Queen's Gambit Chapter 30

Draconic Fortune (Noelle)
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https://pastebin.com/nRP4AD5i
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https://pastebin.com/Z1HejS29
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https://pastebin.com/nc3Jpna3
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https://pastebin.com/ZUzduK8f
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https://pastebin.com/A3JdE5Fu
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https://pastebin.com/w7QUsyeT
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https://pastebin.com/x1cjQ1PA
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https://pastebin.com/gsutf9Xq
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https://pastebin.com/SHG9LpXu
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https://pastebin.com/Lickn82a
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https://pastebin.com/6rDfF0e2
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https://pastebin.com/iiPxkCYk
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https://pastebin.com/d6SzZFE9
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https://pastebin.com/Q3pYfAzV
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https://pastebin.com/ge6wha0s

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Draconic Fortune

Chapter 18

Friends on the other Side

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With little left to talk about, Kris' captivity became a little uneventful. It became an evened out rhythm of Axe checking on something around the house, and him using every opportunity he could to wiggle out of the ties that held him in place. Both of them didn't like being stuck here with nothing to do and nothing of value to say. And at least on Axe, it began to show when she ran out of 'poultry' sandwiches.

In hindsight, Kris would have preferred the silence over the loud knocking that interrupted it. "No way that's the Knight. Who is it now!" When she opened the door, two hulking berserkers stood on the other side, heaving from exhaustion and leaning onto the wall for support. "You two? Any news from Tempts?"

Considering how physically fit they were, they must have been running non-stop from an insane distance. "Yeah...yeah. She did the thing."

"Thi - wait , she found it?"

"Yep."

"We came here running for our lives. The other lightners tried to get in the way, but we found and released those other dragons anyway. They're like those snakes. Wild animals, all of them. They started out near a town, those townsfolk are gonna be either dead or fleeing to that other town."

That wasn't good. From the sounds of it, all hell was breaking loose and Noelle and the others were right in the middle of it. "So what about the other lightners."

She was only met with dismissal from her still stressed out visitors. "Hell if I know, we've been on the run ever since that happened. They were burning down the town when we left. They can fly and they're spreading everywhere. But I think we shook 'em now." Relieved over it as though it had only just occurred to her, the berserkers walked inside.

Their faces lit up when they saw Axe's captive. "Oh right! For a while there I forgot we got this guy." When the barbarian girls came closer, Axe made sure to follow them quickly and stand roughly between them and Kris.

He made sure not to show any emotion whatsoever, but used his feet to slowly back away from them. They picked up on it though and sure enough, one of them tipped his chair over with a kick and rested her foot on his chestplate. "Door's closed, we're all shacked up here and got him all to ourselves. Think of all the stuff we could do with him now."

Axe pushed them away. "No-one's 'doing stuff' with him until the Knight comes. We've got our orders. We've got him pinned so no-one's touching the human at this point."

One of the bigger dragon girls narrowed her eyes, tilted her head slightly and raised her finger at Axe. "Yeah, about that. Temptress actually said to kill'im. I mean we don't have to, she's gone a bit - coo-coo." She pointed one finger to her own head, spun it around and mimicked the sound of a cuckoo clock. "But it does mean we can do whatever we want with him. If the Knight asks what happened, we just say we tried to kill him like Temptress said and failed. That way neither of both can be mad at us."

Axe neither sounded nor looked particularly convinced of their idea. "Yeah, how about we don't do that and just stick to this: We keep him here. No-one touches the human, end of story."

A stare-off between the berserkers and Axe followed, in which neither made a move, but both sides seemed to consider a physical fight from the looks of it. In the end, the berserkers backed off, even if they didn't refrain from voicing their discontent. Even after they had left and slammed the door shut behind them, Axe paused.

She remained as tense as she was when they visited and stared at the door for some time before she sighed and went up to one of the windows to check if they were still there. When she was sure that they weren't, she pulled his chair back up and sat down at the table. He didn't pay attention to her, but he was startled when she rose her voice out of nowhere. "Hey! What're you looking at?" Not her for a start. He was looking out the window. At least as little as the angle he was sitting from allowed.

