Karl woke to the sound of someone knocking on his door. "May I come in" came his mother's voice quietly from the hallway.
"Yes" Karl answered and checked the clock. Why was his mother up at 5 in the morning? "Hello darling" she started quietly as she closed the door behind herself.
"If you're going to be training as a warlock, you might as well get used to getting up at weird times." She commented as she sat down in his office chair. "I found Grandma's finger," she said, handing him a small purple bag, which was held closed by a leather cord.
Karl could not believe his own eyes, down in the bag there really was a bone finger. "Where had you put it?" Karl asked in astonishment. While sitting and studying the bone. "It was in the back of the cupboard with flour and sugar," she laughed.
It was ingenious, Karl realized, his father usually stays out of the kitchen, and if he went out there, it was only to have a beer. "Now slip up in the attic and have them stored in the box with the book." Whispered his mother as she slipped out into the hallway again.
"How do you think we get the cat paws?" Karl asked quietly as he came down the hall. "As I mentioned yesterday, I think there's an old cat in the neighborhood that no one would miss if it died." she replied as she helped bring the ladder to the attic down without making a sound.
"Meet me out in the garden in 10 minutes, and I'll show you how Dad taught me how to build a good trap," she whispered as she slid down the stairs to the living room.
Karl hurried up and laid the bone securely down along with the book and everything else that lay in this amazing box. he still could not believe it was real, but if his grandmother had really been able to read this and summon demons, then it must have been real.
Karl quietly slipped down the stairs and made a big deal of not stepping on the bad board. he found his mother out in the garden, standing surrounded by lots of strings and wood of all sizes. "Well you came so fast" she started, "shall we see and build ourselves a trap" she laughed and looked like a child in a candy store.
"You seem to enjoy this incredibly much," commented Karl. "Of course I do, honey," she started, waving at him. “I get to spend time with my son while I brush up on the techniques my father taught me for hunting and at the same time I help keep my mother's memory alive, by helping the next generation of warlocks come good from the start. ”
okay yes he could well see that, all the things she really wanted, pushed down into a single activity. "Thank you mom, you have no idea how much it means to me that you want to help me with this." he said as he walked the last few steps to her.
"The trap we are going to build is a modified fox trap," she started as she threw a pair of gloves at Karl. “Put them on. they will both protect your hands from splinters, but they will also do so that everything does not smell too much of human ”she explained as she started walking around between the parts that were to become a trap.
"The idea is to catch the cat without injuring it, but also in a way that it can not move more than is absolutely necessary." she commented as she began to check the tool.
"But enough about the purpose of the trap, come over here and I'll show you how to build your first trap." she finished, and Karl could feel his mother shifting, from her normal silly cozy mother, to a more serious woman, whom he had only experienced when she taught him the correct way to get a stain off the floor.
After about 3 hours of hard work and an interruption from Karl's father, who wanted to hear when they had planned breakfast, they finally had the trap ready.
It did not look like a trap such as it stood now. right now it just looked like string and boxes that Karl really could not see how to work. But his mother seemed to be sure it would probably work. "We can set it up when we've had breakfast, your dad will soon be grumpy if he does not for his breakfast" she laughed as she patted the dust off her clothes.
"What should we use as bait?" Karl asked as they walked up to the house again. “I think we have some half-aged meat lying in the fridge, which just needs to be thrown away anyway. It should probably work well as bait. ” she replied with a big smile.
The breakfast went quietly, without any major problems. until it was that Karl's father asked what they were doing out in the garden this morning.
“I just thought it was time I taught Karl everything my dad taught me about making traps, could you actually take and take him down to the shooting club on Saturday? then you can spend some time together as a father and son. ” interjected Karl's mother before any misunderstandings could occur.
His father looked at his mother strangely, "Do you think it's a good idea to teach him to use firearms and make traps?" he asked slowly.
"Yes, I think so, as far as I remember, you had aggression problems when you were little, until your father taught you the discipline it takes to use a gun?" she gave again hard while Karl just sat there and was about to lose his jaw.
