I did love it when a plan came together. Gave them the terrible option of some time in the Hells, and then the slightly better option of playing poker with me. The slightly more rational part of me knew they would have agreed if I had just offered the latter first - but I was not taking any risks today. Sure, I barely knew how to play poker, and Wight still struggled to grasp the concept of the different suits of cards - but this was something I had manifested - and a little win was worth celebrating.

“I’m… not much better than Wight.” Rodney grimaced, trying to make sense of the half-correct information I was feeding them.

“It’s not really about the accuracy of the rules; it’s more about the… ah, screw it. Shit. You’re right.” I sighed and flopped my hand of cards onto the table. “I thought it would be neat, but it just doesn’t live up to my imagination.”

“This is something you imagined doing with us all?” Rodney looked amused and placed his cards neatly together in the center.

“With Pearl too.” I shrugged.

[Does the Pearl know how to play?]

Part of me doubted it. It was a firm lesson in things being abstracted in reality to the best-case scenario your mind could conjure up. Yes, that was definitely the lesson I intended to take from this exercise.

“Well, what should we do next? There’s still a bit of time before I go pretend to sleep because I’m expecting an assassin to just pop out of the en-suite and paint the brain with my head jelly.”

“Uhh…” Rodney rubbed the back of his neck. “Not sure I want to think about that any more than I already was.”

Possibly insensitive of me, given that we were grieving his murdered mother. Somehow I had been selfish and made the day about me again. With all due respect to her, my current life was in danger still - and that could extend to everyone in the house. I was briefly confused as to why I was having this argument with myself.

Wight stood up from the table and walked backward two feet, pushing the chair across the floor.

“What are you-“

A flash of pink illuminated the room as a body crashed into the top of the table; I leaped backward, tripping over the chair and knocking my side against the corner of the mantlepiece. The hum of Pearl’s sword flashed across the room as she stood at the end of the table in her battle armor - the tip of the blade leveled at the neck of the creature lying in our dining room.

“Sorry, everyone. I know we’ve had enough uninvited guests.” Her face was hard, and she glared at the new entrant to my circus. “But this one has a secret his tongue won’t give up.”

The demon in question was an interesting blue color - something I had yet to really see previously. They were humanoid in shape and wore a simple gray tunic and slacks. A singular central yellow eye regarded us in panic as his toothed maw opened and closed in shock. He only had one horn of dark blue from the middle of his bald head.

“I didn’t know you could teleport with people.” I withdrew my revolver - at some point, I had considered it pertinent to retrieve it since I had a target on my head.

“It’s not…” She scrunched her face up. “It only works on demons.”

“That’s okay - I’m not complaining.” I shrugged. If it worked on me, then that would save us a lot of fiddling with the Org’s portal device. “So, who is this dumbass?”

[This is a demon, Eric.]

I exhaled through my nose.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Works for someone who knows someone, who has information on Gunther.”

“I don’t know a Gunther,” the demon wailed, his voice surprisingly high-pitched.

Rodney shuffled further away, eventually relenting to slouching back atop the recliner. It had been quite the day for him - it was perhaps unfair we subject him to the interrogation.

I placed the barrel of the gun to his temple. “You know the Watcher, though, correct? Skeleton looking Hunter patron?”

The blue demon paused, not answering immediately. “N-no, I cannot tell you anything!”

“Oh.” I pulled a face at Pearl. ”Yeah, this guy is terrible at keeping secrets.”

“Right?”

Well, if the Organization would like me to ‘parlay’ with demons, then perhaps this could be a little test run of my soft skills. I leaned in closer and pulled back the hammer of the revolver.

“Talk.”

“N-no!”

Phase one was not quite as successful as I’d hoped. Generally, threatening behavior seemed to work on many demons, but perhaps he could sense that I was much lower level than he was.

[It would be in your best interest to allow us access to your information.]

“N-no.”

Wight shot me a confused glare, as if he was sure that between us we had the necessary skills to eke out blood from stone. Particularly, I was hoping this stone wouldn’t have to bleed all over my dining room furniture. There was still a mark where Cherub had perished and-

“Actually,” Pearl interrupted the world’s worst detective duo, “I was thinking Rodney might be able to get the answers from him.”

“ME?” The Blank practically leaped from the chair at the end of her statement.

The gears started to click, and I could see her angle. “Yeah, c’mon Rodney - you are one of us, right - gotta get your hands dirty, too.” Part of me paled at making it sound like we were a cannibal family about to introduce our adoptee to the last in the line of suddenly increasing horrors.

He didn’t look so convinced.

“What did you want me to do?” He edged closer to the table.

Pearl put the tip of her blade up against the demon's neck, pinning it from moving without gouging his own throat. “Use your magic.”

“I’m… I’m not a wizard.” He looked to me and then to Wight. Seeing no arguments in our faces, he relented with a sigh.

We watched as he took a step closer to the blue demon, who turned his yellow eye up to observe the Blank.

“Like a human could ever-“

Rodney put his hands on either side of the demon's head.

For a second, we all paused in expectation as the Blank stood with eyes closed. Even our detainee waited for something dramatic to occur. After about a dozen seconds of holding breaths, Rodney opened his eyes again and shrugged.

“Well, it was worth a try.” I gave him a reaffirming nod. Sometimes an attempt was worth the effort, even if not successful.

“I think I’m missing a core part of the process.” Rodney rubbed his chin. “I can feel there’s something there - like when you get food stuck between your teeth.”

[Maybe I can assist?]

Wight stepped forward and held out a clawed hand.

“This is all fun,” the blue demon grunted as the blade nicked his flesh, “but could I go?”

Rodney took my patron's hand and bit his lip pensively.

“Try meditating; you need to be calm.” I gave him a thumbs up with the hand not currently threatening demise to the trash on my dining table.

He nodded and put one hand on the demon’s head again as Wight did the same with his free hand. Making a connection, just like when we had helped with Demonic Knowledge.

I saw him exhale as his eyes closed, and once again, we became silent. Even Wight closed his crimson orbs, his head slightly lowered in mimicry of the Blank.

Once again, nothing dramatic happened. Honestly, I mostly felt bad for him rather than disappointed that it hadn’t had much effect. I had managed to brute force powers out when the situation needed it most, so when he had given so much thought to it, and there was still nothing… well, it was a different kind of power, after all.

“Eric,” Rodney said, “I need your help too, I think.”

I raised my eyebrows to Pearl, and she gave me the nod of approval to relinquish the gun from the menace leveled at the demon.

With one hand on the demon’s head, I held the Blanks in the other - and the three of us formed a chain. Patron, Blank, and Hunter. Now that I was in the situation, I had no idea what was expected of me or what we were trying to do. The best I could fashion in my brain was to just try to support them.

My eyes closed, and I focused my energy. Demonic, human, eldritch god - whatever I really had lurking within the recesses of my soul, I imagined it balled up. A perfect sphere of my power and intent, and then I forced it down my arm and into Rodney. There was the hint of warmth in the route I had chosen for the movement - but whether that was a bit of placebo or not, I couldn’t tell.

After some time of quiet had passed, it didn’t seem like the world had changed. With a sigh, Rodney relinquished my hand, and I blinked my tired eyes open again, ready to give him a pat on the back for trying.

“Well, I found out one thing,” the Blank said.

He opened his eyes, which now glowed a bright blue.

“I now have this guy’s true name.”