“How is my favorite Demon Lord doing?” Skarrol asked, stepping into the cell. “I haven’t seen you in some time!”

Lord Luth looked up at Skarrol. The chains clinked as they swung from his hands.

“The last time you met me was yesterday.”

“Well, yesterday or not, I’ve been given a job.”

“Is this my sentence, to be irritated to death by you?”

“No, your food!”

The Harpy stepped over, carrying a tray with a jug of water and a pile of bread scraps accompanying a half-loaf of bread.

“Some bread and water! Well, the soldiers of the garrison won’t allow me to leave to get the fresh stuff, so the leftovers are all that I have to give.”

“More bread?” Lord Luth asked.

“Well, yeah,” Skarrol replied. “Junil told me to. You need to stay healthy, after all!”

The Harpy held out the tray to the Demon Lord. Luth hesitantly took the stale loaf, and squeezed it in his hand to confirm that it was at least slightly less stale than the one he had eaten yesterday.

“Thanks, I suppose,” he said.

“Don’t forget your water, too!” the Harpy exclaimed. “I remember you mentioned not having enough water last time, so I brought extra water!”

Lord Luth glanced up at Skarrol.

“...Thanks,” he said, with a hint of reluctance. The Demon Lord bit into the bread, crumbs flying everywhere as the stale bread gave way. Skarrol, in the meanwhile, watched him do so.

“How’s the food?” the half-Harpy asked.

“Terrible,” Luth admitted. “But edible.”

Skarrol supervised Lord Luth as he chewed away. The Harpy looked to the side, and pulled a wooden crate towards himself to sit on.

“Do you wanna do any small talk?” the half-Harpy asked.

Lord Luth glanced up.

“I feel like I can’t really refuse,” the Demon Lord replied. “So no, I don’t want any. But go ahead, because I know you’re going to say something regardless.”

“You know me really well already, and it’s only been a day!”

“I’m just good at picking up signs.”

Luth took several hearty gulps of water, then set the cup down. He looked at Skarrol again. “Well, what is it you want to talk about? Might as well get over it now.”

“Oh, it’s about your sister,” Skarrol replied.

Lord Luth paused right as he was about to take another bite of bread.

“My sister? What about my sister?”

“Well, the Hero is after your sister. You know that, right?”

Lord Luth gave the Harpy a wary glance.

“...Yeah? Where are you bringing this conversation?”

“I’m just saying you might get to see her soon, courtesy of me triangulating the message you sent!”

The silence between the two persisted for about ten seconds as Lord Luth processed what Skarrol was saying. He then dropped the bread back on the tray, and took a deep breath.

“You told the Hero where my sister was?!” the Demon Lord roared.

Skarrol did not expect that reaction from him. The Harpy stumbled back out of instinct, the outburst of unexpected emotion instinctively looking for an explanation to placate the angered Demon Lord.

“Well — I only told him the general direction,” Skarrol said, defensively. “Nothing more! It’s not like I can point to a map and say where she is, I just know she’s in the Grand Elm region!”

“That’s not any better!” Lord Luth exclaimed. He brought his hands up to his head, the chains on his arms rattling as he did so. “What were you thinking? Why were you thinking? What is wrong with you?”

“It just... well, it’s what Sire Ronn expects of me.”

“It’s what he expects of you? Is that what you’re saying is wrong with you? Answer me!”

“But, uh... you’re getting awfully emotional about your sister here, isn’t this all—?”

“You don’t even know my sister!”

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The Demon Lord pulled against his chains while reaching out for the Harpy, but failed. He collapsed in a heap on the floor of the cell, giving a defeated sigh followed by a pitiful groan.

Skarrol felt bad.

“Look, I’m — well, I feel like it’s a bit too late to say ‘sorry’ here,” he said.

The Demonfolk general turned his head and glared at the half-Harpy with hate-filled eyes.

“I’m going to strangle you,” Luth threatened.

“You’re still in chains at this very moment.”

Lord Luth’s gaze bore into Skarrol.

“I’m going to take back my comment about the pigeon stew. I will wring your neck. I am going to boil you into a broth. I am going to make the first Harpy stew in existence right here and right now!”

Skarrol was not a very confrontational individual. He winced at every word, but couldn’t help but try to point out some inconsistencies in what Lord Luth was saying.

“...Wait, the first? So the rumors about you guys usually eating Harpies wasn’t true—?”

Lord Luth growled.

“Uh... forget about that,” the Harpy said. He then raised a finger, as he continued speaking. “Firstly, I need to know why you’re so angry over this. Other than the fact that she is your sister.”

