A Weapon’s Serenade

Isha was very happy and well fed as the girls left the restaurant in Dis. “Cream soup is so weird and so good, I need to show this stuff to the others when more get turned.”

“I look forward to showing everyone around. Well, look who we have here.” Melody crouched down to greet Tiny.

The large hell cat was eager to greet all her friends but was also eager to nudge them to follow her.

“You want to show us something?”

Tiny complained.

“Yea, but where? Just lead us there.”

Tiny complained again.

“And I still don’t know what you want. Can’t you just take us there?”

Another complaint.

“Okay, how about we get a Nightmare to translate?”

Tiny seemed to approve.

“Okay, uhm… there are two working at the library. Let’s go there then.”

Tiny approved of that too and led on eagerly.

The head librarian was already awaiting the group as they entered through the massive wooden doors across from the pandemonium in Dis.

“I never met a cat who was screaming her wishes for a translator out so loudly. Is everything okay?”

Melody shrugged. “I think so? Tiny here wants to show us something and apparently can’t just lead us there. Maybe you can translate?”

The head librarian picked up Tiny and snuggled her for a moment. “Well, you know how all those non-telepaths are. What do you want me to tell them?”

Tiny yawned and mewed, then just looked at the head librarian for a few moments.

“I have no idea how you expected them to get this. But alright. Tiny had a thought while spending time with your siren friend. Now that Isha is getting to meet all the land cats, she almost missed out on the water cats.”

“Wait, water cats?” Anne sounded incredulous.

“I didn’t know about them either, but Tiny seems to have found aquatic cats in the reefs surrounding the Higan delta. That’s pretty far from any settlement. We should have scientific papers about them here though, see if there are colonies closer to Dis or if they migratory or something.”

Anne nodded. “We should check that out before we teleport out there.”

“If you have to head all the way to the Higan, I am coming with you. That’s a region beyond the circles of Hell and barely charted. I can’t in good conscience let two humans and two young demons go there without backup.”

“Aren’t you young too?”

“You got me there… But I have been a demon for several years now and I am properly trained in magic usage and combat. Even if I am not Apollyon, you will be safer with me there.”

“Fair enough. Let’s find those papers first.”

“Sure. Tiny, you agree with that plan?”

Tiny rubbed against the Nightmare and jumped back down.

Isha tilted her head while looking at the head librarian, who had just finished reading another set of field research notes. “I did wonder why you had not known about the ray cats but I now realize that you are not keeper of the knowledge here directly, not like our orators, you are a guide to knowledge. Head librarian, you hold far more secrets that you don’t even know yourself than I could have ever expected.”

“Please, call me Kate. And yes, there is so much here that I don’t even know about. It’s been over eight years since I joined the librarians and every day I find something new I have never heard of. Someone told me that we are the most powerful demons by virtue of ruling over this place, I believed that at the time but it never really sunk in. I still don’t think I fully grasp the range of everything possible if we were to fully apply the knowledge kept here.”

“This is truly a wonderous place. Our orator already made plans to add our stories to the stories on these shelves. A drop added to a vast ocean.”

Kate smiled. “Every drop counts. Without the drops, there would be no ocean to begin with.”

“True. May I ask an unrelated personal question?”

“Of course.”

“Kate is a human name, isn’t it?”

“It is, yes. I was born human. Now I am curious how you know that it’s a human name.”

Isha shrugged. “I have always been too curious for my own good and might have nudged other sirens for knowledge about humans. I found human names to be strange enough to ask about specifically but no one was able to tell me much. Our names a long and melodic and I still can’t pronounce my full name in air. Human and demon names feel so… efficient compared to ours.”

“I don’t know about efficient, but a thing humans, demons and angels share is the idea that names are allowed to mean something. My full name derives from the word katharos from the language of the ancient Greek people. It means pure. Human names tend to be well-wishes or virtues that the parents want to impart on their children, if they think about meaning at all. For demons, they named their children after either legendary figures who did something inspiring or vices that the young demons are supposed to be immune to or wield to their benefit. It’s basically an extension of that old fire and shadow legend, the idea that there are danger and power to what we are and we need to wield that properly.”

“I think I understand. Famine told me the story of Kuria, the one who named you demons and the lessons she taught you. Children of fire and shadow…”

“Why ‘Isha’?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why did abbreviate your name to Isha. Sorry, demons can see the name someone identifies with inscribed in their soul. I know your full name and you are right, I have no idea how to make those sounds with air. Why, out of all those wonderful sounds that do work, did you pick Isha?”

Isha took a moment to think how to respond. “It is the most emphasized part of my name and the Asuran symbols for it are simple. I suppose that makes it the part of my name that is the most me. Just like Kate is the part of your full name that you chose. I’m trying to do the reading of your name that you mentioned… but you do identify with Kate the most. I can’t see your full name.”

“It’s Kathrine. Kathrine Crowley was my full human name.”

“A lovely name, so many sharp and rough sounds that I could not have even tried before. Kathrine Crowley. You all have such beautifully exotic sounds in your names. Melody Valefor, Anne Engelhardt, Kuria, Tiny… and I am using those sounds like I never used anything else. What a strange thing.”

“Are you able to sing again? It took me months to fully regain my previous language when demonic took over. It was weird to slowly have spoken words and texts fade from being translated back to the original.”

Isha nodded. “It took a few attempts, but I was able to sing when I met with the others. With an accent apparently, but I can still sing properly.”

“That’s good. I was a little worried you might have trouble with the transition in that regard.”

“This entire experience has been nothing but amazing. The kindness everyone has shown me is awe inspiring and so deeply reassuring.”

“Maybe I can add a little to that as well. Our doors are always open and there is much I want to show you in here, but for now… we should maybe get back to figuring out where to best find more ray cats.”

“Outside of nesting season, in the deep currents all around the ocean.” Melody spoke up. “While you were chatting away, we found something.”

“The ‘deep currents’ usually refers to anything below four kilometres, if I am not mistaken. That’s a bit far. You mentioned a nesting season?”

Melody nodded. “The ray cats usually travel alone but return to their nesting grounds in the reefs around certain river deltas every few hundred cycles. There is a hypothesis that the nesting seasons rotate in a way, but no one ever found a real correlation between when each reef is inhabited by ray cats. It also seems like some stay behind in between seasons to protect the nesting grounds. It’s very possible that there are cats at other reefs right now.”

“Too bad we don’t have a reef outside Dis. The Higan delta is the largest known in all of Hell, flanked by massive reefs on both sides. It might actually be our best bet at finding ray cats, Tiny was right.”

“Our best bet, yes. But the sirens might have another hope, the leviathans. Ray cats tend to congregate around leviathans, even seeking them out specifically on their travels. Depending on what the leviathans have to offer, our siren friends might be able to offer something similar.”

Isha lit up. “We should tell them! I am sure they would love to meet cute little friends.”

“We should. Maybe they can also help in finding out what the ray cats are even getting from the leviathans.”

“A scientific contribution by my people… how exciting!”

Melody smiled warmly. “What a wonderful first thing to do in your new home.”