Chione lowered her head. "I shall cooperate."

I reigned in my aura. "Good. I expect you to hand over everything relevant but what have you found so far? Surely you have spent some time going through her things, right?"

"I did." She admitted, after a bit of hesitation. "She went too far. Originally I admired her plan to rise and take the title of Winter, however her experiments with souls were just wrong. And that she embraced undeath… We are creatures of nature, undeath is not something any fey should consider."

"What can you tell me about the runes?" I asked.

"From her plans… She wanted to use them on Winter herself. She was working to enslave other species that included fey." Chione admitted.

"I doubt she could make them work on the Lady of Winter. She would need to overcome her power first." I replied.

"The Lady of Winter is sleeping, it is said that she rests because of a wound. It has been a long time and even we ice fey are not entirely certain of her fate. But she might be vulnerable enough. Meanwhile Beira was also working on mortal races and succubi. It is possible that she had a deal with someone who wanted Lilith." Chione said.

"Why did the runes start with humans? Why did they only work on them?" Lucy asked.

"I am not certain." Chione replied. "Possibly because humans were easier for her to abduct and experiment on? Or maybe the infernal runes she used were focusing on humans?"

I pondered that. "I suppose the average human has less magic than dwarves or elves. And they are more fertile than the more magical races. It could also have some historical meaning. Was there more contact between hell and the mortal world at some point? Maybe an old nation connected to hell?"

"I am no expert on mortal history, my apologies." Chione replied.

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I looked at Lily. "My lady, sadly that is not something I know. I can make inquiries once we are back home. Lilith might know more, or at least she might have some records in her library."

"Hm. I wonder if we can use that to find out which ancient demon lord was behind the runes. Was one of them more interested in humans?" I wondered.

"Most demon lords look down on all mortals, equally." Lily replied.

"Why are you so interested in finding the demon lord? Beira has been stopped. Do you expect this lord to continue her work?" Chione asked.

"Because whoever it is, he has messed with me and I am going to crush him." I replied. Besides, I was also using this visit to raid her library to find out more about teleportation. I was totally going to confiscate some books from her. I would just claim them as compensation for her behaviour.

"You intend to start a war in hell?" Chione asked.

"Oh no, I intend to finish it." I replied, with a smile.

"Hehehe. There will be so much slaughter." Shani giggled.

For once, Shani might actually get the fight she was craving. First, we needed to identify the target though. "Chione, I need access to everything you have taken from Beira, I need access to your personal library and I expect you to report anything else of relevance that you remember."

"That is…" Chione started but stopped as my eyes glowed once more. "As you wish."

"We also require snacks." Lucy added.

I nodded. "Good point."

"That can be arranged." Chione assured us.

After our conversation I went to work immediately. I set up inside Chione's library and asked them to bring me materials from Beira. Her servants brought boxes filled with scrolls, books and some notes scribbled on individual sheets. Kira and Lily offered to help sort through them. Shani got bored and wandered off, while Lucy just curled up as a fox nearby.

Meanwhile I browsed the actual library. I needed something like a personal recall spell to ensure I could defend my territory if needed. Keeping Haruka, and all of my subjects safe was important.

What I found was promising, however it required a connection to my domain. For a forest fey it would be their trees, or the vegetation in general, for earth the soil, ice could connect ice and snow… But I was a storm fey. Having a constant storm going would be impractical and not fair to my people. Having a small token storm going somewhere could work, but how did one create a permanent storm anyway?

However, I had my links. And I did have a grove. Not only were they connected to me, they had evolved to be lightning dryads. Even better, Haruka had been created with our magic. Not only did I have a connection to her, so did Lucy. I could adapt the spell to focus on her!

It might even be possible to use leaves, or branches, from her tree and turn them into recall stones, with the right ritual. That way I could offer loyal servants a way to retreat. However, the ritual would be costly but having a few of those would certainly be good.

Hm. If I fed Haruka some more powerful monsters she might become an even better beacon. Certainly something else to think about. And she deserved some snacks.

I decided to confiscate some of the relevant books for further reading but we were off to a great start! Now I only needed more information on the demon lords.

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