Before Myles’ fight against the Church soldiers:

Raiya stood firmly in front of her tree house, waiting for Utar to show up. She didn’t fear the Priest as much as she feared further retaliation. She knew she’d be on her own unless a High Priest or, gods forbid, a Pontiff showed up. Sisha had just told her he’d taken care of the western squad. She hoped Zedd would be up to the task assigned. She knew he hated that name, but he’d thank her for it one day.

‘Go check on the boy,’ she instructed the cat demon. ‘Provide help if needed, but leave him some challenge. He’s our only hope.’

Sisha answered with a soft purr.

“RAIYA O’CHERAN!” She heard Utar’s voice and recognized it. Was he trying to intimidate her with a meek voice magnifying spell? “TIME WITCH TURNED WARLOCK, PART OF ARSALAN’S WIZARD COVENANT! COME OUT NOW, AND WE MIGHT CONSIDER A PEACEFUL NEGOTIATION!”

She shook her head, disappointed. She knew as much as he did that there was no possibility for peaceful negotiations. The Church wanted to get their hands on the offering as much as the Covenant. She was lucky to meet the boy when she did.

“FAIL TO DO SO,” Utar went on, “AND WE’LL UNLEASH HELL UPON THIS FOREST!”

Raiya started pounding her staff on the ground. The spot she chose to teleport to didn’t come from a whim. The forest wasn’t too far from Theolonius’ mansion. It also harbored the secret caves the Children of the Forest used long ago, before this world became what it is today. She had a secret escape route, should she need to use it.

She pounded her staff once more and the trap was set. Let them come, she thought. I’ll show them what real terror means.

Screams echoed from the northern side of the forest. Sisha had come to Zedd’s rescue. It was only a matter of time before Utar showed up. Raiya looked up as a red beam shot straight for the sky then exploded into tiny red sparks. She swore and chewed on her lower lip.

‘They’re sending for reinforcements,’ she told her trusty companion, the demon who would swallow her whole if given the slightest opportunity. It took wit and incredible power to control such beings, especially the feline kind. ‘Go intercept the ones you can. Don’t get into fights you can’t win.’

Sisha purred back.

Stupid cat! She swore. She was certain he’d go and get himself in trouble. Then she’ll have to save him and weaken herself in the process. She suspected it was the cat’s intention. Demons never put themselves in danger unless they had a secret motive behind that. Weakening his master and swallowing it meant Sisha could gain incredible power, and evolution.

“Raiya O’Cheran,” Utar’s voice snuck into her ear, a cold, eerie whisper. She looked to her left, Utar and twelve paladins were walking toward her. She recognized them by their shiny armor and haughty demeanor. “Do you think you can beat us?” he motioned, his arms open as if to welcome an old friend, to his friends behind him.

“Do you think you’ll take this tone if it weren’t for your big guys backing you up?” Raiya shot back.

Utar shrugged. His pursed, purple lips curled into a cruel smile. She never really knew the Priest, but she hated him already. He wasn’t wearing any armor. His sleeveless shirt allowed him to show off his thick forearms and defined biceps on which tattoos glowed gold.

“Where’s my aunt?” a voice, young and quite squeaky, came from behind the Priest.

“You must be Sam,” Raiya said. “Your friend remembers your betrayal now.”

“Can I kill her?” Sam asked Utar in that childish, haughty attitude young people adopt when they gain a semblance of power. This only served to annoy the warlock.

Utar shook his head. The foreboding look her gave the young man spoke of warning and firm authority.

“Let him come,” Raiya said, pursing her lips into a mocking smirk. Nothing would give her more pleasure than incapacitate this self-righteous, overconfident brat!

Sam answered her smirk with a determined look. He eyed her as though she was his mortal enemy. She couldn’t help but wonder at the kind of brainwashing the Church did to new recruits. The boy couldn’t be older than twenty five. They were sending him to the slaughter house and for what? A pile of withered bones? At least the Covenant wouldn’t send young apprentices to war, unprepared.

“Let’s see what she’s prepared for us first,” Utar told Sam, a fatherly smile replaced his previous stern look. His eyes twinkled as he looked at the young boy. Raiya had a bad feeling about this. Her womanly intuition never failed her when it came to bad feelings. She hoped it did, just this one time. Something about the unspoken bond between those two made shivers run down her spine.

“At her!” Utar ordered and the armored paladins charged. They wore the same armor but wielded different weapons. Some had maces, others had great swords. One of them was carrying a big slab of rock over his shoulder. She didn’t want to get hit by that.

Luckily, she had prepared. Vines sprouted from the ground and caught most paladins by the feet. She’d copied Utar’s binding spell. She met his gaze and smiled, as if to tell him show me what you can do best!

Utar waved his hand and the vines started loosening. Raiya didn’t flinch or react though. That was the response she expected from the Priest. She pounded her staff at the ground and it cracked. More vines followed, thorny, thick, and emitting a foul poisonous smoke. They were clawing their way out when Utar swore and advanced toward the trap. He motioned Sam to stay put.

The heavily armored paladins had regained their composure by then. One of them managed to shoot the restraining vine with a fire spell which caused it to retreat underground. Raiya smiled, this was exactly what she was hoping for. Make them angrier, she prayed. Make them deadly.

