[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-saya-and-the-dragon":3,"chapter-saya-and-the-dragon-saya-and-the-dragon-chapter-80":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Saya and the Dragon",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1705067,2177,"Chapter 77: The Deal with the Devil","saya-and-the-dragon-chapter-80",80,"\u003Cp>I was right where I needed to be.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Don’t ask.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Naked, sated, half-slick with sweat and whatever infernal fluids Gregory exudes when he’s in a good mood. My thigh draped over a leg that could’ve belonged to a satyr with better hygiene. One arm folded under me, the other tracing lazy circles on the patch of scaled chest not covered in runes or goat hair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His heart beat slow. Measured. Sinister.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You know,” I murmured, “if my mother could see me now…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“She’d ask where I got such fine taste in lovers?” he offered, grinning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“She’d light a candle and slap the demon out of me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I flicked his nipple, got a satisfied growl in response. He smelled like musk, smoke, and old oaths. It was vile. I couldn’t get enough.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He shifted under me, just a little. Enough to suggest we weren’t entirely done, if I was feeling athletic. I wasn’t.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Saya,” he whispered, that awful silky voice sliding straight between my thighs, “how do you feel about making some money?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I snorted. “Gerald already offered six pence for my soul. Said I was half-used and going out of style.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Gerald is a pawnshop imp with a foot fetish. I’m talkingrealmoney.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I propped myself up on one elbow and narrowed my eyes. “This the part where you offer me a deal, seduce me again, and then conveniently forget to pay up?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I already seduced you. Thoroughly.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mm. Debate’s still open.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He rolled onto his side, his fingers brushing a trail from my waist to just below my bellybutton, the bastard. I bit back a sound. His breath hit my ear like velvet blasphemy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Forget your cheap soul. Forget the goat.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You still owe me that goat,” I hissed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Saya,” he said, serious now. “You want gold? Silks? Enough coin to buy that tavern you keep getting banned from?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I blinked. That was a lot of coin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He kissed the side of my neck, just once. Just enough to cloud the warning bells clanging in my skull.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My book,” he said. “It’s been stolen.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh no,” I deadpanned. “Let me put my panties back on and we’ll file a police report.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Not justabook.Mybook. The Lexicon of Akheron. Bound in skin. Inked in sorrow. Cursed beyond reason.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You keep that next to your bed or under your pillow?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s warded to kill anyone who reads it. First page is runed. One glance and—poof. Brains dribbling out your nose.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I raised an eyebrow. “And you wantmeto fetch it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Exactly.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You do remember I can’t read, right?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Which is exactly why you’ll survive.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I laughed. “You’re actually serious.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Deadly. The book’s in the Library of Urveth. Locked up. Guarded. Warded. Untouched.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And you can’t go in?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Cursed me six decades ago. Something about... inappropriate fondling of a nun statue. Long story.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I flopped back onto his chest. “So let me get this straight. You want me to sneak into a death-trapped sanctum, steal a cursed, soul-warping demon grimoire, and deliver it to you like it’s a bakery order?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And what do I get if I come back in one piece?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ten thousand gold sovereigns.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I blinked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s a made-up number.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s demon money. It spends.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’ll give meallof it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Cross my horns.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No tricks?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Saya, darling. I’m naked, I’m post-coital, and I’m not lying to your face.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s literally when you lie thebest.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He cupped my face, mock-reverent. “Will you do it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I sighed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m going to regret this.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But with better clothes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I groaned into his chest. “Fine. But I want a bonus.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What kind?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If I live through this—I want the goat. Arealone. Healthy. Virginal. With a ribbon.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He purred. “Done.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And next time,yougo on top. I’m chafed.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>***\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Dragon looked like he’d just swallowed a porcupine backwards.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You made a deal with a demon.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I winced. “Technically? Ahellspawn. There’s nuance.