Megan was staring at the ceiling laying on the bed in the inn room. With the blinds closed and the lights off it was pretty dark inside the room. She had been laying pretty listlessly all day just counting the spots on the ceiling. Just as she was about to count the spots again, the room began shaking badly. It grew so bad it tossed her from the bed onto the floor. Cracks appeared in the walls, and the drapes fell from the windows. Eventually, the shaking stopped, and she went to the windows. Damage to the buildings was widespread, and in the distance where the arena had once stood, was a mess of stone as it appeared an extensive section of the Arena had collapsed.

Concern for Yukali instantly raced through Megan. She remembered the Dragonkin woman saying something about having a fight today at the arena. She quickly sent a message to her to see if she was alright. Several nail biting seconds later she received a message from Yukali letting her know she was alright. As the earthquake had interrupted the fights, she would have to wait for a while for the results of the match. After she took a deep breath of relief Megan found her hands were squeezed tight and she had to focus on relaxing them. "Not again. Never again." Megan whispered to herself.

She was thankful Yukali was alright, but she hated that she had just been lying around. Even now Megan could feel that sickening depression sneaking up on her once again. Fighting it off she gritted her teeth and quickly dressed. At that point she headed outside to see if she could aid the people in the city who were recovering from the earthquake. Fortunately, few people in the city had actually been injured in the quake. The damage was relatively widespread however, and she joined a group of people going around and helping clean up the rubble from the buildings.

Over the next hours Megan got pretty grimy from helping move all the bricks and stone that had fallen. Even though it was minimal she was now feeling better then she had been. Sometime when she was helping out, Ritalassa contacted her letting her know that the valley they were in had the stairs destroyed and they had to head to the isolated exit which meant they would be out till late tomorrow. Megan let them know she would bring them rope if they required it. After a few more hours of hard work, she found it was starting to get dark. The organizers of the volunteer work crew called it a night and she turned around and began to head back to the inn.

As she was walking back, she saw a man quickly cross the road to an alley entrance. The man captured her attention for some reason, sending alarm bells ringing through her. As she got closer, she could see that the man was speaking to another person in front of the alley. She could not observe their appearance, but her senses told her that they were incredibly dangerous. She kept going past them and around the corner of a building. At that point she swiftly ran around using the map to discover another entrance to the alley the pair were in front of. Megan felt it was critical to obtain a better look at them for some reason.

She slipped down the alleyway keeping hidden as best she could and got behind a large trash can. Peeking out she observed the two men who were whispering. Unable to overhear what they were muttering, she used examination on the closest on to her to determine what she could find out about them.

 

 

So the corruption was what Megan was feeling coming off the pair of men. It is possible these men were simply pilgrims that came to be purified by the well. Though Yukali mentioned that the ceremony would take place today, so why did they not get purified by the well? Were they perhaps too late to attend the purification?

Something about that seemed off as well. Usually corrupted people like this could either barely move or just outright refused to come, so they would be brought here by family. Whatever the reason, she was getting an extremely bad vibe off of these two. She examined the second man and saw the other man was not as corrupted as the first man but still fairly high.

Now that she knew the two men were corrupted, she could spot how the cloaks the men wore did not look right. It appeared as if the cloaks were covering great deformities underneath them. Eventually, the men finished the secret conversation they were having, and they split up. As it was getting close to nightfall, Megan debated briefly whether or not to follow. She ultimately decided it would be best to follow Kenneth as Jack had asked them to keep an eye out for anything strange and she was not getting a good feeling from these men.

Following a way's back from Kenneth, she watched as he stumbled down a series of alleys and back roads to a building that looked like it had seen better days. The front of the building had a porch that was tilted and bowed. Whether that was from the earthquake was hard to say, as most of the damage on the building seemed as old as it was. Hiding behind a corner of a neighboring building she observed him rap on the buildings door and it creaked open outwards.

