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🕑 Added 2024-12-18 01:31:59 +0000 UTCWhoops, totally forgot to do anything at all yesterday. Here's 8 and we'll do 9 in just a sec when I'm done doing Blood Shaper posts all over. In other news, Soulbound Contractor starts on RR on Monday. After the one-a-day posting up until chapter 15 goes live on RR I think we'll go to two days a week Wed-Fri to not compete with my own story.
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“Demons?” Dryth asked with shock, “Why are we going to summon demons?”
“Because they’re the best bet we have of finding someone to make a contract with you,” Ewan answered like it was obvious. He turned and looked over his shoulder at Dryth and frowned when he saw the look on Dryth’s face. “What, did they not teach you about demons in those kiddy classes of yours?”
Dryth opened his mouth to throw out a rebuttal, Ewan wasn’t wrong that the lessons Dryth had had before his reveal weren’t the best and left out quite a lot, but the teachers themselves were likely just as ensnared in the system as the students and didn’t deserve the flack, but stopped. They hadn’t actually taught him that much about demons, he knew more about them from his past life’s memories than anything he’d learned in this one, but he also didn’t know if they would be different here than the legends from Earth.
“…They’re dangerous beings that come from another plane of existence.” He said after a moment, “They specifically come from the demonic planes, we don’t know how many there are so they’re usually referred to all together, and they’re known for making deals with people and corrupting them.”
“Eh,” Ewan wiggled his hand back and forth. “That’s a so-so answer. Demons do come from the demonic planes, so good job there although that is the simplest version so we’ll cover that when we get to planar studies. Demons are dangerous, yes, but that can be said about literally any sapient species. They differ between individuals just as much as humans do, and what we call ‘demons’ as a catch-all are actually many, many species so if you just pick out two demons from a line up they’d probably vary more than humans do.” He stood up from where he was drawing on the slate floor, leaving the piece of chalk he’d been using by where he’d stopped, and leaned against the closer desk. “As for the last bit, again, yes and no once again. Demons making deals or corrupting people in various ways, magically, physically, emotionally, morally, the list goes on, are cultural or racial things between various demons and demonic nations or cultures. We have lots of stereotypes about those kinds of demons because those are the two that have the most incentive to actually make contact with other planes or respond to summonings. The other kinds of demons you’re likely to interact with are merchants and explorers, although our plane isn’t too close to where the demonic planes sit, so no one’s too likely to run into them, at least not around here.”
Dryth listened closely to the impromptu lecture, mostly because he knew by now that Ewan would be testing him on it later in one form or another, he always did. He filed away the more interesting bits for consideration or study, including the first thing he’d said. They’d be doing planar studies lessons? That sounded quite interesting.
“Okay, so then the demons we’re going to be summoning won’t be a threat to us, I’m assuming.”
Ewan gave him what Dryth had started calling the “prove your work” look, “Why do you say that?”
“Because I don’t have any way to defend myself currently and from what you just said, there are a variety or cultures and societies among demons, so it makes sense that you’d summon someone that isn’t belligerent to us or humans in general, especially if they’re supposed to be helping me somehow.”
“Well reasoned.” Ewan praised him with a confirming nod. “I’m going to be summoning my liaison from a demonic company that’s essentially a employment agency, they help people from various planes connect with summoners, contractors, or just employers that could use help from someone not on their plane.” He grabbed the piece of chalk and started drawing again. “Now, why would I have such a contact? What would I get out of something that seems much more in line with what a Summoner would want?”
Summoner was a Soul Card and Class that was generally considered to be similar to Contractor, mostly because both involved making agreements with other beings. While Contractors were limited to making contracts with only sapient beings, Summoners could summon animals, beasts, monsters, and even nonliving things, as long as they could dominate, own, or make a deal with what they wanted to summon.
The answer to Ewan’s question was easy. “Because there’s no point in limiting yourself to just making contracts with people you happen to meet personally or even people on just this plane. If you have a liaison like you mentioned you could get their help in finding someone that matches the exact specifications of who you want to make a contract with or has the exact card you’re after and might be willing to make a deal.”
“Good!” Ewan finished the last bit of the circle he was drawing with a flourish. “I’m quite please my new student is intelligent and can reason well.”
They spent the next few minutes looking over the circle, which was one larger circle with a smaller one inside and a series of symbols drawn in the space between them, for imperfections. Ewan obviously knew that Dryth didn’t know enough to see if the circle would work or what it would summon just based on looking at it, but spotting any breaks or gaps in either of the two circles didn’t require any theoretical knowledge. Ewan explained that while his contact was a trusted acquaintance who wouldn’t try and attack or hurt them in any way it was better to practice like they were summoning something dangerous. If either of the circles were broken or weak in any areas it gave who or whatever was summoned a weakness to exploit in order to attack or escape.
