Blood Seeker

Tenours would be a nice, quiet town. It had all the hallmarks of a pleasant country village: green hilly expanses that stretched almost as far as the eye could see, and beyond those, picturesque snow capped mountains; it had the smell of hay and cattle constantly wafting throughout the town; one small chapel that no one really visited; and, of course, a witch. All of this was perfectly normal, and there was just one thing that made Tenours not nice and not quiet.

That would be the blood-seekers.

My inn was full of them then, as it always was. When I say “my inn”, I mean that in the way that it is informally mine. Formally, I co-own it with my brother. He lives in the big cities, and would be very surprised to learn he owned a inn. But in every other way, this was my inn, from the serving girls I hired, to the sturdy wooden chairs which eight blood-seekers were sitting on at that particular moment.

Amile passed by with ale flagons and with a clunk set them in front of two burly men. One of them whistled, which she ignored, and the other eyed her speculatively.

She was just leaving the table when the second man caught her arm. “Wait, wench. Tell us about Daeni.” There was a collective murmur of agreement throughout the blood-seeker table, and out of the corner of my eye I caught a hooded figure leaning more closely. I, however, had heard Amile’s spiel about Daeni many times, and began wiping flagons.

“Well, what would you like to know?” she asked, and flashed them a dimpled smile.

“Tell us the first legend.” Commanded a wiry man in the corner, who had an auspicious pointed hat and wooden staff. I looked up at his warm, intelligent voice, and glanced down when I recognized him. Sure enough, that was the voice of Jhamie, a terrible wizard but seemed to compensate with his very wizardly outfits. Jhamie had become a blood-seeker? What was this world coming to?

“Well, about five hundred years ago,” Amile began, and the inn fell into silence for her story, “this was not a safe place for a town. There were ogres and trolls who fought with each other and kept on raiding the town in our early days. There were dragons, although these aren’t more than myths now, who kept to themselves except for when some foolish troll buried their way into one of their great caves. Whenever that happened, the sky would turn black and the dragons would fly. The dragons would always burn down this town, but our stubborn ancestors—“

“Who were probably just ancestors of Semma here.” Interjected Gian, one of my regulars and a native. There were appreciative murmurs from all the regulars, and I couldn’t help turn a little pink.

“But go on with your story.” Said a transfixed blood-seeker.

“As I was saying, when the dragons flew we had to rebuild the town from scratch. Our crops were burned to the ground as well, and it was a wonder our anscestors didn’t starve! Anyway, as stubborn as our ancestors were, they couldn’t go on living like they were. They were about to give up and go back to the villages which they came from, when all the raids of any sort stopped. Oh, sure, trolls were still spotted wandering around in their little clans, but they didn’t attack the village. All the Ogres, who, because they are usually at least twelve feet tall are easier to spot, were still spotted, but even when they came across a human baby they didn’t do anything. And the dragons just seemed to disappear. Now, the early townsfolk recognized this strange truce at once, and none of them were big enough fools to break it. But they did wonder what it was that had made all these brutes peaceful.

“The villagers still needed to eat, and so they often sent out hunting parties to find animals to kill. One day, after the truce, the hunting party wandered farther than they should of. They were almost to the base of the mountains when a pack of wolves attacked them. After a bloody struggle, the wolves died, but one of the hunters had a bad bite on his leg and they decided to spend the night before they brought the meat back to our town. In the morning, the hunter could limp, and they made slow progress. The next day, their leader was looking ashen and his bite was so bad he couldn’t stand. They knew that it was getting infected, so they were going to have to amputate or he would die. This leader, though, was a vain man and told them that he would rather die than live legless, so his hunting party gave him a knife and a spear and abandoned him. The party returned to the village and explained what had happened. Villagers decided collectively to have three days of complete silence in the hunter’s honor.

