Aster and Anna had been flying together in the shokra for several hours, and Aster's legs were starting to go numb. However, the magnificence of the landscape they were flying through was worth the slight discomfort. The Himalayan mountains were breathtaking. The high, rugged, snow-covered peaks, this magnificent inferno of hostile ice and sharp rocks was stunning. The sun shining in the cloudless sky illuminating the snowy expanse of the top of the world was almost unreal. Aster watched one of the strange looking high peaks when her gaze was drawn to a multitude of colours far ahead.
A few hundred metres from their position, at the turn of one of the rocky spurs, the vast plateau of Leng appeared. A large high plain covered with rocks and grasses yellowed by the cold and in its centre a large lake. On the other side of the plateau a great city of cyclopean ruins with elaborate forms stretched up the mountain side towards the high peaks. But what immediately caught Aster's eye were the dozens of colourful and strangely shaped yurts scattered across the plateau. As they approached, Aster could make out countless people and creatures wandering between the yurts. A minute later, Anna set the shokra down on a large stone platform surrounded by multicoloured yurts. Anna jumped out of the vehicle and held out her hand to Aster. "We arrived," she said with a smile. Aster took Anna's hand and hopped down, before taking a few hesitant steps to regain the feeling in her legs. Meanwhile Anna retrieved the shokra, shrunk it and put it in her pocket.
They then moved towards a staircase leading down from the platform where a medium-sized humanoid creature stood, dressed in a long, elegant, colourful tunic with arabesque patterns, four slender arms and purplish skin. Its three eyes seemed to be gauging them with interest. Anna approached him and began a lively discussion in a strange language. After a few minutes of exchange the creature turned to Aster, adjusted a strange scarf around its neck. With her new eye Aster could see the scarf begin to glow strangely. The creature opened its strange mouth, vaguely reminiscent of a beak, and said with a strange interest shining in its three blue eyes. "Welcome, young Aster, protege of Karrasinqi mistress of the stones. I am Takrahè maashnya. And I have been charged with leading you to the yurt of Tuche." His voice was strange, distorted and unnatural, like an echo through the fog.
Without giving Aster time to respond Takrahè turned and began to walk between the strange yurts. Anna turned to Aster, taking her hand and following their guide's lead. "Just be polite to them and everything will be fine. They are Fahri Yujul and we're going to see one of their mind masters. Tùche is an old acquaintance of mine. You can trust him without any problem."
Aster nodded mechanically, more interested in the sight of the Fahri caravan than in Anna's words. The space between the strange yurts was overflowing with people, some humans of various cultures and skin colours, but mostly countless creatures of all kinds, some humanoid, some much, much less so. Most of them were of the same species as Takrahè and were holding open the yurts and various stalls of fascinating objects and foodstuffs that Aster had never seen before. On one of the stalls she saw a set of strangely coloured stones that did not match any description she could make. Their hue did not match any colour she had ever seen. Another stall was brimming with strange animals locked in various cages. A large twelve-legged lizard with eight blazing eyes immediately caught her eye but Anna pulled her away from the stall, Takrahè didn't seem to have the patience to wait for them.
Wide-eyed Aster continued to observe the people and things around her. A beautiful young woman with bewitching beauty and large white wings and feathers covering her forearm was leaning over a stall selling all sorts of jewellery and gems. Three large creatures with skin as black as night were talking in a language of sibilant whispers to one of the Fahri around what appeared to be a complex piece of glassware. A strange device coloured in green and blue then silently flew across the sky before landing a few dozen meters away and then unfolding to form a new yurt before three richly dressed Fahri stepped out.
The rest of the journey was also filled with all sorts of new things, beautiful, strange, frightening or incomprehensible until their guide stopped next to a black, electric blue and emerald green yurt. Takrahè beckoned them to enter, Anna bowed her head slightly in respect, Aster imitated her and they entered, leaving Takrahè to go about his business.
