Demon Spawn

[Maara]

Souls, shadows, The Other; Maara wasn’t sure what they were talking about. This was all new and confusing to her and she wasn’t sure what to make of it. She wanted to ask what they were talking about but at the same time she didn’t want to interrupt, to intruded on their conversation. She didn’t know what to do.

And, just like anytime other time when she needed advise, her mothers voice floated through her mind. “Sometimes you learn more by listening then by asking aloud. And then, if you haven’t learned enough, ask and maybe your questions will be answered.” And with that she made a decision. Listen and wait.

‘Besides,’ she thought to herself as she looked at Devon and Mr. Istalii. ‘I don’t think they really know right now either.’ So listen and wait was her only option at this time, so listen and wait she will.

[Drake]

Drake nodded at Devon's question, narrowly succeeding in keeping himself from moving away from the flame wielder. He then raised his eyebrow at the comment about souls. "You are not the master of your own soul? That is curious, but I suppose it would be more polite for me answer your questions first." This last was said with a curt bow of the head.

"As for my own soul, I do not posses two, my single soul has been shattered into two halves." The images of that horrid time came back to him in a flooding torrent. "I was..." he paused sifting through the horrid visions. He was surrounded by a white-gray mist. It was unsure how long he'd been there, but it had seemed like ages.

"I was taken into the Astral by a friend," Drake's eyes looked far away to that time, not seeing the clearing in the woods or the people that inhabited it. "He had been there once with his mentor. He said it was a miraculous and beautiful place, but something went wrong with his spell and we ended up in an unfamiliar area." Drake remembered wandering through the mist for hours on end with his weakened friend, looking for a place to rest.

"My friend didn't have enough time to rest before we were attacked by something." The colossal black form was coming through the mist for Drake and Redran again. There was nothing he could do but hurl insults at the creature that was beginning to laugh in a deep bellowing tone, but under that nightmarish laugh the half-elf could hear words of magic. "Redran managed to cast the spell, but not before the creature attack my mind and body with one of its own. I awoke in his lab, my hair changed like you see it now and a tormented scream in my mind. My friend was nowhere to be found."

"I sought out his mentor to find out what had happened, and the man told me that Redran had not had the power to transport himself along with me. The man also told me that the voice I was now hearing in my mind was my own, but not. The magical attack the demon, as it turned out to be, had hit me with had split the two halves of my soul. The good and benevolent half which stands before you, and the malevolent and hateful half that also shares this body. You need not fear though, he is merely a voice to mock my efforts and a slight advantage in battle."

Drake snapped back to reality and continued talking as if the haunting tale he'd told hadn't even registered in his mind. "I do not know why the shadows call me the other, however, but it may have something to do with..." Rather than continue speak Drake gave a little demonstration. He held his hand out above the ground to cast a shadow and focused his power. After a short time the shadows darkened significantly, though not as much as he'd hoped for. "I can bend them to my will as well," he said as he moved his arm back to its resting place on his knee. "I fear my power over them and my relationship with them is not as strong as yours, but I think my ability to scare off some of the light that bullies them may earn me brownie points."

He chuckled a bit at his own little joke, and then remembered that he was speaking with a man that could fry him on the spot. "So, tell me of yourself, Mr...." He paused again, waiting for the man to offer his name and continue the dialog.

[Devon]

"Devon, my name is Devon. Hmm, about myself. Well obviously you know about the shadows, it is a little wierd meeting someone who also is aquainted with them...as I am. You also know that..." Devon puffed on his cigarrette again, "The heat ofcourse. I'm sure your wondering how though, I think that is what your truly wondering about."

Devon squatted down and let the fire sputter itself out. The show was over anyways right?

"Well, to be honest, I'm learning alot as I go. I'm new to these powers you see. It turns out I'm an ....heir. Not to some kingdom or riches or anything like that, much more like a curse I guess you would say. Many generations ago, a male in my family summoned a demon. He made a pact that in return for his soul, he would be one of the wealthiest, most powerful and luckiest men in the world. I don't know if it worked or not, but he signed it in blood. I don't know if the demon did it to trick him, or if he even knew the repercussions...."

Devon sighed.

