I watched as Elmidath finished filling her bag, based on the energy with which she moved it seemed she was more or less recovered. “Are we really going?”

“Of course.”

“Why? Just because your father said so? You don’t want to know why?”

Sighing, she set the bag aside and glared at me. “We don’t need to know why. Don’t you trust him?”

“I did, right up until that thing got lodged in his head. Now I’m not sure what to think.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, he’s still the same man.”

I rolled my eyes. “How can you know that?’

“Because he’s my father. I’d be able to tell if something was different about him.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Is there something different about him?”

She paused. “He just needs time to recover, then he’ll be back to normal.”

“So, you admit he is acting different then.”

“It doesn’t matter, okay? Everything’s fine.”

I wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince me or herself but I clearly wasn’t getting anywhere. At least they were similar when it came to their stubbornness, I could say that much with confidence. Fine, if this was what they wanted I couldn’t be bothered to argue any further. Whatever happened was their problem. I had no idea of what might happen once we got the village, but it was sure to be terrible. All I could hope for was that it wouldn’t require too much work on my part.

We rushed through the last of the preparations, and met Elmidath’s father outside. He was dressed in fine clothes befitting his station, though he brought neither armour nor weapons with him. I let out a long yawn as we left, which both the demons ignored. Of course. It’s not like they care how tired I was. They’d better not be expecting much of me, after all I’d been through, I was practically a walking corpse at this stage. Most of the servants had gathered to watch us leave.

I wondered what they thought of all this, it must be strange for them to have their dead master return so suddenly. Even more so as a shadow of his former self with a piece of solid darkness sticking out of his head. Then again, maybe the people of this world had a higher tolerance for such strangeness. It was hard to say, and right now, I didn’t much care either way. I just wanted this all to be over.

We trudged our way to the village. As much as I didn’t want to be there, the houses were a pleasantly familiar site after spending so much time beneath the manor. Now that was somewhere I didn’t want to return anytime soon. Particularly with Tagath’s disappearance. The poor bastard was probably long dead by now. With the former Lord Sarinknell in the lead, we stopped some distance away from the outskirts of the village. I cleared my throat to get the attention of my companions. “Now what?”

Elmidath’s father stared right ahead. “Bring me to where they harvest the Carnis.”

“Why?”

Elmidath glared at me. “Just do it.”

Grumbling under my breath, I led the way. We passed a few villagers along the way, but none of them stopped us. Though one of them did hurry over to me as we reached the tunnel and ask what was going on; Yuvina. I shrugged and followed the others beneath the ground. We walked through the tunnel past the workers, many of whom looked confused or annoyed at our presence, until we reached the great fleshy mass. Paying no mind to anything else around him, Elmidath’s father stepped forward. He closed his eyes and set his hands against the Carnis. Elmidath and I, along with several villagers stood and watched. I leant over to Elmidath. “What’s he doing?”

She said nothing, her expression set. Well, it’s not like I expected her to know. Her father held his posture, making no sound and barely moving. As this continued, more of the villagers arrived including Kortson. The old man glared at the interlopers, including me. “What’s going on here?”

Elmidath stepped forward to intercept him before I had a chance to say anything. “The business of Lord Elmidath, that is all you need to know.”

Cowed, probably by some combination of the demons’ combined status and the threat they represented, Kortson backed down and watched with the others. Though he did continue to grumble, along with many of the other workers. If I knew anything about what was happening, I would have explained it to them but telling them that I had no idea probably would just make them more upset.

The chamber grew darker as Lord Elmidath worked, until a flash of darkness enveloped the room and vanished; only then did he withdraw his hands. The spot where he’d touched had turned black and the discoloration quickly spread until every part of the Carnis in sight was covered. I was wondering if that was it, when the smell of putrefying flesh filled the room. The meat was already rotting away.

After a brief pause to inspect his work, Elmidath’s father turned on his heel and moved to leave. I wasn’t sure if the villagers were too shocked or if they were just too afraid of the Demon Lords, but none of them tried to stop us on our way out. If they weren’t going to say anything then someone had to and it didn’t seem like there was anything other than me to do it. “Elmidath, seriously what the fuck is happening? Did he just destroy the food supply of this entire village?”

