by R. W. Holmes
“Matter printer, one wax baphomet symbol” Gael called out, before turning back to War and asking, “Is that it?”
“This is basic stuff” War replied with a scoff of amusement. “Some of what you, Gael, have done is quite advanced though. Calling upon the power of Hell for your own demon without instruction... The Fae are going to fear you if you're not dealt with quickly, I'm sure of it.”
“Right, thanks for the complement” Gael said awkwardly. “We're, uh, gonna go now. Getting off Enterprise Island is kind of our top concern right now, and the quicker the better.”
“Let us not forget that haste makes waste though, Mr. Walsh” mused War. “And... good luck.”
For once, it was War who ended 'the call', and because of it Gael was allowed to set the plate and the ingredients for conjuring the communication aside for later use.
“Alright!” Kennedy said excitedly. “What now? How does this work? Do you just have a list of ingredients, or...?”
“You pick the ingredients” Gael replied unexpectedly. “They need to be things that are specific to you, because it's your demon. I went with things that were symbolic to me. Oh, and music.”
“Black Betty!” Zinerva cried out pointedly. “I've had that stuck in my head ever since we met. Can I listen to it?”
“Which version?” asked Kennedy.
Zinerva sat up from her seat on the bed and looked over to Gael accusingly. “There's more than one!?”
“There will be plenty of time to listen to music later” snapped Gael. “And it's going to stay later unless Kennedy has a favorite song he thinks will help with the summoning. Now, Kennedy-,”
“Hold up man, I've got this” Kennedy said as he went to the matter printer. “I need alstroemeria, aventurine, and purple dust.”
“What the hell is alstroemeria?” asked Gael.
“It's a flower” Kennedy replied with a shrug. “It symbolizes wealth, prosperity, and fortune.”
“I'm a little concerned that you knew that completely of f the cuff” said Gael..
“What? My mom liked to garden” said Kennedy. “What's so weird about knowing shit about flowers?”
“I'm more concerned that your mom was your only friend growing up” Gael replied honestly.
“What, are you making fun of me!?” snapped Kennedy.
“It's just weird, man!” exclaimed Gael. “Gemstones, sure, maybe, but flowers too? And being a fashion expert? I'm not hating on you, but that's a really strange set of hobbies for... someone like you.”
“And what the fuck am I like, exactly!?” Kennedy shouted angrily.
“You know honestly, I thought you were a typical douche bag jock” Gael replied with a laugh. “But holy shit was I wrong.”
“This is really insulting” said Kennedy. “Can you, I don't know, stop?”
The matter printer dinged, signaling that everything was ready.
“I'm definitely not going to stop” replied Gael. “This is permanent, Kennedy. I give all my friends shit. But I'll stop for right now.”
Kennedy scowled as Gael stepped past him and began unloading the things from the matter printer, and then dumped the contents of the bowl they already had aside for later use and filled it with Kennedy's symbolic choices. Kennedy's scowl began to fade as Gael placed the bowl into the center of the circle, and was instead replaced by a far more concerned and apprehensive look.
“I'm not a stickler for tradition, but candles only take a second to print and it feels better with them” Gael said as he went back to the matter printer. “Lighting dim, please.”
Kennedy shivered slightly as the room grew dark, and almost began having second thoughts when Gael began lighting candles and placing them around the baphomet symbol's perimeter.
“This is kind of creepy” said Kennedy. “Like, it shouldn't be, but it's probably gonna work. And that makes it creepy.”
“Just sit down at the bowl” replied Gael. “Then, cut your hand, drip blood in with the rest of that crap, and say this: 'Demon! Recognize my offering to you! See myself as it is, and you who are equal, meet me at the crossroads!' Okay? It's that easy.”
“The crossroads...” Kennedy murmured apprehensively as he raised a pocket knife to his hand. “Is that where you go when you disappear?”
“Yeah” said Gael. “Don't worry though, it's amazing. It's not Hell or anything; it's way more cosmic than that. Like flying through space at a trillion light years per second.”
