Emilia woke to the cold.

  The cold and the screams.

  Fires were raging somewhere, as orange light was managing to break through the shutters of their window, Nai already bearing her hairpins as the throwing weapons they actually were in one hand, a large hunting dagger held lightly in the other. Emilia blinked as she fell from the bed onto her hands and knees at the bedside, snapping her gaze up to meet that of her maidservant.

  Nai glanced back at her. Neither knew what was going on, but the two guards outside their cottage were shouting furiously. Emilia caught only snatches - orders, cries of panic, and...

  a roar echoed through the village of Liyung, A roar that blended seamlessly with the haunting cry of a bull elk.

  Emilia didn't even bother putting her shoes on as she ripped her piandao from the bedpost, leaving the sheath where it hung at the side of the bed, dashing out the door of their small space into the single true street of the town right on the heels of Nai. The two women emerged to an inferno. A few villagers had tried to grab buckets, which now lay scattered across the street.

  "What's happening?" Emilia gripped the larger of their two current guards, a man she didn't recognize who had the bulging arms and back of a woodcutter, forcing his helmeted head down to meet her eyes.

  "No one knows!" He shouted back over the inferno and the screams. "Something is crashing through the village, we didn't get a good glimpse of it!"

  Emilia and Nai locked eyes again and nodded once to each other.

  The girl gripped her sword and sang out a small series of notes she had learned in La'Catrina's shrine. The blade began to hum, adding its own note to the air, glowing with the amber light that she learned was the hallmark of her goddess. Nai's daggers and needles began to shine faintly as well, but Emilia didn't have time to bless them as strongly as she had blessed her own sword, before the two women began to run. Flames danced as smoke billowed into the sky, casting the people of the town into nothing more than flickering shadows that danced away from the flames even as they charged towards them.

  they hadn't gotten far before a body sailed through the air, slamming into the ground with a crunch that spoke of broken bones and severed organs, a body too bloodied to recognize coming to a stop at the base of one of the homes. Emilia spun to face the direction the body had come from, just in time to see a massive black talons hand shear through the bamboo wall of a home next to the place they stood, talons dripping with blood and ichor, before a deep echoing laugh resonated from the space beyond.

  A jawbone began to force its way through the newly created gap in the wall, teeth sharp, pointed, and wrong in the skull they belonged to.

  Another hand joined the first, pulling the wall apart, sending that half of the roof collapsing down.

  Antlers, framed in flames, against the dark of the cloudless sky, as the demon stood, unfolding to its full height.

  "Impossible." Nai whispered, frozen in shock as the demon that had chased them down the road fell onto all four limbs, laughing, rotten jaws split open wide as it pushed its way through the rubble. Entrails and viscera decorated its antlers, and the voids of its skull focused fully on them now.

  Emilia brought her sword up as panic raced through her mind. This... this should be impossible, just as Nai had said! No spirit could cross the spirit lanterns, not even the maddened spirits who fell to become demons! This... this couldn't be happening.

  She didn't have time to think as those horrible jaws opened, and the beast lunged to snap them closed around her head. Emilia flung herself to the side, rolling in the dust as Nai's blessed needles sank deep into the monster's side. It roared in pain, a triplicate of voices bellowing from its cursed throat, blending together to bring ice to their souls. It lashed out with a talong, and Nai barely managed to spring away, vaulting over the demon's hand into a handspring that set her back on her feet.

  Emilia shoved herself up to her feet, wishing her crimson skirt wasn't nearly as long, as she slipped on it now, coming to her feet just in time to see Nai barely duck under a talon that sheared through the air where she stood. Nai was trying to cut at the demon with her dagger, but the beast simply laughed, keeping her out of reach. Its arms were easily as long as either of them was tall, and Emilia could see Nai wasn't going to get a chance to attack the demon again unless she threw her weapon. Emilia gritted her teeth as she drove her feet into the ground, the curls of her hair wild in the winds the fires were whipping up through the town. She brought the sword down towards the Demon's back, the blade flashing with amber light as it carved through the demon's body easier than she had expected. The beast roared as black miasma began to billow from the gash running down its spine, the line charred and smoldering. Emilia saw it's elbow a moment before it slammed into her, launching her into the air for a moment before she slammed down onto her back with a gasp as the air was forces from her lungs. Her vision swam. Feet raced past her, simple leather boots, and more shouts joined in. The world spun, and Emilia's chest burned. She felt the ground shudder and saw those cervid jaws clamp shut around a man's midsection, hauling him up into the air. Screams, shouts, an axe flew through the air. The jaw's closed. two halves of a man hit the ground. She caught a glimpse of Nai grabbing a broken spear from the ground and throwing it, but her head swam too much to know if the attack landed or not.

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  She gasped, sucking in a breath at last, rolling onto her knees, focusing on the dim glow of her sword.

  The demon. She had to get to the Demon.

