‘I need information on summoning contracts,’ Yuki thought, ordering the library around her. 

The library complied, sending books, scrolls, and manuscripts her way. They flew off shelves to become a neat stack of paper in front of her. With a wave of her hand, the stack moved to a table.

Scanning the stack of texts before her, Yuki quickly noticed a few things about the things the library had given her. 

‘Remove business contracts from this,’ she ordered with a sigh. She forgot how picky the library was with words. Sophie always was able to understand what she wanted. 

About half of the stack flew away, leaving Yuki with the information that she really wanted. She set to work flipping through each of them to locate the specifics that she needed. One particular manuscript caught her attention. It was a manuscript that was filled with speculations on the nature of spirits and how to summon them. The words were scrawled in sometimes neat and other times jumbled print. Comments would sporadically appear on the pages in the margins or the corners. 

What took Yuki’s interest, however, was the sections where the writer detailed their conversations with various spirits they had summoned. The friendliness of the conversations depended on the personality of the spirits. Sometimes the writer would get information while other times they were treated to threats and insults by the spirit. 

By speaking to a large amount of spirits, the writer was able to gather some information to support the thoughts they had scribbled about in the sections before. Some of the information related to the technicalities and functionality of the agreements made between a spirit and its summoner. 

‘It looks like a very tedious process,’ Yuki thought as she read. ‘I can see why people came up with templates to make this go faster.’

The most important thing to the contract was the exchange of services. That meant the summoner had to offer something in exchange for the spirit’s service. This was difficult to decide on for both parties. 

‘Spirits have no material needs like money and items. You can’t bribe them.’

That was why the spirits sometimes requested services in return. Sometimes it was small things like sending messages to friends and family. Other times, it was more dangerous and questionable requests. Contract killings seemed to be common. 

Some requests from the spirits were ones that were made explicitly to lead to the downfall of their summoner. Impossible missions to places that would inevitably kill the summoner, or targets that were much too strong for the summoner to deal with were common tales. From what the writer heard from spirits, these requests were done when a spirit had a particular disliking for the one who had summoned them.

The templates made were meant to counteract these types of agreements.

‘Kind of unfair to the spirits though,’ Yuki thought as she read. ‘Instead of an exchange of services, it’s really more like threats.’

In order to minimize these potentially lethal contracts, summoners came up with the idea of imprisoning or threatening spirits in order to get them to obey. Sometimes it was a combination of both. The idea was to put the spirit in an unequal position as fast as possible to make the bargaining skewed in the summoner’s favor.

The spirits didn’t take too kindly to this change. It began a constant back and forth between summoners and spirits as both parties tried to get the upper hand on the other. Eventually, this settled down to the wording of the contract deciding who would have the advantage in the agreement. 

And so, summoning became a battle of words. The summoner and the spirit would pick what they say carefully, trying to bend the contract in anyway they can in their favor. 

‘Summoning sounds a lot more like a business deal than magic.’

The information, however, was what Yuki needed. Modern summons would most likely follow these findings and guidelines. That meant Yuki could exploit that fact that there was rarely any love lost between spirits and the person who summoned them.

‘Let’s get to work then,’ she thought. ‘Tomorrow.’

---

 

The next day, Yuki went to the same seat she was sitting on the day before. With her eyes glued to the guards who stood there, she noted the people around the area. She needed to minimize the amount of people who saw her. The less questions, the better. 

An opportunity to act came when a few of the people around the entrance moved their seats closer to the window. Yuki didn’t know what the reason was until she glanced over at the arena. Ember was fighting. She stood in her side of the arena, a tanned warrior with sculpted muscles and curves.

‘Some people just aren’t subtle, aren’t they,’ Yuki thought with a small smile.

Quietly thanking Ember for the distraction, she walked over to the guards and placed her hands on both of their shoulders. They looked at her with confused eyes and opened their mouths to speak. Yuki cut them off before they could.

“Let’s have a chat, why don’t we?” Yuki whispered, magic flowing off of her tongue as she used a spell she found the night before to contact the spirits that dwelled within the artificial bodies. 

Time slowed around her as she felt her consciousness get dragged out from her. She stood in the lounge still, but her body was in front of her and the people around her had frozen. 

“Interesting,” a voice said. She recognized it as the voice of one of the guards. “I didn’t expect to meet a summoner here. Leader makes sure to never bring any of them in.”

“What’s your name, lady?” a louder, bolder voice asked. It had to be another guard.

Yuki located the source of the voices. It came from two floating spheres that emitted a soft blue light that pulsed as they spoke. 

