Cassandra Pendragon

Dark, almost black sparks ignited around an elliptic tear in space and howling winds accompanied its appearance. In contrast to the one which had just shattered before my eyes, this spell wasn’t anchored, the edges of the passage were frayed, its surface less smooth. In a way, it resembled a gaping hole, dug with more enthusiasm than skill. Not that I cared overly much for the portal itself, I was much more concerned with who might be stepping through.

It wasn’t hard to guess. My spell and Lilith’s intervention had surely caused all kinds of alarms to go off on the other side, especially when the first squad of goons had suddenly combusted. Chances were, the cavalry was about to come charging through, in all its glory. Usually, I’d have taken the less than subtle hint and made myself scarce, but unfortunately, that wasn’t an option.

Sighing, I stood back up, unwilling to sit on the ground, naked, when my new friends were about arrive. For a second, I played with the idea of covering myself with my tails, but ultimately I decided against it. Partly due to stubbornness and pride, but mainly, because I just didn’t care anymore. Picking up Shassa’s gem from where it had fallen to the ground, I waited.

A blackened war gauntlet, followed by a heavily armoured shoulder plate with nasty spikes all over it, gradually pushed through the portal. A second later, a deathly pale and deformed head emerged. Long fangs protruded from a mouth that resembled nothing more than an open wound but the eyes were far worse. In the middle of a face with parchment like skin, drawn so tightly across the bones that it appeared like a skull, two pitch black coals smouldered with aggression and malice, tiny runes swirling around them like animated flames.

The slit like nostrils quivered when the… thing inhaled deeply, tasting the scent of the underground chamber and a shiver of excitement set its malevolent eyes ablaze while it pulled itself through the tear. Steel rang on stone as it jumped to the ground, an ironclad behemoth with a sword that was easily as long as me. Good gracious, being stuck behind a wall of impenetrable fire suddenly didn’t seem so bad.

My visitor was huge, his head almost scraping the ceiling when he straightened, the metal of his boots screeching against the floor. He smelled… ancient, a mixture of dust, polished steel and dried bones that reminded me of forgotten crypts under starless skies. Combined with his size, his bulky armour and the complete lack of emotions on his face, he was closer to a nightmare come alive than anything of flesh and blood I had ever seen. That wasn’t exactly true. Come to think of it, he reminded me of the emperor’s acolytes, those breathing zombies I had encountered before. Every individual trait, everything remotely unique, sacrificed for a whiff of power.

If I hadn’t just met an immortal, I might have been quivering in fear, seeing as I was stuck in a cage with a veritable monster on the outside, but as it was, I felt nothing but pity and a maybe a bit impatient. That tin can, however scary he might look, was nothing but a tool and badly treated one, at that. Still, if I wanted to do anything but watch, I would have to get out of the circle, quickly.

“Ahri,” I tentatively sent, “I don’t mean to rush you, but there’s a, presumably, undead monster with me now. Any chance you can tell me how to deactivate the trap, like, right now?”

“Oh, come on… no… yes, I don’t know for sure. It can’t reach you, can it?”

“No, I don’t think so. But if I had to guess, I’d say that he’s either going to take the kid or he’ll call his master any second. Neither of which seems like a desirable outcome to me. So…”

“I see… alright, basically when a demon is summoned, the ritual is attuned to its essence, hence the whole schtick with the names. Don’t ask me how Lilith managed to capture you with a simple sentence, but somehow she fuelled the circle with your own energy, that’s why you can’t get out. Now, from what Mephisto just said, there are four ways to break the spell. One, kill the caster, which isn’t possible. Two, you’ve got to change, fundamentally. If your essence differs from what is inscribed in the pentagram, you’ll be free to do as you please. But unless you can somehow grow your next tail in a few minutes, that’s not going to happen. Three, someone has to damage the circle form the outside. And four… you can die.”

“Are you kidding me,” I groaned. “That’s no good either.”

“Don’t be too quick with your assumptions,” she replied glumly. “It’s definitely not ideal, but the only thing that you can accomplish on your own and probably what Lilith expected you to do anyways. Here’s the thing, you don’t really have to kick the curb, you just have to trick the spell. It’ll disintegrate once there’s nothing for it to cling on to. Like tug of war. If one side suddenly vanishes, the other will bite the dust, as well.”

“And how am I supposed to do that? Curl up, hold my breath and close my eyes?”

