Succubus Companions pt 2

Seraphine was propelled through the portal with such force that when it ejected her she rolled into a glimmering field with such force it bruised her side and wings. She hissed in pain as she stood up, eliciting a half-awed and half-terrified curse. She clambered to her feet and looked around.
She stood in a well lit, incredibly spacious attic of some kind. Judging from the number of pillars, the wide windows, and the storage doors at the far end, she guessed she was in some kind of warehouse. Much of the far end was dusty, filled with cobwebs, and otherwise empty, but the nearer portion was swept clean but otherwise cluttered with bookshelves, tables, desks, candelabras, armoires, and chests of all kinds. Every flat surface including large sections of the floor were covered with heaps of books, sheaves of paper, bubbling potions, spell components, and the occasional piece of discarded clothing. A large bird cage on a stand stood in one corner.
The golden, glittering, semi-translucent wall surrounding the nearly twelve foot diameter circle she stood in and the intricate ruins laid out on the floor didn’t surprise her. Only an idiot or a very, very powerful mage or priest would summon a gate without the protection of a summoning circle. What did surprise her however as she turned around was the brilliant blue white shimmering wall that snapped up around the only other occupant of the attic.
Behind that wall of light, the young mage tilted his head as he studied the succubus. A few locks of his jaggedly cut mahogany brown hair drifted into his eyes as a brow arched up. He absently pushed it out of as he ran his hand through his hair. He took a step towards the summoning circle, his blue and gold robes swishing audibly around him. “Well, this is unexpected,” he stated his eyes watching the trapped demon.
Seraphine met his gaze with a half smile. “Not what you expected?” she purred. Despite his confidence she could sense his nervousness, and she couldn’t help but admire his self control. He’s young, but already pretty powerful to cast a gate like that, she thought to herself. Maybe I can get him to help me save Melrazia.
“Quite honestly, no,” he replied. His blue eyes watched her intently as she studied her prison. “I did not intend to pull you here, and I apologize for the inconvenience. I am not sure what went wrong, but no matter. I will send you back and will trouble you no further.” He began to chant.
“Wait! Don’t you at least want my name?” Seraphine called out desperately.
The mage paused in his chant. “Not particularly. I have no wish to deal with a demon of your caliber. I know how such dealings usually turn out,” he replied wryly, preparing to start again.
“You mispronounced the name,” Seraphine blurted out, unwilling to give up so easily.
“Pardon?” The mage looked intrigued.
“You mispronounced the name of the Quasit you were trying to summon. Thus, I was able to come through instead,” Seraphine explained her eyes darting around desperately.
“Go on,” the mage stepped back gesturing for her to continue.
“A gate not properly keyed with a name like that is like an open invitation. You never know what will come through,” she paused as a sudden thought came to her as she caught sight of the cage again. As the realization struck her like a slap to the cheek, it both filled her with dread and with hope at the same time. “You were trying to capture a familiar weren’t you?”
The mage narrowed his eyes and for a tense moment Seraphine thought he was going to banish her but he finally nodded. “Aye. An Imp or a Quasit make powerful familiars.”
Seraphine regarded him for a moment. “You follow a dangerous path mage, are you sure you wish to pursue it?”
“You sound like my father. I think I will send you back now.” The mage’s voice grew tight.
“Wait, I can help you. There’s an easier and safer way.” Seraphine stalled, and resisted the urge to smile as she noticed the slight irregularity in the flicker in one small spot on the golden wall that made up her prison. Got you, she whispered to her self.
