“Welcome back to the land of the living” came the sweet voice that Kavon remembered hearing before he blacked out. “How do you feel?”

“Like I was murdered, revived, murdered even worse and then fed to a honey badger.” Groaned Kavon.

“Hey boss, I found that nasty Gnome that you mentioned. He is tied up in the basement and he is NOT happy about it. Anyway, he was no match for this sexy slab of imp muscle!” Srit said as he puffed out his chest with pride.

“Why did you subdue him? He is a guest in this house, you must treat him as such.” Replied Sariah

“Well, as soon as he saw me, he threw some stupid rings at me and stabbed me in the top of the head. I told him to chill his shit or I’d own him. He didn’t chill, so I owned him.”

“The attack was completely unprovoked then? Well, I suppose you didn’t have a choice then. How did you manage to overpower a fully-grown Gnome? I’ve seen you get overcome by a halfling in physical combat.” Sariah chuckled to herself, remembering Srit getting his ass handed to him by that shit covered vagabond halfling. A particularly good drunk bet if I do say so myself.

“Well, it wasn’t entirely unprovoked. I slapped him with one of the dicks I hit you with. Haha, he had his mouth open and everything. I think I hit him on the tongue with the tip of it. He was WAYY more pissed than you were! Great times! And as for him being a fully-grown Gnome…you are not exactly right there. He’s about 1/3rd the size of a regular Gnome. But he does have some pretty awesome claws, and a beard that stretches out on its own. He’s pretty kick ass for a Gnome if I do say so myself. I’ll go get him.” Srit ran off to fetch the newly bound Gnome.

Where does he keep finding these bags at?!

“Ma’am, do you mind if I ask a question?” croaked Kavon

“Sure!”

“Who are you? Who am I? Why do I feel like death? And was that an Imp?!?!” He practically yelled .

“Well, I am Sariah. You are Kavon. Yes, that was an Imp, the little shit. You’ve been through the backlash of a broken ritual in which you were summoning your Bonded. We’re bringing him up right now. I’m going to need you to calm down. Your anxiety is getting me riled up, and that will not work in your favor.”

Seeing the deadly seriousness of her words, Kavon slowed his breathing down and tried to calm himself. Turning his focus inward he tried to collect his thoughts and see what he could remember.

Okay, my last memory was, was, shit. I remember being at events and places, I just don’t remember details that transpired. I remember basic things like speech, obviously, but can’t remember where I learned how to do so. ”Ma’am, will my memory return? I have no experience with backlash using magic, nor do I remember anything in my studies that tell me the repercussions.” Kavon asked Sariah.

“I’m not really sure. I wield a great deal of magic, but, I was never much of a scholar. War was always my forte. I can tell you this much, backlash can be so severe that the body can break apart like dust. I’ve ruined armies by simply feeding to much magic into their rituals and containment objects. The explosions can be quite grand. This little baby right here” she said, pointing to her half armor piece, “can store a huge amount of energy. It’s sort of like the crystals your kind uses to combine several mages energies. I pulled most of the feral energy that was chasing mine during the ritual into the piece, which saved your life. I just had no way to mold the energy and feed it back to you. In truth, there is probably a great deal of your essence trapped in here right now. Maybe when I get the other half of the armor I can restore you, but I don’t think you can naturally regrow your memory or the lost pieces of your essence.”

“I see, I suppose that I owe you thanks for saving what you could. I have no idea about the type of person I was, nor anything about my identity aside from being a scholar. Even there, I only remember fundamentals of my teachings. If I remember right, magic was a lost thing. Yet, you obviously can wield it with great skill since you are healing me right now. I can feel the touch of your magic resonating in my body like it’s a living thing. It’s so controlled and refined. I feel like you’re responsible for my Bonding in the first place, is this correct?” Kavon inquired.

