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An accidental laugh escaped her, and for a moment, Lindi completely forgot what he was, Weldir’s warnings, and a few of her troubles. He sounded so normal, and not like the Demons she’d come to know. He felt like another person, just one who wasn’t human and bore a strange accent.

She’d matured so much that it was nice to feel young again, like her physical age. She’d almost forgotten what it was like, and how human it made her feel. She’d only ever felt that way with the Anzúli, but they weren’t usually so carefree or light-hearted.

They were rather stern people, all on a mission to help the humans.

“So, why come to the Veil when everything in it wants to eat you? Bathing here seems suicidal,” Jabez quipped while tilting his face to her. “Although the view wasn’t unwelcome.”

When she gave him an untrusting glance, his lips pulled back into a mischievous grin, and not even his sharp fangs prevented her from unwittingly letting her ire fall. He even gave her a cheeky wink.

He seems so much more human and personable than Weldir.

Jabez was playful and suave in a way that made it hard to dislike him. If Weldir had been even a fraction this approachable, she may have shaken her distrust and anger at him long ago.

Lindi rolled her eyes. “Don’t you know it’s rude to sneak up on a woman bathing?”

“Must I point out the irony of that when you chose to do it out in the forest? How is that my fault?”

The fact that he was right had her grumbling, and had she been any more immature, she may have poked her tongue out at him. But it was that same annoyance that made the urge to smile tickle its way into her face.

What harm is there in making a... friend? Even if it was likely temporary, as she had to continue with her bound duties.

Even to Weldir’s dismay.

Actually, that very reason was why her butt stayed exactly where it currently rested.

Keeping her wings stretched and rigid, Lindi circled around where she wanted to land. She flapped her wings once to keep herself airborne, and the person below turned their head up to watch her.

She let herself descend to a rocky ledge, one that was a little too close to the cascade of water, and it wetted a few of her feathers. She shook them as she shifted and drew her hood back to uncover her face.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d come,” Jabez commented, remaining seated where he was the previous day.

“I wasn’t sure if I was going to,” Lindi admitted, which made him grin in appreciation at the truth, even if she sounded a little pouty and surly.

His red eyes glinted with mirth. “Why? Didn’t we have a good time yesterday?”

She wiggled her head side to side to pretend what he said was debatable. “All we did was talk.”

“We did laugh, or did you forget that? Or is the issue Wel–”

Lindi cut him a sharp look. “Don’t. Don’t say his name. It may call him, and if he isn’t watching, he will.”

His lips shut, but his grin remained. It morphed into something more mischievous. “So he does talk to you.”

Her nose crinkled as she took her seat. “Yes, but don’t expect me to talk to him on your behalf. I’m not a messenger bird.”

“No. Just a raven, it appears.” He placed his right hand on the rock and leaned towards her, bridging only a slight amount of the large gap between them. He nodded his nose at her cloak. “How did you obtain such magic? You have a mana stone. They can only be obtained in Nyl’theria.”

Her brows furrowed and Lindi held the neck of her cloak, where her stone was threaded to it. “How did you–?”

He shrugged. “Comes with being an Elf. We can see magic when it’s active, even if it’s particularly obscured. You didn’t have it the last time I saw you.”

She figured he meant all those years ago.

“ He helped me. Told me where to go to mine, how to get there, and what I needed to search for.” She fiddled with some of her feathers in hopes that it would help her stifle the repulsive shudder that was trying to tingle down her spine.

The memories of that time still haunted her.

“But going to the mines is impossible, even for me.” Jabez then pushed his fingers between the drawstrings of a pouch tied to his waist to open it and pulled out a few different-coloured stones.

“I collected my stones from the ruins of a city. I barely got out alive, and that wasn’t within the nest of a mountain. ”

One of her eyes twitched at how easy he made that sound. Apparently an infested ruin was easier than a mine, and she would have much preferred that over the claustrophobia she’d suffered alongside her terror of the Demons snarling at her.

“I saw you used one to make the Veil’s canyon,” Lindi muttered, resisting the urge to give him a nasty eye.

“I don’t have such destructive magic. I can grow a tree with my Earth mana, but only one a day without a stone.

” He leaned back on straightened arms and let out an exhausted sigh.

