Book Two - Chapter Twenty-Three

Lusya had taken to reading as she rode in the carriage. Doing so while walking was inconvenient, but this was much easier. The occasional bump did interfere with the process, but it was manageable. His carriage was another reason she was growing to appreciate having Ander around. She had had no objections to her previous travel conditions, and she would have had no issues returning to them, but this was preferable.

She was probably going to have to read this book again. Ariya would be upset if she missed it. But that was fine. Lusya did not reread books often, but she doubted it would be a problem.

If there was a concern, it was that she was going to go through books faster this way. That meant buying replacements more often. With the money Ander had given her, that would not have been a monetary problem even without him, but it could take her out of her way. If she declined to do so, she suspected Ariya would complain of boredom if they ran out of reading material. A small diversion, perhaps, but still worse than none, and it might add up over time.

Her eyes scanned the page, drinking in each word, as they had as of late. As she turned onto a new chapter, however, they were torn away as something entered her detection radius, and her head snapped up to look in the direction of it. It wasn’t visible yet, so that served no purpose, but it was a habit, and that she saw no reason to curb as it was sometimes useful and never harmful. Besides, she was already capable of reigning it in, and it didn’t happen with every Malice signature anyway. This was not just any signature.

It was not Gisala, nor was it any of her subordinates. It was not a Sacred Knight. It was not a mortal. If she could sense it, it could almost certainly sense her. She could not see it, but she could see some of its handiwork. Horse carcasses and shattered, broken wagons littered the ground in the distance.

“We must redirect our course,” she said. “It is dangerous here.”

If they had been closer, he might have sensed it too. Though many failed to detect her true nature, many skilled motomancy users had something akin to a weaker version of her senses. However, she doubted a mere trainee, even an above-average one, could sense it from this distance.

“What? Why?” he asked, following her gaze. He sucked in a breath when he saw the destruction. “What’s over there? Is it them again?”

“No,” she said. “Go to the left, now. It may delay us, but we must go around this area.”

“But if there’s trouble, we need to—”

“It is too late,” she said. “We must go.”

There was a single mortal still alive nearby. She doubted that would last, regardless of their actions. Under ordinary circumstances, she would have avoided making the extent of her senses so obvious, but right now, getting away was more important. The demon was not so powerful that she could not have defeated it, but it was more than strong enough to be a threat. She did want to take the time or risk of fighting it, especially with someone she would need to protect in tow.

“But—”

“I retract that,” she said. “It is moving toward us. Fleeing would only provoke it. A head-on confrontation is now our best option.”

She placed her book in the back, stood, and leaped off the carriage. She started walking toward the demon as she landed. Behind her, the horses screeched in protest as Ander yanked on the reigns to get them to stop. Moments later, he ran up beside her.

“What are you talking about?” he demanded. “What is going on?”

She glanced at him. “You may accompany me, but do not interfere. This opponent is far out of your league.”

“I can’t let you fight alone,” he said.

“You will be a hindrance if you do not,” she said. “At best, you will only get yourself, and possibly me, hurt.”

He clenched his teeth, and seemed about to protest again, but gave a stiff nod in the end. “I understand.”

Good. The sole reason she didn’t tell him to stay with the carriage was because the demon might have chosen to kill him before confronting her. She could not guarantee it would not succeed if he was not close at hand.

They walked toward the demon as it moved toward them. Its pace was not hurried, and, out of caution, neither was theirs. Still, it was only a matter of minutes before it was nearing them. They had moved into the area of the destroyed wagons by then, with several more surrounding them, along with no shortage of fresh corpses. Most were too mangled to tell much, but, judging from the few intact ones, they weren’t more than a day old. Despite the dearth of life, the air was thick with the Malice these morals had no doubt released in their final moments.

He was dressed in ragged, dirty clothing. The legs of his pants had been torn off halfway down the calf, and a rip stretched down the front of the sleeveless tunic that served as his shirt from his collar to his navel. Like many high-rank demons, he resembled a reltus for the most part, with black hair and golden eyes. Getting closer, however, revealed his pupils were slit-shaped, like a cat’s, and his grin revealed pronounced fangs for incisors.

The demon dragged the sole surviving mortal behind him, gripping him by the head. Said mortal was a portly, well-dressed man. Lusya guessed the destroyed wagons had been part of some trade caravan this man had been a part of.

