Before my mind could start processing what just happened, Vaughn directed me out quickly, saying that Levi had only left a few seconds before I arrived.

I was walking briskly in the direction he pointed, my cowl drawn, but my mind was still in the meeting room. All this time, Eliora was there, and apparently no one else but this unfortunate half-breed could see her. What was her objective in all this? This situation was getting more and more absurd every time I learned something.

“Levi,” I said, placing a hand on his shoulder to further capture his attention.

“Oh, hey Emily. What do you need?” he asked, continuing to stroll.

I looked around a little to ensure the already few people out on the dirt streets didn’t pay attention to us and softened my voice, “What do you know of a magic door with a chest inside it?” I questioned and it almost jarred him out of existence. He stopped, held onto my hand and opened a portal somewhere.

I was in an unrecognisable jungle, but still in the Gale Islands somewhere. Levi on the other hand was nowhere to be found, although he clearly passed through the portal as he was the one who pulled me into it.

“I told no one about that place,” I heard his voice, but it felt like it came from all directions. Pinpointing where it came from was impossible. “And I know damned well there no longer exists any mages with the ability to find it,” his voice slipped into a cutthroat tone, “so tell me, how do you know of that place?”

Is it his personal study? No, can’t be. Otherwise the vision wouldn’t have showed us sneaking into it. He’d just walk in like he owned the place. “I had a dream. That’s all. More importantly, you want that chest open, don’t you?”

“Can you, open it?” his murderous voice suddenly vanished and now the sound of a haggler emerged.

“Probably,” I shrugged, “do we have a deal? You take me there, I open it.”

“Fine,” he appeared behind me suddenly, “at midnight, we’ll meet in the council room.”

Must be desperate to get that box open, I thought. For him to agree so easily, he probably tried and failed to unlock it himself.

We parted ways for just a few hours and met up at midnight. The elusive boy opened a portal to another place covered in heavy forestry. A lone cabin with dimmed lights hid skilfully in the midst. “This place is another Gale Island,” Levi informed in a whispery voice, and casted a subtlety spell on me.

“What kind of mage are you?” I asked, mimicking his whisper.

“Stealth, illusion, deception and the like. I gather information. A spy if you will,” he said, not at all reluctant to. We finally got to the door weld shut by magic. “Get comfortable,” he advised and took well near an hour to unlock the door.

“Why did it take so long?”

“This door, has a locking mechanism that resembles a maze. To unlock it, the user must pass an extremely small amount of magic through it and find the exit, however, if you hit a dead end, the whole maze changes. To this day I’ve never met a lock so complex.”

“Oh,” I said, not fully grasping how frustrating it must be but understanding where his occasional grunts of irritation were coming from. Finally, we entered this mysterious place and just like my dream had shown, there was a little chest smack dab in the middle of the room, on a table surrounded by books. The floor was covered in pages of literature, books, magic circles and runes. The wall couldn’t even be seen because bookshelves hid it well. This person was an avid researcher, but what was the research subject, I wonder?

“Go ahead,” he pointed, “open it and let’s get out of here.”

I walked forth, but I felt like something was barking at me, screaming for my attention at the side of my eye. Choosing to ignore it, I focused on the chest and laid my hand on the wooden surface. A strong, extremely familiar presence engulfed my body and I was frozen in place. I know this feeling. Eblis! Why did I feel his presence when I touched the box? My body came to its senses after a while, and I picked up this black chest, inspecting it. “Levi, I, have no idea how to open this,” I admitted and his jaw flopped open.

“How?! How can you not know?! Dammit, woman! Just grab it and let’s go!” he quarrelled, a much justified argument. But my intrigue to the box clamped my feet in place and my mind remained curious to the contents. I slipped some shadow magic into it, and so simply, the lid popped open. His jaw dropped once again and he paced over to me to feast his eyes on, a ball?

“What is it?” he inquired, gazing upon it.

“I, don’t kn–” it suddenly came to me. I saw this orb before, it’s night sky exterior with almost transparent black spots was a giveaway. This was the very orb I saw in the grimoire, the one I needed to summon Apollyon! But, the problem now was convincing Levi to let me have it, or so I thought.

“Listen, I need this bec–”

“Take it,” he replied sharply. Well, that was simpler than I imagined. “I’m getting a real bad feeling from that thing, I don’t want it. Let’s just leave this place.”

