We were crouched within the last patches of long yellowing grass, staring at potential elimination. Before us the land sloped gently down to reveal a patchwork of muddy square pits, stained yellows and greens, inhospitable to all life, and divided by dilapidated roads overgrown with coarse weeds. Far to our right opened the maw of an enormous quarry. I couldn’t see its bottom from here, and I had no intention of getting close enough to do so.

We had to cross those pits, and there was no cover to speak of.

Markus waved a hand in the direction of the coloured fields. “See, this is my problem with you humans. You complain about how we destroyed the world but look at what your kind was doing before we got here.”

“Ironically, this was their attempt to repair the damage they’d caused,” Toll added. “A lithium mine, used primarily to produce batteries, to help fuel the transition away from destructive fossil fuels.” Their feathers puffed. “Even with such destruction, however, they could not achieve such a simple goal.”

“There’s no need to be so harsh on them,” Enzi chimed in. “Human perception is tainted by such confusing emotions. They only wish to live comfortably and are unable to perceive the destruction they wrought because it does not lay before their eyes. It’s not something they can control.”

“And that’s a great opportunity for us demons,” Volce said, grinning. “Those pesky wants and needs make them easy to—er.” He peeked at me with his mouth frozen in a smile, and I glared back with narrowed eyes. “They’re great for pairing with, is what I should say.”

I huffed, acting like I was offended. There were plenty of humans who were, but I never thought like that. Having lived around demons my whole life, I’d grown ambivalent to their ways. If anything, they were hypocritical. Each of their criticisms of humans could be applied back to them tenfold. They were just convinced that their actions were justified because they could follow the logic through to its reasonable-seeming conclusions.

Standing, I addressed the demons. “Alright, we need to get across this field. There’s no cover, no grass, plenty of places for us to be spotted by hostile parties, and—yes, Enzi?” I said wearily.

The enepsi had raised a hand, then lowered it once I’d called her name. “I was just thinking that we should perhaps avoid the wide open field by…” she pointed at some dilapidated buildings to the southwest.

“That’s the safer way,” I acknowledged, “but we need to go a little faster.”

Markus stood abruptly and placed a hand on his hip. “Well, there are ways to achieve that which don’t require us to tread through the dangerous field. For example, we could—I don’t know—walk a little bloody faster.”

“Can’t. I’m a human.”

The haures arched an eyebrow. “Humans can’t walk faster? They certainly work faster when I stroll into their office space on one of my surprise visits.”

“The physical body has limitations,” I said.

Ironically, that was partially bullshit. I could have easily walked faster. My leg was healing up just fine and I could barely feel the scabbed wound without flexing that leg to intentionally make it hurt. Furthermore, I was more than capable of running a marathon. I’d competed in one every year since I was fourteen. The problem was I’d already run a marathon yesterday, then had a Rise and Shine which reset my body to a point before I’d got some decent rest in, twice, and then spent an inordinate amount of time fighting besides. I was still good to walk, I just really needed to take it easy.

“Well, there are ways to overcome these limitations,” Markus said. “Of course, that would require the help of a demon, and you don’t seem like one of those purists to me.”

“Nope, I am,” I said. “Super duper purist. Not a single drop of corruption in me.”

Markus clicked his tongue. “Oh, dear, you really are troublesome.”

Volce leapt up from the grass and thrust a finger at Markus. “Will you just shut the fuck up already? I know you’re trying to cut in on my deal with the human.”

Then Enzi stood also, wrapped her hands around my upper arm, and glowered at Markus. “He’s not yours to have. He wants to be with a beautiful demon, not some sleezy deal-monger. Tell him, Algier.”

Enzi’s hand slid down my arm, towards my knife. At the moment her fingers touched my wrist I flinched away.

“The fuck are you doing?” I said venomously.

She stood there frozen, her brows stuck in a concerned expression and her jaw hanging open. “I’m… sorry?”

“You all need to get your shit together,” I yelled. I didn’t care if I was making noise—it’s not like I was trying to stay hidden. “Seriously, all you do is argue with each other. We’re moving. Now.”

It was that simple. I just needed to move on, to let the demons choose between fighting amongst themselves and abandoning their human.

Before I had a chance to walk off, however, Markus blocked my path. My hand squeezed around the handle of my knife and that neck of his looked so slashable. However, he didn’t show any hostility. He raised a finger on his left hand.

“Just one more thing. Is it not true that humans don’t have to sleep if they’ve accumulated enough corruption?”

“That depends on the human,” Toll supplied.

