An Owl's Rise

Soon Melisandre was finished speaking with her friend and colleague, and once she was certain that Evelyn was acquainted with her, and that Annelise would look out for Evelyn should the chance arrive, they took their leave.

"You were very friendly with Annelise there. I figured that since you were the master of the alchemy hall that she might be your subordinate of some kind. But is that not the case?" Evelyn asked.

Certainly, she knew that Annelise was not in any way lower than Melisandre, as the way they interacted was definitely that of equals.

"Yes, you would be right for most of the owls here, though I would not really call them my subordinates as they do not truly work for me. But they are not my equals. Annelise and a few others though are around the same rank as me, and I have known them for years. So, while I may be the master of the alchemy hall, I still treat them as equals since lording my status over them would not get me anything but their ire." Melisandre explained.

However, her answer had just allowed Evelyn the chance to ask a question she had been dying to for a long time but had never really felt she had the opportunity.

"What rank are you Melisandre?" Evelyn asked with inquisitive eyes.

"I suppose I have not told you yet have I." Melisandre said as she closed her eyes and looked through her memories to make sure she had not already told Evelyn.

"Well, it is not that important since knowing will not make much of a difference, but I am at the peak of the sovereign beast rank." Melisandre said causally.

But for Evelyn this was a major revelation, as it gave her a means to judge Melisandre by. And it was beyond what she had been expecting.

'She is on the cusp of reaching the highest rank of beast in this world! I can only imagine how strong she really is.' Evelyn thought while she looked at Melisandre in awe.

It turned out that her master was really something else, and it made her feel grateful to have been taken in by her.

"Now if you do not have anymore questions for me, I do wish to introduce you to a few more of the owls on this level." Melisandre said as she began walking towards another one of the rooms here at the top level of the alchemy hall.

Yet there was another question that Evelyn had been desperately wanted to ask, and this seemed as good a time as any.

"Wait Melisandre. There is something else that I really want to know." Evelyn said stopping her master in her tracks. "How did you get that form? You look almost like a human."

Looking into Evelyn's eyes Melisandre could see a pained but also almost longing look in her eyes as she asked this.

"Unfortunately, that is a bit of a secret. Once you reach the peak of the awakened rank, I will tell you." Melisandre said, as she turned and continued on.

'Great, who knows when or if I will ever make it to the peak of the awakened rank.' Evelyn though while letting out a long sigh.

As a former human she wanted to know how, and why for that matter, there were owls that had humanoid forms.

Nevertheless, while Melisandre did avoid answering the question, she had given Evelyn quite the hint.

'If she is not going to tell me about it until I reach the peak of the awakened rank, then it must have something to do with tyrant rank or higher beasts. At the very least, now that I think about it, I have not seen a single awakened beast with a humanoid form.'

With his new knowledge Evelyn went deep into thought. So much so that she missed when Melisandre stopped into front of another door and slammed into her.

Yet as she did Melisandre was like a rock and Evelyn was knocked back and fell over.

'Crap what happened.' She thought as she flailed around to get back up.

"Evelyn now really is not the time to be spacing out. Hurry up and get back to your feet." Melisandre said while stifling a laugh.

After that Evelyn was more attentive and soon Melisandre had introduced her to a number of owls who were doing alchemy on the top floor.

All of them were owls with humanoid forms and this only further added to Evelyn's theory that this was something that only high-ranking owls could achieve.

"Well, that is everyone who is free and that I wanted to introduce you to." Melisandre said after they finished speaking to another dozen owls.

Except unlike Annelise who they visited first, none of the other owls treated Melisandre like an equal and were obviously subservient to her.

"All of them now know that you are my disciple so they will likely help you out should you ever be in trouble while I am not around." Melisandre said with a satisfied expression.

It appeared that was her main goal in introducing Evelyn, so that she would have more owls looking out for her.

"Now the day is nearly up and neither of us have eaten for a while. Let us go back and enjoy some food."

Leading the way Melisandre took Evelyn back to her office and they ascend from the interior of the alchemy hall into Melisandre's mansion.

Quickly they flew through the halls and too the kitchen where Katrina was already busy preparing some food.

'It certainly is a bit weird to watch an owl cooking.' Evelyn thought as she saw Katrina slumped over a large industrial sized grill.

Still, this was just the difference that beasts had on this world where they were able to gain intelligence on par with humans and learn and do things their Earth counterparts never would.

Once they had finished the excellent meal Evelyn pattered her stomach with her wing with a satisfied expression, and she felt her eyelids starting to get heavy as drowsiness creeped up on her.

"Hm, I suppose it is only naturally that you are tired after all we have done today. Go ahead and get some rest Evelyn, and tomorrow we can begin your training again. Before we can move onto anything else you will need to learn how to manifest and control your magical energy."

Nodding her head Evelyn agreed with Melisandre, and soon made her way back to her room where she perched up on top and began to fall asleep.

'Hm where the hell am I.' Evelyn thought as she looked around.

Yet all around her was mostly black space that seemed to go on infinitely and only the slightest areas of light revealed anything.

There she saw what looked like mechanisms and magical circles the like of which she did not understand.

'They look broken.' Evelyn thought as she looked at the mechanisms and magic circles.

All but just a few of them seemed to be not working, though as she looked closer, she noticed that one of the broken mechanisms was trying to put itself back together.

Feeling an instinctual need to repair it Evelyn moved over and picked up the parts that were separate and started putting them back together.

It seemed to take what felt like hours, but eventually it was done.

'Well, it is fixed. I wonder what is going to happen now?'

It seemed that whatever it was had still not begun functioning. But a moment later it began whirling and humming, and the magic circles all over it lit up brightly, blinding Evelyn.

A moment later she felt a pressure in her chest and fell over as she could not seem to stay upright.

She then watched as it looked like a bright blue light was sucked out of her and into his mechanism which began moving faster and faster while the cracks began to fill in.

'What is going on.' Evelyn thought before waking up with a start.

She had fallen down onto her face and was back in her room in Melisandre's mansion.

'A dream?' She thought as she tried to lift herself up.

However, as she did, she felt that same pressure in her chest as she had in her dream and fell back over.

Except this time, she also felt her magical energy being drained and knew exactly what the cause was this time.

'The Aethersphere, it is doing something.'

She could feel the divine artifact she knew little about spinning around inside her chest and sucking in all of her magical energy from both of her cores.

And while this did not hurt, it was certainly uncomfortable. and left her feeling weakened as all of her magical energy was beign drained.

'Damn it. It is not going to rearrange my body again, is it?' Evelyn thought as fear welled up inside her.

She never wanted to experience pain on that level again, which was worse than all of the beatings her father from Earth had given her combined.

Luckily, she did not have to experience any excruciating pain, and the process was over quickly.

She let out a sigh of relief as this happened, but it was short lived. She was suddenly hit with information flowing directly into her mind from the Aethersphere.

Fortunately, this time it was much less data than the last time, and it did not give her a splitting headache and was only mildly uncomfortable.

When the information stopped flowing to her mind, Evelyn abruptly opened her eyes and smiled. The Aethersphere had repaired another of its systems, and she was thrilled to have its power.