Stix finally managed to find his way out of the ventilation shaft, though he seemed to have passed every room in the place, except the emergency room, and not once had her head sight nor sound of Bors. The bars on the vent window had already been taken away. Without even having to get level with the exit, Stix could see an eerie blue glow coming from the room. Cautiously, he stuck his head out to see what was about. The glow seemed to be eminating from a strange individual who had his back to the vent, and was leaning over the resting body of the mute boy Stix and Bors had found in the alley earlier that day. The first thing he noticed was the long tail, and horns. Stix instinctively reached for the chains of religious icons hung upon his neck to ward off evil. Now was not the time to be worrying about his own safety, a very un-thievish thought indeed. In a sort of maddened ball of whirling daggers and pent up aggression, Stix errupted from the overhead vent, leaping at the blue demon. He slashed and stabbed as quick and viciously as he could, running himself out in seconds. Panting he rested his hands on his knees. The demon turned round, noticed him, and pulled the daggers out of their resting place in his sides, as if they were only thorns to him. Then he looked at the runt that had attempted to rid the world of him.

Fear welled up inside of Stix, but his burst of attack had left him with no energy left to run. So, he went for option two, and fainted instead. Bors looked around the side of the demon, “Sorry about that sir, he gets a bit carried away at times.” The demon turned back. It was slightly annoying to have that happen every time it materialised. No one ever noticed the angelic wings, or iconic holy symbols tattooed across its body, all they saw was the tail and the horns.

“Its all right, I’m used to it now. Where were we?”

“How the spell works.”

“The remnants of the spell, its keeping him alive by default. it’s a side effect of that particular spell to take the summons, no one ever bothered to fix it. Mind you, it was supposed to be erased from history. Must be getting back, and thanks for not trying to send me back to my maker, its been a refreshing change.” The blue glow receded and then the figure was gone. Bors walked around to Stix. Easily he lifted him up. Bors had been waiting to do this for years. He back hand smacked Stix across his rat like face. Stix jutted awake.
He opened his eyes, a bright red mark already showing up across his face. He looked up at Bors.

“Big demon!”

“It’s gone now, it went back.” Stix was looking around, trying to confirm it for himself. Then second thoughts kicked in.

“You hit me!” He reached up to feel his cheek, nudging it gently sent streams of pain out around the area.

“Thought you was dead or somethin’, just wanted to bring you ‘round, guess I don’t know my own strength.”

“What did he do to the mute? When did you get here? Why are ya still holding me like I was a baby or somethin’?”

“He did nothin’, I got here about ten minutes ago, and…” Bors opened his arms, letting Stix drop to the floor. There was a sudden explosion outside. An orange glow flashed through the curtained window, that was almost certainly magically alarmed. They pulled back the curtains to see what was going on anyway. The noise had awoken Remii, and many others as well. Right across the city, windows were opening. A fireball appeared out of the sky, and hurled itself at the mage tower. Then there was another one from about ninety degrees clockwise, this time the light from the ball reflected off a smooth black under belly, though not much else could be seen. Remii came over dreary eyed to see what was going on. By now Mages had woken up, and several of them were on the battlements already casting the protective spells to fend off the attack. One of them was bright enough to cast a light spell bright enough to make it appear like daytime around the tower. Quite a few people wished he hadn’t at that point, a black dragon was circling, building up fire to launch at the tower again.

“Their shield won’t affect the fire.” Uttered Remii, scrabbling away from the window and out of the main entrance. A green bubble formed around the tower. It was the combined magical power of several powerful apprentices and mages. Again the fire was hurled. If it had been magic they were against, the shield would have sent the attack right back tenfold, indeed that is what most expected to happen. The fireball slowed slightly as it made contact, and then it slid through, hitting several unsuspecting youths on top. Remii was running full out to the tower, trying to get in range as fact as he could. “Kiriani! Defend the mages!” He ordered. He felt the pull, and realised too late that he no longer had the summons capable of doing what he asked. Remii collapsed to his knees. He was powerless to stop the slaughter, which it would soon turn into. Bors and Stix ran to catch up with him.

