I found myself up pretty much at dawn, attempting to make and test new carbon fiber-plastic hybrids. While it might have been redundant compared to diamond beams--maybe--I felt like the pure gemstone was likely to be too hard for a proper structural material, and would attract the wrong kind of attention if anyone knew what they were looking at. Since I'd never exactly done anything like this, I made a point to refine my concept of carbon fiber; for now I was thinking about carbon nanotubes and sheets of graphene rolled up to produce larger tubes. Combining those together--lots of little ones inside a big one, and maybe many of those together inside an even larger sleeve--should let me create a very stiff carbon rod, and a whole bunch of those together should be as good a definition of "carbon fiber" as I could possibly create. Although I lacked a microscope or more detailed examination tool, my Fabricate power told me I created what I envisioned, and I had to trust that.

Those rods I arranged in a mesh inside a plastic matrix, and then I tested the results, Fabricating large lead weights and applying them in stress tests. When I found the form most useful for the specific tasks I had--supporting tower floors, and connecting the tower to the cliffs--I replaced the diamond supports with the new version, Fabricate not even requiring me to disassemble anything else. Truly, I thought to myself as I studied a finished bit of ceiling, the power of a godly artifact was mighty.

Granted, it was a less than godly task I was asking the Bracers of Jade Will to accomplish, but sometimes the most hyped-up things were the biggest disappointments. So far, the bracers had yet to disappoint me in any serious way.

I spent some time considering expanding the tower--despite not having use for all the room--but ended up distracted by the question of the voids I'd left in my tower walls. Obviously, in principle, adding vacuum gaps to the walls would lighten them more than gas-filled gaps; in theory, you could make an airship where the lift was provided by vacuum instead of helium or hydrogen, but you would need to reinforce the lift chamber against collapse; the outside air pressure would want to crush it. Lighter gasses don't have that problem, providing back pressure while still creating lift from the density difference, which is why they were plausible even on no-magic worlds.

But what could I do, here, now?

I Fabricated a bunch of vacuum sphere prototypes, and as I already knew they would, the vacuum leaked out of most of them--by which I mean, gasses leaked in. Given the air pressure difference, almost nothing would stop the lightest ones from sneaking through every last gap, causing the generated lift to drop in rates that varied from "gradual" to "explosive," depending on how well or poorly I designed the materials. Even so... my ability to Fabricate flawless materials meant that I might be able to do something with this eventually, especially if I could pair it with some kind of magical array from Jenna. After all, on Earth, even a small vacuum pump was a couple pounds of steel, but here, it might be engraved on the same thin surfaces I was already dealing with. Or... probably the opposite of engraved. A layer on the outside instead of a scratch inwards. What was that called? I wanted to say it was... "relief"? The printing method, at least.

I was distracted in the early afternoon by a vague sense of urgency from Carli. I wasn't immediately clear on what was going on--I dropped what I was doing and went up onto the Plateau, trying to locate her. I had to use our bond in order to even narrow down the search, eventually launching myself northeast, away from the town, and pushing hard on the bracers looking for any sign of her or what was wrong.

I found Carli standing in the middle of arid grasslands, and although I sensed what she was looking at before I got there, it took a long time for me to quite process what was upsetting her. As I landed, my goat looked and me, bounced around a little, and then backed off from the small hole in the ground, eyeing the creature that had upset her. I knelt down to look with my own eyes, already aware of what I was seeing, but not quite believing it, not yet.

Danger (be cautious)! Carli warned, shuffling backwards uneasily.

There was a small black creature there, one that had the same sense of malice that the black fox had, but smaller, with two very small circular ears, a long barbed tail, and two black, beady eyes. It sat upright, poised, with a certain intelligence that I felt wasn't natural, and a kind of... defeated attitude, which seemed to suffuse its being. The creature, I thought, was male, and I could sense several females nearby, some already with child.

"This is a mouse, Carli," I said. "You've found a demonic mouse."

Danger (don't trust it)!

I reached out and put a hand on Carli's head, reassuringly. "No," I said. "I get it. It's still demonic." A plague of mice could destroy crops, attack wooden houses, possibly spread disease, maybe do other demonic things... but... "But it's also still a mouse."

Carli moved up behind me and butted my back with her horns, as though to reassure me that she was still there, supporting me in case the demon mouse was scaring me. I sighed, and just matched the gaze of the little red and black mouse. With a little pulse of the Bracers, I searched out the depths of the rathole they were guarding, as well as every other rathole I could sense in... hundreds, maybe thousands of feet in every direction.

