She shook her head, "No. It changes nothing about how I feel about you. I already made up my mind about that. She came after that and told me that what I wanted – to be with you, could be done. I was too slow to tell you that you might die. I tried to say it better, but I was already running out of time and we had to hurry. I will never tell you what came into my mind as I sat with you. It is better not to know. I'm just so glad that you helped me again." He felt her exhale, and almost knew what she was going to ask, but he waited for it anyway.
"Do you still want to do this with me?"
He looked at her and wanted to laugh. She looked so much like a worried child, this fearsome demon in his arms whose only other friend was a murderous-looking dog-girl and whose mother probably drove weather forecasters nuts the world over. He thought that he probably ought to be worried about what might amount to a mother-in-law like that, but Toby hated weather forecasters with a passion. He saw them as idiots who'd gone to university and come out with even less sense. His mother's bunions and arthritis, before she died, were better predictors of the weather. For that reason alone, he already liked Maezou's mother.
"Yes, I want to do this. I wouldn't care about all this stuff, but it's what you need to happen, and that's enough for me to agree. But I do want to make love with you, Maezou. There's something that you ought to know about me. I may not be faster than a speeding bullet, or more powerful than a locomotive, or able to leap tall buildings, but if I have a choice and it's explained to me so that I can understand it in my own simple way,... well, if I tell you something – then you ought to know that I mean it."
He hugged her to him tightly, "I heard what was said and I get it. I might just die doing this. I'm not crazy about it, I'm probably a little scared of that, but not all that much, I don't think. I see this as my part of what we're doing for each other. You've done what you had to do and soon it'll be my turn. I still want to do this for you."
She didn't know what to say to him.
"By the way," he said, "If it happens, I want you to know that as far as I'm concerned, if I die, you already have my release from this if that's what you need from me. Just how is it that I'm supposed to die, if it happens?"
She snorted a bit sadly at the irony of it. "What was supposed to happen in these bindings was that a human seduces and binds a demon. It was to work no matter what the ones in it were, male, female, two of one kind, anything. The human receives some long life, a slave for pleasure, and power. I don't think that you noticed, but the final words are for the bound one to say, so that they have the last chance to avoid the binding."
He nodded, "I noticed, but I didn't know what it was for. That makes sense."
"Toby, I told you that this was never meant for ones like us. I think that if there was love in it, it was probably one-sided and the slave gave all to a greedy human. When they joined, the human began to receive the gifts. But this was also never meant for much more than weak upper demons at best. We both love each other. That is an important difference, and better for everything – but much more dangerous for you. I am not one like that. I was once, and for a long time, but not anymore. I am a strong demon. That's why no other form of binding would work."
She thought for a moment and felt the cold edge of her fear in her chest for him. He looked down and he saw that her eyes were filling. He touched her head and stroked her red braids with his fingertips, "Come on, Maezou. I know I'm really blind in almost all of this, but I've found that in anything, it's better to know as much as you can beforehand." He kissed her lips softly, "That's what I'm trying to find out now. As much as you try to hide it, and as obviously powerful as you are from my point of view, I've noticed that you do have your own fears – and I hate to see them in you. Just say it so that I understand it, honey."
Maezou sighed, "I always tried not to look at things too much, because I always saw unfairness to me. I found it easier never to try too hard to see. But some things cannot be ignored, no matter how hard I tried not to see what is plain. I think that any ruler who sends a hunter gets more than the value of the soul. They must, or they could just sit and wait for the normal amount of souls to come. So there must be more value added for the trouble of keeping and sending out hunters. If I am right, then my life has been even more unfair because I got nothing for what I did for all of that time."
"Most of the ones I was sent for were nothing much in effort to my eyes and I didn't care anyway, but over time, I saw that I was sent on harder and harder hunts. There were hunts where I would arrive to find others waiting for me. Not demons, Toby. The other servants. We never spoke to each other, but they led me right to where I needed to be and they waited while I took the soul. I hated those hunts, because I often had to work hard and it was a short hunt, so I had no luxury of time to stalk and set things up to make it easier for myself. Once, the man was leaving on – what do you call those loud things with two wheels?"
"Motorcycles?" he suggested.
"Yes," she said, "he was already moving away quickly. I looked at the others and they only looked at me, as though they expected something of me. I was angry because I had just finished a hard hunt like this, and now I had another one. I could have flown after him, but I reft his soul out of him from where I stood hundreds of feet away in my rage. It flew to me and his machine went on for a time, slowing until it hit a building. The others backed away from me, and I left. I knew then that I was easily one of the best hunters and I knew why I was always given one hunt after another. I must have been making my ruler rich if he could guarantee that his huntress would always come back with the wanted soul. His price for that must have been high."
She drew a deep breath. "If a demon gave themselves to this binding, and they were the usual sort, how much could the human have gotten from them? Longer life and a little magic ability? So, if I am this powerful huntress, what will you get from me when we do this, Toby? Beyond what you would need to keep yourself and me safe, as I would do for you, I do not care. For my part, you could have all of it. I only want to love you. I just want your love for me. But you're a man. There must be limits to how much of me you can take. I am afraid that once we start loving each other, it will be too much and it might kill you."
She looked up, so afraid now, "I have no way to give only a little at a time. Once we begin, you get what you get. All of us - Zele, my mother, and I - we are afraid that it will be too much all at once. I will try to hold back anyway, but I don't know how, and you will get weaker until you come out of it. What happens if you weaken enough to die before you come out of it? I am so afraid of this. I don't want to lose you now."
She watched as he clenched his jaw. It frightened her a little until she noticed that he felt resolved and determined about something. He wasn't angry at her.
He smiled down at her, "You know what? Let's go back to the wedding idea for a minute. If you were a human girl and you were dumb enough to want a jerk like me, we'd get engaged, and then the whole time up to the day of our wedding, your life would be a whirlwind of preparation leading up to the big day. For human women, this is their day, and it's all about them. I think that you've been trying hard to not look at how this might come out. I'd like this better if you just kept doing that, Maezou. I don't care if you have to fool yourself or whatever else. Try to look at it like that, ok? This is your big day. I'd want you to be happy more than looking scared to death the way that you do now."
He held her for a minute longer, "You were going to get the stuff from the bedroom."
She nodded and walked up the stairs, meeting Zele on the way. Her friend looked concerned, but put her paw on Maezou's shoulder and held up her other one with the fingers splayed widely as a motion to stop as she began to whisper. "Zele sees now how he is. He is right. Try to be happy - for him at least. We hope for you and him. If you are afraid and sad like this and he lives, you will have missed your joy. He tries for you. You should try for him too." She walked to the front room of the house, fading out of sight to peer out of the window.
Toby was lost in thought as he began to put wood and kindling into the stove. He had just added a few pieces of newspaper in some of the spaces that he'd left when she came back. Maezou saw what he was doing and dropped everything. Toby was reaching for the matches.
"No "she said, "here." She pointed to the contents of the stove. He looked from her finger to the wood, and saw that the newsprint was curling, and some of the kindling was beginning to smoke. She snapped her fingers, and it lit with a gentle "whuff". He looked at her and she said, "I could have just thrown a fireball, but it's too much of a shock to the stove I think, and the wood still wouldn't be going right. This way, it's a gentle start, but it gets going quicker." Toby saw that she was trying hard to lighten up.