The Law of Compensation Part Five [The Witcher Setting/SI]
It did not take much cajoling to receive the information I needed from the wife; though it did require waiting until Diethelm was forced to deal with some business and thus separate from the love of his life.
A love he was willing to slap in anger, which made my thoughts perhaps a bit more hued on the sarcastic than they should have ever been.
"We weren't like this before," Idda whispered while resting in bed. "We weren't poor, but we weren't this...this wealthy. Diethelm was an academic, had a job at the local school." She grimaced, her face betraying the longing and the sadness of simpler times.
Now she rested on satin or silk sheets, her head and back supported gently by soft pillows.
"It all happened so suddenly; I didn't have the thought to question it," she said. "He came back one day, saying we were going to be blessed with everything we could ever desire. I thought he had found a child; I was barren since the pox, and wouldn't have minded an orphan to grow as my own..." she placed a hand on her swollen stomach. "But that wasn't what he meant by it."
She sourly looked away. "In exchange for the first born son of the house of Toggenburgs, we would be as beautiful and fit as the greatest of nobles, and with ample money to spare."
I crossed my arms in front of my chest. "Was that the exact wording of the deal?"
Idda shook her head. "I know not the exact words, but I know that they don't matter. A devil will come to collect my child-and I do not wish the unholy beast to do so!"
"I will have to ask Diethelm," I said in the end. "I might be able to do something, but I need to know the exact words. And even then, a deal is not a curse. Curses can be defeated through many ways; tricks, penances, shifting of the target...but a deal? A deal is a different manner." I stepped away from her. "You don't need a bodyguard until the babe is born; though..." I heard the sound of footsteps approaching, and thus quieted down.
The door opened not a few seconds later, to readmit Diethelm. "I'm sorry I had to absent myself, but there was a protest near the mines-had to notify the guard they can deal with it as they see fit. Nonhumans being pissed I'm in charge now."
"I see," I said, my left hand limp by my side. "By the way, would you mind telling me the exact words of the deal you made with the Devil?"
Diethelm's eyes buggered wide ever so briefly, but so too did they suddenly look vacuously ahead. The Axii sign was completed, and his mind was now gently lulled into telling me what I needed to know.
"I...wanted us to be as beautiful and rich as the greatest of nobles of Kovir and Poviss, for my wife I wished her to always be in good health, and have a garden to envy all others. For myself, I wished for knowledge and wisdom in affairs," Diethelm said. "And in exchange, I would give upon the Master of Mirrors the firstborn of the Toggenburgs' house."
"That's the exact wording of the deal, correct?" I stressed out.
"Yes," Diethelm quietly nodded. "As penned on the contract. Written in blood."
I clenched my fists. "You made a deal with an entity capable of granting you that," I growled. "This is demonology." The Axii sign came less, but not so much by quiet, simmering fury. "You made a deal with a demon, you foolish man," I bared my teeth at him. "And you didn't even have the guts to sell your own soul."
"My wife was barren!" Diethelm exclaimed, starting to backpedal towards the wall as I walked forward instead. "I thought it impossible for him to collect!"
"You thought it impossible? Nothing is impossible! If a contract truly was impossible, then the demon would refuse it to begin with!" I hissed back. "Now you will listen, and you will listen very carefully."
I pointed my index finger at him. "A deal cannot be broken, but it can be renegotiated. It cannot be annulled, but an exchange can be given. However it is not your right to decide that, but the demon's. If he is unrelenting, then you will have no choice."
I took a small breath, realizing my right hand was shaking from sheer frustration. I didn't sign up to battle a demon. A Satyr was one thing, a Wraith another. A Hym or a Leshen-those were other things, dangerous, but rooted within concepts and knowledge of this world.
A demon was not an easy, if at all a beatable, foe.
Djinn weren't something you could fight either; how do you cleave a pool of walking fire before it chars you to ashes? How do you pierce the ground you walk before it collapses and crushes you?
My ears picked up a noise. It was a soft, dog-like whimper. There was a gentle scratching from the door, and as I moved to open it, Gretchen amiably padded inside. The beagle placed its paws on the side of Idda's bed, probably wanting to climb up and be by her mistress' side.
In doing such a thing, I once more noticed the animal's swollen belly.
I tightened my fists.
I didn't like the solution I had come up with.
"What can we do?" Diethelm whispered.
"Everything you earned through the deal, turn it into a material form of sorts. A contract to your house, a deal for your mines, everything-and then have it with you. When the babe is born and the demon comes to collect, offer him all that he gifted you, and in exchange for sparing your child's soul add some greater form of penitence," I quietly knelt by the dog's side. "Promise him the next two children you might have and then sleep in separate chambers henceforth."
"Will-Will that work?" Diethelm whispered.
"It might, it might not," it definitely wouldn't work. "Offer your own soul in exchange, or that of your wife. Or offer them both. Have him talk. The more a demon speaks, the more I might be able to understand what he is, and what he might like."
