Chapter Text
«Honey, have you seen Tara?»
His wife’s voice stirred Nicholas from his half-dozing at his desk. He looked up and saw her peeking through the door.
“No. Isn’t she in her room?”
“She isn’t,” Elaise answered. She looked worried. “I can’t find her anywhere. Help me out?”
He nodded and stood up to join her in the hallway. He was not too worried, really. Their oldest daughter had a habit of running off without telling anyone, but if her endless curiosity had compelled her to go outside this time…
“Tara!” he called for her, hoping for an answer. None came. He took a quick look around at the doors in the hallway, and saw a door standing slightly ajar.
“Did you open the cellar door?”
Elaise whipped her head around, and when she looked back at him, she looked scared.
“I didn’t- you don’t think she’s- but she knows not to go down there!”
He laid a hand on her shoulder to calm her down, but he had to admit he was worried himself. The cellar was not a place for little girls.
“Probably not, but we should check anyway.”
Together, they walked through the door and down the stairs. The door at the bottom stood ajar as well, but through it, they could hear their daughter’s voice. It was slow and stilted, like it was whenever she tried reading, a skill she had greatly improved over the last week. Nicholas kept his voice low.
“Did she bring her book down here?”
Elaise looked even more scared now.
“No… no I think it was in her room, but the books down here are…”
Nicholas took a sharp breath and pushed open the door. Most of the books in the cellar were harmless, if a bit above Tara’s reading level, but the last one they had left out was more arcane than the novels. Now that her voice was clear enough to make out the words, though, it was blindingly clear what she was reading.
“ma- meam. Um… dico?… no… men? Nomen… ves.. vestu…”
Latin. She was reading Latin, and not just any kind of Latin either. Fuck! Nicholas’ heart felt like it stopped. What the hell was he supposed to do? Elaise did not stop to think, but tried to rush around the bookcase the door was hidden behind, but if he was right…
He caught up to her, put a hand over her mouth and pulled them both to a stop in the shadow of the bookcase. From there, they could see the entire scene.
In the middle of the room, surrounded by floor-to-ceiling bookcases, stood the work desk with the offending book laying open. Tara stood on the chair, her back to them, leaning over in concentration. And just as he had feared, the invocation she was reading was almost finished, and the shadows had already started gathering. Elaise went limp from fear in his arms, and he felt his own heart crawl up his throat as the most powerful demon in existence materialized in front of their daughter.
Unlike in any stories they had heard, Alcor’s entrance was not the least bit dramatic. One moment the air was empty, the next he was floating there. Easily and quietly, not a breath of air disturbed. He took a quick look around at the room, and for one heart-stopping moment, his eyes met Nicholas’ before they flitted back to Tara. As focused as she was, she had not even noticed his arrival. She just kept sounding out the words on the page.
He floated closer to the desk to look, and she noticed him.
“Who’re you?”
Nicholas flinched at the question, but Alcor just smiled. It was a kind smile. He reached out and turned a page in the book, then he tapped the picture of himself that was drawn there.
“I’m Alcor. It’s nice to meet you.”
Tara looked back and forth between the demon and the picture a few times before she gasped.
“You’re from the book?”
Alcor blinked once and started laughing. Nicholas was stricken by how human it sounded. Every record he had heard made Alcor’s voice out to be horrifyingly demonic, and his laughter even more so, but this had nothing but a faint echo. He even held a hand up to obscure his sharp teeth from the little girl.
“Yes,” he said when he was done, “I suppose I am, in a way.”
Tara squared her shoulders.
“Why’re you laughing?” she said indignantly.
Alcor put his hands up in defense.
“Oh, I’m not laughing at you, Tara,” He knew her name! How- why? “I’m just surprised by how smart you are. Did you read the words to get me here?” He flipped the page back and tapped the invocation.
Tara nodded.
“You’re very good,” he said, “How old are you?”
“Four and a half!” she answered.
“Four and a half! And already that good at reading? You really are smart, aren’t you?”
Tara beamed at him, or at least it looked like she did from the way she perked up and bounced slightly.
“When did you learn to read, then?”
“Umm… just a little while ago, but I’ve already read ‘The Little Beebear’ and ‘Why is my Hair Green?’ so much that I know them by heart!”
“I see,” he nodded. “Then I suppose you went out to find something new to read, and found this, right?”
She nodded again.
“Do you like it?” he asked, and she paused, thinking hard.
“Umm… it has lots of funny words, and nice pictures! But I don’t really understand it so much.”
“Hm, well, that’s probably because it’s in a different language.”
She gasped again.
“Really? Did I read another language? Wow!”
“You sure did, little lady. But it’s not as much fun to read books you don’t understand, is it?”
She shook her head.
“And it’s a grown-up book too, even though it has pictures. Say… does your parents know you’re down here?”
Tara froze. Then she slowly shook her head.
“No.”
“And why not?”
“Umm… because I’m not allowed. Please don’t tell them.”
For a moment, Alcor’s eyes flitted back up to the two of them in the shadows, and his smile widened a fraction.
“Of course not, I’m not a tattletale! You know what, though? I have a book I think you’d really like.”
With that, he pulled his hat down and started rifling through it. Tara laughed.
“You can’t have a book in that!”
He stopped and looked at her with one raised eyebrow.
“Why not?”
“Because it’d fall on your head, duh.”
“Mhm? And what if it’s a magic hat?”
“Really?”
“Sure! Just look at this,” he said, and pulled a small, brown rabbit out of the hat. Alcor and the rabbit looked at each other for a few seconds before Alcor exclaimed, “You’re not a book!” and put it down on the desk. Tara laughed in delight and petted the rabbit.
This time, Alcor put his entire arm into the hat. He closed one eye and put his tongue out the side of his mouth as he searched, and Nicholas was sure he was putting on a show for Tara. They did say Alcor liked kids, didn’t they? Maybe they were actually literal? He hoped so. Alcor kept searching.
“Now… where… Is… that… Aha!”
When he pulled his arm out, it was completely covered in colorful moths.
“Ech” he said, and shook it, and every moth took off at once. Tara squealed in laughter.
Once the flurry of colorful insects had settled, Alcor held the object in his hand out to Tara. It was a small book with bright pictures on the cover. Tara reached out to take it, but he pulled it back.
“Now, Tara, this book also has lots of nice pictures and funny words, and I’m sure you’ll like the stories, besides…” the next thing he said was whispered too quietly for Nicholas and Elaise to hear, “but, if I’m going to give you this I need you to promise me something, okay?”
She nodded again.
“Okay, you gotta promise me you won’t come down here without asking your parents again. If you do that, I’m sure they won’t be angry at you for this. Promise?”
Tara hesitated for a few seconds, then she nodded.
“I promise.”
He smiled, then, and handed her the book. Then he gathered up the rabbit, waved his goodbye, and disappeared in a blip.
Tara climbed down from the chair and walked straight into her mother.
—
The next month, Tara went nowhere without her book. She brought it to kindergarten, kept it beside her on the table at dinner, and slept with it under her pillow. She read the stories in it to her parents, and got a lot better at it as she did. Aside from the fact that the book seemed to hold far more stories than there was room for, it seemed perfectly benign. Though, when Nicholas finally got his hands on it and found a summoning circle and invocation handwritten inside the back cover, signed to Tara by the demon himself, no part of him was surprised.