Occulturation #2 Summon Gone Wrong

Explicit Content Warning! You are about to witness child murder. if you have children or are children, you may want to cover your eyes for this chapter.

Pixie-Fey-Restcha (3rd day, 3rd week, 3rd month)

Garesh checks his watch again. It’s the third hour (Restcha) of the Afternoon (Pixie). Garesh has been preparing for this occasion for several years. Now the time has come when all the dates align. The year is 18,618 P.S., the year of Fey. It’s the third month, Restcha; the third week of the month, Fey; the third day of the week, Pixie. Three is the number of Fey. Garesh has reason to believe otherwise.

It is an old book. It seems that no one has used it in centuries, if not millenia. The binding is coming loose. It’s hard to even see the faded text, and it is written in a dead language. That last culture that spoke ancient Kyrla died off somewhere around 10,000 P.S. Though by that time, the only people who spoke it were members of a sect of evil occult practices. And even then, they only spoke the language as recitations of in their strange ceremonies that thought should be spoken in the original language the rites had been written in. People had stopped writing in this language millenia before then.

The difficulties in translating and reading the script of this ancient tome with a title that can be best expressed as “Rites to Commanding the Invisible” meant that it took multiple years for Garesh to get to the point of taking anything in the book to application. Back when the book was written, the Angels were a recent memory, having left only a few centuries before the book was written. Though, the exact time is difficult to tell since it’s hard to read the date the book was written and the century that the Angels left is up for speculation.

However, years of studying translation guides and history books has allowed Garesh to understand what few words were still visible in the tome. The occult group that wrote this text followed the same calendar as modern society with nearly everything in five number group increments. However, the Screamers associated with specific numbers are slightly different. It seems that Fey and Incorporeal have switched places. It’s sometimes hard to tell what Screamer type is referred to in this book because they don’t use the same names for Screamers as are used in modern society.

The names for Screamers literally translate to adjectives that are associated with the Screamers. From what Garesh could discover, it seems that the number three is described as Incorporeal because the adjectives that the book described the Screamer type as impersonal and Unseen. This must be Incorporeal because Incorporeal have no bodies, impersonal, and are unseen because they are invisible. The number four is then associated with Fey as they are described as Inactive, Despondent, Pitiful. Fey certainly keep to themselves. Whoever wrote this tome seems to think that Fey closet themselves away because they just don’t like partaking in any sort of activity. Garesh has never seen any Fey. He never imagined them as extreme introverts. Well, it’s important to note that unlike in the modern calendar, the tome purports that three is the number of Incorporeal and four is the number of Fey.

Inside his house in the living room, Garesh takes out his knife with a wicked blade. His three captives lay on the floor, unconscious. They are all three-year old children. Today is their birthday. They turned three today. The captives are each the third son of the third son of the third son. They lay in the Inner Circle of the three concentric chalk circles. The circles are formed of runes from the ancient languages. Each circle is formed of chalk of a different color. The Inner Circle is white chalk made from the dust of ground bones mixed with powdered silver and salt. The middle Circle Is made from golden chalk made from gold and ambrosia, the elixir of gods. The Outer Circle is made from red chalk made from the mixed blood of all three captives, the dust of powdered rubies and the red powder known as the Philosopher's Stone. Lit candles line the red Outer Circle.

Three censers sit in between the red Outer Circle and the golden Middle Circle. Each censer sits on a tripod. White chalk encircles each tripod individually. Three lines of white chalk connect the white chalk circles round the tripods of censers to form a triangle.

The time for the first sacrifice has come. Garesh places the three herbs and spices in each censer and sets them ablaze. Smoke rises from the censers. Garesh is glad he had the foresight to deactivate his smoke detector.

Garesh speaks the chant of ritual—three stanzas, each stanza has three lines, each line has three words, each word has three syllables. He completes the first stanza as he makes his first incision to the chest of his first captive. His cut strikes in the shape of a line. He recites the second stanza as his second incision cut mirrors the first, making a “V” shape. His third stanza coincides with his third incision, which cuts, connects and closes the cuts as a triangle in the first captive’s chest *  near his heart.

The pain, of course, causes the child to awaken. Startled and scared, he tries to crawl away, but he is still in the white Inner Circle when the ground ripples, and two small pale arms reach out from below and drag the boy down under the floor by his neck.

