Denver Malicrux: “Absolutely not.”

Azimalex: “I am afraid I am going to have to insist. We have made plenty of concessions, including your much loved ‘safeword’…

Denver Malicrux: “I am not willing to budge on this. Your magics remain locked for as long as you remain in Aer. No exceptions.”

Brint Hawthorn: “Come on, Denver, what’s the big deal? We have magic too.”

Denver Malicrux: “You haven’t studied the histories of the Demon War, Professor Hawthorn…”

Brint Hawthorn: “Excuse me? I happen to be very well versed…”

Denver Malicrux: “I mean, yes, you’ve studied them from a historical context, but not from a magical one. If one pays close attention to the demons’ magical feats that actually were recorded and extrapolate from there, the truth is plain: As dangerous as the demons were on a physical level, it was their magic that was truly on a whole other level.”

Brint Hawthorn: “Are you certain? If that was truly the case, why are there so few records of the demons using magic to influence battles? Why were the fights always brutal, hack-and-slash slaughters?”

Denver Malicrux: “That I cannot say for certain, Professor, but I have a theory that it was a combination of two factors.”

Brint: Hawthorn: “Yes?”

Denver Malicrux: “I think they held back their magics to give us a sporting chance. The ferocity and brutality of the demonic warriors of that era are a matter of record. I believe they fought us physically because they simply found it more fun.”

Brint Hawthorn: “And the second factor?”

Denver Malicrux: “There are few records of the demons using magic, because when they did use it, there were no survivors to write them. Isn’t that right, Azimalex?”

Azimalex: “I am going to choose not to answer your question.”

Denver Malicrux: “You can’t do that! Our contract clearly states…”

Azimalex: “That I cannot withhold information that is relevant to our discussion. The motivations of my forebears of millenia ago are not relevant. They all perished when your gods stepped in and scoured your world.”

Denver Malicrux: “I dispute that claim. The scope of your magical abilities are very much relevant to our negotiations…”

Azimalex: “And I will freely admit that they vastly outstrip yours. But a like-for-like comparison of power is difficult at best. Our magic is vastly different than yours in its very nature. You simply cannot compare them!”

Denver Malicrux: “But you admit your magic is stronger than ours? Then how can you even think that we could allow you to have access to it? None of our agreements would be worth anything if you could simply overwhelm and destroy our magical bindings on you!”

Azimalex: “And if we could not use our magic, how could we enforce the collection of our dues when you and your kind are free to use whatever magics you wish? Your mages would be able to freely exploit us, and we would be forbidden from using the only effective weapon at our disposal. No! I stated from the beginning that we would work with you, but we have to be allowed to defend ourselves!”

Brint: Hawthorn: “Alright, calm down, both of you. Isn’t there some compromise we could agree to?”

Azimalex: “I’m always up for a reasonable compromise, you know this. But a complete restriction on all magic at all time and under any circumstances is simply not something I can abide.”

Brint: Hawthorn: “Denver?”

Denver Malicrux: (After a few moments silence) “Perhaps. But it’s going to have to be heavily restricted.”

Azimalex: “I’m listening. What do you have in mind?”

Denver Malicrux: “Your magic would be sealed away while in Aer, with the sole exception if you are attacked by a mortal using magic. In such a case, you would be allowed limited access to your own magic for the purposes of defending yourself. Would that be acceptable?”

(A short pause, during which nobody speaks.)

Azimalex: “Yes. Yes, I do believe that something like that could be agreeable. Now let’s talk details. How shall we define what constitutes an ‘attack’…?”

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

Ixxy just couldn’t stop laughing. Not only had someone convinced these guys to name themselves the ‘Bunch of Idiots’, they’d presented the demonic equivalent of dick-pictures as demonic runes and had them tattoo it all over themselves. And all the while, these guys thought they were some kind of big shots in the world of diabolism.

One day, she would also run a scam that magnificent.

For his part, Dalten was growing ever more perplexed. He looked back towards his two friends, hoping they had some kind of idea what was going on, but they just shrugged back at him. They were as confused as he was.

“Stop laughing!” he commanded. “This is not a laughing matter!”

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I can’t!” Ixxy howled before she was overcome by another fit of giggling. Dalten’s face contorted in rage.

SMACK.

He struck her with the back of his hand, sending her sprawling onto Timothy’s desk.

Ixxy blinked, before a slow grin spread over her face. It hadn’t hurt. Not even slightly. She’d switched off her sense of pain the first time he’d started getting angry and hadn’t felt a thing other than a vague sense of impact.

“That wasn’t very nice,” she said, still grinning as she peered up at him, only to feel a hand grabbing her by the back of the neck and slamming her face back down on the desk.

