Demon's Throne Mini-Serial - Vallis Ch1

This mini-serial is a slice-of-life piece that focuses on Vallis and takes place from Rys's point-of-view. It'll be a number of chapters depicting the growth of Vallis and some of the daily activities that take place in the palace, that will otherwise be glossed over in the books themselves.

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Note: This takes place close to the end of Book 1 of Demon’s Throne, after the defeat of Compagnon but before Fara leaves to go home.

“You mean, I actually get to design everything in my bedroom?” Vallis asked Rys. “Size, the color of the walls, the bed, all the other furniture?”

“Yes,” Rys said for the tenth time in as many minutes.

“Even if I want a really massive bedroom, with a bed the size of my current one?” She held her hands out as wide as they could go, which caused her chest to stress her tight top.

“The castle can bend space, allowing for rooms to be larger on the inside than the outside, so yes. That’s fine.” He poked her in the stomach and she jumped away. “Is this really such a surprise? You’re the second-most powerful person in country, at least officially. You can enjoy a palatial bedroom.”

The two of them sat inside the control room of Castle Aion. The construction of Rys’s mansion had finally finished, and he had moved onto the next step: furnishing the rooms.

The mansion itself was shaped liked a hollow square and was two stories tall. A central courtyard with a fountain and hedges occupied the hollow center, as well as covered walkways that connected the four sides of the building. Each side of the square was a separate wing, and Rys earmarked them for different purposes.

The west wing, which faced the entrance, contained the throne room, party halls, and other administrative facilities. Tyrisa had set up here as the Chief of Staff, and Vallis spent most of her day here. Rys’s office could be found here and overlooked the courtyard.

For some reason, it felt very fitting that the people who ran the kingdom worked in the west wing of the palace.

Maria and Alsia had claimed the north and east halls respectively, although Maria didn’t have anywhere near enough staff to fill out the entire wing. Much of Alsia’s space was residential, as she had brought many Kinadain with her. Servants’ quarters were presently in Alsia’s wing, given the sheer number of demihumans and the fact they wanted company.

But the real task Rys wanted done was to move the bedrooms. He and the most important women in the palace had been staying in glorified guest bedrooms. When he first established himself, he had simply slapped together a bunch of large bedrooms. Vallis and Fara had moved into them, and Rys had joined them later. They hadn’t been personalized.

His new bedroom opened out to the courtyard, as it gave him access to the castle and he liked the fresh air. Powerful wards meant nobody was going to break in, anyway. Naturally, Fara and Vallis decided they wanted bedrooms next to his, and he decided to just turn the entire stretch of walkway into bedrooms.

For some reason, Vallis appeared to be confused by her chance to personalize her own bedroom.

“I mean, sure. But you just gave me a big one last time. Isn’t it a lot of effort to do this?” She pointed at the glowing blueprint in front of Rys, which he used to manipulate the castle. “You’re burning magic to do this.”

“Vallis, I burned a thousand times more magic just traveling to Anceston to watch Forai be hung. I think I can give you a nice bedroom,” he said.

She ran a hand through her hair and looked away. No words passed between them for some time.

Finally, she said, “I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like I deserve it.”

Before Rys could protest, she raised a hand to stop him.

“Everything I’ve bought in life before I met you has either been bought with my family’s inherited wealth, or through debt.” She gave him a sad smile. “Technically, it was all debt, given my father pissed away everything my grandfather built. But my point is that I’ve never earned anything myself. Even this feels like you’re just… making me a princess.”

“Not to be flippant, but don’t most women dream of that happening to them?” Rys said, knowing full well that wasn’t her point.

“Oh, hell yes. It’s, uh, crossed my mind that I could probably start wearing big poufy dresses, tiaras, and glittery heels and you probably wouldn’t stop me.” Vallis laughed. “I can’t imagine trying to walk around like that. The Lilim walk around in heels even when they’re otherwise naked, but even Maria hates them.”

“Don’t be too down on the big dresses. They look amazing, and they feel very nice in… certain situations.” Rys winked at her.

Vallis’s face exploded with redness as she realized what he was implying. “That’s, uh… Yeah, let’s say I’ve thought about that as well.” Then she mumbled, “I should tell Maria that you like them.”

Rys filed Maria’s interest away for further investigation a later date. He had fond memories of doing fun things with elegantly dressed women at balls.

