After the children cleaned up the poor crispy child, who was starting to be a bit crusty in the humid fog, our dear strategist laid down his great plan to entrap the last killer.

          “Shouldn’t we try and figure out where that came from?” With the brats from my army, it seemed like it’d be better not to mention the medal.

          “The medallion? Oh, no. That’s irrelevant at this point.” With a wave of his hand, he brushed it off.

          Or not.

          “…but it’s a clue?”

          “Yes, but it raises more questions than it solves. If you really want to know, ask the culprit yourself. Now,” He turned to the children who had all assembled, “I know that this might be complicated for you brats to understand, but if you fu-screw up your part I will personally tear you limb from limb and feed you to audience in the arena.”

          “…you haven’t done that recently, though right? Blackie? Right?” I quickly ran through all of our meals and tried to make sure I could account for each source of meat. Blackie ignored me.

          “Pair off, angels failed the last assignment so the demons are in charge. The pair will be punished together, so be sure to kill/knock out your partner if they seem like they’ll pose a problem. Got it?”

          “Yes, sir!”

          “Yeah, sure.” I shook my fist at my dear henchme-former subordinates for such a lackluster response. Gaffe rolled his eyes and he got put back into time-out for it. It was starting to get a bit tricky to knock him into the exact same spot when we were moving around the courtyard.

          “And Aena, back off.” I grumbled a bit but slid away from him a fraction. We really needed to find a way to fix this. He gingerly hovered his right hand on my shoulder and shuffled me to his right side. “Stay on this side, please.”

          “I will?” Seriously, what was I forgetting? It felt important…just as I was about to remember, one of the patrol handed me a bag of dried apples they had found in one of the rooms earlier.

          The plan was a simple one, but all the more terrifying for it. Blackie explained that the only real lead we currently had over the murderer was that they were the only ones who knew where the body had been besides us.

          So, we relocate the body and see who turns up. But if it was only that, the fellow might take ages to come look, and if we put the body up in a new location to alert them that the body was moved, they’d never risk looking where the body was originally. Unless they were an idiot, in which case Blackie would probably kill them on sight and I’d never find out the secret of the medal.

          The question then is, how do we force the fellow to look for the body without letting them know it was found? Why, my specialty of course! Start a fight nearby between the patrols with heavy collateral damage that might “accidently” ruin the crime scene without actually “accidently” damaging the crime scene as naturally as possible.

          Gaffe and his partner would be the key factors in this as the heirs to heaven and hell. Speaking of which…

          “Dear child, I missed your name?”

          “Ma’am, My name is Davri.” The adorable little wraith child responded, which was fair since he was right next to the mini demon lord in training.

          “And my name is Jevren.”  A better name than I was expecting from that little fellow, maybe his mother named him.

          “…it doesn’t start with an “R”?” Blackie frowned a little.

          “…My father’s name does, but no?”

          “It does have an “R” in it.” I helpfully pointed out. Blackie shot me one of his flat glares and muttered something under his breath,

          “Death and rot, I think it’s contagious” and promptly took a wide step away from me.

I glared and closed the distance again, only for him to take another step in a different direction. Naturally, I followed.

          “…are we going to go and actually start the plan or are we going to start playing tag with the elderly?” Gaffe asked after a few minutes, doing remarkable well for one so close to death.

           Ignoring him, since the wall was a bit far away and it clearly wasn’t working, I looked to Blackie. He sighed and nodded, letting the brats break off and “resume” patrol where they should be by now if they hadn’t found the body. Or gotten caught by us.

          “…my only worry is we spent too much time and they’ve already noticed the patrol missing somewhere else. Even then, if a fuss hasn’t been raised, they’re bound to try and find out why.” Blackie rubbed his forehead. “If they’re smart they’re looking for us.”

          “Words just spoken, but actions take time.” I stretched my back, deliberately leaning towards him, if only to watch him lean away, too stubborn to step back.

          We strolled back towards the courtyard. Sadly, with my entertainment gone back to patrolling, my mind wandered where it should not. Try as I might, my curiosity was swinging a war hammer and screaming in my head, demanding attention.

          “…so, do you think those two are…?”

          “I think that Jevren and Gaffe are far more intelligent than their fathers and will make excellent leaders when the current idiots finally keel over.” His reply was monotonous.

