Curios

Kir stared at the door to Corlwin's shop. From what he could see around him, the shop was located in a square lot hidden by the buildings around it, which all looked to be apartments.

Looking down at himself, he saw that his clothes had been nearly destroyed by the flames he'd conjured earlier, even though he was unharmed.

It was a wonder he wasn't completely naked, since whatever those flames he'd produced from his body were had generated just above his clothing, but not far enough away to spare them the heat.

There were singed holes everywhere.

He needed to get out of sight fast, and the only safe place he could think of was the shop of a dead man. A man who Kir had killed...

Kir shook his head, banishing the thought for now.

Reaching into the purse, he pulled out the key and rammed it home, turning it the wrong way first before he figured it out and the door swung open. Hurrying in, he shut the door behind him and locked it.

Despite the fact the windows outside were opaque, inside the shop, he could see out of them clearly. He turned to find the whole place full of various knickknacks on tables and shelves.

Spotting what looked to be some folded clothes on shelves across the room, he made for that side, only to suddenly stop as he passed a box full of various mana crystals in all sorts of colors.

There were about two dozen of them in neat square rows, and he instantly became reminded of his hunger as his stomach growled.

He forgot the clothes as he came to brace himself over the feast of mana. Forcing himself to wait just long enough use some of his remaining mana to examine the roughly thumb-sized crystals. He found that they were roughly organized by mana density, which seemed to correspond to their colors.

He tried one of the lowest-density crystals, which was white marbled with grey and so opaque it looked more like a rock. He found it tasted almost flavorless, but not unpleasant. Better yet, he felt his hunger dissipate just a little, which told him that mana crystals could sustain him like food.

He'd never had access to so many in one place to find out, so he decided to try them one color at a time and keep the rest for later. Looking at the prices, Corlwin wanted an exorbitant amount even for the weakest ones.

His stomach didn't care about the price tags, and it wasn't until he got to the last one, an oval gem that was pure black but seemed to have all sorts of multicolored facets in its depths, that he felt full enough to stop himself.

This final gem was left on the table as he shook his head, before turning to the shelf full of clothes.

With his mana vision on, he could tell that the topmost row seemed to have clothes with traces of mana in them, while the middle and bottom shelves held normal clothes.

As Kir started to strip, he noticed a full-body mirror next to the stairwell leading up, which was near the clothing shelf.

He looked... darker, somehow. There were traces of ash all over his body and face, and that was when he noticed that his blue-purple irises were glowing, especially the purple. They'd never done that before, even when he pulled mana into his sight so that he could detect magic.

Noticing the height of the mirror off the ground, he suspected that he might have grown a bit more in height unless its reflection was distorted. His horns had developed red edges that matched his hair. He also saw that the feather stolen from his wing had healed.

He looked beautiful and evil, he wasn't about to deny that. It brought back the memory of what had arisen inside him - back when his father challenged him on what to do with Corlwin.

"Something really messed me up... didn't it..." he muttered to himself, to his past self.

The knowledge that had filled him back then was an absolute certainty that Corlwin was beyond redemption.

That people like him had exploited and drained whoever Kir had been in his past life. And that eliminating such people with swift dispassion was the best way to keep them from continuing to damage and exploit the people... no... the world around them.

Recalling the memory, and the knowledge, came with a new sense of weight. A sense that Kir had taken on the burden of Corlwin's death, and that of the brutes he'd burned. The deaths of people he didn't even know.

Could he bear it?

Could he be a villain if that's what it took to do what was right?

The questions arose in his mind unbidden.

Who was Kir? Who had he been? Why, after such a harrowing event, did he feel... calm?

There were so many things he didn't know about what he'd done to save Nona. So many questions that couldn't be answered by dead men.

In the end, Kir took a long breath to clear his head, wiped his eyes, and looked into them once more using the mirror.

The only thing he had to go on were the actions of the men that would no doubt have killed him. Men who were willing to attack him in broad daylight. That spoke to either the negligence of this city or its corruption and in both cases, Kir knew that for demonkin, the situation could only be worse.

Would anyone have fought for him if he'd called for help? No.

Maybe another demonkin would have, but Corlwin had been one too.

He'd done what he thought was right, and it was that simple, even if it was against the law.

A memory came up. An idea that law was the lowest level of morality.

Who had Kir been to think such a thought?

Still, it felt right.

Thus, after resolving to tell his moms the truth about everything that happened, Kir sorted through the clothes looking for what might fit him. In the end, he went with a dark blue, sleeveless silk tunic that shrank itself to hug his form, emphasizing his pectorals. A pair of black pants that had exotic-looking panels on the outsides, depicting strange-looking trees with vibrant gold trunks and emerald leaves. And a sash dyed a deep red that complimented his hair.

The shirt and pants were magical, though aside from shaping themselves to fit him and perhaps being perfectly clean, he couldn't tell what they would do.

With his hunger-sated and fire-induced exhibitionism covered, Kir stared around with his mana sight, seeing that there were a lot of magic ingredients but very few magical items.

It was still early afternoon, and Kir knew that if he didn't show up his moms would start worrying. His eyes settled once more on the black mana crystal he'd left uneaten, and he picked it up and pocketed it.

Did Kir own the shop because Corlwin had forfeited it with his life? His father had given him the key, but Kir suspected it was just for him to have a place to recover. Trying to hold onto the place might also come with more trouble than he would want as a student.

He resolved then to take what he could use then leave, and never again return to this shrine to one man's greed...

"Lookin' good," a feminine voice said.