"You'll let me leave?" Huffing, Silas sat down on the medical bed. "Forgive my skepticism, demon."

"One degree." A few more seconds of silence passed. "Two."

Silas flinched. With each degree, beads of sweat traced his jaw. His breathing got faster, shorter. Time crept along agonizingly slow. 

"Have you heard of spontaneous human combustion, Silas?" Arx wondered, taking a curious step to his left, the tap of his cane leading. "I hear burning to death is widely considered one of the worst ways to die." 

Silas groaned after a hard fall to the ground, the pain burning inside. "Stop."

"Who killed my general?" 

"I don't fucking know!" 

"Another degree." Arx laughed. This seemed to delight him. As if it were music to his ears. "I wonder how much longer before your blood begins to boil."

"Fuck you!" Silas could not move. Every cell in his body screamed for death. If it went on, Silas knew he would die. His mind went back and forth on the possibilities, a shortlist. Either, he gave in and answered the demon's questions. Or he would die alone in a foreign country. Biting back on the pain and his fading loyalty, he shouted, "A girl!" The temperature dropped, making it so much easier to breathe. Panting and out of breath, he reiterated, "a girl killed him. I don't know her name."

"A girl?" Arx laughed incredulously. "Ezterrian?" 

Silas nodded.

"An Ezterrian girl!" Laughing, he addressed the rest of the room, his arms wide open. "Hear that? A little Ezterrian girl murdered one of Carpathian's greatest Vazeer war heroes. What a joke!" 

The smile washed from Arx's face as he confronted Silas again, the heel of his cane cracking hard into the blood-stained marble. "Perhaps you can lie better than that."

Silas gritted his teeth together. "That's the truth."

It was utterly absurd; even Silas had to admit that. But he knew what he saw that night. An enchanted stone that allowed anyone to use magic, as impossible as that sounded. 

Perhaps all his blood loss has conceived a wild story. But, if not with a magic stone, how could he explain what killed Marx Duke? Or how Pyra clearly vanished into thin air?

Internally, Silas's fever began to subside, and he felt cold. The Vazeer kneeled down to him, his balance relied on his cane, and their eyes met. Arx had gold eyes, typical of the Carpathian people. His hair had grayed with age, but Silas could see some streaks of color. 

Voice low, as if daring him to tell another lie, Arx asked, "how did this little girl kill my general?"

Silas hesitated an answer. This felt like a hopeless situation. It didn't matter if he was honest or lying. The demon would not believe his word. Silas tested fate. "An enchanted stone." 

Arx cocked a brow. "Say again."

He did. Silas paid close attention to the demon's reaction, that puzzled expression mixed with dread and curiosity. Glancing around the room, Silas observed the other's similar reactions, whispering amongst themselves as Arx was lost in thought. 

"Shut it!" Arx roared. He shot into the air, the head of his cane burning a faint red under his smoking palm. After a quick pace, he faced Silas again. "She had a stone. What did this stone look like?" 

"An onyx." 

Arx grinned. "Unbelievable."

The pain had subsided completely. Silas found it incredible that he felt fine despite all the blood he had lost. Looking around the room, it wasn't too difficult to figure out why. 

A low, almost unnoticeable green glowed in a young woman's palm. He recognized her as the person Arx summoned when it became clear he was still dying, despite the five Healers at his bedside.  

At her right, he took notice of the taller, striking young man, the 'one' insignia on his shoulder. He looked so much like her. Long, flaxen hair and aureate eyes, skin dark with a small birthmark under his right eye. Their similarities stopped there. He whispered something to her, but it was too quiet to make out. Whatever it was, she was nodding. 

When Silas turned back to the older demon, he was consulting two other soldiers. Their insignia's read Three and Six. Silas knew enough about the Carpathian army to understand each division's numbers. They were rankings that signified how 'connected to magic's light' a mage was. Or, to Silas, how dangerous.

Arx turned to Silas again. "Where did she get the stone?"

"I didn't have time to ask." That was as honest an answer as any.  

"Who hired you to steal that painting?"

"I didn't get a name, just a location. We were supposed to take the painting and bring it to the Northern Territory." Which wasn't entirely a lie, but he'd be damned if he gave up everything to the Carpathians. His loyalty remained with The Dal and Lady Balvine. With that information, he would die, no exceptions. But for the girl that betrayed him… Silas considered searing her alive, himself. 

His code would never let him give up her name. Though an idea brewed as the gears in Silas's head began to turn. All Carpathians were the same, egotistical demons with a God complex. He knew they would send him to the gallows as soon as he was no longer of use. So, Silas just had to make himself useful for as long as possible. 

"I can find her for you," Silas offered.