“Yeah, he does that sometimes,” Lilith remarked as she leaned back in her chair. I glanced at Pecta who was staring at her. “Let me get this straight,” he began, taking a deep breath. “The fact that a GOD appeared before Vindict doesn’t concern you? No less that the god, your PATRON, doesn’t think we'll leave this city alive?”

Lilith shrugged. “Not really. Noctus can be dramatic at times. Besides, I’m a Chosen. There is nothing to fear.” The assassin reached out and grabbed the half-full bottle that was still on the table. She took a swig and sighed.

“By Noctus’ bandaged ass, this tastes great. Didn’t expect you to have a good taste in alcohol.” Pecta glared and muttered something about alcoholics and blasphemy. The former was a bit ironic, considering that it was his bottle.

After taking a deep breath, he tried again. “Your god wants you to leave everything you have built here and leave immediately. Doesn’t that make you, I don’t know, sad?” That seemed to get through to her.

She put the bottle back down and took on a thoughtful look. Then she laughed. “Nah, I’m glad to be gone from this dump. She leaned conspiratorially towards me and fake whispered, “This year has been soooo boring. I’m sure that we can both have some fun, despite Mr Grumpy over there.”

I liked fun, but Pecta apparently didn’t, as he groaned and muttered more things I'd rather not put to paper. He looked for a place to sit but both of the chairs were occupied so he plopped down on his makeshift bed.

There was a lull in the conversation and I decided that now was the time to ask something I had been wondering about. “I have a question.” Pecta motioned for me to continue. “What is a demon?”

It was immediately obvious that this wasn’t a benign question. Pecta froze up and looked around frantically. “How the hell do you know about demons?!” He hissed angrily.

Taken aback by his anger I rethought what I was about to say. “It was something Noctus happened to mention.” This wasn’t lying. I was just biding my time until I knew more.

Pecta took a few deep breaths to calm himself. “Don’t mention that subject again.” Lilith who had been watching our exchange burst out laughing. It took her a while to calm down and wipe a tear from her eye. “Oh, your reaction was hilarious.”

Pecta glared at her, something he had been doing a lot throughout our conversation. Lilith gestured with her hand. “Just tell him about them. The worst that can happen is that he gets nightmares and I doubt that you’re a good enough storyteller for that.” Turning to me she said, “To sum up everything he is about to say: Demons are bogeymen that mothers tell bedtime stories about when their child has been naughty.”

Pecta shook his head in disbelief. “How can you, a Chosen, doubt their existence?!” Lilith waved away his concerns. “Oh, I don’t doubt that they exist. Noctus has spoken of them many times. But the fact of the matter is that they are all trapped in Hell. They can’t do shit, no matter what.”

“Don’t be so sure of that,” Pecta muttered, too softly for the assassin to hear. He looked at me and sighed.

“Your curiosity will be the death of you. Still, I’ll indulge you. If you promise me to never bring up that topic ever again.” I quickly nodded and Pecta began his explanation.

“To start things off, I need to talk about the creation of the world. In the beginning, there were seven gods. The Original Gods. They are responsible for the creation of everything. The Chaossoother separated the worlds, the Creator sculpted ours, the Lifegiver brought life into it, the-” “He wanted to hear about demons not about this church prattle,” Lilith interrupted him.

Pecta wasn’t happy but he complied and skipped ahead in his explanation.

“They joined together and created something beautiful. But one of them was unable to create anything. The seventh god, the Destroyer, had only one talent. He watched with envy as his brethren's creations flourished in this new world. He despised them and soon he hatched a plan. On that day, he succeeded in creating something. Creatures born from destruction and created for the sole purpose of causing more. There were 101 of them and he nicknamed them ‘Demons’.”

“The other Original Gods watched in horror, as the Demons tore through their creations. They rallied their children, gods and mortals alike, and declared war on this menace. The war was brutal and lasted for centuries but after much bloodshed they were victorious. They sealed the Destroyer in a prison outside this world and banished his creations to the realm known as Hell.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“In the aftermath, the Original Gods made a decision. They would leave this fledgling world so that their creations could live in peace.” Lilith snorted but Pecta continued unperturbed. “They left their divine children to watch over their mortal ones and departed, never to be heard from again."

Pecta’s eyes had gone glassy and I could tell that he was reciting something he had learned by heart. And I could understand why. The history of this world was wild. I considered clapping but decided against it. Instead I quietly asked the question that had been plaguing my mind. “If the demons are gone, then what is the problem?”

