A deal worth making

My mouth goes dry. My special sight sees a kind of fog that spreads too fast for me to be sure of its origin. My robe is now very tight and it feels like it is cutting off my air. A sound escapes from Branislava’s throat that makes me stop caring about the rest of the world.

Melo keeps pumping mana into the barricade, which grows in strength, albeit inefficiently. It has no effect. The aura of lust is rapidly filling the room. „What is happening?“. The succubus looks at her with a mixture of expectation and regret. „You really did think that Marental did not have a secondary way of controling you in case he needed to. His seal came with your food. He shared access with me. You personally have no reason to worry. In fact you will enjoy this. If you weren’t a familiar, you would already be enjoying this. Give it a few more seconds.“ She turns out to be right.

Anjali is on her knees, while she inflicts pain on herself with one hand, while the other is sneaking below her clothing, to distract herself and keep some self control. Her curse is engaging fully. Beyond fully. It feels like it is choking her.

After ten seconds the succubs turns to her. She engages her in talk. Anything to distract. The conflicting spells are driving her into a frantic state. Leuma speaks up. „It won’t block an influence coming from within yourself for long. Your desires will soon reign unimpeded.“ Anjali almost spits out an answer „I want my mind to rule and impede them.“

The demon averts her eyes „I must. I am so hungry. Don’t worry. This indirectly I cannot take enough to hurt you. But I must have lust. Your curse will in fact invert.“ That stops Anjali’s left hand. „No, not in the middle of a war of the gods and a divine winter!“. Leuma smiles „Don’t worry. You will change your mind and going by whom your wizard is going for first he will protect you with his life.“. Anjali whimpers „I know. But it should have been a concious decision.“. Leuma tilts her head „I need the lust. I am so hungry that I could not even return to my plane without dooming myself. You won’t bother afterwards. I sense a compulsion against resenment. That will invert, too. I would cooperate with you. I want to hurt my former owner’s interests.“. Anjali lowers her head. „I know all that. That makes it worse.“. She is beyond resisting.

I finish and drop to the ground besides Hildegard. Quite some parts of my body are sticky. Except that is my body only to a certain extent and my dried body fluid only to a certain extent. Best not to go there. There is also some blood on valuable parts of my body. At least they are valuable to me. I start healing. No wounds to heal. The blood isn’t mine. This is going to be awkward, but that can wait.

I am hearing a hungry baby’s cries. I guess that has brought me out of my rut. I am impressed that I did all that I remember. Probably I should feel some kind of resentment. Well, I don’t. First things first, though. Julia has been neglected.

The succubus is still here. She is in human form now. She could be Anjali’s older and taller sister. I address her „That is a surprise. Do you think we will cooperate with you after this?“. She looks me right in the eye „Maybe. Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy it. That would be dangerous. The oath is still active. I did what I had to do. It was literally vital to me. I also enjoyed it, but I had to do it.“. I frown „Why didn’t you … I get it. It would have meant putting your life into our hands.“ She nods. I continue „That is not the way this …“. My magic cuts off my next words. The oath is active. She is unfortunately right. I am forced to say „Now you are demonstrating again that we need you by using my own oath to admit to myself and to you that we may need you and that your ability to make us do an impromptu orgy already demonstrated that we need you.“ I can stop myself from openly stating that she is clever, but I am sure she knows what I am thinking.

I am looking at Zewrepa for advice. She is engaged and produces a rumbling drone coupled with a hum exactly one octave higher and pulsed in a lively beat. I am not ready to rely on her mental faculties in that state. Well, if the leader is disabled, the second in command will have to take over her tasks. Unfortunately that is me whose experience in negotiation is presumably zero and whose logic drives him to accept an affront as a useful demonstration of their own inaptitude.

In fact some of my memories indicate they I used pills in a way they are not intended to be used. ObviouslyI am not stupid, but that does not make me competent in dealing with people, let alone a member of another species. My gaze wanders. Anjali is actually asleep, curled up in a fetal pose. Hildegard is leaning against a wall, her left hand splayed out and pressed against her stomach, her right hand kind of clenched next to her mouth. She meets my gaze and says „Do what you have to do. Holding the castle is more important than our pride. Use any resource you can trust.“ She is right, though there is an important question, so I ask „What language are you speaking?“ The succubus interupts us with „My native language. You will retain it and in a few hours learn to use it intentionally.“

I frown and then raise an eyebrow „You manipulated us. You manipulated Zewrepa into making you swear the oath right away. You turned truth into a weapon. And into a shield. You are testing me on whether I am driven by pride or cool calculation while I am unable to deceive you. Did you plan for me to make those deductions to prove your worth?“ Her response is short „Yes.“

I cannot help myself and laugh a short bitter laugh. „Am I showing my qualities if I tell you to wait while we talk about this in private?“. She nods.