Six diabolists form a ring around a diagram. Seven if Sadde counts themself. The diabolist leading the ritual is holding a rod marked with Sadde's seal, the symbol repeated over and over. (Sadde knows for a fact that the ominous chanting and brown robes aren't strictly necessary, but everyone else is doing it. And people who weren't here at the beginning think it has always been this way.)

"Hauri," says the hooded figure with the rod. "Come."

(Nothing happens, and the group briefly looks up from the ominous chanting to repeat that in English.)

"Hauri, mote of Flavros, first bound by Marissa De Roust, imp of the second choir. Come."

"Hauri. Come."


Hauri comes. The room, already dark, seems to bend or distort as if everything is seen through water. Only the imp itself can be seen directly. Not that anyone would want to look at it. Six feet long, gruesome and bloody. There's a wet slapping sound whenever it takes a step or slaps the ground. Hauri is humanoid, mostly, but can't really be called bipedal. It slithers on all fours as much as it walks. Spindly wings unfold from its back.

It has two heads. The smaller, growing out of one shoulder, looks almost human. More like a malformed child's than the beastly primary head that's safely outside the uncanny valley.

When it speaks, the guttural voice from one head and the high-pitched squeal from the other grate together. The same words, but almost incomprehensible. "You have my attention."