After Zotova left her cackling laugh rang in his head. She had gotten under his skin tore an anger fueled reaction from him. She always loved seeing what strings she could pull to get her fellow sin lords enraged. Which was usually why she fled here to hide from them. Damn his kindness, and her ability to take advantage. “Dammit,” He sighed out. He leaned against his desk, and set his face into his hands. He was so tired now, twice more than he had been before.

When he got a call Asran answered on the third ring. “Hello,” he asked cooly. What he heard made him shoot out of his chair knocking it over. “What! Get that prisoner into the holding pen. I’ll come there to collect him, personally.”

The taxi dropped Ayrie off in front of Markus's temple, as she didn't yet feel like faving the priests. She went to the courtyard and sat on a bench, still jumping at every little sound. She felt like she would zap anything that came into her path, so she decided to sit and meditate for a while. Seeing that it was nearly dinner time, she didn't have much longer before the priests came out in search of her, but she wasn't nearly as afraid of them as she was of hurting someone.

"Ayrie? What are you doing here?" Markus asked softly, standing at a distance as if he could sense her fear.

"Markus... I-i didn't know where else to go..." Ayrie said, tears finally falling from her eyes. "I just h-had the w-worst day..."

"Oh, my dear." He sat beside her, putting his arm comfortingly behind her to allow her to rest her head. "Tell me. What can I do to help you?"

Ayrie thought for a few moments, using the time to compose herself.

"Teach me something to defend myself." She said. "I need to know more defensive magics. Something to bind, maybe, and silence." She spat the last word out as if it were an attack.

"Of course my dear. Let us begin." He stood and motioned for her to follow him inside, where they went inside a practice room that he had heavily sheilded. "Anything you do in here stays in here. You cannot harm me, nor can I harm you, and nothing can escape. We will begin with a binding spell..."

When Asran got to the prison his blood was practically boiling. He flashed his credentials, and swiped his pass at the check points. Making his way deep inside the prison to the special holding pen. It was like a drunk tank the man who’d verbally assaulted Ayrie was there. Looking at Asran with a smug look of amusement. “So, that tasty doll was your piece of meat? Man wait till it gets to the others. We are gonna have so much fun with her. I can’t waste to taste her flesh when I get out,” he said laughing. Only to hear the door be torn off the hinges cutting his laugh short. He looked at the mayor fear replacing the mug expression quickly. “No, no, I’m sorry I’m sorry I didn’t know she was yours. I didn’t know please,” he begged.

Asran walked out of the prison wiping blood off his face, and hands with a moist towel. “How was it,” one of the guards asked chuckling. “Disgusting, but filling,” he said with a scowl. The guard nodded as he regained his stony stance.

Asran made his way to the one place he had a feeling Ayrie would have gone. He waited outside of the training room. He didn’t notice he had blood on his shirt.

Ayrie was sweating by the time Markus had run her through the three spells he had decided to teach her. She was also exhausted but her thoughts were no linger on the men at the prison, and she was confident she could handle them better the next time.

"That's enough for tonight, you had better get home soon." Markus said, he opened the training room door to see Asran. "Sir, good evening. You have a little..." He pointed to his shirt wear the blood stain was on Asran's.

Ayrie was fixing her hair and hadn't seen Asran yet, but she heard Markus speaking to someone and wiped the sweat from her face.

Asran looked at husband shirt, and panicked so he took his shirt off. Then started looking for a replacement not finding one by the time Ayrie came around the corner. “Uhhh hi,” He said blushing. He was a little flustered as he was standing there bare chested. Quickly he passed the shirt to Markus to go hide it. “I wanted to check up on you. See how you were doing after I heard what happened,” he said.

Ayrie stopped dead in her tracks in the doorway when she saw Asran barechested outside the training room.

"Uhm... Yeah. No I'm okay now." She couldn't help but look at him, though she tried to keep her eyes on his face. "I'll be ready for them tomorrow, no more fear tactics from them."

She didn't go into detail, but she knew she could handle the prisoners on her own now, as she had just gotten done mastering the spells. Two of which she had used to silence and bind Markus. The last she had evicerated a hay bale with.

"How was your day?" She asked, moving closer to him but still staying at arms length.

Asran was glad to hear that Ayrie had been trained how to protect herself. When she asked how his day was he didn’t know what the hell to say. Once Markus was gone he’d come up with something. “I saw an old acquaintance, and had an early lunch. You know nothing special,” he said smiling. It was a slightly awkward smile as he was seriously underselling just what happened.

"Well, want to walk me out?" She asked simply, not wanting to be rude but needing to head back to the house sooner rather than later. "I need to head home before the priests get worried about me."

