by Joe Jackson
“Good morning,” she said to the priests of Kaelariel. “Glad to see you’re feeling better.”
The priests ignored her for nearly half a minute while they finished their prayers and incantations. Deirdre looked up first, and she took a deep breath and blew it out, then smiled at Kari. “Thank you, I’m feeling much better,” she said. She looked over her shoulder and then around the center of the graveyard, and she gestured about. “As you can see, someone was busy in the early hours of morning. I can’t say I’m sorry for that; consecrating the grounds will take long enough without having to re-inter the bodies or replace the doors of the crypts.”
“Any idea who put the place back together?” Kari asked.
“Only that a great deal of arcane power was involved,” Piotyr answered. “Though I’m sure you came to that conclusion yourself. I can tell you for certain that it was not any of our fellow priests on Temple Street. It could have been our wizard benefactor, Dominick, or it may have been one of the other resident wizards, but I think not.” He met Kari’s gaze evenly. “I’ve the feeling that if Emma was able to raise this graveyard all at once, she was surely powerful enough to put it back together as well. The question that remains is: why?”
Kari rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “I was afraid that might be the case,” she said. “I don’t know why Emma would fix this, assuming she did. Maybe it was just to keep you and your sister from going after her, and keep us all concentrated on Turillia. Can you sense any of their necromancy still? Are either of them the necromancer you told me about the other night when you first showed me the cemetery?”
“It’s the succubus,” Deirdre said with a huff. “The stench of her magic is sickening and unmistakable; she is clearly the one who despoiled the graveyard earlier this week. This display was not as bad, but it has the same reek about it.”
“So Emma’s must be overpowering, then,” Kari ventured.
“On the contrary, hers carries no stench at all,” the priestess returned. “I suspect it is because she is not a necromancer per se; she is an archmage of the highest caliber, but her power is not rooted in death. She seems to be able to draw power from around her and instill it in objects to animate them – such as corpses – but she simply animated the corpses, she did not enslave them or endow them with malignant will.”
Kari raised a brow, intrigued not only by Deirdre’s words but by the knowledge behind them. “You seem to know your arcane magic,” the demonhunter said.
“We deal with necromancers fairly often, and we have been trained in what to look for,” Piotyr explained. “Kaelariel’s dominion over the dead gives us a very broad sense of death and necromancy, and those who abuse this power stink to our enhanced senses.”
“So will they be able to raise these corpses again? Or will your consecrations hold?” Kari prodded. She didn’t want to insult the priests, but she needed to know for sure whether undead would factor into things when she set the final snare for Turillia. She also assumed that based on their apparent relative youth, it was unlikely the half-elites had been involved in the initial consecrations of much of the graveyard.
“These bodies are tapped,” Deirdre said with a shake of her head. “We are consecrating the area in respect to the dead and our lord, but these bodies cannot be raised again. The power that went through them – of both the necromantic type and the lightning spells you say Emma unleashed – has rendered them useless to further necromancy. I wonder if that was Emma’s intention.”
“Gods, I wish I knew,” Kari said. “Is there anything I can help you with here?”
Piotyr waved off her inquiry. “Nay; go and concentrate on your hunt for Turillia. We will handle this, and we have no small number of guards watching over us. We are as safe as can be reasonably expected, and while considerable, this work is well within our capabilities.”
“Then I’ll see you at dinner tonight,” Kari said, and both of the half-elite priests nodded. She waved farewell, and headed toward the gate. She considered where to go next, and after some thought, she decided it was rather unfair of her to have assigned her paladin friends and the ranger to doing research while she played supervisor. Kari set her feet back toward Temple Street, leaving the cemetery in the capable hands of Kaelariel’s priests and Marshal Saracht’s guards.
