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“Is that where you’re from?” Byrgir asked.

“From outside of it, right near the sea, yes,” I said. “Did you grow up here?”

“I wasn’t born here, but we’ve been here since I was young. Come on, there’s already enough gods for me to keep track of.”

We moved past, and I glanced up at the man as we turned down another row of vendors. The enthusiastic preacher caught my eye, and I dropped my gaze, but too late.

“And ho! A harbinger of these dark times, of the evil ahead! A summoner of monsters from the night! In our very midst! A fae-touched she-demon!” His voice cracked with the high pitch of his self-righteousness.

Byrgir froze beside me, his large body going deadly still. I looked back up at the preaching man. I knew I should not say anything, but a flicker of rage flared in me at his words.

“What did you call me?”

“She-demon! Witch! Fae-touched blight of Enos’s good green earth! Turn to the Light, oh good people, for the darkness is already among you! Oh yes! It has crawled into your very markets, into your homes. It eats your goods, sucks the Light from your souls!”

I glanced down at the last bites of the sweet bun I still held, fingers sticky with melted sugar and butter.

He went on, “If you need proof that the shadows of evil stalk your lands, look no further than this woman! The eyes of Death himself shine from her very skull! Black as night and sicker still!”

My face flushed in a deep blush as the eyes of market-goers all around us began to turn to me.

“I suggest you watch your mouth.” Byrgir’s voice was cold, low, and menacing. A deadly, icy tone I did not expect from him. One hand slipped under his coat at his hip, and I noticed the end of a dagger sheath peeking out below it. I shivered at the darkness on his face.

“A perfect example, dear people! The succubus has ensnared an innocent man to do her dark bidding! Come to the Lord of Light, young man. You are not yet too wayward to be saved from her dark ways!”

Byrgir took a step forward. “I told you to watch. Your. Mouth.” He enunciated the words with steely calm.

I put a hand on his arm. “Let’s just go,” I said, keeping my eyes down from the preaching man.

“I won’t allow strangers to abuse my friends in public without repercussions,” Byrgir said, standing his ground. I gave his arm a tug, but he was immovable as a mountain.

“She-demon!” The man pointed at me. “I command you, in the name of Enos, Lord of Light, release this man from your treacherous enthrallment! Begone from him, foul succubus!”

I tugged Byrgir’s arm again. “Please, Byrgir, let’s just leave,” I said.

“Keep those words out of your mouth, you pompous idiot! You have no idea who you’re speaking to,” Byrgir growled.

But the preaching man ignored Byrgir and kept his focus on me. “Begone, wretched demon! Leave this man and these fair villagers alone! I beseech you! In the name of the Light!”

I hissed through my teeth in frustration and turned away from Byrgir. He could stand in my honor alone; my presence only made matters worse. I swept off through the gathering crowd toward Eilith’s cart. I could hear Byrgir hurl a few more choice curses at the preacher as I stormed away.

“Hal, wait,” Byrgir called behind me.

I did not slow.

“Wait, Hal, you don’t have to leave.” He caught up to me and grasped my arm gently in his tattooed hand.

“Yes, I do. Clearly I’m not welcome here. And I’m not going to stand around while some raving fool creates a spectacle out of me.”

“He had no right to say those things,” said Byrgir. “I should go pull him off that box, and beat that message into his thick skull.”

“You’ll just prove his point,” I said bitterly. “Make him a martyr like he wants to be. He’ll claim you were under my influence, and you’ll get off just fine while I’ll suffer for it.”

I kept walking, and Byrgir followed. A couple glared at me, pulling their small child behind them as I passed.

“Great, apparently everyone heard the holy man’s good words this morning,” I fumed.

“Don’t let him chase you off, Halja,” said Byrgir. “Don’t let him win.”

“What, and just stay here getting harassed for the rest of the day?” I snapped.

“Let you play hero some more?” His face immediately fell.

My shame intensified. “I’m sorry, Byrgir, I didn’t mean that.

Thank you for sticking up for me, really.

I appreciate it, and it’s touching that it bothers you so much.

Especially because you don’t know me well. ”

He shrugged off my apology by saying, “Carrying someone’s unconscious body through the woods solidifies a friendship pretty fast, I suppose.”

“I do appreciate your friendship, Byrgir. I do. But it’s easier for me, and for you, if I just go. No use starting a fight we can’t win.”

“Better to fight for the right thing than to keep an immoral peace,” he countered.

“Let me know how that fight feels after twenty years. Maybe you’ll be sick of it then too,” I said, just as we reached Eilith’s cart and saw that she had befallen the same ill attention as I had.

Two more Paragons of the Light, a blond man and a wiry woman, were arguing loudly with her.

“Your practice is false and your potions are snake oil!” the woman yelled at Eilith. “You deceive and endanger these people with your Sourcery!”

“How dare you!” Eilith’s voice was heavy with indignation. “I have served the town of Skeioholm far longer than you’ve been alive, young pup. Longer than that High Priestess of yours has been around! I’ve been here since long before your Lord of Light, and I won’t be leaving!”

“You have been warned, Miss Morceran,” said the blond man next to the woman. He spoke with the same pompous tone as the preacher. “You have been told before not to bring your fraudulent Sourcery here. Not to this market. Yet here you are, peddling these lies.”

“Is there a problem here?” I asked as we approached.

The Paragons of the Light turned to look at me, and their faces twisted in disgust. Behind me, I felt the rage roll off Byrgir like heat from a fire. I had kept my awareness hemmed in close, but his proximity and the intensity of his emotions made them palpable.

“In the company of the fae-touched, no less,” the woman spat as she saw me.

“You are both to leave this market square at once,” the man said. His voice carried authority but his countenance did not as he looked over my shoulder at the hulking, fuming figure of Byrgir.

“If you remove them from this square, I’ll remove you with them,” Byrgir said. His voice had returned to the menacing calmness he had spoken with before. Sharp as a blade, cold as ice, and disturbingly dangerous.

“You do not frighten me. You may cavort with fae-touched creatures of shadow, but I walk the path of Light!” the man declared.

“Then I suggest you follow your path of light away from this place. Quickly,” Byrgir said.

“I will not be intimidated from my duties by threats from the dark,” the man said, turning back to Eilith. “Sourcerer! Pack your wares and take your cart from this market! Or I will remove it for you!”

“I have served this village since you were sucking your mother’s saggy tits, young man.” Eilith glowered at the Paragon, who could not have been less than thirty-five. “This isn’t the first time someone has tried to run me off.”

“Then I have no choice but to remove your wares by force!”

The man grabbed a tincture off the table and smashed it on the ground.

The glass shattered, the contents leaking into the dirt.

He seized another, but he was on the ground next to the first smashed bottle before he could release it.

Byrgir held him by his collar, having swept his legs out from under him and slammed him down with both speed and control.

The man looked up at him, eyes wide. Byrgir’s other hand was under his cloak at his hip again.

“Take your merry band of self-righteous assholes and get out.” Cool, calm, and sharp as steel. Byrgir stared into the man’s eyes as he held him on the ground.

“Y-y-yes, fine, we will go.”

Byrgir let him up, and the man rose shakily. But as he and the woman scurried away, the Paragon called back.

“Follow the Light, young man! The Light will guide you from her guiles! Follow it from your path of darkness!”

“Fuck you and your light!” Byrgir called after him.

“Aah ha ha ha!” Eilith cackled as they ran. “Very good, boy, very good. Thank you, dear.” She patted Byrgir’s arm.

Eilith sold no more medicaments that day. I stayed by her cart until it was time to make the long trek home.