Day 18 Month 12 of the Year Eight Hundred and Seven, Third Era of Man:
Ria’s stomach knotted as the devil woman looked right at her. In spirit form she should have been largely invisible. Yet this woman could see her, and Ria had no doubt she could see her clearly, not just merely sense her presence. That could mean only one thing, the devil in front of her had to be a powerful mage, which was in line with their kind. Many of them were known to match or even exceed an Archmage in magical prowess.
Not wanting to take any risks, she took a step back. The devil spoke up, “Leaving already? That’s a bit rude, stay and chat with me a bit.”
“Um, who are you talking to?” inquired the harpy girl.
“Can’t see her? Let me help,” said the devil.
Ria’s knot twisted in on itself. Taking another step back, she focused on being anywhere else, when suddenly she felt foreign magic latch onto her. Strong magic, she gasped as her form turned visibly ghostly, yet present enough to be seen. She might just be in trouble. Reaching for that spiritual ability to shift elsewhere, she tried again only to be blocked. Only reinforcing that feeling that she might be in trouble.
The harpy girl jumped, “Who is this?!”
The little celestial girl on the other hand didn’t even react. Focusing instead on her food.
As for the devil girl, she drew closer, calm and with no signs of regression. “Let’s start again, “I am Mitsu Rel Yelshari,” she gestured to the Harpy girl, “and this is my loyal retainer Sabiri. Now my unexpected guest, who are you?”
Ria looked around and sighed, it didn’t seem she had much for options at the moment, “Ria of the Contrey Clan.”
“A royal?” she smiled, “Well isn’t this a welcome surprise. I’d offer you something to eat, but I can tell your mortal vessel is elsewhere.”
Ria blinked. Sabiri spoke up, “So she’s some royal’s ghost?” she frowned, “Can a ghost feel pain?”
Mitsu gave her retainer a look, “Enough of that, she’s a proper guest and an equal. Treat her as such.”
Sabiri paled, and bowed her head, “Forgive my offense, mistress.”
“Raise your head,” she glanced at the little one, “Is she ready?”
“Yes Mistress. I’ve rubbed her wounds, stung her, and fed her.”
“Wonderful,” she lifted the jar she was holding, “Rub this into her wounds as well. Feel free to make extras.”
Sabri grinned and took the jar, opening it, she used her talons to start rubbing into the little girl’s skin. The girl flinched as her claws cut her. Ria couldn’t help wincing, harpy talons were a poor choice for that task, and it showed.
“Come, we can chat in my room.” She glanced at Sabri, “Bring her when you are done.”
“Understood mistress.”
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Her room turned out to be on the upper floor, featuring a large seating area and expansive bookshelves, many of them already filled. It also had one of the largest beds Ria had ever seen. The bed was large enough that a dozen could easily sleep upon it. Mitsu settled on a sofa and gestured to the opposite one. Ria settled her spirit form upon it, noting she could feel it, but not as she normally would. It was more like there was a thick fuzzy blanket between her and the mortal world. “So what do you want?”
“This is a chat. I imagine that large spell, shortly before a Dragon God of all things showed up, was yours, yes?”
Ria blinked.
“Seems I was right.” she sighed. “It’s not too late to reconsider your position. Our defeat at Accipitor, while a setback isn’t crippling. Losing a gate would be more of an issue, but these aren’t the only gates we have.” “Reconsider? What are you on about?”
She giggled, “You don’t know, do you? Have you not felt it? The Supreme has not been seen in millennia. His daughter, a mere child, sits on the throne of the so-called gods. War is coming. Why do you think the Dragon Gods are so active? They can feel the change coming but they shall fall. Lord Xaros will sit on the throne.”
Her mind flashed to Arlie’s prophecy, “Lord Xaros? Never heard of them.”
Mitsu chuckled, “I can forgive that, they’ve not visited the mortal realms in eons. Long before the first humans walked the mortal plane, they left for beyond seeking the Lost Temples of the First Lords. He found one, now all shall tremble before him.”
She blinked, “A man? The devil lords are bowing before a man?”
Mitsu gave a wry grin, “Sadly, we are. You would too if you had felt his presence.”
“I see.” She replied, not sure what to make of this. After a second she thought about the kid, no others had been brought to this manor. “On a different note, what’s with the little celestial?”
