Chapter 42.4

Jax’s face contorted into a mass of confusion.  “That don’t have nothing to do with—what did ye mean about our natures?!  What looping holes?”

“It’s loopholes—mangina knobbler!”

I snorted with laughter before I could stop myself.  “Sorry,” I said again.

Mia let out a mournful sigh.  “No, I am the one who should apologize.  Your dream was such a wondrous thing… I honestly cannot recall the last time I was nearer a perfect state of bliss.  And then after?  Well, I fear I may have acted… a little rash.  Though, I am relieved the Lord Master is able to find some humor in my foibles.”

“‘A little rash’ ain’t the least of it.  And don’t ye be flirting with my master with that nonsense, poofer talk on yer lips!” Jax growled.  “Yer a bad influence.”

“You’re one to talk,” Arx said under her breath.

Jax stiffened.  “I ain’t never—!”

I clapped may hands together sharply.  “Back to the topic, please.  Look, Mia, I’m still feeling… well, I don’t know that I’m quite ready to forgive you just yet.  But in the meantime, please explain what you meant by their ‘natures.’”

“Well… because they’re demons, of course,” Mia said simply.  And a bit confused.

“Nay talk mince!” Jax shouted, jumping to her feet.  “I be Do-lilim, and never were nothing else.”

“That isn’t true, though,” Arx said.  “Remember?  Master told us.  We were just lilim before.”

Jax looked down at her sharply.  “Master, now is it?  Accepted him finally?”

Arx shared a private smile with her.  “Yes.  I belong to him.”

“And figgered that, too?  Good,” Jax said with a lopsided grin of her own.  “I hope ye know why I kept it from ye.  That ain’t the kind of thing a person can hear from sommun else.”

I cleared my throat.

“Right.”

Arx’s cheeks darkened, but she maintained eye contact with me, as though daring me to deny anything she had said.  When I held my peace, she began to smile toothily.

“I was going to say,” she began again, turning her attention back to Jax, “I don’t think that other one has spoken to us since that one morning.  Remember?  When you got to the Boundary?  You got up and started talking so unlike yourself.  It was only after that we became Do-lilim.”

“How interesting,” Mia murmured.  “I have no memory of this.  But we must have figured out some way of closing the loophole…”

“Demons?” I reminder her expectantly, pulling a startled moan from her lips.

“It… it isn’t a formal title, my lord.  Any more than ‘Demon Queen’ is.  But lilim are what Her Faen become when they take physical form.  You’ve met at least two to my knowledge… though you don’t remember.  None of you knew that?”

There was a chorus of shaking heads.

“Well, I suppose that isn’t too surprising.  Not many see one and live to tell about it, but it’s hardly forbidden knowledge.  Still, you would think…  No, I’m sure it has came up at least once in your hearing, Arx.  Remember?  You had decided to go to that lecture at the Athenaeum?  The one about strategies for dealing with rare Dungeon fauna?”

Arx awkwardly coughed into her hand.  “Uh… how drunk was I at the time?”

“Oh, that’s right.”  She chuckled slightly in between random swears.  “Very, now that you mention it.  You ended up calling the man next to you a pompous limp-dick and challenging him to a duel.  But once everyone crowded outside to watch, you vomited all over yourself and passed out.”

Arx groaned, then slowly dropped her head into her hands.  “Okay… yeah.  I remember someone telling me that story afterward.  ‘Snails, how do you know that?”

“That information is—chunder shart—is discoverable,” Mia replied serenely.  For the most part.

“Hands preserve…” Arx breathed.

“Whatever!  Yer still havering,” Jax persisted.  “We ain’t Faen any more’n we’s demons.  And I’d like to see some Goddess just try claiming I be Her servant.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about that,” I agreed.  “From what Mia has already told me, Faen are some sort of autonomous personalities the Goddesses can split off from themselves.  Both of you originated as your own people when you bonded with me.  There’s a clear difference.”

Jax squinted at me, “So… what?  Yer saying we ain’t what we be?”

“He is saying you are—a cum addict,” Mia began in my stead.

The chorus returned, this time with a general rumbling of agreement.

Mia grunted.  “Unique, I mean.  I think that may be why you were forced to differentiate.  You are similar to lilim.  Yet not.  Do-lilim.”

Jax sniffed.  “Ain’t that just the neatest little bow.  But ye still ain’t answered our Master’s first question, Faen.  That spell ye forced on us be close on to what made us in the first place, and I seen the look in Arx’s eyes at least when it were cast.  There was half a hundred Words to it, or I be a virgin.”

“A lot more than that,” Arx said, her eyes distant.

“Yet another thing I have no memory of.  But if that is true, I—I uh…” Her voice trailed off.

“Mia,” I prompted after a moment.

“Hmm?”

“The spell?”

“Oh!  Umm~”  The constant stream of questions was slowly beginning to overwhelm the Faen again, and she had to take a few moments to steady herself.  “R-right, of course.  W-well, that is… I’m sure that will be made clear once you’ve thought on the Words.”

I frowned.  Out of the eleven Words I knew, I could not think of many that would be of any use when creating a demonic subspecies… if indeed that was the proper classification of a ‘lesser Do-lilim.’  However, once I pulled the whispering syllables of the spell out of the recesses of my mind, I realized what she meant.

Because there was one which stuck out like a sore thumb.

“Lynnria?” I whispered.

“Mmph!” she shouted.  Through the gag Jax had stuffed into her mouth.

“Don’t you think we should untie her soon?” Arx suggested indifferently.  “I don’t like being cruel to pets.”

“Not until we’s got this sorted,” Jax said with a stubborn tilt to her jaw.  “Just look at her.  Ain’t took her eyes off Master once.  If we set her loose now, she’ll just go after him again.”

Arx sighed.  “Yes, I know what hunger tastes like, thank you.  But couldn’t we at least give her a little—“

With a flash in her eyes, Jax’s hand shot forward to take a firm grip on Arx’s breast.  The still-seated woman gasped softly before leaning into my First’s hold, exposing her neck.

“There ain’t no ‘little’ when it comes to handing out a nip of the Master,” Jax rumbled threateningly.

“How interesting,” Mia whispered into my ear.  “Not a hint of submission in that one’s personality… until things get physical.  And yet the dominant one is the masochist?  Mmm~ do you think they’ll start making out?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” I replied under my breath.  “But back up.  I need to be clear as to what you’re saying, Mia.  Has Lynnria become some kind of… of subspecies… of a subspecies?”

“Yes!” she shouted joyfully.  But then a few calming breaths later, she amended, “I mean… not exactly.  The girl has become whatever she is, and I have based your spell on the result.  As far as the magic is concerned, she is ‘a Lynnria.’  But for the sake of convention, I have dubbed her a lesser Do-lilim.  It seemed fitting.”

“Because she doesn’t have any horns?” Arx asked.  “That seems premature.  She could still grow them.”

“It’s possible—tit fucker—but the difference stems more from her lack of any sort of passive Life-absorption capability.  From what I can tell, her diet is restricted in much the same way as Donum’s own.”

With a sigh, I ran my fingers over my scalp.