“The second day, though, the silence was broken by a rambunctious man who entered the village coming from the mountains. Many villagers came to silence the man and explain to him that they were having three days of silence, but it was discovered that this rambunctious man was the hunter himself! He looked even better than he had before he had left, and he certainly did not look dead. All the villagers crowed around him and asked, ‘What happened? What happened? How did you survive?’ He looked dreamy for a second and told them. ‘A woman, riding a flaming demon came to me right after my companions had left me. She had a mask on, a solid piece of silver that covered her mouth, nose and eyes. Immediately I was in awe; what kind of woman could ride a demon, see without her eyes, and breathe without her nose and mouth. The woman came to me. She took my knife, and cut her finger. One drop of blood went into my mouth, and I was cured. I leapt up, of course, and demanded who she was. ‘My name is Daeni,’ she told me, ‘and you should know that I have brought peace among the different sorts of people who live here. I also just saved your life.’ ‘How?’ demanded the hunter. ‘I am a very powerful woman, and blood carries magic. I gave you a drop of my magic, and your body used it to heal itself. Now go back to your village, hunter, and tell them of me.’

“And that was the first sighting of Daeni.”

There was a hush in the tavern after Amile’s story, and then the blood-seekers began to clap.

“Well told, wench!” Jhamie exclaimed, and he tossed Amile a copper. She snatched it expertly out of the air, and returned to her duties.

“A lot of people think Daeni’s a myth,” I said conversationally. “What makes all you think otherwise?”

“I dunno.” Said one of the scrawnier seekers. “I just heard so many tales, and they all say she’s still alive, so I thought it’d be easy enough to check. So I came here, and everyone seems to believe in her, so I guess she’s real.” The other blood-seekers nodded vigorously and voiced their agreement.

“Yeah, that’s about what happened for me.”

“Me too.”

“Not me.”

I looked up, and found the speaker. It was Jhamie, and he was looking right at me. I wanted to duck under my bar to get away from the look in his eyes. It’s not often a woman my age gets a look of recognition and lust—but Jhamie was always a strange one.

“When I was apprenticed to be a wizard, I had a lover. She was two years below me but very, very mature and… experienced for her age.”

The blood-seekers hooted, and Jhamie’s eyes never left mine. I shook it off, and went back to cleaning.

“Probably one of the best things about her was her cute country accent. She often told me of Daeni, and at first I didn’t believe her. But this lover of mine claimed to have met Daeni herself, as all children in her village had.”

Now the eyes of all my regulars were turning towards me, the only girl in the village ever to be trained by a wizard. I felt my ears going red.

“Now this girl of mine was no fool—“

“And so she broke it off after a month.” I finished. There were snickers from the regulars and surprised looks from the blood-seekers, who didn’t seem to have recognized the sparks flying between us.

At that moment there was a fluid movement from the corner, and the hooded figure I had just half registered rose. Even under the traveling cloak womanly curves were visible, and the room watched this woman walk up to me. I felt strangely uneasy… her walk was like nothing I’d seen before. You can’t really claim to know much about a person from watching them walk, but the way she moved was just plain predatory. Dangerous.

“I’d like a room.” She said softly to me. I nodded—the blood-seekers were never rich, and usually shared rooms. Jhamie was the only one renting a room for himself, but then again Jhamie was expecting a late-night visit. From me.

“We have one room, but it’s still being cleaned. If you’d wait a few minutes, I could have it ready for you.” She nodded, and I motioned to Amile to clean up the room in a hurry.

I think this woman was expecting to stand in absolute silence while Amile cleaned, but that just wasn’t me. I cleared my throat hesitantly, and her head turned.

“Do you mind if I see your face?” I asked politely. Some of our guests liked privacy, as in I never asked their names, but I made a point always to see the faces.

“Oh… right.” She said, and lowered her hood. The inn suddenly became silent.
Amile was the prettiest of the serving girls, but she beside the woman standing before me would look like a hag. The woman’s face was radiant in a way I couldn’t begin to say—her cheekbones where high, her mouth soft and regal, her black hair thick and straight, and her nose the perfect size. But I couldn’t stop staring into her eyes, which were completely grey and as cold as steel. I felt a strange feeling come over me, but I didn’t recognize it until later: fear.

