Seance (1)

"A group of us are going for leisure hunting, want to come?" Barcova was startled out of his daydream. For a moment he wondered if he was still dreaming, but that beautiful face looking at him confirmed that he was not dreaming. Also, the fact that he had turned crimson all over caused some of her friends behind her to giggle.

The vasil that stood before him was the most desirable beauty in their settlement. Her grace, beauty, and charisma were only second to her influence among the settlement's elite. She was the daughter of a very influential merchant, who dealt with all manner of weapons.

By now, Barcova could be said to have arrived. He had risen to the top as a merchant. He had dealt with multiple settlements all over especially in the delivery of the Hexham jades. People just couldn't get enough of them.

By now, the Order of the Dragon had become well known, especially after the lavelian settlement's Farriga Festival. There were several lavelian settlements in the region, but there was only one that could be described as 'The lavelian settlement.'

When It had become known that there was an organization that could nurture people to become powerful, there had been a mass exodus to the settlement. Many smaller settlements had been absorbed by the settlement, and by now the limit of its population was almost exceeding that which they could comfortably govern if they retained the government structure as it was.

The rise of the lavelian settlement had also elevated the Barcova's status even more since it was public knowledge that the head of that settlement was a close friend. This was even more elevated when it was realized that Barcova was also a member of the Order. Following this, he had become designated the official Regional Merchant Representative of the Order. He dealt with many of the Order's merchants, each one was Dane's conjuration, most being vasils.

Now, Barcova had influence all over. It had been such a monumental rise from the kid that hid in some storage area and learned to transform, acquiring his ability, to what he was now. He could very well attribute all this to that moment in the dungeon, where they had gone to dig out the treasure. Finding a dragon where you buried your treasure wasn't such a bad thing after all.

"He wants you." Before Barcova could respond to the beauty's invite, a lavel suddenly appeared and said this. She then pointed to the ground below. Due to her mastery and expertise, Maple had grown her ability to a point where she could move up to 10 meters in an instance. She could go in any direction, and hence, she had just teleported to where Barcova was.

When everyone followed the direction she was pointing, they saw who 'he' was, the head of the new settlement. It was a breathtaking sight. 2 massive lavels acting as the vanguard. Brom and Hasilo were not to be messed with. Then came the main force, each one of them was renown in the region. Their power and prestige were unequaled, not even the haughty vasils could look down on them.

The elite vasils were scared silly, especially given the aura the lavels on the ground exuded. It was not lost on them that if the lavels wanted, reaching them would be a simple jump away, even though they were over 5 meters below them. The perch they were on was close to the ground. Were they higher, they'd feel more secure.

"Tell him to wait, I'm busy," Barcova said, putting on airs. He wanted to show he could even put heads on hold, too bad Maple was having none of that.

"Oh Hunny, he doesn't wait for anyone!" She said as she grabbed him. The next moment, Barcova found himself standing before the head.

"There's my favorite vasil!" Bamboo exclaimed, "Come, friend, we have some planning to do." With that, Barcova found himself on yet another adventure he didn't sign up for.

***

Flashes of lighting. Roars of thunder. The night was rocked by a powerful storm all over, and it was pitch black. Yet Maina couldn't help feeling that there was something behind the door, just lurking waiting for him to fall asleep.

We've all been through this, there is only one solution. Just get up and go check it out, usually its just dark shapes scaring you, usually. A somewhat terrified Maina got up to go check up on what was just behind the door to his room. This was just to console himself, confirm that there was nothing there.

Opening the door, Maina ignored the loud thunderclaps and the rain. He sent a glance and was about to get in relieved, as he had done so many times. He just had to extend his look.

It started as faint light in the sky, like distant houses being seen through the rain. Intrigued, Maina focused some more, trying to make out exactly what he was seeing. That's when he noticed that it seemed to be drawing closer to him. The once faint light was becoming clearer with time.

The light kept drawing closer, causing Maina to have an ominous feeling. Try as he might, he couldn't budge from his position, as though he was being held hostage by an invisible force. Panic was starting to creep into his heart now.

The light approached slowly but very surely heading straight for him. It seemed like he was on a collision course but with the slowest comet ever. As it drew nearer, it became so dazzling that it was blinding. So much so that he couldn't look at it for fear of losing his eyesight.

The ball of light suddenly transformed into a hawk and let out a blood-curdling screech.

Maina instantly shot up. For a moment he struggled to regain his bearing. He was in bed, drenched in sweat and shivering. The night was also raining, which amplified the effects of his nightmare. It took him more than an hour to go back to sleep, but the events just unfolded as before.

