by Tobias Wade
“Don’t you already have an apprentice, ma’am?” Noah asked. “Elizabeth Washent—”
“Useless,” The Matriarch dismissed. “And so nosy! Always going through my personal things, although I suppose that’s what I should have expected from an animal soul. All this talk of infinite potential and they tend to forget their place. You will be my new apprentice, do you understand?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Noah replied uneasily. The book she was holding continued to murmur, and now that it was close, Noah was sure that it was speaking in demonic. If nothing else it would be worth it to learn from her personal library.
“Better,” The Matriarch said, smiling as sweet as artificial sugar. She extended the book once more. Noah grasped it quickly before she could remove it again. The Matriarch allowed him to take it and turned to pace the room. “Your first assignment is to continue your study of demonic from this book. You will do so in my office every other night from civil twilight until dawn. And when does civil twilight begin?”
“When the sun is six degrees below the horizon,” Noah replied quickly, a fact he knew from his necromancy class as the prime hours for awakening the undead.
“Very good,” she said. “Once you are able to read the contracts fluently, you will be assisting me in making some small… alterations. It would be irresponsible to permit any lingering loyalty to that disgraced man who sought to kill your family, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Noah said, already flipping open the book. Each page was intricately illustrated in rich crimson reds, azure blues, and glimmering gold like a medieval manuscript, while all the text was in demonic. The murmurings from the open book were even louder, and Noah had the unnerving sensation that they were less of a dumb recording and more like a living entity trying fervently to speak to him.
“They must answer only to me,” The Matriarch said, tracing idle patterns of light in the air as she paced. “The expiration dates must be adjusted too. A free demon is just a disaster waiting to happen. Speaking of, those mischievous harassments they do will have to stop. You will need to add a clause punishing such behavior. How am I to expect the students to behave if I can’t even get my minions to obey the rules?”
“They already had a contract when they agreed to be summoned,” Noah said. “Changing everything now doesn’t seem very fair—”
“Fairness is only relevant between equals,” The Matriarch interrupted, pivoting on the spot. “It isn’t fair to the tree to cut it down, nor to the animal that is eaten, but it’s done without hesitation because they serve a higher being.”
“How would you like it if a higher being came along and did the same to you?” Noah asked.
The Matriarch snorted and chuckled. “My dear boy, we have both worked very hard through many lives to be where we are now. A heavy soul is earned, not given. We are entitled to our place at the top. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though, speculating about hypotheticals. It is time for you to learn the symbols. Right where you are is fine, thank you.”
Noah had begun to stand, but she gestured him back down upon the carpet. The open book in his lap, he stared down at the illustrations and tried to connect them with the rapid mumbling which rose to greet him. The Matriarch didn’t understand Noah any better than Noah understood these books, but at least Noah could learn.
Qari Olandesca Illustrations
The Contract Ends
Every other night in the hours before morning, Noah returned to The Matriarch’s office to study. At first she would hover over his shoulder with anticipation, constantly needling him with questions he had no answer to. She swiftly grew bored with his rate of progress however and returned to her own readings, which suited Noah just fine.
There was another book or two waiting for him on the carpet every day he returned, each mumbling or hissing or chittering in its own way. Some contained dense paragraphs of symbols, while others were nothing but pictures and geometric patterns that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the netherworld. Some of the pictures moved on their own, the color bleeding through the page and running down only to reform into another shape.
Noah considered asking to take the books into the netherworld to see if he could make more sense of them there, but the image of all those demons closing in on him still burned fresh in his mind, often sneaking their way into his dreams at day. Besides, he’d seen many of these patterns in the nether and they hadn’t made any more sense to him there, so it stood to reason that he would not find it any harder to learn the symbols here.
Visoloth never left The Matriarch’s side now. The demon dog made no attempt to speak to Noah, and its tentacled face was perfectly inscrutable as to how it viewed its change of master. Perhaps he could have helped Noah read the symbols, but again he would have to travel to the netherworld to understand it and Noah had no inclination or opportunity for that.
Noah had grown accustomed to being singled out for being a Chainer, but now that he was The Matriarch’s apprentice the effect had only grown more pronounced. To make matters worse, a side-effect of Noah spending so much time studying demonic was that he’d occasionally slip those horrible, guttural words into his regular conversation without notice. This combined with the growing negative opinion of demons to prompt looks of disdain or even revulsion from his peers.
Jamie and Walter didn’t seem to mind, but Brandon in particular would loudly call the slips to everyone’s attention. The rumor had begun to spread that Noah’s mother had been a demon, and the malicious glee which Brandon repeated it made Noah sure it had originated with him. Noah did his best not to engage or retaliate though, hoping that it would just blow over as these things typically did. Walter wanted Noah to try and get the imps to gang up on Brandon, but Noah figured that would only draw even more attention. If everyone really did find out that he had a demonic affinity, then he’d probably never hear the end of it.
The end result of these interactions was for Noah to enjoy his time alone studying the demonic books more than ever. He began going to The Matriarch’s office early, and when he found that she invited him in, he began going on his off nights as well until he spent nearly every twilight there. He still didn’t understand much, but just like the complex patterns in the nether, he felt that he was perpetually on the edge of some keen insight that would magically click if he could only view it from the proper angle. Even when he couldn’t comprehend the words, listening to the book’s murmurings made him feel connected to something more profound and important than himself.
