Aemric hadn’t really grasped how much bringing Xolith to his hotel room would affect. For one, demon or not, she was indeed a beautiful woman, and he steadily internalized that fact once they were alone. She was also high-maintenance, though that wasn’t particularly her fault. Doorknobs were unknown to her, as were hotels, televisions, light switches, faucets, soap - despite her elegant appearance, she actually had a terrible stink to her - and normal food.

  Aemric was pretty hungry after getting totally focused in his work all day, and resolved to stay up a little longer to eat; Xolith was hungry too, of course. The hotel didn’t have a stove, of course, but they had a fridge and that was enough for sandwich materials.

  “Well, here you go.” Aemric offered the first sandwich to her.

  Xolith took it, and struggled to hold it properly. Aemric hadn’t really counted on this. Still, she made do, and her real concern was the sandwich itself. “I… don’t recognize anything in this.”

  “It’s… oh. I wasn’t thinking about that. Do you even have wheat, or lettuce, or, hell, pork?”

  “I’ve never heard of pork, but lettuce is… very rare. I saw it in a book of alchemy once.”

  Aemric blinked. What kind of potion did one make with lettuce? It didn’t even occur to him to ask why the demons would know of lettuce, either. “Do you know if you can eat it?”

  “No… Most demons are very hardy, though. We can eat almost anything.”

  Aemric nodded, and thought for a second before making up his mind. There was a solution.

  Getting to watch Xolith eat the sandwich twice was actually fun after getting past the possibility that she might choke and die. After a few careful test bites, she proceeded to tear into the thing like a wild animal, and Aemric already knew she at least didn’t have any reaction to it in the next hour or so. That might not be enough, he knew, but if she couldn’t eat… well, the rest of the plan was screwed, then.

  The succubus realized she was being watched only after she finished swallowing the last scrap of bread. “It was delicious. Thank you, master.”

  “Oh… yeah. It’s um, poor-people food around here, to be honest. Don’t sweat it.”

  “It was still delicious.” She clearly wouldn’t say no to stealing her master’s sandwich too. “What are… porks?”

  “Pork is pig meat. A pig’s a fat animal about yay big that we pretty much just use to turn trash into food.”

  “I imagine even their villages must be impressive, with all the rest I’ve seen.”

  Aemric was stunned by the concept of a pig village, and then stunned again by the implications of what she just said. “Um… You said village, right? Like, a place where a small number of people live?”

  “...Yes?

  “Do you mean like, people, people? Like, talking people?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do demons eat each other?”

  “Yes. Is that… not what happens here?”

  “No. No, definitely not. No cannibalism. Anything that talks, we don’t eat it. In fact, I don’t think there’s anything more taboo in our entire society. Pigs don’t talk, they’re barely intelligent, so we don’t feel too bad about eating them, usually.”

  “Oh.” All the excitement of getting to eat such a pleasant meal steadily turned into discomfort; it was probably at the worried expression he probably had on his face.

  Aemric felt bad for causing that. It was probably a good thing to clarify before there was a more dangerous incident, at least. “I’m not gonna hold it against you, just, you know. Just uh, don’t go eating anyone.”

  “Understood, master.”

  Aemric then promptly recovered, and had no issue eating most of his own sandwich regardless of the talk of cannibalism and the intensely foul-smelling demon in front of him. Still, he offered an extra slice to her when his own appetite dwindled towards the end. It hadn’t been an issue when they were outside, but it had become very clear once they’d gotten into Kendric’s car.

  Her master proceeded to ask, since he was starting to choke, “Is bathing a regular thing over there?”

  “Yes, it was even mandatory in my previous lord’s estate.”

  “Can I, uh, ask you to go take a bath, then? It’s just, you know, in the same bathroom as before.” After getting to the room he’d thought to ask whether she’d properly washed up after the train station, and promptly had to walk her through basic bathroom hygiene. “There’s the tub, and… actually, hold that thought. Let me walk you through it before you try and get in there.”

  “What do you mean, sand?”

  “A- a sand bath?”

  “I’ve never heard of that.”

  “Surely you don’t mean this is going to be… all water?”

  “Is water poisonous to you or something?” He knew it wasn’t, of course.

  “No! It’s just… is it not expensive?”

