The War Chronicles of a Little Demon (Youjo Senki alt)

Okay, I was going to put up a map of the 9 Diyu Great Houses.

But it's the new year and you guys have been great and Map is already posted elsewhere.

So here's a preview of some new art.





A few things

1) it's a draft and not colored or shaded.
2) it's cropped as the piece, when done will have all 7 main Ritual Plate variants.
3) that's a Polyxo Advanced Multi-Role Tanya is wearing.

Which means this is set in her future when she's older, has a more advanced RP, and is in command of her own unit.
So minor spoiler.

 

The War Chronicles of a Little Demon

Set in the Diyu Demons verse
A Saga of Tanya the Evil fic.
By Sunshine Temple

Naturally, I do not own Youjo Senki. So here's the disclaimer:

Saga of Tanya the Evil its characters and settings belong Carlo Zen, Shinobu Shinotsuki, and NUT Co., Ltd.

Previous chapters and other works can be found at my fanfiction website.
http://www.fukufics.com/fic/

C&C as always is wanted.

Chapter 3: A Night at The Opera

Staring into the mirror, I wondered if noble patronage was really worth it.

I was already in the Legions. Okay, I was a young cadet but how much damage could upsetting the duchess really do?

I adjusted the ruffled shawl so it better draped over my shoulders.

Well, I was only a Cadet at my age due to the duchess' letter of recommendation. And the duchess moved in the same social circles as the Legate who commanded the base and the Legate who commanded all the base's Legionary Ritual Plate. A word from Duchess SilverFlight and that exemption would be withdrawn.

The lavender bonnet was the worst part, at least it kept me from needing my hair to be styled.

The rest of the outfit was a maid uniform. High-collared, it was frilly and flounced and had a ruffled, almost tutu-like overskirt. Over that was a heart-shaped purple apron and below that was the long skirt itself.

My beribboned and bedecked tail limp, I glanced out a window. "It's starting to snow."

We were in the Great Eastern Hotel just outside Victory Plaza in Bovitar. Of course, the duchess had a suite of rooms near the top.

"And that's why you have a nice thick skirt and cute boots," Duchess SilverFlight gushed as one of her servants took pictures with a brass-bodied camera that used an almost iridescent flash.

There was an odd tingling to my horns as the camera also recorded my emotional state. All the more reason for me to keep up a proper front. The boots were of good quality and would be warm, and were not... impractical in heel.

Though they were, like the rest of this getup, a cute pastel color with shiny golden accents.

"And the gloves?" I picked at the thin purple satin gloves. They were nearly opera length and had ruffled hems. "These won't keep me warm at all."

One of the duchess's handmaidens paused in adjusting a golden coil to hand the duchess a pair of white and gold wool knit mittens. Which were then given over to me.

I gave her a flat look.

"How can I hand out flyers then?"

"You'll manage," the duchess assured.

"What does this outfit even do with your friend's business? Is it even on brand?" I sighed. I should have asked more questions before I realized that dressing up would be part of this advertising plan.

"Oh, certainly! We had to exchange sex appeal for adorableness but I think that's a good balance! And will make the cafe really stand out."

Dread forming within me, I frowned. "I thought your friend was opening a maid service."

"It is!" The duchess smiled and handed me one of the flyers. "Luddy, went to a charming little place in Silvana. It sounded so adorable, and she wanted to replicate it here."

I stared at the purple flyer. "Maids in a cafe as waitresses." I slowly stated. Of all the things from Japan's culture to wind up here. Well, it could be a coincidence.

"Will there be any special food there?" I scanned to see if the flyer had a menu below the cutesy picture of a maid-waitress and the cafe's location. I blinked. The tea and some of the desserts sounded proper. Though there was also some heavy baked goods and some mincemeat pies in the BlackSkyvian tradition.

Okay, I might have to visit the capital, and see if there were any other places that had Japanese cuisine. It had been a long time. On the other hand, this cafe might.... not be a complete clumsy copy.

Then again the name of the place. "Heavenly Home?" I asked.

"Luddy is a bit of a soft-touch for that aesthetic," the duchess said. "Which is why I'm so happy you agreed to this."

My tail may have swished. Though it stilled when the servant, finished with the gold wire, tried to attach it to my bonnet. She had shaped it into a horizontal loop with a vertical standoff.

My white-feathered wings twitched as I glared at the reflection. Even now I still felt like the plaything of inscrutable beings.

I may have hit the handmaiden with my tail.

Disapproval came from the duchess. "Ophelia a moment?" she asked as the servant bowed her head and slipped away.

The taller cobalt-blue haired woman loomed over me. A mixture of regret and irritation bit a tiny bit of amusement flitted through her.

"Maybe you were too young to get into the Cadet program."

I was honestly and sincerely confused. Fear also crept up in me.

"Tauria, I know Sister Clementia taught you about the way of things. I also know young soldiers have... crude habits."

"Your Grace?"

Her tone was very patient. "Your tail, Dear."

"There was no danger of cutting anyone. My filaments were in!" Our tails could be used as effective, if bloody, weapons.

The duchess shook her head. "It's not that."

My eyes widened. As a people, we had taboos on casual contact between strangers. With our empathy it could be far too... intimate. And using my tail to touch people...

"Quite so." Duchess SilverFlight idly adjusted the golden halo. "All that tail-slapping is rather crude locker-room bravado. Honestly, not something I expected from you, my fledgling Though you are starting to become a woman."

I stared. Oh. Right. We were a single gender species. But one demoness could impregnate another demoness. And what I was doing to one of the maids....

I suppose one upside of this dumb bonnet was that I could hide my face. It took a lot for me to get flushed in this life, but my cheeks were burning crimson. At least my blood was still red. Not all of us had the same color blood. Which made me wonder how complicated the job of medics was for the Legions.

I had been trying to keep my emotions in check, or at least keep people from seeing what I was really like.

And I threw that all out the window by letting my frustration show. Oh no, I had done that to the little Baroness VioletBlood. No wonder she was teasing me about my noble patronage. She must have thought I was some crude gutter-orphan.

I sagged a bit. I could fix this.

The duchess pulled me into a hug, her much larger wings folded over mine. "It's okay, no harm done. We all make mistakes."

I leaned onto the bodice of her gown and gave a long exhale.

"Tauria, you don't have to do this. I can understand, this is not exactly what you wear on stage," she assured me before letting me out of the hug.

I frowned. That was true. In most performances I had on more sparkly sequins and acres of fluffy skirting to trail about. It was all reinforced with starched fabric and wire to keep it from being a tripping hazard.

"You already got me this uniform." I would not say maid outfit. "I would not want to insult your friend."

"Luddy will get over it," the duchess waved off.

Obviously, this was a ploy. And as embarrassing as this was, was getting more nobles to look upon me favorably was worth lowering myself like this? Also this woman did know more about cafes and the like in the capital that had Japanese food.

Though perhaps I should try to get some samples of the wares in Heavenly Home first. But it would be hard to show my face in that cafe if I rejected a deal after I had put on the employer-supplied uniform.

And I was being paid well for this.

"I suppose I could stop in at Heavenly Home while doing this, to make sure I don't get thirsty."

"Of course," the duchess cheered. "It's not far from here and I'm sure the other maids would find you just delicious. And you can pick up more handbills and go back to the Plaza."

I tried to nod. If there was one place wearing this thing would not be an embarrassment. "Wait? I'm going to be giving these out in Victory Plaza?"
"But of course, it's the busiest part of Bovitar; with the hotel, marketplace, grand train station, riverboat dock, and one of the main bridges over the Lethe river."

"Yes, from an advertising perspective it is one of the better spots to do a low-investment mass marketing campaign." My tone was flat.

"Especially with an eye-catching and shrewd spokeswoman," the duchess gushed.

I sighed. It was still better than frontline service.

++++++

About four hundred miles northeast of Bovitar, Myr was the capital of House Andromache. Supposedly, it was an elegant cosmopolitan city on the north shore of Lake Esrum. That lake was halfway up the river Vort that drained into the Great Bazala Lake.

Upstream, the Vort connected to the canal and locks that linked to the Tybal River, which drained into Lacus Superum. Thus in addition to being a center of industry and culture by itself, Myr was set on a major north-south land trade route and the major east-west aquatic trade route.

Yes, House BlackSky had its own canal that allowed transit from Lacus Superum to the Gaudia Sea to the South, but hardly anyone from House Elena or House Luxon wanted to use that. Especially for any sensitive cargos that might be embargoed.

For having about as much territory on the Diyu continent as House BlackSky's Eastern Province, Andromache was well-positioned on a trade nexus. A central position was excellent for trade, but it was a threat in terms of security, especially when all your neighbors were larger.

Still, House Andromache held their own. And while Myr was purportedly a beautiful city it was covered with defensive positions: nothing too large or fixed though. Even with strong wards, shielding, armor and being buried a fixed target could be bypassed or saturated.

Thus Andromache's focus on mobile assets like their empowered fliers, Torpedo bombers, various quick missile platforms, and their own small, but potent air fleet. Despite their small airspace, they also had the advantage of having several larger allies they could pull back into if worse came to worse.

Andromache's fixed mounts were missile silos that would be emptied, buried evocation mounts that were relatively-cheap one shot fire and forget, and concealed and scattered maintenance and resupply points for their pilots and bombers. One advantage of the Andromache system of "internal" Ritual Plate was their logistics train required fewer parts stores. And their pilots could be readied quicker.

That meant a metropolis could be made into a hell for urban combat, while still preserving a charming aesthetic.

If Dictatrix Ziox wanted to take Myr then Eminence Andromache would have a warm reception for her cousin's forces.

Or at least that was what I was told. So far, I had not seen much of the city. The Troupe had gotten a chance to go on a very small tour and we had been cooped up doing rehearsals.

When I did get to see the city, it was at night. And while my night vision was excellent, the mortar launchers on my gauntlets were throwing out munitions with an exceptionally bright bursting charge. They were pretty accurate as you did not want to accidentally hit something with a firework launcher.

Scrying systems and instruments kept me from getting disoriented, but it did keep me from enjoying the view. Gorgon rigs were helpful for precision over flights.

"Confirm altitude," VioletBlood said as she flew a bit behind and below me to my left. "Launching. Complete," she repeated as he fired off four more shots, emptying the magazines to her mortars.

A bit behind us was the rest of the squadron in similar near vertical climbs.

"Copy, Break and fire trails in three, two, one. Break, break," I replied as my wings pulled back and we both accelerated up. Then the two of us snapped in opposite directions and lit the chaff dispenses on the small of our backs.

Thousands of motes that sparkled and flickered started to pour out and fell into the wind stream of our Zephyr. This was coordinated with the fireworks the squadron had launched moments before and with the rest of the Troupe lighting their own multi-colored contrails.

I was told that from the ground it looked a bit like a silver and green peacock spreading his tail while ruby blossoms exploded overhead.

It showed the level of trust that House Andromache let another House operate Ritual Plate in their capital. Yes, our suits were unarmed, other than glorified fireworks, but it was still quite the courtesy.

That did not mean that Andromache did not keep a couple Squadrons in the air close enough to watch us, but far enough to not interfere with the display. Not to mention having another wing on ready alert.

After completing that stage of the maneuver, I reunited with VioletBlood and we started rotating around. Her purple sparkling contrail and my gold contrail spiraling around each other.

The other pilots wove above us forming an intricate backdrop to our maneuvers. I suppose it would have been pretty with all the fireworks they were setting off and the glittering contrails they had, but I was focusing on my own part in this ostentatious display.

"Mind your turns," she transmitted. I could feel her clenched teeth as she flipped into a dive as she rolled around her wings only a few feet from mind.

"I'm fine it's you who's drifting!" She might have had an edge in level speed, but I was more maneuverable and had more combat skill, not that that mattered in these ballet shows.

We leveled out. The greenery of a shoreside park raced below us. There were plenty of spectators who had gotten out to enjoy the new spring. And get covered in glitter. Well that was not fair, the contrail material was impregnated with enough illusionary magic to make it sparkle and flash so very little was actually required. Which was a weight savings, as the pyrotechnics we carried had been heavy enough.

