Chapter 11:A New Problem.

I glared at her and Luna shifted her sword belt to easy reach without getting up. “This is your demoness then? She’s not trying to start out on the right foot is she?” she sounded so thoroughly unimpressed that Merillax almost recoiled, it looked like Luna had slapped her across her beautiful, perfect face. I blinked away the sense of goodwill that I was now certain was just an enchantment and paid attention to Merri’s sudden switch to an overly apologetic tone.

“I’m so sorry your majesty, I merely thought it strange that you would be sitting by the fire and flirting with the rugged adventurer when your lands are in such terrible danger.”

I wrinkled my brow and Luna narrowed her eyes. “What are you talking about?” She kept her tone flat, remaining unimpressed but non-confrontational. Merri recovered her composure fully and grinned like the cat with the canary. “Your friend knows how I got here, he knows I wasn’t strong enough to break free of the binding circle, he didn’t seem to piece together what that meant though.”

I drew a tuna candle and tried not to bristle at the demoness’s little giggle. “I’ve been watching you two for a while now, it really is a good thing I’m not a succubus, watching this human get you all worked up easier than I could feels like a shameful thing for any self-respecting demoness to have on her conscience.”

I kept glaring at her and Luna openly challenged her. “What do you want? Jack thought you were seeking asylum from my family against demon hunters. Now you're here playing voyeur in the bushes?’

Merri tapped a finger on her delicate cheekbones. “Not just asylum, much like the young mage I seek a place to grow powerful. With the freedom to operate as I see fit. I wish to take souls in battle so that I can grow strong and no longer need to obey my masters. I have one problem though, I must wait until my master does not need me any more, or until he is dead of course”

I calmly lit the wick on the candle with a muttered word and a click of the finger. “I’m sorry Merri, I don’t think you’ll have any luck getting souls from us. In fact, maybe I made a mistake in trusting a demon to have our best interests at heart. Even if our interests seemed to be aligned at the time”

Merri’s grin was just as self-satisfied as ever and she actually snorted at my brandishing of a candle. “Don’t you worry Jack, I don’t want to kill your new friend, I don’t want to kill any of her family in fact. I’m a battle demon, I can only consume the souls of warriors. My master however, well he consumes any souls, wicked or pure, noble or peasant. Noble souls work best though.” I was glad I had the candle in hand even If Merri was shooting me mixed signals along with the very bad vibes. Luna had the sword ready to draw, Merri had her hands in their normal, human form and I was watching the wick flickering in the corner of my eye as I faced off with the demoness. With a thought and a gesture I would send a stream of boiling oil onto the first person I’d spoke to in this new life of mine.

“Ranyai the Butcher is free, if you don’t know who that is well, he’s a demon of some infamy where I come from. I had the misfortune of being assigned to his legion and then a few days ago we were summoned to Azathor by the hunters, it was a spell that was supposed to bring me alone, unfortunately for the hunters Ranyai the Butcher hitched a ride on their spell. They tried to carry out the execution but my Master broke the circle, killed most of those who had invited us in and then we fled into the dark.”

That made sense, Merri was strong, tough, and had some magic at her disposal but the hunters I’d seen had nearly taken her out in what was basically a straight-up fight, if they'd had her in a magical trap she probably wouldn’t have had any chance without a stronger demon hitching a ride and crushing their hapless captors.

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Merri saw me trying to piece it all together and the hostility disappeared, she winked at me and laid the rest of the story out for our understanding.

“Ranyai broke our chains and gave me my orders. First I must bring him the local nobility, noble blood invigorates him after all and will restore the power he lost in transit from the Hells to Azathor. Second he will summon the rest of his legion and begin processing souls, his hope is to harvest enough souls to summon a legion-master completely unconnected to himself and bring even more demons to Azathor. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you why or what that would mean for your world”

Unsurprisingly Luna looked very alarmed at that proclamation and probably would have drawn the sword if I hadn’t held up a hand and gently shook my head. I gestured for Merri to go on and Luna trusted my judgement.

“Following this exact, literal command I have now found a human intermediary and a lower member of the noble house that I can use to get closer to the head of the household and her heir. I have irresistible orders not to strike against Ranyai or to relay any part of our plans to anyone other than those who will help carry them out. Can I trust you to capture the head of the Delacroft family as well as her other heir?”

Luna’s brow had furrowed, the scar outlined the clearest it had been yet. She wasn’t stupid and understood what was being conveyed here as well as I did. “Of course we will take on this task, as an informal contract you understand.”

Merri clapped her hands eagerly. “Yes, of course, an informal contract is satisfactory enough for my orders.”

Luna pressed a little further.

“Now we simply must know more about the resources available to us in this quest. This Ranyai, is he capable of assisting us directly? Perhaps by killing or otherwise dismantling the Delacroft Estate without first being invigorated with this noble blood”

Merri winced and blood trickled from her eyelid as she got very close to disobeying more than the spirit of her orders. To her credit she grit her teeth against the pain and shook her head in answer. “Our master is not capable of such a thing while in his weakened state, in fact breaking the summon trap sapped his strength so badly that he is vulnerable to simple steel. Keeping this in mind, he must conserve his strength and rely on his power of authority over lesser demons such as I instead. I only tell you this so that you know to keep steel weaponry away from him of course. I am bound to his literal commands after all”

Luna’s face took on a frighteningly murderous expression. “Is that so? May we visit Ranyai, just so that we can see his awesomeness in person”

Merri flinched and I heard a sickening crack as she tried to speak, several long seconds passed where the beautiful demoness screwed up her face in agony and just silently rode waves of pain before she could answer. “No, no one must know his location, or suggest methods to find hieurrgh” Merri dropped to her knees clawing at her temples as if some giant gong was sounding inside of her head.

“Do we need to know anything else?”

That was Luna, not heartless, showing pity for the cunning demoness who was trying to help us despite obviously being under some incredibly potent geas or curse that punished her for disloyal thoughts and would likely kill her if she actually let slip something important.

Merri smiled gratefully and was about to speak when another wave of pain hit her, her face scrunched up in agony and instead of trying to convey anything further she waved her hands down her body and that same pink light suffused the air around the demoness before whisking her away to who knows where.

In the silence that followed Luna and I let out simultaneous deep breaths and then immediately started planning how best to find and kill a weakened demon sergeant before he could find a way to get to her mother and sister. Merrillax was on our side for now, she’d made it clear she wasn’t pure of heart but that honesty was good enough for me. Unfortunately, neither of us had any experience with demon hunting and the guys who did were mostly lying butchered in a nearby cave.

Luna looked up at the village’s lights on the mountain as she came to a decision.

“I can think of one person who might know enough about demons to help us, but she's my sister and she'll never let me hear the end of it”