Walking down the steps, he quickly found where his sword had gone. Belatedly, he wondered, aloud, "How on Andwelm did they manage to pull this from my hand. It could not have been magic."

What he found instead was something stranger. Saying that is starting to get a bit old. The sword was lying beside the part of the wall that it had been pulled from. After picking it up, he inspected where it should have hit, but found nothing out of the ordinary, save for a rectangular piece of stone that was a bit too clean. He tried to pull at it, but it was flush with the wall, and there was no grip to hold onto.

He strapped the scabbard to his back, then sheathed the sword in it. It fit perfectly, which reinforced the idea that that's what this all was, in essence. A test for those who had carried the blade through the dungeon and had made it here alive.

Alleria looked up as he returned to the dais, where she was waiting. "How's it feel?"

"It beats stringing it together with rope and cloth."

"No doubt. Gellron says he might have found another blocked-off door on the other end. We might want to head him off before he grows impatient and destroys it with his own hands."

Whether that comment was made in jest or not was unclear, and he didn't want to test it, so he followed her around the dais, past the dozens of open holes, or rather, tunnels that stretched into the rest of the dungeon.

That was when they heard the one thing that didn't match the constant silence of the dungeon, which was usually only broken by their own breaths. And in a way, it was worse than the sound of magical traps activating.

Footsteps.

He spun around, immediately placing his back to the nearest patch of bare wall. One look saw that Alleria had done the same. Neither of them said anything, but he widened his eyes and nodded his head.

That one.

She lowered her head and, with care and in a slow and deliberate manner, drew her sword from its sheath. The footsteps were getting louder, getting closer. Along with it, a dim glow was coming from one of the tunnels. Torchlight.

When they reached their apex, and he saw a humanoid shadow cast across the floor, he spun back around and drew his sword. Alleria was faster and got her blade to the throat of the stranger before he'd even fully risen his own.

He blinked, eyes unused to the torches' light, but eventually adjusted to the point where he could see the stranger. Covered in leather armour and armed, by the looks of it, with both sword and bow, they could have passed themselves off for a Carathiliarian or Moren, if it weren't for their bare face. There, he saw black hair flowing down against an unnaturally pale face, with eyes like glass glaring back at him.

"Talradian."

"No kidding? Damn, of all my luck to run into you two." She spat on the ground and raised her hands. Alleria's blade hovered inches away from her throat. "Go on then, going to spike me with that thing? At least it will be over quickly."

"No wrong moves or that might just happen." Danadrian edged around her. "Where are the others?"

"No idea. They could be four days' walk from here or just around the bend, and your guess would be as good as mine."

Alleria kept her sword hand steady. "I'm not used to a Demon Hunter away from her flock. Has Keleiva become desperate enough to send you out alone to find us?"

"The Princess?" Her eyes widened, "So you've seen her? She's still alive? That's good to know, at least. That, at least, could alleviate some of the General's stress, if there was only a way to tell him. Alas."

"The General?" Danadrian asked, "Brakenus sent you?"

"General Brakenus has been trying to tail you for Gods only know how long. And you know, it's only by their good graces alone that he hasn't found you yet."

Alleria and he exchanged glances.

If Brakenus is down here with us-

We need to get out. Now.

"Where is he?"

"Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you."

"What are you doing here then?"

"Damn spells got me turned around, and I lost the signs we left to get back. I wouldn't even have needed to go if it weren't for my busted leg."

He looked down and indeed, the armour around her leg was missing, and the bandage was quite obvious.

"How many of you are there?"

"I'm not going to tell you, so you should stop trying. The two of you aren't very good at interrogations, are you?" She glanced between them, "What, you think I would sell him out just because this wench has Soul Steel at my throat?"

"Why is it you Talradians seem awfully eager to die recently?" Alleria glanced at him again, "How many days ahead of him do you think we are? Hours?"

"We don't even know how far ahead of Keleiva we are. They have tracks to follow, we have nothing but dust and silence to assure us that we're alone…"

His voice faltered as he heard a foreign noise, echoing back through the tunnel. The Talradian was laughing.

"Did we say something funny?"

