The Demon King's Hero Of Light

Fifteen minutes later, after wandering randomly, Aella found herself standing in front of a large door. Dust was piled against it, proving that no one had used it in a long time. The carvings of books and scrolls into the woodworking attested to what must lay beyond it. With a smile, she teleported back to the hall of the inn, where the heroes were resting. This teleport ability was ridiculously rule-breaking. She was just glad she had it, and not someone else.

A sound behind her had her turning, flicking a knife from her glove, at the person behind her. The moment the knife left her fingertips, she knew she had made a mistake.

"c.r.a.p!" she muttered, jumping after it.

Curt"s eyes widened in surprise as the knife hit him in the neck, disappearing and reappearing on her hand as a glove before his hand could touch his neck.

"I got you! You"ll be fine," she whispered, wrapping her left hand around his neck and pulling him to her, hugging his back, and activating the healing ring.

It could only do small magical heals, and his legs bucked as panic took hold when he realized he couldn"t breathe. Blood was pouring rhythmically down his front, splashing on the floor when he kicked Josephine"s door. She jerked it open as if to yell at him, when she spied what looked like Aella killing Curt.

"Oh! What happened!" she cried, jumping forward as Aella looked at her apologetically.

"He startled me, and I reacted. I didn"t mean to hurt him!" hissed Aella back, as Josephine quickly took over, using a much larger heal spell.

Curt"s body was quickly encased in a clear bubble of water that Josephine directed into her room. Aella followed curiously, shutting the door before anyone else came to investigate. The moment the water touched his skin, Curt had calmed down and stopped thrashing.

"You"ve cut his throat!" she accused, glaring at Aella.

"I told you he startled me," Aella defended, throwing her arms in the air. "I normally have a.s.sa.s.sins sneaking up on me, not allies."

"I don"t want to hear any more until I have him stable," Josephine grumbled, laying her hands on his gaping wound, through the water, and they began to glow.

Aella watched as the skin knit itself back together, tissues reattaching themselves and closing back up under Josephine"s gentle magic. The water surrounding him began to dissipate, leaving him laying on the bed asleep and fully healed.

"He"ll be out for hours, while his body adjusts to the low blood levels," said Josephine softly, turning to the table and sitting down, more exhausted than Aella had ever seen her before.

"I am sorry," Aella tried again. She really hadn"t meant to kill the boy. When she heard him shut his door quietly, she had reacted on instinct.

"What kind of a life have you lived, that killing someone is your immediate response to hearing someone behind you?" asked Josephine, looking at her curiously.

Aella leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. Maybe this was an opportunity to hear about Josephine?

"Why do you always look so sad?" asked Aella.

Josephine looked away, towards the window that overlooked the street beside the inn. Several moments of silence pa.s.sed before she responded.

"The church has my daughter. If I don"t complete the mission, they will torture her. I know they won"t kill her, because she"s to be the next Water Hero, but that doesn"t mean they won"t turn her evil as they have Robert"s son."

Aella nodded in understanding. "My mother died when I was born, and my father taught me how to fight because he knew the demons would try and kill me. They did try to kill me, and for the past 6 years, the only way I"ve managed to survive, is by being the better killer."

"Wow, I knew the demons were evil, but I had no idea it was that bad," said Josephine with a shake of her head.

"It"s just as bad as your church, though, I wonder sometimes if your church isn"t worse. I"ve never heard of demons treating their Heroes as poorly as yours does."

"You may be right," answered Josephine, glancing over at Curt"s sleeping form. "We"re nothing but p.a.w.ns to the church. Curt here, only wanted to bring honor to his family, but instead was used to unseat the previous Sword Hero. He doesn"t even think he"s good enough to have earned the t.i.tle. The church just wanted to get rid of the last one, and now have sent him along with us to get killed by the Demon King. He doesn"t have a prayer."

Aella silently agreed, though she found it highly amusing that he was sent to be killed by the king, and the king almost killed him by accident.

"Is your daughter the only reason you work for the church?" asked Aella, looking back at Josephine.

"I tried to sneak the two of us out of the kingdom, but troops caught us at the border. They were watching for us. Apparently, it"s happened before. I"m a lousy fighter, but I can heal just about anything. Alfred took my under his wing and protected me from most of the abuse at the training facility they took me to, but I had to leave my daughter when it was time to come along on this trip."

