Lilith: Origin of Succubi

Early the next morning, Torien and I headed to the east gate together to help oversee the ex-Tamin members. Rather than her usual scouting duties, the two of us were going to look at the condition of the watchtowers outside of the city near the fields that we'd like to get up and running again. They hadn't been used since before the siege, but we were hoping they wouldn't be too much work to make usable.

Torien looked cheerful today and kept sneaking glances at me as we walked toward the gate together.

"How are you feeling today, Torien?" I asked.

She smiled and looked ahead toward our destination. "I feel good. It's been a while since we were on an assignment together, just the two of us. Before we returned to Traehall, we were together all the time, but lately it's felt like we hardly get any time together while working."

I frowned. "Does that bother you?"

She tilted her head and gave me a confused glance. "Oh, uh. Well, maybe a little. I wouldn't say it bothers me, just that things have changed a lot in the last few months." She lightly gripped her bare neck before continuing, "All of it feels a bit surreal. A couple years ago, I would never have expected that people would ask me for things. It was always orders, do this, do that. Now people ask me for help, they ask for my advice, sometimes I'm the one expected to give orders. Even when I'm given assignments from Dominik, it doesn't feel like the same thing." Torien shrugged. "I do feel like the two of us don't get much time together anymore, though. It's not like I don't enjoy our nights with the others, but it's not really the same."

I nodded and pulled Torien into a hug from the side. She looked flustered from the unexpected contact, especially after I kissed her on the cheek. "Sorry I haven't been giving you much alone time with me. There's been a lot going on..."

"I know. I'm not complaining, I'm just happy that we get to work together today," she said with a smile.

"Maybe I should set up date nights with all of you again. It's been a while since we've had the time," I wondered aloud.

Torien chuckled. "I would like that, but maybe after Bella has her baby. She's a bit hard to deal with if we're not all there..."

I could see the crowd of people already gathered at the east gate as we approached. "Maybe. I'm not sure we'll have any more time once the baby comes, though. I also have a feeling we're going to have to take a trip to Goldenhearth soon as well, and I'd like to have most of us together for a trip like that."

Dominik waved the two of us over as soon as he saw us approach. "Torien, Lilith. I have a rough map of the area to show you before you two leave. There are four watchtowers to check out. Get a look at all of them and fix them up if you can. If any need to be rebuilt from scratch, we'll have to find a time for Tornick to come out with some guards."

"Are they stone constructions?" I asked.

Dominik nodded. "They were built around the same time as the walls. Originally, they were quickly made terra magic structures that got updated over time. I haven't had much reason to examine them closely, but you can see the two closest ones from the wall," he said, pointing behind him with a thumb.

"Any demons spotted by the patrols?" Torien asked.

He shook his head. "Things have been a bit light the last week, other than the business with these guys. That doesn't mean you should let your guard down. Some of the demons are fast. It's your job to keep the town's city planner safe, Torien."

She chuckled, "Of course, Dominik."

"You two should probably leave after I show you the map. It'll be a while before we make any progress here. We still need to get an idea of how effective these guys are in combat. I doubt we'll make it out of the gate for a few bells, if we make it out of the walls at all today," Dominik said.

He led us to a small table just inside the gatehouse, where a map was spread out. It wasn't made to scale, but it had distance markings indicating how far apart each watchtower should be. We would be spending a decent amount of time walking today based on the distance between them.

"Why are all of the towers so spread out? How would they even warn anyone if something happened?" I asked.

"They have signals that are visible from the other towers and the walls of the city. If something happens, they light colored oil lamp signals with an indication of what the problem is. They also have horns, but those are mostly for warning of immediate dangers in the area, rather than something the city needs to be concerned with right away," he explained.

"So something like a relay system? I suppose that makes sense." A bit primitive in its implementation, but not bad considering what they have. Maybe I could design something better with ritual magic if I can find the time. That will have to wait for now though.

"Any more questions before the two of you head out?" he asked.

I shook my head and turned to Torien, who also said no. After that, we checked the few supplies we would be taking with us and headed out of the walls together. We got a few curious looks from the paladins gathered nearby, but they didn't say anything as we left through the city gates that had just been opened. Not long after, the sound of the city fell away, and it was just the two of us as we walked along the dirt road headed toward the first watchtower.

"When was the last time you fought anything, Lilith?" Torien asked.

"Actual fighting, or training?" I asked back.

Torien shrugged. "Both?"

"I sparred with Eira a few days ago. But I haven't fought any monsters for a few weeks. Why?"

"Just wondering how rusty you are. Probably not too bad, then," she said with a laugh.

"I think spending some time focused on training has helped. While I had that stolen skill, it wasn't well-integrated, so I was fighting purely on instinct. That's not all bad, but most of the time I didn't have a good sense of how I was fighting or what trade-offs I was making. I feel much more confident now," I said.

"That's good, because there's a loose demon coming." She had one hand shielding her eyes as she looked into the distance. I used the bond to get a sense for its position relative to her and spotted it immediately. It was a canine looking demon with dark red fur and glowing yellow eyes.

I grimaced. "That isn't one of the ones from the dungeon."

Torien nodded. "New types of demons are spawning now. I don't know if it's because there are already so many demons in the woods, or because the demon god walks the land now, but we've been spotting new ones lately."

"Are they tough?" I asked.

