The next morning came quickly, but at the same time, agonizingly slow. I had slept restlessly, worried sick about Callie. She’s a very strong demon, I could feel it and see it in her aura, but she didn’t know how to use her powers, whatever they were. I had no doubt in her; she was fierce, smart, and determined, but at the same time, I knew she was currently at the mercy of someone who had been planning for centuries. Now that I knew and acknowledged that I cared for her, it was on a conscious level that I worried for her. I just needed to make sure she was alright.

“You all ready?” Hazuzu asked the group.

We had assembled, ready to start searching the most likely places where Zaavi’s hideout might be. Hazuzu could open a portal wide enough for a handful of people, which while was still a massive show of power, limited our forces greatly. We would send out the search reconnaissance team, see if Callie’s presence was there, and then return to regroup and plan our attack. The team was simply Hazuzu, Sage, and me. Hazuzu, because he had to make the portal, Sage, because he could cast the spell to sense her presence, and me, because I refused to be left behind. I knew I didn’t bring much to the party except for a determination to find Callie, but both Hazuzu and Sage seemed to see my desperation and vouched for me. The Queen had agreed hesitantly, a fact which I actively ignored and pretended not to be hurt about.

I realized I hadn’t responded to Hazuzu’s question and looked up to see that Hazuzu and Sage were both standing next to each other, watching me expectantly.

“Uh, yeah, sorry,” I said hurriedly, rushing over to meet them. “Let’s find her.”

Hazuzu didn’t answer, but instead, began to build the portal. The light grew, and at the last second when I couldn’t bear the brightness anymore, I closed my eyes and stepped through with the two of them.

We came out in the middle of a desert wasteland. There was nothing around for miles. The sand lifted in the air, the wind swirling around in turbulent vortices around us. I squinted against the dusty wind.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“The human realm,” answered Hazuzu unhelpfully.

“I thought we were trying to find Callie. Where the fuck would she be, hiding under a pile of sand?”

Sage laughed. “I mean, we can’t rule that out. But there are tunnels below. No need to endanger ourselves if she’s not even there. Let me cast the spell.”

Sage began his process, muttering some foreign words, drawing with his fingers in the air like he had before in the café. This spell should show him Callie’s tracks, if she was anywhere near him. I wasn’t sure how far his radius of influence extended, but he seemed confident that this place was a good starting point. I tried to believe in his confidence, and simply waited.

“Hmm,” he muttered. “I don’t sense her presence. Let’s walk a bit, try it again. But if she were in these tunnels, I should be able to feel her.”

“Try once more, from over there,” Hazuzu said, pointing to a particularly large sand dune. “Aren’t the entrances that direction?”

“You both seem rather familiar with this place,” I grumbled.

“We’ve been here before,” Sage said conversationally as we all made our way towards the supposed entrance to these mystical tunnels. “Hunted a few of Zaavi’s followers, ended up here.”

“You’ve worked together?” I asked, surprised. Sage’s history really was complicated. Obviously, his heritage was unorthodox to begin with, but a demon hunter working with the demon king himself. That really was unprecedented.

“Many times,” chuckled Sage. “Though we had a rocky start, unsurprisingly.”

Hazuzu laughed as well, they exchanged fond looks, their eyes both far away in the past, recounting old memories.

“So, given your uh… genealogy,” I said delicately, “…how did you become a demon hunter?”

“One moment, Tom,” Sage said, waving me off. “We’ve reached a better spot. Let me cast the spell again.”

I waited not so patiently when he cast, his eyes closed as his spell sought out the answers we desperately wanted.

He sighed. “No, I still can’t sense her. I don’t think she’s here. Off to the next,” Sage said, looking to Hazuzu. “Come on old man, don’t be slow.”

I stiffened. But Hazuzu merely laughed again. “I’m immortal, you bastard. Old is relative. You, on the other hand, are a fucking relic.” He gathered his ball of light, generating the portal just as he had before. “Let’s go, grandpa.”

We stepped through the portal again, off to the second most likely place Zaavi might have set up his headquarters.

~

We stepped through, and instead of a swirling, windy desert, we had stepped into a mushy swamp, our feet sinking into the mud up to our knees.

“Ugh, I hate this place,” Hazuzu said. “But I could see why Zaavi would stay here, if he has. No one would come here on purpose.”

