The Good Shepherd - Flash Fiction Friday
The group of wizards stood in a circle around Archmage Ossian. They were chanting the words of the summoning spell. Ossian had spent months preparing his flock and the spell. They had been practicing the words and sigil tracing, and tonight it showed as they all performed the spell in perfect unison. If any of them messed up, it would be the doom for all of them.
Ossian stood in the middle of the circle. He held his staff and ritual dagger. Before him lay Brother Anton. Anton had volunteered to be the sacrifice for the ritual.
Weeks before, Anton had approached Ossian, “I wish to volunteer as sacrifice.”
“Are you sure? I was expecting someone else to step forward,” Ossian had been surprised by this. Anton was a good man. He kept to himself but he did good work in his magical studies and he always seemed to be in good spirits.
“Yes, I’m sure. I lost my wife some time back and I desperately miss her. I want to join her in the Aether. But I can’t do it myself,” Anton explained. “This will let me join her and complete the ritual.”
Ossian did know about his wife, but had no idea Brother Anton had been feeling this way. “The brotherhood appreciates your sacrifice, it will be done.” They bowed to each other and went about the preparations.
Now Anton lay before Ossian, ready to be sacrificed. And the time was coming. The spell was reaching its climax. The chanting got louder and louder until it stopped so suddenly that Ossian could hear his own heartbeat and Anton’s breathing. Then, almost as abruptly, Ossian slit Anton’s throat, allowing Anton to bleed to death.
As Anton died, a portal opened in front of the pedestal. The longest seconds of Ossian’s life ticked by. Then horns came through the portal, followed by the head of the demon. It looked like a goat head with blood red eyes and fangs about two inches long. The head was attached to a very muscular human male body. It had talons that dripped with gore. While the upper body was human like, its legs were goat like and covered in black fur. The room filled with the smell of sulfur and something unclean, goat-like.
The moment the demon stepped through the portal, it began ripping and tearing at the brotherhood. It killed mercilessly. It tore through the flesh as easily as if it was paper. It ripped one brother in half, and removed the heads from others. The screaming of his dying brothers and the growling and roaring of the demonic murder machine filled Ossian’s ears.
As each brother of Ossian’s flock died, their life-force flowed into him. Ossian’s preparations over the past months had been successful. His flock of sacrificial lambs had been the focus of his preparations all along.
As the last brother fell, Ossian performed the enslavement spell. “Demon, I command you!” He put all the power he gained from the group into the words of power and waited. The demon stopped eating one of the wizards, and slowly walked up to Ossian. The demon stood a moment, looked at Ossian with hate, and then it knelt in submission to Ossian’s power.
Ossian then completed the possession spell. As he finished the spell, his body died and his spirit went into the demon.
He felt the physical power of the new body. He struck the stone pedestal of sacrifice and it shattered beneath the might of the demonic body. He still had complete control over his magic.
He had done it! He was now one of the most powerful beings in the realm. He stood over Anton’s body and felt nothing for the man he sacrificed.
Source and Thoughts
This idea sort of came from AI, it had suggested that I use wiki random to get a setting, object, and character type and to put together a story that way. I couldn’t find the random wiki article button so instead I used a random word generator and got the words: flock, volunteer, and pill. From there I pieced together the story above. My first thought was to use the Flock surveillance systems and AI as the forced volunteer but I don’t know enough about Flock systems. So my next thought was a flock of wizards with one leader, and a sacrificial volunteer. The pill was what inspired the volunteer to be sacrificial, like a cult drinking the laced kooolaid.
I think some of this is also unintentionally inspired by Guards! Guards! Which I read earlier in the year. There is the wizard and his team that keep summoning the dragon so that the wizard can take over the city.
The demon was inspired by the following image but also my own memory of a Doom demon.
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