Chapter Twenty-Five

Petra kept training. She had six months left in school; and she planned to get every bit of use out of the facilities.

She was still no master in melee. Otan had made it clear by the end that she would need to rely on her own ability to kill things before they got close enough. A feat she could acomplish easily, her power and skill were overwhelming in combat magic. Where other students, even the more talented ones, would face a squad of practice golems and defeat three with magic and the rest with their weapons; she would demolish the squad with a single flurry of shadow bolts(enviroment allowing). In an open room or faced with a single foe she was unstoppable. If she lost the advantage of range she was still light enough on her feet to survive for as long as a half hour.

Chesi was preoccupied with preparing for life after school. She was a talented alchemist and a nearly peerless warrior, but she still wanted to do something valuable for the universe. Alid had offered her a recomendation if she chose to join the guard.

He himself was set for life. It was clear that Petra had enough of an advantage over her siblings in power and intellect that no amount of popularity would keep her off the throne. As such, he was preparing to take over for his uncle as Captain. He remained dedicated to his duties, but always cautioned Petra against completing her plan.

And rightly so.
It was three weeks until Junsrew when Naron came back to her. He said he'd worked out the kinks and was ready to give it another shot with her formula.
She chose to play it safe, and told Alid to wait outside in case something went wrong.

"Alright kiddo; I think the problem was the pattern you were using. I tried this one last night and this little shadow thing popped up for a peak. Said something about not being allowed to come out and left before I could nab him."
"Let's see it then!"

He bent over the formula and set his hands against the outmost ring. It flared to live as he did. She saw at once that in his ignorance he'd reached the result she'd desired. Hell stretched out before her, burning and rotting in its evils.

"Now to draw them up. You've been wonderful professor."
"What? Who are you drawing up now?"
"No need." The demon's voice boomed forth from behind them.

Petra vaulted the portal, which sealed to a invisble floor as she crossed it. Naron simply spun and looked up in dismay.

"Courteous enough to spare me the trouble of calling on you. Demon, you embrace your fate too willingly."
"What in the..?" Naron was still stunned as he back pedaled to the center of the room to take in the full majesty of the newly summoned power.
"No mortal; it is you who embrace your fate. Perform the final act. Kill the fool!"
"But I want a witness to my power. He will tell the world of my victory."
"Then you are already mine."

The demon stretched a single finger towards the hapless profesor.
"How is it you ordered that first death? Ah yes, DIE!"
The unseen barrier beneath them was pierced as the shades bellow sent tentacles upwards and tore him limb from limb. It was a familiar sight by now, she had killed more than once like this. Never before had she seen what was on the other end of the portals. Had she been more prone to terror, or less prepared for dealing with a demon; she'd have probably been as afraid as Naron had been only seconds earlier.

"You won't leave this room demon; Today, you die."
"Today, your purpose will be made known."

The Plague of Danielland; The calm in the storm

Courtney looked out from the palace. Ruling Stormguarde was, compared to ruling any of the other major states of the universe, pretty easy. The population was diverse, but with a population consisting of 90% immortal to very longlived races people tended not to enter into any sort of persoal conflicts. Even just keeping someone's lawn mower too long could have repercussions hundreds of years later.

The Palace was a 'dark district'. Herself a Vampire, she tended to prefer the company of her own kind. They were mostly of her own coven; the Yellsdana. They had historical ties to the city older than even most of her famiy realized. The whole station had been founded by their foremother. The storm mage had built it as a private fortress, during the war she'd expanded it to house refugees. Her Father had lead them here; after Johr had killed him she'd lead the coven.

The immortals were mostly friends or servants of the storm mage. They'd been here as long as there'd been a stormguarde. The Pantheon, of which she was only the second Vampire to be a part of, had taken up residence here. Most immortals lived here, or at least had a house and some servants.

