The continuing adventures of John the Savant. AKA John the Enchanter. AKA John the I don't know what I am now (maybe just John). It's time for him to get some questions answered... such as who is this buxom and sarcastic halfling that seems to think he owes her something and who was the amazing woman that seems to have gotten him into this mess in the first place.
The first thing John noticed outside the tavern was that he had no idea where he was. He turned around slowly, taking in the sites, and shook his head. The signpost of the tavern read, "Broken Mare."
"Where in the name of the Allfather am I?" John asked. Buildings rose around him, but none more than two stories. There were no towers and the only church he could recognize the spire of was dedicated to Harvest, the Saint of Farmers.
"Widow's Edge," the halfling said.
"Wid— where is that? I should be... I should be... why can't I remember where I live?"
The halfling smiled. "Come along, John, and I'll explain everything."
John fell in step with her but didn't hesitate to ask, "You'll explain everything? Who are you, exactly?"
She spun around so she was walking backwards and in front of him. She bowed low, her breasts swelling and somehow managing to not burst free of her vest. "I am Zynga, your familiar."
"Familiar?" John asked. "I've never had a familiar. In fact, I don't think it's possible for halflings to be familiars. That's the realm of cats and owls and ravens and such."
She winked at him, "There's a lot more to me than you might think."
"I should hope— oh my, you're... um... you might want to fix your vest."
She looked down and grinned. Her breast had indeed slipped in its casing. The ruddy flesh that capped her flesh was well displayed and the nub of her nipple was teasing the edge of the leather fabric. "Oops," she said and reached up to tug at her vest with one hand and take her large breast in the other and display it fully to John before tucking it back in.
"Yes, oops," John breathed. "And you're my familiar?"
"Seems so," she said. "I wasn't thrilled either, but I can work with it. We'll have fun, I think. Or at least I will."
"Fun?"
"You had fun this morning, didn't you?"
John's eyes widened. "How did you know?"
"Familiar!" she teased. "Dig around a little, we're linked, you and I. Learn to put up some walls to, I can sense everything in your right now. Thank sin I can't read your pathetic mortal thoughts too."
John clamped his lips together to keep from gawking and shook his head. Zynga was walking ahead again and leading him past the church of Saint Harvest. He looked at it and, the closer he came to it, the more he felt the urge to hurry past.
"Yeah, that's a side effect. You get used to it," Zynga called over her shoulder.
"Side effect of what?"
Zynga whistled. "She really did a number on you, didn't she?"
"Who is she?"
She smiled and winked at him before turning and leading him to a large building. A sign outside of it read, "Widow's Edge Harbor Access." Beneath the headline were listed various shipping and charter companies that worked within. Zynga strode through the open door like she owned the place. John rushed to follow and, in spite of her short legs, he felt himself taxed to keep up with her.
His "apprentice" ignored the offices of the companies set up in the hall and walked past them to a large set of stairs that went down. Lanterns in the walls showed the stairs descending into the earth before coming to a landing and leading to a tunnel that had been carved out of the ground.
Zynga moved at a pace the prevented John from asking any questions. Both her pace and the other people walking with or against them in the wide tunnel kept him silent. They descended several more sets of stairs and avoided tunnels that branched off until, after eight flights of stairs, she took him into one of the side passages.
Zynga paused at a door that blocked the passage. She spoke a few words, muttering them softly so John couldn't make them out, and then pushed the door open and strode through. He felt the traces of magic as he passed through the doorway and then stopped in the dark room. She shut the door behind them, plunging them into darkness.
"Conjure a light," Zynga said.
John snorted and summoned up the words to a spell that would serve the task. Nothing happened. The words weren't there for him to speak. His eyes narrowed, unseen in the dark, and he growled.
"Can't do it?"
"What happened to me?" he demanded. "I am a powerful wizard! I should be able to light up a room with no more effort than the snap of my fingers."
A flash of reddish light behind him caused him to spin around. He blinked and gasped at what he saw. Zynga was gone. In her place was an equally diminutive figure, but one covered in red skin and a black vest half the size of Zynga's and a pleated black skirt that wasn't long enough to reach the bottom of her generous bottom. It was plain to see she wore a scantily cut loincloth beneath the skirt, and boots that looked quite severe and reached up past her knees. Her figure was nearly identical. One arm was raised above her head, her hand wreathed in fire that lit the storage room up. It also cast a hellish light on the small bat-like wings on her back.
"You're an imp!"
She bent forward in a bow and this time both breasts jiggled enough to slip out of her vest. She rolled her eyes and lowered her hand to push and pull everything back into place. The flames went with her but did not harm her.
"I'm your imp," she said once she was situated. "Which does not include conjugal visits, mind you."
"Conjugal... what?"
