"Are we sure they're not villagers?"

"They're Evil," offers Seelah.

"Withdraw some more, villagers won't chase us."

Nor do the demons. ...possible non-demons. Creatures with the outwards appearance of demons.

They continue to withdraw in good order. Regill is not proud because that is the bare minimum he expects from soldiers under his command.

In a sense Marit actually likes this place. It'd make a good training exercise. 

"First team will go look invisibly around the village and find out if whatever's creating the effect is present or if it's a standing unsupervised effect. Second team will try to find the effect boundary, while avoiding apparent-demons and apparent-humans alike and preferentially using nonlethal force if avoidance isn't working. Don't trust your eyes and don't trust your divinations."

"Ember, join Seelah on Arnisant on point to the west and detect magic. Litran, left flank, eyes peeled. You heard the Commander, we strike to wound not to kill."

"I don't think that's what he meant. Sir."

"Wounded peasants are cheap to heal and I won't have you losing an arm because you tried to punch out a babau. Ember can try sleeping them first," he concedes.

First team enters the village invisibly over the rooftops and immediately sees demons. Eight or ten of them, walking casually down the street without any concern from the apparent-humans. He confirms that's what the rest of his team sees as well.

It's a weird number of demons. Villages outside the Wound are at risk of being ravaged by demons, but the usual character of that risk is that one, or a few, demons might slip through, and be too strong for a village to bring down at any price. These demons are not moving as a pack; one of them is getting its hide brushed, a few are in clusters having conversations with people, and one quasit is....nursing??? on a woman who is admittedly admonishing it to stop biting.

"Nenio, can you Polymorph into a demon?"

"What an interesting idea! I could do that tomorrow."

"I don't think we'll stay that long."

"I don't like this," Seelah complains. "Not knowing who's on your side, who's a demon -"

"Mm. Definitely not my favorite kind of situation."

"Are humans and demons really so different?"

"Substantially."

(What is with that child?)

"I don't think this is a Mendevian village."

"Say more?"

"The shrine." It has a naked woman reaching out from the waters to place the sun in the sky. "Not a classical depiction of Iomedae."

He wouldn't really have been that surprised if it was. "There are lots of other gods worshipped in Mendev."

"Sure. But there are healthy men in this village. They'd have been called to service, and they'd have learned how to be respectful of the delicate feelings of our precious gods."

It is useful to have a local consultant sometimes even if the local consultant is Daeran."Acknowledged, thank you."

At this moment a fight breaks out between one of the apparent-demons and one of the apparent-humans in the village before them; the human says something angrily to the demon, who reaches over and plunges a claw straight through the human, killing him - not instantly, but swiftly. 

         "Oh, come on, grow up," another demon says irritably to the one who just murdered a man. 

"He started it!"

        "The Lady of the Lake's going to be mad at you now!"

                "Yeah!" says another villager, more angry than frightened. "The Lady of the Lake's coming for you!"

They're barely half a mile from the village when Ember announces that the illusion is gone. Regill calls a halt, and informs Aspex telepathically.

"That doesn't make any sense, surely the villagers go farther from the village than this, and then they'd see through it - There's still farms that way!"