Anywhere but Here

Hi, I don't have an editor so I'm sorry if there are any errors that I've missed. Again any constructive criticism is helpful. Enjoy =)

Chapter 1

Olya woke up that morning with her head pounding. It was worse than the time she and another novice had sneakily indulged in the communion wine. Last night's 'medicine' was undoubtedly the cause. As she slowly tried to sit up, she found the rest of her body ached profoundly as well. Her neck and her thigh throbbed from where she had been bitten by the Vampire, although these areas had been bandaged. Most of her muscles felt like she had run for miles without break, but her nether region was the focus of her discomfort. There was no way to forget what happened between her and Havi the night before, the thought of it filling her with apprehension and lingering arousal. The memory made her feel an emptiness between her legs, with a distant longing to be filled again.

She was dressed in a dark shirt. As she peeked through the flaps of the tent peeking Havi sat by the fire. She exited and joined him, he wordlessly handed her a cup of coffee and some breakfast. He looked pensive. He was dressed in a pair of trousers and boots with a raincape around his shoulders. 'He must have given me his shirt' She thought. Havi finally broke the silence.

"How are you feeling this morning?" He asked. Sounding guilty.

"...Sore... bit of a headache, but otherwise fine" She responded, in a fairly neutral tone.

"I need to sincerely apologise about last night. I failed to protect you from being taken, then after rectifying my error I took advantage of your vulnerable state and lost control of myself. It was despicable behaviour and I completely understand if you feel resentful towards me and wish for some form of retribution." He let out a pained sigh after his guilt ridden apology, waiting for any anger she was going to send his way.

Olya took a moment and pondered his words. Yes he definitely got carried away whilst he had been inside her but... he hadn't taken advantage of her as far as she was concerned, if anything it was the other way round. She saw him stung many times by the succubus. Besides, how was he meant to have known that the monsters he was hunting were in an irregular alliance and knew how to pick locks?

"You're forgiven" She said with a chuckle.

Havi looked confused "I am?"

"Yeah, I can genuinely say there are no hard feelings. You found me before any real damage was done by those lunatics, plus how many times did that succubus stick you... six?"

"Eight" Havi corrected her through gritted teeth, remembering that irritating succubus.

"Right, eight. She only stung me once and basically I threw myself at you once you unchained me. I understand your lack of restraint given the sheer amount of her venom that must have been coursing through you. Let's just agree now that if we come across another succubus that we both find better ways to deal with it than...what happened last night." She said with a warm slightly embarrassed smile on her face.

Havi let out the breath he was holding with a sigh of relief. "That's good I was worried you were going to be absolutely livid with me. Sorry that all I can give you is a shirt. Your stuff was completely shredded and I only have one spare set. I need the trousers when I go into town to buy more clothes, armour and collect the bounty. Pretty sure I am going to find it difficult to get served if I go showing the angle of my dangle." He finished with a smirk.

"I'm not sure about that, there might be some who enjoy the view. Might even score you a couple of discounts or at least some admiring glances" She retorted with a wry tone and reflecting smirk.

"Regardless I'm keeping the trousers, here's a blanket for some extra coverage, I imagine you don't feel the warmest right now". He got up and wrapped it around her shoulders as she sipped her coffee.

"Where are we?" she asked. Looking around to see if she recognised any of the surroundings.

"Just outside the cave where they took you." He pointed behind her. "Which is not too far from the town over there" He pointed to another direction and she saw some buildings poking above the treeline downhill from where they were.

"Seems odd that they built so much in the cave, I guess they have been here longer than the townsfolk realised" She pondered

"No, just lucky. They found a shrine from the pre-Faith days. Back when sacrifice was still practiced, hence the stone table with the manacles. Take another look if you like, there's nothing left in there that's still living" Havi corrected.

"I will, it'll use up some time while you're in town. I'm sure you want to get going and I definitely would like some new clothes...but can I just ask you something before you do?" She asked a slight nervous lilt to her voice.

"Sure, ask"

"Is what the succubus said true...are you a demon?" She asked, looking him dead in the eye.

"Yes and no. Demonic blood flows through my veins but I am mortal, not a full fledged demon." Havi looked at her directly, maintaining eye contact.

