Salina moved faster than I would have thought possible, rapidly wrapping her body around Eena, and then holding her arms out wide in front of the girl. Her tail continued to move, too, piling coils higher and higher up around Eena’s form.

“That’s not funny, young lady,” she said, her voice firm. There was a faint tremor to it, though. And the look in her eyes… There was anger, but also fear and determination. Lots of determination. Like she was ready to give her life, if necessary, to protect Eena.

To protect her from me.

“I’m…” I hesitated, unsure what to say. That I wasn’t joking? I wasn’t! It’s just… I never really considered what my role was like on the other side. How demons viewed me… I always saw them as just people, like humans, but I never really thought about how they must have viewed us. Viewed me…

It suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t really know much about the war, or what it looked like from their side.

“It’s fine, Sallina,” Eena called out. Her voice was a little muffled, though - I couldn’t even see her past the coils that had built up. “She’s not like the abominations who came before her.”

I tried not to flinch at the raw hatred I heard in Eena’s voice when she described my fellow Heroines. She’s… she always said her trust in me wasn’t about me being the Heroine… I guess it was in spite of it. My predecessors did kinda kill all her ancestors, after all…

Sallina’s face hardened. “You mean she’s actually…?!”

“The Heroine?” Abigail supplied from the side. “Yeah. Devilla has this crazy idea of actually working with her to bring about peace.”

“You’re the one who encouraged me to try!” Eena protested, her voice still muffled.

Abigail shrugged. “I said it was crazy, not bad. We’re kinda backed into a corner here, in case anybody failed to notice. You die without having a kid, and not just the tower, but all demons are screwed… And also you’d be dead. Kind of a fan of any plan that doesn’t inevitably lead there, one day.”

“If it helps, I really don’t want to kill anyone,” I said. “I mean, I’ve never really believed that all demons are evil like the church teaches. I guess I did believe it about Eena, but I don’t anymore!”

“...Eena?” Sallina asked, frowning. It wasn’t an angry frown, though, which was progress! She mostly just seemed confused, with maybe just a hintof anger still lurking in the background… But also her arms weren’t outstretched anymore! So, again, progress! 

Sorta?

“It’s my pet name for Devilla,” I told her, deciding to push forward regardless. “It’s how she introduced herself to me, when we first met, back before I knew she was the Demon Queen.”

“When you first met…” she repeated, looking between me and Eena. Or I guess between me and the pile of coils that were currently surrounding Eena, since it was really hard to get a good look at her when she was all wrapped up like that. “How long have you two known each other?”

“A few weeks,” Eena admitted. “I got to know her while pretending to be human. Which is why I can tell you, without a shred of a doubt, that she’s different. She doesn’t view us as monsters to be slaughtered, but as people who are on the opposite side of an altercation. One she’s more than willing to bring an end to.”

“An altercation?” Sallina asks, her voice flat. “Is that how you want to define the genocide of our people?”

“I think-” Chloe started, only to stop when Sallina glared at her.

“Not right now, dear. I know you want to play peacekeeper, but… not this time.” Her red eyes turned back towards me. It was really hard not to flinch when they met mine, but I managed to keep her gaze. “You claim to see us as people. Perhaps you even do, but I can’t say I return the favor. Not when I’ve seen the things your people have done… the towns you’ve brought to ruin, the families you’ve slaughtered. And that’s just the common soldiers… Trust me when I say the Heroines are far worse.”

I wanted to speak up, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. The church’s claims painted the demons as being the bad ones - they said that demons torch human villages and kill children. Maybe it was even true, to some extent, but we weren’t the ones at the brink of extinction…

Sallina glared at me for another moment or two, before letting out a tired sigh. “That said… I’m quite sure Devilla’s had enough of her elders deciding who she can and can’t be friends with. Far be it from me to repeat the mistake of my predecessor. Especially when it’s part of a plan to save our people…?”

“If it helps,” Eena said, as Sallina’s coils slowly loosened, “she’s quite harmless. I don’t doubt anyone in this room could match her for combat, and several of you could likely run circles around her.”

“You shouldn’t lie, Eena! Even if it’s to make people feel more safe about me…”

“I’m not. Lucy… I know you’re used to being the strongest human around, but that’s essentially the baseline for a demon. Or… at least I believe it is? I suppose I’m not entirely sure, outside of the game…”

“Why don’t we have a friendly spar, then?” Chloe suggested. “That way we can see how she matches up!”

“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” Sallina says, looking back and forth between me and Chloe. “For one thing, she has a sword.”

“We can fight bare handed!” I suggested, then flinched when Sallina glared at me again. “Not that I really want to fight? But if it helps you see how strong I am, I’m willing!”

