Alyx didn’t really remember the rest of her conversation with Cass. It was all a blur after Cass had confirmed Salos was a demon.

  She walked down the halls of her house, the passageways passing in a blur.

  That cat was a demon?

  A pain in the ass, but a demon?

  Did he have some weird skills? Not more than Cass.

  Abyss and blood.

  Cass.

  Cass was a demon’s master?

  Cass?

  Cass, who cried for the assassin? Cass, who jumped into burning buildings to save children?

  Cass?

  It didn’t make sense.

  It would make more sense for the sky to be green and the abyss to rise up and swallow the world.

  She pushed open the door to her room, blowing past Telis, who was waiting for her as usual. Telis said something. She responded, but even as the words left her lips, she’d already forgotten them.

  She hated admitting it, but she’d always known there was something wrong with Cass.

  The fight in the Deep against the Caretaker and the Lord hadn’t been normal. The woman she’d fought beside there had been an entirely different animal to the one who had lured off the Herald of the Forest or who had attempted to scare off the Herald of the Pass.

  And had been identical to the thing that had thrown itself against the Keeper.

  And that thing wasn’t Cass. It was reckless. It was desperate. It was violent.

  Telis left. Alyx shed her garments autonomously, her hands finding her night clothes where Telis had left them for her on the bed.

  Sure, Cass could be reckless. Cass was often reckless. But not in combat. Not like that. Cass made reckless decisions where the alternatives were to give up quietly or to fight to a bitter end.

  That thing didn’t decide anything. It just threw itself at the enemy with no regard for Stamina, Focus, or Health.

  It was feral.

  Alyx fell onto the bed.

  That was what she had to worry about. That Cass. The Cass that only existed for the moments around shards of souls.

  Shards like the one she carried.

  She shot up, rushing back to her pile of clothing and fishing around the pockets for the gem. She found it in the right breast pocket.

  It was the size of her thumb. Perfectly round. Shimmering a soft green in the firelight. Pretty, but utterly worthless.

  She hadn’t even bothered Identifying it when she’d picked it up in the catacombs. She had just known by looking at it. The same way she knew the pebbles on the side of the road were worthless. The same way she knew Concept Gems were indescribably valuable. It was obvious.

  Would she have even picked them up if Cass hadn’t been there, desperately trying to take something from that monster? No one else had so much as looked at them when they’d been offered as prizes, either.

  And yet, looking at it now, she could hardly believe she’d willingly handed over the other two. It shone more preciously than gold or crystalized experience. She wanted to hold it tight in her hands. To crush it and absorb what it held. What would that even do? Did she dare find out with what she knew now?

  How long had she felt like this? Its presence had been weighing on her since the Catacombs. When exactly? Not when they’d collected them. Later. Not during the fight with the golems or their flight from Fioreya. After that? Since her blessing?

  Keeper’s Core

  [The crystallized fragment of a soul used to power and control the Storehouse Crystal Keeper. Primarily Aracellian in composition.]

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  Alyx blinked at the description. Had she Identified it before? It claimed it was a soul right there.

  She shook her head. Such an inconspicuous thing was a piece of a soul? She had always assumed souls would be grander affairs. Big and swirling, overflowing with power and determination, not small and quiet. Not this.

  She forced herself to set the gem on her nightstand and lay back down.

  What was she going to do about Cass? Cass wouldn’t attack her for this, would she? Was it better to just give it to her and be done with it?

  But she didn’t want to give it up.

  Alyx’s hand clenched over her chest. Just the thought of giving it up filled her with distress. Why?

  Rationally, she didn’t want to have anything to do with it or demons. She should get rid of the thing.

  But did she want Cass to have it, either?

  Cass had said something about Salos being a demon made up of one soul. And that was why he was so un-demon-like? This wasn’t a part of that soul. If it was, Cass would have taken it as her prize or tried harder to claim all three.

  Would they become dangerous if they got this? Was it too late already?

  Abyss. Had she unleashed a monster on the city?

  Was she going to have to kill Cass?

