Chapter Text
Vaggie glared at the back of the Demon Princess's head, her empty eye socked aching as she watched her strut about her house. Vaggie was set on edge each time Emily placed her hands upon the Demon, a light touch here, a held-hand there.
After their tense initial meeting at the Golden Gates, Sera had teleported the entire group straight to their residence. Once there, she opened up a pair of small portals to allow the Demon Princess's baggage through. Sera had claimed that she was making sure that the Princess felt ‘welcomed' into their home. More likely, Sera didn't want anyone else in Heaven seeing the literal Antichrist walk the streets, Vaggie bitterly thought to herself.
Sera’s generosity was seemingly put to the test when a duo of demons fell through the portal, carrying the Princess’s belongings. Torn between keeping an eye on the demon royalty and watching these strange homunculi carry dozens of boxes, Sera then gave Vaggie a single wordless nod before following Emily and the Demon Princess as the bubbly angel gave a tour of the house.
Vaggie glanced at the small red sheep-like creature batting its wings as it carried box after box through a portal to Hell and into the Demon Princess's new accommodation. Their cuteness was disturbing, as if they were a mockery of the Cherubs with their too wide eyes, button noses, and perpetual smile that just barely hid her-their fangs. She had no doubt about their sinister intentions beneath their surprisingly fluffy exterior.
Using her spear, she directed the pair towards the Demon Princess’s room, which was at the opposite end of the house to Emily’s, and past both Sera and Vaggie’s rooms. Vaggie had already drawn up a sleep schedule to keep watch in shifts.
One of the small goat demons gave Vaggie a little wave with its hooves, nearly dropping the box in the process. No doubt with sinister intent. Maybe that was Hell's plan? Something dangerous wrapped in something cute? Something that appeared harmless. A sharp twinge along Vaggie's shoulder blades snapped her back to the present. Listening carefully, she heard enthusiastic voices from the kitchen.
With the precision of a ballerina she stepped around the boxes that littered the floor. Oh, how much she missed her wings. Navigating through the cluttered hallway, she found herself just outside of the kitchen doorway. Glancing back at the floating goats, she turned back to the door, and gingerly pressed her ear against it.
“-you a gift! This is a bottle of Hell's finest Beezlebooze! Dad said that this stuff is great for a good time as it's ‘stronger than that watered down juice she now serves'. Honestly I am not sure what he meant by that but here you go!”
Vaggie peeked around the door with her good eye, just in time to see the Demon Princess give Sera a bottle of golden ethereal liquid, its golden honey hue far richer than the pastels of Heaven. The Demon Princess was seemingly unaware of the strained and awkward smile that the High Seraphim was forcing upon her face. Vaggie couldn’t help but internally wince at the sight of this sinful liquid, even Adam would not be so flagrant with demonic indulgences.
Even Emily, who was standing beside Sera, thankfully looked a little scandalised at the sight of alcohol in Heaven. To differentiate themselves from sinners, many of the higher angels considered consuming food for the sake of enjoyment as a form of Gluttony, a sin, something that caused one of their own to be cast down from Heaven.
Sera's eyes flicked to Emily before she quickly snatched the bottle out of the Demon Princess's hands, “Thank you, Princess, we… will… save this for a special occasion,” Sera said as she flew up to the highest cupboard, only accessible through flight, and pushed the bottle as far to the back as she could, before closing it shut. “Princess, please excuse me, I require a moment in private with Emily.”
Without a moments hesitation, Sera's wide white wings enveloped Emily, who looked like she was about to protest, and in a blinding flash the pair disappeared.
Vaggie had no doubt that Sera was going to give Emily a lecture about the importance of sobriety, which would likely take several minutes. But that left her standing in the doorway to the kitchen, facing the Heir to the throne of Hell.
