Chapter 31: Caught Up

Perspective: Zarenna

I wanted to stay longer. I really, really wanted to give Nelys the time they needed. But I couldn’t. I had to find Seyari and we had to get out of here.

I could feel fatigue from the magic I’d used, but not enough to really hinder me. What had happened weighed me down much more heavily.

I lifted my head and looked around the room. Eyes blurry from tears cleared rapidly to show the blood-spattered room. An armoire sat near the other end of the small space. I looked back down at Nelys who was still naked.

They’d stopped sobbing, but still clung to me tightly. Carefully, I stood up, princess carrying their small form with my lower arms.

I opened the armoire and found the clothes they’d worn along with, to my surprise, the dress that Elena had made me.

I suppose given the sick purpose of the room we were in; a wardrobe was to be expected. Well, it was my dress and I wouldn’t let Malich’s intent ruin its purpose.

One of our bags sat at the bottom. I stored the dress in it along with what other clothing I could find that didn’t make my skin crawl.

I helped Nelys dress quickly. They were still out of it, but the normalcy of getting dressed seemed to help slightly. Enough to where they didn’t want me to carry them. Still, I took their hand and we exited the back room into the sex dungeon proper. Sex dungeon was probably the right term even if I’d tried my best to avoid using it. Malich’s crumpled, headless body had slid down the wall by the door to land in a pool of blood.

My thoughts strayed to that bastard. Nelys squeezed my hand softly when I froze. I squeezed back and averted my gaze. Together we walked quickly out of the room.

I tried to remember which way was out. I headed back to where I had last seen Spikes, or Verrux. I was about to turn the corner when I froze. I didn’t know where Seyari was.

I looked back down the hall at all the doors. Would I have to search each of them for her? Would I have enough time before something happened?

Nelys tugged on my hand and looked up at me. They pointed around the corner. “That way’s out.”

“Seyari,” was all I could reply with.

“I don’t know.” Nelys looked down again.

Someone had to know where she was taken. I couldn’t leave Nelys here. Resolved, I turned the corner.

Ahead, I saw two figures walking down the hallway toward me. One of them, a wiry Navanaean man, was leaning on the other. His face was a smeared mess of makeup, but I recognized the shape immediately.

“Aretan!” I shouted.

The woman he was leaning on looked up at my voice. Her face was familiar, but her eyes glowed burning gold. Literally glowed. Her eyes and long silver hair cast faint light on the walls of the hallway.

Holy magic, and powerful. A quick look through aura sight showed the burning power of the woman’s magic. Her aura was a blinding pale gold that faded to green at the edges.

I recoiled, then recognized that green tinge.

The woman and Aretan both opened their mouths to speak, but Nelys beat them to it.

“Seyari?” My small friend asked.

“Nelys?” The woman, Seyari, replied.

Her voice was only vaguely familiar. The word came out melodic and strong, despite her fatigued expression.

“Oh, thank fuck,” Seyari sighed.

This was Seyari alright. Although her face had a slightly different shape. Overall, the differences were enough that I hadn’t recognized her at first.

“Seyari?” I questioned, unsure.

“Yeah, that’s me, I get it.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “Fuck, I have a lot to explain, don’t I?”

“Are you alright? What did he do to you?” I fired off questions while walking quickly toward her.

My body wanted to run away, screaming danger. I briefly thought about my own form. Was I like this to other people?

“Malich? Nothing. This, uh, fuck. I don’t really know how to explain it. I was gonna tell you, but I just—” Seyari stumbled through her words.

Her angelic appearance was jarring against her mannerisms.

“She is half-angel,” Aretan cut her off.

“Hey!” Seyari glared at the man, who looked at both of us seriously.

“We are all here and we need to go. We can talk later,” Aretan’s tone was clipped and his face slightly pale.

“Right. Which way?” I asked.

“Back the way we came,” Aretan replied. “Did you make that loud sound?”

