by Sarah Lin
To his surprise, Damian grimaced at the sight of the two demons hopping by their feet. "What are you doing with... wait, have you been feeding these things? Why?"
"What else was I supposed to do with all this time?"
"You do realize these things are barely better than the scum crawling in the wastelands? They'll never be anything here and they'll probably never touch the human realm. They're completely useless to you."
"Hey!" Ythsil tried to attack Damian's leg and was immediately pushed back with a surge of aura. "We're right here!"
Damian didn't even seem to have consciously noticed the movement, instead staring at Rick with a look of disgust. "I'm serious about this - how much blood have you given? It was all a waste. There is literally not a single thing that they can give you that you couldn't have gotten a thousand times over from a more powerful demon."
"Maybe," Rick said carefully, "I don't care about that. I might not have benefited much, but this mine is a better place to work. That's more than you accomplished, unless you've been secretly negotiating trade deals all this time."
At first Damian stared at him, seething with hatred... and Rick recognized that hatred from the first time they had met and Damian had started the fake fight. The other man gave him a brief grin, then turned away. "In any case, we're leaving. Very soon - my contacts couldn't give me much warning. So I suggest you get your things in order soon." With that, he bounded away to the edge of the city.
That left Rick with the two demons. Ythsil made a sad burbling sound, while Bftgage just shook his head and spoke slowly. "I knew this day would come, yet I'm still glad for you that you're going so soon. We won't forget you."
"Will you be okay without me?" Rick bent down beside them and, for the first time, tried to touch one of the demons on the head. It didn't quite work, his hand fading into them a bit, but that was actually a good thing because it meant he didn't need to suppress any revulsion from all their slime. Ythsil shook back and forth violently, mucus tears in his eyes, but Bftgage nodded.
"We've advanced more in these few cycles than we could have in a year otherwise. Now that the mine is running smoothly, we'll be fine unless a bigger demon takes everything from us."
"Yes, it's still the law of the wild out here." Rick set a hand on Bftgage as well. "Maybe not so different from the human realm, in some ways. If I gave you some blood to keep, would it just get taken from you?"
"Yes, most likely."
"Then this will have to be my last gift." Rick pulled out the black needle again and pricked his finger one more time. This time he did it more than once, giving each of the demon brothers three drops. He'd wanted to leave them a small supply for emergencies, or if another demon got injured, but accepted that it wasn't possible. Both of the brothers glowed with their new strength.
As Rick got to his feet, he struggled not to stumble. He felt anemic - it wasn't from loss of blood alone, but he'd definitely given something of himself each time he granted blood. Once he'd fully straightened, Rick stared out over the mining pit, wondering if this had all been stupidity on his part.
Yes, the mine ran smoothly and fewer demons suffered, but he'd never see them again. The demon brothers were thanking him tearfully, but for them that mostly meant vomiting up mucus. Realistically, they might all end up squashed by some stronger demon, if they weren't slowly suffocated by the actions of Maguire Incorporated and the biggest demonic firms.
It was what he'd done, though. Rick waved goodbye to the workers one last time, then pushed off the ground and floated out of the mine. Though the moments spent sailing through the air should have been contemplative, he just found his thoughts turning to the things that really mattered, back home.
He swallowed his fears and just focused on Damian. When the other young man heard him land, he turned around with a grin. "You said all your tearful goodbyes?"
"What was all that bullshit earlier? The poor things barely have any self-confidence as it is, you don't need to treat them that way."
"Ah, but I was mostly interested in how you'd treat them."
"Just what is that supposed to mean?"
Instead of answering directly, Damian pushed off the ground to move away from the city. Rick moved to follow, the movement now coming naturally, and kept his gaze fixated on the other man. Eventually Damian answered. "This isn't a good time for secrets, since we're going to be meeting our bosses quite soon. But we'll have to talk after we get back to the human world, and that could be interesting."
