Chapter 9 - First Day

Ashe woke up in the forest yet again, he looked around and didn't see anything out of the usual dead-looking trees. He stood up and started waiting for his supposed guide.

"Welcome back," a raspy and deep voice said behind him.

Ashe turned around to see the voice's origin. As expected a large owl creature towering over him was now looking straight at him.

"Let's go somewhere… more secluded." It said while walking off into the forest.

Ashe followed suit and tried to start a conversation with the creature, he was still a little scared of it because of its large size and alien behavior.

"Hey, so is hell just a giant forest?"

"We call it Hevell, and no. You even saw the dunes, no?"

"I guess I forgot, sorry but could…." Ashe started saying but was quickly interrupted by the creature.

"This land has thousands of years of history, and I'm not wasting my breath on someone who hasn't accepted the deal."

The creature quickly shut down Ashe's questions. Now they were walking in silence if you could even call what the creature was doing walking. With its feather-like cloak covering it completely it looked as if it was floating rather than walking.

Ashe noticed how the terrain was slowly becoming rockier, and he found himself climbing up the rocks a lot more. The creature was almost slithering across vertical surfaces and sometimes helped Ashe with the climb.

As the terrain became more challenging to climb Ashe finally heard something from his guide.

"We finally made it. I hope that wasn't too tough for you." The voice had no emotion, but Ashe felt as if the comment wasn't made with compassion.

The creature moved towards another rock but this time it extended multiple limbs from beneath its cloak. Lifting the rock was no trouble for it, it held the rock in the air and looked at Ashe.

"Get in." It said.

Ashe was confused, he walked over to it and saw a small hole beneath the rock. Looking back at the creature for an explanation, all he got was a stare. He dropped down the hole, it felt like a rough slide but at the end instead of a dark cave, he saw a very well-decorated little room. It was carved in the ground with lots of wooden furniture, flooring, and shelves. Behind him a head slithered through the hole, the creature could only fit its head through the hole however it looked very used to its size.

"What is this place?" Ashe asked.

"My personal library number 4. It was the closest one to the forest so it had to suffice."

"Who are you?" Ashe asked flabbergasted, 'does every creature here have multiple houses?'

"I'm glad you asked." The creature said while slowly moving its head toward Ashe.

"Sadly the ruler of Hevell has made me relinquish my title and name. But for simplicity's sake, you may call me Sap."

"Sap?" Ashe said with a smile. In his head, he was laughing at the unfitting nature of the nickname.

"Who is this 'ruler of Hevell' anyway," Ashe said while sitting down in a chair, which to his surprise was very comfortable.

Sap started coiling on the floor like a snake before answering.

"Their name is Mortem they are the demon of death."

Ashe's face dropped. "You want me to steal from death itself!"

"Not at all. Mortem is very reasonable. I'm sure that if you gain power and influence, you'll be able to make an agreement."

Sap responded, but Ashe wasn't satisfied with that answer and Sap could see that by his face.

"I promise. I wouldn't let my precious student get themselves on Mortem's bad side."

"Didn't you say that they would do the same to me as they did to you!"

"That's because you're weak. Every other demon with a name that lives here are descendants of Mortem. However demons aren't evil, if they see another demon they won't just attack you for no reason. But you aren't a demon yet, and seeing a foreign named being on their land wouldn't turn out well for you."

Ashe felt stuck between a rock and a hard place. Sap noticed this and used the moment to pounce.

"And that's where I come in. I will help you become a full-fledged demon, and you become my democratic envoy. And if You do get my title back, I'll be a very useful acquaintance"

Ashe still sat there silently, trying to mask his emotions. He was going to accept the deal, but he wanted to squeeze as much out of this opportunity as he could.

"I'll throw in a little treat for you." Sap said noticing Ashe's lack of response.

"I'll give you some very valuable information about something that might interest you back on earth. But that's the final deal."

Ashe waited a bit before accepting the deal. He was very glad to outwit the demon. Sap was also very happy as he was going to tell Ashe the information anyway.

"So, what now. Do I sign something?" Ashe asked after they both accepted the terms.

