Bright and early the next morning, before the sun had even crested over the horizon, we prepared to leave. It was a somber affair as Kieran, and I went through the motions of readying ourselves for the short journey. We carried our own packs as no one would dare suggest to the dragon that they get him some type of saddle. Well, I may have, but I knew there was no way to have one made on such short notice.

  I carried Rohime in my hands rather than in the leather tube. I was not sure what we were flying into and did not want to have to be fumbling with the tie if I needed to use it in a hurry. Not that I had the feintest idea on how to use a bow, much less a magic bow. But according to the note it was guided by my will so hopefully all I had to do was point and shoot and the magic would handle the rest.

  I carried one other burden with me as well: five black scale blades wrapped in a silken cloth. Like my bow they were surprisingly light for what they were and even if they were not, I was a demon and could probably flip Shinra if I had a mind to do so they were not trouble. Kieran was just accepting his steel sword from his father to belt around his waist when I approached them. Felicity blinked at me blearily, she was exhausted but insisted on seeing us off. Her own men had left about five hours previously but would not reach the Lake for some three days still.

  "Kieran, wait." I said, stepping up next to Garris and holding out the package to my butler. "Please use these if you would."

  Confused he gave me a concerned look, most likely because I rarely said 'please'. I suppose I really should work on my manners a little. He handed the blade back to his father before reaching out and flipping back the soft dark fabric revealing the pile of two short swords and three daggers. The scales had been polished and covered in some sort of magical protection that gave them a kind of dark luminescence, and each scale had been affixed to a metal hilt of dark iron, or a material similar at least. And in the pommel of each weapon sat one of the five magical gems that Queen Bri had gifted me at my presentation.

  Within one sword was the ruby red stone spelled to cut though just about any magic, the other had the black stone that made the blade able to slice though almost any non-magically-enhanced object. As for the three daggers, one held the deep blue stone imbued with stealth magic, the mellow green that made it so that anyone cut by it could be tracked for a time, and lastly, the bright topaz yellow that would give Kieran boosted speed as he was using it.

  "Pretty." Sighed Felicity. "You used your scales? These are lovely!"

  "Milady?" Asked Kieran, looking a little awestruck, his hands hovering over the blades that rested in my arms.

  "They are for you. It was why I had them made in the first place. I meant to give them to you before we left Froth, but I got distracted by the carriage. I rather think that they will be needed very soon."

  "But, Sin-"He said, gently lifting the Blue stoned dagger up out of my arms. "These are worth a fortune. Even if you discounted the priceless stones used... the fact that they have been made from your very own feathers..."

  I smiled at his wonder. I admit that the stones held tremendous value, but my scales were just scales. Very useful in the making of magical weaponry, true, but hardly the rare a valuable object as his tone suggested. "I would hardly be a good queen if I sent my only servant into a fight unprotected. And we both know they would be fare more effective in your hands than in mine anyway. Do you not want them?" I asked, knowing full well that he would not refuse a gift from his queen even if he some how thought he was unworthy of it.

  "It is a generous gift Lady Sin." Agreed Garris.

  "I will value them always my Queen." Said Kieran bowing low. "If ever my life is lost I will be sure that they are left in another pair of capable hands so that they may always be used to defend you and your line lady Sin."

  "I think I would rather you just be sure not to die to be honest." I said with a soft chuckle as my butler straightened and relived me of my slight burden. "But I appreciate the sentiment. Beneath the blades should be a leather belt with sheaths for the two swords as well as some leather holsters for the daggers to put where you will."

  "Thank you. It is a gift I will always cherish."

  I waved off his words awkwardly. I was not accustomed to gratitude after all. I also was not, exactly, used to giving people things either. I found I liked being able to get something for someone I truly cared about. Especially since the blades would likely save both of our lives more than a few times. Indeed, they may be put to work in but a few short hours.

  "Please stay safe Sin." Begged Felicity as I came up to wish her goodbye. She was still pale but appeared to have at least gotten a little rest since the night before. It was heart breaking to see a girl so young looking also look so old. If she were human, she would never be saddled with such responsibilities. At least not normally. "You are a Queen after all. Do try to keep yourself alive. Remember that your life is more than just your own after all. You may not have a line of your own, but you do have Kieran and your tames to return to, and I am sure they would all agree that they would like you to come back in one piece."

