Smith and Bard

After he was sure everyone had gone to sleep, Leif slipped out of the small but comfortable bed in the room Raed generously allowed him to use.

Walking carefully so as not to wake anyone else on the floor, Leif made his way quietly down the stairs to the one large, shared space downstairs.

The lights were off, and only the dripping sound of an unclosed faucet broke the silent night.

He moved with caution over the floor of the dark room, making sure not to hit any furniture.

When he got to the front door, he found that it was already unlocked.

He opened the door and stepped outside.

The night sky was clear and no trees obscured the view. When Leif stepped out to that cool spring air, he discovered to his surprise that he was not the only one who could not sleep that night.

Standing a short distance to the right, and leaning against the railing of the front deck, Tiryui looked at the few remaining lanterns in nearby Landis Town.

Upon hearing him approach, Tiryui took her eyes away from the flickering lights in the town and turned her head to watch Leif.

"It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" She said.

Leif leaned against the railing next to her. He looked straight ahead, at the town with its dimly lit streets, at the road with its chipped rocks, and at the distant trees beyond.

"It is," Leif said. "Are you alright?" He asked with concern.

Tiryui smiled at him. "You're a very kind and brave person, aren't you?"

"Brave?" Leif looked down. The grass stood still in the calm windless night. "I ran away and hid. That was when you and...When I should have been there to help most!"

Tiryui placed a hand on Leif's arm. The warm touch was soft and Leif felt a gentle aura from the demon's fingers.

"Don't blame yourself. If it weren't for you speaking up for us, we could have already been killed."

"That's..." Leif stopped himself.

"I knew that something like this was going to happen sooner or later. After Tehant was killed by the cult, I should have taken Chaibi and run away. But that cabin, that home we built together, I just couldn't bear to leave it." Tears formed in her golden eyes. They started to stream down her cheeks when she shut her eyes. "And now, because of my attachment, I lost my son and that home."

A cool silence hung over the air between them.

Leif stared off at the blinking lanterns. He was not sure of what to say.

He didn't have to, because Tiryui broke the silence instead.

"I never told you why we came here two months ago," she said.

Leif glanced at the demon, who was viewing him with her wet gold eyes. A small spark illuminated her pupils from within. He shook his head, no.

"Tehant was an admirer of mine, and a brilliant scientist. One day, he proposed to me after my show with a ring that he made in the lab. He said it was even better than the ones in the store. That was almost two years ago," Tiryui recounted.

"It sounds like he was very interested in you," Leif said.

"Yes, he was. But it wasn't a good time for either of us to settle down together. He had an expedition planned on another continent, and I needed to work to support myself. We promised each other that in one more year, we would meet again and this time, we would get married and move to a house at the coast."

"It sounds like a good plan. What happened next?"

"Since I'm here now, you can guess it didn't work out like we planned. Many people began to support more militant leaders and countries started to talk about reviving other Primeval Demons. It was really bad where Tehant was doing his research. That nation was one of the first in the last ten years to recognize Primeval Worship. Tehant just managed to escape days before they closed down every port."

"That was...fortunate," Leif said.

"He brought a boy from one of the villages that was attacked by cultists. That boy was Chaibi."

"I see, so Chaibi wasn't your son."

"We adopted him and protected him as our own. Even though none of us was recognized as a family by our laws or by blood, we were still a family," Tiryui said.

Leif nodded slowly. "I can understand that," he said.

"When the extremist activity reached our country, and extended even to our city, we fled. By that time there was almost nowhere left in civilization that wasn't taken over by the Primeval Worship cults. In fact, you could say they were more of an official religion than a cult by then. And almost all industrialized countries began to follow it as their main faith. The ones who didn't believe were captured and educated. The ones who continued to resist were killed. That's no life for a child. So we had no choice but to run away from our world."

Tiryui turned away from Leif and looked at the two remaining street lamps.

"We paid the last of our combined money back in Kandris to join one of the mass portals that opened to other worlds. That was two months ago, and how we arrived in your world." Tiryui inhaled a deep, slow breath after finishing her recollection.

"So that's what it was like in the Netherworld," Leif said. "Or, was it something else you called it?"

"Kandris," Tiryui said.

"Kandris," Leif corrected himself. "Then the demons from over ten years ago, were those also cultists?"

"Many of them were," Tiryui replied. "But it was different back then too. It was limited to one nation that worshiped the Primeval Infernal Demon, and people traveled there to join, either as soldiers or worshipers. It's not like this time where it spread everywhere."

"The demons who come here, would you say that this time they are more regular people than soldiers?"

"I don't know. I think most of the people I saw come with us through the portal looked like they were regular people like us."

A short silence fell over them again. One light went out in the town. One last flickering candle housed in a glass cage remained lit.

"You're from the north, next to the mountains," Tiryui broke the silence.

"That's what they tell me at least," Leif said.

This time it was the apprentice smith who turned to look at Tiryui, his blue eyes looking into hers.

"My earliest memories were of working the forge with Master Valter back in Volkundia. I don't remember who my actual parents were, but Master Valter was always there to teach me everything, not just about the forge. About life, too."

"This Master Valter, how is he doing now?" Tiryui asked.

"He was doing great last time I saw him," Leif replied. "We had a shop set up in Finulid City. Have you ever been there?"

Tiryui shook her head, no.

"There is a lot to do there and there are a lot of different people too. They welcomed Master Valter and I to do business there even though we were from the Northlund."

"Is that an issue for people?" Tiryui asked, genuinely curious.

"It's not as bad as some people say it is. There is a general distrust of people who come from the clans near the Forlorn Mountains, especially more so now that the portals beyond them are active again. But that usually only means people might be less willing to approach us for conversation. For Master Valter and me, we rarely had a problem with customers."

"It was because of our portals..." Tiryui trailed off into a pensive look. "If we didn't come through to this world, it wouldn't have caused problems for the people here."

"That's untrue," Leif said.

"We should have known that coming to a land that had not yet healed from fighting against a primeval demon would only cause more harm. But it was our only escape."

"Tiryui, these things happened even before the demons showed up more than ten years ago. It wasn't any fault of demons."

Tiryui looked out to the last light. The last of the town's street lanterns went out. Night fell on the town in earnest.

"Thank you," she said. "You were the first human to meet us not with hostility."

"It's nothing," Leif said. "I think sometimes that's all we need to do really. Just times like this, we talk with each other and not get straight to the fighting."

Leif grimaced to himself in the darkness upon remembering how his exchange with Raed earlier that day went. He hoped that demons did not have night vision.

"Anyway, it's getting real dark now, you want to go back inside?" Leif asked.

Tiryui nodded. "Certainly it has been a long day, for all of us."

She walked back through the front door.

"Good night, Leif."