Tanya woke up with the second-worst headache of her entire life.

“The fuck?” she groaned as her blurry eyes focused on the room.

This was not the mansion’s guest bedroom with a fluffy canopy bed. She was in a normal bed… Tanya looked down and saw a monstrous clawed hand resting against her stomach, a stomach that was covered only by a little frilly apron. She felt the monster herself snuggling against her bare back from behind. There was a suspicious lack of clothes underneath her apron. Why was she in an apron? Did Lily kidnap her? Tanya reached down nervously. Okay good… her panties were still there.

“The fuck?” she tried again, slightly louder.

Tanya watched Patricia, the sexy evil maid, take away Amelia’s book and gently tuck the girl into bed. The Saintess fell asleep immediately and Patricia stared at the closed black book for a while, as if wondering what to do with it. Was it Patricia that kidnapped them? She wasn’t actually evil, was she? Were she and Lily working together? Was this another one of those weird-as-fuck sex dreams?

“The fuck?” Tanya tried for the third time, this time at a normal speaking volume.

Patricia jumped, “Oh, hi!” she said awkwardly.

Tanya wasn’t going to repeat herself a fourth time. She just stared at Patricia until the awkward silence forced the maid to explain.

“Some things happened while you were out…” Patricia began. “There was an attack. The Montagne estate is… everyone else is… gone.”

“What do you mean gone?” Tanya didn’t like the tone in her voice when she said the word ‘gone’.

“The mansion was destroyed, everyone who was inside is… dead,” Patricia’s voice sounded choked. “Lily managed to save you… your friend Danica didn’t make it. Neither did the Lord, the Lady, the young master, or any of the other maids or servants of the estate. There were 36 of us in total…”

“This is… if you’re playing a trick on me, it’s time to stop. This isn’t funny.”

“It’s not a trick. Believe me, I wish it was.” Patricia’s voice was quiet, apologetic.

The maid continued on, explaining the fireball, the prophetic letter, the evil book, the fact that they were the only survivors, Lily’s outburst in the temple, and their current location.

“Oh, and to make matters worse, I just woke up to catch Amelia in a trance, staring at the unspeakably dangerous demon book for gods know how long. When I talked to her, she sounded pretty screwed up, so I told her to sleep. She might recover with some rest. Or she might not, I don’t know how Verita’s gift works.”

“Is she possessed or something?”

“No, the book is too powerful to host an envy demon. Reading the book fucks with your brain though. If you survive, that is. We can only hope that Amelia’s brain scrambling is temporary. She’s got the backing of a goddess after all; one would think she’d be resistant to demonic mind corruption.”

“Well… shit. This is a lot to process.”

Tanya shifted over and rolled onto her back to stare at the ceiling. Lily made room for her and settled back down next to Tanya’s ear, draping her clawed arm over Tanya’s chest. Tanya lay in silence for a few minutes, staring at the ceiling.

Danica was dead? Amelia was mindfucked? All their shit was destroyed? This was supposed to be a nice uneventful trip to Dursten, and they hadn’t even reached the mountains yet. The mountains were supposed to be the dangerous part. Tanya turned her head and looked into the demon’s big red eyes.

“You saved me huh?”

The demon nodded.

“Thanks.”

Tanya squirmed a bit and raised her arm, wrapping it around Lily’s shoulders. Lily settled into the crook of her arm and snuggled her face into Tanya’s chest, using her tits as a pillow. Lily loved to cuddle, and Tanya supposed this was a suitable reward for the little hell monster. Tanya would never admit it out loud, but she could actually use a good cuddle right now.

More people died, eh? And once again, Tanya was powerless to stop it. All the training, all the practice, and it still wasn’t enough. Even now, she was still just a helpless little girl. Powerless.

After ten minutes of snuggling and staring at the ceiling, quietly reflecting on the situation and trying to suppress unpleasant old memories, Tanya finally worked up the nerve to ask her one remaining question, “Why the fuck am I in an apron?”

“You’d rather be topless?” Patricia, now sitting on her bed, asked with a smile.

“I’d rather have some real clothes.”

“What’s your size?” the maid asked, “I’ll go to the market and buy some supplies. I’ve only got 6 silver pieces left though so don’t expect anything fancy.”

