Chapter 1: First Contact
Chapter Text
Abbess Elistine Sarenhilla had awoken to a rather turbulent morning it seemed. It was barely past sunrise and already the door to her chambers was being pounded upon and her name called by several voices. The Abbess sighed as she pulled herself from her silken sheets, taking a moment to stretch and smother a yawn before she rose fully and slipped out of bed. The cold floor on her bare feet made her shiver briefly, idly making her tug her white gown tighter around her body before finally moving to the door to her chambers. In spite of her position as Abbess her chambers weren't all that much larger or more grand than any of the others at the monastery, albeit with some more elaborate furnishings of course. She ran a hand through her mane of pale locks and rolled her shoulders before opening the door.
One of the aforementioned voices calling for her would be the newest of their sisterhood, Sister Amallen, who jumped back slightly as the door finally opened. "Abbess!" She squeaked and folded her hands together, her freckled cheeks twitching into a sheepish forced smile in spite of the stray strands of brunette hair hanging in front of her eyes. "Finally you're awake! I'm so sorry for disturbing your slumber but its an urgent matter! I promise that-" Poor Amallen was rather unceremoniously shoved aside by her mentor, Sister Fazira, who was far more composed and to the point as per usual. "Abbess we need your presence in the chapel as soon as you are dressed." In spite of the Abbess and Sister Fazira being the same age, the latter woman's slightly wrinkled and tanned features did little to hide the silver hair just barely poking out of her habit. The perks of being descended from Elves, an exceptionally long lived youthful visage. Although in truth Elistine didn't care much for her pointed ears, she wouldn't know how she'd avoid unnecessary attention if any of the villagers saw her without her habit as her Sisters did now.
"And, if I may ask, why is it that I am needed so urgently?" The Abbess raised a finger to wipe the sleep from her eye, earning a hard look from Fazira in the process. What her Sister said next brought her pause however, the claws of sleep fading in an instant. "There's been a demon sighting."
Two minutes later Elistine, flanked by Fazira and Amallen, was making her way through the dormitories with her typical long strides. Dressed in her ornate grey robes, trimmed golden of course as befitting an Abbess, any semblance that she had only been awake for a handful of minutes was all but gone. She threw open the doors to the chapel without a break in her stride and set her sights upon the young boy that was being comforted by another of the younger Sisters at the monastery. Sister Ophelia always had a way with children, always the first to volunteer to lead services for the youth of the local village, so it was no surprise that she had been the one left behind to calm the boy. Elistine vaguely recognized the boy from her sermons and visits to the village but his name eluded her for the moment. A son of one of the fur traders if she remembered correctly.
Thankfully she was saved from her guesswork when Ophelia perked up and waved her over, a wide yet strained smile on her face. "See Liam? I told you the Abbess would be right down." Her words soothed the boy somewhat but his face was still stained with tears, cheeks still crimson from crying and catching his breath even as Elistine knelt down in front of him. Were it not for the pew that the boy was sat upon she'd still have to look down on him somewhat but thankfully due to his seat they were eye level now. "Young Liam, its good to see you again." She offered the boy a warm smile and reached out to pat his cheek, idly wiping away a stray tear in the process. "I've heard you had quite a fright this morning." Liam nodded and sniffled but did his best to put on a brave face in front of the group of priestesses. He wasn't very good at it but Ophelia cooed comfortingly at the effort regardless.
"I-I saw a d-demon in the woods!" He finally stuttered out after a few moments of trying to speak. "It had big h-horns like this! A-And it told me to go away! A-And it was leaning over p-pa and-" With a cry the boy buried his face in Ophelia's robes, earning him a gentle rub on his back as the priestesses shared glances. "Liam, Liam please look at me. It's going to be alright." Elistine reached out to stroke the boy's hair, slowly coaxing him to look back at her. "Now, where did you see this demon at?" Liam sniffled again and stuttered out a somewhat muffled response due to still having his head buried against Ophelia's robes. "South of town, p-past the hunting camps and n-near B-Big K-Kinerrak!" The Abbess gave the boy another pat on his cheek before standing and nodding to Ophelia. "He's in your care until I return." Her tone was still gentle for the sake of Liam but it brokered no argument from Ophelia nor the other priestesses.
