The tenth day of festivities opened with the Emperor of Ardhann-Shyoko feeling apprehensive. He was left deeply troubled by this turn of events, especially since he could not pinpoint the cause of his uneasiness for the last several days.

His encounter with Alcuin, the spirit of Madness, has been…enlightening, to say the least. It also made him think about the distant past more than he could remember having done before.

Why, he wondered, did he remember so little before he was five-and-twelve years of age? What did his sleeping mind recall in the night that left him whimpering as he tossed and turned, and had him waking up in a cold sweat? Why could he not remember most of the names of his adopted family; his fathers, his other mothers, or his brothers? What senseless beasts hid in the dark forest of his forgotten memory?

Horitamo shook himself from his hazy reverie, and threw the covers off his bed as he rose. There was no sense in fearing things he could do nothing about, after all. He could only face the day, and the challenges it brought.

Finding the choices of clothes Estella had set out for him the previous night, he dressed himself at his own pace. Part of the reason he refused to let servant help him; they either were too fast, or too slow. Also, sometimes he would decide on some accessory or another, and pause in his dressing to decide how he wanted it worn.

Today, he smiled as he looked over his reflection in one of the room’s full-length mirrors. Admittedly, he has perhaps a slight streak of vanity, but everyone said he was very handsome, and he took pride in his appearance.

Still, there was something about his unconscious choice of clothing that unsettled him. He felt as if he were preparing for battle, rather than dressing for a festive celebration, and looking in the mirror, it showed.

A high-collared loose shirt with flared sleeves, and tight-cuffed loose pants of a cream shade formed the first layer of his attire. These were covered with a long-sleeved red tunic of distinctly cheongsam-influenced design that fell to mid-thigh, the fastenings and trim being gold-dyed woolen thread and small diamonds and topaz gems. A pale lilac sash circled his waist, tied on the left side to form a sort of belt, while his similarly colored sword sheath rested on his right hip. Despite all attempts to pull back his long dark hair with a white ribbon, unruly locks still fell into his face, partially obscuring one gold eye. White stockings under his pants, along with white sandal slippers, completed his outfit.

While an outsider wouldn’t know it, this was worn as a ruler’s indication that he was willing to do battle, with or without help. A bit much, for a day meant for festivities, he was sure. Still, he trusted his instincts. They never failed him so far, and he was sure that even if nothing happened today, it was better to be safe than sorry.

As he made his way downstairs, he could hear a few voices rising in song. Yolantha, he could immediately identify, and Sun, one of her male assistants, were singing together. Though their voices did not blend together particularly well, there was something about the imperfection of their singing that gave Horitamo a welcome feeling. It spoke to him of life, progress, hope.

When he made it to the first floor, they were nearing the end of their song. Not wanting to disturb them, Horitamo slipped his hands into the sleeves of his tunic and stood off to the side of the stairs, partly out of wanting to hear the singing to its end.

With the last note of the song, the onlookers applauded. The more outspoken of them gave their verbal approval and insisted on an encore, making Horitamo smile to himself. Despite the encouragement, the pair smiled to their audience and gracefully bowed out.

“That was a wonderful performance, Yolantha-san, Sun-san,” Horitamo told them as he left the staircase. Yolantha blushed faintly, while Sun smiled.

“Arigatou, Horitamo-dono,” Sun told him, “We’re glad you enjoyed it.”

“We can always do another performance later tonight, Horitamo-dono,” Yolantha smiled, “If you wished.”

“Iie, iie, you two should rest yourselves. I imagine Arjin and Ceih will be giving us a performance themselves, shortly, however,” Horitamo nodded towards the Rainbow Knight and his companion, with whom Arjin seemed to be quite intent on flirting with. Yolantha laughed, while Sun shook his head and seemed to be writing something on a piece of parchment he always had on his person.

“Hai, hai, Horitamo-dono, we will, then. Royal orders can’t be disobeyed, ne?” With that said and a smile on her face, the advisor woman pulled her assistant off and away.

Horitamo smiled as he watched them go. While the Rialla was often considered the prime time of the year to look for prospective mates, he couldn’t bring himself to think very deeply about it. Still, at least it would prove a distraction from his more troubling thoughts. And he did eventually have to think about finding a mate or two, after all, so he resigned himself to the holiday festivities.

He lost track of his thinking even before a voice called out to him.

“Horitamo-sama!” The voice came from a feminine, yet still decidedly androgynous figure coming down the hall. Horitamo recognized Nariko, the Faerie prince and one of his prospective mates, immediately; Nariko was possibly the most persistent out of all of his possible significant others. The purple-haired prince flounced towards the emperor, a wide grin emblazoned on his face. He stopped gracefully within a few inches of the bigger man. “How are you today?”

“Ah, I’m very well today, Nariko. Thank you for asking,” Horitamo smiled back courteously. It was impossible to stay unhappy or hold on to any negative emotion with the half-Faerie around, something for which Horitamo felt particularly grateful at the moment. Still, there was something almost faintly annoying, in an amusing way, about Nariko’s undeterred persistence.

“I was wondering if you already had an escort for the festivities tonight, Horitamo-sama,” Nariko continued, cutting right to the chase. After all, it wasn’t in his character to delay any kind of victory towards his cause of eventually netting the emperor for himself.

