[center][h3]Auriëlle[/h3][/center]
For once the road she travelled was familiar. It allowed her to return to her old mindset. Whatever happened in Ha-Dûna was nothing short of an embarrassment. The road back allowed her to return to her own mindset. Weakness might have been something allowed in the druid town but outside of it, it was exactly the thing that would kill you. Still, the words of Oraelia did not fall entirely on deaf ears. To protect those who were weaker than her, it seemed admirable. Kind. Yet then again, why would she do it? Those very same people always chased her out of the city. Fearing her magic. The sun’s daughter could do that because they loved her. How could they not? She healed and freed people. Did that make her as strong as Auriëlle? Someday she would have to find out. For now, she would hold to her promise to find Carn and the Redspears again.

So she went back to the area around Ketrefa, assuming he would remain in the vicinity. She heard whispers of the Redspears left and right. Their deeds in Jalka hadn’t been forgotten. Some even recognized Auriëlle in the inns. Her pale-scarred forearm had become a sort of mark for her now. Some were afraid of it, others asked her to tell her story. She indulged the latter, though left certain parts out.

Now she was on the road as a drifter again, rarely disturbed unless she reached a village. Chasing behind a group of people whom could really be anywhere. Like always, her highland stag just followed the road. Allowing Auriëlle to sink deeply into her own thoughts. Until suddenly she heard noises coming from the nearby bushes. She got off her stag and prepared to cast her sorcery in case bandits were stupid enough to attack her. After her encounter with Oraelia, she wanted to be a little more mindful of who she harmed and killed but for bandits, she had no mercy. One man, dressed in rags but with an axe in his hand, jumped out of the bunches but not at her. Instead, he jumped out a few meters away and ran away from her. Screaming all the way. Though not from Auriëlle. More rustling came from the bushes.

Then three…things jump out of from between the leaves. None of them looked like anything she had seen. They had the shape of a dog but with carapace armour on their back and black fur on their sides. Their tails were either compromised of several fleshy tentacle ones or that of a scorpion. One had his jaw split down the middle and open. Revealing its sharp teeth. Another had a normal, dog-like mouth but with three horns on its head. All of them had black shaggy fur with red eyes.

They didn’t howl at all. With her eyes she followed them as they ran behind the bandit and into the open field on the right side of the road. One caught the man by his leg. He fell amid the high weeds. Even though Auriëlle couldn’t see him anymore, she could still hear him for just a little while longer. Until there was nothing. Strangely, only a few moments after the scream stopped the dog-like creatures jumped back out of the tall weeds in front of Auriëlle. Their snouts were red and blooded but they clearly hadn’t eaten him.

“Stop.” A voice said. One demonic dog, the one with the split jaw who was slightly bigger than its brothers, sat down like a dog would. Three people emerged from the bushes. One had the tell-tale rainbow eyes. The other dogs didn’t move much further. “You’re in the lands of Vanhym. State your business.”

“No business. Just passing through.” It was what she usually said when she was stopped. This time around though, her eyes were drawn to the dog-like creatures.

“Interesting things right?” The Servant asked as his demeanor shifted to friendly. “I’m Sarren.” He said as he approached her, extending his right arm. Auriëlle didn’t really know why he was suddenly so friendly but decided to return the gesture. When they shook hands, the Servant caught a hold of her sleeve with his other hand and pulled it back. “Just as I thought, one of the heroes of Jalka.”

Auriëlle tightened the grip in her right hand and pulled the man close so she could grab his arm with her other hand. “Think very carefully before you tell me you’re an ally of Melok.” She said slowly, making the threat clear. The dog-thing got up and growled at her. “Oh it does make sound.” She noted.

“Sit!” The Servant commanded to his pet. It looked as if it was going to refuse for a second, but then obeyed. That couldn’t be said for the other two dogs who began to growl now as well. “Kannek, Surreth. Control your demons!” He commanded. The two much younger apprentices quickly called out to their demons to sit down. Both did, after several repeated commands. Then the Servant turned back to Auriëlle. “Vanhym is not an ally to Melok. Truth be told, we don’t really care about Melok. What we do care about is how you destroyed Galdezor.”

“You’ve heard about?” Auriëlle asked as she released the man’s arm. She sounded slightly surprised.

“All Servants around here have heard! Actually we’ve seen it! His last memory. That translucent wave of destructive energy! Gods what a power. We could only imagine it” The Servant sounded enthusiastic. “Is it true? That it’s a power that comes from Aurius?”

“I’m not sure.” Auriëlle answered truthfully. There was no sense in lying for now. Though she didn’t want to tell everyone she was indeed blessed. “It doesn’t matter, because clearly you can do things that I can’t.” She pointed at the dog-like demons. “I’ve never seen those things. Demons you call them?”

“Aye!” The Servant said as he walked back to kneel beside his split-jaw creation and knelled beside it. “Truth be told we don’t really know how they came to be. Someday one of my brothers just told me about them. He taught me the spell and well…now I’m teaching my own apprentices.”

