The Devine Demon {Chapter 29}

Lilith and Celeste quickly made it to the tower walking through the streets of Daggerford as fast as Celeste could go. Once on the Hill road and with the tower in sight Lilith reached out her hand for Celeste and the two of them jumped directly to the tower door. The guards were not put on edge in the slightest but instead had slight smiles to greet them. After all the two well dressed ladies hardly looked like a threat despite the dreadful state of their hair.

Celeste excused herself heading up to her room to put on her wizards robes leaving Lilith in the library with Wendel.

“Glad you could make it. I was a bit worried the two of you would over do it last night and not have the stomach for practice this morning.” Wendel began motioning for Lilith to sit down in a lounge chair.

“No I’m fine and Celeste should be down any minute now.” Lilith said as she chose to remain standing.

“Are you going to wear that for practice?” he said motioning with a hand at Lilith from head to toe.

Lilith looked down at her red and white dress and realized it was far too nice to risk getting singed or corroded by a stray spell. “No I had better change too.”

“Ok we will wait for you.” Wendel said calmly.

Lilith then walked over to the spiral staircase that went down the outer edge of the tower. Looking out a window she focused with her eyes on the ground below and jumped through the ethereal plane. She was standing on soft grass in an instant and again jumped to the main gate of the Ducal Castle. Walking the last 20 feet she waved at the familiar guard. “Morning Tom.”

“Ma’am” he replied as he allowed her to pass with barely a movement on his part. There was no mistaking Lilith’s glowing red eyes.

Lilith walked to her room and found it in the same state she had left it. She quickly hung up her dress and cleaned it with prestidigitation. She then put on her arming jacket and armor and brought along her sword. She marveled at how the armored skirt had made room for her tail. It seemed to be the only clothing she had that fit her perfectly.

Now exiting the Ducal Castle Lilith again walked just off the path onto the grass and Jumped twice in succession to arrive at the door and the door guards for the Wizards tower.

“Wait how’d you get out here?” The guard asks looking a bit confused

“I had to change” she said tilting her head slightly.

“Ah nice armor.” The guard says as he looks Lilith over, his eyes seeming to get caught on the boob window of her chest plate.

“I know, so protective” Lilith says as she pokes herself in the breast with one finger demonstrating the armors glaring lack of protection.

The guard lets out a chuckle and lets her inside the tower for the second time that day.

Going up the stairs again Lilith finally arrive in the library with Celeste and Wendel. It seemed like everyone was now ready to begin magic practice. Wendel invited his students over to the study table where he had laid out two rather intricately decorated books that looked vaguely similar. It was Wendel’s spell book and a copy that he must have made some time that week. Both Celeste and Lilith sat behind one of the books and Wendel remained standing sometimes pacing around the room.

“Beginning with defensive spells you should copy in the basics if you don’t already have them. This means Mage Armor, Shield, and Absorb Elements.”

Lilith began reading off the runes for each spell and storing them in her codex. She then got curious how the real spells differed from the ones in the table top game and read out the rune word sequences.

[Mage Armor] Creates a reserve of magical force that can be used to deflect 2 fatal blows and 5 non fatal blows before becoming depleted. The sequence was a bit long, and would take 30 seconds to cast but it could last all day, up to 16 hours. This was way more powerful than it had any right to be no wonder wizards were so well respected in this world. They would always be durable enough to get a spell off on an attacker with this spell active. Lilith then thought about all the memes back home about wizards dying to 1d8 damage from a house cat attacking their hand would need to be revised.

[Shield] Creates an impenetrable bubble of force that protects 1/4th of the caster from incoming strikes or missiles. The shield moves with the hand as directed by the caster. The casting runes are very short only having a single word but the duration is only 10 seconds. This spell too was much more powerful the only down side was that it required a hand to control and it didn’t last very long.

[Absorb Elements] Creates a negative energy gradient that absorbs and collects a single magical element type directed at the caster. This had a very short activation sequence of only two words but required more magical energy depending on the amount of element it absorbed. The absorbed elements could of course be used to enhance the next spell that the wizard casts. The limitations were that this only worked on elemental attacks directed at the caster. It couldn’t stop an area attack like a fire ball. You would use Shield for that.

Lilith now had all the basic defensive spells and began to inquire about some of the utility spells that Wendel had access to. She soon had [Identify] [Invisibility] [Sending] and [Scrying] copied into her codex.

