The Wolf’s Daughter

“She’s risking her name?” Dixxy asked, the demon’s face managing to be paler than normal.

“It seems so,” Phaedra said. “I was hoping she’d back down, but… well… it seems you’ve managed to piss her off quite a bit.”

“I… I’m sure she’ll calm down soon,” Dixxy said before glancing towards the window. “She’ll probably call the fight off once the sun goes down.”

“I doubt it,” Phaedra said before glancing to Yroth.

The three had retreated to her war room. A large map of the world dominated the center of the room, with both her and Circe’s territories outlined. Her own territory was nearly a fifth the size’s of Circe’s. Then again, Circe had been doing this longer.

Yroth seemed only mildly perturbed, her focus more directed towards the slabs of meat that had been brought by Emma as their breakfast. How the dragon could eat at a time like this she couldn’t imagine. Then again, it wasn’t Yroth’s cousin threatening to kill another one of her cousins.

“What did you do?” Phaedra asked, glancing to Dixxy. “Dixxy…”

“It was a harmless prank,” Dixxy said softly. “I merely beat her to the punch, is all.”

“Dixxy,” Phaedra said.

“Well… I know you left early at the gathering,” Dixxy said. “I did too.”

“I didn’t see you there,” Phaedra said.

“Nobody was supposed to,” Dixxy said. “Dad would be disappointed if my disguises couldn’t—”

“Just tell me what you did,” Phaedra said again, cutting her off.

“I got to the prison first,” Dixxy said. “I released Lilith and—”

“You did WHAT?!” Phaedra asked, slamming both her hands down on the table. “You have Lilith?!”

“Not with me!” Dixxy said, holding up both her hands. “I hid her, but… she’s around. I’m the only one who knows where she is, too. I knew Circe was going to win and get first pick, so I just decided to use that to my advantage. Who else would she go for, than Lilith? And since I had a head start, and they were expecting Circe to arrive, I was able to get her out without any issue.”

Phaedra stared at her cousin and tried, desperately, to control her temper. No wonder Circe was so furious. If they thought Lilith was the key to finding Medon’s name and she thought that Dixxy was trying to take it for herself, she’d be lucky if Circe only killed her. “You are so lucky you landed here,” Phaedra said. “If anyone else found you they’d have turned you over. Now she’s on my doorstep.”

“You’re… not going to turn me over, are you?” Dixxy asked softly.

“You should,” Yroth said. “Although… getting Circe’s name would be a boon. The power it could give you would be tremendous.” She reached out and picked up another slab of meat, placing it on her plate before tearing off a chunk with her bare hands. “Can you beat Circe?”

“I don’t know,” Phaedra said with a small shrug. “The last time we fought was…. Decades ago. She’s got a name now and a lot of territory. I’ve spent that time just training with Gibs, I mean, Leviathan.”

“Then I say you should give her over,” Yroth said. “The risk may be high and the consequences severe.”

“I’m not letting Circe kill Dixxy,” Phaedra snapped before reaching up and pinching the bridge of her nose. She had a headache growing already. “Dixxy, why did you have to do this?”

“I… don’t know,” Dixxy said softly. “I thought it’d be fun. She’d… be impressed.” She poked her fingers together, eyes lowered. “I didn’t think she’d get this angry.”

“Of course she’s this angry,” Phaedra said. “You betrayed her.”

“I’m not her subject,” Dixxy said. “It’s not betrayal. I tricked her.”

Phaedra just gave another sigh. As much as she loved her cousin, she could already see this spiraling out of control too quickly if she didn’t put a stop to it. “You do realize if I fail to defeat her, then she’s going to tear you apart, don’t you? And I do not mean this figuratively. She will literally tear you apart, starting with your wings. She will probably kill you. I won’t be able to stop her.”

Dixxy silently poked her fingers together, squirming in her seat. “I… I’m sure you can win.”

“I shouldn’t have to,” Phaedra said before sliding into her chair. “Where’s Lilith?”

“She’s safe,” Dixxy said. “More importantly, she thinks I’m her friend.”

