by Jason Herc
I bowed. "Many thanks."
The guard waited, clearly expecting something extra before he would let us pass.
I tried not to let my irritation show. I motioned for Ember to pass me some of her coins.
Ember gave me two coins, and I dropped them into the guard's hands. He smiled and stepped aside.
"Welcome to Duskfall."
I let out small sigh of relief as the three of us passed through the city gates. Apparently, they had thought I was a demon. But the guard had based his assumption on my display of power. Did my power have demonic roots?
"Whoa." I stared at the scene before me.
The inside of the city on the other side of the walls was not what I had expected at all. So far, I had only seen the rugged parts of the Abyss, which seemed more like a wild-west free-for-all frontier with crude bits of civilization dribbled over a harsh landscape.
Duskfall was entirely different.
Whoever had built the city had interwoven lush gardens filled with trees and meandering streams along with tall, colorful buildings with sloping, shingled roofs in an urban planner's paradise. The citizens were the usual mix of bestial and demonic humanoids, but they wore clean, crisp clothing and carried well-polished, gleaming weapons. Some floated through the skies cross-legged, while others skipped along the city's skyline, bounding from tree to rooftop and back to tree again.
To my astonishment, I spotted cheerful flowers along the side of the road and even ordinary looking birds chirping from tree branches.
"What is this place?" I asked.
Allura had a smug look. "I wanted to see your reaction. The Abyss isn't so bad, is it?"
I looked to Ember for her response, but realized she was still wearing the obedience collar.
"Ember." I reached over to her and plucked the collar from her neck.
"Are you sure?" Ember asked. "I don't mind wearing it."
"No. This is disturbing, frankly. Can we destroy it?"
Ember sighed. "If you wish." She took the collar from me. Her hand shimmered as she manifested her Flame. I really needed to learn how to do that.
There was an audible crack.
I examined the collar in Ember's hand. The surface was still reflective, but it no longer ensnared me when I looked into it.
"The enchantment's broken," Ember said.
Allura took the collar back and made a small sound of disappointment. "Where to now?"
I let a sliver of Flame slip into my spatial band. I pulled out my obsidian icon to check that it was still there, then put it back away and closed the portal.
"We look for a beggar," I said. "Any idea where to find one?"
The cobbled streets were nearly spotless despite the crowds flowing through the city. I wondered how demons managed to keep the place so clean. Was littering a crime? What about loitering? Guards patrolling the streets at regular intervals. I doubted we would find a beggar in the well-kept parts of the city.
"The Marketplace," Allura said. "You can find everything there. Especially beggars. Follow me."
We strode through the city's streets on foot. There were men and women with the faces of birds and lizards, as well as the cat men from before. I still hadn't managed to spot a cat girl, yet, though. Demons with scaly skin like the guards at the city gates were fairly common, as were other varieties, some sporting horns, others bald, and others having long flowing manes like a lion.
A serpentine creature, similar to the drakeling, but longer and thinner, more snake-like than lizard-like, wound its way down one street. It reminded me of the god from earlier. Was that a god? Or a god-in-training?
I tried not to stare or attract attention, but I stopped to look behind us at the sound of an angry crowd.
Someone was shouting. The orderly flow of the crowd was disrupted as someone or something plowed its way down the street without regard for whoever was in the way.
A heavy pressure forced me to my knees momentarily. I staggered under the weight before calming myself with my mantra.
I reached for my Flame, focusing on the entire mixture of black and white Flames. The Flames trickled throughout my body, warming my limbs.
I stood, resisting the pressure.
To my left and right, Ember and Allura both scowled, slightly bent over as if carrying a burden.
"What is this?" I asked.
"The aura of a great Seeker," Ember grunted.
"Such as an Imperial agent," Allura added. "Although they usually hold their aura in check. It's considered bad manners to release your aura on the public without reason."
"Listen!" Ember warned. "I think we know the reason…"
The disturbance was growing closer, and the pressure on me was increasing as well. I could make out shouts from the crowd now.
"There's a human here!"
"Find the human!"
Human? Shit.
Ember hissed into my ear. "We have to go. Now!"
The three of us marched quickly down the street, trying not to give the appearance of fleeing.
"This way!" Allura said, leading us down another side street. "We're almost at the Marketplace. We'll lose him there."
Once we rounded the corner so as to be out of sight, we broke into a sprint, weaving our way through the crowd.
"Sorry!" I yelled as I bumped into a short, stout demon with an elephant's head. "Excuse me!"
We soon reached an area packed with stalls and shoppers that had to be the Marketplace.
"Don't stop," Allura said. She wove deep into the throng of stalls. Ember and I followed, pushing aside various articles of clothing and food that were pushed into our faces.
We were deep into the Marketplace, hidden among a sea of vendors and customers, when Allura finally motioned for us to stop.
"We should be hidden for now," Allura said.
The steady buzz of the crowd suddenly fell quiet.
"An Imperial agent!" someone cried.
Ember spoke quietly. "To your right. On top of that stall."
A man stood on top of a wagon filled with melons on the edge of the Marketplace, a hundred yards away.
