It a Wonderful Night for a Summoning

Its a wonderful night for a summoning

At school there was talk that someone had summoned rich lady Simons from the dead. That her decaying corpse walked around the lawn and then burning into ash, leaving a gritty pile that was found by the morning students making their way to class. Then the rumor spread that Leo and I had something to do with the summoning. Just how that started I haven't the slightest clue, it was only Leo and myself that witnessed it, or so I believed. This bit of gossip got the attention of the masters who pulled both Leo and I separately aside and asked us about the late Miss Simons. I remember Professor A asking what I knew about necromancy and telling me repeatedly of the great dangers that befall the dabbler. I remember thanking, 'damn I hope Leo doesn't crack under all the pressure.' I didn't want to be expelled and sent back to the monastery now. Besides how did I know it was going to work?

Now let me retrogress a little here and start from the beginning, so that you can understand just what happened exactly.One day in class we were learning deceptions in the art of divination and the subject of necromancy was brought up. The professor stood at the front of the room and announced to the class that the darkest of the black arts was necromancy, he warned us of the pitfalls and other traps that awaited the magician that choose to wander in the dark land. All of this dark art and its rituals where shown to us by the professor, of course not in their entirety. He finished the lesson by telling us that the necro could have the resurrected show where treasure had been buried. Also that the necromancer was the maker of vampires and could be devoured by the dead without pity. It also carried a great chance of being pulled apart limb from limb, or completely shredded, but it was the first bit that really caught my interest. I knew I could use the treasure to help pay off some gambling debts, that recently gotten me into a hard place. Either way I could be pulled limb from limb so I thought I might as well have a little excitement. The next thing I had to do was talk my classmate Leo into helping me with the ritual. There was quite a few items to carry and I knew Leo's memory was a good deal better then mine.

That evening in the mass dinner as we took our meal in silence. On a bit of parchment I scribbled the words, Do you want to raise old lady Simons? I passed the note to Leo. Leo looked away from his food and flipped over the slip of parchment. As his eyes scanned the words they intensified and finally came to their climax as he yelled out loud, "What in the hell". Looking back on it now that was not the right time to deliver such a question, but back then I had little patience and even less brains. As you can guess the half of the room that heard Leos outburst stopped dead what they were doing and looked over in his direction. I just looked down at my plate trying to hind my beet red face, hoping the professors hadn't heard him. Leo softly apologized and went back to his meal, and quickly so did all the rest.

Nothing was ever mentioned after dinner. We went back to our dormitory and set in the common room smoking pipes like engines and flipping through books without giving them much thought. As it got later most of the other adepts had gone to their cells for the night leaving just a few men that had their own hashing to do. Leo and I grabbed chairs and brought then over to the furthest corner of the room. I remember the first words out of his mouth before I even had time to sit down were. "Are you out of your bloody mind man, do you really like the thought of becoming a sex slave to a demon?"

" Now come off it Leo, what are the chances of two mighty fine magicians sub coming to the will of a demon? Besides you know you need the money just as bad as I do." I rejected. Leo looked at me with a look that said money was not the issue. I quickly whispered back, "Besides look at the opportunity here, what better way to learn then by first hand experience?" this did what I intended for it to do, Leos face turned up in an ear to ear grin, that had its way of being interpreted as mischievous.

" Well now, you do have an excellent point. The experience, the knowledge gained in its process. Should we succeed in this we'll each have enough money to pay off debts and I could buy a few books I've had my eye on." Leo exclaimed.

" Keep it down man, lets not let anyone else in on this little secret." I hissed.

" Right, sorry I got a little excited. I say we take a night stroll over to the library and do a little reading. It will be deserted tonight being the Sabbath. We also need to find out where miss Simons is buried." Leo whispered.

" Can you imagine the two of us talking to that old winch?" I said,as we got up and made our way to the door.



