This was just like camping. Pick a spot, start a small fire, get rained on, have your groundcloth fail. Have your tent retain the water, and all your stuff get wet. Shiver in the cold for hours with your teeth chattering hard enough to crack, everyone has to have been there before, right?

Sure, there was no tent, the sleeping bag was paper thin and did nothing, and I was surrounded by armed people and booby traps, but it was essentially the same.

I used to love camping, but this sucked.

“You okay, Lieutenant?” Golem asked me.

“No, I’m frickin’ freezing!”

“Pipe down, you big baby! It’s only about fifty degrees.”

Should I reprimand her? It seemed like Lewd was getting a bit too familiar. Decisions, decisions. “Fifty degrees and raining. It’s cold.”

Lewd gave me a lopsided grin. “Just wait. As it’s drying, if you’re moving – it can chafe.”

“Perfect.” I told her.

But wait, I had a secret weapon for that. My clothes would be dry in seconds if I wanted them to be. Yep, just like camping.

“Lewd has a point. Out here, silence is golden.” Corporal Black informed us all, not quite aiming those admonishing words my way.

“Then you should probably be silent,” I told him. “I’ll try and keep my teeth from clacking.”

The good Corporal wisely stayed silent. But wise-cracking companions was also part of camping, even if I was their superior officer and their mission was to die for me.

If I had to guess, it was the small hours, which was close enough. “Grex, veni huc!”

There was only so much time I could stand being unprotected. Well, that wasn’t quite right; unprotected by anything that was more than a speed bump against a demon. It was only paranoia if they weren’t actually out to get you. I was surprised I’d gotten any sleep last night with Grex gone, but my loyal troops had all but told me they couldn’t sleep with him there, and a watch would be sufficient.

Grex did one of his usual tricks, rising next to me from the ground up, his arms wrapped around me. He stiffened slightly when instead of pulling away, I leaned into him, and I congratulated myself for actually noticing.

“You bellowed, my Mistress?”

That clinched it, he had t be watching me when he was back home. Why else would he make that reference?

“I called softly, yes. I want you to check out around our camp for anything hostile to us, then report back.”

“Just report?” He asked. “I’m not to eliminate it?”

As if. “Not automatically, no. If you find something, come back and tell me what and where it is.”

“Understood.” He stated for the record, then vanished with a puff of short lived fire.

A puff of fire which suspiciously large, didn’t burn my clothes, but felt very warm.

It made me wonder what he wanted. Probably virgin blood or something.

At the summoning, the rest of the loyal troops woke up, stirring in the dim light. I guess they really couldn’t sleep with a demon about, which was kind of interesting; how did something like that work? A sixth sense? Experience? The other senses filling in, like smelling brimstone or something?

I almost felt bad. Then the cold returned, and it was time to time to move no matter who was tired. “Golem, let’s get started.”

“Sure thing,” he told me. Then he addressed the troops. “Breakfast time.”

MRE’s were brought out; we had breakfast ones, but I just grabbed one of mine at random.

Grex puffed back into range, warming me again.

“Back already?”

“Do you know of any reason I should take my time at such a trivial task?” He challenged me.

“No, and I’d rather you didn’t if you don’t have to. To that end, why did it take you so long to do such searches before?”

“Well, you did not specify times by which the searches were to be complete, and I like the sweet air of Earth. Am I not allowed to take my time on such trivial tasks?”

He smiled at me, as if he hadn’t just contradicted himself in the space of two sentences. Well, I guess he hadn’t directly, but it was close enough.

“Alright, so what else have you been sandbagging me on?”

Grex widened his grin. “That is a very long list. I dare say your team of apes won’t get much walking done if you insist on hearing it.”

Right, I was going to need to be more careful in the future. “Fine. Let’s go. Keep an eye our for trouble Grex, and I don’t mean literally.”

Knowing the mood he was in, he’d do it, blood, screams, and all. Just to be a jerk.

I looked up and he already had two fingers around his left eye, all set to pinch it out.

I couldn’t stop the sigh, and I could feel the headache start. “I need more coffee to put up with this.”

“I can help you with that.” Grex told me.

My joy upon hearing those words was only matched by my suspicion. He had just told me about some wiggle room I’d left him, after all.

“How?”

“By going to get some of course. All you need do is tell me to do it. Your wish is my command, after all.”

