Chapter 5:

The Plan

Honestly, why didn’t I see the twist coming? I knew she was hiding something, but belonging to a family of vampires? So now, I’m dealing with who is more than likely the daughter of a vampire lord, who might I add, are supposed to be extinct since the four gods rose to power, and to get out I will have to probably deal with her family problems in some way. Why the hell did I have to get dragged into this mess.

“So, your family. Who am I dealing with here? What's the story behind this situation?” I ask Rachel as I find ourselves back in the shack, my form still of the other me. sitting at opposite ends of the tiny table.

“Well, when I talk about family it mostly generalizes towards my father and the servants. Our numbers aren't terribly large, there's about five or so servants.”

“And your Dad's name?”

“Selvant Demure.”

“I see… Demure? Eh? Isn't that the word for-”

“Yes, whoever our first ancestor was had a really dumb last name.” She grins, “It's a great way to throw insult towards my father though, he's certainly anything but demure.”

I find myself giggling at the remark, “Was your family well known?” I ask.

“No, supposedly the Demure family has remained in the shadows well before the various races had tried to wipe us all out.” She explains, “but that was before my time, before the sixteen territories were created by our current gods.”

“So your dad’s well over two hundred years old?”

“Yeah, and a survivor of the purge.”

If I recall correctly, the purge was supposed to be a war led against the four gods. They were unwilling to succumb to the demands that would lead to the formation of the territories. Obviously by the name, it was a massacre. Tens of thousands had lost their lives that day, all by the hands of the four. It was said there was enough blood shed to fill an entire sea, and the site of the battle was to become its own territory. A sacred territory which is ruled over by a lich.

But to hear of an actual survivor, and one that lived to this day, or at least whatever a vampire does due to the undead factor, is something you’ll never hear in your lifetime. Unfortunately because of this factor, something tells me that he won’t listen to reason. Especially if he’s having his servants killing those who wander onto his territory.

“So how come I wasn’t attacked by your father's servant?” I ask with a tilt of my head.

“Well, you must have managed to get through the fog without tripping any alarms. That’s all I can assume.”

That can’t be possible, I’ve gone through the fog loop multiple times when I first arrived, how did I not trip a security alarm by doing that? “Where is he? Your father that is.”

“He’s in the main house.” She explains, “But the main house is protected by another layer of fog, It’s completely impenetrable.”

“But he’s our only ticket out of here, isn’t he?” I say, “And aren’t you his daughter? Shouldn’t you be allowed in the main house?”

She looks down, “like I said, I’m an exile, I have no right to access the main house.”

“Oh.” I frown, pondering for a moment. I really didn't want to be stuck here for the rest of my life, I need to head to the great library, I needed answers. “If we can’t come to him, how about he come to us?”

“What are you getting at, Tracy?”

I really hate to say this, but I can now see this as the only way for us to escape. “We attack the servants.” I say, “Can you hold your own in a fight?”

“Yes, I do believe I can in an ordinary fight.” She says, “but against the servants, it’s almost impossible on my own. But this time, I have a second hand, isn’t that right?”

I blink, I honestly expected her to be against fighting her family, but seeing as how she's cooped up here she'd definitely do anything to get out. “Well, I don’t fight…” I say. “More say, I definitely can fight, but I don't want to stay like this any longer than I have to.” I might have changed now, but once I revert back to my normal self I'll very likely not want to swap again.

“What?” She exclaims, “then why did you suggest this?!”

“It... it makes me feel weird.” I say, pressing my fingers together.

“That's not a good reason Tracy, we have to use what we have as resources.” She frowns.

“I- I'm sorry, but I'll only use this me as a last resort. But that doesn’t mean I can’t do anything, we can come up with a strategy to defeat a servant, set up traps even. So, educate me Rachel. How does one defeat a vampire?”

“Well, according to what I learned way back, you can't really 'defeat' a vampire, those with pure blood tend to regenerate incredibly quickly, causing them to be able to fight recklessly and unrelentingly. So we can't knock one out and restrain them, killing is our only option.”

I wince, did Rachel really suggest killing one of her own without hesitation? I can't really imagine doing that, killing another of my kind, I don't think I'd be able to carry the weight that it brings.

She notices my discomfort and grabs my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “It's fine Tracy. I can't see them as people, or family for that matter, only monsters who prey on the innocent, we'd be doing the world a favor here.” That really didn't make me feel any better, but she's trying, I can imagine her communication skills with other actual people are incredibly lacking.

