Bartimaeus

I had been taking my much needed break when I felt the hooks of a summoning dig into my already sore essence. To be honest I was peeved, I felt like not even a single day had passed since Natty-boy died and I was being summoned again! The nerve of those magicians!

As I appeared in the pentacle I took the form of a particularly nasty wolf with blood shot eyes, fangs dripping with saliva and mangy fur. "WHO DARES SUMMON ME, BARTIMAEUS OF URK, SAKHR-AL-JINNI, N'GROSO THE MIGHTY, SERPENT OF THE SIVER PLUMES," I bellowed, "WHO HAS SPOKEN WITH SOL-"I broke off…..

I had just noticed who summoned me.

Kitty stood in the other pentacle, she looked considerably better, the lines on her face had all but disappeared. She stared at me and pointedly raised an eyebrow.

With a huff, I changed to Ptolemy's guise and waited expectantly.

"Bartimaeus, you are alive!" she breathed, "I was certain you and Nathaniel had died with Nouda…wait…is….Nathaniel? Kitty asked hopefully.

"Well, I hate to ruin this happy reunion of ours…but no." I said blandly

Kitty's face fell

"But, he told me to say hello!" I added quickly, trying to make up for it.

Kitty started crying*

After an extremely awkward two minutes, I decided I couldn't take this anymore.

"So…"I said, "you couldn't have just summoned me here just to check if I was…um…alive, did you? Or did you have a charge? "*

..….Absolute Silence…

I shifted uncomfortably in the circle.

Tapped my foot, whistled a few tunes*…

Kitty sniffed, and then seemed to compose herself.

"Well…there was this little matter that had sprung up…" Kitty took a deep breath then continued, "Some magician by the name of Simon Lovelace is building a demon army and trying to place himself as Prime minister, which isn't that hard since half the government got wiped out along with the last Prime Minister in the demon revolt. Also the commoners have started staging more protests but so far, the remaining magicians have managed to keep it under control…Bartimaeus…what?"

I had stiffened the second I heard Simon Lovelace's name, not that Kitty noticed of course,

Oh no instead she kept going on about something or the other.*

"Kitty" I said quietly, "what do you know about Simon Lovelace? * "

"Um…err…he's a magician, "kitty said nervously, perhaps picking up on my somber mood. "He wants to be Prime minister and…that's it"

"Are you sure?"I pushed, "anything like his background, history or past?"

Kitty frowned, "I don't…oh! I remember something…after the fish faced man slapped Nathaniel; he said "that's for what you did to Lovelace." So…I'm guessing Nathaniel did something to Lovelace?"

"Fish faced? ...oh him," I said, "yes, you're right, Nathaniel did something to Lovelace, indirectly killed him, to be exact. (With my help of course) It was all his fault really, if he hadn't stolen that amulet, none of it would have happened. Well I did try to warn him but he stubbornly went ahead with it anyway. And it doing so caused the death of his master and that precious little Mrs. Underwood of his, also caused his master's house to burn down, and if it wasn't for my quick thinking, bravado and wit, he would have died multiple times. And-"*

"Bartimaeus!" Kitty shouted, "I get it okay?

"Bartimaeus, you have to help! If you don't, thousands of innocent people will die!"

"But-" I began

"Bartimaeus, please!"Kitty pleaded

"But still, it is too-"I tried

"What would Ptolemy have done?" *

I sighed, "What do you want me to do?"

"Lovelace plans to take out the rest of the government by using a powerful relic of the ancient times, the dragon's pearl. Perhaps you have heard of it? We have to get it before Lovelace does. I have learned that it is being guarded by a powerful demon in Prague."

I groaned, "as usual, we have to risk our lives for something that is next to impossible. Normally, when people actually say powerful demon they mean a being that is even powerfuller than a myriad. Also I would prefer the term sprit, demon is insulting." *

Kitty made a dismissive gesture, "Fine, fine, since it is such a powerful sprit, I've prepared some silver daggers and the amulet."

"That's all?" I said, "We're doomed."

*More like bawling but who was I to judge? The poor girl had just witnessed the death of a great (if slightly mad) entity called Nouda, oh and him.

* Now, let's get one thing straight here, I, Bartimaeus of Urk, who has built walls for a great many masters whose names now lie forgotten, does not go around asking for charges, generally speaking. In fact, I normally go out of my way to avoid them. But anymore of that wet, soppy nonsense you humans called crying and I would have gone soft and maybe even have shed a few tears myself. (Notice I said Maybe, not that I would, or even could, as I may have mentioned before dijin can't cry)

* Any longer and I would have made an album.

* something about commoners and magicians, not that I was listening, I was too busy fuming over the fact that after all that effort me and Nathaniel had put into stopping him, here he has sprung up again, like some crazy whack a mole game. Except the odds are a lot higher and that Nathaniel wouldn't be here to stop him, not this time.

* I asked this because some part of me still clung to the hope that maybe this was another idiot trying to take over in Simon Lovelace's name. That hope was dashed in no time.

* I was rudely cut off here

* She had a point, and at that moment I knew I was going to get tangled up in this whether I liked it or not.

* I'm pretty sure I said this before