When Serena turned and showed Amelia her painted peeka face it was only the result of a titanic amount of self-control and the presence of Aiden that prevented her from blurting out something entirely inappropriate.
While she bit her tongue to stop giggling with enough force to crush a warrior wrapped in orange aura, Amelia was delighted to see that Serena seemed to be facing the same predicament.
“Look at you two,” Aiden said, as the finishing touches were made to his painted shawa face, “I’m king of the forest! You can be members of my pack! Here,” Aiden offered them another beer from his bag, “You can share some of my kill!”
“King of the drunks, more like,” Serena said, turning her mirth-filled gaze from Amelia’s face and towards Aiden before snatching the bottle.
“Do shawas and peekas hunt in packs?” Amelia asked, not quite able to imagine the lion-like shawa with a pack of peekas. The latter seemed even more friendly than the domesticated housecats from her world.
“No, they’ll get eaten,” Serena said, crossing her arms while a sly smile appeared. “I’d like to see this idiot try anything like that with either of us!” The cheerful threat was slightly dampened coming from a face with an adorable peeka painted on it, but it was enough to make Aiden throw his hands up in mock surrender.
They finished up and the three of them continued following the procession for a while. Amelia was getting the hang of the strange energetic dance that everyone was doing and even managed to get Serena to briefly join in on the part where you link elbows and spin. She suspected Serena was a little shy to dance in public. Perhaps it was the lack of alcohol or the presence of Aiden that held her back.
The rhythmic beating of drums and the symphony of celebration carried them through the streets. There were stalls set up on the sides from which Aiden would constantly restock his bag of alcohol and would make sure neither her or Serena were lacking refreshment.
The air was humid and despite the constant breeze of storm season it was rather warm. Whenever Aiden handed out a beer she would agitate her aether and cool it down with a bit of ice magic, something he and Serena very much appreciated.
A few more minutes passed before Aiden pulled them out of the main procession and into a side street that seemed even more packed. “Welcome!” He announced, spinning and throwing his arms wide. “To the holy ground!”
The side street stretched into the distance as far as Amelia could see and on either side, waves of people - demon and human alike - flowed as they entered and exited the hundreds of establishments lining the street. Every few seconds, Amelia’s enhanced hearing could make out the shattering of glass or someone falling over.
“Seven Hells,” Serena muttered, “It’s worse than I thought.”
“Don’t worry, dear friend!” Aiden bent forward in a traditional Manwese bow, “I have selected a dozen of the finest establishments in our path! You won’t be disappointed; I can promise you that!”
And so, the pub crawl truly began.
Aiden led them from one pub to the next, spending no longer than half an hour in each one. To his credit, he had picked establishments where they often had their own cubicle or private drinking area. It seemed he had thoroughly planned the night to the extent of booking ahead.
He took Serena and Amelia through a range of drinks. Beers, ales, lagers and stouts which Amelia was told were a particular favourite of demonkind. She lifted up the glass of dark liquid with a layer of foam, examining it before giving it a sip.
“I’m not sure how,” she said before taking another sip of the stout, “But it somehow tastes heavy. Is that a thing? It’s good, though!” She enjoyed the feeling of the cool liquid flowing down her throat.
“Aha!” Aiden exclaimed while bending over and digging through his bag. While he was distracted, Serena leaned over and wiped Amelia’s upper lip with her thumb.
“Foam,” Serena whispered with a smile and a twinkle in her eye before licking it off her thumb. Her eyes told Amelia everything she needed to know, and as Aiden straightened up, Amelia innocently reached under the table and squeezed Serena’s thigh.
“What’s that?” Amelia asked at the notebook Aiden had produced. Under the table Serena had placed her own hand on top of Amelia’s but made no attempt to remove it. Amelia kept her hand where it was, enjoying the contact. It wasn’t the first time they had gotten intimate while Aiden’s attention was elsewhere.
“This, my human friend, is the record of my life!” Aiden proudly declared while flicking through the notebook.
