Unamused by my reaction at being called out as one of Neth’Larees’ founders, Zavis turned his expressionless gaze out towards the abyss separating our floating platform from the black castle beyond. “Lyssa and I are each founders of this place. Lulu is another of the founders as well. Together, alongside four others, we created this plane of existence and briefly bridged a link to Elkan. By doing this, we rescued demons and a few of the other nonhuman races from extinction by safeguarding their passage into this world.” Zavis turned to face me. “In a way you could say that we are the saviors of our kind.”

                “You, Lyssa, and the others are saviors, not me.” I promptly retorted. I felt the need to remind Zavis that I wasn’t the Lyssa he remembered doing any of those things with.

                “You are correct, but my point is we all have an obligatory role to fulfill here. You are undeniably Lyssa in physical form, therefore whether you like it or not, you must now take on the responsibilities that go along with that appearance.”

                “It’s not exactly fair to expect me to be able to fill a role like that. I mean, before today I didn’t even know this world existed.” I protested.

                “Life isn’t fair to any of us. That’s precisely why we are all living here instead of on Elkan.” Zavis offered a casual sweep of his arm to indicate the surrounding area and spoke no further on the subject. It didn’t feel right for me to argue with him at this point. If he was right then did that mean humans used to live alongside demons and beastkin? There were no historical records of such a thing ever being real. Demons and the other races I’d seen here were nothing more than a fairy tale back in my world. The platform we stood on suddenly increased its speed and my attention was drawn from my inward thoughts to the castle we fast approached.

                The castle’s walls were no easier to discern from closer up than they had been from far away. The medieval structure towered over the island landmass that it was built on, casting deep shadows that danced eerily with the orange hues of light emanating from the abyss. Everything about the obsidian black of the Enforcer’s HQ screamed foreboding and ominous.  All I wanted right now was to head back over to the mainland, but I didn’t know the first thing about how to operate this floating contraption we were using and Zavis seemed intent on heading to the castle. After what he’d said, there would be no point in asking him to turn around… I swallowed my anxiety and waited as we drew ever closer to the looming structure.

                The platform we stood on reached its destination and lowered itself down over an identical receptacle to the one it’d departed from on the other side. Clanking down into place, four prongs appeared to secure the platform. As Zavis departed the now stationary mechanical wonder, a woman about my height approached the platform. Long pale purple hair ran halfway down her back while equally pale purple eyes grew bright at Zavis’ approach.

                Unlatching the two satchels from his belt, Zavis handed them over to the woman. “Freyja, take these detainers to the lab and have their mana signatures analyzed. I’ll be taking Lyssa to the preparation room so that she can get ready for the meeting to follow.”

                Like Zavis, the woman he spoke to had on a similar garb colored black with golden trim. Unlike Zavis’ attire, the top portion of it tapered off and formed into a skirt around Freyja’s waist. ‘Is she an elf?’ I wanted to ask, but Zavis had instructed me not to ask questions around anyone but those who already knew about me… I ran with the assumption, if only for the fact that Freyja’s pointed ears were obvious, and at least twice as long as Zavis’ and my own. She also didn’t have horns, and from what I could see, she didn’t have a tail either.

                “Lyssa…?” Freyja, accepted the bags with one hand and leaned to the side, gawking at me with keen familiarity. While she stared, her eyes gradually grew wide with what looked to be surprise. “Right, I’ll get these to the lab then.” Catching my eye, Freyja averted her gaze and righted herself, assuming a more formally respectable stance as she addressed Zavis. With a deep smile she stepped to the side and allowed him passage into the castle. I followed directly behind Zavis but kept my eyes on Freyja as we passed. Noticing my gaze, the woman offered me a small and disturbingly cute wave.

                I was glad to have Zavis guiding me. If he’d chosen to leave me where I was and told me to find the preparation room for myself I imagine I’d have been lost in this place for hours. Inside the castle, passageways and turns were everywhere. The main entryway broke off in several directions almost immediately and we wound our way through a number of corridors lined with doors.

                “We’ll part ways here for now. Mayv’lar will come and retrieve you once I’ve completed the necessary preparations.” Zavis stated, stopping in front of one of the doors. “While you are free to come and go as you please I suggest that you don’t. Until you’ve become familiar with this building’s layout I suggest taking Lulu as your guide.” With his final instruction, Zavis stood to the side and ushered me through the door before taking his leave.

