The next day, Emily returned to the Library. After exchanging a few words of courtesy with David, she quickly got to work doing more research. Unfortunately, the deeper that she delved into the works that he compiled for her, the more it seemed that the trail on Adonai went cold. It simply did not directly interact with humanity enough to be of substantial notice, although it was widely respected for the depth and influence of its powers. Emily found herself reminded of those early days, inside of the tree, desperately attempting to construct understanding and meaning out of something when she simply lacked enough information and context to do anything with it. She was nowhere closer to her goal of killing the bastard, and so she took a break.

The University was the next topic of her interest. There she learned that it was meant for students to study magical and religious arts, usually for the purposes of attaining work at Mage’s Guilds or Temples. She then turned to Magic and found herself enthralled with what little there was. Magic was such a complex and powerful beast that mentions of it in the documents of this library simply mentioned that one should take the matter up with their local University, as magic was simply outside of the grasp of the normal person and it should remain that way. The way that Emily figured it, being a tree, she didn’t qualify as a normal person and should thus be allowed to attend.

However, Emily was smarter than that. She understood that Humans had a tendency to thoroughly dissect things that they didn’t understand, for better or for worse, and in every way that she could. And although The God’s Mangrove was a sacred site, she imagined that knowledge of her real form would result in a lot of interest in dissecting her. Additionally, it would make her goal of killing Adonai substantially harder, as she’d likely be assailed by hundreds of devout pilgrims, and her heart would ache too much to leave them wanting. So how would she enter this University and learn of magic without the proper credentials? She had no money, no connections, no obvious magical talents.

But was that last point true? As an experiment, when she was sure that David was elsewhere, she placed her hand on the finished wood of the table she sat at. Then, she concentrated. She didn’t know what she was trying to do. Much like when she was a formless void within a greater void, she simply threw some kind of idea at the wall and saw if it could stick. She pressed down and down and down on the table until, in one swift motion, she fell through it. She stood back up and stepped forward, and when she turned around, she could touch it again. So she thought about entering the table, stepped forward, and found that she was standing in the middle of it. Her lower body, which still looked human from what was poking out of the table, seemed to have lost all of its physical mass. She couldn’t tell if her body and the table managed to exist in the same space while being separate objects or if her body had ‘vanished’ at the exact location where it touched the table, held aloft by her mental constructions of the body’s form and location, but regardless, it seemed like a rather useful ability.

To experiment further, she walked through the table, up to a bookshelf, and crashed her head against it. She then frowned, focused a little harder, and swung her head again; this time watching color and then darkness flash in front of her eyes before she emerged out of the other side of the wall, in an alley facing the rear of whatever shop was behind the Library. She then stepped backwards and found her entire body back in the Library.

Surely this had to be remarkable enough to warrant entry into the University? She had never seen a human voluntarily step through walls with such ease, that was for sure. Her best guess was that this related to the constructed nature of her body. When she stepped through walls, on a level of consciousness that probably resided back with The God’s Mangrove, she was ‘deconstructing’ herself just enough to pass through solid matter. Then she’d ‘reconstruct’ herself as she no longer needed to walk through objects. By that logic, could she further construct herself? She’d have to see what the limits of her creation could be at a later time.

At around that time, David returned. “Find everything you were looking for? I suppose that’s a moronic question considering the depths of your research. Did you approach finding everything you were looking for? Ah, I suppose that’s not quite the right question either…”

Emily nodded. “It was useful. I thank you.”

“Ah, well, it is what my pay is for. But I am afraid that I must ask you to leave early. Important private business has come up; I’m sure that you understand.”

Emily was annoyed, but she just nodded again. “I do. I hope your business is conducted smoothly.”

David watched as Emily stormed out of the library, clearly not understanding or hoping that his business was being conducted smoothly, but he wasn’t offended. University students always imagined their work to be just as important as the very discovery of magic, and reality would always find a way to wound them. Even David knew that his work was only the most important thing in the world to him, and he resolved to make it up to Emily somehow. Maybe he’d bring a treat into the Library. It had been a while since he did that.

First, he locked all of the doors, and then he shuttered all of the windows. The Library periodically closed for private meetings or working days, so nobody would question the affairs that David was conducting. It helped that he had been discrete. Even the monkey’s spine had arrived in not just mint condition, but without a single note from the customs department announcing a tax or a question about its use. Smugglers were uneducated, dirty men, but they were clever. Various similar objects, ranging from biological matter to rocks, from inscriptions on paper to herbs, from pre-mixed alchemical solutions and lastly, forming the center of the whirlwind of strangeness, was a human skull. In fact, if you had dangled yourself from the ceiling, staring down at the arrangement of materials on the table, you’d realize that the skull at the center was an abstraction of the ‘top’ of a human body, with various materials stretching out from the four cardinal directions and then another point between the south and the west were representations of the body and limbs.

You would then watch David begin a strange ritual. Chanting in a dead tongue accompanied the spilling of odd fluids over the mound, and after about an hour of this strangeness, he stabbed the skull through with a small dagger. He then sat back and waited. Eventually, the change he desired began. Rocks melted. Organic matter hardened. Plants wilted and grew at the same time, and various other objects exhibited behavior that could scarcely be described with a phrase like ‘bizarre.’ Eventually, they began to merge around the skull. Fluids poured into the hole in the skull made by the dagger, and solids merged around where the neck would be. Slowly, these grew into bones, and then muscle, and then skin. The form of a young woman appeared on the table, and David quickly tossed a blanket over her body to conceal her nudity.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Yes! Success!” he cried. “Dearest sister, speak to me! Let me know of your joy, and reassure me that it matches mine!”

