Chains of a Succubus

by Lanak F Tanor

  As for the girl, she had woken up. But so far she had been staring at the windscreen with a dazed expression. I had tried talking to her but to no response of any sort from her. Danor would kept glancing furtively at her

  “It’s a trap!” the girl cried all of a sudden. My concentration broke and the Sphere declined in height. I had to put in extra effort to stop the craft from plummeting down to earth. I looked at the girl. It was normal for tamed succubi to come to themselves with a start.

  “Are you all right?” I asked her.

  “It’s a trap,” the girl said again, looking at me earnestly.

  “What is?” I asked. I wondered if the girl was saying something from her dreams or if she had actual information about a trap which could be useful for us.

  “The three villages,” the girl said, “each village has been made to believe that the other two villages are using black magic and would soon be attacking them. There will be a great battle.”

  “Are the villages close to each other?” I asked.

  “Yes, just a few kilometres away from each other,” the girl replied.

  “Let me check,” I said. I opened up the map given to me by the wizard in my vision. I searched for three glowing spots that were near each other. But they weren’t there.

  “Are the succubi doing this?” I asked.

  “Yes. The queen spoke to us… in our minds.”

  I looked at the girl uneasily.

  “Where are you from?”

  “A place not far from the three villages,” she replied.

  “Would you like me to drop you there?”

  “That would be kind. I doubt anybody I ever knew still lives there though.”

  “How long ago did you turn into a succubus?” I asked. Usually tamed succubi remembered everything about their real lives. That was one of the reasons why I felt so guilty after killing a succubus, knowing full well that they had the possibility of regaining their old selves.

  “Twenty three years ago.”

  “Are you sure about this attack thing?”

  “Yes. The shamans were fooled. They thought the black magic they were detecting was being created by the shamans of the other two villages. When the three villages are battling each other, the succubi and the demons would attack. All the men would be turned to demons and then the succubi and the demons would go for the women in the villages. If we do not warn the villages when they first come to battle then we would not be able to save them.”

  “But I thought succubi first attacked by charm.”

  “Not this time. They have been ordered to forego their nature for the first time by the queen. The queen wants more demons and more succubi as fast as she can. She is awakening an ancient goddess in Mount Succubus.”

  “What do you say, Danor?” I asked, turning at the big man. “Help them?”

  It was a female’s voice that replied: Lana.

  “Yes,” she said. “We must help them.”

  “When did you wake up?” I asked.

  “Just a few moments back. I heard about the attack she told about.”

  Just then a pop up appeared in my vision.

  Congratulations!

  You have completed a new sub-quest!

  You have successfully destroyed the pill manufacturing facility!

  I reckoned I was receiving this notification so late as Lana had played the biggest role in completing the sub-quest by overturning the cauldron and she had been asleep till now and had only just woken up.

  And then, yet another pop-up appeared. My heart shot to the sky in glee.

  You receive a new reward!

  You will now age half of what you normally age after taming a succubus!

  Less aging? Now that’s good. The one reason I had given up the job earlier was due to the aging.

  The girl showed us the direction to the place where the villages would battle. It was a big grassland. There were few trees. There was an elevation on one side. The girl said that the succubi and the demons would come from there.

  After taking a look around the grassland, I directed the craft towards the village which had once been the home of the girl. I landed the craft just outside the village.

  The guards came running, obviously fearing we might be a threat.

  “Sister!” one of the guards suddenly stopped and cried, his eyes fixed at the girl.

  “Is that you, Mandy?” the girl said. Her eyes were swelling with tears.

  She went running to the guard who was her brother and hugged him.

  “Where were you so many years?” the brother asked and even he was crying. “So much has changed.”

  “It was the succubi, they took me. I will never wander away from now on. How is father?”

  “He is no more. He passed away the very year you disappeared.”

  The girl sobbed hard.

  “But you can come and live with me now,” the brother said. “I thought I would never see you again. But look at the marvels of fate!”

  We left the girl. The reunion had been a touching one. The brother looked twice the age of the girl, even though he was actually the younger one of the siblings. I decided to make the craft however a good distance above the grassland where the said battle was going to occur. Making the craft hover also put considerably less pressure on my mind than when I made it to move in a particular direction.

  For an entire day we thus waited.

  With every passing hour I grew more and more doubtful if the battle would indeed occur. I surely didn’t want to waste any time. When night fell, Lana went out of the craft. She descended down to the forest and brought fruits for us.

  “I saw people down there,” she said as she handed us the juicy looking fruits.

  “People?”

  “Yes, warriors. But I nearly gave them a good fright. I think the battle is going to begin soon.”

  At the dead of the night. What a great time to battle!

  We quickly ate the fruits that Lana had brought.

  “Hell, even I can see them now,” Danor said peeking down the windshield.

  “But we can’t just tell them to return to their villages, can we?” Lana said.