“It’s taken me so many years. I think if I look at another seed again, I’d rather eat it and choke on it. Could you imagine?”

He wrapped a clawed hand around his throat and bounced up and down as he began to feign choking. He stuck his tongue out, and the roundedness surprised her. She half expected him to have a forked appendage.

She sucked her lips into her mouth and bit down on them to push down her desire to laugh.

He made it all too easy to find humour in what he said, his nature light-hearted and calm.

He never moved from his spot, as if he knew it would spook her.

And even though they’d spoken until dark was almost upon them the day before, he never asked her anything more about Weldir or anything too personal.

Why didn’t he, if he wanted so badly to speak with him? She didn’t know, but she kind of didn’t care.

He doesn’t seem so bad... or evil like Weldir made it me believe. He just seemed like a normal person, despite all those features that definitely weren’t human.

Lindi had questions about Demons, about the Veil, and.

.. about him. She hadn’t asked any of the latter.

She gathered Weldir had told her most of it, but there must be more below the surface.

Why did he turn on his people? Why did he hate them so much he wanted to build some kind of army like she’d overheard?

It sounded like he wanted to start a war.

She was curious about him, just as he was about her.

“How did you ever come to find yourself bonded to a demi-god?” Jabez asked, holding her stare as he lifted a hand and offered a one-sided shrug. “You would have needed to be near the Veil, his mist. There were very few humans near here back then.”

Her features tightened as she looked down at her feet, and subsequently, at the water below. Should I answer that? What harm was there? He already knew she was tied to Weldir – what did her story matter?

So why did she feel this guilt when she opened her mouth to answer? “Remember the day we first met?”

She shyly met his gaze, and he raised a singular white brow.

“I wouldn’t say we met. There was no introduction.”

She tipped her head up to give him a bland look at his facetiousness, and he chuckled in response.

“Okay, yes. You were spying on us. Eavesdropping is a nasty habit, although I guess it didn’t matter, as I doubt you understand Nyl’kira.”

Lindi swallowed and managed to cool her features, not giving away that she’d overheard everything by Weldir’s translation spell.

“That wasn’t on purpose. I just so happened to be nearby,” she answered with a harrumph. She looked back down at the white foam collecting on the surface of the water. “Well, you know how you saved that woman? I... was once her, but I didn’t have anyone to save me.”

“That’s technically not true.”

Ugh! She knew exactly what he meant, and she wanted to kick him for it. “Yeah, I know he technically saved me, but I mean before that. Before I had to make a choice between dying or not.”

“Making a decision that goes beyond lifelong, when under duress, is barely passable. Feels like trickery to me,” Jabez muttered while cupping his chin, a thoughtful hum present in his voice. Then he lifted his shoulders. “Then again, I doubt he would have had any other way to find a mate.”

The fact that he agreed on how unfair it was she’d had to make the decision under duress softened her even more to him. She wanted that validation. For someone other than herself to think it, believe it, say it out loud so she didn’t feel so wrong about her feelings.

Still holding his chin, Jabez tapped a claw against his cheek. “I’ve always wondered why the humans threw each other into the Veil. Such a custom is unknown to us. Even Demons wouldn’t do such a thing.”

“It’s this whole idea of a virgin sacrifice,” she bit out. “Offer the pure in hopes of protection.”

His head reared back, then he scratched at his short hair behind his ear. “Why always women? Men can be virgins too.”

Lindi threw her hands up, enraged and perplexed at the same time. “It’s just the way things are. They can ‘prove’ a woman is pure, whereas with men they can’t. It’s all bullshit.”

And their ‘proof’ wasn’t always valid, nor correct! It was flawed, all of it.

“Sounds like a flawed and misogynistic system.”

Lindi smiled at that, as his words managed to touch a wounded part of her heart.

“It really is.” Then she held his gaze as she said, “Thank you. You know, for saving that woman. I was already on my way to do it when you stepped in. I’d been hunting the occultists for a long time to put an end to such madness. ”

Obviously uncomfortable with her gratitude, Jabez looked away, fidgeted in his seat, and shrugged. “It’s mostly stopped happening, from what I can tell. People are too afraid to come here. Which poses a problem for my fellow Demons.”