Amber Stilmyst's Story

Amber let out a startled gasp when Aiden ran past, picking her up as he ran. She looked ahead, to see where he was going; after Shad and Jamie. She was confused, until she remembered what he had said earlier. Anything that ran was prey. But there was the two of them...which was he going after? She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do if he did go after Jamie, other than to tell him to stop. If that's what it came down to, she could either allow him to go after Shad, or have him go farther away, maybe find something he could prey on. Some animal or something that lived in the area. She bit her lip for a second before shaking her head. Hunting was not a bad thing for him, so she couldn't tell him no yet. She might just have to wait until he came close enough to one or the other before telling him to stop, if it was Jamie. "Not the human," she told him, unsure how well he was actually understanding her.

Amber watched patiently, until he jumped over Shad, towards Jamie. "No! Leave him alone!" she scolded. So he hadn't understood that part; figured. She should have just taken him away from the school; surely someone else here was capable of, and willing to, help protect him from Shad. ...But, as far as she knew, the others weren't exactly in any position. Arabella was probably recovering from her injuries, and Deilos was taking care of her, she thought. She sighed, shaking her head. "Maybe somewhere else for prey..." Obviously he was looking for prey; he wouldn't pounce otherwise, she figured. "Away from him, now, okay?"

Amber sighed, relieved Jamie had been pushed out of Aiden's way. But then Shad had bumped into Aiden, and he was not happy about Aiden taking his prey from him. She shook her head. It was his own fault, making Jamie run like that. He made him look like prey to Aiden. She stopped herself from snapping at him when she saw Deilos coming up, and looked away. There had been a deal, then? That was just luck, and she was glad for it. She looked back up at Aiden. "That wasn't prey; you need to find different prey this time, okay?"

Amber shook her head as Aiden moved closer to the two. "Neither of them are prey! Now get away from them!" 'This is not working out so well', she thought, glancing around. She hadn't thought about Aiden possibly thinking of Chiaki as prey. "There is no prey here; not in this area." She needed to talk him out of trying to hunt here, at the very least. She tapped his shoulder briefly. "Come on now, Aiden, away from here. You can hunt away from here, okay?" She only needed him far enough away to smell enough other types of prey that he left everyone here alone.

Amber shook her head. "There is no prey; not here." The whine kind of made him sound more like a puppy, but the wolf instinct was definitely there. "Come on, now; away from here," she encouraged. He wanted the prey here, but she couldn't let him have that prey. "We'll go somewhere else to find larger prey for you, okay?" Surely he wouldn't mind going after larger prey? "Maybe there will even be more prey somewhere else." She glanced down at the newcomer. "All you need to worry about is the vampire; I've got this one." She didn't need him attacking Aiden, especially while she was carrying her. She'd have to ask to be put down later, while he hunted animals.

Amber was relieved that he was listening to her; he would leave Jamie and the others alone. ...Although, it looked like Shad wasn't moving...the kid hadn't killed him, had he? She sort of wanted to check...but if he was still anywhere near conscious, that would only put her in danger. And she did have to watch Aiden, keep him away from any humans might be in the area. She doubted that, but she needed to be sure before she decided to let him go on his own. And she couldn't be sure. "That's better; there's more you can hunt out here."

Amber was glad enough that he had put her down while he ate. That was so much easier for her. It made it much easier for her to look away as he ate. While she understood he had needed to hunt, and that it was only a moose, she didn't want to see it. She sat down, facing him, but her head was turned awa from him, so she wouldn't have to watch. She looked back, though, when something landed in front of her. She covered her mouth, looking away when she saw the liver half in front of her. She looked up at him; what did he expect her to do? She couldn't very well eat that. "You go ahead...you can have it..." She wasn't sure what his intentions were behind this one, and while she could only assume he meant well, she saw no reason to eat that. "I'm not hungry..."

Amber hesitated, watching him. He wasn't just going to let it go. But what else was she to do? He didn't understand everything she had said before...so she couldn't expect him to understand too many explanations she gave him. And he was watching her, too; that didn't help much. She couldn't eat that...it wasn't cooked. She knew some places ate liver as a normal meal...she did not. If she ate that, she was bound to end up getting herself sick. She was long overdue to be sick, anyway; anything like this and she would probably be stuck in the nurses for a while. She bit her lip, staring at the liver as she thought, then back up at him. "I don't want it. I'm not hungry." She paused before nudging it towards him with her hand, and then brushed her hand off in the grass. She only wished she knew exactly how to get it through to him that she couldn't eat that.