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Saya. You made a deal. With a devil-in-the-making. Ademonicentity.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Bit rich coming from a demonic creaturehimself,” I muttered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Precisely! I know my kin.” He paced, tail twitching like a drunk metronome. “We cheat. We lie. Especially to mortals. Evenverycorrupt ones.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m not corrupt,” I said, stretching like a cat and admiring the sunlight on my thighs. “I’mresourceful.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He still owes you agoat, Saya.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I waved a hand. “Forget the goat.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He stopped pacing. Turned. Squinted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What did he promise you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I told him the amount.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Dragon quivered. Like physically. His wings fluttered. A low, reverent whine escaped his throat like he was being shown the gilded gates of heaven.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Saya,” he whispered. “Please don’t do this to me. You know I’maddictedto gold. You know my best judgement gets...suspendedwhen you dangle that many zeroes in front of me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I shrugged. “Then consider this an exposure therapy session.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Gregory will cheat you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I shrugged again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Gregory will cheatme.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Probably.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Gregory once sold hisownmother to a warlock for a bathtub full of opium.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“She hated baths,” I said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Saya, your entire relationship with that spawn of hell is based on howarticulatehis tail is.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I paused.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And other appendages,” he added with a snarl.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I arched a brow. “You are beingvulgar.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I am beingcorrect.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I flopped back onto the rolled-up blanket we used as a travel pillow and stared at the sky. “Look, I’m not saying Gregory is trustworthy. I’m saying he’s consistent.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Consistently untrustworthy.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Exactly. That’s something I can work with.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Dragon groaned and threw himself into a dramatic sprawl beside me, tail twitching like he wanted to strangle someone with it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“When this goes to hell—and itwill—don’t come crying to me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I won’t,” I said sweetly. “I’ll comelaughing. With bags full of gold.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He sighed. “And maybe, if we’re very lucky,onegoat.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So here’s the plan,” I said, mouth full of fig.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Dragon didn’t look up. Just kept grooming a scale with the weariness of someone already regretting being part of the conversation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I go to the Library of Urveth,” I continued. “Infiltrate it. Enlist as a padawan-in-training. They let me into the sanctum. I borrow the book. Puff. I’m out. Easy.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He rolled his eyes so hard I swear I heard the sockets click.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“First of all,” he drawled, “you can barely read capital letters. And only in vulgar Seebulban demotic. That book is inHigh Runic.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Exactly,” I beamed. “Death runes can’t kill you if you can’t read them perfectly.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’snothow wards work.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It is now.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And the deacon-librarians?” he snapped. “You think they’ll accept a padawan who can’t readanything?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I licked fig juice off my thumb. “Will they not? Even a very...promiscuousone?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His tail spasmed. “You’re going to seduce your way into a holy order of celibate archivists?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Celibate? Sweetie, you haven’t seen the size of their scroll racks.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He growled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I sighed. “Okay. Fine. New twist. What if a certain harlot padawan arrives with aletter of reference… in High Draconic?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was a beat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A long one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You wantme,” he said slowly, “to forge a letter.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Notforge.” I smiled, all teeth. “Write an honest one.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He stared.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I fluttered my lashes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He shuddered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Saya, I have committed many sins in my time. Arson. Hoarding. Public poetry. But I willnotsully the purity of High Draconic with a fabricated character endorsement for a half-literate nymphomaniac with a theft problem.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I pouted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I pouted harder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He groaned. “Fine. But I’m not lying.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You won’t have to,” I grinned. “Just emphasize my talents. Flexible morals. Excellent memory for faces. Strong interpersonal skills.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You once tried to seduce a monk by quoting a soup recipe.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And itworked, didn’t it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>***\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Quill ready?” I asked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Dragon squinted. “Saya, this is a terrible idea.