Reincarnated! A Tale of the Sorceress Amaya

Lucy stored the corpse again. The woman had dropped her bucket and was breathing heavily, but she started to calm down a bit.

“It’s ok. You are safe now.” Lucy said.

The woman looked at us. “What… what is going on?”

“Somebody put a spell on you. Can you remember what happened?” I asked.

“A spell?” she frowned. “My… my memory is hazy.”

“What is the last thing that you remember clearly?”

“I am not sure.”

“It’s ok, take your time.”

I looked around. Clearly the magic was affecting everyone. Who did that and how was it done? As I was contemplating the situation the woman's eyes glazed over.

“What were we talking about again? Oh no, I dropped my bucket.” She picked it up. “I need to get some water, have a nice day!”

Lucy looked confused. “Amaya, what happened?”

“I broke the magic on that woman but it was reapplied. I suspect something is putting everyone in this village under a spell. You could keep a ritual active by regularly fueling it somehow, or you could create permanent enchantments, which is a lot harder to do though.”, I explained.

“Why would somebody do that? Do you think it’s an escaped demon?”

“Possibly. But that seems like a lot of work to simply hide. Also, magic like that requires some preparation. A demon fleeing a battlefield would not carry the ingredients for such a ritual.”

“Could it be the Empire?”, Lucy pondered.

“The Empire? I suppose they somehow snuck a lot of soldiers into this region. If the spell makes the people dismiss anything out of the ordinary it might have been meant to cover their operations. But it would have been far simpler for them to just use illusions.”

“I guess we just have to look for the source. Nobody seems to be in immediate danger at least. Speaking of danger, could the spell affect us too?”, Lucy wondered.

“Very unlikely. It’s hard to affect the mind of a powerful magic user. And night elves are more resistant to magic in general. You might have inherited some of that too as a warlock.”, I reassured her.

“Good to know. So, where do we start? If the spell is effecting a sphere they would want it in the centre, right? So maybe the inn? It could have a storage cellar.”, Lucy reasoned.

“Good thinking, let’s go to the inn.”, I agreed.

The inn’s common room was empty except for the innkeeper. The guards were probably still sleeping after having a party yesterday. With the spell on the village it made sense that they ignored their duty and got drunk instead. At least I hoped the spell was the reason for that.

“Ah travellers! How can I help you ladies?” The man greeted us enthusiastically.

“I know it sounds strange, but could we have a look at your cellar? We will pay you for your inconvenience.” I could have just used magic to sneak past him but it would be simpler if he just let us look around.

“The cellar? Oh, no reason to go down there! Why don’t you stay here and I'll bring you a free meal instead?”

Yeah that did not sound suspicious at all. “We would really like to see the cellar. How about I give you one gold?”

“Nonsense! You don’t want to go down there. Let me just bring you free drinks!” he said and walked into the kitchen.

“Obviously there is something in the cellar.”, Lucy stated. “We found something on the first try, that is somewhat suspicious.”

“Hm. The inn is simply the most logical place for a spherical spell. It’s also the first place a traveller would stop and you would want any strangers to be affected as quickly as possible. It would simply be logical to be here.”, I reasoned.

“Shall we have a look?” Lucy suggested while summoning her spear.

“Yes.”

We walked into the back where the innkeeper was busy grabbing some wine. I used a sleep spell on him while he was starting to complain. I caught him when he fell and arranged him in a comfortable position on the floor. I even managed to catch the wine he dropped, thanks to my speed. No reason to waste a good drink.

At the back of the kitchen were some stairs leading downwards. The cellar was one surprisingly large room. There were shelves filled with food, barrels of ale and quite a bit of wine. Oh, and there was a big shining ritual circle in the centre. Behind it, sitting in a lotus position, was a demon. She was clearly female. Her two horns were as black as her hair. She had pointed ears and a very pale skin. I also saw a tail behind her.

She stared at us with black eyes. “Please, let us talk.”