Chapter 2: Hold Your Head High in Pride

It took Elanor a moment to come to terms with her situation, God help her if she could actually figure out what situation it was though.

First of all, she was alive. That was good, seeing as she had bitterly rejected her previous defeat and death. By all rights though she was supposed to have been killed by the General of Pride.

However, she wasn’t dead. She was very happy to not be dead.

HOWEVER. She was now in the hands of said General.

It wasn’t really an upgrade, more of a trade off from one hell for another. The important thing though was that she wasn’t dead. She was still alive.

That alone was enough for Elanor to not despair about her situation. Oh, there were many things wrong with being alive and held captive by demons, but her priority was staying alive, no matter the situation.

And Elanor definitely had a situation on her hands.

There were very few reasons that the General of Pride would let her live when he had every opportunity to kill her. There was also no discernable reason to treat her as anything more than a prisoner of war, but she wasn’t in a cell in the deepest recesses of his castle, chained up and being tortured for information.

On the contrary, she was in a bedroom with tall windows spilling in light without any cell bars to get in the way. The doors were locked with no exit in sight, and she could see treetops with how high her room was, but this was a far cry from a prison, even if she was being held captive.

Elanor sat up and tried to really take in what had happened after she had passed out.

The room itself was a bit…gruesome in design, from the furniture and paintings to the shades of red and black the décor seemed to favor, putting the room in a more sinister light, nothing like the white and gold that was preferred by Strirus’s king.

It was so different from anything that she had seen before, but the strangest thing about the situation was that she wasn’t in chains. No, Elanor was tucked underneath soft sheets, still dressed in her battle worn robes, with a deep bruise having settled around her throat like a collar.

They hadn’t changed her clothes or seemed to have done anything beyond move her from the battlefield and into this rooms. For demons that was d*mn near respectful when they absolutely hated her and everything she was on principle.

She didn’t like the implications of what being treated kindly meant. It was to her shame that she didn’t know much about demons beyond what the war had taught her, and the warnings parents gave their children.

People weren’t supposed to survive beyond first contact let alone capture. So why?

As happy as she was about it, why was Elanor still alive?

She couldn’t figure out this situation because something like this had never happened before. Was she a hostage? A prisoner of war? Or something else?

The doorknob twisted.

Oh. So, she was going to find out.

Maybe she shouldn’t have asked.

Elanor quickly schooled her features and tried to hide behind a mask. Playing asleep or even dead sounded appealing, but it’d leave her too vulnerable.

Everything was against her at the moment, even being alive because Elanor didn’t know what they wanted so she couldn’t even use her life as a bargaining chip.

She almost wanted to laugh at the irony at it all. One hell to the next indeed.

The demon who walked into her room had a face she recognized immediately. Elanor doubted she’d forget the General of Pride so easily after what just happened.

He was unfairly handsome, all demons were really, even if some of them were also terrifyingly visceral at the same time. Pretty eyes or a pretty face, the General of Pride had both.

Sharp features, piercing purple eyes and long black hair that was so dark it was like ink.

He was wearing a long, black leather trench coat, buttoned up the way and almost militaristic in style if there weren’t fangs and claws pinned to it like medals of war.

Despite the dark and menacing visage he was effortlessly pulling off, peeking out from under his trench coat sleeves were bandages.

So, Elanor had managed to do some real damage to him with her attacks. Hmm, that might not be a good thing in this situation.

“Holy Maiden.”

“General of Pride.” Elanor echoed back.

It was a mockery of a greeting, though, she supposed it was less of an antagonization and more unavoidable scenario between the two of them. Neither of them knew each other’s name after all.

The General’s voice was deep and smooth, like spider silk. So pretty, so deadly. A spider with the fly right where he wanted her, and he had all the time in the world to do what he wanted with her.

He crossed the distance between them almost instantly with those long legs of his, standing by her bedside, towering over her. She didn’t dare flinch or falter. She could be afraid later.

Elanor was sure the General would let her know exactly what to fear.

“Go on.”

“What?”

