Mattos gave a bemused wave to Xellie as she walked down the steps and into the streets of the desert town. She wandered down the dusty lanes between the houses until she reached the town walls. Xellie kicked a rock against the wall, then noticed a ladder leaning against it. Deciding that sitting on top of the wall would make for a nice vantage point to watch the sunset, she nimbly climbed up the ladder and planted herself on the wall, looking over the small town. Toward the west, there were a few ruined villas, probably the remains of a demonic incursion into the town.
Among the dilapidated villas, Xellie noticed what looked like movement between them. Although the desert towns were notorious for lawlessness on the streets, she couldn’t help but feel the urge to go find out what was going on.
“I’m such an idiot.” She murmured under her breath as she slid down the ladder and walked toward the villas. “...or not.” She added as a shadow crossed the path in front of her.
Drawing her sword, but not activating the energy blade, Xellie cautiously made her way down the street, her back pressed against the villa walls when she could. The fading light making deep shadows between the buildings.
The dull thud of running footsteps against the sandy ground sounded through the air. Xellie made her way to the end of the building and peeked around the corner.
A young-looking girl, her long green hair in bunches, stood holding a small dagger out before her. She faced a shadowy and cloaked floating figure wielding a scythe.
Recognizing the demon as a wraith, Xellie ran to the girl and pushed her aside as the wraith took a swing with its weapon. The faceless demon stopped short of swiping at them as it seemed to look at Xellie, as best it could with no face.
The wraith floated backwards away from them as if it was unsure what to do.
“Get out of here. Shoo!” Xellie yelled at the wraith, raising her hands as if she was pretending to be a bear or some monster. Obligingly and much to Xellie’s surprise, the wraith vanished.
“Umm... what just happened?” The girl asked, sheathing her dagger at her waist. “Really? Shoo?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking you what happened?” Xellie retorted, sliding her sword home. “I just saved you.”
“Well...” The girl poked at the ground with the toe of her boot. “... I guess I kinda made them angry.... But that doesn’t explain how you did that.”
Xellie rolled her eyes, then looked down at the girl, who had an unstrung wooden bow slung across her back. The girl wore an elaborately embroidered robe-like dress that reached above her knees. It was unlike anything Xellie had seen before.
“I’m not familiar with your accent,” Xellie pointed out changing the subject. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
“I’m from the eastern continent,” the girl replied.
“Wow really? What brings you to our demon-infested lands?” Xellie asked, genuinely curious about this strange girl’s presence. It was rare to encounter people from the east this far away from their homeland.
“Welllll.......” The girl seemed hesitant. “I’ll tell you if you can explain how you scared the wraith away.”
“Fine.” Xellie sighed audibly. “I have a reputation among the demons.” She lied. In actual fact, she hadn’t expected the wraith to disappear in the manner that it had, but they did not disappoint Xellie with the result.
“So.” The girl looked around timidly. “You probably know that my people are spiritualists. We can talk to the dead and such, right?”
Xellie nodded.
“Yeah, everyone knows that.”
“Well, we’ve barely been able to contact anyone for a while now... and when we manage to, they speak of great anguish and pain...Then they came, demanding we hand over every girl in the village...” The girl explained. “Anyway, I came out here to learn more and maybe see if there’s some way to help.”
“How’s that going for you?” Xellie wondered what this girl expected to be able to do. Confront demons with only that small knife she was carrying?
“Not so good,” The girl looked down as if she was embarrassed. “There’s this demon who has been pursuing me. He wanted me to make a contract with him and I said no. Since then I’ve been running away. But umm... I know this a lot to ask... can you help me?”
“ What kind of help?” Xellie asked warily.
“The contract demon said he would kill me if I don’t agree to his terms.”
Xellie considered this for a minute or so. This girl’s people were known to be quite wealthy and there could be a reward for helping her. It was the kind of task that Niko and Grau would often take up.
“Okay,” Xellie said. “You best stay with me until we come face to face with this contract seeker of yours. My name is Xellie by the way.”
“Aryina. But everyone calls me Ary.”
“You’re lucky, Ary.” Xellie laughed to herself. “My family happen to be demon hunters. I’m kind of doing a job at the moment, but I can’t leave you to get killed, either. Come with me.”
