A cool wind blew down Auroch Mountain and through the trees, scattering autumn leaves as it traveled across the land. The sky was red and purple with wisps of cloud scudding across it in slow motion like smoke from a fire.

It was beautiful, but Chloe felt no joy or happiness at its beauty. She didn't feel anything other than pain and humiliation.

“Do you know why you were so easily defeated?” Owen asked as he stood over Chloe.

He had won again. Time and time again she'd tried to beat him, yet every match ended with her lying on the ground defeated and in pain whilst he stood over her with that smug grin on his face.

“I guess you're going to tell me that I'm weak?” Chloe said through gritted teeth. “That I lack skill? That my focus is divided?”

Owen chuckled. “No, no, and no.” He walked around her slowly, examining her carefully.

Every now and then he would reach out and touch a part of her body, probing gently for a moment before moving to another spot.

“You are powerful,” he said. “There's nothing wrong with your strength, I can see that. But you're not using it properly.”

Chloe glared up at him. “You're a bloody ghost, what do you know?”

Owen's eyes lit up as he smiled, “More than you think.”

He crouched down next to her, close enough to touch if he wanted to. “Your body is capable of so much more than you realize. Your mind, however…well, let's just say yours isn't quite where it needs to be.”

Chloe looked away from his gaze, feeling ashamed and embarrassed. She'd challenged him three times in a row, and each defeat had been swifter than the last.

“Up to now you have faced untrained men, wild monsters and weak demons,” Owen continued. “You have managed to survive by brute strength, dumb luck and cunning. But a trained soldier would defeat you every time.”

Chloe opened her mouth to speak, but Owen waved her silent with a finger.

“Most importantly, though, you must learn to control your emotions. You cannot fight effectively while angry, frustrated and scared.”

Chloe bit her lip to keep from speaking, she knew he was right, but she didn't feel like a lecture.

“Your anger and frustration stem from your fear that you will never win,” he continued. “Your hatred comes from a desire to defeat me. If you could learn to channel these emotions into something better, you could become unstoppable.”

“So what am I supposed to do?” she said hotly. “I don't have the time to train in the mountains whilst Malice does who knows what to my sister.”

Owen smiled sadly. “Even if you had a year, it wouldn't be enough, Malice is a god compared to humans. I cannot train you to defeat him, but I can show you a few things that might keep you alive.”

Chloe stared at the dirt beneath her feet and shifted awkwardly from one foot to another, “Help me,” she whispered. “Please.”

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Chloe took another puff of her pipe and grimaced. Each puff she took tasted worse. This time it tasted like dirt, pine cones and grass, but with a strange metallic aftertaste that she couldn't get out of her mouth.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

Owen raised a silver gloved hand for silence and continued leading Chloe down a narrow rocky path. An hour later, they reached the edge of a deep hole.

“There,” he said, pointing down the massive hole, “Is the bottom of the mountain. It was once an old mine.”

“So?”

“So, it's time for you to learn your first lesson.”

“Rock climbing? I don't think I’ll have much use for that.”

Owen laughed, “Your ability, Oath of Pain, is powerful, but the agony it deals causes the mind to go into a state of panic. You must control the power, not let it control you.”

"You expect me to ignore the pain?”

“No, but you can guide it. Focus the power and the pain in one part of your body. That will amplify the power in that one spot.”

It made sense, she guessed. It was kinda like a focused explosion beneath a rocket to launch it off the ground. The only difference was that the rocket wasn't howling in pain as it tried to launch.

She peered down into the deep pit, “What do you want me to do-”

Before she could finish her sentence, Owen shoved her over the edge.

For a second she was weightless, suspended in the air and very pissed off, and then she fell, plummeting towards the rocks below.

She cursed Owen as she fell and as she saw the bottom rushing up to greet her, she closed her eyes and braced herself.

Then the pain hit.

It was like someone had stabbed her in the leg with an ice pick and then twisted it about, all whilst punching her in the stomach.

She slammed into the rocks hard enough to knock the breath from her lungs, sending shards of rock spinning everywhere.

As she curled up in a tight ball, trying desperately to ignore the pain, her vision began to blur.

Then she heard Owen's voice.

“Breathe slowly. The air is full of silver dust.”

“You bloody asshole, you could have killed me!” she yelled.

She opened her eyes and looked around, seeing silver stones speckled in the gray walls all around her.

“What is this place?” she shouted.

“An old silver mine, don't touch the rocks, they will burn your skin.”

She tried to stand, but couldn't find the strength. She slumped back down and stared up at Owen high above.

I bet you enjoyed that, you sick bastard.

