Find the Apothocary

Task F - "The Meeting with the Powerful"
(aliya.marques) - Demon of Deception

Today is the special Meeting with the Powerful and I am looking forward to it. Arch Eliza was already waiting for me and told me to rush. She flew ahead and I followed her and we landed in front of a dark castle. Arch Eliza entered this castle first and I followed her again. We ran to the throne room, where a female demon was sitting on one of the majestic chairs. Like me, she was blindfolded, which I could see with my all-seeing eye on my chest. Arch Eliza greeted her and I heard that this demon was a powerful high-ranking demon, because Arch-Eliza called her “Hell Commander“. After Arch Eliza had read from the scroll she was carrying, the Hell Commander spoke to her first and then to me.

Suddenly it was my turn to speak. After I had spoken, the Hell Commander Akiva Lilith Helcaraxe gave me orally the following task: (Akiva Lilith Helcaraxe Quote beginning) „There is a famous Apothecary within the mortal realm in the Town of York. He has been the cornerstone in healing mortals and helping them when things get rather chaotic. I would like for you to apprehend him at ALL cost. You must find him and when you do, you must capture him. The Apothecary is in an undisclosed fortified location and is currently being guarded by several high ranking Angels. Your task is to take another Demon along with you and find the location of the Apothecary. Once you find him you must take him out of the undisclosed location. Now, whether you fail to capture him and escape or you succeed will depend both on luck and on your skills. Whether succeeding or failing, you must report back to me within 1 weeks time.“ (Akiva Lilith Helcaraxe end quote)

I listened carefully because the Hell Commander made it clear that she would only say it once and would not repeat herself. I was a little shocked, because I hadn't reckoned with such a difficult task. Who should I take with me, who was suitable to help me with this really difficult task? 1000 questions were burning in my head, but I didn't want to disappoint the Hell Commander, Arch Eliza, my Chietain and the horde that is my family. When the Meeting with the Powerful came to an end, Arch Eliza and I left the castle.

Chieftain Andre was waiting in front of the gate and suddenly I had the Demon I wanted to take with me on this difficult task. I looked at my Chieftain, gave him a smile and nodded. Yes, he is the Demon I want to take with me! He has hundreds of years of experience, knows everything, and with him we would be successful. I initiated my Chieftain and he didn't think twice, nodded and agreed to go with me to accomplish the task the Hell Commander had given me. We said goodbye to Arch Eliza and made our way to the mortal world.

Me and my Chieftain flew to a place in the depths of hell where it was allowed to create a passage to the mortal world. He spoke a devilish incantation loudly. It opened a portal to the other world and we flew into it.

With my all-seeing eye, which was on my chest, I saw the cathedral Town of York, which is located in North Yorkshire, England, on the river Ouse, near the confluence of the Foss, which flows into the Ouse. It is the capital of the county of Yorkshire. The secret, mysterious place where this Apothecary, guarded by Angels, is said to be located is somewhere in this town, and this town is damn big.

From the moment we entered the mortal world, we had to adapt to the environment incognito. As a demon of deception, I took the human form of a sick little girl. My Chieftain took the human form of an old man who pretended to be my grandfather. The Apothecary, whose heart was apparently very big, would surely want to help an old man with his sick grandchild. We dressed accordingly so as not to attract attention. The human language was not a problem for us Demons. But where should we start the search? This Town seemed to be large and teeming with people going about their business. My Chieftain grabbed me by the shoulder and I heard him speak to me in my mind. “Aliya, remember the heart-beat that reaches our ears like an ultrasound when an angel is nearby. Remember what the Hell Commander said to you. High-ranking angels protect this Apothecary and that is why we will find this man. We just have to be smarter than these Angels, faster than these Angels and, above all, we must not lose sight of the goal. Do you understand?” I nodded silently.

The Chieftain took me by the hand and we went into the Town of York, disguised as humans. I began to cough and whine loudly. My chieftain telepathically asked me why I was doing this, and I explained that since I am a sick child, I attract people's attention, which allows us to get information from a kind-hearted person that might help us. My chieftain approved the idea.

