I didn’t ask to be the Demon Queen

That anger was easy to carry with me. The further and longer we walked, the denser the fields got, with all of the indentured servitude that carried with it. For the most part, they didn’t seem to be treated badly, but that was obviously taking into account the fact that these people were second-class citizens and didn’t have their deserved rights. I wondered if Kazumi could see me fuming. When I looked over to her, her face expressed how I felt. It  was a silly little thing, but I loved her all the more for it. The fact that she was just as upset as I was proved again how amazing she was, that we agreed on something as fundamental as this.

 

As the day grew longer, we finally felt like there were getting more and more buildings between the fields, and that traffic was getting denser. The town between here and the capital hadn’t been marked on the map with a name. The first thing we saw as we got into town was a large, long building. Two Lamia were trying to look awake at the door, both wearing a collar and what appeared to be crude armor. We shot them a small glance and they made a little bit of effort to look menacing. The doors were wide open, and inside we saw what seemed to be rows of bunk beds of various shapes and sizes. Some of them had people sleeping on them, but most of them were empty. Everyone in the building seemed to be wearing a collar.

 

“Workhouse,” Kazumi spat. I mirrored her sentiment. The rest of the town, when I looked around, looked exactly like it would have in the game. Not idyllic, but rustic. Nice. People going about their business, sometimes waving at someone they recognized. Everyone either unwilling or unable to do something about the collared citizens next door, kept just out of sight. It was more than a little disgusting. 

 

This time it was Sally who urged us on, hooking her arms through ours to push us forward. I understood, on a conscious level, that there wasn’t anything we could really do. Not yet. But I felt like I had to try. I looked back at the building. A part of me wanted to take off the amulet that hid my true form and tear those doors off their hinges in a big dramatic gesture. But that would be it, of course. A dramatic gesture. Nothing more. But I had to do something. 

 

We found an inn that had free rooms. It didn’t take us very long. In a modern city, the town would have been considered the outskirts of the capital, maybe suburbs. It was separate enough still, here, to be its own village, but it was sprawling enough to have several lodgings for city folk coming or going, which is what the innkeep seemed to assume we were: rich people on their way back from the countryside, probably scared from the war. 

 

“Yeah,” Kazumi said, leaning into the lie that had been offered up on a silver platter. “Have you heard from anyone else trying to get away?” 

 

The innkeep smiled jovially. He was a small gentleman with a weathered face, the kind of person who used to spend a lot of time outdoors. “Indeed,” he said, polishing a glass, probably because that was expected of him. “A lot of northerners have come down south scared.” He leaned forward conspiratorially. “There’s rumors that the Evil Demon Queen has been spotted south of the border, you know.” 

 

“Oh really!?” Sally said with shock that was almost a little too overt. Her expression of upper-class terror was as fake as it was delightful, and I was worried for a moment it would blow our cover, but the innkeep seemed to be amused by it more than anything.

 

“Yeah. That’s why the city garrison has been doubled, and apparently half the damn army is marching south again. They say the Serpent of the North is gonna lay siege to the capital.” We looked at each other with worry. While we weren’t planning on any confrontations with a whole army, it was worrying to know that it would be a lot harder to slip into the city undetected. “But don’t worry, ladies. She can’t come all the way down here that fast. Not without anybody noticing her and her armies, eh?” He winked, as if he had been having fun scaring young noblewomen. “Now, what can I do you for?”

 

“We’re looking to get a room,” Kazumi said. 

 

“What, all three of you? We only have the one bed per room,” he said and shot us a glance, as if measuring us up. Kazumi took it in stride, however, and simply shook her head.

 

“Two rooms, then,” she said. 

 

He looked at her conspicuously. “I’m afraid we can only offer the double beds to married folk.” His eyes flitted between the three of us, trying to find a connection. I sighed.

 

“Three rooms, then.” We didn’t have a lot of money left with us -- the others had that with them, they had further to go -- but we had enough for a night for three people. Glad to see that we had folded to his view of what the world should be like, he grabbed a keychain from behind the bar and led us upstairs. Apparently he was going to show us to our rooms, as if we were children being sent to bed. Kazumi and I shared an annoyed smirk, and we both shrugged. Behind his back, we softly touched hands, and she winked. All I could think of for a short second was how much I loved her. Heck. He left us on the landing with a courteous nod and a suspicious glance. 

