182: Drawing the Quartered

There are two (2) NEW coloured artworks and two (2) shaded sketches for ACOLYTES & DISCIPLE members & above. Sign up & log in to view to images by visiting our secret fine dining establishment. For more details on membership tiers, ways to support the site and how to purchase comics/collections, click here. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred. 

The figure stood in the dim shadows of the hall gazing with proud admiration at his prize. A princely figure of a man, young in appearance but wise beyond his years. Such is the countenance of a Van Duyne, the True Heir of Asterion, blood of an ancient family line since the dawn of civilization, rumored to date as far back as the Skull Cult of Göbekli Tepe or the Minotaur-worshipping Cult of Minoa in ancient Greece. He was the finest of his fathers, forged through tribulation, the times of strife, born as an orphan in hiding, emerging victorious from obscurity and the ashes, choosing to shake the hand of his nemesis instead of vanquishing him. Through the Diarchy, he was the Uniter, and ultimately the saviour of the Circle for the new Millennium.

He was in many ways, the kind of man the modern woman desired. He never ate flesh that is less worthy than the forbidden flesh of the hairless doe, almost a vegan if one would disregard the flesh of this one delicate species. A lover of women in more ways than one. A humanist, accepting of new ideas and a progressive in many ways compared to his forefathers. Ultimately, his loyalty lies within his bloodline and the principles that began with the Skull Cult so many thousand of years ago.

Grace had been one of his finest. From the beginning, the moment he made her fall in love with him, then grooming her, meticulously cultivating her diet, the unwitting doe, so delicate, prime and precious for the slaughter and now with all her excellent marbling exposed for the guests to see is finally presented to a sudden hush of silence. Headstrong and full of defiant will, the prize of the evening's dinner represented the kind of burgeoning feminist influence the post-millennial generation was beginning to offer. A strong adversary, ready to tear down the powers of the Patriarchy. She was a perfect prey, and the guests who had been present would remember this moment as one of their most cherished of all dinners.

Delicious is the flesh of the worthy.

She was presented almost as reverently as a prized museum piece under the warm glow of the orange LED spotlight. Only part of her, the hindquarter, proud, sleek and slender. One could tell the piece was expertly butchered, the marbling revealed in fine detail. The guests perused and regarded the fine musculature as bidders would regard a piece of Rembrandt up for auction.

What went on in the mind of the Heir of Asterion? He was after all, instrumental from the beginning to end, of the quarry's seduction, her end, her deconstruction and finally the presentation. Did he wax nostalgic of his time alone with her carcass? Did he take his time with her? Grew fond or excited over her dismemberment and possibly even played with her supple flesh? She was his lover after all for a good part of a whole year. Perhaps part of him was a little melancholic for losing what could have been his one true love? This is a mystery one only can guess at for even the most senior members of the Inner Circle do not know the workings in the head of Lucian Van Duyne.

Bon appétit.