Lucy
Salina moved faster than I would have thought possible, rapidly wrapping her body around Eena, and then holding her arms out wide in front of the girl. Her tail continued to move, too, piling coils higher and higher up around Eena's form.
"That's not funny, young lady," she said, her voice firm. There was a faint tremor to it, though. And the look in her eyes... There was anger, but also fear and determination.
Lots
of determination. Like she was ready to give her life, if necessary, to protect Eena.
To protect her from
me.
"I'm..." I hesitated, unsure what to say. That I wasn't joking? I wasn't! It's just... I never really considered what my role was like on the other side. How demons viewed me... I always saw them as just people, like humans, but I never really thought about how
they
must have viewed
us.
Viewed
me...
It suddenly occurred to me that I didn't really know much about the war, or what it looked like from their side.
"It's fine, Sallina," Eena called out. Her voice was a little muffled, though - I couldn't even see her past the coils that had built up. "She's not like the
abominations
who came before her."
I tried not to flinch at the raw hatred I heard in Eena's voice when she described my fellow Heroines. She's... she always said her trust in me wasn't about me being the Heroine... I guess it was in
spite
of it. My predecessors did kinda kill all her ancestors, after all...
Sallina's face hardened. "You mean she's actually...?!"
"The Heroine?" Abigail supplied from the side. "Yeah. Devilla has this crazy idea of actually
working
with her to bring about peace."
"You're the one who encouraged me to try!" Eena protested, her voice still muffled.
Abigail shrugged. "I said it was crazy, not
bad.
We're kinda backed into a corner here, in case anybody failed to notice. You die without having a kid, and not just the tower, but
all
demons are screwed... And also you'd be
dead.
Kind of a fan of any plan that
doesn't
inevitably lead there, one day."
"If it helps, I really don't want to kill anyone," I said. "I mean, I've never really believed that all demons are evil like the church teaches. I guess I did believe it about Eena, but I don't anymore!"
"...Eena?" Sallina asked, frowning. It wasn't an angry frown, though, which was progress! She mostly just seemed confused, with maybe just a hintof anger still lurking in the background... But also her arms weren't outstretched anymore! So, again, progress!
Sorta?
"It's my pet name for Devilla," I told her, deciding to push forward regardless. "It's how she introduced herself to me, when we first met, back before I knew she was the Demon Queen."
"When you first met..." she repeated, looking between me and Eena. Or I guess between me and the pile of coils that were currently surrounding Eena, since it was really hard to get a good look at her when she was all wrapped up like that. "How long have you two known each other?"
"A few weeks," Eena admitted. "I got to know her while pretending to be human. Which is why I can tell you, without a shred of a doubt, that she's
different.
She doesn't view us as monsters to be slaughtered, but as people who are on the opposite side of an altercation. One she's more than willing to bring an end to."
"An altercation?" Sallina asks, her voice flat. "Is that how you want to define the genocide of our people?"
"I think-" Chloe started, only to stop when Sallina glared at her.
"Not right now, dear. I know you want to play peacekeeper, but... not this time." Her red eyes turned back towards me. It was really hard not to flinch when they met mine, but I managed to keep her gaze. "You claim to see us as people. Perhaps you even do, but I can't say I return the favor. Not when I've seen the things
your people
have done... the towns you've brought to ruin, the families you've slaughtered. And that's just the common soldiers... Trust me when I say the Heroines are
far
worse
."
I wanted to speak up, but I couldn't think of anything to say. The church's claims painted the demons as being the bad ones - they said that demons torch human villages and kill children. Maybe it was even true, to some extent, but we weren't the ones at the brink of extinction...
Sallina glared at me for another moment or two, before letting out a tired sigh. "That said... I'm quite sure Devilla's had enough of her elders deciding who she can and can't be friends with. Far be it from me to repeat the mistake of my predecessor. Especially when it's part of a plan to save our people...?"
"If it helps," Eena said, as Sallina's coils slowly loosened, "she's quite harmless. I don't doubt anyone in this room could match her for combat, and several of you could likely run circles around her."
"You shouldn't lie, Eena! Even if it's to make people feel more safe about me..."
"I'm
not.
Lucy... I know you're used to being the strongest human around, but that's essentially the
baseline
for a demon. Or... at least I believe it is? I suppose I'm not entirely sure, outside of the game..."
"Why don't we have a friendly spar, then?" Chloe suggested. "That way we can see how she matches up!"
"I'm not so sure that's a good idea," Sallina says, looking back and forth between me and Chloe. "For one thing, she has a sword."
"We can fight bare handed!" I suggested, then flinched when Sallina glared at me again. "Not that I really want to fight? But if it helps you see how strong I am, I'm willing!"
