The Demon Holds a Grudge
With a plan to follow, the mood lightened considerably. Lily was pleased that she had gotten, if only partially, what she'd wanted, and Ryon was glad that she was pleased with his suggestion. They walked on side by side, neither of them saying much, but both of them following their own thoughts. Lily folded the map and ate her apple.
Ryon could understand, why Lily wanted to get as far away from the lowlands as possible. The terrain was mostly forest, and it was easy to be ambushed here, but he had yet to wonder about the coldness that surrounded her, whenever she spoke of her foes. Maybe it was only natural, but for Ryon, who had no way of feeling animosity - or at least not in the extent that the living could - it was strange to see his friend so unbalanced. One minute she would be a sweet, lovely girl - the next, she would speak of people freezing to death as if they were nothing more than chess pieces she was about to lose in a game. Maybe it was her demon blood causing it. But maybe…
I wonder what they did to her, that she behaves in such a way, he thought. But surely, this must be a touchy topic for her, and he really didn't want to intrude on her privacy.
However, before he could stop himself, he heard himself asking.
„Pray, Lily, what exactly did these people want from you?", he asked.
By the amount of time,it took for her to answer, Ryon knew that he shouldn't have asked that, but now there was no going back. And Lily seemed to know that too, because after hesitating for a bit, she did reply.
„They are after me to bring me back, I think", she said quietly.
„Back to the… the mansion?", Ryon hazarded. „Where you were born?"
„They want to bring me back there, yes, but I wasn't born there. I was left at their porch when I was only a babe. Of course, I don't remember anything from that time, but they made sure to tell me whenever they thought I'd misbehaved how the o so gracious Lord Duncan had decided to take me in and provide me with food, shelter and even education, so I ought to be humble and grateful. They held me this lecture every time I did something unwanted or either produced something of insufficient quality or quantity", Lily told him.
Ryon made a face. „That sounds really annoying."
„Yeah. But it was more than annoying", she said. And when he cast her a quizzical look, she drew a deep breath and continued quietly.
„The Duncans of Westershire, which is the full name of the wretched lot, are a special household. Where they live, there is no such thing as magic. There, magic is a thing of myths and religion, but not real, because it doesn't exist there. But the Duncans hold a pole position next to some kind of permanent portal… I never understood what that meant, until I stumbled through it and landed here. This portal allows them to sometimes gain magical artefacts that happen to cross the portal for some reason. So, the family had specialized in researching and selling magical devices - or sometimes creatures. They made fortune with that. That was how the head of the family, Lord Duncan, had known that I was magical even at an early age… Well, granted, the white hair and red eyes were kind of a tip-off there… Anyhow, he took me in, yes, and I was cared for. But in exchange I was brought into his study on a regular base to be his newest subject of research. He already knew a lot about demons and had even more theories, but it seemed he lacked sufficient data to back his wild guesses.
So, I was prodded, cut, burned, and experimented on. Often, I screamed, more often I cried, but no one would listen or take pity, because I was an abomination in their eyes. They had to treat me well enough, yes, they had to educate me. Teach me manners and basic knowledge such as letters and figures, groom me into a nice little girl, that could pass as a humble, grateful well-mannered and well cared for adoptee of gracious Lord Duncan for any given public occasion, but in the privacy of the household and the privacy of a closed study, I was treated as a unhuman monster, that had no culture, no value and no intellect of its own."
Lily growled and clenched her hands to fists, while bitterness seethed from her so thickly, that Ryon meant to taste it in the air. But she had every right to be angry and bitter, given what she had just told him.
Now that she'd ended her story, thick silence weaved itself around them.
Ryon didn't know, what to say, beside „I'm sorry".
She nodded slightly in acknowledgment of his words but didn't say anything more.
But besides the silence around them, inside his head Ryon found anything but. There were so many questions swirling around and he had to assess which he should ask first, and which he would better not ask at all.
Like, who had abandoned her on the porch? Had she been born in Tiadar, then? Who had her parents been? Why had she been abandoned? Why had she chosen to look the way she did and not stuck with her original form of white hair and red eyes? And last of all… How far had this Lord Duncan taken his „proddings"? The last of those questions, he decided, would only be asked when he was very, very sure that she trusted him enough, so that their relationship could stand it.
Ryon longed to ask all of these questions at once, but he knew that it would be very rude to push her so, so he held his tongue. He could see in the way she clenched her teeth and tensed her muscles that she was barely restraining her emotions right now. He guessed that he would do good to wait for her to calm down, if he didn't want to get lashed at.
The time it took Lily to calm down again, Ryon used to bring his own thoughts into order. During that time, the silence around them stretched out, thinned and at last, was fragile enough to be broken. And it was Lily who did so.
„There was another girl, too", Lily said into the quiet. „A magical one, but not a demon like me."
Ryon didn't say anything, but rather looked at her expectantly.
„She was, what the people called, a werecat. Her name was Louise and she looked like a little girl, but she had cat ears instead of normal ones. And she had excellent night-vision as well as the ability to move without a sound. She was kind and… generous and… we were very good friends… I regret, that I couldn't take her with me the night I fled", she continued.
„I'm sure she's fine", Ryon said soothingly.
„I don't know. I hope she managed to flee during the confusion I caused."
Ryon nodded. „I bet, she did."
Then, after a while, he added. „How did you get away, anyway?"
This time, Lily did not hesitate to answer. „I killed Lord Duncan. I snuck up on him while he was busy testing the probes he had made earlier that day. I borrowed a sword from his armory and slit him open", she told him with an icy edge to her voice. „Unfortunately, he wasn't able to die without causing a ruckus, so the house guards were alerted and I had to make a run for it, killing everyone who got in my way. It was really messy… But it was the price for my freedom."
Ryon looked at her sideways. „Borrowed?", he asked. „You intend to return it?"
„His ghost can pluck it out of his wretched daughter, when I'm done with her", Lily replied darkly.
Cheese and crackers.
„…How long have you been there?", Ryon asked in order to conceal a certain uneasiness rising inside of him.
„A hundredandthirteen years", was the reply and Ryon couldn't help but be surprised.
„And it had always been the same Lord Duncan? How had he managed to live that long?", he asked incredulously.
Lily only shrugged. „Somewhere along the way of researching magic creatures he must have come across something to prolong his life."
„And something to end it", Ryon said and put his hand on her shoulder.
Lily looked at his hand, and looked up to him, and smiled grimly.
„And something to end it", she repeated. „And now I'll do the same with his heiress. Until none of them are left to hunt me. And then I'll finally be free", she said, and judged by the determination in her voice, Ryon had no reason to doubt that she would follow through with it. If that was her journey, it would be his job to accompany her and make sure she would come out of it without a scratch.