*****
The research was, as Kari expected, dry and tedious. While she did enjoy reading books, she wasn’t a fast reader, particularly when tomes were written in the common human tongue. If they were written in the rir language, she could read a book at the same rate as anyone else, or at least as quickly as Grakin seemed to. When written in the common tongue, though, it usually took her weeks to read a book. And, just as when she’d attended the Academy, all of the Order’s tomes were in the common tongue. It made for a dull and somewhat frustrating experience.
On the positive side, she was able to brush up on her knowledge of underworld demons, particularly the mallasti. Kari recalled the last time she’d faced a mallasti: it had been in her previous life, on a stop through the Terrassian city of Awlsabre. That particular hyena demon turned out to be a rogue, which was unusual for their kind; most of them were spell-casters of some sort. Hiding amongst a desert tribe of gnolls, it had made a habit of sneaking into the massive port city of Awlsabre from time to time to augment its thievery with murder. And on those occasions where it was spotted or harried out of the city by the watch, the guards usually thought they were simply dealing with a very crafty gnoll.
Kari knew better. There was always some detail that gave away a mallasti that was trying to pose as a gnoll: their intelligence, the shape of their legs, their accents when they spoke, or even just the habit of bathing. She chuckled at that thought, remembering Tor. He’d had the strong scent of a gnoll, but it was far from unpleasant; he apparently bathed fairly often. As she thought about it, she realized he was more like a mallasti than a gnoll in all four of the ways she’d just considered. Were it not for the fact that he’d worked directly for the Order and was well-known to the priesthood of Zalkar, she might’ve suspected him of being a mallasti.
She was just as glad that he wasn’t. The one she’d fought in Awlsabre had wielded some minor magic in addition to its prowess in stealth and dagger-play. She was fortunate enough to have tracked it based on its feeding habits. It had quite the appetite for raw meat, and using that knowledge, Kari was able to draw it into a trap. Though the mallasti were primarily carnivorous and, of course, demons, they didn’t eat sentient creatures unless there was no alternative. Kari was able to lure the creature into a trap in the market district, and decapitating it had proven to be a fairly easy endeavor, all things considered.
The books spelled out the basics of each type of underworld demon, but the Order’s knowledge of them was far from complete. Other than Turik Jalar, not many demonhunters had spent much time in the underworld and come back, so what little the Order knew was based on the experiences of hunters on Citaria. Accordingly, that didn’t amount to terribly much: demonhunters like Kari had a tendency to kill first and ask questions later, and there was only so much one could learn from a corpse. It made Kari wonder what things Emma could – or rather, would – tell her, and what a trip through the demons’ own homeland would be like.
Katarina seemed deeply engrossed in one of the tomes, and Kari was glad to see the young woman taking such an interest in underworld demons. If she’d found anything of use, she hadn’t said anything to Kari yet, but the demonhunter appreciated her assistance either way. Kari wondered how much longer Katarina would serve under Lord Garant, and whether she would move north to DarkWind to help the Silver Blades or the Order with their work. Sensing Kari’s eyes on her, Katarina looked up and smiled briefly before returning to her research.
Kari did likewise, and she read through the chapter on mallasti once again, looking for anything that might suggest how a mallasti would fit into Turillia’s plans. While the most obvious option was that Turillia wanted to drain Emma’s power
for herself, that would require keeping Emma alive so that she could feed off of her again and again. Unless Turillia’s intent was simply to murder Emma and perhaps take her power for a little while, Kari assumed that draining Emma had to be the cap on her entire plan, to whatever end. And somewhere in the books, Kari hoped that some hunter or priest had left a clue as to how or why.
The pages detailed many things about the mallasti, but there was nearly as much conjecture as fact. Fortunately, the book pointed out one from the other for the reader, so Kari knew what to believe and what to theorize about. She found that most of what she was reading was things she already knew: mallasti came in both genders, shared many characteristics with gnolls and hyenas, and had a strong affinity for arcane magic. The book also reminded her – and she was surprised she hadn’t thought of it during the graveyard encounter – that mallasti were particularly fond of lightning and electrical shock spells. It explained how to differentiate them from gnolls – again, the same points she had considered about Tor – and how to track them by their eating habits, favored modes of shelter, and even by their droppings.
