Tap.

Taptap. Tap. Tap.

I groaned and turned, but sleep slowly faded out of my reach.

Taptaptaptap. TAP.

I crawled out of my comfy bed toward the annoying sound. I dreamt of Abigail the Hero coming to find me in my dark fortress and turn me from my wicked ways. I wasn’t quite out of the dream yet, but could feel it slipping away as I tried to hold onto the last strands, hoping to maybe stop this noise and pull the illusion back together. I was too late. Aware of the dream, I felt the fantasy unravel itself and dissipate.

TAP. TAPTAP.

The sound came from outside the window. Even half asleep I could tell it was too dark to be morning. I opened the shutter and glared out to find the source of the noise.

A familiar face stared back at me upside down, her long blond braids falling away from her. She held her knuckles by the glass. Seyari saw me and her face went from worried to shocked in an instant. Her mouth opened in a gasp I could feel more than hear.

Confused, my mind tried to process why she was hanging from the roof and why she’d be shocked. Then I saw my hand. My clawed crimson hand with another below it on the same side holding the shutter open.

Now it was my turn to look at her with shock. Quickly, I put my glamour back into place. I’d recovered some of my magical strength, but not much.

We stared at each other for a moment before Seyari shook her head lightly and motioned toward the window latch.

She didn’t run. Hadn’t screamed. I opened the latch and pushed the window open. She stayed hanging from the roof.

“A demon. A fucking greater demon…” Seyari seemed lost for words.

“I think so. Please don’t tell anyone. Wait, why the hell are you tapping on my window in the middle of the night! And how did you know which room was mine?” Despite wanting to whisper, I started to raise my voice.

“Shhhh! Shit. Okay, listen, Renna. Y-we need to go. Now. Grab anything you want to take with,” Seyari seemed to find her conviction.

“What? Why? Go where?”

“Because there’s an Inquisitor and their entourage headed right this way with Lorelei and Markus and they’re not going to let you live when they find out you’re a demon.”

“What?” I hesitated, confused and blindsided. “Why would—?”

Footsteps out in the hall. Some heavy.

“Look, just trust me, we have to get out of here,” Seyari pleaded.

“Not until you tell me what’s going on,” I refused, but still took a moment to look at my packed suitcase.

A knock at the door. Loud.

“Shit! They’re here! Now!” Seyari was becoming frantic.

“Renna! Sorry about the late hour, but I found you a ship to Ordia that leaves tomorrow super early! I have the ticket out here!” Lorelei’s voice sounded from outside my door.

Well, if that’s all, I should thank her. Wait. Why would she stand for hours to buy a ticket for me when she was obsessed with delivering her report? Why would a ship go from here all the way to Ordia, a hostile country? Why would she have multiple people with her?

“Renna please! It’s really late and I want to make sure you don’t miss the boat!” Lorelei pleaded.

A pit twisted in my stomach. Lorelei. How? Why? Was she ever my friend? I wanted to believe.

“Now! Please, Renna!” Behind me, Seyari hung down with a proffered hand, outlined in moonlight.

I thought back to Abby at the fort, to Seyari and I on the boat. I made my decision. I looked to her and nodded.

“Let me get dressed, I’ll be there in a minute!” I called to Lorelei.

“Hurry please!” Lorelei pleaded.

Who the heck would ask that in this situation? If anything, that last comment cemented my mind. Still in my underwear, I dashed to my suitcase, slammed it closed and ran back to the open window, throwing it wide. Up on the sill, Seyari helped me onto the roof, a task made easier by my height and strength but a lot harder due to my weight.

Before I got fully out of the window, I heard whispering in Cavenish outside my door. It was too muffled to make out more than a couple words, but I heard “someone else”. I just pulled myself up when the door to my room below burst open.

Or it would have if I hadn’t put a dresser in front of it. My paranoia against a nosy maid turned out to buy us a few precious seconds.

Loud shouts in Cavenish. The sound of wood splintering.

Seyari and I met gazes. She grabbed my hand and pulled me in a low run along the edge of the pitched roof.

Shouting and many footsteps from the room behind us.

I felt off balance without my arms and tail to steady me and almost pitched off the roof. With surprising strength and balance, Seyari kept me upright and we reached the edge of the roof facing out of town.

She slid down a drainpipe and motioned for me to use a series of balconies. I did so, and only stumbled once. On the ground, she grabbed my free arm and we ran toward the jungle. I chanced a glance behind me. I could see red hair out my window looking around. At the opposite end of the street the familiar cloaked figure of Salvador glanced our way. My heart stopped for a moment; he’d seen us for sure. But he didn’t gesture or shout. Salvador just turned his head back the other direction.

I felt no anger from either of them, and I was too panicked to really try anyway. Seyari, however, was furious. I didn’t get that feeling at all from her posture, so I hoped the feeling wasn’t toward me. I had a rather good idea who it may be towards, but there was a lot of information I was missing. Seriously, what was going on here!?

