Chapter 1: Chapter 1-Summoning

(Third Person)

 

Ameni woke up face down on his pillow, in a quagmire of unpleasant grogginess and ire, his brilliant black eyes sporting dark eyebags, which paired with his pale skin and black hair, gave him a striking resemblance to that of a panda,  he slowly, and deliberately pulled his hands out from where they previously were, wedged beneath his body, and attempted to get up by pushing himself off of his bed, however, he failed to exert enough energy and promptly fell right back down on his face before he could move a foot to support himself

 

He was, evidently, of the breed of people who would wake up with none of the energy one would expect from a good night’s sleep, rather  the type of person to wake feeling pleasant and well-rested

 

“Come on, I should have way more energy than this, todays the day of the syphoning”, he thought to himself, rolling onto his back and loudly yawning,  stretching his arm upwards, if it were not for the rays on sunlight falling on the bed, one would have assumed he was about to go to sleep for the night, and one would have been correct in him about to fall asleep had it not been for a loud thud caused by someone violently opening the door, this someone being Ameni’s father, who, with a gigantic, ear-to ear- grin on his face, let out a jovial laugh, 

 

“Wake m’ boy ”, he exclaimed, walking towards Ameni’s blinds and forcing them open,”Todays the day of syphoning!” 

 

“I know, Dad”, the boy responded,”I was too excited to sleep the entire night, so I’m just a bit tired, could I have five minutes extr-”

 

”Nonsense!”, the man bellowed, forcefully pulling his child’s bed sheet off of the bed,”You know when I was your age, I was so excited for the day of syphoning, I could catch a wink! But I found energy ‘nyway! Now stop being lazy and get changed!”

 

“Gods…”, Ameni groaned, ungracefully falling out of bed and onto the floor, then slowly getting up and trudging into the bathroom,

 

“You better let go of ‘hat penchant for laziness, m’ boy”, his dad scolded behind him, “Once ye’ get ye’ summon ye’ll be an adult, ‘n then me and your mother won’t be there to support you!”

 

“It’s not laziness, it’s tactical energy management”, Ameni called, a slight grin tugging at the edges of his lips

 

“This argument again”, his dad muttered, “Call it what ye’ wish, laziness is laziness”

 

“I know dad, I was just pulling your leg, engaging in shenaniganry, if  you will”,Ameni retorted, his grin turning into a full-fledged smile, then closing the door to the bathroom behind himself, muffling his dad’s response

 

He then walked to the mirror, placing his hands on either side of the sink, and began staring at his scrawny, weak body, despite his uncaring demeanour, internally, he was drowning in excitement, for the day of syphoning would probably be the most consequential day in his entire life, it would be the day he would be summoned to the domain of a syphon, after which point he would attempt to convince it into forming a mutually beneficial contract where he would pledge his undying loyalty and mental energy to the deity, in exchange for the ability to alter a particular aspect of the world, and as someone with high amounts of natural mental energy, as well as someone who came from a lineage of devotees to the syphon of commerce, he was guaranteed a temporary contract at the very least, being in a contract would also grant him the ability to join one of the many magic schools to hone his newfound ability, and because of his guaranteed contract, he already had very high chances of getting into a high-ranked one

 

Trying to suppress his excitement, Ameni placed his hand on top of the sink, waiting for it to sense his body heat, once it did, complex magicks inside the faucet would begin producing water that was the perfect temperature for his skin, after it detected him and started, he washed his hands, and face, then got ready for his shower, which used a similar system, once he was done, he changed his clothes and headed downstairs

 

He walked down wooden stairs, skipping over every second one, and arrived in the main hall, the walls were constructed out of white concrete, with wooden flooring and furniture, in other words, upper-middle class for the time period, a sweet aroma filled the room, with soft music playing from a music player covered in complex runes sitting on a small bench in the corner of the room, next to the square table at which his sister and mother sat, surrounding a small pastry with a candle sticking out of it

 

Ameni and his father made way to the table, navigating around the cushioned sofas and coffee tables in their way, then sitting down, the boy gazed at the pastry, as his parents took out party streamers and pulled on them, making a loud noise as sparks of energy appeared in the air and formed a gigantic congratulations, he happily blew the candle out as the entire family began laughing at his expression as he blew on the candle, before they all greedily cut the pastry amongst themselves and started eating with satisfied faces

 

“Awww, my little boy is going to become an adult today ”, his mother said,”I remember when you were a child, you used to be so obsessed with magic, you would follow around random people with mage colours, it made you quite the little headache”

