Seeking Demons

A Snow of News

The snow fell fast outside the city, soft white flakes sticking occasionally and causing a bright flash within the walls. Kandrina's room had blue tinted walls, which helped to dim the bright light ofthe Colorless. Nerlarina had told her that was an old name for her race that she much preferred to Lightning Demons, so Kandrina had started using it instead. It seemed better than calling people Demons too, since they really weren't demoinc at all. They hadn't even come near any humans for years, and Kandrina was starting to think that the priests were just using the Demon stories to make people scared and obedient.

Remlik had arrived outside the city a few weeks ago, just before the winter set in, and he had brought his sister Remlika and a couple of her friends too. The two friends had left, but Remlik and Remlika had stayed to learn for themselves what the Colorless were like. Because magic could disrupt the Colorless' energy, Remlika had to go outside the city to contact her friends and check where Kandrina's dad and sister were. The last time she had heard anything they had gone east in a caravan, trying to avoid a war between the Chief and his daughter, the Vice-Cheif. She was out there now, a way in the distance, speaking to her friend and finding out what had happened since then.

She had spent the last hour alternating this watch with Remlik, who was sitting behind her writing down some of the things he'd learned since coming to the city. She had also been keeping some notes, though she'd let it slide recently because she'd been so pleased to see Remlik and Remlika. Seeing Remlik scribbling so fast in his own book made her feel a little guilty about it though, so she left the wall and sat next to him on the bed.

"Do you think she'll be much longer?" she asked, pulling her own notes over so she could catch herself up.

Remlik finished his sentence and put his books down. "I wouldn't think so. I'll keep watch now, I've finished writing for now." He went and sat in the chair Kandrina had just left. "I'll let you know if I see her."

Kandirna bent her head and started writing up her notes. After a few minutes, she peeked through her hair to see Remlik watching her instead of looking out for his sister. She didn't mind, but she did wonder why he seemed so worried about getting caught staring. She put down her pencil and looked up properly, about to ask him why he was staring at her instead of watching for Remlika, but she spotted a small dark figure outside in the snow. "Is that your sister?" she asked instead.

Remlik jumped and turned to look. "I think so. I'll fetch her a blanket, she must be freezing." He left, returning with a spare blanket seconds before Remlika entered the room, shivering.

Remlika wrapped the blanket around herself and kicked off her soaked shoes, tucking herself up in one of the chairs. "It's freezing out there. Snow might be pretty, but boy is it a pain to be outside in." Once she had warmed up a little she began to tell them what her friend had told her. "Remember I said last time that the Chief's scribe had gone missing? He turned up dead a few days ago,frozen solid on the road between Manak and Akram. He was carrying a message from Jindar saying that he'd been threatened by the priests. It sounds like they've almost taken over, half the army's been moved to the temple militia and they're patrolling the streets at all hours, looking for so-called heretics to put on trial. The high priest is holding trials every other day now, and people are being whipped in public."

Kandrina stifled a gasp. Things had gotten a lot worse since she'd left, and for the first time she was glad her dad and sister were faraway from Manak and out of anyone's reach.

"That's not even half of it. The libraries are being purged again," she shared a dark look with her brother. "The priests are destroying everything that isn't approved gospel. Even basic history books are being burned. Still, rumor says the high priest isn't sleeping very well, so I guess my curse is holding up." She smirked darkly.

"Whta curse?" Kandrina asked.

Remlik turned to her. "We forgot to mention, with everything else that's happened. My sister put a nightmare curse on the high priest after you were taken. Once we found out you were alive, I suggested removing it, but..."

"I decided he'd caused enough suffering and death over the years," Remlika finished. "He deserves to be cursed."

Kandrina tried not to laugh. It wasn't nice to curse someone, but the high priest wans't a nice person anyway, so he probably did deserve a little of his own unpleasantness to come and bite him back. Remlika's ethics were very simple – nice people deserve nice things, nasty people deserve nasty things.

"I was thinking, maybe we should head back. It sounds like things are getting out of hand back home, and we've gathered enough knowledge between us now that we might be able to get people to listen," Remlik said. "The priests are only able to keep everyone in this state because they suppress any facts about the Colorless. If people knew the truth, they wouldn't be so easily led and frightened, and the priests would lose their hold over the town."

Remlika nodded approvingly. "Good idea. We can't just sit here in a crystal palace while our home town goes to the dogs. Winter's almost over, we could leave as soon as the snow starts to clear," she suggested.

"How about asking Nerlarina to come with us?" Kandrina said. "She can help us teach people. If we can show everyone that the 'Demons' aren't really demons, just a diferent kind of people, that should help, right?"

"I'd like that," said a crackly voice behind them. Nerlarina herself had appeared while they were talking. "If your people can put a face to us, rather than us just being these creatures from horror stories, they might start to realize we mean no harm and just want to live in peace."

They all agreed, and the plan was sorted. Kandrina resumed her staring out through the wall, once again ignoring her notes. If Nerlarina was coming back with them, she could finish writing on the journey anyway.