‘He was a little bruised up, with a split lip, and Regla was cut from the wood and probably had too many splinters to count, but they were both far better off than a literal adult who’d picked a fight with a child.

Well. Miach was also covered in another demon’s blood. So that probably didn’t look too good to the city guards who ran to meet them when Regla got them both to a far more familiar street.

It was all good.

It wasn’t anything a bath couldn’t fix.

Besides, he’d gotten the bird demon back, so it was fine, right?

…

Right?’

It had not been fine.

In fact, that had been the scariest he’d ever seen Iitys in the short time that he’d known her.

She’d listened to Regla’s panicked, nonstop chattering without a single expression on her face. Then she’d just stood up, left them in the care of another priest, and walked out without a word.

By the time Miach and Regla had been seen to and cleaned up, she returned in a new set of robes and reassured Miach that she had “reminded them,” whatever that meant, with a serene smile.

There had been blood on her shoes, shining and bright, and a satisfaction in her eyes that reminded him of a predator.

Miach had not pointed the blood out.

She’d also told him that due to the dangers of the city, she was cutting their visit short and taking him home.

Given that the guards were running around like kicked ants, he was pretty sure that it wasn’t only her saying that. The very thing he’d been trying to avoid was happening; the King was getting involved, and he probably wasn’t happy.

Strangely enough though, he hadn’t been taken to the palace. Iitys said something about the King not wanting to scare Miach, right before she’d gone back to packing his few belongings. A tunic he’d gotten from a street vendor, some weird spinning top thing he’d won in another street vendor’s opening day, a collection of random things from Regla; it wasn’t much, but he still felt a pang when he watched it be put away.

He’d been stupid, and had gotten in enough trouble that he was leaving early. He’d just gotten comfortable, and had been mentally preparing himself for three more days of Dawngold. Instead, he was going to leave as soon as they could, in the morning, with very little time to say goodbye or even walk through the city one more time.

Miach thought he was doing well to suck it up and hide it, but Regla’s hug had given him an inkling that he hadn’t done as good of a job as he’d thought.

Which led to his current predicament.

Regla wasn’t letting go.

He’d spent the night, clinging to Miach, and still hadn’t let go.

The sniffling kid was hiding his face in the back of Miach’s shirt and refusing to release his hold, no matter what Iitys tried to tell him. Miach couldn’t understand Demonic, barely got the numbers, but he could tell she was getting exasperated. Her words were slowing down and she was trying to peel Regla’s fingers loose one by one.

It wasn’t going over well, if the increased dampness of Miach’s shirt was anything to go by.

Iitys was looking a mix of helpless and annoyed, and their wagon driver was much the same. What little stuff Miach had accumulated over his week’s stay were already inside the wagon, and they weren’t even the only ones leaving on it. Aside from the driver, there were two other priests and a priestess who were doing their best not to laugh.

Miach took initiative and turned around in Regla’s unforgiving grip, giving the little imp a short hug and using that distraction to break away and dart back inside the temple he’d been staying in. He heard Iitys give a startled shout behind him, but he ignored her and beelined for his room, grabbing the one thing he’d forgotten.

When he turned to leave he came face to face with a slightly panting Regla.

Regla had frozen, eyes on the brick that Miach had in his hand. It was the same one Regla had thrown through the window.

Iitys walked out from the hallway behind Regla, eyes narrowing when she saw the brick.

“You are not going to be throwing of that at him, yes?” She asked, placing a hand on Regla’s head in preparation to drag him out of range.

Miach shook his head, tossing the brick from one hand to the other.

“No, I’m gonna make him stop clinging. The King, he’s my secondary guardian?”

“Yes.”

“Then obviously I’ll be coming here to visit.”

“I am having been telling him of this, yes.”

Miach stopped tossing the brick and moved forward to grab Regla’s face with one hand, doing his best to smoosh the kids cheeks and make him look like the idiot he was.

“I. Am. Coming. Back. Knock. It. Off.” He gave Regla a little shake at the end, just to get the point across before lifting the brick and practically shoving it in Regla’s face, “Friendship brick, remember? You’re acting like I’m dying, what the fuck man, I’m literally just going home.”

Iitys dutifully translated, but it sounded like she was adding words. Probably trying to make it sound friendlier. From the look of mild disbelief on Regla’s face, though, he knew that Miach hadn’t been nice in what he said. Regardless, the imp shook himself out of Miach’s hold and scrubbed at his face with his hands, nodding.

Then the little shit punched Miach in the arm, shouted something, and ran away.

Miach looked up at Iitys, bewildered.

“He is wishing you the safe travels,” she explained, shrugging before herding him back outside. They had waited long enough, it seemed, and she wasn’t taking any further delays.

The wagon was waiting for them, everyone in their places and having easy conversation, everything loaded up and ready to go. The conversation slowed a bit as the priests made room for Iitys and Miach, rearranging themselves as he sat between some sort of demon that reminded him of a panda and Iitys.

