"First i have a question." The old demon gestured at me to sit down on a chair behind his counter.

He waited for me to sit down and then asked "How is it you know so much about us demons? I didnt think any of you worldkin wouldve spent enough time around a demon to learn about us."

I sighed, Thinking back to my childhood as a slave to that damn noble. Beaten just for fun, and tortured as a game for his sick friends. My thoughts were interupted when I noticed that the demon was staring at me. What the hell, ill tell him.

"When i was a kid my parents sold me into slavery. After being passed around from owner to owner, I was given as a gift to a noble that was famous for his 'parties'. Weird torture fetish parties he would host and invite all manner of crooked people. He also had a collection of slaves, most were from different species. Almost none of them were human. We were all grouped up in pairs, each one was to assume responsibility for the other. If one of us messed up, we were both punished. I had been there a couple months before I had gotten a partner, It seems there were an odd number of slaves. My partner was a small demon child, at first we were very wary of each other. But after a while we became freinds and he told me his name was Arnen. We talked, mostly cause there was nothing else to do between the beatings and the 'parties'. He eventually started telling me about his people and their customs."

I paused, trying to supress my anguish at how this story ended. With my escape attempt. Out of the corner of my eye I could see vylet sitting still on a stool. Hands still ready to draw her blades, but her eyes were soft and watery.

The old demon looked very curious after i mentioned the demon child.

"What happened to the child?" He asked.

"Not long after, we started to plan an escape. I knew that the noble would display us at his parties for his sick games. Also demons are still very much hated in this kingdom, I had no doubt that Arnen would not survive the first round of games. So i asked him to escape with me, he seemed hopeful at the thought of escape. We heard the guards mention that the next party was to be held at the end of the week. So we had until then to escape."

The old demon handed me a cup of warm liquid that smelled like fruit. I took a sip to find it was a fruit tea. I thanked him and continued my story.

"We watched the guards and memorized their routines, Burning the routes into our heads. We were locked in what looked like cellar that had been converted into a slave prison. The cells were all new, even the straw bedding was new. I guess he ran out of space in his basement to keep his slaves so he renovated this place. However it seemed that the renovations had cost a fourtune so he went cheap when he got guards. They were stupid, and i mean really dumb. They seemed to be a group of mercenaries that were known for being all muscle, no brains. This was easy money for them so they took it. Arnen and me took turns trying to convince some of the dumber ones that we were actually noble children and that we would reward them on our safe return home. It took a couple days but we found one guard that beleived us and took us up on our offer. He snuck us the keys to our cell when the other guards were asleep. On our way out i didnt see Arnen grab a knife off of a nearby table we passed. The guard lead us up the stairs and through the door to the surface. We took deep breaths of fresh air and were getting excited at how close we were to freedom. The guard started to lead us out of the nobles yard, when he stopped moving. He looked left and right and then he whistled.

It was a trick.

More and more guards came out of the nearby bushes and from out of the celler. They had been pretending to sleep.

The captain of their group had heard of us trying to convince the guards of our nobility and came up with a plan. He tricked us into this escape, so he had a reason to beat us into submission. It was supposed to end at a beating, but Arnen was too close to being free. He pulled out the knife he stole and Stabbed the guard in the back. Bolting past him, he probably thought that the other guards would stop to see to their comrade. But they ran past him and grabbed arnen. Leaving the other guard to bleed. I however was rooted to the spot in fear, unmoving as they captured arnen and bound his arms and legs with rope. They started to approach me and i tried to run but they quickly surrounded me, binding my arms and legs too. I thought they would just beat us and then drag us back to our cell. Apparently they thought it would be more fun to beat one of us while the other watched. They chose arnen. They beat him till they were tired and then switched and beat him some more. By the time we were back in our cell he was more bruise than boy. I saw how injured he was and tryed to help him, sadly there was nothing i could do. They crushed most of the bones in his arms and legs, whipped him till his back looked like raw meat. He was going to die. My only friend and he was dying, I was helpless. I stayed awake as long as i could, trying to help arnen and keep him warm. The lack of food and water got to me and i passed out. When i woke up, arnen had already died.

Two days after that we were found by the adventurers guild."

Pointing a finger at malady he asked her name and how we met. His eyes lit up when i told him.

The old demon scratched his chin, looking back and forth between me and malady. After a moment of silence he spoke.

"Do you know who that girl is to us?"

I shrugged

"To you? no, not at all. But i do know she is a demi-god."

The old demon chuckled, a weird dry and scratchy sounding laugh.

"No, elf. She isnt a demi-god, she is more like a half god, half demon."

"Bullshit, the gods cant have children"

The demon laughed

"This one did, you know the origin of malady's name?"

"Yeah, its the same name as the evil goddess." I said.

He frowned when i said that.

"To us she is known as just 'The Goddess' . To us she is our creator, The one who gave us our world. She is the one who ripped flesh from her breast, to create us. The one who-"

"Yes, yes, I get it. Please spare me your sermon and explain what this has to do with malady."

I was getting tired of this and just wanted to lie down in a bed. With none of those monsters chasing me. He gave me an annoyed look.

"This is important."

I sighed.

"Fine."

"As i was saying she ripped flesh from her breast to create us and she gave of her heart to create our world."

Now this, I didnt know. I was taught that demons were always here. Living in the far away reaches of the southern continent. It was always said that they were barbarians, who's god demanded the subjugation of all other kingdoms. At least thats what the guild master that raised me said. Of course now that I am older, I just think that the surrounding kingdoms got greedy and wanted the demons lands. So they made up all that and used it to trick their subjects into supporting a genocide. Some of the smarter kingdoms waited for others to shift alot of their resources into taking the demons land and then they attacked the other kingdoms. Was a hellish time to be in the adventurers guild. Due to the turmoil, the adventurers weren't allowed to leave the kingdom.

He paused a moment and then continued.

"She watched over her creation for millenia, her prescence bringing light and her breath bringing mana throughout our world. She was elated at seeing her creations grow and flourish brought joy to her heart. She settled next to her creation falling into a deep slumber. But her dreams were assaulted with nightmares of terrible things. Creatures twisted beyond recognition invading her realm and destroying her creation. Tainting the mana and weakening her. In her tortured slumber she inadvertantly tore a hole in her realm and her mana started being sucked through. Taking with it some of her creations. Which included the demon race, almost all of us were taken through the rift and brought here."

He took a sip of some tea he had poured for himself and continued.

" The goddess woke to find her mana almost gone. She started to panic and tryed to seal the rift, only afterwards did she realize she sealed some of herself on the other side. That peice of her reacted with the foreign mana on this side of the rift. One of the demons that had been sucked through got too close and was absorbed by the piece. Anything that got too close to it was absorbed and became a part of it.

We had been brought to this world. But not all the way, we were stuck just on the other side of this realm. Until we were brought through by humans."

My eyes widened. The HUMANS were responsible for the war? They are the reason an entire continent was almost destroyed?

I could feel myself tense in anger. My hands were already in fists, clenched almost hard enough to draw blood. I had to confirm this information. However he still has not told me what this has to do with malady.

"You still havent told me what this had to do with malady."

"I can sense the energy from our godess in her. I beleive her to be the piece of our godess given form."

Fuck. I shouldve left her in the cave where i found her.