Josh stood before a new person. They were tall, slender, and female. They were also entirely human, mostly, if one didn't count the entirely black eyes that seemed common in the area, and the lack of a nose. She also wore a Victorian dress and it fit her quite well. "Dearie me, look what's washed up on my shore." She was examining him just as much as Josh was looking at her. "You're a special little thing, aren't you? You can't fool Rosie. You reek of freshly aquired souls, and they don't even stink of regret."

Katie looked between the two, not sure which she should be keeping an eye on more. "Hey. Um, Joshua, you want to shake hands?"

Joshua eyed up Rosie as he slowly extended a hand. "Nice to meet you, uh, Rosie was it?"

Rosie took his hand in a firm dry shake. "That's the name. Now, turn for you to give me one in exchange."

"Um." Josh floundered a moment. "Joshua?"

"A deal is a deal, so is a handshake, dearie." She did not let go of his hand. "Not often I get an overlord stomping all over my turf." Her grip tightened. "But, a little bird told me you stopped when you were asked." She released her vice grip. "Polite of you."

"He's nice." Katie beamed up at Rosie. "And cute! But mostly he's nice."

Rosie bent low to snort. "Niceness can't cover your ass down here, deary." Her smile returned in an instant. "Look at me. You, my fine, fuzzy, friend, look a bit clueless. Not sure how you tripped into the overlord business without your eyes open, but you're putting out every hint that you managed it, somehow."

Joshua nodded slowly. "So, about those souls?"

Rosie threw up her hands with a chuckle. "Let me give you some advice: Your act is getting you through now, but it's going to be picked apart in pieces, eventually." She made a tickling motion in the air at Josh. "Overlords collect souls for power. That's almost a universal thing. They want power. Why they want that power, that may vary a little, but they all want it." She turned her fingers towards herself. "I'm one, you do realize that?"

Joshua looked over the demon carefully, eyes locking onto her own obsidian orbs. "Yeah, I'm picking that up now." He folded his arms with a slight glare. "What do you do with those souls?"

"Sweet little thing." She ruffled the top of Joshua's head with gentle fingers. "I just told you that. The same thing every single overlord down here wants. Power. I use mine to protect my precious little friends. 'Me and Mine,' as they say, and what's mine is under my protection." She jabbed Joshua with a finger. "Which is why I don't appreciate another overlord just strolling in and trying to snatch away their souls. Me and mine. First rule of being an overlord, you don't step on each other's territory."

"So don't try to recruit the cannibals here? Is that what you're saying?" Josh put his hands on his hips. "Because I want to help them survive the purge. I need those souls to keep them safe." He gestured about him. "That's what I'm offering. I'll keep them safe, and all they have to do is offer me a soul. We can agree to keep things reasonable."

She covered his face, taking hold of his snout in one of her hands. "Shh. Out of kindness, I'll assume you actually mean that. I already protect my little waifs. What makes you think you could do a better job? You're not even a cannibal, to cut to the quick of it. What do you know about them? Protect them from the purge?" She drew her hand away to wave over Josh as a whole. "You don't cut an intimidating outline."

Katie sucked in a deep breath. "Wanna see what he did to the last angels he faced down? It was me and him against four angels, and guess who was left standing at the end of that fight?"

Rosie put her hands on her hips, looking Katie over or at least facing her. "Not often we get imps on this layer of hell." She returned her attention to Joshua. "You fought an angel and you were standing at the end? That is something to be proud of, but they'll get back up. Are you new to hell? It takes a lot to kill one of us, and that goes for them too." She snapped her fingers. "Death is a state of mind. Those angelic punching bags will wake up with a headache back upstairs."

Joshua huffed gently, paws tapping against his sides as he rocked in place. "They weren't very good fighters. Um, Rosie, was it?"

"That's what I go by." She seemed amused at Joshua far more than threatened. "So you put up a fight, then decided you could protect all of hell, did you?"

Joshua slapped a paw to his face with a groan. "No. That's not what I said." He felt a slight pinch as he pulled his hand down, cheeks getting hot. "I'm only doing this because they need me. If I don't do it, I don't see anyone else rushing for the job."

Rosie gently cupped his burning cheeks, rubbing into them. "In most of hell, you'd be right. That's a big-hearted job you took on there, can't even be mad. Just, stop chasing any of mine. They have a big sister watching out for them." She put a hand at her chest. "And she won't let them down."

Joshua didn't struggle away from the tender touch of Rosie. "Sorry. I wasn't trying to pick any fights."

"I really believe that." She walked past him, then around. "If I didn't, I'd already be ringing the dinner bell, because there'd be a new body in need of teeth." She flashed her own, sharp and dangerous.

Joshua covered his throat nervously. "Uh, I'm guessing you don't need more bodies."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Rosie gave him a coy look. "Why, you're offering?" She reached for Joshua's shoulders, turning him around. "Go on back out of here and hunt your souls in the rest of hell. They'll need you, out there. But this pocket? I have it covered. You're not abandoning anyone here."

Katie groaned gently as she was turning around by Rosie's other hand. "Okay. We can just leave." She gave Josh a shove from behind. "You can listen to the lady."

"One moment." Josh turned back to her. "You seem to know what this is all about." He hiked a thumb at himself. "Can you please tell me what being an overlord means? I've been called that a few times."

Rosie stopped, freezing a moment before a new smile appeared. "Poor little thing. You really have no idea what you've wandered into."

"Katie here was nice enough to fill in some details. Um, sort of. But yeah, I don't know much about it. Only what people have told me. Overlord? Sounds like I'm powerful, but, not very good at this." He clenched his right hand, flaring with the power he was just getting a grip on. "Please?"