3 days passed with the boy suffering from the nightmares. This had gone on for far too long. Seeing the suffering of her son, the mother decided to take this issue with the one person whom she knew could solve such issues easily, her grandmother.

Dane had been waiting for them to make this trip. This time, he had left his trusted hawk behind and taken a cat. They would be on the lookout for a hawk, but a cat was deemed innocent. For him, non-sentient beings were more like rides that he could hitch to hep move along, and as soon as he had gotten good at Possession, he hardly moved around in his spirit form preferring the more exquisite form of travel.

The walk wasn't very long since the daughter didn't live that far from her mother. She still went to visit the mom ever so often.

Ever since he could remember, Maina had always found his grandmother strange. He had some dislike for her since he would be picked on and battered by bullies because of who she was, and for that he never forgave her. Why did she have to be so weird all the time? Why couldn't she just behave like a normal person?

Now that he was going to see for her for help, he couldn't decide whether he hoped she'd help or not. He hated to depend on her for anything, but he also didn't want these persistent nightmares continuing.

The grandmother, flamboyant as usual, threw a tantrum when she learned that had grandson had had such nightmares, before proceeding to scold her daughter for not coming to see her sooner. This was just a mother who'd missed her daughter and grandson routine playing out, but once she heard the details, she instantly got serious.

"It has to be that hawk spirit," she muttered, more to herself than her family, "the question is, what does it want?"

"Did it say anything?" she turned to Maina once more and interrogated him thoroughly. Dane could tell she was trying to decide whether he was friend or foe.

One thing that stood out about this shaman was that Dane was not sure whether she was real or a fake. They were harder to tell apart, and since he'd never been a spirit, he had no experience communicating with them. Shamans were by nature people who could commune with spirits. Their domain was spirit-related and for a nature shaman, a hawk spirit was right up there in her alley.

Dane could have risked going directly to the woman, but he felt that since he was lacking in divination knowledge, he didn't want to risk exposing himself. It was still too early. Though the woman herself posed no risk to him and his plans, Dane knew that there were several Supers on the planet and in the continent. He could guess that the Wolf God was on the move, so was Astrid and his brother Kaden. Each one was more imposing than the other. If ever there was a time to lay low.

Similarly, for this part of his plan, Dane didn't want to bond with some elderly woman. Leaving the gender issue alone, Dane knew that mortal bodies were extremely weak when they got older. Though he never experienced this, he knew it was quite disconcerting to watch yourself lose power over time. One of the reasons most Supers wouldn't take on an elderly form unless they had to was because of this weakness.

Seating down in her usual position, she gestured her daughter and grandson to sit down as well. She lit a candle in between and after having everyone hold hands, she began a chant.

It was simple and catchy. Dane didn't understand what she was saying. To investigate the matter, he departed from the cat that was hiding in the rafters. Dane wanted to investigate the seance. If at all she was a medium of some kind, he would detect some power flowing in his spirit form.

The chant went on even after Dane took his spirit form. He moved closer to investigate the phenomenon that was happening. It took him a few seconds to realize he could hear the chant. Usually, his world was completely quiet, but now, the chanting was very clear.

Somehow, Dane felt a veil uncover before him, as though he was in the same dimension as they were, only something was different. It was as though he had been trapped, unable to move out of his present condition.

Simultaneously, everyone in the hut felt a presence. They knew they were no longer alone, they didn't know that they never had been, only they were aware of it. Apart from the shaman, everyone's hairs stood at a stand, unknowing that now was when they were safest. Dane felt as though he was arrested since he was completely immobile.

Since this whole journey began, Dane cursed at the fact that he had been too weak. He hated the feeling he now had and looking at the plan he had set out to do, he wondered if he would be able to see it through. If a simple mortal could arrest him, all told, just how much danger was he in?

Dane had learned about spirits as a Grade C Super, by then there was very little to fear especially at his level. Now that he was a Grade F, he had plenty to be afraid of.

"Great Hawk Spirit, what is your purpose with us?" Not for the first time, the woman interrupted Dane's train of thoughts. At this point, Dane had an important decision to make, engage the woman and find out how deep this goes, or just get the hell out of there before he dug himself in a pit he couldn't come out of.

Weighing his 2 options, he realized he didn't have much to lose. He had never thought it, but he knew that this spirit body was disposable. If found out, he didn't lose so much, just some points in his grand scheme, of which there were contingency plans in place in case he lost. Taking a chance, he decided to make contact with the shaman.