Captive Negotiations

When Tom regained awareness, it was a slow process. Sluggish. One eye barely lifting open and falling shut before the other could join it. He was sitting. Sitting in a chair. His arms were tied so that he couldn't leave that chair. The blurry shapes that were gradually unblurring themselves were familiar. The living room. His house. Right. The woman. Being blasted across a room and through a closet. The light...

"Magic is real. I am a witch. This is not a dream. I do not wish you harm. You are safe, but we have much to discuss." Before Tom could think to put together any words, his stirring in place was noticed. The woman, a witch apparently, rattled off a series of statements. Tom took a moment to let them sink in, as well as to try and regain more of his bearings.

Magic being real was a given. He knew that much already. The other things were less obvious, although he didn't see a lot of reason to doubt any of them.

"Where's Sarah?" He asked, the words a bit more slurred than intended. He tried to shake it off, then turned his head toward the woman's voice, finding her sitting calmly on one of his armchairs, leaning forward to observe him with a cautious frown on her face.

"Safe," she replied after a moment of quiet observation. "The girl is possessed by a demon, and has hold over a part of your soul. Perhaps more than I thought if you are so fixated upon-"

"She's my wife," Tom interrupted, insistent. Of course he was fixated!

"Mostly your wife," the witch corrected. "And you must see that your response is... You do not ask the questions I expect."

Tom stared at the woman for a few seconds, feeling more than a little irritated, even if he knew expressing it wouldn't get him much. "You know, I might feel more sorry about throwing off your groove if you hadn't thrown all of me through a door, among other things."

Huffing with slight annoyance, the woman waved a hand as if to shoo the complaint away. "I have already healed you of all injuries and repaired the damage done to your home."

"And that's great," Tom responded, being a bit sarcastic even while saying the truth. Sure, he would admit that it was probably better that the witch hadn't permanently injured him or caused him to need to buy a replacement door. "but it's much less important than the question you sidestepped already."

The witch stared at him again, her eyes sharp as if trying to assess something he couldn't guess. After reaching some kind of conclusion, she sighed and leans back, crossing her legs. Reaching up with one hand, she snapped her fingers. With a lurch, the chair underneath Tom started to move, wheeling him around until he could see what was previously behind him. The coffee table pushed aside, Tom saw his wife spread out on the ground, tied up much more securely than he was. Arms, legs, torso, mouth. Crisscrossing ropes keep her entirely helpless, laying on the floor. Even beyond that, Sarah was encircled by a fine layer of ash, spread out on the floor along with a few strange symbols, periodically glowing with unnatural light. Her eyes covered by a blindfold, it seemed she wasn't going to be a part of the conversation.

"The demon is deeply ingrained in such a way I am unfamiliar with, so things quickly became more complicated than I had expected," the witch explained dispassionately. "Even after compelling it to speak the truth, it gave no useful information about its nature."

Tom scowled. Although his wife appeared unharmed, he still wasn't exactly pleased by this kind of treatment of her. He couldn't even enjoy seeing her tied up like this. There were more important issues at hand. "Maybe I'm biased, but I would take that to imply that it's the truth. She doesn't have any idea why this succubus thing happened!"

There's another pause, but after having been turned around, Tom wasn't able to see what the witch was up to between his words and her response. "Of course you're biased. It matters little. Precautions had to be taken," she said. "I encountered your wife two days ago and took her for a simple fool playing fire. Thinking that, I spoke to her in order to give her a warning to make her realize she was not the only person dabbling into magic. My hope was that she would be prompted to cover her tracks. Quickly contracting and bind the demon inside of her to keep it hidden."

Finally the witch re-entered Tom's sight, having apparently removed her hoodie at some point, the now very obviously twiggy woman crosses her arms over the plain black cami she was wearing underneath. Thoughtfully staring down at Sarah, she continued talking.

