“Is it just me, or are you flying faster than last time?” Lucy asked, twisting a little in my arms as she sought a better view of the ground. “Everything’s just a blur down there!”

“Would you prefer me to slow down?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “Because I can, but I believe we’re already short on time.”

“I wouldn’t say we’re short on it, exactly,” Lucy replied. “There might be some awkward questions if anyone finds out I was at Gour just a little while ago, though…”

“And we don’t know for sure that all the birds and letters were secured before word of me got out,” I reminded her. “There will most certainly be awkward questions if anyone manages to put two and two together and realizes your companion is the one who felled the dragon.”

“I don’t think feeding her good food counts as felling her,” Lucy remarked.

“It’s not like I didn’t fight and subdue her first,” I pointed out. “In any case the fact remains - we’ve already spent half the day dealing with the slime girls and we woke up late beside. By the time we arrive it’ll be nightfall, meaning that it’ll likely be tomorrow before you can ask your questions. I hardly dare think about what would happen if they somehow figured me out before you’ve had the chance to get your answers…”

“But you just offered to slow down?” Lucy pointed out.

I shrugged. “Fulfilling your whims is worth the risk to me. However, I imagine you currently value getting answers over enjoying the scenery.”

“A little!” Lucy confirmed. “Besides, we can always look at the view later, right? We’ll have all the time in the world after we save it!”

“Right…” I murmured. Yet even as I said it Doll’s earlier warnings flashed through my mind - I was immortal. I had all the time in the world, and then some, if Doll was to believed. Yet Lucy… Lucy was only mortal…

“What’s wrong?” Lucy asked with a frown.

“It’s…” I almost said nothing. I knew Lucy would disapprove, though, and so I let out a sigh. “I’m just worrying about the future. Our future. About my eternal life span, as it compares to your mortal coil…”

Lucy didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she shifted in my arms, nuzzling closer against me. 

“...I don’t really know what to say to that,” she admitted. “I mean, the whole concept of ‘forever’ is sort of beyond me, and as for old age… I’ve honestly never expected to get that far.”

“Me either,” I confessed. “I knew my lifespan was theoretically infinite from the beginning, and yet…”

Lucy nodded. “I think we both need to think about the future a bit! Maybe later though? There’s so much we already need to sort through… but at the same time I don’t know if putting it off is a good idea…”

I shook my head. “There’s only so much time in a day, Lucy. For now we should keep our minds on the task ahead of us.”

“I guess it’s enough for now to know that whatever the future brings I want to spend it by your side!”

A faint flush touched my cheeks, even as I squeezed Lucy tighter against myself. Though no reply came from my lips, I knew none was needed - Lucy knew my heart well.

As such, we flew in a pleasant silence for a while, traveling over forests and away from the roads so that I could focus on speed over illusions. Eventually, however, Lucy called out to stop me.

“We’re almost there! You should move over to the road - I think it’s that way?”

I followed the direction of Lucy’s finger, eventually coming across a surprisingly well maintained road. Not only was it paved, but I struggled to spot a single crack in the surface of it.

“Pilgrimage is really important to the church,” Lucy told me. “The roads get better and better the closer you are to them.”

“Then we must be close indeed,” I replied, flying us down to the side of the road. “I imagine we won’t be the only ones approaching the holy city by foot?”

“It’s pretty normal,” Lucy confirmed. “I think we might still get attention, though.”

“Because of our clothes?”

“Well, that too, but mostly because people already know what I look like! All the churches have portraits of me, after all.”

“And I suppose there are no citizens here who would prefer to avoid church?”

“Of course not!” Lucy confirmed. “I mean, everyone past the first ring is a member of the clergy anyways.”

“The first ring?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “You know, come to think of it, I don’t know very much about this place despite us basically infiltrating it… What’s it called?”

“The Holy City!” Lucy said with a straight face.

“...Seriously?” I asked. “I mean, I know there’s little need to differentiate when you’re one of a kind, but… Seriously? Not even a name?”

“The Goddess doesn’t have a name, either,” Lucy pointed out. “She’s just the Goddess. Just like there’s only one Church and one Holy City!”

“The advantages of a unified religion, I suppose… assuming it is unified? Are there any branches, sects, or orders I haven’t heard of?”

