The Restored: Chapter Eleven

“Veriotix, second son of Aliliyt, I summon you.” 

The Contractor's voice was as smooth as velvet as he spoke, the words bouncing off the walls of the ritual room, and bright red light danced through the runes of the spell with every word. Jin, standing in the center of the pentacle, shifted uncomfortably. 

“Veriotix, the first son of Lythilie, I summon you.” 

Power was building, and the red light began to creep up Jin’s legs, like briars from some sort of demonic rose bush. She moved again, and the magic seeping into her shifted to stick to her, burs beginning to dig into her skin.

“Veriotix, born of War and cast to Gambling, I summon you!” 

At the last you, the red light thorns burrowed into Jin’s body with wanton abandon, and she let out a scream. When her mouth opened, red light exploded from within her, and then there was a flare of gray light, matching the color of Jin and my auras. Her body shot from the circle fast enough that I interposed myself to catch her, worried that if she hit the wall at that speed she would crack her head open. She let out a grunt as I caught her and deposited her onto her feet, and we turned to look up. 

A thin dome of red light had erupted from the binding circle of the pentacle, creating a dome that contained the two demons.

The Contractor had rid himself of some of his human guise, but even with his full demonic look on display, he was still rather normal looking. The horns emerging from his head were about six inches now, and his hands had sharpened into claws. He had a slender tail gently whipping through the air behind him, and was slightly too tall for his narrow shoulders, but otherwise, he could have passed for a tall, skinny human. 

Veriotix, on the other hand, had a roughly humanoid shape, but was otherwise completely inhuman. One of his legs looked like a goat leg, and the other seemed to be a bird leg with sharp claws, almost like a massively overgrown eagle. His abdomen seemed to come largely from an eel, with wiggling, writhing parts and smooth skin. His left arm was that of a crab, with a sharp claw that looked like it could easily cut a human in half, and his right arm seemed to be taken from a sloth, hairy with sharp claws of an entirely different sort. He had the head of an ibis bird, with a long, sharp beak. 

“Contractor, He Who Has Failed, Impartiate Who Returns, I greet you and accept your challenge for Anakamar,” Veriotix said, his tone incredibly formal, but also filled with scorn. I wasn’t entirely sure I’d have been able to mimic the strange mixture of disdain and respect that the demon had used, even if I had tried. 

They bowed to one another, then both exploded into motion. 

I expected for the Contractor to simply rip through the younger demon, but I had failed to consider one crucial aspect – the Contractor wasn’t a fighter. He was from the Throne of Greed, as far as I was aware, and had kept himself working for that Throne as long as he had been alive. Judging by Veriotix’s comments, it had been a long time. 

Veriotix, on the other hand, was a warrior demon.

The Contractor blitzed across the room in a burst of speed, claws lashing out, and Veriotix ducked aside, his entire torso whipping with the eel-like agility it held. The sloth claws raked out, and the Contractor turned on a dime, the claws barely sliding past him. 

Veriotix snapped his crab claw out, encircling the Contractor’s body, and there was a devastating crash as it snapped shut. I winced at the sound, but the Contractor had leapt into the air with shocking speed, spinning in the air, and his tail left shallow cuts over Veriotix’s face as he landed in a crouch. His tail snapped, and Veriotix charged him. 

The Contractor rolled between the mismatched legs of the younger demon, leaping up behind him and raking his claws across the eel-like back. Veriotix roared, the sound entirely too human to have rightly come from the ibis head, then spun his body – not his legs, his body. His torso rotated a hundred and eighty degrees, while his legs remained facing forwards, and he drove both claws at the Contractor’s torso. 

The Contractor nimbly leapt to the side, and Veriotix’s claws swung to try and clip him with the turn, only to find air as the Contractor leapt again, using one hand on Veriotix’s sloth arm to wrap his legs around the Ibis head and start choking Veriotix out. Veritox lashed at him with both claw, and the Contractor fell off his back, performing a handspring to bring himself back to his feet. 

“Ict at lumulus…” Veriotix muttered, then raised his hands. Red light started to build around the crab claw, spinning into a tight ball, and the Contractor’s face, which had kept an amused smile on his face the entire time, suddenly went flat. 

“Coward,” the Contractor said. 

“If I must lose, I will cost you everything,” Veriotix laughed. 

There was a flare of red light as, with enough speed to match or even surpass my own shaping skills, power built around the Contractor's arms. 

Then the Contractor was standing behind Veriotix, his back to the younger demon. The light that had been building in Veriotix’s claw was gone, but he blinked. 

“Wha–” 

It was the last thing he said, as the screaming started. Veriotix’s limbs fell off, first his crab claw, then his goat leg. As he toppled to the floor, his sloth arm fell off, then his eagle leg. 

