Yemees stood on the iron bench so he could reach the smallest dumbbell. He wanted to be tall and thick with muscle, like the demons who trained around him. Instead he was a green demon no bigger than the weight in his hands. He gripped the bar and lifted. His arms shook. The dumbbell dropped and clanged on the floor. Two larger demons laughed. Yemees jumped down, cheeks hot. He had come to this training hall every day for a month. He was still small. He was still weak. He did not know what could make a demon grow, and no one would tell him. He found a bigger demon resting near the chains and asked straight out. "What made you tall?" The demon looked down and shrugged. "You either grow or you don't." That was no answer. Yemees walked the rows of scorched racks and studied every demon there. They all did the same lifts he did. None of them had gotten bigger from it. If iron alone worked, he would have grown already. Something else made these demons huge. He just had to find what. Then he saw the pots. Along the back wall stood clay pots, and in each one grew a strange cactus. Golden berries glowed on the green pads. The biggest demon in the hall reached over, plucked a handful of berries, and ate them. Yemees watched his shoulders swell as he chewed. No one else touched the pots. Yemees moved closer and reached for a berry. A thick hand caught his wrist. The big demon shook his head. "Not for little ones. These grow you. Too much, too fast, and a small body can't hold it." He let go and walked off. Yemees stared at the glowing fruit. So this was the secret. Berries, not iron. But he was too small to eat them safely, and staying small was the whole problem he needed to fix. Yemees waited until the hall emptied. He climbed the shelf beside the pot. His fingers closed on one berry. It was warm and heavy. He knew the warning. He also knew that waiting had gotten him nowhere. He ate the berry. Heat spread through his chest. His arms tingled. He watched his hand, hoping to see it grow. Nothing changed on the outside. But his stomach twisted, and his skin ran hot, hotter than any demon fire he had felt. He gripped the shelf as the room tilted. The berry was doing something. It was too much for a body his size, just as the demon had said. Yemees dropped to the floor and pressed a hand to his burning chest. He had found his answer at last. Golden berries could make him grow. But he could not swallow that power the way the big demons did. He needed a way to take it slowly, safely, or the very thing meant to build him would burn him first.