Well Kyiriniae'aea thought as she finished picking up books and sliding them back onto the battered shelf, as far as deals with a demon went it could have been worse. While she could think of several ways to acquire the souls the demon wanted, there as a theological objection to be considered. Volduressë considered a fair trade to be weakness, even if it meant that her worshiper gained in power. Ergo her first concern had to be finding a way to turn the current situation to her advantage. That was harder than stealing babies from humans who, if her minions were to believed, had villages nearby. Such places were doubtlessly lousy with their mewling spawn who would provide appropriate tribute if it came to that. Still she had a month to work with.
This tower was the place where the demon had been summoned, so it stood to reason that it held knowledge that she might employ against it. She knew now to use the crystal before employing the gateway but she felt chastened enough that her first act was to begin searching the library for any information on the binding of demons, or the use of the arch.
Kyiriniae'aea felt her mouth go dry as the demon, awesome in its power, stepped through the portal. She had a queasy feeling that she had come within a hair's breadth of her own soul being sucked through the portal to feed the thing. For a heartbeat she considered fleeing, but it seemed unlikely that if the thing really wanted her that she was going to be able to fly far and fast enough to avoid that fate. Instead she threw herself to the ground in obeisance scrapping her knees and spreading her arms wide.
"A tool mighty Gekir'vash'ni'k'kashnik'ash, a pawn to aid in my designs," she informed the demon thing in her most reverential tone. She fought against the cold sweat the prickled the back of her neck, forcing herself to remain calm and think rationally. The demon thing was the most powerful entity she had yet encountered, but power did no always equate to guile.
"I have called you forth to seek knowledge which only you possess," she lied glibly.
"I have prepared a sacrifice for you, two gundarogs, my most faithful servants, stand at the base of this tower, teach me of your arts o great one, and they shall be but the first souls that I lay before you taloned feet," she entreated, warming to her subject as she remained unobliterated. Carefully she risked a glance up at the creature, resolving to blink for the window if it didn't appear that this were going well.
Kyiriniae'aea surveyed the tower with approval, there was much to do to make it a truly acceptable dwelling place, but her minds eye was already hard at work, picturing a fire, carpets and proper illumination. There would need to be some provision for defense of course, the presence of the gundarogs attested to that, but there would be time for that, and she had an inkling of how to go about it. First though she needed to take a thorough inventory of her newfound lair. What had happened to the previous occupant? It seemed unlikely given the disarray of the library that they would return. Well if they did she would deal with that as she always did. There was the human child to deal with as well which was irritating but necessary if she was to persist in this place, it represented to great an opportunity for her simply to kill the creature or let it be eaten.
It was unwise to leave her new found minions alone for too long, there was another task she needed them for before she dismissed them, but the lure of the strange and obviously magical items was too much to resist. She approached the archway first, given its prominence and possible function as a potential ingress to her new home. Circling it she ran her fingers over the stones, attempting to gain some sort of insight into its function, but merely physical interaction did not seem to be enough. Stretching out a thin finger she crouched down and touched the bottom of the arch, drawing the pad of the digit up the stone in a long rainbow like curve, following the arch and reaching out with her magical faculties...
Festive,
RoadkilBanana,
Eventua,
Sappho,
wanderingwolf,
Citrus,
Naril,
Tim the Yeti,
Guardian Angel Haruki,
LadyAnnaLee
