O is for Oleander

Take a closer look. Have you ever seen such loveliness as mine?

Oh, all right, this sweet face isn’t truly mine. It belonged to a boy long ago, a boy as lovely and poisonous as the flower I named him for. 

No, that wasn’t his real name. Tough, it’s the name I’ve given him and better than he deserved. Oleander enjoyed tormenting people with his looks. He pretended they weren’t there, wrinkling his nose when they demanded his attention. I can just see his little button nose wrinkling. I don’t need to read his thoughts to know what they were. 

Ugly Thomas. Thomas the troll. 

He thought he could look down on me, act like I was nothing. Only I won, didn’t I? I stole his face and made it my own. Oleander’s beauty is all mine. In fact, I am Oleander, the Oleander I always dreamed of. Not the boy I wasted my fantasies upon. Not the big disappointment I was punished for stalking. 

Strange. I sometimes still talk as if I were Thomas. I don’t need to be that pathetic loser any more. Not now that I’m one with Seraphix. My godling has transformed me into something new. Thomas was just a shell I hatched from.

I’m perfectly poisonous, exquisitely evil. I can be the dark temptation others inflicted upon me. Beauty is now mine. I shall use it. 

Only this face is nothing compared to another’s. 

I thought Oleander was the loveliest thing I’d ever beheld. My desire to possess him brought me back, drew me to Omphalos. It made me call upon Seraphix. 

Only I’ve seen a pair of twins even more beautiful than Oleander. 

Each has the same delicate face, the same enormous violet blue eyes fringed by golden lashes, a little darker than the shaggy curls falling from their heads. Each of them has the same cute button nose, even cuter than Oleander’s, curse them!

The thought of those twins, Danyel and Tayel irk me more than anything. They live in the Old Cottage. They’re among the first residents of Omphalos, the sons of Ashleigh, and the favorites of Lord Dyvian. 

All of this irks me even more. Irks me, yet fascinates me. 

Seraphix cheated me. I struck a bargain with this godling in return for possessing perfect beauty. I thought Oleander had it. Now I find there are boys even prettier than him. 

Ah, but Seraphix may be in trouble. I emerged from the fusion between Him and Thomas, emerging from Thomas’s wish. I was born from an aspect of the godling. 

This means I have as much power over Seraphix as He has over me. I just need to figure out to use that connection. 

One thing troubles me. One of the twins were there when I was created. He held my hand, leant me his power. 

Why did Danyel do that? 

He never liked Thomas. Thomas bullied him, tormented him, did everything to force him to admit he was small and weak. 

Danyel retaliated by making fools of both Thomas and his father, showing them how big and clumsy they were. 

I can’t help admiring him for that. 

Thomas did, too, in spite of himself. I’m guessing Jupitre did as well. It was quite a blow to his pride. Thomas’s father can be a vengeful one. Not that Jupitre is truly Thomas’s father. 

Thomas’s actual father was a lot meaner. He’s the one that showed Thomas how worthless he was unless he smashed someone or somthing to a pulp. 

All that smashing never made Thomas feel any better. 

Well, I’m not going to be like my former self, attacking squirrels in order to prove myself. 

I’m going to watch Danyel instead, follow his every move. Where does he get his power? Why was a frail boy like him able to beat someone twice his size?

I’ll discover Danyel’s secrets. Once I do, Danyel will be mine. Neither of his brothers will be able to stop me. 

Watch me in A Godling for Your Thoughts? when our fool of a creatrix finally publishes it. You may catch glimpes of me in other Tales of the Navel/The Shadow Forest. You’ll see what I can do.