Demon possession reminded me of a smoky shadow over a banked flame, distinctive in how the two markedly different essences shared the same space.

But only because I had looked directly at them.

Otherwise, I probably would have dismissed the demon's lesser-seeming presence, like the many insectile sparks of life I'd learned to ignore. Or depending on the distance and degree of attention, I might have thought the human -- the host -- was entwined with an insensible lover, or perhaps cradling a pet of dubious sentience.

That demon was hiding itself so very well.

But why? And how? And what was it doing here? Despite my persistent fears and preferred caution I had relaxed somewhat after our earlier briefing, expecting no demon would actually limit itself to two victims in such a... a petty, unsubtle fashion. And could its unfortunate host, who my brief glimpse suggested could pose as the poster boy for heroic adventurers, possibly be the former bullying victim of the stories? Or was this another demon, or same demon different body, or...?

I had so many questions. Of course, I should have first asked myself: what to do? Try to act naturally? Hurry my friends in the opposite direction as fast as possible? Or... perhaps I might act first, ask myself questions later?

Objectively speaking, freezing in place was quite possibly the worst possible choice of action. Or lack thereof.

However, the sight of the demon when I'd just begun to relax and expect extended socializing had shocked me. Then my friends had thrown me for another loop, and my mind meantime kept spinning, spinning most unhelpfully. (I even thought about how thinking these things was useless, which did not stop said thinking.)

Yes, after spotting the demon I just stood there stupidly. The best thing that might be said was that I managed not to outwardly stare.

But wait. My friends were staring or peeking. Or unabashedly ogling.

I needed to warn--

"Hi, we're Team Thornado," the silver-armored lady said. "Came here to clear pests. And you are?"

She seemed polite and friendly if slightly guarded and secretly miserable. Bessie stepped right up to introduce us in turn, during which time I examined the statuesque adventurer more closely while pretending not to observe the distant demon.

Honestly, from the descriptions of Team Thornado's heroics, I had thought they would be more powerful. But at least judging from this fighter's aura, I suspected they were Silver-Rankers like us. The only reason Silverlady and her presumed demon-possessed teammate looked a league above us was their better armor.

"Here on a mission," Bessie said, and my attention snapped back in a hurry.

"Excuse me," I said, my voice possibly strained, "Can I have a word with my teammates in private?"

My friends looked back at me, surprise showing plainly on their faces (except Blake, thanks only to his hood). I couldn't help thinking we were terrible at this whole deception thing... even though I was the only one who realized our situation.

"Er, give us a moment?" Bessie was quick to back me up despite her confusion.

She started to lead us back the way we'd come -- I could have cried in relief -- which is when I felt it. A burst of power.

I didn't have the time to react, even to cry out a warning, before the demon dropped out of the sky before us, cutting off our exit, in a single leap boosted by his air magic. He performed a three-point landing and then spun upright to face us, showing off the handsome face and figure of his host, his pale hair streaming, golden mage armor gleaming...

...and I belatedly stumbled back a step and cast: "[Mana Dome]!"

Fortunately, it flickered to life in time, keeping the demon on the other side.

Less fortunately, Silverlady was included within my Dome. Though she was just eyeing me without attacking. She didn't even move her hand to her mace's hilt. In fact, she felt concerned and a little pitying, possibly because I was breathing raggedly, fighting to keep calm, and looked scared rather than dangerous.

If I had to guess... she probably didn't know.

"Rena?" Hannah said, and this was it, I should...

"I'm sorry if I startled you, miss?"

I almost startled again as the demon actually knocked on my Dome as though jokingly requesting permission to enter. He was smiling and even had the audacity to appear contrite...

But his message came through loud and clear. Those knocks looked like playful taps and yet had hit like a rat minion body-smashing full force. If he came at me seriously... I doubted I could hold this shield against him for longer than one or two blows.

And still he was smiling.

I wanted time to stop so I could plot my next moves. I wanted... but I was draining my mana, and as I looked around, my friends were on alert but also worried for me. The surrounding emotions I sensed were mostly just amused; whispers and titters drifted over from the nearest townsfolk. This was a peaceful party, or had been, and I...

I dropped the shield. I wasn't yet ready to paint the day red, to turn the sounds of laughter into screams. I did not know what to do, but... I wasn't ready for that.