Kennedy nodded, still uncertain, but not one to back down from a wild time. Practically trembling by the time he worked up the courage to speak, he opened his mouth shakily and said, “D-Demon. Recognize my offering to you. See myself as it is, and you who are equal, meet me at the crossroads.”
The lights in the room flickered, but little else happened.
“What did I do wrong?” Kennedy asked immediately.
“You were scared” said Zinerva.
“I think Zinerva is right” added Gael. “Did you throw anything in the bowl contradictory to all of that? Because you need to represent yourself in your speech.”
“Ah shit, aventurine is confidence...” Kennedy admitted sheepishly. “Damn it, how did Angelica do this?”
“Angelica was too stupid to be scared” Gael replied honestly. “But listen, Zinerva is gonna tackle whatever comes back with you the moment she gets a chance to, and then you're gonna tell it not to harm any human or Zinerva unless you say otherwise.”
Kennedy nodded and took a deep breath before trying again. “Demon!” Recognize my offering to you. See myself as it is, and you who are equal, meet me at the crossroads!”
And then Kennedy was gone.
“Oh shit!” Zinerva said excitedly. “It's happening!”
“Yeah” Gael murmured fearfully. “It is...”
A moment of silence passed, and then suddenly Zinerva gasped, prompting Gael to jump in surprise. “Holy shit, what if we just ruined his life!?” she shouted in horror.
Gael dropped his head into his hands and groaned, but no sooner than when his existential crisis started did Kennedy come roaring back into their corner of reality. Upon arrival, he slid back across the floor from where he previously sat, and went so far as to even collide with his matter printer.
“Oh, God! My head, that hurt...” Kennedy grumbled as he pushed himself away from the matter printer.
“Um, Zinerva” said Gael. “What is that?”
Zinerva stared at the demon who'd landed opposite where Kennedy had sat at the bowl and baphomet symbol. She knew exactly what he was, of course. No other demon familiar to her had quite the humanoid appearance of the one sitting there now. That was to say, he looked almost completely human from the get go, save for a pair of very shallow, barely inch-long horns protruding from his forehead. Like Zinerva, he arrived without any clothes, and for it an otherwise lean and unassuming build was on display for the rest of the world to see.
On the less foreign side of his appearance, the demon had blonde hair, yellow eyes, and the canines among his teeth were just the slightest bit longer than a typical human's.
“We got an incubus” said Zinerva.
“A what!?” exclaimed Kennedy.
“Where am I?”
“We summoned a damn sex demon” Gael said disappointedly.
“WHAT!?” Kennedy shrieked in horror. “What the fuck? Why did I get a dude sex demon?”
“It was probably the flowers” Gael said with a chuckle. “The cosmos got confused.”
“That's not funny, man!” snapped Kennedy. “And you, dude! Put some fucking clothes on!”
The incubus stared back at Kennedy confusedly for a moment. He had no idea what clothes were, but he was extremely certain he had to put some on now.
“Kennedy, say the words” said Gael. “Before anything terrible happens.”
Kennedy groaned and stood up. “Also, don't harm any humans unless I say so” he said quickly. “Or the imp with my friend Gael there. Her name is Zinerva
.”
“Oh, you have a name?” the incubus said to Zinerva, clearly impressed.
“And clothes” Zinerva said with a gesture to her garbed body. “Now listen up, meat bag. I got here first, I know better, and that makes me your superior.”
“Hey!” Gael snapped at Zinerva. “Be careful with those liberties you're taking.”
“War says that the only hope for Hell is in these humans” Zinerva continued unabated. “That means you protect your summoner with everything you have, okay? Humans stay dead when they die, but they can always summon you back if you die. Understood?”
Gael was left to look on in awe of the very purposeful, unscripted, and genuine speech Zinerva had suddenly laid on the incubus.
The incubus, meanwhile, looked about himself confusedly for a moment, before looking down at his genitalia and covering himself up. “It's very cold here” he said absentmindedly.
“Alright, move!” Gael said as he pushed Kennedy away and replaced the contents of the bowl with the things need to contact War. “I'm calling in an expert.”