“ ‘ere, I thought you was a mute!” Challenged Stix, still not sure what was going on, or why Remii was on the floor, tears streaming down his cheek. Bors edged over, and lifted Remii onto his feet, supporting him. The mages were trying to counter, launching their own offensive spells into the night air, trying to hit the dragon.

Some missed, but others remained on course, deflected at the last moment by some unseen force. The mages were the only real defence against unnatural attacks, if they fell, the city could easily be taken. Behind the sadness and anxiety, Remii felt a slight pulse of power, similar to a dormant summons, that already had form. He could feel something close not attached to any living being, and he felt in tune with it, even though it felt spread out, non distinct. He needed a name, something by which to call it, though he had never felt anything like this before. Whatever it was tied to, it wanted to be released, it felt the city in danger, and wanted to help. Remii opened his eyes. Stix and Bors had backed away, looking at him slightly surprised. Stix was more interested in his feet, and Bors seemed to be staring at his hands. Remii looked down. His finger tips were alight with a blue flame, around him was a circle it was just like his fingers. There was another scream from the mage’s tower, drawing back his attention.

“Awaken, Peddans, I call you!” He had named it. The blue fire ignited into a furious spiral of erupting power. It reached up until it was above the tallest structures, and then spread outward, doming over the city. The last of it travelled up, closing in the last bit above Remii, keeping out the dragon. Remii collapsed, his body burnt badly from acting as the conduit to so much power. There were slight illuminations above as fire was hurled by the dragon trying to break the shield, made up of summons energy. Mages were already rushing out of the tower to see what was at the base that had formed the spiral, stopping the attack, where their own power could not. It also brought several other people from close by to come and have a look, one of which was Sister Makarva, dressed in a nightgown.

She had brought her emergency medical kit with her, including, luckily, burn healing crystals, that were once the tears of water Nymphs, dried over many years, and extremely valuable, due to how hard they were to obtain. The Sister flipped of the top, grabbed a pinch, and sprinkled in over the barely alive Remii. Where the crystals touched, they became puddles, seeping into Remii’s scorched flesh, returning it to its usual pink, unburned state. It was slow to begin with, but as the tears hit the blood stream the healing grew faster, taking care of the inside as well. The sister cursed when she realised who it was. Her patient wasn’t supposed to have left the emergency ward, although she was slightly glad he had, she had several close friends in the mage’s order. Once she saw he was out of the worst of it, she, and some of the other sisters that had now arrived, began looking at the mages. Their wounds, whilst serious, were not as bad as Remii’s. The mages who were left standing, magically lifted up their comrades, and Remii, and moved them back to the healers chapter house.

The rest of the population dispersed, most to return to their beds, to get answers from someone official in the morning. Stix and Bors mean while had slipped away, almost silently into the night. They were as tired the people around them, it had been a long day after all, and they still had to check into the guild head quarters, to say they were still alive, though at least there would always be a bed there for them, which was something.

They were told off by the registrar on duty, but she often signed in members late at night, so it was more a kind ‘You should take better care of yourselves’ than anything else. Sleepy, they curled up tightly under the thin worn blankets, and were out of it in minutes. Sister Makarva wasn’t so lucky. Her thoughts kept her awake, and made her pace across the floor in her office. The more she thought, the more uneasy she became. The dragon stopped its assault on what seemed like an impenetrable shield now over the city at about one in the morning, the shield ceased to be up about three am, and during that time, Sister Makarva hadn’t stopped pacing once. No doubt a high ranking mage would now be assigned to the mysterious case, to find out what was going on, though who she really hoped would arrive was the village elder from where she had trained to learn about summons, though he couldn’t really arrive before the weekend, unless he ran a couple of horses ragged, which didn’t seem to be the way of life in those parts. She checked on the slumbering youth. He couldn’t be more than sixteen or seventeen, he looked extremely innocent while he slept, it was like ten times the amount he exuded whilst awake.

