(The following story is based on an image shown on r/popeneia, showing Neia resting her head in CZ's lap)
...The day after the victory at Kalinsha…
Neia shot up with her eyes wide and staring at nothing. Her breathing was rapid and she felt her heart pounding in her chest. Her left hand came up to cover the place where she felt that pounding, and slowly closed her eyes, then laid back down and stared up at nothing. Her right arm came over and covered her eyes.
She could smell the stink of her own sweat, but around her she could see almost nothing. The open stone framed window of her quarters showed no light streaming through it. "Still not even morning. Damn." Neia whispered into the dark.
She lay still in bed as she tried to recall the nightmare that had shocked her out of her slumber. However it was like trying to catch a shadow in the mist, every time it seemed she was about to close her hand around it and pull it into view… her grip closed on emptiness and it was gone further into obscurity. Taunting her, teasing her, demanding she return to slumber to finish what her mind had begun.
Her eyes closed beneath her arm, but the pace of her heart within her breast was like the pounding of the drums of war, and they would not stop.
"How late is it?" She wondered out loud, nobody answered, nobody was there to answer, she was alone. She didn't glance around to look for anyone, not even to look for their shadows. She gave a sardonic smile to the cloak of night that covered her like a blanket, almost grateful. The light would remind her that she was alone as usual, but the darkness in its totality, was something of a comfort, as it hid that truth from her. There was nobody there, there never had been, and for the mad eyed archer, whose gaze struck terror into even demihuman monsters, there likely would never be.
"Your Majesty…" She uttered, and her smile became a little happier, 'You will be happy to see me. Please be alright… I already lost one father. I don't want to lose another.' She thought and then froze as she realized what words had crossed her mind.
'Come on Neia… get a grip. OK yes, he treats you well, he gave you that wonderful equipment, he gave you trust like your 'comrades' never did. He even said the sort of thing… come back… it's like what a father would say…' She felt her eyes moisten briefly as she imagined where he must be out there.
"Please be alright." Neia prayed and wiped her foolish welling eyes of terror clean of the proof of her emotional state. She rubbed hard enough to, for the moment, rub away unwelcome but happy thoughts, and flung her legs over the side of her little cot before sitting up.
She stood erect and stretched. The light pull of her tendons and muscles took her ever farther from the painless state of slumber. The need for sleep was gone, banished by the terror in a forgotten nightmare. Despite the darkness, moving through her quarters proved easy for the scout who lived in shadows. She mentally counted out her steps to where her armor hung on the cross beam and peeled off her shirt. The armor went on, then the undergarments, pants, and boots. Immediately afterward, she took up her quiver and then reached for her bow. Her hand paused, lingering an inch from the Ultimate Shooting Star Super. "Your Majesty…" She uttered only once with a breathless reverence, then snatched it up and secured it over her shoulder.
Neia cracked her knuckles, banishing the built up stiffness and then headed to the heavy oaken door to her private quarters. She opened it slowly and closed it gently, before making her way to the baths. 'Did I really need all this, just to go there?' She asked herself with a roll of her eyes, and managed to let out a laugh at herself as she realized she didn't.
"Something funny?" A voice behind her asked. Neia turned as she heard the voice and the sound of a closing door.
"Oh… CZ, hi." Neia said as the dancing candle light in the walls illuminated the maid demon.
'Oh good, just a comrade.' Neia thought with brief relief, until she stunned herself by realizing she'd thought of CZ with the word 'comrade' attached. 'Did I just… I did. Well, we fought together, risked our lives together, accomplished something great together, and… we serve His Majesty. Yes. Yes, 'comrade' will do very nicely.' Neia reasoned, and her surprise at herself faded, and instead a pleasant smile formed on her face.
"No, nothing, just thinking I was a little silly to put all this on and go armed to take a bath. I might be getting a little paranoid." Neia said with a shrug. "What are you doing up?"
"I like baths." CZ explained, blank faced.
"Oh." Neia said and turned her face away, back to the direction she was heading, "Well, we can go together, if you want."
Neia didn't wait for the refusal of her company, but resumed her steady walk, her steady walk was unhurried, her pace, even. Against the wall she saw the shadows cast by candlelight against the stone walls, and for a moment her shadow was all there was beside her.
Until a second shadow joined it, CZ had fallen in at Neia's right, the shadow of their hands overlapping in stone as candles flicked and danced in the very faint breeze provided by the occasional open stone window.
They walked in amiable silence, though occasionally Neia stole a glance to her right out of the corner of her eye to see if she was in fact deceiving herself about the presence of company at her side.
But CZ went neither faster nor slower than Neia, and nor did she veer off down some other hall as if there were some other task at hand, but at the forefront of Neia's mind, was the thought, 'She's being excessively polite, going all this way before she finds reason to be elsewhere.'
So when they found themselves down the stairs and at the door to the baths, and CZ reached to the pale spruce door and pressed it open, then held it politely, Neia took a half step of uncertainty. 'Really?' She asked herself, before she recovered and took a full step in to join the maid demon.
