Tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear, I surreptitiously checked to make sure that the dye I’d used was still holding. I was so used to swapping between white and brown at this point that I hardly thought about it anymore, which potentially made it all the easier to forget it during heated moments. Thankfully, it was the right color at the moment.

Less fortunately, it wasn’t me the guards were staring at, but Lucy - she’d forgotten to hide her wings. Also Abigail, who’s wings and tail were on full display… ironically I was the only one passing for human between us at the moment. It was a rather troublesome oversight as the guards were currently trembling and clutching their weapons as their eyes darted between the other two. Of course, they lacked the ability to harm any of us - but if Abigail or Lucy were to defend themselves instinctively those poor guards might end up as smears on the walls by the end of it.

“Perhaps we can discuss this calmly?” I suggested, despite the lack of hope in my voice. “This is your Heroine, Lucy, here, is it not? Just because she’s grown wings-”

“Demon…” one of the guards whispered. Then he repeated louder, “Demon!” 

The other guard tensed, screaming and charging towards us with his spear even as the other guard fled the tent. Lucy drew her sword to block the spear coming for her, but I was there before she had a chance to put it into action, snatching up the spear and snapping it in half.

“Careful,” I warned her. “You don’t know your own strength yet.”

“Right… I guess I didn’t really need to defend against that, did I?” Lucy asked, a little sheepish. “Mortals can’t harm me anymore, right?”

I opened my mouth to reply, only to stop as the guard began to scream wildly, slamming his broken spear shaft into my side. It did little in its current state, the splintered end capable of nothing more than poking through my shirt. 

I liked that shirt, though. It was a red top that covered up a decent portion of my stomach, in return for a rather large window for my breasts. Honestly, though, I was less worried about the damage it was taking and more about the fact that my boobs might spill out of the damn thing if he kept twisting it about on his spear shaft like that.

To remedy that little problem I used a bit of heat magic - not fire, but pure heat focused on the shaft itself, ravaging the core while leaving the outermost layer of wood completely untouched, until eventually the whole thing just crumpled under pressure from the soldier’s grip.

Of course, that did nothing to calm him.

“What the hell?!” he cried, throwing the thing to the ground to crumple into ashes even as the heat tickled at his palms - not burning him, not with me controlling the heat inside, but certainly alerting him to the fact that he could have been badly injured. You’d think my mercy would have at least given something of a good impression, but from the wide eyed look he was giving me… Alas, I was pretty sure my good deed had done nothing but add more nightmare fuel to whatever image of me he was building inside his head.

Thankfully, it was at that point when a familiar figure came inside.

“What’s going on here?!” Joana demanded, brandishing her sword. “I’ve got a guard screaming about demons and wings and… and…” She frowned. “Alright, so either the Heroine’s gone to the dark side or…. Help me come up with an or, here, Heroine. You under the sway of that demon next to you? And what role does your seemingly human friend play?”

Lucy blinked. “Huh? You’re questioning us…?”

“That’s my job, isn’t it? Question suspicious people and take appropriate action. And no offense, Heroine, but right now you are suspicious.”

“Uh, sorry, kinda new here,” Abigail broke in. “Do you two know each other? Because I for one was sort of expecting all the guards to be choosing between fleeing, fighting, or maybe pissing their pants - not questioning us.”

“I suppose I didn’t really put much consideration into it in the first place,” I confessed. “Though even if I had, I never would have expected a guard to give us a chance to answer for ourselves…”

“Says the only halfway normal looking one of you,” Joana broke in. “What is your role here? Innocent bystander who got swept up, or corrupting influence who’s been working to pervert the Heroine ever since you laid eyes on her?”

“How about neither,” I replied, deciding enough was enough as I purged the dye from my hair only to see the color leave Joana’s face. Living in the holy capital, there was no way she wouldn’t understand what my white hair signified. “I suppose now is where you start screaming bloody murder?”