Amber nodded as he took the liver piece instead. So now what was she supposed to do? He was just sitting there...watching her. She was unused to that much attention, unless it was, like it had been since school had started, some monster or other wanting to attack her. She wondered briefly just how much he was like any dog she had walked, but decided that could wait. She watched Aiden as he watched her, trying to decide what to do next. He had just eaten, but she wasn't sure if that was enough, or if he still wanted to hunt, or if he would just lie down and rest. "Umm...are you done...hunting?" Would he understand that much?

Amber watched him, then shook her head, glancing around herself. He hadn't even made a move to try to answer; he hadn't understood. As long as he wasn't attacking other people, human or not. It seemed like he was calm enough that he wasn't going to bother with anything. But what was she supposed to do with him? She obviously couldn't lead him back to the school just yet; she wasn't sure if he would try to fidn other prey. But she certainly couldn't sit there all night. ...Well, she could, but she'd fall asleep sooner or later. Though it didn't quite seem late enough to try to sleep. His attention seemed to be elsewhere. She looked to see what he was looking at, then stood up. Maybe walking would keep her up for a while. And Aiden would keep up, she assumed, like he head earlier. "Come on, then; I don't want to sit still right now. Just a little walk."

Amber found it odd that he was being so tame about everything. For all that he had said it would be trouble, he was behaving rather well. Which was a good thing. She didn't have to try to get away from him, he wasn't really acting like he wanted to go back and get the prey there. ...At least, what he had thought was prey. She'd just have to make sure Aiden got away from the school a lot sooner, so there wasn't a chance for that to happen as early as it did. She had thought about saying something before to her brother, but the thought that he might only get in trouble if he tried showing up had stopped her...along with the low chances that he would actually believe it. She shook her head. It was odd enough that this school didn't have any humans other than herself, and Jamie. But still, it wasn't as bad as she might have thought it would be. It wasn't too different than her usual walks wth other dogs. Without thinking much about it, she started humming to herself. It was more a force of habit; something she always did when she went for walks.

Amber paused, hearing a whine. She glanced back, debating, then looked back at him. "Is there something back there?" She looked back again. She didn't see anything but the school...though that was just hardly visible to her. She glanced at him before turning and starting to head that way, back towards the school. "We'll go closer, but we're not going back in tonight." She didn't want to risk another fight like there had been. But she also knew they had to be close enough to get inside the next day, early enough to avoid trouble, anyway.

Amber glanced at him, the sudden movement of the tail wagging catching her attention. A playful sign, really. ...But how was she supposed to play with a giant beats like that? Throw a big branch and tell him to fetch? She shook off the image quickly. She wouldn't be able to throw that. Still, it was an interesting idea, playing fetch with a werewolf. "I wonder...would you play fetch?" She glanced at him, then down, looking for a stick that might be big enough for him, but not big enough that she couldn't do anything with it. She found one and hesitated, glancing at him before tossing it a little ways away. If he did play, maybe it would keep him entertained enough for a while.

Amber shook his head as he came back, tossing arouns the stick. Maybe that was why dogs chased after them; Aiden was acting like he was after prey, so maybe that was what dogs thought it was...or maybe they were just energetic pups that needed exercise. She found another one, and debated trying again. Would he even go after it if he knew where it came from? She showed it to him before throwing it, just to see if he would chase after if if he knew where it had come from.

Amber grinned. So this would be a game to occupy his attention. Or maybe ot was just her playing with him. She had no way of being sure. She waited a few moments, watching where his attention was. Of course he was watching the stick. Then she threw the stick, more confident about it this time. She watched where it landed, then waited for him to fetch the stick. This would keep him entertained for a while, at least.

Amber grinned, watching him come back. So he was having fun with this. She patted his head when he came back, grabbing the stick. They could really only play this game for so long, she figured. She was still going to need to sleep, and he probably was, too. But she didn't think playing fetch for too long would really hurt much. Might tire them both out, and they'd both sleep well enough afterwards. Or she might just have a hard time wearing him out; she hadn't dealt with a werewolf before. It did help that he was big enough for her to see for a bit of a longer distance than dogs. She tugged on the stick, hoping he'd let go. She already knew she wasn't going to win a game of tug with him.

Amber laughed at the wagging tail. Clearly this kept him entertained well enough. She only hoped he wouldn't get too bored of it soon. This was something that was easy for her to play with him. She watched him, and where his attention was, before turning to a slightly different direction and throwing. Maybe that would help to keep him entertained; going in a different direction each time.

