Susan was at our place again Wednesday night after classes, and me and Melissa updated her on the news and plans for our enemy. Lily left us a shopping list of stuff we needed to get and work we needed to do so everything would be ready. Lily also warned us not to say Verothilas's true name out loud, she said our enemy would hear it and know she was in danger.

Our deadline was sunset on Saturday, so we didn't have a lot of time. Fortunately there wasn't actually that much to be done, and between the three of us it wouldn't be too hard to do.

We did our planning and stuff that evening, then we all crammed into my bed again for the night.

Thursday night Melissa was out with some guy, so after class I went over to Susan's place. We got pizza delivered and the two of us spent the evening down in her basement with brooms and mops and stuff, cleaning the empty family-room and getting it all ready. Then the two of us spent the night in her bed.

Classes on Friday were short and sweet and we got out a little early. Melissa and I took her car to do some shopping. We got most of the stuff on Lily's list, then went back to our apartment to pack clothes and stuff for the weekend. At Sue's place we unloaded the car, dumped our clothes and stuff in the bedroom and left our other purchases on the kitchen table. And finally, the three of us went out together on an actual date.

None of us really said it but I figured it was like, we all needed to sort of relax and unwind and have fun. We had no idea how things would play out Saturday night, and I couldn't speak for the others but I was nervous. I worried that things might go badly with Verothilas, or that someone could get hurt. After all, Lily didn't say imprisoning our enemy was safe, she said it was less risky than killing her. To me that meant it was still dangerous.

So me and Melissa and Susan went out and had a nice dinner, then we saw a movie. It was kind of a fun relaxing enjoyable evening. Back at Sue's place after the movie, the three of us got undressed and into bed together.

I had my horns and tail appear, I figured Sue would enjoy that and we could have a little more fun that way. Then Susan tried to surprise us when she had a set of horns and a tail appear on herself too.

Her tail was similar to mine, but her horns were different. They were more like little antlers, about six inches long and each one had two short branches or whatever so they each ended in three points. They weren't sharp so she wasn't going to ruin pillows and bedsheets, and she wouldn't hurt anyone with them either. Her tail was dark red like mine, her horns or antlers or whatever were light brown.

Both me and Melissa stared, but I don't think either of us were all that surprised. I kind of thought Susan might ask Lily to put something like that in her contract, considering how fascinated she was with magic and stuff.

We were all getting comfortable and cuddling when Sue actually surprised us as she said, "My contract wasn't specifically about letting me do the horns and tail. It actually lets me do all sorts of things like this. There's some limitations and some things I have to be careful with, and I haven't actually done any experimenting yet? But I think it's going to be really neat."

That left me curious of course, and I had a bunch of questions I wanted to ask. They'd wait for another night though, now it was time for some serious fun.

We all stayed up late enjoying each other in bed, so the three of us slept in Saturday morning. It was around ten o'clock when we finally got up and headed down to the kitchen. Susan got the coffee ready and I had some juice, then I fixed up brunch for the three of us.

It was noon before we were all showered and dressed and ready to head out. We had one last important shopping trip to make.

We needed to find a suitable object to contain Verothilas, and we had a list of antiques places downtown where we hoped to find something. Lily gave us some specifications on what to look for, and she promised to reimburse us afterwards since we knew whatever we found was probably going to be expensive.

Our first stop was a big antiques market, where we wasted an hour without finding anything even close to what we needed. The second place we visited was a bust as well. When we got to the third shop, rather than browsing again I just went straight to the guy at the counter and sort of recited Lily's requirements.

"We're looking for something made of solid metal, it can't be plated. Gold's out of our budget but silver would be ideal, or brass or bronze would be acceptable. It should weigh one to two hundred grams? We'd prefer to avoid cups and plates and utensils, something ornamental is best. And it needs to have a plain unadorned surface that can be engraved. Oh and we don't care how old, as long as it's more than a century and made by hand not machine."

The old guy behind the counter peered at me over his glasses with a puzzled look. "That's an oddly specific yet entirely vague set of requirements, young lady. Maybe we can narrow it down a little, if you tell me what you need this mystery object for?"

I glanced at my girlfriends then looked back at the guy and shrugged, "We're going to imprison a demon in it."

His eyebrows shot up, but he didn't smile or joke or whatever. He gave the three of us a slightly odd look, then took a deep breath and said "I think I have something that might meet your needs. Just a moment."

