The tiny fly dragon got some very strange looks from the professors he gave his message too, but on his insistence they came out to the courtyard to see if what he was really telling them was true. Sure enough the young girl that only a few had seen around and even fewer knew as Aether Draka came in through the front door with what looked like an undead pit fiend going after her. She had led it here according to the fly dragon, because she didn’t want him to be undead and apparently last night he had been alive.

One mage ran forward then and cast a circle on the ground. “Lead him inside the circle! Quickly!” the mage called out to AD who did so. As soon as Melmoth was inside the circle, AD felt it jump to life. Unfortunately she was in it too... “Get out! It’s only meant to hold undead!” the same mage urged her away. AD got out of the circle quickly then and Melmoth attempted to follow her once more and was abruptly stopped at the shield of some type.

The others started to circle around Melmoth who was attempting and failing to get at each of them. “Don’t hurt him! He’s not supposed to be undead! One moment he was fine and the next he was like this! I don’t get it, but don’t try to kill him or anything! You understand me!” AD shouted at them. A few muttered replies and one who she had spoken to before came over to her.

“We won’t harm him any but we have to figure out what caused this to happen first. You look famished though. Shall I get you something from the kitchen?”

AD looked up and nodded. “Yes please!” And abruptly sat down on the ground just outside of the small mob of magic users gathered around Melmoth. The one professor came back with a decent spread. Some sort of stew, bread, and very mild spiced cider. AD went ahead and ate as they argued back and forth amongst themselves, casting small spells that didn’t seem to do anything. She was starting to get annoyed when someone finally said, “Well, let’s just try dispel on him and see if it works.” Amore then a few nodded in agreement and the spell was cast. AD got to her feet to see if it had helped him any.

Melmoth roared as he chased his prey through the countryside. He smashed through undergrowth and low hanging tree limbs, feeling the pain distantly. He ran tirelessly, every so often attempting flight with his mangled wings. The stubborn things refused to support his weight, at best buckling and dumping him head first into the loamy soil, at worst catching a tree and breaking again before again dumping him.

The little side of him that had lost control to the mindless hunter screamed for an eternity inside his own head. The pain that the hunter did not feel, Melmoth was forced to deal with. Every instant was pain, broken by worse pain each time the hunter tried unsuccesfully to fly. He had no idea how many bones he had broken in the crash back in the ruined city, but the hunter had exceeded that number by far with it's uncaring treatment of Melmoth's body.

But nothing mattered to the hunter except that in front of it was a delicious looking brain. No matter how far AD ran, it would chase untill it had her and pried her juicy brain out of her skull and tasted it. But every time it got near it was unable to grip her. It's hands slipped around her, so close but unable to grasp her.

Abruptly they both slammed into thin air and fell back to the earth. The hunter stood and lunged at a circle of people that had surrounded it without it's notice. "OM NOM NOM NOM!"

A prisoner of his own mind, Melmoth tried to push aside the pain for a few moments and figure out exactly what was happening. He was surrounded by what looked like mages in the act of casting a spell. Before he fully understood it all, a white energy washed over him and the barrier between the hunter and him were down. Inwardly, he grinned and mentally attacked the core of the hunter.

[ooc] So now I get to fight for my return. How this appears to the outside world is up to you, perhaps I stand still or thrash or something strange I can't imagine. Surprise me. :} [/ooc]

((OOC: oohh! Goody! I'll see what I can come up with then! ^_^ ))

Aether Draka was disappointed to see that Melmoth still looked completely undead after they tried their spell and she was about to sit down once again when she noticed something... Frowning she slipped past the people around Melmoth. They had all turned their attention back to each other and the noise level of them shouting back and forth amongst themselves had risen to make a den. She didn't understand everything they were talking about, so she just tuned them out as she watched Melmoth.

He wasn't trying to go after her now. He didn't seem to even see her. She moved around the edge of the circle until she was standing right in front of him. His eyes seemed to focus on her for a moment and he went to move forward once more, but the motion was jerky, as if he was trying to do two things at the exact same time. Then he wasn't paying attention to her or anyone around them. It was like he was not doing anything at all. Then his entire body seemed to twitch and she jumped in surprise. Then it happened again and she heard a popping sound like when Lynthaer shifted from one form to another. In the background she heard someone mention trying to just use a cure or heal spell and then a venomous rebuttal that healing spells would hurt him as an undead and they had yet to even know if his soul was still there without attempting to remove it, which would no doubt make things worse.