Tanya shared her measurements with the maid, and shared Amelia’s measurements too just in case. Amelia had her robe, but the girl would probably appreciate a change of socks or underwear at some point. She was glad Patricia didn’t ask why she knew Amelia’s measurements. Suffice to say that bathing in the river with Amelia as a teenager was how Tanya discovered she liked girls.

“Just buy me something cheap,” Tanya suggested, “Pants and shirt if possible. I’d appreciate some heavy boots too. Once I’m decent, I can go earn some quick coin for us and then I can pay you back.”

“Quick coin? how?” the maid asked.

“Dunno, I’ll figure something out,” Tanya said, with a grin.

“Whatever,” Patricia shrugged, “I’ll leave for the market and get you some clothes. You’re in charge of Amelia while I’m gone. Don’t leave her alone anywhere. If I had to guess, her infernal rambling sounded somewhat slothful in nature.”

Patricia held up the black book, “I’d say that this was the Book of Indulgences. Thankfully, its victims aren’t often dangerous to others, but they have a nasty habit of engaging in self destructive behaviours. She’ll be a danger to herself until she recovers… If she recovers.”

“I’ll protect her.”

Patricia left the room and closed the door behind her. Leaving the panty-apron clad Tanya alone in the room with a comatose not-quite-possessed Amelia, and a snuggly demon.

Tanya looked at the cuddle monster clinging to her chest and saw two red eyes watching her back. She reached down at gently patted the demon on the head. Yeah… this might be the single most dangerous creature Tanya had ever seen, but she was still cute. Cuddling with a cute girl was always nice.

Lily was warm, a much warmer body temperature than a normal girl. She said she didn’t sweat, but there was still a subtle smell to her skin. It was almost spicy. It was strangely alluring, she was definitely giving off pheromones of some kind, despite the lack of sweat. Curious, Tanya moved on from headpats and tapped a fingernail against one of Lily’s horns, making a clicking sound.

“Can you feel that?” Tanya asked.

“Yes,” the demon replied, mumbling into Tanya’s chest.

Tanya briefly wondered whether Lily’s interest in her chest was sexual, or whether she just found Tanya’s tits comfy. Perhaps both? In any case, Tanya let the demon enjoy her pillows and continued to investigate the horns. They had a rough texture, with small ridges along their length. They felt quite solid.

Dad was a hunter and, while Tanya was young when he died, she still fondly remembered a few of his lessons. Ram’s horns were hollow inside, weren’t they? These ones didn’t feel hollow, they were like a single solid piece of bone. Tanya supposed that technically made them antlers, rather than horns. Lily still called them horns though, so maybe that distinction didn’t matter to her.

Whatever they were called, Tanya gently ran her fingers along the black bony surface, only barely grazing it.

“What about that?” Tanya asked.

“No, I don’t feel anything.”

This time Tanya grabbed the tip of the horn, sticking out behind Lily’s head, and wiggled it around, causing Lily’s head to move with it.

“I feel that,” Lily grumbled.

Tanya moved her hand up, feeling around the horn’s base, underneath Lily’s hair. There was a small ridge of skin where the scalp ended, and the horn began. Almost like a cuticle. Tanya gently brushed her fingertip over the ridge and Lily’s entire body twitched.

“Sensitive!” she said in a scolding tone.

“Oh really?” Tanya said, with a devious smile.

Her hand returned to Lily’s scalp and she gently ran a finger along the horn’s circumference. Lily carefully kept her face blank, stubbornly pretending like she didn’t feel anything, but Tanya could see the occasional small twitches in Lily’s legs. After a minute or two of torture, a strange sound escaped from Lily’s mouth, halfway between a whimper and a lewd moan.

Tanya grinned devilishly, “Don’t tell me this is an erogenous zone for you…”

“I didn’t think it was…” Lily mumbled, burying her face deeper in Tanya chest.

Tanya freed her snuggling arm, and grabbed on to the other horn, mirroring the same movement over both hands. Lily groaned into Tanya’s chest. Tanya was grinning like a madwoman. She found a weak spot and she was going to exploit the fuck out of it.

Tanya spent the next half hour teasing Lily, gently running her fingers across Lily’s scalp and down her back. It turned out that, yes, those cuticle-like horn ridge thingies were the most sensitive, but Lily’s entire scalp was quite responsive in general. This little slut would go crazy from having her hair pulled. The demon completely melted when Tanya gave her a scalp massage, though in this case it was a more innocent sort of pleasure.

