Lita choked. “No!”

“Really? There are three women here who already have. At least one of them I’m pretty sure is a regular.”

Lita bit her lip.

I bet none of them got an invitation to go back with him. I could be wrong…

The thought fought with superior delight and depression. She’d made her choice. Now she just needed to get through dinner and search Diana’s study.

“I know.” She looked straight ahead, bit her lip again, before blurting, “He tried but it’s probably a good thing we were interrupted.”

“Probably.” Gima sighed and grimaced. “I don’t know if I could’ve resisted. Mama would’ve been disappointed in me.”

Lita felt a pang of guilt and relief.

Sheldon would’ve been upset, too. I’m so glad I don’t have to tell him about this.

Not that you can talk, Sheldon, she grumped at her imaginary brother. Just to keep her mind off of it. You were out with a woman today who married and abandoned her own husband.

She chose not to mention to the imaginary Sheldon that she’d already come to that conclusion. It infuriated her to realize that she’d been falling back on Sheldon’s ‘fatherly advice’ without even realizing it.

“Yeah.”

She didn’t serve Dalius at dinner. She’d seen his disappointment, knew he must’ve discovered she hadn’t waited before coming to dinner.

She ignored it, dropping her chin and staring at her feet whenever possible.

Without Diana present there was no reason for her to personally serve the top table and she could only steal glances that way. After that first eye contact Dalius didn’t look her way again, talking with a barely controlled expression to Harv.

Whatever the lazy demon was saying was getting under Dalius’ skin. You didn’t need the nose of a demon to know it.

She knew exactly how to take it off his mind. All she had to do was change her mind again.

And she was not willing to do that.

His invitation, both of them, kept intruding on her mind as she muddled through dinner.

This is stupid, she thought viciously. I have a job to do. I should be thinking about that. Not about regretting the other thing. I’m done with it.

When dinner was over, and not wanting to talk to Gima again, she hurriedly put the apron back on its hook and went back up to her room.

Waiting was never the easiest thing for her.

She stared up at her ceiling in frustration, pounding her head occasionally on her pillow. Her room still smelled of rotting food. She really, really needed to wash some clothes. To waste more time she got up and pulled all the dirty clothes together. Then changed into pants and stuffed her good skirt in with the rest.

She’d have time in the morning. When she picked up Diana Veran’s things in the laundry.

The last thing she did to prepare was to slip her no-smell into a pocket and pull on her shawl.

Long after the first wave of servants went to bed, and just before the last batch followed, she got up quietly and crept into the corridor.

The Palace had gone silent.

With the lighters barely able to keep up with most of the lamps, most people, humans and demons, were usually in bed at this time. Not all of them. She knew if she wandered into the receiving areas she’d find some groups of demons playing games, talking, or discussing after dark business.

She had to time things just right. If she put the no-smell on too late then someone might notice. Not likely but they might. If she did it too soon she’d be the next one executed.

Taking the backways, by going down the servants stairs and following the corridors that hid most of the servant activity, she made her way to the first floor. It was when she reached the entrance of the servant’s corridor that she finally pulled out the no-smell and dabbed it behind her ears, both wrists and ankles.

Then when she reached the entrance hall she hesitated only long enough to look around.

Heart pounding she crept along the edges of the room, straining to hear where everyone was at. She thought she heard a cough somewhere in the direction of the public rooms but otherwise saw and heard nothing.

The training room was empty. Thank the void!

A moment later she eased into the room the child had described. There was a soft light inside, a lantern that could be taken in and out if Diana didn’t want a lighter in there.

And if this was really the place… she might not have.

Lita stared around in blank amazement at the masses of parchments and knick knacks strewn and piled everywhere. This couldn’t be Diana’s study! Not the spartan Diana who kept her room so neat and bare that a spider couldn’t find it appealing.

Troubled, Lita went out in the corridor and tried to follow the directions of the child again.

This was the third room on the right. Unless the child was wrong Lita had come to the right place.

Slipping back inside she picked up a parchment close to the lantern and squinted at the words. Diana Veran, signed in that tight scrawl at the bottom. Along with a blood dot of some human who’d asked for the Contract.

When every document she picked up had her Mistress’s name on it Lita had to finally give in to the obvious.

This was Diana’s study.

And it was a mess.

How? How was she going to find one particular document in this chaos?

“We’ll start with the documents on top of each pile,” she muttered to herself. Hopefully no one had knocked over anything and Diana had left the voided thing in some obvious place.

She didn’t know how long she was there. Reading and sifting through Contracts. And other interesting documents. Reports from the enforcers especially. If she’d known about this treasure room a couple of years ago, maybe the Chief would have won the war by now.

A noise outside made her pause. When it didn’t repeat she picked up another document.

It would have been easier if she could’ve just looked for Taiken’s signature. But, no, he had to dot it. So instead she had to read a couple of clauses and try and guess if it’s the one she’s looking for.

“Wait! Hold him!”