Since when had his mother begun to take him so actively in defense. She had always done little to defend him, but never had she raised her voice to his father, and not at all made sarcastic remarks like now.
Karl's father just sat there a little with his mouth open. No words came out of his mouth for some time and it was clear to see that he did not expect that reaction.
Suddenly his face changed and he completely relaxed, in a way Karl had never seen before. "Well then it's with it on." started his father and rose calmly from the table.
Karl was ready to defend his mother, no matter if it was verbal or physical. "My wife just had to go out and start her old habits of making traps so that she could find her spine again." he said as he walked around the table, standing by his wife's seat.
"It's nice to see some of the woman I fell in love with beam through again, have missed her" he said as he leaned down after a kiss.
“Of course you're right, I'll take him with me and teach him that. It may be that he is as good at it as his old father was at his age. ” he said as he straightened up after a quick kiss.
"You can relax again now son, I'm not doing anything to your mother, but I'm glad you're ready to protect her" commented Karl's father as he nodded down at Karl's clenched fists.
Karl did not understand at all what had just happened, how could it be that his father suddenly became so nice? Karl could not remember when he had last been called son or praised for getting ready for battle.
"Now do not stand there and stare at such boys" laughed his father. "Just because I think you're a scumbag once in a while, I do not hate you," he explained.
"By the way, honey, now that you're finding the happy man I fell in love with, our son has something he should tell you," said Karl's mother happily. Karl sat for a while and could not figure out what she meant.
"What is it that is so important that your mother is almost completely out of it?" asked his father calmly as he sat down again. "I'm not sure…" Karl started.
"Nonsense, tell him what we really need the trap for." interjected his mother. "Are you sure it's a good idea mom?" Karl asked nervously. "Yes yes it should probably go just fine" she replied just as she smeared herself a piece of toast. Okay if she was so sure.
"We need to use the trap to catch the old cat walking around the neighborhood." started Karl, and he could see that his father could sense that there was more.
“What has the old cat done? Can you not just let it die in peace, do not think it has many years left ”his father asked quietly while he himself took a bite of his honey food. "Has it been in the roses again darling?" He asked as he reached for the coffee.
"Yes but that's not why we want to catch it, now come tell your father it all" urged Karl's mother. Okay the worst that could happen was that his dad would get a flip, it would not be the first time. "I must use its paws, for a ritual, to summon my first demon." Karl mumbled quickly.
Karl's father sat for a long time, staring into the air there. "You have to use it to .. to .. to .. to summon a demon… .." before Karl could find anything to say his father continued "of course! you have inherited your grandmother's ability have you not? ” he exclaimed, and actually sounded happy.
"Yes, I have" Karl replied and pulled away a little from his father, this morning just kept getting weirder and weirder. His father noticed how confused his son's facial expression was.
"I know you have abilities in the family, it was your grandmother who conjured a trip that made me get my current job, so I know what you can do, and I look forward to what you will be able to do." he explained as he got up again, and went over to his son to give him something he had not received for many years.
"Get up, boy," was the order, and in Karl's shock over the course of the day, he reacted immediately and got up so quickly that he was about to overturn the chair. That morning, Karl received his first hug from his father for almost 10 years.
"Thank you for waking your mother from her slumber, have really missed my confident stubborn wife" his father whispered in his ear.
"If you need something for your rituals or the like that we do not already have in the house, say so and we will get it." he said loudly and happily as he returned for his coffee.
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"Karl slip up and find the book, then we can see what we are missing from the list." commented his mother, and had a funny look in her eyes as she looked at his father.
"Yes okay I will probably" said Karl and went out towards the stairs. he reached halfway up the stairs when he heard the sound of clothes being ripped open and he praised himself happily for having taken that hint from his mother. "You can thank me later Dad" he mumbled a little embarrassed as he opened the door to the attic.
Karl quickly found the book, but decided to just sit down and start reading something more in it. After just over 2 hours, his father stuck his head out of the hatch opening.
