Jennifer Conifer had been a strict, unpleasant woman, tall and spindly with black hair and a permanently scowling face. Born into a family in which her parents doted on her and her siblings cared (far too much, in her opinion) how she was doing, she sought to escape them in any way she could.
She did that when she was nineteen, running away and joining a Cult.
The Cult had been a small one, dedicated to the demon Brian (the Organ Duck, a demon well-known for being amicable and fair, and also for once being elected president of the United States), but it hadn't stayed that way for long. Jennifer had risen to power quickly, and while the Cult still worshipped Brian, they widened their worship to other demons; more dangerous, violent demons, ones who weren't as forgiving or as kind.
And as unfriendly as their objects of praise were, so became the Cult.
Everything was going fine for the Cult, and Jennifer's life was perfect; until, that was, she discovered that she was pregnant.
Wanted by the government for demonic worship (because the New State Alliance was just as wary of demons as the Californian Federation, just more covertly so), she refused to come out of hiding in order to seek medical care, and so died giving birth to twins.
And that was how the Cult of Iron Blood ended up taking in Ari and Pi Conifer.
They were six when Ari first took interest in the outside world.
It was natural, really, that it'd want to see more than dark halls, the medieval tunnels under the city where the Cult lurked. It wanted to explore the lands above, see the thing others called the sun.
And though it'd never admit it, Pi wanted to, too; desperately, in fact.
They never did get to leave the Labyrinth, the Cultists instead locking them in their room until Ari went stir crazy and gave up fighting. That was the day when Pi learned that you couldn't ever ask for things; if you wanted something, you had to get it yourself.
Hanna was small and plump, and had six degrees in her pocket. Why she'd ended up in a cult like Iron Blood nobody knew, but she was more than happy to teach the children how to read and write.
“Pi, those aren't words,” Hanna explained gently, looking over Pi’s page. Pi looked up, blinking innocently.
“No,” it said, “They're not words.” It couldn't communicate it properly, but if it could have done they would have told her that they were words, they were just words represented by symbols so that no one else could read them. If it had known the word, it would have called the squiggles codes and ciphers.
But it didn't and so it was scolded and given a new sheet of paper and made to write out its ABC’s over and over again.
Ari had filled its page with letters by this point and had started drawing on the table in thick ink. Hanna sighed but turned a blind eye, and that was the moment Pi realised that they liked its sibling much more than they liked it.
Pi was allowed into a summoning when it turned twelve. It was ecstatic, so happy to properly be a member of the Cult. Ari was there too, by its side as it had always been.
As the chanting began Ari took Pi’s hand and flashed it a grin. Pi smiled back, before Reginald kicked them in the ankles in order to make them focus. Pi returned to the chanting, the words it had memorised sounding strange and foreign on its lips.
When the chanting was done, the candles blew out. The crowd began to mutter unhappily; Pi’s heart raced. Ari gripped its hand tighter.
“What's going on?” it asked. Pi shrugged wordlessly, unable to answer.
“Something’s gone wrong,” Pi heard Reginald whisper into the darkness, before all hell broke loose.
It turned out that Alcor the Dreambender did not like human sacrifices. And whilst watching Liam, the Cult Leader, splashing blood onto the summoning circle had been very exciting, seeing him being dismembered had been less so.
After that, the crowd had dissolved into a screaming, bloody mess, the Dreambender murdering people with unimaginable power. Hanna had grabbed the twins, pulling them into a dark corner behind a shelf, leaving them there but not before making them promise to not leave until the demon was gone.
Pi had curled up, Ari in its arms, and the two had sat listening to the screams, holding their breaths and hoping they wouldn't be found.
The last screams were cut off when the shelf was thrown across the room by the demon’s power, crushing three cultists beneath it. The Dreambender rose, a short man in a dapper suit, covered in the blood of the only people they had ever known, and turned to them. His face suddenly softened and became overwhelmed with horror, and he whispered, “Oh shit.”
Then, without warning, he vanished, leaving the two alone.
The twins were alone for five days before the men in suits came for them. They were told that the men were from the government, which set both the twins on edge; neither of them had a good grasp on what a government was, exactly, but they knew that it was nothing good. Then a woman with blonde hair and a kindly, plump face had approached them, and told them that she was there to keep them safe.
Tired, hungry and unable to find the words to argue, Pi had simply relented and let Ari cling to the woman in gratitude, limply following behind. Every step made its body feel heavy and worn out, and before they'd even left the Labyrinth, it'd collapsed from sheer exhaustion.
