The first place Cecile wanted to go was the cafeteria. Not surprising, since it was midday and they hadn’t eaten yet.
“The food is only so-so, but it’s all free’, she told Jyl while walking towards a queue. “You do need to be careful to be on time, the kitchen is only open an hour for every meal. If you’re late, you’ll have to make do with leftovers, or nothing.”
As she turned around, Jyl appeared more interested in the building itself then in her explanation. Cecile sighed, either the huntress was asking questions, or she was doing her own investigating, with a complete disregard for what other people thought about her behaviour.
Suddenly she noticed all the stares directed at them, her good mood immediately sinking underground. Her face flushed red in anger.
“What are you looking at?!” she shouted.
Everyone quickly looked elsewhere, as if afraid to draw her wrath towards themselves. After her outburst Cecile stayed silent, her talkative mood apparently over. Instead she continued glaring at anyone who even glanced their way.
That uncomfortable mood lasted until a brown-haired demon entered her field of view.
“You should have told me you’re back!” he shouted from halfway across the room. Her anger immediately cleared, a beaming smile appearing on her lips.
“We arrived just now”, she called back, “Get over here and I’ll tell you all about it!”
The man practically skipped the rest of the way, giving Cecile a big hug once he reached them.
Both his hair and his wings were a pleasant sandy brown, while his eyes had the colour of rich dirt and seemed to possess a natural twinkle. He wasn’t particularly tall, and with his plain features he stood out in no special way, but his muscles possessed a wiry strength Jyl associated with someone used to running long distances.
“Who’s this?” The man finally noticed the other person present, throwing confused glances from Jyl to Cecile and back.
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“Ah, right!” exclaimed Cecile, “Jyl, this is Jeffrey, my fiancée. Jeffrey, this is Jyl, Arick enlisted her.”
“Jyl, the Grey Wolf. A pleasure to meet you.” She imitated the demons’ greeting, with her hand on her heart and a slight bow.
He responded in kind. “Jeffrey Zandspoor, I am a scout of the Obsidian military.
Excuse me for asking this, but how did a human get enlisted to our military?” Cecile punched his shoulder as he asked this, but he was more interested in hearing the answer.
“I struck a deal with Arick to help protect my village”, she said.
Jeffrey looked at her questioningly, but she seemed content to leave it at that. It wasn’t even that she didn’t want to tell him about it, if Cecile read her correctly, rather that she didn’t feel the need to say any more, instead observing the food being distributed a couple meters ahead.
“Care to explain?” he turned to Cecile.
She put her hand on his shoulder knowingly. “Jyl’s always like that, don’t worry about it too much.”
Having said that, she narrating everything that happened the month and a half they were away. Though she had to pause for a couple minutes midway as Jyl started questioning her about the types of food she had never seen before.
When she was finally finished telling the story, lunchtime was almost over.
Jeffrey didn’t mind, and Jyl hadn’t really been paying attention, Cecile however was sad when they had to part ways. Especially since Jeffrey would be leaving for an assignment, and he likely wouldn’t be back for several days.
Soon Cecile and Jyl continued their tour, this time heading towards the dormitories on the level above.
“What is a ‘fiancée’?” the huntress suddenly asked.
Cecile looked at her with an astounded expression. “Well… Do you have marriage in your village?”
“Something like it, I think.
Alcaeus talked about it once, he had heard the human soldiers speak of getting ‘married’ after returning from the war, and hold a ‘wedding’ at the ‘church’. We suspected it to be some kind of partnership promise between a man and a woman, but we never really figured out those two other words.”
“That’s about right, I suppose. A fiancée is the person you are going to marry, and a wedding is a party to celebrate two people getting married. And a church, well that’s a human invention. It’s some kind of large building where they pray to their gods.
Mirus said it is somewhat similar to when we ask the elemental spirits for help. Though from what I heard humans can be very dramatic about their ‘faith’.
Say, does your village have gods?”