“Ya can stop with the crying now. Good stars, are ya using water magic or something?” Domak says to Lunella as he gets up and returns to a workstation, where he promptly begins to hammer at an iron rod. The tears begin to subside after a while, and Lunella finally gets up from the ground. Finding a spot on a nearby chair, she lets out a sigh.

Domak continues to hammer away at his work but calls out to her from his workstation. “Are ya good now?”

“Yeah, I’m good. Sorry.” Lunella stares at her hand as she answers back; her voice can barely be heard over the clanging of metal on metal.

“Ya know, you really are a mess of a demon. Guess that’s not a bad thing, though.”

“Why did you spare me? I’m a demon, and I was about to attack you.”

“If you knew, ya wouldn’t be able to look at me the same way.”

“I need to know. Every other time has gone horribly, so why are you saying ‘I trust you?’” Lunella responds while imitating Domak’s rough voice.

Domak reaches up and touches his beard; his voice strains a bit. “You can’t tell Ama, okay?”

“And risk her finding out I’m a demon? No thanks.”

“I’m serious. There are things she’s better off not knowing.”

The blacksmith rises from his workstation and pulls an oak stool next to Lunella. He looks directly at her and speaks. “I’ve seen many demons in my day. I used to be a smith for the knights, traveled around with them, keeping their weapons sharp.” He pulls the angelite knife from his pocket and studies it carefully. “I’ve even killed a few myself, though I was only supposed to maintain the equipment.”

The older man’s eyes seem too hollow as though he was staring right through Lunella. “Things were never the same after that night. I don’t think any of us ever got over it….”

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A single horse-drawn carriage was rolling along a dirt road. The moon was high in the sky, with murky clouds wisping in and out, occasionally obscuring it. Aboard the carriage were two women and three men clad in shiny white armor adorned with graphics of stars. The only two awake were a young Domak and a knight whose sleeve was marked with a single gold stripe.

Domak was seated in the driver’s seat and held the reigns with his one good hand. Breaking the silence, Domak decided to talk to the knight. “So, what are the orders this time?”

“A female demon has been sighted raiding the nearby farmland. One farmer was attacked, though there aren’t any reports of injuries.” The male knight responded while playing with a knife. “The higher-ups believe it may be a group of demons, but it shouldn’t be a difficult job.”

“Just try not to damage your weapon this time.” Domak let out a sigh as he responded to the knight.

“I’ll try.” The knight growled back at Domak before giving a wry smile. “That’s why you travel with us. You could stay home if those demons weren’t so vicious.”

A while later, the carriage reached its destination. The leader woke up the rest of the sleeping knights. He handed a magical device to each knight and Domak as well. The knight leader then spoke to Domak. “You want to come too, right?”

“Ahh,” Domak gave the leader a nod before staring down at the device in his hands. It was a pyramid-shaped frame with an orb at the center, which the frame was covered in inscriptions.

“Alright, team, you know the drill. Let’s make this mission clean, no injuries.” The leader gave a short speech and then raised his rapier to the sky. The other knights did the same while Domak raised his hammer.

Domak searched for what seemed like half an hour, alone in the dark. His magic device suddenly lit up, and a beam shot out of the orb pointed to his right. He broke into a run as he raced off to assist the others. He knew what the signal meant; they had found a demon. He was the last to arrive at the source of the signal. The four knights surrounded a single female demon who was backed into a large boulder. The demon had her arms outstretched, ready to strike back.

The stalemate continued until the leader of the knights spoke; his voice was monotone, and not a muscle twitched in his body. “Demon, you are guilty of the following crimes: Trespassing on human territory, theft, assault, and resisting arrest. The starlit church has handed down the punishment. You are hereby sentenced to death.”

“Kill me if you must, but please, spare my child. He did nothing wrong; it’s all my fault.” The demon girl pleaded for mercy, but the knight’s blank expression held as he responded to the girl.

The knight moved his rapier to a ready position and spoke loudly. “I will now carry out the punishment.”

The demon girl clenched her teeth, and she went on the attack — against the four knights she could only manage for mere moments. The knights promptly pierced her body with their rapiers, and in mere moments, golden light filled all of her veins. She forced out her last words as she screamed in pain.

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“Run, Karille!”

It happened so quickly. in mere moments, the girl’s body was gone; it burst into flames as a high-pitched shriek echoed through the forest, leaving behind nothing but a smear of ash against the boulder—this was the fate of all demons who were struck with an angelite weapon. Before anyone could react, a rustle could be heard in the woods, as though a small animal ran away.

“The rest of you wait here; you need not witness this next part.” The leader swung his sword as he walked towards the woods.

“Are you seriously going to kill a child?” Domak shouted at the leader, whose face was devoid of any humanity.

“It must be done. The child is a demon. Now that its mother is dead, it’s doomed to become feral; this will be a mercy.” The leader spoke without turning to look at domak.

