Redux: Lineage

After having showered, brushed my teeth, dressed, and headed out to the Grey Hound, I found Lot sitting at a table with her nose in a book in the far back of the tavern. I sat down across the table from her, knocking on the wood to get her attention. Her eyes sprung up from the book, clearly not having noticed me sit down, before a wide smile spread onto her face.

"Ah, good morning," she said. "I see Annerose found you quickly."

"You ought to be more careful, Lot," I said. "If I'd wanted to hurt you, I could've had a knife in your jugular before you'd even realised I was here."

"Sorry... I tend to get absorbed into these things," she said, gently shaking the book before marking the page she was on and putting it away in a satchel at her side

"Reminds me of someone," I said, nodding slowly. "Anyway, you're investigating Heimili's cave?"

"Every nook and cranny," she nodded. "I want to her notes and evidence for Luna to go over by the time she gets here, just to save her time when it comes to closing this case."

Annerose wasn't kidding. Lot definitely doted on Luna as much as anyone could. I wonder if Luna felt the same.

"So, are we ready to go?" I asked.

"Pretty much," she nodded. "I brought a few books from the local library on demons and their dealings, just in case."

"Good idea," I said with a smile. "Just in case my dumb ass forgets anything about them. Right, shall we get climbing?"

"Yes... thought you may have to take it slow for me... but also go first," she said, scratching her head awkwardly.

"Why's that?" I asked, slightly confused at the request.

"Well... a skirt is somewhat... breezier than a pair of leggings," she said in a shy manner.

"Of course," I nodded, catching her meaning. "I'll find a path for us both and you can follow after, okay?"

"Right," the snow-white elf said with a nod, standing up and inhaling deeply. "Shall we depart?"

Lot may have been a capable fighter and a skilled mage, but she couldn't climb to save her life. She spent the entire journey up to Falcon's Roost trying to climb with nothing her arms, digging her knees into the rock face, and refused to use footholds, often leading me to need to heave her up alongside me. Eventually we made it up to the enormous plateau, seeing the falcon nests that gave this place its name, and the sheer amount of land down below us. The snow up here was thick and undisturbed, being quite the sight to admire as Lot healed up the cuts and scrapes on her knees and palms.

"Remind Luna to teach you how to climb the next time you see her," I said, turning to the elf. "Because I am not carrying you up here ever again."

"Sorry," she said with an awkward expression.

"Good," I said, looking over the deep snow to try and find Heimili's cave. "Any idea where she'd put it?"

"Probably somewhere she could have easy access to the sky without having to trudge through the snow," Lot answered.

"Over a cliff maybe?"

"I hope not," Lot sighed.

"Same, then I'd have to carry you over to it," I said, mock shivering in fear.

"Very funny," Lot said in a bemused manner. "Shall we get looking?"

"After you," I gestured.

The two of us set about scouring Falcon's Roost, hating the sheer size of the place and the amount of snow covering it, making it more than awkward to move about in. Lot soon set about melting the snow with her fire magic, uncovering a large amount of human bones, rusted armour, and broken weapons. She called me over to them and asked me to see if I could tell what they were. I knelt down in the large pool of bodies and melted water, checking over the skeletons and their possessions.

"Well... its safe to say Heimili definitely didn't discriminate when it came to her hatred," I said, putting a skull down again. "We've got a mix of men and women of different ages and children of both genders. She hated everyone and didn't spare any of us."

"How horrible," Lot commented.

"Yeah... makes me wish I'd cut the bitch up a little more before I killed her," I said, picking up a heavily rusted short sword. "Adults are one thing, women are another... but you just don't kill children. That's beyond depraved."

I looked over the short sword thoroughly, from its exposed tang, to the guard, to the shape of the blade itself before comparing it to other weapons and armour.

"And we've got quite a range of tourists here," I said, pointing to the different armour sets. "Some from the Frigid North, the Arid Planes, and all the way from the Jewelled Deserts it looks like."

"Did she take them from there?" Lot asked.

"Definitely not," I said. "Snatched travellers as they made their way about. Took them to a holiday destination that was definitely to die for."

"That was in rather poor taste," Lot said in a disapproving matter.

"It's a coping mechanism," I answered as I stood up. "You treat it like a joke and you belittle it. Then it becomes less traumatic or rage-inducing when you're laughing. Her den must be close to here."

"What makes you say that?" Lot asked.

"You never want to walk far to get rid of waste," I said, looking around and spotting the black mouth of a cave entrance a few hundred yards away. "There we go."

"Good eye," Lot commented, walking ahead of me.

"Thank you," I said, walking behind her.

We entered the cave, Lot casting a spell that summoned a ball of light to follow us around, illuminating the vast cave we walked into.

"Keep an eye out for lower floors," I said as I eyed up the bare cave entrance.

"There are floors in these things?" she asked.