“So... how do we kill one?”

She sticks up two fingers, “There's two ways, holy magic is the easiest way to end my kinds life. You wouldn't happen to know any holy magic would you?”

I shake my head with a frown, I could never use magic, even before the incident. It was frustrating, most people could use it, I just happened to be a part of the minority that couldn't.

“The other way to kill a vampire is utilizing a wooden steak to the heart.” She continues explaining, “No one knows why it works though, it just does.”

“Well at least there's an alternative. But doesn't that mean your dad could be killed super easily if he's caught off guard.”

“Well, of course. That’s why they have servants, bound by blood.”

“I see, so the servants are the challenge?”

“No, father is much stronger than his servants. I don’t think we’ll be able to beat him if you can’t fight alongside me.”

I sigh, “I have no idea how he fights, nor his full power. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get there because we can’t just be sitting here doing nothing now.”

“So when do you intend to start the hunt?” She asks.

“As soon as possible, tomorrow morning. We need time to create wooden stakes and whatever else we need.”

As soon as I said so, the two of us immediately got to work. Rachel is cutting down whatever small trees she could find, cutting down a large one would more than likely alert the family that something’s up. I take up the job of creating holy water. I’ve never been the religious sort but I have learned a couple things from the worn down Lefaso church, or well Mia had and then she taught me. Fortunately uttering a completely specific prayer doesn't count as magic, as it's the gods doing so. I made the water from a barrel Rachel had out to collect rainwater. Honestly, I never expected this piece of knowledge to become valuable, it may not kill vampires, but Rachel had told me that although holy water on its own isn't fatal, they do hinder how a vampire can move in the battlefield. Which will prove to be a very valuable resource if we can’t win fair and square. I end up turning half of the drinking water supply into holy water, and I store the liquid in some small fragile looking flasks I found in one of the cupboards. By the time I was done with making the liquid, I was left with six small flasks. Six small flasks equates to half of your standard barrel.

After that tedious job, Rachel comes into the door with a whole bunch of small trees cut up into thin logs we could carve into stakes. Throughout the entire process Rachel kept making sure each pointed tip was as sharp as physically possible. Not by stabbing herself of course, that's dangerous, but by using a straw dummy she had lying under the bed.

“I’ve been teaching myself to fight for over fifty years now.” She explains, “but I’m afraid that self teaching in combat isn’t the best way to learn how to fight.”

I find myself humming happily as I watch Rachel work away at her job, “So have you ever been in an actual fight?”

She looks up from her whittling, “only brief moments with bears and the servants.”

“Bears?!”

She laughs, “don’t worry, the fights didn’t end up well for either of us.”

Seriously, what kind of a person would fight a bear head on anyways? Yeah she’s immortal, but she should still feel pain. At least I know she had some experience, that knowledge calms me a bit.

We resume the carving of the stakes, ensuring each one is ready for use.

Rachel hands me a leather satchel and a belt from a nearby drawer, the belt holds holsters for three stakes on the side while the satchel has multiple pockets lined throughout, the buckle holding the container shut is magnetic, making it easier to pull whatever I have in there in a flash. I make sure to put the six bottles of holy water in individual pockets. The pockets are shallow enough not to allow them to sink, making the rims of the flasks easier to grip onto. Rachel explained her reason for having this, she says that she had looted it from one of the victims remains. Apparently the servants never bother to take any of their belongings, only their blood is of importance to them. It’s fortunate that this is the case, or else we would have to find another way to make these supplies battle worthy. I do hate to be using something that belonged to a dead person, but we need these things more than they do.

Buckling the belt around my waist, I come to a realization. Why am I getting ready to fight? Rachel’s the one who’ll do the fighting, not me. All I have to do is plan where to take the fight, lay down a couple traps and hope for the best. Am I truly expecting to fight? No, I’ve told myself before, this is just for the worst case scenario that’s all. Goddess, what a pain.

After all of our preparations for tomorrow are complete, I yawn and take a look out behind the black curtains of the shack. All is illuminated by the moonlight, I can’t believe how late it had gotten. It seems that I was too into making sure we were prepared and had lost track of time. I look over at the table, Rachel’s sleeping face down, drool running down her chin and wood carving tools in hand. It reminds me of myself, specifically the night after that day three years ago.

