Author's Notes: There be OCs in them thar hills. Also, this is what I like to call a partial Exposition Chapter™.

So, retail kicked me firmly in the ass, and I managed to get precisely none of anything I wanted to get done! So, apologies for that. This will probably be the only chapter I get out on Christmas, though I am going to try my hardest to get the next chapter of strike twice and Louder than Words ready by New Years.

I'm trying to bring a little bit more comedy back into this story, though that will take a little while to properly incorporate. But have faith! It's not all darkness ahead.

Chapter Twenty-Eight:

Princess of the Tower

There was a cold chill in the air as Margate Whist hurried out of the kitchen and to the tower in the very middle of Lord Kami-sama's home. It was an honor, the small Birkan girl thought, to be given such a task.

Matron had even said that Lord Kami-sama had told her to have one of her girls bring food to his wife, and since no one else had been able to go, she'd told Margate. He didn't want one of 'his coarse soldiers' tending to the Lady, the Matron said, and that Margate had to be on her best behavior, and not to disturb the Lady, who had fits occasionally.

She was small and clumsy, Margate was, and barely anything to look at – her hair was brown and her eyes were brown and her wings were rather crooked. She wondered how beautiful the Lord Kami-sama's wife was. She surely had to be the most beautiful woman in the world, if Lord Kami-sama had married her.

Margate had never seen the Lady before, and had barely ever seen the Handmaids, who all remained in the Tower to guard the Lady. But now she would get a chance! She giggled, resisting the urge to dance and maybe drop the tray.

"Wait! Mar, stop for a minute." The shout behind her halted her in her tracks.

A tall girl, dressed in the same stark-white uniform-dress Margate wore, hobbled over. She was taller than Margate by a head and a half, her eyes a bright blue, and her skin fair darker than most of the other girls Margate knew.

People had said that Ebba Wuyo's mother had been of the barbaric Shandians, but Margate didn't know how she could have been. Kasa Wuyo had been a gentle, soft woman before she died, nothing at all like those stories of the slavering, bloodthirsty Shandians they had been taught of by their tutors.

"Ebba! I must get this food to the Lady before it gets cold. What's wrong?"

The older girl had a placid face most days, but Margate could see the worry in her large eyes.

"May I walk with you, little sister?" It was a common thing, for all the girls who worked in the home of the Lord Kami-sama to call each other sister.

"Of course, big sister."

They walked at a quick pace to the Tower, in silence. Then Ebba spoke.

"Sister, what do you know of the Lady and the Tower?"

Margate thought on that. "That she is the Lord Kami-sama's wife, and that she is ill and must be protected. That the Tower is heavily guarded by soldiers and by the Handmaidens, who are sworn by their lives to protect her?"

The selfsame Tower loomed in the distance.

Ebba smiled wryly. "I suppose that is true. But, Margate?"

She looked up at the older girl, and saw her tremble, which sent a fission of fear down Margate's back.

"Margate, whatever you do, do it quickly. Do not stop, do not dally for anything inside the Tower. Get the food to the Lady and get gone, am I clear?" Ebba's voice was hard and fierce, and Margate yelped as the girl seized her shoulders in a firm grip.

"Big sister, what-"

"No matter what you see, tell me that you will not stop, that you will not converse with anyone. If you must greet them, do so as quickly and politely as you can and get out. Give the food to the Lady and leave, for your own life."

Ebba's hands were like claws digging into her skin. "I don't underst-"

"Promise me."

"But why-"

"Promise me!"

Margate nodded frantically, her eyes stinging with tears at the harsh treatment. Ebba sighed, sitting back, and kissed her forehead. Her fingers were no longer like claws.

"Tell me that you will, Margate."

"I-I will do my duty quickly and leave quickly, without dawdling," Margate stammered a bit, jolted by the sudden change in mood.

"And be safe, darling sister," Ebba whispered, and there was grief on her dark face now, and old pain.

"I-what could possibly harm me in the heart of the Lord Kami-sama's domain?" Margate asked, bewildered.

Ebba laughed, a sound with no joy. "You would be surprised. Now go."

