Nannade descended the stairs from Master Paramonos’ private study. Her light vial was illuminating the narrow passageway down. It was obviously leading into the soft sandstone rock of the slope, but not hewn like the tunnels of gangsters and thieves, no, shaped with magic, most elegant and sophisticated. She felt the cool dampness creep under her clothes. The Serpent was wide awake, vigilant; she was sure something would soon meet them and she warned Nannade to not take it lightly. It made sense, the private study was barely more than a decoy, instead, all important things were hidden even deeper and guarded, probably by a being bound by the mystic arts, not some arcane contrivance.

She reached another door, wooden, heavy, inscribed with powerful runes of holding. Something was held behind that door. She pushed the handle down and felt no resistance; it didn’t even have a lock to begin with.

Behind the door she found a large chamber, bookshelves pointed into the room, all full with tomes, jars and pots in which she could see preserved specimens, lungs, livers, hearts, even a preserved hand with monstrous features and the seal of the Houses of Mysteries, in another jar, a human head bearing the brand of the sinner. A large desk was strewn with sheets of paper and scrolls of parchment, quills and inkwells with differently coloured inks as well as rulers, protractors and compasses had been left as they had been used. But most of all dominated this room a cage of large crystalline bars running from floor to ceiling uninterrupted, surrounding an area fifteen feet in length on each side. Nannade closed the door before she dared to look upon what was in the cage in all detail.

An almost upright standing stone, roughly eight feet tall and four feet wide, and to it, bound with black chains engraved with blazing red runes unlike any Nannade had ever seen before, a man. Tall, pale, with long and perfectly white, smooth hair but without any wrinkles or scars anywhere on his skin. He wore nothing but the chains and covered in the same runes. He struggled and ached, strained and grunted.

She stepped closer to the cage, but did not dare to put her hands on the bars of crystal. She leaned in closer to get a better look. The man was even gagged with the black chains, his eyes were full of tears, darting around, searching for something to fix on, but never meeting Nannade’s gaze.

“Hello my child.” The voice was sudden, charming and most of all, familiar.

“Who was that? Where are you?”

A man stepped out from behind the stone, he looked exactly like the one bound on the stone, but was not covered in runes and instead dressed gallantly. “I am here, I can be nowhere else.” His voice was as if Nannade had heard it before, but she could not remember where or even what she had heard him say.

“Who are you?” Nannade sized the man up and down, but could not see a single ill-willing fibre on his entire body, he seemed harmless at first and second glance.

“I am hurt, my child, that you do not even recognize your godfather, whose name you bear.”

Nannade took a step back from the bars. “I have no godfather and I bear the name of my grandmother!”

“I do not care about the sound that others make to get your attention and neither do I care about the flesh that brought forth the flesh that brought forth your flesh. I care about your being, my child.”

“And what does that make me, my ‘being’?”

“My knight, my disciple, my most sorrowful of followers.”

“I fight for no one but justice.”

The man flashed a playful smiled and stepped closer to the bars. “You might think you fight for justice, but you do not fight with justice. It is an end to you, not a path, the path you take is mine, because only on my path do you find your chosen opponents.”

Nannade stood her ground. “Who are you? And who is that?” She pointed to the bound man.

“I am a part and I am the whole. I am an ember of the fire that drives all men left in cold darkness, that drives all people in fact, but leads none. The king that commanded no one but was followed by everyone, before I was broken from the crown and bound here. And that man is as much jailed here with me as he is the jailer.”

Nannade wanted to tell him to stop speaking in riddles, but by now she had realized what exactly he was; a spirit, daemon, deity or whatever one might call it, bound to the body of some unlucky sod to be forced into servitude to a third. Servitude to Master Paramonos. But unlike familiars or pactitioners, he was not granted to reveal the nature to anyone but his master, forced to speak in riddles instead.

She decided to start poking for the truly important questions. “So, do you have a name? What is your domain? And what do you do for Master Paramonos?”

“My domain is every human being and those that are close enough, like you. My name is so manifold it could fill a thousand books in a thousand languages, but to truly know it, you only need to understand what I bestowed upon you. For Master I do everything he asks of me, including guarding this room. It was me who screamed against his binds in the hope you heard me in that faraway place just beyond the bars, and you did. It was me who opened the door, and without my approval, you would not be able to open it again.”

She found the guardian of Paramonos’ secrets. “Is that so? Then what would you ask of me to gain your approval and your silence? And what else could I gain from this encounter?”

The man smiled. “It is difficult for me to hide things from our master, but for you, my child, I shall grant you this favour, if you promise to return, then I might answer all your questions. I already know you are noticing a web around you, you’re not yet entirely caught, but before too long, you shall return for my aid.” He stretched out his hand at the very edge of the cage, not daring to pass beyond the bars. “It would be a shame to be left helpless and exposed in your hour of need, at the mercy of a cruel master that took your very body and free will from you.”

Nannade knew he was right about the web; she was definitely at a disadvantage against everyone in this house. “Why would you do that? Simply for a promise?”

“I need strength to draw upon, to resist the man we both call Master. Surety that I will see your sweet face once more, that would give me the strength to endure a thousand days of questions.”

Nannade hesitated. Words spoken to a spirit could have dire consequences, a careless promise could doom her even further than her blood already did. “Why is that so important or powerful?”

“You hurt me yet again. You are the first of my children to ever visit me, and you are so beautiful, so delectable and so refined. How can I not long for such a company once more?”

Nannade did not entirely believe him, but she needed not to, just be careful. “I promise, that I will enter this room once more from this point looking forward.”

The man smiled and wiggled his fingers, extended his pinkie and moved it as close to the bars as possible. Nannade too extended her pinkie and moved it to meet his. Their fingers formed into hooks and interlocked. A flash went through Nannade. The man’s face seared into her mind in blazing red, his smile so welcoming and powerful. Her tired mind gave in, allowed him to speak her name, crude and cruel.

It took a short moment for Nannade to return back to the room. The man smiled at her with content. “Thank you, my child. Your secrets will be safe. I am looking forward to our future arrangement.”

Questions swirled in her head, but she felt tired, incredibly tired, she had no strength to ponder on them now. She turned around and left the room without much thought but that of sleep. She heard the man call after her. “Until we meet again.” She could barely bring forth a “Yes, yes.” Before pulling the door shut. She felt like a huge burden had been put on her. She finally made it back to her bed, and did not even manage to take off her student’s garbs before falling into bed. As her eyes fell shut, she could see the blazing red face, like an afterimage of a candle, alight in her mind.