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Jevoi leans on the railing, looking out on the endless sea of stars. As much as she needs that tome, her mind keeps wandering off. That demon has crawled into her mind like a weevil. Yesterday keeps playing in her mind.
"You're trickier than I thought," says Tanglepork, her gun pressed to Jevoi's back. "Hiring staff to humiliate me, didn't see that coming."
G: Ya're welcome.
"You can clearly see, I-"
"Shut up," growls the sheriff, jabbing her hostage with the gun's barrel, "Where is it?"
"With a horny sea hag," says Jevoi, "That coven's probably used it all already."
"Stop ly~ing~," sings Tanglepork, "If you don't have it, you know what ha~ppens~."
"Diablo mio," a voice rings out; it belongs to Angustias, who is slithering down the dock. "What are you doing?"
"Arresting a criminal," says the sheriff, flashing her badge, "Stay~ back~, de~mon~."
Angustias glares at the gnome. If she's going to do anything, she has to take initiative. She subtly coils her body. As fast as she can, Angustias conjures her six swords and leaps toward the gnome, swinging wildly. One sword cleaves off the gnome's gun' barrel. Another, the hand holding it. One slices open the back. Another, the belly. One stabs a knee from behind. The last, up the butt.
A: A rather unsatisfying fight, I'll admit. After that- J: She died on the spot. L: Is that so? D: That's how the mean sheriff died?
Tanglepork's screams are trapped in the unseen bubble surrounding the trio. For all Jevoi's dismissiveness and daughterly angst, she has learned some of her mother's spells. The sheriff uses her remaining hand to try to hold her organs in as she collapses to the floor.
"A lizard who's a wizard?" Angustias less asks and more blurts in confusion.
"No," says Jevoi over Tanglepork's softening sobbing, "I'm ...an eldritch... trickster?"
"Still sounds like a nerd," says Angustias, reaching down into Tanglepork and pulls an organ up, still attached to a tangling mess of the sheriff's "pork", so to speak. "Let's play a game, the first of you two that identifies each organ gets a point."
"Kidney," says Jevoi.
"Correct," says Angustias, crushing it.
"That's not fair," whimpers Tanglepork.
Angustias drops the kidney and pulls up another. "Liver," Tanglepork tries to yell.
"Yes." Angustias sets it back in. As she does, she notices Tanglepork attempting to wiggle something out of her vest pocket. The demon stabs another sword into the gnome, this time, in her shoulder. "I know your kind's tricks." Angustias tries to pull something else out of the gnome, but it's small and buried. "What's this little thing?"
"An ovary?" asks Jevoi, glancing around nervously. "You should stop before we get caught. Just kill her already."
"Just one more," says Angustias, eyeing Jevoi with a mad fire in her eyes. "I'm finally getting why so many demons are into this." She pulls another organ up. "Besides, the gnome can't die from this."
"Please, don't crush my bladder," cries Tanglepork. She clinches her eyes and focuses on her magic. "Optica-"
Angustias punches Tanglepork in the jaw, the force cleaving the gnome's tongue off and shattering her teeth. "No spells!" She shoves the bladder back in.
Tanglepork attempts to speak, but the message is lost in the spray of blood.
Jevoi takes a step back. "I think your game's over, An-Angustias."
"Fine, it's a draw," whines Angustias, "Adios, p**a." She shoves the gnome's severed hand and gun into the open wound and flings her off the side of the ship.
Tanglepork slams into the magic sphere protecting the ship, her cracking against it, and slides down the side, leaving a bloody smear behind her.
Jevoi looks over the railing. "You really think she'll survive that?"
"Yeah," she says, "Gnome's can only die of boredom."
"That's not true," says Jevoi, turning toward Angustias, "That just how they die of age. They're still mortal. If you cut them, they still bleed."
"Oh," says the demon, now licking Tanglepork's fluids off the deck, "Eh."
Jevoi gawks at wild messy display and licks her own eyes.
