The Extractors

(Hey, don't worry about it Shiki, I've written longer in Demon Lands)

Naomi was practicing her combat skills on a training dummy in the swordmaster's school next to the church. She had been their a few times now and the man who ran the school had learnt that getting a stone training dummy was better, because she would burn through or slice apart all the wooden ones. She never used one of the training swords, only Darkheart, and she practiced using her fire abilities in tandem.

The swordmaster didn't like her. He knew the rumours about her going berserk at the drop of a hat. Her feared that one day she would get frustrated and burn down his dojo. He never wanted to push her out either, for the exact same reason. He watched as Naomi sliced at the stone dummy with acrobatic flair, throwing in a few fire attacks in between.

"Fire sword edge!" Naomi called out, her sword lit ablaze suddenly as she struck the dummy, leaving a slight dent in the material. "Oops, I went a bit too far that time." She chuckled quickly before the door opened behind her. She spun around, her blade pointed towards the door. It was one of the nuns from the church. She slung her sword over her back before apologizing. "Sorry, that was close. I nearly decapitated you... again. You should really knock next time."

"You should learn not to swing around thinking everything is an enemy whenever you hear a noise coming from the door Naomi." The dragon girl shrugged. "Anyway, I've been informed that King Barold wishes to speak with you and some of the other Barons. There are some already waiting outside the city." The nun spoke under her breath next. "Why anyone would want Insanity Squared is beyond me."

"I can hear you." Naomi smiled. The nun looked shocked, before the swordmaster pointed to the nun and signaled for her to get out. "Oh well, it was fun. See you again another time sir."

"A pleasure as always." The swordmaster was grateful that Naomi's dragon hearing did not allow her to hear the subtle difference between when someone was complimenting her or telling her a blatant lie. Or maybe she didn't care. Oh well, she was out of his dojo and it wasn't burned down, that was a good day in his books.

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As Naomi reached the edge of the town, she could already see three of the Barons who had shown up. "Yo, Carmi, Ula, Crow. So you three are coming along for the ride as well. I hope this is an interesting assignment. The last one I was sent on was to protect a caravan. There weren't any bandits or anything that tried to attack it, and when I asked the people what needed protecting they didn't say they had anything extremely valuable. It was rather boring sitting in the back of a cart for 3 hours." She breathed in deeply as she stopped talking.

"So, who do you guys think is going to join us? I really hope the Raven joins us, she's always fun to have around." She leaned back against a nearby tree and grinned cheekily.

 

"Now where did that girl run off to? She's been here scarcely a week and she is almost never indoors! " Giulietta, a nun of approximately fifty years of age, one of the elderly ones in Praetus, was pacing around an empty room. Oddly, a pair of sandals lay next to the bed, untouched.

"She must be at the lake again. Goodness, she spends too much time in water that it must have entered her skull somehow somehow..." With that, she went to the nearest lake to the church.

-----

"Sister, look! I'm able to purify the water like you do now! "

"That's great, Llyr. Mother would be proud of you! "

"Of course I am, Evienne, my dear.I wish you'd seen it too... "

If it were not for the voices, Evienne could be just seen as talking to her own reflection in the lake. There was a vision of Rillette and Llyr on the water surface.

Out of her reverie, someone cleared her throat. "Evienne of Gwenllian, please come here this instant."

"Well, I hope all goes well with you, dear. Come on, Llyr, your sister is busy. " said her mother in a hushed tone.

"But, mother... " came Llyr's protest.

"Listen to Mother, Llyr. I have to get going." Evienne smiled as she willed the vision to disappear before turning to the nun. "Yes? "

"His Majesty wants to meet you outside the city, there is something he needs to discuss about. "

"Ahhhh, alright. I will be there as soon as let be." Evienne smiled brightly and was about to leave the area when Giulietta barked, almost. "Good heavens, my dear. You cannot visit the king without proper attire. At least put on those sandals of yours."

"But they hurt my feet, Sister. " Evienne whined a little.

"You will have to get used to them. Now run along. "

----

Unfortunately for her, it was her novel visit to the city, hence she had gotten herself lost a few instances. Several hours later, with thanks to some kindly passersby, she made her way to the edge of the city, where she saw a dragon girl, another water faerie, a priest and a crow. Not knowing who they were, she took up refuge behind a nearby post.

