Replacing the Seal (any magey-type person)

It was ten to one, Roxanne noted. She was having to read the clock on the church’s spire, her sleep cycle had been too interrupted for the past few days to guess time accurately by watching the moon.

The guard’s footsteps echoed from around the corner and Somniferum wrapped a hand around her, lifting her several feet and forcing her to curl up. Unable to see, she was forced to assume that Somniferum had done as she’d said and taken the form of one of the stone griffins that decorated the library wall. She’d noticed earlier that the guards didn‘t light the lanterns unless they saw something suspicious that the streetlamps wouldn‘t allow them to see, probably to save oil. Her pale skin would be easy to see and the shape of her curled up in blankets would be suspicious even if she covered her skin, but it was unlikely they would suspect a wall decoration.

She wasn’t anywhere she wasn’t supposed to be yet, which explained why the guards were not searching as thoroughly as she’d thought they would. She could have probably gotten away with just covering her face and hands with her blankets. Still, the curfew was ten. Violating the curfew alone was sixteen hours in the penance houses. Violating it by three hours and they would probably assume she was a thief and leave her there a month. She had seen the penance houses before while selecting criminals to sacrifice. She wouldn’t survive there and she doubted anyone in the place would be able to read well enough to activate her resurrection symbol.

Her assumption was proven correct when Somniferum dropped her without warning to the ground. No-one came to apprehend her as she recovered from the fall. While she would have preferred a gentler descent the fact remained that Somniferum was being unusually cooperative. Roxanne was suspicious but it would have to wait. Even if Somniferum did have something to gain by helping her, she had something to gain here too.

Eight to one now. Twenty six minutes until the spirit hour started. Ideally she wanted to start at eighteen past exactly, she had no idea how long she would take, starting at eighteen past would give her the full hour. Hurriedly, Roxanne returned back to her fruitless attempts to pick the lock.

“You’re terrible at this.” Somniferum whispered, laughing.

“That’s a compliment. I’m no thief.” Roxanne responded under her breath. In truth, she was becoming exceedingly frustrated by the lock. She had been forced to work with a thief before, much to her disgust, and he had opened a locked door within a few seconds. She had been trying fruitlessly for half an hour now. The priest flatly refused to believe that some scoundrel was capable of something that she was not.

“There’s a broken window, you know.” The spirit said slowly, well aware of the priest’s frustration. “Just replace the boards.”

Roxanne snorted, she knew about the window, the only reason it was boarded up rather than replaced was that the side of the library it was on faced a cliff face and, far below, the freezing ocean. No thief would attempt that climb. Any that did would swiftly stop being thieves and start being crushed and frozen and dead. The priest was quite sure that no fish would be able to read her resurrection symbol.

“I’ll help you, of course.” Somniferum added.

“Fine.” The priest whispered, sighing. “I give up.”

She wasn’t referring to the lock.

“Why are you being so helpful, parasite?”

“You’re going so that the kids you’ve resurrected can become permanent again, right? Because having to bring them back again would be a pain.” For a second, the priest saw a wide grin flash before her eyes. She took a few steps back, dropping the lock pick. “It might be risky, too. Never know, they might not come back twice.”

Roxanne frowned, the parasite was right on the mark but that didn‘t mean much. Her own intentions were obvious enough. He still hadn’t explained, though, so she picked up her lock pick and resumed her attempts to unlock the door.

Somniferum took her silence as permission to grab her and toss her into the air, materializing above the priest to catch her and then dragging her toward the treacherous back wall of the library. Roxanne almost screamed but stopped herself, struggling for a handhold on the slippery, moss-covered wall and finding none.

She didn’t fall, the spirit really was helping her.

“Climb.” Somniferum said, a little louder now that sound would be blocked out by the winds. With newfound, if still a little suspicious, faith in the spirit, Roxanne clambered up the wall as best she could. The wind howled and tugged at her blankets as she slowly ascended but the spirit never let her fall.

The window boards took very little strength to move, they were held on the other side only by pins, not nails, and the weather had pushed them back a lot. Similarly, most of the protruding glass had been worn away by the weather and Roxanne managed to get through the window with little more than scratches from rough bits of wall and the pins.

And now she couldn’t see a thing.

Her eyesight was already poor and the library was black as ink. She had brought a torch but was unwilling to use it for fear of the light being seen from a window. Still, she could sense the magical energy being given off by the breach, she could follow it easily enough. She walked in the general direction the energy was coming from until a hand, so cold it hurt to touch, grabbed at her wrist.

