Volce and I walked in silence through the crumbling hallway. The windows had been shattered by weather and decay, letting gusts of wind kick up dust motes through the halls. Rusted wheeled beds had been left abandoned, partially obstructing my way. The small demon simply floated over them.

We hadn’t bothered to clean the top floor yet since Enzi, Volce, and I were using the rooms. The contract with Markus allowed the ‘party’ members, us, to give a limited number of orders concerning organisation. We’d immediately abused that power to keep a portion of the hospital for our own personal use.

On the lower floor, the other demons had been ordered to board off windows and doors to ensure there was only one clear path in and out. Honestly, it seemed like overkill. There was little chance of an attack from Holt’s crew as Toll had confirmed multiple times that they were all waiting at the exit. They had no need to be elsewhere. And if there was a digresser attack, well… the walls wouldn’t stop them for too long and, if anything, they only worked to trap us in. Our primary method of defence against a digresser storm was to scout it, report it, then run. There were far too few of us to stop whatever Silica was brewing up.

But demons didn’t sleep so we had to give them something to do while they stood guard. As such, the hospital was slowly being cleaned out and partially patched up. I felt there was something romantic in abandoning the hospital to the elements, leaving it behind with the rest of the crumbling city. Just another relic to what humanity had once been.

A stray cloud of dust found its way into the back of my throat, sending me into a coughing fit. My sputtering echoed through the empty halls.

“Hey, don’t get sick and die,” Volce said. “There are no doctors around to bring you back to life.”

“You can’t be serious,” I choked back at him. Knowing Volce, he absolutely was.

We found a room near the back of the hall, where there was no stairwell to allow spying eyes to reach us. The only way to get here was through the long hallway, and Enzi was guarding from a room near the front stairwell. I closed the door behind us and Volce took the bed. He rarely ever sat, which made me a little cautious.

“Seriously, Algier, are you sick?” the deuce said. There was a hint of worry in his voice, though like with all emotions that demons showed, it seemed off.

“I’m perfectly fine. I just slayed an estray and feel like a million points right now. Why does everyone keep asking?”

The deuce’s twin tails snapped in the air beside him. “I’m not too sure you’re in a stable frame of mind. Your behaviour has been erratic lately.”

“Well, look at you! Not swearing every other sentence. I’m proud of you, buddy. It’s a hard habit to kick. Now.” I held out a hand. “Give me a rabdos.”

Volce folded his arms and stared at me with a poker face. “Why?”

“I need it for practice.”

“Practicing what?”

“I’ll show you.”

I stuck my hand into the air and it slipped through a fold in the universe, into a place that was neither warm nor cool. My hand gripped around a water bottle and I yanked it out. As I pulled on it, I wiggled it slightly so that it came out in fits and starts, like some unseen force was pushing and pulling against me. Then, finally, once I’d found the right spot, it stopped budging entirely no matter how much I pulled on it. Floating at my side, the top of the bottle was stuck in the air and it was half sticking out, its bottom vanishing. The space surrounding the bottle seemed like it was etched away by angular, faint black engravings.

“I’m messing with my inventory,” I said. I gave the engraved air a tap. My knuckles went straight through and the air produced a hollow hum, like a great beast was trying and failing to swallow my hand.

Volce’s mouth hung open, revealing his serrated teeth. “How did you—”

“Haven’t you noticed? The inventories have been playing up since the estray fight. I think something might have happened that has affected the entire system. I’ve been experimenting every chance I get.”

I was pretty pleased with his reaction. Demons might be good at exploiting a system when given enough time, but it was always humans that did the bulk of the creative work. Therefore, when it comes to figuring out secrets and innovating on the known, humans are always a bit faster at it.

Think of it like this. You’re playing a game of battleship. A demon, once they learn the optimum strategy will use it each time. They’ll place their ships apart so they don’t touch, keep one off to the edge, then fire in a checkerboard pattern to minimise the number of shots needed to find a ship, always starting from the middle as that’s statistically the most likely place to find a ship.

A human will realise this and place all their ships on the edge of the board. That’s what we do: adapt, create, survive. All it requires is for someone to try something different, to take an idea and run with it in the way that only a romantic idiot would.

On the other hand, a demon would try random strategies to see what works best, and usually only strategies they’d seen already. The stronger demons would be a little more adept at this, but still not to the same degree as a human.

