Philippe leaned in with the air of someone delighted to be in the know and able to impart gossip. “He likes to keep to a small group. I gather he’s received a lot of attention since moving to the capital, which makes him uncomfortable. He never expected to inherit the title, I’m told.”
The conversation moved on, and Archie sipped carefully at his water as the others continued to drink. They must have all been much more used to the heady effects of demon alcohol, since no one else seemed to pass the point of merriness into rowdiness – which only served to heighten Archie’s embarrassment.
“Enjoying your first Ix party?” asked a young man at some point. Eric, Archie recalled. He was one of Ixthan’s close friends, though his family was out of favor at the moment, his father accused of having committed treason or something. Eric, with his ruddy cheeks and cheerful smile, did not seem like a man associated with treason. “It can be a bit overwhelming your first time.”
“It’s more intimate than I expected,” admitted Archie.
“Usually we all know everyone before they join us. The others aren’t saying it, but everyone’sdyingto know why you’re here,” said Eric conspiratorially, supplanting Philippe’s recently vacated seat. Archie had suspected that was the case, given everyone else in this room seemed close friends and the prince’s usual companions. He should have thought of a better story, since he could hardly admit that Ixthan was only interested in the demon in his head. Especially since it turned out that they already all knew the demon already.
“We’re cousins – obviously,” Archie hastened to add, since that wasn’t a secret and it would have been insulting to imply that Eric, oldest son of a duke, might not know such commonplace knowledge. “But it was actually through Damian, that is, Lymond. I thought I knew all the Earls – that is, by proxy through my father – but I made his acquaintance recently.”
“Oh, Lymond! Great chap, isn’t he? He’s been at court for a few years now, I think. But he does like to keep to a small group so it makes sense for you not to have met him before.”
This felt oddly similar to what Philippe had said about Lymond earlier. Archie added casually, “Yes, I’m told he attracted a lot of attention?”
Eric nodded, his eyes going distant. “Oh, yes. Especially from unwed ladies or parents of unwed ladies. It makes him uncomfortable. He was only distantly in line for the title so he never expected to be Earl Lymond.”
For the next hour or so, Archie pulled himself together enough to try and join in the conversation more. The prince’s friends were friendly and in their cups enough not to notice when Archie’s transitions in topic were less than subtle. It seemed everyone had more or less the same story, with little deviation in details, as if the story had been planted in their minds. If Archie tried to press for more details, such as where Damian had been before court, he was met with confused gazes or someone repeating themselves.
He didn’t know what to do with this information, other than ask Damian-Damaris himself. Except every time he looked for him, Damian was occupied in some other conversation.
“I wondered how long it would take for you to notice,” said Prince Ixthan suddenly. He had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and Archie jumped. He was the only other person who still appeared entirely sober even though he had been drinking all evening.
Archie flicked a glance around. “Begging your pardon, Your Highness. So Earl Damian hasn’t been around for three years?”
“Of course not. The first I knew of him was last week, with you.” Ixthan crooked a finger at him, gesturing for Archie to follow him into the next room. This must have been the prince’s study, for shelves filled the entirety of one wall. They were stacked not just with books but also with strange instruments that Archie had never seen before but assumed must be related to magic.
A rug was laid out across the center of the floor but instead of a geometric pattern, woven into the fabric was a circle, with astrological symbols around the edges. Archie instinctively skirted around the edge, not sure whether it was a decorative summoning circle or functional.
The prince gestured at the hearth and the fireplace immediately burst into blue flames. Magic, Archie realized belatedly. He’d only been directly in the presence of it a few times before, but perhaps his proximity to Damaris recently had given him some kind of ability to perceive it. It was everywhere in this room now he was paying attention; the fire crackled with it, the lights danced with it, and the whole room was surrounded by it in a dome.
Archie lowered himself into the armchair that the prince gestured to. Now that they were alone, some of the prince’s genial demeanor slipped away as if he, too, played at being human in front of everyone else. Ixthan didn’t change shape, not like Damaris could, but his skin and lips grew paler, like the blood coursing through his veins weren’t entirely necessary.
Ixthan looked at him. His eyes were a striking deep amber, almost yellow, with slits like a cat’s and the color in them swirled dangerously, like the blaze of a fire. Archie wanted to say something, but he hadn’t been asked a question so he stayed quiet for now. Something about this whole situation irked the prince, but Archie just didn’t know him well enough to understand exactly what it was. Eventually, Ixthan snorted. “I see you know nothing.”
Somehow, that stung, even though it was woefully true. “I’m sorry.”
“What are you apologizing for? Making a deal with a demon you didn’t truly understand the consequences of? That’s every human,” said Ixthan dismissively. He sat too, eventually, throwing himself into the other armchair. “What does concern me is the exponential growth of power within him though.
“When I saw your demon trying to hide under your skin, I invited you to give him the opportunity to speak with me. Imagine my surprise when he appeared in a human guise, entirely detached from you. The two of you have amassed a fearful amount of power in only a week.”
Archie winced. It wasn’t as if he had been possessed by a demon before, he had no idea how powerful demons were meant to be. He’d thought mistakenly from Ixthan’s words to him last week that the prince didn’t mind the existence of other demons, unregulated demons, but that was when Damaris had been but a sliver of magic. He should have been more cautious. His brothers would have… well, his brothers wouldn’t have got themselves possessed by a demon to start with, but if it had come to it, they would have been more aware of the implications.
Prince Ixthan watched him closely. “I intended to speak with you to find out your intentions, but it’s easy enough to see tonight that you have none at all, and all of this is Damaris’s doing. You did not even know about Lymond?”
Archie shook his head. “The first time I saw him was at the assembly. And then here. In hindsight I noticed him not present in my mind but I just assumed he was being quiet, or sleeping. I didn’t even know it was possible for demons to look so human. That is, excepting Your Highness.”
“Yes, yes, my brother and I are anomalies,” said Ixthan, waving that away. “But that implies that Berlindi’s theorem is true. Do you know if—” Ixthan stopped, perhaps seeing the blankness on Archie’s face. “Have you studied demonology at all?”
“I haven’t, Your Highness.”
“This would be easier if you were one of my father’s mages,” muttered Ixthan. He reached over and plucked a book from his shelf.Becoming a Mage– not one of the titles Archie had been recommended by the librarian. He idly flipped it open with a familiarity that implied he knew the book forwards and backwards. “But then, if you were one of the university mages, we wouldn’t be in this situation I suppose. Alright, I’ll start with the basics.”
It didn’t sound like a barb, so Archie stayed stoic at that, murmuring his thanks.
“Most people think that demons are shapeless. That’s not the case at all. They have bodies in the demon realms, but it’s just that our bodies are made of magic, not flesh, so theyappear to not have shape if they come to the human realm. So humans can enable demons to cross over by offering use of their own body as a vessel, in exchange for use of a demon’s magic. Historically, this has gone… not well, since humans have no way of protecting themselves from those same demons once the demon have recovered enough of their powers that were lost in the passing or restricted by the inhabitation of an unfamiliar body.”
Archie thought back to Damaris saying that this was him in a low powered state, and shuddered. “Is this where the treaty came in, Your Highness?”
