She stared at the wall, covered in shelves. Shelves full of odds and ends, books and scrolls, and other little things that came from the Outside.

“You can’t even use all of this yourself.” She waved a hand at the mess. Even though it appeared that nothing was in order she knew everything had an order. “Why bother with it? Why obsess over Cheryl’s son? Why, Aridon?”

“Did you really come down here to start this over again?”

She closed her eyes and let her hand drop in her lap.

I’m so tired. Of all of this.

“No. I came to borrow your extra Will Bender.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m looking for that damned thing you created and I have a lead.” She decided the truth, at least part of it, was best in the end. “I want to ensure the human giving me information isn’t lying.”

She didn’t turn around as Aridon, after a short pause, went looking for it. He came back and placed the bracelet near her leg. She still didn’t look back at him.

“You remember how it works?”

She glanced at the prisoner. She didn’t know the man’s name. And after years of the Separation’s existence, where few outsiders ever got in, even she thought his coloring was odd. Not as white as a demon but not dark like other humans here.

Except for the odd human that happened to be descendents of the occasional outsider they brought in. Like Taiken’s beloved steward. How Lita escaped the blonde hair and pale skin she didn’t know.

Without her realizing it her back was slowly slumping as she thought. Unable to maintain her rigid, unnatural posture while depression lurked.

Useless thoughts.

“Diana?”

“Sorry. I’m tired. This madness started in the middle of the night.” She straightened her back and stretched.

“You’ve been working too hard.”

Aridon came around and she tensed. He pushed her legs apart so he could step in and wrap his arms around her but she wouldn’t relax into his hug.

“You’re not going to woo me into being happy with you.” She bared fangs at him. “Not this time.”

The demon laughed, startling her. “And yet I can tell it’s a struggle to deny me. Come, let me offer what little comfort I can give you.”

“It would be better if you’d stop being a moron.”

She relented, dropping her face onto his shoulder so she could hide the sudden tears from the prisoner. She hated having an audience, even if that audience couldn’t tell anyone about her weakness.

For a long moment she allowed him to hold her but refused to hug him back. And refused to really cry, voids it!

“Do you want to know why I built that dork?”

“You wanted to kill Cheryl’s son.”

He shifted and laughed softly. “I believe he will one day be a great problem for us. So, yes, I considered that a bonus. But that wasn’t why I built it.”

She sighed. I need to get back to the prisoners. She wrapped her fingers around the Will Bender bracelet by her leg.

“Why, then?”

“You were never there.” He lowered his voice, soft enough that she was sure only she could hear him.

So. He’s being aware of our audience, too.

“You never saw what the humans did to us. Not really, anyway. I saw so much.” He turned his face into her neck, pressed his eyes there. “It’s a wonder any of us escaped Eric’s fate.” Pause. “And Cheryl’s.”

Despite herself she slowly raised a hand and wrapped it around his shoulders. Smelled his distress, intuited the reasons behind it.

“What does this have to do with the dork?”

“Once I had it I was going to go on a journey.” She felt him grin into her neck. His smell didn’t change so it wasn’t a happy grin. “I was going to find Cheryl.”

She choked.

“You-”

“Actually, I’d already found her.” He straightened up and waved a casual hand at the prisoner. “The man who sold me that one is her current owner. I thought I could get there and back in a matter of weeks. Or wait for him to send her here and demand the return of this one.”

Diana frowned and again looked the prisoner over. He turned his eyes away from her’s.

So, he’s been listening.

“You’d break Contract with him?”

Aridon grinned. “No. The Contract with him is very clear and tight. I can’t break Contract with him. But I never promised not to destroy his pet demon.”

Destroy his pet demon.

She looked away from the prisoner and to the long tunnel back to the outside. Her fingers tightened even more on the Will Bender.

“She was more a devil the last time we saw her, wasn’t she?”

“A fiend straight from the void’s underworld,” he agreed darkly. “A real demon in nearly every sense.”

“Do you think it would really free her? Or would she be destroyed in the Void, too?”

Aridon shrugged. “Do you think it matters, so long as she’s not here?”

“It might.” She whispered it and then pushed him away so she could get off the table. “Don’t think I believe that that was your primary reason for this idiocy. But I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

She forced a smile and he bowed.

“Is there any way I can assist you further?”

“No.” She looked at the Will Bender in her hand. “This will do. I’ll return it when I’m done.”

Aridon watched her leave. Diana Veran, not the most beautiful demon in the world but that didn’t matter. He could love her.

Eventually.

She just isn’t Cheryl.

***

It was a small village. She crouched low, watching the activity below her. People busily ending their day. Many coming home from tending crops and animals. While others ending their work in personal gardens and making meals with young children rushing around their feet.

She could picture those possible scenes inside those homes.

Because it was so much like Ampheil.

For a moment, her mind stuck there and she lost her breath.

“Stop it, Lita,” she whispered, shaking her head and breathing deeply. “Supplies. That’s what I’m here for. In then out. No distractions.”

