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The Deepest Promise

After an evening of shrieking around the yard, a new experience with Indian food (that Airyn had, reluctantly, agreed to try and subsequently found quite good), some graham crackers and milk for dessert, and shadow puppet stories acted out by Paimon's clever clawed fingers, Star and Airyn were tucked into bed - the demoness leaving her actual bed behind in favor of her pink sleeping bag on the floor next to Airyn's.

"Star?" Airyn whispered, after ten minutes of trying to get to sleep. "Are you awake?"

"Shh," came the immediate reply, to Airyn's surprise. There was movement, and she saw the demoness was sitting up, watching the sliver of light under the door intently. "Quiet..."

Airyn sat up too, and the two of them stared at the hallway light for what seemed like hours, until it finally flicked out. Only then did Star relax with a sigh. "Mom and Dad went to bed."

"Why does that matter?" Airyn asked, as Star scrambled up onto her bed and clicked the light on her nightstand on. "What're you doing?"

"I told you that we were gonna do something, but I'm not supposed to do it... so I had to wait until Mom and Dad went to bed. And we gotta do it at night, so." Star climbed down quietly and squirmed under her bed next, digging around. "Oof."

"What is it?" Airyn's curiousity was piqued, and she squirmed out of her sleeping bag too. "Whatcha talking about?"

"I'm sick of Renswell bugging you... an' there's something I can do..." Star scooted out from under the bed with a shoebox in one hand. "I got this stuff."

"What kind of something?" Airyn sat down cross-legged on her sleeping bag.

"Something demons can do with anyone, even normal humans... anything, as long as it has a soul and can say 'yes'..." Star worked the top off of the shoebox and pulled out a sharp kitchen knife.

Airyn pulled back. "W-what's that for?"

Star smiled. "It's okay," she said, quietly. "I won't do it unless you want to. It's, um... it's a soul pact. I told you about my brother... he made a soul pact with a sorceress. I can... well, I can make a soul pact with you... and give you magic..."

Airyn stared, disbelieving. "Are you... are you serious?!"

"Yeah," Star said, putting the knife down and rummaging in the box again, this time coming up with a tin of band-aids and a small, rolled-up piece of paper. "I don't know exactly how it works, but... my parents told me how to make one, so I wouldn't do it on accident or let somebody trick me into making one."

"And it'll give me magic? Really?" Airyn scooted over, close to Star. "That'd really surprise Renswell! I could get him back, and he'd never bug me again... ever!"

"Magic... yeah, you can ask for magic. Lots of grown-ups ask to live forever 'n' ever," Star said, pulling one last item - a pin - out of the shoebox. "I guess it depends on what the person making the pact wants..."

"Magic," Airyn said, firmly, her excitement building. "Are you sure? This sounds amazing!"

"It'll work," Star replied, confidently, although her voice was oddly shaky, just a little bit. "If you really want to do it."

"What kind of magic?"

"Um. Ronove, my brother, said it depended on the person. That it'd work with what they were already good at... um. So I don't know?" Star shrugged. "It'd be fun to find out?"

"Yeah! Okay." Airyn took a deep breath, then smiled. "Let's do it! I can't wait! Does it hurt?"

"A little," Star admitted. "We have to use blood."

Airyn gulped. "I can do it," she said. "A little hurting is okay if it means I can have magic."

"Okay... the first part is the contract. I took this one from Daddy's desk," Star confided, with a little giggle as she unrolled the sheet of paper. "He has a bunch of 'em all locked up, but I got one out..." The demoness squinted at all the long words, some written in arcane runes. "I don't know what it all means but... here." She put it down so Airyn could read it. "There's a blank there to put in what you want."

"Magic, you know that," Airyn said, impatiently.

"Okay." Star fumbled around and came up with a sparkly gel pen, then carefully wrote 'magic' in the blank. "Ooh, the paper warmed up, feel?"

Airyn poked at the edge of the paper. It was, indeed, a little bit warm now. "Neat!"

"Okay... and then we both sign it... but we have to do it in blood."

