Simon looked over the room carefully... for about the fiftieth time. He had removed all the furniture from the apartment’s second bedroom, and brought in a small but very sturdy table with shelves underneath to hold various objects called for by the books’ rituals. He hadn’t used it much. Most of the spells were things he had no interest in doing, and most of the rest were things he didn’t need to do. He’d used one spell to alter his appearance, just to see if it worked. It had, and it had creeped him out something terrible. He’d used one of the healing spells on a small purposefully-inflicted cut, and it had sealed, well, magically. There was no question that the books really held magical secrets. But only one really interested him. The summoning spell. After very carefully reviewing it, and all the surrounding material, he had created a circle of containment on the floor of the empty room. It was very carefully constructed and there was nothing that could fall or otherwise disrupt it.