Seyari looked back a moment later, and ducked us into a side alley before we could be spotted. We’d gotten lucky Lorelei looked toward town first. I was running on half a night’s sleep and mostly mana exhausted, but somehow, I kept pace with the woman who was dragging me in my underwear through the outskirts of town.

We jumped fences and ran through fields of squat trees planted in neat rows. Moonlight bathed the landscape in a surreal glow. The quiet of the fields was soon replaced by the muted and familiar sounds of the jungle at night.

Just past the last farm, Seyari stopped for only a moment and grabbed a pack stashed at the base of a tree. She looked back at me, mostly undressed and standing there confused holding a battered suitcase.

“Come on. Stay close. You can see fine, right?” Seyari turned back to me.

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“Yeah. But where—”

“Good. We need to move fast.”

She took off into the jungle. I shook myself and followed her. Not like I could go back to town now, right? Screw it, I’d made my decision. Seyari saw the real me and was still trying to help, I think. It’s not like there was anywhere else I could go.

We ran through the jungle in the darkness, curving around the island’s mountain. Port Princely was swallowed up by the night behind us. I heard no sounds of pursuit but didn’t dare slow down. Despite the darkness, Seyari moved through the trees with a grace I could hardly hope to match in this imbalanced form.

I winced at every branch I crashed through and every stick I snapped. Thorns and sharp bits scored my skin, and my bare feet endured several cuts and scrapes. They healed themselves, but were quickly replaced and the drain on my magic reserves, however slight, throbbed in my head on top of the headache caused by my compressed horns.

At some point, I let go of my glamour. Seyari already knew and it wasn’t like there was anyone out here to see. Properly able to balance, I caught up with her sprinting form. She turned and saw me, and while her face showed some shock, she didn’t stop guiding me.

We must have run for an hour before we started moving downhill. Just ahead of me, a rock face loomed large in the night. The sound of running water from somewhere toward the shore reached my ears. Seyari stopped in front of the rocky edifice and turned to face me.

Why stop here? Wait, was she actually leading me to a trap?

She still held the same cold fury around herself, only just visible in her gray eyes.

“We should have some time. You need to put the glamour back on.” Seyari looked at me coldly, certain of her use of the term for my innate solid illusion.

“Okay, but I can’t maintain it for much longer without rest.” I looked at her pleadingly.

“Fuck.” She looked me up and down and her eyes caught on my glyph for a moment. “Follow me and be ready to disguise yourself if I say so. We probably have an hour or two to rest before we go.”

Seyari stared at the symbol for a moment longer, then turned to the cliff without saying anything. She pulled aside a group of vines to reveal a narrow crevice. She squeezed inside then beckoned me to follow.

I could barely squeeze in, even turned sideways. Ahead of me, Seyari felt around before I heard the unexpected sound of a lock turning and she pulled me through a small misshapen door. Once on the other side, she closed the door behind us and locked it.

Ahead of us stretched a narrow cave that reminded me of the one going to the underground cathedral back on my island. With careful motions in the pitch darkness, I watched Seyari pull out a lantern and feel around for a light. In the blackness, the faint glow of my eyes was visible in front of my face.

Able to see perfectly well myself, I carefully reached an arm past her and lit the lantern with a small flame from my fingertip. Seyari looked up at me.

“Thanks,” she said. “We can wait here for a couple hours before we’ll need to go ahead. The ship leaves at dawn. It should take us to Liseu on the Turquoise Coast. From there, I have connections that can sneak us into Ordia.”

“What ship? How’ll we get back to the harbor?”

“The Lady of Liseu. And we aren’t leaving out of Port Princely’s harbor.”

“Oh.”

“This island’s not so far removed from its past as it appears.”

“Like a hidden pirate harbor?”

“Yeah, exactly like that.”

“Awesome!”

Seyari gave me a look like I’d turned into a demon. Wait, bad comparison.

“You’re real fucking naïve, you know that?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Good,” she sighed and leaned against the thankfully dry wall. “So, what’s with that symbol? Heck, what’s with you? I thought you had a pact with a demon or were enthralled or corrupted or something, not an actual fucking greater fucking demon.”

“The symbol was on an amulet my friend found before all of this. I don’t know what it’s for, but I think it keeps my emotions in check or something? I don’t feel it doing much since I learned to control the anger of my mana myself.” I sat down across from her.

“Okay, so wrath demon then? Makes a little sense looks-wise, but you’re pretty humanoid looking and your personality doesn’t fit. Also, I’ve never heard of a tattoo doing that, but I’ve seen that symbol around.”

“How so?” My curiosity was piqued.

She turned to me, serious. “You’re way too normal. I’d say you were a convincing fake, but after your panic attack on the boat I think you might actually be the person you seem to be. I don’t know. Most wrath demons just try to destroy everything in a rage. Except some of the greater demons who can plan and restrain themselves. Those are scary.”

“What’s a greater demon anyway?”

“You, basically. A demon that’s got a good amount of sanity left and is usually humanoid-looking. I don’t really know how to explain it, but they’re like twisted people instead of some primeval force. And they’re usually a good bit more powerful too.”

