“Good, very good, everyone!” Professor Mangal congratulated her students.

All throughout the chamber, students stood beside summoning circles, and within each crouched a slavering Bu’Bu; a demon like Baelin had summoned. The monkey-cat-goblin-like demons peered around while waiting for orders from their summoners.

“Congratulations, you have successfully summoned your first demon,” she said.

Sighs of relief went through the class. Alex glanced around to make sure no one was paying too much attention to him and leaned toward his small summoned demon and whispered: “Hannar-cim?”

The demon stared at him blankly.

“Yusahero? Hirshon-Eos?” he tried.

Still nothing.

Then the creature moved. Alex’s heartbeat quickened in anticipation. It was raising a hand. Was it going to sign to him? From his study of languages, he’d learned that there were languages—used by the deaf, certain secret societies, and spies—that communicated using hand and finger signs.

Was this creature preparing to do that?

Alex leaned in, watching it closely, activating The Mark to help him learn what it-

Aaaaand, it was holding up its middle finger.

‘Wait…did that gesture have the same meaning to demons as it did to people from Thameland…did it cross planes?’

The Mark then ‘helpfully’ flooded him with memories of all the times people had offered him the same gesture, and used those memories to ‘help’ him determine the meaning.

‘I know what it means!’ he assured The Mark mentally, scowling as the monster burst into what sounded like hard laughter.

‘Confirmation!’ Alex continued scowling.

“Oh I got a demon that thinks they’re funny, eh?”

For a moment, he was tempted to use the subjugation summoning spell’s power to order the creature to pinch itself, but he didn’t think Professor Mangal would approve.

‘No, no,’ Alex said. ‘Such aggression requires an appropriate and measured response’

Frowning, Alex Roth gave the demon two fingers.

The creature’s laughter faded and its fly-like eyes glared at him.

“Yeah, that’s right, that’s right,” Alex said, aloud.

The creature then gave him the finger with both hands and—grinning like a mischievous child—used thefingers on its tail to give him the finger a third time.

“Oh you think, you’ve beaten me, eh?” he whispered.

‘Well too bad for you,’ he thought. ‘A Hero of Thameland never fights alone. Claygon?’

Behind him, Claygon uncrossed both sets of arms and gave the little creature the finger four times. The demon’s smile quickly faded.

“Yeah that’s right, six to your three,” he whispered. “You can even use your feet if you want to, it doesn’t mat-”

He paused.

Why was the room so quiet?

Alex slowly looked up to see the entire class staring at him, including the Professor. The brave Hero of Thameland bravely hid his hands behind his back like a guilty child.

“…and as I was saying, class,” Professor Mangal said. “The summoner should not go out of their way to antagonise creatures they summon…especially demons, even if they are bound by subjugation type summoning.” She looked at Alex pointedly. “After all, you never know if you might need to summon the creature again, or if they know another demon that could make your life very difficult in the future.”

“To be fair,” Alex said to the class. “He literally started it.”

“…Alex, this is a demon that specialises in scaring children,” she said. “It is not one known for its maturity.”

“Yeah, but like…I don’t want it to think it can do whatever it wants, right?” He looked around at the class. Some of the other students were snickering, but most were turning their backs on him.

Professor Mangal sighed. “Alex, please do not anger demons, even if they are getting on your nerves…Generasi has suffered enough of their wrath.”

She clapped.

“In any case!” she said. “You have now successfully summoned your first demon. Can anyone tell me why demonic summoning is so commonly used among wizards?”

Alex raised his hand: he’d done today’s reading more than a month ago and was eager to make up for that earlier outburst of childishness. “Demons and devils more easily serve and interact with mortals. Demons will act on whims, so—if the summoner can fulfil one of their whims—that’s a good way to get loyalty from them. Devils are creatures of law, pact and contracts. They’re eager to forge contracts, so you can get their services pretty easily too…for a price.”

“Exactly.” Professor Mangal walked through the class, weaving between the different summoning circles with her hands clasped behind her back. “That is precisely the reason why demons and devils were among the first and most commonly summoned creatures in the world. We have less to offer elementals, engeli, and other sorts of spirits.”

She turned to the closest Bu’Bu. “But keep in mind what a demon is. Your subjugation magic will make it follow your orders, but when you move on to binding or relational contract summoning, then demons can slip out of your control if you are not cautious. Remember well the folly of Lord Velix.”

Alex remembered the name from a story in the textbook, and he recalled the passage:

A man named Lord Velix had once coveted the neighbouring lord’s land and wife, and wished to take both. Yet, his domain was poor and he had little in the way of an army to put to field.

So he contacted a local witch and asked if she could arrange a meeting with a demon.

“I can, my lord,” the witch had said. “But remember, demons are creatures of whim: if they are fond of you then they will do much for you. If they are not, then they will cause you tremendous misery and seek to find loopholes in a binding contract. Make the wording tight in any contract you create: I’ve had experience with these sorts of things, and we can craft the contract together. My price will be high, but it will be worth it. Just remember: be careful with how you treat your demon throughout its service.”

