While Jadis had only just started university in her old life on Earth, she still considered herself to be a decently educated person. She had always maintained a high GPA in high school and had even earned several scholarships through hard work. The main issue she had experienced with academia was not a lack of ability, but that no area of study had ever truly enticed her. She had eventually settled on medical school not because she had any strong interest in the field, but because she knew a career in medicine paid well, and she had zero issues with blood or gore. Jadis was sure that she would have made a perfectly mediocre doctor eventually, presuming nothing happened to lure her towards a different career. Considering that her apparent calling involved being a juggernaut on the battlefield, she doubted that anything would have come up.
All of that was to say that Jadis had a good education and also had a fairly reasonable understanding of biology. She had certainly passed her courses with good grades. Combined with her habit of picking up random factoids that rattled around in her brain pan because she had been constantly searching for something to hold her interest, and Jadis felt like she had a pretty good grasp on Vinea’s balls. So to speak.
“They’re seed sacks,” Syd explained as she tossed the last of the huge orbs onto the ground.
“How’s that?” Bridget asked.
The orc’s mouth was hidden behind a cloth she had wrapped around her face to help deal with the terrible smell, but by her tone Jadis could already picture Bridget’s curled lip. She couldn’t blame her. Jadis wasn’t exactly grossed out by the discovery, but it was vaguely unsettling.
“There are some species of squid where the males make these sacks of sperm and just hand them over to the females. The female squid hold onto the seed sacks and fertilize their eggs when they're ready. I think they’re called spermatophores, technically.”
“How do you know so much about squid?”
“I’ve got to admit I got that one from a nature documentary.”
“A what?”
“I’ll explain later.”
“How do you know Vinea isn’t male?” Sabina asked. She had climbed down out of the massive Demon’s head cavity and was looking over the twenty or so sperm sacks Jadis had pulled out of the corpse. “I mean, usually men only have the two balls but Vinea is really big so maybe it makes sense that it had lots of smaller balls rather than just two giant balls the way a man would have if they were a hundred feet tall. I didn’t see a giant penis anywhere, or lots of smaller penises which would be weird, but that doesn’t mean anything, especially since we know Alex doesn’t have a penis, she has two sort of phallic tentacles now so maybe Vinea has those too?”
“Well, I can’t prove that Vinea is female,” Syd shrugged as she used her sword staff to point at where she had pulled the sacks from. “However, I can tell you that these things weren’t actually connected to anything. They were being held in place by some biological gunk, but there were no blood vessels or tubes or anything. These sacks were separate from Vinea. She was just holding onto them, like packages. My guess is, Vinea was given these spermatophores by someone else. Maybe the Demon Lord, maybe a different Demon, but I bet it was the Demon Lord.”
Jadis’ reasoning also gave further explanation as to why Demon Princes were so important to the demonic invasions. With such hugely powerful creatures at their disposal, it made no sense why the Demon Lord didn’t just send the princes straight at the imperial capital or anywhere else they wanted to destroy. Except, that if the Demon Prince died, there too went a massive reserve of genetic material that was necessary to make more Demons. The Demon Lord couldn’t be everywhere at once, and considering the entire demonic war tactic depended on a constant supply of fodder overwhelming enemies forces by sheer numbers, Demons couldn’t afford to not have new Demons being made constantly. There was a perverse sense to it that Jadis hated but understood. No need to have convoys of thousands of Demons traveling hundreds of miles to keep the lines fresh. Just send Matriarchs who would continually birth new Demons and position them around a Demon prince who would act as a reservoir for spermatophores, doling out more genetic material to the Matriarchs as needed. Jadis was sure that the Princes could return to the Demon Lord to get more sperm if they ran out, but considering how much seed she had found stored inside of Vinea already, she doubted that the Demon had been in danger of running out any time soon. The volume of the spermatophores Jadis had dug out so far meant millions, if not billions, of Demons could be produced. And she was fairly certain there were more sacks elsewhere in the Demon Prince’s head.
“Has anyone ever reported anything like this after slaying a Demon Prince?”
