Summoner 21, p.1
Summoner 21, page 1
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Chapter One
As I stared in horror at the blood-red moon, I couldn’t help but think we’d royally fucked up.
Sera trembled beside me. Her bright yellow eyes were as round as saucers as she stared at the eerie sight, and tiny, childlike whimpers escaped from her full lips. I’d never seen the dark-winged Archon display such vulnerability before, and the way the monster goddess quivered with fear sent shivers down my own spine.
If Sera was rendered this fearful, whatever we were about to face was worse than anything we’d ever dealt with before.
My heart raced in my chest, and I tried to reach a comforting hand out to the Archon, but the dark-haired goddess shifted away from me before I could make contact. Her already pale white-blue skin lightened to an even more ghostly pallor, and her black-feathered wings flattened against her back.
“What have we done?” Sera whispered, and then she repeated herself in an even softer voice as she shook her head in disbelief. “What have we done?”
“We didn’t do this,” I assured her, but even I wasn’t sure how much I believed my words. “There’s no way this was our doing, right? This can’t be because I just gave you a baby, can it?”
Earlier this evening, I’d professed my love to the monster goddess, and after she revealed she shared similar feelings toward me, we’d made love over and over again until we were thoroughly spent. It was the kind of lovemaking reserved for creating a child, and I’d enjoyed every second of it.
Just after we’d finally exhausted ourselves for the evening, Sera had crossed over to the window and stood in the light of the moon. The moment had been incredibly special… at least until the moon began to darken to a deep shade of red. Seconds later, the entire sky had shifted to a rich scarlet, and our beautiful night turned into a hellscape.
“Of course, we did this,” Sera whispered, and then she turned away from me, picked up her skimpy white bodysuit, and slipped into it with lightning speed. Her midnight-black hair flared over her shoulders, and she rubbed her arms like she was trying to get warm. “There’s no other explanation for the moon’s change. This is our doing, Gryff. It’s… We must have all understood the prophecy wrong.”
“Sera…” I tried to plead with her, but the Archon wasn’t interested in soothing words, so I decided to follow in the goddess’ footsteps and scrambled to find my trousers on the floor. This situation was too dire and too horrifying to handle without the added measure of being entirely bare, so once I located the pants and my shirt, I quickly dressed myself and then approached my bedroom window.“
“It knows what we’ve done,” she sighed. “It knows where we are, and it’s ready to kill us all. It wants to kill you, and me, and our unborn child.”
“What do you mean by that?” I pressed. “Sera, do you know what that thing out there is?”
Just as the entity had appeared on the moon, Sera had gone into a hysterical fit and sobbed about how something was here to destroy us. I’d been so consumed by my confusion I hadn’t pressed the subject, but now I wondered if the dark-winged Archon knew something more than she was letting on.
“I-I don’t know exactly what it is,” she admitted. “But there’s a feeling sweeping through me, a dread that fills my entire body like a strike of lightning. Somehow, I know whatever it is, it’s powerful, and it wants us dead.”
“So, it’s all just a hunch?” I pressed.
“It’s more than just a hunch,” Sera insisted. “Gryff, I can feel it with every inch of my being. Whatever that entity is, it’s exceptionally powerful and intends to destroy every last one of us.”
While the Archon’s words were a little suspicious, her tone was sincere, so I knew she wasn’t lying.
“Maker, what the fuck is it?” I muttered as I swept the curtains completely away from the window and stared at the moon. “And how did it get there in the first place?”
The once pale, silvery orb had not only changed colors but was also riddled with long, ink-black tendrils that looked like tentacles.
“I-I don’t know,” Sera admitted, and she shook her head back and forth slowly. “I’ve existed for centuries, and I’ve never witnessed such a sight before. We’ve doomed the entire world.”
“Sera, we haven’t doomed the world,” I insisted, but the Archon continued to shake her head in protest.
