One thing the Speaker had noticed about Mount Morningstar was that the demons seem to like the “wide platform surrounded by a pool of lava” design. She had entered a new cavern and yet again it was another cavern with the design. She had long since lost count but this had to be the twentieth such cavern she had seem thus far. The Speaker looked around and saw that this cavern at least had some difference from the others she had passed. This cavern had a building.

Taking up almost the whole platform was a five storey building that reach almost the ceiling of the cavern. The Speaker could see that the various floors were linked by a series of stone paths that criss-cross each other and that some of these paths even led to openings outside the cavern. Not for the first time, the Speaker had to wonder why the demons even bother to have a moat of lava if they were going to have so many ways in and out of the cavern.

The Speaker took a path that led down to the ground floor of the building. She heard the demon within before she saw them. She entered the building via one of the many openings, doors seems like a foreign concept to the demons, and saw the demon she was looking for. The ground floor of the building had no rooms and was an open space. In the middle of it was a group of demons arguing fervently with each other and the demon the Speaker was looking for was in the middle of the argument. The Speaker walked towards the group and the argument stopped as the demons noticed her. She might not be an enemy but she was an outsider and the Speaker understood that the demons did not want her to notice the chaos within the new race. The demon Apep stepped away from the group and approached the Speaker. The mage had made a place for himself within the demons and seems to be enjoying his new life.

“Speaker!”

“Apep.”

“I heard you are leaving soon.”

“News travel fast.”

“Ha! You’re a celebrity here and one thing I discovered is that demons loved to gossip.”

“You didn’t give me that impression when we first met.”

“That may change now that I’m a demon. I don’t use to like arguing either but…” Apep chuckled at that. “So you really are leaving?”

“We all are. That’s why I’m here. To say goodbye but it seems you are busy.”

“Oh don’t mind that. We’re be arguing about the scroll for the rest of the season and still not come to a conclusion.”

The Speaker nodded in understanding. She may be an outsider but you had to be deaf not to hear the arguments the demons were having over the scroll. The problem began that day when the Red Creator began casting the “Appraisal” spell at everything that moves. When the demons enquired about the matter, the Red Creator informed them that the “Appraisal” spell was a new spell it got. It was supposed to give the caster a gauge of how powerful an enemy was. Things would have been fine if the Red Creator had left it there, but the Red Creator then decided to teach the new spell to the demons. Needless to say, it was a disaster.

As she was not a mage, the Speaker didn’t quite understand how the complexity of the spell but it seems the spell required the caster to have good control of something called ‘energy’. The demons had a good number of mages in their ranks but none of them could get the spell to work. The Speaker suspect the problem was the fact that as higher beings, the Creators had no concept of how to teach it’s creatures. After several days of frustration, the Red Creator did something unexpected. It created a scroll and told one of the demons to read it. One of them did and after reading the scroll, the scroll began glowing. Soon the light of the scroll entered the body of the demon and the scroll turned to ash.

The scroll was a great success and the demon began telling everyone how the spell was telling him the strength and weakness of individual via “letters”. The demon was able to tell which demon is stronger in which area just with a look. The downside was the fact that the demon couldn’t maintain the spell very long and casting it caused him to feel drained. The same thing could be said of the Red Creator. Creating the scroll took a lot out of the Red Creator and it was quiet for a few days. When it returned, the demons immediately asked for another “Appraisal Scroll”. The Red Creator refused, saying it would be days before it could create another one. It seems the “Appraisal Scroll” was so difficult to create, the Red Creator needed several days of preparation to do so. However it eventually did and that’s when the problem truly started.

The scroll in question was a gift from the Red Creator to it’s demons but the Red Creator left the matter of what to do with the scroll to the demons. None of the demons could agree with what to do with it. Some wanted to treat it like some treasure while others wanted to use it immediately. Of course even those who wanted to use the scroll were themselves divided as they couldn’t agree on who should be the one to use it. Unlike the Kin, the demons did not have any real leaders. There were a few demons who were influential among the general population but there were no true leaders like the Alpha or the Chieftain. In fact the demons seen to abhor leadership, treating it as some unwanted burden. So now the “Appraisal Scroll” sit in the room of the Red Creator untouched while the demons argued about the matter. The Speaker was just happy it had nothing to do with her. She was leaving and was glad of it. She missed the Alpha and couldn’t wait to get going. She was to be disappointed as a voice rang in her head. It was the voice of the Red Creator; a happy delighted voice.

*Everyone be ready for battle! The humans are coming!*

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