"The Witches Are Attacking Our Homes!"
The tunnel to the cemetery took almost a while, but Amalthea didn't alert them to any change. They started going up an incline and then there was a metal tube with a rung ladder. "The exit is up there, but the cover of the tomb is very heavy," Lysithea cautioned.
"I'll go first and see if I can hear anything before opening the cover," Lazarus said and climbed up the metal rungs. He listened carefully, closing his eyes to not really hear but feel. "They're still far off," he said and then pressed against the stone cover with little effort. It didn't even make that grating, scraping sound usually associated with moving the stone lid of an above ground tomb.
Lysithea and Phryne looked at each other. Well, it seems they underestimated these people Delaney said were dragons. Amadeus gestured for them to go next, then followed up behind. After they climbed out of the tomb, Lysithea asked him to set it back. "If we can drive them away, we'll use the Mausoleum entrance," she explained.
Lazarus nodded. They crept around hiding behind tombs and crypts, getting closer and closer to the humans gathering around the Heck Mausoleum. They had fires and were shouting slogans and attacking the mausoleum. Some were shooting at it with rifles and shotguns. Some hacked at it with axes.
"They're crazy," Phryne frowned.
"It's a frenzy. There must be a demon or a demon spawn driving them," Lysithea said.
"How to find out?" Amadeus asked.
"We have to make them reveal themselves," Lysithea answered.
"Like if the crowd were to try to disperse, they'd make sure it didn't?" Amadeus asked.
"That might work. If we have a target, we can try a revealing spell," Phryne said.
"The witches are attacking our homes," he said suddenly.
Lazarus grinned. He cupped his hands, slight blue energy gathered there, and the words began to repeat, overlap, at different tones and pitches. He suddenly launched the sound ball into the middle of the crowd. A woman's voice screamed. "The witches are attacking our homes!" Then more whispers, different voices from different directions.
Phryne brightened. "Sonic magic!" she declared. She suddenly whispered. "The demons are directing the witches to attack our homes. They're in the crowd trying to distract us. Find them," she gathered her words and directed them into the crowd as well.
"Demons and witches! Find the demon!"
"No, we have to go home!"
The crowd that was fairly cohesive suddenly erupted into chaos. The chaos didn't last long before a middle-aged woman with a blond bob shouted over the crowd. "Don't be fooled. It's a witch's trick! The witches are trying to drive us away. They're afraid. It means we're doing the right thing. Burn the witches!" she shouted, punching a fist in the air.
The crowd suddenly rallied. "Burn the witches! Burn the witches! Burn the witches!" they chanted, pumping their fists in the air.
"I think we found your demon," Amadeus said.
Lysithea nodded and looked grim. She took Phryne's hand. "In disguises deep, forms unknown, in firelight's sheen, make their true forms shown," they recited. "In disguises deep, forms unknown, in firelight's sheen, make their true forms shown. In disguises deep, forms unknown, in firelight's sheen, make their true forms shown." Three times the spell was spoken.
The blond woman was mid-chant when her body suddenly contorted, growing tall, face twisting with black tattoos, and skin deepening to red, and clothes becoming black and ornate.
"Demon!"
--
Deianira and Delaney led Sariya and Darius down another path. The distance wasn't long, but because the tunnel had to wind around soggy and unstable ground.
They finally came out of a hidden passage under the exposed roots of a large oak tree not far from the water of a bayou. "The house is that way," Delaney said, pointing in a direction. "The backyard abuts into this bayou," she explained.
"I'll scout the way," Sariya said. She pulled out a bow and quiver. She crossed the quiver over her body and held the bow. It was a new, better-quality bow than the one she'd had on Thelessia. She'd bought it in SIlvermoon. It was said to have been made by an Emerald Dragon wood carver. Staying low to the ground, she nimbly moved forward. She could hear a crowd of people.
She came back a few minutes later. "There's about fifty people, mostly males. They appear to be intoxicated and have combustion weapons," she explained.
