Other Places 3: Detours (20 page)

That
had a ring of both firsthand knowledge and truth to it, but he didn't ask about
the story. She'd tell him or not, when she was ready.

"
I
make sense, because of how messed up and insane I am?"

"Right.
Keeley is perfectly normal that way, but you don't see reality correctly at
all, Zack. On the good side, you do manage to try really hard and not make the
same mistakes over and over. This latest thing, the integration of your
alternate personality and yourself, that's helpful, but it isn't enough really.
No one is meant to be exposed to the Lines for as long as you were, at such a
young age. That plus being enslaved like you were, well, it broke you, as you
know. You were steps away from becoming Xenses' unstoppable weapon. Really, I'm
not at all certain he failed in that. The only thing there is that you don't
work for him, but yourself." She dimpled at him, which was charming
enough, he supposed. Not that he really felt it. He understood the attempt at
least.

"Ah,
it's my chiseled abs and rugged good looks making you think that, right? I get
that from women
all
the time." He glanced down at his sticklike
body, then pretended to flex for her. The muscles did stand up, and so did the
veins, since he didn't have any body fat to speak of. He was just small all
over.

She
smiled, "yeah, except that you can probably lift a car by yourself, if you
can balance it right, and you innately understand how to do that, don't you?
You dodged Balthias in a full attack, and didn't even take him as a serious
threat. On the lines no one can touch you. Not even Tarsus, I don't think.
Really, that's why no one has seriously tried to kill you yet, I'm willing to
bet. Doing that would just be too dangerous. Plus, if they, or we, can use you,
it would be worth putting up with you being an airhead half the time."

That
last was a jab, meant to distract him. It was so obvious he rolled his eyes and
didn't comment. Instead he kept eating.

When
he finished, he cleaned up, and waited on Darla, not knowing what they were
supposed to do next. It was about five in the afternoon, and he had that thing
later, if Keeley could get the band together in time. Really, if she
hadn't
been the one trying to enslave him, he should probably help get them, and their
gear, into town. It would make for a nice peace offering. She'd seemed a bit
scared of him earlier. Or, well, not fearful, since she wouldn't bother with
that, but like she expected him to actually attack her. Or follow Ann's
suggestion and blow one of her arms off? It was actually not a horrible idea.
Not at the moment, since she might not have really done anything. In fact he
decided to go with that for the time being, and claim she was innocent.

Later,
when she really did piss him off, then it would be a great thing to keep in
mind. Like a spanking for a naughty little Demon girl.

Darla
stacked her plates up, and looked at him blankly for a bit. Then she stood up,
stretched to the ceiling and tried to kick him in the knee. He moved back,
getting the idea that they were going to be practicing then. Without a time field
even. That part was a sign of something, wasn't it? Darla, the fake one, had an
amulet for making a bubble of time. It hadn't held him in at all. He'd wondered
if that would work on most of them, and mentioned it, while trying to hit her
several times.

She
grunted, since the last one landed.

"Yes.
A closed time loop is probably the most popular kind of demon trap. Not a lot
of people can just ignore that sort of thi-" The sound of her jaw smacking
shut was too loud to make out what else she tried to say.

Zack
was willing to bet it had been,
thing
. After all, he was smart that way.
They kept fighting, using a lot more skill than he had earlier in the day. She
was better at it than he was, but that was a marginal enough thing really.
Neither of them bothered to feel pain at all, and both healed fast enough they
didn't need to stop, even when things broke.

It
wasn't until she jumped back, and called out that things got interesting
though.

"All
right, stop. Not bad." She walked over to one of the tan cloth bags they'd
brought and pulled one of the traps. "This is pretty much what we just
talked about. A time loop." Pushing a raised projection, she slid it along
in its brass looking housing. There were decorations on the outside, and
indeed, as she tossed it to him, Zack felt time trying to close around him. He
grabbed the box, as her voice went deep and slow. The thing clearly working as
intended. "Try... to... break ... free..."

Zack
just stepped out of the field and slid the lever the other way.

"Like
that? The time bubble popped, so that means it worked, right?'"

She
nodded.

"
Exactly
like that. All right then, we have three more types of these things with us.
Don't be a little pussy. If you can just walk out of one of my traps, you can
do them all."

The
first one was more interesting, but didn't take any longer for him to defeat,
since essentially Zack just stepped around the field and turned it off. The
third was better that way, since it transported him to an unreal space that had
no links to his normal reality at all. The trick there was that, instead of
trying to just go home, or even onto the Nexus, he needed to find a
different
unreal space to move out of. It took almost five minutes for him to get back.

Which
still had his mentor smiling.

"That's
really good. This last one is barely worth trying at all, since it doesn't use
space or time to wrap a body up at all. That's your strong area, after all.
This causes a person to become trapped in their own mind. Not in a creative and
movie like way either. Just trapped in darkness and stillness that are nearly
impossible to break. Boring, but it should work on you. Here." She tossed
it to him, as if pretending that it wasn't turned on. He didn't grab for it,
moving well out of the way, given the warning he had, but the field, which
seemed like a black cloud, came out of the silver sphere and wrapped him up
anyway. It was hardly fair, but the thing was billed as a trap, so what did he
expect?

It
was a lot harder to get out of that, since he couldn't think. Or, to be more
fair, he had an overwhelming
perception
that he wasn't able to think
anything. That was clear, or at least vaguely something he noticed. After all,
if that wasn't the case, how could he have gotten the idea in the first place?
Not that knowing about that freed him.

