Ashtoreth registered what Frost had said, then shrugged off her satchel. "They must've stealthed some lower-level psychics across Primeval Karaz," she said. "Makes sense to want to read my mind before they launch their secret surprise misdirection attack."

"Why are you taking off your bag, Ashtoreth?" Frost asked, eying her.

"It's elvish leather," she said. "And I can't imagine that any elf will appreciate seeing the work of their craftsmen on my person." She paused, then winced, then said, "Also, I lied about that and my bag is made of people."

Frost reached up to rub his forehead. "Godammit, Ashtoreth."

"Look, if I don't say something now, it could actually mess things up for Earth with the elves. But yes, okay, the leather is the skin of people. Now, if it helps, the system created it as a reward. No elves were killed in the making of my fabulously fetching satchel."

"It's nice of you to explain all that, but I wasn't bothered because I couldn't see that your deception was calculated," he said, still rubbing his temples. "So making that clear doesn't really change my feelings on the matter."

"What about this one?" Kylie said, raising her matching black bag. "Did you get me the cosmic equivalent of fur for Christmas?"

"Definitely!" said Ashtoreth. "I wouldn't skimp on my friends. But look—you can't tell by sight, okay? At least I don't think you can. Just pretend it's a human bag and nobody will be the wiser."

"Oh, don't worry," said Kylie. "I wasn't asking because I mind."

Ashtoreth ignored her and turned back to Frost. "It's just luxury, okay? I didn't even wish for it or anything, the system just gave me something that it knew I'd think was nice. Anyway, someone should probably take this. I might as well not wear it around the elves."

Hunter stepped forward, and she passed the bag to him and then rose into the air. "Imma get going," she said. "If I stay too long it might look suspicious."

"Good luck," said Frost. "And thanks."

"Thanks?"

"Yes, Ashtoreth," he said, his expression grim. "I can't imagine what it takes to let a stranger do this to you, Ashtoreth. I wish you didn't have to—but thanks."

"No problem, Frost! Coming, Dazel?"

"Uh…"

She grabbed him to her chest and began to fly toward the other side of the realm.

"Boss. Look, I know I've got an obvious horse in this race…"

"Uh-huh!"

"Don't do this, Ashtoreth."

"I'm doing this."

"They can't make you."

"I know. But think of how safe this is going to make so many humans feel. Think of how much less time and effort they'll have to spend making plans to kill me once they know I won't betray them."

"You're about to let someone into your mind. How are you not even hesitating?"

"I know," she said. "But I mean, how much freedom do you think I had, growing up? This sort of thing has to come with the same mentality one uses when bodyslamming a cactus. I said I'd do it, and I'll do it."

"What."

"No? Dang, that one's a golden oldie. Anyway, I've gotta make it work, Dazel."

"Okay," he said. There was a pause before he said, "Ashtoreth, I have to… I mean, you understand…"

There was no helping it. The elves were about to learn about their contract. That was why he was so antsy—and she couldn't blame him.

"Ask."

"I'm sorry."

"Dazel."

"Is this a trap?"

"No.'

"You're not… planning anything?"

She sighed. "No, Dazel. I probably thought of it a bit once we got to Earth, but the contract is good and I know that. Plus, aren't we close to your freedom anyway? We just need to skip off Primeval Karaz and we can get you your soul map and get you freed."

Dazel was quiet a moment. "Sometimes I still can't believe in you."

"Yeah, I'm pretty great. But let's not mischaracterize me, yeah? I'd probably have screwed you over if I thought I could have gotten away with it. Let's be real—nobody forgets being bound."

"Fair enough. Do they have some idea of our deal already? The humans must have told them, right?"

"Nope and nope," said Ashtoreth. "I didn't tell anybody."

"You never told anyone?"

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Nope! One of our conditions is that I can't tell people things about you that I don't think you'd want them to know, remember? Including the contract."

"Yeah, but you could have easily found a way to make them aware of the contract."

"Oh, easily," said Ashtoreth. "If I'd just told one of them that I was compromised, their race knows enough secondhand demon lore to eventually suss out what was going on."

It was a difficult thing to manage when creating the contracts. One could very easily compose a contract that forbade its subject to even say things that they believed could lead others to learn about it, but the results were psychologically devastating. A subject who simply thought about trying to get out of their contract would start barring themself from discussing almost any topic as they figured out how any conversation could hint toward the contract.

Dazel had limited Ashtoreth as much as he could, but she probably could have clued her humans in during the tutorial year.

"The only thing that telling them would have done is make them trust me less," she said. "But if they find out now, when they're reading my mind? Well, they'll at least have the reassurance that comes from seeing the whole picture."

"You're making sense," Dazel admitted. "But they are not gonna like me after this."

"Sucks to be you," she said. "But also, you earned it."

