The booming voice was doing its best to interrupt a perfectly good daydream, she imagined jumping out of the classroom window, darting across the grounds and out the gate to dive into the lake below the cliff the school bordered on one side. “Zoe! Are you awake?” Professor Brightwater called once again snapping her back to reality.

"Yes, Miss."

"Good so as I was saying, witches in recent years have drastically grown in number. They are born when a person bargains with an evil or demonic entity for power. That power comes with a terrible cost but it is far easier to achieve."

"So if it is so dangerous why is it being done more."

"Well, the chances of a god answering a request to bargain is a lot less, they tend to only answer when they deem a person worthy. Whereas a demon will take a more fixed price, typically your soul when you die."

"So hell is real then?"

"As far as we know, we have previously opened portals to hell, and there are the famous gates that once existed. Although the last time a gate was created it wiped out the realm north of Gwerag."

"So besides witches what are the other evil creatures in the world?"

"Well, obviously there are Demons, but besides that, you will find creatures of the dead, skeletons, Zombies, ghosts, and specters, Most undead creatures are nothing compared to the immortal vampire."

"How common are they?"

"Rare, very rare. Especially in recent years, adventurers like these in the order have nearly hunted these creatures into extinction." Professor Brightwater explained, "There are so many more but when talking about evil creatures, these are the main ones."

A knock at the door interrupted the professor as the same man who had interrupted the girl's sleep a few days earlier entered the room, the queen’s servant. "Sorry to interrupt professor but the queen has asked for Zoe to assist."

"Oh yes ummm of course." Professor Brightwater stammered, "Zoe we will continue this tomorrow."

Taking her stuff she shoved it into her bag, a small dimensional storage given to all students of the college, it held just enough room to hold all her books and other supplies she would need for class. It was an amazing piece of magical technology that was pretty rare outside of the college. She followed the servant who she learned was called Arnot as he led her towards the library, she did her best to get out of the man more information regarding the summons but the servant remained professional and tight-lipped only saying that the queen would explain everything in due time.

"You must understand what I am about to tell you is to be kept secret." Her Majesty, Queen Arla announced appearing from behind one of the nearby overflowing book stacks, "We are searching for information regarding a specific creature that has appeared in Adrelalind."

"What sort of creature?" The servant stepped forward. "I think he would be best to explain."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The voice came from the second level of the library, drawing their attention to him as he started to speak,” It is a creature we only knew from myth until it appeared, even amongst my order. We called it a Seraph.” Zoe recognised the man as the same one from her classroom.

"Zoe, this is Tamond Hayward. the head of the fallen order.” The servant announced.

"The order is just fine, but yes the creature was discovered by one of our adventurers, she watched it obliterate more than a few people, and she cast a spell to trap it."

"A Seraph you said?" Zoe asked.

"Yes, we believe it is correct." Tamond answered, "We have scoured a great deal of the library but have yet to find anything and no one we have spoken, with has heard the name.”

"Follow me." She said leading Tamond and the queen away from the library.

"Where are we going?" He asked as they climbed the stairs that led to her room.

"This college library has never been big enough. So old books were stashed wherever they could find space for them. I enjoy reading a lot of the stories about creatures no one has ever seen, so I grab them and keep them."

Tamond and the queen just stared at each other. They had been in the college for the better part of two weeks looking for information and this child was now taking it directly to them minutes after learning what they needed Zoe's room was trashed, clothes, books, and every object the two girls owned lay on the floor hiding nearly every square inch of the floor.

"Cozy," Tamond said sarcastically.

"It works for us," Zoe said ignoring the tone.

She knelt, half crawling under the bed pushing the wrong books aside to reach for a book, "Got you!" She cried. pushing the large leather bound to me out between her legs. Tamond snapped up the tome but before he could look through it Zoe jumped up snatching it from him. Flipping to about the middle of the book "Oh!" She said stunned," Here it is right here." Handing the book back to him.

The Seraph is a benevolent god-like creature, with large white feathered wings and a pure white gown. The creature will often wield an obsidian broadsword. Do not engage, a Seraph is nearly impossible to defeat, resistant to magic and skin like stone." Tamond said, "Wait, white wings, that is not right."

"What do you mean?" Zoe asked confused.

"So this creature was discovered as part of another quest." Tamond started.

"In Adrelalind there is a very old cult, they have been causing issues for over a hundred years, between trying to summon the primordials, and trying to return them to power after their defeat at the hands of the gods. They are the last remnant of the old empire but we have almost wiped them out." Queen Arla said being cut off mid-sentence.

"Primordials!... " Zoe interrupted.

"You know the stories, Yes the cult of the betrayed, as they are called worship the long gone primordial. My mother spent years trying to eradicate these cultists but failed to complete the job. It has taken me twenty years to find the last chapters. This was, what we believe is the last of them. The problem is we only found them after they began the final ritual to summon their dead gods."

"And they summoned this creature?"

"Indeed."

"Could their spell have corrupted it?" Zoe asked, "My friend Izora said that sort of thing can happen with magic."

"A corrupted Seraph, it might explain why it looks different," Tamond said.

"Different! Different How?"

"It's not white for one. These creatures are the servants to the gods themselves, they are effectively lower-tiered gods, they fought in the war and were originally sided with the primordials but something caused them to betray their masters and side with the gods. The legends state this was the turning point of the war for control. They are pure magical creatures and normally their wings, hair, and clothing are the cleanest white you have seen. If the legends are to be believed that is, but this creature is, well, for lack of a better term unclean.”

“Have you seen them before?” Zoe asked intrigued, the orders were the purest adventurers in the known world.

“Once or twice over the years. Every time they have simply been watchers, and for the most pleasant to deal with, not hostile in any way.”