“Stupid bitch.” A large cambion tore off Aleirica’s dress and threw her against the wall. “What did I say about trying to use your powers against your mother, huh? Do you ever fucking listen?”

  “I’m sorry daddy!” she whimpered, trying to keep her dress over her chest. “I didn’t mean to!”

  Aleion and her two other brothers were sat in chairs made from coal, laughing at her as their father beat her with her with a rock.

  “I won’t do it again!” she begged. “I’m sorry!”

  “Sorry ain’t good enough.” Her father dropped the rock on the floor and pointed to it. “Hit yourself, hard, break your own skull to show us your sorry.”

  “Please…”

  “Now, Aleirica!”

  She grabbed the rock and whacked against her head dozens of times; she didn’t have the strength to break her own bones. The other ones kept on laughing, pointing their sharp fingers. They suddenly froze, and Aleirica dried her tears, fixing her red dress and putting on a gown. She spat in her father’s face and sat on the floor with an unhappy expression.

  “Is this what it’s like in Hell?” Death, watching from the corner of the room. “Pleasant family, two other brothers, Deilon and Beion, how cute.”

  “If you’re going to explore my memories, you should try and be nice to me,” she huffed. “I still feel the pain and emotions of what I felt in the moment, I already told you I’m not trying to kill you, show me a little empathy.”

  Feel the emotions of the moment of the memory… that would explain why I felt such strange feelings during the memories of my former self.

  “You’ve been in my mind, didn’t you see I don’t feel empathy for anyone or anything?”

  “I didn’t explore that much, I did see that you were truthful about the ritual, you really did just stumble onto it.”

  “You realise I can openly explore all your memories if I wish it, I can find the answer to the ritual girl, the person who hired you to do it… all of that.”

  Her face shown terror. “However,” Death smirked. “I will be completely honest with you, Aleirica Flame, I have hated every soul I’ve encountered since I awoke… hate… dislike… all the same, I have never looked at someone and respected them. I wouldn’t say we are allies, nor would I say we are friends, but I can see that if I were to know the information you hold, someone would be a very unhappy customer and you would be hunted, possibly killed.”

  “Yes,” she said shyly. “There is a lot you don’t know, Death, and there is a lot I don’t know either.”

  Death changed the memory back to the white of the forest.

  “That’s better.” Rica took in the frosty air. “I have some terrible memories in there… thank you for not digging too deep.”

  “Aleion beats you harder than your father,” Death said. “If he weren’t your brother, he would violate you in horrible ways, why do you bring him with you?”

  “I would rather be protected by someone who hates me, rather than not be protected at all—my father does terrible things to Aleion and my brothers… if he lets me die, he will die too.”

  “I saw Aleion being punished in glimpses, your memories have given me his weakness—his horns are sensitive… they keep you alive because of this gift?”

  “They treat me like an object,” she explained. “That my only real value is this thing I have… they’re trying to find a way to give it to someone else so they can discard me.”

  “I would do the same thing if the one gifted with it was as weak as you are,” Death said bluntly. His words stung her, and he could tell she was on the verge of tears. He purposefully waited until the last dry moment. “That’s why I like you, Rica, you know you’re not strong, you know your weaknesses, and you know this is your only strength. I will have to kill your brother, that is not something we can negotiation, be thankful you have two others. I can promise you that if you let me out of here right now, I will not harm you, and you may even stay with me and my two other idiots.”

  “That sounds nice,” she admitted. “But I have duties, Death, I want the cambions to be able to roam free, not judged for the crimes they didn’t commit. Even if you wished to help me, to be seen with a cambion girl like me would be a death sentence for you in any nation you step foot in. Maybe fate will bring us together another day, when I can be seen with you.”

  “Until that day, then.” Death offered a hand. “So, a deal?”

  “It’s not as simple as that, one of us has to utterly lose, it is not something where one can surrender.”

  He sighed. “Do you ever worry that all your life you’ve been stuck in your own gift?”

  Rica giggled. “Trying to mindfuck me into winning? Won’t work, sadly, are you not worried the man you are hunting from your memory has done the same to you, that you are endlessly stuck in fakeness.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  The thought did pass me… what a strangely effective tactic, if I had a weak mind that paradox would spiral me into madness.

  “You were quite the frightening man when I was in your head,” she continued.

  “Impolite not to knock.”

  “There was no time to knock,” she giggled. “I knew that my gift could be used against me, it’s strange to not be in control.”

  “You were never in control,” Death said. “Oh, you don’t know what your gift is, how ironic.”

  “Well… I know it’s more than memories.”

  “It’s a battleground,” Death said. “This place is neither my mind nor yours, took me a while to figure it out… this place is a ground for creation. We can both create things, clash our memories into one, your gift is a mental war.”

