Work Text:
She had been waiting for it, hanging around the Mindscape and invisibly watching the summoners at work. They had been summoning demons all morning - starting with weak sprites and slowly moving up to stronger ones, according to a list they frequently consulted.
She couldn't make her move too early. These humans in particular might know something was up if a summoning circle meant for a lousy sprite suddenly called up one as she. She had to wait until they at least moved on to proper demons, although low-powered ones.
Easy pickings.
She watched them negotiate a deal with Irvron the Blood Guzzler - who accepted a pound of raw steaks for his side of the deal, the short-sighted fool - and then they banished him again, taking a brief break for snacks and updating their notes before they started on the next summoning circle.
S̯͙͚̖͙͡h̹o͕̩̠̯̮w̭̖͍̩̺̯͘-̸t̪i͉m͓͟e͎̮̪͓̥!͓̩
She intercepted the call for Freghnup, Scourge of Teeth, before it could leave the room. It hardly took any effort on her part to steal a summons from a much weaker demon. Nevertheless she made a mental note to hunt down Freghnup at her earliest convenience and devour him, just to make sure no one found out about this. Stealing summons was frowned upon in the demon community and while she was strong, she wasn't the biggest fish in the pond - yet. This plan, repeated a few hundred times across the globe, would grant her all the souls she needed to climb that demonic ladder until she was equal - no, superior to Alcor the bloody Dreambender himself.
She allowed herself to materialize in the circle coated in a golden shine. For the occasion she took on a pleasant shape - humanoid and many-winged, no fangs or claws. Non-threatening. After all, she was just one step up from a sprite right now, as far as they knew...
"W̜̩H͚͓̫̯̫O̥̭̩̣̱̲̜ ̡͈͖̩H̸͓A̮͇̙̰Ș̵͎͎ ͈͈̼͍̞̞͢A̢̰͚W̦͚̫̲A̞̼̦̠̯̯K̜E̻̹N̪̖̫̮̼͖E̺̲͉̩̟͎̮͟D̳͚̗̺̖ L̘͍̯̩E̺̠͡SI̙̦̦H̠͎͠R̤̝̝͔ ̗T̲̞̩̬ͅH͈́E̵̮̟̗ ͅS̯̘̠̩A̴͙̯̲͚̫̮̼G͎͙A̪̝̹͉͈̠C̝͖̼̖̦̲I̠OU̹͈̯̥̱̭S̝̫?͍̜͚̖̩̜̦"
She had picked that name because she liked the sound of it. Sagacious. It had a nice hiss to it. Not her actual summoning name, of course. They would have run if they only knew - their fear would have been delicious.
Patience. Play nice now and reap the rewards later.
Her summoner seemed taken aback. His colleagues were consulting their notes and double checking the circle.
"Ah, you are not Freghnup the Bloody, Scourge of Teeth and so on?"
She laughed and twisted her voice enough to make it sound soft, slightly husky, somewhat human. Deception was her forte after all. She would play them like stringed instruments - maybe she would make them into instruments when her plan had come to fruition, intestines strung around rib cages and she would keep them just alive enough to play themselves, hands bloody with their own juices - not now. Patience. Patience...
"No, I am not. You must have made a slight miscalculation in your circle - this isn't the first time I recieved a call meant for Freghnup. It usually happens when he is unavaible for some reason. If you like, I can fix up these circles for you?"
It was an offer she knew they would never take. A summoner had to be extremely stupid to agree to let a demon 'fix up' their own summoning - and binding - circles.
"No deal," the lead summoner said. He cleared his throat. "Lesihr was it? The, ah -"
"The Sagacious," she helpfully added.
(the Deceitful)
"Lesihr the Sagacious," he repeated, and added to one of his colleagues: "You got that? We'll need to check the books to see what went wrong - you, Fernsworth, keep an eye on that binding circle, you know the drill."
Back to the script they had been using all morning. "Welcome, Lesihr the Sagacious. I am professor Hicks of the Demonology department at Oregon University. This is a test-summoning to decide which sprites and demons are open to cooperating with our research. We offer you this raw steak. In return you read these pamphlets about our different research topics and tell us truthfully whether you are agreeable to cooperate and if so, with which ones in specific. Your name and summoning method will be communicated to the lead researcher and if they decide you fit their criteria, they will summon you for a more detailed agreement. Do we have a deal?"
"Give me that book instead of the steak and we have a deal. I'll even show you the symbol you can use so you can summon me properly without confusing me with old Freghnup," she said, pointing towards one of the many books in the room. It was just a standard demonology text, not rare or anything. She would rather have the steak to be honest. But this was about giving a certain impression, building a reputation. This silly littly deal was not the main event.
"This book? Of course, I should have realized from your title - you are a knowledge demon, I suppose?"