Megan could not see who had opened it. Kenneth spoke some words and the door slid open long enough to allow him in and then slammed shut. She remained a few minutes to make sure no one else was coming or going before traversing the street making for the side of the building. The front of the building's windows were all boarded up, so she aimed for the side to see if she could take a look within. When she got to the building, she almost missed but she noticed a series of symbols carved into the wood of the building.

The carvings could barely be witnessed in the light from the street mana-lights, but she could make out that seemed to traverse the entire length of the building. Megan examined them.

 

 

So it appeared that the people in the house are trying to hide the corruption within. Moving on she found all the windows on the building were boarded shut with no way to see inside. The back of the house opened up to a yard that was filled with assorted junk and a shed that had collapsed long ago. There was a cellar door that had a lock on it that she might be able to break open, but it would likely create a lot of noise, however.

Looking around she spotted another option, at the top of the building was a window that was not boarded up. It appeared that the earthquake had broken loose the boards on it, as one of them was swinging loosely. Glancing around she found an old trellis that she could use to climb to the roof. Carefully she climbed and got to the roof and made her way to the window. The window sill was rotted, so it was easy for her to pry open the window.

As she opened a stench of rotting meat came from within the open window making Megan gag in disgust. Still she slipped inside and had to crouch as she found herself in an attic that was more of a crawl space then a proper attic. Boxes here and there made a maze through the attic. The only light came from cracks in the boards from rooms below. Being careful to only step on the joists she made her way to one of the large cracks to peer down.

The stench grew worse as she bent down clearly coming from the room below, and as she looked inside she could see why. The first thing she observed in the candlelit room was a corpse of a man that had his chest ripped open and chunks of flesh torn from him. It was clear the man had been dead for quite some time as she could see maggots crawling around on the body. There was some clicking and a door swung open and a person came walking into the room.

It was another woman or what had in the past been a woman. Corruption had wrecked her flesh so foully it had created a monstrous figure that made Megan sick to her stomach. Boils and sores covered the woman's skin and abnormal growth on her back was dripping yellow pus down the woman's back. Where the woman's breasts were formerly, they had split open and two squirming worm like things that were so long they dragged on the floor. But the worst thing of all was it was apparent the woman had been clearly pregnant when she had been consumed by corruption.

Her heavily pregnant stomach had a slit down the middle which opened and a small grotesque baby thing forced its way out onto the table with the man. It had a black umbilical cord that occasionally pulsed red with corruption. It opened its jaws wide, like a snake and began to rip off chunks of flesh of the dead man and swallowed them whole. While it was doing this foul act, its mother was cooing at the thing while rubbing it. When it had finished feeding, it crawled back into its mother and then the woman shuffled back out of the room.

Megan had been utterly shocked by the scene she had witnessed and debated for several moments on what to do. Obviously there were a great deal of corrupted beings here and hostile ones at that. She doubted she could take all of them on her own, even with Yukali it would be a fierce battle which they would likely lose. Jack will be coming tomorrow with some help, so Megan could wait until then, but she felt like it would be a bad idea just to let them go for tonight.

She could always contact the monks that oversaw the city. There was no proper guard here, but they still managed to keep the peace. However Megan did not like that these corrupted people were obviously hiding in the city. It looked as if they had been here for quite a while, as such she questioned why the monks hadn't noticed yet. Where they simply blind or worse where some of them in cahoots with these corrupted beings. If that was the case if she went to them it would reveal her hand to them and they might escape or capture her.

Before deciding on anything she needed to get more information about what was going on here. So she moved through the attic over to another room and peeked down. Megan could see the woman from before and Kenneth speaking to a man that was out of her line of sight. From the way the two were looking towards this man, she took it that he held a far more commanding position then these two. Kenneth was still wearing his cloak, but his voice sounded as if he had serious damage to his throat. "I have returned my Lord."

"It is good to have you back Kenneth, the screams of the slaves are not as sweet when you are away." A deep voice came from the man she could not glimpse. "Do you bring word from that abomination found in the north?"

