Anshara was a bustling city, the dusty streets lined with traders, not a single street corner free from a salesman. The sun mercilessly beat down on the throngs of people, making each sandstone building with their brightly coloured awnings and shuttered windows appealing as a place of respite from the heat.
For Xellie, this was the closest place to that which she could call “home”. She was familiar with the city layout and the habits of the people.
“Be careful,” she warned Mattos and Ary. “There are a lot of thieves in this area.”
“This isn’t what I expected at all...” Mattos murmured looking around at his surroundings in awe. “What a place.”
People scuttled out of the way of Ash’s small horse and cart convoy as they made their way through the streets, until eventually they reached a mansion guarded from the rest of the city by high walls.
Positioned at the tall wrought iron gate were a pair of guards, holding elaborate wooden staves and dressed in flowing robes to protect them from the heat.
Ash jumped down from the cart and waved to the guard for him to open the gate. After the guard had pushed the heavy gate open, Ash escorted the group to the front of the mansion.
“You know where to go, right?” Ash asked as he fumbled with his keys and unlocked the surprisingly modest door for such a huge building.
Xellie nodded affirmatively and waved Mattos and Ary in behind her. She guided her companions through the large warren of carpeted hallways, until they reached a wooden door with a pentagram carved into it.
“Before we enter here,” Xellie turned to face Ary and Mattos. “You should know that you shouldn’t touch anything that isn’t a book. And if it’s a book behind glass, it’s probably going to kill you.”
“What kinda crazy place is this?” Mattos asked, his eyes widened at the explanation given to him.
“The clue is in the name,” Xellie replied, pushing the door open to reveal a steep spiral stone staircase. “Devil’s Library.”
The library was located far under the ground and it’s expanse stretched further than the footprint of the mansion above. Oil lamps illuminated the library, both hanging from the ceiling and mounted on the walls. Bookshelves stretched down the length of the library, glass cabinets with strange and mysterious artifacts lined the walls.
“So we’re looking for anything that might tell us where Ashmeviti was summoned,” Xellie told Ary. “If you find anything, please let us know.”
The group spent hours poring over various books that looked promising. Many of them were spells for summoning all sorts of random demonic entities, but none revealed the location of the demon lord.
Unlike Mattos, Xellie was becoming very frustrated at not being able to find any information, so she excused herself and walked further down the length of the library, just to take a break and stretch her legs a little.
Sat in the corner, reading from a tattered old ledger was a well built man with slicked back ginger hair. Xellie guessed he must have been middle aged maybe, it was quite hard to tell.
“Are you looking for something?” He asked in a honeyed tone, peering over the top of his book.
“Uhh...” the question took Xellie by surprise. “Yeah, we are.”
“May I ask what?” The man replied, laying his book on the nearby glass cabinet that was holding various artifacts. “I am a keeper of this library.”
Ash had vaguely mentioned his library keepers before and merely searching blindly wasn’t going to help. This guy didn’t seem threatening in any way, so Xellie saw no harm in asking him what she needed to know.
“I am looking for information on Ashmeviti.”
“His location has been a closely guarded secret,” said the man. “But you are not the average glory seeking demon hunter, are you?”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Xellie said with a shrug. “Why would that matter?”
“I suppose it doesn’t matter,” the man gave a knowing smile and shook his head. “What you seek is to the far west, beyond the Plains of Illr, in the ruins of Lafayein.”
“I never heard of that place.... I know the Plains of Illr, but I’ve never crossed them.”
“Nobody ever returns,” the man told her. “Only demons and Valkyries, plus their companions can make the journey,” he paused for a second before asking; “You do believe in Valkyries, yes?”
“I don’t know what to think,” Xellie answered, trying to act casual, yet feeling very uneasy about this topic, yet in a way relieved that she could actually talk to someone about valkyries in general without being considered insane. “They pick up souls and take them places?”
“Hmm...” The man indicated for Xellie to sit on the chair opposite him. “That’s a very rudimentary understanding of it.”
“Can you tell me more?” She asked, dusting off the chair and taking a seat, curious to hear about Valkyries from a source that wasn’t Raye.
“Well, it sounds like you understand their nature. They are reapers, much like demons. As such they compete over who gets the human souls. There’s a war going on between the Valkyries and the demons because of this.
“The first Valkyries were created by the war god himself, they would use magic and wit to manipulate the tide of battle, choosing who they deemed worthy, to serve them in the afterlife. Often, the Valkyries would take the roles of marrying heroes, using their physical form to beguile human men in to taking part in combat. As time went on, they bolstered their numbers, choosing from heroic human females to take on their duties in the afterlife, their powers passed on down, diluted of what they once were. When peace came over the world and wars were few and far between, the valkyries power waned, much like that of the gods.”
