Perhaps sensing that I really did not want to stand around for a half an hour or more, Cinder led me from the tent and took me around the encampment. Kieran followed, of course, while Shinra slipped back into my shadow without a word. Cinder led me through the camp an I saw that Rougier was curled up on his hill, his large scaly back easy to pick out even among the tall tents.

  "I thought that, perhaps, you would be able to help here Sin." Cinder said quietly as she pulled back the flap on a large blue tent.

  Even before I stepped in I had a good idea what I would find. After all, the scent of blood and the pungent stench of ointments was not hard to miss. Sure enough, I walked into a make shift medical tent. There were no cots here, just stretchers lain out in lines on the purple-ish earth, with men and women on them in varying states of pain and misery. Between the stretchers were other demons hurrying back and forth, bandaging and cleaning wounds.

  "I am not a healer..." I said, hearing the anxiousness in my own voice. Even using healing magic on my own tames was a difficult process for me. It just was not my strong point.

  Cinder nodded. "Perhaps not, but you did say that you can spread your mana to just about anyone did you not?" Surprised, I nodded. "Well, if it is not to presumptuous to ask, would you be able to lend your mana to the healers? Even sending your strength to the wounded would be of great comfort to them. Many of the forces we were able to muster were not even from our own lines, but many Reihan that were living on our lands. I and the other Queens are unable to aid the vast majority of the wounded, and our efforts are mostly wasted even when we try. But you..."

  I nodded. She didn't need to convince me farther. I may be a bitch most of the time but it was against my nature to let people just wallow in pain when I could help. Besides, there wasn't much else I could do to aid the demon forces, and so I was eager to do what I could.

  I took two steps farther into the tent, planted my bare feet in the earth, and closed my eyes, feeling for the mana channels. They were sluggish here, I realized, like the mana was turned into the same sludge now occupying the Eternal Lake itself. Still, I had to do something. On a whim I lifted Larasta off my shoulder and also planted it in the dirt, instinctually using it like another anchor to the ground. It did not help the sludgy feel but I did feel a kind of boost to my energies. I sent my mana forth into the syrupy mana flows and used a little more effort than normal to get it to go where I wanted.

  It took a moment but soon my mana was spidering its way out toward healers and patients alike. You could almost hear the sigh of relief flutter out from those around me. Several people turned my way but my eyes were still closed, my concentration on the mana both seeping out of me as well as the mana that existed around us.

  It was this external mana that had the greater part of my attention. At first it was just because it was so far removed from what I was used to that I was curious. But soon I realized that the mana wasn't different, as much as that it was sick, or maybe poisoned. I was not skilled enough in my queenly arts yet to fully know about what it was I was sensing right now. I did know enough to see that it was not a good thing. This land was dying worse than I had originally thought, if even the flow of mana was affected. I had a feeling that there was no way that an arrent spell colliding with what ever dragon nonsense Rougier had done could have caused this mess.

  I may have been new to this whole thing, but this screamed of anti-mana to me.

  'Even I can feel her mana..." Said Cinder, a note of wonder in her voice. Her words were directed to Kieran as it was pretty clear that I was not paying attention.

  "My Queen has a gift that she has yet to fully appreciate. She sees herself as less than others for some reason." Said Kieran, equally as quiet.

  "If we manage to all survive this, I think your Queen has the ability to change this world in a very big way. I wonder if this is what our young feel when we send them our mana." There was a wistfulness to her voice and her eyes had shuttered closed. "It is almost like a warm embrace."

  Kieran smiled. "I am very lucky to be in her service. I hope that I may be even half as useful as I wish to be."

  Smiling, Cinder opened her eyes and settled them on the butler. "I think that a Queen would be lucky to have a servant who knows what it is to be without. I think that there would not be much you wouldn't do in order to never loose your queen again."