“Her friend,” Phaedra repeated. Somehow, she doubted that. She’d never known Lilith to be the friendliest to demons.

“Yep!” Dixxy said before she sat up a little straighter, a smug grin on her face. “She thinks I’m part of a rebellious faction that intends to help Medon defeat Fenrir, and… uhhhhh…” She glanced towards Yroth.

“I’m no longer an ally of Medon,” Yroth said. “Phaedra has informed me of the betrayal I was subjected to.”

“Well… that,” Dixxy said. “She thinks I’m her ally and I’m sure she has a thousand ways to find Medon. But if Circe gets a hold of her, she’ll know it was all a lie and try doubly hard to keep him hidden.”

“Of course she will,” Phaedra said. “So where is she?”

“Hidden,” Dixxy said.

Phaedra barely resisted the urge to flip the table on her cousin. Or lunge at her. “Hidden WHERE?”

“I can’t tell you that,” Dixxy said. “Then I lose all of my leverage! Dad always said—”

“I don’t CARE what Uncle Obby says!” Phaedra yelled, snarling slightly. “You’ve brought danger into my territory! Why? Why would you even think of coming here? What could possess you to… to…” She trailed off when she saw Dixxy shrink down slightly, her wings moving up and over herself and a few tears welling up in her eyes.

“I… I thought… we could go after him together…” Dixxy said softly. “You’ve… always been kinder to me than… my brothers and sisters… and… I thought… if I brought something useful… you’d… want to join me on it. I’m not… strong like you and Circe. I’m just… sneaky. So… I thought… I could be useful and you’d…”

Phaedra let out another soft sigh before shaking her head again. Of all of her cousins, it was true. Dixxy was easily one of her weakest. While her ability to shapeshift was incredible, she could do little else. She’d never been good at fighting and never come close to getting a name of her own. Now Phaedra was beginning to wonder if all those times she’d stuck up for the little demon had been a mistake. She couldn’t protect her and her old friends, especially if Dixxy was going to keep doing things like this.

Worst of all, though? She wasn’t entirely sure that Dixxy wasn’t playing her. But she wasn’t sure if it would make a difference.

She couldn’t help but get to her feet and walk over, giving her little cousin a hug. “You are such a brat,” Phaedra said.

“So you’ll still help?” Dixxy asked.

“Yes,” Phaedra said before letting her go and standing by her. “But I want to meet this Lilith.”

“Of course!” Dixxy said. “And we can go after Medon together?”

“One step at a time,” Phaedra said before glancing to Yroth.

“Don’t take the risk if you don’t think you can win,” Yroth said. “Especially over a brat.”

“But…”

“You rule these lands now,” Yroth said. “If you fail, all that will happen will be your fault. Any death, destruction, misery. Every last drop of it will fall on you. Treat it as such.” She tore off another piece of meat before chucking it into her mouth.

“I think you’ll win,” Dixxy said, grinning up at her.

“You’re the one who brought this to my doorstep,” Phaedra said before shaking her head. “Just… go. To the guest quarters.”

“We have guest quarters?” Yroth asked.

“I don’t know,” Phaedra said. “Somewhere. Barracks? Do we have those? Just… go somewhere. I need to think.”

Dixxy slowly nodded before getting to her feet and running off. The moment the door closed behind her, Phaedra waved her hand, casting her silencing spell on the door behind her. She then sat down at the table and rested her head in her palms. “This is so stupid.”

“It is, yes,” Yroth said.

“How can this be both exactly what I want and everything I’d never want?” Phaedra asked.

“You want this?” Yroth asked.

“Lilith? Yes,” Phaedra said. “One of my friends. She’s been practically brought to my lap. Yet…”

“Yet now you have to fight for her,” Yroth said.

“Now my cousin wants to kill my other cousin,” Phaedra said. “And there’s a decent chance she can do it. Will do it.”

“It’s not uncommon for siblings to kill each other,” Yroth said. “Either bending to their whims or devoured to live through their siblings.”

