Cost of Magic

Chapter One: Null and the Void.

In the land of Burnshire on the continent of Agrathal, magic is a large part of life.  There are groups within the population that are called Manaborn who can use magic innately, Magish who has access to magic but takes training and usually limited to schools or type.  There is also the Nullish.  These are the ones that can't use magic.  Laws in place are supposed to protect them from the ones that can use magic but they are still seen as lessers to those that can use magic.  Nullish people often live as adventurers, such as swordsmen, bowmen, or anything where tools can be used to counter the need for magic.   Some adventures hire Magish or Manaborn for the offensive or defensive magics.  Most Magish though specialize in agriculture or farming magics, small fire spells or even enchanting if they have that aptitude.  

The Draggan family is a familial line of Manaborns that not only have a skill in magics but often a huge mana reservoir to case more spells before needing to rest to recover.  They are the ones that are most in demand for quests for glory.  The family name always takes precedence in marriages, the women that carry the name passes it down as the husbands are expected to take her name.

There is one downside to being Manaborn... that is Mana sickness.  It's a condition that overuse of magic in life causes. It weakens the body and if not taken care of eventually kills the afflicted.  They have medicine to stave off the worst, but there is no cure, only treatment of the medicine and refraining from using magic for the rest of their lives.

The latest in the line of Draggans  developed it after a quest to defeat the Demon Emperor.  Weakened and unable to do her job, she had to retire as Kingdom Battlemage.  Her name... Alicia Draggan von Alvric of the town of Flarewood.  Her son though is Nullish so the town laments that her legacy would end with her.  Nullish never begets Magish much less Manaborn.  Being nullish was often a reason for the bullying he had to endure while living under the shadow of his mother who was legendary.

Dawn creeps over the mountains to the west, the rising sun lighting the land with orange glow before the light brightens to the white light of the day.  Valrick Draggan wakes to give his mother her morning medicine as every morning entails.

“Mother,” the voice calls out as a young harean wakes up, fixing the medicinal tea carefully, “It's time for your treatment, and yes I know you hate the taste but we both know you need it to keep the tremors away.”

The young male of fifteen years, rabbit in shape with long ears and a short spade shaped tail, opens his mother's door, light brown hands setting the tea down as an older harean woman sits up smiling weakly and wipes the drool from her scarred face, the longest one crossing her left cheek while shorter ones are scattered over her lips and cheek.  

“Thank you Valrick... and yeah I hate the taste but if I am to teach you anything I can't be shaking like a wet dubchik.” she says before drinking the medicine down, “I lived a good forty years, long for a battlemage really.” she mentions in a near whisper, dark circles under her crimson eyes, one of the symptoms of late stage Mana Sickness, the earlier stages could be treated and staved off for years but later stages are incurable and barely treatable.   The young man's own green eyes looks down in shame of being unable to help her.  She lifts his face up “I lived a good life, I gave birth to a wonderful son, I know my legacy lives within you and  you will know magic, you're just a late bloomer like I was.  I wasn't younger than sixteen before it awakened in me.  But I do have a task for you” she says before coughing roughly, hacking and then wipes the blood from her scarred lips, “I want you to go to the shrine I took you to when you were younger, the one in Darkwood cave.  There I want you to take this pendant and set it on there.  Do no prayers nor any offerings but the pendant.   That shrine is not dedicated to Alkesh or Vallana.”

Alkesh was the God of Life that created the world by bleeding on the dead stone of the previous world.  Vallana was the Goddess of Death, the guardian of cycles and wife to Alkesh.  Every town had a different view of the pair, almost always looking like the population the temples reside, looking like tigers with the Tigrans, looking smaller with round ears and long tails in the town founded by the Ratahs, mouse and rat looking people half the size of Tigrans.  Hareans were the rabbit looking people of the forests, archers and mages mostly unlike the Tigrans who had spellswords and battlecats which were the religious knights of the area.  Ratahs mostly had trikkas, the ones that could use magic to unlock things and disable traps within the old ruins.  Most adventuring parties had such members.  There were other people like Doevans the deer people that most druids learned from, Kaeneins were the wolf and dog people, they had a mix of all, being in touch with everything as they were mostly nomadic in the past.