Margate watched instead as Ebba walked away, favoring her left leg as though it pained her greatly, before turning and hurrying on her way.

Ebba did like to speak in useless riddles, Margate thought, bowing to the soldiers at the door.

They let her through with only a cursory look over, which struck Margate as rather strange, considering they were responsible for the Lady's safety. But then again, the Lady had her Handmaids, and all who spoke of them said they were a hundred times more vicious and protective than any mere man could ever be.

Margate gasped as the door opened before her, and for the first time she saw the true splendor of the Tower.

The walls – which went so far above her head that she could not see where they ended – were a pure marble, with a spiraling staircase carved of strange metal embedded into the faintly glowing stone, along with countless gems and precious stones that shone dully in the faded light. The black-wood floors were polished mirror-bright, and a path of white stone led to a smaller tower in the middle of the building. Something metal was grinding, though the sound was muffled.

Margate shivered. She wasn't used to buildings without windows.

Even the rooms where she and five other girls lived were full of them, usually always thrown wide to catch the warmth of the sun, or a cool breeze. There was no breeze in this Tower, nor the light of the sun.

Why would the Lord Kami-sama subject his beloved wife to such a gloomy place?

Perhaps he just wanted in her somewhere she could be adequately protected…

Ebba's strange words came back to her then, as did the bitter laugh she had voiced when Margate had wondered what possible.

Margate felt sick in her stomach then, sick and cold.

But then door opened in the middle of the smaller tower, and the most beautiful woman Margate had ever seen in her life stepped out. Margate gasped, unable to help it.

The woman was tall and impossibly curved, like the ladies from those erotic books the boys giggled over in their barracks. She wore red silk that clung to her body, cut low to showcase cleavage that Margate knew the older girls would have whispered in envy about. Her blue-black hair was curled and piled into a lazy knot atop her head, letting a few curls escape to frame a pale face carved with high cheekbones and lush red lips.

"My, you must be the new girl." Even her voice was beautiful, warm and curiously accented.

No matter what you see, tell me that you will not stop, that you will not converse with anyone. If you must greet them, do so as quickly and politely as you can and get out!

Margate curtsied clumsily with the tray in her hands, Ebba's words ringing like a siren in her head. "I have come to bring food to the Lady," she said, and nothing more.

Those perfectly arched brows raised, and the woman smiled. It was not a pleasant thing to be on the receiving end of, and Margate had the sudden impression of standing before the eyes of some great, bloodthirsty beast.

She did not tremble, feeling Ebba's hands on her shoulders. The memory of it grounded her.

Then the woman laughed, and beckoned. "Come, child. Let us feed the dear…Lady. We wouldn't want her to become too thin, now would we?"

Margate followed her to the door she had exited from, and stood inside the small room. The walls were made of all glass around them, and Margate could see metal gears and such embedded in the walls outside of the glass.

She jerked, nearly losing her balance as the room shuddered and started moving up. A hand on her shoulder steadied her, and Margate looked up into the eyes of the Handmaiden. They were pitch-black, as cold as the hand on her shoulder was.

"Careful, don't fall," the Handmaiden said, smiling insincerely.

Again Margate thought of Ebba, and said nothing as the moving room took them to the very top of the Tower. (Though she did look curiously around at the strangeness of it all. Imagine, a room being able to do this!)

The door opened, and the Handmaiden stepped out into a large hall. She guided Margate and her tray around the hall – which curved in a circle around the smaller tower and its moving room – past several doors, before stopping at one and pushing it open.

"Sisters!" she called, her voice viciously amused. "A new girl has come, to bring nourishment to the great Lady!"

Laughter - rolling, feminine, and every bit as mocking as the Handmaiden's – rolled out, bright and peeling, as the Handmaiden ushered Margate into the room.

It was as wide and spacious as the rest of the Tower, with plush carpeting, and walls painted a deep, warm blue. The furnishings – chaises, and pillows were strewn everywhere, for comfort and warmth – were splendid things, befitting the Lord Kami-sama's lady with all silk and velvet. But Margate's attention was drawn to the group of women gathered around a small dais situated in the middle of the room.