Markus dipped a head the balaam’s way. “Why, thank you. In that case, Algier, we just need to make you a little bit more demonic. And I happen to have a method for achieving this.”

I glared at him, then slipped past the haures and over the grass without saying a word. The walking-without-giving-a-fuck strategy was a damned good one. It got results, like not having to listen to their bullshit.

Sighing, Markus caught up to me, taking a spot by my side. The other demons piled in, all surrounding me on other sides, save for Toll who hung back with their grip tight on Briary.

Toll hated Markus and was actively seeking a chance to erase him. Markus had a history with Volce and wanted the deuce gone. Wanting to prevent that, Volce had voiced to me his desire to, “Get Markus before that greedy fuck got me.” Enzi, ironically the most sensible of the lot, saw Markus as a valid threat to her survival in future Rings and therefore wanted to dispose of her competition while she had the chance. That much I’d gleaned from their tense conversations over the last day and a half.

Which left me in the middle, as the pin on this combustible party. We’d all quietly agreed that the four of us combined were a match for Markus, meaning that as long as I was alive and well, the party remained alive and well. The demons wouldn’t attack without good cause since the chance of survival was too low, meaning that the trigger for a fight was me.

We stuck to the road and avoided the green-tinted, muddy slosh. Rain caught in the basins and, without a human presence to keep them clean, mud had piled up to keep the pits almost as high as the roads.

Enzi drew a sword from her inventory. She sidled up beside me, opposite Markus, practically shoving Volce out the way. She shot Markus a look before putting her mouth to my ear. She was careful not to touch me.

“Algier, are you truly sure you should be walking so freely like this?” Enzi whispered. “You’re very… exposed, you know?”

I turned to her and said aloud, “We’re a bigger target if we stay together like this.” Enzi flinched back, her brows deeply furrowed. I shrugged. “Besides, I think everyone else is happy with this arrangement.”

“Oh, I certainly am,” Markus said. “At least now when I decide to use my rabdos, I won’t have to listen to you lot complaining about burning down your precious trees.” He grinned at Toll over his shoulder. “What do you say, balaam: do you prefer open field fights or closer quarters?”

Toll said nothing. They just glowered at Markus; at least, I suspected the murderous look they gave the haures was a glower.

Frowning, Enzi turned to Volce. “I’m sure you agree. We’re too exposed here and at great risk of attack.”

The deuce was hovering with his legs kicked up and crossed in the air, and both hands behind his back. He arched an eyebrow at Enzi. “Doesn’t bother me. I’m the least likely to be shot here. I’ll just use the human as a meat shield if I have to.”

And that was it. I stopped abruptly and glared at the demons. “All of you. Spread out. Now.” They looked at me like I’d gone insane, and with the way they’d been pushing my buttons, I probably was. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and when I opened them again, I felt less like murdering them. “Not every ranged rabdos fires simple projectiles,” I explained. “Some can hit multiple targets at once.”

Enzi glanced at Markus, Volce at Enzi, Markus at Toll, Toll at me. Nobody moved.

“We are in the middle of an empty fucking field,” I growled. “And you’re all behaving like children.”

Enzi reached out a hand and I swatted it away. She flinched back, looking hurt though I knew it was an act.

“Put on Bitterthorn right now if you want to know how fucking much you’re annoying me,” I snapped.

I wasn’t kidding. The danger was very, very real. But most importantly, I needed the demons spread out to be higher priority targets for snipers. No demon would go after the squishy human when they were surrounded by so many strong demons. At a glance, it would be obvious I was at the bottom of the hierarchy and therefore the one with the least points.

Finally, Enzi shied away, followed by Volce. Toll was already hanging back so there was no issue there. The only one who refused to listen was Markus. It was the worst possible outcome, but it was the best I was going to get. I kept walking. Granted, I was still the highest priority target since any sniper would rather fire at two targets than one, but I did have Volce’s luck as my saving disgrace.

We walked silently for a time, heads on a swivel. Out of all of us, Markus seemed the least alert. Even Volce was checking nervously across the distant hilltop to the east, luck be damned.

The haures crept a little closer to me. I tried to ignore him. He stared down at me, making it incredibly obvious he wanted my attention.

Sighing, I said, “What, Markus?”

“Why don’t you tell me about yourself,” he replied cheerily.

“Sure,” I growled. “I like long walks on the beach and shooting demons until they’re holeyer than the Antipope.”

Markus clicked his tongue. “I was actually thinking something more along the lines of who you were, how you got here, what led you to… what was your crime again?”