“You’re still writing that? Christ…” Serena rolled her eyes. “It’s his record of alcohol he’s tried,” She explained to Amelia, “Aiden wants to write a book about it one day. It was the goal he decided on when quitting the sword in the academy.”
“Yes, yes,” Aiden chirped, waving his hand dismissively, “Now, what was this called…” He examined the stout that Amelia was drinking, “...Ironwood Forest. Perfect.” He scribbled a few lines of imperial in his notebook before turning his eyes to Amelia. “You described it as heavy, yes? Anything else? The more descriptive, the better!”
“Umm…” Amelia took another sip of the stout. “It’s bitter, but not unpleasantly so. It has a strong aftertaste of iron that lingers for quite a while. It’s, uh… rich in flavour.” She struggled to be more colourful in her description. Mathematics was always her strong suit.
“And how would you rate it?”
“Four stars?” Amelia offered, thinking it over. “Maybe four-and-a-half stars? Out of five, that is. What?” She asked, noticing Aiden and Serena were looking at her in confusion.
“Stars?” Aiden asked.
“Umm… yeah?”
“Why would you rate something based on stars?” He asked with a frown. Amelia felt Serena squeeze her hand under the table.
“It's just something that we did back in Karligard,” Amelia said nonchalantly. “I never thought about why. It's probably some tradition or something,” she shrugged dismissively. “What do you usually use to rate things?”
“Well, the moons, obviously,” Aiden said, pointing upwards. “Five moons sit above Cascadian land so typically we would rate something out of five moons. Hmm…” He scratched his chin with a thoughtful expression. “Four-and-a-half moons it is.” Aiden scribbled her commentary into his notebook.
They finished up and headed to the next establishment and then the next. Amelia got to try a wide range of flavours and alcohol. There was The Gravedigger’s Horns which had strong, earthy tones while a pale ale called Six Heavens tasted like peaches. It turned out cider was also popular in Cascadia although Amelia found that just like in her own world it wasn’t to her taste.
As the hours ticked by, the bottles of alcohol got stronger and stronger and as the night sky darkened they had moved on to fortified wine. Amelia felt pleasantly drunk and she was sure Serena was becoming just a little wobbly as well. As the alcohol took hold of the pair, Amelia had slowly ignored their pre-arranged boundaries and sat closer and closer to Serena. Now, as the empty-bottle of fortified wine was replaced with another Amelia let herself lean ever so slightly against her girlfriend.
“Keeping warm?” Aiden asked with a grin.
“Tsk! She’s just-” Serena began, a note of panic in her voice.
“Right, I get you.” Aiden interrupted.
“It’s just the-”
“Yes yes, very much so.” Aiden said with a twinkle in his eye. An awkward silence descended for a moment and Amelia heard Serena swallow.
“Guess it’s not exactly a secret anymore, right?” Serena asked, “When did you… you know…”
“Figure it out? Hmm…” Aiden raised a finger, “Suspected it by the end of the first training session,” a second finger was raised, “Confirmed by the end of the third. Didn’t take amazing detective skills to watch you two undress each other with your eyes every time you looked at each other. And also…” Aiden lowered his voice until it was barely audible, “One of our agents saw you two groping each other on the tram. They said-” He was interrupted by Serena’s loud groan as she leaned forward and grabbed her horns in anguish.
Amelia giggled and began rubbing her girlfriend’s back sympathetically. “We thought we were being so careful!” she said cheerfully, “You don’t mind, do you Aiden?”
The demon shrugged. “I don’t care too much either way. It’s a bit unusual to see a demon and a human but it’s not unheard of. Happens all the time in the Sabanis Dominance. Serena was always one to make her own path through life. The only downside is I’ve lost my evening entertainment…”
“Evening entertainment? What do you mean?” Amelia asked.
“Watching you two drunk fools think you’re being subtle, feeling each other up under the table,” Aiden said with a grin, prompting Serena to groan loudly again and squeeze her horns tighter. In response, Amelia increased the back rubs tremendously. “Yeah, don’t think I haven’t noticed. I’m not a member of Cascadian Intelligence for nothing!” He gestured to himself proudly with his thumb.
