The Unknown

"Did you not read the 'History of the Realms' book I gave you?" Drindle and Lionel were facing each other, sitting on their beds across the room from each other. Drindle was speaking still wearing an incredulous expression "It clearly stated that the human realm was almost destroyed by the summoned velthums in the past." The old man shook his head before continuing on. "Those creatures, or spirits, or whatever you want to call them; they are bad news. Summoning one isn't so hard but.. subjugation.." The man laughed dryly "Ha, that's a whole other issue."

Lionel sat thinking on what the old man said. He had read the majority of the book. It even said that the summoned creatures almost wiped humanity into extinction, which led Lionel to a question. "But why is it bad to accept a gift from one?"

"Boy, Velthums are not your friend. They do not want to be in our realm." The old man drug his hand down his face in exasperation. "How can I say this?" The geezer then rubbed his temple and spoke. "Velthum's hate humanity. No one has ever figured out why, but when the first otherworldly beings were summoned, they murdered any human on site." The old man leaned to his right and stretched his back.

The boy sat thinking and another question popped into his mind. "How were humans able to use velthums in their armies then?" He remembered the history book mentioning mankind raising armies of the otherworldly creatures.

"Through false promises. Mankind lied to the beings. They promised to return the velthums to their realms if they did what was asked." Drindle pursed his lips into a sour expression and continued "When the velthums finally understood the lie, it was a bloodbath."

Lionel felt a cool chill run up his spine. What if Dextera Domini was just using him to return to his realm? Lionel hadn't even thought of what the Velthum wanted from him let alone if the being was evil. The boy sat still frightened at the prospect of accepting a deal from an evil creature. He steeled himself and looked at Drindle before asking another question. "Can you show me a Velthum?" The boy still wasn't entirely sure what these beasts were. He felt like he needed to know if they all took the same shape or if there was any commonality between them at all.

The old man sat still staring at Lionel, he seemed to be contemplating something. He finally spoke after a few minutes. "It depends on what type you want to see." He shifted and sat upright while continuing to speak. "There are three main types of lifeforms that can be summoned as velthums."

Lionel interrupted quickly to ask "Does it matter if they come from the Realm of Heaven or the Realm of Daemons?"

The geezer held up his hand to silence any more questions. "I am getting to that, just listen." His hand remained raised as he continued speaking. "Similar to how the Realm of Humans has creatures that are increasingly intelligent, so too do the other Realms. For sake of simplicity, I will only be talking about the Realm of Heaven and the Realm of Daemons." Drindle could tell Lionel had another question but he still held his hand outstretched. The geezer lowered all but three fingers up, to keep the boy silent. "The three main life forms are, Vegetative Life" he dropped one finger, "Sensible Life" He dropped another finger "And the Rational Life." He dropped his hand back into his lap as he continued on. "Each of these life forms can be summoned to our plane of existence, but the smarter the creature, the more difficult the subjugation process becomes."

Lionel was beginning to understand the complexity of being an enthraller. "But how do you even summon one?" The boy couldn't stop his wandering mind.

The old man sighed audibly before standing up and taking a piece of chalk from under his robe. He shook his head before speaking, "Like this" Drindle bent to the floor and drew a complex matrix. The old man drew three total circles equidistant from each other. He then drew main solid lines to connect the circles to form a triangular shape with the circles at the points. The man stooped forward again and began to write characters into the three circles. Lionel had seen those same runic characters in the Lexical Codex. Finally the man drew one large circle that surrounded the entire diagram and wrote the runic-characters around the outer line.The entire matrix was of a circular design similar to the diagrams Lionel had seen in the 'Lexical Codex of Magus' book

"Ank, This is a very basic protective matrix." The man was pointing at the now completed chalk drawing. "This is used to keep the Velthum in place while you subjugate it's will" The ancient man bent and drew one final circle around himself. "and this is the Summunor's Domain" He sat in in the circle, cross-legged and spoke again. "This is how a summoning takes place. Do not move from your bed no matter what." Drindle gave the boy a stern look before he closed his eyes.

