For the second time that day, Bal’s head cried in protest at the abuse it had received as he slowly returned to consciousness. He was met with a splash of foul smelling liquid, which wrenched his eyelids open once more. A rat-faced man was chittering away making a noise which Bal assumed was supposed to be laughter. The man slammed the jail cell door shut, leaving Bal to become reacquainted with the waking world.

“Finally awake, demon?” said a voice from the corner of the cramped stone cell. Bal turned to find the large human was lying on one of the cots, staring daggers at Bal. What was his name again? Cap? Cat? No, that was a small animal, wasn’t it? It didn’t really matter anyway, Bal supposed.

“So, our gracious hosts have let us buddies share a room then, friend?” Bal laughed as he stretched out on the cot opposite.

“Damn demon! We are in a jail, you fool!”

Bal struggled to contain the sigh that was fighting to break free. Some people just didn’t get sarcasm. This large one was far too serious.

“How did you end up here anyway, friend? I thought you’d be far, far away from here by now.”

“The sheriff caught us trying to ride out of town. Bastard.” A voice croaked from the cell opposite Bal’s. Seems that the small one was here as well.

Bal hadn’t expected to see the pair of buffoons again. Shouldn’t they have been able to escape easily in the confusion? He could have been free to spread misery as he pleased on the mortal plane, and maybe, finally earn his horns, but fate had conspired to join him to his summoner again. Perhaps the verbal contract had bonded them tighter than he had first thought.

“She meant to say that we were caught stealing horses.” Grumbled the large one under his breath, retreating further into the corner of his cot.

Bal caught a glimpse of ruby red eyes glare at the large one, making him retreat even further.

“Can’t you get us out of here Bal? You seem, ah, used to this kind of situation.” Ell asked.

“I’m dreadfully sorry Miss, anything that might be useful here is in my suit that I gave to you.”

Bal smiled but some of his annoyance slipped past his guard. The thought of his nice new suit and his favourite deck of cards being in the hands of that giggling rat-faced bastard irritated Bal greatly. An itch began on his arm and he absentmindedly scratched at it as he turned to Ell.

“You are a summoner of some sort, are you not? That must mean you walk the path of logic and reason? Surely someone of your great intelligence has some sort of idea to get out?”

Bal already knew she was a pathetic summoner, she certainly didn’t seem to show any of the characteristics of someone who walked the path of logic and reason, but he couldn’t resist the small jab. It worked wonders as her face went the same colour as her eyes.

“I used all up all my mana summoning you, you useless demon thing? Bloody fool, what even are you?! You look nothing like a demon! Aren’t demons supposed to have horns and such? Why don’t you? You look just like a regular human!”

Bal ignored her barrage questions entirely. He didn’t want to talk about his lack of horns to a dumb human. Her asking just pissed him off further, and that damn itch on his arm! Annoyed, he turned to his next target, the large one.

“And you, friend, surely someone walking the path of strength should be able to break open these stone walls easily?”

Truthfully, Bal had only a vague idea how the paths these humans walked worked. One of his demon pals had said that there was three of them; strength, logic and swiftness. His pal had then proceeded to get disastrously drunk and his story tapered off without adding any more details. Bal had nicked his coin pouch and thought nothing of that night till now. Bal only hoped that his ignorance would irritate these humans. Unfortunately, the large one was not as easily provoked.

“What would you know of the sacred path, demon? You are correct that I walk the path of strength, but what makes you think I can punch through stone?” He rolled up his shirt sleeve to show Bal a marking of a sword with two rings of a spiral circling it.

“I walk the path of the knight, but I have only achieved two bands. So, no, demon, I cannot achieve the level of strength you are suggesting.”

Bal had no idea what that was supposed to mean. Had his pal said something about different routes on the sacred paths? Something about knights, and berserkers? There were others, but Bal couldn’t remember. Not that it mattered, Bal had failed to irritate Ca-something with his questions.

“Hey, don’t ignore me! What the seven hells are you, Bal? Are you a demon?”

“Probably.”

“Probably?”

“Yes; Probably. I’m so glad you understand Miss; your intelligence is clearly far above anyone else’s I have had to explain this to.”

