After that incident the first night, nothing drastic happened in town over next day or night. I was studiously avoided, and the few people from the church in town—a small, quaint building—took one look at me and decided I was not something they could deal with.

I’d much rather they decided I wasn’t someone they should deal with, but I wasn’t in a position to choose.

Yevon hadn’t shown up either, and on the morning of the second day the only thing we still needed was to get Myrna’s wagon repaired. We were told the repairs would take a few more days. I had to wonder if this was longer or shorter than normal; did they want to inconvenience us, or did they want us gone sooner? Needless to say, I hadn’t asked, but I had run out of things to do in the town.

The snow had stopped sometime the previous night, but it was cold enough that it wasn’t melting. Myrna spent her time checking inventory against what was lost in the avalanche and bemoaning her lost profits from my demon-ness. She tried not to direct her comments at me, but it didn’t really work.

Taava spent all day in her room with Nelys—she said she was composing another few songs. Nelys, meanwhile, seemed almost immune to the repellent of being associated with me, and had made a few friendly acquaintances around town.

Currently, Seyari was out checking the road for lack of anything else to do, while I sat in our nice warm room watching the silent, snowy village through the frosted panes of the window. It could be worse—I could have an uncomfortable room. Perhaps it was the only one available, perhaps the innkeeper didn’t want to piss off the demon, or perhaps he just wasn’t a jerk, but Seyari and I had a cozy, small room that was probably the most comfortable accommodation I’d had since Lockmoth. The atmosphere was certainly better than the rotten fish smell of the port, but all the social anxiety more than balanced out the positives.

Everyone in our group had also been taking watches at night, just in case, which meant Seyari and I hadn’t gotten to break in the too-short bed. Shame, that.

All this meant that when Nelys knocked on my door and told me they heard something important, I was torn between cozy laziness and a burning desire to do anything. They bounced into the room at my hand wave and hopped up on the bed, facing the window.

I shifted around and sat down next to them. “What’s up?”

“You know those two guys who were waiting for you in the tavern the other night?”

I nodded, but frowned. Seyari and I hadn’t told anyone else about that incident.

Nelys pumped their fists. “Guess what?”

I waited a moment for them to continue, but they didn’t. Now realizing what I was in for, I laid back down on the bed, tilted to one side for my tail, and got comfortable before I replied, “Okay, what?”

My overly excitable friend smiled wide. “They attacked you ‘cause the last people who came into town just before the storm were real jerks. Stole some stuff, and even got their friend to go with ‘em when they left.”

I didn’t even glance outside, I just pointed in the direction of the window with my tail’s spaded tip. “They left into that?”

While it was true I hadn’t seen Hector or another traveling group in town, I simply assumed they avoided the town somehow, or were staying where we hadn’t gone. This place was no city, but for a remote mining town it was pretty big. And with the cold welcome I’d gotten, I hadn’t seen fit to go poking my horns where they weren’t wanted without good reason.

After a long glance out the window at the snow-buried road leading away from the inn, Nelys sat back down. “I guess it is weird, huh. See, Wick said that he and his brother’s friend Byrt said he was going with the people who stole to find a really powerful artifact or something.”

Oh no. I propped myself up on two elbows and worried my other two hands in my lap. “Did either Wick or his brother say where they thought Byrt was going?”

Nelys shook their head. “Nuh uh.”

“Do you think they know?”

“Nope.”

I tried to think what could be around here for them to go to. “Do you think they could’ve gone to an old mine near here?”

Nelys’s eyes brightened. “That’d be neat! Probably bad still, though.”

“Might also be too easy of a guess. And there’s probably a bunch and they’re all buried in snow right now.” I sighed. “What about Hector’s group—the ones chasing the other group?”

“Those guys were really mean.” Nelys shrugged. “They didn’t take anything, but they acted like jerks, so Wick and Lloyd didn’t pay much attention to them.”

“Are they still in town?” I asked, a little confused. “And who’s Lloyd?”

“They’re not in town, and Lloyd is Wick’s brother.”

“Okay, so the missing one is Byrt, and Lloyd and Wick wanted to prevent me from doing something worse than luring their friend away from town to leave with a bunch of suspicious thieves.” I counted the two in town on one hand, the missing on the another, and I crossed out the missing with a finger from a third hand. “Is that right?”

“Yep!”

“So why attack me?” I groaned. “I get they wouldn’t ask me for help, but what would attacking me do?”

