The rest of the day was uneventful. Several boar leapt from the bushes to find themselves skewered on either Cass’s spear or Alyx’s sword. If there were other monsters out there, they avoided the women.

Eventually, night fell. Cass Set Camp as had become second nature. With little fuss, the fire went up with some fallen logs and a couple of applications of Elemental Manipulation.

Alyx had butchered one of the boar and roasted it thoroughly on their fire. The meat was stringy with an unpleasant bitter flavor and had been cooked through so thoroughly that it was more char than meat, but it was nice to eat something that wasn’t an unflavored baked potato or a questionable mushroom after so long.

Even if she didn’t need to eat.

Cass shoved the thought aside and focused on enjoying her charred boar and herbal tea she’d brewed from the nearby plants. If she ignored the threat of a big monster appearing out of the woods, it was almost like she was camping again.

That being said, she missed her sleeping bag. She had made herself a bed from a collection of tree boughs she’d cut and stacked beside their fire. It was better than lying directly on the dirt, but not by much. If she ever got home, she’d never complain about the camping cot and sleeping bag again, she promised the dark sky above.

Across the remains of the fire, Alyx slept. Cass felt a little bad about that. She probably was only sleeping so soundly because she thought that Cass/Salos was keeping watch in her sleep. But Cass didn’t want to explain that Salos wasn’t around to do that.

Cass rolled over again. She was about to fall asleep when a loud pinging jolted her awake. It didn’t have a source, rather it pinged in her head. It came with a System window.

Evolution Complete.

Choose new functionality:

[1. Separate Form - allow your demon familiar a separable body, allowing them to act as an independent entity for the purposes of many skills. Reduces level restriction from (Users level / 2) to (Users level - 5).

2. Shared Form - allow greater synchronicity between you and your demon familiar. Increased stat and skill sharing.

3. Demonic Form - allows you to take on your demon’s true form, giving you full access to their natural skills and ratio of stats.]

Cass bolted upright. Salos!

He didn’t respond.

“Salos?” she repeated aloud. Her voice was a shaking whisper, caught between the need to reach him and the fear of disturbing Alyx.

Still nothing.

Would he wake up if she picked one of these? She had so many questions. So many worries.

What was the Caretaker? What was that core? Was he okay? What was that demonic possession during the fight? The madness? His forgiveness?

And so many could be resolved if he would just—

Did she want the answers?

Did she want him to wake up?

A chill settled over her. They hadn’t been on the best of terms when he’d gone dark. Between her Command and his possession…

She inhaled slowly. She shouldn’t trust him. He shouldn’t trust her.

He might hate her. That was why he’d been unwilling to talk to her right before the Caretaker, wasn’t it? That single accidental Command was enough for him to hate her down to his core.

She’d hate her. She’d hate anything that tried to control her like that.

There was no way the silence between them was going to break.

It didn’t matter she hadn’t meant to. There was no way to know if it would happen again. She could promise she’d never do it again, but how could he trust that? What guarantee would he have she wouldn’t go back on her word?

He didn’t believe in people. He’d never believe her.

And what about her? Should she trust him now? She’d exerted unnatural control over him. In his place, she’d do everything in her power to escape. She could only see one option for him. Taking her body was literally his only choice.

Whatever goodwill she might have built before the Command was gone.

Was that why he’d possessed her during the Caretaker fight? Did he see a chance and grab it?

The deranged hunger of his voice while they’d fought echoed in her memories. The pull of his desires on her thoughts, the weight of his emotions on her own.

Was that the depths of his desperation?

Could she even blame him for it?

Her knuckles went white around the pendant.

“The only person whose strength you can depend on is your own. Never put yourself in someone else’s power if you can avoid it.” Salos’s words rang in her head.

He must hate her. Hate his situation.

Cass shook her head. She hadn’t asked for this. She hadn’t meant to Command him. She hadn’t asked for a demon servant. It was the System’s fault for all this. Not hers.

Not hers.

Maybe if she repeated that enough she’d believe it.

But whether she believed it or not, she had to do something. As reasonable as his hatred probably was, she couldn’t just let him possess her.

She needed what he could do for her.

She had Alyx now. But for how long? Salos’s warnings whispered in her ears. Could she really trust her?

And even if she could be trusted, would their goals align forever? Surely, Alyx had her own things going on. Would she want to help Cass get home? Could she even if she wanted to?

