"It has to be a demon," Laurel said as she stared across the table laden with plates of food.

I shrugged, gnawing at what looked like a haunch of meat, but what Laurel told me was actually a mushroom. It tasted a bit like beef, but it wasn't as stringy and a bit too soft for my liking. Swallowing another bite, I wondered if I could ever get some normal food again, Earth food. Still, this was the best breakfast I'd had in a while.

I swallowed the last of the not-meat and grabbed a handful of small purple vegetables that tasted like sugared olives before turning to her. "Haltir hasn't been back yet?"

"No. As I said, he left before you arrived last night and didn't say when he would be back."

I nodded, my mouth full.

"You shouldn't go back there," Laurel said. "Not until Rathica makes more Primes that can help you."

"I don't have another choice. Unless you know another way to make it so nobody recognizes me?"

Laurel frowned, and her mouth opened a few times as if she wanted to say something. I stopped myself from grabbing more food.

"What?"

Laurel looked around the almost empty common room that was the main area of the inn. Two Grablons were sitting by the bar, chatting as they drank from their mugs. The other tables were empty. She seemed reassured and turned to me, leaning across the table.

"Tell me again how you got here, the first bit with that Guidar?"

Wondering what was up, I began explaining how I'd arrived in the alley, but she interrupted me.

"No, no. Before that. You told me something about picking races?" Laurel said, a look of distaste on her face.

"Oh, that," I said before thinking back. "Yeah, I was floating bodiless, and then I met this guy I thought was an NPC at first. He was of the same race as Haltir, and he showed me vague images of the different options."

Laurel nodded, leaning even further towards me. "Then what?"

I shrugged, trying to figure out what she was getting at. "I picked the Grablon body and fell down, all weak."

"Nothing else happened? No tingling or odd feeling in your body and face?"

I tried to think back, but all I could remember was the wind on my face.

"I can't remember," I finally said.

Laurel seemed annoyed and began mumbling to herself incoherently.

"Laurel, what is going on?" I said.

"I went to the small library here and looked into some books I remember seeing in the academy. They are about body stealing spells, mostly on how to revert them," she muttered before gazing at me again. "If you summon your status, what does your avatar look like?"

I grabbed a small piece of fruit and stuffed it in my mouth as I did as she asked. My own four-armed self was looking back at me, bright-eyed, muscled like a gymnast on steroids, and wearing ripped and dirty leather armor. As I looked at it, I realized any sense of not belonging had long since left me. The body felt so familiar there was no difference with how I had felt during the years I'd been in my own human form.

"What am I looking for," I asked.

"Is there anything that seems odd about your face?"

Inspecting the face, I was about to say it looked perfectly fine when I realized something I hadn't noticed before. The face on my Grablon form looked a bit like my old human one. It was leaner, a bit squarish, and lined with thick and dark hair that was growing far too long again. It was more like how two relatives would look alike, but the similarity was there.

This can't be a coincidence, I thought as I examined my entire physique. It was harder with the body as I'd never been muscular before, but I did think it looked overly familiar.

"I look like I did as a human," I muttered, closing the window and staring at Laurel.

She sighed, and a look of relief flowed over her face. "Alright, that will make things a little easier!"

"Explain?"

She opened her backpack and removed a small book before handing it to me.

"Just read this. I need to go and get some things to prepare," Laurel said as she got up before moving towards the exit. "Stay here! Don't go outside!"

I absently waved at her and looked at the thin, leatherbound book she had given me. Recognizing demon possession, stood in small white letters on the cover. I flipped through it quickly and realized it was filled with descriptions of spells and how to recognize them. There wasn't any actual spell inside, or at least none that I found, which made sense to me.

While slowly consuming the remainder of the food, I began skimming through it, reading parts I found interesting. Most of it dealt with the physical or personality changes and markers that every spell left behind, ranging from the obvious ones; horns, elongated teeth, and other types of mutations to far more subtle ones like discoloration of the iris or hair that grew back too quickly. Some reminded me of old myths from back on earth, and others didn't ring any bells.

