Adelina looked suitably impressed by Kate in nothing but underwear. The young demon had finished her transformation and was now posing for Adelina and Evelyn.

Kate was tall, slender and defined. Every muscle, every bone, every bit of cartilage that the subtle contouring pattern on skin could accentuate was accentuated. She didn’t exactly look strong that way, but fleshy. Overall quite inhuman, if the hooves, horns, wings and tail weren’t enough already.

“I thoroughly approve of your new body.” Adelina returned to the couch. They were visiting Kate’s new home in Hell. Jorogumo had finished conjuring it and the furniture today, and Kate couldn’t wait to check it out. The architect had already left, after a full tour and making sure everything was in order.

Kate reached for her clothes and started getting dressed. “I am glad you like it. Now that I’m done with the physical changes, I want to make good use of it.”

“Is there wait list?” The vampire giggled.

“Want me to put you at the top?”

“Please!”

Evelyn joined the laughter. “That new bed of yours will get one hell of a first night.”

“That poor thing.” Kate shook her head in amusement.

“More seriously though, do you know why you became so… not human? I mean, Apollyon and the others look more human than you… with the exception of Lucifer and Uttu.”

“I didn’t consciously decide this, so I can only guess. I just know that I felt vulnerable and a little helpless as a human after Henry and Arakiel, and I don’t want to feel that way anymore.”

“If anything, you look quite powerful now. And a little imposing… in a good way.” Evelyn found Kate quite aesthetically pleasing. While it wasn’t in a sexual way, she enjoyed seeing her friend like this.

Finally dressed again, Kate joined her friends on the corner couch. “Alright, I want to try some magic. Let’s see if I can conjure us some snacks.”

“Now that’s even more exciting!”

“If it works. Okay… here goes nothing.” Kate reached out and tried to reach for a bowl of crisps, just like she did when she teleported her deck and dice, but without a space to pull from. It worked and Kate nearly dropped it in surprise. Before she let the humans eat anything, she wanted to make sure the crisps were real and edible. That was quickly confirmed and she placed the bowl on the table.

“That worked and they taste good too.”

Evelyn eagerly reached into the bowl and shoved some crisps into her mouth. After a moment, she confirmed their quality with an enthusiastic nod.

“I love this.” Adelina now reached for the crisps as well.

“What do you mean?”

“Hanging out like this, especially here in Hell, away from all the human things. The one place where I can do this, without having to wait for the night or closing the blinds.” The vampire took of her sweater.

Evelyn raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Right… that whole sun thing. Didn’t you ask for a remedy?”

“I did, and Malice is working on it. Apparently the enchantment is working, but very unwieldy and kind of fragile. She promised to work tirelessly on it though.”

“I hope she finds a way soon.”

“Until then, I can just sneak in some time with Kate here.”

“Well, you aren’t the only one who’s going to bribe her friends for trips to Hell. I am so glad you roped me into this, Kate.”

“I am glad I did too. You know, the morning after your cuddle dates, Eisheth is always so upbeat and energetic. If you ever need to switch jobs, you could offer a snuggles for hire service for succubi.” Kate grinned.

“Not a bad idea. The first ever human snugglebus service, bribable with food, travel, and trading cards.”

“I might not be a succubus, but I think I will make use of that service too.”

“You can just ask to cuddle, you know.” Evelyn giggled.

“I wasn’t actually sure if you would be open to that… I don’t want to overstep any boundaries and it feels like I’ve gotten very physical with most of my friends. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but it never had friendships like this before.”

“You have now. I am glad I have friends who I can get physical with without the expectation of sexual stuff. No hidden motives, no buried desires that will ruin a friendship down the line, just having a good time together. I didn’t know I needed that.”

“Looks like we are all getting what we need for a better life.” Kate looked up at the front door. “And it looks like we are getting visitors.”

There was a knock at the door, Kate tried to open it with magic but took a few attempts to succeed. Azazel and Nirrti were waiting outside.

“I hope we aren’t interrupting.” The High Inquisitor seemed to be quite upbeat today, which wasn’t the case the last few times Kate had spoken to her recently. Dealing with the angels seemed to get to her.

