Newly Summoned Demoness 2 - Chapter 10 – Golden Dreams (Patreon)

The clatter of cutlery against plates filled the cleaned off worktable used as a dining spot as Elania and Yolani sat down to eat. The savory scent of the fried ham mixed with the appealing sight of the still steaming potatoes. She sliced a piece of butter and slathered it on them.

The milk was slightly more questionable—she had never drunk milk back on Earth much, but the [Ralfot] milk that came from the city’s large stables was delivered everywhere. It was thick and creamy and… very fresh.

Thankfully, her hydration was provided for by [Power] innately. Technically, the meal was sort of a waste of food, since it really wouldn’t sustain her much. She wasn’t sure how much, but it did lowered her maintenance requirements just a bit.

The morale factor of being able to eat something tasty, together with Yolani, couldn’t be understated though.

She just had to watch out for accidentally sneaking into the cold box and eating raw steaks when Yolani wasn’t looking.

They ate mostly in silence at first, the quiet only broken by the occasional satisfied sigh or the clink of their jars and cutlery. It wasn’t until they were mostly done that Yolani finally spoke up, her voice tinged with curiosity and concern.

“What do you think they want you for at the Magistry, with the Celestial Engine?” Yolani asked all of the sudden.

Elania blinked, then chewed thoughtfully for a moment before replying. “I guess it has something to do with the aftereffects of when I fell into it. Maybe they want to know if I remember anything? Or maybe they want to know more about how it changed me. Physically,” she added, setting down her food and leaning back in her chair.

Yolani nodded, her gaze intensifying slightly. “Have you remembered anything else about it? Any new details?”

A grunt escaped Elania as she shook her head, frustration knitting her brows together. “Just weird dreams about floating in a golden cloud, feeling warm and fuzzy. Nothing concrete, nothing about when… the engine possessed me and flying around like a gold angelic warrior thing.”

Yolani reached across the table, her touch gentle on Elania’s hand. “It’s okay. It was a traumatic experience. For everyone involved. I don’t think anyone ever came out of it before, so we can just be thankful for… to Eziel for getting you out of it.”

Elania’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know. I still can’t put together Eziel’s… well… it tried to convince me to jump in alone in the first place. Making sure I didn’t get digested in some magical divine machine seems like the least he could have done.”

“True. I don’t think the Paladin Anton was thrilled when he left either,” Yolani said. “Probably best if we avoid him and the Lightbringers in the future.”

Elania frowned. “I didn’t think they were very common in the city?”

Yolani nodded. “That’s right, but sometimes they come down the main shaft from the surface. They don’t like that the city uses demonology and artifice to maintain itself.”

Elania bit her lip and nodded. “How are things going with the shop?” she asked, hoping to focus on something less stressful and more tangible… and within their control. It was a dumb question. She already knew how things were going, having been deeply involved in just about every step.

Still, Yolani seemed to understand the need to switch topics and smiled softly. “We’re doing well. We’ve had a lot of orders for smaller items come in, and now the large contract with the city guard should easily cover a month’s expenses. Our war chest hasn’t really gone down any, either. We have the six mana shards, plus three hundred some large golds stashed. It’s a good thing we have the warding repaired; I was starting to get nervous about having too much stuff unprotected…”

Elania listened carefully, her mind rolling over the other girl’s summary of things. Everything was, essentially, going extremely well as could be hoped. It cast the bumps and traumas from the day in stark contrast.

The conversation shifted to mundane things, inventory, plans for the shock crystal charging, what Elania knew about electricity, and weapon ideas. It felt a bit surreal to be describing artillery, bombs, mines, and other warfare stuff. And scary. Actually, maybe it was a bad idea?

Then again, there were already people walking around that could effectively create a magical disaster just by existing. She was one of them.

The idea of a hydropower plant that could reduce the [Power] consumption…and reliance on mana shards was something she could get fully behind though.

Plus…

Seeing Yolani’s face light up in excitement as she explained ‘weird’ Earth-things made her feel good. Even if she didn’t really have any concrete goals, at least she had a… utility?

The evening wore on quickly, exhaustion setting in rapidly after their plates were cleared. Elania felt like she could see her own weariness mirrored in the other girl’s eyes.

“Maybe turning in early would be a good idea,” Elania offered.

Yolani nodded, and they moved through their nightly routines in companionable silence, each lost in their own thoughts about the day’s events.