Which was why I was so damned proud of myself. It was unlikely any demon had thought of half the experiments I’d conjured up, so I was likely to be far ahead in terms of figuring out uses for the buggy inventory. I’d hoped that my inventory was unique, but given that I’d already seen some demons experience similar oddities to what I was facing, I considered that to be wishful thinking. Sure, it was fun to think of myself as the protagonist, but reality was a cold bitch on a warpath, and optimists were always the last to get out of her way.

The deuce collected himself and his poker face returned. “Alright, that’s impressive and all, but that doesn’t explain why you need a rabdos.”

“To continue my experimentation. I want to see what happens when I fiddle with multiple rabdoses.” I waved Möbius about. “In case you haven’t noticed, I only have the one.”

“And… why should I help, exactly?”

I stared at Volce deadpan. “You can’t be serious.”

“I am.” The deuce said. He flicked his twin tails.

“We’re partners.”

“Doesn’t seem that way.”

My grip tightened on Möbius. I really wanted to stab the fucker but that would only make things harder. Instead, I took a deep breath, got my breathing under control, and drew myself straight. If it weren’t for the dust motes clogging the air, I would have felt relaxed.

“If I can figure out how to utilise this glitch in the inventory system, I can teach it to you.” Well, there was about as much chance of that happening as Volce learning the difference between a knee and an elbow.

“I don’t believe you,” the deuce said without hesitation.

I blinked at him in shock. He’d never been this unreasonable before. I wracked my brain for an answer, considering all possibilities. Had he betrayed me by signing a deal with Markus while I was sleeping? No, that couldn’t have been it; Enzi would have told me if that was true. Sure, the thought of Enzi helping me made me feel physically sick at that point, but their rivalry was weird enough that she would have reported such an event to me in order to gain my…

Trust. The realisation struck me all out once. He didn’t trust me. Or, more accurately, I’d lost his trust.

It’s generally unnecessary for demons to actually trust each other since they can just tell the truth about their allegiances. However, this is not that case with humans. Since we can lie, demons need hard guarantees of our intent. Without that, some of the more cautious ones are will never work with humans. That makes workplace relations difficult in the real world. In the Culling, it means that demons and humans would, at times, become natural enemies, resulting in humans sticking solely to themselves. That isn’t always the case, mind you, but in at least a quarter of all Cullings, humans didn’t associate with demons. Data showed that has no bearing on the overall win-loss ratio of humans versus demons. In fact, in almost every Culling where there is more than one winner, the winning line up consists of both humans and demons.

I forced my face into a softer expression then lowered my gaze, trying to appear apologetic. I wasn’t sure how well it would work on Volce, but it didn’t hurt to try. “Look. I said we’d slay an estray and we did. I said we’d share the points by forming a party, and we did. I said we’d teleport to the exit—or at the least, close to it—and we did. I mean, that business would have gone smoother if not for Markus, but you can’t blame me because you lost your rabdoses. Markus caught me off guard as well! The point is—”

“You want me to trust you?” Volce finished my sentence for me.

“Have I led you astray?”

“You don’t trust me.”

Right. I’d been intentionally avoiding pairing with Volce because I didn’t want him reading my thoughts. Well, that was before. Now, it was less of an issue, though still not something I wanted to do if I could help it. Now, the bigger issue was gaining corruption. It seemed that I only accumulated corruption from Volce when I paired with him. In fact, even when paired, it seemed that corruption only accumulated when I used his luck power for a purpose. Which was hugely problematic, because sometimes it would just work of its own accord, like when it had prevented me from getting my insides scrambled on the second day when Berlin had kicked me.

Well, no choice. A half-truth could help.

“I was contacted by a Marquis,” I explained.

“Bullshit,” said Volce.

“He had a bunch of threes all over him.”

The deuce said nothing, and neither did his expression change. Then finally, he spoke. “So you met Three.”

“Is that what his name is?”

“Who knows? We just call them by the order in which they appeared. You wouldn’t know that unless you were in the right circles. Strong demon circles, demon hunter circles, anyone who had pork with the Marquises. That sort of thing. You know how good we are at keeping secrets.”

“Beef,” I corrected Volce.

Yeah, sure demons are good at keeping secrets, because half of their secrets they are bound by their sigils not to spill, so it was kind of a given. As for everything else, if there is no incentive for a demon to say it, they simply won’t. They don’t gossip like humans do. And if there is a secret that is spilled, demon-controlled media is surprisingly good at suppressing those facts by just not publicising them.

All media in this world is controlled by a very select number of demons who all have their agendas. If it isn’t in their interest to let a secret get out, it’ll never get publicised. They won’t explicitly lie, but the degree to which distractions are timed and released to coincide with viral information blowing up online, plus with the strict controls that now exist on social media, nothing of importance ever spreads to the human populace. Hence, you have to be in the right circles to learn of anything.

