Enzi and I exchanged a brief look before ducking behind the log we sat on. The voices grew closer, coupled with the reckless crunching of twigs and the rustle of leaves as the demons stirred fallen branches in their wake.

“I’m relatively certain it was a human,” I heard one of them say. Their voice had a feminine pitch to it and they spoke in a drawl. “I couldn’t see any horns.”

“They were moving so fast you could have missed them,” another rebutted in a hoarse voice. “Besides, there are no humans who can move like that. Only the Ancients are that strong, or maybe some of the one names.”

“That’s theoretically untrue,” a third said. They spoke in rushed, clipped tones. “There’s no upper limit on what power a human can gain from ash. We know of very few documented cases of what happens when a human consumes the ash of a one name, and virtually none from an Ancient.”

Really, these asshole demons had the worst timing. Enzi was just about to reveal something personal about herself. I was completely enraptured. Imagine, a demon outright explaining their weaknesses. And this was a demon, which meant that every word she spoke would have been the truth! There’s no need to read between the lines when the lines are thick enough to fill the canvas. But now this!

Before I took my frustrations out on these demons, I considered the situation. If these demons attacked, it would have been a great opportunity for Enzi to save me, and therefore owe her a favour. Likewise, it was a great opportunity for her to attract their attention so that she could save me. The thought of having to go through another hour of Enzi’s chores made me want to claw her eyes out, so I wanted to avoid that.

Besides, we didn’t need to attack the demons, just get them on our side. As in, not Markus’ side. I needed allies. But at the same time, I didn’t want allies. The few I had were assholes, and demons. Which only made me think that the best solution, to all my problems, was to start stabbing. But that would only cause more problems later. We were running low on healing items so any injuries I sustained would render me too weak to deal with Markus’ bullshit, as well as whatever awaited us at the exit. But maybe those demons had healing items and…

Admittedly, I was too pissed off to think straight. It was like a thousand frustrations were pouring out of me at once, but with only one knife to release them they were getting clogged up. Unable to make a choice, I stayed hidden.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Enzi drag Gale out of her inventory while she laid almost prone, sliding it carefully along her figure so that it didn’t scratch or tap against anything. She didn’t bother angling the blade away from the sunlight since it was translucent enough not to reflect it. The sword still had some ash in it, judging by the fact that I could partially see through the blade. Hopefully she wouldn’t need to use it.

The demons drew closer so that I could hear the rustling of their clothes. I tightened my grip on Möbius and held my breath. Enzi, of course, being a demon, froze her movements entirely. Lucky her, not needing to breathe to exist.

The crunching drew closer, along with the bickering. I strained to listen, ignoring the blood thumping in my ears, and trying to block out their highly measured argument so that I could count their footsteps.

“It’s a good thing we haven’t seen any more digressers,” said the drawling one.

“That’s not good at all!” cried the hoarse voice. “Digressers don’t just disappear.”

“If you look carefully at our surroundings,” the fast talker said, “you can see the signs of digresser movement everywhere.”

That was something I’d considered earlier. Digresser damage was incredibly uncharacteristic here. Trees had odd round bores running through the sides of their trunks, only a few patches of grass and shrub remained spattered across the earth like someone had just received a haircut from a blade-happy autothith, and, of course, there were toppled trees everywhere. The implication was that Silica had been through here, or that the digressers had all swarmed towards her from the other side of the Ring—an equally terrifying prospect. Apparently, these demons weren’t aware of who she was. Poor idiots.

They stopped just near the log that Enzi and I were hidden behind. I did everything humanly possibly to still my movements short of stopping my heart. My lungs were beginning to burn and my head was swimming. Enzi looked like a corpse in front of me, with her eyes snapped completely open. Her skin and dress were gradually shifting to shades of brown and grey—an enepsi camouflage.

“What should we do if we run into the other human?” asked the drawling one.

“You mean the one that erased the estray?” said that hoarse one.

“We run,” answered the fast talker. “We’re all that remains of our party; the rest were disposed of by a single foe. We’ll stand no chance against it and its party.”

Enzi’s eyes rolled around to face me. Thinking she was trying to signal an attack, I shook my head slowly. That demon had used the word “we”, which could have meant “we three”, but it could have also meant “we, the party”. Best not to assume. It was a good thing I’d decided not to leap out.

However, Enzi didn’t seem to react to my head shake. Her hand reached out for me and moulded around my mouth and nose, cutting off all possibility of breathing and rendering me silent. That sent of shockwave of panic through me, not just because I couldn’t breathe, but because Enzi probably didn’t realise that humans sometimes panic and thrash when they’re suffocating.

My first thought was, what the fuck are you doing? My second was, just roll with it. The whole situation was fucked up. Even if I wanted to fight, I was now completely out of breath. The last thing I needed was Enzi doing all the work for me. Then again, was that the plan? No, it couldn’t have been. She’d gain nothing from helping me after putting me in a situation where I needed help. There was no way that could be recognised as a favour by other party. So why was she doing this? Why was she trying to keep me silent?

“It wasn’t in a party,” the hoarse one said. “The message had a spot beneath it for party name and it was empty.”

