Tell Blythe you're a Demon Lord

“Blythe,” you say. “There’s something serious I need to talk to you about.” She pulls away from you, her expression half worry and half seriousness. “First, I want you to tell me about Demon Lords.”

The last couple words make your elven friend freeze up. “Shh!” she says after a moment. “You cannot idly mention such things. Not out in the open, at the least. Why must you ask this of me?”

You place a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you. This is important, though. Let’s find someplace else to talk.” She nods, still wearing the shock of the sudden shift in conversation on her face. The two of you leave the market square and head north to the edge of town. Past the northern-most buildings there is a field of grass, which stretches for about the length of a football field before trees begin to cover the area. This must be the forest worked by those lumberjacks you saw in the tavern last night, the one infested with monsters.

Both of you stop once you reach the tree line. “Nobody should bother us out here,” you say. “Now please, tell me what you know about Demon Lords.”

Blythe still appears very much afraid to talk about this, but she does eventually speak. “They are the mortal enemies of the Goddess. Whenever one surfaces, destruction is sure to follow. In the legends, a Demon Lord always seeks to annihilate everything and everyone in their path, and it is the Hero who must defeat them.”

“Legends, huh?” you say. What about real ones? you want to ask, but you hold yourself back. “Based on these legends, is the whole ‘destroy the world’ thing the only qualification for someone to be called a Demon Lord?”

Your question makes her tilt her head in thought. “I do not truly understand the question… but the Demon Lords in stories are generally quite powerful both physically and magically. They command armies of monsters or demons, sometimes both. I do not know if either of those could be considered ‘qualifications,’ however.”

“If you don’t know what makes a Demon Lord a Demon Lord, is it safe to say that they’re evil just because people say they’re evil?” you ask. It’s time to cut to the heart of things.

“What?” Blythe’s hands shoot up to cover her face, her fingers moving to allow her to peek out at you. “But they are bringers of cataclysm. Agents of destruction. The legends say that they seek to destroy all that is dear to the world.”

“And if they weren’t all that?”

“Then they would not be Demon Lords.”

“Blythe,” you say, reaching out to grip her shoulders. “I have reason to believe the Goddess will declare me to be a Demon Lord.” Her body, already tense, twitches away from you. She turns her back to you and wraps her arms around herself. “She may have already done it, and news just hasn’t reached here yet. I felt like you deserved to know.” You stand there in awkward silence for what feels like several minutes.

Finally, Blythe speaks. “Am I to blame? H-has your involvement with me done this?”

That’s not what you expected her to take from this at all. It should be no surprise, though, now that you think about it: her self-esteem is astronomically low due to her past. You close the gap between you and gently embrace her from behind. “Not at all,” you say softly into her ear. “I made Ithwen a little upset all on my own.” You turn her around and hold her close again. Her hands come up to push lightly into your chest. Tears had started falling down her face, but denying that she’d had anything to do with you becoming a Demon Lord seems to have slowed them down for now. “I’m telling you this so that you have the chance to turn back. If you stay, I promise to accept you for who you are, and to help you explore avenues of pleasure you may not have even thought of before. But you would be throwing in with a Demon Lord, and facing everything that comes with that. Do you understand?”

Blythe lowers her gaze in quiet thought for several seconds before coming back with her answer. “I saw what you left in the tent of that homeless woman. I have also seen you speak with joy about your homeland. You even accepted me without hesitation when no one else would. I cannot see you as an evil person. You said ‘I believe that denying one’s own desires is the greatest sin of all.’” She wraps her arms around you and buries her head into your shoulder. “I want to believe that too. I will stay with you, Evan.”