Aemric was about to congratulate himself for a job well done – a perfect clear, even! – when he ‘blinked.’ He was pretty sure that had done it, though: he’d seen Norvash pull the trigger, and now… what?

  He was somewhere else, in the usual overhead camera angle. Was Tiria in danger? Was it just a strange time to get a hold of someone new? What was going on? He looked around; it seemed like… a ruined stone building, an old one, medieval. The kind that people only had images of, these days, after they’d left all of their medieval history back in Old Dardania and fled. A theater set, maybe? There was an ominous red light all around, inescapable as sunlight, and dust flowed in the wind so much that it could be seen in clumps. The dirt he could see poking through the stone floor was cracked even more than the rocks were. No, not a set. Nobody could film a shot in those conditions, the camera would be done for in seconds and the audio would turn out terrible.

  In the ruin, there was only one person. A woman in an exotic red outfit, with black hair and a spaded tail.

  No, wait, this was bad. Also, unfair. Outrageous, even. How could he go through that effort – well, it wasn’t that much effort, really – and then be forced to fight through his own trap? Wait, how would that even look? Whose side was he supposed to be on? Why was a demon that he’d just killed one of the people he could Dream about now rather than the previous three times when she’d been his enemy?

  Before he could really figure out his own answers to any of these questions (and realize most of them were foolish), the world shifted again. There was no blink this time, though, and Aemric soon realized why: the demoness had teleported herself. Now, she was in a dark place, outside somewhere. An owl hooted in the night. The entire region Aemric could see was just grass: an open field.

  The demoness looked up, but not at him. Her faintly-glowing eyes went wide, and she looked all around at the sky… she began to cry at the very sight. She whispered, “It really is beautiful…”

  Why try to destroy it, then? This didn’t match up.

  She then knelt down, and started just playing with the grass itself. She plucked a blade out of the ground and examined it, as if it were a gorgeous flower from a perfect garden. The next object of her attention was the dirt, and after that, the worms in it.

  “It’s all alive… it’s so alive. This tiny thing doesn’t even have a thought to read, it’s so small. How do you live, tiny one? It really must be a soft world…” She followed that observation up with a sigh. “Well… for now, enjoy your fleeting life, little thing.” She set the worm down, and stood up.

  Aemric briefly pondered on how the hell he could understand her language. It wasn’t important right now, though; it was probably because he was technically in her mind, in some way.

  In any case, Aemric decided now was the time to get involved. This began with orders.

  [Don’t move. Don’t teleport, don’t use any kind of magic, don’t try to escape, don’t scream or try to tell any of your demon friends. Definitely don’t use that mind control power of yours on anyone.]

  The demoness was left standing there. She then murmured to herself. “You invaded the wrong Land. This one’s protected. Now, in a little while here you were going to show up in a president’s estate with intent to control that big shot’s mind. Teleporting, sensing danger, controlling the guards… we saw all of that coming, way in advance. So, we can talk like normal people, or you can try to lie.”

  “W-who are you? What do you want?” The usual questions. ‘The usual’ like two was enough of a sample size, but still. They were the questions he would’ve asked.

  “Some people call me the Conduit. I’m here to stop a demonic invasion that’s happening in two years… you wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?” He asked, jokingly.

  “No… my clan only discovered this place days ago. I should be the first to come here.”

  “Really?” Aemric had her say the truth, then, the same as he’d had Tiria say her name in class before. And yet, this demoness repeated what she’d just said almost word for word. He hoped the effect was working. “We’ll work with that for now. Why are you here, then?”

  “I… I was to prepare a place for my lord to emerge into. Find the local ruler, control their mind to ensure the locals would cooperate, and then open a gate for the rest of my clan to follow.”

  “Are they going to come looking for you when you don’t go back?”

  The demon was finally recovered from the shock enough to speak without stuttering; she promptly became almost monotonous. “They shouldn’t. I’m the only one in my clan who can create gates big enough for a person to pass through.”

  Aemric had that one confirmed. “Seems like an oversight.”

  “We are only a small clan. Some thirty of us, that’s all, and myself the only talented gateweaver. It likely won’t be long until other clans discover their own ways to this world, though.”

  “How long?”