 

The nun traversed through the alleyways, clutching her book as she went over what she was told.

"You cannot miss him. He has external gills, almost resembling feathers where there should be ears."

"External gills..." The nun muttered as she turned a corner and bumped straight into someone.

"Oh! Sorry ther-" She was cut off when she realized this was the boy she was looking for.

~~~~~~~~~​

​

Auxern was just getting up from running into someone and about to apologize when she spoke to him again. "The Barons need you young man! Come with me."

"What? Um... ok?" Auxern said as the nun took of, surprisingly fast. "Uh, who are the Barons?"

"They hunt down those who are possessed by demons and extract them out of them," The nun quickly replied, turning a corner.

Auxern was easily keeping up to her. "Wait, that's possible?"

"Of course it is," She replied.

"Oh... um, how come you're dressed like that?"

"Must you ask so many questions? Just follow me."

Auxern was quiet the rest of the way to the temple, even though many other questions were burning in his mind. They both made it there fairly quickly. Auxern was looking around when he noticed a few people standing around, talking.

"Well? Go on," The nun said, pushing him towards them.

He hesitantly stepped forward a bit, but still not very close. The nun rolled her eyes and dragged him over to the group.

"Here is another for your group. Now, I must be going," she said, leaving Auxern there.

"Um..." The Axolotl boy looked sheepishly at the ground, not sure what to say to these people before him.

 

She awoke with the light shining into her eyes. That was something she'd finally gotten used to after all of her years alive. Well, she was adjusted for a bit after leaving the underground cities, but her arrest made re-adjusting a bit difficult. Either way, her topaz irises shimmered on a more gloomy face as she rolled out of bed, showered and ate a small breakfast.

After she ate, she dressed herself in the manner she typically did, keeping blades on her waist, up her sleeves and in her boots. Slinging the sheath of a sword across her back and deciding to leave her typically worn cape behind, Kuro Kage put a hood over her head and let her hair fall down her shoulders as she left the house.

There was already a summons on her doorstep, but the church liked to look after her. After all, most convicted murderers had a tendency to get tied up and into trouble. Kuro, of course, was the stereotype breaker, but that answer wasn't good enough for them. She spun as a finger tapped her shoulder, unashamedly gripping the hilt of a knife on her waist.

"M-Miss Kage." The nun stuttered, understandably nervous. "King Barold himself 'as requested your presence at the church, he has." she spoke quickly, as if she was waiting to leave. Nuns tried to be as kind as they could, but who could face someone like her without being just a bit scared?

"Understood. Thank you for relaying the message." Kuro responded, dryly. "I'll be there as soon as I can." Kuro assured, and with that, took off at top speed.

The small town, a forest town, she rushed through were used to seeing her figure pass by, so it wasn't an issue when she barreled through. She didn't cause much, or any, damage as she made her way, but certainly was known, to her scorn. She was more rusty after she got out of prison, but she could navigate an entire city in silence in her past.

Once she made it Grolden, she still kept her hood on for a bit. At least until she was good enough in to avoid any annoyance that might come without it. She pulled it down as she began to walk towards the Church. and noticed quite a few people had already made their own appearances.

She gave a nod as she approached, took a place a bit separate from the others, but closer to Ezra than anyone else. Kuro didn't care too much about Ezra, but he was more relaxed than some of the others around. He wasn't bad to talk to on the occasion, either.

"You know why we're here?" Kuro asked Ezra. "It was apparently important enough to put a notice on my doorstep." She shrugged. "They've never bothered me that much about something before."

"Either way, let's hope it's at least somewhat interesting." she said, leaning against a wall and twirling a knife between her fingers.

 

Naomi was still waiting for someone to acknowledge her. She knew that a lot of people felt quite tense when she was around, she knew she could go berserk at the drop of a hat. "Oh well." There were two people that she didn't recognize who came to join their group. One was another faerie like Ula, what was standing nervously behind a post. The other was what looked like an axolotl person. Well, it was good to know that dragon people weren't the weirdest half-breeds out there.

Finally, Kuro showed up. Naomi was about to say hi when she went over closer to Ezra and started talking. She pouted a bit. "Hey Raven, how you doing?" She didn't really expect a response.

Eventually she decided to try and talk to one of the newcomers. They didn't know of her reputation, so they wouldn't be as tense around her, right? Both of them looked kind of nervous, but the axolotl boy seemed the least awkward.