And that was when Pi discovered that not sleeping in almost a week was bad for your health.
Fifteen was the age when Pi was invited to a party at the house of a classmate for the first time. Ari had been invited too, and in all her excitement, had drowned out Pi’s sentiments that it hadn't wanted to go. And so Stella had shrugged her shoulders, said, “Whatever,” and let them go.
“This is gonna be sooo much fun!” Ari exclaimed, walking backwards in front of Pi, a spring to her step. “Aren't you excited? Angelica’s like, the most popular kid ever! And she invited us!”
“Ari, she invited everyone,” Pi pointed out, but its words fell on deaf ears. Ari simply spun around to face the right way, skipping beside it.
“I can hear the music!” she whispered loudly, grabbing its hand. “C’mon!” The next thing Pi knew, it was being pulled across the lawn toward the large, brightly-lit manor from which music was spilling.
The party was every bit as crowded as Pi was expecting, though there was less alcohol than it had expected. Though it should have considered that, technically, the stuff was illegal here; Stella had so much of it that it was easy to forget. She didn't exactly keep it secret, either, instead offering it to anyone who walked through the door of her shop, whether that person be the batty old man from down the road or a pregnant woman or a five year old kid or a law enforcement officer.
What the party lacked for in drunkenness, it made up for in RainPop, that old energy drink that was banned in sixty countries for being ridiculously trippy. Everywhere Pi turned, it could find someone slumped against the wall, staring at nothing with foam around their mouth and their pupils blown wide. Personally, it stayed away from the stuff, and kept to the water from the tap (which was, really, the only thing they couldn't spike).
Ari was out on the dancefloor, making goo-goo eyes at some girl with pink hair and large glasses. Pi wondered whether it was worth making the journey to tell its twin that it was leaving, when he felt something tap its shoulder.
It turned to see a girl he recognised from one of its classes, though which one, it couldn't be sure. She smiled hesitantly, and said, “It's Pi, right?” Pi nodded.
“Yeah? Did you want something?”
“Well, me and a couple others were gonna try and summon a demon out back, and you're the best at demonology in our class, so…” So that was where it knew her from.
It gaped at her. “You know summoning demons is illegal, right?” it asked.
“So is RainPop and alco, but there's plenty here tonight,” she pointed out. “It's fine if you don't want to, sorry for asking-”
“No, I'll join you!” Pi cried hurriedly, despite every other part of it screaming no. “Just making sure.” She grinned.
“Great! Come on, its this way.” She grabbed its wrist and lead it through the house into the cold night air. The inside of the shed she led it to was just as cold, the candles and wooden walls doing nothing against the November breeze.
“You're summoning Alcor?” Pi asked, watching as one of the guys finished the circle. He jumped, looking up to reveal a pair of sellotaped glasses hanging from his face.
“You have a problem with that?” he asked. Pi shook its head.
“No, it’s just-”
“Good,” the guy said. “Name’s Jason, and this-” he pointed at a plump girl sitting beside him- “Is Mouse. And you know Anne, of course.”
“Yeah,” Pi echoed, guessing that the girl stood beside him was Anne, “of course.”
“Right,” Jason said, finishing the circle and placing the chalk down on the floor. “Now we chant.” Mouse started and glanced up from the white notebook she was reading it, holding it up to Pi.
“The chant's here, if you wanted to read it,” she informed him quietly. Pi shook its head.
“Uh, no thanks! I think I've got it.” Frowning in confusion, she nodded, and set the book down. Then, on the count of three, they started to chant.
As they did so, Pi’s palms began to grow sweaty, and it realised that it was freaking out. Why was it doing this, again? It's throat clammed up and it couldn't finish the chant, couldn't breathe, it needed to get out-
Anne sent him a concerned look as the chant finished, and Pi grappled for the door handle. Unable to find it, it stared, wondering just how it would die-
But the demon never arrived, a small spinning star appearing where he should have. “Your summons is very important to us,” said a voice from the star. “Alcor will be with you soon.” Then, a girl's voice began to warble in what seemed to be twenty-first century English. The words were hard to understand, but the scene was enough to resolve the tension in Pi’s chest.
“We've been put on hold?” it said breathlessly. Jason frowned at him.
“Hey, dude, you okay?” he asked. Pi shrugged.