“Why in the world do you think showing me your skills at killing demons would make me happy?” Sallina asked, putting her hands on her hips.

“Because as strong as I am, I’m still really weak compared to Eena! She could crush me like a bug, from what I’ve seen, and I’m pretty sure she hasn’t even shown me a fraction of her full power!”

“It’s true,” Eena agreed. “And I’m rather curious myself, how she’d fare against my cousin…”

“...Your cousin?” I ask, blinking. “Wait! The one your childhood friend is engaged to?” Come to think of it, Eena hadn’t mentioned exactly who’d be coming to the meeting. She was probably going to, before I interrupted her by insisting on coming along.

“That would be me,” the brunette lamia said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “Nivera. And if you so much as think about drawing that sword against Chloe, I’ll-”

“Do nothing,” Chloe interrupted. “I can defend myself! And also, it’s been forever since I had a good spar. All our friends are too easy… I’ve actually been thinking of asking if Devilla could introduce me to some soldiers!”

“I can put the sword aside, if you want?” I offered. “Or just promise not to use it?”

“A promise not to use it is good enough,” Chloe replied, lacing her fingers and stretching her arms above her head. “Now, if everybody would back up a bit - maybe go sit on that massive bed? - me and Miss Heroine here can begin!”

Sallina sighed, shaking her head and slithering over to the wall beside the bed. Eena frowned, but a quick smile from me had her shaking her own head and going there as well. Abigail looked like she wanted to say something, but she settled for just sitting on the bed and giving Eena’s hand a squeeze. Something Eena seemed to appreciate, I noted.

Nivera was the most confusing one, though. The look she gave me was a mix of annoyance and… pity?

“Alright then!” Chloe declared. “On the count of three, we go!”

“Is it really the best place for this?” I asked, looking around the nicely decorated room. “I don’t want to break anything…”

“We won’t, if we’re careful! And I don’t think Devilla’s particularly attached to anything in this room, anyway… Except maybe the bed?”

“I’m not,” Eena confirmed, blushing a little. 

Seeing something so normal - and cute! - helped to relax me a little, and I smiled at her before doing my own stretches.

“Three!” Chloe declared.

“Two,” I replied.

““One!””

Chloe shot towards me like an arrow, head lowered, body bent slightly forward. I prepared myself to catch her, and maybe throw her towards the bed, but at the last moment she suddenly jumped in the air. I thought she was trying to do a flying tackle, but then suddenly she was a foxinstead of a person, and she was sailing over my head. Her paws hit the back of my skull, and I spun around, finding her standing in human form again with a cheeky smile on her face. I punched forward, expecting her to block, but my arm went right throughher,and her body disappeared. 

I caught sight of a fluffy tail hidden behind the illusion, and then she was running between my legs. I spun again, to face her, only to find myself face to face with her human self, her face an inch from mine. A strong push against my shoulders had me flailing backwards, but I managed to right myself in time to block Chloe’s kick.

It hit hard - way harder than any of my trainers had ever managed - but I held firm against it until she backed off. This time, I kept my eyes on her. Not only that, I borrowed a page from Eena’s book and spread my magic power out around me to try to detect her.

“Good trick!” Chloe complimented me. “But not without its flaws.”

Suddenly there were two Chloe’s in my senses. I knew one of them had to be an illusion, but my magic couldn’t tell the difference between them…

“Illusions are wild magic for us kitsune,” Chloe explained. “You’re not going to see through them with such basic detection magic.”

Both Chloes walked towards me. I was pretty sure which one was fake - I mean, one of the illusions had popped up from nowhere, after all! But that was assuming either of them were real. 

I wasn’t going to take any chances. Instead, I drew my magic inward, towards me, and then blew it out again, forcefully moving the air. The hair and clothes of one Chloe - the one I’d been certain was fake - rustled, while the other stayed perfectly still.

I hesitated a moment, wondering if I should try to hit both… only to flinch when I felt someone tap my shoulder. Next thing I knew, my legs were swept from under me and my butt was on the ground.

“Good try!” Chloe declared with that same cheeky grin on her face. She held out a hand, but I hesitated. “It’s real this time! Promise!”

It was. Also strong - her grip was almost crushing as she lifted me up to my feet.

“How did you manage to do that?” I asked her. “The illusion, I mean - when I tried to put an illusion on myself, earlier, it wouldn’t work. Eena had to do it for me.”

“That’s because Devilla’s floor is spy proof!” Chloe said. “Lots of magic is off limits! But illusions are fine if they don’t cover up your body.”

“...Spy proof?” Abigail asked. For some reason her voice sounded a bit stiff. “As in… you can’t spy on people here?”

