“There you are,” Sazka said in a businesslike tone after Ixxy peered inside her office. “Come in. Sit down.”

Obediently, Ixxy did as she was instructed.

Sazka looked her up and down, taking in her sallow complexion and the barely healed stabwound in her stomach. “You’ve looked better,” she said.

“Holy fire,” was all Ixxy replied.

“Ah. Yes, that explains it. I suggest avoiding that in the future. May I ask the source?”

“Mitlan. I think.”

“In the city?”

Ixxy nodded.

“Hmm. I suppose I’ll have to look into that.” Sazka sighed. “I swear, if its not one thing, its another. Anyway, that’s not why I called you here.”

Ixxy’s shoulders drooped. Here it came. Time for a lecture. Again.

Sazka held out her hand. In it was a tiny, squirming, fluffy-looking, white mass. It was a soul. Or… part of one, at least.

“Here. This is yours,” Sazka said. “Take it.”

Ixxy raised a confused eyebrow. Why would Sazka offer her a soul…?

Then it clicked. Last time she’d seen Sazka, after that miserable disaster of a Death Contract, she’d offered Ixxy an out: go back home through the Obsidian Gate and she’d return Ixxy’s fine. So this was Sazka’s way of saying it was time to go.

Ixxy’s lip quivered. She knew she’d been pretty close to getting kicked out, but she’d hoped Sazka was going to give her just a little bit more leeway, even if she did yell at her. But it looked like she’d reached the limit of her patience.

“Please,” Ixxy begged. “Don’t send me home yet! I can figure it out!”

“Ixilis…”

“Yes, I got myself scammed, but it wasn’t completely my fault! Vrazhka had said it was okay! She vouched for them!”

“Ixilis…”

“And I figured out a solution all by myself, too! Okay, Timothy did, but I was the one who thought of going to see him! So I claim that!”

“Ixilis…”

“And fuckup at my last contract wasn’t my fault! How was I supposed to know some Mitlan nutter with holy fire was going to stab me in the back? I mean, there is no way I could have foreseen…”

“IXILIS!”

Ixxy’s mouth snapped shut as Sazka glared at her.

“I have no idea what you are talking about. We will discuss these… events you mentioned in a moment. But first, take the soul.”

“This isn’t my fine?” Ixxy asked, still hesitating. “You aren’t kicking me out?”

“Not at this moment, no,” Sazka said, eyeing Ixxy suspiciously. “This is your payment for the death contract. The one where your contractee made himself incapable of payment before you could collect. At least, the part not going towards your fine. Now, take it.”

Haltingly, Ixxy reached out and carefully pinched the soul between her fingers, careful not to let it slip. It was just a tiny amount, just what would have been left over had she used the third she’d been promised to pay off her fine.

“I… I don’t understand,” Ixxy said.

“You were given a Death Contract without being properly prepared to execute one,” Sazka stated calmly as she dug through her desk drawers. “That is a failure of this office and as such I have taken steps to rectify the situation. All debts are now paid. Including your fine.”

“You… you paid me out?” Ixxy asked, horrified.

It didn’t matter if Sazka believed she owed it to her. She knew it was her own fuck up. Even if the contract shouldn’t have gone to her, she could have just turned it down. Should have just turned it down. That meant any cost was hers to bear.

Besides, the failure to collect was a completely separate issue that had nothing to do with the contract itself. It could have happened with anything. There was no reason for the debt to fall on Sazka.

That meant what she’d given Ixxy was that filthiest, most insulting of things.

Charity.

“Calm yourself, Ixilis,” Sazka said as Ixilis trembled with a combination of shame and outrage. “This debt payment is justified.”

“You did not owe me…” Ixilis began, but Sazka cut her off.

“This isn’t from me. It’s from your debtor. Just a little indirectly.”

“How?” Ixxy asked.

“Suffice to say, murdering his ex-lover by proxy had not been your contractee’s idea,” Sazka replied. “The suicide yes, but not the contract itself. So I tracked down the individuals who’d suggested it to him and… explained the situation.”

“And, what? They just… gave up the fee?” Ixxy asked sceptically.

