The Demon Priest

Chapter 4: Magical Information

 Lance awoke to the crackling sound of a fire. Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes and looked to see where it was coming from. He saw Azazel sitting there, roasting a wolf that he had recently killed.
 "What are you doing?" The half-elf inquired.
 "Making something to eat." The demon simply replied.
 "Then why did you make a fire? Couldn't you have just used your hand with a fireball?"
 "Wouldn't have worked. The wolf is too big. Besides, you were shivering in your sleep so I thought that this would warm you up."
 "I see... Thank you."
 "It's no problem. Now you should eat. We have a long journey."

 They finished eating and hit the road once again. Azazel decided to walk alongside Lance this time instead of flying, which the boy was less than thrilled about. He still didn't trust the demon and was in fact thinking about ways he could kill him. If it came down to it, Lance wanted to be ready to take out his companion. Still, he couldn't deny the demon was getting surprisingly comfortable with him. For some reason Azazel seemed to care for him, but Lance put the idea out of his mind. Demons were all the same. Evil. Yet... Lance looked over at Azazel, who seemed to be enjoying the nature.
 "What, do you not have trees where you come from?" Lance snickered.
 Azazel, surprisingly, shook his head. "No we don't. The underworld is void of any plants or grass. All we have are demons and beasts, which we eat."
 "Oh, I should have guessed. Sorry."
 "It's alright. I enjoy Chiyolas, it's a very... relieving sight to see. All of the different types of flora you have, it's quite beautiful."
 "Surely you must have something beautiful in the underworld as well."
 Azazel laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Unfortunately we do not. That's the curse of being a demon I suppose. There is nothing good about the world we have to live in."
 "I see. That must be very depressing."
 "I... I am not sure. I never thought of it as depressing. Not until I came here for the first time did I realize that we demons have it bad. Our king is a power crazed tyrant who insists on murdering innocent people to get what he wants. Half of his subjects support him and the others are too scared to do anything. I can't believe how ignorant I was until now."
 "That doesn't matter. What matters is that you're doing something about it now."
 Azazel nodded and now wore a more determined expression on his face. However this quickly wore off as it was replaced with an expression of wonder and amazement.
 He pointed to something off in the distance and ran towards it, forcing Lance to follow.
 As they made their way through the trees, Lance saw it.
 What looked to be made out of limestone bricks was an old ruin. Moss and vines covered the structure and made it hard to find a way in. A pillar of limestone was fallen over on an archway. Rotten crates were scattered around the area with old weapons and food inside them.

