With the aid of my new knowledge acquired from my Netherrealms seneschal Maëlys, the preparations for my next summoning ritual went smoothly. The flint blade wasn't ideal, but did a good enough job slicing the puffshrooms into pieces small enough for my purposes. A few rocks near the lava pool was perfect for letting them dry out, and for crushing them once they had since I lacked a mortar and pestle. There was also the matter of several hours spent giggling at the colors my hand made as I waved it in front of my face, or watching the sightless fish in the water pool, and a conversation with Maëlys I might have to order her to never speak of, but that was about the extent of it. I did have a good nap at the end of that that was probably long overdue and left me feeling quite refreshed. At least, I'm pretty sure it was a nap. Rather hard to tell how much time is passing deep under a mountain.
My piece of chalk was rather the worse for wear as I began to inscribe the new symbols, glyphs, and sigils I would need, but it would do for now. I was going to need some other means of inscribing a summoning after this, though, but one step at a time. Ultimately, the forms for summoning pixies were quite a lot simpler than my major ritual that had brought Gemory, Duchess of the Netherrealms, to me. I was actually a little surprised at the details even as I did the work, the knowledge coming to me in a steady stream. The sigils involved both fae and nether sigils, unlike most fae creatures; these pixies weren't just mischievous denizens of fairy realms, they were something like a cross between a fairy and an imp. This was going to be interesting indeed.
In fact, it was soon pretty clear that the hardest part of the summoning process was simply going to be the timing and effectiveness of the enthrallment glyphs more than actually summoning the essences of the pixies. If they weren't immediately brought under control, they were going to be trouble right away with little to no hesitation. I was glad I had practical experience with that glyph, in more ways than one. I smiled at the memory. It was a memory I would reminisce about quite a lot in the time to come. "How am I looking, Maëlys?"
"You are quick and clever as ever, Esteban. You seem to have the preparations for the summoning well in hand. Not that I doubted you, considering how simple the pixies are."
"Simple, yes, but trouble too. That's why I'm summoning them, after all, to cause trouble I want. I'm worried that they'll cause trouble for me instead, though."
"Mmm, they are lively little things. Mercurial, sneaky, with a lovely dash of spite if provoked. But they are of the Nether enough to bow to superior magics, and that is what you have at your disposal. You showed me you have it; these little miscreants will soon be well in hand. Especially individually, they're not much. They'll love having a Master; you just need to master them." As she spoke, Maëlys's voice once again took on her low, sultry, seductive tone. Both her voice and her words made my cock start to rise as I contemplated exactly what she was saying.
Bow to my superior magics!
...I liked the sound of that.
"You're right. I'll bring them and ensnare them one by one, they'll never have a chance, and I'll have a little horde to serve me in the here and now. Just have to stay focused on the ends, and the means be damned."
Maëlys chuckled. "Damned indeed."
I smiled, genuinely happy to have Maëlys to talk to, and keep me company. I'd been so alone for so long, I'd forgotten what it was like to feel anything different. But now, I was changing that, by my own actions. It was frightening sometimes if I let myself think too much about the things that could go wrong. But Maëlys was already helping me see how to get over all that, helping me to discover who I really was, who I could truly become. Yes, a sex demon, but what of it? That's what I wanted for myself, and that's what I was going to get. Better that than the crushing oppression of a society trying to enforce a norm I could never be.
Crushing that society was going to be so sweet. It was a comforting feeling knowing I was on the path to do so. But for now, I still had a long way to go.
I used my little cup to mix a bit of water with the dried puffshrooms, and placed that on the hot rocks near the lava. Eventually I had a paste. I spread this onto the key glyphs and sigils, then used the blade to again draw some of my blood and added that to those of activation and command. By and by, my preparations were complete. It was time. "Are you ready, Maëlys?"
"Of course. My magic is at your disposal."
In the circle in front of the altar, I concentrated, reaching out to her. Feeling our bond flare to life, I pulled on her magical power, augmenting my own. Then, I intoned the words of activation, my voice clear and strong. "Accyoernus syvba caelnea, faetinfiernam, faetinfiernam, faetinfiernam, faetinfiernam, faetinfiernam, tatuna luiomis tutedium raque!"
My technique here was elegant and simple, as Maëlys had said, and had indeed taught me. Opening an actual portal or doorway for fully formed beings to cross worlds was...taxing, complex, difficult. Thus, Maëlys was stuck as an immaterial shade until I could become much more powerful.
