If Lillia hadn’t been lying on top of Arwin, he would have jerked upright. He just barely managed to keep himself from launching her off him as he stiffened in disbelief, his mind reeling at the revelation that Lillia had just dropped on him.

“You knew Blake?” Arwin asked, surprised to find his voice raspy. “He was saving demons? Through the whole war?”

“I never met him myself,” Lillia said. There was a note of awe in her words. “But it’s too close to be a coincidence. A warrior in fancy white armor that saved people and got carried away by the Hero. Who else could it have been?”

“I — how? How is that possible?” Arwin murmured. He couldn’t believe it — but he could. If there was anyone in the world that would have been saving people they’d been fighting just minutes before, it would have been Blake.

Dozens of conversations long since shoved into the reaches of Arwin’s mind to keep them from haunting him rose up, unbidden. All the people Blake had joked about saving. They hadn’t been jokes at all.

So many lives. Is it possible he knew that demons were more than just evil monsters?

Arwin’s throat felt tight.

If he did, why didn’t he ever tell me? He couldn’t have known what we were doing, right? Or did he not trust me enough to believe that I’d have understood?

That thought gave him pause. The growing pit in his stomach clenched even tighter and stifled his breath.

Would I have understood?

“It seems Blake was even more than you believed,” Lillia said gently. “It takes a warrior to kill an enemy and a kind man to spare one, but the kind of man that would save a foe possesses honor beyond compare. You were beyond fortunate to have someone like that in your life.”

“He was, and I was,” Arwin agreed as a small smile returned to his lips. Some of the tension slipped from his shoulders and he let himself sink back into the bed. Somehow, the more time he had to think about it, the more it made sense.

If there had been anyone that would have tried to save demon and human alike, it would have been Blake. It was impossible to know what Blake had discovered. If he’d known the truth about the war, or if he’d simply been a man doing what he could in the wake of tragedy.

It didn’t matter. Arwin couldn’t ask him anything anymore, and everything Blake had done had been to help others. Even if he’d known more, there was no way to find out — and Arwin refused to let something like doubt taint his memory.

“I’m a little jealous I never got to meet someone like that, but I’m thankful that I got to feel his influence,” Lillia said. She gave his shoulder a small squeeze.

“From the demons he saved?”

“Not just them,” Lillia said with a quiet laugh. “To the demons, he was a legend. A hero of our kind that emerged from the flames and left without a word. Another casualty who fell in battle to our great enemy — but that isn’t what I’m talking about. I can feel his influence in you. The reverence in your tone and the great respect you so clearly had for each other. His spirit lives on in your actions.”

It had been so long since Arwin had allowed himself to truly let his thoughts drift back to Blake. To the rest of the men and women that had died at his sides. He’d never permitted himself the chance to dwell on it.

Fighting bandits and clearing dungeons, he had no problem with. But the past — the past was an enemy that no sword could slay. It was a wall of pain and loss, a sea of pitch-black despair, and the agony of wasted years. It bore the weight of every innocent he had killed and every innocent he had failed to save.

But it’s more than that, isn’t it?

In all the death, there were the civilians that he’d pulled from burning buildings. The warriors that he’d borne from battle. The brief moments of respite with his allies where the world had been still and they had spoken of the future.

Blake hadn’t been the only one. Faces that he had nearly forgotten in the haze of pain lurked at the edges of his mind.

Men and women that had passed through his life. Some had died just days after they’d met. Some had traveled with him for years, and some still lived. The laughter of a dwarven shieldmaster with a passion for fish. The scowl concealing the twinkling eyes of an elven assassin with an obsession for juggling. Blake’s endless quest to save everyone he could. They were motes of light in the dark. Memories that had been lost at sea but shone brightly like stars in the sky when his gaze finally lifted from its depths.

“Thank you,” Arwin murmured, his voice barely more than a choked whisper. “I’d nearly forgotten.”

“Forgotten?” Lillia asked. “Forgotten what?”

“I’ve dwelled so much on the deaths of my friends that I let the memories of their life fade from my memory.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Lillia laid back against his chest and rested her cheek against the crook of his neck. “We have a saying. Your battle brothers do not die until you lay down your sword. It’s not exactly about battle as it is about giving up. My council — my friends — were demons that wanted nothing but peace and were led to believe that war was the only path to it. Blake and every other life that the Adventurer’s Guild stole from this world were no different. We can’t bring them back, but with every step we take to make the world a better place, they live on within us.”

“Those are sage words,” Arwin said. “I occasionally forget how wise you are. Are we really the same age?”

Lillia let a snort out against his neck and looped her arms around his neck again. “I can’t take too much credit. I’m just parroting what a Mother once told me back when I was much younger. I think only a tenth of the wisdom she tried to impart stuck. I was more focused on learning how to fight at the time. Didn’t think anything else mattered. Now I wish I paid more attention to her and less to my combat instructors.”

“Perhaps the best balance is found in equilibrium. There’s no point in wielding a sword without a purpose, but purpose without a blade to achieve it is just idealism.”

