They were back in the park after that. Midnight wasn’t too far away, and at this point, no matter what emotional baggage he was going to have to carry into it, Aemric was in the final stretch before needing to help Tiria and her group fight off another crazy demon. Hopefully, that one would be the straightforward ‘just here to kill you’ kind and wouldn’t come with a pile of personal problems he’d need to solve.

  Aemric didn’t mind helping Xolith much, and he was self-aware enough to know there was pretty privilege going on there. The same with Tiria. Norvash, meanwhile, he didn’t look forward to meeting, though the guy had already grown on him a little. But if every single person he got to Dream about was a pile of trauma or vices that he had to work through, it was going to get old fast. He hadn’t signed up for that. Hadn’t signed up for anything, really, but still.

  Maybe it was better not to worry about them so much. No… too many things were interlinked. Making sure they were all on board and stable helped the end-goal. He wasn’t trading everyone else for a few people.

  In any case, Xolith was fairly quiet; Aemric generally explained what he was going to do.

  “I’m going to remotely observe someone else for a little while. It might only take a moment, but more likely I’ll need to pop in and out for up to an hour or two. In that time, I’m going to be putting out a lot of magic energy. Some people might be able to detect it if they get too close, so if anyone approaches, tell me.”

  “…Understood.” She was still basically ‘obedient.’ Had the talk earlier done nothing, or was she still processing?

  Either way, he couldn’t worry about that now either. “Also… you said only your clan or whatever would know about this world, right?”

  “Most likely, yes.”

  “Did you happen to do anything that might let some kind of invisible demon with claws in?”

  “Yes… the summoning ritual I mentioned before. My previous lord had me sent a stone describing how to summon his various servants to here, foregoing the necessary parts to restrict their movements. It was… some time ago. Maybe ten days in your time, I’m not sure.”

  That would’ve been nice to know before. Still, he hadn’t asked.

  “The demon you speak of should be a zolb. I don’t know his personal name. They are… not particularly dangerous, only difficult to see.”

  Still dangerous to the average human, though. “Thanks. I’m going to try not to send you out on this, but if it gets particularly bad… well, the place isn’t far. You can probably gate there.”

  “No… if I can help, please, allow me. I don’t have any particular love for my previous lord’s servants; I didn’t interact with any of them. Fighting most of them should be easy.” She sounded surprisingly eager, actually. Something seemed wrong, though.

  “Well, thanks for the support, but it’s more because sending you out too much might cause problems. Until someone catches on, you’re a trump card. A secret weapon. That kind of thing.”

  “Oh…”

  “You’ll get your turn, I’m sure. We’re just getting started.” Aemric took one last look around. “All right. Jumping in.”

  Tiria was already on the move, sitting in the passenger seat of her father’s car. They were breaking a few traffic laws, definitely in a rush, and three other Scales were in the back. No music; a tense atmosphere. One of the men in the back had one hand on his earpiece; he answered something. “No, we were there. The Dogs were definitely moving, but they were moving out, not in. Yes, we’re sure, damn it.”

  Aemric took over for a moment; Tiria murmured. “I’m here. What’s going on?”

  She wasn’t particularly surprised. “We’re under attack directly, at the office. The Master called everyone back; it’s an emergency. We were watching the pizzeria before this, as planned, but it seemed like the Dogs filed out just ten minutes ago, right before the attack started.”

  The woman in the back noticed Tiria murmuring, and grabbed her shoulder. “Hey, kid. Shut the hell up.”

  “It’s the Conduit.” Tiria answered.

  “Hell with the Conduit, that’s a fucking ruse to get us out of HQ.”

  “Hush for now. Both of you.” Mr. Fensott ordered; they followed suit.

  Aemric lingered for a moment, formulating his response. Was the premonition wrong? It might’ve been. He could change the future; that had been one of the first things he checked, with meeting Tiria in the hallway. The Red Scale had been snooping around, scouting to check if his intel was correct, and maybe that had tipped off the Dogs in turn. Or, maybe somehow the demons reacted differently, since Xolith hadn’t succeeded in her mission. Could even be something else. Hell, the attack might’ve been inevitable anyway, and the summoning could be continuing as before.

  He stopped Dreaming, and sighed. He’d have to catch up with Tiria in a few minutes; they weren’t very close to Scale HQ, so maybe ten. He needed to know what went wrong.

  “Xolith?”

