Pain Welcomes Visitors

Pain briskly walked through the castle, yelling orders to whomever he passed. The cobwebs needed cleaning, the paintings needed straightening, doorknobs needed polishing. He was on a warpath to make sure the castle was as clean as possible for the coming guests.

The Hero and the Princess of Bright had agreed to come to the castle for peace talks. They were currently on their way to the Dark Castle after sneaking out of the Kingdom of Bright. Pain had sent an envoy to pick them up at the border, so he knew it was only a matter of hours until they would arrive at the castle. In the meantime, the Dark Commander decided to rally the whole castle to clean.

The Demon Lord walked up to him as he was helping zombies position a painting on the wall.

"No, no, a little to the left," Pain was directing.

"Ugh," one of the zombies said.

"What do you mean your left or mine? Right now, we have the same left."

"Pain, what are you doing?" the Demon Lord asked with a sigh.

"I'm trying to make sure this painting is positioned on the wall correctly,"

"I meant that more in a general sense and not for this specific moment."

"Oh, I am making sure that the castle is nice and tidy for our guests; we can't have them seeing such a mess when they come in! Like for example, this painting was crooked and not placed well on the wall." He pointed at the painting as he spoke.

"Do you think they would care?" The Demon Lord asked with a sigh.

"It's not about if they care; it's about showing the Dark Castle to guests with respect it deserves," Pain declared.

"Uh-huh..."

"Think about it this way; what if they were distracted by a cobweb, so they missed this lovely painting."

"Pain, this is a painting of a fighter ripping out..."

"Exactly, it is dripping with symbolism," Pain said with a smile and a nod.

"It's dripping with something..." the Demon Lord muttered.

"A little to the right now!" Pain shouted.

The zombies finished positioning their painting and went on to the next task. Charlotte shook her head and put her hand on Pain's shoulder before he could walk away.

"Shouldn't we discuss the peace talks that you arranged?" she asked.

"Don't worry about it, Charlotte, I'm sure we can just wing it, and it will go fine."

"You think we can 'just wing' talks to end a war that has lasted over one hundred years?"

"Correct!" Pain tried to walk off, but Charlotte gripped his shoulder tightly to stop him. He cried out in pain as she began to pull him to the Great Hall. They had put more torches in the hall to add light and hung-up decorative curtains over the windows. In the center, by Pain's insistence, they had placed a large round table with four chairs for the people who would meet.

The Demon Lord pushed Pain into one of the chairs and sat in the chair next to him. She rubbed her hands through her hair before looking at Pain. The Dark Commander looked around the room without saying anything.

"Pain, what will we discuss during this talk?" she finally asked while drumming her fingers on the table.

"We don't want there to be any war, and we can all live in peace!" Pain said with a thumbs up.

"I admire your optimism, but there are lots of logistics that need to be discussed with these sorts of things."

"We can iron out the details later!" Pain said excitedly.

"We need to discuss what will be done about all the cities currently occupied, we need to figure out what we will do about getting word to all the troops, we need to figure out what to do with any prisoners, the list is endless!" The Demon Lord was beginning to get worried. She clenched her drumming hand into a fist and banged it on the table.

"Charlotte, relax. All that can come in due time. For now, let's worry about establishing relations. This war has gone on for over a hundred years; we can spare a couple of weeks or even months to establish peace."

The Demon Lord took a deep breath.

"Sometimes, you sound sensible. I wish it were that way all the time..." she sighed.

"I'll take that as a compliment!" Pain happily said.

They were interrupted by Kevin, the Lord of Liches, with a knock on the door.

"Milady and Dark Commander. The... Kingdom of Bright... Hero and Holy Princess have arrived, he said slowly. He never expected to say those words in his death.

"Ah, great! I'll see them in!" Pain jumped up and ran out of the room.

"Wait! Pain!" The Demon Lord also got up and ran after him.

The duo of Darkness met the duo of bright in the courtyard. Both the Hero and Holy Princess each wore a long cloak over their clothes and had grime over their faces.

"We finally made it! The Holy Princess said with a sigh and fell to her knees."

"Indeed, The Hero agreed as he pulled his cloak off.

"Hey, thanks for coming." Pain said with a smile. "I hope the trip wasn't too bad."

"Our plan was discovered and rejected by the Holy Queen, and I was thrown in a dungeon. I had to escape, essentially kidnap the Holy Princess, and flee while being chased down by the Holy Queens' personal guard. We just barely made it across the border, and I still don't know if that will be enough to stop them," The Hero said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Hmm, sounds like a fun trip after all," Pain said with a nod.

"Is this the man that is a clown?" the Holy Princess asked the Hero.

"Indeed, he is," the Hero said with a sigh.

"That is a pretty good description of him. I should have just made him a jester," The Demon Lord sighed.

"Well, let's get this meeting started!" Pain shouted.