I stumbled over a reply. “Oh, uh, yeah. I killed Malich. Astrodach ran away.”

“Fuck!” Seyari cursed. “Now we really need to get out of here. The whole city’ll come down on our asses!”

Despite her words, Seyari didn’t sound disappointed.

We all started walking quickly down the hall. Aretan seemed much more tired than the rest of us, but Nelys was starting to perk up. I just hoped they’d be alright.

“He deserved it,” I tried to defend the act.

“Yeah, he fucking did. Zarenna, if you of all people thought that, they probably deserved it.” Seyari nudged my shoulder.

“Are you really a half-angel? You don’t exactly, well, y’know—” My turn to trip over my words.

“Act like an angel? Yeah, fuck that. You don’t act like a demon much either, Zarenna.” Seyari shook her head, sounding tired. “Lotta stuff happened and I ended up with my angel part broken for a long time. I’ll tell you about it as soon as we’re out of here, I promise.”

“Sure.” I gave her a side hug with two arms.

We continued down the hall until we entered a moderately-sized room with three other exits. The trip had been unnervingly empty of guards. The room we entered was furnished lightly like a lobby. One exit led to another basement hallway, while the other two were solid-looking doors. I remembered entering through here right after the stairs down, so we were almost out.

There was, however, a big problem. Namely, Verrux. The spiky demon stood by one of the doors, presumably the one leading out. He looked me up and down before his collar glowed and he dropped into a combat stance.

He didn’t attack, however. I still felt oddly about him.

“Can you not speak?” I asked.

Verrux shook his head.

“You have to stop me?”

Another nod.

“What about the others?”

Verrux pointed to Seyari and nodded, but shook his head at the other two. Aretan took Nelys hand from me and moved to a side.

“Do you not want to fight me?” I asked, watching for Verrux’s reaction.

He shook his head, then bowed slightly at me. His collar glowed angrily. The entire conversation, the binding must have exerted more and more force, and I could feel the tension ready to snap.

I made a decision. “Aretan, take Nelys and go. Seyari and I will catch up.”

I expected pushback. I would have given some. Aretan had experience I lacked, however. The man simply nodded. Nelys hesitated a moment before following his lead.

“Meet us in Liseu or the road there. If you cannot, we will go to Lockmoth and wait until next spring solstice.” Aretan said as he and Nelys retreated quickly to a side, ready to make a line for the door.

“What about—” I wanted to ask after Aretan’s mercenary obligations, and why he would follow us out of Navanaea, but this was the moment Verrux chose to move.

He leapt forward with startling speed. I was only just able to throw up two arms to block before he barreled me into and through the stone wall behind me.

Dust and debris showered everything. The arms I’d blocked with broke immediately from the impact. I roared in pain and flipped myself on top of the other demon.

With two arms useless, I could barely hold him down. Hits from my tail did nothing through his armor as we struggled on the ground.

With their usual rapid speed, my bones were knitting themselves back together. Still, it would be a minute or more before I could use those arms.

A bolt of holy magic narrowly missed Varrux as we struggled. Another followed it, then another. Seyari chose to miss rather than risk hitting me.

I turned to my magic. I breathed in, then exhaled a gout of white-hot flame into Verrux’s face. He roared underneath me, but seemed resistant to my magic. Still, his face, twisted into a pained snarl, was half-burned when I ran out of breath.

The spiked demon managed to wrench his arms free and raked two gashes across my back. I could feel massive claws bounce off my spine, gouging into it. Blood flowed down my back.

I took my free arms and raked him back, going for the neck. My first swing missed, but the second tore into flesh. His throat opened and he began to choke on his own blood as we continued to fight.

More importantly, my claws had cut the half-melted collar open. Despite the damage it had already sustained, the magically-reinforced metal had nearly resisted my slash. Nearly, but not quite.

The collar flared brightly as it shattered. The sigil on Verrux’s cheek lit up. Right before the magic of the contract exploded outward, he gurgled something quickly in a language I didn’t understand.