  “Yes?” For her it had only been a second or two, and his decision had immediately been revoked. His ears burned a little in embarrassment, but as usual, there was no time to think about himself.

  “You’re up. My premonition might’ve been wrong or the future might’ve changed, I don’t know. I need you to go check. I’ll guide you to it.”

  Leansville was a grid city, and that made getting around via Gates pretty easy. One jump up to the top of a skyscraper that lined up with the first axis, then another jump down the street from there to the right spot. Xolith stepped out of an invisible door in an alley next to the pizzeria, now wearing a ski mask, black poncho, sports glasses, and gloves. It was no superhero outfit, but it covered everything from her head to her knees, was cheap as hell, and worked to disguise her otherwise-pretty-distinguishable features.

  Aemric couldn’t really get over how dorky it looked.

  In any case, while her landing wasn’t immediately noticed, a man with an entire machete at his hip stepped out into the alley from the pizzeria’s employees-only door, and saw this extremely-suspicious individual standing there.

  Whatever he started to shout in alarm didn’t matter. Without any guidance, Xolith dashed over, and before the man could pull his weapon from his belt, she tackled him hard enough that the impact with the wall knocked him out.

  Aemric took a moment to process that before giving some directions. “Well, good job. That’s one. Go inside the place, try to find that stone you were talking about. Try to charm at least one to interrogate.”

  “Yes.”

  The door was still open, so she stepped inside and looked around; the man guarding the front had left his spot by the window, and she put two and two together. An easy catch. The poor guy went over to his unconscious friend, revolver drawn and aimed into the dark alley, and didn’t even hear Xolith coming before she popped out the door and kissed his neck.

  The man blinked, then looked to his new mistress. She wasn’t the slightest bit concerned. “Hello there. How many of your allies are inside this building?”

  “Uh, should be a few. Didn’t count, sorry.” He answered as if casually answering a friend; it was a bit eerie.

  “About five?”

  “Yeah. Somethin’ like that.”

  “Good. Be patient and stay here. I’ll be back.”

  Xolith turned to leave, but Aemric decided to adjust his orders a little. She spoke in monotone. “Hide that guy inside somewhere and make sure nobody else enters or leaves the pizzeria.”

  “Sure thing.” The charmed thug went over, picked up the machete-wielding fellow, and went inside after Xolith did.

  The succubus was a little mystified by her own powers being sort-of-hijacked, but pressed on into the rest of the building. There was nobody in the immediate storage room or the kitchen, and the seating area was likewise empty. Another door led downwards, though, into a basement, where Aemric knew the event was supposed to take place. Xolith headed down, and began to hear three men talking.

  “...then we can get more. A bit of meat and water is plenty cheap, don’t worry.”

  “I think there are other costs, though. The prices seem to be over here, but some of them are hard to distinguish… Take a look.” The second had relatively clear enunciation and was an older man, by the tone of his voice.

  “What’s this say?” The third asked.

  “I’m not sure. That’s the thing. Like I said, it’s all pictograms, that’s what I can tell you, but figuring out exactly what they mean is…”

  The men came into view when Xolith rounded the corner; this was more like it. Storage all along the walls; wine racks, tables that Aemric knew had had guns atop them before, electronics, medical supplies, sometimes even flour and marinara sauce. The center was cleared out around a large cylindrical stone covered in carvings, beside which the three men sat.

  For a moment, they were too engrossed in their observations to notice her, and she quietly and confidently walked halfway through the room towards them. Xolith understood that staying low and hiding in shadows could alert an observer more than just casually walking up to them, and only once the older man looked directly at her did she burst into motion.

  The first man, the largest and burliest, had his neck snapped on the spot. The third foolishly looked at the commotion the first’s landing made against the floor instead of what had caused it, and was thrown across the room into the wine rack a moment later; he lay still. The second backed up, but stumbled on his bad knee, and shakily drew a revolver to aim it at Xolith.

  The succubus didn’t instinctively know what a gun was, and Aemric had realized that well before. So, he wasn’t slow on the draw here; he took over immediately. [Kick the item in his hand away.]

  One boot came up, and the gun went flying. The old man’s hand was twisted a little in the process, and his finger pulled the trigger; a shot went off. Xolith was taken aback, but then got down and grabbed him by the collar to deliver a kiss to his forehead.

