Assumption Ch. 04

Chapter Four

A sleepless night followed and blended into a lethargic day. I trudged through my normal routine on instinct alone, accomplishing nothing beyond showing my face in the usual places. At work, no matter how hard I tried to focus, it was impossible to keep my mind on a single task. On the rare occasion that someone talked to me, the only responses I could manage were generic phrases like "I hear you" and "that's great." I existed solely on a superficial level.

Even if I had slept, I'm not sure things would have been any different. There was a darkness on the horizon, creeping closer with every tick of the clock. It was no longer a question of whether this was all a dream or if I would be called upon again. The reality of the situation had grown beyond my capacity for denial. The Matron had made a date and I knew she meant to keep it.

As soon as the sun began to set, I found myself in a familiar stillness. A wave of fear struck me, and instinct took over. I got up from my seat and sprinted forward off the couch, past my television set, and through the wall behind it.

At the speed I was moving, I ran beyond my visible apartment almost immediately and soon after saw nothing but blackness. I don't know how far I traveled, but several minutes passed before the fire caught up and consumed me. Even then, I still tried to run, finally tripping over some unseen nothing only to land on my stomach on cold, hard concrete. The circle spread out around me.

I peered toward the wall of candlelight. The Matron, the Princess, and the Follower were standing side-by-side at the edge of it. I picked myself up slowly, surprised I wasn't in more pain. Instead of trying to stand, I surrendered and knelt.

"Get Ambree," I heard the Matron say.

The Follower disappeared into the darkness while the remaining pair walked over to me. When they were close enough, the Matron's eyes found mine. "I hope you've taken this time to think about your place."

Behind her, the Princess stared at me silently. My sight unconsciously lowered to find her hands at her waist as I wondered if she was still carrying the dagger she had used to threaten me the last time we were together. There was no sign of it, but I knew there wouldn't be until she decided she needed it again.

When the Follower returned, she wasn't alone. A woman I had never seen before walked into the light at her side.

The new arrival looked much older than the others. Short gray hair framed her sharp face which was heavily creased and leathered by time. Her sagging skin hung over a skeletal frame, wrapped in a black corset top and black leather pants. Only her eyes, brilliant and green, betrayed the age of the rest of her.

Without hesitation, she walked over to my circle, but unlike the others, she did not give herself a buffer at the edge. She stepped to it boldly, her toes practically touching the outer line.

"Ambree, what are you doing?" the Matron hissed. "You're too close."

The woman turned her head slightly. "Do you have him under control or not? If he hurts me, he knows that you can end his life with little effort." She looked back at me as she spoke the last sentence.

"What are you going to do?"

"I need to meditate with him."

"Fine, but step back and bring him to the edge of the circle. It took us so long to get the summoning right. I don't want to have to start all over again when he does something silly like try and take you hostage."

"No. This will be fine right here. You may leave now. I need to be alone with him."

The Matron sighed. "We would like to supervise our demon while you work with him. Be reasonable."

"If you have reconsidered accepting my help, I can leave. I have no doubt you will find the solution to your problem, eventually. You have done well so far to justify taking up all this space."

"But Kindrid." The woman in white over-annunciated the second word, spreading it across three syllables. "How are we supposed to learn from you if you won't allow us to watch?" She bowed her head slightly as she finished the sentence.

"There is either a problem with you or a problem with him. I cannot tell the difference if you are here pulling at his strings. I need to know what he is capable of without your bond interfering." The old woman kept her eyes locked onto mine as she spoke. Her stance and tone were as cold as the person she argued with, but I saw no hunger or malice in the way she regarded me.

There was no immediate response. The Princess and the Follower looked to the Matron who held her breath for a long moment. It was a deliberate pause, something that might have worked to intimidate someone with less confidence, but her target was unmoved.

"Tell me now before I waste any more of my time."

The Matron let out a humph and turned, making her way out of sight beyond the ring of candles. Her companions quickly followed. "Don't forget whose summoning this is," I heard her shout before the sound of something large and poorly oiled closing signaled her exit.

The woman gestured to me. "Please stand."

I rose to my feet.

"Your ladies failed their first ritual. They blame you." She began to walk, touring around the outside of the circle that confined me. Once she completed her circuit, she stopped again. "Tell me your story, Demon."

