∼ The Iron Road ∼

Chapter - 019

Upon the drawing of dawn, the motley party of one red impling, reticent hooded girl, and bastard lad, sat around the fire lighting up their own little corner of the world in the morning gloom of the Heartweald. On a makeshift spit, a couple of squirrels roasted, courtesy of the now salivating demon who practically laid in the embers of the campfire as it watched the food cook with starved eyes, uncaring of the heat.

The impling had now followed these two humans for a while, and it still wasn't entirely sure why. But the idea of leaving the comforts of the girl's embrace or even the heavenly strips of dried meat that she carried around seemed like a mistake of the highest caliber to the small demon.

It also felt an inexplicable bond to her, faint but nonetheless real, something the demonic creature had never truly felt in its admittedly short life, making it rather reluctant to leave her to wiles of the wild without its protection. There was just something... almost instinctual that resonated within her to its own demonic existence. Stupid or not, it was its stupid human, and no one was going to tell it otherwise!

The crackle of the fire spoke loud as Eric and the girl were sitting on either side of the campfire, simply watching the odd impling and its antics. It was Eric who finally broke the peace as they had barely talked since nightfall. "Does it have a name?"

"He," muttered the girl, hugging her knees to her chest as she sat, waiting for the squirrels to cook.

"He?" Eric echoed questioningly.

She met his gaze. "He is a he."

"Oh... ah- sorry..." Eric paused awkwardly. "So, does he have a name?"

"I do not know if he has one, I do not have the proper version of [Identify] to scry creatures," She explained, cocking her head as she looked at the impling.

"So he's not yours?"

"No... I am no warlock."

Eric frowned. "Then why is it he's so attached to you - you also seemed oddly obsessed with the little guy."

"I- uh, what?" sputtered the girl, brought out of wandering thoughts.

"The way you stare at him - like he's nothing you've ever seen before. Certainly, I've never seen a demon before, but I wouldn't say that he's that interesting."

A long moment went by as the girl seemingly weighed her thoughts. "It's because... he should not exist..." She explained finally, if not vaguely.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That purple fire he conjured, to kill the man you fought with," The girl said.

"Y-Yeah..?" Eric concurred with a slight hitch in his voice at remembering the bad and very recent memory.

"It was a warlock spell - but imps can't conjure that magic." She explained. "Besides, he is not an imp, he is an impling, and implings do not have awakened cores yet, so he should not be able to conjure any magic at all."

"Wait? What're you saying? That he is using the skills of a class as a monster?"

"Either that... or, he has a class..." She said a bit skeptically, hesitant to say her theory out loud.

"What?" Eric uttered incredulously. "But aren't demons monsters?"

"Well, to some extent. Demons have always been considered to be the closest in between enlightened and monsters. But implings are demons, not daemons." She clarified.

"Daemon, demon? What's the difference?" Head spinning at all the terms being thrown around.

"Well, they are both demonic creatures but demons are monsters and daemons are enlightened." She began, her fretful and hesitant nature slowly fading away as she seemingly became lost in her explanations. "In the domain of the lords, the Netherworld, there too are cities of civilized demonic beings, just like in our realm."

"Huh..." Eric shook his head disbelievingly. Eric could hardly believe all that to be true. Being restricted to Aemsburg his whole life with no formal education to speak of, he barely knew anything about the world and why it was as it was. But still, even he understood the impossibility of the impling's existence. A monster with a class, a cross between the only distinction between the monsters and the enlightened since recorded history.

"And how do you know all of this?" Eric's question looked to have ripped the hooded girl from her enthusiasm as she instantly reverted back to being reclusive and timid.

It was a long few moments before she spoke up again. "I was an apprentice archivist, at Arcanum."

"Arcanum? That small magic country that is only a city big... like where the magistrate is?" Eric heisated. "Sorry, I've only heard about it from stories and whatnot."

"You could call it an institute for magic and knowledge, the city is only an accessory." She clarified.

"So how did you end up here, in the middle of nowhere? Mixed up in all of this?" Eric asked offhandedly.

She hugged her knees tighter, not meeting his gaze. "I-I... do not want to talk about it..."

"-Ah, I'm sorry." He blurted out hurriedly. "You don't have to, I was just curious." It was hard to see anything in the gloom and underneath that hood of hers, but a stray flicker of light from the campfire revealed no tears. At least she hadn't gotten sad again.

Eric let out a relieved sigh."I'm Eric, by the way."

She took a moment before replying quietly. "Ariadne - but Aria is what I usually go by..."

A howl suddenly broke the peace of their conversation, making the impling hypnotized by the food yelp and scramble to its feet. The hooded girl also looked panicked, head swiveling in every direction. It had been close, very close. A series of howls followed the first, these ones more distant, but still all too close for the girl and impling.

In the gloom of the forest just beyond, still not illuminated by the daybreak of morning as the dense Heartweald sought to repel the sunlight, a pair of yellow eyes peered out. A grey wolf.