"Whatever, as long as we don't end up in the lake," she snippily said as we snapped up and with a loop came down onto the stage in the center of the park.

Our wings flared as the last of the sparkles illuminated our whole suits and the two of us landed on our heels before falling into perfect splits. As we raised our arms the rest of the squadron landed around us in a semicircle.

I exhaled as the crowd cheered. Precision flying was an art, but I could do without all the pageantry.

++++++

After that display, we had been given a day to relax and explore Myr. I mostly checked out a bookstore and a place for lunch with IvyBlade. It was a noodle shop that overlooked the dockyards and while the lettering was in a different language, and the smell was not Japanese, it was still a breath of fresh air.

Yes, Heavenly Home was not bad for desserts and their tea was... adequate, but it was not exactly a place to get a meal.

The older pilot shook her head as I watched the ships. "Your first time out of the House and you watch boats," she said, eating her red curry noodles.

"Hey! It's not like that." While it was nice to see trade and free market economic principles were strong in this world. That the Houses were not all locked into warfare and retrenchment; it was also peaceful to watch the various fishing and pleasure craft out enjoying the day. Yes it was a bit of a brisk spring, but with the sun out the slight bite to the air was easy to ignore.

"Oh, I forgot, it's your first time out of Eastern Province, too."

I glared at her and had more of my stir fry. The wide wheat noodles were different but it was a good meal.

"I didn't take you for liking this stuff. Though I suppose young broodlings are always hungry.'

"I'm not a broodling," I groused.

IvyBlade gave me an indulgent smile. I idly wondered how her hand would taste. It would just be a light feeding, and she'd grow it back in time.

Tilting her head, IvyBlade pulled back. "Still Paymonish food is surprising."

"The minor House west of Alecto and Trosier?" I spooned a bit more of the broth into my mouth.

"That's the one, kinda hard being a minor house on an island, even a big one between two naval powers who hate each other."

I shrugged. The Minor Houses had it pretty bad. With less population, industry, and military than even Andromache, the lesser powers existed even more at the whims of the Great Houses.

"I heard good things about it, and the smell is really good."

"That it is," IvyBlade agreed. "I was just wondering if it came from your side job."

"Eh?"

"Well, LoveBl-"

I glared at the older pilot. I hated that nickname more than she did. Partially because the baroness got it from when we were sparring, and I accidentally cut my knuckles on a board and some splattered on her lips. We gave up trying to explain it was an accident, that just made it worse.

"Well, VioletBlood was talking about your job."

My tail flicked as I controlled my emotions. "Oh."

"Yes, her jealousy was very transparent."

I stared. "She's jealous."

"Among other things, there's that whole rivalry and flirting thing with you."

"I'm not flirting!" I cried.

"I'm sorry, it's okay," IvyBlade reached her hand out to mine slightly.

I pulled back a bit. Casual contact made hiding your emotions much harder.

She frowned but used her hand to resume eating. It was not like I disallowed contact. IvyBlade was one of the girls in the Troupe who helped me preen my wings. Stupid feathers. They took far more effort to groom than the bat-style wings most everyone else had.

"But for jealousy, you are working for a Duchess and her business magnate friend and able to go to a trendy new cafe are you not? Do you really have an employee discount?"

"Uh yes.... and the other, um the waitresses do fawn over me." I couldn't say "other maids", though if I wore the flier uniform I had fifty-fifty odds of eating there totally on the house. "But... the outfits."

"What about them? Tell me you get to keep them, they're so cute."

I managed not to bite through my chopsticks.

I exhaled while IvyBlade ate, watching me with a perplexed look.

"Yes, I can keep them, but it's so girly." I ate trying to control my embarrassment.

"Huh," she accepted that excuse and went to her meal. "I didn't take you for a tomboy."

"It's not that. I just don't like fripperies and frivolities."

"You're better at ballet than I am."

"I just had some enthusiastic teachers," I demurred. "All things being equal, I'd rather spend more time in the wargaming club."

"But here you are," she teased.

"Exactly, here I am." I gestured out to encompass the city of Myr. "I don't see the wargaming club going on a trip to two different house capitals."

"Clever," IvyBlade nodded as she finished her bowl and started munching on a dumpling.

I gave a smug nod. As an excuse, it was serviceable.

"But you do know the wargamers are going to a competition hosted by the War College in our capital in two days?"

I groaned.

She glanced at her slim silver pocket watch. "Anyway we should get going if we don't want to miss our train."

++++++

House RedStorm was the second smallest Diyu Great House. However at over twice the size of Andromache, and with a far better border situation, they were more secure than their diminutive neighbor on their southern border.

About a third the size of their parent house, House RedStorm was closely allied with House BlackSky. Their First Citizen was the daughter of our Imperatrix.

The northern-flowing Resh River was the outlet to Lacus Superum. It also served as the border between House Elena and House RedStorm. From there, their northern border was the ocean shoreline, and their eastern border was with House Irkella.

RedStorm acted as a bit of a buffer as Irkella was one of the few Great Houses on poor terms with House Elena, other than House BlackSky. Even House RedStorm traded with their giant neighbor to the west.

To the south was House Andromache and a small border with Ziox to the South-east. Another river, the Golva, went through the eastern part of House RedStorm in a large curve.

Its headwaters were in House Irkella, and it flowed out into the small pinky finger of Andromachin territory that was a land border with Ziox, near the far northern shore of the Great Bazala Lake.

This meant that despite not having any territory on the shore of the Great Bazala Lake, House RedStorm had riverine access to it. And it was their main trade route with House Luxon, who had by far the most control of the shorelines of that body of water.

"Thinking about your special day? IvyBlade asked from her seat next to me as I watched the landscape fly past us.

I shrugged.

Our train was taking us northeast out of Andromache's capital of Myr about a hundred miles north to the RedStorm trade city of Narvos. With their own military faculties, Narvos was a trade nexus on the Golva River and sat over borders with the other Houses.
The train car was rather nice. While we did not have a private cabin, our seats were arranged so four people could converse. In truth, that part I was not too fond of, but it beat going around in a cattle car that was converted to troop transport by removing some of the nicer amenities.

IvyBlade sat next to me while Baroness VioletBlood was across from me. Another girl in the Troupe, about IvyBlade's age, sat across from her.

Centurion Victa SilverSpring had flowing pale blue hair and pale skin that looked almost chalk-white, her eyes were a deep blue. Not that they were visible as she was dozing. I almost smiled, as her light snore reminded me a bit of Visha.

Fortunately for VioletBlood, she did not thrash around as much as my former aide, partner, and wingwoman.

VioletBlood was reading a comic of all things. Though the baroness was trying to do it with a haughty air worthy of her station. I supposed it helped that the comic was thick and hard-covered. It reminded me of the digests I would sometimes see in my first life.

The art style was also rather familiar.

"Narvos is going to be fun; sure a lot of folks say it's some eastern provincial border trade city, but it does have a lot of culture, and an amazing opera house," IvyBlade said as she cleaned her nails.

I wondered how she got that much blood under them, she was normally a neater eater than that.

"Is it bigger than Bovitar?" I asked not rising to the bait. IvyBlade was from the capital of House BlackSky and found the city I had grown up in to be a bit quaint.

"A bit smaller. Narvos is also closer to Voluptaium so it doesn't quite need to stand on its own two hooves."

I nodded. It also acted as a bit of a buffer between the border region and the capital of Voluptaium, along with the far western spur of a mountain line that dominated eastern Diyu, including southern Irkella, the bulk of Ziox and central Luxon.

Narvos was near the area where the triple point between the borders of RedStorm, Andromache, and Ziox.

Thus to get to the heartland of RedStorm, Ziox would have to get past Narvos and cross the Golva. Or take over Andromache and then have a campaign to go to RedStorm from the South.

For mutual defense, Andromache was quite happy to ally with RedStorm. As the two smallest Great Houses there was a bit less of a satrapy-patron relationship.

"And House RedStorm has a proper Legionary Ballet Troupe," VioletBlood said as she turned a page. "Which is nice, I mean we have, what four?"

"Are you counting the one on our base at Mursam?"

The baroness pinched her lips. "I'm not sure; Mursam is a colony," her tone gave a bit of distaste though her tail was happy and her emotions seemed to indicate she was joking. "But we should encourage them to be cultured."

Ivy shook her head. Mursam had more fleet assets than Bovitar. Which was right, as Mursam was our most important off-world colony. Fully a quarter of the Imperial Legionary and Household Fleet strength was there: Corpus Incursio Tenacity and several supporting Legions, the Emurian Fifth Landing Fleet and the Colonial Magnus Fourth Fleet.

"We should also encourage them to be industrious, and build up more trade," I interjected.

VioletBlood crinkled her nose and closed her DarkStar manga book. "Mursam has enough industrial capacity to almost be a Great House on its own. Well other than being offworld," she sniffed and looked out the window to watch the fields passing around us.

"I don't dispute that, being well-placed to link with our world, and most of our other colonies makes them well positioned for acquiring and processing resources. It's sensible to put a large amount of forces there to both secure that world, the faculties on that world, and act as a springboard for our other colonies."

"Then what do you dispute, Diamond?" she sweetly asked.

"That the House should do more to grow and expand on Mursam. This continent of Diyu is more than fully claimed, as are the neighboring islands and landmasses."

"Many of those are Minor Houses," VioletBlood pointed out.

"Lesser or no, they are a hassle. Look at Luxon's occupation of the northern part of House Vualia, or how Irkella is still struggling to keep up their beachheads into House Rosier."

"I would say it's for the best that our rivals or our ally's rivals are spending blood and coins on silly conquests," IvyBlade stated.

I looked out to see that the rail bed was steadily rising higher from the fields.

"It's not the only way to handle Minor Houses. House Alecto has been quite happy trading with them, selling arms and protection, and bargaining for extraterritorial holdings," VioletBlood replied. "It's a way to have control without rebellion."

"Of course, both our nobles would argue for merchant approaches," IvyBlade laughed. "LoveBlood is just a bit more cynical about it."

Both VioletBlood and I glared at the older pilot.

"Oh, come on!" IvyBlade said she then turned to the window and watched as we approached the abutment and the bridge over the river.

VioletBlood sniffed. "Diamond, your birthday is coming up soon, correct?"

"Yeah?" I asked.

"In three days."

I tilted my head and watched the cable stays of the bridge flash past us.

"We will be in Voluptaium then, we absolutely shall have to do something."

"What's your angle?"

"I remember when I turned twelve, it was a special day."

"She wants an excuse for the Troupe to go out and have a party in their capital," Iry dryly said.

I snorted. "I mean, as the birthday girl I won't be paying so, I don't mind."

VioletBlood gave a sharp smile.

"It's not a bad scheme," I shrugged, turning to watch the barges and other vessels going up and down the broad river.

There were even some customs cutters and other military craft. Which was not surprising. The Yew patrol boats that were BlackSkyvian in manufacture.

Unsurprisingly, House RedStorm used a similar Legionary and Fleet Structure as their parent House. However, with less emphasis on mobile aerial deployment their Legions had on average a greater amount of mechanized and armored components.

Similarly, their fleet was smaller and more centered on air defense, airspace control, and ground support. With less on long range air resupply and Legion Lift even proportionally, they had a far smaller number of troopships and armor transports as House BlackSky.

House Elena took this with some reassurance as that meant that the far smaller House RedStorm did not have the power projection capabilities to put ground troops deep into their territory.

House RedStorm had naval forces but was mostly to protect their northern coast and for their riverine and lake trade routes.

On the North side of the river the settlements were markedly denser and we could see Narvos ahead of us.

The buildings were a bit shorter than those of Bovitar and it had more of a blocky look.

I wondered how much of that was the RedStorm aesthetic and how much was that this was the major settlement by the border.

More towns, farms, and livestock pens shot past us. There were a few train stations too, but we were on an express track and went past them. Especially as more train tracks merged into this area, mostly from spurs to the south east but some from other areas.

VioletBlood caught my gaze. "Hungry for lunch?"

