"Why haven't you killed me yet?' I said as I stared back at her.
I didn't know what else to expect from her and Stergos. Having seen his combat ability earlier when facing off against Ervwin and his mob, I wasn't confident I could beat him; never mind escape.
"Ignis? What are you saying?" Ashari asked me, but I ignored her. I couldn't afford to get distracted for even a second now as I faced off against this Demon Queen and her murderous butler.
"Kill the Hero who saved my siblings? Please, I'm not that stupid looking-- wait, am I?" She looked up at Stergos worryingly, but he only cleared his throat as he averted his eyes.
"Ahem, but to answer your question, it's because I had verified what I needed to know when we... e-e-embraced earlier," Flaur casually explained, a light pink blush painting her long ears as she did.
"Embraced? What did you do to me?" I said as I inspected myself, I didn't feel any different.
"Relax, I had only examined your mana," Flaur said as she pointed to my forehead.
I touched my forehead, but other than the two horns that I had, I felt nothing out of the ordinary.
"I don't understand," I said, I was at a total loss.
"Maybe one day I'll tell you the secret. But for now, all you need to know is that I've deemed you to be safe. Even though I know you aren't a Demon," She revealed to me as she snapped her fingers, causing Stergos to pour her some tea.
"Would you like some?" She motioned to the teapot, but I said nothing as I felt the humming in my chest grow into a thump hearing her tell me that I'm not a Demon.
The thumping was growing louder, I felt it travel through my body in waves as a numbness crept up from my legs up to my neck.
"Ignis? Ignis snap out of it!" Ashari shook my shoulder, waking me up from this dangerous trance as the thumping in my chest calmed down back to a hum.
"S-Sorry," I muttered, stealing a look at Ashari.
I was half-expecting her to attack me having overheard that I wasn't a Demon, that I had been lying to not only her but to her tribe this entire time. But rather, she looked desperate.
Her world was turned upside down just a moment ago too, she couldn't afford to lose me as well in this mess of things. I had to calm myself down and try my best to get my bearings straight.
"Why, do you know what I am then?" I cautiously asked Flaur as I looked back up at her, having recollected my nerve.
Flaur was enjoying her tea as she redirected her attention back to me, her eyes had softened now.
"I'm not exactly sure, I only say that as from the mana that I had examined from you, you're not a Demon," She explained.
"All Demons have a particular essence to them, a gift from Lunarsa herself, and you lack that." She said as she placed a hand on her breast; she was emphasizing her heart.
"Then am I Human?" I asked her, I felt my body tense as I did; I was preparing for the worst.
"Of course not, essence or not, you're no Human." She said with a giggle.
"Then, if I'm neither Demon or Human, what am I?" I asked her, I was at the cusp of a breakthrough for myself.
"Nnnghh... I don't really know. As I said earlier, I'm not exactly sure so myself" Flaur sheepishly replied.
I felt my body loosen hearing her admit that she didn't know, my hope of discovering who I was had just been dashed into the rocks. If the Demon Queen herself didn't know, then who will?
"Wait... earlier, when Ervwin had seen me..." I muttered to myself, catching Flaur's attention.
"Ervwin had an idea of what I was, he had called me an abomination," I explained, remembering the clear look of disgust he had as he caught sight of me.
"Hrmm," Flaur raised a finger up to her chin in thought.
"If I may, your Majesty. We should refocus our attention back to 'that' that you wished to discuss with them," Stergos cut in, reminding Flaur of something that Ashari and I were unaware of.
"Ah, you're right," Flaur said as she dropped her fist onto her palm in realization.
Flaur cleared her throat as she recollected herself. As she straightened her posture, her massive breasts swung up onto the dinner table; it was hard not to get distracted from my direct view.
"To recap our discussion so far, you're both now aware of the dire state of the kingdom at large,"
"And of the fact that you're not a Demon, but neither are you a threat... or so I hope," She said as she emphasized hope.
"Let me now let you both in as to the real reason as to why I've called you both in here tonight, the gambit that I'm going to take,"
---
Stergos cleared the table off of its ornaments and in its place, put a large map atop it.
It was written in the Demon language that I've yet to understand, but I knew immediately what it was; it was the same map from CoE's landmass.
"I'm assuming you two had taken the Dragon Spine's pass from the Zepar steppe, no?" Flaur pointed to the desert and beelined from it across the map's mountain ride to a small section in the map; it was where we were now.
"Yes, but I'm confused your Majesty, why are you showing us this?" Ashari asked, she was still shaken up from the two revelations from earlier.
"I'll get to that," Flaur said as she then used a black quill to circle an illustrated town in the middle of the map.
"This is Quell, it's where Ervwin and his sect loyal to Baron Valefor currently reside."
"And here," Flaur drew a dotted line over to another illustration on the map; it was that of a small castle, "Is where the Baron lives, his Castle Vongart."
As I saw her draw on the map, I began to understand what was really going on. This was no longer a dinner party, it was a war room.
"I know what you're doing, your Majesty," I said aloud, stopping Flaur in her tracks.
"So you've caught on? Wonderful, we can skip some steps then," She gleefully said, but I shook my head in response.
"You're asking a princess from an isolated tribe and a non-Demon to play war council with you," I bluntly spoke.
"What's your angle? Wasn't your ploy from earlier meant to confuse us? You can reveal your council now, as that too was a part of the act," I angrily told her.
"Hold your tongue,--" Stergos tried to butt in as he took a step forward at me, but was stopped by Flaur.
"I suppose I owe you a deeper explanation, especially so for putting you through that," She said.
"What you had said earlier is true, that the tea party was an act to get your guard down to allow me to put you in your current position," She frowned.
"But, when you had begun to ask me about my council-- it was all true, I lack one."
"I was upset, that wasn't a part of the act," She concluded with a sniffle.
"Then, please, no more lies. I'm more than willing to play a part in whatever you're plotting, especially so if it involves Ervwin, but I-- We need to know more," I said as I looked over to Ashari.
Flaur sighed, slumping her shoulders as she heard me say my piece.
Wordlessly, she began to draw X's all across the map.
"Every X you see is a failed battle or skirmish that I've headed against Aurum," She said as she drew another X, twenty were now on the map.
"With each loss, so did a member of the council-- whether mutiny or death in the retreat."
"Baron Valefor is one such mutiny, he had left with a third of my army over the loss of an important gem mine from Aurum on the scuff of his territory."
"He took the rest of the council with him, declaring that he'll usurp me and reward them with land if they joined him,"
"But didn't you say you had come out here in search of your siblings and that you weren't aware of Valefor's insurgency?" I asked her as she gave a half-smile in return.
"I was aware of Valefor's mutiny and rumors of usurpation, but I didn't believe it was going to happen in Quell. I had come here in search of my siblings, as they had disappeared here in the goodwill excursion with me." She noted as she then motioned us to look at a specific point on the map.
"To say that I've been caught in surprise is an understatement. With my small troop at call and the fact that we're about two days away from Ars Goetia, I'm sitting dangerously on the line of losing it all," She circled the area between Quell, the campsite, and Valefor's castle.
"Within the next few days or so, a bloodbath will occur here, and I need your help to make sure I'm the one who wins."