The wide grin that split Sazka’s lips was like ice water down Ixxy’s back, quenching any remaining embers of anger that she still felt. It was the first time she’d ever seen Sazka grin and it looked absolutely terrifying.

“Yes. Though I did have to… press the issue,” she said.

“You… you can’t do that…” Ixxy said. “Debts don’t transfer like that! Especially if the suicide was his own idea!”

“Don’t concern yourself with the how,” Sazka answered mysteriously, waving away her concerns. “Just be glad it is done.”

So that was where Sazka had been this whole time. Sorting out Ixxy’s mess.

“And what do I… owe you, personally, for this favour?” Ixxy asked through gritted teeth. Even if she hadn’t asked for the help, and even if Sazka had made it clear she did not owe her for the soul, she had still gone out of her way and put in effort to assist Ixxy. That counted for something.

Sazka grinned again. She seemed to be in an unusually upbeat mood.

“Nothing.”

“Stop it. I know you want something. You want me to leave? For real this time?” Ixxy said bitterly.

“No. Your debtors covered the acquisition and handling fees. You owe me nothing.”

Ixxy blinked. “Voluntarily?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Sazka said with a smirk, before leaning forward in her chair onto her desk, making her generous breasts push upwards, as if they were trying to crawl out of her neat business outfit.

It was a little distracting.

“Tell me, did you manage to acquire enough souls while I was away to pay off your rent?” she asked, changing the topic. “I assume so, since you are still here.”

Ixxy sighed. “In a manner of speaking.”

“I see. And I suppose this has something to do with this… ‘scam’ you were speaking of earlier? Do explain,” Sazka asked sweetly.

With another sigh, Ixxy began her story. She’d already spilled the beans by accident when she’d thought Sazka knew everything. Attempting to hide her actions now would be dumb. If she tried to deny things now, Sazka could just check through the contract archives to pin her down.

So instead, she just told her everything. About her first contract with Timothy. About her contract with Mulder & Heath. How she’d gone to Timothy for help and the whole disaster with Rita’s contract.

As Ixxy babbled, what little humour had crept onto Sazka’s face slowly slid off. She grew stiller and stiller as the story progressed. And the colder her stare became, the more nervous Ixxy grew.

Finally, as she tried to explain how Vrazhka had ambushed when she’d come back to the Square, Sazka stood up.

“Stay here for a moment,” she said, her voice cold and dead as the grave, before stepping around the desk. She paused in the doorway, turning to look back at where Ixxy was still sitting in her chair.

“Just to be absolutely certain, you said this was Vrazhka that roped you into the contract?” she asked, her voice perfectly calm. “Tall? Long, thin horns? Speaks with a fake accent?”

“Y…yes…?” Ixxy said, hesitating, but Sazka just nodded and stepped through the door.

Ixxy watched her as she walked over to the center of the square and turned, looking around at the buildings surrounding her.

Then she took a deep breath.

“VRAZHKA YOU DECEITFUL SACK OF BITCH SHIT YOU WILL GET YOUR MANIPULATIVE, LYING ASS OUT HERE THIS INSTANT!”

A sudden, stunned silence descended over the entire Triorbus Square.

It was never a particularly loud place even in the busiest of times, with the angular, almost eldritch shapes of the buildings and the shimmering, black pool hovering in mid air at one end almost giving it a feeling of reverence, but now you could hear a pin drop.

Nobody was speaking. Nobody was moving. Nobody even appeared to be breathing. The occupants of the square had turned into a collection of statues.

It was silent as the grave.

Until the silence was broken by a creak in the door of the building opposite Sazka’s office as Vrazhka came stumbling out of it, clearly having been pushed. The face of her erstwhile friend was briefly visible through the doorway behind her.

To her credit, she barely trembled as Sazka marched up to her.

“Vrazhka. I hear you’ve been disobedient.”

Despite the distance, the Square was so quiet that every word of Sazka was perfectly audible from where Ixxy was peering through the doorway of Sazka’s office.

