It was a couple of hours before sunset when she stepped outside the next day. Extending her wings, she launched herself towards the human city.
She was tired. She had had a long day trapped in her mind. Pacing. Her nightmares had not faded in the dawn’s light. She had felt trapped and took off flying in a direction. Her crying had forced her to land multiple times to catch her breath. When she returned home her face and arms were shredded, but the atmosphere was no longer suffocating. She patched up and wanted so much to crawl under the covers. But she had told herself she would get her ingredients, hadn’t she?
She was truly hoping that the small city would have an herbalist shop open this late. Zaira did not want to go to the non-human village. She landed in an alley
She found a so-called ‘Wiccan’ shop. It was closed, but a peek through the window suggested they concentrated on meditation, the chakra, and general well-being. Zaira had managed to grab a few ingredients at the grocery store, nothing too fancy or powerful enough to trap anything.
Zaira stood on the sidewalk, her claws digging into her hands. She would need to go to the nearby non-human village. She took to the air once more, heading North.
Nanowin was a fifteen-minute flight South from her home, the human population of 15 000 was made up of Saanichians, Europan descendants, and miscellaneous other immigrants. At a ratio of about 50:50 it, like the 2 other larger nearby cities, had the largest proportion of Europans on this side of the border.
Refuge, as it came to be known, was a half-hour flight North of her home. The non-human village had a steady population of about 5 000, almost all refugees and their descendants from the humans' attempts to exterminate witches in Europa. Most of the population was, to no surprise, comprised of witches. Some vampires and fay had also crossed the ocean with them. Thankfully, unlike the humans, they had had no major clashes with the indigenous populations.
She slowed as she got closer to Refuge. Her heart had started to pound uncomfortably. Her flight faltered. She was forced to land about fifteen minutes short of the village. After her controlled crash landing in a thinner section of the forest, she was gasping for air. To settle her breathing she dug her claws into her already lacerated arms and concentrated on the feeling of pain and the smell of blood.
Zaira tremble. She dropped to the ground and looked to the sky. The sun was a half hour from setting.
It's ok if I can’t make it today. She told herself as she started to panic. Most people are probably settling at home now anyway.
She scrambled up and started running towards her house.
Maybe I’m just overreacting. Maybe the entity isn’t that big of a deal.
She took off when the branches started snagging on her wings.
I can live with it, can’t I?
She soon landed in her backyard, not remembering the flight. Her feet dragged as she moved towards the deck. Her lethargic pace slowed even more at the sounds coming from her house. Through the large windows, she was dismayed to see objects flying through the house. The entity was enraged. The question was – were the objects flying through the house the real thing or an illusion?
Defeated Zaira retreated to the edge of the backyard she threw her bag on the ground and laid down to sleep. It wasn’t worth going to check if it was real at the moment. There was nothing in the house worth getting hurt over if it was.
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Zaira was woken up by something warm and wet running on her sore face. Groggily she pushed the source away. It growled softly and tried licking the blood off her once more. Zaira was awake now and answered its growl. A warning to the creature. She pushed it away long enough to wipe her eyes and look at the offender. She wasn’t certain what these were called but they were unsettling. It had the head of a medium-sized dog, an anthropoid torso, and frog-like legs tipped with long claws, the entire body covered in dark patchy fur.
The creature didn’t listen to her and this time put its front paw on what it must have thought was the torso of a dying creature. It approached her face with its mouth open and she startled it by sitting straight up. Its weight was nothing to her and it recoiled as she snarled and swipe at it with her claws. It growled at her once more for good measure before scrambling off to find another meal.
The Amerigan continent – Land of the weird canine-looking creatures.
Zaira stood and threaded her fingers through her hair instead of rubbing her painful face like she wanted to. They came out encrusted with half-dry blood. She touched her face. The creature had licked all the blood off, but she was still bleeding. She was surprised it hadn’t tried biting her earlier.
She scooped up her bag and headed toward her house. She growled as she saw the mess in her home. Yes, the entity had really flung objects across the house. Last night, she was defeated. Now? She was just cross.
As Zaira looked in the direction of Refuge the anxiety crept back into her, but it needed to be done. She only took the time to clean and bandage her wounds before flying directly to the village.
A couple of glances were thrown in her direction when she landed in the village market, but that was it. Her wounds and horns were hidden, her skin was beige, and her wings were grey & feathered. She looked common enough and, the truth was, no one paid her much mind. However, Zaira felt as if she was being stared at. Like they knew and were going to arrest or kill her at any moment. Her heart rose in her chest. She quickly found the apothecary and disappeared into it before she made a scene.
