“I sold him my soul?”
For a long moment Drafty simply stared at him in what Lex could only presume was disbelief. But then, in complete defiance of the range of reactions he’d anticipated, she simply shook her head and snickered. “No way,” she chuckled. “Lex, there’s no way that’s right.”
Her total lack of concern for the gravity of the situation made Lex grit his teeth, fighting down the urge to scream at her. Instead, he folded the contract she’d given him so that only a particular section was visible, shoving it in her face. “‘The undersigned,’” he quoted, having memorized the words there despite glancing at it only briefly, “‘affirms and agrees that, upon the cessation – including but not limited to: death, discorporation, or any other instance of non-temporary discontinuance – of their mode(s) of existence contemporaneous to the enactment of this agreement, their metaphysical self (identified as the anima, astral body, soul, spirit, or other moniker; see section 1D.5(g), “Definitions”) shall immediately take up indefinite residence in Perdition and be subject to all applicable rules and laws therein under the oversight of this document’s purveyor, forsaking all other covenants, accords, contracts, pacts, concordances, or other forms of understanding – including those reached (implicitly or otherwise) with any gods, divinities, powers, or other entities that present themselves as such – in contravention thereof.’”
After he finished, Thermal Draft didn’t immediately react. Her brow furrowed, and Lex watched as she mouthed several of the words he’d just read her, apparently needing time to sort through them. It was only after several seconds had passed that her expression slowly changed to one of alarm. “Wait a minute,” she muttered as her eyes widened. “Wait a minute…I sold him my soul?”
She didn’t wait for him to reply before turning to look at Prevarius. “I sold you my soul?!” she yelled. “You said all you wanted in return for everything you gave me was some help understanding ponies better!”
“And I didn’t lie,” replied Prevarius glibly, his smile still in place. “I’m very interested in learning more about you little ponies. Specifically, how much I can trade you for on the soul market.”
“The soul market?!” shrieked Thermal Draft, beginning to hyperventilate. “As in, a market for buying and selling people’s souls?!”
“No, no, of course not,” chuckled the devil, waving a hand as though to brush Drafty’s suggestion away. The pegasus managed to calm herself a little at that, until Prevarius continued. “It’s also for buying and selling the souls of creatures that no one would consider to be ‘people’ in the first place. You can purchase the spirits of insects and protoplasms for almost nothing, whereas something like the anima of an ancient dragon or a royal naga can command sums that are absolutely princely!”
“What about my family?!” Solvei bounded forward then, and Lex cursed as he raised his foreleg, thinking that the winter wolf was going to charge the devil on her own. But she managed to rein herself in before he needed to invoke his divine authority, skidding to a halt on the snowy ground as she growled at Prevarius. “You’re saying that they’ll go to this ‘market’ of yours instead of joining my ancestors in the afterlife?! That that’s where Bolverk is right now?!”
“Oh, is Bolverk dead?” Prevarius shrugged. “A pity. I was counting on him to put pressure on the nearby pony communities. With a group of monstrous wolves threatening to overrun their defenses, they would have been tripping over themselves to cut a deal in order to gain the power to fight them off.”
Giving a deep sigh, the phistophilus shook his head. “I suppose I’ll have to find someone else to attack them now. I’d do it myself, but consumer confidence always takes a hit when people realize that you’ve created the problem that you’re offering them a solution to.”
“‘A solution’?” echoed Solvei, looking confused. “But Bolverk said you wanted my pack to bring you whatever ponies were left alive after they overcame them, so why…” Her jaw dropped as the truth dawned on her then. “You weren’t going to wait until after they raided the ponies at all! You were going to make deals to give the ponies seidr the way you did for Thermal Draft right after my pack started attacking, weren’t you?!” She snarled then, baring her teeth at the devil. “And with those powers, they would have slaughtered my family!”
“Mea culpa,” murmured Prevarius, giving the wolf a modest bow. “It’s considered gauche to arrange for the deaths of your clients after they’ve signed their souls away, but cutting a deal with parties who are adverse to your client is another matter entirely.”
Straightening up, the devil spread his arms in a conciliatory gesture. “If it’s any consolation, I was only interested in the ponies; the souls of your kind simply aren’t worth very much.”
That was enough to earn a howl of rage from the winter wolf. “Change my family back!” she demanded. “Change them back right now or I’ll kill-”
“Solvei!” snapped Lex. “That’s enough!”
The rebuke was enough to make Solvei gape, looking back at the unicorn in shock. “But Lex-”
Behind the wooden mask, Lex narrowed his eyes at her. “I said that’s enough.” He raised his wire-wrapped hoof again, pointing it at her in a silent reminder that he could easily force her to obey him. “Now, step back.”