"It seems though, that every male I guess, has had....powers...advantages. And, when we die, our souls are collected by the demon, making him more powerful I guess. The thing is sometimes the men die of old age...Sometimes the men die in wierd....demonic ways. I guess the demon wants his power more aggressively sometimes. "

"So here I am before you, my powers and my body. It's all I have that are really mine, the soul is just on loan.... I have vowed to myself however, to find a way.... to keep it. To be immortal. It may mean losing my soul but then again, it would be cutting off the feedbag to the wretched demon, sort to speak.....Still working on that though."

[Anton Lyssak]

He moved quickly, traveling through the dense undergrowth of the forest with almost inhuman ease, but more importantly he moved quietly. The silence of the forest was absolute, all encompassing and entirely unnatural. At first this seemed odd to Anton, he was hardly an expert in these matters but he would have assumed that quite a lot of things lived in forests. Of course he was right, it couldn't be denied that these forests were quite heavily populated but then again it was exactly because of that fact that the forest was so quiet.

It was old, older than anything Lyssak had thus yet encountered, and there were things living within it equally as old. Lyssak had gotten quite good at identifying the nature of magic around him but in this place his knowledge failed him entirely. There were things here so ancient and exotic that Lyssak doubted he could ever comprehend them. However, he knew just enough to realize that drawing attention to oneself was not the best thing to do. So Lyssak moved erratically in seemingly nonsensical patterns as he danced around the awareness of those around him. This wasn't difficult for Lyssak, he was quite experienced at passing unnoticed.

But still Anton moved quickly. He'd been traveling for months now he and was a stones throw from his destination. Truth be told Anton didn't know why he chosen to go to such a place, he wasn't even sure if he had truly chosen it, but none the less Anton Lyssak was so close to Marn he could almost smell it by now.
Or perhaps that was something rotting in the undergrowth, from what he'd been told there wasn't much difference.

Marn was Anton focus now, to the point where he only just caught himself before he barged into a group of people mid conversation.

He silently scolded himself, just because there were quite a few terrifying enigmas in the forest didn't mean that it didn't have its fair share of simple inconveniences. The concentration of magic in front of him would have been obvious even to Dwarves and the fact that he had almost managed to walk into it without noticing was nothing short of embarrassing. It didn't take long for Anton to collect himself and it took him even less time to get a drip on the situation. There were three people, although people was probably the wrong word for them, and not only had they varying degrees of ability but they also appeared to be having quite the chat slap bang in the middle of the forest. That was curious, just not curious enough to warrant any of his attention. Anton didn't care who they were or what they were doing; all Anton wanted to do was get to the city.

"...many generations ago, a male in my family summoned a demon."

Anton stopped in his tracks. Well... that was hardly fair. He'd assumed the conversation would have been vaguely entertainingly to warrant such an odd location but summoning demons was a little more than he'd been expecting. Quite frankly, Summoning Demons warranted a detour.

"...I have vowed to myself however, to find a way.... to keep it. To be immortal. It may mean losing my soul but then again, it would be cutting off the feedbag to the wretched demon, sort to speak.....Still working on that though."

"Yes, but how exactly are you "working" on that?" said Anton "Beyond conversations in the forest that is."

There was no dramatic reveal, no leap from the shadows, as Anton walked into the clearing. In truth Anton hadn't really given much though to the repercussions of waltzing unannounced into a conversation, he seldom gave much though to most things. However, once he finished speaking he suddenly realised he'd made a terrible error.

"...oh yes, hello!" said Anton with a brief salute. "Sorry to interupt."

Anton didn't want to look rude.

[Maara]

Maara listened to both of their stories and the only thing that came to her mind was the fact that a demon, at some point in time, influenced their lives. Maara had a demon father, Devon got his powers from one, and Drake… she shuddered, ‘No wonder people didn’t like demons.’ She hugged her cloak closer to her body.

She supposed it was her turn for introductions and was about to open her mouth to speak when a man walk casually into the clearing.

"Yes, but how exactly are you "working" on that?" said the new man. "Beyond conversations in the forest that is." he stopped as if realizing his interruption. "...oh yes, hello!" said he with a brief salute. "Sorry to interupt."

‘Well at least he is polite, who ever he is,’ Maara smile uncertainly at the man before greeting him. “Umm… hello there. I don’t mean to sound rude but… who are you?”

[Drake]

Drake listened patiently as Devon told his tale. It seemed typical "sold my soul to the devil" stuff except for the powers, so he just listened half-heartedly. That is, until the part about immortality was mentioned. That seemed like a worthwhile adventure to get involved in, because if nothing else, Drake would learn how to become immortal if Devon succeeded.

