Rana held a potion in her hand, examining its contents with an unreadable blank stare. The single small bottle had the power to heal even the most grievous of wounds, to bring back life from the verge of death. Yet like what it restored, it was also just as fragile. One mistake, one misstep, and the bottle would shatter and its contents lost forever. It could restore what remained, but it could never bring back what was lost.

She looked at the skin beneath the bandages covering her arm and mulled over why the liquid did not work on her. She remembered tried using a healing potion, and just one drop induced a stinging searing pain that reminded of what awaited her beyond death. It was an expected result, but it provided more questions than answers.

Before Rana could ponder what it meant, she noticed the fiend still glaring at her. She realized she was holding out the potion as if she was taunting it, threatening it. The optics were certainly improper. She needed to talk to the fiend, and judging from its behavior it was a proud one and definitely would not take her gesture kindly.

“I have a proposition,” Rana said as she placed the potion in front of her. “I will trade this potion for the information you have in regards to the details you and your human correspondent were discussing.”

The fiend continued to glower at the zombie but also stole several quick glances at the potion. It was pondering how to snatch it and escape, maybe killing the monster in front of it in the process.

“Do not try it, fiend. You must’ve realized my body is still gathering mana. Your condition right now is too frail to cross the distance before I could form a Spell,” Rana said and did not falter from its gaze. The fiend was frustrated at her weakness, but she also sensed more personal anger. Was it because she called her a fiend? If someone were to refer to her as a zombie, she would not care because that was what she was. However, the term fiend was designated by humanity, not fiend-kind themselves. “Tell me, how do you want me to address you? I presume it would make our conversation much more amiable.”

She could tell the fiend was taken aback by her suggestion and was pondering her request. She knew that fiends and humans were sworn enemies since the dawn of ages, but she wished they wasted no more time on pointless caution. The plots and cunning she needed to maneuver around during the past few days were exhausting already.

“It is not a difficult decision to make,” she said as she sat on the dirt, choosing an area soaked in the least amount of blood. “I know you prefer not going down without a fight. Accept my offer so there is a chance for you to fight another day.”

The fiend was quiet and broke away from her gaze. Rana wondered why this fiend was the one who infiltrated the kingdom. When she was an inquisitor, she also had to fight fiends on certain occasions as they were sometimes the sources of treachery and corruption. However, unlike the ones her sister told her about, the fiends she fought were schemers and tempters. They were unlike the one before her, who was clearly of a warrior bred.

“I’m Alpheia,” the fiend said. Her voice had a hallowed echo that vibrated with each syllable, a ring that no doubt tried to hide her uncertainty. It was almost too human. “How do I know what you say are truths and not lies?”

Rana wondered that herself. If she was still an inquisitor, her lying and making empty promises was unthinkable. She was a seeker of truth and defender against the distortions of against the world. She did not lie, she struck them down. However, now she was not so sure anymore. Lying required the subversion of truth, yet she did not know what her truth was, and she knew that she would have no qualms about breaking her word now. She owed the fiend nothing, not her word nor her loyalty.

“You don’t,” Rana finally said. “I know of the eternal war between your brethren and humankind, but as you can see, I am not someone that could stand on either side, not anymore. The only thing I can do is declare my truth to you. My loyalty is to my sister only, and I intend to know what happened to her. As long as you do not stand between me and the truth, and am not your enemy.”

Alpheia pondered for a moment before putting back on her mask. She stared at her palm and sighed as if resigning to whatever decision she just made. The fiend then began telling her story. She was part of a warrior tribe that served the largest fiend faction and the leader of the war against humanity. When their leader challenged for the faction throne and was killed, their tribe was recruited for the war effort. The lands past the Blood River were one without order, brutal and unforgiving where the weak perished and the strong survived. They fought and became stronger and if not, they fought until they were not strong enough to survive.

Rana was surprised to hear that the fiend-kind was not united in their conquest of humanity. Infighting, betrayal, and vying for power was a common occurrence. The only reason their war effort did not fall apart, was that the largest faction was commanded by the most power fiends, and the zealous hatred they had for humanity was shared by all fiends. Whenever Alpheia spoke of humans, hatred burned in the fiend’s eye. She wondered if Alpheia’s willingness to speak with her, was because she was not a human anymore.

“I was sent past the borders to extract one of my kin, but when I arrived at where we were supposed to meet, her whereabouts became untraceable. When I went to her last known lair, I was ambushed by human hunters and had to fight my way in, only to discover it being inhabited by a human scholar. He was researching what my kin discovered, and I decided to enlist his aid. He was the enemy of our enemy, a tool to be used, nothing more,” Alpheia said. Something felt amiss, but it was not what she said. It seemed like she was trying to rush through her encounter with the human. However, it wasn’t important so Rana let it go. For now. “We discovered that the heretics at the Temple of the Hated One had a scheme that could turn the tide of the war, and my kin was trying to foil it. The humans were trying to uncover an ancient artifact that was supposedly lost after the Great Breach.”

Rana listened intently. While it was interesting to know that fiends referred to Church leaders as heretics and that the day High Tower fell was known as the Great Breach, something else caught her attention. Could it be?

“The heretics had found ancient texts left by the Dark Paladin and they lead to the five rings of the Sage. After learning of this horrid truth, we also realized that there was no time to report back to my leaders as the humans were already on the move to acquire one of them. So, I decided that I needed to decipher the code left behind by my kin and foil their attempts. When I was away from the settlement, the druid came and burned everything down. At that point, I was about to leave as I lost my lead, but then I saw some humans escaping and I feared they were sent by the druid to deliver the information. I sent my summons. Then, you should know the rest.”

Alpheia finished, but the fiend definitely lied during several points in the story. However, the key points remained truthful, and for now, that was what Rana cared about. Before she was to decide her next course of action, there was a question she wanted to ask.

“Do you know anything about the Dark Paladin?”

“No, not really. I was still a child back then and only heard of stories,” Alpheia answered. Rana suspected such an answer, the fiend did look rather young. Still, she prompted Alpheia to share whatever the fiend heard. “I know that she appeared one day, slaughtering both fiend and human in a ferocious warpath towards High Tower. Fiends were quick to open a path, but the humans stood their ground. She fought the Grand Paladin, slew him, and ushered in our advantage in the war. Then, after several battles, she suddenly disappeared, just like how she appeared.”

“Thank you,” Rana said to a confused Alpheia. She then continued before the fiend could ask anything. “I have a proposal. I aid you in deciphering the text and stop whatever the Church is planning. I can even provide critical information about your enemy that could aid your war effort.”

“How? Who are you?”

“I told you, I am a zombie magus. However, before that, I was also an inquisitor.”

“You are a headhunter? They should’ve perished one hundred years ago. The Dark Paladin made sure of that.”

“I didn’t know fiends called us that.”

“We are the Moon-kin, not fiends,” Alpheia said, but this time she was guarded and ready to fight. It was not because Rana called her a fiend, it was because the zombie was an enemy of the Dark Paladin.

“Noted. Yes, I am an inquisitor. The only thing I ask in return is to be given the artifacts if they belong to me. Do not worry, if I have no claim over them I would not ask for them.”

Alpheia remained unconvinced, and the red eyes told Rana the fiend was willing to sacrifice her life in an ensuing fight. The abrupt change caused the zombie to frown, but when the change happened after hearing about her being part of a group that was her sister’s enemy, she somehow felt the two could at least work together.

“I am an inquisitor, but I am no enemy of the Dark Paladin. She was my sister”

Alpheia’s eyes widened, but then they quickly narrowed.

“Then, what was her name?” the fiend asked.

“Mara was my sister, and I intend to find out what happened to her.”