Chapter 1: One

Janilari subscribed to the idea that mortality kept things interesting. Without it, there were no stakes whatsoever. Time cured all ills but boredom. And if Janilari was to languish in the planes of hell forever, she wouldn't hesitate to take every opportunity for fun she could get. And where else she would find this fun, but in the mortal realm? 

Any respectable demon protected themselves against the demands of mortals by using spells or amulets that veiled their existence from the living. Janilari, against the suggestions of relatives and friends alike, never bothered with these measures. As a result, she had spent a decent fraction of her life among breathing humans, in a wild variety of situations. 

And she had no plans on stopping. Once more she smiled as she saw the purple smoke cover the pages of the book she was reading, and then surround her from every direction, separating her from her native world. Once more she heard the deafening screams of those stuck between. Once more her body and mind were ripped apart, turning and scrambling as her very existence was flicked through the cosmos. Once more she wondered... Where. Who. 

And Why. 

* 

Slowly she felt her consciousness fall back into place. As she did, parts of her mind started waking up. Her first thought was gratitude, as she had once again won the lottery that was otherworldly travel. 

Her body was next, building itself up brick by brick. Her feet were first, and she felt the solid ground beneath. Her legs are next, slowly. Her torso now, the various internal organs later. Then her arms, her hands, every individual finger flexing as it was cast into existence. Her neck, her head, and finally, at the very end, her eyes. When she opened them, she was complete. She stole a momentary glance at her surroundings, and she found her caster, a normal, human, tired-looking woman. 

And then she took her first breath of disgusting mortal air and collapsed in a terrible cough fit. Despite her experience, she could never avoid that first breath. A few seconds later of almost coughing her demonic lungs out, she finally managed to reform them into suitable human organs. From the ground, she raised a hand to her caster. 

"Apologies." Janilari said with a groggy voice. "It always happens, my bad, my bad." Clearing her throat, she recovered enough to raise her head. The woman stared back at her, utterly unimpressed. "Not the best first impression, I'd say. But it gets better."

The woman didn't say anything. She was just staring at her, quite intensely perhaps, with an expression of profound frustration. Despite her obvious discontent, Janilari found her messy brown hair, and her big black eyes, and her sulking posture with her arms crossed in front of her... All very cute, she had to admit. 

But being cute didn't excuse a lack of manners! Still not hearing a response, Janilari spoke up again. "Rude!" She exclaimed, feigning offense for dramatic effect. The only visible reaction from the woman was a slight eyebrow raise. "Usually the least I get is a 'Hello'!" 

Still acting offended she looked around the room, and at least in that regard, she found herself pleasantly surprised. 

The place was a complete disaster. 

She was in a wooden room, its limited space filled with a bed, mountains of clothing and miscellaneous bags. Only small patches of flooring were exposed among the mess. The only window was closed and its two doors were tied together with a piece of clothing. The only natural light seeped through two little heart-shaped holes, one on each side of the window. But the room itself was illuminated plenty by an exaggerated amount of candles, placed hazardly among the flammable clutter. 

As a cute little detail, there was a circle of salt around her spot in the floor, as if she was some snail. 

The place... Apart from the other things it reeked of, smelled of new experiences. Nothing quite like the plethora of sumptuous palaces, dark temples, sacrificial altars and evil lairs that she was well used to. 

Just with a casual glance, she could tell that the "Where" was good and interesting this time. But the "Who"... 

Well, that was for her to find out. 

"Anyways, nice to meet you!" She exclaimed, shifting her legs to get comfortable on the floor. Her tone was cherry, as she had given up pretending to be offended. "Name's Janilari, but it's just a suggestion if you prefer anything else." She laughed, but the woman did not laugh back. "Well... Either way... What's the deal, huh?" 

The woman sighed, and finally moved to uncross her arms and grab an open book from the bed. "How do I return you?" She asked, maybe to Janilari, maybe to the book, maybe to herself. 

"Woah, rough." She complained with a smile, but the woman seemed serious and kept turning the pages. "Wait, no, really? What did I do! Hey! Wait! You...! Stop!"

Her caster glared at her, clearly already fed up with her interferences. "You-are-NOT... Clearly! Who I wanted to summon. So how do I get you out of here?" 

