The Draug

‘’I will give you almost half,’’ the unwilling Draug declares.

‘’Half of what?’’

‘’Half of the thing gifted to me by the human.’’

‘’The balls on you must be heavy showing yourself to me again.’’

‘’I hold a fallen by the balls and it needs to ransome itself to me.’’

‘’How?’’

‘’The human was given three promises sealed in its nature, the fallen has to fulfil or surrender a part of itself as an oath breaker.’’

‘’It can survive as an oath breaker as many do, why would it not make that sacrifice to be free from you?’’

‘’Let's just say it got a new toy and it would have to give it up if it broke this oath.’’

‘’A toy more valuable than freedom from you is one I want named.’’

‘’It won’t get to keep its new body.’’

‘’What does that mean serpent?’’

‘’You try my patience with your insolence Tracy.’’

‘’Do not call me that!’’

...

‘’Look, just know that the fallen is very happy with its new body and very much wants to keep it. He has to pay me for it. That payment is what I’ll give you half of.’’

...

‘’What will he be giving you in payment?’’

‘’Anything I want.’’

‘’Fuck Draug you’re such a liar you can’t even answer a simple question. What is it that you want that a fallen can give Draug, I want to know what I’m getting.’’

‘’I want him to give me to the graveyard of his kin.’’

‘’You want access to dead fallen?’’

‘’The residue they leave behind in the physical world when they die.’’

‘’Their bodies, what will you do ahh... Pure unattuned soul fragments.’’

‘’Not just fragments, mountains of the stuff.’’

‘’I noticed the Herald has one such fragment attuning with his own soul.’’

‘’Yes, it is a unique application of the material I have not come across before. The fragment is forged to act as a Core through which the human can cultivate without losing connection to the benefits of manna. Geniuses really but extremely risky, for one it needs one to fully give access of themselves to a Soul Artist. The lunacy to ever trust anyone else with one's soul is beyond me.’’

‘’Okay, so half a mountain of unattuned spirit material for me.’’

‘’Yes, more or less.’’

‘’Fine. I’ll find a use for it and I will show your Herald possible ways forward but it’s up to him how he chooses to progress in his path.’’

‘’All I ask.’’

‘’Still, I don’t see why you don’t show him the way yourself, why the need to pay me?’’

‘’I am buying your goodwill, I hope a working relationship between us will be of mutual benefit in this turbulent time.’’

‘’Look elsewhere for friends Draug. You have too many enemies of dangerous beings for me to ever consider aligning myself with you. I expect my payment before the Herald is sent on the suicide mission to Kamalate.’’

__

*

Sidhe

‘’What are we going to do about the cultivators coming here?’’ Daoine Sidhe Yaffa asks the others for the appetent time.

‘’We have to squash them,’’ Tormentor responds quickly.

Pffff, ‘’did you hear about Vevina’s new toy?’’ Carmella can’t help but niddle at the other sidhe to bring some humour to the serious atmosphere

‘’Ohhh..., the mysterious new student. Tell us, are you spawning a litter with this one as well?’’ Sidhe Nadim asks in humour.

Vevina ignores them to cool her claws icing beautifully to sparkle in the light.

‘’You know these cultivators are almost here so what are we going to do about them?’’ Yaffa asks again.

‘’We squash them.’’

‘’Stop saying that and be serious come now we have to decide, all together,’’ Sidhe Yaffa protests.

Mfff, ‘’don’t tell me you listen to the stories they tell each other about us now as well.’’ Yaeshawn says stopping Yaffa, ‘’there is no ‘’eleven sidhe of Paradisum. I stand with you lot because of circumstance, if you all end up going against the mandate of the Court then you’ll do so on your own.’’

‘’I have allowed the Tribes to include us in their sacred writings, they are so traditional these humans,’’ Yaffa says randomly. ‘’I say we should defend what we’ve built here for we are no longer welcomed at Home.’’

‘’Spit in a Grasier you love them, you threat yours better than Vevina here with your bloody fights.’’

‘’The betting at Home is phenomenal, the most popular fighter-‘’

‘’You are all fools! Don’t think for an instant that I will violate a direct order from Court for you fools. There is a pack of bloody gallivanting cultivators at our gates and you’re all still playing and gossiping! Broadcasting your little fight club competitions at Home, still breeding and frolicking with humans like everything is normal.

‘loOk aT Vevina’s nEw tOy’, ‘tHe fIgHts aRe sO popular bAcK hOme,’ Yaeshawn makes stupid gestures mocking the others. ‘’Don’t think for a moment I will go against the proclamation for you or any of the pets you’ve been breeding here.’’

‘’Yaeshawn has a point, we have to decide what we’ll do about the cultivators but you have a mistake Yaeshawn. Whatever else happens we won’t ever be accepted back at Court, not with what we’ve done to our souls,’’ Carmella says seriously.

‘’They’d hate us.’’

‘’They’d fear us and rightly so,’’ Makin says coolly bringing the potency of his soul weapon to the fore for all to feel. ‘’But if we go against a proclamation and interfere in this world we may find ourselves without a Home to go home to at all.’’

‘’They wouldn’t exile us from Home, all sidhe are welcome at Home.’’ Vevina says uncertainly.

Pfff, Sidhe Oasis snorts in humour. ‘’Home, Court, we’ll never get back into either so I don’t think we should worry about them at all. What we should be worried about are the cultivators that will come for revenge if we kill these Omegian kids in our back yards. Cultivators are crazy, and none of us here know how deep their faction goes. Are we prepared to war with cultivators?’’

