Vague grinned and extended his arm out to the four summons he had performed. "Hal! Glad to see you finally up. For a demon you sleep in pretty late."
Hal rubbed her eyes. "For one," She corrected, 'I'm a dread lady, not a demon. And for two, there's no sense of time in the netherworld. And for three, what in the name of Archimonde are you doing!"
"Oh, this?" Vague grinned. "Hal, I'd like to introduce you to Vanoo, the Imp, Char, the Voidwalker, Bronnys the Succubus and Jhaama the Felhound." The four made respective noises. The Voidwalker and Felhound were only capable of growls or strange rumblings, but the Imp was able to talk (in an annoyingly sarcastic voice), as was the Succubus (in a less annoying voice.)
The Imp was only a foot tall, and was vaguely humanoid, but had red skin, horns, glowing yellow eyes and wore naught but a loin cloth. The horns and tail didn't help much, either.

The Voidwalker was bigger then Vague by a few inches. It was only vaguely humanoid, consisting mostly of swirling, black energy contained inside a translucent exterior bound by two golden bracers on extended portions forming arms and fists. It's bottom trailed off into nothingness like a genie's, and it's head was simply two glowing yellow orbs on an extended portion of the exterior.

The Succubus was as tall as the Voidwalker and looked much like Hal did when she had first arrived. Black hair fell about her shoulders, parted by two thin and small horns poking out of her forehead. A set of bat-like wings extended from her back, and her legs turned to fur ending in hooves around her knees. Her hands were claws, and her clothing was questionable in decency. Despite her inhuman features, she was still incredibly attractive by human terms.

The Felhound was simply a beast of some sort on four legs, half as tall as Vague, and red-skinned with many scales and horns. It had two long ones like a bull pointing forward, and a long, extended jaw and tail. It did not appear to have eyes.

"You haven't answered my question." Hal replied, her eyes narrowing. She made no motion of having heard of or cared for the introductions.

"…right. Well, for those of you recently summoned, this is Hal. She's a dread lady, and not someone you'd particularly like to mess with when angry."
"Hah! She looks like a mortal human!" Vanoo, the imp, cackled. "Why would a dread lady willingly forgo her own form for that of a human? She must be a real looker in her normal form if she needs spells to-" Vanoo the imp was suddenly a pile of smoked grass and dirt in a flash of green light.

Vague winced and turned to Hal, who had raised her hand to do the deed, her teeth gritted. "Answer. Now." She said very slowly and with restrained emotions.
"Fine, fine. I'm using arcane binding spells like the one that brought you here to keep them on this world. Your lesson taught me how to summon them, and how to bind them. I just replaced the fel bindings with arcane bindings, except for the felhound, on whom they don't work. But since a single fel binding is perfectly fine for me to handle…" Vague shrugged.

Hal stared at him for a few moments. Her expression didn't change, initially, and her sharp eyebrows, black as they were, stayed crossed over her eyes. But little by little they returned to normal, betraying her impressed state amidst her angry face.

"And you blew up a set of good runes when you did that. Then again, I guess the weakest possible summon doesn't matter much. I'll just transfer his potential into the Voidwalker."
"Wait, what?" Hal uttered. "Now you make no sense. There's no context or grounds for that. I never taught you how to do that, and that's an incredibly complex piece of magic."
"You seem to forget I was a decent mage before I turned to this, Hal." Vague smirked. "Transference of energies is easy, and the Voidwalker is a receptacle of energies. I mean, all he is bound nether energies given sentient will. If I take our now-deceased friend's energies and transfer them into the voidwalker, he should gain the imp's abilities and powers. " The Voidwalker craned its head towards Vague, making a sort of happy rumbling sound.
"It can't possibly be that easy."
Vague rose his hand towards the scorched spot of earth. "Wanna bet?" Bronnys ooh ed softly and crouched on her legs, wings beating as she watched with interest.
"You can't handle the fel energies like that, just replacing your elemental magics with it. You'll harm yourself. You won't be able to just take the essence of a demon and shove it into another demon to form a stronger one."
"You underestimate me."
"You overestimate yourself."
Bronnys cut in. "Why not just let him do the spell? If he's wrong, you'll have proven him wrong, and there's no one to blame but himself."
Hal narrowed her eyes again at Vague. "Because he's my way home and if he gets himself killed I'm stuck here." She felt odd saying so, as if stating it made it untrue.
"Nice of you to care, Hal." Vague remarked, stretching out his fingers. "But that's not going to stop me from doing it, you know."