“I hate that about this world,” Phaedra said softly. “How can someone want to kill their siblings like that? You’re supposed to love your sister, not eat her.”

“It doesn’t mean they don’t love each other,” Yroth said. “But there are often challenges that must be met. Your cousin, Paradox, does she often do things like this?”

“Not to this extreme, no,” Phaedra said. “She’s always been a bit of a… troublemaker. I used to protect her a lot before I went into hiding. But that was like kid stuff.”

“Mmm. Because you’re such an adult now,” Yroth said, her voice teasing.

“We weren’t as strong,” Phaedra said, ignoring that comment. “There’s a huge difference between like… throwing a few snowballs at each other or splashing each other with water, versus flaying the skin from someone or tearing out their heart. I’ve never had a real fight against Circe, either.”

“You won’t give over Paradox though, will you?” Yroth asked.

“No,” Phaedra said. “I won’t give over Paradox or Lilith. I won’t sacrifice your people, either. This territory. But I don’t want to fight Circe.”

“Did your world allow that?” Yroth asked. “When you disliked both options, to take only the parts you liked?”

“No,” Phaedra said, shaking her head. “In fact, in a lot of ways we didn’t… I didn’t have many choices. I mean, there were a lot of illusions of choice, but not a lot of choices.”

“Illusion of choice?” Yroth asked.

“Work this job or starve,” Phaedra said. “A lot of things like that. They’d pretend that there was a choice, but often there were less and less choices every day. Sometimes there weren’t any choices at all.”

“Do your duty or don’t be supplied for,” Yroth said. “That hardly seems like an illusion.”

“It doesn’t, at first,” Phaedra said. “Do this job, you can live a good life. But then it becomes do this job and you can survive. Then do two of those jobs and you can survive. Then three. The time and effort continued to increase, but the rewards only got smaller. It was harder and harder and… there was rarely a good choice. At least for most people. So most people just got snuffed out, eventually. We didn’t really have much choice in the matter.”

“You were one of them?” Yroth asked.

“No,” Phaedra said. “Well… kind of? I was…” Her arms wrapped around herself and her coat poofed out. “I fought, but it often felt like I was fighting alone against an army. The number of fights I had to get in with HR just to make them do what they promised was ridiculous. There was always some loophole they’d abuse, always something they’d try to use against me. There was always a new person I had to argue with, my ‘case’ was apparently incredibly confusing and difficult. But I think it was all just an effort to wear me down. Delay it long enough they could save money. It was… infuriating, to say the least.”

“So why would you expect this world to be any different?” Yroth asked. “You expect to get all you want, with nothing you dislike?”

“I don’t know,” Phaedra said softly. “I just… I was summoned here to try and fix things, make things better. Or… I thought I was.”

“In order to do that, you’ll need to win,” Yroth said. “I don’t know about your world, but if you win this battle it will solve some problems. You’ll gain the name of Circe, you’ll save your cousin and you’ll get Lilith. At least… well…”

“I’ll maybe get Lilith,” Phaedra said. “It remains to be seen if Circe will ever speak to me again.”

“Do you wish for me to fight this battle?” Yroth asked.

“Yes,” Phaedra said. “But you can’t. It wouldn’t work, not really. It’d draw more eyes. Not to mention this is kind of my duty. I may not be the best at a lot of things, but I can fight. It’d hardly be fair if I were to make you do all of the fighting and the running of the territory, now would it?”

“Mmmm,” Yroth said. “Much of that I delegate as well. It’s not as hard as you may imagine, once you know who you can trust.”

“I was always terrible at strategy games,” Phaedra said with a shrug.

Yroth just stared at her before cocking her head slowly to the side in confusion.

“Never mind,” Phaedra said. “I… think I can beat her. Probably. How powerful is the Circe name?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Yroth said. “It’s one of your names, is it not?”

“Do you think it’s stronger than Paradox?” Phaedra asked.

Yroth went still, a piece of meat halfway to her meet. Slowly, she lowered it down. “What do you mean?”

