Prologue

Fire leaped from the brazier, causing multi colored sparks to jump quickly within the confines of the magic circle. The flame grew larger, causing heat in the room to become almost unbearable. The demon hoped that his theatrics would install fear into his summoner, and cause them to make a mistake. “Time to change it up” the demon thought. The flames slowly became lower and lower. Smoke replaced the fire, and it swirled like a tornado within the brazier. Red glowing eyes formed inside of the smoke, and peered through. “Who dares summon me” the demon commanded.

“My name isn’t important, demon” the hooded figure told him.

The demon smiled behind his smoky illusion, “ah a woman. I haven’t tasted the flesh of a woman or child in a while” the demon chuckled. The figure had heard enough. She began to chant the demon’s true name. The demon yelled in pain. He felt like a wet towel that was being ringed dry. The pain continued for no longer than a couple of seconds, but to him it felt like a lifetime.

“Are you done playing around with me?” she asked.

“Yes, please I’m done” the demon begged. When speaking before his voice had been deep and raspy. Now his voice was shrill with a hint of fear.

“Fine,” she released the spell of pain. She didn’t enjoy hurting the demon, even though he deserved it and much more.

“What do you want from me?” the demon asked, panting. The pain had broken his concentration on the illusion, and now he stood in his true form. His skin was grey and mottled. His eyes were like the flames in the brazier, and he stood no taller than three feet. It was an ugly beast with tiny horns protruding from his head.

“All I want from you imp is information. Once I have what I want, you will be free to go back home to your cursed plane” the woman told him.

“What information?” the imp asked, as he examined the magic circle that held him. If it was incorrect in any way he could escape back home without answering, “Or” he thought with a smile,”I can kill her before I go.”

“There is a rumor that someone has been asking questions about the Arcanist stone. I want to know who is asking” she told him. The demon wanted to lie to her, but the magic circle was complete without any flaws. He couldn’t deny her will.

“If I tell you, and he finds out,” the imp tried to convey to her.

“If you don’t tell me, then you won’t have to worry about your future” she said evenly.

The demon shivered a little. He dealt with enough wizards to understand that the threat wasn’t idle, and she seemed the creative sort. He decided he’d rather not chance it. “An old flesh bag wants the stone” the imp said, purposely leaving out why and when he was coming.

“What is his name, imp?” the woman asked.

“That I don’t know” he replied.

“Then give me the name of the weakest demon who does” she continued not missing a beat. The demon silently cursed. He planned on giving her a name of a demon, powerful enough to destroy her. She could see the frustration on his face, and it made her chuckle inwardly. With demons you had to be very specific, or they would use your words against you.

“Zaretche” the imp said sullenly.

“Thank you demon”

 “Will you free me now?”

“No, I will not because you didn’t tell me what I wanted to know.” She said seriously.

“Filthy human liar!” the demon yelled. “You said you would free me once I told you!”

“You described an old man, and nothing more. Answer this question and I will let you go” she said calmly. She needed this info. This tower was her home. If someone planned on invading, then she needed to know what she was dealing with.

“How can I trust you when you have broken your word?” the imp asked.

The woman laughed in the imp’s face. “You are a demon. What do you know of keeping to your word?” she mocked.

“I’m going to destroy you woman. Your children will watch as I feast upon your body. Your son will become my slave and your daughter” the imp chuckled evilly,” will become my plaything for eternity.” The demon knew that his threats were empty, but they made him feel better. He looked at the hooded woman. He couldn’t see her features beyond the wizard robes, and hood she wore low over her face, which hid it in darkness. “Maybe I will get away with my outburst” the demon thought privately.

“Why does he want the stone?” she asked calmly, as if nothing had happened.

“He wants eternal life and power. What else would an old human want” the demon laughed.

“That is all I wanted to know. I will free you” she told him. The demon’s smile was short lived as he felt himself wracked with pain again. He felt as if his body was being ripped in half.

“Why are you doing this?” the imp squealed.

“What? Did you think I would let you threaten me without any consequences?” she asked seriously. The imp screamed loudly. His wails of pain reverberated off the walls, and smoke poured from his mouth. “Now you are free” she told him. The demon’s body slowly dissipated.

“I will get you woman!” the imp yelled. He couldn’t help getting the last say.

“Not for another hundred years” the woman told him. The imp’s face blanched. When a demon is destroyed upon the material plane it cannot come back by any means for one hundred years.  She moved her arms into intricate patterns in the air, halting the imp from leaving this world. She said a series of arcane chants that would rend the imp into bit, piece by piece. The imp yelled in fear as it began, and only the echoes of his screams remained as the insidious spell finished its work.