As far as I could tell, the demon mouse had only these wives. It wouldn't take much to make a herd of mice multiply, though--not much food, and not much time. Gently, but firmly, I flexed my will to kill the mice.

All but the one before me, and I felt a smirk crossing my face as I even just considered the poem.

"So you're a child of demons, little mouse?" I asked, examining its red and black fur, and scanning it with the bracers, as closely as I could. There was something there--more than enough for me to clearly and unambiguously call it tainted--but I couldn't quite determine what it meant or where it had come from.

Suddenly, I felt a hot push into my mind, one I instinctively defended against--but all it really tried to do was reach me, and vibrations like speech rolled across into my mind.

{ Yeah, what of it. }

I hummed, looking at the mouse. "I'm not going to let you do what you want."

{ Sure, we're enemies, I get it. } The mouse held up one of its little paws in a gesture that I'm not sure meant anything, but it was still clearly deliberate.

"Do you know anything of where you came from?" More than anything, that was something I wanted to learn.

{ Came from? I'm a demon. } The mouse shifted a little bit, still sitting upright and staring at me. { The Demon Lord is offering power to those that serve. All I have to do is try to fight. So, I will. } There was a pause, and I could tell the deep sense of fatalism within the mouse surged, as it seemed to recognize that it had been defeated before it even started. { Uh, or, I'll try. And get killed. I guess. }

I snorted. "Yeah, you're definitely not succeeding. Did he even give you any special powers?"

{ What, you doubt me? } Suddenly, the mouse's fur blazed with black energy, and it started to float into the air, and I felt specks of black drifting off of it like spores.

I immediately Fabricated a glass cage around it, including all the air and ground the black spores had touched, and frowned down at the mouse. "Yeah, don't do that," I said. "I'd rather not have to call the Hero of Purifying Light all the way out here to deal with a mouse."

{ You mean a demon, } the mouse corrected.

I just laughed, and picked up the impromptu cage. "Yup," I said. "You're now a captive demon mouse, though, so if you want air holes in your cage, plus some food and water, don't do that spore thing again."

The mouse just stared at me, still floating in its cage, and still giving off fleck of black energy. { What spore thing. }

"It's coming off of you while you do your magic. It's demonic, I guess." I picked up Carli and began levitating the three of us back to my tower.

{ Of course it's demonic. I'm a demon. It's what I do. }

"Right, of course."

Carli pressed her head against me as we floated along. Don't like, she summarized. Not feel good.

I connected my thoughts to her, briefly, pushing the mouse's own mental pressure away. He's a demon, Carli. You aren't supposed to like him.

Yes! Carli pressed a little harder. Bad, demon (Demon)! Don't like.

I raised an eyebrow, because Carli's thoughts had two different definitions of a 'demon' and she meant them both in different ways. One of them was obvious, but the other was some specific definition of "bad/selfish/evil" that wasn't immediately clear.

The mouse pressed its thoughts against mine again. { So, what, you ain't gonna kill me? Going to try to make me talk? }

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

I turned and looked at the mouse. "Maybe," I said. "Or maybe I'll do something very silly."

The mouse stared at me for a moment, and then--well, I don't really understand, but the mouse's voice returned, with an odd tremble to it. { I won't be your friend (family, husband). Not your goat's, either. }

I laughed, though I couldn't help wondering how many animals saw their caretakers like that.

We returned to the tower, where I let Carli go. As I would expect, she didn't want to leave, and just kept staring at the demon mouse. Once I stopped floating, he contented himself to drop back to the floor of his cage, and I opened up airholes, since he wasn't doing demon magic anymore. I even, to be on the safe side, flexed the Bracers to convert carbon dioxide in the cage to oxygen, not that I thought he was dying. It was a fairly big cage.

Then I set him carefully aside and found a place to sit, where I attempted to contact Alice.

When my thoughts reached her, I found the other four Heroes were currently in some kind of underground ruins. As always, my view of the other side was muddy, but even with that, I could get the impression of grand arched ceilings, massive pillars, and enormous chunks of rubble strewn everywhere.

At that moment, they didn't seem in danger, so I gave her a mental poke, and she blinked.