"Rena?" Hannah asked again, and I answered, "It's fine," even though it wasn't, because the smiling demon was strolling closer to a distance where he could so easily kill me a thousand different ways, and I was trying hard not to think of that because he could probably sense my fear, but then if he already knew what did it matter, and I should say something even if he killed me, killed us all, I should...

What a disaster! We were only supposed to report it!

While I threw a private panic party, I could hear my friends lamely excusing me because I was rather sheltered and unused to sudden movements. Also crowds, Bessie said laughingly, and if we could just have a moment...

"Oh, I think she will be quite all right," the demon purred, his voice so confident that I did become slightly calmer. I looked up and immediately felt pinned under his gaze, like he could see right through me. And because of his clear green eyes, I knew the demon wasn't even using his... its powers. It blinked, languidly, and then asked with such sincere interest: "I'm sorry, what was your name?"

"R... Rowena."

I licked my dry lips. His calm manner made me relax further despite myself. I was struck again by how incredibly handsome he... no, his host was, and knowing a demon lurked underneath only made me more interested in cracking open his secrets.

Imagine how much he knew! And so long as we were just talking, he wasn't attacking anyone, right?

Some niggling thought told me I wasn't reacting normally. But this was so much better than my earlier cold-drenched fear, and I was good at avoidance... I dismissed the thought.

"And is this all of you?" the demon was saying.

"All five of us, yes," Bessie was happy to volunteer. "What about your team?"

So at least the exchange went both ways. But I'd no sooner thought that than he turned the conversation back around to us individually. I thought of interrupting, of stopping her from answering...

But in that moment his eyes met mine and my courage and voice deserted me. He hadn't even done anything overtly threatening.

The worst part was that I couldn't convince myself my silence must be because of his Skills. At least not primarily.

No, perhaps the worst was his host, who wasn't struggling or cooperating, not raging or encouraging, just there, filled with guilt and resignation... and this was someone who seemed so much more competent than me, yet he lay like a limp unresponsive doll as the demon used his body to say, "Whatever mission you have, perhaps we can be of assistance? You know they are calling us the Saviors of Milbaro."

"Don't get a big head." Silverlady scoffed. "We took care of nettlers, not wyverns."

He staggered back with a hand over his heart, his eyes fluttering shut. "You wound me. But at least someone here is impressed by me... isn't that so?"

The demon turned a suggestive smile on me and winked. But... but what did he mean by that? He already knew that I knew he knew... right? Was he just messing with me? I couldn't read the answer at all from him, besides which his eyes had long since drifted away, and then I heard a sound I belatedly recognized was Bessie giggling.

"Our Rena is just shy," she said, as I suddenly realized how I must look. Losing my voice in his presence, staring after him dumbly... "But you are very impressive."

I thought I should naturally be pale with shock and fear, but my traitorous body flooded my cheeks with color.

However, my reflexive mortification and disgust also gave me a clearheaded moment wherein I realized I needed to make a decision. As much as I wished I could turn to my friends for advice, at the moment turning to them appeared to be a decision in itself, forcing an inevitable confrontation.

(We would not be here if not for me. But then I'd also been the only one to vote against coming.)

"A demon?" My head jerked up, but it was the real demon speaking... scoffing. "Ha! Isn't that ridiculous?"

(Yes. This whole situation was.)

"Don't worry, with both our teams here I daresay we can handle a single demon. Rowena, is it? Just needs to point one out, and I am confident in striking down the enemy in an instant."

I stared at his grinning face, feeling chills at the hidden threat... if it was intended as one. Or was this... demonic humor?

Silverlady rolled her eyes. "If we really found a demon here, we should report it. Not get any dumb ideas."

Argh, this was agonizing. Would she believe me if I pointed the finger at her own teammate? Would their other two teammates? Even if everybody believed me, could we win against this demon, possessing this host? And finally, even if we did win... could we manage it without horrific losses?

Perhaps this was why the demon hadn't drained the townsfolk yet. It was saving them for just such an occasion.

But if I didn't reveal him... then what?

And all the while the demon kept engaging my friends in conversation. Did we have comm-crystals? Why yes, Hannah did, and only her. She was happy enough to hand hers over too to exchange contact information.

While I restrained my reaction, Bessie groaned long and hard. "All right, already, we'll get our own. Enough signals from the universe."