“Who told you zat, Zazka?” Vrazhka asked, staring defiantly down at the shorter, curly-horned demoness, but Ixxy swore she saw her eyes flick over to where she was hiding.

“I told you to leave the newbies alone. To leave them out of your schemes. How many times did I tell you, Vrazhka?”

Vrazhka was nearly a whole head taller than Sazka, yet as she looked down into her eyes, she swallowed nervously before she answered. “Twice, Zazka.”

“Twice. Yes. And what did I say about a third time?”

“Zat… zere wasn’t going to be one, Zazka. Zat instead you were going to…” Vrazhka swallowed again, “… send me back through ze portal, one piece at a time.”

“Yes. That does sound familiar. And what was the very last thing I told you with regards to this? My parting words, the last time, after I’d already broken your arm?”

Now Vrazhka was visibly shaking, sweat running down her cheek. Ixxy didn’t even know demons could sweat.

“You zaid… you zaid zat if I fuck around again, I will find out.”

Sazka kept staring the taller demoness right in the eyes. Then she nodded.

“I see.”

Before Vrazhka had time to react, Sazka grabbed her by one horn and smashed her face into the ground with enough force to crack the tiles under their feet.

Then, she straightened up and, still holding a squirming, bleeding Vrazhka by one of her long, straight horns, walked over to the rippling black circle that was the Obsidian Gate , dragging the struggling pleasure devil behind her.

Everyone’s attention was fixed on the two pleasure devils in the center of the Square as she dropped Vrazhka to the ground in front of the gate. As she tried to crawl away, Sazka placed one foot firmly on her back, pinning her in place.

“FOR SOME REASON”, Sazka shouted, looking around at the various demonic faces staring at her from the windows and doorways of the Square, “EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, YOU IDIOTS SEEM TO GET THE IDEA INTO YOUR THICK SKULLS THAT MY THREATS ARE EMPTY. THAT I WILL NOT, OR POSSIBLY CANNOT, FOLLOW THROUGH ON THEM.”

She bent down, took a firm grip of Vrazhka’s wrist and twisted it painfully behind her back.

“ALLOW ME TO PUT THOSE CONCERNS…” she looked down at where Vrazhka was staring up at her, wide-eyed, from the corner of her eyes, “…TO REST.”

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She pulled.

Before Ixxy’s eyes, there was a loud, cracking, ripping sound, accompanied by a harsh, primal scream of pain as a thick, arterial spray of demon blood splattered the tiles of the Square.

She’d torn off Vrazhka’s arm.

She’d torn off Vrazhka’s fucking arm!

Sazka held up the severed limb like some kind of grisly trophy, drops of dark red blood slowly running down her face and soaking into her previously spotless business suit.

“AM. I. CLEAR?”

Ixxy watched the series of silent nods from around the inside of the Square. Even a few mortals who’d happened to be inside, hiding behind a pillar on the other side of the courtyard, nodded along.

“GOOD.”

With that, Sazka tossed the limp, severed arm through the inky, black surface of the Obsidian Gate. It seemed to gloop happily.

Then she bent over and proceeded to rip off the remainder of Vrazhka’s limbs, one by one. Each grotesque rip and crunch accompanied by sobbing whimpers from Vrazhka, but there were no further screams. Ixxy guessed that she’d finally remembered to switch off her ability to feel pain.

After all four limbs had been torn off and tossed through the portal, Sazka lifted Vrazhka’s now limbless torso to her face. Somehow, despite having left a pool of blood the size of a small swimming pool on the ground, the demoness was still alive and conscious.

When Sazka spoke again, all the anger seemed to have disappeared from her voice. Instead, she just sounded… tired.

“You are no longer welcome here. If you return, you will receive the same punishment. Do not come back.”

“I… I will remember you… on the other side…” Vrazhka hissed between bloody lips.

“Yes. Make sure you do,” Sazka replied and with a twist of her arms, ripped Vrazhka’s head from her body. Then she threw both pieces through the black gate.

For a moment, Sazka just stood there, her back turned to Ixxy, staring at the inky, black void floating in front of her, seemingly deep in thought. Around her, the rest of the Square slowly returned to normal, barring the extensive blood stains.