  "Yes, we would very much like that." Asserted Kiran from his perch on the massive dragon's back as he attempted to get comfortable on Rougier's stone like scales, his face pinched in distaste. 'You were not made for carrying passengers..." he grumbled making me chuckle.

  Rougier let out a snort, causing grey smoke drift up from his fist sized nostrils. "And you would do well to remember it boy." He growled, rolling his shoulders, and making Kieran cling tight to a spike lest he fall off the dragon's back. "I am not a mount. You should feel honored, as a matter of fact. You are only the second creature I have aloud to spend so much time on me without being eaten."

  "It will be a tale I tell my sons..." Huffed the younger male with an eye roll. "Should lady Sin ever see it wise to entrust one to me, then they will know how utterly lumpy and cantankerous you are."

  Rougier growled low and twisted his great purple head around to flash the man a toothy grin. "You could always walk. Or perhaps you would find the trip warmer and softer within my belly?"

  I laughed with Felicity and Garris, but my mind was on Kieran's words. He would make an amazing father; I had no doubt. He learnt from the best after all, and has proved that he was more than protective and attentive enough for such a job. He would never, literally, father a child for me. I was not sure if it was just that my love for him was more like that of a sibling, or if making him my butler some how put a spell on me so that I just did not view the handsome male in a sexual manner. But in the demon tradition, a woman did not raise male children once they were weened, but trusted males in the clan took them on. Female young were raised by women but not often by their own, queenly, mothers. Usually there were females who took on the job voluntarily, much like a human may decided to become a kindergarten teacher. Females in the demon race were just not the care giving type. It was a job mostly handled by males of the race.

  I just did not see my self ever having kids. Yet, since coming to Demonia the thought had crossed my mind more than a few times. I was not a homeless and unwanted or unneeded thing anymore. I had people who cared for me and a support system now. I even had land once we cleared out the current infestation upon it. I could raise a family. I could make Kieran a father one day.

  I was pretty sure I had a goofy smile on my face as I approached the dragon and he lowered himself as best as he could so that I could clamber up. It was not a graceful act, with my pack and Rohime to handle, but I managed to get up on his back and settle myself in front of Kieran's bigger form.

  "Fly swift, and be safe." Called Garris as he and Felicity backed away from Rougier, giving him space to take off without knocking them into next week. I watched as he placed a claw like hand over his heart in the traditional demon salute and felt Kieran do the same behind me.

  He let out a grunt and clasped his large hands on my hips a second later, however, when Rougier couched low, and his expansive leathery wings unfurled from his sides. I laughed at his mumbled curse; the sound lost as Rougier let out a single farewell trumpet that likely had the nearby village jolting awake in a hurry. His wings flapped three times before he jumped to the air and I felt the hum of mana all-round us, his powerful wings and the magic of his race taking us up into the slowly lightening sky.

  I spent much of the first fifteen minute of our flight to the lake in a fret over not having Rohime in its leather case after all. In hindsight it seems silly given that now I was harried over the fear of the wind wrenching the feather light staff from my hands. Apparently, it got annoyed with my fretting, because it suddenly warmed in my hands before its shape bent and the fiery white mana string appeared once again. Hesitantly I slipped it over my head and was pleasantly relived to find that it held fine. No doubt a normal bow would never be carried this way. I was in no way a bowman, but it seemed like a normal string would break. But Rohime was magical and if it thought that this was for the best than who was I to argue.

  "Rougier, you never told me that you were a legendary monster." I said once a further hour of silence got the better of me and I decided to take up the role of conversation starter in my little group of travel companions. I felt that Shinra may have been a good conversationalist but given that she was currently hanging out in shadow land I couldn't really settle in for a girls chat with her.

  The dragon turned his head slightly so that he could look at me with one of his red eyes. He did not have eyebrows in the traditional sense, but I got the feeling that he had them furrowed right now if he could. "I thought that was obvious." His voice bubbled over the rush of cold air.

  I rolled my eyes. "I mean in the magical sense. I was reading my Grimoire last night and it was speaking of the monster ranks besides the normal ones. It even mentioned you by name."

  "I am quite amazing."

  Kiran snorted. "There are other ranks?" He asked me, his warmth at my back a comfort when normally a man being this close would be anything but.

