Blood-Forged

200 and some odd years ago...

Eun’s brow furrowed, “what do you mean seal?”

Uling straightened her spine and raised her chin before answering, “although there haven’t been many demons in the past century my mentor was always certain they’d return in full force and studied their abilities and weaknesses with fervor.” Her eyes drifted away from Eun’s face and she stared at the wall as she spoke. Her lips quirked downwards in a grimace when she mentioned her mentor. “I suspect the leader, this Lord of Demons, to be an Immortal Demon. A subspecies of demon that are nigh impossible to kill so sealing him may be our only option.”

“And how do you seal him?”

From her long flowing sleeves the soothsayer Uling produced a pure white flute. “He needs to be weakened and held in place and then I just need to play a spell.” She twirled the flute then slipped it back in her sleeve.

Over to the side Ves’hil’n sat in a chair with his feet folded under him, likely getting the cushion dirty with his shoes. His knees bounced rapidly like flapping butterfly wings as he slouched over with his chin in his hands, clearly not paying any attention to the conversation. But when the soothsayer produced the flute from her sleeve and mentioned spells, he perked up with eyes wide. He sat up straight and asked, “will you show us some magic?”

The woman who had just put her flute away turned to look at Ves’hil’n with an unreadable expression on her face, “what... kind of magic would you like to see Your Highness.”

Ves’hil’n pressed his lips together into a thin line and furrowed his brow, “you said you can heal, right?”

Uling raised an eyebrow and tilted her head to the side, “...yeah?”

Ves’hil’n reached for Blood-Forged where it rested against his chair. Suspecing what he was about to do, Ka’shin’lai frowned and started to ask in a low voice, “what are you-?”

At the same time, Eun, knowing what Ves’hil’n planned to do stepped forward and scolded in a harsh tone, “Ves’hil’n!”

But neither brother nor teacher was fast enough to stop Ves’hil’n from drawing his blade and cutting deep into his own forearm.

Kliali exclaimed, “shit!” and even Tejara’s eyes went wide. Eun made it to Ves’hil’n’s side a half second too late. He ripped the sword from Ves’hil’n’s hands and threw it to the ground, “what the hell do you think you’re doing, you fucking idiot!” Tejara’s eyes widened even further hearing Eun yell with such emotion.

Ves’hil’n let his bleeding arm be held up by Eun as he tilted his head and innocently said, “well, if she can’t heal a wound like this then she’s not much use to us, right?”

“That doesn’t mean-!” Eun started to argue but was cut off by a somber melody. He looked back over his shoulder at Uling, who had pulled out her flute again and started playing.

“Whoa!” Ves’hil’n exclaimed and Eun’s head snapped back to him to see the wound stitch closed. Eun wiped away the blood on Ves’hil’n’s arm with his sleeve. When he saw that there wasn’t even a new scar left behind, he sighed and let go of Ves’hil’n’s arm.

Ves’hil’n wiggled in his seat and cheerfully announced, “I’m satisfied!”

Eun pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, “I would like to meet this Xora nobleman now.”