“The first item up for auction…” Markus announced. He stuck his hand inside a fold in the universe and drew out a familiar bronze-headed cane. “Shall be this lovely piece.”

My knuckles went white around the handle of Möbius. “Oh, you piece of shit,” I growled.

“Care to tell us what Everwant does, Algier?” Markus said with a smirk.

“You shove it up your asshole and twist. It hurts like Hell.”

Enzi laid a gentle touch on my shoulder. The look she gave me made me feel like such a dick. I shouldn’t have felt that way, but she was cranking her charm up to eleven and manipulating me through the payback of a favour. I sighed and explained properly.

“It tells you secrets.” They weren’t getting anything more than that, though, and I felt no obligation to tell them. Enzi seemed satisfied by it; that probably had something to do with my lack of desire to explain more.

Markus nodded. “That seems to match the flavour text. Something about unlocking doors. I believe that’s a metaphor for discoveries?”

Enzi nodded her approval. Toll said nothing.

Volce, however, said, “I vote no.”

Markus shook his head and a slight grin stole his face. “Do you really want him getting his grubby hands back on this rabdos?” He gestured towards me. “A rabdos that can reveal secrets about yourselves? About all of us?”

There was no answer. Even Toll was pensive, their gaze locked with Markus’.

I turned to Enzi and shot her a death stare. “I swear, Enzi, after everything you’ve put me through. After all this bullshit. Don’t fuck with me on this. Take out Bitterthorn if you want and you’ll see just how fucking serious I am about this. I am red with anger right now.”

She blinked at me a moment, her face blank as though processing something. Then like a light switched on in her sigil, she leaned in and planted a kiss on my cheek. “Don’t worry, dear. I’ll protect you.” She turned to Markus, drew herself up, and said, “I vote against.”

Fourteen points against, but there was a guaranteed nine for from Markus. If Toll voted for, then they would have anywhere between fifteen and seventeen, depending on how many names Toll had. However, given the tension…

The two in question were still locking eyes, however. It was only after a few more seconds of this stalemate that Markus spoke.

“This would be a fantastic chance to tell the human to vote in your favour.”

Toll said, “By all means, lead the way.”

“I need assurances before I go wasting one of my chances to have you vote my way.”

“You have my word,” Toll answered. “If you force me to vote, I will do the same.”

If they needed me to vote in their favour as well, that meant Toll had either three or four names, for a total of sixteen or fifteen respectively. We needed a majority vote to give up any rabdos, so they didn’t have enough enough to overcome my veto of two votes, which would have put the against score at sixteen.

“Good enough,” Markus sighed. “Please vote yes, Toll. That’s an order.”

“I vote yes,” Toll said.

“As do I, of course,” Markus followed.

Toll faced me, but before they could speak, I raised my hand. “I vote yes.”

Markus flashed his fangs. Toll blinked a couple times. Volce stared at me blankly and said, “Er, why?”

“Because he does not want Markus holding it,” Toll answered.

As always, when Toll answered a demon’s questions, the answer was a little too vague. Yes, I didn’t want Markus holding it, because he’d likely force me into some horrible contract in order to get it back, assuming he offered me a contract at all. His logic behind selling it was probably to keep some distance between Everwant and me. Maybe he was scared I’d find a way to get it back and use it against him, or maybe he was concerned that Silica might help me in snatching it off him. Whatever his purpose, it was better not to let Markus hold onto it. And besides, Rin seemed like far less of a dick than Markus.

Oh, and the most important reason was this: one of the many secrets Everwant had poured into my head was that rabdoses like humans—in their own way, that is. I had no doubt in my mind that she would have found a way to come back to me.

Enzi giggled shortly into her hand, giddy that our little ploy had paid off. Volce gaped at her and shouted, “And you were in on it!”

“Of course,” she said. Then she shot a glare at Markus. “After all, we have to do whatever we can to win.”

Markus replied, “Oh, you should be careful of what precedents you establish. You just might regret it.”

Enzi was far more cunning than the other demons gave her credit, and they were stupid for not paying attention. I’d handed a little message to her when I was spitting fire at her. The trick was in the words “Bitterthorn” and “red”. The last time Enzi had used Bitterthorn was when she handed me my red tie. At that time, I’d told her I didn’t want my tie. It was an obvious lie, and she would have realised that using Bitterthorn’s intent detection ability. In other words, I was telling her that I was lying.

