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Chapter Four: Banishment
When Jesse woke me, I prayed to Haleon for the spells I would need. I then procured powdered cold iron from Horace the blacksmith; I felt bad for not staying and talking to him, but he understood that my business was urgent. I would use my house for the ritual, as I had nowhere else to perform it on such short notice. I cleared my den of furniture and floor coverings, leaving only the hardwood floor. I blessed the iron fillings, and used them to carefully draw a Circle of Glabrezu Warding in the center of the room. The circle was a stylized pentagram five feet in diameter, with runes of law and magical potency scribed inside and outside of it. I spent hours constructing the warding circle, checking the text, and making minute corrections; Summoning and Binding Demons stressed the importance of reproducing it exactly, and I could not afford to make any mistakes. Finally, I cast the spell that would trap the demon inside the circle once I released it from the Brass Eye.
It was past middlenight when I went to the pantry and opened the door. It was pitch black inside, but even before I moved the lantern into the small room, I located the Brass Eye by the glowing runes, and the twin pinpoints of purplish light staring at me from within the lens. My knees went weak as the enormity of what I was about to do suddenly hit me: attempting to banish a glabrezu, second only to the godlike balors in power, to the Abyss. If the demon decided she liked my world better than the Abyss, I would have to fight her. It took effort to not sit down where I stood; instead, I leaned against the wall.
As if on cue, the glabrezu spoke, with an edge to her voice, "I recognize the spell you just cast. You plan to trap me in a ward against demons." She continued, her voice softening to its customary hypnotic drone. "This seems very sudden. Are you so anxious to be rid of me, Jerik?"
"Yes. As anxious as you are to return to the Abyss, I’m sure." Shaking off my fear, I walked over and grabbed the Brass Eye, and left the pantry with it.
"I am sorry you are so eager to see me gone. But yes, I look forward to going home."
I set the Brass Eye in the middle of the warding circle, purposely not meeting the gaze of the demon within it. I stood in front of the circle, closed my eyes, and attempted to clear my mind for spellcasting.
"Are we already strangers again, Jerik? Will you not even speak to me now?"
I opened my eyes and looked down at the Brass Eye. At this distance, I could only see the vague outline of the demon within it.
She continued, "You could have at least warned me before you decided to go through with all this. I would have liked at least one more conversation with you before I left. I so enjoy speaking with you." Then, with a hint of sarcasm, "Perhaps you could have wrestled more information from me."
I sighed, caught in the lie I told Kim. "I just want to get this over with. The Brass Eye is causing problems at the church, and for me. I want things to return to the way they were." I forced a grin. "You’re not bad company, really, at least for a demon."
"Thank you. And I will not fight you, Jerik, so there is no need for fear."
I started to tell her that I was not worried, but instead I just nodded, as even a child would easily see through that lie. First, I cast a spell on me to protect me from evil, as a precautionary measure. I then cast the spell to dispel the magic within the Brass Eye. I expected it was a powerful enchantment, and I wasn’t surprised when the glabrezu still remained in the device. It felt as if my mind bounced off of the side of a barn. The second dispel attempt was successful, however, as I felt the magic in the device buckle under the force of the spell.
With a whoosh of air, the glabrezu instantly appeared in the warding circle, crouching as to not hit the ceiling. Her appearance was followed by a flash of light; I did not understand the significance of this at the time. Despite knowing what would likely happen when I dispelled the magic in the Brass Eye, and though I repeatedly saw the demon inside the device and memorized the creature’s description, nothing could really prepare me for her presence. The stature of the monster was awesome; she would probably be at least a dozen feet tall if she could stand to full height. Her head alone was as big as my torso, and either of her pincer-arms was as long as I was tall. One bite from her fang-lined maw could sever a limb. She smelled of rancid roses, fresh blood and burnt metal. I could actually feel the heat of her gaze as she stared at me, into me, piercing my body, my eyes, my mind. Why anyone would ever want to summon one of these things...
And as my mind was reeling, as I struggled to comprehend her, a warning rang in the back of my skull, screaming that something was not right.
"Thank you, Jerik, for freeing me from that prison. I shall be returning to the Abyss... shortly." Her powerful, inhuman voice reverberated against my bones and vitals. The sound was both harmonic and warped, and was underscored with the drone of angry hornets and sizzling acid. She looked thoughtfully at the summoning circle as she spoke, then at me.
"Shu-shortly?" was all I could manage against the sensory barrage.
"Yes, soon, do not worry. But before I leave, please speak with me for a time." Her head cocked in that disconcerting, canine manner. "I must ask you. Why are you setting me free, Jerik? Would your god approve?"