“Wall.” The spirit said, sounding a little aggravated. Roxanne snarled and clenched her fists. Torch it was. She would rather take the risk than have Somniferum leading her around by the hand. Just because He had helped before didn’t mean she was willing to trust him. Knowing him, that was an act to get her to trust him now. She fumbled through the belongings in her pockets until she found match paper and a match and unclipped her torch from its place on her belt beside her flail. Lighting the torch, she found that Somniferum had been entirely truthful. There was indeed a wall in her path. Still, she refused to trust the spirit.

Roxanne followed the energy, avoiding walls, to its source in a storeroom far below the library. It was messy, but the breach was somewhere around here. She had been counting in her head, though she couldn’t be certain she was pretty sure she was about five minutes late already. It was a good job that Somniferum had helped her, she had to admit, else she would still be stuck trying to pick the lock.

It took her a lot longer to find the breach than she assumed it would, clearing the ground of the unread manuscripts - the authors would probably murder if they knew that their work was being left here to gather dust. It was only when she decided on a whim to look at a roll of paper she found that she found the breach.

It wasn’t part of the library, as she had assumed, after all. It was, from what she could make out in the flickering torchlight, a manuscript on magical theory. The breach was caused by symbols on the paper.

Whatever was causing it, she had to use the connection to the ethereal world to make her resurrections permanent again. Her seal of Exu had broken when she had been killed the first time, priests weren’t supposed to be revived. If she died now, everyone she had revived in her life would die with her. Most of them were nobles who she cared little for but she wasn’t going to let Owain die when bringing him back a first time had proven so difficult.

Quickly, she was running out of time, she draw the symbols in chalk on the paved floor.

“Out.” She instructed Somniferum, who engulfed her torch flame with a spirit hand, extinguishing it immediately. The symbols she had drawn glowed faintly, providing enough illumination to see by but not enough to cast any real shadow. Definitely not enough to read by. The priest placed her hand on the symbols and let the energy flow though her to the preple that she had resurrected, restoring their permanence.

Some half an hour later, Roxanne grabbed at her throat in pain as Exu’s seal burned itself into her neck. It had been several years since she had been sealed and back then it had been under the influence of strong painkillers. She hadn’t realized that it hurt. She took her hands away from her throat for a second, terrified when she noticed they were covered in blood. If she died here, she would at least be found by someone who could read, but if she died before the permanence set in that would be it. Had there been some kind of medicine to stop this from happening amongst the painkillers they had given her when she originally gained the seal? Or was it just that she was a runaway priest sealing herself whereas before it had been the high priest sealing her?

The pain in her throat doubled, making her cry out. Instinctively, her hands returned to her neck. Even over the pain, a wave of relief hit her when she felt a rough scar in the place of a gaping cut. Maybe that had happened before, she just hadn’t remembered. The pain faded gradually and the energy stopped flowing through her, the breach drained for all it was worth.

Trembling, she stood. She could sense someone, a strong mage, approaching. They were a lot closer than she felt comfortable with, she should have noticed a long time ago. She had been unable to sense them before but that was likely due to the breach being more obvious. Somniferum should have sensed them easily. Much as she would liked to have given the parasite the benefit of the doubt and assumed, based upon his helpfulness so far today, that he had just not wanted to disturb her it was for more likely he just wanted her to be surprise attacked.

It was very likely that whoever it was, they had also been seeking to use the breach. Either that or it was a royal mage. Either way she was in danger.

Luckily, aside from her throat aching, the sealing hadn’t left her much worse off. She backed into the shadows as best she could and waited, leaving the faintly glowing symbols on the ground.

Kain stared up at the large monolithic cathedral, the dull yellow clock face glowing in the dark. Black, artistically designed hands told the time was quarter to two to all those below, although there were few on the streets to read it. Looking about himself for a moment, Kain noticed that the only people who were inhabiting the streets were men in uniform, presumably on patrol. An unusual number of guards on the night watch… I hadn’t heard this town was plagued by anything. He thought to himself. A pair of guards strolled up to him in the middle of the street, Kain’s shoulder collided with one of them, causing him to whirl around. The mage took a step back, sneering.
“You all right?” The first guard asked the other, who had appeared to just spin around for no reason.
“I… uh… hunh, yeah… I guess,” replied the other guard, falling into step with the first guard. “Coulda swore I bumped into someone…”

The dark mage resentfully brushed off his shoulder, his hand slipping through the cloak as he did so, becoming a visible, disembodied hand, to any who were still looking. Regaining his composure, the young Draconis closed his eyes for a moment, opening them again and looking off towards the direction of an old building on the cliff edge. He had thought it was odd they chose to build anything so close to the cliff face, but judging by the age, and numerous renovations done to the building, perhaps the cliff had gradually worn closer and closer.