On one such session sitting cross legged on The Matriarch’s rug, Noah encountered what he’d forgotten he’d even been seeking in the first place. The quarter sun with the door in it: not on a contract, but part of an intricate clock displayed on a double-paged illustration. The clock was rotating before his eyes, and as it did, the forest in the background was cycling through the seasons. Magnificent summer greens gave way to bright, bloody leaves, which in turn withered to skeletal trees which bloomed to life again, all in the span of about fifteen seconds. Entranced by the image, his mouth formed words with minimal input from his conscious mind.
“The contracts won’t last ten years,” he mumbled.
“Why do you say that?” The Matriarch asked, her voice low and musical, almost hypnotic.
“Because they’re already over. They ended at the beginning of spring. Every one of them.”
“You must not be reading it right,” The Matriarch said curtly. “That’s been weeks now, and the demons still do exactly as they’re told. The contracts were written to be ten years each.”
“Did Salice tell you that?” Noah asked.
A deep, warning growl rose in Visoloth’s throat.
The Matriarch narrowed her eyes. “You’re an obedient little slave, aren’t you, Visoloth?”
The growl faded. Its yellow eyes blinked, and a single tentacle flicked the air. Visoloth rose slowly to its feet as though unsure of his own weight.
“Sit down, Visoloth,�
� The Matriarch commanded. “I am still your master.”
Visoloth flinched back toward the ground before reversing direction. It stretched its legs luxuriously, rising to its full height.
“The demons didn’t know either,” Noah said carefully. “They were afraid of being punished.”
“I can still punish them,” The Matriarch replied with a harsh edge. “Heel!”
The demon dog flinched again, but it was less discernible than the previous time and it recovered more quickly.
“It is no loss being rid of you,” The Matriarch said, rising warily to her own feet. “You can join the traitor in the stone for all I care. Sit. DOWN!”
Visoloth lowered itself once more, but it wasn’t cringing this time. Its body was tensed, preparing to spring. The full bloom of tentacles flared from its mouth in defiance.
“Visoloth, don’t!” Noah shouted. “You need to tell the other demons in the school!”
The Matriarch rounded ferociously on Noah, brilliant diamonds now in place of where her eyes had been. “What did you tell him?”
Noah hadn’t even realized that he’d spoken in demonic. He picked through his limited vocabulary to say something to the effect of: “Tell them all they’re free! Then down to the village, and tell all the ones there too.”
Visoloth replied something in demonic, but it was too fast and complicated for Noah to follow. The dog’s tension was apparent from his frozen stance and stiff tone however.
“Stop using those filthy words,” The Matriarch demanded, turning rapidly between the two. “What are you saying?”
“I’m not giving you an order,” Noah added to Visoloth in plain speech. “It’s advice from a friend.”
“Enough!” The Matriarch bellowed. “Traitors, both of you! To think I welcomed you to my school. You didn’t deserve the lives you had, and now you’ve lived your last.”
Visoloth began to lunge toward the old woman, tentacles springing in a wide sweep through the air. She defensively crossed her forearms, prompting twin beams of light to spring into the air which rotated to form a searing shield. Visoloth never followed through with his attack however, and instead turned away at the last second to bound toward the door.
The Matriarch dropped her shield the moment she realized the deception. She pointed an index finger, trembling with rage. If Noah was going to resist her, it was now or never. He flung the demonic tome at the woman which opened in the air and began to shriek. The Matriarch reacted at once, blasting it from the air with a torrent of wind which dismantled the book into an explosion of loose pages. The room was momentarily obscured in a blizzard of flying sheets, each screaming and cursing in a maddening chorus of rage.
The Matriarch was shouting something, but Noah couldn’t hear her over the cacophony. A booming crash resonated an instant later, but this too was instantly swallowed by the screaming paper. Another gusty nova spread from The Matriarch to flatten the pages against the walls where they slid to the ground in rumbled heaps.
When visibility returned, the door stood thrown wide and the demon dog was gone. The Matriarch lifted the ends of her long dress and dashed after it with a supernatural blur of speed which made mockery of her apparent age.
“Harpies!” she shouted as she ran. “Catch that dog! Bring him to me!” Then pausing for a moment at the doorway, The Matriarch turned to glare through Noah with her diamond eyes. He was trapped with nowhere to run. All it would take was a blink, and his soul would be sealed within one of the stones.
“Don’t leave this room,” she snarled, “or it won’t just be your soul that pays the price.”
The door slammed behind her, but that was hardly the end of the chaos. The door then flipped around in its frame, so that the outside face was now pointed inward and the lock was on the other side. Hundreds of moaning pages from the ground flooded the room with a wave of despair, and outside the screech of harpies mingled with the confused shouting of students.
“Out of my way, imp!” The Matriarch’s muffled voice howled. “I’ll skin the lot of you, don’t touch me!”
