What followed the agreement was celebration. Bernards crew followed Demadara and her companions inside. They plundered the homestead´s supplies and prepared a great feast under Timae´s supervision. While Parsae quickly vanished upstairs, Demadara remained among the brigands.

They shared tales of their exploits, escapades and close calls, all lined with generous embellishment. After the feast some of the crew took out their musical instruments: flutes and drums, and together with Demadara they burst into song.

During "The tale of Cel Celene, the bandit queen" Many could no longer stay sitting around, they joined in dance to the song of the great idol of outlaws across the empire who was said to have stolen from the capitaline palaces and even the imperial vault.

Among all of them, Demadara was the most in tune, leading several of the female crew members across the floor, well enough to earn a kiss under the cheering of the others and a withering glare from Timae who vanished upstairs.

The sun was slowly setting, and hand in hand with a blonde woman of the crew Demadara took the stairs up to one of the bedrooms. It was dark inside, save for a single, pale purple light, illuminating Parsae´s ghostly features. Demadara froze in the doorway.

"I think you would want to talk with me, girl." The mage was sitting on the bed next to a veritable staple of books, her expression unknowable.

Demadara let out a sigh and shrugged, after a quick look the woman at her side left back for the downstairs.

Now alone she entered the room and closed the door behind her. "I hope for your sake that you figured out something important."

"Oh I learned much, very much." Parsae glared down at the books and gritted her teeth. "And most importantly, I have found a course of action for you." The mage crossed her legs and gazed down at the Heart still resting at Demadara´s side. "I teach you some of my best tricks, together we take out that bothersome wolf you are so worried about. Then we part ways and you throw this thing into the eastern sea."

"I don't appreciate your jokes." Demadara crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I am not joking, girl. You want to be free and get away from people coming after you, right? Then that is your best option. As much as I loathe that furball friend of yours there is no denying she'll jump off a cliff if you tell her to. Take her to the east, find some quiet place and live out your days there. The Heart wont give you anything better."

"What, better than giving up?" Demadara´s hands clenched. "Giving up this power and becoming a victim of someone stronger? Never. Now tell me what you learned."

Parsae sighed and stretched her hands. "Fine, fine. I though the heart was a weapon, or a large crystal. The essence of a god pushed into a workable form. But how wrong I was." Her fingers began to twitch. "It is a crystal alright. Bring it closer."

Demadara gave her a long look before she took the heart off of her side and walked over with it in in her hands.

"Try drawing from it."

She swallowed her remark and instead followed Parsae´s instruction. The Heart began to glow in it´s usual resplendent shimmer.

"Now look more closely. At the surface."

The bright light had a shimmer of gold, a single little string that raced across the surface of the Heart. It´s trail formed symbols and lines that Demadara could not make sense of. "Some kind of language, but it's neither magic runes or high imperial. No idea."

"Of course you don't." Parsae leaned over, the glow reflecting in her eyes. "There are maybe ten people still alive who can read it. We made sure of that."

The mage´s eyes flickered, following the line of gold. Finally she leaned back and took a deep breath. "I've never hated being this right. It says 'Graced is this one, who takes the first step on the path to the greatest being'. It loses a sense of finality in translation."

Parsae rested her hands on her lap,though it did not do enough to calm them down. "This was not made to power a weapon or strengthen an empire. It was made to elevate one person and one person only."

Demadara pulled the Heart closer to her chest, a smile forming across her lips. "It makes you a primal."

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"A primal?" Parsae´s laugh was short and coarse. "An insatiable glutton who has to devour others to grow? No, it goes much further than that. It does make you one, but that alone is not a feat. Any madwoman with the right tools and knowledge could make armies of these abominations.They are not dangerous, what they can become is what makes them a threat."

Parsae got up and began to pace across the room. "To contain a god is a great feat, to draw power from one? Even greater. But for a novice like you, to do so without becoming a pawn of it´s will? That is unbelievable. Unbelievable until you realise that it is not contained in a prison or a bind. No. This heart? It is the stomach of a dormant primal, if you will. A power and perhaps a will, but one that will fall and crumble once absorbed."

