Lexie's first instinct was to run.

Her hand fumbled with the door handle behind her, heart pounding out of her chest. Her knees shook and air ratcheted in her throat. She didn't even have the wherewithal to scream. The fear that flooded her was so intense that it literally stole her breath, and maybe a little of her will to live.

Her dad wasn't home.

In the back of her mind, Lexie knew it. Aiden was staying late in school today and no one else was home to help her. Was that why the Eldritch Lord came? To kill her for being an imposter, knowing that her father wasn't here to protect her? Was he going to eat her soul once he was done, or send it to the demon world for other demons to feast on? Should she kill herself first?

While she panicked, Naem simply stood there, observing her with a tray of cookies in hand.

The cookie tray was what distracted Lexie enough for the fear to recede partially. She frowned, and thought, Why does he have that? She also realized that Naem wasn't attacking her yet, so maybe he wasn't here to kill her necessarily, unless he was the type that liked to give grande speeches before th act.

If he wasn't here to kill her though, what was he doing here then? Why was he holding a cookie tray?

"W..what are you doing here?" Lexie stammered. "My dad isn't home, and you can't be here if he's not here." Speaking of which, how did Naem get in? Max's new security system was supposed to keep out everyone who wasn't Aiden, Lexie, or Max. After the ghoul incident, Max had amended it to work on undead creatures too. Were the Eldritch different? Powerful enough to bypass such systems? Or had Aiden permitted him?

While her thoughts bounced, the Eldritch lord remained still.

"You're smaller than I remember," he said finally, his voice strange and whispery. "Did you shrink?"

Lexie frowned at him. "No?"

"Ah. Are all human [untranslatable] as small as you?"

The word he used was pure Eldritch and her system didn't give her a meaning for it, which meant the word didn't have a human language equivalent. Lexie assumed it meant something close to 'teenager'.

"I'm in the 35th percentile," she told him. "I'm small but almost average height."

"I see," he said. "I'm small for a Demon Lord too."

"You are?" She was surprised. He seemed pretty tall in her eyes. Or at least, his human disguise seemed that way.

"Yes," he responded and Lexie didn't know if he looked forlorn or if that was just the natural state of his human mask. Then again, his expression hadn't changed much and she was simply guessing his mood from the different intonations in his hissing voice. "Before, the other Lords would sometimes refer to me as [untranslatable] at our meetings. They tried to use my size against me, said that a Lord should not be so diminutive. They thought I was weak. That was until I [untranslatable vulgar] with their [untranslatable] and I threatened to [untranslatable obscene] whatever was left." He paused. "Since then, my size is no longer a disqualifying factor.

"Right." Lexie only understood part of what he'd said but she got the message. More importantly, she was wondering why he was telling her this story. Was he trying to get her to feel better about her size? Or was he just conversing?

His next statement gave her an answer.

"Now that we've commiserated and found common ground," he said, "Are you going to stop trying to phase yourself through the door? You don't appear to be very good at it."

Lexie still hadn't managed to get the door open with all her fumbling. She probably could do it now that she was a bit calmer, but she didn't leave. She still felt the urge to run, but she tempered it in order to get to the bottom of his presence here.

Besides, why should she have to leave? It was her house. He was the interloper here.

"You're looking for my dad aren't you?" she asked.

"Not necessarily," he said and looked down at the tray he still held. "I'm looking for your father's welcoming treats. But these don't taste as good as the ones he gave me the last time I was here."

Lexie peered at them. "That's because those cookies are stale. And I'm pretty sure he threw them out last night." In fact, Lexie had a distinct memory of her father doing just that. "Did you…fish it out of the trash?"

He nodded and then stopped as though a realization hit him. "Ah yes, I forgot you humans do not recycle."

"Yeah, we do," Lexie said a tad defensively.

He gave another sad look to the cookies. "Not well."

Lexie wanted to ask how the Eldritch recycled but she wavered. This was a little bizarre. How was she standing here having a conversation with the Lord of the freaking Eldritch? She should be screaming and running for her life. Or at least calling the proper authorities.

But he was her father's friend and she didn't want her dad to get in trouble because of him.

Besides, with every second she spent here talking to him, her fear reduced a little. Not by much. She was still terrified he was going to snatch her soul out of her body and feed it to his three-headed dog in hell, but at least she was calm enough to say, "I think we have more cookies in the fridge."

His human mask didn't change though she could have sworn she saw the dark swirling depths of his eyes light up. She only looked for a second though. "You do?"

"Yes, but in return you'll let me keep my soul."

He cocked his head. "What would I need your soul for?"

"I don't know." She also didn't want to give him any ideas. "Maybe...experiments, or sacrifice?"

"Humans make terrible sacrifices. They have weak inner energy, don't know what they're doing half the time, and can't follow simple instructions. And human [untranslatables] are worse for experimentation. Why would I do that when I can use an Eldritch? They can do what a human can and more. We are so much better at understanding you than you are at understanding us."