Massages didn’t get the lewd kind of moans out of Lily. To do that, Tanya had to tease Lily gently, only barely touching her skin. She kept one hand playing with Lily’s scalp, and the other hand was slowly tracing its way down Lily’s spine. Tanya noticed the demon subtly shift her position, straddling Tanya’s leg, and not-so-subtly grinding her pussy against Tanya’s thigh.

Tanya suddenly grabbed both of Lily’s horns, and, much to the demon’s annoyance, wiggled her head around. Lily didn’t like this much. It was another wonderful discovery Tanya made today, an excellent way to playfully annoy the demon.

“Hey Lily,” Tanya teased, “Are you horny?”

Lily finally unburied her face from Tanya’s chest and pouted adorably as Tanya wiggled her head from side to side.

“Heh, get it? Horny?”

Lily groaned in absolute misery, “Not funny…”

Tanya maintained her sadistic grin. She thought it was funny.

The torture was suddenly interrupted by a loud knocking sound at the door. Tanya stopped teasing the demon and let go of her horns.

“Who is it?” Tanya asked curtly. She didn’t want to be bothered right now.

“This is Inqusitior Dawkins, I’m here to speak with Saintess Amelia Voss.”

“She’s not feeling well right now, can you come back later?” Tanya asked. Not to mention that I’m still dressed like a maid-fetish prostitute in a discount brothel, she grumbled quietly to herself.

Tanya heard no reply other than the sound of a key going into the lock, and the door latch opening.

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

Amelia woke up to the sound of someone knocking on the door. Her eyes were blurry, her brain was foggy, and her head hurt like someone was crushing it in a vise while simultaneously smashing it with a hammer. What in the infinite Abyss happened?

“This is Inqusitior Dawkins, I’m here to speak with Saintess Amelia Voss,” the voice on the other side of the door announced.

What? an Inqusitor? Here? What was going on? Tanya and Lily were shuffling around, disentangling themselves from their snuggle. Amelia sat up, continuing to hold her head, something was nagging at the back of her mind, but she couldn’t remember. A key went into the door, and the latch opened.

The door opened and a tall man, well over six feet, walked into the room. He wore white armor, embellished with a golden trim. He had a single-handed arming sword on his belt and a shield slung across his back. He was not wearing a helmet so Amelia could see his broad face. The man had blue eyes and blond hair. He had a friendly smile on his face, but his eyes were alert and calculating. He kept his sword arm free, ready to react, and in his off-hand, he carried a black ball of polished obsidian glass.

“Don’t just invite yourself in, asshole,” grumbled Tanya, still clad only in panties and an apron.

Dawkins glanced at Tanya as she spoke, but his eyes immediately refocused on Lily. Amelia’s groggy eyes popped open. Inquisitors were Holy Knights of Judicast, the God of Valor. They were monster hunters, equipped to deal with the worst threats to mortal civilization. Their only job, pretty much, was to find and kill monsters like Lily. This was bad.

The Inquisitor stretched out the arm that was clutching the black orb, and spoke, “Command Demon: Sit down and don’t move.”

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

The stone shone with a red light, and a small ripple of magic pulsed through the air. Lily, who had been halfway to her feet, hesitated, before sitting down on the bed. She stared at the man in… was she confused? Amelia’s head still hurt.

“Hold on! Lily’s friendly,” Amelia called out, hoping to avoid a confrontation.

“Saintess Amelia, so the rumors were true… Tell me, why are you consorting with demons?”

“Are you going to get the fuck out or not?” Tanya interrupted. The Inquisitor ignored her.

“Everyone shut up for a minute!” Amelia massaged her aching temples, “Sir… Dawkins was it? I’ll be happy to explain everything, just give me a few minutes to wake up. Is there a better place to talk?”

“Normally I wouldn’t allow it,” the Inqusitor said, “but in your case, I can just ask. Are you or your demon planning on escaping or destroying evidence while my back is turned?”

“No, I just honestly feel like crap and need some time to get this headache under control,” Amelia replied.

“Fine then, I’ll give you time to collect yourself, and I’ll ask the innkeeper for a private space where we can talk. I’ll meet you downstairs in fifteen minutes. Bring your demon with you.”

