#FreakshowFriday | ✔

Chapter 1: Necromancy and Not-deer

August 27, 2023

Nathan Devereaux just doesn't understand how this necromancy shit is supposed to work.

Maybe the fact he's in the woods at four in the morning has something to do with it, the knowledge he should be asleep right now harming his ability to think. Maybe he should've tried to do actual research of his own or asked Jamie to explain their endeavour better before agreeing to come here with her. Maybe he's simply more of an idiot than he thought he was. 

Either way, this old-timey magic stuff is way more elaborate than he'd expected it to be.

And this ritual is apparently fake, too.

"So... What was supposed to happen after all that?" Nathan asks Jamie, shoving the scrap of paper containing the Latin incantation he recited into his pocket. He turns the ring he was given over in his hands. It's a pretty golden ring, expensive and custom-made for magic purposes. Could probably make for a good wedding ring if it wasn't for the six demon names engraved into it.

Jamie, who's been wandering around restlessly ever since Nathan started his little Latin show, promptly stops and turns her flashlight in his direction. "There were supposed to be six spirits appearing in the magic circle with you. According to the grimoire, you'd have had to give them the ring and they would've left again, and that would've been everything for this night of the ritual. But if nothing happened when I tried it, and nothing happened when you tried it, then it's safe to say we're not going to get anywhere with this."

Nathan actually doesn't mind that. Dealing with six whole spirits sounds like a potentially dangerous handful. Jamie would kill to catch it on camera again, but having witnessed firsthand how troublesome real magic can be, Nathan can't bring himself to be disappointed this ritual didn't work out.

He steps out of the magic circle, careful where to place his feet. They are in a remote clearing in Morales National Forest, the night pitch-black. Only stars, flashlights and the night vision on Jamie's expensive camcorder make it possible for them to see. 

"Maybe it would've worked if we had the real grimoire instead of just text you got from an online academic translation," Nathan suggests. "Like how the spells in Rauđskinna wouldn't work unless we were physically holding the actual book."

Merely speaking the name of the grimoire that changed his life months ago makes the scar a fire spell left on his body tingle, magic residue acting up as if it remembers its own origin. Nathan suspects Jamie was hoping some of that faintly lingering magic might ensure the ritual's success, but it decidedly did not.

Jamie sighs, destroying part of the magic circle in the sand with the tip of the sword she used to draw it.

(Because apparently Jamie owns a goddamn sword—she has it because they feature in occult rituals quite often, and Nathan has known her for almost five months but never knew that before, and what the fuck. What the fuck. He keeps learning new things about this girl every day. It's wonderful.

And maybe also a little scary sometimes).

"Could be. But there's only one authentic surviving copy of the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic, and that's kind of in... Well, Munich." Jamie approaches him and takes back the ring she had made for the ritual, scrutinizing it. "Jesus, the time it took just to prep this ring.... You know, it had to be in running water for five days and in a community mausoleum for another two. Big hassle, terrible wait and all for nothing."

"Not for nothing. You didn't do magic successfully in any of your videos except the Rauđskinna one, but people watch them regardless. You have enough footage and information to make something interesting and entertaining out of this, real magic or not."