Toofy Ch. 15

Saia slammed into a wall of nothing the moment she tried to teleport, her magic recoiling and burning a hole into her soul as she tried to escape.

She hit the ground, blood pouring from her nose, ears, and mouth. Her tail cracked painfully, the bones shattering. Arms and legs twisting haphazardly.

It felt exactly like when Toofy had attacked her.

One of the royal guards stepped over to her. Lazily drawing a sword from his side. He barely even looked at her as he did it. She wasn't worthy of his consideration.

Saia snarled up at him.

She wasn't just an ordinary magic user. She wasn't just a succubus. She was temple trained, and among the assassins of the temple, she had been the best of the fucking best.

He slashed his sword down towards her.

The best, and worst, thing about forbidden magic is that so few people know the spells. It takes knowing a spell to be able to stop it, at least when it came to the advanced ones.

Saia screamed in pain as her throat was ripped open, and sealed behind the blade moving through it. She still felt the pain of it. Still gurgled momentarily. Her blood still fell.

Yet, the wound was duplicated in the one who attacked her, and for him... It didn't heal.

The woman grabbed his sword, staggering to her feet as he mindlessly collapsed to the ground. Clutching at his throat as blood spilled out everywhere.

Her red eyes darted around frantically, spotting two more approaching her.

She couldn't teleport out of this place. Couldn't disappear with any kind of mirage of illusion. If she tried to fight her way out, then she'd be entirely fucked.

Saia did the only thing that she could do.

She scratched the symbol that had been on the edge of the spell into the ground, and growled at Westcolm who was watching with a bored expression. "This the fucking spell, you so concerned about?"

"Hold!" He ordered, his face changing in concern, "You haven't seen the spell. Only the identifier. Your soul is intact. How do you know it?"

"Someone taught it to me." She said stubbornly, "You know what that means, don't you, little lord? It means that somebody else knows your spell. Someone beyond your control."

He stepped between the two guards, glaring at her, "Who? This is your one chance. Who taught this to you?"

"Fuck if I'm telling you. I like being alive."

Westcolm laughed, "I'll torture you, until you tell me."

"Don't promise me such a good time, sweetie. I'm a succubus." She shot back at him, grinning.

The eunuch spoke, "Lord Westcolm, is it possible? Is there someone you are unaware of, who may have known what this spell is, and what it can do? Can it be possible?"

"No." He said uncertainly, "There is only one copy of the book. No one could have seen it... No one. She must be working with Lady Efina. She taught it to her."

"I do not serve the fucking temple!" She yelled proudly, "I have no collar, and no bell. I'm not a slave, little lord. I was freed by the woman who bought me."

Westcolm's face changed, "No... No! It isn't possible! She doesn't know how to free a slave. You didn't go before the ministers to be freed. What happened to your collar? How were you freed, beast!?"

Her red eyes twinkled at his confusion, at the way he'd been knocked off balance so easily.

The eunuch spoke frantically, "Speak, Lord Westcolm! Your emperor commands you to explain!"

The lord turned his head towards the veiled curtain, distracted.

Saia dashed forward, and plunged one clawed hand into the man's chest. As the guards brought their weapons towards her, she seized the lord's magic, and teleported the both of them in a frantic flash dance.

She fell to the side, coughing blood and bile, as her hand tore free.

Westcolm groaned loudly, holding his chest.

Saia winced, and spat some more horrifying liquid onto the ground, "My apologies, Lord Westcolm. I really didn't feel like dying, today."

"Where the fuck are we, beast?" He moaned, rolling onto his side and staring at the forest in confusion. "What did you do to me?"

She rolled her eyes, "I'm a succubus, idiot. They blocked my magic, so I just hijacked your soul for a bit. That's the thing about only blocking the magic of one person, and not everyone. If you block the wrong person, you get shit on."

"Bitch." He cursed at her.

She shrugged, "You ordered them to kill me. Which was stupid. Toofy's going to come for you, for that."

"Your mistress is already dead." He laughed at her.

She stood up and stretched, wincing as she felt the grinding of her bones. Most of them still realigning. She didn't much feel like screwing the lord to try and take his soul, just to fix them.

She wanted him to suffer the wrath of her neko lover.

"Really. That's cute that you think that." Saia said tightly, "I'll answer your question, from before. Toofy taught me the mark. Told me which spell to steal from the book. You still reckon on her being dead?"

Westcolm managed to stagger to his feet, looking at her breathlessly, "Lady Twenty Four, showed you the spell? This is important. Beyond you and I. She knows the spell?"