 

“So what now?” Sally asked, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. 

 

“The army is coming south,” Kazumi said. “Part of it, anyway. We really can not afford to waste time.”

 

I nodded. “The upside is that it reduces the likelihood of the Wydonian army crossing the Dergow. They think I snuck an army south to attack the capital. That’s gotta be worth something, right?”

 

Kazumi smiled. “That’s a good point.” She softly kissed my cheek when the innkeep downstairs wasn’t looking up. “It helps to have hope.” Sally coughed respectfully and we both smiled sheepishly at her. “Anyway,” Kazumi said. “We should see about getting some horses tomorrow. We’ll get to the capital faster that way.”

 

“With what money?” I asked. “That guy downstairs just took the last of our coin. We’ve got enough food left to last us, but we’re not renting or buying any horses any time soon.”

 

Kazumi chewed her lip thoughtfully. “We’ll have to see about that tomorrow. There might be a caravan we can join? Or maybe a coach we could hitch a ride on.”

 

We all agreed to get some sleep and went into our separate rooms, as we’d decided not to cause a scene by doing something objectionable. It also allowed me to continue the train of thought that led me all the way down to making a bad decision. I sat at the edge of my bed looking at the large window. The room was nice, if a bit small. Perfect for spending a night in before moving. But the window was easily large enough to open and climb out of. And we weren’t very far from the workhouse. I might even be able to make most of my way across the rooftops if I was careful.

 

I spent a few more minutes pretending like I was debating about what I was going to do before putting my cloak back on and switching into the darkest clothes I had. It wasn’t much, but it was something. I opened the window and put a foot on the window sill. The evening air had the soft sweet scent of harvest and decaying leaves, but the bite of coming winter. I rubbed my hands together and took a step out on the roof. It was old and dirty and my soles had enough grip for me to carefully climb out of the window. 

 

As I carefully edged across the roof, moving from chimney to chimney stack, trying to stay in the shadows cast by the bright moon overhead, I realized that this looked a lot easier in movies. In practice, I was constantly terrified of sliding all the way down, taking half of the roof with me and thundering down to the streets below, where I’d get to explain to people what I’d been doing up there. But I was already in this deep, I figured. Might as well dive all the way in. I snuck across the rooftops carefully and slowly. The building was big enough to make sure I didn’t get lost, though; I was glad for that.

 

I finally got to the roof of the workhouse. The two Lamia outside had been replaced by human guards, these without collars. I supposed it made sense for the guards at night not to be indentured themselves. That would make breakouts a little too easy. The building’s roof had a few windows and I carefully looked down one of them. The moonlight illuminated the inside slightly, and I could see all the sleeping figures. I clenched my fists, trying to stay calm. I wished I could do something, and I wondered to myself what it was that I was doing up here. 

 

That’s when I felt a hand on my shoulder and almost fell off the roof in shock. 

 

“What are you doing here?” I heard Sally hiss. I turned to her, my heart hammering in my chest, and swallowed the lump in my throat. I shook my head in disbelief. Why was she up here? Almost as if she could read my mind, she responded. “I followed you out. Why are you here?” she repeated.

 

“Did you even see this building? I had to do something!”

 

“What were you planning on doing?” she asked. I looked at her guiltily. She could tell I’d had exactly no plan when I came here.

 

“I was gonna figure something out.”

 

“Don’t worry, love,” Kazumi said from just behind Sally and both of us almost yelped. I only barely managed to bite down a scream of surprise. Kazumi had an amused smile on her face. “I’ve got you.” She took out a rope from a small satchel. I suddenly realized she was wearing a long skirt instead of her usual walking trousers. The realisation of what she was about to do hit me just as she handed me the rope and took off the amulet that kept her looking like a human. As soon as it was off, her tail, for lack of a better word, unfurled. She motioned to the window, and I nodded and carefully opened it. 

 

She hoisted herself over the edge, hanging off the rope. “I’m going to go down there. Ask around. A Lamia won’t draw as much attention as a human girl.” She paused. “Or a demonette.” She wasn’t wrong. I could pull her up quickly, too. Still, it meant I had to stay up here. But I was just glad we were doing something. And I trusted Kazumi implicitly. 

