The Echidna Tale/Scroll to Geber
From Create Your Own Story
You decided to simply place it inside his laboratory. A man like him wouldn't question the source of a spell such as this for too long. Even if he suspected something, he'd be willing to take the risk. Appearing to the laboratory at midnight, you place the scroll in front of the sleeping alchemist.
---
Geber woke up. He had fallen asleep to his laboratory again, despite the pleas of his wife to come sleep in his bed instead. She knew better than to come disturb him while he was inside the laboratory, however, allowing him to have a good night's sleep.
Yawning and rubbing his eyes, his first thought was to continue researching the properties of aqua fortis. But seeing the scroll in front of him, his mind did a double take. It wasn't one of his; he could see himself writing things in his sleep, but that was far too neat to be his handwriting. It couldn't be a page from some old book either, as the paper looked modern and the ink not faded in the slightest. It had to be something written by another magician, probably quite recently, but he had no ties with them. Perhaps it was the baron, or one of his man? It could be that they had found something interesting. But why wouldn't they simply give it to him openly?
He took the scroll and examined it closer. It was clearly quite a complex spell, requiring a lot of materials that even the baron wouldn't readily give. The writing looked surprisingly archaic. Perhaps it was actually a much older spell, simply recently copied to the scroll of his. But as he read further on, he got excited; he could do so much with something like this. A demon servant of his own, a creature possessing terrible power and magic? He could gain anything he'd ever wanted. He could overthrow the baron, rule over the lands with his new-found power. He could take the baron's daughters for his own. He could become feared and terrible, taking what he wanted and extracting his revenge to everyone who's ever wronged him.
Of course, the price would be hefty, and he wasn't talking about the components of the spell. Still, it was merely a tiny amount of his soul he'd have to give every week, and he could end the contract any time. And Geber was a man who'd be willing to lose some to gain a lot.
He didn't want to alert the baron to the fact he was doing anything special, so asking for the spell components didn't sound like a good idea to him. There was an alternative; he could use his youngest daughter as the one who the spell could be cast on. She was of the proper age, and as a close blood relative, the magic would be strengthened. That way, he'd merely have to use whatever materials he had in his laboratory. It wouldn't be that bad, he reasoned; it's not like she would be killed.
Alternatively, he could simply ask the baron for the materials, hoping he could do the act secretly.
