Solomon: Chapter 4

Silver looked at Jacob, wearing a look of equally mixed sheepishness and exasperation. He gestured with a “what do you want from me” shrug. “Hey, look. I know it has flaws. At this point though, I think it’s our best shot. I’m telling you, I’ve seen Felicity and she’s pretty great at what she does.”
“She’s ten years old!” It seemed like Jacob was fixated on that for some reason, observed Silver.
“She’s already strong enough to require hiding her name, man. It takes powerful mojo to inspire that sort of thing in a preteen.”
Jacob shook his head. It was times like these that he really remembered that Silver was only 17.
Silver sighed with an audible huff. “Okay, look. Let’s make a deal. You come with me to visit them before you for sure say no. It won’t hurt. I mean, they’re novices. I’m pretty sure that if things get hairy you can handle it, right?”
Jacob folded his arms. The two of them had by now stopped walking and were having their conversation stationary, facing each other.
“We’re going to go today. Right now if possible. Can you communicate with Aidan?”
Silver nodded and produced a small steel mirror from his pocket. It was small enough to fit in his palm, but polished to almost ridiculous levels of reflectivity. He and Jacob made their way down the path, departing from the designated trail when they reached the small stretch of it that went through a local woods. They made their way off the beaten path a few hundred feet, eventually finding a small clearing.
Silver grabbed a stick and sat cross-legged on the ground. Jacob stood off to the side, keeping an eye out for anyone who might accidentally see them and get curious. Silver set the mirror down directly in front of him and used the stick to trace the shape of a circle around himself in the ground. Once the basic outline was completed, Silver began adding to it. All of this was completed in complete silence on the part of both men. Soon enough, Silver had traced a complicated series of regular-sided stars with many strange-looking runes and symbols inscribed in them. All centered around him. And in front of him lie the mirror.
Silver raised the mirror in both hands, moving it until it caught the sun’s rays and redirected them towards him. He spoke a string of syllables and the lines traced in the dirt began to glow faintly. He lowered the mirror and looked into it.
“Aidan,” he said. “Can you hear me?”
All was silent for a few moments as Silver gazed at his own reflection in the mirror for the better part of a minute. Finally, though, a new visage began to resolve itself in the mirror.
“Silver? Is that you?” The voice was one that Jacob did not recognize. He assumed it was Aidan. He was still on lookout and was thus not able to turn around and look at what Silver was doing.
Silver, however was delighted to see the face of his young friend. Instead of Silver’s pale- skinned, blond, blue- eyed face staring back at him, he was seeing Aidan’s face. Aidan had slightly more color to his complexion. His hazel eyes were partially obscured by his the “devil lock” haircut he sported. His hair had been dyed a bright, unnatural red color. Silver smiled at the image of his friend in the mirror.
“Hey Aidan. Yeah, it’s me. Are you busy at the moment?”
Aidan shook his head. “No, dude. I got nothing really planned for the rest of the day, actually. Why?”
“My friend and I have some business we’d like to discuss with you. Is Felicity there too?”
Aidan nodded. “Yeah. What’s this all about? Should I be worried?”
Now Silver shook his head. “No, man. Everything’s cool. It’s just. . .the sort of thing you discuss in private,” he gave Aidan an emphatic look. “You understand, right?”
Aidan nodded. “Right, of course.”
“Okay, so is it okay if we head on over there?”
Aidan shrugged. “I guess. Like I said, I don’t have much better to do.”
“Good,” said Silver. “We’ll be there soon. Talk to you then.”
Silver pocketed the mirror and rubbed out part of the line of the circle with his shoe. The faint glow vanished. Together, Jacob and Silver smudged out the remnants of Silver’s spell circle.
The two magicians walked back into the open and Jacob allowed Silver to read the way to Aidan’s home. They continued talking as they walked.
“So you really think a ten- year- old girl is going to be able to forge a Pact for us, Silver? And you think that if she is able to do it, she should?”
Silver laughed. “Listen, Solomon. You are getting way too worked up about this. We’re on our way to their house for the sole reason of immediately demonstrating exactly why I think it’s a good idea. Let’s just think about something else until we get there, okay?”
Jacob shrugged. “Fine have it your way,” he conceded. “But you’re going to have to drive the conversation, because that’s very much dominating my current thoughts right now.”
“That’s fine with me,” said Silver. “You said this little stunt was inspired by something Adam did recently, right? Care to elaborate on that, Sol?”
Jacob began to explain. “As demonologists, Master Adam and I sometimes have to deal with some of the more theurgic magicians’ delusions for what constitutes ‘unacceptable’ magic. You know that, right?”
Silver nodded. “Yeah, it sucks. But some people. . .” he shrugged and rolled his eyes. “What can you do, right?”
Jacob continued on. “One such organization is, or rather was, the Holy Order of the Purifying Flame of the One True God.”
“What a name,” interjected Silver.
Jacob grinned at him. “They were exactly as competent as their name suggests. Judging from their complete failure to know how to properly handle a magician as a prisoner, I can safely guess that their membership was almost entirely composed of mundanes. Their leader, the Inquisitor, was the only magician I was able to detect. From what I could tell, he wasn’t classically trained. Probably discovered his talents in the context of a highly religious family and genuinely believed he was a prophet or miracle worker or something. His technique spoke of trial and error and against foes no where near what the magical community at large would generally think of as significant. Probably had some run-ins with a few of the shadier Darwinies and came out on top.”