“So, what brings you to Tenours?” I asked pleasantly.

She looked annoyed that I continued to pursue conversation, but answered anyway. “I’m a blood-seeker.” She said stiffly. It was a lie, and she made no attempt to disguise it. Clearly, I was being told that it was none of my business.

“No, really. I’m very interested at what brings a woman like you to a town like this.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “A woman like me? What am I like?”

I sputtered. I mean, she was beautiful, but that was about all I knew about her.

She took pity on me. “I’m a death-seeker. Now I’m going up to my room.” Then she flicked a coin at me and left.

*

I knocked on Jhamie’s door in the middle of the night. That arrogant bastard had, of course, been expecting me, and the door swung open almost immediately. Jhamie stood there, wearing breeches but no shirt.

I marched into his room and snapped at him to put on a shirt. He looked hurt.
“Jhamie, I need your help.”

He leaned against the dresser. “Uh huh?”

“Look.” I said with obvious exasperation. “You can stop trying to seduce me. It won’t work. I need your help in a magical matter.”

Jhamie looked put out, but he hid it well. “Semma, honey, you were always better at magic than I was. How could you need my help?”

“You finished your studies and I dropped out. A temporary bond is eighth level.”

He looked at me like I was crazy.

“What do you need a bond for?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me.”

“I’m worried about Daeni.” I explained, ignoring his expression. “Look, do you know how many blood-seekers come here every year trying to get her blood so they can rule the world?”

Jhamie snorted. “I doubt many of them want to rule the world.”

“Whatever, that’s not my point. Anyway, Daeni gives her blood to the worthy, which is about three or four a year. For instance, two hundred years ago Saint Heranda got a bottle of her blood which she watered down and used to cure the plague. She was worthy.”

“Look, honey, we all know this.”

“I know, I know.” I said hurriedly. “But do you know about the death-seekers?”

“No, I don’t. I assume that they’re crazy people who want to kill Daeni?”

“That’s about right. Those crackpots think that if one drop can give magical powers, then killing her and drinking considerably more than one drop will give you more power. I’ve never been worried before, because who could kill Daeni? But something about this woman makes me worry, Jhamie.”

He nodded, and his eyes were worried as well. “Honey, I’ll help you, but just because I want to get laid. What makes you think that if this woman can kill Daeni that you can do anything?”

“I have to try… I could be the straw the break the camel’s back, if you know what I mean.”

He looked at me closely and sighed. “I guess there’s no dissuading someone like you. Let’s begin.” Jhamie unscrewed his inkpot and dipped his index finger in it.

Then he drew a perfect octagon on the floor. I scowled at him.

“Don’t worry, honey, once we’re done the ink will disappear. You won’t need to clean up anything. Now step into the octagon…”

*

When I woke up, I was flying through the air.

Actually that was only for a moment. The next moment I had hit a tree, and pain shot through my head. I groaned.

“What are you two doing here?” hissed a soft voice. The woman from the night before was standing right in front of me, her eyes two gleaming chips of ice.
“I…” what was I doing here? My mind was slowly churning. Jhamie had cast the spell, then I had gone to sleep. So what was I doing here, in the middle of the foothills? “Wait. ‘You two’?”

The woman raised a perfect eyebrow, and I saw Jhamie’s limp form next to mine. She must have picked one of us up in each hand and thrown us against the trees. I felt a chill run down my spine.

He stirred, and looked as confused as I felt. “Err…”

“I was worried about whether you were going to kill Daeni, so I got him to make a bond between us.” I confessed. I didn’t see any reason why not.

The woman seemed to sense that this was the truth, so she turned her back on us. I cast Jhamie a desperate glance.

“What kind of bond where you looking for? I cast the where-ever-you-are-I-am type.”

I groaned. “I didn’t know that type of bond exisited. I was looking more for a I-know-where-you-are-at-all-times type.”

“Oh.”

“And that doesn’t explain why you’re here!”