It is time for the second sacrifice. Garesh sets a handful of gravedirt collected from nine different graves and three cemeteries, three graves from each cemetery onto the second captive. He takes out splinters from nine wooden coffins from three different cemeteries, three coffins from each cemetery. He sets the splinters of wood on the second captive. He takes his handful of gravel for nine headstones or gravestones from three different cemeteries, three stones from each cemetery. He sets the gravel from the headstones on the second captive.

Garesh slams the blade of his sacrificial dagger into the heart of the second captive and pulls his knife back out as the child screams. Like a shark or a crocodile pouncing from beneath the water, a pale young girl that looks younger than 25 years of age leaps from under the floor and hugs the child tightly around the neck, dragging him down below the surface of the ground. Garesh gets the distinct impression of a millstone around the neck of the child, dragging him down below the waves to drown. The vision of the ghost girl as a millstone dragging his captive to his demise resonates in Garesh’s mind.

It is the time for the setting of the terms of the contract. So far, the bindings of the first and second sacrifice prevent the evil spirit from hurting him while also giving it the blessing of physical form. This final binding shall give Garesh command over the fiend and be sealed with the death of the third and final captive and the fiend’s signature in blood.

Garesh sets the paper contract in the white Inner Circle. He slashes the third captive’s wrists and lets the blood pool into an empty inkwell. He sets a few feathered quills on the paper of the contract for the specter to use. He has already written the terms. The third captive wakes up. Garesh holds him down and invokes the evil spirit to come out and make a deal. The little ghost girl crawls out from beneath the floor. It stares at Garesh. He gestures towards the paper contract, feathered quills, and inkwell holding a pool of blood.

The creature, which has come in the form of a little girl, looks down upon the contract with its large, unblinking eyes. Suddenly, the whole situation seems ridiculous to Garesh. Who is Garesh to bind some supernatural entity? If it weren’t for the first bindings, this monster would surely drag Garesh down below the ground like a man with a millstone hanging from his neck, sinking into the sea.

Who is he to make demands? To make bargains? Why should this being make any compromise? It should obtain its desires by force. Garesh has the impression that, if unbound, nothing could stop this evil from accomplishing all of its desires.

The spirit looks up from the paper contract and faces Garesh. The smooth voice of a little girl speaks from the lips of the creature, “I… I not read.” Garesh hadn’t realized that such a creature would not be acquainted with human speech, but if this creature has really been separated from humankind for so long, it would make sense that it is having trouble. The figure of a little girl says in its little child’s voice, “You… you say the read.” What? What does it want? Garesh has a moment of panic. This is not how expected the term setting and deal making to go. “Say the read.” The spirit insists, “Say it.” It gestures towards the paper contract.

Garesh picks up the contract and reads it aloud: “I, Garesh, am bound to provide the Incorporeal that signs this agreement, a human to feed upon, once per month; the Incorporeal is bound to not harm me, Garesh, and it must protect me and follow my commands to enact vengeance upon my enemies. Signed, Garesh. Signed, blank space. That is where you sign with your name, Incorporeal.” Garesh points to where the paranormal child must sign its name on the contract.

The fiend stares at the page with a blank expression. Finally, it says, “I not name. I not read. Vanjess? Say Vanjess?”

“Vengeance? I want you to help me to fight, to hurt people I do not like.” Garesh says, simplifying the terms.

The pale faced fiend says, “Yes, and incopolelel? Say inpolpel?”

“Incorporeal? You are the Incorporeal. You, Incorporeal, sign here.”

“I not name. I not read name. I say the say, not read the name.”

“I guess a verbal agreement is just as binding.”

“I need say not same.”

“Not the same? What do you mean?”

I gesture at the contract, “Not same. Say not same, Not same as read.

“What would be not the same?”

“Say you say I name.”

“Say your name? I’m not sure I understand.”

“Name I name. You say I name.”

“Okay, I’ll say your name. What’s your name?”

“I is not name. You say I name.”

How am I supposed to say your name if you don’t even know your name?”

“Say my name?” The little girl says—pleading, almost begging— with her sweet little voice that makes it hard for Garesh to remember that this is a Screamer.

“Yes, yes. I’ll say your name.” Garesh agrees, though isn’t quite sure what it is he is agreeing to do.

