Calladia believed though. And she was committed to creating a safer world for him and those like him. She’d fight at his side until they won—and then fight whatever battles came next.
She kept an eye on their surroundings, checking for adversaries. Mariel was intercepting periodic rocks, spears, arrows, and fireballs, and Calladia had looped the levitation spell around her wrist and started a new weaving to cast a defensive shield around Astaroth. Themmie was zooming around, throwing rocks at people.
Mariel inscribed a swirl in the air, and a spear clattered to the ground.
Wait a second. Calladia frowned. “Mariel, raise your hand again.”
Mariel did, and as her fingers were silhouetted against the sky, Calladia saw a faint light emanating from her skin. Calladia lifted her own hand and saw the same thing.
“We’re glowing,” Calladia said.
“Weird.” Mariel turned her hand this way and that. “I feel fine.”
Calladia noticed small, dark green sprouts pushing up between the cobblestones at their feet. When she turned to look behind them, she saw a trail of greenery that hadn’t been there before.
A hunch formed, and Calladia studied a nearby soul. This one was the size of a grapefruit, bobbing along at head height between the road and a stream running parallel to it. The bank of the stream was narrow and steep, dotted with strange flowers. As the soul passed over a patch of dark purple buds, their petals opened, revealing gold centers. The flowers turned their faces to the soul as if it were the sun.
“It’s the magic,” Calladia said, excitement swelling in her breast. “Look, the plants are growing.”
Mariel closed her eyes, and Calladia knew she was consulting her nature magic. Her eyes popped open, and a wondering look suffused her face. “They’re feeding on the magic.”
“Should we be worried?”
Mariel shook her head. “They’re not stealing it from us. It’s like being adjacent to the souls, or to us, is enough to make them thrive.”
Calladia’s heart raced. If that was true, this could have enormous implications for the demon plane and the fraught witch-demon dynamic. “If witches and warlocks were allowed to live here,” she said, “bargainers wouldn’t need to harvest as many souls. Just the presence of magic users would give the plane energy.”
Themmie landed next to them. “Why do you look like you just got the shock of your life?” she asked. Calladia explained what they’d noticed, and Themmie gasped. “Ooh. Am I glowing, too?”
Pixies had minor magical abilities, mostly limited to cleaning magic. It had been a huge source of irritation to Themmie, who tended toward disorganization, that her one magical ability was something she hated doing.
Calladia leaned in, inspecting the pixie’s hand. Her rich brown skin didn’t seem to be glowing, but when Calladia cupped Themmie’s hand in her own, cutting off outside illumination, and put her eye to the gap in their fingers, she saw a faint bluish-green light. It was like looking at a glow-in-the-dark pattern in a darkened room. “You are!” she exclaimed.
Themmie screeched and fluttered off the ground in a show of excitement. “You know what this means, right?”
Calladia nodded, feeling giddy. “It means the demon plane’s problem with needing outside magic has a simple solution.”
“Immigration!” Themmie crowed. “Throw open the borders and let other species settle here. More magic! More hybrids! More life!”
Astaroth needed to know this information before he confronted Moloch and the high council, and they were quickly approaching the intimidating black building at the end of the road. Along the way, the protestors had been joined by a groundswell of other demons.
“Cover me?” Calladia asked her friends, who nodded. She tied a new spell that mirrored what she’d cast on Astaroth and rose into the air, trying not to panic as the ground fell away. If the thread was severed or she lost concentration, she’d fall.
Astaroth looked startled when she drifted to his side. “Fancy seeing you here,” he said. Mariel’s loudspeaker spell had been terminated while she was playing defense, so his voice was normal volume. “Are you joining me?”
“Only briefly.” She was acutely aware of the demons whispering and pointing at her. It couldn’t be often that a fully ensouled witch showed up in this plane. “I just learned something.”
She explained the discovery to Astaroth, whose eyes widened. “Fiery Lucifer,” he said when she was done. “You’re not jesting?”