“She's in the pocket dimensions," Mouse said, resettling her weight against Asa's legs.
PQ-9 made a high-pitched sound of discontent.
“What’s the matter with PQ-9?” Mouse said, trying to turn her head to look. Asa held her head still so she wouldn’t hurt herself with the pull of the comb.
“The pocket dimensions annoy him,” Asa said, tamping down his amusement so PQ-9 wouldn’t yell at him.
Pocket dimensions bubbled off main time-lines like soap bubbles forming on top of water. Sometimes when pocket dimensions became large enough, they stabilized into a permanent dimension that lay at the apex of multiple time-lines. The Black Market was one of those pocket dimensions that had developed into its own static world.
PQ-9 was NOT looking forward to going to the Black Market tomorrow, as pocket dimensions tended to short out his circuits due to the lack of established satellites.
“Are you getting the knots out?” Mouse asked.
"Slowly but surely," Asa confirmed.
"It doesn't feel like it," Mouse said, dubious. "It doesn't hurt."
"It's not supposed to hurt," Asa told her, moving a section of her hair over her shoulder. He wondered who had been taking care of Mouse's hair if it hadn't been her parents. When Madame Katusha had taken care of Asa's hair, it had always hurt too. But his mother's hands had always been so gentle, it hadn't hurt at all.
Asa sent a task to PQ-9 to filter databases in this time-line, in this galaxy, to see if he could find a match in the system for Mouse’s identity.
Mouse didn't say anything else.
After Asa finished with Mouse’s hair, she brushed her teeth and then messed with Asa’s commissions until Asa fell asleep. When Asa woke the next morning, he found every entity in the apartment lying on top of him: Mouse resting on top of his arm, the demon draped across his chest, and then most hilariously, PQ-9 resting on top of the demon, like a cherry on top of a sundae in one of those old-fashioned holos. PQ-9 would say keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer—but Asa didn't think PQ-9 had to be that close. PQ-9 had always been curiously heat-seeking, so that would probably be his excuse.
Asa's arm was dead, and he slowly wiggled it out from under Mouse's head. When he turned on his holo visor, he was flooded with messages from the House regarding Mouse's whereabouts, and he let out a whoosh of breath in a sigh that woke PQ-9 from charging-mode.
PQ-9 made a sleepy protesting beep, and Asa forwarded him the House messages. Asa didn't have any messages from his mother, even though he had sent her several messages yesterday—but she had made a move in their ongoing 5-D chess game. His mother was so annoying. She had clearly seen his messages and decided not to answer.
The Station wasn't yet facing Crystallum Lux, but Asa still made everyone get up and follow him to the communal kitchen to heat up breakfast. Mouse stared at him from where she sat at the high-top table, her face resting on her folded arms, sleepily glaring at him. "I don't want to go to the House," she said, pouting. "I want to come with you."
"You can't come with me," Asa said patiently, scrambling the rehydrated eggs. He picked up the pan to avoid the demon's little paws trying to steal a little egg.
"Why not?" she said, petulant.
"Even if you don’t have an official contract with the House, they’re still going to charge room and board,” Asa explained. "So you need to start working."
"Room and board?" Mouse said, lifting her head so she could cross her arms in protest.
"The costs of feeding you and clothing you and training you and housing you," Asa said, plating the eggs.
"That's dumb," Mouse argued. "They haven't even done any of that yet since I've been with you."
"You can always go stay somewhere else," Asa reminded her. “Not with me,” he added before she could ask again. The House deciding to board a nominal apprentice without official contract was rare but Asa had seen it a couple times—when there was someone very powerful, either politically or magically. Asa had no idea why Madame Katusha was insistent on Mouse staying at the House, unless she knew that Mouse was connected to someone with power.
"Whatever," Mouse said, sulking.
Asa wouldn't have let Mouse come with him today anyway. The Black Market was too dangerous for a little kid. Asa and Rose had visited the Black Market one time as children, and Asa was shocked both of them had returned to their time-line in one piece. The Black Market was where all the underground trade happened, where mercenaries visited, an open secret in the empire that rumor had it even the Regent’s Council visited for what they needed.
