Sebastian Cervantes paced in his brand new Malibu mansion. It was a grand thing, set upon a cliff-side overlooking the beaches and downtown area and the Pacific Coast Highway-perfect for seeing any incoming threats before they even arrived. It had cost him a fortune, though he’d hardly had to work for it. The magic ring, Andvaranaut , had quickly helped him become very rich in very little time, what with its ability to find sources of gold. Obtaining the magic ring had been a simple task of summoning the right dwarf. There were literally hundreds of them in Norse Mythology.
His remaining hand slipped to the Book of Myth he’d hung at his side in a custom-print Bersace leather bag. Sebastian’s other arm had tried to move and he hissed at the inexplicable pain. It was entirely missing two inches from the shoulder. He rubbed the nub and shivered as the cold dread returned. Anxiety attack, the doctors had said, caused by the accident that had torn the limb from his shoulder. But it had been no accident that had removed his arm. It had been THEM.
Nothing in the Book had warned him about THEM.
“Goddamn Auditors.” Sebastian muttered.
The Book had not warned him that if he summoned one of the mythical beings from his Book and a civilian witnessed it, it would build up what the Auditors called ‘Paradox”. It hadn’t said anything at all. Instead, he’d felt something strange happen after he’d summoned a hydra to kill those gang members who’d been selling smack on his street right after he’d obtained the Book.
The ‘punishment’ started at the tips of the fingers of his left arm. The fingernails had simply flaked off. Then his fingers had slowly retreated into the palm of his hand a joint at a time. He’d panicked then. His spine had hurt and he had just enough time to look behind him as a tail covered in green scales extended from his backside.
At least the scales were a lovely green color, a voice that sounded like him but was not his, had said.
Sebastian had recognized the voice was not his own immediately and yet he found himself agreeing with it. They were lovely scales and what a lucky snake he was to have them. He flicked his tongue, tasting the air, picking up the scents of the escaping gang members. He’d find them and eat them-Wait. Eat them?
That thought had shook him.
Whatever had tried to take hold of his mind and body and twist him into a new form had been a bit too eager. He reached for the Book and summoned something else-a Watcher Angel, or Guardian Angel, as they are more commonly known. It had taken pity on him and for that he was thankful.
It had informed him his actions had caused Paradox and he was being altered to fit the new reality in a form deemed suitable to explain away the inconsistencies. Further inquiries, as his palm, now devoid of any fingers, sank into his forearm, resulted in him being told he was being turned into a very rare and rather large, vicious-looking snake only found in the jungles of South America. The explanation being that the gang members in their panic had mistaken a rather deadly snake for the mythical hydra in their own minds.
The only way to stop it was to correct the paradox first. As in…dead men tell no tales. Sebastian had been very relieved, but it had been a close thing nonetheless. Scales had spread all over his body and the voice had taken advantage of the blood lust he felt, changing him after every personal kill he made, forcing him to use the Book to do the dirty work as his limbs deterioted and his mouth filled with fangs. He’d almost passed out from exhaustion of summoning and limping around trying to hunt all the members down and kill them. And whoever they told. In other words, he’d killed a hell of a lot of people. He was just lucky they hadn’t brought their phones with them to record him or he’d be screwed.
By the time the last man had died, his left arm had almost completely disappeared. On the plus side, he’d resumed human form again. Sebastian expected his arm to grow back, but instead, reality had shifted. He’d lost it in shop class years ago now and he could still feel the phantom limb every so often. That was the so-called price the Auditors demanded to be paid for their troubles.
Sebastian had been furious and managed to summon one of these so-called Reality Auditors. It had refused to cooperate in any way despite being under his control. It would consider fixing his arm, but only if he corrected paradoxes that he himself had not caused. Sebastian had no idea how to go about doing that and it refused to respond to any further questions.
Not that the limb being missing would matter in a few hours. He’d commissioned another dwarf to craft him a magical replacement. Handy beings, dwarves.
There came a knock at the door.
“Your guests are arriving, Sir.” Kenneth, his head butler intoned.
Sebastian smiled. “Thank you Kenneth. Keep them entertained. I’ll be down in five minutes.”
The butler gave a curt nod and left.
Ah, the perks of being filthy stinking rich. He could almost forget the loss of his arm with all the lovely things that had brought. People said being rich was a super power and, honestly, he had to agree. He had armed, around-the-clock security, cameras everywhere. When those other morons with Books arrived to find ‘the little girl in a white dress’ they’d be in for a very unpleasant surprised.
“Sebastian? Are you coming?” Sophia, his beautiful sister, skipped in.
“In a minute.” Sebastian smirked as she whirled and skipped off.
