"Lucian my friend, what brings you here so late at night?" Slivar said in his usual squirmy tone, his forked tongue practically tasting the air.
"The name," Lucian said bluntly.
"Ah, yes, of course." Slivar scurried behind his counter, scribbling on a piece of parchment with exaggerated strokes. "I thought perhaps you'd change your mind about the demon kingdom, but just in case…" He grinned, twisting his greasy mustache. "…I prepared a bit of insurance."
Lucian placed a heavy sack on the counter. The clink of soul stones echoed in the cramped shop.
Slivar's eyes bulged. He didn't even need to turn around to know that sound. He licked his lips. "Paying in full, are we?"
"Yes. And for your sake, you'd better not be lying about the skill of this craftsman," Lucian said coldly.
Slivar chuckled nervously and slid over a folded map with a circle inked on it, along with another paper bearing a long name and address. "Now, now, don't worry, my human friend. I may dabble in… shady business." His shoulders wriggled. "But I'm loyal to high-paying customers." He cast a greedy glance at the sack. "Especially ones like you."
Lucian looked down at the parchment, then tucked it into his bag. Glancing over at the map.
"My insurance gift to you." Slivar said as if he could read his mind. " A smuggler will meet you at this marked checkpoint along the border. He's the best I could find. Plus I promise it's safer than whatever method you had in mind." He snorted.
"Thanks." Without another word, Lucian turned and left.
Slivar's grin melted into ravenous laughter the moment the door closed. He spilled the stones onto the counter, letting them run between his fingers. "Fool! Ten thousand for a name I'd have given him for one. Hah!" He buried his face in the pile, trembling with glee. "I'll be swimming in riches if I stick with him."
Lucian's boots crunched over gravel as he left the village, night sky blanketing him in silence. A simple traveler's bag hung over one shoulder, his steps steady and unhurried.
He walked alongside the old carriage road, carrying the memory of how different the last time was when he walked on the edge of a cart path. A single thought pressed against his lips.
"I should've brought a horse," he muttered, looking at the long and windy road that cut through a dark forest. The demon capital was four days away on foot.
By morning, he stopped at a half-collapsed well in an abandoned town. As he drew water, a sound cut through the silence, light footsteps, hesitant, fragile.
Lucian didn't look up. His voice came cold and steady. "If you value whatever miserable life you've lived so far, rethink your actions."
The footsteps halted.
He filled his pouch, then turned. His eyes narrowed slightly.
Now standing before him was a small girl, no older than twelve, her body smeared with grime and mottled in bruises. Her tangled brown hair hung in uneven clumps, framing a face that might once have been lovely. Her eyes, a striking, crystalline blue. They were dulled and glazed, the look of someone clouded by drugs or exhaustion. Iron cuffs clung to her thin wrists, broken chains dangling from them, edges jagged as if severed by a blade. She wore only a tattered brown dress, little more than a potato sack, torn and caked with dirt.
Lucian sighed, and sat on the well's edge. "Sorry. I don't have any food for you." His tone softened.
The girl said nothing, only watched him warily.
Lucian rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and stepped toward her. For every stride he made, she shuffled one step backward, wary as a cornered animal.
He stopped, softening his tone. "I have some water, if you'd like."
The girl said nothing. Her silence hung heavy, more telling than words.
He set a bucket full of water on the stone rim for her. When he turned to walk away, the faint patter of footsteps followed. She ignored the water completely, trailing after him like a shadow.
Lucian pinched the bridge of his nose and peered over his shoulder. "Whatever," he muttered.
He walked on, deciding she would get bored and eventually stop following him.
From the ridge beyond, another watched.
His endless violet eyes swirling like a void unmistakable.
The Angel of the Abyss stood amidst a circle of wagons with cages and in front were charred corpses, their bodies blackened beyond recognition. In one hand, he held one corpse by the neck like a child inspecting a toy, and in the other a sword.
A manic smile split his face.
