The wizard seemed uncertain as to which spell to work, and I saw why: they were identical, save for one word. Uttering that one word made the difference between summoning or banishing my spirit. And this night was Hallowmas night, the only night upon which either could be worked.
I resigned it all to the fates, but the demon seemed to think he had won. We'll see, I thought.
The wizard's magical circle appeared at the edge of our domain. I felt the spell pulling at me, urging my attendance. I obeyed, not knowing where I would be sent.
Then the hour of midnight was upon us, and she looked at me directly and commanded, "Come."
I would have shrieked in rage had I the voice, but the magics that descended upon me at that moment drowned any such attempt. But I heard Demonheart bellowing in victory as the darkness surrounded me.
I found myself standing in her circle, very much flesh and blood. The wind had whipped up a frenzy of dried leaves, and I smelled rain, and the rich earth beneath me, so sharp were my senses now that they had been thrust upon me.
She regarded me with something like awe, or perhaps it was lust. For a moment I was taken by her beauty, the flow of her robe as the wind blew it about her. I wanted to touch her, to be with her again... but I knew it could not be.
"So you are the wizard Keighvin," she whispered. "How nice of you to attend."
"And it is my honor to attend," I replied, uncertain of my voice. I looked at my hands and arms, found them to be close replicas of what I once was... but my body was dead and decaying in the ground somewhere. I was only a facsimile, and one which I doubted would last.
Ah, but likely last long enough to sire her child! I heard Demonheart call from behind me. He was deep in the shadows, kept out by the effective circle she had cast, but near.
At least, for the moment, I was free. Demonheart had no control over me here, within her circle. I must act quickly...
"I am not what I seem," I blurted out. "The evil I tried to defeat took my life while I sat at the very table at which you have dined many times, and he means to use me to conquer you! You must rework the spell! Send me on, I cannot live again. This," I said, holding my arms up, "this isn't real. I am not alive, really. I am flesh only for the moment."
No! You cannot do this... Demonheart howled, but he could do nothing.
"I see," she said, and I saw with relief that she really did. "I trust you. The evil could not have come from you."
"Please. Send me on." Demonheart was summoning his forces back in the shadows, and for a moment I doubted her circle would keep them all out. "For your own sake, rework the spell!"
I wanted to hold her, make love to her, amid the swirling leaves. Behind me Demonheart was encouraging me to do just that, and I knew that to give in to my wants would mean certain victory for him. And that could not be.
"Do it, now," I said. "For the sake of the folk of this village. It must be defeated."
"Yes," she said.
The relief I felt was tainted with the pain of knowing I would not, after all, hold her as a man would. So be it. I would win in the long run.
Demonheart's silence was ominous, and as the wizard worked essential points of her spell I looked back to see an army of wraiths ready to attack. Whether they would be successful or not, I did not know.
With a tear in her eye, the wizard said the final word.
"Go."
The world collapsed around me. I felt pulled upwards, my body dissolving into nothingness. I became aware of a light, bright light.
With the force of a million storms, I was pulled into the light of the waning moon.