Saia nodded, "Yeah. She also broke the slaving spell on me. Apparently the collars don't hold up well against a fuckin' lightning bolt. Break the physical shell, and it doesn't matter how strong the enchantment was. It'll break, too."

The lord shivered, "Shit. Oh, fucking shit. Lady Twenty Four knows one of the spells, at least one, of Menes. Fuck. Oh, fuck. For how long? Fuck."

"Huh?"

"Menes was a bastard of the highest of orders, succubus." Westcolm growled fearfully, "He was an orc. One who we thought would be our saviour. He... Swapped sides. Apparently he'd made an enemy of a powerful figure among his own people, Hammerhand."

Saia shrugged, "Okay. So there was a traitor orc. Big deal."

"He created a lot of magic. That was why he became the enemy. His magic was beyond evil. He swapped sides, because we would let him continue his work." Westcolm swallowed nervously, "Lord Sai is one of the results. His magic. His butchery that ended the northern war, with the deaths of nearly half of all nekos. By his hand, alone."

She winced, "Oh. That must mean you, and the emperor, are some of his other experiments. That must have been fun."

"I watched many souls die, to give me the power I can't surrender." Westcolm said bitterly, "But if Twenty Four knows this spell, and you care about her, kill her."

The succubus blinked in confusion, "Come again?"

"Menes magic... It isn't just evil. It... It was a gateway drug. Linking the user, to a patron." Westcolm said nervously, "A demon or devil or some shit like it. Something that isn't supposed to be able to get in to this world. Blocked, by the divine gateway. Could even be a betrayer god, for all we know."

She shrugged, "Doesn't really sound like I should be killing someone I care about, over it. Try and make your point, human."

"The person infected with Menes magic becomes a gateway. The entity will enter our world by ripping through them. Eating their soul and then turning their flesh into a paste on the ground."

Saia's cheek spasmed for a moment, "This infection. It take a while, to take root?"

Westcolm nodded, "The stronger the will, the more you can hold out. I'm infected. Sai is infected. Even the emperor. But... I hear voices. Hear the thing begging me to use that magic. Just a little bit. Offering me power."

She felt extremely uncomfortable. Remembered Toofy saying that she was protecting Saia by not telling her some things. This felt like it probably qualified.

She considered him, "You're not trying to kill me, anymore, are you?"

"I want you to help me get to Twenty Four. To figure out how sick she is." He said firmly, "For the good of the empire, I have to know. No one gives a damn about some succubus. We can forget about you. We can't forget about Menes magic maybe escaping into the wild."

"I need to heal."

Westcolm frowned, "I dropped you by a whorehouse, last time. You ate a number of their customers. That what you mean?"

"Could just eat you." She threatened, and then laughed at his face, "I don't need to, though. I'm not that badly messed up."

"I'm not letting you near my seed."

She shrugged, "That's fine. I just need someone else to fuck. We're on the main road. There's a village about a day's walk, in that direction. Willing to protect me until we get there?"

He sighed heavily, "You know where she is. But... You won't tell me. So I don't have a choice, do I?"

"Not really." She smirked.

---

The three of them walking into the town should have stuck out like a sore thumb. Two nekos, an almost extinct species, accompanied by a dragonkind woman, a species that was even closer to demise.

Yet, Toofy didn't see anything but boredom in the eyes of the locals. She wasn't remotely close to the strangest thing that they had seen, today.

Where in the hell were they?

She sniffed the air, and then nodded towards the scent. Daen nodded soundlessly. The dragonbitch was less happy to simply follow her directions. "You want to eat? What is the point? Why you come here?"

"Hunting." Toofy replied quietly, purring happily. "So, we will eat. You will sit. You will help Toofy, as her handmaiden, and you will shut the fuck up before she cuts the rest of your fucking tail off and cooks it!"

The woman cringed, recoiling and touching the mark on her cheek. She puffed white smoke, apologising.

Toofy snarled at her, and then went back to sniffing the meat in the air. She happily pranced up the wooden stairs and into the little restaurant. Skipping over to the flat grill.

The chef behind it looked up at her tiredly, "Three coppers, each."

"She's not eating." Toofy nodded towards her dragon, "But, Toofy will turn six copper into a silver, if the man knows where a particular human is. Toofy is looking for a tall one."

The cook considered her tiredly, "Tall, blonde, angry with several swords? Yes. He stayed here. May the gods spit on his grave. He annoyed our guardian. Keep the extra, the information is freely given."

