"Halkeginian "
'Thoughts'
'Telepathy'
'Spells and the like'
"Common/Dwarven/Elven"
"Speech: Draconic"
"Speech: Abyssal"
After they had gotten everyone out of their prison room they wanted to look around for the few captives that had not been in said room. This however was made unnecessary once Cathilia explained that she had seen their mortal remains in the main camp of the greenskins, gnawed to the bone.
Naturally The adventurers explained this to the civilians in a much more gentle way than the blunt statement of fact Cathilia had originally told this as.
Their next problem was figuring out how to get everyone out of the hole and to the surface. The stairs, as shoddy as they might have been, had after all been broken by Cathilia. Not that she willingly would admit to doing so, but everyone had their suspicion of it anyways.
However this problem was solved by the same person who caused it in the first place. Scant moments after being presented with this issue Cathilia suggested she could simply use telekinesis to lift everyone up towards the top a couple at a time.
Something that the people gratefully, if somewhat hesitantly accepted. Though after seeing the first few people reach the surface unharmed they grew less afraid by the minute.
In the end the last people left inside of the hole are Raskreia and Cathilia, both of whom choose to use their own wings to fly to the surface. Raskreia however noticed one thing that she had not before, Cathilia's wings are no longer poorly healed mess. She decided to ask her about it later.
They both landed on the surface to see the people up there already preparing themselves for departure. Eldrad and Elena talking to the civilians currently as Idoric and Beican are looking over a map.
"So, Beican. I suppose it is farewell then?" Raskreia said gaining the elf's attention.
"I do suppose it is. Though it must not be, we are going to stay in these regions for some time yet if things go as planned, so we might see one another still." Beican said with a smile at the dragoness.
"Certainly without you around our view will worsen dramatically once more." Idoric joked, earning him a light slap over the head with Rask's tail. "Seriously though, you made things a hell of a lot easier for us and probably saved everyone here, you and Felniir that is."
"You are very much welcome. By the way. If you are headed for Druma, I can recommend you a very good smithy for equipment you might need. Seek out Kwalin's forge, he is an old friend of mine, and sells what is most likely some of the best steel around."
"Thank you for the tip, perhaps we will see one another there." Beican then looked over at Cathilia "What do you intend to do about her?"
"What is a more pressing concern is getting these villagers back to civilization." Internally Raskreia did not want to reveal that she honestly had no idea about what she was even to begin doing with the demon that was now in her employ.
"The villagers for one seem to have agreed that she cannot be so bad, if she helped them as much as she did." He at this point looks back at Raskreia "I will not judge you for this, nor will I judge Cathilia with prejudice either, just take care of yourself. And try not to let a balor run rampart, that is the last thing we need." He said the last part with a mirthful chuckle and a pat on her back. Felniir did however notice that the demon briefly tensed at the motion, watching Beican's hand intently, only relaxing once the hand moved away.
A few more minutes later, the villagers having profusely thanked them for saving them. Some going as far as going to hug Raskreia, something she politely rebuffed. And perhaps even more shocking a few went to shake Cathilia's hands in thanks, something that she accepted but mostly due to being confused by the gesture. Those who did were shocked at the sheer heat coming from her body, which made shaking her hand feel like grasping warm silky smooth steel.
Once everyone had gone on their way only Raskreia, Cathilia and Felniir were left in the area around the chasm.
"And thus there were only three." Raskreia said. "We should get moving as well, I had left some children inside a magical space to come here earlier, and I need to get back to them."
"What should I do then?" Cathilia said with a slightly cocked head.
"Right… you… this is quite new waters for me here. Usually meetings I had with demons were much less civil." She scratches her cheek in thought "I mean, no offence, but I am half expecting you to try and kill me at any moment."
Cathilia nods in agreement to her worries "I am rather certain that I would have the same concerns had our positions been reversed. If it eases your mind you could bind me so that it would be more difficult for me to harm you." She seems to think on something before seemingly gaining an epiphany "Or perhaps you would like to remove my arms or legs to be certain?" She said holding out her Arms, and something told Raskreia that she was completely serious in her suggestion.
Letting out a small gasp before shaking her head vigorously in denial Raskreia answers the demoness "Even if I wanted to bind you, I do not have any bindings on me secure enough to hold you." She then takes Cathilia's hands into her own before lowering them gently. "And I am most certainly not going to dismember you."
The demon curiously looks at her hands where Raskreia is still holding them, before looking back up staring into the dragons sapphire orbs a questioning expression on her face. "You would risk your own safety, and that of others for MY wellbeing? This is not to say I mean you any harm, mind you." She then extracts her hands from Rask's before taking a step back and bowing down ever so slightly. "I am now certain that you were the correct person for my oath."