Wendel then explained the methods for mechanisms for concentration spells. Certain spells either required part of the mind or part of the body to remain in effect. A spell like Shield required a hand to be pointed to direct the shield. Similarly a concentration spell like Fire Wall required that part of the mind retain several of the Rune words in a loop. This would prevent a second Concentration spell from being cast unless the spell was held in hand. And no spells could be cast at all if both hands were occupied.

Once all the theory crafting was out of the way It was time to select a spell to test. When asked they said at the same time and with the same enthusiasm “Fireball!”. As if they had practiced it.

Before they left Wendel brought out a small cloak and a ring. “And to commemorate you training as a wizard I would like to present Celeste with…..

“Oh my things I had almost forgotten about those.” Celeste said as she went over and quickly put on her ring and cloak as if they were her favorite pair of shoes.

Wendel looked at her like she was giving away some kind of secret. Which she kinda was.

“Oh don’t worry Wendel I told Lils all about our spying and stuff this morning. No need to gift my own property back to me.”

“What do those do?” Lilith asked.

“The ring of the Iron Mind protects against charm sleep and fear effects. And the Spell Mantle Grants me some resistance to area spells. My Father gave them to me as a going away gift.” Celeste seemed to beam with pride as she described them.

“They are magic items that most wizards wouldn’t be able to afford for the first 10 years of their service.” Wendel said with a bit of a grumble.

“Your father must love you very much then Celeste.” Lilith said with a smile.

“Of course he does.” She said with absolute certainty.

“Sorry Lil I don’t have any pretend gifts for you.” Wendel said with a smirk.

“I will settle for you not scrying on me while I am in my room. If its all the same.”

“Oh we actually have a system for that didn’t Sir Tanel tell you?” he said pointing a finger at Lilith's hand.

“No but we haven’t talked since the party.” Lilith said while thinking that she really needed to have another chat with Sir Tanel to clear the air.

“That box that came with the ring, it is lined with lead. So you simply put the ring inside the box when you want privacy. That's the whole reason we give you a specific item like that. So that you have some semblance of control.” Wendel explained calmly.

“But you and I are the only ones here that can cast Scrying correct?” Lilith asked with a lot of uncertainty in her tone.

“Well yes but I keep a scrying stone charged in the Master Study in the keep that way the Regent can check in on his fiduciaries as needed.” Wendel said in his usual tone. “Now then if there aren’t any more questions we can set off for the river and practice your spells there.” Wendel picked up his staff and his spell book placing it back into his robes.

The three of them prepared to leave and then each said a friendly curse word at Pencheska on their way out of the tower for good luck.

Walking down to the river they talked about Sir Tanel’s battle plan and the real possibility that the orcs could return before the new weapons and shields were ready. Before long they were set up on the river bank up stream from the docks and had a sand bar in the middle of the river as their target. Wendel and his familiar kept lookout for oncoming boats. The white owl flying overhead in circles.

“It should be clear for a while. Celeste why don’t you go first.” Wendel said as he looked down stream.

“Ok so I should aim for the middle of that sandbar correct” Celeste looked for Wendel to nod and when she did she began chanting the rune words for the spell. “Fur, Dan, Bul, Lok!” [Fireball]. With little noise an orange orb the size of a baseball left Celeste's hand and moved rapidly to the middle of the river striking the near side of the sand bar and exploding in a ball of sand fire and steam. All three of them cast shield as the shower of water and sand continued for 20 seconds. They each kept an arcane dome above them with a clenched fist pointed up. Lilith couldn’t help but think they looked like transparent blue umbrellas.

“Wow” Celeste said as she jumped up and down with joy.

Lilith clapped for her friend and gave her a nod of approval.

“Very well done Celeste that certainly had a lot of pop to it. Perhaps try focusing a little more of the fire element into the ball and you should get a greater effect.”

“Ok should I try again?” she asked with way more glee than a human should be able to muster.

“Yes go ahead but focus on the first rune more.” Wendel explained

Lilith watched as Celeste tried once again. This time calling out the first rune with more vigor. Just as before an orange ball of light flew from her hand at what looked like 70 mph, it contacted the back edge of the crater she made with the first explosion, and detonated. This time there was a massive plume of fire and smoke more than pure concussion. The radiant heat could be felt even at 100 ft away by the skin of those present.