“Not magically!” Chloe confirmed.

“So you couldn’t, say… watch someone’s actions through a bunch of spiders…?”

“That’s an oddly specific thing to ask about, but nope!” Chloe confirmed. “Araina can’t spy on this floor at all!”

“...Ah…” Eena muttered, sounding guilty for some reason. 

I wanted to ask more, but Chloe gave my hand a squeeze to draw my attention and shot me another grin. “So, how about another spar? Now that you know my abilities…”

“Is that really necessary?” Sallina asked from her space by the wall. “I think I’ve gotten a good view of her capabilities… Honestly, though, she seems roughly on par with the average demon soldier. If this is the best humanity can come up with, I have to wonder how we’ve been pushed back so far…”

“I think it’s a good sign,” Eena declared. “It’s proof that she hasn’t killed any of us, so far - hasn’t grown in strength beyond her baseline. And I don’t think she ever will…”

“Well, I have been feeling a bit stronger of late,” I said, unable to help myself. “But that’s probably just the result of hard work! I don’t want to fight in the war, or kill demons, or anything like that! I just want to be strong enough to protect people.” 

“Well, you are pretty strong,” Chloe admitted. “That punch you threw looked like it would have hurt if it had actually connected.”

“It will hurt this time, then!” I promised. “...But not too much! I mean, it’s just for fun, right?”

“Yup!” Chloe confirmed, releasing my hand and spreading her feet apart and settling back into a fighting stance. 

I stood up, too. “On the count of three again?”

“Three!” Chloe replied.

“Two!”

““One!””

 

I stared at the horned wolf laying on the forest floor. She stared back. Silently. Awkwardly. Not that I would have found it awkward if this had been just a day ago. Hell, if anything, I’d have called it creepy. But now that I knew she could actually talk if she wanted to…

Well, it was still creepy, but it was also fucking awkward. 

“Sooo…” I started, deciding that maybe a conversation was the best way to go. “You’re a demon, right?” 

The wolf stared at me for a moment, before slowly nodding her head.

“Right… So… why exactly are you taking wolf form, still? I mean, it’s not like you’re fooling anyone. Unless you just prefer it, or something?” Devilla had said something about her being born from wild horned wolves. The ones from the monastery’s experiments, too. It sounded kinda insane to me, but so did everything that came out of Devilla’s mouth…

I mean, she was the Demon Queen, but she actually cared about the Heroine? And was sleeping with her. Which would normally make me think she was trying to seduce said Heroine to the dark side, but I hadn’t actually seen her do or encourage any evil… Hell, rather than seducing the Heroine, it was more like she was getting seduced by the Heroine, from what I’d seen.

Honestly it felt like my world was being turned upside down. I mean, the greatest evil in the world wasn’t supposed to blush the moment kissing came up!

Just like the church - institution of the Goddess - wasn’t supposed to be involved in experiments to produce fucking demons.

I was distracted from my complaints about the world order by a growl from the resident wolf demon. She stood up, and seemed to stretch for a moment, arching her back… except then she kept stretching, her body growing longer and thinner as her front legs lengthened into arms, and her paws turned into hands with fingers. Her hind legs kinda bent, growing sideways and shifting position as she gained knees and her legs divided properly into calves and thighs. Her chest first became thinner, then started to grow out as two breasts came into existence, hanging beneath her form, while her snout scrunched inwards, reshaping into a face. Before I knew it, I wasn’t looking at a horned wolf but a horned woman, kneeling on her hands and knees, with her long black hair trailing down towards the ground, not quite managing to hide her breasts from view.

“Green Hair think too much.”

I hastily looked away, my cheeks bright red as I realized that maybe - just maybe - the girl had been staying in wolf form because she didn’t have any clothes!

…Wait. “Green Hair?! My name is Feyra!”

“My name Bailey, but Green Hair call me Wolf,” the horned woman - Bailey, I guess - pointed out. “Not mind, though. Titles and roles easier to follow than names.”

“How is Green Hair a role?” I demanded, turning back around to glare at her. Which was a mistake, because now she was standing up and her breasts were right there and I was just… nope! Turning my head away from that shit.

“Green Hair sounds better than Complainer,” Bailey replied. “Or Doubter. Could call you Looker instead, since you see magic.”

“Yeah, no. How about you call me Feyra, and I call you Bailey?”

“Names usually hard to pronounce,” she repeated, frowning. “...But yours simple enough. Fey-ra.”

“It’s…” “I shook my head. “You know what? Good enough. Better than fucking Green Hair at least…”

“Could go for Complainer after all,” Bailey said. She sounded completely sincere when she said it, but I wasn’t fooled - a sneak peek at her face showed a smug smirk.

