This morning when I reach the area with the boulders I notice the devil man surrounded by a score of swarmlings. It's no surprise I'm not first to arrive as I took my time and he has become quite popular with the swarm over the last few days. We can all feel the difference his instructions make in the power behind our slashes and stabs. It's nice the whole group has found someone else to follow around for a while. When the devil man notices me he starts to move in my direction.
"I brought something that'll be of use to you guys, glow skull," he shouts at me, waving something around. His attitude is cheerful as always, the first devil to treat any of us with anything else than disdain. For some reason he refuses to call me by my name, using the glowing mark on the back of my head instead. Maybe I should ask his name, calling him devil man is becoming tedious.
"We're getting a bit too obvious and one of the Keepers talked to me already," He continues with a shrug, "so I figured this would be the last day. Brought you something to look at, so you'll recognize it and know what to do."
It's not good to hear it will be the last day. While his teaching has been limited to the striking of stones and trees, striking bodies is not that much different. The Keepers interfering was expected, but still a disappointment. The feeling I get from this place is that the Keepers and the devils may want us strong, fast and healthy, but not skilled.
As he reaches me, the devil man shoves something in front of me. It is leather and by the shape it would probably be used for the torso. It's also much stiffer than other leather I've seen so far. The man wedges the piece of armor in the ground and looks at me expectantly.
"Go ahead, give it a go, slash at it," he tells me with enthusiasm.
"Sure," I tell him. Raising a claw I indulge him and make a half-hearted swipe. Something like this should be no problem.
To my surprise my claws skitter along the surface. There is a visible mark, but not the great tear I had been expecting. Fascinated I lean a bit closer, sniffing the thing and, in the end, giving it a lick. There is a strange taste to it, different from just animal skin. Meanwhile, the devil man has been looking at the shamefully shallow gashes, checking their depth with his fingers.
"Those claws of yours are pretty damn sharp, aren't they." With a low whistle he traces the line of the deepest gash. Focusing his attention on me, he starts to explain. "This is lacquered hardened leather armor. On it's own the boiled leather is already tough, but we lather it with a lacquer or glue to provide extra resistance. Most soldiers and workmen wear this stuff."
I give the thing another inspection. The worlds I've been to are not that different. There are metals, cloths, timbers and leathers everywhere, so I'm sure I'll find something like this if it is as common as he says.
"It's an old piece of mine, ready to be thrown, so do your worst." With this the devil man wedges the armor solidly on the ground again.
Do your worst? I think he means for me to strike it. Instead of a slash, I punch at it this time. Again my claws do far less damage than I expected. I inspect my claws. They did get damaged by hitting the rocks, but I've been sharpening them evening and mornings. The devil man's laughing brings my attention back to the task at hand.
"Remember the rocks," he says.
I nod at him. Right, the rocks. This is not a hide or material that gives and will shape itself to engulf my claws, I need to force them through at the right angle. Repositioning myself I strike straight on the armor. With a satisfying crunch I punch through the hardened leather, though I can feel it would not be deep enough to seriously injure anything it covers. Useful to know about this now, rather than later.
As I withdraw my claw, the devil man positions the chest piece for another swarmling to strike, then another and so on. Soon the piece of armor has numerous dents, scratches and a few holes. For a moment longer I regard the man before speaking.
"What is your name," I enunciate carefully.
He looks at me for a moment before he begins to laugh. "I never did tell you, did I. It's Dellos, glow skull. Speaking about glowing skulls, yours stopped glowing. What's up with that?"
For a moment the words don't quite register, then I turn my head out of reflex, but it's still impossible for me to see the back of my own head. The laughter of Dellos is not helping my mood.
"You'll just have to take my word for it, Kragol," he says cheerfully
Scanning around, there is currently no sign of Harijia or any of the other Keepers. "I need to go," I quickly say to Dellos before doing exactly that. Ducking through some under-brush I make my way to a tree with a good coverage of foliage. Somehow I expected the summon to happen immediately. Taking into consideration most of the demons have to be put into the cells for it to happen regularly, it could be considered near instantly. In just a short hour I feel the strange sensation take hold of me. I was waiting for it and this time I could feel a something connect to me, just like I felt something flow in the dungeon.
