Adeena stepped off the square, grey stone sb that her translocation ritual had brought her to, making sure her crew were with her.

  “Err… Captain, what’s this?” said Xavier, tugging at a glowing green chain around his neck, which had a demonic sigil hovering at the front. Heidi and Cwdia also had them.

  “Well, err, um,” said Adeena, twisting a lock of hair. “Since you’re all, um, technically, under contract to a demon, well, half-demon, I sort of… own you. Temporarily, of course! And- and I’ve never actually used that cuse on anyone. It’s, err, always there… just, not visible.”

  Xavier gred at her. “This whole time?” he said in a more annoyed voice than she’d heard in hundreds of cycles. “Really, Adeena? You didn’t think this was a relevant thing to mention when we signed up?”

  “Well… you know, I don’t… really like to tell people what I am,” said Adeena, rubbing her hands together. “And I should have told you once you know, but… well, it was- it didn’t seem like it would help and…”

  “Really, Adeena?” repeated Xavier.

  “We do not like it!” yowled Cwdia, pulling at the glowing chain. “The Captain Adeena Yassin tricks us!’

  “I wouldn’t actually use the power to compel you, or anything!” protested Adeena. “And, if anything, it- it protects you here! That’s the Yassin family crest – no one is going to mess with you while you’ve got it on.”

  “You and I are going to have a talk when this is over,” said Xavier sternly. “A serious one.”

  Adeena cleared her throat and rubbed the back of her neck. “Um, sure,” she said weakly. “We’d… we’d better go through immigration.”

  Even Heidi was gring at her as they made their way down the long, low ceilinged corridor, passing adjoining ‘arrival lounges’ where demons of all shapes and sizes were appearing, many of them with miserable, bound mortals bearing the same demonic bindings as her friends in tow.

  “Alright,” said Adeena as they reached the end of the corridor, where there was a series of desks and racks upon racks of forms. “We need… this one, and this one, and this one…” she said as she took down the relevant forms for returning arrivals, css 1 mortals, css 4 mortals and css 2 fey creatures.

  She began filling them out, ticking boxes, circling sections, crossing out others, and writing in details.

  “Alright,” she said, pushing them towards the others. “You need to sign these here, here, here, and here.”

  “What’s this, a permanent ensvement?” said Xavier coldly.

  “No, it’s immigration forms – it… these ones don’t actually do anything, really. They’re just there to annoy you so you pay for a ‘Frequent Translocator Card,’” said Adeena. “Xavier, please, you know I’d never hurt you – right?”

  The elf sniffed and looked over the forms, before sighing and scribbling his signature where she’d marked. The others did the same, with varying levels of hostility. Well, Heidi looked hurt, and Cwdia hissed.

  Then they got in line in the section beyond the desks, and for the next hour and a half slowly moved forward as the single slime demon on duty processed the forms for all those demons who didn’t have the Frequent Translocator Card that got them waved through by a pair of burly pit fiends.

  Eventually they were at the front of the line, and the slime demon accepted her forms with four wet and goopy tentacles.

  “Hmm… Yassin?” he said, looking at her with a single, yellow eye. “Princess Yassin?”

  “Yes,” said Adeena coldly. “Just me, and two contracted mortals and one contracted fey.”

  “Of course,” said the smile demon, barely gncing at the forms. “Everything seems to be in order, your highness.”

  He grabbed a stamp and sloppily spped it against the forms before handing the slightly wet and dripping pieces of parchment back to her.

  “Enjoy your stay in Pandemonium, your highness,” he said. “Oh, and perhaps you could submit my resume to House Yassin? I think I have a lot to offer in one of your family’s businesses.”

  ‘Cedric Snarlfarn,’ according to the page which he proffered her, had a ‘Bachelor in Communications,’ a ‘Masters in Micro-Management,’ and a ‘Diploma in Innovation Solutions,’ along with several excellent references from previous employers, and three awards for ‘immigration clerk of the month’ at his current job.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” lied Adeena, pocketing the assembled, slightly damp papers, and beckoning the others through the revolving door beyond.

  They emerged onto a wide concrete pza, which featured several withered and fossilised trees, a stone garden, and four weird curving sculptures that were made en masse by one of her mother’s subsidiary houses and were what passed for infernal ‘art.’

