Ashton tightened her collar, smiling in the mirror at her reflection.<br/><br/>"I fooled others for so long. 7 years."<br/><br/>Her hands went to her hips and slid down gently. She was described by others as effeminate in face and shape, but her charms on the ladies of nobility made them forget about that.<br/><br/>"Even Roy did not recognise me when I came home." Ashton's hands went to her hair, brushing its short strands gently. She couldn't even remember when her hair was long enough, like a normal girl's.<br/><br/>She turned to her side at the mirror, checking her reflection. Her chest was roughly level compared to the rest of her body. No one would find out, logically.<br/><br/>"I guess I'll do this so long as I live. Even if Roy..." Her voice choked up, and she brushed her eyes gently with a hand.<br/><br/>"My lord."<br/><br/>Ashton turned around as she heard's Capet's voice. The two of them stood together, Roy's head inches higher than Capet's. Roy smiled, his hands cradling a loaded crossbow. "I heard, Ash. The demon hunters." Looking around furtively, his eyes narrowed towards his sister.<br/><br/>"Is it really wise to kill them? Can we not just separate Nathaniel and company from them?"<br/><br/>Capet glanced at Roy for a moment. "Nathaniel's the demon?<span style="font-style: italic">Interesting</span>."<br/><br/>The word 'interesting' was Capet's way of expressing an emotion what other people would describe as 'extreme shock'. From Capet, it sounded like a sudden, happy twist in a book.<br/><br/>Ashton shook her head. "I'm not risking this whole house of cards collapsing. Besides, there's Claude Early. He knows."<br/><br/>------<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">In an inn in the village of Trebis</span></span><br/><br/>The shadowy form growled as it poked out beneath the covers of the bed, its yellow eyes glancing around the room it was in. Rays of sunlight lined up on his blanket, making it harder to see its shadowy body. "No one," it mumbled softly.<br/><br/>Sliding out from the blankets, the demon stood up. Its body shimmered and widened, its body turning from black smoke into a light brown shade of human skin. In a few seconds, a teenage human male with black hair, yellow eyes, light brown skin stood in the demon's place. He wore a suit of thin steel armour from neck to toe that was easy to travel in and yet comparatively protective. The heraldry of a sword engulfed in flames emblazoned the breastplate of his armour; that was the symbol of the Order of the Burning Sword.<br/><br/>"Ugh," Silas groaned, stretching his arms in the air. "I hate human form." As far as he knew, it was better than dying to demon hunters, but the feeling he had in human form felt like a stuffy article of clothing that mocked him at every turn.<br/><br/>The only good thing he felt this morning was the lack of a hangover. As the Order of the Burning Sword drank the night away, Silas took a glass of water with every drink of beer. He learned the trick from Father Jonathan, who somehow had the nerve to booze up the night before a sermon and work the next day without any sign of his previous bender.<br/><br/>Or maybe his demonic nature helped him resist it. He didn't know. He did once survive drinking rat poison without much injury.<br/><br/>Opening the door, he stepped to the hallway. "Ouch!" Silas heard a yelp from beneath his foot, followed by a pained groan.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Crap.</span><br/><br/>He looked down, seeing a middle-aged man in only his boxers with a puddle around his head that hopefully was drool.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Knight Commander of the Order of the Burning Sword, Giles Ua Domnall. Completely hungover. We can't possibly be hunting demons with him like that!</span><br/><br/>"Sir Giles?" Silas knelt down beside the head of Giles, poking the Knight Commander's moustache.<br/><br/>"Ugh... kid... go to that knight's... place. Tell him..." Giles groaned and spat out a moist green ball from his throat. "Me and Brian are hunting demons right now... need lodging for night. And nap for  head.... and..."<br/><br/>Giles's last mumblings soon became incoherent slurs, and he closed his eyes again. "They're sending a Knight Apprentice to handle diplomacy with a landed knight?" Silas said to himself, bewildered. Still, that meant he could be by himself and 'refresh' himself a bit more often.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Could be worse. I could have been hunted down by Giles and Brian.</span><br/><br/>------<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">Ashton's mansion, main entrance</span></span><br/><br/>Silas smiled the best he could. "Silas, Knight Apprentice of the Order of the Burning Sword," he said to the guard.