  “It’s cheaper than the sandwich. Basically free.” Aemric then realized where the miscommunication was probably coming from. “All the water over there probably evaporated, huh?”

  “Aside from underground...”

  “Well… okay. Now, don’t just run it all the time, right, it’s not free, but we use pretty much all the water we want over here and it’s not a problem. There’s tons of the stuff, it falls from the sky. So…” He turned one of the faucet handles, and the bathtub slowly started to fill.

  Xolith watched the water flow in amazement. She couldn’t really express what this meant to her on the spot, and stayed silent.

  “Once it’s as full as you want, you can shut it off, get in, and scrub yourself down. Just keep going until you feel clean and you stop shedding dirt or anything else, it’s no big deal. Once you get out… well… I don’t really have any spare clothes for you, I guess, but you can use the bathrobe there.” It was a plain one provided by the hotel, but technically clean and big enough for her. Aemric’s own clothes wouldn’t fit; he was shorter, and lacked the necessary proportions. Hopefully Xolith’s… weird collection of straps that approximated a dress would survive a machine-washing in the future, but they could worry about that once they had an alternative that certainly would. Tomorrow was definitely going to be about getting her clothes, and the night was going to be helping Tiria with another demon that was going to wander into this world.

  Aemric sighed. He was tired, it was way after midnight by now. Oh well. He pointed out the soap and shampoo – his, the hotel was way too stingy to provide any for free – and trusted Xolith not to drown herself.

  He was barely awake when Xolith stepped out of the bathroom, and didn’t notice when she left the bath full of water and went to sleep on the floor. Her previous clothing was just one long strip of fabric that she left in a pile next to herself.

  Waking up to that sight was decidedly lewd. The bathrobe was big enough for an average-size person like her, sure, but with Xolith curled up on the carpet that fabric didn’t stay where it ought to. She was effectively jet-lagged, too, and was still out despite the noise of Aemric having his own shower and breakfast. Now, there was just a milky-white-skinned woman lying on the floor only half-covered by the bathrobe.

  He hadn’t thought to leave her the bed – would’ve been polite – but why hadn’t she at least settled in on the couch? It probably wasn’t small enough to sleep on properly, but it had cushions. There was at least one spare pillow, too. Then again, the short carpet might’ve already seemed like luxury to her.

  Aemric took a sip of soda and wondered what she’d gotten up to while he was passed out on the bed; everything seemed untouched. He appreciated that there didn’t seem to be any evidence of an attempt on his life, as while he’d thrown a lot of carefully-worded orders her way, there was always a possibility that he’d missed something. A lot of those orders also included forcing her to warn him of her intentions, so the fact he hadn’t been woken up by that was also a good sign.

  Then, he decided not to keep staring, and put a spare sheet over her; it was probably the normal thing to do. Helped keep him from getting too distracted while he went apartment-hunting again, too. He finally found a good (relatively cheap) spot near his preferred (very empty) park, so all that really remained was going over, making sure it matched up with the pictures, and then sealing the deal. The hotel room was paid for for one more day already, so he figured he’d only go check it out today if everything else allowed.

  Aemric ran a hand through his faintly-wet hair. He had a lot of work to do, and didn’t feel good about taking a break on any of it. Even taking care of his own basic requirements in looking for a place to stay somehow made him feel guilty, knowing he could otherwise finally get the ball rolling on his plans for Sal Tudi. Maybe refusing to go back home was a mistake; as much as he wanted to keep his parents and little sister out of it, the whole world was at stake.

  He shook himself from those worries for a moment when he heard Xolith waking up with a yawn. The succubus sat up, noticed the sheet, then noticed how messy her robe was as a result, as planned. She put herself back together and somehow managed to get her hair perfect and lightly-styled just with her fingers.

  Aemric only looked out of the corner of his eye; he only turned and greeted her when she stood up. “Good morning.”

  “Good morning, master. Thank you for the bedding.”

  The trend had gone on long enough. “Don’t worry about it. You don’t need to call me master, either. It’s… uh, a little overkill. Plus, it draws attention.”

  “As you wish.”

  “Also, you could’ve stolen the couch if you wanted to.”

  “I wasn’t sure if I was allowed.”

