Tears streamed down her face, weeping from the nightmare she endured, and hugging me tighter. I wrapped my arms and slowly patted her back, letting her know she is safe here. Her emotions were unleashed, as she began bawling her eyes out. I felt sorry for this helpless girl, who has both darkness and radiance. It's possible the demons were experimenting on her soul for the white aura. Her claim of being a princess would make her the daughter of Lucifer himself. If he mated with a Soul Eater for this girl to exist, even if her growth is slowed, a millenia should be plenty of time to mature as a demon, but the girl's appearance and behavior does not reflect anywhere close to a thousand years.
Facing her, I talked softly, “Let me introduce myself. My name is Joe… I have a daughter named Allie around your age with the same hair color as you, but she’s far away right now. What about you, what is your name?”
She hiccupped against my shirt, catching her breath and rotated her head up, “Princess Emira Abaddon of the Demonus Empire.”
"It’s stuffy in here, would you like a tour of this castle?"
A smile crept up on her face as she nodded. I guided her out of the infirmary, tapping Harry on the arm for him to guide us, before he tried to run away. Emira, having now calmed down, stared out at the hall, with a puzzled look on her face at the medieval interior garnished with pseudo modern equipment.
"All the people here are ancients, friends of mine. Do you think demons and humans can ever be friends?"
She rolled her eyes, feeling confident again, then blurted out, "Hah! If my father heard someone say that, they would be smited in half."
"I thought the same way too, but did you know the empire uses science and entertainment created by humans?"
Her gasp echoed in the hall, waking up the sleepy professor, well only for a moment, as he asked 'what's for dinner', then plopped back onto the table.
"Hee hee," she giggled, this was a good sign.
We spent the morning exploring the castle, which had over fifty rooms, some for entertainment, privacy, or bedroom. The ancients left the decor mostly untouched, and most of the building was artificially lit with some kind of manite pebble. The castle’s drawing room held numerous paintings taller than myself, depicting the royalty in different settings, inside a forest, appearing in a library, or simply sitting on a chair.
The balcony up on what Harry called Tower One, showed the greatest view of the city. You can see the city docks on the west side, where the occasional loud banging reached our ears. The slums were surprisingly well hidden behind the market district, as the land went downhill behind it.
Looking out into the clouds, I asked Emira, "Do you know how to use magic?"
"No… Father says that my eyes cancel each other out. Whatever that means."
The aura of darkness must be a sort of anti-magic used by the dark presence, interfering with collection. Thinking back to the Director, who used a blob of darkness to defend himself, I only overcame it by drawing an immense stream of mana to surpass both the disassembling of my magic and its natural defense.
Mana is living in the air, flowing freely, shining in a brilliant white, the source of the flame in our soul. However, once its collected, the owner's attribute attunes the mana to the will of the user.
Anti-magic, on the other hand, would be unlikely to coexist with mana. Meaning, it must be born of a different source than from the light. Speculating on possibilities, it would be something like malice… The wrinkly witch's words echoed in my mind, 'Hatred is a key that could destroy the world'. Was it possible the darkness began as light?
I sat down and criss crossed my legs, asking Emira to do the same beside me.
"Accept the air into you, and feel it dance inside your blood. Imagine your happiest memories in your heart," I spoke to her, while peering into the sky.
"Why are we doing this?" She asked, it was a fair question.
"It's how I collect mana from the air. Just try it."
I closed my eyes and dragged the mana towards us. My sensitivity was stronger than before, as I could feel it's weight and intensity more accurately. The higher the altitude, the more dense the flow became. Perhaps, that is why it crystallizes on mountain peaks, and why the empire had so many skyscrapers.
Guiding the breeze towards Emira, my senses felt it bouncing off as if something was denying it.
"Free your thoughts, and imagine a beautiful scenery you've enjoyed before."
The mana was fighting to enter, nudging further with each attempt. It seems this would require practice, it may be possible to break through.
"Do you want to learn magic?" I asked.