  “I wouldn’t know… a gate to a new world is a closely-guarded secret. Eventually, they’ll notice that there is another possibility in the gates, though, or my clan’s lord will tell someone to recoup losing me. Perhaps… days? Measurements tend to be different on different worlds.”

  “Great. What do you want from us, anyway?”

  “We… want a place to move to. Our worlds are burnt, with parched soil and stale air. We can barely live there, and escape is the only option.”

  Aemric got confirmation for that, too, even though it seemed to track with everything else he’d seen a bit ago. “So why, in two years, were you guys going to destroy our world?”

  The demoness hesitated for a while. Just before he would’ve demanded an answer, she admitted, “There is one race, in our worlds… the most powerful among us. The tourax. They produce unnatural heat. They can control it, but with so many of them… eventually they destroyed their own world. Then, they came to another, conquered it, and burnt it too. So they have done for millenia. I am not one of them, but a succubus, a thought-weaver.”

  Succubus, huh. “What would you say to trying to stop them from coming here and doing all that?”

  “If it were possible, it would be for the best. There are countless tourax out there, though. Billions, even. They outnumber any other race thousandfold.”

  “Exactly how many billions are we talking?”

  “Er… maybe three billion? Attempting to measure these things is difficult.”

  That was all? Lomi alone had two billion people living on it, and the others in the Chain had another two billion. And, if the guys on the other side couldn’t organize a population count, they couldn’t organize a proper draft.

  Aemric took over again. “We have more. Plenty more. What do they use for weapons?”

  “Er… swords? Spears?”

  “Crossbows, maybe?”

  “No… well, such weapons are known, but impossible to forge there. There is no wood.”

  Aemric really wanted to chuckle. Then again, this one had managed to tank a shotgun blast at decently close range earlier. It was only absolute point-blank that killed her outright. “We’ve got a little better than that, too. How many mages?”

  “Mages?”

  “How many can use magic?”

  “Do you mean gate-weaving?”

  “Is there any other kind?”

  “Some consider succubus thought-weaving to be something like magic, the same as fyddeth lasers… I really don’t know what you mean.”

  “Can those touraxes throw fireballs?”

  “Fireballs…? No, they just… exude heat. Enough to light fires or burn skin, even cook. More of them can gate than most others, too.”

  This demon really didn’t seem to need any prodding to tell him whatever he wanted to know. Aemric made up his mind. “Look… I won’t send you back, and it seems like that’s a good thing from your perspective. In exchange, though, I want you to help me stop those other demons – the tourax – from making it over here. Are you in?”

  “I… I don’t know.”

  Well, all she had was his word to work from, after all. Simple things like grass and worms were unusual to her. “Fine. Okay… I’ll give you the opportunity to learn a little, first. But, in the meantime, no killing people, no controlling them, none of your… thought-weaving. No teleporting unless I say so. I won’t even let you. Got it?”

  “What if I’m attacked? I… I’m not especially strong. I’m not a fighter, I’m only a scholar, in truth.”

  A scholar? She moved that fast and picked up a grown-ass big-bellied man with one hand and she was a scholar, not a soldier? “You’ll be fine, trust me… just don’t walk into any dark alleys with men you don’t know, all right?” She’d probably wind up killing them.

  “I- I see.”

  “I’ll try to guide you. You’ll be fine.” Aemric finally let her move; the other commands were in place, still.

  She looked at her hands, and then got to idly scratching various itches she wasn’t able to deal with before. Then, once she was composed again, the demoness asked, “What… are my orders, master?”

  M-master? Aemric took a moment to recover. “Well, first thing. How does your teleportation work? Where can you go?”

  “Anywhere I can see, or which I have been before, or which has a specific resonance. The last… well, there are many places nearby, but I cannot differentiate them without going there first. There is a possibility of landing in dangerous locations.”

  “Like inside objects?”

  “Perhaps, but it would be like walking into a wall. If it were something soft, like sand or liquid, then suffocation would be the problem.”

  Aemric thought back. She’d put her hand through first on each previous teleport, and the rest of her followed after. It was a testing method, to see what the other side was like, wasn’t it? “Right. What can you see from here? I can only see so far.” He had a plan. Not a good one, but a plan.

  Sal Tudi and Newdania were not particularly far from one another. In fact, on a clear day when the fog of the Void didn’t get in the way, one could see the opposite coast. The objective was to use this fact to hop across; not the final objective, but one step in the path to a larger goal. The demoness could gate across fairly significant distances with relative ease, and her landing spot had never been all that far away to begin with. Before long, she was at the edge of the island.