They were the Handmaidens. No other women could be quite so beautiful, or so entrancing to the eyes as the Handmaidens. They were a canopy of riotous, sensual colors – from the breathtaking silk clinging to their every curve, to the luscious manes of hair that they wore in varying fashions.

It was strange, though. They were all pale skinned. Cloud-pale skinned, varying shades of ice-cold-snow. Margate was used to the different skin colors of her friends – while many were some shade of pale, they weren't like this. As though they'd never seen the sun.

One woman, with long swirls of blue-blonde hair that dripped curls around her beautiful face, leaned forward and smiled, showing all her teeth. "My, such a diligent little girl, to be so loyal to your…Lady."

The women tittered.

"Now, none of that, Uusoae," a woman to her left, one with lips as red as blood and hair as white as snow, said, holding a fan to her lips to hide her expression. "So, darling girl, what is your name?"

The feeling of being prey before a beast was stronger now, and Margate could just barely control the trembling.

"Dear heart, come closer," a woman with eyes like black pits said. Her yellow robes spilled low to showcase her cleavage.

"Enough." The voice was quiet, firm, and tired, and it came from the woman sitting on the dais, in the middle of the wild bouquet of ladies surrounding her.

Margate took one look at the woman sitting on the golden chair, and knew without having to be told that this was the Lord Kami-sama's Lady.

Her first thought was one of confusion. How could the Lord Kami-sama choose someone so-so ugly looking?

She was painfully thin, for starters, her stark cheekbones jutting out of a face meant for plumpness and vitality. Her skin might have once been a creamy gold, but now looked ashen and almost unnatural, almost sickly. Her clothing was opulent, of course – all silk in vibrant colors - but fit badly, and she did not seem comfortable in it.

There were gold bracelets on her ankles and wrists, and a large golden collar around her neck, embedded with flashing stones Margate had no name for.

She looked exhausted and ill, not like any Lady, and for a moment Margate wondered why the Lord Kami-sama had chosen someone like this as his wife.

Then Margate looked into the woman's eyes. They were pools of black-brown, swirling with warmth and light that none of the Handmaidens could ever hope to emulate. They shone with power and will and determination, and Margate trembled then, at the caged storm that sat on the dais before her.

…caged?

Why had she thought that-

"Bring the Lady her food, girl," the Handmaiden who had greeted her sneered, shoving her forward.

A snarl from the Lady stopped the Handmaiden in her tracks. Her teeth were bared when Margate's eyes shot up to hers, and her rage seemed to fill the whole room. There was a perilous stillness in the air, and the Handmaiden took a step back.

"You don't order me around, My Lady," she hissed, the words a mockery.

"No, perhaps not," the Lady said, and her bearing was as regal as the Lord Kami-sama's. "But I hold something important in my hands, something you cannot see taken from you in fear of your life."

The Handmaidens shied away, and the woman behind Margate made a noise that, in a lesser woman, might have been one of fear.

"You would not dare! You know what will happen to your precious Shandians if you try-"

"What will that matter? I will be beyond you, and you will have the breaking of your Contract to deal with. Take the girl's tray, and let her leave."

The room was on a knife's edge for several aching moments, before the Handmaiden sniffed, and took the tray. She brought it to the woman, setting it on her lap.

"My apologies for not letting it be warm, my Lady," she said, her smile only reaching one side of her mouth. "The girl…dawdled."

"With you toying with her, I'm not surprised. Thank you, my girl," the Lady said, and smiled so sadly at Margate that she just had to do something.

Margate clutched her skirts in both hands, and for the first time in her life executed a proper curtsey, low and reverent.

"May you be well, my Lady," she whispered, before looking back up. The woman's eyes were soft now, and kind.

Then she raised her hands slowly, as if the sumptuous golden bracelets weighed a great deal, and made shooing motions. Margate hurried to the door, and out of the room.

The traveling up-down room moved the moment she was safely inside, carrying her to the bottom floor, past all of the fine luxuries of the Tower's interior. She stepped out of the room and back into the ground floor, hurrying along the path to the outer door.