A drop of water struck her face and she blinked. The sky was filled with dark stormy clouds. As she watched, the rain began to fall. Lightning flashed in the distance, far off.

“You best get moving,” shouted Owen. “It's almost dinner time.” He turned and walked away, leaving Chloe in the dark at the bottom of the mine shaft.

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The rain continued to fall as Chloe struggled to climb the cliff face out of the mine. Her fingers slipped on the wet rocks, and the silver burnt her hands.

There was no way she could climb out of this place. What made things worse was that with every breath she took she breathed in silver dust which filled her body with searing pain.

Shit, I hate you, Owen.

Chloe crawled along the cliff side, dragging herself forward. Her arms turning black where the silver touched them.

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She crawled through a tunnel, dripping wet and shivering from the cold. But the tunnel came to an abrupt dead end.

Chloe took another tunnel but then paused, glancing up at the ceiling, it grew narrower the further in she went.

If I'm going to get out of this place, I need to do what that bastard told me to do.

“Focus the power,” she repeated to herself as she shuffled backwards out of the tunnel.

She returned to the cliffside and looked up at the stars twinkling through the dark clouds up above.

Here it goes. This better work.

[Oath Of Pain: Activated]

Flames engulfed her and the pain in her body intensified, it felt like thousands of tiny hot blades cutting into her.

She gritted her teeth and tried to focus through the pain. She could feel the power building inside her, there was so much energy it was overflowing out of her pores.

Lightning flashed and thunder crashed overhead.

Chloe closed her eyes, feeling the power inside her swelling as the storm raged outside. She let it flow through her fingertips and up her arms. It was a river, hard to control, but with sheer will it could be steered.

Damn, that bastard, he was right.

She opened her eyes and stared up at the heavens, letting the power surge from her body in short bursts. She needed to focus, but the pain was so overwhelming that her mind couldn't hold onto a single thought for long enough.

She lowered her head until she could see the reflection of the stars on the polished stone beneath her.

With a sharp intake of breath, she forced the power down through her body. Pain flared as energy surged through her core and down into her thighs, then legs and finally into her feet.

There! That should do it.

The pain was focused only in her legs now. It was more intense than before, but at least the rest of her body was at ease.

She crouched low, like an animal ready to pounce. She reached down and pressed the palms of her hands on the floor. She concentrated, forming the image of what she wanted inside her mind.

With a determined shout, she pushed the power outwards, willing it to be absorbed into the earth.

The ground exploded beneath her feet as she released the power in one single leap. Her muscles burned as she strained against gravity and soared up to the stars.

Her body was taut, straining for every inch of height. The muscles in her body bulged as she powered upwards, stretching her limbs until they nearly snapped.

She saw the top of the hole come into view, but her angle was too steep, she’d never make it to the top.

She slammed into the side of the wall and dug her nails into the rock. She hung there, suspended by three of her nails. She looked down and saw just how far she’d come.

Climb, dammit! Let's rub the grin off of Owen’s smug face.

She forced herself up inch by inch. Her fingers sizzled as they gripped the rock, but she kept going, willing herself on.

Finally, her hand stretched out and grasped thin air. She looked up and saw that she had reached the top.

"Thank god, I'm alive," she said, as she collapsed onto the ground in a heap. She rolled onto her back, laughing like a lunatic as lightning flashed overhead.

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An hour later, Chloe returned to the hut, feeling like she could take on the world. She was greeted with a proud nod from Owen and a bowl of stewed brains from Belgemine.

She sat in silence, her back against the wall as Belgemine, Owen and their five ghostly sons sat by the fireplace swapping stories about the good old days.

Chloe overheard snippets of the conversation. Apart from the fact that six of them were ghosts and the other was a witch, they sounded like a normal family. They spoke about hunting trips, odd relatives and family trips.

The talk sickened her. She didn't want to hear about other people's families. She wanted her own damn family.

“You did well today,” Belgemine said, coming over to Chloe, she handed her a blanket. “Get some sleep. Tomorrow I will be instructing you.”

Chloe nodded numbly, she didn't want to imagine what the witches training would entail.

“Goodnight,” she said as she wandered out the room to the makeshift cot the witch had built for her.

As she lay on the bed, trying desperately not to think too much about her sister, she heard Belgemine talking to Owen.

“We will cross that bridge when we get there,” said the witch. “If she loses control, then we have no choice…”

Chloe closed her eyes and drifted into a fitful sleep.

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“To reliably summon your armament, you must be as one with your familiar,” Belgemine said as they stood outside under the early morning sky. “You must know where your familiar is at all times. See what it sees, feel what it feels.”

“Yes, mistress,” Chloe stammered.