"I don't really know what that exactly means. The scripture talks in generalities and I haven't come across any books on the subject"

"Alright, that's understandable. Demons in the mythical sense, inhabitants of the Abyss, immortal beings of chaos will generally stay in the Abyss. They can't come to the material plane where we are without being summoned or by having a key. They get summoned by people belligerent or idiotic enough not to realise or care the damage their deals will do. The keys are made by a woman being offered to sire a child with the demon. The child allows them to come to this world temporarily when the veil is thin enough. I am one of those children, my father was a true demon and my mother was mortal.Thus I am the mortal child of a demon, not a true demon. It does cause a lot of fear and confusion for those who don't know the difference. Thinking that the being that you're fighting is an immortal who is definitely going to kill you is enough to shake the confidence of most fighters. Like last night's succubus for example. Now that you know, are you about to run away screaming?" He mused, giving her a concerned look.

With a sarcastic smile "I mean, if that's an option, I don't think I'd get far without shoes and underwear but I can throw in a half assed scream if you really want me to?" He let out a chuckle and smiled "...wait that means your father comes to this world? A fully fledged demon just walking around doing heavens knows what?"

"Occasionally but rarely, sometimes he pops by to say hello. You shouldn't be too worried, the period of time he can stay is normally less than a day, and the points when he can do it are sometimes years apart. He won't be up anytime soon." He explained. Olya contemplated this new fact of the world she was unaware of. "Well if you have finished, I will now go and buy you said underwear. Any preferences or should I just get whatever?"

"As long as it functions as underwear, I don't care. As we are travelling, trousers instead of a skirt would be better and I will need something to cover my hair, the Abbess demanded such."

"Why do you call her the Abbess even out here?" Havi asked bemused

"Because she's the Abbess" Olya puzzled at the thought

"Yes, but...why not just call her by her name?"

It then occurred to Olya a simple and obvious truth "I don't actually know what it is, she has always been the Abbess, sometimes mother...She has never told me"

Havi laughed "As long as I have known that woman, she has never ceased to find new ways to be bizarre. Her name is Lorana, for the record" He mounted Skyg and angled him towards town. "I'll be back as soon as I can, try your best to stay out of trouble. I know that seems to be a ridiculous challenge for you" He reached around his back and unhooked one of the daggers attached to his belt and threw it next to her "That's for just in case you can't. I really hope it stays sheathed" He and Skyg galloped toward town.

Olya sat next to the fire. She finished her breakfast and coffee with the blanket wrapped around her. After a couple of minutes, she decided to follow Havi's suggestion and re-examine the cave whilst sober and not being groped by human eating perverts. She entered the chamber and looked around. The charred, headless remains from her attackers were still on the floor emitting an acrid stench. She felt no pity for the monsters in spite of their horrible end, they had killed many and were going to do the same to her...good riddance. She looked on the walls and realised Havi was right; this was a pre-Faith ritual chamber. There were ancient paintings and markings in a language that must be long dead but it was still a thing of beauty, a work of art. She mused that if any agents of the Faith knew this was here they would destroy it and collapse the cavern to ensure no one might be 'corrupted' by these 'heretical' designs. All the more reason for them to remain ignorant of this place. She went over to the bench where the succubus had prepared the 'medicine' the night before and took stock of what was there. The succubus had amassed herself quite the interesting collection of herbs and alchemical agents, she had helpfully left her recipe book as well. 'This is all worth keeping' Olya thought, best to take it with her. Three ingredients caught her eye, all essential components in a Contrariis draught. Which after last night's activity with Havi would be prudent to brew lest she find herself with child. It's not something she should have known of if not for her illicit reading habits back at Wollingden's library. 'All knowledge becomes useful eventually' she thought, as she carried out her haul to camp keen to add it to her collection and brew the Contrariis.

She sat sipping her draught, content to patiently wait for Havi to return. She began to hear ungainly footsteps and the unpleasant sounds of someone hacking up the contents of their throat and spitting it out when the drunk from the bar came into view. Olya sighed hoping if she just stayed quiet and curled next to the fire the idiot would just keep walking by. The misfortune from yesterday was carrying into today it seemed, the idiot spotted her and began to approach.

