Slowly, the room brightened to manageable levels. Juliana flicked her flashlight off and went around reinforcing the walls where needed.
She actually spent some time on it while initially creating it. The dirt floor had been compressed and hardened to the point where it was more of a smooth stone than actual dirt. The walls received a similar treatment, though not to the same degree.
Convinced nothing was amiss, Juliana set to work.
“You know what they say,” Juliana mumbled to herself, “twenty-forth time is the charm.”
Drawing out the summoning circle every time was tedious. Annoying. A pain.
Mostly in her back. Being hunched over wasn’t the natural state of being for humans.
But if she wanted to continue looking through demons, she’d make sure to do it properly.
After the imp somehow escaped her shackles over summer, Juliana wasn’t going to take any chances. She still wasn’t sure if the demons that attacked Zoe had come from her summoning circle or not. Juliana didn’t summon them, but she didn’t know if they could have used her circle.
Juliana vowed to erase it completely after she finished. Just in case. Until she knew more about demons and especially about how summoning circles worked, she would take every precaution with the creatures.
It didn’t help that most of the ‘benign’ ones were anything but. Few of them could actually speak. Most tried to break out of the shackles the moment they were summoned. Juliana didn’t have time to try forming a contract before she had to banish them.
And she was going to banish them. Every time.
The author clearly did not know the meaning of benign. Juliana actually doubted her own memory and had to look up the definition just to be sure. Maybe the meaning changed over time, but she would never have labeled any of those demons as benign.
She wasn’t going to give up. Juliana knew plenty of demons. Plenty of perfectly fine demons that weren’t running around killing everyone. With demons attacking teachers to the point that they had to be hospitalized, she wasn’t going to rely only on her own powers.
Her ferrokinesis was top-notch. The rest of her earth magic didn’t fall far behind. Yet Zoe could beat her every time. Professor Lurcher likely could as well.
Both had been gravely injured.
Even Eva hadn’t done much to help, according to her story.
Juliana would stand no chance on her own.
That was why she couldn’t give up.
No. Finding a demon on the level of Arachne might be hard, but it was worth it. A protective companion that, most importantly, would not lock up at the sight of dead bodies.
After the zombies, the flesh golems–she still could barely remember what happened during that encounter–and the nun, Juliana had recognized a major issue with herself.
She could fight. She would fight. She wanted to fight. Not only to call herself a friend and peer to Eva, but to follow in her mother’s footsteps.
Juliana doubted she would get very far if the sight of blood was enough to send her to her knees.
Oddly enough, she didn’t have that issue with the skeletons in the necromancer’s crypt. Juliana thought long and hard on why and came to the conclusion that they were far enough removed from a human being that it didn’t ‘count’ in her mind.
Juliana shook her head. She was getting distracted by her thoughts. The summoning circle was almost complete and she did not want to mess it up.
She double, triple, and quadruple checked her drawing once finished. Especially the shackles.
Allowing what she planned to summon to escape would be unacceptable.
Not to mention deadly.
She didn’t want to jump into the deep end so soon–the deep end of her book–but she was out of time.
Juliana didn’t know how much attention Eva paid to the books in her possession. With Eva having eyes back, she’d have to stealthily return the book before she realized it was gone. Luckily for Juliana, Eva seemed fairly preoccupied over the last week and a half with cataloging and reading the books she stole from the necromancers.
That would buy enough time for today’s events at the very least.
Juliana flipped through the book. Past all the crossed out ‘benign’ demons and crossed out ‘easy-going’ demons. Straight to the back of the book.
She’d already read the entry. Memorized it, even. Preparations had been made. The enticement, a children’s doll, sat in a jar to her side along with a single candle. She wasn’t a pyrokinetic, but she would be able to light a candle.
Juliana ignited the wick and waited.
It was just a simple candle. Unscented and black. A decoration for Halloween.
The book made no mention of any specific types of wax apart from black. She might be in trouble if it needed something abstract. Like tallow. Juliana hadn’t the slightest idea where to even acquire a tallow candle.
While waiting for enough wax to melt, Juliana turned her attention to the doll. Porcelain dolls were far harder to come by than a black candle. She had wholly expected to have to order one.
That would have caused all kinds of attention that she did not want. Especially if Eva or Arachne got wind of it. They would probably realize why she needed a porcelain doll.
Then she found The Little Shoppe That Wasn’t There Yesterday. It actually was there yesterday. And the day before. Juliana had seen it several times on her excursions into town. It wasn’t in the market or entertainment areas meant for students, but it wasn’t well hidden either.
And she fully expected it to be there the next time she passed by as well. It was just the shop’s name, after all.
It did, however, live up to expectations. All the decor was black and gray, dust and cobwebs–cobwebs she was quite sure were fake–lined every product. And all the products were suitably creepy.
Including a suitably creepy doll section.
She picked out one of the old dolls and paid for it with cash.
It wore an elegant red dress with white frills at the seams. Blue and white bows had been tied around its upper arms with a larger one on its chest. Its necklace had a large, red gemstone that might have been an actual ruby for all Juliana knew. A bonnet that matched its dress covered the top of its black hair. A red rose made from glass was pinned to the bonnet.
Deep blue, glass eyes stared back at Juliana, almost begging not to be subjected to her intentions.
Juliana had spent far too much to give in to some lifeless doll’s wishes.
After coating her fingers with metal, Juliana carefully picked up the candle. She dribbled hot wax over each of the doll’s eyes. Only one eye managed to get fully covered with the melted wax at hand. She had to wait for more wax to melt for the other.
Soon enough, both eyes were completely hidden by the black wax. Streaks dripped down the doll’s cheeks in a facsimile of tears.
Juliana tried not to think that the doll was crying as she waited for the wax to completely cool.
It didn’t take long. Juliana spent the time running through reading the book again to ensure she hadn’t missed any details. By the time she finished, the wax was cool to the touch and thoroughly covered the doll’s eyes.
Juliana placed it in the center of the circle.
She took a deep breath as she moved out of the circle. Juliana almost started channeling magic into the circle for the summoning. A quick worry brought her up short.
One more check of everything.
There were no problems. Juliana looked through everything two more times and didn’t find a single thing wrong. The idea of summoning the only demon labeled as ‘extreme danger’ had her nerves all jittery.
Before another thought of hesitation entered her mind, Juliana started channeling her magic.
The summoning circle’s innards started spinning. It pooled and bubbled like a basin of water with a faint light source just beneath the surface.