Once Mouse finished her eggs—the demon swiping egg from her shoulders—Asa brought Mouse straight to the House. Mouse’s posture drooped as he handed her off to Nova, who put her hand on Mouse’s shoulder to keep her from running.
"You're leaving me," Mouse accused. She was trying to act tough by crossing her arms, but she still looked like she was about to cry.
"I have obligations," Asa said.
"Are you coming back for me?" Mouse said in a small voice. Her mouth trembled before she scrunched up her face to glare at him. But she just looked really small next to Nova.
"You have to stay at the House," Asa said firmly, even though his chest was starting to hurt at the look on Mouse's face. He couldn't come back to the House. Yesterday had been an exception. He didn't want to tell Mouse that.
"Aw, come on, Boss," the demon said, sitting and curling his tail around himself. "Let's come back for her."
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"Why do you care?" Asa said, raising an eyebrow at the demon.
"I'm not heartless," the demon protested. Before Asa could protest that demons actually don't anatomically have hearts, the demon followed up with, "Also, she gave me as much candy as I wanted."
Asa didn't even want to think about where Mouse acquired that much candy.
"It's fine," Mouse snapped, but she was wiping her face with her sleeve at the same time. "Don't come back, I don't need you anyway." She turned her back on him, trying to stand tall, but Asa could see her shoulders hunching inward. “Bye, Dandelion, I’ll miss you,” Mouse said, and then started to march into the House.
"Okay!" Asa said, throwing up his arms. "I'll talk to the Madame and see what I can do."
Nova shot him a look of pity and then shook her head. Asa knew what she was thinking—he was too soft. That’s what everyone had said when he was growing up. He knew they were right, he had tried to change it, but—he hadn’t been able to do it yet.
Mouse stopped but she didn't turn to face him. "What does that mean?" she said, her voice sounding muffled.
"I need the Madame's permission to see you," Asa explained.
"So if she says yes, I can stay with you?" Mouse said, her tone calculating.
"Uh," Asa said, starting to get a foreboding feeling about this. Nova shook her head more rapidly, drawing her hand across her throat. "Maybe?"
Nova sighed loudly.
"Okay!" Mouse said, sounding far more cheerful, before rushing into the House.
"What have I done," Asa said under his breath.
“You did this to you,” Nova said, throwing up her hands, before also heading inside after Mouse.
Next time, he would be able to harden his heart. He really would. He would just have to keep practicing.
"Okay, let's go," Asa said to the demon and PQ-9.
The demon and PQ-9 physically fought over who got to sit on Asa's shoulder before Asa finally just put PQ-9 on his shoulder and then held the demon in his arms. "Stop fighting," he scolded them. "Shouldn't you be resting in one of the pocket dimensions?" Asa said to the demon.
"I don't want to be in a pocket dimension," the demon said, sounding as stubborn as Mouse. "I want to see what's going on with the humans. It's more interesting."
"That doesn't mean I have to carry you," Asa pointed out, even as he carried the demon to the farthest demonic nexus energy point on the Station.
"Yes, it does," the demon said smugly.
Asa made an aggravated sound as they traveled from the Ruby District to the Gold Trade on the far side of the Station. The Station had been architecturally modeled after a large gas planet with rings—there was the main body, the inner rings, and then the outer rings. Or maybe it was like the wheel and spokes of an old-fashioned planet-side car.
The wealthiest individuals on the Station lived in the main body, in the downtown area, and then the economic statuses of the neighborhoods decreased from there to the outer rings. From the Gold Trade—which was mostly frequented by space merceneries—Asa traversed one of the spokes that connected the main body of the Station to the inner rings, the glowing purple lights starting to flicker the farther he got from the downtown. The lighting dimmed, as the generator had a harder time pushing power outward to the rings of the Station, and PQ-9 turned on his built-in flashlight. There were no greenhouses in the rings of the Stations, and fewer and fewer people. The people that Asa did see were in a hurry, ignoring him as they walked quickly past him.