Silver nodded slowly, looking at Jacob rather peculiarly. “Okay. But how does this tie in with what you were talking about earlier? Why you decided to start putting our pact speculation into reality and such?”
“I have a point, I promise,” Jacob assured his young friend. “Adam took measures to insure that I would be captured by this group of people. I’ll not elaborate any further on what happened during that time other than I’m the reason that their organization should properly be spoken of in the past tense at this time. Afterwards, Adam made some very good points about trust in the magical world. The point is this: He’s going to be gone sooner or later. Even if nothing happens to either of us anytime soon, I need to start learning to stand on my own, away from him, soon. I figure it would be best to have a support structure. By forming this cabal, we all agree to watch out for each other. No matter who we end up forming the pact with, all of us will have different talents. The combined talents of all of us will be able to compensate for the weaknesses of each individual.”
Silver shook his head. “But that’s not all. Everyone knows the main draw of a pact. But there’s something else you’re worried about, Solomon. Something you’re not telling me. What is it?”
Jacob sighed. Silver was the only person in the world he trusted as much as Adam. Maybe more than Adam after what his mentor had pointed out. In the interest of setting good precedent, Jacob decided to go ahead and confide in Silver his alternate motivation.
“I’m a demonologist, Silver. There’s always a chance when I summon a demon that I could be possessed. If that ever happens, I want to know there will be people capable of stopping me. People used to working together as a team who will be able to tell if something goes wrong and who know my weaknesses.”
Silver wasn’t sure how to respond. The two magicians walked on in quiet thoughtfulness for a while.
Between contacting Aidan and walking, about an hour had passed since they had first reached the park. They’d been walking for about half an hour. Jacob was the one to finally break their silence.
“Are we almost there?”
They had moved from the park into a residential area. It was proper houses, Jacob noted. Oh lords and lions, what if they still lived with their parents? This had been a bad idea to begin with and it was still a bad idea now.
Jacob was about to speak again to tell Silver so, but no sooner had he opened his mouth than Silver answered his question.
“Actually, it’s this one right here,” the blond magician said, walking up to the door.
“For the record, I was against this from the beginning,” Jacob grumbled as he grudgingly followed Silver to the door.
Silver rapped sharply on the door twice and it was soon opened by Aidan.
“Nice hat,” said Aidan, sniggering at Jacob.
He was, Jacob decided, probably just done with a growth spurt. He was the right age and height for it. He probably had one more big one coming before he was through, though. Aidan’s hair was dyed a bright, synthetic shade of crimson and it was styled long in front, a “devil lock” concealing one of his hazel eyes. The long lock of hair in front had had its tip dyed yellow and orange. Aidan was wearing a black t-shirt celebrating the band “Death.” In short, thought Jacob, this kid looked ridiculous. His manner and style screamed “plays with matches!”
Jacob’s hat, on the other hand, was classic.
Jacob was about to really give this little shit a piece of his mind when Silver cut him off.
“Hey Aidan,” he said, smiling. “Mind if we come in?”
Aidan stepped aside to allow them entry to the house.
It was pretty nice. The more Jacob saw, the more he was convinced that kids of this age couldn’t possibly be living alone. Not in living conditions this good. Then again, fate magic was poorly understood. It was said to be able to perform incredible feats with almost impossible subtlety if one was skilled enough. Maybe Silver really was right about this little girl.
Aidan closed and locked the door behind them and led the pair into the kitchen. Sitting at the table reading a book that looked far too thick for a ten- year- old girl was a ten- year- old girl that Jacob assumed to be Felicity. She looked both similar and very different from her brother, as siblings often do. She had a head fully of bushy brown hair and was dressed in a simple pink t-shirt and blue jeans. When the three of them entered the kitchen, she closed her book and looked up at them. Her eyes, Jacob noted, were just like Aidan’s; a striking shade of hazel, though hers were both visible behind her large glasses.
Silver gestured towards Jacob. “Aidan, Felicity, I’d like you to meet my associate, Solomon.”
Jacob bowed slightly and tipped his hat. Fuckin’ classy.
Silver continued on. “We’re here for a couple of reasons. What we’re going to propose is both dangerous and extremely confidential.” He paused and made eye contact with the siblings. “If you want us to forget we were ever here and move on, that’s fine. Tell me now though, because once this starts you’re going to have to follow it through or never discuss it again, one way or another.”
Aidan nodded. “I understand. I’m up for it. Sis?”
Felicity waited for a few seconds as she collected her thoughts before responding. “I am capable of keeping a secret. I would not like to betray your trust, Silver. You’re one of the few people to have made us feel welcome here.”
Silver looked at Jacob, who nodded, then continued. “Very well. We’re proposing a cabal. I’d like to extend an invitation to both of you. And I’d like for Felicity to forge the pact. But Solomon would like to see a demonstration of her talents before we agree to anything.”
Felicity nodded. “Understandable. Solomon, do you have any dice on your person?”
Dice were the sort of thing a magician carried with him. Well, a serious one at least. If you knew any spells outside of your specialty, you were likely to need them for one of the basic and simple fate enchantments that a non- fate specialist was capable of performing. Jacob reached into his pocket and pulled out the two pipped cubes he carried with him.
“Excellent,” said Felicity. “Let’s get started.”