I cleared my throat, and carefully chose my words as to not offend the demon (no, the irony of this is not lost on me). "Honestly, I feel that you aren’t... compatible with this world. Even trapped within that device, you cause disruption and discord. I prefer the status quo, and one of my most important duties is to make sure the good people of Ellestia are content and feel safe. People are scared of you, and because I choose to spend time talking with you, they worry about me. And that's not good for inspiring confidence in a religious leader. For these reasons, I feel sending you to the Abyss would serve Haleon’s will, as well as my own."
She nodded slowly, in understanding. "Yes, I can understand your awkward position, and the inadvertent effects of my imprisonment. We demons are, as you correctly deduced, beings of chaos."
And of evil, I reminded myself. My instincts were going crazy, and I had to fight the urge to break and run as fast as I could. I said, "I assume you would like to return to your home plane, in any case."
"True. I have never had a human do anything for me of his or her volition, though this act benefits you at least as much as it does me. But thank you." She smiled as she spoke, revealing a mouth full of uneven, greenish fangs set in purple gums. Her command of my language was impressive, and her eloquence easily exceeded my own, but her dictation was weird. She chose her words skillfully, but her tone changed continually, and she placed emphasis on certain words where it seemed it should not be — almost randomly — but every word rang with power. It was all very disorienting.
The glabrezu’s next question sent a chill down my spine. "What if I decided I liked it here? That I wanted to explore this world before I left?" She rose slightly and flexed her larger set of arms, making her bulk more apparent.
"I truly hope it doesn’t come to that." I hope I sounded more confident than I was.
She grinned hatefully, and almost roared, "You would use your little god’s power to banish me, Jerik?!"
I answered sternly, "You can’t leave otherwise, as you can’t move around of your own accord. And I have full confidence in the strength of my god."
She crouched back down, and her voice returned to its normal, somewhat ingratiating, tone. "I understand. I am here by your grace, after all." She smiled and bowed slightly. She was testing my strength and my resolve, attempting to once more gain the upper hand in the conversation.
"Well, I’d like to go to the church early tomorrow, so let’s get this over with."
"Ah, it seems that I have overstepped my bounds. I do apologize, good cleric. We demons always challenge things, test limits, measure ourselves by interacting with others. It is the way we do things. You humans are too fearful, too fragile...." She looked down at the warding circle, and then at me again. "But with this ward, what possible threat am I to you?"
"I see your point, demon. But I mean to do this now, and I must soon go to sleep so I may wake early in the day. I still have my responsibilities to the church."
Patronizingly, "Ah, sleep. I forget about your human needs. By all means, carry on with your banishment. But allow me one more question, before I leave." My patience was wearing thin, but I nodded my assent.
"As a priest, you can channel the power of your god to force undead back, and keep them away, correct?"
"Yes."
"And in your experience, Jerik, what happens when you use your divine power to force undead against a barrier?"
Perplexed, "Why are you asking..."
"Humor me."
I answered, "Well, the divine energy dissipates. It won’t hold against such pressure..."
Realization set in, then horror. The warning scream in the back of my mind was confirmed. The glabrezu was crouching, with her knees sticking out beyond the barrier of the warding circle. One of her clawed arms swung out casually, past the barrier, generating enough wind for me to feel. Her ears perked at that moment, as if the tanar’ri sensed my despair and was savoring it. When I drew the circle, I accounted for her girth (which the book described as "that of an ogre"), and even made the circle a little bigger, as was recommended. However, I failed to take into account the demon's height, and that she would not be able to stand in my house; she had to crouch to fit within it — which made her too large to fit within the warding circle, thereby dispelling its magic.
But she was still here. Maybe there was enough time. Maybe—
The towering demon supported her mass on her large clawed arms, and leaned toward me, towering over me even though she was not standing. Her rank breath and wolf mouth promised death. "Goodbye, my friend. You released me of your own free will, though inadvertently, and I will remember you for that."
Before I could finish reciting the banishment spell I had started uttering, the glabrezu was gone with the popping sound of displaced air.
I quickly attempted to cast a divinatory spell I had the foresight to prepare for this sort of situation, which would allow me to determine if the demon was close by. The spell failed; I felt it leave my mind as if I had cast it, but it had no effect. I tried to bless a weapon; nothing happened.
I prayed to Haleon, and if he heard me, he gave no indication he did. Haleon, an ever-present and comforting presence in me since I was called to the church at twelve, was gone. In his place was emptiness. This void quickly filled with shame, despair, and rage.
