Chapter 281 - Demonkind (1/2)
Li failed to see the point the old man was making. ”Okay then, so this adventurer lady is quite special in that she had the power to shape history. But that alone does not tell me what exactly she has to do with this place. I am not questioning the usefulness of your knowledge, old man, just trying to understand it better.”
”Ah, lad, I would be hard pressed to explain it to ye,” said Old Thane. ”It is just a feeling. There is no mention of Lira that holds not some great significance somewhere. I should imagine it so here, but I've no evidence to give ye, no claims forged solid under peer discourse and experimentation as the Arcanists do.”
”I see.” Li could parse what the old man was trying to say. This adventurer, this Lira, was so renowned, so special, that any tales about her had to have had some kind of merit to them. Something important. Thus, that there were stories of her passing into this area for her final adventure would surely mean something.
Though, of course, this was like believing in folk tale. There might have been something to do about her here. There might not. Lira had not been alive for over a century as far as Li could tell, and most of her records were purged. It was a wild attempt to try and link her solidly to anything in the present.
Asala evidently thought the same, as she spoke, ”I've a deep fondness for the tales of heroes and myths of yore, and I am familiar with the rumors of Lira's final adventure – after all, the last venture of a character that shone so splendidly through the annals of history would naturally be wreathed in wondering whisper.
But whispers are merely that – fragments of thoughts half-formed, of events half-recorded, seen by many yet written by none. Tis my thought that perhaps demons are at the root of this…this Desolation, yes.” She scribbled down on her tablet. ”Yes, that shalt be an apt name for this barren land. I shall call it so.”
”I can understand where you are coming from. When I glimpsed into Tyr's heart, I could see that the advance of demonkind outside the mountains pressured his rule,” said Li. ”But this kind of environment is one I do not associate with demonkind.”
”Hm, is it that though hath deep expertise about demons?” said Asala with raised brow.
”And what of it?”
”Ah, nothing to me.” Asala put her clay stylus to her lips as she peered at Li with curiosity. ”I would be quite curious of one well versed of the demons, for their lands alone do mine sisters record little to naught of. Hospitality does not dwell within them in great spades.”
”Would not surprise me,” said Sheela as she leered her feline, red tinted eyes at the fire crackling in the Vukanovi. ”This ash - if it came from demons. Demons only hurt and destroy. Only make suffer and pain. Take and steal.”
”And that is why we stand against them,” said Mercer with gusto, sitting up straight. ”We march west to fight against their horror and evil as the great warriors of the past have done so before us.”
Vilga grimaced, rubbing her muscled, trunk-like arm with a surprisingly dainty gesture. ”When I still fought in the dueling pits, I fought a demon once. Captured demon. Horrible thing. I could see in its eyes the d.e.s.i.r.e to maim and dominate. Nothing else. When I caved its ribs in, the hate that glowered at me was enough to keep my next three nights sleepless for fear of some dreadful curse beyond the grave.”
”Typical for creatures that are born not of the Light, but of the unfeeling dark,” said Mason. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a locket with its head fashioned into a six-pointed sun – the symbol of the religion of Light. He clutched it in his hand.