Lucifer let out a content sigh. That duel had really scratched an itch. She had feared that after the time spent in the void that she would have grown rusty, but those worries were unfounded.
The young warrior passed out on her lap was a specimen all right. She had asked Aindaeth, but she did not know what their people were.
But Lucifer was about 99% sure that they were orcs. The patrol they encountered was a very diverse group when it came to skin colors, ranging from dark green to grey and even a deep red color. They were all relatively large, with the one that called himself Morok being the largest, at a solid two meters in height. The younger ones were still at the upper range for humans. And they were built. Lucifer wondered if that was a genetic trait or a cultural one, because even the scrawny one, who was the little warriors sibling, was made of lean and corded muscle.
Stopping her musings, Lucifer focused back on the conversation between Aindaeth and Morok.
Through a weird quirk of their soul bond, Lucifer could understand Aindaeth no matter what language she spoke and vice versa. This made listening to conversations kind of awkward, as she only ever heard one side, similar to listening to someone on the phone.
Though she noticed that slowly but surely, basic knowledge seeped through their bond. Sometimes she would pick up a word the orc spoke, far faster than she should have been able to.
After Aindaeth and Morok finished their brief conversation, Lucifer wanted to ask Aindaeth what they had talked about, when a rustling in the underbrush made her turn around.
From between the thicket where she and Aindaeth had walked through, another young orc woman stepped through. She was slightly shorter than the young warrior Lucifer had fought earlier, her skin was a pale shade of red and her black hair was made into a thick braid that hung over her shoulder, decorated with small rings of metal and shards of bone.
The other orcs had very severe facial expressions, looking very stoic. This one though, was something else entirely. Her face showed pure displeasure and her eyes glinted with barely contained rage.
The young woman was filthy and full of scratches, her clothing and hair full of tiny bits of dried leaves and sticks.
Which was surprising, considering even Aindaeth, with her inexperience when it came to a humanoid form, had managed to navigate the shrubbery without collecting this much debris.
The moment the young woman saw their gathered group, she exploded into a tirade of angry sounding words, aimed at the group of orcs.
Lucifer looked at Aindaeth and saw a flicker of undisguised amusement on her face.
"What's she angry about?"
Keeping her attention on the newcomer, Aindaeth answered
"Something about being left behind, no one helping her, and weirdly how she's better than the rest? I don't quite get that part, she's obviously weaker than the siblings"
Lucifer sighed, exasperated. The moment Aindaeth finished, the girls head turned abruptly, looking at Aindaeth with an affronted expression. Lucifer really had to teach Aindaeth about proper social conduct among mortals.
While the girl approached with something akin to righteous fury on her face, Lucifer raised her right hand and spoke to the shiny black gauntlet.
"Look Marble, that's what happens when you don't watch your words. Only ever speak such words if you are certain that you can back then up. Aindaeth does not need to watch herself, because she can deal with the consequences, but if it were you, you would now have a fight on your glass hands."
Amused understanding flowed into her from the spot marble occupied on her arm.
Lucifer watched as the angry girl stopped barely a few centimeters in front of Aindaeth, almost standing chest to chest with her and began to go on a tirade, where Lucifer could make out maybe one in 50 words. The only ones she really understood were "you" "I am" and "child" .
Lucifer was surprised to see, that Aindaeth did not incinerate the girl on the spot. From what she had learned of the willfull dragon, both through their bond and the three weeks they had spent walking through the wasteland together, Aindaeth was not one for posturing. Only she was allowed to posture.
Lucifer chalked that last part up to draconic pride. Through their bond Lucifer could feel the rising indignation bubbling up in the dragon.
Yet the girl remained alive and not a pile of ashes.
Lucifer looked around, seeing the other orcs watching the spectacle. Morok looked ready to faint at the sight, while the other orc teens looked between amused and concerned. Only the brother of the young warrior looked interested. His face held something akin to a sneer, seemingly hoping for the incineration to happen.
Just then the young warrior on Lucifer's lap began to stir. A strained groan escaping her throat. Lucifer brought her hand over the young woman's eyes, to shield them from the beating sun that was just overhead.
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While just a meter away the girl continued with her tirade, Lucifer watched the young warrior slowly claw her way back to consciousness. When she at last opened her eyes, there was still a red haze lingering on her eyes, but only from burst blood vessels and not the strange red energy that she had used earlier.
It took a few moments for the young warrior to get her bearings, but when she noticed her spot on Lucifer's lap, she tried to hurriedly stand up. Lucifer chuckled at the embarrassed young woman, holding a firm hand on her forehead to keep her on her lap.
"Don't get up yet. Take a moment, we have all the time in the world."
With burning cheeks, the young woman relaxed and laid her head back onto Lucifer's lap, who continued to gently stroke her hair.
"Thank you."
"Do not worry, I noticed how you exhausted yourself during our duel. If you do not mind me asking, how old are you?"
"This one will be my twentieth summer. If Morok willst it, I will be considered an adult at the next solstice."
Lucifer hummed appreciatively. So young and yet so skilled. What a wonderful world she had found herself in. Sneakily, she opened a second eye next to her normal ones, taking a peek at the young warriors soul.
It was a mesmerizing thing. So immature, full of unspent potential, yet already it was firm, smelling of sweat and feeling like burning muscles. Connected to the young womans soul were a multitude of threads, branching of into the ether. Two stood out, one leading to her sibling, a bond Lucifer had seen often between twins. One of intense familiarity and trust. The other, surprisingly went to morok. It was fairly one-sided, only leading from the young warrior to Morok, giving of a feeling of admiration and respect.
And then there was the third. A newly formed one, that led to Lucifer's own soul. One of mutual understanding gained through combat.
