At the spa

"Welcome to Gardens of the East Natural Spa and Resort. I am Izanami. If you have any questions or concerns during your stay, please let me know." The woman speaking to Marnie is short, probably around Marnie's age, but a hell of a lot prettier. She looks Japanese in origin, her dark hair swept back by a simple red headband, small silver earrings dangling from her ears. But her English is as impeccable as her carefully-cultivated green nails and the matching green eyeshadow around her narrow eyes. She's dressed in a dark silk robe that whispers when she moves. She holds out a hand to take Marnie's ticket.

Marnie holds out the piece of paper and looks around the reception of the spa. It has a paradise gardens theme, all plants and sky, blues and greens mixed with mellower Earth tones. She has to admit, she's relaxed already.

"You've chosen the 'Solitude and Bliss' treatment?" Izanami asks. Marnie nods. "Follow me, then, please." She takes Marnie into another room, smaller, with rows of lockers. They stop in front of one, and Izanami keys in a code. "Please change out of your clothing and into this robe. Leave all personal possessions—jewellery, phones, etc., in the locker. After you have done so, simply close the locker door and enter a 4-digit code to lock it." She bows to Marnie and makes to leave. "I will return in a few minutes to escort you to your treatment."

Marnie takes her time disrobing. When she has removed her clothes, she stands nude in front of the large mirror against the side wall. She cups her breasts for a moment, then her hands wander up to the amulet still stuck around her neck. It actually looks good on her. When she hears footsteps approaching, she hastily grabs the robe off the hook and is struggling into it when Izanami enters.

The hostess notices Marnie's pendant. "You'll need to take that off as well."

"I-I can't," Marnie says.

A smile, the kind that says Izanami is practised in dealing with customers reluctant to following certain rules. "I assure you, our lockers are secure. It will not go missing."

"No, I mean, I physically can't get it off. The clasp is … stuck."

"Ah. Well in that case, maybe I—" Izanami breaks off mid-sentence, and one of her hands vanishes into a heretofore concealed pocket in her robe. It pulls out a vibrating phone, somehow an anachronism in this place, and definitely liable to spoil the meditative mood. The screen lights up as Izanami reads a text message. "Hmm. That is interesting." She looks back up at Marnie. "It seems that Grandmother has taken an interest in you."

With no further mention of the pendant, and no clarification of that last remark, Izanami escorts Marnie through another door, down a corridor, and then finally into a secluded room. A large bathtub, recessed into the floor, dominates the centre. Steam rises in twisting tendrils from the warm water within. To one side of the pool there's a massage table. The other side has a small recliner.

"The room is soundproofed. You may choose to relax in silence or select a variety of relaxation music from the music player over there. The first hour of your treatment will be spent alone. Then a female attendant will arrive to give you a massage and, should you wish it, help you bathe. Finally there is a facial, manicure, and pedicure component."

"That sounds … amazing."

"It is. I will leave you now. If you need anything before the first hour is finished, simply pull the rope next to the door." And Izanami vanishes, robe rustling as the door clicks behind her, leaving Marnie alone.

Well, mostly alone. A hungry voice from deep within her mind: You think to retreat from the masses to avoid temptation? How sadly you've underestimated me. Marnie shudders. She isn't sure what Uhazral plans to do. She seems safe enough, right now, alone in this room—and even the demon can't make her get up to much crazy with just one other woman in the room, right?

Marnie resolves to spend the first hour as peacefully as Izanami promised it would be. She slips out of her robe and slides into the bathtub. The water is the perfect temperature, hot without being scalding, and the room is heated in such a way that the parts of her body outside the water do not feel colder by comparison. Still, she sinks up to her neck, her mouth opening slightly as her skin comes into contact with the warmth, the water caressing and tickling her sensitive pussy and nipples.

Marnie lies back, resting her head on the padded edge of the tub, and tries not to think about anything, least of all the demon on her back.

Uhazral has other plans though. If it can't force her to corrupt someone, it can at least torture her with fantasy. Marnie feels a warmth building in her body coming from something other than the water. Images begin flashing through her mind—visions of herself, naked, being taken by various fantastical beasts with larger-than-life members hung between their legs. Silent pictures of her mouth, pussy, and ass getting stuffed by demons. She cries out, thrashes instinctively in the water even though she knows it's not real. Thanks to her psychic link with the demon, it feels real enough. He can manipulate her, subject her every waking moment to these torments, unless she gives in.