Then the world went crimson and gold.

I was thrown into the ceiling hard enough to crack the stone. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel anything break. A testament to how strong Verrux must have been to break my arms.

Underneath me, the other demon was consumed by the contract’s magic. The crimson separated from the sickly gold and rammed into me.

I fell to the side and rolled into a heap. I felt a slight burn of holy magic followed by a stream of cursing in Seyari’s voice. Her form became visible as the room cleared.

Not again. I really didn’t want to black out again. I poured more mana into my regeneration, then stopped as stars closed in on my vision.

Strangely enough, I felt more power left than I thought I had in me. Slowly, I pulled myself into a crouch, arms still sore and legs barely responding.

Seyari helped me into a sitting position. Where Verrux had lain, only a pile of blackened ash staining the sandstone floor remained.

I coughed. Pain lit up along my entire torso. “Ow.”

Seyari responded by hugging me lightly. “You fight like a fucking berserker.”

“S-sorry.”

“I couldn’t get a shot in. Ever heard of disengaging?” the half-angel said into my shoulder.

“Sorry.”

“Stop saying sorry.”

“S—” I paused. “No. Sorry.”

Seyari squeezed. “I guess you’re fine then.”

“I will be.”

Seyari shook me in the hug and looked up at me. More pain. “Learn a weapon. Learn how to fight with allies.”

“Okay,” I squeezed her back, careful of my strength.

Seyari sighed. “Good. Because shit’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.”

“Probably,” I smiled.

“How the fuck are you like this?” Seyari looked at me, smiling back.

I shrugged. Ow. “Right back at you.”

“Bitch.”

I stuck my forked tongue out.

Seyari bopped my horn. “Can you walk?” She asked.

“In a minute,” I replied. “Aretan and Nelys got out, right?”  I noticed Verrux had pushed the fight far clear of the door. What had he said?

“Yeah, they got out. That demon gave them an opening for some reason.” Seyari let go and stood up.

I didn’t even try to follow her up. “You saw him. He didn’t want to fight.” I missed the hug already.

“I saw that, but I don’t get why,” Seyari wondered.

I shook my head. “Ne meither. I wish there was a manual for being a demon. Verrux said something right before he died. I feel like part of the contract or him or something made me stronger.”

“You sure you’re not a reaver?” Seyari asked, then continued, “Wait. ‘Ne meither’!?”

I smiled sadly. “Abby used to say that. I guess it just slipped out. And I’m sure I’m not a reaver, yeah.”

“I heard you say that name before.” Seyari looked at me with concern. “On the Swordfish when you almost went overboard.”

“She was an old friend of mine. She—she died when I did.” I tried to keep my voice even, but it was hard.

“I’m sorry.” Seyari put a hand on my shoulder.

“Thanks. I—we got to say goodbye at least.” I tried to stand up. Nope, not happening yet.

“Good. Need a few minutes?”

“Yeah. I think my spine might’ve broken.”

Seyari looked at me funny, “You ever stop to consider how insane your regeneration is?”

“Demons are crazy.” I resisted the urge to shrug.

“Yeah, no. What you have isn’t normal.”

I tilted my head and put a claw to my chin. “Oh? What’s normal?”

Seyari put her hand to her head. “Probably a tenth of that speed.”

“Oh. Yay for me!” I halfheartedly pumped a fist in the air. “Why haven’t we seen any other guards, though?”

Seyari looked around the destroyed room and wall. “They’re hiding, probably.”

“What about Malich’s other demon?”

“I killed her,” Seyari’s said flatly.

“Do we have enough time for you to tell me about your mysterious past?” I asked.

“Probably not and I don’t want to talk about it here.”

“You’re stalling.”

“I don’t want to be overheard.”

“Stalling,” I repeated.

“Yeah, I am.” Seyari smiled thinly.