  “...No, I don’t know where their headquarters is, or if they took any prints. I only got called in yesterday to figure out the pictograms. Fred’s – oh, I guess you don’t know him. He’s one of the boss’s ‘pals,’ or so he says. In any case, I had a bit of a relationship with the boy’s mother twenty years ago, helped raise him, taught him to fight. I figured he would join the Scale one day and play it safe, but eh, young’uns never really play anything safe. In any case, he asked me to come look at this one, to see if it was magic, and one thing led to another… Oh. Sorry, did I answer your question?”

  “You did.” A flat response. At least the additional stories the old man kept tacking on only took a few minutes in total. “Do you have any idea why the Dogs rushed the summoning?”

  “I wasn’t told directly, but as far as I know they noticed someone watching outside and decided to move some plans up. I’m pretty sure that’s why this place is so empty, too.”

  “Do you know much about those ‘plans?’ How many people, and where?”

  “No, that’s about all I know, really. Eh, do you mind if I go upstairs and get a drink?” The old man’s voice was getting a little hoarse from all the storytelling.

  “Not quite yet. Are you a magician?” Aemric only needed a little clarification.

  “Well… yes and no.” The old man gave a wry smile. “Depends on who’s asking, you know how it is.”

  “Sure.” Xolith then murmured to herself. “How far can you push someone with this?”

  “What do you mean?” She murmured back.

  “Like, would he jump off a building?”

  “No. Instructing others to attack their family or friends is usually difficult, too.”

  “Okay… I’ve got a plan.”

  “Hey, Kendric.”

  “What? I’m on my way to that pizzeria you were talking about already. Jason’s with me. You remember him?” He didn’t seem pleased, but he was following the directions anyway. That was enough. Time to give him something for his trouble, at least. Whatever was happening at the Scale HQ was probably going to be too bloody to just stumble into.

  “Oh, good. That’s what I was calling to confirm. Yeah, I remember Jason and how much you droned on about his ass. More importantly, outside the pizzeria is going to be an old man in a brown coat. Just ask him if he’s a magician. He’ll tell you the rest. Oh, and the other guy next to him is an… accomplice, I guess you could say.”

  “Huh?”

  The old man wouldn’t jump in, but he’d dig his own grave all right. Setting aside whatever use he had for illegal magic, the MD might be able to press him on the demons, and that was worth his serving his sentence. Maybe they’d get a lead on Xolith, too, but there was a price to pay for everything.

  Aemric looked around to make sure nobody had approached him, then checked on Tiria. Xolith was still out, maybe not even inside the pizzeria yet. He was really getting the hang of tracking these things, probably thanks to how clear-headed he felt when he was Dreaming. Not having a body that distracted his thoughts really seemed to help.

  Tiria was still in the car; there was traffic, it seemed. Her father was still at the wheel, but one of the Scales had gotten out at some point; the woman who’d yelled at her earlier.

  She got back to the car and talked to the man who’d been on his earpiece earlier. “The police blocked off the road ahead. Are they on our side?”

  Stolen story; please report.

  “No. They must still have been tipped off, though. Did you see any of the Dogs?”

  “No… Think they closed it off to keep us from following?”

  The man nodded, then opened up his door and got out. “Definitely. We’re going to run it.”

  Tiria’s father got out, and then so did the remaining two in the car. They all took off running back down the street and around; the traffic was already jammed, and not just from one route.

  Aemric used this moment to talk through Tiria; he kept her running at the same time, with a little effort. “Conduit here. Situation update. I sent someone in to handle the pizzeria. Interrogating the Dogs there revealed they noticed you watching and moved their plans up. They summoned-”

  “Shut up!” The same woman shouted. “Conda, she’s gotta be compromised.”

  The man with the earpiece responded after a slight hesitation. “You’re right.”

  Aemric knew where this was going. His first instinct was to have Tiria break off and run; that would probably inconvenience them too much for them to want to turn around and kill her. He wanted to keep the Red Scale in the game, though, and that meant cooperating with them. He started again.

  He didn’t tell them anything; as a result, Tiria flew under the radar. Not noisy enough to be remembered, and thus safe for now. With the delay, though, they arrived to encounter what amounted to a warzone; the Red Scale office was entirely under siege. A host of cars and trucks were haphazardly idling around the building, and a few men were hiding behind some of them and taking shots up at others in the windows above, retreating behind their vehicles’ improvised bulletproofing to reload.