Lucy shook her head, even as she took my hand and led me down the road. “Not anymore, but there used to be according to our holy book,” she told me. “Then the Goddess sent her angels down to pick the Church that best represented her, and taught them everything they needed to truly spread her message across the world. She even put the first Heroine under their care and gave them a special tool to help them find new Heroines when they’re born…”

“A tool to locate heroines?” I asked, catching onto one detail that interested in me amidst the religious drivel. “I thought they struggled to find you, though? They only appeared when you were thirteen, after all.”

Lucy nodded. “Nobody really wants to say it, but I think the tool stopped working for a while. Maybe the Goddess interfered?”

“...Or your namesake did,” I said. “Though for what reason, I couldn’t say in either case.”

“Well, I’m glad either way!” Lucy declared. “Because it meant I got to grow up with Mom and become the person I am today!”

“The person I fell in love with,” I replied with a soft smile. “So I suppose I don’t have much room to complain. It still feels suspicious to me, but without even knowing how the tool functions, all we can do is speculate.”

“Well, get your speculation and potentially blasphemous questions out now,” Lucy warned me. “Once we enter the first ring, you’ll find that people get pretty testy when any aspect of the Church is questioned…”

“Speaking from experience?”

“Not exactly.” Lucy shook her head. “Most people just get flustered if I question things in front of them. I think they think I’m testing them… I did once have to stop someone from getting mobbed, though!”

“You’re really selling the place to me,” I remarked dryly.

“Yeah… it makes me really glad I refused to come here back when I was thirteen!”

“I did wonder why you were raised in Ife, and not here… They actually let you refuse?”

“Not at first,” Lucy admitted. “They didn’t want to force me, but they also didn’t want to let me stay out of their sight, so it was sort of a weird stalemate for a bit. Then the Grand Patriarch himself stepped in, and said that if I wanted to live close to my mother’s grave I could!”

“I… see…” I replied, not entirely sure how to respond. “Well, that’s one good mark in his favor for respecting your wishes like that, I suppose.”

Lucy nodded. “He usually comes off like a really nice grandpa! Or at least what I imagine a really nice grandpa would be like? Either way, I really want to believe that he doesn’t know all the bad stuff going on, but… being in charge, there’s no way he’s completely ignorant of everything… I don’t think he’s a figurehead or anything, either… I’m sure his faith in the Goddess is real, at least. And most of the really bad stuff predates him, I think, so it’s possible he doesn’t know any better, or even tried to change things but couldn’t!”

“You really do believe the best of everyone you meet, don’t you?” I asked, an amused chuckle coming from my lips.

To my surprise, however, Lucy shook her head. “No… I’m not sure I really believe any of that. Not deep down. It’s just that I want to give him the benefit of the doubt until proven wrong? Even if it means putting aside my own judgement for a bit… I mean, how can I make a decision about him when he hasn’t even had a chance to give us his side of the story?”

“So you’re just being… what? Optimistic?”

“Pretty much!” Lucy confirmed. “I want to go into this assuming the best, even as I prepare my heart for the worst. That way, even if things go wrong, I won’t have any regrets. Not compared to if I just prematurely judged him and turned out to be wrong…”

“I can’t say I entirely agree,” I confessed, shaking my own head. “There are people in this world that will hurt you if given the chance.”

“I am really hard to hurt, though!” Lucy pointed out. “Physically, at least. That’s part of why I try so hard in the first place - because I know that even if I’m wrong, it’ll only hurt my heart and soul! Physically, I’ll still be able to do what I need to.”

“But you’d still hurt,” I pointed out.

“My heart would hurt at least as much if it turned out I judged someone prematurely! At least I’m prepared to be hurt if things go bad, and I know I can come back from it! Someone else might not be so lucky, emotionally or physically.”

“And so you sacrifice yourself for others?” I asked.

“It’s for me, as well! So that I won’t have to live with any regrets… Besides, you can’t talk about hurting yourself for the sake of others, Eena! We both know you’d throw yourself in the line of fire immediately if it meant helping someone! You’ve already proven it by helping protect Gour when I wasn’t there, even if it ended up not being needed.”