Airyn made a face. "Ew! How do we do that?"

"That's what the pin is for." Star held up the pin. "p***k your finger... um. No, not your left hand. Your right hand. You have to do it with the hand you don't use."

"Why?" Airyn looked dubiously at the sharp pin.

"I dunno. It's the rules. Just... poke yourself so you bleed a little, and write your name on the bottom..." Star held the pin point-up, straight, for Airyn.

The girl thought for a moment, then reached out with the pointer finger on her right hand and winced as the pin pierced her. "Ow... ooh." The blood beaded on her skin. "And write with it?"

"Yeah."

Airyn carefully brought the finger down and wrote her name. The blood smeared awkwardly, and the fact that she was writing with her off-hand didn't help, but the final result was something that was basically her name, even if it wasn't very neat. "Okay."

"Now I do it." Star winced too as she poked herself, then followed suit. The instant both names were complete, the contract glowed brightly, a flash of red, before subsiding, all the text shining with a red sheen.

"Whoa." Airyn stared at it. "Is that all?"

"Nope. Now we finish it..." Star put the pin back in the box and picked up the knife. "We need more blood."

"Ooh... um. How much more?"

"We have to cut our wrists and hold them together tightly, so the blood mixes... then say some special words. Then the pact will be made," Star said. "Ready?"

"Y-yeah," Airyn replied, nervously, and offered Star her right wrist. She flinched visibly as the demoness made a shallow slice across the inside of her wrist, making her bleed at once. "Hurry..."

Star quickly drew the knife over her left wrist, and the blood began to overflow at the edges of the cut. "Okay, put them together... mine on top..."

"It hurts," Airyn whimpered as Star pressed their stinging, bleeding wrists together. "Is it almost done?"

"Yeah. We gotta say some words, and then... I guess it's done, and I brought bandaids so it'll be okay," Star said, trying to be reassuring. "Okay. You go first. You say... 'I, Airyn, enter into a soul pact with the demon Astarte Baphomet for the sake of power, bound by blood and deeper than blood, to hold until our souls perish.'"

"I, Airyn, enter into a soul pact with the demon Astarte Baphomet for the sake of power, bound by b-blood and deeper than blood, to hold until our souls p-perish," Airyn repeated, haltingly. "Ow!" Her cut warmed and stung sharply, as did the p***k on her finger. The contract glowed, pulsing once.

"And I, Astarte Baphomet, accept the pact offering of this human Airyn, bound by blood and deeper then blood, to hold until our souls perish-"

As soon as Star finished, there was a sudden, blinding flash of light - and pain, more intense than anything Airyn had ever known, both in her wounded wrist and somewhere deep inside. She screamed, and heard Star screaming too as light burst around them, and was relieved when unconciousness rushed up to grab them both.

The last thing either of them were aware of was a sudden bright light, and distant, frantic voices.

"Airyn? Star! STAR!"

"Oh, hells..."

"STAR!"

Reckoning

Airyn sat quietly in the chair, feeling very uncomfortable. The adults were quiet and solemn, especially Star's mom and dad. Her own father was there in the background, his brow furrowed in concern, watching and waiting quietly.

Star was sitting on a chair next to her. Neither of them looked at the other, but kept their gazes fixed firmly on their shoes. Their shame and guilt was absolute.

Finally, Star's mother came over to the two girls, shaking her head. "Well then. Let us see if this... thing... has been successfully averted." The demoness reached for both bandaged hands, and carefully peeled away the gauze.

There was another long moment of silence, and Airyn was afraid to look. Star's dad said a bad word, under his breath, and Star's mom sighed long and low. "The pact has been forged," the demoness said, with a growl of exasperation.

Airyn's heart jumped - so it worked, she could have magic! - but just as quickly plunged as she looked up at three very stern grown-ups. The look on her father's face made her want to cry.

"What... what does that mean, for right now?" Riven said, quietly.

Star's dad shook his head. "For now? They are children. The price does not demand payment so soon as all that. But there will be a price."

