‘I need you to tell me everything,’ Seiya placed a tentative hand on the demon’s arm, ‘how can I trust you when you’ve already held back so much?’
‘We had to,’ the anguish in Aleos’s eyes was painful to behold, ‘you would never have spoken to us if we’d told you the truth.’
‘Or I might have been able to avoid Kirinya and Freiden nearly getting killed, and saved the lives of the other students who went before,’ even though her voice was soft Aleos cringed miserably at her words.
‘We couldn’t risk losing you,’ his voice so faint Seiya could barely hear it, ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Then tell me now,’ she squeezed his shoulder encouragingly, scaly hide and all. ‘What is the power that forces you to obey the incantations?’ Looking at the demon Seiya began to believe her hopes had been in vain, the silence dragging out as Aleos avoided her eyes.
‘Long ago,’ Aleos was staring fixedly down at the bed where he sat, ‘before the request summonings human’s dragged across demons using the power contained in a person’s life force.’ Seiya waited patiently as he drew in a deep breath. ‘They would kill one of their own and bind the life energy to form the gateway, direct it with the incantations.’ Aleos exhaled shakily, ‘we used to appear and see the corpse lying on the ground, those people died because of us.’
‘That’s why the incantations sound familiar?’ the bitterness in Aleos’s voice burned into Seiya’s mind. The demon nodded briefly, Seiya’s question doing little to ease the emotions running so vividly in the demon’s thoughts and hence into her own.
‘The incantations are the words used by your people many centuries ago, we never found out how they discovered their power.’ There was quiet as Aleos collected his thoughts and Seiya felt guilty for interrupting, no matter how painful the emotions had been.
‘Eventually it was stopped and as time passed we became friends with the summoners who asked us across, to let us create beautiful things in your world.’ Aleos didn’t bother to hide his wistful longing, ‘we were happy, we have lived so long in our world everything is already finished to perfection. But here we felt alive again, surrounded by humans constantly changing.’ For the first time Aleos stopped avoiding her gaze. ‘You are here for such a short time though,’ he added sadly, ‘it is amazing that something so fleeting can hold so much power.’
‘What do you mean?’ Seiya pushed him gently as the narrative slowed and Aleos stared reflectively off into the distance.
‘The energy released from the death of one person was far more than was needed to summon a single demon,’ Aleos sighed, ‘it was bad enough they would kill, but then to waste so much…’ His voice tailed off as he gazed out the window into the night.
‘So what happened next?’ Seiya prompted.
‘Some of the summoners started requesting us to fight against humans. We refused.’ Aleos paused, his brow furrowed, ‘perhaps if we had agreed and then just scared them all this could have been avoided.’ This time Seiya didn’t interrupt, watching attentively as Aleos ordered his thoughts. ‘I do not know how but one of the summoners discovered the old incantations. Yet it was strange, when we were summoned we could see no bodies but the pull, the bindings, the power, everything was the same.’
‘But I use the incantations without killing people,’ Seiya looked at Aleos in confusion, ‘are you sure they weren’t just using their own power?’
Aleos smiled at her sadly, ‘no,’ his voice was curiously gentle. ‘The incantations only work with the life force of humans, we call it “blood summoning”.’
‘But you said there were no bodies?’
‘We think they discovered a way to store the life force of those they killed and then make it accessible to all summoners.’
‘The towns and villages that were wiped out,’ Seiya felt sick as she said the words.
‘Yes,’ Aleos hung his head and Seiya ached to see him so upset, ‘because of us all those people were killed, because of us people are still being killed.’ The shame and self-loathing in his voice made her reach out to him, with her mind as well as body. Aleos shrank back from her touch as if it burned and blocked out the soothing words she tried to project in her thoughts.
‘How could you do anything but hate us?’ Despair flooded through Seiya and she tried to shield herself from the demon’s overwhelming emotions.
‘Why so few now?’ Seiya felt herself gasping as if she had been drowning under water, desperately she tried to distract Aleos away from his grief. ‘And why at the level four exam, why use wilds?’