He didn't say anyting. And despite that, she continued talking to him. "Stop looking like that! What's wrong? Are you that worried about the other lightner?"

Slowly, he traced his gaze along the wall to her. "Yes?"

The groaned and sat back with her arms folded up. "Dude, she's gonna be fine. You were dropped in the ocean - lived through that - goody-two-shoes sent a big flood and a whole lot of other stuff - you lived through that, and now she's been through a plane crash and still kicking. A few dragons aren't gonna kill her."

"I was there with all that other stuff."

"Still." Kris said nothing. He held onto the knowledge that he could always go back to before they boarded the 'Chariot' to begin with. Axe on the other hand was increasingly restless. She began shuffling around. Shifting about on her chair in hopes of getting in a more comfortable position.

For quite some time, the only thing Kris could hear in this otherwise silent building, was just that. The sounds of this darkner shuffling around and Susie's voice occasionally grumbling. Eventually she let out an audibly upset groan. "Okay, fine, be that way. We'll follow your friends north. That's where they'll be going. But you're not free to go wherever."

He was mostly confused about her sudden change of heart. "I didn't even say anything."

"You - " She stopped and looked away for a moment. "It's not just you it's - if there's flying dragons spreading out and setting stuff on fire, maybe keeping you in a wooden house isn't such a good idea."

That only brought up more questions in his mind. For instance: "Didn't you plan on freeing those elder dragons from the start?"

"Well - trying, duh, but I didn't think she'd actually find them. I thought Tempts would just look for them, not find them and then calm down and go back to what the Knight said to do. Instead it sounds more like she's more out there than I thought." She got up and began untying him from the chair. That was, excluding his wrists which she tied together again. She cut off enough rope to have a bit of a leash to hold him by.

Then she picked up her scythe, gave him his bag back and led him outside. "If Tempts said to kill you, then we've got big dragons setting stuff on fire on one side, and the other girls being sent to take you out on the other. Don't think any of them are actually gonna try to do it, but it's better to be on the safe side. This house - it's made of wood and it's the exact place every succubus is gonna go to when looking for you. It's safer if we're on the move and I just keep an eye on you on the way. Plus, you get to chase after antler-girl. That's what you want, right?"

Well, yes. But at this point he was pretty sure he was going to turn things back to before they got on the plane either way. But if there was a chance that he wouldn't have to, he couldn't reject this opportunity. He was taken by surprise all over again when he was dragged into the cold outside. For the first few minutes, it was a relaxing walk through the blue grass. Along the coast towards what Kris assumed was the north.

Then they took a clear turn to the left. Not completely, but enough to alter their course drastically, and it was accompanied by Axe speeding up their pace to a tense march. Where were they going? He wasn't so sure any more. But it was clear that she had some path or destination in mind. The widely uneven hills of the Kingdom of Heaven obscured most of the things that lay far in the north. But the further they went, the more of the middle or lower parts of that enormous tower in the distance Kris could see and the more aware he became of how tall it actually was.

They must have marched for more than a few miles by the time Axe stopped. When she did, it was sudden and out of nowhere, and for a solid ten seconds, she neither turned around nor said anything. "We're being followed. Come on, let's hurry. It's not far anymore." So there was some destination they were headed for. Sure enough not long later, he actually saw it. A little patch of land flattened to make way for a little free area to walk around, in front of a large barn with all its hatches and windows closed.

Unlike what was envisioned when it was drawn though, it stood alone. It was just a barn in the middle of the empty grassland. No homestead, no farm, nothing around it. "There we are." With him in tow, she carefully approached the building from the side. They snuck along the wall to then jump out to face the dark interior head-on, along with whatever or whoever was inside it. "False alarm." It was empty. No-one was here. There weren't even any animals in the enclosures, just piles of hay.

Even searching the hay to be sure they weren't camouflage revealed that they were just that, piles of hay. "I'd say that makes for a better hideout. As long as we stay near the exit, any elder dragons won't be more of a problem than in the other place."

