Eudora demanded a full report as soon as we returned to Lotherain. We told her everything about the demons, the gods, what happened to the Order of Piety, but I neglected to tell her about the powers gifted to me by Vessyra and Demos.

I had asked Belle and Mira to keep it a secret from our host as well. Neither of them saw Eudora as our ally to begin with. Our alliance was conceived out of convenience. It only so happened that Eudora's goals were the lesser of two evils.

Now that we had reached out to the citizens and priestesses of Vessyra, we realized how far-reaching the consequences of Edith Percouli's actions were. It was no longer about the human kingdoms, but also the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands, if not more whose lives were being robbed.

"To even rope demons into her mess. That Edith is something else… it's despicable, really. At the same time, intriguing." Eudora sipped thoughtfully from her teacup. The smile on her face didn't match the somber news we delivered. If anything, she took joy from learning that demons were involved.

The four of us sat under the gazebo, dining on the many pastries before us. Eudora always somehow made food and drinks readily available despite never leaving the tower.

"At any rate, the three of you were successful in rerouting the flow of magic. Well done," she said.

Mira rolled her eyes and asked, "This two-way street isn't exactly working out. Where are you to show for your progress in dismantling the towers?"

Eudora waved a dismissive hand, then rang a bell on the table. Not but a few seconds went by and a young woman came running out of the mansion in a frilly, light-blue dress. I quickly discerned, however, that I had mistaken the woman for none other than Noah— Valor, of the Order of Piety.

His blonde hair had grown down to his shoulders. If it wasn't for the color of his hair and distinctly young features, I would have been none the wiser. Before we left, I recalled he was given to the alraune as a sex slave and underwent some form of feminization.

"Yes, Lady Eudora?" He spoke in a much higher pitch than I remembered.

"What in the name of Demos did you do to him?" Belle asked, shocked by how much the feminization had changed him. Of course, she would be the most astonished of us. They served together briefly. Even if it was a short stint, they must have developed some sort of friendship.

Eudora slapped his ass, causing him to squeak in surprise. Valor's face was flushed red. His breasts even jiggled as he wriggled uncomfortably from where he stood.

"You all remember, Noah Theodin. His name is Noelle now. Aren't you?" Eudora asked, her hand stroking his backside.

"That's right. I serve Lady Eudora now," he answered.

When Eudora said she was going to make sex slaves of the captured knights, I didn't think she was serious. I shuddered to think what she had done to Humility.

Eudora nudged him forward. "Tell him what you told me, Noelle."

"Before we departed for Parthun, I overheard Councilor Anora and Her Ladyship, Discipline speaking privately one night. I had only caught a snippet of their conversation, fearing that I would be caught eavesdropping. However, in that brief moment, I heard what I could only describe as another, more demonic voice in the room."

The four of us digested this information with an ounce of skepticism. We couldn't be sure if Noelle was lying to throw us off. If what he heard was true, then either there was a demon in the room with them, or one of them was a demon.

My money was one Edith, but then the captain of the Order of Piety had every reason to cut her down right then and there. In which case, was Discipline the demon? Or were they all in an alliance with one another?

It wasn't so far-fetched seeing as Edith knew to bargain with demons. Her network of information, including centuries' worth of archaic knowledge in old magic made her a formidable foe indeed.

"You may leave." Eudora dismissed her slave knight. Noelle curtsied, and disappeared into the mansion. She turned her attention back to us— Mira in particular. "To answer your question: no, I haven't. I was beginning to wonder if those towers have some sort of connection to Edith. Otherwise, how else would she have known demons wormed their way into that forged world?"

"Either way, she no longer has access to that infinite well of magic. If you think she still has a connection, maybe we should be directing our efforts to breaking the other towers?" I suggested.

"That would take way too long. You saw how many we passed by just to get to the megatower," Belle reminded me.

Eudora cleared the table with a snap of a finger, vanishing even the pastry Mira was about to put in her mouth. A map of inner Talmora manifested in their place.

"Your next task will be to perform subterfuge in none other than Parabelle's former sovereignty. Parthun is under our control, and though we have found allies in Vessyra, we are still sorely outnumbered. What we need is information— what are the citizen's sentiments regarding their King? What allies or coups can we incite to weaken him? Who has currently taken Parabelle's place?" Eudora proceeded to lay out an entire plan to overthrow an entire kingdom.