“My point, Vallis, is whether you want to be a princess? You crawled in the mud due to Compagnon. Not to be negative, but the power they had meant that your situation was effectively hopeless, even before you were kidnapped,” he explained, steering the conversation back on track. “I appointed you as viceroy because you’ve proven adept enough at managing things, I trust you, and I like to reward those who are loyal to me. But as I’ve told Fara, you choose what you do in life. If you want to be spoiled, ask for it. If you want to feel like you’ve earned everything, then you’ll need to work out how you can prove to yourself that you’ve earned this.”

Vallis grimaced, and crossed her arms over her chest. She seemed to hug herself.

“Can I ever feel like I’ve earned this?” she muttered. “Maria was the Lord Mayor. Alsia the new elder. Fara is an amazing warrior. I’m just a merchant who was in the right place at the right time.”

Rys sighed, realizing this was going in circles. He hadn’t expected that something as simple as bedroom decoration would dig up Vallis’s insecurities.

“You need to find your own answer to that question, Vallis. I’ve been around long enough that I know better than to try to force you to feel a certain way. But I will remind you that you are in your position because I feel you can perform it.” Rys swept the blueprint around so that it focused on the bedrooms of Maria and Alsia. “I reward loyalty, but I could have given your position to Maria or Alsia just as easily.”

“That’s…” Vallis trailed off, unconvinced but uncertain.

“I did say that you need to find your own answer.” He gave her a smile. “Why don’t we focus on your bedroom? You’re going to need somewhere to sleep, and I want to repurpose the current bedrooms.”

She nodded a few times, and her whole body bounced as if to emphasize that she was refocusing her whole being on this change of subject.

“Um, I actually wanted to dig up some old books to refer to,” she said after a few seconds of thought. “This is the first chance I’ve ever had to freely design the place I live in. I’ve spent a lot of time in the past imagining what my bedroom might look like.”

Rys decided not to pry, especially after that princess comment from earlier. He had a feeling that granted plenty of insight into Vallis’s thoughts. Humor was her defense mechanism, but she tended to use the truth as a joke as a way to disarm a situation.

“That’s fine.” Rys locked down the blueprint again, then stood up. He gestured for them to leave the control room. “Fara is still trying to decide whether she wants a bedroom like the ones in Pharos, or the Gauron style that’s popular here.”

Vallis threw him a skeptical look as they walked through the sub-level corridors. “Don’t they sleep on the floor in Pharos? Has she gone crazy?”

“Unlike us, she has fluffy tails to sleep on.”

“Rys, I don’t think she actually sleeps on her tails. That’d be like sleeping on your arms.”

Rys considered this argument, then remembered how fluffy Fara’s tails were and discarded it. “I like my idea better.”

“Is that a royal decree? That foxes sleep on their tails?” Vallis joked.

“No. Because that would mean that I can’t sleep on their tails,” he said.

“Ah. That’s our king. Always thinking ahead.” She nodded sagely.

They stepped out into the mansion. While Rys hadn’t made the sub-levels deeper, he had expanded their breadth to match the larger size of the mansion. There were multiple staircases that led upward from the sub-levels, including multiple hidden ones that came out in specific rooms.

Not to mention the network of service tunnels that the imps used. Rys had laid plenty of traps in these, with runes that prevented the imps from setting them off. He looked forward to the day that an intruder tried to crawl through them, and the imps dragged their ragged corpse out the other end.

“Anyway, I need to get some actual work done. Tyrisa always has this ridiculous pile of paperwork on her desk. I genuinely don’t know what ninety percent of it is for.” Vallis shook her head.

“Probably record keeping and palace administration. Don’t poke your nose into it,” Rys said.

“I don’t need to poke my nose into her paperwork. If something needs me to so much as glance in its general direction, she dumps it on my desk,” Vallis replied. “Why doesn’t she do that to you?”

“What makes you think she doesn’t?”

Vallis stared at him. “Do you spank her for wasting your precious time? I mean, I know you’re probably just lounging on the sofa with Maria on her knees but—"

“Reading a piece of paper and telling Tyrisa if there’s something wrong doesn’t require much effort. You’re forgetting that I’ve run multiple cities at once, often from half a continent away. I’m used to people contacting me at odd hours, and saying things like ‘Oh, Lord Talarys, do you think I’d be offending Lord Argran if I asked one of his subordinates to do his job, instead of raping and pillaging the countryside?’” Rys rolled his eyes.

