The Werewolves of London
Kitty looked around her room and double-checked that she had everything. She had the right incense and candles, the pentacle were drawn right. She didn't have high hopes for the result he might not even be 'alive' if a spirit could be called that. She stepped into her pentacle and started the incantation.
A few seconds later a form began to shape it self in the other pentacle. At first it didn't seem to know what to come as then settled as the form she knew too well with a thick fog obscuring the person shaped entity.
A voice rang through the room, "Who dares to summon Bartimaeus the --?"
"Oh, can it."
The voice changed into a more comfortable tone. "Kitty?" The fog dissipated to show the djinni in the form of an Egyptian boy. "Well how's it going Kitty?"
"Fine, I see you're back to your old boasting self."
"Who said I was boasting?"
"You were just about to rattle off your exploits."
The boy shrugged. "How else could one find out how powerful a djinni they just summoned?"
"They could read."
"Nay, it would be too time consuming for magicians."
"What happened?"
"What 'what' happened?"
"That night in the Glass Palace. How come you're alive and he's dead?" She chocked a bit when she said he. She still missed him even after these three months after the incident.
"He dismissed me at the last moment," Bartimaeus said with a bit off an annoyed expression. "Just like Ptolemy had in the temple."
"Why? Did he say anything?"
"He did make this ridiculous excuse about how I would mess everything up somehow. Yeah right, I was just busting with the excitement to kill myself after my 5,000-year career. Oh yeah he told me to say hello to you from him. So, hello."
Kitty gave a smile. Only an idiot would think of that the second before they would die. That is if he had died.
"Is he dead Bartimaeus?"
"I would think so after breaking the Staff."
"But is he?"
"How should I know? I can't really pop down here to check how my supposedly old masters are doing." Just then the boy cocked his head to one side and seemed to be sensing something. "Is it just me or is the heater on?"
Kitty gave a smile. "No, it's because we're not in London anymore." She pointed toward the window she was facing and the boy turned to look outside the face arched an eyebrow in her direction.
"Egypt?"
Kitty nodded her head with a smile. I thought you might like to see how far it's come."
The boy shrugged. "Humans have spread out across the sands like locusts to a crop. It isn't like I've seen that before. Which brings something to mind. Why have you summoned me?"
"It's about Nathaniel…"
"I thought we went through this. The guy's most likely dead. Yeah, the Staff's that powerful."
"…I was wondering if we could somehow contact him."
"I love the we part. And how are we supposed to contact him?"
"Well, I've been reading…"
"Reading can be a strain for your eyes you know."
Kitty glared at him and continued. "Well I've been reading," and here she opened a slim dusty volume and flipped to an already marked page, "And it's written that you can contact people across distances…."
"I believe they already have something like that. It's called a telephone."
Kitty glared at him again, "Stop interrupting."
"Go on," said the boy sitting in his pentacle and playing with the fringe of his kilt.
"You can contact people across distances even as far as the Gate of Death."
"So what's that got to do with me?"
"I need a spirit to find him and drag his soul or whatever here."
"That could be dangerous especially if they're driving a car and they crash when their soul or whatever is taken. Plus what happens to their body when it's been abandoned. You should know all about that."
Kitty frowned at him. "Stay focused. I need you to find him."
"And how pray tell am I supposed to find him?"
"Easy I recite the incantation and it sends you on your way if you're willing."
"Wait, if I'm willing?"
"Yes."
"How do you know if I'm willing?"
"He released you before you could die from the blast of the Staff."
"And why do you want to find him?"
She was silent a moment and asked, "So are you willing?"
"I don't have anything else to do. Anyways I want to give him a piece of my mind for dismissing me when he did."
Kitty gave a smile of triumph so he asked again, "Why do you want to find him?"
She frowned. "Why does it matter?"
"It doesn't."
"Then why were you asking?"
The boy waved a dismissing hand, "Just get on with it."
Kitty looked at him for a second over the top of her a moment and Bartimaeus said, "It usually works if you read it out loud. A little tip there."
She cleared her voice and began to recite the incantation. Bartimaeus's form seemed to twist into a coil then it was released, disappearing from the room with a faint smell of sulfur. A little something for her from him.
A second before he had left she had said softly almost to her self, "I just have to find him. He would know what to do."