Better Learn from a Professional

Saeno was a little monster no bigger than a cat, yet when he shouted his true name, he sounded like a roaring beast. Shadows suddenly swallowed the light in the room, and even the windows shook!

A chill ran down the back of Jess's neck. He had to pick up the slip of paper with the killing spell again.

After the shout, the imp was panting hard. When it saw Jess pick up the paper, it opened its mouth and stuck out its tongue, struggling to draw breath. It pointed weakly at the paper without managing a sound. It looked almost ready to cry.

But with eyes full of fire, it probably couldn't shed tears anyway.

Jess understood what it meant and put the paper away. The imp immediately flopped onto its back on the floor.

"Calling out my true name is exhausting, master! Remember it this time, and don't make me say it again!"

Jess asked, puzzled, "Imps get tired? You have stamina? Aren't you demons? Magical creatures?"

"We don't have stamina like you mortals," Saeno said, his voice back to its usual shrill pitch. "But saying our true names drains our minds and magical power. After that, I can't use any magic at all. I need to rest..."

"Your true name is too hard to remember." Jess rubbed his nose. "And you shouted so loudly that I couldn't make it out."

"Master doesn't speak Demonic? How strange," Saeno said with unmistakable exasperation. "If you don't speak Demonic, how did you summon me here? If you do speak Demonic, a demon's true name should be easy to remember. Either master is an idiot or master is lying to me."

Hah. An idiot.

Then it hit Jess. Why not learn Demonic from this imp? He could show it the book written partly in Orcish and partly in an unknown language and have it translate the other part for him!

Why had it taken him this long to realize the advantage of summoning a demon? Had his brain simply stopped working? Why hadn't he thought of summoning one to teach him Demonic?

Actually, his brain hadn't stopped working. The problem was that he'd been a normal person before!

The thought made him realize just how much crazier he'd become in the past month.

If someone had suggested summoning a demon to him a month ago, he'd have thought they were insane. Now he thought he was insane for not considering it sooner!

"All right, forget about who's an idiot. Teach me Demonic," Jess said immediately. "That's an order from your master."

"Everything master says is an order... I must obey master's orders... Ah, I'm so tired. So many orders..."

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

And just like that, the imp fell asleep.

You can actually sleep right now?

Jess patted the imp's face. Touching its skin, he felt an unpleasant, icy chill. Yet that cold somehow burned his fingers at the same time. The contradiction made him instinctively feel he'd touched something deeply unnatural.

He checked his fingers. There was no visible damage. Was that what demon skin felt like?

The imp raised its head unhappily. "I want to rest... Master, I want to forget master's orders!"

"If you want to sleep, disappear first," Jess said coldly. "Phase shift, right now. Don't lie here where everyone can see you. Do you know what happens if someone sees what you look like in a human kingdom? From now on, whenever anyone else is around, you have to stay invisible. Nobody besides me is allowed to see you!"

"I'll remember master's requirements," Saeno said lazily. "But what would humans do to me?"

"Do you know what the Holy Light is?" Jess asked.

"The Holy Light? The Holy Light?" Saeno screeched. "This world has Holy Light priests too? Holy Light warriors?"

"On Azeroth, they're called priests and paladins," Jess explained. "There's a cathedral of the Holy Light just a few hundred yards north of here. There must be hundreds of priests and paladins inside, or close to it."

"No!" Saeno jumped up. "It was you, master! You dragged me into this pit of fire! No! Azeroth was supposed to be a wonderful world full of arcane magic! Why has the Holy Light taken over here?"

"Shut your mouth and turn invisible before you go back to sleep!" Jess snapped.

"I don't have the strength to turn invisible anymore... Someone's got hold of my true name, and it's weakened me badly. I can't do it, master!" Saeno growled helplessly.

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

Jess glanced toward the window. It was probably two or three in the morning. And he'd been shouting at the top of his lungs...

He kicked the imp under the bed and opened the door.

"Mr. Seso," his elderly neighbor said from the doorway, "if there's something making you sad and keeping you awake, you can come talk to this old lady during the day. I live alone and have no one to talk to either. But it's very late now."

"N-no, nothing's wrong, ma'am," Jess said. "I was rehearsing a play. I'm performing tomorrow, and I'm nervous I won't pass. But I'm finished now. I'll go straight to sleep!"

"Well, as long as you're all right!" The old woman turned shakily and headed upstairs. Jess slammed the door and sat on his bed, his heart pounding.

He glanced under the bed. The imp was already fast asleep.

Jess sat there thinking about their conversation.

Something wasn't quite right.

Saeno clearly knew Azeroth existed, but didn't seem to know much about its current state. Otherwise he wouldn't have been so surprised to learn that humans worshiped the Holy Light.

Maybe his knowledge of Azeroth went back to the time of the Titans and the ancient elves, or at least thousands of years ago, when the earliest humans still lived in tribes.

Then why could he speak Common?

Come to think of it, his Common did sound unusual. It was neither a Stormwind accent nor a Lordaeron one.

Demons killed on Azeroth didn't truly cease to exist. Their souls were banished back to the Twisting Nether, where they could absorb enough shadow and fel energy to rebuild their bodies and be reborn.

A demon killed within the Twisting Nether, on the other hand, was truly dead. That was why Saeno had been so terrified of the imp king turning him into soul fragments. If that happened, he'd be gone forever.

Could Saeno have been summoned to Azeroth a very long time ago and learned Common then, only to die in an accident and be sent back to the Twisting Nether?

Jess would have to ask him when he woke up.

When had Common first appeared on Azeroth? During the age of ancient Arathor, or even earlier?

Jess realized he didn't know much about that history. He still had a lot of reading to do at Marin's library.