He was about to ask a few questions when a voice sounded from behind him and someone came pushing out of the brush. Drake spun around on one foot to face the new arrival, whipping out his rapier in the process.

Something about the man that Drake now faced didn't seem right. Something was just....out of place with him. He backed toward the other two people in his group a bit as Maara asked the man a question, managing to bump shoulders with Devon.

The man hesitated in answering with his name just a second too long for Drake's liking, and he called on the shadows. He didn't know why he didn't like the guy, or why he had called up the shadows, but it had led to an impressive affect. (I'll explain in the OOC)

The entire clearing was suddenly enveloped by a globe of darkness. It seemed like someone had plopped a giant bowl with a thin coat of black paint on it over the forest, like an unnatural night. Drake stood there, frozen to the spot by the realization of what he'd just managed to do.

[Devon]

".....Mr.. Drake was it? Well this is just a tad bit...strange, the predicament we have ourselves in don't you think? I can see, and I'm fairly sure you can see, but I think it might be a small amount...rude? Because I don't know if anyone else can or not."

Devon sighed as he looked around at the others. This was odd. The shadows seemed to be screaming joy into his mind. They loved this. The shadows were almost thanking Devon and Drake. Devon couldn't exactly hear what the shadows were telling Drake, but the thought that they were this happy was almost a bad thing.

*Sorry friends, I know your enjoying this but it must end*

"Drake, any ideas to rectify this? It's not something I would want to be greeted by when coming upon a group in the woods."

He looked around at the group again, who knew what they were thinking at the time.

What was even more scary, was that Devon had never pulled off this much shadow magic in one place like this before. Condensed and intense at the same time. The shadows were so happy it was electrifying his body. Not painful, it was more of a subtle subconsciousness of the feeling.

Devon had never accomplished this much....Not since that night.

"Drake? Drop the shadows please." The tone of his voice was almost fearful, okay it may have sounded almost fearful, but the feelings under the the words were definately afraid.

[Anton Lyssak]

"...who are you?"

Anton didn't say anything, he just smiled and looked at the group. Three mongrels, there was not other word for them really, and each one of them stained by the Astral. Anton had known that before he'd even entered the clearing and to be frank it was nothing special, however as he'd gotten closer something had struck him as odd. The Astral was a limitless dream, a place of untold powers in incomprehensible varieties and yet despite that these three all had some odd link, a common thread between them.

Anton Lyssak didn't believe in coincidence. There was something deeper here, something greater than a chance encounter would suggest. Something dark, something dangerous and most intriguingly something terribly familiar.

Unfortunately Lyssak wasn't the only man inferring. One of the group had drawn a sword and on top of that he'd somehow managed to plunge the entire clearing into pitch darkness. Suffice to say this was a rather unfortunate turn of events.

"You know I can understand if you don't want to answer my question but that is no reason to literally keep me in the dark."

There was humour in his voice but with it there was an unmistakable edge nervousness. He idly fingered the pommel of his dagger as he spoke and stared off into the darkness. He couldn't see a thing but by now he was attuned enough to the three's distinct powers to know they weren't moving.

"Drake, any ideas to rectify this? It's not something I would want to be greeted by when coming upon a group in the woods. Drake? Drop the shadows please."

It was a relief to hear a voice, even more so considering they seemed to be about as comfortable with the situation as Lyssak felt. It wasn't enough to make him loosen his grip on the dagger but there was very little at this point that could manage that.

"Perhaps we got off on the wrong foot, Mister Drake." said Anton into the darkness "My name is Anton Lyssak and I'm afraid I am just a humble traveler, hardly worthy of such an... such an... impressive reception. Now, if you're more comfortable operating in complete darkness so be it but I would rather appreciate if you put that sword down."

Anton stared intently off into the darkness as he waited for a response and then, as often was the case, he had a rather pertinent afterthought.

"...although you will have to tell me once you've done that."

[Maara]

It was dark. So very dark that she had to hold her hand so close to her face it touched her nose before she could even tell it was there. Usually Maara didn’t mind the dark; sometimes she liked it more then the day. On moonless nights she could walk around without her cloak on without fear of anyone seeing her wings. But this… this kind of dark… a shiver ran down her spine and she felt goose bumps on her skin. ‘I don’t like this, it’s too dark.’