[ Colin? ]

[ Yup. Do you guys have a moment? ]

There was a brief pause, and then, [ We seem to be okay, but we're on... well, something of an adventure. Can you make it quick? ]

[ I captured another one of those black creatures, which I guess are demons? This one is small, and harmless in captivity-- ]

[ Don't keep it around, ] Alice insisted, suddenly. [ I can tell you as a Hero that it's a bad idea. ]

I hesitated, but trusted her. [ The poem suggests I'm supposed to bond with one. ]

[ Do you have a good reason for it to be this one? ]

Well, no, aside from the fact that it seemed like a funny continuation of the very mundane list of familiars I'd started with Carli. Whether Alice guessed my answer by my silence, or she didn't really care, because she continued a moment later.

[ Demons infect the world, and the more infection they do, the faster the Demon Lord's Great Working will reach its peak. Any time you get a chance to kill a demon, do it. ]

I sighed, and cracked open an eye to look at the demon mouse in its cage. It was still there, and still watching me. [ Okay. It's intelligent and I talked with it a little bit. Are there any questions we should ask? ]

[ Colin... ]

[ I heard you, dear Hero of Purifying Light, ] I answered, meaning it this time, [ but I'd rather get any benefit we can of something that is cooperating. ]

[ Just a moment. ] There was a long pause. [ What kind of demon is it? ]

[ It's a mouse. ]

[ A mouse. A demon mouse. Okay. ] Pause. [ We all agree it's a miracle you haven't bonded with it already, ] Alice returned, with a mixture of frustration and humor to her thoughts. [ We don't have any questions ready on hand, but anything you can learn about their origins or how they're being spread would be good. ]

[ I'll do my best. Finding anything good on your quest? ]

A short pause. [ We're hunting Mithril for you to work with. They say the old capitol of Aebon had a mithril halberd in its armory, but it's guarded by a Grand Golem created by the archmage. Steve is eager to fight it, Jess is eager to take it apart. ]

I chuckled, and sent the impression of a nod. [ Good hunting. Take care, Alice. All of you. ]

She sent an impression of a blown kiss and a wave--not a particularly intimate one, more jokey than anything--before I broke the connection and peeked back at the demonic mouse in its little cage, staring at me with its beady little eyes.

A moment later, I felt its mental pressure against me again. { They told you to kill me, I bet. }

I raised an eyebrow. "You know what I was doing?"

{ You're only one of the world's Heroes, you're alone, and it's early in the game. Of course you're asking others. }

"Hm." I got up and moved forward, Fabricating a stool and a table and placing the two of us so that I could study him comfortably. "What do you know about... about the game?"

{ About as much as you. The gods are playing around, using souls from other worlds and pitting them against each other in a war. }

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you a soul from another world?"

{ This may surprise you, bub, but there aren't all that many intelligent mice out there, on this world or any other. }

"So you were reborn into this body? What were you before?"

The mouse, very deliberately, walked on two legs up to the edge of the cage, placing one hand against the glass, and looked right at my face. { Ready for me to blow your fucking mind? }

I raised an eyebrow and waited.

{ I was a fucking mouse. }

I snorted, and shook my head. "Okay," I said. "But seriously, they--what--pull evil souls from whatever worlds to serve in the Demon Lord's Army? Or whatever?"

{ Listen, bub, this may surprise you, but they don't exactly tell us much waiting in line. I might tell you shit out of spite, but I'm not exactly well informed. All I know for sure is I died like a chump and found myself talking to a shriveled old man in black, then joined a big-ass line of animals getting interviewed for the job. The guy, the Demon Lord? Pretty sure he's just another guy getting fucked over by the gods or someone else maybe. But maybe he, like me an' also I'd guess you, deserves his lot in life. Who knows. }

I frowned, silently re-evaluating the value of the demon mouse. Having an inside view would be useful. "They literally find evil animals from other worlds and make them demons?"

{ I see the look on your face, and I can tell you're an idiot. } The mouse's whiskers twitched. { You see me as small, fuzzy, maybe cute. You think that means that I'm harmless. I hate people like you. }

Beside me, Carli butted her head into my arm, and I could feel the stress on her. Not family, she insisted, and I felt something... something more than just stubborn, there. A warning. Not good.

The mouse's tiny little hand on the glass curled inwards, and suddenly huge gouges were taken out of the cage, ones ten times the length of his tiny little fingers, cracks spreading from each gouge and falling away. I blinked, but didn't flinch back, instead preparing my Bracers to crush the rodent in front of me, but he didn't get any closer.

