Demonic Delights and Holy Cupcakes

Resistance

"General, if I'm not accepted into your legions, I'm going to apply to work for Cingetorix." The water demon stood in front of him, shoulders straight, head only slightly ducked.

Her skin was scaled and grey and she had a ring of small horns that looked almost like a crown. Her eyes looked like that of a shark, dark and fathomless, and she also shared the many rows of teeth of the aquatic creatures. She had gills and webbed digits on her hands and feet, edged in vicious, poisonous claws.

Her ears were like fans on either side of her head, and her back had poisonous spines running down it, though they were not currently visible. Baltha knew they existed and could fold flush to her spine unless she decided she needed them.

In battle, her demon armour formed around them the spines. The poison and most of the spikes were a quality of the female water demons, as the males were weaker and far less dangerous opponents. The woman had served under Urdu for a couple thousand years, had been only a little behind Dezrath in terms of rank.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Baltha frowned and glanced from the demon to the Garden washed in purples and reds of sunset, where he was waiting for the council meeting to finish. "Why?"

It wasn't the first request of the sort that he had received.

He had been fielding a flood of them in the past three months, so many that Lucifer had clarified that he was not to undermine Dezrath's legions, or there would be a veritable hell to pay. When Baltha had refused the vast majority of them, they had turned to Torix and her Laochra Síocháin. Torix couldn't accept them all, but she didn't refuse the ones she could take, even when Lucifer reiterated that he needed his legions intact.

Despite Torix's connection to the dark lord, the set of rules involving the treatment of the Laochra Síocháin meant their Cacique had to be quite careful in how he dealt with the woman he had recreated. Which had allowed Torix to push the limits of Lucifer's patience on the matter.

If Lucifer regretted his decision to do so, or his support that had put her into that position, he hadn't uttered a word about it to Baltha. Not that he did much more than growl at Baltha these days, and the fire demon could only hope that Lucifer was similarly responding to everyone and not just him. The alternative would be too painful to contemplate.

The water demon shook her head slowly. "There is nothing wrong. The Legion runs like it always has. That's what leadership is about. The General commands their leaders and their leaders look after the soldiers."

Baltha narrowed his eyes. "I know how the legions work."

"I don't trust her."

"Since when do demons trust?"

"I trusted Urdu. You trusted Urdu. She betrayed Urdu. I have watched her long before this all went down. Dezrath has power, surely. More than me. But the more I-"

Baltha took a quick step to the woman, grabbing her by the back of the neck and hauling her off to the side of the steps, more into the shadows and further away from prying eyes and ears. He kept his grip over the folded spines, preventing her from raising them as a form of defence.

His voice was a low growl as he murmured into her ear. "Lucifer has outright commanded none of us to make such open speculations about what happened. If you continue that sentence, I must silence you."

The woman watched him for a moment, as if warring with the desire to push that command and speak her mind, anyway.

Finally, she ducked her head and let out a breath that sounded almost like a sigh. "Yes, General."

"I need more than feelings and dislike." Baltha shrugged and released her, his words still low, narrowing his eyes. "Demons never trust or like one another. Urdu and I had changed that, and it worked, but not so much that lack of trust is a valid complaint in the legions. I can not action it. I only have justification to challenge her if I truly believe she is betraying our Cacique or his endeavours. Still, Cingetorix is looking for more experienced fighters to help train those on the other side of the globe. I think the competition for that closes in a few days."