From here on in, they stayed right beneath the front entrance. With Axe peeking around the corner to where they were coming from. She was convinced they were being followed for some reason. Strangely enough, it turned out she was right. Kris eventually saw someone running towards them. It was one of the two Berserkers from earlier and when she made it to the earthen patch where the grass ended, she stopped and collapsed onto her knees.

Visibly exhausted from running ridiculous stretches. Her hair was messy and her face had an expression that he didn't expect or recognize as one of Susie's. He did remember Susie looking like that from time to time, but very rarely and he wasn't sure what the context each time was. "Come - come out! I know you're there somewhere!" Still holding the leash, Axe stepped outside. "Hand over the human!"

"I said it before. No-one touches the human."

"We've got to take him out!"

"Out of the question. 'zerks always come in pairs. Where's your partner?"

"Temptress isn't playing around! She killed her. She killed her and she's not bringing her back. And if I don't take him out, I'm next! It's him or me! She's gonna kill all of us if we don't."

"The Knight moves way faster and is much more powerful than her. If we so much as scratch him, there'll be no place we can hide."

It was fear. The Berserker was disturbed and terrified of what she saw happen to the other one. With shaky hands, she raised her broadsword. "I'm going to take my chances!" She attacked Axe, who brought up the upper side of her scythe to push away the sword by its guard. With a concise kick to the stomach, she pushed the Berserker back. While her opponent was still staggered, she brought down her scythe with the pointy end aimed right at the hulk's right shoulder and buried its tip into the Berserker's side.

But she didn't bury it too deeply, and within a moment's notice, the Berserker reached for the scythe, pulled it out, ripped it out of Axe's grip and threw it away. When it slipped out of her hand, so did the rope holding Kris. His chance to run away. But that Berserker was out to kill Axe - and him. And she was clearly stronger than Axe.

With a single punch to her snout, she sent Axe stumbling backwards several steps. And as expected, the very next thing she did with this window of opportunity, was to raise her sword with both hands and strike down at her. Carving through Axe's jacket and deep into her side. Kris dashed past the Berserker, summoned his sword, rammed it into the back of one of the hulking dragon's legs and used it as a stepping stone to jump up at her. He used the right side of her neck as leverage to hold onto her.

He dispelled his sword, summoned it back into his hands and pressed it against the dragon's throat. When she reached for him, he raised his feet to push himself back and away from her as strongly as he could, digging deeper and deeper into her neck as he did.

She managed to grab hold of one of his arms, but not for long enough before she passed out. Slitting someone's throat open so deeply would have been fatal for a human in the light world. The blood loss alone would have been too much. No wonder that she lost consciousness.

Strangely enough, Axe had fallen onto the ground, but she was still conscious. It took her a while to register what had just happened. "You're still here and you - " She had to take a moment to wipe the blood off the nostril the 'zerk had struck. "Sheesh. I didn't think you'd have that in you."

She tried getting up, but the blood loss from that wound she had in her shoulder had weakened her too much. Kris tried to help her up, but he wasn't as tall as her, so this could only go so far. "Look, dude. You don't have to do this. You can run away if you want. Your friends are likely gonna be on their way to Carpentown. That's thataway." She pointed in a direction opposite from the one they came here from. Presumably north.

He wasn't so sure about it. Her voice had turned more hoarse and he could hear her having trouble breathing. He tried to lead her inside the barn, but she pulled the other way. "Nope. If she gets up, she's gonna go for it right again." They went to pick up her scythe and then went to the the motionless Berserker.

First, she cut open the ties holding Kris' hands together. Then she began slashing the other dragon's throat again and again until her head was off. She just wanted to be sure that the Berserker was dead and wouldn't soon get up to kill them again. After that, he carried her inside the barn and didn't stop until he was in position to drop her onto a haystack.

"You can go. Join your friends. Leave me here." Every time she spoke, she sounded weaker.

He froze in place. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." She wasn't even keeping her eyes open anymore.

"You don't sound fine."

"Yeah, sure. As if you could tell." He opened his bag to offer her some of one of his chocolate cakes. "Nah thanks. I don't like chocolate anyway."