The Inquisitor held up the stone again. Just like before, there was a red light and a pulse of magic, “Command Demon: You can move again, but don’t try to escape or attack anyone.”

Lily stayed where she was, watching the inquisitor carefully.

The Inquisitor left the room and closed the door. Heavy armored footsteps walked away and down the hall. Amelia sat back on the bed and continued to massage her temples in silence. Tanya pulled the blanket off one of the beds and slung it around her shoulders before sitting on the bed next to Lily. Lily tapped her foot impatiently, occasionally glancing towards the door.

After half a minute of silence, the demon spoke, “Should I kill him?”

“No, Lily, that would be bad.” Amelia replied immediately.

“What if he attacks us?”

“He wouldn’t do that. He probably just wants to know more about the explosion last night. Remember, we only need your claws if words fail.”

“The fight is less dangerous if I strike before he’s prepared,” Lily looked visibly annoyed at being denied her chance to pre-emptively strike. “That sword is Demonbane, I won’t risk my life for nothing.”

“Words first.” Amelia repeated firmly.

The conversation went silent and Amelia continued to massage her head for a few more minutes. The pain was slowly going away.

“What the fluff happened before I fell asleep? My memory is bit foggy.”

This time Tanya spoke, “You fell into some sort of weird trance while reading your mysterious evil demon book. Patricia said it was the Book of Indulgences, does that mean anything to you?”

“Sloth…” Amelia said thoughtfully. The infernal words came to her mouth, unbidden, “Everything is dust…”

“The fuck does that mean?”

Amelia tried to remember, but thinking about it made her headache worse, “It’s… nevermind.”

The Saintess’ eyes suddenly shot open, she remembered something, “The shadow… Did you see a shadow?”

“I’ve seen lots of shadows… which one are you talking about?” Tanya’s confusion was apparent.

Amelia jumped to her feet and looked around the room. Did she imagine it? No, she literally couldn’t hallucinate. Her eyes always saw the Truth. Suddenly terrified she checked every corner while two pairs of confused eyes watched her.

After a few seconds of watching Amelia’s frantic searching, Lily pointed at Amelia’s bed, “Magic aura there.”

When she saw it, she shrieked and leaped onto the unused bed across from where she’d been sleeping. The darkness underneath her former bed was… darker. Two milky white eyes opened, staring at her. The shadow crept out from under the bed as a shapeless blob, and once out in the open, it slowly morphed back into the shape of a shadowy man.

He was tall and slender. His torso was the size of a normal human, but thanks to his freakishly long limbs he towered over everyone else in the room. He was as tall as the ceiling and he had to hunch over to avoid bumping his head.

He seemed to be made entirely of shadow. The edges of his body were vague and undefined like a cloud of swirling smoke. Amelia could just barely make out the shape of her former bed behind his semi-transparent body.

The shadowy man’s face was completely blank and featureless aside from his milky white eyes. Those eyes were the only part of his body that seemed solid and ‘real.’ The shadowy man leaned forwards, and slowly sat down on Amelia’s former bed, sitting with his knees together, resting his hands together politely on his lap.

Trembling slightly, Amelia pointed at the shadow. “T-That…”

Tanya looked at her friend like she was crazy. Lily stood and walked over to the shadow man. She walked inside the shadow, seemingly without noticing, and poked at Amelia’s bed, while smelling the air.

“Can’t see or smell anything…” the demon girl said, “but I can feel the magic aura. It’s a demon… feels familiar.”

“Y-You’re inside it…” Amelia said, still pointing at the shadow man.

The shadow man ignored Lily and continued to patiently watch Amelia with his hands clasped over his lap. He didn’t seem to mind being pointed at and walked through. He was just sitting there, quietly watching Amelia freak out at him. He didn’t seem aggressive at least…

“Who are you?” Amelia asked the shadow.

“Lily?” Lily replied, looking slightly confused. The shadow said nothing.

Realizing that her fifteen minutes were up, Amelia got to her feet again. Everything was dust, Danica was dead, all her stuff was gone, she was about to be questioned by an Inquisitor, apparently, she was being stalked by another demon, but at least her evil book induced headache was mostly gone. Hooray?

“Nobody cause any trouble while I’m gone…” Amelia told the room in general, “That includes you too Mister Shadow… whoever you are…”

As Amelia went to the door, Tanya stood and stopped her, “Hey Amy, I think I should go with you. You’re not feeling well and I’m not sure you should be alone right now.”