I did not rush out and announce to the town that the demon had escaped. I did not even go to the church the next day; when I heard knocks, I did not answer my door. I was so ashamed of my negligence, my stupidity, that I couldn’t face anyone. The day after that, I went to the church and resigned my position. I could not look anyone in the eyes. I announced to Kim, Thom, Nathan and the others that I had released the demon, and that I had lost my favor with Haleon and could no longer serve as deacon. I left quickly afterwards, ignoring their questions and offers for atonement. I deserved my fate. I could not even ask Haleon for forgiveness, much less ask anyone else to intercede on my behalf.
The night I gave my resignation, demons came and destroyed Ellestia.
While my warnings gave the clergy time to prepare for this possibility, it was not nearly enough. Demons suddenly appeared out of thin air, everywhere, and began laying waste to the town’s structures and inhabitants. Even a single demon is a formidable force of destruction, but so many of them proved too much for us. I assumed that the original glabrezu — the one I released — had summoned other demons, and those demons summoned yet more demons, and so on, until she had a literal army.
Like a wave, the fiends rolled over Ellestia, laying waste to all they saw: burning, killing, raping, devouring, maiming. By the time a panicked Jesse woke me, the monsters had already made their way to the church. The clergy and the few survivors of the initial onslaught were attempting to organize and make their last stands.
I was on my way to the church, to retrieve my mace and armor — I may no longer be a cleric, but I can still fight, and I will not stand idly by while these fiends destroyed my loved ones. More than half of Ellestia’s buildings were flattened, broken open or set on fire. Ruined bodies were lying in the streets, bodies that but a few minutes before were people I loved. Allen the baker, Horace the blacksmith, Uncle Cabbit, the Kaytes’ three children, Johens the constable, Arice the seamstress, Mes the singing town drunk — all torn, burned, eviscerated. The tanar’ri even killed, and violated, the town's dogs and horses.
But by the time I got to the church, it was already too late. Surrounding it was a collection of walking nightmares: another glabrezu, this one male, crimson-skinned and even larger than my former conversation partner; a mostly nude succubus with short red hair; a pair of vulture-human hybrids; an emaciated demon with a single huge horn sprouting from its skull; and four ugly, black-skinned humanoids. However, the female glabrezu was nowhere to be seen.
One of the black demons — a thin, gaunt, yellow-haired specimen — sent salvos of sulphuric fire, exploding balls of acid, and strokes of reddish lightning into the burning church. The spells thundered against the structure, almost drowning out the screams and frantic prayers of the people within. People in the throes of panic ran through the front door and crawled out of the windows, in the throes of terror. They were immediately beset by demons, and torn to bits or blasted with spells; I saw Orin "Grist Mill" Darrens carried off by one of the flying vulture-demons, into the woods.
Despite the overwhelming despair that I felt, I grabbed a short sword from the nearby remains of Constable Celicia and ran at the coal-skinned sorcerer. Before I could get to him, I was tackled by the auburn-haired succubus. She was surprisingly powerful for her small frame, and knocked me backwards. As I fell, I stabbed upward with the short sword with all my strength, catching the monster squarely in the throat. If she had been human, I would have killed her instantly; as it was, she laughed as the blade slid off her demonic skin.
Before I could get up from the ground, the succubus was already on me, attempting to pin me. I rolled over and kicked upward with both feet, hitting her in her bare chest. While I am certain I did not even bruise her, the kick was forceful enough to knock her back and to the ground. I got up and reached for the short sword, but the succubus had drawn a dripping dagger and was advancing on me. She swung before I could dodge, and I could only throw my left arm up to fend off her blow. She opened an angry red slash down the length of my arm, a wound that immediately began to stinging like acid, and was preparing to stab again when an enormous pincer shot out, grabbed her by the chest, and lifted her up. Dizzy, I fell to the ground and looked up.
It was the glabrezu from the Brass Eye. She had the succubus up in the air, who hissed curses of some sort and ineffectually stabbed the glabrezu in the arm that held her. With a roar, the glabrezu gripped the succubus’ waist with her other pincer, and rotated the succubus’ lower and upper body in opposite directions, producing a wet snap. The succubus screamed as the glabrezu continued to twist. Suddenly her spine and organs popped in a bloody explosion, and the glabrezu tore her into two pieces, showering me with demonic ichor and gore. Both halves disappeared in a flash of fire and brimstone.
I rolled out of the way the best I could and got to my feet, stumbling once because I could not use my injured arm. I was nauseated, though I do not know if it was because I was poisoned or simply sickened by the scene. A rotund, tar-colored humanoid demon came out of nowhere and charged the glabrezu, welding a black mace nearly five feet long, and roaring something in the foul language of demons. The glabrezu released a sheet of flame from her hands, catching the monster square in his scaly face. He screamed and started to run away, but the glabrezu covered the distance between them in two long strides. She latched onto the thing’s arm with her jaws, shook him violently, and then with a jerk from a powerful neck tossed him to the hard ground. Miraculously, he managed to get up almost immediately, but the glabrezu had picked up his huge mace in her left hand, and came down on the humanoid fiend’s right shoulder. He screamed as bone crunched. The black fiend collapsed face down and stayed there, groaning in agony. This prompted demented laughter from some of the other demons, who stopped attacking the church long enough to watch the their brethren kill each other. My arm throbbed and my head swam.