"Well, yeah- it's just," she wiped her nose and snorted, "Coming from you- asking why we're so eager to die 'recently.' I mean, I thought you would know. We're always ready to die."

He backed away a step as she shouted, spraying spit at them.

"Why do you think our skin looks like this? Why do our eyes look like this? Let me ask you, Danadrian of the so-called Light, how many Talradian children have you seen?"

He opened his mouth, but she just kept talking. "And the ones you face, the ones you kill, how old have they been? Not one lacking grey hairs, I imagine."

He frowned as a reflex, which she noticed immediately. "So you have noticed? Well, why don't you ask your Demon friend here why that is? Ask her why her highness and I are the youngest Talradians you'll ever see."

"What is she talking about?"

Alleria didn't answer, and she didn't meet his eyes either.

The Talradian didn't relent. "Because we are cursed. Each of us, every man, woman, and babe, since that fateful day when we did the deed that no one else would. And each of us would have it done again, damn it. Each and every time."

He thought he was hearing an echo. An echo of someone else who had said the same thing.

"Our sacrifice, for the good of all Humankind."

Alleria's grip tightened, her jaw clenched. The sword in her hand had dipped somewhat, but she raised it again. "Vermin. Just give me an excuse, Talradian, I'll gladly take it."

Her voice was becoming background garble to his own thoughts, which were running overdrive, taking pieces of what he'd heard, trying to piece them together with what he knew, and watching each theory and idea fall apart. When he saw her raise her blade higher, his eyes widened.

"Alleria, stop." He raised one hand off his sword and made to step in front of her. "She's surrendered. I need whatever information she can tell me; she can tell us." He glanced at the pale-faced woman and then back at her. "Besides, it seems you've been holding back on me again."

"If you seek knowledge, then find a library," she growled. "The biased views you'll find there are more trustworthy than her kind's. And if you think I've been holding information back from you, it's because there are some things that are not meant to be said."

"Tell me. I need to know. The war between Talradians and Demons, the Destruction of Talradius- killed your God."

She bared her teeth as the Talradian continued to chuckle. As if she had no idea that her life was held in the balance. Or maybe she just didn't care anymore. "I told you, none of them were ever my gods. And they are not gods, no matter what Gellron would have you believe."

What? Now isn't the time to be debating theology and deific design, Gods are Gods, it's not a matter of…

Oh.

It finally clicked into place. Gellron. The Talradians. Their God. Alleria. Their Gods. Plural. They were cursed. The Destruction. Her omissions. The Seven Houses. Or were there six now?

Lustravias.

His sword arm fell, the tip of the blade hitting the ground. He turned to stare at the Talradian, horror, repulsion, and fear running through his body.

"No. You didn't."

"We did. One life for an entire race. Does that seem fair to you? Well, when it came to his life, it might have truly been. Though I was only a newborn when it happened, I swear to you I can still remember the sky falling, the ground shaking, and the screams, oh the screams."

He thought he could hear them too. The screams of men, women, children, of babes and the elderly.

Her eyes shifted behind him, and her smile faltered. "Ah, and now comes the third. Care to elaborate for me, Demon?"

He spun around, and Gellron was there, stalking past him. His sabre was already out. When had he-

"Gellron, wait-"

He cut her throat. It was clean, with surgical precision. It didn't even set in until the blood started to drip. The wound went a sickly colour in seconds. Her face, stuck in one last ghost of a laugh, lost any colour it still had. Then she fell, wisps of mist trailing off both her body and the blade.

"His life for an entire race's, and the scales are still not balanced."

Danadrian's hand was shaking, the blade in it itching to be raised, to strike.

"Does it surprise you, Lightbringer? That a God like Lustravias could fall to, of all things, mortal hands? Do you feel it? That uncertainty, as the mortality of even the Gods sets in? I imagine you do, but something tells me you do not see it the way we do."

The Demon looked him over once more before dismissing him.

"You hesitated. For a murderer, you still lack the stomach for your craft."

Alleria's eyes were slowly moving between the corpse and her blade. Her hands shook. They snapped up, and she raised the blade to her brother's own neck.

He stared at it, his eyes cold. Then he turned away.

"I don't believe you."

. . .

Alleria ducked behind the tree and held her breath. When no one came, she inched around it to take another look. Good, they hadn't seen her.