“It’s fine Tanya, this isn’t an interrogation or anything, he just wants to ask some questions,” Amelia said dismissively. “I actually asked him for a private place to talk so you wouldn’t have to stand around in your underwear with a strange man in the room. It’s not a big deal, I expect we’ll be back up here in a few minutes.”

“You actually believe that, don’t you?” Tanya said, astonished.

“Yeah?” Amelia replied.

“You’re too naïve, Amy.”

Amelia gently nudged Tanya out of the way so she could pass, “Look, I don’t want to have this conversation right now. I feel like crap, I don’t have the energy to argue with you. Just let me talk to this stupid inquisitor and get him out of my hair.”

Tanya sighed, “Fine, do what you want. If things go to shit, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Tanya and the Shadow watched her leave the room. Amelia walked down the stairs into the tavern with Lily following closely behind her. The tavern was mostly empty at this time of day and Sir Dawkins was waiting for her at the bar. When she approached, the man gestured to a door behind the bar.

“The inn’s proprietor, Nedry, told me that we can use his special meeting room. Apparently, it has soundproofing runes and everything. He didn’t say why he had a suspicious room like this, but since he’s being so helpful, I’ve been polite enough not to ask him any questions about it.”

Amelia and Lily followed him through the door behind the bar, through a storage room filled with various casks of ale, and past another door. The small dark room beyond it was deathly quiet. All the background noise of the town outside vanished as she entered. There was a round wooden table in the center of the shadowy room. The inquisitor took one chair, and Amelia and Lily sat beside each other, opposite the inquisitor.

Inquisitor Dawkins placed his elbows on the table, and rested his chin on his hands, he took out the orb again, and placed it on the table, “Command Demon: Stay seated as you are, and answer all my questions honestly.”

Once again, there was a red flash and a pulse of magical energy that seemed to have no obvious effect. The Inquisitor left the stone on the table. Amelia gave him an annoyed glare. He was obviously using some sort of mind control artifact on Lily, stealing away her free will. That annoyed the Saintess, but at least it seemed to only be temporary.

“Now then, what can you tell me about last night?” the Inquisitor asked.

Amelia answered first, “I was outside, receiving a letter from a messenger when a huge ball of green fire appeared in the sky and crashed down into the mansion. I was far enough away from the blast for me, and the maid accompanying me to survive. Lily noticed the attack too, and managed to carry Tanya, the black haired woman you saw, away from the explosion. As far as I know, we’re the only survivors.”

“Lily the demon?” The inquisitor gestured to Lily, apparently confused by the cute name.

“Yes, Lilizath, I call her Lily as a nickname.”

“Right,” the Inquisitor glanced at the demon skeptically.

Amelia continued, “I spoke with the surviving maid, Patricia, who also happens to be a mage. She told me that the spell used to destroy the mansion was a Fireball modified with Witchfire, and that only an extremely powerful mage would have been able to cast it.”

“I’m not familiar with Witchfire,” the Inquisitor admitted, “Where is this maid now? I’d like to speak with her directly.”

“She’s out shopping, she’ll be back later today.”

The inquisitor took a second to consider his next question, “Have you had any encounters with the organization known as the Children of Kair Tarost? As I understand it, they’re a dark elven gang operating in these parts. As I understand it, they’re demon worshippers, hence my involvement.”

Both girls shook their heads no.

“Did you receive any threats or demands from any other parties?”

Again, the girls shook their heads. Amelia interrupted the Inquisitor’s next question, “I’m not sure I was the target. Earlier that day, I met a fugitive mage named Elias Bigby. He told me that he discovered a conspiracy and was wrongfully convicted of treason in order to keep him silent. He was staying at the mansion that night.”

Amelia told the Inquisitor what Elias told her, about how Elias’ former master was sacrificing children and storing their souls in gems.

“There might be a connection there,” Amelia said.

“Unlikely,” the Inquisitor replied. “The Children of Kair Tarost already claimed responsibility for the attack and they have no connections in the capital.”

Amelia carefully hid her surprise. The Inquisitor lied. Well, it didn’t feel like a full lie, but it was a deliberate obfuscation of the Truth. He didn’t lie about the elven gang claiming responsibility, that seemed to be true enough, but he did lie about Elias’ conspiracy being an unlikely motivation for the attack. That was interesting… Amelia decided to not mention anything yet.