  Aemric sighed; he didn’t know what she would do if she did whatever she pleased anyway, after the cannibalism talk. “You can act more like my equal, I guess, none of this master-servant stuff. I’m not trying to commandeer your whole life, here, just… well, saving the world’s important enough to not just let you go. What I do, you can do.”

  Xolith’s expression didn’t seem as pleased as he’d hoped. She stood there, thinking, for a while, then said, “I understand.”

  Aemric doubted those words. Well, as long as she didn’t actively cause trouble, they could work on it over time. “So… we’re gonna have to go out and get you some things today, clothes and stuff. We’ll set out whenever you’re ready; eat, drink, whatever you like, and we’ll go.”

  The succubus nodded, and only then started to move on her own.

  It didn’t take her long; Xolith hesitantly took one bagel from the fridge and ate it plain, went to the bathroom, and came out wearing her wrap-dress-thing. She, too, could smell it now that she was clean, and apologized again.

  Then, they were out on the street, and walked a ways to the nearest mall. Aemric was now starting to want his own car, and commented on it.

  “I could gate us closer to the destination.” Xolith offered.

  “Try not to bring those kinds of things up out here.” Aemric calmly reminded her; he spoke a little quietly as people passed by them on the street. “Most people over here don’t have magic at all. Most magicians can’t teleport, either.”

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

  “I see.”

  “I guess that would’ve been more normal where you came from?”

  “No. Using a gate is tiring and slightly disorienting, a danger when a fight could occur at any time. Only so many can learn to… teleport, and so being kidnapped would have been the natural course if anyone saw me appear at the other side.”

  “Oh.”

  “It happened a few times.”

  “It did? Are you, uh, all right?”

  “I’m fine. I just changed one lord for another, much the same as I now serve you. It’s… mostly annoying, for me.”

  “Thanks for the show of loyalty.” Aemric joked, though he didn’t really expect her to be loyal anyway. Only a moment later did he remember that she’d probably take it seriously.

  “Sorry, mas-… That’s just how it was.”

  “Was there anyone you wanted to stick with before?”

  “Maybe. My first lord was even-handed, he realized I had talent and picked me up off the street as a child to be tutored by another weaver. He was murdered by another noble after a while, before I was fully grown.”

  “Sheesh… Sorry. What about your parents?”

  “They sold me to him for water.”

  “Oh.”

  Xolith shrugged. “I think I was better off that way. I’m still envious of you, though.”

  “Envy me all you like. I think I’ll forgive my folks for a few things after hearing about that.”

  The mall was, naturally, practically enough luxury to kill Xolith on the spot. She just couldn’t wrap her head around the sheer level of production of modern day on a world that was far more than habitable. Even the store’s music was impressive; she briefly looked for a live orchestra playing godawful pop songs. She also struggled to balance Aemric’s insistence that he was a relatively poor individual with how he didn’t stress about paying for several entirely new outfits for her.

  Aemric, meanwhile, found himself somewhere between pleased that the succubus didn’t fret over her clothing much and disappointed that she lacked all usable fashion sense. Her chosen ‘style’ was just a plain grey shirt and brown cargo pants, but if prodded to pick something she really preferred regardless of cost, she wound up in a leotard with stockings because, apparently, it was easier to move in.

  He kind of felt like she was taunting him, but he also knew that wasn’t the case. He even checked.

  There was a brief moment in his mind of considering just stuffing her in the same kinds of outlandish clothes as she’d already turned up in, but those were more expensive and, indeed, drew attention.

  Regardless, Xolith walked out of the store with multiple plain shirts and pants, plus, at Aemric’s insistence, a vest and a jacket to wear over those, just for a faint bit of spice. Some normal boots replaced her hide sandals, especially crucial once it was revealed the hide in question was made from a ‘caco,’ a strange flying creature which would classify as very sapient indeed. Then again, all her clothes were made from people. It was a little distressing.

  There were also some other articles for ‘special purposes.’

  With half of this in the bag he carried, Aemric finally got out of there and breathed easy. It was done, and now he had a short break before tackling the next problem.

  “Sorry, but I have to ask… uh, feminine products?”

  Xolith cocked her head.

