Enchanting Embers: Dance with the Divine

Chapter 4 Magic

You should never pray for no accidents to happen.

Aurora thought calmly.

A dark little imp crouched on the table, burying its head, tearing apart a fish in its hands. It was intensely focused on eating, even biting and swallowing the lemon slices and herbs used to season the fish in its belly.

Aurora looked at him with mixed feelings. She didn't believe she could snatch lunch from him—

Look at those hands covered in what seemed like hard scales, fingertips sharp as iron hooks! With those claws, a single swipe could disfigure anyone's face completely!

Suddenly, the uninvited robber swiftly devoured a fish, then reached for fennel and onions in the dish. It was only then that he had the time to glance at the blonde girl beside him.

Aurora calmly stared at those radiant golden eyes.

For a moment, she felt like she was gazing at a blazing sun, pure and sacred yet proud and cold. Its flame would mercilessly scorch the eyes of mortals.

The little imp suddenly spoke, pointing at the nearly cleaned plate. "I want more."

The verbs in demon language weren't highly flexible, and the guy's voice didn't sound mature, yet his words were full of command, even hinting at a certain oppressive feeling.

Aurora: "…"

The young girl stood up expressionlessly, fetched a half-dead fish from a nearby water tank, and slapped it onto the table.

"Enjoy."

The fish on the table twitched weakly, lying lifelessly without struggling.

The little imp looked at it disdainfully.

Seconds later, he turned back, still wearing that disdainful expression, and grabbed the fish—now brimming with a fishy smell—with disgust. He stuffed the fish head into his mouth and chewed voraciously, blood dripping through his fingers. He bent to lick his hand, soon followed by the sound of bones being crushed by his teeth.

The pungent smell of blood filled the kitchen once more.

"Um," Aurora didn't know how to express her feelings, "…that fish is five copper coins."

"Not tasty." The little imp chewed while staring at her. "Make it like before."

Aurora didn't hesitate to roll her eyes at him. "Sorry, I can't do that."

The little imp glared at her angrily, unfurling his wings behind him. The curved lines of his wings resembled two gigantic sickles, with sharp and pointed protrusions like knife edges.

In that moment, sunlight pouring into the room seemed to be eclipsed by darkness through the window. It was as if a heavy shadow loomed over Aurora. For the first time, she felt a deep-seated fear from her soul.

He threatened loudly, "Then I'll eat you!"

The room seemed to tremble slightly, the pressure in the air intensifying.

Aurora took two steps back, feeling a headache and a buzzing in her head. Even her knees felt weak. She had an inexplicable impulse to kneel down.

"If you eat me," she took a deep breath, leaning against the nearby cupboard, her mind in disarray, unable to define the feeling. It was just a gut feeling that this wasn't a joke, "…then you'll never taste anything I cook!"

The little imp stared at her blankly, seemingly not grasping the logic behind her words at first.

After a while, he seemed to understand her meaning, and his face displayed a mix of annoyance and confusion. Clearly, he didn't know how to solve this headache-inducing problem.

"You," the little imp gave up thinking, glaring fiercely. He raised his chin, straightened his back, as if imitating someone from memory, posing as if he were giving commands from on high, using those cold golden eyes to glare at her. "I command you to obey me."

Aurora: "…"

That awful oppressive feeling returned.

Aurora didn't know how to communicate with this unreasonable creature. Moreover, it seemed like his mind wasn't quite functioning well. Under the intense stare of those eyes, she felt a headache. But she bit her tongue and said, "You have no authority to command me. You're not paying me, and you're not the master here."

Ridiculous. Finally out of the church's territory, not having to pretend to be a devout believer every day, not having to tell so many lies against her heart, she had no intention of submitting like this. Aurora also didn't believe that an idiotic imp would be more challenging to deal with than those priests who came to bless the academy.

The little imp looked at her indignantly. "Then I'll kill—"

"If you kill me, there won't be any fish to eat, didn't we talk about this earlier?" Aurora sighed, wearing a victorious smile. "What to do, Mr. Imp?"

"…"

The little imp turned his head sullenly, attempting to come up with a solution.

After a while, he said belatedly, "I'm not an imp."

Aurora looked him over.

This guy's facial structure resembles a human, looking at most eleven or twelve years old, deep eye sockets, a high nose bridge, half-n***d body, wearing a pair of fur shorts, with slender and smooth limbs, sharp claws, and densely scattered tail scales.

—If it weren't for the horns and tail, symbols of the dark race, as well as those shimmering magical patterns like burning flames, he would certainly be a quite handsome boy.

If not a demon, what else could he be? Dark elf? Bloodsucker? Ghoul? If he were an orc, whether a werewolf, bearman, centaur, and the like, there would be relatively animalistic features visible, but this little rascal lacked any corresponding traits.

Aurora asked him, "Then what are you?"

He stared at her for a while, "I… I am…"

"Listen," Aurora sighed, adopting an adult tone, "You should go find your parents. They're the ones responsible for feeding you or cooking for you."

The little imp flicked his tail unhappily, "Dad left, he won't come back."

Aurora noticed the verb tense he used, "…Where did he go?"

The little imp disinterestedly folded his wings. He turned his head, gazing through the bright kitchen window, towards the distant clear sky filled with drifting white clouds.

He raised his hand, pointing at the vast and boundless sky, the sunny reflection shimmering in his golden eyes, "There."

Aurora: "…Okay."

She wasn't entirely clear on what it meant for a young demon to lose his father. Their lives seemed quite different from humans, theoretically, their survival shouldn't be too challenging.