“They thought you were gonna kill everyone for ‘knowing too much’ or somethin’. Like a demonic enforcer.”

“Why did they think I’d know about that?” I narrowed my eyes. “And why would I look like a demonic enforcer—I was carrying a wagon! Shoeless!”

“Have you seen how awesome—I mean professional—I mean actually awesome—your black scary company outfit looks? Y’know, like the actual definition or awesome? I’m still learnin’ a lot of Ordian words, and I keep finding out people don’t say them like what they actually mean, but I guess that’s not so different from other languages,” Nelys said fast enough that I could barely keep up.

I looked down at what I was wearing, a thick wool shirt over a thin nightshirt, and then to the open closet with my company outfit. Maybe I should go everywhere in a nightshirt? “Oookay, I get that. But that doesn’t explain why they thought I was some kind of demonic thug?”

Nelys gave a shifty-eyed look around and leaned in to whisper, “Because Wick said he and Byrt saw one of the caravan people with their human suit off.”

“Human suit?” A shiver ran down my spine. A glamour? Or something more?

Nelys giggled. “S’what they said!”

“Is that why they didn’t take the nightsbane from Hector’s group?” I whispered. “And why steal at all then? Why not keep a lower profile?”

“I don’t know, and I’m not sure,” Nelys replied, leaning back away from me, and turning to flop onto the bed face first. “But the reason I came here is that I think you should help. Because I don’t think anyone else is going to. And Wick and Lloyd are really nice, actually.”

“I didn’t think they were mean!” I asserted. “I might’ve been a little rough with them, but they ambushed me and Sey, you know.”

“Mmmniknow,” Nelys said into the bed.

I looked down at my claws and traced along the edge of one. “I’ll help them.”

“Thnnks.”

With reluctance at the thought of leaving my nice warm room, I got up and walked to the closet, putting a hand on the company outfit. When I touched the leather, I couldn’t help but smile. The company symbol and the outfit I had with it were proof that, even if it wasn’t permanent, I had legitimacy and a place to belong in a professional sense. “Look at me now, Abby,” I whispered.

“Hmm?” Nelys asked.

“Just thinking of an old friend,” I replied. “Could you give me a minute to change? We’ll grab some supplies and head out straight away.”

***

“It’s too cold!” Taava complained from under her bundle of several mismatched coats. “This whole country’s too cold!”

“Even Lockmoth?” I asked, genuinely curious. The city wasn’t the northernmost in the country, but it certainly wasn’t the frigid south.

“Honestly, yeah.” Taava kicked a snow pile and yelped when her foot found a buried stump. “Why’re we out here anyway, boss?”

“We’re helping Wick and Lloyd!”

“Then why aren’t we meetin’ Wick an’ Lloyd?”

“‘Cause they’re real scared of Renna!” Nelys explained as if it were the most obvious thing ever.

I shrugged sheepishly. “If we need any more information, we can find them. I want to go find Myrna first and see if she has any insight as to where they could’ve gone or if there’s anyone in the town who won’t give me the cold shoulder. And in the meantime we—”

“Cold shoulder? Really? In this weather?” Taava interrupted, darting through the snow of the square to stop in front of me. “Ya coulda left me in my nice warm room and gone yourself!”

I looked around the square at the buildings sitting quiet in the snow, midday activities only evidenced by lit windows and the few people moving outside—all of whom were staring at me, including a certain familiar trader and her bodyguard I could see headed our way. Myrna carried a small, but sturdy-looking box.

“Point taken,” I replied. “I was trying to say that we can—”

“Then I’m goin’ back inside!” Taava announced.

I grabbed her shoulder gently, but very firmly.

“What were you trying to say, Renna?” Nelys asked.

“Myrna’s here,” I announced, pointing at the approaching merchant with one hand and spinning a grumbling Taava around with another couple. “Oh, and I was trying to say it might give some time for Seyari to get back into town from checking the road, but I guess we’ll have to go find her.”

“I’m surprised to see you out of your room,” Myrna remarked. She glanced at me and Nelys in company uniform and then at Taava’s coat rack impression. “Something come up?”

“Yeah!” Nelys replied. “We’re investigating some trouble, and we want to know if you’ve seen or heard anything that could help.”

The well-practiced ease of Nelys’s question caught me off guard. I’d known they and Aretan had spent some time working with the guard in Lockmoth, but seeing the typically informal Nelys so professional made me oddly… proud? Not my place, I suppose, but we are all technically professionals. Even Taava.

