Spiral
Bartimaeus Trilogy belongs to the esteemed Jonathon Stroud and very grateful I am to him for writing it. It's not mine.
Sorry to Jonathon Stroud, whose name I spelt wrong. Oh well, I doubt he reads fanfics of his own books.
Thanks to Swordsrock for being pedantic and pointing out my mistakes, I listened and reposted it without them.
Thanks to Blinded One.
Kitty's attempts to start a second Resistance, one to break the cycle, fail, and she finds herself left alone. Can she find help in the least likely of places? Where one person could not change things, could two make a difference? Not KittyxNathaniel.
The room was lit by one candle, the light flickering and casting complex shadows. It couldn't quite reach the corners of the room, and the open curtains were beginning to let in light of their own as midnight turned to morning.
Kitty sat curled up in a deep armchair, holding the candle in one hand and a heavy book in the other. Every so often she would shift and look something up in another book, or scribble notes on a pad in illegible handwriting.
She leaned and put the books down on the floor, the sudden movement throwing shadows dancing all across the room. That was it. She had all she needed.
For the past two and a half years, Kitty had been quietly teaching herself all she needed to summon a de(here she stopped her thoughts in their tracks to correct the lapse in courtesy to the creatures) spirit.
First learning Latin from children's books at the library she was employed, then stealing books half at random and painstaking translating them to find what she needed. The basics of a magician's craft.
She now knew everything she needed to summon a djinni. Except a name. I have a name already: Bartimaeus. The thought sent a thrill of anticipation down her spine. A commoner such as herself, cheating Mandrake of his slave.
She had convinced herself in lieu of other evidence that anyone could become a magician, or use their magic (although from what she knew it was not their magic at all, it was the despirit's magic) but was not quite a hundred per cent sure, whatever she'd told the others.
She didn't want to think about the others.
Getting up and pacing the room. Restless. Think, then, Kitty: what would the Resistance have said to it? They'd be unanimously opposed. They hated anything they considered to be a 'demon' as much as they hated magicians.
Anne might give the idea a chance, think it over at least. But more likely she'd say using their magic against them was corrupt.
Maybe it is. But I won't use their magic against them. Not like in the old days, lobbing Elemental Spheres. I won't make Bartimaeus do anything, not give him (is Bartimaeus a boy? stupid thing to be thinking about now anyway Kitty, get back on track) orders like Mandrake did.
What'll you do then? Asked the pedantic side of her brain.
Summon him, then say he can do what he likes. Answered the other side.
Mightn't he be happier doing what he like in his own home, wherever that is? Besides, what if he 'likes' to kill people who summon him?
She stopped pacing. In this small room, you ended up going in circles. Kitty had been doing a lot of pacing since moving here, and she knew when it was time to stop unless you wanted to fall over your own feet.
He can go home, if he wants. And, if he wants to kill me then… (she got up, and with little regard to her health, began pacing again)
So be it. I have little enough left to live for. This is a last resort.
She had become increasingly disillusioned over the last few years. The second Resistance had at first been a roaring success, with ambitions building to start splinter groups, and with twenty members recruited in the first month.
Despite the success they had considered themselves careful, and Kitty knew that they had been better concealed than the first Resistance had. However, that had not been good enough.
A moment of carelessness had been all that had done for them. One of the young members had walked home alone from the meeting, and overheard two people discussing rebel groups and their support of them.
He had, of course, tried to recruit them. Not having the gift of sight, he had not been able to tell that they were demons (the memory distressed Kitty; she overlooked the name) indisguise.
Under the threat of torture, he had revealed all he knew about the Resistance, and the members had been rounded up within a day.
Except Kitty. She had given a false false name (she operated under a false name everyday; but this was another layer of deception). She had given the name of one of her counterparts in the library, having thought of it on the spot after being seen leaving the library in uniform when recruiting the first resistance member.
She had become used to operating under a false name, and, liking the name "Sarah Harrod", had never corrected the recruit.