I looked around. There was marsh as far as the eye could see.

“There’s not even any buildings here. Don’t tell me there are tunnels under this godforsaken bog.”

“No, but there are illusions, I’m sure,” said Sage. “But I’ll cast the spell for Callie, first. Then we can explore a bit more.”

“Illusions?” I questioned. Hazuzu gave me a look, silently saying he’d explain later.

Sage cast the spell; his process now very familiar as I’d observed it several times now.

“I’m not getting anything here, either” Sage mumbled. “But it could be that there are wards. I sense some sort of magical block.”

“Probably the fucking mud,” Hazuzu said. “It covers up everything and is impossible to get off.”

“Mud?”

“He’s joking,” Sage said, waving my words away. He turned to address Hazuzu. “I paid to replace your shoes years ago. Would you ever let that go?”

“I live a long time, Sage, I can hold a grudge even longer,” Hazuzu said. Despite his angry words, he was smiling. “Those were my favorite boots.”

I shook my head, not even wanting to know. These two had a colorful history.

“Did you both hunt more followers of Zaavi here, too?” I asked, the curiosity winning through my reluctance.

“Not followers of Zaavi, per say,” Hazuzu said. “A bog witch? Yes.”

“Oh,” I said, and although that technically answered my question, it really didn’t. “Uh, okay.”

Sage concentrated closer on his spell, the sweat dripping from his forehead, even though it wasn’t very hot out here. The mists of the bog were a cool, relaxing fog.

“Did you catch the bog witch?”

“Mmm, no,” said Sage, his voice thin and wavery. “She… got away. Long gone.”

Hazuzu just grumbled.

I blinked. There was more to this strange history, but I was afraid to ask more.

“She might be gone but it looks like her wards are still standing. Luckily, I know how to peek around them.”

Sage made more complicated movements with his hands, speaking more foreign words that I didn’t recognize. Whatever magic he was doing, it flew from his fingertips like waves of heat, barely visible, but palpable.

When he finished, a tall house on stilts came into view. The stilts were at least a story high themselves, siting the house high above the bog. There was a wooden ladder that looked a bit iffy, the wood warped and rotted. I had no intention of climbing it. The house itself looked in better shape, but that wasn’t to say it looked good. It was crooked, leaning too far to the right, supported by a tree that grew right up through it.

“I’ll cast the spell again now, and if she’s in there, or if she’d been there, we’ll know,” Sage said wisely. “But this definitely doesn’t look like the place Zaavi’s been holing up in. He wouldn’t leave it unprotected like this.”

I agreed. For one, this place was clearly deserted. Unless there was more magic to be uncovered. If there were followers of Zaavi, concealed somehow by illusion magic in the bog… I shivered. I didn’t want to know what might happen to us. I looked to Hazuzu, who simply looked a bit bored. I tried to emulate his apparent lack of concern for the situation. It didn’t work.

Sage cast the spell. “Nope, nothing.” He looked up to us. “She’s not been here. Let’s go.”

“Before we go, I have another question. Or several, rather,” I said. It’d been burning in my mind since we’d started this journey. “How exactly did you two become friends? Or whatever?”

“I’ll make it quick,” Hazuzu said, eyeing Sage. “We’ve a long story to unravel. But the short version is that Sage once was contracted to kill me, but when I realized that Sage was half demon, we ended up making a deal. He would hunt per my request, in return for my secrecy on his heritage.”

“And then you guys just… became friends?”

Hazuzu shrugged. “He’s fun company. My wife didn’t like him being around, though. Always acted strange.”

Sage stared off into the distance, avoiding us both.

I turned back to Hazuzu. “Do you mean… Callie’s mother?” Somehow, it hadn’t even occurred to me to ask about her.

Hazuzu’s face turned sad, his mouth twisted into a thin line. “She left me on several occasions. I don’t speak of her often.”

Sage cleared his throat in an attempt to ease the awkward tension. “Those are questions for another time, I think. Shall we go?”

“I’m… sorry I brought that up,” I said.

“It’s alright,” Hazuzu shrugged. “It’s been a long time. Charybdis and I… I love her, but she never seemed to feel the same way, always fighting against me. I think she resented me…”

“Anyway,” Sage interjected, deftly changing the subject. “Let’s move on to the next place. I’ve a good feeling about it.”

