An actual, living, breathing chimera was in front of her.
How was that a shining example of her blood? It couldn't be true- there was no way it was possible. But the acrid smell of brimstone in the air proved otherwise.
In all the records there had been no mention of such a beast appearing before a member of the imperial family.
They only ever chose partners or masters of the dark, those who followed black magick...she had impure thoughts- but who didn't?
Why had she been able to summon such a demon? It roared-teeth bared, its tails flinging people away from drawing near, charging out of the circle- and the priests were chanting out desperately.
Hoping for divine protection to emerge when a blast of blue flames douses the creature, and it dissolved back into the circle in ragged flares of black smoke.
Duke Alpheus is staring open mouthed, horrified and simultaneously surprised beyond compare, how could someone like that mere Jennette, summon such a creature?
She wasn't some terrifying mage who used the dark arts- nor necromancy- she didn't have any particular ties to other circles of the magic spheres, but she had been able to summon a chimera.
He had seen one once, it had been preserved in the lightest of ambers, bits and pieces of it, suspended in the hardened gem, for it hadn't been something their side was able to capture whole- nor alive.
In books, it had been described, rough sketches were all that was known of it before that incident.
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Having taken down nearly a dozen mages in its rampaging wake, driven mad by the scent of its summoner's blood on its claws, Roger knew he would never see that particular one, alive again.
He looked down at Jennette as she shivered on the stone ground, blood hissing as it made contact with the heated rocks, and to his own surprise, yet again. He felt no sympathy for her predicament, for she had been the one to be so eager to join the family.
He had pushed her, admittedly, but she could have chosen to run away to the countryside where her relatives lived. She hadn't.
She had been an abhorrent brat from the moment she was born- unlike her highness, and as Roger's eyes shifted away from Jennette, they landed upon the fair head of Athanasia.
She felt his eyes upon her, and turned her head to look up at him, a small smile creeping up her face as she locked eyes with him.
Even that one look was enough for his heart to stop, and he waited, anxious, for her summoning to begin.
Jennette, still on the ground when the priests took her by the arms and made her sit on a purifying circle whilst they prepared the summoning circle again for Athanasia's turn.
Luckily, it had been within the church's grounds, and no lasting effects would take place within the onlookers.
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