“Mariel…”

A familiar voice woke her from her slumber. She opened her eyes to see Saya leaning over her with a candle in her hand. Her clothes obscured, but the previously worn hunter garb she had been wearing earlier had been replaced with a much more elaborate set.

“Morning… It’s time to go.” She said.

Mariel up righted herself. The house timber creaked under some exterior straining. Saya pointed to a nearby footstool. Upon it laid an outfit she had never seen before.

“Get dressed… The village donated a scout’s uniform to you.”

She got up and began putting on the unusual uniform. Mainly consisting of a mix of hard and soft leather, layered with thin sheets of metal in between, all dark brown or green. A pair of soft leather pants with additional bracing on the knees and thighs, A tunic with several hard leather layers across the chest, with metal plates reinforcement along the sides and back. She tried to move around. In comparison to her old tunic, it felt stiff and uncomfortable. Saya attached a set of leather shoulder guards to her, and a thick and heavy, hooded cloak, followed by a belt with a scabbard for a sword. Finally, she slipped into a set of tall leather boots with wooden soles.

“You look like a soldier now.” Saya flashed her a brief, reassuring smile while sliding the sword into her empty scabbard.

“But it’s just one thing… You need a haircut.”

“W-what?” Mariel tried to protest, but Saya would hear nothing of it.

“Sorry… I love your hair, but short is more practical.”

Mariel felt like crying as Saya drew a knife and began giving her an impromptu haircut. She attached great pride and joy in her hair, and now to have it cropped hurt. She felt like a piece of herself was taken away.

“Your hair grows back… You only have one life.” Saya gathered up the cut hair and placed it in the fireplace.

Mariel looked at her old tunic, neatly folded by the bedside. She recovered the small brooch her father had given her and slid it into a belt pouch. The two made a last check that all their equipment was fastened properly and headed for the door.

“Wait…” A meek voice spoke out behind them. It was Serani in her nightgown.

“Are you leaving?” She asked them, and they nodded.

“I don’t want you to go Mariel… You are so nice and kind…”

Mariel came over to her and gave her a warm hug.

“This is what I decided to do… I must return to my home.”

“I know… But I’m going to miss you so much…”

“Tell you what… If you will be brave, and promise to stay safe here, I’ll leave my clothes here as a gift to you?”

“Your clothes? But they are so pretty… Aren’t you bringing them with you?” Serani asked, her eyes as big as marbles.

Mariel shook her head and explained what a hassle it would be to bring it all along. Serani nodded, and hugged her one more time, promising to earn the set of clothes.

“It was a real pleasure to have you here with us Mariel.” Corwil emerged from the bedroom. “You pulled off the feat of befriending our sworn enemies… I am proud to have offered you shelter here.”

“Thank you Corwil… Your wonderful family saved my life… I am in your debt.”

“And you saved mine by your example down in the forest… We are even.”

Corwil and Mariel shook hands, and she and Saya then left the family home, emerging from the warmth of the house into a raging storm. The rain was coming down in buckets, and strong winds turned every drop into a small dagger against their faces. They made their way down to the main square of the village, where Tizare was waiting for them together with the village elder and three saddled and equipped horses.

“Morning Mariel! Ready to go?!” Tizare’s voice was nearly drowned out by the storm.

“Best of luck on your journey! And Mariel! We will always watch for your return!”

The three saddled up and began the downhill climb at a trot.

“Plan?” Saya asked Tizare whom grinned under the rim of his hood.

“None. We’ll go slowly towards the city… If we are ambushed, we’ll simply ride hard for the gates!”

They continued down the slope among fast flowing rivers of mud and soon arrived at the edge of the forest. Before them laid complete darkness. The path ahead was in flood, and leaves and branches were readily landing in their path.

High above in the sky, the dark clouds were gathering, and soon the great rumble of thunder made its presence known. A crack of lightning struck not too far away. The horses were startled, and Mariel was nearly thrown from hers, saved by Tizare whom had quickly grabbed hold of her reins.

“Steady there Mariel! This is only the beginning!”

“This is horrible!” She shouted back.

The storm and darkness will protect us… There is no telling what has landed in this forest lately!”

Up ahead, revealed by a flash of lighting they spotted a broken cart lying abandoned by the path. The remains of the containers of its cargo was spread out, large splinters of wood poking readily up from the mud.

“What a mess! Tread carefully!”

“Over there…” Saya pointed towards three shades lying by the root of a nearby tree.

A woman, a man and a child laid with their eyes blank, and their throats cut.

“The family mentioned in the diary.” Saya shook her head.

“Why… They were innocent!” Mariel averted her gaze.

“Desperation makes people do strange things Mariel…” Tizare dismounted and walked over to the corpses and closed their eyes as a gesture.

“Just what happens if you let Tizare loose in a comfort district.” Saya pointed out.

