“You’re right,” Xellie announced as she pushed the door open, turning into the study to see Ashmeviti studying a yellowing book. “I guess now I have more questions.”
Ashmeviti set the book aside, lifting his gaze to make stern eye contact with Xellie.
“I’ll be sure that she gave you her usual benevolent justifications, saving you from eternal suffering and similar.”
“She did,” Xellie leant on the doorframe, finding the premise of having an escape behind her comforting, even though it wouldn’t achieve much. “She also told me more than she intended I suppose. Seems I’m a pain in the ass to them.”
“A thorn in their side, I would say. A threat to be controlled.”
“She never says much about her life, but she told me all about what you have planned.”
“Of course she did.” His lips betrayed a knowing smile. “Classic Raye. She really is trying so incredibly hard to hide the truth from you.”
“I suppose this is the part where I get propositioned by the most powerful creature known to this world.” Xellie sighed. “Let’s hear it then.”
“...So blunt. I’d say that ‘most powerful’ is a subjective term. You can do something I can’t, therefore you are more powerful than I am, correct?”
Some kind of twisted flattery, she thought to herself, but despite all this coolness in attitude coming from the demon, there was almost a sense of desperation, but perhaps she could get some answers. Answers that she had never attempted to get from Raye, due to the way that Raye would shut down their conversations.
“Okay, so the way I see it right now, you and her are both trying to sell me a package I might not want anything to do with. She’s not being truthful.... and you are just withholding facts.” Xellie took a moment to take in any reaction from the demon. The faintest of smiles crossed his lips as she mentioned Raye; which begged the question if his plans really were about the domination of human souls or more of a personal vendetta. “Tell me, what is her life like? I assume you two have been close in the past.”
Ashmeviti sighed and heaved himself out of the armchair, gesturing for Xellie to step back into the hallway.
“We have a great insight into each other,” he said, furrowing his brow as he gave consideration to his next words. “She was such a careless and reckless young thing, much like you. Now she’s dull and constrained, caring so much about duty. Losing one’s memory would do that.”
“Why? Did you do that to her?”
Ashmeviti shook his head. Inhaling sharply at the question.
“It was a very, very long time ago. I would never have done that to her myself. It’s not my style. Now come with me. I want to show you something.”
He took her through the cluttered, yet clean house out of the backdoor. The house backed into the yard of the church in which Xellie had seen the portal in the crypt.
“Not that...” she told Ashmeviti hesitantly, backing up against the wall. “I can’t.”
“I know. I can protect you from the energy there that would cause you pain... You don’t have to enter. Just a peek into my world is all I’m asking.”
Xellie glanced nervously at the crypt door, considering the likelihood of this being a trap. Many terrible things could happen. He could trap her there, remove any protection without warning, or perhaps do things she couldn’t even imagine.
“Promise me, you won’t trap me in there, take away any protection or do anything that will cause physical or mental anguish or prevent me getting back out within an hour.”
Ashmeviti nodded.
“Of course. You’ll be back here within an hour. The only thing I can’t promise is you finding more questions to ask.”
Well, since the demon lord practically had her captive anyway, worrying about whether or not he would trick her into being trapped in the demon world seemed rather moot. Her curiosity burning, she agreed to Ashmeviti’s request.
Standing behind her, Ashmeviti laid his hands on Xellie’s shoulders. A warmth spread upward through her body, slowly working its way up from her feet, to the top of her head.
As the warmth enveloped her, she started to sink down toward the floor as her body relaxed and her legs gave way.
The feeling stopped abruptly, causing her to gasp as she struggled to find strength and stand back up.
“I see you like my power,” He said to her with a knowing smile. “Don’t worry, I didn’t leave any inside you. You have a skin tight barrier that will repel the energies you’re allergic to.”
Xellie screwed her face up in disgust. Clearly the demon was trying to get her hooked on his power, which admittedly, did feel good.
“It wasn’t that good.” She replied snappily.
Ashmeviti gestured toward the portal, then walked down the crooked stone steps into the crypt.
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Xellie followed, taking each step gingerly, testing the ground as if it could collapse below her. The closer she got to the portal, the more the ground seemed to vibrate with the energies permeating it.
She reached the very edge, stopping before the pulsating line of energy that marked the separation of her world and the demon world. Her toes barely made contact with the ground and she resisted stepping through.
The demon world before her looked much like the one she was currently in. From her position, she appeared to be standing on top of a tower or some sort, looking down on another hafenstad. Unlike the town she stood in now in her world, the demon version was bathed in a red-golden glow.
There was no sun in the demon sky, just the warm glow and fantastic light of sunset.
Coming up toward the portal, from the ground in the demon world, flame coloured thin beams of light stretched upwards, attaching themselves to the portal. It seemed that this energy rising from the ground anchored the portal in place.
“Every time a human comes to us to fix injustice in your world, one of these portals pulls us to you.”
“Injustice? Is that how it works?” Xellie mused, peering over the edge just slightly.