  “How’d you figure that out?”

  “The white void,” he explained. “It is the foundation of worlds, something I never discovered how to harness, but sometimes I was able to visit.”

  “Who are you, Death? Why do you know so much about it when I don’t know a thing?”

  “You know that I don’t know who I am, you saw it.”

  “I could help you unlock those memories… this place is peculiar for other reasons, Death, you are right that this is more than a place of memories… I see visions of other worlds, one with powers that make ours look so tiny. They bleed into ours, maybe we could bleed into theirs and ask for help, they could be the source of our gifts.”

  “If it were possible, I know I would’ve done it long ago. Why should I care about help or sources?”

  “Does the origin of power not excite you?”

  “I suppose.”

  “What about the beauty of life, from the giants to the rabbits, do you not feel life is sacred and wonderful?”

  “This conversation feels pointless,” Death sighed, sitting in the snow. “Our views on this matter differ, I do not find value in life.”

  Aleirica sat with him and came up with an idea. “Even though I hate my brothers, I can’t just let you kill him,” she said. “But I know that he will not calm from my words… how about we settle this over a different battlefield?” She conjured up a crate, and on top of it a checkered board with carved marble pieces each side. “This is a war field confided to a game,” she explained. “It was common thousands of years ago to—”

  “I know of the history,” he interrupted. “In the event of equals, a battle with no victory, they could offer to engage in the battle of calm rather than fury.” He picked up one of the pieces and put it in his palm. “I have been offered to play it many times, each refused, the game plays out in under a second, a magic spell cast to both that play to ensure they follow the demands of the victor. It cannot be cheated, there is no luck, your brain decides for you, the moves will always be the same.”

  “You know of the game Decision, hm? That is odd, ‘tis not a method that most books keep known.”

  “You know it.”

  “My father taught me the game to strengthen my mind, said it was the only thing I was good for.”

  “You think the strength of our minds equal?”

  “In here, yes,” she smirked. “You were able to discover parts of my own gift that were only theoretical until now… I have done this too many times to let my memories break me. This is the way.”

  Death walked to the other side of the board and conjured a chair from his memory, sitting and putting the piece back. “Your pieces look strange.”

  “Nuh uh, witches, wizards, princesses, princes, the devil and the angel, exactly how the pieces are.”

  “I was taught, orcs, ogres, demons, angels, a god and a frog.”

  “A frog?” she laughed. “That is an interesting one.”

  “Your terms, then?”

  Her eyes twitched. “I want our unstruck bargain to be struck for real this time; I want us to remain acquaintances, the next time we meet we make a mutual promise to talk, not fight; I want you to give me one chance to get close to Aleion, to pacify him… and if I can’t do it, my request is that you kill him as painless as you can.”

  Those terms are… just. “I cannot believe these words come from my own mouth, especially in the favour of a cambion, this battle has been pleasurable—my terms are the exact same.”

  “Then let us see who has the stronger mind.”

  “What a spoiling of fun.” Death shook his head. “The strength our brains determined under a second. No, we shall shake hands and close our eyes.”

  She closed her eyes and stuck her hand over the board. Death did the same, the whipping whistles of the pieces moving happened as their hands connected, hundreds of moves turned to thousands, then tens of thousands, millions of moves.

  This can only mean our minds are so closely matched, I have heard of these games settled in under ten moves, but each game must reach a natural conclusion.

  When the pieces stopped, they lowered their hands together and wiped the board off the crate, destroying any evidence of who had won. They opened their eyes and saw a white orb floating over the crate. “We have to touch it together,” Rica reminded. “To keep the victor a secret, we must claim it with are hands as one.”

  Death stood and waited for her. When she got close, she got on her tiptoes in a moment of bravery and give him a long kiss on the lips. He didn’t kiss her back, but he never pushed her away.

  “Is that all this world truly is, kissing and lust?” Death said with a sigh. “Every soul I’ve met has filthy desires.”

  She cocked her head and narrowed her eyes. “And you have none at all… I always thought that was just the way all lives were designed, now I am not so sure.”

  “Is this a riddle of some kind?”

  “I don’t know. I have kept myself innocent even with constant urges and a fantasy so naughty I have to keep it locked. After seeing how you are so resistant, I’m not sure if—if—I can’t say it.”

  “You think the arousal of this world maybe be influenced?”

  It could be the succubus, the correlation is too coincidental for it not to be

  “I… my mouth, my thoughts, they won’t allow me to think that, how are you able to say it so freely?”

  “I don’t have that answer for you,” Death said.

  “You know, they say fate is a lady, perhaps you are dancing with her, protected by her.”

  “I do not believe in fate.”

  “I’ve been in your mind, I know you believe in your heart.” She took Death’s hand. “Now let us be free.”