I made a move towards the door, intent on opening it, only to pause as I reached for the handle. A quick check on Lucy confirmed that my disguise was still in place - for whatever good it did, in the face of her earlier brazen declaration of her identity - but the fact that nobody had seen her enter my room might potentially cause an issue if the maids saw her. If I was lucky, they’d merely assume I’d snuck her in for whatever reason. 

Still, to be safe… “If anyone asks, you’re my secret lover. Not the enemy of my people and the symbol of Humanity’s supposedly righteous demand for my peoples’ end.”

“Um… I don’t mind keeping my identity hidden from strangers,” Lucy assured me, “but aren’t secret lovers supposed to be… secret? Won’t it be strange if I just tell people that?”

“No, it’s a good plan,” Nivera interjected. “Trade one juicy secret for another. Give people something to gossip about… People might question it - I mean, no offense to my sis, but someone actually wanting to date Illa is a bit of a stretch around these parts - but whatever conspiracy theories they come up with are probably going to be way off the mark. Like maybe Devilla’s getting coaching on being a nice person, or something…”

“Isn’t that a bit rude to Eena?” Lucy asked, the corners of her lips curling downward.

“Rude, but accurate,” Abigail replied on her behalf. “People really don’t like her.”

“She made enemies with the people who are supposed to make her look good and never replaced them,” Chloe helpfully added. “They’ve been actively tanking her reputation since she was a kid.”

“Not that I didn’t deserve it…”

“You didn’t!”

“You totally didn’t, though?”

“Do you have to put yourself down all the time?”

“You really didn’t, dear.”

“I don’t think anyone deserves that, Eena…”

“Yes, well…” I muttered, cheeks flushed in their wake of their chorus of support, “I really should answer the door, regardless…”

As if on cue, the knock came again. This time, I promptly opened it - only to immediately wish I hadn’t. The woman on the other side was one I knew well, after all. With her pitch black hair - which was always perfectly straight, without a strand out of place - and her unblemished skin, her flawlessly trimmed nails and her just… general perfection. 

Not that my form was any less perfect, I suppose, but there was just something about her that put me on edge… Maybe it was the way she carried herself, with ease and grace, or the way she spoke, her voice never carrying a hint of hesitation.

Maybe I was just jealous. Maybe that’s the real reason why I stripped her of so much of her power, taking her responsibilities and delegating them to Sylvanna. She was meant to be the leader of the Generals - the one who watched over them, kept them in line, and made sure they properly managed their territory. Yet now it was Sylvanna who toiled to make sure everything went smoothly, who kept everyone in line.

It was… probably worth an apology, on my part. Yet something in me rebelled at the very notion. She was the one who sat back and watched while the Generals used me, despite it being within her power to stop it. The one who stood by as I gave orders she must have known would be terrible, without ever saying a word. She just looked at me. Everyone always said that she lacked emotion - some even claimed that she was incapable of it. Yet the look in her eyes whenever she saw me… the sheer contempt with which she regarded me… There was no way she lacked emotion.

…All of that was just an excuse though, wasn’t it? A way to avoid the truth. The fact that I stripped a girl of her authority out of nothing but petty jealousy and anger… My problems were my own, after all. How could I blame her for not solving them on my behalf?

I knew that. Yet, somehow, when I looked at her, I couldn’t meet her eyes. I couldn’t stand to see the derision in her gaze, even if I deserved it…

Instead, I forced a smile to my lips and hoped she wouldn’t notice that I was staring right beneath her eyes as I greeted her. “General Doll. What an unexpected pleasure.”

“Queen Devilla.” As always, her voice was flat and emotionless, almost robotic in nature. I wanted to call it creepy, but perhaps that was simply my bias against her speaking.

…It’s odd how different people could affect you. Sallina, for example, had a way of making me feel like a child before her. One in need of comfort. Lucy, by contrast, had a habit of turning me into a flustered mess. Doll, on the other hand? Well, I suppose she didn’t so much change me as reveal me for what I was - in her presence, I felt more than ever like the selfish brat I had been growing up. Getting jealous and calling her creepy when she hadn’t even done anything to me… I suppose some part of me couldn’t stop seeing her as… as… I don’t know. An enabler of abuse? A terrible person, who stood by and watched with disgust in her eyes as a little girl dug herself deeper and deeper into a pit she would never be able to escape from? I just had this urge, whenever she was around, to take all my problems and shove them in her face. To scream and cry and ask what I did wrong to deserve everything I went through… as if the things that happened to us in life had anything to do with what we did or didn’t deserve.