Sophia was, of course, the poor little waif that had begged the other summoners to come to her. She was oddly happier these days, ever since the Book incident. She’d obtained the Book on accident one day when he’d been careless and left it out. For some reason she’d actually called for help. When he tore the Book from her grasp, she’d called him a monster and ran up to the tower room and locked herself in. When she came out two days later, she was happy, polite, agreeable. The change of personality was sudden and shocking but Sebastian tried his best not to question the sincerity of it.
Sebastian couldn’t imagine why she thought she needed rescuing, in fact he found it personally insulting after all the things he did for her. The gang members he’d killed in the incident where he’d lost his arm had strung her out on heroin and forced her into prostitution by the time he’d killed enough of the gang to get some real answers.
But thanks to the reality shift with the loss of his arm, she no longer remembered any of that, nor the withdrawal symptoms that had her begging during the day and screaming in her sleep at night. The customers who'd bothered her at her boutique were disappeared as well, ending up in their back garden. No one would ever harm her again, and when the other chosen few with the Books arrived, he’d deal with them too. She’d be blissfully unaware of the whole thing.
“Sir.” A gravelly voice quietly inquired.
The dwarf, Angmir, stepped out of the shadows in the corner of the room, holding in front of him an intricately carved wooden box. At Sebastian’s direction, the swarthy, heavily muscled fellow placed the case on a table and stepped back into the shadows, gone. Very professional service, no small talk. He liked that. He'd likely commission this Angmir fellow again.
Sebastian opened the case and carefully removed the contents. A gleaming mithral arm, finely wrought, with bits of living wood entwined with gems that wound between the metal like muscle and sinew. He affixed it to his shoulder and the device magically locked itself in place. Relief washed over him, the phantom pain disappearing, and with a few flexes was delighted to see the fingers bend at his mental command.
Laughter on the first floor caught his ear. He smiled and walked down the grand staircase to cheers and applause. He basked in it. For years he’d been poor in LA, forced to watch the rich in their ridiculous cars go to all the hottest bars and buy designer clothes and he had to fight just to afford an apartment with roach issues. And now, thanks to the Book, they were here, in his personal mansion, celebrating him.
"Sebastian," His personal assistant, Shanice, accosted him on his way to the wine bar, "Are we still on for the Monday Shmepsi shoot?"
Sebastian eyed the young black woman critically. Her clothing would simply not do. It was some horrible pantsuit thing politicians wore that one could pick up for a mere five hundred dollars at a Spacy's. Poor girl did her best with what little she had, but if she was going to hang around him at parties...
"I'm wiring some money to your account." He said. "Do not wear that outfit again."
"Sir?" Shanice stared at him.
"I said, do not wear that outfit again, especially not to my parties. Wear a dress or a skirt or something."
"You don't like this I take it?" Shanice eyed a spot on the floor at her feet.
"No, you're much prettier than that." Sebastian smiled. "Oh, and high heels. I like high heels."
"Yes sir." Shanice murmured. "The lyrics?"
She gave him the lyrics for the commercial. Sebastian eyed the lines critically. He handed it back.
"I'm not sure if 'Slap you like a pimp, Give you a limp' are appropriate lyrics for a Shmepsi commercial. They do know I'm talking about fucking a girl in the ass so hard she can't walk, right? And do they know what PAWG even means?"
"I'm sure they don't, sir."
Sebastian mused the lyrics. "Fuck it. Run the ad as-is. I hate Shmepsi anyways. Cope-A-Cola is better."
"Yes sir."
He waved her off and went back to the party, schmoozing with his fellow stars and business partners. The busniess meetings gave way to a serious party as the night continued and his partners left to be replaced with other artists and their entourage and the party turned into a real rager. The rager lasted well into the night. It was growing late when he gave the final toast.
That was when Eduardo Villanuevo, one of Sebastian’s friend’s from the old neighborhood, had uttered the words that killed him.
“Just think, man. A year ago you were slinging crack and your sister was a slum whore.” Eduardo giggled. “God, what kinda divine move did you pull?”
He hadn’t said it too loudly, but he was drunk and his voice carried in the now much quieter party. An uncomfortable hush fell over the crowd, mostly from Sebastian’s people, who knew exactly the kind of person Sebastian was and what one could expect if they insulted him. What one could expect, if one were so inclined, was to simply disappear.
Sebastian knew he hadn’t meant it as an insult and his sister had retired early so she’d never know what he’d said. Even so, and though it truly pained him to do so as Eduardo had been a good friend, he had a reputation to uphold. Life at the top of society had proven to be just as vicious as it was at the bottom and if you showed weakness, you got eaten. Therefore, with a heavy heart, he’d laughed it off and invited Eduardo to stay after the party.
