-- Alena's perspective --

I burst out of the trees near the pond. The sun was setting now, so I would need to figure out my next course of action quickly. My head was aching a little, but most of my pain had subsided now. I had never run for that long before, but while I was a bit winded, I was not nearly as exhausted as I expected to be.

The tree that last time I was here was dying was now well and truly dead. The other was still full of life, so I sat under it and pulled out the letter from my breastplate pocket. With light fading fast I had to hurry, or I would need a fire to read it, which would only lead the order right to me.

I opened the letter and began to read.

Alena, I am sorry for putting you through this one what should be a happy day for you. I wish it would have never come to this but I couldn’t ignore my suspicions and risk your safety.

The first point I want to tell you is that Lily is well and truly your mother. I know you have considered her your mother your whole life, but I was the one who assisted in your birth.

One night she came to me in pain, pregnant, and in labor. She showed no signs the day before, she was also very drunk, something she would have never done willingly If she knew she was with child.

Regardless I helped her, and you and Alaster were born. I decided then to hide you from the order since I could not trust them. Lily did not remember the night, so I decided to hide it from her as well. Something I have felt guilty about since.

The reason I decided to hide it is that the order can extract information even without your consent. If something happened, I wanted to make sure I was the only one who had access to any information the order would want.

When Alaster manifested his light magic, I could see it must be potent, and beyond the norm. Though with you not having the same level of affinity. I had a slight fear you were his opposite.

This fear increased when you absorbed dark mana. It was only a slight amount, but your body acted like it had been starved and finally had sustenance. Normally dark mana is rejected by the body, so you should feel better having it extracted, but you seemed drained after.

I had not treated many cases of dark mana poisoning, so I could not trust my assessment completely. I wanted to just think it was a special case, and nothing out of the ordinary.

Your safety was more important though. So I had to accept that you may be a demon. But you are still my daughter. If you can manifest dark mana, you will become a target of the order.

I have left you supplies in the dead tree by the pond. Go south, cross the river you come to and you will be in Crosta. It is a nation that has embraced the corruption in the world rather than condemn it like Aston. There you should at least be able to live without fear of the order.

I have a friend there. Bradley Leston. I have communicated with him to expect you in Altea should the worst happen. Take your mother’s last name, Amala and he should be able to find you. Altea is to the west once you cross the river. I have included a map in the supplies.

Once you read this letter, wash it in the pond. The ink will wash off.

I love you, Alena, and I always will.

Asshole. He had hidden all this my entire life. Wanting me to live a life free of fear of what I might be. Now I had to run to some other country and leave everything behind.

My thoughts did not match my expression though. I was crying, A drop landed on the letter and I saw the words start to smudge, I carefully moved it away and folded it back up, and put it back in my breastplate pocket. Father would have to deal with me not destroying it.

I hoped he and mother would be alright. He did say he had a plan but I kind of wished he added some notes about that in the letter. This Bradley guy would know, so I had to find him.

I got up and moved to the pond, looking down into the water. Reflected back was my familiar face, but with some dried blood around my forehead, and two black horns protruding from either side. The damage seemed to have healed already, the area around them was just a little puffy now.

My ears seemed to be somewhat pointed now as well. My eyes, which once matched my mother’s beautiful hazel color, took on a fiery red glow. I was truly no longer human.

I washed my face to clean up the blood, then headed to the dead tree. I didn’t have much time to continue on, so I had to hurry. I could reflect later, the order could catch up to me at any time.

There was some haphazardly laid moss and twigs in front of a cavity in the tree. Anyone looking could tell something had to be hidden there. I chuckled a little at fathers attempt to cover the hole.

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Inside was a backpack, and far in the back, I could see a sword. I knew mine was still at home, this was a new one. But as I pulled out the bag, I heard something approaching.

I spun around to look. There was a huge demon boar already mid-charge. It was many times the size of the one I had previously seen. The sword was still in the tree hollow though, and I had no time to grab it. I jumped behind the tree to have some cover just as the boar hit it at full speed.

The tree snapped, breaking around the cavity and falling towards me. Scrambling I managed to get out of the way, but my leg got caught under it. It did not feel like it broke but it hurt like hell.

The boar looked at me, helpless and prepared to gore me with its tusks. Was this it? Could I seriously only last what, thirty minutes?

I struggled to pull my leg loose, my position did not let me put much power into it, and even with my newfound strength, I wasn’t going to get it out before I was gored.

But that never came. Out of my peripherals, a newcomer arrived. A giant wolf. It closed its jaw around the back of the boar and tossed it like a doll.

