Amma was born from the Void alone. She knew of no family or friends. She knew of no world to tread on, nor sky to gaze on. She knew of the void, and she knew of herself, and so it was that she existed. As she existed, she began to think it strange that she should exist alone. Thus, Atie was born from the Void and Amma, and from the void, space was separated.

*****

The Endless war raged as it always had and as it always would. There would be small respites of peace, some prosperous pauses that beckoned to what life could be. Now was not one of them. Here was a peace born of death. Peace found after the conflict had raged, burned, pillaged, raped the land and it’s people till nothing remained. Not even war. The Demon Lord now walked alone through the former battlefield and basked in this unlikely calm.

The place was silent as the grave it was, sombre in the way it must be, and the soft squelch of footsteps sang mournfully in the stagnant air. Above, the sky was the monochromatic grey of clouds threatening rain. Below, the once fertile earth was now an endless stretch of mud and destruction. Still, the Demon Lord walked on; uncaring of the miserable setting, barely taking notice of the growing miasma of blood, bile, and rotting flesh. It permeated the low lying fog which seemed to claw and dance around the stoic figure's slender legs.

A raven cawed, and the carrion birds descended onto the feast below. Corva would be among them, the ancient spirit more loyal to her nature than even her most mundane brethren. The Demon Lord smiled at the thought. Erin would have laughed at that if she knew such an upright and proper being could lose all sense of decorum come mealtime.

Was that Erin’s laughter on the wind? Impossible. Wind did not travel in tainted air. No matter, the Demon Lord had long since accepted their insanity.

Bare feet sank in the mud, missing a severed hand only an inch to the left, unheading, the march forward continued. On the next step, a foot shattered a small glass vial, its shards pressing harmlessly at impermeable skin, scraping away mud, gore, and blood, though none of it belonged to this demon. The vial was of familiar make and leaked an equally familiar light green liquid, that could replenish stamina. It had been a long time since the Demon Lord had handled one of those. They were common enough to come upon just about anywhere but, well, what kind of Demon Lord would need a minor stamina potion?

*****

“Next!”

Maya called out to the unusually long line approaching her small shop’s till. Unusual because any line at all was rare in her small general store. That the line made up as many as more than her average customer base per week was only a footnote. The most notable peculiarity, however, must be that all those lined patiently in her shop were Heroes.

“I’d like to buy some basic gear.”

“For two Denna and fifty Aes, I have a boiled leather vest and gauntlets, a dagger, two health potions and a stamina potion.” Maya listed off the items and prices verbatim. She’d given up on actually providing intelligent customer service and instead now offered whatever cheap weapons and armour were available at inflated prices along with her home-brewed potions.

“I’ll take it!” The customer said it without discernible time for consideration and rushed out the door as soon as his purchases were in hand. She doubted any of the Hero’s really cared what they got beyond that it worked, provided some modicum of protection, and was affordable with their strict five Denna budget.

It didn’t take long to figure out the spontaneously appearing Heroes all arrived with the same amount of money. On top of being horrible at bargaining, they all wore identical clothing and made nearly identical requests. They were even universally handsome. If Maya hadn’t known better or asked directly, she would have thought them all family.

“Next!”

With a perfect smile and overall amiable demeanour, Maya continued her day as she did all those before. The regular rush of Heroes at the opening was followed by shop housekeeping. Occasionally, her ‘former’ customer base would find the nerve to swing by and save her from some tedium usually after all the Heroes had filtered through. Some showing up most precipitously during an inconvenient moment. Like when Maya was working in the back, teetering on a stool organizing the top shelves, or like now; massaging the aching muscles of her cheeks.

So came in Aina, carefully on the lookout for potential eavesdroppers and approaching as a hunter might follow a trail. Maya watched all this, hands still frozen to her cheeks like a deer perking up in an otherwise quiet clearing. It made sense; Aina was the hunter’s wife after all. That also seemed to be where her problems were stemming from.

“Maya,” she asked feigning nonchalance, “You wouldn’t have happened to have seen Boyd with any of those Hero ladies, would you?”

“No.” A simple answer was best, Maya thought.

“You sure? You know I overheard Tracy and Alda just this morning talking about him heading off into the woods with one. Not just this morning but last week as well! And he hasn’t been at home, what with going on hunting trips.”

“So? He’s a hunter, he goes on trips. Occasionally he even takes on help.”

“But with a woman!?”

“Yes, you go with him all the time, right?”

“That’s why I’m worried! Can you imagine? Boyd and some Hero hussy hiding close in a bush stalking a deer. Only, the deer is not as attractive as the woman beside him and he leans in closer, his hand reaches for hers, she blushes, their faces now only inches apart!”

“Aina, Aina dear. Please. That is very specific.”

Ainas’ face tinged red.

“Clearly you two love each other dearly. Your mind’s just running away from you.”

