A Demon's Core

When it is time to summon a new imp, I see an opportunity to potentially right a wrong I may have committed in the past. For that I need to talk to Lily. She is currently playing with Violet, Calla and the hellhounds. A game resembling tag with Violet currently being the one chasing others around. It is a little surprising, Lily does not usually join in games involving the hellhounds. I am glad to see that she is getting more comfortable around them

I want to ask you about Calla’s father. Was he your mate?

“Yes. Is mate.” She says as she stops running and separates herself from the others. Violet gives her a questioning look but Lily waves her off.

Can you tell me about him?

“Is strong and kind. He good at finding food. Not hungry with him.”

Did you have any other children?

“No, only one child. But wanted more.” She looks wistfully towards Calla.

Do you miss him?

“Yes, miss him a lot.” She turns her head down. I can see tears welling in her eyes. This is not the first time I have seen her crying when she thought no one else was watching. It has been weighing on me quite heavily.

I am sorry I left him behind.

“This is good place. Better for child. But want to see mate. You bring others here. You bring him?” She quietly pleads.

I intend to try. Can you tell me if there was anything distinctive about him. Particularly in his appearance?

Unfortunately I am not as confident as I would like to be that I actually can summon him. While I know I can target specific individuals, I have only tested it with creatures I have already summoned. Not only am I already connected to them, but I have also had time to get to know them personally. Trying to summon a specific imp that I have never met before is not the same.

Even Lily’s description does not help much. Nothing she described really stands out compared to other imps I have seen. Not to say that all imps look the same. When you see them up close there are noticeable differences. But I have not seen this one and that is the problem.

The only thing I can do is try. When I supply mana to the rift, I try to think of everything Lily told me about her mate, but it is not a lot to go on and I can not form a clear picture. So instead I try to focus on seeking Lily’s mate and Calla’s father, but even that feels like a vague concept to guide the summoning.

When the new imp appears, it is male. But judging from Lily’s downcast look, this is not her mate. I have not given up, but I do not think I should say as much to Lily. I do not know for certain that I can do this so I do not want to give her false hope. But I am determined to find a way. I will not say anything more to her until I have an idea I feel confident in.

Rose and Violet go through the greeting procedure, which has become a routine at this point, while Lily slinks away. He does not have a name and asks for one to be given to him. So sticking with the flower theme, I grant him the name Aster which he seems happy with. After being given a tour he chooses the bedroom in Room 3 with two single beds. Sneak has already claimed one of the beds, but he is happy to share the room and they seem to get along well.

The previously summoned male imp who wanted to choose a name for himself also informed us that he would be called ‘Rock’ from now on. Apparently he likes rocks and has taken possession of all the rocks that Sixth had previously collected.

While I continue my routine of expansion and creating more mana crystals, some for the new imps to practice mana control, under Rose’s guidance, others to increase my own collection. I ponder the issue of how to summon Lily’s mate. I think I need some kind of connection that the rift can use to find him.

But I may have just what I need. Calla is his daughter, so there is a biological connection. But how do I utilize that? I do not think she can touch the rift. It is quite intangible. Maybe if I had her touching my core that could help, but would that be enough? But what else could I try. A DNA sample perhaps. DNA is what connects family members.

Blood would be the most useful for this purpose. Although there are easier ways to acquire DNA samples, blood also carries mana. I do not know if that is actually relevant, but it might be, mana is an integral part of the process after all. This is all just speculation of course, but I think it is best we try everything we can to increase the chance of success. I think this is our best shot. If this does not work, I do not know what else I could possible try.

I will need to tell Lily about my plan and convince her to let me take some of Calla’s blood. I find her in her room this time.

I have another idea that should allow me to summon your mate. I am confident it will work this time. But I will need Calla’s help...and some of her blood.

“No hurt child!” she demands.

It is not my intention to hurt her. We only need a little bit, just a small prick would be enough. I know it will be unpleasant, but this is the best chance to let her see her father again. Rose can heal her right after, so she will be fine.