  All around them rose highrise buildings of stone and bck metal and mirrored gss, stretching up towards the reddish, stactite covered ceiling far above. Light came in the form of a kind of omnipresent, orange glow, emanating from the many va-canals that crisscrossed the sprawling demonic metropolis. In the distance she saw a particurly rge building that rose above most of the others before bifurcating into two viciously sharp towers. The current ‘Royal Pace,’ and where her mother reigned.

  “Alright, we’re here for six hours whether we like it or not,” said Adeena. “Let’s find a quiet bar and keep our heads down.”

  “Do we have a choice, oh great and terrible owner?” said Xavier. “Or should we address you as your infernal highness?”

  “Fucking hells Xavier, what do you want me to say?” snapped Adeena. “I can’t help it! That’s just what employment contracts do when I make them!”

  “You could have told me,” he said.

  “I never pnned on coming here ever again,” said Adeena. “Certainly not with you! It would never have come up, because I’d never, ever, use those powers on you, or anyone else in the company. And, look, if you want to, you can break the contract – there is an at will release cuse in there for employees for a reason! You’re not actually ensved, because you can ‘un-ensve’ yourself whenever you want to! Just, don’t do that here, OK? Otherwise other demons will try and ensve you for real.”

  Xavier crossed his arms and looked away. “Whatever,” he said.

  They crossed the square and entered the sprawling, maze-like city of Dis. Shops selling everything from the mundane to the horrendous and depraved lined the streets and alleyways: from bcksmiths to clothes shops to markets selling sves to workshops that specialised in torturing mortals into giving up their souls to the pces where the unfortunates were transmuted in soul crystals to be used to power infernal industry.

  Adeena shuddered and looked away. There was a reason she had fled this pce: her people liked to say they were enlightened and believed in the ‘sacrosanct nature of the individual and freely-made contracts,’ but like everywhere else, power was unequal, and pretty words were pretty words.

  They found a small bar in a side alleyway that Adeena hoped was out of the way enough so as to not draw attention. It was run by an Incubus who lounged behind the bar as a middle-aged merfolk woman with a glowing green colr bustled around, bringing drinks to the various infernal customers. They took a booth near the back, and Adeena positioned herself so she wasn’t viewable from the door.

  “Hello, welcome to Slim Jim’s,” said the merfolk woman with a forced smile. “What can I get you?’

  “A jug of rice wine, please,” said Adeena. “Cwdia, milk as usual?”

  The grimalkin nodded grumpily.

  “Heidi?” asked Adeena.

  “Um… do you have anything non-alcoholic?” said the gnome.

  “We have lychee juice,” said the merfolk, frowning at Adeena deeply. “That OK, ma’am?”

  “Yes, whatever she likes,” said Adeena.

  “So… there are a lot of sves here,” said Heidi uneasily, tugging at her colr. “I knew that people got tricked by demons, taken away, but… I didn’t know it was this many.”

  “Mortals age more slowly here,” said Adeena. “Something about the pne itself – you’re seeing epic cycles worth of sves from across Ruvera.”

  “Huh,” said Heidi. “And there’s… nothing we can do?”

  “Pandemonium is possibly the most powerful of the pnes,” said Adeena. “They’ve got magi-tek that rivals that of the dragons, as you’ve seen, a massive industrial base, a huge popution, are innately powerful and immortal, and aren’t bound from action in the same way that the Godlings of Elysium or the fey are by their natures.

  “The Houses have been forced to sign certain contracts over the cycles that limits their activities on Ruvera to a degree, and translocation has limits – you can’t take many people, and it gets progressively harder and harder to do if you overuse it to the same spot. Without those restraints, they’d probably have conquered Ruvera long ago. That, and they’re always trying to destroy Elysium.”

  “Why?” asked Heidi. “I’ve… well, no one’s ever said.”

  “It’s in their nature,” said Xavier. “You’ve seen what divine energy does to the Captain, and she’s only half. Demons hate it, deep down inside.”

  “Pretty much – if there was something that caused you existential discomfort and pain, you’d probably want to destroy it too,” said Adeena as the drinks arrived. She poured two cups of the wine for herself and Xavier, who somewhat stiffly accepted the cup. “Legend has it that demons and Godlings were once the same race – that this pne wasn’t split, long, long ago. But that’s just a legend. Also, demons are, err, very racist and think they’re just… better than everyone else.”

  “And you’re… royalty here?” said Heidi.