"Well, Well missy looks like I found you. Innkeep said you'd been nabbed, looks like you're still breathing though." He said almost with a sneer. He ogled her up and down. While Olya did her best to keep her blanket as tightly wrapped around her as she could, it wasn't possible to hide her state of undress beneath. "You had a rough night? Look at you, not looking very nun-like now. Look like a two bit whore who sold herself harder than she could take it."

Olya just refused to look at him, she was not going to engage nor encourage him. She was going to sit there and ignore his vile words until the useless waste of breath pissed off. But that didn't mean she wasn't going to take precautions. She subtly slid Havi's dagger under the blanket within reach...just in case.

The drunken idiot still wasn't taking the hint and kept spitting out bile "Acted like you were too good for me, but you still parted yer legs last night didn't ya? Didya fuck the hunter or the monsters? Either way bet you're all loose downstairs now. S'what you get fer being such a slut!" He angrily slurred. Stumbling while he stood in one spot.

Olya would feel pity for this man who couldn't make it to the afternoon before drinking himself to a foul-mouthed buffoon if she didn't find him so disgusting.

"Hey slut since you're so easy now, it's only fair that you give me a turn. Now on your back, part them legs, I'll throw you a copper if you make it good for me" He slurred, a lecherous dopey grin on his face.

Olya stood up and brandished the dagger at him, dropping her blanket in the process. While Havi's shirt came half way down her thighs it still meant showing this piss-stained degenerate more of her skin than she had any desire to. This was not a fight she was prepared for, her body ached and her muscles screamed. Doubt tinged her resolve. She had stabbed the vampire in the neck but he hadn't gone down. What if that happened here?

"That is not going to happen, now leave!" she hissed at him.

"Come now, put that down before you hurt yourself, girl like you won't know how to use that thing" He gurned at her brimming with condescension

"Unfortunately for you, you are incredibly mistaken. Now unless you want to be the third man I've had to stab this week. FUCK OFF!" She bellowed at him. The thunderous fury within her barely contained.

"What a load of horseshit. Frail little thing like you overpower a bloke, don't make me laugh. Next ya gonna say that you can take that hunter in a fist fight...yeah right. Look, stop being a stubborn little bitch and just take it like the whore you are. Hunter's in town right now and ain't going to be here fast enough to stop me from creaming inside your slutty cunny. Now accept what you are and git on yer back HARLOT, before I decide I'm going to fuck up your arse until you bleed!" He gnashed as he threatened Olya and began to advance towards her.

This final tirade of obscenity unleashed a degree of rage inside Olya that she had never felt before as the full force of all the bullshit she had had to endure within the last five days hit her like a ton of bricks. She had been attacked in her home, nearly assaulted, forced to kill a man, told that she had a father who was psycho best avoided, driven from her home, forced into fleeing for her life with a stranger, kidnapped by a pair of perverts who had planned to rape her then eat her and now this entitled disgusting prick. Olya felt like something broke and unleashed within her, something raw... primal.

An eerie calm took hold in the air, the birds ceased singing and any animals moving in the trees, stopped and stood silent. The drunk didn't notice the change. His focus was on Olya. Maybe he'd hit the bottle too hard this morning because it looked like the girl's eyes were glowing, like lightning was dashing behind them. While her hair seemed to be floating like static during a storm. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

Olya spoke, her voice sounding deeper with an echoing boom of thunder.

"YOU WILL NEVER LAY A FINGER ON ME!"

The drunk didn't have the time to finish his final thought 'What the f-' before an enormous crash of thunder exploded across the sky. Lightning forked down and split the drunk into charred pieces and sent them flying. Whatever Olya channeled left her somehow numb yet charged and full of energy. Her muscles felt strong, powerful. Like the drunk could reassemble and then she could tear him apart with her bare hands. She paced around the camp trying to calm her breathing. 'What was that? That was definitely magic. How did I do that? Could I do it again?' As her breath steadied she felt this strange energy dissipate. She returned back to feeling achy, cold and tired, so curled up with the blanket in front of the fire again.