"I guess."

"Girls your age are always hungry," IvyBlade teased. "Always feeding."

I glared at her and flicked my tail.

"It's true, even in the barracks you're hungry even during nap time."

Now, I glared at VioletBlood.

"Which DarkStar adventures are you reading?" IvyBlade asked.

"Oh a fantasy, it's a bit light and fluffy." VioletBlood's tail swished as she tapped the cover.

"Don't tell me the one where she gets reincarnated into the present?"

I stilled. What, that was entertainment here? I mean I knew it was sort of a thing done in my first life, but manga-ka covered all sorts of topics.

The baroness gave a somewhat embarrassed look. "It's a fun story. You know how much our culture and language has changed from the Invasion era. She'd take some time to fit in."

"You really think if DarkStar came back she'd be socially awkward?" IvyBlade asked.

"If? She will come back," VioletBlood stated. "Tell her Diamond!"

"Eh?"

"You signed up right after the Feast of DarkStar, and you were raised by Sisterhood of Our Hallowed Lady, DarkStar is one of your saints. You believe she's coming back."

I looked around and pondered waking up SilverSpring. She did not take well to being deprived of her sleep, and that would provide a good distraction. "You're asking if I believe in reincarnation?"

IvyBlade rolled her eyes. "Even, I'm not denying that. Reincarnation has been documented enough times, I'm just not sure if DarkStar would be coming back now. Our Imperatrix has had a lot of time to mourn her."

I glanced around. This would not be a good time to mention that I had been reincarnated twice.

"Maybe it's not up to Imperatrix BlackSky," I offered, thinking of that archangel and his deals.

"Oh, you're one of those who thinks the Silver Millennium and Serenity the First have an influence?"
"Maybe?" I shrugged. I had not paid too much attention to that part of history, or theology. The Invasion was far in our past, when we had tried to take over Earth, or an Earth. It was murky and I was not sure when in Earth's history it was.

That there were magical empires did not clear things up. Nor did that Earth's Moon was inhabited by another Empire with designs on Earth add any clarity.

Again, none of that was exactly unprecedented. My previous life was fighting for an empire that was against the whole world and this current one was where House Andromache had a lunar colony.

Though it did help showcase just how old our Imperatrix was, and some of her Daughters. RedStorm dated to nearly that period, and Praetor DawnStrike, something like House BlackSky's Foreign Minister, knew DarkStar and was part of the Invasion.

Truly ancient demonesses were de facto strategic assets.

"I think it'd be cool to meet DarkStar, maybe even ask her for combat pointers. Just imagine the experiences she's had," VioletBlood gushed.

This was a more pure and joyous emotion I had felt from her, at least on the ground. So, I refrained from pointing out that DarkStar's last experience was being betrayed, beaten, then eaten alive by those of House Vephar.

It was still a sensitive subject, as BlackSky had wiped them all out.

IvyBlade was more open with her disbelief.

VioletBlood looked at both of us. "Okay, but still it would be neat to talk to someone from those days, who had seen the Invasion. Or other great moments of our ancient history."

"Right because pestering an elder killing machine who could peel us out of our RP like tin foil and have us for a snack would be so informative" IvyBlade stated as our train entered Narvos proper.

"Snack if we're lucky," I stated. Capture by an enemy, elder demoness could result in being turned. That was a general risk of capture, though most Houses have two-party agreements for prisoner treatment and exchange. .

Another reason to be thankful I'm in House BlackSky are their rules and legal systems to ensure the mental freedom of our citizens.

"And the enemy has their own elder demonesses," I pointed out. A part of our training was on how to deal with beings who were, on their own, strategic assets. Mostly it involved getting distance, harassing fire if needed, and lining up Telephe Squadrons for a coordinated Lance Strike, a Fujiwara bombardment, or vectoring in our own Daughter or equivalent unit.

"And we do spar against powerful individuals," VioletBlood smugly said, seemingly happy to have me on her side.

The baroness was not wrong. Volantes Legate Aucto was a stern woman who had enough age and experience that she did not really need a Ritual Plate suit to be a major combatant. She was one of those who could be called "elder demonesses", and we did training exercises against her. By we I mean the cadet squadron and other trainees or the entire Ballet Troupe.

IvyBlade shrugged as the train jostled as we went over more railway switches and slowed to go through a curve.

With snort, Victa SilverSpring woke up. Blearily, she pulled her pale blue hair back. "Oh, we're in Narvos?"

"Did you have a good nap?" IvyBlade asked.

"Would have been better if we had a sleeper cabin." Victa rolled her shoulders and stretched her wings and tail. Or at least as much as the confines of the seat and ceiling could allow. "Did I miss anything good?"

"We're going to have a birthday party for Lady Diamond in the next city," VioletBlood stated.

"Lady Diamond?" Victa turned to me as the train started to slow. "Oh, well you could have a worse nickname."

My reply was cut off when we stopped and a chipper conductor in a silly little hat and a bright green uniform with gold shoulder boards and enough braid to pass as the Supreme Fleet Marshal of Diyu told us that we had arrived in Narvos.

Gathering my bag, I shook my head and followed the others off the train. Fortunately most of our costumes, gear, and supplies were in the baggage car. Ritual Plate suits, even those that were officially disarmed, were sensitive hardware. Not to mention that fireworks or no, our cache of pyrotechnics were still explosives.

We stepped into the echoing, busy platform. There was high arched ironwork holding up a ceiling with expansive skylights. I frowned. It was not the most defensive design, but I supposed not everyone wanted to live in a fortress.

A group of people were waiting for us.

"Duchess SilverFlight," I said, bowing my horns to my patron in her bustled gown and cobalt-blue coiffure.

VioletBlood smirked but also gave a polite greeting.

To the duchess' left was the Senior Prefect Volantes Centurion in charge of the Ballet Troupe, Florentina DeltaVoid. With bright green eyes and curly emerald hair cut into a short Mohawk with shaved sides. She was a stern, exceptionally agile, pilot with an artistic flair, which fit her role in what was a mix of dance group and reinforced demonstrator squadron.

To her right was an unassuming woman with purple skin, hair in an auburn pageboy, and a pair of slim frameless glasses. That was odd, though from the slight glowing patterns on her lenses, my guess was she was using them as some sort of display.

That was hardly uncommon as a few Ritualista used similar glasses for diagnostics and I had seen some scribes and other functionaries wearing similar devices when I would go off base for a coffee and chocolate. Not to mention both Ritual Plate and VTOL pilots used illusion magic to create heads up displays as well.

The woman did look like some mid-level office-lady down to her black skirt, bodice, and jacket. Though the way she was idly manipulating her display showed, at least, some skill with minor spirits. She had tattoos on her cheekbones of streaking comets.

Also standing in the group were a couple border guards in their crimson uniforms. More of them were down the platform overseeing the unloading of our Ritual Plate caskets and the rest of our baggage.

The duchess exchanged greetings with three other pilots before looking at me. "Cadet Optio DiamondDust, it is good to see you." She gestured to the prim-looking woman. "This is Mira HeartWood of the Palace Library."

"Charmed," I bowed my horns. The Imperatrix was fond of literacy and knowledge. To the extent that within the massif that served as her palace was one of the largest libraries on Diyu. No wonder she bore such award marks on her cheeks.

Though that was only a small part of the whole BlackSkyvian library system, which had authority over most published works via enforcement of various intellectual property mechanisms and logging contracts so they could be legally enforced.

Mira, for her part, seemed to take a moment watching the air rustling around all of our wings with a slight smile. She adjusted her glasses and looked over at myself and VioletBlood before giving a nod to Senior Prefect DeltaVoid.

I felt a bit of apprehension from the Troupe leader but she gave a nod to the duchess in turn.

"Prefect Centurion, would you mind if I spoke with my... protege before practice for tonight's event?" the duchess asked DeltaVoid.

The Troupe leader nodded. "Of course, your grace."

VioletBlood swished her tail and huffed at me before going with IvyBlade and SilverSpring to help the rest of the ballet troupe unload our gear and move it to the opera house.

++++++


One of the duchess' purple and gold liveried servants ushered me into her suite of rooms. This particular hotel was down the block from the Narvos opera house, and was in the heart of their theater district.

There was a set of various dishes, many Paymonish noodle stir fries and some of the desserts from Heavenly Home.

I sat down and smoothed my black legionary uniform.

Sipping some savory broth, the duchess was already sitting by the table. "Tauria, have I said how proud I am of you?"

I smiled. The humiliation of the ballet club and the scheme that had gotten me into the cadet pilot program had paid off. "No, your Grace."

"Flattering liar, and no need to be so formal especially when it's just... just us." She frowned at the food. "Luddy's been on vacation, but her chef gave me some sweets to bring up north."

I bowed my head.

The duchess took out a jeweled tuning fork and stuck it against the table. The vibrations from it made my horns itch but I accepted the privacy field with some trepidation.

For a while we ate and had small talk: Zephyr, flight maneuvers, dance, enchanting, the current issue of the Journal on Air Combat.

After I had some dessert, the duchess stilled her tail. "What do you know about Imperial intelligence services?"

"You mean the Office of Cultural and Strategic Reconnaissance?" I asked as my stomach clenched. Based on the rumors I had heard about the CSR, I wanted nothing to do with that batch of spooks.

The duchess picked up a sword and shrugged. It was in a scabbard covered in detailed runes. I knew it was an effective construct at channeling and storing power. "Something like that. Though this doesn't involve CSR."

I paused, so a deniable op or some other group? Long duration undercover operations on other Houses, even other worlds, was the start of CSR's shenanigans. I agreed with the necessity of their ethos, learning about the enemy, and found it reassuring that House BlackSky had an energetic military intelligence branch. Still, I found my tail hanging limp.

"What?" I frowned.

"It's an exchange."

"Duchess...."

She chuckled. "No, no, this is not freelance. I am doing this in my capacity as a Tribune and under orders."

I exhaled. "How much should I know?"

A tiny frown crossed the duchess's face but she gave an approving nod. "It's an exchange. A courier is giving us a package. I would like you and your wingwoman to be doing overhead patrol as you two have an excuse to be in the air tonight. I'll make sure you have command of the little pair if that helps."

"We're not exactly armed. And we're close to the border zone, won't RedStorm be active?"

The duchess smiled. "For the former I'll be traveling to the location by boat; a boat that's large enough to hypothetically have a Flight in support. As to the latter, my associates can do only so much to get RedStorm air defense to look the other way."

I kept from groaning. "Are you sure you want someone like myself or Baroness VioletBlood? I can understand why someone from the Troupe is a reasonable way to get persistent overwatch, especially if local authorities need a polite fiction to keep us up in the air."

The duchess gave me a smile.

I tapped my chin. "But this means Primus Centurion DeltaVoid knows of this, but why myself and VioletBlood? Why not two more experienced members of the troupe?"

"I know it's not what you wanted, and you don't have to take it," the duchess assured.

I nodded, relief blooming in me. "I don't mind, there are so many better pilots."

"You're too humble." Her tone had a tiny edge. "Dear, I know you're chomping at the bit, that you want to do more than training."

"I mean..." I held in my emotions. If I could spend the remaining 19 years of my term in training billets that would be perfect.

The duchess shook her head. "It's just a milk run, observing and doing passive recon, but it is important." She took my hand. "I promise. You don't have to take this role, but don't feel insulted by how simple it is, I'm offering because I trust you."

I exhaled and kept my tail from swishing. I did not want to look too overeager. Also it was a bit disquieting how much bloodlust my... mentor had, to where she expected her protege to be disappointed with a simple task.

I could see why she wanted me, and VioletBlood I suppose. I could be honored by that. I took up my own cup and pondered if there was a way to gracefully exit out of the obligation and if this gambit failed would give me a backup.

Ah, not only was I the youngest in the Troupe, but I was also the smallest.

"If things go for the worst. I presume getting the package out is of supreme importance?"

The duchess nodded.

"Then having the unarmed fliers, fliers cleared to operate in Narvos airspace could get it out, while the, hypothetical, Flight of yours does anything on the sharp end."

