Once the coach pulled into the school grounds everyone got off, though a little groggily, and began to shuffle towards where the buses would pick them up. Keira was the last one to exit, and she only managed that because Iris was helping her down the steps. Whilst they were waiting for the next bus to take them back to their little village, Iris set her down on the floor and then sat next to her.
“Keira. Do you want to tell me whatever the fuck that was?”
"I-" Keira's voice came out hoarse and broken, as though she had been screaming for hours. She hadn't, it was only for a few minutes. But it felt like hours. "Don't know. There was something inhabiting the villagers there and… I did something.”
“That’s not a very good answer. Can you tell me more?”
“I can’t, I really can’t. I’m-“ Keira broke off into a coughing fit and Iris leaned back to rub her face.
“I’ll talk this through with Morgan, since he seems more able to talk. You… just get some rest, and figure out a way to properly explain this.” Keira nodded silently and settled her head down onto her knees, only pulling it back up again once she heard the noises of a vehicle pulling up close by. Then a sudden bolt of panic shot through her.
“What about the others? What did they see?” She felt her voice fade towards the end of her question and ended up coughing again.
"They were out for the whole thing and about ten minutes after, which is about when you dragged yourself to the meeting point. I don’t know how much they remember from the actual trip, as my memories are a bit fuzzy but I still have a vague idea of what happened." Keira grumbled something in response and then fell silent again. And after getting onto the bus, she felt sleep claim her once again.
The second time she woke up, she felt a slight more coherent, albeit that may have made things worse when the sudden onslaught of emotions from the past day hit her. Iris nudged her side and Keira realised that she hadn’t moved yet, so she stood up to get off of the bus. Bones cracked as they shifted and all of her muscles felt sore. A hand snaked under her armpit and Keira was surprised to find that Iris was currently supporting her weight. As soon as they got off the final bus Iris spoke to her.
"Do you need help walking back to your house?"
"No." Keira's voice cracked when she responded, and she recoiled at hearing it.
"Are you sure? It doesn't add much to my travel time." Keira nodded and began to walk back to her house, only pausing when Iris called out, "stay safe. I'm here if you need me."
She finally got home and unlocked the door. Fortunately both of her parents were at work so she didn't have to talk immediately. Her first order of business was to wash the awful taste out of her mouth. Which meant heading to the bathroom immediately, Keira didn’t even bother taking off the bag. She filled a glass with water, gurgled a portion of it and then spat it out into the porcelain sink. It came out grey. Resisting the urge to throw up again, she repeated the action a few more times before brushing her teeth viciously.
Finally having sorted that out she splashed her face with water and headed into the kitchen to eat some food that hopefully won't end up in the bin. And she needed to sort out the summoning for Gastele. It was time she got rid of Palotl.
As she headed into the kitchen, the lights flickered. Keira ignored it and put some bread in to toast and then began to fish around for some matches. She found a box and tucked them into her back pocket before the lights faltered again and she looked up to see a small azure light hovering in the garden. It flittered off to the side and out of sight. Sighing, Keira stopped the toaster and headed out the back door to follow it.
The light was waiting for her by the gate that lead into the woods behind the house. It was a little hard to see due to the fact that the sun was still out, but the mild shade provided by the trees helped it stand out enough. As the distance between them closed, the flame faded completely and left Keira to open the gate by herself. At least as far as she knew.
“I was wondering whether you’d noticed.” It was a familiar voice at that point, and as usual, came just out of view. Keira turned to face Gastele with a scowl on her face.
“Here I thought you prided yourself on subtlety.”
“Someone’s not in a good mood. Though I suppose it is understandable considering the presence that I can sense in your bag. And the one in your body.” At least Gastele sounded more amused than upset at Keira’s response.
“No, I’m not. So if we can get this summoning thing out of the way then I can get back to living my life.”
“Ah! So, you’ve come to a decision then!”