“Ask. You have questions don’t you? So, ask.” He prompted her, forcing her to be the one to inquire about her situation instead of explaining it to her. If he would answer though was entirely up to him. He didn’t need to explain this little powerplay of his. He didn’t need to tell her anything at all.

“…Why did you let me live?”

“No.”

“No?”

“Ask something else.”

Unfortunate but expected, so Elanor asked her next question.

“…Why am I here?”

“You’re a hostage I suppose,” he mused, and she almost gaped at him.

Suppose? What was that supposed to mean?! The imposing, serious figure in her mind shattered in an instant but before a new image could settle into place, his gaze settled on her, picking her apart.

No matter what, no matter how he acted, this man, this demon, was dangerous. She had to remember that.

“It’d be a bit troubling if you died after all.”

So, that’s why she had been left alive, just as she suspected. If the current Holy Maiden died another one would inherit the title. That’s how it worked.

It she was being held hostage by the demons though, could it not be said that the humans would no longer have a Holy Maiden to fight back with?

Usually this was the point where the Holy Maiden would then sacrifice herself for the sake of the kingdom and its people.

“That’s another reason I have you here. No need to break your will to live by sticking you in a cell or torturing you.”

Elanor was not nearly altruistic enough to give up her life when she so desperately needed to live and he seemed to know that.

“I see. Then is this a war strategy or something else. I mean, you didn’t hesitate to kill the previous Holy Maiden.”

“You’re weaker than her,” he smiled, lips pulling back to show sharp fangs, gaze taunting, eyes practically glowing as he mocked her. “I don’t think I have to worry about you. I mean, we didn’t leave survivors after all. No one knows your alive.”

For the first time in this meeting, he got a reaction out of her as Elanor’s breath hitched.

“Mhm, that’s right, with the kingdom thinking you’re dead they’ll be far too busy looking for the new Holy Maiden to bother with trying to save you. There’s no rescue party coming for you, and certainly no way for you to fight your way out of here this deep inside the Demon King’s territory.”

They…thought she was dead. The mere thought of such a thing being her reality made her tremble. It was the worst possible outcome in this situation.

Whatever expression she was making, it seemed to be the exact one the General wanted to see out of her because his smile eased into something more pleasant.

“Since you’re aware of your position, I do hope you’ll behave. We can treat you far worse than this after all, and I doubt that fire in your eyes would go out quickly even if we did put you in a cell.”

He turned his back to her as he headed towards the doors while Elanor fisted the sheets, trembling. They both knew she could do nothing to him, no matter how much she would’ve liked to in this very moment.

The door locked behind him, sounding like an ultimatum but Elanor wouldn’t let it be one.

It couldn’t have been long since she was brought here, maybe not even a day with how their wounds were still fresh, how the bruise around her neck was still so deep.

If the General was telling the truth about how she was the only survivor then it would take some time before anyone realized that the recent battle had been won by the demons.

That meant no one knew she was dead yet. That was the most important part. If Elanor could get word out that she was alive, not a single resource would be used into finding the next Holy Maiden, instead it would be used to continue the war or stage a rescue.

They would also be made aware that the demons wanted her alive and probably come to the same conclusion as her, that it was to keep the next Holy Maiden from popping up.

A Holy Maiden was supposed to sacrifice herself. Was it a flaw that she wanted to live?

The king and the kingdom would most certainly think so, but they wouldn’t be able to do anything about that, and if they were so upset about it, well, they could march into demon territory and kill her themselves.

Right now, though, the only thing Elanor would be doing was marching out of demon territory.

The General stated that she couldn’t fight her way out. Alright then, she wouldn’t fight. She was not so embittered by the existence of demons that she needed to leave a trail of carnage behind her.

It was war. It wasn’t personal. Not yet anyways.

She had a feeling she was going to step on a lot of toes with this escape stunt of hers.

That was alright though, maybe the General of Pride couldn’t understand something like this, but what was pride in the face of survival?

Elanor would escape, she just had to be smart about it. They were expecting her to react like a regular human with a grudge against their race, weren’t they? They didn’t know anything about her, they didn’t even know her name.

She could work with that.