“I don't- It doesn't matter. I'm just gonna, go.” At last, its hand found the door handle, and it twisted it, escaping out into the cold night air and stumbling across the lawn.
“Hey, Pi, wait!” Anne called after it, but Pi ignored her, instead taking out its phone to text Ari.
Gone home. See u ltr.
“You're back early,” Stella commented as Pi stumbled back into their quarters above the shop.
“Didn't feel too good,” Pi admitted, making its way to the fridge and pouring itself a glass of milk.
“You wanna talk about it?” Stella asked, but her tone was practically screaming please don't need to talk about it.
“No,” it said with a sigh, “I'm just gonna… go to bed.” It picked up the glass of milk, taking a sip and making a turn for the stairs. Stella nodded.
“Okay, kid. Let me know if you need anything.”
“Will do,” Pi responded warily, vanishing up onto the next floor. Mentally it cursed the stairs, wishing Stella had invested in a portatube like everyone else, rather than living in a house that probably hadn't been renovated since the Transcendence. Not that it didn't appreciate having the experience in order to write accurate history projects, but it could really do without aching legs.
Opening its door, if tumbled into bed, placing the milk on the tray and staring up at the ceiling. Its digibar lit up, and the magibarrier around its bed flickered to life, the area within it darkening, with the exception of the constellations it was set to project on the ceiling.
It wasn't very long at all before Pi fell asleep.
Pi awoke fumbling for a remnants of a dream that was already lost to the wind. Having almost forgotten that it had dreamed at all, it sat up, pressing the switches in the wall to turn off the barrier, only to find it greeted with a surprising sight.
There was its sister, lying on her bed, still wearing the clothes from the night before, with the girl she had been dancing with lying at her side, face smeared with lipgloss. Not wanting to be around when either woke up, Pi quickly hurried downstairs.
Stella was down in the shop, and as a result, the rest of the house was empty. Pi switched on the magihack, which Stella had stolen a couple of years before she had adopted the twins. She’d never explicitly told them it was stolen, but Stella didn't buy things if she could steal them, and magihacks were ridiculously expensive. There was no way she’d forked out for something like that, considering she still had stairs, of all things.
“Good morning, Pi,” the magihack said, “What can I do for you this morning?”
“Eggs, please,” Pi said, stifling a yawn. “And can you get me a profile on the girl upstairs?”
“Of course,” the magihack intoned, and Pi sat down at the table as the holographic screen appeared in front of it. The loading bar quickly reached full and Pi found itself faced with the image of the pink-haired girl.
Her name, according to the magihack, was West Ronan, and she was from the Canadian Provinces. Pi checked, and found that her family history was clean, and with a sigh, closed the window.
To find a single message glaring at it from the screen.
It was from one Anne Lee, who Pi assumed had been the Anne at the party last night. Reluctantly, it opened it.
Hey, Pi, sorry for what happened last night. Didn’t mean to freak you out.
That being said, we’re gonna try and summon a demon again next week. We think we’re gonna try Alcor again (sources say he’ll help with homework for snacks, and I’m not sure how accurate that is, but we’ll find out), you up for it?
Pi knew how dealings with demons went. It also knew that Alcor was not a demon you ought to mess around with. It also knew it didn’t trust Anne and her friends.
However, that didn’t stop it from sending back a single word: Sure.
Lunch on Monday found Pi being waved at by Anne from a table in the corner of the cafeteria.
Pi quickly looked around for other options. Ari was sat across from West, the two of them holding hands and giggling. That option ruled out, Pi looked for spare tables, and when it found none, gave up and with a reluctant sigh, went to sit beside Anne.
Mouse and Jason were there too, talking quietly to each other about something they were clearly excited by, if their bright eyes and wide smiles were anything to go by. Anne gave Pi a smile as it sat down.
“Hey, man, sorry about Saturday. Guess we kinda freaked you out, and I’m sorry about that,” she said. Pi shrugged.
“It’s cool,” it said. “Though I still think you’re ridiculously stupid for summoning demons, I mean, it’s one of the most dangerous things you could do.”
“So why are you doing it with us?” Anne asked, raising an eyebrow, and Pi scowled.
“Because I’m stupid,” it muttered, and she laughed.
“Sure you are,” she said, but her tone implied that she didn’t really mean it. “Oh! I’ve been meaning to ask you, your band’s blue- what pronouns do you use?”