The young man froze in place as if it wasn't either of them, who is the shrine for?  Who did his mother worship, was she a heretic? Did she worship Bain the God of Chaos and Destruction?  The older woman smiled “The shrine is just one that passed down my family for generations, one of the lost ones who lost favor during what we call 'The Age of Darkness' my ancestors kept the shrine up in honor of the past.”  She then laid back and pulled a shiny medallion off her neck, one that looked like a smashed coin with a yellow gem in the center, cut round and polished smooth and strung up on a brown cord.  The pendant looked innocent enough, the text around it just reading 'Not all who are lost wander, some just stay with us.'    

The harean male then took the pendant and nods “I will Mother.” he said simply and then started out on his short quest, only half an hour on foot to the cave, simple drop off and half hour walk back.   Nothing to be concerned about, simple task.  But worry etched itself across his face as his mother was highly protective of the pendant, even yelling at him for touching it but now she's telling him to put it on a mysterious shrine to a lost god?

The trip was uneventful, the goblins that usually harass the travelers ran from him, holding the pendant out before himself and wondered if they were afraid of it.  When he reached the mouth of the cave, he saw that it was carved out and bricked for stability, only a bunch of vines hiding the entrance and the cave was merely a hundred feet deep before he found the shrine, a statue of a four armed creature that defied all reason.  The body looked like it lacked fur except on it's head and face. The garments was strange too, pants but the feet was covered by something, not looking like a foot as it resembled a giant toe with strings across the front zigzagging back and forth as it goes up.  The chest was depicted to be clad in a shirt without sleeves and the arms poking out of the holes at the side.   Each of the four hands held a small statue, a tiger, a rabbit, a mouse or rat, and a wolf, all without a single hint of civilization as they were feral looking.  At the feet of the statue was a simple stack of stone blocks to create a pedestal of sorts and he sets the pendant down, watching it suddenly moves, centering itself onto the platform and a voice echos just out of reach and almost motherly.

“Do you seek power young one?  Do you seek destruction of those that wrong you?  Do you seek domination of the lands and seek yourself as king?”

Valrick shakes his head “No I do not. I seek only to do the job given to me and be gone” and he turns quickly on his feet and runs, getting out of the cave.  He did not stop even to to rest as he watched the goblins scramble out of the way in abject terror of something he wasn't seeing or caring about.  When he returned he yelled “I'm back and I think something went wrong.   A voice asked me if I seeked power and destruction!”

His mother looked a little concerned “What did you answer?”

He took a breath, “I said no, only to finish the task you gave me.”

The light in his mother's eyes brighten and she smiled widely “I am glad... I am glad that even when I was busy with my duties I raised you right even without a father.  I know Captain Ragsdale was your father figure but I also know you were a little rebellious back then.  I am happy with my lot..” she says as she sunk into the bed she stayed in for days at a time, only getting out for nature or to talk to the priest of the local temple.

Valrick then settled down and breathed deeply.  He went to the kitchen to start making a broth for his mother, cooking something she could drink to keep up her strength in her tired state.  When he finished and put it into a tall wooden mug with a metal handle, he came back to his mother's room, petting her head to wake her up to eat.  She did not stir.  He petted her more firmly and then put his hand on her cheek, she did not react.  He brought his long ears to her mouth, and heard a deafening silence, she wasn't breathing, she was not moving, he tried bringing her back by pushing on her chest, yelling out 'mother' repeatedly, crying in fear and futility when a man came up, a badgerfolk that lived weeks travel away, the Badgen was dressed in black with a simple white collar around his neck, the dress of a priest with hands and feet wrapped in thin strips of white material and a long chain of beads wrapped around one wrist that ends with a small pendant of a hand holding an inverted pyramid.  “She's gone already, she sent a whisperbird to me telling me to come to pray over her one last time.

Valrick did not even notice him when he entered, he was too preoccupied with feeding his mother to notice the priest there already.  He looked at his mother's face and saw the ashes and markings of the last prayer on her.  The young man simply knelt on the floor and wailed in dispair.  


Chapter Two: Loss and Gain.

The funeral was lovely by most standards, his mother Alicia was dressed in a white and gold dress, a sword at her side, a staff across her body in her hands.  Five rings pierced in one ear, each with a gemstone, five colors of the higher schools of magic.  Red fire, blue waters, green ground, white light, and yellow lightning.    As he watched them entomb her body in the royal crypt, a high honor for any of the court, he sat on the upper step to the temple, his green eyes not focusing on anything as sadness took his heart.  A tigran in something that looked like a white priest robe with chestplate tapped his shoulder and smiled the best he could to the harean smaller than himself.

