Alia smiled at her demon captain, feeling the aether inside her begging to be expressed, to be spoken. The pressure was unusual, reminding her of the few tis she had flown on an airplane and how her ears would pop. Although, this pressure was across her entire body and felt… nice.
“Divine healing of Aseco.”
Warmth, love, and light exploded from her body, filling the space with waves of gold and blue. Alia felt the aether pour out of her, and the atmosphere seed to hum in satisfaction as it was saturated with energy. She could sense the spell seeking out the injured demons, wanting to fix them, to make them whole again.
Inside her, Alia could faintly feel her aether reserves slightly reduce. It was of little concern though, the ridiculous base stats she’d inherited gave her a titanic amount of aether regeneration.
The last wisps of golden light dissipated, and silence filled the air. Two crimson eyes, situated under two very pretty horns were wide with shock, looking at her with an expression Alia had co rather to enjoy. Her capable captain, being so trendously capable and cool, quickly recovered.
“Put it down,” the captain's eyes flickered from her to her side, “Hillbrand,” she said softly, raising an arm.
Alia turned her head and couldn’t stop herself from twitching. Pointing at her forehead was the barrel of a firearm, held in the hand of the dical officer who had previously been glaring at her.
“What did you do!?” The demon hissed at her, eyes full of suspicion.
Alia shrugged. “What I was told. Healed them,” she said. “Mind putting that down? You could hurt soone…” She was running more than just the Ward of Thew, having stacked multiple defensive spells and cloaking them in turn. Keeping them up was only slightly slowing her aether regeneration.
Alia knew instinctively that it would take far more than a re firearm to kill her. As she was now, she suspected it was a coin flip whether she could take one of the ship's explosive shells straight on. When she was in her cell, her high perception had overheard Tos talking about shooting her, in the head no less!
It was very rude of him! Centuries of racial conflict or not, didn’t they see how awfully cute she was!? Nevertheless, it had only caused her to double her resolve, she was determined to have the captain, Tos, Dagon and the rest of the crew view her in a positive light! She loved demons! It was frustrating, if only she was in her ga character’s original body, she was sure it would be much easier.
Or… maybe not. Alia Thornheart the demonic dreadmage was more or less a demigod. Worship was sothing she definitely didn’t want!
The captain, her captain, put a palm against the firearm, pushing it gently to the side, and as she did, faint cries started to fill the room.
“I’m… I’m healed!”
“Praise the fell gods!”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore!”
“My horn… it grew back!”
“Captain,” said Hillbrand, still glaring at Alia, “that was third circle magic, like nothing I’ve ever seen. You can’t hope to keep a mage like that captive, even if it’s you.” She emphasized the last word, no doubt hinting towards the captain's ability as a Speaker.
“That’s because she isn’t a captive, not anymore. I’m hiring her, and having her work under . This human… is sympathetic to the cause.”
“Mmm, mm!” Alia nodded furiously. “Demons are aweso! I like your horns!”
“Captain!” The dical officer protested, ignoring her comnt, “There’s no such thing! She must be a church mage! A republican spy!”
“She is not. I’ve verified it with a truth-finder. The uniform is sothing we gave her, it was all we had.”
“Furthermore…” ca the now familiar voice of Anathor, speaking through the mounted head of so kind of stuffed bear, with boar-like tusks. “The ship believes in her… even likes her. She isn’t a threat, Hillbrand.”
“Captain…”
“Holster your weapon, officer.” A sharp edge took form in the captain’s voice. A mont of hesitation passed, and the dical demon finally obeyed her superior.
“The crew won’t like this…” the demon said.
“Look around, Hillbrand,” the captain said, gesturing, “they’re damn healed! They might not trust her, I don’t need them to. I need them to trust , and tolerate her. Nothing more. Can you do that?”
Hillbrand cast a look around the room. The demons that were previously minutes from dying were now moving their limbs, expressions of amazent and confusion on their faces. One demon was clenching their hand, their arm having regrown after just being amputated.
“… aye, captain. I can do that.”
“Excellent work, soldier. Now, you.” The captain faced her with a stern, but thankfully not an angry, expression. “How’s your reserves? Are you able to do… that again? There are three more treatnt rooms.”
