Disclaimer: I do not own Magic: The Gathering, only my characters.

CHAPTER 40-Alcohol and hanyos do not mix

After Eva had calmed down, everyone went back to bed seeing as they had several hours left until dawn. As Arrathir lay in bed, he kept seeing the look of intense horror on Eva's face. It caused him a mental pang every time he reminded himself it was because of him Eva was having these nightmares. Chiburuu had tried to cast a spell to give Eva a dreamless sleep, but he didn't know if it would work. The demon's mark was as much a physical as a spiritual link between the demon and Eva.

Honestly, Chikuro, I don't even know how I can even be around her now. Just seeing her drives a spike through my heart when I think of the pain I'm causing her. I thought if I kept away from her, it would help, but even without me around, she's still being tormented by that fucking demon! Is there any way to stop this?

The only way I can think of is if Eva defeated the demon. Then he would have to relinquish his claim on her, but the demon is far too powerful for Eva.

Defeat him? You mean like in a duel?

No, a physical fight. Demons only submit to those stronger than them.

So if Eva kicks his ass, he'll leave her alone?

Yes, in a nutshell.

Why haven't Charles or Erik had this kind of problem?

Well, they haven't been awakened for a very long time, so their demon sides are still fairly dormant.

Come to think of it, Charles hasn't developed any demonic traits. Why do you suppose so?

Chiburuu has probably cast some sort of illusion on him to hide them. I don't think he's too keen on his host being persecuted like you were.

Do you think he could to the same to me?

You could ask him, but you shouldn't try to hide your demonic heritage. You should be proud of it and hold up your head. You're superior to those who persecute you because you are different. Pay them no heed.

Easy for you to say. You're not the one who got beaten up and went into killing mode.

I know, and I'm sorry I wasn't able to stop it.

I'm not blaming you, Chikuro.

If anybody has a go at you, just cast Havoc Demon or something.

You know I shouldn't flaunt my powers.

We're in Dominaria now. Summoners are respected and revered as Gods.

Yes, but if I do summon, it could alert our enemies.

Well if we're going to face them, might as well be sooner than later, eh?

I don't know, Chikuro. I'm still having trouble getting over the demon thing without having to deal with the thought of yet another crazed summoner coming to kill me.

It seems there is a pattern. So far, we've been facing tribal decks: Slivers and Goblins. I wonder if this trend will continue?

I don't have a clue. There's so many thing that are uncertain, like who's trying to stop the Awakening, what happens when the Keepers are all awakened, and how do I control my demon side.

Look, Arrathir, I don't have a clue what is going to happen, but I'll do my best to help you control your demon.

Thanks, Chikuro. You know, who would have thought you'd change so much in a year? I still remember the first time we met.

Yeah. I was quite the sadistic bastard back then, eh?

Seems like now you've actually developed a conscience.

Hey, I can still kick your ass. Wanna come in my Soul Room to find out?

I'll pass. I'ma go back to sleep. See you in the morning.

Sure thing, naki.

Arrathir rolled his eyes and closed his mental link with the spirit. Rolling over to get more comfortable, he closed his eyes and let sleep take him over.

Arrathir strode up to the altar, the woman's body draped in his arms. Placing her gently on the flat stone, he turned his face upwards.

"Oh, great Galvash," he said, his voice trembling at what he was about to do "Grant me the power to save her. My soul will be the price I pay, but let her live again!"

The symbols engraved on the altar began to glow a sickly green light as a faint mist began to circle around Arrathir's body, enveloping him in a white cocoon. He closed his eyes and braced himself. The pain was intense. Every atom in his body was subjected to excruciating pain as his soul was extracted from his body bit by bit.

He collapsed to the ground, twitching in pain as blood flowed from his nostrils in two crimson rivulets His stomach heaved and he retched, vomiting all over himself. His hands were clenched so tightly that his nails dug into his palms, adding to the blood that stained the ground under him.

In a supreme effort, he stood up and placed his bloodied hands on the altar, the pain subsiding to the point he could stand. He felt a new power coursing through him, something he'd never felt before.

