Listamati and Caeldaemos sat in the sitting room of the empress, enjoying some tea.

A handful of minutes passed, and the emperor entered. “Haaaah, your sister created quite the issue for me.” He sighed as he sat down.

Caeldaemos and Listamati had gone to stand to show respect, but he stopped them, telling them to stay seated.

The empress giggled. “It is fine. Us royals get tired of formalities often. Sometimes we just desire to relax for a bit.”

Caeldaemos chuckled. “I think I can see that. Even her majesty, Queen Meryl, is like that.”

The emperor eyed Caeldaemos. “Are you sure you don’t want to come over here? Like I promised Lady Listamati, I would make you a Marquis.”

He chuckled. “Hallibrush may be small now, but we plan to grow it. I have many who depend on me that I cannot abandon.”

The emperor chuckled. “Very well. The offer will stand if you ever change your mind.”

“Now then, what is it that you needed, Lady Listamati?” The empress asked.

“We need information on Duke Gaolphista Draconia.” She answered.

“Oh…” The empress turned to her husband.

The emperor sighed. “What is it you need to know?”

“One of my wives has a connection to him. We are trying to find out what happened to her mother.” Caeldaemos stated.

“Is this… about Dasheara?” The emperor nervously asked.

“Yes,” Caeldaemos answered.

The empress placed her hand on Caeldaemos’. “Does her daughter truly live?”

“Yes?” Caeldaemos was getting confused.

The royal couple’s expressions hardened. “We will tell you, but you must bring her daughter before us.”

“Why do you need her present?” Listamati asked, feeling on guard.

“We can only speak of this if we know for sure it is her. You would not be the first to claim to know her.” The emperor spoke.

“Fine.” Caeldaemos pulled out his Crys-Link.

“C-Cael? What do you need?” Liara nervously asked.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

“Yes! Of course, I am fine! Why wouldn’t I be?” She was clearly hiding something, but they had something more pressing.

“The imperial family knows something about your mother but won’t say anything until they confirm you are her daughter.” He explained.

“I… Understand. Come get me.” Liara stated.

“Okay.” Caeldaemos stood. “I will teleport to get her. I will be right back.”

“Wait! You can-?!” The emperor’s words were cut off as he left.

Caeldaemos appeared in their temporary residence, where Liara was waiting. She was clearly uncomfortable. He hugged her. “Are you sure you want to do this? I know how badly you hated the idea of returning there.”

“Yes… But if it means I can find something out, I have to.” She hugged him back. “Let’s go.”

Nodding, he teleported back to the room.

They appeared in the room to a bewildered emperor.

“Lord Delormond! I will pay you any price for that artifact you got out of a dungeon! I swear by Nanduun!” The emperor yelled.

“Uh…?” He turned to Listamati, who smiled and shrugged. Caeldaemos assumed she had explained it away in such a manner. Caeldaemos bowed his head. “I am sorry, your majesty, but the ability is bound to me. I am the only one who will ever be able to use it. I swear by Io.”

The emperor was saddened and sat back down in a huff. He then looked up to see Liara. “By the gods… you are the spitting image of your mother!”

The empress approached Liara and held her hands. “Are you really the daughter of Dasheara?” Her eyes began to tear up.

“Yes. I am Liara, and my mother was Dasheara. I swear by Io.”

The empress began to cry while holding Liara’s hands to her forehead. Liara was confused until the emperor joined them and hugged his wife to comfort her.

“Liara, your mother was a close friend of ours.” The emperor explained.

“She was?” Liara was surprised.

“She was my grand advisor. My right hand. We both loved her greatly. I swear by Nanduun if we had known the truth… we would have never approved of her marriage to Gaolphista….” The emperor began to tear up.

“What do you know? What happened to my mother!? Why did the seal she put on me relate to my father’s death!?” Liara was becoming emotional. They knew something. They had the answers she had wished for, for so long.

“Let’s sit down first.” The emperor guided his wife to her seat.

They all sat, and the emperor began the story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A lanky demon fell onto his rear at the intimidating force of a fox spirit woman.