Horitamo blinked. He had forgotten that tonight’s festival would be one of those where an…escort was practically mandatory. It certainly wouldn’t do for the Emperor to go by himself, especially. He mentally kicked himself for forgetting details like that, and shook his head at Nariko.

“Iie, I don’t have an escort for tonight’s festival, I’ve had other things on my mind for a while.” It wasn’t necessary to tell anyone else what was bothering him. It was his problem, after all, and he felt confident that he was able to deal with it on his own terms.

Nariko looked ready to jump over the moon. “Ah, hontou? Would you consider going with me, then, Horitamo-sama?” he asked, grin stretching all the way across his face. The Emperor couldn’t help but laugh at his enthusiasm, to himself, of course.

“Ah, hai, of course,” he said with a smile, “It would be an honor to be your escort, Nariko.” Which was more or less true. Even an emperor didn’t refuse the offer of a Prince of the Faeries, partly out of respect for his mother, the Queen of the Faeries, and partly because Horitamo genuinely enjoyed the two-spirits’ company.

“Shall I meet you in the front hall around sundown?” Nariko offered.

“Hai, that would be best. It would give us both time enough to get ready for tonight.” Horitamo had to smile to himself. If nothing else, Nariko would help get his mind off whatever was troubling him. He hoped.

“Hai!” the two-spirits chirruped happily. “I’ll see you then, Horitamo-sama!” He bowed, and promptly flounced back off down the hall, his work finished. Horitamo watched his friend leave, his thoughts interrupted by a voice.

“Horitamo-sama? Are you planning to wear that outfit tonight?”

He turned to find himself looking down slightly at Estella’s smaller figure. The red woman’s cat-ear flicked involuntarily with the concern that was written on her face. The Emperor smiled at her warmly, trying to alleviate any tension that might have been around him.

“This? Iie, not tonight. Something else, I think,” he told her. Seeing the relieved smile on his favorite servant’s face, he raised an eyebrow at Estella. “Is something wrong, Estella?”

“Ano…a gypsy caravan has arrived. They’re asking for temporary shelter, and they bring warnings from the coast. We’d best be on alert for True Humans, as some have attacked Telamar’s coastline just a hand of days ago, according to the survivors.”

“Survivors?” Horitamo asked fearfully. Estella nodded.

“Hai,” she looked uneasy, “One of the chieftess’s mates was killed, along with several of the merchant-traders. At the very least, none of the children were harmed.” She made a point of mentioning the children, as they were considered the most valuable of any clan or tribe.

“Tell the gypsies to get into the city, give them what they need. And set more guards around the palace and the city gates. If nothing else, they’ll give us sufficient warning so we can either fortify the defenses or evacuate the city, if the five-fingers decide to attack. I would hope they pass us by, but we’d best be prepared.”

“Hai, Horitamo-sama!” Estella nodded vigorously and ran off to get the rest of the court moving. There was something to be said for being the Emperor’s favorite personal servant, after all.

As he left, Horitamo thought about how appropriate his attire turned out to be. He just hoped if the worst-case scenario came to pass, they would all survive. After all, among other things, the five-fingers weren’t known for their compassion toward the native peoples of Gandahrah.

At night, at sundown, Horitamo left his rooms. His attire was similar to what he’d worn that morning, but with more concealed protection, and he felt it was a bad idea to leave his sword behind. Still, he hoped it wouldn’t worry anyone too much to see him in such things.

Nariko was waiting for him, looking euphorically happy. He was dressed in what could only be categorized as a dress, in various shades of pinks and purples, completing the illusion that he was definitely female. “Konban wa, Horitamo-sama,” he greeted the emperor.

“Konban wa, Nariko,” Horitamo smiled kindly. He was used to seeing the half-Faerie in such feminine attire, as he knew that it was a two-spirits custom to dress in the clothing of the opposite physical gender of the person in question. He silently offered the two-spirits his arm, to which Nariko latched on enthusiastically.

“What are the festivities tonight going to be?” Nariko asked as they went.

“I believe we’ll be treated to some immigrant songs. There’s also a sword-fighting competition, and with the gypsies here, I’m sure there will be some last-minute additions to the festival,” Horitamo said. “Though I’d hope we’ll be safe, given certain recent events.”

Nariko blinked; he rarely listened to current events, finding them a waste of time. “Certain events?”

“Hai,” Horitamo nodded. He wasn’t too surprised that Nariko didn’t know; some things they preferred not to let out, in case the people panicked unnecessarily. And then sometimes, there were people who just didn’t particularly care, anyhow.

“Estella told me the gypsies came from the coast, and they tell us they were attacked by five-fingers. Several of them were injured, or worse. I ordered the defenses to be strengthened and the number of guards increased, all with means of alerting us if something happens. After all, some of them may not be able to send to us.”

“Hai, that’s possible, isn’t it?” Nariko nodded. He knew of some people who couldn’t send…his mother’s second husband, for instance, due to being born a True Human, wasn’t able to send, at first, but slowly, he was gaining the power to do so as he Transformed. Last Nariko had heard, he completed Transformation, and he and Banrigh were searching for their child, a girl. He attempted to look unconcerned, turning back to Horitamo. “In any case, Horitamo-sama, who are these gypsies you mentioned?”

“They’re a caravan from around the Great Crater Lake to the east. We’re going to meet some of them at the festival. I understand they’ve a half-Faerie, Rociel…or was it Sellia? Anyhow, you might get along. And a demon, Kokuen, he’s the one who saved the rest of them from the five-fingers, he shape-changed into a sea beast and destroyed their ship,” Horitamo explained.

