Kiyui went over to the blanket to check on Tadwick and the rest of us sat down by the camp fire. I probably should have noticed Feiffer curled up at the bottom of the blanket before. If I had seen him, then I would have known it was Kiyui immediately. My head in not in the right space at the moment.

  Damecus fixed me with a glare of utter disapproval. Not dissimilar to the way that Phoenix normally glares at Agaroth. Kiyui returned to the fire and sat down next to me.

  Kiyui: “Damecus, this is Dwynfel. I know he’s a goblin, but he was raised by humans, he is perfectly safe.”

  He then looked at me.

  Kiyui: “Dwynfel, this is Damecus. I know he’s a lizardman, but we have only encountered one clan of the lizardmen before. They are not all hell bent on world domination. I apologise for the confusion. If I hadn’t collapsed from exhaustion soon after meeting Damecus, I would have prepared him for this.”

  Damecus finally stopped glaring at me and moved his gaze over to Phoenix.

  Damecus: “You are human. Is the child yours?”

  Phoenix: “No.”

  Kiyui: “We rescued him from a goblin nest.”

  Damecus: “Goblins do not keep males alive.”

  Dwynfel: “There was a corrupted incubus controlling the nest.”

  Kiyui: “Which I still don’t understand. I thought incubi just survived on sexual energy like a succubus. I used to work with them all the time. What the hell was wrong with that thing? And what did it want with Tadwick?”

  Dwynfel: “You don’t want to know.”

  Kiyui: “I may not want to, but I need to. If that thing is going to keep coming for Tadwick, then I need to be prepared.”

  Damecus: “The girl speaks sense. She needs to know.”

  Kiyui: “Not a girl.”

  Damecus: “Apologies. The woman speaks sense.”

  Kiyui: “Still no. I’m a boy.”

  Damecus: “Further apologies. I am unfamiliar with your species.”

  He turned his gaze to look at me once again.

  Damecus: “Explain it to him, goblin.”

  Dwynfel: “You are right about the normal incubi. Most of them work in brothels where they can feed on sexual energy easily without harming anybody. The corrupted ones however… are very dangerous. When they place their seed in you, it eats you from the inside… it consumes you and the creature inhabits your body, discarding its previous one. Every time it does this it grows stronger, but it mutates its new body more and more each time. Over time it becomes so disturbing that consensual sex is no longer an option. They become more and more warped… eventually they are so hideous that they can’t even enter villages or towns.”

  Kiyui paused, as though taking it all in. Then his brow furrowed.

  Kiyui: “So, what on earth does it need a child for?”

  Dwynfel: “In order to regain its appearance whilst maintaining its power… it needs ten innocents. They all get given the mark that Tadwick has on his chest. Then the creature devours the first nine before finally laying with the tenth. When it does so, it transfers its mind… and all of its power into the boy. It can then go by unnoticed for years… the child will be taken in by some orphanage… maybe even a nice family, and looked after until he reaches puberty and can begin to amass more power. Judging by the power of the one we encountered; this is not the first transition it has made… this one has been doing this for at least a few decades.”

  Kiyui: “When you say it lays with… you can’t mean that it wants to…”

  Dwynfel: “Yes… it does… and that is why we needed to get that boy out of there immediately.”

  Kiyui threw up in his mouth but controlled himself and swallowed it again.

  Kiyui: “That’s disgusting.”

  Dwynfel: “Yes, it’s vile, but we have other problems right now. Would somebody please explain to me what the hell happened? I kind of… lost track after… Tilda. I remember a really bright light… then I was… wherever the hell we are now.”

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  Phoenix sighed… she looked as if she had been waiting for this question… but also as if she did not want to give the answer.

  Phoenix: “After you… collapsed. Chloe grabbed Tilda and carried her over to Agaroth. Asmodeus looked devastated. The creature began massing dark energy in its hands. It clearly intended to stop Kiyui from casting his spell. It flung what looked like some kind of hole in space towards Kiyui. If that had hit him, he would not have survived. So, I stepped in the way and used syphon.”

