“This’ll last for about an hour, less if you stab something.” Seyari returned the last knife to its sheathe and handed it to Nelys. As the blade slid into place, the holy glow she’d placed on it died down. “I’m no enchanter, but if there’s a demon up ahead—”

“We’ll have a fightin’ chance.” Taava finished for her, a wide smile on her face, despite the pitch blackness of the passageway.

“Thanks.” Nelys nodded. “What’s the plan again, Zarenna?”

I checked the wind before replying, “They’ll have Byrt down there—and I’m going to assume he at least isn’t willing to do what this group’s got planned.”

“Byrt’d never kill someone. Wick told me he was too soft anyway,” Nelys confirmed.

“So our job’s to go around and slip out with him while the boss’n Seyari make a big entrance, yeah?”

“That’s pretty much it, yeah.” I replied. “But you know how to fight, and you can also stop it turning into a bloodbath if you get a shot at their leader.”

“Gotcha,” Nelys said seriously, curls bobbing with as they nodded. “But what if the room’s too small and there’s no cover?”

“Then you wait until the fight starts,” Seyari said confidently. “We’ll try to stop anyone who doesn’t need to die from dying, but we might not be able to.”

“So keep yourselves safe,” I finished.

“Aww, I’m just yer favorite kazzel ain’t I?” Taava crooned.

“Despite your attitude, yes you are,” I shot back with a smile.

Taava faltered. “I—uh. Right then. Let’s not waste time.”

“Behind me then,” I walked past the others and took a position at the front.

I lit a tiny flame to hover over the bottom of my spear so Nelys and Taava could see their footing, and we resumed our walk deeper into the mine. Without wagon tracks, we were going blind, but the thaw in the frozen mud left a visible trail of footprints to follow.

We wound down along the biggest tunnel through several intersections until we turned off into a side passage. I had to duck to avoid my horns catching. The reinforcing timbers were long gone and we were now surrounded only by rough, glistening rock.

Soon after taking the side passage, we came to an area of fresh activity—a debris pile in a small chamber. I signed for us to slow down and Seyari went ahead alone.

She returned a minute later, clearly anxious. “There’s a new tunnel dug—looks like by magic or powder. I heard voices echoing. The tunnel is short, but it’s dug into a room.”

“Like a big chamber?” I asked.

“No, like walls and a floor of cut stone.”

Oh wow.

“Like a Lost Era ruin?”

“Exactly like one.”

“That’s gotta be what they’re looking for!” Nelys whispered excitedly.

“How’d they know it was here?” Taava cocked her head to one side in the near-blackness.

“That’s a good question,” I replied. “Maybe we’ll find out. Sey, did you see anyone inside?”

She shook her head “No. I heard voices coming from the next room over, but I didn’t risk the doorway. The room sounded big though.”

“Could you make out anything they were saying?” Nelys asked.

Seyari shrugged “All I heard was talk of how to strip the place. But there’s no way they’re simple looters.”

Nelys shifted on their feet. “They must be after somethin’ specific.”

I scratched at one of my horns. “They have to be, right?”

“Sittin’ around speculatin’s not gonna tell us, though,” Taava groused. “Let’s go, yeah?”

I nodded in assent. “Yeah, let’s go. I’ll go in first, and try to give a chance for you and Nelys to slip around.”

Once again, we resumed our walk down the narrowing tunnel. The recent excavation was perhaps only a meter or so away from the wall of the old tunnel, but the break into the room beyond looked like it wasn’t the first attempt they made.

I ducked through the new passage, quiet as I could. The room beyond had tall ceilings and plain-well-fitted stone walls. Time had shifted the earth around it, however, and one wall buckled, while moisture leaking through the roof had formed stalactites as long as my arm. The place certainly looked old enough to be from the Lost Era. To think the original miners had so narrowly missed this place.

True to Seyari’s word, I could hear voices beyond the doorway. Flickering light accompanied them—torches or lanterns I’d bet. One feminine voice barked orders, and others called in reply. After the others had entered behind me, I strode forward into the larger room.

The room was large, with squat, heavy-looking columns supporting a roof that had mostly turned into a cave. I couldn’t begin to guess what the room was used for, but several artifacts lay piled neatly by the missing supplies from the wagon. And unlike the other room, this one was covered in carvings, although they’d mostly been destroyed by age.