Roughly halfway through, I came across a short entry that made me blink in surprise and reread it.

"Flawed Resurrection. An ancient practice that is not used anymore. This spell is meant to reunite a soul with its body after death while retaining memories. Although seemingly superior to normal resurrections, it leaves the body open for souls other than the original inhabitant. Resets the body to the most basic state before inserting the soul. It is easy to recognize, as the body will morph to resemble the soul inserted if it isn't the original occupant. It does not lose all original features. If doubt arises, below is a list of spells that can be used to detect if the body has been altered."

Below the short entry stood a list of unfamiliar spells and a small supplement.

"One of the most difficult spells to cast. Likelihood of demon usage, low. There are far easier ways for a demon to steal a body."

Probably not for Guidar, I thought. Based on what I'd read, it seemed this was likely what they had done. Although… I began skipping through the rest of the book. I found a few more resurrection spells that changed to the body, but none that made as much sense as the Flawed Resurrection one.

Most of the plates were empty by now, and I got up and stretched before looking at the exit. I wanted to have a look in the city, but that would have to wait until it was safe.

A few minutes later, I was sitting on a soft bed in my small rented room. The steam from the hot shower I'd taken before still hung in the air, and without a window it was hard to get rid of. A few of the chunks of wood I'd taken from the library lay beside me. The biggest was as long as my lower arm, and I was inspecting them. I wanted to make something I could use against Ellis and Richal.

Perhaps some form of insect? I wondered if that would work, creating something that would crawl through their ear or nose and perforate their brain. Taking out my knife, I began diligently working, deciding to make something as best as I could, instead of rushing as I had with almost everything the last weeks.

--

"You're sure he is inside?" Haltir asked Laurel as he knocked on the wooden door of Est's inn room again.

"By Lischen's tits, how should I know? I told him to stay, and Belsir said he hadn't seen him leave," Laurel responded, grinding her teeth. Her hands were wringing a small book.

"Don't rip it apart," Haltir hissed before banging on the door. The wood shook and shivered, and a warning shout came from below.

"Stop it, old man! You're drawing too much attention!"

"Say's you -"

--

I stared at my two friends who were about to argue, yawning lightly. "Stop causing a scene in front of my door," I said before beckoning them in.

"Why didn't you answer me?" Laurel hissed as she ran inside before stopping midstep, causing Haltir to collide with her.

"Why'd you stop…" Haltir's voice petered off as he stared at the things I'd made that were lying on the bed. He turned to me, a solemn gaze in his eyes. "Seriously?"

I wasn't sure what he meant by that, but closed the door and moved to the bed. Long carvings of ear crawlers with elongated and pointed mandibles lay on the bed. The carvings were as long as a finger and thinner than my pinky and looked downright nasty.

"Laurel told you what I found in the library?" I asked as I picked up the one I had been working on when they began banging on my door.

"You found two Primes and then somehow summoned some Primal demon into that place?" Haltir grunted as he moved to the far end of the room and sat down on the only stool.

I nodded. "That's about it. Let me finish this quickly."

I began working on the last part of this ear crawler. The intricate mandible needed to be able to get in and do the job but still be strong enough not to snap. Slicing small bits of my hands worked automatically.

"Est!"

I blinked and looked up. Haltir was still sitting on the stool, his head against the wall, eyes closed and softly snoring. Laurel was sitting on the ground beside him, looking at me in disbelief.

"That's enough. I'm not going to sit here as you craft another!"

What? I looked at my hands and saw the unworked piece of wood in them. The ear crawler I'd worked on was finished and lay beside the others. Had I finished that and started work on another without noticing? Putting the wood and the knife down, I turned to Laurel.

"Sorry. When I start working, I somehow get lost in the moment," I said.