"Dragons tend to build downwards into the ground," I nodded. "Gives them much more space while keeping a low profile."

"Rather clever," she nodded.

"But extremely dangerous," I nodded. "A castle collapsing from the top still leaves a way out through the bottom. But a cave in in a place where you live underground? You get trapped, suffocate, starve, or die of thirst hundreds of feet beneath the ground where nobody can hear you screaming for them."

"That's... horrible," Lot said in a chilled tone.

"I had a similar experience as a kid," I said. "Went crawling around in a cave system as a kid, went over a mile in, slipped, and got pinned in by two rock faces. I had my arms pinned by my sides, couldn't move my head, and couldn't see a thing after my torch went out."

"How old were you?" Lot asked.

"About eight," I answered. "Was stuck there for three hours, screaming until I lost my voice. Grael could sense where I was, but had no idea how to get to me, because for him, I felt like I was a mile beneath his paws with no way to get to me."

"How did you get out?" she questioned.

"Celestia saved me," I answered. "Grael went running and screaming to her, guided her to the place he was closest to me, the place above me, and begged Celestia to help."

"What did she do?"

"She used her magic to tear through the dirt until she broke into the cave and found me stuck there," I said, jumping down a small decline and continuing into the cave. "I was cut up and terrified, but alive. Grael didn't let me go anywhere for about three months and my mom grounded me to the third floor of the castle for a year and spent every day with me. If I didn't have Grael, I would've died down there after days with no water."

"Damn," Lot commented. "Are... are you fine down here now?"

"I'm fine with caves and even tight spaces, so long as I can move my arms," I answered. "If I can't move my arms, that's when the panic sets in."

"Alright... just let me know if you need to go back to the surface," Lot said. "We can take a break for as long as you need."

"Thanks, Lot," I said with a smile. "But getting back on topic, I'm willing to bet Heimili had a dedicated room she used for summoning her demon friend."

"How come?"

"Methods of sealing," I answered. "It's possible to bind a demon to a specific area or object when you summon them using a lot of different enchantments. It's often seen as the best bet to just keep a single room that nobody ever uses to keep the risk of possession low and to cover that room in symbols, glyphs, and enchantments that'll keep the demon sealed when summoned. Though a lot of people don't know that and end up paying dearly for it."

"How common is it?" Lot asked.

"Insanely," I said, looking back at the Snow Elf. "Thousands upon thousands of recorded cases of idiots renting demonology books from their local libraries and summoning them without knowing how to protect themselves or how the deals tend to work, and then proceed to get their souls snatched in seconds. Though do you wanna know what the most common type of demons summoned are?"

"What?"

"Sex Demons," I answered. "Succubi and Incubi are the most common demons summoned during rituals. People out there are so desperate for sex, they'll trade their souls for it. Though the sex demons do tend to do their job the most efficiently out of all of them."

"How so?"

"Other demons, like Power Demons or Wealth demons, tend to be really shrewd in their deals," I explained. "Offering little smatterings of power or wealth for a little smattering of the person's soul, trying to constantly coax the deal maker into slowly giving away more and more of their essence as their greed gets the better of them. A Sex Demon usually just puts the deal out there and gets the job done, snatches your soul, and leaves."

"Polite... I guess?" Lot asked with a shrugging gesture.

"Mhm," I nodded. "Though the Sex Demons are often the friendliest ones... genuinely friendly, that is."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, they kind of have to be to convince people to give their soul for sex," I went on. "Unlike other demons who pretend to be friendly, Sex Demons seem to form friendships with the people that summon them rather fast. But that friendliness tends to get them screwed over quite a lot due to them being rock stupid. People often tend to have sex with them, confuse or distract them afterwards with games or conversation, talk for hours and hours afterwards, and then ask them to leave willingly, which they do because they forgot what they went there for, with the summoner merely going about their day."

"I... wow," Lot said in an amazed manner.

"Yeah, it's quite hilarious when you think about it," I said, helping Lot over a pile of skeletons as we headed through another empty cave section. "Though it does get harder to pull the more powerful the Sex Demon is. Mostly because they get more mature as they absorb more souls... in both ways."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"A 'newborn' Sex Demon tends to look a lot like an eight-to-ten year old boy or girl," I explained. "Very young, very stupid, and very weak. They often tend to get summoned by disgusting people that lust after children and are so desperate for one, they'll sell their soul. The more souls they collect, the more they grow. So if you run into a Succubus that looks like a ten year old girl, you know that it's weak and dumb, thus easy to trick... but if you run into a Succubus with thick lips, a bra that's overflowing, birthing hips, and a very confident attitude, do not try to play her, as she will end your existence."

"I thought their only powers were sex-related?" Lot asked.

"Sadly no. They're still very powerful magic users that can throw about some strong spells," I explained. "But the older Sex Demons usually tend to rape you to death."

