"This was a mistake," Ir'alith said abruptly, shaking her head. "Involving myself with humans has been my greatest folly today." She looked down and fixed the only human in the room with a stare which was obviously non-threatening. "I apologize, Mina. I should not have brought you here. Grant me a short while, and I will regain the strength to create another gate."

"What… What other humans have you involved yourself with?" Mina asked. I cannot imagine she'd speak in this manner about Carl, but what other humans could she possibly be acquainted with?

Ir'alith looked between Mina and Jungrathol, and her tail twitched on the ground next to a glowing helmet. "I wished to speak with Carl's wife, Annie," she said slowly.

Mina's eyebrows raced up her forehead. "What?"

"Is the wife of Carl powerful as well?" Jungrathol asked.

Even he knows of Carl? Who is Carl?

"I…" Ir'alith paused, and her skin began to purple. "I thought to gain her acceptance before attempting to court Carl."

Mina stared.

Jungrathol started to chuckle, the sound turning into a booming laugh. "At last, the protector has discovered a worthy mate!" he crowed, ginning a grin that revealed a mouth full of pointy, nightmarish, black teeth. "Long has there been talk that you would die before even—"

"Enough," Ir'alith said while her tail thrashed, her skin turning a light shade of glowing pink in what seemed likely to be a blush powered by magic. "We will speak of this no further. Such things are not possible, and it was foolish of me to consider that a possibility existed."

Mina frowned a little. She still appears quite enamored of Carl, but she shows far less enthusiasm than earlier in the day. This does seem to provide the answer to the question as to whether they've been engaging in fornication, at least. That he continues to evade the more lascivious actions I'd imagined him capable of is some relief.

"I thought to speak using a gate," Ir'alith continued, speaking to the floor. "I desired an honest discussion. But she behaved strangely, requesting that we converse in this world. I considered this, and I judged that no harm would befall her. I was still distant from Khag Daruhm, and I thought to gain her favor by acceding to such an appeal."

She brought Carl's wife here? Mina felt that her mind would combust. She's sufficiently powerful to create portals to other worlds?!

"Soon after she arrived, we were set upon by these creatures of metal, these machines. Their mere proximity prevents the use of magic, they are too dense to effectively fight, and they possess the ability to defy vision and remain unseen until they have been struck." Ir'alith looked to Mina as she finished. "I sought only to protect Annie when we were attacked," she said in a serious tone. "This I swear on my ancestors."

Mina felt her stomach twist, the sensation especially unpleasant with the heaviness of the potato she'd eaten recently. I cannot help but feel that I believe her when she speaks with such vehemence and with a countenance displaying such overt distress. But if this is so, then… "What became of Annie?"

"She…" Ir'alith paused, as if thinking. "During the time in which I should have died, she was taken somewhere along with my axe," she said slowly. "My father assures me that Annie is unharmed and is imprisoned near to him. Our bond is unaffected by the magical interference."

Mina sighed. "That's quite a relief." Then she grew suspicious. "Perhaps I misheard. Your father?"

Ir'alith nodded. "The soul of my father, Seth'tith, resides in the axe that he forged for me before he…" She paused again. "It has no relevance," she said, shaking her head slightly. "He is capable of seeing, and he has been placed in the same room as Annie. The hero has been speaking to Annie through machines, attempting to divine whence she comes. She has, to this time, refused to answer this or any other question she has been asked."

She paused once more. "She rains invectives conceived with great imagination upon the hero for murdering me, as she believes me to be dead," she said, a small smile curving her lips up as her tail began to wave lightly back and forth against the wall.

"She remains strong even in captivity," Jungrathol said in a tone thick with approval.

I would certainly enjoy meeting this Annie woman, whoever she may be. To remain so stoic before even a Hero is either madness or… Mina chewed on her lip. Or true strength.

"She will remain in captivity if I am not able to destroy these machines," Ir'alith said, nudging the heavy, metal object with a clawed foot. "She is an ordinary human, and she has no—"

"She is a human?" Jungrathol demanded.

"Do not shout," Ir'alith said, slapping his foot with her tail again and grasping the side of her face with the palm of her clawed hand. "My mind pains me enough."

"She is a human?" Jungrathol demanded again, this time more quietly.

Ir'alith's tail flicked to the side. "Yes. Carl has pledged himself eternally to a human with no abilities, magical or otherwise. She is devoted to him in the same way." She fixed the red behemoth with a firm stare. "You will not speak ill of her."

"I would not have!" Jungrathol protested, keeping his upper arms crossed while his lower ones rose in front of himself in a defensive gesture.

Mina continued to study the machine as they bickered. Would that I could have seen it activated. A great gash was torn in its middle, with all manner of metal and cord visible that she hadn't seen previously. She reached out and grasped two of the thin cords, finding them to be smaller and more delicate than anything she had ever seen and also covered with an odd sort of thin material that was ripped away in the places where they'd been torn asunder. Rubber, perhaps? How strange. And so many other unusual components as well.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

She grasped a cube-shaped object within the stomach cavity and began to pull, placing a foot atop the machine to keep it stable. The cube came free without warning, and she tumbled backwards, falling onto her rump. What… She frowned. It was a cube, but it was oddly heavy, requiring both of her hands to keep it aloft.

"Have you discovered a weakness?" Ir'alith asked, interrupting some argument regarding human-killing that had erupted but seemed to be quite uninteresting by comparison.