Syd’s question was met with shrugs and confusion from Thea, Sabina, and Bridget. Reaching out with her other bodies, Jadis took the time to briefly explain and repeat the question to her other lovers. No one else had heard anything, though both Aila and Severina had offered some explanation. As Aila pointed out, most Demon Princes were slain by the Hero, deep inside enemy controlled territory. The opportunity for others to study a fresh Demon Prince corpse was a rare one, and if the Hero and his party didn’t bother, no one else would be nearby to do so in their stead. Furthermore, as Severina added without knowing what Aila was saying, most Demon Princes weren’t killed quite so cleanly as Vinea. Powerful and highly destructive magics were almost always used in the subjugation of such mighty foes, which meant there usually wasn’t much of a corpse left behind to study.
“I doubt there aren’t some records of discoveries like this,” Dia murmured. “Do you think you can ask the scholars and temples about it when you get back to the capital? Aila says she’s going to as well, but I want you all to return as quickly as possible, so she won’t have much time to research the question.”
“I will see what I can find out,” Severina agreed.
“As will I,” Eir said with a smile.
The saint had joined them in the antechamber for the third time that day so far, though this time she was taking a longer rest than the previous visits. Eir had repeatedly used up all of her magic reserves to heal soldiers who had contracted dire forms of various illnesses. Depending on whether the patient had a disease, a parasite, or was just straight up poisoned, Eir could only provide ten to fifteen treatments before being spent due to the cost of a greater curative spell. However, thanks to Alex and her ability to transfer magic, she had been able to keep healing those who were in need far beyond her natural capacity. This time, however, Eir had retired to the back chamber because she needed an actual break.
“Do you believe any of these… unhatched ones may have an answer?”
Eir’s question prompted Dia to turn and look at Alex and the eggs. Frowning, she shook her head.
“I doubt it. From what Alex can tell from the ones willing to talk, they don’t have much information on anything. Not really a surprise, but still. Would have been nice if they had more to share.”
Out of the thirty-two unhatched eggs, eight were not yet developed enough for the Demon inside to be conscious. That left twenty-four Demons who were aware of their surroundings for Alex to talk to. Unfortunately, the remaining barriers to communication were strong ones.
First, the Demons were unhatched. Since they were squeezed inside of eggs, their range of movement was limited and thus their tentacle shapes were hindered, making body language difficult. Second, Demons relied on scent when it came to communication as well. While they could still talk without scent, emotional context was frequently missing which caused confusion and misunderstandings. The third barrier was the fact that most of the Demons were simply not interested in talking with Alex at all. Out of the twenty-four who were conscious, ten showed open hostility while four ignored her completely. The remaining ten who were willing to speak with her were generally cautious, though five of those were more receptive than the other five.
The final barrier, which was the most potent one, came from the fact that the Demons just didn’t seem to know jack shit about anything. They weren’t necessarily stupid, though the one yellow-eyed Demon’s comments that Alex had interpreted gave Jadis some doubts. Instead, they were woefully ignorant, to the point that Alex had to spend most of her time explaining what certain concepts were before she could get a real answer from the Demons. There seemed to be some kind of genetic knowledge being passed down, though, since not everything required an explanation. In fact, when Jadis took a second to think about it, there was far more that the Demons seemed to instinctively have a grasp of than not. While they weren’t yet hatched out of their eggs, the conscious Demons weren’t babies. They were more like highly sheltered adults who needed concepts like time and shoes explained to them.
“Yellow is asking… To see… Your feet again…”
“Again?” Dia groaned. “Holy fuck, what is her confusion? Are shoes really that hard to understand?”
“She does not… Understand…”
“Understand what? What is so hard for her to get? None of the others care this much. She isn’t even asking about the rest of my clothes. Just shoes.”
As Dia spoke, she lightly set her foot down on the table directly in front of the unhatched Demon with the yellow eye. She could see the small being squirm around inside of its shell, its gaze focused entirely on her foot. Some of the other unhatched Demons glanced at her as well, but overall, they quickly returned their attention back to Alex. All except the one with a yellow eye. She had no concern for anything but Dia’s foot.