"That's what you said last time," Tom said.

But I hadn't considered the worst possibility: before I could react, Hannah blushingly volunteered that she needed to check in with the guild every thirty minutes. And the others apparently saw no problem with this unprompted disclosure.

Suddenly, I started to doubt how natural the demon's charm could be. Or were my friends normally altogether too trusting?

"You should call back now," the demon suggested, "Give yourself another thirty minutes."

"Oh, good idea." Hannah beamed.

"Wait," I said desperately... but nobody even seemed to be listening.

I closed my mouth, feeling it was hopeless. Here I stood on the sidelines, and all I could do was pathetically watch as an open robbery was conducted under broad daylight, everybody but me smiling.

My eyes latched onto the comm-crystal as Hannah picked it up, clearly intending to follow through. My blood seemed to move sluggishly in my veins. I thought suddenly, wildly of waiting until the opportune moment of check-in and shouting: "Demon!"

Perhaps a bloodbath might instantaneously follow, but that would be my duty, wouldn't it?

"Why don't I show you around?" My gaze snapped from Hannah's blue crystal back to the demon she was claiming either wasn't here or wasn't found. "To help you look. You should talk to everybody you can, right?"

"Um... but..." I stammered incoherently.

If he had tried to drag me off alone, no doubt about it, I would have screamed. But perhaps he sensed this, because he did the opposite; he 'escorted' me into the celebratory crowd. And proceeded to actually introduce me to a seemingly endless stream of townspeople by name.

Why was he doing this? I couldn't help staring at the demon a little incredulously. I had read demons saw us as resources or toys or barely worth noticing, but he knew everyone's names? I couldn't even remember a single one, though in my defense, the situation... all right, maybe I wouldn't have remembered anyway.

Was he proving a point, that he cared enough to know these people? Introducing me to a parade of hostages that could double as his emergency supplies? Simply playing his expected part? Or did he have some other goal?

Like Hannah and her comm-crystal. Glancing back, I thought she was still communicating with the guild, though I couldn't be sure. Now might be the time to shout a warning... while surrounded by all these innocent people?

The demon's gaze was a taunt, or perhaps a bluff, but I could not rise to meet it.

Except I could continue to smile and nod, smile and nod as he directed me. I wasn't entirely sure why I was going along with this, except... it felt polite. Uselessly polite, when the demon's presence should void social niceties, but I couldn't seem to break ingrained habit, to go off script without screaming 'demon' at the top of my lungs like a loon.

I had said and still believed we weren't ready to face a demon. But I had thought if it did come to this, everything would at least happen quickly... which I supposed was still true in a sense. I felt like I were in a living nightmare of the demon's creation, where he rushed me from scene to scene, giving me glimpses of autonomy only to weigh me down with helplessness again.

At the same time, doubts were starting to creep in. He didn't seem so terrible as I'd assumed all demons were. He had personally done nothing unforgivable that I knew of; maybe he didn't have an ulterior motive for harming only two people and leaving them alive. And hadn't I given a dungeon and an undine a chance? Should I really assume demons were evil monsters solely based off what was printed in books?

Too soon and at long last, we left the crowd to take seats and drinks, though I wasn't actually drinking mine. I somehow sensed this was the time finally for private conversation, and sure enough the demon cut to the chase:

"I propose a deal," he said. "Deceive your guild on my behalf, guard the secret of my existence in this world to the best of your ability... and you and your four friends can walk free."

I felt a bit of hope blossom in my chest, but... then I hesitated. "Will... will you swear not to harm anyone? To the best of your ability?"

"Child," the demon said, "Would you swear to such a thing?"

I paused and blushed. "Um... bad wording." I was suddenly reminded I was before an ancient being from a different world, even if he looked just like a (good-looking) human; self-consciously, I straightened and said, "You know my intent. Can you suggest terms that would satisfy both of us?"

"I will agree not to harm others except for with the other's consent, or by accident, or for nourishment, or in retribution, or out of necessity. Does that satisfy?"

That was... an unfortunately long list. And I did not know if I could successfully trick the Adventurer's Guild; I would probably be questioned with a truth stone. But most importantly...

Was this really the right thing to do?

"What if I say no?" I had to ask, despite dreading the answer.

His eyes glinted. "Oh, I have other deals to offer. But I expect you will find them less generous..."