POV: Runa
The hero was fierce, violent, and cruel. He was in his middle years, with salt-and-pepper hair mixing with melting snow. He had lean muscles and pale skin that hadn’t seen much sun for reasons known only to his alien culture. She approved of the calloused, scarred hands, consistent with fighting, and wild energy born from insatiable anger.
Runa was entranced. She wanted to convert to whatever religion this man was, so she could properly thank the god that created him.
He had a cross on a necklace, though he was male, so she’d better call it a ‘chain’ or something similar. Regardless, he was probably Christian.
Runa sighed. The man had been so close to perfection! Well, she could work with Christians. She just needed to be subtle or at least what passed for subtle within the context of her own behavior.
The room was large with a flagstone floor and empty except for a chair; meaning Sayaka had prepared for this possibility. The only occupants were the two of them. Runa was sitting down and maintaining a simple barrier spell to bisect the room; a translucent yellow wall.
A knowledgeable person would hit her barrier in the same place a few times to crack it. The hero beat against the whole thing in wild fury from one end to the other.
The first twenty minutes had been an exhaustive display of both his vocabulary and the implanted linguistics; he had called her more variants of ‘whore’, ‘slut’, and ‘bitch’ than anyone else had without the aid of a thesaurus.
Runa’s request that they be left alone had been ignored. A few others had passed in to check on them. It wasn't clear if they were concerned for Runa, the hero, or both.
What they should have been concerned with was themselves. If Runa could make this man a warchief, she could raise her own army and-
A black lace choker around her neck tightened, an impediment against megalomania. Well, she could manage, time was all she needed.
When they had been left alone long enough, he eventually wore himself out and said something useful that piqued her interest.
“What do you mean by ‘two weeks’?” Runa asked. It had been the first thing she said.
He paused and took some deep breaths. “I need to be home by Christmas or I won’t get to see my kids.”
Children? Unimaginable. Runa had no doubts that Mio, wizards, and ritualists could screw up, either singularly or as a team. However, this ritual very specifically prevented it. Mio could have selected any soul at random from the very start. That person would have at least a small chance of pushing back the Demon King’s army and a flat zero chance of having a family. He would be a competent warrior, willing to fight, with nothing to hold him back.
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Any man with obligations would be likely to sell out to the Demon King in exchange for a way back to Earth. The hero couldn’t even have imaginary children!
Runa stalled for time by feigning concern. The most important thing was that he was useless to her as a warlord (there was a brief pinch around her neck). Next was his use to the human population of Tenka. Technically that included herself.
“You poor man,” she began to say how sorry she was but he slammed his body into the wall again and swore. Attempts at empathy failing, she opened the door a crack and said to the guard, “Get Mio”.
It didn’t take much time for Sayaka and Mio to arrive. Half a dozen guards followed them in. Runa thought that was excessive until she realized the guards were to protect the other two from her. That made a little more sense, but not much. Runa had noticed the security around her depended less on policy and more on how nervous everyone was about anything.
Mio, in an apparent exasperating effort to prove that she was one of the world’s natural submissives, carried the hero’s gun on top of a small silk pillow. Runa did her best not to comment.
“He claims he has children,” Runa said.
“Impossible,” declared Mio with uncharacteristic authority. “He can’t have-” she stopped herself and addressed the hero directly. “Hero-dono, there are multiple safeguards within the ritual to summon a man both capable and willing to assist us.”
“I’m not willing and I’ll show you what I’m capable of when you give me back my Glock.”
Runa sighed, this was going nowhere.
The elf assassin approached him. Her face was close to the barrier, and she addressed the hero. “I’m Sayaka. Normally, I’d tell you to call me Sayaka-sama. If you talk to me about your kids, you can call me whatever you want. That includes ‘stupid cunt’.”
The room was quiet except for the guards shuffling farhrer away. Smart people.
The hero nodded his head, “Alright. Are you supposed to be an Elf or Vulcan or something? Never mind. I don’t care. My kids are Ethan and Lily. He's a senior in high school, she's a sophomore. They’re great. Ethan hates me, I can’t blame him. Lily-”
“Why does Ethan hate you?” interrupted Sayaka.
The hero scowled at her and then looked at the ground briefly. “I got thrown in prison for seven years when I broke the leg of a guy I caught fucking my wife.”
“That’s unreasonable,” Sayaka said.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t earn time off for good behavior and-”
“No. I meant you. You should have broken the other leg.”
“That’s what Lily says!” the hero exclaimed.
Runa agreed. She didn’t understand why it was a crime, though her morality was suspect. Cheating spouses were the kind of thing that leaders could expect when they didn’t brainwash the population and-
Runa’s choker tightened up again until she dismissed the thought.
The hero hadn’t noticed and kept chattering about his kids. “-I’ve only talked to them on the phone for seven years. This is the first time I’ve had custody. If Ethan-”
“Wait!” said Runa. “You haven’t been a parent?”
“I’ve been a parent in name only. I haven’t had any responsibilities or legal decision-making authority.”
“Oh, no.” said Mio, then she turned to a guard, “get one of the ritualists. Quick.”
“Don’t bother.” sighed Runa. “I can tell you, the spell wouldn’t have parsed his situation. He’s here because of the terms of his divorce.”
The guy got screwed over both by his own people and her country’s magic. He had woken up daily in jail for years with his society’s weird logic hammering into him. An excellent example of why brainwashing was so important!
Her choker squeezed a solid fifteen seconds for that one.