                Gray-white walls met me inside the room. Compared to the hallways and corridors outside, the lighting level beyond the threshold of this chamber was lower and presented a more welcoming atmosphere. Zavis said this was a preparation room but to me it looked more like a suite. Two oversize beds and a pair of Chester drawers sat next to one another on the far side of the room and on the adjoining wall to the left were two additional doors. On the final wall, sofa chairs and a couch were situated around an entertainment center, complete with a large flat TV and a console system I didn’t recognize.

                “Lulu!” I shouted in surprise, seeing the mass of light blue hair sprawled all over both beds. Rushing over to the blob of hair, the two bulbous protrusions on top of Lulu’s head wiggled.

                “Lyssa is too loud…” Lulu complained with a groan. The only thing that opted to move in response was the woman’s head. She drew it up off the sheets and glared at me with a scornful look when I bounded noisily over to the bed.

                “Why are you naked…” I sighed indignantly, having noticed the slivers of bare flesh peeping out from beneath the thick locks of light-blue.

                “Marla made Lulu take a bath…” Lulu’s response offered an air of annoyance before the head of light blue hair buried itself back into the sheets, leaving me unable see Lulu’s face.

                “Zavis said he wanted me to get ready for some meeting. I’m assuming he wants you to do so as well.”

                “Lulu doesn’t wanna.” Lulu’s muffled voice responded.

                I was about to say something else in response to Lulu’s retort when I heard the sound of a door opening. Turning to look I saw one of the two doors had swung open and out walked a small figure. Pik exited the bathing room and entered into the preparation room. She now wore a green floral dress and a white towel was wrapped over her wet hair. Pik stood a moment, taking in the room that’d greeted her and upon seeing me on the bed with Lulu she somberly trudged over to the couch and sat down. Lulu’s personality was back to normal now, of that I was certain. Pik on the other hand…

                I hadn’t seen Pik since I’d left her behind with Marla. The deadly hellfire, the wall of ice Lulu had shot down in order to protect Pik… Pik’s mother burning to death. The scene replayed in my head and I found myself growing sullen. She’d gone through a great deal of trauma today. Could I just leave her like that? No. No I couldn’t…

                “Hey… How are you holding up?” Approaching the couch I sat down next to the all-too-quiet little goblin girl.

                “Leave me alone.” Pik huffed. Scooting toward the opposite side of the couch, she turned her back.

                “I’m so sorry for your loss… I didn’t really know your mother but I’m sure she meant the world to you. If there’s anything I can do to help you through this, I-.”

                “-What the hell would you know!?” Pik shouted, her voice wavering with sorrow, though I could hear the anger building up in her words.

                “What? But I just-.”

                “-No! Shut up!” Pik raged and before I knew it, a towel had been whipped over my face. I reached up to pull off the towel and found Pik was now standing in front of the couch. Her hands were clenched into fists and she seethed. “Don’t you dare go pretending like you know what having a family is like!” Pik puffed out her chest and slapped it with her fist. “You demons are all the same. Created out of nothing without a care, like it’s some sort of stupid gift!” Pik cursed, pointing an accusing finger at me. “Well I’ll tell you what, my mother actually gave birth to me! She suffered for me and raised me herself! That’s not something you could ever know about!” Tears flooded at the edge of Pik’s eyes.

                It was obvious to me that Pik was struggling with her emotions after the events of her mother’s passing. Being that I was still fully human on the inside, I felt sorry for Pik. Her accusations were aimed at me while blaming demons for being heartless. In this moment I couldn’t expect the girl to fully understand my genuine sympathies. Standing, I reached over to the little goblin girl and sought to console her.

                “Don’t touch me!” Pik objected, batting away my hands with her fists when I attempted to bring her into a hug.

                “Pik…”

                “Go away! I don’t want to see you anymore!” Screaming, Pik turned on her feet and dashed out the door and into the castle corridors.

                “Wait!” I protested, turning to give chase but a hand on my shoulder stopped me in my tracks.  “You shouldn’t worry about her for now. I’m sure she’ll come around eventually…” Marla’s voice whispered in my ear. I was surprised. I hadn’t seen her enter the room.

                “But won’t she get lost out there?” I asked, turning a pained look to meet Marla’s eyes.

                “Goblin children are often overly emotional at times like this. The loss of a parent figure tends to be exceptionally hard on them. Pik will calm down eventually and when she does one of the castle patrols will bring her back.” The panther woman patted my shoulder and proceeded to guide me back into the room, pushing me towards the bathroom. “Come on. We need to wash off all that Charmolgrath blood and get you changed before Mayv’lar arrives.”

I apologize for the delay in getting this chapter out. My procrastinating brain has been allowing me to get distracted by Anime and Video games too much as of late... I know it's no excuse since I proclaimed that I would do 2 releases per week... I just need to work on getting back into the swing of things. >_<