For a moment Solvei hesitated, staring at Lex as though she couldn’t believe what he was telling her to do. But when he didn’t back down, the tension drained from her body, and she slunk back to his side with her ears pressed flat against her head. “You’re going to make him undo what he did to my family, right?” she whimpered softly. “You’re not just going to rescue Thermal Draft and abandon the rest of them?”
“He won’t do that,” murmured Drafty, her voice shaky with barely-repressed anxiety as she moved around and – invoking a spell to protect herself from the winter wolf’s natural cold – gave Solvei a hug. It was as much for herself as it was for the wolf; as frightened as she felt right now, having something big and furry to hold onto was the only way she could make herself stop shaking. “He has a plan. Lex always has a plan. He’ll fix this, you’ll see.”
For his part, Lex gave no indication that he’d heard either of them, instead glaring at Prevarius.
The devil, for its part, stared right back at him, looking completely unconcerned by the naked antipathy being directed toward him. “Lex Legis, I presume? Thermal Draft told me a great deal about you. Allow me to formally introduce myself.” The creature bowed at the waist, the papers hanging from its body-horns rustling with the motion. “My name is Prevarius, a phistophilus devil of Dis, the Second Hell.”
Lex didn't bother returning the cordial bow. Every instinct was screaming at him to rush in and destroy the smirking monster in front of him. The rage and shame that he felt at not having been able to prevent Thermal Draft from being tricked into signing her soul away bordered on unbearable – the latest failure in what was rapidly becoming a succession of failures, from the disastrous results of his scrying on Adagio Dazzle to his inability to overcome Dark Streak – and in that moment he wanted nothing more than to unleash his pent-up frustrations in a storm of violence that would see Prevarius torn limb from limb. With the magic items he now possessed, and the power he could imbue Solvei with, there was nothing to prevent him from indulging in that urge. He could practically feel a scream of fury, one that would announce his assault, climbing up his throat as he opened his mouth…
“How much?”
Raising an eyebrow, Prevarius tilted his head. “Hm?”
“How much?” repeated Lex, the words coming out thick with bile. “What’s your price to buy out the contracts for Thermal Draft and the rest of Solvei’s pack?”
Prevarius blinked once. Then a second time. Then he leaned his head back and let out a roar of laughter. “Oh! Oh my! Are you actually suggesting that you can simply purchase someone’s infernal contract?”
“Yes,” replied Lex flatly.
As easy as it was for him to compare the creature in front of him to the other devil he’d encountered – the belier that had called itself Xiriel – it was a different otherworldly entity that was at the forefront of Lex’s mind at that moment: Harrowing Ordeal.
A denizen of the Night Mare’s realm that he’d briefly summoned in order to answer some questions about the goddess, the creature had been intent on bargaining for its services. But while Lex had been insistent on paying for information with gemstones, the scabrous creature had given voice to its preference for a mare that it could take back to its infernal realm and impregnate, promising to return whoever it was given after its brood had been born. That had been a complete nonstarter, of course, but while Lex had chalked Harrowing Ordeal’s request up to simple degeneracy at the time, now he was less certain.
According to what Prevarius had said, souls were monetary units in its infernal realm. While there was nothing to suggest that Harrowing Ordeal participated in any such debased marketplace, that would explain why the creature had specifically mentioned siring offspring as a method of payment for its services; whatever children its unfortunate partner birthed would have been mere money to it, their souls sold to enrich their depraved father.
But that hadn’t happened. Harrowing Ordeal had ultimately acquiesced to Lex’s demand that it accept gems as payment. Which meant…
“I’ve dealt with things like you before,” asserted Lex, his eyes still glowing with repressed anger as he stared down the phistophilus. “Souls might be currency where you’re from, but they’re not the only currency. Given that you yourself just admitted that some souls are worth more than others – noting the comparative value of insects, dragons, and winter wolves – that means that there’s quantifiable value to them. As such, you should be able to quote a price for buying back the souls of Thermal Draft and Solvei’s pack.”
The words were like acid on his tongue. That pony life held value beyond measure was a core part of Lex’s worldview. To entertain any alternative was complete and utter anathema to everything he believed in.
But if maintaining the sanctity of his beliefs came at the cost of sacrificing another pony – or even the loved ones of someone he’d entered into an agreement to save – then that was hypocrisy of the highest order. Right now, there was no way for Lex to be sure that an attack on Prevarius would be successful. And even if it was, there was a very real possibility that killing the creature wouldn’t undo the contracts it had made.
