Hellacious Hospitality Ch. 03

"Happiness is relative. It is true that the haven provides, but we have grown too dependent. Take Iara again, as the primary example. Her quarters have been purpose built to supply and circulate the immense amount of mana she requires to survive. Without the confines of that space, she would simply cease to exist. In nature, that wouldn't necessarily have been a bad thing. In the wild, such nymphs would typically only live a small handful of years, before the ley lines that sustained them would shift, or the combination of wills that created them would lose cohesion. That was their ordinary life cycle."

"But Iara, by some forgotten sorcery, was brought here. Here, she has been granted the means to survive indefinitely. Meanwhile, the state of the world is such that her kind can never be born again."

"While hers is the extreme scenario, it's the truth for all of us here in some way or another. For those of us more magically inclined, the stagnation of mana in the outside world would be stifling. Others with more freedom instead find a frightening world that they do not want to rejoin. There was a hope, for those who reside here to make their way in the outside world yet again, but that likelihood seems to grow ever dimmer with each passing era."

"You look at this place in wonder, and for all it can provide, it's certainly an amazing feat. But it's no replacement for living in the world, with all the myriad experiences it has to offer. For better or worse, they're learning opportunities that we are not afforded. For that reason, our salvation is also our prison."

Secondhand guilt churned in Benson's stomach. While not directly responsible, it was still the world he lived in, that forced Caeli and the others to live this way. He racked his brain for answers, but of course found none.

"You're already doing it, aren't you? Trying to think up some miracle solution that will just save us all? You can't. The answers you're seeking are beyond the capabilities of just one person."

"So how do I fit into all of this? You can't mean to have told me all of this, without expecting me to do something."

"I just need you to be you. Please, hear me out. Iara was excitedly asking about you, today. She remembered you, after meeting you just once. That's not normal for her. And Syl. I still don't know what to make of her, personally, but she apparently opened up to you, so you must have done something right. As for me, I..." She stopped suddenly, blushing profusely, crimson red flushing her cheeks, and the tops of her breasts. "Umm, yeah. It should go without saying that I've taken a liking to you. I've already seen so much good you've done here, for all of us. I can't explain it. It's almost like your presence here has somehow connected new ley lines. There's a sense of vitality in this place that hasn't existed for a long time."

"That simple? So all you're saying is that you just need to me to be a boy toy for all you ladies, is that it?" He said, an audacious grin plastered to his face.

"What!? I... no. That's not... I didn't mean... Sorry? Argh! Is that really how that sounded? This all went so much smoother in my head!"

She was absolutely adorable when flustered. She had started looking sullen, the longer she talked, and that only doubled the frustration he felt from hearing her sordid tale. Catching her blindsided, the characteristic twinkle in her brilliant amber eyes began to return, and he felt his spirits starting to relax. They'd find some way to work through her troubles together, but doing so all agitated wasn't going to help anybody.

She was doing that thing again when she got self-conscious, burying her face in the heels of her palms and muttering to herself.

"Hey, Caeli!" He called across the table, getting her to look up. "You silly girl, of course I'll do it." She just about leapt out of her chair in excitement, but held herself back at the last second. "Remember what I said yesterday? That once I got a hold of you, I'd never let go? I'm not about to go back on that promise. Anything you need, I'm there."

"Well, about that..." The look that settled on her face was not one of elation, but instead an awkward, crooked, uneasy smile.

"Alright, what's that look for?" He asked, suddenly suspicious.

"You see, it's for your sake that I must implore you to leave."

"...Huh?"

===================

P.S.

Another chapter in the bag. More info-dumps, and the first tease of an actual plot.

Sorry it took so long. I'm somewhat aiming for a two-three week update cycle, based on how long the previous chapters took. The complexity of this one kinda put me outside that. There was a lot of exposition that I wanted to get through, but it was important that the dialogue also come out as natural as possible. With so much of it, I got a bit over-ambitious and tried to use it to build up the characters and their personalities at the same time. I really hope that all came out as clearly to you, as it did for me. That all ballooned into a chapter quite a bit longer than I had originally planned. The perfectionist's curse. I'm still learning a bunch of new things as I go. Hopefully, with a lot of the really hard stuff out of the way, the next chapters flow just a bit easier.

That's it for the personal commentary this time. Please, feel free to leave comments. Critiques are most welcome, I won't learn anything otherwise. Just be warned that I will not respond to back-seat authoring. I had to delete a couple of comments on the previous chapter because they veered a little to close to that, as well as petty bickering. Play nice.

Also, just for fun, I'm uploading a piece of artwork, a little pin-up of our succubus heroine, Caeli. Her character is extremely important to how I want this story to go down, so it was a priority that I had a strong image of her in mind to hold to. So I threw together something in the Honey Select 2 character editor software for reference, and then tarted it up a bit so she'd be ready to show off to you guys. Don't think that's going to be a regular thing, though. The program has its limitations, and as the monster gals get more exotic, it won't be able to do them justice.