Knock. Knock.

The demon summoner stirred at the noise but otherwise paid it no mind. It was the middle of the night and she wanted to get some sleep, even if she could hear the shouts and clattering of the bar below. Oh well, they were easily enough ignored.

Knock! Knock!

That wasn’t. Yami’s eyes flashed opened and her head turned towards the door slightly. She held the position as a few moments past, waiting for the intruder to disrupt again. When it seemed that the person had gone, she settled back down and closed her eyes.

Knock! Knock!

“Dammit,” she muttered as she threw off the blankets and strode to the door. The caller threw the door open and demanded, “What?” There was no one there, which only made her more irritable. Probably some idiot who found out they were at the wrong after waking me up. Either that or some stupid drunk that decided it would be fun to knock on doors in the middle of the night. Yami started to close the door when a slip of paper on the floor caught her eyes. She peered in both directions before picking it up, wondering if the deliverer was still around. Then she closed the door, lit the gas lamp by her bed side, and opened the letter.

if you would seek eternal glory and boundless power, find the artifact known as Azazel’s Stone which the Ancients hid before the breaking and rebirthing of humanity

find the Eye of the Serpent

kill anyone who gets in your way

you must not let the Sun Rod f

A smile spread across her face. This had me at glory and power. She had no knowledge of any of the artifacts mentioned in the note but that wasn’t surprising. There were hundreds of things out there she wouldn’t know about. But if this Stone could give out “eternal glory” and “boundless power,” she wanted it. Who knew what the Eye of the Serpent might be? Though, she had a feeling she couldn’t just go out and pluck an eyeball out of the next snake she saw. It would be easier, though. And I especially like the third statement. Nice, easy, and direct, and she had absolutely no problem with it. The fourth part was, of course, another mystery that she couldn’t hope to decipher. However, she had a feeling that the writer had intentionally stopped in the middle. Why would someone make something easy when it could be made difficult. Some people just had a fetish with complication.

The summoner reached out and grabbed her staff which was resting against the corner of the bed. “Are you ready for a little adventure?”

The soul inside Sevcis stirred to life. “Of course. I’m prepared for almost anything you might have thought up,” Rya replied.

“It wasn’t my idea this time,” the summoner stated and read over the message again, “Though, with something this tantalizing, I think we should get started as soon as possible.” Which meant getting ready to travel in the middle of the night; though the message had revitalized Yami. She slipped off the simple, white nightshirt she had on and proceeded to dress in her normal clothing. Finally, she grabbed her weapon and strode out of her room.

The corridor was filled with the noise of drunken ruffians shouting all kinds of profanities. Yami rolled her eyes and considered wiping out half the room before she left. Nobody would probably mind if these drunks died except for maybe the bartender. However, as she walked over to the stairs and observed the patrons, she noted that some were anything but drunks. They had all gathered in a corner of the room and were drawing a good amount of attention from the regular customers. Then again, their clothing, manner, and weapons were so obvious that they couldn’t have made themselves more known if they had started shouting about it. Not to mention there were some hugely powerful magic auras surrounding the group.

The demon summoner stood at the top of the stairs for a moment, wondering if she should just ignore the group and head on her way or see if they had any information. Perhaps she should simply hang nearby and see just what they were up to before making any decisions.

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[Ranarath's Amazing Oddities]