I stared in disbelief. It was massive. It had red and silver fur, with deep red eyes, and parts of its fur were bare and old scars were visible. Its hind legs had an old arrow sticking out as well.

It seemed busy with the boar so I got my leg freed and limped to the now open cavity, the sword was OK, and so was the bag. I grabbed them, trying to rush away.

The boar lived through the initial attack and seemed to sense it was no match, so it tried to flee. Right in the direction I was heading. I cursed my luck.

I could jump into the pond, or turn back and head the way I came. The pond seemed like a bad option, the muddy bottom was likely to get me stuck real quick. I had to turn back. Maybe if the wolf chased me I could trigger a battle between it and the paladins. But what if Alaster was with them?

Conflicted I failed to notice a root as I tried to pivot to change direction, falling hard onto the ground. The wolf caught the boar, and this time it got its neck. I could hear it trying to squeal, but the constricting turned it into a gargle.

I tried to get to my feet, but my ankle was throbbing hard now, making it hard to put much weight on it. I needed to ignore it though and get away while the demon wolf was distracted.

The sound from the boar stopped when I only got a few steps. Being a demon it would want to absorb its miasma right? That would give me only moments to get some distance. With my ankle the way it was, I could not run nearly as fast as I wanted though.

As I continued, something flew over me. The wolf had jumped in front of me, carrying the boar in its mouth. It was not going to let me get away it seemed.

I stopped and fell back, closed my eyes, and waited for the end. But nothing happened.

Cautiously opening my eyes, the boar dissipated right in front of me. The wolf had dropped it there, it was sitting behind it, just looking at me.

I was closer to the boar than it was, so the miasma got pulled into my body. I could feel my energy rising, and the pain in my ankle quickly vanished. What was going on?

The wolf just watched me as the miasma gathered into my body, making no moves on me, in fact, it didn’t look like it intended to attack me at all. Was it trying to help me? A demon helping someone?

Well, I was a demon now too. Maybe that had something to do with it?

I stood up and didn’t break eye contact. What was I supposed to do here?

“Thank you,” I said, taking a slight bow and breaking eye contact finally. I could see on the ground in front of me sat a mana crystal from the boar, should I grab that too? Or leave? Fuck it might as well, not like I would survive if it attacked anyway.

I stepped forward and grabbed the mana crystal, but the wolf still took no action and just continued to watch me. I quickly put the crystal in my bag and looked back up at the wolf.

It was looking back at the woods towards Silvergrove. I looked over there as well and listened. I could hear muffled sounds of voices. The order was almost here. I had to go, now.

Turning to the south, I started to run. My ankle felt better now so I was able to gain speed pretty quickly. I didn’t get far though before I felt a tug from my bag, then weightlessness.

The wolf grabbed my bag and tossed me into the air. Shit, I turned my back to it didn’t I? This was a lesson I had already learned but I seemed to put too much trust in a random demon I just met. I reflected thinking this was the end as I reached the top of the arch of my flight.

I could see the ground starting to come closer, the wolf was under me. I landed on its back. Not wanting to fall off I latched onto its fur before feeling a blast of wind. It was running, carrying me with it, heading south.

Before we entered the forest I managed to look back and see the order coming out of the trees. I could not tell if Alaster was with them, but they had to have seen what just happened.

I had no doubt the wolf was helping me now, but why? I couldn’t refuse its help though, the speed we were going now was many times what I could manage. Having a companion like this should also force the order into reconsidering going after me with only a single squad.

Its fur was soft, and riding on its back was comfortable I had to admit.

As we continued, darkness settled in. I could still see though, and the wolf did not slow down in the slightest either. Demons had good night vision it seemed. Handy.

How long were we going for through? Time continued to drag on and the wolf seemed to have infinite stamina. If I loosened my grip at all I was going to fly off, so my hands were starting to get tired from the strain.

We came out into open fields, then back into the forest, and repeated that many times. We must have been going for hours but I had no way to truly gauge the time.

I finally got a bit of insight into the amount of time that passed when light started to fill the forest. We had run all night. My legs felt cramped and I was exhausted. But soon after, the wolf finally came to a stop.

I used that chance to jump off. We were outside a small cave, nestled in a small gorge in the middle of the forest. It had enough room for my companion so I figured this must of been its home. There were bits of bones gathered near the entrance.

The wolf was heaving, clearly exhausted from running all night. It settled in the cave and looked over at me, laying its head down to rest. If it wanted to eat me it would of already, so I went inside.

The cave was roomy enough to live in, even with my companion taking up one side. My bag did have a tent but I was too tired to bother, I just walked over to my companion and laid on its front leg, it made no effort to stop me. The softness was better than any blanket so I quickly let sleep take me.