Brint Hawthorn: “Is this thing on? Alright, it seems to be working. Let me state for the record, that present today is myself, Professor Brint Hawthorn, my colleague, Magister Denver Malicrux, as well as a Splinter Devil that has provided his name as ‘Azimalex’.

Denver Malicrux: “Can I start? Okay. Azimalex, the contracts have been signed. Are you ready to provide your side of the deal?

Azimalex: “Of course, as we agreed. And please, call me Azim. No reason for us to be so formal, now that we have an arrangement.”

Denver Malicrux: “Very well then, Azim. Before we begin, may I remind you that you have agreed to tell the full truth, avoiding the use of double meanings insofar possible and clarifying them where you cannot. That you have agreed not to omit anything that can be relevant to the discussion, nor to wait for us to ask the relevant question if there is something that would alter our decision, but to volunteer it before this conversation ends. Is this correct?”

Azimalex: “Insofar as it deals with the arrangement that we are trying to negotiate with regards to your so-called ‘Grand Template’, yes. I did indeed read the contract before I signed.”

Brint Hawthorne: “And have we left anything out of our contract? Any loopholes you plan to exploit?”

Azimalex: (Laughing) “Oh, how devious! I love it! No, there is not. And if there were, I would have informed you. In this particular case, both of our parties stand to gain far too much in the long term from honest dealings and being open about what we are trying to achieve for me to attempt some base deceit.”

Brint Hawthorne: “And are you deceiving us now?”

Azimalex: “No, dear boy. I am being fully transparent with you, as the contract requires. But your questions are starting to bore me. Can we move along?”

Denver Malicrux: “Azim, you have told us that you are here representing a group called ‘InferTec’, is that correct?”

Azimalex: “Indeed, that is correct. I am authorized to negotiate on their behalf. I have also been granted power of attorney in this particular case, therefore I am empowered to sign on their behalf if we manage to reach an arrangement.”

Denver Malicrux: “And this ‘InferTec’, it is a what? A collection of demons?”

Azimalex: “Think of us as a… what’s the human term? Oh yes. A ‘guild’. Or possibly something akin to a mercantile house. Honestly, for the purposes of our negotiation all you need to know is that we do not represent all demons, but all demons have the option of making use of our services. We are a… service provider. Does that suffice?”

Brint Hawthorne: “Yes, thank you. I think that clarifies things sufficiently. Denver?”

Denver Malicrux: “Unless this becomes relevant again later on in the negotiations, I am satisfied for now, yes.”

Brint Hawthorne: “Good. Then let us get to the real question. Why are you seeking to bind your… ‘InferTec’ to our Grand Template? It is nothing but a list of restrictions on your kind, for no gain.”

Azimalex: “That is a complex question you ask, and there are many layers to the answer. So let me start with a question of my own. How many demons were summoned by mortals before the great Forbiddance?”

Brint Hawthorne: “Please do not try to evade the question.”

Azimalex: “You will find that the answer to my question is most relevant to the answer to your question. So please, humour me?”

Brint Hawthorne: (Sighing) “Fine. None. Demons didn’t need mortals to summon them before the Forbiddance.”

Azimalex: “The correct answer is actually ‘four’, but it is understandable that you would not know that. Your records are significantly inferior to ours, and in all four cases, the summoners did not survive the process.”

Denver Malicrux: “Why is this relevant? The question was why did you approach us to volunteer to be subjected to our Grand Template?”

Azimalex: “How many demons were summoned on average, per year, after the development of contracts?”

Brint Hawthorne: “I don’t know. Ten.”

Azimalex: (Holding up three fingers) “Just three. How many are being summoned on average now, since the establishment of your ‘Institute of Diabolism’?”

Denver Malicrux: “More than three, for sure. I have personally summoned three of your kind in the last six months.”

Azimalex: “Indeed. My numbers may be slightly out of date, but as far as I am aware, it currently sits at twenty-two. And growing, as you grow. Why do you think this is?”

Denver Malicrux: “Accessability. Summoning rituals used to be obscure knowledge, hoarded by lone diabolists and dark cults and kept secret until they eventually made a mistake and wiped themselves out. The Institute, on the other hand, has been collecting this information and shares it with anyone who wants to learn, along with the basics of negotiations and contract-making so that they can bargain on more even footing.”

Brint Hawthorne: “And with my new Contract Department at the Academy, we’ve been teaching people how to beat you and your tricks, and we’re getting better and better every year.”

Azimalex: “That is the purpose behind your ‘Grand Template’ as well, is it not?”

