Reincarnated - Ch.10 - Partners (Patreon)

"No Mara," she stated in a firm voice. I could tell she was smiling though.

"But -"

Lily interrupted "I said no. No colourful tights. No cape. No mask. This isn't a comic book, and I'm not a superhero. And you won't even be present, you're not going to watch or observe, much less participate."

I sighed, "But you're ridding the world of evildoers! You've got magic. You even said you're a supernatural being. That's like the textbook definition of a superhero!"

She sounded exasperated and amused as she insisted, "I am a demon who feeds on human souls. I just happen to prefer the evil ones. Remember the cat analogy? Would you put a cape on a cat then sit around and watch it prey on mice?"

I blushed, "I might, if they were evil mice. Actually that might be a good theme for a webcomic or something..."

"Gah!" Lily exclaimed. "You're impossible!"

I giggled quietly. It was just past eight Saturday morning, and I'd been awake ten or fifteen minutes. I was in a surprisingly good mood, all things considered.

The conversation we had last night answered a lot of questions, and after sleeping on it I realized doing this new deal with her wouldn't be any different than what we had now. Or rather, the difference was basically I'd be going into it with both eyes open, and not in a panic. I had time to think it through and ask all the important questions that I forgot to ask last week. 

And once I got over all the prejudices that we're taught about demons from cartoons and movies and stuff, I realized it was actually pretty damn cool. I was friends with a powerful ancient demon, who could work magic and do miracles and stuff! And the fact that she was going to be a sort of secret superhero - even if she hated that term - just made it even better.

And on top of all that, she was going to help my mom and my best friend too. That was like the icing on the cake or whatever.

"Oh hey!" I said as I got another idea. "Can you teach me magic and stuff too? Like if we're bound together, do I get some superpowers? Can I be your sidekick, or your apprentice or something? Or am I just your boring alter-ego? Like I don't want to just be the Patsy Walker to your Hellcat."

"Mara," she sounded even more exasperated this time, "You are almost giving me a headache. Which is remarkable, because demons don't get headaches."

I pouted, "Sorry. It's just kind of exciting."

"Hmph," she responded. "Why don't you spend some time in the shower, distract yourself with another kind of excitement. I actually need a nap."

My cheeks went pink but I grinned, it felt like I was making progress with her. "I don't need to use the shower for that kind of excitement. It just happened that way the first time."

I could almost picture her blushing now, as I continued "Anyways before you go lie down you have to tell me! Can we make that part of the terms of the pact? That you have to teach me some magic or give me some powers or something?"

"If it means you'll leave me alone, then yes I'll put that in the contract."

"Yay!" I grinned triumphantly. 

Lily stopped responding, so I figured she'd gone to get some rest. Or maybe she was just hiding so I'd leave her alone. 

With our conversation over, I got up out of bed and grinned as I looked down at myself. This was the seventh morning I'd woken up to my new body, and I loved it. I finally pulled on a nightshirt and emerged from my bedroom, and noticed the smell of coffee in the air.

Mom was up, she was in the living-room sitting on the sofa with her coffee. She didn't look too good though, she looked tired and sad.

I sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulders, "Mom are you ok?"

She leaned against me and replied quietly, "It's been a difficult week Mara. These past few days have been the worst days of my life. I know you're still here, but going through the motions as if I lost you..." 

Her voice trailed off and I could see tears in her eyes.

I sighed "Mom I'm really sorry. I'm hoping that's all behind us though, right? I mean yesterday was kind of the end of it, now we can move on."

Mom continued to lean against me, she slipped an arm around me as well so we were sort of hugging each other as we sat side-by-side. "I hope you're right hon."

After a moment she added, "I heard you talking with uh, your friend a few minutes ago. You sounded like you were in a good mood."

I blushed, "Yeah. Me and Lily worked some stuff out last night, and now I'm feeling really positive. This past week has been hard on me too, but I think that's all over now and I'm feeling pretty good about the future."

After another sip of coffee, mom asked "How did things go with Jason last night?"

I sighed, "That's another can of worms and I really don't know how much I can say right now? We need to talk again today though."

"Is everything all right?" mom asked. She sounded worried as she added, "You two didn't have a fight or anything did you? I know he looked really upset yesterday at the..." 

Her voice faltered, she couldn't even say 'funeral'. 

I held her tighter "Nah, it's not that. There's some other stuff that's kind of serious, but we'll figure it out. I just don't want to say anything yet because it might be a secret."

Mom nodded slightly, "Ok hon. And thank you. I hope you're right, that things are going to start getting better now."

I smiled, "I'm sure of it."

After that I got up and went into the kitchen and grabbed myself some juice. On my way back to my bedroom I added, "Jason brought us Chinese food last night, there's a bunch of leftovers in the fridge if you're hungry."

"Thanks hon," mom replied. "And tell Jason thank you for me."

Back in my room I sat down at the computer and booted it up, then went into Discord and typed up a message for my best friend. I apologized for cutting our conversation short last night, and asked if we could talk more today. I also asked which name and what pronouns they'd like me to use for them. 

Then I sat back and sipped my juice as I started checking out the sites they'd shared last night, to try and get myself more educated.

Over the next few hours I learned a bunch of stuff, including just how lucky I was to have Lily and her magic reincarnate me into the right body. At one point I warmed up some of the leftovers then ate while I continued to read. By the time noon came around I was still in my nightshirt, sitting at the computer scrolling through some of the new discord servers my friend had sent me invites for.

I was sipping a cola and reading a conversation from last week about someone's trans egg hatching, when Lily woke up from her nap or whatever.

