Into the Abyss

Master Hortwell roused himself from where he’d been reading a recently received scroll on new work done on fourth order perturbation theory of material substances, and their effect on the spiritual realm. He’d summoned the little first order demon to keep watch on the school, in case Lenamare should signal him.

It was one of the few occasions Hortwell summoned a demon for a trivial task. There was no way he could keep the continual surveillance on the castle that a demon could, so it seemed like a valid exception to his own rules. He stood and walked over to where the small demon was.

This demon was no bigger than a small child, and as ugly as only a demon could be. Despite its lack of power, and his familiarity with it, Hortwell had left it within the minor warding pentacle he’d summoned it in. He didn’t trust demons further than he could throw them; which, since demons could fly, wasn’t anywhere.

True, this one had never even tried to betray him, but one could never be too sure. As he stood behind the gremlin-like creature, he looked to where it pointed excitedly. Beyond the small grove of trees in which he stood and across the plain, about a mile away, he could discern the castle and its magical dome. It had changed color. Before it had been essentially clear, with only a little cloudiness, now it was purple.

As he watched the dome turned from purple to red and then to green. It then oscillated between red and black for a few moments before returning to purple and starting over. The dome continued to repeat its message for about three minutes, and then it returned to its normal form. It didn’t take Hortwell anytime at all to decode the message, it was as he’d feared.

He reached to his side and took out a small black box. The box was about four inches on each side. Two opposite ends of the box had holes in their center. Placing his right eye to one hole, and pointing the opposite end toward the castle, he scanned the situation.

With the aid of the Sortielli’s Cube of Observing Places Everywhere, he was easily able to see the forces lining up against the wards. Apparently Exador was attacking the castle directly using demons and wizards. Lenamare hadn’t said so, but it was what Hortwell had been expecting, and what his cube showed him.

Lenamare’s code had simply said, “aid, demon 4 and more.” It was in a code Lenamare had designed long ago, and had given to all the masters of the school. His message clear,” Summon the fourth order demon and as many others as possible for backup.”

Hortwell didn’t like the idea of summoning that big thing. Actually, he didn’t like summoning any demons unless there was good cause. Of course, saving the school was definitely such a cause. He had, however, been prepared for this. He walked over to a nearby area that he’d cleared, and in which he’d inscribed a double pentacle for summoning demons. Surrounding it were the necessary braziers, already ignited, needing only to have the correct ingredients added to summon a demon. Naturally, there were also a subsidiary set of protection pentacles for himself.

True, the extra pentacles may not be necessary for a known demon whose name he knew, especially since he also had several amulets, including a fourth order one, and he would use them; but Hortwell felt that when dealing with demons, it was always best to be doubly safe. One could never take enough precautions. He could easily summon and control the demon with less paraphernalia, but he preferred to leave nothing to chance.

In point of fact, he would truly have liked to have the ring, but for some reason Lenamare had insisted it stay with Jehenna. Hortwell, had to admit there was logic in her having it. As the school’s Master Demonologist, she had studied demonology more than anyone at the school except perhaps Lenamare, and at times he was pretty sure Lenamare didn’t know as much as he thought he did. Hortwell was a strong advocate of the traditional methods of demon binding, something he and Lenamare disagreed on, Lenamare felt that a good wizard should be able to command demons with essentially the strength of his own will and magic alone, Hortwell believed that a sane wizard used everything at his disposal to help himself in conjuring demons. Thus it was that his method was slower, but, he felt, much safer.

Moving as quickly as possible, Hortwell went around to each of the braziers, adding sulfur along with the necessary rare woods that helped in controlling high order demons to the flames. Standing back and focusing on the large ring on his left ring finger, he began to conjure the demon.

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