"Oh, don't give me that." Exhaustion and anemia and days spent in the demon realm had entirely eroded his capacity to tolerate bullshit. "What the fuck is your whole deal?"
"That's not a conversation for an insecure location, but let's just say that you aren't the only one who has fought arrogant Birthrighters. In my experience, everyone in this world pushes down those beneath them in an effort to climb higher. I wanted to see if you'd do the same... and since you didn't, maybe we can work together."
That was all well and good, but Rick found himself focusing on the earlier Birthrighter comment. "Have you been researching me?"
"I researched everyone in the top twenty. Didn't you?"
"No! I've been focusing on actually getting work done." Abruptly Rick remembered what Pan Zhou had said, though that felt like a lifetime ago. "I suppose that's useless, isn't it? If this is all a game to everyone and they're just going to shut it down."
"Oh, it's not a game. You shouldn't count on it lasting, but you could get something out of it if you play your cards right."
They reached the edge of the city and Rick looked back... and to his surprise saw one of the demonic caterpillars trundling after them. Bftgage and Ythsil sat on its head, along with a number of other demons. He recognized a few, like a spider who sold tea near the pits, but others were unfamiliar. They were all waving in farewell, or vomiting, or whatever they did.
"Aww, how sweet." Damian shot him a mocking glance and Rick decided to just lean into it, putting a hand over his heart.
"You're right, it is. It turns out the real demonic bond was the friends we made along the way."
Damian cracked a real smile for a second, then leapt away. Though Rick waved back to the collected demons, he soon bounded on and the demonic neighborhood of Branton was out of sight. He caught up with Damian in the middle of an empty space of wilderness.
It would have been a good time to talk, but Rick had a feeling he'd just get evasions. So he just tried to focus on his aura, despite the fact that it was increasingly giving him a headache. At this point he could probably drop it, but now it was a matter of pride. This period in the demon realm might have been mostly useless, and he might have missed important moments in his sister's life, but at least he'd get some aura training out of it.
Then the pale sky above them turned dark. It peeled away and Rick saw stars - real, actual stars from the human realm. After the endless sameness, he nearly wept.
Yet a moment later, he saw the air roiling. Apparently the artificial rupture produced exactly the same entities, now spilling out into both realms. He automatically put up his fists, but could he even fight here? Whatever the things were, he had a feeling they would have no problem fighting.
Before the half-visible creatures reached them, power hit the demon realm like a meteor. Rick spotted the head demon from before hurling massive balls of fire, while his boss calmly gestured, flattening circles of the entities into pulp.
And between them tore Emily, both aura blades blazing. She cut through all the entities in her path, fixated intensely on him. She moved so quickly that he was still stunned when she arrived, suddenly in front of him and staring into his face.
"Are you alright?"
"Uh, yes." He'd been overjoyed to see her, but she looked so serious he-
"Then we're extracting." She grabbed the front of his shirt and jerked him skyward toward the rift. Damian had joined the others and their group was quickly returning, the heavyweights easily destroyi
ng all nearby entities.
This time, however, the demons stayed in the demon realm and the humans retreated to the other side. When Rick plunged back into the human realm he gasped violently and was nearly sick, his body lurching in a way that he'd never felt before, in all directions at once. He barely got a glimpse of the humans and demons nodding to each other from opposite sides of the rupture before it closed and suddenly he was back on normal asphalt in the real world.
It was nighttime and rather dark. He could feel the wind. His stomach growled and he had strange pains all over his body. None of that mattered: he was back.
Emily grabbed his shirt and pulled him to his feet. The way she stared at him, he worried that he'd somehow done something wrong, then without warning she leaned in and kissed him.
Her lips were soft and it was surprisingly gentle after her intense attack, yet he was too shocked to enjoy it. Mostly, he was relieved that she wasn't angry with him... and that he hadn't been sick earlier. As it was, he managed to kiss back a little before she pulled away. The pained look in her eyes left him uncomfortable, and when she spoke her voice actually broke a little.
