Chapter 4
The Woods
8 Years ago
She'd been following Calthix for hours. She was so exhausted that it was all she could do to place on foot in front of the other. She'd long ago given up trying to keep track of where they were going. Her feet were so sore that she hardly felt it when any new painful stimuli hit them, there were almost numb with pain.
"How much further Calthix," she said in a weak tremulous voice.
"Just a little further Little Mistress," he said compassion for her plight in his voice. He'd flown ahead and found a cave where they could hide out.
"My hand and feet hurt Calthix," she said almost weeping.
"I know Little Mistress," he said. "There is a stream near the same and the cool water will help with the pain."
"I miss him," she said softly voicing the greatest thing paining her.
"I know you do Little Mistress," he said softly. "Your father was a great man and he loved you very much."
Tears started to fall from her eyes. She didn't even try to wipe them away anymore; she'd been crying so much over the last few hours how were a few more tears going to make a difference. She looked down at her hands. They were burnt and blistered and blood still seeped out a little. She didn't know there were badly until the sun had fully risen. She kept flexing them to make sure she could still use them.
She heard the sound of a stream ahead and new they were getting closer to the cave Calthix had told her about. Her throat started to ache and she realized how thirsty she was and started to walk faster with renewed purpose. A few minutes she exited the wood into a tiny glade with a cliff on one side and a little stream on the other. With water finally insight she burst into a run and dropping her sack by the bank jumped into the stream. She felt Calthix leave her shoulder just before she hit.
The water was waist deep on her and she quickly submerged herself into the cool stream. The icy water hit her like a hammer but felt refreshing and cleansing at the same time. Soaking wet she stood in the middle of the stream and scooped up water with her hands to drink. Once she had her fill she waded over to the back and removed her cloths then taking a smooth stone from the stream bed she rubbed the grit and grime from her body. Not as good as a scrub brush, she thought but it did the job.
She then carefully sat on the bank and laid her cloths out to dry in the sun, then began to clean out the scrapes and cuts on her feet and the burns on her hands. The burns on her hands were the worst and she was glad the stream was cold enough to dull the pain, she knew they'd hurt more when she dried off. Once done she went and sat on a boulder in the sun to dry off. She was shivering at first without any cloths but soon the sun's rays warmed her and she began to feel a little better.
Calthix came flying toward her carrying a bee hive but with no bee's insight.
"Honey!' she said as he dropped the hive at her feet.
"It's not for eating Little Mistress it's for your hands," he said.
"What?" she said puzzled how honey could be for her hands.
"It'll help draw the heat out of the burns and will help with the healing process," he said.
"How do I put it on?" she said.
"Go get your skillet from the sack and put a little water in it and I'll show you Little Mistress," he replied as he started to clear an area on the ground.
She hopped down off her boulder and went over to where they sack lay by the stream. She took the whole sack up in her arms and brought it back to her boulder. Sitting upon the rock again she reached in and pulled out the little skillet she taken from the inn's kitchen and realized she forgot to get some water in it. She went back to the stream and dipped it into the water until about a cup of liquid was in it, then went back to Calthix and sat down and looked at him inquiringly.
He had made a small fire and using some small stone made some perches for the skillet to sit on over the flames. He had also broken open the hive and was separating the raw honeycomb from the eggs and larvae. He held out a hand full of the larvae to her.
"Eat Little Mistress," he said. "It will give you energy.
Hesitantly Kimeara took the handful and before she could give too much thought to it pop it all in her mouth. Eck! She thought, slimy and disgusting. She quickly swallowed the mouthful not wanting to taste it any more.
"Put the skillet over the fire," Calthix said as he putting a lot of the honeycomb into it. "The water will help the honey liquefy and then we'll cool it in the stream before apply some to your hands.
She carefully took up the skillet and set it over the fire. Calthix kept the fire burning hot by adding little balls of flame to the wood and the honey soon melted into the water, forming a thick syrup. She went over and grabbed her hip wrap and using it to insulate her hands she lifted the skillet and settled it into the shallows of the stream. A burst of steam shot up when it hit the water but the pan cooled quickly in the icy water.
Once the honey was cool she pulled it out of the water and walked back over to Calthix, pausing to grab her now dry dress and put it on. She set the skillet on the boulder and looked at Calthix.