Regla hadn’t completely disappeared, though, and when Miach peeked out the back of the wagon he could see the little imp trailing them all the way to the city limits.

It was stupid and pathetic for a grown man to call a child a friend and mean it, but Regla was, and Miach felt his fingers tightening on the dumb brick against his own accord. Regla was familiarity in a new world, and he liked having people other that Iitys or the King around. Were there even going to be any kids where Iitys lived? Was he going to be alone?

He was only barely past the city gate and already the quiet of the wilderness around him was driving him insane.

No. No, he could do this.

He was an adult in mind, and he could handle something as simple as moving to a different city.

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

The trip outside of Dawngold was going to take roughly a week. It had been rough at first, adjusting to how loud nature was, how empty it felt.

But once he was used to it, he actually liked it?

It was oddly reassuring to have his surroundings so quiet he could hear someone walking up to him.

By the fourth day, he was voluntarily wandering into the forest for the sole sake of finding good hiding spots, much to Iitys’ ire. Currently, he was climbing up some weird tree with glowing flowers. The bark was gnarled, but not too rough on his hands, which made it perfect for gripping onto and had almost no slippage.

He had no doubt that Iitys knew where he was, something about communing with nature, but he still had to make it a challenge. Why? Because he was bored, really, and climbing trees and exploring the forest were the only things an illiterate child who couldn’t speak the native language could do. The light from the strange sun bubbles meant that there weren’t really any elongating shadows to help tell time, and he was prone to not realizing how long he’d been away.

Which led to things like one of the other priests or priestesses hunting him down to take him back to the cart, usually right before it started raining so hard it was practically pitch black.

Setting up the tents was always a hassle, and Miach may or may not have been avoiding helping with them. Extra support poles, super heavy fabric that was thicker than a quilt…it was good for staying dry but it was such a pain to put together.

Iitys had gotten better at snatching him away from the forest before he could get too deep, roping him into mandatory help, so he’d decided to try to climb as high as he could. If he climbed high enough, then he could act like he was having a hard time hearing her and have visual confirmation that camp construction was complete before he came down.

He reached for another branch and long, pale fingers with one too many joints grabbed his ankle, halting his process.

He looked down and glared at the priest that had just caught him.

The priest that had caught him, Tvigor, didn’t appear phased by that at all. His pale, dead white eyes just gazed in his general direction, looking bored. He sighed, shaking his head and opening his mouth with one too many clicks of a jaw that had more joints than it should have, and said the only word that Miach knew intimately in Demonic.

“No.”

With that thrilling delivery, he literally dragged Miach down and carried him out of the tree.

Miach was carried back to camp upside down by his ankles.

The weird white demon laid him unceremoniously at the feet of Iitys, nodded to her, and turned to finish setting up his own tent.

Iitys did not look impressed.

“Miach, go to be helping Kadyr with his tents,” she ordered, already dragging their sleeping gear into their own tent. “He is needs more of the hands. Now go, and if I am to catching you running to have hiding in the woods one more time, I will be putting of the leash on you.”

Miach felt himself make a face against his own will and took a few seconds to stare up at the gathering clouds, mentally whining. Then with a deep breath, he stood up and made his way over to the panda-man. Panda-demon.

He went to the panda guy and tugged on the man’s robe to get his attention.

Kadyr turned from the tent pole he was trying to hold in place while he tied the bottom half of the tent to it, looked down at Miach, and had the audacity to look relieved and thankful. Within two minutes he had Miach hard at work tying down the floor part of the tent while Kadyr held the poles in place.

Kadyr was the last one to start setting up his tent, as he usually went out of his way to set up the cooking tent first. The wagon cover had been extended to shelter the horses, so really Kadyr was the last one to finish.

Kadyr also never seemed to stop talking.

Miach had no idea what the man was talking about, but the entire time they set up the tent he did not shut up. Given how often he was eyeing the cooking tent, though, he was willing to bet it was about food. Honestly, Miach was a little curious, because how could someone talk about food for thirty minutes straight unless their culture had a lot of food? But his irritation at tying the million little ties was winning over any awe he would have felt.

By the time the tent was up in all of its horrifying insult to the color spectrum, purple and yellow canvas clashing together, the food was done and Miach was ready to kill something.

The thunder was building up and the first drops were starting to come down when they all headed into the cooking tent. It wasn’t as well fortified as the sleeping ones, since it’s only real function was to keep the rain out of the food and off of the little stove in the middle of it, but it did its job.

Miach had no idea what the food was, but he swallowed it as fast as he could. The demon who had been in charge of cooking that night, the red one with the wings, Apara or something; she wasn’t a good cook. She also wasn’t a bad one, per se. She just didn’t seem to understand the concept of flavor? The food was either too salty, too bland, or some strange mix of every single spice they’d brought along.

