“Originally, there were thirty-two eggs in the clutch that Jadis took from the slain Dead Head Matriarch. Alex has been communicating with as many of them as possible from the moment we were in a safe position in Glanum, but not all of the unhatched Demons were willing or able to respond. At this point, however, we have been able to speak with all of them, and we have a good grasp on their hostility levels, at a minimum.”
As she spoke to the gathered heroes, Aila motioned with one hand towards the collection of translucent eggs that were secured inside glass cloches on top of a long, custom-made table. The table itself was made of a soft, low-density wood, and no nails had been used in its crafting. The unhatched Demon eggs inside the bell domes were fully visible from all angles, as well as separated from each other, though they were close enough that the Demons could still easily see and communicate with each other.
“Cobbler, the many-armed Demon you met earlier, was the first of their number to hatch,” Aila continued. “Since then, nine more Demons have hatched, though only five of those have been friendly. Of those five, Crash has been the most outgoing, possibly out of necessity considering her obsession with combat and sparring, while the other friendly Demons have generally been more introverted. Unless, of course, you engage them in one of their interests, as you have discovered, Tiernan.”
The Arch Wizard looked up from his notebook, mouth open for a response, but he was interrupted by a tentacle waving in his face while another pointed at the slate and chalk drawing being held up for him to see.
“Yes, yes, that is a basic fire-based light rune design, but you’re incorporating water runes and that isn’t going to work. Those two elements don’t mix like that.”
Rune waggled her tentacles in a way that Dys had a hard time interpreting, but Alex came to the rescue a moment later.
“Rune is asking… Why… They do not… Work… If they are… Separated…”
“Well, if they’re too separated, then you’re just going to be casting two different spells at the same time, and that won’t work unless you have a class skill specifically intended to allow that sort of thing,” the gnome waved his hand expressively as he spoke energetically to the Demon. “And if you mix incompatible elemental rune types in the wrong way you’re just going to fizzle. In fact, if you don’t have a skill that allows specifically for mixing, you shouldn’t try it at all, as it is an almost guaranteed failure, right from the start! What exactly are you trying to accomplish here, anyway?”
The spell-obsessed Demon made a few motions with her tentacles which Alex translated directly.
“Glowing water! I’ve no idea why you’d want glowing water, but if that’s your goal, putting fire into it isn’t going to make the water glow, it’s just going to heat it up and make steam. You would need a far more complicated rune form that produces the effect of light without the accompanying heat. Something like this, perhaps…”
As Tiernan became completely distracted by Rune and her odd new idea for a spell, Aila turned her attention towards the rest of her audience and shrugged lightly.
“Any questions so far?”
“Yes, I do have one,” Jocelyn spoke up softly with a small bow of deference towards the redhead. “Is Rune, ah, permitted to cast magic as she pleases?”
Aila sucked in a breath before answering carefully.
“Since Rune has the class Hedge Wizard, there isn’t any way for us to stop her from casting magic as she pleases. That said, we have made it very clear to her that she is not allowed to cast any form of spell that can cause damage to others or the environment without direct supervision. Rune has agreed to these terms, fortunately, as she does not have an interest in magic combat specifically, just spells in general. She is content to study utilitarian spells.”
Jadis could practically hear the unspoken “for now” lingering at the end of Aila’s statement. They both knew that casting attack spells was something a curious mind like Rune would try eventually, permission or not. They just had to hope that they could work things out well enough to ensure both trust and safety before that time came.
At the moment, all of the Demons in the compound, aside from Alex of course, were technically considered property, rather than people, by imperial law. Demons could be kept alive for research purposes if one followed the containment rules, which they were doing the bare minimum to follow, but otherwise all Demons were kill-on-sight. Alex had been given her official recognition and pardon by the emperor himself, but that clemency did not extend to the new clutch of Demons that Jadis had taken under her protection. Technically, if the empire was so inclined, soldiers could be sent to terminate all of the Demons in the compound that lacked the pardon Alex possessed and there would be nothing Jadis could legally do to stop the slaughter.