The Demon Lord remained quiet.

“No? Nothing?” Skarrol asked.

Lord Luth still didn’t answer, only opting to turn his head away from the Harpy.

“I suppose I’ll leave, then,” Skarrol said. He turned around and was about to step out when Luth interrupted him.

“Sollar. Her name’s Sollar.”

Skarrol paused.

“Pardon?”

“Her name’s Sollar. She’s my sister, of course I’d be worried about her. But I’m also worried about her because she’s...”

Luth paused and looked down, sighing. Skarrol leaned in, suddenly curious.

“She’s...?”

“She... can’t really live in the real world.”

The Harpy cocked his head. “What do you mean by that?”

“She just can’t really understand much. If you get what I mean.”

Lord Luth made some hand gestures around his head, trying to get the message across. Despite that, Skarrol genuinely couldn’t figure out what the Demon Lord was trying to allude to.

“She can’t understand the...? Luth, you might need to be more specific.”

“Oh, I can’t sugar-coat these word anymore. She’s stupid! A simpleton! Half-witted! Unintelligent! Invalid from birth!”

Lord Luth deflated with every word he uttered. Meanwhile, Skarrol was taken aback by the outburst.

“But... but you’re the Demon Lord. She’s your sister. That doesn’t make any sense if you share the same blood. Shouldn’t your bloodline be all-powerful and almighty?”

“I don’t have an answer for that, but I’d pay in my own magical reserves several hundred times over just to get an answer as to why, oh why she was born the way she was.”

“It... can’t be that bad, right?”

“She has trouble with simple arithmetic.”

“Oh.”

That was certainly not good.

“I’ve done everything,” Luth muttered. “Hired some of the best tutors and practitioners of healing and medicine. They... weren’t able to teach her, and the healers said there was nothing wrong. But there is something wrong, I just can’t...”

Lord Luth sighed.

“But none of that changes the fact that she’s my sister.”

Skarrol stared at the Demon Lord, who was currently falling into despair.

“From my impressions, I thought you would’ve cast her out,” the half-Harpy said.

Lord Luth’s head snapped up to look at Skarrol.

“Are you daft? Of course not!”

Skarrol retreated a step. “I just—! I mean, I was expecting your kind to be the more brutal, ‘survival-of-the-fittest’ types!”

“The Human propaganda really got to your head, huh?”

Skarrol grit his teeth. “Alright, maybe it did. But you’re not lying to me here, right? She’s harmless?”

Lord Luth sighed. “She can’t even fathom hurting anyone... Now I’m worried over her safety.”

“I wouldn’t be worried,” Skarrol replied. “I mean, since I only told them the general direction, she can’t be in that much danger. Right?”

The Demon Lord gave a deadpan stare.

“...Alright,” Skarrol continued. “Okay, I admit that she might be in some danger. But... well, she’s low profile, right? Not the type to really boast about how she’s literally the Demon Lord’s sister?”

Lord Luth released his breath and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers.

“I’m not the type to take chances like that,” the Demon Lord replied. “Any chance she can be in danger is a chance that’s not acceptable at all.”

Skarrol blinked. “You’re quite the risk-averse one, are you?”

“No, really? Do you think I wouldn’t be risk-averse when it comes to my own sister?” Lord Luth snickered.

The Harpy frowned. “Alright, I’ll try to do you right. Just tell me some of her personality, at least. My earlier question, she’s not the boastful type, right? Not really the kind to get attention?”

Lord Luth shook his head. “No... Not at all.”

“That can work in your favor. Maybe the Hero can’t fathom her possibly being the Demon Lord’s sister.”

“What do you mean?” Lord Luth asked.

Skarrol tapped a finger to his temple. “He’ll be looking for someone clever. Think about it, he’ll have assumed that you raised your sister specifically to avenge you, should anything ever happen to you. Because that’s what I’d do if I was the Demon Lord.”

“Well...” Lord Luth said. “I’m glad you’re not the Demon Lord, then, if that’s the way you’d see a sibling. But you’re right... when he grilled me about her, I gave him the truth. But he didn’t believe me.”

“That works to your advantage!” Skarrol exclaimed.

“I... see where you’re getting at,” the Demon Lord admitted. “It’s... comforted some of my fears. Not all, though.”

Skarrol grinned. “Well, now that I’ve made you feel better I can say we’re a little more even! Anyway, I have to head back now. The other guards might get suspicious of me for staying in for so long!”

Skarrol gathered the tray and the cup of water that he had brought in.

“But don’t worry, I’ll be back!” he finished.

Lord Luth laid down on his back and closed his eyes.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that,” he replied.