Er, wait. Just how DO demons work?

Though your newfound determination hits a roadblock almost immediately. Because... That was exactly the problem, wasn't it? Finding out what succubae could do, and protecting Maya from it? If you knew how to do that, none of you would have been in this position to begin with. A lack of will had never been the problem here.

The internet would probably have some answers for you, but... Well, honestly, that just seemed like a way to waste a bunch of time on gossip and junk. Maya could probably find a way to swim through that sewer to find a couple of pearls; she was a total girly girl, but she was also a closet nerd who spent an unhealthy amount of time on youtube's makeup channels. You, on the other hand... You weren't an internet virgin, but you didn't often stray from your usual haunts or the most mainstream of websites. The week would probably be over before you actually found anything.

Which just left good old-fashioned traditional student-ing, right? You weren't exactly a perfect-A student, but you usually swung a solid B. Maybe a C if you particularly hated a class. You knew the routine well enough that you could actually learn something properly, and not just for a test. Except...

It would be one thing if you needed to look up 18th-century authors, the psychology of consumption, or, hell, the mechanical considerations of launching a geostationary satellite. Learning what you needed in time was different matter, but you at least knew where to start and where to finish with those, however unlikely you were to ever need to. But demons were a New Thing, and none of your classes exactly touched upon the topic - Ms. Devlin's excluded. You couldn't exactly go down to the university library and start pulling out Intro to Demonology texts...

...Could you? Because you'd totally ignored it at the time, but this was covered in your college's newspaper, in the same article describing Ms. Devlin's "change of status"; in "celebration" and "in recognition of the field's growing importance", she'd donated all of her old diabolist books to the school's library, "now that she wouldn't need them anymore". The idea of relying on Ms. Devlin's books to take down Ms. Devlin struck you as madness, but if a succubus was donating the books, one who had become a succubus through their assistance... It was unlikely that they were complete bunk telling you to go **** cats for kicks or somesuch. Maybe they wouldn't be where your research ended, but they were a plausible starting point.

Then again, these were Ms. Devlin's books, and it seemed her influence spread with terrifying ease. She might have just thought her takeover would be complete before anyone noticed - or, by checking out her books, you might just put yourself her high-priority-to-deal-with list. Maya had earned you "protection", but there were probably a dozen different ways of dealing with you in more subtle ways.

Instead, you could try consulting with one of the research librarians. With your school's collection branching into demonology, they'd probably started acquiring more texts already, and there would be a librarian specializing in the topic... Or at least, who considered it under their purview. They'd have a good idea of what seemed reliable and what seemed dubious, with no need to touch Ms. Devlin's texts. Except...

If Ms. Devlin did consider books on the subject worth her attention, she'd probably have subverted the librarian in question already, right? And you could probably bluff your way through the conversation readily enough, making your interest seem harmless or promising, but... This still ran into the same problem. If the librarian was safe, the books were too, probably; if the books were a trap, the librarian was probably the same. Well, except that maybe the librarian could save some badly-needed time in getting to the most useful information, if she was trustworthy.

But if you were thinking about getting faculty involved, there was one more option to consider, oddly enough; your advisor. You hadn't spoken to her since the start of the year, since you hadn't actually settled on your degree yet, having mostly come here to follow Maya... But Clarice had been a pretty reliable sort so far, making sure that you kept enough options open that you could plausibly finish several non-specialized degrees within four years despite your dithering. She might not know what to do herself, but she'd probably know where to find the answers, if there were answers to be had outside of Ms. Devlin.

Being professional and reliable wasn't the same thing as getting involved in your grudges, however, and Ms. Devlin was a tenured professor despite being a demon. There's no reason that Clarice should get involved in this... Except for Ms. Devlin's egregiously unprofessional conduct. That resentment might be enough to help you act, or even find another way to appeal to the Dean.

...Except, getting more people involved could just lead to more victims. It wasn't impossible that Clarice would come to Ms. Devlin's attention, or try to investigate your claims on her own. A bit of help in navigating the university's resources might not be worth the potential risks, if you have another option of your own.

...You'd spent maybe fifteen minutes ruminating, but your life lessons had taught you something important; it was better to forge ahead with an imperfect plan than wait until things were too late while you finished a perfect one. This might be a bit different from hiking or kickboxing, but they shared a matter of key importance; you had very little time to work with. Last time you'd struggled with this dilemma, you'd ended up hiking two hours in the dark, no great loss. This time... You could lose your best friend, and you had no idea how much time you had to work with.