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The roaring commotion blared all throughout the gothic castle. Lesser demons were arguing amongst each other and gossiping about the recent news that had spread through the clan like wildfire. Normally the news of a demon failing their task wasn't one that warranted such a reaction, but it was the specific demon in question that was creating this minor uproar.
While the lesser demons spoke to each other in the hallways, the main 'event' was taking place in the throne room. Inside the throne room, only a few individuals were gathered. Eira –the yukionna who tried to kidnap Elizabeth– was sitting on her knees against the cold stone floor. Nearby stood a couple of humanoid demons, while two more sat on the floor next to a golden throne with a man seated atop.
The first bystander was a lanky gentleman in a white lab coat. He watched the scene curiously with his slit golden eyes, although simultaneously he looked like he could fall asleep at any minute.
The one next to him was a large, muscular man wearing a leather jacket. Unlike the man in the lab coat, this one watched with dark, disinterested eyes and was only there because he knew he had to be. He tousled his blonde hair impatiently while listening to the cloaked man on the throne lecture Eira.
“Eira, you are very fortunate that through some miracle, this Elizabeth woman was not killed by your actions. You went too far out of line today!!!” the man roared at her. The intense red glow from under the darkness of his cloak pierced through everyone who was present.
The twin demon women sitting next to his throne were the least affected by his outburst, as they seemed enamoured with him no matter what mood he was in. They were almost visually identical to each other, the major difference being their eyes and asymmetrical horns. Unlike the others who wore more normal clothes, the twins wore more tribal clothing akin to their heritage. The two watched the yukionna with dissatisfaction as clear as day, for putting their master in a poor mood.
Eira lowered her head slightly, her expression remaining emotionless as she was chastised for her display. “My apologies, Master Larkin,” she responded quietly.
Larkin growled in frustration before leaning back in his throne and letting out a disappointed sigh. “You almost killed her, and you also failed to bring her to me. Eira, you are supposed to be one of the most competent members of the Asni Clan, and this task is far too important for irrational behaviour to be displayed.” He paused for a moment, his voice growing more intense afterwards. “From my understanding, this happened because of that succubus woman who appeared?”
She closed her eyes, clenching her fingers tightly into her palms as she nodded to him. “Yes, that is correct.”
“Your past connection with this succubus will continue to cause issues then. If I send you to bring Elizabeth here to me again, I fear you might have another outburst.” His voice grew quieter as his demeanour relaxed a little. “That is why you will be forbidden from making direct contact with her until she is with us. I cannot have your emotions getting in the way when we are so close to our goal... I still have other tasks for you, but they will not involve her retrieval. Do I make myself clear?”
She lowered her head more, staring at the stone floor while nodding. “I understand, Master Larkin. I will do my best to make up for this mistake.”
“Good.” Larkin spoke, sounding a lot more pleased since he knew she was being subservient to him. He looked over to the two men nearby and gestured at the lanky one in the lab coat. “Bifrons, I will have you come up with the next plan of attack. It does not matter to me how you do it as long as the young woman is brought to me alive.”
Bifrons yawned while nodding to him, a bit too casually. “Understood, Master Larkin. I will go back to my station and see what I can come up with.”
The large man in the leather jacket groaned in frustration. “Ugh, this is taking way too long!! Master Larkin, just send me to take care of it!!” he shouted while cracking his knuckles.
Bifrons covered his ear in annoyance and shook his head as the man yelled next to him. “So loud...” He muttered while clicking his forked tongue. “Eligos, you heard him. I will be in charge of our offensive plans. If you are needed, I will send you out there,” he told him. He was half tempted to come up with a pointless task for the man just to get him out of the castle for an extended period of time.
Eligos huffed and stomped out of the throne room. He swung the main doors wide open, which smacked a couple of poor little gremlins, indenting them into the stone wall.
With the rowdiest of their group out of the way, he turned his attention to the twins near the throne. “Sitri, Seire, I assume you are both fine to act as well if necessary?”
The demon on Larkin’s left pressed her cheek against his leg. “Esruoc fo Nikral Retsam pleh ot gnihtyna!~” she answered happily.
The demon on his right nodded and formed a small crystal ball out of bright magical energy in her hands. “I agree with Sitri wholeheartedly. I can monitor any moves you make, Bifrons. Then we can intervene if you need us.”
The lanky demon seemed satisfied with the help he was receiving, since the task of retrieving Elizabeth appeared that it would be much more difficult now. He still knew that Eligos would be good muscle for the cause, but Sitri and Seire had better heads on their shoulders than him for when it was needed.
“Before you leave Bifrons, how are the repairs coming along for the amulet?” Larkin asked the demon scientist.
He scratched his head and sighed. “They are going... although extremely slow. That artifact is so old that I must take extra care to not damage it more than it already has been. One small mistake could destroy the damn thing. Rest assured that I will still have it done, if given enough time.”
Everyone in the room could feel the dark smile from underneath Larkin's hood as he stood up from his throne. “Excellent...”
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Elizabeth: Can you and the others meet me by the shed that leads to your home around 4:00pm? I need to talk to you in-person about what I've been thinking of.
This was the message Elizabeth sent Euryale three days after all of the commotion happened. It was a rather agonizing three days for her as the subject of the succubi clan was all she could think about. It was impossible to focus during her classes, so much to the point where she wondered why she even bothered to attend them.
Elizabeth looked down at her phone as the other students started filing out of the lecture hall for her history class. “I still have a few minutes before I meet them...” she thought to herself. A small part of her was still telling her not to decide yet, saying to run away and let it stew in her head longer. She looked down at Professor Addison packing away some of his papers into his briefcase, and had a different thought. Although she couldn't tell him any details, she wondered if maybe hearing the opinion of another person with more life experience would help. She hurried down the stairs towards his desk and waved shyly to gain his attention.