  "Yes. Legendary, mythical, God and titan. Apparently, there is supposed to be a mythical monster at the lake as well. It did not go into detail, but the book mentioned a small bird named Cinder-Fetch."

  "I would not know." Said my dragon, turning his head back to look ahead. "I usually do not concern myself much for anything not dragon related. And even then, I do not have much interest."

  "I suppose I should have expected that..."

  "I have heard mention of the creature before." Piped up Kieran at my back. "Though I did not know that it was a real creature. I was told, as a child, that Cinder-Fetch was a tricksome bird that lived around the Eternal Lake, blessing females with young. There was a time, before I was ever born, when the Queens of those lands were blessed with plenty of children, many of them being female. Apparently, it was due to the favor of the spirit of fertility, Cinder-Fetch."

  I mulled that over in my head for a moment. The area was called the Eternal Lake and I had been told often enough, that before Rougier royal messed it up, the area was one of the most beautiful areas in all of Demonia. It would make sense if this little bird had some kind of magic that made life prosper better. And if the land were to lose that little animal, I would bet that it would not fare well at all. Kind of like loosing your immune system. It may not be the cause of the corruption in the area, but I was willing to bet that it did play a part in the spread of the wastelands in the last two thousand years.

  Kieran must have been thinking along the same lines as he said, "I can't imagine that the land would have fared well with the loss of such a creature if it is indeed a real one. Much of life on Demonia is reliant on the mana flows, any disruptions to these delicate flows of power can mean tragedy for our world."

  I could believe that. I had only been able to sense the mana running through the world for a short time, but I could tell just how important it was. I didn't know how the mana worked on Hearth but here it was necessary to life. It was as integral as water or air in that life here could not exist without it. Earth was a planet that used almost none of its natural mana while Demonia could not possibly get enough of it.

  I was beginning to fear what we were flying into, not just because I was rushing into a potential war zone, but because I now feared for the very planet itself. I could see now why demon kind considered the Anti-Mana creatures their greatest enemies. They were two races that just could not possibly co-exist. And this world really could not withstand the incursions that hearth had become accustomed to over the millennia.

  "We are close." I heard Kieran say above my head, his voice pulling me back from my musings. "I see the purple skies just ahead."

  I squinted and sure enough, I could see a feint purple line on the horizon that I could visible see getting larger by the second. Rougier was getting us their faster than he had getting us away from the place. Mind you he was much healthier now than he had been when I freed him from his bindings a few short weeks ago. I wasn't thrilled about seeing those ominous clouds and I only had to suffer the wastelands for a week. I was sure Rougier had hoped never to see them again after having to live under them for two thousand years.

  "You need not worry about me girl." Rumbled the dragon. I wasn't sure how he knew what I was thinking but I decided that I was not in the mood to ask. "This place has had enough of me and will get no more. We will conquer this enemy and crow our victory over their burnt and charred bones."

  Normally I would have rolled my eyes or shot out a sarcastic comment but all I did was nod. He was right. We were strong and we would not let this place take anymore of our lives. Not with out a damn good fight. What ever lay ahead of us better be warry as we would not back down.

  It took us nearly an hour longer to get to the eternal lake. It had been described to me as a pristine red lake surrounded by the lushest of yellow grasses and flowers ranging from stunning blues to the most vibrant of greens. It was supposed to be a mix of yellow deciduous trees and the green conifers that looked a lot like the ones that grew on earth. On the banks of the lake was supposed to be the grand library with its towers and stained glass looking like a massive church or castle, built of a simmering white sone.

  But as we crested over the shortest of the mountains that circled the valley where this basin of fertility was supposed to be, we saw none of the wonder that had been described to me whatsoever. The lake was a dismal brown grey, the land was barren of any grass and was just a field of purple dirt and the charred stumps of trees and not even the hint of a flower to be seen. It was cold and depressing, the air heavy with a type of coiling sickness that I faintly recalled from my weeklong trek when I first arrived on Demonia.

  "It is a depressing sight to behold..." Whispered Kieran. I wasn't surprised by his hushed voice. I, too, felt like we had just intruded on a funeral and the slightest peep would be frowned upon.

  As we began our decent down the stoney mountain I could just make out the charred rubble of what I assumed was once the grand library that had been built here ages ago. It was now nothing more than a pile of greyed stone, partially covered in purple dirt. There were no towers and there were no stained class to be seen. I could see what looked like large pillars sticking out of the water that I assumed had once held up a massive pier.