  She looked down over the steep cliff, staying well away from the edge and moving slowly so as not to drift off in low gravity. “There is… nothing down there.”

  “Nope. I told you.” They’d already had a short conversation on the nature of the Lands before getting here. “There’s just the Void. Though, if you go far enough you would run into something.”

  “Is that a ship? There is… something moving out there. With lights on it… strangely-colored lights. Red and green.”

  “Yep, either a ship or a plane.” Aemric couldn’t see it, but he’d seen plenty of other ships before.

  “How is it hovering in the air like that?”

  “There’s no gravity past the Land. You could jump off and swim back if you wanted to, it’s just really hard to swim through air.”

  “Oh.”

  “That’s just how it is here. Giant spheres hurtling through emptiness at alarming speeds sounds interesting, though.”

  The demoness nodded, then looked back across the way. “Well… I’m to gate across to the other side? I see some lights over there, what are those?”

  “Lights?”

  “A… large patch of white and yellow lights on the other shore.”

  “It’s probably the city.”

  “It’s… far away, though, and there is so much light. Like a cluster of bright stars.” She looked at it for a while longer. “Sorry, master. I’ll get the next gate ready in a moment.”

  “Take your time.” Aemric knew by now that gate-weaving took conventional bodily energy; the demoness was tired, breathing hard in exhaustion. It was a different thing from the magic that he knew, that required the spirits’ energy instead.

  Another change of scenery… dockside, now, across the way. A few hours’ journey completed in a few seconds. Concrete and brick buildings, and Aemric could make out the ‘Low Gravity Ahead’ sign just behind her.

  The demoness took in the sights again; she was about as impressed at all this as the grass earlier. “Are these… no, this couldn’t be natural. But how does one move a stone as large as this in place? And what are these lights? And… what is that sound? Is there a battle in the city?”

  The sound was cars. Just street noise, though fairly far away. The lights were normal street lights and the many lit-up windows on the skyscrapers nearby, and the ‘stone’ was the highway she’d landed next to; it seemed like one huge piece to her, and the fact it was ‘so poorly supported’ with only a column every so many meters was also a shock to her. Cars were especially unusual: apparently most carts in the demon worlds were pulled not even by horses or some other beast of burden, but by hand. Aemric explained it all as best as he could, though not in great detail.

  There was a ways to walk uphill to the main part of the city, which tired her out even more, but getting the money and then using it properly wasn’t to be very difficult. Loose change on the street was enough, with some searching, and finding the station just a matter of reading the signs.

  “You can’t read them, huh… Well, that’s going to be an issue. At least I can do it if we’re close enough. Wait, how come you understand what people are saying?”

  A few passersby had commented on the demoness’s looks; she was pretty striking, and her outfit was like high-end cosplay. She had the basic smarts to know who was just complimenting her and who was catcalling, too. “I can read their minds… only a little, just surface thoughts, usually. Languages are so ingrained in people that I can grasp a spoken word immediately.” Explaining this made her uncomfortable, but there was a more pressing issue.

  Aemric felt betrayed. That was magic, wasn’t it? No – she’d said before, she didn’t consider her thought-weaving to be magic, not really, so that would be why she could still use it. He performed a test. “Can you try, uh, controlling someone for a moment? You just need a touch, right? Pick someone on their own.”

  “As you wish, master.” She subtly brushed a hand on another woman who was passing by, and then stopped, confused. The woman looked at her, a bit weirded out. The demoness apologized, waited for her to leave, and then murmured again. “It… didn’t work. Something stopped me.”

  “Good. For now, you’re disarmed. I was just checking.” Aemric put forward a few extra commands, just in case. A lot of them were pointed at protecting himself specifically. “Hold on, do you actually have a language, then, or are you just…?”

  “Of course I have a language. Succubi can’t read each other. I wouldn’t be able to understand you, either, since you’re using me to speak.” Implying otherwise insulted her from the natural angle: she’d have to be stupid if all she could do was babble. “And thought-reading is hard. I’m… one of very few who can do it.” Once again, talking about this capability made her audibly uncomfortable; it even overrode her indignance.