Kari’s brow furrowed as she considered trying to track Emma by any of those three methods here in the city. Her presence did beg the questions of how she was getting food and where she was taking care of her other needs. Something about the mallasti girl left Kari to think she was very careful about both, and not just because she needed to be. On the other hand, Kari already knew of one place where Emma resided, and she wondered if the mallasti could always be found there – or at least when she slept. If Eli came back and had no news of Emma, Kari thought she could go investigate the old city hall and see if she could find other traces.
“Lady Vanador!” Master Vlad called as he entered the Unyielding’s church. Sherman and Sharyn followed behind him, and Vlad paused to bow respectfully toward the altar of his deity’s ally before he approached Kari and Katarina. “I meditated on the issue of Turillia and any resemblance to Sheila Darkstorm’s ascension last evening, and I believe that between what I learned, and what your two companions have uncovered, we may have an answer to the puzzle.”
Kari closed her book and set it down, and she rose to her feet. She bowed respectfully to the priest and asked, “What was Lord Ambergaust able to tell you?”
“Though their methodology is different, Sheila did indeed rise to power in a somewhat similar manner,” the human explained after taking a seat across from Kari. “According to my lord, Sheila was once nothing more than a harlot to one of the old demon kings – one who’s dead now, and understandably so. She stole power from his minions, his kin, and even from this king himself – and apparently, the blood of the king sealed all of the power within her. If Turillia were to drain power from Emma, it may seal the power she’s stolen from the shadow demon inside of her.”
Kari’s eyes widened. “You mean Emma is a demon king?!”
“Oh gods, no,” Vlad said with a wave of his hand. He gestured toward Sherman.
“We found some information in one of Master Vlad’s books regarding mallasti,” the young man said. “It said that mallasti don’t just have an affinity for arcane power, it’s in their very blood. They’re natural-born sorcerers.”
Kari puzzled it out after a few moments. “So if she drinks Emma’s blood, arcane power will run through her veins, and the power she’s stolen would be sealed in it as well?”
Vlad nodded. “This succubus…I don’t wish to sound as though I admire her, because I don’t, but she is fairly brilliant.”
“Not really,” Kari said. “She made the mistake of coming to my world to do this.”
The others laughed. “Quite right,” Sherman said.
“So what do we do next?” Sharyn asked.
“Keep researching. Sharyn, if you’d rather explore the city a bit with Sherman, you can see if you can find any trace of where Turillia might be staying. Lord Garant said Zalkar’s priests set a ward around Lord Black’s tower, so she can’t hide there. She also probably won’t be anywhere near the old city hall, since that’s where Emma is apparently spending time. Eli is looking into that, as you know, so stay clear of there. If you want to look around, I’d suggest starting with the southwest district somewhere,” Kari said.
“And you?” the ranger prodded.
“I’m going to see if I can find Eli, or go speak to Dominick if not,” Kari answered. She approached Master Vlad and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Thank you so much for your help. I owe you and your deity a great debt.”
“We stand as your allies, and indeed as your friends,” Master Vlad countered. “And we ask nothing in return but the same.”
Kari patted the human’s shoulder with a smile, bid her friends farewell, and left the church. It was starting to get warm on the latter side of noon, and the streets were alive with the common folk looking forward to summer. The bazaar was chaotic as always when Kari passed through it, and she kept her guard up on the off chance Turillia would turn to random killings. Zalkar’s symbol didn’t emerge while she took advantage of the people clearing a path for her, and when she reached the northeast district, she hoped Sharyn and Sherman had decided in favor of scouring the southwest. She had a pretty good idea of where to find Emma, and a working theory of what was to transpire between Emma and Turillia; now, all she needed was to find Turillia, or bait her to come out into the open.
