When Fira stepped off their crate, they stumbled. I darted forward and caught them before quickly letting go and moving a few paces away. Up close, they looked a mess: short red hair mussed and hastily pushed to one side, their clothes dirty, scratched, and stained.

They took deep, shaky breath. “Thanks. Today’s been a hell of a day.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” I replied drily. “Is there any chance what we say in here will actually be private?”

“Not down here.” Fira stuck their thumb over their shoulder at the mostly-empty hay loft above us. “Up there, if we whisper, we should be fine.”

I glanced at the rickety-looking ladder. “You first.”

Fira went up first, taking an oil lantern with them.

Predictably, the first rung of the latter snapped when I put my full weight on it. I used my claws and all four arms and climbed up the support structure and wall instead. I plopped next to them on the wooden slat floor. It creaked under me, but held firm. I pulled my knees up to my chest with my upper arms, curled my tail around, and stuck my lower arms out to the sides.

“Why the change of heart?” I asked, making sure to keep my voice down. Idly, I played with dry piece of straw, flicking it around with the tip of my tail. I still didn’t really want to meet Fira’s gaze.

Fira relaxed themselves, laying down on their side. The orange light played across their sharp features, casting emotions I couldn’t be sure of. “I stopped trying to see you as an enemy, I guess. But there’s more to it than that.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I knew Paula was going to cross the line. I was ready for it, but backed down instead. When you said you’d done it, I put something together that I really should have in the first place.” They flicked the straw I was playing with and I followed their hand up to their face. “You broke us out of our entrancement back at the cave by making us angry, didn’t you?”

“I did,” I forced myself not to look away. “And I kept you from getting too angry when we spoke after I killed the other demon, too. I’m sorry for—”

“Thanks.”

“What?”

“Thanks.” They shrugged and what might have been a smile flickered among the shadows of their face. “You saved us. And I see the face you’re making. Don’t make excuses. Take the compliment.”

“Okay,” I nodded sheepishly. “Is that all you wanted to talk about?” I shifted and suddenly felt the shape of Erik’s bracelet pressing into my thigh. I’d forgotten all about it in the chaos. I wanted to bring it up, but I let Fira answer first.

Fira shook their head and sat up. “I wanted to talk about you. Specifically, your origin. I don’t know if you remember what I said earlier, but I was a student under a man named Isidore Travend about fifteen years ago. Before he was exiled for a variety of reasons I won’t get into, I found out he’d been seeing a demon. I confronted him about it in the lab and he’d told me she was something called a ‘terrestrial demon.’

“Professor Travend was obsessed with studying the types of demons, so I know a few things that might interest you. And that might explain why you’re like what you are. Of course, I never took any real stock in that and considered myself lucky to have transferred out from under his tutelage before his expulsion. But now…”

“That explains a lot,” I nodded, then added with a growing smile, “It matches what Isidore told me himself. Good to know he wasn’t lying, I guess.”

Fira’s jaw dropped open. “What? Where? When? He disappeared fifteen years ago!”

“Yeah, he ran off to go live with his demon wife in a secret hidden village.” My smile got wider.

“You’re bullshitting me.”

“Nah,” I replied and proceeded to give a detailed account of Isidore and what I could remember of the conversations he had with me.

“You’re actually not lying,” Fira whispered slowly. “Could you tell me about his wife? The other terrestrial demon?”

“I can, but I don’t know if I should.”

“You want to know if you can trust the Gelles Company.” Fira didn’t phrase it like a question and their eyes met mine, searching.

“That’s part of it,” I met their gaze and nodded, “but I need to know if you or the Gelles Company want to get involved in demon politics.”

“Demon politics?”

“Demon politics.”

“Morning.” Fira collapsed back and heaved a sigh. “Let me sleep and think about it. Do you think she’s a good person, at least?”

“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “Yes and no, I think are the correct answers.”

“Sorry I asked.”

“Apology accepted.”

Fira groaned. “Do you do this to everyone, or is it just a coping mechanism?”

“Yes,” I answered.

Another groan.

“There is one more thing I wanted to talk about—”

“Mor—”

“In the morning,” I finished.

Fira gave a thumbs up.

“Still think I’m evil?” I teased.

