“The more I think about it, the more the idea appeals to me,” Vylshiya crowed as she dragged the cuirizu through the dirt by her hair. Though she wasn’t physically strong by the standards of fiends, she was more than capable of hauling Myanna’s weight. Her slightly shorter height caused her to move awkwardly as the disoriented cuirizu attempted to free herself.

“Let go of me this instant!” Myanna demanded, desperately attempting to get her footing.

With a heave of one arm, the succubus tossed Myanna forward, where she landed amid broken pieces of rubble. “All you had to do was ask,” the succubus laughed before blowing strands of green hair from between her fingers.

It was the first chance Myanna had to get a good look at the fiend since the last time she had seen her. The thin pieces of sheer fabric that hung from the succubus as accents had become dirty and tattered. Much of her jewelry was chipped and tarnished, and her hair looked disheveled and devoid of body. Though her body still possessed some of its former curvature, Myanna could tell the creature was malnourished. Her lips were dry, and her eyes looked sunken and less vibrant, though they still held the malevolent spark of cunning.

“Do I disgust you?” Vylshiya asked, motioning to herself as she continued to stalk toward Myanna. “This is your doing. You did this to me. I can’t derive sustenance from mortals the way I did.”

“How have you survived this long?” Myanna wondered, crawling backward on her hands, though there was nowhere to go. “You should be dead.”

“You’re so stupid,” the succubus sneered. “You honestly think a little thing like a crippling addiction to your cum would be enough to put me down? You have no idea what I’m capable of, what I have done over the years to survive before ever experiencing the misfortune of crossing paths with you.”

Myanna reached for the small pouch at her hip as discreetly as she could, but Vylshiya’s sight was too keen for her. With a flick of her wrist and a snarled word of magic in Abyssal, the succubus detonated a ball of fire in the cuirizu’s chest. The impact hurled Myanna backward, where she tumbled through the remains of a tent erected by one of the workers the Abyssal soldiers had brought with them.

Myanna painfully hissed through her teeth as she stumbled out from the burning canvas, smoke causing her eyes to water and burn. The leather of her corset cracked and crumbled away from her chest, having taken the brunt of the impact from the succubus. The pouch, which had hung from it, was long gone. Either it had been consumed by the flames or been crushed under her weight and torn from her when she’d hit the ground.

Vylshiya laughed as she approached; the smoke seemed to bend and warp around her as she drew near. “Can’t handle fire very well, can you?”

Taking a deep breath to try and steady herself, Myanna reached for her whip but found that it was also missing. Without it, she had little choice but to rely more on her magic and brute strength if she could get close enough. “I can handle it long enough to be rid of you.”

“Doubtful,” Vylshiya countered dismissively. “Your fight with Havoc took a lot out of you, and I’ve already seen your limits. Without Olcaru’s intervention, you would never have bested that vetala. He would have had you dead to rights.”

The cuirizu’s brows furrowed, distraught at the revelation that the succubus had somehow been keeping tabs on her. “How do you know about that?”

Vylshiya’s wings fluttered slightly, her tail swishing around behind her playfully. “Ohhh, you would love for me to tell you, wouldn’t you?”

Snarling irately, Myanna’s hand snapped forward to hurl a spell, but the succubus was faster. Closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye, the fiend took hold of Myanna’s wrist, her hand wreathed in a pale necrotic glow. The cuirizu’s legs buckled as a large portion of her vitality was stripped from her in an instant. The spell died on her lips as she crumbled to the ground before Vylshiya, her arm held limply over her head.

Vylshiya shuddered with excitement, the rush of the power transfer between them forcing her to take a moment and bask in it. “Oh, fuck! It hasn’t been the same with mortals, but with you, it’s incredible.”

Releasing Myanna’s wrist, the succubus pressed her foot against the cuirizu’s chest and pushed her over. “Likely because of the shit you cursed me with. I was able to derive a little sustenance from the jizz you left behind in that prosecutor, so it makes sense that something closer to the source would work better.”

Myanna lifted her head to fix her gaze upon the succubus standing over her, fury clouding her thoughts. Instead of thinking about the best means to outsmart the fiend, all she could think of was beating her to a pulp, despite being physically incapable of it.

“That’s right!” Vylshiya chirped, pointing at Myanna quickly before kicking her in the face. “I scooped that bitch up the moment you left. I ate your filthy seed right out of her to keep myself going. Then I fed on her until there was naught but a withered husk.”