Amelia leaned over and embraced the crumpled heap of her girlfriend. She looked across the table at Aiden. “Doesn’t The Bible speak out against… you know?” She punctuated her statement by giving Serena a gentle squeeze.
“Sure,” Aiden said, looking amused. “But things were very different back then. The scripture the Empress constructed from the teachings of Christ himself - the greatest demon to ever walk the realms - was done when demonkind was facing an extinction event. How much do you know about how Cascadia was formed?”
“Tomes gave me a brief overview.”
“Who’s Tomes?”
“The quartermaster on the Vengeance.”
“Right. At the height of the long discordance, when human and demonkind were scrambling to survive on the plateaus and mountaintops, it was bad, really bad,” Aiden jabbed a finger into the table, “Historians argue about the exact number, but most settle on around two-hundred thousand.”
“Two-hundred thousand what?” Amelia asked.
“Two-hundred thousand demons remaining. Of our entire species. That’s how close we came to extinction in this realm. That’s why in most religious scripture, whether it’s the Quinto scrolls here in Kenhoro, the diaries of Sangoism, or the etchings made by the stone-worshippers in Honkanai, they all emphasise the need for demonkind to procreate.
“Of course, such things matter less now. The Centralis Basin is home to some eighty million demons, and the rest of the territories have millions more. Still, the scriptures that prohibit or discourage same-sex relationships had good reason to do so,” Aiden shrugged as he opened the bottle of fortified wine, “Just many others like myself understand that reason no longer exists. Like I said, I don’t care either way. I think-”
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Can we keep drinking, please?” Serena mumbled from within Amelia’s arms.
“Ah! She’s resurrected!” Aiden said with a triumphant smile. “Look, Amelia! Her cheeks are as red as the red moon! Ah, young love!” Amelia gave her girlfriend a soft smile and she swore she could feel the heat radiating from those burning cheeks. “Look what I got!” Aiden pointed to the set of three strangely-shaped glasses on the table.
“Oh dear,” Serena said.
“What are these?” Amelia asked, picking one up. The glass had no stem and only two small glass protrusions to balance itself on. At the bottom, a long hollow stem curved upwards from which the contents could easily spill out.
“These are sipper glasses,” Serena explained. “They’re designed to be easy to tip over, so the drinker is inclined to constantly hold them, and the long stem encourages spillage.”
“Okay… why?” Amelia asked, happy to see Serena functioning again.
“Because it encourages the holder to keep drinking,” Serena said, putting an arm around Amelia and pulling her close. “And I suddenly feel very determined to get very drunk. So come on then, Aiden The Drunk. Live up to your name!”
“It’s Aiden The Drinker…” Aiden mumbled before decanting the fortified wine into the sipper glasses. The three of them sat in silence for a minute, enjoying their alcohol. Amelia turned slightly and leaned against Serena. No longer needing to try and pretend that they weren’t in a relationship, Amelia felt like she could truly relax.
“Tell me a story,” Amelia asked the pair of demons.
“About what?” Aiden replied.
“About Serena at the academy! Was she always, you know…” Amelia made slashing and stabbing motions with her hand. She didn’t need to turn around to know Serena was rolling her eyes.
“You bet your pretty horns she was!” Aiden declared with a grin before frowning, “Uh, you don’t have horns… you know what I mean, though! There was that time she attacked an instructor…”
“I did not attack an instructor. It was a mutual duel!” Serena protested while Amelia giggled.
“And then there was that time she broke the nose of a poor boy who just wanted to dance with her…”
“Tsk! That idiot thought just because his father was a lord, I would fall head over heels with him. It was his fault for pushing it so much!”
“Well,” Amelia said, “I can see her etiquette lessons have been consistent in their nature throughout the years.” She tilted her head backwards to make out a red-faced Serena. Whether she was blushing from the alcohol or the stories, Amelia didn’t know.