Alyx would eventually leave. And then what would Cass do? Go back to wandering the wilderness lost and alone?

She pushed the thought aside.

She needed to pick one of these three upgrades.

The options did not thrill her. She discarded Demonic Form right away. She had enough existential dread from being slyphid, she didn’t need to add another transformation on top of that right now.

Shared Form wasn’t a lot better on that front. What exactly did “greater synchronicity” mean? How much more in sync would they be beyond sharing a body? She didn’t want that for herself and she refused to inflict that on Salos either.

That left Separate Form. On the surface, it was easily the least objectionable. Giving Salos his own, independent body might even alleviate some of the tension between them. But there was that last sentence:

[Reduces level restriction from (Users level / 2) to (Users level - 5).]

Her high Will and Resilience were all that was keeping him from possessing her. If his Will was allowed to approach her own, as it almost assuredly would if his level was allowed to creep closer, what would happen to her?

He was already able to exert some influence over her as evidenced by the demonic possession during the Caretaker fight. What would happen if the gap in their strength shrunk further?

She ran a hand through her hair. But if not Separate Form, what then? The other options were worse.

She could just… not pick something.

Right now, Salos was asleep. Or in some sort of stasis. Or muted? Paralyzed?

Whatever the case, he couldn’t talk to her. He probably couldn’t affect her. He probably couldn’t possess her.

If she just left him like this, couldn’t her life just continue? She could be a normal person. No head demons whispering in her ears. No one telling her who she could or couldn’t trust. What she should or shouldn’t say?

But what happened to him? Was he conscious, but trapped? Would he be forced to watch her life unfold through her eyes, unable to even speak?

She shuddered. Did anyone deserve that?

Was she willing to inflict that on another?

The night curled around her, dark and oppressive. The clouds above choked out the sky, their weight pressing against her senses. It was cold, despite the fire still burning low beside her, the wind gleefully stealing the heat from the flames and her body.

There were no guarantees no matter how she looked at it. Maybe Salos hated her. Maybe Alyx would leave. Maybe Cass could survive on her own.

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But she didn’t want any of that. To act like these were true was to make them so. If Salos hated her, the answer was to oppress him and make sure he could never be a threat. If Alyx would leave, the answer was to hold the woman at a distance so parting would not hurt.

These were sensible actions. Cold and calculated and would ensure that Cass survived another day in a cold world.

But Cass was tired of the cold.

She selected Separate Form from the list.

The necklace heated in her hand. She let go of it with a hiss of surprise. A purple glow manifested around it, speckled with shimmering gold flecks. The light floated up, off the necklace, hovering before her eyes.

The flecks coalesced into gold eyes. They blinked amid the purple haze.

“What happened?” the haze muttered in a voice unmistakably Salos’s. The language it spoke in was neither English nor Jothi, yet, Cass understood him perfectly.

“Salos?” Cass whispered.

The gold eyes blinked, the space above and between furrowing. “Cass?”

“You’re okay.” Her breath caught in her throat.

“Yes?” The glowing cloud looked back and forth. “We appear to be outside?”

Cass nodded. A hundred questions whirled in her head but the only one she could force through her lips was: “How much do you remember?”

He hummed to himself, squinting up at the dark sky. “I remember entering the nursery. We were looking for the Lord… And, then…” The haze shook back and forth. “Everything after that is blurry. I—I remember attacking you? But that does not make sense...”

Cass quietly explained what he’d missed.

The color in the cloud darkened.

“Salos?” Cass asked.

“I reacted like that to that Caretaker thing?”

Cass nodded. “Do you know what it was?”

He shook again. “No, we did not have anything like that in my day. That is a recent addition. And, well, given how I reacted to seeing it… And the thing you found when it was destroyed…”

“What was it, Salos?” Cass asked.

He looked away, refusing to look Cass in the eyes. His voice dropped to the barest whisper. “It was probably made with a piece of my soul. That was probably the core you collected after.”

“Which is why the necklace absorbed it,” Cass said.

He nodded. “And why my demon instincts reacted that way.”

The wind blew cold between them. The fire flickered.

Slowly, Cass asked, “Is that going to happen every time we run into a piece of your soul?”