I stared at him, "But know this. Once this is over, you might not have the money to pay me for my services." I rubbed the dog's back. "It's-"
"I'd rather give him the child," Diethelm said, "If it's that the price to pay-he can have the child. We can always make another."
"Diethelm!" Idda gasped in shock. Her eyes widened. And then she gritted her teeth.
I smelled and heard. I knew and slowly stood up. "Her waters broke. Prepare the mercenaries, and call the wet nurse. The babe's about to be born."
Gretchen whined pitifully, staring with worry at her mistress and barking loudly. Diethelm rushed off and I sighed. My job was done. There was- "Please, Witcher..." Idda whispered, "Don't let the devil take my child."
"I'll do my best," I said. "But there is always a price to pay."
Quietly, I gently moved Gretchen away from the bed and into a corner of the room. My eyes went to the room's mirror, who was fixed against the wall and showed the bed where a birth was just about to happen. The dog in my hands went wild, attempting to bite to break free and reach for her mistress.
Truly. Humans didn't deserve dogs.
I moved away from the mirror's reflection.
Amidst the screams, the animal's whimpers were quieted to nothing.
The sharp screams of a newborn life echoed in the room, and just as the wet nurse was about to bring the child to the mother's chest, I moved.
"Let the father name him," I said. "I'll bring him to the lord of the house."
The wet nurse would have normally said something, but my Axii could be the most compelling of things. As I walked down the stairs, I knew this was going to end in one of two ways.
Neither were ways I peculiarly enjoyed thinking about.
"Your son is born, Diethelm," I spoke as I stepped into the dining room, where I had hoped to at least catch a bite before the ordeal had begun. A man was sitting at one end of the table, and he was smiling quite brightly.
He looked like the gardener I had spoken to. Diethelm looked contrite. "I-I have tried, but there is no deal to be had-"
"My, it is not as if you tried that hard," the man answered. "But where are my manners? Gaunter O'Dimm, at your service, master Witcher," he stood up from the end of the table to make a mocking bow. "I think you have something for me?"
"The firstborn of the house of the Toggenburgs," I said with a slow nod. I gently placed the bundle of cloth in Diethelm's hands. "Don't look at his face, or it might make you regret what you're about to do," I said with barely contained disdain.
"I-" Diethelm swallowed, but then nodded. "It's just a child. I can have another."
"It is always so fascinating," the demon that went by the name of Gaunter spoke, one of the spoons from the supper in his hands. He was quietly playing with it, letting it pass from one of his hands to the other. "Human nature, and what they might do when given knowledge, wealth, and beauty-though perhaps next time I might find someone who wishes for something different."
"Just name the child, Diethelm," I said as I interposed myself between the demon in human form and the man behind me.
"Then...Diethelm, of house Toggenburgs," the man said, not truly thinking much about it. "He's meant for a devil, what's the point of giving him a name? He's my son! My firstborn son! The heir to my house and my wealth, but now off he goes with the devil! What a bargain!" he chuckled as he said that. I sighed.
"Truly," I muttered. "Human nature is made of shit. Wonder how anyone could find it interesting."
Gaunter O'Dimm chuckled, "such defeatism defeats the point, but will you stop me, witcher?"
"The firstborn of the house is all yours," I said. "I know better than to fight a demon."
"Now, that is offensive. I am no demon," Gaunter retorted. "Though what I am is better left unspoken."
"Then I'll have your word on it," I mused, moving to the side. "Wouldn't want you to say something that isn't true, after all."
Gaunter blinked, and his eyes narrowed. He had sensed it in my voice. He moved to the bundle of cloth, and gripped it. From within, a pitiful whine came out.
"What is this?" he asked as a newborn baby beagle pitifully whined for a mother that was away from him. "Do you think you can fool me?"
"I think that you are holding the firstborn son of house Toggenburgs," I quipped right back at him. "Acknowledged by the head of the house. Firstborn of his litter, and born first of the house, even before the human babe," I smiled. "The devil's in the details, Master Mirror. You should have been more specific."
"You think this is going to work, Witcher?" O'Dimm asked, puzzled, and yet with his eyes narrowed. "You think you can cheat me out of what I was promised?"
"I cheat no one," I answered right back at him. "You simply didn't write the contract properly, O'Dimm."
"You..." his eyes grew dark.
"You know the door, Master Mirror," I spoke flatly. "You have no power here. All that you have is an innocent, newborn pup."
I grimaced. "Which, admittedly, deserves more concern and care than the soul of its master, but we can't win them all."
O'Dimm laughed. The laughter echoed in the room, until the spoon he had in his hand snapped, and as it did the mirrors and the windows shattered. I hastily got my silver sword out. Hopefully it might hurt the bastard some.