He made a noncommittal grunt. "What do you think they're going to do?"

"I won't let them toss you in a cell, Dazel. I promised you freedom and you'll get it. At the same time, though… I really only brought you along for this conversation. Maybe don't hang around for this."

"Yeah. Okay. You're probably right." He detached and moved back toward the pyramid. She carried on alone.

The Welcome Mat was a busy place. A whole lot of newly-freed slaves had been brought out to be processed and ferried back to Earth, where she guessed they'd be taken care of while they waited to be sent back to their origins.

She found Matthews near some of the jury-rigged portal equipment, speaking with some technicians and officers. To one side of him were three elves dressed in ornate purple robes.

"You're here, good," said Matthews, approaching. "Look, Ashtoreth."

"Uh-huh!" she said. She looked to the elves. "These guys must have stealthed their way across Primeval Karaz just to get here so fast," she said. "Good hustle, folks!"

The elves looked unenthused.

She'd heard that was sort of a thing, with elves.

She wasn't bothered by the fact that they'd worked so hard to make the whole process happen so soon. If she was betraying them, it would be nice to know before they launched an attack against Fallen Harana.

"We've got some papers we'd like you to read through and sign first," Matthews said. "Consent forms for the procedure."

A pang of anger struck somewhere in her belly. Her mouth hardened into a thin line. "Was that your idea, or theirs?"

Matthews' expression flickered. "I'm not actually sure. I didn't put all this together myself—I'm sorry, Ashtoreth. Is there a problem?"

"Hmm," she said, trying to sound less angry. "Signing a contract is a different thing for my kind than for yours. This isn't magically binding, I'm sure… but it's still… wrong. I don't think you should give something like this to an infernal. I know it's not binding, so let's do the thing and do it properly. This… just feels like a mock spell of servitude to me."

One of the elves had slowly moved over to join them. "We had thought you would appreciate doing things in a more human way," she said impassively.

So it was the elves. "I appreciate your consideration," Ashtoreth said stiffly. "But I'd rather we just get this over with. Are you doing it?"

"My allies will be supporting me." The elf inclined her head. "I am Amalaya Rin, Sage of the Mind."

"It's okay to meet you, Amalaya. I'm Ashtoreth. How long is this going to take?"

"It's never a certain thing."

"Great. Well, we've forty minutes left before the dragon's heart expires, but my allies are extracting blood right now. If you think this could take longer, just let me zip back for a sec to get it."

"I'll wake you if it takes longer than a half-hour. You can… attend your affairs."

"Good!" she said, bouncing nervously on the balls of her feet. "So, uh… how do we start?"

"You surrender," said the elf. "We'll put you to sleep. That's all."

Ashtoreth clenched her fists nervously. "Right," she said. "This uh, might take me a couple seconds. Not used to surrender."

Mentally, she reached out and found Hunter with her telepathy. Quick ask, and it probably won't be important.

Yeah? He answered.

If they come for Dazel while I'm gone, don't let them take him.

Got it.

She could have smiled. He hadn't even asked what it was about.

She started relinquishing her magical threshold. It was the very thing that kept creatures from simply conjuring flames inside someone else's skull to instantly kill them, and every instinct in her screamed not to let go.

She let go…

* * *

Ashtoreth landed on the top of the pyramid, hands on her hips as she eyed the dragon below her.

"How'd it go?" Kylie asked.

"Dunno," said Ashtoreth. "I was asleep for most of it. Also, they're not done. I just gotta pick up my dragonheart." She turned to Frost. "How was the blood?"

"More productive than I thought it might be, actually," he said. "He was fairly deep into the [Protection] aspect, is the thing. And he was much better at using his abilities in an instantaneous flash than I am. He seemed to have a lot of knowledge of magical engineering—or whatever it's actually called—but I don't know if that'll be useful to you now or not."

"Who knows?" Ashtoreth said. "I'm not gonna eat it now. My [Bloodfire] pool just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I gotta save the buffs and refills for a battle."

She clapped her hands together as she strode to stand next to Morax Tol's body. "Okay," she said. "This one's a biggie."

She reached out toward the heart. She felt the dragon's internals begin to shift as the heart began to lurch toward her. She rubbed her hands together, muttering to herself in her best impression of a film trailer.

"Sean Connery stars in…"

The dragon's chest burst open, and the heart catapulted out to paint a trail of steaming blood across the pyramid's surface before knocking Ashtoreth onto her back.

A moment later she was on both feet again, hefting a heart almost as tall as she was above her head. "It's huge!" she cried, beaming.

"Still in love with size, I see," said Dazel.

She stowed the heart in her locket. "Big things are better than little things because they are bigger, Dazel." She shrugged. "Anyway, I gotta get back to having every last inch of my mind read. You guys have fun while I'm gone!"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.