Once they were back at the house, Will gathered everyone around the table to go over the situation with them. His burnt-out eye was a painful distraction, but he did his best to ignore it.

“Can I just say,” Mongrel said before Will even had the chance to get started, “you’re starting to take this whole gimmick to the extreme. You planning on losing one of everything?”

“It’s looking that way,” Will replied with a rueful smile. “I guess there’s a symmetry to it, at least.”

“Could you fix it somehow?” Bee asked with a look of cautious optimism. “Like with Ideal Self? Does that heal injuries?”

“It does, actually—but it would hardly be worth using an upgrade point on. The parts I sacrificed to Nix can never be returned by any means. You could say they’re lost on an existential level. Thanks for that, by the way.”

“You’re so very welcome, William,” Nix said absently, fussing over a pot of chicken stew on the fire. Today she had put her dark hair back in a remarkably un-demon-like ponytail, showing pointed ears.

“So the only thing I’d get back is the eye,” Will concluded.

“Oh.” Bee chewed on her lip, hands pressed between her legs. “I’m sorry for making all this happen. You said you had to work and I didn’t listen. I didn’t know. I’m really sorry.”

Will patted her on the head. He was still getting used to seeing her with just one eye. “It’s like you say—you didn’t know. I’m a big boy, and I can make my own decisions. Besides, the way things turned out is for the best.”

“Brimstone really hired you?” Mongrel asked. He scratched his head through his tangled mop of hair, and Number Five, who was standing with his chin on the tabletop, did the same to himself.

“Yeah. I’ll be making elixirs for him in exchange for very good money. We’re talking six figures. And there’s another thing, too.”

“Which is?”

“He wants me to kill a wretcher that made it past Stormfort and is headed south.”

Mongrel frowned at that, sucking on crooked teeth. “That’s… kind of a big job, no? Also, what does that have to do with making elixirs?”

“Well, that’s where we get to the bad news. Firstly, I used up almost all of my good reagents while prepping for Bee’s fight, so I don’t actually have anything to make elixirs with. I can source a bunch of low-grade stuff from Brimstone’s people, but for the rare stuff I’ll need to track it down myself.

“That either means waiting for oddities to fall into my lap, or going into the Bushland for reagents. Normally I’d choose the former, which brings me to the second item on the doom list. Brimstone isn’t a particularly patient man, and I think he half-assumes I’m yanking him around. So if I don’t make him an elixir—one he wants—within three months, he’s going to punish me. And given that taking out my eye was his way of saying ‘Hi, nice to meet you’, I doubt I’d enjoy whatever he’s cooking up. Which, more than likely, would be me.”

“I don’t want to work for the man that did that to you,” Bee said firmly. “We should be thinking of ways to kill him instead.”

“We haven’t got a choice, Bee. I’m sorry. If there was some shining savior out there with the means to shave him a head shorter, I’d be all for it. But right, now the only one I can think of who’d be mad enough to even try is, who, Buck? And quite frankly, he’s got no chance. Even if he did die, he’d probably just get replaced by an even worse bastard.

“Well, I say we don’t have a choice. Really, it’s me who doesn’t. The rest of you can do as you please.”

“Don’t say that. We’ll help you, whatever it is you need.”

When Bee looked over at Mongrel, he held up his hands and tucked his chin to his chest in a defense gesture. “Hey, don’t look at me. I didn’t agree to shit.”

Their conversation was briefly interrupted as Nix served dinner. She sat by the end of the table, knees drawn up to her chest, and stared at them while they ate. Her cat-eyed glare was almost enough to put Will off his food entirely. At least he didn’t have as much peripheral vision to see her with.

Will continued. “So yeah, since I’m gonna need to fetch some high-quality reagents anyway, I figured I might as well kill two birds with one stone, and I took on the job for that wretcher at the same time. It’s got a 50 000 reward on it. Additionally, monster hunting was always supposed to be the third step of Bee’s training, so it all comes together pretty neatly.”

Mongrel fed a spoonful of stew to Number Five, who lipped happily as he chewed, then had one himself. “So…” Mongrel swallowed his food. “Hypothetically, let’s say you’ve got all the best grass and monster testicles and angel eyelashes you want or whatever. How likely is it that you’d be able to make an elixir in three months? I mean, you’ve only managed two total in five years.”

Will resisted the urge to scratch at his empty eye socket. “I think the chances would be pretty good. When I leveled up last time, I gave myself 3 extra points in Whimsy. That’ll increase my chances of getting an elixir when I brew a potion. Additionally, for most of the time I’ve been here, I’ve not had access to many high-grade reagents, so it’s only natural that I wouldn’t be able to make any elixirs, either.

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“My build is well set up for it, though. I can get it done.”

He tried to sound confident. In reality, it was more like a coin flip.

Still, if he could pull it off, that would mean big things for them. Instead of just getting by and slowly saving up money, accepting the plateau, he could start to think big.

Living on Nifala was a risk in itself, so taking the one with the most potential yield appealed to him best.

Will spread his hands. “So? What do we think? Travel into the interior, kill ourselves a wretcher and whatever other monsters we find along the way, and harvest enough reagents for an elixir or two.”