I shrugged painfully. “Fine, we’ll just wait in awkward silence until my spine un-breaks.”

***

Several minutes of awkward silence later, I’d healed enough to walk. I may have waited some extra time out of spite, but I really did want to be ready in case we weren’t out of the woods yet. Still, despite the boost in energy, I was tired. I didn’t know if what I got was like a one-time thing or had some permanent effect.

Together, we ascended the stairs. I walked ahead of Seyari since I could survive most kinds of nasty surprise. The room we found ourselves in at the top was in disarray. Signs of a struggle were everywhere and the gaudy furnishings had mostly turned into a gaudy mess.

Sitting on one of the couches was a person I absolutely did not expect to see. She had long red hair and wore a white armored dress. The outfit looked impractical. I was jealous.

“Hello, Demon,” Lorelei’s voice dripped with derision.

Markus stood to one side of her, armor slightly scuffed.

“I told you they’d come out the main exit,” Markus said to Lorelei.

“Yeah, and I told you that Malich would try to screw us over,” Lorelei fired back.

“Were you working with that scumbag?” I voiced my disbelief. I didn’t even think to ask how the hell they followed us here from Port Princely.

“Why do you care, Demon?” Lorelei mocked.

“Because I thought you were better than that,” I replied.

Lorelei’s smile flashed into a dark scowl. “You dare! We were going to betray that creep, anyway.”

“Betray how?” I replied, carefully measuring my tone.

Markus replied, “We do not have to tell you, Demon.”

“He’s dead, isn’t he?” Lorelei searched my face.

“Yes,” I replied icily.

That I killed him was left unsaid. Seyari followed me into the room and stood next to me, moving into view.

“Why can’t you just leave me alone?” I asked plaintively.

“Do you take us for fools?” Markus spat at me.

Lorelei was silent. I looked to her only to find her face frozen in an expression of shock. I traced her gaze back to Seyari.

Markus followed and his eyes widened under his visor at Seyari’s appearance. “Angel-blooded? Powerful, by the look of it. How have you corrupted Seyari, Demon? Angel-blooded should be resistant to—”

“Yothariel!” Lorelei interrupted with a voice that had lost all confidence. “B-but you’re dead!”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” Seyari replied coldly.

Markus jolted. “Yothariel! Wait—”

I was clearly the only one out of the loop.

“Yothariel?” I asked the room.

Lorelei looked at me and fear flickered into her eyes. “Y-you! You have to know.”

My dumbfounded look seemed to have gotten cogs turning. Seyari, for her part looked over the other two dispassionately.

The redhead turned to Seyari. “You. What are you planning?”

Seyari replied with a shrug and a candid smile.

“Can we take them?” Markus asked Lorelei, his gaze on us and his hand on his sword.

“Yothariel does look weakened.” Lorelei thought for a moment.

Markus drew his sword and took a combat stance. Lorelei shifted slightly, but kept a mostly neutral posture.

I let her think. I had no intention of fighting here. I wanted to think Lorelei and Markus were good people and I wanted to prove to them I was too. Plus, my mind was whirling at the moment from the revelation of Seyari’s old identity. I honestly had no idea who she was in her past life, but clearly Lorelei and Markus knew.

Tension covered the room, slowing time to a glacial pace. Both sides squared off, auras active and magic tinging the air with a faint indescribable bitter taste. Lorelei’s aura was a pale pink edged in dark silver, while Markus’ was a siverish-tan and significantly weaker. Lorelei’s aura was strong and, had Seyari and I been less powerful in our own right, would have seemed overwhelming. Eventually, after what had probably been no more than a minute, but felt an hour, Lorelei broke the silence.

“I think we should retreat. We have to report this.” Lorelei’s voice was even quieter than when she had spoken to Markus earlier.

I probably wasn’t meant to hear that.

“We’ll let you go for now, demon” Lorelei spoke up and addressed the room. “Enjoy the Navanaean Royal Guard outside.” She barely even tried to hide the lack of conviction in her words.

