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He leans over Harok and lifts a wooden stick from the brass bowl. The stick drips with a strange syrup. Tobi might have heard of abieum before but he has never seen it. It was far too expensive a substance for the likes of him. Looking at the syrup dripping from the wooden stick, it’s eerie. It is gold in colour but seems to glitter with other hues in a strange, queasily-swirling motion. Harok fights when they try to give him the sap. He refuses to open his mouth. The Blood Priest mutters something.

A guard steps forward from the crowd. He hits Harok in the belly with the hilt of his sword with a savagery that makes Tobi cry out. Harok grunts in pain. But still he does not open his mouth.

Idly, Lymok says, “Hit the kushessa.”

The guard hits Tobi, not with the sword hilt, but with his hand. A lazy punch to the jaw. It’s not a hard hit, but it knocks his head back into the stone behind him and makes him grunt with shock.

Harok makes a rough snarling sound, but he opens his mouth immediately. Lymok chuckles. “Your loyalty to your kushir is sweet.”

The stick coated in Abieum is forced roughly between Harok’s lips. He gags and splutters, panting as it is drawn out.

Tobi knows he is next and finds himself struggling but his ropes are tight and firm. The Blood Priest bends down. He puts a cool hand on Tobi’s jaw, holding his head in place.

“No,” Harok booms from above them. Tobi can’t see him. “Not him. Let the kushir go.”

There’s a wet thump. One of the guards hits Harok again. Tobi hears him groaning.

Lymok looms closer behind the priest. Tobi notices that Lymok still has Demonica in his belt. Tobi finds himself staring again at the glittering, lilac-coloured blade.

“Let me do this one,” Lymok says to the priest, flashing a nasty smile in Harok’s direction. The priest offers the brass bowl to Lymok. Lymok takes the stick, dripping with the sticky coloured syrup.

The priest forces Tobi’s mouth open with the grip he has on Tobi’s chin, as Lymok leans even closer to press the stick deep into Tobi’s mouth.

Tobi chokes. The sap tastes bitter and the stick is rough and splintery. Tobi feels his stomach roll as the stick is shoved so deep in his mouth he is forced to swallow.

Lymok pulls the stick back and the priest presses Tobi’s lips closed, holding them shut for a moment to force Tobi to swallow it all.

Lymok gives Tobi another satisfied smile before stepping back and turning. He announces something in Ambolk. Tobi feels too overwhelmed to work out what the words mean. The Solwen cheer. The party begins to retreat from the clearing accompanied by the sounds of drums, gongs and bells.

Tobi can still taste the bitterness. He spits onto the ground, then looks up at Harok chained above him. Harok is staring back. His eyes seem to burn into Tobi’s. Tobi twitches in the ropes. Everything seems unreal. He can feel the abieum pounding through his blood, taking over every part of his body.

The Solwen get further and further away. Tobi feels strange. He can’t hear drums anymore. The Solwen took most of the torches with them. Only two still burn, some distance away. The clearing is dark. How far away is the dawn? As Tobi watches he seems to see colours in the pitch dark sky. Swirling colours, like grease mixed with water. He knows this is not the dawn.

Tobi sees things. The lights of the performance circle, Cyrus’s bed hung with silks, his mother singing, Selim kneeling in his shrine. The images fade into each other, tumbling and dancing. Around him, the trees are moving. Not only from the wind. They seem to be drawing nearer, surrounding him, like the forest is swallowing him. A few feet from the stone. Beyond them, Tobi thinks he can see something. Someone is coming.

Tobi blinks, twisting in the ropes to try and see what it is. It’s a figure, bigger than any of the Solwen, bigger than any human. It rises and rises from the ground until it towers over everything. As tall as the trees.

Tobi’s eyes stretch wide as he realises what he is seeing. Not a man. Not even any kind of creature.

It's a great demon.

Diazuul

Diazuul moves closer. He is shaped like a man, with wide shoulders and a strong powerful chest. But although his body is human-shaped, his face is not. His jaw is huge and two curved tusks protrude from the lower half. His brow juts out. A demon. A true demon stands before him.

Tobi tries to scream. But he can’t make a sound. He can barely move. He can’t seem to struggle anymore. It isn’t just the ropes holding him, his body seems frozen in place. He can’t tell if it’s pure fear or some kind of magic.

Tobi looks up at Harok but he doesn’t seem to be moving. His eyes are glassy. He looks far away. Has the demon somehow taken Harok’s body? Has it happened so fast?

Tobi didn’t think it would be like this. He thought the demon would take control of Harok’s body and use it for himself, not walk free leaving Harok a shell.

Tobi looks up at Harok again. “Irgorye?” Tobi says in a soft wavering voice. “Irgo Harok?”

There’s no answer. Tobi looks back at the huge figure moving towards him. He struggles harder in the rope as fear grips him. His wrists tear.

Diazuul bends, his terrifying face moving closer and closer to Tobi’s until he can feel the creature’s hot breath. It smells like woodsmoke.

“Another Darek,” Diazuul says in a slow dark voice. Almost too low and raspy to be a voice at all. “It’s been a long time since I came face to face with one of your blood.”