You look human.

That shouldn’t mean anything. But it meant everything in that moment. She held those three words. Clutched them tight to her chest.

I don’t know if this will help, he said in the long pause that followed. But I was not a demon before all this. I will not pretend it's the same. If nothing else, I am still Nyxdran even if I am not a Nyxdra. But, I understand the disconnect. To feel like one thing, but be told by the System you are something else entirely.

And to not be entirely sure what that means about your soul and self.

She stared up at the false sky. The fake stars glimmered soft white and cold blues and faint reds. They lay in fixed constellations, never to move or dim.

“Thank you,” she finally whispered. Her anxieties swirled just under the surface, but she didn’t let them up. For now, she was stronger than them. She doubted it would last long, but she could hope. And maybe toss some more points in her mental stats?

Can I ask how a human became a slyphid? He asked.

Cass sighed. How did she explain? Did she even want to? He was still the demon that had tried to eat her.

But he was also the demon that had saved her life. After getting her into that trouble in the first place. But it hadn’t been intentional. Probably.

He was also the only person she’d met in over a week. Maybe that was enough.

“I guess I’ll tell you all of it,” she said, after a long minute of staring at the ceiling. And so she did. About Earth and its lack of System and level and magic. About her normal job and normal family and normal life.

About Sibling Camping.

About the portal.

“My siblings saw it happen to me,” Cass continued. “I watched them as I was pulled through the world.

“They,” Cass’s voice broke. “They have no idea what happened to me. They probably think I’m dead.”

She didn’t want to think about that. Not any more than she had to.

“So that’s me. I ended up in this void. Fiddled with my settings until it let me out. Accidentally turned myself into a non-human thing.”

You ‘fiddled’ with your settings. As in you were able to change your Avatar settings?

Cass frowned, thinking back to the terminology the System had used all that time ago.

“Yeah. It kept asking me to confirm them. And I kept saying yes, but it didn’t let me out. I assumed something needed to change to confirm it. It was shortly after I changed my Race that I was dropped here.”

His shock was numbing on her chest.

“I take it that’s unusual?”

He snorted. If I wasn’t linked directly to your soul, I would assume you were lying. As it is… I don’t know what to make of that either. It sounds like something out of the old stories. Travelers and Gods. That kind of thing.

“I don’t know the old stories. What’s a Traveler?”

People from other worlds. They are the subject of myth and legend, powerful warriors whose coming mark the end of an Age. They are heroes chosen by the gods or calamities bringing ruin. Some ascend to godhood. Or that's what the stories say.

Supposedly, they walked the Realms as they wished and had unusual access to the System.

“And you think I’m a Traveler?” Cass asked, unimpressed.

Well, no. Like I said. Travelers are mythic figures. Few in this day and age—he paused.

“You okay?” Cass asked when he didn’t continue after a minute.

I just realized I do not know how long I was sealed. Time is strange when you don’t have any senses to feel its passing. I would have guessed it has only been a few years, but I just realized it may have been significantly longer.

A silence stretched between them. Hesitantly, Cass offered, “When I Identified the orb I got you out of it said the last time it had been manifested was over 600 years ago.”

I—I see. Well. Few in my day, he continued, a cavalier veneer plastered over his tone, thought they were anything other than legends. Likely based on loosely true events, but blown out of proportion with time and telling.

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“Did any of them return to their own worlds in the stories?” Cass asked.

Not that I remember. But, going home is hardly a ‘heroic adventure’ I would hardly be surprised if it was simply glossed over in the tellings.

Cass snorted. “Tell that to Odysseus.”

I don't know who that is.

“A man from an old story from where I’m from. He had such a hard time getting home, that his name became synonymous with a grand tale of trials and tribulations. The man just wanted to go home to his wife.”

It had taken him over a decade to get home. His child grew into an adult in the time he was away. She hoped it wouldn’t take her that long to find her way home. At least she had no children wondering where she was. Just her siblings.

“Can I ask how you ended up a demon?” she asked.

I suppose that would be fair, though I don’t know how much I can answer. A lot of the details are… he trailed off before settling on, fuzzy.

What I can tell you easily is how demons come to be in general. They are ordinary souls that are purposefully broken. Sundered. If enough of the shards can be collected up they can be reformed into a perversion of the original.

