NOVEL NEXT What Now?
The thud of the summons' body slamming to the floor from the ceiling left everyone present baffled. So much had happened in the span of what seemed like a split second that nobody whether it be the adults, or the children could comprehend. One moment Jien had succeeded in summoning this woman, the next she had invaded his body in the form of red mist. Afterward Jien seemed to collapse and his breathing seemed to stop. Not more than a few moments after the adults reached his side and began checking on him did, they hear the sound of something hitting the ceiling of the room like a cannon ball followed by a fleshy thump on the floor.
Miraculously after the woman had been cast from his body Jien seemed to return to breathing normally as if nothing happened. The real issue was that he was not waking up quite yet and they didn't know who or what to consider this woman. They had never heard of or seen a demon like this, so they weren't sure she was one. If she was then interrupting the summoning could harm Jien again since he had to do so. In that case the only thing they could do is restrain this woman as best they could and hope that Jien would wake up and either end the summoning or finish the process.
What none of them expected was that as Aqa'krghrift laid there on the floor with no strength, peering at her new contractor with a look that was a mix of the deepest bloody rage and absolute terror, the summoning circle faded, and the incense fog was drawn with a vortex through the closing door. This meant only one thing according to all their knowledge, the summoning had concluded, and contract had been struck.
None of them understood what this would mean but they knew one thing and that was that this woman could no longer hurt Jien. The trouble was whether he would ever wake up again. They needed the details, and she was the only one that could tell them. However, if they were following the usual logic of summoning only Jien would really be able to talk to her which would lead back to the fact that he was unconscious at this time. Even if she could explain it to their contracted demons those demons wouldn't be able to explain it to the children without Jien's consent.
The adults stared at Aqa'krghrift with a murderous glint in their eyes, which after feeling their stares she returned with fervor. They glared at each other for several long moments before Lord Losler and Mark walked over to the grey skinned lady and dragged her to her feet despite her glares. She was too weak at the moment to resist their strength even if usually she would be able to crush them with only a portion of her might.
Before she was cast out the being residing within Jien had dragged a vast amount of her inherent strength from her body to form the cage that was keeping his soul together at this moment. He would wake up eventually, probably sooner rather than later given the amount of her power that had been taken and the meticulous way the being had patched up the boy's soul with it. Her strength would take a long time to recover. It wasn't just energy that the being had taken, he had stripped her of a portion of her own soul to fix her contractors'. Unlike humans, demons could survive such a thing, though not without a span of weakness as their soul healed, and so she was now stuck in this deteriorated state being lugged over to a chair at the side as if she was nothing more than dead weight.
She glared at her captors the entire time as they dragged her to a chair, sat her in it and then quickly found roped and manacles to bind her before the adults all surrounded her with weapons drawn, ready to kill her if something went wrong. They hoped that Jien would wake soon so that they could figure out a resolution to this issue but looking at the calmly breathing boy they were concerned whether that would even happen.
The children were looking at Jien with a mixture of anxiety and regret. If only they hadn't recommended that he try the summoning this may not have happened. They couldn't help but blame themselves in part for this outcome. They on occasion would look at the summoned woman with wary and anger filled gazes. They were not the only ones to blame. If this woman had fulfilled the contract like it should have been then they would be helping Jien understand how to work with his demon, not wondering if he would ever wake up again.
After waiting for another ten long minutes and seeing that Jien hadn't woken up despite trying potions and spells meant to both check and mend the body, they decided to move Jien to his room for the time being. Physically there was nothing wrong with him, and nobody here was specialized in arcane arts regarding the mind or soul. The best they could do was send out for the few specialists in Afrem City and hope that one of them was present to come and examine the boy.
The big question on everyone's mind was 'What now?'. This was meant to be Jien's celebration but now he was sleeping in his bed and wasn't showing any sign of waking up at the moment. On top of that they now had to watch over the woman they assumed was an unknown type of demon to make sure she wouldn't do anything funny. Little did they know that she wouldn't be able to do anything even if she wanted. Though the general terms of her contract were simple the contract in full that was burned into her soul was comprehensive in its many clauses and so thorough that one mistake could see her in a world of never-ending pain.