Both tiger and dragon looked stunned at the demon. Perhaps, just perhaps, they will not be turned into minced meat by an otherworldly meat-grinder. One can always hope.
"Were you actually just now trying to guilt-trip me into dismembering you? Urgh, I will just trust you to not murder me brutally for now I suppose, gods know you could have already." She said with a shake of her head. 'Seriously, the things I get into sometimes.'
"The offer still stands however, you are free to do with me as you see fit." Raskreia had a rather hard time fighting down the blush that threatened to break out as explicit images flashed before her at those arguably suggestive words, even though they had likely not been intended as such.
"Weren't you going to retrieve some younglings, should we not head out then?" Cathilia pulled Rask out of her musings with a start causing Felniir to lightly snicker at her, something that gets silenced once Rask almost literally jumps on top of her. Now the cat might not particularly like this but she also knows she deserves it to a degree.
"Right then, Can you keep up?" Huffs out the tigress, though the underlying challenge is not lost to Cathilia.
"The better question is if YOU can keep up. You want to race, no magic and no flight?" If Raskreia didn't know any better then she would say these two might become friends rather quickly if this is any indication of future interactions.
"You are on, Demon. Our destination is straight in that direction, it is a shimmering portal floating mid air." 'Yep, they are now both grinning.' Thought Raskreia.
"I will just fly along with you guys then." She said as she lifted herself of the tigress with a beat of her wings, starting to slowly fly towards their destination.
A few moments later she is overtaken by a rather unusual pair. They might not be all out running as of the moment, but they are both moving at a pace that would be rather hard to keep up with for a human. Sighing to herself Raskreia flies after them at a slightly heightened pace.
They had been head to head for most of the way from there. Only once they were starting to get rather close did Felniir start in an all out sprint, with Cathilia following her pace, causing Rask to also quicken her pace.
In the end all three of them arrived at approximately the same time. And by now the sun is slowly setting.
"You are faster than I expected demon." One might think so, but there is no real bite behind the word demon, unlike what it might have once been.
"And I expected you to win with your four legs… I do not know the word for your species in this language." She says this, and one can see that her lack of knowledge is agitating her. Though probably not due to Felniir's feelings and more due to the fact that she feels she should know.
"I am a tiger." Making Cathilia nod gratefully at the feline.
As Raskreia lands on the ground she transforms once more into her human form for the benefit of the students inside of the portal a few paces away. "Right, here we are." She then turns towards the resident demon "Please do be on your best behaviour, I have grown rather fond of these kids." Earning her a slow nod from her.
The trio then enters through the shimmering portal in the air, Raskreia in the lead. Once inside the first thing they see is a sleeping Sylphid.
Carefully moving around the sleeping dragon they make their way towards the sounds of talking in the dining room, Cathilia skulking in the back keeping an eye on the blue dragon in the foyer.
Once there, every eye in the room focuses on Raskreia, before being bombarded by words none of the three can understand. Raskreia also idly notices her necklace lying idly on the table.
Ignoring the voices of the students coming at her for now she goes to pick her necklace up and puts it on, causing all the words being said to make sense at once.
"-uo are back."
"-t happened?"
"- you okay?"
"-at took you so long?"
"Alright, alright calm down for one. You do realize I cant understand you unless I wear this necklace, right?" She says causing the ones that tried to get her attention to blush in realization.
Tabitha then notices something they have not seen before, or more correctly someone they have not seen before. And for some reason once this persons- no this creatures- eyes fall on her it causes every hair on the petite girls body to stand on end. What or whoever this was, was dangerous beyond measure.
Raskreia notices Tabitha stiffened, and when she checks to see where her gaze has landed she makes room for everyone to see as well.
She then hears Louise from her side gasp out before speaking "Raskreia, who and what is that?"
"This is Cathilia, she is a Balor, lord of her kind." Inwardly Rask was hoping that the ignorance Halkeginian's had shown towards the planes extended to demons as well, as she said that.
Guiche still trying to get over a horned and winged woman walking into the room he tries to organize what had been said into for him understandable quantities "So she is a noble?" he asks.
Causing Raskreia to look thoughtful for a moment before answering "Well… yes, in a sense she is."
Kirche then pointed out the obvious, mostly for the benefit of coming to terms with reality "She is not human, is she?"
"Nope, she is a Balor, like I just said earlier." 'Well, it is not a lie. They don't NEED to know that balor's are demons. Gods know that would not go over well.'
