Soul Guardian

Chapter 26: Breakfast at Thrifty's (bonus Chapter)

The foster father and daughter sat on the stone bench outside the Thrifty drugstore eating their ice cream cones. At thirty-five cents per scoop it was an incredible deal. The scoops were flat on top with cylindrical sides, making them easy to stack. Bael obviously took full advantage of this.

The demon admired his masterpiece. It originally contained six scoops in total ranging from rainbow sherbet to rocky road. Currently it was down to a much more manageable three, though Bael did have a bit of brain freeze going on.

Logic would dictate that in this mad rush to eat the ice cream before it melted one should begin at the top and work their way down. But what was the fun in only eating one flavor at a time? With a nibble there and a lick here he whittled away at the comically large stack of scoops. Somehow, in defiance of physics, Bael managed to make it work.

The girl watched in fascination, wondering what the trick was. There was always some trick with Bael. Silly and childish as he seemed the demon was a master of misdirection and subtle manipulation. He moved people around like chess pieces, playing both sides of the board.

It didn't seem malicious. It was simply his nature. She mulled Lou's words over in her head as she looked across the parking lot. There were a lot of families out today. Some big, some small, some happier than others. Mothers mothered, fathers fathered, children acted childish.

For as long as Six could remember she had felt out of place. It was like her thoughts were too big for a child's head and they leaked out when she spoke. She envied how these other people seemed to belong without any apparent effort.

“You know, I believe we had a deal.” Six said, “There were supposed to be sprinkles.”

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“A most grave error on my part.” Bael admitted, making no attempt to slow down his consumption of the ice cream despite his growing headache. As a bureaucrat he was used to working though such things. “Though I would call attention to the wording of the deal, technically I am not in breach of the agreement.” A few seconds passed as Six nibbled on her ice cream cone. There were sprinkles at the ice cream parlor inside the drugstore. So why hadn't Bael ordered any for them? What was it she was missing?

They were both down to two scoops worth of ice cream now. Bael noticed her confusion and offered up a hint. “Brownie bites.” He said before going back to business.

That was it, wasn't it? The agreement was they could get ice cream with sprinkles, but only if Bael got brownie bites. As brownie bites were not available she could not be given sprinkles without breaching her side of the agreement. “Really? You lawyered me out of sprinkles?”

“Yes.” Bael said, proud of her for understanding so quickly. “Perhaps you have a long career ahead of you in the legal field.”

Six’s ice cream took the opportunity offered by her distraction to slump over. Bael steadied it with a finger before it could fall. She watched the ice cream freeze solid at his touch. Vapor condensed in the air around the one and a half remaining scoops.

“What did you do?” Six asked, looking at the frozen cone with confusion. This was something new.

“It's a part of my inherent magic. I absorb, store, and transfer things.” Bael explained. “I normally keep it a secret but ice cream is important.”

“Thank you, Dad.” Six said, reading between the lines. Ice cream was important, but not nearly as important as the person she was sharing it with.

“You're welcome, sweetheart.” Bael replied.