I was by myself in the next small town using the power of illusion to make my eyes look human. So far, no one has noticed and I’ve been able to safely buy the goods I needed like more food and extra blankets.

As I was walking around, I was eavesdropping on the town gossip. Many people here already knew about the ‘demon invasion’ that occurred in White Moon and the citizens here were worried that the demons would come here next. They also talked about how no one was blessed with magic during the Festival of Lights celebration. The tension in the village was so palatable, I could probably cut it with a knife.

The holy knights assigned to this town assured the people that they were safe and that the knights would protect them from any harm. Most people didn’t believe them and looked skeptical and gave the holy knights a wide berth. It seemed like only the children truly believed in the supposed safety.

A bunch of people were buying tons of holy stones with the hopes to ward off demons and some have already lined their doors and windows with them. Some of the older folks even carved protective runes into their doors and windows.

A quick touch of each told me that they didn’t work.

After I had bought everything we needed, I quickly made my way to the village gate and noticed that there were some wanted signs hung up. I quickly glanced at them and one of them caught my attention. He wore a similar uniform to Aldric’s but it was in a burnt orange color. Reading the sign it said, “Half demon wanted by the Holy Knights. Anyone who captures him and turns him in to Zetsubo Prison will be given a hefty monetary reward”.

I made a mental note of this and continued onward towards the gate.

When I got there, a few of the guards stopped me to interrogate me about my actions.

“Why are you leaving? Don’t you know there are demons lurking around? It’s dangerous to leave by yourself,” he said in a stern voice while blocking my path with his halberd.

Trying to control the anger in my voice, I replied back “I’m on a pilgrimage. The rest of my party is waiting nearby. I only came here to restock goods”.

“I’m sorry miss, but you can’t leave this village alone. I’m going to have to accompany you,” he stated firmly as he nodded towards one of the other guards nearby.

I get that he was only trying to do his job, but he was in my way and starting to irritate me. “I’ll be fine, they’re right outside the village,” I stated while trying to duck underneath his weapon.

“If they’re so close by, why didn’t they join you?” he asked with a suspicious look on his face as he blocked my movements with his weapon.

I stammered out while my eyes were darting around looking for any means of escape, “Well, one of them tends to get distracted by everything so we thought it would be easier and more efficient if I came alone”. That wasn’t a total lie. Oda would’ve definitely gotten distracted by everything in this small village even though there wasn’t much to look at.

He didn’t look convinced at all but I was saved from having to respond by a large caravan waiting to be let into the town. The guard quickly looked at me and then rolled his eyes. He turned around and started to talk to the caravan drivers about their reason for coming and their merchant permit.

Using this opportunity, I quickly scurried out of the town and made a beeline to where everyone was waiting for me. The first one to notice my presence was Eurielle whose head shot up when she sensed my mana. She was followed by Aldric and Oda.

“Wow, what took you so long, Noct? And here I thought I was the one that lagged in towns!” Oda asked while laughing with his hands on his hips.

“I ran into a bit of trouble trying to leave. The guards were extremely cautious about letting people out of the village. They’re paranoid about the recent demon attacks that happened at White Moon,” I replied.

Oda chuckled, “Well, I think we know what happened there best”.

I glanced at Aldric and casually mentioned, “In the town, I saw some wanted posters for criminals. One of them was a half demon who wore a similar uniform to yours”. I paused as I gauged his reaction, “Does this mean anything to you at all?”

We all looked at Aldric with curious gazes. Thoughts must have swirled in Oda’s head like mine about why we found him restrained in the imperial knight’s vehicle.

Aldric’s face remained neutral as he processed this information. “Not really,” he said as he looked off into the distance.

Eurielle brought our attention back to the important matter at hand, “As intriguing as that is, we really should be heading out. If the guards are so cautious about the attacks, they might come around with a patrol unit”.

Oda smiled while holding up a raised fist, “That’s true, let’s get going!”

With one last look in the village’s direction, we continued to head east together. As we walked, Eurielle would hide our footprints using wind magic to prevent soldiers from following us.

While we were walking, the snow started to gently fall and we all paused in our tracks to watch the snowflakes make pirouettes in the air. We stood there transfixed on the flurry and we only snapped out of it when a strong gust of wind almost knocked us backwards.

“We should look for shelter! It’s probably going to get much worse as the blizzard approaches us!” Aldric shouted to be heard over the wind.

We all immediately started to look for shelter as the wind buffeted us around like paper ragdolls. Unfortunately, we were unable to find any means of shelter. There were no caves or alcoves to protect us from the storm so Eurielle used her magic to create a dome of earth. It was very conspicuous, but it was better than turning into frozen statues.

After we had all crawled into the dome, Eurielle created a short door to prevent the wind from getting in but allowing fresh air to come in and out. I grabbed one of the fire crystals from my bag and started to pour my mana into it.

The crystal glowed red and gave us light to see by and started to make the dome warm. We all huddled close to the crystal in silence as the wind howled outside. From the crack in the entrance, I could watch the snow fall from the sky.

“We should take this opportunity to rest up while we can. We can take turns keeping watch,” Aldric suggested as he looked outside.

Nodding our heads in agreement, we decided on a guard order and Eurielle was the first one to take watch. After pumping some more of my mana into the fire crystal, I bundled myself into my sleeping bag with some blankets.

With one more glance to the falling snow, I closed my eyes and forced myself to rest.

I was awoken by Oda when it was my turn to keep watch. I groggily sat up and rubbed my eyes as the world slowly grew into focus. After seeing that I was awake and conscious, Oda scurried over to his sleeping bag and passed out immediately.

When I looked out of the window, the sky was gray and the snow was still falling though not as harshly as it was before. The wind had also calmed down significantly.

While I was awake, I practiced my illusionary magic to make my eyes white. I also practiced making my talons appear and disappear smoothly. The more natural I can make summoning my magic, the easier it’ll be when I need to call upon it in battle. Every now and then when I realized it was getting cold, I added my mana into the fire crystal to keep the dome warm.

The hours flew by as I concentrated on my mana and the flow of mana around me. Before I knew it, it was time to wake up Aldric for his shift. I nudged him and he immediately woke up and was alert. I quickly shuffled over to my spot and bundled myself in blankets.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fall asleep. Tossing and turning, I couldn’t find a comfortable position at all. So instead I sat up carefully making sure that my body was still wrapped in blankets.

“Hey, Aldric,” I said quietly so as to not disturb the others.

He glanced at me in response.

“Why were you on that imperial knight ship? Didn’t look like you were sightseeing,” I asked while carefully looking at his body language.

“What do you think? I’m sure you have some ideas floating around in your scheming mind,” he replied.

I had to cock a smile at that, “I do have some theories, but I’d rather know the truth instead of speculating. Especially when your secret could come back to bite us in the ass”.

Aldric had nothing to say to that and remained silent.

We stayed like that for a few hours. I meditated while staring outside at the slowly dying storm.

When the sky started to clear up, Aldric finally spoke up with his back to me so I couldn’t see his facial expression.

“I used to work for the holy knights, directly under the Paladin’s orders”.

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