Once inside Zaira took a few moments to compose herself. No longer feeling on the edge of a panic attack, she started looking around.
The checkout counter was in clear view at the far back. Unsurprisingly, a real witch was behind it. She probably wasn’t the owner though, she looked a little young, perhaps just passing her first centennial. The young woman glanced up at her and quickly became uninterested.
There were tables with books in the middle of the room. Hundreds of glass jars were shelved on the walls and free-standing bookshelves, all had ingredients of some sort. Vegetable, mineral, animal... She slipped her way through the bookshelves to get what she needed. Just walking around this place made Zaira dizzy. At present, it wasn’t so much the inattentive employee, but the broadening spell on the building. A common spell, but one that could distort your senses if you paid too close attention to it.
Zaira pulled her smaller jars from her backpack. She gradually worked her way down her list, putting each ingredient in a separate jar and labeling it.
“A demon, looking to lock away another demon?”
Zaira jumped at the voice. She turned around to see an older witch, possibly the mother or grandmother of the witch she spotted behind the counter. She had the same square face and red hair, the eyes were different though and, other than looking older, the magical signature around her was stronger than the child’s.
“How do you know it’s a demon?” Zaira quipped back, focusing the conversation on the entity despite wanting to know where the chink in her armor was. Anxiety rose in her chest at the thought that her glamour spells may not be working effectively.
“Those are a little too potent for a spirit. I’m sorry for startling you.”
Zaira shrugged evasively.
She was pleased to see the younger witch now scrutinizing her once more. The child looked confused. Perhaps her spells were still up. But that would mean the older witch was uncomfortably more powerful than it seemed.
“I’ve not seen you before. Do you live nearby?”
Zaira opened and closed her mouth a few times before stuttering out; “I just moved. Right outside of Nanowin.”
“Near the humans? You’re not here to cause trouble, are you?”
A fair question. Demons were a rare sight in the Overworld as they had adapted to live on the Hell planets. Usually if one was in the Overworld, it was to play tourist. Sometimes they were here for business and sometimes they just had a friend on a certain planet or even immigrated. But on this planet… Well, Terra wasn’t a great destination due to the dangerous number of humans… Unless you wanted to mess with them.
“No ‘mam.” Zaire was disappointed at how quickly she fell into the submissive role; she was this witch’s elder. She was more than likely everyone’s senior. But did it matter? If she missteps, they will kill her.
“Have you seen the Preeminent yet?”
“I’m not in her territory.”
“No, but you may want to be in her good graces.”
Zaira nodded, the witch was right. Unfortunately, if anyone could identify her it would be the Preeminent.
“Oh, and she’s also the only doctor in the area who has a degree in Demon health care if you need anything.”
“Good to know.”
The witch was still scrutinizing her. Zaira shifted nervously.
“I’m sorry but, what kind of demon are you?”
“A Yulmuth.” Zaira partly lied.
The older witch pursed her lips. “You can drop the spell. No one is going to attack you over red skin. You’ve been spending too much time with humans.”
Zaira looked down, embarrassed, and nodded. But she didn’t drop her spells.
“Can I pay for the materials please?” She asked. She was starting to shake and wanted to go home.
“Of course.” The witch switched gears and returned to a merchant’s disposition. “Did you find everything you were looking for?”
“Yes.” Zaira followed the witch to the counter. “What currency do you take?”
The witch shrugged. “Any. It’s easy to exchange. Or trade. What do you do?”
Zaira pulled 5 gold pieces out of her pocket, they were from a planet she wasn’t planning on visiting anytime soon.
“Does this cover it?” She said as she put the coins on the counter.
The elder witch’s eyebrows raised.
“I haven’t seen these in person before.” She said as she picked up one of the coins and looked at it. Her younger counterpart did the same. “Hold on, I’ll get my ledger.”
The older witch took out a journal and turned to a page that contained conversion tables.
“So that would be 3 gold and some change. But I can’t break these for you.” She stated.
“In that case,” Zaira pulled out the other 5 pieces she had. “Consider this a deposit for future trips.”
“Done.” The owner swept the coins off the counter and wrote something on her notepad.
“Thank you.” Zaira began putting all of her jars in her ever-bag when something caught her eye. The glass display under the counter held an assortment of rarer items. “Is that really dragon’s blood?”
The older witch shrugged. “Honestly, I can’t confirm. But it was sold to me by a credible source from a planet that has active dragon populations.”