For a beat, there was silence. Then Joana narrowed her eyes and shifted her grip on her sword as she dropped into a combat stance. 

“...You can’t be seriously thinking of taking me on, are you?” I asked, questioning her sanity.

“What other choice do I have?” she asked, her voice grave. Remarkably she wasn’t trembling at all, her sword hand steady. “It’s my job to be a shield between you monsters and the innocents outside. Besides, maybe seeing my lifeblood splattered against the ground will wake the Heroine up from whatever spell you’ve put her under.”

“As if wasting your life could accomplish such a thing,” I scoffed. “The Heroine will not ‘wake’ from this. Not now that she has seen the truth of the world.”

“...Uh… Eena?” Lucy called out. “I know we’ve talked about your way of phrasing things, but you’re really making it sound like I am under a spell or something!”

“Yeah, maybe we try to deescalate the situation instead of adding fuel to the fire?” Abigail suggested.

“What fuel?” I protested, only to receive pitying looks from my girlfriends in turn. “What? I simply said that she won’t awaken - if there’s no spell, then that’s a patently obvious fact, is it not?”

Of course, it was at that point that the original guard - whose presence I’d quite frankly forgotten - chose to run forward again, this time with a dagger. Not that he made it very far, as a brief moment of focus was all it took to make the floor rise up and encase him from the hips down.

“Look, can we start again? My name is Devilla - and I am the current Demon Queen. I’m here to ask the Grand Patriarch about why the fuck he thought it was a good idea to enslave Lucy with a collar that I’d begun to think only existed in my nightmares…” 

Doll’s claim that the thing wouldn’t work on angels was a small comfort, considering my knowledge of Tower Conquest. It was possible that what I’d seen was simply the result of it and the geas working in combination. Even if that was true, though, I couldn’t rule out the possibility of Luci taking new, more drastic steps now that her plans were truly in danger. I had no way of knowing what the Grand Patriarch had or hadn’t been given… and this woman was standing between me and finding out.

Except for the moment, she was just staring at me. Her stance actually changed as she lost focus for a bit. “The Grand Patriarch did what?!”

“He put a collar around my neck,” Lucy explained. “I don’t really remember much, but I guess it basically puppeted my body around?”

“Right… And how do I know that’s not just some lie the Demon Queen fed you?” she demanded. “I mean, you’re clearly under some sort of corrupting influence, with those wings…”

“They’re angel wings, actually,” I remarked. “Much like my own.”

“Pretty sure comparing them to yours isn’t going to win you any points,” Abigail pointed out.

Joana didn’t respond, but the way she resumed her her combat stance said it all.

“...Look, if it was just me, I’d probably petrify you and move on,” I said, causing her eyes to widen. “But Lucy and Abigail have worries about it becoming my go-to, and I must admit that - short of storing you in the Empty Bag - I have no way of guaranteeing your statue’s survival during my fight… So, instead, I will ask you kindly to step aside.”

“And if I refuse?” she demanded.

“Then I…” I paused, actually giving it some thought. “Ignore you, I suppose? I mean, come to think of it, what are the consequences of telling you to piss off, exactly?”

“She could call for more guards,” Lucy pointed out.

“Who would be equally ineffective against us,” I remarked before walking forward. “Come on, girls, the longer we wait here the more time the Grand Patriarch will have to pull something off.”

“I can’t let you do that,” Joana stated, once again shifting her grip on her blade. This time, however, she’d positioned the thing so that it laid against her own neck.

“What are you doing?” I asked, more curious than afraid. “You can’t seriously be planning to take your own life hostage?”

“If the Lucy I know is still in there, she won’t let me die,” Joana stated calmly. “And I will die if you leave me here. Even if you stop me in the moment, I’ll find a way as soon as you’re out of my sight. Unless you convince me that you’re telling the truth about the Grand Patriarch.”

“That’s… you’re just… you can’t just…” I glanced at Lucy, hoping for help, but she merely bit her lip.