"Rick... if I ever seem cold, or take you for granted... thinking about you being dead..." She leaned in, clenching a fist in his shirt. He automatically put an arm around her back to hold her closer. In a strange way, this was more intimate than the kiss: he'd never seen Emily vulnerable in that way before.
Unfortunately, it only lasted a moment before Damian sidled up beside them. "Hey, not to interrupt, but I see you're busy. Seems like this would be a bad time to talk business, so... we'll reschedule our discussion later."
Minutes ago, Rick had been planning to pin him down and demand answers. Now, with Emily holding him like that, it seemed much less important. Though when he glanced down, he saw that Emily was glowering at Damian with a death glare to kill all other death glares. Her hand still gripped his shirt, but it seemed like she was back to normal.
Damian ambled away, so Rick turned back to Emily and gently took her shoulders. "Is Melissa okay? Wait, how long have I been gone?"
"She's fine, and forty three days." Someone else would have softened the blow, but Emily just hit him with it and he reeled.
"Forty three? It... it didn't feel anywhere near that long..."
"I've never gone myself, but I'm told that humans have trouble tracking time in the demon realm. As for your sister, we've been in touch while we tried to determine if there was anything that could be done to help you." Emily bit her lip, recalling past irritations. "The most I could do was join this operation to extract you. But I called Melissa and she should be on her way."
"And... her CLAT? God, I missed the whole thing..."
"That's for her to talk about." Emily's voice was clipped, but her gaze was softer than usual. She slipped under his shoulder and put an arm around his back. "You're okay now, Rick, you made it. All you need to do now is rest."
Actually getting a bit of comfort from her was amazing, but Rick wasn't sure that was actually true. Was the CSLA going to blame him for this in some way? He had missed an entire month's quota, did that mean he was fired? Would they add insult to injury and charge him for the extraction?
Yet when the woman in the green pantsuit approached, she didn't seem so menacing. "The Central States Lucrim Authority apologizes for all of this, Richard. If you agree to waive your right to litigation, we'll give you back pay for this period, overtime for the additional hours, and merits proportional to your previous work. In addition, we'll be negating your quota for the next week so you have time to recover."
He knew it was manipulative, but he didn't care. Even at his best, it would be suicide to go up against the CSLA and try to sue them. Exhausted as he was, he barely managed to read through the text she showed him on her tablet before he signed off on the agreement at the bottom.
That seemed to be all that she wanted. The woman glanced at his signature and then tucked the tablet under her arm. "This is part of the job. If you're sticking around, decide carefully." That said, she walked away, stepped into an unmarked dark vehicle, and drove into the night. All the other employees had left as well, leaving them alone.
Exhausted as he was, Rick managed to dig out his phone. It was working again - it hadn't even lost any charge - and brought up his portfolio. The numbers ran together, but the main thing was that not much had changed. His lucrim mass had increased with his training, but less than a normal month.
That felt unfair in a stupid way to his weary mind. He'd endured over a month in the demon realm, shouldn't he have gained some massive new legendary strength? But no, it was only a weak improvement and a bit of overtime at work. And a... demon mass?
"Emily... what the fuck is this?"
She glanced down at the screen, then immediately patted him on the back. "Don't worry, it's not as dangerous as it sounds. Basically, you've been credited with a certain amount of lucrim from a demonic organization. You can redeem it toward a better demonic bond if you sign a contract with them."
"But I don't want a demonic bond." He felt a flicker of guilt thinking of Bftgage and Ythsil, but he knew it was their predatory masters who would be offering the agreements. "Can I just... get rid of it?"
"Possibly, but they're going to be hounding you with offers for a while. It's not the worst of your problems, but it'll be a bit annoying."
"Great." Rick might have complained more, but at that moment a taxi stopped on the road beside them. Melissa scrambled out the door and leapt for him.
