D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

--- Eleanora --- (About the same time as 1792)

Eleanora walked with power. Her stance screamed pride and arrogance and her near seven feet in height meant that she looked down on nearly everyone from that alone. She'd even gone so far as to add high heels to her plate armour to exaggerate the effect and pushing her past the seven foot mark in apparent height. Her head was left exposed with long blue hair flowing around her pointed ears hinting at perhaps some fae ancestry.

Eleanora stormed through the barracks, magic rolling off her in waves as she desperately tried to contain the anger building in her heart. The lesser guards that had been meandering around the area either swiftly vacated it or saluted her as she past. As they should. Eleanor could hear those two idiots she had to work with arguing further in. "THINK Strooth! Did you not even stop to consider all of the issues with trying to kill that demon?" hissed Malve.

"Of course I did, but I had my orders same as you had yours," retorted Strooth.

"Whose orders? We're in charge at the moment and when the captain or the ladies find out what you've done there is sure to be trouble!" insisted Malve.

"Obviously from another noble," stated Strooth. "But, as you are NOT my superior officer I don't have to reveal who said anything. Especially not without their permission,"

"Oooh! You're lucky I don't stick you in a box and-" Malve was cut off when Eleanora slammed open the door and glared at the two of them.

"What happened?" asked Eleanora, bite in her voice causing the other two to sit up straight.

They were both clearly somewhat worried that she'd appeared, and Malve was kind enough to just outright say it. "E-eleanora! What a surprise! I thought you were off on a subjugation mission,"

"Oh please, I bet she heard about the drama and came straight back. Doesn't trust is to do anything without her input," sneered Strooth who clearly wasn't in the best condition. Oh his little tricks let him appear fine but it was all surface level healing. Eleanora could tell through experience he had a lot more internal damage then he was letting out, and Malve wasn't going to let the fool escape to get healed any time soon.

"Someone else got to it before me, so there wasn't even a fight," answered Eleanora. "Though it seems my absence came at an inopportune time. What sort of trouble have you two caused me?"

"Oh… um… well…" Malve started to explain.

But instead Strooth cut in with, "As I was saying to Malve here. I was under orders to take out the demon if at all possible. Clearly I failed and Malve here has been whining about that,"

"I was NOT!" hissed Malve. "I'm annoyed that you even made the attempt. I mean, who even-" Eleanora took a single step forward, raising her hand and shutting Malve up completely in the process.

"Strooth. Who gave you the order?" asked Eleanora.

"I don't have to tell you that either," sniffed Strooth.

"Of course… but unlike Malve I'll freeze both of your legs together and then shatter the remains after ripping your shield from your head. Now, WHO gave you the order," insisted Eleanora.

"You wouldn't dare," glared back Strooth. "My father would seek vengeance for such a slight,"

"And he can come and fight me himself if he has a problem with it," stated Eleanora as she spun up a large four circle sigil causing Strooth the pale at the sight. "Now, once more. Who gave you the order?"

Strooth shook his head, "You think you're the only one with threats? I'm a LOT more scared of them then I am of you. At least you'll leave me alone once I'm missing my legs. I'm not telling you anything,"

Eleanora sighed, resting her head on her hand. "What a shame. I suppose your father will be coming to see me soon enough…"

"Wait what?" voiced Strooth before he starting screaming. Eleanora had cast a spell which didn't start freezing from the outside or blast someone with cold… no it started by creating ice crystals in the blood stream and slowly tore up the veins and arteries in the target as the cold expanded outwards from the inside. Strooth's legs were leaking blood which quickly froze over, and then expanded to freeze the skin as well. "WAIT!"

Eleanora slowly raised an arm making it seem like she was about to slam it into Strooth's legs. "Yes? Did you want to say something?" Malve was trembling in the corner, pressing herself as far against the wall as she possibly could. Despite nominally being recognised as on the same level as Strooth and Eleanora… it was quite clear that of the three of them Malve did NOT sit at the top of the power level.

"I meant what I said. I can't tell you," insisted Strooth.

"Ooh? An enchantment of some kind then?" asked Eleanora.

"I can't say anything," repeated Strooth. He deliberately did not nod his head despite how tense his neck muscles were.

"Hmmm… alright. I'll leave you like that for a few moments while you think about what you want to tell me…" sighed Eleanora as she turned to Malve who had shimmied over to the door and was about to slip through. "Now Malve, give me a rundown of the situation,"

"Um… I… well I…" stammered Malve.

"Give me YOUR interpretation of events," clarified Eleanora.

"Right… um… so… I didn't really get involved until the demon broke into the jail and started to bust out a small group of prisoners. But um… from what was said and what I know from… err…" Malve glanced at Strooth before continuing. "Other stuff told me that she's part of the tournament and her team has been targeted a bunch by our guards… but she did break a lot of stuff,"

Eleanora stalked over to Malve and clutched the smaller woman's face with a gauntleted hand. Forcing Malve to look her in the eyes. Malve gulped, blushing a bit at the contact. "So… what do you happened?"

"Um… er… well… I haven't gottten the reports and I'm not sure if I will… but… um… I think she was taken into custody because of them um… demon registration thing? Maybe? Not sure how long she stayed there or if she broke out but her team came separately and got arrested for something. Something they probably didn't do…

"And um… standard practice would be to um… call in one of us to review the incident considering it happened in range of a guard post but I was busy dealing with a serial killer last night and slept through most of the morning and Strooth… well… er…"

"Go on," breathed Eleanora into Malve's ears. Setting the smaller girl's face completely alight.

"She was holding back," answered Malve with a slight wobble in her voice. "I… not completely but… but we know that demons can use demonic fire. We know how deadly it is. Even after Malve tried to kill her she was holding back. There… there was this moment. When she was impaled through the brain that… that her control slipped for a moment…

"I don't think she was doing it on purpose but… but there was this eery calm for a moment. A… like everything would be fine in a moment. Not because things were good now, but between this moment and the next YOU WOULD DIE and then everything would be calm again. It was… it was the single most terrifying feeling I've ever felt in my life… and it just went away moments later… and… and the fire never came out again and we have made a terrible mistake…"

Eleanora let Malve go, causing the other elf to stumble backwards into the wall and nearly collapse in place. "We'll just have to see about that," scoffed Eleanora. "Though it seems quite a few buttons were pressed and people are playing games. Of course, someone is always playing games so that's nothing new. I wonder if I should go out and fight her… just to see what happens? Where is she by the way?"

"Err… I don't know?" offered Malve.

Eleanora paused mid step and whipped back around to Malve. "What do you mean you don't know? You have NO knowledge of where the Rank 4 demon capable of destroying the city she recently started attacking is?"

"Well… er… um… the guards… they um… were told to watch her and report back if she manages to escape… and they… um… well they haven't done that?"

"And are they likely to? If she's such a terrifying existence are they not likely to just ignore her disappearance?" asked Eleanora. Strooth snorted and Eleanora turned back to him. "Something funny?"

"You lot haven't even realised she's the distraction. She's not going to leave until her so called friends are safe. She's a stubborn one… though that might just be the because she's too arrogant to think she can die," Malve frowned at this, and so did Eleanora though for different reasons.

"Perhaps I need to look into this now then…" stated Eleanora before walking out the door.

"Wait… what about my legs?" yelled Strooth as Eleanora strode back down the hallway, ignoring his calls.