Xellie wished Mattos luck in finding more information in the Devil’s library, then she set off through the busy town, weaving her way through the crowds, through to the quieter northern streets that led to her villa.

Raye probably wouldn’t give any useful advice or information, but it couldn’t cause any harm to ask. The worst that would happen would be a snarky comment about needing help.

She pushed open the heavy back door to the villa and called out,

“Raye?”

Raye didn’t answer, instead, a ball of lightning shot out of the door and threw Xellie backwards across the yard.

“How did you get in here!?” Xellie claimed, picking herself up, slipping a shaking hand to her sword at her waist.

“You have other concerns.” Deena rasped as she walked out of the door into the yard. “Maybe ones such as how to stay alive?”

“I’m not scared of you!” Xellie retorted. “Your magic is weak compared to the real Deena!”

“I... am... the real Deena....” Deena’s voice was extremely malicious. “You got me killed, remember?”

“Well.. I....” Xellie stuttered as she thought back to that day in the cave in Trebu. “You know it wasn’t intended.”

“It was only a matter of time because of what you are.” Deena stated harshly, raising her hand in front of her, lightning crackling in her palm. “You will suffer.”

“What happened to you?” Xellie asked, one eye on the lightning ball forming, whilst considering if she would be able to avoid it. Probably not, she concluded.

“You know enough.” Deena snorted, hurling the ball of lightning at Xellie, keeping her palm outstretched so that a bolt of lightning coming from her hand continued to feed the ball.

The lightning ball hit Xellie in the stomach, she fell to her knees gasping as the electricity surged through her. It wasn’t especially strong, just enough to paralyze her from moving.

Deena tilted her head to one side, a small, faint smile on her lips. With a flick of her wrist, she increased the power of her lightning magic for a moment, throwing Xellie backwards across the sandy yard.

As the electricity faded away, Xellie crawled onto her hands and knees trembling. There was very little she could do in the face of Deena’s magic, even though Deena seemed to be holding back.

“Are you done already?” Deena said with a sneer. “Stand up.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Xellie answered, gasping as she got to her feet.

Without warning, Deena shot Xellie with another lightning bolt, causing her to drop to the floor once more as her legs gave way.

“Heh. This is too easy.” Deena was smug and seemed to be contemplating what to do next.

Xellie was also considering her next move. She couldn’t get close to Deena without being electrocuted into submission, so perhaps she needed to make Deena come to her. This fight could become a matter of life or death any time that Deena chose it to. Feeling her heart sink at this realization, Xellie subtly slipped her hand down to her sword.

“It’s either a demon or she’s been reanimated,” Xellie told herself, trying to justify what she was about to do next.

Deena looked on quizzically as Xelle fell forward, prone on the floor, eyes closed.

Xellie held her breath as she listened for Deena’s footsteps in the sand, her heart beating so loudly that she almost missed it. Despite having her eyes closed, Xellie was able to notice that it had become darker. Deena’s shadow must be blocking the light! Snapping her eyes open, Xellie reached out with her left hand and grabbed Deena’s leg, pulling her down onto the floor.

Taken by surprise Deena attempted to get to her feet, but Xellie pinned her down with her left arm across Deena’s chest, her sword drawn, sparkling with energy in the other hand.

“I don’t want to hurt you Deena.” Xellie said, pointing the tip of her sword at Deena’s chest. “But. I can’t risk the fact that you might be a demon.”

Deena responded by shoving a lightning-filled hand into Xellie’s ribs and pushing her off. Caught unawares by Deena’s attack, Xellie swung her sword as she fell to the ground, striking Deena in the shoulder.

Xellie stood up, holding her sword out before her, and pointed at the injured Deena who sat on the floor feeling her injured shoulder in disbelief. Although the sword had shattered Deena’s grey pauldron and torn a gaping wound into her body, there was no blood.

“What the...?”

Before Xellie could finish her thought, a thunderous tearing sound filled the air. What appeared to be a large rip in the air next to Deena opened up, revealing behind it a dark, ruined world.

Out of the tear stepped a tall lanky man in white robes, with slick greying hair.

“TANE?!” Xellie exclaimed.

Tane gave a half-hearted wave in the form of a greeting as he helped Deena to her feet.

“This simply won’t do.” Tane said, his voice smug, making eye contact with Xellie. “We’ll be back, but next time we’ll be hauling you back to Ashmeviti.”

“So THAT’S what this is about?!” Xellie asked incredulously. “Of course, you would go and work for a demon lord.”

“Because you are you,” Tane answered with a shrug guiding Deena through the tear, turning back to add - “I’d be careful if I were you.”

The tear closed up behind Tane, leaving no trace that it has ever been there.

“NO!” Xellie screamed, throwing the sword where Tane had been moments ago. “WHY?!”

Fully armoured, Raye materialized and laid a hand comfortingly on Xellie’s shoulder.

“I... hate... you,” Xellie muttered under her breath before turning to Raye and launching herself at the Valkyrie in a fury, trying to push her to the ground. “I HATE YOU! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!”