He hovered lower, sagging before her. “Likely. It may even be worse. I may lose myself to that madness anytime pieces of souls are about, mine or not. It's a demon’s most fundamental instinct, to fix the broken edges of their souls. They—we—I compulsively need to fill the cracks.

“Any soul that might fit into one of the empty spaces will be jammed in, whether it's a good fit or not. The better the fit, the stronger the desire to possess it”

“And since we’re connected, I’m going to get pulled along in that madness?” Cass ran a frustrated hand through her hair.

He nodded.

“Anything I can do?”

“Keep increasing your Will. Resolve too. Keep those outpacing me and there won’t be anything I can do to you.” He sighed too. “Though, that will make your Commands stronger too.”

“Oh.” A pang of guilt tweaked her stomach and pulled heavy on her heart.

Here it was. He was done talking to her, right? They were on the same page now. He could go back to ignoring her.

“Unrelated, but what is happening here?” His cloud rippled as he spoke. “This is new.”

Her teeth unclenched. Right. There was at least a little more to tell him. She explained the pop-up she’d just gotten as the necklace finished evolving and her choice.

“And you really picked Separate Form?” He looked up at her, his eyes wide.

Cass shrugged and looked away. “Should I have picked something else?”

“No! Well,” he sputtered hovering back a step. “Demonic Form was probably the most powerful of the three…”

Cass shook her head. “Seemed like it would be disorienting to have my stats and skills swap like that.”

The cloud contracted and rocked back and forth in place. Finally, he said, “It might have had the highest difficulty curve, I can see that.”

Cass nodded like that was exactly the reason she’d discarded Demonic Form as an option. “So, is this the Separate Form? It seems more nebulous than I was expecting.”

“I feel like the skill is waiting for something,” he said slowly.

“Like what?” Cass asked.

“A prompt?” he suggested.

“Like, the form you should take?” Cass asked.

He nodded.

He needed a form. That made some sense. Floating purple cloud was a look, but it didn’t seem terribly practical. But, what would be?

No, there was only one option, if it was allowed.

“Humanoid?” Cass tried.

His eyes went wide. They both held their breaths. Nothing happened.

“No.” He shook again. “Humanoid is probably too big for the skill’s current level.

“Well, that’s lame. What now?”

“Pick something else.”

“You pick,” Cass said flopping back onto her pine needle bed.

“I don’t think I can.”

“This again?” Cass asked.

“Summoners usually have opinions about what they want from their familiars.” He floated down beside Cass. She could feel him beside her shoulder. His voice was cold, but there was a warmth where his haze touched her body, despite not having a solid form.

“Well, I didn’t summon you.”

“No, I guess not.”

The night was quiet. The sky was dark. The smell of smoke from the campfire filled the air.

“So what do you want?” she asked again.

He hesitated. “You really have no preferences?”

“I’m not the one who’s going to use the form.” And she knew exactly what it was to be in the body of something else. She refused to do that to someone else.

“A bird would be useful to you…” he muttered.

“I sense a ‘but’ there?”

“But I don’t like flying if you force me to be honest.”

“I didn’t, but I’ll keep that under advisement. That wasn’t my question though.”

He grumbled. “Fine, fine. Let me think. It isn’t every day you get asked what you want to be.”

“Sure, sure, take your time.” Cass nestled deeper into her bed. She couldn’t explain it, but it was suddenly far more comfortable than it had been earlier that evening. A yawn escaped her lips. “But pick before I fall asleep.”

“Take your time, she says, hurry up, she says,” he muttered. “I’m thinking, I’m thinking. We should pick a terrestrial animal. Probably best to go with something that won’t stand out too much. Something that I can use my blade skills with. Something with naturally high Dexterity so I can make the most of my stats.”

“And something you’ll be comfortable in,” Cass reminded him.

“Yes, yes. For some reason, that is your primary concern.” He snorted. “Okay, how would you feel about a feline form?”

“Is that what you want?” Cass asked.

“I think that would be the optimal—“

“Did I stutter, Salos?” Cass’s tone was flat.

“N-no?”

“What was my question?”

“If a feline form is what I wanted,” he replied sheepishly.

“So is it?” Cass asked again.

“Yes,” he said, his voice barely more than a whisper. “Is that okay?”

Cass sighed. “I told you you could pick, why would I change my mind now?”