‘Because the life force of a summoner is many times more powerful than that of an ungifted person, why kill a village when one girl will do?’ Seiya tried to ignore Aleos’s mocking tone, did all the demons torture themselves this way?
‘How do they contain the life force of the person who dies?’ Seiya thought back to the level four exam, ‘or does every death count?’
Aleos shook his head miserably, ‘the way they lock you in the arena implies the walls absorb the life energy and hence transmit it to wherever it is stored. Truly, I do not know how.’
‘I believe you,’ Seiya embraced the little demon carefully, a far cry from her ebullient hug earlier on as she tried to offer some comfort. ‘It’s not your fault, the ones who murdered those people are to blame.’
‘But if we did not exist then they would not have wanted our power.’ Aleos remained stiff and unyielding. ‘If we had never made contact with the summoners again then maybe this would never have happened.’
‘What do you mean?’ Seiya sat back and regarded him questioningly.
‘Before the request summonings all evidence and knowledge of the incantations and the blood summonings was destroyed.’ Aleos faced her squarely, ‘no one should have known about it.’
‘So who told them again?’ Seiya watched as Aleos hesitated, she could tell the demon was trying to decide whether to continue. She waited patiently, she doubted he would’ve mentioned anything unless he intended to explain himself fully.
‘We saw no summoners calling wild demons for several years after they began using blood summonings on us,’ Aleos spoke slowly and kept glancing at her uneasily, ‘the incantations needed to summon the wild demons are different but where one had been written or known surely the other would be there as well?’
‘Are you saying that someone deliberately only used the normal incantations?’
‘I am saying that the incantations used to bind the wilds are not the same as those used before,’ Seiya looked at Aleos in consternation, struggling to follow what he was saying.
‘How would you know?’
‘Enough of us have been summoned to act as a restraint if a wild demon got loose and in the past different summoners would prefer different demon types, some always called wilds.’
‘So the same demons appear but the incantations are different?’ Aleos nodded as Seiya frowned, ‘but the ones used for the normal demons are exactly the same?’ She sensed rather than felt Aleos’s confirmation, her mind busily running through the two incantations she knew.
‘Would it be possible for a summoner to have adapted the normal summoning for the wilds?’ The two were similar in places, though the wild one was far more complex. As if the person hadn’t known the most effective way to adapt the summoning; not understanding the power behind the words.
‘What are you leading me to?’ Seiya could recognise when she was being nudged towards a conclusion but she wanted Aleos to say it plainly.
‘What are you thinking?’ Aleos asked cautiously, his query a curious mirror of Amaran’s.
‘No,’ Seiya said firmly, ‘you tell me.’ She sat back and folded her arms, willing to wait the demon out. It didn’t take long, Aleos shifting uncomfortably under her gaze.
‘We believe that a wild demon must have told one of the summoners the incantation and helped them to store the life energy,’ Aleos twitched nervously as he looked at her, ‘they gained too much knowledge too quickly
for it to have simply been discovered.’
‘No wild would answer a request summoning!’ Seiya regarded Aleos sceptically.
‘They hate us more than they detest humans,’ Aleos explained reluctantly, ‘they would have seen a chance to make us suffer and have some fun of their own.’
‘Fun?’ Seiya regretted asking the question as soon as it left her lips. She already knew the answer, why else would the summoner blood price be collected by wild demons? Aleos looked at her sorrowfully, an unspoken apology in his eyes for burdening her with the truth. But she was the one who had asked, there was no one to blame but herself.
Chapter Twenty-Two
‘Who told you that?’ Amaran stared at Seiya incredulously, clearly not believing a word of her abbreviated version of Aleos’s story.
‘Someone I trust,’ Seiya slipped the diary from the sleeve of her shirt and pressed it into his hands, making sure none of the others were watching. Hopefully none would think it weird she and Amaran were still standing and talking, they often took a while to discuss what they were going to do each lesson.
‘What’s this?’ Seiya watched as Amaran leafed through the pages, ‘I don’t have time for-’
‘Just read it!’ Seiya snapped back, she was still feeling a little strung out over last night. After dismissing Aleos sleep had thoroughly eluded her and once it came she had been tormented with horrible nightmares; at the time they had been so vivid she jerked awake covered in sweat yet now she couldn’t remember a thing, only the terror. Amaran regarded her thoughtfully at the outburst, stowing the diary away in his own loose clothing.