The cry echoed faintly down the corridor and Lita froze with terror. It took her a split second to realize that they weren’t talking about her. A breath later she realized that it was Diana’s voice.

Diana. What was she doing back so quickly?

Lita hesitated, looking at the document in her hand. Then, with gritted teeth and pounding heart, she put it aside and crept back into the corridor.

Growls and whines were now what echoed faintly.

The training room had been dimmed until only one lantern shone. Some of the light came from the waning moon outside but it was fading as flashes of a coming storm lit the upper windows.

It made the scene she crouched to watch very confusing.

“Mistress, do you want-” Grunt. “Me to find a dork?”

“No. He’ll just go berserk. Go fetch Lord Aridon. He has a signal ready outside his room. Just push it in and come back.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

It took Lita a moment to figure out who the second voice belonged to. Long enough for one of the confusing shadows to move away from the others.

Captain Lloyd. There must’ve been a second human somewhere if they’d fetched Lloyd from his bed. Maybe they’d sent that one to bed. Just in case, she crouched further into the shadows of her hallway and kept an eye on the wrestling shadows and watching for anyone else.

“Shut up, Eric.”

Diana Veran. She sounds exhausted. And oddly affectionate.

There were more growls and whines but they were quieter. Until the two shadows huddled close together

Finally, someone came back to the room and crouched next to the big shadow. Now the brightest light was the lightning and Lita could hear wind rattling the window as water splashed loudly against it.

“Is there any more you wish from me, Mistress?”

“No, I’ll handle it from here. Go to bed.”

Lloyd paused. “Are you sure you don’t need help?”

“I’ll just be storing him somewhere and Aridon will be here for that.”

The man reluctantly stood and bowed. Then started to walk briskly toward the enforcers’ quarters.

Diana Veran stopped him. “Wait. I change my mind. Go get me a dork.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

Lita leaned forward, watching. What was going on? She was startled by the next voice and barely controlled her own gasp as she leaned away again.

“Having trouble, Diana Veran?”

“Shut up, Eric.”

Diana’s tone wasn’t impatient. It was kind, almost sad.

The thing she was talking to laughed. Diana reached forward and gently stroked the creature’s head. His growls turned into purrs and he pressed his head into her hand. LIke a cat.

“Poor thing.”

Poor thing? Lita shuddered. She recognized him. Voids, she recognized him!

The last time she’d seen him had been about two years ago.

She’d been sitting in her campsite, her cold hands hovering near the weak fire as she watched the thing pacing back and forth just a few feet from her. It whined and growled at her but said nothing as it occasionally shook its shaggy red head at her.

Whenever she held still it would try to approach, whining softly.

And whenever she moved it would quickly retreat with bared fangs.

It wasn’t until she finally threw to it the rabbit she’d been cooking that it vanished.

That hadn’t been the only time she’d come across the insane demon. It had haunted the wilder areas of the Separation like a ghoul.

“If you’re lucky, Eric, it might be over for you tonight.”

Frowning, Lita bit her lip. Watching the mingled shadows, trying to guess which one of the crouched figures was the insane one. Couldn’t see Diana stroking his head as she murmured softly to him.

When Lloyd returned he silently handed the crouching demoness a stone dork. Absently she took it and held it on her knee, turned in so her arm hid it from the insane demon.

“Will there be anything else, Mistress?”

“No, Captain. Go to bed.”

He bowed and left. Lita didn’t have time to breathe because as soon as Lloyd disappeared through a doorway Aridon came in. In one hand he carried a dork.

Not light colored like the other one. Black. It took everything she had not to gasp eagerly at the sight of it and winced when lightening blinded her for a couple of seconds.

“You rely too much on the human enforcers.”

Diana looked up from her stroking. “Our demons refuse to be organized well enough for my purposes. And you don’t take advantage of all your assets.”

“Still mad at me?”

“What do you think?” Diana bared her fangs at him.

“I think you’ll forgive me if this works.” He held out a hand to her and she reluctantly took it, allowing him to pull her up from her crouch. “Hello, Eric.”

“Aridon. Aridon call me crazy. Aridon crazy as Eric. Eric don’t like needles.”

“No.” Lita’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open when, with great tenderness, Aridon also stroked the mad creature’s head. “I know Eric doesn’t like needles.”

“Or knives.”

“Or knives.”

“Or swords, or whips, or wands, or poison-”

“Was he hard to get?” Aridon looked to Diana as the creature continued to rattle off all the things it hated.

“Not really. He was harder to find than to coax to come.”

“Then that-?” Aridon pointed to the dork Lloyd had just brought Diana.

“Just in case your’s doesn’t work.”

Aridon nodded, still gently stroking the creature’s hair. “Try to keep it hidden so he doesn’t get scared. And let’s get it over with.”

Lita watched them, deducing quickly where they were going. The dungeons. I can easily follow them there…

She stared hard where the light was abruptly cut off as the dungeons doorway was closed behind them.

She followed.