The next morning, I awoke to Veline gripping me in a full body and tail hug like I was a stuffed animal and she was a child. She wasn't asleep, as expected. After some loud protesting, awakening everyone else in the process, I pried her off me. Martin had slept leaned against the wall next to the door, Azuro in the chair, and the orc was just laying flat on the floor. All of them wore their armor still alongside a new tired stare. Azuro had quickly lost interest in the scene. He turned his attention to turning on the magical light as the other two watched as I managed to get my companion off of me. I looked at them and said, "Sorry about her."

  Martin laughed in a mildly confused way while he stretched. Flamehammer rolled his eyes and said, "Morning anyway. I hope this isn't the next week."

  Azuro pointed to Martin and said, "You are on food duty."

  Martin nodded and went out the door, from which I saw Su'Galo looking in perplexed as it closed. The light from outside made it clear that the sun had just started to rise.

  Azuro looked at me and said, "Don't worry about the food. In these situations, we got our ways around any potential paying off of staff. Hard to do that when it's all rations made in bulk that last a while. The wrapping is also sealed with a special magic to show it's not been opened. It won't taste good, but it's safe."

  I sleepily rubbed my eyes as Veline flopped back onto the bed. She said, "This is boring. What about fun?"

  Azuro looked at her for a moment and said, "It's not supposed to be a fun time, creature. We are keeping your master alive."

  Veline gave him a glare and sneered, "You are boring."

  Azuro let out a long sigh and said, "I'm trying to do my job. That doesn't include entertaining you."

  I looked to Veline and said, "It is too early for this." She huffed and went back to laying there quietly. I turned back to Azuro. "So, you are a corporal?"

  Azuro sat back down in the chair and looked to the door. After a moment he said, "There are the regular guards without a rank; what Martin and Flamehammer are. Then corporals. We mostly are considered able to lead small groups of guards. Then Sergeants who lead larger numbers. Next is the lieutenants, who are sort of in charge of everyone and more or less run the guards for entire parts of the city. The captain then has the top position. I report and get orders from several Sergeants who then report to a single Lieutenant, and they all go directly to the Captain."

  I then asked, "Why put you in charge of this then?"

  Azuro looked at me and said, "Because if I die then it's all cleaned up. If I live? Well, Captain Haline put the right man in charge. That's the way it works." After a second he turned his attention back to the door. "Now then, let's have a real talk. You have to understand that I want to trust you, but what you are worries everyone. We are stuck in this together now, due to that whole event on the road. I can do this job better if I know you better. So how about we drop the pretence and just be honest?"

  I felt rather awkward after that statement and Veline sat upright. She leaned onto my back with hers and wrapped her tail around my waist. I really wanted her to stop, the joints digging into my skin a bit. Still, I doubted I could do anything. So I looked to Azuro. I felt he had a point, but my mind was then suddenly filled with doubt. Like little needles pushing into my mind, so many ways this could be a trap formulated in those moments. I shook my head, saying, "Believe what you will. I don't know anything beyond some of my life. The whole champion thing? New to me. The church? No idea. I don't know anything about any of this. Outright. So that's the deal. What I know of my life before the alley has no connection to any of that? Ok?"

  Flamehammer looked at Azuro with a calm look. The dark skinned man stared at me intently for a bit. He then crossed his leg over his knee, leaned a bit back, and looked back to the door. He asked, "Ok, so why doesn't it connect?"

  I sat quietly before saying, "Because nothing about this means anything to it. You want to know why I don't want to talk about it?" My voice slowly became more angry. "I was an outcast to my home and no one trusted me. Why? I took the blame for some crime I didn't do. So pardon me if I don't care to talk about that shit time."

  Flamehammer gave me a sad sort of look. He looked to, who returned nothing more than a glance and said, "I see. Well, I won't ask about it anymore. Still, that leaves me with some worries."

  Flamehammer asked, "What worries, sir?"

  Azuro looked to me and then sat back up normally and looked at the door. He had a conflicted look on his face as he crossed his arms. Finally, he asked, "Alexander. Answer this clearly and with a yes or no. Did you rise from the dead?"

  Veline's grip around me tightened as I said, "I don't know."

  Azuro didn't speak as he sat there. The tension in the air was palpable, but I didn't know what to even say to that. Veline claimed I did but she could have been wrong. I knew I had been brought to this world having died, but I didn't want to admit to being from another world. It certainly didn't help that I kept thinking about what they might do if I said I had. The big orc finally broke the silence, "You a magic user yeah? Some sort of mage?"