So naturally, she decided to say hi to the faerie. No one ever said she made the smartest choices. She walked over the faerie girl. "Uh, hey. How are you doing. I'm Naomi."

 

((I suppose I'll be at the end of the rotation posted above, then.))

The Great Library of Grolden was a grand building unto itself. It stood several stories tall, with many underground floors as well, and aisles of books crammed full with tomes and textbooks filled each level. Here, students sought resources for their studies and scholars debated various subjects. One could find a trove of information on just about any subject in the Great Library.

Demons, however, were one of the very few exceptions.

This fact continually irritated one elf, a regular visitor and good patron. He searched and searched for any information he could about demons, even going so far as breaking into the more secure sections of the Great Library, but nothing other than anecdotes could be found. The elf wanted something new, information that could lead to a breakthrough in demon-hunting.

The elf flipped the page of the book he was reading, a collection of reports regarding demon encounters and attacks. He had seen all the information before - nothing new stood out to him - but he took notes on particular aspects of the encounters, hoping to draw some connections. His pen sat perched in the crook between his long ear and his head. As he reached for it, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"You are Veigrus Turmol, yes?" a voice, middle-aged and female, said. Likely one of the many nuns who wandered around Grolden.

"Indeed, I am," the elf replied quickly without looking over his shoulder. "Do you need something of me?"

"You are summoned by King Barold," the nun said. It sounded as if she had rehearsed the words before actually saying them. "Please report to Praetus Church for further instructions." She awaited the elf's response.

Veigrus sighed. He felt close to making a key connection in this studies, but a summons by the King himself could not be ignored. The dark elf flipped his book closed and put it, as well as his notebook, pen, and ink, into his small travel bag. "Very well," he said as he packed his belongings, a hint of annoyance hidden in his tone. He rose from his seat, revealing his true height. He stood head-and-shoulders above the nun, who took an unconscious step back, and he cast a dark shadow over the woman. He turned his head slightly, setting one of his deep red eyes on the woman's face. "I'll get right to it."

He reached for his cane, an elegantly-crafted metal scepter adorned with a pair of curved blades and a large red gem on the head. He slung his pack over his shoulder and started off. The nun simply watched him leave, unsure of how to react. The dark elf was every bit as intimidating as some people had said.

Praetus Church was only a few minutes away from the Great Library. Even so, Veigrus walked briskly to his destination. He quickened his pace when he saw a crowd, likely other people summoned by the King, assembled in front and within of the Church. I'm late, he thought bitterly, a scowl forming on his narrow face. The dark elf couldn't pick out any familiar faces among the unusual crowd. He noted a few of the more odd attendees, such as a young Axolotl, a sentient scarecrow, and a brightly-colored individual. The King must have odd tastes, Veigrus thought, his brow raised slightly. The King had yet to make an appearance, so Veigrus leaned up against the stone wall and waited.

 

Evienne turned to the stranger who called her, and blinked. Said stranger was being friendly. As a result, she replied too. "And my name is Evienne. " She smiled shyly at Naomi. "A pleasure to meet you. "

She had only gotten to Praetus just two days ago, and she hadn't acquainted herself so quickly. Furthermore, she was a little scared of humans still, lest they do what they have done to Gwenllian some years ago.

Not even the rain could wash away her guilt after five years. The deaths were her own fault, she told herself again and again. However, a chance to redeem herself was presented when she was chosen to become a Baron.

 

No one seemed to be coming up to Auxern to ask him any questions. They all were too busy talking among themselves. But that was understandable, as the few words he picked out made it pretty clear that they were friends. More people showed up. Everyone seemed so tall and just, better overall than he was. The boy felt small and insignificant as the group grew bigger. He noticed a few people looking at him in confusion, mainly at his gills, but that was all the interaction he had.

He perked up when they mentioned a "newbie". He looked up to see they were talking about him. Unsure of what to do, he shifted his feet and looked around, taking the the scenery.

Then someone came over and started to actually talk to him! He seemed rather nice, and nervous, and was about to introduce him to some of the other members of the group when a dwarf suddenly was there, telling everyone that they needed to get to the castle to speak to the King. He swallowed nervously. The King? He was in no shape to see the King! His clothes were tattered and he had been living the past few days in this city as some sort of urchin.