Professor Addison looked up from his jumbled mess, chuckling awkwardly at being caught in such a state. “Can I help you Elizabeth?”
She nodded and took a few deep breaths. “I actually needed a bit of advice... or an opinion,” she answered bashfully, “not related to the class.”
The professor chuckled again, “Well I'm not that much older than you, if you are looking for life advice. Wouldn't asking someone like your parents be more helpful?” It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help, but he simply didn’t expect a student to randomly need life advice.
“I thought about that, but I couldn't think of a way to ask my mom without her blowing things up and racing over to campus to check on me.” she admitted to him.
He nodded to her in understanding. “Ah, protective mother, well that's no problem then. What did you want to ask?”
Elizabeth stared at him intently, while trying to come up with a vague scenario in her head to explain the situation. “Recently I met someone... they're very nice and it made me feel happy to be treated like that by them. That person needs my help, but it might have me do things that I'm not comfortable with. I’ve been on the fence about if I should agree to help them or not.”
“The help they need you for isn't involving something illegal right?” Professor Addison quickly responded.
Her eyes went wide while she shook her head. “No no, absolutely not!”
Professor Addison laughed and stroked his rough goatee. “Well... think of it like this. The best advice I can give you is to try and follow what you want deep down. You are a very quiet woman, I can tell. Maybe a little push outside of your comfort zone is good for you. If you have to, maybe find a compromise with this person? That way you can still help them, but in your own way, and even grow a little as a person in the process.”
Elizabeth took a moment to let it all sink in, taking her professor's words and translating them into something she could do with her situation. “What I want deep down...” she thought carefully. While his words didn’t necessarily sway her decision, it reinforced what she felt she already wanted to do. “That... actually helps me a lot, thank you professor!” She looked down at her phone again and gasped before shoving it into her pocket. “I'm going to be late! I think I have an idea on what to do!! I appreciate the help!” She called to him as she left the puzzled professor to his mess of work.
Despite thinking she would be late, Elizabeth's full sprint and people-dodging skills managed to get her to the tool shed right on time. She felt a little silly when she realized they hadn't come yet. “I did say ‘around’ 4:00pm...” She paced around nervously, her heart pounding from anxiety while she fidgeted with her fingers. The suspense was killing her as she waited for them, every second feeling like an eternity.
After a few more minutes of waiting, the door to the tool shed slowly creaked open with the magical fog obscuring the doorway. A trio of dark figures slowly became visible to her while the fog spilled from the doorway. The first figure to emerge from obscurity was none other than Lilith.
The woman’s eyes lit up when she spotted Elizabeth. “Liiiiiz!!~” She cried out with joy as she practically dove for the poor girl. She wrapped her arms around her in a tight hug, squishing herself against her. “I was totally scared you would never wanna see us again after what happened before!”
She looked away with a slight redness burning in her cheeks. “Y-you didn't need to worry about that...” she muttered quietly. She didn’t want to openly admit the nice feeling she got from her.
While Lilith refused to let go and kept their bodies pressed together, Euryale and Irisyla came out from the fog as well. “Hiya Liz!!!” the latter shouted energetically.
“What did you need to meet us for today?” Euryale asked curiously, giving the human woman a small wave. “It seemed a bit sudden.” She added while walking up to them. Without notice, she grabbed Lilith and pried her away from Elizabeth.
“Well, it wasn't really sudden for me. It's all been on my mind since the other night. What you told me and what we talked about, I thought it was best if I gave my answer in person,” she explained nervously.
Euryale smiled and gave her a nod of approval. “Go ahead then, we're all ears.”
Elizabeth placed a hand over her heart, clutching her chest as she tried to form words. Having the three women staring at her so intently was nerve-wracking and made her want to turn away. She clutched her fist tighter before finally forcing the words out to them. “I-I... will do it. I will do your Umbral Queen... thing,” she told them in a shaky voice.
Silence fell upon all of them, the succubi just staring as if they didn't hear what she said. Moments passed, before all three of them leaned forward simultaneously and shouted in disbelief. “WHAT?!?!”
Lilith grabbed Elizabeth by the shoulders and shook her madly. “Are you being totally serious here?! Like really really serious?!?!”
Her eyes spun around as her head was tossed back and forth. “Y-yes! But I have a couple conditions for it!” she told them while being jostled about.
Lilith stared at her deeply, the serious expression she made appeared unwavering. “What kinda conditions do you mean?” It was the same level of determination that Euryale expressed before, if not more.
Elizabeth looked down at the ground, digging into the dirt awkwardly with her sneaker. “I would like to see how things go for a while, and if it's too much I would like to be able to opt out if I can. And on that note, I want to take things at my own pace... it would make me feel a lot more comfortable and safer.”
Lilith looked back at Irisyla and Euryale. The latter gave a very satisfied smile, and the former looked equally happy with the conditions. She turned back to Elizabeth, gently placing a fingertip underneath her chin and lifting her head so they were making eye contact. “Sounds like a deal to me, princess!~”
Elizabeth's heart skipped a beat from seeing the genuine happiness on the succubi's faces that her answer created. She was still extremely nervous about everything, but seeing them respond like that was heartwarming and helped keep herself at ease.
“Besides, you don't need to worry about feeling safe with us,” she continued to speak. “We formed this clan in the first place to be like a family.” With a pure smile on her face she took hold off the human’s hands, her fangs glistening in the sun. “So... welcome Liz, you're an Umbreise now!~”
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