“And when you’re done you will want either my life or my soul, if not both. Do you take me for a fool? No thank you.” He nearly spat, so disgusted was he.
“I want neither your life nor your soul.”
His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Then what do you want?”
“My friend’s life. Her life is in danger. You can cast a gate. You can summon her here and then let her free.”
“What in Selune’s name makes you think I would let a demon free?” The mage growled angrily.
“Send her to another plane then. Just not the same one you pulled us from. She will die there,” she pleaded.
“Why should I do this? What would I get out of this?”
“I can help you get your familiar.”
He snorted. “Not good enough, I can get my own familiar.”
Seraphine swallowed hard. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves she closed her eyes and let it out. “Not one like what I am offering. Not a full fledged succubus. If you do this for me, I will let you bind me as your familiar.”
When she opened her eyes, the mage was pacing. At last he turned and glared at her. “Even if I could do what you say, and I can’t—I don’t have the ability to cast multiple gates in a day—how in the nice hells do you expect me to trust you?” he almost snarled.
Seraphine played her hand. Or more accurately she played her foot; sliding it across the smudged rune. Ordinarily a properly drawn rune would be impervious to such a move from a demon as lowly as a succubus. However, the rune was already smudged and so was vulnerable and the tip of her boot managed to smudge it more. The rune strained and flickered out and the wall came down in a series of rapid sparks and sizzles.
As the backlash of the failed spell hit the mage, he screamed in anger and fear, and his personal shield flickered and fell. He put his hands to his sides gasping trying to clear the pain from his mind while he watched Seraphine walk over to one of the tables and sit on the edge of it.
She shifted her position sliding further onto the table and letting her legs dangle. She picked up one of the beakers, examining the bubbling green liquid with a critical eye, her long red nails tapping on the glass.
“I don’t expect you to trust me, I ask only that you help me. I can point out that I could have killed you at any point in the last ten minutes.”
“Then why don’t you?” gasped the mage.
“First, it would be a waste. Then there’s the fact I really do need your help. I can’t do what I need on my own, and there’s little chance I could find another mage to help me in time. And then there is the fact that you have not harmed me yet, and I do not feel the need to kill just to prove I can.”
“If I help you, you will agree to be my familiar? And you will tell no one of this?” he asked at last hesitantly.
“I swear it.”
“I will need help, I cannot do this on my own,” he stated flatly.
“Is there anyone you know that could help?” She asked, chewing her lip, nervous that he wouldn’t agree.
The mage nodded slowly. “I know of one that can help. But it will be hard to convince him. He is a powerful priest and he has little love for demons.”
“Is he a good man?” Seraphine asked. “Is he fair?”
The mage nodded to both. “Aye, about as just and fair a man I know.”
“Then bring him here, and I will try to convince him.” The mage hesitated and Serpahine tried to smile reassuringly. “I won’t leave this room or do anything to bring harm to you or him or anyone unless attacked. Better yet, banish me and I will get my books and you can summon me back tomorrow.”
The mage nodded. “What name should I use to summon you?”
Seraphine thought for a second. “Just use my name, Seraphine.”
The mage nodded again. “I will summon you again tomorrow then Seraphine. But I feel it only fair to warn you that even if the priest believes your story, and looks past his abhorrence of demons, he likely may refuse to help you for another reason altogether.”
Seraphine tilted her head in question.
“He is my father,” the mage explained and with that spoke the spell to send Seraphine back to the abyss.

