(Writing Entry for the Writer's Jam 2025.)

Prompt: ○○○○○ (circles)

"Why doth thou mark those thy call beneath them?"

Joe could not help but wonder where he had heard that phrase from. Frankly, it sounded too much like one of those medieval-era phrases of some sort, at least offhand. Either way, he couldn't waste any more time thinking about it right now. He had his job to do.

Joe got inside his apartment after getting back home from work, only to simply fall back onto his futon bed to relax for a while first. Aside from taking his shoes off, he didn’t even bother to change out of his black shirt and navy jeans he was wearing.

Hell of another rough day, he bitterly thought to himself. Working just to be paid and get by was not something that he had expected to see change anytime soon.

But still, he thought. Just this once, he would like to have just one day where he could live a little if only a tiny bit. Anything that would be a relief from his dreary and overly repetitive life, especially to get away from what he had to deal with in retail.

He glanced over at his night table, right next to his futon mattress. A somewhat sleek-looking handheld device was sitting on there, a widescreen across the middle, with buttons and joysticks arranged at its sides. Joe had gotten this thing -- the LatchBae -- just a few weeks ago, mostly to try out this one game that was recommended to him by a friend. The last time he had left off playing, it was when he was at a difficult encounter with said game’s conniving sorceress antagonist, turning his player character into a nightmarish beast-man.

Joe: Well, it couldn't hurt to give it another go.

So he picked up the LatchBae and turned it on before browsing to select and start playing the game in question again.

But what he saw on the handheld's display had caught him off guard. Mainly because he had never seen anything like this happen before, even on its unusual loading screens.

He tried turning the LatchBae off... but the peculiar symbol still didn't disappear.

And just when he was trying to turn the device back on, the power button, for whatever reason, wasn't budging.

Joe: Oh come on! How in the hell can it be this hard to-?

But when he tried to shake the gaming device, it didn't even budge either. It was as if it were frozen in midair, unable to move. Joe let go of it...

...and was even more surprised that the LatchBae was still sitting there in midair, frozen in place.

Joe: What the hell?

He then cautiously tried to take hold of the device again, his hands just an inch away from gripping the sides of it before-

Then a sudden flash of light happened, blinding Joe at that moment as he stepped back and raised his arms to shield his eyes as best he could... which still wasn't any help. Then there was the shrill, high-pitched humming noise, leading him this time to start covering his ears and shutting his eyes tight, bracing for whatever was happening to him.

It felt like seconds had passed, maybe even minutes. Or hours if not.

And then...

"Finally!"

The voice that spoke up was distinctly feminine, like that of a woman. It was... surprisingly alluring, in a low yet harmonious husky tone. Finally, Joe uncovered his ears, opened his eyes and took in his current surroundings, which had unexpectedly changed dramatically.

The room in question looked wider than his studio apartment, albeit with an archaic foundation of simple stone that looked… Well, suspiciously similar to medieval stonemasonry from the game that he played before. It had all of the same details as one of the places from that game had: bookshelves with an array of obscure, almost occult content, a chemical mixing arrangement for peculiar concoctions, a couple of tables with recently used notes and materials…

…and a suspiciously similar-looking circular sigil to the one he saw before all of this happened to him. A glance down at his feet saw a similar one that he was standing within.  And there were some peculiar tapping noises he kept hearing, like something making periodic contact with the cobblestone floor every two seconds.

"Welcome, my dear."

He looked up at the woman who spoke to him.

She was of a more lithe and slimmer frame than any woman he had seen, albeit with surprisingly wider hips than her shoulders. She was dressed in a long, dark purple robe with an opening that went down, exposing the cleavage of her handful-sized, perky bosom straight down to her navel. A silver brooch lay around her neck, a circlet with an ornate amethyst gemstone resting upon her forehead as her pitch-black hair flowed down, framing her face and concealing her ears. A moderate amount of black eyeliner and a light bit of eyeshadow made her narrowed, dark violet eyes stand out as much as her pursed lips coated in indigo lipstick.

Overall, the woman looked... striking. Easily a bombshell who would have drawn crowds of men looking, where even he would have been sorely tempted to try to ask out, yet not have given him a look otherwise.

Joe: Uhh… Who the hell are you?

The woman narrowed her eyes at his response, with Joe briefly wondering if he should have been a little more tactful. Though to be fair to him, he had just been suddenly… whisked away from his home into an unexpected and familiar place, and been addressed by a stranger, beautiful-looking woman or not. He did have cause to be wary.

She hesitated before she answered.

Litheria: You may address me as Your Ladyship, The Alluring Sorceress Litheria, if you will.

She was addressing him as if he were otherwise beneath her concern. Fun, Joe thought.

But right now, the name that this woman had given him sounded suspiciously specific to one that he vaguely recalled. It felt like it was way too coincidental for his liking. This couldn’t possibly be one of those “whisked away to another world” stories, could it?

Joe: R-Right.

Litheria: And yours, my dear?

Oddly enough, her mood seemed to shift from contemptuous disdain to courteously curious interest. Less as someone to greet and more like a would-be pet that she had just acquired.

Joe sighed, knowing he would have to answer whether he liked to or not.

Joe: It’s Joe. Short for… Well, Josef, in case you were interested.

Privately, Joe wasn’t too keen on this woman. She struck him as too much like those haughty, self-centred women who dolled themselves up to meet men yet valued themselves as worth far more than them, and those came off as the worst customers he’s had to deal with back in his job. But possibly owing to his experience there, he figured he kind of had to respond cordially if only out of courtesy.

