The lines of the pentacle flashed with almost blinding light as fire shot up from it in a wall of heat and death. Tedmeta screamed out the chant as in the center of the prison formed a raging demon from the nether-pits of hell. His body was covered in sweat, as his voice slowly tired from the summoning chant. Just when his tongue was about to give up, the chant ended, the demon fully formed within its cage of fire and chalk.
Tedmeta lowered his arms and looked at the demon with a smirk on his face. He took steps over to the cage and lifted his chin. "I am Tedmeta Spawn. You will obey me." He took one more step closer as he talked. "You will do as I tell you, as I wish you, as you are my slave. You will..." Tedmeta stopped in midsentence at the sound of a small tink. Looking down he saw one of the candle holders rolling over to the pentacle on the floor. His foot had brushed it a moment before. He was too shocked to do anything as it rolled over the pentacle lines drawn with such care, shattering the fire of the cage.
Tedmeta looked up into the face of the demon. It smiled back at him with unholy delight.
-- Present Day:
Nadia slipped into the library at dusk. She was a bit nervous slithering around after dark... the city wasn't as safe as it used to be. But the chances of getting mugged on the way back from the library to the subway were... oh, they couldn't be more than one in five. And what Jack had talked about on the phone certainly seemed intriguing.
She wandered past the brightly-lit fiction and popular non-fiction sections, then took the stairs up to the third floor and followed the signs to 'history and religion'. 654-682... 698-706... 735-750. She leaned forwards and peered down the aisle, trying to see if Jack was there, but she couldn't see him. Whatever, he'd be there. Probably.
She curled up at the end of the aisle and waited, setting down her pack. After a few minutes Jack appeared at the end of the aisle and, with furtive glances to the left and the right (as if anyone else would come all the way up here) jogged over. "You're here... let me find it."
"Find what?" Nadia asked, looking up at Jack as he scanned through the titles. "And why couldn't you just check it out?"
"You know my parents," Jack said, "They'd freak if they saw me with this... aha." Jack pulled a huge, worn, leatherbound book -- a tome, if she'd ever seen one -- off of the shelf and sat down in front of her.
Nadia looked down at the title. "Practical Demon Summoning? Oh, come on, Jack..."
"It's real, Nadia," Jack said, with a more serious look than she'd *ever* seen on his face.
Nadia thumbed through the delicate crackling pages of the book, looking at the intricate diagrams, and strange formulas.
She looked intently at a page, "Jack," she said, "This looks like it was copied by hand."
"And what language is this? I can't make it out."
Jack nodded and held a small mirror out to Nadia, "Here, look at the page with this."
Nadia took the mirror and looked at the page's reflection. "Oh... it's written backwards. Like Da Vinci's notebooks".
Nadia studied the pages, trying to make out the words, or the language. "Nor mum..teriu..de..Elsius Cor... This isn't Latin.."
Jack quickly placed his hand over Nadia's mouth, "Careful..don't read it out loud."
Nadia looked at Jack, "Why not? It's just a book."
Jack sighed, "Thats what I thought, I did what you did, I read some passages, and well..."
Jack again looked around, "Look what happened!"
Jack reached into his jacket pocket, and fished out a small glass jar, rather dirty inside, with a thick piling of electrical tape wrapped tight around the threads of the lid. Taking a deep breath, he peered into the mess of... goo clinging to the glass, and and shook the jar gently. "I... ugh... there it is. "Look in there." And with that, held it up for Nadia's inspection.
Nadia gave Jack a funny glance, and look at the repulsive glassware in front of her. "I don't see anything, except possibly evidence that you seem to have strange ideas about what sort of collections you start. :) That really is... gross... what the...?" Nadia's eye had caught a slight motion within the murk before her, something not merely the drip of an inanimate slime. Taking the jar gingerly from Jack's hand, she gazed though the fogged glass, and saw... it.
She'd never seen anything like it, except... no, that was too horrible. But, there it was. About half an inch tall, it gazed at her with dead, lifeless eyes... the paired ones, that is, while the third one, a triangular spot above its distorted, beaklike muzzle, took in every detail of her, monitoring her not by the light that we see, but by the unearthly glow of her infared emissions. The color of heat. The light of Hades itself, perhaps. It perked its triangular ears, and... said, something. Or at least the motion of its mouth seemed to indicate it did, and blinked.
Nadia nearly dropped the jar in horror, but instead shoved it back into Jack's paws. "What the heck is that, Jack?! It's horrible! Where did you find that awful thing! And why...?"