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  Suddenly Rougier turned sharply to the left causing Kieran's hands to tighten on my waist and let out a curse that had me smile for a second before the mood washed it away again.

  "What is it?" I asked my dragon, eyes panning over sky and land for what it was we were avoiding.

  "I do not think it is wise to fly over that water..." He rumbled. His tone suggested that he had only his gut to go by, but I was perfectly fine with listening to that. "Also, I scent Demons. I assume the other queens have their forces assembled this way, just around the side of this foot hill."

  We glided around a steep ridge where the only thing I could see for a few seconds was Rougier's purple scales beneath my body and the grey-ish purple stone above my head. Kieran's hands clutched me tighter as the angle threatened to have us both slide off the huge dragon's back and have our bodies dashed across the stones below. I could think of worse ways to go but that did not mean that I wanted to be a smear on the side of a mountain either, so I was grateful for the added support.

  With a woosh of air we cleared the mountain side and I gapped at the scene before me. Scattered below us were an array of tents of varying sizes and colors. Some had banners but most were left bare and utilitarian. We were getting nearer the ground now and I could see individual people. Most were pointing up and shouting, no doubt fearing an attack. I hoped that no arrows came flying this way before I nearly laughed at my own foolishness. Even a spelled arrow would have a hard time getting through Rougier's scales and the archer would have to be a hell of a shot to get us on a massive moving dragon. Still, the less hostility thrown my way the better.

  As a horn sounded - no doubt announcing our arrival to any blind or deaf demons hanging about- I took note at just how few people were here. When I was told that there were the armies of a hand full of queens present, I had imagined several thousand demons to be here. But had I thought about it harder I would have realized that that was a foolish thought. Felicity herself was barely able to muster a hundred men on short notice and she was a queen governing over one of the larger clans. What I saw scurrying about beneath us was but a few hundred demons, maybe a thousand at the most.

  Ture it was the most demons I had seen in one place, and seeing just how varied the race was an interesting thing, but the low numbers were disheartening. The people of hearth throw countless men at the waves of Anti Mana creatures, as well as their all-powerful heroes... what could we do against this enemy that such numbers had a hard time with?

  We jolted, causing Kieran to curse softly behind me, as Rougier pulled back his sail like wings to bring us to a slow stop and into a landing. We shook again as his claws hit packed earth and my face nearly crashed into a dark spine when my head jerked forward.

  "Sir Rougier, I think you need to work on your landings." Kieran growled, rotating his shoulders to get the stiffness out.

  The dragon snorted, causing smoke to exit his nostrils. "That was a very gentle landing." He snapped in his gavel and boulder voice. "You try being as heavy as a mountain and see how softly you touch the earth boy."

  "A fair point..." Kieran sighed as ranks of demon soldiers surrounded us looking half scared out of their minds. I couldn't blame them, after all they were here for war and now, they were nose to muzzle with a dragon that could- and if he were not mine now, would- be able to eat them in a single bite if he chose.

  "Stand down!" Snapped an irritated and familiar female voice amongst the demon warriors. As I watched, Darcious extricated herself from the armoured forces and stood dangerously, and obstinately close to Rougier's sword like teeth. "Queen Sin' Andra." She huffed, pulling down a chain mail coif and looking haggard.

  I didn't much like the queen with a grudge, but this was hardly a time for petty in-fighting, so I nodded politely as Kieran slid off the dragon's back and held out his hands to help me down. I could get down on my own, but I knew that it would look bad for my butler if I spurned his aid, so I played along and let him assist me to the hard packed purple earth.

  "Greetings Queen Darcious." I said, putting a clawed hand over my heart in the manner that demons used to both salute and greet one another in formal situations. She copied the act.

  "Is it just you two?" She asked and I saw that she was in bad shape. She did not look wounded but she was hardly the clean and composed queen I had seen at the Queen's meeting mere days ago. Her Red curls were half loose from their bun, her pale face was smudged in a rusty substance I immediately recognized as dried blood, and there was dirt crusted into the dark scales of her tail.

  "Three." Growled the dragon. To the queen's credit she did not jump, but simply glared at the massive head she stood next too.

