Chapter 96: Assistant

Something about the past few days clicked into place for Arthur as he heard Itela’s words.

There were lots of things about the demon world that didn’t make sense to him, but he had always taken them in stride because they were always genuine, true facts about how things were. He had no reason to doubt Itela now.

“So you’re saying that everyone else is going through the same thing?”

“Not exactly. You have a very extreme case.” Itela finished her glass of water. “But yes, mostly. It gets covered up by very real excitement about the expansion and people putting on a brave face, but most people feel a lot like you. No one lives for things to change, but they understand that life is meant to have change. Without it, we’d be a static people. At some point, their ancestors were part of the expansion and that led to the abundance in their lives today. Does that make you feel better?”

Arthur breathed out deeply. He remembered the crowd at the drawing. There was plenty of excitement, but there had also been other emotions. He was just too caught up in his own turmoil to notice. As his breath finished, he felt just a little bit of his angst leave his body.

“Yes, oddly. I think it did,” Arthur said.

“Good.” Itela slapped her desk with both hands and stood up. “Because that’s about all the time we have. Let's get going. There’s an owl girl who needs us.”

—

“Hmm,” Itela said. “I don’t see everything the doctor does, but on first examination, he’s probably right. Lily is not sick.” She turned quickly and glared at Ella, who was about to reflexively disagree with her. “Sit down, Ella, for the sake of the gods. I’m not done. I’ve looked at the physical side. Now I can look at other things. Arthur, I need your help here.”

“What can I do?” Arthur popped up from his chair and moved over near Lily.

“You can give me permission to take a closer look. You are the closest thing to a guardian this girl has. What I want to do is… invasive, in a sense. I’m going to look at some things closer than most people would find comfortable,” Itela said.

“Is this like reading her mind?” Arthur asked.

“No. Not in that way. It’s more like taking a magnifying glass to the kinds of mood indicators I can see from everyone all the time, plus a few other things. And I’m pretty sure if you gave the go-ahead, she’d be all right with it. It’s a fairly normal thing to ask for family’s permission in a situation like this.”

Arthur looked at Ella, who nodded.

“It’s fine if it’s you, Itela. Go ahead.”

“Good.” Itela’s hand started to glow, and she laid it softly on Lily’s head. “This is a sort of unprocessed version of the kind of majicka output that goes into one of my blessings. It will disrupt things just enough that I can see a bit of what’s going on. Think of it like sending an empty envelope to a house to see who comes out to pick it up.”

“Like a holy spy,” Arthur visualized.

“Something like that. Now shh.” Itela closed her eyes and sat there for a few minutes, varying the amount of light coming off her hand as she concentrated on the task at hand. Arthur kept his mouth shut the whole time. Finally, the light on her had winked out and her eyes opened back up.

“Interesting,” she said. “Very interesting, actually. I know you don’t care at the moment, but this is perhaps the oddest case of anything I’ve ever seen.”

“Is she all right?”

“She’s… fine. It’s difficult to explain. Arthur, do you remember when you got your class?”

“I do. It don’t know how I’d forget. It was weird.”

“Well, that’s not actually a bad way of describing it. System interaction with the world is a weird, inexplicable thing. If I was there at the time and looking very closely, I could have seen just a hint of that interaction. The system is subtle, but it isn’t invisible.” She stood up, grabbing the chair for balance as she wobbled on her feet. “Sorry, majicka drain. I’m not exactly supposed to do any of the things I just did, in a strict class-skills sense.”

“I’m sorry, Itela, but I don’t follow.” Ella stood and walked over to Lily. “What does that have to do with her?”

“I’m getting to that, you impatient pan-wrangler. This girl is asleep. She’s also calm and for the most part, happy enough to be asleep. Her emotions are what I’d expect to see from most healthy children when they rest. But her connection with the system is odd. There’s just a spark of interaction there, the tiniest little particle of it. I can’t tell what the system’s doing. And odder still, because, as you know…”

“Stop saying as you know, Itela.” Ella pointed at Arthur. “When you know he doesn’t.”

“Good point. Well, whether you know or not, it’s odd because she shouldn’t have a connection with the system right now. She’s too young. She’s two or three years before being eligible to have a class, and people usually link with the system a few days before they get a class.”

Arthur rubbed his face and took a deep breath. He was suddenly very tired. “I don’t think I’m going to understand any of this very well right now. Could you tell why you don’t look worried about this? Explain like I’m a five-year-old.”

Itela grabbed her chair and moved it over to Arthur. “Arthur, would Ella hurt you?”

“What?”

“Just answer. Would Ella hurt you?”

Arthur looked up at the bird-demon who had taken him in off the streets and spent the better part of her year working to make sure he was happy without the slightest hesitation. It wasn’t a hard answer to know.

“No. I don’t think she’d hurt anyone, but she definitely wouldn’t hurt me.”

“Even in a tough situation?”

“No.”

“How do you know?”

“It’s just not who she is. I know her. She couldn’t do it.”