There was only one story I was dying to tell. "I'm not a demon," I blurted out. "There's been some kind of mistake. I'm just a normal guy. I don't know how I wound up here, but I'm-"

She held up a finger and I instinctively stopped talking. It could have just as easily been magic as manners that held my tongue. "I know exactly what you are, and it is not a normal guy from whatever normal place you were about to say. This circle only summons one thing. You are a demon, truly. The fact that you are here should serve as proof enough for us both."

It occurred to me that I knew very little about demons, but I did have the impression they are supposed to be deceitful. Of course, a real demon would lie about their identity to protect themselves. I searched my memory for some kind of proof that I could offer or test she could perform that would convince her I was just another garden-variety person with no special powers or links to whatever spell they were trying to cast. In the end, the only thing I could come up with was another declaration. "I'm not trying to trick you. I'm telling the truth."

"You misunderstand. I am not accusing you of anything. I am explaining to you the truth of what you are, as incomprehensible as I am sure it is to you right now." Her eyes scanned down my body. "May I enter your circle, Demon?" She gestured at the marks on the floor with open hands.

In that moment, I was certain this was some kind of trick. If I answered to being called demon, that would prove that I was one and justify whatever torment came next. I didn't see what it would matter, so I gave in. "Yes," I said.

She stepped toward me, entering my zone of confinement and stopping just inside my reach. "I am Ambree. The three who have introduced themselves to you as your masters, and most of the others here, call me Ambree the Blue."

"What should I call you?" I asked.

"You will call me whatever you please. I do not for an instant presume to command you, though if I may humbly state that I despise the color assigned to me, and more than suspect it is a joke at my expense." Her tone was short, but unlike the others who had spoken to me in that room, her words were delivered to me instead of at me or simply into the room surrounding me. It was a welcome change. "They have brought me here because they believe that I can help them tame you, as they believe my group once tamed another demon."

"What do you mean, tame?" I heard a waver in my voice and realized I was shaking.

"Regarding demons, it means nothing. Mine, like yours, were foolish to try to keep one of your kind."

Part of me was disappointed. I thought she was there to help me, if not by letting me convince her that I'm not a demon then at the very least with casting whatever spell I was supposed to be a part of. None of what she was explaining seemed applicable to my situation. "So why are you here, then?"

She placed her hand on my chest. I flinched, not expecting the contact, but she didn't react to it. "First, to help you understand the undeniable truth. Then, to help you live up to your potential."

"I don't understand."

"You are weak now and stand no chance of meeting the demands that have been placed upon you. With my help, you will grow stronger and it is that strength that will save you."

She was stating the truth as plainly as it could be stated, but it was still impossible for me to process. All I knew was that I needed this to be over. I wanted to go back home and never return to that place. "So what do I do?"

"There are things you must know, and I will do my best to teach you, but it will take time to prepare. You are already overwhelmed. I can see that. For now, I offer a simple piece of advice. There is power in information. Everything you know about another can be wielded against them. Even something so simple as a name can be a useful thing. You've seen what mine has done to me." She looked down at herself as if the way she appeared was somehow related to the label given to her. "Learn your captors. Watch for the clues to present themselves. Find their lesser needs so you can fulfill them. This is the first step to alleviating their concerns about you."

"Can't you just tell me what they want? You know them, don't you? They seem to respect you."

"Their contempt for me is tempered by their desire to possess my knowledge. If any of that is respect, then yes, they are spilling over with it." A smirk appeared on her face just long enough to create a pause in her speech, then disappeared. "Truthfully, no. I know of them what they wish me to know, and they know of me what I wish them to know. If these two things are equivalent, neither of us truly knows anything about the other."

I must have given her a quizzical look because she didn't need me to answer in words.

"We are not a community here. We are a collective. We share a common interest. That is all. My true name is not even Ambree. Theirs, I am sure, are not the names I know them by. Participation in this art requires us all to keep many different versions of ourselves. Have they even shown you the courtesy of lying to you about their identities?"

They had only introduced themselves by title as my inheritors, the controllers of my fate. "I've given them names, instead," I volunteered.

Ambree's eyes lit up. "Oh? And what do you call them?"

