Chương 316: The Human Race Ch. 10-314 – Bonds and Promises

"How bad was it?" I asked Legion quietly, referring to the hunting they'd been doing... especially the first three 'back-up singers' of Light's. Raise Dead at VII, Resurrection, only required some small remnant of the original body, unlike the lesser spell, and could go back years, not days. A lock of hair in a photo album, that of all the girls with it, was enough to do the spell, although it took two Life Diamonds to power it. I could have spent a Wish, but there were alternatives, so I had not.

Morningfire and Morningflame were recovering in the room beyond together. Azaia was with them for when they awoke, and I was there for moral support. I didn't have the emotional investment in the two, more an analytical assessment of my obligations, although I definitely knew how to fake it, and I certainly had sympathy and empathy for what they had gone through. I just didn't have the involvement in this family...

although my relationship with Azaia was almost that to a younger sister, which was amusing enough, since she was physically older than I was. I always had logistical stuff to do, and was paying more attention to it now as Legion waited in a chair in the corner, always alert, silent, and watching. Legion looked at me, and subtle distortions rippled across their face.

"It was bad," they said in their reverb multi-voice.

"Multi-feeder Poison Hearts, over ten other women each. Most of their victims were mentally raped and torn apart, losing all sense of identity as the bitches built their gestalts out of them. Even the three singers themselves are barely intact. We've burned the captured souls out of the witches, but we can't reclaim their integrity, it was stolen by the power of their Pacts.

"There's barely enough there to notify their families and loved ones and give them some closure." Legion reached up to lean into their steepled hands.

"We would have trouble dealing with this if Master Fred weren't so... dense."

"He's very angry," I noted, having that direct line to him still.

"That burn is going to be there a long time."

"Yes," they agreed quietly.

"Is this what Shvaughn does?" they asked urgently, currently-blue eyes flaring for a moment.

"Not really. Shvaughn takes it all, but chooses what to emphasize, or she simply burns the Hell into them. It's not cooperation, her gestalt is totally dominant... but she doesn't tear minds to shreds and let them scream." I sent a mental /glance that way, and she /noted and raised a question, and I /fed her what was going on.

"She treats Feeders at least as bad as they treat others, of course." At least only because some of them treated their victims very bad, indeed, and Shvaughn was DELIGHTED to do the same to them. She had hundreds of vindictive mean streaks, as it were.

"The new women are very fragile. They are clinging to Master Fred very hard. They may lose themselves." Their face twisted in sympathy.

"You know how protective he is. He's seen this before, and he will again. Just let them have the chance to fight back." I flicked up the diamond with the lilitu within. Legion's eyes sharpened murderously.

"She is the Pact Grantor," they confirmed, staring at it, still-blue eyes starting to glow.

"What do you intend to do to her?"

"Feed her to you." They blinked, rage diverted, staring at me, not knowing quite what to say.

"Just like that erinyes who granted your Burning Veil Pacts," I went on.

"A lilitu is quite a bit stronger than an erinyes, however." Their face worked a bit.

"We will get to feel her burn..." they finally purred together, three voices somewhat louder than the others.

"You will indeed," I confirmed. They closed their eyes, thinking and conversing internally, opening them a minute later.

"Can you track down the Grantor of the Hungry Kiss Pact?" they asked directly. I stowed the diamond back away, and tilted my head in thought.

"There is always a link between a Warlock Pact and the Grantor. Even if it is suppressed so she can't reach out and influence you, it still exists. So, she would be able to sense your rough direction and how far away you are, and then simply chain- Teleport away if you get close.

"Are you capable of doing the same back to her?" I asked calmly. They shook their head.

"It is suppressed by the Pact with Heaven."

"Do you want to be able to?" I asked archly. They knew that raised eyebrow of mine, but like normal, did not make a snap decision. Instead, they considered the options, the abusability of it, how to exercise restraint and yet get what they wanted. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"I Wish that we could accurately sense the direction of our Pact Patrons through their links with our Pacts," Legion said in many borrowed voices.

"Granted." Access to Wishes did make a lot of things possible, even if we had to make sure to fly under the radar of the Shroud. The simple strengthening of awareness of Pact bonds was a very minor effect... especially when used on multiple Souls with Pacts. An Amazon Pact would have no target, and the Burning Veil Grantor was vivified into them already. I watched their eyes move unerringly to the pocket in my Vest the diamond was stowed in, and then their head turned west, eyes gleaming for a moment.

"There is another Wish that you should make." I sent off a quiet announcement, particularly concentrated among The Jet and Silver in Europe, and those of the Clergy, their alertness to be concentrated on the people around where the other Husked people Queen Rayetizvisha had kept had been... some of whom were actually 'still there', replaced by doppelgangers who had been dealt with grimly. Legion noted the wording I had suggested, and smiled, glancing at the east, where the dawn wasn't that far away.