Demadara´s hands were sliding across the surface of the heart with glee, the woman was close to panting, her eyes shot wide open. "You're telling me I can make this my own, a part of myself? What are we waiting for then?"

She did not even see the slap coming. It echoed across the room as Parsae´s hand hit her cheek. "Did you even listen to me? Or do you just not think? Yes, that is what it is made for, to endow even a meagre little human like you with the capacity to devour magic through life and an endless supply of energy in one stroke. And tell me, who do you think would want such power, except every single soul with a spine on this earth?"

Parsae stopped in front of Demadara. Locks of her hair had fallen across her face as she stared the woman down. "This thing was meant for Aeterna, and you can bet your life that she will set every cog of the empire into motion to get it back, and she wont flinch to carve the power back out of your body. And neither will any primal, don't you get it? You will never know a single day of peace for the rest of your life. And that is only if you can even survive the procedure! Even with the body of a primal, do you think you can wrestle the life out of a god?"

Demadara met her gaze with much of the same intensity, her cheek still red with an imprint of Parsae´s hand. "I will know peace. When I stand above the world, stronger than those who would want to take from me. And if I need to break a god for that, then I will."

"So it has already gone to your head, has it? You cannot fight the entire world, girl. You will have power, but have you any idea of how to wield it? Compared to the other gods? Compared to the rulers of the Landseas?"

"There will always be someone stronger, that does not matter!" Demadara was raising her voice, she slammed her hand against the wall. "Do not lecture me on how the world works, I know! There is always someone stronger, always someone richer, more influential, who will push you on your knees and do whatever they want. You are telling me, that I have the option to hold power I could not even imagine, and you think I will not take it?"

Cold sweat was running down her body as she screamed. "I have lived my entire life on my knees, and you tell me to just return to that? No! I got on my feet, I will beat down everyone in my way, and I will die standing before I live kneeling!"

She had to raise her head to look Parsae in the eyes, but she was staring the mage down. "I will stand atop the highest tower, and I will be free. And there is nothing you can say to sway me."

A shiver ran down Parsae´s spine as she sat back down, lowering her head. "And what will you do with it? Nobody can stand alone, girl." Her voice quiet. "You need more than a strong hand to lead."

"I don't know." Demadara leaned back against the wall, resting both her hands onto the Heart once more. She stared into it´s shining surface that illuminated her scarred face. "I don't care what people do, so long as they are useful to me. So I can leave that to others, like you."

"What?" Parsae looked back at her.

"You're smarter than me, you know way more than me." Demadara slid down the wall until she was sitting. "And you're on Aeterna´s list as well, no? It'd be smart for you to stick with me and Timae."

Parsae could not help but let out a small laugh as she leaned forward. She looked at Demadara closely. "Were you a little shorter, blonde, and well, you know." She motioned to her scars. "You'd remind me of someone who told me very much the same thing."

"You, you don't mean." Demadara blinked and pointed to herself. "Aeterna?"

"Quite the same." Parsae ran a hand across her chin and nodded to herself. "You certainly have much of the same temper. It is interesting to see how history repeats itself."

Parsae rose to her feet and pushed the books off the bed before walking over to the door. "Well, that is what I have gathered so far. They never figured out who god was, though given the purpose of the Heart, it is hardly like the identity matters. Endless energy is endless energy after all. And don't go just trying to break it."

She looked down at the shining orb. "Where we're going we wont be lacking in potential experts of the field. So for now let us just focus on getting out of the empire in one piece and turn you into a monstrous glutton after."

They exchanged one last look, then Parsae left. She ran straight into Timae who was standing right next to the door, staring daggers into her. Before the fox woman could speak Parsae rose her hands into the air.

"I've done nothing, go ahead."

She walked past Timae and downstairs. Most of the brigands had fallen asleep in a drunk stupor, making it easy for the mage to leave for the outside unseen. She was greeted by a cold breeze and star-filled night sky. The mage looked up to the full moon. Was there a figure in front of it? A single black shape? She blinked and it was gone. Parsae sighed and leaned against the wall.

"So that's why you graced her, huh?" She said aloud. Nobody answered.