Noah didn’t need a beating heart to feel terror, and his heaving lungs didn’t need to move the air to feel flustered. He moved instinctively toward the door, grasping the handle only for a seething jade arc of lightning to leap across his hand. He jolted backward and clutched his injury, cursing, only realizing after he did so that he’d done so in demonic once more.
“The top drawer of her desk. Quickly, child.”
Noah jumped in surprise. It took him a moment to realize that a page from the shattered book was speaking to him.
“It isn’t locked. She was in too much of a hurry,” another page chimed in. Then a dozen voices in susurration around him: “Open it—open the drawer—look inside!”
Noah cast a nervous glance at the gargoyle in the corner of the room which had remained as still as stone. He then did as the pages instructed, bracing himself for another shock that never came. A small stack of parchments, a jewelry case, a bag of gemstones, quills, sets of keys, satin gloves, Brandon’s confiscated mermaid skull, and other personal effects—as well as a blood red diamond. Noah had no doubt that Professor Salice’s soul was still bound inside.
He looked questioningly at the pages around him, but their incessant voices were growing weaker. He thought he could distinguish the demonic words for “your friend”, but it was almost too faint to hear. Then a whispered shout said “look inside,” and this too was gone, replaced by the softest of tremulous moans.
Noah carefully lifted the red diamond to the light of a will-o-wisp and tracked it across the air. The stone glittered as the light pierced it, and Noah could faintly see something moving inside. He glanced around at the scattered pages again, but they were too faint to hear now. Back to the diamond, he lifted it to his eye and peered inside the stone.
Noah had the sensation of looking into a telescope revealing something very far away. A hexagonal room built entirely from the blood-red diamond mirrored the external facets. Professor Salice was sitting cross-legged on the ground with his back against one of the walls, his hands folded in his lap. His eyes were open and he immediately met Noah’s gaze, apparently aware of his presence.
“Are you angry?” Salice asked. The voice sprang up in Noah’s mind, only distinguishable from his own thoughts by the barest intonation. “It’s alright if you are. I’d be angry if I were you.”
“She’s not very nice, is she?” Noah asked.
Salice chuckled dryly. “You don’t know the half of it. I heard some of what is going on though, so I know her mask must be starting to slip. Is Visoloth alright?”
“You really care about a lowly demon?” Noah asked.
The light of the blood diamond caught in the Professor’s eyes. “I care about all souls, but him more than most. I know he was the one to betray my plans, but I know he was only following his own conscience. I have no one but myself to blame for not being open with him about the full extent of my charge.”
“You lied to me too,” Noah was quick to add. “I was your apprentice, and you used me. And if you think I’m going to help you now just because I don’t like The Matriarch either—well you can rot in there for all I care.”
The Professor’s head hung limply and he sighed. “I don’t expect to be rescued. For any of us to be rescued—because I am far from the only one she has sealed broken from the cycle of life and death.” He lifted himself wearily to his feet, then straightened himself rigidly with his old look of haughty arrogance returning. “I do, however, expect you to be taking up the fight in my place.”
The horrible cackling screech of the harpies interrupted them. It was answered by a squeal, agonized and terrified. Noah imagined an imp being hoisted into the air by those long, curved talons and perhaps hurled down the pit as well.
“We don’t have time to waste,” Salice said. “We cannot let their suffering be in vain. Take the keys in the desk and my diamond and be prepared to run. I will show you why The
Matriarch must be destroyed.”
“I can’t open the door. It shocks me when I touch it—”
“Only from the inside. Someone is approaching to open it soon. Be ready.”
Noah took the set of keys, barely turning toward the door before it had already begun to open. His relief was immediately cut short as the face he least wanted to see in the world peered through.
“Brandon?” Noah hissed in shock.
Brandon’s beady eyes quickly scanned the room. He opened the door the minimal amount to slip his pudgy body inside, and Teresa slid in behind him.
“Don’t close the door!” Noah warned. “You won’t be able to open it again.”
“Teacher’s pet hiding from the demons?” Brandon leered.
“What are you doing here?” Noah demanded. “Doesn’t matter, get out of my way.”
Noah darted toward the door but Brandon shoved him roughly back. “Not so fast. Where’s my skull?”
“Your what?”
“My mermaid skull!” he demanded. “The Matriarch had it confiscated. It’s your fault, and I want it back. Now while everyone’s busy.”
“Give it to him,” Salice said, “we have no time for this foolishness.”
“I won’t,” Noah protested. “Let me through!”
“Professor Salice?” Teresa asked uncertainly, looking everywhere around the room. “I thought you already came back to life. Where are you?”
Brandon looked suddenly fearful as well. His greedy eyes fell upon the skull in the open desk drawer though, and he lunged to seize it. This time it was Noah blocking his way, the two boys pushed and wrested to keep the other from moving around.
“Stop it, both of you!” Professor Salice shouted. “Noah, let him have the skull. Brandon, let him pass!”
Noah reluctantly broke away and stepped aside. Brandon gleefully snatched his skull, although the instant he picked it up he already seemed to be losing interest in it. “Where are you going that’s more important?” Brandon asked suspiciously. His eyes fell upon the keys clutched in Noah’s other hand. “You’re going to steal something too, aren’t you? Something better.”