She would also cry if Miach didn’t eat the food, but in that awful way people did when they tried to act like they weren’t really crying. So no one said a word and just made it a point to eat as quickly as they could. Except Kadyr, who would always try to loop someone else into a conversation, and always asked for seconds. And thirds.

Miach was pretty convinced the nights that the red demon cooked were Kadyr’s favorite, if he was being honest, due to the fact that there were so many leftovers.

So while he was talking it up with Apara, already on his second bowl, Iitys quietly snuck herself and Miach out of the cooking tent and into the rain, speed walking them to their own tent before the red demon noticed they’d left after just one bowl of…whatever that had been. Soup? Could he call it soup?

He felt like it had been too sludgy for soup.

He was also too tired to care.

He’d started to associate the sound of rain with sleep, and the thunder didn’t even wake him from that anymore. Iitys forced him to change into a sleepshirt and tucked him into the sleeping mat, Miach already starting to nod off.

He’d try to run and hide again in the morning, to get out of taking the stupid fucking things down. Iitys had clearly been exaggerating when she’d said she was going to put a leash on him.

He hoped.

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

She hadn’t been exaggerating.

First thing in the morning the camp had seen Miach bolting for the forest in his sleepwear, only to be practically tackled by Iitys before she tied a long rope around his waist. There had been no more sneaking into the surrounding forest after that.

It had only been three more days, but it felt like it took forever.

He’d swapped places with Kadyr in the wagon, for the sole purpose of staring longingly at the woods from the back of it. He had hoped that his clear need to explore would melt Iitys’ heart just enough that she’d get rid of the stupid leash.

It hadn’t.

She hadn’t even looked up from the book she’d been reading, and he knew if he’d made a big fuss about it she’d just drag him into some weird learning game that wasn’t actually fun. He didn’t want education, he wanted to climb and stuff. By the time they made it to the lift to go up to the floating island Iitys called their home, Miach was almost frothing at the mouth with boredom.

But once the lift doors were closed behind them, Iitys actually bent down and undid the rope.

“When the lift is being stops, you may be leaving to have the running off of the energy. Rivervault should be being safe, and the edges are to be having a fence. Just be finding someone and speak to them of my name, they will to be taking you to my house when you are of being ready.”

Miach wasn’t bored anymore. He felt like he was vibrating in his seat. He knew that the child-brain had practically taken over due to lack of stimulation, but his adult-brain was in total agreement with it. Once the lift ride was over, he’d finally be able to burn off the unending energy his six year old body had.

The adults in the lift had dutifully gone around and pulled down some thick, pitch black cloth over the lift windows, much to his confusion. Once they started going up, however, he realized why. Even with the shades drawn completely shut with what was clearly blackout curtains, the sun bubbles were so bright he still had to close his eyes. The heat was just shy of unbearable, but it didn’t feel like he was at risk of dying from heatstroke. He felt like he’d been correct in his guess that they were the same height as the thunderstorm that brought about Joaalu’s version of night, as the time it took to reach them seemed like it was as long as it had been to reach Dawngold once they’d hit the thunderstorm.

He’d also been correct in the sun bubbles being highly diluted substitutions for the sun, given that he’d traveled so close to them twice and hadn’t been incinerated.

So they were really just giant heat lamps, then.

Then when he’d gone down from the post office, through the clouds, why hadn’t it been hot? Why wasn’t there rising steam before descending into the clouds? His head started compiling a million questions, and he felt like the need to know was taking over every thought he had. How did this world even function? Why was it in a Void? How were they able to breathe? If they weren’t from the same dimension or world, how did humans even know they existed to hold a grudge against them?

When he tried to ask Iitys, though, he heard all of the adults except Iitys scrambled to lift the shades. Miach squinted his eyes open, relieved to find the light at a more manageable level, just in time to see Iitys make herself comfortable and set her sights on the other priests, very much like she was waiting for something.

The glare from the sun bubbles started to die down a bit, and Tvigor, Apara, and Kadyr exploded into excited whispers as they all crowded the windows facing the island. Curious, Miach glanced at Iitys, who had taken to wearing a sly smile, and elbowed his way to the window to see what the fuss was about.

Rivervault, as it turned out, was breathtaking.

A waterfall that fell from the island disappeared into a shimmering bit of air, and the island itself looked like it had been plucked from a cave cavern. It was the largest cavern Miach had ever seen, but still clearly originally a cave. Stalactites hung from the bottom of the island, and the island itself was full of strange crystals that glittered in the light of the sun bubbles, curving in on itself and opening into arches that looked like someone had sheared them straight from the cave, towering so tall that even coming up from under Rivervault and at an angle, Miach could still see them.

As the lift started riding up next to the floating island, as opposed to going inside of it like the post office, the various little cave openings that were too small for anything had tiny little shrines inside of them. Small statues to whatever goddess that Iitys served, or things that he supposed that goddess would like. The further up they got, the more moss was present. Then flowers started appearing, multiple colors splashing against the grey of the stone and damp green of the moss. Then, finally, wooden planks as the lift came to its docking station.