AD glanced their way when she heard another popping sound and saw Melmoth twitch again. What was going on here? Her frown deepened as she started to walk around him once more. Then she saw something that looked different. His wings had been much too rotten to even carry him and he had only mangled them more on the not so graceful trip here. The broken and shattered bones seemed to be repairing themselves. She saw him twitch once more and a broken bone popped back together. She was a little creped out by it, but was unable to look away as she saw it happen a few more times.

Then it slowly came to a stop and all the bones seemed to be repaired. How odd, and interesting. Perhaps they had done something with their little spell. With the way they were going on though, they hadn't even seen her walking around. Then, it was as if all the muscles in his body gave way at once and she saw him collapse with a howl that caused her to jerk back and sent goosebumps up her spine. The sound caught the other's attention and they all turned to see him thrashing about as AD began to notice the muscles growing back under the rotting flesh that covered him still. Either that or something had gone horribly wrong with their spell. She almost called out to him, but decided against it. If she used his name, he might not be able to keep his true self a secret, like he had seemed to be trying to do earlier. He hadn't told her after all. So she bit her lip and watched with a worried look on her face. She wasn't sure if that was a howl of pain or anger...

His head spun as he and the Hunter fought. It was a strange thing, thier fight, manuvering without moving, clashing without touching. What the Hunter lacked in inteligence it made up for in cunning and brute strength. The being resisted every attack and slammed back at Melmoth with equal strength.

The pain he had been sole possessor of since the Hunter took over lessened as Melmoth gained a measure of control over his senses. He grabbed pain and threw it at the Hunter at every chance he could to distract and gain advantage. The creature didn't like pain, and had not had the time Melmoth had to grow acclimated to it. Every attack healed Melmoth and hurt the Hunter.

Slowly, Melmoth forced the Hunter down, cutting off its access to Melmoth's body, and finally sealing it in his subconsious. He couldn't kill it, not with his current abilities, but he wouldn't see the Hunter for a while if he was lucky.

~ ~ ~

He had gained full control of his body once again, and promptly choked off the Hunter's last scream. He lay on the ground, and thrashed about as his rotted body healed. He itched all over, as if he no longer had skin. He could feel it all as things returned from the realm of the dead.

Finally, he was healed and could control his movements again. For the fist time since the ruined city he looked about him and fully understood what was going on. He was surrounded by mages, with AD off to the side. The building that rose into the sky was most likely the Academy of Magic, and he could thank the mages for his defeat of the hunter. Or at least the chance to defeat it.

Now there was the delicate question of how exactly he'd get out of this alive, with his identity safe. What price would the mages ask for their intervention? He rose slowly from the ground, hands open and far away from the hilt of Fate. He held no illusions that he could stand against a circle of mages, unless all of them were trained only to use fire magics. But he had a feeling these were not specialists.



[ooc] Badass. Your post owned. Now what? :}[/ooc]

((OOC: Thank you! ^_^ It was fun. You can play the mages response beyond what I'm posting here though if you want. I'm not feeling too up to posting what they are doing...))

Aether Draka and the mages watched as tings seemed to return Melmoth back to his demon form. She felt herself relax some as his skin healed over and then he rose to his feet. AD grinned. The mages shifted their focus. No longer Undead, he actually posed more of a threat. Many didn't have anything specifically against demons, but not purposefully going out of your way to kill them and having one now standing in a circle that was meant to hold back an undead was something completely different. The mage who had cased the circle to begin with started to change the spell slightly, making it a make-shift prison for the demon until an agreement of sorts could be reached. As long as no one messed with the circle while he focused on it, it would work out fine...

AD didn't wait for them to act first, but slid past the mages nearest to her and ran up to Melmoth. She broke the circle in passing, her own powers throwing the thing for a loop. She ran up to him and threw her arms around him as best she could. "You're alright!" She said and loosened her grip enough to look up at him. She dropped her voice to a whisper and added. "I didn't tell them who you were. Hope you don't mind..."

The rest of the mages seemed to relax then. He wouldn't out right attack them all. They once more started talking back and forth amongst themselves in a hushed tone. The biggest question was what had happened here and how had it been reversed? Aether Draka having a demon with her wasn't actually much of a surprise to many of them. When she had enrolled here she was already an accomplished summoner.