Everyone started moving. He caught up to Carmichael, since he had been kind enough to speak to him, and walked next to him.

"Um, how did you know my name?" The Axolotl asked curiously as his footsteps fell in time with Carmichael's.

 

Veigrus' eyes were closed, his mind deep in thought. He recalled the day's investigations into demons, thinking over what he'd read. That one incident keeps resurfacing to me, he thought. Might it be-?

His eyes flicked open at the sound of determined footsteps approaching him. Instinctively, Veigrus' grip on his scepter tightened and he visibly tensed up as the large gem adorning it glowed softly. Thankfully, it wasn't a threat; it was just the brightly-color fairy that caught his eye earlier. The magenta scales that coated her hands and feet shimmered brightly; Veigrus did not find this girl unattractive.

His expression quickly changed from a contemplative mask to a surprised gawk when the girl grabbed his free hand and yanked him towards the group. Looks, it seemed, were deceiving - this girl had a tight grip! The fairy insisted that he join the group and introduce himself. "Unhand me at once!" Veigrus hissed through clenched teeth. The girl complied, but Veigrus found himself in the center of group gathered before the Church. He felt their eyes boring into him from all angles.

The dark elf adjusted his overcoat with an annoyed snort and shoved his dully-throbbing free hand into his pocket. "I'm certain there will be time for more formal introductions later, young lady," Veigrus growled, his flustered face covered with a look of absolute fury. His expression softened after a moment. This girl was young and energetic, which made staying angry at her for long difficult. "Assuming there isn't, however, I am-"

Just then, a haggard old dwarf announced that he was the group was to follow him to meet the King. What he said made Veigrus growl lowly and furrow his brow. This dwarf spoke as if the group was already destined to die. Nonetheless, the dark elf fell into stride with the others as they followed the dwarf to King Barold's castle. "As I said, introductions can wait," Veigrus said, more to himself than to anyone else. Just was does the King have in store for us...

 

(( I've uploaded Jade's profile, I'd recommend looking! Thanks, friends! ))

Just as Ezra had put it, Jade was fashionably late. Of course, it wasn't his fault. Felix just kept him in the door, the dog he was. His lover was someone he admired dearly, of course, but there's simply no way he could leave without a thousand goodbyes. Not that it was really a problem for either of them, Jade didn't quite want to go anyway, and Felix, he was a bit clingy when he was tired.

It wasn't that he disliked the Barons, he thought to himself as he made his way. The nun had already passed him by, saying she had consulted Kuro and they expected him there was well. Kuro was interesting to have around, but he was more looking forward to meeting the new faces he expected there.

It didn't take him long, he was quick when he wanted to be. He found his way through Praetus easily, and managed to find the group just before they went on their way. He thought he heard a bit of snark from Ezra, and, of course, he couldn't be stood up. With a smirk on his face as he approached, he nodded,

"Better late than never, isn't it, Ezra?" He smiled, charmingly. "I would've gone with the fashionably late line, but I guess you know me too well." Jade cocked an eyebrow.

"I wonder what I'd do without him." Kuro deadpanned, to Ezra.

"Your life would be significantly more boring, that's for sure." He quipped.

"My life would be significantly better." Kuro rolled her eyes in return. "You know why you're here, don't you?"

"The king needs us for something, sure." Jade waved her off. "I'm just excited to meet some of our new friends." He said, devilishly. Jade was the type to flirt, but never let anything get carried away. He gravitated to Veigrus, and shrugged.

"Introductions can wait, but why should they?" He said, whimsically. "It's good to know who you're working with. He looked over. "Jade." He said, holding out a hand. "I figure I should let my last name, wait." He said, poking fun at the elf.

Kuro had little tolerance for Jade, at times like this. He was a good fighter, and logical when he needed to be, but he covered it up with the annoying attitude he had. She sighed.

"To this day, I question why I ever let myself be associated with the creepy-eyed freak." She muttered, to Ezra. "I get his heterochromia may make him feel special, but he's not. Really, is not." She muttered once more, making sure she was out of earshot from Carmichael.

 

The faerie girl looked worried about something, but she couldn't tell what. Oh well, at least she didn't know of her reputation quite yet from what she could see. Naomi smiled, half grateful and half happy that this person was talking to her. "Well, let's be sure to be great friends over the course of whatever adventure we're going on."