“Can I see it please?”
The witch raised an eyebrow but still unlocked the cabinet. She took the vial out and handed it to the demon.
Zaira felt the eyes on her as she took the vial and smelt around the cork. It was real, but old and likely not as powerful as it could be. She repeated her thoughts to the witches.
The elder witch cocked her head.
“Thank you for letting me see it. I will keep it in mind.”
The shop owner smiled politely as she took the phyle back. “Have a good day.”
Zaira turned to leave.
Just before the shop door closed behind her she heard:
“How did you know she was a demon?”
Zaira allowed herself a smile at having confused a centennial witch. But it was short-lived. She needed to work on her glamour spells. She stopped in her tracks. Or maybe she needed to better conceal her signature? Her stomach churned. She needed to be able to walk up to a Preeminent well trained in magic and not be recognized.
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Zaira carefully stepped around the broken pieces of dishes on the floor. She was quick to clean up the broken pieces and put them in two boxes, the glass separates from the porcelain. She put the boxes outside where she hoped the spirit couldn’t use them. She would bring them to see if she could get them fixed or recycled.
She was pleased to see that all the wooden furniture had survived, and she wouldn’t need to do more than cover up a few dings. She set the table back on its feet and put the ingredients down on it.
“Oh! Oh, dear. Oh, dear.”
Zaira jumped as Hannah’s voice rang out.
I’m going to have to put a lock on the door.
She heard the elder come into the house. Quickly she added a glamour spell to hide her wings completely.
“What on Terra happened?” Hannah sounded quite distraught.
Zaira threaded her fingers through her hair. “Do you remember the entity we spoke about that night?”
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“Yes?” Hannah said. “Oh, oh… No. You are kidding… It… It didn’t do this.” It seemed to Zaira that Hannah believed her but didn’t want to.
“Yes, it did,” Zaira confirmed. “It’s getting out of hand.”
“I told you I have a priest coming on Friday. I’ll send him over here before he starts on my house. In the meantime, you can stay at our place. Now get your things…”
Hannah motioned for her to get going and came close to putting a hand on Zaira’s back
“Whoa.” Zaira held her hands up. “I have already started the process of getting rid of it,” she waved to the bag on the table, “and doubt a priest will help. But thank you for the offer. I will let you know how it turns out.”
“I don’t like it.”
“It’s ok, I know what I’m doing.” She hoped.
“Can I watch?” Zaira looked to Hannah, who was smoothing her skirt repeatedly. “I can make sure nothing happens to you.”
Zaira had to wonder why her neighbor was so concerned about her, Rushka had said he cut the spell.
Zaira frowned. “No, sorry. It’s… I would worry that it would hurt you.” That wasn’t a lie, she couldn’t guarantee that the creature would not lash out. But she would also need to drop all other spells she was using to be able to focus everything on this spell.
“Oh. Alright, dear. Just let us know if you need any help.” Hannah looked around the first floor, then back to Zaira before reluctantly leaving the house.
When she heard the door click close Zaira turned back to the table, scratching lightly at her arms. She sat down and started unpacking. One item out and she felt her body lean forward subconsciously her exhausted mind going empty and grasping at fleeing thoughts all at once. Until her head hit the table, jolting her awake. She sighed against the surface and righted herself.
She froze as she noticed two big blue eyes staring at her from underneath one of the toppled bookcases. The child entity looked terrified. Its eyes were red and its face was puffy as if it had been crying. When the child saw Zaira looking at it, it crawled out from under the bookcase and came toward her. It stood up right in front of her and lifted its arms, whining to be picked up.
Untrusting of the entity, but a little heartbroken nonetheless, Zaira compromised. Instead of picking the child up, she stood one of the other chairs back up and patted its seat, inviting the child to watch.
It whined again and got so close Zaira would’ve felt its body in life, yet all she felt now was cold. It dropped its arms and started wholly crying as Zaira started actively ignoring it.
The crying had ebbed away by the time all the ingredients were on the table. The offered chair moved closer to the demon. Zaira allowed herself a look. The small entity still sniffling. The woman’s heart tightened, but she quickly returned her attention to the matter at hand. She couldn’t afford to fall for a trick. If the child legitimately was separate, then she was doing them both a favor.
Too precious to leave on the bookshelves, Zaira dug around in her ever-bag for her spellbook.