"I suppose she does not know our language does she?" Kirche said, looking the peculiar woman over. And the redhead had to admit that she was indeed rather attractive, unnaturally so, in a feral sort of way. Like an uncut diamond. No more like a finely polished blade.
"Well no, but she can use telepathy." Raskreia then turns back towards Cathilia "Could you please initiate a telepathic communication between us?" getting a nod in return.
'Greetings mortals. I am told you are travelling companions of Raskreia, therefore I shall endeavour to tolerate your presence for the time being.' This action and statement earned her a collection of winces from everyone in the room. The kids, because they had not expected the feeling of mental communication, and the native pair due to the nature of the statement.
"Well we will have to work on your tact I suppose." Felniir said outside the link, earning a confused look from the demoness.
"What do you mean? That was perfectly polite. Tolerance is the one of the highest social graces among my kind, only few are ever granted it. Basically when a demon says they tolerate you it means we then need a reason beyond 'I feel like it' to kill you. And I should add that I have already decided I can tolerate you."
Felniir couldn't help but stare at the demon in front of her before mumbling out "By the gods that might just be the best thing I heard all day."
'That little byplay in that weird hissing language of yours aside, and ignoring her rather rude statement about "tolerating us", why did she call us mortal as if she was not mortal herself.' Guiche asked once he figured out how to project his thoughts trough the link, and the initial chatter died down.
'I am not mortal, human. My kind does not age, we are timeless. We can only die through might and magic.' She stated making the students look rather shocked at her casual denial of her mortality.
'You will find that there is a number of being that are rather long lived, or downright immortal everywhere. Cathilia for example is at the LEAST ten-thousand years old.' The students are now slowly opening and closing their mouths in disbelief.
"I am assuming you are basing this on my time being imprisoned in the hole you had found me?" Gaining a nod from Rask 'In that case I can tell you I am approximately fifteen-thousand years old, give or take a few decades.'
Now everyone's jaws are starting to go slack. Cathilia was positively ancient.
'I don't know about you people, but I suddenly feel like a toddler.' Kirche said, getting a nod from everyone, even Raskreia and Felniir.
'I am sorry, but can I just point out that she is OLDER THAN OUR CIVILIZATION.' Louise's exclamation had everyone wincing as she pretty much shouted directly into their minds. Earning a glare from everyone affected. 'Sorry.' She hastily added afterwards.
"Never mind that" Raskreia said out loud once more "As much as I wanted to travel a bit more, it IS already getting dark outside. So we should spend the night here." Gaining a collection of moans of disappointment in return.
"I know, I know. But this was actually rather important business. You will be lucky to know you have not missed much that you could not have lived without. Mostly lots of shit, guts and blood. Also most of the captured people have been saved."
The students did not have to ask about what happened to those who were not saved.
The evening passed from there on with the collective people doing small talk, eating food conjured together with the mansion, and playing some minor games.
Later saw Raskreia and Cathilia locked in a series of chess games, with Cathilia winning most of them. They kept playing like this until the students had all fallen asleep in various locations of this temporary manor.
"Can I ask a favour of you?" Raskreia suddenly asked, breaking the silence that had fallen in the room.
"Naturally you can. What do you wish?"
"Could you scout the surrounding areas? I wish to show the kids something interesting in their time here. Just fly or teleport around and see if you can find something that is not all too dangerous." Once Rask has finished speaking Cathilia stands up and nods at her.
"I shall be back by dawn." And with that she left.
After about a minute Felniir spoke up "You are going to talk to someone, are you not?"
"You bet your furry self I am." She to left the mansion leaving Felniir as the only wake person in it.
'Well I guess I can go to sleep now.' Was the tigers thought 'Gods above, why can't she encounter something normal or harmless for once? Like a Flumph.'
With Cathilia
Cathilia was hovering several hundred meters up in the sky looking towards the earth.
She does not entirely know what to think of her current situation as of now. She has sworn her undying loyalty to a mortal creature that by all rights should be bellow her, a creature that she would under normal circumstances delight in flaying alive. Yet now that thought alone makes her feel uncomfortable.
She contemplated to disobey the mortals requests, indeed she was certain she wanted to disobey them. Or at least she was certain that she SHOULD want to disobey them. In reality that line of thinking makes her feel as though she was a failure, a worthless worm not fit to see the light of day during its miserable existence. She had felt like this before, she felt like this when she was still a larvae. She is NOT a larvae anymore, and never shall be again.