Overflowing with Malice, the human whimpered and sobbed, tears streaming down his face. He made no effort to escape, not that he could have accomplished much if he did. One arm was bent and twisted. By the looks of it, the demon had broken every joint and bone, from the fingers to the shoulder, individually. Both his legs had seen a similar treatment. The human looked up and weakly reached his good hand out. Two fingers were bent backward and swollen. It seemed Lusya and Ander had interrupted his torture.

“H-help me!” he shouted.

Ander started to step forward. “We’ll—”

Lusya put out a hand and gently pushed him back by his chest. “Do not.”

Ander glared at her but heeded the command. She didn’t care about the human, and, with no good way to save the human without giving the demon an opening, the situation was beyond placating Ander. Even if Ariya had been here, Lusya would not have had much choice but to leave the human to his fate.

The demon gave a theatrical sigh and hauled the human to his feet. The demon was about a head taller, though the human was not exceptionally tall himself.

“Too bad you’re here,” he said. His tone, posture, and the way he moved all seemed casual, but there weren’t any actual openings to attack. He was ready to strike if Ander took the bait. “I could’ve killed both these humans in one swoop if you didn’t have to go and be sensible. Well, I guess I’m done with this guy, then.”

The human trembled. “N-no, wait, I—”

“Ah, shut up.” The demon snapped the human’s neck and tossed the corpse aside unceremoniously. “What an annoying guy, right?” He looked and Ander and grinned. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. We were all thinking it.”

It was a better death than the human had likely been on his way to before, but Lusya doubted that was much comfort to Ander.

“You bastard,” he spat.

The demon chuckled. “You’re making me blush over here.”

“What is a high-rank demon doing here?” she asked. She was not interested in taunts or banter.

Most should have been lying low now. Of course, there were always exceptions, but of all the luck for one to be here. Then again, maybe it wasn’t luck.

“I could ask you the same thing,” he said. “What are you doing hanging out with a human?”

She was sure he could tell she was a demon, though whether or not he knew she was half-human was not clear. Demons, as was perhaps to be expected, were the inverse of mortal motomancers in that regard. They had no issues discerning her demonic nature, but most were not able to detect her mortal half. At most, they could tell that something was “off” or strange about her, but not what.

Even if he knew she was a half-demon, there was no way to know if he knew who she was. Of the demons serving under her father, most had known of her but never met her. And there were plenty who had never formally bowed to him—though they had been happy to use the chaos of the war as an opportunity to wreak havoc—who may have never known of her existence. Those who had encountered Father had, as far as she knew, bowed or died, but Ysuge was a big place, and there had been many more demons at the time. Some had simply slipped through the cracks. She may have been the Demon King’s daughter and the only known half-demon in centuries, but that didn’t mean all knew her.

Which group this demon was in, she could not say. She did not recall having ever seen him before, but she had never known every rank-and-file member of Father’s forces. It was also, of course, possible she had met him and deemed him not worth remembering.

“That is none of your concern,” she said.

“Then why is my business yours?” he asked.

“You have made it my concern,” she replied.

He let out a round of uproarious laughter. “I guess I did, didn’t I? I kind of called you out. I guess I’ll tell you then. Truth be told, I tried the whole ‘lay low and wait for the next Demon King’ shtick at first. But then I heard about all the fun the bandits and their little minor-ranks were having out here, and I just couldn’t resist joining in.”

She hated this type of high-rank. At least low-rank demons had the excuse that they could never be anything but foolish and violent. High-ranks were inclined toward such behavior, perhaps even inexorably drawn to it, but they had the capacity to control when and how they expressed it. Many exercised that capacity. Those like this one did not.

She did not care if he wanted to kill and destroy. She did not care if cruelty brought him pleasure, though she could not understand either impulse. When his refusal or inability to do so in an intelligent manner inconvenienced her, however, it became a problem. Even during the war, Father had had to deal with these types ruining well-laid plans to satisfy their lust for blood. Maybe if it hadn’t been for them...

They would have lost anyway. She knew that. Clinging to this irrational blame was uncharacteristic of her. And yet she had carried it all these months. She was not ready to put it down just yet, and this one was making a strong case that that was the right call.

“I suggest you leave at once,” she said. Grudge or no grudge, a peaceful resolution to this was preferable. “Go back to hiding. Do that and I will allow you to live.”