"It would help."

"Us darkners can recover from a lot. But you know what? It can't hurt." The moment she put it in her mouth she winced. "Aww, disgusting. But hey, thanks. Now off you go." He didn't move. "What?"

"Are you sure I can just leave you like this?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine, just go."

"You know, you could come with me"

She winced due to a sudden surge of pain. Covering the wound on her shoulder didn't really work to stop the blood loss. "And why would I do that?"

"So you could - you know the Knight and Temptress are giving you opposite orders. If you still follow the Knight, I think he'd want you to help stop her."

Axe stared at him with her eyes closing almost all the way. "Wait a second, since when do you care what the Knight wants? I don't know what you're really on about."

"I really wanted to take you along."

Axe sighed. "Okay, sure. Here's the deal. I'll get better. And when I do, I'll catch up and join you. How about that?"

For a moment, he pushed the gate aside, but then he stopped and turned to her again. "I don't think that's going to work. Even if you show up, I won't know it's you."

"Why?"

"There's a lot of Grunts, that's because I've drawn regular Susie a lot. But I've only made one 'Berserker' drawing and there's a lot of them anyway. And the same goes for 'Mistress' and there's at least two of those as well. So one drawing in the light world can mean several Susies of that type. What if you're the same? What if there's more than one 'Axe'?"

Axe rolled her eyes. "No, there's just one of me."

"You don't know that. Maybe you just never met the others."

"Even if, what do you plan on doing about that?"

"If we meet again, I have no way of knowing it's you."

"Even if there was more of 'me', what difference would it make if it's me or another one?" He said nothing in response to it. He just rummaged through his bag until he found what he was looking for. The white ribbon that was replaced with that Christmas hat they got for Noelle was still in his bag. "The hell's that supposed to be?" He bound it into a neat bow and then came closer to Axe to bind it to a lock of her hair. "The fuck do you think you're doing? What is this?"

"Now I'll know it's you when I see you again." Axe brought the ribbon closer to one of her eyes to see what exactly it was he attached to her hair. He didn't make it far out before he turned back again though. "You will follow me, right?"

"Of course. It's my job, remember?"

"Is it a promise?"

"Pinky swear, now go! Join your friends. Who knows what's up in that other town."

Even now, he was a little anxious to just leave her like this. But this time, he did. He made his way north, until he could see the lighted buildings in the distance and followed them from there.

When she was sure that he was gone, Axe sighed with relief, rolled over and relaxed. She was bluffing. The wound itself wasn't going to kill her, but even if they had hidden the 'zerk's body, any other succubi that came through here were inevitably going to figure out roughly what had happened and finish her off. She wasn't afraid of what the Knight would do to her for letting Kris escape, because as far as she could tell, she was going to die here long before his arrival.

But after what that crazy bitch Temptress betrayed her and the Knight like this, the least she could do to get back at her was to let the human loose and hope he'd give Temptress some payback by denying her this throne she was after. After all, it wasn't like she could stop him in her state if he wanted to go.

At least from beyond the grave, through him, she could have some form of revenge.

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Noelle and the others didn't know what to do. For as long as this town had existed, it had always relied on the Dragonborn for protection in the event of the elder dragons breaking out. But the Dragonborn was no more and the swarm of dragons in the distance wasn't going to get any smaller. "Come on! move, we have to evacuate this place!" Dasher tried to rally all the inhabitants to get them to gather on the northern side.

The emperor and his subjects had little investment in this place, so they followed without an issue. But the townsfolk that had always been here wasn't so cooperative. Many had reservations. "We can't just up and leave everything." one of the monster-looking darkners countered. "This is all we have. We leave it behind, we have nothing."

"Then carry what you can, but if you don't leave the rest behind, you will lose it along with your lives when the dragons arrive."

"Why don't you just say goodbye to everything you have to your name then!"

After spreading out one more time to cover more ground, Noelle, Dasher and Ralsei gathered again. "It's no use, they won't go." They've been trying to get the townsfolk to move several times now. To no avail.

