Saia slammed into a wall of nothing the moment she tried to teleport, her magic recoiling and burning a hole into her soul as she tried to escape.
She hit the ground, blood pouring from her nose, ears, and mouth. Her tail cracked painfully, the bones shattering. Arms and legs twisting haphazardly.
It felt exactly like when Toofy had attacked her.
One of the royal guards stepped over to her. Lazily drawing a sword from his side. He barely even looked at her as he did it. She wasn't worthy of his consideration.
Saia snarled up at him.
She wasn't just an ordinary magic user. She wasn't just a succubus. She was temple trained, and among the assassins of the temple, she had been the best of the fucking best.
He slashed his sword down towards her.
The best, and worst, thing about forbidden magic is that so few people know the spells. It takes knowing a spell to be able to stop it, at least when it came to the advanced ones.
Saia screamed in pain as her throat was ripped open, and sealed behind the blade moving through it. She still felt the pain of it. Still gurgled momentarily. Her blood still fell.
Yet, the wound was duplicated in the one who attacked her, and for him... It didn't heal.
The woman grabbed his sword, staggering to her feet as he mindlessly collapsed to the ground. Clutching at his throat as blood spilled out everywhere.
Her red eyes darted around frantically, spotting two more approaching her.
She couldn't teleport out of this place. Couldn't disappear with any kind of mirage of illusion. If she tried to fight her way out, then she'd be entirely fucked.
Saia did the only thing that she could do.
She scratched the symbol that had been on the edge of the spell into the ground, and growled at Westcolm who was watching with a bored expression. "This the fucking spell, you so concerned about?"
"Hold!" He ordered, his face changing in concern, "You haven't seen the spell. Only the identifier. Your soul is intact. How do you know it?"
"Someone taught it to me." She said stubbornly, "You know what that means, don't you, little lord? It means that somebody else knows your spell. Someone beyond your control."
He stepped between the two guards, glaring at her, "Who? This is your one chance. Who taught this to you?"
"Fuck if I'm telling you. I like being alive."
Westcolm laughed, "I'll torture you, until you tell me."
"Don't promise me such a good time, sweetie. I'm a succubus." She shot back at him, grinning.
The eunuch spoke, "Lord Westcolm, is it possible? Is there someone you are unaware of, who may have known what this spell is, and what it can do? Can it be possible?"
"No." He said uncertainly, "There is only one copy of the book. No one could have seen it... No one. She must be working with Lady Efina. She taught it to her."
"I do not serve the fucking temple!" She yelled proudly, "I have no collar, and no bell. I'm not a slave, little lord. I was freed by the woman who bought me."
Westcolm's face changed, "No... No! It isn't possible! She doesn't know how to free a slave. You didn't go before the ministers to be freed. What happened to your collar? How were you freed, beast!?"
Her red eyes twinkled at his confusion, at the way he'd been knocked off balance so easily.
The eunuch spoke frantically, "Speak, Lord Westcolm! Your emperor commands you to explain!"
The lord turned his head towards the veiled curtain, distracted.
Saia dashed forward, and plunged one clawed hand into the man's chest. As the guards brought their weapons towards her, she seized the lord's magic, and teleported the both of them in a frantic flash dance.
She fell to the side, coughing blood and bile, as her hand tore free.
Westcolm groaned loudly, holding his chest.
Saia winced, and spat some more horrifying liquid onto the ground, "My apologies, Lord Westcolm. I really didn't feel like dying, today."
"Where the fuck are we, beast?" He moaned, rolling onto his side and staring at the forest in confusion. "What did you do to me?"
She rolled her eyes, "I'm a succubus, idiot. They blocked my magic, so I just hijacked your soul for a bit. That's the thing about only blocking the magic of one person, and not everyone. If you block the wrong person, you get shit on."
"Bitch." He cursed at her.
She shrugged, "You ordered them to kill me. Which was stupid. Toofy's going to come for you, for that."
"Your mistress is already dead." He laughed at her.
She stood up and stretched, wincing as she felt the grinding of her bones. Most of them still realigning. She didn't much feel like screwing the lord to try and take his soul, just to fix them.
She wanted him to suffer the wrath of her neko lover.
"Really. That's cute that you think that." Saia said tightly, "I'll answer your question, from before. Toofy taught me the mark. Told me which spell to steal from the book. You still reckon on her being dead?"
Westcolm managed to stagger to his feet, looking at her breathlessly, "Lady Twenty Four, showed you the spell? This is important. Beyond you and I. She knows the spell?"
