Silas, a man who treated conversation like a tax audit and specialized in killing problems, had suddenly acquired a sidekick. A human one. A weirdly bubbly one. It felt less like being nosey about a new co-worker and more like finding out what the company had planned. She wasn’t in the room when this was cooked up.
Not that fixers all worked independently. It was just peculiar timing with everything the company had juggling. Too many balls in the air this time of year, new management fighting to get to the top whilst trying to keep things hidden. Something was going to land hard and make someone scream. She wanted to make sure it wasn’t her.
“August,” Solenne whispered, her voice sounding closer to ground glass, “Let’s see what makes you tick.”
To her luck, there was a happy sunshine August wandering freely within the floor he was assigned to. She followed a couple steps behind him, poorly tracking this man who seemed to want answers but was really shit at asking the right ones or the right person.
He was nervous about whether Silas could acquire a sidekick. She could borrow the sidekick for a little, right?
She slipped the information to her bosses, and it was a matter of minutes before he was called to an office and summoned to a location. It had to look like a mission, not an information quest. He had already gotten his feet wet with a few near-death situations from the reports I’ve read through the last couple of weeks. He’d be fine.
[Name: August Bloom
Primary Class: Witch (level 22)
Sub-class: [finder of lost things & found potential]
Unique trait: [Object empathy]—items in August’s possession gain +15% boost to
‘usefulness’ regardless of what their original intent.
[Bubbly Persistence]: August is immune to [Gloom] and [Existential Dread] debuffs.
The 45-hour timer floating in her peripheral vision was pulsing, taunting gold.
She found him standing outside the condemned cathedral. He did not match the background. This setting wasn’t where he belonged. He belonged in a children’s show. He was standing there simply looking more like he was waiting on brunch reservations than a black-market arms deal.
Her three eyes tracked pedestrians as she approached him. Beside her, August was humming some pop tune, his fingers idly tracing patterns on his messenger bag that left trails of glittery mana. He didn’t notice her or what he was doing.
“You’re Silas's sidekick,” Solenne said, stepping out of the shadow. Well, it may as well have been the way he jumped. Her form was of a silhouette of the midnight sky, stars swirling lazily through her visible shape.
“Oh, you’re Solenne!” August beamed, reaching a hand to her. She didn’t incline to his offer, and he quickly put it down. “The manager said you were taking me on a field trip. How cool.”
He didn’t give away information, as bubbly as he seemed. Solenne wrongly assumed he would just start spilling his guts—figuratively, not literally here—and this would be easy. Maybe she just needed to…befriend him.
“You’re—you're aware you’re doing that, right?” Solenne pointed toward rats a few steps away.
“Doing what?” August asked. He really didn’t know.
“Leaking…” Solenne broke off, waving her hands at the rats nearby. “Your passive aura is so saturated with 'optimism' that it’s buffing the nearby rodents. It just leveled up to [Level 4: Radiant Rodent].”
August giggled, and the sound sent a literal stat-boost ripple through the tether.
[Notification: Passive Skill 'Bubbly Disposition' has granted Solenne +5 to Magic Resistance for 10 minutes.]
She had never seen a human adult giggle before and wondered if this is why he was hired by the company. It would be off-putting to be in a situation where a human woman giggled, and now here she was with a giggling human man. It was as grating as what many of her human coworkers felt of her voice.
“I can’t help it,” August said. It was the most serious he sounded. “I didn’t realize I did that. I don’t feel like I have that as a problem anywhere else.”
“Or, you have some really tough-as-shit roaches.” She responded. He giggled and then stopped the giggling after realizing what she said. Momentarily forgot how hated roaches are hated by humans.
“I deal with ghost tech. We harvest lingering resentment, feeding it into high-yield weaponry. I thought it would be a good way to introduce a newbie to the department. It’s never too late to change departments.” She teased.
August gave her a funny look, not the cheery way he was a moment ago.
“Are you trying to recruit me for your department?” He asked. He playfully narrowed his eyes at her, and she did the same. He broke eye contact and started laughing.
"I have no idea what the fuck just happened," she thought to herself as he started getting closer to her.
“I find I am useful in my current job posting.” He answered, “I don’t know how useful I would be with ghost guns.”
She ignored that and waved him to follow. The task was simple: they would work on calibrating her current weapon, SinderMersi. A flamethrower device that, when used, sets the victim on fire, causing pain without death. A continuous cycle until release.
SinderMersi—Demon-Forged Ghostflame Device
Item Type: Ranged Weapon—Continuous Fire Projector
Rarity: Legendary (Black-Market / Demon-Crafted)
Required Level: 15
Class Restriction: All combat-capable class
“Hold this.” She told August, handing him the device, “When it turns a deep purple, it means the soul is truly suffering. That’s when the energy is most potent. We will be using this basement walkway to calibrate this.”