And although this line of negotiation bent his moral code to its limits, it didn’t break it. Recognizing that other creatures didn’t share his view on the priceless nature of pony life, and interacting with them accordingly, was neither a renunciation of his own outlook nor repudiation of the truths that formed the basis for his ethical framework. It was the implementation of that principle that was impinged upon by the pragmatics of the situation, rather than the principle itself.
In other words, this was a question of politics.
And that was also one of his responsibilities as a prince.
“You’re quite correct!” laughed Prevarius, apparently delighted to be negotiating. “There are indeed other forms of fiscal compensation used as part of the soul trade. After all, how else would souls be exchanged if not for other goods or services? But alas,” the devil put a hand to his chest then, feigning sorrow, “while I might be persuaded to let the winter wolves go, I simply cannot bring myself to part with the soul of the lovely Thermal Draft. Not for any price.”
Gritting his teeth, Lex resisted the urge to lash out, knowing it was possible that the phistophilus was saying that purely as a bargaining tactic. “And why is that?”
But when it came a moment later, the devil’s answer caught him completely off-guard.
“Because among the myriad connoisseurs of souls, you ponies have the potential to be the next big thing!”
Prevarius’ answer was passionately delivered, tilting his head back and yelling the last three words to the sky as he spoke, raising his arms upward in excitement. “It’s every salesman’s dream! To get in on the ground floor of the next big craze, so that you’re sitting on a limited supply of the hot new item just as the demand skyrockets!”
Grinning so widely that it almost took in his ears, Prevarius tapped his fingers together excitedly as he looked at Lex. “It’s so exciting! Just recently, there’s been a trickle of pony souls onto the market, and buyers have been going absolutely crazy for them! We’ve had demons and liches and dark fey and witches and so many others break out into bidding wars to buy pony souls! Right now it’s just a flash in the pan, but it has the potential to become even bigger than that drow elf craze we had a few decades ago!”
Lex could only stare as Prevarius ranted. He had no idea what a “drow elf” was, but the juxtaposition of something as horrific as souls being traded for money with the banality of what sounded like some sort of buying frenzy – like how certain toys would experience sudden surges of popularity around Hearth’s Warming, leading to rushes to buy them all from stores – was jarring enough that he couldn’t help but feel nonplussed. But the devil had let something else slip as well, something that Lex knew he couldn’t afford to miss.
“You said that the souls of ponies started being traded only recently?” he murmured, narrowing his eyes.
“Precisely!” cheered Prevarius. “And when I saw how they were becoming all the rage, I knew I had to act fast! It required calling in every favor I was owed, and even agreeing to owe a few down the line, but I managed to track the supply down to here, in this region of this world!”
Spreading his arms out wide, the phistophilus spun in place, laughing in delight. “And now that I’ve found this place, I can finally do what I’ve always dreamed of: start cornering the market! At this rate, I’ll be able to buy my way up the infernal hierarchy in no time at all!”
Dropping his arms back down, Prevarius sighed happily before turning to give Lex a lazy grin. “So you see, I really can’t give Thermal Draft’s soul back. It’s simply too valuable. Unless…” – his smirk took on a sharper edge then – “you can offer me the soul of a pony even more valuable than she is.”
The hint was obvious enough that even Lex was able to pick up on it, meeting the devil’s gaze evenly. “You’re referring to me.”
Prevarius gave another shrug. “What can I say? She’s an unusual specimen, to be sure, but compared to what she told me about you? The pony who’s mastered multiple types of magic, has a transplanted horn, glowing eyes, and a shadow that falls against the light? Not to mention possesses a fragment of a god’s essence?” His eyes slid to the barbed wire wrapped around Lex’s foreleg then, chuckling. “You’re unique. And unique items always sell for the highest prices.”
Lex’s lip curled at that. “You’re suggesting-” But he didn’t have a chance to finish before he felt the wire begin to move, its edges pressing painfully against his skin. It wasn’t enough to draw blood, but it was more than enough to make the Night Mare’s opinion clear.
“I’m suggesting,” answered Prevarius with a throaty chuckle, “that I’ll happily give up Thermal Draft’s soul, and those of the winter wolves, in exchange for yours. Only after you die, of course.” Lightly plucking a ream of paper from one of the massive horns curled around its body, the phistophilus nodded toward Lex. “We can start ironing out the rest of the details now, if you’d like?”
Lex didn’t reply immediately. Instead, he eyed Prevarius for a long moment, considering.
Then he glanced at his foreleg, where the barbed wire was pressing itself even tighter as it dragged over his skin.
Then he looked at where Thermal Draft and Solvei were looking at him, their fear and desperation written plainly on their faces.
His mind made up, Lex turned back toward Prevarius. “First, I want the contract written in the language we’re speaking now…”