Other paladins followed the first one’s example. Utar bellowed at them to stop. He knew what would happen if the vines were hurt. But it was too late. A loud screech reached them from underground. More cracks appeared and, in an earthshaking explosion, a formidable creature appeared.

Its main body was larger than the tree house. It blocked the others from reaching Raiya. Its long tentacles were the thorny vines that appeared before. It looked like an oversized sack that grew sharp teeth at its crater. It didn’t have any eyes or animal features to speak of, just multiple vines protruding from it and sharp teeth that showed at the top. A purple fume would leave its crater every time it struck at one of its assailants.

“It’s a Mandragora!” Utar yelled at the others. “Step away from it, now!”

By the time Utar had reached the paladins, two of them were already seized by its thorny vines. He called out to them, asked them not to attack any further but none listened. They were too scared, too stressed to heed the Priest’s warning. So they attacked. They hacked with their swords and shot spells at the plant’s main body.

The plant stomped the ground with its tentacles every time a fire spell hit. It wasn’t pleased with the retaliation. Utar pulled the other paladins away. They watched as the Mandragora squeezed the juice out of the armored men. Blood seeped from between their armor plates. Their screams filled the clearing. Soon enough, sharp thorns found their way inside the captured paladins’ bodies. Their screams intensified, the interval between each shortening by the minute.

Soon enough, the clearing grew quiet and the giant plant threw the two armored men into her inflated sac. Munching sounds ensued. Utar fought to keep the paladins away from the plant. They were screaming at the which, threatening to avenge their fallen comrades. Utar ordered them to stand down. There was no use fighting it, angering it any further.

“It’s eaten now,” he told them. “It will go back underground to nap and digest what she’s just ingested.”

But the plant didn’t move. It stood there, barring their way to the warlock’s. Utar gritted his teeth then straightened up.

“What’s the matter Utar?” Raiya was now floating above the plant. They all looked at her in utter disgust. “Can’t take out a little plant now, can we?”

She wanted to annoy them, draw them nearer. As long as she could thin the herd a little more, she wouldn’t have to use her own power to fight them all.

“Sam, my boy,” Utar called out. Sam walked beside his master. “I’ll create an opening, you send this foul beast somewhere it can’t disturb us.”

Sam nodded.

Utar’s arms moved in a precise, rehearsed manner. He first brought the left arm upwards, pointing at the sky, then motioned the other one down, pointing directly at the ground.

“Oh Lord who art above,” he started. “Cleanse this world from the filth that looms in the darkness.” Utar’s arms joined together, aimed at the Mandragora. “Show us the light,” he went on. “Bless us with thine holy aura. Help us banish the spawns of darkness.”

All paladins joined in for the last prayer: “May we one day find the righteous path!”

A bright light shone between Utar’s hands. The light instantly intensified, its size multiplied a hundred fold then shot at the Mandragora. The plant hissed and its thorny vines flailed about, hitting the ground in all directions. Raiya swore under her breath and immediately got out of the way.Sam dashed toward the plant and landed a heavy punch on its main body.

Its giant frame was lifted off the ground. Then, as though it had been hit by a sudden gale, its body instantly flew in the air, a hundred feet away. A loud crash was heard in the distance.

‘What terrifying strength!’ Raiya’s eyes widened upon witnessing the power display. She tightened her grip around the staff, holding it in both hands, and waited for the paladins to come. She’d hoped to reduce their numbers more. She didn’t want to waste her energy on the first wave. She was sure more would come before the Covenant decided to intervene.

Sam was the first to charge her, despite Utar’s orders to fall back.

“Presumptuous!” Raiya shot at the young man who was but a few feet away from her.

Sam quickly reached the warlock and swung a heavy punch toward her. A loud clank was heard as the young man’s punch hit the metallic staff. There was no sudden gale, not propelling force. Earth cracked below the two but the warlock didn’t move. She smiled then swung her staff, whose color had become bright red now, at the young man’s head.

“NO!” Utar yelled and pulled his arms toward him, as though he was holding an invisible rope. Sam’s body was pulled away at the last possible second. The swing missed him by an inch but the resulting shockwave almost obliterated him. Sam landed in his master’s arms, blood seeping from his nose and his entire body glowing bright red.

“You’ve given him a gift of power!” Raiya exclaimed.

“Stupid!” Utar yelled at the boy who was now lying on the ground, somewhere between consciousness and deep slumber. “Get up and stabilize your breathing! Break rank again and you shall answer to His Eminence!”

Sam obeyed. He shot a terrified look at the warlock then retreated behind the trees.

“Attack!” Utar ordered and the paladins charged.

The first one to reach the warlock swung his great sword at her, targeting her ribs. She easily deflected the attack then drove the end of her metallic stick at the man’s breastplate, which cracked then broke into tiny pieces. Raiya’s staff glowed purple before she swung it at the paladin. The latter was propelled in the air with such force that it intimidated the rest, which stopped right on their tracks. The unlucky paladin was out of sight in a second.

“What’s the matter, Dhobor’s finest warriors?” Raiya called out to them, her red lips curled in a mocking smile. “Afraid to take on a woman?”