Moonlight Demon

Keiko

Earlier

As the Zayama stood outside of a building with a sign depicting a mortar and pestle, she wiped away some sweat off her forehead as she looked up at it. 

Is this it?  She wondered as citizens passed behind her on the street, not paying Keiko any mind. Here goes nothing. 

She opened the door and quickly brought a hand up to her nose, as a foul odor reached her nostrils almost instantly. 

Spread out throughout the room were several shelves carrying flasks filled with different colored liquids, all of different shapes and sizes. At the back of the room was a boy, stirring a giant black pot while casually reading a book at the same time. He seemed young, and kind of air-headed, from what Keiko could tell. 

He looked up and blinked when he saw her as Keiko walked forwards. She cleared her throat and tried her hardest to ignore the terrible smell as she approached him. 

"Hello, is there a Madam Tyl here?" She asked politely. 

For a couple of seconds, the boy just looked at her with wide eyes. 

"Excuse me?" Keiko raised a brow. 

"O-Oh, uh, madam!" He called out, blushing a little. "Madam!" 

"What is it!?" A short, green-haired woman walked from a door at the back. 

"Uh, we've got a customer," he muttered, going back to his book, though Keiko could tell he was sneaking glances at her. 

"Yeah, well, what is it?" The woman huffed as she walked up to Keiko, with her hands on her hips.

Keiko opened her mouth to speak but was immediately interrupted. 

"Speak up!" She said. "I haven't got all day. Gods damn it all, between the dragon sightings and the concerns over potential demon invasions, I've got orders now! I'm busy, so what do you want?" 

"... Well, sorry, but-" 

"Sorry? Sorry!? Apologizing just takes more time away! Get to it already!" She spoke quickly, without even taking a breath. 

Getting the message, Keiko nodded. 

"I would like to know if there's anything that can be done about... pregnancy." 

At that, the boy's eyebrows shot up and the woman whistled as she paused for a second. 

"Hm..." She finally slowed down a bit. "I see. No. The answer's no. Have a good day." 

She said, before turning around and walking back into the room where she'd come from before, all in an instant. Keiko blinked. 

"U-Um, excuse me!" She called out. "Are you sure?" 

"Yes, now go away," the woman answered from the other side of the door, although, her tone didn't sound particularly honest to Keiko's ears. It sounded more like she wanted to be left alone. 

So, Keiko balled up her hands into fists and walked up. 

"Please, don't bother the-," the boy said before Keiko knocked hard on the door, twice. 

"Excuse me!" Keiko called out. "But, I'm not going away!" 

At that, the door opened and the woman emerged again. 

"What part of 'the answer's no' did you not get? It's not possible, move on!" 

Keiko narrowed her eyes at the alchemist. 

"I was told by the court sorcerer at the Arcane's manor that it was." 

At that, the woman stopped. She stared hard at Keiko, with eyes that let the Zayama know she wasn't happy to hear that. 

"Alys, eh?" She sighed. "Shit. Listen, it's more trouble than it's worth, don't bother." 

"At least tell me about it so that I understand," Keiko said. 

"... Fine. Come in here," she gestured for Keiko to follow as she walked back into her room. Steeling her nerves, Keiko did just that.

The backroom the two of them went into was small but absolutely packed with a variety of different strange mechanisms, and almost as many of those flasks as there was outside. Tyl walked over to a desk and sat down behind it. Here, she quickly pulled a book out from a drawer and searched through its pages until she found what she was looking for, all while Keiko looked around at the strange things on the shelves. 

"This," Tyl said, as she tapped her index finger against a drawing of a glass bottle filled with a blue liquid. "This is what Alys is talking about. It's a potion called 'Mist Eye', that terminates pregnancies. I won't get into the bitter details of how it works, but simply put, you drink this, you take a piss, you fight through the pain, you go to sleep, you wake up the next day, and the pregnancy is gone, and dealt with. However," she closed the book, "the ingredients that you need are simply too difficult to acquire." 

"What are they?" Keiko asked. 

"Three things, in addition to some more common ingredients that I've got here in the store. First, you need a dragon's eye, second, you need a sand reaver's claw, and finally, you need a mistborn flower," she said, as she looked at Keiko expectantly. "Now, do you get it? It's impossible!" 

"... Well, I know what a dragon is, but... What about the other two? I've never heard of those things before." 

"... You're an outsider?" Tyl asked. "No wonder you're still sitting here. Well, listen, a sand reaver is a kind of monster, a creature bigger than this building that lives in the desert south of the city. They're massive and can swallow up entire carts in one gulp after they've shredded everything in sight first with their claws. And, then, you have the mistborn flower. As its name implies, you'd need to get one of these from a place called the Mist Realm, do you at least know what that is?" 

Keiko shook her head. 

"Okay, listen, the Mist Realm is a place west of the city where reality itself is distorted and some of the strongest creatures in the entire world can be found there. There is never a good reason to head into that place unless you just want to die, of course, and this flower of yours can only be found smack-dab in the middle of it. So, get it?" Tyl asked.

Keiko looked down, internalizing all of this information she'd received while Tyl continued. 

