He took the whole thing as well as can be expected. He didn’t go all Carrie on me or anything and set the building on fire or start telekinetically throwing things. He just left for the gym for a few hours and then came back and stayed in his room the rest of the night.
But if he’s decided to confront his Aunt over April…
I call Houston.
“What’s up, boss?” I hear his Aunt Ruth in the background asking him whether or not he’s still hungry because there’s more of whatever it was she made. He says something to her about taking a plate with him.
“Everything alright? You…at your Aunt’s house?”
“Yeah, we’re talking about the family tree.” Ruth mutters something in the background about me not feeding him right. “She’s my employer, Aunt Ruth. Not my wife.”
“I feed you!” I think I’m a fairly good cook, in fact. “You don’t look like you are starving.”
“Everything’s fine, Nancy.”
“Did you ask about April?”
“It’s all good.” I can hear the relief in his voice.
“We’ll talk when you get home, then.” If Ruth had been responsible for her own daughter’s death; that is the sort of thing she wouldn’t have been able to hide from Houston. So either April was just panicked because of her powers manifesting or she was just being wicked and making up stories to get sympathy from the Council.
And I’m glad Houston seems to be having a civil meeting with his Aunt. The last few times he tried to talk to her involved her mostly yelling at him for being in league with Satan and his soul burning in eternal damnation. Going from that to sending him home with a plate of home cooked leftovers is a step in the right direction.
With his immediate family drama out of the way, I turn my attention to the matter of Lee the Lemure. Archmage Lawrence has orchestrated this entire little scheme around me binding the lemure as a Servitor for my Rank Two trials. This is his way of solving two problems at once, as it provides a worthy trial for me while also getting a free-roaming demon off the streets.
But I’m not convinced I can actually bind him. Sure, technically I’m Rank Three, but I have been away from the Craft formally for years. Wards and incantations are like riding a bike. But binding a Servitor is another matter entirely.
There are three ways a Demonologist can bind a demon to her will. A standard pact is the most common. You summon the demon, bind it to the spot temporarily, and then negotiate the terms. Now you might think that negotiating a pact with a demon is a one-way ticket to the abyss. And for people other than demonologists, this is generally true. An untrained witch trying to negotiate a pact with a demon is sort of like a criminal defending himself in court. But for a demonologist, such pacts are a fairly straightforward affair since we know the language. No different than two lawyers hammering out a business deal over lunch.
The second way is to bind one as a familiar. Binding a familiar is similar to a standard pact, but can really only be done with very weak demons like imps and quasits. Again, theoretically any witch can take a demon as a familiar, but in most cases that isn’t going to work out well. It isn’t really the demon’s fault most of the time. Familiars have strong empathic links to their masters and respond to their master’s emotional states based on their level of intelligence. A cat familiar will hiss loudly at the guy who cuts its master off in traffic. An imp familiar is going to make a note of the license plate and track the guy down for revenge. Demonologists, however, know this going in and can deal with the more homicidal tendencies of such familiars.
Servitors, however, are another matter entirely. Demons love entering into pacts as free associated minions because it gives them a friendly anchor to the material plane. Servitors, on the other hand, don’t really get a choice in the matter. A demon can cancel a pact with minimal problems. It just loses that specific anchor. A Servitor is bound. Forever. A Servitor is practically property that can be sold or given as an inheritance. Unless the current master frees the Servitor willingly, the Servitor is a slave.
Traditionalists in the School of Demonology don’t see this as a problem. Demons happily enslave mortals all the time when they can get the opportunity. And since demons are so desirous of the material plane, we’re doing them a favor by making them permanently bound. But I like to think of myself as a bit more enlightened. Slavery is slavery. Even if it is the proverbial gilded cage.
So demons fight being bound. They fight hard. And Lee isn’t just a standard demon. He’s a Rank Three lemure who is in full possession of a body. A skinwalker. As timid as he seemed during our previous meeting, who knows what powers he may have at his disposal to prevent binding.
And because he’s already a skinwalker, I can’t even summon him into a binding circle for an advantage. He’s already on the material plane in a body and with anchors. I’m going to have to catch him off guard and trap him. My best option is going to be lulling him into a false sense of security. Frequent visits to make him think that we’re just keeping tabs on him, sort of like a probation officer. Then when he is so accustomed to seeing me that he lets his guard down…SLAM! Servitor.
Ye gods. I feel so dirty.
July 23rd
Mr. Brennon escorts me into the back yard, where his wife and Lee are entertaining his nieces. I had forgotten than the Brennons had two daughters. Seems they feel confident enough in Lee’s “recovery” to bring the rest of the family around him.
Lee is in the pool with the girls, adjusting the youngest one’s swimmies. Mrs. Brennon is sitting in her wheelchair next to an umbrella-covered table with her daughter. Mr. Brennon introduces me as “Lee’s Doctor.” The daughter, Karen, stands up and shakes me hand before giving me a hug.
“Dad told me about what you did for Lee. Thank you so much,” she says.