"Well, considering what you've got going on now, I didn't want you getting any ideas. She was my Mistress first and still is, even if she's bound me to you."
John shook the confusion out of his head and demanded, "What in the name of the Seven Spheres of Tysos are you talking about?"
"That's a lot of balls. Seven's an odd number, but imagine the—"
"Stop!" John growled. "Answer my question. There's a reason I never dabbled in demonology, you infernal types are impossible to converse with!"
Zynga grinned. "No, not impossible. We just don't much care to be confined. Kind of like my tits, don't you think?"
John rolled his eyes. "This is impossible. I'll figure things out on my own."
"Oh relax, I'm just teasing you," she said. "You'd think you'd like being teased after everything."
John took a deep breath and let it out. "Maybe I would. Maybe you're right. Except I don't remember what, 'everything,' is."
"Okay, let me correct you first," Zynga said and hopped up on a barrel. Her legs were split wide open, displaying the black cloth stretched tight across her crotch. So tight it outlined the contours of her anatomy with the flickering flames enveloping her hand. "Eyes are up here, buddy."
"I know," he growled.
"I know you know," she said. "But it still made you blush.
"Right, so anyhow," she continued. "I don't know you before yesterday, and I don't know what made you do it or why, but you definitely dabbled in demonology. You summoned my Mistress. Not sure what the contract was or if you royally fucked it up, but now she's your Mistress too."
"My Mistress? But... wait, the lady?"
Zynga cackled. "She's no lady. She's a succubus."
"A succubus?" John repeated. "Why would I summon a succubus? Even at my age I can manage to find a woman to bed... I seldom bother though. Although after this morning, perhaps I should do it more often."
"Oh, you'll be doing it plenty," Zynga teased. "And I already told you, I don't know why you summoned her. I don't know what the deal was. What I know is that you're hers now and in return, she grants you a touch of power you can use, as long as you keep feeding her."
"Feed her?" John gasped. "I know better than to lay with a succubus! Any demon, for that matter. Only death and damnation lie that way."
Zynga howled with laughter until she noticed John's narrowed eyes glaring at her. Then she laughed harder.
"Are you quite finished?" he asked when she finally began to calm down.
"Oh no," she promised. "I'll be sharing that one, you can be sure! Master, you fucked my Mistress at least once for every level of the hells and more than a few of the realms in the abyss. She told me she'd never been reamed so good and let the man live afterwards."
John shook his head slowly until he couldn't dredge up a single justifiable reason to refute what she'd said. When he finished fighting himself he lifted his eyes from the floor to Zynga and asked, "Reamed?"
Zynga grinned. "My words, not hers."
John grunted.
"Right, so feeding her. Obvi she's not here with us, so you can't fill her up the old fashioned way," Zynga said while making a motion of inserting her flaming finger into the circle made by her thumb and finger on her other hand. "So instead you get to fuck others. Like this morning. Did you see how tired you left her?"
John did a double take. "What? What did I do?"
"You boned a serving girl— I hope she was pretty. Every time she got off you took a little bit her life force. It fills you up and, whether you like it or not, some of it goes to Mistress too. She expects to be kept fed regularly, you know."
"I'm not— I can't—" he protested.
You'll find you don't mind so much," Zynga said.
"But... I'm not going to kill innocent women!"
"You prefer men?"
"What? No!"
Zynga laughed and laughed. "Sorry, I know. Couldn't resist. You won't kill them. Well, probably. If they've got a weak heart, maybe. You can give some killer O's with that spear of yours."
John looked at his spear, confused.
"Not that spear. I meant the one between your legs! You can't tell me you didn't notice. You're packing some serious meat, my friend," she said with an appreciative glance at his waist. "Now then, about killing. Unless you find a way to keep them coming back for more, like, back to back and day after day, they'll probably pass out before you can drain them dry."
"Drain them... sweet mother of the stars."
"Oh stop that, it's not like you're drinking their blood or anything. Just a little bit of life force. A week or so of rest and they're right as balls on a bull."
"You're a vulgar thing, you know that?"
Zynga grinned. "Yes, I am."
"In all my years I've never..."
She scoffed. "All your years? You're what, twenty four?"
John stiffened. "What did you say?"
"I asked how old you are. My guess is twenty four."
John snorted. "Now who's confused. I've lived ninety two years and been a wizard for over eighty of them. Well, an apprentice at first, of course, but—"
Zynga laughed. "You're a boy, not an wrinkled old man! Come on! Hello, I'm a demon that has been around for centuries. Do you really think you could trick me that easily?"
John shook his head. "No, I am! I have estates and I'm the archmage that serves as advisor to... to..."
Zynga tilted her head, causing one pointed ear to be the highest point of her head. "Yes? Who?"