"Why can I understand you now? Just earlier your words sounded like chirping birds to me."
The young woman looked up into Lucifer's eyes with an inquisitive look in hers. In response Lucifer chuckled softly.
"It is not just a metaphor when people speak of the understanding between warriors. When we fought, everything else fell away. There existed only the two of us, no sky, no spectators. Just two people fighting for superiority. Every time we take a fight seriously, we open our souls to our opponent. Now we are bound, not in a ritualistic way, but through karma. I don't know how my nature affects the bonds I form, but now that our souls have touched, we may understand the other, despite the normal language barrier."
"Your nature? What do you mean?"
Again Lucifer chuckled. It was always fun to speak in such a cryptic manner to the mortals.
Taking a cautionary look around, to make sure that none were observing the two of them, Lucifer looked downward, so that the young warrior could see her face. Then she slowly blinked her normal eyes. Then the second pair directly below them opened for a moment, before immediately closing.
As the young woman tensed in her lap, Lucifer let a soothing tone creep into her voice.
"Do not worry, you have not entered a pact without your knowledge."
The young woman let out a relieved sigh, causing Lucifer to chuckle again.
Hesitantly the young woman asked, "I hope it is not rude to ask, but what are you?"
"Hmmm. That would be a rude question I think, but one I have been asked countless times."
Lucifer deliberated for a moment, before coming to a conclusion. She liked the young woman. She reminded her of many she had seen over the millennia and a certain part of her core called out to her.
"I am a celestial." Came the short answer.
The young woman looked at Lucifer with an uncomprehending expression.
Lucifer smirked. "My name is Lucifer Morningstar. And that is all you need to know right now."
Lucifer waited a moment. "And your name?"
"Oh!" Emberassment colored her cheeks again. "I am Asha Stoneskin nice to meet you."
The young woman raised her head from Lucifer's lap, having apparently rested enough.
Lucifer turned her attention back towards the others, having expected a bloodbath, or at least a few singed eyebrows. What she did not expect was that the girl was still angily berating Aindaeth, while Morok stood behind the girl frozen in abject terror.
Aindaeth was standing in a very Ridgid posture, her eyes unfocussed, with trembling fists. Occasionally a puff of smoke would escape her lips while she took deep breaths, which went unnoticed by the girl, that was apparently too deep in her rant to notice.
Standing up, Lucifer asked Asha "What's her deal?"
Asha sighed before answering.
"That's Merka Firemountain. Yes I know the name is stupid, but it's in the old tongue. She's the daughter of the Firemountain chief. She's a fairly competent mage, but her ego is too large for her tiny brain." Asha chuckled at her own joke, causing Merka to abruptly turn her head in Ashas direction.
"Fairly competent? I'll show you fairly competent you brutish moron!"
Lucifer frowned for a moment, before a familiar feeling exploded outwards from Merka's outstretched palm. With a grunt and an exclamation of a few weird sounding words, a wave of fire, closely followed by a burst of kinetic energy exploded in her direction, probably aimed at Asha, but due to her close proximity to the warrior, consequently her as well.
Asha began to tense, seemingly trying to dodge, but her strained muscles gave out on her and she sank to her knees. Not willing to let the young warrior be sneak attacked like that, Lucifer outstretched her own palm. The moment the wave of magical energies came into contact with her hand, she absorbed them, like she had done thousands of times before.
The feeling of the kinetic energy was familiar, but the wave of magical fire had a weird "taste" to it. Lucifer chalked that up to the fact that it was mana someone else had channeled.
She funneled the absorbed energies into the red burning sun in her core, causing it to disappear without a trace.
As Lucifer lowered her hand, she saw a smirk on Aindaeths face in the corner of her vision. Asha looked smug as well, while Moroks greenish skin had gone oddly pale. He looked ready to topple over any moment.
Ignoring the irate girl, Lucifer turned over to Aindaeth.
"I can understand them now. You no longer need to translate." Guesturing at the girl Lucifer continued "Why have you not burnt her to a crisp yet?"
"Oh how I wish I could. But as the stronger party, I am bound by the laws of hospitality to never harm our hosts. She can't to anything to me that would really cause harm, but at the same time any retaliation from me would destroy her." Aindaeth ground out between clenched teeth, now with occasional tongues of flame licking along her face.
"Oh that is easily solved" Lucifer answered.
"Observe"
Lucifer checked to see if Asha was unharmed, before approaching the young woman.
"I am an invited guest to your tribes. If you do not cease right this moment, I will retaliate with appropriate force."
Merka only scoffed, before looking back at Morok who had sunk to his knees.
"Look old man, I'll show you how to handle Intruders. Maybe my father will finally see how senile you've grown, showing weakness in front of an enemy."
Turning back towards Lucifer, she once again held out her palm, this time bracing her outstretched arm with the other, gathering a significant amount of fire mana and kinetic energy. A brief look of concentration crossed her face, before she triumphantly looked at the approaching Lucifer, who only responded with a deep look of disappointment on her face.
"Last warning!"
"Screw you! [Pyro Blast]"
A condensed bolt of heat and energy shot forward, aimed center mass. Lucifer let the bolt strike her torso, before swiftly absorbing the spent energies. It was a comparatively larger amount of energy, but Lucifer had channeled the heat of multiple stars. Such a tiny amount of heat would barely singe her.
It did unfortunately singe the edges of the furs she used to bind her chest.
The girl looked confused at her own hand, as if inspecting a gun that had misfired.
Lucifer sighed again, noting that she had done that a lot today.
"I warned you"
Lucifer took the last two steps forward, arriving before the girl. In a very casual motion, she raised her hand, and tapped her left index finger on the girls forehead.
"Bang!" She vocalized.
The girls head exploded.