“So this is what it’s like to be on the other side of that,” Abigail muttered, saying something I couldn’t help but find concerning. If not for the circumstances I would have pushed it further, but as it was…

“How about you go with us, then?” I suggested as a last resort. “Then you can see the truth for yourself.”

“And if you say no, we’ll just drag you along with us so that we can keep you from killing yourself,” Abigail added. “Not that I really care if you live or die, but I think Lucy does.”

Joana frowned, mentally judging her options before eventually coming to the realization that she had none. “Fine. Better than just letting you wreak havoc out of sight… at least I can say I died on the job when it all goes south this way.”

“I don’t think you’ll be saying much of anything if things go that route,” I remarked, finally heading for the door. “Being dead and all…”

“Not that we’ll let you die!” Lucy hurriedly added. “I mean, we’re here to help people, not hurt them! Except maybe the Grand Patriarch?”

“Who tried to enslave your Heroine,” Abigail pointed out. “Just saying.”

“...Right…” Joana muttered, looking between the three of us. Now she seemed to be questioning our sanity. “Well, the Goddess can sort out what’s right and wrong after the fact, I guess. For now, just know that if you so much as touch that man without giving him a chance to explain himself, I will find a way to make you pay for it.”

“Of course,” I replied, trying not to roll my eyes. As if I’d let someone important to Lucy be hurt, even at her own hands. The man would get his chance to speak… though possibly only after I’d turned him to stone and reduced whatever item Luci outfitted him with to dust.

If Joana had a problem with it, I’d make sure she lived long enough to take it up with me after the fact.

Traveling with Joana at our side was surprisingly peaceful. Between her and Lucy - who’d hidden her wings - nobody seemed to even mind the fact that Abigail and I were traveling in hooded cloaks - hers to conceal her apparently non-retractable wings, mine to cover up my hair, seeing as how I had no intention of swapping it back and forth any further. I was tired of hiding who I was.

Not that this didn’t count as hiding, to some extent, but… I saw it more as the wrapping paper around a gift. One that would be unwrapping itself in front of its intended recipient shortly.

Speaking of which…

“Are you sure he’s behind this door?” I asked. 

“It’s his office,” Joana replied with a shrug. “Not like I know whether he’s actually in it right now though…”

“Right, well, let’s hope this isn’t going to be extremely anticlimactic then,” I muttered, turning the knob and pushing it open. 

On the other side stood an ornate desk. Situated behind it was a large backed chair. One that didn’t look like it belonged in this world. It was too sleek, too modern - the sort of thing I’d expect to find in an Earthen CEOs office, perhaps. Or the evil lair of a TV villain. Especially with the way it slowly swiveled around to face us.

Sitting in that chair was a figure. One wearing slightly too large robes, with sleeves that went past her fingertips and a hem that seemed in danger of catching on the chair.

The first thing I noticed about her - other than the ill fit of her clothing - was the smile on her face. Plastered on, without a hint of emotion behind it.

The second, and arguably more important thing I noticed, was that she looked a hell of a lot like Doll.

~~~
Author's Notes

Sorry for the late post - it's been a bit of a busy week for me (with two visits to the ER) and I kinda forgot to poke FallingLeaf about editing, on top of being very slow to post.... (I'm fine. Probably. I just have a mysterious persistent pain in my side that acts up when I try to breathe deeply, and I keep throwing up very minor amounts of blood... It's fine. Probably. I have a doctor's appointment Friday, and a referral to a digestive health specialist besides....

Honestly, I'm just hoping it doesn't interrupt my trip on Saturday - I'm heading off to visit my girlfriend. c: )

As always, you can read ahead on Patreon for as little as $1 - I'm currently up to chapter 87, with hopes of writing chapter 88 before the weekend. You can also read two chapters ahead on Naughty Magic, which I recently started updating again (and hope to continue updating for the foreseeable future.)