Melmoth was more than a little surprised by the hug. Not since... He shook his head and banished the thoughts from his mind. He'd think about the past later. He'd have all the time he'd ever need to reminisce later, after his goals were met.

He lightly squeezed back, unsure about how much a pure human could take, and wary of his own strength. She didn't yell, so he assumed he hadn't performed too bad. He leaned down and whispered to AD, "I'm hard to kill. Thanks for keeping my secret."

He let loose of AD and looked around at the mages. They seemed bewildered, though whether it was an unexpected performance of thier spell, or just why AD had been chased here by an undead demon, he didn't know. He gathered from some of thier talk it was a bit of both, though the older mages were far more interested in thier spell, how it had healed him, and what exactly they had dispelled. He suspected the vampire that had attacked them in the ruined city had a hand in the rise of the Hunter. An enchantment or something, most likely harder to fully destroy than the mages seemed to think.

Farther up, closer to the building, a tiny portal opened up and a familliar face stepped through. Geoffery, an aqquaintance of his from his time in Taras stood and smiled at him. The wizened old gnome looked as he always did, canyons spiderwebbing their way across his face, his age apparent in every feature except his deep set green eyes. Melmoth would've been greatly surprised if the spark of youth had left those eyes, even if it had left his body decades ago. Geoffery was Melmoth's only living proof that his crusade was possible. He'd have to speak to him before he left, preferably alone if AD would let him out of her sight for a few moments.

"What now?" He spoke lowly to AD. "I don't know a thing about all this." He nodded in the direction of the Academy, taking in the building, the mages, and all of magic in the process. He collected magical trinkets, true, but his magical skills were lacking. He could pull off a small illusion or two, but his skills were mainly in the physical arena.

Aether Draka decided that she found the entire thing much too convenient, it was more like luck that he turned back than anything they had done. Magic wasn't really a slow thing to do, just a slow thing to learn. At least it was in her experience. "Oh, I'm going to school here. If you don't mind waiting a moment, I want to look something up real quick. Will you be alright on your own here or do you want to follow? I was a summoner before I found this place, so no one will say anything if a demon is walking around with me." AD didn’t actually wait for his reply, but wove her way through the slowly dispersing mages to the inside of the Academy of Magic.

She made her way down the halls with ease. Few people looked at her as she made her way into the library. The librarian was there at the moment and looked up at her as she entered over round glasses. AD paid no attention, just took off into the rows of books. While she was here, she might as well copy something down to learn later. She had discovered that most spells required twice the amount of study for her then they did for most people, but that she could in fact learn it. And once she grasped a spell, she had it nearly exact every single time. She needed more practice to master it, but she had time. She could practice while others required sleep. It worked out in the end… except for classes. Method classes were wonderfully helpful, but where they taught you spells… well… she just couldn’t keep up. What she found herself doing instead was sitting in on some classes and leaving before the test, then coming back for the next class a quarter later to pass it. As odd of a way as that was to learn magic, she could do it. She found though, that she much preferred getting a list of spells from the library and studying them on her own.

He took a quick look around, debated his chances, and decided that it was indeed the time to sneak off for a few moments and talk with an old friend. "I need a few moments, AD, and then I will be joining you." He made a quick nod of the head, and smartly walked in the direction of Geoffery.

The old gnome had looked the same for far longer than any gnome had a right to, and had a bad case of living. Despite everything life had thrown at him he still would not die. He didn't look it, but was an unbelivably tough old gnome. For a portion of his life, he had wandered around with Melmoth and they had plenty of adventures, but these days he confined himself to the Academy of Magic. Melmoth had a sneaking suspicion that the gnome was going to pull another dying act and disappear for a few decades on some damn fool's crusade. He'd done it before, and always came through on top and richer than ever. Spiritually, of course, for his quests were for knowledge. He was one of the finest sources of forgotten knowledge in Imythess and a damn fine friend.

"Still living, I see." He said to the gnome as he approached. "Do you have anything for me? I've run out of leads again, and the normal methods aren't working. I'm still surprised you found someone willing to agree to it."

The old gnome chuckled lightly and handed him a tightly folded piece of paper he produced from some hidden pocked on his dark purple robe. He winked at Melmoth, and for the slightest moment a flash of red showed in his eyes before he turned away and disappeared into thin air.