A large demon, a cyclops who was also in priest gear, reached over and dragged the lift closer, anchoring it in place with large metal hooks before opening the door for them.

Miach felt a hand rest on his back, and when he looked up he was surprised to see Tvigor, looking slightly pained as he lightly pushed Miach towards the door, saying something in that tone of voice that made Miach think of an exhausted babysitter.

“He is telling you to start the running, Miach, he knows you are of wanting to go,” Iitys supplied, sounding amused.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Miach didn’t need to be told twice.

He bolted, dodging between the Cyclops’ legs and towards the sparse, manicured forest that the priests on the island had decided to grow on what used to be a cave system.

There were stalagmites reaching up to a cave ceiling that no longer existed, and there were large, strange glowing orange rocks that clearly acted as the sun substitute in the small forest; the plant life around them was much greater than the areas away from them, and they gave off warmth to ward away the chill of the void above them. Close to the edge, the light and heat from the sun bubbles was abundant, but the further inside the island he got, the less it was noticeable, if at all. The inner part of the island was lit by the void’s aurora, shifting purples and greens that made the shadows dance.

Houses were seemingly placed at random, until he realized that the glowing sun-stones were also marking roads and pathways; they’d been blended into the environment so well he just hadn’t noticed them until he knew to look for them. Once he knew to look for them, there were roads everywhere. The island looked like a small, weird forest, but he had a feeling that there was not a single inch of the place that wasn’t developed.

Big sun-stones marked normal paths, small sun-stones on top of wooden posts marked private property, and stalagmites that were hollowed out to have a medium sun-stone placed in them were crossroads.

Good. Now he was less likely to get lost.

Miach proceeded to make sure to follow Iitys’ advice; he did everything he needed to do to run off his energy and explore, and he already had his eyes on a target to do that with.

There was an arch that was larger than all the rest, towering over everything and commanding his attention, with a very large building on top of it. He was willing to bet, given the small shadows and silhouettes he could see in the distance, that most of the priests were there. Behind the arch, water fell from the sky, from one of those weird hazy bits of air that the other waterfall vanished into, and fell down to create a river. Naturally, that being the biggest thing, Miach went to explore inside the arch. He could see some houses inside of it, and there were glowing lanterns hanging down from the top of the arch.

Miach barely glanced down at the river, but it definitely wasn’t because he was scared, and followed the path next to it towards the big arch.

It took him twenty minutes to reach it, and the arch was far bigger the closer he got to it. The King could have easily stood up in it with room to stretch, if he hadn’t cared about damaging the houses that were anchored to its walls. Miach honestly wasn’t sure if those houses would be where new priests lived, or the higher ranks. There was no trace of the sun bubbles this far into the island, and the aurora lights, while cool, were starting to creep him out. Unfortunately, he hadn’t run into any priests to ask for directions, so he couldn’t find Iitys’ house.

But he did see one house, the only one on the ground, with its door open. It was on stilts, held out of the water, but it was the lowest one. Since Miach didn’t know how to reach the high ones, given that he couldn’t see any stairs leading to them, that house would have to do. He’d had enough exploring, and it was time to go get settled in. He just needed to find a bridge to get over there and ask.

He started jogging down the path, carefully staying clear of the river waters to his side, and found the bridge in question. It was simple, sturdy, and looked perfectly safe.

Miach still hesitated.

He could still remember drowning. He could still feel Nyxla’s hands as they framed his face, hear her scream as she lost him.

He shook it off. He was being stupid, and the bridge was fine. It was just a dumb bridge.

Miach took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and hesitantly made his way across it. He’d been right, it was sturdy. The river was just a river, not some monster that was going to reach out and get him. He huffed out a laugh, braving the railing of the bridge to look over. His child brain was just making him overreact, clearly. He was fine.

He was so fine he was going to prove it, and look into the crystal clear waters of the river to see if he could find any axolotls or fish.

He stood on his tiptoes and looked over the railing…and saw someone standing behind him. He would have turned to look and see who was there, but he very suddenly found moving to be impossible.

In the water, in his reflection, staring at him from over his shoulder, Nyxla stood. Her expression gave Miach the feeling that if she had eyes, she’d be glaring at him. One of her hands raised, and he felt it rest on his neck. It was gentle, but firm.

It started to squeeze.

Miach threw himself back, ramming into the opposite railing hard enough that he knew he was going to bruise, and bolted to the other side of the bridge. He stumbled his way up the stairs to the house, breath quickening into panting as he ran from the threat. The house was warm, and well lit with warm tones, and Miach ran face first into the biggest plushie he’d ever felt.

He opted to throw his arms around it and hug it. He could apologize to the homeowner later, but he needed the soft fuzzy fur to ground himself and shake off the cold feeling that had leeched into his bones.

