The unfamiliar local said, “Is Necromancer Thornwood coming soon? We have decided to keep the fireworld entity, for now, and we would like his opinion about suitable containment.”
“Keep it?” Darien blinked. “What for?”
“For study!” The person waved all three arms. “Sadly, we must let the humans and Yyygrdiil return to their homes expeditiously, since we do not have the appropriate nutrition for you. My science colleagues are most unhappy, however.” He gestured toward the doorway.
“Those were scientists? Not reporters?” Darien glanced over his shoulder toward the hubbub behind the closed curtain.
“We don’t have reporters, exactly,” Pip said. “Not like humans do.”
“Researchers, of course,” the local person said. “And if we must lose this amazing opportunity for advancement of knowledge, then at least we can hold this entity for further study. Its needs involve only power consumption, not material foods, and they can be met. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime.”
“What is?” Silas pushed through the curtain and came toward them with Grim at his side.
“They plan to keep the demon. As a pet or specimen or something.” Darien couldn’t keep a hint of skepticism out of his tone.
“Really?” Silas’s eyebrow rose as he eyed the scientist. “And then do what with it? Xsing said none of your people have the power to create gates and portals. No summonings, no banishments, nothing except that instinctive return Home as familiars. In which case, how will you banish this one to its hell when you’re done?”
The person undulated their arms. “If we cannot learn that secret by closely observing what you and Lyyll do as you each portal to your worlds, then we will sadly have to dismantle the entity when we are done.”
“Dismantle?” Darien wondered if the translation program had finally glitched. “Like, kill it?”
“It will no doubt have that effect,” Conservator Kell said from behind them. “But fire energy is one form we are most adept with. We live amid volcanoes, after all.”
“Oh.” Darien hadn’t even known that much. Familiars work with fire? Demons can be killed? He was going to have some long conversations with Pip once they got home. If we get home.
Xsing said, “Your human sorcerers have been known to keep demons inside containers for extended periods, correct?”
“Yes,” Silas agreed. “Demon bottles, magical items, things like that. Not forever though, and not always securely.”
“Sorcerer Magda knows one of the containment spells that have been used,” the local said. “She and I have been working on it together as you slept. I would like you to inspect our algorithm, but I believe we have the principles well in hand.”
Magda said, “Researcher Nolo’s particular talent is with barriers, like the one Kell’s using now. I think they can make a working demon bottle. And I warned them about every slimy trick and threat and bribe the demon might try, to convince one of them to let it loose. They’re determined to keep the foul thing.”
“That’s nuts,” Darien burst out. “Why take a chance on letting a demon get free when Silas can send it home?”
“Why, science, of course.” Xsing patted him on the arm. “We will have every precaution in place. We were just waiting to have your Silas here as a precaution before beginning.”
Darien was caught wordless between your Silas and the idea that they wanted to treat a demon like a butterfly in a jar. When Grim nudged him backward without pointing out the crazy in the room, he kept his mouth shut and let himself be herded to one side.
The locals brought in a case the size of a dog kennel made of some transparent material. Nolo consulted with Magda, as he drew runes with some kind of pen on the outside of the case. As he closed his pattern, a shimmer of orange ran through the translucent material and he said, “Ready.”
Silas stepped in front of Darien, his hands raised, a haze of power flickering between his palms. He swept a rune over the container. “That looks right, but I strongly advise against it.”
“Noted,” Nolo said. “Let’s begin.”
Nolo and Kell and the other locals began shrinking down the circle around the demon. Smaller, smaller, until the demon pressed against the sides, its balefire sparking red and black. It raged and wheedled, words unintelligible. Perhaps it was speaking the local language, and they’d decided not to waste a translation spell on it.
As they tipped the containment box over it, it switched to English, forming glowing gold eyes fixed on Magda. “Power, my lady. I can give you far more than you carry. Why ally yourself with these… chattering munchkins?”
“Shut up.” Magda seemed to relish the words. “I hope they bore you to death and then dissect your corpse.”
Xsing and Nolo tipped the container over the power circle and down to the floor, then slid another panel, marked and glowing, underneath it. The demon yelped when its feet, or whatever the stuff it was standing on was, met the panel, but it couldn’t seem to avoid the slow closing of the box. When the panel was in place, Nolo held out a hand for the pen. Magda slapped it into his palm, and he wrote locks all around the border, gestured and set the pen down. “Ready.”
“Releasing mine.” Kell gestured and the red of his circle around the demon vanished.
In the same moment, Nolo slapped all three palms on the container and snapped a word. Orange flared, then steadied. In the box, the demon shouted and swelled, as if exerting force on all sides, but Darien couldn’t make out any change in the box.
The other local waved a hand around the top. “Holding nicely.” He turned to the curtain and called, “Bring in the transport.”
Two people pushed inside with a kind of rolling platform. As matter-of-factly as if they were loading a crate of bananas, they lifted the container onto the platform and trundled it out. Nolo and the other local scurried after them, calling out conflicting directions about which lab got to have the creature first. The curtain billowed as they all passed, then dropped shut behind them.
“Well,” Silas said, “that’s the oddest end to a demon I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s not an end yet, of course,” Kell said. “But I assure you, my department takes security seriously. We will be monitoring it, and not letting enthusiasm get the best of good sense.”
“That’s reassuring,” Grim said dryly. “Speaking as someone who has encountered several demons up much too close.”
Kell bobbed his eyestalks at Grim in something that looked like acknowledgement.
“And now it’s our turn.” Lyyll came over to them. “I am ready to go home. More than ready. Since coming here, I am more and more aware of a need, a pull, to return. My clan, the elvers— it has been far too long. I feel I’m urgently needed.”
“I’m sorry,” Silas said, “for everything my mentors did that kept you trapped so long.”
Lyyll waved a hand. “It was not your doing. And I am, of course, a terrifying and fearsome beast.” She bared her fangs in what was probably humor. “But now I must leave. Immediately.”
“And I’ll go with you,” Kii said.