That almost sounded like a challenge. Which of course meant that was exactly what it was.

“Fine, Grex go get me coffee. No side trips, and don’t do anything you know I won’t approve of.” That should be as ironclad a bind as any list of things I could name.

Grex gave nothing away, his face bland as he disappeared, leaving a whispered “Of course” and an afterimage of his teeth behind, both floating on the wind.

“You didn’t just….”

I turned to find Golem staring at me wide eyed through the cage his large hand made on his face.

“Yes she did. She just ordered her demon to get her coffee. I fucking saw it.” Lewd was staring at me with something uncomfortably like awe.

“I’ve seen it. I’ve officially seen everything.” Black saw fit to inform us, shaking his head.

“I’m more angry she didn’t include us,” E.T. groused, giving me a look. “What are we, chopped liver?”

That last one needed to be addressed – it wouldn’t do to have my people think I didn’t care. “I can’t be totally sure he won’t spike yours with something, if I order him to bring more.”

E.T didn’t buy it. “You just ordered him not to do anything you’d disapprove of. Are you saying you’d approve of him poisoning us?”

Urk. “Alright, you got me. I just didn’t think of it. But if you want an example, under the right circumstances I could easily see myself poisoning you given the chance, and that might be enough wiggle room for Grex.”

Everyone tensed up, hands on weapons. “Relax, relax, I’m not crazy! I meant that, in the event one of you turned traitor, I might take action. Asking Grex not to do anything I wouldn’t approve of doesn’t really cover that, just because I wouldn’t do anything now doesn’t mean circumstances can’t change. Grex could use that; however poisoning my own coffee is something I would never do.”

“Not crazy, huh?” Eve asked, relaxing.

“Well, not crazier? Will you accept that?”

Golem had not relaxed, but he wanted me to think he had. “All summoners are crazy. It’s in the manual or something.

“It might be in the coffee,” Black opined, which was somewhat disturbing. But I was pretty sure I’d disapprove of crazy pills in my coffee too.

Grex poofed back into existence all at once with a pop, and no fire. He grinned when he saw every weapon we had pointed his way, my own included.

“I apologize, there was a line I was forced to wait through.” He held a coffee in a foam cup I recognized. It bore the logo of the coffee shop around the corner from the apartment complex that had recently been my home. My recent home, in Arizona. My recent home in Arizona which was so near summoner central there was no way Grex hadn’t been recognized. In his other hand, he held something out to me… my debit card.

Just, what? “Did you really…?” I took both items. I know my card had been in my wallet, but here it was, filched from my pocket somehow. The coffee smelled heavenly.

“Order your favorite? Of course.”

I had to ask. “Did you see Karen?” Or did Karen see you, more to the point. If so, I could expect a call soon, cell service denial here or no.

“Of course not, we are several hours ahead of her in the day cycle.”

It was true the cafe was open twenty-four seven due to it’s location, but still, that was nuts.

“Did your demon just pop over to America to get you coffee?” Golem asked in a whisper.

“It seems so,” I answered, taking the cup. It certainly tasted like my favorite blend.

“...The fuck? Demons can do that?” Santa exclaimed, rather loudly. Too loudly, perhaps.

“Only the strongest, but we already knew that.” Dod answered him, even though I was sure the question was rhetorical.

“Yes, Grex can do that,” I told them all and then took another sip. “And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t let on that he just did, or might be in the future.”

I’d never send Grex for ammunition or something else during a fire-fight, but there were ways to use this.

“In the future?” Golem asked, suspicious.

I sipped again. It was still hot, but oh so good. “Sure. I’m thinking pizza party. Tonight.”

There were snickers, but I didn’t see from who. Grex probably did, but he was too busy looking on as blandly as possible.

“….Are you trying to bribe us to keep quiet? With pizza?”

“….Maybe?” I admitted, staring Golem right in the eye.

“Sold. I haven’t had a good pizza in forever.”

“A good pizza might be difficult to find, if I am to consider the opinions of these monkeys, my Mistress.”

That was a valid concern; Having Grex pop all over the place only increased our risk and his chance for discovery.

“Such a child, I swear.” Golem muttered.

“I heard that.”

He looked up and deadpanned. “Whoops. Drink your coffee, Lieutenant.”

I took that answer as a yes.

Rigger had other ideas. “I’ll take beer instead. The beer around here sucks.”

