“Thank you again for everything you are doing to help us,” Jay repeated as she walked into the cave entrance. “Truly, you’ve done so much more than I feel like I have any right to ask.”

“Nonsense,” Soteria shrugged dismissively. “You are a part of our tree now. We will do for you and your family as we would do for members of our own grove. Besides, there hasn’t been so much excitement around here since Meli left decades ago. A little wind in the leaves every once in a while is good for the roots.”

Jadis grinned at Meli’s grandmother. She was genuinely glad to have the old crone as a part of her family, as not only was she a delight to talk to and a wise source of knowledge, but she also had the power and disposition to lend aid freely. Her willingness to give the friendly Demons an honor guard was, frankly, a life saver. But more than the Demons, Jadis was thankful that Soteria and her kin were willing, ready, and able to serve as guardians for Hope.

“You know, Acantha is going to want to see a grandchild of her own even more now that you’ve put that little flower in her arms,” the old Dryad commented. “I suspect she is already preparing a variety of powders that promote fertility to give to Meli.”

“Well, not that I’m going to discuss our sex life with my in-laws,” Jay responded dryly, “but you can let Acantha know that Meli and I are doing our best on that front. We don’t need any encouragement there.”

“I’m certain of that,” Soteria snorted. “I know how you Nephilim can be. Utter fiends. Thank Villthyrial your kind is back.”

Jay did her best to suppress her laughter as she continued down the carved tunnel. It was hard not to be put into a good mood whenever she spoke with Meli’s grandmother, but she needed to keep her mind sharp and not get too distracted. After all, they had a cult ritual to raid later that day.

As part of her investigations, Maeve had successfully uncovered information on a location where the Thracina branch of Samleos Cultists were regularly performing some kind of ritual. The entire cult would be present, so Jadis and her companions planned on crashing the party and capturing as many of the men and women as possible. However, since Maeve had made it clear that the cultists were quite aware of Jadis and the Hero’s presences in the city, it was important that they continued with business as usual. Otherwise, the evil assholes could spook and change location or even flee the city entirely. So, to make sure that the cultists didn’t suspect anything, Jadis and everyone else were continuing with their normal routines and already planned preparations for the military campaign against Kastoria.

Wilhelm and his party had been informed, of course, and all of Jadis’ own lovers as well as Tegwyn and his team knew what was going on. However, to avoid any possible information leaks, no one else had been told about the coming raid on the cultists. Not even their liaisons to the Voltonian senate. The locals could find out what went down after all of the cultists were captured or dead. Not before. Not when they still weren’t entirely sure there weren’t people within the senate who were feeding information to the cultists, intentionally or otherwise.

As part of their mask of routine, Jadis had left the city and flown to Meli’s family grove, just as she had been doing almost every other day. She had brought Meli and Sabina with her, which was not unusual, though her third passenger was both a first, and a carefully hidden secret. Hope had been concealed inside of a crib cleverly disguised as a basket of supplies, and the little Succubus baby had been dropped off with Meli’s mother. Acantha and the rest of the Dryad’s had sworn to protect the newborn for as long as Jadis and her lovers needed them to.

In fact, after the initial negotiations with the old Dryad, Soteria had reached out to all of the Dryad groves who lived in and around ancient Asteria and had asked them to join her grove in a sort of protective conclave. It had been surprising to see the local population of Dryads nearly quadruple overnight, but the other groves’ eagerness to respond wasn’t surprising. They were all relations, in one way or another, so it was a bit like a massive family reunion.

While not all of the Dryads who had responded to the call were entirely comfortable with the idea of non-hostile Demons being kept under their protection, none of them were willing to go against Soteria’s will in the matter. Being the oldest plant in the garden had its perks, so the woman had assured Jadis. Besides which, once the other Dryads had met Jadis and seen Hope for themselves, almost all of their doubts had dried up.

Bringing Hope to the Dryad’s grove was not her only reason for coming. Jadis also wanted to visit the Demons in their temporary shelter, just to make sure they were doing alright. The sudden change in surroundings and the lack of familiar people had her worried that the Demons might be having trouble adjusting to the new situation, so she had traveled with Soteria to check on them.

Besides, Sabina had really wanted another look at the Nephilim archive to help with one of her last-minute creations, and visiting the Demons was on the way.

“How is everyone doing?” Jay asked after greeting Techne. “Any problems?”

“I have had no difficulty tending to the Demons,” the Golem answered. “However, I must admit that this is an extremely unusual experience for me.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Jay smirked as she looked into the room. “Babysitting Demons can’t be a common occurrence.”

“Come, there is one you should see,” Techne said as he led her further into the open space.

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The room Jadis had relocated her demonic charges to was a large, open area that had at one time been used to store supplies for the construction of the Nephilim archives. Since it was essentially a warehouse made by and for giants, there was more than enough room to hold all of the Demons, as well as all of the personal items and supplies that had been brought with them. Even with practically the whole cargo hold of the Roc emptied into the storeroom, there was still enough space to fit another nine loads.

The Demons who were hatched and non-hostile had all been given access to various items that suited their interests. From what Jadis had both been told and personally observed, some were entirely unbothered by the change in location since it made no difference to how they were able to engage in their pastimes. For some, like Brush and Canvas and Rune, the change was even beneficial since they were given access to records from the Hall of Memories and Techne was around to teach them. Even Grape was pretty satisfied with where she was, since her interests in plants and gardening were being satisfied by interactions with the Dryads.

