Jesse wakes up the next morning back in their bedroom, ensnared in the blankets with their eyes feeling slightly puffy.

They have a vague memory of Romeo scooping them up into a hug after some time without a word and carrying them for a bit, but they can't quite remember it because they were half-asleep and teary anyway and so they just let it go.

Well, they let it go until Gill sticks his head into the room and tells them that Romeo's called for all five of them to meet in his office quickly.

So now they're in his office again.

Aiden's drumming his fingers impatiently on his arm from where it's crossed, red eye staring intently at Romeo. Maya is just rubbing her eyes sleepily, while Lukas looks as impassive as usual (mainly because of the blindfold. It's pretty hard to read his expression sometimes) and Gill just tapping his foot.

Romeo nods when they're all in the room, Kaster and Bedivire swinging the doors shut at the nod. There's the slithering of metal curling together as they lock the door.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet me this early in the morning." Romeo inclines his head at Jesse with a faint smile ticking onto his face, before giving his fingers a little quirk.

Jesse's heart fades back into view, and the demon lord shifts, resting his elbows on the table as all eyes flicker to the pink flower hovering in the air.

"Have you made a decision about their heart?" Lukas sounds faintly interested about this.

"Yes. I've decided to return Jesse's heart." Romeo lifts his finger before anyone can really react to the statement. "On one condition."

Honestly, since Jesse's done nothing except run around in the Underneath for a day or two and essentially be a trouble to everyone, Jesse thinks that's pretty fair, so they nod and shift a bit, looking at him earnestly. "Name it."

Romeo regards them for a moment, before giving a slow nod. "Alright. There's been some trouble around Cosmos lately, and I want you to help solve it."

"What sort of trouble?"

Aiden glances at Jesse out of the corner of his eye with a look they really can't read, which makes them a little nervous, but Gill speaks up before either the demon lord or Jesse can say anything else. "If it's about that issue, you don't need to explain the lord-baron-thing about Cosmos; we talked about it with Jesse yesterday after we overheard about the party."

Romeo hums, tilting his head at him. A faint smirk seems to quirk over his mouth. "Oh? You four are overachievers as always."

His gaze flickers to Jesse. "So they explained the districts and the lords and barons?"

Jesse nods, parroting back some of the main points. "Cosmos is divided into five districts; Narvid, Hizelk, Yurin, Enchantra, and Jupin. Each district is ruled by a lord, and there are safe paths with cities at the halfway point to mark the entry into a different district. Jupin is the center district, but it currently doesn't have a lord and so there's a lot of trouble there."

"Very good," Romeo compliments with a smile, allowing a tiny pleased feeling to flicker into their chest before he continues. "Normally, we lords don't bother with the intricate details of other districts and allow the lords to sort that out with the barons in district meetings, but since Jupin is in the center, it affects everyone."

A flicker of his fingers, and the map Lukas pulled up the day before appears. Romeo 'taps' the image, making it ripple as if a pebble was tossed into a pond. "But, the unrest in Jupin is only the problem on the surface."

The ripples clear to reveal a black door. The door has five keyholes in a shape that looks remarkably like the simplified map of Cosmos, the lock mechanism (Jesse assumes that's what it is, considering the keyholes are right where the capital cities would be) gray and dull. "Underneath Jupin, there's a door connected between Cosmos and your world, Jesse. However, unlike the portal that you came from, which opens every month in order to bring in humans to form contracts, beings with physical forms cannot pass through the door."

"What..." Jesse balks a little as they realize the sound bubbled out and interrupted Romeo, but when he nods at them encouragingly, they meekly continue. "... what does that mean?"

Maya hums, making them twist around to look up at her. "A physical form would be considered... a body." She taps her arm. "I would not be able to walk through the door. However, a ghost, a soul separated from the body, or a heart separated from its owner could potentially enter the door."

A brief, humorless chuckle from Lukas. "Don't think anyone would want to."

"Why not?"

Romeo nods at Jesse, making them swivel back to look at him. "Within the door is another dimension, where negative energy from both worlds gather. About seven thousand years ago, according to history books, a large amount of negative energy accumulated." He glances at the door, lips twisting into a frown. "Because there was so much of it, it actually began to gain its own consciousness and piece together some semblance of a soul."

His eyes flicker back to Jesse, who's listening to this with rapt attention. "But, because it didn't really have a physical form of its own, the negative energy attempted to move to Cosmos to find a body.

"In order to protect Cosmos and the human world, the ancient demons removed the door from the human world, and locked the door in Cosmos to seal the negative energy inside the dimension within the door," and Romeo points at the lock.

"Interesting fact, remember yesterday we told you Ivor's the oldest current lord?" At Jesse's nod, Gill continues. "Ivor's actually one of the lords that helped seal the door."

Jesse's eyes grow rather large at that. "He's that old?"

Romeo gives a mild hum. "Yeah, he doesn't talk about that very much. Er, anyhow, that door is currently locked with five keys, and each lord has one key."

A pause. His expression grows more solemn, lips pressing together, and for a second Jesse wonders if he's about to cry.

