His first instinct is to say yes, please, shields are good, but he makes himself think about it. And then makes himself say, "I'm going to want to talk to Zygynzaxx on Monday, we have questions for him, and I wouldn't be surprised if he had some equivalent of Detect Magic that was on all the time, and we probably don't want him to know about you. So I guess it would actually be safer to not, at least for now. But I really appreciate you offering." He dimly notices he's gone back to breathing normally, but avoids noticing all the way in case that would mess it up again. "Is there anything someone without your kind of magic can do to learn resist compulsions, or notice them happening?"

Leareth nods. "On the first – yes, a good precaution to note. On the second, I will need to consider; perhaps, but I do not know of an existing technique so I would need to put one together–" He cuts off. "Oh. If your demon Zygynzaxx might possibly be running Detect Magic at all times, could they also be running Detect Thoughts?" 

Bruce searches his memory for times Zygynzaxx did anything that might have indicated he was reading Bruce's mind or detecting people who weren't in the room. "I can't prove that he isn't," he says carefully, "because he could be telling any number of lies about his abilities, but the one time I did Detect Magic on him it came up negative, and he's not uniformly faster than us at noticing when someone is about to enter the room. So if he is he's doing a good job hiding it."

Leareth nods, slowly. "I see. Not proof, no, but evidence. In any case, if he is he would notice the difference if you did arrive shielded, and I cannot quickly produce a talisman that will shield your thoughts without itself being detectable by magical leakage – in fact, possibly I cannot make one at all that would evade Detect Magic, if it works by a different pathway."

He shakes his head. "I might begin working on such an artifact, however – it is a valuable test to see if permanent set-spells are feasible in your world, and I am no longer concerned about exhausting my reserves thanks to your abilities. You could then wear it most of the time and remove it when about to speak with your demon. What sorts of questions do you wish to ask him?" 

He checks his earlier notes and adds to them a bit. "What sort of goals do demons tend to have, what are the limits on their abilities, what do they know about angels, and I don't want to ask him directly but it would be good to know whether demons can be injured or incapacitated--by magic or in general. And probably a bunch of other stuff depending on what our priorities are."

Leareth nods. "I also have some general questions regarding Hell and its properties. I am not sure if you think there would be an unsuspicious way to ask?" 

"I could try asking him what his life is like back in Hell, see if that gets anything useful. Also I might know some of the answers already, there have been some prophets who had visions of Hell and one who actually went there."

"That truly happened?" Leareth stares at him. "Did they write of their experiences?" 

He nods. "They're not the most pleasant reading, or the most coherent, but they might have information we can use."

He pulls up some texts on his phone. The longest one is the account of an Italian poet who was guided through Hell and Heaven by an angel. The man can clearly write, but his account is more like a soldier's diary, or a recounting of a nightmare, than like poetry. The others are shorter, mostly descriptions of visions from a single viewpoint, but together they paint a consistent picture.

Hell, apparently, is divided into nine levels separated by narrow and treacherous paths, each characterized by a different gruesome thing happening to the inhabitants. The higher levels, which are in some sense closer to Earth, are mainly inhabited by demons, who occasionally manage to escape their various tortures long enough to mess around on Earth or further torture nearby humans. The lower levels are mostly full of humans, who have a much worse rate of being able to interact with anyone. Dante goes from Hell to Heaven via the bottom level of the former, and this version has a footnote by the translator to the effect that some theologians speculate that sufficiently repentant dead souls might do likewise, but that no evidence of this has been observed.

Well, that's pretty disturbing. Leareth takes notes. 

"It would be good to have a source of confirmation," he says slowly. "Nonetheless, I...would like this place eradicated from reality." 

Solemn nod. "I know getting between Hell and Earth is possible in principle because Zygynzaxx does it, but I don't know how or if it's possible to get dead humans out."