Crash was getting bored, though, which made sense. Drilling different stances could only keep the battle-obsessed Demon entertained for so long, and she clearly missed being able to train in the yard with the guards and mercenaries. Still, she wasn’t wholly unhappy, since Techne was able to show her a few things from the archives about ancient Nephilim pankration, which was apparently some kind of advanced fighting style. The Golem wasn’t a practitioner himself, but he was at least able to show Crash some manuals and paintings that depicted the sport.

To her surprise, the Demon who appeared to be having the most trouble with the transition was Oats. When Techne led her to the corner where they had set up all of the supplies needed for miniature bakery, she saw the large, red-eyed Demon lying listlessly on small wooden table. A single bowl of flour was on the surface next to her, and Oats had a tentacle in the powdery material, idly twitching back and forth. Otherwise, all of her tentacles were slumped and lifeless. There were even a few burned loaves of mishappen bread cast onto the floor next to the makeshift brick oven that had been set up for her. In all of her time at the compound, Jadis couldn’t ever recall seeing Oats fail to make a perfect loaf of bread.

When Jay squatted down next to the Demon, Oats lifted a lone tentacle and gave her a small wave, before letting the appendage flop down onto the table again.

“Hey,” Jay started, her voice filled with concern. “What’s wrong, Oats? Do you need something?”

As she spoke, Jay carefully formed the words with her hands as well, using the modified sign-language that she had developed with the temples to communicate with the voiceless Demons. She knew Oats wasn’t the best at speaking in sign the way some of the other, younger Demons were, but she had enough knowledge that Jadis was pretty sure that she would be able to communicate her thoughts.

There was a beat of stillness before Oats used her tentacles to form a single word.

Hans.

“…do you miss Hans?” Jay asked.

An emphatic wiggle of tentacles followed.

“I see…” Jay let out a long sigh.

This was not a situation Jadis had accounted for, but in hindsight, she should have known better. Sure, Oats was obsessed with baking, but that didn’t mean it was her only interest. She spent all of her time in the kitchen with Hans, rarely parting from the mustached man other than when he was sleeping. He was her constant companion, and her most skilled teacher. It made perfect sense that Oats would have formed a strong bond with Hans. How deep that bond ran, or whether it involved any other feelings, Jadis was sure. She also wasn’t sure if Hans saw the Demon as anything other than a helpful curiosity who had taken up residence in his kitchen. Still, there definitely was a relationship between them, even if it was potentially one-sided.

“I won’t lie to you,” Jay said after thinking for a few moments. “I don’t know when you will get to see Hans next.”

Jay winced as she saw Oats deflate even further.

“However, I promise you that you will get to be with him again.”

The follow-up from Oats was expected.

When?

“Like I said, I don’t know when. There’s a lot going on in the world right now, so it isn’t easy to know when I’ll be able to bring him here or bring you back to him. All I can do is promise that it will happen.”

After a few more seconds, the Demon posed another question. This one was harder to interpret.

Why?

“Why what? Why can’t I bring him here now?”

Oats shook her tentacles in the negative, then clarified her question.

Why. Help. Me.

That was a question Jadis truly hadn’t expected from the Demon.

“Because I want to help you,” Jay smiled at the listless little creature. “Ever since you were captured and agreed to help us, you’ve never tried to do any harm to anyone. You’ve been helpful, and kind, and you’ve put in the effort to learn and grow. You’re a good person, Oats. So, I want to help you. That’s all the reason I need.”

Jadis wasn’t certain if the Demon had fully understood her, but after a while, Oats wiggled around and seemed to accept the explanation. Smiling again at the squid-like baker, Jay tapped the table with a finger.

“Is there anything I can get you right now, instead of Hans? Maybe something you need?”

Oats seemed to think about her question before replying with a somewhat more enthusiastic motion of her limbs. The request she formed, however, made Jadis’ blood turn cold.

Body.

“A body?” Jay repeated slowly. Blinking, she tried to pick her way through the Demon’s request without causing alarm. “I know you are a possession Demon, but I can’t get you a person to inhabit. That would be bad for the person; you know that. Maybe an animal, but I don’t think you would be able to bake as well with paws or hooves.”

Oats shook her tentacles in an emphatically negative way. Motioning strongly, she communicated her request further, struggling to clarify her meaning.

Body. Me. Possession. No. Body. Oats. Oats body.

“You want your own body… but you don’t want to possess one?”

An emphatic affirmative wiggle.

“Huh,” Jay sat back on her heels as she thought the request over. “Well… honestly, I’m not sure how to do that. Maybe if we power-level you to your next class, you might get something offered that will let you have a body the way Alex does. Let me think about it, okay? I’ll talk with everyone else and figure something out.”

Oats wiggled agreeably to Jay’s words, and when she got up to leave after a little more conversation, Jadis happily noted that the Demon had begun to mix the ingredients for another loaf of bread in earnest. It was a strange situation to be in, but Jadis felt no regrets. She would help Oats as best she could, even if she didn’t see an immediate solution to either problem. A good person like the little bread Demon deserved all the help she could get.

“Alright,” Jay mumbled half to herself as she walked back to where her other selves were in conversation with Techne and Soteria. “Time to get back to Thracina. There’s a lot to do before the raid tonight, and not a lot of time to do it.”

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