Kaylen walked through the desolate windswept wastelands of the southern continent. As she picked her way across the cracked, uneven ground, things felt right. From the mountains behind her to the endless emptiness that stretched before her, not a single piece of vegetation could be seen. Finally, this was how the demon lands were supposed to look. When she had arrived at the southern continent nearly a year ago, she had discovered, much to her consternation, that it was host to a huge variety of climates, everything from dense, impenetrable jungles on one end of the continent to eerie bamboo forests on the other, not to mention the absurd amount of farmland which seemed to be almost as constant here as it was on the northern continent. Even the deserts were full of life, trees, bushes, flowers, and other plants that Kaylen didn’t know the name for.It wasn’t supposed to be like that. Demon lands were supposed to be wastelands, empty deserts, jagged mountains, and maybe the occasional frozen tundra all stalked by hideous monsters. If there had to be plant life, it should have existed in treacherous swamps where any false step might send you plummeting to a murky doom, or earn you a bite from a poisonous creature. The only human settlements were supposed to be dilapidated villages with small, starving populations. The fact that they were thriving so well was good enough for the locals, she supposed, but it was a huge disappointment to her.

But here, finally, as she neared the tear between the worlds of the living and the dead, the source of the Calamity, things finally looked the way they supposed to. She wondered if, perhaps, this was the way things looked beyond the tear. Maybe this entire region was the Demonic Realm pouring out into the world of the living. So far, Kaylen had resisted passing through the tear, uncertain if the living could truly enter the land of the dead. Instead she had explored the southern continent, searching for rumors of the power that the gods feared. Her reasoning was simple enough. Demons would want to destroy gods, so they would want to seek that same power. Presumably they would have already searched every inch of their home world, so it was most likely to be found in their newest territory, so she zig-zagged her way across the continent, taking trains, carriages, or whatever other means of travel she could find. Of course, a thousand years was a long time, long enough to scour the entire southern continent. The demons Kaylen spoke with, when she could find ones who spoke her language, sometimes knew of the power she sought, but could provide her with no clues. Eventually, she was forced to admit that the power was unlikely to be found in this world, and turn her search toward the Demonic Realms.

So now she trudged her way through the wastes, dressed in cheap shirt and pants she had purchased in a thrift store as well as a tattered brown cloak. The cloak served no practical purpose. With her demonically altered body, she found that only the most extreme cold bothered her, and even if she did need a cloak, this one was so badly damaged that it would have been nearly useless. Instead, she wore it so that it would flap in the wind dramatically as she walked. She was a lone wanderer traveling through hostile lands on a quest to destroy the gods, she had to look the part. Unfortunately, it was not a windy day and the cloak hung limp, its tatters occasionally getting caught between her thighs as she walked.

She had been informed that passage through the tear was carefully monitored by the demon king’s soldiers, so she had elected to travel across the wastes by foot instead of by train. However, as she drained the last drops of water out of her canteen she began to wonder if she had made a mistake. There was still no end in sight. She sighed. There was nothing left to do but to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

After another hour, she decided that boredom was a greater threat than thirst. It wasn’t that hot, after all. She would need water eventually, but the need for something to distract her mind from the exhausting sameness of this region was far greater. She wished she could take a break and read Magi-net for a while, but it had stopped working properly for some time now. When she had first departed from Rampart City, Andra had given her a Magi-net book to keep in touch. However, Kaylen, unfamiliar with Magi-net, was afraid that her communications might somehow give away her location and decided against contacting Andra. Instead she usually just used it to read and laugh at Riven’s attempts to write erotica. The early ones, usually centered on male characters being transformed into women through contrived sci-fi means, were her favorites. Now, however, Magi-net wasn’t working properly, and she couldn’t seem to access those stories. She wondered if it had something to do with her proximity to the tear.

She looked around, desperate to relieve her boredom and, much to her surprise, actually found something. On a ridge to her right was a winged serpent. It was huge, reared up to a height of at least two stories, with twice as much length of twisting tail besides. Its pale blue scales glimmered beautifully in the setting sun, making its white wings seem almost like an afterthought. A tongue as thick as a rope flicked out of its mouth and back in. Kaylen wondered whether it was a demon or an ordinary monster. She had trouble telling the difference, but the locals, both human and demon, often became offended when she couldn’t discern them.

She paused, staring at the beautiful creature. Squinting, she noticed two much, much smaller figures hovering before it, wings beating like butterflies. Here at least was something she recognized. Tiny demons with wings were called imps. As for giant snakes with wings, Kaylen had no idea. She wished Riven or Andra were here to tell her.

Could it be attacking, she wondered. This was probably how snakes attacked, right? They made themselves look big to frighten their enemies into inaction before striking. That had to be what was going on. Those poor, helpless, tiny imps were going to be devoured in an instant if she didn’t do something.