I immediately recognized him as the man who had killed Everett. Ryder.
He still wore a clean white uniform with black accents. A single sword hung from his waist.
"I met him once," I said softly.
Allura whispered to me. "The Obsidian Emperor recruits Seekers to do his bidding as his soldiers or agents."
"I know you're there, human," the man shouted, his voice booming over the quiet Marketplace.
I hated hiding in the crowd and wished we could fight him on equal terms, but I knew the three of us didn't stand a chance until we learned more about ourselves and our Flame.
As I stared at the Imperial agent, something stirred in my gut. I wasn't sure if it was my Flame or simply my instinct, but I knew then that our Paths were fated to cross. I would have my chance to test myself against this Seeker some day.
I shivered at a second flash of foresight or intuition. My Path wouldn't end with this Imperial agent. No, my Path would lead me to the Obsidian Emperor himself, although I wasn't sure if it would be as an ally or as a challenger.
"Human!" the Imperial agent cried again.
He suddenly swooped down, pouncing upon some unlucky demon. The Imperial agent leaped up onto another stall, holding a struggling demon with dirty blond hair and a trim beard and mustache.
Like me, I realized. Ember caught my arm. "Aidan!" she whispered.
"Get down." Allura tugged on my other arm.
I ducked down, but not before catching sight of the Imperial agent ripping the blond-haired male demon open casually like he was peeling a piece of fruit.
The crowd around me stared in fascination. Some cheered. The fuck? This was still the Abyss, even if the city was pretty.
The Imperial agent must have realized he had killed the wrong person. He shouted again. "Human! I know you're still there!"
I knew I wasn't a match for him
, but what if I used the black Flame? That part of my Flame gave me raw power. Could it lend enough strength to face an Imperial agent? I didn't think so, not with my lack of training, but I was running out of options.
The Imperial agent jumped down to the ground and began wading deeper into the Marketplace crowd. The crowd resumed going about their business as usual, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Allura and Ember were both pulling on my arms now, dragging me further into the Marketplace.
"Wait!" I shouted.
Next to a wooden stall selling roasted sticks of meat was a disheveled figure in a pile of crumpled clothing holding a cup.
"Alms for the poor! Alms for the poor!"
I stared at the beggar, who jingled his cup's contents at me. "Crowley, is that you?"
The beggar lifted his head, but it was another beggar, even uglier than Crowley, if that was possible. He held out his cup.
I quickly used my spatial band to retrieve the obsidian icon.
"Here you go," I said, dropping it into his cup.
The beggar picked the icon out of the cup and tucked it into the folds of his clothing. He gave me a knowing look, jerking his head toward the approaching Imperial agent.
"Today's your lucky day, isn't it?" he said in a hoarse tone. Then, the beggar winked. "Don't worry. I'll take you to Master Beastley right away. Follow me."
With that, he hopped to his feet and strode through the Marketplace, away from the Imperial agent.
I shared a glance with the succubi. "That's our beggar. Hurry!"
With that, we raced forward deeper into the mass of demons.
CHAPTER 13
The beggar was quick and agile, much more so then I expected, darting through the crowded Marketplace with ease.
The three of us struggled to keep up. Several times, I thought we lost sight of the beggar, and we spun about, unsure which direction he had gone.
He would reappear briefly, and we would begin our chase again.
I lost sense of direction, focusing only on keeping up with the slippery beggar. For some reason, I had the distinct impression that we were being tested.
The next time we lost the beggar, I didn't budge when he reappeared. Ember and Allura stood still next to me. I raised my head and searched for the Imperial agent, but we were in a new part of the Marketplace without any sign of him.
The beggar vanished but came back several moments later when he must have realized that we weren't following.
"You wish to see Master Beastley?" he asked.
"Yes, but are you leading us in circles, or are you actually taking us to him?"
"Took you long enough." He bent over a discolored section of the ground and pulled open a trap door.
The crowd walked around the hole without paying any special attention.
"The aqueducts?" Allura asked.
The beggar leaped down the hole without replying. We approached the entrance cautiously.
The beggar's head popped out of the opening again. "Hurry up." He disappeared again.
I sighed. "Can one of you scout and see how far the drop is?"
"On it." Ember leaped into the opening, then came out again. "It's shallow. Only seven or eight feet."
I lowered myself through the opening, followed by Allura, who closed the trapdoor.
We were standing on a raised platform to the side of an underground channel filled with water.
The beggar stood a short distance further down the tunnel. "Almost there," he said.
We raced after the beggar. Ember chose to fly down the middle of the tunnel, while Allura stayed on foot just behind me.
The beggar turned a corner. When I rounded the bend, I found myself standing at the entrance to a spacious rectangular room, about the size of a classroom.
The beggar sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, facing us.
"Welcome," he said with his hands spread open.
We stepped inside the room. The room was mostly bare and had walls made of rock. I couldn't see any other passages. It was a dead end.
"Where's Master Beastley?" I asked.
The beggar contorted his face and shook his head vigorously like a dog shaking off a wet coat of fur. When he stopped shaking, his face looked familiar.
"You are Crowley!" I shouted. "I thought you looked like him."
