“Ow!” I pulled back my hand before the magician I was helping could cut me further. In my thumb was a neatly bleeding cut. He reached for it with a little spoon to collect blood with but I slapped it out of his hand while I sucked on the wound. “The fuck you do that for?”
He reached for me impatiently. I quickly jumped out of his reach and flew to the open staircase. “Get back here! You’re supposed to help me!”
“I said I would help you with the gear. I said nothing about wetworks. What the fuck gave you the idea to cut me, anyway?” I had already decided to leave. I just wanted to know why he did that.
He pointed towards the book on the stand. “The book said I needed to bond with my helper.”
“Consent is fucking required.”
“I consented! I know what I’m doing!”
“You arrogant son of a bitch. You need my consent as well, asshole! And I most emphatically DO NOT consent to any bonding with you.” The windows on the second floor were open. I resolved to exit there.
“It’s my ritual, and my will, and I’ll do what I have to, to succeed! Now get back here, Raven! I have to start over now.”
“Quoth this bitch, never more.” I jumped up higher on the open staircase. “Did your spell book really tell you to blood-bind your helper?”
He went to the book and read some jibberish. He looked at me expectantly and I realized the words were supposed to compel me into submission. When I didn’t move from the staircase, he flipped a page and read. “Call the Raven to you, by sweets or curiosity, which ever works the better. Then strike the Raven such that blood flows and take up what is offered by the wound. Use the blood still warm on the tool already prepared. This will cause the Raven to become your familiar, and it shall travel at your behest to those places too dangerous or exotic for you.”
He flipped the page back over and held up a birdcage charm. “See. The tool already prepared.”
“Between you, me, and whatever spirits are still watching this clusterfuck, I would not take such advice seriously. How do you know that book isn’t the work of a troll? Sounds like one setup after another. It takes more than blood and tin to bind a person. And any book that advises intentionally harming a raven is a book I don’t trust.”
“Look you stupid bird, you are here to serve me. I’m giving you a chance to be greater than your species. Fucking bird-brained motherfucker. I knew I should have sacrificed you instead and just bound your spirit.”
I then realized he saw me as a larger than usual raven. He didn’t know my human persona or that I was in my winged human form. He saw what he expected to see. A large raven and nothing more.
“So, humans are superior?”
“Yes! And if you want to make something other than a pest of yourself, you’ll get back here so I can attach you to me!” He brandished the knife again.
From my second floor vantage point I could see all the markings and engravings on the floor under him. “Ah, see, I can’t do that. The names you have surrounded yourself with have formed a wall that rejects me. Mismatched symbolism, you know. If you’re going to cause harm then you need the supervision of those excelling at causing harm. You want to capture me? Summon captors.”
“But these are protecting angels.” He looked at the floor with interest.
“Precisely. They are protecting whatever is in the circle. Including me. You want a spirit bound to you? Stop hiding behind angels. You are superior, right? What are the qlippothic forces to one already ascended?” I flew across the open space to the table before the window.
“Wait. First you denied me. Now you’re advising me. Why? What’s the catch?”
“Hmph. You wait until now to show some promise. Why am I advising you? Because it’s fun. What’s the catch? You have to exercise your discernment skills on my words and weigh them just as carefully as you judged that book. Some of what I just told you is true. Some is missing information. And some is a trap for the unwary. But I am just a raven, just a damn bird. All I know is what others have said. You’re a smart monkey. Figure it out.”
I heard him muttering to himself that if I was repeating it, then it had to be true, because no mere bird is capable of such intricate guile. “I’ll have you, raven! You’ll call me, “Master” yet! I’ll scrub this clean and show you who is the stronger soul! I won’t need you after I bind the qlippoth lords to me, but I’ll take you just to prove I can! You will serve me!”
“Quoth this raven: Never more.” I flew out the window and exited the dream.