"Vague.. You can't do it."
"Like I said.. Wanna bet?"
Bronnys cut in again. "I'll take that bet! Vague, if Hal's right, you should have to do a quest of her choosing or something, or obey her as a teacher. Hal, If Vague's right.."
"He won't be."
"You just watch. I'll take that bet. And if I win, you have to …" Vague paused, pondering.

"I'm already teaching you. There's not much more I can give you." Hal snipped, brushing her red hair over an ear and folding her arms.

The succubus cut in, yet again. "Well, if he loses, he has to obey you. That's going to be kind of embarrassing and sub servile for him." She grinned. Despite the friendly, joking nature of it, her appearance gave it a sinister, demonic appearance. "So you should do something embarrassing as well."
"Oh, grow up." snapped Hal.

"No, wait. Let her." Vague motioned. "I'm curious what you have in mind."
"How long would you have to obey her or do her quest, if you lose, first?" Bronnys inquired.

"Probably a week or two. Sound about right, Hal?"
"I'm still against this whole thing." Hal narrowed her eyes. "If I agree to a bet you -will- do it, and that I do not want."

Vague rubbed his forehead. "One and a half weeks then."
"Then she needs to do something of equal length." Bronnys replied.

"I SAID I am not agreeing to your bet." Hal snapped.

"Hal, shush. I'm going to do it either way. If you're right and I'm wrong, you get to prove me wrong and you get some measure of control over me. Either you can lose out, period, or you can bet and maybe, if I'm wrong, gain something." Vague raised his eyebrows at her. Hal paused. "How about it?"
"You're a friggin bastard. Fine."
"Great! Bronnys, why don't you think up what she should do?"
Bronnys smirked. 'I think she should have to apologize to you. Kiss and make up." She folded her arms. "AND she has to teach you how to do curses."
"Curses?" Vague questioned, his eyebrows raising. Hal snarled softly, stomping a foot towards Bronnys.

"Why don't you keep your mouth shut?" She hissed.

"No reason for me to." Bronnys replied with a demure, sadistic smile. "Besides, the runes I'm bound to force me to help him out."
"You -offered- that information." Hall retorted.

"Yup." Bronnys chuckled to herself.

"Girls! What, are curses?" Vague asked, confused.

Hal turned towards him, grinding her teeth slightly. "Curses are a warlock's normal way of engaging in combat. They're multitude and have a variety of effects, usually debilitating to an enemy. A curse of weakness will sap their strength, a curse of corruption will damage them over time, a curse of tongues will slow a spell caster down, making it difficult for them to cast spells. The like."
"Interesting. You weren't going to tell me about them?"
"You just wanted to know how to learn fel magic. Curses are warlock's tricks, not demons."
"And you know how to do curses?"
"Of course… mostly."
"Great. Then the bet is as follows: If I can't do it, I have to listen to and obey you for ten days. If I can, you have to kiss and make up and teach me a few curses." Vague extended his hand with a smile.

Hal sighed and took a great long while to consider it. But at last she walked over to him, shaking his hand and then folding her arms again. "You're just going to get hurt.." She stepped back. "Come on and burn yourself already."
Vague extended his hand towards the remains of the Imp. He muttered something in demonic, his voice becoming slightly deeper and gravelly by the nature of the language. Green and black energy swirled into existence where the imp had once stood and pulsed as if alive, moving around and about itself. After a moment it began to pulse upwards, and flew towards Vague's hand, entering it.