He squirmed at her side. “Well, there was the whole possession business. And now you know about Commands. And you might have wanted to punish me, so you could force me into something I hated, just because…”

Cass sat up and looked down at him. In his eyes, she could see all her fears reflected. The desire to trust her. The fear she wouldn’t. The knowledge he shouldn’t.

She bit her lip and made a decision. “You didn’t lie to me, did you?”

“Pardon?” he asked.

“You didn’t try to possess me while fighting the Caretaker?”

He shook. “No. Of course not.”

“I believe you. You know that?” To her surprise, she actually did.

He nodded half-heartedly. In other words, he didn’t believe it.

“So why would I punish you?” she asked anyway.

“Because you might be lying to me,” he whispered. “Because for all you know, I’m lying to you.”

“You can’t believe that I would trust you,” Cass said.

He hesitated, but nodded. “Just select a feline form. We do not need to talk about this further.” He refused to look at her.

Cass pursed her lips. “Hey, look at me.”

His gold eyes met hers.

“If I didn’t believe you, I could Command you tell me the truth.”

He paled.

“But I’m not going to. Because I don’t want a servant. I’ve never wanted a servant. I want trust. And forced Commands will never build that.” She looked away, her face warm. She pushed on. She needed to get this all out now, or it would just fester. “I didn’t mean to force you to do anything. I’m not going to pretend you were being reasonable but magically compelling your obedience wasn’t how I would have chosen to deal with it.

“But I did. I’m sorry.”

Her words hung between them. She could feel his hesitance. His emotions felt like slowing spinning tar beside her, uncomfortable and heavy.

He didn’t say anything, but Cass hadn’t expected a response.

Cass broke the silence, unable to stand it any longer. “Now, you say you would like a feline form?”

He nodded.

“Do you suppose I say ‘feline’ or do I—” Before Cass could finish asking if she needed to pick something more specific, Salos’s cloud of purple was swirling again.

[Form set.

Demon, Salos, granted skill: Manifest Form (Feline).

Azorth’s Necklace gains ability: Demonic Connection - while demon maintains Separate Form wearer and demon may sense the location of other party.]

A moment later, it was replaced with a house cat. He had dark fur, too blue to be called black, but too dark to be anything else. Tabby-like stripes of grey and lilac crisscrossed his coat. His tail was bushy, like a feather duster or a boa. Sharp gold eyes looked up at her. “Well, how do I look?”

“Like a cat,” Cass said. Like a very soft cat. “How do you feel?”

He stood and stretched, his back arching down, then back up. “That it's nice to have my own body.”

“Even if it's an animal?” Cass asked.

“Oh, it is far, far better than sharing a humanoid one.” He yawned, displaying a full mouth of needly cat teeth and his barbed tongue. In every way except his coloring, he looked like a normal cat. “How do I Identify? It would be unfortunate if I read as a demon in this form.”

“Do people have a problem with demons?” Cass asked as she identified him.

Shadow Tabby

Lvl 6

[A popular household pet originally from the Azorth Realm but long since naturalized to this one. They are well known for their high intelligence and high sensitivity to Abyssal conditions making them a highly desirable travel companion.]

“I don’t know if the cultural connotations of the word come across,” Salos said with a sigh. “But, demons are usually insane. Completely bloodthirsty. Their souls are so broken that they will devour any and all other souls on the off chance one of them might make them even the slightest bit more whole.

“Normal demons are walking disasters.”

“So I shouldn’t advertise that’s what you are?” Cass asked.

He nodded. “Best not to show anyone my necklace either.”

Cass nodded. “Well, you don’t read as a demon, so there is that.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Small mercies.”

Cass lay back down, her eyes fluttering shut. “What language are you speaking, by the way?”

“Huh? Oh, I suppose I’ve defaulted to my native tongue. This is the old Nyxdrian language, Depths Tongue. I suppose you understand me the way I understand your English.”

“That makes sense,” Cass mumbled. She really was quite tired. Still, she had questions. “Why is it called Depths Tongue?”

He chuckled, curling up beside her head. “Just like the slyphid are spirits associated with the aether, the nyxdra are spirits associated with the abyss. Where aether is air and light, the Abyss is dark and wet and cold. It is ancient oceans and the dark cracks of the Continents.”

“Earth and water to my air then,” Cass muttered.

“I suppose.” He might have said something more then, but Cass had already drifted off to sleep. The deepest most comfortable sleep since her arrival to this world.