Unruly Summon Chapter 47: Ti'zharr (Patreon)

Schedule for May will remain the same as April - A Willing Victim on Mondays on discord, and An Unruly Summon on Tuesday/Friday.

"Funny how they didn't even mention Stephanie," I said as we approached a second wall, which looked very much like the first. "If they haven't heard anything about what happened in the capital, I feel that having an enslaved princess with us should have raised a serious red flag, especially given her condition."

"It's not like every guard is familiar with the faces of every member of the royal family," replied Wendy. "And as for her condition, as long as you don't start interacting with her, she simply looks like someone who fought their acclimatisation to the bitter end."

The second wall had a well-built gate that was, again, much like the first. The main difference was that the soldiers guarding it were somewhat fluffier. A demon with the head of a bear, a good eight feet tall, stood in front of it, wearing little more than a few leather plates tied to his body with straps. I wasn't great at reading the expressions of bears, but I'd say his gaze contained more interest than surprise, alarm or hostility.

"This is an interesting party," he said, directing his attention to Minoru. "I'd suspect you of being a group of our infiltrators returning home, but your tag-alongs smell human."

"That's because they are," agreed Minoru, pulling out some sort of ID. "Paw Minoru, returning from a successful diplomatic mission to Odimere. This is Thomas Smith, the summoned hero, and his party members Wendy, Mary and Stephanie."

"The summoned hero?" asked the guard. "And you just walked through the human's gate unchallenged?"

"What can I say? Their new king is a bit of a fool," grinned Minoru. "Made my job far easier."

"I know I recommended open and honest, but at this point, every time I hear you say stuff like that in front of Thomas and him not react at all, I die a little inside," sighed Wendy.

"Uh... Which part of what she just said was in any way inaccurate?" I asked.

Wendy didn't answer.

The bear-man laughed. "Well, your paperwork is in order, and to be honest, we heard the Miraculum cast half an hour ago from here, so I already had a pretty good idea of who you were. Headquarters told us to expect you, after all. That being the case, let me be the first to welcome you to the Ti'zharr Empire."

"Thanks," I replied.

"Indeed," agreed Wendy tersely, while Stephanie maintained her usual blank silence.

"Nice to meet you," said Mary, curtsying politely.

The guard raised an eyebrow at her. It didn't move far, but made up for the lack of distance with its impressive bulk. "Not the greeting I expected from a human, I must admit."

"I know I'm supposed to be cross, but thanks to the war, I met Thomas, was freed from slavery and was reunited with my parents, so perhaps it's selfish of me, but I'm quite thankful. Besides, humans have tried to kill me three times so far, and demons haven't tried to kill me once, so..."

Three times? Ah, right, the human side of this border was the third. I'd noted one of the archers had aimed at her.

The bear-man paused for a moment, before guffawing loudly. "I like you, little missy. I hope your stay here is a pleasant one."

With a loud grinding, the gate lifted upwards, letting us pass through.

"Welcome to the land of demons," said Minoru as we stepped through, ending up on a road that was very much the same as the human side, surrounded by fields that were likewise very familiar.

"Looks the same as our kingdom," said Wendy, in apparent agreement with me.

"Yeah. It pretty much is. Humans and demons have more similarities than differences, after all," agreed Minoru, before turning a hundred and eighty degrees. "I need to contact headquarters and get further instructions. The plan was originally to take you straight to our capital, but given the dragon issues..."

"You need to use our communications equipment?" asked the guard on the demons' side of the gate. He had a feline head which had dark fur but didn't scream house-cat at me. A panther, perhaps? Was it rude to ask a demon what animal they were based on? Would they even know themselves? A lot of the guards seemed to be more animalistic than Toby or Minoru. Did the animal-headed ones tend towards physical labour, while the more human ones tended towards magic? But it wasn't as if Toby skimped on physical ability. There really was far too much to learn in this place. But if I was going to start anywhere, it was going to be with Minoru's introduction. Or apparently, Paw Minoru. Was that her actual name? Some sort of honorific? It sounded... soft.

"Yes, please," answered Minoru simply.

"... You'll need to give us a few minutes to check your authorisation," he replied, ringing a bell.

In response, another demon emerged from a single-story bunker built up against the wall. The newcomer had a human face, except perhaps for a couple of prominent front teeth, but had erect rabbit ears poking straight upwards, reaching almost the height of Archbishop Alexander's hat. Fortunately, they simply bent backwards in response to such things as low doorways, and thus were rather less impractical than they might otherwise have been.

Minoru went to speak with him, while I employed a touch of body strengthening to eavesdrop. Thankfully, all I heard was a discussion about the dream-dragon and the need for orders. All perfectly above board. My time among humans had left me with serious trust issues, but given the stakes, I didn't feel my behaviour was unhealthy.

The rabbit-man returned to his cabin, and Minoru returned to us. "He just needs to contact headquarters to arrange for me to call in, shouldn't take too long."

"Then while we're waiting, what's with that Paw thing?"

"Paw? Ah, right, my title. It's... uh... a mix of rank and job, I suppose. The emperor delegates a lot of power to the fangs. The claws serve the fangs, and under them are paws, eyes, ears, maws and talons, which are the same rank but have different duties. Finally, there are the general soldiers and staff, who don't have titles."

"Huh. Weird naming scheme, but okay."

"I like it," said Mary. "Paw Minoru sounds cute."

Minoru giggled. "I think that's the point."

So her job was... probably not diplomat, as such. Would that be more of a maw thing? She was more hands-on?

Before I could enquire further, rabbit-guy re-emerged.

"That was quick," said Minoru, taking a step towards him, but he held up a hand to forestall her. "Huh? I don't have permission to speak to headquarters?"