Nariko raised an eyebrow, careful not to display the depth of his true interest in the subject. “Half-Faerie you say? Like me, then.”

“Hai, like you,” Horitamo smiled. He could already tell Nariko was interested in the idea of another half-Faerie…there wasn’t another in the court, nor a half-Nephilim, the race of his father. It was a situation he knew of all too well…

After all, there was some awkwardness to his childhood. He was different from his mother’s other children…exactly how, he wasn’t sure, only that he’d been told that he was from a more powerful and more beautiful race of being. Cryptic words weren’t exactly the best way to figure out his real heritage, he reflected wryly.

"Perhaps we should go meet them," Nariko said, cutting into the young emperor's thoughts. The dark-haired emperor blinked at his companion and raised an eyebrow.

“Do you really want to, Nariko?” he asked, out of curiosity.

Nariko shrugged offhandedly. “I don’t see how it could hurt,” he said. “Besides, perhaps I’ll know the half-faerie.”

Horitamo chuckled. “Hai, maybe she or he is a sibling of yours. I understand your mother wasn’t by any means exclusive, was she?”

Nariko mumbled something under his breath, which only made the emperor laugh. “I certainly hope I don’t have gypsies for siblings,” he muttered.

Horitamo tried not to chuckle again. It was always good to have something else to think about, even for a fleeting second. After all, he couldn’t be worried about some things all the time, even big things.

 Kokuen

Kokuen shook his head as he watched the serving girl from the palace approach. With any luck, Rociel was going to flirt with her, and have a rather unhappy six-year-old trying to get him to leave her alone.

Sure enough, the red-skinned woman was being approached by the gypsy half-Faerie, and his daughter. Kokuen counted to Rociel getting kicked as he listened to the conversation going on.

“It’s very sweet of you to look after us yourself,” Rociel said with a grin as he leaned on the wall over the woman. She looked young to be given such a task as looking after the gypsies for the emperor, but competent enough. Behind her father, Silvana was glaring at the woman as if she wished she’d drop dead right there.

“Ano…it was nothing, really,” Estella said with an innocent smile, “Rociel-san, was it?”

Rociel smiled back, though his was undoubtedly not so innocent. “Hai, that’s it,” he confirmed.

“You can call me Estella…or Stella, though only Horitamo-sama’s ever called me that, so far,” Estella said. Looking at Silvana, she smiled gently. “And you have the most adorable little girl, Rociel-san.”

**Quit while you’re ahead, you baka magical puffball,** Kokuen sent to Rociel. The half-Faerie scowled at him while Silvana glared at the servant girl.

**Urusei, Kokuen. This is none of your business.**

**It’s your funeral, my friend.** That said, Kokuen turned to go exploring, mentally counting backward from ten in his native Hell-tongue.

Ten seconds later, he smirked when he heard Silvana finally spoke up.

“Leave that lady alone!”

This was followed by the sound of a small shoe hitting Rociel’s shin, then “Ittai! Silvana, you little brat!”

Kokuen bit three of his fingers to keep from laughing out loud. Silvana never did take her father’s flirtations well, especially after their recent family tragedies…

A sudden brightening of the sky took his attention away from the bickering father-daughter pair and made him look up, as did many others in the crowd around them.

A blue-silver flash streaked through the night sky, arching downward towards the earth before meeting it with a thunderous roar and bone-jarring shake of the ground. Kokuen managed to stay standing, though everyone else who didn’t see the light was thrown to the ground, blinking in surprise and shock.

Curiosity getting the better of him, and not wanting to stay around to hear Rociel and Silvana resume their arguing, he decided to go see what it was. Besides, climate was unpredictable at this time of the year, and he would feel guilty if the light turned out to be a living being who froze to death out there.

Snatching up Rociel’s oversized cloak from where he’d left it on the ground, Kokuen slipped a small blade into one of the many inside pockets, after dumping out its previous contents, which he refused to wonder about. Donning his ‘hiking’ boots of shagback fur, he picked up his medicine bundle and started towards the east, where the light had came down. Hopefully, he thought to himself, it wouldn’t be something worse than what was already going on.

Blue demon eyes shaded over with worry at the sight before him. Someone had indeed come crashing down from the sky into a snowy environment, and it wasn’t anything like he might have expected.

An enormous black crater in the ground showed the physical force of the impact, and made him wonder how anything had survived the fall. Climbing the wall of the crater, he blinked at the next thing he saw.

An unconscious figure lay face down in the blackened snow, face not only concealed by virtue of being on its belly, but also because of an unraveling braid of blond hair, which wasn’t so much fair hair as it seemed like spun gold. The points of the ears poked out of the golden mane, and a hand that was flung out bore six fingers like his own. However, it was the last element in common with him that told Kokuen exactly what his companion was.

White, feathered wings extending from the prone figure’s shoulder blades, opposite in color from Kokuen’s own, admittedly raggedy-looking, appendages. They were so white that the snow falling on the angel looked rather like flakes of dust in comparison.

Shaking himself out of his reverie, Kokuen stepped into the crater and gently laid a hand on the angel’s shoulder, shaking him, or her.

“Oi, tenshi-san. Wake up,” he whispered. He thought he could faintly hear something, but he wasn’t sure exactly what it was.

