"Are you sure it's alright?" Lydia frowned.
Susan laughed. "Just go. I'll be fine for just a few minutes"
"But, five babies?"
"Honey, your husband, and your father are both right there. They can handle it if I need anything. Elunara is probably roaming nearby, and Chrissy should be up here any time now. It'll be fine."
"Come on, Sweetheart, let's get this humiliation over with." Bradly laughed.
"Alright, I'll be back soon, I swear."
Bradly knocked on the door.
"Bradly!" Bryan clasped his hands together. "I didn't expect.... Lydia?" He blinked.
"Bradly wanted to show off his statue." Lydia grinned. "He just talks and talks about it."
"Oh!" Bryan blushed. "Well, in that case." He pulled the door back. "Come in."
Lydia blinked. "WOW. It's..." She put her hand on the statue. "It..." Shaking her head, she frowned.
"Do you not like it?" Bryan pouted.
"Well, it's amazing, that's for sure." She decided she wasn't going to touch it again. Eyeing the work, she grinned. "The accuracy is completely crazy."
Bradly gave a nervous laugh. "Isn't it just?"
Reaching a hand out, she stopped a moment before she could touch it again. "Well, I've had my mouth on that enough to know it's accurate." She winked at Bradly.
Grinning, he brushed her hair out of her face. "Care to give it another lick, just to be sure?"
Putting her hand to her mouth, she giggled. "Oh, I'll do more than li--" Her smile fell and her eyes went wide.
"What's the matter sweetheart?"
She put a hand to her chest and swallowed. "I've been away from my babies too long."
"It's only been..."
She put her hand on his arm and desperately tried to get him to catch her signals; the jerk of her head, the twitch of her eyes. "I need my babies." She turned and ran out of the door.
Bradly stepped forward, but Bryan slipped behind Bradly and slid his hands under Bradly's shirt. "Well, that was interesting. Maybe she doesn't appreciate my art?" He slipped a hand down into Bradly's pants and stroked the growing erection.
Lydia fled with her life. She collapsed against the platform. "ELUNARA!" She screamed. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared.
Grogek reached her first. "What happened?"
"I need Elunara! NOW! PLEASE!"
Elunara appeared from seemingly nowhere. "What?"
"I know who hates me! I know who hit me!" She gasped.
Elunara led the charge, as Grogek, Jordan, and Darguni followed behind. "And you're sure?"
Lydia struggled to keep up. "It was gradual at first. He was annoyed I showed up, but then as Bradly and I started flirting... I thought he was going to strike me down where I stood. There's also something horribly WRONG with that statue. I... recognized it somehow."
Elunara kicked the door in.
"Elunara!" Bryan jolted up. "I didn't expect..." He stared at Lydia, before he turned and fled to the back room.
"Bradly!" Lydia dove forward. He was tied across the top of the statue.
"Wait." Elunara yanked her back. "Jordan, grab Bryan."
He was frowning at his son. "Right."
Elunara ran her hands over Bradly. "He's out..."
Jordan stuck his head back in. "Bryan's gone." He headed out the door and to the others.
"Momma, please." Lydia begged. "He's... sitting on "it"."
Elunara shook her head and sighed. "Look at the bruises on his body." She tried to untie him and jerked her hands back. Summoning her dagger, she tried to cut them, and only got a jolt for her efforts. "Lydia, go to Mathias, tell him I need a spellbreaker." After Lydia left, Elunara let herself break down.
Jordan came back in and closed the door. "It's the same, isn't it?"
"Yes, and no." She wiped her eyes. "Yours was a succubus. This is cultist magic" Finding a towel, she tossed it over Bradly's prone body. "The result is the same. A tame little pet that lets you do anything you want to it."
"Can we at least shift him off?"
"I tried." She held up her healing hand. "These burns are deep." Closing her eyes, she struggled to keep calm. When Jordan wrapped his arms around her, she shuddered. "I told him to wait... and I never made time... this is all my fault."
"Baby, you couldn't have known."
"He TOLD me, I RECOGNIZED it, and I did NOTHING."
He winced. "I..."
"Momma?"
"Bradly?" She put her hands on his chest. "Bradly, fight it, baby. Fight it."
"Hurts..."
"I know, baby." She tried to focus her energy but reached nothing. As tears streamed down her face, she tried over and over again to break the barrier.