After all, among those dark races, demons were considered the most powerful in combat. While orcs needed to hunt in groups for demonic creatures, demons didn't need companions.

However, she could still sense that this guy was very unhappy. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up."

"…"

The little imp, instead, looked at her blankly, seemingly not understanding why she was apologizing.

The azure sky was overshadowed, the warm afternoon sun hid behind a cluster of gray clouds. The golden edges of the clouds gradually vanished, and the rain began to patter down, the wind-blown rain blurring the windows.

Out of nowhere, Aurora remembered her own father.

He was born into an elite clan of high elves and was seen as a rebellious monster among his kind. People abandoned him because he refused to swear allegiance to the god of light. They didn't want him to face severe punishment, so they secretly exiled him. Except for a few elders in the clan, no one knew why he became an outcast among the light elves until he married a half-dwarf woman.

—Things became understandable. Many elves left their clans to live among humans due to interethnic marriages. Human tolerance was always much higher than other races.

But he was the best father, Aurora thought. He had countless adventurous stories, taking her through deserts and plains, singing quietly with mercenaries by a fire in the snow-capped mountains, fighting swarming hordes of monsters in the rainforest, letting her see dragons roaring in the sky and lightning and hurricanes crossing the gods' battlefield in her childhood dreams, the fires of the abyss burning endlessly through the endless nights.

Aurora sighed deeply, "Sit down."

She resignedly started cooking.

I'm probably an overly sympathetic fool, the young girl thought angrily. But as she glanced at the guy who was idle and lost in thought, he lost his father too, even though he looked like an i***t.

She began to doze off while gutting the fish, and her hands were covered in blood. The red liquid trickled through the gaps in her fingers. The girl instinctively raised her hand, not yet washed, suddenly grabbed by someone.

The little imp sat on the table, sharp claws pinching her wrist as he tilted his head, staring at her hand.

Aurora was baffled, "I have to tell you, if you eat my hand, I won't be able to cook anymore—hey!"

He casually tugged, causing her to stumble and stagger, falling onto the table.

The next moment, the little imp lowered his head, his hot tongue l*****g over her fingertips. Those thorns scraped against the delicate skin of her fingers, eliciting a strange, electrifying sensation.

Aurora looked at him incredulously, "What in the world!"

That little rascal's tongue felt like molten lava from a volcano. That lick felt like a red-hot iron searing her fingertips, and she even suspected that patch of skin might have been roasted.

The little imp let go of her wrist, licked his lips, and resumed staring at the fish.

Aurora held back the impulse to smack the fish onto his face, turned, and walked toward the stove. The fire inside was about to die out; perhaps it needed a new piece of magic crystal, and those things were darn expensive. Even a small piece, the size of a fingernail, taken from the lowest-tier magical creature, still cost several silver coins. It was probably one of the items with prices closest to the entire weekly salary of an average person working in the shops of the Empire's big cities.

The little imp frowned at her, seemingly not understanding why she left, "What are you doing?"

"I'm lighting the fire," Aurora retorted irritably, "If you can't cook, just stay—"

Before she finished her sentence, the weak flames in the stove suddenly erupted into a raging blaze.

Those flames crackled and tore at the air, heat surging out of the stove, filling the room with a rush of warmth.

Startled at first, Aurora felt truly shocked. She looked at the roaring flames in the stove and the swiftly rising temperature in the kitchen, surpassing even the flames produced by the burning magic crystal.

She turned back, the little imp still sitting in place without moving, "Do you know magic?"

In a country ruled by the influence of the Holy See, the existence of magic was nearly taboo.

If the Holy See found out that a child had a talent for magic, the family had to hand them over. Any resistance meant the entire family would perish by the swords of the Inquisition. The children taken away would be sent to the Holy See's holy city for education and supervision, required to join the Holy See through a ceremony and become faithful servants of the god of light to escape death—

That ceremony wasn't just a formality. If a person wasn't truly loyal to the god of light, their oath wouldn't be genuinely answered. If they failed, there was only one fate.

However, because no one openly advocated magic, and the Holy See didn't allow the use of terms like "magic," many people gifted with magic talents might spend their entire lives not truly understanding what magic was.

Impatiently flicking his tail, the little imp, seemingly indifferent, said, "Hurry up."

Aurora was about to be angered by his attitude, "You've emptied half the pantry and eaten my lunch, I'm still making you fish, and you won't even answer a single question for me!"

The little imp looked at her bewildered, not understanding why she was upset or what she was saying, "Question?"

Aurora sighed in frustration. She repeated in a somewhat powerless tone, "Do you know magic? Can you teach me magic?"

The little imp stared at her, as if she had said something absurd, "Huh?"

"I have a talent for magic!" she hurriedly added, "I can use first-tier magic! Though not always successfully... But at least I can learn. I just need someone to answer some questions for me. Those books only have spells and a ton of useless history about magic!"

If a certified magician heard this, they would point out the problems in her statement. For instance, the claim of using first-tier magic being mastered a hundred percent of the time, with a success rate varying, was not part of it.

Aurora knew this, but it didn't matter.

She had thought of many arguments. As long as this guy was willing to teach her magic, even just a little guidance, she was willing to take care of his meals for a day or as many meals as he needed in a day, as long as he didn't refuse—

In the intense gaze of the girl, the little imp opened his mouth, looking utterly confused.

"Magic," he repeated the word as if hearing it for the first time, "Are you speaking the human language? I don't often hear that word. What is 'magic'?"

Aurora: "…………"