.^^ Tempest ^^

— Seth —

A single claw exited first, almost as long as I was tall. It caught the ring, and then the paw came through, nearly filling the 20x20 room.

Diana waved a hand, and we were suddenly outside, the portal opening wide enough for the creature to crawl through. Huge, but beaten, broken, chained and bleeding.

"Tempest... you are looking... rough." The Beast said, humming in more curiosity than concern.

The much larger beast chuckled, and looked down at me. "Oh? So says the Greater Daemon trapped inside a Mortal's mind."

"By choice... we are going to hunt down the others, the Kings of the West and South. You are to be bound to this meatsack's soul, in order to draw more of my power through it without destroying it."

The giant white dragon hummed, and laid down, biting at the chains on its legs. "A Deal could be struck."

"I just saved you from an eternity of torture. You owe me a Debt, equal to one eternity of servitude." I threw in casually.

The dragon paused. "The Human is... sane?"

"Sane And in Control. You will call me Seth, The Silent One, Master of the Greater Daemon, Briar of the North, the King of the Roses. You owe me a Debt, and while I would prefer your service be of your own will, I will have it, one way or another." I hijacked the Briar's voice, and layered it with my own.

The dragon sat up slowly, and stared down at me. "Hmm... the Laws of Sacrifice do state that I owe you a Debt, but that if I kill you, the Debt is erased."

"YOU MAY TRY." The Briar and I spoke in unison, him using my vocal cords, and me using his mind, bearing down on the Lich Dragon's mind.

He snorted, and then simply breathed a cloud of lightning at me.

I hummed, as time slowed. 'Is that something I should dodge?'

'Yes.' His tone was different now, almost a twinge of respect in the deeps of it.

I smiled, and jumped out of the way, then sprinted up the legs of the creature, towards his face. He was huge, however, close to 200 feet long, and about fifty feet tall at the hip, as he had only two actual legs, his other two being his wings, tattered and broken, with the giant paw-talons that he apparently used to grab things with.

He turned his head, and took another deep breath, looking straight at me, and I grinned, creating a Roman Tower Shield out of ice, and continuing my charge without faltering.

When he unleashed the thunder storm, I was halted in my tracks, my momentum canceled instantly, and I began slowly sliding back, the tower shield doing its job as best it could. I started to hear it crack, and reinforced it, forcing my way forward, a step at a time.

Funny thing was, the dragon couldn't actually see me, inside the storm he was spewing, and he was pelting his own skin with it, so he couldn't tell where I was. Making my way out of the storm, under his mouth, I dropped the shield, and conjured instead a massive hammer.

"OI! BASTARDO! MANGIA QUESTO!!!" I laughed, and cracked his jaw with all my Might, in a perfect baseball swing, popping one of his teeth out.

The lightning halted, and he growled, slowly licking the blood that was dripping from where the tooth had been. "You didn't die from the Lightning... Interesting... then it would appear I cannot kill you as easily as I thought... though you use human weapons now, you are still a Greater Daemon, not unlike me. I submit, then, to the debt I owe you, Seth, Silent One."

I nodded. "Wonderful! A Pact is made, then!" I placed a hand on his hide, and let the Briar do what he had been trying to do the whole time.

The circle that was burnt into the grass under us glowed gold, and then shrank, before gliding over his hide, and branding itself into his spine, between his wings. The Key appeared on my hand, and then faded, not currently in use.

I activated it, to test it, and nodded. "Now, about your Size... how do you feel about being a Crow?" I asked, and made the change happen before he could answer.

The chains fell off his body with a thunderous crash, as he was suddenly a regular sized white crow, and I was standing on only air. I yelped, and began to fall the fifty feet, but when I landed, it was a soft impact.

"Huh. Cool." I nodded, and picked up the massive tooth that had come out of his mouth. "That might be useful... as could those." I gazed at the massive chains, inscribed with more of the Black Speech.

The crow landed on my shoulder, and glared at me. "A Crow? A Mortal Beast is what you would have me be?"

