morning revelations.

Alex sniffed as his mind came awake. The room he had slept in was unlike any accommodations he had anywhere else, but the last time he was here he hadn't taken note on just how unusual the room actually was.

Due to his levels of exhaustion he hadn't noticed that the room had remained well lit through the entire night, the smell of the burning oil lamps was prevalent, and that would be expected in a room even with the ventilation near the ceilings and floor to prevent the air from becoming unbreathable in the fumes, but he was surprised to see that the lamps were still burning as cleanly and brightly as they had been when he had fallen asleep. This was convenient to prevent people from bumping around in the dark looking for a new candle to light, but unlike the mage crystal lights of the street this was a mundane solution to the problem of darkness and required a mundane mechanism to function, one that Alex could not ascertain from his horizontal vantage point on the bed.

What could clearly be seen was the face of his bed companion. At some point in the night her veil had fallen and Alex was able to study her features for the first time unobstructed. Delicate features of a girl barely a woman, even closed he could tell that she had large expressive eyes framed beneath a pair of thick dark eyebrows and matched by the strands of thick black hair that had fallen across her face.

Very gently, so as not to disturb her, Alex ran his finger along her hairline, behind her ear to tuck her hair back, and down the line of her chin. Her hair complied without effort and in the end fell around her neck like a scarf, only serving to draw the eye back to her now fully exposed face. Alex studied this face with interest and noticed what he could only assume was her reason to wear the veil. A large birthmark about the size of his palm was visible on her cheek located less than a finger's width away from her ear and coming upto her lower eyelid. No doubt she felt some degree of shame in this blemish, but as Alex added it to her list of features he concluded that it did not in fact dampen the pleasantness of her face in the least. Surely a woman of her delicate beauty would have no shortage of admirers in any circle, or at least Alex believed so.

Absent mindedly Alex ran his thumb along her brow admiring again the exotic beauty that lay before him in the way that men long to run their fingers over the features of the sculpted marble beauties that so often adorn the decor of temples. The motion of the touch brought a sigh from the lips of Beul followed by a lazy blink.

When her eyes focused on Alex she smiled slightly, "Good morning."

"Good morning." Alex returned the smile, "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes," she said as she stretched, "better than I have in a long time."

"That's good."

Beul's eyes snapped open and she looked at Alex with a look of surprise before wheeling in the opposite direction and covering her face, "Did you...?" she trailed off.

Alex said nothing, but his hand hovered over her shoulder as he hesitated to make contact with an already started girl.

She glanced back and Alex could see that her complexion was now a fire red to the tips of her ears. "Did you take my veil?"

Alex sighed, his hovering hand sank to rest on her shoulder as the tension and worry drained from his mind and body. "No," he said gently, "I think it fell off during the night sometime. I'm sure it's around here somewhere if you want it back."

"Please." She breathed.

Alex found it under the pillow and was in the process of handing it to her when he thought up a change of plan. "Here it is, turn back this way so I can help you put it on."

Slowly she turned back his direction, as she did he thought, (Still redder than the sunrise, but just as pretty.)

(Oh? Found a new mate have we? Are you going to woo this one too?)

(For sure not without the madam's blessing, and I don't know how I feel about keeping women in separate cities.)

(Let me think about that for you. Done, do it.)

Alex didn't mean to laughed, but the chuckled made Beul freeze like a cornered rabbit assessing a wolf.

Alex wasn't sure how to ease the girl's fright and embarrassment, so he just said what he was thinking and hoped it would help in some way. "I'm sorry if I embarrassed you this morning, it was a little difficult for me to not admire your pretty face."

(Smooth genius. Let me break the ice next time.)

Beul didn't say anything and only turned more red as Alex carefully placed the headdress back into position and pulled the veil across her face before reattaching to the encircling band. "There we go. You can put your hands back down now."

Beul didn't move for a long minute, but slowly her hands did come back down from under the veil. The awkward silence persisted and Alex laid back down on the bed comfortably.

At length Beul finally broke the silence, "You saw it?"

Alex made the tactical decision to misunderstand her question, "You're very pretty, I was wondering last night when we were talking what you looked like under the veil. But I was really glad your face was the first thing I got to see this morning. I hope you're not angry with me."

"You saw my face?"

"Yes. It's a very pretty face, almost a shame to hide it." Alex couldn't see her face clearly through the veil now but he could tell she was staring at him is something akin to disbelief. He could also tell that his avoidance of the subject was throwing her off and she seemed to be facing indecision on wither to just come out and say it or not.

"Did you see my birthmark?"

And there it was, her decision made. "I did," Alex said casually, "and before you ask, it does not diminish your beautiful face."

