In the soft morning light Simesh stood over the three Kinter corpses that had been Umlek and his henchmen. Tiko the Magistrate, who also pulled double duty as their colony physician, was not pleased.

The gold tipped horns of the Magistrate glinted as he bent down to get a closer look. He did not seem particularly shocked however, or appalled. If anything he seemed annoyed. "All of this death… over water." Tiko muttered. This was not the reaction Simesh was expecting. But then again, the Magistrate was probably more used to these things than he was.

Simesh looked over to the wavering and shimmering hallucination that was the ghost of his grandfather Hulik. The dreamfruit he had eaten hours prior was potent enough that its effects still lingered. "This will be interesting." The specter said in a voice only Simesh could hear.

Tiko sighed. "His widows claim you slew him to steal his water. That you came out in the middle of the night, killed two of his men, then called him Demon tainted and murdered him."

"No. I was out enjoying the cool evening air when I heard something near the fence that separates our homesteads." Simesh neglected to mention that he had been hallucinating on Dreamfruit at the time and communing with his long dead grandfather. "Umlek's men tossed a lit torch into my fields, no doubt intending to burn us off of our land and steal out water."

"Your water?" The Magistrate asked incredulously. His face was creased with doubt. "I thought your well had run dry generations ago."

Rather than answer, Simesh picked up a rock from the ground and threw it as hard as he could at Umlek's water tower. The metal rang hollow like a gong. The Magistrate furrowed his brow further.

Hulik clicked his teeth together in delight. "All hat and no cattle." He said. The phrase was no doubt Demonic in origin, but it got the point across.

"When Umlek broke our agreement I brought in a surveyor to help me dig a new well. I don't know if he approached the water merchant or the merchant came to him first, but he claimed that there was no water. Yet when I looked over the original survey from when the homestead was founded it showed a vast aquifer, one which barely touched Umlek's land." He pulled out a data pad and overlaid the two maps.

His ancestors had archived the original surveys either for posterity or simply because Kinter hated to throw away anything that might later prove useful. But Simesh was thankful either way, for the two maps looked nothing alike. Not even the landmarks were similar. "I suspect the surveyor was working with the water merchant, telling the unsuspecting Kinter that their land was dry. Which would force them to purchase their water from Umlek. Tell me, was he also attempting to purchase other nearby homesteads?"

The way Tiko started swearing was confirmation enough. "That demon tainted son of a dust farmer's illegitimate second child." He looked from the corpses to the water tower. "But where was the water coming from?"

Hulik's answer was confusing. "Buy low, sell high." He said, pointing to the water trucks. The figure flickered and disappeared without elaborating, leaving Simesh to figure the rest out for himself.

"Come with me." Simesh walked over to the nearest six wheeled hauler. In typical Kinter fashion it was unlocked and the keys were inside. He turned to the Magistrate. "I am only a simple homesteader, but I heard someone say 'buy low, sell high' I was wondering if you knew what it meant."

"Where did you hear that?" Asked Tiko cautiously, rubbing his horns. He was looking at the homesteader with apprehension, sizing him up.

Simesh knew that he must tread carefully now. What he said next would either save or damn him. "My grandfather Hulik the sage warned me of merchants that would do that, but he didn't elaborate."

Relief flooded over the Magistrate. "Better that you not know, or the knowledge might taint you or tempt you. The practice is not evil in and of itself, but when paired with deception…" He looked over the hauler. "Yes. I do belive that would explain what was going on here. I won't taint you with the details, but let us say that Umlek was not selling his own water."

Simesh furrowed his brow. Could the merchant have been buying water elsewhere and selling it at a profit? The haulers looked worn, like they had been driving long distances over rough terrain. Perhaps he had been going to a neighboring colony?

"So what do we do now?" Simesh asked. "Three Kinter are dead."

The Magistrate walked over to the corpse of Umlek the water merchant and spit. "I see no Kinter here, only Demons." He looked up at the water tower. "Dig four graves at the base of the tower, I'll be back shortly with the surveyor."

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Simesh felt something cold in his rumen. "Surely… only three will be necessary."

"Perhaps. Perhaps not." The Magistrate said. "Better to be prepared for the worst but hope for the best." Then he did something Simesh couldn't quite explain. He bared his teeth in a predator's threat display. The expression was grotesque and disturbing, not something he had ever seen another Kinter do.

It didn't seem like Tiko was attempting to intimidate him or threaten him in any way. So why was he baring his teeth?

"I do not know of these things so I will respect your judgement." Simesh bowed his head to hide his confusion. What was going on? He had thought this nightmare would be over when he revealed Umlek's schemes… but now he was realizing that perhaps it had not been Umlek's scheme to begin with.

