Night of Destruction (Skulduggery Pleasant)

Azazel The Fallen

There was absolute stillness in the room whilst no one even knew what the next step of appropriate action would be. Even Madam Mist stood stiller than usual, her head tilted in frozen confusion.

Finally, Skulduggery stood, drew his small revolver and exited the room, running down the corridor. Valkyrie cursed and followed her partner hurriedly, pulling her protective jacket tighter across her torso.

Directly after, Ghastly came to and followed the fast disappearing duo. Ravel following stead. Madam Mist didn't however and instead began sifting through the large collection of elder's books on the huge shelf. Sorting through with her quick and nimble fingers, Madam Mist soon pulled out a book and bought it back to the table. She heard no sounds in the meantime as she began to index what she was searching for in the dusty book.

Her hand stopped almost at the back of the book:

"Azazel The Fallen"

She began to read.

Skulduggery, Valkyrie, Ravel, and Ghastly had been stumbling around like fools for the past fifteen minutes before the grand mage stopped their searching,

"We need to stop," He said, exhilarated, "She's not here anymore."

Skulduggery reluctantly put his gun away, "I hate to say it, but you're right. We aren't going to find her unless she wants to be found."

Ghastly lifted his face from the ground, "Who was that?" he asked. Skulduggery looked him directly in the eyes, "That's our little demon." "How do you know?" chimed in Valkyrie.

Skulduggery vaguely gestured in the air with his long, slender finger, "There's death here." The three words caused chills to go up Valkyrie's spine and glancing at the other two men in the room, she could tell they both felt equally uneasy at his statement.

"Let's go back to the room," suggested Erskine and they reluctantly did so, though warily.

As the walked in, they saw Madam Mist hovered over an old-looking book splayed open on the table.

"We didn't-"

"I know you did not find her." She interrupted softly and Erskine frowned slightly, a little offended at the notion that his elder didn't believe he was good enough to locate her, even though he wasn't really.

"What are you doing?" asked Valkyrie curiously, leering towards the mysterious woman. Madam Mist gave her an eerie, blank stare, "We need to summon Azazel."

Ravel interjected quickly, "Wait, wait, we can't just do that!" he said loudly, "Do you have any idea what disaster that might come to?!" Ghastly nodded enthusiastically, clearly not overjoyed at the idea. Madam Mist shrugged and went back to reading.

Ravel and Ghastly turned desperately towards Skulduggery who was thoughtfully leaning against the wall, his head drooping slightly. Valkyrie had come to learn that when in that certain position, he was normally contemplating.

"Skulduggery..." Said Valkyrie softly, nudging her tall friend.

He raised his head, "She's right." he said finally, "We summon it."

Ghastly and Erskine widened their eyes, "You can't possibly agree with her?" argued Ghastly, "The thing could kill us all-"

"Not if we do it correctly." Said Madam Mist briskly, elegantly floating towards the back of the room which was stocked with elder supplies. 

"I am GRAND MAGE!" shouted Erskine but the spider woman showed no signs of stopping or even hesitation. Skulduggery stepped forward, "We have to do it." he said, "It's the only way to find out about this girl, what she wants, and if necessary: how we bring her down." Still visibly not appeased, Ravel nonetheless stepped back and watching in dismay as Madam Mist floated back over to them with black chalk, candles, and salt.

"I hope you know what you're doing." said Ghastly distastefully, "Out of all the ways I imagined dying, this wasn't one of them." Madam Mist didn't answer, motioning for them to move the table and chairs out of the way.

Skulduggery and Valkyrie hauled the table to the back whilst the other two moved the chairs, though reluctantly so.

When they finished, Valkyrie saw that Madam Mist had completed the pentagram. The woman picked up one of the candles and handed it to Valkyrie who stared blankly at it, a little confused.

"Light it." motioned Ghastly and she blinked, clicking her finger to produce the spark which turned into a fire quickly. She carefully lit it and handed it back to Mist who lit the other candles with it and placed them all accordingly on each point of the pentagram.

She then took the salt and made a ring of the white granules around the pentagram.

Ravel raised his eyebrows at the salt, "That's our protection?!" But no one acknowledged him. Madam Mist motioned for them to sit around the circle and Skulduggery was the first to do so, closely followed by Valkyrie then Ghastly and eventually, Ravel who was still muttering in a disapproving manner.

Madam Mist opened the book and began to read:

"Attenrobendum eos, ad consiendrum, ad ligandum eos, potiter et solvendum, et ad, congregontum eos, 'coram me"

Nothing happened for a few seconds and the grand mage went to stand up, "Well, that went well-" Skulduggery roughly dragged him back down, "Look." He said quietly. Valkyrie strained and in the black pentagram, she could see a faint wind, lightly pushing the flickering flames.

No one even dared breathe as the wind became stronger, the flames were now furiously darting around. A few seconds of the daring gust continued until there was a bright flash, almost pushing Valkyrie back as she squinted widely.

When the bright light had died down, Valkyrie opened her eyes to see a figure looming.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Said Azazel.