Pi froze, subconsciously pulling the sleeve over the band sewn into its skin. Everyone in the New State Alliance had one, a band that contained a chip that held every official bit of information about the person and then some. Along with that, pronouns and gender could be shown by programming it to glow a certain colour: red for she, yellow for he, and green for they. Blue, was, quite simply: ask.
“Touchy subject?” Anne asked sympathetically. “I’m sorry for asking.”
“No, it’s… fine,” Pi said, voice strained. “Um… it. It, its, itself.” Her eyebrows skyrocketed into her hairline, but she didn’t say anything other than,
“Okay.”
Pi nodded, taking a deep breath, before turning to its dinner and beginning to eat. Even as it did so, it couldn’t help but to feel a pulse of gratitude towards her, as the one person who had never said a thing about it.
Pi and Ari had always been “it”, as long as they could remember. It was just what the cultists had used to refer to them, and so they had always referred to themselves as such. When the social workers came, they were taken away and fitted with bands, and told how the pronouns worked. Ari had immediately taken to playing around with hers: going from it to they to he to she as often as she wanted. About a year ago, she had left it on she and never changed it since.
Pi, on the other side, had refused any pronouns but its own. Everyone at the services seemed confused by this; it had lost count of the amount of times it’d been pulled aside and told, gently, that it was okay to use different pronouns, and no one could hurt it for them now.
They had ignored its claims that it knew that, it just preferred its own, and so most people simply referred to Pi as “they” (or occasionally “he”, because they couldn’t see his band and it looked pretty masculine, didn’t it?), with the exception of Stella and Ari.
That was, until Pi met Anne and her friends.
The chant ended, the last remnants of their voices echoing in the shadowy basement.
Pi held its breath, staring forward at the dark shape forming, becoming more and more humanoid, before transforming into the shape of a man in his twenties, dressed in a suit and bowtie, top hat floating above his head and dangerous black and gold eyes.
“WH̢O D̡AR̵ES S̕UMMON͝ ̡A͝ĻC̡OR THE ̢DR͟E̢AM͢B̀E͏ND̡ER͠?͏” he thundered, the candles blinking out. Anne stepped forward, face pale and smile stretched taught.
“Um, ice cream,” she said, her voice oddly high pitched. “Ice cream for homework?” The dreambender stared, and then laughed.
“Of course,” he said, chuckling. “Of course it’d be you!”
“Um, what?” Anne asked, taking a nervous step back. The dreambender dropped from the air and landed easily on the ground.
“Go on then, Cassie, grab your ice cream. I assume it’s math you need help with?”
“My name’s not Cassie,” Anne said in confusion. Alcor froze.
“It’s not?” he asked, sounding just as confused. Anne shook her head.
“No, it’s Anne. Cassandra.”
“Of course it is. Well, grab the ice cream and the homework, and I’ll see what I can do. I assume your friends all need help too?” The demon turned toward Jason, Mouse and Pi, looking them over.
“Yes, please,” Mouse squeaked, and Jason nodded. Pi shook its head.
“No thanks, I’m good-” That was when the demon’s eyes met its and a look that was all recognition and fury and hatred and sorrow overtook him. Pi took a step back, and suddenly its heart was in its throat and it stumbled backwards, desperate to do anything to get away from that glare-
“Y̝o͓̠̫͇u̜,” he growled dangerously, clearing Mouse and Jason to either side by swiping his hands and marching straight through the gap between them toward Pi. “I would’ve thought y͝our ́so͟ul̕, of all of them, would know better than to summon m̸̢e͢͞.” Pi shook its head.
“I- I k-know its stupid, please stop looking at me I-” Its foot slipped and it tumbled to the ground, gazing up at the demon’s face, overcome with terror because this was it, this was the end, it was going to die just three years after escaping the massacre-
“Alcor!” Anne cried. “Stop it!” Suddenly a tub of ice cream came soaring through the air, and hit the dreambender in the head. The demon stumbled to the side, rubbing at its head, and turned to glare at Anne, who, despite facing down the deadliest demon known to man, was defiant and angry and stood her ground.
“Sorry,” the demon muttered. Then, “Deal’s off. Next time, summon me when he’s not in the room.” And with that, he vanished, leaving silence behind in the dark basement.
“Dude,” Jason said, turning to Pi, “I think you must have really pissed him off in a past life, or something.”
Pi didn’t respond, staring dazedly ahead, wondering just what had happened.
