D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

”Well tell us about Green then,” said Kat after seeing how general her explanation about Gareth was., ”You’d know her a lot better than Gareth”

Nixilei sucked in a deep breath. ”My relationship with Green is complicated… as is what I think about her. When it comes to Green I wear so many hats. I’m her bodyguard, spy, servant, enforcer, friend, cousin, sister, keeper, jailor, information broker. So many things.”

”Well… that’s… yeah that’s a lot…” mumbled Kat trying to wrap her head around the fact. She’d guessed most of those… but… some were a surprise. Like ’jailor’ or ’enforcer’. ”Why do you fill so many roles?”

Nixilei shrugged, ”That’s another simple yet complex thing I suppose. See, Green’s parents go around and look for talented children in not so ideal households and recruit them. I was one of those children, and I happen to be both skilled and born on the same day, though different year, to Green. Things spiralled from there I suppose.”

”That doesn’t sound great… why would you serve them so faithfully when recruited like that?” asked ’Lily’ making a few logical leaps that didn’t line up with reality. When Kat relayed the question, Nixilei gave a long sigh.

”It’s really not like you’re thinking. When I say recruit, I really do mean recruit. Though… for children like myself, those whose family is rather poor, the parents are given two offers. One is a promise of training once the child reaches their teenage years in return for a few decades of service, or a bag of gold for the parents and they’ll take the child,” explained Nixilei.

”Why would anyone agree to give away their child like that?” asked ’Lily’ but even as Kat relayed the question she herself knew the answer, and responded out loud anyway. ”That’s the question Lily wanted to ask… but I think I know. For them… the child is an extra mouth to feed. The gold isn’t really all that important to Green’s family, what it is though… is a temptation.

”Any family willing to give a child away for a few pieces of gold is likely not a family that child wants to be. If they refuse, the promise of future training is just as good if not better for Green’s parents. They have a whole loyal family if they go through with it. They provided a great chance to that families child, and the child gets to be trained by them for many years.”

Nixilei nodded, ”It is as you say. The money is not a large amount, and certainly less than the cost of a slave in some areas of the world,” Nixilei noticed the look on Lily’s face, with Kat mirror it to some extent, ”we only have criminal and debt slaves do not worry. Truth magic makes the courts rather simple affairs. Anyway. The money. It isn’t much, perhaps a year’s worth of food at most and yet… for many that is enough like it was for me own parents.”

Before Kat or Lily could ask any more questions, Nixilei continued, ”Once a child was separated from their parents, we were put into an orphanage set up though… to call it an orphanage would be incorrect. They would provide basic food and shelter for everyone, but always had rewards ready to hand out to those who were exceptional. They would test us in magic, in maths, in history, in fitness, practically anything that could be tested was. I always managed to score among the best… and I just didn’t stop.

”I believe I was… two when my parents gave me away. I was seven when I met Green for the first time. I’d been trained for around five years, always striving to be better. The training didn’t stop afterwards either, but it was when I was seven, I met Green. She’s a few years younger than I am so I was asked to look out for her when she started to play around in the ’yard’ which was really a large section of forest Green’s family owns. I was also told something rather interesting that I didn’t properly understand at the time. ’You serve Green but answer to us’.

”It took me years of puzzling over that phrase to work out what they meant… but I eventually figured it out, or at least I assume I have. They never answered me when I asked. To me… it means that while I do report to them what Green’s doing, and they have paid for my training and looked after me for many years, I don’t serve them, but Green. Her interests come before theirs, though they are still her parents and sometimes what is best for Green is not what Green believes it to be.”

Kat nodded, but Lily hissed slightly. Kat relayed Lily’s concern, ”I still don’t like the fact you’re raised from such a young age to serve them…”

”It’s not so bad,” said Nixilei as she glanced around at the trees. ”a chance at a proper magical education is quite valuable. A standard education as well. Reading and writing is a valuable skill. Most people just know how to recognise a few simple words relevant to their job. I’ve even seen my parents, from afar a few times, and they weren’t the best of people. It was actually my first real spying mission outside of the compound. I was to find these two people and report on them. I didn’t know they were my parents at first.

”So, I watched them for a month. I took notes on their behaviour, how they interacted with regular people, each other, what their jobs were, if they were doing anything illegal. I did this for a whole month not knowing who they were and found them to be detestable. My mother is a whore. I don’t use the more refined name, prostitute, because she doesn’t even have the self respect to join a brothel. She’s just known around town as someone who would sleep with anyone for a few coin.

”I don’t even mind that fact too much. The issue was that while spying on her I found out she also tends to steal things from… ’clients’ all the time when they’re asleep. Little things that would be easy to miss, but so random as well. A pair of underwear, some food from the cupboards, old socks. It really is just anything she thinks she can get away with. I don’t even know why. It isn’t as if she doesn’t manage to make decent enough money to live by despite her attitude.

”My father isn’t much better. He’s the ’town handyman’ which is a polite way of saying that he’s too useless to have a proper job. Mother makes the majority of the money and he picks up what work he can so that when she yells at him for spending most of his time at home, something she does as well, he can say ’I did that’ or ’I had a job this week’ but most of the ’jobs’ he gets are more pity than anything else from old friends that he grew up with. They don’t pay him much either. They know who his wife is, so they give him just enough to ’get her off my damned back’ and not a copper more.

”But he’s just so slothful. He doesn’t stay in shape to make his work either. He doesn’t try to learn a trade. He doesn’t teach himself so that he may take a desk job as a scribe or something… he just… does nothing unless he must. Truly I wonder if he’s my real father. In the end, my parents are married so perhaps it’s a strange hope… but both of them aren’t the sort of people I’d want to associate with.

”Now, knowing this, you can probably imagine how I reacted when I handed in my notes. My trainer asked me if I knew why I was spying on them, I answered because of the woman’s thefts, and she laughed at me and said, ’while it is nice to know, she is not so important to us we’d waste a talent like yourself spying on. No, we asked you to watch them because they are your parents and to offer you a chance to go back to them before properly joining our Lord’s ranks.’”

Nixilei sucked in a deep breath as she let out a cracked shaky laugh. It sounded almost like she was going to tear up, but it was also clear her eyes were completely dry. ”They had the guts to ask me if I wished to leave for those fools. They asked if I wished to leave what had become my home. A place I excelled. A place where I could spend time with Green, the one friend I’d been somewhat forced to acquire. They asked me if I wanted to leave them for a hopeless man and a thief. I’d never been so insulted in my life.

”So there you have it Lily. You wonder how I could be so ok serving someone like I do? Especially when I was taught so well. To think for myself. To reach for greater heights. To understand what it means to give up my freedom to serve. I was even given that chance to walk away. So I answer you with this.. It was an easy choice, and not one I’ll ever regret.”