After a very harrowing reminder why bodies that subsist on lust and cum are superior in their own ways, you head towards Madame Baiser’s Salon. You find it not too far from your own building. Entering inside, you’re overcome with the scent of jasmine and immediately know that there’s a drug in the air. You don’t know how you’re aware of it. You don’t have your demon body, so you can’t resist it.

Maybe it’s the blessing?

Does that mean you have a demonic body and a holy spirit? But why are you such a whore? Maybe the demonic brain has some effect on your soul? That…would make sense. This is a subject ripe for discussion…

“Sir? You’re frowning and staring at me. Did I do something?”

You shake your head, careful not to fling off your sunglasses. Laying sexily on a lounge chair is a minotaur woman in a purple negligee that leaves nothing to the imagination. Her pert nipples peak through the fabric, piercings connecting them together with a silver chain.

All in all, a master class in seduction. You mentally give her your stamp of approval.

“Sorry, I was lost in thought. I’m here to start hiring some escorts.”

You smile, but the cow just looks down through her horn-rimmed spectacles.

“You’ll have to talk to Madame Baiser about that. She’s in a meeting right now. You’ll have to wait.”

Soulsight confirms that is a lie. You can guess why. Baiser seems to be some sort of head of a prostitute union and wants to make it very clear who’s in charge.

She’s got to protect her girls, after all. Probably what the drugs in the lavender candles are for, to muddle the thoughts of any potential brothel owners so Baiser can set the terms.

You’ve been on both sides of the desk in the service industry. Now is not a time for weakness.

“Listen, we both know she’s not in a meeting. If you think I’m going to wait out of some half-assed intimidation technique, you can twist your tits and suck your clit. Either I talk to Madame Baiser immediately, not only will I tell everyone about the drugs in those candles, I will sit here and yell the most annoying song I know in off-key until I get my way.”

The minotauress frowns.

“Sir you can’t possibly be—“

“THIs iS THe SoNG tHAt NEEEEEavar ENDS! IT—“

“Okay! Okay. Follow me.”

It should not have worked. Nevertheless, she leads you through the stairs behind her into a dark room.

“Ma’am. This one saw through our ruse. He’s here for some of our escorts.”

There is a rumbling in the dark.

“Ah, yes. I’ve heard of this one. I hadn’t expected him to come here. Leave us.”

The cow bows and exits.

A lumbering form approaches you, and despite your ability to see in the dark, you can only see a fluttering mass of darkness heading towards you.

“Rumpelstiltskin. The extremely lucky harpy who appeared from nowhere. You are a mystery. At least, for now. The Fingers are no doubt looking into harpies of your description. How lucky of you to have relatively common features.”

“So you know me.” You shrug. “Can I at least have the pleasure of seeing who I am talking to?”

“Others, I would eschew, but if you’re clever enough to win against Linchpin and his lackeys without being caught, then I shall bypass my traditional riddles.”

She removes the cloak of shadows and you nearly gasp.

A human torso with the thick waist of a leopard, wings on her back, talons on her fingers. She is covered in silver chains that cover the front of her breasts, sapphires and rubies embedded within. Red lipstick hides her sharp teeth, dark eye shadow highlighting her pretty green feline eyes.

“A sphinx.”

“You are quite knowledgeable.” Baiser is taken aback. “That is indeed the name hybrids such as I. What do you seek?”

“How many escorts can I hire at a time? And for over a million silver?”

Baiser is nonplussed.

“It depends on which escorts you rent, how you treat them, and how long you need them.”

Since monetary profits are pretty much secondary, your own profits are on the backburner. Hell, you only need enough to feed this body.

“I have enough rooms for fifty of them. I plan to take only twenty percent of their profits, and for a year. I will pay for lodging and medical care. If it seems like I can make the money back and then some in a year, then there will be paid vacation days for the next year.”

“It doesn’t seem very profitable.” She stretches just enough for you to catch the impression of a nipple, her svelte back contouring her shapely behind. She’s doing it intentionally.

“I consider myself a long-term investor. If I’m a good enough boss, your escorts will prefer to work for me.”

Baiser narrows her eyes, but nods.

“May I ask where my money goes?”

“25% to the Salon, 75% to your escorts. Unless you take slaves.”

Slaves? Not cool. Everybody should be free to fuck whoever they want. Of course, escorts kind of need to. And technically, you were a slave once. Though you only gained from that situation.

“Why the slaves?”

“Victims of debts to the wrong people, or kidnapped from other nations. I buy them to make it easier on them. They repay their debt to me, not necessarily through brothel work, but housekeeping, waitressing, and performing. A bit humiliating at times, but they all know what they’re getting into.”