“That’s… I only did that because I thought you’d want it!” I protested. “Usually, I’d only act if I had a responsibility to them!”

“So if a stranger was about to die in front of you, you wouldn’t do anything?” 

“Well… I suppose if they were right in front of me… but one could argue that I have an obligation to do so, considering the fact that any help they might need is likely easily within my powers. From healing to defense, there’s little I can’t manage. Honestly, the act of saving them would be so trivial that I’d feel bad not doing it, so it would ultimately be driven by a selfish desire not to feel guilt, when you came down to it.”

“You’re trying to find some way to call yourself a bad person, aren’t you?” Lucy accused me, narrowing her eyes. “I don’t think you have a responsibility to help anyone just because you can, either! It’s not like you asked to be born with all that power, after all.”

“What about you?” I countered. “Are you not held responsible due to the power you were born with?”

“Yeah, but I want to help! I always thought the Goddess chose me because of that… but even if that’s not true, I know that I still want to do good in this world! Not because I have to, or because nobody else can, but because I want to see the world become a better place!”

“You’re too good for your own good, Lucy,” I sighed.

“So are you! You just always find a way to twist things around in a way that doesn’t make you seem like a good person…”

“That’s because I’m not a good person, Lucy. I’m just… strong, immortal, and prone to guilt.”

“Nope!” Lucy denied. “I’m not accepting it! From now on, I’m going to tell you what a good person I think you are no matter how hard you deny it!”

“...So business as usual, then?”

“Pretty much!” Lucy cheerfully replied, wrapping her arms around my neck and giving me a kiss. “...You should probably put me down before we reach the city, though, or we’re going to draw even more attention.”

“...I almost think it’d be worth it,” I confessed before gently lowering Lucy to the ground. “Come on. Let’s go check out this holy city of yours.”

“H-Heroine?” the guard at the gate squeaked out, literally trembling in his boots as he tried to keep his a hold of his spear despite his quivering hands. “I… Uh… that is… I wasn’t expecting - I mean, I wasn’t given any orders, I mean nobody told me you were going to be present today!”

“That’s alright!” Lucy said cheerfully, trying to calm the man down. “I think we’re a bit earlier than expected, so they probably didn’t tell the guards anything. Can I just go in?”

“Um… Uh….” The guard glanced at his companion, guarding the other side of the gate - an orange haired woman who shook her head rapidly from side to side, as if begging the man not to involve her. “I should… maybe tell the head guard you’re here?”

“I guess,” Lucy replied, looking almost reluctant for a moment. 

“I-I’ll be right back!” the guard declared, rushing off without even a glance at his companion, or the crowd of people who were starting to spread out behind us. Originally pilgrims who’d lined up at the gate for entrance, they were now whispering amongst themselves about the Heroine. Then one lowered himself to his knees, while another went down to her stomach, and a third began to thank the heavens for allowing him to see her beauty, and before long the entire crowd was praying fervently to the Goddess.

“Maybe I should have tried to keep things a secret a bit longer?” Lucy suggested, looking towards me almost apologetically.

“It’s hardly your fault,” I objected. “If nobody wanted a scene at your arrival, they should have included instructions to come through some form of back door.”

“Not a lot of backdoors into my city,” came a new voice. A feminine one with an edge to it. The initial guard had returned with an older looking woman. “Though if there was one, I’d surely open the gates wide for the Heroine and her party.”

“Joana!” Lucy squealed, so happily I half expected her to jump from joy. “You’re still here!”

“Only thanks to you, Heroine. I swear, I’d lose my head for all the feathers I ruffle if you weren’t so obvious with your favor…”

“That’s why I’m obvious with it!” Lucy replied. “I mean, I’m pretty sure you’re not joking… There aren’t a lot of city guards who’d dare accuse a cardinal of stealing something!”

“I was right, though, wasn’t I?” she asked, arching an eyebrow. “He took your comb.”

“Only because he wanted to enshrine it! Which… was sort of creepy, but then the Grand Patriarch explained that he was in charge of managing the shrines to all the Heroines!”

“Well, he can enshrine your mother’s comb after you pass, and not a moment before. At least if I read your expressions properly that day, Heroine?”