‘You shouldn’t let yourself get wound up over stories,’ he cautioned her, ‘focus on your summoning.’
‘Doesn’t it bother you people are being killed?’ Seiya demanded, ‘or is getting stronger the only thing you care about?’ She felt a small sense of satisfaction as Amaran flinched at the accusation.
‘Did it ever occur to you they might be one and the same?’ Amaran replied scornfully and Seiya was stunned by the anger in his low voice. ‘How else will I be able to change anything?’ He left her standing open-mouthed as he strode to the far end of the training area. It was only when Seiya reached her own square she belatedly realised she had no idea what they were doing for the lesson.
‘What exactly were you two doing?’ Havir asked Seiya casually as they made their way in for lunch. ‘I’ve never seen such a half-hearted battle.’
‘Just one of those days,’ Seiya shrugged off the comment, in truth neither she or Amaran had been willing to walk over and talk to the other again, hence they had simply ended up summoning rank elevens for a general melee. Seiya disliked using the demons for battling at the best of times, and today she didn’t feel like summoning at all. Every time she spoke the incantation she felt responsible for the people who had died, as if by using the power they provided she was somehow approving what had been done.
‘Maybe you’d better pair with him after lunch.’ Havir looked unconvinced but didn’t push the issue as he regarded her steadily, barely managing to hide his surprise at the suggestion.
‘You do know I’m working with Jamen,’ he warned her delicately, ‘and I don’t think the other two will want to swap partners.’
‘Fine,’ Seiya ignored the raised eyebrow, ‘I should practise with all of you, to experience different styles?’ She made the last part a question but Havir didn’t take the bait.
‘If you say so,’ Seiya couldn’t tell if his expression was amused or worried, ‘he may refuse.’
‘Maybe,’ Seiya thought back to her first and only pairing with Jamen, still able to clearly recall the look of fury on his face when she had nearly nailed him with a fireball.
As it turned out refusal wasn’t a problem, Jamen was only too eager to show her “how real summoners fight.” Amused rather than annoyed, Seiya promised herself she would do her best not to embarrass the arrogant young man. At least it had got her away from Amaran.
‘You know,’ Amaran’s voice made Seiya jump so badly the fireball she’d been carefully building exploded in a flash, ‘what I don’t understand is why the summoners became mercenaries for hire.’
‘What are you doing here?’ Seiya glared at Amaran, hovering just behind her shoulder he must have sneaked up while she was focused on summoning. She risked moving her attention away from the demons to search for Havir, unimpressed when she found him stood grinning and waving a short distance away.
‘I can see why you prefer will bindings,’ Amaran mused, deliberately ignoring her irritation and showing no signs of leaving. ‘It lets you focus on other things, like reading.’ He held the diary up with a faint smile.
‘You read that while training with Havir?’ Seiya shook her head in disbelief. ‘Isn’t that a tad arrogant?’
‘You mean like the fact you’re talking to me while fighting Jamen?’ Seiya cursed as Amaran waved to the other boy, she could just imagine Jamen’s face flushing with anger, believing she was mocking him.
‘Why are you trying to cause trouble?’ she demanded heatedly.
‘I’m just discussing what you gave me,’ he tapped her on the back with the closed book.
‘Mercenaries for hire?’ Seiya dragged her mind back to his first question, trying to put aside how annoyed she felt. Amaran was deliberately trying to distract her and the only way she would get rid of him was to play along.
‘Two lords are fighting, one offers a reward for summoners to call demons for him, so does the other. Why would a summoner serve either lord?’
‘It’s insane isn’t it,’ Seiya reluctantly placed her bindings a little firmer onto her demon, with her concentration split it was stopping fighting. Trust her to summon a demon that wasn’t really interested just when she needed someone to take care of the battle for her. ‘Why would you bind a demon against its will just to hurt someone?’ She shook her head in disgust, ‘because of their greed the whole thing grew out of control. If no one had accepted the first offer then the demons would never have been bound.’