The duchess chuckled. "I know how hard it is for you to stand back, even in a hypothetical battle."

"How big is it?" I held up a hand. "No, I don't want to know what it is, beyond any need to know. Such as, its size and weight." Hopefully it would be too heavy for me to fly it out and thus an older girl in the ballet troupe would have to take the role.

The duchess sipped her tea and I felt a wave of approval from her. "The art piece that I'm officially buying is a garish little statue about knee-high, but the actual package? It's not large, no bigger than the case of say... an average data folio or a deck of cards."

"Ah." I picked up a sweet. "Well, what about you, well you have an RP suit?"

She smiled. "I'll have my Zephyr, so I'll have speed and I've got other assets including a suit communications system," she tapped her sword idly. "But are you sure about this?"

I set my jaw. "I'd be honored to help."

End chapter 3

AN: So.... I had planned to do an action scene in here. And end with a POV shift.

Well.... see I wrote out that sequence. It ended up warranting a chapter split. I do hope that's acceptable.

The upside is that chapter is nearly done as I've written the action part and what's left is the closer scene from a new POV

And don't worry about ch4. I'm sure it will be just fine.

 

The War Chronicles of a Little Demon

Set in the Diyu Demons verse
A Saga of Tanya the Evil fic.
By Sunshine Temple

Naturally, I do not own Youjo Senki. So here's the disclaimer:

Saga of Tanya the Evil its characters and settings belong Carlo Zen, Shinobu Shinotsuki, and NUT Co., Ltd.

Previous chapters and other works can be found at my fanfiction website.
http://www.fukufics.com/fic/

C&C as always is wanted.

Chapter 4: Silver Wings.

It was a clear night. At this altitude the air was crisp, not that I could feel it through my suit.

VioletBlood and I had started a couple of over-flights to herald the opera house's main production with fireworks displays.

Our part of the plan was to go to a few locations out of the city and deploy a couple of explosions and sparkling streaks to draw attention towards the city center and the opera house. That only took half of our load out, but it would have been a bit suspicious to only take on a small amount of fireworks.

Using the rest of the Squadron's displays and our camouflage, we slipped away to the southeast of the city.

True to the duchess's word, House RedStorm's local Airspace Control didn't challenge us, and soon our scrying systems gave us good telemetry on an abandoned orchard out in the farmlands that approached the border, still about twenty miles distant.

Our specific target was a leaning, old gazebo. There were two schools of thought for clandestine meetings. One preferred meeting in a busy area to allow for someone to make use of crowds, labyrinthine buildings and terrain, and a variety of vehicles. In short giving a lot of areas to hide and break contact while retaining hidden support.

This had the downside that the other party, or third parties could also use terrain in such a way.

The other school advocated using a more remote area to make sure the site was secure before approaching and that no one was waiting in ambush before leaving. It took the opposite doctrine in being able to control, or at least reconnoiter the location. It allowed for more care to make sure the various parties were alone.

The downside was that if extra assets were hidden, then it could easily become a trap.

And given I was part of a Ritual Plate team on orbital overwatch, I can see why the duchess was willing to go along with this location. If the seller was on the up and up then there would be no need for us to do anything but log a few more boring flight hours.

"Seller's approaching the primary location," VioletBlood transmitted.

I sighed. The thaumaturgical links of our comms meant they were nearly emissionless. Stronger transmissions for longer ranged communication could be picked up. I was told the encryption system was also rather robust, but I had not yet gotten approval into the exact nature of the mathematics used.

From my experience with computation orbs, I was a fair hand at such calculations.

There was also transmitting in the clear on a commonly used channel, but VioletBlood would not be so insipid to do something like that.

Still my ire was more that VioletBlood's idle chatter was getting to me. This was the third time she had transmitted over the course of our surveillance. "Message received and seconded," I tersely replied.

Maybe the little baroness was upset because we were about eight minutes out from Narvos or maybe because this was her first time on a real mission. I suppose it was mine too, if you only counted this life.

Though on balance, it was better to have her on my wing, than be alone up here. Even if she was not so stoic.

There was a brief chirp of acknowledgement from the duchess' transmitter.

VioletBlood and I continued to fly over as the party came to meet Duchess SilverFlight and made the exchange. I caught a visual of the Sellers showing the supposed statue that was the overt point of this while also handing over some papers and other bits to show authenticity and providence.

"Sellers are leaving," VioletBlood stated with a bit of relief in her voice.

"Keep an eye on them. Things can still go wrong." I continued tracking with my Gorgon rig. Trusting VioletBlood would keep an eye on the group we knew about, I directed my attention elsewhere.

That's odd.

"I'm getting something to the south, by the river," I transmitted as I tried to work over the slight variance. The size was too wrong, but it might have been fliers under a Veil.

"Getting similar telemetry from the Sellers," VioletBlood's tone had gotten clipped and serious.

"Confirm," the duchess stated to us before going to her troops on the boat. "Centurions get in the air-"

"Multiple explosions!" VioletBlood and I shouted. On my display I could see the boat, the Sellers, and the gazebo where my... my... mentor was at were all hit.

The biggest was the boat and the smallest was Duchess SilverFlight.

"To me!" I ordered VioletBlood as I descended and put on max power to accelerate towards the duchess.

As we raced in, I could see the sparkling dome of a ward around the duchess's form. "Watch for other targets," I ordered VioletBlood. "SilverFlight. SilverFlight!"

"Yes, Tauria I'm here, just entertaining an old friend," the duchess said with some measure of strain.

It was then that I made a rookie mistake for a Ritual Plate Pilot.

I landed.

The ground came up and I saw that the duchess was fighting what had been an elegant woman. Imperious lines were still on her face, but her curled black hair had been cut harshly short and she wore a matte grey bodysuit. She dropped a smoking spear shaft to the ground.

And where once was the aloof, but harmless expression of the idle-rich owner of Heavenly Home, was now fanatical madness.

"You brought your daughter," she crooned. "My mother would be eager to see her. She'd love to have a granddaughter, that is if she doesn't take her for herself. We'll have to all meet and have some tea!" she screamed, ramming a silver-etched obsidian spearhead towards the duchess's ward.

The rune design looked to be Zioxan in style.

"Luddy, your mother has been dead for a decade," the duchess patiently said before the spear hit.

There was another explosion as the obsidian blade blew apart. The blast caused VioletBlood's and my wards to flare as the shockwave hammered us as it passed.

I was on the ground and thus my Ritual Plate's stupid boots dragged against the dirt, nearly flipping me over.

The duchess's ward blew apart, but she had already darted forward. Parrying the spear shaft, she slid her sword blade into Luddy's side. There was a shock of lightning and the duchess's friend fell to her knees.

"What's going on?" VioletBlood demanded.

I gave her a flat look before going to the duchess. "Someone captured and brainwashed Lady Luminedia Tessaris."

I felt sick. Such a thing was possible. A powerful demoness could take one of lesser power, or in a weakened state, and dominate her, twist her, make her into an obedient daughter. By BlackSkyvian standards, a great crime had been done to Luddy.

"And took out my Flight," the duchess stated. I could feel the rage and sorrow burning beneath her exterior. Her silver lips turned to a frown as she pulled out the blade and almost gently kicked Luddy to the side.

"And the people that sold you the Package."

The duchess shook her head and quickly checked Luddy's breathing and pupils. I could feel the Zephyr swirling around SilverFlight.

"You two can switch between carrying her and the Package. I'll follow right behind you," the duchess explained as she went to a marble statue of a demoness with six arms and three tails. She idly cut the head off with her blade and pulled out a small metal case the size of a deck of cards.

"You can't," I stated. The speed difference was too much. Ritual Plate meant far more power could be fed to our Zephyr.

I strode over to her and grabbed the Package. I did not need to know what it was, only that people were willing to kill and mind-rape for it. "Optio VioletBlood take it."

I handed it to her. "Go to Narvos."

Glancing at Luddy's limp form, VioletBlood slipped the slim object into one of the side compartments on her Ritual Plate.

"You are the fastest one here." I spat. "Get up, and after thirty and start pulsing your Gorgon Rig, to check to see who is following. Don't get stupid but that will be helpful."

The baroness nodded.

"Don't waste another second. Go! Now!" I ordered with as much authority as I could muster.

VioletBlood's masked face bobbled a me as her wings swept out and she automatically took off and darted into the distance.

"Mission focused, little one," the duchess said with a wan smile as her tail hung behind her. She said a few words into her communications system and if anything her tail drooped more.

"There's an incident at the opera house. The Troupe and Mira are helping with the fires and other problems. It sounds like they're arming up. So, we're still minutes from help and there are two groups converging on us faster than backup will come. You can still take Luddy"

I blinked, if things were bad enough that a demure librarian had to help legionary fliers... No matter.

"You're taking Luddy." I stared up at the duchess. I grinned as my tail flicked. "I'm going to go after and these bastards who did this to your friends."

The duchess had pulled Luddy in an awkward carry in front of her so she could still use her wings. "If she wakes up, I'll have to drop her."

I shrugged and let my impatience show.

"Right, time is slipping," the duchess unbuckled her sword and handed it over to me.

I wordlessly took it on. It was not much of a weapon in an aerial flight. Even as a focus, it did not have great range, but I did have experience with bringing a blade to an aerial mage flight. And it was nice to have an actual weapon instead of the glorified fireworks and glitter streamer that my suit was currently set up with.

The duchess took flight and started flying close to the surface. "You know they're going to follow me. If this is House Ziox they'll value me more than the Package, other than denying it to us. Regardless, a BlackSkyvian noble of my experience would be valuable."

I took to the air behind her.

"And that's not counting that the monster who did this is desperate to get back her 'daughter'," she spat.

"That's what I'm counting on, your Grace," I confidently said as a manic grin split my face.

++++++

I split off from the duchess and took a vector that looked like I was on VioletBlood's heels before I laboriously powered up a credible Veil.

I wanted to give the impression that I was a panicked young flier in an unarmed suit, trying to run away and hide. That I had been desperately trying to follow someone who was faster than me.

All the Diyu Great Houses used some form of Ritual Plate. Many used them as their primary form of air power. Some, like House Ziox, preferred to use nimble aircraft, some manned, some golems.

An aggressive, mid-size, power with designs on their smaller, and even their larger, neighbors, Ziox did not have as much of a focus on expeditionary capabilities. Their enemies were across the border instead of across the continent or offworld. Thus the calculus that led many powers to heavily invest in Ritual Plate was not there.

The logic went that Ritual Plate, at the cost of requiring pilot skill, expense, and precision arcane logistics, created a force that was extremely efficient on a firepower per mass basis.

This was extremely useful for a House that used carriers as a means of power projection. The weight efficiency meant that the limiting factor for naval powers such as Trosier and Alecto was not the number of RP Pilots their seaborne RP carriers could hold, but the amount of pilots they could recruit, train, and equip.

This had an effect on their carrier design and what ancillary craft they carried, such as utility, troop, and cargo transports or torpedo bombers. Fitting with our doctrine of mobility and ranged power projection we made heavy use of airborne Ritual Plate carriers. This meant House BlackSky could place a titanic and powerful or nimble and focused Ritual Plate platform at will.

From my past experiences, I still had issues with such a broad-spanning use of airships, but when combined with capital ship grade Wards and Teleportation Runes the results were quite useful. Escort craft and air defense were also required, and was why the Household Fleet invested in so many Air Groups dedicated to Combat Air Patrol, Interception and Defense.

House Ziox took the opposite approach.

Their enemies were all close by. They did not need to invest in a massive air fleet. They did not need to infest in defending said massive air fleet. Under the presumption that they would have runways, even short rough ones, to operate from they could, by and large, use more rugged, larger, and cheaper aircraft.

This gave them more overall thrust, and a slight edge in firepower over many comparable Ritual Plate models. On a firepower per cost aspect House Ziox came ahead. Thus they could produce more fighter and strike craft than if they were a primarily Ritual Plate force. They tried to be competitive with larger Houses, and overwhelming against smaller Houses. The downside was that these airframes were larger; which meant, on balance, they were less agile and easier to target.

