"Pray tell, just what are you doing?"
Ash knelt in front of a circle of stones she had spent ten minutes gathering, and in that stone circle were branches and dead shrubs. Ash ground two stones together over the twigs, and the clicking was incredibly annoying.
"I thought the Demon Queen knew everything." Ash's back was to me.
I sat on a large rock, one that was made somewhat comfortable thanks to my battle dress. "That does not extend to stupidity."
Ash shook her head, and the gesture was dismissive. "It's just a fire, obviously."
"What do you mean?"
The clicking stopped. Ash turned her head, one of her blue eyes finding me. "A fire?" Her tone was strange, and I did not like it.
"How are you creating a flame with stones, you fool girl?" It was hard to believe I had to explain something so basic, but Heroes had ever been thickheaded.
Ash's face twisted. She turned away, and when she laughed, it sounded strained. "Right. I forgot. You Demons can't do anything without [Spells], can you?"
"Answer me before I cut you."
Ash sighed deeply. "Just watch if you're that curious. If you're not, then stop bothering me."
I huffed, folded my arms, and looked away. We hadn't moved far from the dead Divine Beast-just far enough to put it out of sight. The river still flowed behind me, and its breeze brushed against my skin.
I lasted a minute. Two minutes. My curiosity burned brighter than whatever madness this Hero was attempting. Finally, I rose and walked over.
She was smacking the two stones together. No, that wasn't quite it-it was more like she was striking one stone with the other. She kept at it, her eyes focused and arms steady.
"This is supposed to start a fire?" I said.
The Hero did not answer. The sky rumbled above, and it was already starting to grow dim. Was it going to rain soon too? The wind had been slowly picking up for a while now.
"I asked you a question."
There was a spark and light from between the two stones. "Getting it," Ash mumbled to herself.
My irritation grew within me like thorns, but it was accompanied by something else. I watched as she struck the stones again and made more sparks. She struck again and there were more sparks. Finally, a spark caught and fell onto the dead leaves below. There really was smoke.
Ash smiled, reached forward, and bunched the dead leaves tighter. She blew into the smoke, slow and steady. Then, even I saw it-a flame, the tiniest ember. It started to spread. Ash continued to blow, gently adding more twigs to the tiny flame.
The fire grew until it gave off heat.
"It is a flame," I murmured.
"Did you think I was doing this for no reason?" Ash stood, letting the stones drop. She glanced around, staring at our surroundings.
"Your kind are weak to the elements."
"What?" Ash glanced at me, then the sky, then back. "Ah, that's a bonus. I made the fire for cooking."
"Cooking? That pointless thing you humans waste your short lives on?" I closed my eyes and shook my head. "I knew Heroes were fools, but this is-"
Footsteps moved away from me. I paused, opened my eyes, and saw that Ash was walking towards the nearest line of trees.
"Halt. Where are you going?" I demanded.
"I'm catching something," Ash called back. "Throw a twig on the fire now and then."
I stared at her back. "A Demon Queen does not tend pathetic fires."
She was past the treeline before I'd finished. I glared at the forest, then at the flame.
"Damn it."
The flame stared back at me.
It had grown. What had started as scattered pops and a yellow glow had settled into a steady crackling, the flame deepening to orange. It gave off more heat. The cold pushed me closer, and I leaned toward it. The heat warmed the armor, and the armor in turn warmed me. The feeling was not unpleasant.
I stared at the dancing flames. A spark leapt out and landed on my arm. It didn't burn, and I didn't brush it away.
"Pathetic," I said to myself. The wind blew and the fire fizzled. Something inside me shuddered. There was a stack of twigs nearby, and I threw them at the flame. It barely helped. If anything, the meager flame only dimmed further.
"What is wrong with you?" I questioned the flame. "This is what she told me, isn't it?" The orange had faded to a low yellow now, and the crackling was even softer.
"Damn you."
