The dragon's harem

While Aella and Lexi found a house that wasn’t demolished to use as a temporary shower, Zephyr in the sky just finished dealing with the undying dracolich and flew down with a bothered face.

Zephyr landed at the window and looked inside, then flew to Aella, who was just drying her hair, “Those three are alive. The dracolich’s core is outside my domain, so it isn’t in this world. The devil will eventually resurrect in hell no matter what, and the witch should be alive as well; the devil saved her at the start.”

“What matters is that they won’t return anytime soon. What happened to everyone in the village? No one is around.” Aella approached, and Zephyr pointed back, “They were taken to hell, at least from what I can tell. It is not exactly hell, but a pocket dimension in it.”

Zephyr drew two massive circles on the dusty window glass, “Wizards can make small demi-planes here, just like how Merlin makes the inside of carriages larger. You can do the same anywhere; hell isn’t that different. Everyone is in a demi-plane in hell.”

Zephyr waved her finger, and a small red spark of magic floated above her, engulfed in radiant wind. “This is a trace of the gate they were using. We can give this Merlin, and she should be able to open a gate to pull the people out.”

Lexi looked around. The house they were in was mostly demolished, and this was the best one in the village; everything else had been turned to dust from Aella and the devil’s fight.

“They are safe, right?”

Zephyr shook her head, “That I don’t know. We need to get back to the castle and find Merlin. We can also go to Gojo, but the only one I’m sure can open the gate is Merlin.”

“Then let’s move.” Aella lifted herself and Lexi with wind magic. Zephyr sat on Aella’s head, and they were already on their way back.

“Shouldn’t we inform Gojo?” Aella asked, and Zephyr shrugged, “I doubt he knows, not about this attack, but that something is happening. We’ll inform him after we make sure that the people.”

Lexi looked back with a sad face, “The village is destroyed, though. It’ll take a lot to rebuild it.”

Aella looked at her and then looked forward. “The area around the main castle city is already being turned into fields, so we can’t build a village close by. But we can build one right after the fields, a bit further than Alina. That would make moving resources easy.”

Lexi blinked, “There, wait, they can’t afford land there.”

Aella nodded, “And we can’t afford to transport building material through long trips.” She sighed, “It is not in my hand, it is in Isdis’s hand. But, I’ll talk to her and see if we can find a piece of land they can settle in close by.”

When they arrived in the castle, Zephyr flew to Merlin right away. It didn’t take more than half an hour for Merlin to open the gate and start pulling the trapped villagers out one by one. Luckily, those three fools needed them alive and well, so most of them weren’t harmed, except for a few dead guards and men, with a bit of injured civilians.

But that didn’t mean they were fine. The demiplane they were thrown in protected them from hell’s deadly energy, but not in full; It still felt like being trapped in the sewers with acid in the air, burning their eyes and lungs.

Fear, pain, inflamed eyes and skin, disgust, horror, agony. Most of the people could barely breathe, let alone speak, after getting released, so sending them out wasn’t an option. Isdis ordered for them to be housed in the castle’s emergency shelter and be treated by the healers available to accelerate their recovery.

Physical wounds are easy enough to treat, but mental ones are far harder. Some of the soldiers were already getting back on their feet, but the humble villagers were already half broken by the horrors they saw. Aella couldn’t do anything but give Lexi a vacation to stay with her parents for a while.

To Aella’s surprise, Lexi still showed up on her shift.

“You! Shouldn’t you be with your parents?” Aella gasped, and Lexi smiled, “They are doing fine. I can come to work; they don’t need me by their side all of the time.” She smiled, “And besides, they wouldn’t be here alive and well if not for you, so I’m not going to abandon my duty here.”

“Fine, do what you want. But, keep an eye on them, hell isn’t gentle.” She patted her on the shoulder and walked out, heading to work with Isdis.

After a moment of silence, the other maids rushed at Lexi, “What did happen there?” One asked.

“I heard everyone got cast to hell! How did you get them back? I thought no one could return from there.” Another almost crashed into her.

“I heard some people mention a bone dragon and a devil! How did you even survive those? The Emperor didn’t help, did he?”

Lexi pushed them away to get some air and then sighed, “Calm down, it was crazy, yes. But…” She looked at the door. Aella had long since left, “Remember how jacked Queen Aella’s back was? That wasn’t for show, she wiped the floor with that archdevil.”

The maids froze for a second and then cried, “Wait! An archdevil? Wasn’t just a devil? Are you sure?”

“Is that archdevil stupid? Did he stand still for her to pelt him with arrows?” Another cried, and Lexi laughed.

“It was an archdevil, I’m a wizard, and I know a hellspawn when I see one. And Queen Aella just wiped the whole region with his face! She summoned this massive tornado that turned everything it touched into dust and scorched the side of a whole mountain range to the ground. When that bastard didn’t want to die, she evaporated him with an attack that I couldn’t even understand how its magic worked, it was an arrow that just destroyed everything.”

“Queen Aella? No way, the one who cries for half an hour after stabbing her toe on the side of the dinner table?” A maid couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“She looks harmless and gentle, but she is just as big a monster as the Emperor is. And that wasn’t the end! The devil cast her to hell when he died, so she just killed all of the devils there and found a way out, emerging just minutes later, engulfed with devils’ blood and guts.” She looked at the other maid, “See those powerful guards and knights, how horrified they were just by being sent to a cozy safe space in hell. The queen ripped her way through hordes of devils and came back like it was nothing.”

“I heard the Emperor can survive hell, but I thought that was just a rumor.” One maid said, and another shrugged, “You’ve seen how massive he is; he is also a powerful dragon, so I can understand if he somehow managed to come back. His forearm is wider than my hips. But Queen Aella, I can’t see her coming back.”

Lexi sighed, shook her head with a wistful smile, “I could blow a few buildings with fireballs, so I thought I would be strong enough to impress the Emperor and might get a chance at his side, if not as a Queen, then as a concubine at least.” She looked at Aella’s bed, “But now that I’ve seen what one of his wives could do. Being a mere maid here is probably too much even for me.”

“Come on! Not all the queens are that strong.” One maid looked at Lexi and just got a smile in return. “Think of Mira! She can’t fight!”

“Did you see the heavy sledgehammer she swings around? She makes weapons for the Emperor! Even if she can’t fight, I doubt anyone else could make anything better for him.” Lexi stood, “So, this explains why none of us got any action recently, we’re just too weak. So, we’d better do our job well and work on getting stronger.” She looked at them, “I’m asking Queen Merlin to teach me magic!”