That morning, Raed was surprised to see that assembled at the table were five sets of bowls filled with salad made from the edible plants outside.
Already seated at the table were Leif, Tara, Kaiti, and Tiryui, all of whom were still in their casual indoors clothing.
"I'm the last one down here, huh?" Raed said. "I must be getting too old to stay up late."
"Good morning, Raed," Tiryui said cheerily. "You have a wonderful location here with many edible plants in your backyard."
"I do? Huh, I never noticed," Raed admitted.
Kaiti waved a silver fork lazily at the alchemist. "You should be grateful that we have someone who makes healthy food for us. It's a great way to recover my magic!"
Leif added, "It's really tasty, too. I had no idea this was what demon food is like."
"Tastes good," Tara agreed.
"Thank you all for the compliments," Tiryui said.
Raed took a bite out of the mixture of ferns, wild onions, dandelion leaves, and bark mushrooms.
A varied explosion of flavors erupted against his palate. Earthy mushroom flavors, zesty onions, with the leafy freshness from the ferns and leaves, arrived to his taste buds.
"This is pretty good!" He said.
Tara said nothing but her intense use of the silver fork to shovel in mouthfuls of the tasty vegetable mix showed her opinions.
"I wonder, what did you use to give this flavor? I don't think I kept any dressing or other seasoning," Raed said.
"Oh, I dried some of the wild herbs outside and mixed them with salt and oil," Tiryui replied.
Raed looked at the viscous transparent oil that covered some of the leaves, with speckles of crushed herbs suspended inside.
A quick analysis of the liquid confirmed that it was a lipid, and plant-based. Now that he smelled it, after getting past the scent of the dried rosemary and onions, the oil seemed familiar.
"Did you get the oil from seeds or nuts?" Raed asked.
Tiryui nodded.
"There were peanuts growing around your yard," she said.
Huh, didn't notice that, Raed thought.
"Very nice," Raed said. "Thanks for making breakfast for us."
He stopped asking any further questions and focused on finishing the bowl.
When all had finished, Raed rose from the table to clean up.
"Oh, no worries, Raed," Tiryui said. "I'll clean up here. Don't you have something to talk about with Kaiti?"
Raed gave Kaiti a curious look.
Kaiti nodded back slowly.
"I also have something of my own too, if you're up for it," she said.
"Sure, who's first then?" Raed asked, as he sat back in the chair.
Tiryui collected the bowls around the table along with Leif, who appeared eager to pitch in as well.
The two of them went to the sink and began washing the dishes and conversing with each other.
Tara, meanwhile, sat quietly, staring with a neutral expression between Raed and Kaiti.
"Is your pet going to sit there watching us the whole time?" Kaiti asked with an annoyed expression.
"She's not my pet," Raed said with a tired sigh. "Tara, is there anything you need to do?"
"If Master wishes to have privacy, then I will stand guard outside," Tara said.
She walked to the spot in the room where her bow rested against the wall, picked it up, walked out the door, and stood there.
Raed could see her standing there stoically.
"It's not really anything that would require privacy, though?" Raed said.
Kaiti shook her head. "I'll start then, otherwise we'll get nowhere, knowing how you go about things."
She pointed behind her to Tiryui, who was happily chatting away while wiping the water off a wooden bowl.
"It's about travel arrangements for Yui. She can't exactly come to our camp since I still don't know who's targeting us yet. The last thing I'd want is for her to get caught up in our mess."
"I think I know where you're going with this," Raed said, "And I will tell you what I told Leif. It's not happening. We wouldn't be able to move on the main roads for fear of being spotted and we can forget about accommodations in any human settlements. I'm not about to live like a bandit just for a demon, no matter who it is."
"What if no one could tell?" Kaiti asked. She turned around in her chair. "Yui, could you come over here for a moment?"
Tiryui dried off her hands and approached the table.
"Mr. Alchemist here thinks you'll prevent him from getting his beauty sleep at the best inns in town. Can you show him that it won't be a problem?" Kaiti asked.
"Is that alright, here?" Tiryui asked. "Are you sure that doesn't go against our rules not to deceive humans?"
"Who cares about that boring stuff now! You got kidnapped by human bandits I think it's fair to say whatever rules we kept on our end are pointless by now!" Kaiti said.
Tiryui looked uncertain at Kaiti, then at Raed.
Raed shrugged. "Not an issue with me, I lie whenever it's convenient too. Plus I'm curious what Kaiti means."
"Ok, I'll use a simple masquerade, then," Tiryui said.
The faint purple aura that surrounded her abruptly collapsed and appeared to shrink into her chest. In the process, the violet streaks of hair also disappeared, and the lights inside her pupils disappeared.
In the few seconds that took, Tiryui had lost her demonic traits, leaving behind a fair-skinned female with black hair, golden-brown eyes.
Raed blinked. Leif blinked. Tara blinked while looking at them from outside the window.
"That's faster than I thought was possible," Raed said.
"It's not like the first time you saw a demon's masquerade," Kaiti said.
"No, but don't you even need to prepare a catalyst first?"
"What are you trying to say, Raed?" Kaiti's eyes glinted.
"Nothing, just that Tiryui's transformation is actually quite impressive." Raed took out the silver eagle claw amulet at his belt, holding the clasped red crystal in front of him.