"To think that little girl had this much power," he said, licking his fangs. His violet eyes glittered with joy. "And now, while I was looking for one little bird… I stumble across another. My, my…" He hugged himself, shivering with delight. "What a morning this is."
He tossed the corpse aside like ash and spread his arms wide, face twisting with ecstasy.
"Two birds," he whispered, voice trembling with pleasure. "One freakishly monstrous with a familiar soulflame and the other carrying a blazing fire. How truly… exquisite."
His laugh echoed in the dead camp, a shrill, broken hymn that lingered long after he vanished back into the shadows.
Lucian walked until evening before stopping. He peaked over his shoulder, she was still behind him, as silent as a mouse.
Lucian scratched the top of his head and let out a weary huff. "Fine," he muttered under his breath. He kept walking until he found a small clearing off the main road and gathered enough wood to build a modest fire.
Pointing to a large, flat rock near the flames, he looked at the girl.
"Wait," he ordered firmly.
She only stared back at him, her eyes dull and unblinking.
Lucian gestured again, this time his voice softer. "Stay."
The girl glanced at the rock, then back at him, before lowering herself into a squat where she was.
Lucian's right eye twitched faintly at the response. "Why not," he said with a resigned sigh. He set his water pouch on the rock, but when it came to his travel bag, he started to set it down on the rock as well but decided to hoist it up into the branches of a nearby tree, well out of her reach. With one last sideways glance at her, he slipped into the woods, checking over his shoulder several times to make sure she wasn't following.
Thirty minutes later, Lucian returned with two rabbits slung over his shoulder. The fire still burned steadily, but cooking sticks had been arranged neatly over the flames. The girl however, was exactly where he had left her, squatting by the rock in the same rigid position, unmoving.
He brushed it off and went to retrieve his bag from the tree.
"Huh?" Lucian muttered.
The bag was no longer hanging in the branches. Instead, it had been placed neatly on the rock beside the untouched water pouch. His knife, which had been inside the bag, now rested on top.
Lucian's right eye twitched faintly. His gaze flicked to the girl, then back to the bag, and then again to her.
The girl slowly stood, lifted her arm, and pointed at the rock. "Stay," she said, her voice dry and high-pitched, laced with the faintest edge of mockery.
Lucian's jaw tightened, the smallest betrayal of irritation beneath his otherwise calm stare. He let the silence linger, then dropped the matter. Walking over to the bag to check its inventory. "Good, it's still there." He said quietly to himself before putting it back down on the rock.
Without a word, he skinned and dressed the rabbits, skewering them over the fire. When the meat was done, he extended the better-cooked one toward her.
Her eyes betrayed her hunger, flicking between the roasted rabbit and Lucian, but she made no move to approach.
Lucian planted one end of the stick into the ground and stepped back just far enough for her to take it. She snatched it hesitantly, clutching it as though it might vanish.
By the time Lucian was halfway through his own meal, she had already stripped hers clean, licking the bones until they gleamed. Her hunger unsated, she crept closer, squatting beside him in the same posture as before, now barely an arm's length away. Her gaze never left the meat still in his hands.
Lucian extended what remained of his portion toward her. She hesitated, reaching slowly. But just before her fingers brushed it, he pulled it back slightly.
"Name?" he asked, his voice low but gentle.
Her brow furrowed at the arrogance of his action. "Nina," she muttered, her tone sharp with annoyance, before leaning all the way over and snatching the meat from his hand.
Lucian leaned back against the rock, his eyes drifting to the starry sky above. "Nina, huh," he said softly. His gaze lowered to her again, she had already devoured his share, gnawing the bones clean in seconds. "That's a cute name for a brat like yourself."
When she finished, she curled against the rock, tucking her knees beneath the ragged hem of her potato-sack dress. A small yawn slipped from her lips, unexpectedly soft and childlike, before her eyes fluttered shut.
Lucian watched her in silence, the firelight flickering across her bruised face. For a moment, something stirred in him, another faint glint of life flashing in his otherwise dull, lifeless grey eyes.