Toofy

The eunuch looked at the figure being escorted by the priestess, and approached the small group of women. He gave a two-handed bow, and smiled, "My dearest Lady Efina. I trust that this is the artist, that his imperial majesty is expecting?"

"Indeed, sir." Efina bowed, and then signaled to the hooded figure.

They lifted rough hands hesitantly, bright red scales showing for a moment before the hood fell backwards to reveal a face surrounded by similar scales.

A salamander. In point of fact, a red salamander.

The woman looked around nervously, before their large jet black eyes fixed onto the eunuch and made him feel like she was considering devouring him. She inclined her head hesitantly.

Efina struck the creature over the back of the head, "Bow, you infernal beast."

A forked tongue flicked the air, sparks flying from the end of it, and the woman bared her teeth. Then, ever so slowly, she bent at the waist towards the eunuch.

The priestess shook her head in irritation, "Apologies, Eunuch Yan. It is difficult to train one of her exotic nature to show respect to anyone at all. Her artistic temperament has done nothing to ease that path."

"His imperial majesty is not one to tolerate disrespect." Yan said cautiously, "You will be executed in a most unpleasant manner, if you displease him, creature. You do understand this?"

The black eyes blinked slowly, and the tongue flicked out to lick at one of them. She considered for a moment, and then spoke with a deep and rumbling voice, "I take. I take. I take."

The eunuch raised an eyebrow, "I... Don't understand."

"She is focused upon her reward." Efina said drily, "Dragonkind. Selfish beasts, one and all. You will receive an allotment of silver and gold, if your work pleases the emperor. You have already been told this."

The woman nodded, and the eunuch breathed in sharply as he saw a large red tail, thicker than his forearm, wag from beneath her robe. "I take. I make. I make to take. Respect is bought, respect will be shown."

Yan frowned in concern, "This unintelligent creature is truly the artist who created the great intricacies of the wood carving that sits in pride of place in the temple?"

"Do not mistake her speech for unintelligence, sir." Efina said stiffly, "She is indeed the one who created it, and is more than a century old, sir. She simply finds our language difficult to speak, with the voicebox of a salamander. They speak in roars and growls, and have no concept of personal pronouns. She is quite fluent in orcish, however."

The eunuch let out a sigh, "Tiresome, dealing with exotics. She will be granted direct access to his imperial highness. Is there any other temperamental issues we must be aware of?"

"Several, sir." Efina said stiffly, "I instructed that a bed of coals always be burning in the place where she is to work. Is this something that has taken place?"

"His imperial majesty said it was an uncomfortable heat, and asked that they be put out."

The priestess shook her head, "You will not be able to control the salamander unless she has a place to lie. The flames must always be burning. His imperial majesty must be begged for indulgence, or he will be placed at risk of her temper."

The eunuch smiled tightly, "I will see to it, myself. Please, continue, Lady Efina."

"Secondly, her name is utterly unpronounceable by the human tongue. To attempt it, and fail, is a grave insult. Thus, you must only refer to her as a slave, salamander, or by the slave name of Mia." Efina said quickly, "She may give her true name, if asked. Do not allow any to utter it. She will kill them, and you will not stop her before that takes place."

Yan's face tightened, "If she were to attempt to harm his imperial majesty..."

"She would happily die, knowing the insult was corrected. Hence, my caution. I did advise his imperial majesty not to invite her." Efina said firmly. "I cannot take responsibility."

The eunuch sighed and nodded, "Again, I will see to precautions. Any other horrors that you wish to foist upon me, m'lady?"

"Her diet, as the process of creating such an artwork is several days, consists either of precious metals, or of still-burning coals. Feeding her anything else will appear to sate her hunger, but provide no nutrition, and she will feint if her energies are depleted." Efina said.

"Coal. Prefer." The woman rumbled, black eyes roving around with boredom. She rolled one of her hands, stretching it with uncommon flexibility, "Never quicksilver. Poison."

Eunuch Yan smiled stiffly, "I will have to employ the blacksmith, not a chef, it appears. So may it be. His imperial majesty has granted you a great honour, slave. Will you undertake it?"

"To sculpt, to live." The woman replied, lifting up a hand to the burning sun and looking at it without blinking, "The art, the gods are as one. Accomplish this. It will be."

