Charlotte

“Alright, everybody, gather around the summoning disk! We’re each gonna need to put a finger or toe or something on it.” I gestured to the metal disk I’d placed on the forest floor as I spoke. It wasn’t a solid circle, but rather made use of empty space to create a complicated pattern, matched perfectly to its mate in the tower.

“Wouldn’t it be better to hold it up?” Singh asked, glaring at the disk sitting in the dirt as if it might rise up to bite her or something.

“We need to be able to picture the ring’s location perfectly for the return trip,” Mikaela explained. “If we hold it and then let it fall to the ground, we won’t have a detailed enough mental image to make the trip.”

“Uh… hold up a sec!” Reckt interrupted. “Is that safe? What happens if an animal thinks its shiny and moves it or something?”

“Then we won’t be able to initiate the trip back, I’ll get an earful from Dam, and we’ll have to find the damn thing ourselves afterwards…” I replied, already imagining the future headache. “But it’s not like it’s dangerous or anything. The spell will just fizzle out without taking us anywhere.”

“It’s a security measure,” Mikaela explained. “There are variants of these same circles placed in important areas throughout Dimona Tower. In order to transfer between spots, you need at least one person who can clearly picture where its twin is kept.”

“So put a toe or finger on the circle and stop complaining!” I declared, before Mikaela could go any further into explain-y mode. She had a bad habit of treating anything and everything like an excuse for a lecture, sometimes.

“Shouldn’t we at least put up some countermeasures to keep it from being taken away?” Singh suggested. “Maybe make a groove for it in the ground, or something, so that animals will have a harder time grabbing and taking it away?”

“…Fiiiiine,” I grumbled. Mostly just for show, so that I wouldn’t have to admit that the twirp made a good point. In fact, I decided to go a step further, not only perfectly fitting it into a groove but raising a foot high wall of earth around the disk. 

Being able to directly manipulate the dirt with magic really did make things simple.

“…And here I thought I was volunteering myself to dig it out by hand or something,” Singh said.

“Forgot who you’re traveling with, huh?” I teased. “Now, seriously, step onto the circle.”

“Isn’t it going to be harder to do that with a wall around it?” Mikaela asked. “And we’d have to take off our shoes for it, anyway.”

“Fine! Then crouch and stick a finger on the circle. We’ll all have to crowd in a bit, but it should be fine, right?”

Mikaela hesitated a moment, before shrugging her shoulders and dropping to the earth. “I suppose I can just magic any dirt off us when we arrive, anyway.”

“Magic it where?” Singh asked.

“To the floor? The maids will clean it up.”

“Or we can put it in the trash ourselves?” I suggested.

“Wait,” Reckt interjected, “where does trash in the demon tower even go? Do you all just… throw it out the window or something?”

“Nope! The tower has a way of eliminating garbage from existence.”

“Which only breaks all the laws of physics as we know it…” Mikaela grumbled. “I think it’s converting the matter into holy magic.”

“Then where’s the unholy half of it going, huh?”

“Maybe it gets sent up to heaven? We can ask Granny Liz sometime…”

“Can you please save your strange demi-goddess conversations to yourself and just transport us already?” Ruby asked, having apparently knelt down while I wasn’t paying attention.

“Alright, alright. Then for the last time, everyone, put your fingers on the thingamajig and prepare for teleportation!”

***

Singh

***

I’m not sure what I was expecting when I followed the demon princess’s instructions and put a finger on her ‘teleportation disk’ but I definitely expected something to happen. Which… it did, I guess? Just… not in a flashy way. One second I was standing in the forest, kneeling in the dirt, and the next second I was kneeling on a soft floor, with racks upon racks of clothes all around me - strange, circular racks that held clothes of all sorts upon metal hangers.

“What is this place?” Reckt asked, besides me. A bit of a dumb question, but I was grateful that she’d asked it. It meant I didn’t have to look like an idiot when Mikaela answered.

“It’s our parents’ closet,” Mikaela said. “We keep our private teleportation circlet buried here, since it’s the one place the maids aren’t allowed to go.”

“You mean your parents keep a secret closet?” Reckt asked, incredulous.

“It’s not secret,” Mikaela objected. “It’s just off limits.”

“Due to the secrets,” I pointed out.

“It has totally caused all sorts of rumors,” Charlotte added. “Though the common consensus seems to be that since our Dam was originally Mama’s personal maid, she’s still jealous of the position and doesn’t want anyone else to fill it…”

“Your Dam was a maid?” Reckt asked.

“What’s a dam?” I interrupted.

“The parent that doesn’t birth you,” Mikaela replied. “Technically we have two of those, but we call our second Mom since she was raised human and doesn’t have the term.”

“Right… Your Mom… the traitor Heroine.”

“…Do you mind repeating that?” Mikaela asked, her voice ice cold.

Crap. Now everyone was staring at me, but… “That’s what they call her, isn’t it?” I held firm. “The Heroine who sided with demonkind.”

“To end a two thousand year old religious war led by traitorous angels!” Charlotte replied. “The Goddess was in total favor of ending the war! Also, the war was kinda trying to exterminate my people? You know, demonkind?”

“Hello?” interrupted another voice, before I could respond. “Are those voices I hear?”

My eyes went wide, as the closet opened - the surprisingly well lit closet, some part of my brain idly noticed, even as the entity I’d grown up knowing to be the bane of all humanity stepped inside. I didn’t notice any light fixtures, but maybe the tower just had some sort of ambient lighting?

“Mama!” Charlotte called out, her rage instantly doused as she raced towards the woman. To my surprise, even Mikaela’s icy expression softened, as Ruby let out a wry smile. Only Reckt joined me in looking nervously upon the newcomer.