The merchant frowned, shoulder slumping. “Probably not. Trading’s been a mess. Me and Phol have to convince everyone we’re not some sort of demon cultists. Most people don’t believe the nightsbane thing, but at least we’re not using up any more of my stock if Zarenna’s not near them.” She shot a glare at Taava.

“It was one sprig! One!” Taava protested, breath coming out in a puff. Her ears twitched irritably under her hat, but her tail was pinned down somewhere in the mess of fabric.

“And in the inn?”

“…Two.”

“And for getting meals the past day?”

“Okay, fine it was a… an amount. But you’ve got a whole bag!”

“Yes. A whole bag to sell.” Myrna took a step toward the inn. “Anyway, we’re talking somewhere warm. And private.”

“So you found something then,” Nelys asked.

Myrna looked over her shoulder but kept walking. “Yeah. Not out here though.”

***

“We just left!” Taava complained, stripping down to her normal outfit once we were all in Myrna’s room, save Phol, who was out in the hall on lookout.

“Do you want to be outside?” I asked, sitting carefully on a too-small chair.

Taava paused, and her ears perked up. “Yeah, alright fine. Good point, I guess.”

“What did you find?” Nelys asked Myrna.

“An item that was sold here and blackened a sprig of nightsbane.” Myrna picked up the sturdy-looking box on the bed and handed it to me with a grimace. “From what Phol and I can tell, the magic doesn’t come through this box, which I ­also had to buy.”

I took the box in two hands, unsure of what do to. Oh, sure, I could see auras. Recognize ones I knew even, but I had little knowledge of how to tell a demonic aura apart from a non-demonic one. Nelys stayed uncharacteristically silent, while Taava quickly made her way to the opposite side of the room from the box.

I must have been staring, because Myrna spoke up next. “Should we leave the room when you open it?”

“I… don’t know,” I said. “Sey’s the expert on these sorts of things, but she’s checking the road out of town right now.”

“Is it leaking any magic?” Nelys asked.

“Oh, right!” I perked up. “Yeah I can check that.” The check revealed nothing, so I shook my head and continued, “We wanted to ask if you know which way the last groups out of town might have left, Myrna. They should be Hector’s and the group Hector is chasing.”

“Even if it seems like an unimportant detail, anything could help!” Nelys chipped in.

Myrna put a hand to her chin. “Let me think.”

While we waited for Myrna to think of anything that might help, Taava perked up, her ears swiveling. “Someone’s comin’.” She frowned. “A lotta someones.”

Out in the hall, I could now hear a pair of bootsteps coming swiftly up the stairs—and they weren’t alone.

“Is everything alright?” Phol asked outside the door, voice muffled.

“Just business,” a voice I recognized as Kent said coldly. “Stand aside.”

“Myrna!” Phol shouted. “They look ang—oomph.”

The wall shook from a solid thud and I leapt to my feet. Taava and Nelys drew blades. With a swear, Myrna drew a knife as well—though she moved to a corner of the room.

“Shackle him!” Kent shouted. “We’ll decide what to do with him once the demon’s dead.”

I tensed and ran to the door. This was bad—really bad. Why now? Just as my hand touched the knob, a heavy boot kicked it in, and I barely kept my balance with my tail. Two hands on the door, I pushed into the hallway to shouts of surprise.

I tossed the door down the empty hallway, and glared at the half-dozen people, two of whom were subduing Phol, who’d not managed to draw his weapon. I narrowed my eyes and met Kent’s furious gaze.

“What.” A lick of flame escaped as I spoke, casting a brief light in the dim hallway.

“I knew you were evil,” Kent replied, and he thrust with his shortblade.

I didn’t stop his attack, but when the blade bit into my flesh, I realized my mistake. Overconfidence. He caught me in the midsection with the enchanted dagger, and drove it to the hilt. Grunting in pain, I grabbed his wrist, shattering it, and wrenched his arm and blade away from me.

Kent screamed as more bones broke. “Kill her!” he shouted, falling to the ground.

Before the others could act, I devoured their rage, and the fervor in the hallway snuffed out. Confusion and fear replaced it, and I stepped forward. The bleeding wound deep into my gut burned and sizzled, the flow of blood thinning as it started to heal despite the injury. Behind me, Taava bounced out of the room, Nelys likely staying back to guard Myrna.