The index helped her quickly find the several spells she wanted to accomplish. From locking the entity up to protecting herself from it. There was a banishing spell in the book, but it was above her skill grade. Were it to backfire… Well... Death. Or maybe banishment to a planet that wasn’t suited to her species.
Step by step, as meticulously as she could, she mixed the necessary ingredients. She prayed the entity would not disrupt her work.
There were a few ways to barricade an ethereal being. Zaira chose the most resilient, still unsure of it and herself. It included creating a physical text around the area where she wanted to lock the entity. This would reinforce a normal tangible barrier.
Her ‘ink’ consisted of ash, several herbs, and her own blood. The last ingredient was unnecessary and not mentioned in her book, but she knew blood from powerful creatures could empower any mixture.
Zaira glanced around as the finished off her mixture. The child was on the offered seat, staring at her with large eyes and sucking her thumb. Surprisingly, the entity had not yet made an appearance. Why was it not trying to stop her? Was it even present?
Zaira stacked her bowls in one hand and tucked her spell book under the same arm to be able to keep a firm grip on the banister as she ascended the stairs. Her footsteps seemed deafening as she listened closely. The entity was not there to greet her as she reached the second floor.
She put her materials down and proceeded to rub cedar ash on herself, an added protection. She picked up her book and began to read the long spell.
Not two words in, a strong wind ripped through the hallway and flipped her ingredient bowls scattering their contents. A miserable failure. One where she could only blame herself for not predicting. She felt stupid. Mumbling to herself, she went downstairs and repeated her earlier steps. This time she used plastic containers with lids.
Back upstairs, she started reading again. The source-less wind started once more. Upon failing to ruin her ingredients, a whistling started. Like the sound you hear when standing in a narrow canyon with unrelenting winds. She couldn’t hear herself speak by the second sentence, her ears ringing. But it was alright, she continued at a slow, deliberate pace.
By the third sentence, though the wind was still destabilizing, the whistling died down, in its place was low, threatening, growling.
By the fourth sentence, the house trembled. She braced herself against the wall.
At the fifth sentence, the entity finally decided to show itself. A darkness coming through the wall. Long spindly fingers slowly reached for her. Red eyes glowing, it bared its unnaturally long teeth. She startled went she felt something small press against her side. The child. She ignored the distraction and plowed on.
The entity swiped at her. Backed up against the wall Zaira had nowhere to go. Thankfully, the cedar ash performed, and its claws bounced off an invisible shield.
The Yulmuth had now made it through the first part of the incantation without much incident.
Zaira started starting walking slowly to the attic. She backed the entity towards the hidden hallway as she continued to read on to the next passage.
Unfortunately, it pivoted into the corner, back to the wall, ready to pounce. Change of plan. She kept her back to the opposite wall and walked by it. It swiped. Claws did not connect, but they were worryingly closer to connecting.
She felt the wall end and started backing towards the open hatch. It advanced towards her. It disappeared from sight as she ascended the stairs. Keeping an eye on the hatch, she moved toward the far end of the attic.
As she read, she became nervous. It hadn’t come up yet. Two paragraphs left before the sealing. It had to be here. Otherwise, she would have to start over. She read as slowly as she possibly could without turning the words into incoherent sounds.
One paragraph to go. Its unnatural hand finally appeared, reaching through the hatch and slowly planting itself on the floor. Then the other hand. Its head emerged and unnaturally white sharp teeth could now be seen in its snarl. One gnarled foot, then the other. It started stalking toward her.
One eye on the entity, the other on the spell. Now she needed to get out. She started her journey around the room.
It stood hunched over in the center of the attic. Growling. Following her with its gaze. Waiting for an opportunity to strike. They both knew her luck was going to run out.
Halfway through the paragraph, halfway to the trapdoor. It lunged at her. She jumped back in surprise as it came so close to her torso. She broke eye contact with the book, but thankfully she quickly regained her spot.
She pushed on, slowly but surely. For the first time, she felt true fear of this creature. The tightening in her throat threatened to make speech impossible. Her pace had slowed but she forced herself to be as loud and clear as possible. She felt the cedar had worn off… and it was angry.
It lunged again. She jumped towards the hatch. She wasn’t quite quick enough. She let out a cry of pain as searing heat shot through her side and she bent down in pain. That was all she allowed herself to do. So close to the end. She couldn’t fail.
Second to last sentence, a foot away from the exit. It was still focused on her, not realizing the implications of her leaving the room. It taunted her, stalked her. It thought it had time.
She finally stood on the frame of the hatch. Last sentence.
