Chapter 38: Summoning a Tutor

As soon as Olive woke up, Jocelyn had me go to breakfast. Afterwards, she was given a rag, a bucket of water, and told to clean the vestry.

Guess my grounding was going to be chores.

As Lucarion, I finally exited my room.

The house I was in was massive. The showing-off kind that nobles have.

The hallway outside my room stretched far enough that I could not see the end at first. Dark polished floors gleamed beneath my feet, reflecting the dim lights along the walls. Paintings hung in heavy frames, each one showing something different.

Some were portraits of important-looking Eclipserans with perfect posture, expensive clothes.

Others showed landscapes, there were forests with silver-black leaves, mountains shaped like broken teeth, oceans under violet skies, and fields of tall glassy plants bending beneath a sun too pale to be real. They were beautiful.

Then there were a few paintings that were somehow stranger. Huge stone towers. Streets packed with people, human people. One was set at night, glowing with so many little lights it looked like someone had trapped the stars and arranged them in rows.

I stopped so suddenly my foot slid against the polished floor.

Real windows.

I hurried toward the nearest one before I could think better of it. For one stupid, wonderful moment, I expected trees. Not my trees, obviously. but something. A courtyard. A garden. Even ugly grass would have been enough.

I grabbed the curtain and pulled it aside.

There was nothing.

Literal nothing.

My hand pressed against the glass before I realized I had moved closer. I stared harder, trying to make my eyes find something. A tree line. A wall. A road. A hill. Anything.

There was no horizon.

No ground.

No sky.

No distant lanterns from another house.

Just blackness stretching so far that my eyes had nowhere to land.

My stomach twisted. I gripped the curtain tighter, suddenly afraid the glass might not be enough. Back home, even indoors, I always knew the forest was outside. I could open a window and smell bark, rain, moss, flowers, smoke from the kitchen chimney. Here, if the window opened, I didn’t know what would come in.

Or if anything would.

This place was not surrounded by forest. It was not tucked behind walls, or hidden under a mountain, or buried beneath some enemy city.

It was hanging in nothing.

I let the curtain fall back into place and stepped away from the glass.

My back hit the wall, and for a moment I just stood there, breathing too fast, staring at the curtain like the dark might push through it.

I needed air. Real air.

I reached for Olive.

Her body moved before I fully thought it through. Olive stumbled in the room and found the nearest window. Her hands shoved it open.

Wind rushed in.

She breathed it in so hard my chest hurt. Dirt. Stone. Flowers. Warm wood from the church walls. The faint sweetness of grass growing between old cemetery paths.

Outside, the church cemetery rested beneath the afternoon sun, quiet but not empty. A small group of quillwraiths drifted over the graves, their translucent bodies catching the light as they floated. Sunlight passed through them like glass, bending and concentrating into warm bright patches on the earth below. Wherever they drifted, the grass and carved names beneath them swelled for a moment, as if seen through a magnifying lens.

One hovered lazily over a patch of heated ground, and there, sprawled on his back like he owned the whole cemetery, was a grubbear. He had tucked himself right beneath the quillwraith’s drifting body, soaking up the warmth. His paws twitched in his sleep, and his belly rose and fell, soft and slow.

***

I got to my feet and left Olive breathing for me.

As I walked, I caught movement ahead.

A thin gray demon froze halfway through crossing the hallway.

It looked at me.

I looked at it.

Then it vanished around the corner so fast its long limbs nearly tangled together.

A moment later, another demon carrying a stack of folded cloths saw me, made a faint choking noise, and ducked through a side door. Something small with too many legs scrambled backward under a cabinet, dragging a feather duster with it.

I pretended I couldn’t see them and kept walking. I had Olive ready her mind, holding the circle at the edge of my mind, in case I needed to defend myself. A small surge of pride warmed through me. I was no longer as weak as I once was.

The corridor curved, then opened into a wider hall with more paintings, more little tables, and more things I was absolutely not touching. The ceiling rose higher here, supported by black columns carved with spiraling patterns. My footsteps echoed too loudly, like the manor wanted to announce every step I took.