“Your mother is being honored for her role in taking the demon emperor down.  There's going to be a feast in her honor as well of all the foods she loved.  You will hear stories of her that she never felt like telling you herself.  But I will not drag you there, I will however bring you food if you don't attend.  Oh speaking of attending she wanted you to be enrolled in the local mage college after her death.  She knew you would never go while she was alive and ailing.”

He looked up at the Paladin of Life and sighed “I'm Nullish... what I am I going to learn?  I can't even cast the simplest light spell everyone else learns as a kid.”  he then curled up tighter in his sitting position.  

The paladin then sat down “Well your mother also wanted you to have this” he said as he pulled out a silver ring with a filigree looking script around the inside and outside.  “She told me this would help you remember her.  And that you will have to take it to the statue in the cave.  You're suppose to tell the statue of your mother's death and then pledge to continue her work.  I have no idea what that is and she never told me when I did ask her.  She only promised that it was important.  

Valrick took the ring and looked at it.  He then noticed a name within it, ALICIA VON ELDRIC.  He looked up at the badgen that was there when she died and then to the tigran paladin. 

“Yes,” the badgen priest said “She wasn't a Draggan by birth, she took the name when she accepted learning magic from her teacher, Valenia Draggan, a powerful mage in her own right but one that refused the crown and all that held the kingdom”  

Valrick said “Then I'm not really a Draggan.. but just a Von Eldric.”

The paladin cleared his throat, “Yes you are for you carry her legacy... Valenia didn't have children, she didn't like them and was vocal about it.  So your mother took the name to keep the name alive.”

The harean stared out towards the forest where the cave was.  He then stood up and said “Might as well get this over with... maybe the headmaster will see it's useless to have me learn when I get to the college.”   

He set forth and had to use a sword to chase the goblins off this time.  They seemed to found their spine and tried stealing his pack or rather the contents of it as he planned to hide out in the cave for a while to process his mother's death.  When he finally got there, the sun was setting and illuminated the cave in orange light as the mouth was perfectly aligned.  He walked in and noticed the cave was oddly longer, and bigger within.  Was it his imagination? Was the cave smaller or did he only think that.  He arrived to the shrine after a longer walk that curved around and went down further but it was the same place with the same bricks.  He then set the ring down on the shrine and started talking to the statue, not looking up yet as he told it that his mother passed, that he inherited the ring, that he was staying in the cave for a while to avoid people.

A soft whisper carried on the wind in the cave, was he imagining it?  It was softer and almost lyrical sounding as it seemed to say “Say your name, your true name, the name on the wind, the water, burning in the fire and revealed in the light.” 

He looked around for the voice as it both gave him the chills and yet comforting.  He started to looks up at the statue as he tried finding his voice again.  He took a deep breath and said “Draggan, I am a Draggan by my mother's lips, named Valrick at birth.”

The voice whispered “No, you are not.... you are a Draggan but your true name is not Valrick  Valrick was the town you were born.  You were born in Valrick upon Avon to the east.”

He looked around at the haughty sounding whisper, starting to think he was losing his mind as the voice had no body nor direction that he could discern.    He reached down to the ring and as soon as his fingers grasped it, he felt a deep burning sensation and dropped the ring which was glowing hot.  After it cooled down he carefully and gingerly picked it up again.  The ring looked no different at first but then his eyes glanced upon the inside.    

OZYMANDIAS ET'VALRICK DRAGGAN

The young male stared at the ring, turning it around, looking at the name repeatedly.  He tried wiping the etching away, he rubbed his eyes.  He then looked up at the statue and stumbled back.  The statue he saw before was not there.  Where it was was a statue of a thin harean looking being, horns curled around the long ears, wings on the back and only two arms this time.  One hand held a book that was dwarfed by the hand, the other held a staff, broken and missing the focus.  He carefully took the book and flipped through it, blank pages from cover to cover except for one line. 

Et sic servum meum voco.

He spoke that out of confusion and saw a coin on the ground, just a simple silver coin with a gold rim around it.  He picked it up without thinking and then exited the cave.  He went home, the events was not worth hiding out.  He looked at his mother's bed and then laid in it, crying into the pillow as sleep finally took him.

The next day the paladin he met at the temple woke him up and smiled “Wake up sleepyhead. The college needs you there.”  Without waiting for the harean to say anything, the huge tigran lifted him up and carried him out of the house, grabbing the travel bag on the way out.  