The Magistrate had been a little too quick to take his word… and while Tiko had cursed when certain fact were revealed Simesh remembered how he hasn't seemed surprised when he saw the bodies. He had been annoyed, like Simesh would have been if a hole he was digging collapsed or a plant in the garden developed leaf mold. But he hadn't seemed surprised.

It was the annoyance of something not going to plan, something that would require work to fix. Something that would require an extra grave.

He watched as Tiko departed in his medical van. The Surveyor lived in town, it wouldn't be long before Tiko returned.

This was all wrong. Putting graves near a water source or infrastructure was forbidden. And demon tainted or not, it was wrong to bury Kinter without their family present to say goodbye.

He remembered the flash of gold in Umlek's mouth and the golden tips of Tiko's horns. Was the gold significant? Did those adornments mean the wearer was tainted? Or did tainted Kinter merely covet gold?

Hulik flickered back into existence, the air around him rippling. "It seems you've landed yourself in quite a predicament. What will you do?"

"I'll go ask the Demon. They're wise creatures after all." Simesh knew that if he used the cargo hauler he could probably get to the Demon homestead before Tiko returned. After that whatever happened, happened. But he needed to get Tiko and the surveyor away from his family.

He turned away and headed towards the cargo hauler. Hulik reappeared in front of him, trying to stop him from leaving. "That won't be necessary." He said.

Simesh tried to walk through the specter and found himself colliding with something solid. He recoiled, leaping backwards away from Hulik, who somehow had become corporeal.

The Sage's eyes burned golden yellow. "As I was saying, that won't be necessary. I'm already here."

Simesh continued to scramble backwards. "Demon!" He managed to shout, closing his eyes to avoid contamination. He didn't know if the tales were true, but he wasn't going to risk madness by looking at a Demon.

But even though he closed his eyes he could still see the Demon that wore Hulik's form. It might have even been clearer than before now that it didn't have to bother bewitching his eyes and could project the visions directly into his mind.

The rest of the world fell away leaving the demon standing in darkness. It looked him over, unimpressed. Simesh stopped trying to run away and considered his situation.

A being that could enter his mind was impossible to escape. Therefore, why run from it? What was he running from anyway? He was already corrupted, he had been for his entire life.

Simesh's heart was pounding as he opened his eyes. The Demon vanished for a moment before reappearing. "Interesting." He said, processing this new information. "So there are two different ways you can manifest and you switch between them. I'm guessing neither is the real you."

"Correct." The Demon clapped its hands. "I had my doubts about you, but I believe I may have chosen correctly after all. It's nice to be right once in a while."

"What do you want?" Simesh asked, inspecting the Demon as he walked around it. The head turned to follow him but the body stayed still. It was a perfect replica of his grandfather Hulik, everything except for those burning eyes.

"Shouldn't you be asking how to save yourself from Tiko?" The head had twisted a full 180 degrees now and was making no signs of stopping.

"I think I've got bigger problems." Simesh continued walking until the Demon's head was looking forward once again. "Why are you here, and what do you want?"

"Here with you? Right now?" The Demon asked.

"No. Here on this planet. Why are the Demons here and what do you want?" The official explanation that the Demons had come to protect the Kinter had never sat well with him. After all, what could a few Demons do against something like an Engressia hive fleet? There had to be something else going on here.

The creature looked him over as Tiko had, sizing him up. "I suppose it varies from Demon to Demon. But what I want is a piece of land to farm, a good partner to raise children with, and the occasional beer to drink on the porch while I look out over my homestead."

Demons always had their houses on a hill, Simesh remembered. You could see an awful lot of the valley from a place like that. "Your homestead is a lot larger than most think, isn't it?"

The Demon nodded. "Yes. That would be accurate." He looked back towards the road, in the distance something moving fast was kicking up dust. "Only time for one more question before the Magistrate returns. Make it count."

There were many questions Simesh wanted to ask. He wanted to ask if the Kinter were livestock, but that didn't feel right because they had contact with the larger Kinter empire and were free to leave if they wanted to.

The Demon had said his homestead was big, which implied that he was farming something. But what was it? What would a Demon be interested in? Simesh remembered the flashes of gold on Tiko's horns and Umlek's teeth. That was it, wasn't it? That was why the Demons were really here.

He voiced his theory and the Demon confirmed it before flickering and disappearing. Simesh looked down the road towards the medical van fast approaching. His mind was spinning, he knew what he had to do but there had already been so much death. Was he strong enough to do what needed to be done without fear or rage filling him? Could he kill in cold blood? Would there be anything left of him if he did?

The Demon reappeared next to him holding a shovel. Its eyes no longer blazing gold. "Perhaps let me do the talking."

Unannounced another Demon appeared at Simesh's other side bracketing him in. "No, let me do the talking." It said, reaching for the shovel.