Domak reached out to the air, grasping nothing; the leader turned his back on the other knights and ran off after the rustling sound. The other knights averted their heads and closed their eyes. Domak could just barely make out the leader’s voice.

“Demon, you are guilty of the following crimes: Trespassing on human territory, theft, assault, and resisting arrest. The starlit church has handed down the punishment, and you are hereby sentenced to death. I will now carry out the punishment.”

A faint scream resounded through the woods before silence.

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“I can never go back from that...” Domak straightens up and puts his head in his hand. “We wanted to be heroes, to save people from the monsters; the church had other plans. When I saw ya come in today, I didn’t know what to do. So I came up with a test to see if you were innocent; that was why I pulled the knife on ya. If ya were only acting, you would have dropped the charade and attacked immediately upon me pulling out the knife.”

“But my hand burst into flames! I was about to attack you—”

“Yes, but ya confirmed what you said about Ama. Ya clearly didn’t attack because of bloodlust; you attacked because I threatened your life. Also, what kinda demon ends up crying on the floor?”

“Well, I don’t have any memories.”

Lunella recounts the story thus far to the older man. He nods along and strokes his beard throughout it listening intently but overall acts detached. Finally, once Lunella has finished, he nods his head and responds. “I see. You’ve had it hard.”

“Is there anything you know that can help me?”

“Well, I can tell ya it ain’t a normal thing. I’ve never heard of a human becoming a demon before. Demons are born from other demons.”

“But it feels so weird; it just feels like I used to be human. I can’t shake it even though I have no proof.”

“What matters is that you’re a demon now, and you’ll have to live with it.”

“When you were talking about angelite, does it have something to do with this?” Lunella holds out her hand that was injured by the holy arrow.

Domak’s eyes narrow as he stands up as he talks in a deep voice. “That’s an angelite wound, alright; ya have to act fast. Angelite is like poison to demons. It slowly spreads until well—”

“Is there a way to stop it from happening?!” Lunella stands up and holds her hands in fists.

“Just cut off your hand. Otherwise, your only hope would be meeting a demon who knows a cure. The knights never researched it; better for them if it’s uncurable.”

“How long do I got?”

“How would I know?” Domak takes a deep breath and then sighs, “How fast has it spread so far?”

“About 1 centimeter in a day?”

“Then, If I were to guess… you’ve got a month or two before it kills you. You’re lucky it just hit your hand. Otherwise, you’d have much less time.”

“From a single injury....” Lunella falls to the chair, her arms hanging down at her side.

“That’s the reason demons have never actually beat humans.”

“But I find another demon; I could cure the infection?”

“I never said that. I said you might be able to; I haven’t the slightest clue whether a cure even exists. Ya, might just die. You can always cut off your hand, though.”

Lunella looks down at her hand and grimaces. “I just can’t, not right now. I can hardly survive as is, let alone with only one hand.”

“Then ya have to find another demon, and fast.” Domak picks up the rabbit tusk and begins smashing it with his hammer, breaking it into a fine powder. “You won’t have time or the strength to cross the Great Divide; your only hope will be to find a demon here in the kingdoms. Your god hasn’t abandoned ya yet; I heard some rumors a while back that there’s a demon in the town of Aren. Also heard that the knights haven’t found it yet; it’s about four days east of here.”

Lunella smiles at Domak “Yes! I don’t have to die over this!”

“Maybe, just make sure you’re ready if you don’t find it. You have a lot of preparation to do. Not only will ya need to travel, but ya need to have supplies to live away from humans. Stay at the inn for a few more days. I’ll make ya a sword and give ya some money for supplies.”

“Why are you helping me so much?”

“I’m atoning for not stopping my leader back then. Also, Ama seems to like ya, so I’ll do what I can to keep ya ticking.”

“Thank you…”

“Now about that sword, I’ll go ahead and try to make a sword fit for a demon out of this horned rabbit tusk alloyed with iron.”

“Actually, about the sword, can you do me a favor?”

“Depends.”

Lunella whispers something into Domak’s ears. At first, he looks a little shocked, but then his mouth stretches into a smile.

“Look at you. You’ve got yourself a deal.”

“Thanks!”

“Look, I don’t think I’ve gotta say it but do right by Ama. If she finds out that you’re a demon, she won’t be able to handle it. If things get bad, please don’t hate her for it.”

“I couldn’t possibly hate her.”

“Ya better not.”

Having sealed their secret pact, the two shake hands in the fiery heat of the furnace. Lunella covers her horns with her hood and then rejoins Amara in the shop section. Amara stands up and smiles when Lunella enters.

“What took you two so long? Was he talking your head off with smithing stories?”

“Something like that. We just had a lot to discuss.”

“Well, let’s head home and eat our lunch.”

“Let’s…”

A worry sprouts from the words Domak said to her, but Lunella does her best to shake it off. Lunella and Amara leave Domak’s shop and return to the inn for a nice hearty meal.