Yowl Of The Fox

It was a long shot.

Perhaps it was because of the company he kept, but Kael felt rather optimistic. To enforce such a curfew surely could only suggest something to be discovered. Why lock everyone out if there was nothing to be found?

Lucian had ventured on ahead to scout out a place to stay. If his uncle’s words really were true, they’d need him to be on his best charming game.

Himself and Miria had undertaken the admittedly easier task of locating their supper spot. Despite the disappointing exterior and interior to the city, the cuisine hidden behind the weary walls couldn’t have faced any significant changes in just five years.

But as the pair sauntered onwards, the faint sound of pained groans was audible above the wind’s defiant whistle. In the ever so quiet street, the noise seemed to echo, lacking the bodies and furnishings to absorb the vibrations.

An exchanged look led the pair closer to an alleyway, the kind of slim gap that saw little footfall and served more stray cats than people.

Under the jurisdiction of the shadows, it was hard to make out what they were looking at, beyond the scope of not good.

Teeth pressed against flesh, already sunk deep into juices that pooled out. In the dim light, the liquid that spilled out across the cobble appeared black, noir leaking from the victim as if it were ink.

Blood dripped across the white lilies of the city, metallic scent a sickening reminder of the night he died.

Nausea and bile and god knows what else swished around in his stomach, pounding against the sides and begging to be released. Bones might as well have been liquid, suddenly threatening to collapse under the weight of a body.

It was utterly vile.

Kael’s sword glinted up at him to express its interest, but despite its protests, he couldn’t quite bring himself to strike the target down.

The thing that dwelled was not a monster at all. Not an imp or ghoul or any kind of animalistic thing, but a child. Maybe around eight or ten, depending on how you looked at it. Only one certainty was evident - it clearly belonged to the demon realm.

“What is it?” The sorcerer spoke quietly, as if not to draw the juvenile’s attention. A grimace bored firmly into the lines that downturned his mouth.

It was such a sorry sight, a part of him couldn’t quite believe it to be a mere demon. Perhaps it was something he wasn’t familiar with, distinctively in the category ‘beast’ and not ‘human and demons.’ He just hoped the tremble of his fingers wasn’t evident in his voice, or in the gentle rattle of his sword.

The acolyte who’d always been so infallible had gone a deathly pale shade. Arms hung still like the limp corpse of a criminal from a tree.

“Just a child. It’s not a monster,” Miria confirmed, still holding onto the mask that her emotion hid behind. Even so, she was still enough to appear not to be breathing at all.

A lump forced its way down Kael’s throat, the choking pain heavy enough to force away a reply.

What tyranny, what horror! How could such a thing come to fruition? How dare the gods of either realm, human or demon, look down on such a terror?

As they dared to ease a little closer, the youngster spun to face them.

A toothed smile crept up amongst squashed features, lacking much of the baby fat you might expect of a youngster this age. It was quite frail, untamed locks of hair obscuring their real frame, as the dark stain of the blood hid away the bottom half of their face.

“Did you want some?” The creature asked as innocently as any child might, lifting the victim by its limp wrist as an offering. Black liquid seeped down in a fresh stream, caught by clumsy fingers before any wastage could slip and spoil.

Involuntarily, Kael’s shoes dipped back a few steps, as if to shy away from what he bore witness to. How could something so small be capable of something so cruel?

“Did you… kill this person?” The words spilled out of Kael’s mouth like they couldn’t be contained. Surely a child, this child, couldn’t commit such an act.

But the wide-eyed child only nodded.

“Master said I could have whatever I could catch.”

There was a moment of silence where neither of the pair could muster up any words, both stricken by the gruesome horror of it all. What kind of master would enlist a child in such behaviour?

The hatred Kael had strictly reinforced his whole human life had dimmed as his days as a demon passed. Beneath the cold exterior and careless natures, the core wasn’t all that different from a human. They were all just beings floating along the river of life, subject to whatever current and riptide yanked them under.

But in both lives, Kael had never seen anything like this.

“And who is your master?” Miria insisted, her tone entirely absent of the soft feathering he’d tried to inject into his words.

Kael bent down to get a better look at the victim. In a place he once called home, a part of him had feared the worst. Even if it were foolish to presume a child could dominate, he was grateful to find that the body wasn’t someone he recognised, instead the corpse of an unknown civilian.

It was certainly a gruesome thing, torn by scratches and gashes alike, and surprisingly a few little sparks of magic. A child with potential. What a horrible shame for magical capabilities to be abused in this manner.

The thing was only small, still meek and dependent on a guardian. It was hard to direct any ire towards it, wasn’t it just acting on what it had witnessed?

“Miss Kallista. She will be back for me soon, do you have a handkerchief?” The child spoke simply, as if slaughtering a person and eating straight from the source were an everyday thing.

Kallista.

He couldn’t mean…

“Repeat. What is her name?” Miria pressed, clearly boarding the same train of thought. With everything else on their plate, such an addition would be truly disastrous.

The child’s face warped into a displeased confusion, “I said it’s Miss Kallista. Can I have a handkerchief now?”

A name that pawed at an old fact filed away.

One of the major gods that Lucian had spoken of.

How had her follower ended up here, so very far from any part of the demon realm. It was only a child, after all.

And if the follower was here, then the master couldn’t be far.

“There you are,” a silky voice purred out, one that pricked at the sensitive hairs within one’s ears.

Kael spun around with new speeds, a metallic slice sounding as Bloodseek Blade withdrew from its sheath in delight.

But it wasn’t a new face that greeted him. Not the rich expression of a freshly spotted god, but the one of a cat that had finally cornered a mouse.

“You,” He breathed out, a vacant rage rupturing across his body at the sight of the fox. At his side, Miria’s shoulders stiffened, the tips of her fingers dipping into her sleeves to grasp at her blades.

For a moment, he half expected Miria to lurch forward, another burst of unrestrained resentment to ignite and spark. He was even unsure if he might do something similar, feeling the binds of Bloodseek Blade tightening in its tell-tale hunger.

But the woman looked straight past them.

A look of recognition softened over Kallista’s face, as if she’d spotted a friend in a crowd of meaningless faces.

“Somehow I knew you would be involved in all this, Faelan.”

Kael’s heart fell so hard, he thought that it might break.

Faelan. The minor god. The sin-eater.

But when he turned to face the stranger, the only face to greet him was a friend.

Lucian stood tall, white hair carried out by the wind.