She thought she heard the voices of her companions somewhere in the darkness, but her heart was beating so loud she couldn’t really tell what they were saying or where they where coming from… it was so dark… there wasn’t even a small amount of light. There was usually some light even at night. There was the moon, the stars, campfires… ‘Fire!’ Maara thought with a start and smiled.

She hold her hands out in a position that she use so many times she didn’t need to see. But what she did need was to stop shaking. Her whole body was shaking. She swallowed and took a deep breath and tried to focus, but her fear was caused her concentration to waver and she wasn’t able to summon a flame. She was almost hyperventilating now and she felt warm water flowing down her face. ‘Please!’ she begged inside her head as she focused her energy again, to what she was begging to she didn’t know. ‘Please, please, I need light, I need to see. So please, give me light!’

There was a spark, it flickered twice but stayed steady and grew to the size of a candles’ flame, and gave off the glow the she longed for. She breathed a sigh of relief and enjoyed the light and warmth it brought her. Maara stared at the flame and smiled. She stopped paying attention to the world around her. She had light, she could see, and that was all the mattered to her at the moment.

[Drake]

Drake stared about in marvel at what he'd managed to do. It was amazing and beautiful. He had no idea how he'd managed so much, but he didn't care. Midnight in the middle of the day. It was marvelous. None of the other three's words registered to him. Not until the girl's flame brought his mind back to the present.

Suddenly all of the words that had been spoken to him flooded into his now receptive mind. "Oh...right...sorry." He mentally released the shadows and called the light back in. They clung to life, though. The encroaching light was the only reason they disappeared at all. It took a moment for the clearing to get back to normal, long enough for their eyes to adjust naturally and without pain.

"Sorry about that Maara, didn't mean to scare you. As for this," he said, turning back to the mysterious man and twirling the tip of his rapier in the air for emphasis, "I'll be keeping it out until I'm fairly certain I won't need it."

He then took a step closer to the girl and further from Devon. Part of him was still reacting paranoidly, but enough sense in his head to realize that if there was need to fear the man, Maara may need protecting. He moved his eyes, keeping the man in his paripheral vision, to Devon. "Mr. Interrogator, care to do the honor of posing questions," completely forgetting that the girl had already asked after the man's name.

[Anton Lyssak]

There had been a time when the darkness would have reduced Anton to a jibbering wreck but such a time had long since passed. The darkness was just that, darkness. It was a minor inconvenience which he could compensate for if necessary, it had not dulled any of his other senses. It was a good parlor trick and while Anton had nothing but appreciation for parlor tricks he was finding this particular one quite... vexing.

But then suddenly it was different... something darker, something almost sentient began to exercise control. For a split second Anton could feel it but it was a vast, so completely overwhelming, that as Anton never even realized he was falling. He didn't feel the impact as he hit the ground, his senses had momentarily been overloaded by whatever had just happened, and it wasn't until a few moments after the shadows had retreated that Anton actually realized he was lying on his back on the ground.

"Where'd he go?" Anton muttered quietly to himself as he stared up at the branches above him "It had been him hadn't it...? But he couldn't have done that himself... I would have known... I would have-"

"Mr. Interrogator, care to do the honor of posing questions,"

Lyssak stopped muteering abruptly and sat up. For a moment had dazed and xonfused exptression but that vanished in a matter of seconds only to be replaced by a slightly irritated grimace.

"...you know I'd ask you if you'd noticed that your "Mister Interrogator" was gone but since you didn't notice that I already answered the young woman's questions I feel that would be redundant." said Lyssak archly "Apparently, the lighting isn't the only dim thing around here now is it?"

[Maara]

As the darkness faded away, Maara breathed a large sigh of relief and the flame faded away. She suddenly felt tired, like she had flown 15 miles in an hour. She just wanted to curl up in someplace warm and sleep until she had her energy back.

"Sorry about that Maara, didn't mean to scare you-" Drake’s apology broke through her tired mind and suddenly she felt very weak. In her panic she had spent most of her energy on creating a small flame to get rid of the darkness the left a few moments later. She lifted a hand to touch her face and felt the wetness there. She had cried too. She felt herself blush as she tried to wipe them away.

"Mr. Interrogator, care to do the honor of posing questions,"

She could hear the men were talking and listened to their conversation, but didn’t lift her head to watch them because of her shame at her fear.