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Thankfully, her contract with Comtesse Ember offered much more than a pair of horns and a tolerance for the cold. She was much stronger and faster than she had been before, making it easy for her to dash up the ridge at speeds that would make any athlete jealous. She also had an array of other demonic powers… she assumed. These new powers were like suddenly being given a third arm and being told to flex it.

She used one of those powers now, the only one she knew how to use consistently. As she leapt into the air she held up an arm and from somewhere within her sleeve an additional arm stretched out, impossibly long and thin and made out of shadow. Its hand grew as it stretched, with clawed fingers that slashed at the serpent, removing its head in a single swipe. The shadow arm retracted into her sleeve as she landed before the imps. It would have looked really cool if her hair hadn’t chosen that moment to get in her face.

She quickly brushed her hair aside as the two imps looked at each other.

“Um…” one of them said, then turned to face Kaylen with a smile on her face. “Thank you! You saved us from that horrible beast!”

Kaylen grinned, relieved that they knew Rampartian. “No problem. It’s pretty dangerous out here for someone so small.”

The two imps fluttered closer. They were both female, with dark hair tied in elaborate braids. One wore a black dress and the other white, with holes cut in the back for their bat-like wings. The one in white had short horns like Kaylen’s, the one in black had long black horns that curved slightly near the top.

“I thought we were going to die,” said the one in black, nervously. “Are you one of the demon king’s followers?”

“No,” Kaylen said, shaking her head. “I work for Comtesse Ember.”

The two imps looked at each other again.

“Oh, thank goodness!” said the one in white. “We came out to the wastes to escape the demon king’s recruiters. They find any demons who don’t have contracts and force them to sign with the demon king and fight in the war.”

Kaylen recalled the incubus she had encountered over a year ago. Hadn’t he mentioned something like that?

“How horrible!” she replied. “But how will you survive out here?”

The one in black sighed. “It seems like we won’t. We’ve only been here a day and we’re already out of food and water and we were nearly killed by that monster.”

“But if we leave,” added the one in white, “we’ll be press-ganged into the war. If only there were someone else we could sign a contract with. Someone powerful who could protect us from the demon king’s forces.”

Kaylen felt her heart ache with pity for the adorable demons. “I wish there were something I could do. But I’m a human. I can’t form contracts like a demon.”

The two imps fluttered closer. “Ah, but you have demonic power, don’t you?” the one in black asked. “You could form a contract if you wanted to.”

“I could?”

“Oh yes, easily,” the one in black continued. “It would protect us from falling into the demon king’s clutches and we would be happy to serve someone as kind and heroic as you.”

Kaylen thought about this. She wasn’t entirely comfortable with the concept of having servants, even if they wanted to serve her. On the other hand, it was the only way she could protect them and it was clear that they were completely helpless without her.

Finally, she nodded. “Okay, how do we do this?”

“Oh, thank you! Thank you!” said the imp in white. “We’ll do everything we can to repay you.”

The imp in black pointed to a nondescript area in the air and a sheet of paper and a pen appeared in the air. Kaylen plucked them from where they floated.

“So, your names are Mag and Lave, huh?” she asked.

“That’s right. I’m Lave, and she’s Mag,” the imp in black replied. The pair grinned, showing off their pointed teeth.

“Good, good,” Kaylen said, signing her name on the contract. “I’m Kaylen, by the way.”

“Did she sign it?” Mag asked.

Lave fluttered over to sit on Kaylen’s shoulder. Kaylen barely felt her weight. “Yeah, she signed it.”

“Wow, you’re dumb,” said Mag. “I honestly did not think that would work.”

Kaylen realized that something in the air had changed. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you just signed a contract with us without even reading it,” Mag explained.

“You belong to us now,” Lave added, kicking her legs idly.

Kaylen glanced between the two of them. “But I already have a contract to serve Comtesse Ember.”

“Yeah, see the thing about that is that Comtesse Ember’s contracts state that the signer will serve her after their death,” said Lave. “She’s one of those touchy-feely types who believes in nonsense like business ethics. The contract you just signed states that you will serve us until your death. So there’s no conflict between the two.”

Kaylen stared down at the contract as if some loophole would immediately jump out at her. “But…but I can’t serve you.”

“Um, no, actually it’s the opposite,” said Mag in a condescending tone. “You can’t not serve us.”

“Besides,” Lave added, “you owe us for killing our pet.”

Kaylen looked back at the headless body of the serpent. Blood was still seeping from its body. “That was your pet?”

“It was. But it’s okay, we have a new pet now,” said Mag. ”One powerful enough to help us carve out our own territory.”

Kaylen felt herself start to whimper and forced herself to stop. “But I’m supposed to kill the gods.”

The two imps glanced at each other again before bursting into laughter.

“Seriously?” said Lave. “You think you’re going to kill the gods? You just let two imps trick you into being their servant.”