Finally, I reached the top of a grand staircase.

It swept down in two wide curves, one to the left and one to the right, meeting at a landing before spilling into the entrance hall below. It looked like the kind of staircase someone important would descend while everyone waited at the bottom pretending not to stare.

I placed one hand on the railing and looked down.

The lobby below was almost as large as the church sanctuary back home. A huge rug covered the center of the floor, patterned in red and black lines that reminded me a little too much of the markings on my skin. More portraits watched from the walls. A chandelier hung overhead, all dark metal and violet flame.

And in the middle of it all stood Magnavex’s Imp.

He was dusting.

Very carefully.

His too-small trousers showed his bony ankles, and his white gloves were somehow still spotless.

I called down from the top of the stairs.

“Imp!”

The Imp stopped dusting at once. His head tilted toward my voice, then went into a deep bow.

“Call Magnavex.”

“what are you doing” a voice call out. I whipped around and almost fell down the stairs, Olive hit her head on the windowsill.

There was no one there.

“hello! Get to work,” Olive turned around rubbing her head, Jocelyn was there hands on her hips looking down to me. “not much of a punishment if you just stare outside.”

***

I had a smug smile on my face as I ate.

All my hard work had paid off, I was eating calmly without incident while Olive continued with my chores, she was out in the garden now pulling out weeds, which barely counts as chores.

“I’m glad the meal is to your liking, my Lord.”

I looked at her to see a small smile on her face.

“I want to try summoning my tutor today,” I told her

“Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer for me to summon one for you, my Lord? No use wasting your talents on some basic tutoring demon.”

Moments like these were confusing to me. She seemed to have as much disdain towards demons as I did, and why was she still calling them demons? In the last meeting it was made very clear that they call them wroughtborn. She must still be calling them demons for my benefit, but we saw how disastrous that resulted.

I need a new advisor, someone who doesn’t just assume they can handle everything for me, someone who will actually teach me. But I voiced none of that.

“I will be summoning my own tutor, as I said, though I would appreciate your help with the contract,” I told her before sipping my juice.

I may not know what Lumisiel wants me to do exactly, but whether I get rid of demons through authority or force the requirements are the same, I need more power.

And for that I needed to summon my own demons.

***

We had been trying to summon a new demon for the past six hours.

Six hours!

My requirements were, in hindsight, maybe a little demanding.

From an expert in politics, to economics, ethics, to disinclined to violence, no manipulating me with its powers, to only being loyal to me.

I took another bite of a delicious cake the imp had brought, courtesy of Belgorath.

“My Lord, with all respect,” she said, wiping crumbs off my collar. “This list…”

“I don’t want anything dangerous to me. These are my demands.”

“Why would it be dangerous? It’s your summon. You have nothing to fear.”

Actually dangerous wasn’t what I was worried about that was why I had Magnavex with me, what I actually wanted was an advisor.

I sipped some juice rather than responding. Magnavex had told me that she was my advisor, but everyone in the meeting had seemed surprised by that. So now I needed to ask for one without asking for one. It’s the only way I can make sure to follow my Lumisiel’s will without causing Magnavex any suspicion.

In front of us, the Imp was calmly sweeping with an old brass-handled broom. Every so often, he adjusted a candle that had tilted too far or quietly refilled Magnavex’s tea without her asking him, even adding her sugar and stirring it for her. I’m surprised she doesn’t have him lift the teacup to her mouth.

It then, replaced the sputtering candle beside me with a fresh one, lighting it on Flickers flames, they were harmless to the table, though they somehow still melted the wax. It was strange using a demons power for something as simple as lighting a candle.. The scent of lavender and smoke followed him like a subtle warning not to let the chaos go on too long.

Now all that was left was to wait and see if this contract would finally work.

If it didn’t, I was starting to suspect Magnavex might try to teach me etiquette herself, and no one wanted that.

And somewhere behind us, the Imp cleared his throat gently and, without comment, started readying a second tray of snacks.