-- Lilith POV, Skyview Monastery --

  Once again she had been called to superior Martins office. This time she was clever though and turned the chair sideways so she could sit without pinching her tail.

  Superior Martins looked at this arrangement with moderate interest, but didn't comment it. Even the holy books that he kept seemed to accept her better today and the atmosphere in his office felt lighter to her.

  "Lilith, it seems the word of your presence here has spread and a fairly unusual request has reached my desk. The praetorian guard sent message on behalf of a runesmith, and apparently with the support of the king. I know you do not like the king, but you do like fire, so I want to have your opinion on this."

  She tilted her head to the left, slightly intrigued, "I sure do like fire. So what is it about?"

  Superior Martins lifted a paper from his cluttered desk, "There is a runesmith who is forging weapons and armor for the praetorian guard. Only the finest work. He says, to advance his craft he either needs an archangel or a demon. Because only those can shape glowing metal with their hands."

  He put the paper down again to look at her, "Can you shape glowing metal with your hands?"

  She felt compelled to look at her alabaster hands with the night black claws, "I never tried that. I do not know. No fire has burned me yet. Maybe I can?"

  She looked back up from her hands to him. A smith used fire to heat the metal. They had kept her away from all fire since the incident in the kitchen. She really missed fire meanwhile, "If he works with fire, I want to work with him."

  Superior Martins nodded slowly, "He is aware that you are not allowed to leave this place. So he offers to bring some equipment here, to see if you can do, what he wants you to do. You're supposed to help him with what he calls demonforged runeblades. They will go to the praetorian guard, the kings soldiers. Just to be sure, do you still want to do it, knowing the weapons will end up in the hands of the kings forces?"

  Lilith stiffened up some, "I'll not forge weapons that can be used against me."

  Superior Martins gave a curt nod, "I can understand this. The message doesn't mention anything like that, so I'll leave this to you and the runesmith to clarify once he arrives."

  She nodded a little to signal agreement to his suggestion. Make yourself useful, she seemed to remember some advice, make yourself useful and people will want to have you around. She had to make herself more useful than just for killing bad weeds in the garden and sorting books.

  Superior Martins tilted his head left and right, then looked at her again, "So, I'll write back that you are interested, but that you cannot answer the question of handling hot metal bare handed right now."

  She nodded swiftly, "Add that no fire has hurt me yet."

  He tilted his head briefly, "Can't hurt if I add that. Your stunt in the kitchen certainly told us so."

  She grimaced.

  He picked the paper up again, "Past the official message there is a postscript in a different handwriting, which I think you should know. It says here, 'Work for me and I promise you the best fire in this world. John Smith.' It is actually signed by his name."

  "Oh", she said and quickly followed up, "How long till the can be here?"

  -- POV John Smith, Praetor's Office --

  The praetor's office wasn't exactly small, but to him the room still felt claustrophobic. His workshop was all open towards the marketplace to let fresh air in and get the heat out. It was almost like being outside. Here, all walls were closed and in general there was just too little space for him to feel comfortable. But this meeting was important, so he tried to ignore the discomfort.

  "You have sent for me praetor?"

  The praetor pointed to a chair, "Yes, please take a seat John. An answer arrived from the brotherhood of the sky. About the demon you want to work with."

  He sat down on the chair which made protesting noises under his weight, "Good news?"

  The praetor nodded and held up the message, "I think so. The superior of skyview monastery agrees to a meeting there. The demon has expressed interest in the proposal, but hasn't any experience with handling glowing metal. There is a note though that she stood in a fire and seemed to be just too happy about it."

  He nodded as well, "Yep, the peeps in Sunnyvale told the same. She stood in the fire and smiled. I take that as a good sign, that fire doesn't harm her. Better chances that she can handle the metal too."

  The praetor lifted an eyebrow, "You're not supposed to know that. But anyways, the message is clear that she is interested in working with you if that work involves fire."

  He laughed, "My work sure involves fire. All day I stand at the forge near the glowing coals. So, fire I can promise easily."

  After a moment of consideration, he added, "Do we have a fast cart?"

  He looked the praetor in the eyes and received a curt nod. "We do. Cart, driver and four horses. Fastest travel we can offer. You'll pay for their time and expenses."

  He looked up to the ceiling for a moment, trying to estimate the costs for such an arrangement, then back to the praetor, "I can pay for them. When can we leave?"

