Marchosias remained standing, leaning over the table, his knuckles white. His eyes were hard, scanning each of his lieutenants. "None of the other high-ranking demons have interacted with the Avatar yet, have they?"
Skarg growled, crossing his massive arms. "I told you, I brought him to you as fast as I could. These idiots just slowed me down."
Nock laughed deeply, smoothing his ruffled mane. "Stupid deer. The Avatar was dying of disgust with you. I saved him and brought him here on my horse. A far more noble arrival."
Andras blew out a perfect smoke ring. "You idiots had a chase right through the Pit for everyone to see. I plucked that fragile little thing up and got him to the keep safely. Shadow travel is discreet."
The group began to argue again, voices rising, but Marchosias slammed a fist onto the table. "I don't give a fuck about that! Just tell me, did Shax or Gamigin catch wind of this?"
The demons looked at each other, confused by the Captain's intensity.
Marchosias continued, his voice tight. "Please tell me Amdusias doesn't know."
Skarg sneered. "Why? You want to keep this little whore as your personal knot-holder? Afraid we'll spoil him?"
Marchosias stood up fully, his chair screeching backward across the stone. He took a breath, and when he spoke, his voice changed. It wasn't the gravelly growl of a commander anymore. It became smooth, melodic, and horrifyingly beautiful. It resonated with a power that felt like gravity itself.
"I compel you," the voice washed over the room like a wave of pure energy, "tell me who else you have told."
Zac felt the words vibrate in his chest, a compulsion to speak the truth so strong it was dizzying.
Bune sat up straight, his heads snapping to attention.
Left Head, "He has been in the keep the whole time!"
Right Head, "I haven't spoken to a soul outside the staff!"
Marchosias nodded once.
Halphas rubbed the back of his neck, looking uncomfortable. "Been busy on supply runs. Basically forgot that little human existed… well, I might have thought about how he might look down in the trenches, getting a little dirty. But I've told not a soul."
Nock held a hand up dramatically, his eyes glazed. "The Avatar… his gentle aesthetic would be tarnished with more suitors. He will quickly learn that there is none better to feed grapes to than I. My secret to keep."
Marchosias rolled his eyes but accepted the answer.
Andras hissed, stubbing out his smoke with unnecessary force. "I only told Goremaw. And I hate when you use the fucking Voice."
"Too bad," Marchosias snapped, his own voice returning to normal. "This is important."
Finally, they all looked at Skarg. The wendigo was grinding his teeth, sweat beading on his brow, shifting in his seat as he fought the compulsion.
"Skarg," Marchosias said.
The caribou grunted, the words fighting their way out. "I told… all the whores I've been fucking…" He made a strangled noise, grabbing his own throat as the lie turned to ash in his mouth.
Marchosias sighed. "Every time, Furfur. You have to fight it? Just speak."
Skarg bellowed, slamming his fists onto the table. "FINE! I was alone last night jerking off and that little human interrupted me! Fuck! I haven't told anyone!"
Marchosias nodded, satisfied. "Thank you, Skarg."
Skarg stewed in his seat, radiating humiliation. Nock laughed, a cruel, musical sound. "Why lie about whores, brute? If you're going to make something up, you should have said some young virgin maiden came down to pleasure you. At least that would be a classic fantasy."
The table erupted in laughter. Even Bune hid a snicker behind a clawed hand.
"A virgin? Down here?" Andras wheezed, wiping a tear from his eye. "Good luck with that."
"Like they would fall for any of you ruffians anyway," Bune added.
Halphas laughed, leaning back. "You all wouldn't know a virgin unless they had a chastity belt on with a user manual."
"Like you would either!" Nock declared, standing to make a speech. "Even if it has been thousands of years, I would never forget that purity! Oh, to defile something so holy… it would be the highlight of this war."
Skarg chuckled darkly. "No virgin wants you, you pompous pussy. They want to be claimed. They want to pretend they don't want it."
Andras nodded sagely. "They want a bone and then to be alone, just like anyone else. Cynicism is universal."
Halphas elbowed Andras. "Just because you leave them unsatisfied doesn't mean the rest of us do."
Nock scoffed. "Romance is what everyone wants! To lay siege to their heart so their innards are ready for the walls to come down!"