Ell stuttered, looking pleased at the compliment but frustrated at the answer. Bal was too tired to explain the intricacies of his origins anymore today; he already had to go over the whole story three times today. The large one persisted though.

“Explain yourself you probably demon! How can you be probably a demon?” he hissed with righteous fury.

“Well, it’s at least a sixty percent chance that I am a demon, so the odds say that I am probably a demon. Satisfied friend?”

The large one’s face contorted in a shockingly similar manner to that of the revenant’s from earlier, much to Bal’s amusement. The itch on Bal’s arm was getting worse, so he raised his arm to the dim evening light coming through the barred window.

“There is a chance you aren’t a demon? What are you then? How did I even summon you? Oh, this is such a mess.” Ell groaned

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Bal barely heard the question. He was staring at the offending arm, as a small image of a card had appeared there, like a tattoo. For the first time in his life, Bal was at a loss for words. The card looked exactly like on the cards from his special deck; the fool. It was almost identical; it had the image of a prancing man in garish cloths painted in vibrant colours, but there was a rather glaring inaccuracy. The cards in his special deck were all faceless, blank from the neck up. This one had had an olive coloured face with sparking green eyes painted on ……. It had his face. By all seven demon lords, it had his face painted on it.

Very few people had a complete deck of those cards, and even fewer knew how to play the game asociated with them. That had made Bal determined to know everything about them. Strangely, no matter how hard he looked, he never managed to find out where they had come from. Even Azoth wasn’t aware of their origin. They simply existed. So how one had managed to end up on his arm, with his face on it, was beyond even Bal’s imagination.

Bal was so distracted he hadn’t even sensed the approach of the rat-man again. This time he brought a well-built man. This new comer strutted up to Bal’s cell, frowning at the butt naked demon.

“Rat-face! By the Gods man, why is he still naked?!”

The rat-faced man scampered off and brought Bal’s suit with him, muttering apologies before running away again. The well-built man tossed Bal’s suit onto the dirty cell floor, much to Bal’s dismay.

“Mind giving me a name, friend? Seems rude to be naked in front of a man without knowing his name.” Bal remarked as he dusted off his clothes and put them on.

“I’m Sheriff Danielson boy. You know why we locked you up?”

“Because I burned down the saloon?”

“Yeah, ‘cause you burned, wait, what? You were the one who burned down the saloon?!”

“Ah, no? Hold on, what was I arrested for?”

“Public indecency boy! One of my deputies said he saw a pervert wearing half a dress leaping about in the saloon. He ran here right away to tell me! Now, who the hell burned down the saloon?!”

“The fire did.”

“The fire di……. Agh! Bloody naked fool! Rat-face, where’s my crossbow!”

The sheriff left the jail and Ell shoved her face into her hands, groaning about how ‘we are all going to die’. Bal was too distracted by his new tattoo to care. It started to shine with a strange glow. Hesitantly, Bal reached out to touch it. A bizarre feeling of something momentous happening washed over Bal. He opened his eyes nervously, realising that he was holding something. It was a card. No. It was the card. It was the bloody same card that was on his arm. For what Bal hoped would be the last time, he was left speechless once more.

The sheriff returned holding an odd little crossbow that had a cylinder holding six bolts attached to it. He raised it and aimed for Bal, who slowly raised his arms over his head. The sheriff caught sight of the shiny card in Bal’s hand and gestured for him to come closer.

“Where did you get that card boy? Looks expensive. Give it here.”

Reluctantly, Bal handed over the card. The sheriff reached out to grab, but as soon as he touched it, it vanished with a glow, leaving nothing but air. The sheriff stumble back, dazed.

“Wha-what was I doing again?”

“You were letting us all go free, friend, you have real criminals to catch.” Bal said sarcastically. He was barely thinking about what he was saying, all attention on the mystery of the vanishing card. Bal was thankfully not speechless this time, but he was close. This made less and less sense the more he saw.

“Yeah, yeah of course. I gotta go find who set the saloon on fire. You’re no real criminal” The sheriff mumbled as he jangled his key ring, picking out the right one and unlocking the cell door.