Brint Hawthorne: “Yes! We’re going to put the power to deal safely with your kind in the hands of every diabolist out there. Your days of exploiting people will be over!”

Denver Malicrux: “Slow down, Brint. You can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. All we can do is put the knowledge out there and hope that people aren’t so stubborn as to refuse to use it. My question is, why do you want to encourage this, Azim? Would it not make more sense to attempt to stop us? Your contracts are going to be a lot less lucrative when you can no longer trick people out of their souls.”

Azimalex: “Oh my. And here I thought you were clever little mortals. Since you seem to be a little slow, allow me to spell it out for you.

I’ve illustrated that as diabolism has become safer, it’s usage has increased, yes? And you have admitted that the goal of your endeavor is to make diabolism safer for the man on the street, yes? Tell me, what do you think will happen when it becomes so safe to summon a demon that even a child could do it without danger of harm? I will tell you what. Even the children will be making deals with demons.

Can you even imagine the kind of growth business diabolism will be then? Forget tens. Forget hundreds. We at InferTec foresee thousands of demons being summoned every year, each providing services in exchange for small proportions of souls. Proportions that get smaller and smaller as costs get reduced and economies of scale kick in. This, gentlemen, is progress! And all we ask is that you allow us to help you. Allow no demons other than those sent by InferTec to sign onto your Grand Template, and we will make sure that it is physically impossible for them to arrive here without having agreed to it.

It will become less a ‘Grand Template’ and more a… ‘Grand Contract’!”

(Silence)

Denver Malicrux: “Brint?”

Brint Hawthorne: “Yes?”

Denver Malicrux: “I think we are going to need to add an age restriction to the Grand Template.”

-Excerpt from a transcript of interrogation: Azimalex on initial negotiations with ‘InferTec’

This world was a lot fucked up.

It had been about three days since the completion of Ixxy’s contract with that old Albricht guy, and she had only managed to complete two contracts since, earning her just about enough to pay off her fine.

But she hadn’t done so. Not yet.

Instead, she was sitting on the roof of one of the buildings of Triorbus Square, in a spot she’d found while exploring where the angular sections came together to form a small horizontal lip where one could sit comfortably with their legs dangling over the edge of a two story drop.

The view of Grailmane, with its stone spires reaching up into the sky, was majestic from this high up and the way the walls between the districts…

No, that was a lie. It was hideous. The sea of simple, magestone dwellings appeared to have been grown out of the rock of the Grailstone Mountain itself. The way they spread across the landscape made it look like the mountain had developed some form of skin disease. The towers themselves speared upwards like crude stone spikes piercing through the mountain’s skin, and the few normally constructed structures clustered around their base appeared just different enough to make it seemed like the wound had gotten infected.

Ixxy slapped her cheeks and shook her head. What was wrong with her? Why was this affecting her so much? She should have been fine. She was fine. She just needed a little time to think. Yes, that was it. A little time to think.

The first contract of the two had been okay. She’d been summoned to the Academy by a couple of researchers doing some work on demons and diabolism. Something about demon biology. All they’d wanted from her was to sit still and let them run a few non-invasive tests on her, which she’d agreed to.

She’d offered to throw in a few invasive tests of the right type as well at a steep discount, but all that had gotten her was an extra clause added to the contract that she was not allowed to sexually harass any of the research staff in the course of their work.

It had been fine, if a little boring. ‘Non-invasive tests’ turned out to be exactly that; spells and magical equipment pointed her way, none of which caused her even the slightest harm. There had been a few very gentle physical examinations that barely qualified even as a massage, never mind anything more exciting, and they’d asked her to adopt a few very mundane and very boring poses in front of a series of complicated looking machines that had enough runework on them to rip a hole straight to the Abyss.

Arms up, arms down, arms to the sides. Leg lifted and knee bent ninety degrees. And so on and so forth.

After a full three hours of tests, retests, pokes, prods and examinations through a variety of magical and non-magical devices, she was finally thanked, paid by one of the interns - she was careful to be more gentle with the collection process this time - and sent on her way back to Triorbus Square, none the worse for wear other than being bored out of her skull.

She hadn’t even needed to undress! It was such a disappointment.

That wasn’t what had bothered her, however. Her second contract…

It had started out fine. She’d appeared on a perfectly ordinary brass summoning plate in a simple stone apartment. The man who’d summoned her - statistically normal, most summoners of Pleasure Devils were male, who would have guessed - had been… well, not handsome as he looked a little disheveled and had a slight gut, but he’d been a big guy and looked like he did manual labour for a living. Clearly not well off as his teeth were in a terrible condition, but he had a kind of rugged charm that she could get behind.