“Count.” She spoke with icy eyes. “We have told you before that you are denied your request for more funds for the rebuilding project until you can either. A: Show us some results, or B: Bring us all the proper documentation of expenditures. Until you bring one of those, your request is denied!”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I’m sorry!” The demon quickly left the throne room.

The emperor chuckled. “No one can challenge you, Dasheara.”

She turned to him with an annoyed expression. “If you would stop being so soft on him just because he is your nephew, I would not have had to do that. His project has gone four million Tress over budget at this point.”

“It is for a good cause.” He chuckled once more.

“Good cause or not, he is failing at managing it.” She huffed.

Dasheara wore the traditional demon attire while having her eight golden tails puffed up in anger.

“Now entering! Duke Draconia!”

Her expression brightened as the man entered. His body was red, with various scales on his limbs and face. Two large black horns came from his forehead and curved back in line with his skull. His black hair was slicked back to just above his shoulders.

“Gaolphista!” Dasheara rushed up to him and hugged him.

“I’m happy to see you, Ara.”

Her tails swished about happily. “Are you here to see me? Or on business?”

He chuckled. “Both, actually.”

“Oh?” She walked up to the emperor while hanging on his arm. “Perhaps I can help you? I know the emperor.” She joked.

Gaolphista smiled and turned his attention to the emperor. “Your majesty.” He bowed.

“Duke Draconia. What can we do for you today?” The emperor asked, amused by Dasheara’s change.

“I came to ask for you to bless our engagement.” He stated.

“Gaol!” Dasheara’s expression brightened.

“Oh? You finally got your family’s approval?” The emperor asked.

Gaolphista sighed. “It was not easy, but yes.”

Dasheara looked up to the emperor expectantly.

He sighed. “You know you are taking my best advisor and friend, correct?”

Gaolphista bowed deeply. “I understand, your majesty. But I promise to take care of her and the empire.”

The emperor looked at his friend with a warm smile. “Very well. I wish you the best. Just be sure to visit Yopawl from time to time.”

“I promise!” Dasheara gave a beaming smile.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The emperor’s hands trembled. “That… was the last we saw of her….” He began to weep.

“That doesn’t tell me anything!” Liara exclaimed angrily.

Caeldaemos put his arm around her, helping to calm her down while the empress comforted the emperor.

“If I had known what I found out years later… I would have never allowed it!” The emperor slammed his fist onto the table, breaking it.

Caeldaemos used Restoration to fix it. “What did you learn?”

“We didn’t find out until Gaolphista had suppressed us. I may be the emperor, but the aristocratic party has more power than I do. It took a lot of effort, but we heard that Gaolphista had imprisoned Dasheara in his estate. I knew it would be impossible for them to have children, but we thought they loved each other… But it was one-sided from Dasheara.”

“Father never loved mother….” Liara’s ears drooped.

“It is worse than that.” The empress said. “You… should have been impossible. We believe he used some kind of dark ritual to have your mother conceive you.”

“Whatever it was, it cost your mother her life completely.” The emperor said.

“Completely?” Caeldaemos asked.

The royal couple glanced at one another. “Well, this is a bit of a national secret for spirits, but spirits can’t be killed. They tend to have multiple lives. The more pure they are, the more lives they have. Your mother was a pure spirit of spiritual fire. She would have had many lives.” The emperor stated.

“As far as we knew, your mother had only died once,” The empress added.

“So… my mother may be alive?” Liara trembled before clutching onto her husband. “Cael! Please! She is probably still stuck there!”

“Liara…” The empress sadly spoke. “We tried confronting Gaolphista before, but he clearly stated that your mother was… gone.”

“He didn’t have an ounce of regret…” The emperor trembled with anger.

“Tell me.” Caeldaemos’ expression was furious. “If this fucker was gone. Would you be able to take back power?”

“W-What!? But you would put yourself at great risk! You would risk a war! There is no way you could take on the duke! He is a Rank 40 Draconic Knight! He can even turn into a dragon!” The emperor stated.

“Yeah? But he ain’t the Demon-Lord.” Caeldaemos stood.

“Cael! You can’t! What about everything you have done till this point!?” Liara hung on him to stop her husband.

“Demon-Lord?” The royal couple watched as Caeldaemos donned his dragon-scale armor.