Kenneth nodded and said "Yes my lord. After traveling I encountered the main body of the abomination. It has agreed to our proposal of partnership as long as we provide it with several women for it's seedbeds. I stopped on the way and purchased several slaves for it and sent them to it. For this we will receive a piece of it in a few days' time that we can then use for our mission. While I was there I determined that this abomination was created by one of the corrupted potions. I sent word congratulating the Labem Faction alerting them to their success."

"Good Job. In addition to those slaves, you bought to be sure to send some of our new recruits as well. They will be honored to give birth to corruption. We will need to bring as much corruption into this world before the hole is torn open and her greatness begins her rightful feasting upon the world."

The women nodded and said "There is such joy in securing her blessings into the world." She rubbed her stomach which leaked black goo onto the floor. "As mere mortals we call upon her and suckle at the teat of chaos. The world will be torn asunder feeding her appetite and we will be born anew as her children. She who devours all, Lamia oh grand dragon of Nihility. May the dragon of the abyss have it's throat slit for Lamia to feast upon, and let the mother of man's womb be raped in her grave to foster Lamia's unyielding corrupted touch."

The two men then said in unison "All Hail Lamia, the first. May she be freed from her unjust imprisoment."

The man Megan could not see said after their short prayer to this Lamia "So how goes the tunneling?"

The women shook her head and said "There was a minor setback from that earthquake earlier my Lord. Several cave-ins occurred burying a few of the slaves we had. But we should be able to clear it out and continue on with only a slight delay to our plans. Though about that earthquake, several of my sensitive workers tell me that it seemed to originate from beneath deep in the caves."

The man coughed nastily and then said "Yes, I felt it too. The thing that was sealed down there stirs and presses against its bonds. The well gave off a plume of fire during the earthquake. I suspect given enough time it will free itself."

"Will that affect our plans for the well My Lord?" Kenneth asked.

"Not at this time. I believe by the time it can fully free itself it will be far too late for it to interfere. It will merely be an appetizer for Lamias. As such we will not need to adjust our plans for it. However, I did see something today that could potentially cause problems for our plans."

"What would be that my Lord?" Kenneth asked.

"As we knew what would happen from our insiders, the monks let everyone know the caves of Purification have been opened once more. They offered a spot to the winner of the tournament. However, after the tournament was disrupted by the earthquake, that was offered to the last pair of contestants. What concerns me is the fact that one of the contestants chosen is particularly dangerous and will likely cause trouble for us if left to her own devices."

"How could one of the lambs be dangerous my Lord? As you said beforehand, none can last upon her touch." Kenneth asked.

"Yes, all that are pure will be tainted when she arrives. Yet this woman has something different about her. I could feel the corruption roil within me threatening to overcome my control. It seethed at the womans presence asking me to rip this woman asunder. Lamia desires this woman to die, so she will."

Kenneth spoke up and said "As you command, this woman will meet her end. How should we do it my Lord?'

"We will hold on attacking her for the moment. If we get rid of that Dragonkin right now it will only raise suspicion from the monks. We will strike once she gets deep within the Caves of Purification. At that time we will perform the sacrament of flesh with her."

Megan was startled to realize this man was likely talking about Yukali. Her blood boiled at the thought that they were planning on harming her friend. She would not let that happen. Kenneth spoke again and said "The feast will be sweet as her blood. Then what of the other contestant my lord?"

"A fool with some interesting skills. When he goes into the caves, we will test the piece of abomination we received on him. It will be interesting to find out if it can use males as seedbeds as well." There was a flapping noise and then the deep voice said "I grow tired. I will head to bed. Awaken me midmorning for I will head below to check on our progress."

Kenneth and the woman both bowed as the man walked out, then shortly followed behind shutting off the mana light as they left. The rest of the attic was blocked off by more boxes, so she couldn't go further without moving them and risking making noise. So Megan could not gather any more information, and decided to focus on how to deal with them.