I leaned forward and blew into the flames the way Ash had, feeding it twigs between breaths. I felt like one of the Ten Fools. I-the Demon Queen-was on my hands and knees trying to kindle this pathetic flame.
The fire caught again, and the crackling returned as yellow warmed back to orange. The cold had deepened, and I drew closer. I smiled before I even realized the expression had taken hold over me.
"I half expected to have to light it again."
I jerked back as if I'd touched the flames without mana. Ash stood to my right, carrying some manner of long-eared vermin.
"What?" Ash looked at me.
"Nothing." I stood quickly. "You are lucky that one such as I lowered herself to this petty task."
The girl stared at me, then she sighed but didn't reply as she moved closer to the flame.
"What beast is that?"
"It's a rabbit." Ash pulled some of the thinner reed and began to tie them around this "rabbit."
"And you intend to eat this 'rabbit'?"
"Yes." She didn't look up at me.
"Why are its ears so big?"
Ash paused. "I don't know. To hear better, maybe."
She returned to her task. Soon the rabbit was bound to a branch and held over the flames. I watched her. The chill in the air found me now that I had moved away from the flame.
I slowly moved to its opposite side.
"And this is cooking?"
Ash didn't look up. Her eyes were bored as she answered: "The barest fraction of it, maybe. I don't exactly have much to work with. Forgive me, Your Majesty, if the food is not up to par."
I ignored the mocking in her tone. "Why didn't you cook the beast we felled?"
Ash went still. "The Divine Beast?"
"It's not far. It would have more meat. It makes little sense to go hunting for smaller prey."
Her eyes hardened. "You do not eat a Divine Beast."
My own irritation rose. "That was no Divine Beast. Perhaps the reincarnation robbed you of your sight?"
Ash turned the rabbit over the flames. "It was close enough." Her voice had gone quiet, as if she were explaining something to a child or an idiot.
I let it go, since petty provocations were beneath me. I sat across from her. The sky rumbled again, louder this time. "If it rains, your pathetic fire will be put out in an instant."
"It won't rain, and if it does, it'll be light."
I stared at her through the flames. "You claim to know the workings of nature without your [System]?"
It was the kind of stupid boast other Heroes had made, before I'd cut them down.
"It's not difficult," Ash said. "You just need experience. I had my share, in my journey with-" She stopped.
We sat in silence, with only the flame to fill it. I had found the sound strange at first, but now it was almost pleasant.
"This [Skill] is not one I recognize from the [System]. Is it a racial ability specific to you Humans, then?" I finally asked.
"No, that's silly. Why would you-" Ash tilted her head and seemed to consider. "There was a skill like that, but you didn't need it just to start a fire."
I stared at her. "You expect me to believe that anyone, regardless of Class, could simply learn to do this?"
Ash stared back at me. Her blue eyes bored into my red ones. "Yes, I do. Are you going to argue about the sky being red next?"
"It was red, in my realm."
She frowned and slowly nodded. "I suppose it was."
I leaned back slightly and let the fire lick at my feet. The [Darkness Binding] wasn't keeping me warm the way it should. Every scrap of my own mana I spent would need to be replaced by this world's weaker supply.
"You mentioned something before," Ash said. "Roles. What did you mean?"
"I meant that which you should know well, given that you were a Hero."
"Then explain it."
"Your [Class]," I said. "Hero. That was not just a title, was it? You felt it-the pull of it, the way it shaped what you could and could not do."
Something shifted on Ash's face. She didn't deny it. "It pulled me forward," she said carefully. "But I chose to follow it."
"Did you?"
Her jaw tightened. "Yes."
"Then you were lucky." I let the word sit. "That is a kinder fate than Demons get." The fire popped, and a spark landed between us and died. "They are called Classes, but I call them Roles, for that is truer to what they are. They are your lot in life-the boundary of one's existence, the summit of a mountain one can climb but never see past. A demon's Role is stricter than most."