This caused the mage to wince and clutch his arm at the elbow, struggling to retain control. The energy swirled around his hand and inside it, causing a blackish green glow to come from his form inside the arm. Hal stepped forward and parted her arms, but Vague thrust his free arm at her to keep her away. He grimaced and turned towards Char, who floated up to him and spread its arms.

The corrupted hand plunged into Char's chest through the exterior. Almost immediately Char turned a blackish color, as if black liquid had been dropped into a blue liquid. His 'limbs' became green and the upper art of his body turned black, fading towards the original blue as it got lower towards the fading off point. Vague yanked his hand out and stumbled backwards and fell, clutching his arm with a cry of pain. Hal rushed over to him as Bronnys snickered. The felhound trotted over to him and sniffed him like some demonic puppy and sat beside him.

Hal pressed her hand against the portion of Vague's arm the demonic energies had touched. It was slightly burned and blackened, but not too badly damaged. Vague winced at the touch but didn't push Hal away, leaning up and sitting, holding the arm out. Hal cursed softly to herself.
"Damn it, I told you so. What did you say the felhound's name was?" She crouched beside Vague, holding his arm.
"Jhaama.. Why?" Vague got out, groaning softly. The felhound tilted his head towards Vague with intelligent eyes, recognizing his name.
"Jhaama!" Hal snapped. The felhound turned to her. She spoke in a swift language Vague couldn't understand. After a moment the felhound nodded and moved over the wound. He bared his teeth and suddenly inhaled, his body crouched as if he were about to attack.

"Hal!" Vague started, anger creeping into his voice. But the felhound didn't attack or bite. Instead, it continued to inhale. His arm suddenly twitched of its own accord. Bits and pieces of black energy flew out of it, and the black portions of it faded. After a moment, a black stream flew out of his arm and into the felhound's mouth, and it gulped, exhaling in a content growl. It moved off, giving Vague room.

Now his arm was only slightly burned, but that would heal in time. He groaned and pulled himself to his feet with Hal's help. She let go of his arm and rolled her eyes.

"I told you. The corruption was too much to contain or transfer like you would normal energies. Fel energies automatically harm those not made of it. You -knew- this. Why did you try to do it anyways?" She snipped.

"Tried? I succeeded." Vague grinned and stood upright again, shaking his arm. "Take a look." Hal turned and looked towards Char, taking in the new appearance of it. She frowned thinly.

"New color scheme. And..?"
"Char, why don't you… hm. What can an Imp do, anyways? You never told me that."
Hal groaned in utter exasperation and slapped her forehead. "That'll be tonight's lesson, then. After shadow bolts, anyways."
"And after the curses." Bronnys chipped in.

"What are you talking about?" Hal asked, growing incredibly annoyed with the succubus.

"You lost." Bronnys replied with a grin, enjoying Hal's discomfort and irritance.

"That's true." Vague replied. "I did, in fact, succeed in doing transferring the imp's essence into the Voidwalker. I won." Hal stared at him for a long moment, her expression barely and then not at all concealing her irritated rage. She gritted her teeth and said nothing.

"Well, you don't need to apologize -right away-, but yeah." Vague replied, looking away from Hal's angered expression. "And you-" He spoke to the succubus now. "need to stop trying to piss her off. Whether you like it or not, she's higher on the totem pole of servitude then you are, and you're just as killable as Valoo was." Bronnys scowled but made no further indication of being sorry for her actions.

"Anyways. If we're all done here, I'm going to grab my stuff and we can start on the trek to town." Vague muttered and turned, walking back towards and into his cabin.

"Wow. He's a little angry." Bronnys commented.

"Will you please stop talking." Hal muttered.