Baiser’s an okay sphinx. You may not like the practice, despite having enjoyed being on the receiving end, you admit you may need a few. It's not an otherworldly adventure without buying slaves!

“Maybe two or three are needed. To help with finances and managing.”

The sphinx nods. You really don’t want to get another Glasgow, so you’ll treat them well.

“Any other questions before I seal our deal?”

“Yes, do you have any male prostitutes as well? I want to cater equally.”

Baiser is dumbfounded for a moment before bursting out in laughter.

“A harpy male asking me such a thing…I never thought I’d see the day. Are you perhaps, into males, and admitting it? Unusual for harpy pride and views on sexuality.”

“My love of both sexes has nothing to do with this. I just see this as more profitable.”

Baiser stares at you for a moment before guffawing out loud again.

“You are an interesting fellow! If you’re going for variety rather than your personal preferences, you’ll be more successful than the other horny idjits who want to rent their own pseudo-harem for a time before they fall into debt. I’ve got some escorts in mind for you. As for slaves, let me show you them.”

She leads you down the dark corridor into a series of rooms, until you reach a lobby. The varied occupants all have iron collars with runes inscribed on them, and all seem healthy. What you need is one that can manage for you while you’re away, and also be able to keep secrets.

That one will be your right-hand man.

The slaves look at you with surprise and curiosity, a few with fear.

“Ladies and gents…This is Rumpelstiltskin. He’s looking for slaves to help manage his brothel for the next year. So if you aren’t uncomfortable dealing in sex and money, you can stay. The others will go to their rooms.”

They follow her instructions as the majority leave the foyer. Only six are left.

“Considering my budget, who can I afford?”

“If you were to neglect them, all of them. But you seem to be the type of character to take care of your assets, which is why I brought you here. Unlike the escorts, they work for you for free. But you must pay for their food. And if you want the very best of our escorts to work for you, then you’ll only be able to take three.”

You look over the six, who try hard to seem either attractive or smart. A harpy hen is puffing up her feathers while a minotaur cow is using her arms to squeeze together her breasts. A minotaur bull is posing with flexed biceps while a male and female equints glare at each other angrily.

The lone elf catches your eye. An elf with cyan hair and eyes with pale white skin. Her hands are stained with ink and her eyes are squinting slightly. She’s an academic.

“I’ll take the elf, the minotaur female, and the Striped male.”

The cow is not just hot, but has a kind and bubbly yet strict, soul. She’ll be in charge of the female prostitutes. The equint has a sort of regimented, organized soul that reminds you of a military man’s, probably a captured commander. He’ll oversee the dudes and security.

The elf is logical, but has a bright, passionate soul hidden by a layer of shyness. She’ll be in charge of both of them and finances. You picked them from their abilities, personalities…and because they have intense sparks of lust deep down.

“Very well. Check, Hwala, and Opal, step forwards. The rest of you, leave us.”

They nod begrudgingly and leave.

It makes sense because it could be a massive gamble.  You buy them and your business fails, you’re going to sell them back to Baiser, and they’d be closer to paying off their debt to Baiser and buying their freedom. If you succeed, they could live a comfortable life under you, and may even scrounge up enough to buy their freedom.

Both carry risks and rewards, but those that take the risks are more likely to be freed sooner.

“Would you like to see the escorts, or will you trust my judgement?”

“I think I’ll trust your judgement. But I’ll only need a total of forty-seven now, considering I only have fifty rooms. Can you make sure the male to female ratio is inverse to the population? And that there’s variety.”

“I have already taken such things into account. I shall finalize our contract right now. Sign it while I fetch the escorts.”

She quickly scribbles something on parchment and passes it over to you. It’s all the terms you’ve agreed upon, with a few protective measures thrown in.

“One last question. How does owning slaves work?”

“Normally, they’d either have shock collars on them to prevent them from disobeying orders, or hypnosis collars that bind them completely, down to their involuntary muscles, but these are special. They are under a geas."

Gyas? Gigas? 

"You can’t command them to die or hurt themselves without reason. If they refuse to follow an order, they will be immobilized but conscious until they decide to do so. And they’re temporarily sterile so you can’t ‘produce’ more slaves.”

Wow, she’s got contracts down. You should take a page out of her book and learn to make conditions like a pro.

“Fair enough. Pass me the quill.”

You sign and Baiser takes off a ring and presses it against the agreement with hot wax.

“I’ll leave you to get acquainted with your new servants.”

