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The wine didn't make Nub speak more, but it didn't make him cry or scream either, and Raguel judged his decision to be correct. The pair walked for many hours in an increasingly comfortable silence. The pleasant coolness of the cave and the softening colours of the tapestries surrounding them slowly wore down the tension of their meeting.

Now that they were in clearer light, with the beads of glowing glue shining on the threads directly above their path, Raguel had hoped to more clearly see what was so strange about Nub's body. He had lent the now-free demon his cape, though, all he could see was below the knees. The demon's feet seemed to change colour between a dull red and duller green every time he looked down, but generally retained an odd iridescence. He couldn't tell if it was furred or scaled or smooth, yet, but he could tell a little about the shape of them. That is, his toes were the wrong number, too long, and spread out, almost like a blunt hand.

Something seemed to poke into the back of the cloak from Nub's back, too. Raguel was pleased Nub felt he could turn his back to him.

Once the city's spires were in sight, along with the long silk rope-bridge leading up to it, they stopped to rest in a small tunnel of the cavern. It was just a few lumps and stalagmites from the path. They were past enough corners in the tunnel that passers-by wouldn't see them from the path, if there were any, and there was still silk along the roof lighting them.

Raguel had brought out his rations to share.

"I've never had any of this before," said Nub. "Hellfire normally sustains us, you know."

"There's sour pears, too," Raguel replied, excited to show Nub the wonders of real food. He wished he could cook for him - for the pork stew he'd made with Cern. He rummaged through his bag. "In a little jar, here, somewhere..."

The pears had been pickled by Marishka and handed over by Bochi, and there were two left. Raguel was still kicking himself for not recording the name of their village, but he was sure he could find out in the spider-city. Aran would know his own children, and what little else Raguel knew about them implied fastidious record-keeping.

Nub nodded judgmatically from side to side as he ate his pear, before wiping his mouth on the cape.

"It's good, but I think that," Nub said, very carefully, "we need to have a chat, 'Brother'."

"I think so, too." The whooshing that had passed above them nearer the entrance seemed to have died back. It must have been the wind, thought Raguel, flowing through the caverns and the castle. The silence it left was almost frightening.

"I won't ask you how many of us you've killed," Nub started, steeling himself. "I won't ask why. We don't choose what we do unless someone sets us loose like our friend there did, so I won't question who you killed or when." He wasn't very good at steeling himself, because he pulled the cloak tighter around him, and his voice faltered the more he talked. "Have you ever asked a demon a question?"

"No," Raguel said, honestly.

"How did you kill the last demon you killed?"

"I used a ritual to rip it from the host," answered the knight, "having sealed off the room we were in with holy salt. Then, I tore it apart, with this." He tapped the ankh on his side.

"Mm." Nub nodded. He must have known of the Order's tendency to re-work magical items from other lands, as the sight of the ankh did not confuse him at all. "Where were you?"

Raguel told him. It was inside the Order's territory.

"When have you killed us elsewhere? Outside of the Order's land."

"Twice. Four years ago, and six," Raguel said. Nub gestured for him to go on, his eyes hard. "Both times were in the North-West islands. They had just been converted, and there were leftover infestations."

Nub coughed and spluttered.

"Right," he said, eventually, in a very small voice.

"Are you...?" Raguel looked up from his food. "I know I have to prove I will not hurt you. Tell me how to show you."

"Have you ever asked a witch a question?"

"Not while... I...."

"Not when you were going to kill them?" Nub's eyebrows raised.

"Never," Raguel said. "I have never tortured any of you. Or any witches. Or... or anyone else. I have only fought or killed."

Nub picked at the sides of the cape.

"I might never feel better about travelling with you," he murmured. Raguel looked down. "Don't lose hope from that. I have just... left... a poor arrangement, Raguel. Trust will take time, and will be a matter for me solve on my own. I want to talk about your wife."

"Magdalene? We never married - she died before we could. Why?" Raguel pulled the string on his bag, closing it.

"It seemed like it might be a happy topic," Nub said, smiling.

"My dead love...?"

"It’s happier than Hell, Raguel."

"Oh." That was obvious, thinking about it. "Do you want a story about how we met?"

