They had spent decades designing this circle? Jillian found this hard to believe at first but, reminding herself just how old Crone and Renold had to be, a decade to them was likely little more than a year to her, if even that. She had no reason to doubt the circle’s effectiveness – even if it was, essentially, entirely untested and aimed at containing something akin to a deity – but she shared Gerald’s apprehension. What if the circle didn’t work as well as everyone hoped it would? If Hazzergash truly did possess Renold then it would take little more than a casual swipe of the arm to kill any one of them. A single, momentary lapse in the binding circle’s holding power and they were done for. The elder Green’s reassurances did little to ease the witch’s mind.

“A minute?” Jillian asked skeptically, “Am I to believe this is the best case scenario? What if he’s not as weak as we think he is? What if he’s not alone? He almost certainly isn’t. Each of us will have their hands full binding him to the circle and Gerald will deal with sealing him in the crystal prison. We don’t have any means to deal with interruptions.”

“And what do we do if things turn sour?” she continued, her voice betraying her irritation and worry as she paced back and forth, arms stemmed on her hips, “I didn’t sacrifice everything I’ve ever had just so I could die for nothing.”