This time though, a goatman came running their way along the main road from the north of town. "Dasher! The Emperor requests that you three come to our rally point at once!"

They followed him, but he didn't lead them to the emperor. Instead, he led them right past all the troops and workers waiting to escort the locals. North of the rally point, past all the acres, on the untouched blue grass, a single figure awaited them in the distance. In the middle of the windy fields, a familiar black Boss Monster, completely undressed exempting the white bow tie attached to his neck, sat upon a throne covered by a white cloth.

With a grin on his face, Donatien Alphonse, also known the Sinwielder rested his head on his right hand, supporting himself on the right lean of his throne. And watched the three of them come closer.

The page left the heroes half-way through. And as soon as they were in hearing range, the devil spoke up. "If it isn't the lightners - or should I say, the girl with antlers and what little is left of the heroes?"

Given the situation, the archer had little patience for the devil's antics. "We don't have any time to spare."

"Oh, Dashieboy. Do you have to make things so dramatic? Don't pretend like you're going anywhere right now."

"Even if, if you came all the way out here, you did so for a reason."

"I have no need to take this accusatory tone from you. Can't a concerned man check on his patients once in a while?"

"Not if it means crossing an ocean for no other reason."

The devil shrugged. "Fair point. I chanced an empty guess that you would run into trouble sooner or later, and it appears I was right. Our friends already filled me in. The unwillingness to part with one's material belongings. I didn't expect greed to be what a settlement so in tune with nature ultimately falls victim to. But alas, if they refuse to move, let them burn."

"You know we can't just leave them to die."

The smooth, calculated gestures and that neverending smile gave Noelle the impression that Donnie was enjoying this. "Ah ah ah, you want to live. You should take that and be happy with it. But no, you want more. You want to have your cake and eat it too. You want to survive AND bring along these strangers. But you see, you lack the means. This puts you in a weak position. Concessions will have to be made for you to get what you desire."

"What do you want?"

Noelle didn't believe the grin on the devil's face could get any wider, but it did. "Now you're asking the right questions." Donnie sat up properly, and in a slow and elaborate motion, kept his elbow on his right lean, but turned it upright and finally snipped his fingers. When he did, fires broke out behind him in an enormous, but even pattern.

When the fires stopped a few seconds later, they left behind ten long rows of chariots, large and all equipped with well-kept horses in perfect condition to pull their respective chariots and carts and then some. And around and behind them, more fires broke out only to vanish and leave behind more chariots and more horses.

By the end of it, the Sinwielder answered: "I offer you a chariot for every household, and for every three or four of our own men. And another four for our Emperor, his entourage and you."

"And what do you want in return?"

The devil clapped his hands. When he did, his throne took it as its cue to shift about and turn into a little couch so he could lean down sideways across its width. "Oh nothing major. It is completely free. I just want two things. One: I get to say what path to Carpentown we take. Two: Me and the lightner girl get to talk to each other for the full duration of our trip."

Dasher was standing closer to the Sinwielder, and looked back at Noelle to check for her reaction. "I - uhm."

Before he had any chance to make a decision on Noelle's behalf, he was cut off. "BUT - BUT - you must understand. By its nature, this is a deal only she can make."

She wasn't so sure about this. It seemed a little too good to be true. What exactly did he plan to talk about? Then again, he was an eccentric man, and she was the only girl in the group, maybe he was just lonely. But last time they trusted him, he lured them into an ambush. "This...this is a trick isn't it? You're not going to take us there are you?"

"Of course I will." He leaned forward and offered her a handshake. "We get to talk, and in exchange, you get all these chariots, and will all be delivered to carpentown. Alive and well. You will all arrive in one piece. That is part of the agreement."

She looked to Dasher for assurance one more time. "He's serious about his deals. If he agrees on a condition as part of a deal, he will honor it."

All right. Something about this deal scared her. It terrified her. She just knew there had to be some catch. She could feel it. She really didn't feel like touching that black hand with a ten foot pole. But to save those townspeople, she had to make it. She tensed up and braced herself. She just had to rip that band aid off so they could get away from here fast enough. She reached out and before she knew what was happening, it was already over. "Very nice."