“Okay, so I’m a greater demon and I have some kind of ancient symbol that ensures I can control my powers and maybe does more besides.” I studied the floor. “I can’t believe I just said that sentence seriously.”

“Yeah, me neither. You’re a weird-ass demon, you know that?”

“Gee, thanks. Also, is it normal for demons to get stronger?”

Seyari froze. “Depends. What do you mean by stronger?”

“More magical power, greater strength and regeneration, that sort of thing. I feel like I’m stronger than a couple years ago, but maybe I just have a better grasp of my powers.”

“So, you didn’t get directly stronger from killing the other demons on the island?” Seyari’s posture relaxed slightly.

“I don’t think so, no. What do you even mean by that?”

“Taking a part of the soul of something as it dies.”

“Don’t most demons do that?”

“Not directly. Demons that can take fragments of souls directly are known as Reavers and if they’re allowed to live, they can become an army on their own.”

“Oh.”

“I’m just glad you’re not one. Not that it really makes any difference, or makes this whole mess any less insane.” Seyari slid her back further down the wall.

“How do demons who aren’t Reavers get stronger then? I remember stories about stealing souls and stuff.”

“Okay, so greater demons have a bunch of rules I don’t know about contracts and souls and shit, but they can’t just take a piece or all of someone’s soul when they die. And normal demons just get passively stronger up to a point the longer they’re around because they absorb mana or something.”

“That makes sense, I guess.”

“Barely.”

We stared at the lantern in silence for the next few minutes. I pulled my knees up to my chest and tried to think of what all Seyari said meant for me. I either needed to stay hidden or convince the Church I wasn’t a threat. I didn’t even like other demons. Unless there was a special case, I would be perfectly fine killing ‘my own kind’.

Maybe I’d need to do that. Get strong enough to be taken at least a little seriously. Or would that just backfire? Ugh, I needed a good night’s sleep to sort out my head.

“Hey Renna, I want to apologize.” Seyari looked at me with a determined gaze. I could still feel cold fury burning within her, however.

“What for? You basically rescued me.” I tilted my head.

“Why do you think I was outside your window?”

“Uh, to rescue me? Wait. You knew when everyone was coming. Were you part of the plan to capture me?”

“Yeah. Lorelei and I came up with the idea the night before we left Korzon Island.”

“Why didn’t you go through with it?”

Seyari looked at me, surprised. “You’re not mad?” She stared at my face. “You’re really not mad. I guess you aren’t lying about having your anger in check.”

“You mentioned my panic attack on the boat. Was that part of it?”

“That was all of it, actually. I thought up until that point that you were some strong demon-tainted mage lying her ass off.”

“I did lie about a lot of things, though.”

Seyari looked at my tail curled around my clawed feet. “Yeah, no shit.”

“So, you planned this. What all did you plan?” I was legitimately curious. “When did you and Lorelei know I was up to something?”

“I knew pretty much straight off. Lorelei was unsure until she checked the aura of your spells,” she paused for a moment. “As for what we planned? We altered the Swordfish’s course to Port Princely to keep you on an island since you clearly couldn’t leave Korzon. Lorelei knew the Church was invested in the city so we could find backup in case you proved difficult to handle. The hotel was picked because it was just outside of town and would cause minimal disturbance.”

“Shit. I was really screwed, huh.” I stared at the flickering light of the lantern.

“You’re oddly calm about this whole betrayal thing.”

“Honestly, I’m just tired. I don’t know what to think about Lorelei right now, but I really could have been a danger so I don’t know that I could hate her. Salvador saw us escape and didn’t do anything. You rescued me and explained the whole plot.”

“You’re way too forgiving.” Seyari met my gaze. “So, what all did you lie about? How did you even end up on Korzon Island anyway?”

“I didn’t lie about my family in Edath. I was on the island for three years, but it’s been almost a decade since I was home. As for how I got there? I died in Linthel in some sort of ritual circle, an amulet with the symbol was activated somehow, I got turned into a demon, and I erupted out of the volcano.”

“Hah! Wow, okay.” Seyari caught my serious expression. “Wait, are you for real? What the actual fuck!?”

I looked back at her and replied, “Yeah, that actually happened.”

The remaining tension snapped like a twig. Something about the absurdity of what I said so casually broke the last of the ice in Seyari’s expression. We both looked at each other for a moment. Our postures relaxed and my lips formed into a smile.

After a moment of holding it in, Seyari burst out laughing, “L-look I’m, hah, sorry about your death and all, but wow that is the wildest thing I’ve ever heard! Out of a volcano! Pfft!”

“Yeah, heh, it is kinda ridiculous,” I started giggling despite myself.

“Whaddya mean kinda?” Seyari had tears in her eyes.

We both laughed until we cried. I didn’t know that my rebirth was really all that funny, but I think both of us needed something to break the tension. Maybe tonight wasn’t so bad after all. Tomorrow I’d hopefully be on my way to finding Tania again.