  “Anything else you think we can do?” I asked, giving her a mildly sarcastic look. She rolled her eyes.

  “Danor, you’ve got the loudest voice. You yell at everyone down there to stop, all right?”

  By now, I could see the glow of hundreds of torches down below. Yes, the battle was going to rage soon. And unless we stopped it before it occurred, there would be utter chaos.

  Danor opened the lid and poked his head out through the entry hole.

  I made the craft land in the very centre of the grassland.

  “Stop it! Stop the battle!” Danor cried at the top of his voice. But there was nobody immediately near to us. A rumble took over the ground.

  From three different directions, men waving swords and axes came running.

  “Let me get out,” Lana said. She pushed Danor away.

  “No, don’t do that!” I cried. “You aren’t that powerful!” Sure she had overturned a giant cauldron earlier, but she could definitely not stop three villages with her powers. On top of that every time she used her powers she was knocked out for a few hours.

  But she had already gone out.

  ‘Darn it,” I said. I too climbed out. Lana was waiting outside for the warriors of the three villages to come near. What was she thinking? I heard a sound behind, and saw that Danor too was coming out of the Sphere and he was now stuck in the entry hole.

  Wonderful.

  I didn’t bother to pull him out, though I could hear him trying like mad.

  Closer and closer the armies came.

  Lana made herself hover above us. She raised her arms to the air and signalled the villages to stop.

  This would have worked wonderfully during the day, but in the moonless night, it was of no point.

  “Lana, they won’t see you!” I said from below. All the three villages were
charging directly towards us. She waved her arms and signalled the villagers to stop again. It was in vain. Then I realised Lana was not really in any immediate harm. She could fly. If anyone would be harmed within the next few seconds it was me and Danor, still stuck in the hole.

  I had to save my own skin, before I could save the villages from themselves or the succubi. I grabbed Danor’s arms and I pulled him out.

  Then I myself entered the craft.

  “Hey, don’t leave me here!” Danor cried.

  “I am not leaving you,” I said. “Get in before they reach us.”

  Danor was once again stuck trying to get inside the craft. I had to pull him in.

  I made the craft take off. I saw Lana outside, waving at the villagers, none of whom saw her.

  “You stay in, all right?” I said to Danor. Him getting stuck in the entry hole caused a few too many problems. I went out through the hole, of course I still kept the craft afloat a dozen metres from the ground. Once out, I stood up on the top of the craft. The contact with the top of the craft with my feet allowed me to control it.

  Only then did I realise that it was not enough to be floating a few metres above the ground.

  I watched as the already dark sky turned darker. Thousands of arrows were being shot by one village. The arrows were coming directly at us. Lana however had her back turned to the arrows. I moved the craft towards her and I grabbed her arm and then I made the craft shoot up to the heights where no arrow could reach.

  “Why did you do that?” Lana protested. “They were going to notice me.”

  “Perhaps, but you didn’t have the time,” I said. And then I pointed at the arrows even as they rained down on the warriors of the other villages who had now reached the spot in the grassland where we had been only a few seconds back.

  Lana just gaped. She had apparently not expected the arrows at all.

  She looked at me, quite befuddled.

  “Thank… thank you,” she said.

  “Listen to me from now on, all right?” I said to her. She nodded, still quite befuddled.

  The warriors of the different villages clashed. It was hand to hand combat now. If we didn’t stop the battle in the next few minutes then we would never be able to stop it at all. The succubi and the demons would come. Taming one succubi sucked all mental energy, dealing with hundreds was impossible.

  Then I had a sudden idea. Many of the warriors below were carrying torches. Lana’s idea of signalling the villages earlier would have worked, only if she had been more visible. If she could get her hands on a couple of torches that would do the trick. After all, only a blind person would miss it when torches were dancing in the sky, right?

  “Lana, get a couple of the torches and then signal the warriors to stop,” I told her.

  Lana however still was in a state of befuddlement. Apparently, the knowledge that she could have died because of her ignorance had hit her too hard.

  “Hey, Lana,” I said. I placed a hand on her shoulder. I would have done the job myself. Except it would be a very difficult thing to manoeuvre the craft in such a way that I could grab torches from the warriors without crashing the craft or without falling off from it myself. “Are you all right?”

  “Ye… yes,” she said. “I will do it. I’ll get the torches.”

  “Good,” I said. Lana jumped down from the craft. I thought she would come to a hovering position due to her magical powers, but instead she plummeted straight to the ground. That would mean certain death for her! I recalled she needed concentration to fly.

  I made the craft dive down myself at full speed. I had to catch to the lid to not fall off even as the wind hit me hard. I couldn’t afford to let Lana die. She was just too important for the quest, especially with her powers. More importantly, I think I liked her. As a friend… and more.

  Just before Lana hit the ground, she seemed to come back to herself and she shot back to the air. Thank the gods! I myself slowed down the craft. Lana seemed to zero down on some of the warriors who were carrying the torches. Now she dived towards them and this time she had full control over herself.