  Aemric was flabbergasted. A shootout? Seriously? It wasn’t a good part of the city, sure, but they were still out in the open in a major city in New Dardania, and the police weren’t doing anything about it. Had his hometown always been like this? He hadn’t known, if that was the case.

  Conda’s group rallied up behind a civilian SUV a little ways away from the action. Conda himself checked in with whoever he was talking to, and informed them of where he was so that they wouldn’t get shot at in the confusion… hopefully. Then, he drew a revolver, and checked his group; Mr. Fensott had a two-shot pocket pistol, too, as did that woman. The third man in the group just carried that usual staff; he nodded after Conda looked at him, and proceeded to pull out a string to turn the staff into a bow on the spot.

  Aemric was a little surprised. He hadn’t asked about the staves much; this was a new technique. He was pretty sure it wasn’t going to count for much against a bunch of guys with guns, though.

  Tiria followed suit with her own staff, and then Conda started issued an order. “There’s another group on the street opposite us; we’ll move up at the same time as them, get to the encirclement, and then fight up close. They outgun us otherwise, so we’ll need the confusion. You two,” He looked to the two with bows, “While we approach, stay here, shoot at anyone who turns to us. Keep hidden, annoy them. Understood?”

  “Aye.” The bowman said; Tiria nodded.

  “Good. Now… Go.” Conda ran forward into the street, and immediately Tiria got up with her bow, put an arrow she pulled from a brace inside the back of her jacket to the string, and got ready to draw.

  She watched; nothing, nothing. She saw something, drew, and fired in merely a second; the man next to her followed suit. Aemric saw one of their arrows hit a Dog who’d been facing Conda’s way, and the man yelped in pain. Still, it was ‘only’ an arrow to the leg, and it got nowhere near killing him.

  The Dog looked for the source of the projectile, and raised his musket towards where Tiria was as she dashed to another vehicle. Aemric was a little concerned until he pulled the trigger, at which point everyone involved remembered he’d been behind the truck to reload in the first place. A moment later, another arrow hit him in the chest.

  Conda got to the encirclement, then, and a fight fully broke out over there. The Scales caught the Dogs by surprise, and took two out in melee immediately before engaging in a cover battle with the others.

  Tiria was finally on her own, and in cover. Aemric took that moment to brief her.

  “Hey. Conduit here. I sent someone to the pizzeria and got more intel. They noticed you guys spying and upped their game before you could. There are multiple demons in that building somewhere. One’s nearly invisible, so keep your eyes peeled, another has unusually tough skin, and the last…” A burst of flame erupted from one of the windows upstairs. “He outputs a lot of heat.”

  “I need to tell them.” Tiria stopped hiding and started to stand up to run to Conda, but Aemric stopped her.

  “They think I’m using you to deceive them, remember? I tried telling them on the way here, but they went and tried to kill you.”

  She closed her eyes and sighed. “I’ll… trust you, then. Where do I go?”

  Well, that trust counted for something. He planned on keeping it up. “Circle around to the other group and talk to them. Then… hopefully we can get inside.”

  Tiria nodded, and then followed the sidewalk around the edge of the square; nobody really bothered shooting at her. There were countless more important targets around. She occasionally saw a Dog in an exposed spot and considered taking a shot, but she decided against it.

  Aemric kept watching as she made the last dash into the encirclement beside the other team of Scales; they weren’t doing well. Two were already shot, though maybe not mortally wounded, and the other two were peeking their corners carefully, certainly outgunned with only a single pistol and a stolen repeating rifle between them. Still, at least they’d gotten the three Dogs that were dead at their feet.

  One of the wounded saw Tiria coming, and promptly ordered her around. A bullet in his thigh kept him on the ground, though. “You there, get your bow up and help, damn it! Don’t come over here, split to different cover!”

  She approached anyway. “I’ve got important intel! Do you have a link to the officers?”

  “Fuck’s sake… yes. What is it? Quickly, damn it.”

  “The Dogs have demons with them. Magical creatures. Believe me; the Master already knows of them. There are three. The-”

  “You’re the fucking ‘Vessel’ girl, aren’t you? Weren’t you supposed to be with the other group?”

  Tiria wasn’t sure what to do. She told the truth. “Yes. It’s not important right now. One is invisible, one is bulletproof, one emits intense heat – flames. Please, tell them.”