Ash had not spoken, and I could feel her watching me. I did not look up. "Orzathiel," I said. The name came unbidden. "One of my Generals. You killed him. It took you half an hour."
"I remember," Ash said. Her voice had gone flat.
I turned a twig in my fingers. "He liked to garden. He cultivated flowers in the lower reaches of my castle. They were poisonous to everything and useless to everyone, but he did it anyway. It was the one thing he did that his Role hadn't demanded of him."
Ash said nothing.
"Do you know what likely happened to his garden after you killed him?"
"No."
The twig snapped in my fingers. "Nothing. It would have simply died. Nobody could have tended to it, and nobody else would have thought to tend it." I tossed the broken twig into the fire. "That is what a Class does to a Demon. Orzathiel had one corner of himself that was his-just the one. Most do not even get that."
The fire crackled, and Ash did not speak. I had expected her to.
"At the start, you have choice," I said. "But once you have the right Class, it changes you. A [Sage] may only ever act as the [System] believes a Sage should act. She could never be a bumbling fool, even if she wanted to. The Role would not allow it."
The silence that followed was longer than any before it. My breathing had gone ragged, and I forced myself to steady it. It was unbecoming of the Demon Queen to show this much.
"You're saying they couldn't help what they were," Ash said slowly.
"Some of them, yes."
"The ones who burned villages. Who killed children. Who-"
"Some of them."
Ash's voice had gone very low. "And you? Could you help it? What kind of chain is the role of the [Demon Queen]?"
"Looser than some but tighter than others." I met her gaze. "I will not lie to you and claim the Role made me do what I did. That would be pathetic."
"Then what are you saying?" Her voice had risen. "That I should feel sorry for them? For the horde?"
"If that is the conclusion you wish to draw, then so be it. It is not what I've said."
"Then what have you said?"
"Simply that the world isn't always as it seems."
"Don't you dare." The fire between us seemed dimmer than it had been, or perhaps it was the look on her face that made it seem so. "Don't you dare sit there and lecture me. You, who ordered it. You, who could have stopped all of it."
"Could I?" The question left me before I had chosen to let it.
"You just said your chain was loose-loose enough that it didn't make you do it." She leaned forward, the light catching the fury in her eyes. "So what's your excuse?"
I opened my mouth and closed it. Just because one had choices did not mean that there was a good choice among them. I had taken all the ones that could lead me here, and I would do it again. I did not say any of this.
"I have none," I said instead.
Ash stared at me. I stared back. "Ronan," Ash said. "When he charged you-was that his Role? Some chain pulling him forward?"
"I don't know," I said. "Warrior Classes did push toward confrontation. Whether your friend-"
"Don't." Her voice was raw and harsh. "Don't you dare tell me that was anything other than who he was. He charged first because he always charged first."
I held her gaze. "Perhaps so. I did not know him," I said. "You did."
"And you killed him."
"I did. He was brave. Most cower before the end."
Her fist hit the ground beside her, and the sound it made was dull and heavy. "I hate you," Ash said.
"Heroes always do."
Neither of us said anything at that.
I had not thought of Orzathiel and his gardens in a very long time. It had always been something I had tried not to see. It was odd, then, that it came to me so readily now.
I had been the Demon Queen. I had given orders that ended thousands. No, tens of thousands. Some of those thousands might have been Orzathiels, tending gardens nobody would ever see.
I should have taken the time to see his.
Ash rose. The white rabbit had browned some time ago, and the only thing that surrounded our fire was shadows. She stepped around the flame, pulled the rabbit from its spit, and snapped it in half.
The Hero offered me one half.
"Did I ask?" I said, eyebrows raised. "You saw my last meal, if you recall."
Ash sighed. Her arm moved, practically forcing the half onto me. I took it from her, more to make her stop than from any desire to eat again. A Demon Queen did not need to eat often, as it was one of the blessings of the Class.
A woody scent filled my lungs, and my mouth watered. I did not have the Class anymore, did I?
