Taking breakfast in the throne room of the Ivory Palace, the four of us ate in relative silence except for brief lines of questioning. Only a handful of guards had joined us, and they had been delegated to the door at the far end of the room, where they were well out of earshot. The Witch-Queen evidently did not want them in on the conversation, which already made me wary of her intentions. I knew Alverd and even Alicia were genuinely worried about me, but I still didn’t know where Sheena’s head was at.

I spent the next morning answering the various questions my companions had about my escapades in the Forest of Familiars. I straight up lied about nearly all of them.

Why am I lying? Makes no sense not to tell the others what happened. Yet I felt some kind of compulsion to do so. Somehow it seemed like the better option. Besides, would they even believe me? That I had been involved with some mage girl who had given me a staff out of the blue and then got taken by a demon? A mage girl who shouldn’t even have been there in the first place?

Against my better judgment I kept everything about Deotra to myself. Most of the details were fuzzy anyway, much like how one has trouble remembering a dream shortly after waking. If Sheena thinks I have a demon influencing me, she might find some nice cell for me to languish in, too. And that’s if I’m lucky and she doesn’t decide to just have me killed.

So I sat there and spun some ridiculous lie about how I had found the staff in a clearing, a thing of beautiful, hand-carved mahogany and polished brass and a ruby set in its length, how a familiar had ambushed me and broken my staff, and that I had lost consciousness and ended up at the entrance to the Forest with the group trying to wake me up. Even as the words rolled off my tongue, they made perfect sense to me. It was as though the words weren’t coming out of my mouth, but rather someone else’s. Still, I couldn’t help but feel a little sick in the pit of my stomach. Deotra’s words about liars pulled at my heart even as I spun my little web.

was unmistakably striking, Sheena was the one to call me on this line of questioning. She folded her arms and started grilling me.

“You say you found this staff, Sir Kuro?” She intoned inquisitively. She looked at me as if she were doubting my sincerity. “In the middle of a clearing?” Her emerald eyes seemed to pierce deep into my own as she stared at me. I stammered for a moment. But then I remembered what I was doing and swallowed. When I finished, I gathered up my courage and lied again.

“Yes. It was just lying in a clearing, near a stump. I was so entranced by its beauty and the oddity of a staff being left out in the open that I didn’t sense the familiar until it was practically on top of me. It attacked me in the form of a dragon, and in the course of my defense, my old staff shattered. I lost control of my spell because of that, and blacked out after casting it.” I made sure to add just enough plausibility to my story to make it seem palatable, while throwing in enough self-degradation in order to make it believable to Alverd and Alicia. It looked to be working, too.

Sheena was not so easily deterred, however. She tried several times to touch the staff, which I’d left on the table for examination. Each time, it rebuffed her with electric shocks. Every time she did so, however, she simply muttered to herself under her breath, scratching her chin in reflection. I didn’t know if I should’ve been worried or scared but they came in equal measure. Fortunately she gave up after a short time and decided it wasn’t worth it.

Alverd fixed me with his gaze. “How did you end up back at the entrance to the Forest? We heard a loud roar, and thought you might be in trouble. When we entered, there was some barrier in place preventing us from getting too far in. Then suddenly, the barrier disappeared. Do you know anything about that?”

That’s news to me, I thought. The roar was probably the dragon-familiar attacking Deotra and I, but this barrier business wasn’t something I knew about. I suspected that it had been the demon’s handiwork. It made sense; it remained functional just long enough for Deotra to talk to me, prevent others from interfering, and then apparently teleported me back to the Forest entrance, where my companions quickly found me. For once, I told the truth. “I didn’t even know about any barrier. I never saw or felt anything remotely resembling such.

Puzzle pieces fell quickly into place even as I intentionally tried to jumble them up.

Alicia grilled me about the dirt and grass stains on my robes. “You looked like something had thrown you around. Was that the familiar?” I nodded.

“Yes. You know how I don’t like fighting things in close quarters. Damn thing chased me all over the place. But I managed to defeat it in the end.” Having made her contribution to the interrogation, Alicia then excused herself to pile her plate full of food.