Without any further delay Elistine made her way out of the monastery and pulled herself onto the steed that Sister Fazira had fetched for her. While the monastery was only a few minutes outside of the village of Kineshire, the hunting grounds stretched further into the valley and indeed to the base of the Kinerrak mountain range itself. If Liam's father was in trouble then she couldn't waste time simply walking there, no matter her personal disdain for travel on horseback. "If I do not return within two hours then send for the village watch and have them follow my path. Don't come after me yourself." Fazira opened her mouth to disagree but a stern look silenced her and forced her to nod instead. The former mercenary had a habit of throwing herself into danger on behalf of her Sisters, even if she hadn't picked up a blade in nearly a decade.
The Abbess set off down the path that led up towards the monastery, sitting atop the lone hill in the center of the valley. Kineshire hadn't yet grown to the base of it and as such the valley's natural thick wooded forest still encircled it. The Order of Luminae had no qualms about the townsfolk living nearby but many villagers had a healthy respect for their monastic lifestyle away from the hustle and bustle of Kineshire. The village had cropped up naturally in the years following the monastery's own construction. Initially formed from those on pilgrimage through the Kinerrak valley and to the monastery itself, their foundations set by bands of hunters and wandering traders who sought to tame the wilderness of the valley and exploit it for themselves. Elistine had watched the trading post grow into the village that it was now from the hilltop monastery with a mixture of caution and acceptance.
The valley was holy ground for any who worshipped Luminae and there were clear sites which could not be disturbed without incurring sin, yet the vast majority of the valley was ripe for settlement. It was only natural that Kineshire had been established really. If nothing else the ease of access to supplies and converts made their Order's lives much less tedious. She still remembered the long trips out of the valley back when Fazira had been a hired hand rather than a devout Sister of the Order, gone for a week at a time just to secure a few months worth of food and utilities. Having Kineshire just down the way certainly saved her poor back from those long wagon rides at least. Elistine snapped the reins to spur her steed into a full gallop as they reached the base of the hill and into the forest proper, down the dirt path that split the otherwise impenetrable trees and shrubs.
A couple of minutes of riding carried her to the hunting camps on the outskirts of the village, still empty at this time of the morning as the hunting parties themselves had yet to return, and past them. Southward towards the base of the mountains she finally spotted something out of the ordinary and slowed the gallop to a stop. Just off the beaten footpaths branching out from the camps was broken shrubs and scratched bark, the marks glinting in the dim light with small rivulets of barely dried blood. The metallic scent hit her nose a moment later as she dismounted and tied the steed to a branch, making sure the knot was secure before moving to the trail. It was carved into the bushes and saplings by trampling and crashing through them, clear signs of some escaping beast and rushed chase. Boot prints pressed into the grass and broken branches, giving her a clear path through the wilderness.
Eventually the trail between the trees gave way to a small clearing, canopied by towering branches and contained by a handful of rocky outcroppings that were overgrown with moss. The Abbess found herself growing still as she stood on the edge of the clearing, her mouth hanging open in shock at the sight before her. A dead boar sat on one side of the clearing with several arrows in its side and a knife stuck in its throat, but the blood on its tusks implied that it hadn't gone down without a fight. Its killer would theoretically be the dark haired man laying on one of the more flatter outcroppings, unconscious and with a bloodied gash torn into the side of his shirt. Yet what might have been a grievous or even fatal wound that would have been the cause of such damage and bloodstaining was seemingly absent.
What shocked the Abbess most however was the figure stood looming over the unconscious hunter.
It was tall, cloaked in dark ornate robes that hid most of its slender frame. It was humanoid yet decidedly too spindly to pass for a human at all, and that was without mentioning the ashen grey tail jutting from the back of its robes or the pair of horns that curled above its head like the dark prongs of a twisted crown. Its hooded head turned to regard the Abbess with five glowing crimson eyes set in an otherwise hooded and hidden face, its clawed hands twitching as it turned towards her fully using its digitigrade legs ending in slim talons. The two stared at one another for what felt like an hour, yet more than likely was only a few moments in reality given how dry her eyes were getting, with its tail flicking and swaying behind its legs. Until finally it spoke. "Greetings, mortal. Fear not-" Unfortunately Elistine didn't hear the rest as her stilled heart beat too quick all at once and her vision faded into darkness, only barely registering her knees hitting the forest floor before she lost consciousness herself.