The Inquisitor turned his attention to the demon, “So Lilizath, how did you know about the attack? Amelia survived by chance, but you supposedly had enough warning to flee. Did somebody tell you it was going to happen? Were you in contact with the Children?”

“No, I felt the magic and then I jumped out the window.”

“Hmm… but you’re not a mage, a normal demon shouldn’t be able to…” the Inqusitor interrupted his own thoughts, “Actually… What kind of demon are you? You’re not one I recognize.”

“Part succubus, part archfiend, maybe gluttony? I don’t know the rest,” the demon replied with a shrug.

The Inquisitor froze, raising his eyebrows in surprise for an instant before regaining his composure. It was a tiny reaction that Amelia didn’t fail to notice. He stared at Lily for a few seconds, thinking carefully.

“Where did you come from, Lily? And how did you end up in the Saintess’ company?”

Lily told the story of how she met Amelia. She described waking up inside a magical force field, being attacked by inquisitors, killing one, being wounded, and how the archfiend Z’Kraugh ignored his geas, escaped captivity and rampaged through the tower, slaughtering every man inside, demolishing the structure down to its last brick.

This was new information to Amelia. She fought the urge to smash her own face against the table. Stupid! Why hadn’t she asked Lily about this herself? She assumed Lily had been summoned like a normal demon, and somehow got loose from her summoner’s control. That obviously wasn’t the case.

Lily escaped from some sort of magical facility, guarded by no less than eight Inquisitors. She was involved in something big. The Inquisitor thought so too, he failed to keep his perfectly blank face, occasionally reacting with obvious interest as Lily told the story.

Lily continued the story of wandering through the woods and meeting Amelia while she was tied up. There were no more surprises. Amelia kept a close eye on the Inquisitor’s reactions the entire time, but he didn’t seem as interested in hearing this part of the story.

When Lily finished, the Inquisitor took a moment to digest the information. So did Amelia.

“What’s this tower?” the Saintess asked.

“It’s an Imperial secret. If you don’t know already, I can’t tell you,” the knight replied.

“Is the tower related to Elias’ supposed conspiracy?” Amelia asked, with a slight smile.

Inquisitor Dawkins made a tiny gesture of denial, shaking his head only a tiny bit before abruptly stopping himself from showing any reaction, “Imperial secret. I can’t tell you,” he said.

Unfortunately for Sir Dawkins, he’d accidentally told Amelia what she wanted to know. His tiny subconscious gesture of denial was enough for Amelia to know it was dishonest. According to what the Inquisitor knew, the tower was connected to Elias’ story.

“Were the soul gems Elias discovered used by the people in the tower as part of Lily’s summoning?” Amelia asked. It was a bit of a stab in the dark, but Amelia could ask more questions by observing the Inquisitor’s reaction.

The Inquisitor was taken aback slightly, but hid his surprise underneath a veneer of annoyance, “You shouldn’t make up ridiculous theories.”

Not technically a lie, but it was a deliberate deflection. His statement was technically true, but in context it still implied Amelia’s theory was ridiculous. That was a lie, he didn’t consider this theory to be ridiculous at all. It seemed the Inquisitor still hadn’t caught on to the true nature of Amelia’s powers yet.

A normal truthfinding spell could be defeated by speaking in half-truths, lies of omission, and obfuscations, but Amelia’s gifts were far more powerful. The words themselves didn’t matter, Amelia’s power was closer to mind reading. She could notice the intention to hide the Truth. There was no way to trick it deliberately. She could even tell how certain someone was of what they were saying, whether it was a vague recollection prone to errors, or something perfectly remembered.

“Do you actually know who destroyed the mansion?” Amelia asked, giving the Inquisitor a cold glare.

“It could be one of the Children of Kair Tarost. Perhaps one of them is a powerful mage,” the Inquisitor replied.

“Liar.” Amelia’s icy voice struck the Inquisitor like a slap in the face. “Who killed my friend Danica? You know, don’t you?”

The meeting room went silent, as Amelia and Sir Dawkins glared at each other. The Inquisitor was the first to break eye contact.

“Sorry, I honestly don’t know who did it,” the Inquisitor finally said. His voice was quiet, slightly ashamed. At least this statement was genuinely true.

