“Okay...First Off...Who are You?” said the demon with a voice like dulcet thunder. Its words issuing out and filling the room, with a soft, slightly musical rumble.

Lucinda Mercer, was down on all fours, her eyes at the same level as the tip of the creature’s slow swaying fifth appendage.

Her eyes ran, tears spilling over her freckled cheeks, she couldn’t tell if that was just her eyes watering from all the pungent incense from the candles and the lack of oxygen in her lungs, or whether she was actually crying a bit. Lamenting the terrible turn her evening had taken.

Her neck still hurt from when she’d been pinned to the wall, and she was still struggling to draw a full breath, but she forced herself to calm down and slowly stand. Taking care to try and look as dignified and in command as her elder sister would probably look right now, if she were in the same position.

Assuming that by the some unbelievable turn of events the great Isabella Mercer had tried to summon a being that was far out of her league resulting in the being escaping “her” control. Which would never happen in reality, because her aforementioned “perfect” elder sister, would have known better.

Still Lucy did her best to do a good impression of her big sis Izzy. Believing that looking scared and remaining at cock-level with the infernal monster from beyond the veil might lead to things heading down an even worse direction than they already seemed to be going.

“Well?....” said the demon. A spiked limb tapping the ground impatiently before becoming a normal foot. Its glowing red eyes unblinking.

The radiant red and black horns, that swept towards the back of its head before zig-zagging forwards like a jagged crown, flared brightly before crumbling into ash.

Its flesh, that had been seared away and torn apart, as it crashed through Lucy’s containment ward, crawled and oozed and pulsated as it knit itself together. Settling down, whole. A perfect, uniform, creamy brown.

Its form muscular and hulking, yet pleasing to the eye, seeming to loom over the 5,10’’ young lady by a good 12 inches or more.

“I’m waiting…” said the demon. Its strikingly handsome face, seeming to gather. Its brow bunching up in a look of perturbation and annoyance that Lucy could recognize from having seen it worn by her teachers, her bosses, her parents who were long dead, her Uncle and Aunt who were recently dead and her Sister who was very much alive.

“....Explain yourself!” commanded the demon.

Startled, and figuratively, maybe literally, piss-yourself-scared, Lucinda Mercer, 17 years old, began to explain the fleeting hope that she might escape with her little life intact.

*****

The beginning of her tale started from two days hence, technically it started several generations ago with the first of the Mercer line, but the direct explanation that the demon was demanding was from two days ago.

*****

The Mercers were a Family of Mages, one of those that had been around even before the truth of black and white realms was revealed to the world at large.

At the very height of their power they’d held a strong sway, in Hungary and Belarus, and even managed to keep more than a few of the officials of the USSR in their pockets.

Then their power began to wane, and they were pushed out leading to their immigration to the US.

Like most Wizarding families whose powers had begun to fade, the Mercer’s were cursed, the number of those who were claimed by this curse, rising as the potency of the families magic fell.

It was this same curse that led to the death of Lucy parents. It was this curse that claimed the lives of her Uncle and Aunt, Isabella’s parents.

Only their great Aunt Bellinda and a few other members of the family, who were mainly just branch members connected by marriage , and thus less affected by the curse, remained.

For Families with hereditary magic, the power either flowed sweet or sour. Sweet magic brought greatness and wealth. Sour magic brought sickness and calamity. The Mercer’s were a clan, where the magic had grown sour.

Isabella being one of this rare exceptions to this rule, with her magic flowing strong and her progress through the Magi ranks climbing quickly.

*****

The Westley School of Sorcery was a moderately prestigious private academy founded in Plymouth the nearest neighbor to Fontaine.

Many of its students would go on to study at well known magical colleges throughout the country. Others would be picked up by the magical sects and families. And a few extremely lucky ones would be directly cultivated by the Union council or the Foundation. Working their way up the ranks of the most powerful organizations in the world.

Lucy was a third year student at the school, just a year away from graduating. Two Days Ago, Lucinda Mercer was informed by her assigned counselor, that it was highly likely that she might end up failing for the year, and there was a possibility that if she failed badly enough that she’d end up flunking out of the school entirely. As failed students were ranked, and the lowest ranked failures were dropped from the school’s programs.