Finally,
in order to get out of the thing's grasp, he had to open a node and leave the
room, all together. That worked, even if he only went to the node in the back
of Candles and More. It hadn't been on purpose, but it had happened anyway. He
felt bad for a few seconds, and wondered if he should try to sneak out, but
knew that wasn't really going to work. Mainly because Lisa was standing there,
looking like she needed a shower, and smelling like it too, gasping at him.

He
waved, not knowing what the correct response was. How did you bargain with
crazy hatred? With love and concern?

"Hey."
She didn't respond, so he went on. "Sorry about this, my mentor, um, you
know, Greater Demon school? Sort of, at least, she locked me in a demon trap,
and I accidently got out by coming here. Probably because it's home, at least
as far as me really using the Nexus goes, you know? I'll leave. I didn't want
to worry you..."

She
stood there breathing hard, but didn't pull her silver anti-demon knife. That
was good, since it wouldn't have worked on him anyway. She'd done a good job on
the one she had, but it was for Lesser Demons. So Balthias and his friends
would have been in trouble if she wanted to take them on, but it would just be
a stabby tool, if used on him. Not that he was going to let her do that.

"Zack."
The words were hollow sounding. Like she was near collapse. "I... I guess
you've finally come to make me your slave?"

He
made himself blink at her.

"
Noooo
....
I'm not really certain where you keep getting that idea from, Lisa. I don't
have any slaves at all. Not to be mean about it, but why would I want
you
that way in particular? I mean, you're great and all, sure, but so are a
lot
of people. This is America anyway, so you know, land of the free? We literally
have rules against that kind of thing you know." It wasn't like he hadn't
told people this before, but the slightly shaking woman still didn't believe
him, it was clear.

"You
made Deidre leave me, so you could have me to yourself." She'd said
something like that before, so at least he had an answer ready. Her voice was
barely a whisper now, as if she actually knew it just wasn't true. That was
kind of a positive thing, he decided, so shook his head at her, slowly.

"No,
I really didn't. Lisa, again, not trying to be mean, but I actually
liked
her. At the time probably a bit better than you, for all we only met the once.
You kept acting ashamed of her, and drove her away. I didn't know I was a Demon
at all back then, anyway. If I had, well, I probably would have gotten you help
sooner. She still might have left, but if you're going to be off blowing guys
in alleys for drugs, you can't really expect your
girlfriend
to put up
with it, can you?"

She
looked down, her face scared and a bit red. Embarrassed.

"You
know about that? How... did you tell her?"

"Nope.
You had dirt on your knees though, and
smelled
like it. I'm pretty sure
she got what it meant at the time, too, by the way. Now, I actually made a
suggestion to Maddy Morse that you get help soon. She agreed. Why are you here
alone? You should be off at a retreat or something. Maybe with Apprentice Dan,
going through another round of Samsara root? I know Wu-Li and he have some, I
gave it to them, just in case you needed it." He spread his arms a bit
then tapped his chest with both hands. "Which, by the way, means that I'm
incredibly
cool
and
a good friend, since
you've
been acting like a freak
about me for
weeks
. I'm still
me
. Just a little different."
As if that made sense? He didn't want to scare her though. Not now that she'd
said more than two words to him without screaming or acting like her life was
about to end.

She
just stood and looked away, her hair a rather stringy and dirty blonde at the
moment. She was a bit older looking, about forty. That was the drugs. When
they'd first met she'd looked a lot closer to thirty something. That probably
meant she'd stopped practicing any sort of healing magic at all, since people
that did that didn't age very fast, if at all. It was in his memories that even
regular
Humans that tried it lived longer, and with more energy. It was
just the nature of healing.

"They
told me I had to go and get clean. I said no, and they fired me. I'm just here
to get my things. I... This job is my life. I know that's stupid, but I've
really tried to do it well and now... Deidre, my job, even you, all gone."

How
he suddenly rated being included he didn't know, but suspected it had something
to do with her desperately grasping at anything, and boom, in her hour of need,
there he was. He moved forward, touching her arm lightly, which was a thing she
didn't get at all. Mages didn't work that way, and hadn't realized the Greater
Demons did. Her life poured into him, and he took it all and then nodded. It
was strange, since in recent times he'd been far more central to her life than
anyone else. Like he was actually important to her.

"Good.
Not that you have nothing, which isn't true at all, but that they fired
you." He grinned as she glared at him, showing something other than fear,
which was nice.

"Excuse
me?"

"Sure.
This time, I mean. Think about it, Lisa, that means they
cared
enough to
bother with you. They didn't fire you and then suggest you see about fixing
yourself, but did it the other way around, and only when nothing else would
work. It probably tore Bob's heart out to have to do to that. Well, Greater
Demon here, so guess what, you
are
getting help and going to that
retreat. I know that doesn't get your job back, but right now, you know, maybe
this isn't the best place for you to be anyway?"

"You
aren't the boss of me." She said it cutely, or tried to. It came out
sounding like misery had taken up full time residence in her soul.

Zack
had never had a brother or sister, or even a close cousin to play with as a
child, but he had seen television sit-coms a time or two. Or a few thousand. He
got that one and knew exactly how to answer.

"Am
too
. Literally, by the way. This is my territory, so all of you are mine
to protect. Didn't you know that? I'm sure it was in the instruction booklet I
passed out last week... Oh, wait, you didn't get one, since you were too busy
having your special little melt down. Come on, let's get your things, and set
that up. I need to get back to my shop, or Darla will think she doesn't have to
teach me anymore."

Bob
Millhouse, the Mage Ambassador for the area, was in the front of the shop,
trying to not look at Lisa. He wasn't afraid of Zack at least, and just seemed
a bit surprised when they came out together. Zack raised his hands, since Lisa
had to carry her own armloads of junk, the accumulated clutter of several
years. She was barely managing it, but since an attack might come at any
moment...