A pair of men were on a ladder stripping gold off from around the top of one of the columns while a woman in nice traveling clothes watched them. Another woman and two more men were prying tiles up from around pile of what might have once been a statue. Each looked central Ordian in complexion, and they were all wearing plain clothes. I counted six people—at least in this room. Preoccupied as they were, no one noticed me.

Nelys and Taava slipped behind me and disappeared into the deeper shadows amongst the rubble of the room, and I lit my horns with twin balls of crimson fire. That got their attention.

“A-a demon!?” one of the men prying shouted, nearly toppling the ladder.

“Would you believe me if I said I was the guardian of these ruins?” I asked with what I hoped was a haughty and intimidating voice.

I had to bet Byrt was the young one pulling tiles, and I needed to give Nelys and Taava a chance to get in position.

Aside from the woman in charge, my trick worked almost too well. One man actually fell off the ladder with a pained “oof,” and the tile pullers cowered.

“Of course not,” the woman in charge replied, taking a step toward me. “These ruins don’t belong to one of your lineage, Wrath.”

As she drew closer, I got a better look at the woman. She looked central Ordian, and a little Edathan: black-brown, shoulder length hair, lighter brown eyes, and a build that desperately wanted to make me envious. She wore dark brown and red traveling clothes of fine make, with a high collar and knee-high boots. I also saw her with aura sight, and the brownish-gold aura she had wasn’t exactly weak.

“What are you doing here?” she continued, managing to look relaxed as she stood between two columns. “I don’t believe I’ve stepped on your toes, have I?”

“She’s a demon wearing a glamour,” Seyari said from behind me. “That aura isn’t human.”

“A pet angel?” the demon woman’s eyes glowed dark gold for a moment. “And she doesn’t even seem to be corrupted. Remarkable. But there’s a more important question, Wrath: Why are you here?”

“I want to know what you’re after in this ruin,” I stated as calmly as I could manage.

“Does the Sovereign of Wrath want in on our little game, then? You’ll owe me for the servants you killed to get in here, but I think we could work something out.”

“She’s no Sovereign,” Seyari hissed.

“Astute!” The demonic woman smiled. “I’m simply a loyal servant to my own.”

“And who would that be?” I asked, probably too directly.

“Someone you will become acquainted with should you prove yourself.”

“Prove myself?”

“I’ll relay your intentions and we’ll find you later. You can go now—you’ve already disturbed my evening more than enough.”

I growled.

“Unless you have further questions, of course.” She gave a shallow bow, and my ears didn’t miss how she barely kept her voice from wavering. She’s afraid of me.

“Are you responsible for what happened in Lockmoth?”

“A lot happens in Lockmoth, I’m afraid you’ll have to—”

“Cut it,” I growled. “You know damn well what I’m talking about.”

“Oh, that. Summoning something like that wasn’t part of the bargain. Mortals are ever so greedy. aren’t they? I suppose us demons have that in common, at least.”

“Avarice,” Seyari said softly. “You work for Avarice.”

“Hmm?” The demon woman caught my eyes and her playful grin disappeared. “Yes, I work for Avarice. You’re no fun.” She turned her lips into the fakest frown I’d ever seen.

“Was Avarice responsible for what happened in a small town near Lockmoth, with the farmer’s kid Erik?” I really, really wished I’d learned the name of that town.

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“That’s more than a little vague. Erik? I don’t keep track of human names unless they’re of use to me.”

“Fine,” I hissed. “Then what does Avarice want with these ruins?”

She shrugged. “Same as any demon. Power.”

“The old Sovereign of Avarice hid all their wealth and power away from prying eyes, didn’t they.” Seyari concluded.

“Why wouldn’t he? Unfortunately, this place didn’t have what I’m looking for. Shame about that.”

“Is she lying?” I asked Seyari.

“I can’t tell, but I don’t—”

“I’m not lying,” the greater demon of avarice cut Seyari off. “Now, if that’s everything, please do leave now. We’ll be in touch, but I really don’t like having my operation barged into and my men killed.”

