The sweet smell of burning flesh filled the room. The Infernal incense was milled from the freshly flayed skin of a half-demon, the younger, the better. It fed a hunger in us that would never recede, so, we drank.
Memet straightened his glass. "Your first title is within reach, Younger. You're beginning to grow rapidly now, but you might need to slow down a bit before you split your skin. The wings of a Plague will arrive in their own time."
Recent pain-filled events across the Divide were feeding me power in amounts almost greater than I could absorb.
I nodded. "Firefanged now seems most fitting. It's a title I must comprehend before it fully consumes me."
"You aren't a true hunter as much as you are a warrior, so forget the hunt and focus on the fight ahead. It will bring you all that you need and more, given the time to grow into it."
"More than I need, I'm sure." I didn't buy into Memet's eager anticipation. "But I can feel the Circles of Hell expanding and contracting as we speak. With two fewer Warlords in play for the High-Prince, the Houses are kindling all sorts of designs and deceit."
"The void that remains is yet another kind of catalyst, for sure. But no one knows that better than the Deceiver."
"The High-Prince planned this all along?"
Memet replied, "It is his reality, after all, is it not?"
On this side of the Veil, for sure.
"So, Memet, one thing Hal-Raekorn the Elder never quite grasped is where you fit in this Circus of Hell. Are you a ringmaster or a lion tamer?"
"Aren't you the lion tamer?"
"That's not an answer."
Memet left my mood in shreds: "Perhaps you can ask Rei-Seeck about it when you see her. Rumors say that Lis-Xiana has also sent her into exile."
"I'm the one in exile. I'm locked away in this bar that never closes."
"You exist in two different places at once, but not separately. It is all to your advantage. Your self-survival is shared, and your growth is multiplied."
"Here, I'm a House of War. What am I in the Outer Domain?"
"The same, but with a different name and far fewer shackles. Treat it as a gift."
"A gift? This prison in the middle of nowhere?" I pounded my fist upon the bar counter, rattling its worn-out shelves. "Here, I have eons of knowledge and skill to draw upon, but I'm expected to wait for my other half to mature. I don't have the patience for it."
"The High-Prince's mandate for oversight and control of our reality is as epic as it is eternal. He forbids all of his most powerful Houses from leaving his Domain. For one such as you to escape his grasp is impossible."
"Maltheus sent a House of Death through the Veil."
"The Kjaira was merely a tool, and yet the Baron did so at great expense. His standing has fallen, while yours is on the rise. Can't you feel it?"
I could. "If I can draw so readily from him, then he can also learn to draw from me, can he not?"
Memet rapped his knuckles gently on the counter. "That is a secret that Hal-Raekorn the Elder earned with the title Firefanged."
YOU ARE READING
FIREFANGED
Fantasy*I'm using Wattpad as a platform to do a complete make-over of my first novel, Firefanged, first published in 2020. I didn't know demon-slayers were a thing back then. I was more of an inner demon person, but I liked getting them out on the page. T...
