Bartimaeus fanfic sequel

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Nathaniel had difficulty adjusting to the summoning process; it made him feel really out of touch with Earth. It wasn't so much the part where he was regularly torn apart into a thousand pieces from the Other Place to then be put back together in the confines of a pentacle on Earth, that he could handle, but more the part where upon getting dismissed it secluded him to another dimension with no way to tell time while events continued to unfold without him and then having to learn about said events upon his return. To him it felt like the untold information between the chapters of a book. For instance, between the present summons and the previous one, they had changed locations and were now in a different room, maybe another building... and Jane Farrar was nervously sitting in a chair placed in the corner of the room, watching them intently.

"You know, it's good manners to have any other person present during a summons inside a secondary pentacle, mainly because anything other than us would've devoured her without a second thought." That was Bartimaeus speaking in the pentacle beside Nathaniel, he was wearing Ptolemy's form.

"Well, do you see anything other than you two here? It's precisely why I didn't bother." Kitty said, waving a hand dismissively at the comment. She was standing in front of both pentacles inside her own. "It's a lot of work drawing those things and my energy's not what it used to be."

"Says the girl summoning two djinnis at the same time." Bartimaeus replied.

Two djinnis? Nathaniel still had trouble grasping the notion that he was more spirit than human now, even if he was in his original body's form. Oh... right. He's including me as well. His mind rushed, scanning the room while simultaneously thinking about what Bartimaeus just mentioned. The wooden floorboards were exactly the kind commonly installed in magicians' homes; the definition of straight and flat, easily washable, perfect for drawing pentacles. Something sounded off about Bartimaeus' reply, Kitty didn't seem to have much trouble dealing with the exertion of summoning two strong djinnis over the last couple of days, which would've been a feat only possible for the elite of the previous government, yet she seemed to have difficulty doing normal physical actions like drawing a simple pentacle. Through the single window on the left-side wall he could tell that they were on the first floor since the road was not far off. It was indeed strange that this was possible after her journey to the Other Place, which supposedly drains your physical body. He'd have to talk about it to Bartimaeus some other time, maybe he'd have more insight on the matter.

"Your friends are demons?" Jane suddenly spoke from her corner.

Out of the corner of his eye Nathaniel saw Bartimaeus' mouth opening to talk back, but it was Kitty that replied first: "Jane! That's very rude! 'Demon' is a disrespectful term; you have to call them 'spirit'."

"'Noble spirit' is also acceptable." Bartimaeus managed to add despite his obvious surprise.

Jane hung her head shamefully. "I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean to..." She then raised her eyes hesitantly. "So, um... your friends are spirits?"

Kitty nodded at the corrected phrase. "Yes, though they are spirits, they're my very good friends and I trust them with my life." She smiled as she said so.

Bartimaeus coughed. "So what are your 'very good friends' here for exactly?"

"Wait a minute!" Nathaniel interrupted, raising a hand. His ignorance to the situation was starting to irritate him. "What happened while we were gone? Why is Jane here? And where are we in the first place?"