“I’m going to teach you a lesson in respecting the Cult of the Abyss!” he sneered, leaning down close to her face.

“Your cult’s a joke,” she chuckled, unperturbed by his hold on her neck.

“Really? Then laugh at this!” His fist struck Ixxy, right in the kidney.

That momentarily wiped the grin off her face. Not because it had hurt, but because if she’d been a mortal she could have been seriously injured by that blow. And as far as he was concerned, that was exactly what she was. Was he seriously trying to kill her? What if she’d really been Timothy’s sister?

If he’d attacked her in her demon form like this, she would already have been freed to cause him grievous bodily harm in retribution. Unfortunately, not only was she in disguise, she had goaded him into attacking her, sort of, which meant that according the the Grand Contract, she was mostly at fault and so she did not have the freedom of retaliation she would have had otherwise. Still, she wasn’t getting nothing out of it.

“Dalten!” Timothy shouted from the doorway. “Stop it! Leave her alone!” He was struggling against Dalten’s two stooges to get to her, but was still being held tightly.

Damn. This was upsetting him. She needed Dalton to overreact so she could deal with him. He needed to be goaded into something that could actually hurt her, and fast.

“What, that little love tap’s the best you got?” she chuckled, taunting him again. “That’s not even enough to get me warmed up, limpy.” She stretched out the last word.

Snarling, Dalten slammed his knee into her gut, knocking the wind out of her. Yet after a few moments gasping to recover her breath, she merely began laughing again.

In her mind, she could feel the runes loosening, just slightly. Enough so that she could use force to escape, if she wanted, but still not enough to allow her to really hurt him. Just a little more…

“Come on, Timothy hit me harder than that when he was five,” Ixxy laughed. “Maybe you can ask him for some pointers?”

Dalten seemed to completely lose it. He began hitting her repeatedly, fists and knees slamming into her body over and over.

In a way, it reminded Ixxy of the death-contract. Except, Dalten wasn’t even remotely as strong as her client there had been and he clearly knew a lot less about fighting. Unlike that guy, Dalten was either holding back or just didn’t know how to strike correctly to break bones or cause serious injury to her. Or perhaps it was just that he didn’t know she was a demon.

Somehow, it wasn’t even remotely as bad. Yes, the beating was way gentler and Dalten wasn’t screaming obscenities in her face, but perhaps the biggest difference was that she wasn’t trapped this time.

Back then every move she’d made to defend herself had made the runes wrap tighter around her. Because she’d signed away her right to defend herself, any attempts to do so had ran counter to her contract. She’d been caught in a downward spiral of helplessness, where every act of resistance restricted her further until eventually she’d completely freaked out.

This time, with every impact she could feel the runes loosening their grip instead, giving her a little more leeway to defend herself. Especially now that she’d stopped needing to goad him.

Ixxy made no move to defend herself. Despite the restrictions she was still under, she could have. She could have caught his arm, broke his wrist, pushed him away, even just rolled with his punches.

But she didn’t. But not because she couldn’t. Because she chose not to.

And that choice was incredibly cathartic.

“You feel that one, huh, Bitch?” Dalten growled after a punch to the ribs sent Ixxy tumbling partially over Timothy’s desk and into the shelves on the wall behind it, sending several books and a few small statuettes of some kind of monsters bouncing across the floor.

She had blood flowing freely from her nose, mouth and scalp, but she didn’t care. For the first time since her death-contract, it felt like a weight was lifting off of her shoulders.

This time, she was in control.

She rolled over until she was sitting casually on Timothy’s desk. Then she reached up and wiped away some blood from her nose before inspecting her fingers dismissively. He couldn’t see it through the blood, but her nose had already stopped bleeding.

“Almost,” she grinned, looking at Dalten, who was at about the same height she was now, his face red with rage.

Timothy was on the floor, held down by the two goons kneeling on his back as he struggled and thrashed. He’d broken free at some point to try to help, but they were bigger and stronger than he was and he hadn’t been able to get very far. She still couldn’t do anything for him directly.

Dalten’s eyes narrowed. “Then let’s see if you can ignore this.”

Her continued flippancy had pushed him over the edge. Holding one hand in the air before him, he spat a phrase of jagged, painful-sounding words that grated on the ear. His right hand lit up with a dull, blue flame, but it was no normal fire. It appeared to ooze and slither instead of flickering, caressing his fingers with tongues of ethereal power as his arm appeared to bulge grotesquely.

Abyssal Magic.

He was using actual Abyssal Magic on her! How was that even possible? Mortals weren’t supposed to know any of it! And nobody was supposed to be teaching them!