He headed off to a locked display case towards the back. He returned a minute later and moved back behind the counter, then set the item down before us. Resting in a box lined with black velvet was a silver brooch in the shape of some kind of stylized flower. It was just under two inches across and had a polished purple crystal set in the centre. The front of it was all done up like petals, but the back was smooth and flat, except for the clasp at the top and a very small hallmark stamped into the metal near the bottom. Between the clasp and the stamp was enough clear space for Lily, and everything else seemed right.

I smiled, "We'll take it."

It wasn't cheap, it was just under three thousand which basically wiped out my entire savings account, but I trusted Lily when she said she'd repay me. With our prize in hand, the three of us headed back home again.

It was three in the afternoon when we got to Susan's place, and we just had time for a quick light dinner before Lily took over to complete the preparations before sunset.

There wasn't really anything else for Melissa and Susan to do at this point, but Lily said they could watch. So they brought chairs down from the kitchen and set them up at the end of the room. Meanwhile I was inside Lily's apartment, curled up on the huge leather sofa watching our demon friend work.

Using a small metal pick she carefully engraved Verothilas's name-glyph into the back of the brooch, then carved a bunch of small intricate runes around the glyph. I figured it was a containment circle or whatever, like the runes on Lily's amulet. When she was finished, Lily tucked the makeshift prison into my jeans pocket for now.

She used chalk to draw out a circle on the floor in the middle of Sue's family-room. The circle was about three meters across, it almost filled one end of the room. Then she wrote out more glyphs around the inside of the circle. I was worried she might accidentally trap us inside but she explained these runes were specific to Verothilas, so she and I were safe.

Next she took a box of salt and poured that out on the floor, following the chalk circle. So the runes and chalk outline were inside another circle of salt. Lily finished off with another circle of salt, inside the runes.

Finally nine black candles were placed at equal intervals around the circle, and Lily lit them with magic which was sort of cool.

"There," Lily announced. "Preparations are complete. Now it's time to begin the ritual."

"Good luck," I said from inside.

Before she got started she turned to look at my two girlfriends. "You are welcome to stay and watch. I don't anticipate there being much danger from Verothilas, I am confident in my containment and my magic. However, there is always the possibility that things could go wrong. Verothilas will not be pleased, and she will not be polite."

Melissa asked, "Would we be safer hiding upstairs?"

"No," Lily replied. "Not really. If she somehow escaped the circle she would likely attempt to destroy us all. You are both marked with my essence, she would find you whether you were upstairs or on the other side of the country."

Melissa and Susan glanced at each other, then Sue said "I think we'll stay and watch then."

She looked and sounded excited, which didn't surprise me at all. So the two of them stayed put, watching from their chairs at the far end of the room.

Of course I had no choice but to stay and watch, and there wasn't anything I could do to help either. At least I had a nice comfy front-row seat. All I was missing was a bowl of popcorn and a drink.

Lily took up position standing just outside the circle and took one last look at her handiwork, as if checking for any mistakes or whatever. Then she raised our arms up and outwards, and began speaking in some weird language.

It might have been ancient greek or latin or whatever, or it could have been some demonic thing. Whatever it was, I had no idea what she was saying.

For the first few minutes nothing happened. Then it started, and at long last I finally got to see swirly lights and magic special effects.

As Lily continued talking, the salt and chalk circles and runes began to glow. They lit up with a dull red, and the flames from the nine little candles leapt upwards as if they were torches instead of dollar-store candles.

The incantations or whatever it was Lily was saying seemed to reach a peak, and she finally called out something that sounded like a command. The only part I recognized was the name, "Korahviliteus!"

Swirly flickering red and white light appeared in the air over the middle of the circle. It quickly grew larger and brighter, till after a few seconds it was like a column of swirling light that filled the entire circle from floor to ceiling.

Then it faded and there she was. She was crouched down, the ceiling was only about seven feet high and Lily said Verothilas was nine feet tall. She looked exactly like Lily described. Tall and thin, fair skin, short golden blonde hair. She had a long feathered tail and huge feathered wings. Her wings started to unfold but there were sparks when they touched the edges of the circle.

She scowled and hissed, then she punched the ceiling in frustration. Her fist left a large dent in the plaster, and some dust rained down around her. She fixed an angry gaze on Lily and I and her feathered tail lashed out at us, but it struck the circle with a shower of magic sparks.

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