"Dam, there's been a lot of space up here after you cleaned up." he commented as he came the last bit up the stairs. "Yes, it's unbelievable how much we messed up here" Karl replied.
His father sat down on the floor and looked around a bit while Karl just read on in the book. "We should get a table and some light up here for you," his father began, "maybe a shelf over there so you can have things standing so you don't have to dig in the box every time you need something." he continued, pointing to one of the straight walls. "You could have a nice shelf set up over there, and the table could stand under the window there," he continued.
"Sorry dad with what happened, but since when have you become so cooperative" Karl got out and could even hear him sounding accusatory. his father started laughing and just needed some time to recover before he could answer.
"You really should look to get yourself a girl, then you would know why I'm so cooperative," he said with a laugh.
"So, as long as mom lets you have something, then are you happy and we can be the family we should be?" here his father turned red in the head “yes” his father replied embarrassed and looked down while writing on the floor with his foot.
"Isn't it a little superficial" Karl asked and could hear the arrogance in his own voice, getting ready for his father to freak out, but again he was amazed at the reaction.
"Yes but it's really good and I love her very much, especially when she does it with her tu .." "stop! I have no need to hear about your sex life at all. ” Karl almost screamed. His dad just completely collapsed with laughter, "okay okay should probably keep my mouth shut, but I mean it get you a girl" got his dad out between laughs. “Come down and we'll look at what else we need to get for you to get your first demon.
The next 2 weeks went with planning and ingredient collection. Karl and his father had a lot of trouble finding a representative of innocence until Karl's mother found one of his old pacifiers, and then it was ready.
What more innocent than a child. his father had thought it was somewhat easier to obtain other things such as salt, sulfur and 1 liter of blood. The problem was just that Karl had managed to read up on the significance of the different ingredients, and had learned that the purer and the deeper meaning that lay in them the better effect it would have.
So the family had ended up taking a trip to the saltworks which was almost 100 km from their home, to get the cleanest and best crystallized slat they could get. The sulfur was obtained by his mother through a friend who worked in a laboratory. Blood has been the biggest problem of the three things. Karl had insisted on wanting to use human blood, so his father had to use some old debt to get it settled.
They had also succeeded in catching the old cat, and having kept it alive until evening when the ritual was planned. Karl had been allowed to use his newly acquired abilities with a gun, from when his father had taken him with him to the shooting club, to kill the cat shortly before midnight.
The attic had been equipped during the two weeks, with a bookcase, desk and lots of light in the ceiling. In the middle of the open floor space that had been left after Karl had cleaned up, he could be found in the process of recreating the strange symbols he found in the Shadow Book, as he had begun to call it.
The ritual was fairly simple to set up when having all the ingredients. The ritual consisted of a pentagram, with candles placed each time two lines crossed each other, and at the tips of the figure. Salt, blood, pacifier, sulfur and cat paw were placed in each their corner section. His grandmother's index finger was placed in the middle of it all, and everything was surrounded by lots of symbols, which once he had written them, they began to make sense to him.
The symbols told a story about how the first warlock found a hole in the barrier that kept the world of humans and the world of demons separate.
He had found this hole in the barrier while in the company of a virgin whom he had intended to deprive of her innocence. On him he had had salt and sulfur because he was a trader by inheritance from his parents. By chance, he has carried both his grandmother's bones, which he carried for good luck, in his bag, but also cat paws for safe travel through the country.
As the trader has stepped close to the barrier, a demon has spotted it and stepped through the gate. The merchant has given the virgin innocence, all he has in his bag and large quantities of his own blood in exchange for the powers that the demon could offer him. The demon has accepted the deal.
The demon was so fond of the gifts that he used his magic to bind the gifts so that they would lay the groundwork for how the first invocation should be made in the future.
Normally, it would be enough to use chalk to draw the pentagram and symbols, but for the first time ever, Karl felt motivated to go the extra step. He had read that in order to make his own staff, a warlock would have to let the material he wanted to make it dissolve in his blood so that the blood could seep in and make it a magical leader.