“Now who’s sounding like a wise old woman?” Lillia snickered. Her tail re-wrapped itself around his leg and she was silent for a few seconds before speaking again. “We won’t forget them. Some day, I want you to tell me about every single one of your friends.”

“Some day?”

“Not today,” Lillia said, her words growing softer. “I’m ready to sleep now.”

“Yeah,” Arwin said softly, his shoulders feeling lighter than they had in as long as he could remember, like a heavy chain had been unwrapped from his neck and thrown from his back. “Me too.”

***

Arwin woke the following morning feeling more rested than he ever had in recent memory. The previous night’s conversation was still fresh on his mind as he hoisted Lillia out of bed and set her down beside him.

The two of them wasted no time in preparing to head out for the day. With any luck, the night’s passing would have been enough time for the heart to finish whatever it was doing to his smithy.

Arwin felt equal parts excitement and trepidation to discover what had changed. He only knew one thing for certain — and it was that he didn’t want to wait any longer to see the Infernal Armory.

Well, I don’t want to wait too much longer.

There was time for breakfast, of course. It was getting harder and harder to pass up on Lillia’s meals whenever he didn’t absolutely have to. Having actual magic that let him sate [The Hungering Maw] was just the cherry on top. It definitely beat out eating a bunch of scuffed bracelets.

Everyone — other than Madiv and Esmerelda, who were nowhere to be seen — had gathered in the common room by the time Lillia finished cooking. She brought out several plates piled high with fried strips of Wyrmling meat and eggs, passing them out to all of the Menagerie before sitting down beside Arwin with her own portion, and everyone dug into it without hesitation.

“It’s been a while since I’ve caught you around,” Arwin said to Rodrick once he’d mowed through about half of his plate and was willing to waste time speaking. “Everything going okay?”

The warrior glanced up at him. His face was covered with grease. Anna wordlessly handed him a napkin, not even looking up from her meal.

“Thanks,” Rodrick said, wiping himself off and clearing his throat. “Sorry. I was starving. Nothing builds up an appetite like being out all night. Nothing to worry about. I’ve just been keeping tabs on the Ardent Guild.”

“Don’t tell me they’re planning to try something again. I was really hoping they’d gotten the message at this point.”

“They were rooting around a bit, but I’ve got their head twisted around their tail right now,” Rodrick said with a chuckle. “Their information is all screwed up. It looks like they’ve got bigger issues to deal with anyway. They look pretty stupid to the general populace right now, which isn’t great for them.”

“Why?” Reya asked, finishing off the last of her meal and speaking before she was done chewing. Olive shot her a look and she reddened, closing her mouth and swallowing before speaking again. “I mean, aren’t they just merchants? Nobody is going to care who they buy from when there’s no alternative.”

“Not in Milten,” Rodrick agreed. “But Milten isn’t the Ardent Guild’s main goal. They’re here because they’re preparing to move into a larger city called Axeport. It’s still on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Lian, but it’s built on a major river. There are a number of merchants guilds already present there. The Ardent Guild needed a closer base of operations to try and worm their way in, and Milten was perfect after the Iron Hounds fell. They wanted to build a reputation here and then use it as leverage. But…”

“They look like idiots,” Olive finished. “Hard to use that as leverage.”

“Exactly.” Rodrick nodded. “They’ve been pretty caught up with that recently. The only way to walk it back is to somehow deal with us or do something else impressive. They could go for either, so I’ll have to keep tabs on them for now.”

“Well, let us know if you need anything,” Arwin said. “I’m not sure what we can do, considering I have no clue exactly what it is that you do, but the offer is there.”

Rodrick snickered and raised his fork in salute. “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind. Did you and Lillia wrap up that project you were working on?”

Arwin polished off the last off the food on his plate and pushed his chair back, rubbing his hands together. “That’s hard to give a straight answer to. Anyone want to come look with me?”

Five chairs scraped across the ground as everyone rose as one. Anna shoveled the last few pieces of egg into her mouth. Reya speared the last piece of food on Olive’s plate with a snicker, but Olive bit it off the fork before Reya could bring it to her mouth. Arwin bit back a laugh at the stunned look on the former thief’s face.

Everyone filed out of the tavern and across the street. The smithy looked perfectly normal from the outside, which was a good thing. The Mesh didn’t activate when he looked at it either. They all headed inside, where Arwin led the veritable charge over to the back room.

He put his hand on the doorknob. Then he hesitated.

“Just open the door already! I want to see it,” Rodrick complained. “By the way, what exactly was it you were making?”

“If I’m going to be honest, I’m not entirely sure,” Arwin said.

“It may have stolen the smithy yesterday,” Lillia added.

They hadn’t all gotten tossed out yet. That was probably a good sign. Arwin twisted the knob and carefully pulled the door to the forge open. A wave of heat rolled over him and prickled at his eyes. Rodrick let out a curse and Reya drew in a surprised breath. Arwin’s eyes went wide as he stared at the room before him, only able to muster a measly three words.

“What the hell?”