Elsewhere...
Serenade Astra Salamaria, or as she preferred to be known as, The Torturer, gleefully counted her souls once again. Of course, by the standards of the demon society seven souls was nothing, a mere drop in the ocean compared to the number of souls that came in everyday waiting to be processed. But those were different.
They weren't hers, dealing with those souls was part of the job. She couldn't do whatever she wanted with those souls. But these ones were hers, gathered by her slave and indisputably her property. And they were the first of many. Before long she'd have more souls than she knew what to do with! And it was all thanks to her genius, her skills.
She'd known for the longest time that her particular method of refining souls was effective but none of the others had believed her. They'd called them 'crude' or 'amateurish' or even 'unimaginative.' They argued that excessive pain applied over an extended period of time would just break the souls beyond the point of any practical use. And yes, sure, that had happened a few hundred times, but that was before she had perfected her craft.
Now that she had she would be able to show all the doubters, all the nay-sayers and especially that dick for brains Underlord what she was really capable of! Whoever dared to say that results couldn't be obtained through pain alone would find those words choking them in their throats just before Astra choked them with their own entrails! She could do it! This was her opportunity to start her graceful ascent up the rungs of hierarchy. How high? As high as she could!
She was making sure her hooks were nice and sharp, ready to begin on the next souls, when a voice called out to her from the next room.
'Sera, I'm coming in.' Usually this would make Astra bristle. More than anything else in this world she hated her ridiculous name! She almost wished her mother would come back to life just so that she could kill her all over again, she'd probably be able to make it last even longer now! But she recognised the voice and would let the nickname slide as she called out a response and moved back into her office.
There wasn't actually much in her office, of course, she's designed it in the appearance of a throne room, a luscious red carpet stretched out across an immaculate stone floor leading to a small flight of stairs where her throne stood, backed by elegant black lace curtains. This was how she liked to do her work, gazing down at all the souls of the dead she was tasked with working on like they were beneath her, like they were, of course.
Eris was, as usual, draped across her throne, long legs stretched out seductively above her as she toyed with Astra's crystal ball on the other side of the throne. Another sign of disrespect, but as with all the others Astra would tolerate it, for now.
'I heard you finally had a bit of success,' Eris said, by way of opening their conversation. Astra allowed pride to swell her considerable chest.
'Indeed,' she replied, not bothering to hide her glee, 'I've finally perfected my training programme. It may take longer than I'd like but I will now be able to produce as many useful tools as I need.' Eris smiled down at her seductively. Then again, she did everything seductively. If Astra hadn't met some of the other demons, she would have described Eris as the living embodiment of lust itself.
Her fiery red hair and eyes with matching wings and horns contrasting with her perfect skin, long legs and good hips, every part of her body had been designed to appeal to men, mortal and demon alike. That there were somehow other demons that radiated even more sex appeal was proof of the superiority of their race.
'You sure sound pleased,' she commented, 'but need I remind you that if you can't replicate it during work hours it won't do you much good!' Astra's good mood evaporated instantly.
'I am aware of that!' she snapped, 'now that I know what works I can spend more time processing souls for the society. It shouldn't be too difficult to meet my next quota.' Eris set Astra's crystal back down on its cushion and gracefully leapt to her feet.
'That's good to hear,' she concluded, 'I can only cover for you for so long before my own workload is called into question. With so many of the lower-level demons out looking for that stupid Diary we are short staffed as is. We don't even know why the young Demon Lord wants it in the first place. Or much about it at all. How he expects us to find the thing with such limited information I have no idea.'
'It isn't really my problem,' Astra retorted, 'I only have the one slave, after all. No one bothered asking me to help with something like that.' Eris shrugged.
'Nobody is really expecting anything from you,' she said, on her way out, 'just keep your head down as you've been doing. And try to help your slave out as best you can. He's your only lifeline right now.' Astra's face contorted.
'What?' she snarled, 'are you implying that I am relying on him! Don't be ridiculous!' Eris paused with her hand on the door and sighed.
'It's nothing to get upset about,' she consoled, 'we all have servants and subordinates who help us with our work. Your insistence on doing everything yourself has put you in this mess. Just think about it, okay? I didn't spend all this time helping you out to see you throw it away at the last moment and ending up in that man's clutches, alright?'
Astra fought her frustration back as her friend departed. She was right, of course, none of the other supervisors insisted on doing everything themselves. She just hadn't found any servants worthy of her, after all! All the others had been too weak. They all broke too quickly. But that one, he'd endured. For far longer than the others. So much that it had gotten boring. She'd never grown bored of torturing someone before…
Still, Eris was right. She should at least get him a soul gem. That way he wouldn't have to use that one. She found her brow creasing with irritation at the thought of it. Oh sure, the scent was a female demon's but her sense of smell was better than most. That woman was just a servant. Behind her was that man. The one she had been born to serve and the man she so desperately wanted to kill! Was it a coincidence that one of his had contacted hers? Or was this another one of his schemes? She'd need to find out. And perhaps she'd need to tighten her dog's leash a little bit, to make sure it didn't think about wagging its tail for anyone else. Maybe she'd even give it a treat or two. Though of course, just the pleasure of serving her should be enough!