"And this was just compensation?", she asked staring over at it. She twirled a wand in her right hand like a baton, and was then startled but a sudden rattling, girling, and then high pitched screetching. She whipped her attention over to the door.
"Damn."
She knew the door would never open as the wall containing it and the floor beneath her began to shake. She immediately hovered mid air. Through the rush of adrenaline, she struggled to mind the lack of head space above her in the small chamber and keeping her eye out for the work she had been asking for. Bang! She hit her head once as a burst of black energy entered the room. She tried to remain off the ground as he entered on all fours. Nerve wrecking excitement at it's new surroundings and in search of a playmate that would end up his meal for the afternoon, the demon surveyed the chamber.
Nearly hyperventilating, Deity pointed her wand.
"I swear on all things Masculine and Feminine, I'll kill you and condemn you back to hell Asmodeus!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. She had studied him well in Demology but never worked with or against him. Her arm now trembling from pointing the wand she doubted would assist in doing the job that she claimed it would, hoping to inspire fear and therefore an easier battle. The demon was more wolf and man then gremlin, a fearsome hybrid, product of conjurational experimentation in Hell and but one term of an eternal contract with The Underworld for the sake of war and education. Asmodeus rose to his feet, as he made and refused break eye contact. From floor to crown, he stood at five feet and one inch, only four inches shorter than Deity. He gave a small, self gratifying growl and on all our fours, took to the wall opposite Deity. She screamed in horror and she made evasive maneuvers, still pointing her wand. Scaling the far wall, jumping over the window and across the ceiling he approached his opponent.
Deity was raised in the ways of light and was sentenced to battle with darkness due to her insisting to practice, but she lacked all the necessary training. Light magick, or white, was beneficial for protection, healing, wealth, creation, and self defense. But there was nothing that her Governess,Terra, nor her professors had instructed her in that would prepare her to destroy a hellish novelty like Asmodeus, at least, none that she could remember at the time. The Coven Father couldn't have chosen a smaller gremlin? But as Deity, dipped, swerved and failed in timing when casting a containment spell to freeze the demon in place so that she could devise a plan for his destruction, she thought of the entity that gave her access to her wings when she ran away a was lost in The Woods of Whims overnight. When he found her, he never named himself but claimed kinship to the Lord Hades and informed her of her angelic birthright. He casted a spell that left her dormant, waking with a severe ache in her third eye and across her entire back from which her wings painfully emerged over the following twenty four days. Deity spoke no Greek and her Latin needed improvement but she trusted her natural precociousness for manifestation and called on Lord Hades.
Every time she uttered the name Hades, Asmodeus would pause, as if anticipating the Lord's arrival, waiting a second or two and would resume his pursuit. At the fourth utterance of the name her outstretched right arm froze, dropping her wand. Her hand opened and waved across the path of Asmodeus. He flew to the far right, hitting the wall and falling to the floor. A slight pressure cloaked her mind as someone whispered to her from within. She identified the foreign language as Greek. As Asmodeus shook off the blow, Deity slowly began to panic from the language barrier. Exchanging weapons, her left hand then rose and in a louder volume the voice ordered "Strike!". Deity's palm felt warm as reddish electric energy shot from it. As Asmodeus dodged the blow, her outstretched palm moved along his path, "Follow!". When her aim was centered, it spoke again, "Strike!", and her heated energy would leave her body and fire against her enemy. Asmodeus was hit once when the wall opened revealing The Coven Mother.
"That's enough!", she shouted. Asmodeus was pulled from the room, scraping and scratching at the floor. Once he was pulled back into the darkness from whence he came, a heavily breathing Coven Mother adjusted her husband's sentence. "We do not have contracts for your license, I mean," shaking her head and dismissing the thought, "your nonsense. The Coven Father would have stopped the contention at the first minor injury and released you from the additional battles. Calling upon Lord Hades, Child, I have had enough of these strange happenings. Never in our coven's three centuries have we encountered such a..." The coven mother was abruptly interrupted and stormed out closing the wall behind her. Deity, now grounded, stared in disbelief at the The Coven Father's matching her with any entity as powerful as Asmodeus and allowing for an injury.