“You can’t seriously let him go!” Ander exclaimed. He waved an arm around him. “Look at what he did!”

The demon chuckled. “Doesn’t matter, kid. I’m not going anywhere anyway.” He smirked at her. “Are you scared or something?”

“I am not frightened,” she said. “I merely do not want to waste time on the likes of you.”

“Oh, so even you can make things personal sometimes?” he asked. “That’s not at all what I heard, ice queen.”

So, he knew of her. It made little difference, so long as he did not say too much.

“Well, whatever, I don’t really care,” he said. “The fact is, I came out here to enjoy myself. So, there’s only one way I’m getting out of your hair, and don’t expect me to go easy on you, princess.” His smile grew, his eyes narrowing, his expression shifting from smug to predatory. “But first, I think I’ll make sure that weakling doesn’t ruin the fun.”

He charged forward, aiming for Ander. Whether the demon thought the attack had any chance of success, or he was simply trying to provoke her, it was going to fail.

She put herself between them, batted aside the punch the demon threw at her, and kicked at his stomach. He managed to guard in time, but the force of the blow sent him sliding backward. Lusya didn’t have the luxury of checking on Ander, but she knew nothing had struck him. She also knew he was just as out of his league as she had thought. Her senses suggested he was standing in the same spot. He hadn’t even been able to react to being attacked. As she had suspected, this was all up to her. Some things, it seemed, had not changed with his presence. She leaped forward, throwing another kick at the demon’s head. He blocked that as well and tried to counter with a punch, but she air jumped away.

Seeing that as an opening, he went on the offensive, pursuing her and throwing countless blows at her. She dodged or blocked them all. When she saw her chance, she threw a punch into his stomach to stun him, then kicked him in the jaw, using a shockwave to blow him away.

He tumbled away through the air. She gave chase, aiming to intercept where he would fall, but he righted himself and redirected with an air jump. He smiled as he landed and ran at her. He threw a punch that she easily blocked, but then he grabbed her guard, slammed his head against hers, and threw her away, through the remains of a covered wagon.

As she tumbled along the ground, he pursued her. He closed in, and she threw herself off the ground and kicked him in the chest and one motion, launching him away and allowing her to get to her feet and run after him.

She caught up as he landed and kicked his legs out from under him as he tried to stand. Before she could follow up further, he rolled away and leaped to his feet. She punched at him, but he blocked and followed up with a blow that caught her in the stomach, throwing her backward.

He hefted a nearby wagon and threw it at her. She dodged easily, but he was waiting where she moved. As expected. His eyes widened in shock as she jumped over his punch and kicked him square in the face. He rolled back end over end until he hit hard against another carriage, splintering what remained of it with his back.

He laughed as he stood. She did not hate battle, but enjoying it was another sentiment she could not comprehend. In any case, it was going to take much too long to finish things this way. Dealing enough damage in hand-to-hand combat was all but impossible in a timely manner.

She reached out her hand. “Lunera.”

She grabbed the sword as it materialized in front of her.

“So, that’s how it’s gonna be, huh?” he asked, grinning.

“As I said, I do not wish to waste time on you,” she said.

“Oh, how scary.”

She slashed Lunera and he was in front of her. His smile dissolved in an instant as the snow-white blade sang for his throat. He danced away, and another slash had her behind him.

He whirled and raised his arms in a hasty guard as he tried to dodge. Lunera slashed down along his forearm, leaving a thin red line in its wake and flinging droplets onto the ground. Any ordinary mortal would have had their arm cut down the middle there. Even most motomancers would have at least been cut to the bone, probably losing use of the limb to damage to muscles and tendons. His durability enhancement was sufficient to ward off Lunera’s edge. How irritating.

“Fulesa!” the demon shouted, extending his hand. A trident, dark blue from end to end, appeared as he took hold of it.

He stabbed the weapon forward, and a pillar of water burst forth from the middle tip. The torrent slammed into her, whisking her off her feet and forcing her to close her eyes on reflex. She sensed him moving toward her to capitalize on his advantage. She couldn’t stay here or defend. Her sense for Malice wasn’t enough to fight with. It told her where he was, not what he was doing. She slashed Lunera in the opposite direction, warping her into open air a dozen feet away.