The Demon Lord swallowed and gave me a little nod.

“Why? For what possible reason? Aren’t these people supposed to be your subjects?”

“I’m sure…” her voice quavered and gave out. After a deep breath she tried again. “I’m sure there’s a good reason for all of this.”

Yeah, she sounded real sure alright. Definitely nothing like a child doing as she was told for fear of her parent’s displeasure. If she wasn’t going to confront him about this then I would. I sped up and stepped in front of her father. “Whatever you’re doing, you need to stop. This is insanity. Do you have any idea how much damage you’ve done?”

The demon’s eyes were cold, devoid of emotion. “I’m well aware and it was necessary.”

“Necessary for what? What possible justification could you have?” I could sort of understand if this were war, but these were his own subjects. What possible gain was there in harming them like this? “And don’t you dare tell me it’s none of my concern.” I’d had more than enough of that particular line of bullshit.

His mouth twisted with faint distaste, and I was reminded of his dead brother. “This has nothing to do with the villagers. The Carnis was a hindrance that should have been removed a long time ago.”

“Then what about your subjects? Are they just supposed to starve?”

He brushed some dust from his coat. “They shall have to find other means by which to sustain themselves. Their loss is merely an unfortunate side effect of far more important work, scarcely worth considering.”

“And what is this work that’s apparently so much more important than their livelihoods?”

“I’ll show you.” And with that he moved past me and headed for the manor once more. Seriously? More walking? I might have been a bit more understanding of him if he’d just let me rest. As it was, I was ready for open mutiny and if I thought that would help, I would already have done it. Unfortunately, whatever was going on here would clearly proceed with or without me and I’d rather have some small say in it. I tried to draw some answers out of Elmidath regarding what we should do on the way back, but she offered only terse replies about waiting or silence.

The closest thing I had to a home in this world was the same as we’d left it and the former Lord walked right into the manor. This had better be the last thing we were doing. He stepped into the middle of the six circles inset in the floor of the foyer and sat down. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on whatever terrible magic he was going to bring forth this time.

Shortly after we entered, Korzan appeared and hurried over to me while Elmidath stood beside her father. “What the fuck is going on?”

“I don’t know; something bad.” I glanced over at Elmidath. “It’s probably best that you get everyone out.”

Korzan opened her mouth as if to ask further questions, but instead she just nodded and went to speak with the servants. While Korzan was busy with that, I went over to speak with Elmidath once more.

I knew there wasn’t much chance of me changing her mind, but I had to convince her of what was happening. “Look, I don’t know if he’s actually possessed or not.” Though I was pretty damn sure he was. “But there’s no way we can let him go through with whatever this is. He’s already done enough harm; we can’t let this continue.” She tried to look away again but I moved to stay in her line of sight. “Answer me. Do you really think this is okay?”

She pulled me further away until we were as far away as possible without leaving the room. “I know this is bad, okay? I’m not stupid, I can see what he’s going through. But this is the only way.”

I raised my voice, my self-control fraying. “The only way to do what?”

“You heard what that shadow said. He needs to pay his debt and this is how he’s going to do it. This is the only way that he can… come back.”

That made more sense than her being blind to what was happening, a lot more. But that only made it worse. She was actually willing to go along with all this? Who was this person? I knew she could be ruthless, but not to this degree. Did she truly have no humanity left?

It felt like I’d never met her before, yet this must be what she’d always been like. I’d just been wilfully ignorant up this point. As if there wasn’t enough awful shit to face in this world. I should have left her ages ago, when she gave me the chance. Well, there was no time like the present. “Fine. I’m done.”

“What?”

“I’m done with you and with him, I’m leaving.”

“What? You can’t—"

The ground shook beneath our feet, cutting her off. And it wasn’t just the ground that was shaking, it was the entire building. Which only heightened my desire to get the hell out of here. I staggered toward the front door across the suddenly treacherous floor. People were shouting, but it was hard to make out what they were saying over the rumbling of stone. The sound reminded me of our time in the tunnels, to the point where I was already feeling trapped. As the violence of the tremors grew, the building thrummed with energy.