“The Infernal Empire doesn’t sound like a great place, not gonna lie,” Vallis said.

“It had its highs and lows. A lot of lows by the end. There’s a reason there’s not much left of it. People had a lot of well-deserved fury to let out when the portal was destroyed, and the infernals were all unsummoned. They burned Ruathym to the ground and salted the earth.” Rys shooed her away. “Anyway, do your job. I’ll find you in a day or two, to talk about your palace-sized bedroom.”

“Don’t you dare joke about that,” she growled, before walking off.

Unfortunately, Vallis wasn’t lying about how little Rys had to do. He returned to his office, where his desk was completely empty of any paperwork, and spent an hour practicing evocation. He had the basics down now.

With focus, he could even use sendings—the new form of instantaneous magical communication. Mindspeak was still far faster and efficient, but the ability to directly communicate with people other than devils was invaluable. If Rys got nothing else out of his months, or even years, of training evocation, being able to use sendings was worth it.

He did wish that he had a knack for evocation, however. He had always been a quick study when it came to sorcery, and it physically pained to him to feel mediocre at evocation. Part of him was beginning to suspect that his immense ability at infernal sorcery and rune-crafting made it harder to learn this newfangled form of magic.

Damn humans and their need to reinvent the wheel.

Once his frustration with evocation reached boiling point, Rys stopped. He needed something else to pass his time.

In the past few months, there had always been something to distract him. Planning to deal with Compagnon, establishing his new kingdom, helping people settle in, preparing summonings, teasing Fara, or learning about his new surroundings.

But things had settled down. Compagnon were no more, and the Malus League showed no open intentions for war. Vallis, Maria, and Alsia were highly capable administrators, even if Alsia’s capability largely came from her enthusiasm. He couldn’t summon additional infernals until he was committed to breaking another power conduit, as doing so would prevent him from leaving the palace.

He could still tease Fara and the others, but that came with a cost. Fara was adamant that she wanted to wait until she returned from her trip to the fox village before anything new happened. If he teased her too hard, she got annoyed and ran off. She knew what she wanted, and he could take it.

But where was the fun in that? If Rys went hunting, he could wipe out an entire forest with his magic. Naturally, he didn’t, and restricted himself to simpler methods in order to enjoy the thrill of the hunt.

The same applied to Fara and the others. There was something much more thrilling when they gave themselves to him of their own will, than if he claimed them, even if they would accept him either way.

Thinking about this only frustrated Rys. He decided to go badger Vallis again.

Her office was only down the hall from his, so it was a short trip. It faced the palace’s frontage, and to an unaware observer, appeared to be a rather small room from the outside.

Rys opened the door and was greeted with an office that went on, and on, and on. Vallis sat behind her grandiose mahogany desk at the far end. Alsia and a pair of young Kinadain aides stood beside her.

Apparently, Alsia needed some help with her paperwork again.

The office itself was sparsely decorated. The walls contained hidden cabinetry behind sliding doors that opened with a touch. They were intended to contain liquor cabinets, iceboxes, expensive displays, clothing racks, or anything that Vallis might want.

This office had, after all, been designed by Rys for her.

When she had been appointed viceroy, she had joked about having a really long office where people had to walk toward her for an awkwardly long time. She’d gotten the idea from meetings with Compagnon and some of the seedier merchant companies, who used long offices as a way of intimidating visitors and projecting power and distance.

Naturally, Rys had used the space-bending power of Castle Aion to give her an obscenely huge office. He treasured the memory of when she first entered it.

Vallis’s jaw had hit the floor. She had entered this tiny little room and found out it was the size of smaller palaces. He had ended up reducing its size in the end, but it had been an entertaining first visit.

The only other occupant was Tyrisa, who had her own desk by the entrance. As always, her desk was piled high with paperwork, and the cabinetry behind her was full of filing cabinets. She hummed happily as she flew through her paperwork.

Rys left her alone and approached Vallis.

“You’ll need to bring in agriwizards from the lowlands, given the poor state of the land,” Vallis said to Alsia.

The viceroy had a thick tome opened on her desk, and multiple large sheets of engineering paper spread over her desk. Most of her paperwork sat in her outbox and inbox. This didn’t appear to be an ordinary matter.

