**Toby can't just go out and seize his destiny single-handedly - or even with the aid of his two stunning consorts. He needs at least a little help from others and the older demoness knows this. It's why she's making some very careful and delicate choices for him. Yester Castle is the place that she's chosen for him to begin. O_o
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Lewis Crowe walked near the overhang of the trees at the edge of the wood looking for fallen branches. At this time of year, he liked to use the hearth in his little cottage. He did that for a couple of reasons, only one of them practical. He lived on a small pension and he hated to spend much on heating the place, for one thing, and for the small effort of hunting for what fell from the trees naturally, he had a warm fire to gaze into around Christmastime. It wasn't much, but it was something. It was his job anyway. He received a small income to keep the grounds of the place tidy and he was allowed to keep what deadfall wood he could cart off.
He stopped for a moment to tie his long gray hair back. He'd been a laborer on the shipping dock of a printing firm for most of his adult life, never going anywhere or having a reason to. He supposed that he'd fulfilled his father's prophesy and had never amounted to much in a lot of ways. Then again, he's never had much to work with, being only five feet three inches tall. The younger workers at the place where he'd worked had liked to call him 'The Gnome' behind his back. Well they thought that he never heard them, but he did, of course. He'd been hearing that since he was in school. When the place had closed down, Lewis had decided to take early retirement, since he couldn't find anyone besides the people from the historical heritage foundation who would hire him.
He didn't mind much. He'd lived near the ruined castle since he'd moved there twenty years before. All that he had to do was clean up the grounds now and then, keep an eye on the old place and report in periodically if anything worth calling about occurred -- and of course, nothing much ever did, other than a bit of vandalism by the local youth now and then.
He had a passing thought of the woman that he reported to and for some odd reason it had come to him that she was the only other non-Scottish person that he knew. It had been a completely random thought to him and he wondered idly if that was why he fancied her a little. He threw the thought away after a second as what it was -- a random notion. Not many people gave him a thought, but he'd never cared where a person might be from. It was absurd to him.
He just liked her, not that he had a hope of a similar thought in return from her. Like everyone else, that woman never spared him a thought. He only thought of her now and then because she was the only female that he had any interaction with at all, other than perhaps a clerk in a shop now and then when he actually broke down and purchased anything. He had no way of knowing it for certain, but he was correct. That woman never thought about him at all, other than to see him now and then on her rounds for their employers, the heritage foundation. He didn't know much about her, and he only saw her once or twice a year if she came to perform a quick inspection.
He didn't know much about her, and of course, she didn't know much about him.
No one did, really.
But Lewis was a little special. He'd learned from the old folk tales that his mother and his aunt had told him about all manner of the magical folk who had once lived "not too far off in the woods" wherever man and made his home long ago. He'd added to that from the old books that he'd collected as well. He could quote chapter and verse on any topic from brownies to trolls, not that anyone ever asked him to.
In actual fact, that woman did know about the lore that Lewis carried in his mind. She just hadn't had the need of any of it yet, and so she didn't give him much of a thought, other than how well he did his job.
He finished tying back his hair and noticed a few thicker branches not far off. He smiled. There was enough right here for several evening's worth of heat once it had dried out if he was thrifty -- and Lewis was nothing if not thrifty. He'd banked quite a lot of his wages over his life. He lived alone -- as he'd always done in the little cottage in the woods that he'd found by accident and bought long ago. He pushed his wheelbarrow in that direction.
If Lewis hadn't been quite so preoccupied with his thoughts, he might have noticed a couple of changes in the old ruined castle. But he hadn't been looking and that suited the tall demoness who'd been watching him from the window high up in the tower.
She'd read his thoughts and from that, she knew of the woman who had a small office near another ancient castle, and it made the tall one wonder if that one might suit her needs a little better. She spread her wings and flew off, fading out of sight not long after.
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The woman sat in an office looking over a page that she'd printed on her printer at her home the evening before. She'd done most of the work using her graphics tablet. The print was only something to use and sketch on if changes or additions came to mind. She looked to her notebook, filled with cryptic notes to herself to check on some spelling before she wrote down a few lines under the illustration, copying and checking with the utmost care.
When she was done, she checked once more time and as she looked over the artwork before deciding on the coloration that she'd use in the final version, she mouthed the words to herself a time or two as she worked. It wasn't even really a conscious act to her. She was so busy concentrating now that it was just something that she did.
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The demon landed on a building in the middle of the town of North Berwick. Remaining invisible, she shook her head to clear the words that she'd heard and felt. It had been thousands of years since anyone had prayed to her, hoping that the weather that she caused would leave them alone. She looked around, trying to remember the last time that anyone had attempted an evocation. It had been a long time ago and it had ended badly for the hopeful summoners, thinking that all that they had to do was to summon her and bind her. She couldn't be bound, but she could be irritated enough to force them to do awful things to each other before she killed the "winner".
The time before that, she remembered, it had been a priest who had commanded her to show herself in a temple filled with his followers, so she did. He pointed to her and bellowed his words of command for her to kneel. She'd smiled and tilted her head as the doors sealed themselves shut. He pointed and shouted again so she seized him and began to gnaw off his limbs before making him slide wetly along all of the walls and the ceiling -- driven by her pointed finger while she stood in the middle of the place. When she grew tired of that, the people stampeded for the sealed exits as she walked through the temple, slaying every one of the priests of the cult. When she'd killed the last one, she'd looked at how the followers had trampled each other and then she'd turned everything to dust, building and people, before she'd walked away through the now-deserted marketplace outside.
She'd never been a goddess, had no desire for the role, and what prayers she'd heard long ago had been nothing more than an annoyance, since the weather was what was needed when and where she'd caused it.