She had violet eyes, was the first thing I noticed, and white hair - just like her daughters. The similarities didn’t end there, either, as I could see hints of her in the shape of the girls’ faces. If you told me they were sisters, I’d likely believe you in an instant - but mother? That was harder to swallow. She didn’t look any older than her daughters.

Then again, she was supposed to be an ancient being of evil that regularly died to Heroines and respawned anew due to the weight of mankind’s sins… but even by that logic, her last death and rebirth should have been over forty-five years ago, at the hands of Heroine Jodeyne Victorious - the first Heroine in history to defeat a freshly respawned Demon Queened. Usually it took multiple Heroines, each weakening her current physical form, to weather down a single Demon Queen - and even then, they almost always died in the attempt.

“So?” the woman asked. “Are you going to introduce me to your friends?”

“Friends might be a bit of a strong word,” Mikaela said, shaking her head. “And you already know Reckt, besides.”

“Reckt?” the Queen asked, turning her eyes to the blonde. “Ah… Well. I suppose this means the twins told you of my real identity?”

“Yeah,” Reckt said, rubbing at the back of her neck. “So you’re not just my dam’s big eater friend, huh?”

“I’d like to think I’m a lot of things,” the Demon Queen replied. “Most especially a mother, with two lovely daughters. But if you’re referring to the fact that I’m also the Demon Queen, then… Yes, I suppose I technically am.”

“Technically?” I asked, unable to help myself. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, Abigail - one of my wives - is much closer to being a true ruler than I am. Especially now that she’s been thoroughly taught on how to lead… But I suppose that’s not the sort of thing I should be discussing in front of random humans, is it? More importantly, I believe we’ve yet to be introduced.”

“I’m Singh,” I said, begrudgingly. “Your daughters’ captive.”

“Do you have to put it like that?” Mikaela asked, sighing.

“Yeah! If you’re going to create misunderstandings, you could at least try a bit harder and turn it into a bit or something…”

“That’s what you’re mad about!?” Mikaela demanded.

“What? I’m just saying. We’re not going to get her to stop pushing our boundaries, so why shouldn’t we all have a little fun with it?”

“Ah-hem. What’s this about a captive?” the Queen asked.

“It’s not like that!” Charlotte hurried to explain. “I mean, it kinda is? But… it also isn’t?”

“She caught wind of Charlotte’s identity shortly after Charlotte caught her stealing,” Mikaela clarified. “We can’t trust her to hold our secrets, and she is a thief, so we’re making her accompany us on our adventure until we’re satisfied she won’t steal or tattle.”

“And yet you brought her here,” the Demon Queen noted, eyeing me up and down. “As a friend. Alongside Reckt, and… Is that you, Ruby? I almost missed you, hiding in the clothes like that…”

“Hi Aunty Devilla,” Ruby replied, laughing a bit nervously. “I’m uh… just going to get going, alright? I don’t feel the need to get involved in any family drama.”

“You are family, though,” the queen pointed out. “Though of course you’re free to leave if that’s what you desire. I’m sure Chloe and Nivera would be as happy to see you as I am to see my own children.”

“Right… I’m going to have to deal with so many hugs, aren’t I?” Ruby muttered to herself. “And she’ll be prodding Dam into speaking… ugh. I guess it’s not going to get any better if I put it off…”

“That’s the spirit!” the Queen laughed, even as Ruby scurried off.

Then she turned her attention back to me.

“…I’m Singh.”

“Devilla Satanne,” the Demon Queen replied. “Though I suppose you might have already know that…”

“I’ve heard the name,” I replied, trying to keep my cool under the Demon Queen’s watchful eye. It was hard not to flinch when she smiled at me - such a normal looking smile, for a being I’d been told had so much evil in her.

“I’m afraid I can’t say the same,” Devilla remarked. “But I’m sure that we’ll get to know each other in time. For all that my daughters are forcefully carting you around, I still think it says something that they were willing to take you home with them.”

“It says we didn’t trust her enough to leave her by herself,” Mikaela said.

“And yet you didn’t leave her in someone else’s custody, but instead brought her,” the Demon Queen pointed out.

“Can we maybe discuss this over dinner?” Reckt asked. “I haven’t had anything good to eat since breakfast and I’m kinda starving.”

“Hmm… It’s a bit short notice to manage a full on family dinner, I’m afraid,” the Demon Queen murmured. “But I do believe my wives can at least make enough time for an impromptu feasting of sorts.”

“A whole feast?” I asked, flabbergasted. She was throwing feasts on a whim, when humans out there were starving? Not to mention the fact that she was going to apparently whip it up instantly, somehow. Probably through overworking her poor servants.

“Well, I say a feast, but it’s really going to be more of an ‘eat it as I cook it’ affair. Though I’ll be cooking in large enough batches to fit the title, I think.”

“Wait a second. You cook?”

“Of course!” the Demon Queen - an entity of pure evil - declared, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. “I had to learn how to contribute somehow, didn’t I? Keeping our bedroom clean and cooking the occasional meal is really the least I can do, especially now that the twins don’t need so much looking after…”

“I’d argue we don’t need any looking after,” Charlotte said.

“I’m sure you would,” Devilla replied. “But come now - let’s head to the kitchens, and have ourselves a ‘feast.’”

~~~

Author's Notes

Didn't expect to finish this tonight, but insomnia will do that to you... I guess? Hopefully the chapter's good, but sleep deprivation makes me Unsure. DXPS: Next project update is... Unknown? Maybe more My Own Villainess? Maybe Naughty Magic. We'll see.