------------- The Braxton Expedition – Tamaira

As dear as I held Yoshiko, that much I feared and despised Tamaira. Her true face was known to us all, as she had no interest in hiding what she was, a Teifling. It has been my honor and duty to learn many things as a Sister of Isis, yet some things I’d rather forget. It was known to me that the Teifling is not, as some might think, a half-demon. Nor are they related to the Tannar’raen, the humanoid species that existed in the Abyss even before the Demons came there. They are, rather, a nomad species of loners and wanderers, who just happen to prowl the lower planes, all the lower planes. But they are just as likely to be encountered in the world of the living as in the reeking fens of Hell.

Tamaira was such a creature. When she came to Arrallon was unknown to me. She claimed many things, none of which I trusted. She did learn the languages of the Cebu, the Stygians and the Gollites, so it was logical to assume she spent a great deal of time in the Beotharn interior, likely on the great Stygian desert and its surrounds. I had read that there were many witches amongst the Stygians, and that they were controlled by a matriarchy of witches, dark and hateful in their hearts. Tamaira, thank the Mother, seemed to possess little of their vile nature, but she was clearly a child of chaos. I had surmised her magic was steeped in demonic ichor, for it occasionally outstripped my own though she was capable of but minor spells, like me. She was wild and uncontrolled in her use of the art, as though all the magius in the universe were at her disposal, though I had seen her tire sooner than I.

More disturbing perhaps was the growing feeling I had that there was even more to her than met the eye. Were it not for Lord Braxton’s solid insistence that we use her talents, I would rather have left her at the seedy bar where we found her. After all, what could she possibly do that I, a Mystic of Isis, could not? Were it just a case of jealousy, I would admonish myself and be forced to admit that Lord Braxton held no interest in his heart for me. Were it not for the fact that I found her hungry smile lingering in my direction from time to time as well, I might have thought her simply slutty. Were it so. However, I found myself feeling as a deer lost in the interior, with a hungry predator stalking nearby.

What was her game? If I knew then what I know now, that ‘she’ wasn’t exactly a ‘she’.

------------- Credits

------------- Thanks and please comment.