“Not on duty you won’t. I don’t want drunken soldiers watching my back in the middle of demon infested woods.”

“Fair point,” Rigger admitted with a shrug.

Golem clapped, the sound like thunder. “Alright, enough talk, let’s get moving. Pack up and gear up, we leave in five.”

I packed up while Grex held my coffee. I could probably get him to pack for me, but something might get left out if that happened. Something important that I would miss later. Like losing my utility knife wouldn’t hurt me, but it would certainly be annoying. My extra clothes that no one knew about, or would know about, was another thing I’d miss.

We started moving on time, and I reclaimed my coffee. I ignored the lusty eyes cast upon it as I drank deeply. Yes, I could walk and drink at the same time without making a mess of myself! Fear my co-ordination!

I didn’t even feel a pull from Grex anymore upon that tranquil pool of power I possessed. Even with the jewelry. The link was there of course, and it felt as strong as ever. As soothing as ever. But of the drain I was supposed to feel, or even the drain that I actually felt, there was only the barest hint of anything. I couldn’t even properly call it a tug, it was so faint.

I wasn’t sure I liked that.

I needed time to ask Grex what that meant; was my jewelry losing potency again? It would almost have to be, and yet we couldn’t actually stop and deal with it in front of an entire team of paranoid trigger happy army types.

It was time to go. “Dod, you’re point today. Rigger, you’re drag. Perry, you’re left, E.T., you’re right. Twenty feet apart minimum, but don’t lose sight of each other.”

There, that almost sounded professional. Golem even nodded once, sharply.

E.T. grumbled and muttered about being a wing, though he was smart enough to do it nearly silently.

It was a nice sunny day, if a little chilly. Birds were chirping, insects were buzzing, and the surroundings were peaceful – at least until we tromped through them. I turned the flow of time on my uniform up a bit and as expected it dried out fairly quickly. It didn’t even behave differently.

What a horrifying power that was. Could I do that to people? Age them until they died of old age, in seconds?

No, I could not. Even testing such a thing to see if it was possible would lead me down a very dark path. Even thinking of it was too much. Could I do the reverse? Would I dare test that? No, that too was wrong. I couldn’t affect other living creatures, I was sure of it; to even believe otherwise would be madness, and put me on par with a minor god such as should not be held before the real one.

Affecting myself was only natural however.

Grex needed to stop grinning at me from his position, floating invisibly. Every time I clapped eyes on him, he was showing teeth, as if he knew what I was thinking, and that wasn’t one of our powers. I could only imagine the true horror if it was. Wait, could other demons read minds? It wasn’t listed in any of the literature I’d read, but some legends had them just knowing things, and clearly humanity hadn’t done more than just scratch the surface of what some demons could do.

Seventy-ish years was not a long time for research into a new field, if such could be called research. Especially in a war footing.

Speaking of the war, I should get my mind back into it; E.T. was beckoning, and Golem was on his way over. I decided to join them against my better judgement, since wandering in the woods with no conversation or anything to keep yourself busy was boring. Well, when it wasn’t terrifying.

They were both hunched over what looked like a small game trail, whispering. I got closer, and nestled in between two roots, away from most wind and rain, was a small track. The track of a boot. A nearly smooth-soled boot; not one of ours, or any modern boot.

The track was in soft dirt churned up by the tree roots that sheltered it, and was just beginning to crumble around the edges. It was also pointed almost arrow straight toward the base, which raised an interesting question or two.

Like this one. “Grex, are you even paying attention?”

“Of course I am, my Mistress. Do you need more coffee?”

Okay, so maybe I was being a little unfair. But if that’s how he wanted to play it… “I’m fine, thanks. How did someone get past you? This looks like some random loon decided to take a walk. A walk that would take it right to us, and you didn’t detect them.”

Grex came down and looked. “I suspect that track is older than you think it is, if you believe the person who made it went past me. From the looks of it, we were on our first patrol at the time this track was made, if not on that delightful plane over the ocean.”

“But this person,” probably a man judging from the size of the track, but one could never be sure - “would have been a day or so closer to us yesterday.”

“If they hadn’t changed direction,” Golem stated. “And we have no evidence of that.”

“Then let’s find it. There isn’t supposed to be anyone in this forest at all.” Anyone stupid or desperate enough to actually come to demon frequented woods was someone I wanted to talk to.