Not that Jadis thought it was likely that scenario would happen. As petty and vindictive as Hraustrekr could be, he still had some level of political sense. Hraustrekr wasn’t about to make more enemies than he already had, not after so completely burning the bridge between him and Fortune’s Favored. The Demons Jadis had in her compound were proving to be a hugely popular and contentious area of study for the priesthood as well as the scholars of the Imperial University. Contentious was, in this case, a good thing, as it meant that the scholars were interested and engaged in vigorous debate. In fact, there were usually no less than twenty students and priests in the Fortune’s Favored compound on a daily basis, all there to talk with and interview the friendly Demons. The only reason why there weren’t any present at that moment was that Jadis had turned them away for the day since she didn’t want them to get in the way when Sorcha’s parents arrived. Those sorts of scholars were prone to falling into loud debates at inconvenient locations, and Jadis didn’t want arguing intellectuals to cause upset or confusion for the newly arrived couple.
Looking at the form that Rune had taken upon the act of accepting her primary class, Jadis wondered if upset and confusion were inevitable. Sorcha’s parents were going to have to meet the Demons eventually, after all, and not all of them had easy to understand faces and forms like Alex. They could stick Brush and Canvas in clothes to soften their appearance, even Cobbler could be convinced to wear a dress, so long as she was given an hour to inspect it for tears and loose threads.
Rune’s shape wasn’t amenable to clothing, though the image of stuffing her into a pair of pants was mildly amusing.
The Demon’s body was, in some ways, completely unchanged from how it had appeared before becoming a Hedge Wizard. She was still a vaguely starfish-like squid monster with many long, dark purple tentacles and a bright silver eye in the middle of her central mass. One big difference was that she had grown three times in size, making her even larger than Oats, who was already a hefty-sized Demon. The other big difference was that she now had a shell.
Not a shell in the sense that Crash or the painting twins had shells. Rune had a large, round, glass sphere that completely encompassed her body except for a hole on one side from where she could stick out her tentacles. Rune could even leave the glass shell completely, if she chose to, though for the most part she just rolled around the floor like some kind of giant sentient marble.
It wasn’t exactly an intimidating form, not the way Alex or Crash could be on first meeting, but it was sometimes shocking to see a huge eyeball rolling down the hallway.
“You said five of the hatched are friendly,” Wilhelm was asking Aila. Realizing that she had been lost in her own thoughts for a moment, Dys focused on the current conversation. “That would be Cobbler, Rune, Crash, Brush, and Canvas, correct?”
“No, if you count Cobbler, there are six friendly hatched Demons,” Aila corrected. “The last of the five that came after Cobbler is temporarily named Grape.”
“Temporarily?”
“Yes,” Aila nodded as she stepped to the side of the egg room where a smaller table sat. “Grape has not settled on a name, so we’ve been calling her Grape in the interim. She also hasn’t selected her primary class yet, as she is waiting for Sabina to craft her a body that she believes will be useful.”
On the surface of the table was a glass enclosure that was not all that dissimilar to a thirty-gallon fish tank. Filled with water and a layer of gravel, the tank had several waterweeds growing inside of it along with a wooden quarter-sphere that was hollow in the middle. Inside that small bit of carved cover could be seen a faintly glowing purple eye.
“Grape was offered a class called Demonic Botanist, likely due to her expressed interest in plants,” Aila explained as she motioned to the hiding Demon. “She has requested a pre-made body that will largely be humanoid in form because she feels that it will allow her to better interact with plant life, and she has chosen to wait inside this tank until her desired body has been crafted.”
From inside the aquatic tank, Grape poked several tentacles out and waved them in what Jadis knew was meant to convey greetings while also expressing her shyness. When Jocelyn politely waved back at the Demon, Grape quickly withdrew her tentacles and curled up inside of her cubbyhole. She was, without doubt, the most reticent of the friendly Demons, though she was also the least likely to cause trouble thus far.
“Why all the water?” Wilhelm asked curiously as he bent at the waist to get a better look at the hiding Demonling.
“It seems that when they don’t have a shell, Demons are more comfortable in the water,” Dys answered from where she leaned against the wall. “They can move faster and easier in water than on land.”
