An Owl's Rise

Evelyn started to become more and more nervous as Melisandre began mumbling to herself and saying things like "This should not be possible" and "How is she not dead."

Naturally she gulped loudly hearing this, as she had no idea that she had just been risking her life in order to absorb more magical energy.

Eventually Melisandre shook her head and then looked at Evelyn with an intense gaze, and said, "We have much to talk about. Follow me. we are going somewhere that we will not be heard by others."

Melisandre then turned around and walked back towards the elevator platform, and Evelyn followed behind her with her head held down.

She was still unaware as to what she had done that needed to be discussed somewhere else entirely, but she could tell that what she had just done must have been completely abnormal.

'Damn it, I should not have gotten caught up in trying to raise my rank like that. I do not know what the normalcy in this world is, so things I might consider fine could be blasphemous to those that live here. I need to take more care before I do things from now on.' Evelyn thought while berating herself.

She had spent so long out in the wilds away from any sort of society that she had practically forgotten the need to conform to her surroundings.

As they flew through the halls to wherever Melisandre was leading them, Evelyn just kept thinking that something horrible was going to happen to her.

After all she had been through emotionally and physically, she always imagined the worst even though so far Melisandre had been quite nice and accommodating for the most part.

Still, she remembered how quickly her tranquility could be uprooted and turned on its head, so she was always one edge for the next terrible thing that would befall her.

By the time they reached the door Melisandre had brought her to, Evelyn's heart was pounding, and her head felt heavy as it raced to try and find some way out of this situation.

Unfortunately, from the moment Melisandre took interest in her, she knew she was going to be at her mercy. There was just a clear and unsurmountable difference between their levels of power.

'I can get through this somehow. She seems mad, but hopefully I can get out of this with just some yelling and a light beating.' Evelyn thought, remembering, the "punishments" her human father had given her.

When Melisandre opened the door, Evelyn was able to see into the room that was just a plain stone room with a table surrounded by cushions that were designed for an owl to sit on.

Honestly to Evelyn, it looked like an integration chamber, and she was actually not far off from her assessment.

Once she had stepped inside, she was startled as the door slammed shut behind her. She even jumped and let out a loud screech of fear.

Seeing and hearing this, Melisandre turned towards Evelyn and for the first time saw the absolute look of terror exuding from her entire body.

She looked like she was preparing to be horribly tortured, and maybe even killed. Which made some of Melisandre's anger vanish.

'That is right, she was probably captured by humans for quite some time. There is no knowing what manner of horrors they subjected her to.' Melisandre thought, remembering how Evelyn had reacted when she put her hand on her.

"Go ahead and sit here." Melisandre said pointing at one of the cushions.

She then took a chair from seemingly out of nowhere and sat across form Evelyn at the table.

Though before they began speaking, she activated some sort of magical formation on the table and surrounding area, and her and Evelyn were surrounded by a thin shimmering field of dark blue light.

"There, now no one should be able to hear us even if they were trying to listen in." Melissa said. "Now let me preface this by saying that I am mad, but I will not be punishing you for this. It is partly my fault for underestimating you. I should have just had Anneli watch you until I got back."

Melisandre then softened her gaze towards Evelyn which made her open her eyes wide, and she nearly felt tears welling up inside her from relief.

She thought for sure she was about to get scolded heavily and hit repeatedly for her mistake, but instead Melisandre looked at her with kind eyes.

"To start there are a number of odd things about you that I need to have cleared up. First, where did you get those storage amulets, and what exactly do you have inside them? I need to know before you unwittingly pull out something dangerous."

Tensing up, Evelyn became guarded about having to disclose what was in the storage amulets.

While most of what was in them was relatively harmless and even if Melisandre inspected it, they would not cause any problems. There were two items in particular that would reveal Evelyn's greatest secret.

Mason's diary and the langue guide he had left her would out her as having come from another world, and the diary would also give away the fact that she had the heavenly flame in her possession.

These were secrets that Evelyn knew she was better off keeping to herself, and under no circumstances was she going to offer up this information willingly.

Luckily Melisandre had not forced her to hand over the amulets to inspect them. So, she instead took them off and placed them on the table, before explaining where she got them.

"I found them hidden deep beneath a ruin or a human civilization. The person who had left it there was being hunted by some group from what I could gather and left these and the items in them in hopes that whoever found them would get revenge after the fact." Evelyn said, relaying the fake cover story that Mason had left behind.

Hearing this, Melisandre nodded her head. It was not uncommon for those that felt they were near their end to leave treasures behind to try and get someone to take up their mantle in some regard or another.

Still, they would normally leave some sort of binding magic on the one that had taken their offering, in order to force them to do as they pleased even from beyond the grave.

However, Melisandre was certain no such magic had been cast on Evelyn, otherwise she would have detected it unless it was from a very powerful and craft source.

'It is unlikely the one who left those amulets was stronger than I am. Their quality is about what I might expect a beast at the peak of the awakened rank or low tier of the tyrant rank to have. So, I do not believe any magic was cast upon her, but I will need to thoroughly check later.' Melisandre thought as she listened to Evelyn's explanation.

Once Evelyn was done telling where she acquired the amulets, she took out the inventory list and handed it over to Melisandre.

This detailed all of the items Mason had left for her expect for the heavenly flame and books which he had pointed out to her in his final message.

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