Grabbing a stone that she had fallen onto, Myanna whirled around, bringing the improvised weapon across the face of the succubus. Genuinely surprised by her burst of energy, Vylshiya took the blow squarely on the jaw before stumbling to one side. The effort of the strike exacted its toll upon the cuirizu immediately in the form of a disorienting wave of vertigo and exhaustion. Suddenly the stone in her hand became too heavy to swing, and the weight of her body was almost too much for her to remain upright.

“Wow!” Vylshiya exclaimed as she reached out with one wing and drove the claw at the tip of it into Myanna’s shoulder. “You’ve still got a little fight in you after all of that? Incredible.”

With a jerk of her wing, Myanna was thrown to the ground in a heap once more, where the stone rolled away from her. The succubus wiped a thin trickle of dark blood from the corner of her mouth. The side of her face had already begun to swell, though she seemed unbothered by it. “I must have hit a nerve. I didn’t realize she meant so much to you. If I had, I would have stretched her torment out much longer than I did, just so I could tell you about it.”

“That’s why the Crimson Light came,” Myanna speculated with a grumble, holding the wound in her shoulder. “She never checked in.”

Vylshiya clapped like a giddy child. “That’s right. I didn’t know how I was going to get you here, but the greed of your ritual master managed to do it for me. A stroke of luck, but I’m sure I would have thought of something eventually if the news of Applewood being taken wasn’t enough.”

All of it had been for nothing. Myanna had held out hope of recovering Brenna, but in reality, she had likely been dead for quite some time at Vylshiya’s hand. As furious as she was, the sobering realization extinguished what fight she had left in her like a candle.

The succubus crouched to get a better look at the despair in Myanna’s eyes, grinning wickedly as she savored the misery she found within the cuirizu. “I’m almost tempted to keep you alive as entertainment with how precious you are about her. I’m willing to bet Drusilla’s death would hit you even harder. Or perhaps Onesa?”

Myanna’s eyes rose to look at the succubus. How much did the fiend know about her at this point? How long had she been monitoring her, and how?

“Yes, I know all about them,” Vylshiya gloated. Savoring every second of Myanna’s descent into despair. “I’ve been the little demon on your shoulder almost this entire time, darting in and out of that pathetically warded heap of rubble you rats call Willowridge.”

Warding was an issue with a castle of that size, Myanna agreed silently, but surely someone would have noticed her. Even in her diminished state, she was an eye-catching creature with a body for sin. Sex and desire were woven into the fabric of her being. There was something about it she wasn’t telling her, but Myanna wasn’t about to beg for answers. Especially when they wouldn’t do her any good. Her legs wouldn’t support her, and it took all her will to remain focused and conscious.

Vylshiya rose again, shaking her head as she feigned a sigh of disappointment. “Alas, I think I’ve had my fill of you now. All that’s left is to take what little lifeforce you have and move on.”

“It won’t cure you,” Myanna muttered, feeling a glimmer of satisfaction at the thought.

“I know,” the succubus admitted, her hand beginning to glow with the same necrotic glow as before. “But with everything I’ve pulled from you, I should be able to last long enough to coax a counter-curse from someone. I have a few people in mind I can visit for that.”

Myanna’s mind tried to pull itself from the mud of exhaustion and defeat, desperately reaching for anything that might function as a lifeline. “Wouldn’t it be more prudent to keep me captive until you do?”

Vylshiya pursed her lips. “Probably, but you managed to tempt me before to buy yourself the time to strike at me. I won’t be fooled again. I’ve been keeping a close eye on you long enough to know it’s precisely what you would do.”

The succubus suddenly jerked as though something had struck her in the back, causing the magical glow around her hand to vanish. Then, with another jerk, a blade erupted from her chest, covered in the near-black of her demonic blood. Myanna and Vylshiya both stared at the blade in confusion, though the succubus was much more horrified than the cuirizu. Lifting her trembling hands to the blade, the succubus debated what to do about the sudden appearance of the blade.

“You should have been watching me instead,” Belias said, pulling the demon back against his chest as he ripped the weapon from her back. The succubus attempted to speak, but all that came out was a bloody cough before the ritual master let the fiend roll off him and into the dirt.

Myanna stared at the man in surprise, believing him to have quit the field long ago. The sounds of battle continued in the distance, much quieter than earlier but enough to fill the silence between them all the same. Instead of considering herself rescued, Myanna suspected she had traded out one potential killer for another as the ritual master stood over her, a look of disgust on his sweaty face.

