The woman no longer struggled. The burning blade pressed against her throat, but she showed no signs of pain, even as her skin began to mark from the heat. Her eyes, however, locked onto Cliff's with a determination so absolute that it nearly unsettled him. A defiance that seemed to challenge eternity itself.
Cliff preferred when his enemies acted like beasts devoid of conscience, monsters he could slay without remorse. It made things simpler. But as he observed this woman, he couldn't ignore the strength of her will. She might not have been human, but... could he truly bring himself to kill her?
"In this world, what defines a human?" he wondered.
A being aware of itself, capable of thinking, living in community, tied to culture and society. But then, didn't demons and the Blights fit those criteria as well?