Alverd asked about the roar. “So the familiar, in the form of a dragon, made that noise?” Again, I nodded.

“I was just as surprised as you. I wasn’t expecting it to assume a form like that, much less attack me in the same manner as a dragon.”

He crossed his arms. “Well I’m glad you’re unharmed. Not that I’m surprised. You’re a quick thinker, Kuro. That’s probably why Lady Sheena thought you’d be fine on your own.”

I stifled a gag by putting a fresh blueberry muffin in my mouth. Not sure what exactly Sheena thinks of me, but I doubt it’s much. Or at all, for that matter.

Eventually they stopped asking me questions. I think by the end of it, they were all thinking the same thing. I could see it in their eyes. They didn’t even make much of an effort to hide it from me. I think that was what got to me the most. I looked into their eyes and saw something familiar, something that I had come to expect from nearly everyone.

Pity.

They probably think I lost my nerve and fled from the familiars in the Forest. They probably believed the bit about the staff, in lieu of a better explanation, but they were all thinking that I had taken the coward’s way and run from the familiars. By chance, I had broken my staff, knocked myself out and ended up back where I started.

In a way, they were right. I was a coward. I’d allowed an innocent girl to be snatched away by a demon. You let her down. She may have said to leave her behind, but it was you and you alone who decided to heed her words. The muffin went sour in my mouth as the image of Deotra’s pained expression surfaced in my mind. The demon compelled her to do it. And only I can save her from it.

Growing up, my mentor Professor Farnus, had counseled all of the mage recruits in the basic dangers of dealing with demons and other magical threats. They were quite silver-tongued, capable of conning young and even more seasoned mages into contracts. They offered what the mage wanted most, and in return, they demanded obedience or even the life force of the mage in question.

I wasn’t sure what the demon had offered Deotra. Some of the things she had said made no sense. But whatever she had wanted, the demon had considered their bargain fulfilled, and had dragged her into that cave to no doubt feed off her life force… and if left to its own devices, she could easily be dead within a few days.

Hell. She could even be dead right this moment as far as I knew.

There’s also the very real possibility that it was all some kind of farce. The demon was real enough, there was no way to fake that dread I felt in its presence. But Deotra, her contract, her fear? That’s not difficult, and right up the alley of a demon.

Infinitely diabolical, demons were masters of deception. There was no length they weren’t willing to go to in order to corrupt an innocent soul. Farnus warned us that dragons, people, and recklessness were all obvious threats, but demons topped them all due to their capacity to reason and their centuries of experience in preying on the hearts of mankind.

I wasn’t one to put faith in blind optimism, but something in me wanted to believe that she was still alright, and that she wasn’t to blame for any of this. I knew there was something I could do. I’ve decided. I’m going to rescue her. But to do that…

Sheena’s voice interrupted my musings. “I’m so sorry, Sir Kuro. Perhaps this would be easier if you knew more magic than simple elemancy. If you would like, I could teach you a few other spells. Then maybe you could come back here and try again?” My ears perked up at that. When I looked at her, I could see no pity in her eyes anymore. She was genuinely offering to help me.

Something clicked in my head. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. She was a powerful mage, multi-talented, and well-versed in the use of her magic. If I could learn even a few things from her, I might have the strength needed to storm the demon’s cave and rescue Deotra.

I grasped Sheena’s hands in my own, not even realizing what I was doing. “Would you? I would definitely appreciate it!”

She didn’t seem to mind though. She smiled at me gently. “Of course. I’ll have the entire thing set up in an hour. We’ll have so much fun!” She giggled to herself. “Sir Alverd, if you would be so kind, I’d like you to be there as well. Ohhhh, I can’t wait!” She pulled her hands free of mine, cupping her head with them like a young schoolgirl.

I paused. “Wait, why does Alverd need to come?” I looked at my friend, and he shrugged.

“Indeed. Why would my presence be required at a mage’s training session?” Sheena waved her hand. “Well, it would be better to have a live target, and with your shield, you’d be in little danger. I want to see this new staff in action, and if it performs as I suspect it will, Sir Kuro will need a far more effective target than straw dummies.” Before either of us could say anything, she had scurried off on her own.