"...you know I'd ask you if you'd noticed that your "Mister Interrogator" was gone but since you didn't notice that I already answered the young woman's questions I feel that would be redundant." She quietly scuffed at him referring to her as ‘young woman’. If she still cried at being left in the dark then she wasn’t a woman or even a young woman, she felt like she was still a child. And she hated it.

"Apparently, the lighting isn't the only dim thing around here now is it?" Maara almost laughed at this, almost. It was so witty and quick. She didn’t laugh but she did smile slightly. It almost cheered her up, almost.

[Drake]

Drake just stared blankly from the man to the spot where the Devon guy had been standing. Had the new one answered Maara's question? And where in the nine hells had Devon gone? He slowly slid his rapier back into its place. If this man were tossing casual teases he probably wasn't looking to get physical. At least not just yet.

"I must apologize for missing your answer, but I was a bit distracted. I guess I should apologize for the little light trick too, I honestly don't know what came over me." He spun around slowly, trying to see if he could spot signs of Devon's exit. Nothing. "Well, we do seem to be one man short. Now that is odd." He really couldn't figure out how Devon had slipped out of the area without him hearing either.

After another quick look around he turned back to the man. The two just stood there, looking at each other. Drake had no idea where to go from here. He silently gave "the other" a sarcastic thanks for getting him into this mess.

[Anton Lyssak]

Lyssak shrugged uncomfortably as he sat on the ground, while the leather jerkin had proved invaluable during his journey it was not the ideal thing to be falling over in. Something rather sharp and pointy had dug into his back and though Lyssak had traveled hundreds of miles completely unaware of its existence it was now a pressing concern.

"I must apologize for missing your answer, but I was a bit distracted. I guess I should apologize for the little trick with the light too. I honestly don't know what came over me"

In seconds Anton had devised half a dozen less than flattering responses to this but he decided to keep them to himself, cutting remarks are best used against those not likely to retort with actual cutting. So Anton finished adjusted his jerkin and set about wiping bits of grass and unidentifiable debris from it.

"Well we do seem to be one man short, how odd."

"Hardly." Anton chimed in without looking up "Considering he was quite candidly discussing his plans to achieve immortality, betray the demon who gave him the entirety of his power and then rescue his own soul from the depths of the abyss I would have been shocked if nothing had happened. In my opinion the only odd thing is the absence of a booming voice and cacophonous laughter."

Anton doubted that anyone cared about his opinion; he thought they should but he was realistic enough to realize they wouldn't. From what he had experienced earlier it was fair to say something had happened, something which had either whisked the other man away or spooked him enough to send him running. Anton didn't know which and he wasn't even sure he cared. Immortality would be have been an interesting conversation topic but somehow he doubted it would have ever gone beyond mildly interesting banter. It retrospect it was a rather rash decision to divert and interrupt the groups musings but then again considering Lyssak entire journey in itself was a rash decision that did not mean much.

As Lyssak preened himself distractedly he took a quick look around, his eyes stopping briefly on the women, although perhaps girl would have been more accurate. She'd summoned fire, always nice trick, but apparently she had felt the need to counterbalance it with water, summoned by crying a lot. That was bit of a mystery to Anton, but to be perfectly honest emotions weren't Lyssak's forte, especially not other people's emotions. However it was enough for Anton to decide that it might be best to deal with the other member of the group.

For a few moments Lyssak returned to idly brushing dirt off his clothes before he suddenly realized the clearing was completely silent. He looked up slowly to find the man, Drake if the snippets of conversation he remembered where anything to go by, was giving him a rather accusing look. It took a few moments of careful calculation but eventually Lyssak decided that pointing out that he was completely blameless and even thinking about blaming him for anything would only be something a complete moron would do. The main motivation behind this was not due to some need to endear himself but rather because even though the man had put away his sword but somehow that failed to put Anton at ease. Even if turning off the lights was the totality of his power he would still be capable of making Anton's life difficult.

"Well then since I hardly made a glowing first impression let's start again?" said Anton cheerily "Hello. I am Anton Lyssak, a humble traveler heading towards Marn. I'm from a little place called Caelteth Eyrop, perhaps you've heard of it…? Well that doesn't matter really. Now, I must come clean and admit humble traveler isn't my true occupation, don't have really have the disposition for it. Truth be told, I am entertainer of sorts."