Deianira nodded. "I can hear the shots from here. What the hell are they shooting at?" she grumbled.
"Small animals," Sariya answered. "Or what they think are small animals. They've actually scared away all the wildlife in the area," she said. "There's a person in the crowd who's strange," she added. "He's not intoxicated even though he's imbibing from the same bottles as everyone else. He's in the middle of the crowd but seems separated from it. Is it what you call a demon?" she asked.
"Either a demon or demon spawn," Deianira answered.
"What's the difference?" Sariya asked curiously.
"Demon spawn are humans who've sold their souls to demons in exchange for wealth, power, and strength. Sometimes they're witchborn that have killed mortals," Delaney answered.
"Is there any redemption for them?" Darius asked curiously. "For the witchborn, I mean," he said. "If the killing was self-defense or accidental?"
Delaney and Deianira looked at each other and then shook their heads. "Not every witchborn who have killed becomes a demon spawn. They lose their powers and become mortal. The witchborn demon spawn make deals to regain their power," Delaney explained. "But the killing creates a weakness demons exploit."
Darius paused, tilted his head and talked with his sister in his mind. Sariya and Delaney recognized this look, but Deianira was confused. "Do you know anyone?" he asked aloud.
Deianira sighed. "Before the anti-witch laws, there would be very few and those long dead. Over the years, even a handful is too many. Yes, I know someone. Why do you ask?"
"We'll invite a few to Emphyralis and study them. At the very least, they'll be safe from demons there," Darius answered.
Deianira nodded slightly. She glanced at Delaney questioningly. Her daughter laughed at her. "You have a lot to learn," she said. "So, how do we get rid of the pests?"
"They're here out of fear and bravado. They just want to destroy something. We'll scare them away. They can fight against witches, but can they fight against spirits?" Darius asked. "As for the leader, we capture him," he said.
"How are we going to do that?" Deianira asked.
"All your time on Emphyralis, you've learned a bit of our magic?" he asked Delaney.
She nodded. "What do you need me to do?"
"Glamor yourself into a ghostly visage of the man who died in the fire. They know him, correct?"
Delaney nodded.
"Sariya, I'll leave the capture up to you," Darius said. Sariya nodded. "Deianira, can you control plants with your power?" he asked.
She nodded. "To an extent," she said.
"It doesn't have to be sophisticated. Just when everything starts, trip people, pull them down, make them afraid something is in the fog," he instructed.
"What fog?" Deianira asked, looking around the clear night sky.
"I'm coming to that. Don't start until the fog is thick enough. Get ready. I need to borrow my sister's power," he said.
Sariya led them to a good place to observe the crows without being too close. Delaney didn't have enough control of Emphyralian magic to use it without speaking, so she spoke a word of Emphyralian Draconic, imbuing it with her power and the intent of what she wanted. Black shadows wisped around her as she changed into the appearance of a tall man with a neat goatee and long black braids, with burns all over his body, and an unnatural pallor to his dusky skin. This was her uncle Clancy. Deianira gasped slightly.
Darius also wasn't that great at nonverbal magic, so he spoke a sentence to summon fog in his hands and gestured for it to spread out and creep toward the gathering of gun happy crowd. Then he channeled his sister's telepathic power. She wasn't as strong as their mother, so he could only target one person at a time, but in a way that was better. It added to the confusion and fear.
As the fog began to creep in, a person heard a voice in his head. "Why are you at my home?" The person was startled. "Who's home? Who said that?" he demanded.
"What're you talkin' about, Jed?" said another man.
"Ain't nobody said nothin'," a third piped up.
If it were just Jed, maybe they could have brushed off the incident, but the fog was creeping up, and more and more people were hearing the voice in their heads.
"Get out!"
"Get out!"
"Get away from my home!"
"Where's my wife?"
"Where's my daughter!"
"Did you kill me?"