Though I must admit, it should have struck me as strange that she had made such an enormous leap in logic. The way she had understood that abstract hint, it was almost human.

After signing, Markus stuffed Everwant into my hand and said, “I ought to have broken it. I guess I’ll settle on you, instead.” Then I stuffed it into my inventory. For a fleeting moment I was tempted to club Markus with it, but the quiet pull in the back of my mind from Markus’ contract, signed a moment ago, caused me to abandon that thought as soon as it came.

The contract was as simple as it could be: I must hand over the rabdoses to Rin based upon whatever deal was struck. Anything that remained, or on the chance that the other contract was never signed or nulled before the handover, I had to give them back to their respective owners. Thankfully, it hadn’t caused my corruption to go up.

It took an hour of back and forth votes before we finally settled on what would be sold. All up, Markus gave up two rabdoses, thanks in part to the four of us whittling away at his hold over Toll. Enzi gave up three, Toll three, and Volce four. All of those were only the ones I could successfully appraise. There were no mystery ones amongst them and, aside from Everwant, nothing that was too significant.

We parted ways. Enzi and Volce gripped onto Toll’s arms then the balaam drew Myst. After sprinkling some ash on the knife, all three vanished like a clearing fog. Markus and I waited for a while for them to get into their hiding place. It was quiet and uncomfortable. That being said, it would have been more uncomfortable if Markus was talking.

Once we returned to the Junction Tower, only Rin and Septo were present and waiting a distance from the entrance, behind the makeshift log barricades. Septo was facing away from Rin, hunched right over, and staring at the ground. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more miserable sight in my life.

When Rin saw us, she rolled her head back. “Finally! What do you have for me?”

Markus jumped in before I could. “Firstly, what cost are you offering for six members?”

“Five hundred and nine each. Three thousand, forty-five total. Minus the hundred off for the questions asked.”

I spoke up. “Three thousand is too steep. What’s stopping us from—”

“Sounds good,” Markus interrupted.

Both Rin and I stared at him aghast. This was the part where the haures was meant to haggle, and the one name haures had just skipped the haggling. Rin narrowed her eyes sceptically. I wanted to stab the bastard.

We had about three thousand, five hundred SCRP points worth of rabdoses. We’d brought extra because, and I quote from Markus, “The deal might not go in the party’s favour.” It certainly wasn’t, thanks to Markus. However, I had the sneaking suspicion that it was going in his favour. The bastard was intentionally giving away all of our rabdoses!

“Alright,” Rin said cautiously. “And I assume you’ll want a guarantee that you won’t get attacked on the other side.”

“Yes, yes. How much?”

Rin hesitated. “Nine hundred, eighty-three.”

I stepped forward. “Hang on. Rin, you know he’s trying to screw us both—”

“Sounds amazing!” Markus said. His tablet was already out and his fingertips were blurring across the screen.

Rin stared at her own laptop in astonishment. After a moment’s hesitation, she placed a hand across the keys and the device flashed in a rainbow of colours. Apparently, that was how she signed her contracts. A few moments later, her eyes bulged at her screen. She looked up at Markus, then back down at the laptop.

I buried my head in my hand. “Rin, you’re an absolute moron.”

The three name’s eyebrows rose. “I mean, you say that, but the deal is signed.”

As we were talking, Septo slid up to Rin and tugged on her sleeve. “Rin. Rin,” he muttered, staring off to the side.

When I followed Septo’s gaze, I saw a spot nearby where the grass was trampling on its own. That wasn’t good.

Markus stepped towards me and tapped my leg with his shoe. “Go on. Hand them over.”

Surprised, I shouted, “No! What the fuck is wrong with you? Why did you accept the deal without haggling?”

I glanced at Septo and saw their attention was split between me and the shifting grass. Then realising I’d just asked a question, the balaam’s ears flicked up.

“Because he’s trying to hurt you,” Septo replied.

Well that much was obvious. Honestly, this balaam was not very good. Their answers were practically useless. Besides, I was just trying to keep Toll and Rin distracted.

Rin tipped her head to the side. “A lover’s quarrel, perhaps?”

“Oh, we’re well past quarrelling,” I said. “We’re getting close to murder-suicide—”

My voice was muffled as Markus stuffed his left hand over my face. My first reaction was to yelp into his hand and stagger back. I would have stabbed him if I hadn’t controlled myself in time. Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t.

“You know how it is with humans,” Markus said.