  "I'll have them ready tomorrow morning," the smaller man let him know.

  "I'll be ready too." He stood up from his chair which creaked again, this time relieved from his weight, "Thank you for your support Praetor. One doesn't get chances like this often."

  -- Lilith POV, Skyview Monastery --

  There was a big commotion at the gate. She was burning curious, but she also was not allowed to go downstairs, which didn't really help. But it seemed the runesmith had arrived.

  To her relief, brother John soon called for her to come to superior Martins office.

  She probably never had made the way faster than this time, but now that she stood in front of the door, all the doubts came back. What if the king wanted her help to forge a powerful weapon just to kill her? How could she protect herself from such abuse? Too late now ... she couldn't stand here forever. So she knocked. "Superior Martins, it's Lilith."

  "Come in!" Superior Martins voice came from his office and she slowly opened the door, till her looks fell upon a giant of a man, "Oh!"

  The man was almost taller than her and even that he was clad in expensive looking textiles of exquisite tailoring, his clothes did nothing to hide his muscular build. It was surprising to see a man this tall, but not unwelcome.

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  To her astonishment the man bowed briefly to her, "Nice to meet you demon. Lilith is it? The name is John. John Smith."

  "Hello?" She felt uncertain, but stepped in, then bowed to superior Martins, "Hello Superior Martins, you have called for me?"

  The superior was standing behind his desk for a change and nodded to her, "Yes. Lilith, please meet John Smith the runesmith. John, please meet Lilith the demon."

  He offered her his hand to shake, another surprise to her. She was very careful with her claws, not to accidentally prick or scratch his skin as they shook hands. "Nice to meet you, John." He smiled at her, "Likewise, Lilith. I've been waiting for this moment."

  Then they all took seat and John began to talk, "Demon Lilith. Or just Lilith? Ah, I'm bad with words, please forgive me. I've long been looking for someone to assist me with rune crafting but just never could find the right person."

  Lilith granted him a small smile, "It's seldom that I am included as a person. Usually I'm just the demon. Lucky if they call me Lilith."

  "So Lilith, I came as quickly as possible once the message arrived that you'll see me. Do you have experience in forging, or runes?" The big man appeared to be quite uncomfortable in his clothes, despite the masterful tailoring and a bit comical even on the chair which seemed to be too small for him.

  She shook her head, "Neither. But I like fire." She had to emphasize the positive points.

  The smith laughed softly, "That's a good starting point. I heard no fire has hurt you yet?"

  She shook her head and tried to sit more upright to show confidence, "Fire feels good." Then she slumped, "But we don't have a lot of firewood here, so fire's quite a rare thing."

  "Maybe I can offer more fire soon", the smith replied. "I want you to help with runic inscriptions. To make powerful runic inscriptions in metal, they must be carved while the metal is still hot and malleable. Runes become better the closer the contact of the artist is to the material. Your claws look like the perfect tool to carve the runes."

  He pointed to a hand of hers, and continued, "Once the runes are carved you'll have to touch the metal to infuse the runes with power. So, two times you'll be in contact with glowing hot metal. If you can do one of the two, it will be great already. If you can do both, the runes will be exceptional."

  She looked at her hands and the claws, "I can scratch metal. Never touched metal though that was hot enough to be soft."

  He also looked at her hands and then their eyes met when both looked up.

  "I want to try it," she showed a little smile, "I like fire. I like fire a lot. A forge has fire. Strong fire. I want to try it at least. And I am strong. I can take some pain if I have to. If that means I can work with fire."

  John gave her an appreciative nod, "Forge work is like that often. I've been burned more times than I can count. Good to see you're willing to put some effort into it. Ready to take a test?"

  "A test?" She tilted her head to the right while she looked at him.

  "With fire and metal", he confirmed.

  "I can try?" She felt a bit hesitant now.

  "Good", the smith brought a huge backpack from a corner of superior Martins' office and began to unpack some items which he assembled, "Move the chair back to the wall, Lilith. We need some space here. Superior, please open the window. This can get hot quickly."

  She moved her chair to the wall as requested and kept watching with curiosity. First the smith set up a sort of a metal tank. Then something like a metal flower on top of it? There were many tiny holes in it. Probably not a flower, then. Another something with a handle got attached to the side of the tank.

  "Not a forge, but the flame is strong enough to heat a small piece of metal till it's glowing hot. That will be the test." The smith explained and handed her a thin metal rod which he picked from his backpack, "Hold this for a moment."

