Rise of the Living Forge

Lillia didn’t respond for several seconds. Arwin held her gaze while Reya looked from one of them to the other, then pulled her steak closer and very pointedly avoided looking up from it.

“Fine,” Lillia said curtly. She turned on her heel and strode into the kitchen. Arwin followed after her, assuming that she was giving him an unspoken invitation to follow. A part of him wanted to summon his armor and sword, but he’d already eaten the sword and summoning his armor would only make it look like he was planning on fighting.

Arwin stepped past the dim light of the lantern and entered the kitchen. It was more of a long hallway with some cooking utensils and an old cooktop on one side. Lillia stood at the far end of the hall, leaning against the wall in a patch of shadow with her arms crossed.

He could tell that her guard was up. Her eyes traced his movements and, despite her casual pose, the muscles in her body were tensed. She was ready to spring into motion the instant he did anything aggressive.

For a moment, it felt like it had so many times before. Arwin had lost count of the number of times they’d stood before each other just like this before launching into a fight. A fight that inevitably always ended the same way.

The back of Arwin’s neck tingled as his mind screamed at him to be wary of the shadows. He was within the Demon Queen’s domain – unarmed and unable to properly fight back if she tried to attack.

“Well?” Lillia asked, her lips thin. Her words were curt, but there was fear in them. Not fear of him; Arwin was certain of that much. They’d never been scared of each other. He was pretty sure he knew exactly what the fear was.

It was fear of losing what she’d been building. Her tavern – and his smithy – both sat suspended on a thin cord. The moment either he or Lillia pulled just a little too hard, it would snap.

And yet, ignoring the problem could only solve things for so long. There were too many questions. He had enemies, and he didn’t even know who they were. At one point, the Demon Queen had been one of them.

“What do you want?” Lillia asked. “Stop staring at me. If you’re going to try to run me through, I dare you to give it a try. See what happens.”

“Who are you?” Arwin finally asked, finding the words he was looking for.

The Demon Queen stared at Arwin. “What? Did you hit your head on something? You know damn well who I am, and I know who you are.”

“No, you don’t.” Arwin shook his head. “You knew who I was. I’m not that man any longer. He’s dead. I didn’t ask who you used to be. I’m asking who you are. Right now. Who are you?”

A second passed. Then two. The Demon Queen ran her tongue along her lips, considering Arwin quietly. Finally, a smirk flickered across her lips.

“What does it look like? I’m living in a run-down tavern with nothing but a cobbled together kitchen. I’m an innkeeper. That’s it. That’s all I want to be.”

“Then I am just the smith that lives down the road. That’s all I want to be.”

“That’s not what it sounded like to me. Reya’s been talking about how you want to start up a guild. That’s not something a blacksmith does.”

“A blacksmith makes armor. I’m just taking my armor a bit farther,” Arwin said, a wry smile flickering across his lips. “Doesn’t an innkeeper want more than just an inn? You want a community.”

Lillia let her head incline, the confusion and tension slowly leaving her form. She stepped to the side, then flicked a hand. Some of the darkness swirling around her abated, revealing a doorway that Arwin had previously missed.

Within it was a matted pile of straw in the shape of a bed. It looked horribly uncomfortable, though Arwin suspected it was probably far better than the floor. After sending one last glance at Arwin, Lillia stepped into the room and sat down on the far end of the bed.

It was a silent invitation, an acceptance of the continued truce Arwin had offered. Every single thing Arwin knew about the Demon Queen screamed at him not to accept it. She was a devious opponent with immense power that grew stronger still the closer he got to her sanctum – and if anywhere in her tavern was a sanctum, then it would be her room.

I’m not speaking with the Demon Queen, though. The person before me is nothing more than Lillia the innkeeper.

Arwin stepped inside. He sat down on the far side of the straw mattress, leaving his side completely exposed. If Lillia had wanted to, she probably could have run him through before he even realized she was moving.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Granted, he suspected he could have summoned his armor before she did any lasting damage, but Lillia made no moves. Neither of them spoke for a few more seconds. Finally, Arwin broke the silence.

“I didn’t realize you could reduce the darkness around you.”

“It’s not easy. Normally, I have to completely drain myself of my energy.” Lilla spoke softly, and Arwin could tell by how her voice was muted that she wasn’t looking at him either. “I’ve been working on trying to control it more, though. Nobody wants to eat at an inn where you can’t see the food.”

“There’s an appeal to it if you sell it the right way,” Arwin said with a small smile. “Especially if the food doesn’t look good.”

“Say that again and Lillia the Innkeeper is going to stab you with her tail.”

Arwin snorted. “I never said it didn’t look good. I just said it would help if it didn’t.”

“My point still stands.”