They walked together through his extensive back gardens. Sebastian took great care to maintain the yard, keep the grass green. Well trimmed hedges and statues dotted the lawn. To their left was a hedge maze and stretching out in front of them was a vast reflecting pool. Just beyond that were stairs the descended down the rocky cliffside to the beach. Sebastian had his private yacht docked down there and another bar.
“Weird statues man, very macabre.” Eduardo commented as they passed a woman screaming at something in the distance, expression forever frozen in stone.
“Medusa tends to have that affect on people.” Sebastian replied cooly.
“Haha, stop clownin’.” Eduardo shook his head. “You really went all out with this place. Respect, mijo.”
He really had no idea. This one was going to hurt Sebastian but if he didn’t break things off here, he’d likely cause more trouble. Sebastian wondered what to summon.
“You got a side hustle?” Eduardo asked.
Sebastian nodded. “I own and operate several abortion clinics in town.”
“I thought you were Catholic. Life begins at conception and all that.”
It did, actually, which was a good thing for Sebastian. The demon he was trafficking with paid out best for ‘innocent souls, willingly given’. And boy do the women in this town give. He could summon anything he wanted right now. He could call down God himself from Heaven, though He wasn’t likely to obey him. Might actually smite him. The only thing that saved those women’s souls from damnation was ignorance. Sebastian had no such excuse.
“They pay in cash, usually.” Sebastian replied.
“Ah, money laundering.” Eduardo nodded sagely. “Got a question for you.”
“Shoot.”
“Can you spare a few G’s to pay off Little Bill for me.”
Sebastian came to a halt. “What the fuck, Ed? What are you doing with Little Bill?”
Little Bill, William Maloney, was a lawyer for one of the several Mexican drug cartels that operated in LA.
“I owe him, man. Ran across the border a few times and got caught.” Eduardo said. “It’s bad back there, man. I’m sorry if I was rude earlier, but it’s like you forgot all about us, now that you’re in the big leagues.”
“What do you want me to do about that?” Sebastian spoke plainly now. “Start a war with the cartels?”
“Nah, just kill everyone else that fucked with us back on the block. Finish it. We promised we’d take them out one day, but then we ended up slinging for them. Now we have the money to pay for some hitters.” Ed finished excitedly.
“If that was your last wish, would that be it then?” Sebastian stared at him.
“Si.”
Sebastian nodded to himself. “Step out onto the reflecting pool. There’s a surprise for you there.”
“In the pool?” Eduardo shot a questioning glance at Sebastian, who nodded. “What’d you hide in the pool?”
Sebastian said nothing. Hesitantly, taking off his shoes, Eduardo stepped out into the reflecting pool. Almost a hundred feet of glassy water reflected the mountains behind them. Sebastian waited until Eduardo was near the middle.
“What the hell am I supposed to look for out here, pendajo?” Eduardo called.
There were ways Sebastian could deal with him that didn't involve murder.
Turn him into a wishing fish or any number of benign freshwater creatures. Transform him into a Minotaur, have him guard the maze. He’d actually intended to shift Eduardo into a Minotaur before he ran his mouth in public. He would have coached it as a well-paid security position. Minortaurs were picky eaters, however. They only ate the flesh of virgins, but Sebastian knew of a LARP group just down the road he could offer up.
All of that was irrelevant because to Sebastian, being alive was a gift, becoming a legendary beast was a gift and you only gave gifts to people who earned them.
Eduardo was going to recieve the gift anyone who insulted Sebastian or his sister (but mostly his sister) got. Death. “Greater”
Eduardo was busy searching the reflecting pool for whatever it was Sebastian had left for him as a surprise, so when the white marble at the bottom of the pool vanished, he bore witness to the change that suddenly came over the pool. The images flashed in front of his eyes for only a split second before he plunged in.
For one thing, the clear, pristine water now a dirty green and stank of fetid algae and rotten fish, like it was no longer chlorinated. He caught a glimpse of the a dark shadow in the pool below him as the water swallowed him up. The water itself was shockingly cold now, no longer mukewarm after sitting all day in the California sun. He tried to find his footing but he could no longer touch the bottom.
As he swam, he swore he could see fish moving and seaweed floating. Impossible. Almost as impossible as a reflecting pool transforming into a pond. And something big was down there too, deep at the bottom. An enormous shadow moved. Eduardo hoped it was just a trick of the light.
Eduardo finally managed to struggle to the surface despite his wet clothes weighing him down.
“What the fuck man?” Eduardo yelled, spitting disgusting lake water from his mouth.
“Less paradox this way.” Sebastian shrugged. "The beach is way too far for me to walk drunk. I'd break my neck trying to get down the cliff side stairs."
