Chapter 16

As they walked to the wizard’s tower Lilith began to ask “So do y'all want to strengthen the Magic Circle in a way so that it will last a long time?”

“That's exactly what I was thinking!” Celeste said. She was obviously not looking forward to spending an hour in front of Pencheska chanting magic runes while she flung verbal abuse at her.

“Lilith can you explain something to me?” If you are from a completely different world how do you know so much about ours? You seem almost totally at home here.”

“Well I have been practicing for 3 years.” Lilith said kinda matter-of-factly.

“Huh” they both said at the same time scrunching up their faces.

“I am pretty sure that someone from Faerun has been on Earth before and spent a lot of time there about 80 years in fact.”

“And he gave you some type of knowledge about our world?” Wendel asked while shaking his head.

“Well after a fashion, yes. You see, I think he was stuck on ‘Earth’ so long, that he got home sick and started writing books and stories about Faerun. He then turned these books into games with all sorts heroes villains and monsters. As time went on so much information was published that almost everything of your world from the gods to the monsters to the spells was recorded and published. Whoever this guy was he sure had an encyclopedia of knowledge stored in his brain. Anyways his name is Gygax or something like that and he died in 2008, that's 13 years ago now. Oh how long are your years?

“365 days” Celeste said quickly.

“Ok but how did you come to be in possession of so much of his knowledge?” Wendel asked as they walked past the guards and continued up the stairs to the second level of the tower.

“Well he was home sick so he turned it into a game and played it with his new friends on ‘Earth’. And eventually the game got really popular. And I played it for 3 years. Basically the more you know about the world the more fun the game is. And it is especially fun with friends. I mean who doesn’t like killing orcs or fighting dragons when it is just fiction played out on a chess board.” Lilith figured that they must have an equivalent to a chess board and hoped that the translation would work.

“So you play a game with your friends where you kill orcs for fun?…. Well no wonder you jumped right into it…. I didn’t question it at the time because I thought you were under my control. That's hilarious in fact.” He pondered laughing to himself a few times as he seemed to be trying to remember something else. Celeste walked into the tower first as the guards held the door open. She then led them up the stairs as the conversation continued.

“Ya I played in 6 campaigns over the past three years. I even had my character die a few times but we won every campaign.” Lilith confirmed her voice sounding otherworldly as it echoed in the curved stair case that ran just inside the outer wall of the tower.

“Well this is real Lilith, if you die here I don’t know what will happen but if Celeste or I die our souls will fly free until they are claimed by a god we are loyal to that finds us worthy of their home. Then we are given a permanent place in their part of Mt Celestia.” Wendel said with as serious a face as he could muster.

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“I wasn’t making light of dying and I have no plans of acting suicidal.”

“Well that's good to hear.” Wendel sat down on his favorite chair in the library and put his hand to his chin and tried to regain his chain of thought. “Oh yes you said you knew who the man was that visited from Faerun it was Gygax right?”

“Yes he is quite famous in the war gaming community” Lilith said as she sat on a foot stool.

“And you are quite sure he died 13 years ago”

Lilith nodded her head saying “He had a family, including two sons. I think they are continuing on helping write books for his business. Even the new ones are still fun to play.”

“Good, then at least we don’t have to worry about him teaming up with Maldeval or something.”

“Its about time we refresh the magic circle” Celeste reminded her teacher.

“Yes. Yes, lets see if we can use some kind of P…. ahhh .…Lilith magic to cast it instantly instead of taking you a whole hour.” Wendel suggests. Barely catching himself before he said the word pact. Celeste then got up and started to go down stairs and looking at Wendel and Lilith to see why they wern’t coming. “Where are you going my dear? Sit back down. Pact magic doesn’t have a range…. Damn it Fuck!” Lilith and Celeste both point fingers at him.

Celeste sat back down in her seat and looked at Lilith asking “I am ready you can start the spell.”