Word Counts:
-Chapter: 2231
-Total: 7768

Solomon: Chapter 3

Jacob made his way down the street, taking a longer route than was strictly necessary. It was his habit to do this anyway as a method to avoid being followed, and with Master Adam’s lesson so fresh in his mind, he wasn’t likely to ignore any precautions anytime soon. After taking about half an hour to complete what would normally be a five minute walk, Jacob found himself at the apartment complex he needed to be at.
He walked in and made his way to the apartment he was interested in. He knocked three times, waited two and a half seconds. The door was opened by a young woman with a lackadaisical expression on her face and spiky, dyed-black hair . She was wearing a black leather jacket over a ripped and safety pinned Ramones t-shirt, red hot pants and fishnet stockings. She was heavy on the mascara and leaned lazily on the door frame. She smacked her bubblegum loudly and quickly scanned Jacob head to toe, an expression of detached bemusement emerging on her face as she noticed his top hat.
“Well well. What’s got you all dressed up tall, dark, and sexy?”
Jacob was flustered. He blushed and stammered for a few moments. A hint of a smile crossed the girl’s face as she watched Jacob try to formulate a coherent thought.
“Take yer time, sweetie. Really.” The girl smirked as the hint of a blush began creeping onto Jacob’s cheeks.
“Silver,” Jacob finally managed to stammer out. “I need to talk to Silver.”
The girl chuckled once and turned her head around as she shouted. “SILVER! YOU GOT YERSELF A GENTLEMAN CALLER!”
Moments later the so-called “Silver” walked into the hallway. He was not an especially tall person, nor particularly short, though he was of slightly above average height. He had the sort of features that made him seem a few years older than his seventeen years. His hair was a particular shade platinum blond that led most to believe it was the source of his nickname. He walked to the doorway, hands in the pockets of his faded blue jeans. He wore a black “Whitesnake” t-shirt listing dates and cities from their most recent tour. His dark blue eyes lit up when he saw Jacob standing there.
“Oh! Hey Solomon,” he said slipping into a pair of black Chuck Taylors that had been placed by the door. “What’s happening?”
“Solomon?” said the girl with a barely detectable snort. “That’s one Hell of a name. Parents must have really loved you.” And with that, she turned and headed back into the apartment, walking to what was presumably her room and closing the door, but not without winking at Jacob before she did.
Jacob felt the blood rush to his face as the girl spoke and he was relieved that she had decided to leave. He turned to Silver as his composure returned to him. “I thought we might take a walk for a while, Silver. What do you say to that?”
The younger magician shrugged. “Sure, sounds fine to me. Anything in particular?”
Jacob glanced to either side of himself before answering. “I’d rather wait till we’ve been moving for a while to talk about it, actually. You know how it is.”
Silver’s demeanor changed as he heard those words while he was putting on his jacket. While his face and body language still conveyed the same sort of general cheeriness as they usually did, they was definitely a more serious edge. “Yeah, I know how it is,” he commented.
Silver followed Jacob out of the house and closed and locked the door behind them. “What would you like to talk about until we’re more in the clear?” he inquired.
Jacob wasn’t sure. So he started talking about the thing foremost in his mind.
“Is your . . .roommate always like that?”
Silver began his answer as the two of them made their way down the stairs.
“Heh. Yeah, Annie’s a real charmer, isn’t she? She’s single too, but a bit too old for me.” He grinned at Jacob. “You interested?”
Jacob turned a little red. “That wasn’t what I meant at all,” he mumbled.
Silver’s grin only widened. “I’ll keep my ears open. If she asks about you I’ll make sure I put in a good word.”
Jacob rolled his eyes and playfully punched Silver on the arm. To tell the truth, he was kind of interested. Annie was good looking, no mistake, but he wasn’t quite sure whether she’d been flirting with him or teasing him earlier. Still, his curiosity was piqued.
“So how old is she, then?” Jacob said, attempting to sound casual.
“Oh ho ho,” said Silver. “So you are interested, then? Well she just turned twenty a couple of weeks ago.”
Only two years difference, thought Jacob. But there was something much more important that had to be asked before he could even entertain the idea of considering her.
“Is she one of us?”
Silver paused and slowly a look of discomfort crept over his face. The two of them kept walking in silence for a full minute.
“Silver?”
“Kinda,” said the adolescent, his voice thick with reluctance.
“‘Kinda?’” echoed Jacob. “What the fuck ‘kinda?’”
Silver looked wounded. “Look, I wasn’t thinking about this when we started talkin’ about her, okay? When you live with someone you forget stuff like this!”
Jacob was now more intrigued than anything else, though a little bit of anger and confusion were in there too. The mixed emotions had an interesting effect on his tone of voice: His voice came out wholly friendly and inquisitive.
“What sort of thing do you mean, dude? At this point I’m more curious than anything.”
Silver managed a weak smile. “You’re gonna be pissed at me, Sol.”
“No,” Jacob shook his head. “I’d be pissed if you had set me up on a date and revealed some shocking information after we’d done something. But this is me asking you, man. I’m not gonna get mad about your answers. Probably.” Normally, Silver was a very mature person, especially for his age. But sometimes he’d show his immaturity. Especially when he started to panic. All he generally needed were some calming words and reassurance to get back on track.
