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Description
Two miles east of the town of Boarstone, 30 miles northwest of the Timberland Forest edge
Blood flowed from the glass vial in her hand down into the gashes carved into the damp grass. It trickled through the tiny valleys in a great circle and multiple precise lines until it formed exactly the symbol matching that on the russet stained pages in Gahyeon's hand.

The blood came from the captain of the guard's younger brother, of course. The sorceress was never one to miss an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone (or, when needed, two royal knights with one evisceration spell), and that killing alone should have been enough to cement to the loyalty of the half of Boarstone's government she didn't have under a magical charm through fear.

But if this spell worked, she wouldn't have to resort to such crude (and messy) methods any longer.

Life as a wandering mage was hard, especially as a fairly small woman on the road. And especially for someone with tastes like Gahyeon's. Few people were willing to associate with a practitioner of the darker arts, and many of those had to be quickly turned into ritual components before they let anyone official (or even worse, a righteous Hunter) know about it. Even less had anything she needed for her spells.

Until she met a Hunter named Artemis in a tavern a few weeks ago. The woman had said she'd found an old tome in a ruin that she was trying to get rid of since it was giving even her the creeps. It didn't take an accomplished sorceress to realise that tome was an item of great power, and Gahyeon quickly negotiated a fair price and walked away with one incredibly powerful artefact and multiple pointless warnings about the danger of using it.

It wasn't that the warnings weren't correct, dark magic was incredibly risky even for someone who didn't mind a few worthless farmers being collateral damage. The dark forces could easily warp a conjurer beyond recognition, and demons were as likely to kill their summoner as serve them - especially when they were the ones who had planted a faulty spell. But this wasn't Gahyeon's first time messing with spells beyond her own ability (though it would hopefully be the most fruitful). First she had burned every page not relevant to the spell she needed, with a protective barrier around the flame to ward off any dark spirits she had just released in her move to deprive anyone else of the knowledge to manipulate them. Then, her last weeks had been spent in the manor of the Lord of Boarstone, working in his study to fully decipher the tantalising summoning spell she had discovered.

With hours of work and the help of a noble's study, she had fully deciphered the ancient text on the pages, and determined the mechanisms of the spell she was trying to harness.

The target of the spell was Oresos, a demon who the book called the Duke of Nasalyt. Probably a rival of whoever the cult that wrote the tome originally worshipped, since he would likely relish the other abyssal noble being bound to the will of a mortal. The spell started simply, standard blood of the innocent stuff to open a gate to the hellish plane the demons called home. The specific sigil would help guide the astral strands, provided by Gahyeon's own mana, to find Oresos and work the magic on him.

She opened another flask to pour the most expensive component of the ritual over the bloody glyph. The powdered wing bones of a copper dragon. The magic deep within such a powerful creature would be enough to move the portal through the aethereal space between planes so that her target would be forced directly through it.

Finally, holding up the page, she began the complex incantation, a dark poem moving through three different old languages that bore little resemblance to anything Gahyeon could speak now. Still, her extensive analysis confirmed the power in these archaic words would be enough to bind the Duke of Nasalyt to her will - to an extent. She knew from experience that it was always best to treat a demon with respect as a valuable ally, even an Imp could make a haughty summoner's life hell if insulted, but this magic would be enough for her to exercise direct control over the demon's entire being for a few moments at a time, to settle any disagreements they may have on who is in charge. Perhaps it would also mean she could get him to do more demeaning tasks like working as muscle to bust down a castle door once she had solidified her hold over her knew fiefdom.

But it was not yet time for plans or flights of fancy. Gahyeon began to chant.

Nasalyt

Oresos felt a tingle come over the spine-like fur of his back. He turned slowly, every inch of his body exuding control and relaxation. Even if some lesser being had just broken into his sanctum, he knew to show weakness would be fatal. He raised a claw to send a blast of disintegrating energy at the intruder.

But all he saw was black stone, green flames and statues of exquisite torture. His sanctum was empty.

So the feeling could mean only one thing.

Oresos smiled. Finally, a mortal had fallen for his trap, so carefully laid centuries ago.