          “…the old man did have a male attendant he was oddly close with…”

          “Aena,” He turned to me and looked me dead in the eyes, “while I might miss you, if you give me another mental image even remotely close to that one ever again, I will personally sacrifice every limb on my body to dump you in a pool of lava.” He started walking again.

          “…” my sense of self-preservation was quickly squished, “the young ladies looked a bit excited when he entered the room too…”

          Babaris turned towards me slowly, but sadly, his response was cut off by an arrival.

          “There you two are.” A heavily relieved voice that was all too familiar sounded as Tavy came into view.

 

         

 

          “Tavy! Did you think we were going to bring down the Island if we were left alone or something?” I winked at him with a gentle smile.

          “…What did you do?” His eyes narrowed as his eyes flickered between the two of us, his smile hanging from one strand like a worn-out frame.

          “Why do you think we did something?” Blackie countered. Even though one had a smile and the other didn’t I couldn’t help but feel like they were wearing the same expression.

          “Because I only know of two individuals capable of causing a tremor on an island.” Tavy rumbled drily.

          …he had a very fair point. Blackie stiffened slightly next to me, apparently he forgot about that too… In my defense, he was already getting to be like that when we met. I doubt he properly thought through living with me after all.

          Still, he glared at me again and stepped away. This time I didn’t chase since we were being watched.

          A lady had to have her dignity after all.

          “The angel that was wounded is healing well, the tournament is starting the next phase at a much calmer rate, and with the clue you sent to the twins, the conspirators of the murders have been caught.” He rubbed his eyes, probably relieved he didn’t find us next to a pile of rubble. “Can you please come back, or at least pick a spot to settle? There is a lovely area next to the kitchen.”

          “Tavy, do you hate demons?” I reached out and held his hand. He flinched…but didn’t pull back.

          Instead, he started crying. Soft, sparse tears. I hadn’t seen him cry since..

          “Your hands are as warm as I remember, again.” Blackie snorted at that, his expression dark. “Why didn’t I notice something was wrong?”

          “I was fine, I am fine, dear.” I squeezed his hand as gentle as I could. “You didn’t answer me.”

          “No, I don’t hate them.” He smiled, like he used to. He wasn’t lying. I turned to Blackie and shook my head. Babaris quickly grabbed Tavy’s wrist to get him to let go of me.

          “Aw, are you getting jealous?” Prodding him, I asked with a wink.

          “Oh?” Tavy blinked, looking between the two of us. His eyes softened and he chuckled. “I see, that’s good.”

          Tavy gently shook his hand and Blackie let him go, but Tavy glanced at Blackie’s left wrist and frowned.

          “What happened?” He made a grasp as Blackie but got rebuffed. So, I made a grab and pulled his sleeve back a bit.

          “Good Lord above and Curse below.” I quickly let go of his sleeve.

          His wrist was black. Cracked, bleeding, and swelling, it looked excruciating. Ever so slightly, his eyes crinkled in pain, but he quietly pulled his sleeve back down.

          “It’s fine.”

          “I’m so sorry, do you have medicine to put on it? I shouldn’t have gripped so hard…” I really wanted to hug him, but I didn’t want to hurt him again.

          “You? How? No, wait.” Tavy sighed. “Demons are weak to heat, and with your body temperature that is uncomfortable even for angels…”

          “Yes, that is the current situation.” My shoulders slumped a bit as I admitted it.

          I swear for a moment, the bags under his eyes seemed to darken. He reached into his robes and pulled out…that object.

          “Tavy, no. I can get another one.” I tried to push it away.

          “It has no use with me. Here.” Bypassing me, he handed it to Blackie. “This is a titan’s heart. It will raise your heat tolerance.”

          “How do you have that just ready to pull out?” Eyes narrowing in suspicion again, “Why did you need it?” Blackie flickered between the two us.

          “It was once believed that rather than raising heat tolerance, it raised one’s body temperature.”

          After hearing Tavy’s explanation, he looked at me with far more questions than before.

“It needs to be consumed to be used. We had two, but since the first didn’t work, we saved the last. Please, take it.”

          “…fine.” Blackie gave me a look that said the conversation wasn’t over.

          “Thank you, Tavy.”

          “I know that titans are almost extinct, and this was just collecting dust with me.” His smile was still genuine, “You don’t need to thank me, Mother.”