“So they’re weak now?”
“Comparatively, you could say that.” He leaned forward toward Xellie as he spoke, lowering his voice. “However, they seek to cause conflict among humans so they can continue to reap so-called, heroic souls. They are seeking to increase their power.”
“For what though?” Xellie asked, puzzled by this description of the valkyries activities.
“That’s the natural order of things. Powerful beings seeking to have control over less powerful ones.” The man gave a slight shrug. “It’s all a matter of whose side you’re on.”
“So, wait...” Xellie mentally reminded herself to act dubious when it came to confirming the existence of valkyries. “... if this is all real... there are ‘sides’ in the afterlife?”
“Oh it’s real alright. You seem smart enough to comprehend this, so I’ll explain a little more. There’s no one single place for souls in the afterlife, a lot of it depends on what those people believed, how they lived their lives, how they died and so forth.”
Xellie nodded her head absorbing the information as he continued to talk.
“The general consensus among those on ‘the other side’ is to let human lives play out without interference, then as those souls pass on, they can be seen by various beings who act as reapers of souls, whether people believe in them or not. These reapers collect the souls and take them to the appropriate afterlife. Valkyries... they are greedy and like to manipulate matters.”
“This is all very interesting but...” Xellie narrowed her eyes and stood up, putting her hands on the glass cabinet and leaning forward. “How do you know all of this?”
“Let’s just say, a Valkyrie interfered with my life and I have spent my time trying to find out why.”
“So you don’t like them very much?” Xellie sat back down on the dusty chair. “You made pacts with demons for information?”
“Oh no.” The man lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “You don’t need to make a pact with a demon to get information from them. Also, valkyries interfere with human lives often enough, you just need to find the people they affected.”
“What did they do to you?” Xellie asked, becoming more and more curious about this man’s story.
“They were responsible for the death of a family member. I’d rather not go into detail.” He cast his eyes downward as if he wanted to avoid the topic.
“Okay I have a question.... Are all valkyries female?” Xellie had noted his reaction and although she was curious, she felt as if she could learn more by keeping him talking.
“Yes they are.” The man’s expression seemed to brighten at the topic change. “It’s an antiquated system that they believe in. For example, when the valkyries have children... And yes that happens! They actually have families with Humans.... But their female children oftentimes will inherit their powers and become a valkyrie themselves in their afterlife.”
“What about the male children?” Xellie pressed, Niko on her mind.
“They’re usually some kind of fantastic warrior,” he laughed as he said this. “They usually become a well known hero, or some such.”
“Aha.” Xellie smirked inwardly, this man seemed to actually know what he was talking about, since everything he had said so far matched up perfectly with her experiences. “How powerful are they?”
“Well that’s hard to say.” He drew a deep breath as he considered the question. “The original valkyries are basically one step down from being gods... then you have the secondary ones, picked from human souls... They are still extremely powerful, with access to all human magic, some godly magic and the ability to determine the fate of humans. There’s a third kind, you know?”
“A third kind?”
“Their children of course.” The man leaned over and whispered in Xellie ear. “They are technically the most powerful because they can use demon magic, human magic and godly magic. They can do whatever they want. The valkyries were banned from breeding with humans because of this, yet some slip through.”
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“How many of them are there?” Xellie asked.
“Only one as far as I know.” He leaned back into his chair before casually adding. “Well, they kill the hybrid children incase they endanger their own kind. Who knows why this one that is roaming around is an exception?”
“They kill their own children?” Xellie felt her stomach sink, as she thought back to the temple of sacrifice, and Myla.
“They are strange creatures.” If the man had noticed Xellie’s reaction to this information, he wasn’t showing it. “You’re a demon hunter, aren’t you?” He asked.
“Kinda.” Xellie replied. “I seem to have a habit of getting caught up in demonic happenings.”
“They say Anshara is the city of answers, but I feel in your case you’re going to get all your answers in Lafayein,” the man said kindly. “I hope that helps you.”
“Why so far away?” Xellie asked suspiciously. “How is he able to wreak so much havoc on this side of the continent if he is located there?”
“I never said he was located there.” he said cryptically. “I just said that you’ll find answers there. If you’re looking for the demon lord known as Ashmeviti, he won’t want you to reach that place, and will come looking for you, most likely.”
“So where is he located?” Xellie demanded to know, her voice tinged with annoyance. “Where do I find him?”
“He could be anywhere,” replied the man. “However, I must leave now. Good luck.”
“Huh?” Xellie watched in bemusement as the man gathered up his books and left the library via the stairs. “W... wait!” she called, throwing open the door to the stairs and looking upwards, but he was nowhere to be seen.