"Well, first of all..." Janilari raised her hands in an innocent gesture. "Ouch. And second of all!" She said before the woman said anything. "I don't know what leads you to believe you didn't get a good deal here." After putting real effort into a charming smile, she continued. "You should know that I have lots of experience and..."

"Why are you pink?" The failed summoner interrupted. Janilari, confused, looked down at her body. Of course, her pajamas hadn't been transported to another world with her. After casting a cute enough outfit on herself to keep a resemblance of modesty, she looked back at the woman, frowning and pointing at the skin of her hand. 

"I'm pink? I thought this was purple." 

The summoner paused, seemingly interested in the casual display of magic, but was back to her normal self almost immediately. "You are a succubus." She said, matter of fact. There was a second of absolute silence while Janilari blinked rapidly.

"W-What!? W-why... No! N-no! I'm not!" She hesitated. "Well not yet at least! I mean I don't know what I'm going to do in the future, but that's none of your business! If-If I wanted to... I'm not saying id want to, I just want to keep my options open, but if I did there-there wouldn't be any problem with becoming a succubus, huh!?" 

The woman looked at her. "I didn't say there was." She said, monotone. 

"Oh... Yeah. You didn't." Janilari forced a laugh, then talked rapidly. "But I'm not, anyway, so..."

The summoner sighed again, and resumed browsing through the book. "Either way you are not who I was looking for. Especially if you are a demon youth."

"I'm probably older than you!"

"... Regardless. I'd prefer someone with a higher status, and capable of helping with combat."

"I can do combat!" Janilari complained. The woman ignored her. "Oh, come on! You are just looking for excuses! Who did you even try to summon?" 

The woman turned a few pages before responding. "Azlador." 

"Pff- Azlador? You are ambitious huh? Are you trying to take over the world or something? Are you perhaps big on widespread genocide? Trying to start the end of times?" 

"Silence." 

"You silence! I can guarantee you that you don't need Azlador! What? You want someone dead? I can do that! A little torture? Sure!" She hesitated. "But not too much. I don't like blood." 

"You don't like blood?" The woman glanced away from her book to stare at her incredulously. 

"Of course not! It's the grossest fluid you humans have!" She thought about that for an extra second. "Well, actually..." 

"Stop." The summoner said, sternly. "Just stop, and tell me how to undo this." 

"Alright listen, you have no reason to..." 

"I said stop." The woman closed the book, throwing it on top of the bed. She crossed her arms again. "I already decided, and I want to send you back. Tell me how to do it. That's an order." 

...

Janilari replayed the words in her head, just in case she missed something. Nope. The woman was still looking at her, her face all serious, fully confident in her position. 

... It was very cute. 

Unwilling to crush that confidence completely, Janilari started talking very, very slowly. 

"It's an... 'order'." The woman made a little impatient noise of affirmation, and the demoness couldn't hide a smile. "I... I mean... It's the correct principle... Good terminology, but you are missing an essential detail." 

"What?" 

"I'm not bound to you." The words took a few seconds to reach the summoner, when her face crunched up in confusion. "I'm sure it happens to a lot of people! Don't feel bad! You just forgot a step, I mean, a VERY crucial step, but..."

You are reading story What can go right when summoning a demon? at novel35.com

"No... No." The summoner almost launched herself towards her book, frantically searching the pages. "I summoned you, you are bound to me!" 

"I'm... Definitely not. If I were I wouldn't be able to disobey you." 

"It's... impossible, you are here because of me!" 

"... You didn't bind me. You summoned me, and you did pretty well, but nothing else!" The woman looked at her, her black eyes wide open. "That's... Two different rituals. Summoning and binding. I guess humans don't teach that at school." 

"This... No." The summoner said, but in her eyes the realization was starting to seep in. In moments her confidence was gone, and she slowly backed up into a corner of the room, her hands held up between herself and the demon. 

Janilari made an offended sound. "Oh, really? If I wanted to jump you I would have done so already!" She paused. "Jump you as in... Nevermind. Either way, you are fine!" 

The woman relaxed just a little, and then returned to the book. Janilari sighed and looked around. Even if the hardwood floor was very comfortable, her body had already recovered from it's recent deconstruction and eventually she had to move. So she stood up in a jump, much to the sudden concern of her summoner. 