He laughed bitterly. It was a vile, unhappy sound.

I think I might be a little less than half my original soul.

That is all a demon is. A broken collection of soul shards forcefully fused back together. I suppose I should count myself lucky that all my parts are from a single soul. Those intentionally creating demons usually take pieces from several souls.

You can mix and match strengths to overcome individual weaknesses, but the resulting demons are always insane. Usually sadistic. Rarely possessing a strong sense of self. Just a monster to throw at an enemy. Or a vicious guard dog.

Cass was quiet. She felt like she should say something, but his words held such a detached anger she didn’t know where to even start.

It's fine, he said, his voice falling to a resigned sigh. I am your vicious guard dog now. I couldn’t hurt you if I wanted to. And frankly, I don’t think I want to.

“And if I don’t want a guard dog?” Cass asked.

Unfortunate. You are stuck with me. My vessel–the necklace–is Bound to you. Short of dying we are a matched set from now on.

I suppose you could destroy me. It would take some effort, but I don’t think I could stop you if that was what you wanted to do. I might even thank you for it. Gods know, I don’t want to be a demon.

Cass pursed her lips. What options were these?

“I don’t like it,” Cass said.

That makes two of us.

“I don’t like any of it,” Cass continued. “But I’m not going to pretend I can do anything about most of it. That said, I really don’t like this business of ‘owning’ you. You’re a person. People don’t own other people.”

Technically, I am a fragment of a person.

“A person!” Cass repeated, but he continued, ignoring her.

You defeated a demon in a battle for your soul, all fights involve some sort of wager, that is the System’s rule. I wagered my existence for your soul. If I had won I would have consumed you and become stronger. I would have been allowed to pick my own name and no longer have been a tool of the System.

Instead, you beat me. Somehow. So you own me instead. I am your servant, to do with as you wish. You get to name me. You get to dictate our relationship. There is little I can do about it.

“And I refuse to participate in that.”

You don’t get to choose. The System has already made it so.

“Then I refuse the System too!” Cass yelled. “You hear that weird computer in the sky? This is where I draw the line.”

Yelling changes nothing. There was a quiet chuckle at the end of his words. You are quite literally stuck with me. You cannot remove my vessel from your body. We are joined fundamentally.

“That’s fine. But you aren’t my slave. Unfortunate kidnappee maybe? We can be fellow kidnappees together.” She grinned to herself. “You said I get to set the terms of our relationship? Then that’s what I’ve decided.

“You’ll help me figure out how to get home, I’ll help you figure out how to reverse being a demon. We’ll both keep the other person from getting themselves killed. Seem simple enough?”

I—I literally tried to kill you. Literately days ago.

“And I can probably list on one hand the number of things I understand about this world. And I’m sick of it. You know things and you promised you can’t hurt me anymore.” Admittedly, she only had his word on that, but it tracked that if he could run off with her body, he would have done that while she was horribly injured. It was a strange long game to play otherwise. “If we’re stuck together anyway, I’d like us to get to the point where you’d rather not hurt me.”

Well. When you put it like that…

“Besides, I beat you. That means you have to be my friend.”

What?

“Beat ‘em to befriend them. It's a sacred ritual where I come from.”

He was quiet for a long minute before he finally said. That is a strange custom.

Cass shrugged. “So, we have a deal?”

Technically, this is still a demon-binding contract, but yes, I am happy to act as if we are intentional companions instead.

“Good. Then I guess I should come up with a name for you?”

Yes. I would like that.

“Any requests?” Cass asked.

He chuckled. I don’t think any demon has ever been asked what they wanted to be called.

“I’m not hearing no?” Cass said. “What do you want me to call you?”

I am really not allowed to—

“If, hypothetically, unrelated to the business of naming my new Demon Bond, you had to pick some names that you liked. What would they be?”

He suppressed a chuckle. Parth maybe? Salos? Alken? I’m really not allowed to pick.

“I’m going to be calling you that for a while. You should be comfortable with it.”

Any of those are fine.

Cass thought it over. “Salos then. You sound like a Salos to me.”

Should I ask what that means, to ‘sound like a Salos’?

Cass shrugged. “Couldn’t explain it to you if I wanted to.”

Salos it is then.