“I am not… Certain…” Alex admitted. “Yellow is… Expressing interest… Confusion… Concern… Frustration…”
“She’s not the only one…”
“Perhaps she would like to see my shoes?” Eir asked.
There was no way to know without testing, so Dia gently picked her elven lover up and held her so that her dangling feet were directly in front of the yellow-eyed Demon. There was some interest, but after a few moments, it seemed to pass as Yellow returned her attention to Dia’s left foot.
“Alright, worth a shot,” Dia sighed. “But I’m not standing here like this all afternoon. If she’s that interested, she can have them.”
The table was already crowded with the thirty other Demon eggs on it, so Dia scanned the room for another location. Some of the furniture that had been taken out of the antechamber earlier that morning had been put back in, though not all of it. Against one wall was a large, finely crafted dresser of sorts. Jadis wasn’t sure what was normally stored inside of the engraved bureau, but the flat top offered free space, so she took advantage. Dia moved Yellow to the top of dresser, then took off both of her shoes and set them on either side of the egg.
“There. Now she can stare at my shoes to her heart’s content.”
“How very expedient of you,” Eir hid a laugh behind her smile. “But perhaps you should show more patience? She is not causing any harm.”
“I’ve only got room for one avatar who loves feet in my life,” Dia stated. “The position has been filled.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Severina yelped indignantly.
“You know exactly what that means,” Dia smirked at the scowling Seraphim.
Red faced and flustered, Sev turned away from Dia’s grin and refocused her attention onto Alex.
“Have you made any progress on your theory? On the eye color?”
“Yes…” the Demon nodded, though her gaze was locked onto the purple-eyed Demon being held by one of her tentacles. “My idea… Is likely… Wrong…”
Dia’s grin turned to a grimace at the admission. Alex’s theory had been a reasonable one in her opinion, and she had hoped that it would have finally answered the question that had been itching at the back of her mind since practically day one on Oros. Demon eye color just felt like it meant something. Of course, that was just her hunch, and it was entirely possible that it didn’t mean a thing at all, just like with humans or elves or any other living creatures. Still. Jadis had hoped for some resolution to one of her longest held quandaries.
Alex’s idea had been that Demon eye color was based off of the Matriarch, which was why all the other eggs in her clutch had orange eyes, just like the Bone Thief Matriarch. The reason why her eye color was different would have been because she had actually been born from a different Matriarch and had been traded from one to another. The idea made sense, since it would be a method of transporting potentially very different types of Demons to different areas. If the Bone Thief Matriarch could only produce more bone thieves, then trading some of her eggs to another Matriarch for some Demons that could hatch into, say, a Nithetre, would add some versatility to her budding forces.
Trading eggs would also explain why the Dead Head Matriarch’s spawn had such varied eye color. There were five red, seven orange, one yellow, two that were a distinctly more yellow-green color, four that were a darker green, eight purples, four that were a silver sheen Jadis thought she might have seen in the past but couldn’t recall, and one lone Demon whose eye was a glittering gold, which was a distinctly different coloration from the yellow eyed one due to its glimmering luster. The comparison to the Bone Thief Matriarch’s clutch was stark, though a sample size of two wasn’t much. Jadis had killed the Twisted Wretch Matriarch, and she had seen other dead Matriarchs in the past as well, but she didn’t have a strong memory of what those eggs had been like.
“They have no memory of being traded?” Dia asked.
When Alex confirmed her assumption with a nod, Dia let out a sigh of resignation. There really wasn’t much else to be said. If the Demons had no knowledge of ever being passed between Matriarchs, then—
A sudden squelching sound broke Jadis’ train of thought. Jerking her head to the side, she caught the tail end of Yellow sloughing off its shell.
"Hold on,” Dia said, holding up her hand to forestall Severina attacking the newly hatched Demon.
The possibility of one of the Demons attempting to attack or escape was something Jadis had prepared for. The door was closed, and she had checked for any small crevices that a small Demon might be able to squeeze through. If Yellow tried to run, she would have nowhere to go.