“I just like wine and women… That’s how I am.”

They continued. Mariel tried to remove the image from her mind but found herself unable to do so. The cruelty awakened old pains in her mind. They descended a slope towards a river that had long since overflowed its original banks.

“We’ll ford the river up there!” Tizare pointed upstream where the river was slightly narrower.

As they neared the point, they came across the remains of a battle. Dead bodies, weighed down by their heavy armour laid scattered in the flood. Mariel recognized a few sets of armour as those worn by her home city’s guard.

“Stand back.” Tizare stopped them, dismounted and drew his sword. He approached one of the bodies and leant down to inspect it. After a short while he returned to the others, his mood soured.

“Demon hunters… Your kin are about to begin bleeding Mariel… Very badly.”

“What do you mean?”

Tizare remounted, and continued.

“What do you mean?” She repeated her question. This time Tizare came to a halt and wheeled his horse around to face her.

“You’ve heard of demon hunters, right? Zealous maniacs who are raised to hate your kind, to kill your kind and never relent in their search?”

Mariel nodded.

“They’re here. That body over there, wasn’t dead. He told me to continue the mission… He clearly didn’t recognize me. We should hurry to the city… I will take point, Mariel you’re second and Saya, make sure nobody is following us.”

They forded the river and continued up the opposite bank. From the trail of corpses, the battle had begun as a riverside encounter, and had moved up the bank as the city guards had been pushed back. In a small clearing they found the city guard’s last stand, a ring of two dozen men and women slaughtered. A piece of bark had been nailed to a shield, with the carved words ‘Traitors’ written across.

“Tizare, what will the demon hunters do now?” Saya asked with a completely calm voice.

“Form up, and aim to cause as much chaos as possible… That’s what I’d do.”

“What do you mean?”

Saya turned to Mariel and answered.

“Tizare is a former demon hunter.”

“That’s right.” He nodded. “I ended up chickening out, when I realized that capture was just a suggested course of action… The hunters prefer to kill first and pick answers out of your innards afterwards.”

“But, I don’t understand… Demon hunters are zealots, right? Trained from a young age to be merciless killers… So, why did you?”

“I promise I’ll explain it all to you when we get back indoors… This isn’t the place or time… But I need you to trust me.”

They continued at a slow pace for a long time. Mariel’s clothes were heavy with water, and she felt the chill enter her body once again.

“Is it far?” She asked Tizare, whom looked back at her.

“Nah, it’s up ahead… By the way Mariel, since you’re the demonkin among us, I’ll need you to do a bit of an act.”

“What do you need?”

“I need you to play a convincing courier… If they pull off my hood first, they’ll pick our message from our corpses.”

“So what do I have to do?”

“Just walk up, ask to be let in, and… You’ll figure it out... Just make it convincing.”

“We’re dead.” Saya threw a sarcastic comment and shook water from her hood.”

“Nah, I got a few ideas…”

Soon the city gate appeared out of the storm. On the towers, torches were lit as they approached, and they could see silhouettes on the walls hurry to their stations.

“Halt! Who goes there!?” A voice shouted to them through the storm.

“I’m Mariel! I’ve brought an important message!”

“Sure you have! Where do you come from?”

“The village up in the mountains… I have spoken with the elder there whom asked for my assistance!”

“Who are those with you?”

“I found two humans out in the woods! I disarmed them, the woman is injured and unconscious, the man is the husband…”

“Fine, we’ll open the gate for you, enter very slowly… Any rash movement, and you die!”

A short while after, a smaller door was opened in the massive wooden gate, and they were allowed through. They entered a large square where the soldiers had taken up positions covering their every angle.

Mariel dismounted and assisted Tizare whom was carrying the unconscious Saya in dismounting.

Soon, an old soldier approached them. Apparently, a grizzled veteran from the state of the person’s gear, the menacing stature made Mariel feel small.

“So, what message do you bring?” The voice of a woman used to command in battle asked her, and she presented the metal pin attached to her shoulder pad.

“Ohh…” The woman leaned closer. “I see you carry the insignia of my old unit… It’s too insignificant to be just picked out as loot. So, how’s the old man doing? Did his wife serve the usual black tea and cream cakes?”

Mariel was about to say yes, but stopped.

“No, the elder’s wife served yellow tea and some very tasty jam pastries.”

Immediately the woman sheathed her sword, and above she saw the archers ease their aimed bows.

“Welcome then friend… You truly were sent by the elder, what does he want? I will order my soldiers to take care of your… Prizes.”

“Treat them well, no really, I need them. I swear they won’t try anything.”

The woman nodded, and Tizare and Saya were taken away. Mariel followed behind them into the nearby guard tower. Close to the fireplace, she wrung out her cloak and the two women sat down with some warm tea.

