“It's 'cause of these. Got special access to their section of the library,” she gestured to the coffee table, over which all four of Barzai’s scrolls were rolled out. “There was another text noting that one could just find eidolons that would otherwise be exceedingly rare to obtain from a spirit-calling rite.”
It was a half-lie. She had, indeed, read that the results of most spirit-calling rites were unevenly distributed, with weaker eidolons of a given class being more common. It just so happened that by then, she had already decided to get her eidolons by diving directly into the Gulf.
Turning to the raven, she held out her hand. It was a strange thing, as she felt a place in her mind connected to it, and when she looked there, she saw a window through the raven’s eyes. Its vision was in a different aspect ratio, but it saw in full colour, largely unlike a real bird would see. Within Krahe and Casus, the bird spirit saw glowing flames, centered in the stomach and brain, and coursing throughout their bodies.
“Now what do I call you, huh?”
She considered a number of names; from one of the ravens of Odin, to the names of several nuclear scientists, to something as trite as Nevermore. Quickly, she decided to name the spirit in honour of the man who had facilitated her ability to capture it in the first place.
“...Barzai won’t mind if I borrow his name.”
The response she got was another bitcrushed sound clip, this time the instrumental opening to Red Sun in the Sky. It wasn’t funny, yet it caught her off-guard, and Krahe laughed.
“Alright, that’s enough. Get back in.”
And it did. As before, Barzai dove straight into her chest and disappeared in a burst of smoke.
“I have never seen a True Eidolon, yet I feel as though this one is aberrant somehow. It erupted from a great maw that split your chest down the middle.”
“It… Did, did it? Interesting. I didn’t realize until now.”
She furrowed her brow in focus.
“...Oh, yeah. I can feel it pushing right here when I try to call it out again,” she commented, offhandedly rubbing up and down her sternum. Moving on from that unsettling fact as if it weren’t anything to worry about, she looked around. The angle-web had burned out, leaving only ash and crusty residue. Her eyes went wide after she crossed and uncrossed her arms, and long threads of slimy residue were pulled between them. Instantly deciding that cleaning the floor was of a lower priority than this matter, she made her way into the bathroom. Casus, struck by curiosity, turned his own attention to Barzai’s writings, and found himself unable to parse anything past the halfway point of the first scroll. Moving onto “Occultic Practices of Ashametan”, he found himself quickly skimming over the fundamentals of occultism and theurgy, and moved onto the manners in which an eidolon might be called forth. It even included a tiering system for Eidolons, breaking up the greater system classes into a wide variety of sub-tiers. Amusingly, of the top three eidolon rating systems, the Reaper Standard and Atropal Standard were numbers two and three. The no. 1 was, of course, the Seven Spoke System’s own method of classification, though the book described it as imprecise, breaking each greater eidolon class into only three sub-tiers. In this same section, he learned of the diverse methods for achieving what Krahe had just done, and realized that, compared to the uncertain rod fishing of these rites, she had simply decided to do it herself.
Wet feet on tile. Frantic. Then, the noise was gone. Krahe’s astral form strode through the flat, into the kitchen. Rustling of paper. Water being poured. Then came the unmistakable sound of someone trying to swallow a Class-1 rejection suppressant all at once. A full minute later, she once more passed through the living room in astral form. Casus continued his reading, unperturbed.
Meanwhile, in the shower, Krahe took time to look inward.
[EIDOLONS]
[LESSER EIDOLON VAULT NO. 1]
[Astral Morphology:]
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Three-eyed Chthonian Eel
Developed through consumption of astral matter sloughed off from humanoid souls traversing Kenoma and residence within the Astral Brine Pool.
[Eidolon Status:]
Tier 1
Fully Nourished
Unbound
[LESSER EIDOLON VAULT NO. 2]
[Astral Morphology:]
Three-eyed Chthonian Eel
Developed through consumption of astral matter sloughed off from humanoid souls traversing Kenoma and residence within the Astral Brine Pool.
[Eidolon Status:]
Tier 1
Fully Nourished
Unbound
[TRUE EIDOLON VAULT NO. 1]
[Astral Morphology:]
Raven of Ruinous Eyes “Barzai”
Developed via retroactive cogniphagy of the host upon bonding.
[Morphological Archetype:]
Scout/Skirmisher
[Eidolon Status:]
Boon Symbiosis: Deathsmoke Blessing
When manifested in its natural form, this eidolon is difficult to notice for those not intended to notice it, and may appear as a mundane raven.
Boon Symbiosis: Phase of Earthen Jade
This eidolon benefits from the reinforcing properties of this boon.
Fully Nourished
Unbound
By all accounts, it couldn’t have been more of a success. Her Lesser Eidolons fell well into the highest tier of their class, though she couldn’t quite yet grasp how she might achieve the Demon Core or whether a True Eidolon could even be stretched that far. Perhaps one of her Lesser Eidolons might suffice for a smaller version of it, if they turned out powerful enough; after all, a Bloody Reaper demanded only a Tier 2 Lesser Eidolon to empower it. Who was to say that her Demon Core couldn’t be made to work with a Tier 1?
While she mulled these thoughts over, she meticulously scrubbed away the film of slime that had formed on her skin. It was among the listed side effects of the rite, supposedly “benign astral condensate”. Then, as she re-read Barzai’s listing, a new boon symbiosis appeared.
Boon Symbiosis: Chernobog’s Mystic Wisdom
This eidolon wishes to become a Daemon Core.
The second to last word continuously flickered back and forth between “Demon” and “Daemon”. It looked more like Daemon than Demon, so Daemon Core it was. It fit, Krahe supposed, if this spirit - this daemon, by any other name - was to fuel her magical atrocity.
When she looked into the place inside herself where Barzai made its nest, she found the raven-spirit gorging itself on… Something. She wasn’t sure what. Vague, smoky wisps floating in the void. It ate the last wisp, and turned the burning coals it had for eyes directly into her mind’s eye, staring at her from nowhere. Looking at the raven, and knowing its own wishes, she reconsidered her original concept for the Daemon Core thaumaturgy. At that instant, more wisps of smoky substance appeared around it, and it began its feast anew.
Not quite sure what was taking place, Krahe honed in on the fundamental concept of the Daemon Core and tried to fine-tune its specific elements, in particular the possibility of altering the instability of its core so that, if necessary, it could be enclosed only most of the way to direct its ruinous energies in a particular direction. Before she was even done showering, Barzai had already fallen asleep - at least, that’s what Krahe interpreted from the spirit losing all cohesion and reverting to a vaguely spherical ball of smoke.