  "You would be right Lady Cinder." Kieran turned back to me, watching as the injured settled into healing sleeps, and the medics seemed to sigh with relief. "She isn't ready to be all she can be here on Demonia. Not yet. But I think that, one day, my queen will be at the top of this world. I just need to make sure her stubbornness does not get her killed before then."

  Cinder laughed softly. "I feel that that may be a tall order. You may want to get some help with that. A queen needs more than one butler, no matter how talented and skilled that single butler may be." She narrowed her eyes on my butler and smiled. "And in no way is a dragon an adequate substitute as a servant. Nor even a Pangar Tiger."

  Kieran was about to say something but my sudden movement distracted him. I stood up straighter and shook out my stiff arms, puling my mind back to the world of solid matter.

  "Thank you Sin. It looks like you were able to help quite a bit." Cinder said, laying a hand on my shoulder with a broad smile. That smile faded, however, when she saw my face. "What is it?"

  "I think we have a big problem." I said, sick to my stomach. I took a speedy look around me and hurried Cinder and Kieran back out of the tent. I did not need to stress out these people when I had just spent all that effort to provide them with comfort.

  "what is it?" Cinder asked again, voice strained with worry and eyes darting back to the tent.

  "No, everything in there is fine." I assured her hurriedly. 'It's the lake that's the issue."

  "The lake?" Asked Kieran, confused.

  I nodded, biting my lip. "The mana here felt weird, so I followed the blocked channels to see where the root of the issue was. It wasn't easy given how messed up they were but-"

  "You can touch the mana all the way out to the lake?" Cinder asked, brow furrowed.

  "What? Yes of course." I said hurriedly. That hardly seemed important given the current situation. "Like I said, it was harder because of the messed up flows. It is all emanating from the lake. There is a literal mana void out there! And from that void there is a corruption to the mana spidering out, killing everything. Cinder, there is something big out there in that lake. Big, cold, and deadly..."

  I nearly jumped out of my skin when a loud whistle wrang out across the tents. Instantly there was a flurry of movement. Men and women were donning armor and retrieving weapons, shouting to one another. I saw Rougier raise his head up above the masses and our eyes met.

  "It's the alarm sounding. It tells us that a watchmen has spotted the fog rolling in." Breathed Cinder. "It's happening a little sooner than before..."

  "Shinra." I said, and the cat wasted no time hopping out of my shadow. "With us."

  I lifted up Rohime and settled its near non-existent weight on my shoulder, before Kieran, Shinra and I hurried after Cinder. As we jogged, I saw several other Queen's and Reihee heading in the same direction. I fell in step next to Pasha, feeling a kind of comfort in her size and confidence at my side, Kieran on the other.

  "Why so soon." Asked the Reihee, eyes locked ahead on the lake where I could now make out a brownish fog billowing up.

  "Perhaps they sense the dragon." Huffed Uther, clearly not as used to keeping up at a jog and talking at the same time. I had to give her props though. Reihee were elected to lead the Reihan but they were not made nor trained for fighting, usually. It was a political appointment. She was brave just being here.

  "It's a possibility." Agreed Darcious, as she seemed to materialize next to us.

  "Sin just told me that she could sense a large presence in the lake. Maybe that creature could feel her looking too." Breathed Cinder looking pale as her injured arm was jostled in its sling.

  Darcious cursed but I couldn't tell if she thought this was some how my fault or if she was just displeased at the entire situation. Either way we all picked up pace. Seeing Uther and Frost begin to lag behind I sent mana their way without really thinking about it. Then, when I realized what I was doing, decided that I may as well send a boost to all the Reihee. If anyone needed help in this fight it would be them. Next to me, Pasha let out an audible gasp and nearly stumbled. I shot out an arm and grabbed her elbow before she steadied herself.

  "There is something big and nasty out in that lake." I ground out as we neared the shore, the tents getting thinner as we went. I heard the rush of air as Rougier flew over head, dipping a wing and landing in the brown, scummy sand of the shore. This landing was anything but smooth, and he slammed into the sand with a spray of dirt and sludge and making the ground shake. Still, sloppy landing aside it was reassuring to see his rocky bulk between us and the death slime up ahead.

