Chapter 310: Intentions

Chapter 310: Intentions

“Oh, Alex...”

Jay moaned quietly as she rushed to crouch down next to the demon who’d just made a mess all over her chest. Her very naked chest. Of course she’d taken off her clothes again. Not that the scraps of cloth she’d barely managed to get Alex to wear were clothes, really. Just some basic wraps that Sabina had cut to approximately the right shape and size so that Alex could wear them on her strangely shaped body. Still, they would have been better than the nothing Alex was wearing now. Though nothing would have been better than—what had Alex been eating?

“S—sorry,” Thea meekly spoke up from where stood in a corner of the basement. “I—I gave her my c—cookie b—because she, ah, asked for it.”Findd new stories at novelhall.com

“She asked for a cookie?” Dys looked at Thea in surprise. “Alex never eats.”

Thea only shrugged at the question, her face a mask of nerves as she kept eyeing both the Magistrate and the High Priest standing just beside Syd. Not that Jadis could blame her quiet girlfriend for being nervous. This was a decidedly tense situation.

First impressions hadn’t been ideal, but Jadis hoped the embarrassing gaffe just helped make it clear how little a threat Alex was. Eating cookies while crammed in a wooden box in a basement wasn’t exactly the behavior of a dangerous monster. Maybe a blue fuzzy monster, but not a dangerous one.

Using a spare rag she found lying around to quickly clean Alex off, Jadis helped the demon get her clothes back on. Alex didn’t struggle; she never really objected to the things Jadis asked of her. However, Jadis was getting good enough at reading Alex’s body language to tell that wearing the clothing didn’t please the demon. Jadis wasn’t sure why Alex felt the need to be constantly nude, but that was just one of those language and culture barrier things that they were going to have to figure out together.

“Alex, say hello to our guests,” Jay repeated, making a second attempt at putting the demon’s best foot forward. Tentacle. Whatever.

“Hello...” the demon spoke in her strange, dissonant voice. “Magistrate... Vraekae... High... Priest... Gerhardt...”

Jadis smiled to see Alex catch onto their names so quickly. Full sentences were still beyond the demon, but the couple of weeks of teaching Alex Jadis had been able to work in during the trip back to the city had just reinforced Alex’s intelligence in Jadis’ mind. The issue wasn’t a lack of brains. Just a lack of common understanding.

Vraekae did not react to Alex’s spoken greeting. Her face was that same stone-cold expression she wore in all public and professional situations. But Gerhardt looked like he’d just swallowed something nasty. His left hand was clutched around the circular medallion he wore on his chest and Jadis could see that the man was shaking slightly.

“She doesn’t know all that many words yet,” Jay said after clearing her throat. “But she catches on pretty fast, considering. Body language works well, too, for communication.”

Vraekae stared at Alex, her red eyes boring holes in the demon’s black flesh. At least the Magistrate’s red orb of doom wasn’t boring any holes yet, but the vibes were definitely more hostile than not. Still, Jadis had done as much as she could to warn Vraekae of what she was walking into before they made it into the cellar. Gerhardt was the one stumbling largely in the dark, not the Magistrate. Still, what was coming made Jadis nervous.

Finally, Vraekae shifted her gaze to coldly regard Jay.

“What exactly is this supposed to prove?” The prim elf spoke with deliberate slowness. “Other than that you have taken leave of your senses. And somehow managed to cause the others around you who I expect better from to do the same. This demon has clearly subsumed the body of a human and is using that body to replicate words and behaviors. This repugnant abomination needs to be killed at once.”

“Hey now,” Kerr spoke up from the crate she had perched on top off to watch the goings on. “My senses are all present and intact, thank you very much, your highness.”

“You were not who I was referring to,” Vraekae snapped.

“...Walked into that one.”

Jadis bit back her strong response to Vraekae’s words. The elf had warned Jadis before they had come down to the basement of her plan to prod Alex for telling reactions. She had known that would involve harsh language. Jadis couldn’t fault the magistrate for her caution or her sense of duty when it came to making sure that her city and its citizens stayed safe. It still bothered her to hear Vraekae talk about executing Alex, though.