The angel’s throat presently let out a shriek, at the same time an arm snaked out from under the mass of gold hair and swiped at Kokuen. “Get away!” the angel practically screamed, folding its wings in a way that it looked akin to a nesting snowy owl, nothing but a ball of white fluff.

Blinking in surprise, Kokuen tried to approach the angel. **Gomen nasai, tenshi-san. I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m not going to hurt you.**

One wing lowered the slightest bit to reveal half of a high forehead, and a blue eye barely visible around the hair hanging in the angel’s face. **Who are you?** Calm, the voice was equally as androgynous as the angel’s figure.

**My name is Kokuen…I’m a gypsy. I saw you falling from the sky, and came to see if I could help.**

The angel looked away, before turning fully to look at Kokuen. Her features were delicate, feminine enough for Kokuen to amend his mental pronoun to female. Her face was tear streaked; she looked like she’d been crying for years on end. **Why would you want to help me?**

**Why wouldn’t I?** Kokuen blinked in surprise at the question, **You’ve done nothing to harm me personally, nor any of my kin. Besides, you’re obviously in need of help, no one can turn away from that in good conscience.** So saying, he took the cloak off his shoulders and held it out to the angel.

**Take it. Maybe you don’t get cold, but the snow can’t be comfortable for you,** he told her.

She paused briefly before taking the cloak and wrapping it around her shoulders. “Thank you…” she whispered, blushing faintly, perhaps because she was embarrassed at having to accept help to begin with.

The demon smiled. “Keep it, you need it more than I do. Can you walk?”

She nodded as she clutched the cloak around her. “I can’t fly anymore, though.” On closer inspection, Kokuen noticed that the wing that had been farther away from him was bent at an odd angle, suggesting a break.

“Gods above…” Kokuen mumbled, “I’ll do what I can, but you’ll need a healer to make sure it heals completely, if you want to fly again.” He gathered up some dried branches that were buried under the ground around them, carefully tying them to the wing in a makeshift splint along with some strips from his shirt. “This should hold until we can get you to a healer.”

The angel winced, but didn’t say anything as Kokuen bandaged the wing. “Where can I find one?”

“My caravan has a healer, but I know about wings, so I’ll be there to help,” Kokuen smiled, then blinked, turning a faint shade of pink with embarrassment. “Ano…I forgot to ask, what should I call you? I don’t know your name, and I told you mine.”

“It’s…” She trailed off, pausing, as if she had to search the depths of her mind to remember her own name. “Houseki,” she finally said.

“’Jewel’…a pretty name for an angel,” Kokuen smiled.

Houseki looked away, obviously preferring not to make eye contact. “Hai.”

“Come on, let’s get you inside before that wing gets worse,” Kokuen said, “Besides, it’s not safe to be outside for long, these days.”

“It’s hardly safe anywhere,” the angel answered.

Kokuen was about to answer back, when something make the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. There was something in the wind, and it wasn’t friendly.

His ears twitched at the sound of speech, far away. It wasn’t any Gandahrahn tongue he knew of, but a guttural, raspy speech that hurt his ears to listen to. Worse was the teeth-knocking buzzing in his head that threatened to become a full-blown headache, unlike the soothing telepathic sense of a fellow Gandahrahn. He only knew of one creature that did that to him.

“A reward to the one who brings the demon’s head before God!” a voice shouted, “And do as you will with the fallen angel, who is no more in His favor!”

A twig snap sounded from his left, despite the faint coating of snow on the ground. Pulling a blade from his belt, Kokuen listened, then slashed at the snow-covered bushes nearby. Several gurgling screams came out before five bodies fell from the greenery, staining the snow with streams of crimson where he’d nearly sliced them in half.

Houseki, behind him, had clamped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut, so wasn’t privy to the horrific sight.

“Five-fingers!” the demon hissed. He stepped back as a bolt of lightning came down from the sky, despite being a relatively clear night, incinerating the remains. Kokuen grabbed the angel by the wrist, pulling urgently, though not unkindly.

“Come on! We have to get back to the capitol, it’s the only place we’ll be safe if more of those round-ears decide to show up.”

“There’s more of them?” Houseki whispered, clearly terrified by the idea. Her blue eyes were wide. “I thought…I thought it would be safe here…”

“Anyone can be hunted in the open,” Kokuen explained, pulling the angel along as he started to run, “The only thing they can’t do is travel to the Crown of the World. Most gods would butcher them on sight, and True Human magic doesn’t work there, I heard. Still, there’s a lot a mindless animal can do to us in most places, especially if they use forbidden magic.”

“How far is the capitol?”

“Just over the next hill,” Kokuen said.

He wasn’t sure why, but there was a vague feeling that he’d met this angel before. He shook his head to himself. Not likely, he mused. He knew as much about angels as the next person, but he’d never met one in the flesh, as it were.

At the steel-reinforced city gates, he could clearly see the torches and pitchforks not far off. They were getting close, too close.

**Open the gates enough to let in two, in the name of Pandala!** Kokuen sent openly to the guards. A bronze-covered head slightly poked over the top of the gates, just barely visible.

**Two to come in, gypsies!** one of the guards could be heard saying. However, they weren’t so lucky.

The sounds of something whizzing through the air reached the pair on ground, and Kokuen saw the guards falling back inside. A vague glimpse of something protruding from the chest of one told him what happened.

“Kama’s balls!” he swore loudly.