  "Something comes!" He roared out a warning as we came up to his side. Behind us, the rag tag army got into what could pass as ranks. The sound of weapons and armor ringing out. But the lack of talking was more jarring to me. Apparently the tension was so great that no one could bring themselves to speak.

  Suddenly I found myself standing at the head of an army, looking out on a muddy lake that was quickly being masked by a thick brown fog. Fanned out either side of me were a mix of Queens, their butlers, Reihee and their body guards, and one very large black cat. A little ahead was Rougier, his back arched, wings raised, and head lowered in a snarl, grey smoke leaking between his teeth and nostrils in faint curls.

  There was a soft sloshing noise just before a dark figure seemed to materialize out of the mist. I felt, more than saw, many of the people around me stiffen up as the figure came more into focus. My eyes darted to Kieran to my left and I saw that he had gone pale, eyes wide and neck corded. He looked both sick and strained and I realized that he was trying to fight the Call. At that exact moment I found out that I was among the few, along with Rougier, that was unaffected by the spell of our enemy despite never having encountered it before.

  I didn't have time to contemplate that, however, as the figure stepped forward again. I may not have been under a spell, but the sight of the man before me was jarring all the same. He was smaller than the average demon male at maybe my own, just barely, over five foot height, and was thin and pale. If I had to pick a race for him, he would have been closest to human, with pale skin, short dark hair, rounded ears. There were no claws, horns, tail or wings that would mark him as a demon at least. But really, he was like nothing I had seen before.

  This creature was deathly pale, dressed in a plain black, short sleeved shirt and dark leather pants. He held no weapon nor wore any armor. What was truly terrifying about him though was its face. There appeared to be no eyes in its dark sockets, and from the holes leaked what looked to be a dark tar like substance.

  I jumped when its head turned swiftly my way, eyeless sockets locked on me. Its emotionless face suddenly split into a truly disturbing grin, its teeth black as night and the same tar like gunk trailing down its chin from broken blue lips. It looked like a freaking corps filled with tar and dripping wet. And now that dead body was grinning at me. I shivered in disgust.

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  "The mana is strong in you." It said, its voice like an echoed death gargle. I felt bile rise into my mouth. Its head jerked to the other three queens present before cocking in an animal like way. "It flows well in you as well."

  There was a second of pained silence as the monster leered at us, with a hunger I could not understand, its head twisted in that unnatural way. Then, with no farther word or even a sound, it appeared to rise up. It took me a second to see that he was not levitating, but standing on something that was lifting him up, up, up. Way up into the foggy air, past even Rougier's great height, till it faded back into the murky fog.

  I almost sighed in relief, just to have it away from me, when it spoke again. Just one word before all hell broke loose. "Feed."

  There was the sound of rushing air, making me think, for an instant, that Rougier had taken to the sky, maybe to chase after the monster. But, my brief glance showed that he had not moved. Not till that moment at least, as his head whipped my way with a roar, and his huge skull and neck slammed into me and the others, sending us all sprawling back into the sand a good fifteen feet back.

  Clearly it was just in time, as a second later what can only be described as a massive tentacle slammed into the dirt right where we had been standing seconds before. At the same moment a horrendous screech filled the air, causing me to cover my ears and curl into the fetal position in the dirt. The tentacle was dragged back into the deeps as I scrambled to my feet, shoving mana to the others and hoping that the rush of It would pull those still frozen in the clutches of the Call out of their stupor.

  Getting to my feet I spun in a circle looking for my people as well as my bow that went flying from my hand. A coughing Kieran was at my side in an instant, his dark hair and face caked in sand and in his hands were his two swords. "There." He said, using one to point into the sand at our feet. I grunted when I saw my bow that was usually a stick was sticking, half buried in the sand at my feet. Good to know that even a blow from a dragon didn't snap it.

