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Nathanriel thinks on it awhile but chooses not to dwell on the fact of yet another person just suddenly trying to dominate what he can do in his life that's just so much more powerful than he is. More importantly he's lamenting the fact that all of his Anrisil is gone and not looking forward to when his latest pill wears off. Nathanriel himself hasn't had to deal with the true withdrawal symptoms himself. He has had, on occasion to deal with the very beginning of it when it had been just a bit too long since his last dose. And if they were attacking the Anrisil factory it might be a while before he can get another bottle, assuming he can afford one if the price is about to skyrocket. And he can only feel sorry for any of the other demons in his situation that depend on Anrisil to control their magic and having to suddenly deal with all of the issues of no longer having it available. And all he got to show for it was a simple rock. He wonders idly if that one Momma Menn was talking about was one of the two he had seen earlier on.

"I suppose if someone that strong were tasking us with training you on how to use magic I should at least try and figure out how much you are able to do. Do you know how to do any magic at all or do I have to go through the headache of not only teaching you how to use magic like how a demon really should but also try and teach you the very principles of using magic."

"Well I can manage to light candles or campfires but that's just about it. I never really had much aptitude in regards to magic. Never felt it necessary to do anything more than that."

"You're Kinal," Momma Menn says in response. "I honestly can't think of a single case of a true demon or higher that was unable to use magic easily. It's in your blood as it were. Your problem is just that drug. It's restricting your body's access to magic to the level you'd find in a human. For your race, that drug is to your magic like trying to suck out a river with just a straw. The power is there, you just never had access to it. That's the main threat once your drug wears off, figuring out how to control a river when all you've had so far is a straw."

"Excuse me," Claden complains, "we are not straws."

"As far as magical capabilities are concerned you are," Kresta says, bringing a little bit of electricity into her hand for emphasis. "You lot need the full incantations and sometimes even motions to cast even the simplest of spells. For us true demons, we just think it and it obeys."

"All the more reason to not trust foul demons since they've made pacts to gain access to more power than they should have been able to otherwise. That's the only reason demons use magic more."

"Magical use," Angylia recites, closing her head and raising up her hand in some form of gesture, "as determined by the dragon council in the year four sixty-two PR is a direct relationship with the stability of the soul's shell. The cataclysm that struck the continent weakened this shell, forcing entire populations to change to deal with the alteration. The weaker the soul's shell, the more easily the soul is able to exert its will upon the body and surrounding area, resulting in magic. This weakening does not have any impact on the morality, nor of the health of the individual beyond effects if the soul is removed. In other words, the classification of demon by the accepted definition is a measure exclusively of the magical potential of the individual. A measure that humans are near the bottom of. But as a Kinal demon, Nathanriel should have as much magical potential as Kresta and Bob, if not moreso."

"And I should just trust this information from you because?" Claden asks.

"Because I'm a vampire," she says as if that was needed to be said. Then seeing no one else seeming to understand continues. "Vampires aren't as they were originally born to be. A few thousand years ago, the strongest of the demon races pretty much ruled over the entire continent. And one of the things they did was modify my race from some other demon race to serve as their recordkeepers. Made it so that we can live for hundreds of years if not longer, had perfect memories, whole bunch of other changes that make our kind seem a lot more like a true demon even though we are in many ways no more than lesser demons. I may not be as strong or as good with handling the sun and fire as a human. And the magic of my kind is not as strong as even many other lesser demons like the elves. What we do have is the ability to draw essence and life from blood and to store knowledge in blood. My blood stores the entirety of everything I know. With proper training and preparation, it is possible for some of the more noble vampire lines to be able to pass on knowledge, even if temporarily, by simply having someone else drink a few drops of our blood."

"Unless you're lying," Claden retorts.

"Well, true. Just because I have the ability to recall everything with perfect clarity doesn't mean I'm always telling the truth. When they designed my kind they weren't exactly that interested in making us unable to lie. For them it was more they could tell when we were lying and kept up the threat of 'tell the truth or get eaten,' which usually worked well enough. Though I suppose as a way of proof your order was founded on the fifth of Jorna in Merchant Guild 687, almost two years to the day after the Demon Egg Incident. Anyway, ordinarily the first step in teaching someone how to use magic is to figure out what element they're most closely aligned to. But considering that other Kinal said to burn a rock, guessing fairly good odds that that's going to be fire."

"Aligned element? That doesn't make any sense. All demons are aligned to evil and the accursed element."

