“And I believe that concludes our business for the afternoon,” said Nadezha. The poor goblin needed to stand on a chair to be seen at the long table in the dungeon’s main hall. “Unless anyone has anything further to add?”
Around the table, Delilah’s highest echelon grunted their desire to be done. Nadezha’s eyepatched sister was picking her fingernails, and across from the pair, Yudeka let out a wide yawn from between her tusks. There were plenty of other faces too, drawn from across the continent by Delilah’s magic to join the fledgling Alliance of the Shadow. It was a busy table. But the manticore hadn’t made it, since she was sick with a cold. That freed up a lot of space.
“Sorceress?” asked Nadezha, pushing her glasses up her nose. “Do you have anything to add?”
Delilah shook her head. “I cannot think of anything. Dismissed, everyone. Until the morrow.”
The Alliance began chatting amongst themselves as they rose from their seats, bowed to their leader and made their way out of the hall. Many would be heading to the kitchen. Delilah had heard many a tummy rumbling during the long meeting.
“Did you manage to record all of that?” she asked.
Sitting directly beside her, Tomas was scribbling away on his parchment. The human boy was the new Accord representative with Sam away. He was a little younger than his superior, and his shaggy, blond hair lacked Sam’s sleek grace and professionalism. But he was dedicated, and Delilah liked the way he smiled, all aglow with the desire to be useful.
“I believe so, Sorceress,” he reported, rolling his aching wrist in its socket. “Um, though I did not catch what the, uh, ‘transient clause’ was in our discussion of the treaty’s Article Eight.”
Delilah groaned behind her silk mask. Some days, when she remembered her responsibility to Accord bureaucracy, her iron crown felt heavy indeed.
“I can fill you in over dinner, if you like,” she said. “Though it is an awfully droll topic.”
“Over… dinner?” Tomas looked over at her with a charming shade of red in his cheeks.
“Unless you’d rather eat with someone else.”
“N-No! No, Sorceress! I would gladly…!”
He grinned with bashful enthusiasm, and Delilah chuckled. Tomas was not Sam, but she could enjoy him just as well. Moreso, in some ways. If the lad was amenable.
“Excuse me, Demon Sorceress.”
Delilah smiled for Nadezha, who was pointedly looking away from the two of them as she approached the end of the meeting table.
“I had another matter to discuss today,” said the bookish goblin. “But I did not wish to bring it up in front of the others in case it frustrated you.”
Her bloodshot eyes moved to Tomas, who took the cue at once and made to rise. But Delilah put a hand on the shoulder of his blue uniform coat and pushed him back down to his seat.
“Let us have it, Naddie,” she said. “I am a big girl. I can handle some bad news.”
“It is not bad news necessarily,” said the goblin, pushing her spectacles up once more. “But some members of the horde have expressed a desire to… to leave the Old Saint’s Dungeon now that hostilities are essentially concluded.”
“Leave?” Delilah leaned back against her tall seat. “They do not like it here?”
“More that they would like to visit some of our neighbouring lands and see, um, what all the fuss is about,” reported Nadezha. “Many of my kin have friends among the humans of Ailey that they wish to visit, for example.”
Delilah smiled. As much as she enjoyed the bustling atmosphere of the dungeon with its grand diversity of denizens, she had never intended for everyone to remain here forever. Her plots had foreseen the horde marching across the continent and razing the human cities to ash. Letting them see the world as tourists instead was no worse an outcome.
“That is fine. I am sure they know to remain on guard on the open road.”
“There is also a city to the south that you may have heard of, Sorceress,” Nadezha continued with an eye on the notes she had made during the meeting. “One of the original treaty signatories, Layman-upon-Waters.”
“Oh?”
“They apparently have something called a ‘certificate of aegis’ that invites visitors to become citizens of the city, even allowing them employment and accommodation. In theory, it does not distinguish between humans and other species. Many I have spoken to of late are eager to try this for themselves. To try living in a human population for a time. If that is… alright with you, Sorceress.”
Layman. A familiar name, of course. Visions of thick, brown hair and remarkable teal eyes returned to Delilah’s memory. This certificate of whatever sounded like Elliot’s doing.
“That could be a positive step forward for all of us,” she said. “Yes, let them go and sample human life for a time, then have them write back to me with their thoughts. If this scheme of Layman’s works out, perhaps we could even introduce something like it here.”
Nadezha’s eyes widened. “Do you truly think so?”
“Or maybe I could go and see the city for myself,” Delilah added with a hungry purr. “It sounds like a fun place.”
He would be there, after all. And Delilah knew Elliot of Layman to be very entertaining. She laughed, eliciting a confused frown shared between Nadezha and Tomas.
“Thank you for that input, Sorceress,” said the goblin. “I shall leave you to it.”
She curtsied – so cute – then turned to leave. Delilah leaned along the table towards her human secretary.
“Ever been to Layman?” she asked.
“Never, Sorceress,” he replied with a charming grin. “This commission is the first time I ever left High Tower, actually.”
“You don’t say. Ah, Tomas, you have reminded me!” Delilah stood to her feet and put her hands on the lad’s shoulders when he joined her. “I never showed you the deepest layer of the dungeon! Would you like to see it?”
“The deepest layer? Is it very interesting?”
She took a step into his space. She and Tomas were roughly the same height, but the points of Delilah’s crown made her just a touch taller. Tomas blushed as he stared into her demonic red eyes, inches from his.
“It is very interesting,” she said with a dark giggle.
“W-Well, in that case,” Tomas replied, licking his lips, “please! Lead the way!”
She did, taking his arm and pulling him towards the stairwell. The corridors of the Old Saint’s Dungeon echoed with the excited laughter of the Demon Sorceress.
laymenstory
Ewan Stone 
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