I stared blankly at the sandwich which lay on the plate. It seemingly had no answer, so I returned my gaze to the guest

“What?” My response seemed to greatly amuse him, as he pointed at the sandwich

“See the way you placed the ketchup on the sandwich? That’s my sigil, by which you can summon me.”

“But doesn’t a summoning a devil require a sacrifice or something in the first place?”

“Well, if you want to go into details, the summoning without a contract between a summoner and a demon requires to be made with a proper sacrifice, ” He responded, while his voice gained a lecturing quality “ unless, as a rarely known fact, the summoning happens at the exact Hour of that specific demon.” He chewed his food thoughtfully and added “And I’m a demon, not the devil.”

I mulled over my thoughts while pouring another shot for both of us. Summoner? I could guess what that meant, everybody knew the stories told about summoning devils and signing a contract with them. Hour of the demon? That was something I wasn’t aware of, but one question put itself on the end of my tongue:

“What’s the difference between demon and a devil?” I always thought of demons as servants of the devil, mindless creatures in servitude of their horned masters.

He got a pleased look on his face, not unlike the teacher’s face when he got the right answer for his question:

“Oh, the difference is quite fundamental. The devils, plural, are creatures that were made up by the Christian church in the period of time you call ‘Middle Ages’, to make the populace fearful of the eternal punishment in Hell. The reason for that is simple, can you guess what it is?” He asked while giving me an expectant look.

Taking a moment to drink and think about the question, my shocked and alcohol addled brain gave a short answer:

“Money.”

“Exactly!” Garius jubilantly exclaimed. Seemingly satisfied with my response he continued “ Money. The people had to pay to absolve their sins, but what if they didn’t have the motivation? So, the church made up the devils so the people were, let’s say, more generous in their efforts to get to heaven.” He finished his sausage and seeing that I was still contemplating his answer he took the bottle and poured some more liquid “ getting back on track, the first demon came from the negative energy of the world, and some still so, but now most new demons are that created naturally just like humans!” He seemed getting more and more excited as he spoke, his eyes gleaming with passion, only taking shot breaks to drink “ now, the theories of how the Prime Intents came to be vary, but the main chain of thought is-“ He stopped, shaking his head, as if clearing it from cobwebs. Reaching for the bottle he poured out the last drops into both glasses. We drank.

“Well, that should clarify the difference between the two names, anything more that you wanted to ask?”

Anything more he says. I had thousands of questions swirling in my mind. Are there different kind of demons? If devils are made up, are angels? Or are they as real as demons? And what that about Prime Intents? But one question was much more important than the others, and I had to know the answer as soon as I could.

“If I had summoned you as you say… Does that mean I can use magic?!” I said excitedly, mind filled with future wonder of blasting fireballs, flying and other arcane feats.

“No, not really. You don’t need to have a magical talent to summon a demon. It is useful in setting up the counter measures and such, but for just the act of summoning you require only a sigil and usually a sacrifice. And I checked if you were magical the moment you summoned me, these things aren’t just for show.” Garius responded while pointing at his slightly glowing eyes.

I sullenly nodded, my dreams mercilessly shot down. My hand went for the bottle but found it empty. I spied the second bottle, the one brought by my guest. Reaching and opening the cork I watched as some kind of vapor escaped the opening. I looked questioningly at my drinking partner.

“That is a special bottle of Demon Spirit made by Al’kalak brewer experts, exactly 70% strong, refined from the best ingredients.”

My eyebrows shot up, as my drunken mind processed exactly what was said. 70%. Demon spirit. That ought to be an adventure. I passed the bottle to my guest.

“Would you do the honors?”

“With pleasure.” He filled both glasses. As I made a movement towards mine, he stopped me and said:

“You can’t drink while thinking unhappy thoughts, that would kill the taste of the liquor! You seemed really dejected when I said you didn’t have any magic talent, was that what you would really want?”

I thought about that for a while. Magic? Of course! That was a dream of every kid, to be able to do special things, to use magic and explore the mysteries of the world. My drunk brain going into overdrive and heating up with passion I responded:

“Of course! Isn’t that what everyo-…, well every human wishes? To be able to have magical powers? To be able to do something special? To do what you could ever want to do, to explore the unexplored, to unravel the mystical?!” Losing my energy and the will to talk, my forehead met the table and I started muttering to myself “I guess now I can’t do any of that now. I could try to summon another demon, but what if they want to eat my soul? Isn’t that what usually happens? Garius seems nice, but I bet his kind isn’t so-“

“What if I told you could, as you say, have magical powers?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

I spent the next second registering what was just said, and snapped my head so fast the room started spinning for a while. I stared at my guest, his eyes seemingly burning with yellow flames.

“Are you serious? I could use magic?”

“Of course. Not the worldly magic sorcerers use or any of their ilk. I mean the demonic kind. You seem familiar with the concept?”

Alcohol speeding up my brain operations to 200% I sorted through what I knew of fictional demons and their magic. Information was quickly found and identified, ranging from games, through books to movies. All I knew about the demonic magic and its uses. It took exactly 0,3s for my mind to register what he just said, and additional 0,4s more to recall necessary intel. I calmly responded in the next 0,2 s:

“I recall something about this topic, yes.”

“And I see that you would be interested in learning it. We could make a deal.” He said while looking me up and down, eyes gaining a dangerous glint and a smile that had too many teeth. He reminded me of a shark in that moment. I momentarily calmed down and sobered up by at least half “Let’s say, I give you necessary knowledge, and some resources. What could you give me in return?”