“If that’s the case, aren’t the subdivisions too large?” Alsia responded. “The Kinadain have never farmed before and being even more reliant on outsiders will concern many.”

“People are going to live on their farms, Alsia.” Vallis leaned over and tapped a finger on one of the large sheets of paper. “You need to leave enough space to adjust later, based on what happens. And don’t tell me that the Kinadain are different. How often do you kick people out of their homes?”

“We don’t,” one of the aides said. “That would be immensely cruel.”

“Exactly,” Vallis said. Then she noticed Rys. “Oh. Did you need something, Rys? If it’s important, I can deal with this later.”

Alsia shot Rys a bright smile and her scaly tail swished behind her. By contrast, the aides froze up, staring at him in shock. He didn’t venture into their wing often.

“No. But I am curious why you’re discussing farms with the Kinadain. I didn’t think your duchy had any farmland, Alsia,” Rys said.

At present, the kingdom was split into two duchies: Maria’s represented the bulk of the kingdom—the farmers, cities, ports, and merchants that made up a functioning nation; and Alsia’s were the Kinadain that dwelled in the mountains.

Despite how lopsided the split appeared, Alsia’s duchy contributed plenty. The Kinadain made up the bulk of the army, and almost all of the experienced soldiers. They were also the heart of the artifact trade, which was one of the most profitable exports of the kingdom and likely a leading source of tax revenue.

Except the Kinadain were entirely reliant on the rest of the kingdom for food and other supplies, other than what little hunting they did. They lived in the mountains, after all.

“I expressed an interest in agriculture, so Maria granted some of the uninhabited land near the mountains north of Anceston,” Alsia explained. “There are more volunteers than I expected who are interested in becoming farmers, but getting started is more complicated than I expected.”

Rys stared at her. “This may sound stupid, but send them out there with a few ordinary demihumans who know how to farm. There’s a lot of land, and far too few people to use it all. Especially as Maria’s given you some rather…” he trailed.

“Shit land?” Vallis offered. She grinned as Alsia and the aides winced. “Don’t worry, I gave her some shit over this. There is a river nearby, so it’s arable, but hilly and rocky. Fara said something about how it’s prime rice patty land.”

Rys had no idea what that meant. He made a note to ask Fara about it, as he suspected there had been some changes in agriculture in the last 1500 years and he wanted to keep up. Farms that might be viable on mountainsides or hilly terrain were of great interest to him.

“The land doesn’t matter,” Alsia insisted. “This is an experiment, after all. What does matter is that the communal nature of Kinadain society isn’t broken. The land Maria has gifted the duchy belongs to all Kinadain, but the farmers will be the only people allowed to work it, and therefore the only people allowed to benefit from it.”

Vallis nodded, although she didn’t appear to be agreeing. “Nobody really owns any of the individual plots around here, at least outside of the towns. There’s too much empty land for people to waste time fighting over who can plant on a few acres. People just work as much land as their family can, and that’s that. But, uh, Alsia wants something different so I dug up an old book on agricultural governance that my grandfather had.”

Rys stared at the book. It appeared to have charts of yields and very dry sentences about how to efficiently cultivate farmland.

“Is that a book about how nobles should carve up their land?” he asked, bemused.

“Err, basically? It was written by some mage-lord back in the Golden Age of Magic. It’s so dry that placing it in the same room as wet clothes would probably work as well as sunlight.” Vallis shrugged. “But Maria and her aides have never actually subdivided land, because no one cares here. So, to the tome we go.”

“I care,” Alsia muttered.

Rys patted her on the head and she glared at him. Her tail didn’t so much as swish as lash the ground.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it. Don’t spend too long on this, or your paperwork will pile up,” he said.

The moment he turned away, the four women immediately refocused on the problem. It was as if he had never been there.

He could butt in, and he knew a lot about agriculture, but wasn’t this precisely why he had hired Vallis to begin with?

On his way out, Tyrisa blocked him. She held a tall bundle of paperwork in her arms.

“Oh, Your Majesty,” she sung out with a fake smile plastered on her face. “As Her Excellency is so terribly busy, could you please kindly do your duty as King of Kavolara and see to these forms?”

Rys stared at the pile of paper. He turned around, and saw Vallis buried in her problem.

Apparently, this had already gone on long enough for the paperwork to pile up. Just how much did Vallis get through in a day?

