Burning pain. This was what Iris felt the moment the bright light vanished. She wasn't sure what was happening to her or where the pain was coming from. She was so occupied with her pain that she didn't notice a demon lord casting a spell on her - to help her.
A golden band appeared over her head and rested on it like a crown and the pain immediately started to diminish. However, it had already left her beyond exhausted. High level darklings like Lord Kieran and his three companions could see it, but it was invisible to the naked eye of a human.
"Melina." Lord Kieran murmured, but was loud enough for his companions to hear. His blue eyes lit up as a small part of his magic embedded itself on Iris's body. He could feel the bond strengthening between them.
Through this bond, the demon lord would know whether this human had perished or was in danger. She was the only person Lord Kieran had bestowed a geas on throughout his long life.
Iris's whole body trembled in reaction. Her magic attempted to repel the magic limiter, but with the geas being established between them, Iris had unknowingly allowed herself to become associated with the demon lord she just saved the other day.
The three men looked at their lord with astonishment and disbelief, knowing what Lord Kieran had just done. None of them expected that their lord would do something like this, especially not for a mere human.
"Milord, why did you name that magus?" Aiden asked Lord Kieran with a conflicted look on his face. Everyone in the Court of Nightfall knew that their lord had a great aversion towards humans and maguses. It was one thing to bestow her with a geas, but a name?
The demon lord had not only bestowed the human magus a magic limiter, but he had also placed a geas on her. A geas of protection from enchantments of any kind of magic or glamor. Moreover, being granted a new name by a high-ranking darkling like Lord Kieran meant that he was declaring the human to be under his protection.
The Lord of the Court of Nightfall had never done this before. Not on another darkling. Never on a human. So, how was this young woman able to gain their lord's recognition? This had never happened before.
Something must have happened while the three of them weren't around. Aiden thought. They knew that their lord had fought with the vampire lord and had sustained an injury.
Still, they found it hard to believe that the Undead Lord would bestow protection on a human. This meant that no darklings could subject her under mind control or deception and they would be forced to recognize her as part of Lord Kieran's Court of Nightfall.
Breaking a geas was impossible. It could only be removed by the caster itself. For some, being given a geas meant obligation or a vow they couldn't break. Geasa could potentially harm them if violated, or bless them if obeyed.
"We are even now, young lady. Whether you live or not after this, it doesn't concern me anymore." Lord Kieran said before he turned and leapt from the tree branch he was perched on earlier, leaving his three vassals once again.
He didn't bother to explain his actions to them or the reason he helped the human magus to control her raging magic that was threatening to kill her. From now on, Lord Kieran didn't need to think that he owed her something.
"My liege! We have to return to court. The selection is fast approaching and the other demon lords are demanding your participation." Callum said as he leapt to the ground and followed his master.
Aiden gave the human one last look before following Callum, while Yuri stayed, his eyes never leaving Amelia's bloody form. She was now crawling over to check on Iris who was frozen in shock.
In Yuri's eyes, Amelia looked like a kitten fighting for her own life, even though she knew that she was no match to a darkling. Direwolves weren't the strongest darklings in Asnar, but if they moved together as a pack, it would prove to be challenging to defeat them without proper knowledge and weapons.
"Yuri?"
Yuri only moved from his place when Aiden called his attention. He gave Amelia a quick glance before deciding to leave. He had never seen a human that had fought tooth and nail to protect both herself and her friends from the direwolves.
Lord Kieran proceeded to trace his way back to the mountain range that separated Dravial from Asnar. With the snow now disappearing from the ground, his pace was smoother and easier now. Not that snow could slow him down, but he would rather not have anything on his foot as it crunched the ground with his weight.
He hadn't walked too far when he caught something glittering behind a thick bush next to a large tree. He elegantly bent down and picked it up, discovering that it was an obsidian crystal embedded in a golden ring.
Lord Kieran then briefly remembered what the human said during their first encounter. Didn't she say that she came to the woods to find something?
"I came here to find my ring that I lost yesterday." She told him then.
"So it's a magic limiter, huh. No wonder she was able to live with the rest of the humans this long."
The demon lord surmised that she wasn't even aware of how dangerous her magic was. If it wasn't for this limiter, that scrawny little human would have long been dead. She didn't even know how dangerous she could be to those around her.
That scrawny human wouldn't last long without a magic limiter. It was either she would be killed by her own magic, or by the people of the Kingdom of Dravial. Without the limiter, there was no way the human would be able to survive in Dravial, not when their leaders had been persecuting her kind harshly.
Author's Note:
Geas. noun. geas plural noun.geasa.
an obligation or prohibition magically imposed on a person.