Ever since I had begun to reject my other self, and when I wasn't completely and utterly closed in on myself, I had delved deep into medical books from Dr. Frank’s office. I spent countless hours reading them, trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Some nights I had been to absorbed into what I was doing that I had forgotten about sleep completely. Eventually I would pass out from exhaustion while sitting at the shabby wooden desk in my room. Unfortunately there were no fruits born from my labor, I can’t recall many things from the books, nor did I even find out why I have this condition.

I felt a kinship with her predicament is what I’m trying to say, she’s working just as hard as I was to fix her predicament in her own way, all because of a problem with our bodies. We’ll both see our goals to the end, I know this.

I wrap the blanket on the bed over her, and sleep on the mattress.

***

I feel the warmth of a blanket as I open my eyes, I turn my head to meet the face of Rachel who’s now sleeping right next to me, her clothes are strewn on the floor and she’s holding my arm. Does she sleepwalk? I’m pretty sure I left her sleeping in the chair with the blanket.

Whatever.

I shrug her off my arm and get up, taking care not to look at Rachel. The crisp morning air is seeping through the cracks of the door frame, giving me enough of a chill to pull myself from my grogginess. Today is the day, the day we confront Rachel’s dad and free ourselves from this foggy deathtrap.

First things first however, we can’t fight on an empty stomach, and Rachel has yet to wake. I take the clothes she had stripped herself of and rest them by the bedside, all neatly folded in a pile before I dig around the woods for some food or more specifically some safe mushrooms and berries before I reignite the fire pit from yesterday. Although I know I’ve been trapped here for about three days now, I’m still surprised that I’ve never been caught on accident. Even now while cooking this small meal over an open fire I’m finding myself on edge for the case that I do get found.

I finish cooking without incident and head back to the shack, taking care to extinguish the fire once more.

I set the food on the table and wait for the aroma of the concoction I had cooked to permeate through the room.

Rachel wakes up soon after, “Hmm?” she scratches her head, “Morning already?” She sits up, the blanket falling down, revealing her in nothing but her panties, breasts bare to the world... I find myself quickly looking away before my brain could try and take in the sight.

“Ah...” I take a deep breath and try to keep my calm. The last thing I needed today was for my condition to kick in so early in the morning. “Please… put your clothes on.”

She looks down, “Ack!” She grabs the clothes she had left by the bedside, her pale face a slight flush, and hastily puts them on. “I’m so sorry Tracy!” She exclaims, “I swear I was only trying to keep you warm!” She presses her fingers together, “you looked cold, that’s all.”

So she woke up soon after I fell asleep? “But what about the lack of clothes?” I ask.

“I just can’t seem to sleep with them on.”

I sigh, so she’s one of those people. I need to be more weary about if I ever sleep near her again. If I didn’t steel myself when she sat up, my condition would have kicked in. “Incident aside, breakfast is ready.”

She smiles, “Thank you.”

The two of us finish our meals and throw on our equipment. “Are you ready?” She asks, “After this, there’s no turning back.”

“Like I have a choice, I need to escape these woods.”

***

We delve into the woods, taking care not to trigger any of the traps I had lain. Well, they wouldn’t harm me in the slightest, but for Rachel, triggering any of the traps would be torture, given how she’s a vampire and we’re supposed to be hunting one.

“Be careful, I’ll be waiting here while you lure the servant out.” She says.

I nod. Mia… protect me. I hold the ribbons she had given me tightly in my pocket and walk into the fog in hopes of triggering whatever magical sensor Rachel’s father had set up.

The fog rolls in and I find myself back at the point where the fog had begun to appear. “That’s one.” I say aloud. I venture into the fog yet again, and find myself back at that point once more. “Two.” The birds have stopped chirping, it’s coming. I walk once more to insure it was alerted of my presence. “Three.” The bushes rustle violently as my vision fades back to the same spot. Perfect, I managed to attract the servant. Now to actually make it to Rachel and the traps without getting hurt. The unfortunate factor to this is that I have to walk at an average pace, not run. I don’t want her to surface unless absolutely necessary.

I walk a bit to make sure it’s following, but only to see the bushes in front of me rattling violently. When did it get in front of me? Shit!