“If you are, then I can’t tell.”

“I’ll take it.” I nodded sharply.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Do you mind sleeping in the loft here?” Fira asked. “I’m going to go back to others and tell them the demon in our ranks has a terrible sense of humor.”

“You know, if you lie like that, they might not trust you.” I smiled cheekily.

I received a jet of warm water to the face in response. Fira got up with the oil lantern, walked to the ladder, and headed down. “Goodnight.”

“Watch the broken first rung,” I called to them.

“Yeah, I know,” they replied. “I’ll come get you some time after I manage to wake up. We can talk then and finish up this whole mess later.” They grumbled the rest of the way down the ladder.

I laid down and stared up at the ceiling. Sleep took me not long after.

***

I woke up to a rooster crowing. For a moment, as my mind stirred into wakefulness, I was back in a cramped room at my uncle’s farm. We were there ahead of harvest so my father and I could help out. Kartania and I had to share a room with my cousins. It was cramped, but we always stayed up late playing games by starlight through the window, or by an oil lamp on colder years.

I rubbed my eyes and sat up, the memory fading away, but leaving me warm. I sat up and looked around the dark barn that smelled of old hay and dry dirt. Same as the day before.

I didn’t want to leave before Fira came to get me, so I sat up and took out the bracelet from yesterday. I looked at it with aura sight, my eyes casting a faint blue glow around the loft. There was a faint aura of some kind, but I couldn’t even really make out a color. It was probably drained, and that was probably for the best right now.

I flipped it over in my claws and inspected the band itself. It was a simple brass band that widened above the wrist, where a familiar symbol was etched. A red stone with a different cut than my own was set in the center. Immediately, I was thankful that its shape was entirely different—let alone lacking the green sheen mine had. My own gem was a sort of rounded square, while this one was almost triangular. The cuts probably had names, but I didn’t know them.

At least Fira won’t confuse this symbol for mine, I hoped.

I thought back to the symbol on the knife we’d found. From what I remembered, the cut of the gem looked like it could match the symbol on this bracelet, but I’d need to see both at once to tell for sure.

I put the bracelet back into my pocket and watched the ceiling until the door to the barn opened under me. Just in case, I switched to human form and peeked over the edge to confirm it was Fira. It was, so I shifted back and waved. They glanced up at the motion and, to their credit, hardly flinched.

“I’m glad to see someone’s feeling chipper this morning,” Fira grumbled after reaching the loft. They looked better this morning, but dark circles hung under their eyes and they wore the same clothes—somewhat cleaned—as last night.

“I’m doing my best,” I told them back. “So, are you okay to hear about demon politics?”

“Yes,” Fira nodded. “I’m as ready as three hours of sleep will get me.” They looked me up and down. “Do you need sleep?”

“Yeah, but I don’t need as much. And before you ask, I eat too.” I made myself comfortable and wrapped my tail around my feet. “Isidore’s wife is Lilly, the Sovereign of Lust.”

“Sovereign…” Fira muttered.

“Familiar with the term? Did Isidore explain it?”

Fira leaned forward. “I’ve heard it before, but Professor Travend primarily talked about his theories regarding demonic souls. I don’t know if it was from him, or somewhere else.”

“Do you want an explanation of the term?”

“Yes.”

“Great! Sovereign demons are basically the leaders for their aspect, almost always by virtue of being the strongest or the best at it. There’s usually six of them at any given time.” I held up six clawed fingers.

“So they’re the strongest demons?”

I nodded. “They also disagree and plot or fight against each other frequently.”

Fira put a hand to her chin. “And you’ve met the Sovereign of Lust, then?”

“Yeah, I did.”

Their eyes narrowed. “Is Isidore under her thrall?”

I shook my head. “I’m almost certain he isn’t. She’s a bit like I am, in that we’re both terrestrial demons—at least that’s what I’ve been told and I think it makes sense.”

“Terrestrial demons are demons that don’t come from hell, right?”

I gave a so-so gesture. “Sorta. I don’t get the finer details, but I know I haven’t been to hell.”

“Sure,” Fira replied, then their eyes met mine. “Why were you meeting with the Sovereign of Lust?”

