Thankfully, after I showed Asmodeus I had only been joking, he stopped ranting about the priceless nature of the book whose pages I had unceremoniously folded. Actually, I had memorized about twenty page numbers where I was struggling to understand pieces of the text.

He then painstakingly tutored me in chronomancy for the better part of an hour. Ilmatar arrived halfway through with food, a blessing to my famished body. However, it resulted in Asmodeus lecturing me in a monotone voice for ten minutes straight as I wolfed down a hearty mystery mushroom stew. Once you convinced Asmodeus to start a lecture, there was no obvious way to stop him, and I was careful to avoid offending him further.

Sometime during our tutoring session, Mona excused herself to check on things down in the temple, perhaps having decided that for the time being, at least, I was no longer in immediate danger.

Asmodeus was an exhausting teacher who alternated between reciting unimportant minutiae and skipping over essential information that he deemed obvious. He had a habit of saying, “It follows that…” far too often. He reminded me of being back in college again, learning from professors who were only there to do research, and had little understanding of how to teach.

The thing about Asmodeus was that the more he talked, the more I realized how much he was secretly enjoying this opportunity to essentially rant at me about a topic he was supremely qualified in, considering that gravity manipulation was his primary mode of travel and that eye demons like him learned to do so within their first few years of life. Their brains, he claimed, were particularly well suited to it.

Which was good for them because, personally, I was having trouble. The problem was all in the incantations, which is to say, there weren’t any. It had puzzled me at first, considering I had made it almost halfway through the book, that I had never even seen a mention of a spell incantation, only those complicated grids of runes that resembled some kind of twisted list of equations. If the book would only give me something to shout, I could have at least practiced it, even if I was doomed to failure.

“So you see, based on the current cycle of the moon, it follows that we would need to adjust the third parameter here.”

In chronomancy, you had to form your incantation based on a complicated system of rules that described both the effect you wished to achieve and its location. As I was beginning to realize, using this system to produce a workable spell felt more like astrophysics than magic, and certainly nothing like pyromancy, whose power seemed to rest on one’s determination and belief.

Asmodeus had started to explain that any manipulation of the space-time field, whether making something lighter, heavier, slower, or faster, all relied on the same fundamental principles. In fact, there was no real difference between a change in weight and a change in the flow of time.

“I think I got that,” I said. “I just…” I gestured at the page in front of him, which described how to manipulate a specific part of the spell based on the relative position of the caster, the ground, and the sun. “This is just one tiny part of it, right? And it’s already complicated as hell. How am I supposed to remember all this and make all the necessary adjustments when I’m out there, and I don’t have the book?”

Asmodeus seemed to consider this. “Yes, this is a common problem. Your cambion body does not possess the same Void-touched glandular structures as an eye demon. When I think of the desired effect, my glands secrete chemicals in my brain that help direct my Will. However, you do not possess this biology.”

“What about Darkstar? He’s a cambion, too, isn’t he?” At least he didn’t seem so different than me, other than his wings.

“Ah.” Asmodeus shook his eye. “You’d have to ask him. The Winged Legion uses a different training method, with, uh, less statistical rigor. And a far higher failure rate.”

“I’m fine with less rigor if we’re being honest.” If only I could ask Darkstar about it without revealing my ineptitude.

Asmo shook his eye in annoyance. “Sure, that’s fine if all you want to do is fly in one direction, but if you want true mastery, you will need to thoroughly understand the 4-D field vector matrix whose myriad parameterizations are the foundation of all chronomancy.”

Which was a sentence whose words I only a quarter understood, at best.

In truth, I mostly did want to fly, though preferably in more than one direction. Still, I didn’t want to offend him. And I had already gotten an idea of how I could practice in private. I just needed to painstakingly formulate a spell for a very specific set of circumstances, then try to adjust it in different ways to test its limits. Maybe?

I tried to absorb what Asmodeus was saying rather than attempt to understand it immediately. The understanding would have to come later. Instead, I simply accepted the information and tried my best to file it away. Though I couldn’t do it yet, I started to see how I might get there.

If I had years to practice…

But the sheer difficulty of the task ahead of me was something I was going to try and ignore for as long as possible.

My focus on Asmodeus’s lecture was shattered when a rapping came at the door. Ilmatar peered around the edge as it opened, his eyebrows raised in confusion. Was it because Asmodeus was still here?

“Master,” Ilmatar said. “I’ve arranged your meeting with the military leadership in a little over an hour.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Sounds good,” I said. “If you see Mona, Ilmatar, tell her—”

“She’s standing right behind me,” Ilmatar awkwardly began as Mona walked breezily around him and entered the bedroom. She looked at me, and I saw something in her expression—guilt and worry. I expected her to sit on the bed as usual, but perhaps because we were not alone, she walked past it and sat on a nearby couch.

I turned to Asmodeus. “Well, I think we’ve reached a good stopping point.”

“Ah, if you’re sure,” Asmodeus said. “Things really start to come together in the final chapters. That’s where the different permutations of the sub-phrases begin to be combined.”

“I look forward to it,” I said hesitantly.

Asmodeus floated out the door, awkwardly edging around Ilmatar, who stood in the doorway like a statue. I realized I hadn’t invited or dismissed him, leaving him paralyzed by social convention.

“Thank you, Ilmatar. I need to discuss something with the High Priestess. Come fetch me when it’s time.”