Pi avoided Anne and her friends after that. It ignored the messages on the magihack and took shortcuts and scenic routes in order to avoid meeting them at school. It was last into class in order to take a seat on the opposite side of the room, and always ignored their table at dinner.
Ari, of course, noticed this, and began to grow concerned. Even though she spent all her spare time with West, she apparently kept enough of an eye out for her sibling that she noticed that it’d made friends, and was now avoiding them.
“Did something happen?” she asked it one day. Pi shrugged. Her frown deepened as she sat down on its bed, swiping a hand in order to make its tablet disappear. “Come on, Pi, you gotta talk to me.” Pi shrugged again.
“They’re just… really into demonology,” it said. She laughed.
“Well, so are you, dummy! Come on, there’s gotta be more to it than that.”
“They summoned Alcor.” At that, her laughter died.
“Oh,” she whispered. “Are you… okay? What happened?”
“Nothing much. Anne made a deal: help with homework for ice cream. He was cool with that, and everything looked like it was going to be okay… but then I had to open up my mouth and talk. And he just… turned on me. Started yelling at me, saying that I should know better; told Anne that if she wanted his help, I wasn’t allowed to be there. Then he vanished.” Ari didn’t say anything, instead pulling it into a hug.
“Fuck him,” she whispered in its ear, and Pi laughed, blinking back tears and clinging to its twin for dear life.
When the twins turned sixteen Ari managed to convince Stella to let them throw a party. They had it in the shop downstairs, all the merchandise piled away in the basement out of the way. Ari was in charge of decoration, which resulted in lots of sparkles and streamers and pink, glittery things strewn around the room. They also had a good stock of alco, which Stella had given them for their birthday.
(Not for the first time, Pi wondered exactly how Stella had managed to convince social services to let her adopt them; she wasn’t exactly the best role model in the world.)
The party began at seven and by nine, everyone who had been invited had turned up; and it was a lot of people, considering that Ari had invited their whole grade and then some. Pi stuck to the edges of the room, saying “hi” and “thank you” to those that wished it a happy birthday, and other than that, kept to itself, playing games on its holotablet.
“Hey,” said a voice, and Pi looked up to see Anne stood there, twiddling her black hair between her fingers and looking awkward.
“Hey,” it said dully, pausing the game without looking at the screen.
“Listen,” she said softly, “I’m sorry. For everything.” It nodded, shrugged, didn’t meet her eyes.
“It’s cool.”
“Okay. Cool. I just wanted to tell you before I- never mind. Happy birthday, Pi.”
“Thank you.”
It watched her walk away through the crowd, and that was the last day Pi ever saw Cassandra Lee; she moved away that weekend, and was never heard from again.
“West’s been kidnapped!” Ari cried tearfully after bursting into their quarters one Thursday afternoon. Stella and Pi, who had both been sat in the kitchen, exchanged a glance before jumping up to help her sit down and console her and get the whole story.
“We were just walkin’,” Ari gasped, “And- and- they came from nowhere! Cultists with dark hoods and shadowy faces and they grabbed her and they grabbed me and I managed to run away but they dragged her off and I couldn’t do a thing, I-” She broke down into tears once more, and Pi hugged her tight, exchanging a worried glance with Stella.
Stella set her jaw and left the room, returning with a ring. Pi thought that was a little odd, watching as their guardian set it down on the table with a loud thump, grabbing Ari’s attention. She raised her head from Pi’s shoulder, and picked it up hesitantly, turning it over as Stella watched.
“What’s this?” she asked curiously.
“Family heirloom,” Stella explained, taking it from Ari and twisting it in her fingers. She must have caught a catch, or something, because the ring expanded, becoming a baseball bat covered in spikes and painted a bright, sparkly pink. Pi saw its sister’s eyes light up, and it could see why: the thing practically screamed Ari.
“Why?” she asked, taking it from Stella and turning it over, looking up at their guardian’s face.
“Go get ‘em,” Stella said, and Ari’s expression hardened.
“Oh, I will,” she said. Pi looked between the two of them and sighed.
“I guess you’re both going to ignore how stupidly dangerous this is then, right?” it asked. Ari glanced at it.
“You don’t have to come,” she told it. Pi shook its head.
“No,” it said. “Of course I have to come. Dangerously stupid is my middle name.”
“Really? I thought it was Sces.”
“Oh, ha ha. Real funny there, Ari.”
“Don’t you two have something to do?” Stella pointed out, indicating the bat in Ari’s hand. The mood instantly sobered.