“Remember what we did with Jorge of Jark?” Aiden piped up.
“Ha!” Amelia felt her body shift as Serena laughed, “That was a good one! He even thanked us at the end, didn’t he?”
“Who’s Jorge of Jark?” Amelia asked, “And what did you do to him? Oops,” A sudden feeling of wetness on her chest as she spilt some fortified wine from her sipper glass. A quick invocation of a cleaning spell and the stain was gone.
Amelia had been abusing the spell throughout the night to avoid the need for either her or Serena to visit the washroom. She hadn’t been casting it on Aiden to create as many situations as possible where they would have a few minutes alone.
“Jorge was a swordsman from the North,” Aiden explained, “He had talent but would paralyse himself with self-criticism, you see. The man came from humble beginnings and was hoping to graduate and earn enough to send some money back to his family.”
“That’s right,” Serena said, “Other than his lack of self-confidence, he was a decent demon. Seemed to treat everyone the same, which some of the sons and daughters of lords took exception to.”
“And not you?” Amelia asked.
“I didn’t care where anyone came from in the academy. Our group consisted of demons from all levels of society.”
“You had a friendship group?”
“It was more… a training group,” Serena said with a shrug, “It was only idiots like this,” she gestured to Aiden, spilling some of her fortified wine on the table, “Who were persistent enough to maybe be considered a friend…”
“I knew behind those crimson eyes and the trail of broken bones and bloodied noses that there was a caring demon!” Aiden exclaimed, “And look! Here we are!” He motioned to Amelia as she leaned against her girlfriend.
“I know, right!?” Amelia nodded enthusiastically, “She’s a big softy, isn’t she?”
“I’ll show you soft…” Serena mumbled quietly as she took another sip.
“So what did you do with Jorge, then?” Amelia asked.
“So he didn’t have much self-confidence but would hang around and train with us. Jorge seemed to struggle with pushing himself, despite wanting to. It was like a mental barrier was blocking him,” Aiden leaned in with a mischievous glint in his eye, “We noticed he was using a variable training sword, you see.”
“What’s a variable training sword?”
“It’s just like the one you used with Grandmaster Gu, only the handle is hollow and removable,” with his hands Aiden made the shape of a small circular disc, “You can clip in weights about this size into the handle and reattach it.”
“Which is exactly what we did,” Serena continued, “Every week or so, when he wasn’t looking we’d open his sword up and make it ever so slightly heavier.”
“Did he notice?” Amelia asked.
“No! We were certain he would! Jorge was always too afraid to move up a weight by picking a heavier training sword, so we did it for him. Every week for two months! And then…”
“...Then it was the end-of-semester tournament,” Aiden said with a grin. “Guess what we did right before it was his turn?”
“What?”
“Distracted him and removed all the weights!” Aiden burst out laughing before catching himself, “I can still remember his face as he unsheathed his sword on the arena floor!”
“Ha! I remember the referee asking him if everything was alright! Pfft!” Serena giggled, and Amelia once again enjoyed the sensation of Serena’s chest moving as she laughed. “And when he swung it against his first opponent, his strike smashed right through the defence and knocked him out!”
Aiden laughed mid-drink and choked on his fortified alcohol. “Remember how he looked at his sword afterwards? Like he couldn’t understand what just happened? Good times!”
“Ah… I wonder what he’s doing now…” Serena mumbled.
“Last I heard, he was working as a convoy guard for some Sabanis company running spices.”
“Hmm. Good money,” Serena said.
The conversation naturally lulled, and the trio finished the bottle of fortified wine without any more spillage. By the time they got up to leave, Amelia was well and truly wobbling on her feet. Serena wasn’t far behind, although she still managed to walk with her usual dignity. Aiden seemed to be handling the alcohol the best, although his words were starting to slur ever so slightly.
“Right!” He declared, “It’s time for the final stop.”
“Another pub?” Serena asked.