"I wont steal again, Mother", Deity said sorrowfully as her place with her coven parents became clear. She couldn't trust The Father anymore than she could The Mother and would have preferred to be trapped in a cavern wall.
She had a little more than twenty four hours until Beltane. In her twelve hours of detainment, she slaughtered, gutted and pieced her offering. After battling Asmodeus, she became surprised that the mess was removed from the room. How kind!
"How the hell am I supposed to offer the goat alone this is small room without training in fire to contain it? Is he trying to kill me?" Her chamber door opened and there stood Terra. Deity rose and stood before her. "Governess?" Terra looked at her proudly, head a little higher than usual and chest puffed. "You may attend dinner with your coven Child". Hungry and tired from newly discovered energy, Deity was grateful at the announcement. But she had not seen so much pride in her Governess and she had just aced her final in Alchemy 102. Deity could only imagine what secret to her sentence she was missing. But divination would have to wait. She was being left to the devices of her sisters.
Deity played with her biscuit, overlooking her chicken breast and garden salad. It didn't matter that the basil and cilantro on both enchanted her senses. This evening, her herbological favorites and their magical benefits paled in comparison to her anxiety. They all sat five to a table. A large coven of witches, in place for over three hundred years. Only one hundred lived In House but there are nearly one thousand of House Vulcan, a coven priding itself on the accurate duplication of all signature magic of The Ancients. There isn't a world empire whose sorcery could not be studied and perfected in House Vulcan. They had forged the greatest witches and sorcerers of the last three centuries. Deity sat where she typically did, at Earth, Tabatha, her bestfriend at Fire, Catherine at Water, Berretta at Air and Theresa at Ether; an assignment according to governance.
"Deity, you're running out time for supper. Where's that beastly appetite to which we've all grown accustomed?" Beretta asked, giggling. "Leave her alone Retty", added Tabatha as she looked consolingly at Deity, "I don't think it was fair that you went up against Asmodeus alone either. My fire magic couldn't have done me any justice on my own without additional help from my governess and The Coven Parents have forbade you from learning it. Eat up sweetheart, who knows what you'll be up against later."
"Do you think The Coven Father wants me dead?" Deity asked without looking up from her plate. Catherine, the eldest at the table wiped her mouth very authoritavely and threw her napkin to the table. "You're elemental magic is strong enough without fire. You needn't insult the coven with your doubt. You've done well and you will continue to do so. Get through your sentence and wipe those sticky fingers clean, Witch."
"Ha!" Theresa gave way. "Vos autem non pytonissam. Piger puella. Alienus et non idoneos transfertus." Deity looked at Theresa angrily. She may have struggled with her accent and her writing but her Latin comprehension was flawless. Theresa had to ground to say she wasn't a witch. Neither was she lazy or a little girl. But to call her an outcast and unfit, well that was a blow for which Deity was unprepared.
"Scio quid dicas Theresa, leave me alone. Now is not the time for blasted quipping, Coven Sister" Deity shot back.
"Non soror mea est" Theresa said.
"Now that's enough Theresa, she has been and always will be our sister" said Retty, uncomfortable and irritated with Theresa's frankness. "Ego adaptatus", added Deity, still self defensive and proving her case. "We know you were adopted Deity you dont have to prove yourself this way", said Tabatha. "Et accepit sum" Deity said, turning to Tabatha.
"False, but you will be accepted once again, after your sentence. Theresa has a point Coven Sister" gave Catherine.
Condescendingly, Theresa continued, "de daemonium and now a repeated violator of Coven Law. We learn how to annihilate lawless demons of your kind in The School of Fire, a craft that I began to master at 10 years old. You were excluded from it for this very reason. They should have sent a sister to your chambers, Demon."
"As if my Earth magic would have failed her. Your sister conjured a Lord of the Underworld this afternoon and He did not fail her either. And The Coven Father has negotiated her next opponent with Lord Hades, now that He vouches for her use of His element. It will be a fair fight. Threaten her again, Child, and you'll be on Trial faster than you sneak into the wizards dormatory", Terra said as she stood behind Deity. Just then the end of supper bell rang and the coven dispersed back to their respective quarters. Deity needed to rest before her next battle, but gave way to tears of gratitude at the blessing to use the element the element of fire. Her hope of attaining The Pentagram was not lost.
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