Samodiva. The way she said it, it was more than a name, it sounded like a title. Her posture, her bearing, it radiated royalty and grace, the grace of a deadly predator. I was captivated by her looks and voice, standing spellbound before her.

Ripping myself from my trance, I spoke. “I greet you, Samodiva. I'm called Morgana and this is my mate, Sigmir. I apologize for disturbing you during the night but the two of us were captivated by your dance. We just had to join in.”

Samodiva smiled, looking me up and down, as if deciding what to do next. “So polite, wonderful, it is so rare that my children and I have guests for breakfast. For your dance, I grant you a boon. What would you have of me?”

There was a small tingling in the back of my head but I ignored it, for now, the only important thing was this woman before me and her offer. Visions of naked bodies, entwined in the flickering light of her fire graced my mind, visions of divine pleasures. As I got lost in my visions, I realised that there were only two bodies and it struck me like a hammer blow. Where was Sigmir in those visions? No way I'd find pleasure with anyone if she wasn't there. With her, I had found something I had been searching for two decades in the real world and here my mind was throwing it away?

All ideas of requesting carnal pleasures fled from my mind and clarity returned.

I saw Sigmir slowly moving to one of the empty eyries and focused myself back to our host. Something was strange here. "A boon you say? Would you grant us a tailfeather of one of the firebirds? That would be a great boon."

She looked at me and I saw fury in her eyes but she reigned it in and there was a saccharine smile on her face. “Yes, of course. I will grant you that.” She looked at one of the birds a bit higher up on the cliffs and send a strange, whistling shriek, akin to a birds call. The Firebird winged down to us, landing on her outstretched arm. Softly talking to the bird, her eyes speared into me for a moment as she raised her other arm, gently pulling one of the tail-feathers out. The bird gave a mournful cry, lamenting the loss and the pain it was in. With an assist from Samodiva, it flew back into the cliffs around us.

A swift look to Sigmir showed me that she was done with whatever she had done at the empty eyrie and was moving back towards me. My mind had finally thrown off the shackles of exhaustion and seduction it had been under and was clear once more, making the connections that had eluded me thus far.

'Guests for breakfast' my ass, Samodiva was one of those spirits that seduced travellers to consume them. Mythology was full of them, Succubi, Yuki-Onna, Nü Gui or whatever you want to call them. Samodiva was probably the local variant and I had wasted my get out of jail-free boon on the tail-feather. It would solve the quest but only if we could get away.

As Sigmir approached, I gave her a hug and softly whispered in her ear “Be ready.”

I turned back to Samodiva, mentally reading myself to use my magic if necessary. The moment I took the feather from her hand, she spoke up.

“You joined the dance. And you lived. Both of you live, surviving thanks to your connection to each other. Without that, I would have had both of you. It is as they say. Together, you stand, divided you fall. According to the accords each of you gain a boon of me. And you gained the boon, taken from my own hand.”

As she spoke, the rays of the sun reached her and her features blurred, the gown she was wearing turned into feathery wings, her hands turned into claws and her feet into talons. The formerly breathtaking face changed, getting leaner and turning into a cruel, beak-like visage. In addition, her soft, seductive voice turned sharp, cutting through the still air like the shriek of a raptor.

“And now, the protection of the old accords is gone. Thrown away by your own, foolish greed! Get them, children, get them!”

Well, shit. The Firebirds all around us left their perches, rising into the sky and I saw that Samodiva herself took to the sky, not risking getting caught on the ground.

With one hand, I stored the feather and the other drew my Athame swiftly drawing a cold-rune into the air as the birds around us sent ou sparks of fire with the beating of their wings. Those sparks turned into small, feather-like projectiles raining down on us. I discarded the idea of making a mist-cover for the moment and used my rune projection to create a sheet of ice to take the initial volley. I had to use my Ice Magic to prevent it from falling down on us. My next step was getting out my rune-stones, this encounter would require speed, not versatility or power. The first rune-stone I used in conjunction with rune-projection was another one of my ice-rune stones, creating another sheet of ice to reinforce the protections I had in place. Sigmir stood above me, holding her shield ready in case it was needed.

As fire rained down on my shields, I looked up, inspecting some of the birds and Samodiva. Samodiva came back as a level 50 Harpy, the birds were between 40 and 45 and Firebirds, no surprise there. But the simple fact that they were airborne and it didn't look like they would come down soon, fighting seemed impossible. I launched a few Icicles and Ice-Beams but they simply dodged and continued to destroy my shields. To cover our retreat, I used a rune heptagon to fill the area with mist and placed concealment spells on both of us.

Grabbing Sigmir's hand, I started running through the mist around us, desperately trying to remember our surroundings, the mist was not all-concealing for me but it concealed enough. To better our chances, I floated one of my mist engraved icicles in another direction and pumped Astral Power into it as it neared the edge of my range, creating another mist explosion away from us.

To prevent our noise from giving us away, I stopped running and tried to move as silently as possible and motioned for Sigmir to do the same. Up in the air above us, we could hear the cries of the Firebirds and the shrieks of Samodiva coordinating their hunt.

We crept silently along the rocky cliffs, trying to get away and into the cover of the forest to escape our predators when I felt a shift in the air, not only a physical shift in the wind, it was as if the air itself had changed. The mist I had created to cover us quickly started to thin as the winds grew stronger, whipped up by the birds above us, trying to find us. It was similar to the dance last night, only this time a flock of birds helped Samodiva whereas Sigmir and I were exhausted mentally and physically. Fighting would doom us so we had to hide.

Close by, within the cliffs, I found a small crevice, just large enough for Sigmir and me to squeeze into, hopefully out of sight from our hunters. I shoved her into the opening and instantly followed behind. There was little more I could do but hope that we would not be found. Now, I finally had time to check my notifications.

Title gained You gained the title: Tempestuous Dancer You danced with the storm and the Storm danced with you. Using dance to empower magical workings costs less stamina and strengthens the workings it fuels with the power of the blizzard. Skill increased You increased your skill: Ice Magic [54/100] Skill increased You increased your skill: Darkness Magic [13/100] Skill increased You increased your skill: Stealth [18/100]

I felt the wind outside slowly subside and saw that the covering mist was completely gone. I used a bit of Darkness Magic to make the shadows within our small crevice deeper hoping that our dark clothes would blend with the darkness around us and conceal us. In addition, I tried to create a pure concealment spell over the opening but I had no idea if it worked. Once more, I wished for guidance when it came to magic. Direct physical or combat spells were easy enough but something like this, trying to conceal an opening without using physical means to do so? No idea. I was certain it was possible, probably even with Darkness Magic, but how? That, I did not know.

Slowly, ever so slowly the day passed. I toyed with the idea of logging out but discarded it, I wasn't even sure it would work while actively hunted and even if I would be safe, Sigmir would be on her own so no way. Sigmir and I pressed against each other, something that would normally make me ecstatic, but neither of us dared to move for fear of being found. The only voluntary sound we made all day was Sigmir whispering that she had collected the ash we needed.

A few times, we saw the birds pass over us, high in the sky, and feared that the next moment would be the shriek of triumph, calling their allies and heralding another round of attacks against us. But that shriek never came and when finally darkness fell, both of our nerves were frayed. Our sleep deprivation did not help but under the cover of darkness and more concealment magic, we managed to creep away. A few minutes later, we started running in the darkness, putting distance between us and Mount Yugid. When we finally dared to make camp, neither of us felt like doing much, we only asked Ylva to guard us, then we fell into a deep sleep, those two days had been exhausting as hell.