Now we just had to wait for Celine to return. If all went to plan, she would have gotten word to the harpy girls, and they were checking out our evening camp as we spoke.

The conversation in the carriage had died down for now, so while I waited for news from Celine, I decided to do something I hadn’t in a while. I checked on my skill tree.

I had enough points to upgrade some of my skills and enough left over to unlock the next ability. I quickly upgraded “interrogate.” I upgraded it two levels and the message that flashed up across my eyes informed me that resistance was lowered by five percent and that I could now target multiple people. Up to three at a time.

I was still dubious on the morality of using that skill, but I couldn’t deny its usefulness.

Next it was time to gain the next ability. It was called “inflame.” For a moment I wondered what it would do. Maybe it was an offensive ability, perhaps a fire spell. I somehow doubted it. There was always the chance that it made something expand, or even provoked an enemy.

I doubted it did either of those things. With the way that almost every other skill I had gained through the custom skill line, I already had half an idea how it might work.

Well, I might as well acquire it. I would have to find a way to test how it worked later.

I had not long finished going through my skills when Celine suddenly reappeared on the bench across the way. I was relieved to see her back so soon.

As soon as I noticed I asked. “How did it go?”

“I met with the harpies, and we went to the location that Serin and Liz suggested. I left them there.”

Hearing this Serin edged forward on the bench. “Did you find out if the area was safe before you left?”

“Of course, I did! That was what master wanted.” Celine turned back to me. “The area was safe. There was no one around for miles. I checked with the harpies.”

I glanced between Serin and Celine. “That’s great news.”

Serin nodded. “It is. It means we can head straight there. That’s a relief!”

“How long will it take us to reach there?”

“Assuming our little interlude hasn’t added any time to our journey, we should be there in under two hours. A short while before nightfall.”

I turned to my side and slid open the driver’s hatch. “Rosa.”

She looked back over her shoulder. “What is it, Theo?”

“How are we doing for time?”

“We’re doing well. We should make the campsite before nightfall.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn’t want to be the reason we had to make camp in the dark.

“Thanks Rosa.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She smiled and turned back towards the road.

Beth clapped her hands. “That’s good, we haven’t lost any time.” She glanced across to Serin while she spoke.

Beth seemed to be trying to raise the mood and clear the air a little. I had to say I appreciated it.  

All we had to do now was ride in the carriage until we reached the spot.

Despite everything, the time rolled around and before I knew it, we had reached the place where we wanted to leave the main road.

The carriage slowed a little as we left the paved road and joined a minor trail. From the looks of things, it was barely used. Parts of it were beginning to overgrow. I wouldn’t like to guess the last time a carriage had come across this way. That was good for us.

Despite the difficult road surface, Rosa kept the carriage rolling along without issue and within a few minutes we had reached the edge of a vast looking forest.

As carriage came to a stop, I was quick to make my way to the door. I was eager to get outside.

As I stepped out Altria and Rosa were already climbing down from the driver’s bench.

“Are you going to leave the carriage here?” I asked.

Rosa shook her head. “No, I’d like to move it a short way into the woods.” She pointed to a less dense path of forest. “I think we can move it through there, at least enough for it to not be visible from the road, but I’ll need to walk the horses in. I wouldn’t like to try and drive through that.”

“Oh, I see.”

I was just starting to wonder what had happened to the harpies, when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eyes, at the edge of the wood.

I turned to the direction of the movement just as a figure stepped out from the treeline. I quickly recognised the now waiving figure. It was Enna.

I started walking towards the treeline to greet her, but I wasn’t the only one that had noticed her emerging from the trees. I could hear hooves clomping behind me and turned to see Ameri and Lucy racing towards Enna.

“Watch out Theo! That’s a Harpy!” Yelled Ameri.

Her sword was already drawn as she bore down on Enna.

Lucy was charging in close behind.

I started waiving my hands frantically at the pair. “Hold on, hold on! She’s a friend!”

The pair shot past me before they started to slow.

Seeing the two sword waiving women speeding towards her, Enna quickly spread her wings and with a jump and a mighty flap, she shot up into the air out of harm’s way.

The two girls finally came to a halt several meters in front of me, while Enna hung in the air above us.

As soon as they had stopped, I ran over to the pair. “She’s a friend. Please, put away your weapons.”

Lucy and Ameri were both looking down at me with surprise from their saddles.

Ameri looked at me then up into the sky and then back at me. “But, that is definitely a harpy! What’s going on here?”

I nodded. “You’re absolutely right, she is a harpy, and her name is Enna.”

“Another friend of yours is a demon?”

“Yes… Thinking about it now, I should have told you before. I just thought it would be better to explain one thing at a time.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“But she poses us no risk?”

“She doesn’t.”

Ameri turned to Lucy for direction. Lucy still had an expression of surprise on her face, but she only shrugged to her companion as if she didn’t know what to say.

I could understand her confusion.

Ameri slowly sheathed her sword and the began to climb down off her steed.

Seeing her friend stand down, Lucy did the same.

Once they were both off their horses the pair looked at me. I could tell they were expecting answers. It wasn’t a surprising response.

Enna was circling our location overhead, seemingly waiting until it was safe to come down.

“Uh you see… She is also our friend. She isn’t the last one that I need to tell you about either.”

“There’s more?” Asked Lucy in surprise.

“Yes… We actually have a small group of harpies that are part of our group. It’s why we knew it was safe to come and camp here ahead of time…”

Ameri didn’t look convinced. “But they’re demons, how can you be sure that any of them won’t betray you?”

“Well… I’m pretty sure that they won’t. I don’t think they have a choice.”

“But how can you be sure?”

I laughed awkwardly. “That was one of the things I was going to explain about… I suppose now is the time I should tell you.”

“Please do.”

“It’s the effect of one of my abilities. It seems to make the recipient infatuated with me. I’ve had to use it a few times now and well, no one that has been able to resist it. Well once, but that situation was special. Anyway, what I’m saying is that anyone who has had the skill used on them seems to want to do anything I say, they want to please me… It’s a little different for each person, but that’s essentially it.”

“And they always react that way?” Asked Lucy.

“Yes… Every time that it’s worked. The only time it didn’t was because the person had a resistance to the that type of ability.”

She nodded. “I see…” Then looked up as if she realised something. “But what if they found out you used it on them?”

“That doesn’t seem to diminish the effect.”

Ameri laughed. “I can’t believe that. If you used it on us, I’m sure we would resist if we found out.”

“You think so? Well, I did. Use it on you I mean…”

Her jaw dropped. “Wha…”

“Sorry, there wasn’t much of a choice… We were unsure if we could trust you and we just couldn’t leave it chance.”

Ameri sighed… “But somehow I don’t feel pissed off by that!”

“I don’t expect that you do.”