“Oh? Interested in what I do here? I guess I could give a bit of a tour.” she shifted, “I’m mainly in charge of the care of the young slaves and servants. Newborns, toddlers, very young children. That’s why there is a nursery pit right next to my manor, and there is another nursery in the nearby aerie. As for the girl? You are right, my interest in her is special. I’m not going to tell you exactly why, but I will say that she comes from a bloodline of some importance. At least to the Celestials of Sivia, that is.”
Ria frowned and thought back to the girl’s features. It was hard to say, since she wasn’t fully grown, but her colors did give some hints. The little one had lovely green eyes, teal hair and feathers of white, gold, teal, and silver. “Don’t tell me you kidnapped a princess!”
Mitsu giggled, but neither confirmed nor denied the statement. A moment later there was a knock on the door. Just before Sabiri escorted the little celestial girl sporting fresh cuts down her arms and legs into the room, “She’s ready for you Mistress.”
“Wonderful,” said Mitsu as she focused on the child. “Come closer my dear.”
Ria told the girl not to, but was ignored. The girl sauntered obediently over to the devil girl, who knelt before her, her tail shifting. Almost like she was preparing to sting but after a moment her tail relaxed. Instead, a jar of paint materialized in her hands.
She dabbed it on her claw, “This will sting, but bear with it.”
The girl whimpered as the devil girl etched arcane markings on her face working her way down her neck, torso and belly. They bled and glowed as Mitsu’s clawed finger passed. The work was slow and detailed. Ria recognized some of the symbols but not others. It was a ritual, but for what she wasn’t entirely sure.
Mitsu finished the last sigil, then stepped back. A grin on her face, “You were so strong for me! What a good doll!”
The girl didn’t say anything and merely stood there. Mitsu touched her forehead, and mana pulsed down the etchings as Mitsu spoke, “With this spark, I set the blaze. From the ashes, I bring thee into the fold. Shed your past, shed your blood, you are now mine; Colette.”
Magic flared through the girl, and the symbols vanished, leaving only bleeding cuts where they had been. Her sclera turned black, and the glassiness in her eyes vanished. The girl smiled, “Thanks for naming me, Mother.”
“Glad to hear you like your name. Ready for your first kill?”
The girl happily nodded. Mitsu looked to Ria, “Come along. I did promise a tour and Colette needs to pick out her very first victim.”
If she could she would have paled. Ria gave her a look, “You can’t be serious! You are going to make her kill a baby.”
Colette shook her head, “Not make. I want to kill!
Ria gave the kid a look and groaned. She wasn’t sure, but she suspected that the ritual had involved elements of blood and soul magic. A few of the symbols she’d recognized were for dark, light, and shadow magic, the holy trinity. Nothing elemental was involved in the ritual, it was all higher magics.
Mitsu headed for the door, “She’s a predator now, and she knows it.”
Sabiri opened the door, Colette ran out, Mitsu following. Ria let out a breath and moved to follow as well. Maybe she’d learn something. Besides, she could feel Mitsu’s magic still had its hooks in her. The devil girl wasn’t quite ready to let her go, but Ria didn’t think she’d try and hurt her either. If she was going to do that she would have done so already.
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Colette bounded down the stairs, singing as they entered the depths of the nursery pit. Ria took in the passages that branched off into the earth. Patrolling the pit were countless Hellfiends, most of whom were females. A few males could be seen here and there, but for the most part it was girls. The walls of the pit were lined with blackened stone and etched with glowing red symbols.
Reaching a landing, Sabiri led them down a passage. Colette once more bounded out ahead. The passage was lit with an ominous reddish light that spilled out from crystals on the walls. It wasn’t long before they came into a chamber. Before Ria could fully take in the room, Mitsu was talking.
“This is one of the storage chambers. We store the babies here when we don’t need them.”
Store, she says, thought Ria. That was certainly one word for it. The walls were lined with strange racks from floor to ceiling. Each one had several babies tightly bundled together and stuffed into the rack. Many of them were wailing in distress, clearly uncomfortable and hardly able to move. Several fiends could be seen in the room.