She had a victimless victim to use this on, and she needed someone there to hold it while she questioned them.
“Seems a bit much, doesn’t it?” August asked, though he followed her deeper into the dark.
“It’s business, August.” Solenne stated, “I would think working with Silas you’d understand that by now.”
"... we just seem to be taking out pests and finding sacred or high-valued things.” August paused. “I haven’t had this type of experience yet."
“Maybe he thinks you’re too weak for it.” Solenne replied harshly without thinking much on it. She expected him to disagree with her as they walked, but nothing happened. She wondered if he could see—she forgot to ask.
After a long stint of silence, she finally decided to break it again.
“How did you end up in this line of work? You’re a cupcake working with…well…Silas. Why is he even keeping you around?”
She heard his shuffling feet slowing down until a complete stop. She could see his thoughtful face when she turned to check on him. He hadn’t tripped up by anything physical but by her words.
“He just seems more lonely than anything.” August said quietly. It was spoken like he just realized this, too.
Suddenly, the air stopped and then started vacuuming like it was trying to pull them into something. A wailing shadow lunged from the rafts, a Mourner.
[SYSTEM LOG UPDATED]
Hostile Entity Registered
Designation: Mourner Ghost
Variant Flag: Unprovoked Manifestation
“This is your turn,” Solenne motioned to August, “Calibrate.”
As the ghost slammed into them, Solenne shifted to shove it as much as she was able to. To her surprise as she had reached August, an unexpected link occurred between them. A volt of the violet lightning arced between Solenne’s and August’s. The gun wasn’t just taking the ghost it was acting like a bridge.
She gasped as much as her vocal abilities allowed her to. For a split second, she didn’t feel the cold calculations of her life. She felt warmth, felt comfort on a rainy day curled up with tea and reading a book, and felt an inexplicable urge to bake lemon tarts. Whatever those were. She felt August’s genuine, terrifyingly pure curiosity about it. A bizarre platonic love and protectiveness he felt even after just meeting her. Even though what she was and possibly does. It was felt and...
The ghost burned, and the screaming distracted her from the feelings of the human. In agony, but the energy was bouncing almost carelessly as it did its job. She waited until she could see it moving closer to the correct path before turning it off.
August blinked. He stood there trying to process what he was feeling and seeing before he spoke.
“Whoa, is that supposed to happen?”
"No," Solenne rasped, her stars across her face flickering wildly. “That was a soul-tether. You’re a witch; your magic must have reacted to the machine. I’ve never had that happen before.”
[SYSTEM LINK DETECTED]
Soul Tether—Initial Formation
Primary Anchor: Intelligence Officer
Secondary Anchor: Solenne
Tertiary Anchor: August
Solenne had never experienced this before; she was certain due to the people she worked with. There were not many here who could naturally form a bond with other people. Certain personalities worked the best at this company. Once again, reinforcing her notion that August was not supposed to be working here and something or someone needed him here for .. something. She was disappointed that the tethering didn’t give her more information from him.
“I felt…” August started. He tried to pull away from her, not out of disgust, as she assumed. She knew he felt her intentions, what she'd done, and probably what her real job position was at this place. “You knew Faye Addison. There is something close to intimacy felt in this link about her.”
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
[SEALED BOND MONITOR—ACTIVE]
Bond Classification: Emotional / Persistent
Registered Counterpart: Faye Addison
Visibility Layer: Concealed
“What do you know of Faye?” Solenne thought she paid enough money for those emotions to be blocked out and sealed. She should have forked over the money to burn the memories from her mind. But she didn’t want those memories gone from her soul, mind, and body. Even if she couldn’t fully feel those things anymore.
[ERROR]
Detection occurred despite concealment.
Solenne debated killing him here. She had no reason not to but…
“Her parents paid me to investigate her going missing.” August said. So much for concealing his intentions. She couldn’t read his intentions, but here he was openly giving her the information after all. The link really messed with him.
“Don’t. Don’t investigate Faye.” She said, staring hard at him.
“I was paid an awful amount of money to find her.” He said. There was sincerity and a strong sense of wanting to do this due to the amount of money.
“You can return it and make that in no time at this company.” Solenne argued. “If you open a missing persons on her, you won’t just be asking questions.”
“But it’s my job.” he countered. To him it was his job, working at this company was just a means to an end for him. But isn’t that all of us here? We all have a reason to be here and it isn’t just the biweekly pay.
“It will be just an emergency flare. I had those memories and emotions removed for a reason," Solenne answered. “I may not remember why I did it. But I know I did it for Faye. Whether it was because she commanded it or because it was safer. Whatever you’re doing will drag it back up and endanger everyone. Even her parents. Send the money back to them.”