On the flip side obeying these requests makes her feel right. It is the same sort of feeling she used to get when she tore an enemies skull from their body, when she ripped a rival of hers limb from bloody limb. It is the same sort of feeling she got once she could think in coherent thoughts after becoming a fully fledged demon. It is the same sort of feeling she had gotten once she had finally ascended to being a lord of her kind after carving a bloody swathe through her enemies and had claimed a portion of an abyssal layer for herself.
She liked one of those feelings, and it is not hard to figure out which one it was.
'Why is it I am thinking this way. Why can I not simply wring that mortals neck and be done with it.' She at that moment spots something she had been looking for and starts a slow descent
'True, I would have stayed with her even if I had not been feeling this way. I NEVER break a promise, even if most of those are promises of pain and suffering.' Her body is now starting to be set alight by deep orange flames that seem to be sucking the surrounding light in to a degree, rather than providing illumination themselves, leaving a sight of a dull orange fleck in the sky for anything that cares to look.
'This is so frusTRATING" the last part of that had been shouted out at the top of her lungs transitioning in a long drawn out roar. And anything that might have been in the relative vicinity of the area scattered or hid from whatever had made that sound.
For most beings drawing attention to one selves during the night in this world is rather foolish with the number of creatures running around at this time. MOST being the key word here.
What Cathilia just did was a issue a challenge to anyone and anything willing to take it up. Unsurprisingly enough nothing had done so. Whether this is due to the lack of beings in the area or simply unwillingness by those that are there is equally as likely.
After all there is not many things that would willingly go face off against something that makes a sound of a roaring furnace fuelled by the wailing souls of the damned.
Having slightly vented herself, she finishes her descent by simply dropping the rest of the way, creating a dull *Thump* on contact, and letting her skeleton take the impact.
What had caught her attention here, at the base of a mountain, is a small hidden glade she is now currently standing in.
She supposes it passes as what mortals would see as beautiful, tranquil and endearing. To her it is merely a glade hidden inside a forest inside of a steep hill. Now that she thinks about it this looks remarkably like the impact site of a meteorite… if that is truly the case.
She without hesitation leaps into the sizable pool of water at the centre of the glade. She might be a creature of fire and brimstone, but water is hardly a hindrance to her as she swims easily to the bottom of the pond. It takes her a while of digging through mud and dirt with her hands, in fact she has to resurface twice in the time it takes her to find what she had been looking for.
There, dead centre and buried beneath who knows how many years of mud is a large chunk of black stone. No, stone does this no justice, for this is a chunk of stone laced with adamantine. The most common of the known skymetals.
Cathilia cant help but grin to herself, this is not a large amount, not really at any rate. But it is certainly enough to forge a blade for herself. Oh how she had missed to craft tools of war.
After resurfacing she looks around the glade for a moment and walks over to a tree had grown there, before placing the chunk beneath one of its roots to hide it away for the time being. Seeing as she had no way to properly carry it for now, being to heavy for her to teleport with it.
'This place can serve as a point of interest, though I doubt a singular location will be satisfactory.'
She briefly makes her body flare with fire, causing any and all water on her to instantly evaporate, before teleporting herself high up into the sky once more, missing a delicate hand coming out of the tree to inspect the meteorite that had been left there.
She spends the next two hours teleporting around the nearby areas and scanning for any place that might be interesting to visit for mortals.
She found a cave with a connection to the underdark, an ancient ruin of a tower overgrown by nature, a druidic ritual circle, a camp of bandits…
She was teleporting at a relatively rapid pace and actually almost teleported away from where she had spotted this camp. And it WAS rather close to that forest clearing over there that is overgrown with flowers, something she is told humans find appealing.
'It would not do for Raskreia to be endangered because I ignored these vermin. Yes, all I am doing is pest control, surely she will not begrudge me this.' Before she descends she does a survey of what she is dealing with here.
There is two of them "hidden" on platforms on the east and west side of the camp in the canopy of trees, there is another three of them that are awake, while the rest of them that are in view are sleeping, a good dozen men and few women. There is also a decently sized tent at the centre of it all.
'Looks like a temporary dwelling, they must be migrating.' She stays there hovering about a hundred meters in the sky while gazing at the humans bellow. 'I feel no different than I used to when gazing at these creatures. I feel as though they would be fun to torment, to eviscerate and to tear limb from limb. So it is not as though my mindset is adjusting to that of my new master, she does not seem the type to enjoy such things.'
Before she lands however, she is struck by a thought. 'Are these actually bandits, or just travellers. I doubt Raskreia would appreciate if I killed at random. They do not radiate good from them at the very least.'
