I yanked the bag off of Red’s head. She blinked as her eyes tried to adjust to the bright light not a meter away from her face. To her credit, she didn’t look at all surprised or scared to find herself in a small stone dungeon, chained to a chair. Despite this, I still felt a small measure of satisfaction now that our situations were now reversed. Okay, I felt a large measure of satisfaction.

“Hello, Red,” I said.

She didn’t respond. She just stared ahead, at the wall.

“Sorry,” I said, walking over to the wall and leaning against it. “I forgot your real name.” I had a bad habit of doing that, but she didn’t seem to mind, because again, I was met with silence. “So I’ll call you Red, if that’s okay,” I added.

Still nothing. I sighed. Yvlan had told me to torture her, a sentiment Xico had agreed with. However, as I knew from personal experience, torture is a pretty ineffective way of getting information. Any information gleaned from torture was highly suspect at best and generally completely unreliable. I’d been lucky that Wells had been a coward, because otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten anything useful out of him. The only reason torture is widely used is as a messed up method of punishment, or to work out one’s aggression. That mostly why I’d tortured Wells. Because I really, really hated him. I didn’t particularly want to punish Red, not because I liked her, but because it wouldn’t accomplish much, nor did I have demented desires of that fashion I needed to work through. Frankly, torture was also a lot of work and pretty messy.

So, torture was off the table.

“Technically, I’m your elder,” I said, “you should respect me.” Respect in this scenario meant spill your guts to me, but you know, it still applied.

“You are not my elder,” Red said, her voice completely emotionless. It echoed off the stones in a strange way, only amplifying how inhuman she sounded.

“So you can speak,” I said. My Hunter’s Mark began to itch, but I ignored it.

“Will you torture me? You must know it is ineffective,” Red said.

“No,” I said, “I’m too lazy, frankly. Instead, you’ll tell me everything you know. And that’ll be that.”

“No,” Red said plainly. “I don’t think I will.”

“Yes,” I said, “you will.” I pulled out a knife. Red glanced at it, more bored than anything.

“I thought you weren’t going to torture me,” she said.

I held the knife up and nodded.

“I won’t.” I plunged the knife toward my chest. Red’s eyes went wide and everything crawled to a stop. My muscles froze and locked in place, the knife just an inch from my skin.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Abraxas bellowed, stepping out from the darkness.

“Getting your attention,” I said. I tried to drop the knife but I found I couldn’t move. “Can I move now?”

“No,” Abraxas said, stalking over to Red and leaning on her chair. He looked exhausted, with stray hairs everywhere and a five o’clock shadow.

“Just keep your time freeze and let me walk around,” I said. “It feels wrong to be stuck here and talking.”

“Time isn’t actually frozen,” Abraxas explained with a tired wave of his hand. “I’ve just accelerated your brain processes. So your perception of time has changed temporarily. It’s very taxing, so I don’t particularly enjoy doing it.”

“Then why can you move?” I asked.

Abraxas groaned and noticeably deflated a bit. Apparently, I’m so annoying I can piss of devils. Go me.

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“Because I’m not actually here,” he said through clenched teeth. “I have no physical form, only a psychological one. Now…please…tell me why you needed my attention so desperately?”

I tried to point at Red but I still couldn’t move. This was getting annoying.

“Her,” I said. “She’s got a Mark, so she should be part-devil or something. Can’t you talk to her or something? Convince her to cooperate?”

Abraxas just stared at me. Then, he sighed and shook his head.

“Gods above,” he muttered. “You’re really irritating, you know that?”

I just rolled my eyes.

“Fine,” Abraxas said, before disappearing.

Time resumed and the knife clattered out of my hands, falling to the floor. Red quickly reined in her expression back to a chilly indifferent.

“Alright,” I said, kicking the knife away from Red, “now you’re going to tell me what you know.”

Red just stared at me. I got the sense that she thought I was crazy. Which, to be fair, I probably was. From her perspective, I’d tried to stab myself, dropped the knife, and now was expecting her to tell me Guild secrets.

Suddenly, my Mark began to burn. I screamed and fell to the ground, but Red didn’t react. I stumbled to my feet and noticed that I could see myself, standing in front of Red, a grim smile spreading on my lips.

I reached out to touch myself and my hand passed through my body as if it were mist. I pulled my hand back quickly.

The other me took a step forward, looming over Red, and said, “You are a lesser devil.” His words were in a different language, one that didn’t echo off the stones at all. Somehow, I could still understand it. It was Abraxas. I could just tell.

Red flinched and responded in the same language, “I owe you no allegiance.”

“Yes,” Abraxas said, “you do.” The lights flickered and he whispered, “I am Abraxas, the Grand Archon, the first builder and the final rebel. I was the Gatekeeper and I forged the very fires you were born from. You will obey.”

There was a glint of fear in Red’s eyes as she watched Abraxas. Finally, a single tear rolled down her cheek and she closed her eyes.

“Yes,” she said, “I obey.”

I blinked and I was back in my body. I took a step back and stretched.

“Good,” I said. “Good. Now tell me what you know.”

Red began to sob. I just stood there, watching her.

“I was afraid you’d abandoned us,” she said. “My lord, the others, they abandoned you, they left your castle to ruin, they let your lands lie fallow. For a thousand years I waited…” I couldn’t make out the rest of her words as she broke down into a crying mess.

Then, she froze, as did everything else.

“I have no idea who she is,” Abraxas said from behind me. He spoke with great difficulty, his voice hoarse and quiet. I turned around and saw him leaning against the wall next to the door. He looked like Hell warmed over, pun intended. He was thinner and paler than the last time I’d seen him, as if he’d skipped a week’s worth of meals. His skin had a gaunt appearance to it, seeming to just barely hang off of his bones.

“Really?” I asked. “It seemed like you knew her. You knew she was a lesser devil.”

He shook his head and slowly lowered himself to the floor.

“No,” he said, “that was a bluff. There aren’t that many greater devils around, especially ones that get themselves caught by people like the Guild, so she was likely to be a lesser devil. And chances were, she’d heard of me. Of us, that is. We used to be pretty important down there.

“She seems to think that your powers, or at least memory, are fully returned. She will be loyal to you so long as she believes that. If she learns it isn’t true…well, things might get dicey. You don’t have even a fraction of the power we used to have. And what you do have, I’m providing, to my detriment.”

“If we were so powerful, how’d we get caught by the Guild?” I asked.

Abraxas glared at me and sighed.

“It’ll come to you in time,” he said. “For now, I have exhausted myself. I am but an echo, you hold the real power. I will remain as long as you need to help you unlock that power. But I need time to recharge.”

“So don’t do anything stupid?” I asked.

“So don’t do anything stupid,” he said. Then, he disappeared.

I turned back to Red, who was still sobbing.