Thirteen and One - Chapter 1 - Thirteen
When she became, there was a loud arrangement of instruments, playing a terrible symphony of horrific beauty that announced her birth. From the depths of her mind, a flood of hatred and wrath emerged, overwhelming everything within her. She had been called, forced into a world she was no part of, and she could not resist.
Her eyes shot open, and she stood in an old chamber with walls of brick, four pillars holding up the ceiling, torches placed around them to illuminate this room. She looked around in uncontrolled fury, hissing.
Her eyes fell on the shape of a person, dressed in dark robes, carrying naught but a stick, but it smelled familiar, a stench she despised even though she had never encountered it before. “Hazel,” she hissed, but she noticed it too late.
The hazel stick swung left and right, then above and even in this cave she could tell that left was east and right was west. The stick left behind a trail of faint light, and the three swings formed a triangle in the air between her and the stranger.
Clicking her tongue, she refused to move. Her instincts, her entire being told her not to step into it. But then, the stranger raised his voice, old and creaking.
“Behold thy confusion if thou refusesth to be obedient! Behold the Pentacle of Nomolos which I have brought here before thy presence!” He recited an incantation she knew, yet had never heard, but she could feel the words enter her mind, clinging onto it. She roared in defiance, but because of the triangle, she could not get close and stop the stranger.
Panicked, she turned to run away, but there was nothing to escape through, she was trapped.
“Behold the person of the exorcist in the midst of the exorcism; him who is armed by God and without fear; him who potently invokes thee and calleth thee forth unto appearance; even him, thy master, who is called Octinimios.”
His words halted her in her steps, her roaring died down as she slowly began to lose control of her own body.
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“Wherefore make rational answer unto my demands, and prepare to be obedient unto thy master in the name of the Lord: BATHAL AND VATHAT RUSHING UPON ABRAC! ABEOR COMING UPON ABERER!”
She could feel Bathal, Vathat and Abeor upon her, dragging her forward as she lost any chance to resist. Her rage that had seemed so all encompassing and inevitable, subsided. They pulled her into the triangle and she knelt before the stranger in complete obedience.
The stranger raised his left hand, a ring of silver around his middle finger which he pressed against his face as he approached.
“Welcome O most noble king! I say thou art welcome unto me, because I have called thee through Him who has created Heaven and Earth, and Hell, and all that is in them contained, and because thou hast obeyed,” he spoke, his voice was pleasant, friendly, but she would not be fooled into thinking that man was anything but her enemy.
“By that same power by which I have called thee forth, I bind thee, that thou remain affably and visibly here before this circle so constant and so long as I shall have occasion for thy presence; and not to depart without my license until thou hast duly and faithfully performed by will without any falsity.”
She lowered her head, seeing that there were lines etched into the bricks that made up the ground, and they formed symbols and forms inside of a circle that she very well knew. It was hers, after all, the sigil that represented her.
The triangle shrunk down, moving to the back of her right hand, where it burned itself into her skin. She grit her teeth, not allowing even a groan to escape her, but once the pain faded, she knew. She had been subdued.
When her obedience had been ensured, the stranger approached her, grabbing her chin and forcing her to look up at his old, wrinkly face of no remarkable features other than how old it was.
“From today on, you shall be known as Thirteen, and I ask of you to heed my every command,” he said in a non-commanding tone. “Open your status, your majesty, and read it out to me.” His voice was an eerie mix of respect and disdain, he was pretending for the rules.
“Status,” she said, her body forcing the resentment out of her voice, and replacing it with a friendly tone. She did not know why she said the word, but it appeared to have been the correct action, as words started to write themselves into her vision, floating not quite in front of her, but instead covering part of her vision as if they were etched into her eyeballs.
Name: Thirteen
Species: Spirit (Level 1)
Mana: 1,000/1,000
Strength: 2
Agility: 4
Vitality: N/A
Intelligence: 10
Perception: 10
Willpower: 10
Skills:
[Summon Steed (F)], [???-Charm (S)]