She grinned, her teeth flat and grey as gravestones. "You guessed it. Now, do we have á͎̥̣̹̮ ̷̪͉͎̫̦D͇͎E̮̥͇̟̖ͅA̱̜̮̭̟͎̯͞L̪͇͙̬?"
"This book in return for your honest answer whether you are willing to be summoned for research purposes," the summoner repeated. "We have a deal."
"G̻͚͍̘͎̩̮ͨͬͤ̕o̘ͧͭ͠o̶͋͂͗̏̉̑d͕̤̱̈̚," she said, and reached to the edge of the circle. He shook her hand and red flames licked their skin.
"I'll be taking this," she said, and with a snap of her fingers the book disappeared in a puff of smoke. Another snap and it was replaced by a large sheet of paper, her symbol printed upon it in gleaming black ink.
Well, more or less her symbol. Her actual symbol was hidden within those twisting curls and decorative spikes. Meaningless embellishments, not enough to tune it to another demon's summons but enough to prevent them from identifying her if they should research it.
No one ever summoned her - the true her - these days. She was considered... too risky. The Silver-Tongued, the Liar, the Soul Thief - a demon who would break through the binding circle at every opportunity and just steal whatever she wanted instead of making deals. Those days had been glorious! But alas, she had been too greedy and the summonings had stopped.
A new face, a new name, a new symbol - a facade hiding the old, old hunger until it could be unleashed once more.
The pamphlets weren't why she showed up at this summoning. No, she was only here for one single reason:
"One more question: would you like your name on the list of summons for novices, classes and demonstrations?"
She smiled. "Sur̵e,̕ wh͘y ͞not͞."
---
She had played nice. Pretended to be bound when they kept calling her into a circle meant for someone of Freghnup's power level - hilariously insufficient to hold someone like her. She pretended to be harmless, just a low-level knowledge demon who liked being part of their oh-so-important research, who made little deals for books and such.
When this was over, she would add 'the Patient' to her list of titles. She felt like she earned it.
The auditorium was packed. A room for two hundred sixty-four students, and not one empty seat. Summoning demonstrations always lured in more students than boring lectures did. Quite a lot of people from other departments too, curious about seeing an actual demon, even if only a low-powered one.
In a few moments, they would call her inside the circle. First she would close every exit. Then the games could begin.
Two hundred sixty-five souls, ready to be harvested, juicy and ripe. No one alive to warn the other humans about 'Lesihr the Sagacious'. And even if they did - it was so easy to just slip into another face, another name, and do it all over again...
She was grinning when she appeared in the circle, still clad in her disguise of wings and golden skin.
"W̪͓̪̤̱̱H̪͔͂ͯ̑͠Ȏ̡̥̔ͦ̚ ̰̗̝͙̻̞̝ͥͩ̎͟A̲͇̜̤͙ͨW̲̯̥̪̩͙̹ͭA̗͓͙͙̒̽̉̓͘K͍̗̺̠͖̯̦ͦ̋̇̀͑͐̔E̖͚͙̱̼̘͌ͪͦ̾N̹̬̰̭̜͎͛̔̓̈́ͥ̈͑ͅS͇͙̙̙̍ͅ ̖̰̖͔̥̺̐̔͛̉͞L̻̮̱͓̬͙͚̈́E̟̞̗̦͍̩̍̈́ͨ̋̊S̙̗̹̍́ͩ̋͠I̘̫̝͖͒ͦͯ̓ͅͅH̭̥̞̺̤̎ͦ̀Rͩ͋҉ ̮̫̲̦̲ͤͧͪͮ̃͛ͦT̳̼̹͙̫̆Ḥ͍̬̊ͫ́͟E̳͉̳̫̯̟͍͌̕ ̹ͣͬͯ̇ͩS̙͂̏͆A̶̰̦̥̥̙̮̿̊ͩG͎̰͇͂͊̆ͫ̇̂̚A̩͋̇ͪͦ̽ͩ͋C̍͂Ḭ̘̺̥̌̍̊ͥ͂̽͌Ỏͨ̓̐ͨ͌͂͏U̟̹͍̰͕ͦSͯ̅ͪͣ̊̏͋?"
There were gasps, even a short round of applause. Her summoner motioned his audience to silence and took his microphone. "As you can see, students, Lesihr the Sagacious appears as -"
She tuned out his words. Every inch of her being was itching to shake off this disguise and show these mortals what pain and fear looked like -
But some niggling feeling stalled her.
She was no knowledge demon and omniscience had never been one of her strenghts. Neither was clairvoyance. But something in this room felt... off. There was this inexplicable aura of - danger?
She checked the circle again. The weak spots were still there, ready to be exploited.
What WAS that feeling?
She glanced around the room. Enraptured, scared, interested, some even bored, just ordinary faces of ordinary students.