“You got a problem with me?” I asked, crossing my arms in front of my chest and turning back towards her. Careful to keep my eyes on hers, of course.

She shrugged. “Not really. You bad to Queen. But everyone bad to Queen… Everyone but Heroine and Maid.”

“Well, yeah, of course humans are going to talk bad about her,” I scoffed. “I mean, she’s the Demon Queen.”

Bailey shook her head. “Not say humans. Say everyone.”

“Wait, you don’t mean… demons? What the hell? Isn’t she, like… your Queen?”

Bailey tilted her head, like she didn’t understand the question, and I sighed.

“You know, the Queen! The one in charge? Who makes all the rules? Couldn’t she… I don’t know… order their heads all chopped off for disrespect?”

“Queen could,” Bailey confirmed. “Queen doesn’t. Queen act like she not notice. Act like it not hurt, like she not care. Say Queen deserves it…”

“...Yeah, that tracks with what I’ve seen,” I said, thinking back to all the times she’d insisted the Heroine would grow tired of her. I’d just sort of… thought it was an act, or something? I don’t know - I mean, that made more sense than her actually regretting her actions… Or at least it used to make sense.

Nothing made any fucking sense, these days.

“So what do you think of Quee- I mean, Devilla,” I asked. Not that I really cared. I mean, she was probably just going to spin some fluff about how great Devilla secretly was, and how she didn’t deserve all the bad crap people said about her, but… I don’t know. Maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing to hear the perspective of someone on the other side…

Bailey didn’t say anything, though. She just sort of stared at me for a long, awkward moment. Then, when she finally opened her mouth, she just replied, “Queen too kind.”

“Too kind?!” I frowned. “Come on, you’ve got to give me more than that. I mean, don’t you demons, like, worship the ground she walks on or… wait, no, you said the other demons badmouth her, so I guess not… and it doesn’t exactly sound like they’re being ruled by an iron fist. At least these days… But come on, you’ve got to have more to say about her than that!”

“Fey-ra not understand,” Bailey said, shaking her head. “Queen too kind for own good. Spare me, when I attack. Clean me. Clothe me. Feed me… bring me to warm place, tell me I am Demon, and being Demon is good and not bad. Try to teach me, so I can stand on own. So that not need Queen. So that I can leave Queen… because Queen expect everyone to leave her. Expect everyone to come to hate her. To hurt her. Can Fey-ra do that? Help someone, expecting them to hurt you? Spare someone, expecting them to run from you? Befriend someone, thinking they will never love you…? Look the other way, no matter how many times people hurt you…?”

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t say anything. All I could think of was when me and Devilla first met - when she got me out of trouble, and all I could think about was surviving long enough to get away…

I wondered what she thought of me that day.

I wonder what she thought of me now.

Bailey didn’t say anything after that. She went back to her wolf form and started staring out into the darkness. Keeping watch, I guess. Like Devilla had asked her to. Keeping me safe, like Devilla requested.

The silence was even more awkward than before… but… this time I couldn’t bear to break it.

 

~~~

Author's Notes

 

 

Anyone else remember the "Brawl in the Family" comic? No? Oh well... (Hi everyone! Still sick, but I can't stand the lack of writing any longer so here's hoping I can get 48 done sooner rather than later...)

It's worth noting that most of the people Devilla has interacted with are from her own generation - a generation where the war has more or less been on pause, with the demons all confined to the tower and the Heroine too young to take the battle to them. Older generations are going to be a lot harder to win over… Thankfully, Chloe was there to diffuse the tension! In her own way…

Don’t let this chapter fool you into thinking that Lucy is weak, by the way! Her physical strength is about on par with the average demonic soldier at this point - having never killed any demons to grow in power - but she’s been trained well in combat, and can handle herself just fine under ordinary circumstances. By human terms, she’s… well, superhuman. Especially if you throw her arcane and holy magic into the mix. At the same time, though, she’s still ultimately a level 1 character… Maybe edging on level 2, if her claims of gaining strength are to be believed.

Chloe, meanwhile, is just a fucking force of nature… One that does not fight fair. (If you think this is bad, you should see her with a weapon. She’s got this set of retractable metal claws, and you can never tell if they’re actually out or not. Really puts people on edge.)

As far as the second half of this chapter goes, it started with me just wanting to see what Feyra was up to, and ended with me crying a little… “It’ll be cute,” I thought. “Bailey and Feyra will bond a little,” I thought.

Instead we got this… ;;

Anyway, I want to thank FallingLeaf for proofreading and Lulla for beta reading, as always! And thanks to all of you for reading!