I fell back onto the soft yellow grass with a gasp, quickly followed by a moan. I hurt everywhere. But at least it was another gorgeous day in the demon realm. Perfect for an aerial beating apparently. I turned my head as a pair of legs landed next to me and chuckled. I looked up into the amused face of Kieran, his dark ponytail over one shoulder and a slight rip in one of his white sleeves, the only indication that he had been in a fight at all.

  "Are you unharmed Lady Sin?" He asked.

  "No, my soul is bruised. I think I was better off with the dragon. Stupid lizard." It was funny that I always told people off for calling Drogin a lizard, but relished cursing Rougier as one. "He just wanted to be lazy today because its so warm." Earlier in the day the purple dragon had informed me that he had told Kieran to teach me how to fight while in the air today. Then he wasted no time having me remove the Miniminazi spell from him and taking off over the red lake.

  Kieran laughed again, then sat cross-legged on the grass next to me. "Perhaps, but he was right that you should probably learn to protect yourself on the wing as well."

  "But my wings are so heavy!" I whined, glaring at the black leathery things that were splayed out on the ground behind me. And they were heavy. The feather scales were lighter than they looked but they still added weight to them. Enough weight that it was difficult to sustain an extended flight. I was better at gliding than actual flight.

  "All the more reason to build up your stamina."

  "Yeah, yeah, I get it already." I sighed and watched the pink clouds drift past, a flock of green birds flying by easily, mockingly. "I need to learn all I can for when I return. I can't be as useless as I was in the dungeon last time. Or as weak. If I didn't have Drogin and Vendaval I would have been dead weight. As a tamer, I know my true value is in my tames, and how I use them, but I can't help feeling useless if I just stand back and let them do all the work..."

  Kieran chuckled and I glared at him. "Sorry. Its just, most- nearly all, really- Queens would never even consider getting into a fight. Especially one that meant them physically having to do something. Their magic is quite the deterrent, and should they ever actually need to fight, they just use that to great effect. You have been learning right?"

  "Yes... But I am pretty sure I am not very good at the magic." I looked up at the butler and frowned. "Felicity has been trying to teach me, but most elemental magic just eludes me. I do alright with the practical spells and the ones that Varcheon Braiol taught me for hand-to-hand combat."

  "I saw that you were doing very well with your mana control though." He said, referring to my abilities in using 'gift' to share my mana with the land or with other people. "My father says that you can even share with people who are not your clan without much effort at all."

  "I can. Though I still do not understand how its any harder to use it on the land verses people, or my people verses other clans. It all feels the same to me."

  "And that is very amazing. Normally it is incredibly difficult to Gift to those not of your clan, or the land your clan calls home. It is why a clan who's queen has died fares so poorly in the long run."

  "You guys seem fine." I said, referring to his clan. Felicity's mother had been their true Queen, not Felicity herself.

  Kieran nodded. "We are not too bad off right now because it has only been a couple years since the Queen's passing. Queen Felicity does have trouble using Gift on us, but it won't be a noticeable problem for a few decades yet. Also, this land has become her land now, so she can share with it easily enough." He seemed to think for a long moment, watching the grass shiver in the breeze. "The way you use Gift... Well, it is like you think of everyone as your clan. Like your mana wishes to help and guard all. And I don't just mean demons, as you have shown amazing abilities while working with the land."

  I sighed, sitting up. "And none of that makes me a better mage. I really shouldn't complain; I have been given so many blessings. I don't deserve any of them so I will try not to dwell on what I can't do... like fly and fight at the same time."

  Kieran laughed happily and got to his feet, holding out a hand to help me up. I accepted the aid, as my wings had the tendency to drag me back down once I was horizontal. "How about we try just fighting on the ground, wings out, for a bit. That way you can rest them, but we are still training?"

  "Ugh! You are a slave driver! Almost as bad as Vale..." I complained, moving so that we could get into fighting stances.

  "Vale? He is a friend from Hearth, correct?" He drew his two steel daggers, raising them at the ready. Unlike me, he didn't have murder claws.

  "Hmmm. I don't know if I would call him a friend. But he was training me to fight before I came here. From what I have heard, he is a big deal. Mostly I just think he has muscles for brains."

  Kieran chuckled and wiggled one of his blades, indicating for me to make the first move. I lifted my hands and, as I had been taught just a few short days ago, visualized dark energies solidifying on my fingertips. Without too much effort a deep purple-red smoke appeared then solidified on my claws, extending them by a good three inches. It was one of the spells I was good at. I added a void like quality to my hands, hardening and sharpening my claws even more than they already were. And, more importantly, made that I could cut through magic protective spells.

