It's coming. Ada bolted, running through the castle from the thing following her. She turned the corner to hide in her chambers and instead found herself in the kitchen. A flash of power, she warped the stone of the castle and cracked the framework of the entry. Rubble came down, blocking that entrance while she ran for another.

That path, too, was blocked by rubble. She turned and saw that the entry she came through was clear again. Green mist flowed forward, within it the lumbering rotted corpses wearing the faces of the dead. Those who tried to protect her, Fiora, even her sister and mother walked out of the death-fog, flesh dripping off them with every step.

She screamed, clawed at the rubble in the desperate hope she could find a way out. Then she spotted Soret. "Help!" She ran for her brother.

He smiled at her. "There's nothing to fear, watch."

She could do nothing but watch as Soret walked toward his dead family, allowed them to embrace him, smiled as they peeled his skin away with their clawed finger bones. She screamed more, looking around for any help she could find.

She spotted her father and Arakash in demonic form facing one another. His stern countenance against his snarling visage. Neither seemed to notice she was there, nor did the advancing wall of the dead pay them any heed as it moved toward her, screaming in horror and pain.

No... no, it wasn't screaming. Where was the screaming coming from?

Her eyes opened to an empty room. Empty. "Arakash?!" She jumped to her feet, seeking out the demon, and the source of the screams. She found one answer soon- outside her window, the glow of flames and smoke. She pushed side the thin cloth of the window meant for little more than keeping out the bugs and was treated to a scene out of the paintings of ransacked cities from novels.

She could feel that Arakash was out there somewhere, thanks to the magic chaining them. She was certain he was responsible for this disaster, thanks to the constant warnings from her brother and coaching from her father.

Pulling on her new leather armor, she took a breath and allowed its energy to merge with her own, creating the numerous subtle changes to her magical aura that bolstered her speed, vision, and resistance to harm. It was a series of enchantments made for a hunter rather than a warrior, but she wasn't well-suited to be a warrior in the first place.

She ran from the building, layering herself in her own space-warping magic to accelerate her perception of time and bend distance to her favor. Part of her acknowledged that right now she was running around in a dangerous city at night, but it seemed nobody was interested in stopping her from running toward the inferno.

A turn here, a twist there, she found herself having to double back once because of a dead end where someone built a shack in the alley between two buildings. Half the roads were impassable because a building had collapsed into the street, leaving nothing but burning debris.

By the time she got close, she was panting and exhausted, but she was close and she spotted it when a glow of fire flickered and vanished. She didn't think Arakash had magic to put out fire, and she was certain he couldn't create it, but she was lacking in other leads so she went that way.

She found the demon limping toward an unconscious woman laying in an alleyway. One arm hung limp at his side, while his wings were so mangled that she could see the girl through the holes in them. He raised his arm, lifting the leprous white blade to stab the girl.

No. "HALT!" She shouted. "Don't kill her!"

Arakash paused, then looked back and growled at her. "Don't interfere, princess".

This is why you must keep an eternal vigil against the beast. "You are not going to kill an unconscious girl," she commanded. "Not while I draw breath."

"Look what she did to me!" Arakash screamed, gesturing over his charred body.

Ada had to admit, most men wouldn't be able to move if they had indeed survived those sorts of wounds. "You probably deserved it." She then paused to consider the situation. How did he find himself in this situation? "In fact, I order you, tell me, were you responsible for this mess."

"No," Arakash said. "She tried to rob me. I..." Arakash grimaced in pain, the culmination of his wounds and the backlash of a binding enchantment that was all the more powerful while he was weakened by his injuries.

"My father's mages made the spell very specific, Arakash." Ada kept her voice cold, emulating her father's as best she could. "You don't have to lie in order to trigger retaliation. All you have to do is attempt to hide important details from me.

Arakash snarled at her; he had discovered that compulsion hours ago, and wasn't fond of having this slip of a girl lord it over him.

"Not as naive as you thought, am I?" Ada walked forward, watching the demon and daring him to resist. "Now help me take this girl somewhere safe. We don't want to be here when the authorities show up." She wasn't certain if authorities would show up, but it was excuse enough. Much of the city was on fire, and with the chaos and looting, they had their hands full.

She knelt next to the unconscious redhead, brushed some of the thick curls away, and touched her neck. She was pretty in a subdued 'cute' way, and perhaps a couple years younger than she was, though Ada knew from her own reflection that youthful features could disguise one's true age. "I don't think there's anything wrong with her but exhaustion. Do your supernatural senses tell you if there's anything dangerous about moving her?"

"No, she's depleted her magic, but is otherwise healthy. She'll recover in a day or two." He began shifting back into his human form. Even then, he remained disheveled and burnt, and still seemed unsteady on his feet.

Ada lifted the girl, using her magic to aid her. Although the concept of gravity was one she had no knowledge of, her instincts were enough to bend the flow of space such that it cut both their weights in half. "You lead the way. Try to keep us away from trouble. And no more trying to eat people."