From that leaders word she inferred they had some spies within the monks which could pose a danger for her. Not to mention she wasn't sure how many corrupted beings lived in here, so Megan could not reasonably fight them all. But if she could draw the attention of the monks here they could crush the abominations here. Looking around the wood in the attic was old and dry. It would not take much to get this house to go up in a blaze. In fact Megan had some oil and a firestarter that would be perfect for the plan she was getting.

She glanced around and carefully opened one of the boxes. Inside of it were old dusty clothes that moths had gotten into. Taking out one ratty tunic, she ripped it up to create several wicks. Dipping them in oil, she set them out in such a way to light the boxes on fire when the wick burned to them. Lighting them, she quickly left as she was planning to make sure the whole building went up quick before the things inside could get a chance to escape.

As she climbed out, she could see that some smoke was already forming. Megan carefully made her way down the trellis to the backyard. When she got to the ground, she ran to the cellar doors and jerked it open. She could hear noises coming from the cellar, but she didn't take heed as she quickly threw down oil canisters and then tossed a flaming rag down lighting up the stairs. Instantly the flames blocked off the stairway from the interior. The flames began spreading, and Megan quickly turned back to the junk piles looking at a long piece of wood.

With the stairs now blocked off by flames, Megan now had to make sure that they couldn't flee by the front door either. Taking the wood she dashed around to the front door and used the board to block the front door. Making sure the front door could not open, she then ran across the street and hid behind a trash can keeping an eye on the building. It did not take long before she could start to smell smoke and fires began to lick the outside of the building drawing the attention of people nearby. Some began getting buckets of water to try and put out the fire. A mage began spraying water, but the fire was too fierce.

While they were doing so one of the barricaded windows burst open sending burning fragments of wood out into the street. A flaming abomination screaming in massive pain. It crawled out it's skin melting off its body like it was from a candle. As it came out it was like a cork popping out a wine bottle and a mass of corruption energy came flowing out of the burning building. Whatever ancient spell they were using seemed to collapse under the intense heat of the blaze and released all the contained corruption.

The people who were fighting the fire promptly began fleeing the corruption. Several armed monks came charging in and killed the still on fire abomination that she identified as Kenneth. Before long the place was swarming with a great number of monks. They were both cleaning up the corruption and taking care of the horrific creatures that were still coming out of the burning building. Just as Megan decided to leave before being noticed by the monks the roof of the building burst open.

A large creature obscured by smoke and flames tore it's way onto the roof with a deafening roar. It yelled so loudly that Megan could feel her bones ache from the vibration. "I will find who did this and feed them to Lamia for eternity!" It yelled, and Megan recognized it as the voice of the leader who had been speaking earlier. Then with a massive swoosh it unfurled its vast wings and leapt off into the night. The Monks tried to stop it but it was too fast and had already disappeared into the darkness despite the full moon overhead.

Seeing there was nothing else for her to do here, Megan began to make her way back to the inn. While she did set this corrupted group back, with the leaders escape however she would have to be on guard. She wasn't sure if it could trace what had happened back to her, but she could not take the risk. So she would have to track it down before it discovered her. As she was walking in thought, she received a message from Yukali.

"Megan, are you there? I need you to get back to the inn as soon as possible."

Concerned that something happened to Yukali, she quickly sent back "I'm on the way back. Is everything okay?"

"Yes, I am alright, though my patience is wearing thin. You have a guest who is frankly getting on my nerves." Yukali replied.

Confused at that, Megan sent back "Got it, I will be their soon." Who would be here looking for her? Megan wondered as she ascended the steps into the inn.

Approaching the door to their room, Megan could hear a pair of voices locked in what sounded like an argument. She could hear a high-pitched feminine voice and Yukali's gruff voice going back and forth. Opening the door she could see Yukali who was squeezing the bridge of her snout looking like she had a massive headache. Opposite her was a woman whose appearance screamed sex appeal, in an ethereal sort of way. She had long ping hair that was braided down her back, and while she was wearing traveling clothes, they were clearly made to emphasize her incredible figure.