After walking for over an hour, we caught the attention of an elderly woman sweeping the street in front of a shoe store. “This child seems to be sick,” she said to my Chieftain. “Yes, that's right, my grandchild has a bad cough and we need a medicine that would help the child. We just arrived in York and don't know our way around yet. I heard about a Apothecary who helps people like us who don't have much money in emergencies. Finding this Apothecary seems like a gamble because this Town seems endlessly large,” my Chieftain replied. I coughed harder and harder and the woman smiled at me. “You poor thing, you should have something to drink,” she said sympathetically, and I really wanted to laugh out loud inside, but I just looked at her sympathetically and nodded silently. The woman went into the shoe store and came out with a glass of water in her right hand. “Here, little lady, have a drink of water and you'll feel better.” Reluctantly, I took the glass and drank the water in one gulp. I just thought -> disgusting!!!!

My Chieftain laughed out loud in my mind and imitated the woman: ”Have a drink of water... hehehehe” He knew I hated water, but I looked at the woman, gave her the empty glass and just said softly, “Thank you very much, ma'am.”I turned to my Chieftain and asked in a low voice, “Grandpa, where is this Apothecary? I'm in pain all over, Grandpa! I need medication,” I whined and cried. “You know, my child, we don't have enough money. We can't afford any medicine at the moment,” my Chieftain said sternly to me. The woman stroked my head, looked at my Chieftain, and then said, “Wait a moment, I'll be right back.”

She ran into the shoe store and came out seconds later with a piece of paper in her left hand, which she gave to my Chieftain. In her right hand she held a bag of cough drops, which she handed to me. Reluctantly, I accepted the bag, curtsied and said softly to her, “Thank you, ma'am.” On the piece of paper that my Chieftain had, were good directions to the undisclosed fortified location whose Apothecary gave medicine to people who had little, even without money. He was especially generous with children. We both smiled contentedly at the woman. My Chieftain thanked her and we set off for our destination, which we now knew.

We continued our way through narrow alleys and streets, always further in the direction of our destination. After a while, my Chieftain suddenly stopped abruptly, jumped behind a house corner and pulled me with him, as he held my hand tightly. He stopped with me hidden behind the house corner and looked up at the sky. “What's going on?” I asked my Chieftain quietly and he replied with disgust, “ Look up and you'll know what's going on.” I raised my head and looked in the same direction as my Chieftain and there I saw it. Two beings, surrounded by a brightly glowing aura and huge white-gold wings, one was male and one female. Both were sitting on the roof of a house, which was probably also the location of this Apothecary. My Chieftain swore and murmured softly in my direction: “Arch Shugs and Arch Guy are very high-ranking Angels with enormous magical powers and apparently the guardians of this Apothecary. We must therefore hurry to capture this mortal, and we must do so cleverly, for these Angels can do us great harm and even destroy us.” I looked at my Chieftain and replied softly, “I have a plan.” He looked at me in astonishment and I heard him again only in my head: “From now on, our communication will only take place via telepathy.” I nodded again silently. He was curious to know what plan I had come up with. I was a demon of deception and he was a demon of destruction. That was good for my plan. Both angels may be high-ranking, but are they also clever enough, because strength is not always an advantage.

With a serious face, I looked at my Chieftain and telepathically said to him: “This is my plan – I will take the form of a small and nimble animal, a tiny mouse. The humans in the house where we suspect the apothecary to be are always going in and out. The front door of this house would open repeatedly, and I can quickly slip through it. As soon as I am in the house, I will change my shape again, this time into a cat, without the humans there noticing. I am quiet, fast, see everything, hear everything, because cats have very good senses. If I have to, I can jump up anywhere to find this Apothecary.” My Chieftain asked me telepathically how I would recognize the Apothecary, which I answered that it is exactly the person who helps the other people with his pills, herbs or whatever he gives them, so that they can get well. “I have another question, Aliya,” I heard him say in my head, “What about the Angels on the roof? Have you forgotten what I explained to you? It is also possible for them to hear us as soon as you come within their range.” I smiled and answered him telepathically, “Oh yes, I didn't forget, so please listen to me.”