She is still apprehensive, but she agrees. When we explain what we need to Calla, she is frightened at first when I tell her we need some of her blood. But in the end she is eager and excited at the possibility of seeing her father once more. Now it is even more important that this succeeds. If we fail, Calla will be crushed, as will Lily. I will have gotten their hopes up for nothing. That might be worse than if I had just ignored the situation.

When it is time for the next imp to be summoned, I explain the plan to Rose and Violet. They are both surprised, but delighted at the idea. Violet uses a knife to make a small cut on Calla’s finger, she winces from the pain, tears welling in her eyes. Violet lifts her up to the chair with my core and I instruct her to place her hand on my core and not remove it until I say so.

I put all my focus into specifically trying to summon Calla’s father. Using the blood as a medium to guide the rift. I even take some of Callas mana and feed it directly into the rift, hoping that will make a difference. Tension hangs heavy in the air as we wait. When the new imp finally appears, Lily has her arms wrapped around him, tears steaming down her face, before anyone else can even react. I guess that means it worked.

Calla leaps of the chair and runs to hug her father as well. At first he looks confused, but his expression changes to a relieved smile as he hugs them back.

“What happen? You gone. Now we here.” He asks when his mate finally lets go of him.

I am sorry, that was my fault. I brought them both here. It took some time before I was able to do the same for you. His eyes dart around the room, looking for the source of the voice that just spoke to him.

“Who say that?”

I am the master of this domain. My core is on the chair behind you, but I do not have a body that you can see beyond that.

He stares in fascination at my core for a few seconds before Calla starts pulling at his arm.

“Daddy come. See hellhounds. They friends. Noctis so big.” She insists.

“Please at least give him some time to put on some clothes first. And let me take a look at your hand as well.” Rose interjects, handing some clothes to the male. Calla looks down at her hand, still bleeding slightly, like she forgot that it was even hurt, then holds it out to Rose.

Rose smiles as she takes Calla’s hand and applies a little bit of magic to stop the bleeding.

“I thought I not see you again. Was sad and worried.” Lily says with tears still in her eyes.

“I worry too. Together now. All okay.” Her mate replies, taking her hands in his.

How about you show him around and take your time to catch up. I can let the others know not to disturb you for a while if you would like.

“Thank you.” She says, looking towards my core. She leads him out of the room with Calla skipping along beside them.

I am glad that worked. It would have been devastating to put them through all that only to fail. Though I do wonder now if any one else left someone behind when I brought them here. I will have to ask everyone before it is time for the next summoning.

We are also almost out of clothes for new imps. I ask Rose to organize as many expeditions with the other imps as is necessary to bring back all the appropriately sized clothes that are still left in the clothes store. We will store them in Room 7 for now. It may as well become our storage room. We do need to try to keep things organized. For that we need a place to store things to keep our living spaces from becoming to cluttered.

I should also work on claiming Room 7 next. I am almost done with the hallway. It would be useful to actually be able to see what we have in our storage room so I can keep track of it all.

Over the next few days, Lily and her mate do not leave each other’s side. They start getting physically intimate any time they are alone. It is not hard for them to find opportunities since Calla elects to spend most of her time with the hellhounds. Not that they leave her unsupervised, even if Lily does trust Noctis to keep her safe. Violet also likes to play with the hellhounds so she is often around to keep an eye on Calla while Lily and her mate go back to their room together. Lily did say they wanted more children. I guess being reunited after thinking they would never see each other again has made them eager to get started.

Lily’s mate did not have a name so I granted him the name Calyx. It is not actually the name of a flower, but it is part of a flower so it still fits the theme. Though maybe I should try branching out a little. Flowers are good, but variety is also nice.

When I am ready to summon another imp I ask everyone if there was anyone specific they left behind that they want me to summon, with the limitation that they had to be blood related. I do not even know how far that connection can be stretched so it may only work for immediate family.