For that matter, how could there possibly be this much paperwork for a tiny kingdom?

“If I find out that most of this is pointless administrative nonsense, I will genuinely spank you,” he warned Tyrisa.

Her smile vanished. She quickly dropped the pile on her desk and rifled through it. A few minutes later, she returned with a much thinner stack of sheets.

“Um, this, please,” she mumbled.

He took the raft of paperwork. Where the previous pile had genuinely been half his height, this was barely his finger’s width.

“I’ll see to it,” he said drily.

“Thanks,” Tyrisa said, before hiding behind her fortress of triplicate forms.

Shaking his head, Rys returned to his office. At least he had something to keep him busy for an hour or two.

The next day, he had a different problem. Some rumors had reached him of growing problems in the sub-levels between the noble demons and the Lilim. Grigor was presently away, as he was the general of the kingdom’s army and was keeping the peace down south.

Which was code for rooting out Compagnon’s remaining bolt-holes, mercenaries, and secret stashes. Grigor thoroughly enjoyed his time hunting them down.

His absence placed Rys in a difficult position, however. He wanted to wait for Grigor to return and deal with the rowdiness. While Terry was the head of palace security, he was only another noble demon. If he picked a fight and lost while Grigor was away, it could cause complications.

The sort of complications that might result in Rys intervening personally. There were reasons he preferred not to.

With that said, one of his imp informants popped his head into Rys’s office and let him know that things had gotten worse overnight. He had received a message from Grigor this morning that it would be several days before the demon prince returned.

The time to intervene had come.

He wandered down to the sub-levels. Shouting reached his ears before he even finished descending the first flight of stairs. This proved to be bad.

Then he reached the bottom and stared.

“Remind me again who is the boss of all the demons while you’re in the palace?” Vallis said, pointing a finger at a noble demon whose biceps were as thick as her entire body and who stood at roughly twice her height.

The demon scowled, his bestial features distorting in the process. “I’m no imp. The Prince-General is away, and I’m the biggest, strongest demon around. If I want to fuck the Lilim, then that Lilim is getting on my cock. You hear me?” He raised his voice at the end.

Rys spotted a few Lilim poking their heads out from doorways. Otherwise, the corridor was empty. He could feel the presence of dozens of infernals nearby, however. Most of them had clustered here to watch the fireworks.

Not that there would be any. Rys prepared to enforce his will on the two noble demons in front of him, and remind them who was in charge.

“Oh, shut the fuck up,” Vallis snapped. “Terry is in charge. And even if he wasn’t, you don’t get to tell the Lilim what to do. You know who does? I do. And I’ve told them that they can tell you to fuck off if you can’t stop being a fucking moron.”

One of the noble demons paused at her words, and seemed to look around as if aware of what was happening. But the first one—the angry one—doubled down. He loomed over Vallis and cracked his knuckles over the top of her head.

“Oh? So if I’m bigger and stronger than you, I get to tell the Lilim what to do?” the demon sneered.

“Uh huh.” Vallis rolled her eyes. “Is that what you’ll tell Rys?”

In an instant, the temperature of the entire corridor dropped. The heads poking around corners vanished. The angry demon froze, his sneer slipping off his face. The other noble demon’s jaw dropped, and he opened his mouth to say something.

Then he saw Rys standing at the far end of the corridor. Rys saw the light leave the demon’s eyes.

“Uhhhh,” the angry demon said, appearing to reevaluate his choices up to this point. He still hadn’t noticed Rys. The other demon punched him in the arm to try to get his attention, but it didn’t work.

Even so, he pulled back from Vallis. “No, Ma’am,” he mumbled.

“I’ll say it again: Terry is in charge. If you can’t obey him, then you’ll be having a date with Grigor’s axe when he gets back. Or, if you’d prefer, Rys’s hellfire. Now stop fucking around and fuck off.” Vallis pointed down the corridor.

The demons fled.

The moment they were gone, Vallis’s knees buckled. Before she hit the ground, a Lilim swept out of a nearby room and collected her.

Rys decided to pay her a visit.

“If you were going to collapse while dealing with them, you should have brought our darling Incubus King with you,” the Lilim said. Her name was Mary, and she was the chief of the Lilim under Rys.