We began rambling for the exit, but that feeling struck me again, demanding my attention. I looked in its direction finally, then to Levi. He didn’t seem to sense whatever it was. On getting closer I realised there was a scroll lying atop a lining of books. I grabbed that too without looking too much at it and we made for the exit once again.

He re-casted the spell for the lock and we left hurriedly. We teleported our separate ways. I went back to Eblis’ mountain this time. In my hand was this orb, and in my pocket was a scroll that wanted me to read it for some reason. But running through my head was the identity of that cabin’s owner.

I quickly shrugged it off and began reading my grimoire once again, drawing up this circle with the help of an arcane light above to repel the enshrouding darkness. After I made preparations, I placed the orb in the middle and casted my metamorphosis, just in case this Apollyon was less than obedient to my will.

Here goes… “Answer my call, Destroyer!” I commanded exactly as in the text instructed to and channelled magic into the circle and runes. Shadow magic flowed out the orb, “I answer your call, master,” it said, my cue for the final words. This was the first time I needed special incantations to cast a spell. It relayed exactly how powerful this being was.

“Take form, my servant, Apollyon,” I gave the finishing words, instructing exactly what I wanted from him.

He began taking shape, Eblis’ only creation, the Destroyer, Apollyon. Two horns protruded upright from his forehead and from their base, black blood-like trickles of shadow energy ran down and covered his pale skin. It looked like it mimicked the network of arteries, veins and nerve endings in humans, forming a pattern similar to that of lightning’s erratic bends and turns. The demon’s eyes were plain black, I’d no idea where he was looking. His short, spiky hair, as black as the magic strands that covered his body, seemed alive, literally moving, albeit slowly and without rhythm.

His right hand wielded an ivory sword, simplicity in its finest. It seemed light enough to easily handle with one hand whilst his other hand, the one with constant shadow magic circling around it would end his enemies from afar. At least that’s what I assumed. I’d no idea how he would fight.

“Who are you?” I asked, just to ensure things worked as they should.

“Apollyon, the Destroyer, master,” he answered, a little more robotically than I imagined.

“Who do you serve?”

“Emily Crescent,” he repeated the name written in the circle as expected.

“Who are the ones able to summon you as of now?”

“Eblis. Emily Crescent.”

“Do you know who had this orb before?”

“No,” he said flatly, what a bummer.

“Then, can you tell me the purposes of the orb?”

“The Orb of Eblis was originally created by God to aid Eblis. It may also be used by ones that aren’t Eblis to summon either me or Eblis, or to boost the potency of one’s shadow magic.”

He knows more than I thought. I rubbed my chin like Chiron in wonder, “What are the purposes of Eliora’s staff?” I inquired, going full-on investigator.

“The Staff of Eliora was designed to aid Eliora in creating and sustaining life,” so that’s how it can build homes and produce food.

Beholding Apollyon gave me an idea of how powerful he was and when I should play a card like him. I’d say he was equal to my metamorphosed power. But no spells or transformations I’d used so far was anywhere near as strong as the absolute strength the black pill gave me. I was still surprised I survived it.

It was late, and Eblis’ pool looked so tempting, so I gave Apollyon his first task, the underwhelming duty of waking me up at sunrise. The minute I touched the pool, sleep entranced me.

In what felt like a few minutes, I was being carried out of the pool. Apollyon did his job, a little too well. Not that I was tired, but I sure wished I slept more.

The scroll I snatched last night caught my attention when I was putting my clothes on. I rolled open its contents to find that it was blank. “What?” I asked in slight confusion, flipping the scroll to the backside then to the front again, where is the tex–

Suddenly, the paper ignited, flames engulfing it, but it didn’t burn at all. None of it was harmed in any such way. As abruptly as the flames appeared, it vanished, leaving script burnt into the scroll. Why would anyone go through such lengths to show this to me? It read a very simple message.

‘The truth lies in the Hearth.’

“The Hearth?” I mumbled, “Emberscale then,” and concluded that the home of the salamanders held this truth.

I teleported to Emberscale quickly and looked down at the weakened heart of the volcano. For some flight control, I casted metamorphosis and levitated downwards into the scorching magma. Living armour covered me from head to toe before I even touched it. The deeper I sank, the cooler it felt, which really told me this was no normal volcano.

“Emily,” I heard a voice call my name, just the ring to it set my mind at ease, which in turn, made me a little uneasy. “My time is limited, so listen carefully,” she said, “the key to defeating Eblis, the demon, if he is ever summoned, is light magic, shadow’s natural deterrent. If light cannot be used, then draconic magic is the next best thing, but it is not as effective.