Jack shushed Nadia, glancing about and spotting the disapproving glare of a librarian, stuffed the jar into his pocket and ushered her around the corner of a nearby shelf, sighed. "It came when I said some of the words. I don't know how, but... this perverted, awful thing appeared. I tried to kill it, but it seems to be indestructable. And... something about it makes me wonder if there's... more to it. The way it 'speaks'. I... strange things have happened since it appeared. Little things, but then... it's a little one. Maybe..." Jack trailed off. "You can see why I need to figure out this book. Will you help me?"
Nadia looked at the book in front of her and then up at Jack. She sighed to herself. Giving up. 'Jack asked me to help cause he just knew I could never say no,' she thought to herself. "Ok Jack. What kind of things have been happening?
Jack looked both ways and then started to tell her the story. "Well, after I got this thing a couple of days ago things have happened. You know Rambark at school?"
Nadia nodded. Rambark was the nastyest kid still in school. How he had kept from being suspended was anyone's guess.
"Well, yesterday he came up to me like normal and took some of my lunch money. He does that to everyone. Only this time after he got his food everything he ate was rotten... smelly and horrid... even the water! That is the really strange page. It didn't look bad before he started to drink it. Then it turned black!"
Nadia frowned. This 'story' was getting a little out of hand. "Look Jack, water doesn't turn black when someone starts to drink it."
Jack fluffed out his tail. "It happened, Nadia! ...just like that. That isn't the only thing that happened. I failed a test really, really badly last week. I got my grade today. It was an A. The teacher accidently mixed up my grade and Vanderfluff's."
Nadia gaped. "Vanderfluff. Everyone knows they cheat."
Jack nodded. "I know. I still got their grade."
Nadia picked up the book. "Come on. I will check it out. We will read it then." She walked off from Jack and he ran to keep up with her.
"Thanks Nadia... I really need the help.
------------------
Meanwhile.
Tedmeta, or what was left of Tedmeta, slowly opened his six eyes. There was a grin on his deathhead's face. "The book, a mortal virgin has the book."
The demon responded in a chorus of howls and echoes and growls, but Tedmeta understood. *She will cast the smallest spell, and you will go to her, Tedmeta, least of my servants. You will not devour her. You know her language. You will have her cast the spell of Opening.*
Tedmeta's tentacles writhed in terror and pleasure. "Of course."
--------------------------------------------
"What's wrong, Jack?" Nadia asked, inspecting the chalk lines one last time, comparing them to the diagram in the book. "Stop fiddling with the straightedge, I think it's right this time."
"I'm just having second thoughts is all. I mean, that little one..." Jack fidgeted nervously with the chalk and glanced at the tiny jar, setting on the ledge.
"Look, Jack, this is the smallest chapter, and we're doing it by the book. You miscast chapter *six*. This demon should be harmless, and it'll have to obey us because of the circle."
"At school today, though, it happened again. Little Jonny Ringtail --"
"I don't want to hear about it," Nadia said. "I'm going to do this right. Are you going to help?"
Jack nodded, and set down the chalk and the ruler, and walked over so that he could see the book. Nadia counted to three, quietly, and they started the chant.
"Ast Karilithus Nil Celestius..." just a few paragraphs, and it was finished. A short, simple spell. Nadia looked up from the book and gasped. She'd seen Jack's demon... but it was still a shock to see *it* sitting there, in the circle, as if it'd been there all along.
"What is it?" Jack asked, leaning forwards to look.
Nadia pulled him back. "Don't break the circle."
"I wasn't going to... how many tentacles does it have?"
"I have four score and sixteen tentacles," hissed the beast, a jagged-toothed maw opening in its six-eyes, deathhead face. "But you may call me Tedmeta. The spell was cast, and I am lawfully bound and at your service."
After a few seconds, the demon added, "Masters."
Jack looked at Nadia, Nadia looked at Tedmeta, "You speak English?"
The Demon looked at Jack and Nadia at the same time, "You may hear what I speak as English, I can be understood by whoever summons me. What urgent business have you to awaken me from my slumbers?"
Jack looked at the small demon, who it seemed was tiny only a few moments ago, "Where do you come from, what are you?"
Tedmeta rolled his eyes, having forgotten the stupidity of those on the mortal plane, "I come from The Book, I am your servant."
Nadia looked at the demon, then the book, "Who put you in here?"
Tedmeta opened his mouth and cried out, screaming an unpronounceable name, "...put me there. Now that I am out, what is your bidding young masters?"
Jack whispered to Nadia, "Ask it to make us rich, or something." Nadia shook her head, "No..I think that we should be very careful. This is dangerous, and I'm sure a price will be asked for in return for granted wishes."
Jack nodded reluctantly.