What the fuck?

No pleasure devil could rip someone’s arms off like that. Ixxy certainly couldn’t. They were strong compared to mortals, sure, but not that strong! Even when shapeshifting for maximum strength, they were nowhere near that!

And there had been no sign that Sazka had shifted her form.

Ixxy was still standing by the door, staring, when Sazka abruptly turned around and started marching back to her office. Ixxy nearly fell over her own feet in her scramble to get back to her seat, pretending like she hadn’t moved exactly as Sazka had said.

When she heard Sazka’s footsteps enter and the door slowly slide closed behind her, Ixxy risked a nervous look over her shoulder.

Sazka was staring at her thoughtfully, still covered in blood. Even as Ixxy watched, her delicate tongue absentmindedly licked the thick, crimson fluid off of her lips.

When she suddenly spoke, apparently having come to some kind of decision, it startled Ixxy.

“Let’s speak of your father, shall we?”

Fuck. Ixxy did not want to talk about her father. She did not want to talk about him, with him, or even anywhere near him. She didn’t even want to think about him if she could help it.

She wanted to get as far away from the manipulative bastard as she possibly could, in every sense of the word.

“You… you know…?” Ixxy asked slowly.

“Yes. I know who your father is,” Sazka replied, retaking her seat and digging through her desk until she found a small handkerchief. “The moment you stepped through the Gate,” she continued as she wiped the worst of Vrazhka’s vital fluids off of her face and hands, “I received a message from him.”

No. Please, no. Why couldn’t he just leave her alone?

Her kind weren’t big on family bonds. Once they had a couple of centuries or so under their belt they generally got ‘kicked out of the house’, so to speak, and after that were lucky if they got a polite check-in every once in a while from their parent.

Unless said parent had plans for them.

“Along with a hundred souls. For you. And instructions to get in contact with him if you ever needed more.”

Ixxy clenched her eyes shut and groaned. This was so typical. This was so… him.

“Please tell me you haven’t…” she pleaded.

Sazka snorted. “Of course not. I wasn’t born this century. I haven’t touched them.”

Ixxy breathed a sigh of relief. If she’d taken even a single one of those souls…

“Why didn’t you say anything before?” Ixxy asked quietly.

Sazka shrugged, the blood-soaked jacket sticking to her awkwardly. “I didn’t think I would have to. I expected you to stomp into my office in the first few minutes, demanding whether I knew who you were like some kind of spoiled brat.”

Ixxy winced. Honestly, she’d considered it. Once. When Sazka had slapped the fine on her. “And if I had…?”

“If you were insistent, you would have gotten the same treatment as Vrazhka,” Sazka stated calmly. “I don’t play favourites, and I don’t pander to spoilt rich kids. It would have been an excellent educational experience for the Square. Much like Vrazhka turned out to be.”

Ixxy leaned back and let out a shuddering breath. Good thing she’d reigned in her impulses.

This was why she had to be so careful with debt. If she owed anyone anything, either her father or his enemies could buy up that debt. Either to control her, or as a means of controlling him through her.

All she wanted was to be her own person, without all the stupid, fucking politics.

“So what now?” she asked.

“Now we discuss that contract you signed,” Sazka said. “Right now, your father seems content to keep his distance, but if you get entrapped, he will get involved. Personally. And that, I think, will end up ruining a lot of people’s day, mine included.”

Ixxy shook her head. “No, he won’t. He doesn’t work like that. And he’d never submit himself to the bindings of the Grand Contract. He’s too used to the control.”

“Maybe yes, maybe no,” Sazka said, shrugging cryptically, her blood soaked office shirt moving in interesting ways as it clung to her body. “Regardless, whether he steps in himself or sends stooges, he would be making life difficult for all of us. Me especially. So I think it is in both of our best interest if we took care of that annoying little contract you got yourself embroiled in, don’t you?”

Ixxy swallowed nervously. Technically, if Sazka ripped her head off and tossed her through the Obsidian Gate after Vrazhka, the contract would no longer be her concern. It would still be Ixxy’s problem, but she could wash her hands of the whole thing.