"Yes, however you need to be able to control demon energy to sign the contract. So for now it's a verbal agreement until you learn how to use demon energy." The demon said while slowly moving to another part of the room. Sap slithered over to a wooden circle on the wall.

"Come this way." It said while opening the circle revealing another room behind it.

Ashe followed suit to the next room. The room was a lot bigger than the first one, it was a big circular library with stairs going down to other levels of bookshelves. Sap didn't bother using the stairs as in the middle of the room was a medium-sized hole that connected all the different floors, which was the fastest way down for the demon. Ashe had to use the stairs, which allowed him to see just how many books Sap owned. Every floor's walls were made of filled bookshelves, none of the books were familiar to Ashe, and even the titles were in a different language.

He eventually caught up to the demon who was on the last floor. The room was also circular however it wasn't filled with books, the only thing there was what looked like a rug in the center, and a couple of dim lights on the wall.

"Sit down." Sap said standing next to the rug. Ashe went over and sat on the surprisingly comfortable rug.

"Time for your first lesson." Sap said after Ashe sat down, seemingly very excited to start the process.

"Demon energy is an energy that everybody born in this world has. You may not have been born here per se but your mutation must have covered for that."

"All you need to do is find the demon energy inside your body, that's your first task."

"What's the rug for then?" Ashe asked after His instructor finished talking

"Have you heard of meditation? You'll need to find something new in your body, something you have never felt before. So I prepared a room with no distractions so you can focus on meditation."

Ashe didn't answer, he just nodded and closed his eyes. He felt the wind from Sap's wings as he flew away, but after that, it was completely silent. He started feeling his body by clenching random muscles, then he started listening to his breathing. He tracked the feeling of air flowing into his lungs. He tried to feel his blood flow but initially failed. Ashe wanted to try again and started concentrating all of his conciseness on too his heart. Feeling each chamber of the heart pumping blood into the other, creating the ever-so-familiar sound of a heartbeat. Ashe started to feel something weird, he started to feel his blood. He could tell where every one of his veins was

Ashe was uncomfortable with this but he couldn't stop. He disliked the image of blood going into his brain. He opened his eyes but he could still feel his blood. Trying to calm himself he decided to concentrate on just one thing, and the first thing that came to mind was his right hand. Ashe closed his eyes and concentrated on his hand so hard he ignored every other sense. After realizing that he had succeeded he opened his eyes yet again, and to his delight, it worked.

He no longer felt all of his veins, however, he did feel his hand in the same strange way as his blood and veins.

'Is this the demon energy?'

He then tried relocating it again, this time to his eyes. It was a slow process but Ashe had managed to put the demon energy in his eyes. He looked around and realized he had gained enhanced vision, everything in the room looked a lot clearer.

But what caught Ashe's attention was a small bronze bell that was on the ground next to his rug. He picked it up and decided to ring it once.

*ding*

The bell was deceptively loud. Ashe didn't notice anything happening, however, when he turned around he saw Sap standing behind him.

"Why did you call?" The demon asked.

"I think I got it!" Ashe said with excitement.

"Then let's do a little test." Sap said with a devilish smile.

"Could you put all of your energy into the tip of your finger?"

Ashe nodded and began slowly moving the demon energy into the tip of his finger.

"Done."

"Splendid, now let it all go. Let the wind take it." Sap said, now looking closely at Ashe's finger.

Ashe was confused but he still tried. He closed his eyes and imagined himself blowing the energy into the wind like a dandelion. It took him a while but the energy in his finger was slowly getting lighter and lighter.

"Oh wow, I'm impressed." The demon said.

Ashe opened his eyes to see the tip of his finger on fire. The fire was oddly pure red unlike usual fire, it also didn't warm Ashe up but that was probably because the finger was hot from the energy already.

"To be able to do this in the first 8 hours of training is nothing to scoff at." Sap said while moving back a bit

"Sadly I'm guessing we're running out of time for tonight so we'll have to sign the contract tomorrow." As Sap said those words he flew up through the hole in the middle of the room.

'Did he say 8 hours!' Ashe was shocked but he could always ask more questions tomorrow so he decided to go back as well. He laid down on the comfortable rug and decided to doze off. He felt like he was being slowly surrounded by warmth until he woke up, surrounded by his warm bedsheets.