Page 36 of Inferno
Yorin glanced over his shoulder, meaning to tell the customer that he would be with them shortly… and then all of his thoughts ground to a halt, as he saw that rather than another customer, it was Nerik who had just walked into the shop. The young man stood just in front of the door, one hand still on the handle, as if prepared to leave as quickly as he’d arrived, should Yorin object to his presence. The look on his face was one of stark apprehension – no anger, no coyness, no attempt to pretend that everything was normal. He was silently asking permission to be here, and seemed perfectly prepared to accept a no, if that was the answer.
Feeling oddly calm, Yorin gave Nerik the slightest of nods, then turned back to his customer and continued detailing the differences between the wool coat and the buckskin coat. He waited with almost inhuman patience while the customer took his time deciding, and then finally accepted two silver coins for the wool coat, smiling as the man exited the shop. He even had the presence of mind to wish him a good day as he passed through the door.
Yorin closed the door, then, still facing the plain wood panels, he took a deep breath, bracing himself for… well, for whatever was about to happen. He turned the lock, flipped the sign so that it read ‘Closed’, and turned around. But rather than dealing with Nerik right away, he instead crossed over to the main shop window, where his three mannequins stood displaying his latest creations. They stood close to the glass in a bay window, and Yorin dragged the curtain across, separating the mannequins from the rest of the shop, and keeping out any prying eyes.
And only then did he turn to face Nerik. “Right, then,” he said, not knowing quite what else he was supposed to say.
Nerik was standing in the middle of the shop, looking like he was trying hard to stay out of the way. He took a very small, very tentative step forward. He looked at the floor, took a steadying breath, and then raised his eyes to meet Yorin’s. “I waited all night for you to send someone to come and kill me,” he said. He swallowed hard and gave a sideways sort of shrug. “And when no one showed up, I figured… Uh, well, I don’t know, really. I figured maybe things weren’t a total loss, or maybe you had questions, or… If you want me to leave, I’ll just leave you alone, no questions asked.” His shoulders were hunched and he was wringing his hands. Yorin didn’t think he’d ever seen him looking so uncertain.
Not knowing what to do, he simply stood there staring at Nerik. He looked just like he always did – which was to say, entirely human. For a moment, Yorin wondered if he’d simply imagined everything he’d seen the day before. It was hard to reconcile the Nerik currently standing in front of him with the dark, red-eyed creature he’d seen in the forest. “I suppose the first question,” he said, after an extended pause, “is what are you?”
Nerik seemed to relax just a fraction. Perhaps he was relieved to be given the chance to explain himself. “I’m from Chalandros,” he said, without prevarication. “I’m what’s known as an infernal. We are fire-based creatures. I can control fire.” He sighed. “I know I must have looked monstrous to you yesterday, but I promise you, I’m not a demon. Nobody in Chalandros is. We’re just… different.”
Yorin nodded slowly. “No, I’d agree with you there. You’re not a demon.”
“I’m a… Oh. Okay.” Nerik cut himself off, as if he’d expected to have to argue the point. He pushed his black hair out of his eyes and shuffled his feet, glancing around the room nervously. “Um… How did you reach that conclusion?”
“You’re too honest.” Was it odd that Yorin felt no fear of him, standing so close in this confined space? But he wasNerik, familiar, playful, flirtatious Nerik whom he’d known for years…
“Excuse me?” Nerik seemed genuinely surprised by the statement. “I’m too honest?”
“I’ve given you countless items to deliver or collect over the years. Some very expensive clothes, gemstones, bags of coin, letters… You name it, I’m sure I’ve sent you to deliver it at some point. And not one single thing has ever gone missing. No customers complaining they didn’t get their order, no suppliers saying they didn’t get paid. You’re more honest than most humans. And I don’t know what that means, in terms of what manner of creature you are, but a demon? No. Certainly not.”
“Oh. Well, um… Thank you.”
Yorin finally looked away from him, doing his own version of the nervous shuffle now. He really wasn’t sure how to ask his next question. “I don’t know if this would be considered very rude or not,” he hedged, “but… would I be able to see what you look like again? I know I saw it yesterday,” he rushed on, “but at the time I was…”
“Startled?” Nerik suggested, when Yorin failed to finish the sentence.
“Yes. Definitely quite startled. And I… Um…”
“Yeah, that’s totally fine,” Nerik said. But then he glanced around the shop. “But not in here. I’d just make all the clothes smell of smoke.”
“Ah. No, not a good idea, then. Come through to the kitchen.” As he led the way through the rear door, it occurred to Yorin that he had very little idea of what he was doing, and even less of a clue about the potential consequences of it. Such rash behaviour was very unlike him.
And yet, at the same time, he could think of very little reason to not follow through with the suggestion, now that he’d made it.
Once they were in the kitchen, Nerik firstly went and pulled the curtain closed over the window, and then moved to stand near the fireplace, seeming suddenly bashful. “So, um… Well, I have two forms, actually. I mean, two native forms. Looking like a human is due to some very clever magic from a very powerful witch.”
“A witch? A witch. Of course. Um… let’s discuss the magic side of things later,” Yorin suggested. Not because he wasn’t suddenly desperately curious about how a fire-based creature could look like a human, but because he needed to just take this one step at a time.
“Okay, well, um… I mean… to change forms, I have to take my clothes off. Otherwise they’ll just burn.”
“Fair enough.” Realising he had agreed perhaps a little too easily, Yorin followed up his statement with, “It’s not like I haven’t seen you naked before.” A moment later, he realised that no, that hadn’t made anything better. If anything, Nerik now looked even more awkward, while Yorin felt his face flush with warmth. “Sorry, I…”
“No, it’s a fair point,” Nerik said, with none of his usual flirtatiousness. The atmosphere felt cold and stiff by comparison. Nerik stripped off his shirt, setting it neatly over the back of a chair, then slipped off his boots, and finally his trousers. Yorin refused to blush or to look away, forcing himself to view this from a clinical perspective.
All Nerik was wearing now were his two necklaces, the metal symbol and the obsidian gem. He reached up and undid the clasp of the one with the gem. In an instant, his human body was gone, replaced with…
Yorin gasped and stepped back, running into the door with a thump. He clenched his teeth, his pride demanding that he not scream, and his compassion refusing to blurt out any curses that might badly offend Nerik.
For his part, Nerik stood still and silent beside the fireplace, letting Yorin look his fill. Glowing red eyes peered out from a face that seemed entirely featureless, aside from two bumps which hinted at ears on the sides of his head. The rough edge of the top of his head gave an impression of hair, though there was certainly none there.
Nerik’s body, aside from his eyes, was black all over. He still had two arms and two legs, his overall shape roughly that of a human, though his limbs seemed a fraction longer than before. His form seemed somewhat hazy, like he didn’t really have skin. Or whatever the fire-based equivalent of skin would be.
Then realisation struck Yorin. “You’re made of smoke,” he blurted out, the wispy, insubstantial impression suddenly making sense.
“Smoke, soot, ash. The fire is contained inside.” Nerik made a vague gesture to his abdomen.