“How should we proceed Lady Sybil?” Saban asked timidly.  

Unlike the other two, he was mundane and a bit flighty for an exorcist in training. He also possessed the worst trait for an exorcist, fear of spirits and demons. Saban was a jumpy fellow who was better suited to study within the walls of the imperial Ministry of Divinity rather than our in the field exorcising spirits, and protecting people from demons. No, he was better off at some lowly clerk within the ministry. How or why Lady Sybil had accepted him as a pupil had to be a case of nepotism. Although he never spoke about himself like Teos, Zeri knew he came from a family of note to be able to be accepted by Lady Sybil. Or she owed someone a favor and was given this lout to train. But even she was unlikely to make a competent exorcist out of Saban. He was destined to fail.  

Lady Sybil thought hard about the next step they should take. She had not planned on remaining within Derbryn for very long as they received a contract from the local office of Divinity within the township about a rumored troublesome entity harassing a local fishing village further down the valley in a remote corner of Dunna Ri. Several people had drowned under mysterious circumstances and it was a perfect exercise for her students to investigate whether the drownings were caused by demonic or spiritual forces or simply bad-luck or natural causes like a strong undercurrent known in rivers like those found in Dunna Ri that could overpower even the strongest of swimmers.  

She had planned on setting out tomorrow given the length of the journey. They had enough time to study the local manuscripts about the spiritual energies within Dunna Ri written by past and current scholars. It was time for more hands-on experience for her three pupils. But she could not shake off the feeling she had when sensed the spiritual energy within the inn. It was unlike anything she had felt in many years. Last time she detected a spiritual energy or force of that magnitude it had been associated with a holy shrine deep in the Ektuan mainland region of Evimeria devoted to the Divine Mother’s Child, Lavanya, a goddess associated with light, and the growth of all living beings. The eldest of the Divine Mother’s children, Lavanya was highly worshiped. Some might have mistook the feeling she had with being graced by the goddess herself, but Lady Sybil had not gone to the shrine to pray or give an offering to the deity.  

Something had been disturbing locals from visiting the shrine. Even the local monks and priestesses in the area were being attacked by some unseen entity. Whoever approached the pathway to the shrine was suddenly struck with a powerful wind and stench that made them flee in fear. When Lady Sybil arrived the over-powering sense of spiritual energy was intense and surrounded the area of the shrine. After some digging with the locals she learned the shrine had been placed near a far more ancient spiritual site of a stone circle. Nobody knew what had been worshiped there previously but some locals had removed some of the stones recently and then the troubles began. It seemed whatever entity, an ancient entity once worshipped likely as a local god had been disturbed and enraged.  

In the lexicons used by exorcists to determine the type of entity they were dealing with, these spirits, known as Old Gods, or Hen Rai, were some of the rarest beings an exorcist may encounter, even rarer than the Soul Devourers, the Slukare. In order to calm such a powerful being, talismans and spells being rather useless, Lady Sybil ordered the stones be returned by the ashamed locals and for them to honor the deity whose name was lost to time by giving an offering of food and drink. Soon people were able to return to the shrine of Lady Lavanya in peace. It seemed the entity who had settled near the goddess’ shrine had been sufficiently appeased and left them alone.  

Whatever had come into the inn however briefly was on par with a Hen Rai, an Old God. If so, her and her pupils were not equipped to deal with it, or capable. There was no reason to anyways. But her interest was deeply piqued. She had been coming to Dunna Ri for over two decades now, taking the trip every few years with a new batch of students and yet she had never come across an Old One, as the term god lost favor as many felt it respected the Divine Mother whose protection they relied on for their work.  

As for informing her students that the spiritual force they felt could be one of the rarest entities known in existence was, well, she knew Saban would panic, Teos would be intrigued but likely did not have the ambition to pursue something immense as that, but Zeri. Oh Zeri. Overly-ambitious he was hungry for power and status, no ravenous for it to a degree that was beginning to concern her. He was already chaffing at her restrictions and wanted more. If he knew a Hen Rai had been here, who knows what foolish action he would take.  

Lady Sybil was aware of his ‘secretive’ activities of studying spells beyond his skill and other incantations and worried knowing an entity of such ancient power he might pursue it beyond an academic level. He was the type who likely would push the boundaries of respectful spiritual practices and sorcery. The Ministry of Divinity had already classified several forbidden arts or spells due to the unholy nature of them. One was the binding of Hen Rai and Slukare. Obviously in the distant past some exorcists or sorcerers had attempted to bind such powerful spiritual entities to them and met with unmigrated disasters. She had in her studies of restricted texts and manuscripts that told of families being cursed for generations because a member attempted unholy binding and rituals or other forbidden acts of magic.  

Having approval to study these texts much to her horror but amazement discovered in a margin of a very old text citing the existence of manuscripts written by the mythic Demon Kings that still existed but were hidden. The passage was fairly cryptic but hinted at the supposed location. She had kept this knowledge hidden but someone like Zeri this knowledge could be found as he recently took an unsettling interest in the so-called Demon Kings, ancient rulers of a bygone era several millennia ago they ruled the Ektuan archipelago prior to the creation of the empire, where the many islands were warring kingdoms whose kings were powerful sorcerers.  

They were called Demon Kings by scholars of the past due to the legends that spoke of how they required human sacrifices annually in order to rule. The ghastly idea of human sacrifice demanded of a king did not sit with modern sensibilities of the current era under the guidance of the Heavenly Doctrine where murder was abhorred and considered a sin of the highest degree. Murder, the sullying of one’s soul by committing an act of taking a human life for selfish purpose according to the Heavenly Doctrine was paramount to spitting in the face of the Divine Mother as she created human souls thus destroying the vessels of a person, their mortal fleshy bodies was deeply evil. It became a theory that demonic spirits are created when a person commits murder giving rise to unholy spiritual energies.  

Thus anyone requiring human sacrifice could only be demonic in nature, going against the Divine Mother in the most profound ways, they were called the Demon Kings. The magic they practiced, according to the legends still in existence, reported they used the souls in order to lure in powerful ancient spirits, entrapping them, binding them, and becoming all powerful, or almost immortal. How the Demon Kings fell, or were stopped remains a giant blank spot in the legends, they simply were destroyed, and in the ensuing chaos of their destruction was how the first imperial Ektuan dynasty arose. The knowledge of the powers and magics used by the Demon Kings was apparently destroyed, but perhaps not so if the strange inscription Lady Sybil found was to be believed.  

She never sought to verify it ever. However, Zeri was someone she worried would in his pursuit of power and status. Lady Sybil loathed to call someone wicked, by Zeri had a touch of darkness in his soul that she could see and feel within him, but never spoke to anyone about much less the young man himself. It was why she took him under her wing, hoping she could ensure that darkness abated or was contained. She knew what happened to exorcists, sorcerers, or even priests of either gender of wanting to push the bounds of acceptable spiritual practices. It was always death and likely the damming of their souls. It was rare, but it happens.  

“It is of no concern for us for now. We have a task a head of us that needs our full attention. We will be leaving tomorrow for the village of Onkia that requires our services. But we will remain vigilant. If this entity or energy should return or we sense it again elsewhere, we can look into the matter further. For now, the matter is dropped.”  

Her pupils accepted her answer without argument. Even Zeri was clever enough to feign his deference to her then going behind her back. She hoped them being away from Derbryn would give whatever had come here today a chance to be long gone by the time they were back. Whatever or whoever it was, hopefully did not in fact attach itself to the young man in the inn.