The Demons of Rome

VII - A Sea of Sand

"And then I'm going to re-summon you and do it again... and again... and again, until you do it. So you can do it now or you can do it after you've spent a few hours in Aelith's stomach. Your choice."

"You'll never break me!"

Iatus sighed, "Why not? Please just do it."

"But if I do it, and word gets around that you don't have to bind me to get me to do stuff, then every human with a thimble full of mana in them will be summoning me."

Iatus glanced around, "Who's there to tell? We're in the middle of a desert."

The worm considered this for a moment, "Promise you won't tell?"

"I promise."

"And no feeding me to the owl?"

"No."

"Alright, I'll do it."

"Excellent," Iatus smiled, relieved and let the worm out of the shield.

"Freedom!" the worm shouted and dived into the sand.

After a pause Iatus frowned and turned to Aelith, "He's not coming back is he?"

"Not unless he gets lost."

"The lying, cheating... worm!"

"Eloquently put."

Iatus sighed, took a deep breath, and summoned the worm back. The toll of summoning something already on earth made Iatus feel slightly dizzy for a moment and he kneaded his temples with his fingers.

"Ah!" cried the worm as he saw Iatus, "But how?"

"I told you, I can do this all night and all day," Iatus sighed and blasted the worm to dust with a bolt of light, then sat down heavily on the sand.

"Can you really?" Aelith asked.

"How long do you think it will take him to reform?"

"A lesser imp? About an hour."

"Good," Iatus sighed and flopped back, closing his eyes, "Wake me then will you."

"Alright, but you really shouldn't push yourself, you're only human after all... sort of."

"Ha ha."

An hour later Iatus drew another circle in the sand and summoned Opher once again.

"You again?" screeched the worm.

"I told you, there is no escape for you until you do as you're told."

The worm pouted, as far as a worm can (it involved mostly a scrunching up of the face bit), "Fine."

"Excellent, now go find me the labyrinth."

"Yeah, what's a labyrinth?"

"It's a like a maze, a really big set of tunnels."

The worm shook its head and slithered under the ground.

"And now we wait for the worm to return," Aelith said and closed his eyes.

"Why do you do that? Pretend to sleep?"

"So everyone thinks they can sneak up on me, so they won't try as hard."

"You're pretty paranoid, for an owl, you know that?"

"Yep, that's why I'm still here and the majority of owls are not."

Iatus frowned, but he couldn't argue with the logic.

Time passed and the night grew cold. It was worse out here in the desert, without the buildings to shelter them the heat dissipated at an alarming rate and Iatus was soon shivering. At first this was strange to him and it took him a few minutes of quiet contemplation to pin down the cause, but once he did he summoned up a flame on the sand in front of him that swayed in the wispy winds.