The pair of arms that hesitantly reached around to hug him back were so startling he let go and staggered backwards.

That wasn’t a plushie. That was some sort of…uh…pink moth demon? The fuzzy antenna were like a moth, and the wings were kinda moth-y, and the face was definitely sporting some bug eyes. Humanoid mouth, thank fuck, but those huge eyes were looking rather bewildered.

They started talking at him, sounding pensive as they got closer and started circling him. One set of arms tugged at his ears as another, smaller set brushed off any dirt he accumulated during his explorations. The talking paused.

The moth demon leaned down, pink wings fluttering a bit as he spoke directly to Miach.

Miach shook his head.

“I can’t speak Demonic yet,” he offered, shrugging.

The moth demon made a series of clicking noises, sounds Miach was pretty sure were impossible for human vocal chords to make, and nodded.

“Thou cameth into mine own house; wherefore art thou h're?”

Oh shit. Perfect Common. Well, really old Common, but still flawless.

“I uh. I thought I saw Nyxla. I dunno, your house was open so I just. Ran.” Miach managed to get out, caught off guard. Iitys hadn’t mentioned there would be others who could speak Common, but he supposed that there would. If one demon could speak it, why couldn’t others?

The moth demon nodded, moving further into his house and delicately going through his bookshelves, and now that Miach had calmed down, he was beginning to notice a lot of books. This demon was a collector, clearly, as some of them looked so old Miach was genuinely afraid to even breathe on them. Aside from the books that cluttered almost every available surface, the house was fairly plain. Wooden furniture, some tapestries, a hearth.

“Thou has't did earn the Goddess of the Drowned's ang'r, aye. I can seeth yond. The Lady did mark thou, regardless of the contracteth yond off'r'd thou to h'r. Thy charm is liketh to Iitys, so I shall bid h'r of yond anon. I wouldst adviseth staying hence from riv'rs, dram not human.” The moth demon interrupted his snooping, like they were advising him of the weather.

It genuinely took Miach a good minute to understand what the moth demon had said, and during that time the demon had found what they were looking for. They were pulling incredibly old looking books from the shelves, and were actively looking for others.

“Uh, okay. I will steer clear of of rivers then. Hey, do you know where Iitys lives? I kinda got excited and ran off without learning where her house is.” Miach asked, watching the moth demon make their way to him with four books in their arms.

“I shall guide’st thou to thy moth'r. These shouldst make learning our tongue easi'r, but thou beest careful with these books. Cometh 'long, tis timeth f'r thou to wend home.” The moth demon said, not waiting for Miach’s input as their free set of arms lifted him into a side hold and they walked back towards the bridge.

Miach couldn’t help but hide his face in the collar of the moth demon's robes, having no desire to see his reflection in the river. He felt the moth demon look over to the water and lift their chin.

“Begone, dram Goddess. Thou has't nay holdeth ov'r those who art not in thy domain,” they declared loudly, the grip on Miach tightening just a little bit.

The water seemed to stop making noise, just for a moment, before it started up again. A feeling of dread Miach hadn’t even noticed dissipated, leading to him bravely peek his head over the moth demon's shoulders as they finished carrying him over the bridge.

He only caught a glimpse of the river, though, before the moth demon took a sharp left and towards a stairway that Miach hadn’t been able to see before.

It was carved into the stone of the cave, and was meticulously kept clean of moss and dirt, appearing to be a waist deep trench as they climbed further up. They came to a crossroads and deviated back down, towards the light of the sun bubbles that peeked over the edge from below, and Miach made sure to memorize as much as he could. The moth demon did not put him down, walking primly with one set of arms holding the books on one side of his body and the other holding Miach.

Miach’s new house was roughly fifteen minutes of walking from the moth demon's house, and Miach fully intended to take advantage of that. The moth demon spoke weirdly, but they were another person Miach could talk to aside from Iitys, and that was refreshing.

The moth demon also purportedly had books that they thought Miach could read, which he had been craving since he left Dawngold, and had a huge selection of other books. If Miach got in good with them, then he’d never be bored.

“Th're; yond house is thy moth'r's house. Rememb'r ‘t well, dram human.” The moth demon said, jostling Miach out of his plotting.

The house itself was quaint, a little cabin on the ground level, away from the arch, and within view of the waterfall from the sky. Moss was creeping up the side, the light was an even mix of the sun bubble lights and the void aurora, there was smoke coming from the chimney and the windows were thrown open, and Iitys was in the process of hanging a rug on a line, a large stick waiting at her feet to beat it with.

The moth demon opened their mouth and called out to her, and she turned, confusion morphing into actual shock when she saw the moth demon holding Miach. She asked something, already moving over to take Miach from the moth demon’s arms.

The moth demon answered, and handed over Miach easily enough. He heard the name Nyxla and suppressed a shudder, but before he could grab onto Iitys’ robes for balance, the moth demon shoved the books he’d been carrying into Miach’s arms.