Placing his left hand on the woman's closed eyes, he uttered strange, terrible words he'd never heard before. His hand bursting into flames, he released his mana into her body.

For a second, nothing happened. Then, he felt her heartbeat return. Overcome with joy, he looked down only to see her staring back at him with cold, empty eyes. His heart stopped. The moment lasted an eternity. He finally realized the awful truth. Yes, life had been restored to her body, but not in the way he'd intended it. She was only a mindless zombie now, bereft of any scrap of her former self.

Arrathir let out a howl of rage, raising his bloodied hands to the sky.

"Curse you, Galvash!" he howled "It wasn't supposed to be like this! My soul was not enough; you had to take hers too? You will rue the day you tricked me!"

"Hey, Arrathir! Wake up!"

Arrathir was snapped back to reality. He was lying on his stomach, his bed sheets twisted around him. Charles had his hand on his shoulder and was gently shaking him.

"You OK?" he asked, concerned "You were tossing and moaning."

"Ah, bad dream," said Arrathir.

"Hmm, remember what it was about?"

"No," lied Arrathir.

Charles raised an eyebrow, sensing his friend was hiding something, but did not press the matter.

"Well, it's morning, so we should probably get something to eat before we leave."

"Are the others awake?" asked Arrathir.

"Yeah, they're all downstairs right now."

Arrathir untangled himself from his bed sheets and followed Charles downstairs. Eva and the two Keepers were seated at a table, eating what seemed like some kind of porridge. Sitting himself down between Charles and Erik, Arrathir examined the gummy concoction before him. Risking a spoon in the gray, lumpy mess, Arrathir's doubts were quelled by his growling stomach. He risked a mouthful and found it to be edible, though it could have used some maple syrup in his opinion.

As they finished their breakfast, a young boy approached Khell and handed him a note. After perusing it, the Keeper nodded to the boy to indicate he'd gotten the message and slipped him a coin.

"That was from Quales," he said as the boy scampered off "Their cargo has been delayed so we won't be leaving until noon."

"So what do we do until then?" asked Eva "It's about nine-thirty."

"Whatever you want," said Khell "But don't draw attention to yourself and whatever you do, don't summon!" he glared venomously at Erik before continuing "Quales doesn't know we're summoners and I highly doubt he'd still take us on if he knew."

"I though summoners were seen as Gods in Dominaria," said Charles.

"Yes, but they are also feared," said Khell "Ordinary people prefer to steer clear of them so as no to get caught up in their affairs. So, whatever you do, be inconspicuous."

"I could do with a nice long walk," said Arrathir, getting up and heading for the door.

"Meet us at the docks at eleven-thirty!" called Khell.

As Arrathir reached the door and placed his hand on the latch, he smelled Eva behind him. Turning, he saw her standing nervously there.

"What?" he asked, a bit rudely.

"I'm coming with you," said Eva.

"No."

"Arrathir, we need to talk."

"About what?" asked Arrathir, pushing the door open and walking outside. Eva followed suit.

"Arrathir," she said, falling into step beside him as they walked down the street "I'm sorry about last night."

"I don't want to talk about it," said Arrathir.

"Well, I do!" said Eva "This won't go away if we keep it bottled up."

"Don't you think I feel bad enough?" growled Arrathir "Feel like rubbing it in some more?"

"Christ!" yelled Eva, slapping Arrathir "Of all the idiotic, half-witted assholes! Don't you see? I need to talk about this! That's what therapy is all about, idiot! If you ignore your problems, they only eat away at you! I need to face this head-on! Don't give my any of that "I don't want to hurt you" bullshit! I'm having these dreams because we're not talking about this! If you really didn't want to hurt me, you'd help me through this! I don't give a fuck if I do get hurt, but if that's what I have to do to stop these fucking nightmares, then I'll take the pain!"

"You think I don't care?" said Arrathir "Do you know how much I've beaten myself up over this? It's killing me, Eva!"