Kennedy stared at the nude, confused incubus in disgust again as Gael said the words to contact War. And as if that initial disgust weren't enough, a distinctly pungent smell was beginning to fill the room because of the incubus's presence.
“Hey Zinerva” said Kennedy.
“Mmm?” Zinerva hummed back nonchalantly.
“What was this asshole probably doing before he came here?” asked Kennedy.
Zinerva smirked mischievously and replied, “I can't be certain, but it probably involved an actual asshole.”
“War!” snapped Gael.
“Traditionally, honorifics are used when I'm called” War said drolly.
“We asked for help and ended up with a sex demon” Gael replied plainly. “There's no honor in any of this.”
“Sex demon?” War queried incredulously. “Hah! Succubi and incubi are fantastic demons. You should be celebrating to have such good luck. Not only is no other demon less detectable, but they are geniuses in the realm of social matters. In the days of old, they weren't just seductors, they were also my best spies and assassins.”
“Okay” said Gael. “How do we arm him? Zinerva has fire. What's the incubus equivalent?”
“You're dealing with a demon of deception, Gael Walsh” said War. “It does not rely solely on such a blatant weapon, rather, it wields influence itself as a weapon.”
“Yeah, well, it just got here and it can't influence jack shit” replied Gael. “How do we get it to defend us while we escape to Earth?”
War failed to contain a chuckle as he mulled over Gael's words. “Escape to Earth!” he exclaimed with a laugh. “Star Trek has come to pass!”
“Stop laughing” Gael hissed with surprising authority. “Neither of us have slept for far too long, and these assholes could be back at any second. How does an incubus protect its summoner? Do we need to unlock its powers like with Zinerva?”
War sighed and shook his head. “Patience” he replied. “That said, if an incubus's summoner commands it to draw its weapon, it will produce a weapon. No demon is ever truly unarmed.”
“Well hey, that's good, right?” said Kennedy. “Yo, incubus. Draw your weapon.”
The incubus looked back at Kennedy, and then around himself confusedly. “What weapon?”
“It's still a spell” added War. “Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get going. It takes a lot of work to make it look like I'm not up to anything in front of the other three horsemen.”
War faded within the mercury, and Kennedy was left more confused than when he'd come.
“It's still a spell?” he said confusedly. “What the hell does that mean?”
“I don't know how magic works for the Fae, but demonology, if that's what we're going to call it, pretty much runs on blood” replied Gael. “I hope you're not squeamish about that.”
“I mean, I am” admitted Kennedy. “But I'm less squeamish when someone is trying to kill me, so it evens out.”
“Matter printer” said Gael. “Take our newest guest's measurements.”
The matter printer dinged, and Gael turned to Kennedy expectantly.
“What?” Kennedy queried incredulously. “Look at that guy. It's like Hell sent us a fucking fashion model. If we put a burlap sack on that, we'd be wearing it in a week too.”
“Well they're charismatic 'agents', or so War says” replied Gael. “Make him look presentable. Really presentable. Maybe he can go out and find our enemies before they find us?”
“Whoa, yeah!” exclaimed Kennedy. “That's a great idea! Matter printer! Slacks, button down shirt, jacket, black tie, fedora. I'll do the colors manually.”
“A fedora?” Gael said incredulously. “No one has worn a fedora unironically for two thousand years.”
“You really don't get just how easy it's going to be for this asshole, do you?” said Kennedy. “See, this is why I have Kendra, and you're locked up in your room summoning demons. You don't have a clue.”
“I don't think he cares about sex” said Zinerva. “He's already turned me down.”
“Oh...” Kennedy murmured with a frown. Well if you're not that desperate then you must not be completely hopeless” he admitted next. “Not that I mean to hit you below the belt or anything, Z.”
“I wish you would!” Zinerva blared in frustration. “Not that either of you humans care, but this is the longest I've ever gone without being touched.”
“Same” said the incubus.
“That's actually kind of funny” mused Gael.