Mina turned the cube over in her hands, frowning deeply. There were a number of dots of silvery metal on some of the sides, and there were grooves in which the cube could be slid into a containing mechanism, likely the one it had just been pulled free of. How fascinating. She looked back to the machine. The insides are comprised entirely of smaller parts such as this? But how could it possibly—

"Mina?"

Mina looked up, her cheeks reddening with embarrassment when she realized she'd perhaps become too engrossed in her analysis. "My apologies," she said quickly. "I've become intrigued by the composition of this. Do you know what type of metal it's been created from?"

Ir'alith shook her head.

"No metal I have encountered has such weight," Jungrathol said. He finally abandoned his kneeling posture, coming to sit fully on the floor of…

Am I inside a tree? This texture seems so familiar, and I've studied forestry in some detail, but could a tree truly grow so large? Mina surveyed the small room again, trying to peer past Jungrathol and out the door.

"If you attempt to leave the protector's room of rest, I will kill you," Jungrathol said as though stating that a cloudless sky was blue.

Mina started.

"Jungrathol," Ir'alith said, sounding exasperated.

"Humans are not permitted in our lands," Jungrathol declared, his gaze shifting to Ir'alith. "Was it not your mother who made this decree?

"I've no wish to leave this room," Mina said hastily, looking back and forth between them. "Please, let us return to our task?"

"When my strength is fully restored, I will call for Dor'ennan to remove you," Ir'alith said to Jungrathol.

"She is my wife, not my master," Jungrathol retorted.

"I will tell her of your words."

Jungrathol shifted, seeming uncomfortable for the first time since Mina had first caught sight of him. "It is not necessary to convey such—"

"Then remain silent."

Mina stifled a giggle that was bubbling up from the absurdity of the conversation given her circumstances. It seems unlikely that I'll be harmed, at the least. And certainly I've no wish to see harm come to Carl's wife. Annie. Hm. I should like to meet her at least once, I think. "Is Annie currently in danger?"

Ir'alith paused, her face remaining expressionless while her tail tapped against the wall. "My father does not believe so, and I will trust his judgment," she said after some time. "She has been offered meals, an area in which to bathe, and a place in which to sleep. She has suffered no injury that he has seen."

So then there is no immediate urgency, and I have at least some time during which I can devise a method of subduing machines like this one. Mina stroked her chin as she stared down at the intricate creation of metal. "I believe we must use trial and error then, as I've no notion of how such a thing can be easily defeated without the use of magic at present. You're certain that magic cannot be used? For example, if you were to attack at a great distance?"

Ir'alith shook her head. "This one is dead, so it does not block my magic, but it is still somehow capable of nullifying weak forms of magic." She raised a finger and a stream of water poured out and onto the machine, vanishing as it made contact.

Mina stared. How is this even possible?

Jungrathol reached over and picked up the cube that she'd pulled out of the machine's chest, stared at it, then tossed it into his mouth.

Mina changed the target of her stare.

"Hard." Jungrathol grunted. His face shifted, displaying great strain, and there was a crack. He raised a hand to his mouth again and spit out two remarkably even halves of the cube, showing its insides, which were similarly of an unknown design. He moved his hand back to the only human in the room.

Mina gingerly took one of the halves from his hand, grimacing at the dampness. "Thank you, Jungrathol."

"Trial and error," Jungrathol rumbled, tossing the other half on the ground. "I tried to crush the metal with my teeth. I crushed it. I made no error."

Mina closed her eyes and pinched the top of her nose between her fingers. This will require some acclimating. And patience.

----------------------------------------

Mina settled back into her recliner. It's good that I managed such a… She yawned deeply, and her eyelids shut with a certain amount of force that she was unable to resist.

She'd spent no less than three hours inside a room within a giant tree where, with the assistance of the Demon Queen and the brutish Jungrathol, she had made some small amount of progress in comprehending the odd machine.

The metal was incredibly durable, yes, but Jungrathol had managed to slowly peel it away in some places with great, rumbling grunts that had rattled her bones. Underneath was revealed a rigid metal frame of a different composition, though Ir'alith had claimed the machine capable of maneuvering in ways that an immobile metal such as this was surely not able to effectively reproduce.

The other components within the metal had been entirely nonsensical to her. Rubber-covered threaded metal ran throughout, and there were strange cubes and other objects of varying sizes in many places that Jungrathol helpfully cracked open with his teeth despite how she politely requested that he discontinue such acts.

Ir'alith herself had made a gradual recovery, seeming noticeably more filled with vitality by the time Mina had started yawning too much to continue in her quest to understand the machine. She had, near the end of their time together, raised the machine off the ground entirely with her mind—which was apparently a little-known, non-magical skill of hers that she termed her "will"—meticulously disassembling it under the girl's direction and saving considerable time tugging at stubborn components that refused to be detached no matter how she pulled with her hands.

Jungrathol had offered to do the same, naturally, since he'd seemed quite keen on assisting the process, but Ir'alith had slapped his foot with her tail again and heaved a great chunk of the outer metal coating at him, telling him to mold it into a ball while he waited for something he'd be capable of providing genuine benefit with, much to Mina's amusement.

The Demon Queen had also cast some manner of spell that she'd claimed would heal the bruise on the human girl's neck as well as any other injuries, though the verification of its effects would need to be delayed until a mirror was available.

Mina was still far from understanding the machine, and she'd certainly ascertained no weakness from the time spent tonight.

She was quite certain of one thing, however, as she smiled with her face pressed against the soft cushions of the recliner and fell into a contented sleep.

Her new life was more amazing than she'd ever dreamed possible.