Chapter 13 Servant of Shadows, Artimon

We finally return to the house and I'm taken to my room by my nursemaid and made to change and bathe while Wolf was made to stay with Eddie and the pope. Good. I need it after all of what I just put myself through. Though, now I'm curious about what I can actually control. I have to be careful with that curiosity. I may be a child but I'm still a child of blood. I can be removed within a heartbeat. I bite a hole in to my index finger and draw on the wall. Why am I doing this? Who do I want to call for the answer to the questions building up in my head? The more I think, the more I realize how little I know. I have drawn out a symbol I've never used in my previous life but I've seen way too many times to count.

A circle of the devils summons. I've seen the ritual done so many times. I feel like I've just made an unbearable mistake to do this, but I can't think of what else to do for these questions. About what devils are. What can they really do? How does one make a contract with a devil? What makes a devil so dangerous to have? Are they dangerous by nature? Have there ever been a successful summons for one? What about my staff? What is it that it would become linked as a familiar rather than an item? So many questions. And I know nothing up here can answer them. Nothing but that staff. If summoned her again, I would most likely not survive it a second time.

I stare at the mark I made as I suck the wound on my finger. I'm afraid to summon it. I hold my ground and keep my composure calm. To hide this uncontrollable fear. I knock twice and wait in silence for what seemed like unending moments. God! This tension is killing me on its own! I suddenly feel a cold rush of air on my back as the lights in the room flicker and dim and buzz. The water I sat in started to ripple out of control. I turn around and see the floor boarding falling apart and into the earth like it was being eaten by a sinkhole.

From it, a tall, lanky, deformed figure crawls out the hole and stands towering over me, it's head nearly touching the ceiling. The creature now standing before me had the head of a starved barn owl with voided eye sockets and dusty feathers. Horns protruded from either side of its head. The strangest thing was its attire. It was dressed from head to toe in white and silver, a cloak covering its back to the floor in unraveled strands at the ends of it just like its legs. One big hulking arm and one arm of bone with mummified ribbons falling from it's shoulder.

Hold the fuck up! I called my staff that shit pope gave me! Who the fuck is this!?

"... Uh... Hi there?" I stutter to break the unbearable silence. A small gemstone hovers over to me from behind the creatures head and floats in front of my face from me to see it better. This was the gem that was usually hanging from the staff's off handle. "... The staff? Well. Now I know I called the right one. I didn't get your name before so... What should I call you?"

The gem floats away and stays in between us as the creature shifts slightly. "... Artimon." It was a plain bashful sounding voice. But I could hear the business like confidence in its tone.

"Artimon... The high devil?!"

"Correct. I am the only Artimon. And you are my summoner. Who would you be? Child with two names?"

Ah. He knows about my scan. "... Cresel Stinger is what I want to go by."

"... I will answer any questions you have in exchange for the contract of your servant."

Ah shit. "W-... Why servant?"

"I believe you know why. To remain a free being."

It's hiding something from me about this. "How do I know you won't kill me? Being a servant is a huge trust field to step into, you know."

"You have no need to worry about that. If I did wish to have you dead I would have done so instead of replying to your chant."

True... "Then why are you so keen on being a servant. I can tell you're hiding something else."

The beak on the creatures head suddenly opens up and a black smile rips its way across it's face. "... You are very clever for a child... Is one reason. Your blessings are the other. I will share those skills with you if I become your servant and never need worry about death even if I die. Once I am your servant, neither of us need worry of death from any threat. I will protect you from harm and you allow me protection from light. It can't go wrong this way. I will refuse to kill you or have you die no matter the consequence."

Fucking hell that is a deal. He doesn't want to kill me because I'm blessed by blood and protected by death. I didn't think about this combination before, but he's right. With these two blessings, I'm basically immortal. And according to him, servants share blessings with their master which adds the risk of this trust bond. If I die, he dies. End of story. But what else is there other than that? It seem to have more than that but...

"... What else could there be?"

"... I suppose there is another. I seem to like you. For being such a person as you are, despite the trials you've endured in your previous life. You have grown quite exquisitely. And I simply must see more." Its smile grew larger as it said this to me. So it can see into my memories. That ain't fun when someone invades your privacy like that. Now I don't have a lot of options. I better prepare my heart's mind for what's to come for me with this thing.

"Alright." I hold my ground and recite the ritual I have witnessed countless times from every summoner. "Staff of Artimon. 'Let it be known that this being shall henceforth share my life and in turn share trust that shall never break from bondage. So shall the lords before us bare witness this day as our contract shall be just approved. Do you agree to this contract that has been presented before you', Staff of Artimon?"

"... 'I accept that I shall be bonded to my master by blood and bone as the chains of servanthood bind me to your being and allow me the trust you have blessed upon me. May my services be seen as loyal as this disciple before me is to his goddess of blood. May my being never waver from this being before me and forever keep him protected as he shall protect me.'"

A chain of light creeps its way from the creature, Artimon, to me through the gem between us. It snaps straight and tugs at my chest. "Then this bond is forever binding and by witness of the gods, we shall be as one being. As master..."

"As servant."

"Let the contract seal and link us by body and mind. We shall be divided in body and together as two hearts."

The light chain breaks and disappears. Eerily enough, so did the creature.