#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 a dumb fucking idiot than he thought he was. Either way, this old-timey magic stuff is turning out to be way more elaborate than he'd expected.

And this specific ritual is apparently damn 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 and turning 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," she explains. "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 doesn't mind that all that much, actually. Dealing with six whole spirits sounds like a handful. A potentially dangerous handful. Having witnessed how troublesome real magic can be firsthand, he can't bring himself to be disappointed this ritual didn't work out, though Jamie would probably kill to catch magic on camera again.

Nathan steps out of the magic circle, careful where to place his feet; it's a pitch-black night in this remote clearing in Morales National Forest, with only stars, flashlights and the night vision on Jamie's expensive camcorder making it possible to see. He'd really rather not break his neck tonight. Or any other night, for that matter.

"Maybe it would've worked if we had the real grimoire instead of just words you copied out of that academic translation," Nathan suggests. "Like how the spells in Rauđskinna wouldn't work unless we were physically holding the thing."

Merely speaking the name of the real grimoire that changed his entire life months ago gets the scar a fire spell left on his body tingling, magic residue acting up as if it remembers its own origin. Nathan suspects Jamie was hoping some of that faintly lingering magic might transfer to her Latin writing and ensure the ritual's success, but it didn't. Again, probably for the best.

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—turns out they feature in occult rituals quite often and that's why she has one, and Nathan's known her for almost five months but never even knew that, and what the fuck. What the fuck. He swears he keeps learning new things about this girl every day. It's absolutely wonderful.

And maybe also a little scary sometimes).

"Could be. But there's only one real 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 this, scrutinizing it in her flashlight's illumination. "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. Terrible wait and all for nothing."