Tedmeta's tentacles writhed at the word price, "Oh no..no price, no costs, just perhaps a favor....."
Nadia looked at the Demon, "A favor, of what sort?"
The Demon said, "Just something to make me more comfortable, nothing serious, or threatening, Go to page 666 and read it out loud, it will...er...make me feel better, I am cold here."
Nadia turned to the page, her eyes widening, "Jack...look at this!"
Tedmeta smiled.
Jack peeked over Nadia's shoulder at the parchment before her, and was struck dumb for a moment. "That's... uhm..." He looked away, and gave the demon a funny look. "Hearing what's on this page will make you feel better huh? I... think we need to think this over for a second." He leaned back to Nadia, and whispered in her ear, trying to be stealthy but quite sure the creature could hear every word. If it was anything like the little one, it was probably able to hear him if he didn't make any noise at all, but... best not to think about that.
"Nadia... I think we made a big mistake here. Is there any way to put this thing back? I don't think we should do this. I..."
Nadia shook her head, as if she'd been partially lost in thought as Jack had been talking to her, and then shot him a look and whispered sharply back. "Now, Jack, don't get carried away. I know that what's on this page isn't... nice," She paused, looking back to the inscription laid out beneath the woodcut of the bodies intwined in ways that her mind was just young enough to not quite understand, but be embarrassed by none the less. "...but if I'm reading this right, and done nothing wrong yet, just reading this shouldn't 'do' anything. I think it's just a poem... sort of. Maybe he does just want to hear it. Think about what we could ask for, Jack. I don't think this one is powerful enough to grant 'big' wishes, but..." she trailed off, looked dreamy for a moment. "This is just so cool, you know? Like a movie."
Jack waved his hand in front of her eyes, and poked her. "Like a movie? I thought I was supposed to be the dumb one. How do we know that's just a poem? I'm getting the creeps! That little one..." The discussion continued, the pretense of whispering becoming more and more forced, and the whole time
Tedmeta smiled that same grin, perhaps curling his 'lips' up a bit more when the discussion amused him in some particular way. 'Fools,' he cast his eyes up to the jar upon the windowsill, and met eyes with his tiny counterpart. In a flash, it told him all that it had learned from these creatures. All it had seen, and done. Tedmeta nearly broke out laughing. This was going to be so much fun... particularly the end.
Nadia was getting more and more angry at Jack as he 'whispered to her. Finally she turned her back on him. "
"Look here, Tedmeta. What we want is very simple. Money, power, and the unified theory of the universe. Is that something that you can do?
Tedmeta blinked. "Unifi... what you talking about bi... er, child?
"You know." Nadia looked a little puzzled. "The mythical equation that will bring together E=mc2 and quantum mathematics."
Tedmeta just looked even more confuzzled. "I can bring about to you money and power... but that last thing... just does not make sense. You would have to ask my master. Can you read the poem to me? I have been within that book for so very long. A poem will lighten my mood so much!"
Tedmeta grinned at them kindly from his deathhead. Inside he seethed. 'What is taking them so long!'
Nadia looked at the book from the mirror.
| De na gol ar an la geal grian |
| ( Do not cry in the day bright sun. ) |
| Abair na ag an solas na la nuair muid rith |
| ( Say not to the light of day when we run ) |
| Doe ar la focal ta la tosach |
| ( For in the words is the beginning ) |
| Na la tomhais na lasolas |
| ( Of the rule of daylight ) |
Nadia looked up. "Happy now?"
Jack screamed a moment later as hundreds of demons came out of the walls all around them.
Nadia screamed too, and thrashed and flailed as the tiny, slimy, three-eyed demons skittered around the room, leaving trails of slime across the walls and floors and ceiling, and over her, as well. They slithered and skittered and squished until she was coated in slime, ignoring her feeble attemtps to resist, and then they were gone.
She glanced over at Jack. His fur was as covered in gook as hers was, but he seemed otherwise unhurt, if a little shocked. "It told you, told you, told you..." he muttered to himself over and over, eyes staring straight ahead.
Then a warm, dry, and yet disturbing touch caressed her tail. Nadia whirled to see Tedmeta stroking her, free now that the circle was nothing but a memory and a few smudges of chalk that the little demons hadn't gotten erased.
"Ah, I feel much better now...," Tedmeta said, "I knew you would not release the circle, so I had to play a little trick on you. I hope you are not angry. I am your servant still, and you will get everything you wish, if it is within my power."
"Told you, told you, told you..." Jack muttered to himself.
