The thing about demons is that you shouldn't consort with demons! There's a reason that it's common knowledge not to do that. Demons will hurt you. Not that they'll claw you or bite you. They might do that, but that sort of thing is the easiest to guard against. No it's that demons are beings that aren't right with the world. That's the core of Malfeas and Adorjan and all the way down through circles and circles of existence down to the smallest little imp. These are beings that don't want this world, this version of creation to exist as it is. The old and lost lords lamenting all the cracks and flaws they see in the sculpture. If you stay with them long enough, let them have their way with things in word and deed, they'll try to chip at the statue. Make a few alterations to bring it closer in line with what they want. Maybe put in some new cracks because really the whole thing ought to come down so they can start from scratch. 

And the thing about demons, to keep this statue metaphor going, is that they'll keep at it like a chisel against reality. Sure, you can defend against that. You can build sturdy and strong, you can put up guards and wards, barriers and protections and all sorts of rules to keep yourself safe. And that works to a point. But we're talking about a chisel against reality. You always have to be asking, is your barrier set up to handle one strike? Ten? Fifty? Five hundred thousand? Is it set up to handle every different sort of strike from every angle, every speed and force and variation in movement?

In a lot of ways, Giriel wasn't worried about Peregrine. She was a genius. The sort of person who really did think of everything and took the right precautions. And if you were going to be a proper witch, you had to take these risks. You couldn't just write off demons and say "well, that's a bad plan, guess I'll never deal with them" because other people were going to do it and you needed to know how to handle them. Sometimes there was even something worse happening and you needed the power and the risk to get the job done. Not often, not [i]nearly[/i] as often as people seemed to think, but sometimes. So, in most ways Peregrine was well within bounds, highly skilled, entirely reliable. But in one very important way, Giriel was incredibly worried and had been for a while now: hubris. Peregrine was always pushing, testing new theories and ideas and plans. It only took one mistake for big problems when it came to demons and so Giriel always approached this sort of thing with trepidation.

Also, there was the fact that demons weren't dogs despite how some people treated them. They were thinking, sapient beings, especially some of the higher circle ones, who were smarter than the vast majority of people. If you pulled one of those into your service, even if you did it perfectly, they would pay attention the whole time. Your deeds might become rumors in hell, you might become a [i]subject of interest[/i] to hell. That was, as one might expect, a very bad thing to have happen. 

And yet! Peregrine could not be stopped, Uusha could not be convinced, and there was a real problem out there that had led Giriel to bring this all up at all. So what other choice was there? The only choice, the only option for a proper witch was to lean into it, to make sure the ritual went off as well as could be, to understand that it was Malfeas, to know the shape of its powers, and so to call on its demons with power and authority. 

So Giriel joined Peregrine in the work. She drew the proper circles and the binding runes and checked them over, and checked Peregrine's and asked Peregrine to check hers. She tuned her flute and checked her sound. However, the key to the actual sorcery, despite what most dabblers thought, was not complex runes or having just the right sort of instrument. It was focus and will. Sorcery, the binding of demons especially, was an act of will. The ritual created the right signs and symbols to tell the universe what you were doing, and it got you the demon you wanted. A good flute made sure that the demon could hear what you were doing much more clearly than if you had to work with an improvised reed and that was important! But more important by far was that the effort focused the caster's will. 

When it came time, Giriel played her flute in tandem with Peregrine's, and the two sounds coalesced through the cave where they had set up the summoning and echoed deep beyond the mountain. 

And yet, despite all the preparation, the care, and the timing, it seemed that something had gone awry.
[Giriel offers a string to a demon of Malfeas and rolls to commune. 1+3+2=6. A miss and an experience.]