Raven grit her teeth as, again, The Hand moved from her ribs to her hip.

They were dancing again, but with different partners. Malchior had found the she-demon that had observed them in battle the other day and seemed to be taking even more liberties than their instructor was, his hand on the brunette's ass and his eyes trained diligently on her cleavage. On the other hand, Raven was dancing with their instructor, who was quickly becoming annoyed with her "Keep your hand here, please!"-es and had no qualms about hissing the fact that that usually stopped for women around ten into her ears when they got close enough in their spins.

For propriety's sake, they'd be dancing with others at the celebrations – Raven especially, the instructor had let them know, as a thank-you to the all-male collection of army leaders that would be leaving soon afterwards – and so they were learning a more common version of the dance she and Malchior had nearly finished learning which, Raven understood, was what all of Hell's dances stemmed from. At Malchior's suggestion, they acquired new partners – well, he'd acquired a new partner, in order to make up for the lack of grope-able woman that the morning had been, what with first sparring with Raven, then eating lunch together to discuss strategy again, then teaching her spells – and they'd continued the lesson, changing certain steps and gestures as the miserable-looking music player in the corner changed tunes.

She guessed she couldn't blame Malchior. If she had someone to get cozy with, she'd probably be attempting to make time for them as well. What was annoying her was that she had no-one to talk to, unless she wanted to get chummy with Malchior (not a bad idea, they'd be married soon and likely spending more time together than they were now), and she had yet to come up with a list of things she need to turn the mirror in her room into a communication device. And that there was a hand on her left side that was not her own.

'This isn't like being groped. This is strictly professional. Adrian did as much when he led you to your room.' But it damn well was frustrating.

[-M-]

That evening, she did some exploring. Familiarizing herself with the castle was something anyone could expect of her. Her wandering around, going down one hallway and returning within five minutes (It had been a dead end, and the nearly-unnoticeable crack between that wall and its neighbors reminded Raven of stories of enemies of the monarchs getting bricked into their rooms) was barely acknowledged; she was only afforded slight bows by the servants when she passed.

Her room was on the ground floor, and that left her with much sightseeing to do where she was, even as there were what she estimated was another four floors above her. She was currently looking for some form of door to the outside, since her view of the palace's surroundings made her want to explore the grounds a bit, but all that she'd managed so far were the ever-so-exciting servant's quarters which, while well-hidden and useful places to hide from guests since they likely wouldn't know about them or bother looking for them, were not quite what she'd had in mind.

Nonetheless, this new discovery was intriguing.

Raven, as far as the rest of the world would know, was currently a shadow of a large, human-sized bird on a wall; not a very subtle disguise, but here, it wouldn't matter anyway. At her first appearance inside the hidden stairway – and it had taken phasing through a wall to find – torches had erupted into existence on either side of her. Her feet (as well of the rest of her) became corporeal, and she was immediately assaulted by the face-melting heat of the fires around her.

As she walked downwards, keeping her cloak wrapped tightly against her lest it combust, though the heat was making her sweat straight through it, she noted the passage hadn't been entered in a very long time. Spiderwebs, currently wilting away from the heat, covered every nook and cranny. The floor was still the same marble of the rest of the palace, as were the walls, and neither were damaged, apart from dust and mouse droppings.

Her journey lead her to a larger room, unfurnished, with a tiny door, cement blocking any air flow. The chimney of the fireplace – which had, like the torches, exploded into being as soon as she'd come in and quickly began to cook her alive - was connected to all the other ones in the area, same as anywhere else in the castle. Swiftly, she sent out several blankets of choking black energy, wrapping them around each blaze and snuffing them out. Then she turned her attention to the door.

Once through it, a wave of fresh air hit her face – delicious after the stale, smoky and filthy air of the blocked room – and she immediately flew through the hedges to the garden. This area also appeared to be forgotten; moss-covered statues with missing fingers and coats bird droppings decorated the small space, obnoxiously large breasts and genitals bared for her viewing pleasure. To her delight, though, Raven could spot a dried-out irrigation ditch farther back, hidden, along with the rest of the small clearing.

More black energy encased the useless ornaments one by one, breaking them into manageable pieces soundlessly and piling everything neatly into the ditch. Broken gardening tools and dead plants followed. After half an hour of work, during which she'd gotten nearly as sweaty as she had in the Boiling Room, the clearing was neat, a mostly-clean rock had been chosen to become a backrest, and she'd reluctantly turned away from the cool evening air back into the mysterious room, which greeted her with the same treatment as it had the first time.

Once back in the hallway she'd come across it, she carefully marked the space between two eye-level blocks of marble with deep indents, scattered the resulting dust, and resumed her shadow form to journey back to her room for a bath without offending someone's nose.

…

…

A/N: It's because everyone has a stick up their ass in this fanfic. That's why I don't update. What I wouldn't give to write a steamy Mal/Rae makeout scene…