No'alan is the elven patron of dark magics. He is the husband to Rúloaña daughter of Elöthian and is a minor power to the elven people. In times of desperation his wife will come to him for his mastery of the darker forms of the Art and he and his clergy are often called upon to deal with the machinations of the other pantheons, particularly the Althaen Pantheon. He is however not considered an evil god and contrary to outsider speculation never sided with the Jailia in her attempt to take over the throne of the Elvenhan. In fact, he is the one who informed the Elvenhan how to disrupt the rites that Jailia had turned to for power. It was for this deed that Elöthian finally accepted his marriage to Rúloaña after they had eloped to escape her father’s wrath for the then ‘defiling’ of his daughter.

Damû

The Ravnos child has been both interesting and confusing to watch. I cannot fathom how some of his powers work, I know he can do them and how the forces that appear out of nowhere according to his will react with the world just as the Ravnos I met before the disjunction, but they break basic rules that all other forms of magic that I’ve encountered have. The only exception to that is the divine magic used by the gods, but their power is fueled by faith and is simply an energy that I cannot sense and cannot measure in any accurate way aside from a rough count of followers and devotion of those followers. Even they have limits, but the boy does not seem to.

He casts his strange magics at all times of the day yet never get tired nor does he seem to weaken over time. Even compared to the Ravnos I have met before he does not fit the same pattern as they. They had power that was at most equal to their skill while the boy has far more power than skill. He has the power to fuel massive and intricate changes to the world around him but does not go far beyond crude healing and blasts of power. A waste of the power of his family, but unfortunately, I cannot just take the boys power for myself. Even if I had not given my word, I know of no way to take it from him. Body possession and Spirit Eating have both proven to be failures before the disjunction by a few of my ‘peers’.

No, if I want to benefit from the boy’s powers I will have to use him as a carefully handled tool. Mold him to grow stronger and vastly improve his skills while pointing him in the direction of those I loathe. Vexing to have to do even though it is the same as what I do with my experiments. At least he does know enough to not through his full force into just any of his crude magic. Then there is the type of dragon, or draconian? they do tend to exaggerate their draconinity, he is; I have spent a considerable amount of time going through the text I do have on dragons and still lack one that matches close enough in description.

Atavistic Black and Shadow are close in appearance, but he does not show the elemental affinities for them. I have seen no shadow, water or earth magic and all the fire has been from either his Ravnos magic or variations of standard evocation magic practiced by the Bloodclaw. Until only recently I had not seen much of anything that could be considered draconic magic. Overheard his pet draconian explain things that should be instinctive to him yes, but not once had he succeeded in anything she directed him to try before running out of his internal mana pool. A pity that he has not been able to combine his crude healing with whatever alterations need to be made to allow draconic blood magic.

His mana is also very low for a draconic creature, a downside to the hybridization between Ravnos and whatever form of dragon he is? Should I simply ask his pet draconian? She fears him and seems to know what he is. No, she would likely end up asking me to escort her to her home. Taking one of his pets from him would be a poor choice. An angry child does not do what you want if it is mad at you. I also wonder if he will leash her and the elven girls as well as he has the werewolf and kitsune.

I also cannot help but think that I have been missing something, that I have seen the boy and two of his followers before, but I cannot place it. I need to be careful, if it was something that ‘wronged’ him I cannot let him know it. The boy is a young fool, but he is still a powerful young fool. I do not want to test if his crude power can overwrite my immortality. I know a fully trained Ravnos could, at least one skilled in their version of death magic and I have not seen him give any indication of his skill in that field.

His plan of acting as a distraction for the others to infiltrate and disable the encampment is flawed but a good try for a boy that has clearly little to no training in this field. Does he suspect he can break the wards they have with his Ravnos magic or is he betting on them being unprepared for an aerial attack from a dragon? Did he not consider that they should have at least some dragon’s bane weaponry?

There are many things that could turn his plan into a disaster that gets the boy killed, though the Church of the Holy One does seem to be grossly underestimating the boy. Even with the information that they gathered in the one attack they have performed, they will not have an easy time dealing with him if he does not make a serious mistake.

I glance over towards the small fortress of wood and stone, should I begin my own attack? The boy’s lightning is doing a decent job of draini. . .

A pillar of white-blue lightning crashes down, the world goes silent for a moment before my ears heal as a shockwave of thunder knocks me to the ground.

I blink away the purple afterimage for several seconds as I get back up.

I need to re-evaluate just how much power that boy has. . .