  Aemric realized something, then: he was talking through her, so presumably in her language. There was something translating for him, too, that didn’t work if his puppet didn’t understand either. Odd. “I’m very impressed already. Now… there’s the platform.Hand the money I had you get to the ticketer, then wait for the train – it’s like a large car – to show up.From there you can just get on and take a seat.”

  “I… understand, I think.”

  Money wasn’t a new thing to her, though apparently it wasn’t common in the demon worlds; might made right, most of the time. Getting on the train wasn’t a major issue, either, as despite her being an interdimensional traveler from a medieval world the concept of ‘step inside the growly box and let it take you to your destination’ was not a hard one.

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  Her glowing eyes and spaded tail weren’t an issue, either. People probably just thought she was a weird feyling.

  This all being said, the ride was fairly long. Aemric knew he wasn’t going to be able to watch over the whole of it, or he’d produce a spike loud enough that anyone near the park would feel it. He had to let her go on her own, for now, and that meant locking in every decision thus far. Was sending a demon – a disarmed one, but still – to Leansville a good idea? He’d have to hope so.

  His logic here was based on a lot of guesswork. Norvash had an entire country at his fingertips, so Sal Tudi and anything in its sphere of influence was in good shape. Probably. However, anything Norvash did was inevitably relatively visible. If he worked with the demoness then the moment more details start being known to the world at large it would look very suspicious. Even if it was only through the president’s shadiest people, there would be links. The same logic applied to him interacting with the Red Scale, too. If Aemric was going to leverage those presidential powers it would be to prop him up as some kind of vanguard in fighting off the demons’ incursions.

  Plus, letting Norvash know about the hot demoness who didn’t know left from right was probably not a good idea. Their potentially getting together wasn’t the issue: it was to keep Norvash in line, that was all.

  The Red Scale, meanwhile, could vaguely interact with demons with no issue. If anything, while it could be problematic in the event the apocalypse was avoided, linking demons to criminal organizations was otherwise pretty useful right now. However, putting her in their care was a mistake, too: they were out for themselves, and would inevitably use the demoness to their own advantage, much like Tiria. It wasn’t a good place to learn about humanity either.

  Then, there was a final alternate option, though not the one he was going for. Sending her to the Magic Department. Sure, they probably wouldn’t treat her poorly, and she could gate out if she needed to, assuming she wasn’t chained to a wall or something. They’d get a lot of questions answered once they knew about demons, and they had plenty of resources to take care of her properly.

  The problems? Well… they had no idea what they were working with. They might just think she was some unusually strong woman, or a very capable mental mage, and handle the situation wrong. Practicing mental magic on a level equivalent to what she had implied dangerous things; death-penalty stuff. Figuring out whether they’d put her to the firing squad or what wouldn’t be immediate, and if his theories on how the Dreams worked were correct, he might not get enough warning against that to find a time to gate out safely. Afterwards, she’d be magically tagged and incapable of avoiding detection, plus warded off trusting his directions and humanity.

  While checking over his own logic, Aemric finally recognized that he’d never actually asked for a name. He’d be sure to do that later.

  For now, while he made his way through the streets in the middle of the night, Aemric made a call to someone. Not through a Dream, for once, which was a welcome change.

  “Hey, bud. What’s up? Settled into your new place yet?”

  “Nope. Still in the hotel. Should be moving in… two days. Uh, hey, are you busy right now?”

  “Just doing some independent investigation, really. We still haven’t found that magician in the dorms yet. He showed up again after you moved out, and we went ahead and put up surveillance for now. Definitely a good thing you moved out when you did.”

  “Heh. Yeah.” Aemric nervously smiled; he’d gone back to the dorm just before turning in his key and Dreamed for a while just to throw them off. If he moved out and everything stopped right then, it’d be an interesting coincidence. “Uh, there’s something really weird I kind of need done. I swear I’ll explain afterwards, just please, do it for me?”

  “Nothing kinky.”

  Aemric scoffed. “Fuck off. Look, there’s someone I know… online, coming to Leansville on the train tonight. Can you meet her there for me?”

  “Dude, I am not wingmanning for you. That falls under kinky.”

  “I swear to the various gods, Ken.”

  Kendric’s laugh didn’t come out over the phone very well. “Well, I guess I can do it since you still don’t have a car. Not gonna do you any more favors with her, though, you hear? So, what’s she look like? When’s the train?”

