Chapter 2: 2. How to keep a baby

The scent of Athae's magic had not even been released into the air when the assassin slipped around the man that had spoken to her, bending under his larger bulk and collecting his arm to twist it around. Her foot slipped out to balance her in a spin and she drew a dagger from her belt that slid across the man's throat. Before her spin was finished the man's life had left his body. The other two were frozen only for a moment before they moved. One of them drew his bow and knocked an arrow to aim at her. The other drew his sword and had his horse rear back to prepare for a charge before rushing her.

Athae's dagger flashed out and hit the arrow away at the last moment, startling the archer before he composed himself and knocked a second arrow to aim her way. At the last second, she ducked and rolled away from the horse's charge, raising her dagger so the sword that came sweeping at her glanced off in a shower of sparks. She spun in her rise, throwing the small blade before her attacker could urge his horse to turn around. When she turned towards the other man he had let another arrow loose. With another fluid movement and a burst from her magic, she dodged it and let another dagger fly. The man's body thumped heavily to the ground and the horse reared before running off down the beach, dragging the body for a bare few steps before the stirrups keeping it attached snapped and the man's body was face down in the sand. Once she had collected her daggers from the dead and a small payment for her services from their purses, she turned back to the box.

The moment her eyes focused on the chocolate brown pair of the young babe, she felt disgusted. The strange red with black slits from before was gone and for a moment the assassin thought she had imagined it. Demons were myths and stories, just as Evadia should be. With a scoff, she turned to leave. She had barely made it off the sandy shore before the compulsion wrapped around her heart so quick and strong that she lost her footing on a stumble and fell face-first into the rocks.

It took her over a hundred heartbeats and twenty steps before she realized that she could not leave the baby without the fear of her heart exploding out of her chest.

A shout in the distance caught her attention and when she looked over there were more men riding toward her. Without a second thought, the assassin grabbed the babe to her breast and ran back towards the mountains and to her small camp.

By the time Athae reached what was left of her camp, torn to shreds and scattered to nature and wilderness, she had lost the men and it was well into the following day. She had used her magic for the entire run while cradling the child to her breast and it was taking its toll on her body. There was a strange heat where the babe clutched at her body and she felt her magic running away from her faster than was normal. She had more energy than this. She should. But the assassin thought it was just the lack of sleep in the past few nights. Yet for a full day, not once had the babe made a sound.

"This's all your fault, mahr-veed," she pointed down to the child at her breast and collected what was left of her travelling pack before moving on. The tracks in the snow and the destruction of the camp proved to her it was a large pack of khole that had passed very recently.

She placed the baby on the ground and rummaged through her pack. Yewfurry weed had great narcotic properties but Athae had always used it as a painkiller. After she smoked two full pixies a comfortable haze fell over her and all exhaustion lifted from her bones.

She picked the babe back up into her arms and set off to find a safe place to camp for the coming night. She moved west through the mountain passes glad that the child had fallen asleep so she could move quietly without calling attention to herself. It had been a few hours since she saw the last Wis outpost on the mountains so she climbed to a higher point to orient herself. The paths started splitting either north or south to move to safer grounds, yet Athae pushed through the rough terrain and through untraveled areas. Untraveled by most, at least, but Athae had been there before. Where all paths failed and none that travelled returned, Athae slipped through the cracks and into a hidden passage, leading to a long tunnel.

When the light at her back disappeared she pushed on through the darkness, feeling her way into the familiar ground. A light at the end drew her closer and when she finally emerged the babe in her arms wailed like a banshee out of the demon depths. The assassin ignored the cries in favour of the view that would never get old. She was looking down at one of the great cities of the ancient world, stone and metal structures were hidden in the faces of the mountains and circling down to the dark depths below.

There was a church in the distance, distinguishable only by its larger frame, that caught her attention, but the assassin was too tired to go the distance to what she knew for sure was safe ground. And besides, the only bridge she had known from previous years had finally fallen against the test of time and was missing a chunk from the middle. She took a crumbled path down and the first house that she arrived at was good enough by her standards.

The bed was a stone slab and what was left of her travel pack became a nest for the sleeping babe. She built a fire in the alcove beside her and that was all she could muster to care about. The demons of the ancient city would do the rest.

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When the fire cracked and the embers sizzled Athae told herself that was all it was and she needed to sleep.

The hiss of the fire turned into indistinguishable words that made the assassin jump in bed with her dagger raised. The narcotics she had smoked made her sway and a moment later she found herself falling from her perch and to the ground. The impact startled her enough for her to throw the dagger right through one of the two apparitions forming in the room.

"I can almost say that hurt!" a sensual voice hissed and what had to be the owner of it lunged towards her. Athae raised an arm in defence but the smoke dispersed around her, surrounding her in a cocoon where none of her senses could aid her, before disappearing to collect itself around the babe.

Something made the assassin jump, a maternal feeling that had her up on her feet, and trying to fight off the narcotics still running through her system. After a few stumbled attempts she got her feet under her and a dagger running the length of her forearm. "Get away!" she hissed out.

The smoke came together and the form of a woman was seen peeling away from the child. The assassin stumbled back onto her haunches and blinked quickly, trying to clear her vision. Yewfurry has been known to have minor hallucinatory effects, however, she had never experienced them herself. As she watched the woman's naked flesh appear from between the smoke, her body perfect and luscious and so delicious, Athae thought she would not mind more hallucinations like that. The second apparition was that of a man, just as nude as his partner. When that one moved it was to come closer to her side. Like his partner his body seemed flawless: a perfection meant to be worshipped.

The thought was stopped short when she took note of the large leather appendages at each of their backs, folded tightly with black bones holding the skin together. The small horns hidden in the woman's hair made the assassin blink once more and search the male for similar features. His were large and curving over and behind his head.

"There are no demons in Kaariai!" she spat out in accusation towards the figures. The male turned back to his partner.

"Completely," the female agreed without looking up. The man reached down and Athae flinched, wanting to jump up and yank the demon away, but there was something tender in his movements. He touched the child's cheek with a long claw but the babe did not stir. He reached to grab a chubby hand but the babe just grabbed his finger instead and turned on its side to mouth at the side of that finger.

"Take care of her as if she is your own," he ordered as if he had the right and stood up, pulling the beautiful woman against his naked chest and wrapping a possessive arm around her middle.

"This child will change the fate of your world. Remember that and then remember what that fate will be," the female hissed at her once more before both creatures faded into smoke.

Thirty heartbeats later Athae shook her head, sure she had imagined the whole thing and looked down at the yewfurry pixie smoking between her fingers. She was sitting beside the bunk as if she had never made it on top to take a break. The assassin blinked slowly, staring at the smoke that rose from the pixie and seeing the sensuous curves of the female demon. "This is shit," she spat out and threw the pixie towards the dying fire in the alcove beside her before climbing atop the slab and falling asleep.

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