Walking briskly, the dark mage arrived at the door, where a large iron lock was clasped around the handles.
“What a pity, I didn’t bring a key.” Kain quipped, holding out his right hand. The lock hung limp, then shook a bit, rattling lightly as the face of the lock opened, and all the tumblers and pieces spilled out onto the ground. Having dissembled the lock down to it’s original components, all that was left to do was remove the metal bar that still remained hanging off of the handles. As he touched it, his eyes narrowed. Something was wrong, although he had gotten closer to the source of magic, it felt as feeble as it did when he was entering the town. Impossible… the essence isn’t moving. Why is it fading away? Unless someone else beat me to-i his brow furrowed angrily, and he thrust his palm at the door. The air rippled and the heavy doors swung open as if by a powerful gust.

“If some damn rat got to it before me, I swear I’ll…” he growled through gritted teeth, walking furiously through the libraries halls. The young Draconis, arriving at one of the rooms on the upper floor, placed his left hand on the door, the sleeve rolling back as he did so. Gnarled black fingers scrapped the wood, the blue glow that could be seen beneath the cracks in the skin was incredibly faint. The glow, faint as it was to begin with, died out quietly. Snarling angrily, as the trace had now entirely vanished, the dark mage threw open the heavy door with a loud bang.

He stepped into the room and stopped, viewing a glowing circle of symbols on the ground. Looking up, he saw a girl hunched in the corner. He had found his rat.
“You!” He snarled angrily, lifting his left arm and pointing at her with one long, black, clawed finger. A blue glow pulsed beneath the skin of the arm, allowing a bit of light to escape through the cracks. “Let it be known, that rats who snatch the morsels from wolves, are only providing more meat.”

Roxanne was actually somewhat comforted by the stranger's rage. It meant he had been trying to get to the breach, not to her. It meant he wasn't a royal mage. It meant she hadn't been found. If she survived this encounter, all would be well.

Even if she didn't, she knew now the seal could be replaced. Anyone going after the breach would likely be able to read and even if he could not, anyone working in the library would. She could be revived and Owain wouldn't die when she did.

A stream of fire streamed from the man's mouth. Roxanne stepped back on instinct, backing into the wall. Somniferum materialized in her shadow, wrapping a large hand around her and blocking her from the flames. Before, Somniferum had been able to manifest where ever he pleased because her shadow was indistinguishable in the dark. The runes on the ground didn't give off enough light to interfere with this but in the presence of the bright flames Roxanne's shadow was clearly visible and the spirit was limited to it. Roxanne fumbles at her waist for her flail as Somniferum pressed her against the wall. She couldn't see a thing, but she could feel the warmth of the flames through the spirit's hand and knew despite the smell of burning flesh being non existent that the flames were hurting the spirit. Though he was not using the synchronization, Somniferum was draining more energy from her than usual in order to be chanelled. It wasn't a significant amount, but usually it was so little she couldn't even sense it and now she could.

The fact that they could harm Somniferum meant they were definitely magically generated flames. Somniferum would not feel flame generated by physical means like friction or even by magical flames that were burning on physical fuel. These flames were magical and fuelled by magical energy, Roxanne noted. It wasn't particularly useful to know right now, but she wouldn't have to regret not knowing it later.

Despite her earlier thoughts, death was unpleasant to say the least and it would be a terrible waste for the seal to fade so soon. If the man could not read, then she couldn't bluff him into reading the spell and the library staff would likely have to sense to put a mage collar on someone before reading any spell they had carved upon themselves, which would make escape a lot more difficult. Not to mention that it would be morning before they came and she had broken in, they would likely inform the guard before anything. Then there was the possibility that the man would destroy her body without reading anything.

Which would at least serve to inconvenience Somniferum very much.

Slowly, the flames began to die down. It had been a while - at least a minute or so. Without Somniferum she would be dead right now. It struck Roxanne that maybe the mage thought that this was the case - she had been in the shadows and the fire had been very bright and the spirit had waited until the last minute to act - had he maybe not noticed Somniferum? Roxanne mad no attempt to land on her feet as Somniferum dropped her, falling to the ground, hand clenched tightly around her flail.