Litheria raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised at his response yet mildly impressed by this.

Litheria: Ah, I see. Well, I have to admit, your introduction is… admirably courteous.

She came off as having a relieving consideration in her tone, at least on the surface. But for Joe, it was better than nothing but contempt. He had almost expected her to be having a perpetually bitchy attitude constantly, at least at first.

But still, he thought to himself. Litheria’s resemblance to the sorceress from that game he was playing before was difficult to ignore. Didn’t she have horns, pointed ears and hellish, slitted pupils at one point?

Litheria: Now, before I get started, Joe, is there anything you would like to ask of me?

She phrased that as if it might have been her asking if he had a request.

Joe pondered his decision in his head quickly. Assuming she’s able to and keeps her word, which in itself is pretty much a risky dice toss at this point, he might be able to get back home and return to whatever life he did have without any problems. Ideally, at least.

He shrugged. Might as well go through with trying, he thought.

Joe: Yeah. I’d, uh… Like to know if it’s possible for you to… send me back to where you had just… “whisked” me away from?

Her expression went from endearing anticipation initially to… dismayed disappointment. The frown on her face after he asked her made that very apparent. It almost made him laugh, and he somehow kept himself from doing so, if only to avoid angering her.

Litheria: Not “Will you marry me and bear me a hundred or so children?”

Her response had sounded so very sarcastic that it almost seemed like someone was bound to laugh.

Joe: I… don’t think my crotch would keep from being sore if I tried to take that option.

Her eyes went wide in surprise at him saying that. Then she tried and failed to keep her mouth shut before bursting out into hysterical laughter. From what he could tell, the quip he made on a whim to make light of himself had her genuinely laughing, possibly from how audacious it was. Joe still couldn’t tell if that was good or bad, and he still had to wait and see what she would do now.

Then, at last, Litheria finally managed to calm herself down and compose herself from all that laughter. She was finally catching her breath by now.

Litheria: Alright. You’ve made your… interesting case, Joe. Very well. Let us begin.

He noticed she was smiling, possibly in a much more cheerful mood, but he didn’t bother to worry himself about this. She was beginning to do… whatever it was that her “spell” was that she had to speak these unusual words for, as if she had done this dozens of times already. The large circular sigil that was beneath his feet began to glow.

Then, abruptly, five more sigils formed in midair, facing and surrounding him. They, too, began to glow, and Joe started to internally panic. Something was wrong, he thought.

He took a step forward…

…or rather, attempted to step forward. His feet were now frozen in place.

But thankfully, that didn’t include the rest of him. He tried reaching towards her…

…only for his hand to abruptly bounce back, the sigil it was closest to glowing brightly from just that moment. It was as if there were an invisible wall surrounding him right now.

What in the hell is going on now, he thought in a panic.

Joe: Litheria, what’s going on?!

But she didn’t answer. Instead, she just continued to speak the words for whatever spell she was casting. Now, the sigil that was beneath his feet began to… ooze an ominous, dark purple, slimy liquid that formed a pool over top, submerging his feet. Now it began to slowly flow upwards along the calves of his legs.

Joe: Litheria, what the fuck are you doing!?

He was now, quite understandably, terrified as well as pissed. All he had asked was to be sent back home, and instead, this was happening to him.

Finally, she finished speaking her spell. Then she casually, nonchalantly, began to walk up closer to where Joe was trapped. Her left forearm resting across her chest, her left hand upon her right arm’s elbow. Her right hand’s index finger was now pressed against her pursed lips, a suspiciously sly smile across her face, her eyes narrowed. Her expression wasn’t one of concern; rather, it came off more like that of a child looking at something as it happened out of rapt curiosity. Now, Joe was looking on in anxious terror as this happened.

Litheria: Oh? How unfortunate of you, my dear Josef…

Then she leaned in, her face inches from behind one of the sigils surrounding Joe. Her lips spread wide in a malicious, sadistic smile. The pupils of her eyes turning slit, the sclera turning pitch black, her ears poking out into elongated points…

…and a pair of long horns began to form above her tiara, springing slowly from her forehead.

Joe’s eyes went wide in horror as he witnessed this helplessly.

Litheria: …that you had assumed that I would just give up what I had spent great effort to summon another of you here.

Then she pulled her right forearm away from herself, pointing straight upwards. Her hand opened wide in a claw-like manner.

And as if on cue, the slime that held his feet in place began to explode outwards before rapidly reaching up to envelope him bit by bit.

Joe: Litheria!!!

But his face was already beginning to be smothered by the ooze; the last thing he saw and heard was Litheria bearing an ear-to-ear, wide-open, fanged-teeth-bearing smile as she maliciously laughed at his fate, her right-hand closing shut by then.

Minutes later, an eerie, dark purple burst of oozing light flung itself from an ominous, high-reaching tower, towards a secluded clearing many miles away. The resulting explosion caused nearly everything in the vicinity to either melt into a withered husk or become twisted into a corrupted, nightmarish imitation of whatever plant or wildlife was there.

And from the centre of that blast rose a gangly yet robust-looking man. His eyes lit up in glowing purple lights…

…and a pair of horns have sprouted from his forehead, curved like a pair of scythes.

The beast-man figure roared in anguished fury, the sounds echoing in an unsettling, eerie reverb.

"Why doth thou mark those thy call beneath them," you ask.

For she, the sorceress views thee as her capricious playthings.