She faced me, showing a bright look of determination, just like Danny had.
"Yes."
"Then, we will train here together."
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrt
Her stomach growled a long tune, as she flinched, turning away embarrassed.
I asked Harry to lend us the kingdom's currency to buy food, and Emira and I set off to explore the market district. There was an enclave hiding along the main road, on the slums side. Food stands lined the perimeter, with picnic tables arranged in the center.
There were a variety of odd creatures being served, but we landed on what looked like a turkey leg, from an animal called borywing, costing fifteen copper each. I handed over a silver coin and told the owner to keep the change. His face glowed, maybe from the sun reflecting off of the silver, but he threw in some drinks that looked like coconuts parted in half.
The meat tasted just like chicken! They even used seasonings similar to lemon pepper and glazed the skin with a sweet sauce. Emira seemed to enjoy it to, eating it in small bites like a chipmunk. The coconut water had a light taste of kiwi fruit, but went surprisingly well with our food. I was concerned the food might have a side-effect for my situation as an ancient, but my stomach felt normal and filled up with one borywing leg.
After our meal, we continued exploring the district. There was an adventure guild, general blacksmithing, armory and weapon store, carriage parts and repair, stores with farm to market produce, and clothing stores. It seemed many of the lesser nobles and merchants stayed behind, so businesses were still functioning. What concerned me was the commoners far outnumbered those with coin. We need to maintain jobs and circulate the economy, but this temporary economic truce was doomed to fail after some time.
The sun was shining high above, when we decided to take a break back at the castle.
I asked Harry to find if he can reserve the room next to mine for Emira, which thankfully he succeeded. She went for a nap, while I went back to the hall to talk to Tamara.
Entering the hall, I spotted a crowd circled around the back wall, where we had the impromptu debate. Moving in closer and peeking between everyone's heads, when I heard the conversation.
"She's the princess of the Demonus Empire, it would be too dangerous to keep her here," Heidi was speaking.
"They were trying to take her soul! Do we just let them kill her?" Astrid came to the defense.
I listened long enough, I had to intervene. Squeezing through everyone, I made it to the front.
"Everyone, let me explain before you decide anything."
Retelling of my experiences, the crowd gasped at the thought of a modern world run by demons. However, when I mentioned God was defeated, everyone's faces turned grim, fear set into their hearts. I debriefed them on the technicals of darkness and white radiance, and how both are residing in Emira. Demons wanted the light, for whatever nefarious purpose, and we must never let them have it.
Some ancients saw her as leverage and protection, while others foresaw war with the empire. Both were right.
I spoke up again, "It appears possible to level up our soul," I searched the room, and moved over and put my hand on his shoulder.
"This man…", I looked at him.
"Gilbert", he chirped.
"...Gilbert, built a device to measure the Soul. Which will help track progress on our growth, granting us new technical breakthroughs."
The crowd erupted with voices, ready to explain their own findings on mana and magic.
It seems many of the blues have been evolving faster than others being out on the field. Not only could they zoom in, which I failed to accomplish, but they could improve their brain processing speed, mentally slowing down time. They competed in a race and estimated Dean ran at eighty kilometers per second.
The reds were also eager to explain their findings, where they were able to conjure almost every element on the periodic table, and then took it a step further, creating materials used for building homes in the slums and rebuilding the city docks. However, they were unable to conjure biological lifeforms including plant life. There was also a limitation based on mass, for how much they could create, using the full capacity of their mana.
Greens, led by Tamara, were boasting about their transmutation skills for strengthening or weakening any surface. They were also critical in helping process and refine the manite, as well as being the lead researchers in magical tools.
The purple and yellow groups didn't speak up for some reason. It seems they were at an impasse on how to utilize their abilities more.
After the room settled down, we voted on the fate of the princess. My heart was racing with worry. The final tally was split about three-fourths for, and one-fourth against.
I felt myself breathing again. Emira was safe, and as our guest, we would protect her.