The next morning I woke up late. Thank The Lord for the Sabbath. Last night at the library was more tedious then I had ever thought possible. Who would ever guess that summoning up a bag of bones had so much reading and note taking? We both must have went up and down those ladders a hundred times each, flipping through old books and piles of loose manuscripts. I woke with a rough cough from all the dust I inhaled, Leo seemed fresh as a rose, this was nothing new to him, just another night at the library. I met Leo in the common room at noon. Taking our place at a little round table by the window. We started by writing down all the items that we needed to collect. Leo would be in charge of acquiring the needed tools. I got left with piles of notes that we took on the ritual along with a black book. It was critical that we got everything right in this ritual, for truly ours souls were on the balance. Again, in my younger years I was far less in brain and wit. So Leo took off for the village to collect materials and I was sent back to my cell with a thick bundle of papers under my arm.

Several hours passed taking notes and deciphering the writings from Leo. There was so many variations on the ritual itself that it was difficult to know with was the correct way and which ones where simply snares laid out by the deceiver. This work was more important knowing that two souls where at stake. At the end of the day I felt I had pieced together a solid ritual,that should not only summon up the astral,but also summon up the material corpse. The only part that was giving me worry was finding a hazel tree. Neither Leo or I had a grate deal of woodcraft, I knew only a handful of native trees. I hoped Leo knew what a hazel tree looked like, or even better, knew where one was growing.

Now it turned out Leo in fact knew a little more then I did about trees and indeed knew where a small stand of hazel grow just off school grounds. It was a moderate walk to get to, made more difficult by the fact that we had to take it at night so we could get there before the sun rose. After an hour of stubbing my feet on rocks and whacking my shins on exposed roots we finally made it to the group of trees that stood ten feet high. Leo pulled out a shinny bladed knife and handed it to me. Just as the sun was coming over the horizon I cut from the hazel a fresh green bough. I cut it to length and peeled the bark off. Leo went about making a fire and heating up multiple iron rods, these were used to burn the sacred symbols into the rod. When we where finished we buried the fire and wrapped the rod up in cloth. We made or way back to our cells before the school knew of our disappearance.

The two days that followed where spent in deep thought, hardly a thing sunk into my mind except death and the ritual that I was to do. I was also very hungry, I had been fasting for days now and even my dreams involved vivid graveyards and coffins. I walked around pale faced moaning slightly from hunger pains. Leo too was suffering from nervousness and was always muttering to himself and pointing around in the air as he organized his thoughts. Lucky for us that was normal behavior for two young magicians. The night of the ritual Leo met up with me in the common room. He passed me a bag that contained old moth eaten clothes that smelled like old herbage. These were the garments I was to be wearing for the ritual, my thought proven right when he said he hope they were my size. I looked down at the bundle with disgust as Leo explained that his had been soiled in. I hoped for the best. We talked a little while longer before we went back to our cells to get ready for later that night. Once in my cell, I took the rod from under my cot, I also had the conjuration on parchment that I had folded into a star and pressed it in the black book. I took the clothes out of the bag and held each article up at arms length. To my approval the only mess was down the front of the shirt, were it looked like the previous owner had suffered from a gun shot wound to the head. Fair better then soiled trousers I thought. Before I put the dead mans clothes on I put a clean white layer underneath, this was for protection. Putting my prayer rope around my neck and hiding my own wand up my sleeve. I set on the edge of the cot, going over in my mind what needed to be done. By the time 11 o'clock came around I had sweated through my filthy rags. I put on a black cloak, with the rod wrapped to my leg I hobbled up to the common room. Leo was already to go, judging by his face he had been sweating just as bad as me. Leo was wearing a black cloak, he carried a pack also. We wasted no time in the common room. We had only an hour to walk down to the crypt and find Miss Simons.