The College was not far from the temple itself, statues of Alkesh and Vallana on either side of the gate leading onto the grounds.  There was a huge number of people there already, all of them chatting with each other as he was put on his feet and then was handed the bag.  He looked inside and found the food he was going to have to put away later, the ring that seemed to defy the dim light leaking into the bag to make itself known, and the coin.  He put the ring on and without thinking, put the coin into his pocket.  At least he had some money.  

Standing at a podium of oakwood stood a Doevan clad in a robe, “I am Headmaster Delvan.  I know most of you are excited to join us but not everyone will be joining today.  You will not be turned away even if you fail, you will simply not be a student at this time.  We will be testing you soon and those not chosen will be at least fed and given a practice staff to try again next season.  We have an honored guest that I am sure will be joining us today.  Grand Mage's son, Ozymandias.”

The young man whipped his head up at the headmaster, his mother's title was Grand Mage... but his name was Valrick not Ozymandias.  Could they have already found a replacement?  Did they do that while she was slowly dying of mana sickness?

The headmaster continued “Alicia's son is still grieving so please do not agitate him.”  the deerfolk said as he waved towards him.  

No, they meant him, how did they already get that name, was it his actual name?  Did his mother use Valrick to hide him from ridicule as he was Nullish.

“First test is simple.  Each of you will be given a candle, you are to light it on the ground without touching it, you may use any spell to light it. Fire is not the only means.”

The nuns started handing out the candles, each a yellowish color with a black wick.  Everyone was using fire spells or spark while being careful to not actually touch the candle physically.  A few used magic to move the candle to a lit one to light their own.   Valrick or Ozymandias now didn't have magic, he couldn't use it.   All he could do was stare at the candle he had to set down.  He waved his hands around to try getting something working.  People started to laugh at him as he was the only one to not have a candle lit.  He was about to turn and run again, a pattern even he could see when things got over his level.

“firas da noctah” 

The whisper was back, he was definitely losing his mind but he said “Firas Da Noctah” as if that was going to change anything but maybe saying something would get him out of it.

A small ball of light appeared over the candle and slowly lowered down.  Several mages jumped onto the field and then yelled out something “Blatash!” as they push their hands out and several walls of light appeared between the candle and every prospective student there.  As soon as the ball of flame hit the wick, a pilllar of blue flame erupted and when it was over, the foot tall candle was only an inch in height and lit.

The headmaster said “Oh wonderful!  But please refrain from leaving the first level of spells, not everyone is ready for you to use third level battle spells.”  Everyone stared at the harean while he could only stare at his hands.

They cleared the candles away and tossed them into a large barrel as most were destroyed by the spell that erupted.  The headmaster then said “Okay if we could have your attention again, please be gentler with us Dear Ozymandias, we have the second test.  Read out the spell you are given.”

The nuns handed out a small card of parchment with words 'Te voco mi familiaris' on it.  

The headmaster then spoke “We will have a meal and let you all gather some materials for this one.  You can cast the basic spells but this is not basic.”

He didn't expand upon that but everyone shuffled off to the nearby tables with bowls of soup being served.  The nuns looked worried but they just kept filling bowl after bowl.  Each of the prospective students started eating after the headmaster told them to eat up.  Ozymandias stared at the soup which smelled good, too good.  He pulled out a traveler's bread out, a small hand sized loaf of dried bread with a filling of shredded meat and fruits.  It wasn't tasty but it was filling.  One by one the students started falling out of their chairs to the ground and the nuns began gathering up the ones that fell.  

The Headmaster looked at the remaining people still sitting and said “I thought so... several of them swallowed manastones to boost themselves.” he said “Don't worry they're not dead, but that was an alchemical solution that causes the stones to discharge at once.  They'll live to try again next season without the stones.”  

Ozy gulped a bit as he didn't know what a nullish would react to the soup.  He finished his bread and then looked over at a young badgen girl, who finished her soup then gestured to his.  He pushed it to her who then gulped it down almost greedily. And then leans over to kiss his cheek in thanks.  

The gathering wasn't too hard, the test only needed a few handful of material, nothing special and some brought pieces of fallen branches with them.  He pulled out three bricks of fireblack, a black flammable material used to start fires by rubbing it against a piece of wood before using something to ignite it.  Since other than that one spell, he didn't have any fire spells for camping.   He then places a small stone out and put it on the top of the three stack of fireblack.  Something told him to use that but he couldn't understand it.  