Belgemine's eyes widened at that reply. “Good. I want you to sit in the middle of the cornfield and bring the familiar to you. It needs to learn to trust you again.”

Chloe gazed out at the corn field, watching it sway lazily in the morning sun. She nodded, not wanting to argue with the witch, as she slowly made her way into the field.

She found a quiet spot beside a massive boulder and sat down, legs crossed, the way she'd seen it done in old martial arts movies.

Belgemine’s words from the night before came back to her. She wasn't a fool. She knew that if she messed up, the witch would kill her.

Chloe lit her pipe and inhaled deeply. There was so much she didn't understand, and each question she had answered gave her more questions. She was sick of the mysteries, of the half-truths and the veiled threats.

She breathed out a cloud of smoke and took another deep breath. As her lungs filled with smoke, she felt something shift inside of her. A strange sensation filled her body, as if her organs were rearranging themselves.

“Close your eyes and see through your familiar's eyes,” the witches words droned on.

Chloe sighed and closed them.

At first, there was nothing, just the tingling sensation in the back of her mind and the foul taste in her mouth.

“Are you linked to your familiar? Can you feel its emotions and thoughts.”

Chloe gritted her teeth, “Give me some damned time,” she moaned.

“What was that?” asked the witch.

Chloe shook her head, “I don't see anything,” she yelled back.

“Think of your familiar as a second part of yourself. If you are uncertain, then it will be uncertain.”

Great, thanks.

Chloe closed her eyes and once again she tried to reach out to her familiar.

Something strange happened. It started with an odd sensation swirling inside her chest. An emotion that didn't belong to her went off inside her stomach like a tiny spark, like a firefly dancing around in the night.

“What do you feel?” asked the witch.

“Fear,” said Chloe. “My familiar is afraid.”

“It would be. Its previous owner died brutally, and now you have changed and become something unfamiliar and dangerous. It is anxious.”

“What must I do?”

“Calm it, give it a reason to trust you again. This might take some time.”

The witch began to leave, and then she turned back and said, “Return to the hut when you have gained your familiars trust.”

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Hours passed. Chloe kept trying to calm her spirit. Every so often, she would open her eyes and check if Onyx had come closer. He never did.

“I can’t do this,” she whispered to herself. “This is stupid.”

She closed her eyes and again reached out to her familiar. All she felt were flickers of anxiety bubbling inside of her.

At times, she caught faint glimpses of gnarled roots and tree trunks. She knew Onyx was near, but could not tell where he was.

In the distance, Chloe could make out the sound of an animal stamping its hooves. It sounded scared. Moments later, there was a loud squealing sound followed by a thud.

The stamping and the squealing stopped, and the scent of fresh blood permeated the air all about her.

The smell filled her head with images of her tearing open the throats of her victims. She imagined biting into their flesh. She pictured the taste of warm blood running down her throat and soft brains squishing between her teeth.

Her stomach growled loudly.

Her hand shot out and grabbed the nearest rock. She dug her fingers deep into the ground, willing the earth to tear apart. The demon’s bane suppressed her hunger, but it definitely did not take it away completely.

Panic shot through her connection with Onyx.

Chloe opened her eyes and looked at the rock she held in her hand. The stone had cracked into four pieces.

She dropped it, letting it clatter to the dirt before her.

“Onyx,” she cried out. “I need you. I can't do this without you!”

Still nothing.

“Please,” she begged. “Please help me.”

Nothing.

Chloe's heart was beating too fast. She could hear Belgemine calling her name from behind the hut door. Her bloodlust pounded in her ears.

I'm sorry, little one. I don't want to be like this anymore.

Her hands drew out the pipe and the bag of dried leaves. Her hands trembled as she filled the pipe and lit it.

The smell dulled her sense as she pressed the pipe to her lips.

This is not the way. This is replacing one master with another. I don't want to be a slave to my hunger or to this plant. I want to be the master of my own life.

She dropped the pipe and squeezed her eyes shut. She tried to distract her mind by forcing herself to think of life back home.

It took a while for the memories to come. She remembered the cat that used to live in the alley near them. Its name was Lulu, it was a cute fluffy creature that would sneak through her window at night and sit on her bed. Lulu was afraid of her, but after a year it had learned to trust her.

Chloe sniffed. Home was gone now. She’d never see that cat again. Tears dripped on her arms and she felt something warm against her skin.

She opened her eyes and saw Onyx, her rabbit familiar, curled up in her lap.

He looked up at her with wide eyes, and she stared down into his massive orb like eyes. Tiny lights swirled in them like miniature galaxies shifting across space. She reached out a hand and rubbed the rabbit between his long ears.

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