Silver shrugged. “Alright, alright. She’s faekin. Second gen, unpowered but aware.”
Now Jacob understood. Any mortal who got tangled up with faekin romantically was likely to draw the attention of the Good People, which was often not such a good thing. Then again, she was unpowered, which meant she couldn’t perform any magic. Being aware, however, meant that she was able to perceive magic even though she couldn’t perform any of her own. And she was second gen. That meant one of her parents had been a changeling. One more question, then.
“Do you know which parent was fae?” asked Stephen.
“Father, I’m pretty sure,” answered Silver.
That was good. A female child from a male changeling, especially an unpowered one, wouldn’t be nearly as interesting to the fae, and consequently, less likely to draw their attention to him.
Jacob smiled at Silver. “Put in that good word for me after all.”
Silver grinned back at him. “Will do.”
The two had been walking for quite a while at this point. Jacob decided that they had moved far enough for him to discuss why they were really out.
“Okay, Silver, let’s talk about why I came to you today.”
Silver dropped back into his jovial serious face again. “Yeah,” he said, smile still present but not as aggressively cheerful. “I figured it wasn’t just my inescapable personal magnetism that inspired this sudden urge to hang out with me.”
Jacob chuckled. “Adam’s made a few things very clear to me me recently. I think we need to establish a cabal soon, Sil.”
Silver frowned. He has seen this coming, but it was still a serious thing to propose. A cabal would, among other things, afford them greater protection against some of the more malevolent supernatural elements. However, some of the jumpier magicians and magical factions, especially older ones, got nervous and occasionally downright belligerent when youngsters started forming cabals. It was a difficult proposition to judge, one where the pros and cons had to be weighed very carefully.
“How many members were you thinking, Sol?” asked Silver.
Jacob shrugged. “Seven’s a good number. You can get a lot of power out of seven.”
Silver nodded in agreement. “So let’s see who we have here.” He started counting off on his fingers as he rattled off names of potential members. “There’s Viv, Frosty, Ter, Marko. . .”
“Mort, Lucy, Robbie. . .” Jacob added.
Silver snorted. The sound of disdain seemed utterly foreign coming from the normally perpetually positive boy.
“Robert Alderman, Sol? Come on, he’s not even powerful enough to necessitate concealing his name. Do you really want that bonded to you in a pact?”
Jacob shrugged. “We’ll call him a backup, right? We can only approach people that we really trust with even the idea of this, much less membership. I don’t want anyone who wouldn’t like it knowing what we’re about before we get the cabal fully formed and functional.”
Silver gestured a sort of vague arm wave. “Well we’ve got over seven candidates already, especially counting us. I’m sure some of them will say no.”
“Yes,” Jacob nodded in agreement. “So tomorrow you talk to your contacts and I’ll talk to mine.”
“Sure,” Silver responded. “But just promise me you’ll hold off on talking to Alderman for the time being. I’d really like him to be backup if at all possible.”
“Fine, whatever.” Jacob was somewhat annoyed by the kid’s disdain for Alderman. The fact that he was completely right only made it worse. “But assuming we get the five other people we need, how are we going to forge the pact? We don’t know anyone who’s got any semblance of skill in fate magics, much less something of the power grade we’re going to want.”
They walked on for a while longer, each puzzling over the problem. By this time their aimless walking had taken them to a local park. It was about three in the afternoon and being mid-October, there were few people out. It wasn’t quite cold — not really — just yet. It was just the kind of weather that didn’t inspire picnics. Every once and a while another pair or small group of people would amble by them on the trail. And then there were, of course, the ever-present joggers.
Suddenly, Silver snapped his fingers. “That’s it!”
Jacob raised an eyebrow at the teen. “What’s what?”
“I know who we can get to work the pact magic!” Silver seemed to be thrilled to have thought all of this up.
“Well,” said Jacob, growing impatient. “Out with it!”
“Okay, so there’s a relatively new magician on the local scene. He’s a pyro, calls himself Aidan. But his younger sister, she’s supposed to have this really awesome gift for fate magics. She calls herself Felicity”
That was appealing. Almost too good to be true.
“And you are acquainted with these two at all? Remember, this is serious business. We can’t just go asking every newbie we see to join up. We need to know we can trust them first.”
Silver shrugged. “Aidan and I have talked a few times; I’m still getting to know him. I don’t know much about Felicity. I’ll tell you this though: they’re new enough and strange enough that they’re far more in need of allies than enemies. I feel like they can be trusted.”
Jacob narrowed his eyes. “There’s something you’re not tell me, Silver. I’ve known you long enough now to know. You’ve got mannerisms that say ‘This plan has flaws!’”
Silver sighed. “Well they are a bit on the. . .young side.”
“How young, Silver?”
Silver cringed.
“Out with it,” demanded Jacob.
“They’re. . .well Aidan’s fourteen and Felicity is ten.” Silver attempted a sheepish grin.
Jacob just shook his head. “Silver. Your plans are the transvestites of the plan world. At first glance, everything looks great. On any closer inspection, though, it becomes immediately apparent that something is undeniably and horribly wrong.”