I looked around myself in my half-barren apartment. This was a way to learn some magic! There has to be something that I have that could be worth, I just didn’t see it. Maybe my soul? No, I didn’t see myself burning for eternity just for a chance to learn magic. After some moment of thinking I hesitatingly responded:

“And what would you want in return, my soul? I’m sorry but I can’t give you that, eternity in pain doesn’t sound so appealing.”

He seemed amused by my answer “Oh no, no. Nothing of that kind. As much as a soul willingly given is worth, soul contracts make for some bad blood between the contractors, and I would hate to lose a someone with so much potential as you” I looked down at myself while thinking. Potential? He continued “Not the magical potential, but your gut potential. Here you are, summoning and Baron and still sitting with him to the table, that takes guts, even for unaware mortals!”

He ate the last bite of food and pressed on:

“We can make a deal. I’m currently planning on going to war with nearby barony, gain some territory maybe some prestige, you understand.” I nodded mutely, which he accepted as understanding” Now, about what you could give me: you will fight in my army for let’s say, a period of two years, that’s the approximated time of my campaign. I will give you some basic knowledge and you start as a normal soldier. You follow so far? Good. Now, after the war ends, for better or for good, I send you back here again, with some rewards depending how you do. Sounds good so far?”

I nodded again, mulling over the things he said. Army for two years? Probably getting injured time after time, probably dying? Not so good. But learning magic? Great. Killing demons? Not to seem offensive to my guest, but that’s still a thing a man could only want. Rewards from a demonic baron? Sign me up. I motioned for him to carry on.

“Great. After that moment for a period of 5 years, you will be my so called ‘vassal’ up here.”

I stopped him and asked “ A vassal? And what would that entail?”

“Things like helping a few friendly associations, maybe gathering some ingredients. Nothing too constrictive, just a few favors here and there. How does that sound? Bad or great?”

I stopped to think about that. Friendly associations of demons? That sounded quite interesting. But it did seem like a great choice agree to this deal. After all, it seemed like it would be at most a part-time thing. And I got to learn magic! I just had one hot issue:

“Wait, if I sign up a contract with a demon, don’t I go, like, you know, straight to the boiler room or something?”

He seemed surprised at that question, then his expression settled.

“Ah, yes, you are a mortal not in the know. After death, souls go to the River of Souls and then get to reincarnate after some time. Well, those that are not captured, but that’s not a problem for a long time. Now how about signing this contract?”

Before me appeared a piece of paper with the exact same words he told me would be the terms. I read it over, twice to be sure. After all, the stories about demons don’t present them as a friendly and trustworthy bunch, but the contract seemed great. To the left of the contract lay an ornamental knife, which I picked up, slightly cut my finger and I pressed it above the words ‘press the bloodied finger above’.

“It’s done.”

He smiled kindly, rolled up the contract and raised up his glass.

“To the fruitful completion of the contract, then!”

I raised the glass of still swirling golden liquid.

-clink-

We both drank. It burnt like I had just swallowed a glass of molten iron and followed it up with a bucket of glass shards. A strange feeling of heat came over me, and I heard the sound similar to a kettle full of boiling water on open fire. So that’s how 70% hits, huh? After a coughing fit, I calmed down and managed to wheeze out:

“That burnt like a mother-cough-fucker” Garius smiled appeasingly, no reaction form the liquor he just drank, and poured another glass and drank. After a moment of thought I up-ended that glass too.

“So when am I expected to join?” I asked him while thinking about canceling the rent for my new apartment. Shame. It seemed nice. “And won’t anybody wonder where did I disappear for two years and what did I do in that time? My apartment is covered for only 3 months.”

“That’s two years in hell, that is. In earth time its closer to 2 months and a half. And nobody will think about that, after all you just moved in to a new city after leaving your family, as you had told me.”

“Really?” I think I do remember saying something like that, and quickly did the numbers in my head, and only had to repeat them twice thanks to the fine liquor I just poured in me. “ That’s like 10 to 1 dilation” Proud of myself for the effort I did I poured myself another glass of the addictive liquid. Leaning it back and putting the glass back on the table, I felt like the room was spinning circles around me, and I knew I was close to ending the night with lights out. One last question pestered though, and I had to satisfy my curiosity on that one before I went to sleep:

“What would you have done if I didn’t want to sign the contract?”

His face took on a kind expression, lips curling up slightly, and he looked deep at his hand, which held a glass filled with liquid amber.

“Well, I would’ve ripped out your soul and given it over to the brewers of Al’kalak. They are always happy to be given some ingredients for their specials.”

The room stopped spinning. My eyes wide open I looked at the bottle. Then at my empty glass. Then a closer look at the bottle. The swirling liquid seemed to stare at me. Oh god. That wasn’t a steaming kettle over an open fire I just heard. I paled quite a bit and fought down the waves of nausea overcoming me.

“Now how about the last one before the road?” His tone gained an amused edge to it, as he filled up my glass.

I looked at his smile, now seeing quite more teeth than should be able to fit in his mouth. Last one for the road yeah? Let it be so then. Sorry about that, whomever you are. I quickly mouthed my shout and swallowed it down. It tasted just a little more like screams this time, or maybe it was just my fading consciousness? The last thing I remember were the words:

“Oh, and before I forget. Basic knowledge of demonic sorcery just like the contract said, and I will even add the comprehension of our language as a welcoming gift.”

And then Garius leaning over the table and pressing his palm to my forehead. Then, burning pain came from the inside of my skull, like a branding iron was pressed directly to my brain, and finally…

Sweet Darkness.