"Then I'll take back the house! I'll take back the wealth! Everything I gave you, Diethelm, I'll take it back! Renounce the pup, and give me what I was promised!" as he snarled that, Diethelm's eyes widened.
"Witcher, I can't go back to what I once was-"
The silver sword was meant for monsters.
Humans truly were the greatest of them all.
O'Dimm stopped laughing. My blade was slick with blood as I slowly pulled it away from the man's neck.
"Interesting," he whispered. He walked on crushed glass. "That was, admittedly, quite interesting."
I took a step back. "You know, breaking mirrors usually means seven years of bad luck," I saw my reflection, just as easily as I saw glimmers of His.
His wasn't pretty.
"I am the bad luck within mirrors," Gaunter snarled.
"Yeah? Well, tough shit," I retorted right back. "You bad lucked yourself then."
He wasn't leaving.
That was a problem.
He was getting closer to me.
That was an even greater problem.
"You got what you were promised!" I yelled at him, "Now leave!" What did the Book of Darkness say about Demons? What was it that Old Keldan warned me about?
Oh. Right.
Demons have power if you allow them to. They will rend you with their claws, but they will not claim you if you deny them. Deny them till your last, dying breath, and you might just have a fighting chance. If you let them hook their claws into your emotions, if you concede them even an inch, then they will forever mar your soul. Thus, it doesn't matter what you say, as long as you are determined in whatever it is you're saying.
Gaunter stopped walking. He shook his head. "I am still owed."
"No you are not," I retorted.
"I am still owed-"
"No! You are not!" I snarled back, my hand rushing for a spoon on the table. He stared at it, and then at me. An object that held meaning for a Demon could be used to summon them, but also attempt to banish them. Though I hadn't a protective circle, so- "Be gone!"
"Do you truly think-"
"Your debt is paid! Your contract fulfilled! Be gone, Demon of yore! Darken this house no more!" I yelled louder still, pushing the spoon forward.
Gaunter bared his teeth. "You think I can be parleyed or reasoned with?"
"I do not care what you are! I do not care what you desire! You are not welcomed! You are not desired! You were not summoned, and you were not divined!" I stared at the spoon in my hand. I took a deep breath, and then I lunged with it.
Gaunter O'Dimm moved back.
He hastily grabbed the newborn wailing pup from the floor, and then narrowed its now golden eyes at me. His body grew cracked, and filled with a darkness that was unnatural, and soul-chilling.
"You challenge that which you cannot understand-"
"I do not care! I do not desire! Your knowledge keep to yourself! Your wealth and power, I seek them not!" my other hand grabbed a candlestick. The candles were unlit, but Igni rushed to make them ablaze. "Be gone Demon! Darken the house no more!"
"Fool," Gaunter O'Dimm howled precisely once. The walls shattered. The house crumbled down. Tongues of fire and flame rose and spun around me. His eyes widened in disbelief as he dimly realized I was standing unscathed amidst the chaos. "What-"
"You have no power on me!" I yelled, the spoon wasn't glowing, and there was no sign anything I was doing was actually keeping the demon at bay. Yet it was working. Thus, in for a copper, in for a Bizant. "Now leave! Leave and never show yourself to the likes of me again! You are unwanted! You are undesired! You are unclean! Off! Goodbye! Never again darken this house! Never again gaze upon me and mine!"
He began to retreat, his steps taking him towards the ruins of the house's wall, while I advanced, emboldened by the apparent functioning of randomly selected, yet strangely effective, words.
"This is not over, Witcher!" Gaunter showed his teeth one last time, his face now an even grimmer demonic visage, if such a thing was possible.
"Instead it is! Now and forever; be gone! I banish you, unclean one! I defy you, unwanted one! I refuse you, unasked one! Va vort veloe d'yaebl! Essea dubhenn haern am glândeal, morc'h am fhean aiesin! Tearth te neén!"
The clouds overhead darkened the night. The garden died and wilted as I kept advancing, and Gaunter kept retreating. His eyes glowed, and so did his teeth. He hissed and glared like a raving animal, a snake kept at bay, a monster being pushed back by an invisible force. The moment his body moved past the gates, which bent and widened to his passage, I slammed Aard against them, and through the motion locked him out.
Abruptly, everything ceased and I gasped for air. The wax on the candlestick was gone, and the silver itself was melted on my gauntlet, dripping down like dirty water. The spoon in my right hand looked instead elongated, and as I briefly wondered why it felt just right for a long spoon to be used in such an event, I exhaled in relief at the disappearance of that Demon from the premises.
Thus, with the calm returning, I turned sharply to the ruins of the house and dashed for it.
I didn't drop the spoon.
I pocketed it and kept running.
There better be survivors.
Hopefully, this would be the last exorcism I ever had to perform.
Smashwords.
www.smashwords.com
Draft2Digital (multiple book libraries)
books2read.com
discord.gg
Twitter:
www.facebook.com