That didn’t seem to be what Sazka had planned, though. Thank goodness.

“What did you have in mind?”

“What did you have in mind, Ixilis?” Sazka countered. “You made a lot of noise about being close to solving your problems. So do tell. What are your plans?”

“All I have to do,” Ixxy spoke carefully, “is to find the missing payment from my contract with Rita. It’s out there. It’s worth enough that I can pay off my contract and my fine, all in one go.”

“If it’s been salvaged, it belongs to someone else now,” Sazka replied calmly, shrugging and wiping her hands again with a another piece of cloth she’d dug out of her drawer.

“No, see, I have a legitimate claim to it!” Ixxy replied. “Sure, yes, they might salvaged it, but if I happen to find it just… lying somewhere, well, how am I supposed to know what had happened? Or even who did it? Surely, it would be okay if I just took it, right? I am the rightful owner after all. And if someone was claiming salvage rights, well, I’m sure they’d come tell me, right?”

Sazka raised a bloodstained eyebrow. “And if you happened to spot it in the possession of the salvager? What then?”

Ixxy licked her lips. “Well… who’s to say he wasn’t just trying to find the rightful owner? Of course I wouldn’t want to bother them, so I’d just take it after they left it somewhere…”

She trailed off as Sazka tutted and shook her head. “This is all assuming you can even find it. Any idea who took it?”

“… no.”

“Any clue where to start looking for it?”

“… no.”

“Then how do you intend to find it, Ixilis?”

Silence. “I don’t know,” Ixxy said softly.

“Let’s say you find it,” Sazka went on. “What then? How will you turn it into the souls you need?”

“Leez said you can buy souls for money. It’s worth a lot…”

“Yes, but how are you going to turn it into money, Ixilis?”

“The shopkeeper who did the valuation said it was worth…”

“Did he make an offer?”

Ixxy hesitated. “No. He said he doesn’t deal in that stuff.”

“Then I ask again, Ixilis,” Sazka said patiently, “how do you intend to turn this device into money? Where will you go? How will you make sure you do not get ambushed en route? Once you have the money, how will you stop someone else from killing you and taking it? What is your plan?”

Ixxy’s mouth opened and shut wordlessly a few times, before she just kept it closed. It was starting to sink in for her that perhaps… perhaps, Sazka had had a point when she’d said she wasn’t cut out for this.

She took a deep breath. “I… I don’t have one,” she said softly. “I don’t know what to do.”

Maybe going back home and letting her father sort all this out was the right thing to do. Maybe another millenia or two under his thumb would be the seasoning she needed so she wouldn’t be so damned useless.

“That’s the first step,” Sazka said equally quietly. “Admitting you are out of your depth.”

“Then what’s the next?” Ixxy asked bitterly. “Take your offer and go home?” Then the fire seemed to go out of her and she just sagged. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should just face it that I’m not cut out for this place.”

Sazka tutted. “Are you giving up on me, Ixilis? Already? What happened to the girl who insisted she wasn’t this weak?”

Ixxy sighed and hung her head. “Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I am too weak. Like you said, I’m out of my depth. Have been since I got here. It was sink or swim and I sunk. I should just take your offer and go.”

“And what if my offer is no longer on the table?” Sazka asked. There was no vindictiveness in her voice, just curiosity.

Ixxy shrugged dejectedly. “Then… then I’ll make use of the souls my father left me. Pay off my fine, my debt to Mulder & Heath and to Infertec, and just accept I’m going to be his for the foreseeable future. It’s not so bad, I guess. Who knows, maybe in a millenia I’d be able to make decisions for myself again?”

“So that’s that, then?” Sazka asked, leaning back in her chair. She didn’t seem to care that she was still smearing crimson stains all over it.

“I suppose so,” Ixxy replied, taking a deep, rattling breath.

In a way, it was a relief. Not having to worry about everything any more. Not having to be concerned about how she was going to get her next soul. How she was going to fix her messes.

How she’d hurt other people.

She shuddered and shook her head. Where had that thought come from? Gross. They were just mortals. It didn’t… they didn’t…

“Everything alright, Ixilis?” Sazka asked.