More and more people began reacting to voices no one else could hear, and others began to notice. "What's going on? Is it witches?" someone demanded.
Laughter rang out as the fog grew thicker. "Get away from my home!" Delaney, as the ghost of Clancey Kyteler appeared in front of a group of men. They shouted and went for their guns, but they suddenly tripped and fell to the ground.
"It's Clancey Kyteler! He's a ghost!" someone shrieked.
"Don't be ridiculous. It's a witch's tri---AAHHHHH!" someone started to contradict but "Clancey's" half burned face appeared in front of him. He didn't need a root to trip him, his own fright and drunkenness was enough to help him kiss the ground.
Chaos was quickly descending. The demon spawn in the crowd tried to speak reason to the crowd, but even he couldn't get through to them. He'd even seen the ghost. Ghosts were real, but he wasn't afraid of them. But they weren't corporeal. They couldn't affect anything around them. This fog and the people falling was obviously a witch's trick. But these people already had guilty consciences, and the physical nature of the assaults terrified them.
As he was trying to regain order, the fog around him suddenly thickened. He suddenly went on high alert. "Come out, witch! I fear you not!" he shouted.
"Maybe you should," there was a thwonk sound and suddenly an arrow was sticking out of his arm.
"Ha!" He gripped the arrow and pulled it out. "Mortal weapons have no effect on me, and none of your potions can affect me," he scoffed. He suddenly felt woozy. "What--?" He was confused.
A woman approached him in the fog. "Who said this is a mortal weapon?" she asked as she picked up the arrow and made a face at it. She flung the blood off. "Ugh. It stinks," she said and refused to put it back in her quiver. After a while, it dissipated.
"What did you do? Not even these Crowley witches' potions can affect me," he said, staggering. The vision in front of his eyes blurred.
Sariya tilted her head. "I don't know anything about magic stuff. This is just an herbal mix used for anesthesia on baby orcs when they start losing their baby tusks," she explained. "I thought it might affect a demon spawn, so I gave it a shot. Looks like it worked," she said conversationally.
The demon spawn hit the ground, not unconscious, but his entire body numb. He couldn't even speak to reject when the mysterious woman began to tie him up.
--
Back in the cemetery, people were beginning to run away from the demon. Some tried to shoot at it, but it just took the bullets, roaring in fury.
"Stay here, we're going to play," Amadeus said to the women, grinning slightly. Lazarus also smiled. They stepped into the shadows and reappeared near the demon.
Lysithea and Phryne watched from behind a crypt. Phryne was still adding to the chaos by adding new phrases into the cacophony, like "The demon will eat our souls!" and "The witches grave is guarded by soul sucking demons!"
Amadeus used his Shadowcasting ability to cut off the line of sight of the demon and the mortals so that they lost sight of him and were no longer shooting toward them. The demon was confused. She looked around. "Are there little witchies out there? Hehehe. Come out and see me," she taunted.
Amadeus and Lazarus laughed. "Oh, no. We're not witches," Amadeus said as he appeared in front of the demon.
"We're just curious about demons," Lazarus said. "Come, come, show us what you've got," he encouraged.
Their nonchalant attitudes infuriated the demon. She gathered a greenish fireball in her hand and tossed it at them. They Shadowconstructed shields in front of them to block the fire. They felt the impact, but it was a lot less than they expected.
The demon began flickering, appearing around them, tossing fireballs every time she reappeared. At one point, Lazarus wasn't fat enough and the fireball hit a hexagon that appeared mere millimeters above his clothes. "Ah, a passive protective skill?" He was surprised.
"Guess it's part of what keeps up being crushed when we're in stasis," Amadeus guessed.
"Handy," Laz commented. "It's our turn," he said. He reached to his side and drew a blade from a pouch. It wasn't a special sword. It was a guardsmen issued sword.
Amadeus nodded and also drew his sword. The two of them began to slip in and out of the shadows around the demon in a coordinated attack, slashing the demon lightly on each pass.
