The slow truth

It was only a vague guess and a theory and Ana wasn't even sure if it was true that demons honoured a deal. As Lucas already suggested, this could well be just a myth.

Lucas said, "No, Ana… It's true… We cannot go back on our words… We're bound by our promises…But, is this all necessary? You've known us for a long time… And, although I had my own secrets, I never meant you any harm. Can't you give us a chance and trust us? All we ask is, just be with us until we figure out how to get that necklace off you… and then you'll never have to see us again…", Lucas reasoned with Ana to make her an ally without having to go through the entire deal of making a promise to her.

Oliver couldn't stand that anymore. Lucas was begging a puny human for a favour when she should be crouching in fear and kneeling in their presence. This was absurd. He was tempted to kill her with his bare hands when he had the chance. It didn't matter what Lucas wanted.

"No… I'm sorry, Lucas.. I hope you understand that I'm not in a position to trust you both, given that Oliver had already tried to kill me once…", she said remembering the unpleasant memory of that day.

"Okay… The deal works like this.. I'll say my end of it and then you say yours… Got it?", Lucas asked her.

She nodded in response and he took Ana's hand under the table to hide it from others and caught her elbow. He instructed her to hold his elbow too. Ana looked down curious to know what was going on, "I, Lucifer, son of Theos promise you! I'll not harm you now or ever, intentionally or unintentionally…. I'll let you go once your help is received", after he said those words, a red glow appeared around their hands and Ana felt a pull towards hers.

"Now you say your side of the deal…", he prompted her to speak up and she said, "I, Anabelle, daughter of Paul Higgins, promise you to provide my help to sort out whatever this is… and return the necklace back to you..?", she said awkwardly unsure if she was using the right terms but another red circular glow appeared around their hands and she felt a pull again.

"That's it… It's done…", he said happily and Ana wasn't sure if this was real or just another trick. But she decided to trust Lucas. The one she could not trust was Oliver.

He was watching all that with disinterest and said, "I'm not making a deal with her…"

Lucas turned to his friend and asked politely, "Ollie, please…. We need Ana's help…." 

Oliver grunted in response and finally accepted, "Fine! You help us and when all this is over, I send you home.. That's all I can promise you… ",

"What about the red glow thingy?", Ana was unsure how this worked.

"Not required.. My word stays… I don't give anyone my word that easily…", he muttered and took a bite off his cheeseburger looking away, like his pride was hurt just by giving a promise to her.

Ana ignored him but was somewhat relieved and felt at ease. Lucas smiled at her, "It's true, Ana.. He's much more powerful than me… So, his words are his deal…", he reassured her.

Ana smiled and started eating too. If she had to survive, the only way to do so was to avoid Oliver and not take his any of his words seriously. She was planning to categorize him into a demonic psychopath and move on.

Yes, he gave his word but all he promised was to send her home after she helped them, he never told if he'd send her back alive or dead. A cruel smirk pulled up on his lips when he imagined all the ways in which he would slowly torture Ana.

Maybe it wasn't even required to kill her because she'd be begging him to end her life anyways. While making deals with demons, humans should be very cautious to make sure they specify everything and get all the details right from the demon. They tend to play tricks twisting words, luring their prey into doing things they desire, which poor Ana wasn't aware of.

"Did Jack call you?", Lucas asked casually, oblivious to the dangerous thoughts swirling through Oliver's mind.

"Yes….", he said abruptly and didn't continue further. But, Lucas wanted to know more and he was expectantly looking at Oliver.

"Jack? You mean... Our Jack?", Ana was shocked hearing the name. She was expecting Lucas to deny it, but he was nodding a Yes.

"You mean, Jack from PR?", she asked again to verify the information.

"Yes… He's a mage, Ana… The one on our side… somewhat like an undercover agent…", Lucas assured her but she still doubted it.

She was speechless to find out that he was part of all this and had already known their secrets. He was a mage? Really?

So, Lucas and Oliver were demons and Jack was a mage i.e., a wizard? She couldn't believe it, but again none of it was believable anyways. So, was that the reason Lucas was whispering something to Jack looking all dubious? It wasn't about business, after all.

Ana thought about her friend Kathy and everyone else in their office who were completely oblivious. She still somehow hoped to wake up suddenly and find out that she had dreamt about this whole thing. But, of course it wasn't going to happen. This was all happening for real and she must deal with it.

"What is a mage?", she asked him even though she had a vague idea about it.

"And what is a demon? I know it but you said there were myths right?"

"A demon is….. I don't know how to put it… Kind of like demigods? It's not like we have the power of god, but we do have more power than other creatures…..", he continued ignorant to Ana's thoughts, "a mage is basically a human who can wield the heavenly fire… In simple terms, who can perform magic? I don't know if I'm talking in your terms, but hope you understood…", he smiled sheepishly.

"Yes… somewhat… So, Jack is a mage? Like he can perform magic?", she asked innocently. 

"Yes…."

"Hmm….. Why did you say he was like an undercover agent?"

"I meant that he was sent by the Government to spy on us, but we convinced him to join our side and now he spies on the Government for us.", Lucas joked remembering the past of how they persuaded Jack to help them. Jack was hungry for power, which was to their advantage, so it didn't take a lot of effort to get him on their side. But, Ana didn't need to know that.

"The Government?", she probed.

"Yes….", Lucas said as he shot a look at Oliver whether to continue, and after receiving a sign from him he continued, "Government of Mythic. The one which monitors, governs and maintains all the supernatural happenings around the world. They are obviously not involved with the otherworld like heaven or hell, but let's just say that they are invested..."

"And…. Humans have no idea about all this?", she wondered out loud. How could all this be going on around the world but nobody knew of it? They should've at least seen some signs, right?

"No... Once upon a time, humans knew… but, things didn't go well…. So, now it's a punishable offense to involve humans in any of the supernatural activities….", he said as a matter of fact.

"What do you mean by punishable offense?"

"In the sense, if any human comes close to magic, their memory should be wiped off or sometimes even rewritten in a way that they would be able to make sense of it.. But if mages forgot to do that or got involved with any humans, they would be terminated immediately…", Lucas explained her like it meant nothing.

"Terminated…. Means fired?", she asked him hoping he would say yes, but he said, "No, Ana.. killed"

"Then are you going to be killed too?", as soon as she asked that, Oliver looked up from his plate. He didn't pay any attention to whatever little conversation was going on between them up until then.

"Oh! You can't get rid of us that soon, sweetheart…", Oliver mocked her.

Ana couldn't help but roll her eyes. She completely ignored Oliver's snarky comments and asked Lucas, "So… You mean to say that all these mages like Jake, they work under a government?"

"Yes….", Lucas said in between taking bites from his burger.

"I see…", she pondered quietly, returning back to the food in her hand.

He let Ana absorb the information while probing Oliver to continue more about the intel gathered, "So, what is Jack saying? Does he know those mages?"

"No….The ones who came today are rogues. The government has nothing to do with them. In fact, they are in their wanted list..", Oliver concluded.

Lucas didn't like where this was heading towards.

"That means…..", Lucas trailed coming to the same conclusion Oliver did a few minutes ago.

"Yes…"