Yan frowned, "There is another request, directly from his imperial majesty. He asked me to determine if this exotic is aware of one you recently sold. A neko, that I believe was named Twenty Four."

The salamander's head snapped to his instantly, and she let out a low and fearsome roar. Flames boiling out between her teeth and up her cheeks as she glared at him.

Efina smacked her over the back of the head, again. "Calm yourself, Mia. It is unlikely you will cross paths with Lady Twenty Four, here. I am afraid that they were rivals, sir. Mia left a scar upon Lady Twenty Four. In return, this one..."

The salamander's heavy tail lifted slightly, and Yan blinked as he realised that the tip was missing.

"Our little neko... Ate it." Efina said stiffly. "Cooked, and then ate it. These two... I would not have them ever enter the same room. Lady Twenty Four has many similar stories. She was undoubtedly in charge of many of the others, of my temple girls."

The eunuch struggled to keep his stomach under control.

"Beastly. I will... I cannot see a way to relay this to his imperial majesty, though he has asked it of me. How hideous." The man shook his head.

Efina gestured to the salamander, and tapped the silver collar on her neck, "You must be on your best, and most forgiving, behaviour, Mia. Do not embarrass me."

"No." The salamander growled. "It will not be."

"Good." Efina nodded, "You will now follow this man, and do everything he says, when he says it. Is that also understood?"

The woman bowed her head in a grudging deference to the priestess, "It is. So shall it be. Create the art."

Yan shuddered, and then bowed to the priestess, "Lady Efina."

He turned away after she bowed and gestured, "Come, slave."

--

The handmaiden reached the beginning of the winding path up to the Castelle Estate's main house when someone energetic sprang on her from behind, knocking her face-first into the dirt, with a giggle.

"Mistress!" Arina snapped, "Now, is not the time!"

A sharp blade was suddenly poised against her throat, and a voice she didn't recognise spoke, "Mistress? Well, she is a'likin' to be callin' that, but she ain't that."

The handmaiden breathed in sharply, "Wha... What do you want?"

"You be goin' ta the big house. They be havin' gold and silver. So I be takin' gold and silver." The voice growled.

Arina swallowed nervously, "I am just a servant. I have little. A purse, with mostly copper, and a few silver coins. Around my throat."

The purse was pulled free, and she heard a rattle as the thief weighed the contents. Likely weighing the contents against Arina's life.

"What's bein' the necklace?"

She winced, "A charm, to the Green Goddess."

"Ah, that ya be keepin'." The thief said with unexpected generosity, "Ain't got no reason ta be pissin' on the gods. Not yet, anyways."

"Th-thankyou."

The voice laughed, "Be thankin' da thief? Ya a weird one. But... You expectin' me ta be ya mistress. Who she bein'?"

"Lady Twenty Four, a neko." She said quietly.

The knife pulled away from her throat, and she was rolled over to look up at a woman with red hair pulled back into a tight pony tail. She had ears that were almost like Twenty Four's, poking through her hair, lined with black fur.

The woman looked down at her with bright orange eyes, "Ya be servin' a neko? Twenty Four?"

"Yes." Arina's throat moved as she swallowed nervously.

The creature chuckled, and their nose wrinkled, "Well now, that sounds like it bein' fun. She'll be wantin' revenge for dis. Dat's da neko way. Can't let a fox touch their shit. Tell her dat Tammy be lookin' forward ta pissin' on her."

The woman backflipped away from Arina, who felt her throat catch as she saw a flash of not just one, but multiple, orange tails, before the thief ran off the path and vanished, laughing as she went.

The handmaiden pushed herself up off the ground, brushing herself down. She had just been robbed by a kitsune. She hadn't realised that there were any left alive in the city.

The emperor had purged the foxes from the capital last year, after one of them had attempted to possess one of his concubines. There was still a standing order to kill the exotics on-sight.

This one probably had no choice about being a thief.

Arina felt an almost instinctual sympathy towards the creature. The woman reminded her too much of her own mistress. A spirit of chaos, distilled and forced into a mortal form.

The handmaiden blushed as she imagined Twenty Four nipping and tussling with the thief, the two of them rolling around on the ground without a care for who would see them, fornicating.

It was all too easy to imagine the caterwauls and moans that would pass between those two.

Too easy to fill her doomed heart with jealousy.

Twenty Four belonged to Lord Sai. Arina was only ever going to be her servant, as was proper and right. She had no cause to hold these desires and dreams above her station.