“Rememb'r to readeth these,” they said, patting the books. “Nary a soul speaks thy tongue h're, to learneth is imp'rative to living well.”

Miach, arms full of books so big that they actually partially covered his face, nodded.

The moth demon seemed to hesitate, patted Miach’s head, nodded respectfully to Iitys, and strode away.

“You didn’t say there were other demons here who could speak Common,” Miach accused, voice muffled as Iitys carried him and the book inside the house.

“I will to be truthful, I was having no idea that he could speak the Common,” She confessed sounding baffled. “He almost does not do the speaking at all, and never shares of the books. To be speaking of the point; you were seeing of Nyxla?”

Miach nodded, clutching the books to him tighter as she set him down on a wooden bench next to the hearth.

“Then we will be making of the charms to be scaring her off, and you are to be staying away from the rivers and the lakes,” she said, straightening his hair and picking up one of the books. “We will be figuring this out, and you will be growing up safe. Now, let us be seeing what is in the books that Zonjal has much love of.”

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

The books, as it turned out, were story books that had very old Common on one side, and actual Demonic on the other. Iitys had inhaled sharply, and immediately set down rules about when he was allowed to handle the books and how they needed to be stored.

Apparently, two of the books were hand-written by the moth demon, Zonjal. The other two were incredibly old, and barely toed the line of being illegal. Any books from before the thing that put Joaalu in a void were very, very illegal. Which, really? That pissed Miach off.

He needed to learn Demonic so he could get rid of that stupid rule. Why did a rule like that exist in the first place? Illegal books, seriously? They were fucking books.

But Zonjal had been right; they really did help.

Miach was having a far easier time learning Demonic in a written format, and was picking it up with surprising speed. Iitys always made sure to let him know what slang was outdated, what terms were considered rude currently, and had gotten to work transcribing storybooks into Common and Demonic as well, seeming to pick up that he had an easier time reading them than saying them.

He learned his numbers in one afternoon. Granted, he only really learned them up to twenty, but that was practically knowing all the numbers he’d need to anyways.

Could he say them?

No.

There were noises that human throats couldn’t make, and apparently a huge portion of Demonic was those noises. When Miach tried, he sounded like a deranged puppy, and he could see Iitys struggling not to laugh. But that was fine, he had a plan. He’d just learn how to read Demonic, and that way even if he couldn’t speak it, he could carry a book and some charcoal or something with him.

Communication would be within his reach!

He read the same story again, the one about the magic pigs, but tried to stick to the Demonic script more than the Common. He made it about one eighth of the way through, which was better than before, but he could feel a migraine building.

Iitys noticed it too.

“Go to outside and play, Miach. Take the break.” She ordered, gently tugging the book away from him and setting it delicately to the side. “Is your bracelet being on?”

Miach lifted his wrist and shook it instead of replying, letting the metallic clinking of the charms on said bracelet answer for him.

Iitys nodded and patted his back lightly, standing up herself and stretching.

“Go, then. I must be getting preparing to teach my class.”

Miach didn’t need to be told twice, shoving his feet into his sandals and practically tripping out the door. His six year old body had accumulated too much energy, and he needed to either run it off or make it someone else’s problem.

He hadn’t gone up the largest arch yet, so he opted to try to reach the largest temple on the island. Rivervault’s crown jewel, as it were. When only a few steps up the arch he heard pigs, he knew it was destined. He had to go up the arch. He’d just read about pigs, and he was hearing pigs, so clearly it was a sign from the Goddess here that he had to go up.

He still needed to ask who that was, though. His memories as Braech weren’t serving him well on the whole names of Gods front, since he couldn’t remember leaving the Manor much less receiving any official education. But, how lucky for him: he was heading to the main temple. There were bound to be some clues, or a name written down that he could mentally sound out.

The trip up was exhausting, and Miach had to take breaks just off the main path. The priests and priestesses walking up and down it tried to act like they weren’t staring at him, but they couldn’t help but do double takes. He was pretty sure it was because none of them had seen a human before, though. None of the looks held the same malice that the shady shits in Dawngold had been staring him down with.

If he gave them a nod and a wave, they usually waved back with far too much excitement and scurried away, giggling like teenagers.

Shit, were they teens?

It was so hard to tell age with demons; every species aged differently and Miach didn’t even know a lot of species names. All he knew was the umbrella term of ‘demon.’

Was that racist?

He felt like it was racist.

He made a mental note to ask Iitys to teach him the different species that fell under the name of ‘demon’ as he straightened up and brushed the dirt off of his tunic, leaping onto the path and starting up again. The arch was no joke, and his little legs were having a hell of a time carrying him the entire way up.

It felt like it took forever, and Miach keenly missed the existence of watches. The void aurora was shining brightly above, and gave no indication of how much time had passed.

