The Infernal Aether (First Draft)

Chapter 25 - Entombed

I perched on the edge of a table as I watched my brother and our strange friend N'yotsu tinker with an increasingly insane jumble of tubes and boxes, all of us trying to ignore the homicidal Demon simmering in the corner.

There was still much about doing Andras' bidding which did not sit well with me, even though by doing so we were effectively saving my life, or at least my immortal soul. I salved my conscience with the hope that N'yotsu or Maxwell had conceived some method to scupper the Demon's plans. In the meantime, I was forced to watch impotently as they toiled under the creature's glare.

The door opened and Kate walked in. "I'm back," she said, then gasped as she saw Andras. "What's that thing doing here?"

Andras hissed and I quickly pulled her to the side. "It's a long story," I said.

"Well, I'm a patient girl," she said, glaring at the Demon. "Try me."

"We have come to an agreement," I said.

"An agreement?" She threw her hands in the air. "With that thing? You all gone Glocky?"

Maxwell's head appeared from behind the mess that he was slowly creating. "Pardon me?" he said.

"You know, Glocky," Kate said, looking to me for support.

"It is Cockney slang," I said. "It means...well, it means half-witted."

"That's it," said Kate. "Touched in the head. Half-witted. The kind of people who make deals with the Devil. For example."

"Point of clarification," said Andras. "I am not the Devil. He and I are completely different people."

Kate glared at me.

"There was a situation," I explained. "All of that success I had achieved. The journal, the wealth, the riches. It was all due to that thing."

Andras' grin broadened even more.

"What're you talking about?" asked Kate.

I looked down at my clothes, which were old and slightly worn as opposed to the finest tailoring which I had become accustomed to of late. My mind darted back to just a few hours before, when Andras had transported me from the street outside my publication's anniversary party. In the blink of an eye I had gone from being the toast of town, with all the trappings that brought, back to the darkened tavern where I had first made that terrible deal with the salesman which, unbeknownst to me, had in fact been Andras.

I had raced over to Maxwell's house and found that they recalled all that had happened, indeed were already hard at work on the machine Andras had requested they create. The date on the front of the newspapers I had passed en route had confirmed that we had indeed been transported back in time to just before my original lapse of judgement. It had not occurred to me that we would be the only ones with a memory of what had taken place over the past year from our perspective; now though I realised that the past year was in fact a mere figment of my imagination. That realisation gave me the kernel of an idea.

"Augustus and I made a deal, which did not end quite as well for him as he may have liked," Andras said. "The two Musketeers here have come to the rescue and, in return for me releasing Augustus from his obligations, they are creating something for me." Those terrible red eyes turned to me, burning me with an amused intensity. "And before you try to think it, the fact that the events of the past year are but a figment of your imagination as far as the majority are concerned, does not make our original deal any less real. I am the arbiter here, and you will find me particularly strict; especially if you try to wriggle out of your commitments. Again."

I blinked. Could the creature read minds too? Or was I really that transparent?

Kate looked at me. "I don't understand."