So she instead floats relatively close to one of the men on the platforms before discretely casting a 'Dominate monster' on him, causing him to grow stiff.
Cathilia instantly gives him the mental command to act natural, causing the guard to relax once more, before establishing a telepathic link to him. 'Are you bandits?' gaining a monotone 'Yes' in return. 'Is this camp containing all of your number?' 'Yes' 'Is your leader in that tent?' 'Yes.' She then cuts the connection keeping the guard in his current position.
She slowly and carefully starts to glide down towards the ground, the only sound coming from her now is the silent whisper of displaced air.
She could just burn this place to the ground but she actually would like to get a container or two to carry things in if at all possible first. And it is not as though she is in any sort of hurry at this point in time.
It is almost laughably easy to slip into the tent as she lands as softly as a falling leaf.
Once inside she is greeted by the strong scent of sex in the air, making Cathilia wrinkle her nose slightly at the unexpected sensation. Looking over to the origin of the smell she sees a rather muscular human man intertwined with a female of the same species marred with an ugly scar from shoulder to hip. Both of them are not in any way shape or form remarkable beyond what she had already observed.
The only thing worth noting in her mind is the fact that both are naked and sleeping soundly.
"Pitiful." She silently hisses out.
Cathilia picks up the rather decent great-axe that was leaning against a tent post, walking over to the sleeping pair, the axe gaining the same wicked gleam any weapon she carries gains. And as she stands there over their prone bodies the man of the two begins to wake. But before he can contemplate what it is he is seeing his, and his partners, head is already parted from his body with a relatively silent *Shink*.
Cathilia then stops entirely for a few moments listening to any that might have heard this action, and hearing none.
A quick search of the place reveals a small number of gems that she attaches including their small pouch to her belt, a small amount of loose coin, and lastly are well made glaive that might fetch a nice price. But the thing she has wanted the most at this point in time being a large sack with which to carry stuff.
What she then does is switch away from the axe and instead wield the glaive, once she had a feel of the weapon she teleports right beside one of the lookouts in the trees impaling him on the glaive as she does so, and instantly using telekinesis to pull the other guard from across the clearing to impale him on the glaive as well.
If the two separate screams of pain and panic did not gain the attention of everyone there, she seriously does not know what will.
She leaves the two impaled men as they are and simply jumps off the platform, pulling the axe from her back as she does so, and cleanly cuts a man who had been shouting and pointing at her from head to toe.
She can tell the people are panicking to a degree, but it seems their numbers are keeping their confidence intact for the time being, as none of them flee. They are shouting things at her, but it is not as if she understands them.
Instead she does on what she really wants to do. She simply focuses on dodging, letting them think that she is on the defensive.
And so she dances with these mortals for several minutes, with her only striking out occasionally where someone exposes themselves so much it would be suspicious to not capitalize on it. Those times that she does are aimed to main rather than kill, yet these weaklings are dying on her from something as simple as a chopped of leg. Some of their more lucky hits do manage to connect with her, and to keep up the act she makes it look as though their weak attacks are actually doing harm to her, even going as far as letting them past her natural resistance to damage. She does not even consume the life-force of those that die to her, so as to not instantly heal those pathetic cuts they had managed to inflict, never mind that they are healing on their own already.
But these mortals are tiring, a sloppy swing means a broken bone, a miss-step means a severed appendage. And such their number is steadily declining without them even really realizing this fact.
Finally growing annoyed of this little charade after a rather scrawny, and exceptionally unkempt man, goes to swing his hatchet at her, only to instead hit the ground. Yet what put her over her range of tolerance is the fact that this vermin had the audacity to spin on her, and actually hit her right in the face.
In retaliation to this she slices both of his arms off with a quick up and down motion of her axe, before removing both of his legs from his body.
The now screaming torso made everyone that was left pause, all eleven of them. Cathilia capitalizes on this momentary shock by grabbing the still screaming torso of a man by his head, lifting him up to eye level and igniting her arms in abyssal fire. His screams are then rather short lived as the flesh melts of his face and his eyes both explode.
After a few seconds of this she sharply twists her hands in one direction causing the neck to snap, and the torso to drop to the floor. The burned clean skull she is now holding is dropped to the ground and viscously stomped on.
The few remaining bandits chose life instead of death at this precise moment of time as they scatter in all directions of the wind.
Not that they got very far due to the utterance of a single word, 'Blasphemy', causing a pulse to pass trough reality, and like puppets who's strings were cut all but one of the bandits fall to the ground.