"Oh cry me a fucking river!" shouted Eva "Stop feeling sorry for yourself and fucking act! Sitting around on your ass bitching how sorry you are, how miserable this is making you and how it's all your fault won't fix anything! You know," she added, tears welling up in her eyes "You said you'd always be there for me, but I guess you were lying!" Eva ran away, leaving a very stunned Arrathir behind.

She's right. This whole time I've been blaming myself and trying to protect her from getting hurt further by not mentioning the whole incident, but that's just been hurting her more! Fuck. What have I done?

So, what are you going to do now, Mr. Freud?

The only thing a man can do in a situation like this: drown his sorrows.

Arrathir, you've never been a drinker.

Yeah, well let's see if it really works.

Advising a nearby tavern, Arrathir descended into the underground room. It was surprisingly packed given the current time. It was filthy, smelly, and smoky, but it would satisfy Arrathir's current need. All that mattered right now was banging his brain out of shape with large quantities of alcohol. He found an empty stool at the bar, getting some glazed looks by the two patrons on either side of him. Arrathir crossed his arms on the counter and placed his chin on his wrists.

"Hello there, sweetie. What can I get you?"

Arrathir looked up to see a middle-aged woman, presumably the barmaid, standing in front of him. She had flamboyant read hair and plump cheeks. There was a small black mole on her lower left cheek. She wore a blue dress with ruffles on the short sleeves. The plunging neckline of her dress offered a very revealing view of her ample bosom, which was probably its purpose.

"Ah, I'll take what he's having," said Arrathir, jerking his thumb at the man next to him who was hiccoughing over his drink.

"Are you sure?" asked the barmaid "That's strong stuff, sweetie."

"Whatever," muttered Arrathir.

The barmaid shrugged and brought him a small glass full of a fetid brown liquid. Taking out what money had had left over from yesterday, Arrathir paid up and stared into his drink which seemed to be taunting him to consume it.

Have I really sunk this low that I choose to use alcohol to escape my problems? Aw, to Hell with it. Bottoms up.

He downed the drink in one long gulp. Immediately, he regretted it. He felt as if his throat was on fire and the fiery feeling was making its way down to his stomach in a sickeningly slow way. He coughed violently and fought to keep the vile liquid from coming back up the way it came down. He could still taste the stuff in his mouth, but somehow it warmed him.

"Are you OK?" asked the barmaid "I warned you it was strong."

"Yeah," croaked Arrathir "Another please."

Charles had chosen to spend his free time roaming the streets of Ers. He'd always loved the world of Magic: The Gathering and now that he was in it, he didn't want to miss a thing. He gazed in awe at the sights around him: merchants hawking mysterious items to passer byes, an elf playing a lute for an admiring crowd of young women gathered around him, dwarves comparing the sizes of their battle-axes, and so on.

Charles was a bit disoriented by everything around him and he was not paying attention when he bumped violently into someone, knocking them both to the ground.

"Oh, dreadfully sorry," he said. Looking up, he saw it was Eva. Her eyes were red and he guessed she had been crying. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked.

"It's Arrathir," sighed Eva "I tried to talk with him about the whole demon thing, but he was his usual stubborn self and refused. We got in an argument and now he's off somewhere."

Charles sighed. "The only way he's going to stop blaming himself for this is if he faces the problem."

"That's what I told him," said Eva "But he didn't listen."

"He'll come around eventually," said Charles "So, what are you going to do until we leave?"

"I don't know," shrugged Eva "Maybe I can hang out with you?"

"Sure," said Charles.

Arrathir was drunk. No questions about it. As he downed his umpteenth glass of the fetid liquor, he could feel his head spinning.

"I think you've had enough," said the barmaid as Arrathir requested another drink "Why are you doing this to yourself, sweetie? Some pretty young thing break your heart?"

"The other way 'round," muttered Arrathir "I broke hers. Shattered her trust and hurt her deeply."

"And yet you're the one in here?" asked the barmaid, amused "What's her name?"

"Eva."

"Is she pretty?"

"Stunning," said Arrathir "I'm crazy about her."

"What did you do? I'm sure if you apologize to her, get her a nice gift, she'll forgive you."