Having no reason to just stand around, Alverd and I returned to our room for the time being. I picked the strange staff up again, and the ruby flashed quietly. I took a small cloth from my pocket and began polishing the gem. It seemed to pulse, like a heartbeat, which only served to freak me out even more. Where did Deotra get this thing? And why does it feel like it just… belongs in my hand? Gods, I have so many questions for her.

As promised, a servant came to fetch Alverd and I an hour later. The servant led us to the Palace’s east common garden, which Sheena had turned into a kind of training ground. Stationary targets were placed helter-skelter, and the occasional straw scarecrow had been planted in the ground. Someone had even gone so far as to paint comically absurd expressions on the scarecrows’ faces complete with wagging tongues and googly eyes. I sincerely hope she didn’t scavenge these things from a youngling training yard. That would make me feel kind of bad, and more than a bit stupid.

I also felt a pang of guilt, too. My thoughts meandered back to Deotra. Sweet, kind Deotra. My entire mind was a total mess, trying to make sense of what she had said and the implications of it all. She’d been waiting for me? What does that even mean? The not-knowing is killing me. More than anything, the familiar anxiety of having no clue what was going on would eat away at me until I got the answers I craved.

I shook my head, scattering those thoughts to the wind. You can get those answers when you save her, and you can’t do that if you blow yourself up five seconds out the gate. Like Farnus once said, the only thing you get when you rush is closer to your own grave. For now, I planned to take full advantage of this opportunity. Sheena directed me to stand about twenty feet away from one of the targets and conjure a basic fireball.

It started the way it always did. I reached inside, to the heat generated within my own body, and when I pulled my left hand away from my chest, a fireball ignited in my hand. But this time it was different. When I had wielded Farnus’ staff, it felt as though I was yanking a piece of my chest out every time I did it. This time, with the new staff, the process was smooth, effortless, and I barely noticed that I had expended any energy in fueling the fireball with my own essence. I then proceeded to throw the fireball at the nearest straw dummy. It exploded with far more force than any fireball I had ever conjured in my entire life, incinerating it entirely.

What in the name of the gods? I had no idea why it worked so well. But there it was, all the same. I couldn’t deny the rush I seemed to experience as the power had flowed out of me and into my spell. Just to feel it again, I yanked the bioelectric pulses in my body out and conjured a lightning bolt. There was a tingling sensation instead of the familiar burning as the magic warped into being in my hand, arcing between my fingertips. Just by pointing at the next dummy, the lightning jumped to it faster than I could blink, burning a hole straight through its painted face. I laughed maniacally.

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Sheena nodded in approval. “Good. You seem to have the basics down. You have good form, plenty of practice… perhaps the only thing holding you back was your old staff after all.” I couldn’t help but feel pride in her praise. Hearing someone as accomplished and powerful as her compliment me made me feel pretty good about myself. Focus, pal. There’s only one pretty girl you need to think about and it ain’t this one. That ship has sailed. I couldn’t help but feel a bit smug about that last thought, petty as it was.

“Milady, is there any quick way to increase my power? Simple things that I can learn in just an hour or so? If I’m to help keep you safe, then I need to learn to control my magic or sharpen my senses. And just in case, is there any advice you could offer in regards to fighting demons?” I realized too late that letting that last bit slip might have been tipping my hand a bit too much, but there was no taking it back now.

Sheena cocked her head to the side, a gesture that reminded me of Deotra for a fraction of a second. “Demons? Why would you ask that? That’s awfully specific…” I quickly spit out a reply. “Well, to be honest… what jumped me in the Forest of Familiars? I think it may have been a demon. It didn’t feel like a familiar. It was more interested in eating me than testing my character. I know I have to go back into the Forest eventually… if you have any insight, I would gladly take it…”

The redheaded witch seemed to consider my words carefully. I got the feeling she wasn’t fully swayed by my lie, but if she had any reservations, she kept them to herself, because she gave me a straight answer. “Demons are not something one just stands their ground against. I have a few tomes you could borrow on the subject, but from what I can tell you from personal experience, if you had indeed come across a demon in the Forest, you probably wouldn’t be standing here talking to me right now.”

