“It’s smells nice. I like blonde.” She said, her eyes fixated on the lump of hair.

Lian simply nodded his head in submission, just as Leo had done before him. Salem’s voice was sophisticated yet disarming. One second her words were smooth and clear and the next set would feel razor sharp with threats hiding between every syllable.

“Where are you from?” Asked Salem while she put his hair in her pocket.

As Salem dipped her hand into her pocket, her military persona appeared to returning to her. Her voice began to sharpen and her posture grew larger.

"Don't make me repeat myself Ezekiel. I'm sure you don't need me to repeat the...unforgiving rules of New Dwarden. Unless, your not from here and intentionally seek to do harm to the city. I suppose you wouldn't know right from wrong here anyway." Said Salem with a threatening undertone.

Salem began walking around Lian, examining every dust particle on Lian’s person, intentionally keeping the papoose like pouch containing the baby and the fox for last.

"I-I don't know. I lost my memory." Said Lian.

“What is inside that pouch behind you.” She asked standing directly behind Lian, as if she knew it’s contents.

Her words slowly slithered into Lian's ears, constricting what little sense of safety he had left. Lian could only stand stand stiff as she rustled the pouch off of him. Lian could almost hear her voice demanding cooperation, yet not a single command was necessary.

"Why are you walking with a baby and a...dog?" She questioned with interrogative force.

"..." Lian froze in fear.

“Leo! Are you going to stand there or help me?!” Her shoutes echoed through the clearing, even dispersing the numerous silhouettes behind Lian.

“YES. YES. Yes. yes.” Leo muttered in submission.

“Hold the dog in here. I need to see the baby.” She demanded, her voice stiffening.

Salem grabbed the baby from the large pouch and cradled it into her arms. The baby was awake. He laid surprisingly calm in her arms, simply chewing on a large rubber-like ring, likely provided by Nessiah.

“When I was 14, I used to take care of a lot of cute little babies...just...like...this...one.” She spoke to Lian, fixating her gaze on the baby.

“They weren’t mine though, they belonged to a very fat woman in a very wealthy family. Her husband cared for her deeply and yet… his words never seemed to reach her, only his money did. She shouted and shouted all day into she gasped for air in the night, ceaselessly raising more kids then she knew what to do with. Her husband would often be away working for most of the week, while she kept her 15 children in line. Anything she or her kids desired would often arrive in the form of a lump sum of talons.” She continued while gently caressing the baby.

“One day her children got older and half of them had grandchildren. Suddenly six kids and four teenagers became six kids, four teenages, and eights grandchildren. After some dispute within her family, she hired me to help out.

You see… I never liked kids, but my mother thought it would be cute if my first job was just like her first job. This was our chance into getting higher up the social ladder. My chance was hers. She thought I would be a natural... just like her.” She explained, gritting her teeth and nodding her head between words.

“At first I thought it would be simply taking care of only the little ones, but eventually after a couple of months I began heading to the demands of even the teenagers.” She said, widening her eyes.

“Now Ezekiel...people higher in the social ladder don’t believe they follow the same rules as you or I, they seem to believe to have their own rules. ” She said running her finger down the babies head.

Lian became panicked, his sweat began to peek out from under his hairline and his eyes shifted carefully into hers. Even as he peered deep into her eyes, her mind appeared elsewhere.

“One day they call me upstairs, into the attic of there very large home, claiming to have spilled juice all over the mattress in the guest room. I had just turned 15 at the time so I was experienced with cleaning messes, so ofcourse I accepted to clean it.

As I took my first couple of steps upstairs, something was different.” She said while her finger traveled down to the babies shoulder.

“The door closed behind me and locked. I didn’t think anything of it, aside from it being one of the numerous pranks that would be played on me throughout the day. That day was different, they wanted something different. They didn’t care for me very much…, I was simply a piece of tissue they would use and re-use, something utterly inferior. Unfortunately I didn’t notice until it was too late.” She said as her index and middle fingers walked down to the baby’s wrist.

“First the four teenagers muffled my voice with a small towel, strapped me down, and tied me to the guest bed. Then the kids would have there turn as they began playfully poking at me with white hot iron pokers all around my body. After that, the kids jumped all over me while singing there nursery rhymes, and finally when all was said and done they simply left me their to starve for about a whole day. I was merely their plaything, an outlet for there curiosity. ” She continued.

Lians eyes were widened, his eyes fixated on Salem’s. She appeared almost as if she was in a trance. Lian wondered if perhaps now would be a good time to grab the baby and make a run for it but just as he thought about it, Salem’s grip on the baby grew tighter, tight enough to scrunch the babies face into pain.

“They knew no one was coming, as I would often stay over a number of nights in succession to bring home extra talons., and still they simply left me up in the attic. After most of them forgot about me, two eventually came back, two teenagers who were hell bent on showing me what it meant to grow up...and they did.

My mother shook at the prospect of exposing the family as the rotten pieces of garbage they were and labeled me a liar out of fear of the repercussion our family would have versing theirs and...my job was the job that ensured our family name was heard.

I returned to work day after day that summer... their ”pranks” only got worse.” She said, her head turning to Lian.

Her eyes ignited in rage as her grip on the baby tightened ever more. The baby began to wail louder and louder, trying to frantically remove it’s arm from Salem’s unforgiving grip. Lian’s body was losing control, he twitched with anticipation and anxiety, arguing amongst himself on when or if to attack Salem.

“Ms. Black!?” He shouted to no response, her grip only tightened.

“Right at the end of my beloved summer there, two of the teens and a toddler had a bright idea for fun; ...they trapped me in a room...and pulled out a knife to scare me. They thrusted there small knives blindly and poked at me until I begin to pee myself in the corner of the room. I was scared. The toddler soon joined in and set my hair on fire with a match the teenagers had lit. They simply laughed...actually they laughed so hard one of them dropped a knife. Suddenly I could only see red, even i don’t remember much except reaching for that knife. One teenager, and one little toddler lie dead right in front of me. At first I was scared but after looking into the eyes of another with fear -fear born from me, my breed- I began to smile. Before he could get-up and run to the door, I stabbed his legs and put a towel in his mouth. Shortly after, I broke every bone I could, be it through jumping, with a hammer, anything I could find. It was self defense.

Long story short, I framed the boy with murder. I ran out of the house when no one was looking and pleaded to an Arc Soldier that a demon boy and his unruly family was cutting-up his household. The blood and self induced stab wound assured he had to believe me. The boy was a rambunctious brat in the time I met him, so selling him as a demon was easy” She explained with a very large and pleased grin.

“After that… I assured that family was no more. Even going so far to BREAK the bones of every little toddler who had stepped on me before.” She said, the baby screaming in agony.

“That’s right, I came back years later and called justice upon every piece of Aeronean garbage in that house, not as Salem…” She continued.

“But as Arc commander Salem Black!” She shouted proudly while breaking the wrist of the baby before her without second thought.

"Don't, DONT, DONT, DONT!" Huffed Lian in unnverving sucessoin.