Ordinarily, Lilim wore pink leotards and patterned pantyhoses. They all looked nearly identical, with long, dark pink hair and pale skin. Given they helped out as servants, most of them had switched over to maid outfits. Very lewd maid outfits, that tended to reveal a lot of skin. Rys found himself constantly telling them that they needed to at least cover their chests and crotches—and to wear underwear.

He still didn’t know why they wore maid outfits. They had experimented with a wider variety of uniforms earlier, but had settled on classical black-and-white maid uniforms for the servants at some point.

“I figured I could boss them around without him,” Vallis whined as Mary sat her down and shoved a liquored-up cup of tea into her hands. “Besides, couldn’t you just mindspeak him?”

Mary looked up as Rys entered. “Well, apparently someone did.”

“You did. Don’t lie,” Rys said. “But the imps let me know that things worsened enough that I needed to intervene.”

“The imps?” Vallis scowled. “Those little assholes can’t do anything right. How can they possibly keep you informed?”

“I have my ways,” Rys said cryptically.

Also, the imps knew him damn well. While they weren’t long-lived, they did keep better records than most infernals due to their propensity to be summoned and unsummoned at random. The imps never forgot their masters.

“So, uh, you saw that?” Vallis asked with a wince.

“I did. You handled it well,” he said.

“Bullshit. The only reason they didn’t try to pull something was because I could threaten them with you.”

“Yes, that’s how hierarchy works. Although they should know better than to threaten you at all. I’ll need to remind them of that.” Rys’s expression darkened.

“Ooh. That’s a nice face.” Mary smiled and her hands slipped beneath her skirt. “He is right, though. We call for your help, and you call for his or Grigor’s. It shouldn’t come to that, but that’s why Hell has such a strict hierarchy.”

“I thought it was some sick and twisted sort of punishment, given you’re all demons?” Vallis joked. She sipped her tea. “I still wish I had the strength to handle this sort of thing myself.”

“I spent decades under Lacrissa thinking the same thing. Succubi would try to play with me—and not the gentle sort of play. The only thing that kept them in check was the fact they’d be turned into a permanent, living, screaming ornament in Lacrissa’s palace if they broke her favorite toy.” Rys shrugged. “Even Grigor will be relying on other eventually.”

“Bullshit. He can flatten the castle with a swing of his axe.” Vallis stared at him. “Holy shit, you’re serious. Who are you summoning that will give him grief?”

“Succubi, probably.” Mary smirked. “Our dear demon prince isn’t fond of our womanly ways. Plus, as a demon, he has limited mental defenses.”

Rys nodded. “His raw power helps, but succubi specialize in physical strength. Succubi are extremely powerful noble devils, and very few demons can match them. I had an old friend, Asa, who was a succubus as well and handled them for Grigor. Given she practically helped raise Grigor, I imagine some of his distaste of sex is due to her… sexual proclivities.”

“Wait, do you mean that Asa? Lacrissa’s former lieutenant?” Mary asked, eyes wide. “I mean, I guess it makes sense given who you are. But, huh. She’s not really known for being sexually active. More for beating people up in the independent realms of Hell.”

“Are you sure we’re talking about the same Asa?” he asked, but there couldn’t be anyone else she was mistaking for her.

Apparently, his man-eater had changed in the past 1500 years. Amazing.

“Anyway, you’re bullying the demons. That’s a pretty big step up.” He clapped Vallis on the back. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

Rys had some demons to remind of their place in the hierarchy.

Later that night, once he had put the fear of Rys into his rowdy demons, he took a seat in the central courtyard. Soft light from the lamps gave the area an almost ethereal appearance, as the hedges appeared to enclose him. Water trickled from the central fountain behind him.

Fara should be joining him shortly, once she retrieved some sake and glassware.

However, somebody else found him instead.

“Oh, I didn’t expect to see you here,” Vallis said as she emerged from the shadows, her speech slightly slurred. She swayed as she walked and appeared to be past the point of tipsy.

“Spent too much time with Mary and the Lilim?” he asked.

He patted the bench next to him, and she happily ambled over to him. Her head slammed into his chest as she dove toward the bench, and he ended up with a lap full of Vallis. Then he straightened her up.

“I didn’t realize they were slipping brandy into the tea,” she mumbled.

“Infernals treat alcohol like water. Never accept a drink from them unless you know it hasn’t been given a top-up,” Rys said.

Her voice drifted away as she tried to mumble something in reply. He figured she had drifted off to sleep as she rested against his shoulder.