“Eating an ice cream from the bottom up.”

“Demon slaying,” Toll spoke from behind.

It wasn’t a secret so I wasn’t upset that the balaam had answered. In fact, having Markus owe them a few more questions might have been in my favour. It was something that could be used against him.

“Is that so?” Markus’ eyes glowed as he watched me. “Then tell me, what were you doing before you became a terrible demon slayer? Who was Algier before the Culling?”

“Tell me why you want to know,” I shot at him.

“Why?” Markus repeated. “Because if we’re going to have a working relationship we ought to establish some level of trust. Since you won’t accept a deal, and I can’t trust your word as I would a demon, I’ll first need to understand your character. Simple, no?”

“He was an employee at one of your subsidiary companies,” Toll stated from behind.

Markus brightened immediately at hearing that. “One of the family!”

Great. Even in the Culling I was haunted by that sappy corporate speak. You’d think after the demons took over the world, we’d drop all of that and just be honest. Nope. They ended up adopting our mannerisms. The thinking was that, this is just how you talk when you work in an office, like some middle-aged manager who finally made it by being the only one to stick around for so long and now thought he was some big shot.

I shrugged. “You had the best water coolers in town. Made for some fantastic, unproductive conversations.”

“Well, if I’d caught you doing that, I would have fired you on the spot. But given that you’ve already been fired by virtue of the fact that you’re now a criminal…” he leaned in and nudged me with his elbow. “How was the water? I need to get my employees’ opinions, see, so that I can be a more effective leader.”

I stared at him deadpan. “Tepid.”

Markus clicked his tongue. “I will make sure that whoever was in charge of that office will be fired for not maintaining the water coolers properly. After I remove the water cooler as punishment for your slacking human friends, that is. Which office was it?”

Before I could respond with the wrong answer, a high-pitched, warbling scream carried from above. We all looked up and saw three pairs of gloved hands hovering towards us. One pair, which I somehow recognised as Atropos, held a microphone and another, Lachesis, carried a large camera as though it was resting on an invisible shoulder.

“And we are now joining our most popular pseudo-alliance,” Clotho cried. “The unofficial party of the human, Algier!”

I let out a long, agonising groan. Those voices did nothing but piss me off.

The Sisters have more than one role during the Culling. Aside from providing commentary before, during, and after the event, they spend most of their time in the Culling itself, watching Participants, recording the brutal events for the audience to see. And, unfortunately, interviewing Participants.

They rode down calmly like a plane coming in for a landing. All three surrounded me the camera was shoved in my face.

“So, Algier,” Atropos said. “You’ve managed to find a party with many strong demons. How does it feel to be protected by such amazing Participants?”

The pleiades thrust the microphone to my face. “Fantastic. I also enjoy listening to them every waking minute of the day.”

“Algier,” Lachesis shouted. “Given that this is the Ring of Betrayal, how many times have your demon companions tried to eliminate you?”

I wasn’t going to answer that question. Imagine the in-fighting it would have caused as the demons argued over who tried to kill me less. However, I never had a chance to as Markus barged in.

“Oh, there’s no need to worry about Algier here,” he said in a faux reassuring voice. “He’s actually eliminated a couple of demons himself.”

“Amazing!” Clotho cried, shuffling in to borrow the microphone from Atropos. “And this here is Markus, the most famous and despised demon in the Culling according to our most recent viewer poll.”

Atropos took the microphone back. “For those many humans and few demons gambling on the outcome of the Culling, his odds are the lowest at a measly one-point-one to one.”

She handed the microphone back to Clotho. “How do you feel about partying with a human?”

“Oh, it’s been an experience, let me tell you.” A grin split his face, flashing his fangs. “As I’m sure you’re aware, I work very closely with humans. This is nothing new to me.”

I tried to shuffle away, but Markus wrapped an arm around my shoulders. When I resisted, the demon’s hand started to heat up, almost singeing me—a warning not to move. In protest, I made the sourest face I could.

“Yes, see, Algier and I have a very manageable working relationship,” Markus prattled on. “Many people say that humans and demons don’t get along very well, but I’m finding our alliance to be quite fruitful.”

“I see,” Lachesis said, stroking an invisible chin. “Then would you say you trust each other?”

Markus let out a chuckled. “Oh, trust is such a loaded word. Besides, Algier is a human. There’s no telling what’s going on in that soft brain of his. However.” He leaned down and pressed his face close to mine. I could feel a subtle vibration in his cheek, like his body were some great machine rumbling away. “There are ways to overcome trust issues, aren’t there, Algier?”