“Honestly, I’m glad I’m leaving,” Ixxy admitted. “This whole thing has felt… wrong from the start. Made me feel wrong.”

“How so?” Sazka asked conversationally.

“I think I was… making friends,” Ixxy said, looking like she’d swallowed something disgusting.

“Leez, yes? She is a decent enough sort,” Sazka opined. “Just lazy. Certainly not worth that expression, though,” she added, gesturing to Ixxy’s face.

Ixxy shook her head. “No, not her. I mean, yes, I think we’ve kind of made friends, but I wasn’t talking about her. I mean… mortals.”

She winced, as if expecting a scathing retort, or a mocking chuckle, or, even worse, a pitying shake of the head. Sazka did none of those.

“Go on,” was all she said.

“I don’t know how to explain this. For some bizarre reason, I want to go see Timothy before I go. I mean, I know I still have a debt to him but he’s a mortal! That shouldn’t matter! But why do I still want to go through with it before I go?

“And when I was doing the contract with the spider girl? Rita? I was… enjoying myself. Not the scheming or the exploiting, but the conversation. Just, I don’t know, hanging out. I was annoyed when it came time to betray her and rip her soul out. It felt… I don’t know. Like a waste.”

And the look Timothy gave her when they’d dragged her down those stairs. The look of horror and betrayal and hurt and shock and… and… resignation. Like he’d known all along something like that was going to happen.

For some reason, it made her feel sick.

“Then why did you?” Sazka asked.

Ixxy stared at her like she’d grown a second head. “Because…? Isn’t that how things work? Why would I be so dumb as to take less than what I could? That’s just… stupid. I don’t even know how to respond to the question.”

Sazka sighed and rubbed her head. “You were so close, Ixilis.”

“What do you mean?” Ixxy asked.

“Forget it,” Sazka replied. “You clearly aren’t ready to understand. Perhaps one day. For now, however, my answer is no.”

“No?” Ixxy responded, confused. “No, what?”

“No, you are not leaving. You are not running and leaving your messes behind. You are going to act like an adult and fix them.”

Ixxy just blinked at her in silence. “But, you wanted me to go…?”

Sazka steepled her fingers in front of her. “Ixilis, do you think you are the first whelpling to sit in my office, feeling sorry for herself? Who thought this was going to be some kind of carefree holiday but got a rude awakening?”

Ixxy just stared at her.

“Now give me that contract,” Sazka commanded, holding out her hand.

“What…?”

“The one Vrazhka tricked you into. The one trapping you.”

“Don’t you already have…” Ixxy began, but Sazka cut her off.

“I am not going to go digging through the bloody archives, Ixilis. I do have other things I need to do. Now hand it over.”

Momentarily caught off guard, Ixxy obeyed, twisting her wrist to manifest the thick sheaf of papers and handing it over to Sazka across her desk.

The demoness didn’t seem to care about the bloody fingerprints she got all over the magically manifested paper as she began flicking through them, her eyes darting back and forth at an astounding speed. She was either just skimming the contract or she was an unbelievable speed reader.

After a minute or so of silent reading, she dropped the contract back in front of Ixxy.

“My word, Ixilis, you really screwed up with this one,” Sazka said tiredly as she reached down and fished a pen and some stationary out of a desk drawer. “I swear, even a mortal wouldn’t have fallen for this.”

“Oh, fuck off, Sazka,” Ixxy said wearily. She was so tired of being denigrated. Of being told how terrible she was. Now she was being told she was awful and that she wasn’t allowed to give up in the same breath. What did Sazka want?

“But that is alright. You will learn,” Sazka replied, a faint smile on her face.

She reached across the table and Ixxy instinctually flinched backwards. When she looked, Sazka was holding a little wriggling white thing pinched between her fingers. Again. This time much larger.

“What are you doing?” Ixxy asked, making no move to take it.

“What does it look like? I am helping you, Ixilis.”

“I don’t understand. Is this a soul from my father’s stash?”

“No, Ixilis. This is what you’ve paid for your fine. I am returning it.”