The cave was warmer - not just from the awkward question - and the boy (he did seem a little younger than Raguel) slipped the cape down his arms as they sat, to tie it around his waist. He was hunched over now, which showed the strange workings of his back. Instead of shoulder blades, two lines of lumps projected up and outwards, like fins, or an amputated set of small wings. The red and green ribbons Nub had been wearing before had been tied around rings pierced into the ends of these small protrusions, and Raguel now saw that they were mostly gone.

"Tell me how you made love with Magdalene," Nub said, still smiling, though it seemed warmer, now.

Now, this was bizarre: there was nothing off, nothing lecherous, nothing even sensual about the way Nub asked the question. He said it as if he was asking what her family was like. Raguel was deeply embarrassed by the question, though he already knew devils and demons had no sense of propriety when on Earth, and he knew this wasn't malicious.

"I," said Raguel, taking his time and trying to think of the most subtle way in which to say it, "didn't."

Nub's eyes flickered more than blinked. Raguel remembered Magdalene's arms - her surprising strength - her brow, and her leg when she'd kneed him under a table, and he was lost for a minute.

"You never made love? Oh, Raguel, I'm - I'm sorry for you. I only ask because... you know."

"I don't, actually," Raguel said, almost close to tears. "Please. Tell me why you ask me that. I wasn't married yet. We weren't."

"I want to know what love-making is like," Nub said.

Raguel's first tears escaped as he barked out a short laugh.

"Please don't laugh at me," Nub said. "This isn't funny."

"You were an incubus, Nub. Your voice --"

"I never chose any of it! Do you think any of them loved me?" Nub talked very quickly. Raguel had his hand on the boy's elbow. Now, Raguel understood a great deal more of Nub's problem before coming to the cave. "Do you think I wanted any of it? Over and over, some witch or other would call me to them, like a toy, or some... some stud ram, and...."

"I think I see, Nub," Raguel said. "There was a duty, not a preference. Please forgive me."

"Yes, after a fashion," Nub continued, only half in response. "But, I had to, at least when there was a good chance of offspring, and at least a few per season. And... yes. Yes, I forgive you, I mean."

Now, both of them were crying.

"Did..." Raguel began, his thumb idly circling the demon's inhuman elbow. He measured how he touched Nub to the immediate reactions - right now, he seemed soothed by it.

"Did what?"

"You're free," Raguel said, staring at the boy. "No-one will... There will be no summoning, no duties, now."

"You can't promise me anything like that," Nub said, closing his hand over Raguel's. "Tell me something. Answer one more question. Please."

"Is this going to hurt you more, Nub? Do we need to stop?"

"Hell can’t hurt me from afar anymore," Nub said, prompting a severely patronising look from Raguel. "Tell me the closest you've come to making love."

"That was a few days ago." Raguel coughed, and took his hands back into his lap. "With a witch, who gave me shelter. He was one of the spider-folk, though the conversion did not complete... I... you want to know what it was like."

"Of course I do."

The light had changed around them significantly in the time they were talking, dimming so gradually that Raguel only noticed now how much darker it was. Raguel was almost asleep.

"Everything was easy, around him. I had come to doubt what I was doing for the Order here, and what I had always done. I had not questioned those things before. None of us do, but you know that." Raguel smiled directly at the ground. "He took that in stride - he used to be in a similar position. He liked to climb on me. He is back there, now."

"Why didn't you stay with him?" Nub craned his neck forward to try to look up into Raguel's face. "Why didn't you make love?"

"I have my mission, and that's not just for Parthos," said Raguel. "Magdalene died of a plague, and they thought there would be cures out here, or the source. The serpent-folk had remedies that could have helped, and may currently be helping. I must believe the spiders and Polypi will know more. More, I... lost some faith, still, learning about the Order from the outside. I have to know more about it, and I'll only learn from the Priests."

Raguel had not said any of this aloud before now, of course, and felt quite sure he had made the right decision.

"And you didn't take the witch, because... you object to sodomy?"

"I want to save that for my wedding night," Raguel said, with some conviction. "But no, that wasn't the reason."

"Really?" The incubus hugged his knees. "Your maidenhood was more important than expressing your love to him?"

