He kneeled down and held out an arm for Corax. Syline mentally commanded her little familiar to go with Thelonious, and after a few moments of hesitation, not wanting to be away from the safety of his roost in her scarf, her familiar hopped onto Thelonious’ wrist and cawed up at him expectantly. Thelonious smiled at the bird and tickled atop his head with the tip of a finger as he wandered back to Alma and his supplies.
Now, finally, Syline could focus entirely upon her study of the archmage’s spell-book. Flipping through the pages she looked up a different spell than the one they needed. Before the blood on her clothes and satchel stained, she used the spell she had found for drying her hair to drain the blood from both. After a second’s thought, she poured it into the vial the healing potion had been in. Syline didn’t know much about summoning devils, but it seemed like blood might be useful to have on hand for that sort of thing.
Then, she set to finding the summoning ritual. It wasn’t with the other spells, because in truth, it wasn’t really a spell. Rituals were of their own sort. You didn’t generally need magical power or talent to perform a ritual, but they tended to be of more use to mages than anyone else, anyhow.
Unsurprisingly, the archmage had a fair few rituals in his spell-book, along with his notes on enchanting magics, which Syline would have to go and read over later. Enchanting took a lot of expensive goods, and time, neither of which they had right now so there wasn’t much of a point in investigating it now. There it was: the ritual for summoning a low ranked devil. A magic circle, at least a pint of blood – she’d need more than she had in the vial to be sure – and careful rune work. Other than that, there wasn’t much in the way of components required, so that was a relief at least.
After asking Thelonious to fetch the dead sellsword for the blood, which he did with his usual stoicism, ignoring any looks he received from Teagan and her men, Syline set to work on the runes, doing her best to ignore the smell and the feeling of guilt as she used a dead man as a spell component. The snow was thick, and hard packed, making it perfect for inscribing the runes into. Syline used the back of her wand as her stylus and kept the book before her, constantly referencing it to avoid making any mistakes as she went. Once that was done, she shepherded Thelonious to fill each rune with blood from the man, along with the circle. The blood spread out into the snow surrounding, bleeding from the runes and staining it red. Syline hoped that wouldn’t cause any problems.
‘Okay, everyone! I think it’s ready.’
Teagan stood with Lukas, who Thelonious had punched unconscious. Although woozy, they had wandered over to watch, standing just behind Thelonious. Amberly came with them, and with that, most everyone still living on the island stood in a semicircle behind Syline, bar those mercenaries still unconscious or not up for walking, watching the circle expectantly as she began to recite. Teuflisch was a difficult language for Syline: arcane was a very flowing language, like a string tied in knots you had to work your tongue through, but Teuflisch was guttural, harsh. Each word felt commanding and powerful. The blood began to burn with black flames and everyone hushed as she continued.
Amberly felt an arm drape around her shoulder.
‘You should never make a summoning circle in the snow, you know. That won’t contain an imp, let alone anyone capable of what you’re after.’
Syline stopped and everyone turned to face the man behind them. In his stylishly-made, expensive clothing, his tattered wings hanging like a cloak, hair slicked back and perfectly styled, Laes wasn’t really paying attention to any of them. His eyes were wholly on Amberly.
‘I watched you die,’ Amberly said breathlessly, staring at him a few short moments before crushing herself to him, embracing the half devil tightly. She was practically in shock, eyes brimming with tears as Laes wrapped his arms around her. ‘You said you could come back as an imp, but… this definitely is not an imp, Laes. It’s like you never burned at all.’
‘Ah yes, well, funny thing that. As it turns out, some of my warlocks were more… charitable than I would have expected and a trio of them managed to source the resources to bring me back. Guess they didn’t want to be contracted to an imp, couldn’t blame them. Wouldn’t have thought it would have worked on me since, at the time, I was an imp being trodden underfoot but…’ He spread his arms with a helpless shrug. ‘I suppose I do have a soul after all! Confusing how that works, but I certainly shan’t complain. What of you, though? Who are these people, dear? How in the shitting hells are you still breathing? Did the priests have a sudden change of heart?’
Thelonious snorted. Laes gave him a curious glance but seemed to dismiss him for later.
Amberly stepped back, wiping her eyes.
‘This is Syline Petranski and her bodyguard, Thelonious,’ she introduced. Not really sure of the protocol for meeting a half devil, Syline gave a curtsy all the same. Laes seemed to appreciate it at least, giving a little bow of his own in respect. ‘They saw me at the stake right as the priests were about to set me aflame, and Syline here decided they should stage a rescue mission.’
‘Is that so? Well, let me be the first to thank you, Miss Petranski; I won’t pretend I’m not pleased to see Amberly still breathing. Even if I am very curious. Do the two of you know her? Why did you save her?’
‘No real reason, I just felt like it was the right thing to do,’ Syline mumbled. Even she couldn’t really explain why she had saved her, and the attention of this new man reminded her a bit much of how Ioann made her feel when he grinned at her.