  Aemric already felt like he could hear nails on chalkboard. He couldn’t even pull up a page on his phone and let her figure it out; she still couldn’t read. Apparently, that took a bit more time, even though her absurd cheats kept her from actually needing to put in effort for it.

  He promptly gave up. However she already took care of it was probably fine for a while longer, right? Right? She was used to that.

  Next was food; grocery shopping. Future Shadow Emperor of the Carpangan Chain or not, Aemric wasn’t in a spot to be able to spend much on prepared food. Kendric’s suggestion looked more appetizing by the moment. After a brief trip back to the hotel to put the new clothes in the wash, they were at the local grocery store for some typical fare.

  Xolith was, once again, baffled at what she saw, but was already low on reserves of ‘surprise’ for the day. She followed Aemric through the store with a periodic response of ‘oh, of course that’s how it is here’ to whatever absurd discovery she encountered.

  Heading back and eating lunch followed shortly after. Talking and eating in the privacy of the hotel room was appreciable after being outside for so long.

  “Where does your money come from?” Xolith finally asked a question that had been bothering her.

  “My folks gave most of it to me.” Aemric was putting the room’s kettle to use making ramen this time. Easy, cheap, tasty.

  “Why?”

  He only briefly thought of that as a silly question. “Well… here, there’s a responsibility to one’s family. Parents are required to take care of their children, and children usually give money back to their parents when they get older. More than that, though, I guess… well, they just love me.”

  “That seems… too easy.”

  “It’s an easier world. I’m not going to try and say it isn’t.” He was already a lot more thankful for what he had after a mere day of being around this demon.

  Xolith almost wanted to be angry at that, but from any reasonable standpoint, she couldn’t. “I’d… like to see most of the demon worlds become so easy to live in, too. But… with the tourax, I don’t think it would happen.”

  “Must kind of suck for the tourax, though. Just existing destroying everything around them, you know. I guess that’s not really my problem to solve, yet…” Getting over the initial hurdle of ‘not being murdered by the demons’ was too pressing to worry about what to do with any survivors, if he succeeded.

  “No, it’s… too ingrained in them, as far as I know. They can’t help how much heat they give off until they learn to control it, and even then…” Xolith’s often-flat expression shifted to annoyance. “Many of the nobles even revel in their heat. My previous master included.”

  “Oh, yeah. I’ve been meaning to ask, why did you work for him, anyway?”

  “There isn’t much choice. The nobility still has the resources – the warriors, the weapons, the connections – to control anything of importance in their domains, and anything of importance will become part of a domain or starve. One noble or another doesn’t make that much difference, and it is better to be known as an obedient servant than otherwise. If one strays too far from the status quo… they would all learn of it.”

  “You could still pick and choose, though, right? I mean, if gate-weaving’s a big deal you must be able to get some of what you want from them.”

  “There were some… basic freedoms that I demanded with that, yes. I might’ve fled if I needed to otherwise.”

  “I guess I should ask where those lines in the sand are, then.”

  Xolith hesitated, wondering what she could reasonably ask from someone who could control her actions at any time. “I’d… prefer not to be given carnal orders, or at least not be ordered to carry a child.”

  Aemric thanked his luck for not having picked up his ramen yet, as he definitely would’ve spilled it. “Yep, that’s fine.” He squeaked out. “Anything else?”

  She thought about it a little more. “Please, continue not to change how I think. As much as it might be hypocritical of me, I just… I thank you for leaving my mind intact.”

  “Oh. Yeah, of course.” He couldn’t mess with her thoughts even if he wanted to, though. Maybe he’d come on a little too strong early on, maybe she was just that stuck on how things operated on her world.

  “Thank you.”

  Those were…. those were the limits she placed? That was it? And that was what she specifically felt the need to bring up? “Do you actually think I’d want to do those kinds of things, though?”

  “I don’t know. It’s difficult, I’m sorry. I’ve never met anyone whose thoughts I couldn’t read before, except for a few cubi. And of them, most aren’t so lucky…” She shook her head faintly, not wanting to talk about it.

  Aemric put it together; the name ‘succubus’ had to be translated over, too, and that meant the connotations he associated with the name were relevant. “Is uh, that normally how they’d treat your kind?”

