The blood trial is a recent technology, and something of a marvel. The property of the blood powder is quite remarkable, and was discovered by sheer accident when an assistant’s hand was cut on a broken jar of the material. It seems to crystalize in the most unique and largest patterns when exposed to the blood of talking races. Because of this, be wary of allowing it to touch any open wounds on your body. The material will crystallize within the veins of your body.

Both of them exited the castle with only minor attention from the staff. The sun had risen high into the sky by then, and the clouds slowly gathered for a heavy rain. Foot traffic had grown to the peak once more, meaning each road had at least one person moving in both directions. All through the massive network of buildings, the chatter of the market place could be heard.

Gwindon and Lilith kept to the back roads to avoid much of the crowd. In the end, Lilith had to be the one to guide them most of the time. She greeted a man on their way to Cherno’s shop and sent him back to her followers with a little message about their current situation. Once he succuried off, she waved for Gwindon to follow again.

“Come on, it can’t be that far off now. We’re towards where the more... aromatic businesses hang out.”

Once they actually entered the district, the word aromatic might have been too weak for it. They had nothing to cover their noses with, so opted instead to just hurry through the area like most others. In short notice, they found Cherno’s shop at the very end of the area. Gwindon sniffed the air and found his shop was far more bland smelling than the shops surrounding it.

They pushed the door open and found him resting at his table with a cup of tea in hand, turning his attention towards them with a smile. “Well, you certainly got back faster than I had expected.”

“Do you ever have customers in here? It seems like you’re the only one who hangs out in this shop.”

“I’m more of an on-demand type of service. Blood trials and home delivered remedies, that sort of thing. Considering I don’t see our king with you, can I presume I’m supposed to be delivering one right now?”

Lilith looked down and sighed. “Yes, but... there was a complication. Koshchei started accusing us of being traitors, so we had to distract him. I told him that you had wanted to perform a test on Icara, not him. I’m sorry, but we need to come up with a plan on how to get him to do one as well now.”

Cherno took a drink of his tea before setting the cup back down. He stood up and went into a back room, moving some things around in silence before he returned with a strange looking apparatus. There was a thin needle suspended over a length of parchment on the main bulk of it. On either side of it was a vial of red powder with a cap attached to a hinge. He placed it down onto the table and took a small brush, cleaning off the parchment and needle.

“That might not actually be necessary, in all honesty. His results should be tied to Icara’s, at least in terms of unusual quality.”

“When we brought it up, he actually made a note to mention his results were perfectly normal. Did you lie to him, or did he lie to us?” Gwindon asked, approaching the device carefully.

“Just randomly mentioned it, huh? Must be something to try and make you doubt me or this situation in general. He’s rather good at it as well, so you two should be careful.” Cherno replied. “On that topic, however, how has Icara been faring? I can only imagine he’s got her strapped up in some cell.”

“Actually... he said he removed some chains shortly before we arrived. Icara was acting completely different than when we had both met her. She seemed sick and weak, as well as acting completely meek and unresponsive.”

Cherno nodded his head a few times and moved to the doorway, gesturing for Gwindon to lift the device. “Well that’s all we’ll need to confirm some things going on between the two of them. I’d carry it myself, but it’s actually rather cumbersome.”

“Wait, before we head out, there’s a reason that we’re specifically here to begin with. This device can both tell if someone is royal blooded as well as if they’ve made a pact with a demon, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s actually nothing very complicated, it just detects abnormal amounts of aether material within your blood. Why?”

Gwindon put a hand on the device, more of an ornate casing for the needle and vials now that he looked at it carefully. He turned back to Lilith and she moved closer to it as well, though her arms folded along the way. She stared at the needle itself while Gwindon looked to Cherno.

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“We would like you to test us first. Though I didn’t say it properly when we first met, there’s a chance me and Lilith... could have made a contract with a demon. It wasn’t voluntary, our king forced it on the knights of our kingdom while we slept, and it backfired in a horrible manner. I’ve lived in doubt with myself for ages, and I want to know for sure if I really am who I think that I am.”

Cherno moved back to him with a cocked eyebrow. “Really? Neither of you seem like you’ve got the signs of it. One can never be too sure of anything, of course. It’ll be easy to test the both of you right now, if you’d like. Before I do though, would you mind telling me what you’ll do if you find out you do show signs of it still?”

“I’m not entirely sure. Even if I feel fine as I am, if I’ve become something part demon, can I really say my desire to stay alive past that information is something I would say on my own?” He looked to Lilith. “But... I just have to know, for both of us. Even if it doesn’t change anything in our actual lives, I want to know for sure.”

Lilith took Gwindon’s hand in both of hers and squeezed it tight, giving him a kind smile. He couldn’t manage to return the gesture, but he gripped onto her fingers tight. Cherno took the unoccupied hand and brought it down to the instrument, suddenly pricking his finger on the long needle before pressing it down on the parchment below.

