Chapter 30: Sealing a Demonic Bond

They had to go halfway across Branton to reach the demons' offices, since demons didn't set up shop in the lousy parts of town. As far as Rick knew, there was a huge demonic firm that owned one of the central buildings and a few significant clans that owned entire floors of some of the other large buildings. But they were not going to visit one of those clans - people with ether scores as low as theirs wouldn't even be let in the door.

Still, the clan they visited had a nice office in a decent part of town. Rick actually worried that they might not allow him in, since his ether score had only recently gone above 200. If the clan hadn't updated their records, they might still think he was in the bottom fifth.

At the door they were met with a security guard who was permanently bonded, his eyes blood red. Little more than a shell for the demon inside him - Rick didn't want to think about what he or his family might have done to end up in that situation. But regardless of his nature, the man was ultimately just a simple employee: he checked them for weapons, noted their IDs, and let them in.

Inside, Rick discovered a pleasant lobby with a fountain in the center. Yes, the fountain had liquid that looked like blood, but that was to be expected. Almost everyone they saw was permanently bonded, though there were a few human employees working at the desks.

Before they got far inside, a demon manifested in front of them, one that Rick could only call a succubus. Other than her bright red skin and horns, she looked like an exceptionally curvy woman, wisps of cloth floating around her and improbably managing to always hide just enough that she was technically clothed, if not safe for work.

"Henry, baby!" She gave him a brilliant smile and a wink. "So glad to see you back!"

"Glad to be back, Lilith." Henry turned to Rick and gestured in her direction elaborately. "Rick, this is Lilith. She takes good, good care of all the new clients."

Rick frowned. "Lilith as in the mythological Lilith? That's an important name... what are you doing in Branton?"

His words were downright rude, by design, but Lilith just gave a throaty chuckle. She floated forward and ran a finger up his chest, though she couldn't really - the tip of her finger passed through him, barely perceptible. "Hmm, do we have a skeptic? And one who's never been bonded before..."

"Ah, he's just with me." Henry quickly stepped in, getting her attention again. "I'm here to see about getting a second bond. Any chance I could get approved for one of those Ruby Bonds you told me about?"

"Hmm, let me see..." Lilith's eyes went white and she froze for a moment, then as she returned she folded her arms and made a pouting expression with her lips. "Sorry, Henry, but there's nothing I can do. As a special service to you, I can find you someone for a second bond, but it will still be from the subprime tier. I am so sorry about this, Henry."

"Hey, you did the best you could. But, if I can ask, what goes into the decision?"

"We're always looking for something special in our clients." Lilith floated around behind Henry, wrapped her ghostly arms around his neck. "But I'm afraid it mostly comes down to tier and ether score in the end, baby. You'll get there one day."

"Yeah, definitely. What can I get today?"

"Let me introduce you to a personal friend of mine..."

Lilith began to guide Henry into one of the back rooms, but he turned back to wave at Rick. "Thanks for coming with me, man, I'll just be a bit. While you're out here, maybe you can look at their brochures and things? Seriously, give it some thought."

Rick nodded and watched them go, wondering if this was something he should stop. Obviously not, because Henry could make his own choices, but the whole thing felt strange to him. Once they were out of sight, Rick headed to one of the counters.

Though he looked through the brochures, they struck him as cheaply advertising just a few things: power, wealth, and sex. Less of the last one than he'd expected, given how Lilith acted, but he wondered if the demons tailored their approach to each client. Getting tired of hype he didn't entirely trust, Rick glanced up at the permanently bonded man behind the counter.

"Do you have anything more straightforward? Just information about what you offer?"

"Yeah, sure." The man might be a demon controlling a flesh puppet, but he helpfully pulled a booklet from out of his desk and handed it to him. "This one will tell you all you need to know. Feel free to keep that one if you want."

"Thanks." Rick accepted the booklet and took several steps back to get out of the center of the foyer, then began reading through it.

Almost immediately he confirmed what he'd strongly suspected: Henry was not being bonded to a demon like Lilith. The lowest tier of bonds was all with little gremlin-like demons that were mixes of chitin and slime. According to the booklet they didn't even have the intelligence of dogs. That seemed a bit insulting, but if their fellow demons said so, it was probably true.

In fact, he couldn't find any concrete information about succubi. The brochures definitely promised "special services" by implication, but the booklet was business-like. Which made sense: the demons were running a business. There had been wars in the distant past, but these days they found war less effective than capitalism.

What surprised him was how complex the system was. Multiple different tiers of bonds available with a variety of different perks. The absolute lowest options were called "subprime" and everything else had elaborate names designed to sound prestigious. Not vaguely seductive to him, but he could see how some people would take on a bond to become Golden Diamond Preferred Members.

"Reading anything interesting?"

He jumped and found Lilith just over his shoulder, her voice a low purr. "I'm not interested in getting a demonic bond, I'm just walking with Henry."

"Are you sure there's nothing I can do to change your mind?" Lilith floated around in front of him, bedroom eyes practically glowing. "We could give you a great starter bond, better than we gave your friend. I gave your profile a look on the way in, and your score is... not bad at all."

"My ether score is exactly 201," Rick said. "That's two points above pathetic."