As soon as they entered the yurt, the first thing that struck Aster was the quiet. The noise from outside was immediately cut off as soon as the purple curtain was closed behind them. Then came the smell of plants, flowers, herbs and tea from the end of a long wooden corridor with a thick canvas wall covered in geometric and floral patterns. A voice came from the end of the corridor. "Come, I am expecting you." Anna took Aster's hand and gave her a reassuring smile and walked forward. Aster was surprised, worried, scared and slightly confused. The hallway was far too long to fit in the yurt and the voice had the same strange echoes as Takrahè's when he had addressed them.
Anna pushed open the heavy green curtain that closed the opening from which the voice came and they entered a large, darkened room, lit only by a few candles and various strange orbs and faintly glowing objects. In the centre of the room was a carpet covered in strange patterns and surrounded by three large cushions. Sitting cross-legged on one of them was the one Aster immediately assumed to be Tùche. He was undoubtedly a Fahri Yujul, with three silver eyes, bluish skin, four arms and four long tails, but he was smaller than most of the others Aster had seen before arriving at the yurt, he was more richly dressed, and she could see his magic thrumming through her new eye.
In the centre of the carpet was a tray holding a teapot and two cups and some biscuits, a third cup being in one of Tùche's hands. "Welcome to my yurt, both of you. It's good to see you again Anna, it's been a long time. And nice to meet you young lady." Aster's eyes were fixed on the scarf whose patterns shone and undulated at the sound of Tùche's voice.
"It's also good to see you again, Tùche. I see that you are doing well even after all this time. ... Aster?"
Aster looked away from the scarf and gazed at Anna for a second without understanding before pulling herself together. "Ah sorry, hello Mr. Tùche, I'm sorry my thoughts were elsewhere."
A strange melodic whistle rose from Tùche's chest as he leaned back slightly. Aster realised that she had said or done something to make him laugh. But what?
"No sir, ma'am or other nonsense with me young lady, just Tùche or Master Tùche will do."
Aster nodded. "Yes, Tùche."
"Well, Anna contacted me and explained the problem. Your mind is injured and must be healed. Anna my dear, can you leave us alone for a few hours, while I see what I can do?"
"Sure, I'll go shopping, I'll be back when I'm done."
Aster turned her head towards Anna with a frightened look on her face and grabbed her dress. Anna hugged her tightly, placed a kiss on her forehead and whispered in her ear. "Don't worry, darling. Tùche is an old acquaintance and I trust him. He will do his best to help you. I'll be back in a few hours, okay?
Aster nodded shyly.
" Very well, be brave, my dear, " at these words Anna put Aster back on the carpet, waved to Aster and Tùche before leaving the room. Now alone, Aster turned all her attention to Tùche. He was staring at her with his three eyes glowing with a powerful magic.
"Aster, protege of Anna, I will now help you. The wounds of the soul are not like those of the body and cannot be completely healed. For that you will need time and help. Only you can give yourself time, I will now give you help."
Aster gathered her courage and said. "What are you going to do?"
"I am going to teach you what the magical humans of the earth call occulmency. The art of knowing, exploring, arranging and protecting one's soul. It is a powerful and useful complex magic. It allows you to understand, control and direct your feelings, organise your memories, close or open your soul to others and much more. At this moment your soul is open, as is the soul of all those who are not initiated into occlumency."
"You're going to teach me how to do all this and it's going to help me heal the wounds in my soul?"
"Yes, that's right, and to do that I need you to look into my third eye on my forehead," he said, indicating the open vertical eye in the middle of his forehead. Aster complied. The flames of the candles flickered and grew in intensity, the room distorted around her and the shadows stretched into strange, dancing shapes as a thousand murmurs and sighs echoed. Aster felt a slight pressure on the back of her eyes and visions flashed before her eyes, far too fast for her to make any sense of them, except for the powerful green light returning regularly amidst the chaos of shapes and sounds of unintelligible voices and screams echoing in her head. A few minutes or an eternity later she could not tell, the room returned to its normal state and the visions ceased.
