Candles and witchcraft

I heard the chanting first. It was in a strange language that sounded like the popping of flames. The next thing I noticed was the bouncing candlelight and the silhouettes of six people. I paused on the stairs to let my mind go first as I felt it come into contact with them. There minds were different from the barmaid's upstairs, but not entirely closed to me.

There was one, the leader named Maximillian Crowe, whose mind seemed more... intricate than the others, but not untouchable. I probed within them, their minds, and felt their strange magic as they ebbed and flowed with fel powers.

I whispered some of their words under my breath and felt that energy, fell. It was something strange, and very powerful. Just that tiny spark felt stronger than my body morphing abilities out in the woods.

I journeyed down farther now, until I could see them all gathered in a circle and chanting around a glowing green circle of runes with some demonic hound within it. It had two appendages on its neck that ended in spikes. Both spikes were scrabbling for purchase against the magical wall, but they found none.

I stared for a moment before I had an idea, I learned those few words from listening to their minds for a moment. If I focused and really scanned them, what could I learn in a whole minute, an hour, however long this whole ritual was meant to last?

I was unsure of my ability do this without being noticed, but they were all extremely focused on the task at hand. Still, I knew I needed to be careful. I quickly looked up the stairs and at the door I locked as I went in before I turned back around to the spellcasters.

"Warlocks" I whispered as I opened my mind.

At first, it was only cautious probes into distracted minds, but it helped. I learned what the name of the beast was, a felhound, as well as what they were trying to do with it, bind it to their will. However, before long I was able to delve deeper. I avoided their names and personal memories, those things held no interest for me anyways. Instead, I searched for anything with even a glimmer of that word: fel.

None noticed, and I felt my knowledge of their magic grow and grow. Spells and incantations, enchantments and runes of binding, soul shards and the soul as a concept. My mind was flooded with scenes of destruction, entire books worth of demonology, and deadly afflictions that could wipe out armies. That had wiped out armies.

I felt my mind go deeper, specifically into the leader's own, as I saw beings from other worlds who dripped in the fel. I saw the magics that the warlocks used as pale imitations of what these demo—no, of what the Burning Legion could do. It was like watching a child try to copy an adult. Even this felhound could easily take a mage by itself, yet it required the whole lot of them just to restrain it.

I cocked my head to the side and wondered what I could do to the hound's mind. When our minds made contact, it was an entirely new experience. This creature was from a completely different universe, and its mind was warped by the fel energies it had been empowered with. It was all I could I do to get a grip within and try to access its knowledge, and even then all I could were flashes. I heard echoes of a whip snapping and a massive blade with blue writing down its side. Winged and horned beings flew overhead as my vision flew along the ground towards a mass of flesh and armor. Golden light lit up the night as a massive yawning whirlpool echoed with harsh chanting. Swirling energies tossed me around as my body was destroyed, but not the mind.

I felt all of it, the infinite life of a demon who could only be reborn. When I closed my eyes, I saw green etched writing burning in unnatural flames. It glowed brighter and brighter, until I realized it wasn't my imagination, it was the circle.

The chanting was reaching a crescendo, and this powerful beast was seemed to dislike it. It attacked with a frenzy, but not its razor-sharp claws, not its armor-piercing teeth, nor even its magic-draining spikes had any affect.

I could let them subdue it and leave. I had learned a lot from them, even it hadn't been their intention—perhaps it still counted for something. I could try to unleash the beast, maybe with the combined knowledge of all the warlocks and the beast itself I could bind it to me. I still had hot food waiting for me upstairs, it certainly would not be a bad thing to just leave the warlocks alone.