Celeste did a jump and a twirl and her mages robes bounced around with her. There was no debris falling this time. “That had a lot more heat didn’t it?” She asked with a huge grin.

“Boy I’ll say I think you singed my beard.” Wendel said in jest while stroking his short beard which went around his mouth and down to his chin.

“That one didn’t have as much pop but it would be a lot safer to use indoors or in a dungeon.” Lilith said noticing the lack of a shock-wave on the second Fireball.

“Alright now your turn Lilith. While the river is still clear.” He said as he motioned to her.

Lilith thought ‘ya what river captain in their right mind would sail into a series of explosions.’ Lilith began chanting the four runes and cast a ball of white hot energy at the now oddly shaped sand bar.

The explosion was hot and persistent. The fire seemed to cling to the air and covered a wide area. Portions of the sand could be heard sizzling after the smoke had cleared.

“Oh I could get used to this. Honestly who needs a gun.” Lilith exclaimed as she watched the mushroom cloud ascend leaving a smoke ring that could be seen for miles.

“That was impressive Lilith I haven’t even taught you how to upcast spells yet and you did it without thinking.”

“Ya I was just thinking about the rune words and the target.”

“I like the smoke ring cloud, when can I do that?” Celeste asked.

“Not too long actually. You keep practicing and you will be casting empowered Fireballs in 2 or 3 years.” Wendel said as he nodded.

“Ah that's no fair and Lils just started doing this too.” Celeste said in a mocking fashion. Lilith began to think ‘She seems to be really competitive when it comes to magic.’

“Does it help if I remind you that I am ten years older than you?” Lilith said in a similar mocking tone.

“No it doesn’t because you weren’t doing magic at all until this week.” Celeste said in a huff.

“Well at the age of 19 I can’t imagine another wizard with your talents Celeste.” Lilith said trying to take the sting off of Celeste’s mood.

“Yes she really was the star pupil back at the Blackstaff Academy” Wendel said assuredly.

“So now can we try out Polymorph practice?” Lilith asked.

“Or we can shoot some Ice?” Celeste asked. Both girls now giving Wendel puppy dog eyes.

“Ok how about this we let Celeste finish casting all the Ice spells she can and then Lilith can turn you into something that walks faster so we can get back to the castle for an early lunch.”

“Oh hahah.” Celeste said in a sing song voice.

“Sounds good to me.” Lilith said as she prepared another spell for practice, blinking and twitching her eyes.

“Wait Really?” Celeste asked?

“Ya you get to spend the walk back to the castle as a cheetah.” Lilith said with a big smile.

“Fine but I am casting mage armor first.” she said as she began the runes for Mage armor.

And so the practice continued. Celeste practiced casting Snowball Swarm so that she could work her way up to Ice Storm eventually. Meanwhile Lilith was moving a Flaming Sphere around melting the sand into glass spelling different words. Finally when Celeste was out of spell energy Lilith began by giving her a choice.

“So what animal do you want to try first? Remember it has to be something that walks fast.” Lilith asked with her head tilted down at her friend.

“Ok lets try a giant Eagle. Forget walking I want to fly.” She said with a big grin.

“Good choice.” Wendel said as he nods.

Lilith brings up the spell and starts chanting the rune words. As the spell completes Lilith thinks of a giant eagle and sends the twisted weave energy directly at her friend.

Celeste's clothes and hair are immediately replaced by a thick coat of gold and black feathers. Her body then expands into its new shape. Strong wings about 40’ across, taloned feet and a large sharp beak now defined her look. Celeste turns her giant bird head in several directions while speaking in a language specific to giant eagles. “Body feel light.” “Eyes good.” “Should I walk?”

Lilith and Wendel start walking back to the River Gate House which is the nearest entrance to the town of Daggerford while motioning for Celeste to follow them. Celeste walks behind them and then says “I smell dead fish in River.” “from booms.” Celeste said while looking at the river and hopping like she really wanted to go to it.

“Go eat fish then fly to River Gate. I will meet you at the River Gate” Lilith says in perfect Giant Eagle. It sounded like a series of screams and beak clicks. Lilith clanking her teeth together in place of a beak.

“That planes walker ability sure must be nice being able to speak every language.” Wendel said with a bit of sarcasm. “What are you two going on about?”

“She is following her nose. I think she is going to try and eat some fish in the river so I told her to meet us at the gate.” Lilith said in perfect common. “So lets get going”

“You aren’t worried about your friend flying off into the forest and getting lost?”