If it weren’t for the fact that they had killed off all the Merrow, leading to the Goddess Tamar to curse the seas against them, Jadis imagined the ocean to be the perfect environment for Demons to exist. They didn’t need to breathe, they moved more easily in water, and their senses were perfect for low light conditions. When she thought about it that way, she wondered if that was exactly the reason why Samleos had guided his spawn to target the Merrow first. Kill off the competition in the water so the Demons could take over that space unopposed. Only, the curse had turned the seas hostile, making it so that most Demons avoided leaving sight of the shore.
Finding out more about the curse and what was involved was definitely on Jadis’ to-do list. Plus, she wanted to know what Svaroga had done about his Dvergr being killed to extinction, and Lyssandria for that matter. Also, would any curse that Lyssandria had placed still be in effect since Jadis was alive?
Those questions were for later meetings, though. Instead of pondering fruitlessly on thoughts she had no answer to, she focused on the gathering in front of her.
“It seems to me that Demons have a similar way of being born to Golems,” Amarantha commented as she rode her stone cauldron closer to the table of unhatched eggs. “Only, backwards.”
“Sorry, what does that mean?” Aila asked, saving Dys the trouble of asking first. “I am not familiar with Golem reproduction.”
“Oh, well, don’t quote me on the finer details,” Amarantha said as the tip of her tail flicked back and forth. “I just know that Golems carve a body out of stone, then put the soul or spirit or whatever a Golem’s actual life is into that stone. Then they’re born. Or alive. Whichever. That’s sort of what these Demons are doing, I suppose, except most of the time they’re just grabbing whatever happens to be nearby to make a body. Wood, bones, metal, rocks, putrefied flesh, whatever. It’s nice that you’re giving them better options.”
“I like to think so,” Dys agreed. “But yeah, you’re right. Those are similar situations. I wonder if Samleos might have copied Metethys a bit when he made his avatars.”
“Who can say?” Amarantha shrugged, which was an interesting maneuver coming from a cat. “Let me know if you get an answer from Destarious on that one, next time you see him.”
Jadis doubted that would be one of the three questions she asked during the coming Oracle ritual, but she would add it to the list of potential queries for the future.
“And what of that enclosure?” Lucia asked, her eyes locked onto the tank on the opposite side of the room from Grape’s aquarium.
“Ah,” Dys said as she stood away from the wall and walked over to the glass case. “This would be the Demon who is openly hostile but hasn’t tried to kill us or herself.”
“Kill herself?” Jocelyn exclaimed, her eyes wide. “What do you mean?”
“Four Demons have hatched who were openly hostile towards us,” Aila stated calmly as she walked across the room to stand next to Dys. “Of those four, three hatched at the same time and committed what Jadis calls a ‘murder-suicide’ pact. One accepted a class and upon transforming, immediately tried to kill the other unhatched eggs. Fortunately, the guards stationed in this room at all times were able to prevent her from doing so, though they were forced to kill her in the process. The other two Demons didn’t have the chance to gain new bodies, and they killed themselves with bits of wood debris, rather than be captured.”
“That's why we use the glass enclosures now,” Dys tapped the case. “No metal, and as little wood as possible. Less chance of a hostile Demon getting a body that can do real damage.”
“Though that is how Rune ended up with such a… unique shell,” the redhead stared at the Demon and the Arch Wizard, who were currently engaged in some kind of argument over fire magic, if Alex’s translation was anything to go by.
“This one allowed herself to be captured?” Lucia asked as she approached the tank. “She has not tried to transform or take a class?”
As Lucia stepped close, the yellow-green eye of the hostile Demon became visible from within its hiding hole. The Demon made no attempt at communication, as per usual, though it did move the tentacles that were barely visible in a way that showed anger and agitation.
“Alex has had extensive conversations with this one,” Dys replied as she looked down at the frustrating little squid. “She has made it clear in every discussion that she agrees with Samleos’ urges and she wants to destroy all life on the planet, just as he desires. However, she also recognizes that she can’t do that, because she’s small, weak, and is very much trapped in a cage surrounded by people who could cut her into pieces with zero difficulty.”
Sighing, Dys combed her fingers though her long white hair while cocking her hips to one side.
“She’s basically just waiting for us to all die on our own. She says she’s content to just wait us out, however long that might take.”