"The smartest of mortal beasts. Yes. Also, it will make you less conspicuous. I don't want my prey knowing I'm coming until it's too late. A giant storm dragon would probably ruin the element of surprise. And besides, you're still just as powerful, just smaller." I shrugged, and walked inside, to go see the Elders again.

Diana was sitting against one wall, her skin grey and pallid, almost dead-looking, apparently from the exhaustion of teleporting an entire secondary portal.

I placed a hand on her mouth, and fed her some of the Veil that I'd eaten. It probably tasted like acid, being secondhand and half digested, but she gasped, waking up at least. "Hello! We've learned a lesson here, haven't we? Both of us... I learned that Summoning massive creatures should probably be done outside, and You learned that teleporting portals is dangerously tiring."

She chuckled. "Yes, we did learn that, didn't we? Well, did it work?" She asked, looking at the bird on my shoulder.

"It did. I don't know if it made me stronger just yet, but I definitely feel more control over my movement... before it was like moving someone else's body, with a controller... now it's mine." I grinned, and helped her up.

She nodded, and leaned against the taller African man. "Good... that's good... I need to rest, now. Welcome to the Order, Seth. I'll see you tomorrow, for training." She waved tiredly, and he helped her out.

I nodded, and looked around for Adelaide. "Aha! There you are! Why'd you run off, you missed my battle with a Lich Dragon!" I grinned.

She sat down slowly. "I... how are you still awake? In control?"

"Ah, Solomon's Gate, and Solomon's Key. Anyway, what's that on your arm? Is that the bottom of your Sigil?" I pointed at the 6x4 Lich speech drawing on her left forearm.

She blinked. "The-... no, that's the entire thing. Where's yours?" She asked, showing me her entire forearm.

'A normal Sorcerer, as I suspected... weak, without that Book... it she even knows how to use it.'

'Do you?' I asked.

Silence.

"My Sigil? I destroyed that thing, actually. Replaced it with the Gate." I let the Sigil glow on my skin for a moment, before it went away.

She hummed. "It covers your entire body? Curious..." she began thumbing through the book, looking for something.

"What is that book?" I asked.

"It's from the Library of Alexandria... before it was burned down, my father stole it... a sort of encyclopedia of Sigils. The Primordial ones, the Greater Daemons, they aren't in here, but the rest are. It was made from the skin of a Greater Daemon, 8,000 years ago... his name is the Horn of the South, the King of Storms." She smiled proudly.

'Hmph... I knew it smelled of pestilence... we have no need of such an unsightly artifact.'

'The king I once served, long ago... he is a guardian of Knowledge, just as is Lord Briar.' Tempest hummed.

"Can I borrow it for a second?" I asked, holding a hand out.

She hummed, and nodded, gently placing it in my hands.

I opened it, and hummed, paging through. 'We know all this... there is nothing here... it's just a book of Sigils...'

'Is it, though? Read the fine print... a history of Sorcerous Knowledge... a guide to properly branding Sigils... the way before tattooing... intriguing...' Tempest was reading from my shoulder.

I nodded, and closed the book, handing it back. "Interesting read. Thanks. Not much use to someone who doesn't know how to use it, though." I grinned.

She smiled. "That is True, yes."

"I'll be on my way, then! Things to do, people to- find." I smiled and walked out, finding Gale in the room across from the Summoning place, the weight room I'd been thinking to find down here. "Gale! Hey, question... where the hell are we?"

He set the bench press down, and cracked his neck. "Well, that depends on where you're trying to go."

"Back to Chicago. Got some loose ends to tie up." I said casually.

He hummed. "Any sorcerers to hunt?" I shrugged, and he nodded. "Sure, sounds cool. I'll get Adelaide to send us over. Diana is out for the count, apparently, and the drive would be annoying."

"How much of a drive we talking?" I asked.

"Well, we're in San Francisco... so..." he shuddered.

