**The showdown looms, though it's over the horizon at this point. There is a feeling of it, though, and that manifests in this just the way that it does in humans faced with uncertainty. Still, I've added a bit more of the small ones in this, since they're such a joy to write. For someone so mercurial, Illa is such a saucy thing that she often brings a smile to me. O_o
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Down below the great hall where so many demons now lived, Lewis was so very pleased at having had the chance to see and meet so many of the creatures that he'd always known had existed. He'd been introduced to so many, and he'd have been immensely happy to have had the chance to meet even one true demon.
But he'd met so many and heard a little of their tales - the ones that he could converse with at any rate, the ones who had come here first, and now so many of the others. Some of his favorites were the very few slayers that he'd been allowed to meet. The short conversations had required another to translate, but he'd felt a little honored that they'd expressed an interest.
The very humbling feeling that he also felt came from standing before such remarkable beings and the way that they'd treated him as though he was someone of a little importance to them - which felt odd, given that the smallest of them could crush his skull easily.
He knew that his poor old laptop was going to have its keyboard worn right off for all of the notes that he was going to be transcribing from the paper notebook that he always carried with him.
But he was tired now. It was past the middle of the night of his second day here, and since these wondrous creatures were going to be staying, he knew that he had at least a little time to get some rest before he came back tomorrow. Besides, there was also his regular job to do and he kept wondering just how to do that, given the new tenants, as it were.
He looked for Grrta, doing his best as he wandered around not to wake or disturb the few groups of slayers who were still bedded down in the main hall. Not all of the legions had found homes for themselves here yet, though the vast majority had. Mostly, the ones left here in the hall were the slayer scouts. They did not expect to be moved into other quarters tonight and were bedded down near and under the balcony where their legate was. The floor of the great hall was mostly empty now but for the scouts.
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After trying to sleep for a time, Zele extracted herself from the tangle of bodies that were the three of them; Toby, Maezou, and herself. She felt something, but it was the vaguest thing, not really a feeling or an idea or anything. It was just there. She walked off to the hot pool, thinking that after a soak there, she might get back to sleep.
Instead, she found Grrta there alone, and they talked for a while. Grrta told her about how she'd come to be under Lewis' roof, and Zele mentioned that she was aware of how it had gone. Grrta didn't understand until Zele showed her by assuming her four-footed shape and then it became clear, so they sat on the rocks in the middle of the pool and were silent for a time after Zele had assumed her more 'normal' demonic state, looking like a darker sister to Maezou.
"Zele sees that Grrta is a little troubled," she said, "What is wrong?"
"Nuthin'," Grrta replied as she watched the water vapor curl up from the surface of the pool, "or at least, nuthin' much, Zele. It's just that the girls down below, well they all seem te me te be lookin' at me fer advice and help. I try te help them, but I don't know much about this place down here, besides the part where I was kept. I just try to do the best fer them that I can.
They come te me with questions about where they'll sleep, and the best way te introduce oneself te one of them great big demons that they're fancyin' fer themselves. I don't mind and I want te help, but it's all a bit much. I thought that they had a leader in the one who was te bargain wi' Brinack and her lord there, but she only comes te me the same as the rest."
She looked up from the steaming surface of the water and saw her brother and Illa as they got in. She was about to apologize for having woken them, but Illa waved her hand, "We was up anyway. We heard what ye said, Grrta."
"Aye," Thiery nodded, as they waded over carefully, mindful of the deep hole somewhere in the pool, "We'll help ye, Grrta. Don't ye worry. If yer needin' a pair of assistants, well we're here te help."
Illa nodded her agreement and the next second, Grrta found herself in their arms. "I'm wantin' te be a proper big brother te ye," Thiery smiled, "I'm a just a wee bit late is all."
"And I'm happy te have another small one here with us," Illa grinned, "and if ye're my Thiery's sister, then I'm even happier te know ye and I'm wantin' so much te be yer friend."
"What did ye mean by that, Illa?" Thiery looked confused suddenly, "Grrta's my sister. She knew my name and our mother's name is the same. What we figured out is the only way that it all fits – and it does."
Illa looked a little uncomfortable. "Ye're right, Thiery, I just wasna there and I didna hear it all."