“Yes! But, no need!” Alia piped up, flashing a smile. She was feeling a sense of euphoria, an after-effect of not just the movent of her aether, but also the feeling of being able to heal so many! The feeling of doing good.
“No need?” The crimson eyes looked confused.
“H-Hillbrand!” A group of demons, dressed similarly to the dical officer, ca pouring through the doorway.
“What was that light!? The others…”
“No need!” Alia said again, not being able to stop herself from sounding a little smug.
“I did them all!”
The captain blinked at her.
“I did the whole ship!”
“… Oh, dear…” Anathor quietly said in the background.
Alia stood awkwardly next to Serena. They were in so eting room on the first deck, and the captain had dragged in every single officer, along with most of the squad commanders.
A semicircle of six to seven-foot demons, all looking at her with suspicion. Their skin had a range of colours and hues, so demons, like Serena, were mostly pale, with subtle patterns of reds and oranges. Others were darker, with deeper grays and blacks. Their eyes were all in so range of red, orange, or yellow, although none quite as crimson as the captains.
Their horns were equally varied. So were thick and curled, like a set of ram's horns, others were straighter, like goat horns. There were single horns, pairs, and triples, and so demon’s heads had so many horns it was basically hair.
Serena explained the situation to her staff, leaving out several key bits, she made sure to emphasize how Alia was not part of the crew, and very much under her orders and control, and yes, that healing light that spread throughout the entire ship was sothing she ordered. They had agreed at appropriate tis Alia would pipe up with a quick “Yes, Lady Halen!” before zipping her mouth and keeping her eyes on the floor.
She had been told not to act like her usual cheerful self, and try and be… submissive.
Several officers had protested, most strongly amongst them was a squad commander called Korvus, which Serena had warned her about, telling her to avoid him at all costs. The room had beco heated at tis, at one point it seed she might even be attacked, but Serena spooled up her aether, leaking power and intent, and that had quietened it back down.
The captain had emphasized that as a part of her personal retinue, an attack on Alia was an attack on her, and her family. That statent had seed to cool the room even further, although the demon called Korvus never took his eyes off her.
Surprisingly, Hillbrand had supported her, despite pointing a gun in her face earlier. The dical officer gave a report on how Alia had saved the lives of more than a dozen demons, and how a further two dozen could imdiately return to work, instead of spending weeks recovering or being dismissed entirely. This prompted a short discussion amongst the officers, as they discussed how such rapid healing could open up a new range of strategies.
After that, Serena had dismissed them and led her to the deck of the ship, where a walkway lay for them to cross to the battlents of what Alia now knew as Port Highland, a location they had captured in the battle just past.
On the deck, Alia stood with her arms wide, turning on the spot, feeling the wind through her golden hair, not caring if the demons in the bridge could see her. She was outside! When had she last gone outside the hospital? To feel the wind?
“Watch yourself!” Warned Serena, as she strayed close to a gaping hole in the deck.
“Was this… that explosion from earlier?”
“Yes. There used to be a turret here. We’re patching it up now but will need to travel south, to a proper air-dock, to replace it. A month of repairs, maybe more.”
“I see…” Alia cast her eyes south, across the deck, to the open ocean of air and space that spread as far as the eye could see. Above her, she could see layers of cloud, and below her an endless field of orange, that seed to glow softly.
“That is the lumina, the foundations of the world.”
“What’s beyond it?”
“No one knows. We refer to that place as the under-sky, it’s where we deliver the bodies of the dead, so they may explore the great unknown, in our place.”
“It feels… weird. It’s not natural, is it?”
“No, it’s magical. It disrupts aether. Even a Speaker would not survive a fall into it, although the ship protects us from most of its effects.” Alia had already been made aware of one of the unique aspects of the Vengeance, its ability to sail into the lumina and not be destroyed.
Really! This ship was getting more and more mysterious! She made a ntal note to uncover its secrets in the future, should the opportunity arise.
“And the islands? How do they float?” She asked, gesturing to the enormous pieces of land that impossibly floated with seemingly no sense of propulsion.
“Tens of thousands of years of moon rain saturated the land with moon crystal, which reacts with aether to produce a lifting effect. This reaches equilibrium between the lumina at the bottom, and the lighter aether at the top, and the islands maintain a stable level, depending on their weight, and the density of crystal within their earth and rock.”