“Close enough. You have to seal your core, if only for an instant. Without your transcendent power flowing through you, there’ll be nothing for the spell to take a hold on. The problem is, I simply don’t know if your body can survive without it, after your last changes… ”

“Great, perfect. Tell me honestly, what are the chance I can make it?”

“Honestly? Not good enough that I’d be willing to bet your life on it. 50 50, maybe?”

“So, I’m just supposed to stand here until heaven come?”

“Well, there’s one more thing. Lilith already told you, that no mortal will be able to damage the circle as long as it’s powered by your core. They’ll burn to a cinder. But they can claim it. This is where it gets interesting. Once they do, it won’t solely be your power that’s imprisoning you but also the will of the one holding it. If you can marshal more of your energy than they can cope with, they’ll go up in flames and you’ll be free.”

“And why isn’t that working now?”

“Because, at this moment, an immortal is in control. She won’t succumb so easily, since she’s not confronted with your energy, but rather a form of backlash that’s transmitted through the ritual. How much power do you think it would take for her to lose control? More than you, yourself can handle right now.”

“Just to be clear, what will happen if I can’t do it?”

“Well… if they can’t take over the summoning spell, nothing changes. If they do and you can’t break it, you’ll be stuck under someone else’s control. In that case, you’d have to bargain your way out. You know, accept a task and once it’s done, you should be good to go.”

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“Splendid… hang on, doesn’t that mean every demon who’s summoned is doing the bidding of its master willingly? I mean, for a grown immortal, it should be easy enough to overwhelm a mortal, shouldn’t it?”

“You’re right, for the most part. But more sophisticated rituals include phylacteries to siphon off the backlash. And some conductors are nigh indestructible. Luckily, that’s not the case here.”

“Right, thanks. I’ll see what I can do. My new friend is moving, at any rate. Wish me luck.”

“I always do. One more thing. If you manage to stall for an hour or two, we might be able to get to you. No promises, but maybe we can create another portal.”

“I don’t think that’ll work, but I’ll try.” I wasn’t fully concentrating on her anymore, since, quick as our exchange had been, the armoured Goliath had finished sniffing around. He only spared me a contemptuous glance before he slowly made his way over to Layla, each of his heavy steps reverberating through the room like a thunderclap. Was I supposed to let him go? To watch while he took the girl back to his master? Somehow that didn’t strike me as the best course of action. Even without considering what might happen to her, I couldn’t imagine that I’d be left alone, once he returned and reported back. But how could I even gain his attention? The walking wall of iron and bones hadn’t even flinched when he had first seen me inside a burning pentagram. Not to sound conceited, but if he had even had a smidgen of free will left, I would have expected at least a lecherous stare, maybe even a dumb remark. But no, he simply didn’t care for me, not one bit.

I was almost certain my magic wouldn’t be able to cross the fiery lines, but I simply didn’t have a better idea. Collecting a few sparks of transcendent energy in my throat, I screamed: “stop!”

I might as well have thrown a cotton ball, for all the good it did. He didn’t even turn around but stoically continued on his way, his armoured, spindly fingers reaching for Layla. Without a moment’s hesitation, he buried his hand in her hair and pick her up like a kitten. She dangled from his grasp, still soundly asleep and when he brought her closer to his ruined face, the first shimmer of emotion I had ever seen on him crossed his destroyed, mask like features.

He wasn’t smiling, not precisely, but the gleeful spark that had entered his fiendish eyes and the satisfied, crooked line his lipless mouth had formed wasn’t boding well for the child’s future. Damn it all to hell and back! “Let her go,” I thundered, pushing more energy through my meridians and setting my wings ablaze. The only reaction I got was from the flames around me, which flared more brightly for a moment and converted my efforts into another layer of silvery light that briefly circle around the pentagram, before it too became nothing but fuel for the fire.

Metal joints creaking, the nameless giant threw Layla over his shoulder, his smouldering gaze briefly travelling over the scorch marks his predecessors had left behind. Indifferent to their fate, he whirled around and made his way back to the portal he had emerged from, uncaring of my powerless rage. With a flash of light and another gust of wind, he passed through, the spell disintegrating behind him. Where an instant ago a towering warrior had been carrying a child, only black sparks remained, before they went out. I was alone again, the crackling of the flames and the silvery blue light of my prison my only companions.

I was stunned. For the first time in my life, there had been nothing I could have done. I had already lost plenty in the last weeks, but at least I had been able to fight back. This time, though, I hadn’t.