He clapped his hands and got up. The cloth covering the sofa threw itself off, and as expected, it was a group of human women that wore as little as he did. Like before, instead of a bow tie, their sole 'article of clothing' was a mirror each of them had strapped to her body.

His servants broke formation and climbed to the fronts of a few chariots in groups of two. They led them past the three of them and came back with a huge crowd in tow. Goatfolk, Ironfolk, the Emperor, everyone. And now, the monsters that lived here were coming along heavily loaded with their belongings as well.

Soon everyone had their places on the many carriages set. The emperor was given a special, golden riksha steered by a human with blue skin. As per their deal, Dasher and Ralsei got to share a carriage not far off, but Noelle was to take a seat alone on one of the open air carriages with Sinwielder. The only other two people on it were two of his concubines who were busy steering it.

"So what did you want to talk to me about, actually?"

"Oh, anything and everything. Whatever may be on your mind. How has the dark world been treating you?"

Her fear of what he could have been up to still made this awkward, but already now he was making her laugh. "I wouldn't even know where to start. It...I was completely overwhelmed. I mean Kris helped me understand how it worked, but it was a little much to take in. All these strange places I've never seen and yet, so many of them felt familiar."

"Does this seem familiar?"

"What?"

"You and me, talking? You telling me about your life?"

She wasn't sure what he was getting at and raised an eyebrow. "No?"

The devil shrugged it off as if he had half expected this answer. "Oh don't worry. Do go on."

"So getting through wasn't always easy. There's the dragons of course...it took a long time to get used to how they all look like Susie - A classmate of ours. I was really disappointed in - in Kris. To think that we spent so much time together, and yet he never told me about all of this. I thought he trusted me. Oh goodness...now that I think about it. When I asked him all of these things about Susie...I trusted him. I didn't make any efforts to - I mean..."

"Mean what?"

"Nevermind. I -" She got careless and almost said something she felt she would regret. Something about him just tickled the words out of you.

When she looked up from the wooden platform they had their feet on, she found this black Asriel-lookalike looking at her. With a stare that dug through her eyes, deep into her soul. "Go on. Mean what?"

She couldn't help but notice the cold tone in his voice and the sudden absence of motion in him. She shuffled off to the side to gain a little distance from him. "I mean...it's..." She paused and pulled her legs in to retreat as much into her robe as she could. "

"When you asked him about Susie, you didn't make any efforts to - what? I fail to make any rhyme or reason of this, but am eager to do so."

The more she felt tempted to answer, the more a crippling anxiousness clasped at her chest from the inside. She tried to tell him, but only a gulp came out the first time round. So she tried going about this a little slower. "I don't think he'd - can you keep a secret?"

"Sure. You are not beyond hope like us, so confidentiality applies. Everything you and I say - or do - will be strictly between us."

She was terrified to talk about this. She didn't ever back at home. Not with anyone other than her dad and maybe Kris. But she also remembered something Kris said early on: What happened in the dark world, stayed in the dark world. As long as this person didn't immediately run to Kris to tell him what she basically already told him, no-one would know. That thought was what she could latch onto. She focused it and after pulling herself together one more time, she leaned closer and whispered it to him: "I like Susie."

"Like as in..."

"...yes..."

"Ah, I see how it is. I sort of expected something like this."

"That's - I told Kris, more or less. The kinds of things I told and asked him - any other person would know. I didn't try to hide it from him. So he knows. He was so talkative all of a sudden, too. But if all these Susies are drawings he spent time looking at her and - oh god...what does he think of me now?"

"Not very nice things - is my guess."

"Hey! Don't be so judgmental."

The devil had to giggle so much, it completely broke his stance. "Ah, darling, the only people so eager to discourage judgment, are those who have already deemed themselves guilty."

"I mean - I'd be the last person that needs to be judged. This Ralsei person that follows Kris everywhere isn't any better. Kris was always a bit difficult, but whatever is going on with those Susies isn't normal. And there must have been something Dasher could do to keep Temptress."

