Never Summon a Demon, chapter 4 (Patreon)

When it became obvious that the guest was a sexual liaison, they decided to leave the apartment rather than suffer the tragic and panicked looked Logan cast upon them. With most of their water released, they slid through the wall, pulling the moisture they had lost to wood and paper back out of the wall behind them. Really, they should not care for the comfort of such an impolite divinatore, but it had been centuries since one had the power to separate them from their oceans and rivers. They were caught between wanting to explore this world and wishing to complete the task their divinatore desired and returning to rest.

As long as their divinatore completed the work before dying, they could afford to wait.

They had not decided what part of the world to explore before a young woman was revealed by a door that retreated under its own power. It took them a moment to flow into the information they sought—it was an elevator. They expected the woman to pass by them without comment. After all, they had released enough of their water that their existence was a specter that danced as a shadow at the edge of awareness. When humans had first learned to connect to the elements, they had delighted in haunting human gathering spaces until the silly beasts twitched and sought him with eyes that did not possess the ability to perceive his magnificence. They were not as malicious as Twilight, but they had enjoyed many pranks on the young species.

However, they had forgotten the most significant rule that defined their life. Water always sought the way through even the most hardened volcanic rock. And like water, humanity constantly searched for every crack that would allow them access to one more secret of the universe. Perhaps that is why they were so fond of humanity, or at least fonder of humanity than some other elements. Mountain had no patience for humans and First Growth of Spring was uncompromising in their desire for a disease to remove the species from existence.

She stopped at the far end of the hall and stared straight at them, her mouth open until they could see every individual tooth on her lower jaw. It was quite impressive how many of these people possessed a full set of teeth.

As the elevator doors began to close, she slapped her hand against the metal to prevent it. They watched her, curious. She had some talent with magic or she would not see them, but she had not summoned them and had no power. That was a dangerous situation for a divinatore. A wise one would retreat when faced with a daemon as powerful as they. Water could accomplish magnificent and horrific feats.

After the space of 20 heartbeats, she came out of the elevator and started walking towards them, slowly at first, but then faster and faster as though being pulled in by some fishermen who stood at their side.

“You're an elemental.” She was breathless in her wonder, and they preened at the evidence that someone had proper respect. Perhaps she could teach Logan a few manners. “Who are you?” she demanded.

Their mood soured as her manners failed to be mannerly.

She smiled, her teeth white against the violent red of her lips. “You don't feel like fire or earth. Are you water or air?”

Such arrogance to assume that only four daemons existed. Mountain would drop a boulder on her head for such ignorance. “What price will you pay for such information?” they asked.

Her smile did not dim. “I have both holy water and sacred incense in my apartment. Depending on what element you prefer, I would be happy to pay either of them.”

They needed only a single drop of sacred water to remain awake, and Logan had provided that. They did not wish to be trapped in wakefulness through the possession of too many such drops. They were fairly certain that Light of Full Moon had gone a little mad with lack of sleep when they had accepted too many offerings. They would not follow in that madness. However, they could plan for future need. “Do you possess gold you could offer?” They had found that divinatore often asked for gold, and while they could retrieve it from the lakes and rivers where sparkles hid under the smooth pebbles that tumbled through cold rivers, it was often easier to simply get a human to hand it to him. They were not against taking the easiest route towards any given objective. In fact, it was their nature to do exactly that.

The smile fell from her lips. “Gold? I don't have any gold.”

They allowed the music of a stream trickling over a series of rocks to echo through them. She stared. They indulged in sound. She stared.

Eventually she asked, “Why do you want gold?”

“Why do humans want gold?” they asked. They did not understand the purpose of trading such bits, and Mountain’s explanation had matched him in both volume and impassability.

“Um. Because humans suck? But you are a creature of magic who is thousands of years old. You're supposed to suck less than humans.”

“I do,” they assured her with confidence. Humanity was interesting and contradictory and exciting, but they were also cruel and malicious in a way that they never were. Water might kill a thousand souls in a rush downhill, but it would not do so with the glee that a human would take in destroying even one.

She blinked at him, her mouth opening several times before she found voice. “Did you come because of one of my spells? Because I have been casting a lot of spells recently, but I have not getting much reaction. The most I have gotten is a good luck charm that I think might help calm my test anxiety. But it is possible that’s a psychosomatic effect of the fact that I believe that the talisman will calm my nerves. That's the problem with magic—it's always so hard to tell whether you actually cast a spell or whether you have convinced yourself to act in a way that's logical if a cast spell were to exist when it doesn't exist.”

“You must possess some magics to perceive me. Right now, one without magic would see only shadow and incomplete distortion.”

“Really? So I wouldn’t see you if I didn’t have real, genuine, like getting-shit-accomplished with the power of my mind magic?”

“We do not answer questions which we have already provided answers for.”

