They're untouched by the demon, but...

Is anyone hurt? You text back, half-panicking, What happened? What's the situation now? Why Ashley?

No injuries, helping Elizabeth, The message promptly returns.

And then silence. ...You understand, you really do, but not knowing hurts. You wonder for a moment if you should take off to Devlin's immediately like Taylor asked, but without your phone, you wouldn't be able to hear any answers they gave. Theoretically, you could just take your laptop with you; the campus had uni-wide wifi, but...

An imp, Taylor texted again, Attacked as we were coming back from dinner. Fucker tried to take me by surprise, backfired when he went for my hair, REALLY backfired that he tried to take me naked. Nailed him in the jewels, went off running; got a few drops of pre on me that I'm worrying about. Elizabeth pretty shaken, but wasn't directly involved. Taking it to Devlin so she'll stake the fucker, or whatever the right word is for demons.

...Well, at least your initial panic subsided a bit, replaced with an entirely different concern. You were relieved to hear that everything was fine for the moment, but...

Meet me outside of Ashley's first? You text back, Want to discuss a couple of things before we go in.

Sure, The message is almost immediate.

That settled, you make the walk to East Hall, laptop in hand in case there were any new developments. Somehow, hearing about Taylor's encounter... The dark seemed a bit more sinister than it once did.

"Can't we take it to the police instead?" You ask, wringing your hands, "I just... Don't see why we have to go to Ashley with this."

The conversation had gone in circles ever since Taylor arrived in the lobby, but you had to at least try to offer an alternative. You couldn't really shape your feelings into the right words, but... You knew. You knew that taking this to Ashley would change something irrevocably. You just didn't recognize what that something would be.

"I don't see how the police could help with this," Taylor answered, shaking her head, "Sexual **** is already handled poorly on our campus, and here we're dealing with a demon. One who probably doesn't normally go around naked or with red skin, considering that I doubt we were his first marks. Unless there are Fanatics in the police ****, it'll probably end up stuck in the normal jurisdictional issues between the city and the campus police, and quietly forgotten when nobody wants to deal with the headaches of dealing with a demon-powered crime. Especially since his **** on us failed, so he wouldn't even be looking at much prison time."

"Ms. Devlin is a demon herself," Elizabeth quietly nods beside her, "She's new, but her patron will know how to deal with scum like this. I know you don't like her, but... But she can stop things like this from happening again. To women who don't have a hero to protect them."

You bite your lip at that, not knowing how to respond delicately. You'd gotten the details from Taylor already, but apparently... When the demon attacked, Elizabeth had just gone to her knees, mouth opened wide. She'd been horrified with her response as soon as Taylor had screamed, and the shame and anger from that moment had bitten deep.

Both of them wanted action, to have this new threat dealt with clearly and decisively, and... Well, you understood. If you were in their position, you would want the same; to know that there wouldn't be someone around lurking to attack a second time. This wasn't the world's safest campus, but you weren't supposed to have these kind of attacks - someone would go too far at a drunken party or date, people wouldn't be snatched off the street.

But going to Ashley with this... It wasn't the right way. It was using a demon to solve their problems, rather than human laws. And whatever happened to this imp... He was probably going to die, right? And maybe that was what Taylor and Elizabeth wanted, and you didn't begrudge them for it... But you had always been opposed to the **** penalty. And even if you weren't, that wasn't the punishment for this crime, right? The right answer was for him to be locked away for decades, not... Whatever Ashley would do to him.

Not that you were terribly broken up about the idea of this creep dying. He'd attacked your friends, and sounded like a feral creature who would doubtless attack others. It's just... You didn't want for you or your friends to be the one signing for his execution. This wasn't a safe road for the three of you to walk.

"This probably wasn't his first offense, right?" You reply, "He was pretty blatant too. Even we could probably find his other victims, make this into something the police can't ignore. They've always sucked at dealing with sexual **** on campus, but this kind of snatching-people-in-broad-daylight thing... It'd be catnip to any prosecutor, having such an easy villain to target. It makes me feel dirty, but we could even play up the demon angle, fire this up into something that would make national news. We have... We have other options here, I'm just saying."

"Maya, don't you get it?" Taylor answered, lips tight, "There has to be a reason that hadn't happened yet. Maybe he's been killing his victims, or maybe he has some high-powered worshippers cleaning up after him... But this isn't a normal crime, where it's a matter of evidence and testimony with clear-cut rules. There's demonic magic involved here. This is uncharted territory for our legal system, and we haven't yet caught up."

