After another night sleeping against the horse, they flew above a town and Anna insisted that they warn the mayor that the demons might arrive there. Although she could tell that Azure didn’t want to stop there, she immediately slowed down and obeyed. With how easily Azure listened to her, commands that made her blush filled her mind, but she quashed them, not wanting to be hated. Anna hadn’t really though it particularly important to warn the town, but she had spent too many days on the horse and sleeping under the stars that she wanted to take a break.

The Town was located on the on the banks of the Atawa-Kawa river, at a section where the wide and fast flowing river was only four kilometers long. In the first eastern expansion, it grew from a ferry station into a thriving town when a quarry was found, and a ready supply of Lord’s Stone allowed for durable houses and roads. The Lands closer to the river were more forested, and the number of beasts grew along with the trees. As such, the town surrounded itself in a head high stone wall. While the wall itself could be scaled by agile beasts, the city grew Orchard Armaments, so their militia was well armed. Over the years that the orchard had been there, they cultivated enough armaments to supply not only all their own militiamen, but they also traded them along the river settlements. While Orchard Armaments weren’t as strong as even Blessed Armaments, let alone Sacrams, they were still stronger than bows. The town, Seojin, had its streets cobbled in Lord’s Stone, and the buildings were mixed with normal stones and roofed with clay tiles. The coppery hue of the rooves stood out against the white and grey walls, and from above it had seemed a lizard’s eye with its verdant green surroundings.

With the horse tied and covered with fog and a blanket not far from the wall, they approached the gate carrying only a what would fit in their belt bags and pockets. The two militiamen waiting for them, having seen them descend from the sky, hefted their long wooden armaments vertically forward with a spear grip before slamming it into their chest in salute. The action was well coordinated, and clearly well practiced, and did wonders to show the professionalism of the militia. Had the men of her own village attempted that display, they would have been out of time and look dishevelled. While the men didn’t have a uniform, per say, they did ware similarly coloured grey hemp shirts with a vest of thin, linked metal rings, each the size of a thumb touching fingers to form a circle. The rings seemed to be a mixture of bronze and Lord’s Steel and they seemed to shine every bit the colour of the town. The older of the two, a blond-haired lanky man who seemed in his late twenties, called out to them.

“Welcome to Seojin, Lords. It’s a pleasure to have you visit our town. If you need a guide it would be our honour to show you around.”

As Anna was about to respond, denying that they were Lords, Azure stepped forward.

“That will not be necessary,” she said, her tone cruel and condescending. In Anna’s eyes Azure and the dead Lord that tormented her village seemed to overlap, like his ghost was feeding words and gestures to Azure’s malleable body. From the voice to the way she held her body, none of it was the way the small girl normally lived. “You can however, tell whoever leads this… town… to meet us at whatever passes as an inn. Our time in important so be quick about it.”

Before even confirming her words were heard, she walked past them, pulling the stunned Anna by the hand.

They walked down a wide street, wide enough to safely pass three full carriages, and the lots between houses were farms. Aqueducts flowing from the river lined the roads and water for the farms were syphoned from there. They passed by a hand full of boutique shops before finding a two-story building with a painted red sign with the profile of a bed. Inside they found an entryway room with wooden walls. There was a single desk with a portly elderly woman sitting at it and two adjacent doors. The grey-haired lady with paper thin pale skin seemed to startle back into focus when they entered, seemingly having been daydreaming.

“Hooo, travellers, and Lords too from the looks of it.” She nodded to herself before continuing, “I haven’t seen to many couples among the Lords that have stayed here, but that’s hardly my business. A room is three and twelve Wattles, meals are ordered from the pub and I can have the boy fetch them for you in the morning.”

“We’ll stay for two nights then,” Azure said as seven thumb length, thin black rectangles label ‘100’ from a pocket in her pants and handed them over. “Don’t bother about the change.”

The Wattles were only a couple millimetres thick, made of an unknown metal, and had a strip of red colour and copper colour on the two ends. What made them more interesting was the way the value within them could be changed. The 100 was highest value that the small coins could have, but they could go as low as 1 before the entire coin, including the besides the edges, turned white. When two coins with numbers less than a hundred were pressed against each other, the lower number was added to the higher number. In her village, they hadn’t really used them much, and simply traded or did favours for what they needed, but she had used them with travellers who stopped by the forge. Travelers and traders said they liked them since they were light and couldn’t be faked, though she had been told by the late chief that the supply was always high since they could only be mined in a Quarry.

