Chapter 72: Elderberry Jam

“Ya can see the thing I found in the mornin’!” Taava protested with a smile. “Ya dragged me out inta the cold and I wanna go sleep!”

We’d almost made it back to the inn and Taava was steadfastly denying me a look at the assassin’s blade we’d found stuck into the roof of a building by the harbor.

“We found it!” I insisted. “And no one dragged you out into the cold—you decided to chase after me. Also, it is morning.”

Taava stuck her tongue out. “Pfft! Details! And mornin’s whenever I get up.”

I groaned. “Come on, please?”

“Nah!”

I groaned again. “You’re remarkably comfortable around me knowing what you know, Taava.”

“Sure am! And that’s because I know what I know.” The kazzel reached the door to the inn first and tugged it open before I could protest any further.

I didn’t want to make a scene in front of the militiaman, who was now enjoying a breakfast of salted fish and dense-looking bread topped with a familiar-smelling dark jam. I felt a brief pang of homesickness at the sight of and smell of the jam. The fish was more foreign to me, but I vividly remembered the sweet, tart taste of elderberry jam.

I wanted to stay downstairs and eat, but I didn’t want to talk to the militiaman. And I probably should sleep.

I compromised and let Taava go ahead, while I asked for bread with elderberry jam from the innkeeper. The bread was different to what I remembered from back home in Linthel, but the jam was so close that I had to fight back tears.

Soon. I’ll be home soon.

And then? Well, I’ll figure it out as I go.

I licked the jam off my fingers, ducked to make sure the horns I didn’t have wouldn’t hit the doorway, took my still-slightly-muddy boots off, and crawled back into my spot under the cot. Taava had already reintegrated herself with her blanket nest. All our cloaks were tossed in a pile by the foot of it. There was still some warmth left in my sleeping spot from earlier, so I snuggled in and drifted off.

***

In the end, Taava had managed to stall giving me a look at what we’d found until we’d left town and were on the road again, walking a well-graded and wide route that wound along the coast.

I took the cloth-wrapped blade fragment from her and unwrapped it, letting out a gasp. I recognize that symbol.

The blade had snapped by the handle. Engraved, and cut through by a sharp, jagged edge, was the same symbol I had on my own chest. There was the edge of some sort of gem in the center. The facets didn’t look like my own, but there was so little left that I couldn’t really get an idea of what it looked like. My hand felt the symbol that lay hidden beneath my shirt and my transformation.

“D’ya recognize it?” Taava shoved her face into my field of view.

“Yeah, I do.”

“What is it, then?” Taava asked eagerly.

I looked to either side. Seyari and Salvador were both looking at me, so I channeled my inner scholar. “It’s a symbol associated with demons and dates back to at least the Lost Era. The six points represent the six Sovereigns, and the gem in the middle indicates it’s the symbol of one of those Sovereigns.”

“What the huh?” Taava looked gob smacked.

“Can I see that?” Seyari held out a hand expectantly so I handed the blade and cloth to her. She looked it over and made a frustrated noise. “Looks like a paring knife. Damn, I can’t see much of the gem. I’ll make—"

“What’s all this mean?” Taava interrupted. “I know what the Lost Era is, but what’s a Sovereign and a ‘gem’? Because if that thing had a gem in it, I sure didn’t see a socket.”

“A Sovereign demon is one who embodies or represents an aspect—think like wrath or lust, and is basically the demon “in charge” of that aspect, vice, emotion, sin or whatever,” I answered over Seyari’s grumbles. “Sovereigns have that symbol, which is something that some greater demons have, but with a gem in the center that is unique to the Sovereign.”

“So they’re like the big scary demons in charge? And probably crazy powerful?” Taava scratched her chin. “And one of ‘em’s working with the Black Claw!?”

I nodded.

“Probably,” Seyari answered. “The big question is: which one?”

“Do you know what other Sovereigns there are?” Salvador asked.

“There’s Wrath, Lust, Conceit, and Apathy.” I listed them off on my fingers. “Greed and Envy are probably the other two.”

“Sounds to me like it’s Wrath or Greed!” Taava pointed and smiled.