"I may at some point wish to attempt to follow Zygynzaxx on his departure, then," Leareth says. "However, given that this would not exactly be undercover, I would prefer to leave it until we have more information and resources. So I suppose that we need a plan for how to obtain those, and it is possible we will find better avenues of attack in the process." 

"Yes. What sort of resources do you think we should be prioritizing?"

"...We need to think about that. Properly, with paper." Leareth frowns. "I suspect this is not a matter where mundane armies are the answer. We will need supernatural fighting power. Arcane artifacts, if your world has them? Perhaps some mundane weapons can be adapted, since your world is advanced in this space. And allies – agents on the inside. I wonder if it is possible to turn a demon? Or an angel. In any case, first and foremost what we need is knowledge." 

"Dungeons and Dragons the fantasy game has arcane artifacts, but I don't know if they're possible in real life. Does your world have them? As for allies . . . angels are supposed to be extensions of God's will, but some of them did Fall. And demons have rebelled at least once, so in theory one could change sides again, if we learned enough about what they want."

"We have artifacts. Few that I know of are powerful enough to take on a god, and those that are, are...not particularly safe for mortals to wield. That might be a question for your demon. And, yes, the demons who have already rebelled once are likely candidates for being subornable." He frowns. "What time is it, locally?" It's hard to keep track but he's starting to feel pretty tired, in a non-magic-related way. 

"Yeah, it's getting close to dinnertime. It's a good thing my parents are used to me hiding all day. Also, tomorrow is church in the morning; do you want to try to sneak along and watch or would you rather stay here?"

"That sounds very educational, so yes, I wish to accompany you. It would be helpful if I knew some of what to expect first. I can do further reading tonight if there is any relevant material." 

Frown. Something is niggling and it's possibly an awkward topic but it seems important. "Bruce, what is your relationship with your parents? From what I have gathered so far, it seems they are not potential allies in this, and if we will need to evade their attention in this project..." Also Bruce seems unhappy every time he mentions them, which...seems relevant in general even if not to any of their immediate goals. 

"They're good parents. They're fine. They . . . they're good people, they love God, if they knew I was consorting with demons they'd send me to a school for troubled youth for my own good, so I haven't told them. And I haven't told them I'm damned because it would make them sad."

Leareth...does not say his initial reaction, which is that anyone who loves a torture-God is not what he would describe as a 'good' 'person' even if he thought the phrase 'good person' was actually a useful one or a particularly coherent concept. 'Good parents' he can believe. It seems pretty common for people to compartmentalize in that way – hold one sent of societally-approved beliefs without fully looking at the horrifying implications, and otherwise act in kind and thoughtful ways in their local environment. It's not particularly a condemnation of Bruce's parents; it just means they're not the kind of people who take their beliefs seriously. Ergo, not particularly valuable allies to him, at least not at this time. 

"I see," he says. "I suspect it is a good idea to continue concealing everything we are doing here from them. I will take the necessary precautions there." He frowns. "What is the best way for me to obtain food without their noticing – do they pay close enough attention to their pantry that they would remark if you suddenly appear to be eating twice as much?" 

"Probably not, if you take stuff that I could plausibly have eaten in my room. They'll just assume I'm having a growth spurt." And Bruce can eat less of that stuff and more at dinner, and buy a bit more food at school, and the exact size of Leareth's effect on the grocery bill should get lost in the shuffle.

"That makes sense. I can stay in your room and read while you have dinner, if that works." 

"Okay. Should I bring something up afterwards or are you planning to raid the fridge invisibly later? And then for church tomorrow, I do think it'll be educational but I'm not sure how to get you there since we'll be driving. I can give you walking directions and you can leave ahead of us?"

"How likely is it that your parents would walk in at an inopportune time and notice the fridge opening by itself? If this is at all likely, it seem safer that you bring food. And, yes, walking ought to work." 

"Very unlikely if you wait until they're asleep, too likely if you don't, so I'll bring something. If there's anything in particular you want to read about other than more Bible I can show you the Internet; I bet you'll love the Internet."