Book of Mors: Summoned

Arc: Knowledge is Power

Chapter 20, Part 2: The world is never still

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Mors shakily stood up and started to follow the hulking, spiked demon as he walked towards the large wooden door. "Isn't the exit on the other side?"

Jack chuckled. "Us demons, as well as goblins and other 'dark' species', have a small underground city down here. In fact, it's entirely possible for someone to live here and never see the light of day so try to keep up."

Beth, her brown robe obviously too big for her, followed as her eyes analysed her surroundings, never settling on one place.

This behaviour, along with Mors' distrust of others, caused him to tense and expect the worst.

Jack's chuckle broke out into laughter, "Don't worry about her kiddo. She is just looking for things to stea-"

"Liberate," huffed Beth. "You demons don't appreciate your shinies. They cry out at the badness of their mistreatment."

"So sticking them in a pile in a dark room makes them happy?" jokingly responded Jack, obviously enjoying the banter.

"They have friends and where else would a shiny thing like to be? In the darkness with a little bit of light, they can shine like the stars, the biggest and bestest shiniest of them all," replied Beth as if she was stating a fact, her arms crossing over her chest.

A deep growl escaped Mors' throat as he stumbled into one of the nearby tables. "Will you two shut up?"

A mischevious smile crept upon Jacks face as he reached the door and slowly, as if to prolong the noise, opened the it causing it to creak loudly on its rusty hinges. "You say something Mr Grumps?"

Mors ground his teeth as he winced, still managing to glare at the demon. "I swear to-"

Jack quickly waved off whatever Mors was about to say. "AHH, none of that. I was only messing with you. My health is frail as it is without a wrath demon making pledges against it."

"Least I know your mortal. If you drank that amount and woke up without a hangover, it wouldn't be fair," he added onto the end quickly before diving through the open doorway. "Anyway, let's get a move on. First is the physical and then we can move onto the challenge of trying to fill that empty head of yours somewhat."

As the trio disappeared into a dark corridor, back in Althor, the capital city of Vonia, seven people sat around a round table in a lavishly decorated meeting room as dust, floating in the air, was illuminated by the bright sunlight entering the tall, majestic windows.

Sitting on a throne-like chair, wearing a golden crown, King Harken sighed loudly. "What do you mean you can't locate it? You have the best trackers in the land and even the support of the Sun Clan."

A nervous looking woman, her green hair tied up in a ponytail, fidgeted. "My King, we lost track of him when the demon and an unknown group passed into the Ice Demon's territory. As their envoys were leading the group, we were unable to gain passage quickly and were not able to pick up their trail on the other side."

"DAMN IT." Harken slammed his fist into the table, causing everyone but the brown haired woman next to him to jump.

"Brother!" Said the woman, obviously in a bad mood. "Excluding the fact that you are a moron for doing something so dangerous, putting your whole kingdom at risk, don't you think this is enough? What do we have to gain by pursuing this creature, which is nothing more than a child if the other 'super weapons' you idiots summoned are anything to go by. Stop wasting precious resources on this. We have bigger problems to contend with."

Harken's eyebrow twitched, not in annoyance but because she was right, as he turned to his sister. "That creature slaughtered my men, nearly killing me and crippling Rynheart. That thing is a menace to all and needs to be wiped out. Even the su-"

"Do you really think they are helping us out of the kindness of their hearts? No. They have something invested in its death. Something that threatens them so much that they are willing to crawl out from whatever rocks they were hiding under," interrupted the woman. "Are you not sick of being used as a puppet? You're a king for the love of all gods. Behave like one."

"Princess Elenor... Please not in front of the ministers," pleaded a one-armed man, his face pale with dark bags under his eyes. The skin on his cheeks sagged, showing that rapid weight loss he had undergone. "While your points may be valid, you didn't see that monstrosity or what it was capable of. It knew exactly what it was doing and what was worse, that was its weakest form. Every day we dither, it increases in strength."

Softness returned to Eleanor's eyes as she looked at the once great general. He had immediately gathered men, not waiting for his injuries to heal and chased every rumour that he had heard to no avail."Once again, you are basing all your facts on what the Sun Clan has given you. What do you actually know? General Rynheart. You should be focusing on recovering."

The room fell into silence. The King was a noble man who would do whatever it took for the benefit of his people, but everyone here knew that the princess was the brains. Since the death of her father, she had tirelessly worked to make things easier for her brother and her countrymen, dealing with every threat, both domestic and foreign. The fact that the nobles hadn't rebelled, even with the Sun Clan's help, was due to her and so her words held almost as much wait as the King's.

"Enough," They looked to the king only to find his head resting in his hands, his complexion looked even worse than Rynheart.

Taking a deep breath, he straightened himself up. "We lost the most promising candidates to the Sun Clan, but we still have a mission. Eleanor's right, we need to focus and bring stability to our nation and the Human Kingdoms before anything else. The fact that the Sun Clan had enough power and influence the renegade nobles, although worrying in its own right, is just a stop gap. We need to fix the issues that led to this and, if that monster ever shows his face in our territory, then we will be in a much better position to respond."

"My King, should we call back the scouts?" asked the green haired woman, two old men on her sides nodding in agreement.

"No, Even if we are not going to do anything, I still want to know where it is," responded Harken dryly. "The one thing I learnt from monster hunting was, no matter what, never lose track of a threat. Now, you are all dismissed. Leave"

The people around the table nodded, and while helping Rynheart, left the room quickly, leaving only Elenor and Harken.

With a sigh, Harken glanced at his sister, her face as cold as a stone mask. "Elenor, I don't know how many times I have told you that I am sorry for not telling you. But I had to make a decision and even with the loss of life, it still has bought us time to bring out people together and stave off humanities extinction."

"Like a sorry ever brought the dead back to life," responded Elenor before giving a weak smile. "But you are my brother. I will be taking five of the summoned to train and become my royal guard as compensation. The vampire, half dragon, water spite, dark elf and demon."

"But -"

"No buts. I might have made it sound like it wasn't a big deal to the others, but you have personally made a mortal enemy out of a damn demon with enough power to slaughter our elite troops in seconds. One who is vindictive enough to burn down an entire village without reason, murdering every man, woman and child. You concentrate on our country; I will deal with the demon." Elenor stood up.

"What are you going to do?"

Walking towards the door, Elenor looked over her shoulder and with a tired face, smiled. "Try to reason with it and if that fails, spread the dust of his bones across the graves of the fallen. There shall be no mercy to enemies of our family and kingdom. Even if we are the ones in the wrong."

Harken was impressed with her resolve. He knew that Elenor's secret lover had been part of his personal guard that day and even watched as the man sacrificed himself so Harken could escape, but even then, his sister was still willing to reason with the demon before resorting to violence.

Harken shivered. He honestly didn't know what was more frightening, his sister detached coldness or that enraged demon.

Watching Eleanor's back as she walked out the room he placed his head in his hands again. "The die has been cast, I guess all that I can do is wait and see where it lands."