“She can’t come to Kazora,” Korgron said.

Joan stared at her and struggled to process that. How could she, of all people, say that? “But she’s a demon.”

“Yes, she is,” Korgron said. “She’s got wings as well. That’s rare. Incredibly rare. But she’s been clipped.”

“So?” Joan asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

Korgron gave a soft sigh and reached up to rub her forehead. “Joan, it’s complicated.”

“So what if someone clipped her horns? It’s not her fault. You can’t just abandon her like that,” Joan said, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

“I’m not abandoning her,” Korgron said. “I’m not saying it’s fair or right. I’m saying I won’t be able to keep her safe if she goes to Kazora.”

Joan glanced across the room. Neia kept glancing at them, but she seemed more focused on trying to keep Imp from worrying. Lightly patting her head and occasionally whispering to her. She couldn’t help feeling just a little annoyed at the terrified look that Imp kept giving them. Did she really think they were going to hurt her?

Probably.

It wasn’t like she could really explain to Imp who she was. Why it mattered. She wasn’t even sure she could explain it to herself.

“Why can’t you?” Joan asked. “You’ve taken in clipped demons before. It’s--”

“It’s different,” Korgron said before shaking her head. “If she was just clipped? That’d be fine. But unless you want me to tear off her wings first, that’s not really an option.”

“What’s so special about a winged demon?” Joan asked.

“You really know nothing of politics, do you?” Korgron asked. “It depends on who you ask. In a lot of ways. It’s superstition. But it’s a strong one. Winged demons are considered, depending on who you ask, as either Heralds of Destruction or Reincarnations of Rebirth. They’re incredibly rare. When someone becomes a demon? They don’t gain wings even if the demon they are made from has wings. It is incredibly rare for winged demons to have winged children. The only demon that is believed to create winged demons are Titanslayers, which are--”

“The Demon Lord’s special elite demons, I know,” Joan said. “I’ve met a few.”

“Oh, of course,” Korgron said. “That you know. I swear it’s like trying to cross a broken bridge with you sometimes. I never know which piece is loose and going to collapse and which piece is solid. Either way, any records we have on their origins have disappeared for ages. But when they’re born? They appear in the bloodline? It can be quite an issue. You get all kinds of cults popping up, people trying to find hidden meanings from the gods. But clipping the horns of one? That’ll lead to even more trouble. Especially because, well…”

“Well what?” Joan asked.

“A demon wouldn’t have done that,” Korgron said. “Only one of you would. Kazora has long been trying to bridge the gap between both. But if I bring a winged, clipped demon into the city? There is going to be calls for blood. A lot of blood. Like it or not, she is going to be a symbol and a lot of people are going to get hurt. Likely her. I won’t take her to the city.”

“You said you would,” Joan said. “That was the agreement!”

“And now you want to take it?” Korgron asked. “Before you half wanted to kill Neia for having some demon in her. But now this changes everything?”

“Yes. No. I mean, I-I don’t know,” Joan said. “She just… she doesn’t deserve this. It’s not her fault.”

“It’s not,” Korgron said before shaking her head. “We’ll figure something out. As much as I hate to say it, though, she’ll be a lot safer here than she will be back home.”

“The elves want her dead,” Joan said. “They hate demons. All demons.”

“I don’t mean here as in this city,” Korgron said. “I mean on this side of the battle lines. In Demon Lands she’ll draw death and war.” She glanced over towards the pair and her tail twitched slightly. “I doubt they even realize how much danger it would be for them.”

“Elves hate demons,” Joan said softly. “The demons will either use her or kill her. Humans and dwarves are on the front lines fighting them every day. There’s nowhere they can go if not there.”

“I know,” Korgron said. “It sucks, it’s shit. You knew her before, right? What happened to her before?”

“No idea,” Joan said sheepishly. “I never saw her again. I assumed she just managed to get somewhere safe eventually.”

“I doubt it,” Korgron said. “She probably got murdered if you never saw her again. We could always just snap her neck. Quick and painless, she wouldn’t notice. Neia would be fine, she--”

“NO!” Joan yelled. “I won’t let ANYONE hurt Imp!”

For a moment silence hung in the air. Joan glanced back at Neia and Imp, both of them were staring at her with wide eyes.

Joan coughed a few times to clear her throat before glancing back at Korgron. “Err, sorry. Fine then. We’ll figure it out, somehow. But she is not going to get hurt. We’ll…” She trailed off again. Where COULD she send her? Maybe she could make a deal with the fae? The Nameless One had offered her a way out, another world. Maybe she could convince them to give the pair that. But where to put them in the meantime?