Perhaps he thought he didn't need to, but he stayed right where he was, staring at me with those little black orbs, and spoke again.

{ You horde so much food a billion mice could never eat it all, and you hate us for stealing the smallest bit of grain. You build structures a billion mice could sleep in comfortably, and you hate to see even one trying to join you. You feed big ugly creatures, each taking so much food that you could feed a hundred mice, but us? No, fuck us. You look at us like we're small, insignificant, and you play at being happy to see us, sometimes. Knew a fucker like you in my last life--kept me in a glass cage like this. I remember it well. }

{ I escaped, chewed the wires in his wall, burned down his home, stood outside and watched. When he came out with his wife, I tore open her neck. Fled into the sewers to live in muck and filth, made my own life out of spite. When I died, I came back, tearing apart my own children's minds to live on forever in their bodies. They wouldn't have carried on my legacy; I know, I watched the ones I didn't take over. They're all brainless things, too dumb to understand how much they needed to hate the world. But I know. }

{ I felt what you did to my kids here, my women. You know you need to hate the world to survive. But you still can't help insulting me, calling me small, cute, worthless. To say that I'd be better off your slave than dead. }

The mouse gestured with one hand, and the glass cage shattered, small specks of evil floating on the air around him, and I frowned.

{ Just do it already, he thought at me. I'd be happier dead than living in a cage. }

"You don't--" I wanted to protest. Carli wasn't in a cage, and even if this creature was currently evil... Carli butted her head against me, again, and I felt her fear.

{ Do it, } the mouse insisted. { Don't fucking hesitate. What are you even waiting for? } He lifted off, black power in the air around him, black spores filtering out...

With only a small gesture from me, the small fuzzy creature splatted, and somewhere behind reality, I could feel a red and black core emerge from the corpse, hanging in space. In a way that was difficult to pin down, I felt it reach for... something. Perhaps one of its descendants, but when it couldn't find anything, it started to dry up, shrivel, and crack, and then...

And then it was gone. I sat there, looking, for a moment, then Fabricated and re-Fabricated a cage around everything that the black spores had touched, shrinking it and sorting through it all as best I could, and ensuring that nothing contaminated was exposed to the air of my tower... and everything not contaminated was removed, until there was only a small glass cage around some contaminated glass, compressed demon mouse flesh, and virtually nothing else.

Then I wrapped that cage in another cage, just to be sure, and placed it on a pedestal where I could keep an eye on it until the next time Alice came by.

That done, I turned and I gave Carli a big hug. "Thanks," I said. "I know you were trying to tell me he was bad, and I knew that, I just..." I sighed.

Not home! Carli tossed her head a little. Not good.

"Right," I said. "I just hoped that he could be... redeemed, I guess."

Not home (one of us), Carli again tried to explain, but it was difficult to parse exactly what the thought meant. Maybe... he wasn't compatible? In a way?

I shrugged, and rubbed Carli's head. "You're probably right," I said. "And he didn't want to be here. But... apparently I'm supposed to find at least one demon out there that can be a part of our family, as weird as that sounds. So I have to at least give them a chance."

Carli seemed to think about that, but I wasn't sure how seriously to take that, since she was a goat. After a moment, though, she tossed her head, sending a general feeling of accepting my words.

So I went back out to where I'd found the mouse, and dug up the other mice I'd killed. Now that I was worried about the demonic spores, I didn't want some other creature to come and eat them; I made a cage for all of them combined, and returned, joining it to the other cage.

In all, I didn't feel shocked or traumatized by killing a mouse, not even an intelligent mouse that might, plausibly, have been an ally. Maybe... because throughout the whole thing, it had seemed ready to die. It was clear in the way it didn't run or try to fight; it knew that it was supposed to die, and it didn't even really care. It certainly didn't object.

Would all demons be that fatalistic? I frowned, unsure whether I should be sad, angry, or just determined. In a way, if the gods (or the Demon Lord) were collecting things that wanted to die as the Heroes' opposition... was that really wrong? It was better than killing off those that did want to die, which was... why we were opposing the Demon Lord in the first place. Because the army of demon mice this mouse would have created was definitely intended to kill innocents.

So, no guilt. Maybe anger. But it was definitely something we'd all have to keep an eye out for. I frowned, reaching out towards Alice, but I could tell at a glance that they were busy fighting now.

I'd get back to them in a bit.