The priests would be looking for her soon, as it was dinner time now. If she disobeyed she wasn't sure what they would do, as she could only talk her way out of things so many times before they took action.

Markus took his leave, walking to his rooms with a shirt tucked out of sight behind his back. "Goodnight Ayrie, goonight sir."

“Of course I’ll walk you home. It’d be my pleasure,” he said. Then turned to see Markus as he was about to take off. “Goodnight,” Asran said waving goodbye.
Then noticed the shirt, and remembered his bare chest. “I’m gonna be back in a second. Don’t go anywhere,” he said. Then went into one of the back rooms, and found a button up shirt that was a bit tight. He put it on, and adjusted the shirt adjusting it. Leaving several buttons undone to ease the right feeling.

He made his way back to Ayrie smiling at her. “I’m ready to go if you are,” he said.

"Hmm. I think I prefer shirtless Asran." She said with a giggle, then realized what she said. "Sorry... I'm exhausted. It's been a long day."

She turned and started walking towards the exit, mentally chiding herself for her unguarded mouth.

"So this old friend you saw today, was it a pleasant visit?"

Asran was stunned for a second at Ayrie’s words. Then burst into laughter at how amusing that was. “That’s amazing, I’m glad you like me topless.” He walked beside her down the streets. He heard her question, and soured a little. Then saw Zotova across the street watching them making his eyes widen. Then protectively wrapped his arm around Ayrie’s shoulders guiding her to avoid the demon lord. “Keep your head down, and don’t fight what I’m about to do,” he whispered. Then began to enshroud Ayrie with dark magic blanketing her with it to protect her, and hide her from Zotova.

For a moment Ayrie enjoyed having his arm around her, then he told her not to fight him and she went stiff.

"What's going on?" Ayrie asked, shivering as Asran covered her in dark magic. She looked around but didn't see anything that looked threatening, only noticing a few people walking home for the evening. "Why is this necessary?"

“Shh, Keep walking,” Asran commanded. He moved her carefully Zotova looked at Asran with a raised brow. Then looked to the woman beside him which piqued her interest. But, she stayed away from them instead opting to walk away. Once she was far far away Asran sighed a breath of relief. Then drew back his black magic absorbing it back into his body. “Good thing I ate earlier. Or things could’ve gotten ugly,” he said. Then rubbed Ayrie’s shoulder comfortingly then pulled back. “It’s okay now,” he said. “She’s gone.”

“Are you quite sure about that?” Asran turned, and blocked an attack coming Ayrie’s way. A sword with a gun like hilt dug into Asran’s arms that were crossed in a defensive stance. His whole body trembling from the strain. “Oh, COME ON! Will you please not attack in the middle of my streets. There are people around,” he said. Zotova grinned her glowing red eyes upon black sclera looking at Asran. “What people?” Making Asran look around. Ayrie, and Asran were completely alone. To top it off everything was a red hue. “Ah, a dimensional barrier?” “Yup, you’re welcome comrade. Now move aside!” Asran then got launched across the street into a building. Debri tumbling around him.

Zotova looked to Ayrie, and let her large sword rest against her shoulders. A mad glint in her eyes with a wide evil smirk on her face. “I am going to have fun so much fun.”

Ayrie doubled her mental sheilds and moved into a protective stance, squaring off against the demoness.

"I'm not going to make it easy on you." She said smiling back. She summoned the blade of light that Markus had taught her to use earlier. 'Perfect timing old man.'

She welcomed a surge of adrenaline into her, replacing the energy she had lost during the day. Her hair began to shimmer as her power flared, and her eyes glowed a soft green color with the light within her.

"Who are you and why do you attack me? Why harm Asran?" She asked, her voice changing slightly.

“Well that’s easy I’m Lady Wrath. I’m going to kill you then burn your body to an unrecognizable heap of charcoal. Before you can hurt him again, Astoria. He may not recognize you, but I sure as hell do. You damn witch!” Zotova leapt at Ayrie aiming to take her head off. Then followed that up by a stab, and a shot from the gun handle. The shot was like a condensed fireball filled with napalm. On impact it lit everything on fire.

Asran tried getting up groaning with pain. His entire body hurt blood dripped from his wounds as he looked up to see Ayrie, and Zotova fighting one another. He couldn’t understand a word they were saying thanks to a constant ringing in his ears. He had to get up, he couldn’t keep laying there. Zotova would surely kill Ayrie if he didn’t get up. So he willed his body to move pushing it no matter how much it hurt. His eyes started to glow as he slowly started to get up black scales forming on his cheeks. As his pupils turned to serpentine slits.