Toofy plucked out a silver and five copper from the purse around her neck, wincing as she caught her hand momentarily on her sling. She put it down, and sat excitedly.

"She is hungry. Meat, meat! Toofy likes it raw. Lightly fried?" She suggested.

The man tossed a few strips onto the grill, turning them and only searing before putting them onto a plate and presenting it to her. "I have cooked nekan style before. The same for you, mister?"

Daen nodded, cautiously sitting beside Toofy. One of his hands not so cautiously attempting to sneak into her lap. Feeling free to do it, because he was on the side of her injured arm.

Toofy hissed at him, and glared over, "Mia. Hit the Daen. He took liberties. Again."

The neko's head jerked, and he whimpered, as the violence of a salamander's fist struck the back of his head. Meerakeilian might have barely used any strength, but she was still dragonkind. May as well have been a boulder.

The cook sighed, "I would prefer you not do that. Our guardian has done her best to ensure there is no violence in this village. She brings peace, always."

"Guardian." She considered and sniffed at the air, "Strong smell of magic, but Toofy doesn't recognise the kind. What is your guardian? Is she a dragonkind? Ancestor spirit?"

"Human."

Toofy sniffed again, and made a face, "She doesn't smell human. Not even a little. The Daen?"

"He does not know." He said sullenly, still irritated that Toofy had him struck for doing what came naturally to a tomcat. Insulted that she wouldn't let him make her pregnant.

"You can smell, our witch?" The cook said in surprise, "Your nose must be very sensitive, miss."

"Lady." She replied with a small smile, "The Lady Twenty Four, or Madame Sai, if it is preferred. She is a free neko, golden bell and all."

"Apologies, my lady." He bowed his head, and gave her another serving. "I have heard of the House of Sai. I am... Somewhat surprised that Lord Sai has taken a neko as his mistress, however."

She giggled, teeth tearing excitedly into the flesh of the meat before she slurped away at the fibrous strands. She spoke with her mouthful, "Why? 'Cause Lord Sai is nekan butcher? She doesn't care. Toofy was raised by temple. Never knew her clan."

Daen let out an annoyed growl, making her roll her golden eyes.

She ignored him and looked at her fragile arm, "If guardian has made so much peace, Toofy can't hope for decent doctor, can she? Her arm is bad. Not set properly."

"We do have a doctor." The cook nodded and waved over the only other worker in the small restaurant. He passed the girl a copper piece, "Can you fetch the physician, please, Orli?"

The woman ran off with a quick curtsy.

Toofy sniffed, and looked curiously at the woman's back as she disappeared, "That one is just grown. Recently became an adult, didn't she?"

"Eh... Yes." The cook said uncomfortably. "Orli became eighteen only a week ago. I would ask that you not touch my daughter, however, my lady."

She shrugged, "Mmm. Not what Toofy was meaning. But if you are father, than Toofy probably shouldn't mention it. Nevermind."

The man's face became dark, "My daughter... Is sleeping... With someone?"

She blinked her golden eyes innocently, "Is she?"

"You smelled something."

"Did Toofy?" She shrugged, and then whimpered and bit her lip as her arm moved. "Owies. Bad dragon! Toofy still mad at you, Mia."

The woman bowed her head, billowing white smoke. Terrified that Toofy would enact the rite again. Now that the catgirl had marked her, she could do it at anytime, from anywhere, with a single word.

The neko woman sighed and yawned, "She is very tired. If you wish to speak, than speak. But stop staring."

Daen's head whipped around. Apparently he had failed to notice that an elf was glaring at them from one of the other tables.

They were a pretty enough thing.

Little diamonds embedded in their skin, all the way down from the tip of one ear, to the knuckles of their hand. Each crystal marking off the position of a star, showing the constellation of the goddess of mischief.

Some zealot, to a betrayer god.

The woman approached slowly, and sighed, "So you... Are Twenty Four."

"She is. She likes Toofy, more, though." She smiled at them, "But morons who swear to follow gods, they can call her Madame Sai. They don't get to call her equal."

The elf sat down cautiously, "You know I serve the goddess, then? Has she appeared to you? Of course she has. She selected you. Sorry. I... You are not what I expected."

"Toofy has no idea what she is meaning. She is also very sore and tired, so the elf should spit it out."

The woman nodded, "Of course. The goddess set my path, towards you. I have seen draug, spilling across the land. A sky of darkness. The end will come, without you, m'lady. You are the chosen avatar of the goddess, the one who binds my fate, and my future."

"Toofy wants insane bitch to go away, now." She recoiled.