"It's midday Mara. Are you ready?"

I put down my soda and replied "Yes. What do I have to do?"

Lily stated, "Read this contract, then sign it in blood."

A large sheet of heavy parchment of some kind appeared on my desk next to me. It was the size of a small poster and had a lot of writing on it. It looked like the whole thing was written in blood, on something that wasn't exactly paper. The word 'vellum' came to mind but I couldn't remember what that was exactly.

I stared at it for a few moments then asked, "How much of this is just aesthetics, and how much actually has to be creepy?"

It was almost like I could see her eyes roll. The big creepy poster vanished, replaced by a neat little stack of laser-printed pages, stapled together at the top. 

"Happy?" she asked in that amused-exasperated tone.

I smirked and picked up the contract and started reading it through. There was some legalese but it was actually all pretty straightforward. It was a binding agreement between me and Lily, which would be in effect as long as I lived.

It was pretty clear that Lily wouldn't own my soul and wouldn't get to keep it after I died, that we were both willing partners and entering into the deal of our own free wills. I was agreeing to share my body with Lily and basically letting her be a roommate in my head. I also agreed not to interfere with her activities as a demon. She was agreeing to keep me safe and healthy and protected, and to provide for me and my mother as per our original verbal deal. 

Another thing the contract made clear was it was in Lily's best interest to keep me alive and well and healthy, since without me she'd wind up trapped in the amulet again. So she'd be kind of like a guardian angel looking out for me. Or rather, she'd be my guardian demon. 

Towards the end there was a section explaining that she could optionally use her powers to help my friends, but that would be based on her entering into side-deals with them. That wouldn't affect the main deal between her and me, and those side-deals would always be secondary to her responsibilities to me.

And the last page included a clause that she'd share some of her power with me and teach me how to use it, at her discretion.

All in all it sounded ok to me. It wasn't really that different than what we were doing now. We were just doing it 'for real' so it wouldn't expire.

Lily provided me with something that was a cross between a very sharp pen and a knife you could write with. It stung when I jabbed it into my finger, then once there was enough blood on the tip I signed my name at the bottom of the last page.

A complicated squiggly line appeared, as if it was burned into the paper next to my signature. I recognized it as the same squiggly line on the amulet and figured it was Lily's signature, or the demonic equivalent. Then the entire contract sort of vanished with a flare of light. At the same time I felt a pulse of warmth from the amulet between my boobs, and another pulse of warmth on my right ankle.

Lily announced happily, "Done! Now you won't go back to being dead, and I won't get stuck in my prison for another thousand years."

"Yay!" I grinned as I looked down. Sure enough there was what looked like a tattoo there on the inside of my right ankle. It was about two inches across, and like the amulet it depicted that same complicated squiggly line circled by a ring of runes. I thought it looked kind of cool actually and it made me feel a little goth, with my black hair and dark clothes and some arcane demonic ink on my ankle.

I was still admiring it when my computer dinged to alert me of a new message. 

I checked it and smiled again. It was a message from Melissa, asking me to use her new name and pronouns, and asking if she could come by this afternoon so we could finish our conversation. 

I messaged back telling her yes, then asked Lily "Can I tell her about our new agreement? Or is it secret?"

Lily replied, "You may tell her, but bear in mind she might not be pleased to hear it. On the other hand, she will have to learn the truth about me before I'm able to help her. Either way Mara, it's up to you what you want to say and how you want to say it."

"Thanks Lily," I smiled. Then I quickly pulled on some leggings and swapped the night-shirt for a tunic top.

A half hour later Melissa was back and the two of us were sitting in my room. She was a little anxious, and she'd already told me she wasn't 'out' yet with her own family or with anyone else. So unfortunately I had to keep it a secret and had to be careful what I said and how I addressed her around other people.

"Is it ok if my mom knows?" I asked. "I don't want to use the wrong name and pronouns while you're visiting, but if I use the right ones she might overhear and ask questions."

Melissa nodded, "As long as she knows it's secret, I guess that's ok."

"I'll make sure she understands," I promised. 

After a moment I added, "I've been reading through all that stuff you shared last night, I'm trying to learn as fast as I can. Some of it's been really eye-opening, like it explains a lot of the stuff I thought and felt for ages but never really knew what to do with it?"

She grimaced, "Yeah. Some of it's a trip right?"

"Yep," I agreed. Then I sighed and looked at her. There was something I wanted to say, but I wasn't sure how to put it.

"Melissa, I want to apologize now incase I screw up. And I feel kind of guilty about this? Like I know I've had things super-easy, with Lily and her magic and stuff. I'm doing my best to adjust to thinking of you as a girl, as Melissa. And I get that it's who you've always been, even if I didn't know it till yesterday. I doubly get it now that you've helped me understand it for myself. I just... I guess I don't even know what I'm trying to say. I'm sorry."

She blushed but shook her head, "You don't have to apologize Mara, I understand. Your eggshell was so dense it didn't even crack after you got zapped into a girl. You didn't hatch till I spelled it all out for you."

Now I was blushing too. "Speaking of... Lily already said she could help you, sort of like she helped me. But there's stuff you need to know first. The past twelve hours or so, she and I have been talking a lot. I know who she is now, and what she is. I want to tell you too, but I have to ask you to keep an open mind, and don't freak out."

Melissa hesitated a moment, then nodded "Ok Mara. That sounds a little ominous, but I trust you. So if you trust Lily, that's a pretty good endorsement. I'll try not to freak out, and I promise to keep an open mind."

I took a deep breath then said "Ok. So here's the thing..."