The glabrezu yelled something in the Abyss-tongue, and the other demons looked at me. The gaunt, ebony spellcaster grinned and winked at me conspiratorially, while the others ignored me and went back to their massacre. She bent over to me, and said, "I assumed that you would have been wise enough to see this coming, and would have left this town by now." Stunned, falling into madness, I blinked dumbly at her. She smiled. "I told them that you are my ally, and they are not to touch you, so you are safe for a time. However, tanar’ri are tanar’ri, and I cannot guarantee your safety once I leave. I suggest that you find your place elsewhere in this world, as I will find my place in the Abyss." She got up, as if to leave.
I tried to speak, but fear held my tongue. I concentrated, and mustered up enough willpower to force out, "Why?!" What was supposed to be an angry demand instead came out as something between a scream and a whimper. "Why... why have you done this? Why did you lie to me?"
She looked at me as if I were daft. "To answer the first question, I am a demon.” She leaned over me again, her voice a growling whisper. "And at no point, Jerik, did I lie to you. I spoke truthfully, even if you did not hear the meaning behind my words. You failed to ask the right questions, and you did not understand the answers I gave you."
She leaned even closer, her muzzle not even an inch from my face, as if she were going to say something else. Suddenly, it felt as if angry scorpions were stinging me inside my head, and I smelled burning flesh. As she spoke mentally, the words burned themselves into my mind. My name is Ag’rassikha.
With that, she dropped the mace and disappeared.
I got up. My mind and senses were reeling, unable to make sense of the world. Ag’rassikha echoed in my mind, burning deeply in my skull. I looked around, and for a long moment, I saw and thought as a demon might. My head buzzed with roiling pain, tainting everything I saw with hatred and anger. I raged at these demons, at Ag’rassikha for manipulating me and bringing them here. I cursed a fickle and unforgiving god who would leave me powerless when I needed him the most. And most of all, I hated myself for what I had done.
I was alone. I had no god, no friends, no loved ones left in the world except for Minister Christov, and I had no doubt the demons would find and slay him too. I wanted to kill the tanar’ri around me, slay and destroy them, rend them, as they had my brethren. Though there was a sense of moral outrage, foremost was my hatred of them, my need for revenge and to make them suffer. And as I had nothing to lose, I acted on that instinct.
I grabbed the huge mace in my good hand and examined it briefly. It was made of black wood, was studded about its surface randomly with some sort of greenish metal, and glowed an eerie yellow color. It had seven uneven sides to it. However, it was well balanced and light for such a large, awkward-looking weapon. I advanced on the weapon’s previous owner and beat him to death with it, swinging downward until his screams stopped. It felt good. I wanted to do it again, this time to a moving fiend. I got up and began to advance on the sorcerer, but he was obviously prepared for me. He pointed at me and chanted something. I instantly froze in place, my muscles refusing to respond to my commands. I had used this spell on foes before, and now I got to experience it first-hand. I could do nothing but watch the demons finish destroying the church, and then teleport away.
After awhile, I was able to move again. Not that I had anywhere in particular to go at that point. Consciousness was too much of a burden, so I went to my house to sleep.
It has been three days since the massacre, and I have not slept.
The weight of failure denies me rest, while the agony of my inflamed arm keeps me alert. Nightmares, unable to torment me in sleep, find weak points in my consciousness and invade my thoughts in flashes, scenes of carnage and demons running through my mind. Ag’rassikha echoes in my mind still, the foul name burnt like a scar into my consciousness. Yesterday I was able to entertain myself briefly by running off looters who came my ruined town, but now I find even that prospect pointless and uninspiring.
I lucked upon an unviolated, unlooted riding horse in the village yesterday, and I have a goal now. I need some sort of focus, so I will not go mad or take my own life. I went back to my house to pack some traveling gear, and I collected what wealth I can carry from the village. I started riding at sunrise this morning.
Somewhere, I am going to find a wizard, sorcerer or cleric that is willing and able to summon demons. I will bribe them, threaten them, do whatever I have to get one of them to summon a particular glabrezu for me. For whatever reason, Ag’rassikha gave me her True Name. And I plan to capitalize on that. She will have answers for me, and will make an accounting for what she has done.
Or, more likely, I am again playing right into her hands, and she will wrestle free from the summoner’s control and destroy us both.
Right now, I do not really care which.
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