"You don't truly believe that, do you? I said already, demon status does not imply alignment. Besides, no one is ever aligned to the three higher elements, they're always aligned to at least one lower one the most," Angylia closes her eyes and focuses for a moment before a little ball of air forms in her open hand. "I can only really do two forms of magic with and skill. Wind magic and healing magic. Anything else I can barely pull off even the most simple of spells. Like I said, magic is not our specialty."

"Lightning obviously," Kresta raises one finger and lets little sparks shoot off the ends of it. "I can manage most elements except for Shadow and Water, but everything but lightning requires me to focus. Lightning magic I can just create by impulse."

"Ice," Bob says. "Though with summons I could theoretically get access to any element provided I find their shrines and they're okay with working with me."

"Actually a fairly balanced assortment," Nathanriel says.

"Well of course," Momma Menn says as she continues the pace of travelling along the roads. "You're an activated Child of Fate. Naturally you're going to be given a group of people that balance each other out so that it becomes extremely hard for any group to just completely counter you and stop you from doing whatever Fate has in store for you."

"I don't think being balanced would really protect us all that much from that White Fox guy, or even some of the others we've faced so far," Bob adds.

"Well, no. You lot could probably spend the next century doing nothing but train and there will still be those who could kill you in their sleep," Momma Menn reaffirms. "There's no getting around it. Fate's Chosen or not, you lot are not the biggest rocks on the mountain. Nor will you ever be. Your best bet is to learn how to recognize when you're facing off against one and then just get out of their way. Pose them no fuss and hope that Fate's path will not pit you against them. That's the best you can hope for, I'm afraid. Either way, you all should get yourselves ready, got a bit of a fuss coming up."

"What's up?" Kresta asks.

"Band of highwaymen setting up an ambush a bit up. I could easily just go around them but you lot look like you need a bit of a pick me up after running into that one."

"So how do we want to handle this?" Angylia asks.

"Quite simple, really," Kresta responds, standing up and starting to stretch out. "I do best in the thick of things. Anrisil addled boy here has no ranged attacks so needs to be so as well. So we'll be in front. You and Bob can assist us in the backlines and the human can just do what he can to stay out of the way. And just everyone keep an eye on him in case Fate decides to force us towards something. If Fate has him run, we drop everything and run."

Nathanriel nods but the Voice is being particularly quiet right now. Coming up it looks like there's a turned over cart in the middle of the road, in such a way that simply going past it while still being on the road would be next to impossible. Nathanriel slides off one of Momma Menn's legs while the others let the two main fighters go first. Kresta just jumps right off and begins to crack each of her knuckles individually. As they start walking forward a scarred human steps out from behind the card and starts laughing. He makes a gesture and a bunch of other cutthroats begin exposing themselves from around the nearby trees.

"So what do we have here? A man and his daughter with a few pets for us to play with. Why don't you just come on over here, little lady and I'll give you something to rub yourself against," he laughs.

Kresta takes a deep breath and breathes forcefully through her mouth. "You know what, just for that I'm going to show you a nice little trick. Let's see how you like that kind of attention," she turns towards Nathanriel. "I'm gonna send them your way. I want you to just think fire as loudly as you can and aim it at your sword. We'll work out the finer details later but for now, light your sword on fire."

Nathanriel doesn't really understand but obeys as best he can, though he thinks taking his attention off the bandits are a really poor idea. Kresta spready her legs a bit further apart, giving her a very wide stance before the deer demon begins pushing her fingers into a series of hand signs. Knowing what she's doing Angylia half kicks Claden forward, "we need to protect her while she's casting."

"Heavens in the stars that bind," she begins her incantation, a yellow aura beginning to grow around her hands, "into the earth that ties the seed. Take everything that is and all that shall be. I call upon you, that which is everything and nothing. I call upon the eternity of forever to rip apart from thy bonds and do my bidding. Open the path of everything I see and sunder your charge to my bastion of power." With the yellow aura about a foot in diameter a lot of the guards look a bit wary about what might be coming and are trying to spread out as much as possible. But when she reaches out with a swipe of her hands a yellow aura forms around each and every one of the bandits. "Hold and hone. Power into eternity and then disappear to my finger and return. Ion Shift!" She shouts as she clenches her fist and makes the gesture of throwing it at Nathanriel's sword.

The moment she does so a bolt of lightning bursts out of every one of them flying to the tip of his sword. A few of them start to stagger before they all quickly realize that the sword is pulling them with an incredible force, enough of which that they're all torn off the ground as they close the distance. Nathanriel finally manages to get a flame of sorts going on his sword as he sees all these highwaymen starting to fly towards the tip of his sword. Not knowing what else to do he braces himself and takes a swing. He manages to hit one, but for the most part he knows he's not really doing all that much to them as the force they exert actually tear the sword out of his grip as they all keep flying forward, the front one, the one that just happened to also be the one that had made the comment, gets impaled on the sword and the rest just have crash into each other until they're all in one clump of bodies. Kresta grumbles and pants as she starts walking towards the group.