"Oh, sorry." She muttered, raising her hands. It seemed to pacify her somewhat, because the woman went back to her book. Janilari carefully stepped out of the salt circle on the floor, and smiled widely at the caster as she looked at her in shock. 

"Why..." The summoner stared at the circle, then at her book, then at the circle. Then she dropped the book to the floor, and dropped herself to the bed. "Fuck me."

Janilari hesitated. "Is that an order too?" 

Unfortunately, the woman did not respond. She now was just laying in the bed, her face hidden between her hands in defeat. 

"Hey, hey, just joking." Still no response. Janilari leaned towards the bed, trying to see the summoner's face through her hands. "Hey! Listen! This is really not that bad! Imagine how much worse it would have been if you actually managed to summon Azlador!" 

There was only a groan in response. Janilari rolled her eyes and her attention was diverted to the book on the floor. In an instant the object flew upwards, moved by an invisible force right to the hands of Janilari. 

Leaning in a pile of dirty laundry, the demoness quickly turned the pages. All the information was handwritten and painfully inaccurate. There was an entire section dedicated to demon society that was so egregiously bad that she could not help but dissolve into laughter. 

"It's no wonder you failed!" She said after finally controlling her laughter. "This book is terrible!" 

She laughed again, but stopped when seeing how the summoner finally dropped her hands to glare at her. 

"Writing that took me ten years of research." The caster said between clenched teeth. 

"Oh, uh... I meant... I love the design. Very nice handwriting too. Uhm..." 

"Shut up." 

"Sorry, sorry. But I mean... You got ME, so those ten years weren't for nothing, right?" 

There was some awkward and quite hurtful silence. Janilari was about to complain but then thought better of it. 

"Binding doesn't even guarantee anything." She said instead. "Most other demons will get all pissy when you bind them and then if the human gets distracted for a second..." She shrugged. "It's not pretty, I'd say. And besides, I just don't like it. It's no fun." 

"Of course you don't like it." The summoner grunted. "Right now what stops you exactly from plucking my eyes out?" 

"Right now? Nothing. But we can change that." 

The summoner gave a humorless snort. "You want to make a deal." 

"Yeah!" 

"I'm not stupid enough to make a deal with a demon." 

"Are you desperate enough, though?"

"Fuck off. If you are going to murder me go ahead. There's nothing you can do to me to force a deal." 

"That's a bold statement." Janilari paused. "But no, that's not my intention."

"Then you are welcome to fuck off." 

Janilari smiled. She couldn't help it, especially at such a display of bravery. But soon she shook herself and continued speaking. 

"Oh, I understand you are wary. But you probably want to consider this. There's no problem about deals with demons, the problem is with the contents of those deals!"

"Then what are you proposing?" 

That was a good question, and the demoness was suddenly silent. She looked around the messy room. Looked at the discarded book on the floor, a representation of ten years of her summoner's short lifetime. And then looked at the woman herself, still in the bed, reserved, tired, defensive but mostly... Defeated. 

"You want my help." She stated. "Actually, you need my help. And I want to have fun, and this is the most unique situation in which I've been summoned, ever. We are both lucky, because we can both get what we want." 

The summoner hesitated. Oh, she did, but Janilari knew the truth. She recognized that the woman was cornered. She really needed that help, and there wasn't anything more telling than how much she had risked to get it. So her response was truly a foregone conclusion. 

"... What's the deal, then." 

"I'll help you, for as long as I feel like it. I won't do anything that disrupts you or harms you or your goals in any way. And, in exchange, as long as it doesn't disturb you, ill do anything I want. That means that ill help you in my own terms... However I like. So, there will be no 'orders' between us. Does that sound fair?" 

The demoness offered her hand and smiled, confident that she would get a yes. But by the expression of the woman, she could tell she wasn't happy. 

Eventually the woman raised her own hand, but before even their fingers could touch Janilari retracted hers. 

"Small, important detail." 

"... What!?" 

"Your name." The demoness smiled. The summoner sighed. 

"Im Rida."

"Well, Rida." They shook hands. "We have a deal!" 

You can find story with these keywords: What can go right when summoning a demon?, Read What can go right when summoning a demon?, What can go right when summoning a demon? novel, What can go right when summoning a demon? book, What can go right when summoning a demon? story, What can go right when summoning a demon? full, What can go right when summoning a demon? Latest Chapter