"Are you kidding me?" Hal whirled around towards the smirking succubus. "You forget, I can smell and feel your taint. And it's low. It took most of your power to blow away an imp. You're hardly even a dread lady. You're a weakling. You can't force me to shut up no more then you could force Vague to do anything. I'm willing to bet you don't have the power to do half the things you'll be teaching him." Bronnys grinned. "I could kick your ass in a straight out fight and you know it. So don't think Vague telling me off about you or him thinking you're so great stops me from knowing the truth." With that the succubus walked over to the felhound and crouched, stroking it's back. It laid down and make a satisfied rumbling sound. Hal watched with an infuriated expression.

"I will so kick your ass when Vague teaches me some of his arcane magicks." She muttered under her breath. "You'll see. You'll all see…"

"Hey, whispering to herself girl!" Bronnys called out.

"What!" Hal turned towards Bronnys, irritated beyond her limits.

"Come here."

Hal scrunched up her nose and muttered, walking over to the succubus.
"I may be a bitch, but I also like to see a good show. So you know what? I'm gonna blackmail you. If you don't apologize to Vague as soon as he comes out, I'm going to tell him how weak you really are. See how much respect and equality he gives you after that." She smirked.

Knuckles became white as the dread lady's fist tightened to a death grip. She exhaled through gritted teeth and turned away. "Fine."

Vague walked out of the cabin, carrying two bags. One of them he tossed towards the Voidwalker, who promptly went down under the unexpected impact, and the other he chucked towards Bronnys, who caught the bag in her hands after seeing Char go down. "Ugh! Why do I have to do this? Jhaama's a felhound! He's practically a mule for carrying stuff."

"Because I saw you telling off Hal and while I don't care for the details, you're going to get punished. I could just send you back whence you came."

"That's not a threat."
"Probably not. Then again, I could mess up the return spell and end up sending you to someplace between dimensions to rot for all eternity until called upon again." Bronnys paled. "And that -is- a threat. So learn your place." Vague smiled amicably and turned towards Hal. "You ready?"
"Yeah." Hal replied, rubbing one of her elbows. "Look, about earlier.." She began.
"Wow, apologizing already? I thought I'd have to wait until tonight for you to apologize." Vague raised his eyebrows.

"Just shut up and let me do it." Hal exhaled through clenched teeth, her expression twisted in a mixture of disgust and irritance. There was little to discern genuine regret from her features. "I'm sorry for thinking you were not capable."
His hand rubbed his chin for a point as he watched her. "You don't seem very sincere. Are you just trying to force it out now so you won't have to apologize when you feel genuinely bad about it?"
"No!" Hal cried with a surprised look on her face. "Don't assume that of me."
"You -are- a dread lady." Vague remarked, looking off into the distance over the trees. "While I'd love to humanize you all and treat you like equals, I'm not going to just forget that if I wasn't binding you, you'd kill me in a flash."
Bronnys chuckled dangerously. The other two summons didn't seem to care or understand, looking around and inspecting the area.
"I've also saved your life." snapped Hal. "I deserve a little more trust then that."
Hal's words caused Vague to pause, and he tensed his jaw slightly, looking at the ground. After a moment he relaxed and sighed. "Yeah, you're right. Bindings or no bindings, you didn't -have- to nurse me back to health like that. I'm sorry. You do deserve more respect then that."

Hal exhaled softly and smiled. Bronnys spit to the side, making a disgusted sound. "Thank you, Vague. Do you believe I am sincere in my apology, then?" She asked at a slightly softer level, her sharp eyebrows relaxing and turning upwards quietly, most of the irritance and disgust gone from her face.

