Truly Evil?

"I already told you it's Charcoal, and I work for T.E.T.C. or the Tartarus Eternal Torture Company. We all work for *same non-duplicate sound that practically makes ears bleed not because of the pitch of volume but solely by the fact that is was said*, he's the CEO. The main stuff I can't talk about is well, any and all details on what we actually do though you can probably figure out the general theme just by the company's name." Char explained from where he sat. It wasn't much but any break in the monotony was something.

"Hm..." Ician frowned as he beheld the sight of all the tomes. His horn glowed, pulling them out one by one from their resting position on the bookshelves, stacking them neatly in a pile behind him. "I wonder if this'll trigger anything."

Other than making a nice pile of books all wrote in something that might have at one point passed for a language, removing the books from the shelf didn't trigger a thing.

June nodded, writing in her notebook with a series of triangular symbols. She took the pencil from her mouth and thought for a moment. "Why exactly did Sin summon you? What did he want you to do?"

"Not sure about the exacts, but he kept wanting me to put some curses or something like that on this group of ponies. Can't quite recall any names though, it was about a week ago after all," Char replied trying to think back to his admittedly brief encounter with the summoner.

Ician's ears pricked up as he registered what Char had said. The memory of a certain document came to the forefront of his mind. Wordlessly, he opened his saddlebags and floated the document about the formal deal between Stardust and MorningGleam he'd found earlier over to June, with all the names Spectral, Haze, Shimmer, Mesmerize, and Shade of house Stardust, and Dew, Aurora, Illusion, Nimbus and Stratus of house MorningGleam.

Dusk suddenly had more of a reason to pay attention to the demon. Perhaps he knew more on what Sin Ester's plans were.

June wrote a couple more symbols, and noticed the document floating in mid-air. "Thank you, Ician. So, Charcoal, do the names," and here she listed the names of all the ponies, followed by their houses, "sound familiar?"

"A couple do and all, but I can't really say more. The summoner's pact confidentiality agreement, basically forbids me giving away details on the reasons for the summoning," Char replied from where he sat, rolling his eyes... sockets in a bored expression with obvious displeasure for the rule.

"I'm not sure we can find anything else here." Ician informed the others as he reassembled the tomes of the shelf. "Maybe we should go around searching the rest of this manor and come back later, after we're done. What do you two think?"

June took a moment to ponder this. On the one hoof, she genuinely did want to know more about demons. On the other, however, she really wanted to get away from the mass of dark magic that was Charcoal. She silently packed up her notebook, tucking the pencil into a small sleeve on the front. "I think we should go. For now, at least."

"I agree, we can always come back for this demon once we've finished," Dusk said. The sooner he was away from that thing, the better for him.

"Very well." Without another word, Ician distanced himself from the bookshelves, nodding at Charcoal with an apologetic look and moving back over to the exit, leaving the room.

"Huh, hey wait, you aren't just going to leave me here are you?!" the demon asked with a blatant expression of panic overcoming his features and tune.

June started heading for the door, speaking over her shoulder. "We just need to finish with Sin first. Nothing personal."

Dusk decided to simply not answer the demon, since June already had. He too went to the door and followed Ician and June out.

"Wah, buh... If you leave, I'll force doom upon you!" the demon called out, though it sounded desperate and kind of whiny. "Doooom," he called out trying to sound more serious but was already fading as the three left the room. Back in the picture room, the dial was still there, now however there wasn't any colors left to turn to, and aside from the special doors it opened, there was only one way in and out through the normal door.

"We still have that key I found in the box. Maybe it can open the lock in the big pool we first found. It was the blue setting," Dusk said to the others.

Ician shrugged. "That's one more plan than I have right now. Sure, why not?" Reaching towards the dial with his telekinesis, he turned the dial all the way back to the blue setting and stepped back, waiting for the big pool to reappear.

The effect was almost instantaneous as the door leading to the demon's room closed and the door to the pool of water opened. The stairs having not changed since the last time they were seen.

Dusk went up to the pool and slapped his sword on the water to check if anything changed since the last time they were in there. He wasn't taking any chances if those pony eating plants came back.

June slowly released a breath, taking off her mask. The smell certainly lingered, but now it was almost bearable. She took a small aerosol bottle from her backpack, and sprayed a bit into the air. Any lingering smell began to dissipate, replaced with the scent of... well, to the others, nothing. To June, it smelled like cleaning solution of some sort. It was an improvement. She sprayed herself next, and moved towards Ician with it. "Hold still."

"Hold on." Ician's horn glowed as he removed his cloak and spread it out over the floor. "Here, I was wearing this with the hood the entire time. The stench is on it. Giving it a complete spray should do the trick."

Nothing within the tank stirred, what remained of the plants was still there, but nothing new seemed to have grown in the respectively brief time they'd been away. The very large padlock was still holding the smaller key down at the bottom of the pool as well.

With a nod, June sprayed down the cloak, careful not to miss anything. The spray evaporated almost immediately, and soon the cloak was clean and dry. A quick sniff revealed that the cloak had held most of the smell, and while Ician wasn't exactly squeaky clean, it was little enough not to be a problem. Dusk, on the other hoof... Moving towards the stallion, she held the spray at the ready. "Don't move."