“Great, just great,” Glam nagged as she helped Mercuria push her bike forward, visibly disgusted at the humid touch of her white tank top covered in sweat, courtesy of the physical effort and the unforgiving sun. “How could you forget about checking the fuel level before moving out?”

“I told you I had a lot of stuff going on!” Exclaimed Mercuria, deeply irritated by the protest and the situation they were stuck on, pushing the vehicle down the road and fighting against the hot and dry wind. “And I remind you that your cases weigh a ton! Do you really need all that stuff!?”

“Hey, presence on stage is an important part of the performance,” Glam replied as she focused again in pushing the motorbike. “I need my best clothes, make up and tools to create the best image for the public”.

“I’m… pretty sure you could have… just,” The guitarist said haltingly due to the task they were occupied with. “Shit! … You could have packed a bit… less”.

“I couldn’t even if I wanted,” The singer said as if she was stating a fact.

“Bullshit!” Mercuria exclaimed enraged at her partner’s answer.

“Okay, okay,” Glam said, trying to defuse the tense situation. “How about we just stop blaming each other and push this dam thing? We still have some distance left”.

“Fine!” Mercuria Agreed, mumbling curses at the idea of pushing the vehicle longer under the drowning heat.

The two women continued moving the machine forward, enduring the hot climate and eager to finally arrive to their destination. Time passed, and little conversation came between the two of them thanks to their mutual irritation and the focus delivered to advancing, until they arrived at a crossroad where their eyes caught a glimpse of a black silhouette. When they looked at the place where the shadowy figure stood, there was nothing to welcome them, but when they almost had left the crossroad, a sore voice saluted them.

“Hello, ladies”.

At the sudden surprise both girls turned, with Mercuria instinctively grabbing Wayfinder’s neck and pointing its blade to the voice’s origin. On the middle of the road, a demon with a skin as black as the night and eyes red as blood sat on a stripped beach chair, drinking a pink juice to fend off the heat, with a suitcase laying by his side on the ground.

“What a heat, am I right?” The creature said as he winked one of his eyes and pointed to his black clothes. “Can you believe my boss forces us to dress in black even when it’s so hot?”

Glam and Mercuria looked at each other, confused by the individual and his possible intentions, yet the guitarist maintained her instrument ready for an attack.

“Name’s Tapp, and I’ve come to offer you a deal for that pick you’re carrying around,” The demon said before taking a sip from his beverage and looking at the guitar pointing at him. “Would you mind putting that thing down? It’s kinda rude, y’know?”

“Sorry… not interested,” Mercuria said, trying to send an image of strength and hide her nervousness as she refused to lower her instrument. Much to her disappointment, the demon just took a sip from his drink.

“For Kiala’s sake, I’m just here to make an offer, not to rip out your throat,” Tapp said annoyed by the perception the women had about his kind and the weapon pointing at him. “We’re not fucking savages”.

“Sorry,” Mercuria said, surprising herself and Glam after feeling the need to apologize for a wrongdoing she had unknowingly made.

“Just a few minutes, very quickly,” The demon said, managing to get the women’s attention with his charm and trained tongue. “Look at this”.

Tapp took a set of pale strings and a necklace with a crimson lightning and displayed them to his potential customers as the light brightened them, showing all their physical properties.

“Here you go, top of the line products!” The demon proudly exclaimed as he let the two women examine them from the distance. “These beauties are carefully crafted to grant an amplification of sound and one’s Power of Rock, giving a “meh” musician the results of a good one, so you can imagine what happens with people who know what they’re doing. Of course, they aren’t half as good as the Devil’s Pick, but you won’t be carrying a target around, which is a bonus, if you ask me”.

After her experience on the Crazy Train, Mercuria was tempted for a second to give up her burden and avoid a similar or even worse situation, but she remembered the trust her grandfather had in her and his last gift. She felt uncapable of betraying that trust and refusing what she had longed since the first time she had heard one of Samuel’s stories.

“Sorry… but I’m not interested,” The guitarist said, having taken a decision and standing for it.

“Really?” Tapp asked, ready to insist as the salesman he was. “C’mon, I can give you a better offer. You ain’t going to have another chance like this”.

“My answer… is still no,” Mercuria exposed, defending her previous statemen.

“Dammit, my boss really wants that thing,” The demon said as he saved his merchandise back into the suitcase and finished his drink afterwards, licking his lips once he left the glass on the ground. He got up from his chair and began to stretch himself without any kind of shame, intriguing the women with his behaviour, and eventually cleared his throat.

Before the duo could react, Tapp suddenly released a high scream and created a small sandstorm that engulfed Mercuria and Glam as it twisted and narrowed around them.

“Nothing personal, honestly, but as I said before, my boss really wants that thing and he was very precise when he told me to do anything to get it,” The demon said as he contemplated the tornado from outside, with his suitcase in one hand and the necklace he had offered in the other, vibrating from his voice. “I didn’t want to get to this, but I don’t have much of a choice”.

With their backs facing each other, the women watched as the centre of the spiral was getting smaller by each passing second and their last opportunity for negotiation was closing.

“There’s no need for any drastic measures, you can still give me The Pick!” Tapp shouted. “I’ll still give you the necklace and the strings!”

“Go to Hell!” Glam said, with her voice trembling from fear, after she looked at Mercuria in the eyes and the guitarist moved the wheel of the miniature amplifier attached to her guitar, planning to destroy the trap with pure wild soundwaves at maximum distortion.

After they showed their intentions, Tapp sang once more to avoid them from freeing themselves, with the necklace amplifying the effect of his voice and surpassing Mercuria’s power. Quickly, Glam intervened and faced the creature with her own voice, overpowered by his advantage, but with enough strength to weaken his grasp over the whirlwind, granting Mercuria the opportunity to destroy it with a guitar riff.

After a quick analysis of the situation, the demon lifted his hands up, much to the distrust of the women, who expected another trickery from the mischievous creature.

“Ok, I know when I’m bested, so let’s just cut to the end,” The black skinned creature said as both girls watched him, ready for whatever he might be prepared to unleash on them. “If I go for both of you, the result will be the same than right now, and if I go for just one, the other will get me. So, seeing the circumstances, I should better go”.

Tapp began to walk backwards under the distrustful gaze of both women, slowly getting away from them.

“Have my card, in case you ever change your mind,” The dark individual said as he threw a laminated card in Mercuria and Glam’s direction, landing at their feet.

The guitarist crouched and picked up the card and observed the elegant letters that spelled the demon’s full name, “Tapp Ambrosio Zazel”, and showed it to her partner when she finished observing it. Both were surprised when they heard the salesman singing again, but when both raised their heads he was nowhere to be found, having disappeared the same way he had arrived.

“I definitely didn’t expect this kind of thing when I got out of bed,” The singer commented as she looked to the place the demonic salesman was standing recently, mentally organizing the event that had just taken place.

“I fear I’m going to get accustomed to this crap,” The guitarist complained as she walked towards the motorbike and prepared to push again. “Let’s keep on, I want to finish this as soon as possible”.