Her hand on the wood, the Birkan girl stopped, and looked around. The crystals on the walls sparkled fiercely now, glowing with a painful light that Margate shied away from.

And in the distance, far above her, she heard something like a scream of agony mixed with the Handmaidens' laughter, and she trembled.

Margate hurried out of the Tower, and did not stop until she reached her rooms. Closing the door behind her, she looked up to see Ebba sitting on her bed.

Tears stung at her eyes and spilled over.

"W-Why am I crying?" she asked the older girl in a pitiful voice.

"Oh, Mar," Ebba whispered, and held out her hands. Margate rushed into them as the tears came in a flood.

"I don't know w-why I'm crying, Ebba!" she wailed into the girl's chest. "But the Lady, the Lady-"

The image of the unnaturally pale and sickly Lady, with her golden jewelry like chains-

Like she was prisoner, and not a Lady.

"Margate, you must be strong for her, all right? Be strong for the Lady, and for me, and go about your day to day life, do you understand?" Ebba said softly.

"But it's…it's not right!"

"Oh, sister, I know. I know. But we must live, for us and for her. We cannot draw punishment on her or on anyone else even if we know this is wrong."

Margate threw herself back, glaring up at Ebba. She still didn't know why she was so angry and so sad, wasn't able to understand it fully. "You're a c-coward! We should protect our Lady, so why won't you-"

"I already tried." Ebba reached down, and pulled her dress up, over her left leg.

Margate gasped. She had known that Ebba had trouble with walking, and mentioned on occasion that her leg pained her, but the ruin before her eyes horrified her.

Ebba's leg was mangled, twisted and lame, covered in massive amounts of scar tissue as though something had tried to rip it off.

"I tried to say something, and I nearly died in the process. I was lucky only the Handmaidens' dogs went after me, and luckier still that the Lady intervened for me. The dogs instead went after her, and I was forced to watch." Ebba's voice was flat and cold. "So yes, I will keep my peace, and will say and do nothing that will cost her more pain or fear. And neither shall you."

Margate, still sniveling, wiped her eyes and nodded.

"Come here, nānu," Ebba crooned, and Margate did so, crawling into her sister's arms to cry anew.

"Why would Lord Kami-sama permit-?" the girl sobbed, and Ebba shushed her quickly, rocking her as gently as was possible.

The two girls held each other as the day passed into night, and no one came to get them. Not even Matron, well known for her strict hand with the girls under her watch bothered them.

As Margate's breath slowed out, and her sobs faded into a deep, exhausted sleep, Ebba looked out the window to the Tower in the distance.

If she were the sort, she might have prayed for guidance.

But she did not know who – or rather, what - might hear her if she did.

"No Daemons-"

"Well, that's something, I suppose."

"You didn't let me finish," Kelly said mildly. "There are no Daemons around the river currently, but there have been Daemons here before. I would surmise that this river has been used as an ambush site for those foolish enough to linger."

Usopp went ashen. "Oh, my mistake then."

"You know Daemons well?"

Robin had come up to watch as Kelly leapt back onto the boat. The Magus's eyes narrowed at the archaeologist, who held up her hands in a defensive gesture.

"I only ask because it seems you know them better than all of us," Robin said, her voice soothing. "Any advantage we can gain will only aid us further in survival."

"I suppose you're right," Kelly said grudgingly. "But I don't know much."

"Anything you can tell us would be appreciated."

The Straw Hats gathered around her, eyes wary, fearful, or just plain watchful. Kelly sighed, and rubbed a hand over her face.

"What do you know about Daemons?"

The pirates exchanged looks.

"In East Blue they're mostly legend," Zoro said, his voice quiet. "But I've met one or two before."

"So have I," Nami said, and her eyes were dark with past memories. "They were…they were monsters, and they ate all they could get their hands on. They were never able to take human forms, or speak."

"How did you get away?"

Nami grinned, showing every last one of her teeth. "Fire," she and Zoro said in unison, and the two of them looked at each other in surprise.

Kelly laughed a bit, as Gin and Shere leapt onto Merry's figurehead to keep watch. "Fire works the best at keeping them at bay, or for killing them if at all possible, especially if you do not have the brute strength needed to tear them apart."