The Sinwielder wagged his finger at her. "Ah, ah, ah. You never saw them interact when they were still an item, you have no frame of reference. You, young lady, are projecting. What I want to know is: What from? Go back to that very thing you said: 'There must have been something Dasher could do to keep Temptress.' What exactly did you have in mind?"

"It's - uh - " She wasn't sure what to say.

"Well?"

"It doesn't matter. It's in the past."

She avoided looking at him, but the devil just bent to the side to reach back into her field of view. "Is it in the past, or are you trying to put something behind you that doesn't belong behind you? Does it need to be behind you in the first place? Or is it merely the uncertainty that you find uncomfortable?"

She didn't want to look him in the eye, she tried to look away. But he made great efforts to maintain eye contact. And after a few moments of silence and this uncomfortable back and forth, the sinwielder pointed his finger right at her. "Ah, there it is. That look I was expecting. That knowing look of guilt, mixed with resentment towards whichever rule or convention you're breaking."

She twitched at hearing that. She couldn't withhold the frown it put on her face. "Those are old rules anyway." And this time, she looked so far off to the side, the devil couldn't just wind himself sideways to follow her eyes. "Who needs them?"

Sinwielder raised that finger and wagged it at her. And shook his head in the same motion. "Oh, not so aloof, young lady. Lighty-lighty-lighty-lighty-lightners. You never ask the right questions, do you?" She really didn't want to talk to him at this point, so she tugged at the outside layer of her robe to wrap it more tightly around herself.

"Those pesky 'old rules', why exactly are they old? Were they invented just a few decades ago and foist upon you by mere chance? Or could it be more than mere chance? What if all ideas have been had before, and the 'old' ones, are the good ones, because people who live by them, last. What if other ideas had been around for a long time, but are merely not 'old' in the sense that they always perished not long after being conceived?"

And he kept hammering on about it. It made her downright angry. "What are you trying to say anyway?"

"I'm saying that there is merit to those pesky little rules. Forego morality. Abiding them is nothing less than good decisionmaking. You don't abide them to serve a higher order. You do it to make the higher order serve you. Think of it less of a pastor reading his scripture, more of a friend, telling you not to jump off a cliff. Of course, if you want to ignore your friend's warnings and do it, no-one can stop you. But chances are, there were others before you who had similar ideas, and you don't know about them for a very. Good. Reason. Those who stayed away from the cliff survived and lived on to make not jumping a tradition, whereas those who jumped, were lost and forgotten."

Now, he leaned back and tilted his head, giving her a dismissive look. "In the end, if you want to hold yourself back by escaping into short-term indulgences, I won't stop you. All I offer, is a chance at a little introspection." He clapped his hands and spoke up to signal that he was referring to one of the women steering their carriage. "Lust! Mirror please." The concubine on the left loosened the band holding in place the only object that covered her back.

With a proud smile, the devil presented the mirror to Noelle. "Why don't you take a look?" She did. But she didn't see anything special in it. It was just herself, with her unusual colour and her hat in place as it was supposed to be. "What do you see?"

"Nothing special."

That appeared to surprise Donnie. He inspected it and then handed it back to its owner. "Hm...all right. Not entirely unexpected." He clapped his hands again. "Pride. Mirror please." The other woman handed him her mirror and he had Noelle look into it as well. "What do you see?"

"It's just me."

The startled Boss Monster raised his eyebrows. "What? Well this is...not lust, not pride...oh no. Oh you are one messed up little girl aren't you?" He turned around and tipped at the two women in the front. He gestured to their left and they followed suit. They steered the horses to another carriage. There, the Sinwielder requested one more mirror. "Sloth, mirror please. Now then. Take a deep look in this mirror. Do you see anything...unusual?"

For a moment, she thought she saw her own eyes flash up within the mirror, so she grabbed it by herself to look more closely. All she could look at, was her own, clueless, dumbstruck-looking face. What was she even doing? Wandering about lacking all confidence to think things through? No wonder Kris of all people had to take charge and look after her for so long. But now he was gone and she had to learn to think for herself.

So many things were so clear to her all of a sudden, the moment she looked into that mirror.