The sages were dismissed, their titles reduced to nothing but fancy tags for them to wear as pins. No more than glorified professors, each one of them was now cursed to carry the voice of the devil. His whisper haunted him, his face was instilled in their heart as the darkest moment of their lives, and it wasn't pain that he would inflict but torture not of the body, but of the mind and the heart.

Sitting in the assembly room with the handful who weren't affected by the curse, Zephyr gave Toma the stage to tell Cill and her sister everything that it had been hiding thus far. At times, the girls had questions, and Jill even had her weapon at the ready for both the devil and the sage. But as the story and the explanation came to an end, Cill raised a question that drew her sister's interest.

"If you're telling the truth, then why did you hide this?"

"Mind control, mind reading, memory erasure, want me to list more problems with telling someone who's human and not a marionette or golem like, and the sage Majora?" Narrowing its eyes, Toma dropped her gown to reveal its crystal body. Cill was instantly confused by the sight, while Jill wasn't alarmed at all as she already knew that something was wrong with the sages. "I am part of your great-grandmother's body, but I am not human, and those spells will not work on me or the saint Majora. Only we could've carried this burden until you were ready and strong enough to shield yourself from everyone. Why else do you think I let you off so easily for trying to go against me multiple times?"

"What changed now?" Jill asked; her speaking alone was enough of a surprise for her sister and the sage. But she had raised an important question, which Toma quickly started to explain.

"Our master has changed," turning her attention to Zephyr, it nodded lightly. "With him, those humans will stay in line, and though we may serve his interest as much as our own, a balance can be held, and for that a deal has already been made, isn't that right, Lord Zephyr?"

"Zephyr?" Muttering that name, Cill tried to remember where she'd heard it; she'd tried to before, but her anger from their initial interaction had buried all rational thought. As the memory hit her, her mind froze again, but her tongue went ahead and yelled. "THE ARCHFIEND?!!"

"Archfiend? As in the stories?" Not knowing why she was suddenly agitated, Glyea started looking around at everyone in search of an explanation. But the only thing she received was silence, and even breaking that silence was Zephyr himself.

"As long as ours is a deal of mutual benefit, you will not be hurt. Unlike the princess and the princes." Eyes narrowed to the last part of his sentences. Only Toma knew that he'd gone after the royals, but even so, a picture was being painted in everyone's head.

'Did he do something to make them hand over the crown?' Cill thought to herself, her heart racing at how quickly everything seemed to be moving.

"Where did they go, the royals?" Her sister, however, was far more bold in her questioning.

Taking a deep breath, Zephyr looked Jill in the eye and answered truthfully.

"The princess will spend the rest of her life having sex with all the males of her species around her, and her brothers will be serving as hounds that keep watch at night as she spends her life being a hedonist." Not sure what to draw from his words, the girls assumed that by species, he simply meant humans, as he himself wasn't one. As for her brother, the implication was far too vague for them to draw anything. "In any case, the nobles who supported the royals are mostly dead, and if the sages hold as much power as they profess to do, I would expect the crowning to take place very soon."

"Of course, my lord," bowing its head again, Toma glanced at Cill and decided to finally take a seat. Easing itself into its chair, it took an audible, deep breath and allowed its body to melt the bottled-up stress. Then, for once, as a smile rested on its lips, it lifted its head and looked into Cill's eyes again. "It's finally over, little girl. You can take over me soon, and I will pass away alongside the sage Majora. Do the sorceresses proud and rule over these murderers with an iron fist, and I'm sure our master will reward us for their torment alongside the occasional offerings, of course."

"That's it then… we're dealing with a devil? And that, too, the famed Archfiend who killed the gods." Cill muttered to herself, anxiously smiling while staring at her hands.

"Wait a second," interrupting the moment, Glyea jumped out of her chair. "Are you all serious?! Custer… Are you really?!"

"Yes…" Giving her a nod, Zephyr reached into her mind and dialed down her emotions. Shooting her with clarity, he made sure that she wasn't scared of him, for there was no reason for her to be. Even so, her anxiety floated on the surface and wore it on her face in the form of random twitches in her skin, Glyea took a deep gulp and sat herself back in her chair.

"Fuck you… for not telling me before," she murmured, alarming the other and making Zeph laugh a little.

As the awkward moment passed, Toma rose from its chair and walked over to Glyea. Getting her out of the chair, it advised her to follow her so that it could coach her on what comes next. Getting up as well, Cill and Jill both followed the sage Mediora. Not because they trusted it already or wanted to see where things led next, instead, it was an act of self-preservation by getting as far away from the fiend as possible.

With the meeting finally coming to an end, Zephyr decided to regroup with the hero's party and once again cause some trouble before having sex until the morning came to pass.

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