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

Why did I lie? I wasn’t rightly sure myself. I felt some kind of compulsion to do so. It was as though I didn’t want to let them know what had truly taken place, not because I didn’t want them to worry, but rather because I didn’t want them to understand what had transpired. 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?

I knew better than that. Alicia would have scoffed and call me a liar. She’d think I invented the entire thing to make Sheena jealous. She was stupid like that. Sheena, I didn’t know well enough to know what she would think, but I doubt she would take anything I said seriously. Alverd…well, even my best friend might not believe me. It was that ridiculous, after all.

So I sat there and spun some ridiculous lie about how I had found the staff in a clearing, how a familiar had ambushed me and broken my staff, and how I had lost consciousness and ended up at the entrance to the Forest with the group trying to wake me up. And yet, 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. But I didn’t question it. I made my lies and I made them quick.

The next series of questions were about my new staff. The beautiful, hand-carved mahogany and polished brass was unmistakably striking, and the ruby set in its length sparkled when I took the staff in hand. Sheena was the one to call me on this line of questioning. She folded her arms (which did nice things to her chest) and started grilling me.

“You say you found this staff, right, Sir Kuro?” She intoned inquisitively. She looked at me with eyes like a child’s, 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, only for it to rebuff her with electric shocks. Everytime 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 Sheena 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. But 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?”

Now that was news to me. The roar was probably the dragon-familiar attacking Deotra and I, but this barrier business wasn’t something I had known 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.

Puzzles 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, which I attributed to tripping in the brush. Alverd asked about the roar, which I explained was the territorial display of some large creature I had crossed paths with. When Sheena wondered why I had been found unconscious with my broken staff nearby, I simply feigned memory loss.

None of them bought any of it. I could tell.

But they eventually 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.

I could make a good guess what they were thinking. They probably thought I had 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. And then, by chance, I had broken my staff, knocked myself out and ended up back where I started.

But in a way, they were right. I was a coward. I’d allowed an innocent girl to be snatched away by a demon. I knew damn well what demons were capable of. Growing up, my mentor, Professor Farnus, had counseled all of the mage recruits in the basic dangers of dealing with demons. They were oftentimes 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, Deotra could easily be dead within a few days.

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

But I refused to believe that. I wasn’t one to put faith in blind optimism, but something in me wanted to believe that she was still alright. I could picture her, crying in the dark of that cave, and instead of bringing me despair, it only stirred anger in me. Not even anger at myself, but just…anger. I knew there was something I could do. If I had to march down into that cave to save her, then I was gonna do it. But…

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 Sheena, 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. Sheena 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. Yes, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a good idea. I grasped Sheena’s hands in my own. “Would you? I would definitely appreciate it!” I hoped that I wasn’t crushing her delicate hands in my grip.

Sheena 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 to 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. Alverd and I returned to our own room, although Alicia said that she wanted to wander the halls for a bit. Sheena told her that she would summon a guide for her, and the dragon tamer princess agreed to return to her private room until then.

Having no reason to just stand around, Alverd and I returned to our room for the time being. I picked the mahogany 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. I wondered where Deotra had come upon such a staff, and what secrets it held. Then I told myself that I could ask her in person when I rescued 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. Sheena had even gone so far as to paint comically absurd expressions on the scarecrows’ faces. As I surveyed the training ground, I appreciated the effort that she was going through all the more.

And yet, I also felt a pang of guilt, too. My thoughts meandered back to Deotra. The sweet, kind Deotra. I felt conflicted. I also felt confused. Her words were still a jumble in my head. “A decade and a half”? What did that mean? I didn’t know what to think of that. Then again, the girl had said a lot of things that didn’t make sense.

I shook my head, scattering those thoughts to the wind. I had training to do. I would ponder Deotra’s words and actions later, if I had the opportunity, for instance if I actually managed to save her. 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.

I looked at the staff in my hand. 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, and tossed it at one of the stationary targets. It impacted with grimly devastating force, shredding the wooden target like parchment. I laughed maniacally.

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 at her praise. Maybe I was just a sucker for a pretty girl, but hearing Sheena compliment me made me feel pretty good about myself. I tried to prevent myself from blushing, and just barely managed it. I remembered why I was here, doing this, and it gave me focus.

“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 the deed was done.