She followed a faint trail down the hillside, through rows of growing corn. The stalks were beginning to sprout and she was careful not to step right on them. Her only cover in this cleared farmland was growing darkness and boulders that hadn’t been moved.

There weren’t a lot of those.

At the last boulder before several hundred yards to an animal pen, the next nearest cover, she crouched and watched. In her arms the black dork felt heavy, wrapped in her shawl still. After a little bit of thought, she tucked it into the grass at the base of this boulder.

It felt like forever before the lights started to be blown out or die down as fires burned low. There hadn't been that many in the first place but she still watched them.

When the closest house grew completely dark she crept closer to it then quickly backed away at the growling of a dog. Of course there was a dog! Most of these houses will probably have one.

After some hesitation she decided coming to the house from the front was a better idea. Even then, she waited a bit. Waited to see if there was any movement inside, any whispers, any sign that someone was up.

She tried to stay in the shadow of a tree randomly growing next to the lane, nervously watching the other houses. Watching the street.

Inwardly she cursed the Void when two men stepped out of a cottage three down.

They were talking in low voices even as she quickly crouched on the other side of the tree, heart pounding. When she peeked around she saw the glow of a candle lit lantern then the fainter glows of pipes being lit.

They were walking her way.

“... do about... shortage?”

“They said we’ll have to go to the Palace for lights and warmers.”

One of the men cursed softly. “Voids! The demons won’t take much, if anything, for all that. But the lighters…”

“They’ll be demanding more than usual.”

Both men grunted a curse as they passed her hiding place.

Then one of them abruptly stopped and she nearly gave herself away as her heart leapt and she nearly jumped to her feet.

He’d stepped closer to the tree and it took her an instant to realize he was pulling something off of it, not discovering her. Still, she pulled herself back sharply and slowly raised herself up with her back to the tree.

Ready in case she was discovered.

Her heart pounded so loudly in her ears that she almost didn’t catch what he said.

“Is this what the fuss was about?”

“Must’ve caught someone spying.” The second man, holding the lantern up a little higher, leaned over what his companion held. “I heard they were leaving pictures everywhere.”

“Poor girl.”

“If she was stupid enough to spy on the demons, there’s no ‘poor’ about her.”

Lita couldn’t see what they were talking about but she peeked over her shoulder, reassuring herself that the tree was still between her and the two men.

“The reward’s pretty good. Would buy what we need from the lighters this year.”

“For the whole village.”

“Makes it awful tempting…”

“You’d turn the woman over to demons?”

“I didn’t say that! But there’s plenty of men who would. Especially with the all the shortages and families to feed.”

“Put it back and let’s go. If we don’t get back soon, Father’ll come after us. I don’t want him breaking a leg ‘cuz he can’t see or stand straight.”

“He would, too.”

Their voices continued to drift lazily down the street. Lita held still, willing herself to blend into the tree as they came into an angle where she could watch them. They were nearly at the end of the short, village street when they turned into a cottage and disappeared inside.

When she was sure they were gone she rounded the tree and found the shadow of parchment nailed to it.

Such a waste of parchment! It was so hard for a human to make.

Not so much for demons, who could skin the animals and dry the skin in one movement. But it was still wasteful.

She tucked it into her belt and turned her attention back to the cottage.

The dog barked a couple times out back but she was pretty sure it wasn’t about her. Because the creature quieted as she put a hand on the cottage door fastenings and began to unloose them from the frame.

Come winter they’d be trading these blankets for thick skins to keep out the cold winds. Would be easier if they could just use wood. But there was never enough for just anyone to afford a wooden door when everyone needed firewood. Even that tree she’d been standing under would be jealously guarded until they absolutely had to cut it down.

She slipped into the building.

So dark.

The only light came from the fireplace, the fire moldering as it went out for the night. It made the already dark room gloomy, filled with shadows that could have been demon forms crouched in darkness.

She looked around.

Most of the family slept in two communal rooms just off this living area. She saw the flutter of blankets as a breeze blew at their doorways.

She could snores, too, and soft breathing and rustles.

Hurriedly she approached a stone counter and shelving set into the wall, scanning the shadows for anything useful. She could smell cornbread somewhere and it made her empty stomach clench with a sudden, fierce hunger.

When she found it she took one to eat as she looked for something to wrap other pieces in.

Guilt churned as she took half the cornbread and found a small knife, slipping it into the tied up rag along with the cornbread.

These people probably barely had enough for them. Someone would be sent to the Palace, or some other close by demon, to replace the knife. The only thing that kept her guilt from exploding was knowing that the knife wouldn’t cost much.

It was the food that might be difficult for them.

And it sounded like a big family behind those curtains.

She tightened the front door back up as best she could, her fingers nimbly feeling each chord in the dark. Then she went to the next house.

A sack. Blanket. She was pleased to find a dress sitting on top of a basket of mending supplies in the fourth house. Holding it against herself she predicted it would be a little too big. But better than not having spare clothes at all.

More food.