He shrugged, and leaned closer to me. “I have no idea. Now how do we get out of this?”

“You don’t.” The woman informed us. “The woman’s coming with me.”

“What about Jha—“

I never finished that sentence. A throwing knife was sticking out of Jhamie’s left eye socket.

“Get up.” She told me.

I did.

“Walk.”

I walked.

She was marching me closer and closer to the forest which surrounded the base of the mountains, where Daeni was usually spotted. I felt an overwhelming sense of foreboding. Daeni was going to die.

“What’s your name?” I asked after a while. She looked at me with annoyance.

“Averis.” Averis responded after a moment.

I nodded, and opened my mouth to tell her what an unusual name she had, but shut up with her glance.

“Why am I alive?” I asked after another moment. I hate silence.

“Because you are one of Daeni’s adopted people and she’ll come to you if you’re in distress.” She informed me briskly. “Then I will kill her.”

“She won’t be easy to kill.” I warned.

Averis shot me an amused glance. “I’m good at killing people.” She said simply.

I shut up after that.

Question after question kept popping into my head though. Why would someone who could cast such an effective transportation spell and hide their aura need more power? Why did she need so much more power? If she could kill Daeni, then didn’t she have power enough? I felt like screaming these at her, but all I did was walk in silence.

We reached the top of another foothill, and kept going. Averis wasn’t even breathing hard. I was panting. Hey, I was an innkeeper. No one expected me to be in good shape. Another, very persistent question popped into my mind. Could I stop Averis somehow? Warn away Daeni?

“No.” said Averis as soon as I began pondering these.

I looked at her in shock. Could she read minds or something?

“Yes.”

“So... you heard all my other questions?” I asked stupidly.

“Yes.”

“Feel like answering them?”

Averis gave me that look of annoyance, and I got the feeling I would die still wondering all these things. Then she began to talk.

“My grandmother was kidnapped when she was fifteen.”

“So what? What does that—“

“If you want to hear this story…” I shut up. “She was going to be the most powerful wizard in the history of the world. Then a man named Hes took her and transported her to an island. She was raped by a glowing man who had wings. Actually, it wasn’t exactly rape. Rape is when one party wants it and the other doesn’t. Neither wanted it in this case, but Hes was a very powerful man. She had a baby the next year, and was executed as soon as the baby was one. That baby was given no name. Hes thought that names made people grow attached. The child was raised until she was fifteen, when she in turn was bred with a strange man. He did not have wings, but his aura of power was devastating. Their child was me, and as soon as I was born Hes terminated his twisted science experiment. What you see here,” she gestured to her perfect body, “is the result of seven hundred years of careful planning and selection. My ancestors are gods and demons, all of which were tamed to Hes’ will. He then trained me in magic and combat, and gave me as a present to a king. I was not treated very kindly. I need this power for my revenge.”
I stared at her. Clearly she was not one for talking, and so I didn’t see the point in making up a story like that. And yet I couldn’t make myself believe it.

Averis shook her gorgeous head. “You don’t believe me? That doesn’t matter much to me. Just keep walking.”

So we walked and walked, and I dreaded every step I took closer to the forest. I was going to help bring down Daeni. It was my fault. Daeni would have recognized the danger otherwise, but I had to be stupid enough to try and tag along. This wasn’t the business of ordinary, inn-managing humans.

Around mid-day we stopped and ate some bread that Averis had. As we were eating, I heard the sound of hooves in the distance and loud, gleeful talking. The blood-seekers. Averis cursed, then rose. She murmured one indiscernible word, then made a motion with her arm. A great barrier of ice began to grow out of the ground, shielding the mountains.

I was definitely out of my league here.

“Keep walking,” Averis told me again, and we did so.

And then, in what seemed like no time, the forest loomed above us. My questions kept on echoing in my head; what could I do? Should I do anything? In any case, that moment was the moment to act.