Oh. Well, that was a relief. And a little insulting.

"You're not lying?" Lexie asked.

"Eldritch don't lie. Your soul is of no use to me," he continued. "The cookies, however, are."

Lexie swallowed and hoped she wasn't making a mistake. She scurried around him into the kitchen, keeping him in her visual field as she moved past.

She felt his presence right behind her when she opened up the fridge, and turned around several times only to find that he hadn't moved and was still in the living room, staring at him with that creepy human mask-like face. Lexie quickly took the cookies out of the fridge and popped them into a toaster oven to get them nice and warm. She held his gaze while the timer counted down, forcing herself to breathe through the choking fear that ebbed and flowed in waves.

She tried to look on the bright side.

After all, this was a rare opportunity that had presented itself to her, to talk to the Eldritch Lord alone. She could finally figure out what he knew and what he planned on telling Aiden.

"When you said my soul looked different," she ventured. "What did you mean?"

He cocked his head and didn't say anything for a few heart-pounding seconds during which Lexie wondered if she'd said the wrong thing, or maybe she'd committed some demon nobility faux pas.

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Suddenly, he huffed and said, "I thought humans find it rude when I talk about their souls."

"I mean," Lexue shrugged, "Kinda but now that you mentioned it, I would like to know what you see."

"What I see? Your soul was one way before. And now it is another." Lexie felt like there was a 'duh' implied at the end, like he'd just told her something that should have been obvious to her.

"So? What does that mean about me?"

His strange eyes blinked once. Slowly. "Am I supposed to provide an answer for that?"

"Can you?"

"Of course. I can provide numerous reasons why a human [untranslatable] soul looks different. It would range from extreme emotional change to physical changes to full soul transformation. I can give you examples spanning centuries and provide you with a precise likely cause of your soul change. However, I will not do that. It's a lot of work and you would need an entire mountain of your human cookies to compensate for my time."

Lexue didn't know why but that last statement made her snort. Maybe out of the sheer absurdity of the situation, because here she had been panicking over the fact that he could apparently see her soul and she'd thought that it meant he knew she wasn't the real Lexie Sparrowfoot. On the contrary, Naem just confirmed what Aiden said, that there were multiple reasons a soul can change. So her secret was safe for now at least.

A huge wave of relief hit her like, knocking the load off her shoulders.

The timer of the oven dinged and she put mittens on to bring the cookies out.

She fished out the plate of cookies plopping them on a tray. Then she removed her mittens and carried the tray back back into the living room.

When the Lord of the Eldritch reached for a cookie, she held it away from him and shook her head firmly.

"Not yet," she said. "You need to let them cool down or else you'll burn your tongue."

Naem continued to stare at her. It was only after she set the tray down that she acknowledged the ludicrousness of what she just said. He was an Eldritch being. Did they even have tongues? Did this current…form he was using…could it feel pain? And even if it could, he was a creature of hell so they probably had much hotter cookies than this.

Naem, though, did wait. So did Lexie. She wasn't exactly sure what she was waiting for except she didn't feel like she should just leave him there. He was a currently uninvited guest in her father's home and she needed to keep him within her line of sight so she could ensure that he wasn't doing anything shady. Not that she could stop him if he was. Her presence was probably not much of a deterrent, but she stayed anyway.

Maybe she should ask him to leave, but she couldn't kick him out when she'd just offered him cookies. So they both just stood there, watching each other until the cookies had finally cooled down enough for him to take one.

Lexie watched him as he slowly chewed.

"These are also not as good as the ones he gave me that first night," he said.

"That's because they're not fresh," Lexie pointed out.

"Hence why you humans need a better recycling system. In my world, everything is fresh, and that which is not can eventually be restored to its original freshness. There is no trash because nothing goes to waste."

"That sounds cool actually."

"It is." He nodded once and continued chewing. It got a little awkward again but rather than being afraid, Lexie decided to take the opportunity to assuage her curiosity.

"My father said you were the one who helped him craft his first card. The <Out of Sight, Out of Mind> card."

"You mean the [Dance for the Hidden Soul]?"

"I have no idea, but I'm assuming yes?" Lexie hesitated before she asked, "How did you do it? I've been trying to make a card for weeks now and it just never comes together how I want it. Dad said he made his very first card when he was only a year older than me."

"Are you in some sort of competition with him?"

"No," she said at first but the dark steadiness of his gaze seemed to drag the honesty out of her. "I guess. Something like that. Or maybe it's me and it's just in my head. But I feel like I should do more." She sighed deeply and let herself lean back against the wall as she admitted. "I've been having problems creating cards. All the ones I've tried to create have been glitchy because I don't create them using intent. I created them by mimicking aspects of other cards and then changing one or two aspects slightly."