The second bedroom that held Yolani’s father’s things was still a no-go zone, but the novelty of sharing the bedroom, and bed, with the other girl had worn off. Apparently, it wasn’t uncommon in Neftasu for masters to share their beds with their servants—in a wholly platonic and non-sexual way.

Elania hurried and slid into the bed first, turning onto her side to put her back towards the other side of the bed. Her back was the safest thing to point in that direction since it hid her face, and Yolani, from view.

Sometimes entire families would all sleep in the same giant bed. It was much rarer for a household to have multiple bedrooms like the artifice shop had unless they were very wealthy.

It was certainly a surreal experience, and Elania wasn’t sure she would ever get used to Yolani’s random wild sleeping or snoring. But she did her best to treat it like what it was, and not what she wanted it to be.

Yolani wasn’t far behind her and offered a friendly goodnight.

“Goodnight,” Elania replied quietly.

They’d done the same thing ever since the shop had been repaired to a livable state. It wasn’t long before Yolani’s breathing deepened into the steady rhythm of sleep. Elania envied her that quick ability to fall asleep, even as she appreciated her friend’s presence at her back.

Elania closed her eyes, willing sleep to come. She didn’t have to wait long, the events of the day catching up with her finally.

**

The cavern dripped, creating small sounds that echoed far into distance tunnels. Elania’s ears switched slightly, rotating like little radars as she napped on a comfortable rock. The cool cave air was otherwise still, with no hint of a breeze or blow that sometimes appeared.

A clopping noise whispered its way to her, and she slowly rose onto her paws. Her keen hearing zeroed in the direction and from her memory, she picked out the sound’s location. A few more of the noises gave her a good idea of what it was as well: a small herd of cave [Ralfot].

She jumped from her rock and began to pad her way to them. It was time to hunt.

The location wasn’t far—it was a familiar place with a small pond. Her natural stealth allowed her to find a perfect vantage point on an outcropping that gave her a complete view of the herd. It contained a bull and three large females, all plump with young. Three older calves also drank at the pond’s edge.

She watched.

The bull was large, and likely strong. He would defend his herd.

She did not feel hungry, and she enjoyed watching the beasts go about with their lives, unaware of her.

Elania blinked. The realization that she was dreaming hit her.

And she was definitely in her [Darkwalker] form again.

The realization was weird. If it was a dream, couldn’t she do what she wanted?

Without thinking about it too hard, she was suddenly floating. Yes! She could fly!

A frantic cry from the Ralfots erupted almost immediately as they spotted her. She let out a laugh and floated over top of them as they formed a stampede and ran from the cave. She chased them a little. Not really intending to hunt them, but just as play.

Once they made it out of the cave, she turned and let them go before landing back down on the stony cavern floor. A sudden surge of anger and confusion hit her in the chest.

The prey escaped!

Her vision doubled and a suddenly painful sensation caused her to stagger. Pain. How could she have pain in a dream?

She raised up off her feet and brushed her trousers off with her hands while biting her lip in confusion.

Hands? She blinked as she looked at herself. She was wearing her normal outfit, plus she was distinctly human again.

A low growl from behind caused her to whirl about.

Two yellow feline eyes stared at her from chest height, set on the head of a massive [Darkwalker]. Its claws dug into the stone, and it leaned forward with a second low growl.

Elania blinked. Her claws. The [Darkwalker] was her. “We aren’t hungry. We didn’t need to hunt,” she replied quietly.

There was another growl, but instead of feeling fear, Elania reached forward and stroked the Darkwalker’s cheek fur. It went still but didn’t attack. Then she began to rub the back of its neck and behind its ears with both hands.

It sat and purred, so she gave it more strokes and petting, until finally it stood up and nipped her on the arm, flinging her onto its back.

Then they took off, romping through the caves. Elania couldn’t hold back her laughs even as she clung to the fur to hold on.

They went far.

Too far.

They reached a cliff overlooking a giant golden machine that filled the gigantic cavern full of soft, glowing light. Before she could consider anything, her [Darkwalker] self-jumped into its maw.

She fell off her [Darkwalker] self’s back, and it flipped around to stare at her.

Somehow, she could feel what it wanted to tell her.

This was her fault.

**

Elania’s thoughts were a jumbled mess as she quietly slipped from beneath the shared warmth of the blankets, careful not to disturb Yolani as she escaped a misplaced leg. It was odd to be the one who woke up first.