"There's no need. The person I spoke to was already aware of the miasmic flood and draconic threat, and said that your plans should remain unchanged. They would like to reinforce that you not stay in any settlement more than one night, but I imagine you weren't planning to anyway. They also request that you cast Miraculum on each settlement you pass through, albeit with as much secrecy as you can manage."

"We can stay in proper inns?" asked Wendy. "I like this place already. Just find me one with a bath, and I'll be your friend forever."

"Wait... I can imagine being aware of the miasmic flood, but how the hell do they know about the dragon?" I asked. Yes, Minoru had been there when Alexander had given us the translation, but she hadn't had a chance to pass it on before now. If she had enchanted communications equipment on her, she wouldn't have needed to use the guards' equipment to give her report.

And why weren't the demons worried? It almost seemed like they knew more than I did. Given that Wendy had said the dream visitor could have been anything disguising itself as a dragon, I'd have been concerned about it being a demon plot, except that it wasn't all talk. There really had been a miasmic flood.

"I'm afraid I wasn't told that," answered the rabbit-man.

"It's likely Archbishop Alexander spread the knowledge to the other archbishops, and one of them informed the emperor," suggested Wendy.

"They'd do that? Or rather, the church here is linked to the one in the Ricousian Kingdom?"

"Yup. The church likes to think it's above petty politics. It has eight archbishops, two of each race, and no single leader above them. The king had already banished you, so Alexander probably didn't see any harm in spreading the warning. If a dragon is about to become active, the more preparation, the better."

"Fair enough, but why do they want us in their capital, then? Wouldn't a dragon attack there be bad? And what did he mean by plans being unchanged? What plans?"

"I'm no fang, so I wouldn't like to claim to know what they're thinking, but I do know that Bonehill—our capital—is far more distant from the closest corrupted lands than Odimere," answered Minoru, looking thoughtful. "Or at least, than Odimere used to be before you did your thing. They probably feel that they'll get sufficient warning of any assault that having you in the capital is no more dangerous than having you camp outside. And the plan is simply to have you continue to spread knowledge of Miraculum. I believe elven and dwarven delegates have been invited."

That seemed a sensible answer, but... "Bonehill? Really?"

"It's literal," answered Minoru with a little sigh that implied this wasn't the first time someone had questioned the name. "It's... well, you'll see when we get there. It was built on the corpse of the first hero."

I blinked. "Wait. Wasn't he just a normal demon, other than being divinely blessed? How can you build a city on top of his bones?"

"Ah, right, we never did give you that lesson on demons, did we?" said Wendy. "You've never seen one fighting seriously. Even Toby was only buying time, rather than actively trying to win. Maybe if you ask Minoru nicely, she'll show you."

Minoru blushed, showing obvious embarrassment for the first time since I'd met her. Given some of the things she'd done, not least going into heat and attacking Wendy with such ferocity that the mage was left with a limp that lasted all day, I was rather worried about what Wendy was talking about. Perhaps I didn't want to know...

"Please don't ask me to do that, nya," she begged. "My pink fur is completely the wrong colour for it, nya. I look ridiculous, nya!"

"Perhaps you can just explain?" I suggested. They had some ability that made them bigger? But she was worried about her fur? Did she end up covered in it? Was it an animal transformation?

"I'll give you lots of ear scritches if you show us?" suggested Mary. "And I promise not to laugh."

Minoru fidgeted, looking conflicted.

"I don't," chimed in Wendy.

"Maybe when we're away from the border gate, and there aren't so many eyes on us?" I asked. "And we've blindfolded Wendy?"

"Hey!" complained Wendy.

"I'll think about it!" exclaimed Minoru desperately before fleeing from the gate, forcing the rest of us to chase her. Behind us, I could hear multiple demons laughing, not least the echoing guffaws of the bear-man.

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"The hero has safely crossed the border," declared a feminine voice, despite its owner being alone in a locked room. The room was a simple office, containing a desk that was smothered in paperwork, a few bookcases, and, of course, the owner of the voice, sitting at the desk with her chin supported by her steepled fingers. She had no fluffy ears. In fact, she didn't have any ears at all, with nothing but barely visible pinpricks where human ears would be. Nor did she have hair. A set of green scales running up one side of her face completed her inhuman look.

"Excellent," answered another voice, reverberating from nowhere in particular. "We are thankful that we've managed to bring him within arm's reach before the Seekers could make their move, but nevertheless..."

"Nevertheless indeed," echoed a third voice. "I can understand Fang Zorzomon's point of view, that the dragon poses a greater danger than the possibility that the Seekers' plans will trigger divine intervention, and that we can protect the hero within the capital until his defeat of the draconic threat, but in this case I believe the emperor's trust in him is... mistaken. The greatest danger posed by dragons has, after all, been countered at long last. We no longer need to rely on summoned heroes for their defeat."

"On that front, I have already spoken to the archbishop of Bonehill, and proposed Minoru as a prospective saintess," said the second voice. "He was very receptive of the idea. After all, there is plenty of precedent for a saintess travelling together with a hero, while there's none whatsoever of the hero being the saintess. And should something happen to the hero... well... a desire to continue his work would only add to her saintly image."

"Good. And on the topic of that 'something', I've instructed a number of my subordinates to relocate to Vaynx, and I expect you to do the same," stated the scaled woman. "Minoru is certain to stop there for the night on the way to Bonehill, and when she does... This hero seems to be as close to a non-combatant as a hero can get. Our agents will not fail. We will remove the danger of the Seekers obtaining a hero's soul for good."

Her declaration was met with murmurs of agreement, followed by the gentle chime of the magical communications equipment as it powered down and the clandestine meeting came to a close.

"... Ignorant fools," smirked the woman, permitting herself a small chuckle before turning back to her paperwork.