He gave a curt nod, then closed the door with a soft click.

Once we were alone, I joined Mona on the sofa. But the worried look on her face had only grown. “You did that because of me, didn’t you?” she asked.

I was lost. “Wait, what did I do?”

“The blood you gave to the paladin. I wouldn’t say this in front of the others, but… You saw how I reacted, and you wanted to help.”

“Would it be a problem if I did?”

“I don’t want—I don’t want you to baby me, Master.”

“I wasn’t trying to. And that wasn’t the only reason, anyway—”

“You want to fuck her, don’t you?” she asked, her eyes widening as if she had discovered a secret.

“No,” I said. “I mean, I have nothing against—”

She laughed. “You always deny things in such funny ways, Master.”

“She’s our prisoner, anyway, so I don’t see how we possibly would ever—never mind. I didn’t save her life because of that. It didn’t feel right to kill her.”

“She tried to kill you. Twice. Don’t be naive, Dark Lord.” She scooted closer to me on the cushions and took my hand between hers. “Perhaps on this Earth you are from, that idealism was a luxury you could afford. Here, it will not end well.”

I shook my head. “I know what you’re saying. She didn’t really try to kill me, though. She tried to kill the person she thought I was.”

Mona rolled her eyes. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that’s an important distinction.”

“It is to me.”

“But you’d still be equally dead.”

“I know. I suppose some part of me thinks this still doesn’t feel real, Mona. Any of this.”

She placed the back of her hand against my cheek to avoid scratching me with her claws as she caressed my skin. I turned my head and kissed the back of her hand. “Does it feel real now?” she asked.

My cheek almost burned where she’d touched me, a strange sensation considering I was immune to fire. She smiled as if she could tell my thoughts had already wandered precisely where she’d wished to lead them. It was strange how quickly she could divert any of my worries or fears, how she could make me forget my problems for a moment through sheer desire and even, if I was being honest, romance. I didn’t know if all succubi were like this or if Mona was remarkably talented. There was also the bond between us and the shared voyage of our souls, which wasn’t lost on me, even if she didn't entirely believe it.

I had been brought here for a reason, even if I didn’t know what it was yet. Or at least, I had to believe so, for the sake of my sanity, if nothing else.

“Sometimes, you’re the only part that does feel real,” I said. “I’m afraid of losing you again, Mona.”

“Again,” she whispered as if considering the word.

“I know you don’t think of it that way.”

She leaned closer to me, looking me right in the eyes as I looked back at her. So close to her face, I could see her flawless pink skin, her dark eyes so warm and full of life. I did not understand, to be honest, the source of her affection for me.

“I do believe you,” Mona said. “Or at least, I would like to. It is comforting to think that we might have been together before.” She shrugged. “I believe that you believe it.”

I shook my head. “I think you might have focused on the less important part of what I said. I’m afraid of losing you.”

She looked away suddenly and only nodded. “As am I. Our time together has only begun, but time is not on our side, Master.”

I pulled her closer to me, kissed her softly, then wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into me, embracing her on the sofa, and holding her tightly. She squeezed me back, taking care with her claws, pressing gently with her fingers.

We passed the time talking of all things, great and small. I told her more about how Asmodeus had discovered me, and she shook her head, thanking the Void for his nonchalance. Still, I didn’t know how far he could be relied upon, and I thought I would have to keep a close eye on him from now on.

Mona told me about the calendar—it was three and a half months until the third week of Kelnar. Three and a half months until we left the tower and marched off to fight in a war I didn’t believe in or even truly understand.

I told her I didn’t know why the Generals had decided to sell produce to Ophidium. Despite Shatterbone’s payday on account of his entrepreneurship, it still seemed like a diplomatic blunder to me, selling weapons to one potential ally at the expense of another. Almost as if they’d wanted to burn bridges with Arachnia.

Mona shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t understand it either,” she said. “They don’t tell me anything. Be careful around Shatterbone. In the last five years, he built a villa out in the countryside. Now I understand how that bastard was able to afford it.” She sighed and placed her face in her hands for a moment. “Meanwhile, I’ve been living in my official quarters, on my priestess’s stipend, like a fool.”

“I’m not sure that’s what I’d take away from this.”

“I’m just saying,” she said, looking up at me now, pouting, “where’s my villa?” She held her sad, pathetic expression for a moment, before sticking her tongue out at me. We both began to laugh.

“That better be our villa,” I said.

She smirked. “Of course, Master. I would share anything with you.”

Perhaps I should have asked Asmodeus about our arms sales, I thought. There may have been some records or information he had access to. Something that would help me understand what we were selling, how much was left, and how much Shatterbone had profited. But it was too late to ask now, and a cynical part of me wondered if it even mattered, if I had arrived too late to make a bit of difference.

Ilmatar returned, knocking at the door all too soon.

It was time to speak to the Generals again. I couldn’t avoid them forever, as much as I might have wished to. And that familiar fantasy arose in my mind again of running away together, Mona and I living in a small cabin surrounded by a forest of towering mushrooms. A cabin was a kind of villa, wasn’t it? Close enough for me, at least.

“Wish me luck,” I whispered to her.

“See you later,” she said, her voice lilting, as if even as I left, she was already calling me back to her. And then her mouth silently formed two familiar words—Don’t die.

I’ll try, I answered. With one last peck on Mona’s cheek, I headed for the door.

It was time to face reality.