Slowly, the woman sat up. Her dark brown eyes resembled David’s, and her thick brown hair grew to the small of her back. She blinked twice at her brother and then smiled. “Dearest, I have no idea who you are.”

David frowned, but his clear disappointment could never have been confused with devastation, even in contrast with his joy. “It was to be expected, I suppose. A creature of hell. Did you waylay my sister on your way back to this body? Or is there a step that was lost in the last centuries?”

The being inhabiting the body of Anaya Hitt began to laugh. “Oh, you moronic young man. Your dearest sister went straight into the pits of Hell, and I’ve spent the last several years with the distinct pleasure of being her tormentor. My name is Vual, and I assure you that your sister will continue to bring us the most delightful pleasures with her screams. Someday, we may yet be able to put the both of you in the same cell just to see if you cry with the same shrillness~”

Most humans would have already begun to break down, expressing deep despair or rage at such mockery and calculated cruelty. David closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and addressed Vual. “Return my sister to her body, and I may forgive this trespass. Return my sister swiftly and I may even thank you with an offering. I try not to hold grudges, you see.”

Vual trembled as it laughed, distorting the young woman’s gentle features into angular cheekbones and widened eyes, as well as a long tongue that dangled from its mouth and layered spittle on sharpened teeth. “Oh, you must be well educated. Only those particularly educated of my kind can stomach the hundreds of stories of men and women who attempted to negotiate with us, only to be punished for their arrogance with the most agonizing tortures we could fathom. Arrogance like that only comes to those who are convinced they know more than everyone else.”

By the time Vual finished speaking, David had already closed the distance between them, glaring down at the creature with all of the hate in his soul bristling in his eyes. Vual only smiled, delighted at the inner strength this young man seemed to have. Beings like Vual liked these humans for their strength. It made things so much easier compared to torturing animals. David grabbed the demon by its neck.

“Ah, ah, careful!” Vual cried out, clutching the blanket closer to its body. “You wouldn’t want to hurt your precious sister, would you? Maybe I’m keeping her in this body, allowing her to feel all that it can while I control her mind and mouth~”

“I wouldn’t care even if that was true,” David replied with a voice as solid and cold as ice. “Anaya would never wish to be claimed by a demon, even for a second, and I rebuilt her body once. I could do it again.”

“And I will simply claim her body again. You see the issue, for you.”

“I suppose so,” David said, before strengthening his grip on the neck of Ayata. “But I think that you feel this. And I think you know that if I squeeze a little bit harder, for a little bit longer, your visit to this world will be cut quite short.”

In response, Vual gripped David’s hands, forcing him to continue choking it. “Or maybe this is what I came here for, handsome prince!”

David gasped in disgust and wrenched his hands away as Vual began cackling once more. “Watch your tongue, before I rip it from your head!”

“I’d like to see you try! I’ll take your hand with me back to Hell!”

For a moment, both human and demon stared at each other, hate meeting joy in the air. And then David exhaled. “Alright, Vual, I see your game. Name your terms.”

Vual smiled once more before standing up on the table, still carefully concealing itself with the blanket as it talked down to the librarian. “Bring me a body of similar quality, and I’ll enter that one, bringing your precious little Ayata into this one. You will then become my ally. Not a servant, nor a master, but an ally.”

David pointed up at her. “Name your goals! I need to know what my allyship will contribute to!”

In response, Vual shrugged. “General chaos and depravity until I’m sent back to Hell. I’m not picky.”

“Is that all?”

“Ambitions of world domination are for Greater Demons. I seek only whatever hedonistic desires I may obtain with the least effort. I’m sure you can respect that.”

“I can’t, but I accept your terms, supposing I may offer counter-terms.”

“Oh, delightful, name them.”

“First, you will make no effort to betray me, and I will make no effort to betray you. You will have a vested interest in my sister and I living happy, peaceful lives, and we will maintain a vested interest in keeping you from returning to Hell. Second, you will exercise your sadism with the utmost class, refraining from random and public acts of violence, as well as other acts that would result in chaos for my sister and I. Third, and my final term, is that you will treat my sister and I as gracious hosts, and we will treat you as an honored guest. Is that acceptable?”

Vual chuckled. “Familiar with binding vows, huh? I suppose you are more intelligent than most. So be it. I accept.” The demon waved its hand dismissively. “We’ll sign the contract officially when you bring me my new body, but in the spirit of things, I won’t do anything messy until you bring me that new body. I trust it will happen without delay or betrayal.”

“I only want my sister. Everything else is secondary.”

Vual stepped off of the table and onto the ground, where she could look David in the eyes on an equal level. “I assure you, David, I know of your devotion well. Long after Ayata ceased resisting, her hope that you would save her prevailed. I must admit that I’m impressed that you never broke that promise.” Then, Vual waved in the air as if dismissing him. “Now, find me clothes. Nudity in front of others is only worthwhile if they’re worshiping you.”

David pointed towards the back of the library. “Down that hall and to the left. The guest bedroom. Dress yourself.”

Vual grinned. “So intelligent. This is more fun than I expected~”

David watched closely as the demon in the body of his sister skipped away, humming a happy song along the way. As soon as he heard the door slam, he spun around and kicked the leg of the table so hard that he worried for a moment that he had fractured his foot.