“Well, at least it makes sense now,” Rin said. “You were trying to get rid of everyone else’s rabdoses, weren’t you?”

Septo said, “He’s afraid of one that is—”

“Quiet!” Rin snapped, rounding on Septo. “Only answer my questions when I tell you to.”

The balaam wilted before Rin’s ire, which had the effect of turning his attention back towards the trampling grass. At this point, I was in such a foul mood that I stopped worrying entirely. Everything was going to Hell.

I knocked Markus’ hand away then took a deep breath, relieved not to have been touched by him any longer. I turned to Rin and said venomously, “Here are your fucking rabdoses.”

One at a time, I drew them out of my inventory and tossed them onto the ground with abandon. I was too pissed to notice back then, but they didn’t come out smoothly like they used to, forced to move at one steady speed. Rather, they were withdrawn in fits and starts, the cause of which was as yet unknown.

Rin ordered Septo to pick them up, and it took the balaam an extra long time to do so since they kept glancing back over their shoulder. Once Rin had touched each rabdos and stuffed it in her inventory, she clicked her tongue.

“Unfortunately, that doesn’t cover the full cost,” she said. “You’ve paid for the party fee, but not the teleportation. If you decide to use it while you’re in there, expect a welcoming party.”

“Ah, that really is a shame,” Markus said. “I guess we’ll just have to take our chances on the other side.”

A shame. Sure. For everyone but Markus, absolutely. It had all fallen into place. Markus wanted to cut a deal so that he could manipulate the other party into bunching up. The hesitation over letting me hand rabdoses to Rin was a bluff to make me think he was trying to avoid losing something. He settled on demonocracy to decide which rabdoses would be handed over, and fought until the end, all to lull us into thinking that this he had no intention of fighting.

However, one thing still bugged me. Why sabotage the deal to this extent? Wouldn’t it have been better to push us for more rabdoses to cover the cost of teleportation as well? His schemes clearly weren’t over.

Septo tugged on Rin’s sleeve again. “Rin, it’s happening again. What is it?”

“Why are you asking me?” she cried. “You’re the balaam.”

Well, it didn’t make a difference if they found out at this point, because now we could hear voices.

“Let go of me!”

“Please, be patient.”

“I’ll be patient when I’m listening to a playback of that shitty haures’ screams!”

“No, don’t!”

“Fools! They know we are here.”

“They’d better!”

With a yelp, three demons tumbled out of thin air and landed in a heap on the grass. Volce was, unfortunately, stuck on the bottom, with Enzi and Toll piling on top of him.

“Get your fat tits off me!” the deuce howled.

“You are such an idiot,” Enzi said, hurling Toll off her back. “And that’s a stomach! Really, how could there possibly exist a deuce that has so little tact?”

“That is a question even I cannot answer,” Toll said as they dusted themselves off.

Have you ever had one of those moments where everything is going wrong and the only thing you can do is watch on in horrified fascination? That was happening at that very moment.

Markus had screwed all of us out of a deal. Our companions had just revealed themselves, exposing the fact that our party only had five members. Furthermore, it was only a matter of time before Rin worked out that—

“Wait a second,” Rin said, narrowing her eyes. Septo had ducked behind her and clung to the haures’ arm, quivering like a chihuahua. “Enzi Lash. Well I must say, it’s an honour.”

Enzi dusted off her dress then offered a polite curtsey. “Likewise. It’s not often we have so many champions of the Invasion in one location.”

Rin’s eyes settled on Volce and her face turned sour. “Volce Alabaster Avaricious Valance—urgh! You’re the last demon I wanted to run into here. Stole from any more casinos lately?”

“Er, no,” Volce said, crossing his arms. “Because you got me booted out of all of them.”

Rin shrugged. “It’s more than what you deserve. You single-handedly robbed me of thirty million, five hundred and twelve thousand, and forty-seven dollars.”

“‘Robbed’ is a funny way of saying, ‘The house consecutively lost over five hundred bets against me.’”

“And it’s accurate since my casinos all have a strict No Powers, Magics, or Rabdoses policy.” Rin’s eyes then settled on Toll. “I don’t know you, but I’m certain you aren’t a one name.” Then she narrowed her eyes at me. “So when you said you had three one name allies, that was a—”

Before she could utter another word, Septo dived to the floor and prostrated before her. “Septo is sorry! Septo was a fool! If Rin wants to punish Septo, then Septo will gladly submit. Septo only asks that you don’t use the ash. Anything but the ash!”