“Why not have them come with us for now?” Korgron asked. “Take her back to that keep. I can at least imprison them and make sure they don’t go anywhere. So long as someone is willing to look after them.”

“Imprison them?” Joan asked. “But they haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Oh, now they haven’t,” Korgron said. “Joan, I swear sometimes I have no idea how your mind works. ‘Demons are bad. Except this one. And this one. And this one. But other demons are bad. But these ones are okay.’ How do you know she wasn’t done through a ritual? Perhaps she’s a subject of the Demon Lord.” The sarcasm dripping from her voice made it quite clear her opinion on that.

None the less, Joan couldn’t help but frown. “Actually, now that you mention it, the Demon Lord did have another demon with him. She was clipped as well.”

Korgron froze, her eyes going wide. “Wait, what? When? Where? How? Why are you only NOW telling me this?”

“Uhhhh… it kind of slipped my mind,” Joan said sheepishly. She’d been trying to be vague about her entire encounter with the Demon Lord and not exactly let them know just how closely she came to almost dying to him. Mentioning the demon with clipped horns seemed pretty inconsequential in comparison to the obsidian troll and the Demon Lord.

“Are you sure about this?” Korgron asked. “If he has a clipped demon…”

“Is that really a big deal?” Joan asked.

“Yes,” Korgron said. “If other demons thought he had someone like that with him, it could draw him a lot of ire. I’ll need to let Isla know. If she can get actual proof, then this could be incredibly useful.”

“Korgron?” Joan asked. “What about Imp? She’s still the focus here.”

“What?” Korgron asked before shrugging. “We’ll figure her out later. For now, she wants safety? We can give her that. Any other bits of important information you’d like to like to dump on me?”

Joan crossed her arms and glared up at her. “Do you wanna swap places? I mean, because if we’re going to be arguing about who has to deal with more sudden information hitting us in the face like a hammer, I think I’ve got you beat. Miss ‘Go Find a Doomnetter’.”

That, at least, brought a smile to Korgron’s lips and she nodded. “Fine, fine. I’ll deal with this. Ugh, I’m going to have to go unwrap Andreas so he can send a message to Isla.”

“You can do that spell, can’t you?” Joan asked.

“Yes, but not nearly as well or as easily,” Korgron said. “She also gets grouchy when I do it. You’d think I wasn’t busy trying to save the world or something. ‘Why don’t you come home more often?’ Ugh.” Her tail twitched in agitation. At least, if nothing else, her tail was growing back well. “Besides, they’re healing up well enough. He can’t laze about forever.”

“It doesn’t hurt to rest once in a while, you know,” Joan said in a teasing tone. “Really recover.”

Korgron just glared at her. “Speaking of resting, go get some sleep. I’ll deal with the rest of this… thing… you dumped on me.”

“You won’t let them get hurt?” Joan asked.

“I promise I won’t let anyone lay a finger on them,” Korgron said with a roll of her eyes. “I swear, you humans make no sense to me.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t make any sense to me, either,” Joan said before giving a light yawn. Now that Korgron mentioned it she was suddenly aware of just how tired she was. She got to her feet and walked to Imp and Neia. To her annoyance, the former cringed away from her and the latter only hugged the demon protectively. “I’m going to leave you with Korgron now,” Joan said. “Nobody is going to hurt you. Either of you ever again, I swear.”

Imp just gave a timid little whimper, but Neia stared at her with a bewildered look, not saying a word. Not that she could expect either of them to really believe her. She turned and walked away, hoping that would change eventually.

Korgron was probably right, though. If she wanted the girl to be safe, she’d need to consider how the demons themselves would look at her. She didn’t understand the big deal, though. It was just some wings. She’d met plenty of demons with wings. Well, a few with wings. A handful. Like four. Probably. But they couldn’t be THAT rare. She couldn’t imagine Imp being the harbinger of anything, either.

She sighed when she walked into her room. Zorn glanced up before laying his head back down. “Keep it down,” he muttered.

“Sorry,” Joan said before giving a light yawn and sitting on her bed again. She’d worry about it more tomorrow and for like the next few months or something. It would take time to figure out, either way. She kicked off her shoes and then laid down, pulling her covers over herself.

It took a few moments before she realized something was wrong. A light clicking sound from besides her bed. What in the world?

Then there was a light pop and an all too familiar blue spider seemed to materialize on the pillow besides her head.

Joan screamed and tried to leap from the bed, only to end up tangled in the bedding and more fall off it. WHY DID THESE THINGS KEEP HAPPENING TO HER?

At least it didn’t seem to want to chase her, instead letting her lay there for there in a pile of flustered embarrassment until Korgron came running in.

MelodyAvant

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