"Why in the world do you think showing me your skills at killing demons would make me happy?" Sallina asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"Because as strong as I am, I'm still
really weak
compared to Eena! She could crush me like a bug, from what I've seen, and I'm pretty sure she hasn't even shown me a fraction of her full power!"
"It's true," Eena agreed. "And I'm rather curious myself, how she'd fare against my cousin..."
"...Your
cousin?"
I ask, blinking. "Wait! The one your childhood friend is engaged to?" Come to think of it, Eena hadn't mentioned exactly who'd be coming to the meeting. She was probably going to, before I interrupted her by insisting on coming along.
"That would be me," the brunette lamia said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Nivera. And if you so much as
think
about drawing that sword against Chloe, I'll-"
"Do nothing," Chloe interrupted. "I can defend myself! And also, it's been
forever
since I had a good spar. All our friends are too easy... I've actually been thinking of asking if Devilla could introduce me to some soldiers!"
"I can put the sword aside, if you want?" I offered. "Or just promise not to use it?"
"A promise not to use it is good enough," Chloe replied, lacing her fingers and stretching her arms above her head. "Now, if everybody would back up a bit - maybe go sit on that
massive
bed? - me and Miss Heroine here can begin!"
Sallina sighed, shaking her head and slithering over to the wall beside the bed. Eena frowned, but a quick smile from me had her shaking her own head and going there as well. Abigail looked like she wanted to say something, but she settled for just sitting on the bed and giving Eena's hand a squeeze. Something Eena seemed to appreciate, I noted.
Nivera was the most confusing one, though. The look she gave me was a mix of annoyance and... pity?
"Alright then!" Chloe declared. "On the count of three, we go!"
"Is it really the best place for this?" I asked, looking around the nicely decorated room. "I don't want to break anything..."
"We won't, if we're careful! And I don't think Devilla's particularly attached to anything in this room, anyway... Except maybe the bed?"
"I'm not," Eena confirmed, blushing a little.
Seeing something so normal - and cute! - helped to relax me a little, and I smiled at her before doing my own stretches.
"Three!" Chloe declared.
"Two," I replied.
""One!""
Chloe shot towards me like an arrow, head lowered, body bent slightly forward. I prepared myself to catch her, and maybe throw her towards the bed, but at the last moment she suddenly jumped in the air. I thought she was trying to do a flying tackle, but then suddenly she was a foxinstead of a person
,
and she was sailing over my head. Her paws hit the back of my skull, and I spun around, finding her standing in human form again with a cheeky smile on her face. I punched forward, expecting her to block, but my arm went right
through
her
,and her body disappeared.
I caught sight of a fluffy tail hidden behind the illusion, and then she was running between my legs. I spun again, to face her, only to find myself face to face with her human self, her face an inch from mine. A strong push against my shoulders had me flailing backwards, but I managed to right myself in time to block Chloe's kick.
It hit
hard
- way harder than any of my trainers had ever managed - but I held firm against it until she backed off. This time, I kept my eyes on her. Not only that, I borrowed a page from Eena's book and spread my magic power out around me to try to detect her.
"Good trick!" Chloe complimented me. "But not without its flaws."
Suddenly there were
two
Chloe's in my senses. I knew one of them had to be an illusion, but my magic couldn't tell the difference between them...
"Illusions are wild magic for us kitsune," Chloe explained. "You're not going to see through them with such basic detection magic."
Both Chloes walked towards me. I was pretty sure which one was fake - I mean, one of the illusions had popped up from nowhere, after all! But that was assuming
either
of them were real.
I wasn't going to take any chances. Instead, I drew my magic inward, towards me, and then blew it out again, forcefully moving the air. The hair and clothes of one Chloe - the one I'd been certain was fake - rustled, while the other stayed perfectly still.
I hesitated a moment, wondering if I should try to hit both... only to flinch when I felt someone tap my shoulder. Next thing I knew, my legs were swept from under me and my butt was on the ground.
"Good try!" Chloe declared with that same cheeky grin on her face. She held out a hand, but I hesitated. "It's real this time! Promise!"
It was. Also strong - her grip was almost crushing as she lifted me up to my feet.
"How did you manage to do that?" I asked her. "The illusion, I mean - when I tried to put an illusion on myself, earlier, it wouldn't work. Eena had to do it for me."
"That's because Devilla's floor is spy proof!" Chloe said. "Lots of magic is off limits! But illusions are fine if they don't cover up your body."
"...Spy proof?" Abigail asked. For some reason her voice sounded a bit stiff. "As in... you can't spy on people here?"
"Not magically!" Chloe confirmed.
"So you couldn't, say... watch someone's actions through a bunch of spiders...?"
"That's an oddly specific thing to ask about, but nope!" Chloe confirmed. "Araina can't spy on this floor at all!"
"...Ah..." Eena muttered, sounding guilty for some reason.