"Just keep fighting it." Jordan put his hand on Bradly's head.
"Dad?"
"Yeah, I'm here. We'll get you out of this trap as soon as we can."
"A spell breaker is on the way." She tried to cut the ropes again and hissed as her hand was burned. In anger, she kicked the base of the statue. Cracks shot through the marble. She and Jordan shared a look, before the both of them started kicking at the statue.
Jordan summoned his sword and jammed it in the largest crack. Together, they forced the break open further, shattering the base and causing the statue to break. Bradly screamed as a shockwave burned into his wrists and the worst piece was jammed up further. Seeing the blood, Elunara threw herself on to his body. Pouring her energy out, her body was burned from the power surge, as she forced her healing abilities away from herself and into Bradly's body.
The door opened and Lydia gasped. Throwing herself on to Elunara, she began to channel the energy. The spell breaker threw themselves into the task of breaking the hold on the boy. Another spell breaker came in, followed by a third, and together they worked on the spell binding Bradly. Lydia shifted her body, pouring her energy into Elunara instead.
Darguni licked his lips. While he disagreed with his mother to reclaim the rat alive... he would not disobey orders. In fact, the order didn't say what state he had to be in. On a hunch, he hit up Jerry and Louis first.
"Darguni! This is a surprise." Jerry blinked.
"Has Bryan been by?"
"No." He looked back at Louis. "Have you seen Bryan today?"
"When I was out shopping, I spotted him. He was distracted, said something about a picnic." Louis frowned. "Are you after Bradly?"
"Bryan tried to kill my wife, and kidnapped my brother."
"WHAT?" Jerry choked.
"Sirs, I don't have time. But believe me, Bryan is under arrest immediately. If you prevent his capture..."
Jerry began yanking on his gear. "I'll bring my son down, no matter the cost."
Louis nodded as he got dressed. "Whoever he's become, we'll stop him if need be."
Bryan swore under his breath as he made his way through trade district. He had to get to the flight master immediately, but the nasty snarl of adventurers and nobodies was making it near impossible. A hand on his shoulder made him jolt.
"Oh, hey, dad." He held tightly to the package in his arms as he blinked at Louis. "I thought today was your off day."
"It was." Louis frowned.
Another hand clamped to his other shoulder. "Hey, dad."
"Bryan, what have you done?" He whispered.
Bryan's eyes went wide and he hugged the bundle to his chest. "I... don't know what you're talking about."
"Come with me." Jerry tightened his hold on Bryan's shoulder.
"NO! NO, you can't make me!" He began to struggle.
Jerry and Louis grabbed Bryan by the arms. "It's probably best you dropped out of the guard." Jerry sighed. "Come on, you have a lot to account for."
Bryan sat, tied to a chair, tears in his eyes. "Bradly should have been MINE, damn it."
Elunara sighed. "Bradly currently covered in cuts, bruises, and SCARS thanks to you."
"You don't know anything! You're just a female. Things happen. It's part of the experience."
She put a hand to her forehead. "Just... start from the beginning."
Bryan grumbled. "I'd say... I'd say I was sixteen, when a bunch of us went for a swim in the lake... and" He sighed. "Bradly took off his shirt... and I just knew. That moment I just KNEW that he was all I wanted." He sighed again. "I tried so desperately to join the guard so I could spend time with him. But, while I had to sleep in the barracks with a bunch of smelly gorillas, Bradly got to stay HOME with his PARENTS!" He shook in his chair. "That was supposed be my CHANCE and I got STUCK... UGH I can't even..."
Jerry sighed. "You only joined the guard to be with Bradly?"
"I HATE physical tasks." He pouted.
"Where'd the magic come in?" Elunara redirected the attention.
"Well, I quit the guard, because, ew. But there was a secondary problem... Lydia. Bradly had eyes ONLY for Lydia. Like, that's all he ever talked about, all he ever cared about. But SHE didn't see it. Gods, I hate that snotty bitch."
Elunara's arm shot out and she grabbed Darguni and forced him back. "And then what?"
"Well, I went looking through the libraries for information on... well gender sets. I wondered if there was a way you could turn someone gay or straight. What I actually found, was information on succubus magic, which is interesting and all, but doesn't exactly apply. Then I found this study... it was actually a study on you..." Bryan licked his lips. "You may not BE a succubus, but you certainly wield succubus magic."
