Liquid tendrils reached into the stone, waiting for more minds to come close as fear and hunger cycled through me. The stone soaked up the liquid, and in turn, the stone absorbed more of my fear and hunger. It warped the stone around my tendrils, but the change is happening at a very slow rate, so I only noticed the resistance as I tried to move a few of the tendrils. A corner of my mind found it interesting, but I can’t find it myself to look into what is happening in the stone before I notice worms and skitter enter the edge of my sight.
The worms were different compared to the ones that were around my pillar; their surfaces seemed to have thickened, giving the worms an actual solid body beyond their liquid siblings. Due to this, these new worms were far longer and thicker. 5 worms came into my sight like that, while another 3 worms had even more strange features.
Their surfaces seemed to have thickened up even further. These other worms’ surfaces were more rigid and could probably handle being attacked, but were still flexible enough to allow the worms to move without hindrance. They were a step between the longer worms that traveled with them and the skitters. They were longer than the normal worm, but not nearly as long as the other worms they were traveling with.
Even the skitters were different; most just had more segments, but some of the more segmented ones had longer legs, and their shells curved under them slightly, hiding the mass of darkness inside.
Eventually, I see the crawler covered in skitters walking straight for the pillar with smoke coming off of it. I could see the energy and essence of the imps inside the smoke before it faded away within the miasma. Before I could see if the crawler had changed, I felt a pull.
It tried to take a part of me away, but I resisted it, and eventually it stopped. The pull was familiar but way weaker than before; it was a summoning to the land of those creatures that had power over the contracts. Mortals? The name tasted right when I imagined Rat and the other humans.
The pull came back with more force than before, but not enough to force me to go. ‘Should I just let them summon me? That place is so irritating, but their souls taste way better than demon flesh and essence.’ I think to myself as the pull keeps nagging me. I try to push the pull to one of my tendrils so it would be taken away instead of part of the ball, but the feeling is unmoving from the center of myself. Giving up, I let them pull me away but it only took a part of the ball, it took that piece to a familiar room surrounded by humans. The one closest to the circle is a heaving man that had stains on his soul.
“It seems you’ve grown quite a bit over these past 5 years. I almost thought you wouldn’t come.” The man said as he caught his breath, trying to suppress his anger and tiredness, but they were obvious as red and dull grey swirling inside his soul, being contained and pushed down below his chest. A small droplet of pure shadow contained me within the circle. The circle looked better than before, but still too weak to contain me for long.
“You have changed the circle,” I stated as I focused on the floor and the strange drawings on what looked like skin, but it was strange. It had whispers of essence from some small animals that lived in caves and sky sewn together, but something more has been added to it that changed the skin to what it is looking at now. Leather.
“Time may not have much meaning for you, but 7 years is a long time to us, and you have changed as well. Before you were like muddy water, but now you are like, I can’t describe it.” The man says as he stops himself from saying more. I can see a muddy yellow flow through his soul; it has hints of fear and cowardice.
‘Am I similar to something else he has seen? The ripple of desire to taste his fear, but this circle would need to be broken first, and from what I could feel of the markings, I would be sent back.’
I studied the markings and the leather, ignoring the man and the other humans in the room. They spoke to each other, but I didn’t even try to listen to them as I looked at the flow of essence along the markings. The essence was absorbed from the man into the center of the circle below me and flowed through the markings outward until it reached the end of the markings, having changed, and the barrier formed around the end of the markings with the changed essence.
“Well, demon, how are the imps? Seeing that you have changed again, I guess you have had your fill of them.” The man said to me, and I pulled my attention away from the leather to the man, as I could already guess what he wanted.
“They have mostly retreated, but now they send other types of demons besides imps that pose far more of a threat.” I tell the man as I feel mixed opinions float through me as I consider if I want to make another contract for more information. ‘The crystals that they told me weren’t much use, as I needed to use all of my essence to survive stunting their growth. They may know how to make them grow faster or even another way to deal with the geitlan demon. That crystal that they gave also did more harm to me than good. It gave me power, yes, but at the same time it took more from me over time until I could fill the hole it made.’ I thought myself now separate from my main body, and the fear that the geitlan makes me feel. I felt anger flash through me at the idea that another thing could make me feel fear. I suppress the anger as I notice the man looking at me.