All but one of them dead as dead can be. The last having been deliberately spared, because Cathilia had a hunch about something.
Cathilia's eyes lock on to the single human still alive, the woman running as fast as her legs can carry her into the woods. The woman made one mistake however. You do not run from a predator, it only excites them.
With a grin Cathilia launches herself after the woman, making sure to only appear occasionally in the vision of the fleeing person. Sometimes flying, sometimes running, and occasionally even teleporting in such a way that person does not notice. It would after all not do to make her realize just yet how hopeless her flight is.
The woman is by the end of the hour only barely able to run, only doing so due to a mix of fear, desperation and adrenaline. She can see the exit of this damn forest just up ahead. Only a little bit more and she will be outside of this cursed place. She is truly hoping that this beast will not follow her outside of the woods. Naturally any reasonably thinking being could tell her that the forest is the best chance she has to survive, that the open plains would be suicide. Not that she was in any way reasonable anymore.
And with a last painful burst of willpower and burning muscles she almost literally leaps for the end of the tree-line, falling flat on her stomach as she does so.
But when she looks up her eyes widen in horror. She was back at their destroyed camp. The thing had been herding her this whole time. Sure enough, right next to the camp fire, sitting without a care in the world was the beast that had been chasing her for the past hour.
Though it gave no indication of such, she was completely certain that it knew she was there.
'Is she trying to tell me that both running and fighting are futile. Does she want me to just give up?'
'I see you have found your way back here. It is dangerous to run in the woods alone at night. There is wolves about you know.'
Though startled by the voice in her head, she is not particularly surprised either.
'What do you want?' she snapped back at the demon still too tired to even stand up.
'Allot of things. Revenge, absolute power, all the riches in creation, perhaps a harem. But I suppose you wish to know what I want from you.'
Cathilia lets the woman stew in silence for a few moments before continuing 'Know that you only live due to rather unusual circumstances right now. I had noticed something during our bout earlier. You were one of the few that managed to land a hit on me, as pathetic as it might have been.' The woman cant help but wince at the insult.
'But out of all those who struck me tonight you were the only one to be affected negatively from doing so. Of course other than me eviscerating them in retaliation.'
The demon holds her gaze for a few moments making the woman sweat quite profusely, now that she thinks about it she did feel incredibly numb after having hit the thing, though she had assumed that everyone did. 'What is your point?'
The glare she is sent makes the woman instantly regret the disrespectful tone she had used. 'My point is that you, unlike these other vermin here are good. Or at least my magic considers you as such.'
'Okay, so your magic considers me good. What does that mean? Do you want to make my death extra special?' Now that she thought about it that might be exactly what this thing is planning on.
'Not exactly. I just thought that I might please my new master by showing that I can restrain myself enough to pick targets. So here is what I am going to do.' The demon at that moment teleports right in front of her, grabbing her by the shoulders and lifting her up to her feet.
She had honestly never felt as afraid in her life as she did now. 'I swear I will live an honest life in my next life. This must be divine punishment.'
'I am going to let my master decide what to do with you.'
All the woman can think of at the moment is 'why me?' as Cathilia bodily grabs her and flies of.
Several hours earlier, Kingdom of Druma: Kerse
Raskreia teleported just outside the gets of the city, knowing that teleporting directly into the city would have gotten her attacked by one or more of the various bound outsiders that serve to guard this city.
She quickly goes through the required steps to pass through the gates at this time of night, including reverting to her natural form.
She marches on through the streets at a quick pace, not bothering with keeping to the main roads, as side alleys are almost as well guarded in this place as everything else is. As a matter of fact she can sense the presence of at least one thing inside of the alley she currently is in. Most likely an invisible creature acting as a guard.
After a good fifteen minutes of borderline jogging she reaches her intended goal, a small mansion on top of a hill.
She simply saunters up the path towards the door, pulls out a her keychain, and unlocks the door.
This mansion, on paper, belongs to her and Kwalin. Though it is Zarhon and her living here at the moment. Well, sort of. There is a portal to her demi-plane in the sub-basement, so she is actually living in her own pocket of reality the just so happens to have an entrance in this mansion. As a matter of fact her mansion is a carbon copy of this one.
Long story short they won this mansion in a bet, the bet was to spend one night here and come out alive in the morning. One night and a nest of now dead ogre-spiders later they had a mansion. And it just so happens that the deed to this place has only her and Kwalin's name on it, no one bothered to correct it yet.
The first thing she is greeted by as she enters the foyer is the blazing mouths of a seven headed pyro-hydra. Ah yes… that one of the first things Thorgal brutally murdered faster than we could act.