The spectral child nods, then says “And… and… l-lay me to rest?” Garesh is surprised at such a complicated request. Not only did the phantom finally use “me” instead of “I,” it also understood the metaphorical figure of speech of “lay to rest.”

“Yes, of course. I’ll lay you to rest.” Garesh says. He has no problems giving the spirit rest to move on from this world when their contract is over.

The child nods again, smiling now. It says, “And help me vanjess.”

This Screamer is getting better at speaking by the moment. It takes Garesh a moment for him to realize that it meant vengeance. He wonders why it would want vengeance. Who could have wronged this creature. Then he remembers that he told it that vengeance meant hurting those that you don’t like. That seems like a fair agreement. After all, after seeing the monster drag two of his captives below the earth, he doubts it will need any help in hurting people.

“Yes, I’ll help you with your vengeance.”

“Three more.”

“Three more?” Garesh asks.

“Three more to…” it gestures at the contract.

“One, make me whole.” It says.

“Make you whole?” Garesh asks.

“Yes, make me whole. Two, make me whole.”

“You just said that.”

“No, not the same hole.” It says. Did it mean hole instead of whole? This is why Garesh had hoped to produce a written contract, then he wouldn’t have to be guessing at ambiguous language that is spelled differently but sounds the same.

“Three… no, it’s not three. It is four. One, two, three, four. Not three more. It is four more.” It counts on its fingers to make sure it has the right numbers.

“Okay.” Garesh says.

“One, make me whole. Two, make me whole. Three, make me holy.” It says. Wow, it understands holy. Though, Garesh isn’t sure he understands what it means. How could it be holy? Isn’t it inherently evil? Maybe there is some rite or ritual to cleanse it. That might be difficult now that the Angels are gone. Surely some remnant of their power remains, right?

“I’ll make you holy.” Garesh says.

The pale little child looks ecstatic. It seems it might jump for joy. “Five,” the Screamer says, “ Care for and carry me.” This last request seems the most bizarre to Garesh. Throughout the whole exchange, Garesh began to think of the little girl more as a human child than an ancient Incorporeal. Yet, this creature is not human. It is a monster that has no need or desire for such childish things as it has asked. Garesh knows that it must be asking for such things to lower his guard so it can sneak in requests that he wouldn’t normally accept. Yet, what was that last request for? No requests followed it, so why did it ask for childish needs if it wasn’t going to sneak in a malevolent request afterwards?

Whatever, Garesh can accept the decorative terms that hide the real intentions. Such physically don’t offer anything dangerous to him. “Yes, I agree to these terms,” Garesh says, “Do you agree to the terms?”

The little child smiles wide and for a moment, its teeth seem jagged, its too-big eyes seem like inky pits of charcoal-black, its skin is blue and its lips and hands purple with frostbite. Then the moment is gone. It seems like a normal child whose eyes are a little bigger than normal and its skin a paler than average. It cheerily says, “I accept these terms.”

The smoke from the candles and censers is thick. The doors and windows are closed, so the smoke has simply been building up. The third captive stutters and stands up. Garesh feels sheepish as he notes that he forgot about the last captive. He stabs it in the neck. The boy falls to the floor and blood pools around its head. The air becomes chill and a breeze blows the candles out. The censers fall over, scattering their embers which quickly go out until all is darkness. All is darkness but a single light from one of the censers—a light-blue flame the size of one’s hand.

The light-blue flame floats in the air and hovers its way out of the fallen censer. The breeze throws embers of herbs and spices in a swirl around the floor. The little girl collapses on the ground. What? Why? Garesh checks his watch, it’s still the third hour of the Afternoon. He completed the ritual in time. What is going on?

The little girl seems dazed. She sits up, her head bobbing up and down as though she were incredibly tired. She grows still as she sees the flying blue flame. She stares at it. She reaches out to touch it, but the flame flies out of reach. The little girl seems younger now, then she did before. She doesn’t look any different, but she is behaving more childlike. She looks at the room in wonder, as if seeing it for the first time. Then she sees the corpse of the third captive. She scrambles backward until she hits a wall, all the time staring at the corpse. Her expression, it is… scared?