The familiar whiteness and the sense of movement are almost normal now. I only have to wonder briefly where I will go to this time before a sensation wakes in the back of my mind. Cold anger, resolve and restraint flow from a familiar mind into my own. I can't help but be on my guard at the strength of the emotions. For me it has been a long time and I have had plenty of time to think and people to talk to. Perhaps Ara did not have as much time or people to talk to.
When the white changes back again to normal sight I find myself looking straight at Ara, who is looking straight at me. For a while longer we both stare.
It is Ara who breaks the silence first. "Last time," She begins, but pauses to start over. "I'm sure you had your reasons, as did I. I am reluctant to let you go, but I can't afford to fight you every time you don't like my orders. Shall I release you as my familiar, here and now?"
"No," I answer. I like this place and she is my connection to it. Here I know for certain I get to feel a breeze and see the sky, to forget that I'm stuck underground and that I am being watched. There is no change coming from Ara and my mind throws a what-if at me I do not need right now. What if she still decides to break it off? For a moment I feel uncertainty, a terrible thing, but I prepared for this. "Avebella."
Was there a slight tremble in the connection? My memory recalls her being excited at names, I was sure this would work.
"Then explain yourself. Why did you resist my order that hard, Galrahsor." After speaking she walks off to the side.
Turning my head to follow her I start to take notice of the room. It is a closed room, the door looks solid. A desk with some chairs is where Ara, Avebella, takes a seat, while I'm on a slightly raised platform with the familiar runes around me. This time they're not turning off. Out of curiosity I reach out and find the same wall that caught me the first time I arrived in this world.
Ara breaks me out of my investigation of the barrier and calls back my attention to the matter at hand. "Gal! Begin."
Now I'm actually here I find it difficult to find a place to start. Thinking back to that day, I use a tiny spark of what I felt to fuel my speech.
"My kind, needs to show how strong they are! The strong eat good, the strong lead, the strong get respect! The weak get eaten when there is no food, the weak are bait, the weak eat bad food and stay weak!" I take a deep breath to calm down. "You make me weak, make me stupid. It feels wrong."
There is silence while Avebella regards me. "Why did you need to be strong there? There were none of your kind, you had nothing to prove. Why would you care?"
It's a question I've asked myself too recently. "Dunno," I answer, "it feels wrong."
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We look at one another once more until I look away. Somehow it feels like I was in the wrong, but I don't know why or how.
Returning my gaze to Avebella I speak again. "Now you. Why?"
This time Avebella is the one to look away.
"I made a mistake," she murmurs in a soft voice. Louder, she repeats herself, "I made a mistake. Maybe I should have listened to Sonia. I was too sure, too confident in myself. With a demon as my familiar, people would have to take me seriously. That they did."
I can feel something bitter through the link mixing with the anger. The memory I've always had calls it regret and I wonder what it feels like to have it.
She laughs before she continues, but it is not a happy laugh. "Humans with more power than me saw me becoming stronger, so they wanted to eliminate me. I was becoming isolated and vulnerable. I needed both of us to be weak so they wouldn't see me as a threat. Do you understand?"
I run the words through my head a few times before I reply. "No."
It's clear I've surprised Avebella as she quickly turns her eyes on me again with a frown. "No? Which part didn't you understand?"
I didn't prepare for this, so the words take some time to form. This time Avebella doesn't rush me. "With me strong and a strong other, together we are stronger. Why would he want me dead?"
She smiles a smile as if she has eaten something bad. "They are not themselves strong and they are afraid someone stronger will come to take what they have away, yes?"
I shake my head, it's still strange to think about. If you find someone strong, that someone is to be admired. If they take your food, that is normal and right.