Houseki looked around frantically, her expression not unlike a deer caught in the middle of the woods. “Iie…this can’t be happening,” she whispered. Her wings twitched agitatedly, as if she wanted to take off, but couldn’t.

Kokuen abruptly grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her close. “Hold on to me!”

She didn’t question the order, just did, folding herself right into Kokuen, as if wishing she could shrink into a space a cubic inch in volume. As soon as she realized what he was doing, Houseki realized Kokuen must be quite mad, running headfirst straight towards the gate’s doors. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

**Don’t worry!** A second later, the angel screamed briefly before realizing they weren’t breaking down the gate doors. They were passing through it, like a ghost through a wall. She gasped a few times, tears reaching her eyes at the sudden relief.

“D-Don’t do that!”

“Gomen nasai, Houseki-san,” Kokuen said honestly. Still, as he looked around at what remained of the guards, he held the angel’s face close to his chest. She didn’t need to see any more of this…madness. “Hold on to me, I’m going to teleport directly to the palace.” There’s nothing we can do for these poor souls, he thought mournfully of the guards.

Without another word, angel and demon vanished from the gates, hoping for better sanity and sanctuary within.

 Lucifer

“Wherever those five-fingers are holding them, I can get there as soon as we know which way to go. The sun and moons might have seen, but I doubt they’re going to tell us.”

Lucifer, Natsuko, Mina and Shel had been forced to set up camp with the coming of night. They took shelter in a grove of trees created by wolf-bonded forest elves, hardly able to go anywhere since Lucifer insisted on staying put upon seeing the blood-red color of the Earth Quadrant’s moon.

That being the case, Mina divided up the small cake ration she’d brought with her, giving everyone a piece of equal size, and saving a bit for Shel. Natsuko supplemented this with the meat of a night-stalking gug she’d brought down with her own claws, as the creature passed through the grove. Only the large, sinister-looking monolith stone at the edge of the camp would have told anyone the beast had ever lived to pass through.

“I’ll be able to smell them in the morning,” Natsuko said. She leaned back on her husband and watched Shel play with the beads Mina had let him have.

“Holding who?” Mina questioned.

Natsuko closed her eyes. “Our wife and youngest pup.”

“Nani?”

“It’s not that unusual, is it?” Lucifer raised an eyebrow at Mina. “I’ve known people to have triads with their mates. Though I can’t imagine True Humans considered that kind of thing to be acceptable…anyhow, she’s both my wife and Natsuko’s. The kit is mine with Janmei, though she has a few with Natsuko, too.” Lucifer smirked at the expression of complete shock on Mina’s face at his explanation.

“Blame Atma,” Natsuko added. She sighed. “Back to the point, though, they were taken during a battle a few months ago. We think they’re with some of those hea…” She stopped. “With some of the True Humans,” she corrected herself, for Mina’s benefit. “We haven’t been able to find them.”

“I don’t suppose you’ve heard anything about it, Mina-chan? After all, your…companion seemed fairly knowledgeable in what was going on,” Lucifer looked to the thin woman. He refused to use the term ‘mate’, as he wasn’t sure if she really considered the True Human man that, despite what he’d seen of them.

“He was my husband,” Mina replied. She stopped to think. “Two months ago, I believe he mentioned seeing a woman and a young boy being dragged in. He-he was upset they were going to be killed, but there wasn’t anything he could do, unless he wanted to be killed, as well.” She looked up, worried. “I-I’m sorry…”

Both Mina and Natsuko somehow instinctively knew to move away when the faint marks on Lucifer’s face darkened to midnight-black. His eyes lost all hint of silver and fuchsia, now glowing the bright red of blood, and the fangs of his teeth grew noticeably, sticking out over his lower lip. Still, despite all signs in his body language that said he wanted to kill everyone in sight, he managed to keep his voice composed.

“I won’t believe they’re dead until I see the bodies. Until then, we’ll keep looking.” Lucifer looked to Mina, despite his still-fearsome appearance. “Mina-chan? Do you know where they take ‘prisoners’ if they’re not killed?”

“I-I don’t know for sure, but I think Dennis-sama mentioned a prison of sorts, several days’ journey from the village.”

The glow in Lucifer’s eyes died away, and he blinked hopefully. “Hontou ni?” he asked. “Which way?”

“I’m not sure,” Mina whispered. Lucifer’s sigh was full of exasperation.

“And I can’t even sense them…thanks to those five-fingers’ magic, I can’t tell if they’re alive or dead.” Lucifer’s fang pierced his lip, not that he noticed. Looking up at Mina, he thought of something else. “Ne, Mina-chan? Are they afraid of the mountains? Or deserts?”

“They don’t like the desert. I don’t know that they’re afraid of mountains.”

Natsuko gently pried her husband’s lower lip away from the offending tooth. “Be more careful, would you?” she muttered.

“Yama,” Shel gurgled, crawling to his mother’s lap, leaving the beads he’d been playing with lying in the dirt. Mina reached forward to pick them up and tucked them into her robe before lifting Shel up and cradling him.

“Mountains, eh?” Lucifer smiled, reaching out to pat Shel’s hair, “Arrigatou, chibi-chan.”

Shel yawned, and curled into his mother, who stroked his cheek with one finger. “Don’t take too much from that, Lucifer-sama.”

“Can he send? I could be certain, then.”

Mina shook her head. “Not yet. I don’t know if he’ll ever be able to.”