The walk to the crypt went as planned the difficult part came in searching for the tomb site. Catacombs have a funny way of really twisting you up, even with map in hand, the confusing passageways had a way of snaking down into knots. Finally Leo had enough and snatched the map away from me, flipping the map right side up he looked at me stony faced and took off with torch in one hand and the map in the other. Leaving me to run as fast as I could to keep up with him and the only source of light. Thankfully I was not hobbling around still, I had taken the rod and was now using it as a blind mans cane, waving it madly in front of me.

At last I noticed the torchlight had stopped.

" Now are you sure this is it?" I asked with heavy breath. After running franticly trying to find the tomb in time. I was on the verge of passing out. Leo passed the map and torch to me then proceeded to push open the thick wooden door before us. Inside was marble, at the center lay a white stone tomb with a lady's figure worked on the lid, bouquets of dead flowers at its base.

" Well this must be it, it smells fresh enough." came Leos sleeve muffled reply. Right then I got hit with a stomach empting smell, which could only sour my mouth, I hadn't the strength to heave. It was alarming how quickly I had weakened, I dropped down to the floor as Leo made his way to the tomb with a pry bar that he had tucked away in his pack. He worked on getting the lid off as I worked on getting the space cleared out for the magic circle.

The lid came sliding off the edge, Leo made his way over to me. From his pack he pulled out grape juice and black bread. Handing them to me he told me to eat, to replenish some energy before we got started. The grape juice was flat and the bread unsalted and unleavened. I took it down as best I could, thanking Leo for the things I forgot. I stood up and on the floor I traced out a triangle, big enough for both Leo and myself to stand in. Around the triangle I then drew out a circle with another larger circle around the inner one. In the ring of the circle I put several names of power, along with stars of David. Leo put two lighted candles at the long sides of the triangle, and the incense at the top, lighting the mixture of nightshade, monks hood, and opium, the smoke traveled up and blanketed the ceiling until it slowly fell, feeling the tomb with smoke. Now the light from the candles and the torch where in a stuffy fog. I peered down at the parchment that I had unfolded. I forcefully started reading the conjuration aloud, whipping back tears from burning eyes and specking with a leather tongue the conjuration lasted several minutes. I finished with the words, 'In the name of the most holy Adani and with the key of Solomon I command you. Take shape and appear before us or we will torment you with the powerful words of the key.'

The room suddenly became ice cold and the air was heavy, the flames became only speaks of light as the smoke choked out all light. Then there before us was a faint figure, glowing in a blue hue. The figure floated over to us and stopped in front of the magic circle.

" Are you miss Simons' phantom or merely a distraction? We wish to have a word with Miss Simons." I said in a demanding voice. The phantom replied back in a hollow voice that she was the late Miss Simon, that her spirit was still on its way through the astral plain. It asked us why we had disturb it. I replied that we wanted to know where treasure was buried. She told of treasure hidden after she was left a widow, she wanted very much to show us where it lay hidden, but without her body she could not walk away from the tomb. So I went on with the rest of the ritual, which was to put life into the corpse itself. As I finished chanting the words of power the phantom made its way to the tomb and disappeared from view. The time passed in an eerie stillness, then suddenly their was noise and movement coming from the tomb. Out stumbled the corpse of Miss Simon. Her skin pressed back tight against her skull and her belly expanded from the gases of decay. The corpse stopped where the phantom had before and let out a large belch, that fumigated the crypt, she proceeded to walk pass Leo and I and made her way out into the corridor of the catacomb. The smoke thick around our feet we walked behind it, in the safety of the circle that moved with us. The phantom continued up the dizzying passages, cracking, popping, and burping all the way. Once out side the corpse made a straight line to the Simon estate where a large rose bush grew on the outskirts of the lawn.