“Mind if you taught me?”
[hr]
The Demonspell was literally the only spell she ever managed to learn. Though in all fairness, she stopped trying to learn spells after leaving Acadia. None the less, it appeared extremely easy to use.

“You ready to try it out?” Sarren asked.

Auriëlle was looking at the knife in her right hand. It was sharp enough. “Let’s do this.” The two apprentices brought the bowl of water. It was the size of any other bowl. Slowly Auriëlle let the blade cut across her flesh, drawing blood which fell down as a trickle into the water. Clouding it. She then held her other hand over the water and said the words of the spell with her eyes closed. When she opened them again, golden fire hovered over the blood-clouded water and then slowly but surely floated down into it. The water became brackish and dark. Auriëlle used the time to quickly bind the self-inflicted wound on her hand. The bowl, meanwhile, turned even darker until it seemed to just consume the midday sunlight. Then a red eye popped open. “What the…?” Auriëlle wanted to dip her finger into it, but Sarren quickly stopped her. Several more red eyes opened up.

“That would be a bad idea. That demonic mass would overtake you. I know because well…that’s what happened to one of my brothers.” He said. “Now draw some of the demonic flesh out and mould it like you would clay. But only with your mind.”

Auriëlle nodded and held her hand outstretched over the black liquid. Slowly she raised it like she would raise water out of a tankard. Until she had a respectable amount of demonic matter hovering below her palm. Yet the inky, eyed mass in the bowl didn’t seem to have shrunk a bit. Her attention turned back to the orb she held suspended in the air. With her mind she began to shape it, expecting it to push back against her. To her surprise, as long as she channeled mana towards it, it seemed fine with all her manipulations. Eventually, the shapeless mass had taken its form: that of a raven with two sets of wings. It had three eyes on one side, and one on the other and its beak was long and hook-shaped. Ready to tear out flesh. Slowly Auriëlle guided it over solid ground rather than the infinite mass in the bowl and dropped it.

To her surprise it collapsed like a broken bird. But then gathered itself and got up, without any broken parts. She also felt that faint link running from her to it. Not a link of mana, it was something deeper. Something more personal.

“You did good.” Sarren said. He said a few words in a language she didn’t know. Like one would smother a flame, he smothered the stream of mana running into the bowl. Instantly the eyes closed and never opened again. The inky blackness began to dissipate slowly. Until it was all water again. “I’d suggest you don’t keep your demon for too long. They can become greedy for your mana.”

Auriëlle was listening but not with all her focus on him. Instead she was looking at the majestic and only slightly horrifying bird that jumped on her arm. “I guess I won’t be naming it then.” She said.

“No, best not.” Sarren said. “You’ve made one but now you best dispel it.”

She nodded in agreement and said the few words that she was taught. The raven demon lit up in golden flames. Though it seemed utterly unphased by it. The fires worked fast, spread across it and turning every bit of demon they touched into ash. Eventually, nothing was left of it.

When the demon was gone Sarren turned to Auriëlle. “Now that I have taught you this, I can make my request.” He said, his voice becoming a little more serious now.

Auriëlle turned to face Sarren and frowned. “What does Vanhym need of me?” She didn’t like to be bound to thrones or crowns. Even though sometimes she had to, like in Jalka. Still, she didn’t like it and she preferred not to get tangled up in another problem.

“Not Vanhym.” Sarren said and then pointed at his own eyes. “Us, the rainbow eyes. There’s a land east from here. For the passed years it has been…strange. I used to hear about a brother there. His name is Parn. Lately he has been asking some strange questions about runes. Sometimes the questions are a bit too specific.”

“You want me to check up on him?” Auriëlle asked.

“Yes, and check up on that entire land. They say something has build a very big place there. And I really mean big. Local leaders are coming over to make assurances they say. Auriëlle, something is wrong in the land of Nallan.”

“Any suspicions?” She asked.

“Nothing concrete now. Maybe it’s nothing or just a very peculiar king but Parn is utterly mute of who he serves. That in of itself is not new. We talk to each other but sometimes we trust our lieges more than our own brothers and sisters. Still, I worry about him. We worry about him.”

“I understand,” Auriëlle said as she got up and walked to her stag. She did owe the Servants a favor and a small little detour before meeting up with Carn again wouldn’t hurt right? “I’ll visit this land named Nallan but only because you taught me something valuable.”

[hider=Summary]Auriëlle ponders upon what happened in Ha-Dûna, though she finds the experience as a whole very embarrassing. On the road back to the area around Ketrefa to find Carn again she encounters as Servant with two apprentices hunting a bandit with demon dogs. The Servant recognizes Auriëlle as one of the heroes of Jalka. Auriëlle askes them to teach her how to create a demon. The Servant teaches her but afterward asks for a favor in return.  The Servant in the strange, eastern land of Nallan has been acting a bit weird and asked some very specific questions. The Servant suspect something is up and ask Auriëlle to  go and investigate the place. She agrees.[/hider]

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[b]Post Length:[/b] 10.8K characters
+5 Prestige >> Auriëlle
+5 Prestige >> Servants
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