  “The train should show up in an hour… 0:30. You’ll know her when you see her, she’s uh, kind of unique. Black hair, weird red dress, glowing eyes.”

  “And you met her ‘online,’ huh.”

  “She’s just someone I know, okay? Stop with that shit.”

  “And you want her coming to your hotel room after midnight in a fancy dress?”

  “Kendric, seriously.”

  “You’re really trying to tell me you didn’t pay some girl to-”

  “No, I didn’t. You know I wouldn’t do that, so shut the fuck up.”

  “All right, all right. Just messing with you… it’d be weird to have a hooker take the train to come to you anyway and then still have to get your own brother to do the last leg. You’re definitely going to have to explain this after, though.”

  “Yeah. Look, there’s one more thing, it’s important. Don’t tell her who you are, introduce yourself as ‘the Conduit.’ Don’t mention me, you’re… supposed to pretend to be me, actually. I’m serious, here. Laugh it up now if you want, but don’t mess around when you talk to her.”

  Kendric was already laughing, so that was covered. “You promise this isn’t some roleplay you’re getting into? I meant it when I said no kinky.”

  “Promise. Look, it’s… sort of tied to the investigation you’re doing, okay? Take this seriously.”

  No more laughing. “Wait, what?”

  “Like I said, I’ll explain afterwards. For now, just trust me.”

  “You know whoever can put out that much magic is hella dangerous, right?”

  “I do. This woman might have her own magic, that’s… kind of why I have you on this, so you can check. I have my own tricks up my sleeves here to help if something is wrong, but it shouldn’t be dangerous.”

  “Shit’s sake. Okay, well, I’ll show up on time, then. I could get some backup, too.”

  “No. Seriously, don’t. Better to keep this quiet, trust me. And do not forget, Conduit. It’s important.”

  “Right… all right, going to pick up some shady woman on a midnight train with no context as to why.”

  “Good luck, I’ll talk to you afterwards. You don’t need to bring her to my place, just meet her, say the words, and bring her to… how about the park next to the station, by the fountain. I’ll do the rest.”

  “All right. I’ll… see you then.” Kendric hung up.

  Aemric could only hope that he would stick to his word and not bring in the police or anyone from the LV-U Magic Department. Having anyone else tail the demoness would be a major problem down the line.

  Then, he checked in with Norvash. The president didn’t need to know any of this, and it would stay that way: Instead, he was just told that the attacking demon had been scared off by his preparations, and had been caught somewhere else instead. Aemric was thanked for ruining the evening, and then left.

  He got off the bus, sat down on a bench in the park, and killed some time on his phone reading up on Sal Tudi’s recent history. Then, around 0:20, he began to Dream.

  The demoness was on the train, sitting perfectly straight in her seat with her hands on her knees, as if she was at an interview. It looked very uncomfortable. Then again, she’d been acting about like that since Aemric had finished introducing himself. Maybe he’d been too harsh… well, that was what Kendric was getting involved for, to see if that was true or not.

  “Your stop is coming up.” Aemric notified her. She could understand the words coming out of speakers already, such was the extent of her power, but he still made sure.

  “Welcome back, master.”

  Getting that kind of reaction to his mind-control was appreciated, even though Aemric knew it was just her trying to avoid her new overlord wiping her off the Land. “Thanks. Say, I forgot to ask, what’s your name, anyway?”

  “I… um…” The question made her more uncomfortable than even talking about the thought-weaving.

  “Something wrong?”

  She resigned herself to it, whatever it was. “I’m sorry, master. My name is Xolitharkitria.”

  He’d definitely shorten that. “Why did you hesitate?”

  “My name was on the list of contractable demons, previously. It shouldn’t matter unless you put me back on the list.”

  Another new variable. “Tell me about this list.”

  It killed some time while they were waiting: in short, there was some kind of method of summoning demons from their homes to do various kinds of work – without their being able to refuse – provided the summoner knew the name and the price to pay for summoning them. It was both a way to gain resources and to get the hell out of their scorched worlds for a while. The price varied, but it usually came in the form of food, luxuries, tools, and other such things that could no longer be made in the demonic worlds.

  The method of transport was ‘different from the gates, but not understood,’ apparently introduced by some lofty being even the most powerful demons didn’t understand. Given his present situation and that the gods had managed to tear holes between worlds before, Aemric accepted that explanation. If he had any useful answers, they weren’t going to come here.