The adults drew in towards each other, into a huddle, and began talking in low voices that Airyn couldn't make out. After a few moments, she worked up the courage to look at her right wrist. There, snaking across her skin, was a twirl of red like a bracelet that circled all the way around her wrist, covering the scab from where Star had cut her.

She turned to look mutely at the demon child, and Star held out her own left wrist, which bore an identical red marking, though it looked less startling on Star's darker skin.

"We match," Star whispered, and allowed herself a quiet, quick giggle.

"Sisters," Airyn whispered back, but the knot of talking grown-ups twitched as though they might have heard, and the two girls quickly returned to staring at their shoes.

Redemption

Airyn doodled idly on one of her coloring books, refusing to stay within the lines, bored stiff. Third day of being in her room - and dad hardly talked to her. It was awkward, and miserable, and while she knew her dad didn't hate her or anything... it was as though he didn't know what to do with her. Her mom's tree was more talkative, almost!

So she doodled, and pushed on the paper a little too hard and ripped it, and all in all got so annoyed at it, and how things had turned out, and how she didn't seem to have gotten anything but people being mad at her out of this - no magic of any kind, it seemed! - and thus didn't notice when the door behind her creaked open.

"Airyn?"

She jumped, the crayon skidding across the page, then turned. "D-dad?"

To her surprise, the look on his face was gentler than she'd seen in days - no more the constant pain and odd blankness. He moved and coiled his tail down to sit next to her, then put one arm around her and pulled her close. "Airyn, I'm sorry..."

"Dad..." She leaned against him. He smelled like odd mist, almost baby powder, the scent she'd come to learn came from his Spirit Realm. "I... I'm sorry too..."

"No. I know you're sorry. But I... I haven't been doing what I should for you. I admit it, I don't know how to handle what you and Star did..."

"I don't either!" Airyn burst out. "And I was s'posed to get magic too, and I didn't get anything but... but..." She sniffled.

"Sprout, I know, but I'm not going to let not knowing paralyze me any more. Or you. We're going to find out what this did, and... go from there, and hope that your mother doesn't kill us both when she gets back!" Her father glanced out the window, where the blue berries and green leaves of Ghlyssa's tree were clearly visible. "Okay?"

Airyn smiled, and reached up one hand to wipe the welling tears from her eyes. "O-okay."

Experimentation

Riven was chopping up a carrot for stew when he caught it out of the corner of his eye - a small bright shape swooping around the far side of the kitchen. He put down the knife with a sigh and drifted over, watching for a moment before lunging at the fluttering bit of paper, stained with color.

"Got you!" he grunted as he pinned it against the wall, then pinched it with care between two fingers. The construct - a small bird, he realized, drawn in marker and peeled neatly off the paper - struggled, but he had a good enough grip that it couldn't get away.

Shaking his head, the spirit Fa'e headed down the hall to knock on Airyn's room. "I think you forgot something," he said, then opened it...

... and a torrent of constructs poured out, birds and butterflies, dragonflies and fireflies, even a few tiny dragons that wafted heatless, inky flames. In his surprise, Riven lost his grip on the bird he'd caught and it floated quickly into the wheeling throng.

"AIRYN!"

She peeked out from under the bed, her face oddly lit from the pulsing glow of the pact seal on her wrist - it was bright as fire from all the power expended in keeping that many constructs active at once.

"Um..." she stammered.

"Call. Them. Off. Now."

"I just wanted to see how many I could do at once!" she said, and Riven realized she was trembling from the drain of it.

"Call them off!" Riven repeated, his brow furrowing in concern. He coiled his tail and sank down next to her, helping her out from under the bed. "You don't need to stretch yourself this way!"

"Ngh..." Airyn cringed, then stared out at the swirl of paper creatures in the hallway. "Y-you have done your work... be at rest!"

There was a sudden snap that was almost audible as the power recoiled away from the suddenly lifeless constructs, and Airyn jerked as though she'd been struck, her eyes wide. Then she slumped.