However, creatures of magic, of the supernatural, are easily rendered as patterns and matrices of pure mana, represented by glyphs, which are able to be pulled from Elsewhere to Here via much less effort. Once Here, the sigils and symbols cohere them into the form they are to take as determined by the nature of the mana matrix they are composed of.
Or, to say it another way, a batch of magic energy from the right plane of origin, part fae, part nether, is easier to pull here than a preexisting, physical being. Assuming I get the mix of mana right, this batch of magic is nudged by my glyphs into taking the form it's naturally aligned with, and can then coalesce into, say...a newly formed pixie.
And in the event, it went off exactly as I'd hoped. A one-foot tall, svelte little creature appeared above my circle. She had four flittering dragonfly wings on her back, and two tiny horns on her forehead above sparkling blue eyes, deftly encompassing her dual nature. Her wind-tossed, shoulder-length light blue hair, from which peeked two elfin ears, framed a cute, round, smiling face, the urge to chaos written all over it. She wore a blue bodysuit which matched the shade of her hair, and two elbow-length gloves of the same color with a frayed, jagged fringe. I wasted no time in forming the enthrallment glyph in my mind, and cast it forth with a soundless pulse like thunder. For a second the smile turned into a grimace of bared, sharp teeth, but quickly the expression turned instead to one of curiosity.
The task complete, I cried out, "Et iterum!", and moments later another appeared, this one with red eyes and pink hair and clothing, her features slightly more aquiline but otherwise very similar. Interesting, I thought to myself, then cast my next enthrallment. She blinked at me, a pout on her pretty features, then simply folded her hands in front of her expectantly.
The next cry of "Et iterum!" drew forth a pixie with green hair and clothing and dark eyes that immediately took to the air, seemingly headed for the roof of the chamber. Only a moment later my glyph of enthrallment found her just the same, and instead she dove back down and did loops around the summoning circle, watching me. That gave me pause for a second, but when nothing happened after the green one had made several loops, I returned my attention to the circle.
My next "Et iterum!" generated a pixie in purple, and she crouched on the altar, poised, eyes narrowed. However, she looked around at the other pixies, seemingly trying to grasp the situation from them, and so made no move. This was lucky, because that next enthrallment glyph was slower to form, pulling more out of me than I had anticipated. When the enthrallment snagged her she barely reacted, merely turned back towards me and raised an eyebrow. Well. Slightly unnerved, I double checked that it had taken hold, but I could feel its presence within her.
One last time, I thought to myself, though I was a little nervous I might have slightly overreached going for five. I took a bit to refocus, and regain my concentration. I could feel the drain of energy from repeated casting, and the freshly active spells tickled at my awareness, making it harder to hold new magics in my mind. I took a deep breath and pulled deeper upon Maëlys; she gave willingly, I could sense it, but the flow wasn't as deep as I would have liked. Still, I didn't have much farther to go. It would have to do. "Et iterum autem ultimum!"
The stream of magic created the proper matrix, and in came the formless mana, adhering and being shaped by my sigils of nether and fae. All was well that far, just like the others. The mana cohered and integrated, and another one foot form appeared before me. As the details became apparent, I could see that this one was yellow; golden-blonde hair, the same bodysuit and gloves as the others but in a sunny yellow hue. She also had a pair of entrancing golden eyes; I found myself caught by them for a moment. But luckily it was only a moment, because I had just enough focus and magic to fully form the last glyph before she launched herself at me and spun, releasing a cloud of the famous, eponymous pixie dust from her four fluttering dragonfly wings. I thought I felt my glyph ensnare her before the dust hit me. When the dust did I lost all composure, and descended into an immediate coughing fit, eyes watering.
"Oh lords below, not again," I said, as the rainbow afterimages and the dizzy lightheaded feeling slammed into me. I dropped to my knees as the coughing finally started to die down, leaving me wheezing and groaning. Then another wave of dizziness hit and I was suddenly on my back, staring up at the light from the lava playing across the high ceiling of the chamber in waves of shadows and light across the natural rock.
"Are you alright?"
A pretty voice, like a nice bell. It went well with lava light and ceiling rainbows, I remember thinking.
"Look what you've done, you little brat. Did you hit him with some crazy dose? He looks completely out of it!"
"I don't answer to you, ghosty girl."
"None of us do."
"Just him."
"Only just."
"Looks fine to me, anyway."
Pretty bells tinkling tinkling, my thoughts went. It was funny to me, so I laughed.
"He does
not
! Why is he even laughing? If you've damaged him somehow, I promise you will come to regret it very,
very much
."
"Aw, ghosty girl mad."
"Not be mad, ghosty girl."
"Should help us play."
"Anyway, he should be immune."