The pre-dawn hush of the room provided a stillness that contrasted with the cacophony of the previous day’s events, and as she changed out of her night shift in the dim light, the quiet seemed to amplify her thoughts rather than stifle them.

Tiptoeing down the stairs, her fingers trailed lightly along the banister, allowing her to feel the grooves and imperfections of the smooth stone. Some of those had been formed from the damage to the shop by the guard when it had been ransacked, but their hard-won battle to restore the shop had mostly fixed the worst offenders.

The memory of her dive into the Celestial Engine in her dream came to the forefront, but she really had no idea what it meant. It would have been easier to think about the Magisters and the city and the why of what they had done and were doing.

Which was to say, it was beyond her, unless she wanted to work herself into a pretzel.

What she needed was a shower. A hot one.

The tools and projects of the workshop lay dormant in the dim night lighting. Elania paused, her gaze sweeping over the organized chaos. There was a certain amount of solace to be found in Yolani’s domain of creating magical things. There was a hidden madness to the way everything was ordered, which was the opposite of her own muddled, confused feelings.

Moving to the back workshop, she approached the custom-built shower that had been their first major repair project after fixing the front door. The contraption was something Yolani and her father had built, and while it looked a bit silly, it certainly worked as a shower.

The complex assembly of pipes, valves, and mana crystals worked in harmony to provide a hot shower, a cold one, an emergency decontamination drench, steamer, or even a water distillation machine. Elania allowed herself a small smile.

The only other options were renting an expensive room at a higher quality inn that provided a bathtub service, or the more commonly used communal baths of the Artisan District. She’d gone with Yolani to one, just out of curiosity, but the other girl had convinced her it was a bad idea.

They usually had a security guard, but that wasn’t much promise of safety. And bad things did happen, even in the Artisan District.

It really took little convincing to steer her away from them, anyway. The only reason she’d wanted to see them was because of the novelty and how they had sounded like historical roman bathhouses.

Well, they fit her idea of those, except for the fact they were co-ed and people were having sex in the water when they had visited.

Elania flicked on the water heater, then watched as the crystals lit up with a faint glow underneath the tank.

Then she checked the adjustment valves to make sure they were just right in their familiar slots that would produce the perfect temperature mix for a shower without risking a scalding, or worse, triggering the emergency system.

As the water began to heat, Elania leaned against the cool stone wall, allowing herself a moment to just breathe. The sound of the water heating was a gentle rumble in the pipes.

After a moment, she began to undress, neatly stacking her outfit on a chair. Wearing the same outfit with just a change of small clothes every day was the standard unless something to really dirty like their outfits from the day before.

They’d need to do the laundry day thing early due to that, which was a lot of work.

A washing machine was on the list of things to work on. Then an air dryer.

A smile appeared on her lips. Maybe they could spend all their time recreating machines from Earth and make a fortune, plus help turn everyone’s lives around for the better. Not everyone could afford to place mana crystals into everything, but if the city had cheap electricity from the waterfalls…

A little light flipped on, indicating the water was ready. She grabbed one of their bars of soap and flipped a lever.

A steamy stream of water fell into the contained area with the water drain, and Elania stepped into it. She embraced the heat and let her mind wander as she let herself run on autopilot in the simple cleansing ritual of a simple hot shower.

***

A note on tiering:

During Demoness Book 1 the $5 tier received all chapters along with the $10 tier. The way its supposed to work is all chapters are on the $10 tier, while half are on the $5 tier. The reason I did all on the $5 tier previously, was a nod to the fact that book 1 was mostly a rewrite. (Like 60%/40% old/new) I wanted to provide everyone access to it at a reduced cause because of that.

I'm hoping to do 1~ chapter a day while writing Demoness 2 and 3. That's a hoped for estimate. Since I need to do at least 1 and hopefully 2 ShipCore chapters as well, it might turn out to be 5 Demoness chapters instead of 7. We'll just have to see how much output comes out! 

The public releases will be going down to 4 chapters a week, MT-TF, so that is likely what the $5 tier will get. The extra chapters will go to feed the $10 tier backlog until it reaches 20 chapters ahead like ShipCore.

TL;DR: $5 Tier will get 4~ chapters a week, $10 Tier will get more. Goal is to reach 20+ chapters ahead of public on Book 2, then consider increasing release rate of $5 tier and public. (We are 21 ahead right now, but with double release per day for Book 1, that will dip below the goal.)