  “Mother is ‘Queen of Hell’ – biggest fish in an ocean of sharks,” said Adeena. “I got out as a kid, never looked back.”

  “And she’s been missing you ever since,” came a deep, gravelly voice.

  Adeena looked up to see herself staring back at her. Well, herself if she were a bit more masculine, was wearing a sharply cut pink pinstripe suit, bright red tie, and had her hair pulled back into a ponytail.

  “Aiden,” said Adeena mechanically. “How did you find me?”

  “Mother has people at the arrivals lounge on retainer,” said her brother, grabbing a stool and dragging it to the edge of the booth. “No ‘lovely to see you, dear little brother?’ I’m hurt.”

  “Little brother?” said Heidi.

  “Twin,” said Xavier. “And a pain in the arse. You’ve met the Crown Princess, now meet the second in line to the Infernal Throne, the bratty younger brother.”

  “Xavier,” said Aiden with a smile. “Still following my big sister around like a puppy? The colr looks good on you, by the way.”

  “Fuck you,” said Xavier.

  Her brother chuckled.

  “What do you want, Aiden?” said Adeena.

  “Can’t a brother want to just see his beloved twin?” said Aiden, spreading his hands innocently. “Can’t I have just missed you, Dee? How have you been?”

  Adeena muttered darkly.

  “Rex, I’m not here to haul you back home,” said Aiden, snapping his fingers idly for the waitress’ attention. “Mother is currently off-pne on business, I’m just here to see how you’re doing. Really.” He turned to the merfolk. “A bottle of whisky – oldest you have, and five gsses.”

  “I’ve been fine,” said Adeena, cautiously regarding Aiden. What was this all about?

  “Excellent. And me, I hear you ask? Can’t compin, I just popped back from campaign for a few meetings and some R and R,” said Aiden. “We’ve managed to advance onto Mount Tranquillity, overrun their citadel. The streets ran gold with their blood.”

  “Pandemonium has- has breached Elysium?” said Heidi, shocked.

  “Oh yes, that ‘Camity’ of yours, it really did a number on the Godlings,” chuckled Aiden. “The price of drawing power from mortal followers, you see: when they snuff it…” He smirked. “We’ll they’ve faired rather poorly against my army since.”

  “Your army?” said Heidi. “You’re… the General of the Hells?”

  “She really hasn’t told you about herself? At all?” said Aiden. “Sister dearest, don’t tell me you’re ashamed?”

  “Oh go away,” groaned Adeena.

  “I, um, only just signed on, your, um, Princiness,” said Heidi. “I know she’s a half-demon, and… and doesn’t really die…”

  “So no: she hasn’t told you what we really are,” said Aiden. “What we were created for.”

  Adeena gred at her brother. He was unmoved.

  “You see my small friend, for all their strength, demons have a weakness,” said Aiden. He slipped a wickedly sharp dagger from his sleeve and took a serviette from the centre of the table. “A fatal one. They die, you see. Just like mortals and fey and Godlings, stab them or burn them or bst them or slice them with enough of whatever their particur weakness is, and ‘poof,’ gone. All that training and investment just up in smoke.”

  Aiden slowly sank the bde into his thumb. Blood welled in the wound, and he drew the knife out as a rge drop of crimson pooled on the pad.

  “But my dear sister and I?” said Aiden. “We don’t. Anything that doesn’t kill us, we’ll heal from.”

  He wiped his thumb clean and showed the fwless dusky skin to Heidi.

  “And anything that does? We return from. Not immortal, eternal,” said Aiden. “The ultimate warriors, the tip of the spear that will put an end to the Godlings for good,” said Aiden. “Mother was so please when we learned she was having twins too. Of course, then Dee decided she was too good for it all and ran off. Mother was furious. I’ve never seen so many dismembered board members…”

  He sat back and smirked.

  “So then, dear sister, what brings you back to this lovely city?” he said. “Come to rejoin the family business?”

  “Just passing through,” said Adeena. “Waiting out the six hours.”

  “Passing through to where, hmm?” said Aiden.

  “Does it matter?” said Adeena.

  “It must, for you to come back here after so long,” said Aiden.

  Adeena grumbled. “We’ve got a job – only way I could get between the two points,” she said. “No other option, or I would have taken it.”

  “Oh sister, stop being coy, tell me – what am I going to do?” ughed Aiden.