Rosie waved him forward as she turned away. "Now, I can't turn away a request that polite. If you have time, we can enjoy some lunch and talk about it."

Joshua swallowed thickly, eying up the still eating cannibals. "Um, I'm not really hungry right now." Despite that, he did follow after her. He took Katie's hand on the way, both wandering towards a gazebo with a table and some chairs. Soon all of them were seated around that table, with a plate of what appeared to be fingers presented as if that was just a normal thing to eat.

Rosie ran a finger over the back of her left hand. "An overlord is the kind of demon that rules. Simple enough, but it's not quite the whole truth. There's two types, well, three, technically, but let's leave off the uninteresting sorts." She pointed at Joshua. "You are the sort that just flat out asks for it. Most of those sorts do it with the threat of violence. Or they're selling something. Technically, you're the latter."

"I'm really just trying to help." Joshua's eyes fixed on Rosie's black orbs. "I don't want to hurt anyone."

"Don't," whispered Katie. "She'll get into your head."

Rosie tapped at Joshua's head. "That is the idea. He asked for information. You're selling protection. Good intentions or not, that's what you're doing. The Vees sell distractions and toys galore. They get a lot of souls out of it." She spread her hands slowly. "I offer protection, and demand obedience, and that works for me. If you're always such a good little thing, maybe we'll get along just famously. It'd be nice to have another overlord I can share some tea with politely."

"Does that mean you're giving me permission to talk to your, um, cannibals?" Joshua put his paws up, splaying his fingers. "You want souls from them, too? I won't get in your way."

Rosie hummed. "If you just want to talk to them, go ahead. But no selling. I already got their souls anyway." She snapped her fingers, sparking fires dancing from one finger to the next. "So they have nothing to offer you."

Katie huffed gently. "He really is nice. We could do worse than have Rosie be our neighbor."

Rosie clasped her hands together, chin resting on them. "That sounds more like it." Her attention seemed to slide to Katie. "Forgive a girl for poking her nose into these things." Not that she had one. "Are you and him involved?"

"Involved?" Katie shook her head. "I mean, he's nice, but he isn't interested in sex. At all. Probably. If he is, he's not saying." She frowned a little.

Josh's cheeks took on a new burning. "It's not like that. I just didn't want to get involved with someone I didn't even know. Um, that was when we first met."

Katie leaned in with a fresh grin. "Well, you know me now. We've been friends, schemed together, played cards together, the whole deal. So, what do you think?"

Josh looked her over a moment. "I think you're a little foul-mouthed."

"Fuck you." She scowled at him.

But Josh went on, "But nice. I would be very happy to keep hanging out with you. Um."

Rosie put a hand between them. "As interesting as it is watching a sinner and an imp find love, let's not get too distracted."

Katie jolted up at that. "Wait. Hold up."

Rosie grinned dangerously at her. "You asked a question and he's answering it. The simple fact is that you've already decided he's cute. I think the feeling's mutual. Ah, to be young."

Katie blushed furiously at that. "Honey, just stop talking now before I regret some stuff." She scowled over at Joshua. "Damn it. You weren't supposed to be like this."

Josh straightened his posture. "About being an overlord! I'm still a, uh, sinner, right?"

Rosie watched him a moment. "Now, most people around here, we don't talk about what got us sent down here. We all have baggage, and we're not keen on sharing tales. But you feel different. If I'm prodding where you don't want me, just say so, but what did you do to end up down here? Your smile's too sweet, and missing the hint that you're planning something behind it."

"I just want to keep people safe. My friends gave their souls to me." He pushed his arms out in front of him, palms forward. "I won't use them for anything else."

Rosie turned her head to one side. "All well and good, but how did you get sent to hell?" She smacked her lips. "Why I'm here is plain for all to see." She plucked a finger from the bowl and casually bit into the tender meat. "Big guy doesn't smile on cannibals."

Joshua blushed a little as he watched her munch away. "Uh, I wanted to be a writer." He tried not to stare at her eating the flesh, but found it hard to pull his gaze away. "I was going to write the next big american novel, uh, some day."

Rosie couldn't stop herself from laughing at that. "A common enough dream. Where'd it go wrong? Stop teasing me and say how you ended up here."

Joshua couldn't look at her in the eyes anymore. "My parents thought it was a stupid idea. They wanted me to work in their firm. Something about numbers. I never could do the math part of it, but I understood what words were supposed to mean." He fiddled with his fingers. "Sorry. Look, it's dumb, really dumb."

"Share?" She offered a finger towards him.

He didn't reach for it. "I like cards. When the game was getting really good, sometimes, me and my friends, we'd 'bet our souls' on the next hand. It was just a stupid joke." He shrank on himself. "I won the last hand."

Rosie stared at him as she set the meat back into the bowl. "You're kidding."

Joshua laughed a little. "Um, no? Why?"

"Because that, pardon my French, is a shitty reason." She reached to pinch one of his fuzzy cheeks. "You made a bad joke while playing cards and that got you tossed down here? And you already had your friends' souls, I'm gathering. How you got into overlording without a clue what's going on." She turned her head to Katie. "You protect this boy."

Katie beamed at that. "Fuckin' A. Like I wasn't already gonna do that."

Rosie looked back to Josh. "Now, he wants to know about being an overlord." She pushed him back into his chair. "Sit and listen then. I'll go over the boring parts. Seriously, did you sin outside of cards?" She shook her head with clear amazement. "Not even a little fair."