-- A smoke filled tavern in Sunnyvale --

  The three men were sitting in a dimly lit tavern around a wooden table, tankards of ale between them. The smoke of pipes-weed hung heavy in the air and stung in their eyes, but they were used to it.

  "I swear I saw her standing there when the barracks burned down. A demon. Horns and everything. Her clothes were on fire, but she didn't move. She just stood there and smiled. I saw it!" The one to the left spoke with intensity in his voice as he leaned forward over the table in an almost conspiratorial move. Even that he had shaved this day, a five o'clock shadow was already showing again.

  "You know the arsonist was some sort of maniac. They caught him a few days after the fire and executed him right away." The one to the right waved his hand dismissively as he replied.

  "Didn't say the demon started the fire. It was unreal how she stood there in the flames. Then the guard captain came, wrapped her in a blanket and led her away. She must have been under his spell, had to wait for his command. I followed them. He brought her to the city prison. Don't understand though why, if he had bound her to his word already", spoke the one to the left again.

  "Sure would like such a demon lady to command some. Hear they must follow any order if you put them through the right ritual", the third man piped up, just to be ignored by the other two.

  The first one continued his string of memories, "A week later, a covered wagon came with six high priests. High priests! Stopped at prison. They took someone from the prison. Had them wrapped up again, so no one could see who it is. Just someone tall. Tall like the demon. Must have been the demon. No one else stands this tall. And church wouldn't send six high priests for some ordinary criminal."

  "The church took the demon quietly? Nah, don't think so. They'd made a big fuss about it, and have the demon burned in public to show the power of their gods. Can't imagine them doing anything else with a demon." It was the man on the right speaking again.

  "Maybe the church wants to use the demon against the king. You know how power hungry the priests are." The man to the left suggested.

  "Makes no sense to me. You say the demon was in the barracks prison first, then the city prison. Both under kings order. The king wouldn't give the demon away. Way too dangerous to let anyone else have the demon. And particularly not the church who just had made him give them a share of the taxes he so much desires. Next year we'll have to pay extra for church tax. Greedy bastards all of them". The man to the right was grumpy now.

  "Still would like such a demon lady to boss around." The third man spoke sluggishly after too much ale.

  Gentle laughter was the reply, then the one to the left replied to the drunk, "Ya, you sure would like that." He nods his head in some direction, "Priests left the town on north road. Gotta follow the trail, demon lover. Maybe she just waits for a prince to free her from whatever prison she's in now."

  "North?", some moderate disinterest in the voice of the drunk, "North of us is only grass and forest."

  From a table nearby some people got up, put some coins on the table to pay up and left the tavern.

  -- Lilith POV, Skyview Monastery Garden --

  The monastery garden turned out to be in the inner courtyard. She wondered if they had found soil on top of this rock spire when they build the monastery, or if they had to carry the soil up all those stairs. She only had made the way up once, but that's definitely been way to many steps. She could not imagine the effort to bring enough soil up those stairs to plant a garden. But here it was.

  It was nice though for a garden. One part had a tree and some bushes, one of the bushes was flowering in bright white at the time. There were also a few benches placed under the tree, the common simple and practical design that was ubiquitous in the monastery. Apparently a place for recreation. First, she couldn't truly make up her mind if she would rather have stone and gargoyles, or the vivid plants. Then, she felt more inclined to stone. Stone didn't burn. Also it didn't need water or any sort of care taking. Not even soil. Yes, most definitely stone, the longer she was thinking about it. Stone and gargoyles. Stone lasted.

  She looked at her alabaster white hands and her black claws. There was a light gloss on them, stronger on the claws, like polished. Was she stone?

  The part she was supposed to work was a row of neatly arranged vegetable beds with small stone tiled walkways between them. So the one who had designed this had not fully forgotten about stone. She considered it a good compromise, given that these beds had to have some green plants growing, so they could have food.

  "Hello Lilith, I'm brother Otto", one of the monks working in the garden greeted her once she arrived from cleaning the dishes.

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  She tried to appear friendly and offered a smile, "Hello brother Otto."

  "Please come with me, we'll get you some gardening tools, and I'll explain what you'll do this afternoon."

  There had been a small shed which he opened with a surprisingly large key and he picked something for her, which she at first took for a pole arm, not so much a gardening tool.

  "This is called a hoe. Yes, I know it's often used as a bad word, but still it is the name of it. You swing it to break hardened soil and also can use it to dig up the roots of bad weeds, so they cannot regrow."

