The yellow decoction, astringent and bitter, brought with it a renewed sense of wakefulness, as if it had been prepared specially to wash away the headache and exhaustion that sleep had failed to rectify. Krahe chugged the entirety of the glass, shaking her head afterwards in the vain attempt to shake off the mouth-drying aftertaste.

  Swinging her legs off the side of the bed, Krahe noticed that she had been stripped at some point, left wearing only her biosuit leotard and imitation-biosuit thigh-highs. The remainder of her clothing sat folded up, a fair bit cleaner than she remembered it being. Her headache gradually began to return, mere minutes having passed. Without thinking, she closed her hand and flicked one finger in the attempt to summon an arrha cigarette, and realized, for the first time in a while, that she was out. The wound-like grin yawned open, a tar tendril tongue lolling out of it and tauntingly wriggling to-and-fro for the brief moment before she willed it to retract and bring out her cigarette roller instead. It was soon followed by everything else she needed to replenish her supply, medicinal-grade dry arrha and papers. She only took the time to roll up five, lighting one and stowing everything away as she downed another glass of that thoroughly unpleasant decoction. It was almost as if the unpleasantness of its aftertaste was the leverage-point of its medicinal effectiveness.

  Smoking and nursing the third glass, not quite yet feeling like enough of a person to make it known she was awake, Krahe sat back down on the bed and summoned her eyebox, setting it to play a melancholic action-drama about a traveling saint, at a very low volume.

  With this background noise, the cigarette, the censer, and halfway through the third glass of decoction, finally, it seemed she was managing to medicate herself into a semblance of functionality.

  Who knew a perfectly orthodox ritual would inflict such a nasty hangover.

  “Alright, come out,” she croaked, pulling up Barzai’s system readout as she willed the eidolon to manifest. The raven didn’t fly out of her stomach, but rather, her shadow darkened, solidified, and from it Barzai emerged, as he had emerged during the ritual from the tar-pool, only without the painstaking struggle this time.

  “Too long,” he immediately complained, raising two fingers. “One and a half?”

  “Every time you bring it up I will add a day,” she retaliated. The fire-eyed monstrosity of bulging muscle and sinew barely contained by spiked scales and bladed feathers shrank back as if he were a dog that had just been smacked with a broom. The sight alone was comical enough that Krahe had to suppress a chuckle. She decided to let him stew in it for a week or two, or at least until the hunting caravan’s departure.

  As she smoked and tried to get the third glass down, Krahe looked over Barzai’s readout. This was less to go over the information within it than it was to check the edits she had made immediately after the ritual but before she had lost consciousness, to make sure she hadn’t filled the readout with nonsense in her, at the time, possibly impaired state of mind.

  [TRUE EIDOLON VAULT NO. 1]

  [Astral Morphology:]

  Variable

  Barzai, Raven of Ruinous Eyes

  Developed via retroactive cogniphagy of the host upon bonding.

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  Barzai, Executioner’s Assistant

  Developed via cogniphagy of ritual reagents during evolution ritual.

  [Morphological Archetype:]

  Raven of Ruinous Eyes: Scout/Skirmisher

  Executioner’s Assistant: Striker/Scout

  [Morphology Special Capabilities:]

  Flight

  Capable of unassisted flight both through the use of its manifestation’s wings and quasi-theurgies.

  Flames of Cthugha: Omen of Ruin

  A bright flash of the eidolon’s eyes, followed nearly instantaneously by a high-energy detonation. Arcane.

  Flames of Cthugha: Breath of Fire

  Variable-intensity, variable-range expulsion of fire or burning tar from the eidolon’s mouth. Energetic.

  Winds of Ithaqua: Scouring Gale

  Variable-intensity, variable-range expulsion of corrosive black salt from the eidolon’s mouth. Does not fall under any general elemental category. NOTE: “Salt” again.

  Winds of Ithaqua: Stymphalos Flights

  Hardening of the feathers to permit them to be used as armaments. Can be used as a defensive measure or as melee weapons, most optimally when taking the form of the Executioner’s Assistant. Can also be launched as high-velocity piercing or lacerative projectiles, most effectively when flying in the form of the Raven of Ruinous Eyes.

  Corpse Eater

  Capable of extracting a corpse’s souldregs, storing them, and regurgitating them in solid form. This ability is substantially more effective if performed as part of consuming the target’s eyes or other ocular organs. Also capable of consuming suitable souldregs to nourish and strengthen itself.

  [Eidolon Status:]

  Six Maxims Seven Virtues Daemon Core

  As a result of boon symbiosis with the boons Chernobog’s Mystic Wisdom and Sixfold Astral Implosion Soul Furnace, this eidolon was able to form a stable, permanent Daemon Core and integrate it into its astral morphology during its evolution ritual. Future invocations of High Theurgy: Daemon Core will no longer require a support construct. Manifestation coherence and astral weight class massively increased.

  Boon Symbiosis: Deathsmoke Blessing

  When manifested as the Raven of Ruinous Eyes, this eidolon is difficult to notice for those not intended to notice it, and may appear as a mundane raven. This symbiosis applies to a lesser extent to the form of the Executioner’s Assistant.

  Boon Symbiosis: Phase of Earthen Jade

  This eidolon benefits from the reinforcing properties of this boon.

  Boon Symbiosis: Kenoma Pocket

  This eidolon can be used to freely access the contractor’s Kenoma Pocket storage under its own effort.

  Graft Symbiosis: Adamas Organ

  Due to possessing a fully integrated Adamas Organ during the eidolon evolution ritual, this eidolon’s durability has been further enhanced.

  Fully Nourished

  Greater Contract Bond

  Once she was certain that she hadn’t butchered the readout with her changes, Krahe took another half hour or so and a few more glasses of decoction before she felt well enough to get dressed and exit her room, with Barzai returned to his vault of course. A third of the pitcher was still left by the time she opened the door and walked out into the hallway. It only took a few moments of wandering before she found Firminus, in the middle of doing something to Aldritch’s eyeballs, presumably to prepare them for grafting. He only graced her with a brief glance up from his work.

  “Ah, you are awake. You pushed too hard. Spiritual exhaustion, nothing serious. Finish the decoction and you can be on your way,” Firminus said. He paused for a moment, then added in a much sterner tone: “By finish the decoction, I mean all of it.”

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