  She wrenched two of the torches from the hands of the warriors and then she flew to the sky, torches in hand.

  “Look at the sky!” the soldier cried out.

  Lana began to fly in circles over the battlefield. I could hear her shouting at the top of her voice.

  “Stop the fight! This is a trap!”

  I heard some soldier yell at others to shoot her down. But all of them were so mystified at her that they didn’t seem capable to let loose an arrow at her or to throw a spear at her. Lana’s act considerably calmed down the soldiers. There was barely any one fighting anymore.

  Finally, Lana descended down to the centre of the battle field. I followed suite and I landed the craft just beside her. It was the first time they were seeing the craft or me and another wave of awe rippled over the soldiers.

  “Stop the fighting!” I shouted.

  “Who are you?” asked one soldier, who had received a fresh cut across his face. “More importantly, what are you?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” I said and I said it with authority. “But I want to ask you all a question— Why are you all fighting?”

  “They are doing black magic rituals,” one warrior said, pointing a blood drenched sword at some other warriors, “the bastards want to harm our village.”

  The warriors he had pointed at threw themselves at him and a sword fight ensued. Lana flew over to them, grabbed two of them with hands and she flew up to the sky.

  “Let’s me go!” each of the warriors cried.

  “Are you sure of that?” Lana asked them. She was at least fifty metres above the ground. Letting them go would break more than a bone or two in their bodies.

  “How did you know that they are doing black magic?” I asked another soldier.

  “The shaman of our village detected the vile black magic of theirs,” he replied.

  There was a sound behind me. It was Danor, poking his head out through the hole.

  “Hey, what’s going on?” he asked me innocently.

  “Please Danor,” I said, more like pleaded him, “do not try to come out through that hole.”

  With a guilty face, Danor’s head went below the hole again. Thank the gods for that!

  I turned at the soldiers that were gathered around the craft. Lana came down and placed the two soldiers she had taken up. They kissed the ground, frightened to their cores.

  “My friends,” I addressed everyone, “let me tell the truth to you. You all have been fooled by a bunch of demons into believing that you are going to attack each other. The black magic your shamans detected belonged to the demons. They are the succubi and their male slaves. In a few minutes the succubi and their male minions would appear right around that place.” I pointed at the slightly elevated ground where the girl had earlier told me the succubi would appear.

  The soldiers began to look at each other, unsure.

  “How do you know this?” one asked. He had fought in many battles. That he had only two fingers and a thumb in one hand provided testimony to this. “And if it is indeed true, what profit do you have in stopping the battle?”

  I slapped a palm on my forehead. Men in the midst of their battle really did think more with their swords than with their heads.

  “I am trying to prevent you all from killing each other and here you are asking me about how I would profit!” I said. “Are you all really idiots? And let me make this clear to you. The succubi have many tricks to make slaves out of you. Once they are done with you they will go over to your villages. There they will turn the women of your villages into succubi as well.”

  It was at this point that three men, all tall and possessing chiselled faces that spoke of years of leading others, pushed their way to me.

  “I am the chieftain of Angrok,” one said.

  “I am the chieftain of Balit,” the second one said.

  “And I am the chieftain
of Xeoris,” the third one said.

  “Is what you say absolutely true?” the first one asked me, there was much authority in his tone.

  “Absolutely,” I replied with firmness.

  The Angrok chieftain looked at the other two chieftains.

  “Our village has not been involved with black magic, has yours?”

  “No,” the other two replied promptly.

  “Then that is settled,” the Angrok chieftain said. “We have been killing each other for no reason. I for one believe this young man. Our three villages were founded by three brothers of the same parents. It is a pity that we did not trust each other. But I extend a hand of friendship to you both. Let’s end all the killing and become allies so that we can fight the one true enemy that we will have to face as this young man here says.”

  The other two chieftains were at agreement with him. All three shook hands and embraced each other. They also agreed that their shamans might have made a mistake in detecting the source of magic. I was relieved.

  Alas, it the relief was not to last for long.

  A cry pierced the night air. It came from the skies high above. Everybody was stricken with fear and they looked up.

  There was a snake. In the clouds. A snake with wings and limbs.

  A dragon.

  It was descending down fast.

  Unlike the last time when the dragon had fallen towards me, this dragon seemed to be in control of itself. It wasn’t plummeting uncontrollably. It was diving. Straight at us. It’s intentions didn’t seem good.

  We acted too slow, paralysed as we were with fear. The dragon flew over the hundreds of soldiers that were in the battlefield.

  The dragon breathed fire. And as it did so its face was illuminated. I recognised it as the same male dragon that I had earlier met. His eyes were green. I was sceptic he would ask me help again.

  Men cried out. Some ran, their hair and clothes on fire. Others still immediately dropped down dead.