Payment for Services Rendered

"Um. Hi there. You're, uh, you're probably the one who summoned me, huh?" the newly conjured woman said nervously, grimacing as she looked around. There were still a few lingering flames surrounding her, but although she seemed quite embarrassed about the situation, she showed no signs of being hurt, or even bothered, by the flames, even the ones nearly licking over her skin. As she **** a panicked smile over her features, she even went so far as to stick her hand directly into one of the blazes, extinguishing the sizable fire with her bare palm without showing the slightest hint of pain.

"You could say that." John gave a shaky nod, feeling as if he'd been forcefully rebooted. "You're, err, you're 'Arryaces bat Melkian', then?"

"Yes! Oh, gosh, you know my full name and everything?" the demoness exclaimed, not only unfazed by his knowledge, but absolutely beaming with delight. "That's great! I was kinda worried that something was gonna go wrong the first time I got summoned. Like, maybe I wasn't getting my essence through into the mortal realm, or maybe someone screwed up a ritual and summoned me by accident instead of someone else... or maybe I'd set the whole place on fire because I got too excited to finally be getting summoned..."

She said the last part as a whisper, though even her quiet voice was easily loud enough for John to hear. Arryaces' face blushed furiously, a bright and unmissable color coming to her pale cheeks as she reached out to stamp out another smoldering ember.

"And you're... an incubus?"

John hadn't meant for his confusion to sound so doubtful, but she very much seemed to take it that way. Her embarrassment, which had been content to rule her features in solitude, was abruptly joined by sadness, indignation, and just a touch of annoyance.

"D-do I not look attractive enough?" Arryaces pouted, crossing her arms and sticking her lower lip out. "I mean, I haven't even shape-shifted for you yet, but I think I'm still pretty sexy. And even if you're not into this form, it's not like it's hideous or anything!"

"N-no! No, you're beautiful, I just thought that incubi were supposed to be, y'know, male?"

"Oh! Is that the issue?" The sense of disappointment melted off of her face immediately, replaced by a knowing grin. "I get it now. That's no problem - if you prefer guys, I can-"

"No no! No, no that's fine," John hastily cut in, unnerved by the way her hands had begun to move up toward her face with threatening purpose. "My knowledge on this stuff is just a little lacking, I think. So, what makes you an incubus, then?"

"I dunno, what makes you a human?" Arryaces asked, eyebrow and head both tilting as she gave John an exasperated look.

"Okay, good point, sort of," John admitted, groaning. "Let me try again - I thought that you'd be a succubus, since you're a woman. Clearly that was wrong."

"Damned right, big time wrong!" Arryaces' eyes widened, but she didn't seem nearly as amused this time. "Omigosh, were you trying to summon a succubus? Because you don't have nearly enough containment circles here. I don't actually see any! And that sword of yours doesn't even have any holy enchantments, so you're not a demon hunter of some kind. You'd have been ripped apart if you- wait, oh no, you weren't trying to get killed, were you?! Are you depressed? 'Cause if so, summoning an incubus to cheer you up is way better than dying to one of those sluts!"

"This conversation doesn't get any less confusing," John thought to himself, feeling as though each new piece of information this woman dangled in front of him was a flash-bang setting off in his mind.

"Look, clearly, my knowledge is way off base, and you work on a completely different set of rules than I thought," John elaborated, stashing his blade back into his inventory so he could more comfortably kneel in front of Arryaces, gently settling on the grass just out of her reach. "Pretend I've never even heard the word 'demon' before this conversation started, and explain things to me on that level. Why would summoning a succubus mean I wanted to die? What differentiates a succubus from an incubus, and why are succubi so awful?"

"I mean, from the perspective of a demon, we're not all that different I guess," the blonde said, tapping one of her nails against her lower lip thoughtfully. "But from a human's perspective, I mean, everything about us is different, duh! I mean, not that succubi don't have their uses, but like I said, no control circles, no holy weapon, no…"

Arryaces' eyes had started to wander, but she seemed to realize that she was going on a tangent instead of elaborating. She snapped herself out of it and let out a bashful titter when her eyes met John's once again.

"W-what I mean is, functionally, all demons are more or less the same in our purpose. We want to gather up energy from humans to feed ourselves, get stronger, and convert mortal souls into demons to improve our standing in Hell. But every demon does it differently, and unholy heck, the results couldn't be any more different. Succubi are awful for humans!" She gave a series of nods so vigorous that it jostled her hair, and Arryaces grunted in annoyance as she tucked the unruly locks behind her ears once more.

"So, succubi and incubi aren't gender-specific names, they're just different types of demons. In fact, we don't even really have genders, or fixed sexes. We're shapeshifters! We can be anything, anyone, whatever someone desires. Incubi like me do it to make people happy, to be their dream guy or gal! Succubi do use that ability to assume forms that please mortals, but then they use those forms to seduce them and kill them, either through sex or just temptation! The really powerful ones can even suck the soul right out of a human's body when they orgasm, either keeping it for themselves as a sort of magical battery or bringing them back to Hell and converting them to a demon against their will."

"Yeah, okay, that's pretty awful," John agreed, grimacing. He debated opening up Arryaces' character sheet to check her trivia and any other information to see if it backed up what she was saying, but there was no way to do that subtly, and he didn't want to complicate this conversation even further.