“Oh, of course. Glad I could be of help,” I stammer as I keep one eye on Lee. He waves and fakes a smile.
“Hey, sis. You want to jump in here with them so I can talk to Dr. Werlock?”
Karen goes over toward the pool to supervise her girls. Lee pulls himself up out of the water and I think my heart stops for three seconds. He fills out a pair of swim trunks very well.
“Your Dad didn’t say you had company when I called,” I say while trying to keep my eyes focused on his face. “I could have come by later.”
“Nah, it’s good. I need to get out of the pool anyway before I shrivel up into a raisin.”
“I don’t think you shriveling is an issue.” Thankfully his parents are too busy paying attention to their grandchildren in the pool to register awareness of my professionally inappropriate commentary. Lee, however, flushes red.
“Lemme go get changed.”
“Yeah. That’s a good idea.” I wait for him in the kitchen.
“So, you are here because…” He says as he comes into the room. He had thrown on a pair of jeans and a tank that says Retro Fitness.
“I think Houston goes to that gym,” I say. “You’ve been working out?”
“I just signed up a few days ago. Gotta take care of the body if I want to keep it.”
“Yeah, taking care of your body is important.”
“Well, this is a good start. I guess. You acknowledge the body is mine now.”
“Yeah, well…um. It’s not like he was coming back for it.” I can’t take my eyes off his arms. “You’re settling in well. That’s good.”
“It is? I mean, yeah. It is.” He looks out the window to see what the family is doing. “So you are here…why?”
“Well, I just wanted to let you know that, you know, um, you aren’t considered a high priority.”
“Oh? Okay. That’s…that’s good, right?”
“Right! It’s good! Um, I’ve been asked to just check in on you from time to time. Make sure you stay a low priority and all.”
“Okay.”
“Okay!”
“You know…nevermind.”
“What? What’s wrong?”
Lee is f
ighting back a grin. “Just, good thing I’m not an incubus.”
I hate men. “You really want to stay low priority.” I say in what I think should be an appropriately threatening manner.
“I am officially Low-Priority Man!” He holds up his hands in surrender. “And, you know, next time you come over maybe bring your bathing suit. Mom and Dad won’t mind, I’m sure.”
“Ah…no…I don’t think…no.”
I go back out to my car. I look up at the house. I see Lee look out the window and wave before disappearing behind the curtain. He looks relieved.
Gods, I feel dirty.
July 29th
“You going to open it?” asks Houston as he taps the red envelope sitting on the corner of my desk.
“I know what’s in it.”
“But aren’t you going to open it?”
“I’ll get to it. I got to reconcile the bank statements.”
“You want me to open it?”
“No! I do not want you to open it! We both know what is in it.”
The red envelope bears the Magus’ official seal. It means my application was approved and I can take the Rank Two trials. I already spoke to Archmage Lawrence yesterday. I know what the trial is. I don’t need to open the envelope.
“Have you heard from the College of Psionics about your request?” I ask Houston. He shakes his head. “They probably want to avoid looking too excited.”
“You know, have you considered just being honest with him?”
“Being honest with whom?” Houston taps the envelope. “Have you lost your mind?”
“You are beating yourself up over this.”
“Lee is a Rank Three lemure and a skinwalker. He can’t be warned about what is coming. It will give him time to prepare.”
“But you could just tell him you are going to bind him and then release him, right? You can release a Servitor whenever you want.”
“Not one that is a Skinwalker. If he wasn’t already in a body I could release him and he would go back to the Outer Planes. It would just be a complicated exorcism. But he would just be a free-willed demon again but now riled up. Besides, if I tell him to let me bind him in exchange for releasing him later, then it would be a pact and not a binding.”
“Look, Nancy. I’ve been reading up on this. This is some heavy shit here. Are you even ready for this?”
“Houston, I’ve been Rank Three for thirteen years.”
“Most of which you were practicing psychology and not demonology. I’m looking over some of this stuff and it reads like quantum physics.”
“That’s because you are a Rank Five. Of course it doesn’t make sense to you.”
“He could kill you.”
“So your plan is to warn him so he can be ready for me?”
“So your plan is to make him trust you so that he feels betrayed when you finally attack him?”
“I feel guilty enough about this.”
“I still don’t get why they put you up to this, anyway.”
“Because as a Rank Two Demonologist tradition dictates certain protocols in how the Council and the Nine interact with me. Like how the Esteemed just jumped into my computer during the initial Inquest without warning. Or how the Lord Advocate of the Eighth poked his nose in your application. As a Rank Two, the Third of the Nine wouldn’t tolerate that sort of interference.”
“This is all too black hat.”
“I know. I didn’t want this.”
“And yet you are going to go through with it.”
“So what am I supposed to do? Call him and say ‘Hey, Lee. Nice having lunch the other day. Do you mind if I enslave you for all of eternity?’”
“You had lunch with him?”
“That was a hypothetical statement,” I lie.
“You had lunch with him!”
“It was just Applebee’s.”
“You are the worst liar ever.”
“We just went to Applebee’s after…I just have to finish the bank stuff.”
