As most of the Magician’s crew ran for the exit, Miles stayed right at the front of the pack, intent on getting out while the getting was good. The plan had gone to pieces, the Demon had somehow escaped a Sealed cuff, and on top of that seemed to be able to use Incants...at least if he got out of the second one too, which didn’t seem likely to be a problem. It was time to retreat and regroup and maybe get some cosmetic surgery and move to an underdev-
The Sorcerer’s panicked train of thought was interrupted as he was twisted around by a strong grip at his elbow, then rocked sideways by a full-armed slap to the face. He staggered to a halt.
“Shit, Maris! Ow!”
“Where the h-shit are you going?!” his assistant yelled, rubbing her reddened hand against her hip while she held his elbow tightly with the other. The others in the rescue party crowded around them hesitantly.
“Everything’s fucked, we have to get out! It’s not our kind of Demon, Maris, the Seal isn’t working entirely right, and he can use Incants!” Maris blinked rapidly at this, her mouth hanging open for a moment, but shook her head.
“So you’re just going to leave him, like I left Mari? We haven’t even found her yet-” only at that moment she was interrupted by a scream, faint in the commotion, but somehow so disturbing in its timbre that made the Mystics’ bones ache.
“Jesus! That’s Marisol! I found her! Maris, I need you, I can’t get through!” came a louder yell from Laurel, in the distance off in the same direction. Maris held Miles’ elbow for one more moment, leaning close.
“Do something decent for someone else for once, Miles, or so help me if I don’t get out of this and get dragged to Hell, I swear by my own True Name I will find you and I will hurt you.” The Sorcerer’s eyes widened even further.
“That’s...what would I...how can I do something selfless now if you’re fucking coercing me?!”
“Oh, God...so not the point,” Maris said with vast weariness, elbowed Miles in the kidney, then raced off towards Laurel.
Miles stood frozen with indecision for a moment, but faced with two mutually undesirable choices, the inner strength that made a Mystic was suddenly free to reassert itself. A Sorcerer shapes reality to his own ends, and when life hands you lemons, you Transfigure them into whatever fruit you’d darn well prefer. Not that he could Transfigure anything witho-
“Without Incants. Which the Demon tried to use, which even though the Seal had stopped him for the moment means that Incants work here.” Suddenly the way the Sideshow’s entrance magically jumped all over a seemingly magic-bereft world made a great deal more sense, and Miles continued to think aloud. “...it wasn’t somehow, in the absence of active magic, repeatedly forging portals between two locations in the world, which implies insane amounts of personal power. Instead, it was...what...simply moving a single tenuous connection between one world and another, much more portable one…but you’d still need an internal power source for that, and even if he can use Incants, I can’t believe a single Demon has that much…”
“Would these help?” asked Hitomi suddenly, holding up a sheaf of half-rolled papers, some modern, some quite old. “They were in the carnie’s safe, and they looked important.” Miles snatched them out of her hands and began pouring over them. Robyn looked at Hitomi strangely.
“You’re a safecracker, now, too?” She asked the tiny assistant, surprised. Hitomi smiled grimly.
“Robyn, if I can unlock one of them from the inside, in pitch darkness-”
“How hard can it be the ‘normal’ way, right?” Robyn giggled, the sound edged slightly with hysteria.
“It’s a little harder. It’s tougher to hear the tumblers, there’s more distractions...but it was an old safe, and I managed it.”
“Contracts,” breathed Miles, ignoring the two. “Full-on soul-binding, in-perpetuity...in Sumerian, no less. Shit, shit, shit...he’s got dozens here. That’s how this place is sustained...”
“I sold my soul?!” Cassie yelped.
“Well, you leased it…” said Miles, awkwardly, “but there’s no way this holds up as valid, you can’t even read Sumerian, can you? And all you did was sign your name?” The shivering girl, still barely clothed in loose bandages, shook her head, then nodded at his questions in turn.
“Ok, he’s cheated, but he had to leave himself vulnerable to do it. He thought he’d never run into anyone who could read these, so we have a shot...here’s what we’re going to do…”
---
Robyn crouched at the end of the corridor with Amanda and Cassie. Miles had wanted everyone non-essential to stay back, but Hitomi refused, reasoning she could help the Magician- or at least pull him to safety. Watching the two mystics and the slight assistant advance towards the melee, the redhead wondered if Hitomi would really even have a chance to help.