It lunges from the bushes, and knocks me onto the ground, sure enough it’s the same servant from yesterday. I manage to pull one of the vials of holy water from the pouch and throw it at the vampire just before it can make contact with my neck. It writhes and screams in agony as its skin begins to sizzle. I quickly get back up to my feet and resume walking to the location, taking the occasional glance behind. It recovers from my holy water attack rather quickly, Rachel was right about holy water not killing vampires, but I was right to assume that it stuns vampires for a brief moment. I find it repeating the same strategy again, this time leaping from the bush on the left, I throw another bottle of the sacred liquid, but I miss, the bottle shattering somewhere on the ground. Great, that’s one wasted. I halt my movement and watch him fly by my head, and resume once more. What a headache this is, I’m in mortal peril and I have to walk.

“Not many people come prepared here, boy.” The voice of the servant rings, “Why, if I didn’t know any better I’d say you’ve been conspiring with the girl. But I know the girl isn’t stupid enough to try it. And I would have known if you were here in these woods.” I keep my constant walking pace and keep my mouth shut. “Not that it matters anyway, you will die before he even catches wind of this pathetic struggle. Those last two attacks were just part of my standard routine against our food, and obviously you aren’t our normal food.”

Just keep talking buddy, the more you talk the closer I get to one of the traps.

He comes bolting towards me, dagger in hand. I throw another bottle towards him and he screams, backing off a tad. “You goddamn brat!” He clutches his searing face. At this rate I’ll have no holy water left before we even get to fight Rachel’s dad. At the same time I don’t want to keep throwing more and more, he’ll adjust to the pain and manage to strike through it. If I don’t make it soon, I’m as good as dead.

Thankfully, he doesn’t seem to suspect that I’m leading him on, he probably just thinks I’m being cocky because of my casual walking or it could just be that the holy water infuriated him.

Before he can realize it, he triggers one of the traps. He’s almost immediately flung into the air by a rope around his ankles. But he cuts the rope as soon as he reaches the peak and carries his momentum forward into a lunge towards me. I have no time to react as my brain tries to process what just happened. One of my traps failed, and now he’s using it against me?! Thankfully despite my inability to react, Rachel was a step ahead of me. She’s running at full speed, one of the blades left by the victims in her hands, and attempts to block his strike. The impact of the two blades sends me flying into a bush, I’d call that lucky, because I’m pretty sure Once the dust clears Rachel is standing before the servant, a crater formed where the impact had occurred.

“Tracy, are you okay!” Rachel shouts. I nod, I’m utterly speechless at the fact I was blown away from just being nearby such a collision. This is the strength of a vampire!? And it’s a servant no less! I take a deep breath, I need to calm down, if I don’t the adrenaline will kick in.

“Really now?” The butler swings his dagger, sparks fly as the two weapons collide. “You really think your father will forgive you for this act of treason?”

“Father abandoned me, and I seek out!” She parries his next swing and kicks him in the side, its impact conveniently sending him flying into one of the pitfall traps we had set up, or well Rachel set up. It’s surprising to see such strength come from her, before I’ve only seen her carry bunches of small logs and my bag, and that bag of mine isn’t ridiculously heavy.

The servant leaps from the hole and takes a stance, his knees bent forward and dagger held in front. Rachel charges head on. “Let’s finish this.” He says.

“Rachel, don’t!” I shout, but it’s too late, her swing reaches within his reach, and he manages to disarm her, breaking the blade into three even pieces. He pins her down, his dagger is visible by her throat for a brief moment, all for the sight to be covered in a spray of red not long after. Blood pools around her now still body. I didn’t even see the blade move.

I thought she could deal with him after seeing that incredible impact from earlier. It appears she wasn’t lying when she said she couldn’t take him down on her own. Their strength seems equal at the first glance, but I think the huge difference here is that he knows some sort of disarming technique, and this technique isn’t just to disarm the target, it’s meant to kill, and Rachel was the most recent victim of his skill.

“Now you,” the butler points his blade in my direction. “You’re next.”

How am I supposed to beat him? I know I have these wooden steaks, but if he counters them I’m as good as dead, and I refuse to allow her to surface again.

Quick, Tracy. What would get you out of this situation? I have three vials of holy water left, three stakes and a bunch of useless traps nearby. I don’t want to use the holy water so I’m hopefully prepared enough to fight Rachel’s father. But if I do throw the vials and miss the target like bottle number two, I’m done for. And as I said before, the stakes are out of the question.

I swallow. “There’s only one way to find out if this works.” I pull one of the vials from my pouch and throw it in the servants general direction.

He laughs as the bottle completely misses the intended target and shatters on a nearby tree.