—

Word Counts
-This chapter: 2046
-Total: 5437

Getting better. This chapter wasn’t as far over 2000 words as I might have liked. But still, progress is progress.

Solomon: Chapter 2

Jacob opened the door to the house he shared with his mentor and walked in. His clothes were ruined from all the blood Andras had been responsible for. Oh well, at least it wasn’t one of his favorite outfits. Jacob’s mentor was sitting in his study, located just off of the foyer to the right. He was dressed in black slacks and a loose fitting gray sweater. His feet were covered by fuzzy pink bunny slippers. His salt-and-pepper hair was disheveled, as if it hadn’t seen a comb for a few days. Which, of course, it probably hadn’t. He was intently studying a large book which was laid out in front of him.
He spoke to Jacob without looking up. “You’re back. Good.”
Well, thought Jacob, it was good to see that he had been missed.
“Yes, Master. I’m back. Glad to see you were worried about me.”
The older man shrugged still without looking up from his book. “You’re still alive, right? Let’s not get bogged down in details.”
Jacob was indignant. “But I was–”
His mentor held up one hand in a “stop” motion and used the other one to turn a page, eyes still focused on the enormous book. “I said let’s not get bogged down in the details. Now go change out of those clothes and get cleaned up.”
Jacob shook his head as he walked from the foyer into his room and then into the attached bathroom. He removed his clothes and placed them directly into a garbage bag. There was no point in even pretending he’d be able to wear them again. He would burn them after he was done showering and changing.
Jacob stepped into the shower and let the warm water carry away the filth of battle. Jacob was surprised at how drained he had felt after summoning Andras. Granted he was one of the more difficult demons to control, but three years ago he could have summoned that demon along with his mount and not have broken a sweat.
Am I slowing down already? I’m not quite twenty two yet; I’m still supposed to be young!
But that was how it went. Magical power flared during adolescence then cooled and leveled off to more reasonable levels as the magician left his or her teens. Jacob had known, at least academically, that this was going to happen. Knowing something would happen and having it happen to you were two very different things. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about this sort of thing again. While magic could be and was physically taxing, no noticeable drop in power level would be expected to happen again. And the physical exertion of his magics would keep him in good shape and sound of mind and body. Well, body, at least.
Jacob shut off the water, climbed out of the shower, and dried himself off. He left the trash bag of clothes in the bathroom for the time being as he moved back into his room to get dressed.
Jacob dressed himself in an outfit similar to most of his others. Slate gray slacks, a white button down shirt. He decided to leave the dark gray silk top hat on its hat-stand, along with the black tie around the neck of that foam head. He put on a pair of black socks and slipped his feet into a pair of well worn, comfortable dress shoes which had started out as black but had since faded with time to become a dark gray color closer to that of his pants and hat.
He briefly stopped back in the bathroom and grabbed the garbage bag containing his soiled clothes. He tied off the bag and made his way to the door. He called out to his mentor before stepping out. “I’m going to go get rid of these clothes.”
“Whatever you need to do, Jacob,” said the older man, his eyes still glued to the book. “You’ve been doing this long enough that I trust you to know what to do and act on that knowledge.”
Well, thought Jacob, that was interesting. Had the old man just shown some actual faith in him? Jacob discreetly pinched himself as he shut the door behind him, just to make sure he was awake. He was. Jacob made his way to the fire pit in the backyard and tossed the bag in. He held his hand over the bag, palm facing downward, fingers spread. He muttered a few syllables in his split voice mode and flames shot up, quickly engulfing the bag.
The magical nature of the flames ensured that the whole mess burned both quickly and completely. Within ten minutes, Jacob was ready to head back inside.
He was still reading. Jacob’s curiosity was finally too great to ignore. “Master, what are you reading?” he asked, as he began to make his way over to the desk.
“I was wondering when you would finally ask that, Jacob.” He gestured to his right side, still without taking his eyes off the book.
Jacob walked over to his mentor’s side and peeked at the book. “Master, that book is blank.” Jacob leaned in closer to see if he was missing something. “Why would you just sit here staring at a blank book?”
Jacob heard a clicking sound from close behind him. He slowly raised and turned his head to find himself staring directly into the barrel of a revolver.
“To teach you a lesson, Jacob,” his master explained patiently. “Don’t go for the ring. I know you can speak the incantations quickly, but trust me, it won’t be quicker than this trigger. Now just be quiet and listen.”
Jacob was quiet and still. And confused. Had his own master, the man who had been like a father to him for almost 6 years really betrayed him? It seemed impossible.
“First of all, you have never been quite suspicious enough, Jacob. I read a lot, but rarely with the level of single-mindedness you saw from me on a consistent basis today. You should have suspected something and discreetly investigated the book much, much sooner.”