"How...how does it not?"

Alex sat back up and reached toward her face, Beul caught his hand but offered no resistance and he undid the veil and carefully lowered it. As their eyes met without obstruction he said very calmly and clearly for her. "I know that there are some fools out there who might be so shallow that a birthmark you never asked for might alter their opinion of you. But I'm also going to guess none of them have ever visited the Elves in Alhiem, and probably never spent much time around you either.

"You see, the way people see beauty is dependent on the cultures they grew up in. Some idiots who've met orcs will call them 'pig-face' as an insult because of their particularly flat features," Alex made a gesture with his palm and his face to demonstrate, "but such an insult would get you killed by most orcs, and thanked by others who do not care about such a superficial statement. What you will never hear is an insult about the rest of their bodies because those are perfectly muscular specimens and I've known many men and women who feel lust when they see an orc form in full glory.

"Back to the elves they don't call them birthmarks. They call children with birthmarks 'the god-touched' and treat them as living saints. Elves are normally fairer skinned than humans and their birthmarks are almost silver like the full moon. Once these children are old enough to feed themselves they are given to the temple of Bendis and are given special treatment and training, as a fact elves do not become adventurers or high-priests without a 'moon mark', so you will rarely find an elven hero because without the mark an elf wouldn't dare.

"Birthmarks on humans are most often red like yours and are called 'sun marks' by the elves. If an elf were to see your mark they would seek to teach you the secrets of magic because they believe that you are gifted with the blessing of our gods and one of the 'children of the sun', which is what they call humans."

Beul put a hand over the mark on her cheek, "You don't mind it?"

"I have no reason too. It's your face, do you mind it?"

"I've never been given a reason to like it."

Alex smiled at her, "I'm not an elf, and I cannot say if their belief is true. But the elves live for a very long time and if someone was going to disprove their belief I'm sure it would have been done by now. As for me..." Alex pulled off his gloves for the first time since entering the building and showed his hands to Beul, "As for me my eyes are not the only mark I carry from my possession by a demon lord."

Beul took his hand and carefully explored it. After a long study she asked, "Can it be undone?"

"That's why we're going to Jenida to find out if there's a solution to the corruption."

"Will you and Raven be alright there? I've heard stories about the city but never seen it myself."

"We'll be fine, I'm sure. But I wasn't talking about Raven when I said 'we'."

"Who else is going with you?"

"That would be me." Demon piped up.

Beul jumped a little and stared at the cat that she had previously give little thought too. "Who...who are you?"

"I'm the demon who possessed Alex. He was able to push me out of his mind by shoving me into the fresh corpse of a cat, but that only got rid of my mind. He still has the rest of the possession to deal with." Demon stretched a little before joining Beul and Alex on the bed.

Beul for one kept staring between the two of them in stunned silence. "How..."

"Shhhh child," Demon consoled the very confused girl, "You'll hurt yourself if you think about it too hard and too fast. Alex beat me, in order to keep living I tried to take over his body, he found a way to kick my mind and personality out of himself, but my power is now slowly corrupting his flesh. He wears gloves to hide his hands the same way you wear a veil to hide your face. Difference there is that if people see your face they might think less of you, if people see Alex's hands they're probably going to try killing him until he stays dead. Which they won't actually be able to do, but they'll try anyways."

"Does it hurt?" Beul was still holding Alex's hand.

"No," Alex confessed, "To be honest I can't tell the difference between my hands now and any other part of me. Like my eyes they don't feel different, but I know that they are."

Beul looked at the table in the corner of the room were Alex was keeping his pack and his armor. "Your helmet. It's how you cover your face, isn't it?"

"Most places yes. Where I feel safe I take it off, but there are only a few places in this world where I do."

Beul was silent again for a little while, without speaking she rose to her feet and pulled Alex into her bosom and held him there for a minute.

Alex didn't exactly return the embrace, opting for resting his hands on her waist over a full enclosure of her person.

When she let go she sat back down next too him and removed her head garment completely. "I think I should stop wearing this when I feel safe too."

Alex smiled, Demon nodded then crawled into Beul's lap and curled up looking for some petting, which she received.

The three of them spoke for a little longer until a bell could be heard in the hall and Beul excused herself saying it was time to return to work. She dressed her head again before she opened the door but gave Alex one last grateful smile before restoring her veil.

"She'd a good kid," Demon said after the door closed, "We should most definitely add her to the harem."

"What harem?"

"Marium and me of course." Demon replied, "Either you're staring a harem or you're a cheating bastard. Which one do you prefer?"

Alex said nothing, only grunted. He wasn't about to concede to Demon's logic, at least not yet.