"I still think this is dangerous, Lillet. No matter how friendly your relationship might be, he's still a devil."
"I know that, Amoretta. I promise you, I won't let him trick me into any weird deals. After all, I don't have the Philosopher's Stone turning back time for me any more, so I have to live with any mistakes that I make."
Amoretta frowned. Where it concerned devils, she was still highly dubious, which came as no surprise. Over the homunculus's hundred and twenty days of existence, she'd had a very bad experience with devils. Creatures of Alchemy were by nature weak to sorcerous influence, because their life came from human manipulation of natural and supernatural law rather than as a natural part of divine creation, but her personal circumstances were even worse. Dr. Chartreuse had made Amoretta's artificial existence stable by giving her a core, building her around a previously existing spirit. He hadn't gone for merely one shocking success with his ultimate homunculus, though, but had tried for a second. Rather than use a ghost or the spirit of a fey creature for the core, he'd somehow made use of the soul of an angel.
As an attempt to bring him holy wisdom and the secrets of creation, Amoretta was a failure; the only memories she held were those of her present life as a homunculus. For a devil, though, the idea of an angel's pure spirit existing within a fleshly body, open to every physical temptation, and a body moreover crafted by Alchemy, was like a thick, juicy slab of meat put before a starving wolf.
Lillet supposed she sympathized a little bit with those devils. After all, while her emotions were quite different, Amoretta was the girl that Lillet loved. Thankfully, unlike in the devils' case, Amoretta returned Lillet's affection, one reason why she was not inclined to let Lillet walk blindly into a devil's den.
"I trust you," Amoretta answered the unspoken protest, "but as clever as you are, you're still a human asking a devil for magical knowledge, and that's a situation that's fraught with risk. I'm coming with you just in case something happens."
"All right, Amoretta, but if he starts making you uncomfortable, it's okay for you to leave. I know how he can be sometimes, and I don't want you getting hurt for my sake. Promise me that you'll say something if you don't feel safe."
"I will. But you need to promise me that you'll listen to me if I think you're getting in too deep."
Lillet smiled at her.
"You can be surprisingly stubborn when you want to be, little love. But I promise."
Amoretta's satisfaction was self-evident. Though her body and intellect were both of a mature young woman, she tended to show her emotions as openly as if she were her real age. Lillet wasn't entirely sure if that was due to her accelerated development as a homunculus, or whether it was merely a facet of Amoretta's character.
It was something she looked forward to learning in the future, something that couldn't be discovered no matter how many passes she took through looping time, but only through the ordinary forward flow of life. But for now, her immediate interest was in learning something else. She knocked on the closed door in front of her.
"Mr. Advocat?"
"Come in, Lillet Blan." As always, the syllables of her full name rolled off his tongue as if he was tasting a particularly delectable pastry, probably something cream-filled and drizzled with chocolate (Lillet had, it will be noted, missed lunch because she'd been trying to work out her magical problem on her own). The devil's voice was rich and sensual, like a decadent aristocrat's from a novel. His appearance matched the voice; when Lillet opened the door she found him standing behind his desk, his tall, thin figure dressed in elaborate garb of red and black, accented at collar and hip with white lace that matched the pristine fall of his ruffled cravat.
It was an image far, far less dangerous than the reality.
"Now, what can I do for you? As a devil, I'm always open for business…and these are my office hours, besides. As a responsible teacher, I do need to keep up proper appearances."
"It's as a teacher that I wanted to see you. I need help with magic."
"Indeed? How surprising. You're fully qualified to be giving lessons yourself at this point. So what are you prepared to offer me for my assistance, Lillet Blan? I doubt you'd be willing to just hand over your soul, but perhaps you've brought dear, divine Amoretta with you as a most tempting bait?"
"Mr. Advocat!" Lillet yelped.
"That is not funny," Amoretta said, her voice stern.
"Besides, you're a teacher here. Like you told me yourself, answering ignorant questions is part of your job description."
Advocat chuckled.
"But your questions would hardly fit that description now, would they? Indeed, old boy Gammel would be the one coming to you for help at this point."
"But I haven't graduated yet." She pouted and added, "Until I'm formally cleared of my involvement with the Philosopher's Stone incident, the investigators from the palace have me here under house arrest. Until they're done, I'm still officially a student, and entitled to ask for your assistance."
"A pure technicality." He shrugged, then said, "But as you well know, technicalities are everything when dealing with devils."
She grinned back.
"I had a good Sorcery teacher."
"Even so, I'm quite surprised that you came to me. Your darling light o' love surely warned you against it, judging by how fiercely she glowers. I'm quite impressed with how you bypassed such stern defenses to win the prize; you must tell me your secret some day, Lillet Blan."
Amoretta saved Lillet the trouble of coming up with a response, which was a good thing. Lillet was confident enough with most banter with Advocat, but she was still a teenaged girl barely a month (from the perspective of memory) into the flush of her first real love, and she didn't have the natural aplomb of a Bartido Ballentyne to tell jokes about it.
"Lillet 'won' me by giving me the one thing no devil ever could: her love."
Advocat pressed his fingertips to his chest and gave a theatrical sigh.
"Ah, you cut me to the quick. Such cruelty from such a face, la belle dame sans merci indeed."
"She's not wrong, though."
"Unfortunately not. We devils are quite poor at offering true love. Fortunately for devil-kind, most people who treat with us wouldn't recognize the real thing if they found it—or want it if they did."
"But you do have a sense of humor," Lillet said. "I mean, Ms. Opalneria and Dr. Chartreuse take things so seriously! I could never ask them about this."
Advocat smirked.
"You've certainly taken their measure. Come, then. While I would not call myself whimsical by nature, you shall not find me so stern and unbending as my fellows. What is your question?"
"Well, it's like this, Mr. Advocat. My little brother Seyval always liked this conjuring trick my grandfather would do when he made a coin jump from one hand to the other and no matter how I try I just can't seem to get it right. I mean, I think I could do it by using a Rune to transport it magically if I could get the lines straight on my hand, but that's like summoning a dragon to light a candle. Can you help, Mr. Advocat?"
Though deception was the fundamental nature of devils, it could not be said that he was lying about possessing a sense of humor. Indeed, the rich, dark laughter that bubbled out of him nearly matched that from when he'd watched Lillet trick Grimlet into locking himself up into Hell.
Then, when he'd caught his breath, the Prince of Hell, Mephistopheles, sat down with the greatest magician of her generation to teach her the basic finger palm.