These and other deficiencies meant that House Ziox still maintained a cadre of RP Pilots. As a platform Ritual Plate was too useful for any House to entirely ignore.

Taken from the most promising, and compatible, of their conventional pilot corps, and developing equipment and training from Trosier, House Ziox maintained a credible threat with their Ritual Plate force.

It was one of these units that I was up against.

A vicious smile formed as I increased altitude and collated the passive scrying from my own Gorgon rig. VioletBlood's own periodic pulses were illuminating the area. They also drew some attention to her.

But she had a head start, and the duchess, burdened by Luddy, and without the power of a Ritual Plate suit was much slower and much more vulnerable.

I took a sip of water and studied the intake of scrying data. I even triggered the command to heat up some broth and drank some of that thick, energy-enriched, concoction.

Poor, brainwashed, Luddy had not been in Ritual Plate. But the echoes I was picking up might just match with Satori pattern stealth ground strike Ritual Plate.

A bit of a hybrid design, House Ziox built the Satori as a capable, but relatively expensive, suit that could be useful to soften ground targets both hardened and softer. It was less powerful than a Telephe, but House Ziox preferred to use fixed wing platforms to go after large mobile enemy assets.

The Satori was not as powerful as the Telephe but it could fire more shots, if at shorter range. They were decent at ground support but a bit lacking in protection. In some ways, they were the Zioxan version of Polyxo. Though with less modularity in mission packages, which made them more of a compromise design all around.

Unless I was wrong and these were their Tjardu air-superiority pattern suits. Which was a high-performance modification of suits developed with House Trosier. I knew many pilots who would argue the pros and cons of a Harmonia versus a Tjardu.

The Tjardu was lighter and had greater turning capability while the Harmonia had greater protection and overall speed. Scrying systems and comms integration went to the Harmonia but the Tjardu was supposedly an easier platform to Veil. The Tjardu was also trickier to master with a steeper learning curve.

It was a bit academic to me, because few of those debates involved taking an unarmed Polydora, without any mission modules, versus at least two Flights of Zioxan Ritual Plate. Not to mention the likelihood that one of those pilots was powerful enough to Dominate a BlackSkyvian noble. I suppose, technically, my suit was not unarmed. I was carrying fireworks launchers.

The pulses from VioletBlood gave me just enough backscatter to examine with years of experience in aerial combat. I knew the enemy had split into at least two forces, three if you counted poor Luddy.

I knew where they were at a given point, when they had made those attacks against the duchess's pilots, and I knew where the duchess and VioletBlood were.

From there it was picking the locations that seemed most likely to hold an enemy force.

I flashed my fangs and dropped down to one of the two probable locations.

Without having on-board systems to worry about, I had spare capacity in my power budget. I stated by pushing most into my Veiling while edging up my speed.

The time for being low-profile would be ending soon, but I would keep that advantage as long as I could.

Closing in, the imagery resolved. Even at this distance, the quartet would be hard to make out, as they were more blurs of shadow and light. Fortunately, I was not limited to basic senses.

The combination of VioletBlood's help, a year of training, and a lifetime of general air combat experience pointed me to the Zioxan Flight. The four Ritual Plate suits were likely Satori. I suppose, they could be Tjardu bulked out with extra equipment, running below the normal cruise speed of such suits.

I picked the trailing and higher altitude member of their diamond formation. It seemed rather textbook, at least from what Ziox learned from Trosier, which came from the latter's wars against Alecto, who were in-turn taught by us.

It was a fast formation that gave mutual support in all three dimensions, having clear fields of fire and areas of detection. At the Squadron level, two more Flights would be flanking the lead Flight, each in their own altitude zone. Fortunately for me, while this force knew the book, they lacked the paranoia and experience to learn its limitations.

In a near vertical dive, I pulsed my Zephyr. The eager air spirits were simple creatures; their existence was centered around one thing: speed. It was an alluring trap for many a rookie pilot. Raw velocity was exhilarating. It also required careful warding to erect a proper aero-shell and keep the magical shield an optimized drag-reducing shape.

The pilot in what might have been a mottled grey-green armored suit was skilled. She actually turned and tried to intercept. Her scrying system had detected me.

Unfortunately for her, I was already above mach one with the duchess's sword held in my arm with the plates locked into place. She flicked aside as I lit the runes along the blade's length.

I may have been sub-optimally armed, but I was still armed.

Golden light flared along the edge as I slammed into the enemy flier. I had been aiming for the spot in her back just between her wings, about where her heart was.

Her wards flared. I triggered my suit's power, and for a brief moment her protective bubble collapsed under the kinetic and magical assault.

The cut was messy as the blade skittered over enchanted plates of armor before slipping between a backplate and a side panel. Impaled, she screamed in surprise and horror at such volume it was audible through her helmet.

Thrashing, she tried to turn and fling me off or at least get her own weapons pointed at me. I could feel her desperation, her shock, the pain lancing through her, but I pushed it aside. It was her or me.

Laughing, I twisted the blade and slammed yet more acceleration into my Zephyr as we continued plummeting towards the ground. Now, now, her desperation and horror was getting hard to push aside as my horns buzzed.

The rest of her Flight had flipped around and was vectoring in. There was a moment as they hesitated unsure if they should fire on their own comrade.

My expression became a malevolent, slashing grin as I tore the sword out of the pilot's back and sliced it across the base of her wings. While she screamed, I kicked off of her thrashing body and began a dash climb.

Now, would the Flight leader send one of her pilots to rescue the one I had stricken? They'd have to split up immediately if they wanted to catch her before she hit the ground. If she was very lucky, very skilled, and strongly bonded with her Zephyr she might be able to slow her fall enough to survive.

From the way their formation bobbled and broke up, I supposed their fourth member was begging for help, and the Flight leader was refusing. That did not bode well for her ability to save herself.

Well... time to push them just a bit further.

The enemy immediately started firing, bright green beams of evocation energy. I suppose I should feel honored they were bringing out near-Lance-grade weapons. I started keeping count of who was firing what, it was an academic exercise, at the moment.

I could burn out my ward emitters with every ounce of power I had, and a full Lance strike, even one from an inferior Ziox suit, would still pop my ward like a bubble and burn through my suit.

The nice thing about Zephyr and Ritual Plate was that with enough concentration, skill, and enchantment, thrust vectoring was possible. Sliding and twisting I avoided the powerful, but blunt, beams.

And then I returned fire. While I was only armed with pyrotechnics mortars, the actual projectiles were rather accurate, especially in a rapidly-closing combat.

And while the bursting charges were not strong enough to get through the enemy's wards, several pounds of burning, flaring fireworks blooms made excellent improvised chaff and blinding agents.

Overlapping, gaudy, multicolored explosions designed to light up a municipal downtown went through the diminished Flight. If they had been in a more spread-out formation not all of them would have been so readily caught.

Cohesion dropped as the two trailing pilots started to turn and try to get around. Meanwhile, I twisted, dove, and using the giant blinding distraction, rocketed up beneath the lead pilot.

A downside of Lance-grade weapons was they were not very subtle. When you pumped out that much arcane power there was enough luminosity and back-scatter to make them visible even at range.

And these pilots were panicked and had poor fire control, shooting at shadows. If they had held fire, I would have been just as blinded to their location as they were to mine. It was hard to keep track of who was firing what shots but it was vital.

Alas...

Lingering smoke, burning metal, and powder parted as I swept through the lead pilot. I don't know if she froze upon seeing me, or never knew I was there.

This time I led with a fist in locked armor and kept the sword back ready to swing. There was a jarring joint-tearing sensation as my ward slammed into hers and, with a thrust and blast of magic fire out of my fist, it shattered.

The moment that happened, I swept the blade out. The cut was workmanlike but the charged sword cut through her neck. There was only so much physical armor a Ritual Plate suit could have, especially at the joints. Beyond that you might as well build a Ziox style aircraft and armored cockpit.

In a spray of blood, the lead pilot's head came off and I felt a pulse of energy go up my sword arm and the gnawing in my gut abated. Even the pains and aches in my poor abused off arm started to fade.

I had to focus; it was too easy to bask in the bliss of feeding. It was also too easy to get tunnel-vision on the immediate combatant in front of you. There was at least another Flight out there. I still had to buy time for the duchess, the Package, and, I guess, VioletBlood to get out.

I triggered the deice, demud, miscellaneous cleaning function for the eye lenses to my suit. The blood cleared off, at least the vision-obscuring part. I supposed my helmet and chest armored were still splattered

Letting the lead pilot fall, I went to the nearer of the two remaining Satori Ritual Plate. Buzzing at the energy, I put the excess into my warding shield.

Shooting straight towards her, my only concern was to make sure this suit was between myself and the other surviving pilot.

I hoped that the CSR and our other intelligence branches had got an accurate assessment of enemy capabilities. I was more worried about that than any other part of this maneuver.

Sickly green beams shot out from the Zioxan pilot's Lances. I pulled and tried to avoid, but it was hard given that I had to get into knife-fighting range for her.

Ritual Plate doctrine emphasized ranged combat as much as possible. It was sensible and logical as that was the safest way to take out the enemy, and gave the most time and maneuver space.

Of course, that was the basic doctrine.

The more I moved the more the pilot fired as her beams became a bit more diffuse and lost some luster.

To my dismay, a moment later, I twisted wrong and a pair of Lances hit my wards straight on.

Even at this range, I could feel the relief coming from the enemy pilot. I screamed at the pain as my suit's enchantments took most of the arcane and mental load. The bleed-through was enough to scour my brain and I howled in agony as my wards failed.

But instead of bursting and letting the beams pierce through me, they ablated away as I rolled down. Runes flared and some blew apart as I careened into the enemy.

Then the green beams gutted out.

"You should have kept count of your ammo supply!" I screamed using my external speakers as I body-checked the shocked pilot. I debated using the open channel, a commonly used communications protocol that all the Diyu Houses knew of. But I was so close and my intention was to disturb and distract the enemy.

My body roiled in pain as she tried to claw at me. Her talons sparked against my armor and a few dug in under the shoulders. Close quarters combat was not a normal part of Ritual Plate training, at least for Houses that didn't make a full study of the suits.

My tail snaked out and slashed behind her knees. The pilot screamed and I used the break in her concentration to stab up through her side, the duchess's sword entering just under her chest armor.

I relished the burst of energy as I ripped the life out of her. By and large, our species was rather robust, hard to kill, but less so against a determined opponent.

I turned and tilted my head to the last pilot. Her flying was weak and her emotions broadcast with rage, loss and fear at how a diminutive flier had in bare moments wiped out the rest of her Flight.

I wondered if she would run, that was the smart move. She had to know I was fighting this way out of desperation due to being ill-equipped. Thus she could safely retreat and regroup with the other Flight.

By my count, she only had a few more shots in her Lance batteries, but that model of Ritual Plate had other offensive systems. Ones that still out-ranged my ad hoc weaponry.

"You! Monster! You killed my sisters!" she screamed in accented Silvan Latin in the clear over the open channel. And then she bounded straight at me.

I blinked. We were both demonic soldiers serving imperialist powers ruled by ancient demonesses. And it was her people who attacked us.

Anger grew within me, this time I let it flow freely and my own horns emitted it.

It seemed no mater the world, no matter the life I had to deal with irrational, emotional people who wanted to kill me for reasons that weren't my fault.

Circling and gaining more attitude, I bought some time to rekindle my wards. Many of the enchantments that made up the emitters had been burned out and the list of warnings displayed on the edge of my vision was getting uncomfortably crowded.

Still, if this pilot wanted to do an emotional, ill-conceived charge...

Who was I to dissuade her? I spared an instant to look at the timer and the overall situation. Every moment spent in this fight brought those I care- those who were my allies closer to safety and gave more time for reinforcements to come.

Lances shot out and I flicked and dodged. It took coaxing to push just that much more out of my Zephyr. The air spirits were exhilarated. It was a rare treat to be pushed this far, but even they had limits.

But, I had grown up with them, and my Zephyr trusted me.