  “Thought-weaving works better on a target already weakened by emotion. Hence, to ensure success, we tend to need to manipulate targets, and within this there is no better method than invoking lust. Sometimes, others draw different conclusions from this.” Xolith’s explanation was almost mechanically-delivered.

  “Oh. I’m, um, really sorry. You’re pretty, so it’s kind of hard to take my eyes off you, but I’m not trying to look at you like that.”

  A neutral expression; not much different from the usual. At least it was kinder than the unimpressed-bordering-on-disdainful impressions Tiria gave, probably. Reading the succubus just now was impossible, though, so it wasn’t clear what she really felt anyway. “Thank you.”

  Aemric wasn’t sure what to do with that. “Um… anyway, ramen’s ready. Should be cool enough to eat. Be careful, it’s a bit messy.”

  The ramen was tasty, even to Aemric. He knew his brands and this one wasn’t very salty. It helped him relax a little after yet another stressful conversation with the succubus. Her new clothes were ready shortly after, and so at last Xolith looked mostly normal.

  “It’s not bad from here. Comfortable?”

  “Mostly… It seems different from before.”

  “Machine-wash will do that. A little tighter, that’s why I said get a set a little bigger than you think.”

  Xolith nodded. “It seems to have paid off.”

  Aemric wasn’t particularly sure what he was feeling at that moment. Pride? Showing her how his world worked was kind of like teaching a kid or something, so maybe. Odd, though, since she looked a little older than he did. There was no way to tell just how old she actually was yet; their measurements of time were different.

  He nodded, appreciative in the moment. “Sweet. I guess we ought to go back out, there’s not that much use sticking around here. If you want to take a break, though, it’s fine.”

  “I’ll go where you want me to.”

  Aemric decided to deploy his own unimpressed face; clearly he wasn’t being obvious enough. “I’m serious, here. If you wanna just lounge around for a while it’s okay. You can go… I dunno, poke around a park or something, too, if you wanna.”

  Xolith shook her head. “I don’t think there’s any need for a break.”

  “Seemed like you enjoyed playing around with the grass and dirt when you first showed up, though.”

  That extracted a flustered look from the succubus; she knew now how basic that was to everyone else here. “I… I hadn’t seen such things before.”

  Aemric sighed. “Well, look. At midnight, I might need your help with something actually dangerous. Until then, we’re both on free time. Sure, there’s work I can do, but everything you’ve told me thus far tells me, in turn, that you really need a break.”

  “I’m not going to argue against it, I suppose.”

  Truth be told, Aemric was half just looking for an excuse to unwind himself. Ideally, for that, he’d still be on his computer… but he thought that wouldn’t be any fun for his new roommate. He still didn’t really trust sending her out on her own, either.

  The destination was the same park he’d gone to before. Walking around in slightly-clearer air was something approaching amusing even to him, but more fun was watching Xolith all but roll around in the mud. She sniffed every flower, picked up every bug, watched every bird. Aemric steadily realized she was periodically checking if her master was watching, though, which gave him the idea to distance himself a little more and Dream to keep an eye on her. Sure enough, the succubus seemed a lot happier with that; she restrained herself a little less, and only fussed over keeping her new clothes clean.

  They joined up as the sun started to set in the distance. Someone’s border collie came up to be petted, and Xolith tried talking to it; Aemric managed to play it off and explained the situation after.

  “What do dogs do?” Xolith asked. A faint smile still lingered on her face.

  “Not much. They’re cute, mainly. Smart enough to sort of talk to but too dumb to argue with you. People just keep them as pets.” Guard dogs, hunting dogs, sure, but the vast majority of dogs?

  That smile vanished. “There were-”

  Aemric cut her off. “I’m guessing there were some really messed up ‘pets’ over there.”

  “...Yes.”

  “Don’t worry about that right now. These ones, we just feed and house and pamper. If they’re not happy, we’re doing it wrong.”

  “Mm.” She didn’t need more prompting. “Why is it that your ears are the same as the dogs’, though?”

  “Oh. It’s… some weird magic thing. You being from another world isn’t that weird, since we got our own magic from another world, too. That one… well, it’s why we migrated… no, we can talk about that later. Basically, it’s a magic mutation that goes around mixing physical traits together. Some people got useful things, but my ears don’t do much except flop.”

