I see. Kairo. Your world is a place called High Town on the planet Earth.” Lyon frowned when he finished reading Kairo and wasn’t able to discern more from him.

The same force that prevented access to Kairo’s spiritual sea had likely sealed areas of his memories. His eyes narrowed as he stared at the cross pendant. To think that an otherworldly high wizard came from that world. I need to know what this man is after and who sent him. He's either an asset or a liability to destroy.

Kairo stifled the urge to feel the spot on his forehead where the man had kissed.

"Enough." With one mighty and effortless move, Lyon tossed Kairo to the floor to land between the guards.

Kairo felt around the cool stone ground, doing his best to regain feeling in his limbs as quickly as possible.

"Lock him in a sealed cell for interrogation. If he was sent by the Shadow Cabal, chop his body to pieces and feed them to the Shriekers." He commanded his guards.

Kairo had to think of a way out, or he would end up chopped liver for some alien beast. But he didn’t have a chance to form a plan. As the guards had sealed him in a stasis bubble of blueish magic to ensure he couldn't move one inch.

He was carried out of the throne room.