“Why?” Ixxy asked, suspiciously.

“Because it turns out there was a clerical error. Your fine is only due next week. Take it.”

“But why…”

“Because I say so, Ixilis. Now take the damned soul!”

Haltingly, Ixxy reached forward and plucked the little, wriggling piece of white fluff from between Sazka’s fingers, immediately absorbing it into herself.

It really was a full soul. Enough for an entire week’s rent. Or to pay off her debt.

“But… that’s… I have enough!” Ixxy said, a slow smile spreading across her face. “I can pay off Mulder and Heath!”

“Does that mean you’re staying?” Sazka asked, glancing up from where she’d begun writing something on a sheet of paper that she’d pulled out of her drawer earlier.

“Yes! I mean… I don’t know,” Ixxy said, getting up. “I’ll see. I’ll have to think about it. But at the very least I can pay of Mulder and fucking Heath and get out of this stupid contract!”

“And how do you intend to do that?” Sazka asked, inspecting her blood-soaked nails with a frown before returning to scribbling the note in front of her.

“I’m going to march up to their offices and damn well shove the soul in their faces!” Ixxy said angrily, turning to leave.

“They aren’t there anymore,” Sazka called after her.

Ixxy stopped in her tracks.

“What do you mean?” she asked, suspiciously, turning back.

“I mean they’ll be gone, Ixilis,” Sazka replied. “If nothing about their business is real, why would they need an office? It’s only purpose was to trick you. That’s why they only bothered to furnish the front room. They’ll be long gone.”

“Then I’ll find them,” Ixxy insisted. “I’ll track them down…”

“You won’t,” Sazka interjected calmly. “The fact that Vrazhka was involved means that this was no random con. You were explicitly targeted. And you can bet they will make very sure you never find anyone connected to Mulder and Heath ever again. In fact, I’m willing to bet that they’ll be avoiding anything demonic for the next few years.”

Ixxy stared at her blankly, a slow chill spreading up her spine as all the pieces clicked into place.

Why had Vrazhka conned her despite the inevitable backlash that was going to follow back in the Abyss? Because someone powerful had made it worth her while. Someone who’d wanted Ixxy targeted specifically.

Why had Mulder & Heath been willing to do such an expensive scam that required them to pay out an entire soul? Because they knew who she was and how valuable her debt would be.

Why hadn’t she heard of anyone else falling for this scam before? Because there were no other victims. She’d been the only target.

This had all been much, much bigger than she’d first believed.

“But… what am I going to do then? How am I going to pay them back?”

“Rather the point, I am afraid,” Sazka answered, signing the letter in front of her with a flourish and looking back up at Ixxy. “Luckily, I know someone who can help with that.”

“Who?” Ixxy asked.

Seemingly ignoring the question, Sazka folded up the note she’d written and carefully placed it in an envelope that she’d taken out for that purpose. Then she placed her thumb on the seal flap and with a soft sizzle of magic, sealed it shut.

“Do you remember your second contract?” Sazka asked, “Mr. Poppelheim?”

“The old guy? Who made me work as a maid?” Ixxy blurted out, surprised. “Unfortunately, yes. Why?”

“Take this,” Sazka answered, holding out the letter towards her, “and give it to him. Make sure you keep the soul. Do not pass it on to Infertec.”

Confused, Ixxy took the offered envelope.

“Okay, and then?” she asked.

“Then you do what he says. Yes, I know you can’t take a contract, I’m saying do what he says without one.”

Ixxy eyed Sazka sceptically. “So I just… do whatever he tells me? Even if he tells me to clean his damn house again?”

“As if I’d told you to do it myself,” Sazka replied, a mysterious smile on her face.

“And this will help me get out of my contract somehow?” Ixxy asked.

“On second thought, perhaps not as I’d told you to do it. Perhaps about… ninety-five percent less back-chatting,” Sazka replied. “I’d ask for a hundred, but I do understand that you have your limits. And he does have a sense of humour, despite appearances, so you will probably be okay.”

“Sazka, I don’t understand…”

“Just do what I said, Ixilis. Now shoo.”