  I took a calming breath then lunged. Kieran parried my blow with one dagger and made to slash at me with the other. I dodged, though the wings slowed me down quite a bit, and swung around, attempting to get around his guard. Kieran seemed to have less trouble with his lighter, much smaller wings, he moved swiftly and blocked my strike.

  I jumped back, knowing from experience that if I stayed close for too long then Kieran would get me. But I didn't let him get settled before I dashed in again, this time going for a face shot. Was that dirty of me? Maybe, but at least I didn't go for his privates. He moved his head aside and my claws glanced off one of his horns. He knocked my hand away with an elbow and slashed at my stomach with the other blade.

  I grunted when he switched from a slash to a blunt hit with the hilt of the dagger, knocking the wind out of me. "Bastard." I growled, holding my new bruise, before going for a low shot, attempting to slash at his calves and take him off his feet. It nearly worked; I don't think he expected me to try It with my heavy wings out. I tore his pants leg but didn't hit flesh. I cursed again, unfortunately bad words and insults appeared to do no damage.

  I was still off balance when Kieran made a moved to knock me over the head with the pommel when I instinctively extended a wing and nocked the man off balance. He was taken off guard but recovered easily enough. At least it gave me the precious second I needed to steady my balance. But a second was all I got, as Kieran came at me again, this time with a slash that would have cut me from Shoulder to hip. Again, my wings moved on instinct, this time folding over me, their large size having no trouble covering my small body.

  There was the sound of metal on hard scale, followed by a curse. I slowly pulled my wing back and saw Kieran standing a couple feet away holding his left wrist and glaring. It was not often I got to see him disgruntled and so I smirked causing his eyes to narrow.

  "Not hurt, are you?" I asked, maybe a little mockingly. Bad habits are hard to break after all.

  "No, I am not. Surprised though... If anyone hit my wings like that they would be in tatters."

  "Apparently my wings are better shields than flight apparatuses." I laughed. "I honestly, barely felt a thing with that hit."

  Kieran stepped forward and examined my wings. "Not even a scratch." He said, curiosity evident in his voice. "Fascinating. Can you raise the feathers like you do the scales on your tail?"

  I tried, but nothing. "Not that I can tell. But maybe I could if I practiced?"

  "Maybe. Suffice to say, you are a truly unique demon Lady Sin."

  I narrowed my eyes at the young butler and glared. "That sounds like you are calling me weird."

  He laughed. "Not at all. Just extremely different. There has never been a demon who came from the world of Earth after all. In fact, given the impossibility, our kind barely even spare a thought to that world."

  "Everyone does seem pretty content here. Though one castles worth of demons is hardly an adequate sampling of the populace."

  "Indeed." He sat on the grass, and I took that as us taking a break. I was a bit of a lost clause at this flying thing. A girl can't be good at everything I guess. "You could always stay longer, explore the world to your hearts content."

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  I smiled at the man but shook my head. "One day, I think I would like that. But I have things I want to still do on Hearth, even if most of those things are vague at the moment." I laughed. "At the very least I can't just leave like I did. It feels like loosing. I am sure Roran would have a disgustingly smug look on his face."

  "He is the priest that sent you here?"

  "Yes. A pain in my ass is what he is."

  "Queens are known for keeping grudges." He said with a small chuckle.

  "If I had Felicity's ability, I could confront him in front of a crowd and he wouldn't be able to lie at all."

  "He would be able to; you would just know that he was. And that doesn't mean others will believe you when you tell them he is lying. I would imagine it is a moot point at any rate. He did send you here in front of others. The Heroes from Earth, yes?"

  "That's true. And yes, they are from Earth, but I really don't know much else about them. I didn't want to ask about their old lives while we were in the dungeon. I was worried that it would make them think about what they lost when they got summoned... Hang on" I said, something suddenly occurring to me. "I know Felicity's ability, but yours and Garris- everyone in the castle- they have a different blood line ability, don't they?"

  "Yes. The former queen passed down to her clan a very different ability."

  "What is it?" I asked, suddenly very curious. I didn't recall anyone at the castle visibly using any sort of ability I would have associated with a blood line trait. There had been plenty of demonic magic flying about though. Perhaps Kieran's ability was that of greater magical talents? Hadn't Garris and Felicity said that that was a common bloodline ability?