When Megan entered the woman spun around and her face almost exploded with glee "Oh Megan there you are!" She dashed across the room and hugged Megan. "Ah how you have grown into such a lovely lady. I remember the last time I saw you, you were only a baby."

Prying herself from the woman's hug, Megan asked "Who are you?"

"Oops, Sorry I was just so excited meeting you again, I forgot you would not know who I am. I am Naia Mah; I see your mother failed to mention me. I am your mothers distant... eh let's say cousin. That would make me your Aunt? Not sure what title would fit." The woman excitedly spoke and grabbed Megan's hands into her own. Megan could see why Yukali had a headache, the sheer exuberance coming off this woman was really intense.

Megan frowned and slipped her hands from Naia Mahs. "So you say you are related to my mother? My mother told me that all of her family had passed away. Though I'm finding out she has been lying to me about a lot of things lately, so you could be telling the truth."

"Well she wasn't totally lying about that. Her entire close family did in fact die when she was just a child. It was terrible what had happened, they were all murdered." Naia Mah shook her head. "But that's for here to tell you, not my place. I had a challenge tracking you down. I wasn't sure I could find you since you kept moving around everywhere. I had to chase you all across Kestonia."

This put Megan on immediate guard and looking alarmed, she asked "So why exactly are you searching for me?"

"Well several reasons actually. Most of this is pretty private so maybe your friend should step out while we talk? I can assure you this is very critical and concerns your heritage."

"I trust her with my life. Whatever you have to reveal to me, can be said in front of her." Megan said.

A slight look of surprise washed over the Dragonkins face before it returned to Yukalis usual stone faced look. Naia Mah shrugged and said "It is your decision. A Lot of what I am about to tell you is not great secrets, just old history and legends. Some is just mostly my guesswork after studying our legends and artifacts for most of my life. Your mother mentioned to me that you had found out that you are succubi."

"That is correct. I am frustrated that I had to find out that I am a succubus not from my mother, but from having signed a contract with Jack." Megan said a spike of annoyance popping up within her towards her mother.

"When I met your mother a few days ago, she did mention that you had signed a contract with a higher power, though she did say it wasn't a god." Naia Mah nodded.

Megan frowned and said "Glad to find my mother tells you more about me, then she tells me about myself."

"That is sad to hear, but unfortunately I kinda figured it because of how your mother feels towards us." Naia Mah sighed and continued "You must understand that your mother broke off all relations to the other succubi. In fact I'm the only one she speaks with, and rarely to boot. Since she left, she wants nothing to do with succubi and in fact has attempted to live her life in every aspect different to succubi. I suspect she wanted that same lifestyle for you as well, and if you hadn't found out I have no doubt she would have gone to her grave before telling you."

"For the longest time I thought she was simply a prude. Though the last time I saw her, she blatantly tried using her succubi powers on Jack. Though I think the reason she did that was to shock me, maybe to antagonize me for the decisions I was making. She wants me to marry a noble from the empire. She also claimed that I could never truly be a succubus without tasting a man in bed. Which is truly impossible for me as I have no desire to sleep with man, the very thought grosses me out." Megan said.

Naia Mah frowned and nodded. "That is unfortunate. Forced marriages are abhorred by our people, so it sadly makes sense to try and force you into one. As for her using succubi skills, she was actually one of the strongest succubi in the current era before she fell out with us. She was even considered to be a strong candidate for the next matron. Though she may not like it, I have made the decision to teach you more about your powers and the past of the succubi. As to you needing to sleep with a man to become a full succubus, that is technically only a half-truth."

"Then what is the full truth of it?" Megan asked, narrowing her eyes.

"All succubi born today are all half-succubi, this of course was not always the case. Even though you and the others are half-succubi, it is entirely possible to transform into a Full Succubi. The ways to do this are numerous and quite individual at times. The most common is in fact sleeping with men. For some just once can make them a full others it took over a hundred men. Though other ways have nothing to do with sleeping with men."

"What do male succubi do then?" Yukali asked, curious.

