After the chaos in the village, none of them thought going back to the chapel was a smart move.

  So the three of them set up a temporary camp in the hollow formed beneath a massive natural boulder.

  Before Elena woke up, they sat around the fire for a long time.

  Most of the talk circled back to Elena, the mixed-blood orphan.

  John said that when he was gathering supplies in the forest north of the village, the one that stretched across the border, he found Elena deep inside, half-dead and barely breathing.

  When he noticed the demon traits on her, his first instinct was to leave her there and walk away.

  But the Church of Holy Light’s teaching, never turn your back on a good soul in need, gnawed at him until he could not stand it anymore.

  In the end, he went back, picked Elena up, and carried her to Windherd’s little chapel.

  John also felt he had to watch her carefully and try to understand what she was.

  A demon hybrid had always been treated as an ill omen, so the fact she existed at all suggested something people had refused to consider for centuries.

  Maybe not every demon was born to butcher and devour.

  A demon choosing to fight its hunger long enough to have a child with what should have been prey already meant that demon was different.

  And elves, of all races, were supposed to be the demons’ favorite quarry, the kind that never survived once caught.

  Elena’s elven features meant she might be the only living descendant of a high elf and a northern demon.

  John believed she was not like ordinary demons, that she could be taught, guided, and made better.

  Reality did not disappoint him.

  At first Elena was extremely wary of him, like a cornered animal waiting for the blade.

  Over time, though, she slowly let that guard down.

  John also found that Elena showed none of the bloodthirst, cruelty, or frenzy people associated with demons.

  She did not even seem especially drawn to raw magic the way the stories claimed demons always were.

  For the next few years, Elena still kept her distance.

  She would disappear from the chapel now and then, but John knew she was going back into the forest to find food, so he did not interfere.

  When he had spare time, John taught her how to read and write.

  To his surprise, Elena latched onto language with real hunger and an uncanny talent.

  Before long she had a solid grasp of the common tongue of the western continent and the Drak Empire’s standard speech.

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  She could finally hold simple conversations with John.

  The thing that left the deepest impression on him, though, was Elena’s strange and overwhelming gift for holy magic.

  One morning, after John finished preaching and returned to the chapel, he found Elena curled up on the floor with her arms over her head.

  Several children had her surrounded, kicking and punching her like it was sport.

  John shouted and rushed forward, ready to pull her out.

  That was when something went wrong, or right, depending on who you asked.

  Elena’s body started trembling, and her scream tore out of her like it hurt to breathe.

  The rune-like scar that covered the left side of her body flared with blinding light.

  A violent shockwave erupted and shoved everyone nearby, including the children, far back across the ground.

  John had been a short distance away, so the blast did not hit him head-on.

  Even so, the aftershock made him stumble.

  John knew exactly what Elena had unleashed.

  Among the Church’s higher acolytes, it was called the Gift of God, a Miracle.

  Later generations would name it for what it truly was, holy spellcraft.

  And a Miracle with that kind of destructive force was said to belong only to the most devout, or the truly fanatical.

  John himself could perform small Miracles, but he was never confident with them.

  Sometimes, when he prayed with all his heart over someone gravely injured, warm, radiant light would bloom from his hands.

  When he pressed that light to the wound, it would mend flesh and knit torn skin, until no trace of injury remained.

  In time, scholars would classify that as a basic second-tier holy spell, Minor Healing.

  John, of course, had no way of knowing that back then.

  All he knew was that his devotion had been acknowledged by the Light God, the chief deity the Church of Holy Light worshiped.

  Later, unwilling to be dragged into the power struggles at the grand cathedral in the capital, John chose the road instead.

  Already in his later years, he traveled north to spread the Light God’s will, healing the wounded as he went and preaching wherever people would listen.

  Eventually he arrived at Windherd Village and became its missionary and priest.

  After Elena released that powerful Miracle, she collapsed into unconsciousness.

  When John got close, he realized she was covered in injuries from head to toe.

  He hurried her into the chapel and treated her as best he could.

  After that, John tried to guide Elena into the Church of Holy Light.

  Being able to wield a Miracle like that meant she was different from the demons people blamed for nothing but ruin and despair.

  And whatever faith drove her power, her intensity was already bordering on zeal.

  So John began his plan to teach her doctrine, and to help her cultivate that Miracle.

  To be honest, John’s own understanding of Miracles was shallow.

  He simply believed that if he could turn Elena’s fierce, directionless fervor into devotion to the Light God, the rest would follow.

  That fragile peace lasted only a few days.

  The parents of the children Elena had blasted away came to John in a rage.

  They accused him of bringing a cursed child into the village, one who had harmed their innocent children.

  They swore they would burn her alive.

  John tried to explain what had really happened, but the furious parents refused to bend.

  In the end, the village headman stepped in.

  John had been providing free medical aid with his Miracles, and even if Windherd’s faith in the Church of Holy Light was weaker than its belief in the Pantheon, John still carried real influence here and in neighboring villages.

  There was no reason to tear everything apart over this.

  So the villagers backed off, but on one condition.

  John had to drive Elena out.

  John could not abandon her, not after everything.

  During the day, Elena stayed away from the village and searched the forest for fruit and food.

  At night, she would sneak back into John’s chapel.

  John continued teaching her, and he also bought the fruit she gathered at a high price, paying her in Drak Empire coin so she could survive.

  Then came the day that led to this morning.

  Elena wrapped herself in a cloak, hid what she was, and went into the village with her coins to trade for a few pieces of bread.

  But someone, maybe someone who wanted her money, accused her of theft and claimed she had stolen their coins.

  In the struggle that followed, Elena’s cloak was torn away.

  Her identity was exposed to the entire village.

  And after that, everything unfolded exactly as Enid and Antonio had seen when they arrived.