A mist had gathered on the surface of the pool where the cold water met the heat of a Californian summer night. It was beautiful, in spite of the smell of rotten fish the water now gave off. The shadow in the deep moved towards the figure struggling in the water, leaving only the slightest wave on the otherwise placid surface, like an arrow pointing directly at Eduardo.
Eduardo kicked his pants and shirt off and began the swim back to the shore. Fifty feet. Forty. Thirty feet now. He felt something brush against his thigh and his heart leapt into his throat. Something really was in the water with him. His strokes came faster. He felt something with teeth grasp his foot and pull him down, the pain hitting like an after shock.
Down there in the dark lake waters, Ed saw an enormous eye the size of the wheel of his truck and his ankle caught in some very sharp, oddly angled teeth. The gulp of air he'd managed before the thing had pulled him under left his mouth in a cloud of bubbles. It let him go.
Eduardo's scream continued when he surfaced.
He'd seen nature documentaries, loved putting them on when he was high. The monster was playing with him. Nibbling at him. Sharks loved to do it with their prey, testing them. One or two false strikes and then…crunch. The shore was only thirty feet away but it was right below him, pacing him as he swam desperately to the edge of the pool. He would never make it.
“How is this even possible?” Eduardo gasped. “Where did this water come from?”
“Scotland. Loch Ness, to be exact.”
“Can’t we work something-” The teeth took hold and pulled him down again, longer.
The water was pinker now, stained with blood that leaked in a reddish cloud from his half-chewed ankle. Eduardo gave the great eye a kick with his free leg. The monster flinched, letting him go.
He surfaced, gasping and crying. “Please, mijo. Save me!”
Sebastian’s heart broke then because it reminded him of all the times Eduardo had been there for him. Could he really be this cold and cruel? He could turn Ed into a magic koi, put him in the pond near the driveway. He didn’t have to kill him like this.
Before Sebastian could respond, Eduardo shot down below the waterline again. Seconds later, he rocketed out of it, screaming and pinwheeling through the air before landing on the shore with a thud. He rolled over on his back, gasping for air, only to moan in horror at what rose from the reflection pool-turned-lake.
A great beast, ancient and reptilian, its huge head the size of a semi-truck, scarred with battle-scars that happened millennia ago, fully surface. It rose and rose on an elongated neck, towering over him. The Plesiasaur opened it’s mouth and revealed gleaming two-foot long needles and sawblades for teeth.
And then it *HONK*ed.
Like a goose. A really, really big fucking goose.
Sebastian snorted in spite of himself.
“Are you laughing? Fucking asshole!” Eduardo shouted as he gathered himself up to run.
“Tell you what Ed. If you can escape that thing, you get to live for insulting my sister.” Sebastian already started calculating which pond he’d put Eduardo in, but he needn’t have bothered.
Before Eduardo could spring away, Nessie’s head snapped forward like a cobra and caught him in its jaws. Eduardo screamed and then gurgled as it rocked its jaw back in forth in a curious sawing motion. Sebastian couldn’t understand what it was doing until Eduardo’s limbs fell off and his guts fell to the ground in a heavy clump. Poor Eduardo’s head lolled, eyes bulged and staring sightlessly into whatever lay beyond death, and then sagged further down his neck as the teeth sawed through the bone and sinew, blood spurting forth in great gouts as it sawed past the major arteries.
Nessie finished chewing and flipped the mangled body in the air, Ed's remains ragdolling, and with a quick chomp soon after, Ed's grotesque corpse disappeared down it's throat. Turning, it then scarfed up the entrails where they had fallen. Very little remained. She must have been hungry.
Sebastian stared. “Well, fuck me sideways. Greater.”
With that word, he dismissed the spell. The lake and the monster in it vanished, leaving behind the still, shallow reflecting pool bottom. A dark stain in the grass was the only indication Eduardo had ever been here. Sebastian eyed the stain quietly. That simply wouldn't do.
“I’ll honor your wish, mjio.” Sebastian said and returned to his towering manse for a hose.
Eduardo had been a good friend, but Sebastian was sure he’d make an even better fertilizer. There was a patch of browning grass near the spot he died anyways, Sebastian would hose most of Ed over to there. What little was left would be picked up by the segulls or eaten by insects. He wasn't worried about the cops, he could deal with them, he was just worried about the mess. He paid a lot to keep the grass this green during a drought.
As he wandered to the house, he took in its grandeur once again. If one had an eye for imagination, the silhouette of his multi-million dollar home in the dark skies made it look like a castle on a hill with a grand tower in the center. The kind of tower a dragon might be guarding, where his beloved sister slept, never knowing what took place in the gardens outside.