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The demon’s castle was enormous.
Sou had been to the human capital before, and he had thought that the castle there was huge, but then he was captured and brought to the city of Axalara, and been imprisoned in quite possibly the largest and most terrifying castle that he could have ever imagined, complete with towering demons that stalked the halls looking for any reason to hurt anything.
Not all of the demons were bad, he supposed. The red-and-white demon and the not-beastkin were alright, and occasionally he would encounter others that seemed more amused at the presence of a human than angry.
Adachi had adapted easily, and her polite nature seemed to calm most of the more aggressive demons, but that hadn’t helped Sou. He still tensed whenever a demon’s eyes turned his way, and his metal arm still itched to draw a weapon that wasn’t there.
The food was alright, but he still ached for the pastries and meals of his old home. He missed the strong tastes of the dwarven feasts, the gentle elven food, the hundreds of different meals that beastkin would bake, and the strange hodgepodge of techniques and tastes that the humans would use.
In contrast, the food that the demons made was almost ghostly. They had hints of the dwarven tastes, a pseudo gentleness akin to the elven meals, and were almost as varied as human and beastkin in types. The colors of the fruits and vegetables were dull, like life had been leached from them, and the meats ranged from bloody red to stark white to glossy black.
Adachi didn’t complain. Sou didn’t either, mainly because he didn’t want to upset her.
Life goes on.
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The halls of the castle were decorated with beautiful paintings and fascinating statues.
Sou believed that any artist could study for generations on any of the works that he had seen. Some were strange, horrifying, but beautiful renditions of the common creation stories that he had heard in the church (although he was certain that there were no parts of that story that included a shadow creature that lived outside of the universe), while others depicted the destruction of cities to an enormous creature that appeared to be a combination of several others.
And for an odd reason, few demons passed by the set of enormous stone doors that stood not too far from the council room.
The doors themselves were larger than any demon that Sou had seen, including the enormous smokey demon that he had been told was the empress. The doors were so big, in fact, that Sou wouldn’t have been surprised if opening them was impossible, considering how heavy they must have been.
The not-beastkin seemed slightly amused at his discovery when it found out. “Something as weak as you likely would be unable to enter, much less survive on the other side. Most demons likely would of course, but only a few dare to find out.”
Sou silently wondered if the not-beastkin had ever tried.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He must have let his thoughts slip onto his face, because the red-and-white demon clicked its mandibles together in what Sou was now sure was a laugh, before sinking through the floor like it was made of water. The not-beastkin just gave him a smirk before fading into shadow and seemingly following its comrade.
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Adachi had finally perfected her invisibility spell.
Unfortunately, she had seemingly lost interest in actually using it to leave. What she did use it for was sneaking into the library to read some tomes that caught her eye. Sou had come with her of course, he had vowed to protect her, no matter what.
The books weren’t written in any language that Sou was familiar with, written in geometric runes that didn’t mean anything to him. He had never been formally educated in the various languages of Asyke, really only enough to be able to identify them, as well as read, write, and say basic sentences in each.
Adachi also clearly couldn’t read it, if her upset huff was any clue. “Looks like I’ll have to practice translation spells next.” Nonetheless, she kept flipping through pages, staring intently at the diagrams and images inscribed within.
Sou decided to take a look around, just to calm his nerves. They had never been told that they couldn’t enter the library, but he imagined that the librarian– a short, cloaked demon with a pair of branching horns that protruded from its hood and an unknown number of clawed hands that hid under its robe– wouldn’t be too happy.
By one of the tables, a number of demons sat together, engaging in a quiet conversation. One had a spine-covered white shell and blue highlights that reminded him of the red-and-white demon, though instead of blade-limbs it had gauntlet-like hands with thick, sharp talons. By its side sat, a tall, long-limbed demon with a dark fur mane and five glowing white eyes that looked to be quite upset. Both seemed to be conversing deeply with a huge demon that looked much more like the stories Sou had heard as a child.
They weren’t a threat at the moment, so Sou disregarded them. Their talking was getting louder, and the librarian kept sending them dirty looks, so he imagined he wouldn’t have to worry about it for long.
Sure enough, only a few minutes later he heard a loud explosion, followed by the huge story-demon being dragged out the door by an angry librarian.
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Sou let the words of the demons flow past his ears as he cleaned the hall outside the locked council room.
The castle’s demons were called into council every now and again, typically making plans for their next invasion, which had terrified Sou the first time he heard it, but slowly turned to just another happening inside the castle. Most of the demons spoke in languages that he couldn’t understand, but every now and then he would catch a few words that he could. As such, he would usually just let their voices be background noise.
He hadn’t heard much so far, mostly a round of congratulations shared between a group of four unseen demons of which he had only caught one name (Meno), and a joke directed at a demon named “Spiriah” about their prospective successes. Sou stumbled when a demon called a distinctly elven name, but otherwise the meeting seemed to be going well.
He stumbled as a messenger ran past him, skidding to a halt in front of the door. The lithe creature straightened, knocked on the door twice, and waited. After a few seconds, the door opened, and the demon walked inside as calmly and casually as it could, as the door shut behind it.
The meeting room was completely silent for a long moment.
And then Sou heard the laugh of the red-skinned demon that had tortured him and Adachi in their first weeks. It was loud and grating on the ears, filled with madness and cruelty.
Sou fled back to his and Adachi’s room as fast and as quietly as he could, but the sound of the entire room erupting into laughter hunted him down the halls, ringing in his ears until he slammed his door shut.
Life goes on.
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