Jack mused to himself while sitting alone at his desk, passively flipping through the book. Each time he came to a new page, he admired the intricate designs on each page, though he could not discern their meaning. Nor could he read the strange language the book seemed to be printed in. He knew enough of foreign language to recognize that this book wasn't written in any of the major languages, so he contented himself with looking at the pictures and designs the book contained instead.
The book itself seemed to be very old, perhaps explaining the unidentifiable language contained within. Jack had decided to buy the book from the local thrift-shop based on its age alone; he enjoyed old books. He loved the way their leather covers looked, he loved the way their hand-bound spines felt, he loved the slightly yellowed flash of color to their pages, but he loved the smell of an old book most of all. Jack found it a little difficult to admit, but he'd chosen most of the books in his collection based on smell and age alone. One of his favorite past-times was leafing through books in his personal library here in his room, just feeling the crinkled pages and weather-worn covers.
This particular book was an oddity, to be sure. It bore no external monikers on any of its covers, front, back, or inside. There wasn't even a title page printed in the strange language. Jack had just opened to the first page and was greeted with a very intricate, unknown design. Jack grinned to himself as he allowed his mind to ponder the purpose of such markings. His first impression was that the book was some sort of Satanic or demonic cult's instruction manual, but he had quickly ruled out that possibility. Jack knew a few common symbols the demon worshippers liked to use, and this book went beyond that. Many of the symbols looked similar to what might be considered "alchemical" designs, but Jack wondered why, if this book was an alchemist's journal, the book was not written in a common language.
Jack sighed as he reached the end of the book. He admired the symbol on the final page before preparing to go through the book once again, paying closer attention. He planned on grabbing a mirror and checking if the language was encoded a la Da Vinci. As he turned back to the first page, his eyes widened. Jack stared in disbelief as he saw a page in the book that wasn't there before. He was sure this page hadn't been here before because this particular page was printed in English.
Awakening Instructions:
Place bloody palm on summoning glyph.
Speak the required mantra.
Incubate with chosen guardian to complete binding.
Jack read the page, reread it, and then read it once more. Once he was certain that he could still read correctly, he held the page up to the light of his desk lamp to look for a hidden back or pocket within the book cover. He wondered if a stuck page that had transferred when he closed the book, or if some kind of vanishing ink had been activated by the warmth of his lamp. He tried to think of anything that could explain what this page was doing here.
Resigning himself from solving that particular mystery, he instead chose to focus his efforts on deciphering what the page meant. He was grateful and stunned by the fact that it was printed in perfectly legible English, but what the words actually said confused him greatly. "Awakening instructions"? What was being awakened? What the hell was a summoning glyph? And where was this "guardian" he was supposed to "incubate with"?
Jack furiously began flipping through the book once more, looking for any other "surprise" pages. To his shock, he found
two.
Near the center of the book, there was a double printed page containing a large, highly intricate design that featured a roughly palm-sized circular gap in the center of the book. Narrowing his eyes, Jack caught sight of more text at the top of the pages: "Summoning Glyph".
He balked at the simplicity of it.
"And the mantra...?"
Just as he whispered the words to himself, his eyes caught sight of a string of words constructed of the strange language near the bottom of the two pages. His eyes glanced lower, and say more words, presumable a pronunciation guide spelled out phonetically with English characters.
"This is ridiculous", Jack grumbled. "It's like I've suddenly opened 'Devil Summoning for Idiots'."
Despite his utter disbelief, Jack still found himself drawn to the pocket knife within his desk drawer. He felt the incredible hunger of curiosity compel him as he flipped open the pocket-sized folder. He glared at the fine, steel-edged blade as he contemplated the pain of what he was about to do. He thought ahead all the paper cuts he'd ever received and tried multiplying those by one hundred in order to gauge the amount of pain cutting his palm open would cause.
"Fuck it," Jack said suddenly. And with quick jarring motion, he drew the small blade across his palm, wincing almost immediately. A fire blossomed across his skin as his palm began to fill with a dark, crimson ichor. At the very least, he'd have an interesting book to add to his collection.
Jack placed his palm flat against the assigned area in the "summoning glyph" within the book, careful not to drip blood on his clothes or onto any of the words within. He moved his arm slightly out of the way so as to make it easier to read the pronunciation guide below.
"Z-zha....Kal...Ah...Das...Eek..Koo-Bal....Ah-sod...Day...Dem-Plarr-e..."
Jack finished his incantation, and waited. After a few moments of silence, Jack let out a long sigh. This was stupid, after all...
"Awakening sequence confirmed." Jack nearly fell out of his chair. He looked around his room for the source of the noise, looking to see if the T.V was on, or perhaps a game system he'd neglected to shut off.
"Your instructions, sir?" The voice sounded again. Jack eyed the book suspiciously, still pressing his bleeding palm against its pages. It certainly sounded like the voice had come from the book itself. He'd just about lost his patience and decided to plunge face first into insanity.
He decided to
answer back.
"Hello? Who or what are you?" Jack flavored his question with a stern tone, hoping to hide his total lack of control or grip on reality.
"I am now your Grimoire. There is no need to be afraid or unsure, sir; I will answer all your questions." The voice had a dull, monotonous tone to it that seemed almost genderless. The voice's quality baffled Jack, as it didn't sound like someone who was bored or angry. Rather, it sounded like machine speaking English, without emotion and without noticeable inflection or intonation.