It was as unhealthy as it was unhelpful, though, so I did my best to put it aside and speak with a neutral tone. “What can I do for you?”

“I have come to deliver an urgent report to Sallina. I heard she was here.” Her eyes trailed across my guests as she spoke, bypassing Sallina entirely as she took in the sight of my companions. Her gaze lingered especially long on Lucy, worryingly enough, but she said nothing about the girl’s presence. Instead, her gaze shifted to Sallina, who she walked towards with precisely measured steps. 

“For you,” she said, holding out a plain beige folder.

“Thanks,” Sallina replied, her own smile a touch forced to my surprise. She opened her report without further words, her brow furrowing as she looked over the contents. “This… is just a basic daily report of operations.”

“Is that so?” Doll asked plainly, her expression unchanging. “I suppose it was not so urgent after all, then.” She turned towards the door, walking back at the exact same pace she’d come forward, only to hesitate as she reached for the doorknob. Then, instead of opening the wooden portal and leaving as I’d hoped she would, she turned her gaze back towards Lucy. “You look remarkably familiar.”

“Really?” Lucy asked, a nervous edge to her grin. “I don’t think we’ve ever met before, though!”

“No,” Doll confirmed. “But you still look familiar. Are you perhaps Brielle’s child?”

“H-huh?!” Lucy squeaked, eyes wide. “H-how did you-”

“I did not know her particularly well,” Doll continued in her usual flat tone. “She was actually a guest of Devilla’s parents, alongside her fiancee - though the latter was present for a much shorter term. I believe Devilla’s aunt met one of them as well. You would be best off asking her if you have more questions.”

“I’ll be sure to ask her later!” Chloe promised. If her smile was forced, then she showed no signs of it.

“Good.” Doll nodded before turning towards the door. “I will be leaving now. I have important business to attend to which may keep me unavailable for an extended period of time. When it is done, though, I will be available to answer any further questions.”

“Further questions?” Nivera prompted, narrowing her eyes. “Like what?”

“The nature of life, why Devilla was born, what makes a special person special. Philosophical matters - you will understand, in time.” She swiftly turned towards the door as she spoke, heading out and closing it behind her. Nivera looked as if she wanted to slither after her, but she ultimately settled for scowling at the door. Personally, I was just glad to have her gone.

“Is she always that weird?” Abigail asked.

“Not really,” Sallina said, frowning at the door. “I’m not sure what could keep her so busy she’d be unavailable, either. Unless one of the other Generals has her working on something…”

“She knew my mother’s name…” Lucy said, her voice nearly a whisper. “How did she know my mother’s name?”

“Was your mother truly named Brielle?” I questioned, my own voice loud enough to silence the others.

“One of my mothers, anyway! I had two - they used an angels’ tears potion to conceive me…”

An angels’ tears potion? The name was unfamiliar to me - unsurprisingly, I suppose, considering my general lack of education. The others in the room looked equally confused, though, so obviously it wasn’t just me. I wanted to ask more, but… more importantly…. 

“It’s likely just a coincidence,” I stated, wrapping my arms around Lucy as I did so. She was obviously struggling with the idea for some reason, her heart beating a mile a minute, to the point where I could physically feel it against my own chest. Slowly, though, Lucy began to calm.

“Maybe…” she agreed, her brow furrowing as she nestled her head atop my shoulder. “I mean, I don’t think Mom would have hidden it from me if she knew the Demon Queen, right…? Unless meeting her was the whole reason she said that demons are people too. But then why wouldn’t she tell me that the Demon Queen was good?”

“I don’t have a way to tell what was going on in her head,” Chloe chimed in, “but I can definitely ask Mom if she knows anything. I’m pretty sure she’d remember meeting a pair of humans, especially if they were guests of the Demon Queen!”

Lucy nodded, flashing Chloe one of her signature grins - this time without any signs of nervousness. “Thanks! It would mean a lot to me.”

“Then I suppose that just about wraps things up here,” I declared happily, parting from Lucy. “All that’s left is to discuss what to do about Mellany and Araina.”