I dug in and the very plates of my suit screamed in protest at the power being pushed through their enchantment. While a Polydora could have agility that put it somewhat close to that of a Harmonia air superiority fighter, that required the installation of mission modules full of specialized enchantments.

Green beams blew past as I shook, trying to evade and close the distance.

My enemy was rather obliging.

Feeling like we were eye to eye, I shot a brace of mortars at her, the massive, but mostly theatrical explosions blinding both of us.

Well, they would have blinded me, but I blink-closed the covers to my eye slits. Even with them in place, the light from the pyrotechnics bled through and lit up the inside of my helmet. For the moment I was dependent on the composite scrying feed from my and VioletBlood's Gorgon rigs.

The Zioxan pilot screamed and her beams went wildly off track. Exhaultant, I took her by the side.

This was the last member of her Flight, once I took out her ward, once I killed. her I would-

Oh no.

A massive thermal and arcane bloom flared onto my display.

On pure ingrained, intrained instinct, I took the yowling pilot and, using my sword as a lever, shoved her between me and the enemy attack.

An emerald green Lance that left me seeing stars, despite having the shutters closed on my eyes hit.

It turns out some of the enemy pilots were ruthless enough to shoot into their own comrades.

Blinded and confused, the Ziox pilot screamed as her warding, enchantments, Ritual Plate, and flesh all boiled away.

I had tucked into a ball for the first time pulling in my wings, and put every bit of power into my own wards.

At least I took out one Flight and had delayed the enemy by a fair bit.

++++++

Pure desperation and anger fueled me. These were not sustainable emotions. And my power situation was grim, but my suit was being held together by sheer force of will.

I will admit that I was impressed by the robustness of the humble Polydora and the skill of my Ritualista. In the vanishing chance I survived this I was going to buy them as many drinks as they wanted.

One arm hung limply. By sheer luck, and me turning my body so that was the side that got the glancing blow, it was not my sword arm.

Lances shot out in careful, deliberately-angled spreads that gave an instinctual, a doctrinal escape route. If they hit me then fine, but if I evaded, then I would have dove straight into a trap.

Compared to the previous Flight, this one operated at a higher tempo, cohesion, and experience.

It was also a reinforced Flight, with five pilots instead of the normal four. And the fifth one had that nasty overpowered Lance beam, and a custom Ritual Plate suit that throbbed with energy.

Often as not, she was the one who took the trap position when her minions tried to corner me.

Trying to Veil, I reduced my signature and attempted to draw them to the south. My worry was the Zioxan in the custom suit would grow bored and simply split her force.

Flipping to avoid a ranging Lance beam, I guzzled the last bits of water in my suit. Maneuverability and the enemy's trepidation were my main advantages. Instead of trying to get me head on and accept some losses, they were still probing.

They had to know I was minimally armed. They had to know I was in a Polydora without any mission modules.

They had to...

There!

Enchantments screaming, I slam-shifted from powering my Veil to my Zephyr.

Feeling incandescent, feeling dipped in molten silver, every feather seemed like it was made of raw nerves as I corkscrewed and slipped past the interweaving Lances.

Everything went into this, counting their shots, knowing their locations, monitoring transmissions, keeping abreast of my own suit's status.

Armor plates rattling, I spun, giving of a ghostly contrail of leaking magic that was a bare shade off the sparkle canister still attached to the small of my back. The silver motes covered my wings.

By doctrine, there was a trained way to escape this kind of bracketing, and this Flight would normally put their leader in a veiled position to use her superior power and suit to blast me.

It was a hard trap to escape.

But this time... this time there were two echoes covering the textbook escape route.

Grinning hurt, my lips were split, and bleeding.

Pushing into my wards I flipped over and launched feet first towards one of the two Zioxan fliers.

Firing over my body, I expended the last of my improvised chaff.

These pilots didn't panic when bright fireworks went off. They didn't waste their limited supply of Lance beams. The formation of pilot and wingwoman was also not debilitatingly close to each other.

Orange bolts shot out towards me like tracer fire. In a way that's what the lesser evocation was. They were the arcane equivalent of tracers, minus the physicality of the actual bullets. It saved a lot of weight, but at the cost of requiring pilots to be capable mages, which in all honesty was already a requirement.

On a damage per mass basis another alchemical fuel cell, even one specialized for evocation, was far more efficient than a hopper with a belt of machine gun ammo. It had the downside of being more expensive and maintenance intensive. Which was a factor that limited a lot of Ritual Plate.

The vision-impaired pilot fired a burst of bolts. A pilot of her caliber had plenty of power to spend on firing. However, my shield was more than capable of resisting, provided I evaded taking sustained bursts.

The last of the fireworks were going off as I hit. Anger and surprise, flared in her, but was backed by resolve. Pulsing out my own hate, I levered my sword and discharged the last bit of my offensive power.

If my estimation of this pilot's skills were off....

My broken arm flopped as her ward just barely popped. I watched as her wingwoman moved into position. She did not want to kill her companion to get me, but she was ready to do it. She had slowed and took a steadied position to snipe me if need be.

Perfect.

Unlike the previous Flight, the pilot I was locked into had experience with close combat and with eerie calm angled her gauntlet and opened fire point blank at me.

Orange bolts sparked over my ward but before it collapsed I stabbed the duchess's sword just below her elbow joint and levered.

Screaming in shock, she didn't halt the firing command. Orange bolts shoot out as I twisted the sword and, with a push of my Zephyr, twisted us around.

Her wingwoman got into motion, but it was too late.

Bolts of fiery energy stitched over the second pilot's suit. I had bare moments before the runaway gunfire stopped. The luckless woman's ward shattered and the bolts scythed against her armor before it failed. Using the sword as a crude aim point I made sure the wingwoman was dead by unintentional friendly fire.

Letting my glee and satisfaction bloom, I turned to the woman I had in a bladed embrace. Shock turned to anger as her tail shot out, but I had already readied mine and cut hers off at the base.

Wrenching the sword, I slammed the pommel into her helmet. Her head lolled and flipping the blade around I put the tip in and wrenched off her face mask.

A terrified woman who didn't look much older than Visha stared at me, her green eyes with bleary confusion. There was a sudden spike of comprehending fear on her face. Then I slashed the blade tip across them and punched the sword down her mouth.

There wasn't far for it to go. Her death spasms rocked me and power flowed in. I gasped and felt feeling, painful glorious feeling return to my broken arm as flesh and bones knitted.

Kicking the corpse away I dove down with renewed vigor. My heart rocked with more energy than a stim injection.

Now there were three left.

And they were closing in.

++++++

"Little BlackSkyvian!" A voice boomed out above me.

I raced down and knew I had to break contact.

"You've impressed me! Savage, skilled, ruthless. And for one so very young." The words were in a cultured purr, her Silvan Latin perfect. Somehow the voice was not as loud as it should have been.

I gave a moment to take in the overall layout. She had slowed and seemed to be following in an almost disinterested manner. The remaining half of her flight followed behind her, flanking.

This was the woman who had taken and mind-raped Luddy. She had also blown up the duchess' mercenary pilots. And I had just killed six of her pilots.

And she was congratulating me.

Stupid, crazy demons.

"I know what you're doing, fledgling," she said in her smooth, smarmy murmur. "You want to go to the river, the border, draw out this fight."

I twisted and poured more into my Veil and then went for altitude. The distance from them to me was gaining. If I broke contact I could go and attack from another vector.

"I know you think you can draw us to the southeast while your... mother perhaps? And your mate, mayhap, escape? How self sacrificing." Now, the voice was almost intimate. "But I can send my two girls after you and take care of them myself." Her voice deepened and became harsh. "I assure you I am more than fast enough to intercept them well before they reach the city."

I winced and worked to keep my horns insulated. We have been given lessons on dealing with elder demons and mental prowess was one of their major threats.

"I'm upset." Her voice was flat, all the charm was gone. "I rather liked that new daughter. Don't make me choose, fledgling. I'll take them or I'll take you."
My body spasmed. I had to focus on the mission. I would also never let her take me. If I had to engage with her, then so be it.

I turned and hit the open channel. "You have no idea. Compared to the beings I have killed, the armies I have shattered, a jumped up Zioxan pilot is nothing," I stated in a flat even tone.

"Oh, you are a temptress my blood-coated broodling," she chuckled. She was now transmitting on the same channel. "And I am no jumped up pilot. I am War Mistress Zaphania Rodswor commander of the Second Assault Infiltration Wing. Favored by the Dictatrix herself. And you will be my daughter, fledgling."

I kept my guard up. It didn't seem like she was using her mind powers. But... explicitly being told by a powerful demoness that she wanted to dominate and brainwash you was not fun.

"Please, make a show of it, someone armed with fireworks taking out Flights of enemies has style," Zaphania purred. "Take pride in my approval, fledgling."

I gave a broken chuckle. Well... now I had leverage. I can make it so the War Mistress or her minions won't kill me outright

"Hah! Like the approval of a failure means anything to me." I sneered.

I let the channel hang mute for a moment. I was not normally open to being so chatty in battle, but my weapons were few and I was not so prideful to turn one down.

Zaphania started to reply but I cut her off.

"You stink of it. You are a failure of a commander, a failure of a mother. You are an example of all that is wrong with our kind." I snarled. "Heavy-handed, clumsy domineering. Sacrificing loyal troops, loyal daughters, abusing their love then tossing them like so much spoiled meat when you decide to chase a new bauble."

I allowed myself to laugh and projected out my emotions. Maybe I could unsettle her.

Her voice was cold and brittle. "Piper. Michelle. Give her a lesson in respect. A painful one. Consider it an education for all three of you."

"Yes Mother!" they said, voices tight.

I tracked the two remaining pilots break from Zaphania and streak out towards me.

Great, just as planned.

That was the problem of the open channel, it was hard to hide your location when you were openly broadcasting.

It all came down to resources. My suit was trickling down on power. I had fed on the life energy of a few pilots, but I had drunk all my water and broth, so there was no more physical food coming in. I was empty on mortar rounds. There were other resources such as time, altitude, speed, and knowledge.

I also had my body.

Veiling up, I raced over to try and get past the two pilots. If I could regain some uncertainty in where I was...

A rapid hailstorm of orange bolts fired out from both of them.

Lovely, at least they weren't using Lances.

Their assault bolts had less power and range, but had more frequency of fire. And enough hits would shatter my ward. And then they'd be on me.

The sensible thing would be for them to stay back and, using mutual support, pound me into submission.

But they were goaded into making this personal. Pushing my Zephyr, feeling my wingtips starting to char as the magical "waste heat" became too much to manage, I pushed my suit to where most of the status indicators on my Display started blinking orange.

The plates continued to rattle as I expended my suit's lifespan to pull the two pilots into a spiraling, twisting turning fight. The artificial horizon display spun until the gimbals seized and it flicked with a fault warning.

Orange bolts shot past me as I desperately used what little I had left to get behind them. To get into the textbook position for a firing solution.

I failed.

At that.

If they had been thinking clearly, maybe Piper or Michelle would have wondered why I was trying to get behind them. I had no way to hurt them from that angle.

Instead, they got target fixation. And one of them managed to blast apart my ward while her wingwoman stitched orange bolts over my body.

Or she would have if I hadn't rolled and tucked my legs up.

It was a tumbling move I had learned in ballet. And it put the armor of my lower leg and the armor of my thigh in front of my torso. It also protected what was behind my torso.

The pain was excruciating as my left leg was holed and my right was blown apart above the knee.

My suit, loyal to the end, deployed automatic tourniquets to staunch the blood loss. And then analgesics to put some edge off the spiking, debilitating pain.

The two pilots saw me tumbling, shedding armor plates and spraying blood.

They closed in.

I could have focused on healing, I could have focused on getting my wards back up.

Instead, I pushed as much as I could, from my suit's power cells, from those I had fed on, from myself into the sword. The engravings flared with a bright, ominous light, it was full. And then I put in more.

I was tumbling. I was fading. I was bleeding. But they had stopped firing.

Distance was hard, but worse was getting the right vector. I also had limited time before this went all wrong.