“No, please, come in! Have a seat. I managed to conjure some crisps too.”

“Oh, nice.”

The two Nightmares made their way to the couch and armchair and got comfortable with everyone.

“I suppose you aren’t just here to check out my new little hut.”

Azazel shook her head. “It’s a cute hut. But we are here for something more serious but still positive. Firstly, Raphael is at the Pandemonium and would like to apologize to you personally. You should go see him later. Besides that, Nirrti and I agreed that you should be trained.”

“Trained?”

“To improve your magical abilities. Hone and expand your inherent Nightmare powers and maybe add some new skills too.”

“That would be lovely. I have a few questions about that before we start anything though.”

“By all means, ask.”

“Polly told me what magic is and how it works fundamentally. But there seem to be limitations to that which don’t quite make sense to me. And there must be rules about what I can and can’t do, right?”

“There are rules, yes. And limitations too, but those are less with the way magic works but in the way we demons exist and how our minds work. You have something specific in mind, don’t you?”

Kate nodded. “A few things. There seems to be something about my human disguise I can’t fully control. I tried to show myself the way I looked before I changed the first time but I couldn’t. I couldn’t even imagine myself that way, like I remember me but I can’t use that memory.”

“Because you are not human. Your human disguise looks like human you because demon you hasn’t changed from that besides becoming a demon. The only disguising magic we have access to, that is not fully shapeshifting, merely transcribes you across species to create the magical mask. To change anything about how you look in human disguise, you would need to change it in your demon form too, which is trivial for things like hair colour, but impossible for age or sex. We cannot age, so our human disguises can’t age either.”

“Hm… You mentioned shapeshifting.”

“I did, and it technically is something you can learn, but it is incredibly difficult and there are only a handful of demons who have attempted to train in it, not to mention mastering it.”

Kate took a moment to think. “I… don’t know why it doesn’t bother me. There are implications about my relationship with humans here that, frankly, suck. I will have to distance myself from some of the people I know now, but it either didn’t sink in properly yet or I just don’t mind.” She sighed. “Doesn’t matter. What about my Nightmare abilities? Any hard limits to those?”

This time Nirrti answered. “Of course there are limits, but those are not as, well, limiting as our disguising magic. You can manipulate minds, as we spoke about a while ago, but you cannot fully rewrite them. The more drastic the changes to a mind, the more likely it becomes that they will eventually revert. A fully rewritten mind will immediately return to what it was before. There are many things that we also consider impossible, that we have not verified. Either because we have rules against those actions, or we simply haven’t reached that far. Limits to possession for example are difficult to test, because possession without consent is strictly forbidden and you cannot simply try throwing a human you possess of a cliff consensually. It might be best to talk about the rules when we get to those skills during your training, if you choose to pursue any that have them.”

Kate nodded along. “I see. When do we start?”

“Whenever you want. I will need a few more weeks to be fully healed again and I will personally wait until then to aid in your training, but Azazel can start whenever you wish.”

“How about I come by next Monday, after your lectures. We can train in the library.” Azazel sounded quite enthusiastic.

“Sure thing!” Kate shared that enthusiasm. “I really look forward to that. But… can I ask you to also teach me some more general magic? Like some tricks to make the things I can do easier and maybe some stuff that might be useful in general.”

“Absolutely. We only teach you what you want to learn, your magical skills are yours and you control what you can do and want to do.”

“Yes, and that is something we cannot overstate. I never trained in possession or deeper mental manipulation because I am not comfortable having those abilities. You control what you learn.” Nirrti gave Kate a reassuring smile.

“Understood. I don’t even know all the options, I am sure you have a lot to teach me. But first, Az, you said Raphael was waiting for me?”

The High Inquisitor nodded. “Yes, but I don’t want to drag you away from your visitors.”

Evelyn shook her head. “We can keep ourselves entertained, as long as you don’t take too long.”

“It won’t be long, I promise.”

“Good. Then let’s go see to the angel.” Kate got up and teleported away with Azazel.