some entities are better left in the hands of pros
After a summoning doesn't go as planned, Pallény calls Senka for help to see what could have brought a strange demon into their home.
Author's Notes
I took them out, but please imagine the text-based smile ' :) ' emoji after every time Senka talks.
“Senka, thanks for finally showing up.” The haughty greeting, if it was from anyone else would have been followed up by a hex, but from a Bambini like Pallény it was a 4/10. It lacked any bite to be more than ‘quaint’.
“You’re welcome, darling.” Senka’s ever present smile didn’t waver. “You know I’m appointment-only, but I don’t mind squeezing in an at-home visit for a friend if it’s worth my time. Now, where’s the fire?”
“Right on the bed.”
Upon entering the room—a bedroom semi-turned workroom, which Senka has expressed multiple times needs to be one or the other, and also needs new curtains—Pallény points to their left where a demon hybrid wearing...not a lot; some nice boots, shorts, and pasties, sits on the bedspread.
“My my, what a cute little thing! Hello~” Senka waves and the demon smiles and waves back.
“So, where’s the problem?”
Pallény gestures to the demon. “You just waved at it.”
“Mmhm. ...Pallény, dear, I know your kind can be very...particular with the things and persons that you keep around, but this is the second time I’ve seen you summon something good. Why, and I mean this nicely, are you griping?”
“Because I didn’t summon it.”
...
“I’m sorry?”
“I didn’t summon it. Check the circle. It’s completely untouched.”
Senka quickly glances at the circle from where they stood. He doesn't need, or want, to get any closer to see that it's undisturbed.
“Then you lured it. Same thing. As I’ve always said: what is a summoning but gussied up bait?”
“Actually,” the demon starts, raising his hand to get the two’s attention, “I thought he said my name so I came in.”
“Ah~ I see, I see,” the witch nods.
“Again, Pallény, I don’t see what the fuss is. —But now onto you, dear,” Senka faces the demon.
“Could you tell me your name?”
Senka isn’t expecting a genuine name from them, but the demon seems easy enough to fall for a quick and dirty trick.
The demon looks Senka up and down for a moment.
“I think you already know,” he grins. “You’re...what’s the phrase? ‘Cut from my cloth’?”
Senka’s humble mask falters at those words. A twitch in his smile and the beginning creases of a glare around his eyes. He hides them, as quick as always, as he steps closer to the demon.
“May I?” He asks, holding his hand out. The demon’s tail, fluffy and a dusty blond matching their hair, wags as they plop their chin into Senka’s open palm.
The black on the witch’s hand lazily lifts itself in small wisps. It drifts to the demon’s face, going over his cheeks and forehead, and even the small ears on top of his head. Then the black recedes from the demon and back onto the witch.
Removing his hand from the demon’s chin, Senka stares at the demon with an horrifically amused expression. His eyes widen at the truth his brain pieces together and the smile on his face strains his cheek bones.
“My oh my~ Isn’t this downright troubling. Dreadful, even. —Pallény, there is a church nearby, yes?”
“Ye-Yeah? Senka what’s-?”
“Good, good! You will need all of the holy water you can get your sooty little fingers on. Once you’ve cleansed the whole house, properly schedule an appointment with me for a follow-up.”
“But why do I-?”
“I’m taking this one. I know you won’t mind. Bye bye, dear!”
“Bye!”
Senka and the demon wave at Pallény as they're both swallowed up by shadows and taken away.
Pallény stares at the once occupied space and groans.
After a good minute of groaning, they go back to the summoning circle on the floor and start wiping up parts of it.
If they really needed as much holy water as Senka suggested, they knew who to summon to carry it all.
==========
It has been weeks since their meeting at Pallény’s home. Between pre-arranged meetings, bouts of no-good, and errands, Senka thinks he’s figured out the demon’s identity.
He’s not the Asmodeus but an Asmodeus.
The Asmodeus, ruler of lust and prince of demons who governs well over seventy legions of spirits, is a demon that could shatter a mortal soul if invoked without proper ceremony.
A demon so dangerous and powerful would never behave in such a silly manner like a pet dog, nor take on such a form around lesser beings; prancing around in garb meant for someone who works a pole or street corner.
The Asmodeus
is an awful,
unpredictable,
stupendous being.
And an Asmodeus such as this…
Might actually be the real deal.
end.