-- Lilith POV, Sunnyvale Barracks Prison --

  Something hit her hard on her chest, just where the heart of a human would be, if she'd been a human. She groaned and opened an eye, "Man really? Is that a way to wake up a lady?"

  With surprise she opened both eyes. An athletic young man stood before her, clad in a white and blue robe, holding the broken shaft of some weapon in his hands. "Oh!", she exclaimed.

  "How ...", the began to speak.

  "Good morning?", she tried.

  "How are you not dead?", he kept staring at her chest, where the spear had hit her.

  She sat up and pointed to herself with a clawed finger, "I'm not really alive, you know? Demon and so." While she spoke her looks fell on the broken and bent remains of the spear on the floor. "Didn't we go through this already that your weapons can't hurt me? Like when that one guy with the sword tried to hit me a few days ago?" She looked at him again, "Wait, you're not a guard or a soldier."

  "Templar", he responded.

  "So each day some other group will come here and see if they have more luck at killing me? Man, and you people call me a demon, just for how I look."

  "This was the holy spear of Ashkard", he tried.

  She handed him the bent and broken part, "And now it's trash."

  She yawned and stretched for a moment before she looked at him again, "I've been good and stayed in this cell all the time. Didn't even hurt anyone. Can you do me a favor and tell the higher ups of whoever sent you not to try to kill me while I try to play nice? Won't work anyways but it's getting annoying and you keep ruining my clothes."

  He gingerly took the broken part of the spear that she offered to him, "But how?"

  She pointed at the bent spear tip, "One of two reasons. Or both. Your church is not holy enough, or I am not evil enough. You can choose which one you like better."

  Suddenly the prison guards came rushing in, five of them, "Stand down demon!"

  She raised her hands, and explained calmly, "He's from the church."

  "We know. He tricked us to look for some presumed robbery outside, so he could sneak in here. Did you hurt him?" They all stood with their swords drawn.

  "I hurt his pride, I think", she replied, but quietly. It earned her a few chuckles.

  "Templar!" the lead guard shouted, "You are under arrest for trespassing the prison. Raise your hands, turn around. Demon! Make no move. We'll take care of him."

  She kept her hands raised, "Of course."

  They lead him away and the last one closed her cell door again, "You know demon, usually people try to break out of prison. For you, people try to break in."

  She shrugged, "I'd rather they don't. Can't help it though. Maybe keep that door key on you, so that assassins can't get it so easily?"

  He thought about it for a moment, "Would probably help, but it's against the rules. In case of a fire any guard must be able to fetch the keys and open the cells."

  Thinking about it, she noticed that she felt unafraid of fire, "Assassins are more annoying than fire. I think I like fire. Keep the key, pass it from guard to guard, please?"

  "I'll think about it." He had let her know and then left as well.

  It seemed to have worked. Once the guards started to pass the key from guard to guard instead of having it on the key board, no one had made another attempt at her life.

  But now she faced a different and even more annoying problem. The kings emissary had arrived, but not like expected to set her free because she was innocent and had not done any crimes, but with something she barely could believe.

  She glared at the man, who was sitting across the iron bars of her cell on some hastily brought in chair with two heavily armed soldiers left and right besides him.

  "So, let me see if I got this right", she spoke slowly, "The king is too scared of me to come here to talk to me, too scared for letting me come to his castle to speak to him, but still offers me his soul so he can order me around till he drops dead?"

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  The man nodded with a pained expression, "A bit bluntly put, but that is it."

  She pointed a black clawed alabaster white finger at him, manners or not, "I don't think he understands how this works."

  The man shook his head slightly, "It pains me greatly to say, but I am afraid he does."

  She crossed her arms and swung one leg over the other, "It's a stupid game you know. The cultists summoned me to kill the king and give them power. Now the king offers me his soul so I weaken the church and restore his power. I'm just waiting for the church to show up and offer me ... salvation, if I kill the king for them? But the point I really don't like is, how disposable I am in all their plans."

  He grimaced again, "The church cannot do that. You are a demon. But the kings offer stands."

  She rose her chin, "Call me a bad demon then, but I don't care about your whiny politics. Because that is your problem and you want to make it mine. I already have my own problems to deal with. Like finding a home and a way to earn money."