“I appreciate you trying to improve my mood,” Hazuzu said to Sage as he began to create the portal again.

Again, we stepped through.

~

This time, we were on the cliff of a mountain, not unlike the ones Callie and I had crossed under. Looking around, I realized… it was exactly those mountains. We weren’t too far from the capitol, from diamond lake, from the hell portal. If I squinted, I think I could even see the capitol from here.

“The mountains? Really?” I asked. “We could’ve gone here first.”

“The portal doesn’t care how far away things are,” Hazuzu said. “We went to the most likely places first.”

“Alright, well I don’t see anything. Could she be in the caverns?”

“Possibly,” Sage replied. “Since you traveled through there, I’d definitely be able to sense tracks from then. That would make this more difficult. But I don’t think Zaavi would take refuge in the caves. That’s where he’s been trapped, this whole time. The passage was sealed off magically, with spelled boulders.”

I thought of the blocked cavern that we encountered. Had we really been traipsing around Zaavi’s prison that entire time? How unnerving.

“There’s an abandoned castle on a peak on the other end of the range. It’s not visible from here, hides within the mountains themselves. If he’s anywhere, he’d be there. Hazuzu, can you get us within range?”

Hazuzu nodded, and with another flash of light that I’d never really get used to, we were now perched on a father away section of the mountain range.

Sage prepared to cast the tracking spell again. “Thanks. Now, if she’s there…”

He fell silent, working his magic. While I waited, I squinted and tried to see what castle Sage had been talking about. I still couldn’t see anything, even though it should be much closer now, but I trusted in Sage’s abilities.

Sage’s eyes flew open wide.

“She’s here.”

“What?!” I whisper-shouted. “Where?”

“In the castle. We can get closer, and I can narrow down her location.” He looked to the demon king. “Hazuzu?”

Hazuzu nodded, generating the portal again.

“Be careful, and discreet,” Sage warned.

“Obviously,” Hazuzu said, rolling his eyes.

We stepped through the bright light again and onto another ledge. This time, we were able to see the castle. The stone was the same as the mountains, blending into the steep ridges of the peaks. Snow tipped some of them, but where the castle was, there was little to none. A couple of towers dotted the side, equally distributed. We were too far away to see if anyone walked the parapets, or if any demons guarded the castle, but we knew they were there. Smoke rose from a chimney, as if someone was cooking in a large oven. This castle was definitely inhabited. Parts of the architecture had fallen apart, crushed by a rockslide. It looked like it had been partially mended, or at least closed off. This castle had been abandoned, then taken up by these followers of Zaavi. And Callie was in there.

My panic rose, picturing her tied up in a dungeon, being tortured. They could be starving her, hurting her, killing her slowly… and I didn’t even want to think of what sort of magical torture they could be doing. I have no idea what Zaavi is capable of. Hazuzu and Sage carefully examined the towers, the castle, every bit of rock damage, where the entrances might be. This was a reconnaissance mission, and according to Sage’s spell, we’d found her. I had to get to her. I eyed the mountain scape, trying to plan a path to the castle… maybe I could scale that part right there, slide down, shimmy over to that ledge, and climb it… I subconsciously took several steps towards my intended path.

Hazuzu grabbed me roughly and held me back. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said.

“You can read minds??”

“No dumbass, your thoughts are plain on your face and in your actions. You can’t go after her by yourself.”

“You sounded just like Callie right then,” I grumbled as I tried to wrestle myself free, but his grip was too strong.

“Zaavi is a talented and powerful demon sorcerer. He has legions of demons under his command. We will have to be smart for this to work. Which does not include you attempting to get in there and getting yourself killed. Understand?”

“Let go,” I mumbled.

“Promise you’re not going to act like an idiot?”

“I promise. Now let go!”

He complied, eyeing me carefully.

“I can find her,” Sage said, interrupting our little conversation. “She’s definitely in the castle. But Zaavi has wards around the place. Time to regroup.”

Hazuzu’s glare burned into me. “You sane enough to agree to regroup?”

I nodded.

“We’ll have to be smart,” Sage said to us both, “but we will succeed.”

Hazuzu created the portal once more. I stepped through with my head turned back, watching the castle, where Callie was, where she had to be.

“I’ll be back for you,” I whispered, a promise both to myself, and to her.

The blinding light of the portal shut out everything else.