Amelia continued her questioning, “You responded to this attack rather quickly, were you in the area? Investigating something else?”

“I’m not going to tell you that,” the Inquisitor replied.

“Were you sent here to investigate what happened to the tower?” Amelia asked.

Sir Dawkins remained silent, glowering at Amelia. He stopped being careless, too bad.

“In any case, I think I’ve heard enough for now,” the Inquisitor said, returning to his professional tone. “Unfortunately, I’m afraid I’m going to have to arrest you on charges of consorting with demons.”

“Wait what?” Amelia asked, shocked.

“You’re under arrest,” the Inquisitor repeated slowly. “You’ll return with me to the capital, and you’ll get a fair trial, but I’m afraid we’ll have to confiscate your pet demon.”

“Hold on,” Amelia said, raising her hand in a placating gesture, “I wasn’t consorti-”

Amelia couldn’t finish her sentence. In a blur of movement, the heavy wooden table flipped over. It crashed against the still-seated inquisitor and knocked him to the ground. The surprised man landed flat on his back and the table teetered over, landing upside down on top of him. Lily didn’t hesitate. She pounced on the table, crushing the Inqusitor against the floor with her considerable weight.

Despite the weight of five ‘Amelias’ and one table on his chest, the astonishingly strong Inquisitor managed to push back, shifting the table as he began to squirm out from underneath. Lily didn’t give him that chance. She thrust her claws through the wooden table, stabbing the man underneath. She stabbed again, and again. The vicious attacks were blind and inaccurate, but she continued her unrelenting assault, punching countless holes through the wood.

Small spurts of blood squirted through the table’s holes. More blood pooled on the tiled stone floor, leaking out from under the table. Amelia remained in her seat the entire time, frozen in shock as Lily ensured her victim was thoroughly dead. A sinister, sadistic grin sullied the formerly cute demon girl’s face as the sound of cracking wood and wet squishing filled the soundproofed chamber.

After the brutality was over, Lily leaned back, still sitting on the table, and licked the blood off her claws with nightmarish ecstasy on her face.

“Lily, you killed him!” Amelia exclaimed.

“Mmm… I know,” the demon’s voice sounded sultry, almost a moan. It had a sexual edge that made Amelia’s skin crawl.

“You murdered a holy knight in cold blood!”

“That’s right,” Lily placed one of the bloodied claws in her mouth and sucked on it suggestively.

“This was a peaceful conversation. We could have still talked things over, cleared up the misunderstanding! Now he’s dead.”

Amelia stood up, pulled on her hair, and paced around the room. Everything was out of control. Amelia's throughts were fuzzy. Lily was going around murdering people. Amelia was now accessory to the murder of a holy knight. There was a creepy shadow thing upstairs. The stupid book fucked with her brain and gave her headaches. Even now, her head was throbbing. Everybody was dead except for Tanya, who was still naked. There was no money left. Danica was dead. Everything was dust!

Everything was out of control, and Lily was making it worse. All of the chaos she stirred up… Amelia had to fix it now. She had to fight back against the chaos, take back control.

“Lily, we’re done. You murdered somebody. You can’t follow me anymore.”

The satisfied demon froze with a claw in her mouth, mid lick. The sadistic ecstasy drained away from her face in an instant, replaced with shock and disbelief.

“You murdered a human… an important one. He didn’t attack you first,” Amelia explained. “Once the guards find out what you did, they’ll all attack you on sight. You won’t be welcome around humans anymore. I… I need to take responsibility. I need to fix this, and I can’t do that if you’re here. You need to leave.”

“But I want to stay with you,” Lily said, in a quiet, pained voice.

There was sadness in the demon girl’s voice. It was genuine. That… was not a demonic emotion, yet another way that Lily was different than the rest. Amelia choked down her own urge to cry.

“You can’t,” she said, refusing the look Lily in the eye. “We could have still solved this with words, but you killed him instead. So go, now, before the guards catch you.”

Amelia pointed to the door. She caught a brief glimpse of tears in Lily’s eyes, another impossibility for a demon. Lily looked like she was going to refuse, but then her face hardened, and she obeyed Amelia’s demand. The demon girl turned around and walked through the door.

When Amelia was sure Lily was gone, she fell to her knees, and sobbed quietly.