“Don’t even think about it.” Averis cautioned, and we walked deeper into the forest. I sighed, and tried to enjoy the scenery as I always had before. The forest was serenely quiet, and besides the ambient noise of forest birds and small animals, there was only the sounds of our footsteps. Well, my footsteps. Averis walked silently, even among the branches that I kept on tripping on.

“So, what’s your plan?” I asked hesitantly.

She ignored my question, and instead demanded softly, “How do you make her come?”

“You don’t. She just… comes.” I explained.

“What does a person from your village do if they need her help?”

“Go to the forest.”

“Really.” She said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “I never would have guessed.”

“Well, there’s not much else to do, is there?” I asked with exasperation.

Averis paused, and thought this over. I sat down. Hey, you try walking for six or seven hours strait. Luckily for me, she didn’t seem to care whether I stood up or sat down.

“I want you to call out to her.” Averis ordered, and looked at me expectantly.

I looked at her in horror. This was the ultimate betrayal of the beloved guardian of our town. I couldn’t, I just couldn’t lead her into this trap.

“No.” I told Averis stubbornly.

She looked at me with her cold eyes.

“Make me, bitch.” I elaborated further, and I crossed my arms.

Averis nodded, and a corner of her mouth twitched into a sardonic smile. “Oh, I will.” She assured me, with gleaming ice eyes that I didn’t like at all. Then she murmured one quiet word.

My lips began to move. I struggled, but deep down I knew that it was hopeless. “Daeni!” I cried, with the perfect amount of desperation, hope, and despair mixed in. “Daeni! I need you! Help me…” I glared at Averis, who gave me a small, mocking smile. She won’t come, I though furiously, knowing Averis was reading my thoughts.

Suddenly Averis’ eyes swiveled upward, and she dropped into a deadly looking combat stance. She murmured two words, and my voice stopped calling. I began to sigh, relieved, but then realized I could not. Her second word had frozen me in place. I was only to be a spectator to the next series of events.

Hurtling down from the sky was what looked like a giant ball of flame. Both Averis and I knew better: it was the demon that Daeni rode as her mount. As the flame came closer, I couldn’t help feeling a jolt of hope. What made me so sure that Averis could kill Daeni anyway?

Averis, in the meantime, was muttering nonstop, while resting a hand on one of her knives. She was a frightening sight, beautiful, but all steel and ice. As I watched her lovely mouth move in a series of frighteningly powerful words, I felt my hopes evaporate. Averis was someone who could raise a wall of ice with a single word. Whatever she was casting or preparing now. Daeni, however, had no way of knowing what was waiting for her.

As soon as the figure riding on top of the fire demon was visible, Averis struck. Calmly, she spoke one word, and watched serenely as the fire demon froze. Daeni tumbled of her mount, but recovered quickly. Wings, beautiful wings made of nothing but fire, sprouted from her shoulders and with them Daeni began to glide towards the clearing we were in. Averis froze completely, and watched predatorily as Daeni came closer, finally setting her bare feet on the ground.

“What—?” Daeni began to ask, although how, with a mask over her face, she could speak, was beyond me. At that moment Averis spoke another word, and a shimmering ball of ice hurtled at Daeni. She rolled, at the last moment, and came up hesitantly.

“What is going on?” she demanded of both Averis and me. I was, of course, frozen, so I did not respond. Averis hurled another ball of ice at Daeni, for which she had to throw up a shield to protect herself from.

“Why are you trying to kill me?” Daeni asked again, totally bewildered. I felt my hopes plummet further—Daeni was confused and Averis was prepared. Things were not looking great.

Then Daeni made the mistake of stepping within leaping range of Averis. As soon as she did so, Averis lunged with a unearthly grace. Daeni drew her own long knife, and tried to fend of Averis’ attacks. Averis rolled and made a swipe at the other woman’s legs, which apparently hit hope. Blood started to soak Daeni’s black trousers. In a rage she threw a fireball at her attacker, but it was no use. Averis caught it neatly, then tossed it aside into the forest, where the nearest tree began to smolder. Cursing, Daeni extinguished the ball.