I nodded. "Got it, teleporting is better." He followed me into the other room, and I waved again to the woman. "Hey! Yeah, I though we were still in Chicago... so... yeah. I need a ride, and he's apparently babysitting me, so the five of us, trip to Chicago? Sound good?"

She blinked. "Five?"

"Me, Tempest, Gale, Gale's invisible little dragon, and you." I shrugged.

"Oh... alright. Yeah, that sounds interesting. Let me grab a few things, I'll meet you in the Foyer, ten minutes." She ran off, and I hummed.

"What does she need to grab? It's a quick trip, isn't it?" I asked Gale.

He shrugged. "Sorcerers are weird. They need all sorts of stuff to fight properly."

"Like?" I asked, curious.

"I dunno... like, chalk... and, Uhm... stuff." He shrugged cluelessly.

"Enlightening." I remarked dryly.

'The Sorcerers require catalysts to do any proper Summoning, and temporary Sigils to control any Summoning's... chalk infused with virgin's blood is the best for drawn summonings, and Infernal Ink, derived from the Black Ichor of a Greater Daemon, infused with mortal virgin's blood, is the absolute best for Sigils... and books of power, or Grimoires.' The image of the red book came back, with the red-black of the ink in stark definition.

"Oh, Ew." I cringed.

Gale blinked. "What?"

"The components she's getting, Virgin's Blood and Daemon Ichor. It's Gross." I shrugged.

He nodded. "Ahh, I see. Yeah, it kinda is, but after years around this stuff, you kind of get used to it. Much grosser things out there."

"And delicious." Tempest hummed, and hopped over to his shoulder, inspecting the little dragon in his hood. "You, Lesser Kin, What is your name?" He demanded, flaring his wings dramatically.

The Drake scuttled back to the other shoulder. "I am known as Kha'Desh..."

"Where do I find sustenance, Lesser Kin? Show me!" He pecked at the smaller creature, and I frowned, grabbing him about the wings and chest, lifting him away.

"Enough of that! I will show you some Sorcerers you can eat after I'm done learning all I want from them!" I snapped at him.

He stopped struggling. "Sorcerers? I have not ever eaten that meal... hmm... good. Agreed."

"And no more torturing the little Drakes! That's just cruel, they're much smaller than you!" I set him firmly on my shoulder, and he shook his feathers out, settling.

"Hmph... to impose your will on lesser creatures is the way of life."

"Yes, well YOU are a lesser creature to ME, and I'M imposing MY WILL!" I snapped at him.

He hummed, and sat down. "Understood..."

I looked at Gale. "Sorry about that, he's fresh from bondage, still a little rusty on interacting with others properly."

He nodded, petting his Drake in a calming fashion. "Indeed... accepted. Let's go get you some shoes, then we'll go."

"Nah, I'm good. I don't wear shoes." I shrugged, and walked up the stairs, looking for Adelaide. I found her, by the front door, checking a large satchel, and hummed. "You got everything you need?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yes! I have everything I need to interrogate a Sorcerer!"

I blinked. "What?"

"Well-... aren't we interrogating Sorcerers?"

"No. Not that I know of. We're just finding the ones that recruited me, and killing them." I shook my head. "Though, I suppose you can interrogate them, if you like. It doesn't really matter to me, it just wasn't part of the plan. Well, let's go, yeah?"

She nodded, and when Gale caught up, she drew a small symbol in the air, holding her book, and a red portal appeared in front of us.

'The Roots of Eternity... THAT is something worth learning...' Briar hissed.

'Memorize that symbol, then, and we'll learn how to make the symbols later, without asking about that one specifically... something mundane. Less suspicious.' I responded.

We stepped through, into upper east side, and I frowned at the high rises and fancy businesses, as the portal closed. "Ugh... North side..." I muttered. "Let's Go, we need to go to Chinatown and Hyde Park, then the Loop." I turned south, and began walking.

"Aren't we getting a hotel, first?" Adelaide asked.

Gale laughed. "Doesn't look like he's waiting, Addy. Let's worry about that later."