The only circles I was ever in were my immediate SOHINORA group, my work-related social groups (not by choice), and a bunch of online forums dedicated to Culling-obsessed fools just like me. None of those ever revealed much about the Marquises and, as all humans are aware, gossip is more likely to be wrong than right, so a lot of it went in one ear and out the other.

I shrugged. “Well, Three told me that he would kill me if I became too corrupted.”

“Impossible. The rules of the Culling are maintained by Prime, the strongest amongst them. Even he—”

“Can’t break his own rules,” I sighed.

The first Marquis, referred to as Prime, was the only Marquis whose magic was well known. It was really simple, actually: Prime could make an unbreakable rule for an area or a group of objects, a rule which even he couldn’t break. Unfortunately, knowing that he could create unbreakable rules did absolutely nothing to help in resisting them, assuming someone was stupid enough to do that. All the other Marquises kept their powers secret to be a greater threat to anyone stupid enough to cross them while Prime didn’t bother.

“I know,” I said. “But why would I take that risk? Is there really anything stopping a Marquis from killing me after the Culling?”

“It shouldn’t be possible. All you have to do is wish to live a healthy life if you win.”

“Would you take that risk?”

Another long pause. “No. Even demons don’t know much about Marquises.”

“So you understand why I’m trying to avoid getting too close to demons now, yes? It has nothing to do with you, I just need to be extra careful.”

“You already told me that you think I’ll spill the bacon to the others.”

Shit. That was a good point. I’d said that when he’d held the needle rabdos to my throat a couple days ago. If I told Volce now that it was a lie, it would put my character further into question. He was clearly trying to pin me as untrustworthy, and I had a sneaking suspicion as to why. If I said that the past statement was true, it would also add to his case since my inability to trust him gave Volce good reason not to trust me.

However, there was one way out of this.

I scrunched up my face and stared away from Volce, at moth-eaten privacy curtains that had fallen off their rails long ago. “Look, I was just screwing with you a little. I was pretty stressed out at the time and took it out on you. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Yes, it was all bullshit. I’d meant every word I’d said back then. Volce was unreliable. He was a downright moron. However, if I let him snoop around in my head, he’d quickly find that out and use my new lie to back his case.

Volce stared at me, his black eyes unblinking. He was more serious than I’d ever seen him. None of the outrage and bravado he usually put on display was present in this conversation. Without the slightest change in expression, he stuck his hand into his inventory. He pulled out a silver, chain linked necklace studded with red jewels akin to rubies. The bottom of it was weighted down with a gem the colour of blood. It refracted light in such a way that the silvery chain around it was shaded in the same bloody hue.

Haemostasis, Class 3. Whatever blood it touches instantly coagulates. Practically useless for demons, but a life-saving implement for humans. Unless, of course, you stuck it right into a person’s body. Then it would give you an instant blood clot. If it weren’t for the fact that its effect were limited to touch, I think it would have been rated Class 5, a human-killing rabdos, rather than a general use Class 3.

I reached out to take it from him. When my hand drew close, Volce snatched the jewellery away. I blinked at him.

“What now? I thought we were past these trust issues.”

“We’re not. Unless you’ve got some haures magic for locking down a contract, I’m not just going to give it to you.”

“I never said you should give it to me, just that I want to borrow it.”

Volce narrowed his eyes. “For how long?”

“At least until the end of the fight.” I was telling the truth.

“How’s that any different from taking it?”

“Because you’ll get it back.”

The deuce went quiet, considering me from his position on the bed. Despite being so small, his presence was overwhelming.

Despite the pressure, I was equally as silent. If I spoke now, it would only make me look nervous. Sure, it was a human negotiation technique: let the other party sweat it out rather than rambling on endlessly and thereby giving them less reasons to say no. To talk was to betray your desperation. You’d be surprised how well such tricks worked on demons. They expect humans to take the irrational approach, and when they don’t, it leaves them stumped. Human emotion is information, and with that lack of information, demons can only go off a human’s words.

And without access to their partner’s thoughts, a deuce might try to be overbearing in their attempts to help them. After all, isn’t it important to make sure their partner doesn’t do something stupid?

In this case, Volce was probably thinking that he had to prevent me from spending all afternoon running useless experiments. What choice did he have? He was contractually obligated to stay with me until I decided to break the partnership and he was forced to protect me no matter what. I was so glad I’d let him sweat it out before partnering with him. As much as I hated to admit it, Markus had helped me out quit a bit back then, when he was trying to erase Volce.