“Uhhhh… Paradox,” Phaedra said. “Dixxy’s name. It—”

“Paradox isn’t a name with power,” Yroth said. “Why would you think it is?”

“Because it’s a word from my home,” Phaedra said, blinking a few times. “Isn’t… it? Doesn’t it… what does it mean? Here?”

“Nothing, it’s just a name,” Yroth said. “What does it mean in your world?”

“Something that can’t exist,” Phaedra said. “Like… something being so hot, it’s cold. Something that is contradictory with itself to the point it doesn’t make sense. Like, the harder we work the less we’re rewarded. Since you’d think that working would give you the reward, right? But if you overwork, then you get hurt or worse and therefore get less reward.”

“That is… a strange concept,” Yroth said. “Like how the hero can become the daughter of the very evil she was summoned to destroy.”

“I… well… I mean, kind of,” Phaedra said. “Not… exactly the same thing, but kind of like that.”

“And that’s what your cousin is named?” Yroth asked. “That could mean… something.”

“It could?” Phaedra asked.

“Or it could mean nothing and merely be a coincidence,” Yroth said.

Phaedra sighed and got to her feet again. “Wonderful. So, once again, I’m left with more questions than answers. Just… wish me luck. I’m going to go see how the preparations are going. Yroth?”

“Yes?” Yroth asked.

“If I lost and my cousin took over these lands, what would happen?” Phaedra asked.

“I wouldn’t focus on such things,” Yroth said. “Perhaps it would go well, perhaps it would go poorly. Perhaps she and I would come to blows. I cannot say. For now? Focus on making sure that question doesn’t need to be answer.”

Phaedra gave a small nod before waving her hand, unsealing the door and heading out from the room.

If nothing else, at least demons made some things simple. If she managed to win, she could at least be certain Circe would keep her word.

------

Phaedra had to give her demons credit. When they wanted an arena, they made an arena. The caverns being converted into her new home weren’t even close to being done (admittedly, because she’d directed them to finish expanding on the local shelter for her troops), but the arena where she’d face Circe was quite impressive, if simple.

It looked akin to an emptied out lake, a large circle in the ground surrounded on all sides by hills raising up. While it wasn’t true seating, the grass would be comfortable enough and the inner portion could have easily fit even Yroth at her largest. It would likely be a bit tight if both she and Circe adopted their true forms, but hopefully it wouldn’t get that violent.

Or maybe that was why most of the spectators who had come to watch the battle were sitting higher up, with the lower portions of the arena seating completely empty. As she descended down the hill, her demons parted ways for her.

Then again, she supposed she didn’t have a lot of demons with her to begin with here. A few hundred, at most. There were few kobolds as well, only the most loyal and desperate for Yroth’s attention making the move to this part of her territory. Now most of those demons were watching her and she only saw two kobolds amongst the gathered. She didn’t see Circe, however.

Phaedra walked down the hill, glancing towards the horizon. Just about time. A part of her hoped that her cousin wouldn’t show, instead choosing the path of non-violence.

Any of hope of that vanished a few seconds after she walked into the arena and the sound of thunder filled the air. She glanced up to see Circe flying overhead, a trident held in her right hand. She dove down, landing on the ground and skidding a few feet before looking up. “Okay, Phaedra. I’m going to give you one last chance. Are you sure you want to take this risk?”

“I’d ask you the same thing,” Phaedra said before glancing around at the gathered demons. They likely would throw a fit if they tried to call the whole thing off now. Everyone was here. She glanced at her cousin’s trident. It seemed to be made of some kind of crystal. Phaedra couldn’t remember her cousin using a weapon, that couldn’t be good.

“So then, shall we?” Circe asked before she held out her hand and cast a quick incantation before red marks sprouted over the skin. “My name, your territory. Unless you’d like to concede now?”

Phaedra reached out her hand, gripping Circe’s and adding her own magic to the spell. She could feel the red marks sprouting all over her hand as the contract was made. There was no pulling back from it now. Their hands released and both of them leaped back as the battle began.

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