Of course, the real Sarah Harrod, matching the role of a library based insurgent, was killed in public.
This crime, more than anything else she'd done, sickened Kitty. She had almost turned herself in to the authorities, and almost left in a last suicide mission to avenge the girl.
She hadn't, of course. Her resolve wavered: I can achieve greater things.
The memory of Sarah shifted the internal battle. If Bartimaeus kills me, so be it. Heavens, I've thought enough that I deserve to die for my sins.
And if he doesn't, thought Kitty, gathering her notes and the thieved magician's equipment and rereading the notes. I've avenged you.
No. I will never avenge you unless I take my own life. I will have avenged the others of the Resistance, but your death is a burden I will bear all my life.
She broke the train of thought, focused on the task she had set herself.
Drew the pentacle. Spoke the words. She felt dizzy, as if each syllable of the ancient incantation was taking something of her with it as it left her mouth.
Nothing appeared to happen.
Failure had hardly figured in Kitty's mind. She had thought of a chance that the summons might be wrong and not force Bartimaeus to do what she wanted it to do, but she had hardly considered the chance it might not appear at all.
The ground covered by the pentacle exploded upwards (although a part of Kitty's shocked mind noticed that the ground beneath it was carpeted again, and the rubble vanished as it hit the ground) and a creature emerged from the ground
It looked like a very large, very savage, dog. With huge claws. With a mane of fire. Kitty remembered just in time that she mustn't leave the pentacle she was standing in. She was very scared.
A few seconds later common sense kicked in. This had to be Bartimaeus, because no other despirit could have been called, since she had used his name. It was only a different shape. He had the power to change his appearance. She had seen him do it before.
She became aware she was standing staring like an idiot, and also that he was staring at her as much as she was at him.
"Kitty Jones!"
The creature had a look of incredible shock on its face that Kitty started laughing.
"You are Kitty! Why are you summoning me?"
Kitty controlled herself.
"I wanted to see if I could. I've proved it. Magicians have nothing commoners don't." She smiled.
"You couldn't have proved that by summoning anyone else?" Bartimaeus sounded grumpy, leaning against the invisible wall formed by the pentacle.
"Sorry" Kitty murmured, suddenly very aware of how easy it would be for Bartimaeus to kill her "I wanted to prove it. And. If you don't want to listen to what I have to say, you can go."
"Actually, I can't." he gestured with a clawed hand at the pentacle on the floor, leaned back on hind legs against an invisible wall. "Sorry to destroy the illusion of equality and all that. Master/Slave thing, remember?"
Kitty, acting on impulse, stepped back out of the pentacle she was standing in. Bartimaeus fell backwards, losing the support from the pentacle wall that had held him in.
"I could kill you and you'd have no power to stop me." Bartimaeus sounded very confused, and suddenly not at all like an evil demon.
Kitty remembered: the Egyptian boy in the library looking at her out of the corner of his eye, a small smile playing across his face. No malice in his look. You know, I've enjoyed our little conversation. I hope they don't order me to kill you.
Maybe the creature facing her was remembering the same thing. The dog-beast faded and became the lithe form of the Egyptian boy.
"I'll listen to you then." Immediately, as if he regretted the simplicity of that statement: "But no promises"
Kitty nodded. A tenuous alliance had been formed. Looking ahead, she found a glimmer of hope for the future.
They could break the cycle.
At least, they had a chance of breaking it. A fragile thread in a web of hopes.
Better than nothing.
Mako.
Do you like? It was going to be a oneshot, because I love Bartimaeus fics and there aren't enough; besides, noones written anything about Kitty summoning Bartimaeus. I like Kitty/Nathaniel, swordsrock, but there are loads plenty of those out there.
Sorry if Kitty is OOC, but this is a weird idea born of insomnia and I posted as soon as I'd finished before I could change my mind about it all.
I'm writing the next chapter, but it most likely won't be up for a while 'cause I'm going away to France of a fortnight. Yay!