Daemon Heart

Monsters. Eyria is full of them. Wild beasts that stalk you in the woods, the shadowy Soulless that wait for the right moment to steal your body, the creatures of legend old bards tell in their songs and stories, but it's people who are the real monsters. Not all of them of course, but a few bad apples do tend to spoil the bunch. This land is ruled on corruption. It's filled with bandits, corrupt nobles, slavers, and even it's own king is rotten. They say the best way to get rid of corruption is to cut it out and fortunately doing so was my job.

"She should be around here somewhere," I muttered to myself atop the roof I perched on.

I pulled a small scroll from my cloak and sighed as I looked it over again. "Brigitte Wright. Mid forties. Brown hair. Hazel eyes. Gimp in her left leg. Marked by her tavern maid, Lilith Riley, for the branding and selling of children into slavery. Said to take orphaned children from the Slums and bring them back to her tavern with promises of warm food and beds only to brand them slaves, chain them in the basement, and sell to the highest bidder. Reward of three hundred silver crowns. Half up front and the rest once the job is finished."

Tucking the scroll away, I grumbled a curse. Slavery wasn't exactly illegal in Eryia if you knew how to get around it. People can legally sign themselves over to serve someone for a predetermined amount of time, earning them money, clothes, food, a place to stay, and some are even given an education. But forcing someone into servitude was illegal, and the buying and selling of unwilling children was considered particularly heinous among the morally sound.

"Thank you ma'am!" A young voice caught my attention and my head snapped in it's direction. "This is awfully kind of you."

A woman matching my mark's description was limping away from the Slums with a young boy at her side, no older than thirteen. He wore a crooked grin and showered her with appreciation for giving him a place to stay. Brigitte, on the other hand, kept her face plain, sour almost, as she led him down various alleyways. I stuck to the rooftops as I followed them, remembering every wind and turn she took. It wasn't the quickest way back to her tavern but the maze of alleys would confuse the boy should he attempt to escape.

"I'm afraid I will have to house you in the basement boy," her voice was monotonous as they approached the small, run down, tavern just outside the Slums.

The boy wasn't perturbed by this at all. "Oh that's alright ma'am! I bet your basement has more sturdy walls than the alley I was in last night."

She took him around the side of the tavern where she then led him down to the cellar and I waited until the doors were closed before I pulled my mask over my face and followed them. Once inside I grimaced at the smell of death and looked around me at the bodies of several children who didn't survive to being bought, the sight of them stoked my anger.

"Hold still child!" Brigitte yelled from down the hall as the young boy she took with her screamed.

I followed the noise down a dimly lit hallway and flung a small throwing knife as they came into view. The blade found it's mark into her hand, making her drop the branding iron she was holding inches from the boy's face. She screamed and ripped the blade from her hand as the boy fell to the floor and scurried against the wall.

"Get out of here kid," I ordered as I put myself between them.

She wrapped her bleeding hand in the folds of her dress as the boy scurried off. "Do you know how much money you just cost me!" She complained. "I had an old man in Cas that was looking for a strong young man to work his stables!"

"Do you know who I am?"

She shoved me with her uninjured hand. "You're a damn thief is what you are!"

I growled and slammed her against the wall with one hand and embedded my dagger into the wooden beam by her head with the other. "Stealing implies ownership Brigette and you can't own people. They aren't property!"

"I'm not doing anything ille-wait," her eyes grew a bit wider. "How do you know my name? Who are you?"

"Try looking into my eyes."

The basement was dimly lit but it was bright enough for her to see my eyes. Eyes that were usually gemstone blue but were now completely black. I watched the color drain from her face and could feel her pulse panic under the fingers I had threateningly held to her throat.

"The Mistress of Death," she huffed. "The people talk about you, say you're not even human."

"The people talk about a lot of things," I ripped my dagger from the post and held it to her throat, cold steal replacing my hand. "Brigette Wright you have been Marked for death for the heinous act of slavery. If you have any last words I would speak them now."

Her eyes darted around the room, searching frantically for anything that could help her and for a moment I thought she would try to fight me. Then, slowly, her shoulders sagged and her head hung, causing my blade to dig more into her skin. When she spoke her voice cracked. "Would you grant me a final request?"

"I'll listen to it but I can't guarantee I'll keep it," I grumbled. It wasn't unusual for my marks to make final requests.

"Don't tell Lilly. I raised her from childhood, took her in as my own before I got wrapped up in all of this. I don't want her to know the person I turned out to be."

"I can't grant you that even if I wanted to," I sighed and handed her the contract on her life.

She scanned it quickly and hung her head before letting the paper fall to the floor. "So she found out. I shouldn't be surprised, she was always intuitive."

"Want to change your request?"

"Tell her to look in the bottom drawer of the right side of my office desk. There is a false bottom and under it is my will where she'll find that I've left the inn to her in my death. Tell her to do more with it than I did, to be better than I was."

"I can do that."

She huffed and straightened herself up to stare into my black eyes once again and in her own eyes I didn't see fear, just acceptance. Most people would beg for their life or fight. She's braver than I gave her credit for. Most people would have begged for their life. She's accepted her fate. With one quick motion I removed the dagger from her throat and plunged it into her temple, granting her an instantaneous death.

I could feel eyes watching me and sighed. "You can come out now."