“Thank you!” Ary exclaimed. “I promise I won’t get in your way or anything.”
“You better not,” Xellie said jokingly as she turned to walk down the street back toward the inn. Stood in their way, hard to make out in the fading light, stood a bulky, tall figure in silver armour holding a thick, tapered, metal lance.
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“Eeehhhh.....” Xellie shook her head as she drew her sword once more. “You’re here for trouble?” She asked the figure sternly holding her hand out to keep Ary back.
“Is that your new pet?” The figure asked, his voice deep, hollow and almost metallic sounding.
“Pet? Oh, you mean her.” Xellie narrowed her eyes as she spoke to the demon. “Why are you so concerned?”
“Hand over the girl!” The demon commanded.
“Now why would I do a crazy thing like that?” Xellie pointed her sword toward the silver armoured demon.
“Oh, it’s you... Now I’m spoilt for choice.” Rung out the demon’s hollow, metallic voice.
“Just try it!” Xellie yelled, fumbling with her sword to twist the hilt whilst grabbing hold of Ary’s hand. Finally, she twisted it, the sword sparking into life, crackling angrily in the night air. “Don’t let go whatever you do,” she told Ary.
“A... plaything?” The demon said with a chuckle, raising his lance. “Alright then.”
The demon launched himself at a terrifying speed toward the girls. Xellie held her sword out before her and hoped for the best, blocking and parrying him, but only barely. He vanished, reappearing from the air above and to her right. Xellie pulled her sword upward, blocking his attack as he disappeared once more. Instinctively, she turned to the left. Just as she’d thought, he appeared above her, dropping from the left.
The demon vanished one more time. Would he be so predictable as to come from the right again? Or behind her? Not sure what to do, Xellie swung herself around, slashing into the air as she turned to face the opposite way from where she started.
It paid off. The armoured demon appeared, thrown back by the energy from the sword.
Still standing, the demon brushed his chest off, looking down at the small gash in his armour.
“Baby Valkyrie gets a magic sword and thinks she knows how to fight,” He stopped and laughed at his own statement.
“Valkyrie?!” Ary exclaimed, pulling her hand away from Xellie’s.” For real?!”
“Do you want my help or not?” Xellie asked Ary irately, keeping one eye on the demon. “Because I could just as well leave you here to fight him on your own.”
“Okay, but I have questions.” Ary ran behind Xellie and pushed her toward the demon. Leaning out so she could look the demon in his red eyes, she yelled toward him. “You don’t know what you’re messing with!”
“Uh, I think he does...” Xellie protested, gripping her sword with her free hand and steadying herself.
“He really doesn’t,” Ary said, placing one hand against Xellie’s back and closing her eyes.
If the demon had a face, his expression would have been one of puzzlement.
Wondering what Ary was doing, Xellie split her attention between Ary behind her and the demon before her. A few seconds passed, and then a ripping sound filled the air as ghostly white swan-like wings unfurled from Xellie’s back.
“Ary, what did you do?!” Xellie exclaimed, having only heard the noise and not aware of the wings she had just sprouted. Xellie’s energy blade glowed brighter, almost blindingly white in the centre.
“Go go!” Ary gave Xellie a shove toward the demon.
“Okay okay!” Xellie launched herself toward the demon, who took a step back and raised his lance. The demon sidestepped as Xellie took a swipe with her sword, her timing off because she was moving so much faster than she was used to. She spun on her heel and slashed sideways with the energy blade. The demon attempted to parry it with his lance, which was simply sliced in half and fell to the ground with a clatter.
“This isn’t over,” the demon announced as he vanished in a puff of black smoke.
“It never is,” Xellie deactivated her sword and leaned forward, panting to get her breath back. “That guy was quite scary.”
“He’s the contract demon,” Ary told Xellie.
“I see...” Xellie trailed off as she could hear the loud whispering from before surrounding their location. She listened intently for a few moments, but wasn’t able to make out any words. “Do you hear that?”
Ary shook her head.
“What ... is ... that?” Xellie looked around, seeing nothing that seemed to be the source of the whispering sound. Confused, she turned to Ary. “Did you do something to me?”