Before Ixxy could wonder any further, Dalten swung, putting all of his suddenly considerable might into the blow aimed at Ixxy’s face.

She dodged.

Ixxy rolled sideways, flipping off Timothy’s desk, her head barely avoiding Dalten’s glowing fist before it shelf right behind where she’d had been mere moments before.

The flimsy wood shattered under the blow, sending wooden splinters flying around the room, before his fist smashed into the wall behind it, sending cracks radiating outwards through the stone.

If he had connected with her, he would have popped her head like a watermelon.

Dalten staggered back, collapsing onto Timothy’s bed, right where Ixxy had been lying not five minutes ago. He howled in pain and clutched his no-doubt broken hand, now no longer burning.

Then he sagged, his whimpering growing weak despite the incredible pain he had to be be in. It was as if all the energy had suddenly gone out of him. Not surprising, considering how badly he’d botched the spell.

His goons just stared in shock.

Ixxy slowly walked up to him, gazing down with a calculating look on her face.

You didn’t need to carry around vials of essence to use Abyssal Magic. It was plentiful, if you knew where to look. Unfortunately, it was also corrosive and highly dangerous for mortals to work with. It certainly explained the terrible condition of Dalten’s soul.

Someone had to have taught it to him. But who? The same mad genius who was manipulating these guys? Teaching them to use magic they weren’t supposed to was far less cool than getting them to draw dick pictures all over themselves!

It made their souls completely disgusting!

“Who taught you how to do that?” Ixxy demanded.

“Fuck you,” Dalten croaked, tears in his eyes from the pain. “You got lucky!”

She narrowed her eyes. He’d tried to kill her. If she’d been mortal, he would have succeeded. The Grand Contract did not look kindly upon that. Not at all, despite the goading and the disguise.

But that wasn’t all. He’d done so using magic. And that meant she was magic-free as well.

“You did the spell wrong,” she stated simply.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, whore,” Dalten croaked, barely able to gather the strength for a proper sneer.

“I actually do. That magic form you used was supposed to energize you. Not… this,” she said, gesturing towards where he lay slumped over on the bed. “You fucked it up.”

He spat at her. The glob of spit struck her thigh, but she ignored it. Instead, she raised her hands in front of her face and slowly spoke the same phrase that Dalten had just attempted. But where his had sounded like something harsh and guttural tearing through a throat that was never meant to pronounce it, her voice made it sound melodic, almost sing-song.

Echoes of the words reverberated, like an entire choir were all overlaying their voices on top of one another until it formed a single, otherworldly sound.

Where Dalten’s one hand had burned with a flickering, sickly blue flame, both of Ixxy’s hands burst into bright, blue, ethereal flames. Where his had roiled and oozed sluggishly, hers blazed and crackled with power, casting eerie, blue shadows across the walls.

Closing her eyes, Ixxy took a deep breath. In and out.

The flames slowly flowed up her arms and faded away.

By the Abyss, she’d missed this!

Not only had the idiot Dalten messed up the spell, what little bit he had gotten right he’d used in completely the wrong way. It wasn’t supposed to be a single, powerful burst of strength, it was supposed to be a slow, soothing pick-me-up. Like the Abyssal equivalent of a cup of coffee.

At least whoever was manipulating the cult hadn’t taught them anything truly dangerous.

Ixxy stepped forward and, to everyone’s surprise, casually grabbed Dalten by the scruff of his neck. He was bigger than she was, yet somehow she easily manhandled him towards the door, his feet dragging along the ground. Despite a few token struggles, he seemed either unwilling or unable to stand on his own.

“You… you… you’re a demon!” the taller of the two lackeys stammered, slowly backing away from her as she approached.

Oh, good. At least one of them had finally managed to figure it out.

“You’re not allowed…” he began, but Ixxy silenced him with a look.

“Get out,” she said, coldly, Dalten wriggling weakly in her grasp.

Despite their bravado, neither of the two goons hesitated for a single moment. They were up and out the door before she’d even finished speaking.

“And take your trash with you!” she called after them as she tossed Dalten down the hallway, letting him bounce and slide along the stony floor with a few more exclamations of pain.

Several curious faces peeked out of their dorms to see what the fuss was about, but Ixxy ignored them. Let them watch. She wasn’t breaking any rules. Technically.

Despite the pain he was in, Dalten seemed unwilling to let anyone else have the last word. He huffed as he pulled himself to his feet, leaning on the wall with his still functional hand.

“You! The Master will know of your insolence!” he snarled back at her.

A ‘Master’? She relished the chance to have a little chat with him about his educational practices.

“Good! Please, send him my way!” Ixxy shouted back before slamming the door behind her.