Pecta sighed and laughed sadly. “If only the demons were gone. A part of them still lingers, infecting anyone who comes into contact with it.” I waited for him to continue but he just stopped. Even Lilith was silent.

“I have said too much. Never mention this subject again and don’t forget: beware the demons.” I swallowed but nodded reluctantly. Pecta was someone I trusted. I had told him almost everything about myself and he had done his best to help me every step of the way. If it weren’t for him I would still be wandering around the desert or in the stomach of a sandworm.

Still, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him the truth. It didn’t matter that I was only part demon and that I had found a way to suppress it. What if he started to hate me? Or worse, what If he tried to kill me? I just couldn’t tell him. One simple lie of omission was ok, right? Then why was my throat so dry?

Lilith cleared her throat. “On that note, I have to go. There's a meeting at the guild hall that I can’t miss.” Pecta raised an eyebrow. “You don’t strike me as the kind of person who goes to meetings.”

It was hard to read emotions through Lilith’s bandages but I sensed annoyance. “Believe me, I would love to ‘accidentally’ miss it. The Guild Master usually lets me do my own thing because he knows how important I am. But this time he made it clear that I need to be there.”

The assassin leaned forward. “I bet you one prince that the meeting is about you guys. There hasn’t been any big briefing about this job despite how obviously important it is to the Guild Master.”

“I’m not taking that bet,” Pecta deadpanned. “But I would love to know who placed a contract out on us.” He glanced in my direction and I suddenly remembered that I had something to tell them. I cleared my throat and stood up. “I think I have some answers to that.”

I didn’t tell them everything. Some parts were too personal, like everything surrounding the mindscape, and some too dangerous (me being part demon). But I did tell them about the horned woman and my suspicions that a large organisation was hunting for me. The reason for this was that they had experimented on me and now wanted to see the results. To explain how I knew this, I claimed that I was starting to remember parts of my past.

This whole process involved sharing a lot of personal information with Lilith, someone who I barely knew. It was uncomfortable but she deserved to know the truth. The assassin had stuck her neck out for us and was now involved in this whole mess.

Reactions to my revelation were surprisingly mild. “To be honest, I suspected something similar,” Pecta said. “It’s obvious that you are partially human with an unnatural monster half.”

He scoffed. “Powerful people experimenting on us common folk isn’t very surprising either.”

Lilith nodded along, for once not mocking him. “You wouldn’t believe the shit I’ve seen as a Shadow Hand,” she remarked. “People like that are the ones we kill.”

The calm wasn’t expected but appreciated. It highlighted how much these two had gone through that this didn’t faze them. Both of them definitely had some interesting stories to tell. Hopefully, I would get to hear them.

For now we needed to get back on track. “Our goal should be to leave Seran as soon as possible.” Both of my companions nodded at my assessment so I continued. “The next caravan leaves in 2 weeks, right?” Pecta had told me that this morning.

“We need supplies to last us that long,” I said while looking around the room. I could survive just fine without food but my human companion couldn’t.

“Speaking of supplies,” Pecta started. “Didn’t you say you were going to bring us some today?” His accusing look made Lilith scratch the back of her head in what I assumed to be embarrassment. “I've had a long night and I can’t guarantee that I can bring you anything in the next couple of days. The guild master will probably keep me occupied.” Pecta cursed but Lilith raised her hands calmingly. “Don’t worry. I have a solution: You go.”

“How is that going to work?” I asked, purposely ignoring my companion’s cursing. “The guild is also looking for him, right?” Lilith waved away my concerns. “That is true but don’t worry. I have seen the poster they have of him.” She snorted. “It’s shit. Besides, the guildies will be distracted by that meeting. Today is one of the safest days for you to be out and about.”

Finally done with his cursing Pecta sighed. “Guess I have no choice,” he grumbled. “Perfect,” Lilith replied, barely able to contain her laughter.

“What am I supposed to do?” I asked, eager to be of help. My two companions were silent. “Stay here?” I guessed dejectedly. Pecta nodded while Lilith shrugged. “Yeah, pretty much. Unless you want to ruin the whole setup we have going on.” I sighed but agreed. They were right. For the time being I needed to stay out of sight.

Lilith stood up. “Well, I have to go. Bye.” Pecta also stood up and gave me his goodbye. With a bit of frustration I watched as both of my companions crawled out of the shelter. Free to go outside and explore the city. 'Maybe this is for the best,’ I thought as I leaned back in my chair. There were some internal things I needed to do.