Just as she was starting to get through as a friend, Carmicheal had to say something stupid. She started to twitch, trying to stop an outburst. She couldn't. She took her sword off of her back and threw it in the ground right next to him (which was a fair distance away). "Do you have an issue with me being half Dragon or something!" She yelled at him. Her fist was clenched, almost ready to punch him before she slowly got herself under control. There was a little fire dissipating from around her fist. She was so glad that she had gotten herself under control just before the dwarven escort came around.

As they started walking, Naomi went to pick up her sword and pulled away from Evienne. After that outburst, Naomi was certain that the faerie would want nothing to do with her. She instead tried to get Kur's attention again. "Hey, Kuro, what do you think this mission will be about? There sure have been a lot of pus called together for this one."

 

As Naomi reacted to Carmicheal calling, both Evienne's hands flew to her mouth as Naomi barked at Carmicheal. What has the poor lad done to her? Nevertheless she calmed down after the escort had arrived.

Noticing that Naomi had pulled away, she looked on, a little concerned for Naomi's wellbeing. Something else caught her attention, a handful of others seemed to gather around. She could only hope to get to know them soon.

It seemed like the young lad with gills was as out of place as she was. He reminded her of her little brother, to which she suppressed a chuckle.

 

The group was rather chatty as it flowed towards King Barold's castle. Veigrus could hear the usual banter that broke the ice, so to speak. Names were exchanged, acquaintances were made. The dark elf took his time sizing up each member of the group individually for a moment or two, though flashes of cyan and magenta distracted him every so often.

The fairy girl was still eyeing him with the same attentiveness as a young boy who gazed at a fully-suited knight. It seemed she had grown fond of him rather quickly. A small smile crept onto Veigrus' narrow, pale face. Perhaps it was because of her intoxicating energy, her cheerful voice-

Her uncanny resemblance to his sister.

Veigrus blinked those thoughts away quickly. Now wasn't the time to be distracted by thoughts of the past. The fairy introduced herself as Ula, and she began to point out and name some of the other members of the group. He caught a few of them, but Ula went so quickly and so erratically that he missed one or two.

Another man strode up to the dark elf and commented on what Veigrus muttered earlier. He offered a hand and introduced himself as Jade - though Ula had already said the man's name. The dark elf chuckled at Jade's remark after saying his name.

"Finally, someone with some respect for manners," Veigrus joked as he shook the hand offered to him. "I am Veigrus. I don't anticipate that we'll need to know one another on a last-name basis, at least any time soon." He placed his free hand in his overcoat pocket. Ula had fallen back into step beside him.

Veigrus noted the brief conversation Jade had with was he presumed were other friends. The more the dark elf looked at this man, the more suspicious he became. Underneath the charm and sarcasm, Veigrus sensed something else, something he didn't think he would like. He wisely kept to himself about his suspicions.

"So," Veigrus said, attempting to start a conversation, "I assume you and those other two - Kuro and Ezra, I believe they are - are already well-acquainted?" The dark elf gestured to the pair he was talking about, who were muttering amongst themselves. He couldn't hear the conversation, but he could tell what was being said wasn't praise.

 

Auxern nodded at the man's reply. "Y-yeah, it is. I lived alone with just my Uncle for most of my life. This whole place is so big and confusing."

Carmichael was very kind to him, and asked him if he had any questions. He returned the priest's warm smile with a smile of his own before asking him the first questions that came to his mind.

"Um, yes, actually. What are the Barons exactly? What do they do? And does the King lead them? What's the King like?" He rattled off these questions quickly. The Axolotl stopped after these few, for he was worried that he had asked too many. Then again, Carmichael did ask if he had any questions, not imposing a limit. And he seemed rather open to giving him answers. He waited for the replies.

 

Maybe it had been wrong to pull away from Evienne. She hadn't seemed to be too scared by her rage moment. Carmicheal hadn't really learnt, but she realized that he was often a bit clumsy with her his words. Maybe she should try to talk to Evienne again.

"I'm sorry Kuro, I'm going to try and talk to the newbie." She had tried to get Kuro's attention so fast that he hadn't even noticed her before she left. Scatterbrained thought was one of Naomi's traits that people found annoying. She got back over to Evienne.

"Hey Evienne... Is it alright if I call you Evie? I'm sorry about before, I've had some problems in my past that are kind of like a berserk button if someone brings them up." The Faerie girl seemed to be smiling at something about the axolotl guy.