A mysterious deal

'It may have cost a small fortune, but that staff is really doing wonders.' Sven thought as a small herd of Festering Crickets was blown to bits by Ignis's fireball, in true it had cost the party their entire supply of gold AxM, enough to buy a small property in any major city, many hours, days and weeks of collecting herbs and selling trash drops to vendors but the results were undeniable. The staff was clearing entire mob packs with relative ease, all Sven needed to do was herd them up into a group and let Ignis do the rest. Class vs classless - there was a huge difference between the two and Elise knew this more than anyone as she stared enviously at all the attention Ignis was getting from mast- from SVEN! She corrected herself mid-thought.

"Well done Ignis!" Sven praised the blushing high elf, she stuck her chin up in a juvenile display of pride and it rubbed Elise the wrong way - making a displeased noise Elise walked off, instinctively not wanting to be near the object of her jealousy any longer.

As she walked she thought about what she could do to impress Sven into liking her more than Ignis when suddenly she was brought out of her musings by a foul stench, and then the horrid sight of an array of half eaten corpses - bodies of men and women alike who all seem to have shared the same fate. Bite and gnawing marks were littered across their bodies randomly, whatever had been chomping on them had left sizable marks on their bodies, bigger than a humans mouth she was sure of that at least.

"Sven!" Elise shouted as she readied her bow, but it was too late as her shouting had alerted herself to the ambush predator in hiding, under the bodies a scaled creature darted out towards her at lightning speeds - she managed to dodge its gnashing teeth and while mid jump she landed an arrow that pierced its midsection, it stood flat on its belly with four legs, but its speed was undeniable, it change direction when struck and charged at Elise like it hadn't even registered the pain, taking another bite Elise barely dodged it, taking a grazing from its teeth to her leg.

Grunting she panicked and brought a hand to her leg to inspect the damage - however this turned out to be a grave mistake as the beast launched at her again with an unrelenting attack, biting her stomach the creature began to roll, its strong jaws clamping deep into her flesh and bringing her to the muddy floor. She felt dizzy from the rapid turns, searing pain from the creatures teeth ripping into her flesh, but what was worse was the terror from being helpless to stop it all. Feelings of fright, pain and uselessness filled her in that moment and she prayed for it all to stop, to whatever god was listening, she prayed for the power to live - to keep adventuring with Sven and even Ignis, she prayed and prayed but no one answered her, nothing was going to save her, nothing but-

Wait, her head was still spinning but she could feel her body stop, when she opened her muddied eyes instead of seeing the scaled monster lurking above her for the kill shot, she saw first white, and then red, and then black.

Time moved slowly for her, wherever she was, whatever SHE was. It was a sort of religious experience she realized as her body was suspended in a blackened void, she could see herself - naked as the day she was born and curled up with her eyes closed. But she could see? Why was this happening to her, she wondered as she began to float around her body, taking in all angles and confirming that this was indeed her body.

"There's a word for people like you." A disembodied voice called out to her suggestively, from where or what direction she couldn't tell, her perspective was anchored onto her body and all she could see beyond herself was black.

"Who are you? What is happening to me?" She shouted back, or was it shouting? Did she just think all of that? She couldn't tell - everything felt weird, sensation-less and without 'inpact'. The deep voice chuckled back at her, as if privy to a secret joke.

"Time is urgent, why and what I am doesn't matter. What do you want, little girl?" Elise bristled at the 'little girl' comment but thought about his question.

"I want..." There was a lot of things in true, but right now... "I want power, power to prote-" The voice interjected.

"Yes yes yes, power for noble reasons no doubt. You don't have to justify yourself to me, you just have to accept my... terms." Whatever was speaking to her finished its sentence with what she imagined was a crooked smile - even though she couldn't see this entity she could still somehow perceive its glee at whatever price she must pay.

"Wh-What terms?" She asked, a pit forming in her stomach for what this fiend might want with her.

"It's simple Elise, I want-"

"Elise! Oh thank god you're ok, what were you thinking walking off from the group like that?!" Elise awoke to the sight of a frantic Sven carrying her in his arms her bleeding at since stopped and her wound had healed up - Sven had given her a health draft she realized as she inspected her stomach.

"Not even I would stand a chance out here on my own, neither would Ignis! Divided we are weak but together we are strong." He continued to rant as he carried her, looking around she realized she wasn't in the swamps anymore, if the green fields and sounds of birds chirping was anything to go by.

"Botany... fields?" She asked weakly, not believing that she had been out for that long.

"Well I wasn't about to climb up that ladder with you on my shoulder, it's fine we'll spend some time at the inn for you to recover, just." He paused and she could see the pain written across his face. "Just don't do something stupid like that again, if you hadn't of called first..." He let the implications hang in the air, she wiped away a tear at the thought. She wasn't sad because she might have died though, she was frustrated in herself that she had been yet another burden to Sven and Ignis. Sven was risking life and limb every day to lure the monsters and Ignis was doing all the work in killing them, what was she doing? She **** them to take her back to Botany Fields because she almost died due to her stupid emotions. She fought back the flood of tears by biting her bottom lip, she wouldn't look weaker in front of him, she couldn't allow herself.

As they returned to the inn she thought back to that creatures words and what they meant, did she make the right choice? Could she even look Sven and Ignis in the face again after having accepted? She wasn't sure, but what she was sure is that there was no use hesitating after having accepted 'it's' deal.