Laurel was wringing both her lower hands while holding out the booklet she was carrying. "It took me a while, but I found one of those scanning spells that was mentioned below Flawed Resurrection. They are pretty common amongst demon hunters, but there aren't many of those here."

I opened the booklet that was only four pages long, with a small text on the first page.

"Detect physical anomalies. A staple of all who hunt demons, be they Rarions or Gleberdeckers, this scan will highlight any bodily oddities in the target. No matter if the demon is using illusion magic or shape-changing, the spell will burn bright if anything out of place is found. Pay attention. This spell won't help with detecting what is different or how to undo it."

A list of twenty-five gestures stood below it, and I shivered as I saw a few new finger gestures I'd never had to do before. They looked positively bone snapping. I handed the booklet back to Laurel.

"Alright, can you cast that?"

Laurel grinned sadly. "No. I was hoping you could learn it?"

I shook my head, not even bothering to count how many months it would cost me to learn the twenty-five gestures. "I only have a learning rate of five…"

Laurel sucked in her breath, then leaned forward, her eyes wide in disbelief. "How's that possible? You have so many spells, and some of them have a dozen gestures or more? With how long you've been here, you should have six at a minimum."

At a minimum? I frowned as I recalled that the highest known learning rate was seven, and most wizards only had five.

"I don't have that many, just a few. I had a temporary boost for a while," I said before explaining to her how I'd learned the spells.

Laurel sighed sadly, looking at the book in obvious displeasure. After a moment, her shoulders lowered, and she clenched the book and rose.

"Fine. I'll do it then."

"You have a learning rate of six?" I asked.

She nodded absently as she moved to the door. "Yeah. Sadly, I do."

I was about to ask why that was something to be sad about when she turned to me and shook her head. "I'll tell you about that another time, alright? I don't feel like talking. I'll go to my room and start. It should take me about a week to learn it. Don't do anything stupid until I get back."

"I'm going back to the library," I said before she could leave.

"What? No! That's suicide!"

"I've got a plan!" I said as I pointed at the small insects on the bed.

"That will maybe work on those Primes, although I doubt it, but what about that Primal demon?" Laurel said, her hand on the door as if she was going to rip it off.

"I'm going to try and ask Rathica for some help," I said.

"How? There is no temple here, and you have no statue to pray at!"

I grinned and moved to the other side of the bed. Hidden from view was a small arm-length statuette. It was an almost finished perfect representation of Rathica.

"I'm going to see if I can make a temple for her here!" I said, looking at the still snoring Haltir. "He probably knows a good spot."

Laurel shook her head. "Promise you won't go out unless you talk with Rathica first!"

"Don't worry. I'll be careful," I said, which wasn't actually a promise. Laurel seemed to realize that immediately, and she bit her lower lip before opening the door. "Fine. Just be careful then."

Then she closed the door, leaving me with Haltir, who had one eye open, staring straight at me.

"She is afraid you might die, boy. You might want to be a bit more careful with her feelings. I think she sees you like family!"

Family? I looked at the now closed door as I wondered if that was true. Except for Nana, I didn't have a lot of family. None that I liked anyway. My parents and I didn't see eye to eye, and I'd never had any siblings. Although I liked Laurel, and we had been through a lot, I wasn't sure if I saw her as family. She was a friend, though, and I didn't have that many of those either. Especially not here.

"I'll tell her when I'm leaving so she won't have to worry," I said before turning to Haltir.

"Did you hear what I told her?"

Haltir yawned and scrambled up before stretching himself. "A place to create a temple for Rathica? Sure, I know of a place. But we have to be careful now that this Nimron returned. He might not like having another Deity's temple in one of his cities."

"Let's let Rathica worry about these things?" I said as I began packing the insects into the bag and ignoring Haltir's disgusted looks.

"Sure. You wanna go right now?"

"Yes. I don't know how long I have till things aren't as calm as they are now. I need some answers and a ranged attack."

Haltir grinned and moved to the door. "Fine, let's go and get us some premium real estate for Rathica's third temple!"