Aella wondered if her mother was the one who managed to sneak out, but didn"t want to bring it up. There was no reason to give away her secrets.
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"I"m torn between rushing to finish this quest, so I can get back to her, and dragging it out as much as possible, to stay away from that training facility. I don"t blame Alfred for not wanting to finish quickly, especially when I see how much Robert wants to hurry so much. I think he"s supposed to kill all of us when we finish with the Demon King."

"Really? What makes you think that?" asked Aella.

"I over heard some of the church leaders talking about it. He"s supposed to burn the palace down and try to take out everyone else in the party."

"It makes sense," said Aella, thoughtfully. "He"s the only one they have a good leash on. The rest of you are pretty loose cannons, only controlled by the threat of loved ones, and Alfred doesn"t even have that."

"If I could just get my daughter out safely, I would run as far away from the church as I could get," said Josephine sadly, looking out the window again.

"Maybe I can help with that," said Aella with a smile.

"Really? But how?"

"Let me think on it some and I"ll talk with you more tomorrow, okay?"

Josephine studied Aella with the bluest eyes Aella had ever seen. She finally nodded in agreement, and Aella left, shutting the door gently. She still needed to talk to Bridgette, if the Sage wasn"t asleep already.

Knocking on the door gently, she heard a sigh, and finally Bridgette opened the door.

"What do you want?" she asked annoyed.

"I was wondering if we could talk for a few minutes?" asked Aella, noting a large book open on the table.

"One minute," the Sage said, holding up a finger and stepping back for her to enter the small room.

Making sure the door was securely shut, Aella turned to her with a smile and asked, "Do you want to see a real library?"

"What kind of joke is this?" asked Bridgette, with narrowed eyes.

"Well, Alfred said you grew up in the church library, but that they didn"t like some of your questions. I found a library, but can"t open the door without a Sage. I was wondering if you were interested in checking it out?"

Bridgette"s eyes had widened with each word, after Aella had mentioned the library, and by the end, her smile was as wide as her face.

"Where"s this library at? Is it safe? Why hasn"t another Sage opened it up yet?" the questions spilled out as she shoved the book into her bag and turned, ready to leave.

"We have to use magic to get there, so close your eyes. I don"t want you to get dizzy," said Aella, hoping this worked. There was a gentle a.s.surance from the cloak as she stepped up to the girl and wrapped her arms, and the cloak, around her in a large bear hug. Bridgette let out a tiny eep, before Aella stepped forward, teleporting them both to just in front of the library door.

Breathing hard, Bridgette opened her eyes as Aella set her down, ready to start yelling at her, but the words never got past her throat. Her eyes were traveling over the hall they were standing in, obviously different from the inn room they had just been in. Then her eyes landed on the library door and all the breath whooshed out of her in surprise.

"The carvings are of books and scrolls, so I must a.s.sume this is a library," said Aella, glancing around to make sure they were alone.

"Such detail," whispered Bridgette, reaching forward to lightly touch one of the books carved into the wood, and suddenly the door clicked loudly, swinging inward slightly.

The click startled her, and she almost dropped her bag. Clutching the strap, Bridgette pushed on the door and it swung open even more, exposing a desk just inside the door, and darkness beyond.

Aella waited until the Sage had entered the room fully, before she attempted to enter herself. While she was sure the click was what undid the magic preventing anyone into the library, she didn"t want to risk triggering any other traps. The moment Bridgette was fully into the room, magical lanterns began to light up the room, and Bridgette let out such a squeal of glee, Aella had to quickly enter and shut the door to keep the whole palace from waking up to see what was going on.

"Look! Look! There"s soooo many books!" chattered Bridgette in excitement.

Aella craned her neck in surprise. She had seen books before, her father had two, but never in her wildest imagination had she ever thought there could be so many books in one place. Seeming to be rooted in place, Aella watched as Bridgette set her bag down on the desk and darted over to the shelves. There were shelves everywhere, and they stretched up several floors, loaded with books of every size and color.

Spying a spiral staircase, Bridgette rushed over to it and climbed up to the next level, chattering to herself the entire time, too giddy and excited to pay attention to anything else.

"I"ll bring you food, just don"t leave the library, okay?" called Aella, wondering how she might be able to get a bed in there somehow. Maybe the treasury had something? She would have to check.

Not getting an answer from Bridgette, she couldn"t help but shake her head and turn to check on the door. If anyone else came to investigate, they might kill her, for being human. Luckily, there was a huge deadbolt of the door, so she locked Bridgette in, and teleported to the treasury.

That stupid chicken screamed when she appeared, launching itself right at her face.