Bal slid out of the unlocked door, soon followed by the large one as the sheriff went to unlock Ell’s cell. The sheriff turned to face Bal again, eyes glazed over. He was mumbling as though he was half asleep. Bal wasn’t sure how to proceed, but he decided to try his luck again.

“That’s a nice little crossbow you got there, friend, mind if I take a look?”

The sheriff smiled absently as he handed over the crossbow.

“That there is a bolt repeater; fastest firing crossbow on the frontier. Enchanted by them path of logic folk to reload by itself. The little cylinder there holds six bolts.”

Ell, confused about what was happening, decided to take advantage of the sheriff’s change of tune.

“How dare you lock up a princess you sister-loving shit! I demand an apology!”

Much to everyone’s surprise, the sheriff mumbled out an official sounding apology. Seeing her chance, Ell took it a step further.

“A mere ‘I’m sorry’ shall not suffice for this appalling treatment!”

A wicked grin spread across Ell’s face. Bal knew she was about to say something incredible stupid to heal her wounded pride.

“You may kiss my feet as a proper apology”

The sheriff looked like he was actually going to do it, but something flashed behind his eyes and they began to clear. Shaking off whatever had come over him, he reached out to smack Ell.

“Why you little bitch! What the hell did you do to me?!”

The sheriff never got to close to Ell as the large one charged in and sucker punched him, knocking him out cold. Cas turned to check on Ell, and she had at least the decency to look a bit ashamed about what her pride had done.

“Gods, thanks Cas! What the hell just happened?”

Ahh Cas, that was it. Silly name that. Too much like Cat; it was confusing. Bal looked at the little crossbow in his hand, unsure what to do with. He checked the sheriff’s unconscious from, finding a holster for it wrapped around his waist, along with a bag filled with bolts.

“I believe it was this demon’s fault, my Lady. He put some sort of demonic spell on the sheriff!”

Now that Bal was taking stuff from the sheriff, he figured he might as well take his hat. It was a nice hat; wide brimmed. It would shade his eyes nicely.

“What did you do to the man, Bal? How did you get him to let us out?”

The sheriff had a lovely duster as well. Might need to wash it though. It would be good to have something to protect his suit from all this damn dust.

“Bal!”

Bal finally looked up, seeing Ell standing with her hands on her hips, looking impatiently at him. Cas still had that look of poorly hidden disgust on his face, but it seemed to have lessened in its severity. Only slightly though.

“I’ll be honest Miss, I have no idea what happened. I gave him a card and he started agreeing with me. Now don’t give me that look Miss. Not you too, Cas! Honestly, friends, I have no idea what happened. I’m not lying!”

Despite the obvious suspicion that Ell and Cas had, Bal was telling the truth. He really had no idea what had happened. He looked at his arm again, seeing that the card was still there. It was faded, but it looked like it was slowly growing back. Creepy.

“But you know what the wise say: ‘Don’t waste an opportunity when its handed to you!’. Might I suggest that we make a timely escape?”

“The demon is correct this time, my lady. I say we make haste and leave this awful town. The sheriff’s horse along with his deputies’ horse should be hitched outside. I suggest we, ah, acquire them.”

Bal hadn’t expected that from the big fella; he seemed so against thievery just moments before. Perhaps it was the sheriff trying to hit his little girlfriend that changed his tone. Well, it worked in Bal’s favour, so who was he to question it?

Emerging from the sheriff’s office, grabbing their saddlebags and other valuable looking items on the way out, they found that Cas was right. Three horses were hitched there, already saddled and ready to go.

“I’m all for stealing things, friends, but what happened to the horses you came here on? I assume you didn’t walk to this town.”

The two humans exchanged a look but said nothing. Ell blushed and turned away, leaving Bal very confused. If something embarrassing had happened to their horses during their escape from the saloon, damn it, he needed to know! How was he supposed to torment them if they didn’t tell him all their secrets!

Ell quickly mounted the horse and took off, leaving a trail of dust clouds for Bal and Cas to follow in. They pushed their horses to a gallop and the little town soon faded into the dusty distance at their backs.