“How long are we going to let her sleep?” I heard Tetora demanding loudly.

“As long as she wants.” Aleph’s tone was unyielding. “She had a busy day yesterday.”

“Just toss her in the back, and let’s go. I want to know why everyone thinks I disappeared and my clan has turned traitor!”

“You realize that remark could have been simple slander, right?” Vernie said skeptically. “None of my men reported any such intel to me.”

“No one I spoke with in Kopria had seen a tiger in years, though,” Nora interjected. “Isn’t that a little concerning?”

“Tigers aren’t all that common in this region,” Aleph pointed out. “Their forest is far from here.”

“I did disappear…” Tetora muttered guiltily, then let out an exasperated snarl. “But I charged my sister with keeping things under control! She better be doing exactly that!”

“You have a sister?” Nora asked excitedly. “What’s she like?”

“Strong, fierce, determined!” Tetora laughed proudly. “Taika is even more stubborn than I am.”

“Don’t believe him,” Vernie countered. “At least she can be reasoned with. She also thinks before she speaks.”

“I think before I speak. I just do it faster, and no one notices because I am like the wind!” A blustering wind…

I was covered in cold sweat again, and the mixing smell of that with my armor was moderately nauseating. If I moved, though, there were bound to be problems. First and foremost, I could tell I was bruised under my chest plate from yesterday’s nonsense. Second, they would know I was awake and assume I would want to engage in the discussion. I half-hoped someone would indeed pick me up and toss me into the back of the wagon, but that didn’t seem like a likely outcome as their conversation continued to drift.

Instead, I remained as motionless as possible, plotting how to deal with Nora. Private girl talk was a phrase of dire warning. It meant I would need more than my regular tactics to suffice. So rather than avoiding or blowing her off, I’d have to go on the offensive. She wanted the truth, and I decided to give her the bits I wanted to part with.

I just didn’t want to tell her about him. I was sure I had my reasons for that, though if you asked me to put them into words at this point, I really couldn’t. My feelings were too raw and unanalyzed, leaving me unable to discern what was the truth and what was merely my own projection of our fake relationship built on intentional misinformation and misdirection.

Cinder, the chestnut mare I had half-collapsed on the night before, started sniffing at my face.

“Alright… I take it you’re in a hurry, too?” I asked as I sat up with a surrendering groan, carefully keeping my hair away from her mouth. It had reached my hips now, and I suspected its growth cycle was somehow tied to my use of amity. I knew people at home would pay for such a wealth of hair, but I found no value in it. Cutting it made no difference now either; it would be back to the same length when I awoke again.

“Did I miss breakfast?” I called to the group as I gave Cinder some cautious caresses on her muzzle. Thankfully, she seemed accepting and allowed me to stand up without interfering too much with the painful process.

“Just be thankful Aleph saved some for you,” Tetora barked back at me. “I wanted seconds, but he insisted.”

“Thank you, Aleph… and you too, for showing such restraint.” I took the hint to thank him as well. After rinsing my hands, I helped myself to some cheesy bean gruel.

While taking the last bites of breakfast, I finally chanced a glance at Nora, whose face was arranged like a poor man’s Picasso. “Can I talk to you privately in the wagon? I need your help to decipher more of my vision before we share it with everyone else. I know you’re good for helping me understand my weird thoughts, no offense.”

Nora blinked, successfully caught off guard. “Alright…” She was halfway out of her seat before a suspicious glint reappeared in her eyes. Well, the battle wasn’t over yet. I climbed in first and offered her my hand to help pull her up, but she ignored it.

“You’re mad at me because you know I was hiding things from you,” I quietly conceded once we had sat to oppose each other directly. “But I didn’t know I was hiding them until last night. I’m sorry.”

Her eyes darted back and forth as she listened to my statement as if she were looking for something to disprove. I waited patiently until she gave up trying to deflate my defense.

“Well… what were you hiding, then?” she asked in a more mollified tone.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Remember when you asked me who I was talking about that night when I had a weird dream?”

“Yeah…”

“In my dream…” I paused, getting to the tricky part. Paltering, more commonly known as lying with the truth, is an art best suited for professionals like politicians and CEOs. I didn’t have enough experience with it to be called a master, but I had been taught the basics. “I overheard a conversation about those four Councilmen… well, three now.”

“Three?”

“Vetus is dead,” I said softly. “He won’t be able to help us when we get there.”

“Did someone kill him?” Nora’s eyes went wide.

“I don’t think so. They seemed to think it was due to natural causes. But there’s a bigger problem.”

“Lay it on me.” Nora started to spin one of her brown curls around her finger.

“I’m pretty sure at least one of them was a demon trying to penetrate Chairo’s inner barriers and reach Relias.”

Nora blinked again several times, and I continued quickly to cut off any more questions. “I didn’t see him, though, so I’m unsure. I only heard his voice. But he was told to find a way in by bribing Pravum for the barriers’ maintenance schedules. Someone called him… um, a name I don’t recognize, though I doubt that was his true name, by the way the other said it.” It was still too risky to say the name aloud either way.

