The next few days seemed to go by at a crawl, yet looking back it was as if they had passed in the blink of an eye. Traveling by day and dealing with tower politics by night, we managed to collect the healberries we’d officially been there to find while also comforting Araina and assuring her she wasn’t in danger of losing her job. Mellany, meanwhile, was promised a special position - it came with a hefty salary, and would show that the ban I’d placed upon her bloodline had been lifted, but had no actual authority or responsibilities whatsoever. Members of her family would be able to take government jobs again. It was a decision that might blow up in my face once Sylvanna vacated her position, but we’d cross that bridge when we came to it.

Speaking of Sylvanna, I’d made a point of gathering up all the petrified bits of inedible flesh the cockatrice had left as stone, and was making… some progress with learning to depetrify them. In theory, all I had to do was to quarantine a bit of the holy magic within my body, shape it into the same form as the cockatrice’s wild magic imprint, and then run my arcane magic through the thing. Hardly a difficult task, in theory, what with my perfect recall allowing me to recall the imprint’s exact configuration. In practice, however, the slightest deviation could result in a wide range of results. A problem, considering I had absolutely no experience with directly manipulating holy magic.

While I had technically succeeded once, the other twenty or so times I’d tried had varied rather dramatically in their results. I’d done everything from temporarily reducing the stone’s weight to outright liquefying it. One memorable attempt had even resulted in a stone claw jumping about in my hand like a living thing, only to break apart under the stress of its own movements. A further complication was that every attempt took a rather significant chunk of arcane magic, enough where even my reserves would risk running empty if I wasn’t careful.

“Everything okay, Eena?” Lucy asked from beside me, no doubt noting the morose look upon my face.

“It’s nothing,” I assured her, only to be met with a frown. “Nothing serious, at least. I’m merely ruminating on my failure to consistently replicate the cockatrice’s depetrification ability.”

“If it’s making you upset then it sounds pretty serious to me,” Lucy replied, one hand moving towards her hips. The other probably would have joined it, had it not been occupied with holding my own. “You shouldn’t downplay problems just because they’re yours.”

“...I suppose I do have a bad habit of doing so,” I conceded with a frown of my own. “But, really, for all the effort I’ve put into the matter, it’s still nothing more than a contingency plan. With any luck, the church will have replied to your missive with the necessary spell and I can cease experimenting.” 

Even though I said that, I would likely continue to practice with my holy magic regardless. Manipulating it internally didn’t seem to do anything to my magic supply, and the thought of being able to duplicate wild magic at will was a rather tempting one.

“I hope so, too, but I bet that doesn’t make it any less frustrating to fail,” Lucy rightly pointed out. “You’ve been trying really hard to do it, too! To the point where you’ve sort of been ignoring everything while we walk…”

That was true. If not for Lucy’s hand to guide me I likely would have been crashing into trees throughout the entire journey. As it was, I was fairly sure there’d been a few close calls.

“Why don’t you stop for a while?” Lucy suggested after a moment. “We’re almost back to the city and the inn should probably have the church’s response by now! Plus…” She hesitated a moment before glancing towards Feyra who was riding a few steps behind us. “I was sort of hoping you could talk to Feyra a little before the adventure ends? I think there’s something on her mind…”

I resisted the urge to glance back at Feyra, not wanting her to know she’d become the topic of our conversation. Of course, Lucy’s prior glance may have made it a moot point, but I wasn’t going to make things worse. 

Feyra had been treating me oddly enough as it was. Where once she’d regularly complained about me, now she looked at me with eyes full of uncertainty, and every time I met her gaze she’d hurriedly look away from me. It was perhaps better than the animosity she’d shown previously, but not by much.

“Are you sure that you wouldn’t be the better choice to talk to her?” I asked Lucy. “I could give you two some alone time, perhaps make up some excuse about checking in on Bailey?” The horned wolf girl had returned to the tower, now that we were so close to civilization, and I was admittedly a touch concerned about how she was handling the shift back to enclosed spaces. She’d lived her entire life running free, after all, at least up until she’d met me. 

“You should probably do that later, anyway,” Lucy said, “but maybe talk to Feyra first? I don’t really know what’s bothering her, but she keeps glancing at you whenever you’re looking the other way. I think there’s something she wants to say!”

“Something to say, hmm?” I wondered what it could be. An apology for her earliest behavior was probably too much to ask for, but at the same time I didn’t foresee her adding any new complaints… At the very least, the looks I’d noticed hadn’t held any animosity within them. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.”

At least, not physically. Emotionally, I was much less sure about, but even then the smile Lucy gave me in response to my reply was surely worth a little pain… Even if Lucy herself would never agree with that. 

“Why don’t you go ahead for a bit?” I suggested, reluctantly releasing her hand. Her fingers lingered for a moment afterward, as if she too were disinclined to disengage. “I’ll be back soon enough.”

“I know,” Lucy said, yet the nod she gave me had a certain resoluteness about it - as if she were preparing to send me off to a long war, rather than simply relinquishing my company for a few minutes. “I just really like holding your hand…”

“Yes, well… there will be plenty of opportunities for that later,” I murmured, embarrassment coloring my cheeks as I looked away from her. “Just wait a moment, alright?”

