Lilith's Bride

[WP] You are a student with the least amount of magic potential ever recorded at the Academy and it's the day of the familiar summoning test. A misplaced rune or word results in an archdemon/ess becoming bound as your familiar.

*****

"Ms. Archambault, you're next. Please step onto the dais and begin the ritual."

I sighed as I got out of my seat. As I made my way to the front, I heard snickers and whispers through the crowd. The usual chorus of "Phoebe the Failure" and other such monikers of similar creativity. It's not like I didn't deserve it, what with me being a freak of nature.

I stepped up and began tracing the runes for the ritual. Despite my resignation tothe epic failure that was bound to happen, I still studied to make sure my summoning circle was absolutely perfect. If I was going to get a familiar about as impressive as a quadriplegic hamster, at the very least I wanted a good grade for the process. I forced myself not to flip off the crowd as I finished the circle and stood up.

The runes began to glow red as a humming noise emanated from the circle. Suddenly, all of the windows were covered over in darkness as a cold wind blew down the door to the lecture hall. From the glowing circle, a black cloud emerged and zoomed around the ceiling before touching back down in front of me. As the smoke dissipated, I gasped at the figure that was revealed.

A jaw-droppingly gorgeous demon had appeared. She had at least two extra feet on me, beautiful curved horns, a long tail with a pointed tip, and downright hypnotically purple eyes. Her dress was decorated with various symbols and gold lining, of a kind I had recognized--I had accidentally summoned an archdemoness.

I fell to my knees and bowed as I frantically said, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry! I--I didn't mean to summon you, I was just trying to summon a familiar, but I think I--"

The demoness laughed as she pulled me off of my feet and into her arms. "Oh my, you are simply too precious. But promise your lovely Lilith something from here on out, darling Phoebe: no more apologizing for such innocuous mistakes. I'll not allow my fiancee to think so little of herself."

The demoness almost so entranced me'...well, everything, that I almost missed what she just said. "Fiancee?! What do you...mean..." I trailed off when I looked at my summoning circle. The rune for 'partnership' had one too many lines, turning it into the rune for 'relationship'.

I groaned. "Phoebe, you idiot. You had to do one thing, and now there's a demoness stuck with the weakest mage in history--"

Lilith pressed her finger to my lips as she said to me, "Dearest, what did I just say? You deserve so much better than that kind of talk. I am here because I chose to be here. I saw the richness of your soul and loved what I saw. And I will tell it to you every day until you believe me."

Professor Ulta cleared their throat and said, "I don't mean to interrupt this very heartwarming moment, but I'm just curious as to how Ms. Archambault achieved such a feat. By all accounts, she has the lowest recorded magic potential in school history." Professor Ulta then pressed an A+ into my hand. "Oh, and you pass, obviously."

Lilith turned her nose up at him. "Well of course you'd think that. You never thought to test her by the standards of something other than a human."

I looked at Lilith with a bewildered expression and said, "I'm sorry, are you saying I'm not human?"

"Yes and no. It's a bit of a long story, and I would much rather sum it up somewhere private. Shall we?"

"Uh, sure. I mean, my dorm room is on the other side of campus, so it's a bit of a walk--"

A guy in the front row cleared his throat. I turned to look at him--it was Adrian Misha, who had been the one to come up with my nickname. Adrian smirked and said, "You know, if Phoebe's such a magical badass now, why doesn't she try and use a transport spell? It's not like this was one big stroke of luck, right?"

The crowd chuckled at Adrian's joke, plummeting my confidence to its usual spot at rock bottom. But oddly, Lilith grinned and responded, "Now I'm not sure what that diseased, castrated pig is doing in a classroom or why it insists on squealing like it can speak as a human being can, but I just had the most wonderful idea: Phoebe, you should use a transport spell! I can think of no better way to demonstrate your obvious magical superiority to this room full of talentless shitheels and the aforementioned pig!"

Lilith's verbal homicide of the student body snapped me out of my funk. I blushed and said, "Uh, Lilith, I wasn't kidding when I said I was the weakest mage in--"

"Hey. Look at me." I stared into Lilith's eyes as she stroked my cheek gently. "Forget what they taught you about mana manipulation. It's not a power you need to negotiate with, but one that burns within you. Dig deep, don't reach out. I know you can do it."

Everything in my life should've led me to the conclusion that I shouldn't trust Lilith, that she was one more person setting me up for humiliation. But against my better judgment, I trusted her. So, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I followed Lilith's instructions and imagined the mana bubbling up inside me. After thirty seconds passed, I opened my eyes again.

Lilith and I were sitting on my bed, my collection of stuffed bunnies surrounding us like an army. Lilith smiled and remarked, "In case you're wondering, we got here two seconds after you closed your eyes."

I hugged Lilith excitedly and kissed her cheek. "I did it! I actually did it!"

Lilith giggled as she kissed me back. "Of course, you did, dearest."

"But--but how? How'd you know that would work, that whole 'dig-deep' thing?"

"Because that's how demons are taught to perform magic. And the same principle applies to a wonderful human with the soul of a demon."

"Demons have souls?" I went wide-eyed when I realized what I just said. "Oh crap, I did not mean it like that!"

Lilith laughed as she ran her fingers through my hair. "Don't worry, I know what you meant. And to answer your question, yes, demons have souls."

I hugged my Blackberry Bunny on instinct as I responded, "Okay, but why do I have a demon's soul?"

"Again, a very long story. Tell me, dearest: have you heard of the War of Souls?" I shook my head (as much as I could in Lilith's snuggly embrace) and Lilith continued, "The War of Souls was an eon of death and chaos between both sides of the celestial bureaucracy. Angels and demons were at each other's throats over where humans would go after death. The angels wanted their souls to default to Heaven so they would have a neverending stream of worshippers. The demons, on the other hand, wanted to let humans have the right to choose where they wanted to go."

I clicked my tongue. "I think I'm gonna go with the demons on that one."

"Unsurprising. Both sides used many tactics to win humans over. But the demons' greatest success came from their Contracts. A demon could take the soul of a fallen comrade and place it into a human on death's door. In exchange for their loyalty to the demons, the human would have extended life and magical power akin to that of a demon as opposed to a human, the latter having the side effect of making it more difficult for the human to perform magic as a regular human does."

"So... did your side win?"

Lilith beamed. "Yes we most certainly did. The practice of forging Contracts slowed down considerably in the ages that followed. In fact, yours is the first in almost twenty years."

I tilted my head in confusion. "But... I didn't make a Contract with a demon."

Lilith's expression turned grim as she replied, "Yes, but... your mother did."

I sat upright. "You knew my mom?"

"Everyone in Hell knew of your mother. The first Contract in two decades and it was a woman who didn't even want to reap the benefits of it for herself. She only wanted her daughter to live, to not fall victim to the same illness that was going to claim her. It would be rather remiss of us not to keep the story alive."

I felt tears begin to trickle down my face. "She...made a Contract for me? I--I thought she left when I was a kid. I can't believe she'd--she'd--" I collapsed into Lilith's chest and sobbed until my eyes ran dry.

Lilith kissed the top of my head as she softly said, "It's alright, dearest. Let it out. I've got you."

Once I had cried myself to exhaustion, I looked at Lilith. "Thank you."

"For telling you what happened to your mother?"

"For telling me. For comforting me. For standing up for me back in the lecture hall. For caring about me."

Lilith purred and whispered in my ear, "This is just the beginning, my love. I swear that your days of feeling like a failure are over. This is what you deserve. Nothing less."

I looked into Lilith's eyes and said the three little words that had been rattling around my head since Lilith first held me: "I love you."

"I love you too."

*****

THE END