“No, no…” Aiden gestured down the street. “Food! I paid for meals and rooms at one of the pagoda eateries overlooking the square. They should be expecting us around about now…”
They exited the street, and Aiden guided them back into the main procession which was now stuffed with thousands of demons and humans. As they pushed their way through the crowd Amelia was just starting to feel like she was going to become lost when Serena grabbed hold of her hand with a firm and warm grip.
“So you don’t get lost,” she said with a smile.
“Sure, I- hic!” Amelia covered her mouth as a bout of hiccups took over her. Fighting to contain them by sheer willpower alone, they arrived at the entrance of a pagoda. The religious building was covered in bunting and colourful statues of kami burning incense out of their mouths.
“It’s technically not a shrine,” Serena whispered as they walked in. “Business isn’t allowed to be conducted on the premises of religious buildings, so this is more of a… temple-themed restaurant.”
Aiden led them up a central flight of stairs until they reached one of the upper floors. The space was split up into half a dozen sections, each with their own tables and couches. The sliding walls had been opened to reveal a sparkling and festive Kenhoro spread out as far as the eye could see.
Once they found their reserved section, Amelia all but collapsed on the couch. She announced she was going to close her eyes for a bit and to wake her up when the food was here.
“Make sure to get some chicken,” she mumbled.
“Chicken?” She heard Aiden ask.
“She means choco,” Serena explained.
“And some loqua!” She blurted out, suddenly remembering the delicious drink from the inn. Aiden had been generous enough to organise this entire night so she thought it would be fair to treat the group to a bottle of the stuff.
Or a few bottles, depending on how it went.
After assuring the others she would pay for it, Amelia heard Aiden walk off to find someone to order from. A few moments passed, and she felt a soft pair of lips press against her cheek.
“I’m heading down for a few minutes. There are some things I want to add to the order,” Serena whispered, “You feeling okay?”
“Yeah, just sleepy. I’ll stay here.” Amelia mumbled, burying her face into a cushion. The alcohol had hit her harder than she expected and all she wanted to do was have a nap. She could easily wipe all traces of alcohol from her body with a spell but she was rather enjoying the feeling of being drunk and wanted to avoid using magic for now.
She heard Serena’s footsteps fade and soon she could only hear the light chattering of other groups on the same floor backed by the deep drumming of the festival. She was just about to drift off into a satisfying sleep when a nasal voice pierced her foggy mind.
“I cannot accept that this establishment does not have a room for someone of my stature! They should be bending over backwards to give me the entire floor!”
Amelia heard the arrogant and selfish tone in the boyish voice and felt herself frown. Well, she was sure this person and the group he was with would soon move onto another floor. Surely she wouldn’t be so unlucky as to deal with this drama alone, right?
“Look here, Lord-Prospect! There’s an empty room here!”
“Ah, finally! It has a good view too! Now, go and get some drinks, will you?”
“Y-yes, Lord-Prospect!”
Amelia’s frown deepened when she heard the group's footsteps come closer and she had to refrain from sighing when she heard the door to her area slide open. With her eyes closed her senses counted six men stumbling into the room.
“There’s someone in here!” One of the men cried out in surprise, his words slightly slurred.
Amelia groaned and turned around, burrowing her head into the side of the sofa. She would just wait until Serena came back, then she could watch her girlfriend kick ass and protect her.
Not that she needed protection, of course.
“Wha- what’s this!?” The nasal voice piped up again, “What is a human doing here!?”
“Maybe she’s a kitchen wench, Lord-Prospect?”
“Don’t be a fool, her clothes are too fine for that.”
“A working girl, then?”
“She can be our evening entertainment! Come here, you!”
Amelia scrunched up her face as she felt her anger flare. She could sense the approaching hand, threatening to grab her shoulders and turn her around.
“Piss off,” she said and the hand paused. Amelia rolled her eyes and with an awful lot of effort re-orientated herself so she was facing the room. She lifted and rested her jaw on one hand and opened her eyes.