She nodded again, this time turning her gaze back to the road and pushing herself to walk a little faster, even as I slowed my own steps. Before I knew it, Feyra and I were side by side. Much to the former’s shock, if her wide eyes were anything to go by.

“H-hey… Eena…”

“You seem nervous,” I remarked, looking her up and down. Physically, she seemed fine, if a little disheveled, but emotionally… well, as I’d stated, the way she practically flinched when my eyes met her made her seem rather skittish. “I thought you were over your fear of me, what with the way you’ve been complaining about my every action.”

“Yeah, well… I guess it’s more like I got overloaded to the point of not caring, anymore,” Feyra admitted, citing a reason I was surprisingly familiar with. It was much the same as what Abigail said, back when she stopped hiding her snarky side.

“Am I really that overwhelming?” I questioned, frowning.

“No. Yes! Maybe?” She shook her head. “I don’t know. You’re nothing like how I thought you’d be… Though I guess that makes sense, if you’re… y’know… just a person, not the incarnation of all evil, like I thought… A… sorta… strangely nice person, who puts up with my crap when she could turn me into a smear on the ground the instant it stopped amusing her”

“It was never amusing,” I remarked, my frown deepening a little. Feyra seemed to shrink back in response to it - though, considering her height of five foot nine, combined with her current position upon a horse, no amount of mundane shrinkage was going to keep me from having to look up at her. “But it was understandable... At least to some degree. And I suppose I somewhat appreciated your concern for Lucy, at least, no matter how misplaced.”

“Yeah, well… I thought… I mean… I grew up my entire life thinking you were… bad? Hell, I thought I was bad just from association with you, and I’d never even met you! Except now I’m finding out you’re just a ridiculously powerful person, and my stupid curse is basically just… I don’t know… racism? Kinda? Except not really because they don't even know I'm part demon, so… Yeah…”

“I suppose that would be a lot to consider,” I conceded. “But I’m not entirely sure what it has to do with me. I’ve noticed at least a few of the looks you’ve been throwing my way, you know?”

“Yeah, well… I guess… I sorta wanted to apologize,” she admitted, causing me to raise an eyebrow. “...Plus, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Let’s put the apology aside for a moment,” I said, “and start with the request.” Part of me wanted to question whether she’d stick to the apology after her request was done with, but I thought it a little unfair. No matter how much she’d feared, or even hated me, she’d never once been insincere with me. 

“Right…” Feyra muttered, looking away from me. “It’s just… I mean, it’s stupid, but… I mean… it’s just a thought that got stuck in my head lately, but…” She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and scrunching up her nose as she mustered the courage to continue. “Can you actually turn me into a demon? Like the stories claim?”

I blinked. “A demon?”

“It’s a stupid question, right?” She smiled, or attempted one, at least. It was rather obviously forced.

“I wouldn’t say it’s stupid,” I replied, shaking my head. “Merely… unexpected. Why on Solla would you ever wish to become a demon?”

“Maybe because powers like mine are apparently normal for you guys? It would be nice not to be judged based on my bloodline for once. Plus… I mean… Well. You’re all… girls, right? Which means, if I was a demon, I’d be a girl, too?”

“Well… yes,” I confirmed, hesitantly nodding. “Though I hardly see why that’s a draw… Unless you’re hoping to widen your dating prospects by removing males from the equation?”

“What? No!” She sounded shocked and shook her head furiously. “I just… think it might be nice not to have to rely on mirror lilies all the time… I’m always worried about missing my next dose, you know? Even if it does take days to wear off, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m going to start sprouting beard hair or something the moment it’s out of my system.”

Beard hair? I mouthed, frowning faintly as I struggled to process her words. “You mean, you’re…?”

“Trans?” Feyra shrugged. “Yeah…”

“I see…” I murmured. “Another strike against you, so far as the church and its followers are concerned?”

Feyra gave me a searching look in response. Perhaps she realized I didn’t have a negative reaction, at least, because a moment later she looked back towards the road in front of us and shrugged again. “I guess? I mean, they don’t really care about the whole ‘transforming myself into a woman’ thing, in and of itself - it’s just when I try to explain why I need to be a woman that they get all offended. The church teaches that our bodies are gifts, so we’re free to do what we want with them - just so long as we don’t try and say she gave us the wrong one.”

“I… see…” I repeated, cursing my sudden lack of words. I really couldn’t think of anything more to say on the subject, though. ‘Transgender’ wasn’t really a thing among demons, what with us having no concept of ‘male’ to begin with. The only reason I was able to follow along as well as I could was because of Jacob’s memories - he’d made a few trans friends in his final years of life, largely introduced to him by Alice. In fact, she’d introduced him to quite a few trans girls, thinking back on it…

“Anyway,” Feyra continued, forcefully pulling me from my thoughts, “can you help me, or can’t you?”

“I’d certainly be happy to try,” I replied, trying to shake off the nagging feeling that I was missing something obvious. “But I’m afraid I have no idea how to go about it. If such a spell or ability exists, I have no knowledge of it. I’ll keep an ear to the ground, and try to see if I can figure things out?”