As her eye flicked into the kitchen, she watched as the Demon Princess continued unpacking, what appeared to be some strange-looking fruits. She was nothing like Vaggie expected, save for the red clothing and the blonde hair; she had envisioned a salacious sleazeball rich-boy prince with a portly belly, a rotting smell and a demanding ego… and yet… meeting the real Princess, Vaggie could only think that her smile seemed so… genuine.
Yet this could all be a lie.
Vaggie could feel herself trembling as she breathed out slowly, preparing herself for what needed to be done. For Emily's sake.
“Princess!” she barked, pushing open the door and stepping into the kitchen.
The Demon jumped at her voice and whirled around to face Vaggie, yet Vaggie didn't back down and stalked forward towards her until they were face to face. For fuck’s sake, why was the Demon taller than her? It made her harder to intimidate.
The Demon was giving her a strange look, “Oh! You're… Maggie?”
“It's V-aggie,” she spat through gritted teeth, “listen… I need to talk with you.”
The Demon seemed to shift, wary of the former-exorcist. “Umm, sure what did you want to talk about?”
Vaggie swallowed the bile that was rising in her throat. She needed to do this.
“Look, Emily is… Emily means the world to me. She saved me. She gave me purpose. She is the light of my existence… and you are going to be married to her,” she said, unable to hide her disgust as Vaggie could feel her hands clenching so hard that they nearly drew blood. The sharp pain dug at her mind but if she relaxed them, then the Demon would see them shaking.
“Listen, I understand that this is something that Emily wanted. It is clearly something that you wanted, but it is not something that I wanted. So… demon… so I will… make you a deal.”
She heard the crack of her knuckles as her hand unclenched and stretched it out toward the Demon Princess. Vaggie closed her eye, unable to bear the wretched pact she was about to sign.
“Please don't hurt Emily, I understand that as a demon you have… urges… violent and… sexual… but please don't inflict them on Emily… I-I'll take it all… everything that you would inflict on Emily… inflict on me instead… She's innocent and caring and… I can take it… Please, she is everything to me.” She could feel her hands shake and her stomach churn. “Do we have… a deal?” Vaggie said, barely swallowing back the vomit that began to rise in her throat.
She needed to do this. She was Emily's shield. She needed to defend her with everything. Her life didn't matter. Only Emily's.
“FUCK NOOOO!”
Vaggie's eye tore open to gaze upon the sight of the Princess’s scarlet face, with a slight green tinge to her rosy cheeks, as she backed away from her, nearly tripping over one of the boxes, and waving her hands at Vaggie like she was a fly.
For an instant, a wave of relief washed through Vaggie as she had been spared the horror of what might have come to pass had she accepted the deal. But the breath was trapped in her throat by a choking thought.
The Princess had rejected her offer.
She was going to go after Emily!
“WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT YOU DEMON?! DO YOU WANT MY SOUL?! YOU CAN HAVE IT, PLEASE JUST-”
“ENOUGH!”
Vaggie flinched back at the force of the Princess's command, the exorcist’s lone eye tearing up at the burst of sulphur from the shifting demon royalty before her. Meeting her gaze was a pair of blood red eyes with white pupils that faintly glowed, the once golden hair was shifting and twisting like the roaring flame that engulfed it, and a pair of sabre-like horns had protruded from her head.
No longer was this the friendly, if somewhat awkward girl who was having problems finding a place for a palace's worth of boxes.
This was the Spawn of the First Fallen, the Daughter of the First Free Woman, one of the strongest beings in the seven rings. Vaggie’s spear felt cold to the touch, and sent a shiver rippling across her skin. Would this be enough? A sharp cut ran through Vaggie’s shoulder blades, painfully reminding her that she couldn’t fly away. The jab of the kitchen door handle brought Vaggie back into the moment. When did she take the step back?
The Spawn of the First Fallen stopped, closing her eyes and looking down, pinching the bridge of her button nose. After taking a deep sigh, the demon spoke, “Stop. Listen, I… I know that you probably have heard a lot about me, and it's probably not good. But I swear to you I will never willingly or knowingly harm Emily. She's… she's to… I'm to be her wife, she was the one who proposed to save my people. I owe her a debt that I will never be able to repay… not in an eternity of existence.”