“She saved Seyari and me from wandering around in a desert without enough water.” I traced a claw in circles into the wood under me. “But she wanted to ally with me as well.”

“Ally? Do you mean…”

“Wrath,” I replied. “I’m the Sovereign of Wrath.”

“Right,” Fira sighed. “Proof?”

I bristled at the dismissal, but calmed myself before I set something on fire. I opened the top of my shirt. “Here,” I said, leaning forward. “This is my symbol and my gem. You might’ve seen variations of the symbol before, but I doubt you’ve ever seen one with this gem.” I tapped my crimson gem with a claw, its odd green sheen visible even in the dim light.

Fira hesitated a moment, then looked across at my chest. Their eyes pointedly did not wander lower. “Let me guess: you’re telling me this because it’s important to know if you continue to associate with us, and it ‘puts me at risk’ to know.”

I leaned back and covered my symbol again. “Pretty much, yeah.”

“Great. Anything else?”

“Yeah.” I fished out the bracelet I took from Erik, handing it to Fira. “Erik had this on his wrist. This is the symbol of another Sovereign. Obviously, I don’t think it’s Lust, and I doubt it’s—and hope it isn’t—Apathy. I think it’s probably demonically enchanted, but also spent.”

Fira’s eyes glowed in the dim of the barn. “I remember seeing this, but figured it was lost somewhere. Glad I don’t have to search for it. As for whether it’s a demonic artifact? Yeah, it is.” They held it gingerly. “I can see the gem is different from yours. I take it you’ll be in conflict with whatever Sovereign this is soon?”

“I think so, yes,” I nodded. I didn’t share the bit about the knife yet. I’d shared more than enough for now.

“And we could be caught up in it.”

I nodded.

Fira hissed out their breath. “Whether we knew or not, we’d be caught up in it. Damn.”

Both of us were quiet for a long while. I tried not to fidget nervously, but my tail betrayed me. I ended up holding the tip in one of my hands just to get it to stop twitching.

Eventually, I broke the silence. “So…”

Fira steepled their hands in front of their face. “I’m still thinking about it. I’ll need to talk to Rodrik, but for now we can at least try to wrap this job up and get back to Lockmoth. Can I ask you a few questions about Erik?”

“Sure,” I replied carefully.

“Do you think he is under demonic influence?”

“A little, but I think it’s more complicated than that…” I explained what Erik had told me about finding the bracelet and my own forming theory that he was targeted somehow.

In the end Fira mostly agreed with me. “We’ve also gotten him to admit to the murders, but he’s claimed relentlessly that it was your influence that did it and you set the entire thing up.”

That little…I couldn’t stop a small flame from hissing out of my mouth. “I can assure you he’s full of shit,” I rumbled. “Like I said, he wanted me to give him power, I used it to tease more information out of him, and he’s probably not happy about that.”

“I figured. He’s contradicted himself so many times that even the people in the company who still think you’re up to something think he’s lying. Question is what to do with him. His family’s distraught—didn’t think he could do something like this. Then again, they almost never do.”

“I’m not sure,” I admitted with a frown.

“That’s fine. It’s not your business to be sure. I assume either we’ll kill him, or we’ll lock him up somewhere where he’ll be killed later.”

I frowned, but nodded, thinking of how happy he seemed to have murdered those people. “Probably for the best.”

“Glad to see you also hate it. I’d say it gets easier, but it never does. Oh, sure, the in-the-moment fighting and killing is something you can get desensitized to— Rodrik’s more experienced in that area having fought for Ordia during the Edathan Civil War and all—but a slow decision like this should always weigh heavy. I feel strange telling the Sovereign of Wrath this, but remember that. “

I shrugged all four shoulders. “Rodrik fought against Edath in the civil war?”

“He did…” Fira eyed me questioningly.

“I’m from there. That’s all. Haven’t been there since before the war though.”

Fira nodded. “Hmm, well I don’t think he holds a grudge or anything. From what I gather he considers the whole thing a terrible waste of life, as I’m sure many people do.”

I nodded solemnly.

“Are you ready to head back to Lockmoth?”

I looked down at my ruined clothes. “Could I get a change from Drin or someone?”

Fira stood up and nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”