“Should an innkeeper even have a tail? I’d think you’d be trying to hide it.”

Something moved in the corner of Arwin’s vision and he glanced over as Lillia brought her barbed tail to flick in the air before her, a pensive expression on her face. “I was going to, until someone suggested that a monster themed inn might actually work.”

“You’re really going with it, then?”

“It wasn’t a half bad idea.”

Arwin grunted. “I’d say so. I just didn’t think you’d agree. Isn’t it… concerning? What if someone catches on?”

“Who would?” Lillia snorted. “Let’s be real. What would either of us ever be doing here? It’s so ludicrous that it’s impossible to comprehend. The worst that could happen would be some idiot would think I’m a lower ranked demon, but I don’t think I’m anywhere near popular enough to draw attention that could make that a problem.”

“That’s true enough,” Arwin allowed.

“Did you really come here just to have small talk?” Her voice was guarded – she was waiting for him to try something. Arwin didn’t blame her, since he half expected Lillia to do the same.

“Do you really get to talk to that many people?” Arwin raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps I thought you just needed some company.”

To his surprised, Lillia winced. “You aren’t wrong. It’s… a nice change of pace. I’ve started to get a little too used to the voice in my own head.”

“Hopefully only one.”

Lillia glared at him. “I’m not insane. There’s only one. Usually. An inn isn’t meant to be quiet, you know.”

Arwin started to nod, then paused. “Wait. I thought you wanted to cook. Did you want to have beds and such as well?”

“Both. One day, at least.” Lillia sighed, then looked up at the ceiling, letting a small smile flit across her features. “I can picture it. Maybe I’m delusional, but I can’t shake the thought of a full room. It would be so noisy. I’d have to yell over people so they’d be able to hear what I’m saying.”

Arwin was surprised to find that he did understand what she meant. He wasn’t so sure he wanted his smithy to be so popular he couldn’t hear himself think, but the idea of lines stretching out the door just to buy his work did strike a hungry spark deep within him.

Even though he was well aware that selling magical items to the general populace was a bad idea at the moment, it was nothing more than an idle daydream where logic had no place.

“I don’t think it’s delusional,” Arwin said. “It’s better than what we were doing.”

The smile fell away from Lillia’s lips. “Yeah. It is.”

“Why were you doing it in the first place?” Arwin asked, turning to look at her front on for the first time since they’d sat down. “I don’t understand. You aren’t the person I thought you were.”

“The fact that you’re referring to me as a person rather than a demon seems a bit off as well,” Lillia said with a snort, shifting and crossing her legs beneath her so she could match Arwin’s gaze. “I was about to ask you the same thing.”

“Ask me what? Why I was defending my people?”

“Defending?” Lillia scoffed. “More like hunting.”

Arwin’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Hunting? All I ever did was keep your army from advancing. The only time I struck first was when your forces were pushed so deeply into human territory that I had to attack before you could torch villages. I just don’t see how the person that’s so eager to have a joyous tavern was slaughtering entire families without leaving a single survivor.”

Lillia nearly choked on her indignation as she thrust a finger into Arwin’s chest. “The absolute gall to claim that when you’re the one that murdered countless innocents and torched their villages to the ground. Your hands are stained with more blood than you can ever wash off.”

“Murder?” Arwin’s eyes narrowed. “The only things I killed were the ones trying to rip my throat out.”

“Children were trying to kill you?” Lillia crossed her arms. “Bullshit.”

“Children?” Arwin blinked. “I never killed any children.”

“Just because you don’t see monsters as rational beings doesn’t mean–”

“Did they look like actual children?”

“What?” Lillia blinked. “What kind of question is that?”

“Was it obvious they were children? They resembled human children?”

“With monster traits, but yes. Many of them did.”

Arwin stared at Lillia, but he couldn’t find any deception in her face. She seemed to be telling the truth, but that made absolutely no sense. Arwin didn’t remember the face of everyone he’d killed, but he’d never killed a child.

“I never did that,” Arwin said. “I didn’t kill any children. I’d remember that. I know I would. You’re the one who–”

Lillia was shaking her head before Arwin could finish speaking. “I’d never kill a kid. I’ve killed more humans than I can ever remember, and some of them were younger than me, but no kids. Not unless you were sending kids against me in your armies.”

“Of course we didn’t,” Arwin snapped. His mind whirred, trying to make sense of Lillia’s words, but the answer was staring him right in the face, no matter how badly he wanted to ignore it. “You’re telling the truth.”

“You’re telling me that you thought I was going around slaughtering villages of people for no reason?” Lillia demanded. “What, did you think that I was just some monster that loved killing? I was defending my land!”

“I think we both were.” A sinking pit formed in Arwin’s stomach. “We got played.”