“Fine,” the deuce said after a while. He thrust the necklace out to me, letting it dangle in his hand. “I expect to get it back. Consider this a proof of trust.” He laid particular emphasis on those last few words.He

“Fine,” I repeated. I reached out and took Haemostasis.

Volce dropped it into my hand before I could seize it. The insinuation was subtle, but it was there. The deuce still didn’t trust me. That was going to cause problems. However, he had given me a way to confirm that trust. All I had to do was return this rabdos to him.

I ran my thumb along the gaudy jewel. For the oddest reason, now that I had it, I didn’t want it. Still, I needed to use it for my experiments. I considered that feeling to be some weird, fleeting thought and pushed it aside.

“By the way,” I said to Volce. “Since we’re in the business of trust, I think I’ll let you in on a big secret.”

I stepped towards Volce, and the deuce’s eyes darted to Möbius. I paused, looked at the knife, then snorted.

“What, scared the human is going to stab you?”

“I’ve seen humans do some crazy shit before. Just leave it there.”

“Fine.” I let go of the knife and it remained suspended in the air. I felt uncomfortable being near a demon without it, but I reminded myself that Volce losing his partner now was an invitation for Markus to start torching the general vicinity near him. I took a step closer, leaned in, and whispered. “I’m thinking it might be possible to attack Markus.”

Volce cocked an eyebrow. “Oh, come on. We’ve been staring at the contract for hours. I’m certain either me or Enzi would have found something by now.”

“It’s just a thought,” I said. “Ultimately, I want to get the drop on him. I think that I might be able to apply some reasonable twist to the logic surrounding ‘party’ and ‘ally’—those terms have different, convoluted meanings in the contract.

“Besides, there is one thing I do know the contract doesn’t prevent. In truth, I was looking for this more so than anything else. At the end of the Ring of Betrayal are terminals identical to those in the Junction Tower. You have to activate them in the same way to complete the Ring. However, unlike the Junction terminals, there’s a catch. Whoever leaves together is forced into a new party.

“If you’re already in a party when you leave the Ring of Betrayal, the first thing that happens is an equal proportion of the exiting party’s points are deducted from the members’ initial parties’ points. Then, they take a portion of their initial party’s points and those are added to the new party’s point pool. So if you’re in a party of ten who has a thousand points total and you leave it on your own to join another party of five, your party pays one hundred points, then you get one tenth of the remaining nine hundred points, or ninety. Obviously, none of this occurs if the point cost can’t be met initially.”

Volce rested his chin in his hand. “Right. It actively encourages you to seek out another alliance beforehand and siphon off their points for a cheap pass through to the next Ring. There are only ten terminals, meaning that they can only form teams of ten at max. If they didn’t have Holt locking things down, I bet it would have been easy to slip an enepsi into the team at the exit and have them all fight over who gets to go with who.”

I nodded, then held up my hand and raised all five fingers. “We currently have two thousand, seven hundred and forty points. If you subtract five hundred, we’ll be left with two thousand, two hundred and forty points.” I lowered my thumb. “If only four members of our party leave, the remaining member will have four hundred and forty-eight—not enough to leave the First Ring. In other words,” I tucked my hand behind my back, “why don’t we just leave the fighting to Markus and get out of there first chance we get?”

“It won’t stop him,” Volce said after a pause. “But I see where you’re going. He’ll reach the five hundred points pretty quickly after erasing a demon or two, but I doubt he’ll want to leave with zero points left in his pocket.”

“Exactly. And even if it doesn’t slow him down much, it’ll force him to clean out a bit more of the competition than he otherwise would risk doing. The demons that are still bound are going to be a lot stronger than most of the randoms we’ve encountered so far. It’s too good of an idea not to do it.” I flashed a toothy grin.

Volce narrowed his eyes. “That’s a lot of planning for ‘just a thought’.” The deuce hovered off the bed and flitted over towards a broken window. He stared out at the crumbling city below. “If you betray him, what stops you from betraying me?”

I cocked an eyebrow. “The fact that you’re not Markus. I figured I’d tell you since you’ll probably find out anyway.” I tapped my temple with a finger. “You know.”

“Fine,” the deuce said calmly. “If you can get the others on board and we can find a chance to break through, we’ll give a signal and fly for it.”

Then Volce whirled round to me with a scowl on his face, his expressionless mask gone. “Now hurry up with the experiments, gas sack!”