Well, there was an attempt, wasn’t there? “I guess this is the end for me…” I sigh. I may refuse to accept my other self, but it seems that I may need her to save my life.

I really am pathetic aren’t I? I didn’t last long on my own. I was hoping that the two of us could defeat him without my other self but it seems I have no choice. I shudder, my body was going to feel like trash after this.

I take a deep breath and clench my fists and charge head on. What better way to up my heart-rate is there than running into mortal peril?

Of course my sudden movement caught the vampire off for a moment, giving me a chance to strike him with my fist. Really I’m hoping that my condition can kick in time, just so my punch can absolutely catch him off guard and temporarily immobilize him.

Unfortunately this attempt ends poorly for I’ve never really thrown a punch when I’m not her, and all I manage to do is hurt my own hand. He strikes me to the ground with the hilt of his dagger. “Your foolishness brought you to your own demise, boy.”

Failed attempt at stunning him or not, I cannot help but smirk as I feel that indescribable sensation flow throughout my body once more. I feel myself smiling, “No, your foolishness will be your demise, you ignoramus.” I say. Did I seriously call someone an ignoramus? Whatever, I just said what came to my mind.

I sweep my shrinking legs under the servant, knocking him over on the ground. I scramble onto my feet as the last changes of my body finish. I take a brief moment to find my balance as the servant gets back up, my cute purple hair dangles in front of my soft face as I do so, forcing me to push it back.

I expect him to say something like, “What are you?” or, “You’re a monster.” like how the soldiers from the camp a long while back had, more specifically Mr Furball. But I guess since Mr. Servant-Guy is a supernatural being, he doesn’t question these things. “I see, you’re more deceiving than you let on, child.” Really, I’m grateful that he doesn’t say any of those common phrases from at I’ve heard from outsiders all my life, even after that incident three years ago, I still heard it. I’ve grown so used to hearing stuff like that, that I generally just sigh or shrug it off. So to me, it’s a breath of fresh air. He swings his blade, I step to the side and dodge it gracefully. Quickly he returns to his counter-stance.

My question is how the heck can I counter this? I only managed to strike him the first time due to the element of surprise, and I’ve only seen the whole move occur once, but now it seems he’s back on the defensive.

“But don’t think you can break through my stance!” He bares his fangs, “This stance, taught to me by the master Demure to deal with any threats that cross our paths, shall be your demise.”

Will he just shut up? I don't need to hear some generic evil bad guy talk, I just want to get back onto the road and reach the great library.

I swing my fist towards him, despite his counter-stance. In that moment, it’s as if time had slowed down, I can see every single movement he made, down to his breathing and heartbeat. His empty hand reaches for my fist, his waist sways to the side while planting his feet firm on the ground, and the blade in his other hand holds perfectly still. It seems he doesn’t use the blade until I’m pinned! There is a hole in his movements! I allow for him to grab my swing, a strong gust of wind blows as he manages to absorb the shock. The moment he tries to twist my arm I allow my body to rotate alongside it. Carrying the swift momentum that built up from the rotation, I stick out my leg for a rather heavy kick.

I feel the impact cracking his jaw as my feet make contact with his face, his body flies straight through the hardwood trees, leaving a Mr. Servant-Man-shaped hole in every tree within his trajectory.

“I did it! I got through!” I cheer giddily.

This celebration is short lived however. As the dust settles I see the sight of Mr. Servant-Man breathing heavily midst a grove of ruined trees. His uniform torn and covered in splinters. He’s holding his jaw still as it’s mending itself before my very eyes. If he wasn’t human, that crazy-strong impact would have killed him already. I feel rather enthralled, I get to pummel someone without even killing them!

“H-how!” He says, “how did you get through my technique?”

“Now why would I say that,” I snicker, cracking my tiny knuckles one by one, “I intend on killing’ ya, you know.”

“Go ahead and try it!” He charges, his knife thrust forward. Quite daring isn’t he? Thrusting a knife at a young girl like this.

I might also want to say that despite being an immortal, he really doesn’t seem to be quite wise. I know it’s an odd thought to be thinking in the middle of a fight, but it’s just something I find funny.

I slide under his attack, grabbing his legs and flipping him over. I begin unleashing a barrage of punches on Mr. Man-Servant, with each impact a loud crunching noise can be heard. I smile as I beat up the immortal punching bag. Turns out vampires despite being immortal, are super squishy.