The stage was in ruins. Boards stuck up where holes had been punched into the floor. The chairs around it looked like they had been blasted backwards by an explosion. The magical suction pump was just shards of glass, and the heavy sarcophagus was sticking, horizontally, through the cheap backdrop and the wall behind. The Magician himself was resting in the middle of the stage, on one knee, supporting himself with a piece of board, the nails on the end bent. She winced as she saw blood drip down the side of his face.
Facing the performer, at the edge of the stage, was something Robyn refused to believe had once looked human. It looked almost half-again as tall as the Magician, and its body was swollen to grotesque proportions. Skin bulged and pulsed beneath ripped clothing. Black slashes covered what she could see of its back and limbs; thin wisps of smoke seemed to stream out of them, rising to cling to its body.
The Magician looked up, raised his right arm to wipe the blood away from his eyes. Some of the remaining stage light glinted off the silver handcuff around his wrist.
“Oh, shit! It’s unsealed!” Miles cried. He raised both arms, and started chanting. Hitomi crouched low and dashed off to the right behind the chairs as Rana turned, startled, then started chanting as well.
The Demon turned its torso completely around without even moving its legs, a loud crunching sound coming from its body.
“What kind of mystics are you?” it laughed, the voice rumbling out without bothering to use anything as delicate as vocal cords. “Idiots. You can’t bind a Demon within flesh. Gelāte!”
Miles and Rana staggered backwards, then stood still, unmoving, arms frozen in the air. The Demon’s laughter sounded like retching, screaming, nails on a chalk board.
It was interrupted by the Magician smashing the board into its head. The black smoke poured out of the gashes left by the nails.
It spun again, a swollen arm stretching out and slamming into the Magician with a sickening crunch, sending him sprawling onto the floor. “Well, I must say this has been fun. I hope I didn’t hurt you too much,” the Demon snarled. “It would be a shame if you died as soon as I possessed you.” Thick smoke poured out of its mouth like a tentacle, streaming toward the Magician, wrapping around his head.
Robyn knew then what she needed to do. She rose, and felt Amy’s hands grab onto her arm as she started forwards.
“What are you doing?!” the girl cried. “It’ll kill you!”
Robyn pulled free as she yelled, “Amy- you have to help Cass do what Miles told her-”
“What are you doing?!”
“Exorcising it!”
“Exor- what?! You’re ordained?!”
“No!” Robyn yelled as she charged onwards, “I’m Lutheran!”
Before Robyn could even push her way past the two mystics, Hitomi dashed towards the Demon from stage right. The small assistant grasped the Demon’s arm with both hands and used her momentum to spin around its body, landing her heels on the back of its knees. Taken by surprise, it crumpled and twisted, the already tortured flesh around its torso ripping. The corpse’s spine and internal organs having been pulped by the Demon’s prior exertions, its top half fell off completely, the black smoke pouring out and dissipating as Robyn kept going.
Hitomi threw the torso off the stage and dove to the Magician’s side, wrapping herself around him protectively. Robyn watched in horror as his left arm shot up, his index and middle fingers digging under her chin and lifting her by her jawbone. He pushed his thumb between her teeth as she gagged, and twisted, snapping her jaw in pieces. He gave a single, inhumanly strong jerk, and her jawbone tore through her skin, bright red blood spraying across the stage.
Robyn ran faster.
“Too late, little one,” the Demon said to Hitomi, its voice grinding like slate sliding together as it shook the petite assistant, then threw her effortlessly aside. “I’m already here! I’ve almost got his soul!”
Robyn slammed into the Magician, both her hands striking him full in the chest. She fell onto him as he toppled backwards, but didn’t lose contact with her palms.
“We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth- of all that is- seen, and unseen!” she shouted. She felt the words, long since rote, take on a new meaning in these strange circumstances. “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,” she continued, and physically felt her belief filling her body. “Eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light-”
She felt her Belief, now a raw force, flow down her arms and into the Magician. His arms jerked, weakly. The silver handcuffs on his wrist, inscribed with the Seal of Solomon, clattered against the floor, and glowed brighter and brighter as Robyn finished the Creed, drew a full breath, and continued straight into her next prayer- “Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name-”
---
Color seeped into the grey, frozen world that filled Miles’ field of vision, followed quickly by the roar of sound. He felt his muscles loosen, and he instinctively turned his face away- the light was blinding, and the sound- it was Robyn’s voice, not meek as he’d remembered it, but full of power. Somehow, she was reciting an Incantation- but the words were in English? He forced himself to squint and focus on the stage. Above the blinding light emanating from the Magician’s body he could barely make out a cloud of blackness, pulsing and trying to lash out violently as a halo of light kept forcing it back into a sphere. Not looking away, he reached to his side until his wrist hit Rana’s arm. He grasped her hand, and spoke in ancient Egyptian- “Rana, now! It is not within the vessel!”