Now.

I pulled my arm and whipped the sword out to the trailing of the two pilots.

Swords are not meant to be thrown. They have all the wrong balance. And getting the blade to stick, on an armored, warded foe was folly. Fortunately, at that moment I didn't care about the sword as a sword.

The pilot seemed amused by the flailing blade. She actually just did the bare minimum to keep the sword from biting her.

And then the overloaded magical capacitors built into the sword exploded.

Part of me winced at destroying the duchess' prized possession. Part of me rejoiced that the explosion was enough to blast through the pilot's ward shield and snap her neck.

She flopped over dead and fell like a doll caught in the wind.

"Piper No!" the other pilot screamed as she tackled me. I twisted and tried to get out. Well, at least this gave me a chanc-

Talons raked over my helmet and tore my facemask off. Cold air blasted past my face as my eyes were exposed to the shearing wind.

It was like being back in Norden.

I twisted, aimed my hand, and set a small blast of fire against her torso armor. Runes flares and the material softened and worry crossed the pilot's face, but it wasn't enough. Her suit ejected the malformed heated plate revealing her unharmed inner bodysuit.

"Running on empty?" she laughed, angling herself so the weak spot was no longer within my reach.

"How does it feel knowing your mother prefers me to all your sisters!" I cackled. In the desperate moment, it was easy to forget my mangled legs.

Fury and hate pulsed over me. I wondered if she would ignore her mother's orders and kill me. That would be preferable.

Her tail swept up and went straight to my face. I could see the writhing, razor sharp filaments extend. I reached out and grabbed her tail.

The filaments quickly cut through the gloves and armor, and it was like holding a miniature chainsaw. Before my hand disintegrated I yanked hard on her tail and she slammed back into me.

The pain was horrific but I burned with contempt as I rammed my own tail into her torso. My own set of razor filaments went throught the weak spot where her suit had ejected the armor and into her guts. Stretching my tail up, I searched and shredded organs until I found her heart.

Her body went limp as I pulled in her energy. That made eight kills.

It was not enough, I needed to have fed on both of the last two.

Or I needed to-

And that's when War Mistress Zaphania dropped down and took me from behind.

Her mental presence pressed on my weary mind, my drained will. Her arms wrapped around mine and she tisked seeing my ruined hand and legs.

"You should have given in," she purred, popping up her own face mask.

A pale face with hard amber eyes stared at me. She had the lean, cold beauty of an elegant equation. The War Mistress slowed our velocity. Right here, right now, she was going to bite me and make me her daughter. I should have expected that.

I did expect that.

"You wouldn't have accepted that," I coughed, looking up at her. She seemed so much bigger than me. I looked away.

"No, I wanted to see if you were worthy, Daughter," Zaphania leaned closer. "And you are; you used every weapon."

"Not quite," I smirked.

Confusion crossed the War Mistress' face. She then felt the canister between her and me.

And then I released the contrail container at the small of my back. It had no explosives, but my Zephyr, ever loyal, used the last of their power to shoot the glitter and sparkles upward.

War Mistress Zaphania shrieked as her eyes, mouth, and nose were sprayed with the brightly sparkling motes.

Blinded, there was a shocked moment. I spun around; her face was so close to mine.

Stretching, I head butted under her chin, and with the War Mistress' head knocked up, I opened my mouth and clamped my fangs over her neck just above the collar of her armor.

I didn't hold her there, but I chewed and shook as I drained her vita and worked through to tear out her spine. I did not know exactly when she died, and how much I had eaten as my remaining hand started clawing apart her armor.

But I did know that we had started to plummet. Things turned grey after that. I do remember using my own wings to slow down, and made sure I landed near the body.

I was very hungry.

Horror could wait until I was not dying.
That's what I told myself before I passed out.

++++++

Things had been... exciting in the last few days. Exactly what had happened up there south of Narvos was being kept under the bodice.
There was more tension with House Ziox. House RedStorm was on a higher alert. House Andromache simply upped their tempo of training missions.

But such matters were above my pay-grade.

My concern was what had happened to one of my Cadets. For my sins, for my skills, I had been rotated off of being assigned to a deployed Legion and had spent this year training future Legion Fliers, including a certain Cadet Optio Tauria DiamondDust.

Cadets who, upon entering the Legions proper, would be a core of new Centurions with extra experience and skill, at least in training. Which will help the far larger number of new pilots who had yet to bond with a Zephyr or wear Ritual Plate.

As assignments went, it was a mixed bag. They were all very driven and very skilled. Mediocrity was uncommon among those who could find the patronage to get access to Ritual Plate at a young age.

But that elitism did make for some insufferable little brats. Fortunately, I had Andromachin Cadets to throw them against which managed to knock the wind out from their wings. House Andromache had little time to indulge their new pilots.

Still, this year's Cadet squadron was solid. Even if one of my Cadets did have me worried.

Well technically two, but VioletBlood was uninjured and, aside from a few careful interviews, was out and about.

Walking through the corridors of Castra Bovitar's Volantes admin building, I shook my head. Nobles were trouble.

The ones who thought the rules did not apply to them were bad enough. They could be worked around and were driven by simple graft.

But the ones who felt they have an obligation to greater heroics and self sacrifice?

They ended up Imperial Heroes or getting a lot of people killed. Often both.

I slowed as I approached my destination. Everyone knew centurions were notorious gossips on a level that would make a meddling grandmother in a farming hamlet proud.

But there was truth to that.

Centurions had a broad range of responsibilities depending on rank and specialization. A generic centurion, shockingly, was in charge of a Century of Legionaries. Where a Pilus Prior Centurion commanded a Cohort. And everything from Tank Troops to Ritual Plate Squadrons had some kind of Centurion in command.

The scuttlebutt had come down that this was an important meeting. Beyond the ranks involved, whatever had happened in Narvos was casting a long shadow.

Thus I had dressed up a bit in my uniform. I could normally get away with a flight suit or even a tunic or coat over the inner layer RP bodysuit but not for this. The black pants and tunic were nothing too gaudy or dressy, but enough to show diffidence.

And I had arrived early, even by the Legion standards of "on time is late, early is on time".

Two things struck out. One: the guards at the meeting were not just Legionaries but were huscarls. Personal elite guards, all former Legion. A high ranking Legate often had such a force. Looking over their insignia, my tail went stiff.

Oh.

The other thing walked up to me with a stiff smile. Senior Prefect DeltaVoid, commander of the base's Ballet Troupe nodded to me.

"Artemis," she stated.

"Florentina , I see the Palace is interested in our little hellion," I stated, nodding to the huscarls. We were the same rank: Prefect Volantes Centurion. While she was a Senior Prefect, I had an honor name. And I felt our past meant I could be a bit familiar with her.

"I don't know if I should strangle the little monster or hug her," she sighed. "Despite being up there and dealing with... events, I've been in the dark."

That was ominous. "It's not just her I worry about," I replied.

"Her mother?" DeltaVoid asked.

We chuckled at that. Tauria DiamondDust was a very stubborn girl, and over the most particular things. But given how she lost her birth mothers, she might still be hesitant to be adopted by the duchess. She was certainly closed off enough.

Shortly, an aide ushered us into the meeting room. It was surprisingly small and intimate, with space for maybe a dozen people.

The first thing I noticed were my horns tingling at the privacy fields. I glanced over to a demure woman in a prim black business-wear of bustier and jacket. Oh.

The doors were closed behind us.

"Prefect Volantes Centurion Artemis Magnus Quirinus," the aide, a perky willowy Tribune said, introducing me. She seemed oddly at ease. "And Senior Prefect Volantes Centurion Florentina DeltaVoid."

We then saluted to... an uncomfortable number of Legates. When dealing with general officers any number is sub optimal. Three was... worrying.

The one at the head of the table returned the salute.

"Be at ease, and take a seat," House Legate AshRain said. She had pale blue skin and dark blue hair pulled into a tight braid. To look at her stern features one would not think she was the youngest Daughter of the Imperatrix.

But if you saw her skill in command, it would be apparent. Her rank was House Legate only because a Consular Legate was, officially, a temporary posting in time of war, one confirmed only with the approval of a majority of the Senators in the Curia.

She directly commanded Corpus Incursio Reliance, a formation of four Infantry Legions, two Armor Legions, two Reserve and Training Legions, and all their support equipment and supplies. She also had access to the Emurian Sixth Landing Fleet which was capable of transporting and supplying six Legions at once.
She also had, by seniority, operational command enough Legions to form two more Corpus Incursio, which could be formed into a full Coetus Malleus. Having de facto command of about twenty active Legions, was one thing.

But more than having a quarter of the Imperial Legion's active forces and considerable fleet support, was where they were stationed: Silvana.

Technically, Castra Argentum, the Headquarters of the Imperial Legions and the Household Fleet, had overall command of all of the forces in the capital and neighboring provinces. But it was one thing to say that the Legati Staff would command those Legions, it was another to have a Daughter, and frequent holder of the rank of Consular Legate in active command in that area.

Not all of those Legions were billeted right in the capital. But a hundred and fifty thousand, organized and trained, Legionaries near the City of Trees would be commanded by someone the Imperatrix trusted explicitly.

Hence House Legate AshRain, BlackSky's youngest Daughter.

We nodded and sat down.

"Apologies for keeping you waiting, I was telling my colleagues about some of the diplomatic and strategic repercussions from the events," AshRain said.

"We're making our displeasure known to House Ziox, as we can point to several capital crimes taken in our territory and our ally's territory," Castra Legate Evanda stated. She was a shorter, brawny woman with curled ram horns and dark green skin and ebony hair cut short. Her hooves were glossy black with silver chasing.

"We'll need to have you and your girls and the Air Groups up their readiness, in case Ziox decides to shake the fence," Volantes Legate Aucto said. She had honey colored hair pulled back with a set of valor pins and was every bit the elegantly sleek look of an ideal Imperial Flier. Beneath her cold expression she had a mix of fierce pride at one of her cadets performance and protective vengeance at them being wounded so grievously.

"The Household Fleet has been put on a similar warning level," AshRain stated. "But we have invited you two to speak on personal matters. As well as Volantes Tribune Duchess SilverFlight."

The duchess bowed her horns to Florentina and I.

"And Palace Librarian Mira HeartWood."

The prim, demure-seeming woman nodded as her tail swished.

That confirmed it. There was no way Miss HeartWood was merely a librarian. Doubtless, she was a personal Librarian of the Imperatrix.

A Librarian and a Daughter. This went all the way to the top.

A Daughter was one thing, but, if so authorized, a Librarian could pry out any secrets we had and would do so with an eager, inquisitive curiosity. And having nothing to hide was only some comfort.

Keeping her expression controlled, Florentina sent me a comforting emotional pulse. She knew I had met the Imperatrix. It was a year after I had been given my honor name and was part of an event in the capital.

Imperatrix BlackSky is.

She was more than willing to delegate power and trust loyal subordinates.

She also could be personable and put a young Centurion at ease.

But...

There was a vast gulf that separated her from even someone like the House Legate.

And there was another chasm between AshRain and I.

I returned sending my own comforting emotions to Florentina.

"Be not afraid," Mira said, her tone and emissions seeming genuinely perky and assuring. "This is not an inquest and we have no questions about your actions with young Optio DiamondDust."

"We're quite impressed with your work with her. All of you," AshRain included the duchess with us mere Centurions in that.

"She can be a challenging girl," the duchess allowed. "But her heart is in the right place."

Florentina managed not to snort, but everyone with horns knew she would have.

For a moment AshRain gave me an amused pulse, but her expression remained mild.

"Honored Legates, nobles, and Palace personages, may I request confirmation as to what happened?" I asked.

The Duchess Tribune sighed. "Three days ago I was in Narvos as the same time as Centurion DeltaVoid and her girls. I had been lending... support to a Librarium operation." She glanced to Miss HeartWood.

The Librarian nodded.

Great. Spook business and the duchess decided to provide some of her mercenaries as semi-deniable backup.

"A facilitator within House Ziox was willing to sell information to us," Mira stated.