“You aren’t killing her,” Jay replied calmly while watching the demon through Syd’s eyes. “Alex hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“She has clearly killed a person.”

Using her three large tentacles, two monstrously large arms, and several smaller, medium-sized tentacles that extended out of her back, Alex quickly wrapped herself around Jay and Dys’ heads and upper bodies, shielding her from the red orb spell. Alex even moved her own human-like body up so that it was between the two of Jadis and the spinning spike ball, two of her eyes locked onto the orb and the third watching Vraekae.

“Goodness me,” Gerhardt quietly exclaimed as he stroked his beard, watching Alex’s reaction.

The orb moved back and forth, changing angles. Alex followed every change, keeping the majority of her own body between the spell and whichever Jadis was closer.

“Stop... Please...”

That simple plea brought Vraekae up short. The scarlet orb hovering overhead immediately stilled, then slowly backed away to come to a rest above Vraekae’s shoulder once more.

“Well now,” Gerhardt said quietly. “I would say the Demon’s reaction is rather illuminating, isn’t it.”

Vraekae stared at Alex, her expression no softer but her back and shoulders less stiff.

“Yes, I suppose so.”

The blue elf turned her head to address Syd who was standing at her side. She arched a brow, her red eyes gleaming in the low light.

“You realize that we will have to bring this before the other high priests in the city and that this will most certainly extend the debates, yes?”

“Yeah, I figured,” Syd said dryly. “I bet you’re going to tell me that we’ll have to bring this before more than just them, too.”

“Undoubtedly. The emperor’s own court, in all probability.”

“Before tackling that horrifying prospect,” Aila said with a slight shudder, “is there something you can do to ensure Alex’s safety for the time being? I don’t think anyone here, even Jadis, is suggesting that she be allowed to wander the streets freely. However, some kind of guarantee or special dispensation to make sure a band of soldiers sent by a certain general don’t knock down the door in the middle of the night would be helpful.”

Vraekae took a step back, one finger pressed to her lip as the other arm wrapped around her torso. She concentrated, lost in thought for a moment, before slowly shaking her head.

“I will have to research what is possible. I cannot think of any precedent for this situation. The capture and study of demons is not unheard of, but this situation no longer has much in common with those tolerances. In a way, it is fortunate that the high priests have gathered here. Their knowledge and experience should help, especially the high priest of Metethys, Myron. He may have some records that would be of help. How long is she going to keep doing that?”

The last was a pointed question directed at Jay and Dys, who still stood with a demon wrapped around their heads and shoulders. Alex’s many tentacles had begun to worm their way under their shirts and Jadis was starting to have a hard time keeping the demon from putting her hands or tentacles somewhere inappropriate.

“Probably for as long as I let her,” Syd answered with a huff.

With the potential for violence diffused, Jadis sternly convinced Alex to crawl off of her two selves. Both Vraekae and Gerhardt watched with interest as Alex both listened to her commands while also complaining about the loss of contact at the same time. Somehow, Alex managed to come across as both perfectly obedient and incorrigibly bratty at the same time.

As Jadis disentangled herself from the wriggling demonette, Aila spoke with Vraekae on her aggressive behavior. The elf explained that she had purposefully tried to provoke Alex into revealing her true, hostile intentions by both talking of killing her and also displaying her own ability to kill the demon. In the past, demons who had infiltrated villages or camps had always tried to lay low until the opportunity to cause harm came along. That, or their cover was blown and their life was threatened. Then the demon would attack without fail. The fact that Alex had done nothing of the sort when faced with Vraekae’s obviously hostile intent, both verbal and visual, settled the Magistrate’s concerns significantly. Maybe even more than the knowledge that D had given the all-clear.

Jadis still would have preferred some more detailed warning about what Vraekae was going to do, but she understood the reasoning.

Since there wasn’t much room down in the cellar and Jadis was starting to feel cramped, she suggested they all move to the floor upstairs to discuss the situation with Alex further. Everyone agreed and soon, another completely bizarre and unexpected sight could be observed in the dining hall of Fortune’s Favored. The full compliment of the mercenary company, including the provisional new member Tegwyn, were sat around the large circular table along with the Magistrate, the local High Priest, and a barely clothed demon woman.

The look on Hans’ face was priceless.