"Can you accept that I had a human reason for it?" Avebella asks.
To that I can nod yes. Humans are strange enough, I don't think I will understand them any time soon.
"So will you obey me without struggle, next time?" is her next question.
To that I nod as well, with a lot less enthusiasm. I was prepared for this question, but it may be hard to go against my instincts.
"Gal, you may not be able to die here, but my life depends on it. Will you obey me?" Avebella speaks the last part slowly, stressing every word.
I already decided I wanted to keep her, I might as well go through with it for now. "Yes," I nod.
"I guess that's as good as we're going to get." With a sigh Avebella picks something off the floor.
It's a long piece of wood with a design etched in it. As she grips it tight, lines of light spread for a moment on the wood before fading. Another something for her magic?
"You've grown so much again, but that is what new familiars do. I want to see what you can do with that body. The room is mine until afternoon, so we'll do a training here." She takes a stance I recognize as defensive.
Her whole mood has shifted. The cold determination is still there, but the anger and bitter feeling are mostly gone, replaced by something lighter. It's amazing she can switch so fast from one mood and one thing to another. Taking myself into consideration I realize I am not much different.
The room looks sturdy enough, but I wonder how it will look when we are finished.
I should not have worried. The things people poked me with and their skill with them did not prepare me for this. I start with dodging Avebella's attacks. She is constantly thrusting the end of the staff at me. Any time I fail to do so is rewarded with a little shock. Thanks to Mari hurting me like she has, it doesn't slow me down any more, but it's still not a nice feeling.
When I finally manage to get close enough for the poking to stop, Avebella simply changes her grip and begins a whirlwind of sweeping strikes, quickly bowling me to the far end of the room from where I once more have to pass through the poking area. Frustrated I try a charge or to run on the ceiling, but that is deflected with even more ease. She didn't even have to use more of her tricks.
When it's over I feel bruises everywhere. The room is covered in claw marks, a sign of how confident Avebella was that she would not get hurt. Otherwise she would have warded my claws better. She sits down and starts to cast her repair magic.
"Gal, go along every bit of damage you can find so we can repair it." Avebella says with her eyes closed. "Start on the ceiling."
As I move from one spot to another, Avebella starts to talk. Maybe to me, maybe to herself.
"People here believe only the evil or insane would have a demon as familiar. I think it dates back to when the western provinces were a separate kingdom. Their royal family, their generals and their higher nobility almost always had a demon as familiar."
She pauses a moment to renew the repair spell. I try to feel the magic, but get only the vaguest sense.
"We had to fight them, to surrender is to be slaughtered by those madmen! Or so it was probably told to the commoners and the prejudice still exists now, more than two hundred years later."
I hear a humorless laugh and take a quick peek at Avebella. She seems fine, but the emotions I sense from her are starting to cloud over.
"So I'm being watched, by everyone. Some want to be there when I go insane and start slaughtering people, others want to use me and yet others are considering if I should be eliminated now rather than later. So I changed my play. Pretend to be a 'normal' girl, socialize, talk about dresses and boys."
Almost done with the ceiling, I look behind me to see new claw marks where I've been gripping the stone during my work. I'll have to move backwards in my tracks to fix it, not something I relish.
"Sometimes I wish mama and papa were still here. Or I wish half-brother could be less of an idiot who is easily influenced, so I could leave the estates to him. He's the one who kicked you, by the way." After a small pause she continues. "I wish I didn't send Sonia away and I wish people would give me a fair chance and I wish the greedy vultures would leave me alone and I wish they would stop pestering me to accept a marriage proposal. But if wishes were fishes no-one would be hungry. I do like being a duchess, though."
It's quiet for a while. The emotions from Avebella are a bit more stable, but I'd take the anger over the monotone sadness.
When I'm almost finished with the last wall, Avebella starts to talk again.
"Then they ask me what I'm doing, wasting my time at an academy that caters to the military. This place also delivers the best healers, stewards, alchemists and engineers, but they conveniently forget that!"