It took him no time to react, surging toward her. She opened her eyes and sidestepped the thrust that followed. He swept the trident toward her, and she jumped into the air, then air jumped back. Despite the veritable flood that had just hit her, neither her clothes nor body were more than slightly damp. The water had likely evaporated or disappeared quickly. It wasn’t uncommon for creations of Soul Blades to behave that way, much like Miudofay’s flames.

Nevertheless, she unfastened her cloak and let it drift to the ground. It would be more of a hindrance while wet, and it was extra drag against attacks like that. Helpful in some ways, maybe, but not worth the impediment to her movements or pressure on her throat.

She used Lunera to quickly warp to the ground. The demon rushed at her. She dodged his strike and struck at him with Lunera in a single smooth motion. He managed a narrow, clumsy dodge, and she flowed into a second slash. He quickly moved his trident, catching the sword between two of the prongs, and twisted it. She could either hold onto her sword and be pulled off-balance or relinquish her weapon.

She chose the latter without hesitation, releasing and dismissing Lunera. She could always summon it again later. He flung the dissolving weapon aside and struck her with the butt of the trident, forcing her back. A wave followed, sweeping her off her feet and driving her back. She rolled with her fall, but another rush of water was flying at her.

She jumped over it, and the demon followed her into the air. With an air jump, he got above her and thrust down, sending a ball of water at her. She air jumped to dodge it, and he took the opportunity to jump toward her, water gathering around his trident for a point-blank attack.

“Miudofay.”

The black sword appeared in her hands. With the blade wreathed in flames, she batted aside the demon’s attack, his water turning to steam in an instant and floating away on the wind.

The demon jumped away as she slashed Miudofay, sending out a wave of fire. It passed under him, but it had accomplished her goal of driving him away. She released Miudofay and summoned Lunera again to warp behind the demon. He whirled and sent a torrent at her, but she opened a rift, sending the water out behind him to harmlessly splash onto the ground. She didn’t bother trying to hit him with it. Many were immune or resistant to harmful effects of their own Blades.

She took advantage of his momentary shock to slash at his throat again. He twisted his body, allowing the blade to scrape along his forehead instead. Seizing on another opening, she brought her heel down on his chest, launching him back down to the ground where he impacted with a spray of dust and debris.

He got to his feet quickly and fired a blast at her. She warped to the ground behind him and slashed at him. He noticed her at the last moment and dodged, whirling to stab at her. She sidestepped the attack, and he retreated before she could counter again. His forehead was bleeding quite a bit, crimson running down his face, but she knew it was not actually a severe wound.

She pursued him, ready to strike. With a grin, he swept his trident near the ground, sending a wave of water at her legs. She was too close to dodge. The wave hit, knocking her off balance. He seized the opportunity to thrust out his trident. She managed to twist to avoid it stabbing into her, instead scraping her side with one of the prongs, tearing her shirt and leaving a small cut on her. She slapped the weapon away and lashed out with a kick, sending him flying backward. She banished Lunera.

“Miu—”

The demon threw a desperate blast of water out, knocking her off her feet and driving her back, through a broken wagon and into another. He was already recovered and upon her by the time she had gotten to her feet. She had little choice but to—what was that fool doing?

A second after she sensed his approach, Ander slid to a halt in beside her. He swung his sword and batted aside the demon’s thrust. The demon’s eyes widened in surprise for a moment, then he let out a sharp bark of laughter. He raised his trident and swung down with incredible speed. Ander raised his blade to block, but the force of the impact shattered the mundane steel, allowing the trident to continue unimpaired, and drove him to the ground, his leg twisting awkwardly and shards of his weapon slicing into his skin. It was only because he fell that the trident itself didn’t tear through him anyway.

The demon prepared for a follow-up attack, but Lusya surged forward and kicked him away, augmenting the attack with a shockwave. She dashed after him as he flew through the air.

“Miudofay.”

She raised the Demon King’s Blade overhead, violet flame billowing off the sword. She liked to avoid such large displays of power that might draw attention to her, but she wanted to end this battle. Water gathered around the demon’s trident, and he desperately thrust it out as she swung down Miudofay. A gout of flame enveloped him and stretched into the distance without slowing, devouring all in its path.

When the fire dissipated, the demon was gone. There was no sign of him. At least, there was no sign that was distinguishable from the rest of the sea of ash left in the attack’s wake. Her attack had carved out a fan-shaped hole in the ground, hundreds of feet long and just as wide at the far end. Much of the destroyed caravan and the corpses populating it had been consumed in the blaze as well. Leaving behind scars on the landscape like this was another reason she avoided attacks of that scale, but the last one had been months ago and hundreds of miles away. If anyone was even looking, it would take some time to find both and make the connection.