It just made things look weird.

It was still pretty, but the awe he’d held for it at first was fading into mild annoyance. The shadows seemed to writhe under the shifting lights, and he always had at least one jump scare while he was out of the house.

But bitching aside, he was finally in view of the temple; it was big. Not as big as the palace, obviously, but still pretty big. Orange sloping roofs, trees carefully planted around it to emphasize it’s architectural beauty, stained glass in all the windows, and walkways along the outside of the building where various student priests were gossiping.

Miach, having finally gotten close to his target, was filled with the realization that he was going to crawl all over that temple until he knew all of its little hiding spots.

In fact, it looked like there was a crawlspace next to the stairs leading into one of the side entrances.

He felt a wicked smile spread across his face.

It was time to make his boredom someone else’s problem.

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

The underside of the temple was full of pipes and mud, and also spiders. Actual spiders, though, not demon spiders.

Maybe.

Did shapeshifters exist?

He stopped trying to kill the ones crawling over him and muttered a quick apology, really hoping he hadn’t just committed murder. The spiders said nothing, and continued scurrying away from him as fast as they could.

Miach kept on crawling under the floors of the temple, peering up through the cracks occasionally to figure out what rooms he was under. There were a lot of classrooms, a few smaller sanctuaries, and one or two kitchens. He wasn’t sure about the kitchens thing, because the cracks were small and he was pretty sure at one point he’d gone in a circle.

Overall, the crawlspace of the temple didn’t really have any secret treasures in it. Some leaking pipes, sure, but there weren’t any hidden jewels or books or anything.

He crawled around some more, trying to find another crawlspace entrance to get out of.

He…could not find any. He couldn’t find another entrance, and he could feel the adventurous part of his mind starting to give way to the claustrophobic part. So he changed course; if he couldn’t find another entrance, then there had to be a way up. Probably.

If under the temple was where the pipes were kept, then there were probably some trapdoors or something for easy access to some of the pipes.

He crawled towards a huge crossway of them, careful to avoid the heated ones as he reached through them to touch the floor above him. It took a few tries, but then the floor gave way above one particular bundle of foul smelling pipes. Sewage, most likely.

Miach made sure not to get any in his mouth or eyes. He wasn’t just going to bathe after this, he was going to ritualistically purify himself if he could. But if he wanted out, then he was going to have to slide between the sewage pipes.

The floor kept giving way, light shined through the cracks, and with a groan of hinges that were never used Miach was out of the crawlspace and on the floor of what appeared to be a communal bathroom. Bath house? He finished crawling out and closed the hatch behind him. Carefully venturing away from the weird toilets and finding showers, and further in he could hear what sounded like a pool.

The tiles were set into delicate designs, blue on white with accents of orange. The shower heads looked like they were made of brass, because there was no way copper wouldn’t be turning green. He couldn’t see the baths, though, and he had no desire to seek them out.

Similar to what they had at their house, but on a much larger scale.

Which was very good; he could wash off the literal crap that had gotten smeared on him. He’d wander around naked if he had to, but he wasn’t wearing the tunic any longer.

He still stood in the shower with the tunic on at first, though, to try to save it at least a little bit.

The water was warm, but he hadn’t seen a boiler room. Magic, maybe? How long would the warm water last? Was there a limit or did it wear out? Did it heat as it was coming through the pipes or was it heated in another room and then just traveled down the pipes to the shower? More questions to ask Iitys.

Honestly he was just going to request a journal purely for questions, so he could keep track of them all.

But some of those he could answer himself. He stayed under the water, counting the seconds and converting them to minutes. His fingers started to prune, though, and he became light headed. He decided to use every single soap that was lining the shower walls, erasing the smell of the sewage he had crawled through to get there with far too many scents to name.

He gave up at forty minutes. The water showed no signs of getting colder and, far more importantly, Miach was getting bored.

He looked around for the exit, and found what looked like a locker room of some sort. Wooden cubbies were full of clean clothes, and Miach decided to liberate one of the shirts. It was huge on him, dragging on the ground and covering his hands, but it was clothing that wasn't soaking wet and still smelling of shit.

He folded up the sleeves as best as he could, and picked up the front of the shirt like it was a particularly long dress so that he wouldn’t trip.

Refreshed and ready for more exploring, he decided to find out if there were one or two kitchens. The fact that he was pretty sure he’d just seen the same one twice was bothering him, and he needed to be sure. He definitely wasn’t planning on pilfering any jerky that was stocked in them. It was purely educational, and he was furthering his education.

That decided, he chose a random direction and started running in it…only to have the collar of his new shirt grabbed and yanked back, halting his progress.

He turned, expecting to see the owner of the shirt, but came face to face with a very pissed off looking naga fully decked out in priestess robes, blue and gold scales shining distractingly in the warm lights of the hall. Her robes, and the naga was definitely wearing robes that were for priestesses, not priests, were far more ornate than Iitys.