Or in front. Whichever he preferred. But he hadn’t been interested in that. Oh no. He’d wanted something else.

He wanted to kill her.

Well, not her specifically. He wanted to kill someone who’d wronged him. A jilted ex, if Ixxy read between the lines correctly, someone who was so far beyond his reach, his only option was to slake his thirst for ‘payback’ on Ixxy. He wanted her to take the woman’s form, then allow him to ‘kill’ her.

Nevermind that she wouldn’t be able to mimic the woman very well with only his vague description. Apparently, human, female and blonde hair was enough for him. It all gave Ixxy some serious misogyny vibes.

She’d almost flat out told him to go fuck himself. Almost. But she had a fine to pay off, souls were souls, and crazy could be exploited. Besides, she’d already taken a trip to the Void once, it was no big deal. If she could handle getting beheaded by a Blade Devil, she could handle whatever a mortal could do, or so she believed.

Instead she’d given him the maximum price. A full third soul, and not a drop less. If he didn’t have it, if he had taken a soul contract before and hadn’t healed up fully or had suffered any permanent soul loss, then tough luck.

To enforce this, she’d set up the tightest contract she could, with strict limits to what he could do to her: violence and nothing but violence. Clothes stayed on and if he got gropey, he’d lose his hands.

Something about the whole situation had completely ruined even her normally irrepressible mood. In hindsight, perhaps this should have been a warning sign.

When he’d refused to agree to upfront payment, she’d again almost told him to fuck off, but she’d convinced herself that it was probably unfair. After all, having that much ripped out all at once would have likely knocked him on his ass and interfered with proper ‘execution’ of the contract.

Instead, she’d added the most extreme penalty clauses allowed under the Grand Contract if he tried to exceed the limits she’d set or failed to pay his due when she came to collect afterwards. To her surprise, not only did he agree without hesitation, his soul could afford her fee. It had been untouched. He’d never taken a soul contract before.

They had signed and Ixxy had barely had the time to finish turning her hair blonde and her skin that weird light-tan colour that humans were before the back of his hand smashed into the side of her face, sending her sprawling across the stone floor.

She hadn’t even had time to rewire her pain receptors yet.

She’d quickly discovered that she wasn’t allowed to defend herself. Any attempt to block any incoming blows had rendered her muscles almost paralytic and barely did anything to soften the impacts.

Nor had she been allowed to retaliate, despite likely being stronger than he was. According to the contract that she had agreed to, she had not been allowed to fight back in any way. All she could do was shut off her pain receptors and allow him tire himself out beating the shit out of her.

What she hadn’t expected, and, in hindsight had likely been one of the worst parts of the experience, had been the torrent of abuse he had screamed at her as he did.

There had been something deeply disturbing about the way he spewed hate and vitriol with every breath, promising an unsettling number of brutal demises in a variety of creative, if extremely unpleasant, ways. Words that she had never even heard before had been thrown in her face along with flecks of spittle as he screamed and shouted between dizzying blows to her face and body.

At first, she’d played along, screaming in fake pain with every hit, but before long she hadn’t even needed to fake it anymore. Even if she couldn’t feel the pain, there was still something fundamentally disturbing about hearing her own bones snap.

By the time he wrapped his big, meaty hands around her throat, Ixxy had been almost thankful. At that point, she had just wanted it over with so that she could collect her souls and never think of it again.

However, when his fingers had started to tighten and she began to choke…

Intellectually, she had known that dying was no big deal. That she’d just appear back in the Void and immediately wander through the Obsidian Gate, good as new.

However, the fleshy brain that she was plugged into knew no such thing.

The moment she’d felt herself unable to breathe, an instinctive response had awoken inside of her to fight back, to survive at any cost. She’d tried to form claws and teeth to retaliate with, to rake and tear at the hands gripping her throat, but no sooner had the thought popped into her mind before the rune-walls slammed down as they did every time she considered harming a mortal, cutting off her violent thoughts. As far as the Grand Contract had been concerned, her client had simply been acting within the bounds of the contract that she had willingly signed.

She couldn’t even think of defending herself.

Trapped on the one side by her own brain, screaming at her that she was couldn’t breathe and on the other by her own contract, cutting off even thinking about doing anything to help herself, she’d panicked.

While her own, limp-wristed blows had battered ineffectually at the thick arms holding her by the throat, she’d frantically started to tear at the runes in her mind, at the mental walls that kept her helpless and unable to defend herself.

Both attempts had been about equally effective. In the end, she’d died trying to draw breath to scream, the world finally turning dark..

