Demon Queen Wants to Paint

"Time to get back to your lessons," Lady Asdeus said sternly to Deziara, who groaned loudly in response.

"Do we have to?" The girl shook her pigtails from side to side.

"Yes, now let's get back to it," the demoness grumbled and looked awkwardly down at Rosa, then glared at Faenor. "You, slave! Go get her nanny and send her to 'Study room 13'. I am not changing any diapers."

"Princess Morrigan doesn't wear diapers anymore, but I'll fetch the nanny anyway," Faenor replied and then disappeared into the winding corridors before Lady Asdeus could object. The demoness looked at Rosa again, this time with a bit less disgust.

"No diapers? That's good at least. Now then, let's go, Princess Deziara. We've already lost a lot of time today."

With the constant grumbling and mumbling of Deziara in the background, Lady Asdeus wove through the corridors until they arrived at a place that wasn't too far away from the library. At least according to Rosa's sense of direction, which wasn't the most trustworthy thing.

As they entered the classroom-like space, Rosa's eyes lit up. Beyond the few desks, the large writing board and shelves lined with books and stationary, she saw something she had wanted to see ever since the first day she came to this world. An easel and canvas propped against a wall with a box next to it, lined to the brim with paints of every color imaginable.

"Now, take the easel, set the canvas on it, and let's begin," Lady Asdeus instructed, and Deziara complied with a groan. Rosa began fidgeting as she saw her prepare the workspace.

"Can't we do something fun for a change?" The demon girl tried to bargain, but Lady Asdeus shook her firmly.

"Art is a crucial part of your education. As a Princess you need to understand how it's made, how to differentiate good art from bad and also how to do at least a simplistic art piece yourself."

Rosa wanted to nod in agreement with her. More people should try to understand art instead of just dismissing it as a mere hobby, good for nothing else than filling up your spare time.

"But you make it sound so boring…" the girl groaned. The demoness glowered at her, making the child flinch and pick up the first brush that she came across.

Lady Asdeus then set Rosa down on the floor, a bit away from Deziara, and then set up another easel and canvas for herself, ready to demonstrate her skill. She was about to open her mouth but then remembered that Rosa was also still there, staring longingly at the paints.

"I guess it couldn't hurt to give you something to do as well…" the demoness muttered, pulling out a piece of paper from one of the shelves and a little container with colored sticks of some sort. They didn't look like either crayons or pencils. 

Rosa snatched them eagerly, looking over them with unhidden enthusiasm.

"At least someone looks interested," the demoness said, and turned her attention back to Deziara.

Rosa, finally having art supplies at her disposal, couldn't care less about what was going on around her. She took the orange colored stick out of the container and carefully examined it. It was neither a crayon, nor a pencil, nor a marker, but something completely new. Pressing it against the paper, the color laid down easily, not leaving any white streaks underneath. It wasn't very vibrant with the first stroke, so Rosa tried to layer it.

With each layer she added, the color got more and more vibrant even without her pushing hard. And the color was uniform. It was almost as if she was drawing on a tablet.

Finally, I am able to draw again. It's been far too long.

Rosa flipped the page over, and then began putting down one color after another.

First a bit of light green. Just draw it haphazardly on the bottom of the page. Then take some red and color the top of the page gently, just enough to make it light pink. Then use dark blue to separate the two and create vague mountains in the background. 

Draw a line that gets increasingly larger coming down from the mountains. And next to the riverbank, make gray rocks in the form of gray circles. Finally add some white clouds by trying to draw with white.

Rosa stopped for a moment, and admired her handiwork. It was messy, and streaky, and certainly looked like something a baby would draw. Her hands couldn't move the coloring stick as she wanted, so her lines were uneven and jittery. The supposed white clouds looked nothing more than a smudged mess as the stick seemed to serve more as a color blender rather than an actual white color.

But even so Rosa was delighted. Even if her hands couldn't draw the way they used to, she could do art again. Even if her lines have lost their precision and sharpness, even if she has no idea how to properly use these coloring sticks, it was all a matter of time before she'd be able to create exactly what she wanted.

"Look, Lady Asdeus! Morrigan is more interested in art than I am. Maybe you should teach her instead?" The demon girl ran up to Rosa, and pointed excitedly at her 'drawing'.

"I am sure that in due time, I'll be teaching her as well, but for now…" the demoness began, but then she saw Rosa's drawing and paused. She bent down and picked the page up, examining it carefully. "This is actually pretty impressive for a baby."

"See? You should totally teach her instead of me," Deziara gave the woman a toothy grin.

"But she is still a baby," Lady Asdeus stated and went over to the little girl's canvas. "Better show me what you've done."

Curious, Rosa moved a little bit so she'd be able to see her sister's work. Lady Asdeus gasped in shock as soon as she saw it, and Rosa barely contained a snort, instead pretending to cough.

There was a long stickman, or it was probably better to call it a stick woman, drawn onto the canvas. She had a vaguely curly mop for hair with black horns sticking out, overly large glasses on her round face, red lips that went outside of the face borders and a squiggly line for the tail. But the main focus of this piece was no doubt the two giant circles for breasts that filled no less than half of the canvas.