"Oh, but we have a proprietary algorithm for soul evaluation. It takes into account more than your current ether score, including your trajectory and other conditions. You have a few factors knocking your current score way down, but other factors are rather promising. Enough that you have a decent trust score for the future."

Hearing that stream of words come out of her mouth took Rick aback, though he quickly realized that he was being closed-minded. Just because Lilith dressed like a prostitute and practically moaned some words didn't mean she was incompetent. Given that she apparently had a major role in a business like this, she was likely very competent.

Still, her act rubbed him the wrong way and he gave her a skeptical glance. "I'm still not sure I believe your name is really Lilith. Unless that's just become a common demon name now."

"It's a title, actually." The demoness gave him a mischievous wink. "I'm not going to use my real name at work, but let's just say it's less elegant."

"Huh. Was Lilith a real demon at all?"

"That's just one of your stories, I'm afraid. We know we don't have the best reputation, so we do our best to make people... comfortable."

"I'm not sure taking such a hard approach is the best way to be accepted by, you know, the female half of the population."

To his surprise, Lilith - or not Lilith - gave a low laugh that didn't sound like it was trying too hard to be sexy. "It's part of the job, hon. But if you want to talk brass tacks, you are underestimating two things. One, the number of bisexual women in the world. Two, the variety of demons we have on staff. Trust me, we have incubi for those who are into that, and fluffy demons for families. Really, we try to make everyone comfortable with us."

Rick found himself relaxing a bit, though he folded his arms and examined her cautiously. "Your goal is still to absorb power in our world via bonds, though. And I hope you won't pretend that people don't lose their souls. Hard to build a reputation from that."

"Sure, but those are all in the terms of the contract." Lilith rolled her eyes. "Is it really our fault if some people make terrible decisions and go too far? Our job is to provide a service, and believe me, we like responsible people who draw on the bond reasonably for many years more than those who burn themselves out."

Somehow, he found himself nodding along. What she said made sense, and some of the better bonds he'd found in the booklet didn't sound so bad. Maybe there were hidden traps in the fine print, but she had a point that demons had no reason to try to take over.

She was actually pretty cute now that she wasn't draping herself over him... and Rick immediately realized what was happening.

Since the start of their conversation, Lilith had changed. He had been too distracted to notice, but her tone had become more business-like and her vocabulary had improved. The way she rolled her eyes from before was nothing like she'd acted with Henry. Even her outfit had changed, the ribbons closing around her for a look that was definitely sexual, but a restrained sexuality instead of flaunting herself.

Damn, she was good. Rick wondered just how much more she would change if they kept talking for a long time. No doubt she'd change into the kind of smart girl he liked, slowly convincing him to take on a bond. Well, he wasn't falling for that.

"This isn't happening, is it?" Lilith must have seen the change in his expression, because she smirked and seemed to relax. That only made him wonder if this was yet another ploy. "Don't worry, I'm not going to waste my energy on a lost cause. Your friend just won't get his referral."

"Referral?" Rick stiffened, wondering if it was a distraction for only a moment before he became concerned.

"It's in that booklet, if you read far enough. If you convince a friend to sign up with us, you can gain a bonus to your maximum bond limit. 250 lucrim at signing, up to 1000 depending on how heavily they use the bond."

"I see." Rick had to take a mental step back to think about that. That explained why Henry had been so insistent about making him come along. The referral system struck him as an abhorrent method, but honestly the demons had probably learned it from human businesses.

After that Lilith left him alone. Rick looked over the booklet a little longer even though he had no intention of taking any kind of bond, then wandered a bit. Fortunately, Henry had been telling the truth about the process not taking long, so soon enough he returned from the back rooms.

"Double bonds!" He pulled up his sleeve to show the opposite bicep from before, this one with a stylized toad demon tattooed on it. "Shame I couldn't get you on my arm, Lilith."

"Oh, you naughty boy!" Lilith flirted with him shamelessly for a while and Rick tuned them out entirely, just lingering near the door. Henry made one more attempt to convince him to get a bond, but Rick rebuffed it coldly. Eventually they headed out, Lilith giving Henry a seductive wave and - he thought - casting an amused glance toward Rick.

Once they were out, Henry scowled down at the payment. "They always act like you're going to get a succubus, but the demon this time was this awful frog thing."

Rick sighed. "But it was worth a decent amount, right?"

"Since it's a second bond and I'm stretched thin, this one is only worth 4000. But it's better than nothing."

Quite a bit more than nothing. Rick checked his friend's new numbers out of habit:

[Name: Hendog69 (pseudonym)

Ether Tier: 15th

Ether Score: 211

Lucrim Generation: 34,250

- Demonic Bond: 12,000

- Demonic Bond: 4000

Current Lucrim: (private data)]

Not only had his generation rate shot up another 4000 lucrim, nearly half his strength was built on demonic bonds. It was enough for Rick to feel a bit jealous, but not enough for him to consider getting one, even for a second.

Admittedly, the demons had seemed more human than he expected. But Rick knew a scam when he saw one, and everything about Lilith had set him on edge.

Unfortunately, he was going to be facing opponents who didn't care about that, and the temporary power they received would be considerable. These were probably nothing compared to the demonic bonds that someone like Mike would receive. Rick stared downward, trying to come up with a way to bridge that gap and finding nothing.