 

She slid down the rope and I was delighted to notice that, as she jumped down, her tail had been coiled around the rope. It made her look endearing for reasons I couldn’t quite put my finger on. 

 

That left Sally and myself sitting on the roof, looking out over the town, while I held the rope in my hand. With a few quick tugs, Kazumi would signal me to pull her up. Sally nudged me with her elbow. “Thank you,” she said. 

 

“What for?”

 

She shrugged. “You’ve been a good friend, even if I’m apparently risking my life for you.”

 

I couldn’t help but smile. Not that I’d ever trust a person who didn’t smile upon being called a good friend. It was one of the highest forms of praise I could conceive of. I felt myself tear up. “Of course,” I managed. 

 

“You big sap,” she said with a grin. 

 

“Listen.”

 

“What?” 

 

“Nothing,” I said with a smile. 

 

“Nerd.”

 

“Dork.”

 

“You’re the one who wants to eat mac and cheese more than anything,” she said, flashing her grin at the moon again.

 

“And apparently I could have whenever!” 

 

Sally shook her head. “You can be so dense sometimes.”

 

“I’ve been told,” I said thoughtfully. “I don’t see it.”

 

We sat in silence for a bit longer. The air was getting colder still and I blew into my hands almost habitually. The cold didn’t really hurt? It was more of a passive perception of chill. I could see my breath. Winter, as the overly dramatic were so fond of saying, was coming. 

 

“I’ll find a way to get you home,” I said. “Wherever that is. I promise.”

 

I didn’t look at her, just up at the moon and stars. I realized how glad I was I got to stay here. You didn’t get starry skies like this back in the other world. Too much light pollution. 

 

“I know,” she said softly, and I smiled to myself. That’s when I felt a tug on the rope. I looked over the edge and saw Kazumi look up at me. She nodded, and I pulled her up. I was, as I usually was, happily surprised at my strength, and she came up almost as easily as if she hadn’t been hanging off the rope. When she reached the edge of the window, she pulled herself up and put the medallion back on, and she went back to having legs. It was a little disappointing, I prefered her to be herself. None of us had had a lot of chances to be ourselves as of late. I softly kissed her as she straightened herself out. 

 

When she pulled away, I saw she wore a look of worry. “What’s wrong?”

 

“We should move on to the capital as quickly as possible,” she said. 

 

“I thought that was already the plan?” Sally asked, frowning slightly. 

 

Kazumi shook her head. “No, I mean tonight. Apparently news of the Demon Queen marching south have made its way to the workhouses, and they have ways of communicating between them from borough to borough. There’s talk of a mass revolt. They want to use the chaos of the Demon Queen’s army marching south to march with them, and overthrow the regents.”

 

“But,” I said, “there is no army marching south.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

“They’ll be slaughtered,” Sally said. 

 

Kazumi nodded. “The quicker we get to the capital and dethrone the regents, the better. The longer we wait, the closer we get to a full scale rebellion.”

 

I bit my lip. A small part of me realized that it would create an amazing distraction for the Wydonian army as it was marching south, but I quickly chided myself for it. I wasn’t going to throw other people, especially the most disenfranchised, in front of myself to keep myself safe. As Kazumi rolled up the rope and we began to make our way back toward the inn, I was still lost in thought. So lost in thought, in fact, that I lost my footing on a loose tile. To Kazumi and Sally’s credit, they’d both immediately reached to grab me, but both were too late. I was in freefall before I realized what had happened. 

 

I crashed on the street in between the two guards. Once upon a time, this would have knocked the wind out of me. I lay on the ground for a second while I waited for the pain to come, before realizing it wasn’t going to. Right. 

 

“Wh--” the guard posited eloquently.

 

“Who are you?” the other one asked, a little quicker on the uptake. “Why were you up there?”

 

They looked up and saw Sally and Kazumi’s face over the edge of the building and then back down at me. I got up frantically, holding up my hands. 

 

“I can explain,” I said, and realized that the stone that was keeping me looking like a human had slipped off my neck, because my vision had gone dark and my center of gravity shifted dramatically. When I could see again, the two guards looked up at me in terror. I tried to think of something to say to defuse the situation.

“Oh fuck.”