“Alright then, here’s the key to room one-three. Head through this door and up the stairs and it will be directly in front of you.”

They nodded thanks Azure took the polished brass key. Heading up wooden stairs they found their room. Was around six metres by eight metres with a double bed centred against the far wall and beneath a curtained window with wooden shutters. It was a dark wooden bed with floral engravings and a mattress made of quarried foam. Quarried foam was a strange substance that was both soft but durable enough to survive centuries in the underground city-remnants called quarries. That was what she had been told, though Anna had never experienced it for herself. Laying down on the soft wool sheets, she felt it was exactly how she imagined a cloud would feel. The comfort almost distracted her from questioning Azure. She sat up with that startled realisation and asked the girl who was emptying her pockets onto the table.

“Where did you get those coins?”

“The Wattles? When I picked up the Divam I also took the chief’s savings. They were what he and his predecessor saved up, along with what the founders brought with them.”

Her tone and gestures weren’t imitating the Lord anymore, and as she answered, she looked directly at Anna with a kind of absolute focus that made her feel self-conscious. While Azure spoke, she continued to work without looking at what she was doing.

“And why pretend to be Lords? Impersonating a Lord is a serious crime. Lord’s hunt down impersonators and we don’t have tabards to prove it even if we were.”

“No need to worry about that. The Lord’s memories indicate that most of his authority came from possessing a Sacram, and no one questioned him when he had it visible, even out of uniform.”

As if to punctuate the point, she started to pull the black armament apart and lay each piece on the table. Her hands danced, and the weapon was suddenly spread out in parts. Seeing the parts like that, it suddenly struck her just how simple the basic mechanics behind the weapon was. With her training as a blacksmith, she would probably be able to make replicas, especially if she could get her hands on a lathe. Knowing that the device itself was just a mechanism somehow made it less interesting yet more impressive. She admired the simplicity of some of the solutions, the skill that went into the tooling; it might not have been magic, but it was ingenious. It made her wonder what was in the canisters that made the whole thing function. It clearly wasn’t magic, either, but it may have been alchemic. With a small toolkit from her pocket, Azure went about cleaning each part and oiling them before reassembling it.

“Does this one also need to be done?” Anna asked, holding up the silver armament.

“No, it’s treated with artificial bacteria which deconstruct dirt and manufacture oil. So long as you don’t bury it then it will take care of itself.”

That had surprised her. The weapon wasn’t a Sacram, but rather a demonic one. If demons like Azure could mimic the appearance of humans, there was some logic to their armaments being able to do the same. It was a bigger weapon, and she imagined stronger also, in much the same way that Azure was stronger than herself. When she was done, Azure undid Anna’s looted armour and hung it up in the closet. They then lay together on the bed while the waited for the town’s leader to arrive.

A little while later a middle-aged man wearing a dark grey suit made of cotton entered the room, sweating profusely from the heat and formality of it. He was dark haired and slightly obese, and immediately after he introduced himself Azure gave him no option to speak and no alternative actions.

“Well then, there is a group of demons likely headed this way and you have at most a week to prepare, depending on how many villages they stop to burn along the way. You will organise your militia and evacuate down the Quarry or river if you want to live, but otherwise there is little you can do without Divine Armaments. If this hole of a town has a communication stone, then contact Bisha or Atwaun for reinforcements.” She then sneered and added, “That’s all; leave now.”

He seemed confused by the abrupt warning and wanted to speak, but a look at Azure’s eyes slammed him mouth shut and he bowed and left wordlessly. The moment the door closed she dropped back to normal, clung to Anna and pulled her onto the bed.

“Since you need time to recover, is there anything in town you want to do?”

It was as simple, common question, but Anna was surprised that Azure asked it. In the short time she had known her, she was usually assertive and took control, yet she was also fine with letting Anna decide what to do. It was a welcome concern and filled her with a kind of warmth. Covering up her slight embarrassment, she buried her face in Azure’s chest, so she couldn’t see her blushing face. While comforted by the soft sensations pressed against her, she made a muffled reply.

“While we’re here, we should look for some more normal clothes.”

“We can do that.”

“I’d also like to get some fresh food since we still only have dried stuff.”

“That should be a priority, yes. Especially considering dietary requirements.”