Ria locked onto one resting on a wide sofa. Like most fiends, she was entirely naked, standing around 175 centimeters tall, her skin was stained a deep black and etched with red tattoos. Clutched in her lanky, slightly too long arms, was a baby girl, who she was pressing against her large pointy breasts, sharp claws digging into the baby’s bruised backside, blood dripping down. The little one didn’t seem to notice as she nursed. Ria couldn’t help noticing that she had a crushed wing, numerous bruises covered her skin, and she was bleeding. Yet the only cuts seemed to be from this fiend’s claws.
Mitsu pointed to a rack, “Okay Colette, go pick out a baby.”
Colette ran up to the racks, and started browsing. Ria sighed, “What kind of nursery packs babies in tiny racks like that? They don’t look comfortable.”
“Nothing wrong about that. They’re just the babies of lesser beings. The racks are genius since we can fit more babies in each chamber. Making them uncomfortable, well that’s just a bonus.”
Ria gave her a look and let out another breath. “Now that I think about it. I don’t really know much about how you devils approach childcare.”
“Well lesser beings are raised in communal nurseries like this.”
The fiend nursing the baby commented, “It certainly helps with the feeding. We do it on a schedule, lactating females such as myself without any kids of our own, often choose to nurse the babies. This one here is one of my favorites. I do love hearing her squeal!”
She grimaced at the reminder that these beings thought nothing of abusing any being they saw as lesser. “No sympathy at all, not even for a favorite?”
The fiend chuckled.
Mitsu remarked, “Well she is a bit gentler with that one. I’m just glad we are raising celestials here. They tend to be hardier than humans, I feel so sorry for my sister being stuck with a nursery full of humans.”
“Sister!?” Ria exclaimed in a bit of surprise. “Where?”
Mitsu shifted then shrugged, “Well I don’t know exactly where she opened her gate, I just know it’s somewhere in Lepharia. I don’t believe your queendom has much power that far south.”
Ria found that nugget useful, but not particularly relevant to the here and now. “There is trade, but ship voyages are rather lengthy. It would have been a couple of months before word of hellspawn that far south reached our shores.”
Mitsu ignored the comment, “Now, about your earlier question. My subject is right. We do feed them on a schedule, but we don’t restrict ourselves to using just our own milk. I receive shipments of milk sourced from the breeding pits daily. Proper feeding is essential to their growth and development. In addition to the feeding schedule, we have a robust play schedule.”
Just then Colette, holding another bruised baby, bounded up. She lifted the baby in question, “This one!”
Ria noted a few other bruised babies being brought in and had to ask, “And how common is bruising?”
“Oh, very common. We don’t shelter them, they need to grow up tough, or not at all.”
“I see.”
“Don’t worry, we make sure all injuries are properly cleaned. All babies are bathed after every play session, fed, then stowed in their racks,” said Mitsu before turning to Colette, “That one is a good choice.”
Colette beamed, “So when do I get to kill her?!”
Sabiri said, “Right this way, the apprentice healer’s ward will be perfect for that.”
Ria frowned, “The what?”
Mitsu didn’t say anything and merely led the way to an adjoining chamber. Hellfiends walked around the room, while babies were strapped to tables. Ria noticed an older hellfiend leaning over a child about six months old. Its screams filled the air, but the fiend ignored them.
“That’s not healing! She’s hurting that girl.”
Mitsu nodded, “That’s the idea. New healers need to practice their skills. That’s what is being done here. Babies are pulled from the resting rooms and deliberately injured so the apprentice healers can practice healing their wounds. I do put limits on how often any given baby can be used as a practice subject. Otherwise a particular favorite might be in here constantly. Don’t worry, the full healers watch the apprentices carefully and they do all the harm to the babies, ensuring none of the wounds are actually fatal.”
“You know we use homunculi for that,” she replied with a bit of disgust etching into her tone.
She didn’t even get a response. Mitsu merely barked at a healer to prepare a space and a knife. Moments later, Colette’s pick was strapped to a table at the back of the room. Where Colette etched some markings on it with the tip of her knife, each one made under Sabiri’s close instruction. Ria couldn’t do anything to stop her in spirit form, only watch what was clearly a very ritualistic kill. One that was finished with a knife stabbed down through the chest and slicing through the belly.