  "Four actually." I said, and as if that was all that was needed to summon her, Shinra bounded out of my shadow, her sleek black form somehow fitting between me and my butler while simultaneously forcing the collective demon forces back a few steps. "Felicity has sent out as many as she could, but they are at least three days out. I figured that four of us being here was better than none being here for three days."

  "And you would be right." Said another familiar voice as Queen Cinder stepped out of the crowd. "What are you all doing?" She snapped at the demons that had come to attack and were now standing around gawking. "Is there not more important things to be doing?"

  There was a nervous murmuring as the demons slowly dispersed. I saw that many had bandages, and some had to lead away by comrades. It was hard to pick up over the coiling stench of the contaminated lake, but I could smell blood in the air.

  "I take it we did not make it in time...?" I asked, worried. Cinder looked just a beaten down as Darcious, though she had one arm up in a makeshift sling.

  She sighed, shaking her head. "There hasn't been a major confrontation yet." She said warily. "But we have had to fend of a few raids. The Kataract must be in the lake itself as we have yet to find it and the beast appear right out of the water it seems."

  "Kataract?" I asked, a hand buried in my Pangar tiger's fur.

  "The rift in space that allows these curs to come from their world into other worlds." Huffed Darcious, being surprisingly helpful. "We all rushed here as fast as we could when Lady Ooma sent word of danger. I got here with 75 of my best males to find Cinder already engaged with the enemy."

  Cinder nodded. "Come," she said holding out an arm and move aside to guide us toward where the field of tents were set up. "I asked Sorcha to gather the others. We will discuss everything in my tent for now." She turned to Rougier. "I am afraid that you would take out most of the tents if you followed Lord Rougier. If you could stay here, I would be grateful. Unless you would like to shrink him?" She asked, turning back to me once again.

  I opened my mouth to answer but the dragon beat me to it. "I will stay this size." He said. "It would be a waste of Sin's mana, as plentiful as it is, to preform the spell when not needed. Besides, I would rather be at the ready if we come under attack."

  "Very well." She looked at him for a moment before nodding and speaking. "We thank you for your aid in this fight dragon. Your presence may very well save countless demon lives in the end."

  Rougier did not say anything, but I took his slow blink of his great red eyes to be a confirmation. Cinder seemed to think so too as she nodded and then turned her back on the scaly monster before leading our rag tag group down a small slope toward the closest and largest of the tents near by.

  "Pasha was the first on hand." Explained Cinder as we followed her, Darcious at her side. "She is the Reihee for Queen Aura's line, and they have a small town made up on the edge of my lands where they and the wastes meet. She detected a disturbance and then some scouts came rushing into town saying that the Enemy had appeared at the lake. Pasha sent word to me before heading in with a handful of warriors with orders for the rest of the forces to be ready."

  I listened raptly as we took a well beaten path around tents and campfires where men and women alike were tending pots of stew or dressing wounds. The atmosphere was heavy and full of tension, and I saw that all the demons were twitchy and on edge, expecting an attack at any moment.

  "Pasha's messenger arrived just as I was receiving the warning from Queen Ooma. I am the nearest Queendom to these lands and so I knew I had to act fast. I gathered 200 males and had them march onto the Eternal Lake at a hurried march. Apparently, Pasha ran into enough trouble that she sent word back to have what was left of Aura's line to hurry into the fray. We met them on the way to the lake and arrived nearly 400 strong..."

  I couldn't see her face as I was walking just behind the two older Queens, but I could hear the wariness of her voice and I saw Darcious shoot her a concerned look.

  "The Call caused us to lose a great many warriors in but a few short minutes." Cinder finally said as we arrived at the large mahogany tent. She held back the flap so that we could enter. 'We have been lucky in that it seems that the Enemy has been sending just a few forces through at a time. There were maybe twenty humanoid creatures and a handful of large dogs like beasts we had to contend with."

  "If Lady Cinder and my people had not arrived when they did, I fear I would have died." Croaked a new voice. I blinked in the flickering light of several candles and as my eyes adjusted, I saw that there were about a dozen men and women in the tent, all standing around a round and rickety table at the center of the tent. I saw a small cot pushed to one side of the tent with a side table that had bandages hanging off it. Other wise the tent was devoid of anything but people. "Greeting Queen Sin' Andra. I am Reihee Pasha."