How much of this man’s information could she really trust? It matched up with what she was learning from Raye, yet painted quite a different picture of Valkyries.
Exhaling deeply, she closed the staircase door and began the long walk toward the far end of the library where Mattos was.
“I talked to some old guy,” she told Mattos, plopping herself down on the floor and sitting against one of the bookshelves. “He said all the answers to Ashmeviti are in a place called... err... Lafayein?”
“Never heard of it,” Mattos replied. “But we can look for a map, right?”
“It’s somewhere across the plains of Illr,” Xellie said. “In the far west.”
“I don’t know if I want to cross those plains on the words of some random old guy,” Mattos remarked, “So let’s see if we can find anything else.”
“I found a map!” Ary exclaimed, bouncing over to them with a small book. The pages unfolded to display a map of the continent. Variously sized circles encompassed the cities on the map, some overlapping, but none very far away from another. On the far western side, the largest circle drawn in an angry red colour took up a huge amount of the page. Unfortunately the text was in some ancient language that none of the group could understand.
“And I assume this is Lafayein?” Mattos tapped the center of a big red circle on the western most tip of the continent, where a town name was scrawled in an alien looking text.
“If these circles are locations of demonic summons, then that would explain the big red one,” said Xellie. “I’ve seen maps similar to this and it looks like a map of portals.”
“Portals?” Ary asked. “What portals?”
“When a demon is summoned to our world, they come through a portal.” Xellie explained to Ary, unsure if Mattos had any knowledge about this particular topic also. “Summoning ties the demon to that particular location because they draw all their power from the portal that leads back to their dimension. They can leave the area, but the further away they go, the weaker they become.”
“So...” Mattos added. “Stronger demons will send weaker and expendables ones out into the world to open further portals to expand their range.”
“If this is a map of all the major portals, then all the human-demon conflict will happen on the outer edges of these circles.” Xellie ran her finger across the page thoughtfully. “This looks about right. Some of these areas are unpopulated as far as I know.”
“If Ashmeviti was summoned all the way over there, it would explain why nobody ever came back from crossing the plains.” Mattos said thoughtfully.
Their brainstorming session was interrupted by Ash walking up to them and giving a small cough to alert them of his presence.
“Have you found what you need?” Ash asked.
“Ehehe, we might need more time!” Xellie said nervously, clasping her hands together as if she was going to plead with Ash. “This place is enormous you know.”
“Yeah no problem.” Ash told her dismissively. “You can stay as long as you need, we have spare rooms.... Just don’t cause any trouble.”
“Me trouble? Naaaaah.” Xellie laughed, then considered something else. “Hey will you feed us too?”
“I suppose. Dinner will be at six o’clock sharp.” Ash didn’t wait for a response, and turned back up the stairs.
“Good service for a library...” Mattos said, “So I have a question, why is this place called the Devil’s Library anyway?”
“Oh yeah. Rumour has it that the founder of the library, hundreds of years ago made a deal with a devil for knowledge.” Xellie explained. “Anshara is full of things like that.”
“Your people have the strangest relationship with demons.” Mattos muttered. “Obviously you don’t want them to invade the city, but you’ll happily harbour information passed down from them?”
“Yeah well, why not?” Xellie shrugged.
After retiring from the library for dinner, which was a rather extravagant affair laid out on a long table - Mattos and Ary headed back down into the library.
Xellie had other ideas however; she excused herself, telling them she would join them in the library shortly, then snuck off into the depths and upper floors of the mansion.
She slipped quietly into what she believed was a spare bedroom, opened the window and whispered up toward the sky.
“Raye? Are you there?”
No answer.
This was unusual. Raye usually appeared quickly when Xellie called to her, but now, she seemed to not be coming.
“Raye please...” She pleaded into the air. “If I’ve done something wrong I can fix it... please come.”
Xellie waited, and waited until she knew that she had probably waited too long, so she sighed and left the room to rejoin her companions downstairs in the library.
However, she didn’t make it that far.
On the ground floor of the mansion, she walked past the large patio doors leading into the courtyard, and saw the man from earlier in the library sat reading at a table.
Armed with a laundry list of questions to ask this strangely knowledgeable man, she pushed open the glass door and then walked face first into a magical barrier, preventing her from going outside.
“What the actual....” Xellie gingerly reached out into the doorway, only to have her hand repelled back toward her by the mysterious magical barrier. “Stupid Ash,” she muttered.
“...What are you doing?” Ash asked, walking toward Xellie having heard the barrier activate.
“What are you hiding out there?” Xellie pointed toward the barrier. “Something important?”
“You can go.” Ash shrugged. “That barrier doesn’t affect humans.”
“But it...” Xellie reached out gingerly and tapped the barrier. “I can’t?”
