The Crown's Fire

Stepping out of the portal, Tarah steeled herself for her inevitable conversation with Devon. It was always a worry for her whenever she did this, interacting with the Demon King, but it was a necessary evil if she wanted to keep her brother Levi safe.

"You’re finally here," Devon greeted her with a confident smirk. "I’ve been waiting for word from you."

"Apologies, My Lord. I was busy making sure that things were going according to plan," she meekly replied, making sure to bow deeply to the Demon King. "The situation is moving forward at a steady pace. We just need a bit more time before we can proceed."

"Time again... Why can’t we just pull out the damn dragon’s soul already so that I can finally harness its power?"

Tarah inwardly bit her lip. She was more than ready to answer this question. But somehow, she still felt like she was about to get punished for what little she managed to do. She was the cause of the delays, after all, which was all that she could do to ensure that the Demon King wouldn’t be able to get to the dragon’s power.

"My Lord, unfortunately, the dragon’s spirit is currently merging with Prince Ezekiel’s," she carefully explained, making sure that each word she spoke sounded as apologetic as possible. "There is little we can do while we wait for the process to finish."

"Little? Why can’t we just force the issue then?" Devon questioned, his tone lowering with every syllable. "This sounds like you’re just making excuses."

"I am telling the truth," she insisted. "Extracting Vulcan from the Prince’s body now would only lead to more problems, and that is on top of it being impossible in the first place. Queen Dana had already attempted to do so, and she too failed because of this phenomenon."

Devon fumed in his seat, and Tarah was already tensing up at the prospect of being made a plaything again. He was bound to take out some of his frustrations on her once she was done explaining things, and she was sure that she was going to be hurting for the next few days after this.