Alverd, who up until this point had been polishing his brand new shield, spoke up. “Are demons really so powerful? I wouldn’t know, since Kuro here is quite adamant about taking jobs that steer us away from crossing paths with them.”

She gave him a nod. “They’re incredibly devious and cunning. More often than not, they are interested in snaring prey by offering deals rather than outright aggression. They can offer whatever your heart desires most…and in return they drain the life from those they prey upon.”

She took her bladed staff and drew a circle in the air, which immediately separated into seven different circles. “According to magical study, there are seven circles of Hell. Each circle is an ever-increasing gauntlet of insanity and depravity, each filled to the brim with horrors we don’t have words for.” The circles arrayed themselves in a column, with the one at the bottom glowing a terrible red.

“Supposedly, the final circle is a portal to other realms. Some are benign, others are doorways to cosmic nightmares beyond imagining. The religious texts written in the wake of the War of the Five Kings claim that the Imbalancer of Scales was drawn through the Seventh Circle by the King of Fire, the sorceress who was blamed for instigating much of the War to begin with. The lesser creatures that followed the Imbalancer are the demons we know today, who guard the circles as they await a chance to call their dark master back through the Seventh Circle once more.”

The magical glyphs Sheena had conjured swirled in the air, orbiting each other with no discernible pattern. “Demons are only able to manifest through physical vessels in this plane of existence. These vessels can be killed like any other mortal form. Sadly, a demon deprived of its mortal vessel is sent back to Hell, rather than destroyed. It takes a special ritual or equipment to ensure a demon’s permanent destruction.”

Alverd spoke up at that point. “So, how do mere mortals deal with demons?” Sheena smiled.

“While they utilize a mortal vessel, a demon is subject to the laws of our world. Things like gravity, for example. Whatever limitations the mortal vessel has, the demon must abide by, such as the lack of lungs meaning the vessel cannot breathe underwater. Like familiars, demons must feed off immense amounts of magic to sustain themselves without a vessel, so there is always the danger of running into one where familiars dwell. Think of them as a kind of competitor species.”

I chimed in. “So the quickest way to defeat a demon would be to incapacitate the vessel?” Sheena nodded. “Yes. Even nonlethal wounds take their toll. Demons are like wildfires. The more power they expend, the more they have to feed off their host, and once the host passes out from exhaustion, the demon is forced into dormancy. Burn hot, burn fast. Once the demon is rendered powerless, it’s a simple matter to exorcize it from the body with the proper ritual.”

Hearing this, I felt heartened. This was good stuff. More importantly, it’s knowledge I can put to practical use. I had to be careful though. If I showed too much enthusiasm, Sheena would ask more questions, and that was the last thing I needed.

Then Sheena muttered something under her breath. “There’s one other way to combat demons, but it’s risky. Exceedingly so. Something that even our Magister Lord of Demon Summoning, Lord Mattigen, had to pay a heavy price to discover.”

The circles in the air began to merge together, forming a script that I could not read. Then it vanished, like mist on a sunny day. Sheena continued, her voice growing dark. “If you speak a demon’s true name, you can control it. By binding a demon with the use of its true name, you can force it to do whatever you want, without any immediate repercussions. But once you do that, you are marked. A demon will remember your face, your voice, your very life essence… and demons hold grudges. Once that demon is no longer bound, it will do everything in its power to kill you.”

I wasn’t surprised to learn that demons were spiteful creatures. But if it comes down to it, could I really have the courage to compel the demon to spare Deotra in exchange for having to look over my shoulder for the rest of my potentially short life? I’d made a lot of enemies in the past five years, but having a demonic monster after me was a step up from the norm.

I was so lost in thought that when Sheena spoke again, I nearly jumped out of my skin. “It’s odd that you crossed paths with a demon, Sir Kuro. We have patrols regularly sweep the Forest every week to root out any demons that might have infiltrated the place. No one can enter the Forest without my guards knowing. You saw the wards around the entirety of the Forest that prevent anyone from wandering in or out, man or demon. So how could a demon have gotten in without our knowledge?” She scratched at her chin absent-mindedly.