"The books I've read have a hundred different explanations for why imps act the way they do, but one thing was clear across every halfway-credible source; they somehow get stronger the more sex they have, and they prefer it nonconsensual," Taylor continued, eyes narrowed, "The longer this goes on, the worse it will be for everyone. If Ms. Devlin knows how to deal with him... I don't mind owing her a favor for it. I don't mind owing her many favors for it, because she'll have cleaned up one of the lowest forms of life I can imagine."

...It was at that point you realized this argument had been lost from the start. The two of them had wanted to keep you involved as a friend, but they were out for blood - either at Ashley's hands, or the barrel of a Fanatic's gun. Maybe you could have changed the shape of their response if you had wanted to take things in that direction - and, hell, maybe you should want to take things in that direction - but they had no appetite at all for a moderate response here.

...Fennic. You didn't like this, but... You didn't like the idea of them handling Ashley on their own either, and you hated the idea of a serial **** running rampant on your campus most of all. Getting involved in this... It might have been a compromise on your part, but for the first time since all of this began, it wasn't one you particularly minded. At least the one being thrown to the wolves this time was something that had earned it.

"We should probably talk to Ashley, then," You sigh, turning towards the door.

...Wait, would she even be in at this time of night?

As it so happened, she was. Thinking back on Demons: Fact and Fiction, demons didn't actually sleep, right? Except for, like, sloth demons. No wonder Ashley's office hours were so loose, especially with how much she mixed business and pleasure.

But Ashley still kept office hours for a reason, and you were flagrantly ignoring them at the moment. Which is why, instead of Ashley's normal office, you were greeted to the sight of a proper succubus standing over some kind of sinister invocation in the middle of her office; her wings spread wide and tail held high as the shadows of the room danced to her will. An insane thought springs to mind, that this might be the best opportunity you have to grab her tail and end this madness... But the rational side reminds you that that would just screw you all. She'd never agree to help with the imp after you extorted the boon you need from her.

"I'm busy at the moment, so keep this quick," Ashley said, dark lightning arcing between her fingers and the pentagram, "If it was anyone else, I'd probably have let the wards eat them."

...Fennic, that was right; this was a demon whose office you'd barged in on. You had been thinking of her as a normal professor who would just chase you out if you bothered them, but she answered to her own laws; that might be useful in dealing with the imp, but it also meant that crossing her could have terrible consequences.

"Mistress," You answer, dropping to your knees as you remembered the appropriate forms from Laws and Guidelines, "My friends have been grievously wronged, and we supplicants crave your favor in seeing the scales rebalanced."

Beside you, Taylor did the same, though her pose was slightly different; Elizabeth just looks a bit bewildered, before trying her best to mimic the posture.

"Such unexpected - yet welcome - respect," Ashley replied, tying something off in the air and turning towards you, "My precious little student, what has troubled you so, to come for me seeking yet more help? Are there some nasty little gossips that need to be crushed, or professors being unreasonable with their expectations? A word from me could clear things up, I suppose."

You glance towards Taylor. She was the one hurt, and you didn't want to talk over her... You'd just started the ball rolling, and hopefully placed yourself where you could catch things if it started rolling out of control.

"Mistress of Maya," She said, the little weasel, "An imp has trespassed on your domain, and assaulted those whom you would claim as subjects. I implore you not to allow such filth to mar your majesty's dignity, and to bring down the weight of your wrath upon this vermin that all may know of your power and glory."

...What the flippin' hell. Forget catching the ball, where the hell had she learned to frame things like that?

...The books Ashley had donated, probably! You silently curse at yourself as you remembered that you weren't the only one who had learned to traffick with demons; Laws and Guidelines had given you the knowledge to make one-off bargains with infernal creatures, but Taylor had clearly learned from the perspective of a worshipper. Which might be the more relevant of the two, if that's how Ashley understood her role here...

"That worm dares!" Ashley thundered, wings spread wide as fires danced in her eyes, "I've been searching for that wretch since the moment I felt his foul seed in my halls, and now I hear that he has the audacity to lay a finger on my students! I swear to the dark powers, I will have his stilled heart cut out of his chest before the set of Sunday's moon for his insults!"

"Now, friend-of-Maya," The succubus lowers herself towards Taylor's face, fingers kept just shy of holding her chin, "Tell me everything."