He didn't say anything, just kept munching on the cookies. Lexie kept talking.

"My dad says I need to understand intent before I can truly create a card. But the problem is that I don't get intent at all. I'm supposed to 'perceive' it but I'm not sure what that even means. Meditation? I do that and it still doesn't help most of the time. I study Fae culture, read their history books…"

The creature made a sound that could have been a snort.

Afterward, he said, "The Fae know nothing about human perception and that is why they will continue to deceive and confuse humans for eternity."

Lexie blinked as he sat down, his body moving stiffly like a robot being controlled by a hive mind.

He gestured to the opposite seat."Sit."

There was a command in his tone that almost had Lexie jerking instantly to obey. The fear was back once more and Lexie thought that he might have been suppressing the effect somehow, in a way she didn't understand. She swallowed and thought about what to do next, whether to run or stay. Her instinct said run, but if he wanted to harm her he would have done so already. Additionally, technically she'd invited conversation by asking him a question. She should at least listen to his answer.

She indeed went to the couch and sat down opposite him.

"The first thing you should know is that intent has nothing to do with the Fae," Naem said. "It's a law that governs magic in every part of the universe. The Fae are just best at translating it for their uses, but they don't understand human intent as well as they pretend to."

"They don't?"

"No. They don't understand themselves as well as they want to either, but that is a different story. What are you feeling right now?"

"Afraid," Lexie said instantly because it was true. Now that he was no longer suppressing his pheromones as much, her fear was once more running amok.

"Good. Now what would you do to stop that fear from happening?"

Lexie knew she was probably supposed to say something like, 'control my feelings better', or 'have more confidence in my abilities', or 'trust that you won't hurt me and stop being racist against the Eldritch'.

Nevertheless, the first words that popped out of her mouth were, "Kill you."

She was shocked by her own audacity and immediately scrambled to fix it. "I'm sorry I didn't mean that."

"No, you did," he said calmly, not looking bothered at all. "That was your honest, gut reaction, your instinct from what you perceived as a threat. That's good. Hold on to that instinct and be honest with yourself. Because the Fae have lost track of what that even is."

"What do you mean?"

"The Seelie work by rules, because they feel like the world should work by rules, not understanding that we are not rules. All we are is pure instinct, and feeling, and fear. We are living nightmares in the flesh and no amount of eschewing negative emotion is going to change that."

Lexie frowned. She didn't understand what he was saying but he shook his head and moved on like he didn't expect her to.

"How would you do it?" he asked, suddenly. "Kill me, that is."

"Excuse me?"

"The magic is in the story. Begin the story from the beginning of the fear. You walked in and you immediately saw an Eldritch Lord in your home. You are afraid. You want to kill the Eldritch Lord. Where do you go from there? How would you kill me?"

"Um…" she thought about it. What was an Eldritch weakness? She assumed something that countered nightmares. Good dreams? Or a Saintess' magic? Was there a way to create that?

"You will lose it if you think too hard," he said. "It's better to know than to think. Only consider things within the confines of the story I have just told you."

Great, another thing she was bad at. Not thinking. She sighed. "You say that like I'm supposed to know what the heck you're talking about."

"Know who your target is. Internally, and externally. Know where the story leads and what you want from it. Then, tell the story. The 'intent' will be generated from that."

That excited her. She could figure out where he was going now. "So I have to do research."

He shook his head. "That is too much thinking."

Now he's lost me again.

"You are perceiving right now," he says. "With too much rationalizing, you will lose perception. Do not see things as they ought to be, see things as they are. Perceive honestly."

When Lexie still stared at him blankly, he added, "It's a lot easier to perceive with fear than it is to perceive with any other emotion. Because fear is one of the few things that keeps us honest." Dramatically without any warning, he grabbed the plate stood and then drifted to the door. "I leave now."

"What? Wait!"

He paused. Lexie searched for what to say. She didn't want him to leave, which was crazy considering she was still scared of him.

She especially didn't want him to leave through the front door.

"Can't you just disappear?" she asked. She'd seen him do it last time.

"I could but your father told me not to do that in front of you anymore."

"No, it's fine, I just...I don't want people to see you leaving."

He seemed to think about it. "Alright then."

A swirling black hole appeared behind him.

Just like that, Lexie finally got it. It hit her almost like a lightbulb like a thought without a string that showed the origin. It wasn't quite intuition, but it was close. Somewhere between intuition and reasoning.

It was like seeing with an eye you weren't aware you had, touching a sentient floating thought with a phantom limb that appeared out of nowhere. It was like she was translating through a second brain, a whole other sense opening up in front of her. And then it all summarized into a flash of something, some instinct that informed what she was going to say:

"Lord Naem."

His name seemed to whisper around them as he turned around.

"If I wanted to kill you," she said. "I would poison your cookies."

His face did not have any expression, but Lexie got the sense that he was smiling as he drifted away.

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