Aria - previously known as nothing more than the "hooded girl", clambered to her feet, trying and failing to draw her dagger from the sheath at her hip. The impling too seemed to be readying for battle as his hands were crackling with embers of purple fire.

But Aria had to stop herself from drawing her blade when she saw Eric walk right past her with a thick branch that had laid in the campfire, alit with flame on its end. "Relax," He said to both her and the impling, calm as ever. Using his poor makeshift torch, he walked towards the end of their little camp, directly towards the golden pair of eyes. "Shoo-" He called out, as if to nothing more than a stray mutt.

And just like that, the menacing wolf and its golding eyes scampered off.

Eric turned to the still fretful Aria and said simply. "Wolves don't attack humans,"

"Truly?" She asked skeptically.

"It most likely just smelled the food and came to have a look - but yeah, he won't be coming back." Eric stuck his flaming branch into the ground, snuffing it out. "Come, we have to leave, we'll eat on the way."

"But did you not just say he would be coming back?"

"I did, but if he smelled the roasting squirrels, so did other things. Other things which might not be so inclined as to fear humans. Wolves are the best things we can run into in the Heartweald, we've struck it lucky so far, so let's keep it that way."

Nodding impassionately at that, Aria helped Eric kill the camp as they were on the move only moments later. Eating as they went, Eric did not drop his guard. He had already explained how dangerous it was taking out food in the Heartweald numerous times, and that it was only short of a miracle that they hadn't stumbled into a monster or just as vicious a beast.

But Aria, as malnutrition and frail as she was, wouldn't even survive the journey to the closest town, so they had only taken camp briefly after the small impling came running with two squirrels it had caught.

It was bright out, the morning having come about and gone - when they were finally met with the open vista of green and rolling land sandwiched in between dense and dark forests. A wide and uniform roadway disappeared off into the horizon, broad enough to fit more than ten large carriages side-by-side.

They had endured the Heartweald and come out alive, yet Eric looked even tenser out here than in there. "That is the Iron Road," Aria said, pointing to the stretch of gravel and rock. Sitting atop Aria's shoulder, the impling furrowing its forehead, it felt like this place seemed rather familiar, though it couldn't really place it.

"How long until we reach the town from here?" Aria asked, walking up onto the road and letting out a breath of relief.

"Tarren's Field should be about a day's walk away, I'm guessing," Eric said, looking around nervously.

"What's wrong?" Aria asked.

"It's just that... we're out in the open now, and I've never walked on the Iron Road before... I kind of expected it to be a little different, I guess? From everything I've heard..."

"It was built by the Iron people after the fall of their monarchy, running through almost all of Argon, from Lider to Bastion." Aria began explaining, the same fervor of enthusiasm taking over that Eric had briefly glanced from before.

"Sure it's big... but isn't it just gravel and stone?" Eric hesitated.

"It is actually crushed bortite, mined directly from the tip of the Spine in Ironholm. It is also one of the main materials used to create the Iron Gates keeping the beast hordes of the R’kai at bay. So, yes, as long as we stay on the road, we should be safe for the most part."

"For the most part?"

"Bortite is capable of warding off most smaller monsters, but not the larger and much more powerful ones, and it does not protect us from bandits and other humans." She clarified, lost in her explanation as she nearly stumbled, her blush even visible from underneath her hood.

"Guess the safety of caravans isn't all talk then..."

Aria nodded seriously at that. "You have truly never traveled out of your hometown?"

"The Heartweald is the only other place I know," said Eric, kicking a large rock off the road. "I was never allowed travel to another town or city by my so-called father."

"There are worse things than a controlling father..." Aria said, barely audible.

Eric snorted, shaking his head as he kicked another rock.

"Controlling is hardly the only thing he is his, I presume you've not been Aemsburg long?"

"Aemsburg?" Aria echoed questioningly.

Brow raised, Eric glanced at her. "The town, my hometown - from where we're currently running?"

"-Ah! Yes... I have not been there... long..." She blurted out, falling quiet again.

Eric was curious why she reacted as such but did not pursue it as she had already expressed that she did not want to talk about why she had ended up in this situation, to begin with. "Well, I'm the baron's bastard son, though he'd never admit that publically."

"That greedy old limpdick has never been able to produce any male offspring - except for me, the spawn of an accidental tryst with one of the local whores, and it has maddened him to no end ever since, sparing effort to show me his displeasure by making my life a living hell at any opportunity. But since I'm the only son, the only one who can take his heritage, of which that old prick is obsessed, he never lets me out of his sight despite keeping me at arm's length all my life."

"That is why you ran?"

"Yeah, partly..." He sighed. "I've had enough of him and that suffocating town... I wouldn't have survived another year if I had stayed." A silence ensued as Eric's last statement held a lot more meaning than the initial impression.

"What is that?" Aria piped up, after a while of trekking down the seemingly endless stretch of road, catching Eric's gaze which had been affixed to the ground he walked. In the distance, not too far and cresting a rolling hill, were what could only be a couple of wagons or carriages.