"I doubt it," snorted Arrathir "What I did was the lowest of things: I damn well near raped her."

"What?"

"Maybe I should start at the beginning," drawled Arrathir "See, I'm a summoner, but don't tell anyone."

The barmaid raised an amused eyebrow. Her young customer obviously couldn't handle his alcohol. She decided to humor him. "I won't. Promise"

"Well, I got this spirit of one of the Keepers of Mana living inside me and it turns out I'm his reincarnation. So then this Planeswalker shows up and tells me I have to awaken the other keepers, see? So I meet Eva at this tournament and this Sliver summoner attacks us. We escape to Japan and meet up with this prick, Erik Morlock. We beat the Sliver bitch and then we find out Erik is the Keeper of White mana, but the guy is such a douche he doesn't want to accept his spirit. Any who, I meet this other guy, Charles Wainscot and find out I'm a half-demon as another summoner kidnaps Eva. Me an' Charles find the fucktard and are kicking his ass but then he kills Eva. After some crazy stuff involving time-travel, I manage to bring Eva back to life and then the Planeswalker shows up and Planeswalks us to Dominaria, cuz' I'm from another universe, into Yavimaya. Oh yeah, Charles turns out to be the Keeper of Blue Mana. So me an' Eva get separated from Charles and Erik when a big-ass wurm attacks us. Some elves capture us; they drug me and start beating the shit outta me. Then my demon blood kicks in and I go berserk on their asses. After I kill a few, my demon decides he's got the hots for Eva and tries to rape her. Fortunately, an old buddy of mine, Khell, shows up, stops the demon, and that's about it. So here I am now."

The barmaid was trying hard to suppress her laughter. The lad's story was very far-fetched indeed.

"You've got a very good imagination," she said "You could be quite the bard."

"You don't believe me?" growled Arrathir "Well, how's this for proof!" He pulled back his hood a bit, exposing one of his rat ears. The barmaid did a double take and backed away from Arrathir, terrified.

"Get out of here, you monster!" she shrieked.

"Hey, I'm a payin' customer!" said Arrathir "You got to treat me with respect!"

"I don't have to serve you, demon!" spat the barmaid.

Some of the patrons were staring at them, alerted by the noise. One of the men, intrigued by the barmaid's accusations came up behind Arrathir and ripped his hood back, exposing his ears for the whole bar to see. There was a great gasp from all the patrons and a deadly silence. Suddenly, a low, guttural growl resounded from Arrathir. Turning to the man who had removed the hood and grabbed his arm.

"Don't…touch…me," he said in a threatening voice. Punching the man in the chest, he sent him flying to the other side of the room. This somehow snapped the other patrons out of their stunned state.

"KILL 'IM!" someone yelled and the patrons began pulling out their weapons. Arrathir jumped behind the bar and stared defiantly at the approaching mob.

"You think you can kill me?" he yelled over the screaming crowd "You're gonna need a fecking army to kill me! I'm Arrathir Quinn! Keeper of Black Mana!" Arrathir tried calling on the power of the swamps to deal with the unruly horde, but he came up short.

Looks like I'll just have to fight my way out then.

With a wild howl, Arrathir threw himself at the murderous mob.

At eleven-thirty, Khell waited impatiently by the Silver Drake. He hoped to Gaea that the other wouldn't be late. He'd paid a hefty amount to get them on this ship and he'd be dammed if they missed the departure. As his impatience grew, he saw Charles and Eva coming out of a street onto the docks. This confused him. Hadn't Eva gone after Arrathir?

"Where's Arrathir?" he asked when the two of them got near.

"Don't know," said Eva "We had an argument and he went off somewhere."

"Quinn not here?" asked Erik, coming up from behind Khell.

"Figures," said Khell "A million to one he's gotten himself in trouble. Charles, come with me. We're gonna find him. Eva and Erik, you guys stay here and try to stall the ship. If we're not back in time, you guys go. We'll find some way to catch up."

"Sure," said Eva.

"All right, can you find him?" Khell asked Charles as they hurried off into the streets.