The Contractor’s tail swished, wrapping around Veriotix’s ibis head, and there was a crunch as it snapped off. Veriotix’s body transformed into bright red and white light, then swirled into the Contractor’s form. An instant later, the red light of the dome faded away, while the Contractor returned to his more human-like form. His horns shortened, and his frame filled out slightly, his claws softening to merely bony fingers. 

“What a waste,” he said, brushing his suit off. “I didn’t realize that Veriotix was… like that.” 

“What was that?” Jin asked. 

“Anakamar is traditionally fought with only strength of arm, so as to not disrupt the soulstuff for the victor,” the Contractor said. “To use magic is to admit you lack skill, lack confidence in winning, and lack honor.” 

He shook his head. 

“Unfortunately for your erstwhile companion, the moment he decided to escalate the battle to a dishonorable spot, he had already signed his own death warrant.”

He smiled at Jin and tucked his hands into his pockets. 

“Now, my dear girl, what sort of demon were you looking for? I don’t have many who work for me who have been members of war or battle Thrones, but I have a few, if that’s what you’re insistent on wanting.” 

“What would you recommend?” I asked before Jin could agree. He smiled wide enough that it was slightly uncomfortable. 

“Well, young lady, it would seem to me that the thing you are missing most is experience.” 

“I have plenty of combat experience!” Jin said, bristling at the insult. 

“I did not say combat experience,” the Contractor said calmly. “I said experience. Do you know how to calculate tip at a Zherenian restaurant? What about one in Igmanis? What is a tailor like, or a pedicure, or a thousand other things? You have been raised as a killer and nothing more. You need someone who has experience of the ‘more’.” 

“Oh,” Jin said, deflating at the comments, before she nodded. “You’re right.” 

“This is why I would recommend Cythraul,” the Contractor said. 

“That doesn't sound like a demon’s name,” I said. 

“Because she wasn’t originally a demon,” the Contractor explained, picking up a broom and beginning to sweep the circle, despite the fact there wasn’t anything there I could see. “She was originally a fae, a member of the Court of Spring. This was long ago, when I was a young man. She became a mortal, after falling for a human hard enough to shed her faerie magic. After spending a century with her lover, she died, and Cythraul was left alone. As a Descendant, she was unable to return to the Fae Sovereignties, and not wanting the memory of her lover to die, she bartered with me. Her love ran soul deep, deep enough that with some effort and collaboration with a Throne, she became a demon of love.”

He shook his head as he put the broom away, and then took out some cleaning alchemical solutions to spritz where the body had fallen, before wiping it up with a towel. 

“In terms of raw power, she is not the strongest. Her magic is strange, with hints of her original fae nature still warping it, and hints of her once again shed mortality making it stranger still. She never sought out more than enough soulstuff to remain alive, though in working with me for so long, she has earned enough to not risk starvation or falling to many of the Voidborne ailments. But I believe she would be the perfect fit for you, and if there is anything I pride myself on, it is making the perfect Contract.” 

He raised a hand, extended it to Jin, then looked at me. I didn’t know exactly how I knew the words, but there was a look in the Contractor’s red eyes that conveyed I shouldn’t follow him, and that he promised that Jin would be safe. The fact that they were glowing softly red with his demonic magic suggested to me that it was more than random ideas.

It might have seemed foolish for me to trust a demon, but in all honesty, I did trust the Contractor, at least in this. He was good to his word, at least in this. I had no doubt that if he thought killing us would ensure his survival, he would kill us, but for right now, we were allies. 

“And as I said, this is a familiar compact, not a deep connection. If you two don’t get along, you can break the connection at any time. What do you say?” 

Jin took his hand, and I waited patiently as they left the room. It took a while, but when the pair returned, Jin looked calmer and more centered than she ever had. 

“You alright, Jin?” I asked, wanting to verbally confirm – just in case. She gave me a nod, and it had a hint of hesitance, but not of the sort that I thought she was hiding something from me. It was the lack of confidence that any teenager would have. 

“I do believe your other young companion should be nearly finished with her work,” the Contractor said. “Truly, Axel, have you no shame, walking in here with a woman on each arm? Both fifteen years your junior at that.” 

I rolled my eyes at the Contractor’s terrible joke, but it seemed to help put Jin at ease, and she joined in the barbs as we walked down the stairs, and towards the ley line again. When we entered, I saw Devi seemingly dual casting, mixing together a pool of gray light in one hand with a series of runes from a language I didn’t recognize in purple on the other. Chalk marks all over the floor and walls were glowing with her aura, and she nodded as we entered, then the lights flashed, and a portal tore itself open in space.