“If you wish to stop him without effort, then find the staff of Eliora.” I realised now whose voice this was, and why it soothed me so. It was my mother, relaying this message to me. She explained the staff was an artefact created by god that housed yet another artefact, the orb of Eblis. These two, together, controlled and balanced life and death, but when separated, the user had a clearer, more direct use of the light and shadow magic schools. The fact that they were together repressed their powers to maintain balance.

“There was an event called the ‘Severance’ in old texts. It spoke of the first time the staff and orb were separated. Eblis wanted greater power, and would claim the orb as his own, pulling it from the staff. After this, it was said that God banished the greedy angel away from anything living so that he may see the wrong of his ways. But Eblis’ hatred for his creator only grew greater, and the dark nature of the orb corrupted him. As a contingency, God granted the staff an extra function, to control shadow magic, in the case that Eblis attempted to leave his sealed realm.”

My ears were cocked, but my brain was somewhat wandering off. Questions were pilfering my brain of its attention, waning my focus. “But nothing happened,” she said anticlimactically, flat-lining any questions I had. “Eliora, after eons of service, laid her title to rest. Like retirement. Centuries later, the orb, which was hidden away in the Gale Islands was found by Chiron, according to his journal. The staff, somewhere in the Crag, was found, but there was no way of accessing it.”

Wait, I only just found the staff. So, twenty years ago when Eblis was summoned, the Summoner had no control.

“If it isn’t already clear,” mother’s voice trembled a little, “Chiron is the Summoner. Not some dragon. I don’t know what will happen to me now that I found the truth. He is looking for me. I can only hope he doesn’t do anything to you. Honey, stay clear of him. Don’t accept anything from him, especially magical items. He is as crafty as they get.”

I see. The cabin then, is his. It all rushed to me, why the orb was there, why he wanted the staff. He’s the Summoner! However, something bugged me. Why, even being able to control the demon this time around, would he let Eblis kill all those people?

“Be careful, Emily. I love you,” she ended and any residue of her and father’s magic disappeared. I slipped the ring Chiron gave me off immediately, swam out and sat down dejectedly on the crater, gazing at the bright orange magma. It took a while, for me to absorb the gist of what I just learned. It was hard to see him as an enemy, since I had no hatred for the man. Not to mention, if not for him, I wouldn’t have been born in the first place. But, scaling my appreciation for being born, to the ills he did was as clear as day.

Getting the staff became even more important now that I knew its purpose. But how am I to get it if he always carries it around? He won’t hand it over without a fight, so the only way to get it is, when he’s asleep. I was at a loss for what to do, it meant I’d have to return to his cabin and hope to catch him while he’s sleeping. I’d also need Levi to open the door for me.

I stood up and paced about, thinking of how he could lie to me so indifferently. He looked me in the eyes and told me the Summoner was a dragon! It vexed me the more I thought of it. My mind ran on Mandy, contemplating whether or not I should get her as far away from Chiron as I could. But, he still thinks I don’t know the truth yet… I stopped that way of thinking right there. The mere fact the orb of Eblis, something I highly doubt normal humans would even think of touching was snuffed right under his nose and the very specific scroll scribed by mother, that he held onto for all these years could only mean that I took it. No one else would take those two things and leave everything else as they were.

A sigh slamming all the hardships to come escaped my lips. At this point, I assumed he already knew what I did, and that his eyes were peeled for me. I even cut contact from the ring and left it to melt in the volcano; there was no possible way he’d be ignorant of my decisions. It really hurt me, wringing my heart and creeping into my conscience.

“What other lies did I believe, I wonder…”

I picked my two-mindedness off the ground and went back to the Gale Islands and entered the longhouse. Luckily, Chiron was not there at the moment. I held Levi and Vaughn’s hands, pulling them towards me. They were a little startled for the most part. Next was Mandy.

Once I got them close enough, I opened a portal to the outskirts of the capital’s walls and pushed them in before they could react. On those ecru walls was a message I wrote beforehand, telling them to remove anything Chiron might have given them. The last thing I wanted was Chiron snooping in on the conversation. They were a little confused, but in the end, they trusted me enough to do it. I opened yet another portal, to a place I’m sure only I have visited: Aurora’s cave.

“Sorry about that, but it had to be done,” I apologised and incurred some curious stares, “I have something important to tell you all.”