Tùche looked pensive. A few minutes of silence later and he said in a hesitant voice. "I cannot teach you occlumency in your present state. A parasitic soul is attached to yours, a soul fragment connected to others feeding on your magic and growing day by day. Because of this parasite your soul has no border of its own at the moment and is connected to a network of other soul fragments. Teaching you occlumency now would be like trying to build a wall along a non-existent line."
Aster nodded. "Yes, Kav-deb said the same thing. He said he'd get one of his acquaintances to treat me."
At the mention of Kav-deb's name the Tùche's eyes crinkled. "And who is supposed to help you?"
Aster hesitated for a moment, she didn't know much about Sonya. Should she tell? Surely after all she knew the doctors often kept in touch with each other... "Kav-deb says it' s called Sonya. Mum's scared of it but Kav-deb says I've got nothing to worry about."
Tùche's eyes suddenly widened in a rather comical way and he choked on his tea. "Kav-deb the green, master of the Antrums, tamer of the rifts calls upon Sonya Legravallina, mistress of souls and deicide to help you? Oh that's brilliant, I haven't heard anything like that in a long time." He burst out laughing and rolled around on the floor for several minutes before finally getting his act together. Aster was stunned and didn't know what to make of this reaction. Should she doubt Kav-deb? "Oh don't worry little one, you'll be in good hands with her, don't let her corrupt you too much, not too quickly anyway," he said with a wink.
"However, until this problem is resolved I can teach you the basics of occlumency meditation. It will come in handy when we start the serious stuff."
A few hours later Aster had managed to put herself into a meditative trance, with the help of Tùche, an infusion with relaxing properties and some incense. It was a state of deep peace that Aster had never experienced before. She felt as if she was floating in the middle of a vast expanse of calm black water. The only thing disturbing her inner peace was the feeling of not being complete, a slight insecurity and frustration eating away at the edges of her soul.
Her trance was interrupted when she felt something hard and cold being brought to her lip and cool water running down her throat. She blinked, rubbing her eyelids, still too relaxed to fully grasp her surroundings. A few seconds later she recognised Anna and Tùche crouching in front of her. The incense had been extinguished and the strange brew had apparently ceased to have any effect.
"Hello little one, welcome back. How are you feeling?"
Aster blinked again, a little shaken from the awakening, before reaching out to Anna and she gently took her in her arms without hesitation.
"It was a strange experience, I've never been so calm. It was as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders."
Tùche nodded approvingly. "Well that's a good start. We'll see each other again soon. Until then Anna I trust you to sort out Aster's soul problem," he said, turning to his mother.
"I'm counting on it. Aster, I've finished our shopping and we can go." She started to walk towards the door when one of Tùche's hands came to rest on her shoulder.
"None of that my dear, I'll take you home. You won't get away with this. I'm sure you've got plenty to share with me by now."
Anna sighed but soon gave up resignedly. "As you wish, Tùche... Thank you. It will be more comfortable for us."
Tùche led them to an adjacent room in the corridor and asked them to sit in comfortable looking chairs. Tùche sat on one of the seats in front of her and placed his four hands on a black, glassy stone slab in front of him. The stone lit up and was covered with strange symbols. The yurt shook for a moment and all the walls around it changed shape until all three of them were on a platform under a transparent dome towering over the other yurts of the caravan. A few seconds later the machine rose into the air.
Turning back to Anna, Tùche said. "You haven't relocated since the last time, have you?
"Indeed not." she sighed. "I suppose I'll have to open one of my last bottles of the 1236 vintage?"
"I'm afraid so, yes. After all, you owe me at least that much."