“Someone?” Nora asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Neither one said the name of the other.” I tried my damndest not to look away or sweat. Nora’s eyes lingered on my face for a moment before she looked at my hands resting peacefully in the confines of my lap. However, the urge to scratch my wrists was almost overpowering, so I forced my toes to curl painfully inside my boots to override my nervous response.

After a few dreadfully long moments, Nora finally exhaled and pulled her journal from her cloak. “Write down his name.”

I scribbled ‘Amos’ into her journal with a shaky hand. My handwriting is still as atrocious as ever.

Nora squinted. “It is rather a plain name. It might be a cover. Maybe not even a demon. He could be a dark mage or hybrid with a vendetta.”

“Maybe he’s even human…” I added. “But we should suspect the worst, right?”

“You’re right.” Nora took a deep breath. “Sorry…. for doubting you.”

“No, I understand…” I shook my head. “I’m beginning to think that some of my memories and my dreams, maybe even my thoughts… aren’t my own. They’re all confused and…” Stop. That’s too much truth. She’ll ask more questions…

“And let me guess… you don’t want to talk about it?”

“I just don’t know where to start,” I admitted. “I think this is something I will have to figure out over time, on my own.”

Nora opened her mouth several times but caught herself before uttering a single syllable. Finally, she murmured, “It doesn’t help that you have strange visitors stopping by unannounced.”

“Oh. About that. I had one drop by when we encountered Dolus.”

Nora nodded, letting out an absent grunt. “I thought that might have been the case, too. You were quite distracted. Who was it, and what’d they say?”

“Raedine,” I confirmed. “She told me not to fly into a rage and kill Dolus… and all the others….” I looked down. “I was a little upset if you know what I mean…” I paused, once again ashamed at my murderous thoughts.

“Hmmm. They do seem to be helping, at least,” Nora mused. “But I think they have an agenda of their own.”

“Doesn’t everyone?” I asked rather plaintively.

“Well, yes, I suppose so.” Nora glanced away as she padded her makeshift seat with extra hay.

“When that demoness disrupted you with animus …” I started, recalling the moments before Raedine routed my rage. “Did you hear anything before you got angry? Like a high-pitched shriek?”

“Hmm. I heard a throaty roar, like from a giant beast,” Nora shook her head. “Angry… but a bit grief-stricken.”

Grief-stricken? “Oh… I was just wondering if it was the same as what I heard. Guess it’s different.”

We sat silent, listening to the others break down the camp.

“Speaking of demons…” Nora wiggled uncomfortably again before offering me a piece of parchment plucked from her journal.

“No papyrus this time?” I skipped the confidentiality introduction.

> To: Eleanora Beatrice Perez and Rachel Emily Smith

>

> From: Clare Mercure (Manager, Information Technology, Cooperative Universal Publishing)

>

> RE: Demon Inquiry (Confidential)

>

> I received your ‘prayer request’ for ‘more information on demons.’ Please see the result and error below. An IT support ticket has been opened on your behalf to troubleshoot the error encountered. Please note that a full restore of the Speranza Sentient Being Type (SBT) database is not currently possible. I will attempt to manually reconcile data inconsistencies to repair your local NAUGHT instance upon successful reboot and critical update installation.

>

> Speranza SBT Database: Your query: demon returned 0 results and 1 error:*

>

> * SBT=“demon” OR SBT=“daemon” OR SBT=“devil” OR SBT=“fiend” OR SBT=“hellion” […]

>

> Error: Critical Data Fault Exception

>

> A foreign key constraint violation has been detected. This should not be possible and must result from actions by a user with super administrative privileges to edit the database files directly. Data corruption has already occurred. To reconcile data inconsistencies, a full restore of a database backup that predates the corruption will need to be performed, or manual intervention by a database administrator will be required. Please contact your database administrator IMMEDIATELY.

I didn’t understand the error. “Are they saying… there’s no such thing as demons?” Try telling them that!

“Mmmm… no. They’re saying they don’t have any information on them in their database. The fact that they got that error when running the search suggests foul play, though.”

“Foul play?”

“Yeah. I think this error means someone illegally deleted entries about them from the database.”

“What database???” I fretted. “And why is Clare the manager of IT now? I thought she was Human Resources!”

“She probably wears many hats,” Nora said as she lounged back into the hay. “The fewer eyes on this stuff, the easier it is to keep it confidential.”

The parchment paper turned brittle and flashed brightly before disintegrating into a cloud of fine, golden dust between my fingers. “Gaah!”

Nora let out a nervous chuckle. “Guess that’s what she meant by self-destruct in the header!” Like in the cartoons?!

I swallowed hard and reminded myself never again to skip over a single line of text from CUP, no matter how short, stupid, or insignificant it appeared.