The baths were empty but for the two women, however the water was still steaming and hot, and not far away somebody had left an unopened bottle of liquor sitting beside the stone seating area within the water. 'Good to take a bath in a castle.' Neia grinned slightly and began to peel off her equipment and set it aside as CZ did the same.
As the two stripped, Neia looked with curiosity at the exposed skin of the maid demon. The maid outfit covered up a great deal, and Neia wasn't sure what she expected to see. But there beneath the ruffles and simple looking black and white fabric, was an ordinary, smooth skinned young woman appearing not much difference in age than herself. Only the strange green eye indicated that she was anything other than human.
The long light auburn hair bounced freely as CZ moved with the grace of an experienced maid, and it was not until she had completely finished undressing and hanging up her outfit, that Neia caught herself and began to undress herself.
She felt CZ's eyes roaming over her flesh, and blushed slightly. 'Is she like that?' Neia wondered, and glanced over at CZ. "Ah, is something wrong?" Neia asked with a slight shy quiver to her voice.
"I saw you looking at me as I undressed. I thought that must be what is polite among humans." CZ explained, and cocked her head. "Am I doing it wrong?"
Neia brought her hand up to her mouth and stifled a laugh, then waved her other hand lightly. "No, no I'm sorry. I was being rude by looking, it's considered impolite. I was just, I'd never seen a demon's body before. At least, not when one wasn't trying to kill me."
"Oh." CZ said with a very slight and almost unnoticeable shrug of her shoulders.
"I apologize." Neia bowed her head, and then put away her equipment, hanging it all on a nearby hook.
"It's fine." CZ said in a dismissive monotone, and when Neia finished, the two took up towels and wooden buckets and walked to the large open pool of steaming water.
Neia sighed as she slowly eased herself in, sending small ripples outward from herself as she broke the surface tension and became as one with the hot water. She reached for the brown bottle that sat on the wooden tray and popped the cork.
"Do demons drink alcohol?" Neia asked with curiosity as CZ slid in beside her.
CZ shrugged, "I never have."
"Want to try it?" Neia asked as she poured some into the lone empty wooden cup.
"OK." CZ answered indifferently.
"OK so this stuff is to be simply 'shot' no, don't go getting your weapon, not that kind of shot!" Neia laughed as CZ started to rise from the baths with her eye toward where her weapon sat.
"It means 'drink quickly'." Neia explained, "Like this." She then put the little cup to her lips, and snapped her head back, tilting the cup at the same time so that the burning liquid poured over her tongue, and ran down her throat where it hit her stomach.
She felt the warm burn in her gut and exhaled happily. "Now that's good." Neia said enthusiastically and poured another cup. She then handed it over to CZ who looked down at it curiously.
"Go on." Neia said with warm encouragement in every word.
CZ threw the shot back just the way Neia had, and then handed the cup back. "I see." The maid demon said, "This is a low grade of poison, creating a euphoric effect on those who consume it… the euphoria fades when the poison is passed out of the system."
Neia cocked her head, "Lot of words there for 'drinking feels good'." The squire said, the corner of her mouth curling inward as she looked dubiously at her maid demon counterpart.
"Can maid demons get drunk?" Neia asked with further curiosity.
"My creator put something in me called 'intoxication protocol' allowing the presence of alcohol to activate certain behavioral patterns that mimic what you call being 'drunk'." CZ replied, "However I must turn it on for it to be effective, and it is currently 'off' so no, I cannot get drunk."
"Uh, Oh. OK." Neia looked away from the maid demon and looked out into the thick steam of the empty bath, she poured another drink, took another shot, and then dipped her bucket in the water and poured it over her head. The hot water ran over her body and rejoined the water filled pool, and she shook her head vigorously, casting water droplets from her straw blonde hair.
"Don't humans need sleep?" CZ asked in a not quite neutral tone.
"Yes, but I can't sleep well tonight. I had..." Neia's mouth clamped tight.
"Had what?" CZ asked as she leaned slightly closer to where Neia sat looking into the empty room.
"I had a nightmare. A kind of dream so frightening that it woke me up, now I can't sleep. What about you, did you have one too?" Neia asked in return, finally glancing a little into CZ's direction.
'Do demons even have nightmares?' Neia wondered, but chose not to ask the question.
"No. I only regenerate for a short time before returning to full function." CZ answered and took up the wooden bucket and did as Neia had done a moment before. "I do not experience anything during that time of regeneration."
"Oh. Lucky." Neia said with more bitterness than she intended her words to convey, she snapped her jaw shut as if to bite the words as they left her mouth.
"Are nightmares common for humans?" The maid demon asked innocently as Neia threw back another shot.
"Some of us. Children mostly, children and people who endure lots of difficult things." Neia replied, gritting her teeth as the shadow of the forgotten dream teased her consciousness. Her heart began to race again, she shifted in her seat and gritted her teeth.
"Are they injuries?" CZ asked in an almost professionally interested fashion.
Neia chuckled in a low, dark tone, "You might just say that. Not visible, but they can be, or the result of injury, I guess."