"Now smear the honey all over your hands," he said
She did as he instructed and instantly she felt relief in her hands. It was pure heaven and for the first time in a long while she smiled. She sat down again on the boulder and closed her eyes. She listened to the woods around her and the sound of the steam and the wind. For a little while she felt peace and serenity. She heard Calthix fly off but didn't worry; she knew he'd be back. So she just continued to sit there and enjoy the sun and the day.
About an hour had passed while she had her eyes closed, and she was startled to notice how much time had gone by when she opened them again. It had seemed to her like no more than a few minutes had paced but she felt rested and more alert than she had before. Looking to her side she saw that Calthix had gathered some berried together using a piece of birch bark as a plate. As she started to reach for the berries she heard the sound of Calthix's wings and look up in-time to watch him land next to the berries.
"Well done Little Mistress," he said.
"Well done what?" She asked.
"You've been meditating for the last hour," he said. "A Warlock needs to be in control of his or her thoughts if they are to be able to cast spells and you successfully meditated without any instruction at all. Your mind since last night has been whirling around like a tempest but now it is clear and serene."
"You can read my mind," she said shocked
"No Little Mistress," he said calming her fears. "But I can sense your mood and right now you're the calmest you've been in a long while.
"What does being a Warlock mean Calthix?" She asked all thoughts of the berries gone.
"It means that you have magical powers that are not divine in origin, so you are no priest. Also your powers differ from those of a mage who pull on the magical energy of the world around them to cast their spells." he said. "Your powers mostly come from within and from your spirit."
"Spirit?" she asked.
"All being have a spirit Little Mistress," he said. "Some would also call it a soul and for our purposes we'll consider them one and the same. Your spirit/soul is what makes you alive. It is the life force energy that makes all animal life from the smallest bug to the largest dragon different from other forms of life like trees and plants non-living things like rocks and water and air."
"So how does gaining powers through my spirit make me different from other magic users?" she asked.
"Because you pull your powers through your spirit form different planes that the others will Little Mistress," he said. "For example when you summon me you call forth energy from the Abyssal Plane and when you started to drain the life force and soul from the man in the barn you drew forth energy from the spirit plane to funnel his from his spirit to your spirit. In time you'll learn to pull energy for other planes so as those of shadow and even this, the Primal plane."
"This is a lot to take in all at once Calthix," she said feeling a little overwhelmed.
"I know Little Mistress but you need to understand what you are before we can move forward with your training," he said consolingly. "We'll take things slow for now while you heal and start with small things and expanding your knowledge of the world. Once you are healed we'll travel and through seeing and experiencing the world many things will become clearer to you. You'll also find other teachers than me along the way."
"Will you always tell me the truth?" she asked.
"Yes Little Mistress," he replied immediately.
"Am I evil for summoning demons?" she asked quietly, laying bare her greatest fear.
"No Little Mistress," he said firmly. "When you summon one of us, you control us. If you used us for evil means then yes that would make you evil. If you use us for good that will mean you're good. Evil is a choice you make Little Mistress not thing you are born to."
"Thank you Calthix," she said. Looking around she cast about for a light topic and again noticed the berries. Her stomach gave a little grumble and she asked "Are those for me?"
"Maybe and maybe not Little Mistress," he said cryptically.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Look at the plate Little Mistress. You'll see five different types of berries. Of those five types four are edible and the fifth is poisonous. If you can figure out which are safe to eat then yes you may have them, but if not then you cannot have any because if you eat the wrong berry you'll die," he said in voice worthy of any school master in the Eastern Kingdoms.
"But how will I know which ones are which if I've never seen them before?" she asked shocked at such a test after all she'd been through.
"Your father taught you how to read and write Little Mistress, correct?" he asked.
"Yes I helped him keep inventory at the inn," she said remembering all the hours spent learning to be literate and how to manager numbers with her father.
"Then get out your book and use that to identify the berries," he said. "I'm going to catch us some fish for supper in the stream. When I get back in an hour I'll quiz you to see how you did."
With that he launched himself into the air and flew downstream by about two hundred feet and hovered above the water watching for fish below. Looking down at her hands she knew she'd have to wash the money off before handling the book. She walked to the stream and washed them. Even without the honey her hands felt a lot better than they had before. Blood no longer seeped from the wounds and the blisters had gone down a little. She used her hip wrap to dry her hands and spread it out to dry again. Looking at the wrap, she realized that her dress reached below her knees so she didn't really need it out here in the wild. Contemplating it she thought that if she could find something to use as thread and a needle she could make some slippers out of it to protect her feet. She had become quite good with a needle from repairing her and her father's cloths.