Wonderful news. He had a new lead, and silent confirmation that the gnome had spoken with his demonic contacts on this one. Whatever was on the paper was the real deal. No more crawling around in forgotten lairs stabbing the subterranean wildlife that infested them just to find that the artifact he sought did something completely different. No more would he find that some old historian hadn't gotten the facts straight. Now to find AD.

She had said she wanted to look something up, so he assumed she'd be in the library. After a few minutes searching, he found his way in and stood silently against the wall, studying the place and looking for possible escape routes, choke points, and ways to defend the library against another zombie hoard. Not again would he be in a situation like that.

The spells she found were very interesting. Something about a False Curse and a False Cure and how to Summon an Angelic Being... there was also something about how to get your own familiar who could cast the same spells you knew. That seemed incredibly useful. She took a moment to write them all down and left them out on the table so that the ink could dry as she placed the books she had copied the spells from back onto the shelves. As she made her way back towards the small side room she had been copying the text over in, she saw Melmoth, still in his demonic form, not far from the entry way. She grinned and waved him over. "Over here! I have something you might be interested in!"

Not waiting for him to follow, she went back over to the side room. It was meant for practicing spells really. The table, chairs, and apparently the walls were all inscribed with wards against their destruction via magic. It wasn't meant to hinder magic in any way really, just to protect the room and it's items from magical destruction. The room didn't have any lights in it, making it too dark for most to see clearly, but with her darkvision it was no different than a lighted room to her. The papers were still laid out on the table and she made her way to them to check if they were dry yet. The Summon Angelic being one was and she took out her own book, with her summoning spells in it, and placed the paper in the back part of the book. The others were still a bit tacky when she touched them. She picked up the one regarding familiars and sat on the table facing the door with it in hand. She was careful not to sit on the papers still on the table and she kept the book closed just to her left. In her right hand, she carefully waved the bit of paper back and forth slowly to help it dry. As soon as Melmoth came into the room she would say, “If you shut the door you can change back in here. I doubt that anyone saw if more people were in here before hand.”

Always moving, never really stopping for long, that was AD's life, it seemed. It was a bit of a refreshing change over his usual months of stalking prey and learning everything about them. The endgame was always worth the wait, but this new adventure after adventure lifestyle was quite appealing as well. He shook his head, detached himself from the wall, and followed the quicker moving woman across the library.

She disappeared through a door that at first he didn't notice among the bookcases. Strange. He reached the door, opened it, and ducked inside the darkened interior. He stopped barely a step inside and rapidly scanned the walls. Strangely enough, in the dimness of the room squiggles stood out against the walls and furniture, almost glowing to his eyes. What magic did they invoke? How many would explode if he touched them? Stepping gingerly across the floor, he nodded at AD's suggestion to activate his ring again. True, there was a possibility someone was spying on him, but so what?

He twisted the head of the small silver ring, and the familliar sensation of it's activation comforted him. A silvery liquid bubbled forth from the ring, and rapidly spread across him, finally changing colors untill he stood before AD in his usual human form.

"Thanks again for getting me out of this one. I owe you. You ever need help reaching something on the top shelf, or a body to disappear, well, I'm there." He smiled a rare smile that seemed to be getting less rare, and continued at ease. "Now, what was this you wanted to show me?"

Aether Draka shook her head ever so slightly, deciding she preferred him in his demonic form. She didn't much care for humans and tended to leave them out of her life. She would know sooner or later more about him and his disguise no doubt, if he accepted her invitation that is...

"It's not a problem. I deal with demons all the time, and not just because I can summon them. I think you might be interested in a little group known as the Divschatten. A group of people with either demonic heritage or who have been demoniacally infused." She tipped her head slightly to the right then. "I'm the Second for the Guild, so I'm not some random demonic being bringing someone in to show off. I want to know if you would like a place to get away from the chaos of this world and go into one that you will help shape? Imythess will be only a short walk away and you are free to come and go as you please, but we are more powerful as a group then we can be alone." She let her feet swing once, twice, before asking Melmoth, "What do you think?"

She didn't know if he had even heard of the guild before, but it was worth asking after what had happened. He seemed a better choice to join them than some had. AD only hoped she would see him taking an active role in the guild. The fact that so many of them members took to wandering away completely was rather annoying after a while.