  I looked at the big green guy. Another moment of the sheer strangeness of the situation passed over me as I considered the man. Here I was, in a room, with a weird demon-like woman leaning on me while I talked to an orc. I shook the notion mentally away and said, "I suppose yes. I can't remember how to actually use it though."

  Flamehammer nodded grimly and said, "Must be hard. Not even knowing really why you are hated. I get looks, because of what I am. Dwarves brought me up. Eventually ended up here in the guard. Lots of humans, but in this city, plenty of non-humans come to trade. Died down because of that war. Still some live here. Still get looks. Least I know why I get them. You don't seem so bad to me, though, champion or no."

  I stared at him shocked. Azuro was now looking at us with a cryptic face. I looked down to the ground for a few moments trying to even comprehend what was being told to me. Veline was giggling lightly as I went over the words. It felt extremely weird to have sympathy given to me now. Back in my own world, it was something I hadn't got for a very long time. I felt somewhat dizzy as I tried to piece it all together. The fact that I sat in a room, not alone, and with people who were willing to help me for any reason made my mind reel. I tried to keep calm and push it away, for I felt the nagging negative thoughts at the back of my mind telling me that it could all be a trap.

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  I said, hesitantly, "I...thanks. You use magic too? How'd you get into it?"

  Flamehammer rubbed his chin and said, "Mom taught me. If you can't remember how to use it, I guess it's hard to explain. I'm not that bright. Had to sort of figure it out with some guidance. It just sort of happened."

  Azuro sniffed and looked back to the door. Martin came in after a second, with five bundled small packages. He looked between us and asked, "Did something happen?"

  Azuro shook his head and said, "Nothing. Did you give one to Su'Galo?"

  Martin closed the door quietly. There was a look on his face something similar to dismay as he said somewhat quietly, "Yeah. She called me a pipsqueak who takes too long to get stuff done. She's rather...mean isn't she?"

  There was a hard thud against the door, causing the young guard to be startled. Azuro's rolled his eyes, saying, "She can hear you, fool."

  He handed out the bundles to everyone, including Veline who quickly moved away from me and floated up off the bed. Azuro looked at her and then to me, like he really wanted to ask something, but instead unwrapped the weird package and pointed to me, saying, "Hold on a moment."

  Martin had sat down and was about to put a bit of the hard bread in his mouth but stopped suddenly. Flamehammer looked up, a bit of dried meat already bitten in half. Azuro looked at them both and sneered out, "Did you even check the seal?"

  When the orc swallowed Azuro let out a heavy sigh and shook his head. I looked over the food's packaging. It was a heavy paper wrapped in a string and a soft glowing symbol was on it. Martin nodded and Flamehammer just sat there, food in mouth. The two stared at each other for a few seconds. Martin looked confused and scared, then asked quietly, "Can I eat now?"

  Veline said, loudly, "Food is hard! Taste bad! Will kill me from the dryness!"

  Azuro visibly gritted his teeth and opened his own. He said, "For the love of the gods, check next time. I don't expect Martin to tamper but you need to follow procedure."

  Veline let out hiss at her own food, yet kept eating it. Azuro shook his head. He looked to Martin and said, "Once done, we'll do a rotation to the latrine. Then we'll escort Mr. Moores. Once back, we'll check the room again. After that, I'll go to the captain for updates. Everyone will be inside and the door locked till I return."

  Carefully, I opened the food I was given. It looked rather unappealing. The meat was some form of jerky, that was like leather and tasted more like salt than meat. The bread was rough and powdery without much of any kind of taste. It took a weirdly long amount of time to chew as well. The only thing I found somewhat nice was a small amount of some form of cheese. It was a weird white and yellow color and crumbled easily, but tasted rather ok. I asked, "What is this cheese?"

  Azuro said, "It's a special type. Can be stored for a rather long time without molding. Not sure the name, but I know it uses something we get from the mages. It's normal outside of that, but whatever the powder is, when it's added it makes it that color. It's at least better than the rest of it. The mage's association is small here, but apparently they can make the powder rather cheaply, so we can buy it cheap too. Thank the gods for that. It makes the entire thing less awful."

  Flamehammer said, "Not enough spice."

  Martin, smiled, "If there was enough spice for you, we'd all choke to death, big guy. Still, I can't imagine eating this for more than a few days."

  Flamehammer said, once again without a hint of irony, "Means you are weak if dwarven cooking spice makes you choke."

  I said, trying to lift my mood, "I hope this won't be the last meal I ever have."