The headmaster then said “okay recite the spell on the parchments” and everyone started chanting.  The materials glowed then in a puff of blue smoke, some small creature appeared. Some were Fluffkins, little round balls of fluff with long tails and looking like little clouds with eyes.  Others were felkin which looked like a red painted goblins no bigger than your hand.  A few managed larger ones like Horvens which were six legged horses not big enough to ride but could be used to carry packs.  One girl. The hungry badgen girl managed a slime the size of her head which started attacking people, forcing the mages to defend the group by destroying the ball of slime with eyes.   The headmaster said “Sorry dear but you have to control your familiars  but at least I know you can summon such a creature without a sweat.  Practice and try again this summer.”

Ozy then sighed and recited the spell.  A laugh erupted a split second after the fireblacks went up in a small pillar that expanded but wasn't burning anything nearby and when the fire died down, a harean girl stood there, naked and looking to be all of eight years old.  Her nipples were pierced with gold rings as were her ears. Her head sported a pair of horns that curled around the side of her head and a pair of bat-like wings were on her back. She shrunk down and then perched herself onto his shoulder and crossed her legs, “Thank you Sir” she says as she hugs one of his ears and then whispered “I'm Lilitha by the way”

The poor harean guy had no idea why this happened before his mind flashed back to the statue, but that was a well endowed male, not some child version.  The headmaster blinked and then says “Okay Ozymandias, go to the building, I'm not going to subject the rest to your... skill level” and a pair of nuns then led him inside as the little imp of a bunny vanished in a puff of smoke.  

After he was led inside, two of the mages whispered to the headmaster, “Sir, your honor, Ozymandias hadn't been casting spells before today, infact he's a Nullish, neither of us can detect any mana within him but we've not located how he's supplying himself.  He did not eat the soup but we can't detect anything he might have swallowed.”    

The Doevan shakes his head “You have permission to search him.  I don't want him making light of this college.  But Do NOT hurt him.”

The pair of armored figures nodded “Of course your honor, we will avoid using torture to get him to answer.” and then patted the seal of the Mage of Oracles on their chests.  The headmaster made a gesture of pointing to his eyes then to them.  “I will not like you hurting him for any reason, we owe his mother a great debt that we cannot repay with ten lifetimes.”

Ozy then looked around for the girl as the paladins comes in and grabbed his bag and turned it over, taking the ring off his hand and then inspects it.  They even yanked his robe off leaving him in just his loin wrap as they shake it out.  They gruffed and left the items in a pile.  The young harean then started getting dressed again and palmed the coin that didn't fall out of the pocket and looked at it, finally looking close enough to read “by Contract I bind myself to your will.  Accept this and use my power to change the world.”   He suddenly threw the coin across the room and watched it bounce along the floor and wall.  As he ties the robe on fully again, he felt something in the pocket and pulled the coin out with a bit of fear on his face.

A voice whispered “Sorry that's bound to you, only you can touch it and it cannot be lost until you die.” 

He turned around and there was the girl again, light tan with matching batwings and black horns on her head, gold rings at the base that he didn't notice the first time.  

“Daddy isn't happy with me but nothing he can do now” she says with a giggle before hugging him tightly around the waist.   

Ozy sighed a bit “So what do I do with you?” he asked as he looks down at the stark naked girl who looks less and less innocent the longer he looks her over.

She looks up and says “Oh what the contract says, accept my power and change the world”



Chapter Three: Consenquences.

Somewhere between worlds, a room that contains nothing and everything stood among the stars, the floor was like water when you walk with ripples and the ceiling was the starts themselves but despite everything, it was considerably comfortable.  A harean woman clad in a loincloth of silk and gold jewelry on her wrists walked over to an orb and looked at it.   She smiled softly as the scars on her lips and cheek shone on her light colored fur.  “I am happy they're idiots”

A voice called out “Alicia are you spying on your son again?” and a tall thin harean looking figure with wings and horns comes into view, naked and well endowed with what looks like runes running along his body literally, curling and crawling along his furry flesh.  “All you needed to do was ask my love.”

Alicia smiled again “Sorry curiosity got the better of me, Master”

The demon puts a finger on her lips “No, not Master.”