“Well, Araina’s easy enough to handle,” Chloe said. “She mostly just needs some reassurances about her job. Niv and I actually worked together to come up with a few things that might help. For starters…”

I nodded along as Chloe spoke, the smile on my face quickly shifting from one of sincere encouragement to one fixed in place. It wasn’t that I couldn’t follow what she was saying - it was just that I was rapidly realizing how beyond me everything was. Every benefit and bit of security she wanted to give to Araina seemed completely reasonable, to the point where I wasn’t sure why we weren’t offering them to every other General too - yet when I said as much, I was immediately shot down by Nivera who patiently explained why that would be a terrible idea.

My main takeaway by the end of it? I was not cut out for politics. Which was rather a problem, considering my position… I could hardly help it, though! My head was spinning just from the implications of everything Nivera had said! From the necessity of having chips to bargain with, to the complications that could arise if a General felt too comfortable in her position…. In the end, I was simply glad I had such capable people to walk me through things. People I could trust - or at least who I very much hoped I could trust…

…I was probably going to have to learn politics after all, wasn’t I?

“If that’s everything, I think we can end this discussion,” Sallina declared after what felt like an eternity of plans and strategies I could barely wrap my head around. “Everyone go home, get some sleep, and we’ll deal with Araina tomorrow. Probably Mellany, too, if Chloe’s take on her is right and she really does try to crash the meeting to get an advantage… Everyone knows what to do then, right?”

Everyone nodded - including me, who took it as training for tomorrow. After much consideration, it had been decided that my main job would be to nod and make the proper facial expressions as things went on. I was really only going to be present to lend legitimacy to the agreements, after all.

“I suppose it’s back to the campfire for us, then,” I announced, reaching into my bag and pulling out a bottle of brown dye. I’d stripped the stuff from my hair before coming, for obvious reasons, but it was best to be in the habit of wearing it when outside the tower.

“Do you have to dye your hair?” Lucy asked, pushing her bottom lip out in an adorable pout. “We’re nowhere near civilization, you know? And I really like your natural hair color! I never knew that white hair could be so pretty…”

“Yes, well…” I responded, my cheeks bright red. “It’s… well, I wouldn’t want to… that is… if someone saw me…”

“How about just until morning, then?” she pleaded. “You’ll be safe in our tent that way, and with my wards we’ll have plenty of time for you to put on an illusion if anyone stumbles on our campsite! You could probably even apply the dye in time!”

“...I suppose I could wait until morning,” I conceded, my red flush having spread to my neck at this point. I hadn’t expected her to be so taken with my true hair color. If anything, I’d feared it might be a bit of a turnoff - I hadn’t seen anyone else with white hair in all my time among humans, after all. In fact, I hadn’t even seen gray hair, even on the elderly. I was an anomaly, through and through. 

“What about your wings, then?” Lucy asked next.

“What about them?”

“They’re part of your natural form, too, aren’t they? And I haven’t seen them paired with your white hair, yet! I bet they’d look amazing.”

“That’s… you…” I was not-so-distantly aware of Chloe laughing. Nivera was saying something about learning something new about her sister and Sallina was chuckling alongside Chloe, looking at me with warm eyes I didn’t know what to do with. Abigail, meanwhile, hadn’t said a word, but I was willing to bet she was rolling her eyes at us.

“...Fine.” I caved, in the end, a familiar tickling sensation running across my back as my wings once again manifested.

“Wow…” Lucy whispered, her voice practically in awe.

“Are you satisfied?” I asked, looking to the side. Part of me felt ridiculous, almost ashamed - like I’d allowed myself to be put on display for nothing more than Lucy’s amusement. The rest of me was too flattered by her expression of awe to care. Neither side could quite manage to look Lucy in the eyes, though, my gaze instead sliding off somewhere to the side.

“Uh-huh!” Lucy agreed, nodding happily. “I mean, I already knew you were beautiful, but seeing you like this really drives it home! And, even better, it feels like I’m getting to see the real you! Which kind of makes it feel like we’re getting closer, you know? Now that I’ve seen what you really look like!”

“You already knew what I looked like!” I complained. Despite that, my cheeks felt as if they’d been lit on fire, the shame I’d previously felt melting away in the face of her sincere joy. “But as long as it brings you happiness, I suppose it’s fine…”

“Then do you think we could go back like this?” Lucy asked, her eyes sparkling with hope.