Zaira was about to step onto the stairs when it lunged at her. Whether she fell because she jumped or because it knocked her down, it didn’t matter. She tumbled down the stairs and landed on her back. The book clattered onto the floor next to her. The wind was knocked out of her. As soon as she regained some sense, she spat out the rest of the sentence from memory and held her breath.
She heard scratching above her. She looked to see dark claws above her at the entrance. A soft scratch at the air, testing the new barrier, turned to frantic clawing. She thanked any god listening that the spell hadn’t been broken.
Zaira scrambled for her fallen book. The field was weak and temporary. She quickly flipped to the correct page.
Her breathing was harsh as she continued through to the second part of the spell. She had never felt something burn this much. Red rot pokers. She could only imagine this pain coming from driving red-hot pokers into herself and leaving them there at that temperature for far too long. Yet she couldn’t let this faze her, there was one last thing to do. Bowl of ash in hand she proceeded to mark the ceiling, mimicking the lettering and patterns in the book.
All the while she could hear the entity scratching at the attic floor following her as she traced. The process took a long time. She was slowing down, breathing heavily, arms weak. When she was done the symbols coated the entirety of the second-floor ceiling. The scratching was echoing in her ears. It echoed so loudly that it took her several moments to notice when it stopped.
Concerning. It would seem idyllic for this spell to muffle the entity’s devilry. Perhaps it had jumped through the mirror? Well, she wasn’t on the other end of that portal, and now it couldn’t come further into her house. So, she was satisfied enough.
The last passage.
Zaira read the last of the spell without interruption. Throughout the reading, the ashes glowed bright red. When she finished reciting the passage the patterns pulsed and settled back to a normal grey color. She took a few slow breaths to calm her racing heart. She had done it.
The book slipped from her numb fingers to the floor, and she closed her eyes, the hallway light seeming brighter than usual.
A roar arose from the attic. The scratching resumed with even more ferocity. A long sigh escaped her, she forced herself to move so she could inspect the attic entrance. A skinned anthropoid face appeared from the shadows and met her gaze, teeth barred. She heard a whimper from behind her.
Zaira turned to see the little child peeking around the corner into the hallway, sucking her fingers.
“You didn’t get caught…”
She hadn’t been trying to trap the child, but she would’ve gotten caught if she was an extension of the entity. Or at least, that’s what she believed. Zaira looked to the ceiling, uncertainty creeping in. Had it not worked? Was it strong enough to influence beyond the barrier?
She felt a little tug on her shirt and looked down to see the child reaching her hands up to be picked up. When Zaira didn’t pick her up immediately she started to whine. Not thinking Zaira reached down, and her hands passed right through the child.
Duh.
The child started whining a little louder, bordering on crying.
“I’m sorry sweetie, but I can’t pick you up.”
Zaira turned back to the creature, and she folded the stairs back into the attic. Shutting the unneeded entrance, if just to hide the nightmarish face. The trapdoor started rattling and shaking forcefully, the wood of the door desperately trying to get through its frame. Zaira grimaced. That would probably not hold. Perhaps she should remove the door and use a sheet instead?
Zaira walked away to get her tools and heard the child start to cry behind her. She sighed. Well, a crying ghost toddler was better than a dangerous entity.
The step stool and tools were in the cupboard downstairs. The motion of going down the stairs irritated her fresh wounds, she clung to the banister. Her body was working at half capacity, irritating her overactive mind. She couldn’t wait for her body to patch this up, it was particularly painful.
When Zaira limped back to the stairs, the child was sitting, legs slotted through the banister with their face pressed up against the bars, pouting. The little one watched as Zaira climbed the stairs, left hand barely holding on to the stool and tool bag, right hand gripping the banister tightly. The child then followed her to the hallway, peeking around the corner, and watched her open the staircase once again, revealing the ghastly face.
Zaira took her drill out and stepped onto the stool, but her body was overcome by pain as she attempted to straighten out to remove the door’s hinge. The entity grinned at her; she swore she could feel her wounds start pulsing in pain. This would have to wait a little longer. She left the stairs open and went to her ensuite.
Zaira removed her shirt to have a better look at her wounds. They were in a clawed pattern but were much more like burns than gashes. The severe burns would take much longer to heal than the lacerations she regularly inflicted on herself. But they would heal. She took out some blue cress gel as well as a numbing solution. She mixed a few drops of the pain relief in the gel and smeared the mixture on her wounds. The coolness of it felt wonderful and the numbing took effect immediately. It wasn’t perfect, but she could work with it.