Leaving the house without being spotted was hard enough; following her brother and father was on a different level entirely. Thankfully, she'd spotted Old Artiguis sweeping his porch on the way out, and they said he'd been brilliant and Hide-and-Seek when he was her age. All it took was a blink, as her mother always said.

Gellron and her father had joined another group as they walked out of town, though she wasn't sure who they were. They had their faces covered, in much the same way they had donned hoods that made them indistinguishable from common travellers.

Now, what are you two up to?

They'd been very close-mouthed about what their 'bonding' trip was, and especially around her. If it was something important, she figured they would at least tell her. She was fifteen, hardly a child anymore. And quite mature for her age, according to her friend's parents.

She dashed from tree to tree, careful that she didn't lose them, but never close enough that she'd be spotted. And the chances of that happening were getting greater and greater the more people joined their group. So many, in fact, that by the time they eventually stopped within an inconspicuous grove, deep in the forest, she thought half the town might be there.

One of the hooded men stepped forward and drew back his disguise, revealing slime, purple horns.

House Lustravias…

"With the Seven and One as witness, let this, the year's first induction ceremony of the Path of Arahumas, begin."

A low murmur spread throughout all those gathered, and they began drawing back their hoods and revealing themselves. There were more people that she recognised. Linda Gredon, one of the local seamstresses, was back there, with her husband, Ignvanus Lustravias. One of the boys she'd seen wandering around and thought was cute was at the back, alongside a pair she assumed were his parents. Joseph Lustravias and his brother, Lithron Lustravias.

Now that I think about it, there's a lot of House Lustravias hanging around here. Almost all of them live in and around town.

They had never been as numerous in these parts as Wrathius and Elevar, but that was still quite a lot of people.

Gellron pulled his hood back, as did her father. His face-

She snapped her eyes away from his face. He was next to speak, stepping forward towards the circle that had formed.

"Today, we welcome the next generation of Arahumasian Warriors to our ranks. For the good of Demonkind, for the good of Demagain, we entrust its future to them. For the good of Lustravias."

"For the good of Lustravias."

Oh. This seemed a lot more important than she'd realised. They were chanting about Lustravias, singing poetry, and even crying. Crying. It was all starting to send chills down her spine. There was respect and there was… whatever this was.

What had they called it again? Arahumas? Why did that name sound familiar?

Her mind began to drift off, but then refocused itself when she heard her father speak again. He had risen a top a small stone they'd set on the ground, and now he swept his arms out wide. "Step forward, those of you who will answer the call. Step forward and take the vows of the Path."

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Several figures stepped forward and entered the circle, Lithron Lustravias, the boy she'd found cute, and Gellron among them. They approached her father, whose back was facing her, and kneeled in the grass.

He raised his voice again. "Do you swear to take up arms and fight for Demagain's future and protect Demonkind?"

"I swear."

"Do you swear to uphold the virtues set out by Lord Lustravias, to follow his will and example until the bitter end?"

"I swear."

His voice grew louder, "Do you swear to avenge Lord Lustravias, to vanquish the Humans who slew him, and end their plague upon Andwelm and Demagain."

"I swear."

"Do you swear…" He reached to his waist and drew a blade, his blade, a curved sword made of dimly glowing metal. "To give everything to the cause. To put Demagain and Demonkind above even your own life. And should the time come to die for your people."

"I SWEAR."

"Then step forward, Arahumasian Warriors, for today you are reborn, not as sons and daughters of your Houses, but as Sons and Daughters of Demagain."

They rose and stepped towards him. He climbed off the stone and tapped each of them on the shoulders with the Soul Steel blade. Once he was done with that, he turned his head and nodded. He raised his voice again as someone moved in the crowd.

"And to our strongest, who have in them not just the potential, but the will and drive to do what is necessary, I present to you the blades that will enable you to reach new heights."

Four weapons were handed out, each covered in black and magenta embroidered cloth. Alleria watched as Gellron carefully drew his back and revealed a Soul Steel sabre. He took it by the hilt and raised it to the sky, as did the others, with Soul Steel spear, longsword, and knife. The crowd cheered. The crowd screamed. The crowd cried.