  "It is moderately useful I suppose, but we do not get too much use out of it." He spoke. "We have the skill known as 'All seeing eye'."

  "And what is that?" I asked, none the wiser now that I knew its name. "Can you read minds or something?"

  He laughed. "No, nothing that helpful. It is a visual gift that allows me and the others to see the statuses of things and people."

  "Wait, like Captain Rift? You can look at a person and see their stat charts?"

  "I believe you mentioned this Rift person as being a leader?"

  "Sort of. He is a captain of a royal squad known as the Red Ravens. "

  "Hmm. Well, I do not know anything about him, but All Seeing Eye allows me to see the stats of anything with mana: People, monsters, even enchanted items. When the former queen was alive, she would send our males out to asses magical items for other clans, or scan monsters to see how great a threat they were to the near by populace... But the demon world as a whole has no great need for the talent. Hence why I said it was moderately useful."

  "Wait, you can see the stats of anything?" I asked, amazed. How could he say that was just of minimal use?

  "Anything with mana, yes. So, there are animals I can't See. Or inanimate objects like a rock or a paint brush. Unless someone adds mana to them, making them enchanted, I can't see anything."

  "Are you crazy?" I snapped at him, making him blink in surprise. "That sounds incredibly useful! I would be using it everyday all day so long as it didn't kill me. It would save me so much time reading all those bestiaries and memorizing monster stat averages. And anytime someone thought to pick a fight I could see in a heartbeat if it was worth the time in thrashing the guy, or if he would kick my ass. Ugh, I am jealous right now!" I said with an irritated growl, falling back into the grass. "How can you say that it isn't useful? I thought Rifts ability was annoyingly handy, but his only sees the stats of people."

  "You... you really think that?" He asked, his tone making me turn my head to look at him. He looked part astounded, part confused, and another part flattered. "That you would like to have this skill to use?"

  "Well, I mean, yes." I frowned, thinking that maybe my social awkwardness my have gotten me in trouble again. "Sorry, I guess I didn't think on weather what I said may offend you or not..." Maybe the power caused him pain to use, or maybe the mana cost was so high that it made the skill all but useless at times.

  Kieran shook his head with a soft smile. "I am not offended in the slightest. I am flattered if anything. As I said, there is only so much use to be found for this skill, especially when there is a whole clan that possesses it. Perhaps, when the clan falls further into decline there may be more use, but I'd rather not think of finding good points to the slow expiration of my family. I, as one who is particularly gifted with this ability, tend to get more use out of it compared to others in the clan but it is nice to here that there are at least some who would find use of it."

  I supposed that was a sad take on it.

  "Out of curiosity, what bloodline ability does the demon king have?" It may be a good piece of information to take back to Hearth after all. "Or is he a different demon every time he comes back around and there for has a different ability every time he comes back?"

  Now Kieran's smile turned into a frown. "Lady Sin, I am afraid that you are mistaken."

  "Mistaken? How so?"

  "The creature the people of Hearth refer to as the 'Demon King' in in no way a demon."

  "What? Really?" How could such a colossal mix up have occurred?

  "Since you have been here, have you once heard of a Demon King? No, because no male would ever dare give himself that title. He would be killed simply for the presumption that he could have a title such as that. It would be the ultimate insult to every Queen, and any male would risk his neck simple to end the other male's life."

  "I- guess that makes sense. But maybe it is a male who went to Hearth and named himself King in a bid for power and glory in a world where there a few other males to challenge him, much less any Queens."

  At that Kieran nodded. "When our people first learned of this 'demon king' near on a thousand years ago, a party of strong males were sent to Hearth to deal with the insult swiftly. But what they found was no demon at all." He looked up to the sky and appeared to think for a moment, perhaps organizing his thoughts. He was better at that then me. I tended to ere on the side of disorganized word vomit on the best of days. "All things in life have an opposite of sorts." He said finally. "Light has dark, water and fire, life, and death. Well, even mana has its opposite, and we demons simply refer to it as anti-mana. This anti-mana lives in a dimension of its own and is always trying to break into the mana filled dimensions to feast on the mana there. To do so would destroy those dimensions, as surly as removing oxygen from the air would destroy most living beings. And it was a manifestation of this anti-mana that the demon party found when they went to confront this so-called Demon King."