Besides, after what she had witnessed... Could she still say that she loved Twenty Four?

Arina laughed at herself as she continued down the path. Of course she did. There wasn't a single doubt in her mind that she still adored the irascible cat, even if she was both a monster and sinner.

Twenty Four could become the world's greatest villainess, crushing the entire world beneath the heel of her leather boot, and Arina would still find her heart devoted to her.

Her stomach would find itself expelling its entire contents, but, she would still love the cat.

"Thank the fucking stars!" Elia sprang from nowhere, grabbing Arina by the shoulders. "Hand on mouth, we're teleporting."

Arina didn't get a chance to react to the succubus' sudden appearance. Nor did she get a chance to put her hand to her mouth before she was on her knees and loudly retching.

When the smell hit the handmaiden, she nearly vomited all over again. Her hands clasped over her hands and mouth, and she looked around herself in terror, trying to work out what Elia had done.

The succubus stood up uncertainly beside her, tail flicking the air. She whispered quietly, and pointed, "Toofy is fighting to save Castelle. She knew she shouldn't but... She touched the wrong magic. That... That thing over there... That's her. That's our mistress."

Arina stared.

Elia's red eyes looked at her pleadingly, "Please... She won't listen to me. I can't pull her back. Save her, Arina. Please!"

They were in some small and dark room, but it wasn't dark enough for the handmaiden not to notice that the sticky substance covering the entire floor was blood.

The succubus was staring at a figure nearby, standing over a bed. The claim that it was Twenty Four, boggled Arina's mind.

Her usually invisible fur was standing on end, a tiny flame burning at the end of every individual thread of hair. Her mane was floating above her, fanned out in every direction, and wasn't an exception to the tiny candle effect.

Her white skin was now a shade of black, darker than even Elia's coal-coloured flesh. Cracks had spread out throughout it, revealing a soft orange glow from beneath.

Arina bit her lip in terror, and shuffled sideways, trying to catch a glimpse of her mistress' face. What she saw, was not... Twenty Four.

The golden eyes were gone, replaced with nothing but darkness. It was difficult for the handmaiden to tell if they were just dark, or absent altogether.

The expression on the face was one of rage, but it wasn't one that Arina had ever seen Twenty Four make.

"M-mistress...?" She said, fighting back tears.

"You dare to address me?!" The figure roared at her, spitting ash into the air, "Castelle's soul floats between here and the Ether, tied only by my rage and will, and I will never relinquish it! This fight will be mine to triumph!"

"T-Toofy." Arina begged her, using her name.

The orange cracks in the skin flared for a moment, and the catgirl jerked her head away from the handmaiden. "Leave us! We must save Castelle, or everyone else will die. I won't let it happen! No one is going to take anyone else from me!"

Arina stared at the man on the bed.

She could already see that he wasn't breathing anymore. There was a bloody mark on the back of his head, where his skull was caved in by a stone or something alike.

Lord Castelle should have been dead already. That was the forbidden magic that Twenty Four was performing, right now. She was wrestling with death itself for the ownership of a soul.

Fighting the gods for control over life and death.

Arina felt a tear slip down her cheek, knowing that her mistress had damned her soul to the deepest pits to save a man that she utterly despised. Doing it for Arina, and Elia, and Lady Castelle, and anyone else who might take the blame if Castelle died here.

She knew nothing of magic, she was just a servant.

However, Arina had served the gods all her life. She knew of many heroes who had walked down a similar path, and how their souls had been sacrificed by their actions, only a handful succeeding.

To claim victory over death, two things needed to be offered.

Arina turned and swallowed, "Elia, please tell me that you can seduce the son."

The succubus cocked her head, "The younger? Why?"

"His seed might be close enough to his father's spirit." Arina said quickly, "You can use that, can't you, Twenty Four? Bind the spirit, so it stops slipping from your grasp."

"It would be adequate." The horrifying visage spat.

Elia laughed nervously, "Uh... I've actually got some in my stomach, right about now."

Arina flattened herself against the wall as there was a cracking sound. Elia floated, her bones twisting into shapes that they shouldn't, and the succubus let out an earth-shattering scream of pain.

As she did, blood, puss and mucous emerged from her mouth. Droplets spinning out into a circle, before the woman was discarded. Her broken body thrown backwards across the room and into the wall, where she collapsed, unmoving.

