Amy

“Were they lying!?” Bridgette demanded, her pale green eyes drilling into mine.

“Wh-what?” I asked, nearly dropping the cookie I’d taken back onto its tray. “What do you mean? The demon?”

“Of course the demon!” Bridgette confirmed. “Were they lying? They had to be, right? About only being here for a cookie?”

“I… Maybe,” I admitted, hating the hesitancy in my own voice. “I’m not sure how much I can trust my powers, though… I mean, they didn’t go off when that girl, Bean, lied to me - though I guess she didn’t lie per se, so…”

“What does Bean have to do with any of this?” Bridgette asked.

“Nothing! It’s just… With her, my power didn’t go off because she didn’t technically say anything that was a lie. Meanwhile the demon… Well, I think they deliberately told a lie? Except it wasn’t really a lie, per se…”

“How can something be both a lie and not a lie, my Lady?” Clara asked, as she finished pouring my tea. Where she got the tea cup from, let alone the pot of tea… I decided not to question it.

“Saying it was just to get a cookie was definitely a lie,” I explained, “but then he followed it up with how he was also there to deliver something - which is fine, except I don’t really have a way to know if there was yet another goal, or… Or… Am I making any sense?” I asked, looking between Clara and Bridgette.

“No, my Lady.”

“Kinda?” Bridgette said, to my surprise. “You’re saying your power’s really nitpicky, right? It tells you that he lied about ‘just’ being there for a cookie, but not which part of it he lied about, or whether there was more motivation than just that and delivering the thing.”

“Or if the cookie was even part of his motivation at all,” I confirmed. “Which is… kinda freaking me out, actually?”

“My Lady… It’s just a cookie,” Clara remarked, frowning at me.

“No, I know, but… think about what that means. The ability to tell truth from lies is the only magic I have - at all maybe - and now I’m realizing that it’s full of holes… and the worst part is, I can’t help but feel like they let me in on this flaw on purpose, just to mess with me…”

“Or to help you,” Bridgette remarked, her lips pursed into a thin line. “Though why the hell a demon would be so bent on saving your annoying butt, I have no idea.”

“Don’t look at me… I’m just an innocent bystander in all this!”

“Perhaps that is the point?” Clara suggested, causing me and Bridgette both to stop and turn our heads towards her. “Forgive me, my Lady, but I took the liberty of reading through some of Lady Amelia’s literature on demons. I thought it prudent someone read about it, before some church inquisitor or another came to burn the books.”

“That knowledge is forbidden for a reason,” Bridgette pointed out, scowling. “If anyone and everyone knew how to summon demons-”

“Then the world would surely be an even worse state than it already is for us common folk?” Clara countered, arching an eyebrow. “Not that I particularly care, Miss Bridgette, but I’d think someone with your background would understand that the stability the church tries to protect is mostly for itself and the rich.”

“It’s because of my background that I know how dangerous demons can be. For everyone - noble and commoner alike.”

“As you say, miss Bridgette,” Clara replied, placidly. “You will be happy to know, in that case, that I did not bother to read about summoning them. I only sought to understand what might have happened to Lady Amelia.”

“And?” I asked, eager now. “Did you learn anything?”

“Very little,” she confessed, shaking her head. “The books were obtuse, and often spoke in religious overtones - the manuscripts of cults that simply happened to have instructions for working demonic rituals within them. I must praise Lady Amelia for piecing together disparate bits and pieces in order to form a proper summoning circle, but I fear it left us precious little of a trail to follow…. Except for this: demons are bound by laws.”

“That’s it?” I asked, disappointed.

“What do you mean that they’re ‘bound’?” Bridgette asked. “Like… there’s rules they literally can’t break?”

“I am unsure, Miss Bridgette,” Clara replied. “I only know that it is a recurring motif in everything I read. Demons have rules. Follow the rules, and your contract shall be completed safely. Don’t follow them, and who knows what will happen to you?”

“It didn’t complete that safely for Lady Amelia, though,” Bridgette pointed out.

“We don’t know that,” Clara replied, narrowing her eyes. “Without knowing the content of her wish, it’s impossible to know where she is, or in what state - but I choose to believe she is fine. Happy, even.”

“That’s great and all,” I interrupted, “but none of that seems to apply to me?”

“That is exactly the problem,” Clara declared, nodding. “You were not part of the contract, and yet you have become entangled in it through no fault of your own. As such, you are - in your own words - an ‘innocent bystander.’”

“And?” I asked, leaning forward a little.

Clara shrugged. “That is all I was able to learn for certain - but if I had to guess… I would say there are likely rules in place for how to deal with situations like yours, and that the demon’s behavior towards you has something to do with it.”

“Like what? They got in trouble with the cops for involving an innocent bystander or something?” I asked, disbelieving.

“Demons involve bystanders in their destruction all the time,” Bridgette pointed out, her own voice full of doubt.

“By our standards, yes,” Clara replied. “But what about from the demons’? If someone wishes for them to ‘destroy a village,’ and the people in the village suffer, that’s simply part of fulfilling the wish, is it not?”

“Absolutely horrid, and I hate it, but I guess the logic’s sound…” Bridgette reluctantly admitted. “But why wouldn’t that be the case here? Maybe Amelia’s wish involved Amy, somehow.”

“It’s possible…” Clara confirmed. “But it’s hard to imagine what wish she could make that would drag in someone she didn’t even know existed… Without knowing what she wished for, especially.”

“Well, I’m not exactly an entirely uninvolved party,” I admitted, hesitantly. “I’m a writer, where I’m from. And I wrote a story about… about people similar to… well you. All of you. That’s how the demon found me they said…”

“You wrote about us?” Clara asked, frowning. For a moment, I thought she was going to call me a creepy pervert again, but when her eyes met mine they were more serious than I’d ever seen. “Then would you happen to have written what Lady Amelia’s wish was, during your creepy perving?”