Jacob attempted to swallow without moving his throat. He’d never been so nervous in his life. His mouth was completely dry.
“Furthermore, Jacob, you’ve got to keep your guard up at all times, even around me. Especially around me. We’re demonologists, son. Even as long as I’ve been doing this it’s very possible that you could come home one day to find me possessed. If I’ve been in that state for an appreciable time before you encounter me, the demon may well have time to study my memories enough to do a passable imitation of my personality. Furthermore, our particular paradigm oftentimes makes us feared and hated, even among other magicians. I would have thought your little run-in with the Holy Order of the Purifying Flame of the One True God earlier today would have taught you that.”
Was that seriously their name? Jacob was impressed. They had turned out to be even more ridiculous than he previously thought possible. Occurring to him immediately after that thought was another.
“Wait you knew about that?”
“Of course I did. How did you think they managed to subdue and capture you in the first place? You saw how incompetent those idiots were.”
Jacob had been wondering how they’d managed to get him unconscious and how they’d gotten his magic bound even for the short amount of time required to take him prisoner. Jacob chose his next words very carefully.
“I understand. In the future, I will be more careful. I will trust no one.”
“No, Jacob. You must find those you can trust. But never let that trust become absolute.”
Jacob was beginning to get a little upset. “Okay, okay, I get it! Now will you just either shoot me or put that gun away, Adam? This whole situation is making me intensely uncomfortable.”
Adam chuckled and pulled the gun away from Jacob’s head. “Sorry about the extremity of this demonstration, but the point needed to be made in a very real and vivid way.”
Jacob rolled his eyes. “Whatever you old coot. Now isn’t this the part where you pop out the cylinder and show me that the thing was never loaded?”
Adam pointed the gun at the wall and squeezed off three shots.
*BAM BAM BAM*
“JESUS CHRIST!” exclaimed Jacob. “What the Hell are you doing? Let’s ignore that you, until recently, had a loaded god-damn gun pointed at my head and just focus on something far more mundane and reasonable: What if the neighbors call the cops?”
Adam casually holstered the gun in a shoulder harness concealed under his sweater and shrugged. “Relax, Jacob. I set up a soundproofing enchantment on this house a long, long time ago. I’ve never really mentioned it because it’s the sort of thing that rarely comes up, you know? Anyway, any sound above a conversational level originating within this house is muffled and prevented from being heard outside of it. No one’s going to call the cops.”
Jacob stared at Adam in wide wonder as he casually walked back to his desk and closed the oversized blank book. The older man placed the book back on the shelf and retrieved something smaller and more reasonable. Adam proceeded to walk over to his comfortable recliner, turn on a lamp, and start reading his paperback.
Jacob shook his head. “Master, you’re absolutely insane. I mean that. Completely batty.”
Adam glanced up from his book and shrugged. “You would not be the first person to champion that hypothesis. Probably won’t be the last either.”
“You had me murder an entire organization to make a point!”
“They needed to be dealt with one way or another. You would have just been killing individuals as they came after you, never removing the source of the problem, if I hadn’t decided to move things along.”
Jacob was livid. “That’s not the point! It makes us no different from them! They were incompetent to the point of being harmless to any real magician!”
Adam sighed and placed his book face down on his lap. “Did you hear what you just said?”
“What?” Jacob was genuinely confused. “Which part? That they’re harmless?”
Adam shook his head. “You said they were harmless to a real magician. What makes you think that despite how they are otherwise incompetent in every other way, they only would capture and try full fledged practitioners of so-called ‘satanic’ magics? What makes you think that everyone they had somehow successfully captured and killed was a magician who was simply too weak to escape his fate? What about normal people mistaken for something more by these people? What about innocents executed for the crimes of our kind?”
Jacob frowned. “But.” He couldn’t think of anything else to add to that.
“Exactly,” Adam picked his book back up and adjusted his reading glasses. “Now why don’t you go take a walk or something. Get out of the house under your own power for a while. And while you’re out, give some thought to what I said.”
“Which part?” Jacob asked, only half-sarcastic.
“All of it,” responded Adam, fully serious.
Jacob slipped back into his room. He put on his tie and a slate gray suit coat. The silk top hat completed the ensemble. He walked over to his bedside table and swapped out the Goetic summoning ring for a more generic one. Now, he decided, he was ready to head out for a while. He had some friends he’d been meaning to visit for a while anyway, so a nice trip out of the house wasn’t a bad suggestion at all.
“I’m leaving, Adam,” Jacob informed his mentor as he opened the door. “If I’m not back by tomorrow morning, feel free to scry on me.”
“I scry on you whenever I feel like it anyway, Jacob. I see no real reason for that to stop anytime soon. But do try not to die. I know the general magician creed is one of survival of the most fit, but I like you well enough to hope that you’re pretty fit at this point.”
Jacob smiled at this as he closed the door behind him. He started walking rather briskly down the road.
He had some house calls to make.