“Ohhhhh of course.” Ash shook his head. “You are one of them, this explains so much.”
“Woah woah.” Xellie turned to Ash and held up her hands. “I’m not one of ‘them’ so to speak... I just.... Well.... this is awkward isn’t it?”
“Your kind aren’t welcome here.” Ash told her, brandishing his staff before him.
“Wait wait!” Xellie exclaimed, jumping aside as a bolt of ice hit the curtain next to her and froze it solid. “I don’t know what you think I am but....” She jumped aside again as another ice bolt smashed into the wall. “I’m a human, I swear.”
“The barrier doesn’t seem to think so.” Ash replied, lowering his staff for a moment. “Infact, the barrier has you labelled as one of those death maidens.”
“Death maidens?” Xellie asked, her stomach sinking when she realized what Ash was referring to. “Oh.... No no. I’m just related to one.”
“Well that makes it all fine then.” Ask snarked, raising his staff and taking another shot with his ice bolt.
“Ah come on Ash.... you’ll freeze half your house before you catch me.” Xellie used the polished floor to slide away from the spell. “And besides, if you kill me - I’ll just actually become what you hate.”
“What are you? Five?” Ash snorted. “I'll become one blah blah.”
“I already told you I’m human.” Xellie took a note of how far the front door of the mansion was. If she ran fast enough she could probably make it out before Ash used his spell to freeze her in place.
“Nonsense.” Ash shot at her once more, the ice bolt crashing into the previously frozen curtain and shattering it.
“Bye!” Xellie exclaimed, taking off down the hallway toward the mansion front door. “Please don’t have a barrier, please don’t have a barrier....” She muttered to herself. An ice beam hit the door just as she was about to reach it, so she rammed the frozen door with her shoulder, causing the door to fracture into many pieces.
“Don’t show your face here again!” Ash yelled after her as she fumbled with the gate and ran onto the street gasping for air.
“Now what do I do?” Xellie pondered to herself. Mattos and Ary were still inside the mansion, but hopefully not in any danger from Ash. “I guess I wait here?”
Feeling somewhat despondent over what had occurred, Xellie ambled across the street to a tree, and sat down in the meagre shade, watching and waiting for Mattos and Ary to leave the mansion.
Hopefully, Ash wouldn’t tell them why he had chased her out of his house, because otherwise, there was no telling how Mattos would react.
“Oh hey!” Mattos called, Xellie’s rucksack held in one hand. “Ash told us we had to leave and that you were already gone.”
“Did he say why?” Xellie asked nervously, taking her rucksack from Mattos.
“No, he’s such an odd kid.”
“He just said you’re not welcome anymore.” Ary pointed out. “But now what will you do? That last book we looked at sure seemed useful.”
“You mean.... This book?” Xellie said, producing the ledger from her waistband.
“Did you steal that?” Mattos asked in surprise.
“No it’s a library, I’m just borrowing it. That’s how libraries work, right?”
“You’re just.... Ugh.” Mattos sighed. “Well... so long as you’re going to return it.”
“Of course I will.” Xellie tucked the book into her rucksack. “I guess we’ll have to stay here tonight though.”
“You know anywhere to stay for the night? Since Ash’s place is out of the question?”
“Oh oh I know!” Xellie beckoned for Mattos and Ary to follow her as she walked down the dusty street. “Come with me.”
Xellie guided the group through the winding streets with the hot Anshara sun beating down on them, past brick built houses with brightly coloured awnings.
“How much further?” Mattos gasped. “It’s so damn hot.”
“Just here.” Xellie stopped outside a large villa, it’s windows and doors boarded up. “Uhm... Let's go around the back.”
Mattos followed in confusion as Xellie ran around to the back of the villa and climbed over the tall wooden gate into the backyard. Moments later she unlocked the gate and signaled for Mattos and Ary to follow her to the back door of the villa.
“Do you often break into people’s houses?” Mattos asked, shaking his head slightly.
“Only if I need to.” Xellie answered offhandedly, leaving Mattos wondering if this was a joke or she was serious, whilst she took a key from her bag and unlocked the door. “Anyway, welcome to my house.”
“Oh this is YOUR house.” Mattos exhaled sharply and looked around the dark, dusty and stuffy, but expansive villa. “Why’d you leave?”
“We had to follow Niko’s work.” Xellie explained, pulling a blanket off the sofa and waving the dust away. “Sorry about the mess.”
“It’s... okay....” Mattos gazed around the tiled villa. “This was your parent’s place?”
“Yeah...” Xellie glanced uneasily over toward a door leading into a study. “We had maids and everything, but without our parents there was no way to pay them. Niko started training with Grau who did all his studying in Jota. So we boarded everything up and moved away. Place has been looted so many times, but at least they left some furniture.”