The tentacles writhed, stretched, and twitched as we spoke, almost as if they were searching for something to latch onto, and even though the appendages had only just appeared minutes ago, it seemed like they’d grown closer.
I could only imagine what the tentacles were attached to, but whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
You’ve got that right, I suddenly heard Xanrith’s voice ring out in my consciousness. Sera was correct in her assessment. Whatever that thing is, it wants the world to succumb to its power.
“Are you saying you feel it as well?” I wondered.
Yes, Utuni confirmed. It’s a horrific feeling of dread and terror I cannot explain.
I don’t like it, Miralea groaned. Not at all.
“Fuck,” I sighed.
Master, this is truly awful, Veopa chimed in.
It’s certainly awful, Carth agreed.
What have you done, Sera? Phi hissed.
“This isn’t her fault,” I huffed.
Does this mean you cannot make love to the rest of us? Utuni sighed.
This creature has awoken because he just inseminated my sister, Phi huffed. And you are just waiting for your turn?
So, you don’t want his seed, then? Utuni hissed. Fine. Master, I’ll go before Phi. If we are to be destroyed by this horrible thing, I want to die with the feeling of your warm love inside of me.
I didn’t say I would skip my turn, Phi growled. I wish for our Master, too--
“Stop it, all of you,” I ordered. “Unless you have something helpful to contribute to the conversation, I’d prefer it if you kept quiet while I try to sort this out.”
I waited a moment for one of the Archons to speak up, but that relief never came, so I tightened the wards around the goddesses to ensure they couldn’t speak up until I asked them to.
“They’re right,” Sera murmured. “This is all my fault.”
Before I could press Sera for other possible explanations, my bedroom door loudly creaked open, and I turned around to see the alarmed faces of two of my lovers in the doorway.
“Gryff, what’s going on?” Nia Kenefick cried out as she crossed over to my side. Her piercing blue eyes flashed in alarm as she took in the sight of the moon, and I watched her face blanch until it was nearly as white as Sera’s. “What’s happening to the moon?”
“Sera and I were trying to figure that out ourselves,” I replied to the multi-elementalist, and I looked beyond her to see Arwyn Hamner approach us with lengthy strides.
The pair of beautiful mages were clad in the flimsy night dresses they usually wore to bed, and it took everything in me to stay focused on the matter at hand. I wanted nothing more than to take my women back to bed with me and pretend everything was business as usual, but the red sky ruined any chance of that fantasy.
“There appears to be some sort of creature on the moon’s surface,” the crimson-haired healer mage assessed in a professorial tone. “Gryff, did you witness what happened first hand? I’d returned from the bathroom when I noticed the moon from the hall, and I immediately grabbed Nia and came straight here.”
“We watched it happen.” I nodded. “One second the moon was normal, and the next--”
“The moon bled red,” Arwyn finished for me. “This is both remarkable and awful at the same time. I’ve never heard or read of such an occurrence in all of my years of studies.”
“What is Sera doing here?” Nia frowned at me. The multi-elementalist’s bright blue eyes studied the Archon with a scrutinous gaze, but the monster goddess was too focused on the moon to acknowledge my wife.
“I summoned her earlier,” I explained vaguely. It wasn’t a huge secret I meant to keep from my lovers, but there were bigger matters at hand.
Nia’s eyes flew from Sera back over to me, but I gave a slight movement that told the ashen-haired mage to drop it. Nia nodded in return, but her eyebrows were still raised high, so I knew we’d have to revisit the subject later.
“This is bad,” Arwyn mused as she shook her head. “Truly a bizarre phenomenon.”
“It’s certainly not good,” I agreed with the redheaded professor. “Especially if you aren’t familiar with something like this. If anyone were to have answers, I assumed it would be you.”
“I wish I did so I’d have some indication of what to do,” Arwyn sighed as she ran her hand through her thick hair. “But I’m at a complete loss. This is nothing Mistral has ever seen before.”
