Safe Haven

Night Hags attempted to jump us around every corner, targeting the humans especially. Even in small numbers, their ability to scurry around quietly put them way ahead of us. Little did they know, my motion tracker was able to pick up most of their movement. So even with their ambushes, we had a little time to prepare.

In all the mess of dealing with the freaky little things trying to claw at our chests, we lost them when we dove into a building without big vents. This place looked like a dingy funeral home, but I couldn't tell if that was because of the demons domain, or it was always this way.

I saw some weird black webbing everywhere, almost like slime over the walls. It looked really gross, so we avoided touching it. A lot of it was especially concentrated inside of a room where huge lumps of it, glowing red on the inside, were gathered around the floor. All the way at the end of that room was an closed casket.

Everyone managed to sneak through the funeral home undetected and get back onto the streets, momentarily away from demons.

We hadn’t been running too aimlessly through the warped roads and buildings. There was a NAV point I’d placed on my map over that seven star icon.

“It’s right around here, Uncle.”

So far, up to now every building has looked like it was ripped out of a dreary Halloween movie, just without the fun costumed characters or candy. But right before us was a building that seemed very out of place in all that.

An antique store!

Its karate chopping frog logo called to us. A sign in the window said, 'hop over and chop till you drop!' What a silly slogan...

The seven star icon over the map was located inside that store, so this must have been like some sort of safe haven. In video game dungeons, you’d usually need to use these as save points.

We tried opening the door, but it was locked.

“Hey, someone give me a bobby pin and a toothpick.” Indena kneeled right up to the doors lock.

Emily pulled out one of her bobby pins, as well as a multi-tool knife for a metal pick.

“You know, I can pick locks too,” Emily said.

“Good for you. For the record, I only know how to do this because I got locked out of my apartment when my roommate wasn’t home.”

While she was talking, she was picking the lock, brushing the inner part of it and trying to twist it open.

“You lived with someone?” I asked.

“Why, that hard to believe two people can live together?” She gave a confused smile. “Yeah, I lived with my friend Sasha. We trained under the same priestess.”

She mentioned Sasha before when we were stuck in that valley. She said they would sneak into movies and not pay.

“Was Sasha a bad girl?” I asked.

“Nope.” Indena said, still focused on the lock. “She’s more like Yamin, but less of a stick in the mud.” Indena chuckled.

“You…trained under a priestess?” Emily inquired.

“What’s it to you, got a problem with that?”

*CHINK!*

Her bobby pin broke, then she swore something nasty under her breath.

“Hey, I need another pin.”

“This is my last one, so make it count.” Emily replied.

“I’ll make you count…you lousy...” Indena grumbled to herself, getting back to picking the lock. “Anyways, Arch Priestess Sovereignty, she was Sasha and mine's mentor. She taught us everything we know. And she’s one of the most eccentric women I’ve ever met. Drove me nuts, but I guess she’s kinda’ my mom in a way.”

“Did you have a real mom?” I blurted out.

“Nah, my dad gave birth to me. Idiot.”

She doesn't have to be so mean about it…

Indena continued by saying “Last time I saw my real mom was probably when I was three or something…HEY! Why am I talking about this crap to you guys?!”

*CLICK!*

The lock made a click sound, then Indena got the door open.

“Thank the divine I don’t worship!” Indena announced, handing the bobby pin and tool back to Emily. “Alright, let's head in. I’ll lock it once we're inside, just in case those little gremlins wanna follow.”

We ran in and carefully closed the door shut.

Shelves upon shelves here were stacked with assortments of random junk and crazy items. Somethings looked like really expensive gems and charms, others looked like fast food toys. It was a pretty mixed bag.

Supplementing all the old nick-nacks was the smell of sawdust and mold. A true antique store experience.

Uncle and Emily set Marek and that woman we saved down in a corner. Emily gathered a few items up and started nursing both the incapacitated.

This antique store was the only place we’d seen so far that wasn’t effected by the demon domain. There had to be a reason, so we started looking.

Not long into the search, we found a woman sleeping peacefully behind dthe counter. A note was in front of her.

Dear Miss. Monica,

Please stop working so hard, you look like you're losing sleep again. If you want, I can watch the store for the next few days. You don’t have to pay me. Just get some sleep and put in a good word for me with Victor at the cafe.

PS. Don’t tell him I asked about that last part, or he’ll get suspicious :P

Love, Yamin.

Yamin was here? Was this recently, or maybe before the demon attack? Probably just before, since Yamin referenced that this woman was looking sleepy.

One thing's for sure, if the demons in that castle have her, she was in danger. We had to save her.

“Ay, Shrimp, you’re still bleeding.”

She was right. Some of my feathers were turning blue from the blood.

Getting this arrow out of my wing would be a lot easier then getting the one out of Marek’s knee. The problem was, it was going to hurt.

“We can pull it out now, if you’re ready.” Uncle suggested.

I didn’t want to do it in front of everyone, so we went into a backroom.

Uncle broke off the arrow head, then carefully tugged the wooden part out so it wouldn’t leave any splinters in me.

“Yeep!” I squealed from the pain. “It hurts!”

“I know. But it’s almost done.”

This was the worst pain of my life! Too bad the numbness from the sedative was wearing off…

It was almost over. Then I could use my healing magic to close the wound…

~☆☆☆~

My wing healed up nicely, but it still felt a little weird and stung. Even after I de-spawned it, I still had really uncomfortable pain shooting through my back.

Lucky for us, Emily and Indena had found what was causing this place to be so protected from the demons domain.

“Check out the fire place over there.” Indena pointed.

Right on the mantel was a trophy looking alter, seven glowing stars shined around it with one bright blue one in the middle.

This was an altar to the Seven Star Angels. A symbol of the Ecclysian religion of this country.

Each star had a name written behind it. Metatron, Mical, Gabriel, Raphael, Ural, Jerahmeel and Pireel.

The big center star had the words, Final One, written in Nazalian. Assuming the humans were right about me, my name would go there one day.

“That’s the Deula stuff, right?” Indena asked. “What’s up with that? Did Deus really bless that thing?”

Deus is what the humans called God apparently. Deula is a derogatory term used against monotheists.

“I think so.” I said, running up to it and touching the surface of each star. This light was stardust energy, and it wasn’t dissipating at all like normal stardust.

In a moment of inspiration, I decided to pray for help.

“God, please help me and my friends stop the demon here and save the town and Yamin. Amen.”

Indena pat me on the back.

“Doing the Lord’s work I see.” She could hardly keep herself from laughing. “On that note, why don’t we try and figure out a game plan here. We have to stop that demon before things get bad...or, worse then they are now.”

And so came probably the most fun part about this mission...planning to storm that castle.