I simply bowed my horns to her. The more a Librarian told you the worse things were.

"Said facilitator saw herself as loyal to her House, but would happily give information on other Houses, even those allied to Ziox."

I gritted my teeth.

Thankfully, Florentina was feeling reassuring towards me. I might have to make it up to her after this meeting. It had been a while since we had shared a meal.

"But the collected notes a senior Ziox officer had on the readiness and state of the Trosier Armada are fascinating, given their implications." Librarian HeatWood played the part of an eagerly guileless academic well.

"I believe that is enough," AshRain stated.

I couldn't help but frown. The medium three Houses: Irkella, Ziox, and Trosier banded together to resist pressures of the larger Great Houses. And to better dominate smaller houses, both Greater and Minor.

And while they were closely aligned, and had military observers and trained together, they still did a lot of spying on each other. And jockeyed for position in their alliance. If what Librarian HeartWood was saying was true then this data could be very useful.

While Ziox was not a direct threat to us, and was a frank threat to our allies, House Trosier did have the capability to shut down our seaborne trade while also being a frank threat to our other allies.

Or Librarian HeartWood could be making something up to plant false information in our minds. It was hard to tell, even the uncomfortable reactions of the Legates was not proof one way or the other.

Trying to outthink a Librarian would give you at best a headache and a nose bleed and at worst it would be the last thing you would think of.

The duchess shook her head. "Despite unofficial cooperation with local House RedStorm governance, we decided to have a low profile persistent airborne observation."

"Optio Baroness VioletBlood and Optio Tauria DiamondDust," Mira happily added.

I wondered if she was deliberately leaving off the Cadet modifier.

Florentina sighed. "We had permission to operate in the Narvos airspace. And given the source of the request, I agreed to release the two."

"It went wrong," I stated.

"War Mistress Zaphania Rodswor, commander of the Second Assault Infiltration Wing, led a Squadron in Satori Ritual Plate. And a brainwashed BlackSkyvian noble," Volantes Legate Aucto stated with that same mix of anger and pride.

"Ma'am, the Flight that attacked us in Narvos was not an isolated incident?" Florentina asked.

"Correct, she sent one Flight to you, but the other two she aimed right at our DiamondDust. It's some consolation that one of the Flights was relatively green. We surmise this was being used as a training mission for them."

"Pardon?" I asked. War Mistress Rodswor was not quite an elder but she was a powerful figure in House Ziox's special Ritual Plate forces. More than an Ace, she was an instructor of Aces. Her habit of making daughters out of her fliers was... distasteful, even by Zioxan standards.

But Dictatrix Ziox indulged her obsessions as the War Mistress had a way of finding and "cultivating" talent.

The various Assault Infiltration Wings that made up the Special Air Group were the elite of their Ritual Plate forces, small as they were. On balance, their equipment and training was not to our level.

But... the numbers alone. Two unarmed cadet pilots, and four mercenaries against nine.

"Did she and VioletBlood manage to help while the duchess's mercenaries fought them off?" I asked.

Sorrow came off the duchess in waves. "No. Zaphania slew my troops before they could launch."

"Then..." Florentina stared.

"Tauria sent VioletBlood off with the Package. Ordered me to take Luddy and go at best speed." The duchess beamed with maternal pride. "And then she killed every single one of those Zioxan mind-raping bastards."

"Ma'am?" I asked.

"She's right, Centurion," Volantes Legate Aucto flashed her fangs. "The three of you helped train our youngest Ace in centuries. She fought superior numbers who had superior range using every trick in the book, inventing a bunch of her own, and exploiting everything they knew about our book."

"After this meeting, I want you two to go with my tactical analysis group and double check their reconstruction of the fight."

"But... she couldn't-" Florentina stopped. I felt the denial fade and certainty bloom in her. "No, she could and she would."

I thought of the reserved and vicious girl who always did her best to excel, but also kept her emotions pulled in. "She was unarmed," I stated but added an interrogative burst.

I was not doubting that Tauria did this, I was asking how.

"I did give her my sword," the duchess admitted.

"And she found a way to weaponize the fireworks mortars and the contrail sparkler." Volantes Legate Aucto laughed. "She defeated them in detail, and Zaphania was taken in by her arrogance."

Despite her anxiety and pride, Florentina nodded. "Tauria did theorize about some of the combat applications of our theatrical accessories."

"It turns out they work reasonably well as blinding devices," Mira eagerly noted.

"Fireworks, glitter, and a sword. Nine to One." I looked around the table. "If I may, what is the purpose of this meeting? I was told Tauria would recover."

"She got mass trauma to most of her limbs and the regrowth will take a bit of time, but she's in capable medico hands," the Librarian said with almost surreally-open mirth.

I nodded and let the rest of my question hang.

"Centurions, Tribune, none of us doubt the skill or heroism of young Optio Tauria DiamondDust. I've already put in recommendations for awards and honors," House Legate AshRain stated.

I put out a bit of interest at the unstated question.

Tribune Duchess SilverFlight looked at the table. "I've been trying to get her to open up more, but she's just so guarded."

"If she was badly hurt, she must have fed," Florentina surmised.

"On the War Mistress herself, our reconstruction of her suit's telemetry shows she practically rode the corpse to the ground. Serves her right." Castra Legate Evanda smirked.

Evanda had worked her way up from a basic hoof-slogger, literally in her case. And while the Legionaries loved their Ritual Plate fliers for their firepower support, there was a bit of separation from those who mostly fought on the ground and those who could retreat at supersonic speed.

That Evanda was so impressed by the bloody carnage was a good sign.

That the Legates still wanted to talk to us was a bad one.

"When she went into combat, when she didn't know if she'd get back... Tauria did let down her walls. Not just the clumsy ones she thinks I can't see around, but all of them. She was full of love and bloodlust, but focused." The duchess shook her head. "You had to feel it."

I smiled. I had seen inklings of such potential in her, but while Tauria put her all into her training, it was still training. By its nature there were limits in place.

AshRain put a hand on the table. "There were.... concerns that Optio DiamondDust might have been stunted. This is in no way to lessen the work you or Sister Clementia did in raising her, but there were questions."

"There are also concerns about the trauma she incurred from such a stressful combat, with someone her age, defending her mother... figure," Mira stated.

I glanced at the Librarian.

"We are examining her, and giving her care," Volantes Legate Aucto assured us. "Librarian HeartWood had volunteered to help, and you two talking to her will help her."

I nodded, counseling and empathic therapy were very common, especially in the Legions where so much direct trauma from ground combat happens quite a bit. Though any Household Fleet sailor who had to do damage control as her ship burned down around her and plummeted out of the sky more than earned her missio causaria.

A medical discharge had no shame; it was honorable. And given our ability to heal most all wounds in time, most missio causaria were for non-physical wounds.

"Her... guarded nature could make that hard, she can be very stubborn,"

Mira shrugged. "I cannot condone breaking that part of her," for a moment her tone and demeanor shifted and she spoke in the tone of Judgment. "We can all help her and guide her, but there will be no forcing her. We are not Ziox or their ilk."

The Legates, including a Daughter of the Imperatrix nodded.

I sent reassurances to Florentina.

The duchess looked down, her tail swishing. "I tried my best with her."

Mira was back to bright, and genial. "And you succeeded wonderfully! The Imperatrix herself compliments you. And I will be taking a personal interest in Lady Luminedia Tessaris' recovery as well. From talking with her, her mate, and her family, I am confident that we can bring her peace."

The duchess bowed her horns to the Librarian. "You honor me. When I saw what had been done to Luddy..."

Mira seemed happy. "The honor is BlackSky's. Bonds of obligation must be maintained. Unfortunately, we can only give counseling and monetary remittances to the families of the pilots you lost, your Grace."

"But the Family does honor those who bled and suffered for the House," AshRain added.

I gave a stern agreement. House BlackSky had issues, our Nobility had their problems, corruption, and vainglory. And the imperial family, the Family, was so far above the rest of us... But... there at least there was the attempt of honoring promises and commitments.

Yes, the cynical part of me that came from being a long-serving Centurion knew much of it was due to realpolitik. A track record of honoring pacts, of keeping one's word was a powerful tool when it came to getting others to do what you wanted. It was useful in interpersonal relationships and among institutions.

"I know she will accept such counseling and appreciate it," I stated. "If only because it is a part of our regulations on how to deal with post-event trauma."

"Whether or not she will go with the spirit of such conversations is another matter," Florentina added.

"All we can do is give her the choice," AshRain said.

"And make sure she is cleared back for flight duty." Volantes Legate Aucto tilted her head. "Or cadet training. We are still considering her assignment after this.

"It will be helpful to get to know her," Mira so innocently stated. "She seems very interesting."

My poor cadet.

"If you had not told me she was born a demon, I would not have believed it." I stated. "Tauria in many ways acts like a turned succubus."

The House Legate put her full interest on me. "Go on?"

"She's not uncultured or unskilled in our ways. Other than some minor things. But she was raised properly. If anything she's very mentally mature for her age. Even by cadet standards. But..."

I let out some uncertainty. "There's always a little gap. If she were not a pilot I would wonder if her ability to use her horns and bond with others was... diminished."

Florentina was heartened by that. "I agree; she's obviously one of us. She's pretty, female, violent, aggressive, and capable of our magic and empathy; she's clearly a demon. Once she's fully grown she'll be a powerful succubus and an ideal of BlackSkyvian martial skill."

"An Ace at twelve," I chuckled. Her young age was exceptional, but give her a few years and it would be merely novel.

"But you have reservations?" AshRain gently inquired.

I had to shake my head. Ritual Plate Pilots were screened and watched. That was a lot of personal power given to someone who could cause a lot of damage before being subdued. And Tauria had just shown how much someone could do with an unarmed suit.

"She is odd. She has issues with ballet, not dancing or her skills, but that she is good at them, that and some other feminine things. And then there is her intensity, but unlike many arrogant, young prodigy pilots she is a stickler for procedure.."

"More of that cultural separation?" Mira asked with a little smile to herself. Thank the Imperatrix she did not elaborate further.

"Given her combat capability, this does explain her intensity." I was relieved that Tauria at least had an outlet for these tendencies. I fear what would have happened if a girl like her had not chosen to enlist into the military. That she sought special dispensation to become a cadet earlier was just more proof of that wisdom.

She belonged in Ritual Plate. I idly wondered if her suit could be repaired; if it would be made into a relic. Not a holy one, though she was raised in the Church of DarkStar...

AshRain seemed to let out a bit of tension. that a Daughter had trepidation was... well understandable. "Good, if either of you have any private concerns I will be here for the rest of today and tomorrow helping deal with the situation and observing the full reconstruction of the fight. I promise I will take your statements with full confidentiality."

She looked to the other Legates. "Barring that, it looks like My mother's, the Imperatrix's, confidence in Tauria DiamondDust's maturity and experience is fully warranted. I would like to give my personal congratulations to her."

"I'll make sure she'll be awake for that," Volantes Legate Aucto assured. "I'm sure she'll love hearing about how proud we all are of her."
I smiled. If Tauria had one sin it was that she did like status. Which, among our kind, was a venial one. And the duchess was a good patron to help smooth things out. Still getting such official recognition from the Imperial Family was bounty to help her star's rise.

Tauria DiamondDust had shown vast desire, and breathtaking talent for combat, and the House was willing to do everything it could to cultivate that talent to help her desires.


End Chapter 4

Well..... it took more buildup than expected. But.... I got out some combat, and a non-Tanya pov. There will be more of these scenes.

I felt that Tanya was a good "Watson" to help setup the basics of this world and now there's enough groundwork that we can start having more fun with other perspectives .

Such as how Artemis Magnus Quirinus and Florentina DeltaVoid have no issue stating what kind of demoness their species is.


I want to thank everyone who's commented and helped me with this project and especially to DCG, Ellf, and Green Sea for checking over this concept and reading over it.

And thanks to Kevin Hammel for going over it himself as well!

Additional: The first four chapters of this story have gone through a slight revision process. Mostly doing minor corrections for typo, grammar, and continuity.