  “Seems like you could go to all sorts of places with that, no gates needed.”

  “It’s… temporary. It only lasts until the contract expires.”

  “And then it can be renewed?”

  “Until the master says otherwise.”

  “What makes for a master?”

  “Another contract. Mine was ended so I could go on this mission without being summoned.”

  “Ah.”

  A ding; the announcement for Leansville station.

  “It’s time to get off. I’m going to meet you outside the train. Look for someone with brown hair and dog ears.”

  “Dog ears?”

  Aemric decided she’d be able to figure it out or Kendric would find her, and pretended to have stopped watching her. Xolith stood up, and filed out of the train. Leansville station was a little bigger than the previous one, since it was a bigger city – one of the biggest in the region, really – so despite it being midnight there were still plenty of people around.

  Still, Kendric wasn’t hard to spot; he was a familiar sight. He was waiting at the right stop, casually sitting on a nearby bench. Upon seeing the demoness step out of the train and onto the platform, he was immediately sure of who he was looking for, just as expected.

  He stood up and approached her. He momentarily choked, then composed himself; a passing bit of exhaust? It wasn’t clear. “Ahem. Hey. It’s me, the uh, Conduit.”

  Xolith blinked and looked at him. “Good evening, master. That must be what you meant by dog ears.” She lowered her voice; she’d been told to avoid revealing what she was. “I’m sorry, I’ve never heard of a dog before.”

  “O-oh. I see.” Kendric was very confused and trying not to show it; working with the magic department or not, he was no spy. “Let’s talk outside, all right? There’s a lot I want to know.”

  “I’ll follow you.”

  And she did; Kendric turned his back, and Xolith meekly followed him out of the station. Aemric watched for the slightest attempt at using any of her considerable roster of powers or methods of attack, but none of it came. Not yet, at least.

  Once they were out onto the street, Kendric took a breath, and briefly looked into the parking lot; presumably, at his car. Then, he gestured at a different direction with his thumb. “Let’s stop at the park, yeah? We’ll talk there.”

  “Of course, master.”

  Kendric clearly wanted to ask what was up with that, but refrained. Aemric watched his discomfort with great amusement. In any case, Kendric couldn’t help but distract himself with talk. “How was the train ride?”

  “It was interesting. I’ve… never gone so quickly, not since losing my wings. It’s shocking to think of how such a thing could be made; it must have taken the smith years.”

  “The… smith?” No question about the wings yet. It wasn’t like winged people were totally unheard of, sure, but Aemric hadn’t even heard about Xolith having any either.

  “The blacksmith… the train is made of metal, no? Surely it must have been made by a smith.”

  “No, there’s factories… let’s talk about this some other time, okay?”

  “All right, master.”

  They walked in silence; Kendric hurried along, and the demoness behind him easily matched his pace. The train station’s park wasn’t large, but it was almost completely deserted, and lacked cameras or anyone watching over it.

  Kendric stopped by the fountain, as intended, and nodded. “I guess this’ll do. Uh, you want to take a seat?”

  “Yes, please. I’m… very tired, still.” Xolith took her spot on the bench. She waited for a little while, but with her ‘master’ still unsure of what to do from here, she decided to ask, “Is something wrong?”

  “Huh? No, not really. We’re just going to be here for a while.” Kendric then tried to act more casually when he sat down next to her. “Have I really asked where you’re from, yet?”

  “Well… no. I suppose not. I’m from a place called Cold Dirt on Koriokath, it’s only a small village compared to the cities you have here, really.”

  “I’ve never heard of Koriokath.”

  “It is… my world. Most succubi are from there, it’s where our species began. It’s much, much warmer than here… I suppose I’ve never been in a place this cold, really. It’s very nice, I much prefer it. Maybe Korio was originally supposed to be this cold.”

  “I guess I can spare my hoodie if you’re too cold.” Kendric said, almost monotone himself. He was staring dead ahead, apparently trying to process that information.

  “Hm? No, I’m just fine.”

  They sat there in silence for a while again. Aemric could scarcely handle the awkward atmosphere, but he kept watching until he was very certain Xolith wasn’t going to try anything. There was only one shot at this, after all.