The handmaiden choked, wiping frantically at her tears, "You have stopped him being pulled away. Now to return him, death requires a soul. One soul, for another. A sacrifice must be made. I... I offer mine, for yours."

The ashen figure turned to her, and sneered, "I claim that which is mine, already. Your soul is taken."

Pain like none other slammed through Arina.

She didn't know if she was screaming or not. She couldn't feel her body. She knew pain, but everything else was gone. She couldn't see, couldn't hear.

She tumbled down through it all until she was gone.

"Now, this is interesting."

Arina found herself suddenly on solid ground, on her hands and knees. She still couldn't see it, but it felt like the pavement of some path or road. Stones shoved together.

She gasped quietly, "For her, anything."

She heard a gentle chuckle, followed by a hand patting her on the head. The same voice spoke again, "You truly do love your little mistress, don't you? Even though she just discarded you. Tossed you aside, whilst claiming to be protecting you."

"It isn't her. Whatever that thing is... It isn't her." Arina said tightly, her jaw clenching. "Twenty Four is gone... Her last will imprinted on some fucking monster that has stolen her soul."

"Impressively close to the truth, little one." The voice said with a light-hearted tone, "Does she remind you of anyone?"

"The tale of Saint Saya." She said quietly, "The one who lost her soul in the pursuit of saving her love. Death is not an enemy that even the gods dare to tempt. Saint Saya is our warning."

The voice came close to her, and Arina felt a breath on her face, "Do you know who I am, little one? Can you guess my name? If you do, I'll send you back."

"No one knows your name, but all will meet you." Arina's voice trembled in terror, "My soul was offered to death."

The voice chuckled, "Oh, I do love the religious ones. They know to fear me. That any deal I can offer may be worse than becoming my food. Yet, I am less interested in you, than I am in the one who sent you. She is... Different."

"Keep me." Arina said quickly, in terror.

"No. I want her soul. Not yours." The voice rejected the offer, "I want the soul of that neko, and I will claim it. So... Go back, little one. Go and tell her, that I am coming for her."

--

"Lord Sai, it is beyond contestation that you slew one of the emperor's advisers." Domina Florence said stiffly, "What is your defence for depriving the kingdom of such expertise?"

He considered his answer carefully, struggling to stay focused as he felt the swell of magic nearby. "It may appear, at first glance, that I acted solely out of selfish desire. Protecting my property, within the borders of my own property. However, the ritual that Lord Elatham was attempting to perform was one that has been banned, as black magic."

"Ritual?" Lord Vanhern said dubiously, "What proof do you offer that any ritual was being performed, at all? Was this not simply a case of one exotic assaulting another?"

Sai frowned, "I would offer the witness of Lord Westcolm, were he not otherwise engaged. It was he, who assisted me in alleviating the curse that Lord Elatham employed against my mistress."

"He is, however, otherwise engaged, and cannot defend you." Lord Vanhern stated firmly, "Present your evidence, Lord Sai, unless you wish for this jury to recommend the maximum of punishments against your person."

Vanhern was looking to burn him.

Whilst Sai had never really been considered a peer by the man, he hadn't found himself so directly targeted, before. This was a strange and unexpected development.

Was it possible that Vanhern believed that Sai was the one behind the poisoning of his vines? If that were the case, then... Vanhern may have been the one to hire the succubus assassin. To kill both Sai and his mistress.

With that particular plan failed, and failed badly, it was very possible that this trial was now the new plan. Arranging for an execution was generally more difficult, but more effective, than an assassination.

Sai had been curious why Toofy had been so certain that proving Castelle the Third's indiscretions with Vanhern's daughter would be vengeance against the one who hired Elia.

Setting Castelle and Vanhern against each other would be quite the effective way of destroying the household. If Castelle the Elder was out of the picture, then... Lady Castelle would be the one to defend the house against Vanhern, and she was far more insidious than most realised.

"Allow me to frame the context, then." Sai said confidently, "Lord Yu, if I may beg your indulgence, would you be able to explain to us what Lord Elatham's standing with the palace was like, before this unfortunate incident?"

The man smiled slowly, "Oh, that's an interesting question, Lord Sai. His imperial majesty had requested the temple to investigate the possibility of removing Lord Elatham from this world. It was not a foregone conclusion, but it seemed likely that it might take place."