Word Counts
-This chapter: 2065
-Total: 3391

Still a little behind as 2 chapters should me 4k words according to my self-schedule. Will keep trying to make up for the losses slowly in the upcoming chapters.

Solomon: Chapter 1

Jacob was, quite frankly, getting tired of people trying to kill him. A magician’s life was a dangerous one, especially given his specialty. He knew that and had been prepared for it.
Lately, however, it had gotten pretty ridiculous. Killing for a good reason was one thing. Mostly, Jacob included such things as revenge, self-defense, and the protection of one’s family among acceptable reasons to kill another magician. Or any being really.
Killing because of ideology, however, seemed completely pointless. So what if he worked with demons? Magicians already had to worry about demons, angels, and all other manner of supernatural beings. Add to that the occasional deluded “witch-hunter” and what have you, and you’ve got enough problems. There was, Jacob felt, no need to add to that by having to worry about a random magician you’d never slighted shanking you because you said “abra kadabra” and he preffered “alakazam.” it was stupid and petty: The sort of behavior Jacob usually thought of as being reserved for the mundanes.
Besides, Jacob reflected as he was led forth into his cell, it wasn’t as if he worked for any of the demons he encountered. It was a very antagonistic relationship. Most of the time, at least. Normally, though, very antagonistic.
“You guys really should just try to chill out a little,” Jacob said, helpfully.
“I’ll hear none of your filth, heretic. Save your poison words for the Inquisitor.”
Jacob was shoved roughly into a barren cell and iron bars were slammed shut as he stumbled in, trying to keep his balance despite manacled hands.
That was another thing that irked Jacob. These guys weren’t just intolerant, they were downright silly about it. He was in an actual dungeon, for God’s sake. And they had him restrained with iron manacles. Didn’t they realize they were in the 20th century? There were wonderful tools like handcuffs and guns.
Furthermore, they handn’t been quite smart enough to do more than a cursory search of his person, which had mostly consisted of emptying his pockets. He still had, for example, the ring on his right hand. A ring which, incidentally, happened to have a miniature, but fully functional, summoning circle etched into it. Jacob almost felt bad about the mayhem he was going to unleash here. Almost.
Just as Jacob was getting situated, another of the “witch-hunters” came to retrieve him.
“Move it, scum,” he ordered, brandishing a sword in one hand and opening the cell door with the other.
Seriously, Jacob thought, a fucking sword. These guys were just trying too damn hard.
Jacob allowed himself to be led into the “court room.” He took in the scene as he was escorted to the center of the room. There were rows of bleachers on either side of him. He was willing to bet that most of them had gathered to see the interrogation of their latest “witch.”
“Order!” the judge-Inquisitor?-slammed the gavel on the table in front of him. It was things exactly like that, Jacob reflected, that was making him feel conflicted about killing these guys. The more he was exposed to them, the more he just felt sorry for them. It was like they’d gotten ahold of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Anachronistic Religious-themed Cults and followed the instructions to the letter.
The important one–the one who was an actual magician–slammed down the gavel again. “As official Inquisitor–” that answered Jacob’s question from earlier “–I declare this trial to be at an opening.” The Inquisitor stared down at Jacob from the tall chair and table. “You, Landon Burke, are charged with numerous heretical and blasphemous acts, cheif among them consorting and conspiring with demons.”
You’d think they’d be overjoyed at a demon being forced to help a mortal against its will. But no, any contact with a demon that the demon walked away from was evil to these people.
“If you are found to be guilty of these crimes, we shall be forced to take action to save your immortal soul.”
Wait for it. . .
“Namely, you shall be put to death by hanging. Only in this way shall your soul be saved from eternal damnation. However, if you confess and repent you shall be drowned. Your sins will be washed clean in that final fatal babtism.”
Well that put the upcoming slaughter squarely in the self-defense bracket. Jacob strove at all times to avoid hypocrisy.
“You may now confess or attempt to defend yourself.”
“Just to clarify,” Jacob began. “You intend to kill me no matter what the outcome of this trial, right?”
“Yes. Unless you can prove to us that the you have been charged falsely.” There was some snickering from the peanut gallery at that last comment.
“Right then. I do have a few things to say.”
Jacob thrust his still bound hands in front of him, his summoning ring facing up. His voice had taken on a layered quality when he next spoke. It seemed to have split into sixteen separate voices, speaking concurrently. Each voice uttered four syllables, and thus he spoke sixty four syllables in the space of four.
A tiny speck apppeared on the center of Jacob’s ring then leapt forward, growing as it travelled through the air and reaching full size upon landing.
The creature — the demon — had the body of a muscular winged young man and the head of a barn owl. It was epic in stature, standing well over seven feet tall. In its hands it weiled a sword of monstrous proportions which was fully engulfed in flame.
Jacob slammed his body into the floor as the creature swung its massive flaming sword, cleaving each of the two gaurds standing on either side of Jacob in half. The Inquisitor began an incantation, one that — Jacob noted — might have actually had an effect on the demon. That is, of course, if the Inquisitor had not had his head impaled by the flaming sword which the demon flung straight at him midway through the invocation.
The other members of the cult were beginning to scatter, but not nearly fast enough. The demon ripped the head off of one cultist and the intestines out of another as it flew forward and retrieved its fiery sword from the remains of the cult leader. It let out a primal scream of bloodlust as it moved in frenzy through the room, tearing apart the cult members with beak and sword.
As the demon continued its work, a severed head rolled over to Jacob, an expression of fear and confusion still on its lifeless face. The slaughter continued unabated. The screams of terror of the dying mingled with the roars of exultation from the demon, creating a discordant symphony. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the room were painted in the slick stickiness of blood and gore.
When the slaughter was done, the demon turned its attention to Jacob. Jacob, for his part, stood, slowly getting to his feet. The demon approached diliberately, hefting its sword as it neared Jacob. Jacob stared the demon down and held out his hands.
With a chuckle, the demon raised the firey blade and brought it down. . .
. . .destroying the chain holding Jacob’s manacles together. The demon knelt at Jacob’s feet. “What would you have me do next, my Master.”
A glowing sigil flared up around the monster as it knelt before Jacob. It was a more complex version of the summoning circle etched into Jacob’s ring, traced in light.
“You have done well, Andras,” Jacob commended. “But your use to me has ended for now. Go back to Hell.”
The beast let out a scream as it sank into the ground beneath it, fire and thunder accompanying its departure.
Jacob kicked aside the severed head that had come to rest at his feet ealier.
Fucking amatuers, he thought.