Saia nodded, "Yeah. She also broke the slaving spell on me. Apparently the collars don't hold up well against a fuckin' lightning bolt. Break the physical shell, and it doesn't matter how strong the enchantment was. It'll break, too."
The lord shivered, "Shit. Oh, fucking shit. Lady Twenty Four knows one of the spells, at least one, of Menes. Fuck. Oh, fuck. For how long? Fuck."
"Huh?"
"Menes was a bastard of the highest of orders, succubus." Westcolm growled fearfully, "He was an orc. One who we thought would be our saviour. He... Swapped sides. Apparently he'd made an enemy of a powerful figure among his own people, Hammerhand."
Saia shrugged, "Okay. So there was a traitor orc. Big deal."
"He created a lot of magic. That was why he became the enemy. His magic was beyond evil. He swapped sides, because we would let him continue his work." Westcolm swallowed nervously, "Lord Sai is one of the results. His magic. His butchery that ended the northern war, with the deaths of nearly half of all nekos. By his hand, alone."
She winced, "Oh. That must mean you, and the emperor, are some of his other experiments. That must have been fun."
"I watched many souls die, to give me the power I can't surrender." Westcolm said bitterly, "But if Twenty Four knows this spell, and you care about her, kill her."
The succubus blinked in confusion, "Come again?"
"Menes magic... It isn't just evil. It... It was a gateway drug. Linking the user, to a patron." Westcolm said nervously, "A demon or devil or some shit like it. Something that isn't supposed to be able to get in to this world. Blocked, by the divine gateway. Could even be a betrayer god, for all we know."
She shrugged, "Doesn't really sound like I should be killing someone I care about, over it. Try and make your point, human."
"The person infected with Menes magic becomes a gateway. The entity will enter our world by ripping through them. Eating their soul and then turning their flesh into a paste on the ground."
Saia's cheek spasmed for a moment, "This infection. It take a while, to take root?"
Westcolm nodded, "The stronger the will, the more you can hold out. I'm infected. Sai is infected. Even the emperor. But... I hear voices. Hear the thing begging me to use that magic. Just a little bit. Offering me power."
She felt extremely uncomfortable. Remembered Toofy saying that she was protecting Saia by not telling her some things. This felt like it probably qualified.
She considered him, "You're not trying to kill me, anymore, are you?"
"I want you to help me get to Twenty Four. To figure out how sick she is." He said firmly, "For the good of the empire, I have to know. No one gives a damn about some succubus. We can forget about you. We can't forget about Menes magic maybe escaping into the wild."
"I need to heal."
Westcolm frowned, "I dropped you by a whorehouse, last time. You ate a number of their customers. That what you mean?"
"Could just eat you." She threatened, and then laughed at his face, "I don't need to, though. I'm not that badly messed up."
"I'm not letting you near my seed."
She shrugged, "That's fine. I just need someone else to fuck. We're on the main road. There's a village about a day's walk, in that direction. Willing to protect me until we get there?"
He sighed heavily, "You know where she is. But... You won't tell me. So I don't have a choice, do I?"
"Not really." She smirked.
---
The three of them walking into the town should have stuck out like a sore thumb. Two nekos, an almost extinct species, accompanied by a dragonkind woman, a species that was even closer to demise.
Yet, Toofy didn't see anything but boredom in the eyes of the locals. She wasn't remotely close to the strangest thing that they had seen, today.
Where in the hell were they?
She sniffed the air, and then nodded towards the scent. Daen nodded soundlessly. The dragonbitch was less happy to simply follow her directions. "You want to eat? What is the point? Why you come here?"
"Hunting." Toofy replied quietly, purring happily. "So, we will eat. You will sit. You will help Toofy, as her handmaiden, and you will shut the fuck up before she cuts the rest of your fucking tail off and cooks it!"
The woman cringed, recoiling and touching the mark on her cheek. She puffed white smoke, apologising.
Toofy snarled at her, and then went back to sniffing the meat in the air. She happily pranced up the wooden stairs and into the little restaurant. Skipping over to the flat grill.
The chef behind it looked up at her tiredly, "Three coppers, each."
"She's not eating." Toofy nodded towards her dragon, "But, Toofy will turn six copper into a silver, if the man knows where a particular human is. Toofy is looking for a tall one."
The cook considered her tiredly, "Tall, blonde, angry with several swords? Yes. He stayed here. May the gods spit on his grave. He annoyed our guardian. Keep the extra, the information is freely given."