"Those little ones are harmless tricksters." His tentacles writhed. "They will go and find money for you, since you summoned them, and that is your wish. As for power... there is power in having a demon at your command, is there not? I await your commands."
"Get RID of them!" Jack snapped, whirling towards the demon. He leaped forwards and grabbed two handfuls of Tedmeta's tentacles, lifted him up, and shook him. "Get rid of them!"
"No, wait..." Nadia said, wiping some of the slime off her face and out of her eyes, "Wait, Jack. He would have devoured us by now if he wasn't still bound."
Tedmeta glanced at Nadia from Jack's grip. "So what is *your* command, mistress?"
Tedmeta looked into Nadia's eys as he spoke to Jack, "Although it seems to be my Mistress' wish to hear you, I am not bound by you. Nadia is my Mistress, and it is to her I am bound."
With a shimmer of space time, Jack lost his grip on Tedmeta and was tossed against the wall. The Demon dropped lightly to the ground.
"Do not touch me, friend of my Mistress." Tedmeta looked at Nadia, "Now.. what is your command?"
Nadia seemed again, lost in thought.
Suddenly, the door to the basement was opened, and a booming voice echoed in, "Whats going on down here? What are you kids up to?"
Jack's eyes widened in fear, "Nadia, it's your Dad! What will we do?"
Nadia shook her head, as the demon waved a tenacle. She spoke, strangely monophonically, "Nothing, Dad. Just playing."
Nadia's Dad shouted down the stairs, "Well, keep the noise down, it sounded like the Devil himself was down there." He closed the door, and his voice could be heard saying, "Now what the heck's wrong with the TV?"
Jack looked at Nadia, "Nadia..whats wrong..are you all right?"
Nadia shook her head again, "I ..I don't know..I feel...funny somehow."
Tedmeta smiled. "Again I ask Mistress, what would you have of me?" Money is on it's way, you have power, how else may I serve you?"
Jack looked again at the Demon. "Wait..if you are bound to Nadia, you have to grant every desire of her's, correct?"
Tedmeta nods, "That is my function now that I am her servant."
"Then you must fufill her desire, to know the Unifying Theory. You must grant that wish. Or you have failed as her servant. What consequences will that failure bring, Demon?"
---------------------------
The Devil raged within his court. "Find it then! Find it now or you will burn for the rest of eternity!
The little red demons in white coats all run around the room. "Sir. We will look for the answer. We just might not be able to find it!"
The head devil looked at them. "If we don't give her the three things she asked for the Opening will not come to pass. We must answer her... or we will have to wait for another thousand years to have another chance!"
-------------------------
Meanwhile.
Tedmeta grinned softly at Jack. "Ah. She will have her answer in good time. Such things take time, friend of my mistress."
Jack nodded and picked up the summoning book and started to quietly read it.
Nadia was still in thought and then grinned. "Tedmeta. I would like something to eat."
Tedmeta bowed to Nadia... ten smelly blue demons bounced into the room from nowhere... carrying heaping platters of food. They set about candles and smurfberries for her enjoyment. Then they left the room in the same way that they came. Nadia grinned and dug into the food with the golden fork and spoon that were set out for her.
Jack read more and more of the book, learning more than he really ever wanted to know, as the events carried on about him. He looked up. "Nadia. I hope they never do answer your question."
Nadia blinked. "Why not?"
"If they do. A portal will open from our world to theirs. It will be just like DOOMII or something."
Nadia blinked for a moment and looked at Tedmeta.
Tedmeta bowed his head. "You will be safe Nadia. You are protected from us."
Nadia was silent.
"Jack is protected as well," he continued. "As the opener... and friend... you will rule this world. Power, Nadia. You do want power, don't you?"
"But what about... oh, my --" Nadia turned and bolted up the stairs. "Dad? Dad?!" She slammed the door behind her as she ran.
Tedmeta turned to Jack, who stopped reading the book, riveted by the demon's gaze. "You are protected... as long as she wants you to be protected, Jack. But we don't like you. You told her about the Opening. You told her *too much!*. But you told it too late. Ha ha ha ha ha!" Tedmeta slid towards Jack, who backed up against the wall, clutching the book to his chest. "You will be my servant. Hee hee."
"Not unless you come up with the answer..." Jack whispered weakly.
"You will also BE QUIET." Tedmeta snapped. Something else snapped, and Jack moved his mouth silently, then snapped it shut and couldn't open it. "She wants you to be quiet, Jack. Ohh... she is a lovely Opener... so young... so fresh... so... Here she comes. Hee hee."