"That was incredibly disappointing." The mage said, Roxanne didn't dare look up, trying to fake death. She heard light footsteps on the ground. "I suppose little more could be expected from a rat. Maybe you'll be a little less pathetic in death."

It was still dark, the mage hadn't noticed that she was barely even burned. Even facing the ground, she could sense the arm coming toward her head. Somniferum rose up from the ground below her and caught it as Roxanne quickly scrambled out of the way, keeping the mage from pulling back. The priest quickly got to her feet behind the mage, twisting the handle of her flail around to withdraw the knife.

"Hmm, what kind of wolf is it can't even kill a rat?" Somniferum's voice said calmly, letting the mage free as he did. Roxanne slashed at the mage with her knife as he turned to face her. "I guess we're dealing with a runt."

Kain whirled around, just in time to see the knife tear into his cloak. The sharp edge sliced through the material in a horizontal sweeping motion, coming out cleanly on the other side, the cloak knitting itself closed as the blade cleaved the material. The weapon itself had in fact missed, the large cloak giving the dark mage a much more intimidating mass that hid the relatively sickly looking adolescent beneath. Just as rendering the wearer near invisible at night, and as repairing itself immediately after any foreign intrusion, the seemingly living cloak’s density also changed, leaving the impression that the dagger had found flesh beneath.

The young Draconis glared down at the unscathed child before him, who paused for a moment, only mildly surprised at the ineffectiveness of her strike.
“Hmph,” Kain muttered “Two rats,” raising his good arm. The wall to the seaboard side suddenly vibrated, dust and small bits of debris flaking off as the bricks began to dislodge. As if on command, the bricks tore themselves from the mortar and hurled towards the girl who, being and advocate of common sense, promptly dived out of the projectiles path, hitting the wood floor and rolling with a hollow thump.

Coming to her feet speedily, she quickly ran to the other side of the room, avoiding the last couple bricks that, after missing, clunked on the wooden floor or cracked it. The wall was little more than a resemblance of what it claimed to be, the window had fallen backwards down the cliff, and so many of the bricks had been removed that a hole slightly large than the double door behind Kain remained. She turned to face Kain who, with his palm outstretched, pulled his index finger towards himself a single time, as if to beckon her forwards. One final brick from the gaping hole in the wall behind her suddenly and whizzed towards the back of her head. Without turning, or making a single motion of any kind, a hand shot from the shadow between her legs, moving up behind her and allowing the brick to smack into its palm.

“How are you doing that…” Kain sneered, lifting his over sized left arm that glowed a strong blue. The glow brightened exceptionally as a powerful gust of wind tore through the room. Books flew from their places, fluttering like bats as the heavy wooden shelves vibrated and began moving across the floor. The girl winced, the wind tearing at her and making her cloths flap wildly. “No matter the number, die quietly and drown little rats, before this wolf decides to bear his fangs.”

The gust suddenly changed direction, blasting forwards with a terrible roar. Books bolted past the girl and out the hole behind her, several almost making contact, the mysterious arm interfering at the last minute to deflect them. Suddenly her feet gave way, and she skidded about a meter before flying off of her feet and out the hole in the wall.

It had begun raining while she was replacing her seal, the night was freezing and wet.

"Sorry, this is mine. I have no intention of letting this host die." Somniferum said, catching Roxannne by one arm. "I'd never find another favoured."

Roxanne struggled with her feet and free arm to find a hold on the slippery rock face to no avail. Far below her the water churned anglily to foam against the rocks. Even if she escaped being crushed she would be smashed against the cliff face by the waves and even if she survived that her blankets would be waterlogged and heavy and she would drown.

"I suppose if we use your metaphors, that'd make me the cage?" Somniferum continued, pulling the priest above the ledge and holding a large hand in from of her as a barrier from the wind while shedarted to a place where the wall was in the way.

"You're a flea." Roxanne muttered under her breath, struggling to regain her balence.

Somniferum caught another stream of fire in his palm, not getting burned as badly as before as the wind was still raging and blowing the worst of the flames off course . The flames faded for a second and Somniferum used the brief break to pull a long bookshelf from the wall and shove it into the path of the wind. The mage dodged to avoid it but it was not meant as an attack. It was now blocking the gaping hole in the wall.

