"Your continued existence on this world is by my suffrance, Demon," she said in an icy voice. "I could have banished you a millenia ago. But I did not. Because it was necessary. You have your own part to play in this, just as I. Just as he. And you have fulfilled part of it."

" Part of it?"

"Part. Your hand has not been completely drawn yet, Shiikarathnezera," she said calmly, using the Demon's True Name, a name that could be used to control her, even destroy her. "You will be called upon again. Be ready."

"As soon as I fix this mess," she snorted, turning her back to the enigmatic figure again. "That damned kid. It's going to take me years to straighten things out."

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. Answer me honestly. Do you truly hate him for what he has done?"

Shiika was silent a moment, then she laughed ruefully. "Yes and no," she answered truthfully. "I'm certainly not happy about this," she grunted, motioning towards the city, "but I have to admit, I'm impressed. He took everything my minions could dish out. He even killed a Glabrezu! And he did it, he got the book. I have to admire his spunk, if anything else. That kid just doesn't know when to quit."

"Then you have learned a valuable lesson, Shiika. Not everyone is as they seem. Not even you."

Shiika was quiet a moment. "What do you get out of all this, Spyder? I'm sure you have something to do with it, and it's not like you to do something without some gain in it somewhere. It's not your style."

"What I get out of it?" she asked in reply. There was a long silence. "I do get something out of this, Shiika. Something you will never understand."

"What?"

"Peace."

Shiika turned around suddenly, ready to demand an explanation for that strange answer, but Spyder was gone.

"Hmph," she snorted, turning back around. There were some people around here that weren't want they seemed alright, and it wasn't her or the Were-cat.

What a mess.

Sighing, Shiika turned and started inside. She wasn't giving up her Palace this time. There was nothing that said an Empress couldn't take the throne. She'd been interested in taking a more active role in the ruling of what she considered to be her Empire anyway. Maybe Spyder was right. Maybe there was more to her, more to this, than there seemed to be. Maybe even some good could come of it.

Anything was possible. She was certainly proof of that.

Strange neighbors.

Garyth Longshank, cobbler of Aldreth and the village mayor, trudged carefully through the forests west of the village in the misty autumn morning, his destination not far ahead of him. He walked along an old cart trail, overgrown and ragged now that nobody really used it anymore, a trail that led out to the old Kael farm. A farm that had been abandoned for a while, when Tarrin left for the Tower, and his parents and sister packed up to go see him, and never returned. They'd sent back a letter to him, asking him to pack up all their things and store them in the village until they returned, that they were going to Ungardt for a while to see Elke's kin there. They were greatly missed in the village. Eron's arrows were used by nearly everyone, and the ale and brandy he brewed left just about everyone in the village with an aching hole in his belly. What was left was prized, treasured, kept in storage and only brought out for the most important occasions. Elke wasn't really missed, but the others didn't understand her. Well, they certainly didn't understand the ones that had taken over the overgrown Kael farm, cleaned it up and made it a livable place once again. Strange neighbors.

They had been there for a while now, about two months. At least he figured it was about that long, because there was no way to know. Nobody went out there, nobody visited, because they all knew who they were.

Forest Folk.

The Forest Folk had been visiting Aldreth for a long time now. The people of Aldreth accepted them without much fuss, offering them quality goods at fair prices, as they would do for any neighbor. The people of Aldreth accepted their business, but never talked to them that much, since they were all fairly closed-mouthed and standoffish. The fact that they knew Forest Folk visited didn't bother people, but to know where a few of them were living now, that scared them. They weren't in the Frontier anymore, they were starting to settle on what they considered the human side of the line separating Sulasia from the Frontier. Their presence, when it was noticed by some kids playing in the woods out that way, sent a storm of worry through the Aldreth folk. They had enough to worry about as it was, with the Goblinoids and the Dal armies that were marching around.

Garyth had had to almost preach to them, reminding them that it was the Forest Folk that had caused the Dal armies to pass them up. Oh, there was a garrison of them in Aldreth, twenty of them, but they didn't bother the villagers. The villagers didn't cause trouble. They just did what they did, and they didn't need all that much supervision. They certainly weren't going to revolt or do anything foolish. So long as they were left alone, things were fine. After all, the Dals wouldn't occupy them forever. Things would go back to normal with time, and the people of Aldreth were a rather patient lot. There had been Goblinoids at first, a large group of them that burned houses and terrorized the villagers, had even killed a few people. But then they simply began to die. One by one at first, then they started dying off in absolute droves. They were all found ripped up, beheaded, torn apart, and the signs were that great beasts were the ones attacking the Goblinoids. Everyone knew that the Goblinoids were terrified of the Frontier, and it wasn't much of a leap to realize that the Forest Folk had taken serious exception to the foul beasties being so close to their territory. After a few hundred of them died, the Dals moved them out, and moved themselves out to boot. They only left that small garrison of second-rate soldiers, men more interested in their tankards than their duties. Although the loss of five villagers to the bloodthirsty pack was a serious blow to the small, tight-knit community, at least the Forest Folk had driven them away before anyone else died.

Garyth wasn't all that sure that they should be afraid of these two. He had watched them for a month now, always being careful never to disturb or upset them, keeping his distance, trying to stay inobtrusive. As village mayor, it was his job to make sure everything was alright with these two, and in a strange way, he worried about them. It was a lone female with a baby, but she looked anything but feminine. She was very, very tall, taller than Tarrin himself, with strange white fur on her arms and legs, big hands and feet that had claws on them, a tail of all things, and triangular, white furry ears poking out of her wild red mane. He never got that close, but even from a distance he could see that she was very pretty. He worried that she lived alone with her baby, a baby he had only seen once, but he was certain that she could protect it. She was femininely shaped, curvy and lithe, but he'd seen her pick up an old wagon by the back axle and drag it from the barn to the woodshed. That woman was strong ! He'd watched her for a while, and she never did anything threatening or dangerous. She just lived there with her baby. It was that simple. She raised some vegetables, and the mother would go out about once every six or seven days and hunt, carrying the infant on her back in a little sling. Aside from that, she never left the farm. She rarely left the house.

He'd only seen that baby girl once, what looked to be about a yearling, with white fur like her mother and strawberry blond hair. The old Kael farm was a good place for her to raise this baby, since it was close to the human luxuries she could get from Aldreth, it was still right on the Frontier, which would give her protection from her own kind, and the farm was a big place with lots of room. He had no idea why she had come here, why she didn't stay in the Frontier. Perhaps she was thrown out. Perhaps she lost her husband, and moved away because the memory of him was too much.