Markus looked reluctant, but quickly followed Lorelei in a retreat. The two left the room with weapons drawn, keeping an eye on us the whole way. I wasn’t certain whether to try to follow her or not. Seyari put an arm out to stop me.

“We need to find another way out,” the half-angel spoke. “Even if they’re lying, we don’t want to go through the city right now.”

“I think Markus let slip there was a back way,” I replied as we quickly walked back down to the basement.

“There always is in places like this. We just need to find it and hope they aren’t guarding the exit.” Seyari sped up. “Oh, and Zarenna?”

“Yeah?”

Seyari smiled, but it didn’t reach her faintly glowing eyes. “Thanks for not asking.”

“Welcome. I really want to, though.”

“I figured. I’ll tell you if we can get clear of this mess.”

“How will we meet up with Aretan and Nelys and get to Liseu?

We turned a corner. I headed for the lowest floor on a hunch, but Seyari pulled us in the other direction.

“We won’t,” Seyari replied. “We’ll meet them in Lockmoth after we get across the mountains to the south.”

“But that’s all wilderness!”

“I think we’ll survive. All we need to do is get across the desert—here!” Seyari pulled me into a storeroom.

“We’re stocking up, right?”

“Yeah. Grab what you can and stuff that pack of yours.”

We spent half a minute packing my bag. Seyari had grabbed some kind of pack from a room we’d passed and filled it as well.

“Okay, so we cross the mountains into Ordia. How the hell do we get across the north of the Empire and its heartland?”

“You’ll have to deal with your glamour. We’ll work as mercenaries.”

“I don’t like this. What if you get recognized?” I asked Seyari.

“Think I had that disguise kit for no reason? I’ll still look angel-blooded, but I can change enough.”

“And if anyone does think they recognize you, you’re supposedly dead,” I added.

“Not for much longer. Fuck,” Seyari grimaced.

“We’re too recognizable, then? Could this even work?” Doubt crept into my voice.

“Got another plan?” Seyari looked at me, expression neutral.

“No.” I sighed. “Shit.”

“Yeah, shit’s right. We’ll get through this though. The north is sparsely populated so we can probably pick up gear and bounce between small towns.”

Seyari led us on through room after room quickly looking for a hidden exit. The whole basement was thankfully deserted.

“But first we have to cross through Desertkin territory,” I pointed out as we ran along.

“We do, but if we’re not hostile to them we should be fine.”

“Really?”

Seyari groaned. “Maybe? I don’t fucking know.”

“You said we don’t have another option, right?”

“Yeah, we really don’t.”

I smiled. “Then we’ll make it work.”

Seyari told me some of the ways a secret exit could be hidden. We searched likely rooms for a few nerve-shattering minutes until we found something. The reality was almost like the fiction I’d read: a bookcase hiding a false wall. My sharp eyes were the ones that spotted the gap along the bottom.

The secret exit tunnel was tiny. Whoever designed it didn’t consider overly tall demons. My cramping back was offended.

The tunnel was long, but relatively straight and we exited carefully. The passage led to a rocky bluff beyond the new walls of Baetnal. Thankfully, no one had been set up to guard it, but we had to move carefully lest we be seen by the walls.

Shortly after we made it out, a large patrol of soldiers approached the hidden exit. Thankfully, we were out of sight by then. The rocky, undulating landscape made for good cover, thankfully. I doubted it was an accident a secret exit led to this kind of terrain.

Silently, I thanked whatever bureaucracy complicated things enough for us to escape. I almost wanted to try looping around to the road to Liseu. I realized Florian wouldn’t be able to risk taking us in, though.

I just hoped Aretan and Nelys had made it out and would be able to leave Navanaea safely. Hopefully everything would focus on us. Ideally, the conflict with the Desertkin would shield us from Navanaean eyes as we fled south.

Together, Seyari and I ran off into the scrubland under the morning sun.