“It really is you…” The empress gasped.

The emperor stood and approached. “What are your intentions?” He had changed to his royal demeanor.

“I intend to crush the man who hurt Liara and killed her mother.” Caeldaemos put on his helmet. “For I am Caeldaemos the Benevolent. A Demon-Lord who will not tolerate those who bring pain and suffering to others.”

“Cael….” Liara cried as Listamati held her friend.

“I’ll take care of her, Cael. Destroy that bastard and uncover the truth.” Listamati angrily stated.

Caeldaemos turned to leave, but the emperor stopped him. “Caeldaemos.”

He turned to face the emperor.

“I swear in Nanduun’s name that your secret will be safe with us. I also swear that I will do all in my power to ensure that the world’s people know of your good deed. I will scream at the top of my lungs until I lose my voice that you are a benevolent Demon-Lord who brings justice.”

Caeldaemos nodded and left the palace.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sylvia arrived at Forteria a little worse for wear. She didn’t have any run-ins with her failures, but plenty of monsters harassed her. The demon lands were harsh, and it didn’t surprise her that most demons lived there. It had taken her several days to reach the capital. She used her Detection to see where Michael was.

“WHAT?!” She screamed, surprising many of the demons. He was no longer in Forteria but now in the southwest! She smacked her forehead onto a wall.

A few guards approached her. “Ma’am, we are going to have to ask you to stop disturbing the peace. We already had enough issues with the Demon-Lord….” One grumbled.

She spun on her heels and grabbed the demon. “Demon-Lord!? What happened!?”

The demon was surprised by her strength and blurted out the answer. “He killed the Duke!”

“What…?” Sylvia let him go while pulling out her bank card. “I will pay you as much as you want for information about what happened.”

The guards looked at each other. “There is no reason to pay us. You can ask anyone for the information. Let’s calm down first and take a seat over there. We can give you what was announced by his majesty.”

After getting situated, the guard began. “The Demon-Lord showed up two days ago and tore apart the Draconia estate. Apparently, he discovered that the duke had been performing all kinds of mortal experiments. One of which is the late Grand Advisor, Dasheara.”

“Who is she?” Sylvia asked.

One of the guards smiled warmly. “These two never had the chance to meet her, but I did. She was a warm-hearted person and an excellent politician. Many demons loved her for the things she had done for us.”

“What was that about mortal experiments?” She asked.

The demoness guard spoke next. “His majesty didn’t go into details, but he said that the duke had forced a union between spirit and demon biology. He had multiple failures… So many spirits died because of him.”

“But that should be impossible… Wait, who was his god?” Sylvia asked, hoping it would not be who she thought.

“No one knows.” One of the guards answered with a shrug.

“What happened with the Demon-Lord after?”

“He dropped off a mountain of evidence with the royal family and left. We haven’t heard about him since.” They answered.

Sylvia knew she couldn’t see the evidence but wanted to investigate the duke’s manor. Perhaps she could find traces there. She thanked them and left to find the location.

It was hard for her to enter the area, but she made it in. The whole location was quarantined off by the royal knights. Using an optical barrier around herself, she was able to sneak in.

The mansion was nothing more than rubble now, with several demons investigating a specific area. She made her way over and snuck past them, down into an underground facility.

Much of what was below disturbed her. Body parts, cages, bones, remains of monsters. She became more and more worried about her theory.

“Did they hear anything back yet?” She heard a demoness ask.

“They sent a drawing of the symbol to the Council of Spirits yesterday. We are still waiting to hear back.” Another replied.

Sylvia went to the office and looked up at what the two demonesses were looking at, and the blood drained from her face. “No…”

“Huh?” “What?” “Did you say something?” “No.” The two ladies looked about. “This is creeping me out. Let’s head out.” “Yeah, let’s go.”

The two quickly left the room as Sylvia stared at the symbol. It was a golden beak of a raven with obsidian eyes. Much of the rest of the form was hidden away by what looked like ashy smoke.

“She’s back…” Sylvia muttered. Quickly she left the room and facility. Sylvia needed to hurry to find Michael. Danger was coming to their world, and she needed his help.