Demonic Pornstar System novel Chapter 702

Chapter 702: Dead End

Then Brittany reached for her phone.

"What are you doing?"

"Calling a lawyer."

Trisha stared at her. "It’s midnight."

"Then I’ll wake one up." Brittany’s thumb was already moving across the screen, pulling up a directory of awakened legal firms she’d bookmarked months ago and never thought she’d need. Her voice had changed. The desperation was still there, but it had curdled into fury, and fury was easier to move with than grief. "You said they charge a fortune for their time? Fine. If I’m going to be broke in sixty-eight hours, I might as well make some overpaid attorney uncomfortable first."

"Britt-"

"What’s the worst that happens? They say no? They hang up?" She found a name, tapped it, and raised the phone to her ear.

Trisha watched her with an expression that wanted to be skeptical but couldn’t quite get there, because the fire in Brittany’s eyes was the first living thing she’d seen in either of them since they’d walked out of Maeve’s tent.

The phone rang twice.

"Hargrove and Sato, after-hours line. How can I direct your call?"

Brittany sat up straighter. "I’m an A-tier awakened combatant and I need to speak with a contract specialist tonight."

The line was quiet for a beat, and when the voice returned, the bored professionalism had been replaced by something considerably more attentive.

She was right. Lawyers who dealt with awakened clients operated on awakened schedules. No one in the industry wanted to miss a call from a superhuman who might become a long-term client, because an A-tier fighter in your contact list was worth more than a hundred civilian retainers. The promise of proximity to power opened doors that money alone couldn’t.

The receptionist transferred her within thirty seconds.

The attorney was polite, alert, and genuinely interested for the first four minutes. He asked about the contract structure, the timeline, the parties involved. His voice carried the careful enthusiasm of a man who smelled a high-value case.

Then Brittany said the name Ashbound, and the enthusiasm cooled.

She heard it happen in real time. The slight pause before his next question. The shift from ’tell me more’ to ’let me understand the scope.’ He asked about the specific clause. She told him. He asked about the deadline. She told him. He asked about the confidentiality provisions and she said she didn’t know the exact language but assumed they existed, and what followed was the silence of a man doing math that didn’t add up in her favor.

"I appreciate you reaching out. Given the timeline and the parties involved, I’d recommend you contact a firm with existing arbitration experience in guild-level contract disputes. We primarily handle individual awakened employment matters, and a case of this complexity would require resources we aren’t positioned to deploy on this schedule."

Translation: we’re not fighting the Ashbound legal department for you.

"Thank you for your time," Brittany said, and hung up.

She called the next firm. The conversation lasted six minutes and ended the same way, though the attorney used more words to say less. Conflict of interest, he explained. His firm had consulted for Ashbound-adjacent entities in the past, and taking the case would create an ethical complication he wasn’t comfortable with.

Translation: we already work for people who work for them.

The third firm didn’t answer. The fourth picked up, listened for three minutes, and asked for a fifty-thousand-Chronos retainer before they’d review the contract language. When Brittany asked about payment plans, the attorney’s warmth evaporated and the call ended in under a minute.

The fifth firm’s after-hours associate was young and eager and spent twenty minutes taking detailed notes before putting Brittany on hold. She came back seven minutes later with the careful voice of someone who’d just been told what to say by a senior partner.

"After reviewing the details, we don’t believe we’re the right fit for your needs at this time. I wish you the best of luck, and please don’t hesitate to reach out if your situation changes."

Brittany lowered the phone and stared at it.

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