Lance fiddled around with the last of the ingredients, sprinkling dried chamomile over the bowl of other assorted herbs.
"Alright, and now," he said to himself, striking a match, "Abracadabra." He dropped the match into the bowl and grabbed the paper on the table next to him. "Right, okay, um…" He stumbled his way through a latin invocation, tripping over the words that were faded on the old parchment.
When he was done he looked to the space in front of him beyond the table he was standing behind. The space had been cleared to make room for the large summoning circle he had drawn on the floor. He waited patiently for something to happen, for the demon he was trying to summon to appear before him.
He looked back down at the spell when nothing happened. "Maybe I said it wrong? Dammit Pidge, how am I supposed to read this correctly when it's practically falling apart?"
Lance was about to try reading the incantation again when the corner of his paper suddenly burst into a small. He yelped and dropped the paper on reflex, and the paper floated through the air, burning all the while, 'till it landed in the middle of the circle on the floor. Lance watched helplessly as the paper burned, too late to save now, bemoaning the fact that he would have to explain how he lost the spell Pidge had lent him. The parchment burned quickly until the last bit turned to ash and the flame disappeared.
"Well-" Suddenly the room burst into flame and Lance cried out at the near scorching heat. He lifted his arm to shield his eyes from the bright light, pretty sure his arm hair would be singed.
Then, nearly as abruptly as the flames appeared, they suddenly dimmed in strength. Lance cautiously lowered his arm to see a cylinder of flames in the center of the room. The flames danced and burned, swirling upwards where they [dissolved/dispersed] when they hit the ceiling, turning blue in small wisps where the heat was strongest. If he hadn't been so freaked out, Lance probably would've thought it was a beautiful sight.
As it was, he was mostly trying to figure out how to put out the fire.
Then he realized that the flames were not burning randomly. They were contained by an invisible force in the confines of the magic circle. "Okay, so, magic fire. Right, how to put out a magic fire, um..."
But before Lance could reach his books the flames had started to disperse. Slowly they disappeared, leaving no trace except for something which remained in the circle. A man.
Lance sighed in relief. Obviously it wasn't a man, it was the demon he had tried to summon, though he would have words with Pidge about not telling him about the light show that happened.
The demon looked human, maybe Lance's age, a bit shorter. He stood in the center of the circle, shoulders squared and looked at Lance with extreme displeasure. His black hair fell past his shoulders and was tied in a low ponytail. He wore tight black pants that tucked into black leather boots covered in straps, a red tunic with a leather belt, and an uneven fur vest to cover it. Lance would describe the look as viking casual, but hey, who was he to judge a demon's fashion choices.
"Well that was quite the entrance," Lance started when it didn't seem like the demon would say anything. The demon only raised a judgmental brow. "Right, well, here's the deal. My feeble little witch's shop isn't doing too well and I need more help but I can't afford to hire more people until we're more successful, so I just need you to help out a little, it'll just be for a few months-"
Lance broke off his speech when the demon rolled his eyes and made a noise. "Did you just scoff at me?" Lance asked incredulously.
Ignoring Lance's question, the demon spoke. "Did you actually summon me to work in some tiny, failing witch store?" He sounded mostly disbelieving, but there was an undercurrent anger in his tone.
"Okay, first off, it's not failing , we're just having...a bit of a rough patch, thank you very much. Secondly, that's exactly what I summoned you for."
The demon's jaw clenched. He looked angry now. Really angry. He took a step forward and Lance almost took a step back despite the feet of space and large table separating them. "Do you know who I am?" the demon asked in a low voice.
Lance swallowed. "You are a helper demon that I have summoned. To help me. As your kind does," he answered, sounding more confident than he felt.
The demon bared its teeth. "My name is Yorak and I'm not some measly little helper demon," he bit out.
Lance paused. He knew that name. At least, it sounded very familiar. The demon acted like he should've known who he was, but Lance had never put too much effort into demon studies.
"Hang on a minute," he said, walking over to his bookshelf. He skimmed the titles of the top shelf-the shelf he almost never used-and took down the title, High Ranking Demons. He opened the book and skimmed the table of contents until he saw Yorak and flipped to the right page.