“It sounds exciting,” Bee said. She looked like she wanted to grin, but forced it down to a shaky, semi-polite smile. “I think it’ll be fun.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely not,” Mongrel said with no hesitation, arms crossed tightly over his chest like a petulant child. “It’ll be dangerous, wet, bug-infested, and—worst of all—so much walking involved. Count me out.”

Will had expected as much, but losing out on Mongrel wasn’t good. Zero would be able to carry a lot of cargo, and the chimps would make for good backups in a fight. He didn’t like the idea of relying only on Bee for serious combat.

Sighing, Will tried to come up with a good way to talk him into it. “Okay, but—”

“I’ll come with,” Nix said.

Everyone looked at the demon—chimp included—in dead silence.

“Shalahai’s brood disgusts me,” she elaborated with a half-shrug, her tunic slipping down over one grayish shoulder in the process. “The thought of them being anywhere near the place I sleep makes my skin crawl.”

“Are you saying you’d actually help us fight?” Will asked, incredulous.

Nix shrugged again, eyes fixed on the table. “I suppose I could be convinced to provide you with aid in return for something of personal benefit. For instance, I could accept becoming Matt’s familiar in exchange for the elixir of fellowship. Its power would increase for me if it was obtained through contract.”

Will found no answer to that. Mongrel looked equally confused.

“Does that mean you actually like us after all?” Bee asked, the only one who wasn’t taken aback. Probably because she didn’t understand the true meaning of what Nix had just said.

“I never said I didn’t,” Nix replied coolly. “Humans are lovely creatures. So easy to manipulate.”

Will laughed, more at the absurdity of the situation than anything else. “You know, when you bookend an offer of support by saying something like that, it makes you sound kind of untrustworthy.” He stood up and motioned to Mongrel. “Could I see you outside real quick? Just the two of us.” To the demon, he said: “We need to talk this over. You understand.”

“By all means,” Nix said, waving them away with both hands. “Scheme away.”

Will dragged Mongrel outside and took him far away from the house, all the way to the edge of the property, where there was no chance that the demon would overhear them.

“You know what she just offered you, right?” Will asked. “I don’t understand why she’d do something like that. It’s pretty much all bad for her.”

As his familiar, Mongrel would have power over Nix. The power to influence her actions, even control her body directly to some extent. That control would be somewhat mitigated due to his divine vow, but still.

“Is it even possible for a demon to be a familiar?” Mongrel asked. “I’ve never heard of that.”

Will nodded. “It is. Normally, only non-sentient creatures can be made into familiars—animals and the like. But demons don’t count as sentient to the Concord, I’m guessing purely as an act of spite on Era’s part. So they’re completely valid targets for Create Familiar. The only reason you don’t hear about it is because there’s no reason for a demon to bind themselves to a human in that way. Maybe a really weak lesser demon, to gain some form of protection, but Nix is on a whole other level from that.”

Mongrel scratched at his crotch with a pensive look on his furry face. “I don’t get her at all, man. She’s, like… so hot and cold.”

“Elaborate.”

Mongrel glanced at him. “Uh, just y’know, generally.”

“No, I don’t think that’s what you meant. Elaborate.”

“I don’t wanna. You’ll get mad.”

“Matt…”

“Okay, I tried to fuck the demon!” Mongrel said, throwing up his hands in exasperation. “Big deal!”

Will wasn’t entirely surprised. “And?”

“And she said no! After she’s been hounding me about it all the damn time, too! Seriously, I don’t know if it’s a woman thing or a demon thing, but I don’t get it.”

Will thought about it for a moment. Then, with that one last piece, all the others fit into place.

“I think I know what she’s up to,” he said.

“For real? What is it?”

“Not now. I want to confirm it first.”

“C’mon, you’re gonna do me like that?”

“Yeah, I’m doing you like that.”

I can’t believe this. It can’t be right.

But it can’t be anything else, either.

Will dragged Mongrel right back inside again, partially against his will. Then he motioned for Nix. “All right, demon. Your turn. Let’s have a chat.”

She was clearly reluctant to come with him, as though she was an old dog about to get taken out back, but eventually accompanied him outside. She lifted up her dress to avoid it catching any of the evening dew that weighed down the grass.

“Human clothing is so inefficient,” she complained. “Not only does it hide all the best parts, it also restricts movement. I suppose I can appreciate the sadomasochism of it all.”

“You chose to wear it yourself,” Will pointed out.

“Only because you all forced my hand with your constant complaining.”

“I’d actually more or less given up on that. But sure.”

Once they were at the edge of a property, Will leaned against the tree and inspected the demon critically in the last rays of the setting sun. Her eyes glowed as she returned his gaze with unwavering defiance.

“What’s this about, then?” she asked. “I don’t enjoy being ordered about like some human strumpet.”

Will took out the last cigarette from the pack in his pocket and cast Spark to light it. He took a long drag, the ember casting a weak, orange glow over his fingers.

“You’re in love with Mongrel,” he said matter-of-factly.

“What,” Nix replied with equal flatness, more an utterance of pure disbelief than a question.