He felt a pair of astral tethers attach to his arms. Testing them with his will, he confirmed this was the exact summoning spell he had penned with his own hand in the blood of Count Tyronxix. He gladly walked through the portal which emerged around him to the realm of mortals.

The summoning circle

A dark red energy rose from the circle as blood diffused into mist. Green lightning of pure fel and arcane energy crackled around her. Gahyeon's hair rose in a painfully hot wind which came from within the ground.

She could feel invisible cords of pure magical power stretching from the astral space around her eyes to two points beneath the ground. No, not beneath the ground, a point far away, superimposed with the earth below her dark circle. Around those points pulsed a dark power she had never experienced before, even when she was committing her greatest atrocities. It formed around a humanoid shape, a mighty being she could sense almost perfectly.

The last words of the incantation came out in a triumphant shout as Gahyeon called her servant Oresos into the world, to help her subjugate Boarstone. Soon, she would rule over the entire region as Queen, with this bound demon as the perfect general for her armies.

Out of the earth but out of nowhere came a pair of arms covered in dark brown spines, so closely packed to look like fur, ending on human-like hands tipped with exquisite claws. Gahyeon felt her strings of will and magic pull up the arms, and after them came a huge body, human in shape and muscle, but nine foot tall and covered again in feline fur, backed by a pair of huge leathery wings. The demon's face was like that of a human, but with a triangular snout instead of a nose, and red-tipped fangs protruding from a thin mouth, which was moving slightly. He was chuckling.

"You must be quite the powerful magus to open a portal to Nasalyt, little girl." The voice came out in such deep notes it literally shook Gahyeon's body. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a nearby bush collapse into dust at the voice. But she felt the pulse of the tethers of will which let her control this being of malice and might, and replied with confidence.

"And I am ever stronger than that, Oresos. I have bound you to this plane, so that we may work alongside one another to bring a new age to Aeron."

Once more her body pulsed in awe of the power held just in the demon's voice. "And how do you plan to do that, sweet little thing?" The voice was full of power and pride, but it had a predatory edge, which Gahyeon recognised as what she might sound like when hunting a virgin to serve as part of a profane rite.

But she steeled herself against it. She needn't fear the demon, she had harnessed powers not seen on Aeron for many lifetimes to bring him here, and she was the one in control.

"You need not concern yourself with my plans, Oresos. You need only aid me in subverting and dominating this land, and you will have all the blood you could wish for."

Was what she wanted to say.

But she felt a pounding in her head. Her mouth clamped shut before the first word even escaped it. From every angle of her mind came the irrevocable need to quiet her protestations and tell Oresos what he wanted to know.

She tried to close her mouth again, as it had done unbidden, but the very thought made her head pound angrily. Resistance was impossible.

As she divulged every last detail of her plan to take over Boarstone and turn the people into a mindless army to take over the nearby towns with the help of her magic and the demon's might and eventually conquer her own little nation through a mixture of fear, enchantment and just plain politics, she realised she had been tricked.

The flow of power wasn't from the power in her mind to the arms of the demon. By some trick of ancient syntax, the spell was the other way around, her mind was Oresos' to bend and control.

He smiled at her, baring those bloody fangs. "Well, I think we will have to change who is in charge, my pet. But I do like the idea of having a village of mortal servants again."

He walked towards her on knees which bent the wrong way. Gahyeon tried to turn her body to run, but it was just as impossible as any other act which went against her demon's wishes. Resistance was not only futile, but utterly undoable. Her free will could no longer be expressed.

"Yes, for all intents and purposes, little girl, you are my slave now. But do not worry yourself. I intend to make very good use of you. In every sense."

A clawed hand stroked her cheek with surprising care. While she protested against it, a single, booming thought reverberated through her skull.

"Yes, I will be a good slave."

----

We return to the world of Areon to introduce a foolish mage, and a demon who I may use in the future as a convenient villain! Kind of ended up writing more about magic than about mind control this time, but hope it was still enjoyable!

Remember, kids, always check your arcane grimoires for any dirty tricks, or you could end up enslaved as well!