Miss Simon turned around and pointed down. " This is where you shall find a box containing my treasure. Dig one cubit down until you hit the lid." she rasped. I demanded that she be the one to dig up the treasure, but she made a good point that she would fall apart trying to do so. That left Leo to dig the treasure up with a small garden trowel. The small chest being pulled up by the two of us we set it on the ground. I worked open the lid and there inside was a mass of jewels and gold coins. We both looked down in amazement at our beginners luck. We snapped out of our dreaminess, Leo started filling in the hole as I searched for the part of the conjuration that would allow me to free the body and spirit of Miss Simon. Just as Leo was finishing the final touches on the hole Miss Simon yells out " He's coming!" In panic we looked around trying to spot the on comer. We could see no one, nor could we hear anyone in the stillness. "Please you must save me from the one that wants my flesh!" she yelled again. This time we knew what she meant, we took our guard with wands raised and hairs on end. I started reading from the parchment, finishing with the words " To the flame with you." Immediately the corpse combusted and with in seconds was nothing more then a smoldering pile of white ash that blow away in the fierce wind that had kicked up. In the distance a thunderhead developed sending spidery fingers across the sky. The bleating of a goat could be heard, making its way closer towards us. Then the voice like that of a lizard toad could be heard, repeating the words, "Slaughter... sex , sin... murder, martyr... morgue." The owner of the voice made its way to the rose bush accompanied by a rather large goat. I guess our luck had started to wane, because somehow I had summoned a demon that looked at us with black eyes that contained all the hatred of a holocaust. Starring down at us until finally he bloats out, "What have you done with my flesh whore? You two sorcerers had better answer quick, or I just might make you mine." the demon then gargled wickedly. Now if you don't already know this about demons then let me inform you. Demons speak on the inhale and the exhale, making it sound both like a toad and a snake. What they have to say is rarely ever nice, and if it's nice then it's trickery.

I mustered up as much courage as I could and replied, " The flesh whore you search for is gone, she has left us with a message to give to you. She has told us that you are to take a third of what's in this chest and with it go and buy ten young slaves to fulfill your desires."

The demon stood for a while thanking over the proposition. " I will take half of the treasure, the other half you dogs get to share." The demon decided. I didn't say a word as I bent down to extract the demons half. The demon looked on as Leo and I tossed gold and large rubies and sapphires at the feet of the demon, his goat gobbled up each piece as it hit the ground. Once one half of the chest was emptied the both of us took a piece each and tossed it over at his feet. We both apologized for wasting his time and congratulating him for his future purchase of ten new slaves.

With a thunderclap both the demon and his goat were gone, leaving behind the raw stench of sulfur. Maybe our luck hadn't ran out completely. There we still had more then enough gold for the both of us, and we still had legs to stand on. Finding our way back to the tomb proved more convenient when Leo was the map holder, but we still had the box half full of treasure to carry down to the tomb. We were nearly half way then we finally realized that we could empty the box somewhere and pick it up on our return. The box much lighter now we continued towards the tomb. In the tomb we placed the empty box along with the filthy rags and the rod, sliding the lid of the tomb shut, we stepped back and said a prayer. I followed Leo with the torch back up the corridors, finding our pile of treasure waiting untouched, we stuffed our packs full of stones and gold. Like pack mules we made our way back to the school, the sun was just about to dawn as I put away my share of the treasure. I washed my hands and face in the basin, I put on a fresh change of robes and made my way down to the mass dinner, it was time for breakfast and I was starving like a dog.

Now I can remember that by the sixth hour I heard someone mentioning necromancy, by the end of the day Miss Simon was also being mentioned with necromancy. It was the next day that the rumors of Leo and I surfaced and spread like a wild fire. Any bit of news like that was considered topic for conversation. So I wasn't surprised how fast it got to the ears of our over seers, who were shocked that Leo and I would preform such a ritual.

" Who was it that had seen us,I had asked myself, was there someone else that followed in the wake of the demon?". Nothing came to mind so I resolved to believe that a fellow dorm adept had overheard us disguising plans. I did limit my contact with Leo for the next few months to let the gossip die down, which it did, thanks to a fellow class mate exploding.