“After what? Wait a minute. The Applebee’s near the Cinemark? Did you guys go to the movies?”
“It’s not like that. I stopped over there the other day and we were talking with his parents about stuff and I mentioned I was looking forward to seeing The Wolverine and he bought tickets. And I felt bad because he just gets an allowance right now from his Dad so I couldn’t say no. He bought them online so he couldn’t get the money back.”
“So, let me see if I understand. You felt bad about him wasting $7 on an early matinee movie ticket but you’ve got no problem binding him to servitude?”
“One, I have a huge problem with this whole binding thing. You know that. And two…it wasn’t just $7. He bought popcorn.”
“You’re giving me a headache.”
“I’m giving myself a headache.”
“I’m going to the gym.”
I wait for Houston to leave the office before opening the envelope. Inside is the congratulatory letter from the Magus with the details of my trial and the terms of success. I feel like a complete scumbag. I tried to tell myself that Lee is a demon and he is just putting on a show in an attempt to make me think he is innocent. I tried telling myself that he is using illusions to alter his secondary auras and remind myself that his primary aura is still the same green. This is what demons do. Manipulate for personal gain.
And yet there is no physical sign of corruption. No tell-tale marks that look like bruises. No blackening of the veins. No graying of the skin. It’s been over a month and Lee shows no signs of consuming the host.
What if he is being honest?
But even talking with him is out of the question. Because if he “agrees” to let me bind him, technically it would be a pact and not a binding. The magus will recognize collusion when he goes to confirm the trial. He’ll compel Lee to tell him if we had a pre-agreed arraignment. Because it wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to cheat on their trials.
I finally go home and try to drown my sorrows in cheesy reality TV shows and wine. Houston wanders in around midnight.
“I didn’t think the gym was even open this late.”
“Met up with a friend there and hit the bar.” He sits down next to me on the sofa. “How can you watch this stuff?”
“It’s mindless. I don’t have to think about it.”
He picks up the almost empty wine bottle on the table. “Please tell me there aren’t multiple empty bottles in the kitchen.”
“Of course not. I put them in the recycle bin outside.”
“So I was thinking. Let’s suppose you successfully bind Lee. Then what?”
“I don’t know. Nothing. Not like I want him moving in or anything.”
“But I mean, not to be morbid or anything. But you know.”
“I don’t know. Technically, he’d be part of my estate. So whoever took over the shop.”
“I think Anastasia is interested.”
“Oh ye gods, no. Don’t even go there.”
“Look, I don’t like this. But I think you should will him to me.”
“Why would you want me to do that?”
“Because I would let him go.”
“Which is the exact opposite of what the Archmage wants.”
“Look, if you are determined to go through with this, you need to go into it with a clear conscience. If he fights you, he’ll know you are feeling guilty and use it against you. At least if you know that the servitude won’t be permanent you won’t feel like you are enslaving him for eternity.”
“You are pretty smart for an apprentice.”
“So, again, not to be morbid. But do we need to write this up officially before you do the binding to make it legal?”
“Yeah, actually we do. I think I can just download a form from WitchNet in the morning. It will only take a few minutes.”
“Okay. You’ll let me know when you are going to do this thing, right? I mean, I should be there.”
“I don’t want to put you in danger.”
/>
“I’m your apprentice. I should be there.”
August 6th
My cell phone rings with an unfamiliar chiming sound. I wait until I park in front of Lee’s house before answering it. “Hello?”
“Protocol 432-124-5435-7645-3332. Material plane scan successful. Single subject found. Protocol 432-124-5935-7675-3332. Astral plane scan successful. No subjects found. Protocol 432-124-5435-7645-3835. Voice authentication successful. Subject: Nancy Werlock, Rank Three Demonologist. Identity confirmed. Good morning, Madame Warlock.”
“Good morning, Esteemed.”
“Please hold while I connect you.”
A moment later Rank One Evoker Braun, Advocate of the Third of the Nine, is on the phone.
“Good afternoon, Madame Warlock. The Third of the Nine has asked that I supervise your Trials.”
“I understand, Lord Advocate. The Vice-Chancellor informed me that I should wait until you made contact.” Because I didn’t have enough stress over this entire fiasco. I needed to have the Lord Advocate judging me. I beep my horn to let Lee know I am outside.
Lee thinks he is going on a job interview. I told him Houston’s uncle was looking to hire someone and that I recommended him. We’re just going down to the work site for a short interview. I’m surprised he believed me. I guess I’m getting better at lying.
Of course, nobody except Houston is at the site right now. Houston’s uncle has a meeting with his divorce lawyer. The location is an old barn out in the middle of nowhere in Cedarville. The owners are on vacation and Houston’s uncle was repairing the barn roof for them while they were away. Perfect location for a binding.
“You are your mother’s daughter, Madame Warlock.”
“What do you mean?”
“You already filed a form 9-12ADH-7984-Z for your Servitor. Rather confident. Already making long term plans for him. That’s good. Now is not the time to be timid.”
nancy werlock's diary s01 - episodes 1-7 Page 16