I was nearing the door when I felt a surge of that very same energy pass through me. Frozen in place for less than the space of a second, I felt as if my body was light as a feather. When I could move again the weight of the world came crashing down. I had no idea what just happened and was no hurry to find out, not when that would mean staying in here. I finally pulled the door open and threw myself outside. Elmidath wasn’t far behind me and we both stared at the manor.

Arcs of pearlescent light played across the exterior of the manor before draining inward through the stone. He was using the manor to siphon energy, that much was obvious. But there was no way to know what it was intended for. I really should leave but I felt compelled to see what would happen. Watching wasn’t so bad if I wasn’t in the line of fire or required to do anything. It’s not like I actually had anywhere else to go.

The field of energy grew until the whole manor was obscured by semi-opaque light. It was hard to notice at first, but jagged little spikes were growing from the stone. Much like the ones that were everywhere in the tunnels beneath the manor. Did they serve some particular purpose or were they just side effects? They couldn’t be forming purely for the sake of aesthetics, I doubted whatever fell intelligence was behind this had such poor taste. Though they were literal demons, so maybe this was their idea of classy. Or maybe this was their idea of paper streamers, like for a party.

While such irrelevant nonsense was occupying my panicked thoughts, some smarter part of my brain was hard at work figuring out what was going on. It ticked over and I understood the point of all this. The presence that inhabited the tunnels below, whatever it was, was trying to create a permanent vessel. It never had any intention of releasing her father. How could it when he was so crucial to its plans? Without such a host, how else could it spread its presence across the land? It’s not like it’d given any indication that it would release him in the first place. That was just wishful thinking on the part of Elmidath and her father. I sighed. Fuck, this meant I had to do something about it if I didn’t want things to get a whole lot worse around here. Exhausted and resigned to my fate, I turned to Elmidath. “We need to stop your father.”

“Stop him? What’re you talking about? This is the only way he can be free.”

“No, it’s not. He’s never going to be free. It needs him, why would it ever let him go? It doesn’t care about us or what we want.”

Elmidath let out a harsh, derisive bark of laughter. “And how would you know that? Are you some sort of expert all of a sudden? Last time I checked you barely knew the first thing about our world.”

“Yeah, well…” I struggled to come up with the words to express what I’d seen. “I know about this, at least. Okay? Just trust me for once.”

“Trust you? In case you’ve forgotten, you were just about to leave.”

“I know, but—"

“But what? And who the fuck are you to tell me what my father is going to do? You’re just a worthless human who doesn’t know a damn thing about us.”

I clenched my teeth; did I really have to deal with this stupid tantrum right now? “I know enough to see what’s happening right in front of me, something which you’re apparently incapable of.”

Sneering, Elmidath got right up in my face. Or as close as she could manage given the disparity in height. “And what exactly is it you think you’re seeing?”

“I know you can see the energy around the manor, just like I can. Why do you think it wants to gather energy so badly?”

“How am I supposed to know what an intelligent rock wants?” She was still full of bluster, but there was a little uncertainty in her voice now.

“Then I’ll tell you; it wants to turn your father into a permanent part of itself. That way it can finally access the surface’s energy.”

“Right.” I could tell by the look on her face that she wasn’t buying it. “And I’m guessing you don’t have any proof?”

“No, not exactly. But I’d be willing to bet my life on it.”

Elmidath rolled her eyes. “That’s supposed to convince me? Like your life is worth anything.”

My own assessment wasn’t all that different, but it was still hurtful to hear someone else say it. If she wasn’t going to accept that, then how was I supposed to prove it to her? I willed my sword to wakefulness and spoke to it across our link. “Can you show her what I saw down there? What we saw.”

“I can, but it will drain what little strength I have left. I won’t be able to provide any assistance if you should end up fighting.”

I blinked. Was the sword actually concerned about me? “It’s fine, this is the only way I can make her understand.”

“Very well.”

I offered my sword to Elmidath hilt first. “Here.”

“What?” She took a step back.

“Just take it, Shotensho will show you what we’re dealing with.” I pushed the ancient weapon toward her again.

She was on the verge of retreating when she stopped and looked me in the eyes. “This had better be worth it.”

I gave her a nod and what I hoped was a reassuring smile, and she grasped the hilt.