“Well, I know the system pretty well. I’ve been working for it for a very long time. And it can’t talk, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t gotten to know her a bit.” Itela reached out and rubbed Arthur’s shoulders reassuringly. “The system helps us choose our classes. It lets us change them if we want. It’s absolutely eager to help demons, especially when they help other demons. I don’t know absolutely everything there is to know about it. Nobody does. But I do know it’s nice. Always. It wouldn’t hurt that little girl.”

“So this is good, then?” Arthur asked.

“Arthur, I’ve learned not to make promises about things I don’t understand. It cost me a lot to learn that lesson, which is another story for another day. But look at her. Does she look hurt?” Itela swept her hand over Lily.

Arthur looked at the little owl. She was still snoring, and at some point had found her pillow and curled up around it like a stuffed animal. She was, to all appearances, resting comfortably.

“She looks fine.”

“I wouldn’t make promises on this, but I’d bet every level I have things are going to turn out well here. Just… wait. Give the system a chance.” Itela grabbed her coat and things. “I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised on how things turn out.”

After Itela was gone, Arthur and Ella sat watching Lily for a while, quietly. Ella was the first to break the silence.

“Well, I’m going to go.” She stood up and walked towards the door. “There’s no way you’re leaving, and she doesn’t need two guards. Do you need anything?”

“Food.”

“Food I can do. Be right back.” She ducked downstairs and was back in a few moments with a plate of potatoes and meat. “The meat’s soft enough that if Lily wakes up, she can have some. Eat. Sleep if you need to. Itela knows her business. If she and the doctor both say this girl is fine, she’s fine.”

“Okay.” Arthur took the plate and started eating, with just a touch of conflict still going on in his subconscious. Ella was almost out the door before he decided to ask the question that was burning in his mind.

“Ella?”

“Yes?”

“Are you and Minos going to go? With Milo, I mean.”

Ella’s back froze before she turned around. “It’s looking like we might, Arthur. Not to the same town Milo goes to, of course. That’s frowned upon and for good reason. But there’ll be a super-settlement of sorts, a bunch of old, high-level veterans off in the distance waiting for the kids to call for help if they need it.”

“Close enough to assist, but far enough not to intrude?”

“Something like that. And it gets Minos a little closer to the border, which he needs. You do not want to see that man when he gets cooped up.” She smiled, apparently remembering an unspoken portfolio of cooped-up-Minos stories. “I was going to tell you, but you seemed like you had enough problems.”

Arthur saw the conflict on Ella’s face. She didn’t want to hurt him. But she also was, like him, a victim of the complexity of change.

“Don’t worry about it, Ella,” Arthur sighed. “I talked with Itela. And Lily too. I’m not going to say I’m in a good place on absolutely everything yet, but I’ll get there. You do what’s right for you.”

Ella smiled, weakly. “And there’s the Arthur everyone knows. Nicest demon I ever knew. Have a good night, Arthur.”

She closed the door behind her. Arthur ate his dinner, then sat watching Lily for as long as he could before sleep took him.

—

“Arthur. Wake up. We have to go.”

Half asleep, Arthur wasn’t immediately able to remember why he was sleeping in a chair, or where he had gotten the blanket that was covering him. But even with the foggiest of brains, there were some things he couldn’t forget.

“Can’t leave. Watching Lily.” He pulled the blanket a little closer. “She’s asleep.”

“You dummy.” He felt a tiny flick on his forehead. “I am Lily. And we have to go. Now. Wake up.”

He was up like a bolt, standing so quick his chair fell over before he thumped down on the floor on his knees, grabbing Lily by the shoulders and turning her this way and that.

“Arthur, stop that.” Lily giggled uncontrollably. “I’m fine. And this tickles.”

“When did you wake up?”

“Just a minute ago. And I’m okay. Did you sleep in that chair all night?”

“I did.” Arthur satisfied himself that Lily was fine. There wasn’t a mark on her, she was awake, and apparently in good spirits. “Stay there. I’m going to go get some food. And a doctor, I guess. And a cleric. And…”

“No, listen, Arthur. I’m fine. You have to stop worrying. We have other things to do.”

“What could possibly be more important than this?”

“We need to go get Milo. And Ella. And someone else. Minos would do, but I don’t really know him. I guess it depends on whether or not he’s here.”

“For what, Lily? I don’t understand what’s going on here.”

Lily laughed.

“For witness, Arthur. We need four of them.”

Arthur’s mouth dropped open. The whole witnesses thing was archaic, even for the demons. His first experience with them was when he got the teamaster class. Over time, he picked up that they also used witnesses for weddings, and some festival ceremonies. The latter wasn’t a thing right now as far as he knew, and the former wasn’t realistically happening either. There was only one other thing that would call for witnesses, and that was impossible. Or it should have been.

“Lily, it can’t be. You are too young. By years and years.” Arthur looked down at the wildly grinning girl. “The system wouldn’t do that. It couldn’t. Could it?”

“It would, could, and did. I made it. It took a lot of convincing, but I broke her down.” Lily puffed herself up as big as he had ever seen her. “I got a class, Arthur. I’m an assistant!”