No one was really sure when the Elves had showed up. Stormguarde had been the last bastion of the living during the great war; several races had arrived then. The elves just seemed to be the only one that never left. The heavy Ley energies woven through the station probably appealed to them.

It was a good life. Even during the war no one had dared attack; Her illustrious ancestor had forged the nebula so that it provided light, air, and the most perfect defense in the universe. Ships had to be made of metal, a single bolt of lightning from the raging storm ended any threat. A few of the Wardens were assigned to identify targets and coax the storm as enemies approached. And the nature of the whole place was such that they could relocate if nessesairy.

Not that she didn't have problems. Since the coniving Lich Xandathu had struck the human colonies they'd been dealing with the repercussions. She'd dispatched two of her nephews and a squad of rangers to investigate rumors of an expansionest cult there. The Nielda of the old empire, Danielland, were ready to go to war to stop the threat; the Nielda of the new empire, Seclora, were blocking them on the grounds of an old non-intervention treaty. She'd been hoping one of the other immortals would take an intrest and deal with it. Petra would have been preferable; but she was in exile, again.

"Milady, we've just recieved word from Emperor Kvald the fifth. The entire empire has just been bombed with some sort of new plague."
"Why should I care? We all know the Nielda won't be hurt."
"It seems to be a custom tailored variety of Xandathu's plague. It acts on the blood. Seventy percent of the population is expected to succumb within the next thirty-six hours. He's going to launch a counter-offensive."
"Heaven help them all."

So much for peace. And she was just getting used to it.

Chapter Twenty-Four

"Here are the notes professor." Petra presented Naron with a heavily doctored, but factually accurate, copy of her notes.

She had developed a reason for her research. Since the demonic plane was, theoreticly at least, more or less just like any other elemental plane; she had edited her notes to make it appear she was simply trying to summon an inhabitant of one of the elemental planes. Since the practice for any other plane would be much like summoning a demon, a practice that was well established and researched, though well guarded against, the simmilarities would be reasonable and less subject to investegation.

"Any particular element in mind Petra?"
"Well, Knarf has mentioned that water is a particularly malleable element. I was thinking I'd try with that."
"I'm no expert at this, but I believe the pattern for water is.."
He really wasn't an expert at this. Chesi, and most other Alchemists for that matter, had tattoed a formula onto her arm. It allowed her to write alchemical formulas by contact with a flat surface and used her body heat as a reagent. Petra had no need of such a mark for her alchemy; she was sufficently powerful to use magic directly to write what she needed. Naron was using chalk. Besides being easy to mess up, it required a lot of time to write out every intricacy of the pattern.

She stayed to watch. It took hours but she was determined to see this through. She passed the time by asking him questions and talking about fictional social problems. After all, it was important that he not realize just how idiotic he was being. It was also extremly amusing to watch him get flustered and erase large portions of his work as he fumbled about in befudlement.

Chapter Twenty-Three

She had six months to find a suitably gullible young warlock. He'd need to be willing to do what she told him too, without realizing he was being told to do it. A demon might realize that she was working through him if he knew it.

She looked across the cafetieria. No one who'd been there for over a year would simply accept her approaching them with an idea; but a first year wouldn't have the capacity to pull it off. That left transfer students, all eight of them; Non-student visitors; who were rare and likely wouldn't have the capacity; or a teacher.

She glanced at the transfer students; they'd all placed in through heroic feats or prophecy. Simonas and Harold were prophesied somewhere; they might be dumb enough to do it. As far as visitors; most of them were nobles and none of them would fall for any atempt at trickery.
Teachers was the most interesting option. Otan had retired last year; after a long run. His replacement was delightfully ignorant of her power. Naron, a former Imperial Guard, must have gone out of his way to not know who she was. He was option one; he'd be the one to summon her demon.