Lucy nodded. “It means a lot to me! That’s why I was so happy when you got it back - even if I do think you were a bit too quick to step on toes. You shouldn’t push so hard, just because you have my backing!”

“Even the highest of us isn’t beyond the Goddess’s law, Heroine,” Joana replied. “Though it’s only with the help of one equally high that I was able to bring him to justice.”

“I take it you two know each other?” I asked, admittedly feeling just a touch left out of their conversation. Not that I minded, per se - not when Lucy seemed so happy to be talking with someone else but… it would be a lie to say that a slight sting of jealousy wasn’t present in my heart, no matter how much it shamed me.

Lucy simply nodded, unperturbed by my interruption. “Joana helped me a lot in the past! She wasn't the head of the guard or anything last I was here…”

“That’ll happen when you’re the only one in the city willing to go after the big fish,” Joana stated. “They either promote you or fire you, and with you around to speak for me they couldn’t exactly default to option two.”

“I’d like to think it has more to do with you being a hard worker,” Lucy replied, “but I guess that might also be true…”

Joana grunted. “I take it you’re responding to the church’s summoning? Seeing as how you don’t tend to come here for any other reason.”

“Yup!” Lucy confirmed. “Though I’m sorry I haven’t come by just to see you, before. I can try if you’d like?”

“It wasn’t a complaint, Heroine,” Joana replied with the faintest hint of a smile. “Shall I show you to your apartment? Or are you going to insist on staying in an inn again?”

“The apartment’s fine this time!” Lucy replied. “It’ll be more convenient if I’m in the third ring, anyways.”

“That’s a first…” Joana remarked, eyeing her up and down. “Usually you say you’d rather see what life is like among the people here…”

“Well, this time I’m specifically here to speak to the clergy,” Lucy explained.

“The higher ups then, especially if you’re talking about the third ring,” Joana replied before shaking her head. “Either way it’s beyond my pay grade. Follow me.”

“You seem to know each other rather well,” I remarked, taking my place by Lucy’s side as Joana began to lead the way through the gates. “Yet she didn’t even remark upon my presence.”

“That’s because Joana likes to keep things professional!” Lucy explained. “At leasts on the job. I bet she’ll be asking everyone what they know about you after hours, though!”

“But she won’t question you directly?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.

Lucy shook her head. “I don’t know why, but she doesn’t like interacting with me outside of the job… I think she doesn’t really know how to if it’s outside a professional context.”

“I see…” I murmured, glancing at Joana. The older woman was clearly listening, and I half expected her to say as much, but she stayed quiet as she marched us through the streets. Streets others cleared ahead of us, I noticed, all the while whispering about the Heroine in their midst. “I assume that massive wall we’re approaching is the first of these rings you’ve referred to?”

“Technically, the city wall is the first ring, actually,” Lucy informed me. “That’s the second ring where most of the clergy live. The third ring is where the most devout members live, including the Grand Patriarch. I have an apartment there, too, for when I visit, but I tend to prefer staying at the inns… it’s closer to the people I’m supposed to be protecting, and lets me learn more about whether there’s anything bugging them!”

“Yet this time we’re heading right into the belly of the… city,” I remarked, just barely holding my tongue in check rather than referring to it overtly as a beast. In truth, I was rather worried about entering this place. I couldn’t help but wonder if they had alarms to announce my presence, similar to the tower’s alert for the Heroine. I didn’t think it likely - not when every Demon Queen was forced to play along with Luci’s script and could only face the Heroine on ‘proper’ terms, but I couldn’t rule it out.

Lucy squeezed my hand, as if reading my thoughts, and smiled. “Don’t worry! If the worst happens we can just leave. We both know no number of rings could stop you.”

“Could you maybe not discuss that in front of a guard, let alone the guard captain?” Joana complained as we walked through the gate in the second ring. “I’d appreciate it if I could at least keep some plausible deniability.”

“Sorry!”

We spent the rest of the trip in silence. Uncomfortable silence, as far as I was concerned. Not awkward - not with Lucy’s hand in mind - but simply uncomfortable. I was walking into enemy territory and it hardly mattered how safe I knew I was. Something about being there still felt wrong.

Eventually, though, we were led through the third ring, and then towards a small apartment, whose door Lucy opened with a key from her pack. 