  "Oh", she was too surprised to give a better answer. Banishment. The monks not only removed the bad weeds, they wanted to banish them. No regrowth. That was a tough fate.

  She also felt slightly insulted by the term "bad weed", but she was not quite sure why. Had someone called her a bad weed at some time? She could not remember.

  "I see", she took the thing a bit hesitantly and looked at the metal part which had a sharpened leaf shaped blade on one side and two pointy prongs on the other side. Both sides had shiny metal where regular use had sanded away the growing rust, "Are you sure this is not to kill people?"

  "No, this is for working the soil. I'll show you how to do it. Now take this bucked and follow me. I'll show you how to use the hoe and which vegetable bed you'll work on today."

  With bucket and hoe in hands, she still felt a bit like a soldier with a shield and pole arm, when she followed brother Otto to learn how to work the vegetable beds.

  Well, the hoe was not too hard to handle. Hack the soil, dig up bad weeds, pull them out with the roots, collect them in the bucket. Rinse and repeat. So she had been left on her own to work this vegetable bed. "Do not hit the good plants!" She had been warned. Shouldn't be too hard?

  It wasn't particularly difficult work, just a bit dirty and quite boring. Hack the soil to reduce the grip of the weed's roots, pull the bad weed out, put it in the bucket, continue hacking the soil, so that air can enter it, till the next bad weed's turn comes.

  It had suddenly become much more fun when she had stared at a particularly annoying and deep rooted weed, which to her surprise just withered away under her stare.

  Now that was something! She never had tried to use the evil eye on annoying plants, only on annoying people. So she withered away bad weed by bad weed with a feeling of great satisfaction. Power! Dominance. Just by standing there and staring them down. That was something she had not felt often since she had been called into this world. Never, even.

  Then the chief gardener called her, "Why aren't you working Lilith?"

  She jerked up, "I am working!"

  "No, you just stare at the vegetable bed like you hate it and do nothing. You're supposed to remove the bad weeds."

  She pointed a midnight colored claw down towards the vegetable bed, still feeling proud of her achievement, "Sure doing just that. They are all dead now."

  "Dead?" The monk almost sprinted to reach the vegetable bed which she had been working, hoe still in his hands. Then he spotted all the withered bad weeds, and was almost screaming the next words, "What did you do?"

  "I gave them the evil eye. Now they are dead." She pointed the claw downwards to the withered plants again, standing tall and proud, tail swaying behind her in remains of satisfaction.

  He began to shake, "Please tell me, this doesn't work on people."

  She bowed down to him, put a hand on his shoulder, and let him know in a low voice, "It works. Works best if someone makes me really angry. But don't tell anyone. I'm not supposed to do it. Not with people."

  She straightened her posture again, cleared her throat and spoke with her normal voice, "I'll hoe this bed to air the soil and then move on to the next one, will that be alright with you?"

  He still was trembling, "Yes, that will be ... moment! You'll just kill all the bad weeds again, right?"

  "Sure will", she confirmed, "It is very satisfying. Also much quicker this way. We'll be done early. How about some talk and games later? Do you play games?" She tilted her head, looking at him with curiosity.

  "No games at work. Later we can see", he still seemed to tremble some.

  "Sounds good to me." She let him know, hoping he soon would ease up, happy about the good progress at work and added "Alright, back to work then."

  She gave him a friendly smile and curt nod and returned to loosen the hardened soil while he stumbled back towards his own work.

  -- Superior Martins POV --

  From the window of his office, he had been watching Lilith working in the garden as instructed. She was a strange demon. Nonviolent. Seemingly tame. Obedient even. But it had happened again.

  She had been working, then stopped for some reason. Brother Otto had come to check on her, they had talked for a bit. It didn't even seem to have been an argument, rather that Lilith was explaining something? Now she was working again, but brother Otto seemed shaken to the bone.

  It reminded him of his first talk with her. She had agreed easily to all his conditions. She had not protested once. One time she had begged, and he could even understand that she, as demon, didn't want to work with holy books. It all had seemed to be fine.

  Then she had asked to hold hands with him. It had come out of nowhere, and hit him completely unprepared. It even seemed so innocent for a moment. What reason could he give, not to hold hands? But no. Just no. Holding hands with a demon felt so very wrong to him. He had asked her to return to her cell and she had left without protest, arguing or anything. But the moment had left him rattled to the bones.

  Now he had her in his monastery. By order of the king. By her agreement. For a lifetime.

  Time to pray.