The mage quietly shrugged and walked past Hal. "Sure. I accept it. You're forgiven."
"Hey!" snapped Bronnys. "She has to kiss and make up. She's only made up!" She smirked dangerously towards Hal, whose expression barely concealed a sudden rage towards the succubus.
"She doesn't have to do that, Bronnys. The expression only refers to the whole apology and forgiveness proc- eh?" Vague was cut short as Hal grabbed him by the arm. He looked back towards her just in time to see her leaning in towards him. His first reaction was to jerk, but Hal's grip was too strong for him. He could do nothing but be confused and dumbfounded when Hal's lips pressed into his own.

The kiss only lasted for a second, and Hal pulled away nearly immediately, letting go and glaring daggers at the succubus, who merely and neatly grinned her sadistic grin.
"Er… Hal?" Vague said slowly, in a stunned daze. "While I am.. Appreciative.. Of that.. I was just telling you why you didn't have to." He hadn't moved from the spot, still looking towards her. But then, he hadn't wiped his lips, either.

Hal rolled her eyes and resumed her disdainful expression. "It was just to shut the succubitch up. Don't interpret it as anything more."

"Er.. Interesting way of shutting her up. I suppose as a sexual vampire she -would- enjoy that, wouldn't you?" He directed the question towards Bronnys, who merely grinned and shrugged. She lifted the pack she had been thrown up and held it on her back.

"Can we just get moving? The less I have to play pack mule the better." She said snippily. Hal allowed herself a tiny grin.

"Right, right. Char, Jhaama!" He called out. The two turned their heads towards him. He gestured. "C'mon! We're going."
The sun passed over their heads and began its slow descent towards the horizon as they walked. Hal said nothing more on her own, though she walked besides Vague, and Bronnys merely stayed behind Hal and Vague. The Voidwalker traveled behind them all with a slow drift that sped up when he got too far behind, and Jhaama, the only unburdened summon, ran about the forest around the troop. Every so often a shriek or roar would sound and the sounds of vicious bestial fighting would trail off as they walked, and Jhaama would return.

The attacking of animals of the forest didn't bother Vague too much. After the first such occurrence, he took the time to explain the geography to Hal and Bronnys. They were in the forests of Darkshore, which was set below the ridges of Felwood and extended to the shores. The entire area was the upper most northwest passage of land for the continent, Kalimdor. Darkshore's animals were violent and tended to attack passerby; so Jhaama's attacks upon them were simply protecting Vague from the animals that would attack him on sight.

Darkshore was also Night Elf territory. The mere word "Night Elf" caused both Bronnys and Hal to scowl and show general displeasure, though Vague knew not why specifically. Night Elves were reclusive, rather secretive race of graceful, nature-loving warriors. They were blue to purple skinned and much taller then humans, with the woman usually over six feet and the men usually averaging seven. Their hair was often nature-colored as well, though purple wasn't too uncommon, either. Their eyes always glowed, often a color from yellow to light blue.
The women were usually warriors and priestesses of their goddess, Elune, and the men were usually druids.
And they hated arcane magic. They hated fel magic even more. None of their kind would ever be a mage or warlock. They tolerated the presence of human ones because of an alliance between their peoples. Vague had once asked a Night Elf why exactly they hated magic so much. After being berating Vague for being so stupid, the Night Elf had told him.

Long ago, parts of their society had discovered and practiced arcane magic. Those who used it became elitists, high ranking members called Kaldorei. But the use of it had caused demons to become interested in their world, and because of this, their world had been invaded. The Kaldorei and demons were beaten back, and the Kaldorei's city was sunken below the ocean. Those who survived sailed off, becoming the High Elves the humans had known for so long.

Their skin had turned light, their hair bright, and they had become of human size and general stature.

And thus, the Night Elves had realized the corruption of all arcane magic. Fel magic was demonic magic, which was even worse. So it was taboo in their culture to use it or practice it. Those who did try were cast out or killed.

They also very obviously did not like demons. As the sun began to set and Vague's lessons on the geography and Night Elves finished, they managed to find a clearing in which to settle. It was suited upon a cliff which jutted out to sandy shores below. Auberdine, the small port-town for Darkshore, could be seen in an hour's walking distance along the shore.