Lionel could see the fabric of magic beginning to ripple. Energy was being pulled into the center of the protection matrix. A small globule of magic seemed to congeal and float at eye level to Drindle. The old man continued to pull energy from the environment and let it flow into, the now skull sized sphere.

The boy watched intently as the sphere grew larger and larger. Once it was the size of a large dog, the magic's fabric seemed to change. The three circles at the peaks of the central triangle glowed brightly. The round globe of magic shimmered and turned dark, a sudden flash of light made Lionel turn his head and close his eyes.

A cold aura exuded from the center of the diagram. Lionel couldn't see well due the bright flash blurring his vision. He strained his eyes and looked toward the chilling atmosphere. A dark figure hung in the air. The being was more of a beast than a man. The fiendish figure descended slowly. As it's feet touched the stone floor of the room, the creature immediately bolted towards Drindle. Lionel jerked in fright, the beast slammed into an invisible wall and was knocked back into the center of the chalk diagram. Lionel could see an electrical membrane shimmering in a dome shape around the outer circle of the chalk matrix.

a dry aged voice spoke from Drindle, "No need to fear, Ank I have this fiend under control."

Lionel stared at the hunkered down beast. The velthum took the shape of a mountain lion, but there were distinct features that immediately resonated that the beast was from another realm. The creature lacked any fur and instead had a black leathery hide that shone with a metallic sheen. The lion shaped, beast's head was also smaller. There were no fangs or eyes to be seen either. The nose flared open as the fiend breathed in.

The demonic lion jerked it's head quickly towards where Lionel sat and opened it's mouth. A long tongue with steely mandibles shot towards the boy before slamming into the electric shield. A jolt of lightning shot through the extended tongue and dropped the beast to the floor.

"Seems to like you" Drindle spoke while eyeing the beast laying sprawled out. "This is a Daemon in the Sensible category of life." The old man hadn't moved other than to speak. He kept his eyes fixed on the beast as he continued to speak. "All creatures from the other planes want to kill humans on site. I cannot stress that enough to you."

Lionel sat transfixed by the caged lion. The beast had stopped moving, instead it flared it's nose while turning between the old man and the boy. It appeared to be studying the two intently.

"To summon a creature you must have at least three pieces of information" Drindle spoke again. He pointed slowly at the three inner circles of the chalk matrix. "One: the realm to summon from" Drindle pointed towards the runic symbols in the furthest circle. "Two: The category of life" He moved his finger to point at another of the three circles. "and Three: the species name"

Lionel felt a shift in the magic fabric that made up the electrical field of protection. The membrane shrank down and drew closer to the beast. The furless black lion flared it's nose wildly and laid as flat as possible to the floor. Drindle continued speaking. "What makes an enthraller different from a mage summoning velthums, is this" the electrical field lightly touched the cowering lion. Drindle rose mightily and walked towards the beast. He extended his hand down towards the now compressed electrical field and closed his eyes.

There was a huge spike in energy from the environment and it all converged into Drindle's outstretched hand. The lion flung its head back and forth trying to get away. The membrane continued to hold the beast tightly in place. No matter how much the otherworldly fiend struggled it couldn't get away. Part of the beast seemed to fade and be pulled towards Drindle's hand.

Lionel couldn't pull his eyes away as he watched the process. The Lion slowly faded and was pulled into the ball of magic in Drindle's hand. The energy swirled, a mixed shade of red and black. Even after the beast was fully absorbed into the flowing magic, Lionel could still feel it's presence. The animal hadn't been destroyed, to the contrary it was being absorbed and transformed before Lionel's eyes!

Drindle finally opened his eyes and moved his extended hand to show Lionel a small glass drop with a ruby red center. "This, is the core of the Velthum, and it is used by enthrallers to perform magic beyond what is capable by almost all Mages."

The boy couldn't believe his eyes, in front of him was a crystal that housed a demonic lion. Lionel could feel the presence of the beast inside the small glass bead. Only now, did the boy realize how much he had to learn.