  My eyes settled on a very large woman with a square jaw, muscles that Vale would have been proud of, short blonde hair, and four short horns, two above each brow, looking a bit like large eyebrow piercings. She had Deep-set red eyes and thin lips, her tail was so short that I did not see it at all in the forward-facing position she was in. Either demons of her line had short tails, or she had lost it in a fight. And I had no doubt that this woman was used to a fight.

  Most females in the demon community, Queens excepted, were not trained in fighting, nor did they have any aspirations to engage in battle. It just was not in the nature of your average demon woman. But everything thing from Pasha's even and balanced stance, to the cold look in her eyes, told me that this woman was as deadly as the best trained butler.

  "I would say it is a pleasure to meet you as well Miss Pasha but given the current atmosphere..." I said, instead offering the Reihee the standard claw handed salute which she returned wit a large calloused hand.

  I had heard of the Call before from Garris during one of his many lessons over the last few weeks. Apparently the 'Enemy'- as the demons refer to the Demon Kings forces- has some kind of passive magic that causes people to freeze up in their presence for a moment or two, like a deer caught in headlights. People just stand there and get cut down before they are given the opportunity to react. Supposedly the more you are exposed to this magic, the less effective it is on you.

  As I made my way to the table where half a dozen women stood, Kieran and Shinra took themselves over to the side of the tent where five or so other men stood and one woman. The woman caught my eye for a couple of reasons, her being the only female amongst the butlers and bodyguards only one of those reasons. Mostly it was her size. I had no doubt whatsoever that she and Reihee Pasha were related. Not only did they have the same bloodline traits, but the pair were both large even compared to many of the men, and both had shockingly blonde hair. Though this other woman's hair was a great deal longer than Pasha's pixie cut style. She had a long, thick braid draped over her right shoulder where its clear femininity contrasted stupendously with the beaten armor and the huge axe head I could see strapped to her back.

  I returned my focus back to the women in charge when pasha spoke again. "Yes, we are in a very precarious position."

  "I fear we may not last until reinforcements arrive." Agreed Cinder. "You say that Felicity can not get her forces her for another three days, and that is about accurate for even more of my own line to show up." She sighed and ran her uninjured hand through her hair. "As grateful as I am for Ooma's forewarning, I can not help but wish we had been given more time..."

  "How is it that this many of the Enemy can be here and know one knew of it?" Ground out Darcious.

  The dirty look that Pasha sent the Queen told me that this was not the first time Darcious had spoken up on the topic. It almost made me smile, only because I could admire the Reihee's spine. She was just an average female while Darcious could probably flatten the woman with a stray thought since she was a Queen. No matter how strong the average demon, they could not compare to a queen in all her glory. I may be an exception to that rule though, given my inexperience, lack of self awareness and the fact that my only real skill was having an abundance of mana.

  I did have a big nasty dragon though, so that had to count for something.

  "As I have said before, Lady Darcious," Pasha said, her words deferential but her tone scathing. "Even though our line does come into the wastes to patrol our old haunts, that does not mean that were suspected for even an instant that there would be a Kataract in the lake itself. Even if we did have an inkling of that fact there was hardly a way for us to be sure. I wouldn't even call the lake water 'water' any longer. It is more of a congealed slime at this point."

  "There is no point in laying blame where none needs laying." Sighed another female. At first i did not recognize her then I realized that I had met her both at my presentation as well as at the Queen's meeting the next day. This was Queen Perna, with the long dark hair and jagged horns. A quick look at the rest of the woman present told me that there were no other Queens among them. "We should be focused on the problems of the now."

  "Sin, this is Queen Perna, as you may remember." Introduced Cinder with a nod to the dark-haired queen. "These other women are Reihee. This is Reihee Frost- "She indicated a short female with shoulder length white gold hair and a single white horn. Had the horn been on her forehead rather than above her right temple than I would have thought her much like a unicorn. "And Reihee Uther."

  Uther stood next to Frost and the two could not be any different. Queens had a predisposition to being classically beautiful. Even I could admit that I was far better looking than I had been in my previous life, even if I also thought that I was probably the homeliest of the demon queens I had seen. But the average demon females did not have the same predisposition to beauty. Not that they were not usually lovely to look at, they were their mother's daughters after all. Uther was one of the unlucky females in the looks department. She had droopy eye lids and a mouth that was a little too pouty for her small round face. She was also the first demon I had seen with acne now that I thought about it. But her eyes were lovely, almost more pink than red in those droopy sockets.