  The other wounded man, with a bullet in his shoulder, got halfway up and grabbed her. “Stupid fucking kid, why didn’t-”

  Tiria punched him in the jaw, and the man fell on the spot in his weakened state. One of the two fighting-fit, the woman with the stolen rifle, noticed and locked on to Tiria; Aemric was ready, and had her swing her bow at the rifle as something of a parry.

  Tiria took over from there, and flipped the bow in her hand such that the string caught on the barrel of the rifle; she wrestled the gun away from herself and shouted. “They noticed we were watching! I didn’t have anything to do with this!”

  The remaining fighting-man suddenly took a bullet to the hand, then, and dropped his gun. The officer clenched his jaw. “Fine… Prove it, then. Pick up that pistol and fight.”

  Tiria looked to the riflewoman, and disentangled her bow after a moment’s hesitation. She slung the bow over one shoulder and picked up the pistol; the freshly-injured man who’d been using it looked to her with some surprise. Tiria psyched herself up, and then Aemric stopped her.

  “Other side. They’re watching this side.” He advised; he had the overhead view, while the Scales, by the very nature of cover, couldn’t see around it. “You don’t know how to use this thing, right?”

  “I know how… but I haven’t used guns much.”

  The officer growled in frustration. “Don’t fucking sit there, move!”

  Tiria scowled back, and then scrambled to the front of the car, staying low. This put her towards the middle of the encirclement, in theory a poor spot to be as anyone else would have a shot from across the way, but she trusted Aemric. He could see that most of the Dogs and Scales alike were mostly focused on their immediate threats, and used his re-trying capabilities to gamble with that in mind.

  Tiria got around to the other corner, and Aemric guided her hand such that the gun was already pointed at where he knew the target was. She kept it there, and looked down the sight as she peeked over.

  One shot. The revolver kicked in her hand, but she was a fighter by trade and kept her grip. Tiria watched the man across the way fall to the ground, a bullet in his head. She froze for a moment, and Aemric took over to push her to hide behind the next car up.

  Once she was there, Aemric checked the time on her watch; he needed to know, in case he wound up needing to restart, as he’d need to know what the deadline was before Dreaming again. Plenty of time.

  Tiria got control again, and breathed steady for a while. She checked on the body again. Aemric wondered; had she ever killed someone before? That staff was an only-vaguely-lethal weapon, so it was possible she hadn’t. The arrow that had killed the Dog earlier wasn’t hers, either.

  It didn’t matter right now, and Tiria knew that already. She got back to work; she seemed to take a mental checklist on her gun, and then cocked the hammer. Single-action.

  “What now?” She asked.

  “You can pass through the cab, it’s barely open on your side, see? There’s one more across this car from you. He’s just hiding. Pinned, scared. I don’t think you need to kill him, but he’s got a shotgun.”

  “He came here to kill everyone I know.” Tiria said, and then opened the car door to crawl through. She opened the door on the other side with one hand, as the other kept her revolver ready.

  The Dog on the other side fell from a sitting position to lying down, and fumbled his gun. He was young, probably about as young as Aemric himself, maybe even younger. Tiria did hesitate for a moment, but took her shot. The kid’s shoulder took the bullet, and he dropped the shotgun both out of pain and a desire to surrender. Aemric didn’t know if she’d missed the killshot or avoided it on purpose.

  Tiria watched him crawl away, and got out of the car in a crouch; she kept her eyes on the kid, but Aemric had her look at the next car instead, and cocked the hammer for her. “One more, then you’ll be in the alley. This one’s got a rifle, see the muzzle there?”

  She nodded. That kid stumbled to his feet and ran across the street and away from the fight; whatever would happen to him, they’d never know. Tiria looked around, and saw that most of the fight outside was dying down. She made up her mind to cross inside the circle again.

  A bullet whizzed by her; a reminder not to get too cocky. The source was somewhere behind, and the rifleman in front took cover too. At a bad time indeed, as Tiria then came face to face with them; they were both momentarily surprised, and Aemric took over one more time. Tiria shot first.

  The rifleman clutched the wound in his chest, and fell. Tiria trembled with the revolver in her hand, and breathed hard. Another shot from behind her… this one caught her while she was still standing there, recovering.

  Aemric sighed internally. Tiria was still alive, and that was an improvement on her usual luck, but a bullet in her arm wouldn’t help at all. He blinked.