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Exactly. That’s why we have to do itquickly. Now. Start with:To the Custodians of the Inner Sanctum of the Great Library of Urveth…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ugh. Fine.” He dipped the quill and scrawled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I, Dragon of the Sixth Circle, Scribe of the Verdant Flame, do hereby present this humble letter on behalf of one Saya of the Seebulban line—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You don’t have a line.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Shh.—initiated in the forgotten arts of the Temple of the Whispering Tongue—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s not a real temple.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It had incense and screaming. Close enough.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’re trying to con the most literate order in the known world.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let me work.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“—who, though young in years, has displayed a rare and sacred instinct for the deeper mysteries: the unspoken glyph, the echo of lost tongues, the rune that reveals itself only to the intuitive soul…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He groaned like someone passing a kidney stone. “What does that even mean?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It means I can’t read, but it soundsmystical.Now write:Her approach to sacred texts is unclouded by the arrogance of modern academia. She receives knowledge not through rote memorization, but through divine resonance and instinct.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Saya, this is high-grade snake oil.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Exactly. The good stuff.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He muttered something about damnation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“She has demonstrated exceptional sensitivity to the latent hum of cursed relics and an uncanny resistance to sigilic backlash—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Because you’reilliterate, not immune!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Details. Finish with:It is my firm belief that, in the right setting, her talents will blossom further, to the benefit of any institution lucky enough to harbor her.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He paused. “That’s almost convincing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sign it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I should sign it ‘May the gods have mercy.’”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sign it with your full title. In draconic. With that fancy tail curl.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He did. Grumbling. The parchment practically radiated unearned credibility.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“They’re going to let you in,” he said darkly. “And I’m going to be complicit in desecrating an ancient institution.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I beamed. “Look at us. Academic criminals.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>***\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had never been this...clothedin my life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Swaddled in layers of linen, head to toe. Veiled like a penitent. Robed like a pilgrim. My only flesh showing was between the toes of the cursed wooden clogs I’d carved with a spoon and a bad attitude.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sacred symbols—of my own bold invention—were inked all over the cloth. Some based on half-remembered brothel wards. Others on spice merchant sigils. One of them might’ve been a fertility glyph. Honestly, hard to say.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, I looked the part. I had the scroll. The walk. The wide-eyed reverence. I even wore glasses. No lenses, of course—just the frames. Made me look smarter. Or at least more breakable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I stood at the gate of the Sanctum Library of Urveth, south of the Redwall Mountains and west of the Inner Sea. A holy temple of knowledge. A fortress of sacred text. A beacon of reason and purity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And they knew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gods help me, theyknew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The deacon-librarians didn’t say a word. But Ifeltit. The air shifted. There was a tremor in the theurgic field, like a faint vibration between the holy pillars. A long, awkward silence stretched out like a hymn held too long.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They sniffed. I swear to all the old gods, theysniffed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One clutched his rosary of carved runes tighter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Another averted his gaze, cheeks pinking behind his veil.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I gave them my most innocent bow, deeply reverent. The veil dipped. So did their collective composure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I knew then and there that the sacred wards of the library had sensed me. Not as a seeker of divine truth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But as a walking, talking, sweatinglibido stormwrapped in poorly laundered linen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Name?” one of them finally asked, voice cracking slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Saya,” I said softly. “Initiate scholar. With a letter of high draconic reference from my... spiritual sponsor.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They unrolled the parchment. One read. One gasped. One crossed himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We, ah... do not typically accept new padawans mid-season…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But exceptions can be made,” the older one said quickly, elbowing him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They ushered me in with the caution of priests handling an oiled-up succubus. I shuffled forward, clogs squeaking in pious rhythm, hips swaying despite my best attempts to walk like a stiff modest acolyte.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Somewhere behind me, a candle flickered out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A ward stone cracked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And I thought to myself:Well then. We’re off to a good start.\u003C\u002Fp>",1968,"2026-06-06T14:39:25.620Z",1,"novelbin.me","0311b116f374318474283031878f8ff6e3b59730ded60a559387d1d1e7d35e87","saya-and-the-dragon-chapter-81","saya-and-the-dragon-chapter-79",228,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsaya-and-the-dragon-cover.jpg"]