We grouped up then split up again, searching for more footprints, broken branches, or marks on or in trees. A good long thirty minutes turned up a good fat nothing, so I gave the signal for another regroup.

“Well?”

“We mark it, and call it in if we can,” Golem answered. “We don’t have time to backtrack and no idea which direction to go.”

I wasn’t happy with that. “Alright. Black, radio it in. The rest of you, spread out again, same places as last time. If we can’t find out where our mystery guest is going, let’s find out where they’ve been.”

Finding out where they had been was just as easy as finding out where they were going, it turned out. We did however, find another track like the first at a small creek fed pool; it looked like whoever it was had stopped here for water, maybe as long as five days ago.

Probably sooner than that, since it was a half day from the first track at an easy hiking pace. Rigger found it while filling a canteen, which spoke to how good this guy was.

The question was, how badly did I want to know what this person was doing? How badly did I want to find him?

A gesture later and we were huddled, or mostly huddled. Grex was keeping a casual look out, which meant we were probably pretty safe.

“Alright so how bad do we want this person? You all have more experience here than I do.”

“Technically no one is supposed to be here, and anyone who is here is assumed to be a demon puppet of one kind or another,” Golem explained. “However, there are some people who live in the woods or near it, and do their thing. At least, until the demons eat them. Not many, but there are some.”

That didn’t muddy the waters at all.

“Alright, so…?”

“We track them down. Could be another sniper.” Dod opined idly, chewing on some piece of grass I hoped wasn’t hallucinagenic.

“We don’t bother,” Black disagreed. “It’s almost certainly a loner squatting in a shack somewhere.”

Eve broke the silence. “Most of those don’t come so close to us.”

I think that was the first time I’d heard Eve talk since yesterday morning.

It was clear the consensus was going somewhere. “Right. So we find him, but it’s not really important enough to sideline the patrol?”

Golem held his hand out and waffled it. “It’s your call, technically.”

Right. “Alright, we will continue as planned. But… I’m still going to handle the potential problem. It’s time for you all to meet the twins, I think.”

“That doesn’t sound ominous at all,” Musad muttered. I took a few steps out of the huddle.

“Don’t freak out, alright? Abnex, Sarex, veni huc!”

The twins dropped from the sky like birds of prey, pulling up right before they would hit me. And of course, they started in immediately.

“Are these meatbags...”

“Bothering you, Milady?”

And in stereo: “Shall we kill them?”

“No, they are my soldiers while I’m here. I have a different task for you, and you will complete it.” It was best to be firm with the twins.

They stiffened, picking up on my tone immediately, and saluted. Their salutes were sloppier than mine. At least they were trying, I guess. Or maybe they were mocking; with demons, it was tough to tell.

“I want you to find the owner of the boot that made this track as soon as possible under the following conditions. You are to do nothing else while here. You are to find this person, and bring them directly to me, without causing them any lasting damage. You are to hurt no one else by either any sort of action, direct or indirect. Do you understand those instructions?”

“We do,” they chorused.

“Then go.”

They both flapped at once, plunging upwards straight as arrows, before flying off in the direction of the first track.

I symbolically washed my hands of the whole thing; the deed was already done after all, and walked back to my shell shocked troops. Grex at least was at ease; if not bored.

I probably shouldn’t ask, but I had to. “What?”

“You just summoned two demons with your contract words, then set them loose,” Olympic told me. “No circle, no binding, no blood.”

Oh. Right. “My contract to Grex gives me dominion over them, technically. The words themselves, the marching orders, are binding enough. I’ve used the twins before, and they can’t overstep.”

“That’s… pretty impressive.” Golem muttered, closing his mouth.

“I told you all I could summon and control multiple demons.” I pointed out.

“Yeah we heard you, but… summoners,” Golem returned.

True, summoners did have some rather sketchy views on reality. I couldn’t deny that charge, even for myself.

“Well, I’m pretty sane, at least so far.”

“A paragon of sanity,” Grex stated.

“Yes, thank you Grex,” Help like that in my corner was no help at all. “Anyway, the twins have their mission, and we have ours. Rigger, did we get any reply on the radio?”

“No response yet, Snow. I think it’s being jammed at the source again.”

Well, I wouldn’t know if my choice was right until after, I guess. Fine by me. “Whatever, let’s get to work.”