"Ah that would be technically called an Incubi." Naia Mah said. "I forget that you are not familiar with our history Megan. I should give you a brief overview of what Succubi really are. To begin with you must understand that there are in reality two diverse kinds of succubi in this world. The first and most common are the ones descended from Demonkin. This group includes Incubi. Then there is our kind Megan. We in fact come from a race that was born in a different world and brought here against our will."

"What?" Megan said surprised. "How do you know this? How does no one know this?"

"Well it happened a very long time ago. Before even the goblin wars, so long ago that all that is left are some artifacts of some things we brought over and some legends and stories. From what I have found is that in ancient times a very powerful magic tore a gate across worlds and ripped some of our kind to this world where we were enslaved, until we broke free. This new world Mantara is completely different to our original world, and is in fact slightly hostile to us. While it's not a secret, it's also not widely known. Only Succubi scholars like me know about it."

"How is Mantara hostile to you?" Yukali asked.

"Well for one full succubus can no longer be born for whatever reason. In fact breeding between Succubi rarely produces children so we've had to take to breeding with locals to get children. Even now we have a relatively small population, in fact the entirety our entire race barely fills up a village. Because demonkin Succubi number in the thousands we often get mistaken for them. Another thing is our powers have been severely dampened. The sex powers work the best, but the other ones tend to be hit and miss." Naia Mah said.

Megan nodded and said "So what's the differences between Demonkin Succubi and us?"

"Well first off, we don't have males technically. All succubi are born female in addition to being half-succubi. Due to certain abilities a full succubus may gain a male genitalia. This allows us to impregnate females. In addition holy magic has a strong negative effect on Demonkin Succubi, but it doesn't affect us. Another is our long age. Full Succubi can live well over a thousand years, though there was great violence in the past and the oldest Succubi nowadays is only slightly over four hundred."

"I have to say this is quite hard to believe. You are telling me that I belong to a race from another world?" Megan asked skeptically.

"That is what we believe, though technically it happened so long ago that our blood has been mixed with natives that we are now as part of this world more then whatever world our ancestors came from." Naia Mah said.

"These are pretty big claims. Do you have any proof to this?" Yukali asked.

"Besides the stories, we do have several ancient artifacts including the ancient gate that tore us from our original world. It's broken however, most likely during the period of time when we broke free of our slavery. There were some attempts at repairing it, but none succeeded as the whole thing runs on magic we have no ken of. In addition we also have several murals that tell our story, that I can show you if you would like."

"Perhaps some other time." Megan said. "For the present, I'll take you at your word no matter how incredible it sounds. You said that there were more ways to become a full succubus?"

"Yes, they fall broadly into three categories. The sexual, The spiritual, and finally The Dark path. I will tell you now that none of the Succubi and I back at the village will teach you how to do the Dark path ones as they are outlawed. They are horrific and often involve ripping out the soul of a lover. Should you do these things we will hunt you down and kill you. In fact part of the reason your mother hates us so much is because of a Dark Succubi."

"Understood." Megan said.

"Good. Now the most common spiritual way is simply to suckle at the teat of the Matron for a year and one day. After you have worshiped at her breast, you will become a full succubus. This is the method I took, and most others have. There are other spiritual ways which I have not remembered fully so cannot teach you, except I do recall a hard option that only a few in the village have ever attempted and even fewer have succeeded. "

"What is this method?" Yukali asked.

"To accomplish this, you must create a space of focus within yourself. All of your being must be placed within this space and then you must reach out and touch the energy we do not have access to anymore. We know it's there but it's lost to us. It's like you are blind and reaching around looking with your hands only your hand cannot feel anything and you must grab onto that lost energy and use it to transform yourself. However, if you can do this, you tend to be an incredibly powerful Succubi. Your mother was the only one I know today that was able to accomplish this. I don't know how she did it, and I'm not certain if she would tell you."

"Are those the only methods?" Megan asked.