Charles reached out through his mana, trying to locate the ghell, but there was too much interference from the various mana types in the city.

"It's no good," he said "I can't locate his mana."

"Well, let's wander around and maybe we'll get lucky."

"At this point," grumbled Charles "We really don't have a point."

As they wandered around, a group of men rushed past them, swords drawn. Khell caught the words "demon" and "pub" as the men turned a corner ahead. He looked at Charles who had, apparently, also heard it.

"Arrathir?"

"Who else?" said Charles as they picked up their pace to catch up with the men.

Arrathir threw a chair at the man beside him, sending him to the ground. Bodies littered the ground around him, some dead, others merely in extricating pain. His adrenaline was pumping in his veins as the lust of battle sent him into a fighting frenzy. His demon was partially leaking through, turning him into a dangerous killing machine. The initially brave mob was now disorganized and frightened. However, reinforcements had arrived in the form of armed guards, not that Arrathir cared. They were only another obstacle he would demolish.

Two guards were closing in on him, swords at the ready. As the first swung at him, Arrathir ducked the blow and swung out with his legs, tripping the guard. His companion tried to slash downwards to remove the hanyo's head, but Arrathir rolled aside, the blade ringing off the downed guard's breastplate. Arrathir jumped up and smashed his fist into the man's face, breaking his nose.

"Who want more?" he yelled. He was not a pretty sight to see. Covered in cuts made by lucky strikes, one of his ears half-lopped off, and his hands bloodied, he looked like a wild beast.

The door to the pub opened, letting in a flow of men, ready to combat the demon. Arrathir growled. He was beginning to tire. Even his demonic strength couldn't last forever and more enemies kept coming. He supposed by now, news must be all over the city that a demon was in this pub and they would keep sending soldiers until he was dead.

May as well go out with a bang!

Charles and Khell stood outside the pub amongst the onlookers.

"Well, here it is," said Khell "Guess we'll have to summon to get him out of there."

"Once we do, let's get the hell back to the ship," said Charles "How do we disperse the crowd?"

"Not a problem," said Khell, charging his mana. A light mist began creeping through the streets, thickening as it converged towards the pub. Soon a thick fog obscured all view of the pub. "Let's go," said Khell as he started pushing through the crowd to reach the door. Most of the people were trying to get out of the thick fog bank, cursing as they bumped into each other. Khell and Charles were able to slip through unnoticed by focusing on Arrathir's mana.

The fog poured inside the pub when they opened the door, settling to the ground in a thin white layer. The inside of the pub was a battlefield. Most of the tables and chairs were smashed into kindling and the ground was littered with shattered bottles, various weapons, and bodies. Their attention was diverted from the mess around them by a group of soldiers in a corner. They were bent over an inanimate body, talking in hushed tones.

"Should we kill it?" asked one of the soldiers.

"No," said another "Our orders were to capture it."

"Nobody would know," said another soldier "We could say he was killed during capture."

"But he's unconscious," said the second soldier "Just tie him up and get him out of here."

Khell cleared his throat. "Excuse me," he said "But we've come for our friend."

"Oh!" said the first soldier "So the demon has allies? Kill them!" The five men fanned out, preparing to attack.

Khell shook his head. "You asked for it," he said. From his mana burst a Nesting Wurm, the creature's snakelike body quickly filling up the room. The soldiers backed away, terrified. "Now," said Khell "Ishnarak here hasn't eaten in weeks, so she's pretty hungry. Unless you give us our friend, I'm afraid you five are going to be her snack."

The guards put as much distance between them and Arrathir's body as they could, while still remaining at a comfortable distance away from the wurm.

"If any one of the moves, eat them," Khell instructed the wurm who hissed gently in response. Going over to Arrathir's body, Khell quickly checked him over.

"What a mess," he muttered "A couple deep cuts, lots of scratches, some major bruises, but he'll live. There's just one problem: How are we getting him to the ship? We can carry him, but we'll never make it on time. Unless…Charles, what is the extent of your summoning knowledge?"

"Well, pretty basic," said Charles "I can cast most spells in my deck."

"What about spells not in your deck?"