After holding the finger there for a few seconds, he pulled the paper away and revealed it was actually drawn from a roll buried within the instrument. He tore off a portion of the parchment and wrapped it around the finger Gwindon had pricked like a bandage. After that, he placed the finger on top of the device and opened one of the vials. He took a pinch off of the top and slowly scattered it across the bloodstain.

They watched carefully for some change to occur, but nothing seemed to change from the small pile accumulating on top of the wound. They waited with bated breath until Cherno brushed some of the power off the wrapping and into a small hole in the device, using a copy of the one he had cleaned the needle with. On top of the bandage, stuck to the spot of blood, was a small patch of solid crystal the color of blood. Cherno peeled it off of the bandage carefully and held it up for both of them to see.

“This is what happens when you expose this material to blood. Of course the effect isn’t nearly as strong in less intelligent creatures or anything. We test this sample for a few things and that should let us know if you’re still mixed with a demon.”

“Well then how can you tell the difference between royal blood and normal blood? Is there some other metric being measured?” Lilith asked.

Cherno held a finger to his lips and winked. “Trade secret, I’m afraid. I’d be inclined to tell you that, but it’s not exactly pertinent to this discussion. I can set that aside for now, if you’d like to go, Lilith.”

She took her hands off of Gwindon’s and rubbed them both together, staring at the needle once more. Closing her eyes tight, she let one hand down for him to take and Cherno pressed the ring finger into the needle. He repeated the same motions as last time and resulted in a similar disc to Gwindon’s. Cherno held the both up for each other before moving into a back room to test them properly.

Lilith suddenly moved to Gwindon and embraced him tightly. She buried her face in his shoulder for a few seconds until he pat her back in return. They both held each other as cherno continued testing, Lilith eventually pulling away again and folding her arms under her chest.

“I never really got to say what I’d do when I found out, but... I don’t think I’ll be doing anything different either. Even if we drifted apart, I want to think that all the stuff just bled out of our system. I’m fine with you having hated me for all those years because I just did something stupid. I really deserved it.” She said.

“What are you talking about? I never hated you, Lilith. Even when you attacked me, I never thought to myself that I stopped loving you. The only question was whether or not you were actually who you said you were, or even if I was who I thought I was. You deserve Gwindon, not some twisted mockery of him, and I...”

She moved forward in his hesitation and slugged him in the shoulder. Even though she smiled, he could see tears brimming in her eyes.

“You’ll take whatever Lilith you can get. I’m going to have to work with whatever you are, so you’re going to settle for me as well. Got it?” She told him.

Gwindon genuinely smiled at her for the first time in ages. He took a step forward this time and squeezed her hand with his own. Neither of them spoke for the rest of the time it took for Cherno to get the results. When he came back, the discs were gone, and the only sign he had worked at all were a pair of crimson-stained gloves he took off.

“Honestly the both of you should have expected a result like this, but I can only find minimal amounts of the material inside your blood. You seem perfectly normal for both tests, just in case you were curious about possibly being royalty as well.” He said with a grin.

“Seem normal?” Gwindon asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Well if I had taken your sample there directly, we’d know for sure whether or not you had been affected. The way a hybridization works is that the original demon feeds energy into the host over time, which the human then supplies back to the demon at the same rate. Sorry, it’s a bit complicated and we don’t have absolute facts on any of this. What we do know though, is that the demon or human dying results in the other becoming weaker over time until they return to their original strength.”

“You mean that even with this test, we’ll never really know for sure if either of us are the real thing? Not just some mentally similar copy?”

Cherno moved forward and put a hand on Gwindon’s shoulder. “None of us are really the same person we were years ago. What matters is who we are now. All I can tell you is that you’re not possessed or anything of the sort right now.”

He looked down at the floor in silence, confusion raged within him. There was no satisfaction in the answer he got, and he knew now that there never would be. His own thoughts felt foreign to him. Before despair could take control of him, a slap struck across his face. Lilith glared at him as he rubbed the cheek and she pointed to the blood trial device.

“I can see that look in your eyes, Gwindon. You’re not going to let this little bit of doubt take over right now, not when we’re supposed to be doing something. Even if you have to settle for me, not knowing if I was someone else a bunch of years ago, you’re going to do it!”

Gwindon stepped forward and put a hand on her cheek. “Lilith... I’d never call it settling with you. I’m the one that’s made mistakes, so you’ve got no reason to think you deserve any of it.”

“Yeah... that’s why I slapped you, idiot. Stop messing around and let’s get going already!”

Cherno shook his head at the simple resolution to such a complex issue. He knew that neither wanted to face the intricacies of the issue, probably to protect the feeling of having the other with them. Gwindon lifted the instrument and they made their way back to the castle. As they walked, Lilith made sure to hold Gwindon’s free hand along the way.