A: Yes, she died immediately and we disposed of the body. J: Then we went back to Angustias' cabin. L: Yeah, here we go. J: Don't be weird, Mum. We just talked about- L: Then why ya telling me this? D: Did you ever get your book? J: Yes, after the cruise, we- L: One hook at a time. Next yarn: why I killed that old wolf. J: I suppose, you could entertain us over desert. Here comes the cake. D: Oooooooooooooooooooooo! Cake.
The two continue to stare into the vast cosmic tapestry above them.
"I'd have thought a mortal would have seen this before," says Angustias.
Jevoi shakes her head. "We don't have stars down under."
"Aren't you from the Sesbia Archipelago?" Angustias tilted her head to the side.
"No, Inner Glow," says Jevoi, "My nana is from Sesbia, but I hatched in a crappy goblin town called Rankedge." She suddenly looks about nervously. "Eh, where are you from?"
"Brutalidad, Sathanica," says Angustias, "It's a city in Hell." She looks down to the stars below. "More like a big fort, honestly. Completely underground too, obviously."
L: Right, at the edge of the eternal war? A: The very same.
"What brought you here?" asks Jevoi, "I'm here from fighting a ghost."
"My cousin-" Angustias tries to say, but is cut off by the sudden intrusion of Luminița, and a spider crab making out, blindly throwing themselves through a nearby door.
L: Tell me more.
"Let's find somewhere else," says Jevoi, annoyed. She opens another door in. "Is this cor-"
Lurentooz has Tanglepork's head lodged into her mouth. The sheriff's body, half-undresses, twitches and kicks. Magic shifts between the duo. Lurnetooz eyes release purple sparks before her pupils break through, staring at the intruder. She attempts to speak, lifting her arm defensively. "Ah kahn ehkslayn."
"Don't bother." Jevoi shuts the door. She turns around, but Angustias has left. Dejected, Jevoi returns to her room to sleep; her knife not far from her hand.
D: You just left her? A: There's more to the story. Hold on.
"G'day," says Jevoi, "Is this- this seat taken?"
The marilith looks at the mortal, but only briefly. She rolls her eyes and continues staring at her food, strange purple meat. "Sure, whatever," she says, "Pretty gutsy walking up to a demon."
D: So what did you talk about? J: Philosophy. L: What kind? J: That's not important.
Jevoi sits down with her drink in hand. "Well, I mean," she struggles to say, "Who says demons have to be bad?"
"The gods?" says the baffled mailith. She stabs the meat; it oozes in response.
"Not really a fan of them anyway," shrugs Jevoi, "Seems like there's a lot of problems they're choosing not to solve."
The marilith looks up, bemused. "And how'd you fix them?"
"My mum always said that we have to keep working to override the people seeking to make everything worse."
"You believe that?" The marilith twirls her fork. "Just try harder?"
"No," says Jevoi, "If there are people dragging us backward, then logically the best thing we can do is get rid of them."
"Get rid of them... how?" asks the marilith. Her gaze intensifying.
"Kill them," says Jevoi blunt, swift, and cold, staring into the marilith's eyes.
A: That look in your eyes that day. I still remember it. L: So ya let her into your cabin then? Eh? Eh? J: Mum, no!
Looking into those eyes, it is as if the whole room has gone silent. The marilith had never had a mortal look at her this way before. She laughs, and says, "Want to walk with me? Name's Angustias, by the way."
"You can call me Jay," says Jevoi, sipping her drink.
"Afraid to tell a demon your name?" asks Angustias, coyly leading Jevoi out the door.
"You're not the first demon I've met," says Jevoi, following coolly.
A: You were trying so hard to be an aloof rogue. J: And you were trying to be seductive. A: I was succeeding.
The duo step out onto the deck and looking out of the bubble surrounding the ship. The stars and galaxies sparkle and shine in the great dark void.
D: Stars? L: Distant lights in the surface world's sky. J: Magnificent beacons of power that fill the cosmos. A: They're really not that special, just plasma.
The pair lean on the railing, neither sure what to say, and so, they linger in silence. A good silence, to be fair.