“Seriously?” Amarantha blurted out, her pupils going wide. “Doesn’t she realize how stupid that is? Most of the people in this room will be alive for decades, some for centuries! And we’ll all have children, and there will be more of us! She’d be waiting forever!”
“She knows,” Aila nodded coolly. “In her opinion, she has the time to wait until either we all die, the other Demons kill us, or an opportunity for her to take her Dead Head class becomes available. Until then, she will bide her time.”
“Then why don’t you kill her?” Lucia asked, her voice just as cool as Aila’s tone. “While she is currently contained, she would be a threat if she were to ever escape from her enclosure. Letting her live is a danger to everyone else.”
“Because they’re still trying to save her.”
Dys closed her mouth, the answer she had been about to give spoken by an unexpected source. Tilting her head to one side, she nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, that’s right,” she told Wilhelm. “How’d you know?”
Wilhelm laughed, though his eyes were a little sad.
“I understand what you are thinking, I suppose. You want to save everyone you can, even those who maybe don’t deserve to be saved. Because, maybe, they are worth saving, if you could just find a way to help them.”
“Maybe they are,” Dys let out a long breath. “Maybe not. Little H has been a complete bitch so far, but I still hope to change her mind. I mean, if she can change, maybe that means other Demons who are hostile right now might change, too. Oats did, after all.”
“And if they can change, then perhaps more Demons will change,” Wilhelm smiled a little more brightly. “And then, if we are truly blessed, we might have an end to the demonic invasions, even if it isn’t the end any of us expected.”
“Maybe,” Dys smiled back at the Hero. “I don’t know if it’ll work, but I feel like I’ve got to try.”
“I am not certain whether Valtar would approve of that sentiment or not,” Lucia stated as she continued to stare at the Demon in the tank, “but I understand your meaning. I will pray for your success.”
There were nods from others in the room, though one person narrowed their eyes in suspicion instead.
“Hold on,” Amarantha said accusingly. “Did you just call that Demon ‘Little H’ or did I mishear?”
“Uh, yeah,” Dys answered as she fumbled for a moment. “You know, because she’s ‘a little hostile,’ so she’s Little H. It’s a dumb name, but it felt like the right one, considering she won’t pick one for herself.”
Jadis let out an internal sigh of relief as Wilhelm, Jocelyn, and Lucia all nodded along as though her bullshit explanation made perfect sense. Amarantha, however, continued to stare at Dys with narrowed eyes and a wide, knowing grin on her feline face. So long as she didn’t blabber about the source of the name actually being Prince Hraustrekr, she didn’t mind the Lares sharing a private joke with her.
From outside, Dys heard sounds that indicated Eir and the painting Demons had finished their work and exited their room. Motioning towards the door, she grinned at the gathering in her best attempt at a host’s charm.
“I bet you all are just as hungry as I am by now. How about we go sit and have a meal, and we can talk more about Demons and other things without empty stomachs. Hans and Oats are an amazing duo in the kitchen. You haven’t lived until you’ve had their meat pies with mashed potatoes.”
There was a general chorus of agreement, so Dys began ushering the group out the door. As she did so, she secretly congratulated herself on successfully setting up the topic change she was maneuvering into place for later. She still didn’t have any idea what Prince Kestil had been speaking to Wilhelm about during the dinner after the Vital Overflow ritual. She could have just asked the Hero directly, and she was pretty sure that he wouldn’t be offended if she did, but she still wanted to show that she wasn’t a complete jerk and valued his company. She genuinely liked the guy, and his companions for the most part, so she didn’t want him to think that the only reason she had invited him over was to pump him for information.
“Will the Demons be joining us?” Tiernan asked as Rune followed behind him in her rolling sphere.
“They can if they want to,” Dys nodded. “They don’t eat, but they’ll hang out.”
“Hang out…” Tiernan murmured with an amused expression.
“The real question,” Dys continued without trying to explain her slang, “is whether or not we can drag the battle maniacs away from the training yard. Crash reappeared and is ‘helping’ test Thea’s new shield.”
“That can’t be good,” Aila said flatly.
“Why not?” Jocelyn asked innocently.
“Because Crash’s idea of testing shields generally leads to her needing new armor pieces to replace the ones she breaks.”
“Ah.”
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