‘But why support one lord against the other?’ Seiya took her attention off the training ground to look at Amaran properly, puzzled by his frown and tone of voice. ‘Summoner ended up fighting summoner, possibly even killing each other, all at the bidding of some greedy noble.’ Wrapping her will firmly round the demon and commanding it to fight Seiya focused entirely on Amaran, her spirits lifting.
‘Exactly!’ she tried to keep her voice calm, ‘if the demons had been free then they never would have attacked each other or anyone else!’ Caught up in her own excitement Seiya missed the confusion on Amaran’s face, ‘when you become headmaster you can bring request summonings back-’
‘Why would I want to do that?’ Amaran cut in abruptly. ‘I meant that the summoners should have worked together to stop the lords fighting, what could they have done against our power?’ Seiya stared uncomprehendingly as he gestured towards the two demons fighting in front of them. ‘What army would stand a chance? We could stop all the petty battles, all the wars, all the disagreements. People would feel safe-’
‘Because if they don’t behave you’re going to come along with a load of demons to force them into line?’ Seiya finished tartly, unable to believe what she was hearing. ‘They won’t feel safe, they’ll feel terrified!’
‘Do you know how many people die because of arguments over land?’ Amaran grabbed Seiya’s arm and shook her roughly, ‘do you have any clue about the world around you?’
‘I know that what you’re suggesting is wrong,’ Seiya felt her bindings slip on the demon as her temper flared; resenting the interruption she forgot her earlier promise and sent Jamen’s demon flying backwards, oblivious to the crash as it hit the ground. ‘I may not know about lords and politics but at least if one of them turns corrupt people have a chance to stand against them. What can a normal person do against a summoner? How can a human defend themselves against a demon?’ Seiya spat the questions out as if they poisoned her
tongue.
‘How better to have peace?’ Amaran retorted angrily, his grip on her arm tightening until she gasped in pain, ‘if people know they don’t have a chance then no one will try to fight.’
‘Let go!’ Seiya hissed vehemently, wrenching her arm from his grip and rubbing at the bruised flesh where his fingers had dug in. The furious expression in her eyes must have finally registered as Amaran took a step back.
‘It’s not enough to bind the demons, you want to enslave people as well?’ How could she have got it so wrong? The disappointment hurt more than the anger, she had been so certain Amaran would want to change things, would want to stop the killing.
‘Seiya,’ Amaran reached out his hand entreatingly, the anger gone from his voice, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-’
‘Hurt me?’ Seiya finished for him, pointedly rubbing her sore arm as she stared at him accusingly. ‘Or show me what you’re really like?’ She didn’t give Amaran an opportunity to reply, striding towards the battling demons, desperate to get away from him.
Seiya sighed heavily as Jamen glowered at across the table. Yes, it may have been embarrassing when her power had blasted his demon across the training ground but he was taking it way too personally. She hadn’t deliberately set out to show she was stronger than him. Havir’s knowing look was just as bad, he thought she’d brought it on herself. At least Seiya knew better than to apologise for her lapse of control, admitting she had been holding back would only make the situation worse.
Between Jamen’s glares and Amaran’s icy silence it was no surprise the rest of the group were reacting to the tension. Felix looked utterly confused, his eyes darting between the three of them for some clue as to what was going on. Tooks kept his eyes downcast on the plate of food in front of him; his disquiet was understandable, Seiya had heard Jamen bombarding him with angry complaints for the entire journey between training ground and hall. Seiya liked Tooks easy going personality but it was frustrating when he allowed himself to be bullied into following Jamen’s lead. Havir, on the other hand, seemed to growing increasingly exasperated with Amaran’s behaviour. Seiya couldn’t catch what he whispered, but Amaran continued to ignore her, his eyes steadfastly avoiding looking her way. For the first time she saw Havir’s usually mild expression tighten in annoyance, but whatever he was planning to say remained unsaid, Amaran’s forbidding look causing even Havir to falter. Eager to escape the glacial atmosphere Seiya bolted her food and headed up to her room.
Summoner's Call (The Summoner Trilogy Book 1) Page 22