Elva Rackthorn and the Tears of Azrael

In a Bind, Part 3

"I can't believe you tried to offer me raw meat."

"Every demon I know loves raw meat! Or, well, blood and entrails. "

Nyx made a gagging sound, then went back into tearing into his fried apple and cheese fold. "That's gross. And how do you know any demons?"

Elva pulled her knees closer to her chest and sipped on her sider, hoping it would wake her up. "I summon them. To teach me and stuff. Wisdom spirits, mostly. I don't know what you call them. The bug-looking ones with the sharp teeth."

"That talk?" Nyx frowned. "We don't have anything like that in my world. Could you have pulled them from somewhere else through the 'Twixt? You're close to the Lyric Wastes on this side, aren't you?"

"The what now? No, this was from your world, certainly. Lucky knew all about your world. Wyrms and fairy flowers and the like. The spirits must just hide in your mountains where you don't go or something."

"Yeah, okay, Night World expert. "

Elva stopped herself from making a cruel remark about his memory and knowledge base by taking another sip of her sider. She was grouchy without sleep at the best of times, and this... was not the best of times.

It didn't take long to set up the pentacles and runework, though Elva's knees started to protest her time on the floor.

"Okay. The severing ceremony is pretty simple. Just stand in that circle. No, tuck your wings in, they can't stick up like that."

Elva stood back and nodded. Everything was looking good. With a horsehair brush and an organic mixture of her own devising, she painted extra protective red brackets around the boundary circle to keep any stray energies from interfering. They were close enough to witching hour on a half moon that things could get weird if she wasn't careful.

Nyx wrinkled his nose and eyed her jar of sludgy paint. "Stars, what is is with you humans and blood. It's so gross and barbaric."

"Your face is gross and barbaric," Elva muttered under her breath as she broke out her chalk for the final steps.

"Since I know you humans have inferior senses, I thought I should let you know that I heard that."

Elva flushed bright red as she filled in the precautionary rune breaks in her sigilry, readying the chain of runes for activation.

"Well. Uhh. Anyway. Just stay in your circle. I'll recite the chant in mine and some mist should fill the hyperboloid space between us. Let's see... the book says the mist will take the shape of a fearsome blade, and so shall the soulbond in twain be severed so we'll keep an eye out for that, yeah? And then once that link is severed, the runes I've got around you should activate and send you back into your world lickety-split."

"Memoryless, and quite possibly far from home."

"Umm. Well, memoryless yes, and like I said, location-wise the scholarship is a bit split on the—"

"Oh sunshower, please don't try to explain it again."

"Ah." Elva ran a hand through her hair, white strands falling down around her face as she pulled her fingers away. "Look, I'm doing the best I can, and I'm sorry I can't do more. The matter of your memory... I've been studying this sort of damage for years, and I don't have any leads. It might be that people in your world will know more."

Elva had never thought of herself as young. She was learned beyond her age, more capable than sigilmancers with twice her years, and had now handled more interdimensional assaults than most people read about. But Nyx, she reckoned, was as old as she was, and in that moment he looked like nothing more than a child who wanted his family to swoop in and tell him it would all be okay.