She tried to counterattack with her fire, but they stepped in and out of her sight. "How!" she demanded. She was impervious to mortal weapons. Even magical weapons needed to be high lever to even scratch her, but these two men were easily cutting her skin. She spun around and in circles until she staggered to her knees, weakening.
Amadeus suddenly took off his cloak and threw it over her and said the activation word. Before she could react, she was put into stasis and trapped in the fish sized capsule. Taking off his cloak meant that his true appearance was exposed, but there were no longer many mortals left who could see him, and the ones who did thought he was an angel.
"Angels! Angels have descended from Heaven to protect us from the demons!" somewhat uttered.
Amadeus snorted. He picked up the demon capsule and put it away. He and Lazarus stepped into the shadows, disappearing.
Very few people here actually believed in witches, witchcraft, and demons. Therefore no one would actually believe the story. Even if someone recorded a video, internet sleuths would dismiss it as AI generated.
They rejoined the two women. There were very few people left. "You said there was another tunnel entrance in that mausoleum?" Amadeus asked.
Lysithea, still a bit shocked at how easily the two men took down the demon, nodded. Phryne was also surprised.
"Please excuse us," Amadeus said politely. They each grabbed a woman and stepped into the shadows and walked back out inside the Heck Mausoleum. They politely released them.
Lysithea recovered first then went to look out. There were still some people lingering, but for the most part, fear of the demons scared everyone away. "They'll be back," she said. She looked at Amadeus slightly disdainfully. "Especially since they saw angels," she said.
"Maybe angels protecting our family crypt is a good thing," Phryne said.
Lysithea brightened. "Especially if it's a pretty little blonde, white girl," she said thoughtfully.
Amadeus and Lazarus shared another look. "I think Lady Britiana is about to be used for propaganda," Amadeus whispered.
Lazarus nodded, muttering blessings for her in his heart.
Phryne let her aunt stew. "Why did you capture the demon? Why not just kill it?" she asked the two men. She wasn't criticizing, just curious.
"For one thing, we didn't have permission to kill it. For another, part of our mission is gathering intelligence. Studying a live demon is part of that," Amadeus answered.
Lysithea's phone vibrated. She took it out and saw a message from Amalthea. "Thea said that your Darius and Sariya captured a demon spawn," she said.
"Can you relay a message to one of your sisters who accompanied them to use the cloak as a prison," Amadeus suggested.
Lysithea nodded and sent a message to Deianira. After she was done. "Come along. Let's head back to the house," she said.
"Wait, we'll ward your family's tomb," Amadeus said. Lazarus agreed and the two of them stepped into the shadows and disappeared, reappearing at different points around the tomb to put wards in place that confuse mortals, and make them not be able to find it. Afterwards, they rejoined the two women. They led them into a tunnel entrance and headed toward the underground house.
–
Deianira looked at her buzzing phone. "Lyzzie relayed a message from one of your companions to use the cloak on the demon spawn," she told Darius.
Darius nodded. Sariya dragged the limp demon spawn over to their hiding spot. The mortals were still scrambling around, but for the most part, they were running away. Darius removed his cloak and threw it on top of him and spoke the activation word. He picked up the capsule and rolled it in his hand absently. He looked at the fog bank surrounding the ruins of the house and said a word to make it permanent. It wouldn't be dispatched until he willed it. He also set a spell to occasionally have wailing, or Clancey Kyteler's voice floated through it.
"Let's head back," he said. Delaney appeared out of the shadows and released her glamor. "Let's go back through the basement now that there aren't many people left," she suggested.
"Good idea," Deianira said. It was hard to see through the fog, but they knew the path like the backs of their hands. They led the two to a storm cellar that had the remnants of blackened doors. They walked into the blackened basement. Then, they revealed a hidden door, went down another set of stairs, and opened a trap door that led to the attic of the underground house.
As they went, Darius laid down reinforcing wards behind them.