Failure (Kali POV)

“Every time I hear from you, youngest daughter, it’s to report another failure. I send you a catalyst for the portal, you tell me she’s been taken. I give you a conversion crystal, you say the carrier was defeated. This was your redemption project, Kali. This was how you were going to prove your worth to your father.”

Kali is kneeling in front of the communication mirror, head bowed. Fighting back tears, she stammers, “F-father, I need...”

“SILENCE! Do not speak to me. This was supposed to be easy, you said. A quick mission to empower us. Instead you have me wasting resources on this new world. Enough. Your sisters were correct, we should be building power here, not trying to expand into a magic desert. You have one more month, Kali. After that, I close this portal and consider you lost.”

With that, the communication ends. In a rage, Kali turns and hurls a bolt of flame across the room, burning an elaborate tapestry to ash. She drops to her knees, buries her face in her hands and sobs.

Kali had never been a good daughter to the demon lord. She remained tainted, a result of his dalliance with a human. Nothing she did could compare to her full-blooded sisters. The legacy of her humanity was obvious, she looked like the half-breed she was. It allowed her to pass as a oddly colored human with wings, but it meant that she would never have the power of a full demon.

It also meant she was tainted with emotion. Unlike her sisters, she CARED. Her sisters never cried, never laughed, never showed anything beyond lust and hate. Kali tried to emulate them, but her pathetic human half seemed to rebel against it. In the end, she saw an opportunity to prove herself with the opening of the portals. She could build an army for her father, a resource no one else could tap.

It was going so well too, and then this mage appeared. It seemed like everything crumbled when he touched it. And what’s worse, Kali found herself drawn to him. His little collection of outcasts seemed so happy. And they fought for each other! He nearly died, protecting a goblin girl he barely knew! Kali didn’t understand, and her confusion mixed with a longing she didn’t know how to deal with.

She sits on her bed, sighing. Every time she attacked, he grew stronger. Perhaps a different tactic? Turn her weak human half into an advantage? But how...perhaps a meeting, just speak with him, to discover how he wins these outcasts affection.

Purely for research, of course! Knowing your enemy is important!

Kali nodded to herself, and set out to send a message asking for a meeting, one on one.