"Very well, princess." Arakash started walking. "If anyone asks, the cover story is that we were caught up in the confusion, and she's your sister who was knocked unconscious by a falling plank."

They avoided the worst of the riots and fires by going the long way around to the dock area. While they saw some riots and looting, they were all people interested in taking unguarded property rather than starting fights. Nobody bothered the three of them, and those that were considering it thought twice about confronting the tall, angry-looking man and girl in adventurer's leathers. There were easier pickings than an obvious warrior-mage duo.

Until they heard the screams in an alleyway; first a woman's, then a boy shouting "Get away from her!"

Ada couldn't help but get involved. "Stop," she commanded her demonic servant before she moved closer to the sound of the noise. She found four soldiers, two of whom were holding a girl who looked barely out of her teens, while two others were now busy grappling with a stocky, angry young man. "What are they doing?"

Arakash thought the answer was obvious. "A murder, a rape. Maybe two murders. Maybe two rapes, the one's not interested in the girl."

"But they're soldiers! They should be helping!"

"Lots of things should happen. You'd be surprised how few do."

"We need to stop them!" She reached for her pouch. "I've still got my crest, if I tell them who I am, they'll-"

"Kill you to hide their crimes," Arakash interrupted. "They'll already be tortured and hanged, what can you do, revive and kill them again?" He didn't care what happened to the girl or her would-be defender, but he couldn't let Ada get herself killed for any reason. On the other hand, there was some opportunity to be had here. "But, I could do something. I just need to use the full extent of my abilities. And I recall you said something about not eating people?"

She knew she was being manipulated, but she couldn't find it in her to argue. In her best command voice, Princess Adageyudi gave her permission. "Rapists don't count as people."

Arakash chuckled, then began his metamorphosis. He lost much of his height, ending not much taller than the princess. That mass moved elsewhere, adding to his hips, his chest, and then smoothing itself out. His windswept mop of black hair lengthened to the small of his back, while he changed the pigmentation of his skin into a different form of exotic beauty.

She stumbled into the alleyway with the appearance of a love goddess made flesh, with features so foreign as to be an obvious stranger to this land and just a little extra magic to urge their impulses were the final part of the honey trap her sister had perfected over a century ago. Her version was inferior to her sister's, and it took all the power she had left, but she was so desperate she needed to take the chance. "Pardon? Am being lost, you can help, yes?"

The men lost interest in the pawing the scrawny girl, and even the ones trying to stop the resisting youth paused to look. Which resulted in one of them getting cracked with a hammer before the boy grabbed the girl and fled.

Arakash watched the pair escape, and she promised later she'd make several snide comments to Ada about how little gratitude people had for those who helped them, but that was later. For now, she had to force her legs to move toward the quartet of soldiers. One thing she wasn't faking was her weakness; weakness made worse by the mechanically frailer female body. "Please, strong men, helping please?"

"Don't worry, we'll help you." The soldiers allowed their guard to lower some; Arakash had made herself into the perfect victim, one which would lure men who were otherwise not brave enough to follow through on their darker impulses. For these four, or three of them at any rate, she was every fantasy that drove them to do what they were already doing.

She didn't resist when they got close, feigned surprise and fear, but not resistance. What little apprehension existed in their minds faded when they realized she was going to freeze rather than scream. They could take their time.

One remained outside of his lure and control, but he was a follower and perhaps in denial of his preferences, so he played along. Until he couldn't. His eyes widened as he looked down at the white blade which had pierced his throat. What screams he attempted were stopped by him drowning on his own blood, but he couldn't understand why none of the others noticed as he slumped to the ground. The last thing he saw was a purple haired girl staring at the scene in shock and disgust.

One by one, the others fell, sapped of their strength. It was a crude method, which Arakash preferred to avoid because it rendered what should have been months worth of energy down to a few days at most and greatly increased the odds of getting caught. Killing made people suspicious, killing by way of mana vampirism raised flags which attracted Exorcists and Inquisitors. Doing so in a manner this sloppy all but guaranteed capture.

If the city wasn't burning around them, if she wasn't starving to death, she never would have risked it.

Moments after, she dropped to her knees and howled in agony as the forced temporary transformation reversed itself, and forced him back into his native form in the most uncomfortable way possible. "Haa... ha... ugh..."

Still carrying the unconscious redhead, Ada ran into the alley now devoid of rapists and victims. "What was that?"

"The... full extent... of my power." Arakash watched the burn marks vanish from his skin, as most of the life force he just stole was expended to mend damaged flesh. "We have to head for the ship." He pulled the purses off the dead men before he stood; they wouldn't have much coin on them, but trying to fence their weapons would prove more trouble than it was worth.

He rose and began walking away. If he was lucky, they'd lay there long enough for the telltale signs of Noctrel feeding to fade and it might be mistaken for a robbery in the chaos. Or not; so long as he was gone before the discovery was made, he didn't care.

Princess Adageyudi watched him march off and asked herself yet again how she was supposed to control such a monster. Then she looked down at the girl in her arms and swore she'd find a way to do it, and to make up for those she'd already failed.