Hope I couldn’t bear to quash. “...Fine. But I’m putting them away before we sleep. And you’re going to need to let me be on top for any pre-bed activities. Trust me when I say it’s no fun to lay upon one’s wings.”

“Even though they’re so fluffy?” Lucy asked. “And soft, and warm… I bet they’d be great to lay under!”

“Ah, to be young,” Sallina whispered, the warmth in her gaze only growing.

In the face of such a reaction from the closest thing I had to a mother figure, I, of course… decided to pretend I hadn’t noticed and practically sprinted towards the teleportation pad as quickly as I could, dragging Lucy along with me.

If I happened to experiment with sleeping on my stomach to allow Lucy to fall asleep beneath my wings that night… Well, that was purely between the two of us.

Slithering through the halls of my domain that night, I struggled with the guilt growing in my heart over this secret escapade. I didn’t like keeping things from Nivera. She’d already been hurt too often by deceit. Which was why I was going to tell her about my nighttime meeting with Doll, as soon as morning came. Assuming Chloe didn’t beat me to it - she had a knack for knowing what she shouldn’t. Either way, it was a consideration for later. Right now, I needed to keep my mind in the present. 

I found Doll right where she promised she’d be - in an unmarked hall on Devilla’s floor, with her arms crossed and her foot lightly tapping the ground in impatience. It was the most emotional display I’d seen from her in years.

“You took your time,” she said. There was no anger in her voice or her eyes, let alone her expression, but I saw it in the tension of her body. The way she leaned forward. She was impatient, eager to get this over with.

That made two of us.

“What do you want with me, Doll?” Why did she want to talk to me so badly that she’d promise a future favor if I came alone?

“I want to speak about Devilla.”

My expression hardened. Not that it was a surprise to hear her say such words, but… well. A woman couldn’t be blamed for worrying about the girls she wanted to protect, could she?

“It is nothing troublesome,” she promised. “I simply wish to know your opinion on her. Has she truly changed? For the better?”

“She has,” I confirmed, my voice low. “And I want her to stay that way. Whatever you’re planning-”

“It was her mother’s plan,” Doll interrupted. “Her real mother’s plan. Not that of a woman who taught her for barely two years.”

My fists clenched. “Just because I didn’t birth her doesn’t mean I can’t treat her like a daughter. Someone certainly needs to. That girl has gone through hell, at the hands of people like you, and I won’t let you hurt her again.”

“I did nothing to hurt her to begin with,” Doll replied, her voice as flat as ever. “In fact, I made several attempts to ameliorate her situation.”

“I’m sure you did the best you could without threatening your position,” I replied, narrowing my eyes at her. “And not a touch more.”

“...Attempting to pressure the Generals into altering their plans could have backfired. There was also the real possibility of a single General sinking her claws into Devilla if they deviated from their plan of noninterference. By holding back, I was able to keep an eye on the situation and provide small amounts of help where possible. …For what little good that did.”

A flicker of emotion passed through Doll’s eyes as she said the last words - resentment, I think. It was gone so fast that most people might never have seen it, but I wasn’t about to dismiss it as nothing more than my imagination. Not when it could affect Devilla.

“What do youwant, Doll?” I asked, my voice practically a whisper. I had no doubt she could hear me, though.

“Nothing you can give me,” she replied before turning her back on me. “It is a pleasure to know she has truly changed, though. Thank you for the information.”

I watched her leave, my hands clenched so tightly that it hurt. Once she was gone, though, I forced myself to relax and take a deep breath. “It would seem I have something to talk to the others about, tomorrow…”

Of course, I made sure to say that loud enough for any hypothetically listening fox to hear. 

~~~

Author's Notes

It was surprising - but oddly nice? - to see some of Devilla's bratty side peeking out here. I see it as yet another reminder that she's still the same Devilla she's always been - that while she's learned lessons, and grown dramatically, some bit of that bratty side is still there. She's got a pretty well deserved grudge with Doll, and her more petty complaints get easily mixed in with the more serious ones...

Thanks, as always, to FallingLeaf for proofreading and Lulla for beta reading! And thanks to all of you for reading. :)

PS: I might need to take a week off in terms of updates. I'm hoping to avoid it, but Patron is only up to chapter 50 right now - I've been slowed down by both the badness that is depression and the (time consuming) goodness that is my girlfriend visiting tomorrow. All my free time and energy has been going into cleaning.... Sorry ;;