A hint of determination enters her emotions.
"I'm going to join the Law-speakers and travel the lands and I'm going to find out if my father was really a traitor when he died. If he wasn't, I will find out who framed him and if he was, I'm going to find out why."
Cleaning up the last few scratches and being mindful not to make new ones, I turn to Avebella to see if she's finished talking. She seems to be waiting for some kind of response and I do have a question. "Why tell me?"
The hint of a smile plays along her lips for a moment before she replies. "Because you won't try to tell me what to do, offer me useless advice or false sympathy. Sometimes humans just want to talk."
It makes as much sense as humans killing the strong of their species, so I nod.
With the last damage repaired, Avebella stands up and presses a metal plate next to the door. A moment later Ine enters, holding clothes in her arms. Luckily I don't smell any flower water nearby. She smiles a small smile at Avebella, which is returned in kind.
"Please help me change for my meeting with the field master," she instructs Ine.
As the sweaty clothes are changed for non-sweaty ones I observe how complicated the whole process is. Avebella is in a much better mood than before. I feel this may have been part training, part punishment and part release for pent up anger and such. Maybe the talking helped too? All the more impressive is that she keeps a very tight rein on it when she is fighting.
Some time later we are standing in front of a large door, a man in grey barring our way. I'm walking on the floor this time. Avebella complained I am too heavy to carry, which only upset me a little.
Avebella addresses the man in grey with a small bow. "Avebella des Monté Cardatin, here to speak with the field master."
"Please wait here," is the reply and the man steps through the door, closing it again behind himself. About a minute later he reappears. "You may enter, but not the demon. You are to leave him here. Your chaperone may enter."
Avebella looks at me for a moment and starts to speak, but the man in grey interrupts her. "This is not negotiable. And you wouldn't consider going against the master's instructions, would you?"
I can feel the resolve in Avebella harden again. For a moment I wonder which direction it will flow to, but she turns to me. "Wait here, don't do anything except defend yourself should you be attacked."
When she returns from the field master, I get a hint of his scent. I think it is the old man who I met on the first day I went training with Avebella.
The remainder of the day is spent learning about human habits. I shall not approach when they are defecating or otherwise busy with what Avebella calls 'personal business' and much more. It's an odd way of living, with so many rules, but I did say I would obey her instructions, so I do my best to remember all of it. The corner of my mind where I receive the random information from is quite helpful, filling me in on many of the words she uses. It is another thing of humans, to avoid talking straight about some subjects.
The summoning doesn't end yet and I spend a night in Avebella's room, in front of the door. She says it's traditional, so an assassin would have to go through the familiar before finding the master. It makes sense to sacrifice a weak individual to protect the strong and one place is as good as another here, since I don't think I will sleep. Perhaps it is my stronger body, but I do not feel tired and the bruises have long healed. In the night, I review all I have learned. Shortly before morning, the familiar scene of blurring sight, slowly turning white, tells me I will return to my own world.
Back in my own world, at least I think this is my own world since I always return to it, the usual headache assails me. I should go to Harijia or one of the other Keepers. I should go and use the device to get rid of the headache. I should do a lot of things. Instead, I lounge among the branches.
It's a few hours later I hear footsteps approaching. I had expected a slither. With my curiosity piqued I thrust my head through the leaves to see who or what is coming. It's Dellos, heading straight to my hiding tree.
He stops a few meters away and shouts. "Kragol! Come on out, snake fake lady says she wants to talk to you! She came a while ago and asked where you were. I may have mentioned your non-glowy skull."
I could make him come to me, but it feels petty. Even with Harijia I don't dislike her personally, I just dislike what she stands for: all the things done to me and being imprisoned here. I decide to come down, hiding won't work any more.
Dellos does his low whistle again when he sees me. "Well, I guess I can call you glow skull again. Now, come on, it's fine to have some fun, but I don't want to lose my job."
Before I run off, I give him some reassurance. "I know the way."