With these words the aircraft sped off into the sky, splitting the air, Aster turned away from the conversation preferring to watch the Leng Plateau grow tiny below them and the sky darken as they emerged from the upper atmosphere. The curvature of the earth became visible and only minutes later the aircraft plunged back to the ground. Aster was pleased that Anna had accepted Tùche's offer. Flying in a Fahri yurt was much more pleasant and faster than in a shokra.
That night. Anna had a yurt in the garden, and a drunken Fahri asleep on the sofa in the living room. Aster laughed under her breath at the situation. It was a very good day and Anna had apparently bought her a whole wardrobe and a variety of small useful items. Once again Aster had joined Anna's bed, and she couldn't be happier. She had a mother, a weird uncle and a home... what more could she ask for.
OoooO
Aster was anxious and she was not the only one. Anna was also uneasy. And for good reason. On this beautiful evening in the library of Kav-deb's house, Laputa as he had called it, they were both sitting around the table with a grinning Kav-deb waiting for the arrival of the guest of the day. It had been three days since the meeting of Aster and Tùche and the latter had apparently succeeded in frightening Anna enough about the health of Aster's soul that she had urged Kav-deb to bring forward their meeting. And so it was that just three days later mother and daughter were sitting with a particularly smug-looking Kav-deb in an anxious silence.
It had been five minutes since Sonya was due to arrive. Five minutes of delay seemed to be weighing heavily on her mother's nerves. Aster was about to grab the cup on the table in front of her to take a sip of tea when two slender arms wrapped around her and she toppled backwards as if drawn into darkness, the last thing she heard was a cry of fear and surprise from Anna. It was as if she had just crossed the surface of a lake, and instead of being immersed in the water, she came to her senses in a completely new environment.
Before her eyes lay a desert of grey sand as far as the eye could see under a twilight sky. The horizon vaguely reddened by an apparently ethereal light. But what made her struggle immediately was the sensation of a warm body against her back and the two arms gripping her waist and shoulders, blocking her arms. The more she struggled the stronger the embrace became. Until a soft, sweet, feminine voice cooed softly into the hollow of her neck, barely louder than a whisper, three simple words. "You are mine."
Aster stood still, not daring to move an inch. Completely helpless, at the mercy of her abductor. " Little bird of nights is in a cage now hmm?" Aster preferred to remain silent, not knowing who was holding her and why, too confused and scared to think straight. "So you're the little protege of sweet Anna and the mighty kav-deb?"
Aster nodded and gathered her courage. "You are Sonya?"
The arms holding her still released her and Aster ran for a few seconds before turning to face her captor. In front of her stood a small girl about her age, with long golden-blond hair down to her ankles and blue eyes, dressed in a simple monk's bure far too large for her. Her hands were entwined behind her back and her head slightly tilted, a smile far too big and with far too many sharp white teeth splitting her face. Aster's new eye immediately responded to her silent question. The monster before her was unlike anything she had seen before, nothing on the Leng Plateau, in Laputa at Anna's house or on the edges compared to the thing before her. The creature's magic was creeping and ever-changing, an infinite number of distorted and lost figures, a titanic web of magics assembled under one, a paradox, something foreign and unspeakable that all of Aster's instincts told her that the thing before her could not possibly exist and yet stood before her, motionless and smiling. She should have been paralysed with terror but she felt strangely at ease. Perhaps it was because Kav-deb had told her many times that Sonya would not harm her, or strange as it may seem her magic, her aura, had some similarity to the creature in front of her.
Sonya, turning her gaze to her fingernails, pouted for a moment before sighing. "A certain Kav-deb asked for my help a while back. Something about someone I might be interested in." She looked up and stared at Aster. "And I see that I have indeed not come for nothing."
Ignoring all her survival instincts, Aster looked at the creature mimicking a little girl. "My name is Aster. Aster, Karrasinki."
The thing tilted its head slightly, never taking its eyes off Aster. "Sonya, Legravallina, a pleasure to meet you, little bird of night."
