The Last Swordmaster

Too Many Letters For My Taste

We walked up to a room on the top floor, which we called the Summoning Room. There were two couches that were shoved to the sides of the room, revealing a devil's trap that was seared into the floor. There was a cabinet to the right, full of blessed weapons that a demon could be tortured with. I motioned to Sebastian, silently telling him to go to the center of the devil's trap. He complied, taking long, quick steps and turning to face me. Jack followed behind him to keep an eye on him until he was in the trap, and Eve closed the door behind her as she came in, looking over at me. "Will any of the weapons be necessary for this?"

I shook my head and cut open my palm, letting my blood run onto the floor to activate the trap. Usually one would have to use a drop of rare angel's blood, which was hard to come by, but we found out that we could just use a bit of my blood to bring the trap to life. It lit up as soon as my blood hit it, glowing with a dim white light. It illuminated the room softly, giving me enough light to wrap bandages around my hand. "He came here willingly," I whispered to her, making sure Sebastian couldn't hear me. "He said he had something to tell us. We probably won't  need any of the weapons, but be ready to grab one. Just in case."

Eve nodded and backed up, leaning against the wall and staying out of the way. Jack came to my side, looking over at me with silent questions in his eyes. Now what do we do? What do we even ask him?

After I gave Jack a reassuring gaze, I returned my attention back to the demon in front of me. "Sebastian," I began, my voice gentle, yet commanding from my anxiety, "what did you have to tell us?"

Because of the trap around him, Sebastian was forced to answer my question immediately. "I came to tell you of the mortal Swordmasters' plans."

Eve stepped forward, confused. "Plans? They're planning something?"

Sebastian nodded. "And they're planning it with several powerful demons. Three B-class and two A-class demons."

I stood there in shock. He couldn't be lying. The trap prevented him from that. The only way this could be untrue was if he heard false information and thought it was real. "What are they planning?" Eve asked quietly, sounding slightly scared. I'd never heard fear like this in her voice before.

Sebastian's gaze returned to me. "They're planning to bring an A-class demon onto this plane."

Everyone in the room remained speechless for a moment until Jack broke the silence. "How do we know that you didn't hear something false?"

I looked back at Sebastian, who was still looking at me as he sighed. "Do you think I would come here without evidence to support my claim?" he reached into the pocket of his jacket, pulling out letters and a book. "These are letters that were sent and a log book that kept track of their meetings. Everything they said to the demons and everything the demons said back was recorded in it. The letters are also important, though. As you know, the mortal Swordmasters do not live together. They aren't trusted with that. To communicate without a chance of being caught by us, they sent letters instead of using your mortal electronics."

He tossed the evidence over to me, earning a scowl. "Don't throw things like these around," I grumbled as I unfolded a letter.

"Read them out loud," Jack told me, tapping his foot impatiently. "The demon already knows what they say. There's no one who could overhear."

With a nod, I began to read. "My dearest Izzy, the plans have been made. We will confer with the three demons next Wednesday at noon to avoid other demons that patrol the area at night. The sunlight will hurt scum like them, but our guests are powerful enough. They will be fine. You have no reason to worry about this. I know you were anxious when we first talked it over, but think about it. Eternal life for raising one demon? You'd be a fool not to accept a deal like that! Please, reconsider your choice. We can't do this without you. Yours truly, Claude."