Chapter 235 Tattoo of Communication

Aella thought carefully about what she should do with the demon before her. If she killed him, he would lose his memories and the gargoyles would be at risk of being killed by his brother. Assuming he was telling the truth, which she doubted. Which meant if she went ahead and killed him, and he didn't lose his memories, his brother would know everything, and she would lose her element of surprise. In fact, if she killed him at all, his brother would know she was on to him, so the best course she could take at the moment would be not to kill him. But how could she imprison him, and keep him from using magic?

Looking around the cave she had him in, Aella used her earth powers to make the walls and floor completely smooth. Then she angled the roof up so he couldn't climb up, or attempt to fly, despite his wings being broken. Then, taking the metals she had from around the surrounding area, she fashioned chains he couldn't break and attached them to his ankles and wrists and elevated him to the middle of the room.

"You will remain here until I am ready to kill you," she said, moving to pick up Precious, who had flown off her shoulder to pace in annoyance.

"This won't stop my brother from coming to this realm," he cautioned, his face pale from pain. Both of his wings were destroyed from the vines of the fairies, and he was in excruciating pain with them hanging from his back in tatters.

Ignoring him, she teleported to the elven forest, spotting Elalar talking to several elves.

"King Elalar, there is a problem. We still need to move forward with the tattoos, but I need you to scour your forest for more altars similar to the one I destroyed in the basement of that noble's house. I have reason to believe there may be more, somewhere," said Aella. "I have to notify the rest of the kingdoms to start searching for them, because they are going to rip open portals to another realm and allow undead monsters to pour into our realm."

"Alright. I have notified these elves, who are our best tattooists, to travel with you and tattoo whoever you need to. I will get scouts out while you explain to them what you need them to do and be right back so you can tattoo me."

Aella nodded to the elven king, turning to the tattoo elves. There were three of them, watching her carefully. They seemed to already understand the importance of what they were going to do, so it didn't take her long to explain the process to them. She exposed her left shoulder to allow the first one to start with her tattoo.

Aella didn't even have to grit her teeth with the pain. She had experienced so much pain in her life, this was nothing she couldn't handle. Elalar returned in the middle, watched for a few moments, then had one of the other tattooists start on him. He went with the exact same spot, even though it wasn't necessary. It seemed the fact she was getting it first made him more comfortable with getting his own.

"What do you want me to do with these altars when I find them?" he asked, wincing as the tattoo started to take shape.

"It may have an aura of death about it, to kill any who approach it, so be careful to stay away. Notify me and I will destroy it," she said.

Once the simple tattoos were finished, they practiced speaking to each other, and found they worked fantastically. Elalar could contact her when he needed to, but only when he wanted to. Their normal thoughts didn't bleed over to each other.

"Take these three with you, to the other leaders so you can get the tattoos done faster," he said, nodding to the three who bowed in agreement.

"Alright, I'll head to the dwarves first," she nodded, motioning the three to get closer, and then teleported them to the throne room.

King Voluri spotted her with the elves and broke out laughing. Daefina was with him and from the amused looks of the others in the room, Aella figured they must have just been talking about her.

"Aella! We were just mentioning the fact that you liked to pop in unannounced," chuckled Voluri. "What reason do we have for your visit this time?"

"I come with dire warnings," said Aella with a frown. "I managed to catch a traitor to the realm and imprisoned him, but he has informed me that there may be more of those altars scattered around. I need you to send out a search party, to make sure there aren't any, and then you need to notify me when you find any so I can destroy it."

"And I assume you brought these elves for a reason?" he asked, motioning to the three tattoo elves.

"I need you to agree to allow them to tattoo you, so you can contact me wherever I may be," Aella said, showing him her arm where her new tattoo had already healed. "The elven king has already gotten one, and I intend to have all the other leaders in the realm to get one as well."

Voluri glanced at Daefina, who nodded.

"I want one as well," said Daefina. "I may not be the leader, but if something happens to Voluri, I want to be able to call you for help."

"That's understandable," said Aella, nodding to the elves beside her to get started.

Voluri insisted on watching Daefina get hers before agreeing to one for himself. He didn't seem to like the idea of getting stabbed countless times in order to inject colored ink into his skin. Aella healed them both, as she had done with Elalar.

"These altars are supposed to allow a rip in our realm to another, where undead monsters will pour forth," warned Aella.

"Hurry and get on with your business," grumbled Voluri, rubbing his arm. "I'll have my dwarves scour this entire place."

Aella nodded and thought about teleporting the elves to the gnomes. It wouldn't take much to convince them, especially with her new pheromones, assuming they were behind it. However, she wanted to get done with the halflings first. Because they didn't have any leadership, she quickly decided to just tattoo the first halfling she came across, so she didn't have to argue with anyone.

"They don't really have a leader here," Aella admitted to the elves as they looked around for a halfling to talk to.

"How can they survive without a leader?" asked one of the elves in disbelief.

"I'm not sure, exactly," shrugged Aella. "But it works for them, so I don't argue with them."

A young halfling child came skipping around a corner and paused when she saw them. Her eyes were wide in surprise as Aella approached her. Kneeling down, she smiled at the small girl.

"Do you know where any adults are?" asked Aella.

"Oh, they're all busy killing the invaders," said the little girl.

"What?" asked Aella, stunned. Had she heard right?

"Monsters started pouring out of one of the unused tunnels and were killing all of our animals," said the little girl seriously. "All of the adults went to kill them, so I have to go do the weeding."

She scrunched her face in annoyance at the thought of weeding, but smiled up at Aella. "Are you the one they said was trying to make things better for everyone?"

"I am," said Aella with a nod. "Do you mind if I have one of these elves give you a tattoo so you can talk to me whenever you want? You can tell me if the adults don't kill all of the monsters, or if more show up? Also, could you tell me where the monsters are? I want to help the adults kill them."

"Will it hurt?" she asked, looking up at the elf as he towered over her.

"Well, a little," he admitted. "But I have a little cream I can put on your arm, so it won't hurt as much."

"Alright," piped the girl with a smile. "The adults all headed West. I don't know where the monsters are. Mom and dad wouldn't say, but I overheard Uncle Verle saying it was near the large pumpkin patch. I hope they didn't' destroy all the pumpkins. I really want to have pumpkin pie this winter."

Aella nodded, leaving the girl in the hands of the elves and flying up into the air to look towards the west. There wasn't a pumpkin patch in sight, so she zoomed off in search of one, or a lot of fighting. She was using all of her abilities, wondering if the portals had already started opening. She still had to get back and tell Frederik, Alfred and Bridgette!

Finally, after an hour of searching, she found them. The halflings had the undead trapped in the tunnels leading out of the underground caverns when she landed near them.

"Ah, we figured you would show up eventually," said a female halfling as she approached. "They can't stand the holy symbol of Joseph, so we've got them trapped for now."

"It won't hold for long," cautioned a male halfling who joined them. "Those things are digging out in all directions, and we don't have enough holy symbols to stop them."