  "And this lady here is Reihee Sorcha." Finished Cinder, indicating the last woman at the table with burgundy hair, red skin, and what looked more like a boney tiara on her forehead rather than horns. "Between all of us, we have about eight hundred men and women able to fight and no reinforcements to come any time soon..."

  "How has the enemy been acting?" I asked, a little confused. I had expected one of three things when I got here: either I would have arrived before the battle, during the battle, or I would arrive too late, and all would have been lost. Yet now I am told that we are in some kind of limbo?

  Darcious nodded, like she knew what I was thinking. "It is strange." She agreed. "When we got word from Ooma we expected a major battle but so far the enemy has been coming in waves."

  "So far the largest number of attackers was that first wave we faced when we came to investigate." Confirmed Pasha, her blonde hair glinting in the candlelight. "Since then, nearly every hour a new wave of monsters come out of the lake. The timing as well as the fact that before they appear there is a deep fog that rolls off the lake has made them easy to predict."

  "Yes, we have a lot of injuries so far but relatively few deaths considering..." Cinder sighed and looked frustrated. "I can not help but think we are being toyed with to be honest. It is like something is working to keep us busy while something far more troublesome is in the works."

  "How many of you have encountered this enemy before?" I asked. "I have never encountered them myself... is this normal behavior?"

  "If the world you come from never encountered these beasts than perhaps you should have stayed there." Said Darcious, though there was no heat behind her snarl.

  "Yes, well, it was not my choice to die, be reincarnated, then be shoved through a magical portal to this world." I said with irritation. "But you know what, the next time I am unceremoniously killed on the street I will be sure to ask to be reborn in a nice, peaceful world full of fluffy bunnies and kitty cats."

  "Alright, I get it. No need for the sarcasm..." She growled.

  "Besides, earth may not have anti mana monsters, but that doesn't mean it isn't with out major problems..." I shook my head to clear it. "My question still stands."

  "Well, as far as I know, there has never been this many of the enemy on Demonia." Said Perna worriedly. "I have fought off several incursions in my lands over the years but usually it is a small group or one large monster... Never has it been these constant waves of enemies. If there is indeed a greater force brewing beneath the sludge of the lake, then I shudder to think what that may mean for us."

  A heavy silence met the Queen's words.

  "Well," I said, breaking the silence after an uncomfortable moment. "From what I have been told from Hearth's encounters, they burst through in large numbers over the course of some months or even years, before eventually exploding forth in a great army. Then the united armies of Hearth come together to provide backup for the summoned Heroes."

  "That does not bode well for us..." Winced Uther, her shoulders slumped.

  "At least they inevitably won every time." I said with a sigh. "But yes, I would hope that we, as less than a thousand demons strong, do not have to face such an army here and now."

  "And we have no heroes." Breathed Frost, her voice airy and raspy. "Not unless you count as one Landy Sin?"

  "I really would rather not be seen as such." I said with a curled lip. I was not, in any shape or form, a hero. "But we do have four Queens. From what I have seen so far, a queen on Demonia has power comparable to that of a hero on Hearth. If all we must deal with is a small force, then I think that we can handle this."

  "The problem is the lack of information at this point." Stated Sorcha, her arms folded, and brow furrowed. "We have no way of knowing what lays beneath the lake."

  "We also do not know if the Kataract has closed yet or not." Agreed Cinder. She turned to me and explained: "Normally a Kataract stays open for any where from a handful of minutes to an hour or two."

  "Yet the Enemy has been coming on and off for hours..." I said understanding the confusion. Either there is a very large force in the lake that does not require air, or the Kataract has been open for way longer than a Kataract has been open on Demonia before, constantly spitting out monsters every hour.

  "I can not think of a time where a Kataract has opened under water, nor of a time where we had to battle the enemy in water." Said Darcious. "For all I know they do not even breath. But we do breathe and can not fight them in the lake."

  "So, all we can do is wait." I said, anxiety now building again. I always hated waiting for bad things to happen.

  "Unfortunately, yes." Agreed Cinder.

  "When was the last wave?"

  "Just over half an hour ago."

  I cursed. "So now we wait."

  "So now we wait..."