She recounted her mission to the woman, explaining the strange events that had recently taken place. She told her about the magical portals, and what had come from them. Immediately, the woman ordered double guard along the walls, and ordered preparations for a detachment of rangers to scout and clear the forest.

“We observed the sky changes from here, and recently we’ve had an influx of very ragged and worn demons, all claiming they were former slaves…”

“It is true. I came from the human continent, where our kin are kept as slaves… Where are they?”

“I accepted them into the city…”

Mariel’s eyes widened. She was about to shout her question, but managed restraint, and posed the question as more of a passing notion.

“Could I perhaps speak to some of the slaves?”

“Sure thing, we set up a first aid camp inside the city church, Ysanneh’s priestesses are tending to them… You should wait until tomorrow though.”

“I, also brought a couple of letters…”

She presented the letters to the woman, whom read them both very carefully. After a long while of silence, she put the letters down and a smile widened on her face.

“I’m glad my old commander is still doing well… I’m the guard commander. My name is Yil. From these letters, I see you are not just any ordinary courier… Nor are your two travelling companions… What happened exactly?”

“I’m sorry… But we had no idea what state your city was in. With the dangers, we had to make it convincing.”

“Quite, but what happened?”

“Fistfight…”

“Really?”

“Yes...” Mariel sighed.

“A wise precaution… I will make the arrangements and see to it your friends are treated as heroes… Humans or not, if they are willing to risk their lives for us, that’s all I need to know.”

Mariel were given the directions by Yil, and left the guardhouse for the barracks. Once there she found Saya being treated while Tizare was absent-mindedly nibbling a piece of bread.

“Mariel! There you are, how did it go?”

“How’s Saya doing?” She decided to ignore his question.

“She’s taken far worse before, so she’ll shrug this off no problem. I’m fine too, if you care to know.” Tizare nodded to the soldier tending to Saya, whom stood up and left them alone.

“Why a fistfight?” Her question was immediately deflected.

“Because funny, but I should go somewhere else, like look around or something… Can you keep an eye on Saya for me? Okay? Thank you.” Tizare stood up, and very quickly marched out of the barracks.

Mariel shook her head and sat down on the edge of Saya’s bunk. The big bruise on her cheek and her cracked lip stood out on her otherwise smooth appearance. Immediately she stirred and groaned.

“Ouuch… Tizare hits like an ogre souped up on Fireleaf.” She touched her cheek. “Oh, hi Mariel.”

“Was it really necessary for you two to fight?”

Saya nodded and righted herself up slowly, as she did, Mariel got to see her back, where a long, deep scar ran nearly the whole length. She clutched the blanket to her body and thought about leaving the bunk.

“Your clothes are wet… So, stay here okay?” Mariel eased her back down.

“Your expression… You saw it, didn’t you?”

Mariel made a difficult expression and looked away.

“I can tell… Disgust is written all over your face.”

“Tell me about how it got there?” Mariel asked, hoping to make up for her initial disgust with some proper interest.

Saya laid back down and tucked the blanket in around herself to keep warm before relating to Mariel what had happened:

I was just a little kid back then, living with my family out in a small village on the border. My mother ran a small inn, and my father had begun working as an apprentice. A year later I was born. It was a nice life, and the inn prospered. One day, I came home late after being out playing. My mother and father were in the main room talking to some strange hooded people. My father kept on refusing and refusing their strange request for safety, while my mother tried to reach a middle ground.

I was about to take my first step inside, when my father shouted for me to lie down. A sharp object, a sword likely, slashed me and I fell to the floor. I was unable to move, and all I saw was a series of fiery flashes, and then four strangers began slaughtering my parents and the people they were talking to. I watched them being cut down. As I laid there, another one appeared and examined me… I was scared but tried to play dead. He was then ordered to follow the group.

I couldn’t move and I thought I was going to die. And then, that person who had looked at me, came back covered in blood. He treated me and took me away from there after burying my parents.

Saya smiled and took a deep breath. “I… Get tired talking too much. Sorry.”

“That’s really awful… I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I get a bit disgusted too when I look at it in a mirror… But I survived, thanks to Tizare, and I’ve remained with him since.”

Mariel dipped and wringed a wet cloth in a nearby bowl of water and used it to cool down the bruises and bumps on Saya’s face to her discomfort.

“Still though, I think it was cruel of him to instigate that fistfight.” Mariel found herself unable to contain herself. Tizare had been awful, shouting abuse and provocations.

“It’s fine. You probably think he does it a lot.”

“N-no, but still! He shouted so many cruel things… You had tears in your eyes.”

“Mariel? I owe him my life, and so far, he has always had my best interest in mind. We agreed to this long ago, that we would do whatever it took to survive.” She then clenched her fist.

“I also hit him a few times myself… That said, I wish…” She hesitated and fell silent.

“What?”

“Never mind… I’m tired, can you stay here with me? I don’t like to sleep like this… I feel too exposed.”