The Magus sat back, remembering what Kureha had taught her. "I don't know the hierarchy ranks especially, but from what I have known, it is separated into three distinct groups. The Horde are the lowest, and can barely keep a human form. It is only the strongest of them that are capable of human speech, and them only just. The Servants are the next level. They are capable of creating Thralls."

"Like the spider woman we faced in Arabasta?" Usopp asked, and Kelly's eyes snapped to his.

"What?"

Usopp flinched back a bit. "We, uh, we fought a Daemon with a bunch of...Thralls in Arabasta?" he offered lamely, and Kelly stared at him in blank shock.

"Y-You managed to escape from a Servant."

"Yeah!" Chopper piped up, casually clinging to Usopp's shoulder. "It was scary, but we did it! Usopp set her on fire, too!"

Two non-Magi, two of the acknowledged weakest of the Straw Hats, and they defeated something that would have killed men twice as old as they...

And to think the fandom called him a coward, Kelly thought, looking at Usopp in a new light. He wants so desperately to be a brave warrior of the sea – but I think he has already well grasped his dream in hand.

His only problem, I think, is realizing it.

"Usopp…you're amazing, do you know that?" Kelly said wonderingly. "You too, Chopper."

Both reindeer and boy blushed, flailing a bit.

"In any case, Servants generally are incapable of being killed by humans - unless said humans have a very quick mind and an array of bombs, it seems," she said, grinning at the two.

Then her smile died. "And the greatest of all Daemons…the Highborn."

Quiet spread throughout the ship, a quiet broken only by the near-silent sounds of the river, and the desolate wind through the immense trees.

"You fought some in Arabasta," Zoro said, and she looked up at him. "You and Ace both did."

"You're correct." Her eyes found Sanji's then, and she saw the fear that flickered through them before it was quickly hidden. "Something you must know about all Daemons, regardless of the hierarchy...they consume flesh. It does not matter if it is animal, human, or some combination of the two, like myself. They are endlessly, endlessly hungry, though the higher in rank, the more exact they are about what and how they eat."

She leaned back, looking up at the tiny bits of sky she could see through the canopy.

"Fear is their drink, blood is their wine. The Highborn have a desperate love of it, and the Servants – such that they can – emulate them to the best of their ability. They have spent centuries upon centuries learning how best to get these things for themselves. How to mimic humans, how to entrance the unwary and such. They kidnap humans and anyone, anything else they please, and do what they wish."

There was not a single stoic face among the Straw Hats, apart from Zoro, who looked more ill than unmoved.

"I don't know their range of powers, but I have seen incredible strength, speed, and endurance from them. Manipulation of shadows, control over lesser creatures, the things they are capable of creating – it is only the smallest fraction of what I suspect Daemons are capable of. But one of their deadliest abilities, and only a scant few can do this…they can negate Devil Fruit powers."

Dead silence and pale faces abounded.

"Not all of them, of course, and only certain ones are able, and I've only met one or two. Logia types may very well be immune, as Ace was in Arabasta. But, yes. There are Daemons capable of negating Devil Fruit powers."

She sighed. "So now you know everything I know about Daemons. Trust no one you meet on the Line, especially not those who appear to be comely humans, those humans who look too beautiful to be true. If you must trust anyone, trust those like me."

"Those like you?" Robin looked fascinated, but also wary, her eyes drinking in the information greedily.

Kelly rolled back her sleeve to show her scales. "Non-humans. Fishmen, Snakemen, and all our kin."

"And Dragon-people and winged folk, too!" Chopper exclaimed. "Like Doctorine!"

Kelly grinned. "Exactly so, Chopper. From what Doctorine herself told me, Daemons cannot take the forms of non-humans, no matter of what race they are."

"Ehhhhhh! That old hag wasn't human?" Luffy spoke up for the first time, his eyes wide and curious.

The Magus whacked him upside the head. "Show some respect, you dumbass," she sniffed at him, fighting not to laugh. "But, yes, Ageha is not human. Her lineage comes from Dragons, who are second only to the Phoenix in terms of their healing abilities."

