By the time the smoke had fully curled in on itself and solidified into flesh and bone, the air inside the circle was smouldering hot. It made the entry into the human realm less jarring, the demon found, and he took the time to flex his wings in the warmth before turning his eyes upon the figure in the robe.
“Speak,” he commanded. “And state why you have Summoned me.”
The figure raised her head to meet his eyes. “Is this a good time for you?”
The demon’s mind stumbled. “Excuse me?”
“Well,” the voice continued. “I did just summon you, like, out of nowhere. I checked all the spells to see if there was one to just send a message or something, but it seemed to be summon or nothing. If this is a bad time for you, I can absolutely try again later though.”
On second inspection, it wasn’t a robe his summoner was wearing. It was a long, sturdy apron. What his still adjusting sight had taken for a hood was a shawl tied round her hair. The demon stared at her with unblinking eyes. “It is as good a time as any, witch.”
“Oh good,” the witch smiled. “That’s a relief.”
“Why did you summon me?” the demon demanded again. This kind of small talk was highly irregular. He squinted at the stains on the witch’s hands, most of which he suspected were nothing more sinister than ink and juice. “What reason could you possibly have to call upon the likes of me.”
“Well, their names are Storm and Letitia and they need a babysitter.”
The demon stared at her some more. “They what-”
The witch met him with a smile of sunshine enthusiasm. “I checked your references in the Necronomicon, you are very good with kids!”
“I…” His bewilderment left him scrambling for words. “I tempted the minds of neglected children to cause them to swarm and lay waste to their town!”
“Yeah! It said in the book that they were all under ten years old and that there were at least twenty of them. That must have taken a lot of skill!”
The demon shifted his weight a little. When she put it like that… “It is one of my more infamous accomplishments.”
“Really impressive,” the witch nodded admiringly. “So I was hoping…maybe we can work something out? The kids would love getting to hang out with a demon.”
“Surely your kind has its own caretakers to hire.”
She deflated a little. “Yeah, well. Letitia has just started levitating and Storm is very focussed on animal transformations right now. Which is great! He’s so talented. But half the time he refuses to turn himself back when it’s time for dinner and, well, not everyone wants to deal with feeding a Iberian Lynx.
“Iberian Lynx?” he repeated, raising a ridged eyebrow.
“They’re both very fond of felines,” the witch clarified.
“I see.” The demon looked from the witch to the circle around him (it seemed to have been drawn with blue sidewalk chalk) and then to the room around her. There were several large diagrams on the wall with arcane symbols and occult sigils. Between them were drawings. A lot of them. Mostly of cats. Several of them had wings, or horns. He looked back at the witch again.
“Tell me,” he said, slowly sinking down into a cross-legged position on the floor. “Exactly how old are they?”
