Heroine Creation: All My Summons Are Custom Made

Espel was silent for a really long time. Maybe she expected it to be some kind of joke. Lancet understood that; anyone would think he was joking if he told them something like that.

Despite her silence though, her expression was finally speaking. She looked almost offended, definitely irritated at the strange thing she’d just been told. Her brows had drawn together, and her eyes stayed fixed on Lancet as though she expected him to break into laughter at any second.

The longer Lancet stayed without smiling or laughing, the more worried she looked.

”You are telling me,” she said slowly, ”that I am your Summon.”

Lancet kept his posture calm, even if he knew how insane it all sounded from the outside. ”Yes.”

Her eyes narrowed. ”That is impossible.”

”Normally, yeah,” he said. ”But you already feel it, don’t you? The pull. The reason you keep circling back to me in your head. It is not random.”

Espel stared at him, silent.

”Are you implying that I am some... conjuration of yours? A pet?”

”Not a pet,” Lancet said, holding his ground despite the suffocating pressure of her aura. ”A partner. A bound Summon.”

Espel let out a dry, humorless breath. ”That is the most absurd, arrogant lie I have ever heard. How can a person become the Summon of another?” Her eyes narrowed. ”A real person.”

”You say that,” Lancet spoke, ”and still, you feel the tether between you and I, don’t you?”

Espel tentatively fell silent, her cyan eyes expressing frustration.

Lancet watched her for a moment, and decided to speak very carefully.

He explained the ladder system the way he had been forced to explain it to others before, though with Espel he had to be careful. She was sharp enough to catch when he was lying, so he needed to speak with absolute certainty.

”I’m an Architect,” he said. ”My power lets me build ladders into the past. I use it to summon legends, figures from history. That is how Thor, Astensia and Spectra came.”

Espel’s face did not soften, but something in her gaze sharpened with interest.

Lancet went on. ”But the system is not just about the past anymore. It is more accurate to say I create a bridge to the strongest useful version of someone I can reach. A ladder, if you want the simpler term. Sometimes that means someone from history. Sometimes, apparently, it means someone standing right in front of me.”

Espel’s eyes moved over him carefully now. She was still skeptical, but less dismissive than before.

Lancet continued with a softer voice. ”You asked why you feel the way you feel. That is part of it. You are tied to me now, whether you like it or not. We have a symbiotic relationship. I make you stronger, and in return you fight for me. I can see what helps you grow. I can level you properly. I know how to get the best out of you because I know what you are capable of.”

That finally made her expression shift.

She looked a little more alert. ”You know what I am capable of,” she repeated.

Lancet nodded. ”Yes.”

That answer seemed to unsettle her more than if he had lied.

Espel looked away for a moment, then back at him. ”You speak as if you have already studied me.”

”I have.”

Her gaze sharpened. ”How?”

He had to be careful here.

Too careful, and he would sound evasive. Too honest, and the entire truth would come pouring out in a way that would ruin everything.

So he stayed inside the lie he had already built for the world.

”I told you,” he said. ”I can see the best route to strengthen a summon once they are bound to me. That includes how they fight, what pushes them forward, what conditions they need, and what they respond to best.”

Espel remained still, but Lancet could tell her attention had deepened.

He continued. ”You want your brother out of the Serpent Society.”

That made her eyes flick up immediately.

”You don’t care much about anything at all,” Lancet said. ”But you care about him. Oden is the one thing you cannot tolerate losing.”

For the first time, her expression cracked.

A faint, involuntary shift in her eyes told Lancet he had landed exactly where he meant to. She did not like that he knew. She did not like that he had spoken so plainly. But she also did not deny it.

”Who are you?” she asked without the earlier aggression.

Lancet let out a breath, his shoulders resting. ”I’m just someone you can trust.”

He pushed a little further. ”I know everything about you and your brother. You’re trying to protect him because you think he will get himself killed. And you are right. He will. You know the Serpents will ultimately fail, and your brother will fall with them.”

Espel’s lips parted slightly, then pressed shut again.

Lancet pressed on before she could shut him out.

”I’m not asking you to stop caring about him,” he said. ”I’m asking you to help me so I can help you. You fight for me. I help you save your brother and help you get even more powerful than you already are.”

She eyed him with thoughtful eyes, as if she’d finally decided to entertain this idiotic fiction. ”What kind of help is it that you want from me that your other three Summons can’t do?”

Lancet paused. ”Well, I got struck with a Gloom Spear and my core almost exploded. Now my Grace Channels are basically broken, leaking Grace out of my body and short-circuiting by magic.”

Espel went very still.

Her expression changed only a little, but the change was there. A quiet reordering of priorities. He could see her weighing the request against the shape of the arrangement. He had expected resistance. Suspicion. Maybe even mockery.

Instead, she surprised him.

”I can do that.”

Lancet blinked. ”You can?”

”Yes.”

That answer came far faster than he had expected.

He stared at her for a beat, then let out a small breath. ”You’re serious?”

Espel’s expression stayed guarded, but there was no doubt in her tone. ”You are telling the truth from what I can tell which is...” She narrowed her eyes. ”...very concerning.”

Lancet’s brows rose slightly.

Espel folded one arm under the other and continued in that same cool, measured tone. ”But I can repair your Channels.”

Lancet shot her a surprised look. He had been expecting a bargain. He had not been expecting her to agree so quickly.

He stared at her for a moment. ”You’re really just going to say yes to that?”

Espel’s eyes narrowed a little. ”Why would I refuse?”

”Most people would at least ask for something in return first.”

”I am asking for something.”

Lancet immediately paused, looking at her with a more careful gaze.

”What is it?”

Her eyes did not leave his face as she declared it. And what Espel asked from him was something he had not expected at all.

”I want you to have sex with me.”