Chapter 2: Sight for Holy Eyes
Summary:
Abbess Elistine meets the Demon of Kinerrak.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Elistine found herself being rudely roused from her slumber for the second time this day, although this time she wasn't blinking awake to the sight of her familiar ceiling and wooden bedposts. Instead she saw the sunlight filtering into the canopy of leaves over her, mostly obscured by a strange dark shape and red lights that she couldn't discern with her blurred blinks. "Hm. I hope you're not broken like the other one..." The unfamiliar deep voice stirred her from her tired state right into one fueled entirely by adrenaline as she sat up in an instant, catching the figure off-guard. It reared back so as to not be collided with while she shot up, five eyes blinking as though in surprise before it stood from its kneeling. "Oh good, you aren't broken!" Its voice was strange. Layered as though two or three voices had been bound together into perfect unison, deep to the point that its words almost made her ears rumble as they were reached by them.
The Abbess found herself panting as she hauled herself to her feet, one of her trembling hands being thrust into her robes and fumbling around for her necklace. All the while the hooded figure stared at her in what must have been a pause due to her sudden movement. Finally she found the chain around her neck and pulled the amulet from the depths of her robes, the silver and golden inlaid item glinting in the morning sun. As one might expect it was in the shape of Luminae's divine symbol, a sun wreathed in licking flames. "In the name of Holy Luminae I denounce you foul creature!" The hooded figure stilled, flinched even, at her shout but otherwise seemed unbothered. After a long moment it tilted its head slightly to one side, crimson gaze running from the amulet to the trembling features of Elistine.
"Is...is something meant to happen?" She scoffed at its words and presented the symbol again. "Begone demon! I am protected from your wickedness by the light of our goddess!" The demon blinked with all five eyes. Then, without warning and too fast for her to avoid, one of its clawed hands suddenly grabbed hold of her shaking fingers wrapped around the amulet. Its skin was cold to the touch but where its flesh met hers there was an undeniable heat that settled into her skin, as though her fingers were growing flushed alongside her cheeks. "Now you're just being obtuse." Its-his chiding tone made her flush grow all the more prominent and as such Elistine did the only thing she could think of. Her leg snapped up and aimed her foot towards what on any human male would have been his family jewels, and given how when her shoe made contact with something, she assumed that even this demon must have had a similar layout.
An assumption that was confirmed by the breathless gasp the demon made, his eyes going wide and his grip on her hand faltering as he fell forward and clutched the front of his robes. "Dipluz parzid sapil!" His words were unfamiliar to Elistine but she could feel something within her chest sink as she heard them, albeit at the same time something else within her head seemed to flutter just as much. "Luminae will smite you down vile demon!" She used the demon's current state of pain to step back and try to steady her breathing into a more composed form rather than the stuttering huffs that they were coming in now. "The light of dawn will scourge the tainted flesh from your accursed bones and make you beg for forgiveness! She will inflict an eternity of pain upon you and all your wretched ilk!"
"Av haf vuv bfwz las?" The demon hissed as he winced and glared at Elistine, making the Abbess shrink somewhat under his gaze. Even while on his knees they were eye level. "Do not do that again." He grunted as he rose back to his taloned feet, wincing again before holding up a hand as though to halt any further punishment. "There is no need for violence mortal, I mean you no ill will." Elistine clutched her amulet even tighter yet didn't move to strike at the demon again. Mostly out of her own fear of reprisal than anything else, it did tower over her after all and those clawed fingers looked deceptively strong. She could only imagine what it might do to her if it got its hands on her. "As I was saying before you lashed out unnecessarily," The demon all but growled the words before continuing, the rumble making her legs quiver as it shook her from head to toe.
", I still require your aid tending to this other mortal." He gestured to where the unconscious hunter lay on the rock. "He has yet to awaken in spite of his wounds being sealed." The demon let Elistine keep her distance as she slowly, hesitantly, circled around him. His gaze followed her but he made no move to close the gap between them even as she stepped further away from him to stand at the hunter's side. Reluctantly tearing her gaze from the demon, the Abbess let her amulet hang loosely around her neck as she examined the unconscious man. There weren't any wounds that she could see but there were tears and marks in his shirt that should have had left deep cuts and scars, yet there were none to be found. Half of his shirt was stained with his own blood and it looked as though he hadn't been hurt at all in spite of it.
"He's..." Elistine swallowed, forcing her trembling voice to level out. "He's lost a lot of blood. It will take some time for him to recover and awaken...where...where did it all come from?" She looked up to find the demon right where she left him, still standing far apart from her but now with his arms crossed. He nodded towards the dead boar and she did her best not to let her gaze linger on how the light glinted off of his black horns. "That beast would be the culprit. It had more fight in it than he must have thought, he felled it yet it very nearly gutted him in turn." That would certainly make sense given the appearance of the hunter's tattered attire. But that would mean that the demon had...healed him? Before she could properly consider the question he continued. "The little mortal came bounding up after I had begun tending to the hunter. I told the youngling to fetch some help but he just started crying and running off." He shrugged before looking back at Elistine. "I suppose he did heed my order in the end however. And now I shall take my leave, my work here is done."