The Sister scolded herself for thinking such thoughts. In taking to this religious order, she had taken a vow of celibacy, and wasn’t about to pass on twelve years not caving to temptation, and keeping her vows to throw them all in one night of mad passion. She checked on the mages that had been brought in, most were students in their final years of study, though, there were a couple of the teachers in there as well. Their burns were all healed, and they were sleeping quietly. When she returned to her office there was a message waiting for her on the crystal ball on her desk. Whilst crude, these were one of the fastest ways of communicating that could be replayed several times, if it was missed the first.

She used the playback command. “Forwarded message from the castle: News has reached us of a bizarre attack on your city by a dragon that’s power wasn’t stopped by the mage’s shield. I’ve sent a legion of my dragoons to help, they’ll be there by morning, I hope this returns our debt to you, Padrone del drago, Emanuaes.” It was typical for the dragon master to send troops to make sure that no one thought it was one of his dragons that had attacked the city. This message sounded like it had been sent out on a general line, for everyone to hear, so no one would be surprised. It was nearly four in the morning now, and Sister Makarva was feeling extremely tired by this point. She pulled out the fold up bed in her office, grabbed the time expander from her draw, which was an invaluable magical devices to those who worked long shifts and needed more rest than there was time for in the day, and gave it three swift turns, giving her an extra six hours inside the bubble of time it created.

The only downside was that you had to keep recharging it after every use, which could take a week to reach full capacity, so it wasn’t very good for constant demand. Sister Makarva didn’t even get out of her long white robes, she didn’t have time, she was too tired as it was. The constant winding down of the time expander had become constant lull, and almost familiar now, and was easy to sleep through. At half seven, the time expander ran out of power, having added its few precious hours inside the radius of its power. The Sister awoke after having a fairly decent amount of sleep. She stretched and yawned. As always in the morning, her hair was every which way it could possibly go. She folded back up the bed, and headed for the wash room. Ten minutes later she emerged, her hair neatly in a band behind her head. She checked on the patients again. Chico the green monkey, her personified soul, came waddling over, it had got far less sleep than her, not having a time expander.

However, it didn’t really need to sleep, but it still enjoyed the concept of not having to be awake, and had even grown used to dreams. It carried on a small silver tray, a vile of medicine, to help get the Nymph tears out of the human system, before they crystallised again in the blood, which was always a health risk. Not that getting them out through sweat glands in liquid form wasn’t, but the medical council had deemed it far less of a risk that the alternative, and it least then it could be re-used, keeping the price relatively stable. Luckily, the vile that Chico had brought, was oral, rather than some of the other methods that could be used. She took a small pipette out of one of her many pockets, unscrewed the lid of the vile, and took up a small amount of the strange green liquid. The first patient was a young mage, possibly in his penultimate year of study, if not his last. Gently she tipped back his head to allow his mouth to drop open. A single drop fell from the tip of the pipette, and landed on his tongue. He shuddered slightly, and was sweating in seconds. As the droplets ran of they formed crystals when they were not in contact with the slightly salty skin of humans.

After the treatment was done, a fine powder surrounded his body, tracing its outline. Chico followed behind his Symbiotic host, though now detached, and was gently sweeping up the dust, after peeling back the sheets in small areas. At last the pair came to Remii. There was reason Sister Makarva had decided to do him last. Chico understood this, it was knowledge they shared from being one for so long. He handed over the dust pan, and sauntered off. Neither wanted him to have another violent reaction to the presence of another summons. Sister Makarva took up a full load of the green liquid. She had given him a larger than usual portion of the Nymph tears, to speed up his recovery. She again tilted the head back, and squirted the entire amount in the pipette onto the young mans tongue. His body shook violently, much more than a shudder ever would. He went limp after a few seconds, as he broke out into a sweat.

