Reaching Nazarick took longer than it felt like, in 'the zone' when she flew, completely serene when all thought was gone, the Tisaphone Fury savored the air around her and the warmth above her and the ground below her with its rolling trees and swamps and mountains and the endless horizon she always wanted to catch but never could.

And before she knew it, she was home. She folded her arms into her ample chest, straightened, and closed her feet and wings together to let herself drop like a stone.

Vanysa's feet hit the ground with a crash and she went down to a crouch on one knee before she straightened again in front of the entrance. Out front was a familiar sight. Yuri Alpha's pet cat*.

The catwoman leaned against the doorframe chewing on a straw, her tail lashing at her back, her yellow piercing eyes never wavering while the dust settled around Vanysa.

"I thought it was you, Clementine." Vanysa said with a smirk on her face. The catwoman hissed at her, cheetah patterned fur bristled a little. "So you got stuck on watch duty today?"

"What's it matter, I just do what I'm told, and this is an easy gig until Miss Alpha lets me and my sister go play again… not that there's much left to do." She narrowed her eyes at the demon sadist, a mix of resentment and what could have been admiration passing briefly over her face, her nose twitching and shaking her whiskers just a little.

Vanysa chuckled, "Well, Zuranon doesn't have much left, but if it helps, there are some Agante hidden away in the mountains to the east that we haven't gotten rid of yet. Plus, there's something else… if you're interested." Vanysa suggested as she walked closer to the entrance.

Her sadistic eyes met sadistic eyes, and Clementine's smile spread wide over her face, she began to saunter toward her demonic counterpart, "It's been so long since we've gotten to play… you know I'm interested. What is it?"

"It seems they've got some interesting magic casters… casters who seem to have gotten on some strange 'adaptive' magic that I've never seen before. Who knows where or how, but nobody goes into those mountains except for poachers or Zuranon runners, and the last runner you gave us?" Vanysa licked her lips, savoring again the feel of past pain, "he was running 'away' from the mountains. When he finally broke, he confessed it was because of what he saw out there, the uniform he described matches the Agante, 'and' it matches some of the dead Black Scriptures, or ones we thought were dead… would you like to see some of your old friends again? Kitty wanna play?" Vanysa asked, and when the demonic talon curled under Clementine's chin and began to gently scratch, the cheetahwoman purred and leaned into it until she came to her senses.

"Yes… yes I would love to play… but do you really think they're Black Scripture? Other than the ones who went and turned, they should all be dead." Clementine retorted and leaned with reluctance away from the scratching talon that felt disgustingly good.

"Their bodies weren't recovered, Zesshi wanted them to remain dead, if somebody learned where they were buried? Or if somebody took them?" Vanysa put her hand on her hips and shrugged. "Who can say?"

"I'll take it to Lady Alpha and my sister as soon as I'm off shift." Clementine purred the promise out, her tail lashing happily at her back as Vanysa waved behind her and ventured back into her home without another glance at her back.

The demoness didn't much care for Clementine as a person, though she admired her talent, she was at her core a directionless, hedonistic savage, and only moved according to divine will because she was raised and recreated in the service of His Majesty. Her loyalty was imposed, not natural. 'I have true loyalty, give me my humanity back, and I would still die for my lord all the same, all over again, no matter what anyone did to me.'

It was this resolve that carried her step by inexorable step toward the office of her master, her beloved Lord for whom she'd given everything, and from whom she'd received every blessing of her life as it was. The halls of Nazarick once seemed so tall and imposing, now they were warm to her eyes and clung to her like a mother's embrace, and there was no fear or anxiousness in her heart but for the pain she might bring to Lord Ainz.

She took a deep breath and rapped her knuckles on the massive double doors that loomed twice her height in front of her, "Enter." The command came and she pressed the flat of her hand to the panel of the door, took another deep breath, then pushed it in.

Ainz, to no surprise of her own, was sitting at his desk on the raised square at the far end of the room, his red eyes buried in some paperwork that she was fairly sure he'd read twice or even three times. No one else knew about that habit of his. It endeared him to her, knowing there was a man inside there somewhere, a nervous man who just wanted his friends back, his family to be safe and happy, for the world to be at peace and not ruined like the one he came from.

Vanysa's love for him as her dearest, and in a way her only true friend for a long time, was an ache in her heart that drove her on, pushing through the pain of her heart's one deception to her Lord. Her alignment with Albedo's 'hit squad'.

She knelt before his desk and bowed her head low to him, "My Lord, I found out lots of stuff." She said, fighting against the rearing madness in her heart, 'Keep it together, make your report, then go see Demi and get it out of you.' She told herself and Ainz raised his head.

"Tell me." Ainz commanded.

"If he bonds with her, he will do so truthfully, he will love her deeply, he may have children with her, and he will love them, he is not trying to use you, he is not trying to hurt her, and he is no spy. But." Vanysa said and took a deep gulp of air.

"But?" Ainz demanded and set down the document on his desk, he folded his skeletal hands together to give her a long, lingering look, his red eyes pulsed like twin red suns in his otherwise empty eye sockets.

"If he bonds with Lady Entoma, the curse he lives under will one day give her the greatest, deepest, hardest wounds she could ever experience, her pain will be immeasurable and she will never forget it, even if he does." Vanysa said and raised her head to look up at her Lord and said, "It isn't my place to tell Lady Entoma what to risk, or to tell My Lord whether it is worth the pain she might one day know… but if My Lord wishes to know my mind, then I tell you if you wish to spare her from the worst of pains, then My Lord should forbid their union and separate them as soon as possible."

*Reluctant Heroes