By the Pact

Chapter 1-3

“I admire the perseverance and will to fight, but it’s time you stopped, pactee. My offer only lasts as long as my patience.” The darkness lit up with the blue glow of the crystal. Within it, the dark silhouette brightened, illuminating a humanoid figure with birdlike features: a long, pointy nose, clawed fingers, and furled wings.

“Let Kamira live,” Veelk said with a trembling voice.

“Very well.”

Kamira sighed with relief when the pain faded, but the feeling of emptiness persisted. Whatever Veranesh did to her, it affected her pact.

“You couldn’t have shielded her, mage killer,” the demon said in an almost comforting tone. “The spell was already on her. I’m merely executing it.”

Veelk narrowed his eyes. “How did you know?”

“Suzhaul used to discuss his ideas with me, and I made some suggestions. Glad to see he put them to good use.” Sarcasm rang in the demon’s voice.

Kamira sighed and sat up. Despite Veranesh’s claim, Veelk still held his arm around her. “He broke it,” she whispered. “He broke my pact.” It couldn’t have been possible. Only the demon and the arcanist who made the pact could break it.

“I thought that would get your attention.” Veranesh must have heard her. “Are you ready to listen?”

Her expression hardened as she squeezed Veelk’s muscular arm and replied, “Fine, demon. Let’s hear your lies.”

“Very wise. The spell I put on you will release upon your death. It’ll sow destruction across the land and free me from this place. But since you’re a pactee, I’ll give you a choice. You can die here and now, and maybe spare some lives, or you can leave, live your life freely… and die somewhere else, some other time, in a place possibly more crowded than here. I’m patient enough to wait a bit longer from my freedom.”

Kamira huffed. “That’s not much of a choice, even if you actually promised me my whole lifetime.”

Veelk had an unspoken question in his eyes, and she shrugged in reply. She’d called the demon’s bluff once and paid for it. It wasn’t wise to risk it again.

The demon laughed. “I see you’ve dealt with my kind before. I suppose I could offer you another way.”

She saw that coming. If he didn’t want something from her, she would be dead already. “I’m all ears.”

“I’ll let you live, and you find a way to free me.”

“Out of the question.” She never believed the Cataclysm was the fault of the arcanists of old, and to help Veranesh would mean betraying their sacrifice.

Veelk replied at the same time, “Agreed.”

She sent the mage killer an angry glare, but his expression made it clear that arguments were pointless.

“Garivan,” Veelk said. “Go by the rule.”

If she had her magic, she wouldn’t resist the urge to burn his eyes out… even if it wasn’t exactly possible with the scars protecting him. Of course, she couldn’t claim she didn’t remember Garivan, because the memory of the betrayal they’d suffered remained as clear as ever. Yet it didn’t mean Veelk had the right to call upon the promise they’d made back then in such circumstances. “No heroics, survival first” had no place in a confrontation with a powerful demon.

“How about you do me a favor, mage killer, and find a few small creatures,” Veranesh said before she could present her arguments to Veelk. “They’ll be useful, should we come to an agreement. And while she isn’t distracted by your presence, I’ll discuss the details with the pactee.”

Veelk tensed. “I’m not leaving unless you guarantee her life.”

Veranesh looked down at him, his sharp features hardening. “You’re becoming tiresome, mage killer. Had I no respect for Suzhaul and arcanists of old, I’d no longer bother with either of you. Comply or watch her die.”

Kamira shivered. The sudden shift in the demon’s mood brought back the fear. “Veelk, just take supplies and go.” They couldn’t win this game. With her magic gone, she could do as much as throw obscenities at the demon. The unpleasant memory of her pact being severed overwhelmed her, and she forced herself to focus on the problem. Veelk was right: survival first, even if in the end it meant she had to pretend to make a deal.

Veelk smiled as if he knew to what conclusion she arrived, and after giving the demon a short nod, he left the chamber.

“So, how come you became a pactee?” Veranesh asked. “My spell wouldn’t have worked on you if you didn’t have traces of what they call high magic, but you didn’t use it to fight me.”

She could ignore his question, but if they both remained silent, it wouldn’t help her figure out how to alter the odds. “I studied with them for a while, but when I disagreed with one of them, they kicked me out. So I found an arcanist to teach me and a demon to make a pact. No glory, no pretty title, but enough to get by.”

“Enough to get by… Do you regret?”

She shook her head as she pondered what sounded like genuine interest in the demon’s voice. “The look on the face of the fourth archmage when I told him what I thought of him… It was worth it. I’d do it again,” she said with confidence.

“Please, continue.”

Her eyes opened wide. Demons couldn’t read minds, so Veranesh must have learned it from her expression or was wise enough to understand there were no simple answers to questions about regrets like that.

This time she didn’t answer in an instant, and memories swarmed her.

The thrill of making a pact. Meeting Veelk and the friendship with a mage killer that grew so unexpectedly. The satisfaction of seeing the morbid look on her father’s face when he learned she’d become what common folk called a demonologist. The anger at the unjust treatment she suffered, both from the high mages and anyone who despised arcanists. The foolish hope that one day she’d make a name for herself. The feeling of freedom from the High Towers’ rules. The unfulfilled ambitions. She thought about it all often, about the choices she made and consequences she had to face, and in the end she always concluded that no, she didn’t regret.

“There’s more,” she admitted. “But it’s a long story.” One she wouldn’t be sharing with a cunning and deceptive demon.

“And you’re willing to end it here?”

She gave him a bitter glare. “Eventually everyone meets their match.”

Veranesh huffed. “I didn’t expect empty words like that. I won’t accept them from a pactee who only moments ago was ready to fight to the end.”

“I did fight to the end, but I’m not a pactee anymore. I have no magic left.” She stared at him, putting forth all the effort she could muster to look like someone resigned to their fate.

“I see.” In the crystal’s blue light, Veranesh’s smile seemed sinister. “You’re hoping the sands will bury us. That it’ll give the high mages enough time to find a way to defeat me.”

She pressed her lips together and looked away, but to her surprise, the demon chuckled.

“It seems that we have more in common than you’d think, you and me,” he continued, amused. “If you agree to help me, I’ll not only give you your magic back, but also promise you get to see the high mages fall.”

“Why not kill me now? Why risk it?” There had to be a reason for Veranesh to prefer her alive. If he really desired his freedom, he shouldn’t have bothered with all the talk. Two human lives must be nothing in comparison to regaining his freedom after centuries in that crystal.

Veranesh offered a predatory smile. “Because I enjoy the thrill, and to see what you’re going to do, what you’ll learn, and what decisions you’ll make… That’s something I haven’t experienced in a long time. And if you fail or try to turn against me, I still get my freedom.”

“I didn’t make my pact yesterday, demon.” Kamira grimaced. “There’s another reason you want me to live.”

His eyes lit up, and their color resembled honey. “I want my revenge. I want to watch my enemies fall when they think nothing threatens them. I want to hit them when they least expect it. And for that, I need someone to prepare everything and free me in the right way… and at the right time.” He smiled and stared at Kamira. “The chance of bringing high mages to their end… It’s worth the risk, don’t you think?”

“It is.” She wasn’t lying. Survival aside, the prospect of bringing the high mages down, of seeing them helpless and humiliated… The prospect of exposing their lies and corruption… It was worth the risk of agreeing to the demon’s terms.

Veranesh regarded her with his eyes narrowed accompanied by the corner of his lip curling, as if he’d expected such response, as if she proved they were indeed alike. “Will you find a way to free me then?”

“I will.”