"I don't know what you are talking about!" Ayrie screeched, as she blocked the blow to her head. She took the stab to her abdomen, but the bullet missed as she jumped away, grasping her side. "I'm not this Astoria woman. My name is Ayrie. I was born twenty six years ago in a monastery in Writvul. I never met Asran before arriving here, when he showed up on my doorstep..."

The bullet had hit a building and was beginning to burn through the wall behind Ayrie, and if she didn't move soon she would be trapped between it and the demoness. Feeling the heat, Ayrie started to move away from the building toward the street.

“LIAR! I won’t let you hurt my brother!” She attacked again blindly smashing the ground beside Ayrie. She was panting as she looked at the priestess a red miasma rolling off her shoulders. She swung at Ayrie’s shoulder than fired a barrage of bullets.

One of the bullets from Zorova’s gun came hurtling towards Asran. Quickly he leapt out of the way rolling to a stop. His arms, sides, legs, and cheeks were covered in black scales. He had two horns arching under his chin, and a long demonic tail swishing behind him. His white hair blowing in the wind as his eyes glared at Zorova, and he launched himself at her. Aiming to take her out with a punch. Only to get kicked in the face by her launching him back. “Stay our of this Asran! Can’t you see she’s only going to deceive you again? She’s gonna hurt you, Maybe even kill you this time!” Asran spat out a bit of his blood, and wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand. “She isn’t Astoria Zarova,” he said. Only to earn a mad laugh in return for his words. “You cannot possibly be this fucking blind! She is the same person, just look at her soul! Don’t you see it? Surely you must have felt it.” Asran looked from his fellow demon lord to Ayrie.

Ayrie was lucky the bullets went wild, one singed her sword arm as she brought it up to stop Wrath's attack, causing searing pain. She went blind for a moment with the pain, hearing Asran come to her defense. She regained her senses in time to see her kick him back, still screaming that Ayrie was Astoria.

Ayrie fought the pain and stood up, backing away from Wrath as she spat for Asran to look at her soul. She felt exhaustion seep into her bones as she lost blood from the cut in her abdomen, and the shimmer left her hair and eyes as her control over her power waned. The sword disappeared, as well, her hand glowing momentarily as it absorbed back into her hand.

"Asran? I swear I don't know what she's talking about." She said plaintively, looking at him wide eyed. "I would... never... hurt you. I haven't even tried to hurt a woman who is trying to... kill me."

As she spoke she limped a few steps towards him, begging with her eyes for him to believe her. As she looked at him the fleeting thought that this was the dream she had had the other night crossed her mind.

Asran looked to Zarovia then to Ayrie he calmly went to her, and hefted her into his arms. Looking at her with caring eyes, “I believe you Ayrie.” Zotovia screamed her outrage at Asran’s actions. “What are you doing!” Asran looked back to Zatovia with rage the sky’s darkened filling with heavy rain clouds, and lightning cracked. Zatovia stepped back in fear knowing full well just how powerful Asran was. But, then stopped seeing how much of a strain it was on him. She attempted to approach only for him to intensify his glare. A harsh wind began to blow as rain came pouring down. The water congealing forming a massive dragon that crackled with lightning. It slammed into Zatovia hard, but before it could do lasting damage it stopped.

Zatovia panted as she looked at Asran with pity. As the runes on his body glowed a faint yellow. “How much suffering will you let her put you through?” Asran didn’t answer he just turned away, and walked out of the barrier after enshrouding his demonic form in a magical cloak of darkness. Hiding his form from onlookers, carefully he walked to a nearby clinic run by one of his trusted. Thankfully Zatovia didn’t chase after them. He stumbled a few times as the pain in his body intensified. But, he didn’t stop he needed to get Ayrie to a doctor. When they finally arrived he had nurses take Ayrie from him then collapsed. His chest rising, and falling hard as he struggled to breath. The nurses who tried touching him had to back away quickly as his magic lashed out at them. Thankfully no one was hurt, but at the same time no one could help him.

The doctor of the clinic had his head nurse tend to Ayrie’s wounds after he stopped the bleeding. Then rushed to Asran’s side trying to help him. Thankfully the doctor was able to restrain Asran’s magic somewhat. So he could help the very injured demon lord.

When Asran picked her up she tried to contain her magic as best as she could, but she could tell she wasn't doing well enough as Asran's runes were glowing.

"I'm sorry, Asran." She whispered as he carried her to the clinic. Once inside the doctor gave her a sedative, effectively knocking her out while they cleaned and stitched the wound in her side and wrapped the burn on her arm. When she came to a while later she sat up, frantically looking around for anyone familiar, needing to know where Asran was and what had happened to him. The last thing she had seen was Asran collapsing on the floor, his runes still glowing yellow.

"Asran?!" She called, hoping he was nearby.