Silence stretched between them for a moment. A light wind blew up a cloud of sand, ash? Aster wasn't sure, but before the cloud fell again Sonya's face was in an instant mere centimetres from hers. Aster gasped, she hadn't seen her move and hadn't taken her eyes off her. "My dearest friend kav-deb asked me to help you. To remove the little worm growing slowly in your soul like it would in an apple."
Aster nodded shyly and Sonya took this reaction as a signal to continue. "Are you strong, Aster?"
"No..."
"And why aren't you strong, you look strong to me. You have survived the monsters living in the hearts of men, you have survived fire and thunder, you have survived the sigh of twilight, and touched death. Tell me, why are you not strong?"
Aster was taken by surprise and hesitated for a moment before answering, confused by the creature's cryptic words. "I survived, but I didn't win, I survived but I ran, and I had to be saved. I love Anna, I love my mother, but I cannot protect her. Or even protect myself."
"Hmmm," Sonya's smile widened even more, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. "You are strong Aster, the strong survive, the strong bend in the wind but do not break, the strong know when to accept help when it is offered. What you describe to me is the mighty. Only the mighty protect, only the mighty fight. The strong who plays the mighty is no longer the strong, he is the fool. Anna is mighty, Kav-deb is also mighty. You are strong, the question is: do you want to become like them?"
Aster hesitated, "Why are you telling me this? And why did you abduct me?"
"Simple really, I kidnapped you because I wanted to have this discussion in private with you, where no one could hear us, look around. Do you even know where we are?"
Aster complied and looked around. They were on top of a grey sand dune in the middle of a desert as far as the eye could see. The temperature was... there was no temperature as strange as it was, neither hot nor cold. The air was still, the desert immersed in a starless twilight, the evening glow present on the horizon... in all directions. The only thing disturbing the expanse of ash dunes was a dot, far, far away on the horizon. She looked away from the thing, her new eye blinded by the pure energy of the thing on the distant edge. Choosing not to dwell on it, she massaged her eyelid to dissipate the pain before reaching down and grabbing a handful of ash, yes ash, pure and fine, sliding through her fingers. She looked up at Sonya. "We are in the edges. In one of the layers where Anna hasn't taken me yet." She looked around again slightly afraid. "And apparently far from any path..."
As Aster spoke Sonya had bent over slowly, shaking regularly with tremors. Aster was worried about what might be happening to her. But she didn't know how to react when, after she had explained her theory, Sonya burst out laughing, holding her stomach. Sonya caught her breath after a few minutes of total hilarity, in front of a bewildered Aster who did not understand the reason for such a reaction. Sonya said, her voice cut off by bursts of uncontrolled laughter. "the edges ah ... haha... the edges... ahahah, she thinks we're in the edges... ahhahaha... . Adorable."
Aster tilted her head to the side, not understanding what had just happened. And looked around again. If her deduction was wrong, where could it be? This kind of landscape had been synonymous with the edges for her until now. "Where are we then?
"In one of the circles beyond the starry lake. In the realm where Umgol dreams. The circle of serenity, and here not even Kav-deb can join us until we have finished our little chat. And to answer your other question, it is because I am offering you a choice."
Aster's eyebrows furrowed, "A choice? Kav-deb told me you agreed to cure my soul of the parasite..."
"Yes, that's right. Now tell me little night owl. Do you want to remain strong or do you want to take the path of power. Do you want to remain the reed that bends in the storm, or the one that commands the winds? I can do two things for your little problem. Either rip off the parasite and leave you as you are, strong but at the mercy of the external affairs, at the mercy of the powerful. Or I can teach you to devour it and set you on the path to power. Which is your choice?"
