I was so surprised to get a review so quickly! Thank you Katargeo Em! Just so you know, I am a lady. :) In reply to your comment, I've always wanted a story like this too but I got sick of waiting and I felt that the Bartimaeus Trilogy needed more stories anyways. I will write this to the best of my abilities but this is me first fanfic so it isn't going to be uber spectacular. I'm just getting the ropes of this thing.
Anyways, I forgot to say stuff like I don't own any of the BT characters or FMA characters. I do own Sindri Sosigenes the OC though. What a fun looking name!
The Caduceus: Part Two
Sindri Sosigenes was no longer the young springy leader of his ethnic tribe. The years of disputes between Creta and its citizens had taken its toll on him. Sindri was actually a little grateful that the Cretas government had to deal with the border problems. It took a load of pressure off him. Yet, he looked at his tribe around him and worried for the future. The population of his people had been waning and the Government Officials knew. Everyday they came to pester us with giving up "the Old Ways" and ever since Sindri's son Darius had chucked a rock at a soldier, the meetings were becoming more stressed and violent.
It was then something amazing happened. His Caduceus staff began to come to life. It was magnificent, floating there in the center of his room. He quickly closed up the curtains and locked up the door. One snake stretched and writhed on the staff, as if waking up from a deep slumber. It looked straight at Sindri gave a serpentine smirk.
"I have a message for you. Do you accept?" It said, slow and clear.
Sindri's mind reeled. It must be from the other side, he thought. His people were believers of the older Gods that were quite similar to Greek Gods. The staff of Caduceus was an important heirloom in the family but he simply had thought it as just symbolic meaning, not the actual staff. Maybe this is the answers to my worries Sindri hopefully thought.
The message conveyed really made no sense. And not in the way that Oracles present prophecies either. The beginnings of the woman's sayings seemed like a ritual. Sindri carefully wrote down everything the best he could. This Bartimaeus sounded very powerful and he was from the Other Place. In the end, Sindri had decided that he should have a talk with this Bartimaeus but the only question was how?
The snake heard the man's musing and mischievously bit his head. Its eyes glinted with amusement as Sindri jumped around panicking.
"Worry not, for my poison is not deadly to humans. I couldn't help but hear of your troubles and I just happened to know of how to summon Bartimaeus."
Sindri eyed the reptilian. "What do you want?"
"My, my… Don't you catch on fast! Are you perhaps an alchemist?"
"I've dabbled." His tribe did not have a lot of money so he learned alchemy for the sake of repairing items and making homes, clothes, furniture and all the like.
"My request is fairly simple. Just keep my existence a secret. Let them treat me like a useless heirloom. Don't get me wrong, I still want to be treated with care but frankly I hate being awakened, especially when that other dunderhead marid is able to sleep."
"What's a marid?"
The snake yawned. "Just give me a pencil. I have a limit of 3 hours for a message to be sent back so I'll need to cram as much magician mumbo jumbo in your head."(1)
I suppose I should thank Mysterious Girl X for helping me. Sindri was not sure of what to say when the snake asked if he wanted to convey a message at all. He left it as, "Strange woman from the Other world. Thank you for the message. It is much appreciated."
You would expect that a snake would have difficulty using a pencil but it seemed the marid wasn't affected by it. The snake said nothing about the summoning but the instructions it wrote were clear and very descriptive. Sindri knew that the snake was keeping a lot from him though the last line that said "The djinni will try to kill you so be cautious at all times." He didn't even know what a djinni is. The language of the ritual could be spoken in his language as long as the pentagrams were drawn correctly and if he didn't fumble with his words.
He told his wife and kids that his automail hand was hurting so he was going to stay in his room all day. When he was younger, he was thought to be in a conspiracy against the government and lost his hand in the torturing. The state alchemist(2) who tortured him was later on killed by Scar. He always offered the God of Metal something when he gets his automail adjusted but truthfully, he didn't feel very grateful for the metal extremity.