Above her, acting as a macabre chandelier, is the hollow skull of a ancient white dragon, who's lower jaw had been replaced by one made of metal, its mouth blazing with the illusion of ice-magic, providing light for the whole entrance, there is even what appears to be snowflakes falling from its mouth.
Several other trophies are placed around the entrance of the place. All of them collected during their travels together. The pelt of a dire wolf, spider fangs the size of a person, the helmet of a antipaladin, mandibles and claws of an astradaemon, the hat of a pirate 'queen', and several more.
After a few moments of reminiscing she strides up the stairs and towards the room Zarhon uses for himself. As she comes closer she begins to smell fragrant perfume that Zarhon most definitely would not wear himself.
'Great, he has woman over again.' Coming to a stop in front of a door she takes a deep breath before moving to knock on the door, but stops herself in the last moment. 'Why am I making this more awkward than it needs to be? I am a mage, for crying out loud.'
'Telepathic bond' 'Zarhon?' she in return gets the mental equivalent of being startled, badly.
'Raskreia? Don't scare a man like that, I almost woke a lovely lady up because of you. And you are right outside my door aren't you?'
'Yes. I could have knocked if you had preferred that. And yes.'
'Alright, alright I'm coming. This better be important though.' She can practically feel his irritation at having to leave bed, and his partner.
After a few moments what greets her is a shirtless Zarhon wearing only loose pair of breeches.
And once again Raskreia is reminded that Zarhon IS, in fact a devilishly handsome man. To bad it is Zarhon that body is attached to.
He obviously notices her eyes roaming his body briefly and he smirks 'See something you like?'
'Well yes I do. But then I remember it is you I am looking at and suddenly all interest I gone.' She playfully flicks his chest with one of her clawed fingers.
'You do so love to play with my feelings do you not. But oh well, what do you need?' He transmits as he is rubbing the spot she had flicked, for a human that might have drawn blood. Dragon claws are sharp.
'Let us move to the party room to talk.' He nods and closes the door behind him. And as he does Raskreia can just barely catch a glimpse of a shock of green hair in the bed.
The silently walk to the other end of the hallway, through a door and into a carbon copy of the room Raskreia had been whisked away to become a familiar a few months ago. The doorway is peculiar in and of itself too, as there is a solid wall of blackness inside of it. A permanent 'Mages private sanctum' has been put in place here. It is also perfectly transparent from the inside out.
Sitting themselves down onto one of the comfortable sofas facing one another. They stay there in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying the peaceful moment both know will be a memory long past once they start speaking again. Zarhon even moves to pour himself a glass of elven wine.
"So. What's up?" It is Zarhon who first breaks the silence after taking the first sip of wine.
"First I wanted to inform you should expect several guests the day after tomorrow. Seven to be precise, and a small dragon." He raises his eyebrow a bit at that last bit but nods nonetheless.
"Next, what do you know of demons who carry the title 'Skullgrinder'?" He eyes her curiously but doesn't seem to be overly shocked at the turn of questions.
"It is a rather archaic title, and they do not use it much anymore. Its not really a title of much import per se, more like a 'cross at your own peril' warning. Mostly it was carried by exceptional individuals of their species, and balor's. Tough with them it is a given so it wasn't really used for them all that often. How come such a specific question, did you run into a demon claiming to be a Skullgrinder?" He says as he takes a sip from his wine.
She nods before speaking "A balor lord to be precise." Only for him to choke on the wine in his mouth.
"You are kidding me, right?" at the shake of her head he continues "HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?" he practically shouts out.
"Well here is what happened-" From there Raskreia recounts the events that happened today to the bard, who is listening in rapt attention. At the end of the tale she chuckles lightly.
"You know, is it weird that I consider this to be only third place of unlikely things to happen that actually happened?" Making Raskreia take up a curious look.
"What are number one and two then?"
"Number two is Thorgal's time travelling squire. And number one is a shared spot with Ginny finding my equipment and your existence." He says giving her a shit eating grin.
"MY existence? Really?" She cant help but laugh at that. "That is equivalent to Ginny finding almost all of your equipment in ONE place after you got sucked up by a tornado?"
"Come on, you ARE the daughter of a goddess and a dragon. You were sent to this here mortal world to live an ordinary life by your mother, who wishes of you to ascend to divinity by your own might."
"Alright fine you got me there." They then sit in silence once more before Zarhon breaks it once more
"So now what are you going to do?" He says while leaning forward. "I mean, you DO have a greater demon under your employ now. Allot of things one can do with that."
