“Really?” Xellie folded her arms defiantly. “You just want to talk?”

“Yes. Let me show you a token of goodwill by releasing these humans.” With a snap of his fingers, the townsfolk vanished from around her, leaving only Ashmeviti, Xellie and Raye in the town square.

“What did you do with them?”

“Don’t be so suspicious,” Ashmeviti told her dismissively. “They’re outside of the barrier - it’s just us here now... you don’t want anyone to get hurt, or be trapped, right?”

The tone of his voice was both frustrating and confusing. He sounded so calm, so matter-of fact and even kind.

“No. Not at all.” Xellie replied cautiously, looking around to see if they were truly alone in the city. “And...don’t cause them any distress either!” She added, clenching her fists and staring at him defiantly. “If you release Raye I’ll listen to everything you have to say.”

“I dare say you know how insurance policies work. Don’t make me explain it to you.”

Ashmeviti stepped down so that he stood an arm's length away, bending his knee slightly so that he was bringing himself down to Xellie’s eye level.

Although she had a retort ready for him, and a good one at that by her own admission, Xellie found herself making eye contact with supposedly the most powerful force of evil the world knew of. And she was wondering what he wanted.

He reached across and gently lifted Raye’s hairband from Xellie’s head, releasing any trapped hair so as not to pull on it.

“This thing is a mind control device.” He said, sternly, but not unkindly as he cast it aside. “The illusion of power is a great tool.”

During this brief exchange, Raye had been looking on, gripping her torn dress nervously as the colour drained from her already usually pale face.

“DON’T LISTEN!” Raye screamed, grabbing onto the bars of the cage as if she had suddenly realised the danger of what was happening. “DON’T PLEASE!”

“Nameless slaves have no place to talk,” Ashmeviti told Raye, giving out a small sigh. “I know that deep down you’re rebelling against your brainwashing, wanting your child to have a choice in her own future.”

“I HAVE A NAME!” Raye threw herself at the bars, which didn’t even so much as move. “I HAVE A NAME!”

“Of course you do.... but do you even know what it really is?”

“That’s not... I’m not... You don’t....”

Xellie watched Raye’s anger melt into confusion as she fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands.

“Everything has a reason...” Raye sobbed to herself, rocking back and forth.

“Hey.” Xellie grabbed Ashmeviti’s smart jacket sleeve to get his attention. “I thought you wanted to talk to me.”

“Come, let’s move away from distractions.” He said, holding out his hand to direct her toward a small house nestled into a gap, overlooking the square.

Xellie glanced back at Raye uneasily, giving away her apprehension. Ashmeviti also looked back at Raye, but his expression was one of satisfaction.

“You’re finding this all rather uncomfortable, but I want to assure you that no harm will come to you while you’re in this house,” Ashmeviti told Xellie, pointing toward a couch. “Please make yourself comfortable so we can simply talk.”

Xellie looked around the small cramped room. Bookshelves and piles of books overflowed everywhere. Leaving a small amount of room in the room for a couch, with a small table and an armchair.

“I couldn’t really hide while living in the grandeur expected of a demon lord, could I?” He told her with a quiet, friendly laugh in response to her visible surprise.

“So uhh... This is real, isn’t it? I’m having afternoon tea with a demon lord?”

“Would you like some tea?” He asked with a smile. “No, that kind of thing is a waste of time for you. Besides, you’d think I was trying to poison you or worse.”

“You’re not wrong.” She replied with a shrug, looking around the room.

“Just so we are clear, I only guarantee your safety inside this house. Do you understand?”

A threat? Xellie knew she was at his mercy now and conceded to this with a slight nod.

“I know a lot about you.” He sat opposite Xellie, folding his hands in his lap. “Your mother and I have known each other for a very long time. You could say I’m quite indebted to her. And please do sit down. You’re making me uncomfortable.”

“Really?” she asked incredulously, remaining standing as a token act of defiance. “What could she possibly have done for you?”

“That’s between her and yourself, but I fear she doesn’t even know. Her memory was wiped clean as a punishment. You know, crossing lines and that kind of behaviour is very much looked down upon by her kind.” He gave a small sigh as if the topic was one that he wished to avoid, and swiftly moved on to the next subject, leaving no time for questions. “I’d rather talk about you. Perhaps you were too young to remember my visits to your home. One time, when you were merely weeks old, I walked in on your mother holding a knife over you.”

“No...” Xellie let out an audible gasp. “For what reason?”

“Why do you think?” he asked her gently. “This is uncomfortable, but also your reality.”

“She wouldn’t... She couldn’t...” Xellie grasped at her tunic and looked around the room uncomfortably, unable to figure out where to look or what to even think. “Why... but why?”

“To save you from a terrible fate.” Ashmeviti waited until she locked eyes with him, then cast his gaze downwards in pity. “She tried many times actually... But a mother simply cannot do that. It weighed on her day after day. It’s an unspeakably cruel situation to be in.”