Together, the two mystics began the Rite of Binding again, as Robyn finished speaking the bible verse, and shifted her hands under the Magician’s shoulders, to lift him up and drag him away towards where Hitomi lay, bleeding.
---
Cassie.
She is watching a movie, in a dark room, on a large screen.
Cassie, the voice repeats from the surround speakers. Cassandra. Kill the mystics.
The focus on screen shifts, turning to the backs of two people, a man and a woman, standing and chanting. She watches the crappy, lurching cinematography as the camera moves closer to them.
Kill the mystics, the deep, cliched voice intones, and if anyone tries to stop you, kill yourself.
Someone is shouting from another room. She frowns. Don’t they know she’s watching a movie? Not enjoying it, no, just watching.
“Cassie!”
Was that Amy? Who is Amy? No. That was just words. Just words? Distracting words.
As the camera gets closer to the unsuspecting duo, something else starts happening on screen. An arm rises up, a left arm, its hand and fingers twisting into an outstretched grasp, the iron grip of a zombie, ready to snap the man’s neck. A right arm rises towards the woman, a piece of paper still loosely held between the fingers of its hand. That is really weird. She watches as the paper starts slipping from its grasp. She tries to remember the plot up til now- there is something important here. No, it’s nothing, nothing important, because she can’t remember.
“Cassandra Marie Anderson!” the voice calls from the other room, mumbling.
That has meaning, too. Does it? What was it about those words? So familiar. She repeats the words under her breath. “Cassandra Marie Anderson…”
Cassie snapped back into herself. The contract! “I am Cassandra Marie Anderson!” she repeated, feeling herself grow stronger as she spoke her name. “I am Cassandra Marie Anderson,” she continued, remembering the words the tall man with green eyes had spoken. “And I contest your contract, G’rsh Dalkhu’Du Suhu Titi!” She suddenly felt the full attention of a familiar presence, a terrible presence, surrounding her, threatening to overwhelm her with fear and despair and pain. She continued, stammering to just get the words out before she lost her nerve. “I... contest your contract. I- I- you never told me it. I- I can’t even read it,” she tried to remember it all- she hoped she was close enough. She squeaked- “I hereby declare it void!”
The paper in her hands burst into flames, consuming itself in the same instant that the presence departed from around her. She fell to her hands and knees on the dirt floor, panting.
“Fuck you, monster,” she whispered, starting to smile. “Fuck you!” she repeated, her voice growing stronger. “Finally! Fuck you! You have no fucking power over me!”
---
Miles allowed himself to relax a little. He and Rana had finally established the circle of binding, and she could maintain it with her concentration. Cass had broken her contract, so Miles didn’t have to worry about a demonic thrall strangling him from behind. Marisol, if she was still alive, probably wasn’t a thrall, or they both would have attacked at once.
Now he had time to think- and he needed to, because his plans were a bit more sketchy beyond this point. He didn’t know how he could kill a demon without a solid form. And he had no idea how much the magic here differed from how he was used to. But at least this demon seemed as loquacious and arrogant as some of the others he’d dealt with before, and that, he might be able to use. “G’rsh. Let’s talk.”
The black, hazy form inside the circle swirled and spoke. “What, mystic? You can’t really imagine you’ve won?”
“I know your True Name,” Miles hazarded.
“I can’t see how you’ll use it. You can’t compel me to destroy myself, and I have no contracts with you.”
“Oh, yes, the contracts. Your source of power?” Miles pulled the thick roll of papers out from behind his belt, and heard the demon growl. Bingo. “I could summon up the signatories,” he lied. “Void the contracts on their behalf.”
“You’re bluffing. You know your fake magician and his little helper will die from their injuries before you can do that.”
“I could just burn them. I can’t imagine you’ll get nearly as much power from ashes as from signed parchment.” He heard the faint hint of another growl. He pulled a lighter from his pocket, struck the flint, and held it under the papers. Definitely a growl there.