“Are you sure? I swear, that man has been off on his own more often than ever, and whenever I ask, he always brushes it off! That man is hiding something, I know it.”

“Aina, I’m sure it’s fine. He’s probably just going out farther for hunting. Ever since Heroes started appearing here, they’ve been hunting like crazy, and it’s probably hard for him.”

“Yes, those battle crazed Heroes are hunting little bunny rabbits. Maya, you know they only bother with monsters and the occasional wolf. They leave as soon as they possibly can; our town’s too insignificant.”

“And thank the spirits for that.” Maya sat down on a stool and began to rub her aching feet.

Sure, all the new business was nice. Void, she had enough money to feed her family for a year with this month’s profits alone. There wasn’t much to spend all the new money on after all. In a town as small as Cairn, her own general store consisted of a good portion of the buying options, and traders only came by once a red moon. There was a baker and a smith, but those options didn’t lend well to a shopping spree. Life was simple here and subsisted on simple means. The not so simple Heroes had only been coming for a week, and she was already sick of them.

“It’s people like you that make this place so boring,” came a new voice.

“Erin! Just the girl I was looking for, tell me, have you seen my husband acting odd lately?”

“Can’t say I have Aina,” answered Erin as she sat herself on top of the counter before Maya and pulled at her friends' shawl. “I don’t know why you bother with these horrible things, your hair’s so pretty, you should show it off.” Maya eyed the pale blue fabric she had embroidered with fireweed and compared it to the long dark strands made loose by Erin.

“I like the blue better, and you know exactly why I wear it. You should be wearing one, too. It's dangerous!” Maya made sure to give Erin a rather pointed stare to get her point across; this wasn’t the first time they’d had this argument and it certainly wouldn't be the last, but a girl could dream. Maya pulled a green shawl down from one of her display shelves and held it out to Erin. “Here, put this on.”

Erin scrunched her freckled nose in disgust, eying the light green cloth like a filthy rag. “I’m fine. Besides, my hair is such a curly mess that no one will notice my horns anyway.”

“Because they don’t know to recognize them and the people around here frankly don’t care. Cairn isn’t as isolated anymore; we have to be careful.”

“I’ll leave you two to your argument. Just don’t take so long you forget to eat again alright?” Aina said waving the two girls goodbye, neither taking any notice. Maya because she was dedicated to getting her friend in a shawl and Erin because stubbornly shaking your head, hands-on ears, bright red tresses bouncing, left one poorly predisposed to noticing anything.

A lengthily back and forth and a bribe of sweets later had Erin sitting disgruntled, a shawl carefully draped and folded over her head. Maya smiled, satisfied that her intuition had been right; that shade of green did suit Erin.

“Stop sulking, you look great!”

“I feel like a granny,” Erin muttered.

Maya smiled gently, shaking her head. Erin could be such a child sometimes, you could hardly guess that they were the same age of twenty, and it wasn’t just because of Erin’s small stature.

“What did you come here for anyway?” Maya asked.

Erin visibly brightened.“I gave a quest! There was Hero who asked me if there was anything he could do, so I told him about how boars had been messing up my garden and how I’d pay him a denna if he dealt with it.” Erin took a deep breath and hurried on, excited for the next part, “Veuce recognized it as a quest! A real quest, Maya, just like in the stories. Imagine If I could just go on a quest with them! Maybe next time I’ll phrase it differently, so they have to bring me along? How could I do that...” Erin trailed off.

Maya recognized the ponderous look on her friend's face and simply smiled. There would be no getting anything out of Erin when she got like this. It was a slightly wistful Maya that looked out her shop’s window to the small clearing of half paved dirt called a village square and observed the people walking by. The sky was reddening—it would be evening bell soon—they’d lost track of time again. With a soft sigh, she set about closing the shop, first closing the shutters then boxing away items too valuable to be left on display. Maya was careful to lock everything up tightly. Regardless of her friend's Hero worship, Maya would never trust the strangers.

With that line of thought, Maya pulled a bundle from a hidden compartment behind her shop’s counter.

Erin perked up at the thump it made as she set it down on the worn countertop.“Hey, will you let me try it out?”

“It’s not a toy, and I’m trying to do maintenance on it; lending it to you would be the opposite.”

“I resent that!” Contrary to her outward defiance, Erin didn’t press the matter further.

Maya gently unwrapped the sword and set out her cleaning and polishing tools. Just because it was not in use did not mean the metal could not rust. Her mother’s sword was far too precious for her to let that happen.

“If I had a sword half as nice as that one, I know I could be a Hero.”

“It’s a good thing you don’t then. I couldn’t stand you running off to Wind knows where.”

“I’d take you with me! And we go on all sorts of adventures too, saving the helpless and vanquishing villains.”

Maya just smiled and polished the blade.