  Alyx’s stomach twisted at the thought. Was that how she would repay her debt? Her saved life for Cass’s ended one?

  She squirmed in her comforters. The fabric twisted around her, constricting. Suffocating.

  She sat back up, throwing it all off in a heap.

  She couldn’t do this. There was too much boiling inside for sleep.

  She strode across the room, throwing the closet doors open and finding a set of training clothes. She pulled them on and left the room.

  The house was still awake. She could feel the presence of other servants hurrying through the halls around her, even if her eyes slid off them without registering their appearance. She could feel their eyes on her.

  They whispered. She could feel their whispers, even if her ears felt their presence too low to listen to.

  For once, the eyes and the whispers were because she’d succeeded. Because she had proven herself. They were for the blessing she’d earned, not the blood she’d inherited.

  She should be celebrating.

  Not worrying over the nature of her closest ally.

  Alyx climbed the house’s stairs, climbing all the way to the roof. She threw open the door and walked out onto the roof and the training area. The night sky expanded above her, free and unobstructed. The wind gusted over the roof, pulling at her hair.

  Her hand found a training sword off the rack. It was a little shorter than her Reverberating Blade, the weight a little further down the blade, the guard a little wider. But it would do. The weight was a familiar one if nothing else.

  She stepped onto the sand of the training area. It crunched under her slippers. She’d been in too much of a hurry to find her boots.

  She swung the sword. The form was a mess. This wasn’t how she was taught. This wasn’t how she’d found it worked best.

  She took a deep breath and centered herself. Her arms shook for reasons entirely unrelated to the weapon’s weight.

  She clenched her hands around the handle and swung again, anyway. Better but still sloppy. How had she beaten Fioreya like this?

  How did she expect to beat Kohen?

  Again.

  She’d come so far from when she’d left for Uvana. Her level had gone from 20 to 29. Kohen had been past the gate for months. Fioreya for over a year. She had finally caught up. She was finally standing on their stage again.

  And it would all come crashing down around her if anyone else found out about Salos.

  She swung her sword.

  The safest thing to do would be to kill Cass now, while Salos was out of commission and Cass was badly weakened from the nonsense she’d done in the Catacombs. Alyx could claim it was self-defense. That Cass had tried to steal a larger share of their loot and had gotten violent over it.

  Alyx had the status now, and Cass was unimportant enough that it would be feasible.

  But she didn’t want to do that. She liked Cass. She still owed Cass. If anything, she owed Cass more now than she had when they’d left Uvana.

  Besides, she’d been raised better than to exploit her status like that. She didn’t have proof Kohen had done as much, but she was sure he’d made people disappear in the past for less.

  No. She didn’t need to kill Cass. Cass wasn’t actually the problem.

  Rather, it was just the cat. The demon.

  Her sword traced another arc through the air, slicing down invisible enemies around her.

  Could she convince Cass to kill him? To let her kill him?

  She obviously didn’t understand what a demon was. If she did, there was no way Cass would just let one stay at her side.

  Demons were cruel. And bloodthirsty.

  And liars.

  He must have fooled her. He’d fooled Alyx, after all. She never would have expected it.

  Now would be the moment to convince Cass. While the demon was dormant. They could plan something now and prepare for his return. Would a blade through his heart be enough?

  The stories said demons were unfeeling beasts. That they could survive decapitation and their hearts didn’t beat. But even demons had to have Health, right? And if they bled, it was possible to drain it.

  Would Cass listen? Cass was stubborn. Cass was dumb.

  “You’re not scared of us, are you?” Cass’s question from earlier cut through Alyx’s thoughts. She froze mid-swing.

  ‘Scared of us,’ Cass had said.

  Alyx’s hand gripped tighter around the blade. She wasn’t scared. Not of Cass. Certainly not of the dumb cat.

  But there was the concern of what her grandmother would do if she found out. Consorting with demons wasn’t something that could be ignored. Not among Alacrity’s faithful.

  They’d kill Cass for sure if they found out. They might kill Alyx for association, too.

  A demon was too dangerous.

  But how was she supposed to convince Cass?