Vague had Bronnys and Char set up camp for him. Bronnys complained and was ignored, and Vague walked to the cliff edge quietly to peer out at the waters below. Hal joined him after a moment.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Vague remarked, gesturing with his hand out at the water. "Clear, unpolluted water, far as the eye can see. There's a benefit to staying around in nature-lover territory."
"I guess it is. I'm used to seas of flame and shadow." Hal replied. Vague looked at her out of the corner of his eye and smiled.

"Water must be pretty new to you." He remarked.
"Sort of."
"Would you like to experience rain?"
Hal jolted and looked at him. "A rain of fire? What did I do?"
"No, just.. Rain. Falling water. Our rain."
"Oh. You can do that? That's impressive."
"Actually, it's going to rain soon anyways. It was rhetorical." Vague smiled at her. Hal groaned and shook her head. "It'll be a good experience for you. We can do some of the lesson out here. What should we cover tonight?"
"Well.. We should cover spells first, I think. Shadowbolt sound okay?"
"Only shadow bolt?"
"Well, it's a rather difficult maneuver. It's a warlocks primary method of direct damage to a foe, as compared to a curse's slow damage over time. It works much like a fireball would, only it's different." Hal turned towards Bronnys. "Succubitch! Take Jhaama and bring back a bear if you can! Alive!" Vague jerked in surprise.

"Hal?" Vague questioned slowly.
"Well, you need something to practice curses on, at least." Hal shrugged. "What?"
"Seems inhumane." Vague muttered. Bronnys hadn't moved yet. "Do what she said!" He yelled at her. She groaned and got up, and Jhaama followed her into the forest as she unfolded a whip from midair.
"Your entire travel party is made of demons and you're worried about being inhumane to a bear? It'd just attack you anyways. Don't be so conscience-confused." Hal smirked.
"Just teach me how to do a shadow bolt." Vague muttered.
"Well, a shadow bolt is essentially an instantaneous burst of energy, made entirely of fel and shadow energy. The majority of it you'll pull from your own energy, which, separated from yourself, is easily corrupted in whole by a small part of corruption, and thus you can form shadow bolts using only your energy and some fel corruption. Likewise…" Hal continued.
It took twenty minutes before Bronnys and Jhaama returned, with Jhaama dragging easily behind him a bear that would take two bulls to carry. Bronnys stood atop the bear, her whip wrapped around it and binding it. She hopped off it, her whip remaining around it, and gestured at the bear. Jhaama dropped the bear and growled, then walked off to the camp, Bronnys following him.

Vague looked up at the dark, cloudy sky. In the distance above them, one of his shadow bolts was flying up and dissipating after a certain distance. "Why does it keep doing that?"
"Same reason your fireballs or ice bolts can't survive long distance. The burst of energy that does so much damage used instantaneously like you use them, doesn't hold together over a long distance." Hal remarked, sitting at the edge of cliff. She got up and brushed the back of her pants off. "Ah, they brought back the bear. Come." She walked over to the bound animal, who growled and snarled at them.

It was relatively unharmed, with cuts where the whip had dug into its skin, and was prevented from moving due to its paws all being sliced off. Vague winced at the sight and shook his head. Hal noticed his reaction and smirked. "What are you so turned off about? You were just going to give it a slow death anyways. That's what curses do."
"It's.. it's hard to explain, I guess. Even dealing with demons is a bit different then being inhumane." Vague shrugged and frowned at the sight.

"Whatever. Anyways, a curse is simple in concept but complex to carry out. You recite an incantation in tongues, and cast a spell of marking. The marking with carry the curse, which is in the incantation, and afflict it upon the target. Thankfully, there's no chance of misfire, as the incantation is designed to work with the spell. If you don't denote a target, it doesn't work." Hal said, falling back into her comfortable, explaining voice that carried a small bit of superiority pride in it. She brushed her red hair back over her ears. Hal continued.