<br/><br/>"Where's the rest of them?" the guard asked.<br/><br/>"Busy. Hunting demons already," replied Silas nervously.<br/><br/>The guard smiled and patted Silas on the shoulder. "Kid, I'd be worried about them too. But I'm sure your order will do fine."<br/><br/>He entered the mansion, the front entrance draining all thoughts from his mind. He had seen churches. Cathedrals. But nothing he had seen before matched the grand entrance of Sir Ashton's mansion.<br/><br/>"Demon hunter?"<br/><br/>Silas's gaze, craned upwards in awe at the mansion, looked towards the source of the voice. A giant man, his gaze intense and resolute.<br/><br/>"Sir Ashton?" Silas asked nervously.<br/><br/>Claude shook his head, and extended a hand towards Silas. "Claude Early. Soldier of this land." Silas walked forth, shaking his hand carefully. The large man's hands almost encapsulated his own, and Silas wondered how quickly he'd be subdued should Claude crush his hands.<br/><br/>"Sir Ashton Cromwell is sheltering a demon and an angel."<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">An angel?! And a demon?! What...</span><br/><br/>Silas gasped.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">What can this mean?</span><br/><br/>"It is likely that the demon has corrupted Sir Ashton, the angel and everyone else involved here. I trust that your Order will purge them appropriately."<br/><br/>Claude took a hurried glance behind him, and ran off. Quietly, the large man mouthed something to himself: "From hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."<br/><br/>-------<br/><br/>"Wake up!" Capet yelled, in the hallway of the guests. "Do any of you wish to take up the offer of combat training?!"<br/><br/>-------<br/><br/>Sir Ashton cleared her throat, descending the stairs. Roy walked beside her, his eyes glancing in every direction.<br/><br/>"Why not just expel Nathaniel quickly?"<br/><br/>Ashton had thought about it. But her mind was made up. "But what if they decline? What if the demon hunters learn it from Claude?"<br/><br/>Roy turned silent, though Ashton could not tell if the unease on his face was from his injury or the situation. They continued their walk silently, reaching the entrance of their mansion.<br/><br/>"Sir Ashton?" A young man with black hair and yellow eyes greeted them.<br/><br/>"Greetings, Order representative." Ashton looked at Silas's armour, and then back at his face again. "Order of the Burning Sword. Where are the rest of the order?" she asked.<br/><br/>"Hunting demons," said Silas. How long was anyone going to believe that lie, he wondered. "They'll be here to rest today, soon."<br/><br/>Ashton smiled politely. "They've taken their duty seriously."<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Damn it! They've split up. It's risky to kill them separately.</span><br/><br/>She cursed internally, even as her smile failed to waver. "Will you be staying here until they return..." Her words trailed off, as though she expected Silas to introduce himself.<br/><br/>"My name is Silas," said the half-demon, catching on quickly. "My Knight Commander is Sir Giles Ua Domnall, and my other companion is Brian mac Toirrel. I will be returning here, with the rest of my order, when we are ready."<br/><br/>"Good."<span style="font-style: italic">Gives me more time to find Claude and shove him in the dungeons,</span>Ashton thought.<br/><br/>Silas bowed and walked out of the mansion, giving an appreciative grin to the guard as he left the mansion.<br/><br/>"There's an angel here?" he asked himself, shooting a furtive glance at the mansion.<br/><br/>There seemed to be only one way to find out. Ducking behind a hedge, his body shimmered again, turning into his shadowy demon form.<br/><br/>"Ahh..." he sighed in relief, as if he had taken off an unbearable piece of clothing. "Time to find that angel."<br/><br/>Silas wouldn't have chosen the demon form normally, but he found that it was easier to avoid guards by leaping from ledge to ledge above them rather than walk around suspiciously in human form. If Sir Ashton was hiding a demon, the last thing he would want the demon hunters to do would be to wander around and find it.<br/><br/>Besides, Silas loved how fast he moved as a demon.<br/><br/>Dashing across the mansion entrance and leaping into a window, Silas leapt onto a ledge above the heads of any normal person in the mansion. If anyone had seen him, the bright sun and his movement would have turned him into a blur that was easily to rationalise away.<br/><br/>"Where was this angel, anyway?" he asked himself.