The Hero Should've Known Better

Interlude 1

The Demon Lord was almost thrown back into the wall of his cell, if not for the chains that kept him restrained. His magic had backfired and shattered in front of him, rather painfully.

He had been maintaining his long-distance communication spell with his sister for so long. Even after the Heroes managed to track down all of his other communications, that was the last bit that he had kept concealed.

It seems like the gig was now up.

Lord Luth could hear footsteps coming from the hallway that his cell was adjacent to. Stepping up close enough for him to see was a young, gray-haired man. Judging from the feathers, Luth could identify him as a Harpy, of sorts.

"Hey! You been managing some long-range spell in here?" the Harpy guy asked. "You know you ain't supposed to be doing that!"

The Demon Lord heard the cell door unlocking, as the Harpy stepped into the cell. The man spun the keys, which were on a keychain, around one of his fingers.

While Lord Luth could've lunged for those keys at that very moment, he had tried something similar a few weeks ago. Those keys were enchanted to give him a particularly nasty shock if he were to touch them. Not only that but none of those keys were designed to work on his physical restraints; they were all magic-based.

"Name's Skarrol!" the Harpy exclaimed. "I'd offer my hand for a handshake, but you don't really seem in the position to do so at the moment."

Skarrol had, in his other hand, a pitcher of water and a small burlap bag slung over his shoulder.

Lord Luth stared at the Harpy for a moment, before shaking his head.

"What kind of trick is this?" the Demon Lord asked. "They sent a bird boy out to... extract information?"

"Nothing of that sort!" Skarrol exclaimed. He pocketed the keys, then held the pitcher of water out. "You wanna drink? If you're hungry, too, I got some bread. But it's not the good stuff, just the cheap rye that the guards allowed me to take."

"Right, the Healer girl asked if I was thirsty earlier."

"Well, are you?"

Lord Luth looked at Skarrol. It felt like a trick, but any avenue he could think of as to how it could be a trick came up short. He was essentially completely resistant to poisons if the water or bread was tainted like so. And, while he was certainly hungry and thirsty, that alone wasn't enough to coerce him to say anything.

"Yes, I am," the Demon Lord continued. "What are your demands? Considering you broke my spell earlier..."

"Nothin' of the sort. Here, just take it. We can talk about the spell later."

Lord Luth hesitantly took the pitcher of water and quenched his thirst with it. His parched throat felt as though it had been awash in a healing aura.

It took him less than thirty seconds to finish all the water. He lowered the pitcher from his face and wiped some water from his lip.

"Demonfolk typically prefer warm or boiled water," Lord Luth stated. He handed the empty pitcher back to Skarrol. "Regardless, I give my thanks."

"Can't forget the bread, either. I bet you're hungry."

"Yes, please."

Grabbing the bread and bringing it up to his mouth was a little awkward to do, especially with the chains that made movement cumbersome. Regardless, he managed to get some of the pan-shaped rye bread into his mouth, and bit down on it.

The bread was dry and probably stale. Lord Luth realized that he should've eaten the bread first, and then drank the water. Or, at least dipped the bread in the water, to soften it up.