Description
Two miles east of the town of Boarstone, 30 miles northwest of the Timberland Forest edge
Blood flowed from the glass vial in her hand down into the gashes carved into the damp grass. It trickled through the tiny valleys in a great circle and multiple precise lines until it formed exactly the symbol matching that on the russet stained pages in Gahyeon's hand.

The blood came from the captain of the guard's younger brother, of course. The sorceress was never one to miss an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone (or, when needed, two royal knights with one evisceration spell), and that killing alone should have been enough to cement to the loyalty of the half of Boarstone's government she didn't have under a magical charm through fear.

But if this spell worked, she wouldn't have to resort to such crude (and messy) methods any longer.

Life as a wandering mage was hard, especially as a fairly small woman on the road. And especially for someone with tastes like Gahyeon's. Few people were willing to associate with a practitioner of the darker arts, and many of those had to be quickly turned into ritual components before they let anyone official (or even worse, a righteous Hunter) know about it. Even less had anything she needed for her spells.

Until she met a Hunter named Artemis in a tavern a few weeks ago. The woman had said she'd found an old tome in a ruin that she was trying to get rid of since it was giving even her the creeps. It didn't take an accomplished sorceress to realise that tome was an item of great power, and Gahyeon quickly negotiated a fair price and walked away with one incredibly powerful artefact and multiple pointless warnings about the danger of using it.

It wasn't that the warnings weren't correct, dark magic was incredibly risky even for someone who didn't mind a few worthless farmers being collateral damage. The dark forces could easily warp a conjurer beyond recognition, and demons were as likely to kill their summoner as serve them - especially when they were the ones who had planted a faulty spell. But this wasn't Gahyeon's first time messing with spells beyond her own ability (though it would hopefully be the most fruitful). First she had burned every page not relevant to the spell she needed, with a protective barrier around the flame to ward off any dark spirits she had just released in her move to deprive anyone else of the knowledge to manipulate them. Then, her last weeks had been spent in the manor of the Lord of Boarstone, working in his study to fully decipher the tantalising summoning spell she had discovered.

With hours of work and the help of a noble's study, she had fully deciphered the ancient text on the pages, and determined the mechanisms of the spell she was trying to harness.

The target of the spell was Oresos, a demon who the book called the Duke of Nasalyt. Probably a rival of whoever the cult that wrote the tome originally worshipped, since he would likely relish the other abyssal noble being bound to the will of a mortal. The spell started simply, standard blood of the innocent stuff to open a gate to the hellish plane the demons called home. The specific sigil would help guide the astral strands, provided by Gahyeon's own mana, to find Oresos and work the magic on him.

She opened another flask to pour the most expensive component of the ritual over the bloody glyph. The powdered wing bones of a copper dragon. The magic deep within such a powerful creature would be enough to move the portal through the aethereal space between planes so that her target would be forced directly through it.

Finally, holding up the page, she began the complex incantation, a dark poem moving through three different old languages that bore little resemblance to anything Gahyeon could speak now. Still, her extensive analysis confirmed the power in these archaic words would be enough to bind the Duke of Nasalyt to her will - to an extent. She knew from experience that it was always best to treat a demon with respect as a valuable ally, even an Imp could make a haughty summoner's life hell if insulted, but this magic would be enough for her to exercise direct control over the demon's entire being for a few moments at a time, to settle any disagreements they may have on who is in charge. Perhaps it would also mean she could get him to do more demeaning tasks like working as muscle to bust down a castle door once she had solidified her hold over her knew fiefdom.

But it was not yet time for plans or flights of fancy. Gahyeon began to chant.

Nasalyt

Oresos felt a tingle come over the spine-like fur of his back. He turned slowly, every inch of his body exuding control and relaxation. Even if some lesser being had just broken into his sanctum, he knew to show weakness would be fatal. He raised a claw to send a blast of disintegrating energy at the intruder.

But all he saw was black stone, green flames and statues of exquisite torture. His sanctum was empty.

So the feeling could mean only one thing.

Oresos smiled. Finally, a mortal had fallen for his trap, so carefully laid centuries ago.