"This is boring," the demon complained as they entered the second spoke, which would lead them to the outer rings.
"Then go into one of the pocket dimensions," Asa suggested.
"Ugh, you're no fun," the demon said, settling down in Asa's arms. PQ-9 lectured the demon with little staccato beeps before settling back onto Asa shoulder.
Then Asa finally turned the corner into the outer rings, which were narrow and shorter in height than the rest of the Station. The nexus was much further down the most outside outer ring, situated far from any habitations with people. Even from here, Asa could feel the gravitational pull of the nexus, the way it tilted and warped time and space. The energy of the nexus affected the inner ear, causing equilibrium problems, and Asa felt like he was going to fall over.
The demon stuck out its tongue. "Mmm, tastes like home," it said. Asa couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not.
As they finally approached the nexus, the nexus light burned soft and warm like a candle, rainbow lights floating gently on top of the brightness. There were no more generated purple lights lining the wall, only the pulsing amber light of the nexus, which was contained by a round metal cylinder that was built into the floor. It looked like a metal wishing well that Asa had seen on a holo when he was a kid. The nexus was beautiful—like a venus fly trap, where the beautiful flower lured in prey before snapping closed on whatever unfortunate creature had been fooled. Not many humans traveled through the nexus because they usually didn't have enough magic to control where they went or what time-line.
PQ-9 made a little sighing sound.
Robots weren’t fooled by magic and used their own satellite maps to navigate, but PQ-9 would be limited to his prior knowledge of the Black Market—whatever NET and DED had shared with him previously. After all, the Black Market was controlled and run by robots.
The demon hopped down from Asa's shoulders to examine the nexus. Someone could approach the nexus from the other side as well, although Asa had no sense of how much space the nexus actually took up on the Station.
"Will you be able to help us to the right dimension?" Asa asked the demon curiously. This was one of the primary reasons that the Regent was obsessed with finding soldiers that could take the heart jewels of demons, since this bond was more binding than a contract. Then the demons would be obligated to act as guides to the squadrons through different time-lines, since they never lost their place in time and space. Demons sensed with their magic like a sixth sense, like a compass that could always point their way north. All the better to mine different time-lines for resources, probably.
Of course, even soldiers who couldn’t take heart jewels, who merely made contracts with demons, still experienced a massive increase int heir magic and their power to fight in battle.
Those were the soldiers that died quickest from energy drain from the contract.
"Sure," the demon said slyly. "For a price."
Asa rolled his eyes. "What do you want?" he said, nudging the demon's side with his foot.
"Hey, stop it," the demon said, offended. He stepped out of nudging zone and started licking his tail.
"Well?" Asa said after a minute, impatient. "What do you want?"
"I want a cheeseburger," the demon announced.
Asa gave the demon a weird look. "Why do you want a cheeseburger?" he said, totally baffled. "Aren't you going to take some of my energy?"
"I want to try one," the demon said, placing his little paws on Asa's shin and stretching. "It looks so good, come on, and also—I want fries."
"Did you just add onto the price," Asa said, amused despite himself.
"The longer you take to agree, the more I'm going to add," the demon threatened.
Asa snorted. "Fine," he said. "In exchange for guiding us safely to the Black Market dimension, I will buy you a cheeseburger and fries."
"Deal!" the demon exclaimed, hopping back onto Asa's shoulder so that they wouldn't be physically separated.
The demon was attached to Asa's soul, so they could never be truly lost to each other, but it made it easier to travel in between dimensions if they were touching. Asa could feel the demon reaching out to take some of Asa's energy to use to travel the dimensions. When Asa fed the demon his energy, it felt like using a secret sense that had suddenly woken up—he had only felt this way when performing spells when he was still an apprentice at the House. He was able to guide his internal energy toward the demon, visualizing the energy leaving his own body to travel to the demon along an invisible channel, but he could only give a limited amount due to the restrictions on his magic.
"All right, let's go," Asa said, and they stepped down into the nexus.
[The Black Market]