Aster looked away from Sonya, and let her eyes wander to the horizon. Aster disagreed with Sonya, she wasn't strong, no one who was dependent on another could be strong in her opinion. But Sonya's definition of strength, her way of contrasting it with power, made sense to her. She finally understood why Sonya had chosen to abduct her to such a strange and remote place for this discussion. She wanted to talk to her and not Anna or Kav-deb. Where Kav-deb would be neutral to this choice, Anna certainly would not. Anna saw Aster as the traumatised and helpless little girl whose mother she had become and whom she had to protect. Aster was not stupid. She had seen the deep loneliness in Anna's eyes, her withdrawal from the world, her constant flight from her past and from those who, unlike her, did not wish to forget or forgive.
If Anna had been there at the time of this choice she would have pushed Aster to stay strong, not to go down the path of power as Sonya presented it. Aster had seen it, Anna wanted Aster to always remain at least somewhat dependent on her. Lest she abandon her and find herself alone again. Her choice to save Aster lost and dying in the edges had said as much. Yes, part of Anna had surely done it out of a sense of duty, but Aster was not fooled. Anna wanted to escape from her solitary existence. But Aster didn't want to live forever on Anna's back like a good little girl. Yes, she loved Anna terribly. She was the first person to show her love and care. But she wanted to stand on her own two feet and walk beside Anna without holding her hand or being behind her. To be her equal and show her that even if Aster was no longer dependent on her, Anna would not be abandoned. Aster had already made her decision long ago. Since she had understood her role as a slave to the Dursleys. She wanted to be able to stand alone and be the one to unleash the storm, not the one to be subjected to it.
Aster turned her attention back to Sonya who was waiting quietly and patiently as she played with the ash between her fingers. Sonya felt her gaze and looked up at Aster, looking quizzical, like a predator waiting to see its prey's next move.
"Power. I want to take the path of power. I want to be able to stand on my own."
"Very well, if that is your choice. In that case I will teach you, but in this instance you must agree to accompany me when I come for you without question in the near future. Don't worry, I will always bring you back to Anna. Do you accept?"
"Yes, I do."
In that instant Sonya's smile had become purely demonic, her form shifting into a blur, silent darkness spreading from beneath her feet and around her to envelop Aster completely, as Sonya's mere presence had devoured all light. Aster was nothing but a soul. All sensation had left her body, she no longer had a body, she was just a mass of organised energy connected to something larger. Some form of sight was returning to her. She was a sphere of bluish light connected by a strand of blue energy to a distant star. Her attention turned from the gentle warmth of this connection to a strange form of pain. A reddish-black shape clung to her, moving gently like a snake around her. The thing had a thread of energy like her, linking it to the distant star, but also so many other links running in different directions and getting lost in the darkness. Sonya's voice echoed around her as if coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. "The link to the star, to Aathna is what makes you who you are. A mage, one of the creatures lucky enough to have a soul. You must NEVER break it, you are not capable of it, but when you are, NEVER do it."
Aster watched the bluish link connecting her to the distant star, its light and gentle warmth flooding her in a deep sense of ecstasy. It was part of a whole, a much larger whole, one of the infinite wheels of the universe. The warmth of the star had a gentle pulse that beat like a heart. Sonya's voice snapped her out of her trance. "Wonderful, isn't it? Now focus on the little worm that is slowly eating away at you, yes that vile little thing, a pathetic imitation of a soul. Focus on it, feel it, its presence, its ignoble existence. Surround it with your power, your energy, tighten around it. You are the predator, he is the prey. The insignificant thing that you will feed on, that you will crush between your jaws."
She focused on the worm, felt it, its presence tainting her soul, its form squirming inside her vile little pitiful thing that it is. "Yes that's good, surround it, yes like that, good. Now BREAK IT." At these words Aster could only obey, a terrible hunger seized her. She suddenly tightened her grip around the thing, feeling it crack gently under her strength. a juice like thing flowing from the worm, a delicious energy flowed into her. An immense, intoxicating pleasure washed over her, not unlike what she had felt when drinking Eva's blood but profoundly different. Here it was not a gentle embrace, but a delectable display of power and dominance over the creature struggling more and more desperately inside her as her power slowly broke it. Aster had never seen herself as sadistic. But in this moment she could understand the lure, the feeling of absolute power over the pitiful thing at her mercy.