Just when she thinks she can't bear it any more, just as she is about to leap out of the bathtub and ring for help, the door opens and closes behind her. "Quiet!" A single, stern word.

The visions stop. The spots in front of her eyes clear. Marnie gasps for breath, sits up straight, turns around.

An older, shorter, bent version of Izanami stands in front of the door. She is dressed in the same robe, but she leans wearily on a gnarled cane. The woman taps it impatiently. "Well, what are you doing? Stand up, then."

Blinking, uncertain, Marnie complies. Water runs down her body as she steps out of the tub and stands before this woman, still naked, making no moves to cover herself. "Wha--who--has it been an hour already?"

The woman shakes her head. "I could not leave you alone with that for so long, no. You may call me Grandmother." So this was the person Izanami had mentioned earlier, the one who "took an interest" in Marnie. Grandmother motions towards the recliner. "Have a seat. There is much to discuss."

Dumbfounded, Marnie once again follows the order. Grandmother slowly, laboriously seats herself next to the young woman. Hips creaking as she settles herself, Grandmother says, "So. You have become slave to one of the soro-oni. I thought the taint of their power had left this land long ago."

"The soro-oni?"

"You would call them demons. Demons of corruption, of lust."

"You know of Uhazral?" Marnie's hand goes to the amulet. "You … you made him stop speaking to me. How did you do that?"

Grandmother nods and gives Marnie a grim smile. "I have lived a long time in this body, seen many things. Thought the soro-oni long slain, or imprisoned like yours. Did not think to see one attempt so bold a means of escape."

"Do you know what it's doing, then? What it's trying to make me do?"

"If it is like the other demons I have encountered, it is using you for its own ends. Demons are creatures of great raw power, but unless they have physical form on this earth, that power is curtailed, must be channelled through a living vessel. You are Uhazral's vessel. You are receptive to him in the way few people could ever be. That is why that trinket at your throat is so reluctant to let you go."

"Please … please, you have to help me get it off, get rid of it. The things that he tells me to do … the choices he forces me to make—"

"Pah, choices. There are no choices. There is only that which follows the dharma and that which does not." Grandmother leans closer, as if to confide a secret. Her skin is stretched tightly over her face, and her breath is raw. "He can change you, child, warp your very body and mind … but he can only corrupt you if you surrender to him. He is a force of nature, terrifying and deadly, but utterly without volition. You, on the other hand, have a weapon that terrifies him in turn: your free will. Thus his need to make you 'choose', to trick you into surrendering that will to him."

"I don't understand. How can I resist him? If I do what he says, it's surrender…. Are you saying I should just give him, let him change me as much as he wants, that this won't help him as much?"

"I'm saying that you should not believe everything he tells you. You are a vessel for his power, but vessels with minds of their own are dangerous things. The worst thing you could do is give up that free will, become merely an instrument for the demon."

"And how do I rid myself of him?"

"Not easily. But if you could break the psychic link somehow, then the amulet would have no reason to remain on your person. A spell, perhaps—" suddenly Grandmother doubles over, as if it by a prodigious blow.

Marnie's amulet glows a blinding orange, and the runes on her skin likewise light up. Foolish witch thinks she can stop me, thinks she knows the limits of my power. She knows nothing!

Grandmother straights up, stands, her eyes not so much glowing as afire with ferocity. Her voice now echoes in Marnie's mind in direct response to Uhazral: On the contrary, I know your power too well, Lowly One. You were imprisoned precisely because you are not as powerful as you think. This child is stronger than you. She just has to realize it.

I doubt that will come to pass, meddlesome cow. My pet is mine, now and forever. Watch now as we work our magic even on you.

Marnie closes her eyes, focuses on Grandmother's voice, tries to latch on to it and ignore Uhazral's. But it doesn't work. The demon is too strong right now, regardless of Grandmother's pep talk. She can feel its desires twining around her subconscious urges. When she opens her eyes to look at Grandmother, it isn't with desperation or despair but … lust.

No! Grandmother whispers, her voice fading. Resist, child! Fight him!

Fight me and suffer consequences that make my previous punishments mere fly bites in comparison.