Succubus Companions

Seraphine rushed down the stone corridor of the citidal, her wings folded up tightly against her as she squeezed around balors and errtus. At every intersection and turn she looked around to make sure she was not being followed. When she came to a less used side corridor, she paused, looking both directions so fast her dark hair whipped around her face. Satisfied she was clear, she ducked down it. A couple more twists and turns beneath the gothic like arches that marked the doorways and intersecting corridors, and she came to a dead end. She tapped on one of the side walls and a section of wall slid to the side revealing a dark stairway.
She slipped down the stairway pulling the wall closed behind her. When she reached to bottom of the stairway, a torch flared up out of the darkness, nearly blinding her. At the same time cold steal met her throat. Seraphine flinched and resisted the urge to step back or lash out, as her eyes blinked to adjust to the sudden light.
A moment later the blade disappeared and was replaced with a hug. “Sorry Seraphine,” A soft, sultry voice half whispered, as the light from the torch was briefly blocked by Seraphine’s own body. The figure released her and stepped back, the hidden room brightening almost instantly.
As her eyes adjusted, Seraphine could make out a thin figure with red hair and black bat-like wings similar to herself. Unlike Seraphine, the other young woman was dressed in rags and was much thinner. Despite her thinness, her rags, and the terrified expression on her face, the other succubus still managed to exude an atmosphere.
Seraphine looked with concern at the other succubus. “What happened to you, Melrazia?”
Melrazia trembled as she looked at her fellow succubus with wide frightened eyes. “The Prince took a fancy to me. My mother however saw it as a chance to gain favor. I hoped if I starved myself he would forget about me. Mother saw what I was doing and brought me a pair of slaves and would not leave me alone until I agreed to feed on them.” The redheaded demon’s eyes met Seraphine’s as she whispered, “I tried not to, but I killed them Sera.”
Seraphine saw the hurt, guilt, and frustration in her Melrazia’s eyes, the same feelings that she herself felt when she failed to control her nature around the helpless or innocent, not that there were many of either in the Abyss.
“It’s alright Melra, I’m sure you couldn’t help it, and they wouldn’t have lasted long here at any rate. At least you were able to make it far more gentle and compassionate than it would have been otherwise.”
Melrazia, attempted a smile to show that the words of comfort were appreciated, but failed. In the end she shrugged. “I guess, but it doesn’t make it any easier.”
“No it doesn’t,” Seraphine agreed glumly. “So what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I don’t suppose you’ve gotten any closer to finding a way to cast a portal out of here?” At Seraphine’s forlorn headshake, Melrazia sighed. “Neither have I. I had thought to disfigure myself so badly as to take away the Prince’s fun, but Elandria already tried that.”
Seraphine grimaced at the reminder of what happened to their mutual acquaintance. Seraphine had no love for Elandria, who was a true succubus in every sense of the word, with the cold, cruel, evil nature that seemed diminished in Seraphine and Melrazia. Still, while a part of Seraphine delighted in the thoughts of the tortures that Elandria must have suffered and craved the chance to inflict such on another being, the majority of her shivered in disgust and fear.
The Prince, in reality a Demon Lord who controlled this plane of the Abyss, had a particular fondness for pretty lesser demonesses, including succubi. In particular, he had a fondness for inflicting the most exquisitely agonizing tortures and disfigurements upon his victims either before or while raping them, often drawing the experience of torture and rape out for days.
The only thing more horrifying and agonizing than what he did to his preferred prey was what he would to those that angered him, and few things angered him more then depriving him of his fun.
Elandria, in the desperate hope of making the Demon Lord lose interest in her, had cut off her own breasts, ears, nose and part of her cheek. The Prince was so enraged that he spent three days locked in a room with her. When he was done, he cast her broken body down into the center of his thrown room where it took her three more days to die as she was slowly eaten away by demon-cursed maggots that the Prince had introduced into Elandria’s eyes and sex.
Seraphine bit her lip as she thought desperately, “There has to be something we can do. Maybe I can seduce one of the Prince’s sorcerers for a portal scroll.”
Melrazia shook her head softly. “I doubt that would work and even if it did, I don’t think there is time to save us both.” She razed her eyes and Seraphine saw the sadness and regret. “I came to say goodbye and thank you Seraphine. You are the closest thing to a friend as demon can have.”
Melrazia pressed her dagger into Seraphine’s hands. “Take this to remember me by. I have the mate. I intend to use it when they come for me if I can.”
Seraphine took the dagger and tucked it into her belt. “I’ll try to find a way to get us out of here,” she promised.
Melrazia snorted, giving her red hair a toss. “If you have the chance, you’ll do the smart thing and run Seraphine. Be well.” With that, the red headed succubus took her leave, slipping up the stairs and leaving Seraphine in the dark as the dark haired succubus tried to figure out how to save her friend.

***

Two mornings later Seraphine was rushing down another corridor trying to get to the chambers that Melrazia shared with her mother, in order to tell Melrazia that she had found a general willing to take them with him to the frontlines of the Blood War. When she got to the chambers Seraphine saw the door was open and the chambers ransacked.
She slid the dagger out of her sheath and entered cautiously, stepping carefully over debris littering the floor. When she reached Melrazia’s bedroom she saw Melrazia’s mother lying in a pool of black ichor, one dark wing nearly torn off.
Seraphine made her way to the fallen succubus leaning over her. “Where is she?” She demanded.
“You’re too late,” Melrazia’s mother croaked, dark blood bubbling out of her mouth with every word. “The Prince already took her.”
“If the Prince took her why are you dying?” Seraphine asked suspiciously.
The older succubus opened her mouth, but it was a deeper voice behind Serpahine that answered. “Because she tried to demand a higher payment from the Prince,” the Balor rumbled, chuckling in twisted amusement. “She sought to become a courtesan. Instead all she earned was her death.” He cocked his head looking over Seraphine. “Your friend is gone.”
Serpahine gripped her dagger tighter, “How long ago?”
The Balor shrugged. “A couple of hours ago.”
Seraphine swore and dogged around him, heading towards the inner sections of the massive citadel near the Prince’s throne room and quarters.
She was nearly two thirds of the way there when she saw a dark circle of energy open up in front of a small, winged Quasit and crimson tentacles reaching out to ensnare the creature.
A summoning spell, Serpahine realized. A desperate hope surged through Seraphine and she raced to the dark portal, grabbing the Quasit and throwing the surprised creature several meters down the corridor, and grabbing the crimson tentacles with both hands. “Sorry, this one’s mine,” she hissed as she was pulled through the portal.