“It’s all our fault,” Sera whispered beside me. The Archon took small steps backward until she was up against the bed, and then she sat on the edge and buried her face in her hands. Her hair fell like a dark curtain around her and concealed her lovely face.
“Sera, what do you m ean by that?” Nia asked the dark-winged goddess, but she was interrupted by a loud commotion in the hallway. A clammer of footsteps rang out, and for a moment, I was convinced a herd of buffalo had managed to descend down the spiral staircase.
As it turns out, it was just the rest of my family.
“Gryffie, what the fuck is happening?” Layla demanded in a shaky voice as she flew into the room with impressive speed. “Why are the moon and the sky red? And what’s with those scary black tentacles? Are we under attack?”
The petite mage’s hazel eyes were so wide, I was afraid they were going to pop out of her skull, so I rushed over to her and wrapped her in my arms.
“Breathe, Layla,” I urged my auburn-haired lover as she trembled. It wasn’t often I saw the summoner mage this upset, and I hated how scared she was. “One question at a time.”
“W-What’s happening, Gryffie?” she stammered.
I swept her hair behind her ear and leaned down to kiss her forehead. Her skin was damp with sweat, which told me she’d woken in a panic.
“Breathe, baby,” I insisted quietly as I cupped her cheek.
The mage relaxed against me and dutifully took long, deep breaths. After a moment or two, some color returned to her cheeks, and she offered me a small smile.
“Thanks,” Layla whispered, and she rose up on her tiptoes and planted a soft kiss on my cheek.
Cyra, Erin, and Ashla crossed into the room soon after, and they all wore similar expressions of alarm as they breached the doorway.
“Um, do you guys see the fucking tentacles coming off the moon?” Cyra demanded. The summoner’s dark curls were in a sleepy state of disarray, and her familiar, a silver dragon named Kalon, was perched on her shoulder like a parrot.
The monster let out the tiniest of growls as it stared at the reddened moon.
“Oh, we see them alright,” I sighed.
“Oh, okay, good,” my dark-skinned wife replied. “I’m just making sure it wasn’t my imagination running away with me.”
“Rest assured, this is no figment of your imagination,” Arwyn groaned. “The tentacles are a very real problem we’re trying to solve.”
“Short of a really big harpoon gun, I don’t see how we’re going to be able to solve this one, Arwyn,” Layla remarked. “How do we defeat a monster that lives on the moon?”
“We don’t even know it’s a monster,” Arwyn continued. “It’s clearly some sort of entity, but beyond that, I’m not certain how to classify it.”
“I don’t understand any of this,” Ashla chimed in as she tugged at the hem of her dark-green nightdress. “Gryff, you’ve successfully captured all nine of the Archons, so what’s this new thing on the moon?”
“It looks positively horrifying,” Erin muttered as she hugged her arms across her chest. She rubbed her hands up and down her bare arms, just as Sera had, and her amber eyes didn’t hold the same sparkle as usual.
I retrieved a blanket from my bed and carefully wrapped it around the orange-haired mimic’s freckle-dusted shoulders. My girlfriend accepted the covering and offered me a grateful smile, and when I stepped away, Erin inclined her head and spread her arms out so the others could join her. Layla and Cyra flanked her on either side while Arwyn, Nia, and Ashla remained in place.
“Before we dive into that, is everyone okay?” I addressed the group, but when I did a quick headcount, I realized a couple of family members weren’t in attendance. “And has anyone seen Freya and Vahla?”
“Freya wanted to check on Lahrra before she came down,” Cyra answered. “We stopped by the nursery first to make sure the children were safe, and then we came down here to find you. Freya wasn’t ready to leave them alone just yet.”
“Should we grab her anyway?” Erin wondered. “I don’t like that they’re up there alone.”
“We can in a moment,” I said. “I actually feel better knowing she’s up there with them. Besides, between the two of them, they can handle anything that’s thrown at them.”
“That’s fair enough,” the orange-haired mimic allowed. “They’re the very definition of warrior princesses.”
