B4 – Chapter 1: Base of operations

Tristan felt the slight tingling dancing upon his skin as he strode through the portal. Felicity was perched atop his head, invisible to all save those with Elven heritage, and Eloise, who looked a far cry from her Citadel of Essence role of academic advisor. As soon as they exited the grey film, Tristan was taken aback by how similar the Demon Realm looked to Bhant’s Holdfast.

They emerged onto city streets that were comprised of several smooth-polished, grey surfaces with small, black fractal patterns that bled into the edges of the gutters that carried wastewater and other detritus down to the depths below the city through grates that constantly trickled with the malodorous flow. Towering, grey buildings made of bricks that had been painstakingly stacked to reflect a perfect sense of orderliness and consistency stood anywhere from two to four stories in height. Balconies with solid, white railings juxtaposed the darker background.

The skies were the most different to what Tristan had seen before, having only glimpsed into the Demon Realm once when he fought a demon back in The Sapphire Coast. A dull, red expanse, with thin, ash-grey clouds slowly drifting off in the distance.

They had emerged into a city square which to Tristan’s eyes was just a cross section between two streets in the city. Stalls and carts were set up, and he observed Demonkin dressed in clothes that ranged from mediocre and decently kempt to fine and upper-class, replete with buttons of silver and brass. Their skins varied in hue across blues, reds, greys, and black; each graced with a variety of horns growing from their heads, and colors that matched that of their skin tone. They were hawking wares, and as Eloise gently guided Tristan toward one of the streets, others came through the portal they had just emerged from to shop.

“This,” Eloise said in Demon’s Tongue, “Is the Demon Realm capital of Saumur. We are currently in the Market District, which is right in the middle of the middle-class part of the capital.”

Tristan saw a series of small, goblin-like, squat creatures hustling about doing menial labor – picking up garbage, sweeping the streets, polishing windows; all of them were dressed in rags. Some had sacks on which had holes poked through for their arms and heads. A few of those bits and bobs of clothing were embroidered and embellished with a silver crown set against a circular field of black. Their skin tones were all varying shades of brown and grey, with beady, black eyes that looked like those of a predator. But they kept their heads down or their gaze focused on their tasks. “What are those?” he asked in a slight whisper.

“Imps,” Eloise replied as she continued to guide Tristan down the street, before they took a turn down another street. “One of the species created by the Demon King – the Realm Protector – as a servant caste. They work in the cities and towns. The winged version that are a bit smaller are called Quasits – we won’t see them in the capital unless we visit a messenger post.”

Felicity was making her paw-claw biscuits on Tristan’s head, and whispered in the Standard Tongue, “What’s going on?”

Tristan glanced up at her and replied in the same language, also at a whisper, “We’re talking about the little creatures.”

Felicity huffed and grumbled, “I hate being left out of this stuff.”

“Should’ve taken some of that downtime to learn Demon’s Tongue,” Tristan replied.

Eloise sighed and cleared her throat, speaking in Demon’s Tongue, “Marius,” she said, using Tristan’s current alias while transmuted into his Demonkin form, “We should keep using our tongue whilst here, unless isolated indoors. Understood?”

Tristan nodded and poked Felicity with a finger right in her side, “Understood?” he asked in Standard Tongue.

The fairy dragon pouted, but nodded, and sat a little straighter up on his head. “I’ll keep an eye out on the rear.” She turned around and planted her rump on his skull.

Tristan turned back to Eloise and swapped to Demon’s Tongue once more, “What’s the plan?”

“We’ll head deeper into the capital, on the lower-middle income end,” Eloise replied, her roguish form blending into the middle class of the city whilst Tristan’s armored appearance contrasted drastically. “Remember the story?”

“Yup,” Tristan replied with confidence. “Disgraced Demonkin knight who was cast out of service from a Mortal Realm ruler and is trying to find a new master to serve.”

Eloise nodded and smiled slightly, her very-minutely sharpened white teeth glistening in the sunlight. “We will get a room at an inn. Something that won’t draw too much attention. Then, you’ll lay low while I gather some information from my sources.”

Right, Tristan thought as he kept following her deeper into the slowly tightening and less-maintained parts of the capital. Detritus and debris slowly showed their presence, as the brickwork became ever-so-slightly marred and shoddier. The buildings were shorter as well, with two stories being the highest, as they walked for what felt like miles on the orderly, straight streets as the squalor slowly increased the farther they traveled from their arrival point.

He was familiar enough with the layout of the Demon Realm because of the pristine maps he had looked through and added to his Omnitome from The Archives in the Citadel of Essence back in the Mortal Realm. The capital was in the center of the Realm, and many of the Demon Houses had a townhouse or estate residence within the capital’s outer walls. Just how the kingdom of Bhant set up their nobility structure. Outside of the capital, those same Demon Houses had their own cities, towns, and villages; those were the bases of operation for the houses of nobility.