She stepped back.  “That was the contract wasn't it?  You lend me your power and when I died you got me as your slave?  Granted you've treated me very well for a slave, Master Asmodai”

The demon shook his head “Yes that was the contract.  The contract also said I could alter the terms after the fact” he says as he pulls out the pendant that Ozymadias as Valrick returned to the alter and held a fireball behind the gem to cast an image of words on the nearby wall and at the bottom it read 'The demon Asmodai has the right to alter the terms of the deal, pray he doesn't alter it further'.  He smiles “I had long changed it after you fought me in that throneroom.  I remember every wound I gave you” he says tracing the scars on her face with a thumb claw, “I had beaten you nearly to death, you were bleeding and still looked at me with the determination to defeat me despite the contract I had on your soul.”  The demon continued “So while you were on the ground with the look of determination on your face, I altered the contract” he says tipping the pendant down to show where the word slave was struck out and under it was 'bride'.

Alicia suddenly started laughing and turned around in the slave garb and then sat down, a chair suddenly appearing under her.  “You bastard... well I was already prepared to never seeing my son's father again... I mean who would love this face?  Evidently one man, I miss him but I should have not have done that to him...” she says trailing off as she looked up at Asmodai and gasped.

Where the demon stood before was now a black furred harean male in black armor and a scar over one eye, five rings piercing his left ear and a chain connecting them.  

Alicia gasps out again “Aldren... Why are you wearing Aldren's face?  Is this some sort of torment you have for me.... Oh Goddess Vallana below.... You're Ozy's father?  Is that why he's a Nullish?”

The demon shrugs “Well why did you start calling him Valrick after that last battle?” he asks “He can't use his powers under a false name, that's a rule, we cannot use our powers while being untruthful of our identities”   The demon's armored body melts and he reforms in the full demonic form before sitting down.

Alicia sighs “I wanted him to start anew.  New name, new identity, fresh start with everything as the kingdom of Allenor knew me as Alicia, The Avatar of Vallana as I broke through their ranks like a demon possessed.” she said before covering her mouth but Asmodai just chuckled and she continued, “I couldn't let him grow up being tormented as the son of Death.  Children are cruel and even being nullish isn't as bad as being seen as a bad omen.  It's why after I got back to my kingdom I declined every mission to return there for diplomatic reasons.”

The demon then sighed and sat down on his throne that appeared behind him and he then summoned a table of food.  “Yes I know you never have a need to eat now.... but food is still a pleasure to have” he says as he tossed a piece of fruit to her and she caught it with ease.  He then grabbed one just like it and started eating it.  

Alicia nods and starts eating the fruit “It's funny... they called this the fruit of loyal betrayal” she says “In the temple stories that is, were the first ones ate it and knew good and evil, right and wrong, what it is to be loyal and to betray that loyalty.”

Asmodai laughs “That story's only something I spread to explain why people have the dual nature, the ability to do good and evil.” he explains “They didn't want to admit that it's natural and been there since the first life rose from the ponds.”  He shrugs again “So I gave them the story so that they can blame something other than themselves for the darker side of themselves.”

The harean woman touched her face “So why did you keep these?  Do they please you to see your work?”

He shook his head “Not at all, you kept them. You can at anytime remove them.  Yes I did fall in love with the imperfection of your face, but I love you more than your face.”

She smirks “Yeah you seemed to be very pleased with my ass” she chuckled a bit while wiggling in her seat. “But yeah... so when are you going to form the contract with my... our son?”

Asmodai stayed very quiet as he sips on a goblet of wine before the stern look on Alicia's eyes nearly burned a hole in his own eyes.  “Tiny little issue...” he starts before a voice yells out.

“Daddy I'm home..... Ozy's gone to bed and he all but kicked me out of the room” a young female version of Asmodai appeared and then hops up on Alicia's lap “Oh hello Stepmommy” she says looking up at the stern looking harean woman.   Lilitha's smile slowly falters.

Asmodai clears his throat “That's the tiny little issue”

Alicia yelled “What in Hadens did she do?”  

Lititha looks up “Ummm he chose my contract?” she says hopping up and then walks across the table before sitting her nude rear onto the older demon's lap. 

“At least she can alter the contract later to release him to me or just release him to the Haven-realm.”

The little demon bunny then starts looking nervous but then yells “I'm going to bed, Night!” as she he flits off to an unseen door and vanished.

The former grand mage yells “You don't sleep you little harlot!” before looking to Asmodai. “Oh sorry not my place”

Asmodai sips at the wine and says into the goblet “Tiny little harlot.... so not wrong there”