“Is it... is it really so bad?” she asked hesitantly. Unwilling to accept that she was seriously listening to a demon and taking his words to heart. Yet, deep down inside, she was reminding herself, demons rarely tell lies.

“You are a tool, an asset, a thing to be controlled... You can go ask her. I won’t prevent that.”

“Safety?” Xellie asked, eyeing the demon suspiciously.

“We have much more to discuss. You can even use that mind control device so I can’t listen in if you so wish.”

Throwing Ashmeviti a suspicious look, Xellie hesitantly walked out of the house, half expecting him to attack her as she did so. Once outside, she took a deep breath and ran over to where Raye was imprisoned, clasping the bars with both hands, her eyes wide and glistening with fear.

“I’m okay!” Xellie exclaimed, running up to hold on to the bars from her side. “It will be okay.”

Raye looked around agitatedly before pointing to the feathered hairband laying where Ashmeviti had discarded it earlier.

Xellie nodded and snatched up the hairpiece, fixing it to her head securely, as if she expected it to be pulled away.

“Raye?” Thinking instead of speaking felt extremely peculiar. Was this even working correctly? “Raye... can you hear me?”

“I hoped it would never come to this...” Raye’s voice in her thoughts quivered, betraying a deep, primal fear.

“Don’t doubt me! I can handle this!” Xellie replied out loud, quickly catching her mistake and holding her hand over her mouth.

“He will do anything and everything to have you willingly submit to his wishes. He wants... he wants... this is awful. I can’t tell her the truth...”

“I can hear you thinking.” Xellie sighed and sat on the floor next to the cage, leaning against it. “So just tell me the truth... what am I facing?”

“He is a reaper. He takes souls, distressed, sour, angry, bitter souls. Souls that he can see but not all are within his grasp, but they are within ours. So imagine a being that combines those powers and can take control of almost every human soul in the afterlife.”

“I don’t really see how I help him with this more than say... you.”

“You are still physically human... I am not. My very essence destroys his power on contact, or if it cannot, it destroys itself. He has killed so many Valkyries in his attempts to create a hybrid. But your soul, you have our power, you just haven’t learned to tap into it. I guess it’s something you would learn in your own afterlife. But you could pass it on to your own children.”

“So... you wanted to kill me so this couldn’t happen...”

“Please.” Raye’s tone melted from scared into pleading. “If I had a choice at the time, I wouldn’t have had another child. I could never knowingly put anyone in this position. And I begged and begged for them to let you live and swore this would never ever come to be. And I don’t... I don’t... I will never regret it. But I don’t see a way out of this... If you don’t go with him willingly, he will just take you.”

Xellie buried her face in her hands.

“I can’t beat him alone. Not like this.”

“Maybe you can... she can’t... there is no way... You can do it! If you just fight as hard as you can, you can overcome him!”

Beneath her hands, Xellie scrunched her face up in disgust at the stream of thoughts coming from Raye. Raye was trying to encourage her to fight, yet didn’t believe she could possibly succeed.

“If he takes you, willingly or otherwise, you’ll be his slave forever. He may seem harmless now, but he will crush your body, tear your flesh and heal you over and over so you live through every agonising moment. Every moment. Nothing but pain, forever. If she fights hard enough to fall... It will release enough energy to shatter the barrier, and Vella can take her soul to safety... This is the only way she mustn't give up! Eternal suffering! You don’t want this! I don’t want you to go through this. Please tell me you’ll fight!” Raye banged her fists against the bars. “Tell me you will fight!”

“I...” Xellie stood up and dusted herself off, glancing over toward the unimposing house that contained the strongest demon known to the world. “I don’t know...”

“Please,” Raye whispered, before thinking to herself. “She’s got to do this, otherwise we will have to mobilise an army and thousands will perish”

“You wanted me to hear that, didn’t you?” Xellie asked Raye, looking between the distressed Valkyrie and the Demon’s direction, subtly trying to gauge Raye’s reaction to the fact that she had revealed supposedly unintentional thoughts. Raye looked suitably surprised.

“She really is in touch with our power.” Raye's thoughts crossed Xellie’s mind once again.

“I get it,” Xellie told Raye, holding out a hand comfortingly. “I’ve got this under control... Mom.”

“She actually called me...”

“Now, I’ve got a date with a literal demon and one of those legendary battles against fate for dessert,” Xellie told Raye with a smile and a wave as she unclipped the hairpiece and dropped it to the floor. “I don’t know what’s waiting for me, but whatever you cook, it’ll be delicious.”

“Good luck!” Raye called after her.

Xellie turned and walked away from Raye, her smile dropping into a grimace. Hopefully, Raye couldn’t read her thoughts at this very moment, but at the back of her mind, a thought was growing. A thought that terrified her, going against all her values, everything she’d been taught by Niko and everything she believed.

Maybe it’s worth listening to his offer.