Stepping forward, Dia readied herself to contain or potentially kill the Demon if it became hostile. She wanted to avoid slaying the Demon if she could help it; however, she wasn’t going to put any of her loved ones at risk out of pity for what was essentially a stranger. As she watched the yellow-eyed Demon, she soon realized that neither fight nor flight was on the hatchling’s mind.
“What is it doing?”
“I have no idea,” Dia muttered in answer to Sev’s question.
Yellow had latched onto Dia’s left boot and was running its tentacles across one of the seams. Occasionally, she would switch to the right boot but would quickly switch back a moment later. It was almost as if the Demon was comparing the two, and for some reason favored the left boot over the right. Or, if not favored, at least found it more interesting for some obscure reason.
“Alex, do you want to…?” Dia gestured towards the small Demon.
Alex smoothly moved forward, ready to talk with Yellow directly. Before she had moved even a few feet forward, a strange light flashed in the air over the smaller Demon, causing her to stop.
Both Dia and Severina acted immediately and stepped in front of Eir and Alex, blocking them from sightlines with Yellow. Jadis presumed the flashing of light was a signal of attack, though nothing harmful happened in the following seconds. Taking a closer look, Dia recognized the source of the pale light as a shining rune that was floating in the air over Yellow’s body. While she couldn’t read the symbol, the shape and design triggered a memory for Jadis. She recognized the symbol, though she couldn’t remember where she had seen it before.
Jadis was given no time to examine her memories further as a sudden flurry of noise and motion came from the little Demon. Or rather, the commotion came from the wooden dresser that Yellow was sitting on top of.
As Jadis and the others watched, the wood of the bureau broke apart, snapping and twisting as it lifted into the air. The various pieces that made up the dresser swirled in the air around the small Demon as the whole dresser broke into pieces. Even the previously unknown contents of the decently sized piece of furniture joined the whirlwind, which turned out to be either a bunch of white tablecloths or possibly some spare robes; it was hard to tell with all chaotic motion of the wood whipping around in an obscuring cloud.
In a matter of seconds, the mass of wood and cloth had started to reform, outlining a strange, humanoid shape. The body was about the size of Sorcha’s diminutive frame, yet the head was twice as large. Two spindly legs stuck out from the bottom of the torso, their design lending themselves naturally to a squatting posture. Three pairs of arms stuck out from the sides of the wooden frame, each set far too long for such a relatively small body. While there were a total of eight limbs, the shape of the quickly forming creation was far from spiderlike, especially since the long arms soon ended in three-digited hands that had exceptionally long fingers.
As the commotion settled and the humanoid form solidified, Jadis noted that the large head that was balanced precariously on the thing’s body had no face. Instead, there was just a single yellow eye, now twice the size of what had existed before, stuck right in the middle. The head wasn’t featureless, however. The detailed carvings of the former dresser had been maintained and were now radiating out around the central eye, creating a strangely textured and oddly appealing appearance, in an avant-garde, artsy sort of way. Even some of the fabric had been used, creating a plume of hair made of thread and cloth that covered the top and sides of the bulky head and ran down the strange creation’s back like a mane.
For a long moment, everyone simply stood and stared at the Demon’s new, unexpected body. The first to move, however, was Yellow.
Reaching out with one of its long, gangling arms, the wooden Demon picked up Dia’s left boot, which had fallen to the ground at some point during the whirlwind. Slowly, and with great delicacy, Yellow used its sharply pointed fingers to pull a thread that had come loose from the shoe’s seam tight. The task was carefully done and took a full minute as the Demon made sure that it had not created any new issues with the thread by its actions. Once Yellow seemed satisfied that the repair was complete, she picked up the right boot, compared the two, then gently set the pair down at Dia’s feet. Taking a few tottering steps back, the Demon put its back to the wall, wrapped its long arms around its body, and sat down in a crouch, from which it stared up at them all, as silent and motionless as a block of wood.
Dia gave the yellow-eyed Demon a single, upward nod of her head.
“Thanks…”
After a brief few seconds, Yellow repeated the nod back.
Then she scurried forward and tried to take Eir’s shoes off.
252