“I already spent a good chunk on it for work clothes...and a car.” He started with a regrettable expression. “I needed to look the corporate life, and based on what her parents said... I couldn’t just roll in my usual workwear.”
“Then, you better not touch the rest and save like hell," Solenne responded. She looked around. She intended to complete this with a little torture of someone in the basement, but now that she was attached to August. There was a very human emotion of regret heavily layering itself into her stomach. It was rock hard and getting remorsefully heavier the longer they stayed. She needed to untether them in a way that the office wouldn’t notice this fuck up.
“We are going to untether." Solenne felt an anxious thumping where a human heart would be. “We are going to figure out a way to cut this before Silas finds out I somehow bonded with his human.”
“You keep just calling me a human but not him. Is he not human?” he asked.
“He is. But just like most humans who work here they’re missing the puzzle pieces that make them human.”
“Even Faye?” August asked. Her stomach dropped.
“I don’t remember anything, August. But if she worked here, yes. Whatever her parents saw wasn’t who she was here," Solenne answered. It was partly why she would have grown close to another human to begin with.
“So,” August went to ask another question. But she could feel that the question had nothing to do with Faye but of Silas. She could feel him start shifting the emotions, trying to hide something from her. He didn’t understand that she didn’t understand most of the emotions humans had. But if she had to try to compare it... it was close enough to the reason she tore herself from Faye.
Faye.
They took an alternate route back to the company. The sun had already started to set. It wasn’t ever a bizarre thing to see her up here at this time. So, if she were caught, she wouldn’t get the third degree. But with August, there may be questions.
Solenne’s office was a masterpiece of corporate minimalism. Obsidian glass, floating holographic displays, and a gorgeous view of the Abyss that would make a lesser demon weep. It was the place to test weaponry and torture, and a perfect way to disappear people, as it removed their continuity.
[CLASSIFIED FACILITY REGISTERED]
Designation: The Abyss
Operational Status: Active
Oversight Flag: Solenne—Monitoring Authority
Her office now was the host to a very intimate, almost cozy problem. The coziness was streaming from August’s emotional state. He was not showing signs—physically, emotionally, or spiritually—of being connected to a demon. Not in the way that she was feeling with this tethering. She would need to ask him more about that as well once he was disconnected from her.
“Can you hold still?” She asked. He nodded. He stopped his leg from bouncing while he was waiting for this event to end. She pressed two fingers against his forehead, her eyes closed as she looked for the tether. She could feel August flinching, the pain coursing through her as she moved through him.
There was a low pressure behind August’s eyes. A slow shared ache that was pulsing through her as she continued with her work.
You’ve been tortured. For days. Years. You can handle this. She told herself.
[TETHER INTERFACE ACCESSED]
External Operator Detected—Solenne
[SEVERANCE REQUEST SUBMITTED]
It would take a few moments for the request to be acknowledged and served.
[AUTHORIZATION CHECK—FAILED]
…well, motherfucker. She huffed loudly, pulling herself aggressively away from August. The pressure of the attachment didn’t allow her to move further from him. Maybe I need to be further from him, away from all the emotional shit he was emitting.
[FORCED DISCONNECT ATTEMPT]
Instead, they both experienced a pressure spike. August gasped like the air had been ripped straight out of his lungs.
Oops.
[SOUL CHANNEL DESTABILIZED]
Solenne hissed under her breath and pivoted, switching patterns but not stopping. Her fingers snapped into a new sequence, faster, sharper, and painful.
Not cutting.
There was an attempt to rewrite it.
That was when the door to her office slammed open. Silas stepped through the threshold. His presence was not needed in this situation. She reached her hand to shove him back out of the office so she could fix this. He would be pissed, but he wouldn’t be…here. She had seniority, but she didn’t want to lose him as …
[SPELL CAST INITIALIZED]
Vector Type: Kinetic Push
Force Class: Localized Repulsion
Range: Close
These aren’t even all your emotions you’re channeling. Stop and kick his ass out of the office. I flicked hard, but with the imbalance of August being here, he barely passed the door.
[ERROR]
Projected outcome does not match reality.
“Solenne,” Silas growled, “I wasn’t even—"
“Silas!” August interrupted. From what Solenne could feel, he was trying to calm the situation. "Solenne took me on a field trip! We did demon science! Then the demon science did us back!”
Stars swirled in an agitated spiral across her face.
“It was a controlled experiment in Ghost Tech synergy, Silas. A minor calibration error occurred due to your assistant’s… unorthodox magic."