Now came the hard part. Convincing Timothy she was worth this mess.

Back inside Timothy’s room, Ixxy found the young man sitting on the floor, rubbing his arms in shock. He was covered in bruises with scrapes on his fingers from struggling.

“You okay?” she asked him, hissing when he turned to face her and she saw the painful-looking black eye forming there. It seemed he’d fought back harder than she’d noticed.

He nodded jerkily, still shaking from the adrenaline high. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry, I tried to fight them…” he mumbled.

Ixxy smiled at him as she gingerly helped him over to his bed. “Hey, don’t worry about it, I’m fine. That asshole hit like a wimp. I’ve had worse.”

Timothy looked up at her.

“You’ve had worse than this?” Timothy asked, still trembling as he gestured vaguely in her direction.

Her hair was matted with blood, streaks of more blood ran from her nose and mouth and her clothes were covered in splatters and smears of even more blood, but the actual wounds were already healed. Despite appearences, she was basically uninjured.

If you wanted to beat demonic regeneration with just your bare hands, you had to get a bit more creative than simple punches and slaps.

Ixxy nodded. “Yeah,” she said sadly. “Maybe I’ll tell you about it sometime.”

“Okay…” he muttered, seeming to space out. She hoped he didn’t have a concussion.

She held up two fingers. “Hey, hey! How many fingers am I holding up?”

Timothy scowled, shaking his head. “Two. I’m fine. I’m just thinking.”

Thinking? Oh oh. That did not bode well. He was not in a good state to be making rational, well-reasoned decisions.

“About what?” Ixxy asked, trying her best to sound innocent and upbeat, but not quite able to keep a note of apprehension out of her voice.

“I was wondering about our new contract…” Timothy started, but Ixxy quickly cut him off.

“Hey! I was totally getting to that! I-It’s not something I can just make a snap decision on, okay?” she quickly stammered. “Can I at least have a few moments to think about it?”

Timothy nodded, lowering his eyes back to the floor.

Okay, think quickly, Ixilis!

On the one hand, Timothy held the key to getting out from under her budding contractual debt. On the other, before he would actually help her, she was going to agree to another vague and ill-defined contract that she really did not understand.

Signing stupid contracts was how she had gotten into this mess. Could she really afford to risk fucking it up for the third time? How many times was she going to have to burn her fingers before she got it through her skull not to commit herself to things she shouldn’t?

It was only for a year but… a year of what exactly? Was he going to expect her to be monogamous? That would never work! How would she earn souls to pay her rent?

And if it was going to be a year of being treated like she had in her death contract… no. Then she’d simply have to bail out. Head back through the Obsidian Gate and just ditch out of the contract entirely.

Unless… unless it stopped her from leaving somehow? Normal contracts didn’t prevent passing through the Obsidian Gate, and once you where through, they lost all hold on you. Without the runes, there was nothing to bind you. They just made coming back decidedly tricky.

But what if being Timothy’s girlfriend somehow locked her to this world? It wasn’t impossible. If she specifically agreed not to leave through the Gate, she obviously couldn’t, not without dying first, but would being his girlfriend imply the same thing? Arrgh! She wished she knew what she would be signing up for!

She was running out of time to decide, though. Timothy looked deeply crestfallen, and was getting worse every moment she hesitated. And now she was going to have to reject him.

Shit. This was going to require a very careful touch to reject his offer without losing his help.

“Timothy… umm…” Ixxy swallowed nervously. Please let this work. “I… I wish I could accept your offer to be your girlfriend. I really do. But I’m afraid it’s just too vague for me to agree to. Maybe we can sit together and you can take me through what it means to you and what I would have to do…”

Timothy sighed deeply, and Ixxy’s heart sank at the look of despair on his face.

“No, it’s okay,” he said softly. “It’s probably for the best. I was being stupid, I’m sorry. Just forget about it, please. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

She smiled hopefully. “So you’re taking my offer? A full year of your every carnal desire being fulfilled?” He shook his head.

“I’m sorry, it’s not safe. You should look for someone else to help you, Ixxy,” he said sadly.

Ixxy staggered back, sitting down on the edge of Timothy’s desk to hide the trembling in her legs. No. She’d been so close. So, so fucking close. Please, please…

“A-are you sure you don’t want someone to hang around and take care of your wounds, at least? I mean, I could tear a few bandages out of my shirt…” she replied, trying to sound sultry, only for her voice to crack, ruining the effect.

Fuck, what was she even doing? She looked like she’d crawled out of a charnel pit and she was trying to be seductive? What was she thinking!? Some mortals might be into that kind of shit, but Timothy definitely wasn’t one of them!

