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The Maids Guide to Demon Hunting

Polina Laye

Farisian Maid

---

Polina didn’t care to make much small talk with the owner of the mansion, but she nonetheless dispensed some words of wisdom for helping with dealing with his son. As it was, most of her advice involved “discipline your son better,” although phrased in a more diplomatic way. It was clear, though, that neither of them were interested in talking with each other very much, so she gladly let Livia take over.

Playing the part of her partner, she gave her a playful smile of her own with Livia’s kiss. It wasn’t even a false one; she wouldn’t have minded if the woman made it up to her… as long as it didn’t involve dungeon time, that was.

She was surprised, though, to be intercepted by one of the local maids not long after on behalf of the lady of the house. She too thought that was strange; after all, in this guise, she wasn’t affiliated with the mansion. “You would be right,” Polina muttered back to Lucrecia under her breath.

She approached it differently. “Apologies, but I’m only Lady Fiore’s plus one, so to speak. I’m not with the Maison in the manner you’re thinking of,” she informed. “I understand Lady Havershel is feeling ill this evening, but perhaps I can help arrange a meeting with Livia later instead?”

Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

“Do what you must,” Giselle nodded, before turning and giving her a casual, backwards wave—one that Aleksiya and Kordelia were more familiar with but hadn’t seen since the world had gone to shit. Nonetheless, the white-haired vampire couldn’t help but to look back and steal a glance, sighing as she saw the fallen bat king whither to dust. She smiled wryly to herself at being nostalgic for an age that, from her perspective, had only been a few days ago.

The Farisian princess hardened her feelings once more as she approached the village. Even from this distance, she could feel the death in the air, and the scent of blood –though, to her, it was as appealing as the smell of fresh pastries wafting from a bakery—was thick. Entering the village proper, or what remained of it confirmed the terrible massacre that had taken place. Giselle took heart in the sight of survivors milling about, almost aimlessly in the aftermath of disaster, however despondent they might have seemed.

Despite the great tragedy, her eyes were drawn to the piles of the dead piled up, their corpses still fresh and oozing ichor. Giselle grimaced; at this point, she still needed the blood to regain her strength, but this was not the refined, cultivated way that she would ask of humans for in the past. Taking their blood here was no more than vulturism, but at this stage, prudence took priority. Waste not, want not.

With a sigh, she approached one of the body piles, kneeling down as if to inspect the dead. Taking an angle where she would be more obscured, she drew the blood from their bodies with her blood magic, taking it in and infusing her body with their vitality. With the volume of blood here, she could feel her strength returning.

Taking as much as she dared to take, she stood back up, looking for the other lords. Seeing the gorebats in the air, she was led to Akyasha and to her mild surprise at her survival, the blacksmith girl.

Overhearing some of the conversation, she stepped in. “Leave it alone, Akyasha,” she sighed. “It’s not her fault that she’s been dealt a shit hand. We barely survived in the forest as is. I can guess at numbers, but how bad is it, really?”

The Maids Guide to Demon Hunting

Polina Laye

Farisian Maid

---

Polina approached, curtsying when she stopped. She was, briefly, the very image of politeness as she was introduced, despite her personal distaste for the man. Since when did she find so many people unlikeable at this party?

She didn’t keep her politeness for very long. “A very great pleasure to meet you,” she responded dryly, answering in kind to the man’s obvious disinterest. Nonetheless, she shifted her tone, “But that I would be interested in,” she laughed, mostly for the benefit of Livia’s small joke. The short exchange aside, though, she stepped back as they made small talk, but the way the lord mentioned his son made her tilt her head.

“Ah,” she hedged, “A spirited child?”

Mahz's Dev Journal

@Ambra
On the flipside, it's selfish of us to expect Mahz to drop irl for the forum. He's been the one paying to keep it up all this time, we should give him some credit. Just like we should give the mods credit for doing their best in the ways they have.

@The World

Ah. Yes. The one paying to keep this site fully hosted. The one that at one point had no money to pay for this to actually stay up. The one that refused donations, causing the site to get wiped. That guy?

You know, the 10th anniversary of guildfall is coming up? Still salty about that.

Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

“Yes, well. You may have been indisposed, controlled by that… thing, but you certainly did.” Giselle shrugged, looking Kordelia in the eye. “I hope you didn’t do too much damage, but I doubt it. If there are human survivors though, the true cause remains a secret among us,” she continued, pitching her voice loud enough so that Aleksiya could also hear her words. Giselle wanted to gain their trust, and even if it had been against her will, having the source of what was likely a massacre walking among the remaining humans was a little bit of a minefield.

