"Some kinds of magic are almost inextricably tied to gods, and the only way to not call on them is to be very very powerful yourself."

"… No, that's not what I meant – I meant, I thought they'd be okay with you invoking a different god because you weren't invoking them and they therefore wouldn't notice nor care what you're doing. And I wasn't saying, 'oh, don't invoke gods' – even though it sounds sort of like a bad idea – because I get that you're using them for power."

"W-well, maybe it's just paranoia, I've n-never tried doing that anyway and the books just generally w-warn against it and s-say the gods care, but th-they're not, like, o-omniscient or anything. Well, m-maybe the Powers That Be are."

"Oh, yeah, if the thing warns against it specifically then I'd say definitely don't do it until you're waaaay more confident."

He's not suicidal.

"Which it'd be great being as long as I haven't completely lost my soul by then."

"Yeah."

There's not really much he can say here, is there?

"I think most people don't lose their souls before they get there, though."

He shrugs. "So is there a small ritual that might help me in some way that also hopefully doesn't offer too much of my soul to some deity? I'm not really sure what exactly but at the moment I'm kinda… uh, 'squishy', really."

"M-most magic doesn't offer one's soul to anyone, it's just Sadde's ritual to kill vampires that does. It's k-kinda addictive if you don't control it very well and also the d-deities start getting some access to your head which can be. Bad. I-if you're not careful."

"… Access like what?"

"Like, having control over bits of your personality and—stuff."

"So, like, going crazy and losing control of your emotions and basically just overall being mind-controlled by some evil things?"

… Uh-huh. Sounds wonderful.

"Yes."

"Right. Is there anything we can do in the meantime that is hopefully non-horrible and yet still somewhat helpful, or are we just going to, like, I don't know, find a movie to watch for a bit or– actually, I don't even know what time it is, like, how long did we spend looking at books?"

"It's, um, like eight or something," she says, grabbing her phone. "8:12"

"Yeah, so, movie or something? Or other prep work? Or leave since it's eight – I don't know what your parents are like, Willow." He shrugs.

"...they're fine, they don't think I'll get into trouble. The time I suggested the possibility my mom started laughing out loud. Because I'm apparently that good a girl."

Theo smiles. "Okay, but anyway, movie or more prep?"

"Well do you have any idea of what to do for more prep? Maybe you want to learn some magic, which you probably shouldn't do because it's evil except I'm a hypocrite for saying so but in my defense I didn't know it at the time."

"Can I learn how to do it without actually doing it? So if something horrible befalls you both or, you know, equivalent, I can magic myself something to try to help?"

"Not really, the only way to learn magic is by practicing it."

"Okay, well then, maybe we just need to find some sort of… weapon? I mean, I don't really want to start carrying knives around but– like, wood and holy stuff work against vampires, and I'm pretty sure you said no to a general category of other things that are effective, but… I don't know, is there something?"

"Magic is the closest thing there is to a general weapon, but some demons are immune even to that. And most of the demons who actually cause trouble here on Earth are of the sort that are physically superior to humans."

"Iiii am not exactly human but then again I don't think I've got much of a benefit in terms of physical capabilities." He shrugs. "I have no idea, then."

"Maybe you're one of the ones who are immune to magic? Or maybe you're, like, a quarter-demon or something."