With that, they placed what they weren’t taking with them into the room’s lock-chest and started to walk down the street. They entered a couple clothing stores, not finding much to suit them in the sizes available. Azure was a little shorter than the average woman in the town, and children’s sizes were offered to her. Anna was taller than the average woman, and men’s designs were offered to her. They each settled with some traveling outfits made with durable cloth and leather, while also picking up more urban appropriate dresses in pastel colours in whatever designs they could find that fit. With her height and muscles, Anna had never felt comfortable in dresses, and preferred the travel clothes, but still got a dress when she found the store had one her size.

As they went to buy fruits and vegetables, they passed by a weapon’s store and Anna felt drawn by something inside. The shop was clearly divided into sections, with shelves and racks of melee weapons on one side and ranged on the other. Javelins and thrown weapons sat on a table in between the two. It was a well organised store, and one with a wide selection. She was even surprised to see that they had short-barrel Organic Armaments, also known as Orarms, for sale. The long barrel variety was restricted to the militia, but the town apparently had enough surplus to sell normally. She picked one up and found its graceful natural curve shape much more comfortable that the sharp drop of the Sacram, though that may have been a simple difference in bulk. There weren’t any of the seeds it consumed by the table, almost certainly to prevent being robbed with the store’s own weapon, but she did see a sign with the prize per box. One hundred Wattle for ten seeds; compared with reusable arrows, which costed 5 Wattle each, it they weren’t the best value.

Putting the armament down, she found what drew her into the store in the first place. Within a metal cage was a straight, pitch black, double edged sword with a blade almost exactly one metre long. As she reached out to open the cage, the shopkeeper ran over to stop her.

“Customer, please stop. That sword has already killed three people, please consider another one.”

“I get that it’s a second-hand weapon, that’s not a problem.”

“I misspoke, I mean, it’s killed three users. Everyone who’s used the weapon since it was dug up in the Quarry have suddenly died, clutching their chest and struggling for breath. It’s a cursed weapon and keep it hear mostly as a decorative piece.”

A shiver ran down Anna’s spine as she realised she nearly touched something so dangerous, but Azure stepped forward instead.

“We’ll take it regardless.”

She had a glint in her eye that spoke of something mischievous, and Anna knew she should go along with it. Despite her fear of the curse, her instincts still told her to reach out for it. The shop keeper tried again to warn them off, especially seeing Azure’s interest, but when they weren’t dissuaded, he gave in and sold it to them.

“If you two are going to use it,” the shopkeeper said with a sigh, “you should at least use it in a Quarry. If you’re already risking yourself with that sword, you may as well also risk an unsearched area.”

The sword came with a sheath designed to be hung on the back and had an opening on one side a third of the way from the top that allowed the blade to swing clear, as that was the traditional for miners. Soldiers would have their weapons on their hips, but the back was more convenient for those who ventured in small groups into dangerous Quarries. When they left the shop, Azure decided to explain her interest in the weapon.

“That blade is one of the few weapons designed specifically for humans to break shields, like the one on the horse. The handle contains nanites which inject adrenal based stimulants to ensure the human has the strength to use the weapon effectively, while the blade is shaped the saw-teeth at that same scale as to cut through shield structure like wood. It’s the overuse of the stimulant that likely resulted in the death of the previous users.”

After getting Azure to explain it again, Anna understood the basics of how it worked. The fog that the horse made wouldn’t break to most weapon, but the sword was able to slice through it easily. It also made her body work harder, and that led to the body overworking and death. Since the demons could also make the fog, it was an excellent weapon for fighting against them, though Azure said it wouldn’t be any benefit to her.

After that, the got some new bags, some dried fruits and some nuts they could travel with and sat down for lunch at the pub near their inn. While Anna enjoyed a Sheppard’s pie with lots of potato and a generous amount of meat, Azure seemed to pick at her own slice without any real enthusiasm. It was the first time Anna had ever seen her eat, and it mostly seemed that she was doing it to blend in more that for the sustenance. It made her wonder how frequently Azure needed to eat souls if normal food wasn’t of interest to her and thinking about that made her wonder if different souls tasted differently.

They relaxed for the rest of the uneventful afternoon as militiamen scrambled through the street. After a light dinner that night, they turned in early and, within that soft bed, Anna enjoyed the best sleep of her life, feeling warm, safe and comfortable.