And then it seals off.

"When Fred died, his key was stolen. Initially we thought it had been lost, but Isa, Mevia, and Harper reported that their key was stolen recently. This means that someone is trying to steal all of the keys and open the door."

The image dissipates as he levels an even stare at Jesse. "So, what I want you to do, Jesse, is to find who is up to this, and why they are trying to open the door."

Jesse blinks.

And then they blink again, an apologetic expression crossing their face.

"Ah, um... I'm sorry, I don't know if I could do something like that alone..."

"I never said you were going alone," Romeo replies smoothly, "those four are going along with you."

"I refuse," Aiden snaps back, making Jesse wince since he's two feet from them. "This doesn't have anything to do with us." He jerks his head at Jesse. "They're doing this to get their heart back."

Romeo levels a humorless smile at Aiden. "Well, guess what? I refuse to accept your refusal. Even if Jesse wasn't here, I would've eventually ordered you to do this."

"But... are you only returning their heart to them upon completion of the task?" Lukas is frowning. "If that's the case, we'll only have about thirteen days before their heart disappears. I honestly don't think we'll be able to solve this whole thing in thirteen days."

"And giving their heart back to them now would basically be sticking a signpost on their head saying 'Eat Me'," Maya adds. "Even without their heart, they'd make a pretty good meal."

Jesse decides not to comment on that.

The demon lord actually perks up, giving them an almost bright smile. "Oh, yes. I actually figured out a way around that that'll give Jesse as much time as you need without basically turning them into a walking meal. Although, ah," and he gives a slightly more sheepish smile a second later, "preferably before all five keys are stolen."

His expression goes back to a blank one as he turns to look at Jesse. "Of course, that's primarily up to them to decide if they actually want to."

"'S only fair." Jesse shrugs, ignoring the way all expressions narrow a bit in confusion. "I'll do my best."

"Good. Work hard." Romeo claps his hands, giving his finger a beckoning curl in their direction. "Come closer for a moment; you're a bit too far for me to do this."

Jesse obediently shuffles closer. The demon lord surveys them, before snapping his fingers briskly.

A faint, pink glow effuses their heart, a sort of wispy glowing string forming between them and the heart. Jesse watches, vaguely fascinated, as the string slowly detaches from their chest and begins to wrap around the flower, writhing and curling into place slowly at first, before it moves faster, then faster, then still faster.

Their heart is now rather painful to look at from the glow as the last bit of the string disappears into the whirling ball around Jesse's heart, before the glow... well, it's hard to describe, but it looks like it pops open.

For a moment, the glow slowly wriggles, changing gradually in something that actually looks like it has something like an actual shape.

And then the glow abruptly dissipates, a little pink pig with a funny, somewhat heart-shaped mark on its side plops onto the floor with a little oink.

Jesse's heart melts.

(Not literally, of course.)

Lukas's eyebrows are so high they're actually above the blindfold for once. "A vessel creature?"

Jesse scoops up the pig, which is just the right size for them to scoop up and hold him (it looks like a him) like a stuffed animal, giving him a ridiculously pleased grin. "Hi there."

He snuffles happily in their arms.

Aiden arches his eyebrow, his usual scowl fading to a look of interest. "Did you get the idea from Stella?"

Romeo shrugs. "Why mess with something that works?" He glances at Jesse, who looks very happy about the little pig they're holding. "That is your vessel creature."

"What's that?" Jesse would usually be listening incredibly closely, but they're a little more focused on scratching the little pig gently on the head.

"A vessel creature," Romeo begins, "actually acts as a separate, sentient vessel that contains a being's heart- think of it like a familiar, but holding your heart."

He pauses, almost considering what he's saying, before resuming slowly. "What the vessel creature does is actually mute the scent or... hm... feeling your heart emits, thus making it seem like a normal pet or familiar, while also keeping your heart safe- most of the time vessel creatures are actually quite skilled in combat."

Aiden snorts.

"I said most of the time. Anyhow," he inclines his head at Jesse, "do be careful with it- if your vessel creature dies, you will also die."

Jesse gives a vigorous nod, going back to cuddling the tiny pink pig. The pig seems extraordinarily happy with this turn of events.

"Typically, the vessel creature will be one that most suits the personality of the person it is acting as a vessel for. Though, er," and Romeo gives a bemused smile as he glances over at where Jesse is now hugging the pig rather happily, "I've never seen one be a pig before."

Gill hums, crossing his arms with a frown. "Well, that does fix the issue. But I have no idea where to start trying to figure out anything about the person stealing the keys with the information we have."

Romeo gives an almost apologetic shrug. "I'd tell you more, but that's all we lords know ourselves."

"Fantastic," Aiden grumbles.

"Well," and several sets of heads turn to Jesse, who balks at the attention for a moment, before looking down at the pig, although still speaking as they rub his head with their thumb. "Isn't there that party in Yurin? And some lords are going, right?"

Maya nods, confirming the statement almost before Jesse even finishes. "Yeah, pretty much everyone except for the Narvid lord and barons, from the rumor."

