.^^ The Lich Sigil ^^

— Gale —

"A left, you said?" I called towards the back of the car, steering towards the turning lane.

A soft voice, one I was quite familiar with, even as creepy as she was, sounded. "The smell is coming from the east, yes..."

I nodded, and made sure I was heading south, then took the turn, keeping an eye out for any cemeteries.

"Here... beneath that." A small scaled claw reached into my vision, and pointed at a small tattoo parlor.

"The Tattoo parlor? Not a graveyard?" I frowned, and parked about a hundred feet away.

"The scent does not lie..."

I shrugged. "Alright, watch the car, I'll be back." I nodded, and exited the vehicle, locking it and stepping towards the parlor.

An every feeling scraped over my spine, and suddenly a small weight was there. "I shall accompany you, for protection..." the small drake said, before scurrying into my hood, and going invisible.

I nodded, and walked forward, opening the front door. A small woman with tattoo sleeves up her arms and piercings over her face smiled up at us kindly. "Hello! Are you here for a tattoo, or-"

"Silence, Wraith." The Drake growled softly, and we walked by the frozen demon.

The back room held four more tattooists, all of them lesser demons, not a threat, not even Evil, really, just servants to higher demons... their presence didn't bode well for what was below, so we just glared at them, and continued down into the basement, unimpeded.

The drake sneezed, crackling flame singing my earlobe, and then snarled quietly. "A very strong scent of Lich... we need more Hunters."

"Alright." I nodded, and hit call on my phone.

"Yeeeello? You have reached the amazing Diana LeFay!"

"Reinforcements to the Loop, a tattoo parlor at my coordinates. A Lich has been confirmed." I wasted no time, speaking quietly.

She paused, and hummed. "Boys! Up! We've got a Lich! Give me one minute." The line went dead, and I watched as a small portal opened, completely invisible to those not of demonic blood, or not bonded to a Drake.

Five more Hunters stepped through, lead by Diana, and made their way over. Each Drake swiftly growled down the passageway, smelling what they smelled.

"It is definitely a Lich... but I still smell Human. It may have not been completed yet, we are in a hurry." One of them growled, and we all nodded, heading down the stairs silently.

The stairs opened up into a massive room, easily stretching for a full city block, but that wasn't very uncommon. Demons liked to bend space, when they were building their Dens. This one, however, was full of Sorcerers, all surrounding one central stage, where a boy was strapped down, and being tattooed with a Lich Sigil, visible even from this distance.

"We need more Hunters..." I murmured.

Diana nodded slowly, and dialed her phone, sending the youngest of us back up the stairs, and then drawing her weapon, a longsword that crackled with Ice.

I drew the twin Ice-Picks that I used, and then gave a resounding Roar, to hopefully make the group look at me.

A moment...

Another...

And nothing.

I stepped forward, and slit one of the sorcerers' throats, but when he slumped forward, nothing happened. They didn't move. He just laid against them, kept standing by the pressure of bodies.

"Okay, that's new." I growled.

"You have never seen the awakening of a Lich... these are the Food it will feed upon, to gain its strength! Kill them quickly!!!" My Drake hissed savagely, just as the tattooist looked up, and grinned.

The Sigil activated, pulsing with a black, almost Umbra anti-light, and he laughed as a rip began to open, and an unbound Lich peered through.

We all froze, fighting to break free of its grasp, and it struck, grabbing the boy, and then turning to mist, pouring itself into the Sigil that stretched the entirety of the boy's body.

Instantly, the Sorcerers in the crowd, who I now saw standing atop a gargantuan Sigil, began to turn to dust, and I was suddenly capable of moving.

I grabbed two of them, including the one I already killed, and hauled backwards, pulling them out of the circle quickly.

The being that now sat in the boy's body stood, the leather restraints no obstacle to it, and breathed deeply, feeding on the dust that was all that was left of them.

The Sorcerer I had dragged out, now conscious, began to struggle, but my ice-pick cracked across his skull, knocking him out and handing him to one of the others, who immediately dragged him up the stairs, to chain him up in the van, for interrogation.

The Lich, his meal finished, cocked his head, and his beautiful face, framed by silky black hair, pinched in what could only be confusion. "The number of souls... is insufficient? How can this be? I was promised 2000 Chained Souls!!!" He hissed in Lich Speech, an ancient and dangerous language of magic, while the tattooist glared at us.

"My deepest apologies... the Hunters have interrupted the ritual. I will deal with them, and bring you-"

"You fool! You think the Ritual is satisfied with excuses?!? The ritual will exact a price, for every soul not taken during the ritual!!! Quickly, we must return to-" he paused, and the tattoos pulsed again, weaker, and weaker, slowly dying out, then turning a deep golden color. He began screaming in a language I didn't understand, and grabbed the tattooist, weakly clutching at him as something took control from him.

All sound suddenly halted, and the boy began puking, only expelling regular puke, thank god. I couldn't handle any more creepy puking, after the Poltergeist in New Haven.

He stood, shaky at the knees, then collapsed again, and began clawing the Sigil, cutting through the language of the contract. In its place, new Runes appeared, this time in a geometric language I recognized as Cuneiform, even if I couldn't read it.

