Summoned

They went to the last room on the left. Rowen learned from Mr. Edwards that if they wanted to use a room they had to put in a request and reserve the room. During their sophomore year they could do it through him, but junior and senior years they had to send the request to the headmaster's secretary.

"Now, first I will have all of you form two lines. You will be drawing your own summoning circle so you will need the appropriate amount of space between you and the person next to you."

For this activity Mr. Edwards allowed the students to stand wherever they wanted. Rowen and Ewen stood next to each other, in the second row. On her other side was Deimos. To her relief, Mr. Edwards drew a summoning circle and left it to hover mid-air so that all of the students could see it and use it as a reference.

For this particular summoning circle, it only needed to be large enough for someone to stand in. Rowen took a small case out of her pocket, the only thing that they had been allowed to take, and knelt. The case opened to reveal four thin pieces of white chalk. She took one out, returned the case to her pocket, and began to draw the summoning circle.

With Gabriel's help, she only had to look up twice to compare her circle to the teachers. Once she was done, she stood up. There were already a few standing, the circle complete. Zidon's group was one. Another two minutes passed before everyone had completed their circles.

Mr. Edwards inspected everyone's circle. If he found a mistake he would point it out and make the student start over again. When he inspected Rowen's he gave her a nod of approval and moved on. He had made a point of complimenting Zidon's group when he inspected their circle.

~I'm not sure I'm going to like this teacher.~

Rowen was not a fan of favoritism, definitely not when it was so blatant. The fact that Mr. Edwards was also taller than her, put him on the same list as Zidon and his friends. She did not care that Saraiva was as tall as Ewen.

"Now, we will move on to the actual summoning. Ms. Nieves, you will go first."

Rowen tilted her head, this was the part that she was not certain about. "What level of demon should I summon?"

Mr. Edwards' eyes narrowed, "Summon whatever you can."

"But, what's the average summoned level for a demon?"

The teacher moved to stand in front of Rowen, just to the side of the circle. His breathing had increased, his eyes had narrowed further and his lips were drawn down in a frown. Rowen could almost feel his anger.

"Do you have a problem? You can summon a demon, can't you?"

Rowen felt the urge to roll her eyes but decided that at this moment it was best not to. She had placed the teacher at the top of her list, though. She was trying to understand where she should be because what she could summon was a fifth-level demon.

"I can summon a demon."

"Good. Now show me."

Zidon and his group were snickering and whispered loudly that Rowen did not know how to summon. They got loud enough that Mr. Edwards told them to stop. The teacher handed her a small ritual knife and motioned for her to start.

~Focus. Block them out and focus on the ritual or you won't be able to summon anything.~

Rowen closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, then slowly released it. She did it a second time before she cut her finger with the small blade that the teacher had given her. She spoke the ritual words in the demon's language as she held her hand out and let the blood from her finger drip onto the circle.

The moment the first drop of blood landed on the circle she felt her mind shift. In her mind's eye, it was as if words were color and she could see the options before her of the levels she could call. She reached out for the one she felt was the most reasonable and pulled on it.

The aqua color that she had pulled at shuddered but refused to move. With Gabriel's guidance, she put more power behind her and pulled again, this time the color shifted and came when she called. There was a collective gasp around her when she came back to herself.

Rowen opened her eyes to see a demon standing before her. It was as tall as she was, its horns were a deep red and stood out against its light grey skin. The horns grew out of its forehead and curved back ever so slightly, but where Gabriel's had been over a foot long, this one's were not quite a foot long.

Its red eyes watched her and when she smiled, satisfied with their assessment of it, it smiled back and bowed. Strangely enough, it was wearing a plain shirt and long shorts. Rowen was certain that that was Gabriel's doing.

"Everyone, wait here and do not try to summon without me. Ms. Nieves, come with me and bring it with you."

Rowen did as told, but could not contain her curiosity when they stepped into the hall.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"I'm not sure. You should not have been able to summon such a high-level demon."

"Can I ask where we're going?"

Mr. Edwards waited to answer her until they were at the elevator, "We are going to the headmaster."

"Fine."

She turned to the demon and tapped its forehead, giving it the knowledge it needed to get to the fiftieth floor then stepped onto the elevator.

"Follow me."

The teacher looked curiously at their interaction, confused about the whole thing. When Rowen and the demon disappeared in the elevator he stepped in. Rowen did not say anything when she stepped onto the headmaster's floor, she ignored Hyacinth and made a beeline for the headmaster's office. The demon followed close behind her.

Mr. Edwards appeared a moment after her, "We need to see the headmaster. It's important."

Hyacinth nodded and pressed a button that let the headmaster know that someone was coming.

Rowen opened the door, not waiting to knock or get permission to enter. She immediately headed for one of the chairs across from Kelos and sat, arms crossed.

"Rowen, what's this about?"

The headmaster looked up when the demon came to stand behind her, his eyes widening ever so slightly, then he looked over at Mr. Edwards.

"Just for the record, I asked what level of demon I should summon and I just got fucking attitude. How is it that a teacher can't even tell you what level of demon everyone else can summon?"

"That's hardly how you should be speaking to the headmaster, Ms. Nieves. Your attitude is poor and lacking manners."

Mr. Edwards spoke up as he moved to stand by her, he backed up, though, when the demon turned to him and growled.

"Let's just take a moment to calm down. Am I to understand that the two of you are here because Ms. Nieves summoned a level four demon?"

"Yes, sir. It should not even be possible at her age. Zidon Sarkis, our best Summoner in years, can only summon a level two demon."

Rowen unfolded her arms and turned half around in her seat to look at both her teacher and the headmaster.

"Wait, so summoning a level two is considered special?"

When they both nodded in agreement she rolled her eyes and sat back in the chair.

"If I'd had this information before I could have summoned a level two instead."

"You shouldn't be able to summon anything higher than that."

"Why don't you jump out the damn window."

Edwards started to take a step forward, caught himself, and shook his head to clear the fog that had suddenly overtaken his mind.

"Rowen, you are to behave yourself."

The headmaster looked at her, his tone firm.

Rowen grinned, "I'm angry, not stupid. Gods, if I wanted people to actually do something they would." She turned to look at Edwards, "Sit down. I'm tired of the hovering."

As if to prove what she had said, the teacher stepped up and sat down in the chair next to her. The headmaster tapped on his desk, drawing her attention, and shook his head. Rowen rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, then slumped in the chair.

"That's enough. I want the two of you to wait outside while I speak with Mr. Edwards. When he leaves, you will come back in here and we will have a talk."

"Whatever."

Rowen stood and walked toward the door after she made certain the demon was following.

"Ms. Nieves."

"Yes?"

She turned around when the headmaster called her name. He raised his hand to motion toward the door.

"Can you please shut the door on your way out?"

"Of course."

She stepped across the threshold and said something in the demon's language. The demon that she had summoned closed the door.