It was entirely possible some holy magic existed for this sort of thing - though it seemed more likely to me that there’d be a gender changing spell, if anything at all. Even beyond that, though, there were a myriad of plants, monsters, and of course monster girls out there, each with abilities that defied the laws of reality as I knew them. It was entirely possible there’d be something out there.

“...Thanks…” Feyra muttered, shifting uncomfortably on her horse. “I… uh… I think we’re going to be in town soon. So… talk to you later?”

“Later,” I agreed with a solemn nod. Then I turned towards Lucy, who was currently engaged in the act of loudly whistling. An attempt to drown out our conversation for the sake of privacy? Or simply a diversion, while she waited for me? Likely it was both, but the only way I’d know was to ask.

Of course, if I happened to take her hand while questioning her, and held it the rest of the way towards the gate… well, a girl could be allowed her indulgences, couldn’t she?

“Mellany…” Granny rasped from her throne - and it was a throne, no matter how many times she insisted it was just an ‘ornate chair’ or whatnot. “You’ve done well to gain the trust of those fools. Soon you’ll be in a prime position to push forward our family’s agenda.”

“Yes, Granny,” I agreed like the good girl I always pretended to be around her. Inside, of course, I was rolling my eyes. Literally -I’d grown a bunch of eyes inside my treasure chest just so that I could roll them!

I mean, seriously? For one thing, I did not have ‘the trust of those fools.’ Not by a long shot! Sure, they were working with me, but it wasn’t like they were dumb enough to treat me like a trusted friend. That was a good way to end up with a knife in your back.

Metaphorically, I mean. Obviously. Though, at the same time, I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if someone told me Chloe was secretly an assassin… That girl was way too damn sneaky for my liking.

“To think that horrible child has actually managed to trick people into taking her side…” Granny continued, growling to herself.

I nodded, of course. Like the good girl I was. Definitely not thinking about how I’d love to drag her down from her throne and spit in her face for all the bullshit I’d gone through just to gain her favor and have this chance. I mean, I clipped her fucking toenails! And mimics don’t even have toenails in our default form! She literally grew them just to make people cut them as some sort of sick power move!

Which… you know… Respect, I guess? But you should probably make sure you actually have a handle on the one you’re trying to crush underfoot.

“Did I ever tell you how many of my bones she broke?” she asked.

Oooh, trick question! Saying yes would annoy her for ‘interrupting her,’ but saying no would result in accusations of not paying enough attention… So the right answer was… “Why don’t you tell me again, Granny? All about how awful she is.”

There we go! That put a smile on her face, and there’s nothing better than a smile from someone who doesn’t know they’re about to be betrayed…

Unfortunately, I couldn’t spring the trap just yet. Chloe wanted to talk to her mom about something, first. I didn’t know if she actually thought her mother had information, or if she was just stalling for some reason, but it was fine either way - it gave my little sis more time to gather support on my behalf in preparation for ousting Granny.

…Well, technically it was on her own behalf, seeing how she was totally planning to stab me in the back too, but eh. I didn’t really want the job, anyway. Something cushy with no actual responsibilities was more my speed, and that’s exactly what Queenie was going to give me.

Honestly, I just wanted to see how little sis managed her coup. Most of the family probably figured they were putting up a puppet leader to control, and I could not wait for her to prove them wrong.

Ah, but first things first - nodding and smiling for Granny! Whilst also plotting her downfall… Heh.

She was going to be pissed at the end of all this, but I couldn’t help but wonder… would some small part of her be proud?

~~~

Author's Notes

Ugh, this one gave me some real writer's block... Or at least Devilla's side did. Mellany's was surprisingly easy? Which actually caught me off guard, because I was originally worried about my ability to get all the necessary info across while keeping it coherent... but it went rather smoothly. (Assuming I succeeded, at least?) On the bright side, writer's block or no, I managed to produce 3 chapters in 2 weeks so that I could avoid taking a second week break. Patreon is once again ahead by 2 chapters (even if they are currently in rough draft form/awaiting proofreading) so I'm satisfied.

Sorry to anyone/everyone who actually wanted me to write the meeting with Araina and Mellany out, by the way. The truth is, I'm not really confident in my ability to keep things realistic if I actually dive into the nitty gritty bits of tower politics, and I'm even less confident in my ability to make it entertaining.

Honestly, I never really intended to dive too deeply into them - for me, the politics are mostly just another way to keep everyone in motion, and keep the characters bouncing off each other as they each work towards their individual goals. A way to keep them interacting and occasionally put them in conflict with one another.

It's also just a good way for me to explore the tower side a bit, on top of me thinking that politics are rather difficult to avoid when one wants to convince a tower full of people who hate you to make friends with the people who've been trying to drive them to extinction…

By the same token, though, I promise we will see more of Araina and Mellany both as time goes on. It would be rather pointless to introduce the characters for the sake of conflict and then ignore them, after all…

Many thanks, as always, to FallingLeaf for helping me with proofreading!