Ixxy took a deep breath and tugged gently at her curved horns.

It was over now. She’d learnt her lesson. Not everything was fun. The next time someone offered her a hundred souls to let them kill her, she would tell them to fuck off. She was not putting herself through that again.

“There you are, Ixilis!” she heard someone shout, jolting her out of her recollection.

Peering over the edge of the roof, she saw Sazka standing two stories down, looking up at her with a decidedly irritated expression on her face.

Fuck. Ixxy was not in the mood to deal with this right now. She pulled her legs back over the edge and scooted back so that she couldn’t be seen from the ground. She’d deal with Sazka later, when she’d had time to gather her wits.

Sazka, however, had other ideas. Ixxy had barely gotten comfortable when two manicured hands grabbed onto the edge of the roof and Sazka hoisted herself up over the lip.

“You’re not getting away from me that easily,” she stated calmly as she dusted herself off.

Ixxy’s eyes widened involuntarily.

Had Sazka just climbed up two stories in a pencil skirt?

“If you thought you could hide away and avoid paying your fine, then I have some unfortunate news for you,” Sazka said, sitting down next to Ixxy.

“I wasn’t…”

Sazka held up a finger. “It doesn’t matter. Please hand it over.”

Ixxy sighed tiredly. She really didn’t want to deal with this right now, but it looked like she wasn’t going to have another choice.

“I don’t have it,” she admitted. “Yet. I still need to go collect.”

Sazka raised a questioning eyebrow. “But you’re sitting here?”

Ixxy had planned to go as soon as she came back through the gate, but she just… hadn’t felt up to it. It was a long walk and she’d just revived, plus she had to scrounge up another set of clothes, customize them appropriately to suit her style, rest a little bit to recover from her ordeal… it all took time. And now Sazka was bugging her, too.

“Should I be in a hurry?” Ixxy asked. “Not like my payment is going anywhere.”

“Unless your client spends it before you get there,” Sazka reminded her, but Ixxy just waved her off.

“I hope he does. I slapped him with every penalty clause in the book. If he doesn’t or can’t meet his obligations, I’ll own him,” she said coldly.

It was not an exaggeration. The Grand Contract allowed for extremely strict penalties for defaults on payment. And he wasn’t going to be able to switch off his pain receptors.

Sazka actually smiled at that. “And now you’re giving him the opportunity to mess up. Devious. I approve. But if I can give you a word of advice, be careful trying to force clients into such stringent penalty clauses in the future. It can easily scare them and rarely pays off.”

Ixxy just shrugged and said nothing. She kinda wished she had scared this client off.

“I was waiting for you at the Summoning Chamber,” Sazka went on when Ixxy didn’t say anything further. “You didn’t come back through.”

Ixxy frowned, but kept staring out over the city. The way Sazka said it made it sound like an accusation. Why did it matter how she came back? Why did Sazka care?

“You also haven’t done your paperwork,” Sazka added gently, making Ixxy groan.

Fucking paperwork. She was not in the mood for paperwork. She just wanted to sit and be left alone for five minutes. Was that too much to ask? Five minutes to catch her breath, gather her thoughts and… and… fucking process that she’d just been choked to death!

Ixxy took a deep breath. It didn’t bother her. It was nothing. It was just a contract, like any other. A quick trip to the Void. No biggie.

When Ixxy didn’t reply, Sazka’s eyes narrowed. “Ixilis, how did you get back to the Square?”

“Through the Obsidian Gate,” Ixxy finally muttered when Sazka showed no sign of relenting.

She saw Sazka tense out of the corner of her eyes.

“What did you do?” she hissed. “How much of a mess am I going to have to clean up this time? Please tell me you didn’t end up attacking another demon!”

Ixxy’s fists clenched with every word Sazka spoke. This was not fair. She hadn’t done anything wrong!

“I did exactly what I was supposed to!” Ixxy finally snapped. “I took the contract you gave me, I negotiated a good deal with the client, and then I did exactly what the contract required. But because I’d made a stupid mistake on my first day you’re still giving me shit and assume that I’d somehow fucked it up! But haha, jokes on you. My contract went exactly as it was supposed to, so for once, you have nothing to bitch about! What?”

Sazka had frozen completely. “You took a Death Contract.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Yes?” Ixxy tried. Had she managed to do something wrong again? Well, fuck Sazka. She’d taken and she’d done it, so there!

“Ixilis, we need to go collect that soul you are owed right now.”

Ixxy sunk to her knees on the rough, stony street.

This… this wasn’t possible. It wasn’t happening. Not after everything she’d been through.

