Rise Up - Mage & Demon Queen

Chapter 9 - Roots

                                    3 months later...

   Malori had been in the demon tower for a few months now, and things were going surprisingly well for her.

   Malori had grown much more comfortable in her position as a ward of the tower. Staying in Melathias room guaranteed regular food and baths, an offer almost too good for her to pass up.

   Not to mention that after seeing the young girls intense fascination with her miniature library, Melathia had even started teaching Malori how to read and write, among other skills.

  All things considered, Malori had taken to reading like a duck to water. She learned rather quickly, however her achievements in being able to read the words on the pages in front of her paled in comparison of her failure to learn any magic.

  Despite spending countless hours dwelling on the basics she read while Melathia was away, she simply couldn't grasp the concept of wielding magic. They were just too complicated for her to learn alone.

   A part of her debated asking Melathia for help, before quickly shutting the idea down. While the woman was a very skilled magic user and the top demon general, Malori couldn't burden the lamia woman more than she already had.

   After all, Melathia spent almost all of her free time these days helping Malori learn and grow. The girl was infinitely thankful, but also felt slightly guilty for sucking away all her mentors time. When the lamia wasn't conducting her duties as the top demon general, she was always with Malori.

   Seeing this, Malori decided that Mel taking care of her was plenty. Malori should be able to do the rest on her own.

   As of right now, Malori was sitting at a table across from Melathia. She supposed to be listening to one of Melathias lectures on basic mathematics. However, the girl found herself paying little to no attention to the demon general and continued to zone out, bored of the concept of addition and too focused on her magic floundering.

   Instead she scanned briefly over the walls lined with books as her eyes settled on a rather large window with the curtains drawn back.

    Seeing the natural light flood in from the outside, a result, no doubt, of the evening sun, made Maloris heart flutter slightly in her chest.

   The one thing she sincerely missed about home was the freedom that came with it. Here at the tower Maloris trips outside were limited due to the number of people that traversed around on the daily basis.

    Melathia had told her that she shouldn't allow herself to be spotted by wandering adventurers, lest she wanted to be taken from the tower.

    While Malori wasn't quite sure exactly what would happen to her in that case, but she could imagine. If it was anything like what her parents did to her, than she would hide from adventurers forever.

"Malori."

   The demon charmers head snapped to attention and stared at Mel with wide questioning eyes. After hearing her name she was now rather attentive towards her mentors words.

   The lamia simply looked amused at the girls sudden reaction. In a caring way, of course.

   "You seem to be a bit distracted, dear." The woman said plainly, more of a statement than a question.

   Malori simply nodded her head and looked down, not sure what exactly to say in response. She didn't want Ms. Melathia thinking she didn't appreciate her lessons because she truly did. However, she also just couldn't seem to focus on what the mentor was trying to teach her.