Night Lords

Part II Chapter 6

Part II Chapter 6

When the poison left me, and then the sun went down, all five of us left. Greatorex, Brett and Tasha went to the quarry to try and speak to Lowry and to Sir Fortescue. Max and I ventured back to the forest to try and converse with the earth deemons again. Max waited by the edge of the forest. He shifted his weight, seeming agitated, but he didn't say anything, which I was grateful for.

The forest creaked from the winds at the top of the canopy, and I heard every rustle of nocturnal animals and birds that were making their nightly rounds, scavenging for food. Carefully entering their domain, I only took several steps into the shield of the trees when I felt the familiar prickling on my skin.

I knelt on the ground and stared ahead. 'I have come back, as I said I would,' I spoke into the bushes. 'As I have said before, I wish to speak with you. I have an idea what the Night Lord from the small town has offered you, but I can offer you something better. I can-' I stopped as I saw several pairs of yellow eyes staring at me from the bushes and trees ahead of me. 'I am unarmed,' I told them. 'Please, speak with me. I am the own spawn that can.'

Three of them, all earth Deemons, carefully came out into the open, though they stayed out of arms reach. 'You know you are spawn?' one asked. The other two hit it and pushed it out of the way, chiding it for asking such a stupid question.

'Why are you here?' One of them asked. 'Who sent you? Was it that spawn from the quarry?'

'He is called Lowry. And no, he did not send me. Me and my group came here from across the ocean. We wish to live here and take up residence.'

One of the earth Deemons screeched in a strange way, and I noticed a few others copied it. Was this a form of laughter? 'Wandering spawn do not take up residence anywhere. No village will take you round here.' A few more Deemons came out from the shadows and nodded in agreement.

I glanced around me and counted fifteen more. This was a rather large nest of earth Deemons. Though I did not see any other Deemons around, perhaps it was just elsewhere in the world where elemental Deemons were in cahoots with one another while these earth Deemons remained separate from the other elements. 'We do not want to join a village or a town. We simply wish to live in one, alone and unbothered.'

The three of them frowned. 'Unheard of,' one of them spat.

I sighed and said gently, 'Surely, the fact you are speaking to me is also unheard of?' Its eyes shifted to the others; none could argue what I had just said. 'As I have assumed, Lowry, that spawn, has offered you ill humans in the quarry. As long as you kill them, you will leave the town alone, is that correct?'

A few of them nodded. 'Yes,' one of them said. 'The spawn made crude drawings to tell us what it wanted. We have agreed, but we do not like it.'

'No, we do not like it at all!' Another growled.

'Lowry is manipulating you for his own gain.' I told them, knowing full well it would piss them off. 'He does not want his town to grow and adapt to the technologies of today. We do not stop progress. Because we live as long as we do, we must adapt. Lowry does not want to adapt.'

'If you do not adapt, you die!' one Deemon said, and a few jeered in support.

I waited until they had settled before I finished with, 'We are dealing with Lowry. We have no quarrel with you for killing those humans. I know for a fact; you only kill humans who are ill or dying.' Several of them frowned. 'But I wish you to obtain your freedom so you do not have to deal with Lowry again.'

'We have our freedom!' one snapped. 'We go as we please!'

Behind me, I heard Max tell me to hurry up. 'It is not freedom if he is manipulating you, is it? So, I put this to you. Move to a place secluded from humans, near the cliffs. You have more earth there than you do here. There are no Deemons of any element there. You must understand if you kill more humans than Lowry has given you, he will torch the forest, and all of this will be gone. He is that evil; he would do that, though he has not said that, I am sure he would. As we must, in this life, and as you have so eloquently put it, adapt or die. The quarry now belongs to the humans. That is their adaption to the advancement over time.'