Ary nodded, closed her eyes and held her hand out, palm facing toward Xellie. As Ary did so, she muttered incomprehensibly under her breath. Xellie’s light wings appeared to turn into dust and fell to the floor, not a trace of them left.
“For a Valkyrie, you don’t seem very in touch with your spiritual side,” Ary said, sounding puzzled. “But umm, are you here to take me?”
“Take you?” Xellie felt her face flush red as she thought about what this could mean.
“Across the rainbow bridge.”
“Oh. Well, I’m not really uh... I’m like uh... I’m human,” Xellie stuttered. “I don’t do that stuff.”
“But he said....”
“Demons will say anything to cause strife.” Xellie cut in. “Anyway, uh, Ary, listen... I don’t mind protecting you - but this Valkyrie stuff? We can’t talk about it. It’s not a smart thing to do.”
Ary shrugged.
“Then if you’re not a Valkyrie of some sort, how was I able to bring your wings out from deep within your spirit?” she pressed. “I’ve never seen that in a human.”
“Uhh...” Xellie rubbed the back of her neck with one hand as she tried to figure out how truthful she should be with this girl. It seemed that Ary’s ability to talk to and see spirits applied not only to the dead, but also to the living. And with that, Ary had seen Xellie’s true self. “Well... my mother is a Valkyrie,” Xellie blurted out, regretting it instantly.
“Ooohhh... That’s so cool!” Ary replied excitedly. “So you’re learning how to use your powers and stuff? Or are you going to change from a human into a Valkyrie at some point? How powerful are you, anyway? Are you allowed to use Valkyrie powers?”
“I mostly don’t know,” Xellie answered with an awkward laugh. “I’m kinda figuring it all out by myself now.”
“I can help you!” Ary skipped in front of Xellie and placed a hand on Xellie’s shoulder. “I do this stuff all the time, helping people learn to do what they desire, putting them in contact with spirits that can help them grow stronger.”
“I think that would be awesome,” Xellie told Ary, already contemplating whether Raye would tell her more about this strange girl. “By the way, like I said, please don’t tell anyone about the Valkyrie thing or do that wing thing again.”
“I promise! By the way, do you live here?”
“Here? I don’t live anywhere, really.” Xellie mused. “Myself and someone I’m working with are heading to Anshara.”
“You don’t live anywhere?” Ary asked as they set off down the street toward the inn. “How does that work? Where are you from?”
“I guess technically... “Xellie paused and thought about it. “Technically... I was born in Anshara, but I grew up moving between Nordausa and Jota.”
“Well, I don’t know those places very well...I know Anshara is a great demon-fighting city.”
“Ah yeah. For some reason, the demons love trying to invade Anshara, so the people there are pretty specialized in fighting demons.” Xellie explained. “So there’s a lot of warrior-type men. People travel to other cities to study magic in peace so that they can come back and help defend their families.”
“Is that why you travel?” Ary pressed, annoyingly full of questions.
“My parents died when I was just a kid. Niko, my brother, had been training outside of the city - but then he had to look after me. I stayed at his mentor’s place for a bit, and then he met his partner and they went to train in other places. I couldn’t go with them all the time so I was dumped in a church orphanage.”
“Oh. Did you like it... or....?”
“I ran away a lot,” Xellie laughed and pointed to the inn. “Anyway, this is where we’re staying tonight.”
“Fancy place,” Ary said, looking up at the three-storied building with balconies and a large patio area, dotted with parasoled tables.
Xellie looked around to see Mattos still seated outside, this time with ale. She beckoned to Ary to follow as she weaved between the tables to join them.
“Welcome back!” Mattos said cheerily, holding his tankard up to Xellie in greeting. “Who’s this?”
“This is Ary.” Xellie pointed at Ary, then at Mattos. “Ary meet Mattos.”
Ary held her hand up and gave a small wave.
“Ary is in a little bit of trouble with demons and has no way to protect herself,” Xellie explained to Mattos, “So I said she can come with us until we can deal with the demon bothering her.”
“Fair enough,” Mattos replied. “Welcome on board.”