A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Erik and his allies blinked from surprise as they internalised what just happened. Astrid, in particular, finally stopped glaring at Erik to look at the Arcanist she'd underestimated. The beautiful vampire frowned and used her free hand to rub her forehead. She felt something activate, but she didn't know for sure what just happened.

Still, she understood what Zahra tried to do, and what the other two succeeded in doing.

"You dare try and escape from me after attacking my husband?" she growled with cold fury, her eyes narrowing. Her hand squeezed a little harder. "Let's see how well you do after I squeeze your head off!"

Zahra immediately panicked when she felt the pressure on her throat increase. No more words could escape her lips. She struggled wildly, eyes wide, as she scratched at Astrid's hands. Unfortunately, forcing her to suppress Erik for so long had almost completely depleted her aetherium storage, and there was no way for her to resist physically.

"Heh, hold on there, Astrid," Erik chuckled as he strolled closer and listened to Elora in his mind. "Let me talk to her for a moment."

"They teleported away somehow," Elora explained thoughtfully through their bond, having scanned the area with Erik's omnisense.

"The reason it didn't work for this Zahra is actually a little lucky," she continued with a smug, somewhat playful smirk. "I inscribed sigils on anyone important to us, so as to stop that insane fairy, Imogene, from creating portals around us, remember? Well, it's not like those sigils stop only that, specifically. It's much easier to just block teleportation in general."

She shrugged calmly, "Of course, like anything, it's just a suppression that can be overcome with pure power, and it only works in a very small area around you. Those other two were easily out of range from Astrid and Ankhur's blocking range."

Erik cocked a mental eyebrow. "Enkai doesn't have one of these sigils? Also, what about me?"

Elora scoffed dismissively, waving her hand. "Enkai isn't important enough."

Then, she pouted a little with, surprisingly, some regret. "As for you… Like I said, blocking teleportation is easier when it's just in general, but it's still actually very hard to do and stretches my skill in sigil craft to its limit. I used most of the time you were going around the kingdom scaring people into the cities to create these things, but I can't currently create a sigil that blocks other teleportation, while ignoring your own."

Erik immediately realised she was talking about the displacement skill from his spatial affinity and nodded wryly in understanding.

"Fortunately, plane shifting is different from teleportation, so the sigil doesn't actually block anything to do with your dimension," she finished with a casual shrug.

Now clear on the situation, Erik reached Astrid and the choking Zahra. Enkai and Ankhur stayed behind, simply keeping an eye on their surroundings. Although Enkai was still annoyed with Erik, he knew where his priorities lay.

Astrid looked at him with narrowed eyes, unbothered by Zahra's struggles. "You already stopped me from joining an exciting battle, and now you're telling me not to kill someone who attacked you?!"

Before Erik could answer, Astrid suddenly came to a conclusion of her own when a suspiciously playful glint appeared in her eyes. "Oh, I see…" she glanced over at the admittedly pretty Zahra, who's face was becoming redder by the second. "I can get onboard with that… Just let me watch at least, alright? I do love seeing you ravage someone…"

Zahra's eyes widened even more, her struggle increasing, as Erik couldn't help but grin widely at Astrid's obvious meaning. He wasn't particularly surprised, either. Just like him, Astrid was usually more concerned with fighting and fucking than anything else—circumstances simply forced Erik to be a little more strategic sometimes.

Either way, he couldn't simply not kiss her after a comment like that, and so he did exactly that. Grabbing her waist and chin, he planted his lips on hers and they kissed passionately for several seconds as Zahra watched with rapidly peaking anger and indignity. To her credit, Erik noticed little fear.

"I love that suggestion, Astrid," Erik whispered after they separated, loud enough for Zahra to hear, "but right now, I just want to talk to her. You can let her go, just stay near us, alright?"

He quickly used their bond to explain about her sigil blocking Zahra's teleportation, and Astrid's eyes lit up with realisation.

After kissing him, she also felt much more agreeable to his orders and indifferently dropped Zahra to the floor.

The illusion Arcanist crumpled to her knees and started coughing, panting, and wheezing like her life depended on it. While Astrid continued looming over her with a meaningful grin and crossed arms, Erik crouched in front of her with a deceptively warm smile.

"Zahra, right?" he greeted genially. "Let's talk for a moment."

The Arcanist glared at him with distrust and defiance, but wasn't able to answer yet as she was still busy coughing out a lung, hands rubbing her throat.

Erik ignored it. "First of all," he began curiously. "I'd obviously like to know how you circumvented all of this city's defences."

He knew from Elora that the city walls were littered with powerful sigils that even Elora couldn't recreate just yet, many of which were dedicated to preventing teleportation from the outside to the inside.

"F— Frick… Y— You…!" Zahra wheezed defiantly.

"Heh, well, I didn't think it'd be that easy," Erik chuckled softly.

Then a thoughtful frown creased his brow. "Now, here's my current problem, Zahra."—He raised his right hand—"On the one hand, you attacked me, and I can't really let that go unpunished. Plus, I really need to know how you got in here."—He raised his left hand—"On the other hand, I need Maghreb to remain standing for a while longer, and that will be much harder without you there."

He saw confusion creeping into Zahra's gaze, and Erik helpfully explained. "Let me explain. You may not be aware of this yet, but Europe and the Humanitas Sangh have recently become embroiled in an all-out war, and I need that war to last. If either side wins too quickly, that will be a problem for me."

He pointed at the quickly recovering Zahra and shrugged. "Now, if the hunters take Maghreb, they'll be able to invade Europe from former Morocco, and force Europe to fight on two fronts, which will benefit the former's likely larger numbers. I can't let that happen. Therefore, I need you and your two friends to hold the line and serve my interests, even if that's not your intention."

"F— Frick you! S— Smug asshole!" a largely recovered Zahra cursed, glaring at him defiantly. "We don't serve anyone!"

Cocking his head, Erik smiled dismissively at her. "So you're willing to let Maghreb—your seat of power, your home, the home of your people—fall, purely in a pointless effort to defy me?"

Zahra parted her lips to bite a response… but then closed them again. "Tsk," she scoffed, unwillingly, and turned her face away from him. Although Erik wasn't sure which one of those three things she cared about more, she clearly wasn't willing to let Maghreb fall to the hunters, which pleased him.

"Figured as much," he grinned confidently. "Unfortunately for me, that means the best choice I have is to let you go! But, not to worry… I'll give you something to remember me by…"