“As you have brought up before, you know what you’re doing more than me. So if you can put in appropriate safeguards then it would be best for you to do it. Even so, I still have my stipulations.”
“Understandable, but I think that you’d be more malleable once you hear that there is a way to use your original idea.”
“There is? I thought that you’d said we couldn’t because it needed a conscious mind to supress Palotl’s?”
“Ah, that is still something that needs to happen. Fortunately for you though, your most recent ordeal has left you in possession of some remains of its most ancient enemy. It wouldn’t take much to put both fragments into the body and watch them battle for dominance.”
“The orb?” Keira asked, putting her bag down and pulling it out of its resting place. Gastele clicked her fingers and nodded.
“Indeed. Now, if you could hand it over we could get the ritual underway and you can go back to living your boring life.” She made to give it to Gastele, then she paused, pulling her hand back a little.
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“You won’t keep this, will you?”
“Another stipulation? You are already in no position to make demands; this is already the most favourable situation for you.”
“From what you’ve said this strikes me as powerful, and I don’t trust you with anything like that.”
“Good, and you have my word that I will give it back. We really don’t need to drag this out any more.” Keira nodded and handed it over, letting settle in the palm of Gastele’s hand.
“I’m going to be present for the summoning, correct?”
“You do not need to, but it is something I don’t mind. Especially considering you were the one who originally made the deal.”
“Oh. So if anything goes wrong you can point it in my direction?” Gastele nodded with some enthusiasm and started to walk deeper into the woods. Keira wanted to ask why they couldn’t just do the mystical summoning ritual in her garden but decided against it.
Five minutes later she was in a strange clearing, sitting on a rock and staring down at the corpse of the otter, looking exactly as it used to weeks ago. Keira was very glad that she wasn't handling it as it was still smeared with black blood. There were some stones and more of the cursive writing that was on the box, but this time it was on paper that the body was resting atop.
"How much of this is for the safeguards? Or is this all ritual?"
"Not important. Now for the final ingredient. Will you transfer what is necessary for the ritual over to me so you may complete your end of the deal with Palotl?" She held out her hand for Keira to shake and hesitantly, Keira did so. As their hands touched, the mark on Keira's inner wrist changed. Some of the dark lines moved from her hand to Gastele's, like strings of smoke, while others started to rearrange themselves into a different pattern on Keira’s own wrist. Then Gastele pulled her hand back and inspected her new tattoo. Keira looked at the spot that the mark rested on her arm and was happy to see a black circle that was slowly fading.
“So, all that’s left is the ritual?” Keira asked. Gastele nodded and then crouched down so she could reach the corpse comfortably. Then she held her hand over it, palm facing downwards and began to mutter. The pattern that had only recently settled itself on her wrist moved again, the lines and circles dissolving into a single black stream of ink that dripped onto the pile. It followed the writing on the paper until it had covered all of them and then it started to soak into the paper itself. Stain expanding outwards from the writing until the paper could no longer take it, dissolving into a black sludge that started to flow into the corpse. Then as the body began to absorb the slush like a sponge, flesh expanding as it did so, it began to twitch, and the quartz that had surrounded it began to pulse with a faint light.
Then, with one robotic motion, its head moved up and looked directly at Keira. It still spoke into her mind, but it was more disconcerting now as she was looking at it physically. An image began to form, like a thin film overlaying the body giving the impression that someone had superimposed a prettier picture over the rotting corpse. The broken bones appeared to be smoothed down and black blood cleared, but the most obvious change were the eyes. There were now black beads surrounded by skin where before it was merely two sunken holes in the skull, though if Keira focused too hard on the body beneath the projection, she could still see the fractured body. Then it smiled at her. Or the image did, the figure beneath it remained static after the initial movement.
"Hello, friend. I must say this is quite unexpected. Or it might have been entirely expected. But the job is done."
"You're not mad about... this?"