Vaggie watched as the Princess’s horns slowly shrank down and disappeared beneath the now inanimate hair. With her one good eye, she focused on the rise and fall of her chest, until eventually the Princess opened both her eyes, revealing white sclera but still with the bright red pupils.
“How could I live with myself if I hurt the one who is the hero of my people, and who did it out of kindness and love.”
She approached Vaggie once more, closing the distance, her height towering over the former exorcist.
“I've lived in Hell my whole life, and I have seen the good in the sinners, the suffering and the wretched. But Emily she's…”
The sentence trailed into silence as she stared off into the distance. Vaggie could see the admiration written across her face. So focused was Vaggie on Princess Charlie that she didn't notice her stomach settle, her shaking stop and the tension unwind from her muscles.
After a moment, Princess Charlie shook her head, “Anyway! I swear I won't harm her. But I get it… you're worried about her… you love her.”
Vaggie found herself unable to look at Charlie as she found the heat rising to her cheeks, she wasn't able to see the small smile that graced her lips.
“So! If you want to make sure that I'm not doing anything… bad with her… you could hang with us?”
Vaggie snapped up to look at Charlie, “Really?”
Charlie smiled at her, “Yeah! On the condition that we never talk about this conversation again,” she said, forming an X with her arms.
A small chuckle escaped Vaggie's lips as she looked into Charlie's eyes.
“Sure, it's a deal.”
“Hey! None of that!”
Vaggie watched as Charlie turned to begin to unload a litany of strange looking red and black spiked fruits; clearly grown on one of the lower rings.
Vaggie's previous elation at Charlie's agreement waned as she thought back about what she had done, the sins that she had committed in the name of Heaven. Emily had reassured her that what she did was right, that sparing the sinner was a merciful and kind act.
Yet there was still a bubble of doubt.
“Hey, Ch-Princess? I've… got another question for you, one about sinners.”
The Princess seemed to perk up at the question, “Oh-of course! What would you like to know?”
“Can children go to Hell?” Charlie seemed taken aback by the question, a sadness filling her eyes.
“It's pretty rare, but yeah, occasionally we do have children end up in Hell.”
The bubble of anxiety began to rise.
“Rare? So if you saw a demon that looked like a child that would actually be just a regular normal adult sinner who would dress up to try and trick-?”
She cut herself off, unable to get the words out. Was her act of mercy? The expression of the small sinner, cornered in the alley, flashed in her mind.
Was the reason her wings were torn from her body and her eye gouged out? Lute’s cruel sadistic laugh as the sound of her hollow bones crunching echoed in her ears.
Was the reason Emily was forced into marriage? Vaggie could still feel the chill of Emily’s tears as they ran down her shoulder.
Was it all for nothing?
“… Can you describe them to me?” Charlie said, her voice carrying a gentle, caring tone.
Vaggie shut her eye and cast her mind back to only a few days prior, to the worst day of her existence. “… short, male, black eyes, sharp teeth, dressed in European fashion from about a hundred and twenty years ago?”
Charlie hummed for a second, “From the sounds of things that's someone from Cannibal Town, out of all of the parts of the Pride Ring, they get the most kids. Most of the time when famine hits a part of Earth the humans are forced to survive… the children eat what their parents give them, without knowing that they're sent to Hell.”
Vaggie felt guilty about the relief that swept through her, she shouldn't feel so glad that children go to Hell.
“… Hey, Vaggie, do you want to talk about it?”
Vaggie opened her eye to see Charlie staring back at her, with an expression eerily similar to Emily's.
“Not right now… but thanks-I mean, thank you, Princess Charlotte.”
She received a small chuckle in response, “It's just Charlie.”
Vaggie smiled back, “Thanks Charlie.”