She straightened herself out a bit, making herself look a little more presentable after that harrowing fight. “Consider this a favor or so owed, Kordelia. For now though… I’m glad to have you back.”

Giselle barely caught the arm that suddenly sailed towards her face, frowning as she felt some of Aleksiya’s cold fingers briefly touch her forehead. With a scowl at the crude treatment, she tossed the smaller vampire her severed limb back.

“Try not to lose that again.”

Glancing back at the dead Bat King with a sigh, she gave Kordelia a knowing nod. “Fine. We’ll talk later, I trust you’ll know where to find us?”

With a gesture of agreement towards Aleksiya, she started back towards the village, although not without a glance at the state of the vampire’s dress. Giselle had already repaired hers to its proper state, making the contrast between her and Aleksiya even greater…

“Want me to fix that?”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

---

In the end, Éliane had taken third watch to a thankfully very uneventful night. That wasn’t to say that she didn’t like eventful days. But there was a time and place for eventfulness, and bedtime was not one of those times. But there were no blightbeasts, bandits, or even nightmares, and the day broke soon enough. It seemed like some of her companions had enjoyed a better night’s rest than the others, as she glanced over towards Arton as everybody woke up to greet the morning at the end of her watch.

The rest of the journey to Midgar had been slightly inconvenient on account of the heavy industry they passed, but it was nothing Éliane wasn’t familiar with back home, only more concentrated. As they approached the city proper, she took in its sights, comparing them with what she knew in Solitude. It was a dirtier, grimier place than the Skaelan capital, and the more temperate climate didn’t help, allowing some of the smog from industry to linger more than its counterparts in her country did compared to its colder climes. Objectively, like Balmung, it was an inferior city to any in Skael, but it had some very obvious upsides that weren’t as common back home.

The abundance of coffee houses.

The quantity and variety of available coffee.

Éliane knew that they wouldn’t be spending too much time here, but before she left, she had to try at least a few coffee houses. She cursed the oncoming rain; if it weren’t for the weather, she would have been prepared to do a coffee shop crawl right then and there as she tied her chocobo to an available post along with the others. With the talk of inns and planning, she decided to join the conversation.

“Spending a few weeks here trying out the coffee shops sounds like a fun idea to me,” she bluntly replied, but she nodded at Galahad’s offer of lodging via his family. It sounded like it was out of the way, but free was a great equalizer. It was then that she caught Arton staring at her with a strange expression. Giving him a bit of side-eye at first, she tilted her head in mild confusion before frowning as he turned away. What was that about? She decided she would have to ask the fellow Skaelan about it later. If he had problems with her, then she didn’t want it becoming a greater issue in the future given their mission.

But for now… She fixed the dragoon with an intense stare of her own. “Galahad. Tell me more about the coffee shops. What are the best places to visit?”

The Maids Guide to Demon Hunting

Polina Laye

Farisian Maid

---

Polina shrugged. “That’s understandable, given the divisive nature of your politics here, as I’ve come to experience. Things are far more pleasant in the north, I find.” Who said she couldn’t subtly but shamelessly brag about her princess as well?

She gave Cassandre a wry smile at her observations on the good lord. “Truth to be told, I think most of us are here for the snacks and other guests… and perhaps his business connections, rather than any real support for the lord Havershel. Us nobles have a bad habit of looking down on the newly made, although I can’t help but to see the validity of such views when it comes to the man in question.” Polina pronounced her judgment of the man freely. Aside from the ostentation that he presented in general, the subtext was obvious when both the Maison and the Church were here for his own missteps.

The Farisian maid in disguise paused as Lucrecia leaned in with some words. She gave a nod. “Speaking of snacks, I’m of the mind to sample some of the delicacies at the food table as well,” she responded, both to her fellow maid and to the priestess. “The two of you are certainly welcome to join us there as well if you’d like to continue our conversation,” she offered. Polina actually didn’t mind talking with the two churchwomen, despite her dislike of the church itself, but despite the offer, she doubted they would follow. They had been sequestered off in the corner after all, with the rest of the guests shunning them.

Giving another nod to Lucrecia, she made her way towards the food. “Try some of the food, too, Lulu. The other nobles might judge me for letting a ‘servant’ step out of line, but I’m not in a position to particularly care, hmm?” With that said, her eyes returned to the tasty Orosian snacks. She only paused in that endeavor when the Lord Havershel made his personage more widely known to the guests. Giving him a glance, she sized him up, but she returned her attention to the food as she made it her mission to sample each dish before the mission began in earnest.