"Anger is such a temporary emotion. Why bother when it will pass. I am here now. My ambition on a most basic level has been achieved. Every step forward is progress, no matter the size, and I have confidence that the remainder of this journey will be completed before irreparable damage is done.”
"All right..." Gastele was still crouched down by Palotl.
"Now that we've done that, I shall take you to someone more qualified to look after you." Palotl's head snapped to Gastele, rather the head of the body did. The picture that had been projecting onto it blurred as the corpse dragged the overlay after it.
"There is someone qualified to look after me? My, my. I would like to meet them."
"You already have, if I recall correctly." Palotl hummed in response. It was an oddly reflective sound, for the thing it was coming out of.
"There are a few things that may fill those criteria. Very well. You have peaked my curiosity."
"It was not intended to be a choice."
"Yet here we are. Do be careful parasitoid. No matter how much a leech drinks the blood of a human, it will never become one." Gastele's smile faltered slightly.
"Parasite. Parasitoid implies that I kill my host." A laugh echoed through Keira's mind.
"Of course. Though you must tell me, how did you get that body?" Gastele didn’t necessarily frown at the remark, but Keira could guess that she didn’t appreciate it. With a wave of Gastele’s hand, Palotl was gone.
“Now, let us finish off our business.” Gastele held out the hand that had kept the glass orb for the entirety of the ritual. Keira raised her hand to meet it and felt the cool weight of it drop back into the palm of her hand. It hadn’t been warmed, despite spending so much time in body heat.
“You haven’t disappeared yet. Is there something else we need to discuss?”
“There is, actually. What you hold in your hand is a mixture of great powers, and as such it is giving off quite the unique, and strong, signal. If you truly intend to keep a hold of it, I recommend something to dampen it.”
“Do you have something in mind?” Keira asked. Gastele titled her head as if in contemplation, but Keira felt like she had enough of a grasp on Gastele’s personality to know that she already knew what she was going to say.
“Of course. But it will cost you.”
“How about more information from my Grandfather’s journal? One of the first interesting entries had Nikolaus and Florian in it, as well as some woman named Liselotte.” If Keira had thought that the first two names had gotten a severe reaction out of Gastele, she was pleasantly surprised to see that the name Liselotte had gotten the strongest reaction yet. The woman’s smile widened into something truly vicious.
“While I normally wouldn’t trade information for objects, I am inclined to make an exception.” Keira took that as her cue to go into detail about a couple of the fewer journal entries, especially focusing on Liselotte. After she had divulged everything Gastele stood there with a genuine smile on her face and Keira couldn’t help but wonder if she had gotten played.
“So… about that storage method…”
“Ah, yes. I have recently acquired a box that hides the power that radiates off of certain objects. Though once you put something in it, it will no longer be accessible to you. Only I will be able to extract it. You may call me whenever, but I will not be at your beck and call. You can summon me to open it once, and that should be when you have found a more convenient storage option.”
“And how will I summon you?”
“Burn the box.” Keira blinked. Maybe she should have expected that as it was the same as the card, but it did bring a pattern to her attention.
“You have an odd fascination with burning things... and the way you lured me to you. It reminds me a lot of wanderer’s lanterns. Though there’s only one account of one being any degree of sentient.”
“Ah.” Gastele’s smile softened. “The Wanderer’s Flame. You are right in your thought process, those were true events. Though the reason that the writer’s loved one released those letters to the public was to persuade people that fae were real and needed to be treated seriously. This was roughly a hundred and fifty years ago, when the general view on things such as magic had suddenly shifted from accepted to disbelieving. As such, it didn’t take much to nudge a publisher and get the letters published as fiction. It was one of my more pettier moves, I’ll admit, but whenever I remember it I always get a smile on my face. Anyway, this does conclude our conversation. You have the means to summon me if you need to.” Keira opened her mouth to respond, but Gastele was gone before she could get any sound out. With a sigh, she went back to the house, intending to fall asleep and wake up in the next decade.