  “They look… cute.” Xolith delivered the compliment in a stilted manner; she was too-obviously mimicking an otherwise-scarcely-used word.

  Aemric narrowed his eyes. “You trying to say I’m dumb and would make a good pet?”

  Fear. It took him a moment to realize why she was so scared. “No! No. I was only paying you a compliment, master.”

  “I’m just messing with you, sheesh.” Aemric shook his head. He was starting to realize how much outright trauma was just under the succubus’s outer layers; nothing she said to him was just what she wanted to say.

  After killing about an hour at the park, there was still a bit of time to visit that apartment after the sun set. Aemric had called ahead, so there was no issue.

  The landlord greeted them in person, and showed them around. For simplicity, Aemric just outright introduced Xolith as his girlfriend; they obviously weren’t related, and there’d been no mention of splitting the bill with a simple roommate before. The landlord didn’t seem to particularly care. Plenty of others lived in the building, all with their own situations.

  When the landlord stepped away for a moment to handle something else while the two of them poked around, Xolith asked what to look for.

  Aemric sighed, having realized something at last. “Don’t worry about it. It won’t matter anyway.”

  “Why not?”

  “There’s only one bedroom, one main room, one bathroom. Nowhere for you to stay.”

  “I don’t need a room of my own. That must be more expensive, yes?”

  “Yeah, but since I don’t need to worry about keeping this up forever, I can afford it if I get a job in time.” There were other considerations in there too, like stealing some spoils of war and maybe setting Xolith’s powers on some ne’er-do-wells vigilante style, or just breaking the limits and falling back on some faction or another.

  “You’ve done much for me in a short time. I don’t wish to inconvenience you more, master.”

  “Here you are, calling me ‘master’ again…”

  “Sorry.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, it’s flattering, I just don’t want you to think you need to do it.” Aemric shook his head, then looked out the window; the park was right there, past a few more buildings. Prime real estate for him, maybe not so much for a lot of people. It was a boring park and most of the area was poor, that was why it was always so empty. “Same with this, I guess… You’re your own person, Xolith, you should have your own room, your own space. I’m not trying to keep you as a pet, I just… need an ally, I guess. And you need someone to show you how life works around here.”

  “I could… control someone, and have them shelter me.”

  Aemric shook his head again, more forcefully this time. “Setting aside figuring out which poor shmuck whose life you’d upturn, it’s not an honest way to live. You really want to steal from someone else to make ends meet?”

  “I understand.”

  Did she? It didn’t seem like so. Even if he’d explained all of why she might want to look at it that way perfectly, Xolith had been a killer when they’d first met not long ago, stepping over the bodies of the people she mind-controlled to get to her goal. How much of what she was saying now was really her, compared to her just rolling over to avoid confrontation?

  Aemric closed his eyes, and watched himself standing in that room. It was a weird experience, especially since he was technically now hearing from Xolith’s perspective. He gave one command, then let go. [Tell me how much you fear me, and why.]

  Xolith started to speak, in that odd monotone. “You terrify me. I’m never sure if you’re speaking an order I’m meant to follow, and I don’t know how much longer you’re going to pretend to care before you strike me for every error I’ve made. For every disgusting master I’ve served in my past, none of them were capable of destroying me as thoroughly as you.”

  Aemric turned around, and saw her eyes widen in fear. Xolith started to try and sweep it all under the rug. “I- I’m sorry, master, it’s only, it’s only how… I can’t help it. You’re too…”

  Aemric went over and hugged her as tightly as he could. He only managed to hold that for a few seconds, then let go and backed off in a hurry. The need to do it had just possessed him temporarily. He turned to the side, not being able to look her in the eye after that. “I’m the one who’s scared of you, dumbass. How do you think everyone else gets around? I can’t read your mind all the time, either. I’m just taking guesses, so do most other people. Having your mind read is scary… just like that, that’s the only reason I don’t let you read me, that’s why I don’t do that often. Okay?”

  The succubus didn’t answer; she didn’t know what to say. After a little while, the landlord came back in, and asked if they were done looking around; Aemric said they’d maybe come back to sign everything tomorrow. The landlord was happy with that, and said they could move in as soon as the first payment was in.