  "Sure", the held the thin iron rod, which was about one foot long and felt surprisingly heavy in her hands while she kept watching what unfolded before her eyes.

  It seemed the setup was complete. John worked on the thing with the handle, it seemed to be some sort of a pump? It made light squeaking noises each time the big man pushed the handle down and the tank seemed to gurgle in response.

  Then he lit a match and turned a small wheel just below the flower thing with the many holes. Suddenly a flame rose up.

  Fire! She stepped closer, while the smith adjusted another wheel and the flame became a hissing torrent of pale blue fire.

  "Fire", she whispered, then louder, "I want to feel it."

  "You sure? That's pretty hot." The smith looked skeptical at her.

  "I'm sure. May I?" She rolled up the sleeves of her robe. She would not burn a fifth robe and enrage the monks further. Nope, not this time.

  "Feel free," the smith took a step back from the contraption, "But there isn't much fuel in it. And I want you to heat up the iron rod in the flame. That's the actual test."

  She had the iron rod in her fangs now to have both hands free to feel the fire.

  Now, that was some fire! A torrent of almost invisible, hissing blue flame. She could feel it flow around her hands with force. Not at all like the gently caressing flames of a wooden fire. Much less pleasant than a wooden fire she had to admit. It had some bite. This flame was a almost a bit hot even for her. But not damaging hot.

  "That's a mean flame", she let the smith know, a bit inarticulate with the iron rod clamped in her fangs. "Wood fire feels better."

  "That's hotter than wood and hotter than coal. And you have your hands in it anyways." The big man commented.

  Superior Martins chuckled, "If there is fire, she'll sooner or later have her hands in it. That's inevitable."

  The smith laughed for a moment, "I don't even want to think about holding my hands into that flame."

  Then the big man grinned, "Alright. Now hold the rod into the flame to heat it up before the fuel runs out."

  She did so, and the rod soon began to glow. "Hold it a bit higher where the flame is hotter", she was instructed. "This way?" She held the iron rod higher up now and it indeed began to glow more brightly, yellow first and then almost white.

  "Yes, that's good," she was informed. "If you dare, hold he glowing end with your other hand."

  The flame had stung a little. But it had not actually harmed her. Also she wanted to take this chance, even if it should hurt.

  She held the glowing end. It stung sharply, but only for a moment. She didn't flinch. "Like this?" She looked him into the eyes, trying to put a little challenge in it.

  "Yes, like this." There was a pause and then the big man began to laugh loudly.

  "That's insane. She had her hands in the flame, and then held the glowing iron like nothing." He shook his head in disbelief, then looked at her straight, "Demon, Lilith, you are heaven sent." He laughed some more, "And even if you are sent from hell, I need you."

  She smiled at him, "Thank you", and offered him the iron stick back, but he held up his hands defensively, "Uh oh, no, can't touch that yet. That's still way too hot to hold for me. But hey, I want you to work with me. Will you?"

  She looked at superior Martins, "Superior, will you allow me to work for him? That will mean that I have less time to work for you."

  He nodded, "Yes, that will be alright. I can request a share of what John makes with your help."

  She smiled again when she looked back at John, "I sure want to work with you. Even if this flame was mean. You said coal is better, so I want to try with coal next time."

  "Yeah, coal is different from a gas flame. Stronger in some way, more mellow in another. I prefer coal too." The smith looked at superior Martins, "So that is settled, she'll work with me. I'll have masons and carpenters come here and material delivered to set up a forge."

  Superior Martins didn't exactly look happy about it, but nodded, "A room was already selected for the forge construction. It is near the monastery gate."

  Now she felt impatient, "John how long will it take to build the forge?"

  He shrugged, "Can take a few weeks. Stones must be set, the mortar must dry and cure. Then it must be carefully fired up, checked for cracks, and maybe even rebuild if something breaks. Bellows are needed too, but won't take as long as the mason work. But to shorten the wait, I have something for you."

  "What is it?" She looked curiously as he started to dig in his huge backpack again, which already had produced all the parts of the fire contraption.

  "A book."

  He handed her a heavy leather bound book and looked at her with a stern expression, "You can handle glowing metal. But that's only half the job. I want you to study this, earnestly and dutifully till I am back with the materials for the forge."

  The book felt mighty, almost overwhelmingly so to her as she held it in her clawed hands, "I'll do my best, John."