“Well deduced!” the fast talker exclaimed. “However, it’s been a while now. It would have either formed a party or been eliminated. My recommendation is that we avoid all humans from here on.”

With my consciousness fading, I considered my options as best I could. First there was fighting. Not the best, but better than getting caught while unconscious. The second was to pair with Volce and try to call him, but who knew how long it would have taken him to reach us. The last was to control my body as best I could while my brain slowly switched off. As the others sounded like terrible ideas, I chose option three.

There were probably better choices, but I needed to make a decision before my mind turned to complete haze. Once it was made, it became easy to fixate on that thought, to repeat it endlessly and pray that it worked.

The words of the demons drowned out as my mind faded. I kept my eyes open but didn’t see anything. Their voices were reverberating in my ears, along with the crunch and rustle of their reckless movement. I waited there, so still that I may as well have been a corpse, sucking in the scent of earth on Enzi’s hand, telling myself over and over like a chant to stay still, stay quiet, because those words were the only thing that made sense to me.

I must have blacked out, because next thing I knew, Enzi was shaking me awake. My head rolled forward and I gasped, “What happened?”

Life flooded back into Enzi’s face. She’d been staring at me with a completely dead expression.

“You wouldn’t wake up. I was”—she shook her head and when she spoke again her tone was more natural. “They just left. I only saw three of them. I didn’t recognise any which is a good sign.”

I groaned as I propped myself up with Enzi’s help. Möbius slipped off my chest and fell into my lap.

Enzi’s eyes settled on the knife. “I’m sorry. I tried to lift you so that I could move you to a safer place, but the knife wouldn’t let me.”

I shook my head. “Which way did they go?” Enzi pointed and I let out another groan. “That’s straight towards where Markus and the others are. We need to catch them.”

The adrenaline hit me at once and I was back to my feet. Enzi sprang up as well and placed a hand on my shoulder. Her grip was firm and it locked me in place.

“You’re not well. You need to rest. You’re safe here for now.”

“I’m perfectly fine. What I need is to make sure we catch those demons before Markus does.”

“Is this because you want a rabdos?”

I slapped Enzi’s hand off my shoulder. “No, an alliance!”

With that, I rushed after the demons. Enzi gaped at me for a moment then followed after.

Seriously, what an idiot. The reason I wasn’t well was because she’d suffocated me. It was her fault that I was in this state. I didn’t want to deal with her crap anymore. I thought to myself that this whole thing must have been some ploy and she was just playing with me. What a complete moron I was for thinking she had some secret to share with me.

“If you wanted an alliance, then why were we hiding?” Enzi whispered loudly once she caught up.

“Information first, action after,” I replied. However, it was the threat of Markus finding them and torching them like every other demon he’d met that had spurred me into action. That, and a mix of other supposedly rational ideas that my addled mind had conjured up, including the possibility of straight up slaying them if I got a bad vibe from them.

Enzi tilted her head down so that Bitterthorn glinted in the sunlight piercing through the sparse treetops. She fixed me with a concerned look. “You’ve been acting strangely for a while now.”

I shook my head. “What would a demon know about normality?”

“Too much,” Enzi replied simply.

We went silent after that and I sharpened my hearing, anticipating voices and the crunch of leaves. We both came silently to the conclusion that we should circle around the place where our party had last been. If they demons had run into Markus, there’d either be a lot of noise or a lot of fire. Probably both. It was only after circling all the way around and emerging into the outskirts of an abandoned city that we noticed them.

Trees and shrubs didn’t end at the edge of roads and houses so much as they became sparser. What remained of the cracked asphalt had been pushed up and aside by reaching roots and sickly weeds. It was a suburban area whose buildings were nothing more than muddy, concrete squares. Many of the old structures had been crumbled away by the creeping foliage and weeds had settled their way into every nook and cranny.

It was in the middle of a weed-ridden road that Enzi and I saw them, strolling along without a single care.

Though it may have seemed contradictory for rational demons to act in such a reckless manner, you need to remember that the ability to rationalise a solution doesn’t imply an ability to recognise a problem. Many lesser demons fall into the trap of becoming nothing more than work horses or soldiers for greater demons as they are unable to recognise a better method of chasing their Hounds.

Ever seen a moving shadow and jumped? You know nothing is there, thanks in part to demons eradicating everything that posed a threat to their pet humans and regulating the remaining animal populations to a disastrously fervent degree. The point is, we don’t do that because we’re cowards but because the human mind is damn good at recognising patterns and leaping to conclusions.

When you lack that ability, the only information that you can act upon is that which is supplied to you. It’s inevitable that many name demons end up becoming slaves to the strong. They literally don’t understand anything besides what is shoved in their faces. Poor bastards. Fuck ‘em.

Hence, demons like Enzi are in a class of their own, not because they’re more rational, but because they can infer things much like humans do. That makes them creative to a degree, and that creativity gives them a chance to forge their own paths through the ashes.