Well, now was the time to defy a one name demon on live television, in front of an audience of millions. I took a deep breath.

“I’m not forming a contract with you,” I said bluntly.

I don’t think the camera did justice to Markus’ stiff grin, because from my angle, his pathetic attempt to suppress his anger was glorious.

The Sisters perked up and turned to me. Atropos held the microphone to Clotho. “Algier! You make it sound like your relationship with Markus is far more tenuous than he made it out to be. Are you accusing a demon of lying?”

The microphone was thrust in my face. I spoke quickly. “No, I’m saying that he’s talking on my behalf. He doesn’t—”

Markus shunted me to the side, cutting me off. He shifted himself in front of the camera. “Oh, don’t worry about him. Algier has been on edge ever since the Culling began.”

“That’s true!” Atropos cried. “I’m sure many of our viewers recall his outbursts during his interview on Meet The Participants!”

“Exactly. And many demons know just how erratic humans get when they’re stressed.”

Well, it was a good attempt. There was no point in calling Markus a liar since nobody would believe it when a human says a demon lied. All I was doing was sowing seeds of doubt, and that alone was enough to mess with Markus’ reputation.

Demons aren’t immune to rumour mongering. In the pits of Hell, knowledge is power. That’s why, despite being weaker than, say bunès, cantos such as balaams and haureses are so highly regarded. And when nobody lies, the deceitful one is the most wicked of them all.

Of course, demons don’t lie, so to spread misinformation there are many steps one has to go through. Information doesn’t degrade when passed amongst demons. Conversely, when humans pass a message onto each other, they fill in missing details, cut out the parts they don’t understand, and ultimately butcher the story until it means something else entirely. Demons always pass the message on exactly as they remember it, and if they don’t remember they say so. That’s the trick.

If a demon is unsure of a fact, they’ll stipend it with maybes and I-don’t-knows. So to spread misinformation, a wise demon spreads partial information to many different sources. When all of that information changes horns and is gathered again by hostile spies, it forms a picture so incomplete and bloated with assumptions that no demon can determine the truth from the lie.

This is what’s known as demon whispers: partial information spread, multiplied, and reformed to create a narrative larger than the whole.

What I had done was implied that Markus was engaging in demon whispers by providing only partial information. The usual demonic response to the discovery of demon whispers is to disregard any information disseminated this way. Hence, I’d rendered Markus’ words obsolete in the eyes of demons. Well, tried to, anyway.

I should have realised it would be pointless, though. Pleiades are inconsequential, though the camera and microphone, being physical devices, aren’t. I’m not too sure how those phenomena interact with each other, but it was an uphill battle regardless, trying to affect peoples’ opinions on a demon through a pleiades. Besides, everyone already hated Markus. It’s likely they assumed he was always hiding part of the truth.

Thrusting the camera forward, Lachesis said, “You seem very experienced on the subject of humans, Markus. I’m sure many demons would love to hear the thoughts of a demon on them. Why don’t you tell us more about who you are and how you came to understand them?”

“I’d love to,” Markus hummed, clapping his gloved hands together. “For those who, somehow, don’t know of me, I run a company—several, in fact—that take in more humans than any other demon would dare. See, unlike many other one names, I see value in humans. They can achieve so many great things when placed in the right conditions.”

“Incredible!” warbled Atropos. “You’re truly a one-of-a-kind demon!”

“Of course. We’re all unique, after all. That’s simply our nature.”

“Indeed.”

Clotho shoved herself in the way of the microphone. “Then what do your human employees think of the working conditions in the Markus group?”

“They love it!” Markus sang. “At least, according to the vast majority of surveys that I’ve received. So if there are any humans out there who are looking to make use of their talents in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment, please, give us your resumé along with a cover letter explaining why you would be the perfect fit for the Markus Group. I’ll be sure to move them along as soon as I win the Culling.”

One thing that stood out to me was that Markus was twisting his words to say whatever was best for his cause. Though he hadn’t technically lied about anything, he was masterfully twisting the meaning of words to imply things that were… inspiring. I realised at that point that Markus may have been more powerful than I’d ever imagined, being able to bend the truth so much to his bidding.

Atropos gave a small hop of excitement. “Amazing! What a confident claim by Markus! However, that claim only works if nothing unexpected hap—”

The interview ended abruptly when Toll bellowed, “Sniper!”

Everything went to Hell after that.