Life's Temptations
Twenty-Sixth Day of the Twelfth Month 292 AC
Far, far above the town of Sorcerer's Deep there flew a truly odd being, only the second of her kind in all the world, unseen and light as a feather upon the high airs. Things looked simpler, starker up here above the clouds and bathed in moonlight. It wasn't that Aradia disliked people... much. She understood that without the people below speaking, bustling and spinning in their narrow circle she could never have existed. Her maker's life would have been different as to be unrecognizable and she never would have come upon the unlikely happenstance of making Aradia and her sister in her image. Yet still there was within her a restlessness, a desire to fly off beyond the horizon, through sky and sea as the mood took her never knowing quite what tomorrow would bring.
To eat raw fish and seaweed, the thought had a certain wry self-depreciation to it. Even if she were to find some cause or another to seek the horizon, there were still practicalities to consider. Though she could fly, Aradia was no bird, nor a fish, for all she could slip 'neath the waves. As luck would have it, however, her mussing were interrupted by another figure flying through the starry heavens above the blanket of clouds. At first she thought it was her sister... but it was not so. Hair bright as shimmering flame, and wings black against the stars.
"What are you doing here?" she asked the alu demon with guarded curiosity.
"I've just come to greet you," Azema replied, her voice smoke and honey.
"You have just climbed all the way up here to offer greetings?" Aradia sniffed, vivid blue-green eyes rolling in her head.
"It's private if nothing else," the demon countered. "I was curious about what manner of beings my new masters would make."
"Than why not just ask Mercy?" Slowly the wariness faded from her voice. After all, why should she be wary of demons, much less this one? She was not a mortal woman though she had the memories of one, and if nothing else this might prove an interesting distraction.
"She is a bit cheerful for my taste... childish," Azema replied.
"I'm even younger than her," came the swift almost teasing reply as Aradia leaned back until it seemed like she was laying on an unseen cushion of air.
"What's
that got to do with it? I'm a dozen times older than any mortal woman could hope to be and I do not act like a crone, do I? You are a hunter, I can feel it."
"Not like you," the newly incarnate spirit replied. Her knowledge of demons and their get might not be as good as her maker's, but it was still more than sufficient.
A clawed hand waved the notion delicately away. "We can hunt the guilty, the sinful, no playing with them. What say you?"
"I'm listening..." Aradia trailed off, wondering if this counted as being tempted by a demon or tempting one in turn.
"I've heard talk of Hellsapwn and their lickspittles in a place called Greenstone to the west." The demon-kin took out a carelessly folded map that almost flew out of her hand.
After some thought Aradia nodded. "I'll ask about it in the morning."
"Bah," a frown marred the alu demon's lovely features. "We can be done in a single night and be back before they can miss us."
"I did not know you could read the future." The incarnate's words were cold and final under the veneer of humor.
"Alright, alright," Azema raised her hands before her face in defeat. "Race me around the isle?"
"I'm twice as fast and more dexterous in the air," Arcadia pointed out logically.
"And I am hundreds upon hundreds of times older than you," the demon kin countered with a smile framed with fangs, the sort of thing that might have sent a chill down a mortal's spine.
Aradia was not mortal, and thus she proceeded to prove her point and had a remarkably good time doing it besides.
OOC: Before you start calling for her head I might as well tell you guys that Azema was being perfectly sincere here. It is just her nature to tempt and test boundaries upon meeting someone new.