Alleria felt cold all of a sudden.

The circle eventually split, and the crowd began mingling, congratulating those who had taken the oath, and admiring those four who had been gifted the weapons. Sneaking up any closer was impossible, with that many people, someone was bound to spot her, so instead she crept around the grove, eventually finding a hollowed log on the ground big enough to squeeze in. She heard his voice.

"-really no need."

"You should be proud, Cadmus, really. For your son to have taken up the pledge, and at so young as well. With you, your line has the makings of the first multi-generational followers of the Path. At least the first around these parts."

Her father laughed, "For the good of Demagain, it will be so. I should congratulate you, Joseph. I hear that you've been chosen to represent us in Ardastine City. An important job, and a great honour."

"The honour is all mine, but if you don't mind me saying, I was surprised that they didn't call upon you instead. I may have a way with words, but they're nothing compared to your oratory skills."

Her father chuckled again, though this time a bit softer, "I fear my family may have had a hand to play in that matter. My wife… Anaderia is outspoken and unyielding in her beliefs. I believe that factored into their decision to overlook me."

"Is she still… right, my apologies, Cadmus. It must be hard. And little Alleria, how is she?"

Alleria flinched. "Hardly little anymore, Joseph. She's fifteen, if you can believe it."

"Really? I can remember when we were fifteen. That was a time… do you ever get nostalgic for it?"

"Sometimes. But I cannot think of who we would be if things had played out differently."

"Neither can I. The Lord's death… it all seems too surreal and dreamy in hindsight."

"We had our eyes opened. My only wish now is that Alleria takes to her training as much as her brother did. She is… troublesome. Anaderia has been feeding her too many of her stories."

"And on the courts? How does she square up against Cadmus the Blademaster and his son, the prodigy? I would assume that swordsmanship passed through your Soul."

Her father hesitated; she heard it in his voice, in the silence.

"She… is still a child. No doubt she will learn quicker as she grows older. There is still time."

Joseph kept talking, but she wasn't listening to him anymore. Her eyes stung, and her heart was balled up. Child? Child? Was that seriously all he thought of her, the lesser child to her amazing brother? And what was going on with this whole ceremony anyway? It certainly didn't seem like the father-son bonding trip they'd been led to believe it was.

The memory dissolved, and Alleria was drifting through consciousness and unconsciousness. If only she had known. If only she'd spent just a few minutes at the library before going home. If only I had learned to just keep my mouth shut.

"The Path… are you serious, Cadmus. The Path?"

She blinked. She was crouching at the edge of the staircase, listening to her parents. Her mother always claimed that they were just disagreements, not real arguments. As far as she knew, that was the only true lie her mother ever told her.

"Who told you?"

"That's what you're concerned with, who told me? Not the secret gatherings you've been having behind my back? Not what you've been doing… How long, Cadmus? How long have you subscribed to this cult of personality?"

"If someone told you, it means we were being watched. That is cause enough for concern, now Anaderia, who. Told. You?"

He emphasised each word with a slap on the table. Alleria edged just enough around the corner that she could see one side of the dining room. Her mother's hair was dishevelled, there were new lines under her eyes and wrinkles that hadn't been there yesterday.

"Anaderia."

She looked away.

"Alleria. How did she…?"

For once, her father actually sounded surprised, and more than a bit stumped. Her mother looked back up at him.

"She was curious; she wanted to know where you and Gellron were going. Wait, you and Gellron-" She clapped a hand to her mouth. "You didn't. Not my boy. You can't have. CADMUS."

Her mother's voice reverberated through the house. Her horns were flaring like a bonfire atop her head.

"It was his choice. He made the pledge willingly, as does everyone else. We do not force anyone to follow the Path, only those willing to make a stand and fight for all of-"

"Oh, cut the Drenshi crap, Cadmus. You won't force anyone, but you're more than willing to indoctrinate them from adolescence, so they become another one of your tin soldiers. How many other children have you trained, while filling their ears with your nonsense?"

"My nonsense?" Her father's voice grew louder. "I tell only the truth. Humans are a threat to our kind, and the Talradians are only the beginning. But no, let us sit down and relax, wait until Lord Prydin of Lord Elevar are killed as well? How many of us must die for you to see them for what they are?"