  A flurry of cursing to my right had my eyes jumping there where I saw Pasha hefting herself out of the dirt, using Shinra's shoulder to help her up. "Lidia!" She shouted, while simultaneously checking her gear.

  "Here." Groaned another voice and the large blonde with the axe and braid stumbled out of the fog, a gash above her eye. "I have Lady Cinder and Lady Darcious but I can not find the other Reihee."

  Pasha was about to say something but another roared warning from Rougier distracted us all. "In coming!"

  Both Pasha and Kieran grabbed one of my shoulders and we dove head long back into the sand.

  "damn it!" I snarled, well and truly sick of eating dirt sandwiches now. I lifted my head out of the dirt to see that Shinra had latched on to the huge tentacle, her saber fangs embedded deep and her back claws raking away at its slimy flesh, splattering the sand with thick, black blood.

  The creature screamed again, and as it snatched its appendage back, Shinra released it and dashed to my side. "You need to get away Mistress." She hissed, fur wet and sticky from blood and sludge. "You are not made for this kind of fight. That is what we are for."

  I groaned, wanting to argue but knowing she spoke the truth. I was nothing but a liability here, on the front line. I needed to get some distance where I could cast support spells for my tames and send out my great mana stores to aid the rest of our people, many of whom I could hear fighting out in the mist.

  "Get on Rougier." Growled Kieran. "His flame is just as useful as his claws and he can keep you out of range while he torches this beast."

  It galled but I did not want to be the reason anyone died, so I complied. With Shinra, Kieran, Pasha and Lidia at my side we rushed to where Rougier had been. The fog was now so thick that I could barely see a foot in front of my nose. If Darcious and Cinder were with us I had no clue. I definitely could not see them.

  "Rougier!" Called out Kieran, a hand on my elbow, clearly not wanting me to fall behind.

  "Here!" There dragon called back from some where farther to the left. We turned and it was only a second before I saw one of his stony purple legs. 'Get her on my back! I can do nothing down here except squish demons."

  Another tentacle fell near us but I couldn't see it, just feel the impact of it in the sand. I wasted no time getting up onto Rougier's back, all the while pushing my mana out to whom ever was near by. It was not elegant nor efficient but it was all I could manage at the moment.

  "Shinra, stay with Kieran." I called down to the tiger. Apparently I could not see the ground at this height through the fog but I heard her answer in the affirmative. I wanted to wish them luck but it some how felt like it would be a jinx, and so I reluctantly held my tongue. Being afraid for another person, weather they be two footed or four footed, was not an emotion I was accustomed to, and I found I didn't like it one bit.

  Rougier wasted no time lifting off into the air and I clutched my bow, praying that we would not fly head first into what ever it was that belonged to those damn tentacles. It took a good five heavy flaps for Rougier to clear the scummy fog and for us to break through into the sea green skies. I leaned over his side and couldn't see anything but the tops of mountains. The fog had completely obscured everything.

  I clutched tighter to my dragon, as he tilted to the side and drifted toward the center of the lake, where he began circling.

  "I can not see a thing." He rumbled.

  "Me either..." I closed my eyes and tried to feal for the sickly mana flows, but felt next to nothing besides the hum of the dragon beneath me. Without my feet planted on the ground it was hard to feel the mana around me, much less so far away. "I think it's right below us." I said. "Its hard to tell, but it feels grossest here."

  "As good as a direction as I am going to get at this point." He huffed and I felt as much as heard him in hale a deep breath, before opening that great maw and belching forth a torrent of greasy blue flames down toward the lake. I really hoped it was the lake, and he was not about to torch a goodly portion of our small army.

  I watched as the blue flames disappeared into the brown fog. I was at a loss for what had happened at first, thinking that Rougier had missed after all, then there was another scream that nearly had me falling off the dragons back. He had to have at least angered the monster. That seemed to be the case when a tentacle as thick around as Rougier him self came exploding out of the fog, nearly clipping one of the dragon's wings before disappearing back into the fog.