As a scholarship student, whose lowered tuition depended on her grades and her passing each year without fail, the news more than a little alarming.

As a Mercer, as a sister to the famed Isabella Mercer, the Witch of Winter’s Spring, it was downright terrifying news. Something that just couldn’t be allowed to happen.

Unfortunately there weren’t many options open for Lucinda. She’d been an A student during the first year when all the lessons were theoretical. A B during the first half of the second year when only a few of the classes involved practical uses of magic, with most of those focusing on alchemy which was pretty just chemistry with just a little magic mixed in...at least for the beginner levels.

Then from there her grades began to plummet. Lucy wasn’t like her sister. Her magical talents were weak, and no matter how much she studied and how hard she practiced she just wasn’t capable of keeping up with the rest of the students.

What made it worse was the helplessness, it would have been one thing if she were really as much of a slacker as everyone seemed to think she was, but she was already doing everything that she could. She took all the after school tutoring sessions. Asked all the teachers and teacher’s assistants who could and would help, for help. She spent all her spare hours either in the library or on the internet looking for guides.

The simple fact was that as a Witch the girl was something of a lost cause. She wasn’t completely lacking in magical ability, yes, but only barely so. She was just rung on the ladder higher than a “sensitive” someone who could sense anomalous activity but possessed no anomalous powers. Her cultivation having stalled at the beginning of the Road Stage, ages ago.

There might have been a chance for her to progress past this point if she were from a wealthier family, there were miraculous medicines and treatments that could force a person’s cultivation up to the peak ranks of the circle stage, but for the Mercers a family in decline those were out of the question.

Which was what lead to today, where the girl went home with no options and no solution for her problems, and a four week countdown till the rest of the world found out that she really was the lesser Mercer sister. The failure that she and everyone else, always suspected she was. Meaning all she really had was two weeks in which to either maybe figure out a Plan B or figure out where her life.

She did neither of those things, instead she panicked for a bit and then to stop panicking she started drinking thinking that would maybe calm her down a little.

Which it did, for a little while, at least till she started thinking again. The wheels of her mind turning coming up with all these terrible ideas.

Ideas that ranged from just dropping out of school and calling things quit on her own terms, to buying a ticket to the local teleporter station and telling her sister what had happened and letting her yell at her for forever, for failing at life... from half a continent away.

Finally there came the idea of summoning a demon of great power from the deepest darkest corners of the monochrome, to boost her power and or prove to the school that she did have the skills they needed for her to be able to graduate.

In its own way more reasonable sounding than all the other ideas. Lucinda was, by common measure, and the measure of the Mercer family, a family that had specialized in summoning, from their very conception...a fairly apt conjurer.

If the girl pulled this off it would do, all that her alcohol addled mind suggested that it would do. Whether the being somehow made the school acknowledge her as a talent or she made its power into her power by just contracting it, in the end it would still amount to the same thing.

Allowing her to save herself and make the miraculous come back that she was looking for.

*****

“...And what the hell were you going to do if the demon was too strong for you and could...I don’t know...break your compulsion spells and containment wards?” chided the demon in mention.

Lucy blushed, frowning, her tan cheeks reddening. She wanted to say something to defend herself but didn’t dare risposte as she normally would, lest her response piss the creature off.

Lucinda had been doing good so far, despite telling the truth without hiding any details. She was alive, uneaten and remarkably un-buggered which was far better than she’d expected from all the accounts she’d read of summonings gone wrong, for the particular realms that she’d been trying to call this being from.

She didn’t want to ruin this state of affairs by saying the wrong thing.

“You know what...okay...I think I get the picture. You’re stupid, but not malicious which means I won’t kill you and eat your soul.”

“Hoo-..Hooray?!” said Lucy. Cautiously happy, but wary of having this announcement turn out to be some cruel trick.

The demon looked down to its lower body and the thing idly swinging between his legs and then looked up at the girl, who’d been trying unsuccessfully to not look at the thing.

Blushing furiously each time she inadvertently got an eyeful.

“Fetch me pants….” said the demon. Crossing his arms and assuming a stern look.

She blinked frowning and then ran off to go fetch the demon some pants. Eventually coming back with a pair of sweats that looked just stretchy enough to fit.