“Oh, should I have brought a third glass?” Fara asked when she arrived. “No, I suppose not.”

“I’m fine,” Vallis said, straightening up.

Rys grabbed her arm before she toppled over.

“I can see that,” Fara said. “You still can’t handle your alcohol. No sake for you.”

“Mean.”

Fara sat next to Rys and her tails automatically brushed his neck and head. He resisted the urge to stroke their fluffiness as she poured out the sake in her lap, using a simple wooden board to keep the glasses level.

They enjoyed their drinks under the stars, but remained silent other than Vallis’s mumbling.

“So, have you decided on what style you want your bedroom to be in?” Rys asked.

Vallis shot up as if she had been stung, eyes wide.

“Not you,” he corrected.

She settled against him again.

“I’m not sure,” Fara admitted. “I actually prefer beds these days, and the style of Gauron bedrooms is to my preference. But this is a chance to have a room like the clan heads and court officials back in Pharos. I grew up dreaming about them. During my training and duties, I occasionally glimpsed the obscene wealth and opulence they had.”

Rys gave Vallis a surreptitious look, and noticed she was paying close attention to Fara’s words.

“And? What do you want? To fulfil your dream, or to have something comfortable?” he asked.

The fox laughed and batted him with her tails. “Don’t put it like that. The bedroom isn’t my dream. The fact I’m getting it… Well, it kind of is.” She sighed. “I’m even more torn, because I’m leaning toward a normal bedroom, but then I wonder if I’m rejecting Pharos purely because I want a new start.”

“You’re overthinking it,” Rys said. “Also, you do realize I can change your bedroom to match your whims, right? This isn’t some huge, definitive thing. If you don’t like something, I can change it.”

“But then I’m annoying you over something trivial.”

“However will I recover,” he said, placing a hand over his heart dramatically. “A minute of wasted time will haunt me forever. Seriously, I just woke up after 1500 years of stasis. Let’s not talk about literal minutes of life.”

“Fair point,” Fara said.

They drained their cups and poured more.

“Um,” Vallis began to say.

“Oh? Do you have something to add, my little drunk god-daughter?” Fara asked with a twinkle in her eyes.

Vallis fell silent.

“She’s been torn over the bedroom question as well,” Rys said. “She’s worried that she doesn’t deserve it.”

“Why?” A scowl crossed her face.

“Rys!” Vallis whined.

This was a bit unfair. He was dragging Vallis’s motherly figure into the problem. But if the past couple of days hadn’t reminded Vallis that she deserved her position, then maybe being slapped in the face by Fara’s tails and words might.

Fara glared at Vallis, who tried to hide behind Rys’s burly figure.

Eventually, the viceroy gave in. She straightened up and ran a hand through her long, black hair.

“I just… I feel that anyone could be in my shoes. If some other merchant had ran into Rys first, wouldn’t they be here? I always admired the way my grandfather built his company from nothing, and hated how my father pissed it away. I don’t want to be like my father, who was given everything and valued nothing.” Vallis stared into the darkness.

“Vallis, I love you, but sometimes you are very stupid,” Fara said.

Vallis stared at the fox.

“Rys could tell you what I am, but isn’t.” Fara glared at him, but he ignored her. “So let’s turn the situation around. I fought for everything in my life over in Pharos. Trained relentlessly. Took on immensely difficult duties. Received glowing reports as an enforcer. Outperformed foxes with an extra tail. What did I get? Nothing. My efforts amounted to nothing, because I wasn’t the right person.”

Fara ran a hand through her black tails, and Rys knew that she was ruminating on the color. The fact she had black tails, and not the typical white of her clan, was the cause of the twists and turns of her life.

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe another merchant could do what you’re doing. But they weren’t there. And if they were, they wouldn’t have known me. They might not have known enough to start the artifact trade and fund Rys. They wouldn’t have tutored Maria, and therefore earn enough trust that she approached Rys and offered an alliance. And even now, you’re the viceroy. Maria and Alsia rely on you for a lot. To say nothing of the oaf here.”

“Why thank you,” he said, stroking one of her tails.

She pulled them away with a squeak.

“Doesn’t that just mean that I was lucky?” Vallis mumbled.

“No, it means you were the right person, but that you also happened to be in the right place. If your father hadn’t made the mistakes he did, you would have enjoyed a vastly different life as it was.” Fara reached out and stroked Vallis’s cheek. “Stop worrying so much about what you do and don’t deserve. Maybe just think about what you want.”

