"He's looking for you now, you know." a black, human shaped mass said.
"Oh, thank you, I had no clue." the girl yelled sarcastically back. She stood in a cave in a mountain range near Death City. Her hair was tied into a knot in the back of her head, a few stray curls popping out below it, and her white bangs hung in two loose ringlets at each side if her face. Her cloak hung behind her shoulders, showing her dress. It was a mix of sunflower yellow and lighter accents with the occasional peridot and emerald green. It had short lace sleeves and a flowy circle cut skirt that went to her mid-calf. The neckline was square, and the pattern of tree branches embroidered across the shoulders connected to the trunk at the back.
But it wasn't the bare, twisted Blackthorn, it was a flowering Rowan tree, with petals of pearly white. At her collarbone hung the Demon Crest off of a fine silver chain, the same one her sibling wore in the form of a locket.
"You don't have to take that tone of voice, Lady Rowan."
"And you don't have to remind me of things like that." she snapped back at her shadow, who sighed, and watched the sun set.
"How strangely the Astral Bodies represent themselves in the middle realm. I wonder what they look like to Zadkiel." the shadow remarked.
"I worry for him." Rowan says quietly, "If Abaddon finds out he's been talking with me he'll be gone for sure."
"Those who have the noblest intent are rewarded greatly, no matter the end," replied her shadow. It was something Rowan's mother had said once, eight years ago when her brother went away and Rowan said she'd go up there and steal him back. Rowan chuckled at the memory, but the family saying had a different meaning now.
"Abaddon's intents are noble from his perspective though."
"Yes, but they aren't from the Malevolence's."
Just then Rowan heard the echos of a raspy voice from further into the cave, with a soft, timid voice responding.
She walked quietly towards them, and heard the raspy voice hush the quiet one, then the quiet one saying 'ouch'.
"Who are you?" Rowan asked, using her authoritative tone of voice as she dispelled the shadows the figures were hiding in. What she saw surprised her, but she didn't let it show on her face. Crouched behind a boulder was a lanky figure in a black dress. Out of their back was was a small puppet-esque thing, that was covering the wide-eyed person's mouth.
"Who're you?" the parasite asked aggressively.
"A passer by."
"I'm Crona…" the person stuttered, muffled by the gloved hand over their face.
"I'm Ragnarok. Where are you from?"
"A different realm. What are you two doing here? And what are you?" Rowan said pointedly to Ragnarok.
"I'm a weapon, and this is my Meister. What's it to you?"
"Are you a part of the DWMA?"
"They don't want us. If they did they would have found us by now. I bet no one's even bothered to look." Ragnarok muttered sourly, and Crona looked like they were about to cry.
"What happened?"
"Crona's mother was Medusa Gorgon, she was an enemy of the Academy for a while. We were there for a bit, but she made us go back with her and we were banned. Later Crona helped the Academy get rid of her again. We ran away."
"Why? You're obviously on the academy's side in all of this."
"I was a traitor." Crona muttered, "why would any of them want a traitor?"
"So I said that if we ran away, and they went looking for us, that would be proof we were wanted." Ragnarok stated. "Clearly they don't."
"So you've just been in this cave?"
"Not always…" said Crona.
"Alright, well you guys can camp with me if you want. I can talk with the DWMA eventually, but I don't plan on going there soon. You hungry?"
"Yes." Ragnarok said eagerly.
"You two eat meat?"
"Yes."
Rowan reached her hand toward a shadow and it disappeared, reappearing with a plastic container of meat. She put her hand into the darkness a few more times, pulling out some steel skewers, firewood, a bunch of rocks that she arranged in a circle, and a rectangle metal lighter. She gave her two guests a meat laden skewer each, and started a merrily crackling fire to roast dinner over.
"How did you do that?" Crona asked after a while of silence.
"I can use shadows as a sort of storage dimension." she said, as if that was something normal.
"That's kinda freaky." Ragnarok remarked. Rowan raised her eyebrows at him.
"You're one to say." she muttered. Ragnarok snorted.
"So you were the Demon Sword, am I correct?"
"Yeah."
"You did good work, helping to defeat the Gorgons, even if you two were their pawns first."
Ragnarok bristled, and Crona hugged their knees to their chest.
"How would you know?" The weapon snarled.
"I have second hand connections with Lord Death, and in my world soul corruption and evil effect a lot of things."
"So you are from a different realm?" Crona asked.
"Yes."
"I don't know how to deal with this." They muttered, pressing their forehead into their knees.
"Hey, Meister, keep pouting like that and your food will get burnt and I'll have to eat it!" Ragnarok pounded the back of Crona's head with one hand while they made a high wailing noise, pulling their stake away from the fire. Rowan looked on in surprise, but didn't say anything, instead took a bite of her food.
"Getting to know these two will be interesting." She thought.