Elistine should have said something but her throat was dry and no words could make their way out of her mouth. She moved her lips to form them but no sound came even as the demon turned away from her. "Farewell." And with that the demon strode into the brush as if it wasn't thick enough to be considered a form of palisade. His steps had faded from her hearing entirely before the Abbess allowed herself to move again, letting out a shuddering breath before slowly looking back at the unconscious man. After the laborious task of dragging the hunter back to her steed and then struggling to lift him up enough to set him on the horse's back, Elistine gave the trail one last glance before she started to lead the horse back down the path. By the time that the Abbess had led the horse back to the hunting camp some of the other villagers had thankfully returned from their own treks in the forest.
She left the man with his peers but could only placate their questions rather than provide any real answers. She still wasn't quite certain of the situation herself. In the end Elistine excused herself to make her way back to the monastery, but only after requesting for the hunter to be brought to her once he had come around and recovered somewhat. She had some questions for him and it would be better for Liam if he saw his father come to get him firsthand instead of being brought to see him in his unconscious state. The ride back to the monastery was made with no amount of haste at all, rather the Abbess used the solace and silence of the wooded path to reflect and assess. The creature in the forest was undoubtedly a demon. Not only was his-its appearance entirely unknown and foreign to anything that she'd seen before but she could absolutely sense and even see the results of magic.
The ability to use magic had been waning into almost total obscurity since long before Elistine's birth, in decline since the Elves by and large abandoned the continent. These days if one were to believe the tall tales from the capitol only the royal family and a handful of carefully selected bloodlines could still use magic to any meaningful degree. Supposedly those of Elven descent were more likely to have a chance of being magically inclined but Elistine herself had never shown any such signs of course. Yet when she was younger she had been educated on the basics of what magic was and how it would feel, just to see if she could harness it. And that demon was most certainly a demon, no beast could channel magic. Healing up wounds so quickly without any blemishes or scars left behind was simply impossible any other way, not even prayer worked that fast.
This of course circled back to the inevitable and unanswerable question of why a demon would heal an injured man, or indeed why a demon had been present at all. The Kinerrak valley was home to an ancient shrine of Luminae, where the first of Her Enlightened Priests were gathered beneath Her blazing glory to witness the First Solstice. An obelisk had been erected at the site, not far from the hilltop where the Order's monastery stood now. A site that they tended to and upkept to this day of course. As such it was highly improbable for a demon of all things to be here of all places. Everyone knew that all creatures of darkness shied away from the light of Luminae, Her scorn towards those who had betrayed Her so long ago still burning as bright as ever. As it should of course, they were demons after all.
And yet this one demon had been present regardless. Had healed and potentially saved the life of an ordinary human that it had apparently just stumbled across. But why?
Elistine couldn't quite wrap her head around it, not even by the time that she found herself before the gates of the monastery once again. Sister Fazira met her there and relieved her of the horse, silent but with a question burning in her intense gaze. "Liam's father will survive, he's recovering with his fellows as we speak." The Abbess felt her expression twitch into a grimace when her fellow Sister's stare didn't diminish. "There...there was something in the woods. But I don't..." She set her lips into a thin line. "I don't really know what he was." Fazira blinked in surprise, an eyebrow quirking up. "And who is this 'he' Abbess?" Elistine hadn't even realized her slip up, silently cursing herself even as she outwardly maintained a stoic expression. Or what she hoped was a stoic expression at least.
Instead of providing an answer the Abbess clasped her hands together and began quickly making her way back to the monastery proper. "Fetch me whenever the hunter comes to collect his boy, I shall be in the library if you have need of me." She hurried before Fazira could make any more pointed questions, only allowing herself a sigh of relief once she had crossed the threshold into the chapel. The few Sisters which were idly cleaning and dusting the room offered her greetings as she passed them by, giving them each nods and smiles as well as quick words yet she didn't stop to chat at all. Elistine needed to read up on what little knowledge there was regarding demons and she needed to read fast. It wouldn't be long before Fazira or Amallen came to question her about Liam's demon sighting, especially with her slip to Fazira. For now though she had some time to try and find the clarification that she lacked now. It would have to be enough.
Notes:
Translations for the demon language used:
Dipluz parzid sapil!: Damnit mortal woman!
Av haf vuv bfwz las?: As you did just now?
