The day before the fall of Almadel

Trix stepped into the darkness. She strained her ears but could hear only the rapid beating of her heart. Ahead, she saw the outline of blocky shapes: Boxes and furniture piled up into uneven columns. Beyond, it was pitch black, none of the dim light from the corridor seeming to penetrate more than a step into the room. She fumbled against the wall until she found a switch and flicked it on. For a moment nothing happened, then a yellow glow filled the space. A rich, warm light such as one might see on the evening of a summer day. Trix couldn't tell where it was coming from, the bare pendant bulb on the ceiling remaining dark. In the center of the room was an arm chair, and the light had seemed to emanate from here, spreading out into the room, pouring over the furniture like treacle until it finally reached Trix, flowing up her body and warming her face. The arm chair's frame was carved from a dark wood, studded with brass buttons and upholstered in a thick red velvet. On the chair was a cat. It stirred, moving unhurriedly, uncurled, stretched languorously, sat up neatly and looked at her. It's one eye shone a dull red. It raised a paw to its mouth and licked it absentmindedly. “Hello Beatrix Jenson.” It said. Its mouth had not moved, and the sound had not quite seemed to come from its direction. The voice sounded familiar, like she were reading its lines herself in her own head: Trix's voice but harsher, colder, sneering.

"Hello demon" she replied. She wasn't shocked, This is what I expected she realised, I've known this was what I would find, since the first time I saw it through that gap in the door. She felt relaxed, her body was suffused with a warm contentment that matched the yellow light in the room. How natural, to talk to this demon cat.

"The Greeks called us by that name, Demon. They thought us creatures half way between men and gods. Protectors and deciders of fate. They were half right. I remember they appreciated us more than the English ever did. You may address me as Salomé."

"You are a girl?"

"I am a demon, we established this, don't make me repeat myself, I do hate the sound of my own voice. Not that I have heard it recently."

"Why are you here? Is Jeremiah hiding you here from Andras?"

The cat seemed to tense at the mention of those names, the hair on its back sitting up for a second before ruffling and lying back down. "How delightful, I guess you could say that he is. Not for my benefit however. I have been trapped here, lured in on false pretenses and confined to this prison using the least valorous of magics. Now I sit gathering dust, like some beautiful forgotten jewel, a cursed jewel, a blood emerald: locked up and forgotten. Regardless, I have been observing you with great interest, child. While your teacher believes my imprisonment here in this form to be an excellent punishment, I have come to enjoy watching the little dramas that play out within these walls every year."

"How do you watch me if you can't leave this room?" the calmness she felt was intoxicating, the muscles throughout her body relaxing for the first time in weeks, her shoulders dropping away from where they had climbed next to her ears from the stress. She brushed some dust off a chair and sat down on it, cross-legged.

"Do not be fooled by my current appearance, child. I am powerful beyond human understanding. I can see much of what happens." the cat shifted in the chair, "although my vision does not penetrate beyond the forest, nor can I see pieces of what happens inside the school itself."

"Why would you let me know that?" wondered Trix aloud, the words flowing from her mouth withour filter, "are you trying to get me to trust you?". She felt the dreamy calmness lift a little.

"A judicious observation, and accurate. I do wish for you to trust me, and I revealed the limits of my power for that reason. In exchange, you will tell me what just transpired beyond that door."

"We were trying to get in, to see what was hidden in here. We stole the key from Jeremiah, but it broke."

Salomé laughed, a rolling, purring noise. "How delicious, how wonderful and unexpected. Then that is the source of that crumbling of power I felt earlier. I must thank you child." it bowed its head to her. "Had you only knocked, I would have opened the door for you."

"You can do that?"

"I can. With great and terrible difficulty. The door is not what binds me here. The key is not what holds me. I can feel the bonds still in place, but my eyes outside the school see through my window. The incoming wards must have been held within the structure of the key. I wonder who can see me, now. I wonder what horrors are right now awakening and turning on my direction, their many-faceted eyes focusing on this location with interest."

"Oh. I see." said Trix.

"Perhaps I can do something more for you, in return. Is this not how two people build trust and friendship? Through a slow escalation of mutual favours?" said the cat, "I can see in your body that you are angry, you feel betrayed by someone. You could bring them before me, that I would terrify them, fill them with unimaginable fear and darkness, a terror from which they will never awake, breaking their mind and leaving behind a hollow shell. You will look on and take pleasure in their suffering, a suffering even deeper for the knowledge that it was their own weakness of character that caused the punishment."

“No? I wouldn’t take any pleasure in seeing my friend suffer.”

“A friend who betrays you is more hated than any enemy. To punish them is sweet. These are universal human emotions. I am sure you possess them also.”

"He didn't betray me. He didn't know what he was doing..."

"Stupidity and ignorance are especially worthy of punishment." said Salome, as she washed her face with a curled paw. "The world is made better when such a person is destroyed, even more so if doing so creates one more intelligent and motivated enemy in exchange. Eternity is boring indeed when you are surrounded by incompetent friendly fools. No mind, if you do not desire this, maybe a little romantic divertissement? I could help hurry such a thing toward its inevitable tragic conclusion. Young women enjoy such things terribly."

"You make it sound rather unappealing."

"Quite the contrary. Life is long and boring, so I have learned to never pass up the opportunity to put in motion a few small tragedies to distract me throughout the centuries. Perhaps this is such an opportunity for you. A budding romance, a misunderstanding that tears them apart, one seduced by dark demonic powers beyond their ken, the other flourishing in the light. Finally, a cruel inversion -- the truth is revealed, but it is too late, they both have changed, and both are disgusted at what the other has become. You: the main character.”

"That sounds horrible" said Trix.

"Drama is life, its avoidance, death."

Trix tried to remember why she had been so worried earlier. Her head felt like it was full of cotton wool, directing her thoughts a conscious effort. Oh yes, people will be coming back from the swim, soon. They will find me here. Oh well. I should hurry. Why did I come here? Curiosity?. "Can I touch you?" Trix said suddenly.