“Hn.” Still, Lucifer looked at the boy and concentrated. It was a known fact that children had an easy time of sending, if they were capable of it. Of course, such a skill faded if not practiced regularly, as with Natsuko.

**Shel? Can you hear me?**

Shel turned away from the voice, burying his face in his mother’s chest, not giving Lucifer any indication either way. Mina sighed. “Gomen, Lucifer-sama.”

“I think he can hear me, if nothing else,” Lucifer sighed as well. Trying again, he sent to Shel again, this time giving him mind-pictures.

A cool, flowing mountain stream. A grove of trees. An assortment of forest animals, going about their ordinary daily lives. Snow-capped peaks. These and more he showed Shel, hoping the child would show him something he might recognize in return.

Finally, Shel responded, Sending an image that disturbed Lucifer beyond speech; the same image he had come upon entering the house earlier today. Three bodies, dead, the floor soaked in their blood. The feeling he got was more difficult to bear, like his heart was being squeezed. From the looks on Mina and Natsuko’s faces that just barely registered, he was the only one being treated to Shel’s reverie; the baby was lock-sending.

**STOP IT!** Lucifer lock-sent to Shel. He could feel bile rising in his throat, and he was already ill from losing his food once before. He took a deep breath, shuddering, and tried again.

He gave Shel the same sending-pictures, this time with an undercurrent of feeling that he wanted Shel to show him something similar. Maybe the boy just needed some help, he thought.

Peeking out the slightest bit, Shel sent Lucifer what was unmistakably a glare. Natsuko raised an eyebrow, and Mina blinked in surprise. Opening his mind, Shel finally complied, and sent Lucifer a single, stoic image, of his room in the human village. Although the house itself was as dreary as the entire settlement, the baby’s room had been brightened up as much as his father had been able to make it, with a few animal pictures hung on the walls.

“I know you miss your old room, Shel. Maybe you can get it, after the madness is over. But I need your help. Please?” Lucifer scowled faintly. “If you do know anything, and you don’t tell us, someone like you is going to die.”

“Lucifer-sama, I really don’t think he knows anything,” Mina said plaintively, clearly distressed by the exchange that she couldn’t quite monitor.

This time, Lucifer didn’t hold back his sending. He showed Shel another montage of images, this time, of his own son, screaming as he was being tortured, calling for help. **This might be happening to someone right now. If you know anything, Shel, please, tell me! Show me!** Then the images returned to the ones before, of mountains and forests and ruined buildings.

Shel began to cry loudly, and Mina jumped to her feet, cradling him. “I insist you stop!” she shouted. “He’s not even a year old!” She turned, walking several feet away, holding Shel and patting his back the whole while.

Natsuko meanwhile sent Lucifer a murderous look. **What do you think you’re doing, sending to a pup like that?** she hissed mentally.

“Well, he didn’t tell me either way that he knew anything or not. At least, not until he sucker-punched me,” Lucifer rubbed his temples, which were now starting to throb. He stood up and walked a bit away, then looked up towards the moon, as if concentrating on the blood-red orb.

Natsuko snorted. “Fine. Act like an ass and then walk away like none of it matters,” she snapped. “We’re no closer to finding Janmei and Lucien after that display, and you upset Mina on top of it!” She stood up and stomped into one of the tents Lucifer had conjured when setting the camp up.

**I’m sorry if I upset her, but I’m not apologizing to that brat. I should have eaten him when I had the chance.** There was a sense of Lucifer putting distance between him and the camp, quickly. And it was going up, like he took to the air.

**Lucifer?** Natsuko ducked back outside. “LUCIFER!” she screamed when she saw him doing just that.

“SHUT UP!” he snarled, despite the distance between them as he hovered overhead. Concentrating again, he focused his awareness, probing every crevice of the world with his mind, searching for any familiar sign of a presence. He felt a faint presence, a comforting familiar one, but then, there was something else. Something darker and far more hostile than anything he’d come across before.

“What--?” Lucifer threw his arms up as if to shield himself from an unseen assailant, before he was thrown out of the air and landed on the ground at Natsuko’s feet.

Natsuko screamed. She spent a few seconds doing this, while Mina rushed over with Shel, eyes widened when she realized Lucifer had fallen. Despite herself, Natsuko ran forward and shook her husband’s shoulders.

Lucifer’s body wasn’t limp, but rather seemed like he’d been frozen in his tracks, vaguely resembling a kind of rigor mortis. His eyes stared straight ahead, though the pupils were hardly distinguishable from the rest, as they completely glazed over with a pale pinkish color. If one looked closely, they could just barely tell he was still breathing, but his awareness seemed as if it simply…wasn’t there.

“Lucifer?” Natsuko shook him again, regardless of how effective she actually thought it would be. “Lucifer!” She switched to Sending. **Lucifer! What the hell’s wrong with you?!**

What Natsuko got in response was overwhelming hostility, not from Lucifer, but something else. Then, a sense of hope, almost.

**JANMEI! LUCIEN!** Lucifer’s mind-voice suddenly burst out in her head. Still, his body showed no change, just a vague twitching of his hand.

She clamped her hands over her ears, as if that might keep the voice out. **I can’t feel them,** she managed.

**I found them!** Following the proclamation was a cacophony of psychic noise, then the feeling of Lucifer becoming more…feral. Like his inner darkness was coming out, and whoever was facing him would likely never see another day.