Chapter 3: Required Reading
Summary:
Abbess Elistrine tries to determine the full scope of the threat that the demon might pose to the townsfolk and the Order of Luminae themselves.
Chapter Text
The Order of Luminae's monastic library was far from the most extensive or well stocked, compared to the grand cathedrals or the universities of the capitol and the major trade league cities it might as well have been one bookshelf, but thankfully Elistrine didn't need a wide variety of tomes and records at the moment. All that she needed were two very particular books which she knew that every library dedicated to Luminae would have. The Book of Dawn, the holy book of their faith, and the Scrolls of Noctis, a series of lists and records regarding the demons who had betrayed almighty Luminae and were cursed to be bound to the darkest depths of the world for their sins. Never to see Her glorious light again due to their spurning of Her divine will by attempting to steer Her creations away from the Path of Light.
The Abbess set the Scrolls of Noctis to one side for the moment as she took a seat at the desk in the far corner of the library, next to the window that overlooked the cloisters surrounding the main garden at the rear of the monastery. She flipped open the Book of Dawn and her eyes skimmed over the familiar passages and verses telling the tale of the world's conception. When Luminae in all Her brilliance and generosity looked upon the great stone and showed mercy upon its grey rock by giving it the spark of life. Nourished by Her shining light, She crafted the Fae who would begin seeding the great stone with plants and water. In the wake of the Fae's magic would come the first spirits, coalesced from the energies of creation who would look upon the plants with a manner of jealousy.
They too wished to be physical and populate the great stone and so they formed themselves into bodies. These bodies would become the beasts that would walk, crawl, fly, swim, slither, and climb their way across the great stone. Yet some of the spirits were much wiser than their kin whom became animals, for they had watched the Fae work and knew of the divinity of Luminae. And so these spirits beseeched the Fae for forms of their own and for their wisdom they were granted bodies which could walk upright unlike the other creatures of the great stone, these would be the Elves. The Elves began to build settlements all across the great stone, coming to call it Saxum and paying homage to the Fae by sending their firstborn to be instructed by them in the ways of magic. Luminae looked upon the Elves of Saxum and their pious lives and was overjoyed to share Her light with them, yet She pitied the animals which could not join with the towns of the Elves.
While the spirits which became the beasts had done so without the guidance of the Fae and thus the guidance of Her servants, their strength of will and determination in deciding their own fate was admirable. As such Luminae commanded that the Fae should uplift some of the animals, to give them the blessings of intelligence and society as they had done for the Elves. Some of the Fae disagreed with Her command however. To them the spirits who had made their own forms had gone against Her will by doing so. They shouldn't be granted pity, they should be punished for reaching beyond their station without the guidance of Luminae and Her servants. So whilst the Fae uplifted some of the beasts into what would come to be known as humans, these vengeful Fae would poison the minds and bodies of the ones that they uplifted.
Disease would take root within these tainted humans, eventually expressing itself either as plagues and sickness or as malicious intent and twisted morals. These tainted humans would be the first to create war and conflict, seeking to kill their fellow humans and the Elves which they jealously looked upon for their apparent immunity to illness and resistance to the aging which withered the imperfect bodies of humanity at a much faster rate due to their origins as self-made beasts. Luminae watched Her creations devolve into war in horror and disgust, calling forth the Fae who had hated and tainted humanity to stand trial for their crimes. They expressed their desire to punish the unworthy and for such a callous and vile wish She gave them a punishment instead. She made their forms reflect their wicked desire and cast them out of Her eternal light to live amongst the mortals that they so despised, hoping that they would learn to understand humanity and the beasts and accept them as She and the other Fae did. But these corrupted, fallen Fae grew vengeful of Luminae for their exile. They saw themselves as above the mortals, Elves included, not seeing it fit that they should be expected to learn anything from them. Instead they orchestrated a wicked scheme to prove to the other Fae and their creator that She was wrong in Her judgement.
They rallied as much of humanity as they could to their banners, tainted and pure alike, and filled their heads with lies of their power. They forced the humans to kneel and bow and worship them as gods instead of Luminae, making them craft icons and cities meant purely to mock and spite the true goddess. As their final act of treachery they even went so far as anchor the other great stone, that which rose in place of the shining light of Luminae's sun to offer respite to the beasts and mortals, over Her rightful place in the sky. They labeled the stone as Nox and with it blocking Luminae's greatest gift the Long Night began, where the fallen Fae wielded their armies of humans against the righteous Fae and their Elves as well as those humans who remained loyal to the light.