“I don’t think she is used to her new sense of smell so she is probably going to follow it for a bit. I doubt we could stop her if we tried. So best just to meet her at the gate, but if she is late I can go look for her pretty fast.” Lilith said as she pointed to the Giant Eagle hopping down to the river.

“Oh that's right, now I’m the slow one.” Wendel said with a laugh. As he started walking faster up the path back to the River Gate.

When they arrived at the gate they didn’t see Celeste anywhere and Wendel gave Lilith a knowing look. But only a minute later a large and fast moving shadow got their attention. She was flying over the river looking down at it seemingly looking at her own reflection. She quickly had gone past the entire town following the river and going out of sight. She returned and flared her wings slowing and gaining height some 30 ft over Wendel and Lilith before descending with two more giant wing beats to land on her taloned feet just in front of them.

“Fun. Exciting.” Celeste said in a series of calls, looking side on at Lilith. She then lifted her head well above Lilith’s and said “You short.” followed by a series of head bobs.

“I don’t know Wendel it seems like she is having a good time maybe we should just keep going and meet her at the keep?”

“Fine suit yourself but if she ends up grabbing someone’s pig or cow I will never hear the end of this.”

Lilith turns back to her giant friend and says in a series of calls and clicks. “Go Fly. Meet at Grass Field Near big Keep. We walk.”

With that Celeste turns away and starts to flap her wings while taking three steps forward and jumping. Airborne again she flies directly away from the town while circling to gain altitude. Lilith marveled at the speed and power and soon lost sight of her friend as she crossed paths with the sun.

As they walk back together Wendel begins to talk about the magic lesson and how quickly Lilith was picking up on the methods of using the spells.

“Well I am kinda cheating I think. These demons seem to be innately magical like it is built into their biology.”

“Yes I know you don’t even need a spell book. Are you recalling all the runes from memory?” Wendel asked.

“It seems to be a specialized form of memory just for magic it is even organized in the same way as your spell books.” Lilith explained while pointing at Wendel's robes where he had stored his spellbook.

“That's not surprising. Humans were originally taught magic from the elves. And they are innately magical as well. Maybe they taught us the same way as they see the magic.” Wendel surmised now with a finger resting on his chin.

“Are there any orcs that know magic?” Lilith asked with a bit of hesitation.

“A few but they can’t learn it on their own. It is very rare and is usually due to the intervention of a witch or warlock that plans on using them for evil purposes.” he explained

“Well I didn’t see any spell casters the last time they came just a bunch of 7’ tall hulks of muscle that seemed like they weren’t eating as well as they would have like too.” Lilith said as she became more lost in thought.

“Is that Celeste over there?” Wendel asked with a bit of urgency to his voice.

Now passing the temple for Lathander, Lilith could see a giant eagle in the field outside the keep entrance being harried by a gate guard. It was Tom. He had left his post and was holding his spear over his head in an attempt to chase off the bird like it was some kind of pest. This of course did not go well for him as Celeste grabbed the spear and began to lift it and Tom off the ground. The guard let go of his spear after his feet were 2’ off the ground and he landed and stumbled a bit. He then held up both his hands to to the sky as to ask now what.

Celeste had cast the spear to the side and was making a series of loud noises at the overzealous gate guard who had obviously left his post. Lilith seeing both of Celeste’s feet firmly on the ground canceled the spell.

Emerging from a puff of feathers Celeste stood with her hands defiantly on her hips staring daggers at the confused guard in front of her.

As Wendel and Lilith approached laughing loudly, Tom went to retrieve his lost spear and Celeste began to skip towards them. Flapping her arms at first then resting them back down to her side and resuming a normal gait. The group then approached the Castle entrance and waited for Tom to return to his post so they could question him about what exactly was going through his mind.

Wendel was the first to ask “Well what exactly were you thinking leaving your post like that Tom?”

“We guards have to spend a lot of time sitting still under these arch ways you see. And pigeons like to roost in them. But if we don’t chase them out they will build nests and then fill the entrances with debris and bird droppings. So we have a standing order to chase away all of the birds that try to roost in these entrances. So then this giant bird lands and starts staring at the gate, like it wanted to be let inside. And I just went out to shoo it away like it was any other pigeon.”

After the laughter died down the group entered the banquet hall to eat lunch and begin planning the rest of their day.

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