Toofy Ch. 13

She had been scared, the entire time. Trapped beyond the comforts of sky and sun, beyond the reach of anyone who could give her so much as a gentle word.

Yet, just for a moment, she had tasted the same power that her mistress had so often demonstrated. The true magic, a gift greater than divinity.

An unbreakable will.

The Arina who had come back, was not the timid girl who had left. She might return to it, once the shock wore off. She might not.

For now... Arina didn't know how to be afraid.

She closed her eyes and listened to the birds singing in the trees outside, "It's beautiful... It is all, beautiful."

---

Saia barely got to throw up from her chained teleports back to the city before she saw a familiar face crouching in front of her. Westcolm's man.

"Aren't you bored of following me?"

"Would be. If I could keep up." He replied casually, "You teleported from the temple so I couldn't follow. Now, where does a succubus go when -"

"I went to my mistress." Saia said quickly, "Happy? You've already cast a fucking truth spell. You know I'm not lying."

"And now I know that you can detect truth spells. Handy, in an assassin. Infuriating, in someone I'm supposed to be following." John replied lightly.

The succubus flicked her tail in the air, "Worse for me. I've got something I need to do. Alone."

"For your mistress."

She ran her tail over his cheek, "I can't tempt you to forget, can I? Leave me be, for a little bit longer?"

"I saw you kill during sex, several times." He looked at her, unmoved.

Saia had to acknowledge that. She also hadn't really been expecting him to be tempted, so she hadn't put any effort into the temptation. He had exactly zero interest in women.

"Maybe this will help your memory get a little worse. What I want to do, will cause utter chaos. Serve your Madgod."

John chuckled softly, "I doubt very much that the Madgod cares one way or the other about any of us. Not even the emperor, as close to treason as it is to say that."

Saia tried to sift through his surface memories, find something useful, but found the way blocked. That was irritating. Not a lot of people could stop her doing that.

He hadn't been able to earlier, either. Or he'd chosen to let her pry out an embarrassing thought so he could gain her trust.

The succubus suddenly realised he wasn't there to watch her. He was every bit a trained assassin, like she was.

Lord Westcolm just hadn't decided whether or not she should die.

"How useful is Lord Yu to Lord Westcolm, at this moment?" Saia asked honestly, dropping all pretences. She knew this man would follow her, and know exactly what she had done.

John frowned, "Currently? Eh... I'd say it is a crapshoot. Sometimes the man is extremely useful. Esme isn't a bad toy to have at your beck and call, though her success rate is considerably lower than your own. Other times... He's a drunk. He has a temper."

Her tail flicked the air with irritation, and Saia glared openly at him.

The man smiled in amusement, "Yes, my lord is likely to use it against your mistress. I'm afraid that I don't have any excuse that would allow me to be elsewhere, for a time."

She blinked, and then chuckled deeply, "Are you sure about that? He hasn't really looked at you, has he? Your favourite guard."

"Eh..." John said nervously.

Saia grinned and leaned up to him. She put her arms behind his neck and leaned in to whisper in his ear, "This succubus... Could get you... Fucked."

"I have my duty, miss." He tried to sound bored, but if there is one thing a succubus can smell, it is temptation.

She considered turning into his guard and teasing him, but that would probably backfire. It would have been fun, however.

Since when had serving Toofy gone from playing around however she liked, to this serious shit?

John looked at her pointedly, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Mmm." Saia agreed, "I was afraid you would be stubborn. Hold onto your stomach."

Technically, the process was called a flash dance.

Named after the acrobatic tap-dancing that the nobles had enjoyed being entertained by, it involved several rapidly fired teleportation spells in quick succession.

Most people who attempted it ended up dying either from exhaustion at their destination, or because they'd left parts of themselves behind at each of the previous locations.

The result was an extremely confusing array of magical traces, making it impossible to follow where the flash dancer had gone.

Yu had taught Saia to use it for more than just obfuscation. You didn't need to disarm an opponent if they had no idea where the fuck they were, and you were their only way home.

The two of them vomited loudly onto the ground.

Saia's had a touch of red to it.

More than a touch.

She stood up, wiping her jaw, and stretching her cramping muscles. She flinched as the end of her tail tightened even more, grabbing it and sucking on it just below the arrow-tip that her mistress loved.

John staggered upright and lifted up a hand, a wavering ball of fire appearing, "Take us back."

"What are you going to do, kill me?" Saia yawned and sat down on one of the boulders. She breathed in the crisp mountain air, "Don't worry. I fully intend to come back for you. Afterwards."

He looked around in bewilderment, "A valley. I don't recognise this mountain. Even someone has skilled as you can only flit a day's travel. I'm on the far side of Mount Golian."

Saia laughed, grinning, "Yeah, yeah. So what? You know where you are. Killing me doesn't mean you'll be getting back in one piece. Put it together, assassin."

He lowered his hand, extinguishing the fireball, "Oh. Crap. You've dropped us on the other side of the wall. This is the Taurian Reserve, isn't it?"

"Lady Efina always bragged that she taught her girls how to seduce a minotaur. I found that be... Exaggerated." Saia said with a knowing smirk, "Those bulls are too angry for anything but a hate fuck."

The man glared at her, "Where did you learn to flash dance?"

"At the end of a rod." She said, and turned her back to him, pulling aside her hair. Revealing the scars that Yu had used when etching his lessons into his flesh.

She twisted her head, looking over her shoulder and making her eyes slightly larger and brighter. A trick she knew her mistress used all the time.

The assassin glared at her, "I was feeling sympathetic. Until you tried to play it."

Saia laughed and then stood up. She shivered, taking on her human form and stretched. "Well, I have somewhere to be. Stay here, stay quiet, and maybe I'll still help you bed your guard when I'm done."

"If I don't?"

"Then I'll be very disappointed to find a red mist where a minotaur found you." She shrugged.

She concentrated, and stepped into the violent and disorienting series of spells. Preventing him from working out his exact location, and the taurians from working out exactly where she'd dumped him.

Saia collapsed in an alley behind the temple, throwing up.

The bitterness was worth the sweetness of her vengeance.