• GŪNDLHEIM, THE NORTH FOREST
AYA NAAMAH IGNORED THE POUNDING ON THE DOOR. "These fucking villagers—" she hissed.
Beside her in the small inn apartment, Ravenna bristled with restrained annoyance. She sent Aya a look. "Oh please, like you don't know why the townies are banging at our door this early in the morning." Her sarcasm was clear. "Tell me you don't? I dare you."
In the room they had shared since the destruction of Emberfall, Aya Naamah was silent. She looked around for a while, darting her eyes at every quaint item but Ravenna's green pupils. Eventually, she met her gaze, and flushed. Her voice was flirty and held more than a bit of sugary sweetness when she said,
"Well, it isn't my fault the men want to fuck."
"Blunt much?" Ravenna challenged, but it was friendly.
Aya only shrugged.
BANG! BANG! BAAAANNG!
The knocking was furious now: the door would come down soon. Aya knew it. It wasn't the type of sturdy hardwood mansions were made of—she'd know. Just behind the gray door, were dozens of fuming farmers wives and fishermen wives, and even the High lord of Gūndlheim's wife. In fact, it could be said that all the women in the little town were in the same place, gathered in front of the modest Inn.
Why?
—because Aya Naamah had shagged all of their husbands, or tried to. And so the rumors went.
But in her defense, it wasn't her fault; she was a succubus, and she had 'daily' needs. She wasn't a whore; she didn't stand at corners and grab the nearest passing man for a quick fuck in the trees. No! She didn't even lurk in bars. She did her most to keep away from men—and women after they had run together from the ruins of Emberfall.
Ravenna and herself.
It pained her greatly that she had to leave her Lord Master bleeding and without aid, but at the time, she had no choice: she'd been knocked out and Ravenna had pulled her out of the ash of the Manor before Mephistopheles had a chance to finish her off. It pained her even more when she awoke to find out that Cora was gone. . .dead.
Aya stopped by a poster of the new King: the Usurper, nailed into a high Elmwood. "How does it feel?"
Ravenna stopped too. Her eyes stroked up to same poster, to a face she had known all her life but really hadn't known at all. "How does what feel?" she asked back.
"—to know your father is a god?"
Ravenna sighed. "Truthfully, it feels like shit. I'd have preferred him to be the loser dad, than a serial killer dad. Him being a god doesn't matter." She chuckled then, "perhaps just a little bit. But it doesn't forgive years of lying to me, faking my mother's death—who is an Angel by the way, and faking his own disappearance. Parents of the Year, they are?!"
"Hmm," Aya nodded, thinking. "How about a locator spell?"
Ravenna cut back across to the other woman. "For what?"
"For finding Lord Master of course! You don't still think I'm talking about your father."
"Well go on, we can spend all day hiking in the north forest. You have something of his?"
Aya nodded and produced a ring.
The Atlantean ruby royal ring.
Ravenna's jade eyes bulged. "How do you have that?"
"It survived the fire," said Aya simply. "Now, I just need to recite the spell. Join hands with me, please. My LUST Mana Core is depleted from all the celibacy. Your own aura would help. You are after all Half-Angel."
Ravenna scoffed, but put her hands in Aya's. The petite succubus slowly began the spell:
"Of realms of darkness, in bursts of a pyre, let him be revealed in starkness, he who was born of fire."
Their joined hands began to glow and the ruby diamond in Aya's ring finger burned brightly. It led her to pull away, and when she did, it pointed south—toward the Cold Sea. "I guess we know where we're headed now," said Aya glumly. She was not to happy about the [Location Spell] pointing toward blue endless waters. She hoped to the gods it wasn't the mermaids—for their sake.