"How do you treat them? Healing potions?" CZ asked, "I have one…"
Neia snapped her head over to where CZ sat and stared, 'Nobody even on my own side, not a single human has ever said anything that indicated that they'd… try to heal me, help me.' The thought raced through her mind with such force that her entire body was shaken to the core, enough that the tremble was visible.
"N-No." Neia said and reached over to touch the forearm of the maid demon who was already rising from the water, the splash of every drop was like a war drum of its own, like the sound of reinforcements coming out of nowhere.
"Then…?" CZ had halfway risen and looked down to where Neia's hand held her arm.
"I, well. The way to treat it is to…" Neia began, then stopped, 'No.' She thought, and closed her mouth.
"Yes?" CZ asked, the strange, inhuman green eye focusing in on the sky blue of the Sorcerer King's squire.
Neia immediately reversed her previously thought 'no'. 'What's one more?' She cursed the no, and said it, "...is for someone close to the person with bad dreams, to stay with them, if that comfort is close when sleeping, a nightmare is less likely and may stay away."
"Oh." CZ eased herself back down into the water. "So where is your human to do that for you?" The maid demon's innocent question and cockeyed look yanked most of the sting out of the asking, but not enough to keep the frown from Neia's face.
She released her touch from CZ's arm and pointed her two fingers at her own eyes. "These make sure I don't have that. When you look like you hate people, people assume you do. So they stay away from me, and so I stay away from them, so I stay alone." She said it factually, with the years of her life having worn away the sting of her long accepted truth.
"Oh. I'm not human. Should I stay?" Or does it only work for humans?" CZ asked, "Your heart rate is very fast. Here, take this." CZ said, and she reached into a sudden nothingness, took out one of her little stickers, and put it on Neia's forehead. "My creator said these make things better."
Neia slowly reached up and touched the spot, and a wan smile formed on her face against her will, she felt her heartbeat within her chest begin to ease.
"It's working." CZ said with an almost imperceptible nod of confirmation.
"I-, w-well, yes. Thank you." Neia half stammered.
They finished the bath in silence, and rose together to take up towels and dry themselves off. They dressed again, and returned back the way they'd gone. 'Wait, was I saying yes to her coming with me, or acknowledging the…' Neia pondered and touched the sticker on her forehead, she felt her pulse race a little. 'Guess I'll find out.' Neia dismissed her curiosity with a mental shrug, and yawned loudly as they approached CZ's quarters.
The maid demon's shadow however, continued to dance on the wall, mixed and mingled with the shadow of Neia Baraja as the candle flames bounced in the breeze that faintly chilled Neia's still slightly damp skin, all the way back to her quarters.
Neia reached for the door, the metal grip felt colder, and the door heavier, than when she'd come out of it alone, as if it bore more weight than before when another person was with her. 'Silliness.' Neia dismissed her own anxious thoughts as she opened it into the darkness of her empty room.
CZ followed behind her with brisk, easy steps out of Neia's sight as the squire went to the wooden cross that held her armor. She lowered it over top, hanging it over with the top through the head and the arms holding up the shoulders of the green scale mail armor. She peeled off her other equipment, and heard the sound of a faint creak behind her as she put on her night clothes again, which were really just… her day clothes without armor, and turned around. CZ sat at the head of the cot with her knees curled under her and leaning slightly over so that one hand rested at the end beside her.
Neia's narrow eyes were focused, outside, the moonlight had become visible and cast it's glow through the window, illuminating the maid demon. To her surprise, despite the blank and neutral expression on the face that looked back at her, Neia could sense a kind of welcome, openness that she never got from other humans.
It drew her in like a siren's call to a sailor lost at sea. Then slowly, Neia got onto the cot, and laid down, resting her head on CZ's lap she closed her eyes briefly at the unexpected softness of the skin beneath the fabric. 'Better than any pillow…' She thought and yawned again. Her right hand went up and rested just behind CZ's knee and gave it a very small squeeze.
"I didn't expect you to…" Neia began to whisper, and paused as she tried to find the words she wanted, 'Do this? Go this far? Care? Come with me? Actually do what you said you'd do?' Numerous ends to the sentence came and went within her mind. Finally she settled on the way to end it, "...be this comfortable with me."
CZ's right hand came up and rested over Neia's shoulder and began to stroke it lightly. Neia felt her eyes grow heavy and the racing heart began to beat steadily again as it did in tranquil hours.
"Of course I am. We are comrades. Friends." CZ tapped the sticker on Neia's forehead with one finger as if to remind her it was there, then resumed the slow movement of her hand over Neia's side.
Sleep was calling Neia like an old friend, wakefulness began to fade away as she scooted a little farther up CZ's thigh and curled herself a little tighter. "Friends… yes. I like that." Neia murmured, and drifted finally into a sleep where no nightmares could find her.
(Doing a lot of rewrites of early work to post them on Royal Road, find my 'original' isekai on there by searching 'Scales of Trust', a dragon goes to a stone age world).