World Refugees Final Mix

"You certainly wouldn't be the first girl to say that." He shrugged, although that familiar energy that had been lying dormant since the beginning of their conversation suddenly began to makes its presence known. "I'm terribly clever at avoiding questions for long periods of time if the situation calls for it."

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"So it would seem. Fortunately, I am very good at prying information out of people who had not planned to share. It takes a delicate touch... a subtle disarming. Catching the target off guard." She smiled. "Manipulation is a skill we share, I'd imagine."

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He placed his hand over his heart, feigning hurt. "Your words wound me. To think I would use such desperate measures to gain a lady's undying affection. I always believed I possessed enough charisma and witty good looks to do that for me."

He reached for her hand and then held it up to his lips to not quite kiss it, and then he winked at her. "There are other delicate touches that I'd like to see you perform, honestly."

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She put up with his attentions gracefully, letting his aura soak in and fuel her own playfulness. It was better at least than feeling aggression towards him.

"I hate to disappoint you, James, but I'm a purest, in a sense. I must revere a man's mind and spirit before his body. You'll have to try harder if you want to impress me."

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He straightened up, still smiling. "You may not be so quick to say that if you only knew..."

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Alright, so he did have a point. Telling an incubus to try harder probably hadn't been the most intelligent thing to come out of her mouth lately.

Well, she'd just have to keep her guard up. And her mind on someone else. She'd probably get much worse than being tied to a chair in the future if she got into trouble with an incubus now.

... but she couldn't resist the game.

"I'm putting my faith in the fact that your sister and her companion will be decidedly unhappy with you should any harm befall me." She fluttered her eyelashes at him and somehow managed to look innocent doing it.

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"Touché," he chuckled. "I'm not my sister's favorite person in the world, and I do want to try to remain in her good graces. Although I meant what I said - I doubt there's anything about me to revere other than obvious."

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She tried to suppress a grin, mostly at her own automatic reaction to those last words.

"I've had a lot of luck finding the good in people who don't believe they have any. Be careful, or I might try it on you."

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"I guess if you've gotten through to my wonderfully thick-headed sister then perhaps I should let you try your wiles on me?" He shook his head, obviously amused. "You wanted my opinion on something, not my life story. What would you like to know - and be specific please. I have been known to go off on tangents."

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"I've developed a spell to imitate the Element used by my Nobody - the control and sharing of dreams. The spell is a poor substitute. For instance, this morning I used it to project instructions into the mind of a Lesser Nobody. With the Element, it would have been as simple as that, but the spell is confined to sending my consciousness into another's mindscape, and seeing the inside of a Dusk's head had some uncomfortable side effects." She actually shivered, just slightly, at the recent memory so like the ones which had finally started to fade under the comforting veil of time.

"I also cannot touch as deeply as I once could. The Element allowed me to use the subconscious as a bridge into the heart and spirit. The spell doesn't. I can only reach what rises to the surface." She studied him through narrowed eyes. "Lilith told me that her abilities and mine were very different because we used them for different goals. It seems to me, though, that by her own words, the user of the ability is what changes it, while the core ability is nearly the same. So what I want is any thoughts or theories on dream magic, or techniques that I could adapt into my own spell-working."

Well, he'd asked for specifics.

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He listened to her words carefully, head tilted to the side and faint smile on his lips, almost as if he were humoring her. When she finished explaining her situation, his smile only grew wider and he laughed. "Ah, so that's what she told you. Believe me when I say this - Lilith's opinion of dream magic is hardly the one you'll ever want to take to heart."

The energy that surrounded him changed just a little bit, growing stronger as if to make a point. "What we do is very much inherent to what we are. Explaining how it works is probably similar to how a mortal explains why they think. You just do. Whether there's any magic in that is your own guess. Yes, we can visit dreams but our...gifts, as you would say, are hardly limited to that."

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She nodded. His words sounded about as discouraging as Lilith's had at the time, but she was stubbornly determined to get something useful out of him.

"It was so with the Nobody Element. I'm sure you can understand why I've been trying to recreate it, or find something close. It was me. It was an expression of my being. So I'm not asking about the source of your power, because you're not human and neither was I when I had anything comparable to it. I just want to know anything you've picked up that could help me. Anything you can guess, even, about how a similar power might work in the hands of a human."

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Now he laughed.

"She never told you, did she? I suspect she has forgotten, but in this case, maybe Lilith is the best person to ask."

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She tilted her head at him, first curious, then very intent. She was reminded suddenly of her recent talk with Margaret - Margaret's suggestion in response to Song's wild plot of immortality for the sake of keeping Josiah company. 'Maybe you're trying to solve the wrong problem.'
Of course, James could be talking about something else, and probably was, but when Song caught onto a favorable suspicion, it took a lot to shake her loose.

In a carefully neutral tone, she asked, "what did she not tell me?"

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He leaned back against the clocktower again, eyes gleaming in amusement.

"At one time, she wasn't too different from you, love."

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That was just too much. She would be ashamed to ask seriously and be mistaken - her sense of pride was silly like that - so she intoned it as a joke.

"So she was either human or an optimist. I find the latter less likely."

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"The former actually - though I suppose being mortal does make one more optimistic about the future, so I guess you could say both apply."

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Bingo. She'd have to tell Margaret.

"Oh, really?" She was still attempting to play casual. "That's a story I'd like to hear."

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"That is a story you'll hear from anyone except me," James replied breezily, his playful manner slipping back. "She probably doesn't remember a thing of it, so you may have to ask the person who made her a demon in the first place."

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She rolled her eyes again, but this time with amusement. "I see. And who would that be, still alive after all that time and available for me to question?"

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He paused and his gaze turned slightly inwards as if seeing something else for a moment - it passed quickly, but maybe not quickly enough...

"The same person who bound her to the grimoire, I think. He would be very old by now, by Lilith's been to a number of worlds that have odd time keeping."

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She noticed, but didn't comment. James was far more alien to her than Lilith was.

"Nasser. That does make things simple. Of course it all depends on what Lilith wants..." She wasn't entirely sure about blurting out the plan to James, but she couldn't get it off her mind now. Knowing that Lilith had been human once was key.
It was the Disney thing to do.

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"I'll say this - not everything is as it seems there." He pulled away from the wall and dusted off his jacket, looking particularly pleased about... something. "But I don't know much about it. I'm just a simple demon, trying to make my way in the world."

An obvious lie, but with James, it was almost impossible to discern anything. Why he was helping them, why he took amusement in the destruction of the world, why he was really looking for Lilith...

Then again, maybe he just preferred to be an enigma.

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Well that was damned mysterious. If she wasn't so focused on her planning, she might have become visibly frustrated with such open deception.
Though she still didn't quite blame James personally. He was what he was.

"Nothing's ever quite what it seems," she said. "That's what keeps life interesting."

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