  "What the hell is it?" I snapped, frustrated in how useless I was. All I could imagen was the old Earth tales of a Kraken, the great squid that could sink whole war ships into the ocean.

  "How am I supposed to know?" Growled the dragon, now making sure that he was not in the same spot for any length of time. "Do I look like a good swimmer to you?"

  I cursed into the wind. Did he not once brag to me that dragons were fantastic swimmers? I supposed that was an irrelevant argument at the moment though. "I don't think anyone down their can take it on... its too big."

  Rougier snorted. "The Queens gave me a good run and I am big. But yes, I feel that I will be needed in this fight, but what am I supposed to do when I can't see what it is I am supposed to be killing?"

  And there was also that creepy man. Where had he gone? I had a sinking suspicion that this fight would not be won until he was dead and gone too, even if this squid monster was the immediate threat.

  'Well, we are not getting anything done here." Said the dragon. "I'm going to make passes, blasting it with fire. At the very least we may anger it enough to keep it off the breakable demons."

  'Alright."

  "Hold tight."

  Rougier immediately dove down, opening his maw once again, and spilling blue flames as he spread his wings, taking us across the surface of the fog. We did not hear another scream which led me to believe that he had missed this time. But Rougier was not going to give up. We rose to the sky once again before twisting his body more elegantly than I would have believed possible of the rocky lizard, and diving back toward the ground. This time we went right into the fog before Rougier spit out his fire, the blue lighting up the muck in eerie colors. Another scream announced a hit and so did the two slimy whips that nearly hit us a second later.

  Again and again we followed this process of diving, torching and rising back to the clouds. It was at about the ninth run that I noticed that the fog was thinning somewhat. It was still there but I could just make out the thing that was attacking us. I couldn't see it clearly but I thought that my initial thought of a Kraken was pretty accurate. It clearly had a massive base that was four times the size of Rougier's and vaguely bulbus shaped. I couldn't get an accurate count on the number of tentacles but I though that a squid only had a few, and this creature clearly had at least ten.

  "If I can see it, I can kill it." Growled the dragon, and he dove straight for the monster.

  "Rougier, wait!" I screamed, knowing that this sudden clearing of the fog had to be too good to be true.

  Weather he ignored me or he just couldn't hear me over the howling of the wind, Rougier did not halt his dive. His jaw creaked open and he spewed forth yet another torrent of flame. But as I feared, the monster seemed to be expecting it, and before Rougier could lift back into the sky he was struck by one of the creatures many legs. After all, if we could see better, then it would stand to reason that it could make us out too.

  Rougier snarled and tried to get himself back into the air but his wing would not bend right. Before we fell too far, however, another of the tentacles flew up, and this time it wrapped itself around the dragon, just behind where I sat, pinning one of the wings to his side. The dragon roared its displeasure and blasted the main body with flames again. But the beast did not scream this time. Instead the thing lifted us up higher, and closer to the center of itself, like Rougier weighed no more than a pebble.

  "It is easier to block your flames when I can see them coming." Said a clear and greasy voice. I gasped as the thinning fog shifted and I saw the creepy no eyed man standing on the head of the creature which I now saw was a pale, anemic brown color. The man narrowed his eye sockets on us, as if he actually could see through them. "You are an enigma." He said calmly to me, like we were enjoying a pleasant brunch conversation and not hovering above a sickly lake in the clutches of some kind of squid beast. "Where are you from? Not this world I think. You have a different smell about you."

  "A bit rude aren't you?" I snapped, fear making me mouthy. Rougier was wriggling in the creatures grasp and appeared to be in pain. Maybe his wing was broke.

