He raises his eyebrows slightly. "Yes?"

"Why should I believe you?"

"Does this strike you as the sort of operation that engages in sophisticated mind games?" he asks dryly.

--She laughs at that, a little, 

"Okay. So why do you want to do this thing?"

"I've suspected something wasn't right for a while now, but I'd barely ever seen a human, I had no way of knowing for sure, and - I didn't have anywhere to start. I'm a painter, not a politician. But then my friend Khythen went on one of these expeditions - I tried to warn him off, he didn't understand what I meant - and he came back and said I was right and he needed me to help him fix it. So now here I am."

"Huh. You really mean it, don't you?"

He smiles slightly. "Yes."

She sighs. "So what makes me special?"

"I did mention the obvious murderous intent," he says, regarding her thoughtfully.

"And you're telling me none of the other poor bastards here want the fuckers who did this to us dead?"

"Not like you. Not that I've seen so far. I've seen many flavours of horrified and traumatized, and one who seems to have no complaints about her situation at all, and then you."

"...No. Complaints."

"She's the one who convinced Khythen that humans are people, actually. She's very charming, in a slightly bewildering sort of way."

"No complaints is pretty bewildering!"

"I get the sense there's more to her than what's visible on the surface, but what's visible on the surface is someone who's enjoyed everything that's happened to her so far and is mildly annoyed about having her life disrupted but perfectly friendly and very understanding about the 'most demons don't think of humans as people' thing."

"Hm."

"I also get the sense there's more to you than what's visible on the surface, but I'll understand if you don't want to indulge my curiosity."

"You're still a demon. I still kind of want to rip your throat out with my teeth."

"Fair enough. —They haven't told you why you're here, have they."

"They haven't told me shit."

"You probably won't enjoy knowing, but my guess is that you'll want me to tell you anyway."

"Absolutely tell me."

"They intend to get you pregnant, forcibly abort at five or six months, repeat that a few times, and then eat you. Well, technically they only need to eat the womb to absorb the collected power but they're hardly about to let the rest go to waste."

"Oh."

"I'm sorry," he says quietly.