"No, there are the more sexual ones. Some dozens of methods have worked, sometimes they don't work. Since you are a lesbian, I do know of one that I can tell you about. It's a pretty famous story in our village as it only happened a little over a hundred years ago. For the other methods you would have to visit the village to learn of them. The method I am about to tell you is... a bit unorthodox even compared to our lifestyle."

"In our past a Succubi loved women so much that she had wanted to become a full succubus through loving them. After running some tests she determined that she would need about a thousand women having an orgy and climaxing at the same time to even achieve it. I'm not quite sure how she figured that out, but it did work. After a night of full on debauchery, she became a full Succubi. Unfortunately, she died shortly after because of a jealous ex. As might be expected there are downsides to this method. It was incredibly hard to logisticate. In addition each of the women needs to be in deep love with the half-succubi. Also when it happened, it left a permanent sex energy zone where it is performed. People who enter it get incredibly aroused, it's no longer as powerful as it was but it's still there."

Megan shook her head and said "That does not really appeal to me. I will consider becoming a full succubus later. I still don't understand why exactly you came all this way to find me. Speaking of which, how did you find me?"

Naia Mah nodded and said "Well, I did want to teach you about your heritage and your powers. But I do have two other reasons for coming to find you. First, the Matron asked me to invite you to our village. You are always welcome to come visit at any time. What's more we hope you decide to come live with us."

"Why would you want me to come?" Megan asked.

"I was not kidding when I said we didn't have a huge population. Each and every one of our kind is incredibly important to us. It saddened the entire village when your mother left. We won't force you as that is not our way, but just know that you will have a home with us should you decide to come."

"Where is this village of Succubi?" Yukali asked.

"It's to the southwest near the Kestonia border with the Empire. It's called Fornix, it's nestled next to a small river. Not many people actually pay attention to it as there is nothing really important there. It nice and cozy just the way we like it."

While Megan was listening to Naian Mah's directions she received a notice on her map. Pulling it up she saw that she now had a marker on it that simply said Fornix. Closing it, she said "I may go when I have time. When I finish what I am doing here, I will head down to the empire."

"Great. While our village does not have all the stuff, a big city might have, I like to think Fornix is one of the best places to ever visit. Now as for the second reason, I sought you out, was one day a while back all of our artifacts from the old world activated and went all crazy for about ten minutes or so. They have been dormant for millennia as they no longer had access to the energy of our original world. So we just keep them as a reminder to our past. But on the day of the Glowing Mountain Incident they all activated for some reason. After researching it, I came to believe the cause was you, Megan."

Startled Megan narrowed her eyes in thought. The Glowing Mountain Incident was the day Alexia died. It was also the day she had used the form of a succubus power. She hadn't touched it since. While she had been totally helpless to help Alexia, she had felt something strange when she had changed. As might be expected she didn't have time to fully comprehend it, but perhaps that energy had somehow awoken these artifacts. "So how did you trace it to me?"

"Well I narrowed it down as it was likely only a succubus could have activated them. Our community is quite small, so we typically know where all the Succubi are on the continent. I had received word from your mother that you had gone north which this artifact pointed as the source of the activations." Naia Mah pulled out a small metal box and opened it. Inside of it was a floating pink ball with a sapphire eye placed in it. The eye was currently looking towards Megan.

"This is a source compass. It was dormant, until that day and has remained active unlike the other artifacts which went back to sleep. It pointed north, well to be more accurate it points towards you." She demonstrated that by moving the box around and the blue eye kept it's lock on Megan."

"What do you mean by source compass?" Megan asked.

"According to legends our powers were said to be fueled by sources within that world. Each clan of succubi would set up around that source and guard it with their lives. This Source Compass is designed to find the closest active source. Because we lost what a source was, we came to assume that it was simply a place in the previous world. But I have come to a new conclusion, in fact I have come to believe that the sources were actually Succubi who could tap into that power and share it among her sisters."

"Wait what?" Megan said. "Are you trying to suggest that I am in fact some sort of source for this power?"