  "Perhaps. I have no care about what is considered polite amongst your kind. Even learning this language was distasteful, but was deemed necessary." He made another of those bird like head tilts, black liquid oozing from his sockets and his ears. "this was supposed to be hilariously easy, if not lengthy. Yet here I find you, and your putrid lizard. I admit that I am curious. It is not often that our plans go astray. If you want to call this minor inconvenience anything at all."

  "Who are you?!" I snapped angerly, reaching back and slamming my fist into the springy flesh holding Rougier. 'What is it you want?"

  "I am nobody." He said silkily, smiling like I was an amusing squirl. "Just the mouth piece of this singular operation. I also want nothing."

  "Then why are you here?" I was breathing heavily but finally remembered that I had scary sharp claws and proceeded to slice at the skin but I didn't even get it to turn red. It was the first time that my claws hadn't been able to pierce flesh.

  "To fulfil a purpose of course. Is that not why all beings exist? Or is that, too, different for your kind? Are you created for no reason at all? It would explain much, I have to admit. Your kind has always seemed pointless and directionless to mine. A waste of good space. But you do make fore a hearty meal."

  The man took a step forward and reached out a pale hand causing Rougier to roar his displeasure. This creeper did not even flinch. Rougier might as well have been an ant under a boot for all the attention this guy paid to him. I tried to dodge his touch but I had no where to go without falling off Rougier. In the end that may have been preferable to experiencing those cold clammy fingers on my flesh but I was not about to leave my dragon alone and in the hands of this beast.

  "You fairly hum with mana. Its scent is quite intoxicating. You also can withstand my touch without falling ill." He said like I was an interesting bug. 'Fascinating." But rather than continue his nasty petting, the man stepped back and I breathed a sigh of relief. "Now, I must kill you. I have a job to do, you see, and you are in my way. But the mana of you and your pet will be excellent fuel for my companion. Farewell, strange mana creature."

  With neck snapping speed the squid yanked us away from its body and the creepy male on its head. I screamed and clung to Rougier for my life, eyes watering and muscles aching. The dragon snarled and let out another blast of fire but snapped his mouth shut when it was apparent that he was gonna torch me more than the creature holding us captive.

  I watched in horror as it brought us down, down, toward what could only be described as a pit of horror. This was definitely not a squid. It was squid shaped but now that we were nearer and the fog had thinned I saw that it was covered in spines and it was also pulling us toward a huge slit near where it entered the water. The slit seemed to peel open to reveal uncountable rows of spiky teeth oozing with the same black gunk that had been leaking out of the man above. The stench of its breath was indescribable in its vomit inducing vapors nature. I gagged and cried as it dragged us nearer and nearer. Showing that the large Rougier would hardly be a two bite snack to this creature.

  I clawed at the binding around my dragon but it would not give, making me choke on my desperate tears. I slammed my fist on It but it still had no effect.

  "Jump!" Rougier roared, doing his best to buck me off of him and into the nasty water below.

  "No!" I screamed back, hiccoughing and desperately trying not to vomit in the stench.

  Rougier made a high pitched screaming sound that I hoped never to hear again. And the maw grew ever closer.

  I had just given us up for lost, and sent a prayer out to what ever god may be watching, that what was left of mine would be kept safe, when there was a horse and semi-deranged shout from behind. Startled, my head whipped around, and to my endless shock, I saw none other than Kieran running along one of the tentacles, dark scaled sword in hand with the deep obsidian stone in its pommel gleaming in the sun light. He jumped from the tentacle, thin wings spread wide, and dove at the one holding Rougier. His sword flashed then sliced through the springy flesh like it had been made of water. I gasped, wide eyed, as me and my dragon were sent plunging toward the lake.

  The squid screeched in a high pitch as its stub sprouted black blood over us all. I saw Kieran's desperate face, a hand extended, as he tried to get me out of the sky. Our fingers almost touched but then another tentacle came out of no where and I went careening in another direction.

  "No!" I heard my butler shout.

  I fell into the lake having no clue as to the fate of my dragon, nor that of the man who had just saved both of our lives.