  He checked around himself again. Time progressed a tiny bit each time he Dreamt, and the situation had changed slightly. There was one man walking through the park a ways away, slowly, kind of weirdly, he’d just appeared from around a bush. Maybe a hobo. Aemric really didn’t like being out here in the dark, but hopefully it was better than otherwise. Worst-case, he’d call Xolith back to help.

  No, he was too worked up after the gunfight. He hadn’t even been there, hadn’t had a body while he watched all of that, but his own adrenaline was pumping now, too. The battle wasn’t raging here. The hobo was probably just that; some hobo. Aemric watched the man pass, and continued to check the time on his phone; seemed like ages just to wait the fifteen minutes that it had taken Tiria and her group to run to Red Scale HQ.

  He made up his mind to get a watch. Too much of his ‘work’ relied on time, and having a watch would make it easier to check. Plus, it wouldn’t run out of battery so damn fast. Then again… maybe once he got a job; every penny was a countdown.

  His phone rang. Kendric.

  “Heya, w-”

  “There was a gunshot at that pizzeria.” Kendric sounded a little spooked; reasonable.

  “Yep. Gang violence… Give it a few minutes, wait near the pizzeria, not too close. Once you see the old man and some other dude walk out and stand in front of the store, go talk to them. They’re under a spell, they’ll tell you everything. Just don’t let them know you’re going to arrest them until they’re, you know, already in cuffs, or they’ll react, probably.”

  “Gang violence!?”

  “I told you it would be a fight. It was going to be a lot bigger, but it mostly moved down the street a little… Look, just go up, talk to the old man, then arrest him for being an illegal magician, okay? Don’t worry. I have someone nearby.”

  “All right… but fuck you if this goes wrong and the guy roasts me alive with a fireball.”

  “He won’t, it’ll be fine.” Aemric was sure of it; even if Kendric wasn’t one of his Dream-linked people, he could still watch through Xolith for a bit and know when to retry from there, since it was going to be a while before Tiria got into that fight.

  The succubus was just finishing up talking to that old magician, under Aemric’s prior control. Watching it was still eerie to him. Fast forward, just a little, please. Such a feature didn’t exist in these Dreams, though.

  The old man went outside with the charmed thug, and stood there for a while. Xolith watched them go from inside the store.

  Aemric talked to her. “A previous me’s going to say this in a moment, but good work.”

  “Good work. Remember Kendric? He’ll be along in a moment to talk to those two, in theory. Don’t go and talk to him, stay hidden. Leave once you’re-”

  “That’s enough of that.” Present Aemric cut off the orders. “Could you go and check the pockets of the guys you already got? We can steal their money. Should be in little black leather containers like the one I have. Remember?”

  Xolith was stunned for a moment, then she got moving. “Yes… sorry, master, what was that?”

  “I see the future, remember? I send orders into the future too. Then, when I change my mind, I need to send new orders to override the old ones. Sorry, I’m still sort of getting the hang of it.”

  She got to the thug on the main floor; he had a wallet on him all right, and a good two hundred Newdanian dollars in it. The credit card was a different matter; using it was probably a bad idea. Xolith put the wallet back, then went downstairs quickly to get the other two. If Kendric died upstairs in the meantime, Aemric had enough time to retry.

  Mmmh… no, watching his brother die wouldn’t really be fun. If he got his hair singed off it might be entertaining for a moment, though.

  Xolith came back upstairs, her cargo pants stuffed with bills. A good haul; it’d buy them almost an extra month of rent, with those low prices. Ill-gotten gains were nice. Food and so on for that time was different, though.

  Kendric was, indeed, talking to the old man. Xolith watched from indoors, in her creepy outfit, on Aemric’s direction. Nobody noticed, as the lights were all off anyway. Then, suddenly, Kendric produced a pair of enchanted cuffs, locked the old man in, and the arcane gem glowed for a moment. Magic sealed; criminal detained successfully.

  “What are they doing with him?” Xolith asked, otherwise idle.

  “Arresting him. He’s a magic-user who didn’t tell anyone he could use it, so he’s breaking the law. I’d be arrested too, even though whatever I do is just similar, not the same.”

  “They don’t just kill criminals?”

  “No, not unless they’re an active danger. We try and imprison people as punishment instead, sometimes teach them things to keep them out of trouble in the future.”

  “It… really is easy over here.”

  “You say that, but there’s a gunfight going on a few blocks from where you are. Can you… beat all three of those demons, if you needed to?”