**I’m coming.** Natsuko concentrated, taking a bit to get the idea in her mind what she was going to do. She thought hard, feeding her consciousness out of her body. **Guide me to you.** She’d never gotten used to the freedom of it, she much preferred being tied to her body, but at least it was easier to send, and, she knew, use other mental skills in this form.

**No!** Lucifer’s voice cut into her mind. **Stay in your body, you can’t leave Mina and Shel alone! But pick up the scent of human meat, and follow it. It’ll lead you right to me.** After that, a deafening mental roar sounded, and Lucifer seemed to have buried his consciousness in a feral rage that was frightening.

Natsuko followed orders for once, and shuddered back into her body. She looked back at Mina, and carefully pulled herself to her feet. “Stay here, in one of the tents.”

“I-but…Where are you going?” Mina whispered.

Natsuko shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”

“We can’t stay here alone…”

“You won’t be.” She nodded towards the trees, and Mina noticed for the first time two glowing golden eyes. “Do you understand?” Natsuko asked.

Mina nodded. She watched silently while Natsuko struggled to move Lucifer’s inert body into one of the tents, and then followed to sit by the winged man when Natsuko waved her in. The golden-eyed wolf trotted out of the trees and sat next to the tent flap, licking Mina’s arm.

Natsuko patted the animal’s head, and stopped, giving Mina a genuinely apologetic look. “I’m sorry. You’ll be safe with him, all right?”

Mina nodded, cradling Shel, who was asleep, clearly unperturbed by anything. “Hai. I’ll stay here.”

Natsuko took a moment, watching Mina and Shel, and smiled faintly, remembering her own nights rocking her pups to sleep like that. In a few seconds, her form had changed to a dark red-furred wolf, with eyes the same shade as the one she was leaving to guard Mina. **We’ll be back soon, the four of us.**

**I’ll guard her and the pup.** The other wolf turned to look at Mina, as if confirming Mina was really all right with this.

In the silence, the wolf that was Natsuko loped away.

Lucifer licked the blood off his fingers as he looked around, crouched as he was amidst a number of butchered True Human corpses. The place smelled of five-fingers, but over that was the scent of Gandahrahns, hundreds upon thousands of individual scents he couldn’t clearly distinguish. It was sickening, and also saddening. He dearly hoped Janmei and Lucien were not among those intermingled smells.

Wrenching an arm off one of the corpses, he hurriedly walked down the hallway as he torn the meat off the limb. A soul might not need physical sustenance, but old habits were hard to break, after all.

Catching the scent of a cat and roses, he quickened his pace, coming to a stop before a set of titanium-reinforced wooden doors.

**Janmei!** he sent urgently. He prayed to the gods he would get a reply of some kind.

The reply was weak, but it was there, and that was worth it all. **Lucifer-sama?**

**Papa!** Lucien’s mind-voice squealed with a cry.

Knowing they were there, Lucifer chanted a brief spell, tendrils of power reaching out from him towards the door before it blazed briefly. When the light cleared, the door was gone, and he peered inside.

Janmei was locked up in a cell, of sorts, with one arm chained to the wall. Her normally smooth blonde hair was unkempt, raggedly cut by her captors. She seemed intact, if terrified, though her clothes were ripped and dirtier than her hair. Lucien was next to her, practically latched to her leg. He didn’t look as bad, but then he was probably of very little interest to the True Humans. Lucifer didn’t want to consider the horrors that might have befallen her and Lucien in their time apart, he just wanted to concentrate on getting them out.

“Janmei-chan!” Lucifer ran inside, then unfocused slightly to make himself immaterial enough to pass through the bars of her cell. Before he even got to her, he mumbled a spell that unlocked the chain holding her arm.

Janmei pulled down her arm, shaking it out a bit and rubbing her wrist; she was already getting tingles from the return of blood to the veins in that side. As soon as she was sure her arm wasn’t going to fall off, she let out a sob and threw herself at Lucifer, who had reformed solid enough for her to embrace. Lucien similarly latched to his father.

“It’s alright, Janmei-chan. I’m getting you two out of here.”

Janmei’s small form, so different from Natsuko’s, wracked with sobs as the pent-up emotions of the past three months came out in the span of about three minutes. She clung to Lucifer’s front as if for dear life, not noticing when the door opened and a certain wolf padded in.

“Mama,” Lucien mewed, “Oukami.” He pointed to the wolf, wrinkling his nose at the smell for a moment. “Wan-wan.”

Natsuko changed back immediately, and grabbed Lucien up, practically crushing the child as she hugged him. “Lucien, Janmei…you don’t know how worried we were about you two,” she whispered, kissing Lucien’s head several times.

Janmei broke into fresh tears, and reached out to Natsuko, who grabbed and squeezed her hand tightly. **We’re here. And we’re never letting anything happen to you again.**

“Hai, we’re going to go home, Janmei-chan,” Lucifer hugged her tightly, patting her hair and folding his wings around all of them.

Janmei turned away from him to embrace Natsuko, who squeezed her back. Natsuko smiled, and looked back up to make eye contact with Lucifer. **I’m sorry,** she sent to him alone.

**Sorry for what, Natsu-chan?** Lucifer smiled.

She gave him a bit of a dirty look. **Don’t act like you don’t know.** Natsuko nuzzled Lucien and kissed Janmei’s cheek, hoping neither would pick up on her and Lucifer’s exchange.