"Illa," Grrta said, "what did you mean, really? I can see that there's somethin' that ye're no sayin' here."
Illa looked really uncomfortable now. She looked down and spoke more to herself when she said, "Oh, I'm really the fuckwit now."
She looked up at them, "I wish I'da held my foolish tongue just now. I didna really mean anything by it. I'm just wonderin' about somethin'. Just from my own travels down here, I've found at least two more kitchens, no just the one here, and both of the other ones had cages big enough te keep ones our size in. Didja no see the goblin girls, Grrta? They all look like you. They've wee tusks like yours that don't stick out much. Didja no see that? It's the first thing that I thought of when I laid eyes on them – how much they look like you. Anyway, please, Grrta, forget what I said. I'm afraid that it was somethin' which I shoulda kept te maself." She looked as though she was about to cry.
"What's the matter wi' ye?" Thiery asked.
"I'm afraid that I've ruined somethin' wonderful," the imp said as she lowered her head. Grrta and Thiery looked at each other for a moment. "No ye haven't," Grrta said, putting her arm around Illa, "We just need te find out, that's all."
"I feel awful for what I said, Grrta," Illa said, "and it's all the worse comin' from one like me. You've got a lot of goblin in ye. We're not exactly known te be the best of friends, my kind and goblins. I don't have much love fer goblins, and I've killed a few in here when we was takin' it all over because goblins killed my mother. But I want ye te know that I'm not holdin' any of that against ye. I really want te be friends, you and me."
"I feel the same," Grrta said, "and I'm not enough goblin te mind what ye done, and I can understand why, Illa. They wasna very kind te me either."
She hugged Illa's shoulder a little for a second and said, "So we're still off te a great start, you and me, aren't we?"
Zele stood up. "Zele has something to find out down below. She is going there now. Who comes with her?"
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Lily waited for a time, thinking about other issues and details as she stood out on the balcony. No matter what was said about her by the so-called scholars of several human faiths, the truth was that Lily had given life to one demon girl and raised her to adulthood before she'd spawned Maezou. Not long after, there had been the little foundling Zele to raise as a sister to Maezou, and among them all, she was known simply as Mother. It seemed to fit and that was that.
But now she found that from its beginnings in the practical sense of being the mother to three demon girls, the name seemed to be expanding in its scope as many more now thought of her in a more matriarchal way – though it was never anything that she'd sought for herself. She wasn't anything like a mother to Tobias, but he sought her guidance at times. Alecto looked to see her in a motherly sort of way as well, and it was so easy to adopt some of that role whenever she spent time with her and Tisiphone. Racephet often stood somewhat aloof, though he conferred with Lily often.
And the pair of lovable small ones, the kobold and his imp girl, well, they were almost like a pair of ten year-olds, despite their true ages for the way that she was proud of them.
But now there were these others here, and she knew that the only practical path forward for them all was that they be treated as parts of this large and really extended family which seemed to be growing around her – all ninety-odd thousand of them. The goblin girls as well had latched on to Grrta as some sort of defacto leader of sorts. It was something to think about.
And then, she decided as she looked down, watching a solitary human form wandering in a searching sort of way, there was Lewis Crowe, the only other human in this. He and Sharon would need to be placed out of harm's way when the fire fell. She knew that they had some sort of distant working relationship between them, and she decided that it ought to grow a little closer.
Lewis looked up in surprise to find Lily in front of him there in the darkness. "You look so lost, Lewis, "she smiled, "I was watching from above there and I saw you. What is wrong, and if there is anything, then how might I help you?"
"Well I, ... "he stumbled over his words, "that is, I, ... well I'm looking for Grrta. I'm tired and I want to go home to bed. There's so much of interest to me here, and there seems to be so much which requires Grrta's attention that I thought it best to just go home and start again in the morning. But I can't find her anywhere."
"Well I know a few things, "Lily said, "It helps sometimes to be an ancient demon. I can sense that Grrta is with Thiery and Illa. I feel that they are down below and wish to speak to some of the goblin females. Your Grrta has been such a help these past two days, and like many of her kind, she needs far less sleep than humans. I would suggest that you go home and that I'd find a way to tell her, but you know that it is a long walk in the dark to get out of this hall and then you have a way to go to get home through the December wind in the full dark. There are no area lights here.