And so, Lord Velix had thought he’d understood her words to him.

He paid the witch handsomely and together, they crafted a contract that would have made a Rhinean solicitor proud. With it in hand, he summoned a powerful demon with a large army. Lord Velix plied the demon with meat, slaves, treasure and items to expand its power. He spoke with the creature long into the evenings, using his skill with the social circles of nobility to encourage the demon to favour his company.

And it did.

Greatly.

The Lord thought he had done well, for he imagined the worst he could have done was to treat the demon poorly. But demons are creatures of whim, and whim is the twin of impulse. The demon worked within the bounds of its contract and destroyed the neighbour: the demon’s horde shattered the enemy’s army, conquered the land and slew the enemy lord.

Throwing the dead man’s screaming wife over his shoulder, the demon returned to his master.

Lord Velix was happy, and released it from its contract so that he might enjoy his newfound spoils. However, the demon’s affection for Lord Velix was deep, so deep that it did not wish to be parted from him.

And demons are creatures of whim, above all.

So the demon dropped the woman and picked the lord up instead, throwing the screaming man over his shoulder. As a portal opened back to the hells, the demon took his ‘new friend’ with him. His neighbour’s wife escaped and Lord Velix was never heard from again.

“And that is why it is also important to know what a demon is saying, as you never know what its own plan might be,” Professor Mangal said. “So, with that in mind, your second to last assignment will be to learn to speak five phrases to your summoned demon, ask it for its name, then pronounce that name perfectly. Remember the power of names. Now, let us go into the ways that demonic tongues can be spoken by human mouths.”

As the lesson went on, Alex absorbed everything he could about demonic languages. He’d already been going through books from the list she’d given him, but actually hearing the languages spoken was quite an experience; Professor Mangal’s translations were giving him a foundation of memories to fuel The Mark.

After what turned out to be a very heavy class, they were actually able to end early…a rare occurrence.

“Remember, review chapter thirty!” Professor Mangal said as the students filed out of the classroom. “The material there will most definitely be on the final exam.”

“Can’t believe we’re almost on top of finals already,” he heard another student mutter.

Alex could hardly believe it either.

The summer semester was coming to an end and he’d soon have to choose his courses for the fall. Two would be covered by the expedition; he had second year Magic Lore to do—which was compulsory—and he was thinking of taking blood magic and another summoning course for the last two.

His progress with Life-to-Mana was going well, and with practice, he’d managed to complete around 45% of the magic circuit. He was also looking into more second tier summoning spells to go along with Summon Elemental Beetle Swarm. There was a tempting spell that summoned a hellhound—a vicious, canine devil—but he didn’t really want to go all in on ‘fire’ in terms of means of attack. Still, hellhounds had other uses such as tracking, sharp senses for keeping watch, and scouting. They were very clever too. It was something to think about.

The semester was moving along, exams were coming, and some of last year’s students were returning to school and settling back into their dorms and apartments. The new crop of first years would soon start to arrive and that was leaving Alex feeling a little nostalgic.

It felt like yesterday that he, Theresa, Selina and Brutus had arrived on campus on Lucia’s sky-gondola.

‘I wonder how she’s doing,’ he thought, though he wasn’t sure if he’d ever know the answer to that. He hadn’t seen her at any of the sky-piers in months, and hoped that was a good sign.

What was definitely good was that they’d started preparations for the expedition. The team had finally met a couple of times: the first meeting mostly dealt with the fallout from Amir’s betrayal, and new rules regarding the sharing of information with anyone outside the expedition team.

The second detailed logistics.

“We will be assigning each of your exploration teams a medical blood mage,” Professor Jules said. “They will be tasked with caring for your health if Baelin cannot be present to use spell-marks to ensure your safety.”

“Aside from that,” Baelin said. “We will be providing you with enchanted camping provisions for those days you must overnight in Thameland. You will naturally be expected to make reports on each outing: identify flora and fauna or at least document those that you do not know. Note weather, any ruins, or construction of any kind that you find, and of course, any dangerous monsters that you cannot subjugate. Collect samples from any monster you slay if it is from a dungeon: you will be provided with field guides—which are not exhaustive—of what sort of monsters are created by The Ravener. Oh, and if there are creatures there that prove to be natural to the location but are still dangerous, do not engage. Report the information and we shall see if such local creatures can be studied, then relocated.”

Magical equipment for the construction of the campsite was being organised, and the hiring of extra combatants was almost complete. Local guides were also being sourced, though there were apparently issues with finding those who knew the area, and were free to serve as guides.

“Your departure is quickly approaching, so prepare accordingly,” Baelin said.

And the expedition teams were not the only folk getting ready for departure.

“There’s a lot more to pack now than there was when we got here,” Mr. Lu said as he surveyed his and his wife’s luggage. He squinted in the evening light. “You really spoiled us with all of these souvenirs and gifts.”

Atop one of the packages lay a piece of parchment showing proof of passage for two booked on a merchant ship; Mr. and Mrs. Lu would be departing for the Rhinean Empire in the morning.