"Well, if there's a party, then a lot of people are going to attend, or at least a fair amount. And if the lord of the north is hosting the party, wouldn't it be where the lord lives?"

"Logic does demand that, yes," Aiden almost drawls.

(Lukas frowns at him.)

Jesse ignores it for now, although their stomach does give a tiny twist.

"Well, if someone is trying to steal the keys, then the party would be a good chance to steal the key." Jesse notices some of the others pausing and nodding thoughtfully at this, but they continue anyway. "Not to mention, if other lords are attending, there's actually the possibility of being able to steal more than one key."

Romeo's looking at Jesse with a careful look, which makes Jesse feel a little wary.

A moment later, he hums and nods. "Yes, that's strategically a good idea. It might be a good idea to head to the party, since it's apparently in another month or so."

At the looks he receives, he shrugs. "If the rumor's just now reaching here, Xara's not going to hold a party for another month. She's pretty busy. Not to mention she likes to plan fairly meticulously about certain things."

Jesse wonders how the heck he knows this.

"The problem is, we're going to need one of the other lords' help to get in the party, since we're not invited and I'm not really sure I'm comfortable with asking her if we can attend," Maya muses thoughtfully, tapping her cheek, before her brow furrows. "She's... yeah. She's pretty scary."

Lukas crosses his arms, tilting his head to one side and considering this. "Well... since Ivor's still looking for another lord, he might not necessarily be in Enchantra. I think we should head to Hizelk."

"That means a two-day journey, since traveling on the safe path means that you'll have to stop at Champion City before nighttime..." Romeo's brow furrows thoughtfully.

"It'll actually take longer, since we've got a human with us," and Aiden jerks his head at Jesse.

The pig oinks at him angrily.

Jesse would apologize, but Lukas is already waving it off. "Well, we'll figure something out for travel. We should pack some extra clothes and potions for the trip."

Maya nods again. "Sounds good. Let's get to it."


Romeo roams the hallways, still holding his spellbook.

He meant to give it to Lukas, but Lukas waved it off, saying that this investigation wasn't really the best time to be studying intricate magic, and Gill didn't really use magic anyway, and Maya said she'd probably lose the book (which was honestly true), and Aiden was about as likely to need a magic book as Jesse's vessel creature.

And, as if he's spoken of the devil, he rounds the corner and finds Jesse sitting on the floor, rubbing the vessel creature's back. They're back in the clothes they've been wearing the whole time, which... makes sense, since he doubts they brought clothes with them.

(They can probably wear something of Maya's if the need comes. They're small.)

"Ah, Jesse."

Their head pops up. "Oh. Hi, Romeo." And they give him a shy little smile. "Whatcha holding?"

He glances at the spellbook. Then at Jesse, who probably can't do magic since they're a human.

Fred always liked magic.

"Do you want a spellbook?"

They blink at him. "Eh?"

He holds up the book. "I tried to give it to Lukas and Maya, but they didn't really want it. I figure at least one member of the team should have some kind of basic spellbook just in case something goes wrong."

"Oh, but I can't do magic..."

He waves it off. "You can just keep it on hand until someone else needs it. Besides, it makes for a fun read sometimes."

Jesse blinks at him again, before giving him a faintly bemused kind of smile and accepting the book of spells that he sets in their hands. (It's a surprisingly large volume, and he would've kept it if he didn't have another copy that Ivor'd sent him once as a gift.) "Um... okay. Thank you very much."

"Of course." And he slides down the wall to sit next to them, watching as Jesse struggles to fit the thing into their pocket before succeeding and returning to giving their vessel creature quite a bit of love.

He gives them a careful sort of smile as they pet the pig at their feet. "Have you named it yet?"

He remembers when Fred (his chest squeezes) got a familiar that looked like a rather bizarre chicken and, to his and Xara's total bemusement (well, his total bemusement and Xara's amusement), named it Waffles.

"Hm?" Their head pops up to make eye contact with him.

"Your vessel creature." The demon lord carefully gestures at the pig. "You name it yet?"

"Oh, yeah!" Jesse beams, scooping the pig up and giving him a gentle squeeze. The pig squeals happily, pressing his snout against Jesse's cheek.

"His name is Reuben."


A/N: No, Reuben's not gonna die in this. We have minimal character death.

Minimal main character death.

I think.

Responses to reviews!

Toni42: Jesse's been with their legal guardian long enough to learn that sometimes those emotional extremes are actually very similar. And they've learned to let their fear control their actions pretty quickly. / Hehe xD / Yeah, uh, he'd be heartless if he did xD / He DOES act a bit childish xD / Ye :3

TheAmberShadow: Nice pun xD / Yay xD / It's not necessarily parental, he's just... very, very careful. And also not sure how to act around teenagers and crying people, haha. / The Plan is in action.

The Princess of Pink: Me too!

MidnightLegend12: Hehe, yep xD / Aaah, thank you!

That's it for now! See ya, so long, and g'bye!

x.X. A.L. X.x