"Not really. Around as dangerous as bone dogs are, but even more aggressive. Attacks anything that moves, even normal animals," she said.

I glanced at the tower in the distance. "Should we ignore it and head toward the tower, or take a detour to deal with it?"

"Do you think you could hit it with magic? Or maybe just catch its attention?"

"I could try, but my range isn't as good as Morrigan's."

"Go ahead and give it a shot," Torien said.

I shrugged and set my bag down. I considered using a ritual, but I think just an ice spike might be the easiest way to go. Like Morrigan had taught us, I collected some of the mana inside my body, pushed it to my palm, and activated the spell. Using an incantation or even gestures could help focus the spell, but I had practiced enough with this one to go without. A shard of sharp ice sailed across the distance and landed near the demon before exploding into icy mist. I didn't hit, but that definitely got its attention.

"That was perfect. Give me a moment." Torien pulled back her bow, and I felt her mana coalesce and harden into a shadow arrow. Once the demon dog had gotten close enough, Torien released the arrow, and it landed right between the demon's eyes. Mid-run, the demon slumped to the ground and tumbled as it slowed to a stop.

Torien's shoulders fell. "Damn."

"What? You got it. I'm impressed you were able to hit it from that distance," I said.

"I should have let it come closer. Now I need to go all the way over there to dig its core out," she grumbled.

Laughing, I pat her on the shoulder. "Suffering from success, huh? Let me help you with that."

I placed a hand on her shoulder and began to cast an enhancement spell on her that would increase her speed and endurance. One upside of the system going away was that a lot of spells had become more malleable. It might have been because I had invested so much into mana control, but I was able to manipulate a lot of spells now that there wasn't a rigid structure to all of them. It was a subtle difference, but the more I experimented with it, the more I was able to control the flow of mana directly. One of the benefits of my experimentation was the ability to mix different spells into combination enhancement magic. Morrigan had been excited by the prospect and wanted me to teach a few classes on the subject once more of her students could handle that sort of thing.

Torien turned to me and smiled before bounding away with her newly improved speed. I continued along the path while waiting for her to catch up with the demon's mana core. One of the few upsides of non-dungeon-based demons being loose all over the place around here was that they all had large mana cores that could be used for enchanting. It was an area of research that Tenna and Gwen were working on together. I was surprised Tenna was able to juggle so many different tasks with her duties on the council, her blacksmithing, and her work making the Mithril mine her cousins found usable. Mithril smithing was a guarded secret, so it was taking them some time finding the best way to smelt, refine, and smith it for tools and weapons. The ingots she had Mimi present to the council meeting the other day had been a promising first step to getting a usable product from the mine.

Eventually, Torien returned with a fist-sized mana core from the canine demon and had a pretty pleased look on her face. "Take a look." She held out the mana core. It looked like a glass orb with swirling black tendrils moving under the smoky glass surface. "It looks like it has shadow magic inside. Gwen might be able to turn this into equipment for me. Shadow cores are actually pretty rare, so this is a good find."

"That's great. Do those not normally drop shadow mana cores?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No, these ones usually drop fire cores. They're useful, but they're some of the most common ones. We actually have plenty of fire cores in the city. It's to the point that the prices of them have been tanking lately, which will be helpful to get through winter. We might have food problems, but heating won't be an issue." 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"That's good," I said with a nod. "Do most of the houses have enchantments that work with fire cores?"

Torien shrugged. "Not universally. Some burn oil for heat, but it's kind of dirty, so only the poorest households rely on it. Like I said, the fire cores are cheap, so it's only the places that don't already have enchantments installed that have an issue."

"Hmm... do you think it would be bad if Gwen and I went through the city and helped people install enchantments before winter?" I asked.

Torien looked off in the distance. "I'm not sure. It might be better to have Eira's girls ask around before you offer something like that. People might be suspicious if you suddenly start offering that for free, but I don't know. Why?"

"Well, sometimes people in my old world would die from the cold, and I'd like to avoid any more unnecessary deaths in our city if I can help it. It would be a shame if anyone survived the siege of demons only to die to something as mundane as a winter blizzard. It seemed like the area gets a decent amount of snow from what I saw last year, so it feels like a precaution that wouldn't be too difficult for the city to make," I said.

She shrugged again. "Like I said, it might be good if you have Eira's girls ask around. I don't think it's a critical problem, and I wouldn't know how much people trust the city after everything that's happened. I know that it wouldn't be that difficult for the two of you to take on a project like that, but to people who can't use magic at all, it seems like you'd be offering them an expensive service without asking for anything in return. Unfortunately, the people who would need it the most are also likely to be the most suspicious of that sort of thing."

"Well, at the very least, I might offer it to the ex-Tamin people who moved into the poorer part of town. I know they won't be able to pay, and those buildings are more likely to lack those kinds of comforts. It probably wouldn't take them long to make enough money to heat their houses with fire cores once they start protecting the farmers, but there aren't many enchanters in town, so they would likely end up going to Gwen and Tenna asking about the service anyway," I said.

Torien nodded. "Makes sense. We're coming up on the first tower now, though. We should probably think about all that later."

A quick glance at the cracked stone of the abandoned watch tower in front of us made me think that this would be a bit more work than expected. At least it was mostly in one piece... It was better than finding a pile of rubble.