Just to make sure my earlier spells hadn’t been a fluke, I placed my left hand against my chest and pulled some more energy out of my body. A yellow bolt of lightning seethed in my hand, seeking a way to get free of my fist and destroy something. I took aim at one of the straw dummies and let fly. The bolt flew through the air and impacted the straw dummy with great force. There was a small explosion as the bolt blew half the dummy into the air, which corkscrewed several times before landing a full five seconds later on the ground.

The look on Alverd’s face was priceless. He’d seen me do some crazy things, but the sheer efficiency with which I had dispatched the dummy was a great deal more than he’d come to expect from me. With great relish, I pulled another spark from my chest and repeated the throw on another dummy. Then another. And another. In the short space of a minute, I annihilated the remaining dummies with precision and childish glee.

When the last dummy was nothing less than a smoking crater, Sheena clapped her hands. “Very interesting! Perhaps we should try it on a moving target now? Sir Alverd, if you would be so kind?”

Alverd actually looked pretty scared for a moment. I don’t blame him, the man may be dense but he isn’t blind. He picked up his new dormicite shield and took up a position about thirty feet away from me, shield raised in a defensive posture. “Alright, old friend. I’m ready for you!”

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy what happened next just a tiny bit. I conjured up another bolt of lightning and tossed it at my friend. The bolt streaked through the air and careened off his shield with a loud thwump. The bolt then shot through the air until it hit a nearby tree, scoring a neat little scar across its trunk.

Sheena whistled. “Impressive. But you won’t have the luxury of a stationary target in battle. A neat little trick when engaging a moving target is to channel your spell through your staff rather than by throwing it. Throwing your spell with your hand is a very wasteful action. It requires time to aim and time to wind up for a toss. So let’s just skip that part and use your staff to aim. It’s much more intuitive and saves a great deal of time. Try it, Sir Kuro.”

I did as she said, bringing my new staff up to my eye level and aiming down its length as though I were sighting down a crossbow. Gripping the staff firm with both hands, I willed the electricity flowing through my body into the ruby at the tip of the staff. I could feel the energy course its way through my arms and into the staff, until the ruby began to spark with the stored power I had coaxed into it. Taking aim, I saw Alverd, who was now dancing back and forth, ready to defend against my attack. With a stern command, I directed the energy out through the ruby, and the lightning bolt shot out with a thunderous roar.

Maybe it was because I had actually involved the staff in the process of refining the bolt’s power and directing it through the staff’s focus, but the lightning bolt I launched at Alverd had more oomph behind it. The spell slammed into the dormicite surface of Alverd’s shield and rebounded harmlessly into the sky, but the sheer impact of the bolt nearly knocked Alverd off his feet.

Maybe it was just adrenaline, but I began to feel maniacally overpowered. The staff was definitely going to my head. It’s like we were made for each other. The damned thing gave me a level of confidence that was beyond anything I’d ever experienced in my life. And it didn’t stop there.

I spent the next twenty minutes throwing all manner of elemancy at my best friend. Lightning bolts, fireballs, ice javelins, even miniature tornadoes and earthen spikes. They all bounced off his dormicite shield, but Alverd still had to scramble to angle his shield in the proper way to deflect every attack. After twenty minutes of deflecting spells in heavy armor, however, my friend finally got winded and made a mistake.

A lightning bolt snuck under Alverd’s shield and struck him full in the chest, knocking him back ten feet. He landed in a heap, groaning. I wasn’t concerned, though. My friend was sturdy and had been through far worse, so I knew he would be up and back on his feet in no time.

Sheena, however, ran over to Alverd in a fit of panic. She knelt down next to him, cooing softly and asking if he was alright. She was practically fawning over him. Alverd told her, in his usual idiom, that he was fine and that he had had worse, and she squealed with girlish laughter over his bravado. Then I saw her do something unexpected.

“Please, don’t try to get up, Sir Alverd. You can rest here for a while.” And then she placed Alverd’s head in her lap, cushioning his head with her thighs. He looked up at her in shock, as did I.

