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C?r?l?a took the big book from the imp and patted it on the head. There was just the barest flicker of a smile at the corner of the squat thing's toothy mouth, and then it was gone—sinking back into the pool of shadow on the floor.
C?r?l?a placed the book on the floor and flicked through the yellowing pages until she found the one she was after.
"There you go," she said.
Phil made no move to start.
"Um. Won't Verde be angry if I yank her here from whatever she's doing?"
The smooth flesh of C?r?l?a's forehead creased up. She sighed as she planted her palm on her forehead.
"That's not how it works," she said. "It can, but the summoner needs to know the exact design for the individual daemon and most summoners don't bother because the ritual won't work if the target daemon is not available.
"The circle is used to open a connection. It can be to a specific region of hell and/or a specific type/race of daemon. The circle you used is to summon a standard succubus-type daemon from anywhere within the Lust Conjugation. Very general. Rosa and Verde happened to be the first to answer the summoning."
Oh, Phil thought. It kind of made sense. He studied the design on the open page of the book and began to copy it, in chalk, on the stone floor of the library.
"Don't worry about imperfections in the floor," C?r?l?a said as Phil struggled to continue a line over a crack between two stone slabs. "It's the mental image of the circle that's important. The chalk is only an aid to focus the mind. It's the projection of the circle from the summoner's mind that actually reshapes and bends reality."
Phil was surprised to find C?r?l?a's words made sense. As he drew the circle he realised he was no longer seeing the chalk lines but the mental image of the design he'd concentrated on and created in his mind. He finished and stepped back. He was sure he'd got it right this time. The circle felt clearer. Crisper.
C?r?l?a looked at his effort. "Oh dear. I don't think that could contain even a feculoid imp."
Phil deflated. He looked at the open page and then back at the circle. They looked the same. He was sure they were the same. Where had he gone wrong?
C?r?l?a looked at the circle and then the open page. She frowned. She crouched down and examined the book more closely. She blushed and put a hand over her mouth.
"Book's wrong," she turned to Phil and said with a smile. "Parts of the outer circle design have been omitted."
Wrong? Phil thought. Great, so he'd never had a chance of getting the ritual right in the first place.
"I'll fix it."
C?r?l?a went into her bag and pulled out a black pen. She lay down on the floor next to the book and started to draw directly onto the yellowed page. It looked wrong to Phil, as if a child was being allowed to doodle in a priceless first edition of Dickens. When she finished Phil was surprised to see her modifications matched the style perfectly. He couldn't see where the original lines ended and C?r?l?a's alterations began.
"Try that," she said.
Phil shrugged. He mopped away the chalk of the old circle and started afresh.
"How about now?" he asked after finishing.
C?r?l?a tilted her head from one side to the other as she examined his work. She looked at Phil, her red eyes shining. "Why don't we try it out and see?"
Phil would have preferred a simple, 'Yes, that looks fine.'
C?r?l?a put a finger to her lips and was thoughtful.
"Hmm. The problem with most succubi is they're cunning, duplicitous creatures. Even if there were flaws in the circle or ritual a succubus might pretend to follow the summoner's wishes if it amused them or suited their purposes. We need a daemon that's more straightforward. Then we'll know right away if the summoning was performed correctly."
Preferably something that couldn't do a lot of damage if the circle was wrong, Phil thought.
"A violence daemon would do the trick. Maybe a taurenox. They're big, strong, and as dumb as a rock."
Big, strong and violence daemon were words that didn't appeal to Phil.
C?r?l?a tsked.
"No. No good at all. Then there wouldn't be any sex. We won't be able to hold the reader's interest if there isn't any sex."