Enzi and I ducked behind a building and watched them. At least, I was watching them. Enzi gave me an impatient expression, which I incorrectly thought meant that she wanted to attack them. Sure, she was strong enough to take them, but diplomacy either required tact or a contract. Since we were leaving Markus out of this one—

A jet of flame screeched out high above the street. The three demons spun in a panic, ready to face their attacker. At least, they were trying to, but only one had a rabdos out, another was in the process of pulling out a rod, and the third was struggling to yank a ball of sorts from their inventory.

“It’s stuck again!” the drawling one cried. She was a koryf, judging by the leathery wings and bat-like face.

“Well, isn’t that just unfortunate?” came an oily voice that made my jaw lock up.

Marching from a crossing street came Markus with his left hand engulfed in red flames and a wicked grin slapped on his face. Recognition crossed the faces of the three demons and they all faltered. Markus pressed forward.

“So, who do you idiots work for?” Markus asked.

“No one!” shouted the hoarse one. Their webbed feet and hands, along with the fins protruding from them at odd angles, marked them as a forcalor, a demon that favoured the oceans. In both hands was a fishing rod. Its end emitted light. I felt kind of bad for the demon having such a crappy rabdos.

Markus cocked an eyebrow. “Really? Well, in that case, I don’t have much of a reason to let you exist.”

Enzi leaned in close to me and whispered, “If he eliminates them, we can’t ally with them.”

“I know,” I hissed back.

“Then do something.”

Right, but what? Markus was hardly listening to what I had to say now. After we’d got the estray, there was little advantage to listening to a human, especially one who’d screwed him out of an accolade and a good chunk of points to go with it. Not only that, but I was having trouble controlling my breathing—Enzi choking me out must have had some strange aftereffect, or my lungs weren’t working that well, or something.

Enzi leaned in a little more so that her breath was tickling my ear. “Algier, you’re the only person in a hundred years who’s beaten Markus in a deal.” She placed a hand over my mouth. “If anyone can—”

I broke away from her and screamed, “Don’t touch me!”

My voice echoed off the ruined buildings and came back to me over and over like a chant. I turned slowly, paralysed by my own stupidity. Markus and the three rogue demons were all staring at me dumbfounded. I’d run out into the street when I’d lost my mind just then. Great. I felt stupid. When I turned back to Enzi, her face was completely blank. That made me feel even stupider.

The flame on Markus’ glove went out. “Oh, good for you to join us, Algier.” He turned back to the other demons. “This is my party member. He erased an estray. Shocking, I know.”

The third estray, an enepsi, judging by the single horn, spoke rapidly. “He’s a human. Is he a demon hunter? He doesn’t look very strong. Maybe he was assisted by the rest of your party or perhaps the estray wasn’t very strong.”

A rotted wooden door slammed open and a small red demon burst out, their serrated teeth grinding together. “Algier, you fucking deer brain!” he howled.

I stared at Volce in complete bafflement. Why was he here? Then, to add to my confusion, Toll was standing right beside Enzi with their knife rabdos, Myst, in one hand. Their other hand was held out before them. Where my mouth had been. They were the one who’d covered my mouth to silence me. I felt like an even bigger moron than Volce.

“We are trying to strike a deal, Algier,” Toll explained.

“I… can see that,” I said. I couldn’t. It looked completely like a shakedown. It—

Right. It was a shakedown. Except that, instead of giving money, the demons would give their allegiance.

I glared at Enzi—she was the one who said I should do something—but the enepsi had become enamoured with her inventory, her finger swiping rapidly through the air. It completely pissed me off that she was acting like she had no role in this! This was entirely her fault!

Still, this didn’t make sense. I needed to know how this came about. I pointed Möbius at Markus. “What game are you playing?”

Toll answered. “He is attempting to convince these demons to sign a contract with—”

“No, that’s what he made you think!” I snapped back.

The haures glanced between me and Toll. “No, that’s literally what I said: ‘Let’s chase these idiots down and convince them to be our cannon fodder.’”

The koryf, forcalor, and enepsi in question exchanged glances at that statement.

“What are the details of this deal?” asked the koryf.

“Attack my party’s enemies upon seeing the big flare in the sky, plus a number of other details to ensure you all comply appropriately, don’t backstab me, and a number of other things which I’m more than happy to share with you just after I sort out my human ally here.”

Enzi poked her head out from behind the brick wall. “Sorry but, what flare?”

“Ah, right!” Markus snapped his fingers and a tablet appeared before Enzi. She caught it before it clattered to the ground. “I need you to sign this. I’ll need to borrow that flare rabdos of yours. Come on, we have a day to get this all done, tops.”

I spun back to Markus. “But you were against the alliance proposal I’d made, to get allies and attack the exit as a group.”

Markus put his hands on his hips. “Since when did I say I wouldn’t do it?”

“You never spoke those words,” Toll answered him.

“Yes, thank you,” Markus sighed. He turned back to the three hapless demons and his glove ignited again. “Let’s cut to the chase. Sign the deal or I’ll erase you all.”

The three demons exchanged glances, no doubt seeking direction from their companions. When none of them showed signs of refusal, they all agreed.

It didn’t make sense. None of it did. Markus was throwing up signs that pointed in every direction and I had no idea how to make sense of it all.

The whole thing made me suspicious. Very suspicious.