  “Tell mother?” said Adeena. “Ruin my life?”

  “And have I ever?” he said. “Did I ever even mention you to her, the st three times our paths crossed? No. That hurts, sister.”

  Adeena raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out if he was being sincere. Probably not. He really was a little shit.

  “Really? Is that surprising?” said Aiden. “One day, she’ll be dead – we won’t.”

  Adeena scratched her cheek, her mind drifting back to the Garden of Truth: her deepest fear. Whatever he was, and she was sure he had done and was doing and would in the future do a host of awful things, he and he alone would still be there with her when the stars winked out. She’d never really considered that, but it seemed he had.

  Assuming he wasn’t lying and this was all just a trap to lull her into a false sense of security, pning on capturing her when she dropped her guard to deliver to their mother.

  But if that was the case… there wasn’t actually much she could do about it right now. They were in Pandemonium, and he, unlike her, had fully embraced his heritage. He was stronger than her. A lot stronger.

  “Mission in the Feywild, working for the Dreaming against the Night,” she said eventually. “Trying to get the former to stop attacking the grimalkin.”

  “Interesting,” said Aiden. “And dangerous. You should let me come.”

  “Absolutely not!” said Xavier.

  “Oh go and chew on a bone,” said Aiden, not looking at him and leaning towards Adeena. “I won’t get in the way, and do you know a better fighter?”

  “Hopefully we won’t need to do any fighting,” said Adeena.

  “Of course, it is, after all, very usual for one to walk into the Court of Night, there on the business of the Court of Dreaming, and not get into a fight,” drawled Aiden.

  Adeena sipped her rice wine. On one hand, he might be trying to trap her, on the other, if he wanted to detain her she probably couldn’t stop him. Following her to the Court of Night could hardly be part of any pn he had…

  “You can’t be serious, Captain,” said Xavier. “He’s a maniac.”

  “He’s also an immortal killing machine,” said Adeena. “And, to be fair, he hasn’t sold me out before.”

  Also, if Aiden came with them, she could keep an eye on him – make sure he wasn’t organising to have them ambushed on the return. Assuming he hadn’t already organised an ambush…

  “He’s a demon!” said Xavier.

  “Half, and so am I,” said Adeena.

  “Yeah, but you’re not usually a sociopath,” said Xavier.

  “You can actually turn into a dog, can’t you?” said Aiden. “Do you know any tricks? Roll over boy, roll over!”

  “Alright, enough fighting,” said Adeena. “You can come little brother. Don’t make me regret it.”

  “Wonderful! See, puppy, we’re all friends here,” said Aiden, accepting the bottle of whisky gncing it over for a few moments. “Suppose it will do. If you’d let me known you were coming, sister, I’d have reserved us a table at the Nox.”

  He poured the five gsses and slid them across the table: Xavier, despite his dislike for Adeena’s brother immediately took a gulp; Cwdia sniffed it, then yowled and knocked hers over; Heidi tried very hard to look thankful while clearly being very worried; and Adeena took a deep lungfull, savouring the smell before taking a sip and letting the expensive liquor wash over her tongue. It was good, even if her brother had turned his nose up at it. Infernal Whisky was worth its weight in diamonds on Ruvera, it had been a very long time since she’d had any. Maybe her brother wasn’t so bad after all…

  Or maybe that was just what he wanted her to think. She couldn’t let her guard down.

  “So, what’s this business ‘off pne’ of mother’s?” asked Adeena taking out three cigars from her pocket, offering her brother one of them. He gleefully accepted, running it under his nose. “And is it going to be a problem for me?”

  “Some business in the Shadowmeere,” said Aiden, conjuring some hellfire to light his cigar. “No idea how long it will take. It’s possible she will be back soon. I intercepted the message about your arrival, and reassigned those involved to the pits for a few hundred cycles, but she might find out regardless. Safer if we travel on my credentials.”

  Aiden chuckled.

  “She will be furious with me when she learns you were here – will probably kill me a few times. You know how she is.”

  A.N. Supporters on my Patreon can now read four weeks ahead on all my works!

  If you like this, you might enjoy my other series, Mishka the Great and Powerful, a Doctor Who-esque, episodic space-fantasy adventure, which is avaible to read here on Scribblehub, and Lions After Slumber a Portal Fantasy/Isekai story, which is currently only up on my Patreon.