When he was sure everyone was playing outside with the others, he began his preparations. First, I am going to need a lot of alchemy circles to protect myself. He carefully drew the circles on the walls and extra areas on the floor that he didn't need for the pentagrams. The pentagrams were simple enough to make but it was really the talking part of the summoning that gave Sindri knots in his stomach.
Once he got the words flowing, it was easier but he maintained a very slow rhythm. His gravelly voice filled the empty house. His whole body stiffened when he reached the last word and waited. He faintly smelled the scent of cinnamon and noticed a tanned woman wearing brown in front of him. He frowned, discontent that he missed the arrival by just a blink. The woman had very short brown hair and hoop earrings. Her mini dress was tight and polka dotted. Unfortunately for Bartimaeus, Sindri was not swayed by the sexy persona. Sindri also hates the smell of cinnamon.
Bartimaeus's POV
I surveyed the room on all planes. Circles with scribbles were everywhere that was somewhat familiar. The man was a regular human. His scruffy foreign attire and messy hair looked nothing of the "modern" magicians that insisted on wearing gloomy black robes that looked extremely hot and heavy. I bet the color is just to hide all the sweat marks from the viewing public. Anyways, I'm getting off topic. The room contained the muffled presence of one… no two marids. Strange. I swear it feels exactly like the marids from the staff Kitty had. From what I see, this means two main options. First option: This man stole Kitty's staff and saw her summon me. The second option, which I really hope doesn't turn to this is… This is the man who received the message from the other world. It does explain why it took longer for me to arrive. How did he learn to summon me?
The air turned stale and the once bubbly woman looked angular and icy.
"Bartimaeus, at your service," The woman mockingly curtsied.
"I order you to take be the bodyguard of my tribe. You cannot hurt anyone(he specifically said all the names) or me."
The wording was rather vague enough for me to find loopholes. It was obvious that this old chum knew nothing about djinn. His language was mixture of languages and using my superior intellect, I could speak it perfectly.
"And who are you exactly?"
"You are to address me as Master." Hey, it was worth a shot.
"Ugh. Kinky much. When will I be able to leave?"
"Maybe in a year or so."
"WHOA WHOA Whoa whoa. Whoa. I'll practically be dead by the time that happens!"
"Well that's just too bad isn't it?" 'Master' didn't believe me. I haven't had human in a while. Let's see what this guy can do.
"I'd like to see you make me do it."
To my amazement. He went out of his circle. I made my mouth bigger with sharp teeth and lunged for him. Blue lightning erupted from the wall and a spike came towards me. I easily dodged it and aimed for his arm. The blue lightning part I found strange but it must have been this world's magic. Or something. Anyways, I wasn't planning to stay long enough to find out. I smiled as his hand was ripped from the wrist. The sound of bones crunching, blood crushing and clanking. Wait, CLANKING?
By then, it was too late. I had swallowed metal. Not just any metal but iron. Out of all things to make a fake hand out of why would you choose metal! It rusts, it's heavy. It's loud and obvious. Not to mention it would be difficult to make and no doubt expensive. I just don't get humans sometimes.
My vision was distorting and I really needed to get that hand out of my stomach. The blood fountain spewing from "Master's" arm wasn't helping either. The question was, to kill 'Master' and be sent back to the Other Place or to throw up the hand. It was then we were discovered. Me, throwing up bucketfuls of bile while 'Master' was trying to staunch his blood flow.
I thought this last part was hilarious! Yes. Cruel sense of humor but it was fun to write. I just noticed I named a djinni "Rudesind" and then another character "Sindri". I guess I like names with Sind. I meant to give him a greek name but then I gave him a norse one and it just kind of stuck to me.
(1)Time is going to be kind of messed up in here. Kitty got the message like 10 minutes after asking but that was three hours in Creta because the FMA world is slower/ at a time earlier than BT. There's nothing that's going to be exact about the time stream though.
(2) Sindri and his tribe live really close to the border between Cretas and Amestris so he kind of just got caught in between. The state alchemist that was killed by Scar is not supposed to be anyone specific from the manga or anime of FMA.
Please tell me if I have made any mistakes and R&R!