“That makes the most sense to me as well,” Salvador agreed. “Seyari and Renna, would either of you know anything else about these Sovereign demons? I fear we may have gained the attention of whichever it is the fleeing assassin follows.”

“Yeah! Are you a wrath demon, Renna? Do you know anything about the Sovereign of Wrath?”

I looked over at Seyari, she bit her bottom lip, then covered it up by sighing and steepling a hand over her forehead. I let my gaze continue on away from Taava, over Salvador and through the thin, wind-bent trees to the blue strip of ocean just visible. Whitecaps broke over and rolled in below the bluff we were walking along.

“Hey, Zarenna, you okay?” Taava’s hand waved in front of my vision. I looked down to find her smiling up at me. “They’re gonna come after me again y’know, and Salvador and Seyari too. We’re gonna have to stick together, so you gotta spill what you know!”

“Trouble,” I grumbled.

“What’s trouble?”

“You.”

“Yep!” Taava nodded enthusiastically, then bounced away from me to put an arm around Seyari and Salvador both. “But I’m all of your trouble, now! Unless you want to abandon me to die!”

Manipulative little—

“She’s right.” Seyari tossed Taava’s arm off her. “She’s a shit, but she’s right.”

“I’m your shit!” Taava corrected, receiving a harsh glare from Seyari. She stuck her tongue out.

My girlfriend smiled conspiratorially at me and put a hand over Taava’s face. “What I’m trying to say is that you can tell them, Renna.” Then her face morphed into an odd expression and she pulled her hand away from Taava’s face. “Don’t lick my hand!”

“There’s an easy fix for that, Sey! Don’t put your hand on my tongue!”

Salvador quietly and calmly slipped out from under Taava’s arm and met my eyes. “If you don’t want to talk about it, so long as you are not endangering everyone by staying silent, you don’t have to.”

I looked back at everyone and smiled. “Sorry if I seemed serious, but really I was just thinking of the best way to say it, and also a place off the road and out of view to show you. This doesn’t bother me, and it’s probably a good thing for you to know.”

“Great! Let’s go find a spot then!” Taava bounded over and grabbed my hand.

We found a secluded spot after only a short minute of searching. The trees here were sparse, but a dense grove out of the wind and down from the road offered the cover we needed.

I shifted away from my human form, stretching my arms and tail with a yawn. “I can’t say much about Greed except that I have some information that they’re new. As for Wrath, I can tell you right now that it isn’t the Sovereign of Wrath.” I wanted so badly to pause for dramatic effect, but I forced myself to keep going. “I’m not sponsoring a group of assassins.”

I unbuttoned the top of my shirt and pulled it open just enough to see my symbol and the red gem in the center. The surface of the stone reflected green in the dim light and I smiled.

For a moment, I was worried Taava would make the obvious joke, but instead she was staring at me with the sort of calculating, calm gaze she only had when she needed to be serious.

Salvador stared for a moment before pointedly looking away, then up to the dense branches above us. He muttered something in Cavenish under his breath.

Seyari watched both of them from her spot against a tree at the edge of the small clearing.

“If you have any questions, I can try my best to answer them.” I brushed some dry needles off a nearby boulder and leaned against it, idly dragging furrows into the ground with my tail tip.

Salvador nodded, but didn’t speak yet.

“You’re awfully calm for the ‘Sovereign of Wrath,’ Zarenna.” Taava looked at me with curious eyes and a twitching tail.

“Am I?” I raised an eyebrow. “How many other Sovereigns have you met?”

“How many have you met?” Taava shot back.

“One, not counting myself.”

“Who?” Salvador asked. “If I may, that is.”

“Lust,” I replied with a four-shouldered shrug. “And I don’t think this is her doing.”

Salvador hummed a response.

“Let me guess,” Taava asked with a slight edge to her voice. “She was a chaste, easily flustered young thing, right?”

“Taava,” I answered coldly, “a Sovereign has mastery over their aspect. Would I really best represent mastery over Wrath if I wasn’t in control of my own fury?”

“Do you? Or is this an act? Are you really a Sovereign? If you are, are you really Wrath?” Taava spat the questions out. I felt no anger from her, however.