"Never tried," admitted Charles.

"Do you thing you could cast Teleport on us and get us to the ship?"

"I'll give it a shot," said Charles.

;Help me out here, Chiburuu;

;Teleport, three blue mana spell. In a duel it makes a creature unblockable until end of turn. Outside of a duel it can be used to transport a person or object to another location, sort of like Halo's 'forestport.' What you need to do is visualize the place you want to go. It works exactly like summoning. You have to visualize the place until it seems real. To cast the spell, you have to visualize yourself and whatever else you're teleporting in that place;

;Is there any risk involved in this?;

;Well, if you don't visualize everything perfectly, you can leave parts of yourself behind. What the spell does is break down your entire body into mana, analyze all the mana, then collects the necessary mana at the location you are going and reassembles you there. If you screw up, the spell can misread some of your mana and you'll be reconstructed improperly;

;So it's kind of a 'no room for error' thing?;

;Times a million;

;Chiburuu, if I start screwing this up, can you stop it?;

;Yes. There is a slight delay in between the moment the spell finished reading your mana and you are reassembled. Don't worry, you'll do fine;

"Here goes," said Charles. He tried to recollect the exact location of the Silver Drake. He imagined the ship slowly bobbing up and down, visualizing the sails gently flapping in the light breeze. He tried to conjure up images of the blue ocean with gulls bobbing on the crests of the waves, the spray of sea splashing their plumage. Once he'd gotten the image in his mind, he imagined Arrathir, Khell, and himself standing on the docks, waiting to board the ship.

;OK, I'm ready;

Charles released his spell, the space around him glowing a slight blue. There was a slight moment of uncertainty where he thought the spell might have fizzled, but then the pub around them vanished and they found themselves suspended several feet in the air above the dock. Gravity soon took over and they crashed painfully to the ground.

"Charles, do us a favor," said Khell "Practice that spell before you try porting us again."

"Yeah," said Charles, wincing as he got up "I agree."

"Oh my God!" yelled Eva, running up to them "What happened?"

"Arrathir got into a spot of trouble," said Charles "A word of wisdom: hanyos and alcohol don't mix."

"Here," said Charles "Help us get him on the ship."

"No need," said Khell, draping Arrathir over his shoulder and carrying him up the gangplank.

;Right. Forgot about the demonic strength;

"Come on," said Khell "The ship won't wait forever."

They boarded the ship as the sailors cast off. The Silver Drake caught the midday breeze in her sails and sailed out of port, heading west for Shiv.

To be continued…
Author's Note: There you have it! The promised extra-long Chapter 40. So they finally head off to Shiv to awaken the KoRM.

Well, tonight's rant deals with the incomprehensible decision of the Fanfiction admins to ban authors from responding to reviews in their chapters. What…the…FUCK? I am starting to get really annoyed at the admins' pointless policies. Banning songfics and script format was comprehensible since these formats were being abused, but review responses? To me, review responses are a way to communicate with my readers. It creates sort of a little community between the author and the readers! They have no concrete reason to ban this! Worst of all, we have received no information whatsoever as to why this stupid decision was taken. Give us a valid explanation and we will accept it, but don't pull this closed-door shit on us! Next thing you know, they'll be banning author notes because they 'are detrimental to the story and a waste of server space.' Bullshit. This new 'review response' feature they've put in is also total bullshit. The point of review responses is so all you readers can see them, not just the ones that receive them! Plus, do they have any idea how annoying it is to manually send out individual responses? Also, that feature is gonna clog up their server big time. Finally, only signed reviews can be replied to, which will lead to mass registration of authors who won't even post stories, but just register to receive responses.

We need to take action! I have already started a petition to combat this attack against our authors' rights. Check my profile for the link. There is a better petition out there with over 150 signatures. Google review response petition' and it should come up. Please, I beg of you, sign these petitions and spread the word. We cannot allow the administrators to continue trampling out freedom of expression!

Because of the new policy, I will now be responding to reviews on the Academy forums. Check my link for the profile.

Until next time, mmmbl muhg yhhh! (Gagged author)