My Chieftain nodded silently and I continued to explain my plan. “As a demon of destruction, you could create chaos beforehand, for example with a fight between all the many people walking around here. Possibly with a thief who has stolen someone's money and is being beaten up by all the other people on the street because they are angry about the theft. You could make a lot of the items that people carry break, which would increase their anger even more, causing people to turn on each other and create a mass brawl in which everyone ends up beating each other up. The two Angels would notice this, but not us, but the many people who are almost killing each other, so to speak, which the Angels would have to prevent. If the two Angels are busy, I should act very quickly, because if they notice us both, we have a pretty big problem. So we should always keep a certain distance from these two Angels as long as possible. As soon as I have found this pharmacist, I will take my true form, grab him, stun him and fly away with him. I will let you know telepathically when I have succeeded, so that you can also disappear. We'll meet at the gates of the city. What do you think of that, my Chieftain?” My Chieftain looked at me again, laughed softly, and nodded benevolently. “And if the angels still notice us, we'll have to fight with all our might,” I ended my telepathic conversation. My Chieftain nodded again and began to implement my plan.

He quickly stood to the right of a very well-dressed gentleman, fished the wallet out of his left jacket pocket unnoticed, then stood just as quickly to the left of a shabbily dressed man, put the stolen wallet unnoticed into the man's right vest pocket, shouted loudly “this man is a thief!” and pointed at the supposed thief. My Chieftain quickly moved away as the expected brawl broke out. Out of listening range of these two angels, we hid behind another corner and watched what these two Angels did. As I suspected, they plunged right into the chaos and tried to prevent the worst. This was my chance.

In the form of a tiny mouse, I ran with my short legs out of earshot of the two high-ranking Angels towards the front door of the house I wanted, which opened when I was in front of it. Human feet almost crushed me, but I was just able to avoid them and run into the house. In a corner, I transformed into a cat unnoticed and moved around nimbly to look for this mysterious man. The house had a basement and an upper floor. I ran downstairs first, looking everywhere, but I saw nothing but junk. There was no Apothecary here. I then ran back upstairs, looked around, but couldn't see anything unusual. I stopped for a moment by the stairs and suddenly heard a woman's voice saying that she would be forever grateful to the Apothecary for his medicine. This voice came from upstairs. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could and there were two closed doors. “Behind which door was this Apothecary?” The question in my head did not go unanswered.

A door with a visible green cross on it opened, a young woman came out, bent down when she saw me, stroked my head and then ran down the stairs, holding a bottle labeled “medicine” in her left hand. I quickly entered the room on velvet paws, where a small, obese man stood in front of a table with various herbs, some bottles, several mortars for crushing pills and other stuff. When he saw me in my cat form, he leaned down to me, smiled at me and actually asked: “And who are you, my little kitten?”

I was furious, hissed at him and started to reveal my true form. Before he could scream, I put my demonic paw over his mouth and growled at him in his human language: “Shut up, or I'll cause you pain you'll never forget, you whimpering piece of shit. I only have one question and don't dare lie to me,” I threatened him. 'Are you the Apothecary when it comes to healing and helping mortals, even when the going gets rough?' He looked at me with wide-open eyes and nodded.

At that moment, I heard the sound of a heartbeat and the beating of mighty wings behind one of the windows of the room where I was with this Apothecary. I knew I had been discovered, and if I didn't think of something quickly, I would fail in my task. I now grabbed the Apothecary with both paws, held him in front of me like a shield and called to the Angel: “You and another Angel are protecting this mortal, which is very strange, so you surely don't want me to end his earthly existence here and now, because he seems important to you and dead he is certainly of little use to you!”

The Angel heard me and answered me with the sweet voice of an Angel: “If you harm a hair on his head, I and my brother will extinguish your demonic light and only dust will remain of you.” To emphasize my words, I dug my claws into the Apothecary 's shoulders, causing blood to spurt from the wounds and making him scream in pain.

Meanwhile, my Chieftain was fighting fiercely with the other angel on the street below, who had spotted him after I entered the house. But my Chieftain was a clever and devious demon. He didn't use spells to weaken the Angel, because he knew he would eventually be defeated. So he quickly grabbed six children by the hair, which he spotted in the middle of the fracas, and held them up as leverage. They were toddlers that would melt any human's heart and wouldn't leave an Angel's heart cold either. “If you don't want me to tear these children to pieces and lay their souls at the feet of my prince of darkness, then get out of here and stay away!” my Chieftain growled loudly at the Angel. “You wouldn't dare!” the Angel screamed at him. My Chieftain didn't think twice and broke the youngest child's neck with one blow, bit off his head and threw the dead child's headless body at the mother's feet. The child's soul, which wanted to fly to heaven, was sucked in by my chief with just one demonic breath. He laughed like hell, and when the child's mother saw this, she screamed loudly and fainted.