Her mother slammed both hands against the table. She leaned forward and stared daggers of pure iron into her father's eyes. "I saw, with these eyes I saw, Cadmus. I saw a nation destroyed in a day, I saw good Demons and good Humans die for the sins of a few. I saw a people burn. And-" Her voice croaked, and she looked away. The strength in her eyes and her body deflated. Suddenly, she was smaller. Weaker. "I can't watch that happen again. Light help me, I will not."

Alleria inhaled quickly and had to make sure she didn't stumble back. Light… she'd heard her mother's stories before, but to hear her mutter an oath to it was something else entirely.

Then that word, that word they muttered when her back was turned and she thought they weren't listening, that word her father swore at, that her brother few embarrassed to hear, that word slithered back into her mind.

Lightbringer. But there weren't any Demons who were Lightbringers… there couldn't be.

She thought she'd known that. The memory that she had tried so desperately to forget was like an insidious worm in the way it stuck in her brain. She thought she was fading away, floating back into the unconsciousness of her mind, when her father slammed his own hands against the table, and she was back.

Why was she always back?

"Do you not find your own words the least bit hypocritical, Anaderia? I indoctrinated Gellron since he was a child, but when you feed those tall tales to Alleria, that's all well and good, is it?"

"Only when she needs to hear them. My faith is of no concern."

"Your faith has smeared this family's reputation. I know you hear them as well as I do. At best, they laugh at you when your back is turned, at worst, they come to me and express their concerns. So no, I will hear no judgment from you."

"I don't teach my children to hurt others."

"They are the children of Cadmus Wrathius. It is in their Souls to hurt others, so let them do it for a good cause, a righteous cause."

"Killing innocents isn't righteous, Cadmus."

"To protect their people is."

"Is that what the Path teaches you to tell yourself, so you can sleep at night?"

She drew in her breath. Her father's rage was hot enough that she could almost feel it through the walls and across the floor.

"If you're going to hit me again, then get it over with."

She heard nothing. Then, her father called out. She inched away, cloaking herself in the shadows. If he realised she was-

"Gellron, I know you're listening. Come over here."

Her eyes widened. A door creaked open, and a new set of footsteps echoed through the house as he approached. When she peeked around the edge again, her mother's face was pale. Her eyes were swimming with tears.

"No. Not that. You can't, Cadmus. YOU CAN'T."

"'With it his life was taken, and thereafter we shall take'" Her father recited. His voice, if it had ever lost any of its confidence, was now invigorated. Proud. "They are rare enough around these parts, and rarer still for it to be given to them this young. But the next generation of Warriors is strong, and they will need stronger weapons still to contend with our enemies."

"Gellron, please, don't do this." She pleaded, "You have no idea what it will do to you. To take a life is a step too far, to use Soul Steel… it is torture."

"What would you have him do, Anaderia? When Humans have blades across our throats, when they hold a candle ready to burn our home to the ground, would you expect him to cast aside a weapon that could save it all?"

Her brother's back was to her, so she couldn't see his face. When he didn't answer immediately, she remembered the hope blossoming in her heart. Then the reality set in, and the answer to that hope rang true through her mind.

He squared his shoulders. "Father is right. Mother, what they have taken from us… it is a debt that can never be paid. Talradius, the Unspoken One, they are only the beginning. What will we do when more come? Please, tell me."

He was pleading with her now, asking for an answer she didn't have. Alleria could feel her father's pride in the same way she could see the heartbreak written across her mother's face.

"I have taught him well, though there is no doubt he has talent. You will be a Warrior the bards write stories about, my son. And your sister will follow soon enough."

Her mother's head snapped up again, tears rolled down her cheeks, but still, she looked shocked.

"No, you cannot expect her to- she's a child. She's smart, witty and kind. She's not a monster. She couldn't ever be."

"She will be offered the same choice as her brother. Protect her people or stand aside as they are destroyed in the fires of Andwelm. And she will learn what the right choice is."

It was too much.

She ran. She scampered up the stairs, uncaring of the noise she made, uncaring of the fact that they heard her. She just needed to get away from it. Away from the fear and the pain. Away from the contest of wills that decided her fate below. Away from the look in the eyes of the will that was faltering, that was fading.