She dismissed Miudofay and made her way over to where Ander sat on the ground. That he was sitting rather than lying was a good sign. He had propped himself up against the wagon she had collided with. She had caved in and splintered the outer wall, but he had found an intact patch farther from her point of impact.

His leg was no longer at that odd angle, so it did not seem to be broken. There were several cuts leaking blood down his arms, face, and torso, but none seemed especially severe. He was grimacing, gingerly rubbing his injured leg, but he looked up and gave a strained smile as she approached.

“That was foolish,” she said.

He chuckled. “I’m fine, thanks for asking.”

“I can see that you are well enough,” she said. “I am unsure if you can see just how idiotic your actions were.”

He frowned. “It looked like you were on the backfoot. In fact, he was right about to hit you dead on.”

“Only because your approach distracted me,” she said. “I would have been more than capable of dodging that attack otherwise.”

Granted, she had only managed that final blow because the demon had likewise been distracted, but she was confident she would have won anyway. So, Ander getting himself injured and almost killed was still a net negative. He didn’t get points for accidentally helping her win a little sooner.

“Oh,” he said, averting his gaze. “Sorry.”

“You are fortunate he did not kill you, and more fortunate you were not seriously injured,” she said. “Your sword’s fragments could easily have taken a finger or an eye from you. As the Talsian saying goes, you have the Demon King’s luck.”

According to Talsian tradition, the Demon King was extraordinarily lucky, though she had never noticed as much with Father. The primary thesis of the expression, however, was that it required nigh-miraculous luck for a being who was, at a basic level, the enemy of all other life to survive long enough to pose any kind of threat once, let alone over twenty times in recorded history, and who knew how many aside from that. It was a premise that, she would admit, had some merit.

Ander sighed. “Yeah, I know. I messed up.” He smiled. “I appreciate the concern, though.”

“Can you stand?”

“I couldn’t a minute ago,” he said. “Let’s see.”

He grasped the side of the wagon and used it to pull himself to his feet. He held the one he had twisted just above the ground. After a moment of balancing on one foot and the wagon, he placed the other foot on the ground. Tenderly at first, then slowly putting his weight on it, until he screamed in pain and yanked it back up, clutching at it with his free hand.

“That really hurts,” he said between gritted teeth. “I think it’s sprained pretty bad. Might even be a minor fracture…”

“It does not seem you are in any shape to walk,” she said.

“Probably not,” he said. “Sorry. This is all my fault.”

She nodded. “That is correct.”

He laughed. “Most people would say ‘no, don’t beat yourself up,’ or something like that.”

“I am not most people,” she said. “It is important that you understand your mistake.”

He sighed and hung his head. “I get it. In the first place, it’s because I didn’t listen to you that we’re in this mess at all.”

“That is not true,” she said.

He looked up, surprised.

“You would do well to obey me in the future,” she continued, “but it would not have changed the result in this instance. We would not have been able to get away in time. I asked you to understand your mistakes, not to shoulder unnecessary blame.”

He smiled. “All right, message received.”

“Good,” she said. “Now, I will help you to the carriage and tend to your injuries.”

He gave a small nod. “That would be great, thank you.”

She approached him and swept him up into her arms. He was too large to carry vertically like she did Ariya, so Lusya held him horizontal, his head on one side and legs on the other. Him being so much taller than her made it a bit awkward, but her strength was plenty sufficient, and it would be more efficient than helping him hobble along. She could have let him ride on her back, but that seemed even more awkward with the size difference, and it would have required more coordination.

“W-what are you doing?” he sputtered, his face quickly turning bright red. She gathered it was from embarrassment rather than fever or the like, but she could not guess from what. “You can’t carry me like this!”

She tilted her head, blinking twice. “Why not?”

“It’s embarrassing,” he said. “This is how people carry their lovers, or their babies, or how the hero carries a helpless princess in stories!”

“You are quite helpless at the moment,” she said.

He frowned for an instant before letting out a single bark of muffled laughter. “Was that a joke?”

“It was an observation,” she said, beginning to walk toward the carriage. “In any case, there is no one to see.”

“That’s not the point…”

She blinked. “Would you prefer to walk?”

“No, thank you.”