  “Maybe. A surprise strike from behind would kill the tourax, a kiss might stun the kazol, and the zolb… is hardly a threat to begin with.”

  “I hate to say it, but I might need your help over there too.”

  “Just tell me where to go.” Once again, she seemed pleased. A battle junkie? Aemric wouldn’t have figured that. No, it still seemed like something else.

  Xolith was on-scene before Tiria could even get shot. That saved Aemric a trip. The succubus had clearer sightlines for teleportation if she hopped from rooftop to rooftop, and it was harder to notice her up there too. She watched the battle unfold from behind an air conditioning unit anyways, to ensure she wasn’t seen by anyone inside the building.

  She quickly assessed the situation. “I don’t see any of the demons outside. The tourax… is there, the zolb could be anywhere, the kazol…” Rooms suddenly bursting into flames and filling with smoke was an obvious tell for the tourax; Aemric hadn’t really understood how just heat was an immediate danger until he saw it in action.

  “For now, the fight’s just with the normal people down below. Someone else I’m linked to is down there, too. She’s a little taller than you, wearing a red shirt and leather jacket. See the blue car down there? That’s her.” Tiria was just past shooting that gang kid in the shoulder.

  “I see.”

  “Now, over there, by the big white truck. Somebody’s looking at her. Can you get two gates off, one behind that person, then the other to our girl?”

  “Yes. I’ll have energy for… one or two more.” She’d recover a little over time, though, if she got a little rest now…

  Aemric considered it. “Okay. We’ll save one of them. Wait for our girl – her name is Tiria – to get into the alley, then gate in in front of her. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  “Yes.”

  Aemric was getting to be pretty certain that she was just dropping the ‘master’ after those and calling it a day.

  Tiria shot the rifle-wielder, and then under Aemric’s direction, immediately hit the deck. A bullet whizzed by overhead.

  “Careful.” He reminded her. He hadn’t been careful enough before, either, but it didn’t hurt to say it.

  “Thank you.” Tiria crawled forward, and took the repeating rifle from the freshly-dead man; he briefly clung to it, but not for long. Tiria paid him a look, then took the man’s bandolier of bullets. She strapped it on under her bow, and then asked, “What now?”

  “Check your gun. Then… well, can you lift that guy?”

  “I can.” Tiria operated the lever; a cartridge ejected. She picked it up off the floor, and then looked over the gun, figuring out how it worked. She knew the theory, she just didn’t know the exact weapon. She loaded it to full, then went over to pick up the dead man.

  Aemric took over; she’d need to have him facing the right way while also walking in the correct direction, so it was easier for him to do it. Tiria held the man under his armpits with one hand, her other hand still carrying the rifle, and practically stumbled over to the alleyway. The Dog on the other side of the battle didn’t shoot at her; maybe they thought the poor guy was still alive, or maybe they just knew they didn’t have a clear enough shot to want to waste a bullet, or maybe they weren’t even looking that way now.

  Tiria dropped the dead man on the floor the moment she was back in control, and observed the blood on her sleeve. “Eugh… No time. Nevermind.”

  “Heh. Now, don’t be alarmed, but there’s an ally behind you.” Aemric warned Tiria, then had her turn around to see Xolith standing there in her absurd getup. “Tiria, meet Xolith. Xolith, Tiria.”

  Xolith was definitely weirded out by watching Tiria speak in third person, but she caught on quickly. “The Conduit sent me to help.”

  Tiria blinked. “Uh… should I ask?”

  “Others knowing my appearance would be inconvenient.” Even the succubus could tell she was wearing something odd; she didn’t particularly like being looked at for any sustained period.

  “Got it. Can you fight?”

  “Yes.”

  Tiria observed the lack of weapons. “I don’t have a spare gun. Stay behind me.”

  Aemric clarified this. “Tiria gets point; bullets solve most problems. You know the place, too. Xolith, if any of the demons turn up, do your thing. Otherwise, save your energy. Tiria, seriously, if Xolith goes off and beats the shit out of something, just get out of her way and cover her.” Any better explanations would have to come later.

  “Yes.” Xolith agreed.

  “Right.” Tiria was mystified; she didn’t know what to expect.

  Aemric really wanted to smirk, and accidentally put that expression on Tiria’s face for just a moment. He had a little squad going. More effort, sure, but it felt kind of nice to see them both in one spot, working together.