I stared at the meat. Across the fire, Ash was already tearing into hers. I poked it. It was warm, rough in places, and crisp in others. At least one part was charred black. None of these things meant anything to me.
I bit my lower lip and hesitated. Then I took the first bite. It was sweet-faintly sweet, in a way raw meat never was. As I chewed, I felt the odd taste of the smoke itself. I had not known that smoke had a taste.
I took another bite and ate one of the crispier sections. There was a crunch. I worked at it with my teeth, disappointed when the crunchiness turned to mush. I ate more. This time there was juice-not just the taste of blood I was used to, but something more.
I ate. I swallowed. I devoured. I stared at my empty hands and licked the juice from my fingertips.
"Well?"
I froze and stared across the flame at Ash. She was still eating, though her gaze seemed more fixed on me than her food. "What?"
"How was it?"
I clicked my tongue and looked away from her, toward the river next to us. "It was adequate. You humans waste your lives."
"You seemed to like it well enough," Ash said, chewing. "More than well enough."
"It was adequate," I said.
"So you wouldn't accept more?"
I froze and stared at her. Ash stared back and made a sound that resembled a groan. "I'll catch more in the morning."
I sat up straighter. "I can do so myself, if I wish."
"Then go ahead."
I bit my lip. Demons had a certain signature to them that made all lower life forms instinctively run from and fear them. This rabbit was surely no different. I would never find one. I could have hidden my signature with a [Skill], but that ability was lost to me now.
I sat in silence as Ash ate. Annoyed, I rose and moved a bit away from the fire. I started to gather fallen leaves and arrange them in a large pile. I had to make some kind of bedding, after all, since a Demon Queen did not sleep on the bare earth.
When the pile was large enough, I began removing my battle dress. Once, the armor would have dissolved at a thought. Now, I stripped it layer by layer. I did not think about how that made me feel, though the feeling stabbed my insides anyway.
I sat down, and it was cold. Without the armor, it was damned cold. I was only in my undergarments, and being near the fire did not help.
How long had it been since I last endured weather I couldn't simply change? The sky grumbled as if in answer.
I lay there with my eyes closed. At least the crackling was soothing. There were occasional footsteps as Ash moved to do one thing or another. I never turned to check. The wind's bite cut deeper, and I shivered.
"Move over."
I opened my eyes, turned, and stared at the girl.
She wasn't quite naked, but she was not far from it. She was in some kind of brown tunic that exposed her arms and most of her legs. Scars ran down her skin. Most of them were white, though a few were not. She was, I supposed, beautiful, as far as humans were concerned.
"Why?" I demanded.
"You're cold, and you won't be able to sleep," she said simply. "Neither will I."
"And what will me 'moving over' achieve?"
"We'll share heat," she said. "Move over."
I stared up at the strange girl-a stranger Hero. "Fine," I said finally as I twisted aside.
Ash laid down next to me, close enough that my bare skin met hers. Heat flowed from her into me and from me into her. It almost made me move away again, but the wind on my other flank kept me lying there.
Then there was snoring.
I froze and turned to my right. Ash -the Hero- was asleep.
She snored softly, her breathing settling into a slow, steady rhythm. How could she sleep so soundly? Was she really such a fool? I might not risk killing her in open combat, not anymore. But like this, in her sleep, I could end her. The Hero who had slaughtered my kind, the one the seers had prophesied would destroy me. The one I was supposed to kill, by all the laws of this world.
I found myself reaching, and my arms trembled. "What am I doing?" I whispered, then pulled my hands away and tried to sleep.
Sleep was harder now than it had been alone. Ash shifted in her sleep and turned into me. I tried to push her back, but her arm settled across my chest and stayed there. The woman's grip was damned strong.
I stared into the flame. It was weaker than one my weakest [Spell] would have made, using the barest of mana I would have fed to the spell. I found myself gazing at it longer than I had at flaming infernos.
It really didn't rain.
I watched the flame until dream finally found me.