Yorak
A powerful fire demon of the fifth-class, Yorak is a member of the Razhkan denomination which…
Lance slammed the book shut.
Yes, now he remembered where he had heard that name. He only wished he had paid more attention to his mom's lessons on demons.
Lance turned around and walked back to his position behind the table, facing the ground the entire time. He cleared his throat and looked up at Yorak, who looked entirely unimpressed. "Well, I believe I have made a, um, mistake." Yorak snorted. "I offer you my sincerest apologies," he said adamantly, "I am so sorry, I didn't mean to summon you, I got the spell from a friend and it was just supposed to summon a working class demon, it was certainly not my intention to disturb you. I would be more than happy to release you so please don't hurt me," he finished, speaking much faster than when he started.
Yorak regarded Lance carefully with only an expression of curiosity while Lance looked at the demon pleadingly, heart pounding. Somehow, it suddenly seemed very hot in the room and it might've just been Lance or it might've been the class 5 fire demon standing in front of him, but Lance was too nervous to tell.
"Alright," he replied simply.
Lance waited a beat. "Alright? Like, I let you go now and you won't do anything to me?"
"Yes," Yorak answered with a nod.
"Promise?"
Yorak smirked. "Promise."
Lance swallowed. "Alright then, here I go."
He walked slowly towards the circle. He grabbed a wet cloth off the table, the one he always kept around since witchcraft could be quite messy, and he bent to the ground. His hands trembled as he wiped away a bit of the paint, a break in the circle which would be plenty to free the demon.
As soon as he had broken the circle he popped back up and stepped away quickly, keeping his eyes on the demon that was now free.
Yorak stepped over the circle, closer to Lance. Then he looked up and walked directly towards him. Lance backed up a few more steps, but his back hit the shelf behind him, causing the vials to clink. He had nowhere to go and the demon was still approaching. The super powerful demon that could burn him to a crisp in seconds even if he tried to run.
Yorak reached forward and grabbed Lance's arm. Lance flinched and closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable pain. Suddenly a small patch of skin on his arms flared painfully with intense heat. Lance cried out in pain, then the pain was gone.
Yorak dropped his arm. Lance's eyes flew open to assess the damage. Right where Yorak's palm had been was now a symbol, like some sort of weird lightning bolt, branded into his skin the size of a quarter. Only, it didn't hurt the way he was pretty sure a burn of that magnitude should.
"What did you do? You said you wouldn't do anything to me!" Lance accused, looking at Yorak who regarded him with a smile.
"You don't know much about demons, do you?" He took a step back. "You should've made me swear." With that and one last smirk, he was suddenly swept up in flames, making Lance jump, and within seconds he was gone.
Lance looked around frantically, but the only evidence that he had been there was the faint scent of smoke still left in the air. When Lance looked back down at his arm, the symbol was gone as well.
"Lance, I cannot believe how stupid you were," Pidge exclaimed. "Actually, I can believe it. This is why you should've paid more attention during basic demon lessons."
Lance groaned. "Well accidentally summoning a super powerful demon was never really in my life plans."
"But, still! Making him promise ? Everybody knows that you have to make a demon swear an oath to be bound to his word!"
"Well I know that now ."
"Yeah, a day too late."
Lance groaned again. "Look, Pidge, I didn't come for a lecture, alright? I want you to tell me what that demon did to me."
"Alright, alright. So, you said he what, branded you?" Pidge asked skeptically.
"Yes!" Lance shouts. "He burned some weird symbol right onto my arm!"
"A symbol which completely disappeared without a trace."
"I don't think I like your tone, Pidge."
Pidge sighed. "Well, I actually have heard about something like this before."
"Really?" Lance asked, leaning his arms on the table in front of him. They were currently sitting in Pidge's living room in her apartment. He had come to see a Pidge about an hour after the demon attack, eventually deciding that the logical thing to do is to consult a demon expert.
"Well, first I need to know what symbol it was. Do you think you could draw it?"
Lance thought about it. "Maybe, I only saw it for a few seconds though."
"Do you know the name of the demon you summoned? If I know what demon it was I can probably find the symbol."