This demon was high ranking. He had fucked up.

Miach smiled nervously at her, hoping to charm his way out of trouble.

It didn’t work.

She switched her grip from his new shirt to his ear and escorted him to her office instead of being swayed by his cuteness.

So rude.

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

The naga had lifted him and dropped him in a very ornate chair, before gliding over to her own side of the desk and settling on some very comfortable looking pillows.

Then she started talking to him, a very serious expression on her face as her golden clawed hands clasped around each other. Her voice was crisp, clearly enunciating every word that Miach could not understand, and the high ranking priestess was clearly laying into him. He had no doubt that if he could understand what she was saying, he’d probably cry.

But as it stood, he had no idea what she was saying.

Instead, he looked around her office.

There was a statue of their Goddess, who Miach still didn’t know, and another statue of a different Goddess on the opposite wall, both made from polished stone with carved wooden additions. The floor was covered in rugs, all of them with the same pattern and color scheme, laid out carefully so that there was no trace of the wooden floor beneath. The desk itself had some pretty carvings crawling up the sides of it, and as Miach leaned in for a closer look, the naga slapped her hands on the desk.

Miach immediately sat up straight, eyes on the priestess as she actually started to look and sound angry. The scolding had amped up, and Miach was sure it was because she had noticed that his attention hadn’t been on her.

She finished up, her scolding, lip curling in distaste as she said one final thing.

Then she stared at him.

“If that was a question, I don’t speak Demonic,” Miach offered, shrugging.

She was still staring at him, but it had changed from pissed to exasperated.

With a deep breath, she started talking again, but it was slower and louder, the clicks sharper and whistles drawn out.

Miach just shook his head at her.

“It doesn’t matter how slow you speak, I’m not going to understand what you’re saying. You need to find Iitys, or Zonjal. They can translate.”

The priestess looked like she was in pain, before she started talking even slower than before, leaning forward and opening her mouth to exaggerate the sounds she was making.

“I. Don’t. Speak. Demonic.” Miach interrupted her, slowing down his words as he copied what she was doing to him.

The demon threw up her hands and straightened to her full height, getting off of the pillows and motioning for him to follow her. Miach did. Not out of the sense that he had to, but because he wanted to know what was going to happen next.

She glided through the corridors, past one of the kitchens that Miach was still unsure about, grabbed him by the shirt when he tried to sneak into it, past a bunch of classrooms, and finally to a very specific one. She stuck her head into the classroom, said something, and backed up, Miach still in her grasp.

There was a brief moment where it was just them in the hallway, the priestess refusing to acknowledge Miach beyond the hold she had on his stolen shirt to keep him in place. Then the door opened again, and Iitys walked out, confusion on her face melting into resignation as she spotted Miach.

“What has you been doing now?” She asked, looking him over. “Why are you being wet? Where did your clothes go to?”

The priestess that had dragged Miach to the classroom shoved him towards Iitys, and the naga started to go off again. Iitys interrupted her, eyes narrowing as Miach took the opportunity to hide behind Iitys’ robes. The priestess snapped her teeth at Iitys, something Miach had never seen before, and Iitys stopped talking, jaw tense.

The naga finished what she was saying and stared Iitys down, then nodded at Miach.

“She is having scolding you for the stealing, and for the trespassing, using many words that are the being too big for her tiny brain.” Iitys translated, glaring at the other priestess. “She is being Head Priestess Iphal, she is to be the one in charge of this temple. She is having a head too big for her very small shoulders.”

Miach looked between them, doing his own mental gymnastics.

“Snapping your teeth at someone, what does it mean?” He asked suspiciously, peering around her robes at this Iphal.

“It is meaning stop the talking, but very rude-like. It is being ah…crass.”

Oh. Oh, so this bitch had insulted his foster mother. How unfortunate for her! Miach was now going to make his boredom her problem, specifically, every single day if he could. The bitch in question took one final look at Miach, sniffed like she’d smelled something rank, and turned to leave.

He watched her go, already making plans to make her life miserable, when a shirtless Kadyr rushed past her and stopped in front of Iitys, panting as he spoke with her. Iitys’ loosened her shoulders and guided Miach out from behind her, motioning to all of him.

Kadyr, confused, leaned down to inspect the shirt and nodded.

“Why are you having Kadyr’s shirt?” Iitys asked, sounding tired.

“Okay, so there’s actually a very reasonable explanation for that,” Miach started.

Iitys face clearly said she doubted that.

That was okay, though, he’d just explain everything in a logical manner like the adult he was in mind.

Only, when he was done explaining, and she had finished translating to Kadyr, she only looked even more tired.

“You are to be having house arrest for the week,” she sighed, guiding him into her classroom so she could finish her lesson, Kadyr following them and trying to smother the snorting laughter that kept threatening to erupt at any moment.

Wait.

Had…had he just gotten grounded?