"You can, in essence, create a curse out of nearly anything if you know the demonic language, but there's a certain number of curses that always have the intended effect. The difference between casting a prepared fireball and merely throwing fire at someone, in other words. Likewise, to do it instantly despite an incantation being included in the spell, simply think the incantation."
Vague nodded during this and folded his arms as he listened. The clouds darkened, and Bronnys started a fire in the camp. Char put stakes around for a larger tent around the campfire in preperation for the rain.

"The first basic one is a curse of weakness. It, like all curses, is instantaneous done properly. It saps the target's strength, not to an extreme degree, but enough that their blows are certainly less damaging."
"And how do I know if it works with the bear?" Vague questioned.

"It'll be obvious. The bear will pale. It's just an animal, so its strength is easily sapped. The incantation.." Hal paused. "Fayghax yo linca ibuh cha!" She said roughly. "Do you know how to do a spell of marking in tandem with an incantation?"
"Sort of. I'm sure I'll pick it up." Vague cleared his throat and pointed his hand at the bear. His eyebrows furrowed. A puff of smoke appeared to hit the bear, and it growled angrily. It did not pale. Vague grimaced and furrowed his brow again, thrusting his arm out again. Once more a puff of smoke seemed to "hit" the bear, like it was full of dust and someone was punching it. It snarled in a vicious rage.

Vague thrust his arm out yet -again- and was finally rewarded when a green essence seemed to appear from nowhere and sink into the bear, turning it a slight gray color. The bear groaned and was quieted instantly, falling to the ground and rawring weakly. Vague smiled. "Neat."
Hal too, smiled, but hid it. "Yes. You picked up on it quickly enough. It only took you three tries to realize you can channel it like a normal spell instead of focusing on the incantation so much."
"You didn't just tell me?"
"You wouldn't be learning if I just told you how."
Vague shrugged. "Well, that was easy. Tell me another."
"I'll tell you one more for tonight. The curse of agony. It's what will kill the bear."
"Agony? That sounds.."
"Painful? It is. It's the basic damaging curse. It will sap the target's life essence, and not too gently. It'll grow stronger over time until the mark fades, which on average is.." She paused and looked up, pursing her lips.
"About thirty seconds." finished Vague.

"Yeah. You'd know why that is more then me."
"Interesting." Vague murmured. "So the incantation for a curse of agony?"
"Yalxon yo linca ibuh cha."

"But.. That's the same as a curse of weakness. Except for one work."
"Indeed it is. As I said, the more you know of curses, the more potential ones you could make. All that matters is what the curse is to be." Hal turned to the bear. "Your curse of agony won't kill the bear, and I know how bad you feel about causing unneeded suffering. So, on three, we'll both do it. The combined effect will kill it before the mark runs out. Ready?"
Vague was startled but nodded. Hal counted, and on three they both thrust their arms out at the bear. Two streams of red energy slunk into the bear, and it began to roar, gnarling and thrashing, the gray vanishing from it. It thrashed free of the whip, tumbling around and somehow got up on the four stumps of limbs, charging straight for the two. Blood exploded from its body before it even got halfway there, and it collapsed, the red energy steaming out of it.

Vague stared in shock. No one had stopped the bear or interfered, and he knew not why what had just happened. "What in the hell?"
"Ick.. Messy." Hal muttered. "It's a curse of agony. It causes agonizing demise. What did you think?" Vague stared at her for a moment. "It's not a clean death like your fireball or ice bolts or whatever. This is warlock stuff." Vague slowly exhaled and frowned, looking at the corpse of the bear. Jhaama trotted out to the bear and grabbed it with its teeth, dragging it towards the campfire. Vague turned away.

