Out of the Lamp

Chapter 31: Escaped

A:N// Welp. This was long overdue >.<

I have had the worst writers block of my entire life and it is not going away anytime soon. Every time I come back to this book, I can't get past the damned trial. I know what happens before, and after, and even in between. But for the life of me, I cannot put it to words. Words, which I am fully aware, I can write at a ridiculously elevated level when I'm feeling it.

But ya girl ain't feeeeeeeling it! Gah. I've tried though, and it will have to suffice for now.

This chapter, like the few before them, are the most temporary of all. Will need to redo sometime, one day, some day. Meh 🤷🏿‍♀️

But for now - enjoy! Vote and comment, especially if there's typos 😂 lord knows there is, and I'm blind to it atm.//

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You know, once I heard of an Immortal whose trial was to help a little boy retrieve his boat from a lake. I shit you not. He was also the descendent of one of the Bureau's lot. So I guess no favouritism there, eh?

Then there was an unfavored Underworld succubus who was trialed to abstain inspiring sin whilst working in the red light district of Tokyo. Needless to say, she failed and was stripped of her powers. Rendered mortal, and died within a year of exile.

Then there's me.  Thrown a few hundred years into the past, shoved into a mortal shell and expected to save an entire group of enslaved women. If I fail, my evil mother's sins will inherently become mine, my powers stripped, my existence exiled and death to all blah, blah, blah. No biggie, right?

Way in over your heard, girl.

Something slithers in my peripheral, and I zone back into my new reality to realise it is a snake. A cobra in fact. The black cobra rears it's head back.

Swaying side to side, hypnotic, like a pendulum. It's slick, ebony scales glinting off moonlight, giving it a navy tinge. Something about it had me calm, as if it was my own familiar. Like the crow before. Even the damned cat the other day.

Daemon.

What I wouldn't give for that demon's son to be here. He'd vanished after saving me earlier, but I couldn't shake the feeling he was still around. I couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't supposed to help me. Because - this is a test - and that would be cheating. So how had Specs not noticed and pulled me out? It isn't unheard of for examinees to quit or be pulled out. What was going on...?

Needless to say, wishful thinking wouldn't get me anywhere. Action would. So I crook my finger at the snake, and it obliges.

Don't ask me why or how. It just does. There's no magic in this body, but there is magic in the air. I feel it, on a subtle breeze of the wind, almost tangible like a spiders woven thread. Not at all obvious unless you knew where to look.

What was I doing out here? No idea. Did I have a plan? Not at all. Was I going to wing it? Duh. I forget about the snake as soft treads of sifting sand tease my ears, and I hear it hiss and move to the shadows, watching me.

The women were assembling.

A group of almost thirty. That didn't make it any easier. A number that large had no way to hide in a dessert. You'd think it would be simple, but on foot, we would be vulnerable. You'd think it would be easy to get lost in a desert, but a group this size would only make you stand out more. On a horizon that had nought but the beating sun and endless space stretching plainly as far as the eye can see. We would be easy targets.