‘You thought it was the right thing to do to save a woman who “conspired with devils” and “corrupted children”?’
‘Now, I know full well all of that is false!’ Syline countered.
‘Well, we did do a fair bit of conspiring, perhaps even fraternising. Scandalous, I know. Alright, we’ll leave the topic of your interesting concepts of heroism for another time.’ That got a laugh out of Teagan. Laes gave a smirk her way. He turned back to Amberly, about to say something when Thelonious interrupted by loudly clearing his throat. Amberly spotted Laes’ jaw tense and brow furrow a split second before he turned to Thelonious with his big, charming smile.
‘Yes? Mr Bodyguard. Oh! I know you, you’re the one who offered to cut my head off. I’m glad to see you made it out of that haven of hypocrites. I must say for a bodyguard you do look quite the devil. I like your horns; they look just like mi-’
‘Did you ever lay with a farmer woman named Alyona?’
Again, the jaw tense. But now, he spread his hands wide with a dismissive shrug and a hearty chuckle. ‘My good man, I’ve lain with many women, you’ll need to be a bit more specific. Names escape me sometimes.’
‘Around twenty-six years ago, on the eastern borders of this kingdom. She had two children and a husband. You cured her husband and oldest son of crippling illness, and in exchange…’
The light of recognition entered Laes’ eyes. He leaned back for a moment, smile falling to a simple, curious look. ‘Well now…’ he said, looking between Thelonious and Amberly for a short moment. ‘Not all too often I run into one of my offspring before their deaths. A pleasure to meet you, Thelonious. I suppose you can call me father if you’d rather. I certainly see a fair bit of myself in you. Oh, but you do have so much of that cute, bumpkin look your mother had that made me want –’
‘My brother’s father is the one who raised me; he’ll always be my pa. But it’s nice to meet you too. Father. Please don’t talk ‘bout Ma like that, though.’
‘So sensitive,’ Laes said with a soft chuckle. He put his hands back in his pockets and turned to face Amberly again. ‘So, you’re bandying about with my hayseed spawn, now? Well, I suppose with me gone, you needed some kind of replacement,’ he teased.
Amberly felt a grin splitting her features. As much as her new companions had quickly endeared themselves to her, she was glad to see Laes again most of all. She had been suppressing her usual flirting with them. Thelonious was too no nonsense, and just the hint of flirting would probably send Syline into shock.
‘Now Laes, Thelonious might be your son, but he has a very different sort of charm to you, so don’t think yourself so easily replaced,’ she giggled, ‘in fact, I think I’m still contractually obligated to take you to dinner when I have the time.’ Thelonious looked at Amberly curiously at that.
‘You best not forget it either. I might need to punish you if you break your contract, but…’ Laes ran a hand along one of his horns, Thelonious mirroring him as he noticed his father shared that habit. ‘Why are you trying to summon a devil? I know you’re gone from the church, but reaching out for the dark side already seems a tad hasty. I didn’t think I was so charming you’d run to the arms of the nearest devil.’
‘Please, there are devils and there’s you. Don’t think I’m going to be calling on a screeching maw devil for favours anytime soon.’
‘Well, I’d hope not, they’re not very talkative. Plus, I want to keep you for myself. Now, before Miss Petranski here makes another terrible attempt at unleashing devils on the lot of you, what were you after from one?’
‘It’s not me who needs you, it’s Syline.’
‘Ooh? Well, Syline, I might cut you a discount, since you’ve already done me a favour in rescuing Amberly. Never say that I’m not grateful.’
Syline smiled a little at that, but still felt terribly nervous beneath the devil’s gaze, it seemed a bit too… focused upon her. At least she knew with Amberly there, he probably wouldn’t start flirting with her anytime soon.
‘Yes, well, I need a sending, a message sent for me and something to get us home quickly. With our horses, preferably. If we don’t, my family is…’
‘Alright, alright, I don’t need the full sob story. A sending and some enchanted horseshoes. Normally, that would cost you a fair bit, but you saved Amberly. Whilst I might ask for your firstborn, I’ve already got a third born here amongst you, so that feels a bit redundant, and I don’t… particularly want to. I have enough brats running around and have yet to really profit from any of them. Really starting to think devils do it to get their jollies, not worth the investment. So,’ He tapped his foot, considering. He ran a hand along one of his horns again. He looked to Amberly and smirked. ‘Alright, fine. From Amberly, I want that dinner. Thelonious, all I want from you is the chance to talk with you about your heritage. Syline, I merely want you to promise that you will never intentionally hurt Amberly. I see rare opportunities in the three of you and have no interest in seeing you split just yet. Now, a sending, and horse – you know, I think I have a scroll for that, actually. One moment.’
He disappeared, with a burst of black and yellow flames.
‘Your father’s nothing like you, Thelonious,’ Syline said. ‘You’re much more approachable. He’s a bit intense.’