“Ixxy…” Sazka tried.

She didn’t respond. She couldn’t. She had no idea what to say.

Sazka had followed her through the winding streets right to the edge of the Diabolist District, where the houses became the cheapest possible mage-shaped stone. Rough, jagged and dirty, they resembled the people in a lot of ways.

She’d never seen Sazka leave Triorbus Square before, and she’d been mildly annoyed that the woman had drawn more looks than her on the way. It had to be the suit.

Finally, after nearly twenty minutes of walking, they’d reached her client’s neighbourhood.

Or rather, her former client. In every sense of the word.

In front of them, swaying gently in the breeze, was the corpse of the man that had only an hour ago been shouting obscenities in Ixxy’s face, his face bloated and the cheap rope cutting deep into the flesh of his neck. He’d hung himself from a rope coming out of his window, likely tied to a piece of stone furniture inside.

A few good samaritans, or possibly just locals who didn’t want him stinking up the their neighbourhood, were struggling to get him down with a rickety ladder. They weren’t having much luck, the corpse being heavy and awkward to lift.

His soul was long gone.

A hand landed lightly on her shoulder. “Ixxy, I’m sorry.”

Ixxy looked up at Sazka. She was not crying. She was not! But she was very, very close to having something in her eye.

“You should never have gotten a Death Contract,” Sazka went on, gently rubbing her shoulder. “Some of the more experienced girls take them, usually. It definitely should not have gone to a newbie. And this guy… he shouldn’t have gone at all. By the Abyss, what a mess.”

“I don’t understand,” Ixxy whispered. “Did… did I do something wrong?”

“No, honey, no. You did nothing wrong,” Sazka said, kneeling down next to her. “Okay? Mortals are just… fragile little creatures. They’re not like us. They can’t always handle what they think they want. They think they want revenge, that they want to kill the person who hurt them, and then they can’t handle the guilt afterwards. Then something like… this happens. I’m so very sorry.”

Ixxy just slumped. A demon could put up with a lot if there was payment involved, but the idea of doing something for free? Disgusting. Vile. Gross. The idea that payment for everything she had gone through had been yanked out from under her made her feel… violated, somehow.

“I try to weed out the crazies,” Sazka went on, “but this one had had no history. No previous summonings, not even as a mere participant. I thought he was just looking for a good time, it seemed right up your alley… I’m sorry. I’ll make sure this does not happen again.”

People were staring now. Pleasure Devils kneeling in the street wasn’t something you saw every day. Not two of them, at least.

Sazka sighed. “Ixxy, honey, we should head back, okay? There are a couple of rooms at the Square for when some of us want some ‘alone time’, whatever that might mean. You can have one until you feel better.”

Ixxy let herself be pulled to her feet and guided back the way they’d came.

“I don’t know how to say this, but…” Sazka said after a few minutes of walking in silence, “…I think you should maybe consider that you’re not cut out for this kind of thing.”

Ixxy’s head shot up. “I’m not weak,” she said softly.

“No, no, that’s not what I’m saying,” Sazka quickly added. “I’m not saying you’re weak. It’s just that…” She sighed and brushed her hand along her curled horn. “Many years ago, before all this Grand Contract nonsense, summonings were rare. Only the most brutal, the most ruthless, the most devious and the most cunning of our kind made it through into the physical world. And I’m afraid it shaped perceptions of us among the mortals, somewhat.”

“But now, with so many coming through and InferTec lowering the bar to entry to the point where anyone can do it, it often happens that a person who comes through the Obsidian Gate is just not… well suited to dealing with what this world has become. There’s no shame in it. It happens.”

“I’m not weak,” Ixilis repeated, a little louder this time.

“And I’m not saying you are! What I’m saying is… if you want to end this now, if you want to go back through the Obsidian Gate, I’ll cancel your fine and return the portion of soul that you’ve paid. You can use it to pay off your your fees at InferTec.”

Ixxy was taken aback. She’d never expected Sazka to be so… nice. It wouldn’t be enough to fully pay off what she owed InferTec for the time she’d had her body thus far, but it was almost.

But it didn’t matter. Because…

“I. Am. Not. Weak,” Ixilis hissed through gritted teeth. “And I don’t need your pity. Or your charity. I will pay your damned fine, and my rent and I will do it without handouts.”

Sazka sighed and pursed her lips. “Well, the offer’s open if you ever change your mind.”

Ixxy couldn’t accept it. If she went back now, if she just gave up less than a week into her journey into the mortal realms, then… then…

Then she’d just prove them all right. That she was nothing but Daddy’s Little Girl.