"Why didn't she tell us?" Nami asked.

"Because most of you are very much human, and non-humans have been taught early on, by tales or by hard experience, that trusting humans is a foolish concept," Kelly said, feeling uncomfortably like she was betraying Ageha by saying this. "...Especially those non-humans who are considered a rare delicacy by the slave markets of humanity. Dragon-people are foremost among them."

More silence, and dawning horror. Chopper looked quiet and sad. Kelly sighed again, regretting her words. Christ, but she always had a way of 'improving the mood', didn't she.

"But that's irrelevant and not important at the moment," she said with a small nod. "Our problem are the Daemons here. I've never fought against Daemons whose bestial forms were so human, and we have no idea how many there are-"

A snarl erupted from Gin, to be echoed by one from Shere. Kelly was on her feet and on the railing, just as a piercing screech echoed through the woods, one she had heard before. The Horde was hunting.

Then she heard – or rather felt - something else, something that reached out and grabbed at her Magic. It wasn't an assault or any attempt to steal what was hers, but rather like a hand desperately clutching at her sleeves, pleading for help.

Gin and Shere were moving as her Magic roared in her veins, though she was not even aware of it. Now full-sized, her Familiars leapt into the trees with equal snarls of rage. As they disappeared from the sight of the Straw Hats – though not from hers – they were met with more of the inhuman shrieks.

The noise was indescribable, but soon Gin and Shere exploded back out of the tree line. A ragged white bundle was clamped in Gin's jaws, and Kelly knew in an instant that it had been what had called out to her.

Her feet tapped off the railing, just as the first of the Daemons came through the trees, howling grotesquely. These were members of the Horde, the lowest of the low, more pools of twisted and warped monstrosity than anything that could or should exist in the natural world.

Not animal or human Thralls. No, whatever hunted here had power enough to keep members of the Horde, as low-ranking as they may have been, under their slavering control.

A thing that looked like a bastard cross between a human born of lava and a manticore leapt for her throat. She ducked under the slash while still in midair, her claws ripping it into shreds. Her foot caught the other beast and smashed it back and down, towards the river.

It screamed as it crashed through the surface, a doomed beast's howling for mercy, and it did not come back up. The river bubbled, and Kelly felt the Daemon vanish, purified by the river and the magics inherent in it.

She landed back on the deck, absently wiping her claws on her jacket, before reaching out with her magic, and reaching deep. The river shone with old, old magic, as intrinsic and incorruptible as the sun, the stars, the sky itself.

It was Magic, and it simply was.

She had been very wrong – this was definitely not an ambush spot, as no Daemon would be half so stupid as to get near a river that was practically pulsating with magic with every drop of water unless they had no choice in the matter. It was more likely that this was a place of last resort for animals or humans desperate to get away from the Daemons, and that many had been chased here.

Water was not near so efficient as fire in deterring and killing Daemons, but it was effective nonetheless. Adding magic to it simply made it moreso.

She turned to the bundle Gin had brought to them, and felt her mouth drop open. A tiny fox – bigger than she expected, but still rather small – with light purple fur blotted with blood sat there, Shere's much larger body curling protectively around the animal. It had one tail, and a long, inquisitive muzzle.

"Su!" it chirped, struggling to free itself of Shere's grip.

Shere made a grumbling noise and put a quelling palm on the fox, starting to lick at its wounds. The fox that Conis had – in canon – owned, made a noise that sounded a lot like a protest, chirping frantically at Kelly.

"Please!" Holy shit, the fox was talking.

Kelly blinked, snorted at her own sense of disbelief, (she was a human/snake hybrid walking around in a world where people broke every law of physics and nature on a regular basis, and this is what made her blink?) and knelt beside the creature.

"Please, are you the Snake traveling with the Blue Sea pirates?" the fox chirped out hopefully.

In response, Kelly pulled back her sleeve and showed the fox her scales. Su jumped for glee, only stopping when Shere put a paw on her head to force her to be still.

"Ahhhh, let me go you stupid cat! I have a message from my Mistress! It's important!"

