“There are no goblins this time, right?” Raea asked, turning her head to glance at Palan as her horse jolted her up and down. Her contracted demon’s plate armor shone red in the sunlight.
“I don’t smell anything. They shouldn’t be there,” Palan said. “Unless they all wasted water and took baths.”
“Good,” Raea said and nodded. She faced the road and sighed. “It would be difficult to fight a group of them with only the six of us.”
“Six? There’s only five of us.”
“Stop forgetting about me!” Cleo said and pouted. Emergency Victuals ran alongside Palan’s horse with the orange lizardman on its back. “And don’t tell me you’re afraid of goblins.” She stared at Raea. “All you have to do is smack them around a bit and they’ll run away or beg for mercy.”
Palan knocked twice on the door before pushing it open, not waiting for a response. Raea frowned, but didn’t comment as she followed after him into the room. Lieutenant Sharr raised an eyebrow as he closed a binder on his desk and stared at the intruders. They weren’t wearing their armor, and the only visible weapon was Anidun’s dagger which hung on Palan’s belt. “Lieutenant Raea,” Sharr said, his brow slightly creased. “And Palan. I wasn’t expecting you two.”“Sorry to drop by uninvited,” Raea said and dipped her head downwards. She glanced at Palan. “Palan insisted on coming here.”Palan pulled up a chair and set it down across from Sharr’s desk. A tiny lizardman followed by a wolf slipped into the room before the door fully closed. “You can relax,” Palan said to Sharr as he sat down, ignoring the pouting Raea as she pulled up her own chair. &ld
Andrea yawned and stretched her arms above her head. The last remnants of red light from the sunset was just beginning to fade as she smacked her lips and sat up in bed. She blinked a few times before frowning and pulling on the blanket, wrapping herself up like a burrito. She hopped off the bed and shivered as her feet came into contact with the cold stone floor. She placed the ends of the puffy blanket underneath her feet and shuffled forward like a slug. Abaddon preferred keeping his residence at the freezing nighttime temperature of the desert. She wasn’t quite sure how.Andrea placed her blanket-covered hand on the edge of the fabric blocking her doorway and slid through dragging the rest of the blanket along the floor. She looked both ways before frowning. A large crater could be seen on the adjacent wall. She shrugged and traveled down the hallway that could easily fit ten people walking abreast before arriving in front of an entrance with a purple
After meeting with Lieutenant Sharr, Raea and Palan returned to their room with Cleo and Emergency Victuals in tow. The night passed uneventfully and the next day came, heralded by the red rays of sunlight streaming through the window. Raea sighed as she got out of bed and started to change. Cleo tilted her head at her. The lizardman’s words were garbled when she spoke and yawned at the same time, “You seem worried.”“I am not,” Raea said as her armor clinked. Owen had polished it for her yesterday, giving the silver armor a mirror polish. “It’s just … I’ve never had to give a report to a superior before, so I’m practicing in my head.”Palan frowned as he approached the closet after Raea finished using it. “What happened to my armor?” he asked as he pulled out a black cuirass. He tapped his knuckles against it and furrowed his brow before attempting to bite the metal. Raea pulled it away from his mouth before he could.“I had Owen request you a new set,” she said. “It wouldn’t be appr
“Lieutenant Raea has returned.” Wooden gates swung open as a crowd of angels stood behind it. They had poured out of the nearby buildings, looking for some kind of entertainment to relieve their boredom.Murmurs broke out through the crowd as Raea rode through the wooden gates with Palan on her left and Owen on her right. Carmella, Gerome, and Cleo rode behind them. On Gerome’s horse, a wrapped up lizardman corpse was riding with the angel, black splotches staining the bandages.“That few?” a soldier asked. “I thought they left with close to fifty people.”“But they went to the lizardmen camp—the marked one,” the soldier next to him said. “And Lieutenant Malak would not have let them come back if they failed.”“Seriously? She looks too young to be a lieutenant, and why is that person wearing black armor?”Raea ignored the whispers of the crowd as her group dismounted. Carmella led the horses to the stables while Cleo yawned and rubbed her eyes. A soldier approached them and saluted Ra
“Sir Anidun is truly dead?” Ishim asked, bouncing his leg. His face looked cramped as he stared at Raea who was sitting across from him. He didn’t even look at the glowing white chains lying loosely beside him, waiting to bind him at a moment’s notice. If his pale face lacked any more blood than it would be as blue as his armor.Raea nodded. “My subordinate found his body inside of the cave within the forbidden zone,” she said. “Anidun had committed suicide. There were multiple dagger wounds in his abdomen and his dagger lay by his hand.”Ishim’s frown deepened as he sank into the couch. “Why?” he mumbled. “Then what have I been working for?” Raea furrowed her brow as she tried to make out his words. Ishim narrowed his eyes and sat up straight. He leaned forward, causing Raea to tense, and picked up his tea. “John, send a letter to all my followers,” he said while snapping his finger. “Have them all gather here with their most trusted subordinates.”The demon butler remained silent as
Palan stood next to Raea on a porch, squinting his eyes at the blue pigeon flying away from them. A rolled up piece of paper that was twice the width of the bird was tied to its right talon. It continued to ascend until it was just a speck in the sky. “That’s really convenient,” Palan said. “It knows where to go?”Raea nodded. “Pigeons always know how to fly back home,” she said. “We paint them depending on which area they came from. Once they reach their home, the people that take care of them remove the letter and deliver it to the addressee. It’s not perfect, but it works the majority of the time. It should take a few days for the letter to reach my father. All we can do now is wait.” She turned around and opened the door. “Since Captain Ishim left without giving us further orders, shall I teach you how to read and write now?”Palan sighed. “There’s really nothing else to do?” he asked as he followed Raea inside. Owen was sitting on a couch with his hands clasped in his lap, starin
Loud church bells rang, their echoes traveling over the rows of buildings. The two suns blazed overhead as angels and demons scrambled to put on their armor and assemble in neat rows. Streams of elephants walked out of enclosures and joined the ranks, led by a few angels with whips. A bald angel wearing full red armor that seemed to be made of the same material as Anidun’s dagger stood at the head of the assembled troops, facing them. He held his helmet underneath his right arm and a battleaxe in his left. Behind him, a figure stood fully dressed in a dull gray suit of armor.“Attention!” The bald angel said, his voice was crisp and easily heard by all the assembled people. “I am sure many of you have questions, since we have not assembled like this for a decade. However! It is not your job to ask questions. It is your job to follow orders. Am I understood?!”“Yes, sir!” The two words were like thunder, the sound booming through the whole second sector—perhaps even heard by the farmer
Palan sat on a wooden chair, hunched over a desk with a quill in his hands. Papers lay scattered over the tabletop, their pages filled to the edges with ink. Raea stood beside Palan, observing his work as he muttered while writing the same letter over and over. Raea asked, “And what sound does this letter make?”“I’ll seriously kill you if you ask me that one more time,” Palan said as the quill snapped in his hand.Raea pouted. “Can’t you just let me have my fun? It’s not every day that I get to be better than you at something,” she said. Palan glared at her, causing her to sigh. “Fine, fine.” She passed him a thin book. “This is a beginner level book that I found for you. It is unbelievably difficult to find reading material in this outpost.”Palan looked at the cover. “The Little Dog That Couldn’t,” he said and frowned. “I’m not sure if you’re genuinely trying to help me or insulting my intelligence.”“Is it too easy?” Raea asked and scratched her head. “I thought it’d be better to