"Owwww..."

"Backlash... Dr. Mephisto warned me about that," Riven said with a sigh, scooping his daughter up and laying her down on the bed. "I'll go make that special tea she recommended."

Airyn made a face. "That stuff tastes... bad..."

"No buts." And Riven floated back to the kitchen for the kettle, frowning slightly as he moved over the fallen flock, laying crumpled on the hallway floor.

Revenge

For once in her life, Airyn couldn't wait for Renswell to catch up to her after school. She'd heard from Pina, one of the other girls in the class, that the mage boy had decided he had been responsible for Airyn's week-long absence... that she'd run away from him for a week after being bullied.

So Airyn lingered on the edge of the playground, making small experiments - doodling in the sand with a stick, using her left hand. Sure enough, gravel-dripping constructs erupted from the sandbox whenever she finished a drawing... but she dismissed them all when she saw the door open and Renswell saunter out, and scowled at the cruel glee on his face when he spotted her.

"Finally came back, huh? Stupid mundane scared of her betters?" the boy jeered at her.

"It wasn't because of YOU," Airyn said, firmly.

The boy just smirked, and flicked a finger at her - Airyn quickly jumped to the left, and the sand plowed up where she had been. If she hadn't moved, she'd have been knocked to the ground. She grabbed her stick and ran along the playground, drawing a line... a shape... a big, big shape.

Renswell watched her, confused by her odd movements.

When she was almost done, ready for the last tooth that would complete the drawing, she gave Renswell her sweetest smile. "Renswell?"

"What, stupid?"

"Don't ever call me mundane again," Airyn said, wickedly, and finished the last stroke.

The sand burst upwards and the pact seal pulsed as bright as fire, the huge alligator she'd drawn tearing itself loose from the ground, dripping grains everywhere. It wasn't anywhere near as long-lasting as paper and pen constructs, but it was much, much bigger... and much, much scarier.

Renswell stumbled backwards, fear suddenly written on his face. "Wh-what..."

"Bite him!" Airyn ordered, and the construct swung to face Renswell, the toothy jaws opening wide, drooling sand.

The boy screamed, and ran, with the alligator trundling after him.

And Airyn laughed and laughed.

Ruminations

Airyn tried to ignore her dad as she leaned against her mother's tree and doodled - with her left hand, not her right. She wasn't in the mood for magic right now.

Riven was inside the house, looking at all the brochures and pamphlets that the principal had given him... the stupid pieces of paper that talked about other schools and other places. And even with Renswell and the other kids that she'd made mad that week - even quiet Pina had yelled at her to stop showing off during recess - she didn't want to leave... because then she'd have to leave Star...

She felt miserable. Part of her wished she'd never done the soul pact with Star, even if the magic was cool. It seemed like nothing but trouble had happened, with more on the way later on if what Star's mom and dad said was true.

"I miss you, Mommy," Airyn said, pressing her cheek into the tree's bark and trying to pretend it was her mother as she remembered her. It had been such a long time... it was hard to think of Ghlyssa as having been what she was in their photo album. There was a very big gap now that was only pictures of Riven and Airyn, or Airyn alone...

"Airyn?"

She jumped, and looked up. Her dad was floating in the doorway with a smile on his face.

"What?" she mumbled.

"We're going to Dr. Mephisto's office in an hour, don't forget - but she said on the phone she could recommend a school for you."

"Oh." That didn't matter, and Airyn turned away.

"And I talked to Paimon..."

Airyn turned around again, so fast that her braids slapped her in the face.

"Whatdidhesay?" The question wasn't so much a sentence as one long, run-together word, frantically blurted out.

"He said that because of the nature of the pact, it would be a good idea to keep you and Star close... and that he'd been considering the same thing. So wherever you go, Star will follow. Is that okay with you?"

"YES!" Airyn jumped up and lunged for her father, catching him in a hug around his waist, mood changed in an instant. "Yes, yes, YES!"

"I thought it would be," Riven said, amused.

Friend in the Mirror

Springtime