Standing in his own mind atop a literal mountain of memories, holding a kitten-shaped demon by the leg, Parry felt time slipping through his grasp.

"What else have you eaten?" He shook the thing. "What else?"

"The cells of your memories are profoundly disorganized. Nothing abuts what it ought." Styak offered, sounding more like an officious inspector than a demon. "Your most recent conversation with the Creator, your plans, they lay just next to your memories of a pasta dish. A cell beside that, dozens of lives later, the time you lost a chess game to a dragon. Honestly, how can you think with a mind that chaotic? Rhetorical question, don't bother."

Parry grit his teeth. "I'm not asking for a review, I want to...wait...I remember that! The Dragon of the Fountain, back in Finmeyer, when I was junior mage to the court. I had to beat her to win one of her eggs, I taught her chess."

"And lost your first, last and only game with her, yes."

"I remember," Parry smiled like a wolf. "How, if that's a thought you've 'eaten'?"

Styak laughed, showing far too many teeth. "I didn't consume that one, simpleton. Why should I? So embarrassing, such a rout, it was enough to lick and experience the memory and leave it be. It remains for us both enjoy any time."

"I watched you grow up, Little Country-Boy Parry, waiting for my chance to corrupt you. I saw you frustrated at the pace of your progress. I saw you naive and inexperienced, sure that my offer of power during the Ritual would be plenty to tempt you."

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The demon pointed at him with a fuzzy arm. "That Parry died and you moved in, a thousand curses from the great lords of chaos, and now I'm stuck inside an immortal monster with the eye of the Creator baleful upon him. Do you think I'm leaving anything to chance now? I shall devour your memories, or not. Those I do, you'll never miss. Those I don't, you'll wonder if I've sampled them."

Parry felt panic grip him. This wasn't anything he'd experienced before, not in a thousand lifetimes. It was invasion and destruction, a disease of doubt spreading over his soul.

"I'm bringing you out. Fight me if you must, it will rouse my father and Domo. We'll be enough to handle you, or you'll slaughter us all--and I'll move on and try again in my next life."

"Or we work together and end this absurdity."

"...What?"

"Or we work together and end this absurdity."

"I heard you!" Parry snapped, "I don't understand."

"No surprise there. I suppose you need a gesture of trust. Very well. Bring us from this place and I shall not attack. You have my word."

Parry stared into the demon's wide smile, not believing it for a moment. But there was nothing here but a stalemate.

"I can scream faster than you can slit my throat."

"Undoubtedly."

"You say you've watched us all our lives, you know my father has more skill than he shows."

"Indeed."

"Kill Pharryl's only and beloved son and he'll lock you in a box and torment you for years."

Styak shrugged.

Tightening his grip, "I'll still be holding you close."

"I'm aware of how this works, human."

He wrapped his other hand on the kitten's neck, fingers tight over its throat. "Alright then."

Parry cleared his mind.