I narrowed my eyes.

Taava didn’t have time to react before I had crossed the clearing and hoisted her up, my hand around her neck. She gagged from the force, but I kept my grip light.

“Does this answer your question, Taava?” I laced my words with cold fury and my voice shook with an otherworldly quality. “I have killed people, and I plan to kill at least two more, even if I have to search every single centimeter of Varra to do so. I will help Seyari end High Inquisitor Mordwell, and I will rend Inquisitor Finley’s flesh from his bones and burn those bones to ash.”

“But,” I continued, letting her down gently, “I am not a monster who commits indiscriminate violence. I use my anger, and the anger of others. And I know when someone is trying to get a rise out of me.” I let Taava go and she scrambled backwards, breath quick and eyes scanning all around her. “My apologies if I bruised your throat. Seyari will heal you if you ask nicely.”

I glanced over at Salvador who looked shaken. “Sorry if I scared you. I’m a demon, Salvador, but I won’t harm without reason. If you don’t feel you can trust me, I understand.” I walked back across the clearing and leaned against the same rock. “My offer to answer any questions from any of you is still open.”

Taava coughed and rubbed her throat. “Who are these people you want to kill? Are they from that human Church?”

I nodded. “Both of them are from a group that seeks to create and bind demons to their will. To do this, they sacrifice innocents and criminals alike.”

“Do you think they’re working for another Sovereign?” Taava continued, her voice scratchy.

“I’m not sure, but I hope they’re not.” I looked to Seyari.

She shook her head. “I never found any evidence for that much, but I suppose it’s possible.”

“But the assassins are working for a different Sovereign, and we are all now in danger.” Salvador tried to keep his voice even, but I could hear it waver. “Zarenna, for what it’s worth I believe you. I do not agree with your quest for revenge, but I understand the necessity of putting an end to a group that summons demons to bind and gain power. I worked with Paladin Miller, and I will continue to work with you.”

“Thank you, Salvador,” I smiled warmly, hiding my teeth. His Ordian is really coming along.

“Right,” Taava coughed again. “Don’t provoke the Sovereign of Wrath, got it.”

“Are you really going to stop provoking her?” Seyari asked, moving over to Taava. She pushed the kazzel’s hands aside to get a look at her bruised neck before her holy magic started to heal the former assassin. “This would have been a bad bruise.”

“Probably not,” Taava replied, her voice clearer. “But I won’t question her aspect again, that’s for sure.” She shuddered. “Could you not do that again?”

“I can’t make any promises.” My smile widened to show teeth. “But I can promise you won’t be on the receiving end.”

“Good enough, boss.”

“Boss?” I cocked my head.

“Yeah, you’re like some kinda demon princess or something, yeah? I see the way Salvador listens to you and even Seyari follows what you say.” Taava’s tail twitched excitedly behind her, like a cat who’d found a mouse to “play” with.

I frowned. “I don’t mean to boss anyone around.”

“Kinda too late for that, boss.” Taava said impishly.

“Do you have a death wish?” I hissed.

“Me? Nah! You’re just a big spiky teddy bear!” Taava giggled.

“Next time, Taava, I’m letting your windpipe stay crushed,” Seyari groaned.

“Taava!” I groaned. “Stop taking advantage of my kindness! No one will think I’m scary!”

Taava’s giggle turned into a full-blown laugh. “Pfft. Trust me, one of me isn’t enough to stop you looking scary.”

I pouted. “Fine! But if I’m the boss, then I say we pick up the pace to Lockmoth. I want to sleep in a real bed that I won’t crush.”

That got Salvador to smile. “I agree with that, boss.”

Wait, did he?

“I can get behind that too, boss.” Seyari smirked. “I’d like another bath with you, and I’ve missed my nighttime heater.”

I flushed scarlet. “Hey, what? You can’t all just—”

“We can,” Taava’s eyes gleamed with playful menace. “And we did! Now come on everyone! Boss said double time, so let’s get movin’!”

I shifted to human form and followed behind the others, sulking. I had been promoted without getting a say in the matter.