“Go ahead. I’ll draft more contracts.”
Miles wondered just how much the demon relied on the talents of whoever it possessed; as old as it was, it was a horrible liar- he was now pretty sure that it got quite a bit of power from those contracts.
“I could always set our exorcist on you again. I bet that would hurt.” He wasn’t sure how Robyn would manage against an evil cloud, but hoped G’rsh didn’t know that. “Have her cast you out of this place entirely.”
He must have been close to the mark- the demon tried to switch topics. “They’re dying as you delay, you know. I can wait longer than you can.”
It had a point. Rana couldn’t keep up the circle forever, and Hitomi and the Magician were dying; Marisol might even be dead already. He needed more time to think, time to regroup, time to test his hunches, time to run… Or to make it run. Maybe there was a way out even if he was wrong.
“Alright G’rsh. I’ll offer you a deal. Leave here. Never let me see you again.”
“And what do I get?”
“Nothing.” Miles held the flame closer to the contracts. “You seem to think you have the power here.”
“I’ll kill you as soon as the circle drops,” it growled. “Unless you want… a contract.”
“Never!” Miles spat, angrily. Then in Egyptian- “Rana, make preparations to break the circle.” He took a deep breath, and prayed that his hunches were correct.
“G’rsh Dalkhu’Du Suhu Titi, I compel you to leave this world immediately and never return!”
Rana dropped the circle. Miles dove on top of her, pushing them both to the side so the demon couldn’t maul them as it raced past, laughing.
“Fool! Fool! Didn’t you know? This is my world. I’ll be waiting for you in yours… just outside the door.” It rushed down the hallway, smashing through the back door of the sideshow, and hovered, swirling and obscene, laughing, just past the threshold.
Miles held back a curse, and watched. And noticed. Around the edges, the oily demon’s smoke was starting to get hazy, drift away, as if being gently pulled in every direction. “How many places of worship are around here, I wonder…” he mused.
Behind him, he heard Robyn’s shy voice. “Close to fifty temples, mosques, and churches in the Mission District and surrounding areas.” Miles turned to look at her. “The boss had me check.” She had torn her shirt off, and was pressing it against Hitomi’s lower jaw. It was completely soaked in blood, and a growing puddle seeped across the floor. The Magician, still unconscious, had been propped on his side. “She’s breathing, but losing a lot of blood. I need help- this is past my first aid training.”
A slowly rising growl made him look back to the threshold. He could definitely see it now- dozens of thin tendrils of power being pulled away from the demon. The thickest snaked to a building just across the street, with a Star of David on the window, glowing faintly.
Fifty holy places just here alone- hundreds more in the city beyond; each of them, like Robyn’s words of exorcism, designed and honed to draw out and trap, and slowly destroy demonic power.
A bright glowing made him look down. The letters on the contracts were shining orange and yellow as G’rsh, the demon, started howling, scrambling, drawing power from every resource it had left in a desperate attempt just to hold itself together.
No wonder this place was magically dead! Every last bit of free mystical energy must have been drawn away by those symbols! Miles wondered what must have happened to this world to make such a monumental effort necessary.
The demon’s shrieking grew higher until it past his threshold of hearing. He watched as the last bit of its body was shredded and torn apart in fifty different directions. There was a thump and blast of warmth as the papers in his hand burst into flames, consuming themselves instantly, voided by the utter destruction of their drafter.
“Careful…” the barely conscious Magician muttered from where he lay. “Flash paper… dangerous…”
“Don’t worry,” Miles smiled. “This time I’ve got it under control…”
The symbols didn’t seem to have drawn any power, by themselves, from this side of the threshold. He hoped he had enough power left for a healing incant or two.
---
Rana lay on the floor, the room seeming to spin around her. Inside, she felt constricted- no, compressed, as if something inside her was straining against her. She shut her eyes.
Rana, calm down. You are a Priestess. Remember your training. Meditate. She realized she was thinking in English. She switched back to Egyptian, reciting a prayer for calming.
With calm came remembrance. The Demon is gone. Your soul is safe… No. Your Soul was never in danger. You are a priestess, and they learn secret protections, training until they become instinctive… You- you are a Sorcerer... And Sorcerers use an even older language… Remember? Yes, you are safe now, so remember...