She blinked.

She was back in the dining room. Gellron was gone. This wasn't right, she'd hidden in her room after that. That was where he night ended, where the memory faded. And yet… how…?

She looked down at her hands. It was her hands, not a child's, but fully grown. Now she was standing across the table from her mother, who didn't even blink or acknowledge her existence.

This isn't right. This isn't… I don't remember this.

"Cadmus. How long?"

"Since I had my eyes opened. Since I watched a God fall and new true mortality for the first time."

Her father's voice made her flinch. Her reflexes made her turn, but she snapped away again. He was there, right there next to her. Close enough to smell his scent. Close enough to hear his breath.

Too close.

Her mother laughed, a broken, sombre sound that achieved perfect balance between a wail and a humourless chuckle. She looked up at him. Her eyes were distant.

"But who of you were there to see it? You, Joseph, Ignvanus, none of you were there. You saw his dust and cried for him, you felt his loss, and you mourned, but none of you were there to see what came after." A single, final tear ran down her cheek. "I was."

Alleria stared, her heart beating against her chest like it was a cage.

"You were almost killed by them, Anaderia. Why? Why can't you see it the way I do?" For a second, she thought she caught something in her father's voice, a hint of longing. A plea. Maybe the last vestiges of what had once been love. "The Gods alone know how lucky you were."

"There is no such thing as luck. The Light saved me, like a distant star swinging down through the darkness. It saves all and gives no heed to race or affiliation. Maybe if you had been there, you would have seen it the way I do."

She wiped at her cheeks. "I cannot watch you do this, Cadmus. Not anymore. Please, will you let it go?"

He didn't answer. That was answer enough.

"I cannot watch you do this," she repeated.

She threw herself up, eyes half crusted over, heart still racing like a stallion. The memory of the memory was already slipping away, back into her mind where it always sat, gathering dust. But what had happened at the end stuck with her. It wasn't possible. Was it her imagination? Had it even been real?

Her mother had never spoken like that before, not in front of her. Even during her stories, she never mentioned when or where she'd found the Light.

"The Light saved me."

Her voice was still fresh, and it lingered in her mind. A scabbed wound cut open again, but Demons weren't supposed to get scabs. It wasn't in their nature to let a wound fester and heal with time. Better to sacrifice some sleep and get it over with now.

She rubbed at her wrists and looked around. They were still at the edge of the hall with the dais. None of them, not even Gellron, had demanded they keep moving after that. She expected that even he needed to rest from time to time. They couldn't go forever without sleep.

Danadrian was standing beside her. He'd not sheathed his sword; instead, its tip was placed against the ground as he held his hands on the hilt, almost like a walking stick. On any other blade, it would have damaged the tip, but she doubted his got even a scratch. It was a bit much, considering he had just been 'given' a new scabbard undoubtedly tailor-made for his blade.

It was also concerning because, if memory served, this was the same position he'd been in when she'd fallen asleep. Which meant either he hadn't rested at all, or he could sleep standing up now.

She waved a hand in front of his face, and he reacted immediately. Well, there went that conclusion.

"Did you get any sleep?"

He shook his head. "No. I couldn't, not here. And even if I could… I'm not sure I would feel inclined to."

He gave a pointed stare across the room, where Gellron was sitting, slouched against the wall and also awake.

"He wouldn't do anything. Not now, at least. I actually think he's serious about taking back to Demagain for trial. He would have killed me sooner if he wanted to."

"If you had told me that yesterday, I wouldn't have been able to reconcile the notion that a brother could hate his sister enough to kill her."

"But now?"

He shook his head. Not even a smile touched his lips. "Gellron Wrathius is a monster. The sort that Carathiliarian mothers tell their children about to spook them into obedience. The type that warrants bounties in the hundreds of gold pieces range."

"The type of Demon that Demon Hunters warn everyone about? The indescribably horrible and grotesque?"

He looked down at her. "If you told me he was Human, I would ask you by what definition we call someone Human. If he were a God, I would ask… of what quality would people worship him for?" His gaze trailed away from her, and she didn't need to follow it to know where it led.