 "This is what you wanted? To see some old abandoned ruin?" Lance questioned, clearly annoyed.
 "It's not any old ruin," The demon replied, rolling his eyes. "It's an elven ruin. This could have something very rewarding in it. Treasure, weapons, ancient magic it could be anything."
 "You want to get sidetracked by this, go ahead. I'm continuing on."
 "Really? What if it has something to do with you?"
 Lance stopped in his tracks and spun around. "What do you mean?"
 "Well, it's elven. You are a half elf and your mother is a full elf. Aren't you curious about it at all?"
 The boy thought for a moment. He seriously doubted that the ruin involved him or his mother. Still... it got him interested in it.
 "I... suppose that we can go take a look at it. Just for a little bit though."
 "Alright alright. Let's go and explore."
 Azazel ran around the ruin looking for a way in. Eventually he found a double door  covered by hanging moss. He excitedly tried pushing it open to no avail. Again he put all of his weight onto it and pushed again only to have the same thing occur.
 "Something wrong?" Lance asked as he walked up to his companion.
 The demon sighed. "There must be something blocking the way on the other side. You stay here while I look for another way in."
 Lance sighed as Azazel flew off looking for a door. He certainly was... ecstatic.
 The half elf chuckled to himself and leaned on the stone door. It immediately opened up and Lance fell flat on his face. He grunted and stood back up, looking around. How'd he open the door if Azazel couldn't? Speaking of which, the demon flew in next to him.
 "Of course. Of course you could open it." Azazel muttered.
 "What do you mean? Why could I do it?" Questioned the boy.
 "Well, it's an elven ruin, so only those with elven blood can open it. Wow, I didn't even think about that."
 "I... see. Elves certainly are clever."
 "Indeed they are."
 "Alright, enough staring let's go."
 Azazel rushed off down a corridor with Lance quickly following. Blue lights flickered on the wall and Lance could only assume it was some form of magic, as how else could they be working after all these years.
 They turned a corner and came across a metal gate, which Azazel destroyed although Lance wondered why he didn't just open it. The two walked a few steps and continued on. Lance had to admit he was becoming very curious as to what was in here. The architecture was marvelous and the feeling he got while in here was, for a lack of better words, mystifying.
 "What's this?" Azazel asked as he looked upon a bronze cask.
 The demon took off the lid and reached inside, pulling out a golden gem. It pulsed with some sort of unknown energy. Lance got closer and examined it. The artifact was strange. Very strange indeed. He had no idea what this was or what it did. Maybe they would find out once they got to Cardinal. Azazel handed it to him, who stuck it in his pouch.
 "Let's keep going." The demon said, leading the way.
 The two kept journeying through the halls of the ruins, finding ancient bows, swords, axes and the like. However upon closer inspection the pair could see they were chipped, dented or dull. They also found more casks and looked in them to find old jewelry but no more of the strange gems.
 They stepped into a large dark room with the only light being a blue crystal chandelier. Lance found the rooms presence to quite ominous.
 "What do you think this room is?" He asked Azazel, who stared in awe at the huge room.
 "I'm not sure. I can't really see anything that clearly. Hold on a minute." The prince replied. He waved his hand and dozens of blue and black fireballs appeared and floated around the rooms, giving off much more light than the chandelier. They glowed fiercely, and as everything was revealed the duo gasped.
 Scattered around the room were hundreds of coffins, each filled with the corpses of elves. However the elves all had their eyes and ears removed and the coffins looked to be ransacked.
 "What the hell?" Lance muttered.
 "It must be an elven burial site. I... I guess they stored their bodies here to preserve them."
 "Azazel, their eyes and ears... why are they missing?"
 "I'm not sure. It's not like a grave robber could just waltz right in here. Sorry Lance, I really don't know."
 Lance walked forwards, observing the dead elves. These were his people, at least partly, and now he looked upon them as they were disgraced. Still, he couldn't help but wonder what robbed them of their body parts. It couldn't have been a common thief, so what?
 The boy noticed Azazel rummaging through a coffin and anger rose in his chest.
 "What do you think you're doing?!" He yelled at the demon, his voice echoing throughout the room.
 Azazel turned to show that he was holding a dusty leather bound book. "Sorry. I saw this buried with an elf and couldn't help myself. I looked in it but I don't know what it says. You try."
 Lance took the book and opened it up. Inscribed on the pages were different letter written in the elvish language. Although a half elf, Lance was never taught to read this type of writing, but that didn't seem to matter as the pages flipped on their own and the word burned into his mind and sent a searing pain throughout his head. The boy went to a knee and held his head, trying to get the pain to go away. Sweat dripped off of him as it slowly began to subside and he panted heavily. He slowly got back to his feet, using the side of the coffin as support.
 "Lance, are you okay?" Azazel asked worriedly.
 Taking a moment to reply, the boy let out a sigh. "I'm fine. I believe that was a tome."
 "A tome?"
 "Yes. You see, elves are able to use magic, and are born with a spell etched into their mind. However to learn more spells a user has to read a tome, which is basically a book containing magical energy which transfers itself to an elf. These tomes are very rare and once they are read turn completely useless, meaning that a tome can only be used once and then they are no longer able to give someone a spell. Apparently they used to be very common, but after the war between humans and elves the quantity of them diminished."
 "I see. I didn't realize magic was so complex. So only elves can use magic?"
 "Technically yes. However if an elf imbues an artifact, say a ring, with some of their mana, a human can use this to perform some basic spells like fire or frost to name two, the simplest of elements. Although this is a weak form of magic, it could mean life or death in a battle."
 "Wow. Magic is so fascinating. The only 'magic' demons have is the ability to use flames. Although mine is blue and black and more powerful because I am the son of Abraxas, others can only use regular fire. But why do you know so much about magic but never us it?"
"Let's get out of here and I'll explain on the way."
 The pair walked out of the room and started making their way back to the outside, all the while Lance explaining to Azazel the tips about magic.
 "You see, I respect magic and I think that it's very powerful, an art even. However using it causes a sort of backlash, it's very taxing on a persons fatigue.
 Elves have to train long and hard to withstand the backlash of magic and even when they do, that just means they are resistant to it, not immune. It's not that we have a limited amount of mana, it's just the fact that if we keep casting spells we will actually die from the strain of it. That's why I found it easier to train with a sword than try to master magic." Lance then laughed. "In fact, the only reason I know all of this is because as a child, I accidentally used magic and almost killed myself. After my father saw this he quickly taught me about the power and the risks involved."
 Azazel was in awe. "Wow. I wish that I could use magic, it would be amazing. Although I suppose that I would probably end up overdoing it and killing myself."
 "As dangerous as it it, it certainly is useful."
 "Agreed."
 They made their way out of the exit and opened the door, their eyes adjusting to the suns bright light. Lance had to admit, that elven ruin certainly was full of... interesting things. Besides, Azazel seemed to enjoy himself.
 The boy looked over at the demon. Perhaps, just maybe, Lance could get along with him and they could eventually become friends. If so, he wondered, then Azazel's dream of demons living side by side with humans could become a reality. As the boy thought about it, he failed to notice a figure slip out of the ruins before the door shut and hide in the shadowy forest.

*Please feel free to vote and also comment. I love hearing back from all of you, especially on things that I can improve on. And yes, I based the ruin off of an Ayleid ruin from Oblivion :P*