“You look like shit,” he commented. The sword he held at his side, still soaked in demon blood, looked as though he had lifted it from a random fallen soldier somewhere on the battlefield. “Can you stand?”

Knitting her brows, Myanna stared up at Belias in confusion. “You’re sparing my life?”

“With certain conditions,” Belias replied blithely. “But yes.”

“You... backstabbing fuck,” Vylshiya spat as she scrambled to her feet, despite her wound. “How dare you!”

Belias turned slightly at the waist, a movement that looked strangely out of place with his build. He held up the sword to examine it momentarily, looking unsatisfied with its performance, before discarding it carelessly to the side. “The idea of being manipulated by the likes of you sets my skin to crawling.”

Rolling over slowly, Myanna pushed herself onto her hands and knees. She remained there for a moment to gather her strength before embarking on the arduous journey to a stand. “How did you find me?”

“Oh, I never lost sight of you,” Belias said with a shake of his head. “I’ve been here the whole time.”

Myanna’s face twisted into a scowl. “Even with the judge?”

“Especially with the judge,” Belias answered. “I didn’t know you were a capable fighter like that. That poison you used was particularly interesting.”

The cuirizu sighed. She supposed she should be grateful that he had been willing to step in at all, even if it was on the late side. “I suppose you’d like me to make some for you?”

“That is one of my conditions for sparing your life, yes,” Belias answered, turning his attention back to Vylshiya as the succubus backed away from them. She was stopped short by a floating sphere of flesh hovering just behind her.

“Allo,” the cacodaemon greeted her in his characteristically raspy voice. He waited only a moment for the succubus to realize what she was looking at before clamping down on her shoulder with his toothy maw. Vylshiya let out a peel of agony as she tried to pull away, pushing against Tarok with one hand, but his grip on her remained firm.

As the succubus thrashed around, Tarok took a moment to get a better grip on her. This time, the crunch of bone accompanied Vylshiya’s tortured scream. The cacodaemon chuckled with his mouth full.

Belias turned an appraising look upon Myanna again. “Are there any valuable reagents you can extract from her before she is devoured?”

“Uhm,” Myanna’s mind drew a blank for several seconds before she managed to get her thoughts in order. “Just the spinal fluid, I suppose.”

“Spinal fluid?” Belias repeated as a question. “What for?”

Myanna sighed. If he were half the ritual master he often claimed, he would have already known. “Spinal fluid of any demon can be used to induce delusional euphoria, but a succubi’s can allow you to experience much of the sexual encounters she’s had during her existence.”

The ritual master’s expression turned thoughtful as he considered whether or not he wanted to go through the effort of bringing the demon back to Willowridge with them. Even with his limited skill, he knew the chances of them successfully extracting everything they needed with improvised tools on a battlefield were slim. “Does she have to be alive and intact for that?”

Myanna’s crimson eyes turned to look upon the succubus trapped in the jaws of the Cacodaemon gnawing at her. Vylshiya returned her look, though hers was considerably more panicked. Even at full strength, it was unlikely she could have freed herself from the creature’s grip. The front of her torso was slick with dark blood as she pleaded silently for a temporary reprieve.

“No,” Myanna answered tersely. “Just leave the spinal column undamaged.”

Belias nodded and signaled back to Tarok. “You heard her. Be careful.”

Tarok’s reply came as a brief grunt as Myanna turned away to look for her whip. Though she was burned, beaten, and exhausted, the time and effort she had put into crafting the weapon merited at least a cursory search of her surroundings. The screams of the succubus as the cacodaemon devoured her fell on deaf ears as even Belias walked away in search of something.

As Myanna searched the rubble and debris left in the wake of the battle, she took stock of her innumerable injuries. As bad of a condition she was in, Brenna was in much worse shape. She didn’t even know where the succubus had discarded her body after she was done with her. Part of her hoped that Vylshiya had been lying about killing her, but the prosecutor had been the only means by which the demon had been able to sustain herself for so long. She wanted to look for her with the vain hope that she would find her chained up in a corner somewhere the way she had when---.

Stopping suddenly, the cuirizu turned in the direction of the outbuilding where they had been held captive. Despite the distance and how slowly she moved, Myanna was determined to reach it. It was the only place that she knew of equipped to hold someone with power like hers. Only through force of will alone did she reach the building, propping herself on the door frame weakly to catch her breath before finally daring to step inside.