Unforunately, Somniferum was unable to move fast enough to block the next attack. The small gap between the flames was little more than a ruse the mage had used to make Roxanne and Somniferum drop their guards. It had worked, the next stream of flame headed right for the young priest and the spirit was unable to stop it. The priest screamed in pain but didn't burn as badly as she thought she would - before when she had been tossed out into the rain she had become soaked and the water was stopping her skin or clothing from burning. Regardless, the heat was still scalding and she dropped to the ground to let the worst of the flames go over her head, biting her lip and trembling.

"Exu..." she choked out, trying to draw a healing symbol into the ashes of burned books. As she did, Somniferum's hand tore out from her shadow to snatch at the mage.

Kan scowled, his fire hadn’t been nearly as effective as he had hoped. He reached back with his left arm and grabbed the lip of the sleeve with his right arm. Quickly he pulled the sleeve of the black robe up to his shoulder as he thrust the left arm forwards, rolling up the cloth and striking in one motion. The Demonic arm, fully exposed and disproportionate to the rest of his body, slammed open-palmed against the giant, black, opaque hand that had come at him out of the shadows.

The young Draconis winced, the inhuman muscles quivering under the strain. Coming abruptly to the notice of the struggling mage was a dull blue glow pulsing underneath the cracks in the skin of his arm. Grinning, he allowed the transfusion to take place. The arm glowed more brightly as magical essence drained through the disembodied giant hand. Kain dug the clawed tips of his fingers into the opponent, breathing in deeply as he felt the rush of the energy flow.

Roxanne struggled to her feet, the healing symbol numbing the pain of the fire enough for her to concentrate, at least. She grasped at her flail, getting her balance.

Suddenly, the amount of energy needed to keep Somniferum increased enormously. Roxanne was used to having Somniferum around and was used to the energy it required. It increased noticeably if the spirit was harmed, yes, but she had never known it increase this much.

"What's happening? Are you hurt?" Roxanne shouted to the parasite.

"No." The spirit responded. "You seem uncharacteristically concerned."

"Then what do you think you're playing at, draining this much? You shouldn't need this much energy."

"I am not. Why-" The spirit stopped abruptly, tightening its grip on the mage's arm. Roxanne gasped, clutching her head. "Ah. So that's what you're doing..."

Somniferum vanished, the mage stumbled forward a little from struggling against something that wasn't there. The spirit materialized behind him and grabbed from behind as the young priest ran at him, swinging her flail at the mage's head.

"...I'll admit it's interesting, but I can't let her die here."

“I’m afraid to inform you,” Kain muttered, inhaling, “That’s it not something you could stop in the first place!” he shouted, a wall of fire rupturing from his mouth towards Roxanne. The blast was from point blank but with a sudden jerk the giant hand clutching him from behind turned to the left and towards the ground. The flames struck the floor, spreading out and singeing the wood while the girl’s mace thunked lightly against the giant hands knuckle.

The dark mage grinned, reaching around with his disproportionately large left arm and clutching Roxanne’s back, dragging her back in front of him and forcing her onto the ground in one swoop. Gritting his teeth, the dark mage pushed the girl against the ground, a powerful wind enveloping down the demonic arm and pushing her harder against the ground.

Kain could feel the giant hand peeling him back, trying to lift him off of the girl who had, despite the wind, began fumbling the bottom of her flail. Suddenly the burned floor cracked, the floor boards were weak to begin with, the combination of the flames burning through them, the pressure of the girl being pushed against them, and the cold wind, caused the floor boards to crumble and collapse.

The dark mage stumbled back in shock, the girl disappeared beneath the floor, as she had been forced through, and the hand along with her. Glaring in frustration, he rolled his sleeve back down, and the inky black cloak ruffled around him as he swooped down after the her.

Roxanne toppled to the ground below, bouncing like a rag doll and taking very deep breaths to try and make up for the pressure making her unable to breathe before. It had been a long drop, this room had a very high ceiling, but she recovered quickly and stumbled to her feet.

In the second or so of silence, she could hear voices outside the room. She couldn't work out how far away they were, they were muffled and quiet but she didn't know how thick any of the doors were so that could have meant anything.

"It's the hunters. You've set off a trap, mousey." Somniferum said from somewhere next to her.

"Enough rat metaphors, parasite. It's not a trap, we were just noisy." Roxanne replied, looking around for the mage. "...and 'mousey'?"

"It suits you, spoilsport."

"...I see."