This was, after all, the Cackling Witch whom Anora had sent to set in motion the downfall of High Saquin. It made me queasy hearing all the little details to dismantle a kingdom from bribing relatives, introducing a plague, to using propaganda to turn the people against the noble and royal class.

They were all suggestions, and no solid step-by-step plan on what we should do.

By the end of it, Eudora had only a single suggestion, "I want you three to bring the high priestess with you."

The three of us jumped out of our seat.

"I'd understand bringing her to a kingdom on the fence about who to side with, but Juna? They attacked Parthun outright!" I objected.

Belle joined me with her own retort, "I know King Uldrin. He comes at a hot second to High Saquin when it comes to his repulsion for demi-humans. Ceris won't be safe there."

"That's why the three of you will protect her if it comes to that. I should hope you not seek out fights on your own, merely sow the seeds of a rebellion," Eudora said.

"We have already talked this over while you were away. I agreed to Eudora's plan," Ceris said, walking up to the gazebo.

The priestess was joined by two large lamias— or, so I thought. They had pristine, ivory clouds of fur along the length of their body and tail, thick wolf-like ears that twitched with excitement, and hardened underbelly of scales. Eyes like moons against black sclera flicked to each of us in unison. Where fur didn't cover, revealed smooth, pale grey skin.

It appeared that Eudora was already acquainted with these creatures. Ceris noticed we were staring and introduced them, "These two are Io and Mana."

"I am Io," one said, bowing.

"I am Mana," the other one confirmed, bowing.

They both spoke and stared forward blankly. It was, suffice to say, unsettling. Their emotionless expressions made them hard to read, I could make out that they appeared embarrassed locking eyes with us but stared nonetheless.

"Gale, out of an unnecessary abundance to protect me, sent some of our greatest warriors here first. Io and Mana are bunyips, deceptively powerful cousins to the lamia family," Ceris explained.

"They look so… fluffy…" I found myself saying. It was hard to resist the urge to pet them.

Belle and Mira felt the same way, and pried their attention away back onto the map to suppress the urge.

The meeting didn't last much longer after that. Eudora had made the decision for us with Ceris' blessing. Even the bunyips assigned to protect didn't so much as protest the dangerous decision.

While the other two left to put the finishing touches on the teleportation circle, I went back home with Ceris and was greeted by my two housemates bickering. Eileen and Gurk had their hands locked with the latter clearly trying to escape the other.

"I need you to test this potion, Gurk. How else will I know the effects?" Eileen had an uncorked vial hanging over the goblin's head.

"No! No more! Last one made Gurk sick. Eileen try instead, no more Gurk!" he shouted in protest.

"It's fine, I have an elixir to remove negative effects!" She swept Gurk's legs out from under him. He fell to the ground, Eileen seized this opening to empty the vial's contents into his mouth and pinched his nose shut. Gurk gurgled and choked, but the liquid had all but drained down his throat.

"What in the name of the gods are you two doing?" I called into the room with my hands on my hips.

The two of them finally realized I had returned and raced up to greet me.

"Eileen makes Gurk drink weird potions!" Gurk hid behind me and growled at Eileen.

"I needed a test subject and Gurk was the only one readily available. Eudora requested that I concoct a brew to change someone's form to that of a human," Eileen said in her defense.

Ceris nodded to confirm what Eileen had said.

They thought this far out to create something never done before. If successful, this would prove useful to help Ceris into Juna without being outed as an elf. As bad as I felt for Gurk, having him help test was necessary since it served no risk to Ceris.

"How are you going about it? No one's ever created a potion to change someone's physical form before. Yet it sounded like you made some sort of progress?" I asked.

Eileen's face turned bright red. "Well… recently, we discovered by accident that sperm had some magical properties…"

My mind drew a blank.

No one has ever thought to use ejaculate as an alchemical reagent. I never would have considered something so preposterous to begin with. When it came to alchemy, Eileen was able to connect the dots where I couldn't begin to fathom.

"When you told me about what orc semen did when dissolved by Miuna, it gave me an idea. I thought maybe synthesizing with sperm could yield different outcomes. So I… erm, had Ceris help me collect some sperm from around the city. I'm still a virgin, just so you know, as pure as they come by!" Eileen clarified hastily.

"So does it work?" I asked.

Ceris cleared her throat and pointed to Gurk. "I think it did."

The three of us, including the bunyips who came in with us, gasped as we saw a short, very human Gurk.