“The former,” I said.
“And do you like me more, because I gave you the choice, rather than choosing the latter myself?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“This is the first step on a journey. At the end of these journeys, I have turned men into beasts, groveling for my favor, debasing himself for my mercy. You are fortunate, in a way, because you are an admitted novice, of limited use. I will use you up for the little knowledge you have, and then I will kill you once that knowledge is exhausted.”
“I appreciate that,” I said, trying to get my thoughts together and sound confident. “I’m not a good groveler. I think I’d lose it or snap before I got that far.”
“I am very good at what I do, diabolist, for I am the embodiment of what I do. See to your companion. Be happy for the succor and choices I do give you. We begin in a matter of minutes.”
He turned his back, striding down the length of the hallway-bridge, arms at his sides. I watched as the landscape shifted on either side.
“What are we beginning?” Rose asked, her voice a hush. I watched her fold her arms tight against her body, moving restlessly.
“That’s what I was going to say. I was understating it when I was telling you this didn’t go so well. He wants me to summon something.”
“Something? A something-something?”
“Yeah.”
“You didn’t agree, did you?”
“He’s not giving us much choice.”
“Fuck,” she said. She seemed to turn the idea over in her head, eyes roving over our surroundings, then said, with a little more emphasis, “Fuck.”
“Well put,” I said.
“I don’t even know what to think,” she said. “One second I’m reading, then…”
“Then this. I know. I was here, and I’m a bit stunned.”
“I’m cold,” she said. “And hot? I’m sweating, and it’s not because I’m scared. The sweat’s making me colder.”
She was wearing a button-up blouse with a dark stone at the collarbone, and a very simple navy blue skirt that sat at the waist and ended at the knee. Her shoes were an older fashion, too hard and black, with a single strap. Grandmother’s clothes, borrowed from the mirror-verse.
But it didn’t really matter.
“It’s this place,” I said. “It’s an extension of him, not a demesne. It bends rules, to be generally uncomfortable. To conquer us physically and mentally, by steadily wearing us down.”
“No, when I said I was cold, I meant I’m cold. I haven’t felt anything except numb for… ever?”
“And you’re fragile,” I said, remembering. “We don’t know how much damage this did, pulling you here, we shouldn’t risk you taking any more damage now. I’d offer you my coat, but-”
“Please.”
“-It’ll only make you hotter.”
“I can deal with the heat. I just… I guess I want more standing between me and the rest of this world. A coat is pretty crummy armor, but I’ll take crummy armor.”
“Then you can most definitely have it,” I said.
I unfolded my coat from my arm, and I helped her put it on. She didn’t slide her arms through the sleeves, but instead clutched at the opening with her hands, wrists crossed over one another.
“Thank you,” she said.
I nodded.
“Sorry about hugging you. I only just realized.”
“It’s…” I started, I trailed off.
“What?”
“I was going to say it’s okay, but… yeah. It’s okay.”
“Been a while since I had any human contact. I just realized, and I wasn’t thinking. It’s like I- I’ve been dealing with everything and there hasn’t been much support, and, even that…”
“I get it,” I said.
I did get it. I knew what she was talking about. To be alone and cut off for so long, and then be offered a hand… it fit with my own experience. A drowning man could make a bad situation worse if he clung too hard to his rescuer. A homeless boy might have to hold himself back, if an emotional connection was offered after years of loneliness.
“The jacket does help. Thank you,” she said, again. She wasn’t meeting my eyes.
I only nodded.
She looked so small. Not that she was, but the coat enveloped her, and this landscape would have made the tallest man in the world look small.
I looked at the hallway bridge. Our only exit, and Conquest was standing at the far end of it.
I had the locket, I had the hatchet.
Hardly enough to go up against this guy.
“I don’t think we have many options,” I said.
“Call the lawyers?” Rose asked.
“Let me clarify my earlier point,” I said. “He wants to summon demons and whatever else to the world to leave whole areas devastated and suffering. Introducing him to lawyers who have bosses that want the same thing? Not a good idea.”
“We don’t have many allies.”
“We don’t have any,” I said. “Maggie’s… sort of questionable, and she’s hours away. The others people who were at this meeting aren’t on their Lord’s side, but they’re just as likely to murder us as help us. Maybe more likely.”
“It’s just us, then?” Rose asked.
“And June,” I said. “She’s… minor, but she’s still here.”
“Us and June, against an incarnation.”
“Did you… happen to be reading about incarnations?” I asked. “Given where I was?”
“I was reading up on glamours,” she said. “I’ve been getting through a book on glamour.”
“At least tell me you’ve picked up a few useful tricks?”
“Just theory, tips, ways to make it more effective. Half of which I think you were doing anyways, by blithely going with the flow.”
“Until I crashed and burned,” I said.
“I read about that too. But that doesn’t help us here,” she said. She shifted uncomfortably beneath my coat.
“You okay?”
“Hot,” she said.
“Told you,” I said. I snuck a glance at Conquest. He had his arms raised, and the snow that was pouring down around him was gray.
“Fuck,” she said. Rose turned around, taking it all in. “Fuck.”
“Don’t panic,” I said.
“You-” she started. She stopped, shaking her head a little. “You know when you’re in the dark for a while, and then you step outside into the sunlight? Or you’re enjoying the air conditioning, and you walk outside and it’s hot? It’s worse than it would normally be.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s like that, on every level. Fuck.”
“But you’re out,” I said.
“I don’t know that I am,” she said. “I’m… not there, but I’m here. The rules are different. There are spirits here.”
“His spirits. I get that it’s a bit of a shock to the system, I do, but-”
“Wait. Spirits. Give me June.”