Ari

Ari is a tracker in Hell's military reserve, one of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers (a biosocial category that transcends occupation) who has never seen active service; such demons are expected to wait eagerly for opportunity, exercising and training to stay sharp. Her sole purpose in life deferred since its inception, Ari has a nihilistic outlook, dismissing all optimism and striving as foolish. Aimless, she has pursued a hedonistic, transgressive (albeit limply apolitical) lifestyle.

Picked at random after years of idling, Ari is assigned to Giselle, an Avaricia worker, to serve as both tracker and bodyguard on their hunt for a magical statistical outlier (who may be a national threat). The two do not get along: Giselle looks down on Ari as defective, lazy, and disrespectful, while Ari finds them dogmatic, bossy, and pompous.