"That is precisely the problem. What AM I supposed to do with her. I do not want to treat her like a slave, nor can I just let her go free, just think of the devastation she could cause."
"I know what you mean, but what if you ignore the fact that she is a demon and just treat her like she is any old normal person. And then go from there." This just makes Raskreia more confused for a moment before she realizes what he meant.
"So you mean to say, I should just treat her like she was a member of our group. Prevent her from going all 'Slaughtering the innocent' by having her bloodlust directed at something worthwhile?" Zarhon shows her a thumbs up in approval.
"Precisely. Cause honestly she hasn't done anything that we wouldn't have, yet. Or at least not that we know of. And if we went around judging people by their potential to do harm to others, you and I would be rather dangerous as well. Imagine society locking us up because we COULD wipe out half a town on our own."
Rask for her part stares at him for a moment before she bursts out laughing, making Zarhon look at her confusedly. "Did I say something funny?"
"No, but I said something similar just earlier today." Causing him to change his look from confused to mock offended.
"I will have you know that I too can have reasonable things to say from time to time." Only for him to burst into laughter as well. And once again silence reigned between them, though not of the uncomfortable sort.
"I suppose you should head back to your lover, and I should head back to my charges. I really want to sleep some. Also, could you do me a favour and look up the laws concerning demons." She says as she stands up and starts walking for the exit.
"You and me both, though if I am not careful in going to bed sleep is going to be the last thing I am getting." He finishes with a wink. "And sure, I will look into it some." Getting a grateful smile in return.
"…Sooo you are going to stumble and fall over everything and anything in your way? Gotcha." The eye roll in that sentence can be practically felt.
"Pretty much, albeit much more graceful than that wording might suggest."
And with that they parted ways, Zarhon going further down the hallway and Raskreia moving downstairs and teleporting back to the location of the conjured mansion as she reaches the last step of the stairs.
Several hours later conjured mansion.
Raskreia is woken up a scant two hours after she had fallen asleep, thankfully just enough for her to regain her magic due to one of her ring's but she would have like to sleep through.
As she, still half-asleep, looks up to see who woke her up she is instantly jolted wide awake when she comes eye to eye with a pair of bright orange orbs. And she just barely manages to suppress the squeak that she would have otherwise produced.
To Rask's surprise Cathilia's eyes take up a look of apology. "I am sorry. Did I startle you? I shall endeavour to not do so in the future should I once more need to wake you."
The dragon-woman, now once again in her human disguise, takes a calming breath before speaking "Its fine, I am just not used to you yet, give it a few days and I should be completely fine… I hope." She mumbles that last part out but the demon's sharp ears catch it none the less, though she makes no outward motion of having done so.
"Anyway, I assume there is a reason you woke me beyond just wanting to wake me?"
"Yes there is, it will be easier to explain once you see for yourself however. The subject in question is just outside, and could not be brought inside due to the nature of this here conjured space." This causes Raskreia to raise an eyebrow.
"You brought someone or something here? Why?" and to the trained eye, such as that of Cathilia, she can se muscles tensing underneath skin.
"Rest assured they are not of any threat to you or yours, if they try anything I shall personally see to it that they do not live to see the next sunrise." One might misunderstand this as something cruel being said. But Raskreia understood this to be a gesture of fierce protectiveness, or at least it is as far as she can decipher demon psychology.
"Fine, I will be there in a few minutes, you are wearing my sleeves so I had to resort to sleeping in the nude. And in case you are wondering I do not particularly fancy myself an exhibitionist." The minute deviation of the demon's eyes away from her own and down to her form hidden by blankets is not missed by Raskreia. And to be honest she does not know how to feel about that.
"I see. I shall wait outside then." And with that Cathilia promptly left, leaving Raskreia to put her clothes back on, quickly brush through her hair a few times by hand, then leave.
As she is walking out she is having a internal monologue. 'Is it another demon? Possible, but she can just kill me herself if she wanted. An animal she found on the way? Unlikely, I doubt she would be interested in such things. Or it could be-' He monologue is interrupted by her leaving the conjured space.
She stares at the absolutely terrified eyes of the thing her "Pet" has dragged to her doorstep.
"…Or it could be a girl covered in mud, twigs, and blood." She cant help but let out a sigh of both relief and exasperation. "Hello there, My name is Raskreia. I hope my… friend… here did not cause you too much of an inconvenience." Only for the girl to faint on the spot after she had finished speaking.
Raskreia then looked back at Cathilia who had a face of absolute neutrality "Explain, now."