"Yeck.." Vague muttered. "Disgusting. Looks like we're having corrupted bear for dinner tonight."
"So it would seem. Well, there goes curse practice. Let's continue practicing your Shadowbolt."
The smell of burning bear and delicious food filled the campsite as the moon shone on the horizon behind the rain clouds, drifting up towards the midnight sky. Vague continued to practice his Shadowbolt until it was a sharp lance of black energy piercing the already darkened night sky and Hal was fully satisfied with his progress. It began to rain, and Hal retired to the large tent to eat. Vague chose not to, and remained outside, sitting on the edge of the cliff.

It was only a short while later when Hal walked back out of the tent and blinked up at the sky as rain drops fell upon her, brushing off her legs. She walked over to and sat down besides Vague, her feet tapping the cliff edge.
"This is an odd sensation." She remarked quietly.
Vague looked over at her and up at the sky. He was soaked, and water dripped out of his clothes. "It is, isn't it? It's kind of nice. Very good for the planet, too, and all." He yawned quietly. "Why aren't you inside? I thought a demon, er, dread lady," he corrected himself, "Would be a bit adverse to rain and water."
"Demons generally tend to have a preference for fire, yes. But we dread lords are more leaning towards the fel arts, subtle tricks and manipulations." She placed her hands on the grass and leaned back, leaning on her arms.

"And you're one of the big three, aren't you?"
"Big three?" Hal remarked with a trace of amusement.
"Dreadlords, Eredar, and Pit Lords."
"Well, yes. The Eredar are our spell casters. Even the weakest ones are as strong as a powerful human mage." She smirked slightly. "Archimonde was one of the very strongest we had."

"And Pit lords?"
Hal shuddered. "I'd rather not talk of pit lords. Carnage incarnate is all I'll say. Speaking of which, would you like to know the abilities of your summons?" She smiled at him through the rain, her red hair clinging to her face about her green eyes.

Vague chuckled. "Ah, right! The lessons. Information. I had forgotten. Please, do." He raised his hand out, letting rain pat against it.

The dread lady nodded and looked up at the sky, her body position to allow the most rain drops to patter against her form. She clearly enjoyed the sensations. "The Imp is capable of fire shields, which are usually invisible but damage anyone who attacks you, and firebolt, which is a weakened version of your fireball. He also grants his allies a sort of.. I'm not sure -what- it is, but a sort of boost in energy, an increase in stamina. They call it a blood pact. I've never really gotten into the details, so.." She shrugged slightly.

She continued as the moon grew closer to its midnight arch. The Voidwalker was essentially a proverbial tank that tormented enemies and forced them to attack it alone, the Succubus had, predictably, the ability to seduce and sooth as well as some limited invisibility, and the felhound could devour magical effects and could destroy weak casters. When she was done with her lesson, she laid back in the grass and yawned. Vague did as well and muttered, getting up.
"Thanks for the lesson, Hal. I'm going to bed now."
Hal perked up and pushed herself up. "Mm. Your human need for sleep is ridiculous."
"Probably, but there's not much I can do about it." Vague wiped his face off of rain and walked towards his tent, raising his arm towards her. After a moment Hal sighed and walked over to her own tent. The summons got to stay in the center tent; they didn't have a problem with it except for Bronnys, but she was ignored.
Hal poked her head into Vague's hut; he had just finished changing out of his soaked clothes and was only wearing pants. "Vague?"
"Harm?" Vague turned towards her curiously, rubbing his black hair.

"I don't have anything to do, and I don't need to sleep yet."
Vague paused. "That's not really my problem.. But.." He walked over to one of his bags and rummaged through it, pulling out a spell book. "Try this out for some reading. It's my old spell book. Covers most of the lower level arcane spells. Try them out if you want, just not on the tents." He grinned and fell into his bed, arms locked behind his head.

"..thanks, Vague."
"Mum. I'll see you in the morning. Good night, Hal." Hal was already gone.

Bronnys rocked on her rear between the rumbling void walker's odd method of rest, and the felhound's bestial snoozing, muttering herself to sleep.