"It's still there, and I doubt it'll be moved anytime soon."

"I wish I had a spade or knew Earth Magic. Just enough to cover her body."

The embers of her emotions flared. "Tathlani was one thing, Danadrian, but she came here to kill us. If you had your memories back, I swear, you would go catatonic seeing everyone you've no doubt had to put to the blade. What makes her any different?"

She expected anger in turn, a defensive retort, anything. Instead, he just shook his head. "Nothing makes her different. That is exactly the reason why I regret her loss."

"It saves all and gives no heed to race or affiliation."

She looked him up and down. "But when the Demon Hunters come for me, and is a when, will you be able to raise your sword against them if you're so hesitant to kill?"

"I will defend myself, and I will slay anyone who poses a danger to us. That does not mean I won't regret it later. That is… what I have learned." He ran his eyes over her. "And can you tell me, Alleria, that you supported what Gellron did yesterday, with no doubt in your mind?"

She could only meet his eyes for a second before looking away. Something had happened to him recently; in every sense, he seemed more assured. It was harder to lie to him now.

No… it had grown harder to lie to him earlier than that. How could she look the person who had carried her through half the dungeon on his back and lie to his face? How could she tell him anything but the truth when he was nothing but honest with her?

Death was a mercy; she deserved it, same as all the rest. What was one Talradian?

Death was no mercy when Soul Steel was involved.

If there was a people that deserved its treatment, it was the Talradians.

"You have no idea what it will do to you. To take a life is a step too far, to use Soul Steel… it is torture."

Her mother's words again. Why? Why now were they coming to her? Why now was she remembering?

She looked at Gellron. His sabre was leaning against the wall beside him. How many had he killed in cold blood, without so much as a word?

"You've hesitated to use yours. From the moment I saw it, you wanted nothing to do with the blade. It wasn't until I pushed you to learn and improve with it that drawing it became second nature."

Danadrian's words pulled her out of it again. It took her a second to form her words.

"I… you're right, I wanted nothing to do with it. I told you I was in Moren until a few months ago. I left the sword with Velandus. It was… I felt relieved. Free, if only for a brief time. When I returned and took it up again…"

"Because it belongs to your father?"

She looked at Gellron. She looked at her brother, who was now so far from the earnest role model she'd looked up to and been told to emulate. Gone was the hesitation. Gone was the restraint. Where he had once stood, now there was only an Arahumasian Warrior. Now there was only Gellron Wrathius, son of the Blademaster.

"His beliefs run as deep as his conviction." Danadrian shook the dust off his shoulders that had collected there while following her gaze. "He believes that Demon Lord Lustravias was a God, correct?"

She nodded, "He follows the Path. They revere him in death and forsake everything for the chance to avenge him. One Human life at a time."

"One Talradian life?"

"They don't make the distinction between the two. To them, Humans are as guilty as every Talradian, alive and dead. He was… brought into it young. I didn't even know who they were. And even after I did, people said they were few, a vocal minority that held no sway."

They both stepped forward, walking towards Gellron as he turned to face their next path. The hallway had already been cleared of its stone barrier by Danadrian.

"That isn't the case?"

She shook her head, "Not entirely. The Soul Pact is the most dominant faith in Demagain, and they are still far outnumbered by it. But I would disagree on the assertion that they are a vocal minority with no sway. Especially give, well-"

Her brother came within earshot. His eyes ran over her in a cold glare. She wasn't afraid anymore, just sad.

She mourned the brother she'd known.

"- They alone wield Soul Steel without remorse or regret."

If his gaze could get any colder, it would.

"We do what we must, for Demagain's future. For the protection of all Demonkind."

"Is that what the path teaches you. At least it lets you sleep at night."

"I recall," he said through gritted teeth, "murdered Talradians in Fordain. It was accredited to you."

Danadrian's head swung to her. She just nodded. "Valid. I recall… the village of Tanath."

That gave him pause. She walked past his still figure, with Danadrian following, keeping one permanently fixed on her brother. She trusted him to do so. Her mind was wandering again, wandering to the memories that had resurfaced, buried so deep she thought them lost forever

And she worried then, about the others that would follow after.

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