Lyssak flicked his wrist lazily and in an instant a singe red rose appeared in his grasp. Of course it wasn't actually there; the specimen itself was probably long withered considering he'd last seen it in a townhouse several months ago but it was a convenient enough image to project. He held it in his hands for a matter of seconds before lazily tossing it over his shoulder. It made a muted thud as it hit the ground, Anton really appreciated the subtly in his manipulation and such unnecessary flourishes such as this were one of his favorite things, but after this it vanished completely. He didn't wish to maintain the image for long, to do so would have only warranted further inspection and as good as he was given time the flaws to the illusion would have become glaringly apparent.

"Unfortunately, based on what I've heard Marn makes it clear that it could do with some entertainment I doubt my particular methods will be appreciated. But I suppose we'll have to see…" Anton trailed as he finally got back to his feet, once brushing again brushing the dirt from his clothes absentmindedly.

"Anyway, quite rare I say this but enough about me." Anton shrugged "So Mister Drake, Miss Maara, would either of you like to tell me who you are and what you're doing here? I realize I may be prying but what can I say, two men and a women meeting in the night in a forest has peaked my interest somewhat."

[Maara]

"Well, we do seem to be one man short. Now that is odd."

Maara looked around, Drake was right. They were one man short. Devon was gone. Were did he go? Her first friend since her mother died had disappeared.

"Hardly." The man named Anton chimed in. "Considering he was quite candidly discussing his plans to achieve immortality, betray the demon who gave him the entirety of his power and then rescue his own soul from the depths of the abyss I would have been shocked if nothing had happened. In my opinion the only odd thing is the absence of a booming voice and cacophonous laughter."

‘He has a point, but still…’ she thought to herself with a tinge of worry. If the demon that Devon was talking about did take him away what would happen to him? Did that mean that the demon was going to take his soul before Devon could figure out immortality? She felt sick at that thought. She really hoped not. She hadn’t known him for even a full 24 hours yet but she already felt a bond between them. She wished that there were something she could do to help him.

"Well then since I hardly made a glowing first impression let's start again?" Anton cheery voice snapped her back to reality. "Hello. I am Anton Lyssak, a humble traveler heading towards Marn. I'm from a little place called Caelteth Eyrop, perhaps you've heard of it…? Well that doesn't matter really. Now, I must come clean and admit humble traveler isn't my true occupation, don't have really have the disposition for it. Truth be told, I am entertainer of sorts." A single red rose appeared in his hand. It was a lovely example but at the same time there seemed to something wrong with it. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it; it just seemed too perfect to be any flower she had seen. ‘Perhaps it’s not real?’ she thought to herself. ‘Perhaps he is a magic user.’ It seemed likely but she wasn’t sure. Before she could take a closer look at the rose Anton tossed it over his shoulder.

"Unfortunately, based on what I've heard Marn makes it clear that it could do with some entertainment I doubt my particular methods will be appreciated. But I suppose we'll have to see…" This only gave her more evidence to support her ‘Anton is a magic user’ theory since she had heard that magic users were not really liked in Marn and …

And that’s when it hit her. Marn. The city she had been travelling to before her little engagement with these three men in the woods. The places were she had been hoping to finish her training and learn summoning. And maybe if she really played her cards right, she could find a way to help Devon. Hope and excitement was starting to weigh over the worry she had for Devon’s predicament. She wasn’t sure how yet but she would find something.

"Anyway, quite rare I say this but enough about me. So Mister Drake, Miss Maara, would either of you like to tell me who you are and what you're doing here? I realize I may be prying but what can I say, two men and a women meeting in the night in a forest has peaked my interest somewhat."

She thought for a moment and decide that now was the right time to speak. “Well, I was travelling to Marn hoping to find someone to train me in healing and to find someone.” Maara decide that mentioning the part about summoning demons would be a bad idea at the moment, especially after Drake’s story. Also the part about her heritage should also be left out for now. ‘Just in case…’ she thought as she traced the scar on her cheek.

“I actually just met Devon last night,” she felt the sick feeling again after saying his name. “And shared a meal and a fire with him.” The part about the fight and Devon’s breakdown she also decided to leave out for now. “And Drake I just met this afternoon. We had a… little misunderstanding, then we started chatting, and that’s around the time you came in.” She paused for a moment and thought about all that has happened. “You know, now that I think about it… I’ve had a very strange and interesting day.”