“And what are these new demons?” The man finally asked as my focus started to drift down to the leather. “They are lactera, geitlan, and aarakocra demons that use their fire essence differently than the imps. They command the imps and have more control over more essences than just fire.” I say, leaving out how they nearly killed me.
“New types? Damn. Well, that may be a problem, but you should be able to avoid them just fine. I highly doubt they have as many strong demons as they have imps.”
“Are we done yet? Are you going to offer me another contract or what?” I tell the man tired of his nonstop talking.
“Huh, I guess they are posing more of a problem than I thought. Well, yes, how about another 5 years for another crystal?”
“No.”
“What?”
“No, I will not be bound for another 5 years for poisoned food.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Wait, I believe there is some sort of misunderstanding. I did not poison you.”
“That crystal gave me power, yes, but in return it ate away at my mind and memories, memories that I could have used to find a weakness against these new demons,” I tell the man, and he just scrunches up his face. The smoke demon appears, and I see it and the man’s soul talk to each other while his body remains still. ‘Should I just eat the leather under me and break the circle? It would make this visit at least somewhat worth it.’ I debated with myself before the man turned back to me again.
“Well, I knew you were different from the regular shadow demon, but I never heard one say that the crystal did that to them. I imagine you want to run away from these new demons since you aren’t trying to get something else for staying but I’ll tell you this, I don’t know how many layers this place has but the imps will continue to burn everything until they own all of them and there will no where for you to run.”
“I will find that out myself,” I tell the man as I lower myself down to the leather to start eating it.
“Name your price, demon, and before you ask, no, I will not offer you my soul.”
I stop for a moment, focusing on the man again and the smoke demon that now circles the barrier. I can feel anger foaming toward the surface as a foam as the droplet of shadow starts to release miasma around me. “Then we are done.” I let the words ripple out as the droplet becomes a needle, and I let myself fall to the ground.
“Wait, you fool. Just give my master a moment, and he will have a better offer for you.” The smoke says just before I pierce the leather, and I stop myself, looking back at the man who seems to be talking quite loudly toward the other humans in the room.
“Like what?” I ask the smoke as I can see red fumes of anger coming off the man and another human, while a shorter human releases a yellowish red of anxiety.
“There are more things that we can eat than crystals and souls.”
“I doubt they will offer me their flesh.”
“Hah, no. Just give my master a moment.”
I listened and waited while I looked into the flow of essence. While the barrier blocks the flow of essence in the room from reaching me, it is far more than what I have been getting since the last invasion. In many ways, this place would be the perfect place for me to grow and allow my mind to think, but something about this place makes me ripple out emotions constantly.
Finally, the man turns back to me, releasing a lot of air as the shorter human walks up next to him. The other human walked up behind the shorter human, putting their arms around their neck. The man offers his hand to the short one, but the other human takes it instead. They start to talk again, and I can feel impatience fill me as I debate even listening to his offer and leaving. The man takes both the other human’s and the shorter one’s hands in his own just before I decide to leave. “Well, demon, do you recognize this kid?” The man finally asks.
“No.”
“My son you damn pile of horse shit.” The other human says in a lighter tone than the man, while red fumed off of them. I don’t know what a pile of horse shit is but I can infer their desire to hurt me but also surprised that I can understand them. ‘The man must have done something.’
“Is this what you offer me, then? I doubt they would be as filling as an imp.” I say back as I return to a droplet and float myself close to the barrier. The man shakes his head while the other 2 humans take a step back.
“No, this boy here is Spriglen Redwood, the heir that your previous contractor mauled. The woman behind him is his mother, Cassandra Redwood.” The man says, pointing to the short human and then to the other human. “And Spriglen wishes to form a contract with you.” The man finishes as he takes a step back, letting the boy get closer with his mother behind him.
“I want my hand back.” The boy says as he lifts his left arm. His hand is made of the same material as the door behind them, wood.
“What do you offer in return?” I ask the boy as I focus on him. He shakes as if he is in some type of pain, but I only see more yellowish-red fumes leak out of it. His mother tightens her hold on the boy, lessening the shaking somehow.
“In return for getting my hand, you will have the ex-excess of my soul.” The boy stutters as he looks at the man. When the man nods, the boy looks back at me, “You will have access to the world through me and have a constant flow of essence from this world, but your influence in this world is limited by what I let you and I reserve the right to end the contract when I wish.” The boy finally manages to say as I feel the power of the contract come over me.
“For how long?”