The elf started, "I... What? I was sent here. The White Witch was waiting for me, told me you were coming. Your friend, the abomination, protected me. This is our fate."

"Abomi..." She trailed off, "Oh. The stink. The Tyre is here, isn't he? Toofy isn't friend. Her master is his master. She hates him. He smells bad. Always smell bad."

"This is fated." The elf insisted.

Toofy popped her cheeks, shrugged, and went back to eating.

The woman leaned forward, "Please! Kal died, because of me. Because I was supposed to be -"

"Toofy gives more shit when she takes a shit. Go away." She said through a mouthful of meat.

The woman clenched her hands, "Astadia is dead. The stars are -"

"I don't fucking care!" She exploded, "I don't even care if you actually can speak to the gods, elf. Fuck off."

Daen growled quietly, "She could be of use. In tracking down those that -"

"Toofy will remind the Daen, that he promised not to touch her, and then touched her. He should not be speaking to Toofy, right now." She glared over at him, narrowing her eyes.

He quietened and bowed his head.

"I am Trician." The elf stated her name, "Please. People are dying. The undead are returning. You are central to this, neko. Do you think I would honestly be happy to talk to a freaking cat?"

She rolled her eyes, "Ooh. A racist elf. So surprising. Do I need to say it, again? Go fuck yourself, elf. At least then someone will be enjoying your company."

"The White Witch said you and I were destined to have sex." The elf stated with disgust, "I can't imagine how that would ever happen. You are a selfish, pig-headed, little bitch!"

"Mmm." Toofy nodded, and smiled sweetly.

Daen growled angrily, "Don't speak to her, that way. She is my mistress, elf. I will defend her."

"The Daen will be silent, or the Daen will give no one kittens, ever." Toofy warned him. The longer she spent with the warrior neko, the longer she wanted to simply get rid of him.

Unfortunately, Mia had shredded her arm. She wasn't in a position to do anything by herself.

Orli arrived back, the young human girl smiling. "Our local physician, Master Conrad."

An elderly man approached, and gestured towards her, "Are you the patient, then?"

Toofy nodded, and glared at the elf, "She said you could fuck off. Go away."

The elf stomped a foot and stormed back to her table. Smelling of confusion, and hurt.

"Mia tried to eat Toofy, even though she is Devourer." She said sullenly, and winced, "Dragon teeth. Arm hurts bad."

The man looked at her arm cautiously, without touching it. Looking at the fragments of bone that had torn through her skin, and the blood that had stained her bandages. "I apologise for phrasing it this way, but how are you even sitting upright, miss?"

"Madame Sai." She proclaimed, and smiled tightly at him, "She doesn't want to be upright. Can he fix? Or fix pain? Toofy just wants it to stop hurting, and get some sleep."

He bowed his head, "My lady. Apologies. Ah... I am afraid that this will take some considerable time to heal. Several days of treatments just to align the bones. Weeks to grow and heal them together, again."

"Ew." Toofy made a face, "He only has lesser alchemy? She guesses she is near the border. No access to proper healer."

"I'm a healer." The elf called out.

She shuddered and made a face of utter disgust.

The physician sighed, "I am afraid, that I would recommend the assistance of Lady Trician, Madame Sai. I have seen some of her care, first hand. She may be a necromancer, but she is also extremely skilled."

"She's also fucking crazy." Toofy turned up her nose.

An arm casually went around her, and the catgirl stared at the white-haired woman now sitting beside her. "She's not fucking crazy, just yet. I mean, you're over here, and she's over there. But, I could arrange for a bed, if you'd like."

"Oh, fuck." Toofy cursed, looking at her with a cringe, "Eratigan is your guardian. Ew. Ugh. Didn't Toofy tell you never to come near her again? Hurts too much."

"Oh. You remember me, kitten?" The woman with the weird eyes said excitedly, "You're all grown up. Grown up and fucking a lord and all. I am proud of you."

Toofy shifted uncomfortably, "She told you never to come near her, witch. Remember? You were supposed to leave her alone."

"Who is this one?" Daen asked cautiously.

The neko cringed, "This, moron, is Eratigan the Undying. She's too stupid to understand what evil is, and too stupid to know I hate her because she doesn't know what hate is. But... She is fucking Time, himself. Got to expect some crazy."

"How does Toofy know her?"

She smiled sadly, "Oh. That. Uh... Well, she saved Toofy when she was a kitten. Then she also saved Toofy when she accidentally read a very naughty book, and Toofy ended up kissing her boyfriend."