Karl had concluded that blood had magical properties in itself, and it was also a recurring element in the various rituals he had read about in the shadow book. Against that background, having subjected himself to torture, by drawing it all with his own blood, he has so many marks on his arms and legs that one would think he has been a cutter all his life.
The ritual was about to be ready and the full moon was almost at its highest, its light penetrating through the window and bathing everything in its strange light. Shadows became long and everything seemed unnatural.
Karl had also incorporated it into the plan so that it would be on the evening of the full moon that they performed the ritual.
Karl's parents stood by the bookshelf and constantly felt that they were being watched, but they were just as excited as he was. Karl had finally finished writing the last of the story. When an alarm he had set rang and warned him that there were only 5 minutes to midnight. “Are you ready” he asked and start to feel a tension in his stomach, it felt like just before he opened a gift or the feeling of the first snow of winter. his parents just nodded.
Karl checked the book for one last time before going over and sitting down in the middle of the ritual, picking up his grandmother's finger. then there was nothing to do but take a deep breath and start the invocation.
The book having said his voice would change if he did it right, so now there was nothing to do but say the magic words. When Karl started talking, it was as if it was not only him who was talking, it sounded as if all the earlier warlocks were talking through him.
I call out to the void.
I call to those who will listen to the call of a simple man.
I call to those who are more than I am.
I call out to the void.
I call and hope they will answer me.
A short pause was meant to follow the first verse of this invocation. and there were also some painful long seconds before voice was heard, deep and dark from nowhere and everywhere at once.
your calling has been heard young warlock.
your calling has awakened those who will listen to the simple man.
your calling has awakened those who are more than you.
your call has been heard young warlock.
your call is heard and they will answer you.
Another short break while Karl got ready for the next part.
I'm looking for a partner.
I'm looking for someone who will show me the way in the dark.
I am looking for someone who will help me with my abilities.
I am looking for someone who will share my life with me.
i am looking for someone to have my back to me.
I am looking for a companion through life.
Again this hesitation before the voice begin again.
look no further, we have a partner for you.
look no further, we have someone who will show you the way.
look no further, we have someone who will teach you.
look no further, we have someone who will share your life with you.
look no further, we have someone who wants your back for you.
look no further, we have a companion for you.
Suddenly it was as if the moon's light disappeared and everything became completely dark, with only the dim light from the candles to light up the room.
I bring gifts fraemd by my own blood
Karl's voice lost its double tone, on the last 3 words, but the strength of order did not disappear, and this was reflected in the Pentagon's reaction. it went from being almost invisible in the dark, to glowing red so that the figure became clear again.
we accept gifts given by our own blood with great joy.
When the voice said this a fire awoke in the blood and it burned clearly and distinctly.
I bring a symbol of the purest innocence of all.
Again the words Karl had changed, without the voice of his predecessors, but again the magic worked as the pacifier began to glow.
we accept the symbol of the purest innocence of all.
with those words the pacifier broke into flames and the candle, in that point, flared up unnaturally.
I bring the gold of the poor man.
we accept the poor man's gold.
The salt glowed and burned.
I bring the gunpowder of the poor man.
we accept the gunpowder of the poor man.
The sulfur lit up and burned.
I bring the symbol on safe journey.
we accept the symbol of safe travel.
also the cat paws lit up and broke into flames.
I pay the price for bridging our worlds with voluntary blood.
It was donating blood, so the person willingly gave it away, and renounced the right to it.
we gladly accept the payment with willingly given blood.
Here, too, the blood shone and went up in flames.
I bring the remains of my ancestors as a symbol of our eternal cooperation.
The bone Karl hold forth begin to shine.
we accept the symbol of our eternal cooperation.
suddenly the last 5 lights around Karl flared up violently and everyone present was blinded.
the void is happy for the gifts you have brought, good luck young warlock.
When Karl could see again, there was a figure in front of him, which he had a hard time describing, it most of all looked like black smoke or fog, but Karl could immediately feel what it really was.
"Good evening young warlock, you start your career off by breaking all records, never one succeeds in summoning a shadow demon as his first contact." it sounded from the black mass.