“Yes, even my own retainer wanted to right a wrong in his life.” Ashmeviti said, walking back out of the portal, brushing past Xellie on the steps. “As you can see, it’s not awful, or torturous there. It’s just a normal world with normal emotions.”
Xellie backed away from the portal slowly, almost tripping up as she tried to navigate the steps backwards. Once she felt grass under her feet, she felt safe to turn around. Even though the magical barrier on her had prevented the evil energy from affecting her, she still felt huge relief stepping away from the portal.
“Your retainer must be very old,” she said, her mind going back over old legends and tales of how Ashmeviti’s arrival had opened the gate for demons to take over the land.
“I had to take his body to finish his work,” the demon answered, glancing over at Raye, and then back to Xellie. “And not only do humans summon us, but their thoughts can create the demon they desire. If you studied the Tulpa section of Demonology at the academy, it’s like that. What they don’t tell you is the strength they can wield.”
“The main thing they tell us is how to kill them.” Xellie glanced uneasily at Ashmeviti, “Because the energy from your world poisons our food, dims the sky, makes people sick, causes famine, war. Half the time they treat us as heroes, keeping evil away from the gateway to humanity, and the rest of the time as if we’re infectious.”
Xellie stopped herself short. That was more than she had meant to say and wasn’t sure why she felt the need to blurt out her feelings.
“Yes, your people have a right to be angry at the world.” Ashmeviti said, pointing broadly off into the horizon, “It wasn’t warriors who stayed behind. I know your people are raised on a proud philosophy of fighting, but the reality is, it was only a small group of fools. Everyone with power, wealth or other means fled the area, only to turn and refuse to let the majority leave. They left everyone in the restricted zone to fight or die.”
“I can believe that...”
“Doesn’t it make you angry?” Ashmeviti asked. “You must surely want to set this right, teach a lesson to the people who keep you in here. Perhaps if everyone else helped your kind, rather than trapping your people, there would be more than enough humans to do what they ask of you.”
“That's a good point.”
Xellie mulled over Ashmeviti’s words for a moment, feeling a spark of anger ignite inside her.
Wait a minute. He’s trying to make ME call on a demon!
“It is what it is.” She said with a casual shrug. “I can’t change the past, but I can erase the effect it has.”
“As for the Valkyries, do you think their world is any better than mine?” Ashmeviti asked pointedly, furrowing his brow as he escorted Xellie back inside the house, to the small sitting room.
“I.... don’t know,” Xellie admitted sheepishly, sitting on the small armchair opposite the demon. “I’ve seen them run off when they’ve heard of a battle, I know they choose who they want... And they seem to wield a lot of power.”
“How to explain... The feather hairband you used earlier to talk with her. They are all connected in this way. Their orders, so to speak, are forced on them as a will to do something, rather than a command. They police each other for the most part, unless something extraordinary happens - the punishments they get will be anything from chores, to torture, to being stripped of their power or forced to live as a human. That’s why you’re here, by the way.”
“Nice to know,” she grumbled. “So why do you care what she does so much?”
“In due time. Now, here is your choice... You do a few favours for me, and I’ll let you do whatever you want, for pretty much eternity.”
“Even if it means... I keep hunting demons?” Xellie asked slyly. “ ‘cuz that is a bit weird.”
Ashmeviti laughed, a genuine laugh of amusement, like that of an adult watching a child trying to understand.
“The ones you go after aren’t mine, so I don’t really mind what you do. Those silly little attacks favour the Valkyries by releasing human souls to them.”
“Wait...” Xellie betrayed her surprise with an audible gasp. So that was why Raye wouldn’t intervene when she heard of villages being attacked. She didn’t care about humans staying alive, what she really cared about was that they died so she could do her job.
Clenching her fists as she processed the information, she found her mind racing back to various demon attacks on all the towns and villages she had been in. This made a lot of sense! A flicker of anger was beginning to ignite inside, in part aimed at herself for not making this obvious connection sooner.
“They could have ended it, you understand now?” Ashmeviti nudged her anger and began to push his agenda into the conversation. “They see Humans as livestock, farmed to do their will, and you aren’t much better in their eyes. A lowly inferior being that can threaten their entire reason for existence.”
“And you’ll let me do what I want? None of this torturous eternity of pain stuff that Raye spoke of?” Xellie pressed back. “I know what you want too and either way, I’m going to be somehow responsible for the fates of human souls, but....” She trailed off. “But I...”
“It’s just a few favours. I can block pain from you, I can even remove your inhibitions. You’d be treated well and I’d make it... an enjoyable experience. What do you say?”
The freedom to do what she wanted, while putting countless Human souls at risk of who knew what, or a stuffy, formal existence following strange rules and putting countless Human souls at risk of who knew what.
A hard choice.
“How powerful will I be?”
“With my backing? It would take armies to stop you.”
“Then I have made my choice.” Xellie said, looking Ashmeviti straight in the eye.
“I will let you inform your mother. Go now.”