Rick dropped his phone to the ground and embraced her. Holding his sister tightly, all of the rest fell away. He didn't even think about his portfolio a single time until he collapsed into sleep at home.
Chapter 35: An Oath Over Liquor
After sleeping for most of a day, Rick didn't leave the house for over 24 hours. When he woke he discovered that Melissa had gotten her shifts changed so that she was free and had plans to order in food. First he took a long shower, because although his body didn't retain any of the mist or goop from the demon realm, he still felt like something from the experience coated him.
Then for an entire day they just sat around and talked. He was worried that Melissa might be angry with him, but she just seemed glad to have him back. There weren't even any tears after their first meeting, though she always stayed close and occasionally looked over at him as if to reassure herself that he was still there.
Melissa had gotten very high scores on her CLAT in most categories. She did allude to having trouble focusing on a few exams, leaving him to wonder if she might have done even better without his absence to distract her. Still, it was a solid qualification to start whatever career she wanted.
Eventually she asked him to tell her everything about his time away, more than the quick version he'd given on the ride back the previous night. They sat on opposite ends of the couch, just their feet touching, and she listened carefully. Putting it all into words made the experience even more surreal, yet she nodded acceptingly. When he finished, she eyed him for a while and then bit her lip.
"So, what dark secret are you hiding from me, hmm?" Her eyes narrowed at him. "Did you transform into a demon hybrid? Smuggle out a demonic seed inside your body? Shack up with a succubus?"
"No, but I banged all those frog things. Orgies every day."
"Eww." Melissa stuck out her tongue. "But really, I'm just surprised that you didn't get any kind of special demon powers. I figured that if they can hand out so much power with demonic bonds, they have to be a great source of it."
"It seems like the situation is pretty much reversed over there. So no, I didn't get very much out of the experience at all." Rick rubbed his eyes, trying not to feel too much disappointment about that. "The CSLA deal basically prevented the delay from hurting my job or my merit rankings, but otherwise I didn't get much out of it. A lot of money, I guess."
"Yeah, but you're just going to spend that on hookers and blow."
"Speaking of which,
I guess I should try to ditch you soon. How did you convince Jimmy to change your shifts, anyway? He always gave me hell for that, even with a lot of forewarning."
Melissa gave him a private little grin. "He knows that he doesn't have any leverage over me. I can quit basically whenever I want, since I'm only killing time there until I figure out exactly what I want to do next. He's hired on a few more people, but they're not that reliable. So he has to deal with it."
"Has dealing with it involved getting off his ass and stopping reading magazines?"
"Did the demon realm freeze over while you were down there?"
Rick chuckled and lightly pushed against her leg. "Okay, enough playing around. You got a great CLAT score, so what are you going to do with it? Don't become a bum like I did - you want to use that momentum and go into something respectable."
"What if I want to become a bum, though? Working all day is awful." She swiveled around so her legs were up on the backrest of the couch and her head dangled off the side. "Truth be told, I'm not sure exactly what I want to do. But I do have my next step figured out, I think."
"Oh? Do tell." Rick moved around so he was lying upside down in the same way, though the position wasn't quite as comfortable for him.
"I don't want to invest a ton of time into a degree or certification I might not use, and joining a sect is even worse in terms of locking up your whole future. After the CLAT there were scouts there, passing out fliers and things... I don't know, I felt like they were a bit too desperate. But there actually was one thing that stuck out to me as a good opportunity."
She stretched upside down to fumble at something on the ground. It took a while and she muttered irritably, refusing to turn upright and make the task easy, before eventually she managed it and handed him a glossy sheet of paper. "This is for the Young Lucrim Artists of America program. Have you heard of it?"
"Yeah, a few times." Truthfully, it was more than that. The YLAA was an exclusive program that he thought of more as a joke than anything else - it was the kind of thing that he suspected Mike and other Birthrighters would have attended. They probably just used it as an excuse to travel and party, but he was impressed by how much of the paper was devoted to sober programs of lucrim development.