"You know, next time you should really try and not lose your grip on your own weapon."

"I'm sorry, but I'm not physically strong enough to hold it against a few tons of Mian flying at me."

Angylia walks over to the mob and pulls out her dagger. Having no real sympathy for any of them she begins sniffing at them. If she doesn't like the smell they get a taste of her dagger before they have a chance to recover from Kresta's attack, those that actually survived it. She does finally find one and drags him out before wrapping her mouth around his neck and beginning to feed on him. Claden looks absolutely repulsed by her act, though the other demons don't pay it any mind. In fact it reminds Nathanriel that he hasn't really eaten in a long time and with all that dead flesh his stomach is starting to growl, though he really still doesn't like the concept of eating the flesh of a human.

"Right," she says after wiping her lips. "We should go through all their things, take anything of value as they aren't going to ever be needing it any more. And then probably carve up a few of them for food stores."

"What!" Claden exclaims. "Are you suggesting we eat these people? Bad people or not, they are still human and do not deserve to be treated in such a horrible manner."

"Well, meat is meat and I'm thinking more about Nathanriel. His kind have a bit more restrictive of diet. He needs meat and human meat as far as his body is concerned is good enough. And then we don't have to go through any extra effort for a while."

"You know," Kresta adds in, "I'm kind of with the human on this one. Now, loot their brains out I'm perfectly okay with. It's only fitting that a bandit is stolen from in death. But not eating them. It's not so much of not eating meat entirely as it is I just really, really don't like the taste of humans. Other animals have decent enough meat but human meat just doesn't taste at all right to me. It's too stringy and bitter. Besides, I'm sure Momma Menn would much rather we ate something we hunted rather than just a bunch of humans."

"Dearie, I've eaten humans before," Momma Menn responds. "I won't hold no grudges about such behavior. I will, however, much prefer if my little Robert here were to get some proper nutrition. Rabbits, pheasants, maybe even a deer if you can manage all properly cooked. Cooking human meat just asks for all sorts of trouble."

"Am I going to assume that you aren't going to have some massive complaint about a bunch of demons eating a deer?" Angylia asks while going through most of the stuff the bandits had. Kresta putting them all into one location certainly made it much easier.

"Is she?" Claden asks of the deer demon.

"I've eaten deer before. I don't consider them to be the same species as I am. I have no problems with stuff like that. Though I am going to say, yes I did do a lot of the violence but if the lot of you are going to go through the process of burying the lot of them I'm walking off on my own, Fate's Chosen or not."

"Tell them you will give them a funeral pyre," the Voice speaks up into Nathanriel's mind, somewhat startling him considering how long it's been since it has spoken up. And he notices that Kresta's ears perk in his direction.

"We're going to give them a funeral pyre," Nathanriel says, speaking up in an attempt to try and get everyone's attention..

"Well, if that's what Fate's Chosen says then I guess I can be okay with that," Kresta shrugs. "Will give you more time to practice using magic if nothing else and I definitely don't have any objections to that sort of thing."

Nathanriel shrugs and moves to retrieve his sword from the bottom of the stack of bodies since it had been wrenched out of his grasp when Kresta's spell went off. Angylia and Claden go about wordlessly lying each of them next to each other in a simple straight line. Once done Bob stands behind his ear and coaches him how to conjure the magic in his form. Nathanriel finds it rather difficult to do, but with the guidance and the incantation provided he is able to eventually cast fire magic that is at least capable of lighting them on fire. To help ensure they are burned cleanly Bob does a quick incantation that douses them all in a sort of magical oil, causing the fire to turn bright green and rise up by a few feet further, making Nathanriel wonder if it might end up causing the forest to catch fire. But when he looks at the fires after a moment he notices that the fires aren't creating any sparks. Nor does the ground seem to be catching fire beneath them. It seems to be restricted solely to the area directly around them. And that is something he didn't know about magical fire. Though he's sure he could possibly make it burn the grass as well if he wanted to. But he was just so reluctant to start a forest fire around them that he was trying to burn the corpses only that he must have subconsciously catered to them. But once the bodies have been burned sufficiently for his liking Nathanriel stops the fire, finds the task almost a bit harder than lighting it on fire in the first place. The smell of all the charred flesh is definitely starting to get to him and he tells everyone to go ahead and get back onto Momma Menn so that they can continue on and get some food if they can find it.