“Cool. Cool. I get that.” She nodded. “I'm a TA in one of the Composition 101 classes, so I get that way more than you might think. So, I'm Amber. What's your name?”

Names possessed power, and Amber was not their divinatore. Given that she was named after something as powerful as amber, which had the ability to both preserve and trap through centuries, they would not risk providing such a name. Luckily, their divinatore had offered a solution. “We are Bob.”

She again opened and closed her mouth. She might require a healer for a jaw injury. She cleared ther throat. “Bob? Seriously?” She looked around as though searching for more elementals hiding in the atrocious pattern that adorned the walls. At one point, it might have been a vine sporting tiny blue flowers, but hands had wiped the ink from most of the paper leaving the pattern only at the very top and bottom, and between was gray stained and blotchy. “Is someone poking me? Is this a practical joke?” She reached out and ran a hand through Bob's torso.

“That was exceptionally rude.”

She stared at her hand which now dripped with his sacred water. Bob reached out and pulled the water back to himself.

“Then it’s water. Holy shit. You really are an elemental. So is there another wicca on the floor? Because I was well and truly convinced that this floor was full of absolute squares that thought a college degree and a corner office was the ultimate goal of life. Clearly, I was wrong.”

Bob did not understand the reference to offices, other than as a place where work was performed. And he did not have time to search through the plethora of data available to form an answer. But he would not deny his divinatore. He touched a finger to the appropriate door behind which their divinatore spoke with one who had been a lover. “This is he.”

She frowned, her eyebrows drawing down severely. “Seriously? The language geek?”

They did not respond. Perhaps she read something of disapproval in his form because she took a step back and held both hands up.

“No offense. I mean, he's brilliant with languages. One of the other residents needed help with Chinese, and she said that he is fucking brilliant. He can't explain his way out of a paper bag, but he sure can learn stuff fast. It's just he is very fond of…”

They waited. Amber sighed and her shoulders stooped. “Okay, I get it. Lots of people make fun of what they don't want to get caught doing or being. I mean seriously, how many homophobic or transphobic asshole politicians later get caught with their pants down doing some gay boy in a restroom?”

They did not understand the direction of this conversation. Speaking with Amber was like watching a river flow uphill before then falling off into a waterfall.

She threw her hands into the air. “But the next time he makes fun of me for burning sage to attract an air elemental, I am going to call him out in front of everybody. There is nothing wrong with wanting to keep it on the down low that you are wicca. I get it. It's not I don’t get people being assholes to me, too. However, it is not okay to be throwing shade when you know that you're going to close the door and go run a ritual of your own. How insecure you have to be to make fun of someone when you know the power is real? Takes a special sort of asshole.”

They finally understood the concern. “Is Logan vocal and public in his rejection of the old ways?”

“Vocal. Yeah, that's one word for it. Another word for it might be complete and utter asshole.” She held up her fingers and counted them off as she repeated herself. “Complete. And. Utter. Asshole. Four words. However, as an English lit major I am ashamed of myself for not recognizing the whole theme of self-hatred when it shows up in real life. I should fail myself in obvious and pedantic symbolism. So, now that you have appeared, is there something other than gold that I could offer you in return for some help with a few spells?”

They did not know what there divinatore might ask for, and they had slept for too long. Their brethren still slept. It left them with few resources to meet the demands of their divinatore. To that end, allies were desirable. They would not offer this Amber much in the way of their magic, but it would not harm them to bless a few tokens. They considered her with a critical eye. However, they must tell her something or she would confront Logan. That much was obvious. The last time they had been awakened, females were this vocal only within the safety of a home with mild-mannered male relatives. Time had swept past such idiocies, but they still suspected that a divinatore would be at risk from the courts and inquisitors. He had to defend Logan.

“He did not understand the spell he cast to summon me nor is he comfortable with the power he possesses.”

Her eyes grew large. “Does he have a lot of magic?”

“If your magic is a mountain brook that trickles through the leaves as the snow slowly melts in spring, his is a river swollen with water from a thousand such streams. His magic makes you inconsequential.”

“Ouch. Also, rude.”

“Factual. Also unchangeable.”

She crossed her arms. “You're just a bundle of joy.”

“I am the flood that rises to wash away a thousand souls foolish enough to stand upon my floodplain. I am the wave that crests during the hurricane to slam through the shore. I am the—"

“Got it. You're the big mucky muck. So are you available for spell work or not?”

They would not accept sacred water from her, but those with magic had other uses. “Perhaps,” he said.

“Good enough for me. You won’t be the first asshole I invited into my house and not the last, so come on in.” She walked past him into a door on the opposite side of the corridor. She unlocked it and held it open as if they needed her assistance to cross such a barrier. However, he had been accused of rudeness once, and he would prefer to minimize any antagonism between them. If his divinatore proved intractable, he may need Amber. He deigned to enter where she invited him.