He felt a pair of astral tethers attach to his arms. Testing them with his will, he confirmed this was the exact summoning spell he had penned with his own hand in the blood of Count Tyronxix. He gladly walked through the portal which emerged around him to the realm of mortals.

The summoning circle

A dark red energy rose from the circle as blood diffused into mist. Green lightning of pure fel and arcane energy crackled around her. Gahyeon's hair rose in a painfully hot wind which came from within the ground.

She could feel invisible cords of pure magical power stretching from the astral space around her eyes to two points beneath the ground. No, not beneath the ground, a point far away, superimposed with the earth below her dark circle. Around those points pulsed a dark power she had never experienced before, even when she was committing her greatest atrocities. It formed around a humanoid shape, a mighty being she could sense almost perfectly.

The last words of the incantation came out in a triumphant shout as Gahyeon called her servant Oresos into the world, to help her subjugate Boarstone. Soon, she would rule over the entire region as Queen, with this bound demon as the perfect general for her armies.

Out of the earth but out of nowhere came a pair of arms covered in dark brown spines, so closely packed to look like fur, ending on human-like hands tipped with exquisite claws. Gahyeon felt her strings of will and magic pull up the arms, and after them came a huge body, human in shape and muscle, but nine foot tall and covered again in feline fur, backed by a pair of huge leathery wings. The demon's face was like that of a human, but with a triangular snout instead of a nose, and red-tipped fangs protruding from a thin mouth, which was moving slightly. He was chuckling.

"You must be quite the powerful magus to open a portal to Nasalyt, little girl." The voice came out in such deep notes it literally shook Gahyeon's body. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a nearby bush collapse into dust at the voice. But she felt the pulse of the tethers of will which let her control this being of malice and might, and replied with confidence.

"And I am ever stronger than that, Oresos. I have bound you to this plane, so that we may work alongside one another to bring a new age to Aeron."

Once more her body pulsed in awe of the power held just in the demon's voice. "And how do you plan to do that, sweet little thing?" The voice was full of power and pride, but it had a predatory edge, which Gahyeon recognised as what she might sound like when hunting a virgin to serve as part of a profane rite.

But she steeled herself against it. She needn't fear the demon, she had harnessed powers not seen on Aeron for many lifetimes to bring him here, and she was the one in control.

"You need not concern yourself with my plans, Oresos. You need only aid me in subverting and dominating this land, and you will have all the blood you could wish for."

Was what she wanted to say.

But she felt a pounding in her head. Her mouth clamped shut before the first word even escaped it. From every angle of her mind came the irrevocable need to quiet her protestations and tell Oresos what he wanted to know.

She tried to close her mouth again, as it had done unbidden, but the very thought made her head pound angrily. Resistance was impossible.

As she divulged every last detail of her plan to take over Boarstone and turn the people into a mindless army to take over the nearby towns with the help of her magic and the demon's might and eventually conquer her own little nation through a mixture of fear, enchantment and just plain politics, she realised she had been tricked.

The flow of power wasn't from the power in her mind to the arms of the demon. By some trick of ancient syntax, the spell was the other way around, her mind was Oresos' to bend and control.

He smiled at her, baring those bloody fangs. "Well, I think we will have to change who is in charge, my pet. But I do like the idea of having a village of mortal servants again."

He walked towards her on knees which bent the wrong way. Gahyeon tried to turn her body to run, but it was just as impossible as any other act which went against her demon's wishes. Resistance was not only futile, but utterly undoable. Her free will could no longer be expressed.

"Yes, for all intents and purposes, little girl, you are my slave now. But do not worry yourself. I intend to make very good use of you. In every sense."

A clawed hand stroked her cheek with surprising care. While she protested against it, a single, booming thought reverberated through her skull.

"Yes, I will be a good slave."

----

We return to the world of Areon to introduce a foolish mage, and a demon who I may use in the future as a convenient villain! Kind of ended up writing more about magic than about mind control this time, but hope it was still enjoyable!

Remember, kids, always check your arcane grimoires for any dirty tricks, or you could end up enslaved as well!