“I wasn’t literally looking at you or anything!” I complained. “I was just writing something fictional that just happened to match up to this world!”

“Uh-huh,” Bridgette confirmed, clearly trying not to laugh. “But seriously - do you know?”

“I… Yeah,” I confirmed, after a moment’s hesitation. “I know it, at least. She wished to be happy, somewhere far away from here.”

“Wait… Somewhere far away?” Bridgette asked. “Like where you’re from?”

“Well… Yeah, I guess?”

“You cannot possibly be suggesting what I think you’re suggesting,” Clara stated, clearly horrified.

“What? What am I missing, guys?” I demanded.

“The possibility of her being in your body, dummy!” Bridgette declared. “Why didn’t you tell me you knew what her wish was sooner!?”

“Well, it’s not like I’m a hundred percent sure of it!” I protested. “Everything keeps going different than I expect it to here - why should I think her wish was exactly the same as I was planning to write? And - and she asked to be happy anyway! There’s no way she’s happy as me!”

“…It’s true that I struggle to see Lady Amelia appreciating being in a man’s body,” Clara murmured, looking thoughtful.

“Yeah, can’t see it either,” Bridgette admitted. “Plus, that would just make Amy a proper victim, right? Not just an ‘innocent bystander’ or whatever.”

“You’re right…” Clara confirmed, before shaking her head and sighing. “In the end, I suppose we simply don’t know enough to be sure of anything… do we?”

“So we’re back where we started?” I asked, exasperated. “With no new info at all?”

“Well, you know that you have a flaw in your powers now,” Bridgette pointed out. “And I know that you’re… probably not working closely with that demon or whatever, for all that they seem awfully interested in helping you.”

“You thought that was a possibility!?” I demanded.

“Sorry! I’m a knight. They’re a demon. I… have history with demons.”

“Right… fine…” I muttered, shaking my head. “Whatever. I’m going to bed, alright?”

“I’ll prepare a nightgown for you, my Lady,” Clara replied. “And a bath. Which I hope you will not take too long in?”

“I don’t need a nightgown!” I protested. “Or a bath…” Though it did sound nice.

“I must insist, my Lady. Unless you’d prefer to be scrubbed by someone else?”

“I can handle it!”

“I’m sure you can, my Lady,” Clara replied, in a way that sounded vaguely disproving. “I do trust you will not take too long with my Lady’s body, though, correct my perverted Lady??”

“What the hell did I do to get downgraded to a pervert in your eyes!?”

Clara opened her mouth, and then closed it, before performing a curtsey. “Perhaps I’ve been discourteous, my Lady. It is just the thought of a man seeing my Lady’s body… even if that man is my Lady herself…”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t ask for this,” I pointed out. “I didn’t want to be in this body - or have these hormones! N-not that I’m going to act on them, or do anything, or anything, but… you know…”

“Know, my lady?” Clara asked. “I’m not entirely sure what you mean. What are ‘hormones’?”

“They’re… they’re what the brain pumps out to make you… you… Well, actually they’re for a whole lot of things, but one of the things they do is make you… uh… horny?”

Clara’s mouth began to twist into a frown, again.

“N-not that I’m particularly horny! And if I was, it would only be because I’m in Amelia’s body - I mean, because the demon said I have the same hormones as Amelia! The same brain as Amelia! I’m basically just Amelia, except me, alright?”

Clara sighed. “I do not entirely understand what you're talking about, but… I will… hold back from calling you perverted unless given reason. But in return, I expect you not to give me a reason.”

“That’s fine!” I confirmed, quickly. “I mean, I never intended to give you a reason, in the first place, so…”

Clara nodded, before gesturing to the left. “The bath is this way, my Lady.”

“Right…” I murmured, thankful for the change of subject. So thankful that I strode right towards the bath and started stripping - though as I did, something finally occurred to me.

“Hey Clara… When did Amelia tell you about her truth telling powers, anyway?”

“She didn’t,” Clara replied, from the other side of the door.

“She didn’t?” I asked. “But… I mean, I kinda forgot you didn’t already know when I first brought it up, but then you took it so casually I thought you… you really didn’t know?”

“I did not say that I didn’t know it. Just that she did not tell me.”

“...Huh…” I muttered. “Is that how you’ve managed to avoid activating her power, all this time? Because you know about it?”

“I avoided lying to Lady Amelia out of loyalty,” Clara replied, stiffly. “If I ever made use of the intricacies of her power, it was only to avoid accidentally setting it off like the demon apparently purposefully did. My Lady is not one to trust easily, and to trigger her power at all is… best avoided.”

“Right… You uh… you really are loyal to her, aren’t you?” I asked.

“Of course.”

“Can I ask why?” I pressed.

“...I am your servant, my Lady. If you press, I will answer.”

“And if I don’t?”

There was no response from the other side of the door.

~~~

Author's Notes

Author's Notes

Kinda had to fight through depression in order to write this chapter, which in turn left me questioning the quality... Especially since I feel like it's a bit of a slow chapter? A friend of mine insists that it's fine, though - and that I need to stop being so hard on myself, and that it's fine to have a not particularly exciting chapter every now and
again, which is... fair? Still hate making everyone wait for a chapter like this, though... (Though people's comments have at least convinced me it's been well received.)

The good news is the next two chapters pick up the pace a bit, with chapter 10 in particular being a bit special to me. Both can be read on Patreon for as little as $1 - or you can just wait here, and I'll post them for free eventually~! (I also started posting on Royal Road, by the way. Just in case anyone wants to leave a comment or review over there.