"It didn't happen by itself, it wasn't how things were going. Me taking him, I mean. I was happy just having him. Do you see?" Raguel lay back on the cave floor. "I let myself be pulled by feeling, let us touch each other... it never led to love-making, not as you'd put it."

"It sounds about as important," Nub said, mulling the information over. "I look forward to it. Ask me something."

"I think I should rest, first." Raguel gripped Nub's knee, and shook it. "Do you sleep, Nub?"

Nub winced when he heard his name, but not in a bad or pained way. Demons held on jealously to their names, as their names granted others the power to affect them with certain spells. This wince wasn't fear, or regret. It was rather more like a naughty child being praised.

"I don't know. I didn't before, but I wasn't living on food, then, either."

"This will tell you," Raguel interrupted, tossing the small spider law-book into Nub's lap. "Read that, and I'll take it back in the morning. If you sleep, then that will make you sleep."

"What if I do fall asleep, and there's no-one to keep watch?"

"We can die together, then," Raguel said, "in glorious sleep. Trust me, Nub, I can wake and fight quickly. I hope you don't sleep, though, because I haven't read the book yet."

"The witch gave it to you, didn't he? And you've not read it. And I thought you loved him."

Raguel kicked Nub.

"That doesn't make me a thinker."

-

Raguel woke up to find Nub had indeed fallen asleep, curled on his side, bracketing Raguel's head, and snoring. It was sweet, really.

He looked at the demon boy with none of the hesitation or sick feeling he had before, but some of that scent and aura was coming back to Nub. His snore was very nearly erotic, which showed that whatever warmth lived within incubuses was returning to him. Perhaps, like the Order's founders, the portion of Nub's being that was removed was being replaced by the nature around him.

Or, maybe...

It didn't matter. Raguel gingerly took the book from the sleeping demon's hand, and started to read, letting Nub enjoy his first rest.

Further into the small tunnel they had camped in, there was the sound of an underground river.

-

"I had a dream about you, you know," Nub said, at last, as they reached the steep silk bridge to the castle. The river they had heard fed into a vast, silvery lake, which was punctured by towers that acted as pillars and stilts for the castle built into the cave roof.

"Were we making love?" Raguel elbowed him.

"No, you were running a fishmonger's. You chopped catfish with your ankh, and you knew every old woman in town." The two began their ascent - the network of silk strands was thick enough that they could have walked, but flexible enough that a climb-or-crawl with hands and feet was a better idea. "You never asked me anything."

"Are you willing to talk about Hell? If you'd rather not, I'd rather not." The silk ropes glowed a soft blue as Raguel's fists closed around them. The two paced themselves, for the sake of keeping their breath for talking. It was easier for Nub, with his talons.

"I will change the subject if you upset me, Raguel."

"Does Hell ever make diseases? Your demons possess humans as spirits - do they ever go in when physical, when small? The plague is one of strange worms, and we suspected Hell."

"They actually thought about doing that, once," Nub said. "Putting small demons in the food of pregnant women, to convince the unborn child to sell its soul. It doesn't work, though."

"Why not?"

"Communicating with a nascent soul is about as sophisticated as communicating with a new-born. They never understood us. It's the same reason we don't usually try to convert people on their deathbeds."

Some spider-folk - a few smaller than Raguel, a few larger - scuttled back and forth on the other side of the thick 'bridge'. They were a gorgeous assortment of colours. Raguel waved, and a few waved back.

"I thought all unsaved souls went to Hell," Raguel said, absently. "I thought we were at war."

"It's not all human souls Hell wants, Raguel, it's Christian ones," Nub explained. "It's less a war, than... rival... marketplaces. With souls, instead of coin."

"That is the most depressing thing I've ever heard. You really take the mystery out of all this."

"Raguel, at least the worms aren't from Hell. If they were, you would be here for no reason," Nub said, those fin-lumps on his back flexing. He'd taken to using the cloak as a sort of skirt, since Raguel agreed to its being torn and re-worked. "Ask me something else."

They got to the top of the great net-bridge to the castle. It seemed like an oddly short journey, but like with Cern, Raguel wasn't going to question that.

"Will you stay with me while I go through the castle to Aran?"