Mary felt herself sink to the bottom, she closed her eyes and used the last of her air to say a single word. "Requime."

Moments later she lay gasping on the bank of the river. Safe. She was safe. But Ava... Mary curled into a ball, her small frame racked with sobs as she realized that her friend was dead and that something had used her essence to lure her to her death. Shivering violently she began to rise, only to fall back to the ground. Her lips and fingers had turned blue, and she knew she would die if she didn't get up. "Flandita auroa." The conjured flames hovered above her cupped hands, warming her. Her shivering slowed and color returned to her fingers and lips. Her black hair hung in damp tendrils and her clothes clung to her slender frame. She began picking her way down the riverbank, back towards the watery graveyard. Despite the demons trickery she was determined to save Ava if she could.

Reaching the boulders she again picked her way across, she reached her spellbook only to she three long claw marks across the black leather cover. Mary shivered and clutched at her cats eye necklace.

Kneeling down she began turning the pages, searching for a spell to save her friend. Without Ava's soul to put back in a body, she would need a living body in which to place the conjured soul.

She would need to conjure a vassal, then summon Ava's soul to it. The body at the bottom of the lake would have to be reunited with Ava after the dark spell binding it to the water was broken. Mary's eyes clouded with unshed tears. Why was this so complicated?

She ripped her necklace from its chain and placed it in her summoning bowl. Then she ripped a clump of hair from her scalp and mixed it with sage and oleander. Then she bit the tip of her finger until it bled, and wincing squeezed three drops of blood into the bowl. Then she began her spell. "Tui gratia lou is gratia sit curet a cacttus responer a mortuis aquamm, vivet, vivet, vivet!" The water bubbled violently then as Mary looked on, a cat struggled to the surface and clawed it's way up the boulder. It reached the top and shook itself violently scattering droplets of water onto her face and arms. Then after giving her a long, disdainful look, it began to groom itself calmly.

"Ava?" Mary asked, the ebony cat turned its green eyes to her blue ones. It cocked its head to the side and meowed loudly.
Mary smiled and gathered the cat to her chest. "Its going to be okay Ava, this is only temporary. We will get your body back, we just have to kill the demon first, then we can put you back in your body." The little black cat licked her chin and began to purr.