"Yes, go on, crush it, break it, destroy it, devour it, leave nothing, not a trace not a shred. You are the predator, he is the prey. This is the natural order of things. The powerful devour the weak. Yes, you are on the way." Listening to the encouragement in Sonya's soft, sweet voice echoing around her, Aster increased the pressure, the parasite struggling with all its might but unable to escape. The worm cracked, its shell splitting open more and more, its blood, its power, its essence, flowing gently into Aster like the sweetest nectar. With a final push, the shell broke completely. A horrific scream echoed around her in terrible agony. But Aster didn't care, she was intoxicated by the wonderful nectar that had flowed into her soul. The delicious power that filled her as the rest of the worm dissolved into her soul. The network of a thousand little filaments that made up the worm under its shell disappearing into her. All ties the worm had with things far away broke with a loud crack and Aster was well, happy, satisfied.
"Congratulations, little bird of night, on receiving your first meal. Now before you leave, you need to start something important. Your first line of defence. To begin with, look around you. Look at your connection to Aathna." Aster slowly snapped out of her trance and looked around, staring at the filament that connected her with the distant star. Nothing seemed to have changed at first glance. But as she focused on it, Aster could see that the link had thickened almost imperceptibly and looked very slightly firmer and more opaque.
"What you see and first benefit of consuming souls. Each soul is connected to the mother, and by devouring them you strengthen your own bond. Wonderful, isn't it?" Aster was a little frightened, Sonya was eating souls of people on a regular basis? As if Sonya had heard her fears and questions. Sonya's soft voice answered her, "No, not necessarily, there are many ways to get souls without killing..." after a short pause she resumed, "And when I do kill to eat a soul, I take the soul of someone who deserves it."
"Like the criminal's?" Aster said hesitantly, still a little scared.
"Yes... for example?" Sonya seemed rather insecure, which didn't help reassure Aster. But Sonya was friends with Kav-deb and Anna seemed to tolerate her. It couldn't be that bad, could it?
"Now little night bird, your soul is vulnerable, and while we are here we will begin to build the first line of defence. Dive into yourself and find the pieces of the soul structure you just devoured. There are many ways to use them, you can let them be fully digested into yourself to become more powerful in the long run, use them as a reserve of emergency or backup energy. Or, as here, use them for defence. Get as much as you can."
After a time Aster could not define. Hours, days? She had no time markers here, except for Sonya's voice talking about everything and anything. The entity, as Aster had learned Sonya to be, was strange indeed. Terribly old, she had spoken without pressure about the disappearance of a civilisation on the moon of Naash and how she missed Knr'stke. She was also incredibly knowledgeable. Following a question from Aster she had babbled for far too long about how a star was born. Something about the death of a very large stellar creature, Aster had quickly found herself lost in the technical details offered in a more or less random order... how on earth a creature large enough could exist that when it died it became a star was beyond her. Still, Aster had decided that the impossible was probable. After all, magic exists... But what shocked her most about Sonya was that despite her indeterminate age and obvious knowledge she had the mentality and attention span of a girl her age. Which was very confusing. Wait what had Sonya just said... Earth was also a big dead thing but just not big enough to become a star? Bloody hell. And now changing the subject to how to change the rules of chess to make it more fun. Make the board bigger, make more different types of pieces, remove the squares, imagine different factions... add necro, necron what, to the game? To make them fight against orcs? Like the hobbit's she managed to steal from the library? And the king is removed because it''s of no use except to throw it in the opponent''s face when you think you''re losing to win by forfeit? But this has nothing to do with a chess game anymore ! And why dice buckets? Sonya had simply said to change the name of the game...