Annoyance with Somniferum aside, Roxanne did not care much for the idea of being caught by the sentries. It wasn't something she had wanted to do but if they came too near she would have to kill them. She was calmer about the idea of it than she had been a while ago because the Mage was the problematic target now. It was too dark, she couldn't see him.

Suddenly Somniferum grabbed the priest from above, dangling her some three metres in the air. Before she could protest a stream of flame shot past where she had been stood only a second ago. With still less warning the spirit tossed the priest back to the ground. She landed running, darting toward the origin of the flame, revealing the knife hidden in her flail handle as the spirit grabbed at the mage's human arm in an attempt to keep him still.

Kain drifted down through the hole, his ink black cloak providing an almost perfect camouflage even without using magic abilities. The room itself was quite large with a high ceiling, bringing the dark mage to believe it was a more public area of the library.
This is taking too long, if I fight for much longer I’ll run the risk of using more magic than I wished to gain from traveling here in the first place…

Holding out his hand a mound of ice began to form in front of him, taking on a human shape. An illusionary cloak and disproportionate blue arm on one side appeared, and the dark mage leaned over it’s shoulder as if to whisper something. Fire ruptured from the young draconis’ mouth, traveling towards the girl as the mage stepped back into the shadows.

Kain hovered through the air, moving back towards the ceiling as the large hand grabbed the statue's arm and the girl’s blade stabbed into sculpture underneath the ribs with a grating crack. Kain grinned, holding his hand over his blue arm and neck to allow the illusionary effect to take place before dropping down.

Cracking as it moved, the figure wrapped its free arm around the girl, who tried to pull her weapon back in surprise, finding ice crawling over it and sealing it to the figure. The cloaked figure landed behind the girl, a large blue arm swinging out and grabbing her free arm as the ice statue's arm wrapped around her waist. The sculpture was fading back into a heap of ice and was slowly sealing itself around the girl, trapping her as the mage gripped her free arm tightly and released a small electric current through his grasp.

“Not to drag this joke out, but you’re caught like a rat in a trap,” He sneered. The spirit hand dematerialized from the hunk of ice, appearing behind the mage, open handed and clutching at him. Human hand extending, the mage caught the giant hand once again with a loud slam as if with his demonic arm. The arm twisted as if the bones were snapping underneath the skin, jagged black points ruptured out of the surface as the arm grew and shredded the disguise. The demonic arm holding the girl fading to reveal itself the human arm.

Grinning, Kain’s head twisted, and with a sickening crack righted 180degrees to face the proper direction.
“How utterly predictable,” He jeered, the cracks in the demonic arm glowing blue as he drained energy from the spirit hand.

Momentarily stunned by the shock, Roxanne quickly shook it off. She snatched her arm back as Somniferum retreated and reemerged ander the ice, giant fingers tightening around its base and starting to crack the ice.

She could still vaugely hear people wandering outside. She didn't want to make too much noise, the guard had no reason to attack her other than violating cerfew but if it was a royal mage...

"Imbercile." She said quietly, reaching as far as the ice allowed and snatching one of her spare knives from her shin. With her free arm, she stabbed at the mage's chest "Even if I die here it's nothing. I'll just come back. All I have to lose here is the energy from the breach."

Kain pulled his left arm over across his chest as if clutching his heart, the knife driving into the blackened skin with a tunk; giving an impression of burned wood.
“What… did you say?” the dark mage said, his eyes narrowing as if peering into the distance. The demonic arm reached forward, the natural turning of the arm wrenching the weapon from the girl’s hand as it was lodged into him. The girl stumbled, trying to get her hands back on the weapon when the clawed fingers snatched around her throat, lifting her off of the ground.

Sneering, the young Draconis tore the weapon out of his arm, casting it aside while holding his captive at arms length. The arm’s disproportionate size came to an advantage for once, as the girl was unable to reach him while suspended off the ground.
“Returning from the dead? You? What nonsense is this?” He snarled, the blue glow beneath the cracks in his skin fading, as he forcefully stopped it from draining the girl's ethereal essence.

What was left of the block of ice came hurtling towards the mage. Whirling around, Kain held his human hand up, stopping the two large hunks in mid air, but one the size of a football striking his ribs, causing him to wince at the sharp pain.
“If you have any idea what’s good for the rat, you’ll stop tempting me, you disembodied freak.” Kain spat, loosening his grip around the girl’s neck slightly as the blow to his body had caused him to involuntarily clench the demonic hand too tightly.