Damien strode through the slowly recovering city, the sounds of hammers and saws mingling with the crash of buildings being demolished. The piney scent of sawdust lay over everything. Three new lumber camps had opened up only a few miles from the city to try and keep up with demand from the builders.

After inquiring of several warlords on duty Damien learned his sister commanded a cleanup crew in the northeast quadrant of the city near the slaughterhouses. From the sound of it the crews were still pulling bodies out of the rubble.

Damien shuddered. Every day it seemed the body count rose by ten or twelve. He didn’t envy whoever had to keep track of that list.

Everywhere he went smiles and waves greeted Damien. He returned the greetings and kept moving, not entirely comfortable with all the attention. He couldn’t avoid it, after all he had received the Medal of Valor and later Uncle Andy announced him as the princess’s fiancé. Maybe if she gave up on the wedding he could go back to being anonymous.

Damien laughed at himself. It wasn’t like anyone would forget him just because he wasn’t marrying Karrie anymore.

As he walked Damien kept his eyes peeled for an intact shop where he might pick up a large flask of steel or silver. Ten blocks from the castle he finally found a general store that was open and appeared well stocked. Five minutes of searching the shelves turned up a quart flask in etched silver. It was far fancier than what he needed and Damien feared the etching might weaken the sides, but that was nothing he couldn’t fix with a little shaping. He almost balked at the two-royal price, but he didn’t feel like searching the rest of the day so he paid up.

It seemed prices on everything had gone up since the quake, though not as much as they might have. After a gouging merchant had been horsewhipped by an angry mob none of his compatriots had dared charge too much, especially for necessities. Damien eyed the silver flask with its ivy etching. Apparently the merchants were trying to make their extra profits off luxury buyers. Probably a good idea. No one pitied rich people.

I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to help you. I’ve never been very good at precise targeting of soul force.

“Don’t worry, once we get it in the flask, I can handle the rest.”

Now that he had his flask secured in his belt pouch Damien focused on the remnant of his soul force living in Jen’s sword and flew the rest of the way to join her. His sister’s crew surrounded a badly damaged tenement. Jen was standing well back and barking orders to the six men and two women yanking on ropes to try and coax the back wall of the building to land where they wanted.

She noticed him approaching. “Everyone take a break.”

The workers sighed and trudged over to sit in the shade of a nearby slaughterhouse. Jen stared at him with her arms crossed. “Well?”

“They agreed to let me keep Lizzy and she knows where we can find the demon.”

Jen offered a predatory grin and thrust a fist in the air. “When do we leave?”

“It’s a little late in the day. I say first thing in the morning. The last thing we want to do is face a smoke demon at night.”

“Smoke demon?”

Damien nodded. “That’s what killed Dad. They’re immune to physical attacks so no matter how fast he cut he couldn’t hurt it.”

“Then how am I going to kill it?”

“You’re not.” Damien showed her the flask. “I’m going to trap it in here and break the bonds connecting the demon spirit to the smoke particles. Once that’s done the demon won’t be able to exist in this world and its energy will return to hell.”

Jen frowned. “That doesn’t sound very satisfying.”

“What can I tell you? That’s the only way I’ve seen to destroy one of these creatures. If there were some way to let you hack it up I’d be only too glad to oblige.”

“At least I’ll be there to see it captured.” Jen glared at him. “You weren’t thinking of trying to talk me out of going, were you?”

He’d been thinking exactly that. “It never crossed my mind. This is as much your revenge as mine.”

“Good. We’ve got a few more hours of daylight. I might as well finish up here.”

Damien glanced at the wobbling walls. “Want me to pull it down for you? It’d be good practice for Lizzy and me.”

It certainly will be. It took your father and I months to fully sync our powers.

“Knock yourself out. I’m sure the others won’t mind.”

Damien frowned. How best to safely pull down those walls? He conjured a pair of hollow claws with his soul force then filled them with Lizzy’s power. When they grabbed the walls the wood shattered under the pressure.

Gently, Damien. Your power’s been doubled. You have to be careful.

Damien winced, both at his failure and Lizzy’s admonition. He’d only used a fraction of their potential power. How much gentler could he be? This reminded him of when he first started to learn how to use his soul force. It seemed everything he tried he ended up using too much strength. After several more crumbling efforts he brought the walls down with the equivalent of a butterfly kiss.

The workers all cheered and Jen shook her head. It wasn’t his most impressive effort, but at least the walls were down and no one had gotten hurt.

Well done.

Lizzy’s praise meant more to him than all the cheering in the world.