“Huh. You really have changed,” Vallis said. “You sound a little like Rys.”

“Yes, I was thinking that,” Fara replied.

They both looked at him.

“You don’t train good subordinates by doing everything yourself,” he said. Then he raised his glass of sake and drained it. “And Fara’s right, Vallis. You joked yesterday that you could act like a princess and I’d accept it. That’s true. That’s because you’d still be my princess.”

He reached out and palmed her cheek, brushing it with a thumb. Vallis’s breath hitched and she froze.

Seconds passed.

By this point, Rys had expected Fara to intervene. When he finally turned to look, he found her pointedly staring in the opposite direction.

“Um… You mean that in a lewd way, don’t you?” Vallis asked, eyes wide.

Rys didn’t answer. But he brushed her face with his thumb again and she gasped.

Then Vallis shot to her feet, nearly falling over in the process. “Err, I’ll see you tomorrow morning, Rys. I think I’ve found the book I wanted for my bedroom.”

Then she ran off.

“Well, I thought I had it bad, but I guess you put a spell on her as well,” Fara said.

“You’re not going to intervene?”

“She’s more than old enough to make her own decisions in her life. I told you when we first met that I don’t want to smother her. Although now I think she wouldn’t be making a mistake.” Fara leaned against him.

As always, the night ended without much happening. Fara still didn’t want to go much further.

In the morning, Vallis made good on her promise. He met her in the control room. A book was in her hands. It appeared to be an old diary of some sort, but the handwriting and faded picture inside suggested it was far older than she was.

“This belonged to my one of my ancestors,” she explained. “The picture inside were taken with magic, and are what little I have of the family estate back in Blacktaffe.”

She leafed through it gently. The diary appeared to be magically preserved, but the value it had to Vallis was immense.

Most of the pictures depicted a sprawling manor in faded sepia tones. Huge gardens, flying buttresses, massive eaves, and gigantic halls. A very showy and expensive estate.

Then Vallis reached a photo at the end. The page was dog-earred. The image depicted an elegant bedroom fit for a queen. Not just in size, but in furnishings. A four-poster bed, a jewelry cabinet, gaudy metal trim, elegant fabric curtains, and even a servant standing in the photo.

“This,” Vallis said, staring at the photo. “I know there are no colors. But I want this.”

“Alright,” Rys said.

And he created her the bedroom of her dreams. This time, he didn’t follow her in to see her reaction. But he knew from the fact that she didn’t come out for hours that she loved it.

Also, she still didn’t know how to work the soundproofing. He’d remind her of that in the morning, given how red-faced she be. But he wasn’t going to complain about the sweet way that her muffled voice said his name through the walls.

Despite her misgivings, he had her. It was only a matter of time. But there was plenty to cultivate in his viceroy, and even more to teach.

- - - - - - - -

Commentary: This took longer to write than I expected (hence why it's releasing at an odd time and there's still no new DT2 chapter), but it's mostly because I'm trying to get back in the rhythm of writing after so much editing and the release. Hence why this ended up being much more character development focused. There are things I'd change, but I think it's fine.

Vallis is an odd character in Demon's Throne. In the source material and the original book draft, she was actually a guy.

Yes, that's right.

Vallis was originally Vallen, and was basically a bit character who barely shows up. He serves two roles: be part of Fara's character arc and reason to join; and take paperwork away from Rys.

During the editing process, I decided I either needed to cut Vallen or make him more interesting. I decided to transform him into Vallis, and spent a lot of effort modifying all of her scenes to give her a proper character arc, as well as her interactions with Fara. One of the benefits of this was that it created a fun dynamic between Vallis and Fara that wasn't really possible before.

However, Vallis occupies part of the administrative space, and can't participate in battle. So while she will develop in the books, she's unlikely to get anywhere near the character development time as the others. Furthermore, a lot of her actions are fairly dry and boring. Perfect material for a side-story that fleshes her out, especially as I have some fun ideas for later chapters.

Anyway, as mentioned in the update, I'll be working on the Heretic short story, but while I have an outline, I'm still trying to maintain quality and pick my writing flow back up.

I'm interested in what people think of both this story, and this type of story (more slice of life and development focused), compared to the Sen story, or something more action-oriented.