 

“Kid still is”, his father countered, “Have you seen his notebook? It's just runes upon runes in there”

 

“Maybe if you spent more time exercising instead of runecrafting, you’d actually be able to talk to women other than me and mo-”,  his sister added

“Shut”, Ameni playfully said, placing two fingers around his sisters lips, stopping her from continuing her joke, an inside joke among the family they used whenever someone got cheeky with their jokes

 

Needless to say, everyone was in high spirits and in a cheerful mood, for it was a time of celebration, the day Ameni finally gained access to true magic, not the borrowed and stored magic he was utilising up until that point, finally gaining the ability to properly work and aid his family, finally gaining the ability to do things like operate technology or open locked doors without his parents aid or the use of specially designed children’s products, finally gaining the ability to walk around in public without needing to worry about getting caught by a stray mind erase or control spell, in other words, finally gaining independence

 

Finishing the celebratory pastry, as well as a second round of eggs and bread that his mother brought afterwards, everyone got ready to leave and headed outside

 

Ameni stepped through the steel-bar door that protected and into a busy street crammed chalk full of people, all on foot, as the crown had recently banned the use of carriages in the main street, causing people from all classes and occupations passed through the street, from gentlemen in thick black jackets and formal attire, walking in long strides and with straight backs, to vagrants and hobos, walking in hobbles with hunched backs, noises and smells of all kinds assaulted him from every side, however he was unaffected, having gotten used to it

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With his family, Ameni followed the crowd, until the paved road ended, and a road constructed of pebbles, at which point my father hailed a carriage and we drove the rest of the way to the summoning centre, where the ceremony of syphoning would take place, I felt positively giddy the entire time I was in the carriage, to the point where he rapidly bobbed up and down on my seat and shook in excitement, his parents, on the other hand, were far calmer, they had the trademark ‘My beloved child is going to be an adult’ expression plastered all over their faces, while Ameni’s sister simply gazed out of a window

 

Eventually, they reached their destination, an opulent courtyard that to Ameni, seemed like it was the size of a small country, luscious, yet well pruned greenery covered the landscape, with gigantic tree mazes and beautiful walkways covered on each side with outstretched trees, wonderful fountains that depicted angels singing and dancing periodically adorned each section of the courtyard, a dense canopy of vegetation and leaves ensured that sunlight only passed through when and where the gardeners wanted it to pass through, the smell of dew and a dampness pervaded the whole place, with the chatter and gossip of noblewoman complimented the tweeting and chirping of birds, the whole place was an extravagant show of frankly unreasonable amounts of wealth, and in the centre of it all a large marble circle was situated, already covered with noble children who seemed like they had never worked a day in their lives, as well as a contingent of humans who were standing shoulder to shoulder, with a taped of section for themselves

Ameni walked forward, after giving each member of his family a tight hug and watching them off, headed for the human section, and placed as much of himself as he could into the circle, jostling with the others in his attempt to fit into it, he looked at the nobles who had chairs with them and grimaced, though his family was somewhat opulent, and he was most certainly a talented student, however it did not make up for pedigree and lineage

 

After a while, a voice rang out from the front of the circle,”Greetings to one and all”, a deep charismatic voice spoke,”Today is a truly wonderful day, for today's the day you finally come of age, for todays the day you all shall stop being boys and girls, and become men and women,”

After a pause, it continued, ”Today we celebrate, in the honour of the Queen of the great empire of Lehre, the next generation of workers, of academics, and, of warriors”,

 after yet another pause, “Today you make a contract with a syphon, the enigmatic, godlike entities that could distort and control the laws of nature to do as they pleased, however did not possess physical forms, surviving only as ideas in the minds of physically bodied organisms”, after another pause, “We make mutually beneficial contracts with these entities where we gain the ability to manipulate the world around us while they gain our unwavering and lifelong devotion as well as our mental energies”, then with yet another pause to emphasis the importance of his previous point,”Right now you are to be pulled into the metaphysical headquarters of your individual syphons with the help of a spell that lowers your innate mental defences, a process that we will now commence forth!” the owner of the voice raised his smooth, uncalloused hands and started chanting

 

Suddenly what Ameni though were watch marks on marble lit up with brilliant green light, making him realise that in actuality, these seemed to be extremely complex runes that were somehow implanted inside the marble, his eyes widening as he wondered how arduous the process that made the runes was before the runes intensity glew to a blinding extent, making him shield his eyes as everything blacked out