Nadia came back down the stairs, looking relieved. "He's okay... I thought --"
"Don't be so concerned, mistress," Tedmeta said in a calming tone, "We will not harm you or your friends. What manner of servant would I be if I allowed that to happen? Now wait, and in time, you will have your money, and your answer, and the army of darkness will give you more power than you ever dreamed possible... the power to satisfy desires you didn't even know you had.
Nadia looked at Jack, who seemed to have become strangely silent, "Whats wrong?"
Jack pointed at his mouth, then at Tedmeta.
Nadia looked at Tedmeta, "What have you done?"
Tedmeta did his best to look innocent, "Nothing but what you asked Mistress, I made him silent as you asked."
Nadia frowns, "Well, unsilence him immediately!"
With a subtle wave of tentacles, he did so, sending a scowl in Jack's direction."
Jack gasped, "That was awful, Nadia.. we have to get rid of it!"
Nadia nods, "What does the book say, Jack?"
Jack thumbed through the pages, "Only what we already know, that only by failing to serve his master can he and his minions be sent back."
Nadia nods, "Ok.. Tedmeta, you must answer my question then."
Tedmeta writhed his tentacles, "We are working on it, Mistress. In fact.. the answer should be here soon."
He smiled as well as he was able and made a gesture with a claw, or a tentacle, or something... it was hard to tell. Suddenly, the basement wall started to glow and then disappear. A number of the same blue demons passed through the wall, carrying a small bent man in a motorised wheelchair, equipped with what appeared to be a computer, a hand control, and several other gadgets.
Jack gaped and whispered to Nadia, "Nadia.. that's Stephen Hawking!"
The demons set Dr. Hawking's chair down and disappeared as quickly as they had come.
Dr. Hawking looked around, and seemed confused, his hand moved over his controller, and a computer voice asked, "Whats going on?"
Tedmeta steped in front of the chair, "I have summoned you to answer a question for me..."
The demon put his face right up to Hawking's, "I need to know the Unifying Theory, tell me, or you will be sent to hell!"
Dr. Hawking laughed a bit. He moved his hand and the computer voice spoke, "Send me to Hell? Very funny. I cannot walk, I can't dress myself, I cannot speak without this computer, I cannot enjoy a walk on the beach, or the caress of my wife, or the joy of actually writing equations by hand. I have only my mind. You... send me to Hell? I am already there. I refuse to answer."
Tedmeta 's eyes widened, "You cannot refuse, I will torture you until you tell me!"
Hawking looked at the Demon, moving his hand, as he said, "I am already tortured. Your threats mean nothing to me, you monstrosity. I will not tell you the Unifying Theory, but I *will* tell you how to discover it yourself..."
The demon's eyes brightened, "Tell me then!"
"The Unifying Theory is on a molecular level, the Swartzchild radious of a compressed object preceeds the event horizon which hides the Unifying Theory. If you shrink yourself, but keep your mass the same, you will eventually discover the answer."
"Shrink myself? I can do that easily."
Hawking said, "Yes, but your weight must remain constant, understand? If you shrink and get lighter, you won't find it."
Jack and Nadia looked a bit confused, but having taken physics, they understood what happened when any object compresses beyond a certain point.
The demon looked at Hawking, "You had better be right."
He began to reduce in size until soon he was only a foot tall... then six inches tall. He kept shrinking, making it to two inches, then an inch tall... soon he disappeared from sight.. with a small pop and a spark of light, he just disappeared.
Behind the wall, and from seemingly everywhere was heard a wailing and moaning of horrible proportions...
With the clap of thunder and a then soft pop, it suddenly became quiet.
Jack, Nadia and Dr. Hawking looked at one another, Dr. Hawking asked, "What was that? And where are we?"
Jack and Nadia sighed with relief, "You are in my basement, Dr. Hawking, and that came from this, " Nadia held out the book, "Which I think is better off destroyed, " Nadia found a book of matches and set the book aflame, opening a window to let the putrid smoke out of the basement.
"Thank you, Dr. Hawking, you have saved the world. How can we repay you?"
Dr Hawking smiled and said, "I wonder if I might speak to your physics class, It is very seldom that I get to talk with young students, who have new ideas and fresh starts. It would be my pleasure."
-------
Tedmeta had shrunk and shrunk... He had gotten smaller and smaller.. a flash of blue light signaled his passage of the Blue Barrier and his entrance into the black hole of his own making.
He suddenly knew the answer, it was here and so obvious.
He signalled his master, but.. he couldn't.. nothing happened...
He was in a Black Hole from which nothing can escape. Here to be trapped for all eternity.
Tedmeta settled down to wait. Eternity wasn't so long...for a demon.
Or is it? An eternity later... spaceships come upon this tiny black hole....