“What do you mean ‘I’m evil?’” I growled, a drop of my burning blood hitting the floor between my feet.

“Kent!” Someone shouted.

“We killin’ em boss?” Taava asked, her form tight and ears alert.

“No.” I shook my head and took a step toward the militia, stepping over the downed Kent. “What. Did. I. Do?” I hissed each word out, claws tensing with each syllable. I kept alert now—a magical attack to the right area could end everything. I caught a whimper and my eyes snapped to the target.

He was one of the brothers who attacked Seyari and I the other night. “Y-you monster!” he shouted.

“What did this ‘monster’ do?” I asked again, my patience quickly running thin.

Another, braver soul spoke up. “You tried to corrupt us!”

“How!?” I roared. “I’ve done nothing since I got here but sit in my inn room and come downstairs for stew!”

“You attacked us!” another cried.

“You attacked first! What else was I supposed to do when I got stabbed? I didn’t even attack when you kicked the door I was about to open right into my face!”

“Your thralls!” the same young man, either Wick or Lloyd said. “You had your thralls ahead of you! You sold tainted goods and corrupted Byrt!”

Shit. What a misunderstanding!

“Do you think I’m corrupted, Wick?” Nelys shouted from the other room.

“You must’ve tricked us into spilling what we knew!” the same man, Wick I now knew, shouted back.

“What!?” Nelys shouted. “Hey that’s not it at all—I was just trying to help. Renna and I are gonna go find Byrt and try to rescue him!”

Kent groaned on the floor.

“Does anyone know how to set a splint?” I asked, the sudden question throwing the others off-guard in the tense atmosphere. “We can talk when Kent’s been seen to.”

“Why do you care, demon!” Wick accused, bravery gaining momentum, even if I disallowed him rage.

I strode forward, shoving the other militia members aside until I stood right in front of Wick. Next to him, Lloyd took a defensive stance. I leaned down to eye level, met Wick’s gaze and said, “Because maybe I’m not as evil as you think I am.”

Wick stuttered.

I continued, “Why would Nelys need to trick you to get you to tell them about Byrt, if I orchestrated it? Why would Myrna buy back a tainted item and then take it right to where I was staying in the middle of broad daylight if I sold it to you in the first place?”

Kent coughed. “Because… you’re playing us all for fools.”

I wanted to tear my hair out. “I am going to find,” I growled low, standing up and hissing flames, “whatever demons are giving me this kind of reputation, and I am going to rip their spines out.”

Around me, the militia shrank away in fear, the last of the fight leaving them. Kent coughed again, struggling away on the ground.

“Hey, uh, boss,” Taava interjected. “Might wanna tone that whole ‘Sovereign a Wrath’ thing down a bit if ya want ta get along with folks.”

I tossed aside the sting of Taava’s words and took a deep breath. She’s right. “Fine. But the next person who tries to stab me is leaving here through the wall.”

“What are you going to do to us?” Lloyd asked, his voice a lot softer than his brother’s.

I hissed a sigh. “Nothing. Make sure Kent is okay until Seyari gets back. She’ll heal him, and then I’m going to go after the assholes who sold you tainted goods and conned your friend into leaving with them. And none of you are going to try this shit again, got it?”

I actually got a couple nods, but mostly received fearful stares.

“Hey, boss?”

“What, Taava?”

“What about the contract?”

“It’s—” Myrna coughed to clear her shaking voice and continued to shout into the hallway. “It’s fine by me. The wagon’s still getting fixed anyway, unless you lot saw fit to sabotage it. Oh—and I’m not paying for the damage to the inn.”

Phol, having stayed quiet and still this whole time, took his chance and broke out of the hold he was in. He strode past everyone and back into the room. I imagined he would have slammed the door had it still been on its hinges.

***

Unfortunately, Seyari wasn’t back by sundown. Double unfortunately, the town was afraid of me now. At least I probably won’t be attacked again.

Myrna knew little else that could help, so I held onto the box with the artifact in it, sent Taava and Nelys to search for any more around town, and watched out my window for Seyari to get back.

Just as the twilight was fading into night, and Taava and Nelys returned with one more item wrapped in about a dozen sacks, Seyari came walking up the road toward the inn.

I looked at the sacks, the box in my hands, and Seyari trudging through the snow alone at this late hour and wondered, Why can’t it ever be something simple and easy?