Instead of leaving, I gave her more questions. “What did those demonic items you sold do? And why did you kill Hector and his men?”

She sighed in annoyance, but another growl from me hastened an answer. “Did you have plans for that backwater town, then? I’m afraid it’s already been claimed and those items are part of that,” she answered. “As for that Hector person… do you mean the humans who had the things I wanted? Yes, I killed them. Why would that be a problem?”

“You can’t have killed them just for their goods,” I growled, taking a step forward.

“Why not?” She waved a hand flippantly. “They’re just humans and they had something I wanted.”

At her words, the only one of “her” people who reacted was Byrt, although he stayed quiet. So the others know then.

“Just humans?” I hissed. “You were human, once.”

“And now I’m so much more. Besides, I treat them well enough when they do what I want. I’m surprised Wrath pretends to care.” She narrowed her eyes. “What are you really after?”

By now all work had stopped. The three tile pullers hid, along with one of the men near the ladder, while the other stood defensive near the demon woman.

“I’m after the people responsible for murder and corruption in and around the town this mine belonged to.”

“On whose behest, I wonder? Who does Wrath owe enough to be treated like an errand girl? If I were in your position, I’d rip them apart for trying to shackle me.”

I forced myself to remain calm. Years of practice were paying off, and I bit back a retort that no one controlled me. Instead, I stayed calm. “My reasons why are not so simple. Empathy, or respect perhaps are the reasons beyond my own desires.”

“Pfft,” the other demon snorted. “Respect? Don’t tell me you rely on humans.”

I narrowed my eyes and took a single step toward her. From my position, I could see Nelys and Taava, hiding almost within striking range of the demon woman.

“Oh, you do rely on mortals, don’t you!” Her posture eased, like a weight had been lifted. “You’re just as weak as they say you are then. I do wonder what help you had beating that monstrosity in Lockmoth. Was it you at all?”

“Oh, that was me,” I said to buy time. I couldn’t tell Nelys and Taava to get away without risking them. I had to hope they’d stay safe, or somehow come out on top.

“Really?” The demon cocked her head to one side. “Then why give yourself such a liability? I know wrath demons aren’t usually intelligent, but I expected more. Trusting humans makes you weak.”

The only warning the demon woman got was a shifting of shadows where Nelys and Taava were hiding. Unfortunately, she was far from human.

Despite how little warning she had, she leapt away from Taava and Nelys as their enchanted blades flashed. The man who seemed the least afraid also moved with surprising alacrity and grabbed Nelys. Their pendant almost flew over their head, and the blue coral caught the light.

The demon’s glamour melted off, revealing a humanoid figure with skin like tarnished gold. She had no hair, small horns, reddish-gold eyes that burned with fury. Fury that I swiftly took from her, despite a heavy resistance.

Taava slashed, the demon ducked, and the kazzel was tripped into a grab faster than she could move. I jumped in right as the avarice demon got her claws around Taava’s throat. Likewise, the demonically-enhanced man had a blade to Nelys’s throat.

Shit.

“Oh, you really do care, don’t you?” She tightened her claws around Taava’s neck, although the kazzel seemed oddly calm. Training maybe? “Do you see how much of a weakness this gives you? A half-angel is one thing, but pure mortals are so, fragile.”

“Hurt either of them and you die.” My threat came out with fire.

“Then why don’t you leave us, Wrath, and keep out of our business? She reached for Taava’s cheap jewelry. “We’ll just take fair compensation for our trouble first.”

I watched with mounting horror as the man grabbed Nelys’s pendant and yanked. The thread snapped with an oddly magical sound, and Nelys’s human appearance changed to what I’d seen in Malich’s estate.

The enchantment breaking drew the golden demon’s attention for but a moment, and unfortunately it had also drawn mine.

Not Taava though. And not Nelys.

I watched one of Nelys’s tentacles, blade grasped firmly, lash out in a thrust at the demon’s side. Several others shot up at the man’s knife arm, wrenching the limb away from their neck. Taava, her tail free, flicked a glinting knife at the demon’s chest and kicked it in, driving it to the hilt. The golden demon screamed as Nelys and Taava’s blades, laced with holy magic strong enough to make them glow, drove into her like twin hot pokers. She loosened her grip on Taava and the kazzel dropped free. From behind me, I felt a surge of Seyari’s magic.