To my surprise, Violet is the only one who has a request. She has a sister that she was close to. But that was all that she asked for. I expected a few more to want to see their family again. Rose explained that once imps reach adulthood they usually become completely independent from their family and integrate more into the pack. At that point they consider the whole pack as their family. Though there are times when siblings who are born together do remain close for their entire lives. And as most of the imps here are young adults, it is also not surprising that they did not have children yet.

Repeating the same process as before, Violet cuts her finger and places her hand on the core. I focus on the blood connection and use some of her mana to summon her sister. When she appears, Violet rushes forwards and lifts her off the ground and spins her around.

“I’m so happy you’re here. I’ve missed you.” Violet says, holding her tightly as she squirms in her grip.

“Who you?” She demands. Violet stops spinning.

“I’m your sister. Did you forget about me?”

“Not sister. Not know you.” Violet puts her down and steps back. Her lip quivering with tears in her eyes.

You have changed quite a lot since she last saw you. It should not be surprising that she does not recognize you. She perks up and smiles.

“Right. I look different now. I was smaller before and I had different hair. We’ve been together since we were born. I was small and red like everyone else and I had blonde hair. Everyone thought it was strange and wanted to touch it all the time. Look at my face closely. It’s still the same.” Violet implores. The new imp stares at her, squinting slightly.

“It really you? How get big? Why purple? Why talk funny? How get here?” She asks in rapid succession.

“It’s really me, but I don’t know much about why I changed. I got bigger when I was brought here. I also got smarter. Then I died. When I came back to life I was purple.” Violet explained.

“Not die. You alive.” Her sister says incredulously.

“I...I’m not sure how to explain that one. But we’re both here now. That’s what matters. It’s much better here than where we were before.”

“I get big?” The new imp is now looking up at Violet in awe.

“I don’t think so. No other imps have gotten any bigger. But you will get smarter. Then we will both be geniuses.” Violet exclaims, pride evident in her tone.

“Already smart.” Her sister retorts.

“Well, yes, but you’ll get even more smart. Come, I will introduce you to Fuzzy. She’s so cute, you’ll love her.” Violet grabs her hand and pulls her towards the door.

“Wait!” Rose shouts. “She needs clothes first.” She holds out some clothes for Violet’s sister, who takes them gingerly.

“Right, sorry.” Violet apologies sheepishly. “We always have to wear clothes here, but we have lots to choose from so we will find some that you like later. After you meet Fuzzy.”

Once fully clothed, Violet drags her sister to Room 3. When she sees the hellhounds, she is initially terrified. But when Fuzzy walks over and starts licking Violet while Violet rubs her fur, she quickly gets over her fright and is enthralled by the fluffiness.

After spending some time with Fuzzy, Violet insists on going to the river, because apparently her sister really likes swimming. Some of the other imps and even Fuzzy also join them.

While they are gone, something unusual happens. It starts with a human entering my territory. But unlike past humans this one stops on the lowest step of my domain and is now just standing there. It must be mana sensitive because I have expanded downward since the last time humans visited yet this one knew just where to stop.

I wait for around five minutes but the human still does not move from its spot. This is rather curious behavior so I decide to investigate. On the way down I get to experience first hand just how tedious these stairs are. I can not step into the void so I also have to follow my own pathway. It is annoying and I hate it. So it is perfect and I will continue it all the way to the ground floor.

When I reach the bottom, the human really is just standing there. In places like this where I have not claimed the walls or ceiling, my vision only extends to about a meter off the ground so I can only see up to this human's waist. I hear muffled noises that sound like conversation just outside my domain. So there is likely more than one human, unless this one just likes talking to itself.

I do not understand what they are trying to achieve but if this human is just going to stand here, I might as well use it for an experiment I have been wanting to try. I reach out to touch it, though as expected my hand goes right through it’s leg. I try draining some mana from it and am surprised to find not even the slightest bit of resistance.

The human quickly jumps out of my range before I can get much from it though. It likely felt its mana being taken, but I also got a little more for it leaving. Soon I see a pair of hands enter my field of vision holding an envelope and a small box. They place the items on the step and leave. I wait to see if they will come back but they never do and I am left to ponder the mystery of what has just occurred.