“There will be no set duration, only until Spriglen wishes the contract to be over.” The man says.
“No, I do not want to be shackled to this world forever. I want to be able to end the contract also when I wish, and I want more of your knowledge.” I demand, and I see the boy look at his mother and the man. They look at each other, and the man just moves his shoulders up and down. He walks over to the boy and whispers into his ear something that I can’t hear.
“You cannot end the contract for the first 5 years, and whatever knowledge we give you will be of our choosing. If we don’t give you information once a year while the contract exists, then the contract can end early.” The boy says, easier this time while the man continues to whisper in his ear.
‘This place irritates me, and it makes it easy for anger and other such emotions to fill my mind. The other side is that if I can take enough essence from this place, I may be able to think more while in the abyss. I can think way more here than there.’ I debate with myself, but the promise of an influx of essence and knowledge makes it hard to deny that it's my only real choice.
As I agree with the contract, I can feel it tug. The miasma expands out and breaks the barrier, consuming the essence that tries to force me to leave. The droplet flies toward the wooden hand and consumes it, leaving behind a grey hollow hand similar to the skitter's shell. The boy screams as more yellowish-red fumes explode out of them, but I ignore him as I feel a rush of essence tasting so much better than the demons that I’ve feasted on before. The taste reminds me of Rat’s soul, but different in a way that I can’t tell. It’s a slow trickle compared to the immediate influx when eating flesh and souls. It's like drinking from a stream vs eating a grape. ‘Wait, what is a stream and a grape?’ I ask myself as I notice that with the stream of essence were bits of the boy’s memories, fragmented but constant.
The boy finally finishes screaming while his mother yells at the man, Traiden, while he tries to calm her down. The boy looks at me and moves the shell as if he were born with it. I can taste his curiosity and wonder as he moves every finger. He pokes the shell with his other hand, then rubs it as water falls down his face, tears. The 2 adults finally stop yelling as they turn to the boy as he smiles and cries. ‘I have my hand back.’ A whisper came through the stream as the boy nearly fell to his knees, only to be caught by his mother.
“I have my hand back, Mom, Dad, look.” The boy says, waving me around.
“Yes, you do.” She says while smiling at him, while another man came up and stood with her. The father, Leaden Redwood. I can taste happiness fill the stream of essence as the boy looks at both of them.
Traiden looks at the 3 with a smile before looking up at the miasma that had spread out, covering the ceiling and slowly eating at the stone. “Hey, this is a good chance for you to learn how to use your hand. That smoke came from the demon, so try to make it move.” Traiden says to Spriglen as the smoke demon takes some of the miasma and puts it in a bag on Traiden’s belt.
Spigeln points a finger at the miasma and scrunches up his face. I feel a nudge, but it's barely there, so I do nothing. “Spriglen, you need to tell the demon what you want, or it won’t do it. You'll have to use your words since you haven’t formed a proper bond with it yet.” Traiden tells the boy, who just nods.
“Ok demon, suck up all that smoke.” The boy tells me, and I can feel that I have more room to move within the hand. A corner of my mind didn’t want to listen to the boy, but I didn’t realize how little room I had in this hand, so I listened to the boy to see if I could find a way around the contract. I pushed more of myself into the tip of the finger the boy was pointing at the miasma, and the last joint of the finger opened up like a hinge of a door from the underside of the finger, revealing another joint that is curved and ends at a sharp needle point. The gap between the new joint and the previous joint reveals the hollow insides of the hand, and let me call the miasma back to me.
The miasma starts to slowly siphon into the finger, and I feel amazement from the boy. I try to tug on the miasma that was stolen by the smoke demon, but I can’t feel it. I abandon the idea as I notice that the miasma has changed, becoming harder to move around than before. I can’t tell if it’s because of the contract or if the miasma was changed by the essence that flowed through the room, but the miasma wanted to move on its way instead of straight into the hand. This resulted in the miasma swirling around in the air before entering the hand and returning to the abyss.
I tried to make some of the miasma move separately from the rest to see if I could have it consume something else but it seemed to rather follow the rest of the miasma instead of following my order. Eventually all the miasma was sucked out of the room. Through the opening of the finger, I look at the room and almost feel glad that I was inside the hand. Throughout the room were more markings carved into candles that held light essence. The boy starts to yell as I can feel his happiness, while I am glad I didn’t try to escape like I did with my last summoning.