This sacrilege and the spilling of blood both mortal and Fae sent Luminae into a great despair. She wallowed and cried and mourned for an age while the mortal armies laid waste to one another and the Fae inflicted death upon each other for the first time. Eventually though, She ran out of tears to spill and Her endless compassion bled into a just fury. Her light bloomed into an all-consuming blaze. She wrenched away Nox and put it back in its place before casting the fallen Fae low and declaring them to be demons forevermore, damning them to never join with Her bountiful light ever again. Riding the waves of Her inferno the Elves and Fae struck down the bastions of the demons one by one, sparing few of their foes as their goddess's blinding wrath had banished any such notions for some time. The demons watched their dark empire crumble, many of them being slain in the process, before Luminae herself bound them to the Depths. Far below the surface that Her light nourished and shone upon, where no life could take root and none of Her blessed glow would ever reach.
As the last of the demons were driven from the surface of Saxum however, Luminae's fury finally calmed and Her sorrow returned to fill its place. The greatest mortal cities had been ravaged and ruined, the overall population of the world having been reduced to a quarter of what it had been before the Long Night. Humanity were the most effected by the war, divided and squabbling amongst themselves even without the demons to guide and encourage conflict between themselves. As such Luminae had Her loyal Fae gather several of the wisest and most prominent of the humans to a clearing within a valley where one of the sieges of the war had been fought. There, with the humans gathered at the base of a pillar that had once been a load bearing piece of a large palace, She shone the First Solstice and declared them to be the Enlightened Priests. They would shepherd and guide their fellow mortals on the Path of Light, to right the wrongs of the Long Night and wipe away the false faiths installed by the demons. Yet those humans bearing exceptional taint within their beings or whom had directly served the demons and learned from them persisted even after the First Solstice.
While the Enlightened Priests inscribed the teachings of Luminae and Her Path of Light onto the pillar, now known as the Blessed Obelisk which the Order of Luminae were devoted to tending to, these warlocks managed to work the gift of magic to call forth the weakest demons back from the Depths. Summoning them and in doing so creating dark spirits which would be bound into pale facsimiles of the true fallen Fae. These warlocks and their demonic masters stuck magical pacts to skirt around the notice of Luminae and Her Fae, using everything from possession of mortal flesh to summoning rituals in forgotten places and ruins hidden from Her light. In some instances they even crafted gateways which allowed free access to the Depths for demons strong enough to claw their way through them. A second Long Night appeared to be looming until the Fae finally discovered the existence of these foul warlocks and their dark magic.
The Fae sent humanity and Elves against the warlocks and the demons once more, and these battles and combatants would be recorded in what was now known as the Scrolls of Noctis. The demons were banished back to the Depths wholesale and their warlocks would be destroyed almost entirely, at least the most overt of them would be. Many of them who were clever enough to see their impending doom turned instead to the arts of subterfuge and manipulation. They embedded themselves within mortal society and did their vile deeds even as the last strongholds of the warlocks burned. For the decades to come they would stir strife and chaos within humanity, eventually causing the Fae to lose faith in mortals as a whole. One by one the Fae departed Saxum and returned to dwell within the Court of Luminae, sharing in Her sorrow over the mortal world.
Elistrine sat back with a sigh and rubbed her eyes as she stopped the reading past the first half of the Book of Dawn. The rest was composed of lessons, sermons, and verses detailing the Path of Light and how it was the duty of all mortals to follow it in order to reignite the faith of the Fae and rid Luminae of Her mourning as well as to be wary of any deceivers and temptations which could and more than likely were the work of the vile demons and their minions. Of course she was more than familiar with the origin of the world and the history of their faith, but she had been hoping to glean some otherwise overlooked information regarding demons. Something, anything to explain the demon that she had met in the forest earlier that day. Yet within the Book of Dawn there was nothing clear or specific, and so she instead turned to the Scrolls of Noctis.
As she moved to unfurl the first of the scrolls however, the door to the library was suddenly thrown open and her gaze snapped towards it. Sister Fazira stood in the doorway with a neutral expression on her matured features yet the intense look in her eyes hadn't diminished at all in spite of the hours since their last meeting. "Abbess, the hunter has arrived at the gates. He awaits your presence." Elistrine frowned at the news and looked down at the scroll in her hand before sighing and setting it back down. It would have to wait until she returned she supposed. "I will be down to meet with him in a moment, have Ophelia keep Liam in the dormitory until I send for them. I wish to discuss some things with our guest and his son has no need to hear of them"