Lucifer chuckled, but then pulled then up. **We have to get back, before anyone notices there’s no live activity around here. Natsu-chan, can you get Janmei and Lucien to the camp?**

Lucien chose that moment to squeak out something. “Tenshi-san! Tenshi!”

“Nani?” Natsuko looked down at the boy. “What tenshi?”

“Tenshi! Tenshi was screaming last night!” Lucien whined. “Papa! Mama Natsu! Don’t leave tenshi-san behind!” He tugged on Natsuko’s shirt, giving her tearful, wide eyes.

Natsuko hugged him and looked to Janmei.

“I-I think there may be someone down the hall. I was afraid to send. Some of our captors were Gandahrahns.”

Natsuko gave her a disbelieving look, but knew Janmei wouldn’t lie to her. She sighed. “I was afraid of that. Here.” She handed Lucien to his real mother. “I’ll go look.” She turned to head down the dank hallway.

“Natsuko, be careful,” Janmei called softly after, leaning on Lucifer for support.

Lucifer hugged her and Lucien. “She’ll be alright, Janmei-chan. You know Natsu, she hasn’t met anything she can’t slice up, run down or pummel.” He smiled gently at her.

Down the hall, Natsuko tread silently, keeping to the shadows. The stench of the Humans was overwhelming, blocking her from smelling anything else. She wouldn’t be sure where to look for an angel, or even if Lucien had maybe been imagining it. She looked around, hardly able to see anything despite her wonderful night vision. She closed her eyes, hoping that it would help to remove the distraction of her sight. There was a faint, faint smell, farther into the dank darkness, that was distinctly non-earthly.

A few screams sounded from the next room over, and a few minutes later, blood seeped through the cracks in the wall, that distinctly rust-brown color of True Humans. Whatever killed them wasn’t friendly to five-fingers, at least.

Curious, Natsuko crept forward, and carefully looked around the wall, hoping she could avoid detection at least long enough to find out what she needed to do.

Reddish-brown hair hid the face of a figure hanging from a wall, but she could see pointed ears peering through the mane. A pair of black feathered wings were raised behind it in clear defense and defiance. A part of her absently wondered if this person was somehow related to Lucifer.

She stepped in, kicking aside the True Human corpse by the door. “Who are you?”

The winged figure raised his head, showing rather masculine features that confirmed his physical gender enough for Natsuko to use the proper pronoun. “Who are you?” he asked in a definitely male voice.

“I asked first,” she replied, still wary. Until she was sure who this winged man was, she wasn’t doing a damn thing to help him.

“You’re not a five-finger, at least. And certainly not a Gandahrahn one,” the angel, as he might have been, scowled faintly. “The only name I respond to is Kamael, if you need to know.”

“Hn. Natsuko.”

Kamael raised his head a bit. “Natsuko…the Queen of Hell, Natsuko?” There was the faint impression of an eyebrow raised under his raggedy mane.

“The same,” she confirmed, stepping a little closer; Kamael didn’t seem to be posing any immediate threat, at least.

An inhaled breath seemed to make him shudder in pain. “Do me a favor.”

“Depends,” Natsuko said. She wanted to help him, and while she suspected that all he wanted was for her to help him get out, she wasn’t willing to commit herself before she knew what she was committing to.

“Kill me.”

“Hell no.” The oukami queen shook her head. She wasn’t stupid.

“You’d condemn a fellow Gandahrahn to suffering, then?” Kamael sneered at her. “Fine, then get out, if you’re not going to get me out of here.”

“I’ll help you get out, but I’m not killing you, damnit,” Natsuko snapped. She stepped forward, and yanked apart the chains holding Kamael without much trouble; they may have been effective from his point of view, without any leverage, but she managed to pull them to pieces with very little trouble.

“She’s not killing you because you’re coming with us.”

Kamael looked up to see Lucifer standing at the doorway, his spirit-form glowing a faint blue to the angel’s eyes. Lucifer tilted his head at the angel, then smiled.

“Don’t worry, tenshi-san,” he said, “Regardless of what you’ve been told, I’m not a demon, and I don’t eat most people.”

“Not for dinner at least,” Natsuko added.

Behind Lucifer, Janmei looked on apprehensively, Lucien in her arms. Her eyes widened when she saw Kamael; like most Gandahrahns, she had never actually seen an angel.

Lucifer turned to his lupine wife. “Natsuko, get Janmei, Lucien, and Kamael back to the camp. We’ll have to move as soon as we can, if we don’t want them to find us, much as I doubt they will.”

“All right, come on you lot.” Natsuko lifted Lucien out of Janmei’s arms, and looked back to the angel. “Can you carry her?” she nodded towards Janmei, who she knew wouldn’t be able to keep up running at an oukami’s pace.

“I…I can try. I’ve never carried another person before, oukami-san,” Kamael bit his lip. Still, the angel picked up Janmei carefully, shifting his grip on her slightly before looking satisfied that he wouldn’t drop her.

Lucien whined faintly, latching to Natsuko. “Mama’s going to be alright?”

“We’ll see, Lucien,” Lucifer looked to Natsuko, “I’ll see you four back there.” With that, he disappeared.

"She'll be fine," Natsuko assured the pup. She lifted him onto her shoulders, and transformed into her wolf form once more.

Kamael raised an eyebrow at that. He vaguely knew youkai could shift to animal forms, but he’d never seen it before. “Hai, lead the way, Natsuko-san.”