It remained inert.
"Huh, no reaction?" Raed observed. He stood from his chair and leaned closer to Tiryui, holding the amulet like a sensor.
When the crystal was mere millimeters from Tiryui's nose, it began to shake.
Satisfied, Raed withdrew the amulet and sat back down.
"Convinced yet?" Kaiti asked.
"I'm convinced that she wouldn't cause anyone to notice that she's a demon, but I'm not convinced why she should come along with us."
"Doesn't she have a soft spot for your smith?" Kaiti asked.
"Kaiti, he saved my life twice!" Tiryui said.
The other demoness only shook her head and gave a soft chuckle.
"She won't say it herself so I'll be blunt about it. She wants to keep up with you bunch. Honestly, I'm a little intrigued too. A hero who took down a primeval demon, a Northerner smith, and an outlaw archer. You've acquired an interesting band, Raed."
"Is this true, Tiryui?" Raed asked.
Tiryui nodded shyly.
"I'll talk this over with Leif and Tara later," Raed said. "Anything else or should we move on to my request?"
"That was all," Kaiti replied.
"Right then," Raed said while he placed a sheet of paper and a pen at the table in front of Kaiti. "Would you please draw for me, as best you can, what you saw inside that demon's mind?"+
Kaiti drew three diamonds arranged inside a triangle.
She pointed at the diamond shapes. "The diamonds were made from rubies, so they would be red," she said. "The triangle base was cast in silver."
Raed inspected the design. He furrowed his brow, trying to remember where he saw it.
"Does it mean anything to you?" Kaiti asked.
"Somewhat," Raed replied. "I might have seen it somewhere before, but that would have been over ten years ago. My memory's hazy with the little things."
"Well it's not a demonic symbol. I'm sure it's something that started here," Kaiti stated.
She got up to leave. "I think my work here is done. I have no interest in messing with whatever plots you humans are running in the shadows this time."
Raed nodded. "Fair enough, and thanks for taking the trouble to help us with the bandits, and showing this to me."
"Sure, we'll call it even on all accounts then," Kaiti said. "And try to be good to Yui. Don't underestimate her masquerade power, she's even better than me," Kaiti said at the door before leaving Raed's safehouse.
After Kaiti's departure, Tara returned inside. She kept the bow on her back and took a standing position slightly behind Raed.
Leif and Tiryui seated themselves next to each other across from Raed.
"What are your thoughts about Tiryui joining us?" Raed asked, once the remaining three others reassembled at the table.
Leif answered quickly, "It's fine by me. We could benefit from having someone with the ability to blend in to a crowd."
Raed nodded his assent.
"That's true," he said. "And judging by what she just showed us, even my amulet couldn't detect her demonic nature without being extremely close to her."
"No objections with Master's decision," was Tara's contribution.
"Then it's two for between Leif and Tiryui, and Tara will go with what I choose. I don't see much reason to cause unneeded tension," Raed gave Leif a meaningful look, "So I'll agree to the idea as well."
Tiryui bowed her head. "Thank you, Raed."
"Now, for practical stuff, she'll need an alias to travel with us. Even if she can look human and suppress her aura to pass detection, the name will give her away," Raed said.
"How about Yui?" Leif suggested. "Doesn't Kaiti already call her that?"
"That could work, what do you say to that?" Raed asked Tiryui.
She nodded her approval. "Yui will be fine."
"Then what about her family name? If her given name was suspicious, then a demon's family name would be even more of a giveaway," Raed pointed out.
"She can be a Wollan," Leif said with a serious expression. "The Northlund has very loose confederations and outsiders would not know the internal intricacies of our clans."
"Oh!" Yui reacted with a slight blush. "But wouldn't people mistake me for your relative?"
"Wollan is a common enough name in Volkudia. It should not imply any familial relationship," Leif explained.
"I don't think it'll work though," Raed said.
"Why not?" Leif and Yui asked.
"It's an obvious Northlund family name and Yui, well..." Raed trailed off.
Leif looked at Yui's black hair, the purple streaks of demonic origin hidden by her masquerade. Her former golden eyes were now a darker amber color. Raed made a good point, there was no way anyone would believe she was a true Northlunder.
"She could have married into the clan," Leif suggested.
Yui's blush moved into her ears.
"And who would she have married?" Raed asked. Sensing that his persistence might be misunderstood, he added, "Look, I'm asking all of these questions so we have our stories straight when people start getting curious. The last thing we want is to say different things so the more we can think of now the better it'll be in the long run."
"I can make up someone from the clan," Leif said.
"Who? We need the full backstory here, Leif."
"I'll think of something!"
"Not good enough, Leif. We need to know, especially Yui. You can't leave her with a mystery husband."
"Fine then! I'm no storyteller I can't make up imaginary people from nothing!"
"So, no to taking a Northlund family name then," Raed said.
"Me, then!" Leif yelled with a serious look on his face.
"Come again?" Raed asked with surprise fitted into shock on top of disbelief with a side of astonishment.
"I'll pose as her spouse!" Leif declared with utter solemnity.
Yui's entire face turned red. "E-excuse me, I'm not rejecting Leif's idea, but I need to take a break."
She rushed out of the room.