  Her vision steadied. About a dozen townsfolk, men and women both, were attacking the Demon now. Crude spears, axes, and more re thrust in the creature's direction. She spotted six of the Jiak's guards circling the monstrosity, halberds and actual forged spears forcing the Demon to be more tactical. The Demon leapt up onto a roof, landing behind the townsfolk, driving a claw through the chest of one of the guards with laugh that radiated malice.

  Emilia Stood, lifting the sword.

  "I need your help Catrina..." she gasped.

  She felt the light in her sword flare, felt a surge of strength, and she sang out again, somewhere between a chant, a prayer, and a wordless melody. She watched as spines straightened, as faces resolved, as her goddess blessed the townsfolk to the extent she could without them venerating her. It was still something, as they pressed forward. Countless cuts scored the Demon's body, but smoke only billowed from two wounds. Nai's needles, and her own wound. She rushed forward, as the Demon's eyeless gaze locked onto Her's again. It charged her, and she dropped onto her back at the last second, barely dropping under those talons as they sheared through the air. Her sword flicked upwards, carving into the creature's thigh. Its haunting cry filled the town again, smoke billowing from the new wound, and the creature stumbled, collapsing. Arrows slammed into its back, and it roared in rage, bloodstained bone and antlers vibrating in rage, before it turned, and tore off through the town away from the enraged townsfolk, crossing between the spirit wards as if they didn't exist, and disappearing into the night.

  Emilia and Nai hadn't rested after that. Both of them had helped grab buckets from the river, Emila constantly blessing and re-blessing the weapons of the town's few guards in case the Demon returned, while her Maidservant joined the line passing buckets up from the river towards the fire, as they desperately tried to keep the flames from spreading to any more buildings. It was a long night, harrowing by any definition, and all through it, the screams persisted. At some point, Emilia joined one of the teams trying to dig wounded out of the three buildings that had been destroyed by the Demon's rampage, and to her mounting horror, they found no survivors in any of them. The creature had killed every resident of each home it had brought down, one after the other.

  As the dawn came, and the four homes that had caught finally fell to smoldering embers, Emilia sat at the edge of the town, between the two spirit stones that framed it's singular true street, the cobblestones cold through her dress. For the second time in her life, she was bathed in soot, bathed in blood, and surrounded by the cries of the dead, dying, and mourning. To Emilia's surprise, it was the Jiak, in all his rotund glory, who approached her first.

  His lips were pursed, as he stared off into the Forest of Spirits. Neither said anything for a long time.

  "Thank you." He finally said.

  "For what?" Exhaustion made thinking hard.

  "Fighting. I have never seen a Spirit-Guide confront a demon personally. I suppose," He said with a mirthless chuckle, "that I still havent. I hid. Like a coward." He scowled. "But my men told me. The townsfolk too. I get the feeling it was only truly worried about you, in the end."

  Emilia said nothing, glancing back at the smoke billowing from the town.

  "It shouldn't have been able to get in."

  The Jiak stepped through the gap between the standing stones, looking at the spirit lanterns and the ornate carvings on the stones themselves.

  "Are the lanterns flawed? Sabotaged?"

  Emilia sighed and shook her head.

  "No. I checked them all an hour ago. Each one is... perfect. Exactly as it should be. There are plenty of spirits trying to get in, even as we speak... but... A Demon... a Demon is just a fallen spirit, how by the countless gods did this one pass through them? It wasn't even slowed, Lord Jiak. No hesitation, no visible pain."

  He ground his teeth.

  "Would your blessing the lanterns perhaps deter the Demon? Your attacks were said to do more, the blessings on your weapons the only wounds that lasted."

  Emilia shook her head.

  "I only know a blessing similar to the one they already have - It - It wouldn't be any different really, unless the Demon wounded itself on a lantern somehow."

  The Jiak nodded. Both remained there, in silence for some time.

  To her surprise, the Jiak extended a bejeweled hand.

  "As you said before, It was my inaction and blindless which has led to this outcome, is it not? I suppose I should stop pretending to be a princeling and accept that this is my lot in life, this," He sighed "town at the edge of importance, will be the best I will ever climb to, now. I have come to ask you something."

  Emilia frowned.

  "Yes?"

  "There are many dead. Our normal rituals will suffice, but I would ask you to bless them."

  He pursed his lips.

  "I have no desire to add the Restless to the long list of threats now facing Liyung."

  Emilia blinked, and nodded.

  "I will do this. After..." she stared at the flames again.

  "I will need to rest."

  Lord Liyung nodded once, helped her to stand, and led her back into the village. This was an easy issue, a blessing older than the ground itslef, passed from the gods after they fell rom the heavens. Hallowing ground wasn't the hardest thing.

  She stared at the ground as they walked.

  Unless they stopped that Demon, or learned how to stop that demon, she knew that the last to die would get no graves. No rites.

  Unchecked, it would kill them all.