A quiet part of her wondering why she’d come back, instead of let's say.. running away or trying to call the authorities, since getting in trouble for irresponsible magic use was still definitely better than getting murdered.

“Thanks…” said Demon. Hurriedly putting on the pants.

She saw that it had found her spell books, watching it leaf through the tome that had held its secret name.

“Um...that’s…my-” complained Lucy. Feeling anxious since having someone take hold of your spellbooks was troubling thing, even when they weren’t some terrifying monster from the dark beyond. Good spell tomes were expensive and hard to find, often filled with notes from the last user’s insights.

“...That’s what?” said the Demon. One brow raised.

A small scared animal noise escaped her as Lucy hurriedly shook her head.

“....Nevermind.”

The demon ripped several pages from the book and Lucy felt a pang in her chest as she watched a flume of a flame reduce the pages to ash.

After looking at the girl, he reduced the book to ash and Lucy realized that she was crying a little.

Then from behind the demon opened a tear in space, a bright white circle that appeared on the empty air.

Out of this aperture came a woman, with long dark hair, glasses, and a dark hoodie. Looking exceedingly distressed as she ran out and wrapped her arms around the man’s shoulders.

“There you are…shit do you know how scared I was?!”

“Sorry, hon…” said the Demon. Looking sheepish and surprisingly less demon like with the woman at his side.

Lucy paired behind the two oddly humanoid creatures and saw what seemed to be a workroom that was in complete disarray, one with setup similar to those she’d seen a thousand times.

“Um...I’m sorry...Was-...Was, this your demon?” she said in a small voice.

The dark haired woman rounded on her, glaring, looking plainly furious.

“...Does my boyfriend look like a demon to you, you silly twat?!”

Lucy blinked. Taking a proper look at the being that she’d summoned, dark haired, dark skinned, with a chiseled physique. Appealingly human seeming, in a way that might require the term “rugged” or “unkempt”

On the one hand she’d definitely been trying to call upon a being from the deepest pits of the Monochrome Abyss...On the other hand what she’d got was something that looked like it’d be at home on the cover of a schlock romance novel.

“Maybe as a desire demon….ma-maybe?” said Lucy. The gears in her head whirring as she gave the question a serious think.

For some reason this set the strange woman off, she lunged her, a rumbling snarl coming out from within her.

Lucy shrieked as she jumped back, arms held in front of her in the universal sign language for “oh no, not the face”.

The woman was stopped short, held back by her “boyfriend”.

“Now, now….She’s just a stupid girl not an evil one...See how she’s still breathing after jerking me out of our living room and through a portal to hell... It means I decided to let her live…”

“Grr….” growled the mad woman, with a demon for a boyfriend. The beginnings of a very nasty looking spell crackling betwixt her fingers.

Eventually she sniffed, the spell faded and she let the man guide her back into the workroom on the other side of the portal.

Lucinda collapsed as the portal closed. The realization that she seemed to be being allowed to actually keep her little life, exhausting her. The cold sobriety that came from surviving the past two and half hours of terror making her realize just how badly she’d screwed up and how close she’d been to disaster.

Then there was a roar, an explosion of the air, as the portal opened up again, this time showing a kitchen.

The Demon...or maybe not a Demon, stood there in a pair of significantly more flattering pajama bottoms and a t-shirt. He stepped through the portal and put something in Lucy’s hand and then tousled her hair a bit.

“Somehow you’ve managed to enter the range of so dumb its endearing. so….anyway...since I’m “not” a demon, luckily for you, very, very luck for you,... I can’t help you with the whole flunking out of school thing...but if you call that number I promise you’ll probably land on your feet.”

Then the demon was gone and Lucy was left in the dark, holding a business card of all things. She pissed herself, her legs seeming to ignore any thoughts of getting up and going to the bathroom.

“...Tha-...Thanks?!” she said. Calling out the into dark. Just in case the...whatever, it...he...was came back and was angered by her lack of manners and came back.

Afterwards she passed out for a little bit, having gone far enough beyond normal physical, mental and magical exhaustion, that her body deemed it fine for her to fall asleep in the cold garage, sitting in her own piss.