“Right,” Ewan gestured for Dryth to step back a few paces once they’d double and triple checked the circle. “Since this will be both your first time seeing it and we should avoid even minor mistakes during lessons, I’ll be using a card for this. I’ll show you the pure casting version of this after I’ve checked you have the basics down.”
“What’s pure casting?”
“What’s-“ Ewan whirled around, a blatant expression of shock and dismay on his face. “They haven’t taught you anything about pure casting!?” He demanded to know.
Dryth leaned back from his suddenly very emotional teacher. “No?”
“They didn’t even teach you what it is!?”
“Um, no, they didn’t. I haven’t heard of it before right now.”
“You haven’t even…” Ewan turned his eyes down to stare at the ground, his whole body slumping as he shook his head slowly. “I knew that they’d been curtailing what they were teaching the children, but I didn’t think they’d go that far! I’ll have to- Wait, no, no.” He shook his head hard and looked back at Dryth. “We’ll go over that later during the actual lesson I had planned for it. Which will be starting at a much different point than I thought, but that can wait too. We’ve got a summoning to do and some inquiries to make.”
He turned and faced the summoning circle again. “Right, summoning my liaison. I’m going to do this slowly and with the ‘proper form’ so you can watch me all the way through. Not that there’s anything special about it…” He trailed off into a mutter and closed his eyes, placing his right hand over his heart. With slow, deliberate movements he pinched his fingers and pulled his arm away, exactly like he was drawing a card.
A glow grew from nothing into a spark of color in the space between his fingers and then that spark grew into the outline of a card, with blue edges around the border. There was a flicker and the outline was replaced with an actual card. Dryth caught the edge of the picture on it, where a shape he didn’t recognize was rising from a circle similar to the real one drawn on the floor. Ewan held out the card in front of him and proclaimed with gravity in his voice. “Summoning.”
The card flashed with white light and the circle on the floor began to glow with the same color. The glow got brighter and brighter then stopped just before reaching the level where Dryth felt he’d have to look away. It stayed that way for thirty seconds, then it flared even brighter for a second and faded. In the space between the flash and it fading, a person appeared inside the circle. Ewan looked over his shoulder to check on Dryth and gave him a nod. He opened his hands and the card vanished in another flash of the same white light.
Ewan faced the man standing in the summoning circle. “Thank you for answering my summons.”
The rail-thin, red skinned man had been looking around the room since he’d appeared. He looked to Ewan as he began speaking. “Ah, Ewan! Very nice to see you. And of course, of course, you’re a VIP customer, we’re always happy to help someone of your level. He peered over Ewan’s shoulder at Dryth, “Is this a new student of yours? I assume that means we’re not looking for your normal level of contacts?”
“He is indeed my new student, and you’re right, he’s not at the level where he could handle that kind of contract. Before we get straight to business though, do you mind telling me what you’re calling yourself nowadays? It’s been long enough you’ve probably changed it.”
“Oh, of course. I’m going by Helix currently.”
“Helix?”
“Yes, I saw a very nice art piece centered on them and felt inspired.” Helix turned to Dryth. “A pleasure to meet you young man, I am Helix of the, well, in your language I think we’re calling ourselves the Multi-Planar Interest Connection Company.” He frowned a little, “That’s quite long isn’t it? Anyhoo, as I’m sure your teacher has explained, we’re a company that helps interested parties make contact across planar divides for the purposes of making deals, contracts, acquiring assistance, making trades, and similar business.” He stopped and looked expectantly at Dryth.
Dryth glanced over at Ewan questioningly, wondering whether or not it was safe to introduce himself. This wasn’t Earth and a lot of magic was different, but some things seemed constant and there being power in names was one of them.
Ewan looked back at him, obviously not getting what Dryth was trying to send. “What?”
He looked over at Helix then back to Ewan. “… Is it… safe, to tell him my name?”
“What, why wouldn’t it be… oh!” Ewan grinned and shook his head. “Demons aren’t the sort that are able to use your name against you, some just change them a lot because they get bored or changed somehow and think they should call themselves something different. Fae are the ones to watch out with your name around them, and only the truly truly powerful ones can do anything with your name if you didn’t tell them it yourself. Good instincts though, always be cautious around beings you don’t know personally and of species you don’t know much about.”
“Okay.” Dryth looked back to Helix, who was still waiting in the same position but now had a slightly wider smile. “Nice to meet you too, I’m Dryth.”
“A pleasure.” Helix responded. “It’s always nice to meet new students of Ewan’s, you all tend to be good customers once you’re all trained up. Now, what kind of contacts can I help you make for the sake of making contracts?”
