Humanity's #1 Fan

"Actually," Ashtoreth said. "I just need Freyr right now. Yama's more useful, and just one of them fetch us more than what we need to finance everything."

"She… will?" Kylie asked.

Definitely, Ashtoreth said with telepathy. They're well-bred daughters of the King of Hell himself. Sure, that comes with some heat, but they've failed in their task—he's not likely to take offense at what happens to them even if he does find out.

"O-kay…" Kylie said slowly.

Listen. They're both orders of magnitude more valuable than anything we could get by trading away our cores or the stuff we brought. I'll find a prospective buyer, probably an elemental or fiend, and bind them into secrecy before I show them the goods, so to speak.

"And what happens then?" Kylie asked, growing a little quieter.

Ashtoreth grinned. We get stupendously rich, that's what. We're not trading for high-level cores right now because it's just too wasteful. Our sub-400 cores are useless to all the people who can farm above-500 ones. Maybe we could buy me a few dozen levels… but I bet you even one of my sisters can net us enough to buy everyone a nice upgrade, fully gear Sadie, pay for the soul map, and still put me into tier 4.

"O-kay…" Kylie said again, even slower this time. "But what I meant was more like, what happens to…"

Freyr, Kylie finished. Your sister. Should we even be saying their names out loud?

"Oh," Ashtoreth said, nodding as she realized why Kylie was acting so strange. Look, it's not pretty. I'm not happy about it either. The most likely outcome is probably that she gets, uh, pulled apart, sort of. They'll try to reclaim some of the gratuitous amount of power used to create her. Or they'll try to figure out just how, exactly, my generation of archfiend work. Or…

Ashtoreth winced.

"Or?" Kylie asked expectantly.

Well, she is the daughter of the most powerful being in the known cosmos. Who knows what value that adds, for some people? She might just get made a slave. But the most value is probably in taking her apart.

"Right," said Kylie. "Just wanted to be clear about… what you intend…"

Ashtoreth narrowed her eyes at Kylie.

Kylie reached into her bag… and then froze. She briefly closed her eyes.

Ashtoreth just stared at her for a second. "Kylie…"

"Ashtoreth." Kylie's face, almost always a mask of indifferent confidence, was almost frightened. She looked like a dear stuck in headlights.

She took her hand out of her bag. Then she drew in a long, deep breath. "No."

"No," Ashtoreth echoed, her voice a hissing whisper. "No?"

Kylie's expression hardened almost instantly. "This is why we split up," she said. "Not your bullshit reasons; you wanted me alone, or at least with Sadie… the youngest, the most untrained, the least likely to object to this… apart from me."

Ashtoreth cocked her head. "Kylie, just give me the jewel."

"Answer me," Kylie said. "I have nothing but respect for you, Ashtoreth. So be honest. Is that why you split us up?"

"Yes."

Kylie's mouth formed a hard line, then wavered as she looked away. "Because I can be relied upon to do what you see as necessary, yeah?"

"Yes," Ashtoreth said, crossing her arms. "Now if it's really bothering you, I recommend you think about just the physical actions of doing it." She hesitated, then added, "That's always worked for me, with stuff like this. So: reach into the bag. Focus on the jewel that has Freyr in it. Find it with your hand and grab it… then give it to me."

Kylie took another deep breath that ended in a rattling sigh. "No."

For a few moments, both of them were silent.

"I get it," Ashtoreth said, acid dripping from her voice. "Nobody objects when I let an elf with who knows what agenda sift through every part of my mind…"

"Everyone objected to that," said Kylie. Then she added, and for fuck's sake, use your telepathy.

"Fine," said Ashtoreth. Nobody refuses when I let the elves sift through my mind.

Because it's your right to choose to do that.

"And this isn't?" she said. They attacked Earth! Look at what they were ready to do to everyone, everyone you've ever met!"

All because they were raised the same way you were.

So you'd have killed them if you couldn't bind them, but selling them into slavery later on—that's your moral event horizon?

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"I don't—I don't know, Ashtoreth." Kylie said, reaching up and holding her forehead.

"So give me the jewel," Ashtoreth said. "Because I do. And you're not responsible for what I do."

Kylie's face slid back into a mask of helplessness and fear. "But… you are," she said in a small voice.

"Yes! I am!" Ashtoreth roared, drawing the attention of several nearby creatures. "And I'm okay with that!"

Kylie flinched. Ashtoreth gritted her teeth. Sadie was completely silent, only watching them. Several seconds passed.

I maximize Earth's chance of survival, Ashtoreth said at last. That's what I do. That's what I'm for. If I want to be the monarch, I need to be willing to make a trade like this. If we're careful, we can come out of this place with a King's ransom.