“Come get me if you need anything,” Joana said, nodding her head goodbye to Lucy.

Explicitly to Lucy and not at all to me, judging from the way she avoided looking at me.

“You know, Eena’s really important to me!” Lucy said, frowning a little. “So it’s okay if you don’t like her right away, but I’d really appreciate it if you gave her a chance!”

“...As you say Heroine,” Joana replied, sparing me a single glance before turning and walking away.

“Sorry,” Lucy said. “She sometimes gets a bit… weird about me.”

“In a different way than everyone else, you mean? Because from what I’ve seen so far, the people here seem ready to worship the ground you stand on.”

“Well, only the most religious live here,” Lucy pointed out. “Even the tourists usually travel a long way just to see the holy capital… I think it’s pretty normal for them to behave over the top.”

“It’s not a matter of whether it’s normal,” I protested. “It’s a matter of you deserving better. I understand that your position is something of a symbol to humanity - that your very presence means something to the people, and that you’d have it no other way - but all the same, you are still a person at the end of the day. Yet even those closest to you refuse to even call you by name.”

“I know it’s not ideal,” Lucy replied, “but I’m not sure we can really do anything about it right now…”

“Maybe not right now,” I agreed, “but eventually. Your public image needs to change.”

“Even if it might be useful?” Lucy asked, with an unfamiliar undertone of uncertainty. “I mean, as much as I want to be seen as a person, I don’t know if anyone but the Heroine can get humanity as a whole to listen when it comes to… You know.”

“Yet it’s who you are as a person that made me think to go to you for help,” I pointed out. “Besides, you’re both a symbol and a person, and if anyone can figure out a proper way to balance out those two I’m pretty sure it’s you.”

“I’m glad you have confidence in me!” Lucy giggled, finally unlocking the door and stepping inside. “I think it would be even better if we worked on it together, though.”

“Together, then,” I agreed readily. “Though… as ironic as it seems after a pack of unity, I do feel the need to leave for a moment… There’s something I need to take care of back at the tower.”

“Abigail?” Lucy guessed.

I nodded. “She snuck out without so much as a word, earlier. I’m sure she just needed time to think - and she might still yet - but… it won’t sit right with me if I don’t at least check in on her and let her know we arrived safe.”

“I don’t think she has much reason to worry about your safety,” Lucy pointed out. “Though I would like to think she’d care at least a little about mine, I guess?”

“In time, if not already,” I replied, reaching into my bag, and the Empty Bag within it, to pull out the teleportation ring within. “She’s too good a person not to care about someone as wonderful as you.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works, Eena,” Lucy replied with a giggle. “But go on! I’ll be waiting for you here, in case anyone knocks at the door…”

“Do you think that’s likely?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.

“I mean… there’s a good chance the Grand Patriarch sends for us pretty quickly, yeah! I can probably delay at least a little in the name of getting ready, though?”

“Then I’ll be quick,” I promised, hesitating a moment before leaning in to press a peck against her lips. Then, with my cheeks flaming red, I teleported post haste to my room.

A room where I found a worried looking kitsune waiting for me, alongside a scowling lamia and Bailey in wolf form.

“Chloe?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “Is there a reason the lot of you have gathered in my room?”

“Yes,” Chloe said, her eyes devoid of their usual mirth. “Abigail’s been kidnapped.”

~~~

Author's Notes

Fun fact about this chapter: it was originally half the length. Everything in the city was initially going to be part of chapter 77, but I hated the pacing - the fact that we didn't even get to address what happened to Abigail didn't sit right with me. So, the downside is that we're going to have a pretty short chapter 77 instead, but at least that feels better for the pacing than the other way around.

Thanks to FallingLeaf for editing, and to all of you for being so patient during my depression. I seem to be coming out of it, at least enough to be productive. In fact, I've written up to chapter 80, and I'm working on chapter 81. (Demon Queened is becoming my sole focus for a while, as we're at a crucial part of the story that I'm rather afraid of messing up, so I'm not sure if my other series will receive any updates for the immediate future, but I do still have a buffer of 2 chapters for HaH and NM if anyone is interested, both available on my Patreon alongside all advance DQ chapters for as little as $1. I fear only chapter 76 has been edited so far, though.)