"The one that leads them, the woman in white, I call her the Matron."

She gave a thoughtful nod. "Yes, she is very much the guardian of their ternion. She gathered them and keeps them focused. Your Matron will demand the most from you."

Ternion. I filed the word away for later. "And the other brunette, she is the Princess."

"Placed in a position power, but her sense of entitlement outstretches her immediate authority. That, too, is insightful. She will follow when the queen is present but get her alone and she has her own way of doing things. You will see." She nodded. "What about the blonde?"

"The Follower," I answered.

The old woman tilted her head. "Why do you call her that?"

I was surprised that she had agreed with my first two names but not this one. Everything about the woman in red suggested she didn't belong with the other two. It was her personality, her desires, even the way she interacted with them that made her seem like she was coming from a different place. Seeing her as a follower didn't feel like much of a leap. "The other two have a purpose for me. She looks like she just wants to belong."

"You've read her thoughts?"

I didn't know if what we shared during our first night together qualified as reading thoughts, exactly, but I had glimpsed some part of her inner workings. It was close enough for my liking. I nodded.

"When you," she paused, searching for the right phrasing, "tasted her?"

I nodded again.

"The group could not exist without the guidance of their Matron, nor could it hold together so well without the tenacity of their Princess, but they never would have seen any success without their third. She is the tool that shaped your summoning. The others remain sure as they step forward because they are blind to what lies ahead on their path. Perhaps that one has chosen to follow, but only because she sees danger waiting after every step and cannot yet overcome her subconscious desire to run from it."

The fact that I had been so wrong about the Follower would have surprised me if I believed Ambree's version of it. It wasn't that I didn't trust her. She had no reason to lie to me. I just didn't see how she could have as accurate a picture of any of these women as I did. My glimpse into them revealed facets of their personality that couldn't be seen any other way, and she had already admitted she only knew what they wanted her to know.

"Thank you for the perspective," I said politely.

She put her palm to the side of my face. "The path ahead of you is dark. You will face things you cannot possibly imagine and get to know a side of yourself that most do not dare to acquaint themselves with. My last master finished this journey long before we met, so I have not seen it firsthand, but he shared what he could with me, and I know it as well as any human servant could. Know that I will help you however I can."

Just when I thought there was nothing else anyone in that room could do to surprise me, she shattered that belief. She stepped toward me, pressing her body against mine and her lips to my own.

I had never been kissed so passionately as Ambree kissed me at that moment. I tasted her tongue and inhaled her breath as I felt every inch of her against every inch of me. The only thing more unexpected than her desire for me was my readiness to reciprocate it. I wanted to be close to her.

When she finally broke the kiss and stepped back, I saw her change. The wrinkles on her face began to smooth away and hints of black appeared in her grey hair. Her figure, at first skeletal and frail, filled out slightly. She looked down at herself, stretching out her hands to study the surface of them. Tears began to pool in her eyes.

"Take it back," she whimpered. "They cannot know I was inside the circle. They must never know we touched."

It was only a subtle transformation in her appearance. I might not have noticed it if I hadn't been looking at her when it happened, but the urgency in her voice convinced me that her need was real. "How do I take it back?" I asked.

"Take me into you," She wrapped her hands around mine, lifting them to my shoulders and squeezing our palms together. "Pull the energy from me. It was yours to begin with. Call it home."

I wasn't sure what she meant, but as our palms touched, I felt static stirring between them. The process was happening on its own. Just as youth had begun to seep into her, it drained out.

"Thank you for that." She whispered. "I must go before they become suspicious. Do not tell them we spoke."

She let go and turned her back to me to walk out of the circle. As soon as she stepped beyond the outer line, all traces of my desire for her evaporated.

Just as she was approaching the edge of the light, a question popped into my head. "Wait," I called to her. "Where is your demon?"

Ambree stopped and turned around, taking a couple of steps toward me before answering in a lowered voice. "He is dead. When the time is right, you will learn from his failure." She watched me for a moment as I struggled to come up with an answer to this news before saying goodbye again. "We will meet once more when you are strong enough for me to find you outside these walls. Remember what I have told you."

She disappeared into the darkness, followed by the sound of the door and then nothing.

"Away," I heard the Matron whisper, though I couldn't tell you where she was.