Jocasta sat up suddenly as she realized Beren was awake. Her hand unconsciously drifted to her stomach and she yanked them away guiltily. Once she had reached Iskura she had gone directly to the Mayor to deliver the letter. That worthy had been grateful for word from his southern counterpart, grateful enough to pay them, allow them to stay in his manor and to send for a physician.  The doctor, an unbelievably ancient man with thick horn rimmed glasses had examined Beren for nearly a half an hour, poking and prodding at him without finding any fault beyond ‘exhaustion’. Exhaustion he told her, could be easily cured with bed rest and a bland diet, and was beneath the notice of so esteemed a personage as himself. With Beren in bed Jocasta had retired to clean herself up. It was only then that she had found it. The glyph appeared like a tattoo circling her belly button and dropping down over both hips in a series of sinuous lines and arcane symbols. She hadn’t had time to decode it as yet, but its meaning was plain. She was bound to the demonic entity that she had accidently summoned. It had power over her and could reach into the world through her. It might even have its claws in her soul. The thought made her shiver. Nothing she had ever heard about bargains with demons ended with ‘and then she lived happily ever after.’ Perhaps if she had been brave like Beren, or smart enough to flee before the thing attacked, things might be different.

 

“We… we managed to get away,” Jocasta told him, somewhat unnecessarily.  “I was able to use the sarong to get us out of there, even though I admit it was a bit of a longshot.” None of that was technically untrue, though she felt a knot form in the pit of her stomach as she said it.

“Your wounds weren’t as bad as they seemed, I was able to use a healing charm to fix the worst of it, and the mayor was kind enough to provide us with a doctor, he gave you a potion which took care of the rest,” she told him. The potion had been a simple tonic and about as magical as a shovelful of dirt, but there seemed no reason to stress that at this juncture.

“He says you will be ok, so long as you rest,” she finished in a rush.