“What is it?” Vaughn inquired, complaining that I picked a bad place to hold a meeting whilst he rubbed his arms.

“I know who the Summoner is.”

The archmage’s eyelids shot up, like he received the biggest shock in his life, then simply returned to its usual aloof gaze, “I can see why you had us come to, whatever this place is,” he breathed out onto his fingers.

“And seeing that you asked us to remove anything that geezer might’ve given us…” Mandy mentioned.

“It can only mean…” Levi continued with an exhausted exhale. At least they got the point.

“You all,” I furrowed my brows, “don’t seem surprised.” Levi and Vaughn gave a light shrug almost simultaneously after glancing at each other.

“I was sneaking into his place a lot. I’d be stupid if I didn’t know where I was. I pretended I didn’t know because, well,” Levi shrugged again, “you’re his niece, y’know?” he smiled in a mischievous way.

“Because of the information he collected,” the archmage shivered, “we suspected him. He also had in his possession, a powerful artefact. Emphasis on ‘had’. Can we not discuss this elsewhere?” he pleaded, at his tolerance’s end.

We departed for a warmer setting, although, I had to maintain a constant barrier around them to protect them from Eblis’ essence floating around. “Question,” Levi interlocked his fingers behind his back and turned around playfully, “are you really part dragon?”

They had their doubts about me as well, and I owed them at least this much if I hoped to convince them about the Summoner’s identity, or rather, if I wanted them to convince them to help me with whatever I had to do. “Yeah, but I can’t exactly prove it.”

“What about demon? Are you like Eblis?” Vaughn Black inquired, walking around me. Mandy kept a close eye on him whilst he performed this medial task. She’d become a little paranoid after we were arrested, and although I knew I didn’t need her protection, I was reassured to have someone so invested in me.

I breathed out and looked Mandy in the eyes. She’d seen the shadowy metamorphosis in the darkness of the night but never in the light of day. The sinister energy began enveloping me until it covered me completely.

“Amazing!” Vaughn walked about me, intrigued purely by his curiosity as a magic practitioner. He put forth his hand and I jumped back a little. “Ah, I don’t think anything will happen to you if I don’t want it to, but I rather not take the chance,” I warned him.

“Yup, that’s that same nasty energy from the orb. You really are a demon, huh?” Levi rubbed his hairless chin, “but,” he stood up from his squatted position after he too finished inspecting me, “what do you want from us? What do you even plan to do?”

I chuckled, “I have no idea.”

Mandy lightly smacked me on the head, living armour surrounding her hand the minute it came in contact with my shadow energy, “At least think about things before you divulge important information like that,” she advised. Truthfully, I wanted them to tell me what I should do.

“This is a very touchy issue. The people revere the old wizard, almost like a god. He saved whatever was left of us after all. What will they do when they realise he himself is the cause to all of this?” Vaughn asked, a question none of us had any sort of answer to.

“Either way,” Levi sat on a nearby rock and brought his hands together, “how exactly do we solve this? Bothering to convince the people is lunacy.”

“Well,” I squatted down next to him and grinned maliciously, “that’s where you come in.”

He looked at me suspiciously, questioning my statement with, “Huh?” Vaughn and Mandy also crept into the realms of stupefaction.

“The staff of Eliora, the ancient artefact,” I exhaled, “it is the answer we seek.” After a couple minutes, they understood that the staff was given the power to directly control shadow magic, albeit unable to produce it, after the Severance. Keen on the uptake, Vaughn questioned why the staff was not created with this ability at first. “Eblis, he wanted to gain more power, more freedom, so he forcefully separated the staff and orb. But after that, he was cast away and the orb’s lingering influence corrupted him until he became the shadow apparition he is now.”

“Oh, boy! Lucky thing I didn’t touch it,” Levi commented playfully. “So, we need the staff,” the stealthy mage pointed out. I nodded, enforcing that all he needed to do was monitor the times that Chiron would go to sleep and notify me. But it seemed that was impossible from the get-go.

“The guy never sleeps,” Levi concreted, saying he’s been spying on him for a couple weeks now. Somehow, the master wizard had accomplished foregoing sleep and substituting it for meditation, which only required half the time. To someone lost in a maze of research, that was a fantastic achievement; to us, only a hindrance. “Well, that’s not a problem, he can’t detect me even when he’s awake,” he boasted, a smug grin on his face.

“Good,” I cupped some sand up and transmuted it into communication rings, “Just say whoever’s name you wish to speak to and it will connect,” I handed them out.

