A Weapon’s Serenade

Melody rolled over to kiss Anne on the cheek. The girls were able to sleep in on this fine Wednesday. With two girlfriends who were adopted sisters, Anne made sure they took turns sleeping with her. So, this night, Kuria spent her time at the library as she didn’t need to sleep anyway.

Anne yawned and rolled over to return the kiss. “Hey.”

“Hey cutie.”

“I love it when you call me that. I love you.”

“Love you too. So… breakfast or cuddles?”

“Hm… both? The couch is big enough.”

“That’s a plan.”

Melody and Anne didn’t even bother getting dressed before snuggling up on the couch and conjuring some warm croissants and fresh lemonade. It was a beautiful summer morning, almost noon actually.

“Lab later again, right?” Anne picked up her croissant and tore it in half.

“At three again, we have time.”

“Every day this week at three or…?”

“Yea. They don’t need me there all the time, thankfully. I think neither Benteen nor the group that runs the experiment cares about what I do as long as they have my name on the paper. It’s honestly a bit insulting.”

“After the toaster thing? Understandable.” Anne gently caressed some strawberry jam into the inside of one of the croissant halves with a knife.

“They know what I can do, they know I have the knowledge and skills but I’m just a lowly bachelor, can’t have my, I don’t know, naiveté ruin everything.”

“You’re a girl.”

“What?”

“You’re a girl. They don’t want you involved too much but still coast along with your name on the paper because you’re a girl. It’s a dick thing.”

“Right. Of course it is… males are so stupid.”

“You sound like Eisheth.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“I don’t think I could compare you to a librarian in a negative way if I tried.”

“Fair enough.” Melody giggled and bit into her croissant.

“Speaking of librarians, any idea when Kuria is coming back?”

Melody shook her head. “No clue. Unless she sends a note, before dinner.”

“As always.”

The girls had an agreement. If someone went out for the day, they only needed to let the others know if they were likely to miss dinner, which tended to be one meal everyone could make sure to be there for. If nothing else was said, the girls would simply assume that whoever went out would return for dinner at the latest.

It was still a few hours before Kuria needed to return home for dinner. She had met with Nirrti in the library last night to enjoy some quiet reading and some snacks together. Even now, the two demons just sat a table near the reception desk, quietly chatting.

“This entire thing is unprecedented, right? I think I would have known if the Pandemonium had ever evacuated an entire species.”

“Maybe not an entire species, but we did gather up the Lanteans still loyal to us before destroying Atlantis. If this even turns into a resettlement. I hope it doesn’t.”

“I hope so as well but with everything we read earlier, I am doubtful. With the dissolution of the FBC, the Americans don’t have a proper bureau for the supernatural anymore. Before that entire disaster, one could at least rely on dealing with someone who understood what’s a stake. Now? It’s gamble. Every human supernatural agency has turned into a gamble with the precedent they set. No matter if they are technically international waters, the USA and China control most of the siren’s home regions. Speaking of China, do we even know how they will react to supernatural beings?”

Nirrti sighed. “More or less. Before the Ministry of State Security was founded, our dealings within what is now China were handled in cooperation with a secretive group of monks who dealt with each emperor in our stead. Shortly after the ministry took over, the monks were slaughtered and they took over dealing with us. Our relationship with them is... frigid at best. If anything magical were to fall into their hands, they’d be unhappy to let it go. They will not let the sirens remain undisturbed if they were to find out, not to mention letting them go entirely. Neither the USA nor China must find out about them.”

“I agree. That is deeply worrying. I hate having to wait for anyone to make a move right now. Famine hasn’t told us anything yet and I don’t want to go out and undermine her efforts by roping in someone else.”

“Understandable. Personally, I hate these moments. You have thousands of years time to do something and everyone around you tries to rush things. Then suddenly, when something needs to be solved quickly everyone takes their time to get anywhere. I know it's purely an illusion but feelings are real no matter how irrational. One precedent that the FBC debacle also set, that you shouldn’t forget, is that we can rapidly solve an imminent problem. If anyone tried to harm the sirens, we can protect them. If resettlement becomes immediately necessary, we can do that. That things take time is a sign that we can take that time.”

“I suppose so. I just feel a drive to act, now that I am able to do so on my own. Same with Serena, I just want to help her in every way I can. I think I just need to take a step back and think. Think about everything and not rush into things. Might need some time buried under raptor kittens again after all this.”

Nirrti returned a warm smile. “I am sure that can be arranged. I don’t need to read your mind to know that a distraction would be good for you.”

“You’re right. But you could read my mind to see what distraction would be best.”

“True. Let’s see… problem solving seems like a bad idea, so Heroes is out of the question. We just ate lunch. What you need is a walk, some time away from all the troubles of this world. Let’s head out the back.”

The library had extensive backrooms, little workspaces for guests to use, a small restaurant for the librarians and their friends, the head librarian’s office, even rooms decked out to house someone overnight. The most important thing back there was a door, one that humans couldn’t just simply open and even if they did, they had no way of knowing what they had entered. Behind the door was a relatively simple breakroom with another door leading to another part of the library. That part was the Hell side, which obviously had a front door leading to Dis, the capital city of Hell. While the demons could simply teleport there, they opted to take this way often. Sometimes an act gains meaning by just doing it.

Out in Dis, Nirrti and Kuria had found a bench looking over the sea.

“Yes, this is much better.” Kuria leaned back.

“A nice bit of fresh air and a place away from human troubles.”

“That was necessary, thank you.”

“My pleasure. I was wondering something. Did you decide on a place in Hell yet?”

“To live? No. None of us have. I think Melody has an idea but that’s about it.”

“You only have a few years left at university. I know leaving the border world behind won’t be easy but it’s something you need to deal with eventually. Sorry, I am bringing up trouble again.”

“No, it’s alright. It’s not like I didn’t find amazing places here, all of which would be awesome homes. It’s that I don’t know what I want from a home. That doesn’t feel like trouble, that feels like I am still on a journey and not ready to settle down like this.”

“I see. Every single one of our young demons, the ones we turned in the past years, got an interim home in the outskirts of Dis before deciding on something permanent. Maybe that will help you too.”

“I am the only young demon without a home in Hell, right?”

“You are.”

Kuria tilted her head back to stare at the amber sky. “I don’t want to take up that space but you might be right. It might help.”

Nirrti chuckled. “Are you sure you’re a young demon and not the actual Kuria from the legends? Restless, always trying to fix things, unable to settle down.”

“If you put it like that…” Kuria giggled. “I appreciate the compliment, thank you.”

“And the criticism. You will run out of stuff to fix eventually, even if it takes a million years.”

“Hm, you sure we won’t invent more stuff to cause problems?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Sorry. I do, yea. You are right, obviously. You are right too often. Does that come with age?”

“It comes with the mind reading.” Nirrti smirked.

“You told me Shadows and Nightmares have very similar magical abilities but I can’t read minds. Even when I am possessing someone I just puppeteer their body. Granted, I haven’t met any other Shadows so far, but I am wondering if there is something I am missing. Reading minds is the core of your magic, controlling bodies is mine, and you learned how to nudge a mind too. With Nightmares being able to assert control, does that mean I could learn how to read minds?”

“I honestly don’t know. There are very few Shadows in general and I have met only three personally. I wasn’t close enough with any to ask about that. It might be finally time to find someone who can properly teach you the full extent of your abilities.”

“Definitely. That might also be a good distraction from having to wait on Famine. Just one problem.”

“And that is?”

“How do I find a Shadow? I can’t just put out a ‘Shadow wanted’ poster on the pandemonium doors or something.”

“Can’t you?”

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