As much as I’m having fun with this however, I’m prolonging my imminent victory.

“I’m sorry, I’ll put you out of your misery soon.” I reach for the stakes around my waist but feel nothing but emptiness. “Huh?” My stakes, where are they? Better question, why don’t I feel my belt? Even better question, why do I feel a breeze across my waist? I look down, my pants have seemingly vanished, all I can see across my lower body are my barely hanging on boxers. “Well… shoot...”

Darn it! They must have fallen off when I changed! So much for wearing a belt, I didn’t even remember to tighten it. Maybe I should get magically adapting waists on my pants if I ever get the money to purchase some. But right now? I think I’ve messed up.

The body of Mr. Man-Servant convulses, his body fixing itself as he rises back up to his feet. He lunges at me, tightly grabbing me by the neck, his hands digging into my skin. My surroundings start turning into a blur, it’s over. I can’t defeat him without some sort of stake. Really it could have been a tree for all I care, but I can’t seem to feel my body anymore, which is funny, I could probably just break free if I tried, but I don’t know where my belt is, and being chased the whole time while trying to find a specific weapon is a pain. Slowly I close my eyes, accepting my defeat.

“Tracy!” A familiar voice shouts.

Wait, that voice… Rachel?!

“You!” He shouts. I feel myself hitting the hard ground as Mr. Man-Servant screams in agony. I open my eyes to see a blade protruding out of his chest.

“Are you alright!?” Rachel asks me as I find my breath, “You said changing was your last resort!” She pulls the blade from his body, a steam similar to the one produced by holy water emanates from the hole.

“I could ask the same! How are you not dead? And where did you get the blade?”

“I’m a vampire Tracy, I can’t die from something like that. Although I don’t regenerate as quickly as everyone else. And that blade was another one I found lying about I just managed to douse it with the last of the holy water.”

So she wasted the last of the holy water? I scramble back onto my feet, “It’s a long story RaeRae, you have any stakes for this punching bag?”

“RaeRae?” She puts her hands to the sides of her cheeks, as they turn a flush red. Seriously? She’s embarrassed by that? Not now, Tracy, you deal with that later. “Y-yeah, I grabbed your pants when I woke up, belt and all.” she holds out my pants, “You want them back? The underwear you're wearing is barely hanging on.” Oh, it was from a mix of both.

I shake my head, “No time for that, we need the stakes!”

She nods. “Right.” She pulls one of the wooden tools we had spent last night working on from the belt and hands it to me. “If it’s the two of us, we can finish him.”

I keep myself from making a remark, I could have taken him on all by myself, especially if I still had my pants on. “I’ll pierce his heart with one strike.” I say.

Mr. Man-Servant clutches his wound, “I’ll like to see you try.” He lunges for one final time as I take the stake and take aim at his heart. He tries to cut the stake before it makes contact with his dagger, but Rachel kicks some dust into his eyes.

The impact of the stake pierces his heart, his blade mere inches away from my face. “Did we do it?” I ask. Slowly he starts crumbling to ash, no blood, no organs, just ash.

Rachel laughs, collapsing on the ground. “We did! We beat one of my fathers servants!”

At this moment, all I can think about is what’s to come next, not our victory. We’ve only defeated an underling, one that I could have taken on by myself if I didn’t lose my stupid pants.

I puff my cheeks, “I wanted to take him on by myself though.”

Well that’s a new side of my female self I didn’t properly realize, apparently she likes to fight. Then again, when I think about it, I did enjoy that fight with Mr. Narrow-Face all the way back.

Rachel chuckles, “I’ve never seen someone so disappointed that they couldn’t kill something on their own.”

She’s pretty cute when she smiles, I’ll say that. Her soft-pale lips curved slightly upwards, eyes with long lashes bearing a soft and gentle look within, and her cheeks a very light blush. God, what am I thinking? “So what do we do about your father? And what about the other servants?” I ask, “didn’t we provoke him, Rae-Rae?”

“Again with the Rae-Rae?”

“Ignore that, it’s just a quirk of mine.” An annoying quirk at that, I was honestly surprised it hadn't happened earlier when we were planning this all out.

“I would suggest we retreat to the shack for now, but I don’t think Demure’s going to give us time to rest.”

I sigh, “and we wasted all of our holy water as well.”

“Shoot,” She bites her thumb, “I really hope we don't have to fight. We'd be dead.”