Vaughn laughed, looking at the ring, “You really are his niece,” the archmage put the ring on, “but I’d rather trust a half demon who helps people than a human who summons demons.”

Actually, I can summon a demon too, I chuckled in my mind, preferring to omit that little detail.

“Let’s return in random time intervals,” Mandy suggested, a wise choice to deter suspicion. And so, we did, with Vaughn being the first to head back to the longhouse. Levi left for his personal quarters to prepare.

Even now, I was yet to overcome the reality that I decided to go against my own uncle. Why did he summon Eblis the first time anyway? I wondered. Even if it was for good intentions, after the result that came about, anyone would refrain from attempting such a summoning again. He even put the blame on dragons. Thinking about it now only infuriated me. Winter wasn’t impervious to the sway of human emotions, despite being an esteemed wizard. He was still able to harbour hate. Chiron made him hate dragons, and brought on unnecessary suffering. If not for the grey wizard’s lies, we would not have fought, my father wouldn’t have been imprisoned, Winter would still be alive, the Crag would’ve been untouched. When I thought about the list of things that could’ve been avoided had Eblis not appear at all, it shoved me into reality. But the most extreme result I could think about were those twenty-seven million people dying like flies. I’d only seen a small portion of Venreval, but the people I did meet along the way were kind, modest people.

I decided, after I took hold of Eliora’s staff, I would fully question the man, even if I had to get rough. Besides, had the people known he was the Summoner, his life would be forfeit a thousand times over.

“What are you thinking about?” Mandy derailed my train of thought, her head tilted cutely like a child. I held onto her cheeks and kissed her, deeply. Her eyes never closed, and neither did mine.

“Stay with me a while,” I asked, and she could only nod. I guess I took her by surprise. We sat in the shade of a coconut tree, on the golden sands of the south seas.

Within minutes, my consciousness was warped inside itself. Utt’s Eyes of the Seer felt like a precaution I absolutely had to take before I attempted anything. The vision, once again was not completely straightforward. I saw Eblis, holding something in his hand, then crushing it. Afterward, like the irregularities of dreams, I changed location abruptly, yet inexplicably smooth. There I was, standing above the clouds with this woman in front of me. This time, I didn’t see through my own eyes, like in my dreams at Eblis’ pool, no. I saw myself as a whole, like I was another person looking at myself. The strange woman asked, once more, if I would like to go to her world, then the vision ended.

I was trembling, cold-sweating, like I had a nightmare after I opened my eyes. What, was that? Why am I, scared? Mandy calmed me, telling me to breathe slowly. That recurring dream of the woman made its way into the visions from the Eyes of the Seer. Does this mean, it will actually happen? It wasn’t just a dream? That power Utt passed on to me was as frightening as it was helpful. And for something offering its user a clairvoyance of sorts, it left me feeling even more lost than I was before.

A passing cloud blotted out the sun, darkening the area for a while. I exhaled, gazing at the intermittent sky. Right then, I decided to spend the better half of the day slumbering in Eblis’ pool, with Apollyon on standby. Mandy also came along, her Living Armour wholly taking form to fend off the toxic air in the cave.

Once again, Apollyon carried me out of the pool after Levi tried contacting me through the ring. My mind was clear, focused, uninhibited by any hesitance.

I teleported outside Chiron’s secret study, where Levi ‘enchanted’ me, so to speak, with spells to help me mask my presence. However, all this discretion would be for nought after I saw my meditating uncle. He sat down, his back leaning gently against his bedframe. His hands were joined, resting over the staff of Eliora, which laid on his lap.

Levi explained that the man had never done this before. The staff would be either on the ground next to him or leaned against his bed when he meditated. He definitely didn’t want to have it stolen like the orb was. Taking it without a fight was impossible now, hence my reason to summon Apollyon. Levi absconded immediately, when he noticed the demon and my force field for protection. I stretched my hand forth, nearing the staff. A thin light appeared at the old man’s chest, and not a second after, a huge blast of pure arcane sent me crashing through the walls and outside into the forest, clearing a path with my own uncontrollable body.

I laid on the busted trunk of a tree, my Living Armour cushioning the impacts and keeping me alive. When my dizziness faded, the black-hooded wizard stood on the freshly broken tree stump, looking down at me.

Chiron sighed, “You disappoint me, Emily.”

I stood up, “Do I, now?” and chuckled, “Could you imagine how many people you’ve disappointed, Summoner?”