“My name will come in time,” Yuki replied. “I’ll give it to you if we come to an agreement.”

“Agreement?” the first guard repeated. His voice was deep and rumbling. “You mean to make a contract with us? You do realise that we are already taken, don’t you?”

“Yes. I also know you can take multiple contracts,” Yuki said. 

“If you know that, then you do know how difficult of a process that can be.”

“I think we have the time.”

“What’s the offer?” the other guard asked.

“Well, tell me what you’re already contracted to do?” Yuki said. “I’ll make sure that it won’t conflict.”

“How kind of you,” the first guard said. “Our current contract is to obey any orders that our assigned leader tells us.”

“Assigned?”

“Yes. Our leader isn’t our summoner. I believe our summoner was hired.”

“I see,” Yuki said. Maybe she should have read the business contracts that the library gave her. “What are your current orders from your leader?”

“Err, mate, are we allowed to say what they are?” the second guard asked. 

“Of course. There was no clause that said not to,” the first guard replied. “Our orders are quite simple. We are to guard this entrance and not allow anyone that isn’t explicitly given permission by our leader to enter.”

“Are there no clauses that state that you need to report anything that happens?” Yuki asked.

“Of course. In our leader’s words, ‘Report anything that is suspicious.’ I didn’t bother questioning him.” A slight smile came through the spirit’s voice.

“Boss doesn’t seem to have any real experience dealing with us,” the second guard added. “Take that as you will.”

“How long have you two been here?” 

“Too long,” the first replied. “Our contract expires when our leader passes. We were put here sometime in the beginning stages of this place.”

“I see.”

“So what’s the offer?” the second asked. 

Yuki lifted a finger to get them to quiet and thought to herself. She analyzed each word that the spirits told her about the agreements they made and the orders they were under. 

“Here’s my offer,” Yuki said. “In exchange for not reporting anything I do or anything related to me, I will free you from your contract with your leader.”

“Interesting proposition,” the first remarked. “But isn’t this suspicious?”

“Only if you believe it is.”

“Good point,” the guard laughed. “Let me ask you. Why do you want us to not report anything you do?”

“I want to enter the hallway,” Yuki replied.

“That’s against our orders as well,” the second guard said. “We can’t let you in.”

“And you’re not going to. I will let myself in,” Yuki said. “The orders won’t punish you as they aren’t the contract itself. You’re only compelled to do it, correct?”

“Another good point,” the first guard said. “So, you will let yourself in by doing something that prevents us from stopping you, and if we agree to your offer, we can’t report what you’ve done to our leader as long as we don’t deem it as suspicious. Is that your plan?”

“Essentially,” Yuki nodded. “Don’t you want to be free? This is one of the ways that you can have that freedom.”

The spirits quieted while Yuki waited patiently for their reply. She wasn’t lying when she said they had time. The time stop around them made sure of that. 

“How can you guarantee that we’ll be free?” the second guard asked. “That sounds like a tall order.”

“Well, all I need to do is kill your leader. Once he’s dead, so is the contract,” Yuki said. “It’s as simple as that. This will help me with that.”

“We can’t harm our leader,” the first guard said. “It’s part of the contract.”

“You’re not harming him,” Yuki corrected. “I am. You’re not involved in the actual act. You’re also not facilitating anything as you still tried to stop me, but was unable to.”

“Interesting. You’re relying heavily on our own interpretations of our orders and contract.”

“I’m just here to help you. How badly do you want to be free?” Yuki asked.

“I’ll do it,” the second guard interrupted. “I don’t have anything to lose, so screw it. I’m willing to look at things from your perspective.”

“I’m willing,” the first guard said. “But. Do you have a contingency if you fail?” 

“If I fail, it won’t affect anything,” Yuki replied. “You’ll just be the same as before.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I’ll be dead.”

“Fair enough.” The spirit quieted for a moment as he thought. “Then let’s do it. I find your terms reasonable.”

“Then we’re at an agreement,” Yuki said. She channeled magic into her voice. “Do you two agree to not report anything I do or anything related to me to anyone? In exchange, I will free the two of you at the first chance I get. This contract shall end when you two are freed or on my death.”

“I agree,” the two spirits said in unison. 

And with that, a contract was formed. If Yuki failed to keep her side of the bargain, a curse would be placed on her that would inevitably lead to death and suffering. She wasn’t worried about that though. 

“It was good doing business with you two,” Yuki said.

“Remember your bargain,” the first spirit said. “We’ll remember ours.”

“Don’t worry. The results of this will come in a few days. You can count on it.”