"Quiet!" Marchosias yelled, cutting off the barrage of unwitting irony.
Zac sat there, eyes wide, a frown on his face.
Marchosias stood tall at the head of the table, his amber eyes glowing with the remnants of his Compelling Voice. "What passes in this room," he said, his tone leaving no room for argument, "stays in this room. I am enacting a Level One security protocol. Total silence. Understood?"
The lieutenants grumbled, shifting in their seats, but they nodded.
"Understood," Andras muttered.
"Aye," Skarg grunted.
"Upon my honor," Nock said.
"Copy that," Halphas agreed.
Marchosias began to pace, his boots heavy on the stone floor. "Secrecy is the bedrock of victory," he lectured, his voice taking on the cadence of a professor of war. "Not only hiding our movements from the enemy, but compartmentalizing information within our own ranks. To ensure that a plan unfolds without interference, the truth must be guarded like a flame in a storm."
"Oh, get on with it, Cap!" Halphas groaned, throwing his head back. "We get it. Loose lips sink ships. What's the big secret?"
Marchosias stopped pacing. He turned to face them. "The Avatar was rejected by the Bicorns."
Skarg let out a harsh bark of laughter. "So what? A skittish mount isn't anything to call a war council for. The little runt probably smells weird. Just give him Nock's horse. It's practically a sofa with legs anyway."
"Sir Hoofington is a noble steed!" Nock protested, affronted. "I would of course be willing to ferry the avatar wherever he needs to be!"
"Not just one Bicorn," Marchosias growled, cutting through the bickering. "Three. Three war-beasts, bred for slaughter and sin, rejected him violently."
The men laughed again, a raucous, mocking sound. "The Avatar has already cost you three war horses?" Andras chuckled. "That's an expensive morning, even for you."
Marchosias slammed his hand on the table. "Three Bicorns! Do you idiots not know what this means?!"
The laughter died. Slowly, painfully slowly, the silence crept back into the room. The realization dawned on them one by one, like dominoes falling.
Andras was the first. The cigarillo fell from his beak, forgotten. He stared at Zac, his golden eyes widening. "Fuck," he whispered.
"Wait," Halphas said, leaning forward, his brow furrowed. "Do you mean…"
Bune was silent, but with a wet tearing sound, his Third Head popped out of his shoulder not to scream, but simply to stare at Zac, licking its chops with a long, slobbering tongue.
Nock looked over at Zac, and for a second, Zac swore the lion's eyes turned into giant, pulsing cartoon hearts. He looked like he was about to compose a sonnet on the spot.
Skarg was the last to stop laughing. He wiped a tear from his eye, looking down at Zac with a grin. "What? There's no way this horny little slut is a virgin. I smelled the lust on him in the crypt!"
Zac tried to disappear into his chair, wishing he could fold himself into a pocket dimension. "No, haha," he said, his voice pitching up an octave. "I'm totally not a virgin, guys. That's hilarious though. Good joke."
As he spoke, his tongue went silver. The magic of Ose coated his words, making them sound reasonable, plausible. He mentally thanked the hells for his gift.
But no one laughed.
The magic hung in the air, thin and brittle against the ancient, powerful auras of the demon lords.
Marchosias growled, a low, disappointed sound. "The deception of an Avatar won't work on High Demons when the evidence is this stark. You are a virgin, are you not?"
"No!" Zac squeaked, trying to force the silver tongue to work again. It felt cold and heavy, useless against their collective scrutiny.
Marchosias looked angrily at the human. He took a breath, and the Voice returned, horrifying, beautiful, and irresistible.
"Zachary, Avatar of Ose. Are you a pure virgin who has never been deflowered?"
"Yes!"
The word tore itself from Zac's throat before he could even move his hands to cover his mouth.
Silence. Absolute, heavy, suffocating silence.
Zac looked around the table. The teasing, the mockery, the casual dismissal, it was all gone.
Skarg was staring at him like a starving man looking at a banquet.
Nock looked like he had found the Holy Grail.
Andras looked like a cat that had just realized the canary cage was unlocked.
Halphas looked like he was recalculating his armaments.
Bune's three heads were fixed on him with a terrifying, unified intensity.
They weren't looking at him like a toy anymore. They were looking at him with full blown, unadulterated, predatory lust.