  Still, he didn’t wait any longer than that point to show himself. The rest of the conversation had been too cringe, while everything prior had at least been embarassing for Kendric, which was a plus.

  Aemric still knew what he was doing was technically kind of stupid; it might be best to figure out another way to keep Xolith around, make use of her powers to get her someplace to stay on her own and so on, or get Kendric in on the job properly and watch over her, or something – after all, as long as Aemric stayed away, he could retry all sorts of problems, so putting a demon next to himself was a bit dangerous.

  He was tired of trying to account for every little danger, though. Obvious ones, sure, but he was pretty sure his commands worked on Xolith properly, and he had the feeling she wasn’t really a threat anyway.

  So, Aemric approached from the other side of the fountain. He debated what kind of entrance to make, but he also knew his brother would ruin most of it intentionally or not, so he just played it by ear. Doing everything in person also made doing it perfectly much harder.

  “All right, that’s enough. Sorry for taking so long.”

  Kendric perked up. “Finally. You’re here. Now...” He clearly wanted to bitch about half of what he’d seen, but he was holding back to continue the charade until further notice.

  Aemric shrugged. “I promise I will explain all of this to you, later, but for now… there’s some basics here. First, though, nice to meet you in person, Xolith.”

  Xolith was silent; she continued to sit still on the bench and looked to Kendric, letting her ‘master’ talk. Kendric noticed her gaze and looked between her and his brother for a bit.

  Aemric sighed. “Kendric… I know who caused those magic spikes in the dorms. Xolith’s linked to that investigation, because she’s linked to me.”

  It took a while to catch his older brother up on what was happening, but Aemric didn’t leave much out while he did. Most of it, Xolith would figure out one way or another anyway, with how this plan was going. He could stop her from moving or talking, but not from thinking or hearing. He mainly avoided talking about exactly how his power worked: all they really needed to know was that he could give certain people orders and see their futures.

  During this, Xolith finally realized something and looked at Kendric. “Wait… are you… you pretended to be Master.”

  Aemric was just about to get to that part of the explanation – he’d started from the beginning, so it was the last bit. “I told him to, yes. I wanted to see if you’d try and kill me if I showed up in front of you, not that that should be possible anyway.”

  “You used me as a body double!?” Kendric complained. “Ajelda’s sake, what would you have… Oh. I guess you’d see that future and… undo it or whatever.” He said it as if he didn’t really believe it. Which, he probably didn’t. Yet. He’d get used to it.

  “Exactly. So… Xolith. Are you going to try anything now?” Aemric challenged her; best to put the idea in her mind himself before she thought of it. Kendric faintly tensed up, but it was pretty clear that he still didn’t understand what kind of danger the succubus could pose.

  She shook her head. “If everything you say is true, then the fate of this world rests on you. My home or not, all the demonic worlds are destroyed, barely habitable, and… seeing this one join them would be terrible. And if you are lying about this, then you would likely lie about your capabilities, too.”

  Aemric cracked a smile. He hadn’t needed magic to foresee the core of that response. “All right. Now, uh, the other shoe. While I could probably steal a lot of money with the powers I’ve got, I’m… too nice for that, I guess. So, unfortunately, you’re living with me for a while.”

  “The other shoe?” Xolith cocked her head.

  “It’s a figure of speech.”

  For a moment, both brothers waited to see if she’d have any concerns about that other shoe. The succubus didn’t even seem to have it on her radar. Kendric raised another question. “You’re… you know, sure this is all legit?”

  Aemric wondered if it was even possible for it not to be at this point. “Very sure. Xolith, do you think you can pull off one more gate?”

  “I believe I might collapse, but I can try it.” Distances didn’t matter to her all that much; just opening the gate was most of the cost.

  “Maybe tomorrow on that one. Otherwise, really all I can show off is some parlor tricks. If I close my eyes and use my power I can still see if you write on a piece of paper, and if a bird were to fly past and bomb you in the next couple seconds I could warn you about it beforehand. I can… hm. I guess there’s some other things too, but they need more prep.”

  Kendric put his head in his hands and thought about it. “This all seems crazy.”

  “You’ve got a demon right next to you, and you know I don’t have affinity for magic. It is pretty crazy, but something’s going on.”