Lilith began to read the spell runes while holding a clenched fist in front of her chest. “Do Va Li Ma Pen Dek” [Pact Magic] Lilith’s voice sounded out clear and calm “What would you have me do mortal?”

Wendel’s eyes darted between the two of them as he is seriously doubting the situation since neither of them had made a pact before. He looked on like a nervous father watching his kids drive for the first time, at each other, head on, in the rain, at night. After some careful consideration Celeste said “I would like to extend the nearest spell circle for as long as possible using the spell energy I currently have.”

Wendel exhaled a deep breath and gave Lilith a look of approval. Lilith began speaking again “The pact is made! The spell shall be extended for 20 days, starting now.” Wendel’ eyes went wide as he saw Lilith extract a stream of blue energy from Celeste, roll it into a ball and push it into the weave. The hum of the spell energy faded and Celeste looked slightly tired and had a bit of sweat on her brow. Lilith looked perfectly calm as if it was the easiest thing in the world as the spell completed.

“Lilith what was that?” Wendel exclaimed.

“What I thought we did pretty good.” she said.

“Why didn’t you use any of your own energy for the spell?”

“Oh? I can do that? Ahh.. when should I have done that, at what part?” she asked with an uncomfortable look on her face.

“It is a negotiation. So after the mortal makes their statement you can make a counter offer or modification.” Wendel said while wagging a finger at Lilith.

“You know, ‘Master Wendel’ you could have told us that ahead of time.” Lilith gave Wendel a sassy look which is pretty much her normal look just with more glowing red energy in her eyes. “Do you want me to go again?…. I think Celeste is spent though so it might be up to you.”

“Fine Fine” he said sitting up properly and putting down his log book.

Lilith performed the spell again but this time she didn’t say the word pact. Instead, she used the word contract. Wendel offered 10% of his magical energy and Lilith offered 50% of her pact energy. In her vision she could see the results even before the spell was cast. It was like a preview of things to come. Just as she expected, the spell circle was extended by an additional 50 days as she pushed more energy into the weave, this time most of it was her own. After they were done the three of them went down stairs to look at the results. What they found was a perfectly normal spell circle with a sleeping succubus inside of it next to another pile of poop.

“Well isn’t she the gift that keeps on giving.” Lilith said as she pointed at the brown pile.

“Oh not again!” Celeste complained before she begrudgingly walked to the wall and pulled a pole off of a hook that had a curved piece at the end. Lilith marveled how it looked so similar to the poles they used to clean tiger cages at big cat rescue in Tampa Florida. After the work was done Celeste cast [prestidigitation] on the surface of the magic circle and then pretended to dust her hands off while looking at Wendel for approval.

“Well that's probably the last time you will have to deal with her for the next two months.” Wendel said. It wasn’t praise but Celeste seemed happy at the news none the less. Pencheska still hadn’t woken from her slumber, she lay in the circle with one wing and one stump facing Lilith and for a second Lilith almost felt sorry for her.

“Is there anything else you want to try tonight Master Wendel?” Lilith asked as she stared at Pencheska’s bare back and shapely curves. Her thoughts wandering as she considered the same fantasy almost every D&D player had at some point. ‘What would it be like to spend a night of passion and danger with a Succubus?’ But her thoughts quickly went beyond that to thoughts of the fun things she was going to do to herself when she was alone in her room as a smile drew across her red lips.

“No I don’t but……” Wendel noticed Lilith’s intense gaze at the succubus and his mind wondered what could make her stare at her so intensely. His mind then went in a completely different direction from Lilith’s. Instead of lust, he thought about all the dead towns people and the unknown fate of the duchess and something else something very personal. As he stood there thinking a tear fell down his face and some small piece of him gave way. His face began to twist into a snarl as he considered the power at their disposal and how they could inflict more pain on this succubus than she could ever imagine. They could make her pay with her own blood. With an intense look in his eyes Wendel stepped closer to the magic circle and sneered. “Hey Lilith, what kind of curses do you think we can put on this murderous bitch?”