Nonetheless, she could only dally with the food so long, so with a plate of food, she made her way towards the host, where Livia seemed to having a… discussion.

Oh dear. Polina hoped she would have enough time to enjoy the cooking before they had to throw hands.

Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

Giselle gave her a glance at that and shrugged. “Well, Kordelia, if it keeps feeling wrong later on, talk to me and I’ll see if I can do something about it.” The Farisian princess allowed her fellow ‘princess’ a few minutes to collect herself and cover her body… although that wasn’t to say Giselle didn’t enjoy the show. In fact, if Kordelia kept being cluelessly unclothed, then Giselle wouldn’t have argued about her choice of clothing.

She raised her hand to forestall any unnecessary questions, as much as she wanted to comfy reminiscing with the fellow vampire lord. “Catching up… can wait for a little later. The long and short of it—civilization as we know it has collapsed. Before you came to your senses, you sent your cute beasties to destroy what may have been the realm’s last human settlements.” Giselle paused and looked her in the eye. “So the moment we find Aleksiya’s… arm, we’re making haste to the village. I hope you can still fight.”

Of course, it did take a little bit to find Aleksiya’s arm, so Giselle decided to fill her in on some more details as well. “Well, the paladins won, for all the good it did them. Their world collapsed, as did ours. The last I remembered before awakening to a dead realm was my last stand at the mountain palace,” she reminisced. “That must have been quite a while after you died. I made them bleed for every inch they took of my land. We blew the bridges, collapsed the mountain passes. Hundreds of miles of trenches, pre-sighted artillery… humans alongside us fighting for their livelihood. A beautiful, touching moment of the cooperation that I’d always looked to build, if it only wasn’t so futile in the end,” she sighed. “In the end I brought the entire palace down on top. I’m not sure if I killed any of them doing it.”

Giselle shrugged. “Then I found myself in this mess of a world together with some of the other Lords. Ichor bids us to find the rest and bring back the Queen. Maybe then there will be some hope for this dead world.”

The Maids Guide to Demon Hunting

Polina Laye

Farisian Maid

---

The Farisian noblemaid gave Cassandre a nod, listening politely as the clergywoman briefly engaged with her fellow maid. Of course, the church being the church, they couldn’t spend more than a few seconds exchanging pleasantries before social etiquette was ruined yet again by the woman’s attack dog. Polina couldn’t help but to stare at the knight apparently named Madeline with an unladylike manner for a brief moment. Hunting down demons or not, was this really the best they could spare for someone they knew would be interacting with nobles? Important ones, at that?

Good thing Polina wasn’t involved in Oros politics anymore.

Deciding not to add a running commentary of her own at the byplay between her mistress and the two church women, she formed a blank, polite face as a mask. A mask that quickly failed, because she was pretty sure there was an entertained smile on it.

“Well, what a shame,” she finally said, giving Livia a nod as she went for the food tables. “I’ll join you later with some drinks then.” Polina decided to throw in a wink for good measure, before she turned back to the two clergywomen, intending on bidding them adieu as well.

“Ah? Well, I suppose it’s not every day that I the chance to speak with members of the church in such an illustrious setting,” she nodded. She quickly regretted indulging them at their sudden question.

“That is a bold question indeed, miss Marcien,” she replied, a somewhat amused tone in her voice. “If you weren’t from the church, I might have taken it as an attempt to be dragged into petty Orosian politics from a fellow noblewoman.” Polina gave her a polite smile. “But to answer your question, I admire Lady Fiore’s work as a force for good. I find her cause to be a very respectable one.”

Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

Perhaps Giselle had overdone it slightly. After getting beaten up by Paladins and then waking up in a degenerate post-apocalyptic world, she had an itch for doing something suitably grand, like shoving the whole bloody heart into Kordelia. Even if her only witness to the act had been just Aleksiya.

Besides, she was getting tired of carrying around a large serpent heart all the time.

She watched silently as the beast princess’s twisted body began seizing on the ground, before her finally began to shed her beastly form to reveal the more familiar form of the small ‘princess.’ Naked, of course. The white-haired princess raised an eyebrow as she ran her eyes across her form, but waited patiently for the vampire lord to stop her pained noises before saying anything.
“Well well, you’re finally back to your senses, Kordelia. Much has changed since your fall,” she greeted, deciding not to needle her as much as Aleksiya. Though, she did so a little bit anyway.

“The heart of a certain serpent,” she answered. “Perhaps it wasn’t completely necessarily, but I was still doing you a favor, and I didn’t feel like carrying it for much longer. If you don’t like it I can take most of it out again later. It should be fine. Probably.”