Six shocked demons stared at her. At first glance, she thought they looked like clones of each other. Each wore traditional robes with the same black hair braided into a ponytail. Their cheeks were flushed red with drunkenness and their eyes wide with surprise. On closer inspection she found they varied by their horns. Some had only one pair, while others had two and the one in the most expensive-looking clothing sported three pairs of black horns sprouting from his head.
Of course, they didn’t come close to the magnificence of Serena’s horns.
“Y-you!” One of the men pointed at her, “What did you say to Lord Jin!?”
“What are you doing?” Amelia glared at the group. “My friends and I paid for this room. It’s not yours, so piss off!” Her repeated expletives seemed to send another wave of shock throughout the rabble.
“Human girl,” said the demon with three pairs of horns. “Before I decide upon your punishment, what is your name?”
Amelia yawned loudly, not bothering to cover her mouth. She could almost hear Serena nagging her about the breach of etiquette in her mind. “Amelia. What’s yours? Jin, right?”
“It’s Lord Jin, human!” The drunk lord’s eyes flashed with anger, “Who do you work for!?”
“Mmm… my master. I’m her maid.”
“You’re a maid!?” One of the men behind lord Jin exclaimed. “How dare you address our Lord with such impunity! Lord Jin, allow us to teach her a lesson! We’ll have her kissing your feet in no time!”
“Oh?” Amelia stifled another yawn, her intuition telling her these men were no threat to her whatsoever. “Is that the only way you can get close to a woman?” She formed the best snarky smile she could muster. “I guess you probably pay them. Although there’s not enough denarii in all of Cascadia to make me willingly come within six feet of you. Pfft!” Amelia giggled as the man went as red as a tomato. She could actually see his veins bulge as his blood pressure skyrocketed.
Well, if he actually had a heart attack she might step in, but until then…
“You… you have a death wish!” Lord Jin shouted, drawing a gleaming sword and pointing it at her, his drunken face contorting with rage. When did they have swords? Well, she was so drunk that she probably didn’t notice.
“That’s an awfully weak grip for such an impressive-looking sword,” Amelia continued. She knew she ought to stop, but the words kept flowing. “I suppose you’re compensating for something? What a tragic experience it must be for a woman to be bed by you!”
Lord Jin spat on the floor. “You’re pretty for a human; let’s see how smug you look once I’ve carved your face,” he pressed the sword’s tip into her cheek with enough force that would cut someone who hadn’t warded themselves. “You all saw it, right?” Lord Jin said to the room as a cruel smile formed on his face. “She attacked me in a drunken rage, right!? What a crazy woman…”
Just as her assailant's eyes took on a deadly glint that Amelia felt no threat from, the sliding door to the room opened and a familiar set of footsteps could be heard.
“Hello!” Amelia said cheerfully as Serena appeared in view. “I see you got the loqua!” Her girlfriend was carrying a bottle of blue loqua and just seeing the liquid made Amelia lick her lips in anticipation, although the action was somewhat inhibited by the sword pressing into her cheek.
“Aiden’s bringing the food up now,” Serena said with a yawn. She sat down on a chair at the side of the room and rested her chin on her hand. “You going to do anything about that?” Serena asked, gesturing to the rabble that was souring the atmosphere.
“I’m awfully tired,” Amelia said, punctuating her statement with a yawn. “I was stalling for time until you got back. I thought it was only fair, you know?”
“Fair?”
“You got to watch me dancing earlier. I was hoping you’d put on a show for me!” She grinned at Serena, who sighed before slowly standing up.
“You! Are you the master of this maid!?” Lord Jin spat, “I demand compensation! I’m fining you both!”
“Can he do that?” Amelia asked.
“No, only Speakers can fine the public,” Serena sighed again before putting down the bottle of loqua and rolling her shoulders. “What do I get if I put on a good show?”
“Mmm…” Amelia grinned as the idea formed in her head. “If you can get them all on the floor unconscious in five seconds, I’ll do whatever you request back at the inn.”
Her voice had barely faded before Serena started moving, and as the violence erupted against the helpless group, Amelia couldn’t help but feel impressed.
After all, she had never seen Serena move so fast with so much determination!