She walked out of the room a few moments later after she summoned, questioned, and tortured Zaretche. The next room was an observatory room. A black panel glass along the wall allowed the observers to look into the summoning room, but didn’t allow anyone in the summoning room to look back. A cat sat in the chair. Its fur was a subtle blue that depended on how you looked at him appeared black. The cat had extra fur on his chin, and it gave it the appearance of having a beard. He was majestic. The cats every movement spoke of power that belied its frame. She remembered how much she loved the cat before she discovered what it truly was.

“You know when you walk into that room, I struggle to tell who the demon is” the cat told her.

“Shut up Ezrai. A monster shouldn’t comment on how I deal with demons.” She told him.

“Ouch, you hurt me so” Ezrai faked, “I remember when you used to make me sleep with you.”

“Shut up Ezrai!” she yelled, and walked out of the room.

Ezrai followed behind her,” don’t act like you didn’t like to cuddle with my soft fur against your face,” he teased.

“Are you the only one of your kind so obnoxious?” she asked.

“Yep, I got a real knack for it” the cat answered happily.

She pulled back her hood to reveal long flowing hair that went past her shoulders. She turned her head, and looked at him with her golden eyes. She was beautiful. Her skin was soft and even glowed slightly with the same golden hue as her eyes. There was something magical about her looks. Everything just came together at perfect angles, and the cat swore up and down that he was under a charm spell.

“I liked you much more when I thought you couldn’t talk” she told him.

“Ahh but back then you needed someone to hold Angela, and I was more than ready” Ezrai winked lewdly.

“Ugh, let’s just go see father. We are going to have company soon” she told him. Ezrai knew her well enough to catch the fear that leaked its way into her voice

Author's Note

I liked the idea! This will probably be just a couple of chapters, maybe longer. hahaha i can't believe I dreamed this. I really got to stop eating before bed

Reviews

[PaperHearts]

Nice write! This was full of intensity and suspense, and I thought that as the prologue, this created a really solid foundation for you to further expand on the storyline in future chapters. Your characters all had insanely strong personalities, and I liked how the dialogue captured that. A great start to the story! :)
~PaperHearts

[TheFemininePad]

I wanted to go back to review your chapters for your books. I really enjoyed reading this prologue. It's interesting that it presents itself into the realm of lower fantasy, and it brought a memory to my mind. When I use to have a Warlock on World of Warcraft, there use to be a quest to get the imp. This reminded me of that memory. You write very good, and with alittle extra work it can be a beautiful prologue.

[DarrachLoddesol]

I really enjoyed reading this. Suggestions I have - mainly formatting and grammatical issues. Each character's dialogue should have a new paragraph. You have done this for the most part, but occasionally I see a place where you haven't done so.
I, too, liked the cat's character. I found it quite interesting.
Various sentence structures help the flow so that your piece is easy to read and to follow.
There is, however, a few cases of redundancy and wordiness.
Overall, I enjoyed the piece.

[Rachel U.]

There is one note that I have to give to practically all writers of books on this website: this is too short. Well, actually, for a prologue it might have been fine, but the next chapters aren't incredibly long, either. Regardless, your characters have a strangely deep development for so little writing, and it is an interesting plot (and I have no particular fancy for fantasy writing).

Mix up the lengths of your sentences a little bit. Most of them are fairly short. Be careful when writing a fantasy in leaving things just as a "magic circle" or the like. Generally speaking, if you have a fantasy world with a completely different culture, it will have new vocabulary for the reader to learn that creates a more realistic feel (as much as the example irritates me, think of the broad spectrum of words that Rowling creates for her books).
Watch typographical errors (more dealing with punctuation than spelling).
Otherwise, I very much enjoyed reading this. It's a good prologue in that it snags your attention/makes you ask questions.
8.8/10

[Gypsy]

You must have a very big, creative imagination! I really do wish I had one! That's the only thing that keeps me from writing fantasy stories, I just can't come up with something good!!
But, overall this was a fantastic, clever write, it definitely got me hooked!! Keep it up, if this is the prologue I can't wait to read the rest of the book! :)

[StarNinja]

Holy s**t, that wizard lady doesn't play around! I must say, this is a very clever way to start a story. Strong characters and a hint and tease of plot. Very exciting. I shall read on.

[Tina Kline]

I liked this! I really like the cat. This is great.