“Is that also how the ship… sails?”
“Yes,” Serena nodded. “The sa phenona, trapped and utilized by the brilliant minds of inventors and engineers. The ship has two engines, a lift engine, that uses aetheric combustion to generate lift, and a propulsion engine, which uses the sa to generate heat, to boil water into steam and drive the propellers.”
“Wow… it’s all so… so cool! We didn’t have anything like this from where I’m from. Instead, our aircraft only had a propulsion engine!”
“Oh? Then how did you sail? How did you generate lift?” Serena asked, sounding very interested.
“We didn’t call it sailing, that’s what we called ships that lived only on the water, on the seas. We called it flying. If you put large wings on a ship…” Alia punctuated this by spreading her arms, imitating the wings of a plane, “… and those wings are shaped in a certain way, and you apply enough propulsion to the aircraft, then the wings themselves generate lift just by how they hit the air!”
“Yes, I’m familiar with this, so gliders and lighter craft use that thod, although larger ships are too heavy for it, hence the lift engine.” Serena paused, seemingly thinking over so words. “Not now, but at so point in the future, I would like to discuss your old world with you. I still have so many questions, especially about your technology.”
“Mmm, sure thing!”
“Co now, let us walk.” Serena led them across the walkway. Alia had to resist closing her eyes. She wasn’t the biggest fan of heights, and she certainly didn’t want to fall into the lumina. If she did happen to fall, there were Words she could Speak that would give her flight, so she wasn’t too concerned.
Together they walked along the battlents, occasionally passing demon soldiers standing guard, while other demons seed to be examining and repairing so of the destroyed artillery. The conversation had hit a natural lull, and Alia took so ti to look over Port Highwind.
It seed to be sowhat of an industrial town, with many warehouses and storage locations. The buildings were mostly red brick, but so sections seed dominated by timber houses with whitewashed walls and clay tile rooftops. This, she figured, was the residential district and as they continued to circle the port, an area that looked to be so kind of town square or marketplace ca into view and as it did Alia couldn’t help but frown.
The occupants of the port had been penned into the town square. Alia could see soldiers bringing civilians from across the port to the central location. The humans were surrounded by demon soldiers who stood guard on the ground and the rooftops overlooking the area.
“The civilians,” intoned Serena, “and soldiers who surrendered. We can’t just let them do as they like in their own houses, planning any possible insurgencies. At least, not until a proper policing force cos in.”
“I see,” Alia said, stopping. They both watched the area for a while, the warm sun beating down upon them. “What will happen to them?”
“The soldiers will be taken as prisoners of war, and the civilians, once vetted, will be able to return to their old lives, with so restrictions.” Serena hesitated, before opening her mouth again. “If instead, I said I would execute them all, civilians and soldiers alike, what would you do?” Alia t those crimson eyes with her own.
“I’d stop you!” she said, raising and tensing her bicep.
“Oh?” Serena mused, a quizzical hint of amusing forming on her face, as she raised an eyebrow. “A Word from the healing branch of Aseco, even Spoken by a talented Speaker, is still only a Word of healing. Do you think it would be enough, to stop ?”
Alia flashed a cheeky smile. “I have so tricks up my sleeve, I think I could manage it, if I needed to.”
“Is that so?” Serena asked, “And what tricks would these be?”
“I’m not going to tell you! So don’t ask! A Speaker keeps their cards close to their chest, rember!?”
“Huh, would you look at that? The human can learn.”
“Hey! I’m very studious!”
“You still made the mistake of hinting towards the existence of further capabilities, now I’m thinking all kinds of thoughts as to what those could be,” Serena said, placing a finger on her lips, a mock expression of thoughtfulness on her face.
“Hmmrph!” Alia exclaid, crossing her arms, and turning away from her. Secretly, she was glad, glad that they could already talk this casually. Alia suspected that amongst all the demons, Serena had a much higher tolerance of humans than most.
A thought cropped up.
“Lady Halen,” She said.
“Yes?”
“Since I’ve healed all the demons, I’m going to go down and heal whatever humans I can. Would you like to co with ?”
“I… see. I will co, for until you’re better trained I fear what problems will arise if I leave you alone. Very well then.”
Together they made their way off the battlents, towards the first group of humans Alia had ever seen since coming to this world.
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