Sheena’s face turned beet red, and her breathing became erratic and heavy. “D-D-Don’t you worry about a thing, my dear sir knight… you can stay right here until you’ve recovered… it’s the least I can do… for someone as brave as you…” I got the feeling that such an action had taken quite a bit of bravery on her part. It was still a little creepy how hard she was breathing, though.

That’s when it hit me. Alicia was not here. She’d conveniently taken a tour of the castle rather than oversee my impromptu training session. Sheena had capitalized on Alicia’s curiosity to manufacture a scenario where she could put the moves on Alverd under the guise of caring about his well-being. She’d probably figured that I harbored at least a small amount of resentment towards my friend, and in a way, this manipulation might have also been retribution for all the lies I had told earlier.

Past Kuro would definitely say I was being overly cynical, I thought at first. Watching Sheena debase herself without an ounce of hesitation, I would’ve told Past Kuro to hold my mead.

I recalled how I’d been told that Sheena had managed to survive assassinations since the age of six. One didn’t survive that long without becoming very good at reading people and learning how to manipulate them for her own gain. Mind games were never really my strong suit, which most likely made me easy prey for a practiced veteran like Sheena.

I watched as Sheena fussed over Alverd. She insisted on using healing magic to check to see if he had sustained any injuries. She waved at me to come over to where she was, so that she could teach me some basic medical magic. When I arrived, however, I cleared my throat so she would look at me.

“Maybe it’s best I go review the basics somewhere else. I think I’ll head back to the library and brush up on a few training exercises.”

There was no way Sheena would pass up the chance to be alone with Alverd. Just because I suck at mind games doesn’t mean I know how to outsmart someone so easy to read. Sheena barely acknowledged me.

“Yes, I agree. You can find your way, yes? Good. Let me know if you have any questions.” She was so eager to be rid of me, it was pathetic. I took my leave, glad to be away from her.

Upon my return to the library, I “borrowed” another book without anyone noticing. The heavy tome was a bit more difficult to conceal than the one I’d used earlier to learn about familiars. Bound in aged leather, the faded silver writing on the cover read “The Encyclopedia Demonicus: Binds and Wards Against the Demon Scourge”. Luckily no one was interested in accosting me to ask if I had a library card (if they were so important why did you need to jump through flaming hoops to get one?!) so I snuck out with my prize intact.

I made it back to the guest room I was sharing with Alverd and started preparing for what was likely going to be my last action as a free man. I began to write a letter, grabbing parchment from my pack and a quill from the nearby desk. I penned a letter to Alverd to be opened only if I were to disappear for any reason. In it, I wrote that I had gone to claim a familiar and, in the event of my death or disappearance, to lead an expedition to hunt down a demon of unknown origin that was preying on mages in the Forest.

I had just signed my name at the bottom of the parchment when there came a knock at the door. I quickly slid the letter into my pocket. I ran over to the door and opened it. To my surprise, it was not Alverd or Sheena, but rather, Alicia. She looked like she was ready to murder somebody. Her fingers were making a very audible grinding sound as they gripped her heavy maul.

“If you’re looking for Alverd and Sheena,” I said wearily, “they’re outside. Now if you’ll excuse me…” I made to close the door, but she shoved the maul into the threshold, stopping me from closing the door.

“Just one second, Kuro.” She said to me, her voice full of irritation. I loosened my grip on the door and let it swing back open.

She gave me a glare with true malice in her eyes, and I almost took a step back reflexively out of fear. “You say that they’re together? Alone? Are you mad? Why on earth would you leave the two of them unchaperoned? Have you no brains?!” The exasperation in her tone was becoming more and more apparent. She grabbed hold of my arm with her left hand and dragged me out of the guest bedroom, and I was powerless to resist.

I had hoped to leave with nobody aware of what I was up to until it was too late, but it seemed that I was out of luck on that count. She had me in her grasp and there was nothing for it but to follow her to the Palace commons where we’d conducted our “training session”. Perhaps I’d find some way to sneak away and go rescue Deotra. The clock was ticking, and her life was on the line.

Quite incidentally, so were all of ours, as well.