Diana gasped, apparently having no such weakness, and then readied her sword. "He's taking control of the Lich, somehow... using its weakness to Bind it to him, like a lower-level Summoning... if it's possible..." she shivered.

I nodded, and stepped forward, towards the circle, and readied my picks again, as the Tattooist growled at us, and summoned his Contracted Beast, a massive Silencer.

I groaned silently, and remembered what I could about their weaknesses. You couldn't use magic anywhere near one, which meant no Drakes, but you could hack at it until-

As I was thinking, the boy screamed, breaking the magical Silence with apparently sheer power. The Silencer screeched, the first time I'd ever heard one make noise, and then slowly turned to ash, flowing into the boy's mouth. He hacked and coughed, but it was an ethereal ash, and there was nothing except his stomach leavings to puke up.

The Tattooist grinned at us, apparently believing that the boy was on his side. "You see? You Hunters quiver before the Food of our Great Masters! You-" he halted, and then screamed, as his entire body was wrapped in icy tentacles, and he was ripped to pieces, then dragged into the Rip in the Veil, which then slowly closed, leaving us in the massive cavern with the boy.

The rest of the guild arrived, and saw the odd Sigil on his skin, before he breathed deeply again, and I braced myself for the Feeding of a Lich.

Instead, the tattoos slowly melted into his skin, flowing down like mud on top of water, leaving his skin clean and unblemished, until the scars began appearing. Apparently, every wound the Lich ever received was being translated, spilled over his skin until he looked more like a jigsaw puzzle than a human. Again, these melted into his skin, as if he was still... settling in.

Diana slowly sheathed her sword, holding a hand up to me. "Are you in control of your own mind, Boy?"

He flinched, clutching his ears, and then coughed, hacking up and spitting a mouthful of black ichor, then sitting down on the Dias tiredly.

His lips didn't move, but a voice resounded in our minds, like nails over a chalkboard. "My body is weak... I have not the souls I need to control the body I reside in... I have been bound, like a paltry Lesser Daemon... the Runes it used to bind me are irrevocable, unquestionable... the original binding spells of Solomon himself. I curse myself for being a scholar of Solomon, for sharing that knowledge with it before I was fully in control... the answer to your question is simple, Mongrel. I am Spoken of in your legends as Briar, the Greater Daemon of the Plane of Roses, and while I find myself no longer worthy of the Title, it is still mine, until my eventual, and unquestioned, unity with the Abyss."

"You talk too much. A yes or no would be appreciated, next time." She said dryly.

He snarled weakly, and the boy laughed softly, spitting more Ichor to the side. "And here I thought I was just joining the Mafia..." he grumbled, and tried to stand, falling on his face. "... ow."

"You know Not the concept of Pain."

"Fuck you, you don't know how to count your sacrifices before you finalize a deal that's very specific about the number of sacrifices." He shot back.

"... while you are a mere, useless sack of meat, I find your comment undeniably true, and digress." It grumbled.

He began to attempt to get up, and Diana stepped through the ether, appearing at his side instantly. She helped him up slowly, then pressed a silver blade to his shoulder... and nothing happened.

"The mafia, you say?" She hummed, making conversation as she threw his arm over her shoulder, and began helping him walk.

"Yeah... heh. Seems kind of funny, now. Wanted to be a part of something... now look at me; I accidentally joined a cult, and now I've got a demon in my brain." He snorted, and spat normal spit off to the side. "Well, at least the black stuff is out of my throat... so! Demons, huh? Weird, but alright, I've seen weirder-... well, no, nevermind. Anyways! How'd you guys get into this business?" He asked, as she handed him off to me.

I shrugged. "I got possessed in the Morgue."

He recoiled. "Wait what?"

"Yeah, most of the people you see here? We were dead, then demons tried to steal our bodies, but we managed to reclaim them, and now we're basically immortal revenants." I grinned, and started helping him towards the stairs.

He shook his head slowly. "Why not? Hey, does anybody got any spare pants? I mean, I'm cool going freebird, it's actually pretty nice, very freeing, but I might scandalize some poor old lady." He grinned mischievously, and I hummed at the casual air of charisma he put off, apparently naturally. Charismatic people usually lied a lot, in my experience, because they knew they could get away with it.

One of the guys laughed, and tossed him a pair of pants that were a few sizes too big. "That's all I've got, sorry."

"Hey, baggy is better than nothin', right? Anyway, how does this go down, now? You guys do a thing, exorcise my brain, poof the big ugly is gonzo?" He asked, shakily stepping into the pants, and holding them up with one hand.

"Yeah... no. No one Exorcises a Lich. You're stuck, for now. We'll do some research, see what can be done, but for now, you just stick with us. You could be useful." Diana grinned at him, and opened a portal with a wave of her hand. "I'll see you back home, boys!" She waved, and two people peeled off to take the van home, as we all walked through the portal.

Instantly, the Golden Sigil reappeared on his skin, as he shivered. "The Veil... a powerful meal, if only It would FEED!!!" The Lich growled savagely.