There, in row 7B. She felt her insides twist in sudden fear.
It looked like a human boy. About twenty years old, poofy brown hair - nothing special.
He was smiling at her.
There was something wrong with that smile. Could human faces stretch that far?
She rallied. One stupid meatbag wasn't going to stop her plans, no matter how strangely unnerving his smile was! She would devour his soul just like the others and -
He winked, his eye flaring gold on black.
"- will demonstrate what a deal looks like. Remember to only use the wording we pre-approved. First up, miss Adams -"
" N̫̹̳͓̜͈̯̿̏ͮ͜͝O̢̯̫̺̮͇̳̜̟͒̇̿͠," she said, her shape flickering red underneath the golden disguise she wore.
Her summoner seemed surprised. The girl in the front row, holding a stack of note cards, paused her walk towards the circle.
"Excuse me? Is something wrong?" Her summoner asked.
Alcor the trice-damned Dreambender kept smiling at her.
He knew. He knew everything. Why else would he show up here? He knew of her plans to reap these souls and grow and he was here to stomp her back into the ground before she could rise up to his level. She didn't know how or how long but it was obvious he KNEW.
"T̈́ͩ̃̒̈͆ͧ͜h̊́eͯ̽͛ ̌ͩ̐̎͌͟d̉͂̎ȅ͌͘a̿̐͊ͥ͜l͂͂ͬ̕ ̓ͤͭͣ̾ͨiͪ̊̐̉̊̅̅s͊ͤ ͯ̉ô͑͂͊f͊͡fͮͫ̑͑̋," she snapped, her disguise fracturing and showing the audience a glimpse of the gnawing fangs and unholy geometries hiding underneath.
"I͍̟̭̦̳̪ͧ͂̄̾̂̂'̫̦̖̗͔̮̊̑́͊m͎̫̪̖̤̺̬̄̒ͬͨ ͔̳̝͕͚̪̅̍͆͂̚ͅl͔͕͖̺̈́͌e͖̖̯͋̄ā̫͊ṿ̼̟̱̱̏͊ͮi̟̯̳̘̯̙͑̃ͨ̓̓nͣ̽g͉̤̜. D͉O̩̳̮̜͈͖̽̔ͭͦͪ͝N̵͕̯͚͓̪ͦ'̧̟̰̹̗̝͓̘̂͆̋̄T̤͖̮̝̺͗͒͋̿͝ ̘̰̮͆E̷̮̹͖͗͌̀̃̒V̢̠̳͎̠̘̤̯ͩ̏̈́͑̚E̗͈͙̬̿̒̌̒̆R̹̤̥̩̲͓̃̔̓̀͛̇͜ ̻̲͈̜̝̠̍ͯ̆̅S̛̰͇͙͚͋͗̾ͬ́̄ͨU̵͌̓̐M̸̱̭ͫͯM̨͇̩̼̮̙̰̫O̷͍̲̳̻͍͓̱Ñ͖̘̙͓̺ͪ̈ ̛̎̏͛ͧ͌Mͦ̀ͭͦ͆̔ͬ͡Ẹͅ ͇̳̘̬̜̗̄͗̚Á̞ͥͭ̅̓͘G̹̺̯̃͟Á͙̭̲Ỉ͕̼̥̱͊̒͡N̢̙ͣͭ̌̔̍ͨ."
As she broke through the bindings and fled back to the Mindscape, she prayed Alcor would consider this enough. She had backed down, abandoned her plans, she was not ready to face his power and he would kill her before she could ever grow to rival him.
Death was not worth it. If only he hadn't been there! She could have reaped so many souls - but now he knew of her plans, he would be watching her now, that is if he didn't simply devour her outright...
She was going to the deepest, darkest hole she could find and hope he forgot about her soon.
But damn it all, how had he known!?
---
"That was disappointing," Thomas said.
Maria shoved her notes into her bag. "I don't know, it was a bit creepy when the demon started flickering and broke through the circle."
"Pssh. That was obviously planned. A cheap trick to scare us, you know professor Hicks. He probably arranged that all beforehand."
"Well obviously," Maria agreed. "After all, why else would a demon break through a binding and just leave?"
"Hicks and his stupid tricks," Thomas sighed. "He should have picked something more impressive. I really hoped he would summon something special for this big demonstration but at this rate we'll never see anything more powerful than a sprite before we graduate." He turned to the third member of their group. "We're studying this to see actual demons, am I right?"
"I enjoyed the demonstration," the other said, with a large grin. "It was informative."
"Sure, whatever, Tyrone. Hey, you up for a game of Texas Hold'em later on? Brad and Eddy are also coming over."
"Maybe. I kinda planned to study this evening."
Thomas gave him a playful shove. "You're always studying! I bet you almost know more about demons than professor Hicks at this point."
Tyrone laughed.