"It's not possible. Even if you could find one of these, finding all three would take a lifetime to do! Dragons are extremely rare, sand reavers are extremely dangerous, and I can count on one hand the number of people I've met who have gone into the Mist Realm and survived. So, let it go, kid. It's more trouble than it's worth." 

After hearing all of that, Keiko walked out of the shop with her shoulders slumped. She hadn't expected the acquisition of this potion to be easy, but Tyl was right. This seemed like suicide to even attempt to get. 

However, if anyone could do it, it was her, and her group. She knew that much, at least. Ash, herself, was stronger at this point than most things in the whole world were. So, she decided to let her know as soon as she came back from her trip, and settled on that as she walked back to the Arcane's Manor. 

----

Ash

"So, what happened?" Ash asked as she and the dragon-like woman sat down across from each other. The woman was sitting on a boulder next to the wounded dragon, while Ash was sitting on the ground.

It had been a few minutes since the two of them had fought, and right now, Sinneah was caring for the wounded dragon, who still had a divine arrow sticking out of it from when Ash had shot it before, accidentally. By now, Ash had explained to them that she was only half a demon, and they had accepted that answer, as strange as it was, hence why they weren't fighting anymore. 

"Who are you? Why are you here?" Ash asked. She still hadn't understood what she'd walked in on. 

The dragon breathed out slowly, as the woman kept a hand placed on its head. She looked over at Ash and then looked back at the dragon as she began speaking. 

"Gurron and I were resting, north of the Grey Place. In the night, a swarm of demons attacked us. Normally," she said as she continued to look down at her dragon friend with worry, "we can deal with them easily, but... That time, they injured Gurron and we had to run. We flew until Gurron lost his strength, and we had to land. Then, you came, and we fought." 

"... Forgive Sinneah for her assumptions," the dragon said then, without moving its mouth, and yet Ash could hear him clearly. "She did not know you were human. Neither did I, for that matter." 

Ash shook her head, as she failed to understand this. 

"But, what is this? What am I looking at right now? How did you two meet? How are you friends with a dragon?" Ash asked her. 

"I do not understand what you ask," Sinneah replied. "All I know is I have been with Gurron all my life. Now, please, cease your questions," the woman said. "Gurron needs to rest in silence." 

"Haha," the dragon chuckled. "Do not be concerned. My wounds will heal soon, and we will take to the skies again in no time." 

Ash thought of something and stood up, walking over to them. 

"I could just heal him up right now, you know? Like I did with you," Ash shrugged. 

"I appreciate the sentiment," Gurron said, "but it would not be effective." 

"Why?" 

"Magic has no effect on dragons," Sinneah replied for him. "Your healing magic would simply be wasted." 

"Conserve your energy, half-demon," Gurron told her, "I will be fine. I just need rest." 

"... But, okay," Ash shook her head, "dragons can talk? Why haven't I, or anyone, heard of this before?" 

"Half-demon, do not annoy-" 

"It is fine, child," Gurron interrupted her, "these are valid things to be curious about," the dragon said before turning his eyes onto her. "Not all of us can. Most of us, in fact, cannot. There is your answer." 

"... So how did you learn to talk?" 

"Hm... How long ago was it?" The dragon pondered. "I had met someone. Someone who wore armor just as bright as yours, half-demon. We had fought, and both nearly killed each other... but in me, she saw something, and she let me live. This was before I had any-" he coughed, a bit of blood slipping down onto the ground from his snout, "-any knowledge of humans. She saw something in me though and refused to end my life. From that moment on, she and I were inseparable. She taught me about you, your species, the gods who created this world, and how to speak your language. I've been roaming the world ever since then, wondering if I would ever meet anyone else like that." 

"..." Ash looked down.  What kind of weird mess did I just walk into?  Seriously, this is all like something I'd hear some old delusional homeless guys back at Jade talk about at night. But, it's real. 

"Do you feel better?" Sinneah asked the dragon as she caringly ran her hand over its scales. 

"... Yes, child. Maybe, it would be best if you got yourself some rest though. Do not be concerned with..." 

As he spoke, however, Ash heard something.

It sounded like a faint, rapid series of clicks. She'd heard something like this before, at night, when she and her group had been camping out in the open, but she'd never thought much of it.

Sinneah replied to him while Ash stood up, and looked out into the glowing trees from where she'd walked in originally. 

... Something's here.  She thought as the sounds got closer, and the dragon woman noticed her, looking toward the trees as well. 

"Do you hear that?" Ash asked. 

"..." Sinneah growled as she walked forwards. "Enemies."

And just as Sinneah muttered that word, three figures emerged from the trees. 

They had onyx-black, smooth skin and long, branch-thin limbs with no hands or feet, instead, ending in sharp edges. Their heads were spherical, with dim blue orbs at the center of their skulls. If it weren't for the glowing bushes around them, Ash felt like she wouldn't even be able to see them, as they were more like shadows than real beings. Their mouths looked like those of insects, and it was from their mandibles that they were producing those clicking sounds. 

Level 50

MP: 90/100

Level 51

MP: 80/90

Level 51

MP: 70/80

... What the fuck?  Ash asked herself as the creatures ran forward.