Greetings friends! I'm thrilled to share another exciting chapter with you. As always, thank you so much for giving my story a chance. It warms my heart to see so many people enjoying my work, and now that winter is here, we'll need all the warmth we can get. Enjoy!
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Sulfur infiltrated her senses, and she turned as her feet hit the pavement. The clouds darkened, circling the quad as flames consumed the trees. She ran faster, weaving between students as she raced towards the demon responsible for this. Her blade appeared, dispersing the flames, and she leapt forward.
Her sword clattered to the ground, the demon’s clawed hands grabbing her throat. She tried to break free, but its hold was too strong. Its grip tightened, claws drawing blood as her strength gave in. Her vision faded, the demon’s amber eyes seared into her mind, and her breathing stopped.
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Her hands were gripping the sheets when she woke, her body gasping for air. It took a moment for the nightmare to fade, the tension refusing to leave her body. When it did, she slowly sat up and steadied herself. The cold air in her apartment swept over her, and she closed her eyes to focus on calming her breathing.
The demons’ eyes stared back at her, glowing in the darkness.
Startled, she fell off the bed, pulling the rest of the sheets with her. She sat quietly, scared to close her eyes, as the glow of her clock filled her vision.
5:23 AM
“At this rate, I won’t be sleeping at all come winter…” She sighed.
Leaning forward, she grabbed the water off her nightstand. It relaxed her throat, strained from the heavy breathing, and it also made the caffeine pill go down easier.
She showered quickly, but had to trade her running clothes for something warmer; There was no longer time to exercise. Instead, she grabbed her backpack and locked up the house.
Stealing a look towards the Science Building, she sighed, instead walking east as she pulled up a map of campus on her phone. A loose grid had been superimposed onto it, and red X’s filled many of the sections on the east side. She was almost finished with her first column, and was making her way north this morning.
As she walked, she made sure no one was nearby, then uttered a small prayer under her breath. Holding out her palm, she focused, muttering the prayer again. It came slowly, but soon enough a ball of light hovered over her fingers.
Sweat danced across her brow, and she could only hold the light for a few seconds. Still, when the book had first arrived, she’d struggled to make anything at all. Hours had been spent pouring over its pages, relearning the language inside as she tried to connect with her magic once again.
She let the light disperse, her body relaxing as it faded. She hadn’t expected everything to come back easily, but it was still frustrating that she could do so little. Spontaneous magic was always difficult, but thankfully she didn't need it at the moment.
Looking up, she realized she’d arrived at the Library. She gave the front doors a push, and wasn’t surprised to find them locked. A quick lap around the building revealed no easy way in, so she settled for an outside corner facing away from campus. Her backpack came off, and she pulled out her book.
It was large, with a faded brown cover that was significantly older than it looked. At one point in time, the sides of the pages had been lined with gold, and the edges of the hard cover lined with decorative symbols, but such flourishes had been lost over decades of use.
She whispered a prayer, willing the book to open, and it did as she asked.
The language inside would be impossible to read for most people, partially due to its complexity, partially due to the innate power the words held. Even if one managed to decipher the written symbols, the meaning would still be lost without a divine spark to aid in the proper translation.
Enochian was the language of the Angels, after all.
With her magical abilities still limited, she had needed to rely on the rituals in this book to do her work. Turning to the page she needed, she began reciting the prayer inside.
Her voice filled with power, the graceful words resembling a beautiful melody as she asked the divine for assistance. Today, just as she had done every day this week, she was casting a divination spell to locate demonic activity. As the prayer ended, the angelic overtones fading, she hoped for a predictable answer.
Instead, the magic pulsed with recognition.
Her eyes went wide, shock appearing on her face as she focused on the confirmation.
Shoot. Guess it was foolish to think a Patron would be wrong.
The magic told her to go inside the Library, and she knew just what to do. Turning to another page, she gathered her backpack and moved to a side door. Enochian danced from her lips once more, and she asked for safe passage in the name of the Divine.
The door’s lock clicked, then swung open for her.
Moving inside, she began following the magic of the location spell. It didn’t lay out a path for her, and she was forced to navigate row after row of bookshelves while she looked. Eventually, she found a small door tucked away in a back corner.
“Never seen this before…” She mumbled as she pushed it open.
The darkness inside taunted her inability to reliably create light, and she instead flicked a nearby switch.
The lights were old, and they revealed a staircase that had definitely seen better days. She moved slowly, checking every nook and cranny as she descended. The location spell seemed strongest here, and it was time to dig deeper.
Opening the book, she began reciting another prayer. Her words echoed off the old tile floors, surrounding her with graceful harmonies as she spoke.
While at first the goal had been to locate demonic activity, now she had to determine how big of a threat she was dealing with. If she were lucky, the demon would be a small imp or familiar or some kind; She’d actually banished an imp once in her youth, and felt confident she could easily do it again.
When the magic finished, her hopes were quickly dashed. Whatever had been active here was stronger, and likely humanoid. Oddly enough, the information from the spell seemed confused. Either this creature was rather weak for its class, or was powerful enough to hide its own aura.
The uncertainty didn’t sit well with her. Her heartbeat quickened, and she closed her eyes to focus on her breathing.
Amber irises glared back at her.
“Fuck!” She gasped, dropping the Enochian text. “Pull yourself together, it’s just… weaker than normal. Maybe it's a simple possession, that might explain this.”
Another page, another spell, and soon she was placing a small ward in the staircase. Whatever this demon was, it would be in for an unpleasant surprise if it came here again.
She recast the tracking spell, focusing on the residual demonic energy as she willed the Divine to track the energy’s path. This time, with a stronger foundation, she was able to see a slight trail that led to the library.
Following it took some time, as this spell demanded more energy from her. She found a lingering demonic presence at a small table, and traces of it scattered throughout nearby shelves. Eventually, she landed on a thick book shelved deep in a section on religion and folklore.
She dropped the spell, having already held it for quite some time. The dust on this book had been recently disturbed, another concerning discovery. She pulled it out carefully.
“A Complete History of Demons and Demonology. Hmm.”
Weird. Why would a demon research itself?