“Not to change the subject, but could this have happened because you captured all of the Archons?” Ashla wondered, and she tapped her finger against her full lips. “I don’t really want to put that idea out there, but there’s always been a lingering concern about what would happen once all of the goddesses were captured.”
“If that was the case, wouldn’t the moon have changed when Gryff officially claimed Hunnah and Quilla?” Nia frowned. “We’ve deduced they couldn’t have reversed the enchantment since they’ve been captured, but could the act of capturing them have set this in motion?”
“In his eyes, blood shall paint the streets in rust,” Sera murmured from behind us, and we all turned to face the dark-winged Archon.
“What does that mean?” Layla frowned, and then she turned to face me and cocked an eyebrow in confusion.
“It’s a line from the Beastmaker prophecy,” Nia explained quietly as realization crashed over her. “In his ears, all cries of mercy will fall to dust. In his eyes, blood shall paint the streets in rust.”
“Holy fucking shit,” Layla whispered. “Oh, Gryffie…”
“We don’t know the accuracy of the prophecy,” Arwyn reminded us in a stern and serious tone. “As far as we know, it could all be metaphorical--”
“My predecessor did not speak in metaphors!” Sera hissed at the crimson-haired professor. “The Archon’s words were true. She wouldn’t speak in riddles.”
“I refuse to believe the words in the prophecy were meant to be taken one-hundred percent literally,” I objected before the argument could get too heated. “I might fit the bill of the Beastmaker, but I think I’ve fought against the forces of evil too many times to become some kind of benevolent harbinger of the apocalypse.”
“It’s all my fault,” Sera whispered as she hugged her arms around herself. “I knew the risks of taking the Beastmaker’s seed within my womb, and yet I allowed it anyway. Now, I’ve doomed us all to a rapturous fate. How could I have been so selfish to think I was able to bear a child of the Beastmaker?”
“The Beastmaker’s seed in your womb?” Nia asked. Her ashen eyebrows creased together in confusion, and her sapphire eyes darted between the dark-winged Archon and me. “Gryff, what is she talking about?”
“Gryff, you didn’t,” Cyra gasped as she covered her mouth.
“You made love to Sera,” Arwyn assessed. “I figured as much when we found the pair of you here together, but do you mean to say that you and Sera… made an attempt at procreation?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “We did.”
“You had sex with Sera?” Erin blinked. “You gave her a baby? Oh, Maker…”
“Wow.” Ashla let out a low whistle. “That’s quite the development, Gryff, and definitely not what I was expecting to come out of this conversation. I figured you’d summoned Sera after the moon changed.”
“Am I the only one who thinks that wasn’t a great idea?” Layla wondered as her hazel eyes flashed. “I’m all for more cute babies around here, but a baby with an Archon--”
“Don’t you dare insult me, mortal,” Sera hissed, and she clenched her fists at her sides. “It’s one thing for me to regret the consequence of my actions, and another to suffer judgment from a mere mage--”
“That’s enough.” I stepped in front of the dark-haired goddess before she could come after Layla, and then I addressed my wives and girlfriends. “Look, I told Sera I love her. I know that may seem hard to believe, considering our experiences in the past, but it’s the truth. I’d finally accepted my feelings for her, and that’s why I called her forth tonight.”
“You love her?” Nia repeated back to me. Her voice was a mixture of surprise and confusion, but I couldn’t blame her for the reaction. This was news I’d wanted to tell them in time, but now it was an unavoidable part of this situation.
“I do.” I nodded simply. “We decided to celebrate by making love, and just before we were about to fall asleep… well…”
“The moon bled red,” Arwyn finished for me. The professor’s eyebrows knitted together, and I could practically see the gears of her brain whir in circles. “The Archons mentioned the possibility of being able to walk in the moonlight after receiving your seed in their wombs. You mentioned Sera was able to cross into the moonlight before it darkened?”