Crowley laughed. "So I am."
"But where's Master Beastley?" Ember asked.
Crowley simply smiled.
"I see," I said, nodding. "You're Master Beastley, a man of many faces and many names."
"Correct!" Crowley, or rather Master Beastley said with a clap of his hands. "You can call me Crowley, if you prefer."
"But if you're Master Beastley, why did you send us all the way here…" I stopped. I knew the answer.
"You were testing us."
"Close," Crowley said with a grin. "What did you learn from your journey so far?"
What had I learned? Actually…
I had learned how to grasp my Flame with my mind. I had learned how to use the black Flame, and that the fire gnats' poison and the demon cores both had an affinity for the possibly infernal portion of my Flame. I had learned that I could connect with Ember and make her stronger. I had learned about Gluttonbarges, Imperial agents, drakelings, scorchweed, immortality, Seekers, and more. In short, I had learned a hell of a lot.
I nodded. "You weren't testing me. You were training me."
"Very good."
"So you'll teach me how to be a Seeker?" I paused. His actions were his answer. He already had. "But why? Why train me?"
"I find you interesting," Crowley simply said.
I wasn't convinced that easing Crowley's boredom was his main motivation, but I could live with that until I found out more.
Allura stepped forward. "Hold on, old man. How do we know you can train Aidan? Can you prove you are who you say you are?"
"Careful," Ember warned. "I can sense his hidden power."
That was strange. Allura was the more experienced one, but Ember was currently more sensitive to the auras of other people. Was that because of her connection to my Flame?
"Good, good," Crowley said. "But you only feel my aura because I let you. Here. Have a sliver of it."
The gravity in the room seemed to increase several-fold, similar to when the Imperial agent had let loose his aura on the crowded Marketplace.
An instant later, the pressure disappeared.
Allura frowned. "Fine. You're a Seeker." She tossed her raven hair and stepped backward.
"Great, I'm ready," I said. "When can we begin?"
Crowley chuckled. "Now. The first thing we need to do is to take care of that Imperial hound on your tail."
"The Imperial agent," Ember said.
"Yes, he's tracking your spiritual scent," Crowley said. "There's a distinct flavor to your aura, and you must have left a residue behind. You didn't happen to kill anyone on your way here, did you?"
I shared a look with the two succubi.
"Well, we might have killed a demon or two," I said.
"A skilled Seeker trained in tracking could pick up your spiritual scent from examining your kills."
"But that was on the Gluttonbarge. How would the Imperial agent know to check there…" I clenched my fist. "How many people did Festus rat us out to?" I shouldn't have been surprised. "What can I do?"
"Your aura has the scent of a human, as well as a unique scent that's specific to you. As you might have guessed, your aura depends on your Flame. Control your Flame, and you control your aura."
"But I met Ryder, the Imperial agent already. When I first crossed over. He let me go, then."
"What?" Ember cried out. "You should have told us. But why'd he let you go, then? Surely an Imperial agent could have sniffed out your human scent."
Everett. And hadn't my infernal rage manifested for a moment? Had he assumed I was a demon, then?
"Another human crossed over with me to the Abyss. He was prett
y much dead on arrival, though."
Allura nodded. "So Ryder would assume the human scent belonged to the other one."
"Right." I took a step towards Crowley. "How do I control my aura."
Crowley scratched his chin. "One other thing. Have you, ah, shared your Flame with anyone else? One of these succubi?"
So he knew about that, too. "Yes. With Ember, but why?"
"Your scent is on her as well. You'll have to reshape your Flame, then circulate it through her."
Circulate? Was that a polite way of putting it? "Show me how to reshape my Flame. As for the circulation part…are there any other rooms here?" The room we were in was bare of any furnishing and wouldn't provide a speck of privacy. I peered back the way we came.
Crowley laughed. "One thing at a time. I take it you shared your Flame through intimacy, but you that's not strictly necessary. Now, bring forth your Flame with your mind."
I pictured the Flame as a tongue of fire in the core of my being, no longer a flickering spark but a steady light, other than the black Flame swirling within it.
"Your Flame's infernal aspect is rather strong, isn't it?" Crowley noted.
"The blackness?"
"Right. That will make things easier."
"It's not poisonous?" I glanced over at Ember, who had first warned me about it.
"It's a tool. Any tool is dangerous if used improperly. Fortunately for you, you have me to teach you the proper and improper use of your Flame. Now I want you to focus on only the black Flame. Let it burn brighter, but don't let it get out of control. I know it can be…seductive for beginners of the Path."
I took a deep breath and focused on the darker streaks of black Flame. My anger had fueled the black Flame before, so I let a controlled anger bubble up within me.
The black Flame flared and expanded. I tried to reign in my anger, but the black Flame seemed to fuel it further, and I found myself hating the Abyss, the Imperial agent, the Emperor, the demons, everything.
Let go. Let go. Be free. The darkness egged me on.
"Careful!" Crowley warned. "Don't let it get out of control. Find the balance. You must be the master of your own Flame, infernal or not."
My pulse pounded harder. I wanted to break something. Kill someone. To do something with my rage.
