As Ashiakin crept up the stairs as noiselessly as possible, he heard the beginnings of a scuffle somewhere far above his head. Evidently Damon has encountered one of the Baneblades, he realized. ... Or both of them. The battle sounds were too vague and far away for Ashiakin to be able to decipher the number of participants, but it set him to worrying all the same. Whether or not he was worried for Damon’s safety or worried about the fact that fighting two opponents at once would make his Serenti defeat all the harder to avenge was difficult to tell. It was likely a little of both.

Throughout his recent days in Lornius, Ashiakin had spent much time wondering about this boy that called himself Damon Kaosi. The demon had set several of the agents in his personal spy network to looking into the child’s elusive past. Despite their search—which largely entailed interrogating patrons of local bars and plumbing the depths of the Lyridian library that held little more than casino records and racy travelogues—no history of Damon emerged. No one had heard of him prior to a few weeks ago. Unless, of course, you asked about the dead elven general Damon Kaosi. Everyone had heard of him. But he was thought to have died several months before the child calling himself Damon arose. Many of his agents felt this lent to the idea that he was the old Damon reborn. Ashiakin deplored rumor and superstition, but even he was beginning to admit that the coincidence was troubling. At the least, there was more to Damon than he knew. Than anyone knew, it seemed. Not even the boy himself.

Despite his uncertainty, the noises of combat above had sent Ashiakin creeping up the stairs more quickly. No matter who his partner really was, the boy’s naiveté and hero worship were too steadfast to crumple in the final moments of the round. He would need the child alive to be able to dispatch the Baneblades. He needed Damon so that he could slay Asuka and avenge his Serenti defeat, so that a victory here would cause the specter of Salvar’s burgeoning empire to loom all the closer over Lornius. Although they might not know it, his foes stood against his own personal redemption and the progress of humankind’s greatest kingdom. If they were unaware, he would enlighten them.

I’ve come to far to be defeated now, Ashiakin knew. No matter who Damon is, I’ll save him. If it turns out that he really is some dead elf reborn, if he suffers some sort of a backlash to his former nobility and wants half of my dukedom, he can always die again. But the thought of having to kill the boy made Ashiakin cringe. He felt guilty immediately. Though he’d never say so, he was fond of the boy. It was refreshing to see that kind of genuine innocence when you lived in the world Ashiakin did. Isn’t it? he wondered. Or did I just find that innocence horrifying a moment ago?

The demon had been so lost in his own thoughts that he did not notice he had stepped onto the same level he had earlier entered through a window. Ashiakin’s eyes moved over the broken glass on the floor to the shattered window. Something felt wrong about this place. Quiet as everything seemed, he had an eerie feeling that he was not alone. He stepped quickly and carefully over the broken glass, but paused when he was in the middle of the room. Despite the obvious danger, all he could think about was how ridiculous he must look. His white hair ruffled, his fine silky clothes torn and unkempt, his skin flecked with droplets of dark blue blood where it had been torn by shards of glass. How he stood there clutching a sword and a dagger, looking cautious.

Suddenly—only a few split seconds after he had stepped off the stairs and into the room, but an eternity in combat time—he had a realization. Under the stairs behind his back, there was a large web of shadows. That has to be where she’s hiding… he thought. It has to be Asuka, she was on the first floor only moments ago and she couldn’t have gotten far by now. Oh… To be this close to vengeance. Fast as he could, well realizing that Asuka might already be moving to strike him, the demon whirled around and let his dagger fly into the shadows. Aiming had been difficult due to the speed he had required and the vague target area, but he hoped it might hit her.

“Stand and face me, Asuka!” he hissed, quickly slipping into a fighting stance with his sword. “I’m sick of us all crawling around this pagoda like worms. Let’s end this now. Let’s see the Serenti crushed under the weight of an empire.” She likely didn’t have any idea what he was talking about. But Ashiakin was beyond caring. He stood in the middle of the room, halfway between the shadows under the stair and the light pouring in through the broken window, poised to move either way.