  The next few hours were peaceful once we had returned. Azuro had left, ordering that the outside guard switched and Su'Galo played some card game with Martin on the floor. As far as I could tell, Martin was terrible at it. After losing interest in their game, I asked Veline about magic, which apparently made her really happy that she spent that several hours blabbering about the topic.

  In what little I could comprehend, the energy I felt was the magic that apparently she and I shared now. She was able to somehow use the pact we had as a way to pull it from somewhere else, but the nature or location of that somewhere was apparently either something she didn't care to talk about or didn't know. The basics seemed to be that simple magic could be done by calling up the source, shaping it, and releasing it. The source could vary wildly and would affect the type one could use. The most simple magic could be done from any source usually. Flashes of light, small flames, all were simple bursts with a simple form. More complex stuff would require more than that, but the explanation didn't make too much sense. She did say that we drew our energy from a "raw and unformed" source, making it extremely flexible but more complicated.

  Once Azuro returned and entered the room, he sat back down in the chair and said, with a huff, "Alright. So looks like we're in this room for a couple of days still. After that, we'll be moving to a safe house."

  Martin gave a long, pained groan, causing Azuro to shoot him a dirty look. The elf was shuffling her cards with a frown as she said, "I assume the wait is for the usual reasons?"

  Azuro let out a bored huff, saying, "I don't need to answer that, Mirror. I also will stress that-"

  The elf woman flared with anger and said, "I will not do anything that is not protocol. I will merely do it with glee if it comes to that."

  The dark skinned guard turned fully to her and said, "You will act professionally."

  My eyes slowly fell to Martin, who returned my look with his own. He slowly, deliberately mouthed out a denial to my unspoken question. Su'Galo sat there, her face calm and without any trace of emotion as she finished shuffling the cards. A slow dread took hold of me for a moment in worry that what faith I had in Azuro might be poorly placed. Azuro turned back to the door, saying, "Pardon that, Mr. Moores. Any questions?"

  Suddenly, Veline flopped herself onto my back hard as she babbled out, "Many questions. When is there going to be better food? When will you stop being boring?"

  Azuro sat quiet with his back to the bed where I sat with my pact partner. After a slow couple of minutes with the only sound being that of the cards, I asked, "What is that protocol thing?"

  The Corporal replied, "Basically, we tend to move people of interest all at once in identical carriages to safe houses decided on just before they go out. Needless to say, some are empty or are traps for criminals to attack. I don't know what to expect when we do this, honestly. The Churches aren't looking to have open fighting. They are very careful about not causing a panic if possible. The worst thing in this time would be that."

  Martin said solemnly, "The war already has people a bit on edge. I just hope there isn't any demon cult forming here."

  Su'Galo stopped flipping the cards as the room went silent. A sort of palpable feeling of dread seemed to form, which left me a bit unsure. I asked, "Demon Cult?"

  Azuro clicked his tongue and said, "They'd be weeded out with the church presence here. Nothing to worry about."

  Looking to Martin and Su'Galo, I noticed the elf was staring at a card silently. Her head tilted just enough to make me realize she was looking directly at me. She spoke, stern but somewhat aloof in it's tone, "Zahin ze'a rean'e azehya."

  I stared, unsure what that meant. She looked at me almost expectantly, as if I was supposed to comprehend. Once more I looked to Martin, who appeared just as confused as I was. Then, Pressing down on my back hard, Veline leaned to my ear and whispered, "Suffering mind gives evil."

  The elven woman huffed a bit and said, "Demons feed on ill emotions. Mindless monsters that fools think they can use. Tyakint Tyakint Eneo."

  Veline whispered instantly, "Stupid Humans."

  Su'Galo slapped a card down and shot Veline a glare, saying, "Must you translate to him that?"

  Veline gave a sharp toothed grin with narrow eyes, replying, "Insults are best when understood. You are not polite already. Don't play at being it. Bad at it."

  Martin quickly threw down a card and said, "I won!"

  There was a weirdly awkward moment as the elf had begun to stand. I only then noticed that Azuro had stood up himself, but with his singular action, the younger guard had diverted all attention onto himself. The somewhat dumb smile he wore didn’t hide the fact that he knew very well what he had just done. The poor guy began to sweat ever so slightly as the elf’s pupil lacking eyes sat on him with disdain.

  Su'Galo, closed her eyes, let out a few breaths, and sat back down. The dark skinned guard returned to his seat shaking his head. I could barely hear him mutter, "I should have just joined a caravan. Could have seen the world. "