"Calm down, little one, and give it to me. No need to further aggravate your injuries," Kelly said mildly, stroking her hand over Su's head.

"The message is in my collar, Dominus Saa!" The fox chirped, still obviously high as hell on adrenaline from the life-or-death run through the woods.

Kelly quickly removed the rolled up scroll stored in the collar's pouch, carefully unfolding it. But before she opened it, she looked down at the fox, who was now submitting to Shere's ministrations, watched over by an incredibly amused Gin.

Su was Conis's fox in canon. Su was now a fucking Familiar – the Magic inside her was unmistakable in that regard.

…did that mean Conis was a goddamn Magus?

Christ, what the fuck.

She shook her head, and went back to opening the letter. It was made of a thin, if sturdy, parchment, and the lettering was careful and elegant. She began to read.

Dominus Saa, in the name of the Shandora lōkō, I greet you!

I am Conis Allbright, first of her name, Lady Magus of my people, and I must come to you with a desperate plea.

Kelly rocked back on her heels. Well, that explained that. Conis – if this was truly her, and not some other Conis – was definitely a Magus, and one of some standing, as she recognized the greeting as one Kureha had taught her. Why was Conis with the Shandian people – if that was what that name meant?

"Ciel, what is it?" Nami asked, and Kelly flapped a hand at her for silence, before diving back into the words.

Our people lived once in a tense, unsteady peace with the rest of Skypiea, a peace my Lady Mother was working hard to make into something real. She would have been successful, if Gan Fall had not been ousted from his seat by a man named Enel and his priests when I was eleven years old.

Perhaps my Mother would have been able to best him on his own, even him and all of his cursed Priests, whom Enel had corrupted into less-than-human things, but Enel brought others with him, and a madness in his veins. Great monsters, the Daemons, those called the Sun Eaters by my kin, and they followed him willingly. They called him brother, and perhaps he was, for there was something inhuman in his eyes.

Mother fled with me on the day the Eaters and their minions came, fled with me to the camps of her grandfather, the Shandians. We were welcomed, but our troubles were not over yet.

Enel massacred anyone capable of standing against him, feeding anyone – including my father when he refused to let him know where my mother and I had gone – to the Daemons. The only thing that kept the Daemons from killing us all were the boundaries laid centuries ago by Magi on the temporary lands of the Shandians. My mother herself lost her life in maintaining that border, and now I am the only Magi left in all the islands.

I do not know what to do. While we are capable of hunting, and growing food, it is an awful life, a half-life. I have seen so many of my people, of my friends, of those I love die in screaming agony, and all I have to show for it are my regrets and a bare handful of land.

I ask – no, I beg of you, lend us aid. My goodsister spoke of you when she first came to us. She said you were a Magus of unparalleled power and strength, and that you were her staunchest protector before you two had been separated. She said you had saved her from a human who meant to rape her, and held her in your arms.

Kelly felt her blood freeze to ice in her veins. There was no way. There was no way-

Before she was taken, she gave me this necklace, and told me to give it to you if ever you came, so you would know the truth of my words.

Please, ya mitra. I am losing hope, and so are my people.

If at all possible, please help us fight back the plague. Help me set my people free, and regain our home.

The letter was signed with a curving C and A that mingled together, blurring a bit from the dried splotches that must have been tears. But that wasn't what held Kelly's attention.

A necklace lay nestled in a small pouch in the letter itself, and with shaking fingers she drew the chain out, and stared at it. It was silver, with half a moonstone carved in the shape of a sun dangling from a silver pendant at the middle of it.

She reached into her jacket front, and pulled the necklace she kept in a safe, inside pocket out into the open. This was a necklace much the same, but it had a moonstone carved to look just like a crescent moon dangling from it.

Very gently, she brought the two pendants, both moon and sun, together and pressed them together. They fit perfectly, of course. That had been why Kelly had bought them.

"C-Ciel? What is that?" Usopp asked tremulously, and gasped as she lifted her head.

Her cheeks felt very wet, and a distant part of her knew she was crying.

"A friend," she said, her voice hoarse even to her own ears. "I bought this for a friend, when we were children. I told her she was the sun to my moon."