The sphinx saunters off, her haunches swaying in the dark. The three of them bow, albeit the equint a tad stiffly. You decide to start with him.

“You must be Hwala. Pleasure to get you onboard.”

You reach out a feathered hand, which he tentatively grabs and shakes.

“I suppose I am thankful. The sooner I am done here, the sooner I can make my triumphant return to the Plains.”

“Well, I’ll be sorry to see you leave. Just in case you want to know what you’ll be doing, you’ll be managing the male escorts. Don’t give me that look, I don’t want you guys to tire them out. You’ll be reporting how much they made and the types of customers each attracted. Of course, since you’ll have less escorts, you’ll mainly be in charge of security. If a customer does something that the escorts do not want, you’ll be throwing them out. Just make sure they aren’t roleplaying.”

Hwala nods and seems a tad bit excited about the ‘kicking people out’ prospect. You face Opal the cow.

“Nice to see such a beautiful young minotaur cow joining our team.” She shakes your claw a bit too much; her breasts bounce with each shake.

“Nice to meet you, Frumplesillybin! If he’s in charge of the male escorts, then I’m in charge of the females, right?”

“Yup! It’ll be a big workload, and if all goes well, you’ll get better at it as the company grows.” Opal bounces up and down and claps her hands.

“And Check…you’ll be the major player here. These two will be the ones to give you their reports, and you’ll oversee the books. And any of the…outcasts.”

She seems puzzled, but nods.

“Also, you should probably know that I spent over nine million silver in the past three hours and I’ve got about three hundred and fifty thousand left.”

All their jaws dropped.

“Wh-What? How could you spend so much?”

Ah, so she speaks.

“I’ll tell you more later. The walls have ears.”

They seem to want to talk more, but Baiser strides back in and motions you to follow her.

The whores she shows you are all clean and pretty, but your discerning eye can spot a few latent diseases. Again, the holy blessing comes with all sorts of benefits.

And they’re varied enough to fit on a college pamphlet. This variety though, is to capture everyone’s tastes.

You smile and shake Baiser’s hand before leading them through the streets to your building. Opening the door, you count ten male courtesans and thirty-seven female escorts enter, followed by the three slaves.

You close the door behind you and make an announcement.

“Welcome to House of Temptation. Just came up with the name, I think it’ll stick. I’m pretty sure Madame Baiser explained the conditions to you. Anyways, you’ll find lodging on the top floor. I know you work in two shifts, so those of you who have the night shift can get to bed very soon. But first, some ground rules. No going into the basement unless I tell you. If you have a disease or injury, come see me, I’ll fix you right up. Females will be working under Opal.”

You point to Opal and she waves.

A few of them raise eyebrows, but they accept it.

“Males will be working under Hwala, who’s also in charge of kicking out unruly customers.”

The escorts seem pretty happy about that.

“If you have a customer at the brothel, report to your supervisor after the job. Outside, it is recommended you tell us before joining your customer. I will give you guys maps of suggested rounds.”

You had scouted before going shopping and found a few bars and taverns, and inns close by.

“Any issues can be reported to me, Hwala, Opal, or Check. If you want double pay for a job, I’ll pay you to advertise us. Exhibitionists encouraged.”

There is some muttered confusion.

“Exhibitionism…as in going out in public, wearing lingerie?”

A courtesan asks.

“That’s a bit tame, but yes. I was thinking more along the lines of cows going completely bare-chested, females going out using sex toys in public, or even on aphrodisiacs. Heck, we can get pairs of you guys to just rut in the plazas. Just as long as you wear a sign with the name of our place.”

My genius marketing plan raises a few questions.

“This…hasn’t been done before.”

“Isn’t this against the law?”

“I…I’ll stick to working inside.”

A few of them spiked with DESIRE at the thought of it. You remember their faces.

“There aren’t any laws against it and I have seen so few children here, so it doesn’t really matter. Plus, how else can we get people in the mood? None of you need to do it, but it will be for double pay.”

There’s a slight pause, and it looks like a equint woman is about to raise her hand. She’s squirming internally, but her face is like stone.

“That doesn’t need to happen now. Just get situated for the rest of the day while I pay someone to put up the sign. Any takers on the advertising can come visit me. And remember, no going in the basement.”

They separate and you follow the infected ones, pulling them aside and healing them, claiming you’re using a healing magic stone. Apparently, they believed that bullshit.

It was definitely your messiahistic powers.

That isn’t a word.

Magic jazz hands don’t care. You sit down in your office and begin planning. Having two heads really is better.