The moment the baby’s form stilled, blood still pooling on the floor, magic rippled through Colette’s small body, dying her feathers. Most of the colors remained the same but all the white feathers turned black. A moment after that, her hands changed with claws forming on them. Ria understood the significance. Whatever had been done to her was still ongoing. “Does that finish whatever ritual you performed on her?”
“The Renaming?” said Mitsu, “Almost, now that she has killed all she has left to do is hunt an equal. A child of her own age will do perfectly fine. We can do that out on the toddler range.”
“Toddler range?” her mind flashed to the fenced-off area they’d passed through, “You mean the fenced-off area we passed through to reach your manor?”
“Yup that’s it.” she replied with a nod, “It’s a nice, wide-open space for the young to run around in. Any girl old enough to walk is let out of the nursery and sent there. That’s where they will spend their days until they are ready to be sold off as apprentice servants, priestesses or whatever job they are picked for.”
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Ria chewed on that as they headed up to the range. Mitsu more than happily told her how it was run and frankly... it wasn’t great. Turns out being old enough to walk meant being directly exposed to danger. Those kids were often hurt by the fiends... “playing” with them. That hut she’d seen near the pond was apparently what counted for the medical center. It was also where their food would be prepared and that pond was their only water source. As for shelter? They didn’t get any, at least not anything Ria would consider shelter. Unless you called some tiny and shallow ‘dens’ carved into the earth, shelter. According to Mitsu there were a few of these ‘dens’ just south of her manor. Most of them were on the north side with the rest scattered around, usually located where the terrain was especially rocky.
Stepping out into the open, her eyes landed on the aerie on the other side of the enclosure. “Right, you mentioned there was a nursery in the aerie.”
Sabiri commented, “It’s not that different from the nursery pit. Only instead of being run by fiends, it’s operated by my fellow harpies.”
“So not any better,” she replied before changing the subject, “Anyway, what exactly are you plotting with Colette?”
Mitsu replied, “Nothing you need to know just yet. If you accept my invitation? I’d be more than willing to tell you.”
“I guess I’ll find out after the army retakes the town.”
Mitsu chuckled, “That won’t be happening. We will be quite gone before you arrive.”
Ria blinked, “What do you mean gone?”
Mitsu looked up for a moment, then said, “You mortals limit yourselves too much. Do you happen to have any idea how much lifeforce we harvested recently? Or what we can do with it?”
Ria frowned, then her eyes widened as she realized the implications. Hastily she gathered some of her mana and sent it out as a probe. If she could have she’d have been whiter than a sheet at what she found. The entire city was surrounded with arcane runes, etched in blood. Ria recognized the runes and what they meant. The scale however was bonkers. “There’s no way, you couldn’t have...”
“Sacrificed enough lives to fuel a spell this grand? Think again. It helps that my sister down south was quite successful in finding a nice rich place to settle. The rest of the energy will be coming from her end.”
Ria cursed. Barely keeping an eye on Colette who was under Sabiri’s watch was now chasing a young celestial girl. Her victim had an injured leg, slowing her down and wasn’t able to get very far before Colette tackled her from behind. A grin on her face as she declared, “I’ve got you!”
Ria did notice what followed next. Colette wasn’t kind as she used her knife from earlier on the kid. The kid’s screams filled the air for several minutes before Colette stood up and walked away. Leaving the poor kid crying and bleeding from numerous wounds on the ground. Sabiri grabbed the girl in her talons and flew off toward the medical hut.
Meanwhile magic flared under Colette’s skin as she grew larger, a tail long and slender emerged from her tail bone, the tip blooming into a pointed bulb, much like the one at the end of Mitsu’s tail. Mitsu grinned and ran over to Colette pulling her into a hug, giving her a kiss and saying, “I’m so proud of you! That was a good first hunt!”
Colette beamed, then yawned. “I’m tired, can I take a nap?”
“Sure thing sweetie. Head inside, I’ll be with you shortly.”
Mitsu turned to Ria, “I’ll send you home. You can think about my invitation. Until we meet again.”
Ria blinked as a foreign magic hit her. A second later she was taking a sharp breath, finding herself back in Accipitor. Only now she had a few new clues to play with. While not ideal, that conversation hadn’t been empty. There were interesting tidbits to chew on. The mention of this Supreme, Lord Xeros, and her new knowledge about hellspawn to the south.