The demon-enhanced man stumbled and Nelys rolled free toward me. I caught them, sent the man flying into a column with my tail and retreated back just in time to see a wide-eyed Taava scramble away on all fours with agility that would be surprising had I not seen such before.

In the middle of all the chaos, the woman from the group who’d been stripping tiles in the back, ducked out from cover and hurled ball of fire at Taava, right from her blind spot. I shot out an arm and threw my own gout of fire past the kazzel. Before they collided, and while still holding Nelys, I drew my spear from my back and threw it at the mage.

The tip caught her just inside the shoulder and the force of my throw threw her back. She hit the wall, spear pinning her to the stone. Then our fire collided. For a moment, the room flashed as bright as daylight with the deep colors of a sunset.

The demon, clutching at the knives in her, stumbled back and screamed. Magical fire outlined her, giving an air of menace to the scene. “You! You’ll pay—” she cut off with a gagging, choking sound. Her flesh and clothing around where the knives had embedded into her began to burn and smoke. Hissing, she grabbed at the handle of the knife that was now glowing with holy light. In an instant her fingers charred to the bone.

“No!” she shouted. “We can work—hnnnn—something out, you don’t need to—”

I watched the demonic man stumble up from the cracked column, moving almost drunkenly. The three non-combatants, Byrt included, had retreated somewhere behind cover.

“You’re wrong about mortals,” I said with as much venom as I could muster.

She glared at me with glowing eyes; fury I didn’t bother to suppress boiling over inside her.

“You’re weak for underestimating them,” I finished.

And Seyari released her spell. Columns of holy light shot from the demon’s wounds. One grazed my arm, sizzling the skin before I ducked out of the way. The demon screamed, an agonizing, horrible screech that almost forced me to look away.

One of my hands covered Nelys’s face and they hid behind the limb. Another moved to my own face and, through my fingers, I watched the avarice demon’s body bubble and contort before holy light shot from her mouth, then her eyes as she burned to death from the inside out.

“Holy shit,” I whispered, pun completely lost on me in the moment.

“Y-yeah,” Taava agreed.

Unfortunately, the fight wasn’t quite over yet. The fire mage’s struggles had pulled my spear from the wall and she ripped it out, sending it clattering away across the ground. The demonically-changed man struggled up from my kick, somehow very much alive despite cracking the stone wall behind him. From farther inside, two pairs of footsteps ran in our direction.

“If you don’t want to die, surrender!” I shouted. “You all saw how your leader was afraid of me—I don’t want to, but I can and will kill anyone who makes me.”

The fire mage faltered. Her face was pale even in the dim light, and she was bleeding heavily. However, the changed man didn’t surrender, and neither did the two others, a man and a woman, who’d come running from the back room.

The injured man charged Taava, who threw a blade at his leg before darting out of the way. Without setting Nelys down, I threw a bolt of condensed fire at him. It met with Seyari’s wind, and the man disintegrated. Seyari took care of the other two in short order, and the room fell silent, except for muffled whimpering coming from Byrt and Nelys. The room reeked of blood and burned flesh.

It took some time for us to come to our senses. I recovered Nelys’s pendant, but the magic in it was faint—either broken or damaged. Seyari glanced at Nelys curiously, but kept quiet as she moved further in to round up the four who’d surrendered. She also fixed up the fire mage, at least enough so she wouldn’t bleed out. She’s probably the person who killed one of Hector’s men. Scratch that—she has to be. Still, she surrendered for now.

With Seyari off on the other side of the massive room, that left me, a shaking Nelys, and a shaken Taava more or less alone.

“So, uh…” Taava trailed off. “What’s goin’ on?” she waved a hand around Nelys.

They looked up at me and took a deep breath, the shaking subsiding a little as they moved to stand. Nelys stood a little taller as a cecaelia, although the eight tentacles they had instead of legs splayed out a bit unevenly on the ground. Their blue rings actually glowed faintly in the darkness, and their gold skin was actually vaguely similar to the demon they, Taava, and Seyari had just killed. Their nervousness showed in their tendril hair, which was curling at the tips and shivering.