...

‘’We can’t let them ravage through here uncontested though, they’d show us to be weak.’’ Sidhe Tormentor says stomping his hoofs angrily.

‘’We could declare Paradisum territory sacrosanct, that way we wouldn’t directly get involved unless they invaded the territory. At which point an argument can be made with the Court of defending ourselves.’’

‘’It wouldn’t make a difference to the Court why we got involved.’’

‘’It doesn’t have to matter, the explanation would just be courtesy so they don’t feel snubbed. We still need them for trade of the last of our spirit ores.’’

‘’I don’t hate the idea,’’ Sidhe Carmella says looking at the others.

‘’It’s settled then, we watch till they trespass,’’ Yaffa says with a sigh.

‘’Then what?’’ Nadim asks.

‘’Then we squash them.’’

*

Sachihiro

‘’I want you to be fully alert in all your senses for as long as you can.’’

‘’What do you mean? I’m always alert in all my senses.’’

‘’You selectively use your abilities, you blind yourself too much.’’

‘’I don’t get it.’’

‘’Your manna sense for instance, you use it only within close proximity to you and only occasionally instead of constantly. Your 3rd eye, you close it often even when you’re wide awake, your spiritual sense. You should not stifle yourself so but be fully alert to all things all the time.’’

Mhmmmm, is that possible?

‘’I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on everything all the time like that, plus concentrating on different senses can be very appropriate depending on the situation you’re in.’’

‘’Yes, that is true but you’re limiting your perception. You have all these different senses together with which you experience the world and through them you experience a whole.’’

‘’A whole?’’

The elder creature conjures a red bead with a reflective sheen to it holding in solidly in its hand.

‘’You see this object is round, you can tell its red but when you touch it,’’ she tosses the thing to me.

‘’It’s soft.’’ I’m surprised to discover.

‘’Yes it yields to your touch yet you wouldn’t have predicted that with how you perceived me carrying it.’’

‘’I thought it would be hard.’’

‘’Yes, because you saw how I handled it, you saw the metallic sheen on the red reflecting light and how tightly I held it and thought I held a hard object.’’

‘’It’s responding to my vibrations.’’

‘’It is moving and changing shape with your frequency yes. Can you make it hard?’’

I try, directing my vibrations into it frowning at the brow. ‘’No, I can’t make it hard why do you ask?’’

‘’Just asking. It seems to be moving well with your body,’’ and it is. I could almost forget I’m carrying the thing if I wasn’t looking at it through so many senses.

‘’Yes, it’s copying me smoothly without even getting in the way of my hand. What is this?’’

‘’Oh that, that is just something I’ve been growing. It responds to frequencies and resonates with them, or not depending on what it wants. Want to keep it?’’

I consider that for a moment, the thing acting as an object yet vibrating like it is alive.

‘’Sure, thanks. What does it do?’’

The elder creature shrugs, ‘’anything it wants really. Anyways, you used sight and touch and vibration to determine the whole of that because sight alone wouldn’t be enough.’’

*

Phosphorus vs Draug

‘’An old serpent comes calling,’’ Phosphorus says lounging in a bed of luxurious softness surrounded by naked females now suppressed to unconsciousness by the presence of the two beings clashing.

‘’Ah, I see you think you know me. Good, this will go much quicker.’’ A spiritual bond blooms open to be experienced by the world, a hiss of displeasure escapes Phosphorus as he pulls back the bond muting it instantly.

‘’That should not be in your hands creature,’’ Phosphorus growls his vast spiritual presence setting his attention wholly on the Draug.

Everything around bursts into spontaneous flame as the two existences clash. Phosphorus doesn’t hear the screams quickly snuffed out nor sees the burning of everything material around him as the town is destroyed by the clash of the two creatures' presence. All he experiences is fury as he brings the full weight of his spiritual pressure to this upstart of flesh thinking itself something.

The Draug’s eyes drink in the light, taking everything between itself and this creature into an abyss that knows no depths of black. The spiritual shields of the Draug shatter inward even as the body of Phosphorus rips asunder from the pressure of resisting the pull of darkness. Phosphorus’ insides boil evaporating from the heat even as new flesh bursts out of the wounds reforming cleanly.

The spiritual pressure on the Draug stops abruptly as it brings to bear the bond of promise between the human and the Spirit as a shield that locks Phosphorus enough for the Draug to re-establish itself spiritually while it retreats having tasted the flesh of the god.

‘’I represent the interests of the human with whom this bond was made for that flesh you wear. Three promises agreed upon, Power, Wealth, Freedom. One promise fulfilled with two more payments to be made.’’

‘’I made no promises to you creature, release that bond to me and you may still have an afterlife once I am done with you.’’

‘’I come to collect the wealth that is owed.’’

‘’Serpent, watch yourself carefully for you do not want such as me as an unending enemy. I assure you, you wouldn’t enjoy the experience.’’

‘’I come to collect the freedom promised.’’

‘’The last warning you will receive before this becomes more than a nuisance that ruined my day. My enemies do not outlast me.’’

‘’I have no doubt but as you can see I hold your word here against you, release this promised wealth or be known as an oath breaker and be cursed by him who holds your bond-word.’’

‘’Sachihiro. Sachihiro. Sachihiro van Damage holds my bond-word.’’

‘’I hold your bond-word to Sachihiro and it is to me you will pay.’’