Shaking those thoughts aside she retrieved the book from her pack and went back to her boulder to sit and read about berries. She heard a splash from the river and knew that Calthix had already caught a fish and she set herself to identifying all the berries. She was determined that they'd have berries with their fish for supper.
They did end up eating berries that night and every night for the following week. Each day Calthix would bring her berries and herbs and other things for her to study and identify. Sometimes she got things wrong but with each wrong answer her desire to get the right one next time. He also spent time teaching her how to control the spell she'd used on Alsor, which Calthix called Soul Drain. When she asked why spells have a named he told her it was a memory tool to help her remember which spells were which and how to preform each one.
Calthix spent one day going back into town with some money she gave him and he returned with some thread, a small sewing kit, and a pair of work gloves and another pair of gloves to cover her scars for when they would eventually be around other people. They were black satin and while they were a little large now she knew she would grow into them, they extended half way up her forearm and looked nice. The work gloves were nice supple leather and would go far in protecting her hands.
Using the thread and sewing kit she made a pair of slippers for her feet with her hip wrap and soft moss stuffed in between the layers of material. Now that she could move around more comfortably they could go further into the woods. She knew her slippers wouldn't last forever but they might last long enough to get to another village and buy a real pair of shoes.
For full month they stayed at their cave and she spent that time leaning various skills. Calthix taught her to hunt and fish. She learned how to gather wild plants that were edible and those that were medicinal. Through a lot of trial and error she taught herself to cook over a campfire as opposed to a hearth. Soon she had most of her little book memorized and they would take long walks through the woods and she'd identify every plant she could on the way. If she came across a plant she didn't know she'd take a bit of it back with her to their campsite and try to use the book to identify it. She used her knife to make a little spear that was good for hunting or defending herself and also practiced throwing her knife until she could hit her target all the time.
She meditated every day and it became easier to empty her mind of all thought. She would use those techniques every time her grief over her father overwhelmed her. It didn't always work but slowly she gained more control over her emotions. She felt herself growing stronger mentally and physically. She also grew stronger in her magic. She learned how to feel her powers inside of her; how to know when she had exhausted them and when she was recovered. She also learned how to control her Soul Drain spell and also learned how to summon a ball of green flame to her hands, good for throwing or starting campfires.
Calthix told her that the more she used her powers and the more she pushed their limits the better. It would help her grow into her abilities and allow her to learn to control more complicated spells. He also advised that when her mental conditioning was strong enough she'd learn to summon other demons than her.
"Why would I want to summon other demons Calthix?" She asked.
"Because I can only do so much Little Mistress," he answered her. "There are many demons more powerful that I and with other abilities and you might need them someday."
"But I don't want to summon other demons, you're my friend and I only want to summon you," she said.
"You're my friend too Little Mistress; but I'd rather you have the ability to summon other, more powerful, demons to protect you if needed, than to watch you get injured or die because you only will summon me," he said firmly to her.
"If I'm not in danger and don't need their other skills can I still just summon you?" She asked as a compromise.
"If that is your wish Little Mistress then yes," he said.
Her worries allayed for now, she sat on her boulder and listed to him describe the different demons that Warlocks commonly summoned, though sometimes they summoned different ones. There was a creature that was made entirely of shadow that could take an incredible beating before dying and would take her enemies attention from her.
She let out a stifled gasp at the thought of any demon dying especially Calthix. It was too horrible to think of summoning anything just to let it die for her.
"Not to worry Little Mistress," he said seeing the terror on her face. "A demon cannot actually die on this plane. When I say die I mean that when a demon takes too much damage it'll be dismissed back to the Abyssal plane until it is summoned again."
"Ok, I just got scared at the thought of losing you too," she said in a soft voice.
"You'll never lose me Little Mistress," he assured her. "I'll be here for you for your entire life any time you summon me."
"You promise?" She said.
"Promise," he replied.
He continued on with his description of the other demons. He talked of a female demon that was great at seduction and could be great in situation where she needed someone to sneak around and gather information unnoticed. The he told her of a very powerful warrior demon that carried a massive axe and was truly terrifying on a battlefield.
"Now all these are beyond your ability for now Little Mistress. Even with training it might be years before you can summon any of the others," he said.
At the end of the month she packed up her remaining food and belongings and with Calthix on her shoulder walked out into a world now full of more possibilities for her than it had before.