“Uh…” they started; their voice startlingly unchanged. “This is me, I guess. The me I have to be.” They addressed both me and Taava.

Whoah, hold on there.

“Nelys,” I moved closer to them, and they let me take a knee to hug them at their level. Current situation be damned, I was not going to leave a thought like that unaddressed. “You are whatever feels right, okay? You don’t have to be anything you don’t want to be.”

Nelys sniffled, only just holding back tears.

“You can cry if you want to. I cry all the time.”

“M’not a kid,” Nelys mumbled. “I’m not crying ‘cause it’s dangerous here.”

“If you insist,” I replied, squeezing a little, then letting them out of the hug. “But I’m the scariest thing in this ruin and anyone who wants to hurt either of you has to go through me.” I smiled reassuringly (and sharply) at Nelys, then at Taava who was uncharacteristically quiet.

She met my gaze with cold eyes and quickly looked away. “Whatever ya want, huh…” she mumbled.

We waited for a few minutes in silence while Seyari bound the hands of three out of the four who’d surrendered, barking a sharp warning at the pale, shaking fire mage. After a few quick questions to each, she pulled Byrt aside and I caught snippets of their conversation. Thanks, Sey. Nelys was clearly mortified at the idea of anyone seeing them like this, so I was glad to be able to stay with them.

And it was Nelys who eventually broke the silence, once they’d composed themselves a bit. “What about you, Renna?”

“What about me?”

“Was being a demon right for you?”

I thought about it for a long while. “Yeah, I guess it was. I just wish the circumstances could have been better.”

“Ya must’ve been real tall for a human, though,” Taava cut in, voice hushed against the quiet of the ruin.

This time, I only felt the briefest jolt of panic. “No, uh, well not really. When I was a human, I—I was born in a man’s body. A-and I was shorter.”

Nelys looked up at me with wide, curious eyes.

Taava snorted, some of her usual flippancy bubbling up once again. “You? A guy? Pfft, no way.”

“Yes way, Taava.” I tried to force annoyance into my voice. What a compliment!

“Really?” Nelys asked.

“Yes really,” I rolled my eyes. “And it sucked, even if there were a few small things I liked, like my eye color and being tall—er, relatively tall. I guess I’m lucky that I got to keep both those things, honestly.”

“Keep what you like…” Nelys mused. “Uh, can Sey repair my pendant?”

I glanced over at Seyari who looked to be finishing up her own conversation. “I’ll go ask her. Maybe she can? My aunt Lilly can for sure.” The words just slipped out. Is it safe to introduce the two? Well it’s not like I’ll be seeing Lilly before Nelys needs a solution. I hope.

Nelys brightened just a little bit. “Good! I, uh, I need to think about some stuff. And I want to talk more later, okay? Someplace cozy.”

I nodded with a broad smile. “We’ll find the coziest spot, and maybe even get warm cider. How about you, Taava?”

She startled. “Me? Oh, uh. Yeah, sure, maybe.”

“You weren’t listening!” Nelys accused.

“Was too!” Taava retorted.

I left them to their argument and joined Sey while she was finishing talking to Byrt. His eyes went wide when he saw me and he took a step back.

“Hey,” I put all four hands out in a placating gesture. “I’m not going to hurt you. Sey?”

“You want to know if I can fix something?” she half-asked, half-stated.

I looked around at all the others who were listening in while bound up. “Yeah, could you take a look?”

“I’ll see what I can do. No promises. Byrt seems clean—just got suckered in when the demon played on his desires to leave the village and make a name for himself.”

“That’s blunt,” I replied while looking at Byrt who’d regained some small measure of his composure.

He nodded numbly.

With a shrug, Seyari walked off toward where Taava and Nelys were. “Alright,” I told Byrt. “We’re going to get you home safe.” I smiled carefully, only showing my teeth to the other three who’d surrendered. “As for the rest of you? We’ll try to get this whole thing sorted when we get back to town. We’ve plenty of light and know the way back, plus the half-angel and I keep us all warm.

“And just to let you know: I can see in the dark and fire magic can’t hurt me, so don’t try running, and don’t try escaping. You all surrendered once, but I’m not going to give you a third chance, got it?”

I got a few nods and a few more glares.

Jeez, this is awkward.