She stroked his forehead. He opened his eyes, looked up into hers, and smiled. “Sorry about leaving the ward Sister, but…I couldn’t stand by…and do nothing…” His voice was feint. His stomach growled as it awoke, not having been fed for while. The mages were starting to wake up as well. A pair of day helpers came in with the breakfast trolley, checking the signed in patients register before cooking up a small feast. There were only a few beds in the chapter house. The first three levels of seriousness had examination beds, and that was it, as most of those patients wouldn’t be staying in over night. It was only ward four and five that actually had them, which reduced the amount that needed to be prepared by a great deal. The mages ate hungrily, clearing off once they had got the ok, and had been fed. Remii, although ravenous, couldn’t eat much, the food was different from what he was used to, and his body made him bring some of it back up.

In the end he managed to keep down some bread, and some fruit, along with a small glass of milk. At about nine in the morning, a high ranking mage from the tower came in to find out more about this young man, and how he had stopped the attack. He talked first with Sister Makarva, getting a background to her patient, and the rough nature of summons, which he seemed to find a bit hard to swallow, but listened anyway. He was curious as well about Chico, a creature he had never seen before, but it made what he was being told seem more realistic. Eventually he came over to Remii.

“Hello there, my name is Estrad, I’m a haut mage, neuvième niveau, which means I’m a high mage, ninth level, I’ve been sent by the magical order to find out what in blue blazes happened last night, as they haven’t got a single clue. I believe you created the city dome that stopped the assault, where our humble magics couldn’t, so, could you kind of tell me how you did it?” Although he must have been in his forties or fifties, he seemed like young child just able to pluck up the courage to ask what he had.

He seemed easy going, and not patronising, which was always a good thing. Remii smiled inward at his analysis of this slim figure, who didn’t even dress in the extremely elegant robes of some of the wizards and mages that Remii had met through his life. “The dragon wasn’t a dragon. It was a construct of someone’s soul. Given its nature, I would say someone who was violent, or destructive. Your magics can’t effect it because they work on the physical, where as its sort of spiritual, its hard to explain. It has form, but it doesn’t have to obey the rules that other forms do.” The mage nodded through this, having taken out a note book, and scribbling furiously everything that he was being told.

“What about the dome, what can you tell me about that?” “I’m not sure about that, it felt like a summons, which is the name used for those creatures, but it was massive, I have no idea what could have generated it, or why I could call it.” “I’m sorry, are you saying, you can’t call someone else’s summons?” The mage asked, looking up from his notes. Remii nodded, slightly uncertainly.

“So, can you tell me how you lost yours, if its not to personal?”

“It was ..stolen. I don’t know how.” The mage stood up. He placed his hand on Remii’s forehead, and took a quick examination, to confirm this was true. He withdrew.

“How odd. No soul, but there is something…I’ll have to look that up. Could you do me a favour, could you call the summons you called last night again, even if its just in a small area?” Remii wasn’t sure he could, or what would happen if he did. Usually it was all or nothing, or it had been with his. The presence of the guardian still lingered, and he could feel it, but as a back ground noise.

“Peddans, please show yourself.” He asked, saying it and thinking it out to the entity. A gentle blue flame once again came to be at the tip of his finger tips. A small circle formed on the floor in front of him. Most summons didn’t need portals to show themselves, which he told Estrad, the mage. A sphere generated itself from the ground, hovering in the air. Remii began to feel weak, much as he had done when Chico was close. His eyes closed themselves, and he lay back. Coming around a few minutes later, noticing the blue flames had gone from the tips of his fingers.

“Fascinating.” Muttered Estrad, still making notes. “Could you tell me what made you call it Peddans? Did you see the name anywhere?” “It was just what came into my mind when I thought of it. Why?” Remii asked, still a little dazed.

“I’m sure I’ve read that name before, I’ll have to look it up. Thank you for your help, er, I hope you get your soul back soon?” He turned and left, tucking the pencil behind an ear, and dropping the note book into a pocket. “Oh, one last thing, could you come see me in the Tower t some point, I wouldn’t mind learning how to summon something if I can, thank you, see you again!” With that he was gone.