“Ah, so you have been torturing the poor bugger,” Markus said.

“I have not!” Rin snapped. “And I don’t know where this ash business came from.” She fixed a cold stare on the whimpering balaam. “What did you do?”

Septo opened their mouth to speak then snapped it shut again. With an exasperated sigh, Rin growled, “You can answer! Seriously, Markus, we’re surrounded by idiots.”

“If only that were true,” the one name said. He stretched his arms and said, “Well, time to get going. Follow me, idiots.” With that, he headed towards the Junction Tower, as if expecting the rest of us to follow in his wake.

I waited behind a bit to watch Septo, grinning at having played the poor demon so well, and focusing on taking measured breaths to that I wouldn’t quiver with rage.

Septo buried their head into the mud and mumbled into their chest. “Septo only used one question to make Algier answer. Septo saved the other one. Septo is a useless balaam.”

“I disagree,” Toll spoke up. Rin turned to him with an eyebrow cocked. “We were watching the entire time, as you may have already guessed, and I witnessed what had happened. You may not be aware of this, but when a balaam forces an answer, we connect with the debtor’s will for the duration of the answer. Whilst we are connected, our will overwhelms theirs and the debtor has no choice but to pay us back with a true answer.”

Rin nodded. “I’m aware of that.”

“Then what you may not know is that there’s a brief period in which the balaam’s will lingers upon the debtor’s after answering. Algier answered during that timeframe, hence why Septo was convinced he had answered truly.”

“Alright. But that means you have two more allies that are one names.”

“One name equivalents,” I spat.

Toll’s head cocked sideways. “Recall that a human’s relationship with the truth is somewhat queer.”

Rin closed her eyes, took a deep breath, paused, then exhaled. “This is why I don’t work with humans. Well, it worked out either way, and I’m in less danger now.”

Markus glanced over this shoulder. He was grinning like an idiot. “Oh, come now, Rin. Even though you put that little protection clause for yourself in the contract, it doesn’t mean I haven’t noticed that you’re alone.”

“But you’ll protect me if the others try to attack,” Rin said. “And who wouldn’t want a big strong one name coming to their aid in their time of need?”

“Nobody here,” Toll answered. “The very thought makes my feathers stand on end.”

Enzi leaned towards me. “Algier, you don’t look so good.”

I blinked at her without really processing what was happening. It was only after a few moments, when I’d realised she was implying a question, that I answered. “I’m okay. Just deciding if I should murder you all before I kill myself.”

“That sounds like a terrible idea.”

“Yeah, well, how would—I’m sure you’d feel the same if you’d just been played like a fiddle.”

Enzi placed a finger to her chin. “Well, for starters, I’d focus on my successes over my failures. Then, knowing what I’m good at, I’d consider what I can do, rather than what I can’t, and go from there.”

She beamed right at me, and that brilliant smile helped me resign myself to the whole disaster. Besides, she’d made a good point—a surprisingly good point for a demon. I took a deep breath then relaxed. My grip on Möbius loosened a little and I decided I didn’t care anymore.

From behind us, Rin shouted, “Hold it!”

We all paused and turned to face her. Rin’s eyes were glowing hotly. In her hands was a deck of cards, and she held one hand over the top of it. With a single motion, she could draw a card. I gripped my knife tightly. Enzi’s hand froze mid air as she considered drawing her sword. Toll had disappeared and Volce hid behind me. Markus crossed his arms and waited—as per their contract, she literally couldn’t attack him.

“You weren’t lying when you said you had six companions,” Rin said, staring directly at me. “If the second one name equivalent is Volce, who’s the third and why aren’t they here?”

“Oh, Rin,” Markus sighed, looking completely unimpressed. “We’re going to get attacked once we teleport, so why are you bothering with this charade?”

“Depending on your answer, I might revise the deal.”

“In that case…” Markus turned to me. “Go on. Tell her.”

“No!” Rin shouted. “Septo!”

The balaam raised their head off the ground and eyed Rin expectantly.

“Use your last question on Algier.”

“Yes Rin!” Septo smacked their head back into the mud. “Please tell me, Algier. Who is your sixth ally?”

Seriously, was I allowed to have a say in all of this? Well, whatever. I was beyond caring, anyway. Markus had his Hellfire and he was eating it too.

Sighing, I answered truly, “Silica Sin Librassi.”

I wasn’t lying when I said that Markus had screwed all of us out of this deal.