  “This is why you dropped out, isn’t it? So you could deal with this?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Fuck’s sake, whatever picked you could’ve done a better job and found somebody who was at least old enough to drink. Seriously, there must’ve been someone else.”

  Aemric shrugged, and pondered for just a moment to figure out his response.

  Xolith interrupted. “Apologies, master, but I really need to excuse myself…” She’d been going at full-steam ever since arriving here without much of a break.

  “Eh? Oh… uh, yeah, there should be a bathroom in the station.”

  The brothers waited outside for her to come back; hopefully the procedure in there was obvious enough. Kendric raised another crucial issue. “So… you’re planning to just, what, have her stay at your place?”

  “Yeah. There are a few other options, but this is probably the best one. She’s not the only demon that’s going to show up. I know of at least one that’ll appear tomorrow in our own city, and from there, well, they’ll probably have the magicians looking into it once anyone realizes what kind of danger the demons pose. If I have her close she’s both a bodyguard and less likely to make some mistake while living on her own.”

  “And, you totally just want a hot succubus sharing a room with you. I’m gay, not stupid, I can tell you’re maneuvering this the way you want it.”

  “…That might have a hand in it, yes. But, seriously, think about it. There’s nowhere else to really put her. How many people can either of us really trust with this? I mean, I wasn’t even really sure you’d work with me.”

  “You could just bring this to the department. All of it, you know. There’s some kind of magic going on with you, and if we get to study it it might be important research material. You’d have plenty of resources, and a platform, and so on.”

  Aemric shook his head. “The demon that’s showing up tomorrow is invisible without using magic. It just is invisible, and it’s got blades for hands. Xolith, in there, can teleport to anywhere she can see and control someone’s mind with a kiss. If I’m a public entity at all, I’ll be an easy target.”

  Kendric was really, really trying to keep up. “So, we’ll see about hiding you somehow, or, you know, you could actually have guards if you’re really that big of a deal.”

  “Dude, mind control. And Xolith there was tasked with controlling the fucking President of Sal Tudi. If it weren’t for me, she would’ve succeeded with incredible ease. Even with a full staff of armed guards she pulled it off without a scratch. They can go after other people, too, like, I dunno, our own president. And if they have him, what secret can’t they get?”

  Kendric was taken aback. World leaders were viable targets, now. “Magic’s got to be some defense, though, if we were actually prepared with it.”

  “Maybe, but I dunno. Norvash didn’t seem protected at all and I doubt he has no enchantments on him, same with his guards. If a solution is found, though, it’d work both ways, and at some point this is going to go from shadow war to actual war. Sometime before then I’ve got to get the major powers ready to fight, and I really don’t think they’re all going to cooperate on re-arming so easy.”

  “You mean you’re also trying to control everybody.”

  “Not directly, not for anything I don’t need to. Think about it. The other play’s just to hope the department believes me enough to not lock me in an asylum or try me as an unlicensed magician and be quiet about my presence and bring this higher up to the right channels who’d then have to decide the same things, until finally someone with authority can then decide whether to actually work with some far-fetched prophecy that a bunch of toasty dudes with bronze swords are going to show up and destroy everything.” He finally took a breath after all that.

  “It… does seem crazy… but there’s no way you can pull this off alone.”

  “I’ve got a president and the aforementioned teleporting succubus in my toolbelt. It’ll work.” Mentioning the Red Scale to his pseudo-police brother was probably a bad idea, so Aemric avoided that.

  “Do you even know how to use those tools, though?”

  Aemric sighed. “No… but does anyone?”

  Kendric considered it all again, and made a decision. “Look, I still think it’s a bad idea, and weird that you’re trying to puppet-master everything. It’s worrying.”

  “If you’re planning on reporting all this anyway, then say it.”

  “I’m… I almost feel like I’d need to. I thought it was neat at first, but this plan of yours is crazy.”

  “Fine. We’ll try it… partially your way. There’s no way anyone’s going to trust me outright, but we can see about convincing some people quietly, keep other plans last-ditch. There’s going to be a fight in a pizzeria tomorrow at midnight, and I was planning to get it to spill out into the street enough that someone might notice the fucking invisible demon in there. If you happen to bring one of your buddies along on 8th Street around then, they might see it and we can get the ball rolling early.”

  “All right.” Kendric still kept a wary eye on his brother, and stayed pretty quiet until he and his pet demon were dropped off at the hotel.