"A... kind of pleasurable way to go, at least," Lot shrugged.

"If only," I scoffed. "From the testimony of a dying man that was found after having been raped by a Succubus, he described her vagina as 'A tunnel of magma coated with burning oil and filled to the brim with spikes, shredded metal, and teeth."

"That's horrible," Lot said.

"It seems that a Succubus, and probably and Incubus, can alter their victim's experience to turn their pleasurable sensations into pure agony at will," I continued. "And that level of pain often leads to..."

I trailed off as we entered a section of the cave that made it more than obvious Heimili was summoning demons in it. Instead of the common chalk pentagram on the floor, this was was made of cast iron; permanent and indestructible as they came. There were altars positioned all around the star points on the pentagram with glowing white crystals, and a large crystalline wall all around it, completely transparent and clear as day.

"She took every precaution you could," I said, eyeing the defences.

"What is all this stuff?" Lot asked.

"The pentagram is the summoning circle, as it were," I began. "And if the circle is broken, then the demon is allowed to go free and claim the soul of the deal maker. Since most people use chalk or salt to create a pentagram, they don't realise that the demon can easily blow the salt away and break the circle, thus letting them out. This pentagram is made of iron, something demons can't touch without being burned by it, the crystals are probably enchanted with holy magic, something they can't get past, and the crystal wall is probably holy as well, tripling the defence overall."

"So... what's the best course of action?" Lot asked.

"Avoid touching the thing as best we can and proceed to wait for Luna," I answered, looking over my shoulder at the taller elf. "I know the best way to deactivate these things if things, but I know it's a terrible idea to get close to them without wards out the ass. I doubt either of us know them or have the proper ability to cast them, so it's best to just wait for the professional... professional to show up. In the mean time, let's take a look around the rest of the cave and see what we can find."

"Righto," Lot nodded, turning on her heel and heading back out of the summoning room.

The exploration didn't yield much. Unlike Svea's humble and well-equipped abode, Heimili's was more of a practical build. It didn't have any of the furnishings or objects to make it look like a lived-in home, and instead gave off the appearance of basic shelter. There were no other rooms of note beyond a room lined with hay, probably her bedroom, and the treasure room. I walked into the area, seeing enormous stacks of golds, jewels, and paintings practically touching the twenty-foot ceiling. There had to be enough treasure in here to finance a small kingdom for a few years, at least.

"Careful not to start a landslide," I said to Lot as we walked in, admiring the piles upon piles of gold. "I'm not in the mood to be drowned in gold. It's not a fun way to go."

"I can imagine," Lot said, picking up a handful of gold from a smaller pile and letting it run from her hand, the metal clinking loudly in that joyous sound of wealth.

We looked around the treasury for a while longer, noting different items of very different ages until I came across an item on its own, resting in a mount away from the others. It was a longsword and a very old one at that, weathered and damaged in quite a lot of places. I wandered over to it and took a better look. The colour of the blade had once been an emerald green with the hilt being a darker shade. The guard had been away at by time, the blade itself was chipped and heavily rusted. There was a faint carving on the blade, just below the guard, that I could barely make out: the head of a cat.

It was scarred and scuffed, but it was just about visible if I focused really hard on it. I took hold of the hilt of the blade, lifting it out of its rack, and feeling the familiar weight of a sword in my hand. I stared at the green blade, it long-since having lost its beautiful sheen that had once reflected off the walls of House...

Wait. What?

I shook my head, clearing away a memory of a place that wasn't mine as I realised that I'd been drifting through my thoughts... someone's thoughts. I had a memory of a taste; wine on my lips that I'd never drank before. A castle on a large hill that I'd never seen, yet had slept in their guest's quarters several times over. I looked down at the sword, having pristine memories of it in its glory days, the bright emerald blade that lit up whenever in the hands of its true wielder. How she'd imbued the sword with the power to sap the energy from every opponent she faced and channel their power into her body...

Her? Who was her? Who was she?

Strangely enough, I knew the name of the sword as well. I'd been there to see it be crafted and blessed by High Queen Vega... no. No I hadn't. I'd never seen this before in my life. And High Queen Vega? Who the hell was that?

"Voleur de Vie," I spoke aloud, reciting the sword's name with confidence.

"Pardon?" Lot asked, looking away from a chest of golden goblets she was admiring and looking at me.

"That's the name of the sword," I said, looking at her. "It's called Voleur de Vie."

"How... how do you know that?" she asked.

"I have no idea," I said, looking her dead in the eyes with a worried expression on my face.

Lot looked between the sword and I for a brief moment before her eyes settled on me.

"Bring it with us," she said in a firm tone. "Luna might be able to answer some questions as to what it is."

"Right," I nodded, looking around the room for a brief moment. "Is there anything we can use to carry it? I don't want to hold it on the climb back down and I think its a little too busted to be slung over my back."