"Within two days, I became aware that not only had my warning been ignored and the demon remained unbound, it had grown in power. Action needed to be taken to avoid drawing attention. If anything, you should count yourselves lucky that it was I who found the two of you. A demon hunter would have obliterated first and made it look like an accident later."

That gave Tom a bit of pause. Assuming it was true... Rather, no, it wouldn't have been true without his wish earlier this morning...

Or would it?

Demons, witches, magic, demon hunters... How many of these things had existed before his wishes? How many changes had been made without them being directly his intention? All of them? It couldn't be none of them, since the coin itself existed. Magic existed, but everything else could have been real before. It's possible, but would it matter? Regardless of how things were prior to that morning, some part of reality had changed. Whether it had simply been compelling the witch to invade his home or something much wider, he still had some amount of knowledge. He could work with that.

"So," he finally said calmly. "If you're not going to be doing any obliterating, what is your plan here?"

"I will not be doing any obliterating," the woman confirmed. "Not now, anyway. No. This demon is strong, but it is also bound tightly to the girl. Our only safe option will be the creation of a contract. Someone will tie their soul with the demon, restricting its power and freedom, but more importantly allowing its presence to be hidden from any who would rather it not exist in this plane."

"And I'm guessing that it'll also mean she won't have to drain away people's souls when she has sex with them," Tom added, earning him a surprised glance and moment of confusion.

"... Y-yes. Among other restrictions on her powers... Yes." The witch answered.

There it was. Tom felt his shoulders untense themselves. It was a bit roundabout, but he had asked the coin to give his wife more control over her being a demon. Putting aside the specifics, this was just a result of that wish. He had technically known the end result that he would _eventually _reach throughout the entire conversation. Although after a second thought, he remembered a word from the witch's explanation that stuck out to him. "Wait. You said someone will do the contract?"

"Someone," the woman repeated with a nod, looking back down at Tom's wife thoughtfully. "The answer is not obvious. Ordinarily, it would be done at the start of the summoning process by the fool casting the spells, but with the demon already in possession of her-"

"She didn't summon it," Tomcorrects her. He didn't want to think of himself as fool either.

"The results would be unpredictable," the witch continued on. "It could work, but it could also fail. The demon could subsume the human entirely, and even if it didn't, how much would be left between demon and human would be..." She trailed off, apparently unsure, which probably wasn't the best sign.

"Then the other option would be?"

"Options. Two of them. You could do it. The thing already has a bit of your soul, and could be enticed into a deal in order to be promised more. With your lack of magic however, you may find it difficult to control. If the demon gains too much power too quickly without your notice, you could fall under its sway. Other than that..." The witch looks a bit awkward as she continues. "I have had ah- more than a passing interest in demons myself. While I have never summoned one personally. I feel I could make good use of the magical power that one could provide now that it is here, but I understand it would require the cooperation of both you and your wife."

Tom rolled his eyes. "A bit hard to feel like you're asking for cooperation with us like this," he points out, shuffling his shoulders against the binds that are still keeping him in place. "More like a demand."

With another snap of the witch's fingers, the ropes dissolved into dust and disappeared without leaving any trace. As Tom stretched his newly freed limbs out, he noted that Sarah had not been given the same freedom. "Unfortunately, I do not believe it wise to involve the demon in our decision making," The witch said, catching on to what Tom was looking at before he even had a chance to comment. "I leave the decision to you, as a gesture of good faith, and will remind you that I mean no harm."

Rather than comment on the witch's words, Tom thought things over. He was being given a choice, but a random thought occurred to him. The wish hadn't been satisfied yet, that would come as a result of what he decided, so did his decision matter? Would every decision lead to the wish being satisfied, or did the coin know what he would pick ahead of time and the other choices were irrelevant? If the coin set this situation up, but he was the one that used the coin, was he under its influence as well? Did he have free will, or was he in the middle of a causal chain of events that couldn't be broken?

Tom recognized he was getting a little off track. Back to the matter at hand...