Naia Mah shrugged and said "Maybe. You must understand this is all just speculation on my part. I haven't even told my theories to the other succubi. Even if true it's not like the other succubi will even want to go back to how our ancestors lived and I wouldn't either. Since I am a historian, I wish to learn more about our past. When I saw all the artifacts activated and then I tracked it to you potentially, I grew more excited that I may prove what a source truly was."

"And that would be?" Yukali said.

"A Succubi Queen." Naia Mah proudly said.

Megan scoffed and said "You expect me to believe that I'm some sort of Succubi Royalty?"

Naia Mah looked slightly embarrassed and said "The title is not an indication of Royalty, but rather your direct access to the source of our power. From a Succubi Queen our powers were granted. Like you thought we simply thought all the Succubi Queens in our history were just titles granted to particularly strong Succubi. Our Matron title is a homage you could say, though no Matron has ever been as powerful as a Succubi Queen. But from my studies I believe firmly that the Succubi Queens were in fact the sources, and now you are one, or potentially one."

"You think I can grant you access to this power?" Megan said doubtfully.

"Right now no." Naia Mah shrugged. "I don't even know if you can, or how you could. You must understand I'm working on incomplete stories that have been passed down for thousands of years. It's hard finding the truth in a story that has just been passed down by word for years. Of course to even begin to access that power you will have to become a full succubus to even begin to sense the source."

Megan thought about what this woman found incredibly outlandish. "Look I'm having a hard time believing what you are saying. If that is the case why no other Queen Succubi has appeared before?"

"Before you appeared, that had been a critical flaw in my theory. I simply assumed that there was something in our original world that can awaken queens. What that was I don't know, only that it appears not to be in this world. Then you appeared, and I have been thinking about that while I came to find you. I think it's because of that contract you made with that powerful being, Jack you called it. I think it somehow managed to activate your heritage deep within you."

That could be entirely possible, Megan thought after Naia Mah's suggestion. She would have to ask Jack about it when he came tomorrow. Just as she was about to ask Naia Mah some more questions there was a loud knock on her door. Megan was confused and went to the room door and called out "Who is it?"

A voice said loudly "This is the Order of Purity, The Guardians of The Well. We ask that you open. We are doing a corruption sweep of the entire city. You have until the count of ten to open this door or we will force it open."

Slightly annoyed she opened the door and found three fully armored monks standing outside. "Hello, we are conducting corruption tests on everyone in the city."

"Can I ask what is going on?" Megan asked.

"There was an incident in the city, but there is nothing to fear. This is just a precaution, and routine check." The monk said as he took out a large crystal attached to a base. "This is a corruption tester. All you need to do is place your hand on it, and it will test your level of corruption."

"And if we refuse?" Megan asked.

"Then we will force you to take it and then boot you from the city if you are not corrupted. If you are in fact corrupted we will throw you down the well." One of the side monks said in a threatening manner.

Megan nodded and placed her hand on it. It was apparent this had to be because of what happened earlier today. This crystal hummed and turned a very slight shade of pink. "Fine, you are clear. Looks like you must have been near some corruption recently, though nothing major. It will pass with time. It's your companion's turns."

Walking up, Yukali placed her hand on the crystal and it turned an even lesser shade of pink. The monks nodded and indicated for Naia Mah to place her hand on the crystal and went totally clear. The head monk looked satisfied and said "Thank you for your cooperation with keeping the well secure. If you see anything suspicious, please let us know as soon as possible."

The monks left, and Naia Mah let out a big yawn. "So as much as I would like to answer more of your questions Megan, I am getting pretty tired and dead on my feet. If you don't mind I will return to my room to sleep. We can meet up again tomorrow. I will then answer any questions you have then."

"All right, I'm not sure whether to believe you yet, but I do appreciate that you actually came looking for me to talk about my heritage, unlike my mother."

"That is no problem. You are one of us, and we will always support you. Megan, we may not be blood related, but we consider you part of our family." Naia Mah said, smiling and she left.

Closing the door Megan said "Before we turn in ourselves Yukali, I have to tell you what I found tonight, and it's a doozy."