Unphased by this Raye didn’t move, she just stood patiently until Xellie exhausted herself looking down slightly saddened.

“If I was normal... this wouldn’t happen.” sniffed Xellie, feeling a little embarrassed at having acted in such a way in front of Raye.

“Well, there are bigger things out there,” Raye replied matter-of-factly. “... but I am sorry this is difficult for you.”

She doesn’t really seem to understand or have much empathy, Xellie thought to herself wondering if Raye’s coldness was due to her being a Valkyrie or just a personality quirk.

“You need not worry about killing your friend,” said Raye. “She is already dead, most likely reanimated by negative emotions through Ashmeviti’s power. The kindest thing you could do is free her soul if indeed she is actually trapped inside that body.”

“By killing her?” Xellie asked despairingly. “Isn’t there another way?”

“It’s arrogant to assume that one who fights wants to win. Besides, you may not have a choice, if it comes down to killing a corpse or being captured for nefarious purposes that could be quite destructive to the world... What would you do then?”

“I suppose,” Xellie said with a heavy-hearted sigh. “What about Tane then?”

“He’s alive, human and doing this out of his own volition. You’ll have to settle it with him.”

“Hey, Raye?” Xellie asked. “When you hide among humans you’re a priestess, right?”

“Yes - I can enchant your tunic to protect you against magic, give it to me.”

“Thank you,” Xellie replied, slipping her tunic off and handing it to Raye. “I’ll be inside.”

“I need to take it to Asvord, you’re going to need a stronger-than-average spell to deal with this situation.” Raye told her, vanishing abruptly.

Flopping down on the dusty sofa inside the boarded-up villa, Xellie lay on her back and stared up at the ceiling.

Sure, Niko had mentioned that Tane was ‘bad’ now, but she hadn’t expected to actually have to fight her former best friend. An argument, sure. A battle to the death against her former friend powered up by a demon lord? She hadn’t expected that.

They had been close. Perhaps closer than just friends. Xellie had always looked up to Tane as a stand-in big brother when Niko wasn’t there. Eventually, Tane had pushed her away, albeit gently, in favour of spending time with Deena - but he had always continued to be there for her up until Deena’s death.

“As much as I wanted things to work out with you... l... couldn’t deal with you constantly vanishing and not knowing if you’d come back walking... or in a box... or at all.”

Tane had said such things, but yet, he had turned against her so much that he would work for Ashmeviti. It seemed unbelievable. It also raised the question, did Tane know about her heritage? He sure seemed to have hinted at it.

“Why...?” she whispered into the air. “Do I really deserve this?”

“I’m still here. I’ll always be here for you, even when Niko isn’t, or when nobody else quite understands.”

“Such lies,” Xellie told herself fiercely, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “Why would he lie about that? Why do people do that?”

“I’m not disturbing you am I?” Raye asked, standing at the door. “I can leave you to sulk for a while longer if you like.”

“I’m done,” Xellie said sitting up. “Did you do it?”

Raye handed Xellie her tunic, cleaned and repaired, not a trace of the burnt patches and holes that had appeared due to her encounters with Deena.

“It will absorb a good amount of magic,” Raye told her. “Not all of it, unfortunately, I could only give you a human-level enchant, so you still need to be careful.”

“Thanks.” Xellie slipped the tunic on and then turned her attention to other matters. “Raye, do you know of a place called Lafayein?”

“I... uh...” Raye looked extremely confused. “It is... no... wait... no....” She grasped at her head as if she was in great pain. “No... no...” Raye gasped. “I can’t...”

“Are you okay?” Xellie reached out to the Valkyrie as Raye fell to her knees, burying her head in her hands and beginning to sob. “Raye!”

“I don’t know it...” Raye murmured. “I feel as if I should know...”

“It’s okay to not know things!” Xellie exclaimed kneeling next to Raye. “Don’t feel...”

Raye vanished.

“...So bad about it... what the heck just happened?”

“Don’t ever mention that place to Raye again.” Vella’s voice sounded out crossly as she materialized cross-legged on the sofa. “You are too much trouble.”

“Why?” Xellie responded irately, annoyed by Vella’s tone.

“Because I said so!” Vella snapped back. “If you give even half a damn about Raye, past using her by trying to gain our powers so you can play hero for humans, you’ll not do things that cause her undue stress.”

“I don’t get why a place name stresses her out. It was just a question.”

“Ugh.” Vella snorted gesturing angrily. “Humans are such idiots. You don’t need to know why, just stop depending on her for every little thing.”

“How am I supposed to know?!” Xellie exclaimed. “I don’t know what will and won’t upset her before I ask the question! It’s not as if I’m asking things that I deliberately know will cause a problem!”

“Then stop asking things!” Vella retorted. “I don’t want to have to clean up another mess that you make. She put her life on the line so you could even be alive. Show some gratitude!”

Vella disappeared leaving Xellie standing alone in the villa, her emotions running high. She clenched her fists tightly and tensed up her whole body as she attempted to process everything that had happened so far today.

Unable to hold it in, she gave out a scream and gave the sofa a kick with all her might. Then she broke down on the sofa and buried her head in her hands.