“Right,” Pi said. “Let’s go.”
Finding the cult was easier than you would’ve thought; Ari seemed to know the way instinctively, and they were there within thirty minutes. Upon entering the building, she turned the ring back into a bat, and held it ready as they made their way through the derelict halls. The building was old, like Transcendence-era old, and falling apart; the floors and walls were riddled with holes and the very foundations of the building seemed to creak with every breath they took.
The cult was at the very top of the building, in a room that may have once been an attic but now wasn’t even a room, the roof torn off and the floor open to the stars. In the centre of the room, West was tied up, her head lolling against her chest. On the floor around her was a summoning circle that Pi was all too familiar with by now.
“Do you have a plan?” it whispered to Ari as they observed the scene from the stairs. Ari nodded, her moonlight-illuminated face filled with determination.
“Yes. Make them pay for taking my girlfriend, and rescue West.”
“Um, Ari? That’s not a plan.” Its sister didn’t seem to have heard, instead bursting from their hiding place with a yell and diving on the nearest cultist, knocking them out with a sudden blow from her bat. Pi swore under its breath and followed her into the fray.
The scene descended into chaos. Pi had always been pretty weak, and so tried its best to avoid being caught up against any of the cultists, instead making a beeline for West as its sister fought them off. It reached her at the same time as one of the cultists did, and dived forward, shielding West’s body with its own.
The knife in the cultist’s hand plunged down, and Pi’s face erupted into agony. With a yell, it fell backward onto West’s lap just as she regained consciousness, and found itself staring into her face, vision blurred by blood.
It could feel the blood trickling down its face, dripping onto the floor below. Please, it thought desperately as everything grew darker, Please help us.
The last thing it was aware of before it lost consciousness was an echoing voice demanding,
“WH̢O D̡AR̵ES S̕UMMON͝ ̡A͝ĻC̡OR THE ̢DR͟E̢AM͢B̀E͏ND̡ER͠?͏”
Pi awoke to tears on its face and arms wrapped around it. Swallowing, wincing at the soreness in its throat, it opened its eyes to see Ari clutching it, her arms around its body and its head on her lap.
“Oh, thank God,” she whispered shakily. “I thought you were dead.” Pi groaned.
“What… happened?” it mumbled. Above Ari, surrounding her worried, shadowed face, it could see the stars: more stars that it had ever seen in its life, miniature galaxies glowing in so many colours, some it couldn’t even name.
“Alcor came. He saved us, Pi. He saved us again.” The again hung in the air, and Pi wanted to ask when the demon had ever saved them before, but its mouth hurt so much to move that it kept the thought to itself. “Pi? Pi, can you hear me?” Pi hummed softly.
“Look at the stars,” it whispered. “They’re so beautiful. I… they’re like you. Shooting star.” With that, everything went dark once more.
After the incident with the cultists, Ari and West had been fine; a bit worse for wear and worn out (and, in West’s case, a lot freaked out), but fine. Pi, on the other hand, had to spend three weeks in the hospital, getting fitted with not one, but two prosthetic eyes before the hospital ruled that the donation would be impossible and gave up. After being discharged, it returned home, and spent several days passed out in bed before returning to school.
Ari had designed him several eyepatches, but Pi tended to stick with the plain one the hospital had given it; it wasn’t that it didn’t appreciate its sister’s creativity, per se, it was just that bedazzled accessories weren’t his thing.
Life at school wasn’t that much different; Pi continued to avoid Mouse and Jason, and spent more time with its sister and West, who was now coming close to being one of its best friends. Life at home, however, changed dramatically.
“So, let me get this straight,” Stella had said, when Ari had finished explaining it. “You’re Mizar?” Ari nodded cheerily.
“Yup! So, do you mind if Alcor hangs around here more, or…?” Stella shrugged.
“It makes no difference to me, hon, but make sure he knows not to come ‘round when social services are here. Oh, and make sure he doesn’t terrorise your sibling, won’t you?”
“Sure thing!” Ari had agreed, and grinned.
And so Alcor had been a familiar face around their quarters since. He tended to stay out of Pi’s way (which Pi was glad for, because it disliked the demon as much as the demon seemed to dislike it), hanging around its sister instead. And if Ari disappeared only to return three hours later covered in blood and wearing a maniacal smile, well, it’d turn a blind eye, because if there was one thing Alcor was known for, it was that he would protect his Mizar, no matter what.
And life, as it did, went on.
If a little unusually.