“Yeah, you’re a descendant of a bloodline that was infused long ago. I share that blood, so our energy, or magic as most call it, is very compatible. I pushed my energy into your body and opened its potential up in full. Guiding you was simple, since you were willing. It was rather hard to keep the link open as you passed through Realms. At each connection point I had to essentially take you back to a central point and bring you all the way back to the center of the next realm. It’s like a wagon wheel, but, instead of jumping from spoke to spoke, we keep having to return to the hub and travel back down the spoke. The energy is flowing properly in the Realms we traveled right now, just at a much slower rate and lower volume than it should be. I was afraid to tear the barriers between realms because I wasn’t sure if I could shape the door into something stable. It made the ritual require a lot more time and focus than it should.”

“I see. So, about that Bonding that I underwent. Was it successful?”

“Absolutely, you’ll be meeting your bonded shortly. I am still putting you back together right now though.” Sariah replied with a look of concentration on her face.

“I owe you thanks for everything you’ve done to this point. What is in it for you though?”

Sariah quickly stopped healing the inquisitive mage and weighed her words carefully. “My gain in this deal is a subordinate with unwavering loyalty to me and my mission. Should you prove useless to me, I’ll quickly absorb your entire being, should you attempt to betray me, I will toss you into the Demon Realm and let the largest, nastiest Demon in the realm torture, rape and mind fuck you until time ends.” Judging her words to be sufficient, she went back to healing. Out of the coroner of her eye, she could see Kavon staring at her, slack jawed and terrified. “I am going to make you a stone to carry. This stone will be infused with life magic and will slowly seep into your body when it’s touching the skin. I can’t close your leaking essence up for some reason, so the life magic will serve as a dam against the tide. I need you to meet your Bonded now so that I can figure out what your magical affinity is. Imp! Get your ass up here with the Gnome!”

Currently the Imp was busy poking the Gnomes beard with random things and gauging the reactions. When he poked it with the mages dog, it devoured it. When he poked it with random inanimate objects, it would attempt to grab said object and use it as a weapon. From start to end, Srit had been hit with a lamp, impaled with a quill and was missing a finger that got a little too close to the beard. “Hey grumpy! Stop fighting for a second so that I can untie you and bring you upstairs.” Not really worrying about the danger that his new friend posed to him, Srit began to untie the Gnome. As the first hand was fully untied, a finger turned into a sharp black claw and impaled the top of the Imps skull.

Got him now! Time to eat brain! Tom wrenched his victim’s skull open with practiced ease and peered into the top of the Imps skull, anxious to see what his next meal would look like. Da Fuck?! Why no brain?! So hungry! Stupid fluffy thing tasted bad. Stupid fat red thing has no brain. Tom sighed internally as he dropped the stupid red thing to the floor. He was just so hungry!

Tom reached over and cut the bindings that kept his arms and other hand secured to the wall. He left the lifeless body of the Imp on the floor and proceeded to walk up the stairs where he heard other voices coming from. Really hope new things have big heads.

As he topped the stairs, an assault to his mind hit him like an entire world crashing down on a single ant. Falling to his feet he screamed in pain and begged the presence to show him mercy, and it did.

“I’m sorry little Gnome, I was unaware that any of your kind was so sensitive to mind magic. I have placed a barrier around your mind now. You should be able to effortlessly stand in my presence while it remains active.”

“Ow! What you do?! Make me hurt! Fuck you lady!” Tom turned to run, but as his view shifted towards the door he was assaulted with some blunt weapon, directly to the face and knocking him out cold.

“Hehe, I like this guy!” Bellowed Srit as he quickly placed his weapon into his bag. Srit snatched up the Gnome and placed him on the chair next to Kavon. He quickly retreated and sat on Sariah’s lap with a gleeful smile, full of teeth and blood.

Sariah had to admit that she liked the pipsqueak as well. She always preferred feral beings, but, never expected to meet a Gnome that was this feral and entertaining.

“Let’s be done with this place, we have training to do and should find somewhere remote. Take us to a forest that is far removed from civilization.” Sariah stated to Kavon as he sat there looking down as his unconscious “Gnome” Bonded in curiosity and a bit of fear.