The sounds of battle had faded entirely, leaving in complete silence as she walked the rows of cages to the one at the end where Brenna’s corpse was still chained. Sorrow and regret welled up within Myanna, taking her slightly by surprise. Though her eyes burned in anticipation of tears, she wouldn’t allow herself to cry. She couldn’t afford to break down when another person awaited her return with a remedy for what ailed her.

Myanna pulled the cage open, pulled forward by some force that had seized hold of her, and knelt beside what was left of the prosecutor. She was hardly recognizable in this state. Not only had Vylshiya stripped her naked and taken everything from her in every possible way she could imagine, but she had simply left the woman to the heat. Without the key and in her weakened state, Myanna had no means of removing her from the shackles holding her to the wall. A burial was out of the question, though Myanna didn’t even know if such a thing would have been appropriate for Brenna’s beliefs. She hadn’t had the chance to get to know her properly, and now, she never would.

Her thoughts turned briefly to necromancy, though such magic was well outside her purview. She didn’t know the first thing about raising the dead and didn’t trust anyone enough to do it and leave the woman’s will intact.

“I’m sorry, Brenna,” Myanna whispered, knowing that the words weren’t likely ever to reach the woman where she was now. “Perhaps I’ll see you again someday in the Great Beyond.”

Letting out a breath the steady herself, Myanna stood. Retrieving a discarded burlap bag, she placed it over the woman’s face before fetching the oil lantern by the door, along with the spark stone on a wooden slat next to it. The cuirizu poured the contents of the lantern over the prosecutor’s remains, ensuring she was surrounded with plenty of straw to catch fire. Myanna struck the spark stone, setting the straw and oil ablaze in an instant. As she stepped away, the flames spread quickly from the woman’s body to the rest of the structure.

As she stepped outside, Belias approached, carrying her whip and a sack filled with something heavy and wet at his side. “What’s this all about?”

Myanna gestured to the building as the fire spread quickly inside. “This was where they kept us when we were held captive.”

“Ah,” Belias responded, his curiosity satisfied with the vague answer. He held the whip out to her with one hand as he adjusted the weight of the sack with the other. “I found this and thought you would like to have it back.”

“What’s in there?” Myanna asked with a nod to the sack as she took the whip, realizing there was nothing left of her corset to fasten it to.

“Havoc’s head,” the ritual master answered. “It’ll make a fine trophy to present to Olcaru, provided we can get our story straight about what happened here.”

“You shouldn’t be handling that,” Myanna cautioned. “It’s still covered with---.”

“I rinsed it with a waterskin,” Belias interrupted. “I’m not an idiot. I saw what it did to the man.”

Myanna’s brow arched slightly as she looked down at the man curiously. “How did you do that, if I might ask?”

“The same way that the succubus obtained her information about you,” Belias answered casually, adjusting the weight of the sack again. “From the Veil.”

The answer only presented more questions. Seeing them on her face, Belias continued. “It’s possible to step sideways into the Veil between this world and the inner planes for those with the knowledge to do so. It’s a common enough trick with succubi living in the physical world, either for espionage or to check in on their thralls. Provided you don’t cross fully into one of the other planes and remain within the Veil, it’s possible to view the physical world and listen in on conversations completely unnoticed. However, the range is quite limited.”

“She was just following me around in the Veil?” Myanna concluded in disbelief. “The whole time?”

“I doubt it was the whole time,” Belias corrected smugly, pleased with the opportunity to flaunt some of his knowledge to the cuirizu. “But succubi can also teleport if they know where they are going or possess anchors to move between. So she would observe you between feedings on the prosecutor she was holding. You really ought to revisit the lore when we get back.”

Belias turned, hoisting the sack over his shoulder, and began to walk away. “Come along. We have much to discuss and quite a trip ahead of us.”

Myanna stared blankly into the middle distance as her grip tightened on the whip. The way the ritual master spoke of Vylshiya’s abilities felt like more than academic recollection. His scholarly knowledge had surprised her once, it was true, but something felt wrong about it this time. Had he been aware of Vylshiya’s presence the whole time and simply pretended not to notice her?

Shifting her gaze toward Belias, she wondered how much he had known. He had waited a long time for her to be in a vulnerable state before aiding her. Had it all been a ploy to secure her gratitude for saving her and sparing her life? Or perhaps he had been hoping to glean some knowledge from Vylshiya before disposing of her. As Myanna fell in behind him to rejoin the rest of their retreating army, the questions continued to swirl through her head, though she was careful not to let on that she suspected anything of the man.