Zaira returned to the trap door. The same skinned face greeted her. The wounds started throbbing again, though the pain wasn’t as bad. It lunged, trying to bite her through the barrier. She startled. It started banging on the barrier with more decidedly anthropoid-looking hands than previously.
She made quick work of the hinges holding the stairs and lowered the whole thing to the floor out of the way. Without the door, the entity’s onslaught was certainly quieter. She took a sheet and draped it over the hole to hide the spectacle.
Zaira was finally done for the day. She let her body slump into a more comfortable position. These wounds would put her out of commission for the next several days.
A whimper reminded her that the child was still present. Zaira looked behind her to see the toddler staring at the now-covered trapdoor. The child seemed to break out of its trance and once more extended its arms asking to be picked up by Zaira.
The Yulmuth could only smile tightly at the child. She had to admit; it was adorable, and she did want to pick it up. She sighed and walked by. Tools were left in disarray, but the book was picked up and stored in the ever-bag.
She threw on bandages and a pajama shirt to keep the healing cress from absorbing into the sheets. She quickly jotted on a parchment: Injured. Don’t call for me this week. With a small push of energy and a flick of the wrist, it was on its way to Rushka.
Blinds were drawn over the windows to block out the afternoon sun and she painfully settled in for a nap. It took no time to start drifting away. Just as she was falling asleep, she felt the bed dip. This time when she opened her eyes, she saw the child’s outline. Little hands patted a wing, then a little body pressed itself against her uninjured side. Her eyes were too heavy, her body too tired to do anything about the little entity. Despite the company, sleep took over readily.
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Ringing. Something was ringing. Zaira’s head felt heavy, she struggled to return to consciousness. The sun was shining strongly through her window. She had slept through till morning. The phone. The phone was ringing. Her only receiver was in the kitchen.
Zaira moved to sit up and cried out. Searing heat shot through her side as if she had been struck once more. She laid back down and tried to take a few deep breaths. She couldn’t manage to expand her chest enough for a deep breath and resorted to counting her shallow breaths to calm down. When the pain reached a more tolerable level she scooted up bit by bit, propping herself on the wall. She lifted her shirt. The burns were swollen and had turned dark brown. She rubbed at her eyes.
It'll get worse before it gets better.
The Yulmuth exhaled sharply as she repeated the old adage to herself. The truth was this was worrying, that entity was formidable. She would not be able to rid herself of it. Perhaps Rushka would be willing to help during their time off?
Her eyes closed. The phone had stopped ringing. Though she figured she still should get up. Slowly, achingly, she dragged herself out of bed. Her shirt was difficult to remove, but she managed. She slathered the burns in the same mixture which did provide some relief. Her face did not need patching, but there were a few cuts on her thighs to make up for them. She avoided dressing and made her way downstairs.
Zaira debated eating, her last meal had been over 24 hours ago, but her stomach turned at the thought. She looked instead at the phone. The flashing red light indicated a message. The construction company had called.
"Hello, this is Nanowin Construction. We just wanted to let you know that the employee responsible for sealing your hallway has been terminated. Have a great day.”
Wait, what? That’s it?
Zaira was astonished. No explanation?
She lifted her arm to dial their number again but was stopped by a sharp pain radiating through her torso. She squeezed her eyes shut until the wave of nausea passed.
She would try to sleep it off. She limped to her bedroom, where she found the parchment from last night on the bedstand. She unrolled it.
We won’t call on you. What happened?
She wrote back.
The entity is more than I can manage. Could you help?
She sent the parchment once more, then crawled into bed and was out near immediately.
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It was light outside when she woke up, though Zaira wasn’t sure if it was the same day or the next. She wished she could say her wounds felt better, but they didn’t. They may have rubbed against the sheets a little too hard, the blue cress had certainly worn off. She slowly propped herself up and looked down to inspect her wounds.
There was black liquid oozing out of them.
A bitter taste filled Zaira’s mouth. These weren’t normal wounds. Zaira had to make a decision.
What had the witch said? The Preeminent was also a qualified doctor for demons. The Preeminent was the only doctor for demons in the area. That wasn’t good. Could she travel to the Gate to go to one of the Hell planets for treatment? Extreme nausea as she sat up told her that wasn’t an option.
Did she want to die? The answer which surprised even her, was no. If you had asked her earlier, she would have been ok with it. Hell, she’d tried killing herself before. But right now? No.
But risk execution to get treated?
These wounds wouldn’t heal on their own. She would need to take her chances.