"I Wish..." they began.

At Natural Renewal, the hair of some two hundred people across Europe and beyond spontaneously ignited, burning their scalps and leaving behind scars that looked disturbingly like demonic Brands. Those waiting and watching for such events swooped down on them, got rid of their Aura-concealing magicks, and the vast majority of Queen Rayetizvisha's network of Branded and Wish recipients was folded up in a very short period of time.

Rumors spread very fast of what had happened, and those minions of hers in different places were soon identified, too. Even the roughest of men had about as much use for those who bargained with demons as they did for Dark Warlocks. The vast majority of those people were in positions in society where their unknown allegiance would be most useful, and not, for instance, holding positions in a Church of the Dark Gods or an assassin's cult, who would not care much about such things.

The revealed Brands were extremely easy to identify as demonic in origin, while the Aural alterations made by receiving a demonic Wish were also quickly identifiable. What those people had betrayed and done in service to their demonic Patron was something that was going to be worked out in dark places, lots of Charm magic, or possibly just interrogating their dead souls if they refused to be taken alive.

Speak with Dead might not be admissible in a court of mortal law, but it was certainly good enough to lead investigators to what they needed to know.

I entered the room of the Morningsun family quietly. Being Undaunted, I was not afraid, or even nervous or trepidatious, which should have been standard in such a situation. Again, I was not going to deceive them as to who I really was, but I didn't know the state they were in after undergoing literally Hellish torments for an extended period of time. Morningflame had woken first; the first thing she spoke was the last date she remembered. It had been over nine years since she was ambushed and replaced.

It was also the main piece of information that the European forces needed to go back and look at what the demon posing as her had done. They already believed that at least three Paladins and a dozen Clerics of Good gods had been manipulated into being killed by the demon, and so lost to the undead. I looked both of them over. Their Auras were not that dissimilar. Morningfire was a Nuavan Bard-Socialite and Sorceress with the Phoenix Bloodline.

Her daughter Morningflame also had the Phoenix Bloodline, but she was a Mageblade, not a Bard, and had invested heavily in the undead-killing power of fire, where her mother was something more of a social butterfly and stealer-of-hearts. Fire's last memory was also over seventeen years ago, just after the birth of Elrii. She didn't even remember being Consumed, and the whole ordeal was just a horrible nightmare she was coming to grips with at this point.

Both of them were fiery-haired, bronze-skinned, and golden-eyed, looking more like sisters than mother and daughter. Their Auras were not strong, given what they'd been through, but they were stabilizing. It was a horrific spiritual trauma that would challenge the strongest person. I was actually impressed that they were rebounding so fast, the Restorations I'd used on them notwithstanding. Both of them studied me. Fire's breath actually caught when she saw me, eyes widening, while Flame merely looked curious...

then blinked as I sat down next to Azaia, and she instantly saw the resemblance.

"What?" she blurted out, looking back and forth between us.

"Mother?" she protested, looking at Jaelez Morningfire in confusion.

"My little Elrii?" Fire whispered, shocked at seeing me there with Azaia.

"I... you were just born..." I noted both of them were speaking Human instead of French or English, so Azaia must have broken them in.

"You... she... oh..." Flame blinked, realizing what was going on. Her mother looked at her for clarification.

"That bastard... told us Elrii had died..." Morningfire inhaled sharply, studying me with wide eyes.

"How did they treat you?" she asked immediately.

"They must have had dark plans for you..."

"And they succeeded. Elrii Morningdark was killed and her baby boy taken by Warlocks in the service of Shoul. I was brought down through the Shroud into her body. You may address me as Traveler." They both stared at me in shock. I pointed at Fire.

"Eaten by a Warlock and replaced for almost twenty years with no one the wiser." I pointed at Morningflame.

"Replaced by a demon for nine years, with no one the wiser." I pointed at myself.

"Stuck into the body of a murdered teenage mother, with no one the wiser." Despite themselves, they couldn't keep the grim smiles off their lips. Azaia just shook her head.

"And Light is dead..." Flame said softly, and I nodded slightly.

"She was eaten and replaced by the doppelganger who raised Elrii, presumably as a reward for her service. My guess is it happened the very day Elrii was murdered and her son stolen, and the Ritual to make the deception impenetrable was undertaken at the same time." I gestured at Azaia.

"I have no doubt Azaia was a target as well, for after her training was complete, but they didn't dare take her while she was studying full time in the temples."

"Traveler," Morningfire said hesitantly.

"It appears we owe our freedom, such as it is, to you. Thank you for that, if we can give you nothing else." She glanced at Azaia.

"Azaia has said that you have taken her on as a student, and are ushering her into greater things. That you have brought... incredible revisions to magic during a very short period of time."

"That is correct," I replied, and lifted my Aura. Both of them tensed as my command of the field of magic swirled around them, overwhelming in its power.