At that point, Daeni seemed to decide she’d had enough. The wings sprouted gloriously from her shoulders again, and she began to beat them. Slowly she began to rise into the air, with Averis watching like a hawk and yet strangely not interfering. Then Daeni was in the air, and with one fluid movement Averis threw something. A knife. Daeni screamed as her shoulder was skewered, then screamed again, this time with rage, as her other shoulder was. She jerked the knives out, then tried to beat her wings. But the bleeding was profuse, and slowly she settled back to the ground.

Time to finish her, Averis. I thought grimly, then hated myself for thinking that.
But it was clear that Averis was thinking along the same lines—and unleashed a ray of what looked like blue light at Daeni. Daeni’s eyes grew wide as it began to eat threw her shield, and she whispered a word of her own. Her own ray, which was red, met Averis’. Both women were concentrating fiercely on maintaining their rays, and for awhile it looked like they were evenly matched. Then the point were the red ray met the blue started to inch closer to Daeni. Daeni began whispering furiously, but it was no good. She was loosing.

Then Daeni stopped her ray completely.

I don’t know what she was thinking. She probably had one last ace up her sleeve that she tried to release in the moment between when she stopped countering Averis’ ray and when the ray hit her. But Averis had hidden strength reserves that she hadn’t yet tapped into, and at the moment Daeni stopped, she sent so much more strength into the ray that the last of Daeni’s shields collapsed almost instantaneously. Then the ray hit Daeni herself, and she was thrown backwards into the tree. The ray stopped. Averis didn’t need it anymore.

Averis walked over to where Daeni lay, and a knife materialized into her hand. She whispered a word, and transported the body to the middle of the clearing. Then she proceeded to slit both of Daeni’s wrists and her throat. She stood back and waited.
Daeni began to bleed. Her blood was watery and dark, but there was something strange about it. There was just too much of it. Daeni bled and bled, and soon the entire clearing was covered in a thin watery layer of her blood. Averis looked confused. I felt faint. Then, one the clearing was soaked red, the blood continued. I was really going to faint. I saw Averis bending down on all fours and trying to drink the blood. It didn’t seemed to be working. Then she let out a howl of pain and levitated herself up beyond the flow of blood. Her hands were scalded, as if the blood had burnt her.

I watched as the blood ran over my feet, as if I was standing in the steam. Daeni, I though, what is happening? The blood continued to run and I continued to feel sick, but I still couldn’t move. Suddenly everything started sliding out of focus…
And then I fainted.

“Semma. Semma!” someone whispered.

I groaned and slowly opened my eyes. I was lying on the ground, on a bed of soft moss. Wait… the hadn’t been there before. Slowing I dragged myself into a sitting position and looked around.

It was as if I had been asleep for a hundred years. The undergrowth had grown wildly, and now the ferns were the size of me if not bigger. Lush green moss coated the ground, and the trees had grown at least four feet since I’d last seen them.
“Semma!” the person whispered, more urgently. I turned, and got the shock of my life.

Jhamie.

“I…you’re dead.” I said stupidly. He smiled.

“I was.”

“You were dead?”

“Yup.”

“So, what, are you like a zombie now or something?”

“Nope. I am perfectly alive.”

I stared. “How?”

“The blood.” He said, this time looking exhausted. “Come see.”

So I followed him as he cut through the suddenly wild underbrush, until we came across some younger looking trees. This, of course, is in relative tree-time. They must have been at least twenty years old. And when I say some trees, what I really mean is a lot of trees. They stretched as far as I could see, covering the hills that had formerly been just grass.

“What… happened?”

“Daeni died. Then she bled. Her blood was powerful, as we all knew.”

“And it did this?” I asked in a half-sob. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the new forest. It just was that it was so overwhelming. I clutched at Jhamie, my only comfort.

“Yes, honey, it did this.” Jhamie told me gently.

“So, now what?”

Jhamie looked pointedly down at my hand, which was holding his. Then he smiled at me.

“What indeed.”