“Ixxy,” Timothy said softly, a strange, pained expression on his face, “I think you should go. Someone will have notified the faculty by now and I don’t know what they will do if they catch you here.”

“Are you sure?” she asked weakly.

“Yes, I’m sure,” he said, looking at the floor. “It’ll be less trouble for both of us.”

Ixxy struggled to find something else to say. All she was equipped to offer him was sex, and it wasn’t working. Why? Where was the horny guy who’d been unable to keep his eyes off her breasts five minutes ago?

She couldn’t even offer to protect him against Dalten. She wasn’t one of the kinds of demons that were allowed to take bodyguarding contracts, which meant they couldn’t just amend their contract to add it in.

Finally, she just sighed, her shoulders sagging as she accepting that she’d been dismissed. She got to her feet, silently padded over the door and grabbed the handle in one hand. Then she hesitated, looking over her shoulder at Timothy.

He didn’t make eye contact, preferring to stare at the floor instead.

She took a deep breath, as if to say something, but words failed her. She wanted to be angry at him for discarding her when she really needed his help, but that really wouldn’t be fair. She still hadn’t delivered what he’d already paid for and had kind of refused when he’d asked for it.

That meant she was still going to have to deliver later, mind you. At least that was one small thing to look forward to.

“When you’re ready to be satisfied as per our contract, just pulse the summoning ritual with a drop of blood,” she instructed. “I’ll come over in person, just so we don’t have to worry about the summoning time limit. I’ll do the whole ‘girlfriend experience’ thing for you then, okay? Just remember my name this time. It’s ‘Ixilis’,” she added with a smile.

Her attempt at lightening the dour mood fell flat. Timothy just nodded without looking up.

She stepped outside, closing the door behind her before leaning against it.

So that was it. It was over. He wanted nothing more to do with her. Stupid, stupid, stupid! What had she been thinking? She’d pushed way too hard! He probably hadn’t even known what half the stuff she’d offered him was! The only reason she even did was because she’d gone browsing the kinks in her memory package when she’d been bored!

She’d completely forgotten that he wasn’t interested in the hard shit! He just wanted someone to love! But how in the Abyss was she supposed to offer him that?

Arrrgh! Why was this so fucking complicated!?

Ixxy rubbed her eyes and set off towards the stairs.

As she headed outside, ignoring the other students staring at the smears and streaks of blood on her face, she realized that as much as she hated to admit it, though, Timothy was probably right. Now that Dalten knew what she was, he wouldn’t make the mistake of attacking her again. He’d ignore her and focus all of his wrath on poor Timothy. All she would be able to do was stand by helplessly and watch him get brutalized. And he’d already showed he was willing to kill to protect his ego.

No, what Timothy had said was true. As long as she was close to him, he’d be in danger. It simply wasn’t safe for him to be around her.

As soon as Ixxy shut the door behind her, Timothy heaved a shuddering sigh and rested his head in his hands.

Gods, why had he asked her to be his girlfriend?

Was he a fucking idiot? He knew what she was!

When she looked like a demon, with red skin and horns, it was easy enough to stay professional. To remember that this was a not truly a being of flesh and blood but of magic and malice, that would enjoy nothing more than to rip out his throat and watch the life fade from his eyes.

And he was okay with that. It made it easy to think of it all as just a business transaction. One he’d already paid for.

But when she’d shown up wearing a human guise and smiling eyes and asking for his help, he’d begun noticing all the little details that made her a person.

Like the way her eyes crinkled when she smiled. Or the way her nose scrunched up when she was deep in thought. Or the look of mischievous joy on her face as she teased him…

He’d suffered Dalten’s bullying ever since he’d started studying here, but watching him beat Ixxy like a sack of meat had probably been the most horrible experience of his life. Something inside him had broken at the sight of Duncan’s knee driving into her belly.

Oh gods, was he really so desperate that he was falling for a fucking Pleasure Devil?

Timothy shook his head and did his best to start tidying up from the aftermath of Ixxy and Dalten’s struggle with trembling hands.

His eyes drifted up to the cracks where Duncan’s fist had struck the wall and he shivered. She’d barely managed to get out of the way. The asshole had nearly killed her.

No. He’d made the right decision, sending her away. Dalten wasn’t going to leave him alone. He never did. And either because of her contract with him, with Mulder & Heath or simply due to the Grand Contract binding her, Ixxy clearly couldn’t properly defend herself.

And now that Dalten knew what Ixxy was, next time he’d come prepared. If his ‘Cult of the Abyss’ really could control demons and she couldn’t defend herself…

No. It was too dangerous for him to try and help her. It simply wasn’t safe for her to be around him.