There is a book held open with a rock and a wooden stake; and next to it a messenger bag; and beside these a teenage girl, painting goat blood onto the floor of a crypt.
And then there is a tall, dark-haired woman standing inside the cicle the girl just completed.
She looks around, then down at the floor. Seeing the blood, she raises a skeptical brow.
"Unusual choice of medium. Most people use something more convenient to clean up."
"The circle. Chalk or similar is more common. And I note you've neglected to include any bindings, those need to be written before the circle is completed. Where'd you learn this?"
"That book over there, but I was hoping for the Archer of Enchreer and I don't think you're him, so something's clearly gone wrong."
"Clearly. But not as wrong as it could've. If I were an angel or demon, you'd be in much more trouble. Who's this Archer fellow supposed to be?"
Ellie floats the book over to herself and examines it.
"A demon, actually, he's supposed to be into imbuing ranged weapons with cool powers, I was hoping for a crossbow upgrade."
This book does not resemble anything remotely like a summoning textbook as Ellie is familiar with.
"...I begin to suspect we are talking past each other somewhat. Demons as I understand them create things, you wouldn't describe that as 'empowerment'. That'd be closer to what an angel could do. What do you need a better crossbow for, and why not just use a gun?"
"......Uh, my primary use case for the crossbow is vampires and unless I got a gun heavy-duty enough to separate their heads from their bodies it wouldn't do much. Wood through the heart does. I agree about the talking past each other entirely."
"Vampires...? Okay. So. In the world I am familiar with and usually summoned into, there are three classes of supernatural entities collectively called daeva. Demons make things, angels change things, and fairies move things. I am a fairy. Daeva can be summoned by means of a summoning circle, and the summoner makes a deal with the daeva to trade them something in exchange for them using their power for a given task. I have been asked to perform tasks ranging from moving a couch across a room to transporting supplies to a lunar settlement. Demons and angels, being more generally powerful and slightly harder to pay, are usually asked to perform tasks at the higher end of that scale. If this book is a typical example of its kind, your system is entirely different."
"I've never actually gotten any magic to work before, and I suppose even this didn't... technically... work..."
"Where I am from humans can't natively perform magic besides summoning apart from a class of thing called 'parlor tricks', which have effects on the order of flicking a light switch from across the room. But it is often easier to simply stand up and walk over to the switch yourself."
"There are witches here, who do magic, I just can't get anything I try to behave and the people at the magic shop don't know why."
"Doubtful. The dismissal process is relatively simple, you should be able to perform it easily. I would like to explore some before we try that, though, as I may not be able to return. I want to compile a media list for the next Hell concordance, if nothing else."
"Demons create arbitrary matter. This includes things like books and music recordings, if you can specify them to a certain degree. Thus, one of the primary means of paying demons is with lists of original media they have not heard of before. Concordances are when two of Hell, Heaven, Fairyland, or Limbo overlap. Items can be transferred between the two overlapping planes during that period."
"Mmm, fair enough. There are actually two methods, though I suspect you won't like the second. First, you can simply concentrate on wanting me gone for approximately one minute, or, if you die, that will also dismiss any active summons you have."
"I've not much fondness for it myself. Do you know if this world has any sort of afterlife?"
"Well, you can add a few more, then. Where I am from, ex-summoners become one of the three varieties of daeva."