Behind her, on the wall, her shadow is tall and… her shadow is too tall. The only light source is the dim light coming past the shutters of the window to her side and the flying flame that has also taken its place against the wall with the little girl. Her shadow stands tall while she is crouched against the wall. The shadow walks out from behind her. It waves to try and get her attention, but she is focused on the dead body. The corpse hovers a few inches above the ground. It bobs up and down a bit. It floats slowly back and forth until it hits a wall. It rams into the wall a few times before dropping to the ground.

The quill that Garesh had intended for the use of signing his contract floats into the air and dips into the inkwell of blood. It starts scribbling over the paper contract. Garesh has a moment of panic, but the paper contract isn’t worth anything to him now, since that contract is out of date with the contract that he actually made with the spirit.

Garesh glances at the chicken scratch scribbles of blood on the paper and the quill suddenly stops drawing. It floats high into the air, snaps in half and shoots across the room, clattering against the wall.

Something is wrong. Garesh only summoned and bound one Incorporeal, the one that looks like a little girl. What are the rest of these things? Are they just manifestations of the little girl’s power? Are they other separate Incorporeal? Well, it doesn’t matter too much what these other things are. Garesh’s only dealings are with the little girl. He walks toward the little girl, but she scoots backwards into a corner.

It seems scared. Garesh doesn’t know if it is just pretending for some indiscernible purpose or if it is actually scared. Either way, he decides to try and calm it down. “Hey, little girl, what’s your name?”

The little girl gasps when it hears him speak. What, is it surprised or something? “I-I don’t know. I don’t have a name. Maybe… could you give me one?” the suggestion echoes in Garesh’s ears as a demand. He recalls the terms of his contract echoing in his mind—Say my name! Say my name! Say my name!

Garesh distinctly remembers how he thought of the geist as a millstone hanging around the neck of his victims, dragging them down into an endless abyss. Maybe he could make a name relating to millstones? Millstoney? Stony? Milly? Ah, Millie, that’s a real name, right? “Ah, yes,” he says, “I’ve got the perfect name for you. Your name is Millie!”

The child’s joy overcomes her fear for a time as she repeats her name to herself: “Millie. Millie. Millie. Millie!” Garesh leaves the girl and walks to the other side of the room where he has a desk with an ancient tome on it. He used this artifact of olden times to learn how to perform the ritual required to summon and bind a powerful Incorporeal. The book itself wasn’t enough. He needed three other books and a great deal of time and resources. The three other books were a translation guide because the tome is in a language that is nearly extinct now, a pronunciation guide because saying words correctly is an important component in the invocation of evil spirits, and he needed a history/culture book to help him understand the reasons behind the details of the ritual and learn other small details that were left out of the tome.

The tome was large and thick with too many pages to be bound effectively together. Despite its great volume, it only held instructions for a single ritual: the ritual to summon and bind Incorporeal. The reason for so many pages seemed to be to fill in as many details as possible. However, most of it is optional. Besides a few base components, the rest isn’t necessary. However, that is like saying that armor and weapons are not necessary when going to battle. All you really have to do is show up to fight. It would be foolish to try and summon and bind an Incorporeal with the bare minimum of preparation.

To summon and bind this little girl, the bare minimum that Garesh would need to do is invoke the spirit and offer it a deal. Even the sacrifice is technically optional. However, no Incorporeal is going to even bother showing up if they aren’t immediately fed. Also, if Garesh were to take no other precautions and preparation, then the Incorporeal would have instantly turned on him, devouring him as well.

It is possible that one could reason with an Incorporeal. Invocation is the bare minimum to summon it and deal making is the bare minimum required to bind it. This is akin to calling out and asking the first person that comes to see why you're yelling to do you a favor. The difference is that, unlike a human, an Incorporeal has no inclination to help and would likely attack you if it even showed up in the first place.

Garesh pages through the tome, looking for what went wrong. He clearly only invoked one Incorporeal. He couldn’t invoke any specific Incorporeal because he didn’t have any names. Even if he did have a book of names, he had read that Incorporeal die within a month if they aren’t fed. It is likely that many of the names in any book of names would be names of deceased Incorporeal. As far as Garesh knows, Incorporeal can only feed if someone brings them close with an invocation, and then most Incorporeal aren’t strong enough to kill and need a sacrifice. Garesh reads that the only way for Incorporeal to feed is through these rituals run by witches.