"You saw those people back there," Kylie said. "The ones in collars…"

"Yeah. I did." She held out her hands, palms-up. "But so what? What's one more soul lost to the cruelties of the cosmos?"

"It wouldn't just be one," she said, shaking her head.

"Stop," Ashtoreth said, practically speaking through gritted teeth. "Stop pretending that you're doing this for my own good. Like you know better than I do what that even is."

Kylie let out a humorless laugh, and it was shocking to Ashtoreth how quickly she snapped back into her old, usual self. "Yeah," she said. "Because I couldn't possibly know better, right? I don't even know what's good for myself."

"This has nothing to do with you," Ashtoreth said. "So stop feeling sorry for yourself and give me what I asked you for."

But Kylie only shook her head and started laughing. Call me when there's a city burning and I've got a million lives to save by selling my soul, said Kylie. And I'll do it. But we won the initial invasion, Ashtoreth. We made contact with the Eldunar. You said yourself that means we can farm, soon. And, and…

She shut her eyes again. Your sister is younger than me. Younger than Sadie. Hunter said it was more like she was more crazy than malevolent. She had the same upbringing that you did…

"And so clearly, both of us made our choices."

"That's insane, Ashtoreth… and you know it. You know you're full of shit right now, but it doesn't matter." Kylie glared at her. You got Pluto and Set, and you killed them both. I bound Yama and Freyr. They're mine. And my answer is no.

Ashtoreth stared at her. If there'd been a chance to get Freyr from Kylie, she'd squandered it. It was plain as day on Kylie's face that her uncertainty was gone.

Finally she sighed. "Tier four," she said. She snapped her fingers hard enough that the sound echoed through the air around them like the crack of a whip. "Like that!"

Kylie said nothing.

Once we come home from this place, it's to an Earth that Hell can invade with a bunch of low level 50s at best, Ashtoreth continued. They have their workarounds, sure. Soul-stitching like what they used for the chorus golem I fought in the tutorial, that works. Pyramid farming an entire army, that works. Buffs like what Set used in the nexus bastion, those work too.

Kylie simply crossed her arms, and continued to stay silent.

We're years, decades ahead of the curve because of what I was willing to do, she said. And if I come back at level 900 instead of 450, it'll be exponentially more difficult for Hell to put into play whatever plans they make to kill me—and there will be plans to kill me.

Kylie's voice was its usual, cool rasp. "You can stop anytime."

The most reasonable way to keep me out if you're another monarch is by race-restricting me, Ashtoreth said. But that doesn't actually work anymore, because I count as whatever combination of vampiric archfiend and human I want. You know how many other monarchs I could potentially snipe by taking advantage of that? Who knows how many more worlds I could take for humanity?

"Ashtoreth."

"What?"

"Shut the fuck up."

Ashtoreth took a few steps away from her, clutching at her head and growling. "Yeah, get blessed yourself…" she muttered.

She took a few heaving breaths, trying to calm herself.

"And what about you?" Kylie said, suddenly rounding on Sadie. "Seriously? Nothing to say?"

"I dunno," Sadie said, stepping back and raising her hands defensively.

You don't know whether selling someone to be vivisected, enslaved, or worse just to optimize our shopping experience is bad?

"I mean sure, slavery is bad, I guess…"

"You guess? Why does that come with a fucking qualifier?"

Even through her anger, Ashtoreth let out a short chuckle. Sadie did watch a lot of anime…

Then Ashtoreth sighed. "Don't get mad at her, Kylie. She's got nothing to do with it."

"But she could've!" Kylie said, gesturing to Sadie. "You could've jumped in any time!"

"Take it out on me, not her."

"God, you're unbelievable, Ashtoreth!" Kylie said. "Why are so—so calm? I mean, you're just… fine now?" Kylie's voice had almost risen to shouting volume. "That whole conversation barely phases you? Seriously?"

Ashtoreth shrugged. "I dunno. You're right that they're yours, not mine. I guess just have to hope that you're about the rest, too."

Hoping to help Kylie relax, she added, "I'm sorry if I pushed too hard."

"You're sorry," Kylie echoed. She reached up and clutched at her forehead for a moment. "You have no idea what you're like, do you?"

"Um. Hopefully yes?"

Kylie just stared at Ashtoreth and shook her head in disbelief.

"Look," Ashtoreth said. "You seem really upset about this. You don't have to do this with me if you don't want to. Do you want to swap with Frost now that you know why I put you here?"

Kylie shot her a murderous look. "If you care about the added protection, then yes."

"I don't."

Kylie shook her head in apparent disbelief. "Then let's just… go and do the job we came to do. Nobody needs to know this conversation ever happened."