Amber looked up at the building as they stopped; she hadn't ever been to a tailor before, so this was new for her. She glanced at Aiden, about to ask something, but stopped as she saw someone spproaching the car. He seemed vaguely familiar, like she had seen him once or maybe twice before, but hadn't paid him much attention. It wasn't until she saw the dagger that she realized who it was; Aiden had killed him the first day she had gone to Carnes High, in self defense, of course. "Aiden, look out...!" she started, but by then he was opening the door from the outside. Knowing she would only get in the way, she backed to the opposite side of the car. And here she had left her own dagger at home! What good did that do now, when she could have really used it to help?

Jacob backed away only slightly from the demon who then turned to the others apparently taking all their testimony in, other than the Leprechaun who he blatantly ignored. The man heard Ambers explanation of the events and just frowned, “Ignorance is not an excuse, it doesn’t matter if he didn’t know about the debt, all he needs to know for legality of payment pursuit is the initial sum and the debt owed… which he has now been told. The Debt stands.”

“Of course it does, demon’s don’t care about fairness in contracts.” Jacob commented sourly.

The Auditor turned to Jacob violently as his face literally contorted into a pure state of rage with his skin visibly red as the scales and fangs were more pronounced, even the voice changed to a raging chorus of scream, “I don’t need a lecture on contracts from a Hirule, your kind has broken more than any other!” Jacob just glared right back, but he didn’t make a move as perhaps Desmond would have, he couldn’t. The Auditor just stood straight again, taking off his hat to slick back his grease black and red hair as he straightened his tie and his body returned to a controlled state. “Anything else you would like ot say?” Shad spoke up, bringing out the truth about what happened.

The auditor listened intently and smirked when it was done, “So, his heart stopped… and then Desmond Ruler used a forbidden art to bring him back… interesting… but this doesn’t alleviate the debt… his soul should have been claimed but it was forcibly withheld, this will be taken into account when the final interest is calculated.” he drew out what looked like a calculator and began entering symbols instead of numbers, “The audit is finished, your debt now stands, with interest, at-”

“He shouldn’t be held to our laws!” Jacob asserted again.

The Auditor took out his book again with one hand and opened it to another page before presenting it to Jacob who took it and read while the Auditor spoke the words aloud, “The Human’s in question, to be determined as Jaimie Finn and Amber Stillmyst, shall be allocated into the fold of the legal systems and protection of the Council and by its rulings will be both protected and subject to the laws that govern our world… ratified Council year 3579…” Jacob glared up at him and handed him back the book, “And what crackpot councilman wrote that bit of legislation?”

“You should know, Hirule,” there was that twisted smile again, “anyway, this legal code states it is our right to hold these two humans to the same laws as those of demon decent are held too…”

“But who wrote it?” Jacob wasn’t on the council and while not ignorant of the workings he wasn’t so fan-boyish to politics to know who wrote every stupid little law, and he doubted the others knew much more about it than he did.

“Councilman Desmond Ruler.”

Jacob was crest fallen, “Damn.” He whispered, knowing his last argument was just made invalid.

The Auditor finished the calculations and looked to Jaimie, taking a printout form the calculator and handing it to him, “The audit is complete, you’re debt now stands at one life without interest.” Another printout, “And another life with interest, bringing the total to two lives in the form of equivalent souls.” And finally a third print out, “Those souls must meet these requirements…” he took off his hat as he stepped back and bowed slightly, “due to the extreme flight risk of the debtor… you… and the overdue nature of your debt the collections department will be dispatched to ensure its payment.” He tipped his hat and turned on his heel, walking away as he let his aura out to suppress the others, “Good day.” At the gate to the school he stepped over the threshold and vanished in a plume of smoke and fire much like those that had brought the others to the courtyard.

Jacob cursed again as he headed over to Jaimie, apologized and took one of the printouts, “What the hell are the conditions for this debt?” he wondered aloud looking over the symbols that Jaimie would not be able to read, he read several lines and then brought it closer, rereading it again and again “Shit!” he balled up the papers and threw them to the ground, “Damn those underworld bastards!” the balled up paper slowly unfurled and the characters on the pages morphed into English for the others who didn’t read demonic to read.


In the matter of the debt of one Jaimie Finn… the debt and interest totals stand at Two souls (lives to be substituted in the case of living beings) of equal value to the original debt.

Soul criteria:
1. Must be human
2. Must be legally aware of the Council and associated beings (commonly known as the monster world)
3. Must have been graced by one wish presented by an Ancient Power
4. Must have been saturated by rare energy from the Hirule Gate

These criteria will be met; to ensure this the Collection Department will oversee the payment of the debt, by force if necessary.

It wasn’t hard to understand thusly why Jacob was pissed. These criteria were very specific, and very, very rare. In fact only two souls in the world would match it. The Underworld Clans were not just after Jaimie’s life and soul, with these criteria and the interest they were coming after one more as well, Amber’s.