“Here, you need him to not reek of bodily fluids, right?” said Zinerva. “How about I show him how the shower works, and no one asks questions about what happens in the shower.”
“Yeah, sure, you're an adult” said Gael. “Just don't do it all the time. It's kind of important that the two of you are around.”
“Yeah, whatever” Zinerva said as she hopped on the incubus's back. “Come on, horny. I'm going to show you the best part of clothes.”
“What's that?” the incubus asked as he let Zinerva steer him into the bathroom.
“Taking them off.”
Gael and Kennedy looked on incredulously as Zinerva and the incubus vanished into the bathroom together.
“Holy shit, my life got weird” Kennedy murmured concernedly. “Is this what you kept warning me about?”
Gael snickered and said, “Yeah man, you live with that now. Start by naming it.”
“What the hell do I-,” Kennedy started, before the turning on of a nearby shower and the sharp, almost unsettling giggling wafted through the air.
“I feel like I should have told them no now” Gael said with a scowl. “But I think that's just me not understanding them...”
“What the hell do I name that?” said Gael, getting back to their original topic. “He's not a dog.”
“You'll figure it out” Gael replied confidently. “Just don't name him after a flower.”
Kennedy glared back at Gael, before mischievous thoughts of his own began bubbling up from within his mind. “Jarred means rose in Hebrew” he countered.
“WHY DO YOU KNOW THAT!?” exclaimed Gael. “That's so fucking obscure.”
“There's Basil, too” said Kennedy. “And Indigo. Sage, Sorrel, Yarrow... even William.”
Gael failed to contain a chuckle as he shook his head and, jokingly, said; “I hate you.”
“For real though, Cypress would be a cool name for a demon” said Kennedy. “Cypress flowers are shaped like five-pointed stars.”
“Huh...” Gael murmured thoughtfully. “I mean, sure, I guess that works.”
Chapter 7
The Enemy of my Enemy...
Far across the collegiate section of Enterprise Island that was the college concourse, Bernard sat at a cafe alongside his two remaining subordinates. A myriad of thoughts rolled through his head about what had just transpired, but every one of them began with 'this has never happened before'.
<
br /> For starters, Bernard had never lost someone on the job. He'd never seen Jacky come unhinged, or Deacon depressed over something he had legitimate reason to be depressed over either.
“It's all gone to hell then, hasn't it?” he said grimly. “One summoner. Are you really going to sit there and tell me that one fledgling nobody demon summoner was able to get the better of you? How in the hell did we drive them to extinction?”
“Jacky and Cody were too aggressive” Deacon said hatefully. “It's not the Fae way.”
“We had-,” Jacky seethed.
“Don't tell me what you had” Bernard said levelly. “You have nothing now, and Deacon has a name and a location. Things are different when we're better armed, but right now, we have a summoner with a demon from War's domain. Think of it what you will, but an open confrontation is exactly where he would excel, and you walked directly into it knowing full well it was a possibility.”
Jacky's eyes burned red with rage, and Bernard quietly acquiesced that there would be no getting through to her.
“Go home” he said to Jacky. “Leave. I won't tolerate insubordination.”
“I won't tolerate you siding with the biggest idiot ever to be granted a Fae” replied Jacky. “You two are hopeless, and I'm going to let you die before I finish this myself.”
Bernard raised his eyebrows as Jacky stood up and stormed off.
“What do we do?” asked Deacon. “We can't just let her go off like that, can we?”
“Some Fae choose humans who aren't stable, Deacon” Bernard replied coldly. “Ginger is one of those Fae. I can say that because I knew her last summoner. Jacky will never be punished for her actions because this is expected of her, so we'll just have to keep doing our job and get out of her way when she makes her move.”
“But is that wise?” Deacon queried worriedly. “She could die.”
“Look at what she did to you out of spite, you idiot” spat Bernard. “Jacky chooses not to grasp concepts that displease her, like that a failure was her fault even though she tried her hardest, or death.
We earned our Fae. She was chosen. Never forget what she did to you, because every one of The Chosen will treat you the same.”