Silas walked over in his heavy boots, silent on the tiled floor. He must have gone on a usual fixer mission, getting rid of the company’s competition. It involved easy-to-clean workwear. He didn’t acknowledge either of them as he went straight to the tether. It was soft pastel colors, gently sparking with the power between them. It was built as something that should fade into the background of the two stuck together.
I could use him to bond two or more people I’m questioning. Let them feel the emotions, the regret, the betrayals that would happen…. This could be beneficial. August shot her a look, and seconds later, his emotions channeled through her, reading the sadness of using this against people.
“You were digging,” Silas stated. “You wanted to see if he was a liability that you could exploit.”
“I am an intelligence specialist. It is what we do. It is my job to understand the variables. You are a variable.” She jutted her thumb at August. “He is an anomaly.”
“He’s a witch,” Silas corrected, "and, right now, he’s my witch. That you are now connected to. You’re not the liability, Solenne. Part of our department's payroll. Jeb isn’t going to like this.”
“Fuck Jeb," Solenne huffed. If she could eat him without getting caught, she would. August narrowed his eyes at her with those thoughts. A moment later, she realized she was fairly certain she did eat Jeb.
Someone else took his job, and she didn’t bother getting names due to the low scale of usefulness it’d be to her. August's emotional state slightly altered, and he mouthed “What the actual fuck” to her before shifting to change the topics he was feeling.
“Actually,” August piped up, “I think I’m part of her payroll now. I can feel her thinking about quarterly projections. These aren't even the surface-level thoughts I’m feeling. It’s all very stressful in her emotional state and her mind. Solenne, you really need a hobby.”
“I have hobbies,” Solenne hissed, but she did not elaborate further. August didn’t like the emotions that sentence brought him. She smiled in a way a demon like her did.
Silas reached out his hands, hovering near the tether. He could cut most things, but he hesitated with this.
“If I sever this now, the snapback will fry August’s nervous system. It would also dismantle part of your existence, Solenne. Jeb would be the least of our worries.”
Solenne went still. The ‘both sides’ player that she was already calculating. If she stayed bonded, she had a direct line to Sila’s operations. She could see what the fixer was really up to. She also had to endure August’s inability to be anything but sunshine and an ungodly amount of gumption.
"Wait," she said, taking a moment to look around. “I think I know a solution to this problem. I didn’t think about it earlier because I was flooded with human worries…”
Which was partly true, but in the moment she really wanted to not be attached to this human. But now that she had this… she could use it. And hoped she was doing better at blocking August from reading too heavily into her intentions. The longer they were attached, the more quickly she was adjusting to make sure he didn’t feel everything like he was making her feel.
[LINK SIGNATURE—HIDDEN]
Detection Permissions: Revoked
External Monitoring: Blocked
August jumped up in an exuberant cheer as the tether was no longer visible. He tried to step away.
“Wait.” He whispered. There was a smidgen of disappointment. An emotion that she didn’t think he was able to feel.
“Hold on," Solenne answered. She shifted with the tug of his movement.
[ANCHOR CONSTRAINTS—LIFTED]
Movement Lock: Removed
Proximity Enforcement: Disabled
Solenne exhaled slowly, like she had been holding her breath the entire time. Which was possible.
“I didn’t cut the tether.” She answered the two men before they could ask.
“But…?”
She looked at me. Something dark flickered through her eyes as she went to speak.
“It’s invisible, and we’re no longer stuck together. We can move freely.”
The tether still hummed.
Still watched.
Still listened.
But now it did not interfere that much with their daily life. She did not have to worry about interacting with his personal life...and the same for him. But based on his reaction to things, he would probably find it interesting and a new adventure to explore. She didn’t want a man who was looking into information about Faye near her, considering all the work she put in to forget everything.
Based on the things she could feel from him, she doubted he wasn’t going to stop looking. He was too optimistic that he was going to be able to do it and not harm Solenne. Fat chance.
“Great!” August beamed, standing. “Do we have a working cafeteria here? I am never in the building long enough to explore everything. And I am starving.”
Silas looked at Solenne, and for the first time in a century, the demon saw pity for her. For the situation that she was now connected with
“I will show you to the little cafe next door. It’s open just because we’re here at all times of the day.” Solenne answered August, “But I’m going home afterwards. The place doesn’t contain... what I eat. I would have to go to Brim’s if I wanted something... of my liking.”
August went to ask,
[PASSIVE SKILL GAIN—CALCULATING]
Skill: Mind Own Business (Passive)
Effect: Reduced Aggro Detection
Bonus: +12% Emotional Inconspicuity
Cooldown: N/A
Stacking: Continuous
but she felt he decided he'd rather sleep that night than know the answer.
[LEVEL-UP SEQUENCE—ACTIVATED]
Previous Level: 14
New Level: 15