After all this time Aster had finally accumulated a quantity of the worm's soul array to satisfy Sonya. Apparently she had to weave the web around her soul to make a barrier without her hands, just by force of will. And this with Sonya's constant babbling in her ears. Luckily most of her advice came in handy or Aster would have gone mad.
Aster was mentally exhausted. But she was done, Her soul was completely encased in a framework of solid looking braided soul pieces, according to Sonya it was just the base to be reinforced for when she absorbed other souls. Fortunately Sonya had assured her that she wouldn't have to kill people for it and that she had a special method. Something about hunting the hunter.
Once Sonya's voice indicated that everything was perfect, the darkness surrounding Aster's soul dissipated and she felt as if she was being sucked in and shaken in all directions before suddenly everything stopped. She was back in her body and she staggered before falling to the ground on her knees, raising a small cloud of ash. Around her nothing had changed, the desert was still, just a light breeze lifting a small cloud of ash from time to time. Aster looked up and saw an outstretched hand before her. Sonya was standing in front of her leaning forward holding out her hand. Aster grabbed it and stood up.
Sonya nodded approvingly. "Well done little one. You're on the right track. Now I'm going to give you back to your mother and disappear to avoid her wrath. I'll see you soon enough. Don't worry."
Sonya's hand clasped hers and suddenly the world seemed to turn upside down, gravity reversed and at the same time she felt as if she were walking across a liquid surface. Everything around her seemed to blur. She was exhausted, her body barely responding, she could hear Anna's panicked voice around her and Kav-deb's still calm and collected voice. She felt her mother hugging her, warm liquid flowing from her scar, then everything went black.
OoooO
As usual, he walked through the streets of Paris on this cold winter evening, spying on passers-by one by one. Despite the cold, the streets were busy and full of life, but that was not what he was looking for. He had heard rumours that she had been seen in Vienna and Berlin last year. Her trail was still fresh, the monster had returned to Europe. And this time it would not escape. It had been years since his hunt began. From the moment he found the bounty in the ICW archives thirty years ago he had not given up. How the existence of such a monster could have disappeared into the archives was a mystery to him. A few years later and the bounty would have been obsolete and impossible to update. Since then, he and his group had searched most of the world's cities for any rumours. She had been spotted in South America, Taiwan, Tibet, the Confederacy of United Magical Kingdoms of Russia and many other places. But all the reports had been old and unreliable. And the creature sometimes disappeared completely for several decades before reappearing without warning.
He had once almost succeeded in shooting it down, but only got his companion. And then after the attack it had simply disappeared. But now. They finally had a fresh lead again. They would finally get their hands on Vlad's monster. The creature undoubtedly had its lair in Europe but where exactly? He discreetly waved his wand in his pocket to cast a warmth charm to thaw his hands. He had been out for too long tonight.
He was about to take the portkey back to the base when out of the corner of his eye he saw her. Still as beautiful as the last time, her white skin under the moonlight, the ochre reflection of her hair. She was holding a hand...a... A little girl. Five years old by her height. Her skin as white as the monster's, her eyes a beautiful sparkling emerald green, one of her eyes glowing, literally. Long red hair falling down her back, a beautiful little girl if she wasn't obviously a vampire too. The monster had turned a little girl. For what reason? It was beyond him. But there before his eyes was his target, the monster and the young vampire had just entered a small park. He had stopped in shock at the sight of her and to his great regret had not immediately gone after her. He walked towards the park, and to his dismay it was empty. The two vampires had disappeared. He turned back to the hotel from which they had emerged and stared at it. She had just done something here in the middle of the night in a small, inconspicuous hotel. Probably another assault on an innocent person. He pulled out his wand and with a slight movement, two whispered words brought a silver varan came to life. "To the sparrow, Target sighted, Paris, meet me at the base in half an hour" the varan nodded and disappeared in a flash of white light.
A smile came to the man's lips, the hunt could begin again. He entered the hotel, he will have work tonight and in the months or years to come.