Several people gave us sidelong looks, what with my shoeless feet, and long, uncut hair. I was clean, and my clothes were clean, but I gave off the air of 'kept hobo', and these leeches could smell it a mile away.

'You despise these people... the sight of them and their silver towers makes you writhe with rage... their false smiles ignite within you a fire that only the souls of the pure could quench.'

'Souls of the wicked, Briar. Only ever the souls of the wicked.' I warned him.

'Fine... do you wish to take the wicked one's?'

'Not today...'

Chinatown greeted us first, of our two stops, after about two hours of walking. The giant archway that was the only way in made me pause, for the first time.

'Powerful Sorcery... the Blade of the East Claims this land... no beast from another Plane or Realm May enter.' Briar hummed.

'Good.' I grinned, and kicked the barrier as hard as I could, shattering a portion of it. I stepped through, with Gale and Adelaide close to me, as it rebuilt itself.

I found the place I was looking for, as every single person who lived here kept their gaze at me. Some just because I'd acted like a loon, kicking the air, and others I could scent Eldritch energy around, and I could see their eyes turn red in a certain light.

I sat down at a table, and smiled at the waiter, an old 'friend' of mine, who smelled of demons. "Heya, Hao-Long! Didn't think you'd see me again, eh? Don't run, you'll just make me angrier... take a seat." I shrugged, speaking Cantonese casually.

He gulped, standing perfectly still. "How? What happened? You were supposed to become the Briar!"

"Was I? How intriguing... no, I managed to carve a Solomon's Gate onto myself, to stop that from happening... he's just a passenger, now... but that makes me a Greater Lich... now, please... Take a Seat." I growled softly, so no one else would hear.

He sat down quickly, and when the manager yelled over, I responded. "Hello, Hector! Just having a few words with a friend, no need to panic."

He paused, saw the golden eyes, then immediately went about his business.

Gale sat next to Hao-Long, and hummed. "So, let me get this straight... you're a recruiter of sorts?" I noticed a small symbol on his throat, and looked at Adelaide. She smiled, sitting next to me, and nodded at my inquisitive glance.

He gulped. "Yes... I find people with the Gift, amongst the Homeless, and I give them jobs... most of them are harmless jobs, but Paxin, he wanted something special, a Host for the Briar... he wanted to start a war with the Thorn of the West, by bringing his rival, the Briar of the North, into America."

"Paxin?" I asked.

"You called him Paulie." He answered swiftly.

"Ahh... Paulie... he's dead, by the way. Some of the Upper Daemons from the Plane of Roses tore him to bits, and ate his soul. Pity, really. I planned on doing that." I sighed.

He gulped. "Look, please, just don't kill me, I'm a servant of the Blade of the East, he sanctioned this plan, he sanctified this entire Neighborhood... How did you get in?"

I raised an eyebrow. "The silk screen made of magic in that gate of his, you mean? It shredded like tissue when I pushed a bit. But you're not asking questions, are you? Here's the thing... I'm quite miffed by your betrayal, and while I don't currently care for any conflict with the Blade of the East, you knowingly fed me to a Greater Daemon, and honestly, you deserve to die screaming... so I'll make a compromise. You tell me where ALL of Paxin's people are, and I will leave you here, and promise not to kill you where you stand. Deal?"

He breathed deeply. "Are you going to kill them all?"

"There will be none left to bring vengeance down upon you if you give us all their names, of that we assure you." Gale nodded.

I hummed. "What my friend meant to say is that your safety is secure, so long as you don't lie, and all your information turns out to be proper and useful. If you're not sure you know something, then pointing me towards who would is the next best thing."

He nodded. "Alright... Alright, I'll tell you... just please, Hector and I are not affiliated with them, we just find the Gifted's, Alright? That's all we do!"

I frowned. "All this whining is making me Itchy... and Hungry."

His eyes widened in fear, and the Briar chuckled darkly, drinking it in. 'Yessss...'