"Professor Naron, can I have a word with you?"
"Sure thing miss..?"
"Petra, but everyone else call me 'the reaper'." Petra used the sweetest voice she could. She wasn't sure if she was going to be trying to seuce him, but a good impression was never a bad idea.
"So what's on your mind kid?"
'kid'? He was only like ten years older than she was. It took a great deal of restraint to not simply take him down to the arena and use him for a sacrifice.
"Well sir; I've been having problems with something I've been working on in my spare time. There's this formula.."
"This sounds like an Alchemy question. You should probably ask Mrs. Prevance."
"She hates me. Since the first day of school, she's hated me."
She knew why; Mrs. Prevance had never recovered from watching her kill that prisoner. Now that Otan was gone she was the only teacher who ever stood up to her; and that only because she was the most terrified of them all.
"Well I'm sorry to hear that. What sort of project is this?"
"Summoning, I'm working on a way to call something to me from somewhere else."
"Sounds vague, what's the problem?"
"It's not showing up."
"Why?"
"I don't think it wants to show up."
"And what sort of hel do you think I could be?"
"Maybe if you could repeat my experiment than I could observe and try to find out what's being done wrong."
"Alright, I'll look over your notes and we'll see what we can do this saturday. Bring them by my office tomorrow."
"Than you sir, you have no idea how important this is to me."
Idiot, how in the world did this guy become a teacher? He just walked into her plan with little hesitation.

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Are you sure you have it right?"
"Princess, It is exactly the way it was last time. Demons are not machienes; you can't just call and expect them to show up."
"Maybe we should kill something bigger this time."
"Petra my orders are to keep you safe. Just doing this much is a violation of that. Please, just go back to bed."

She sat quietly for another hour before finally returning to her bed. Chesi was a sound sleeper, so it was relatively easy to sneak out.

Why hadn't it shown? Maybe it knew it was a trap. Perhaps if she could trick someone into summoning it for her.

Petra had spent nearly three years now studying demons. Learning how they thought, how they fought, and what they sought. She was probably the universe's leading expert on shaditha. Yet she couldn't even call up a shade, let alone the full-fledged tempter that Chesi suspected to be following her. But she was determined to bring him into the open, and make and end of him.

She would be the most powerful being in the universe then; demon slayer, immortal, the physical embodiement of death. No one could order her around, and she could remake the world as she wanted too(however that was).

But first she'd need a pawn to summon the demon for her.

Chapter Twenty-One

Otherwise, Their ninth year proceded as had those before it. Classes were attended, matches were won, injuries were recieved, and here and there people died as a result of fiddling with magic for the wrong amount of time. Whether to much, or simply not being prepared; Life at the academy was quite dangerous. To say that nothing happened would be wrong; rather, nothing important to Petra happened.

The tenth year had gone much like the nine proceeding it. Scarcely a month went by some bonehead didn't try to upset her power, or challenge her outside of TacSim. And sadly, by now most of the teachers were themselves rightfully afraid of her power. Although she had probably killed before; Petra made no secret of it now. No one tried to stop her; if you were the level of stupid it took to start a fight with her, you were going to die anyways. She just made it prompt, painful, and public.

Alid and Chesi usually tried to convince her not to. Chesi would often heal the survivors, what few there were. Alid was the only student who could get away with intervening in her fights. More people owed their lives to him than he wished to count. He was a good guard; if ever there was a threat he'd try to deal with it long before she could find out about it. And when someone really did need to be put down he'd stand aside and let her do what she did best. Love is probably to stronga term; to say that she'd come to feel a strong affection for him might be a better. But if he felt anything more than a professional obligation he didn't show it.