Then she was elsewhere, remembering-

…her eyes go soft and sweet, and she curls into Kelly's side with casual intimacy.

"The sun to your moon? My, I never knew you were such a romantic, Kelly," Erin teases, and Kelly knows she is bright red, even as she giggles sheepishly. But she does not deny it…

-and then she was back in her own skin, back in her own scales, and she dove for Su, plucking the fox up and shaking it witless.

"Where is she?!" Kelly knew well and good that her anger was spilling out of control, but she couldn't stop it, and she didn't care.

She wasn't alone. Fucking god, she wasn't alone.

Erin was here, Erin was here.

"Take me to your Mistress, right now!" she thundered, ignoring Shere's attempts to get the bedraggled fox away from Kelly.

"Ciel, for god's sake, stop! You're hurting it!" Nami tried to pry at Kelly's arms, but that did nothing.

What did more was the conscious seeping of her magic past Kelly's skin. It soothed the desperate thing wailing in Kelly's chest, the thing she had thought properly shut away when she had first escaped the castles as a…well, not as a child, but when she'd had a child's body for the second time.

Her own magic responded, tangling and twisting with Nami's, and Kellyfelt her anger and fear leeching away.

"Ciel, what is it?" Nami asked, and a frission of tension fell away from the group.

"A friend of mine. One I have not seen in years…she's here. Here on Skypiea."

Kelly took a deep breath, hauling back the tears with all her strength.

"And I'm going to go find her."

TRANSLATIONS AND FOOTNOTES

nānu – Shandian Language; endearment: translates to 'little one'

Dominus Saa – Sermo; title: best translates to 'Lord Snake' in the Common Tongue

Shandora lōkō – Shandian language; name: this is the name used by people of Shandora (ie, the Shandians of canon) to denote their origin. It means 'People of Shandora'.

Ya mitra – Shandian language; phrase: 'beloved friend', used by those when speaking with someone who is an ally, but not as close as a brother or sister. Denotes some formality.

*Kelly isn't aware of varying ranks within the three categories of the hierarchy of Daemons, and it will be some time before she is. But for your own information, I've decided to show you all the hierarchy. Later, when more story is revealed, I will do the same for the Magi.

Of the Horde, there are three distinct groups (from weakest to most powerful):

· The Hungry - (Called Huklā in Tējavī.) These are the most commonly found in the Blue Seas.

· Nameless Horrors - (Añāe ban in Tējavī.) Some of these can be found in the Blue Seas.

· Voracious Devourers - (Khāa khā) Few have been seen in the Blue Seas.

Of the Servants, there are three more groups:

· Deep Ones – (Kōa viavan) Their members often fall into both the categories of Horde and Servants. Only one has ever been seen in the Blue Seas, and was thought to have been killed by Gold Roger.

· Golden Toothed – (Siēr d'tēi) Found in the first half of the Grand Line. Not so interested in human flesh as their kin, but infatuated with gold and jewels.

· Black Tongued – (Kā jabhae) They are the huntsmen and hounds masters of the Daemons, adept at creating lesser Thralls. The hunting Daemons seen so far in Skypiea, and the one Usopp and Chopper killed, are among their numbers.

Of the Highborn, there are four:

· Shadowstalkers – (Val ekrāvi) Like the Deep Ones, they inhabit a vague space between the ranks, and can be found as both Highborn and Servants. Ladon and Chimera, the Daemons Ace and Kelly fought in Arabasta, both belong to the Shadowstalkers.

· Sun Eaters – (Sūryai krā) The highest rank found in the first half of the Grand Line. Except for a few, most of their kind live in the New World, or in their own home plane. These are the Daemons that helped Enel conquer Skypiea.

· Princes of the Dark – (Gaada ni iē) The highest rank to willingly live in the human realms, and all who do are found in the New World.

· Kings of the Blood – (Rakt ni rē) The rulers of the Daemons, all of whom live on their own home plane, leaving only to hunt occasionally, or to find mates or playtoys. All other, lesser Daemons must obey without question the orders of the Kings.

Pleasant, aren't they?