  This news was a shock to be honest. My mind had thought for the longest time now that the Demon King was some puffed up male demon, maybe with a super powerful reincarnation ability, just wrecking the world every couple hundred years. The last thing I would have expected was an unknown entity... mind you, the people of hearth were pretty biased to demons, and I wouldn't put it passed them to just assume the big baddie was a demon, especially if it looked even slightly demon like.

  "Does it attack the other realms as it does Hearth then?" Surly those of other realms could have cleared up the confusion. I could see the demons not bothering. They had about zero cares when it came to Hearth. They didn't care if the people there called their enemy a demon so long as they were sure that it wasn't actually one.

  Kieran shook his head once more and sighed. "No, not in the same way at least. Hear on Demonia we get small incursions from time to time. Once or twice a year. Usually the nearest Queen intervenes, the losses are fairly minimal most times, and then things settle down for another half a year. But Hearth is different than Demonia and the Demon realm. Indeed, it is different than any of the other realms. It is only to Hearth that all these other realms have large mana connections. Essentially, mana flows more heavily through Hearth and there fore the anti-magic has better access to it."

  "Well, wouldn't that just mean they would have more frequent, but small encounters? Why a big, world ending, catastrophe like they have now?"

  "Hmmm. From what I understand, scholars of our kind hypothesized that there once was a time, eons ago, that Hearth was essentially over run with anti-magic. To the point that it was probably nearly wiped out. My father told me that it was thought that a plea was made to the gods and the gods actually responded. Which God, I do not know. Maybe it was all of them. Either way, the cut Hearth off from the anti-mana. But, as I said, mana can not exist without anti-mana. So the cut off could not be permanent. So, instead of being continuously attacked by the anti-mana, it builds and builds behind the block. Then, every couple centuries, the block erodes and the anti-magic rushes in. And it is this manifestation of anti-magic that the people of Hearth must defeat."

  Now it was my turn to think. It was a scary thought, anti-mana. And this whole conversation opened so many more questions too: Why were heroes from earth so adept at handling anti-mana? It must have intelligence, right? How else would it formulate attack plans and get confused for an actual evil ruler?

  "I suppose it makes sense that this method of dealing with anti-mana was preferred. If the People of Hearth were given a couple hundred years to prepare, then they could better deal with the problem rather than being constantly under attack." I said after a few seconds. "Still, why do they need the Heroes? I guess it's a question for another time. The whole thing feels like a consequence of messing with the natural order of things. Not that I blame the people of Hearth for wanting to save their own hides and asking the gods for help. But if you put up a dam to block the river and then there is a flood, the damn may break, and everyone might just drown under all that built up water."

  "Indeed." Said Kieran, getting to his feet and holding out a hand to help me to mine. "We should head back and get ready for the evening meal. You would likely like to get an early nights rest in for the events of tomorrow. The Presentation can sometimes take a long time, depending on how many queens actually show up. My father has gotten the whole castle bustling to prepare for ALL of them in the event they all show."

  I blinked in surprise. "Wait, all of them?" I asked, feeling numb. Sure, all of them was only a couple hundred from what I understand, and in the terms of a race that wasn't a huge number, but I hadn't been expecting that many... I was a stranger to these people!

  This time Kieran laughed and led the way back to the castle, where I had, indeed, noticed a ton of activity as people prepared for the next couple days. Getting it all set up in less than a week was quite the feet as a matter of fact. Who ever oversaw Felicity's party planning needed a raise.

  "Well, you are an oddity." Chuckled the butler. "Everyone will want to see you, meet you, see what kind of Queen you may be. The rumors are already flying about after all."

  "What rumors?" I asked, a little panicked now.

  "They call you Sin Andra." He said with an amused look over his shoulder.

  "Andra?" I asked, my linguistics catching up I added "as in Sin 'Dragon'?" Andra was the demonic word for a female dragon. Do'andra, was a male dragon.

  "That is right. Though in this sense it would be translated as 'Sin, Queen of Dragons'. Every queen gets a manicure of sorts at some point in their lives. Queen Felicity is still rather young and hasn't done much of note to earn a name yet. But I bet a queen showing up on the back of the single most feared dragon on Demonia and having tamed it to boot... Well, I am sure that is more than worthy of a name."

  I mulled it over for a moment then smiled. "I kind of like it." I laughed. "Sin, Queen of Dragons..."

  Kieran laughed. "I think it suits you well. Besides, the name Sin Andra sort of rolls off the tongue does it not?"

  I nodded. "It sounds like a real name. I guess it can't complain about it. And it is sort of my goal to tame as many dragons as I can. I think Rougier puts me off at a good start."