"His name was Yorak," Lance said.
"What!" Pidge exclaimed, jumping up from her seat. "You summoned Yorak?"
Lance shrunk in his seat. "...Yes? Why? Is that bad?"
" Is that bad? " She asked incredulously. She sat back down. "Well, it's probably not good."
"I mean I know he's a class 5 fire demon and probably really powerful, but is it really that bad? He didn't seem mad."
Pidge let out a put-upon groan. "Lance, I know you suck at basic spells and potions are your thing, but it wouldn't hurt to have at least basic knowledge of other areas of study. Do you know how many class 5 fire demons there are?"
"Um...No?"
"Twenty-three. There are twenty-three. And given the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of demons out there, that's not a lot."
"Well, he's only class 5, right? What's so special about him anyway?"
"Okay, first, there are 17 class 7 demons, 243 class 6 demons, and a little less than two thousand class 5 demons. Given the fact that a majority of demons fall into the class 2 category, that makes class 5 demons very prestigious and very powerful."
"Okay…"
Pidge looked helplessly at Lance's confused face. "Of all class 5 demons, fire demons are the rarest, so what I want to know is how a crappy summoner like you," she ignored Lance's protests at his abilities, "was able to summon Yorak."
"You still haven't told me who Yorak is," Lance said, crossing his arms.
"Well, I actually don't know much about him specifically. He's not as friendly as some of the others, he likes to spend his time in the demon world rather than with humans or a different realm. Like most fire demons, he specializes in offensive magic, but he's powerful all around. Basically, he could've burnt you to a crisp in a second flat and given your completely inept handling of demons, I'm surprised he didn't."
She got up and walked over to one of the bookshelves which covered the walls of her apartment, all full of dusty old volumes. After scanning a few titles, she grabbed the one she wanted. She dropped it on the table and a cloud of dust rose up, making Lance cough.
"Jeez, I thought you were working on digitalizing all your books," he said, waving a hand in front of his face.
Pidge frowned at him. "I am. But do you know how hard it is to retype entire tomes of ancient knowledge, some parts of which are unreadable, and transferring pictures and diagrams when most of these books are hundreds of pages long?" she ranted. "I have digitally transcribed seventeen books so far which is seventeen more than you have or ever will."
Lance threw his hands up in a placating gesture. "Sorry."
Pidge gave him one last look before sitting down and flipping through the book, stopping on the page she wanted. She slid the open book towards Lance and pointed to something on the page. "Is this the symbol he used?"
Lance leaned forward to look at the book. There was a picture of a black human-like creature surrounded by fire and a title and notes written in a language that Lance didn't speak. He looked at the symbol she was pointing at on the side of the page. "Yes!" he exclaimed, "That's the symbol. What does it mean?"
Pidge slid the book back towards herself. "Well, it's his mark, like a signature almost. I don't really know what it means that he branded it your arm, but he basically left his mark on you. The brand itself probably isn't harmful, but you should probably expect to see him again."
"Wait, so he literally branded me? Like fucking cattle?" Lance asked.
Pidge shrugged. "Yeah, kinda. As far as I know."
Lance stared at her. "So what do I do? How do I get rid of it?"
"I don't know. I think only another demon of either equal or greater power could remove it. Plus, you suck at the demon arts, so I think the only thing you can do is wait and hope that he's not super pissed."
"Pidge, you're the demon expert, you're supposed to know how to get rid of this," he pleaded.
"I'm sorry, Lance, but demon magic is different from human magic. It operates under different laws, just like fae magic or creature magic. I mean, I could try some stuff but that runs the risk of making it worse or drawing attention from Yorak."
Lance slumped in his seat. "So, basically, there's nothing I can do but wait for the demon's wrath and hope it's not that bad."
"Basically."
A/N: Will this ever be continued? Who knows.
I started writing this over a year ago before dropping it. I had a whole story planned and even wrote the next two chapters but I don't know if I'll ever get around to finishing so I decided to post at least the first chapter which kind of works as a stand alone.
Anyways, thanks for reading, please let me know what you think :)
(you never know, inspiration could strike and i could come back to it, but no promises)
Please come talk to me on my tumblr (same username)