From the first intersection along the road into the northeast, Kari was able to get a glimpse of the old city hall’s bell tower. It wasn’t a very large structure: two stories, with a bell tower that rose above the nearby residences and businesses. Kari had to wonder why it was left unused and unattended. She guessed it may have just been a show of power by Kaelin Black: by leaving the old city hall to fall to rot, the townsfolk would be constantly reminded of just who was truly in charge. Somehow it didn’t fit with what she knew of Kaelin Black; it seemed too blunt for him. He was far from philanthropic or openly benevolent, but he seemed to keep his anger and his power-mongering fairly subtle. In the end, she supposed it wasn’t important, and her mind turned to Eli and whether he’d met with any success in his search.
Kari decided going near the old city hall might put Eli and their plan at risk, so she turned east toward Dominick’s house. The old wizard had seemed sure his wards would hold against Turillia, but the shadow demon and Emma were another matter altogether. Kari was fairly sure Emma wouldn’t bother the old man, but if the shadow demon had escaped Black’s tower before or after the priests of Zalkar put up their wards, it might be looking for some vengeance or release. She hurried her footsteps and turned up the road to Dominick’s house.
The old wizard was standing on his front porch, speaking with Eli, when Kari approached. From the look of the wizard’s cozy home, there hadn’t been any trouble overnight. Dominick appeared to be in good spirits as he talked with the half-corlyps. Kari was glad to see the old wizard was all right, and she waved casually and approached. The two men returned the gesture, and brought their discussion to a halt when the demonhunter arrived.
Kari gave Eli a hug when she reached him, and though he was surprised, he returned it without hesitation. She wanted to ask him what he’d found, but she turned to Dominick first. “I’m glad to see you’re all right,” she said.
“The night was quiet, though I must confess I did not sleep very well,” the old man said with a chuckle. “I appreciate you checking in on me. Did you learn anything new? Eli told me there was a battle at the cemetery, and told me of his own encounter with a shadow demon.”
Kari took a few minutes to fill Dominick in on the details of the prior night’s fights. She told both men about how the graveyard had been mysteriously put back together in the early hours of morning. She filled them in on the research, Master Vlad’s discovery, and what she believed was the true purpose behind Turillia’s actions. It was clear from Eli’s reaction and the appreciative nod of Dominick that both felt the situation was fast coming to a head. Kari still wasn’t ent
irely sure of all of this mission’s implications, but she took comfort in knowing that as chaotically as it had begun, things were finally falling into place.
“Were you able to talk to Emma?” she asked Eli when she finished.
The half-corlyps didn’t answer immediately. He looked over his shoulder in the direction of the old city hall, and Kari wondered what had happened. “Yea, I was able to talk to her,” he said, turning back to face Kari. He held out the celestial token to her, and Kari stared at the disc before she took it from him. “That won’t buy her favor. Keep it; it may still be useful when you go back home.”
“What did she say?” Kari prodded. “Did she tell you why she’s here?”
Eli sighed. “She wouldn’t tell me about what her orders are,” he said. “We’re not friends, and she reminded me of that fact rather plainly.”
Kari wasn’t sure why that surprised him. “So she didn’t tell you anything useful?”
“I didn’t say that,” he returned. “She won’t tell me what her orders are, but she was willing to confirm that she came here to see what Turillia is about. She knows that Turillia is drawing power from a shadow demon, and she knows that her own blood is the ‘seal’ for Turillia to keep that power forever. So what Master Vlad and the kids discovered is more or less right.”
“So why didn’t Emma just kill Turillia in the graveyard?”
“Remember when I told you Emma was an observer?” Eli asked, and Kari nodded. “It’s still essentially true. I know she’s up to something, but like I said, she’s just a slave. She follows her master’s orders without question, but she does it through manipulation instead of direct conflict. I know that sounds strange, considering how powerful she is, but she doesn’t want to attract any more attention than she already has when it comes to your Order, or the demon kings she works to thwart.”