The mortals were now very scared, for they realized how serious and dangerous the situation was. It was probably the first time they had seen the conflict between angels and demons, and that seemed somehow frightening. He turned back to the Angel and snarled, “Shall I do the same to the other children and let all these people watch?”

The Angel looked at the people, saw the mother lying unconscious next to the body of her headless child, saw the rest of the children whimpering, their hair in my chief's claws, and capitulated. He shook his head and looked at my Chieftain. “I will hunt you down, demon,” he promised my chieftain as he flew away.

My Chieftain contacted me telepathically again, telling me where he would wait for me and urging me to hurry. Then he flew to the town gates with the children, who he held by their hair, where he waited for me.

I heard my Chieftain's voice in my head again as I watched with a grin as both sleeves of the Apothecary's jacket turned red. My Chieftain urged me telepathically to hurry, so I called out to the female Angel again, “Shall I end my mission here and now and give these mortal …….” The Angel interrupted me abruptly and shouted, “This time you may escape, but we will hunt you down and bring this human back!”

Suddenly there was only silence, no more heartbeat, no more flapping wings, only the pathetic whimpering of the apothecary. To stop the whimpering, I knocked the mortal unconscious, took him under my demonic right arm and flew to the town gate, where my Chieftain was already waiting for me. When I saw my Chieftain from afar, I quickly flew to him. As I flew alongside him, he spoke a few demonic words that only he and I could understand. The ground opened up beneath us and my Chieftain ordered me to fly with the Apothecary to the depths of hell first. He still had the children by the hair with his paw and looked around. With these children, he wanted to make sure that the two Angels were not lurking nearby, waiting to derail the mission after all. As I was about to fly down into the depths of hell, I suddenly saw several brightly illuminated auras on the horizon, moving quickly towards us.

My Chieftain had also noticed this bright aura on the horizon. He snarled at me to fly to hell and fulfill my task of bringing this Apothecary to the Hell Commander, but he was my Chieftain, my overlord, my demonic father, and I would never abandon him. Instead of obeying him, I threw the unconscious Apothecary into the opening to the underworld that had opened up on the ground and the mortal fell down and disappeared into the direction of hell. Now I prepared for the fight with these Angels. They were the two high-ranking Angels who had previously guarded the mortal in the city and they now had a third with them. It was a female Angel with the rank of a Cherub and her name was Meghan, Cardinal Meghan. All this was revealed to me by my all-seeing eye and I passed it on to my Chieftain. He instructed me to use fire magic for as long as possible and that these spells should not miss their target. I nodded silently and was determined to hold out until the end. My Chieftain killed the children with a single blow, devoured their souls and was ready for the fight. The three Angels had seen everything, even though they were far away, and they too were determined to do everything they could to destroy us. The first fire spell of my Chieftain hit the third female Angel.

The female Angel fell towards the ground due to gravity and to prevent her from hitting the ground, the male Angel rushed to her side to catch her. The remaining female Angel attacked my Chieftain with several magical spells. He was hit by these spells on his right shoulder, right arm and right thigh. Demonic blood came out of his wounds. I reacted immediately and cast several fire spells at her in response. I received an equal number of spells in return and was also hit in the shoulder, just like my Chieftain. Demonic blood flowed from my wound as well. The other two angels were no longer visible, and my Chieftain took this opportunity. He pulled me by my horns into the still-open gateway to Hell, where no angel could enter.

The ground closed behind him and we landed in hell. I picked up the still unconscious Apothecary from the infernal ground, took him under my right arm again and we flew to the dark castle. When we arrived at the dark castle, where the Hell Commander was probably already waiting, I said goodbye to my Chieftain. “I thank you for your help, my Chieftain. Without your help, I would not have been able to capture this Apothecary and bring him to the Hell Commander.” With the Apothecary still under my right arm, I proudly entered the castle. I stepped before the Hell Commander, threw the unconscious mortal at her feet and bowed before her.

“Here is the Apothecary from the mortal realm of the worldly town of York, whom we were to capture and bring to you, Ma'am. Chieftain Andre of the Blaze Draconis Horde had accompanied me and helped me against three high-ranking Angels who served as guards. Through cunning and our demonic abilities, we were successful.” I pointed my demonic paw in the direction of the mortal and remained in a bowed position.

From the wound on my shoulder, my demonic blood dripped onto the floor of the castle and slowly formed a small lake .......................