Sea Green Eyes

Demigods & Magicians - Part Three (Cressida & Sadie)

So many things could have gone wrong. Most of them did.

Cressida had been hoping that the shell would split or that the monster would be destroyed, but instead, a fissure was opened that spewed red magic as hot as a line of magma and Cressida stumbled back.

Serapis bellowed, "TREACHERY!" The staff creature howled and thrashed, its three heads trying in vain to reach the knife stuck in its back.

At the same moment, Sadie cast her spell. She threw her silver necklace and yelled, "Tyet!" The pendant exploded. A giant silvery hieroglyph enveloped the god like a see-through coffin. Serapis roared as his arms were pinned to his side. Sadie shouted, "I name you Serapis, god of Alexandria! God of ... uh, funny hats and three-headed staffs! I bind you with the power of Isis!"

Debris began falling out of the air and a chair hit Cressida's shoulder as she tried to dodge all of it. The ache that spread through her flesh allowed the wounded staff monster to begin crawling towards Serapis.

"STAY!" Cressida screamed as a plume of purple fire enveloped the monster and it stayed even after Cressida was forced to the ground as she was smacked in the head by a falling piece of timber.

Her entire body throbbed as she felt blood begin to trickle down the side of her face. "Ok. That hurt," she groaned as she got up, but she was too late.

The god flexed his considerable muscles. The silvery prison shattered around him. The three-headed staff flew into his hand, and Serapis turned on Sadie Kane. Her protective circle evaporated in a cloud of red steam.

"You would bind me?" Serapis cried. "You would name me? You do not even have the proper language to name me, little magician!"

Cressida could see the aura around Sadie beginning to fade as she stagged forward, Serapis's aura ten times more powerful as he held his staff. She could feel her life force being drained away – vacuumed into the red halo of the god.

But she stood as Sadie did, their eyes meeting in a defiant gaze.

"Right, Lord Cereal Bowl. You want proper language? HA-DI!" Sadie screamed.

And a new hieroglyph blazed in Serapis's face even brighter than before.

But the god swiped it out of the air with his free hand. He closed his fist and smoke shot between his fingers as if he'd just crushed a miniature steam engine.

Sadie gulped. "That's impossible. How –"

"Expecting an explosion?" Serapis laughed. "Sorry to disappoint you, child, but my power is both Greek and Egyptian. It combines both, consumes both, replaces both. You are favoured of Isis, I see? Excellent. She was once my wife."

"What?" Sadie cried. "No. No, no, no."

"Oh, yes! When I deposed both Osiris and Zeus, Isis was forced to serve me. Now I will use you as a gateway to summon her here and bind her. Isis will once again be my queen!" Serapis thrust out his staff. From each of the three monstrous mouths, red tendrils of light shot forth, encircling Sadie like thorny branches as she screamed.

"HEY ASSHAT!" Cressida shouted, despite how exhausted she was, and she could feel herself fighting to stay conscious. And her spear appeared in her hands and she sent it flying with as much force as she could. It pegged him between the eyes.

"GAH!"

The girl did a backflip to get out of the way, as Serapis blindly thrust his staff in her direction. The three monster heads blasted super-heated plumes of vapour, melting a hole in the concrete where she'd had just been standing.