Being damned to watch had been far worse than losing or being hurt, especially since I knew that I would have been able to wipe the floor with him, if I had just had the chance to confront the creature. What my mum had said to me, when she had described how she had felt while being held hostage by the Mask, suddenly made a lot more sense. And while I wasn’t stupid enough to compare the two instances, Layla wasn’t my child after all, I understood a little better what kind of hell she had been forced to go through when she had watched powerlessly, while the Mask had tortured my brother. If I had been allowed to fight and had lost, I wouldn’t have felt so utterly… empty, so useless. What good was it to be an angel if I couldn’t even protect a kid? She had been less than a handful of steps away from me and still I hadn’t been able to help.

“She’s gone,” I whispered into my thoughts. “That… that thing took her. By the Great Fox, what am I supposed to do?”

“Stop pitying yourself, for a start,” came the scathing reply. “She’s not dead, yet and neither are you. You know where she is, don’t you? If your conjectures are right, she’ll be with her uncle again. We can go get her later, but for now, that pentagram is still the biggest problem. Although… chances are, someone is going to come for you any second now. Or do you think they’ll just ignore a powerful, trapped being out of the goodness of their hearts?”

“Let them. I’ve got a few ideas what I might do to anybody who tries.”

“Damn it, Cassy! Stash the attitude! You’re as much stuck there as you were a moment before. You won’t be able to do shit!” She struggled to reign in her temper before she continued more calmly. “I actually have an idea. You can probably be summoned because you took in enough of the corrupted energy for the rules of angels and demons to hold sway over you, correct?”

“Yes, I think so,” I said haltingly. I had a hunch where she might be going with this.

“Well then, I’ve got some of that coursing through my veins as well, don’t I?” I wanted to argue, but she cut me off. “No, listen, that’s almost certain. Think about it. You’ve already summoned me once, haven’t you? The tattoo, that connection… I never questioned that you could pull me along before, but now… I think that’s pretty much what it does. It’s a fucking summoning ritual which goes both ways! Call me, right now, with all you’ve got.”

“And then what? Even if you’re right, we’ll both be stuck here!”

“No, we won’t. That circle is attuned to you, not me. I think I can destroy it, once I’m there. Or at least pass through. From the outside it shouldn’t be too difficult to alter or damage the spell formation. I already asked our mages and they confirmed my suspicion. All it takes is one little scratch and the whole thing will crumble. It might remain in place, but it won’t bind you any longer.” Shit, I actually wanted to ask a few more questions, but…

“Are you sure? I’m only going to ask you once, because right now, there’s a new portal forming where the very first one used to be. Are you completely convinced that’s going to work?”

“Hell no, I’m grasping at straws. But what’s the downside?”

“You might be stuck here with me, you moron!”

“That’s still an improvement, as far as I’m concerned. Do it. Now!” Your wish is my command, I thought grimly while I channeled as much energy as I could, straight through my tattoo. I concentrated with all my might, I pictured her before me, her flowing hair, her flaming wings, her iridescent eyes. The softness of her skin and the warmth of her touch.

When nothing happened, I dug deeper, focusing on our past, on what she meant to me. On our connections, grown over millennia, on the things we had done, those I remembered and those I only felt when we were together. And I pictured the future I wanted to have with her. I closed my eyes and for a moment my prison, the smell of ozone, as a new gateway was ripped through space and the crackling flames disappeared. I saw her before me, clear as day and I whispered: “please, I need you. Come to me, help me!”

Something changed. The torrent of power that was rushing through my veins suddenly vanished, soaked up by my tattoo which started to burn on my chest, silvery light spilling forth like wave. I fell to my knees, my legs crumbling while my head started spinning. For a second, I was incredibly weak, my limbs felt like lead and I could barely keep my eyes open until the constant stream from my core gradually replenished what I had lost.

Inhaling deeply, I never the less couldn’t suppress a smile. I smelled pine trees and fire and a moment later, warm, delicate hands touched my shoulder. “You made it,” I mumbled, while I leaned back. My head came to rest against soft skin and a silky voice whispered: “of course. Now, let’s get you out of here before that portal can fully form.”

A wave of heat washed over me and I heard a sound like ripping silk. Ahri had manifested her wings and with a final, gentle caress, she confidently strode forward, halting only for an instant before she passed through the ravenous flames. Blue and silver parted around crimson like a river around a rock and in less time than it would have taken me to blink, she was through.