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 another lie, surprised at how easy it was becoming. “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…”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

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.” Sheena 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.”

Sheena took her bladed staff and drew a circle in the air, which immediately separated into seven different circles. “In magical theory, there are seven circles of Hell. Each circle pertains to a different mortal sin. Each Hell punishes its residents in a manner that relates to that sin. The circles are Pride, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, Sloth and Greed. Demons have their own hierarchies within each circle, but all of them are known to prey on mortals through their deals. But just because demons are powerful, doesn’t mean they’re invincible.”

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 our world. These vessels can be killed like any other mortal form. Also, they are masters of persuasion, but their logic is limited to their circle. For example, a demon of Pride would easily be able to grasp the concept of Pride, but when subjected to the logic of, say, Greed, the Pride demon wouldn’t be able to comprehend that particular concept, and thus have no hold over someone who’s greatest sin is Greed.”

Alverd spoke up at that point. “So, they’re selective about those who they try to tempt?” Sheena smiled. “Correct. Knowing what circle a demon belongs to can allow a person to outwit a demon, even if their particular sin corresponds to the demon in question. There are many stories and plays where mages escape a horrible fate by outsmarting demons with knowledge of their shortcomings.”

Hearing this, I felt heartened. This was good stuff. More importantly, it was knowledge I could 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. But 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 elven 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 felt a familiar chill go up my spine. It didn’t surprise me to learn that demons were spiteful creatures. But the idea forming in my head was not to my liking. If it came 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. We have wards around the entirety of the Forest to prevent just anyone from wandering in, man or demon. So how could a demon have gotten in without our knowledge?” She scratched at her chin absent-mindedly.

I didn’t like the direction the conversation was heading, so I decided to change its course. 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 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 didn’t blame him; I had just obliterated six targets with casual ease. But my friend was no coward. 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 just wanted to clarify, since I seemed to be doing an awful lot of that lately. Lying, I mean. 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. Somehow, it just felt right to be with me. 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. But after twenty minutes of deflecting spells in heavy armor, my friend finally got winded.

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.

But Sheena didn’t know that.

She 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, but it didn’t change the judgment I made against her at that moment.

She was a damn pervert, plain and simple.

I mean, sure, some girls could be direct. Some girls could be shy. Sometimes, they were a combination of both. But in Sheena’s case, it wasn’t because she was shy that she was blushing and breathing heavy. This was the fulfillment of a longtime fantasy, a wish come true in physical form. I was sure her longings went further still, but I didn’t want to think about any of that. Besides, it didn’t take a genius to know what her intentions were, anyway.

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. In that way, I was a tool, a means to an end. 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.

Well played, Sheena. Bloody well played.

It wasn’t a matter of paranoia or overthinking it. I remembered 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. I admit that 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. I hid my disappointment and anger and walked briskly over to where the two were. But inside, my blood boiled and bubbled.

I barely listened as Sheena explained the basics of the healing spell she was demonstrating for me. In a curt manner, I recreated the spell perfectly (most likely the product of my staff’s compatibility). After that, I told Sheena that I wasn’t feeling all too well, and if we could reschedule our little training session. She agreed, a bit too eagerly. I left, heading back to the Palace as quickly as my feet could carry me.

What a fool I’d been. Once again my sterling ability to pick up on subtle social cues had left me wanting. I’d been played like a damn fiddle. Worse yet, I’d allowed my feelings to get in the way of my better judgment. I found the fact that I was still somewhat infatuated with Sheena to allow her to use me in her little scheme incredibly insulting. And yet, there was no one to blame but myself.

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, since there weren’t any other places for me to put it out of sight at the moment. I ran over to the door and opened it. To my surprise, it was not Alverd or Sheena, but rather, Alicia. And she looked very, very perturbed. Her fingers were making a very audible grinding sound as they gripped her heavy warhammer.

“If you’re looking for Alverd and Sheena,” I said wearily, “they’re outside shooting the breeze. They’re certainly too busy to help me with simple requests. Now if you’ll excuse me…” I made to close the door, but Alicia shoved the hammer 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.

Alicia 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. Once again, I found myself subjected to Alicia’s will. Every moment I spent lallygagging was another moment Deotra was suffering, maybe even getting closer to death. But there wasn’t anything I could do now. Alicia 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.

And, quite incidentally, so were all of ours, as well.