Chapter Ten
By my fifth conscious summoning, the novelty had worn off.
When the world froze the next evening, I made myself just as still and waited. The fire came, followed by a flash of purple, and just like every time before, I was carried away from the comfort of my apartment.
I was back in the large circle. My three masters were lined up waiting for me just a few feet outside of it.
Where once confusion and a small amount of panic would have inhabited me, I felt nothing. I hadn't fully accepted what was happening, but there was no longer any hint of a misunderstanding. No mistake had been made. I was the demon they meant to call.
"We asked for your help in completing our ritual," the Matron began, "but you were too feeble to complete the task we gave you. Since then, we have devised three deeds for you to grow your strength and you have completed them to our satisfaction. How do you feel today, Demon? Are you ready to finally prove that you are worthy of our investment?"
"Yes," I answered. A lot had happened since I was placed in the center of their first attempt. I truly felt stronger and better prepared for whatever they had in store for me.
"We've designed a new addition to your circle to help you channel." She nodded to her left at the Follower who immediately stepped forward. From her pocket, she pulled out a brush and a small glass vial of white paint.
Instead of reaching out at arm's length to make her modifications to the design I stood in, she knelt on the floor just outside of it, displaying no care in minding the borders. "If you feel anything odd, please tell me," she said quietly.
From the edge of the circle, she painted six sweeping lines which connected against each other into three long ovals. Next, she made two circles, one through the middle of the ovals and one through the furthest end. Once she finished the last stroke, I was standing in a circle inside a circle inside a circle.
She looked at me, expectantly. I shook my head. It felt no different.
Once the Follower was safely back at her side, the Matron spoke again. "There will be no other changes to the ritual. You will fasten our potential so that one of us might act as several."
She pulled her black book out of some unseen pocket in her robe, and the other women followed suit before taking their positions surrounding me. Once again, the Princess was behind me and to my left and the Follower was behind me and to my right.
They began to read. The words themselves were still beyond my direct comprehension, but it was like listening to another language that shared a common root. Some of the words made sense to me, even if I couldn't translate their exact meaning. They were asking me to do something.
I felt the weight of their voices added to my physical presence and I fought against the burden, determined to keep myself upright. As the load continued to build, I positioned and repositioned myself to better withstand it, but even with my new strength, it soon began to overwhelm me. I held out as long as I could until I was forced to succumb. This time, I lowered myself to the ground intentionally, sprawling myself out to keep the smaller parts of my body from being crushed by the larger.
As soon as I was flat on the ground, I noticed their recitation change. They stopped asking and started telling me to comply with some new demand. Suddenly the weight came off and I sprung up into the air, separated from my physical body.
Based on what I knew about how the circle worked, it occurred to me that maybe they had been asking me to lie on the ground. Fighting it might not have been my best decision, but none of them were reacting to me as if they thought I was acting inappropriately.
Their words changed again and with it came more clarity. With three different speakers reading three different passages, I had assumed they were all speaking different parts of the same spell. They weren't. The language they were trying to speak had to be delivered with three voices by three mouths. Combined, they made the words that commanded me. Now they were inviting me to take something.
Each woman extended an arm and the white smoke came, flowing towards the circle that kept me and following the necessary route to connect us all together. My recent experience helped me to recognize what it was. It was the same substance that I had taken from the Matron's pool boy. They were putting it into me to tie it together. I inhaled deeply, trying to encourage my body to absorb it as it had before, but I saw no evidence of success. It was still attached to its owners.
With no other leads to explore, I decided to listen. Just as Ambree had taught me to listen to the nothingness and find words, I listened to their words and searched for a hidden sound underneath that would deliver a deeper meaning. Instead, I began to sense the feelings of the people below.
The Matron was anxious and imagining what punishments she could inflict on me if I refused to assist with the spell a second time. The Princess had already decided that this ritual would fail but wasn't in the least upset about it. For her, I was already living up to my potential. The Follower was scared. She just wanted the event to be over.
And that's where I found something unexpected. The blonde wasn't afraid of me or the smoke pouring out of her into the circle or even failure. She was afraid of their leader. The Matron wanted something from her, something she was reluctant to give.
I turned my attention back to the woman in front of me, looking for more information. She, too, recognized the fog now and was trying to will it into her body. It wasn't just her own she wanted back, she wanted all of it.
Following her lead, I concentrated on the flow and tried to adjust it, but it wouldn't change. The fog just kept rolling into the center of the circle, building up into a thick cloud that completely obscured me. Specks of light, like large sparks, began to form. They swam in uneven circles inside the rolling mass. At first, they were bright white, but as they spun, they began to take on an orange hue.