Havi had finished his errands in town. He'd been richly rewarded for kills by the mayor, found armour that was as good as his previous set, replaced his spare clothes and found an outfit he was quite confident Olya was going to like. As he was leaving the shop where he had found Olya's mandated hair covering he heard a ridiculously loud boom of thunder fill the air. Shortly followed by a bolt of lightning striking next to camp. 'SHIT' was his immediate thought, next was the need to get back to Olya and check that she hadn't been hurt. He leapt onto Skyg and galloped through town receiving shouts and complaints. Within a couple of minutes he reached camp and surveyed the scene. Olya was alive and gently rocking back and forth in front of the fire, there was also a small hole in the ground nearby with spiked glass formed at the bottom with charred body parts surrounding it.

He dismounted Skyg and slowly walked up to Olya. She was staring at the fire, not looking at him. He then asked as gently as he could but tension and confusion crept into his voice.

"Olya? What just happened?"

She finally looked up at him and answered in a surprisingly calm voice "It was me. I did that"

"How?" He asked, tension still present in his tone.

"He just made me so angry, something snapped? Broke? No...unleashed. Then he was..." she made a gesture with her hands mimicking an explosion.

"What did he do?"

"At first he just insulted me and was crude like last night in the bar, but then he decided he was going to rape me. Even when I pulled the knife on him he wasn't deterred. Just insults and threats. He started coming towards me so..." she pointed to the smouldering remains

"Same guy from last night? The stinking idiot drunk?" Havi pondered. The next course of action forming in his mind.

"Yeah, same guy." Olya confirmed.

Havi paced "Okay, the man didn't seem popular and I heard someone make a joke about how his wife will dance a jig the day he dies, so he's not going to be missed in a hurry. But leaving a charred corpse here for anyone to find is careless. So here, take your clothes and get dressed" He threw a bag at her. "I'm going to gather up the pieces of our not-so dearly departed drunk and take them into the cave. I'll hack up the other two bodies and scatter the pieces amongst them. In the unlikely event anyone finds them hopefully no one will clock that there are more body parts then there should be. Best case scenario, people assume the guy just fell down drunk somewhere hard to find and died. While I do that you pack up camp"

"Why does it matter? We're leaving this town anyway?" Olya queried

"Olya, while I have no doubts that this man earned the fate you have delivered to him. You have just committed murder with magic in territory controlled by the Faith. Our passage through these lands is made much simpler when we're not labelled as criminals. Which is easily avoided by not leaving evidence of a crime out in the open... Now if you'll excuse me I need to dismember some charred corpses" Havi then went about picking up the crispy remains of the drunk and disappeared into the cave.

After taking a moment to ponder his words and realising that infuriatingly, he was correct, again. She put on her new clothes. Havi had a good eye, it all fit pretty well. The underwear as requested was functional and the trousers were great, form fitting but easy to move in, a vast improvement over skirts. The hair covering was different to the veil she was used to. It required her to tie her hair up into a bun and then wrap the fabric around her head and secure it with a band. It was going to be an adjustment but it was for the best, the nun's vestments would ultimately gather unwanted attention. She felt pretty far from being a novice and unfit for the habit after laying with a man, casting magic and committing murder all within a day. Yet part of her was revelling in the blatant defiance of scripture. She held her temples in her fingers, shrugged, sadly laughed at herself and set about packing up camp. She was quickly done and Havi emerged from the cave soon after trying to brush off evidence of his grim task.

"All done?" she asked

"Yeah" Havi scrunched up his face in mild disgust "Urrrhh...don't know what's worse, being covered in blood or corpse dust. I got some in my mouth" He started trying to cough it up, whilst sticking out his tongue and partially gagging. The whole display reminded Olya of a cat trying to cough up a hairball, she had to stifle a giggle at the thought.

"Well here's your shirt back, thank you for providing me with at least some dignity" She tossed it to him with a smile. "And sorry that you had to get corpse on you"

He caught it and swiftly put it on "You're very welcome and you're forgiven, now please excuse me" He proceeded to grab a canteen and take a hearty swig. He throatily gargled the water, spat it out and wiped his tongue on his shirt. "Arrg why does it still feel so dusty in my mouth, it feels greasy somehow too"