  Dwynfel: “What’s syphon?”

  Phoenix: “It transfers the energy from one spell to another. The spell was too powerful for me to block or dispel. I could only redirect the energy. But the only spell that was being cast nearby was Kiyui’s. So, I transferred all of this energy into the teleportation spell.”

  Kiyui: “The glyph doubled in size, engulfing you and Phoenix. It should have only teleported us a thousand meters away, maximum. But, with all that energy, we travelled… I don’t even know how far. But we’re on the other side of the Uddin Sea.”

  Dwynfel: “The Uddin Sea? We can’t be. That’s impossible.”

  Damecus: “I’m afraid it is not. You are indeed far from home.”

  Shit… I’ve only ever seen the Uddin Sea on maps. It’s way beyond anywhere we have travelled before. Very few humans have ever even travelled across that sea. The ones that did, said it was too dangerous for it to be colonised.

  Damecus: “The humans here have a small empire by the coast but otherwise go unseen. You are in dangerous territory.”

  Dwynfel: “Seriously though… how much energy must that thing have used in order to boost the teleport spell this much? That’s insane.”

  Phoenix: “That is precisely why syphon was my only option. Had that spell reached its target, I doubt they would be coming back from it.”

  Right, okay. Uddin sea is what? A few weeks travel from Kataravonia… maybe a month. Much less with horses. This is going to take a while.

  Dwynfel: “How long will it take for us to get back? I need to know if Tilda is alright!”

  Phoenix: “Dwynfel, I’m sorry. There is no way she could have survived that.”

  Dwynfel: “You don’t know… Agaroth might have been able to heal the worst of it.”

  Phoenix: “No Dwyn. That thing pierced her skull. She is not coming back from that.”

  I know she’s right… I know she is… but I can’t help but hope… I’ve loved her for so long… for so many years… I need to tell her… somehow… she needs to be alive… I need to tell her how I feel.

  There was silence for a long time after that. I guess nobody knew what to say… what do you say after that?

  Clearly Damecus did not believe we had time to dwell on things and decided to announce how we should move forward.

  Damecus: “From here it will take several weeks of travelling to get to the sea itself, and that is assuming we keep a good pace. Which is unlikely when travelling with a child. And you will need to get a boat from the Uddin empire. They do not operate on charity. They will want something in exchange.”

  Kiyui: “Damecus has agreed to help us to get there.”

  Oh great. The massive lizard that clearly hates me is coming. Brilliant.

  Dwynfel: “Why? What’s in it for you?”

  Damecus: “I am going through my tal voshak.”

  Dwynfel: “Your what?”

  Damecus: “It is a trial that all male lizardmen in my clan go through, when they reach a certain age. I must survive outside my village for five years without returning. How I survive is up to me. I have been living out here for fourteen months so far. I have a long time left. This will occupy some of it.”

  Dwynfel: “So, we are just to alleviate your boredom?”

  Damecus: “In essence, yes.”

  Kiyui slapped him on the arm.

  Kiyui: “Don’t go talking like that.”

  Kiyui turned to me.

  Kiyui: “He’s actually really nice. After the spell, I walked for ages with Tadwick. He was starving, I had no energy left, I was on the verge of collapsing when Damecus found us. He carried Tadwick and me all the way back here. Made a fire to keep us warm, gave Tadwick the last of his food, wrapped us in a blanket and kept guard over us.”

  Dwynfel: “Yes, I noticed that last part.”

  Kiyui: “I know he looks scary n’ all, but he’s a sweetheart deep down.”

  I looked over at Damecus… he was glaring at me and baring his teeth in a deeply threatening way. I get the sneaking suspicion that he does not agree with Kiyui’s assessment of his character.

  I appreciate that this is likely because I am using a free programme... and you get what you pay for... but still.

  I would love so much to work with an actual artist.