Bryan

I and the others stand just a few yards from where Kylana says the wards of the Althaen fort begin, waiting for Adrian’s signal or the start of dusk in roughly half an hour. Abagail is the only one who will not be taking part and I cannot deny the others logic for forcing her to stay in the woods alone. She is not ready for fighting and has done little to redeem herself in their eyes over the week.

That she has been getting sicker and sicker over the week confirms another of my worries. Whatever that wolf version of me did to her passed lycanthropy to her. I knew it was bound to happen at some point but had hoped that she would have corrected her viewpoint before she caught it. I can only hope that her encounter with her own inner beast helps rather than pushes her further into her hatred of everyone else here.

I glance over to Analais asking if it is time to start silently, but he only shakes his head. I take a breath not wanting to just stand here while I can see Adrian flying in a lightning storm. I should be helping him, somehow.

[Don’t act like that is your only reason]

I look around, not knowing how I heard my own voice.

[It’s almost the new moon, mind if I come out to play? There’ll be enough shadows. . . ]

Moon? Wait is this voice . . .

[What? Don’t want to talk?]

I’ve been trying to talk to you for days, why did you only now. . .

[You wanted to talk about boring stuff. I don’t want to talk about ‘Don’t torment the tiny female’ or ‘You need to behave yourself’.]

Chasing her through the woods for hours while inflicting minor wounds is not something that you should do.

[Why? You want to try it but. . .]

I would never. . .

[You can’t lie to me. I know you want to try it someday. Your just too loyal and faithful to your morals.]

I, I don’t want. . .

[Why then did you read those crappy fanfictions for their smackdowns? They certainly didn’t make sense in how the story didn’t change.]

[See you can’t hide from me. So how about letting me go on the bloody rampage you oh so desperately want to do.]

Aren’t you supposed to be quiet and weak around the new moon?

[Probably but you messed that up turning yourself into a living shade the night before I finished forming. So how about it? Let me go torture some paladins please.]

You can’t just. . .

[Why? They are fanatic equivalents to an Inquisitor going on with hunts. They would torture us to death if they could, returning the favor is how the Golden Rule works.]

Do unto others as you would have them do into you is the Golden Rule. I don. . .

[They torture heretics to death, they clearly want to be tortured to death by someone who disagrees with their religion.]

That is not the meaning of. . .

[But it is a valid interpretation of it. Besides you know you aren’t ready to deal with those knights.]

And you are? You’re literally two weeks old. How could you possibly be more ready than me?

[Easy, I’m an inner beast. I instinctively know how to do things. Don’t you want to see what you have the innate power to do?]

Why aren’t you trying to just take over?

[Wrong moon, I could try but whoever wins would be spending most of their concentration on suppressing the other.]

Then no, you’re too destructive and sadistic for me to trust you with this.

[Fine, I’ll just wait and take over after you get your ass handed to you on the end of . . .]

A crash of thunder and light far brighter than any of the others thus far leaves my ears ringing but one look from Analais and everyone else is moving forward.

Somehow, we manage not to cough on the smoke from whatever it is that Adrian did as we run into the small fortress. The outer wooden walls burning or missing and the few men who are still alive on the surface in no condition to fight.

I can’t however help but wonder how Adrian managed to cause such a discharge of electricity. We spread out ending what few still living we do find. Step one is to secure ground level. Two was the above ground sections but I don’t think that’ll be necessary anymore; at least not for the auxiliary buildings.

I only catch a glimpse of Adrian for a moment as he blasts a pile of debris out of the entrance to the main building before entering.

“Secure the higher floors with Ragnan” Analais says as he Alana and Kylana pass me and run into the main building.

Ragnan

The runt I have no respect for sends me with the shadow yearling. A weak human that took the bite, he might have survived the Gift, but he is impure. He and his wolf are not like the true members of the pack

I don’t accept him as a pack brother even if mother and the runt had me give him the bite myself. Still, I allow him to go before me as if he were leading as the two of us begin to wander the stone halls.

I would rather follow sister, at least she is strong. She knows how to fight and has great strength. I can even accept the lizard male, he is strong and went through all the rites to be part of the pack before taking the bite. But this male does not deserve it and his human female does not deserve to be even prey.

It has been generations since the Bloodclaw have been out for man-prey though today is the start of a new one. Darkfang liked the taste of man-flesh but mother says not to let my soul-brother feast too much on it.

Eventually the yearling leads us into a fight, a trio of Althaen soldiers that panic at the very sight of us. Unfortunately for the yearling, they loose their crossbows as soon as they see him. And he is too young, too recently turned and it is too close to the new moon; the bolts puncture the tunic of metal rings.

At first, I smile, but after a second rather than falling to the floor and dying as he should have the yearling begins to laugh before saying “my turn.”