(Ameni First person)

 

I woke up with a start, my eyes jolted open, I was lying on my face, on a cold, hard slab, I pulled myself up, and stretched, feeling a dull pain in my body, as I took my surroundings in,

I was situated in the middle of a grand, barely lit hall, it had a truly bizarre architecture, it superficially resembled a church, with high magnificent sculptures and beautiful paintings covering every surface, depicting scenes from various religious texts, and important moments in history, a low hanging mist blanketing the floor, and the sound of soft rain coming in from outside,  however, the entire place filled me with a profound sense of dread and unease, everything was just, subtly wrong, I can't put it into words, the sculptures postures were just a little too twisted, the limbs of those in the painting slightly too long, the sound of rain a little to loud, and the mist a little too heavy and thick, not enough to make me want to run, but enough to make a thousand alarm bells began to ring in my head

 

 I did not understand, I should have never been here, this was most definitely not the domain of a syphon of commerce, I had seen illustrations of what those looked like, they were actively grandiose and opulent, yet tasteful, a far cry from the actively esoteric and mentatlly overcrowding hellhole I found myself in

 

Realising that I was lost in thought, I shook myself back into reality, I was always one to loose myself in my thoughts, as my parents would attest, citing times when I literally walked into the lair of a monster, or times when I wandered into some alley known for muggings, and so, had gained the ability to quickly think while in dangerous situations, and utilising this ability, I realised that I would not gain anything by staying where I was

 

Cautiously lowering my foot to the ground, fearful of the floor not being true, or the mist being acidic, both semi-common situations in the illusion-infested world I lived in, I observed that my foot was safe, and that, after putting some pressure, the ground was true, then, just as cautiously lowering the other foot to the ground and  standing up 

 

I slowly advanced, headed towards what seemed to be a doorway in the distance, dreading every step, as I walked, the terrain got increasingly bizarre, the mist getting  gradually heavier, and thicker, the sculptures getting more detailed and ornate, and the paintings gaining more and more esoteric and abstract features, these all serve to build up my elevated sense of dread and unease, after a few minutes of walking, I began to hear an organ playing in the background, overpowering the rain, even though it was softer than the latter, and before I knew it, the walls abruptly shifted out, and I walked into a vast chamber

   

It seemed to be some kind of gigantic, non-euclidean throne room, and its interior was the pinnacle of bizarrity, its architecture was unfathomably crooked, pillars staring and leading to nowhere in particular, lintel without and doorways passing through them, porticos without any columns supporting them, walls bending in and out, twisting and congealing upon each other, size and gravity had no sway on the construction, with paper thin pillars holding gigantic roofs, and the layout was most definitely not the worst parts, horrid sculptures that depicted horrors and monstrosities that I desperately hoped I never met littered all of the numerous crevices, paintings with subjects that could only be described as being the depths of madness and depracity hung on every flat surface, the whole menagerie making my head desperately throb in gripping pain, I desperately wanted to close my eyes and squat on the ground, blocking the twisted world I was in out, however I could not, for I was gassing in front of myself with abject horror

In front of me, sat a throne, a horrid and unfathomable throne, yes, but just a throne nonetheless, for what was the source of  my horror was what was in-front of me, there suspended midair, with a tight rope around its neck, with a boorish hood over its tilted head, a lopsided crown on the side, and a thin body that looked like it was literally just flesh and bones, lay a hangman, a hangman I got a distinct impression was staring right at me

 

“Greetings!”, It spoke, “Welcome to my abode”

 

The wind shifted around me each time it spoke, the mist twisting and turning, curling and bending, my headache growing more and more intense, my befuddlement and confusion growing more and more, and the sinking feeling of despair and anguish I felt growing further and further

 

“I am the Hanged King”, it continued, “Siphon of Misfortune and Madness”

 

“Wh-wh-wha-what d-o-do y-yo-you w-wan-want fr-from m-e” I gurgled, the syphon mere presence forcing all the air out of my lungs

 

“Ho Ho Ho Still able to speak are you”, it chortled, “Well I chose well!”

 

“As for what I want for you”, it continued,”For starters I want what all syphons want, your loyalty and mental energy” it paused for effect,”but I also want your body”

 

Suddenly the line holding the entity that I thought was the hanged king snapped the rope that held it up, and it fell, onto me, before I could even blink, the hanged king forced it’s foot into my mouth, pushing itself down my throat and into my body, crushing everything inside, my eyes glazing over as I fell unconscious

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