Author: Jolinn
Notes: "A tale of the life of a void scholar" -- Jolinn
J'tarl lay gasping on the ground, a trickle of blood oozing out of his mouth. The battle had gone so well - until the accursed Champions of the Light had arrive, the Son of Jolinn he fought suddenly backed by the army of the light. His Chaja servants could still be heard in the distance, steel clanging against steel, his minions soon to fall, much as has been his fate. A wry grin flashing across his eyeless face, he sought the clarity of the Void for one last spell, the mana oozing ever so slowly through his veins.
Fifty years ago, he had been called by the guildmaster to demonstrate for the class his mastery of several new spells. Completely calm, he gazed over the class of young scholars, mostly shuddeni, with a sprinkling of srryn and human templars receiving their training here. None were as powerful as he, and not dared strike at him for fear of those he had allied with, but one could never be too careful with a Srryn - what matter if your opponent was foolish enough not to fear death?
Brought on the lecturing dias was a templar of Rystaia, bedraggled and beaten. Laughing remorselessly at him, the guildmaster issued a simple directive:
"J'tarl... punish him."
With no trace of overzealousness that typified some of his comrades, J'tarl went through the gestures of magic fluidly, despite their newness to him.
The templar staggered, completely blind in the torchlit room. Without pausing, J'tarl invoked the name of several Other Things, and the templar howled in pain. With each successful incantation, blight after blight of successful maledictions crippled the doomed templar.
Before the templar collapsed, his guildmaster ceased the progress of his demonstration.
"Now, J'tarl, show us the way of summoning lesser demons"
J'tarl hissed, "But master, I know not..."
Roaring with laughter, the guildmaster correct him, "No need to hide your knowledge, stripling. You wish to sample forbidden knowledge, yes? Then show us your are worthy of the name shuddeni."
J'tarl moved frigidly, drawing the summoning circle and the protective pentagram from which he would channel the otherworldly stuff of the void into summoning forth a denizen of the lesser hells.
Knowing that any hesitation would be his last, he began chanting..
"Yigac Altra Porcella Nogibbi Shub Niggurath.."
Pausing briefly at a pre-ordained stop, he gasped as his guildmaster brought stabbed a dagger straight into his ribcage!
Without pausing to think, his lungs filling with blood, he did the only sane thing he could do: He finished chanting.
"Galbrezu Ginfalla Noster Alpta Jincofna Hastur!"
Collapsing in a heap, he guildmaster gazed on him not with hate, but with pride.
"Our young scholar has learned a valuable lesson - never cease the ritual which summons a demon lest your control of him slip. A mortal being we can bring to heel with a few mere words,but what if he had called up what he could not put down? His discipline shall be rewarded!"
The guildmaster handed J'Tarl a wand of draining, and he waved it at the shattered templar, his life force mending J'Tarl's own knife wound.
Meanwhile, in the pentagram, a dark cloud was forming, and even the cynical guildmaster was impressed.
"Abishai! A big one at that..."
J'Tarl began scraping symbols in the sands, coughing blood even as he did so, stretching beyond the pain, using his past as an anchor.
On his last day in the Shuddeni academy, J'tarl began preparations for his greatest spell so far - the acquisition of a familiar. Some said chosen at birth, each void scholar acquired one as the true test of his mettle.
Uttering the words, he couldn't help but wonder as to what his destined companion was. Marsh toad? Raven? Imp? Why, he had even heard rumors of para-dragons....
Aldantor, mountain city of the Aelin - for today. J'tarl winced as his faced was touched by the sunlight, but did not bother to show any more concern. Behind him stood two legions of Srryn, encircled by twenty companies of chaja slaves. Leading the faction of the scholars, today he felt the Aelin would be there's.
Uttering strange words of power, he and his enthralled demon attendant burst upon the main streets of the city, where plague and pain rained down around them as the demon fended off his attackers.
Knowing that the wise men would attempt to flee with most of the cities treasure, he coughed the words of a mighty curse.
All around the city, undead began to rip themselves up from the ground, halting the progress of the retreating citizens, and it blank terror, old sages realized that their holy words of recall had failed them.
J'tarl parcelled himself a laugh as he realized before the sun set, the city would be his.
His figure in the ground complete, he could only force out a whispered chant. Longer, more complicated, learned from a book bound in human flesh, he was one of the few who followed the void to know the means of calling forth a greater demon.
The Champions who saw it gasped, fear curdling them into inaction. His chaja slaves ran screaming, seeing only death.
J'Tarl smiled. A Scion of Xthjich. His spell had truely been successful.
The demon king howled at his his imprisonment within the circle, and boomed, "Mortal, you know the ancient bonds of demonkind to the void. Are you willing to pay the price, or forfeit payment in blood?"
J'Tarl whispered, "I know only too well"
The Scion hissed, and continued, "Very well then. I demand an orb of ancient power, or the hearts of a legion of templars of the light."
J'tarl cackled. Madness was the last refuge of the incompetent as he had been taught, but he cackled nonetheless. "I can't pay. Heh. I cannot pay, do you hear me!"
The demon raised a yellowed eye in amazement as he realized the scholar's weakened condition. "Then why did one so powerful summon me without...."
Looking about him, the demon king saw the champions cowered by his aura. Realizing the agreement was broken, he stepped through his binding circle, and howled into the night.
"You will perish. You will *all* perish before this night is done!"
Amidst the screams of the dying, J'tarl invoked the amulet that would return him to the Chaja Caves. If he was lucky, the demon would not possess the power to gate and be long in seeking him out. And if he perished, rather to do so amidst his own caves than to the likes of this rabble...