When she switched her thoughts to The Tongue, the answer was clear. She reached within herself and unlocked the Seal, felt the power flood out, explode through her body and beyond.
She opened her eyes. Then, for the first time since before the Demon had awakened her, she opened her Eye, and Looked around her.
The other beings were all around her, frozen in time, their bodies, like hers, visible as tightly wound silver thread, woven like the bandages used to protect the body while the parts of their soul journeyed through the Underworld. She quickly examined them; first Hitomi and the Magician- their threads were tangled, pulled, strained, but as of yet unbroken. Miles- the threads on his hands were unwound, and she could see the sorcerer’s golden light flowing out from within to suffuse the two wounded, slowly reweaving the patterns in their souls’ threads. They would be fine.
She turned briefly to Robyn, delighted at the patterns woven in her soul. She could examine those later, though, maybe. She still had the others to attend to.
She moved to where Maris and Laurel stood, trying to force through the red threads binding the door. It would be simple enough to unravel those threads, but something was not as it was supposed to be- those threads shouldn’t have even been there anymore… unless...
Rana looked past the walls at the enormous black dust cloud floating within, then passed through to stand beside it. A lesser demon. It swirled, nearly powerful enough to be able to pass into this timeless place. So the spell was its. It was too dangerous to let them through, but she was the granddaughter of a god.
Rana briefly returned to the world of time, and traced her own golden threads into the symbol for the Flames of Ra, then uttered the words to fix the symbol into being. It glowed with the light of the sun itself for an instant, then she cupped her hands around it and blew, directing it as it consumed itself, the plasma scattering and burning away the demon like dust before a strong breeze.
As it disintegrated, she spotted the silver threads within, and, startled, quickly returned to timelessness.
Yes, three tangles. Still not too far apart. She searched for the ends, and clasped them together in her hands. Rana let herself shift partially into time again, so she could work the Ritual of Osiris at her leisure.
Beneath her fingers, the ends glowed and fused, restoring the silver thread to a single, endless loop. She unclasped her fists, and began to carefully weave it, as, behind her, the red threads broke and faded, their creator destroyed.
Rana tickled the Ba within one tangle. “Hello there. Show me what you look like.” The little piece of soul began to giggle in a way Rana had recently become familiar with, and began helping her, directing her to reweave the mostly complete patterns in the thread, pulling the other tangles closer.
Behind her, at seemingly glacial speed, the two beings who were Maris and Laurel began to push open the door. She ignored them, and located the Ib in the largest tangle. She cupped it gently in her hand, and squeezed, and felt it begin to pulse.
Behind the tangles, already taking shape into a head and body, the Sheut slid quietly into place. It waved, and she used the reflection of the pattern to re-weave the last tangle, putting the missing hand back onto the body.
Two parts remaining, but Rana could now read one of them in the patterns on the silver thread itself. Miles and the Magician would be thankful to know that probably she alone still knew how to See their True Names. “Ren, I speak you. Marisol Devi, remember your Name.” She traced a cartouche of pure, golden thought in the air, and the Ren reformed inside it. Carefully, she placed it inside the silver weavings, now almost complete.
“And now, little Ka, I know you’re hovering over my shoulder. Come where I may See you.” The glowing vital spark moved in front of her face, settling on her outstretched hand. She examined it carefully. “Yes, no damage from that vile little demon. You’ve still got a full life ahead- oh? A trace of gold within your glow?” Rana laughed in surprise and joy. “You are a special little soul. I wonder if he knows?” She smiled, and remembered her comrades for the past weeks.
“Of course he does, even if he doesn’t realize it. It’s why he picked you all.”
She opened the threads- opened Marisol’s mouth- and placed the Ka on the girl’s lips. “Marisol Devi. Your soul will have some traumatic months of healing ahead, but you are stronger than you know. Remember this, and take solace in this. Be the rock that your friends need, and share your strength with them that you all might grow stronger.”
The priestess touched her lips to Marisol’s, and breathed, blowing the Ka back into the body. Rana drew back, and slipped fully out of timelessness to watch Laurel and Maris run to embrace the young woman as she gasped, drawing in her new first breath.
Rana paused before returning to her body, to see if there were any other little silver bundles that needed more healing than Miles could provide, or maybe just a gentle release and guidance through the Duat. She thought she saw maybe one or two, if there was enough time before this whole place unraveled…
(To Be Continued…)