—-
Word Count: 1326. I’m a little behind on this chapter. I’ll try to make it up over the next few.

Hi. Welcome to the newest writing blog by Andrew Blatt. This one is for my attempt at National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). For this month I’ll be trying to get 50,000 words on to the computer for Solomon, the proposed first book in the Solomon Saga, which focuses on the life and times of Jacob Absolom and his son Stephen. My goal is to write roughly 2,000 words a day, which gives me a nice 5-day buffer if I miss one.

Tally ho!

Edit:

Yes I’m doing that thing now where I date this for the end of the month so it stays at the top of the page.

Hi.

This story is in a blog format, so the first chapter is at the bottom. You might want to try the monthly archive sidebar as the posts roll in with the days.

I wasn’t going to do this, but I’ll supply a disclaimer:

I write about very unreal things, but I like to think that I try to capture how “real” people would deal with them. On that note, there will be violence, language, unexpected humor, irrationality, rambling, expected humor, apathy, and many many other themes and features and what have you.

Oh and the story begins in early October of 1987, I think.

You’ve been warned.

A little bit of background for the world of Stephen Absolom. This is just as much for me to figure some stuff out as it is to explain stuff to you, the reader.

First off, our cast:

Jacob Absolom (deceased): Stephen’s father. A demonologist, that is, one who uses demons as the primary source of power for his magic. Jacob went by the name “Solomon” among the rest of the Seven. (10 bonus points if you know why!) Jacob’s particular manner of harnessing demonic power involved binding and breaking the wills of demons. Jacob was not one to supplicate.

Stephen Absolom: Son of Jacob. Able to perform bizzare and nonstandard displays of magical power by drawing from the bones of the dead. It is unclear whether he has or will develop any ability with traditional spellcasting. The power granted by bones is almost always only useful for destructive means.

The Seven: Simple moniker adopted by Jacob Absolom and his six pactmates. Their symbol is a seven-pointed star. Like many mortal magicians, they use affected names rather than their real ones. Now united under the leadership of Stephen, the Seven are dedicated to helping Stephen in the vengeance he seeks.

Lucinda: One of the Seven. Specializes in light magics.

Mort: One of the Seven. A necromancer.

Vivian: One of the Seven. Specializes in healing magics and plant manipulation. (“Life” magics.)

Aidan: One of the Seven. Specializes in fire magics.

Felicity: One of the Seven. Specializes in luck manipulation.

Silver: One of the Seven. Specializes in mirror magic.

More background on how the magic in this world works as it occurs to me. I know it doesn’t have to be as strictly uniform as I’m probably trying to make it (it is magic after all), but I’d like to know how I’m going to handle it before I get too far into the story.