"Hey! You call me 'It' again, I stuff you in an Echo-chamber with every children's show and annoying Jingle I've ever heard, and leave you to suffer!" The Boy snapped.

"Do your worst, Meatsack!"

"Fine!" He grinned, and then began to mutter infomercial jingles from memory, then children's show opening music, and finally annoyingly catchy music.

I groaned, clutching my ears, and sat him down on a bench outside the barracks. "You tame the beast in your head, I can't listen to this." I shivered.

"What... what is this infernal racket?!? Why? Why is this?!? I can't stop it!!! WHAT IS THIS?!?!?" It screeched in Pain.

"Welcome to the land of Mnemonic Torture!!! That's round one. You want rounds two and three? Those are in Russian and Irish!" He laughed evilly.

"You will not Cow me so easily, Meatsack!"

"Oh? Alright! How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? I don't know, how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" He began to sing in Russian.

"Stop! Stop! Woodchucks are tiny woodland creatures, they don't-"

"Peter piper picked a peck of pickles-" he continued in Gaelic, though his pronunciation was a bit off.

I shook my head, and headed out of range of the sound, shaking the songs out of my head. "Eesh... torture by Mnemonics, he's got good instincts... I was going to play some Boccherini, if he kept calling him Meatsack..." Diana hummed.

"Do you think he's legitimate? Or is it all an act?" I asked.

"The Cuniform... it's a true Solomon's Gate, I'm sure of it. The last time we saw one of those was when the Scholars of Alexandria worked together to Bind and Banish the First Lich... on a Greater Lich, If He had been at full power, I don't think it would have worked, but on a weakened one? I think he managed it, with the knowledge he'd been gifted." She shrugged, and dissipated her Weapon, sending it back to the Ether we summoned them from, the only things that hurt Demons and Daemons.

"He's young, though... are you sure we want him to fight for us?" I asked, uneasy.

She paused. "No... but if he can, it will be an immeasurable advantage to us. A Lich as an Ally? Gale, I hate to say that Sorcerer was right, but they Eat the things we fight to the death with!"

The boy stood, and grinned, fist-pumping, then yelling, pulling up the pants that were threatening to fall.

"Also... judging from his development, I don't think he's very young..." She smirked.

I shook my head. "Weirdo. Hey, kid! Come on, let's get you some actual clothes, yeah? What's your name, anyway?"

He wobbled over, and grinned. "My name is Seth, how about you?"

"Gale. Nice to meet you, Seth. Let's get you some clothes and food." I nodded, and led him inside.

"So, you want me to fight for you guys? Against what?" He asked casually. When I looked at him, surprised, he chuckled. "You guys were like twenty feet from me, and neither of you know how to talk quietly."

I chuckled. "Yeah, I guess... we're fighting the things you saw in that Rift, basically. The lesser ones, who can come to our plane without help, those aren't very dangerous, like the ones in the tattoo parlor... we mostly leave those alone, if they don't bother anyone. Like I said, they take Corpses as Hosts, bodies without souls."

"But the bigger ones?" He asked.

"The bigger ones, like the Silencer you killed in there, they need someone to pull them through. A soul to latch onto, so that they don't get pulled back to their realm." I hummed.

"Like marrying a citizen, so you don't get deported. Cool." He shrugged.

I laughed, shaking my head as I opened my door. "Yeah, something like that! Good analogy. I might steal that, actually." I opened my drawers, and dug through my clothes for a moment, until I found some smaller shorts, that hung to my knees, as well as a belt and some clean boxers. "These should do for now." I handed them over.

"Cool." He nodded, and pulled them on, tightening the belt. He stood only about five feet tall, but his face, when I looked, seemed defined, like someone who was slowly loosing their baby fat.

"How old are you?" I asked, curious.

"Hmm? 17. I turn eighteen... well, it would have been sometime around noon, today, but I guess I'm immortal, now, huh?" He grinned.

I chuckled. "Something like that. More long-lasting than immortal."

He shrugged. "Hey, I'll take what I can get. Anyway, you mentioned food? I'm starving!"

"If you would feed, that would go away..."

"Did I say you could talk?" He snapped. The presence grumbled, before slithering out of my mind. "Damn right! Anyway, food?" He grinned at me.

I shook my head. "You won't be able to sustain yourself on human food. I was going to feed you some of the Veil, actually."

"Okay... how's that work? Cause you ain't gonna spoon-feed me." He frowned.

I chuckled. "No. No, I'm going to bottle a portion of the Veil, and you're free to drink it as you wish."

He laughed. "Dear god I saw that going a different way! Ha! Alright, let's see it." He sat down at my desk, swiveling my chair to watch me expectantly.

"Alright... behold!" I grinned, and pushed my hand through the Veil, opening a tiny rip, not deep enough to pierce through. "The Veil is miles thick, so there's no way to really rip all the way through on accident."

He nodded. "Cool. So it's like the Barrier between the Realms? Like Ginnuningagapp?"

"Exactly like that, Yes-" the smell hit him, and I could see the exact moment it did, because his eyes burned a burnished, molten gold, and his Cuneiform Sigil appeared, that same color, apparently prompting him to shove his entire face into the Veil.