It was august, halfway into the semester, when the end began. Chesi climbed down the stairway that lead to Petra's lab. It was dark, as always, and smelled like rotting flesh, a dozen herbs, and singed hair. Chesi was always polite enough not to say anything, so she'd written it into Fey to hate this place.
"Petra, what happened in the labrinth last year after I blacked out?"
"I blasted the golems. Boom, little bits of golem everywhere."
"How?"
"What do you mean how? With magic of course."
"I have a witness who says otherwise."
"What? We were the only ones in there."
"Not quite." A golem, the statue from the center of the room, clumsily descended the stairs. "He says it was a Shaditha. That you barely survived."
Petra muttered a curse at the stone man waiting silently beside her roommate. "Can you blame me for not saying so? What would you think if you saw a demon come to your defense?"
"I'd think something was wrong and that we should stop what we were doing and go back."
"We're immortal now Chesi. I'd don't care what the Demon wanted us to do; they don't control us. What could they possibly do to us?"
"What if they wanted us to be immortal? Wouldn't that mean it was wrong to be immortal?"
"How can it be wrong to not die?"
"I don't know, but if demons want it than it must be wrong."

"I think there might be a demon following you."
"What?"
"The first day of school; I felt something from when you killed that prisoner. It's the same thing I felt when Vlad fought his demon; not Vlad's demon but something close, and nearby as well. And the way the golem felt from the demon last year; it's the same thing. It took me till now to realize it; it may not be controlling you Petra, but it's following you."
"Absurd; Demons don't follow people. They offer power..."
"Which you have had since day one because everyone knew you could and were willing to kill. Because the Demon killed the prisoner for you."
"..Or eternal youth..."
"Which we both have thanks to the fountain he saved our lives for us to get to."
"...Or love." Petra paused. If the trend the demon had been following so far was any indication that would be next.
"Chesi, do you think the demon could make Alid like me?"
"Petra Laerdsfeld how could you? He's your guard, you shouldn't even think of using a demon's powers to make him like you."
"If I'm lucky the nether lord will do it of his own accord."

Chesi just stared at her friend in perturbed shock.
"I'm kidding. If he's following me then it will save me the trouble of finding one. He wants to play with my life; he'll find out what happens to people who take me lightly."

Chapter Twenty

By the time Chesi came to Petra had managed to get her story straight. There was no chance she was telling Chesi that there was a demon helping them. She didn't fully understand it herself, and until she did there would be no mention of their foul guardian.

"What happened? Are we alive?"
"I killed them, we're alive."
"Those skeletons sure didn't help."
"They distracted them while you dealt with most of them. How's your head?"
"Sore, but I can keep going."
"Good, grab your bag."

They trudged through the halls, here and there another golem would be patrolling, or a pit would open up in front of them. It made things more interesting, but Chesi was clearly not doing as well as she insisted she was. Petra expected that there'd be another exit somewhere towards the end, so she decided that continuing inward was the best way to get out.

They finally reached the end of the maze and found its guarded treasure. A small spring coming from the rock. The lower half of the cave had filled with water. It was pretty, the light from Fey sparkling on the gently rippling pool. The walls were painted; the tale of those who built the labrinth emblazoned on it. and above the spring itself was a plaque. It read, in an archaic dialect of common; 'drink and be full of life'.

"Probably means the stuff's filled with all kinds of evil little creatures. you drink it and they start living in you; eating you from the inside."
"Blood"
"There are things that can overpower Nieldic blood. I don't want to play host to some parasite."
"Mom"
"Oh right, your mom works in that department doesn't she? We'd probably be the the least endangered by it of anybody."

~Shut up and drink the water!~
"Who was that?"
There was no reply. The cave was as empty as it had been before.
"Something tells me we should drink the water."
"Probably makes you super-strong or gives you the runs or something."
"I think it means you'll live forever. If your body is 'full of life', wouldn't that mean you'd be absent of death?"
"Immortality. Reason enough for me."
Petra conjured a mug and dipped it into the pool. That annoying, evil sounding voice Sighe in relief, then began chuckling.
"Well?"
"It tastes like water, water that's been in and on old rocks for a long time."
"I'll drink some too; then we should get back to school."
Chesi took the mug and drank. Then both stood up and turned around.
In front of them was the front door; open to the outside.
"Convenient. And what a wonderful and potentially significant little adventure we've had."
"Aren't you glad I convinced you to come?"