"Princess Deziara!" the demoness nearly shouted in outrage. "That is not what a Princess should be drawing."

"I think it's pretty accurate," the girl mumbled quietly, and Rosa resisted the urge to nod along.

"We shall begin anew, and you won't be able to leave until you finish today's assignment."

"Aww…"

Lady Asdeus opened her mouth, no doubt to chastise the girl some more, when a barely audible knock resounded on the door.

"Enter," the demoness commanded and the trembling frame of Gunna appeared.

"I was told that Lady Morrigan needs me here."

"Ah, yes. You must be her nanny. I just need you to make sure she doesn't cause a fuss or make a mess around here."

"Of course. I'll make sure your lesson continues uninterrupted," Gunna bowed her head low and then scurried over to Rosa while keeping a good distance away from Lady Asdeus. The dwarf woman looked even more nervous now than she did around Alphegor, although the reaction was not as bad as around Azrael.

Maybe I should make some demon craziness chart based on Gunna's reaction. It's odd Gunna's reaction to Alphegor is much milder than to other demons. Is he really more mild-mannered than the others? Or is she just more used to him?

"What have you drawn here, Lady Morrigan?" Gunna asked in barely audible whisper and admired Rosa's handiwork. The nanny then smiled and gently patted her head. "That is very well done. I never thought you'd like drawing so much. Perhaps we should ask the King for your own drawing supplies.

Rosa was about to nod enthusiastically at the suggestion, but paused.

How would Alphegor react if he knew that I like art? He's the Demon King and he wants me to be his successor. He would no doubt be even more disappointed than my mother if he found out. No, worse than disappointed… he could decide that he has no use for me.

"No," Rosa replied simply as she fiddled with the colorful sticks.

"Are you sure?" The nanny looked a bit dejected. Rosa nodded.

I'll just draw here. Lady Asdeus probably has no idea what to do with me anyway, so it'll be a win-win for everybody involved.

"Well, if you're sure. I suppose you can just draw here," Gunna confirmed and then put another blank page in front of Rosa. "How about I draw some things for you?"

Rosa nodded again, and they spent the rest of time drawing with the colorful sticks. It was an enjoyable time, even with Deziara's constant complaints and Lady Asdeus's merciless lectures resounding in the background. It seemed like the rest of the day would be peaceful.

A loud, incessant knock sounded on the door and before anybody had time to react, it was flung open and Azrael appeared in the doorway.

"I am looking for my pupil," he announced, and then squinted as he saw Lady Asdeus. "It's you. One princess isn't enough for you? Trying to butter up to His Majesty using his favorite daughter as well?"

The silver-haired demon sneered, and Lady Asdeus just waved her hand dismissively in response.

"You're one to talk. I've heard what you did. Swearing an oath to a baby," the demoness scoffed and threw one of her curls over her shoulder. "Really, Azrael, that has to be a new low even for you."

"I'm just thinking about the future. The current king won't remain in his throne forever," Azrael went up to Rosa and then picked her up and lifted her high. "But what I have right here is the future queen of the whole Underworld. The demoness who will rule over everything."

Don't involve me in your schemes. 

"That's a baby. She can't do anything right now. It'll be at least two millennia before the King even thinks of passing the throne to anybody and in the meanwhile you're bound to the whims of that snotty kid," Lady Asdeus smirked.

How rude! I don't have snot.

"But… Morrigan doesn't have any snot," Deziara carefully looked at Rosa, and then cocked her head in confusion. 

At least somebody is on my side.

"Ah… That's not quite what I meant, Princess Deziara. I meant that she is still small and not capable of doing much," the demoness pacified the little girl and then waved for her to continue her work. Deziara groaned loudly yet again, and with deliberate slowness began dragging the brush across the canvas.

"We'll see about that. In either case, I'll be taking her with me now. Ta-Ta!" Azrael waved his hand, and before anybody could object zoomed out of the study room. 

"Wait…" Rosa wanted to protest, but Azrael shook his head, not slowing down in the slightest. The poor dwarf nanny ran after them as fast as her stocky legs would allow her, huffing and puffing in the meanwhile.

"No, you owe me one. You barfed on me during our first lesson, then ditched the second lesson completely. I think it's about time we began working for real."

"Play?" Rosa tried to play dumb, but the demon laughed and mercilessly messed up the two small twin tails Gunna managed to make out of the meager amount of hair she had.

"Nice try, kiddo, but I know that you're smarter than you're letting on. Besides, we have some other business to take care of as well."

"Other?" Rosa asked, this time actually confused about what he's talking about.

"Yeah, we still haven't dealt with your birthday present from the king, have we?" Azrael pursed his lips, and his eyebrows creased in a deep furrow. Color drained from Rosa's cheeks as she remembered the giant, red dragon egg.

"Eep," Rosa hiccuped as she felt her heartbeat increase. 

"It's alright. I'm sure we'll manage… somehow," Azrael exhaled, then suddenly stopped and turned to walk in a completely different direction. "How about we swing by the kitchens first and see if they have some raw meat?"

"Eep," Rosa hiccuped again, and took a firm hold of Azrael's shirt.