  "You cannot ignore the kings offer", the man bowed forward to emphasize his point, staring right into her eyes. "No demon can resist being offered a soul."

  "So say your holy scriptures?" She challenged him, "Well then, learn something new. We, at least I, can chose, and if I deem the offer insincere and abusive I can decline. So thank you, but no, thank you. I'd gain your kings immortal soul as a toy to entertain me, but it will just be a toy that I never liked in the first place, nor even wanted to have. I could torture his soul again and again for what he plans to put me through, but even that gets boring after a while. So, nope. Not going to do that. I'm sure I can find better souls, which are more fun to have."

  "Then we have to kill you", he tried to threaten, leaning forward some more.

  "You can't. I'm somewhat sure you already know that. The one guy broke a spear on me, the other ruined his sword. Couldn't even scratch me." She spoke with confidence.

  The emissary glanced up to one of the soldiers who gave a confirming nod, "Well then. I'll let the king know about your decision. How do you feel about being handed to the church? Even if our iron fails, they have means to deal with unholy creatures like you."

  She raised an eyebrow at him, "Your way of speaking of the church makes me think they are more evil than I am. How do you imagine they can do something if they are just another corrupted bunch?"

  He shrugged. "I don't know. But they will know what to do. So ... will you accept the kings offer, under the threat of being delivered to the church otherwise?"

  She crossed her arms again and let him know, "No."

  He sighed, "I'll report your decision to the king. You'll regret this."

  "Does the church have more demons with whom I can play once I'm there?"

  "No, they don't. They burn demons."

  "Aww, what a pity that I don't burn." Acid dripping from her voice.

  He shook his head and got up from his chair, turning to his guards, "It's hopeless. Let's leave."

  A few days passed and she had to realize that it had obviously been a bad idea to claim she would not burn. They had felt compelled to try. With a really big fire. Someone had set the entire barracks prison building on fire.

  She had not remembered how much she liked fire. Even if it was not her who had started this fire. It was a nice fire. Really, the wooden barracks building had burned just amazingly!

  She was still standing where her cell had been, the iron bars remaining in front of her in a mockery of containment in face of all the rubble, ash and embers around. For some reason she didn't feel compelled to leave. This had become her place. Where should she even go?

  Then she noticed someone carefully stepping closer to her through the ruin, coughing from the smoke.

  "Arson", the figure coughed.

  "It wasn't me", she replied. It was true.

  "Assassin", another cough. She seemed to remember him as the captain of the prison guards.

  "Do you want me to stay here, still?", she gestured to the ruined walls around her that once had been her cell.

  "Lilith, seriously. How can you ridicule this? Half a dozen guards are injured from the fire and smoke and by all means, everyone expected you to ne dead because we couldn't get you out of the cell before the fire took over. Or at least expected you to run away once the walls gave in, in case you should be still alive."

  He was breathing a bit more easily now that there wasn't so much smoke in the air.

  "I liked the fire. It was really nice, even if it was not my fire." She still felt quite cheerful.

  The man sighed, "I know you pretend to be a good demon, just so you can make better fun of us. I'm actually glad you never acted revenge, and I can speak for all guards in this case. But we must bring you to another place before ...", he stopped mid sentence.

  "Before people see me through the smoke?" She suggested a completion for his sentence.

  "That, but officially to catch and secure you before you can flee", he admitted and unfolded a blanket, "Here. Wrap yourself into that. Try to cover the horns. You'll look just like any other victim of the fire. This town has a civilian prison too. I'll bring you there."

  She took the blanket and wrapped herself into it, then began to pose, "Do I look pretty?"

  "Please", he groaned. "Yes you look pretty. Still not offering my soul."

  "But I would like your soul. Not like that smelly old king soul that I was offered last week. Pure and fresh. We can play for eternity." The blanket hid her eyes and much of her facial expression.

  "You can be a real demon, you know? Alright, let's get moving before people wonder why someone stands here in the ashes completely unbothered. I'll bring you to the civil prison. We sent a messenger already to have a wing cleared, so no one will see you."

  She curtsied with the blanket around her, "A whole prison wing just for me? You are so charming!"

  "Alright come!" She felt a strong arm around her, pushing her towards where the barracks prison entrance had been. Habits died hard it seemed, even with all the walls reduced to ash and embers.