"Oh, geez, don't be afraid. I promise, I'm not gonna hurt you." Arryaces seemed to have forgotten all about her earlier indignation; that, or she was just as horrified by the idea as he was. Even when he tensed and leaned away, she didn't seem at all injured by the act. "Incubi like me are all about pleasure! We don't need a mortal's life essence - we feed on joy and pleasure, and convert it directly into mana. We don't even convert human souls into demons against their will... the only time an incubus converts a human is when they fall in love! Then we bring them back to Hell of their own free will, and have this gorgeous ritual we craft specifically tailored to the one we're bonded- oh, shoot! Oh my gosh!"

John jumped a little as she cried out, interrupting herself mid-sentence and staring at her own limbs in dismay. It didn't take long to notice why - on Arryaces' left side, her fingers were seemingly beginning to dissolve, falling apart right in front of John.

"Agh, dang it, I should've brought up the bond sooner. Sorry, sorry, that's my bad," Arryaces said, grinning bashfully and twirling one lock of her hair with her remaining hand as she gave a 'what can you do?' kind of shrug. "I got so sidetracked explaining all this that I didn't think about how long we had left."

"How long we have before what?" John's eyes were still wide open, watching as more and more of her arm disintegrated, though she seemed completely unperturbed by what was happening.

"Oh, um, hadn't gotten to that part. Right, I'll make this quick; demons can't stay in your world long, we either need someone to bind ourselves to or a contract that we have to fulfill and follow the rules of exactly. The stronger the demon, the less time they have, and the more strict the rules are. If we stay too long without either of those, we get sent back when the energy from the summoning runs out. Incubi like me are pretty low on the ladder, compared to stuff like devils and archdemons, anyway. We just have to make a pact to serve someone - that bonds us to them and anchors us in the mortal plane."

"Wait, is this the part where you convince me to sell you my soul?" John couldn't help the skepticism. This time, there was a touch of exasperation in the demoness' eyes, but she still laughed amicably at his response.

"No, no. Nothing like that, don't worry! You don't even have to make a 'pact' with me like you're probably imagining it - contracts, hellfire, that kind of thing," Arryaces said, waving her hand dismissively at the very idea of such things. "You just have to agree to let me serve you!"

She held out her right hand and smiled broadly at him, and John couldn't help but notice the way her eyes drifted between his hand and her own fingers. There was a whirl of emotions in the way her eyes lingered on each of them, a bright glimmer of apprehension that was pushed aside by excitement and fascination.

"And what would that entail, exactly?" John remained still as he spoke, only glancing at the offered hand. He didn't get any sense of deception, but they'd only been speaking for about five minutes going by that timer on her status effect when he'd first Observed her, and he didn't relish the idea of making a deal with a demon, no matter how she explained it.

"I mean, what part of 'serve' wasn't clear?" Arryaces said, more of her annoyance showing through, though it seemed driven more by anxiety than actual anger, judging by how she kept stealing glances at her left side, where her toes and foot were beginning to dissolve as well. She bit her lip, exposing unnaturally sharp canines as she did so. Once she'd collected herself and brushed away her annoyance, she did her best to put on a smile and keep her eyes focused on John when she continued.

"Um, well, I'll be totally loyal to you, obviously. I get energy from your happiness, joy, and especially the more primal kinds of satisfaction you experience, whether they're because of me or not, so I'll do everything I can to make you happy, in any and all senses of the word! You don't lose anything—I don't actually latch onto your soul and feed directly off your humanity like some demons, only on the pleasure you actually experience, so you won't feel any less happy, or more numb, or anything like that. Heck, it's actually kinda the opposite - if you get bored or desensitized to the things that make you happy, I get less to feed on, so I'll always be trying new stuff to make you smile!

"If I don't live up to your expectations, you can break our pact at any time, for any reason, and I'll get sent right back to Hell. Which, y'know, I get that it's my home and all, but I can't feed on demons or damned souls, so... yeah, believe me, it's not great for demons to be stuck there. There's a reason we spend most of our time trying to get our names out into the mortal realm. I promise I'll be doing everything I can to make you happy!"

Arryaces put on her widest smile as she finished, even going so far as to strike a cheery pose, but she couldn't keep herself from peeking over at her left side, where the dissipation of her body had nearly reached her torso by this point.

"Look, I... give me a second," John sighed, finally breaking into his menus and flipping over to her character sheet. He saw the immediate look of confusion on her face, but she didn't directly address his unusual actions.

"Yeah, no, sure, not like I'm on a limited time table here," she said nervously, her smile becoming tighter as part of her shoulder and hip began to vanish. "Sorry, that was rude of me. I'm just- I was really looking forward to getting summoned for the first time."

"Well, it lines up with most of what she's said. Doesn't really confirm any of it, though." John grimaced as he closed the menus, staring back at her hand once again.

"If it makes you feel better, the reason some kinds of demons make deals for souls is because they have to," Arryaces elaborated. "They have to get the person to agree to give up their soul knowingly, not just offer them, I dunno, a ham sandwich and go, 'Oh, and the price is your soul! Minesies!' after someone already took it, you know? So as long as you're not agreeing to give me your soul—which, y'know, you're not, because I'm not even asking for it—you don't have to worry about giving it to me as part of the pact! And if I was one of those demons that just takes them without permission, I wouldn't try making a deal in the first place, right? So none of that is why I'm here."

Arryaces gave her best smile yet. A genuinely heartfelt one, as best as he could tell, even if it was slightly marred by the fact that the left side of her face was now beginning to crumble away. Bella flashed in John's eyes for a moment as the vanishing point passed over the bridge of her nose, an image that sent shivers down his spine.

"You're the first person to ever summon me. I know that might not mean anything to you, but it's special to me. Even if it wasn't, this is what I'm made for—what I've been looking forward to for... well, my whole life! It's not exactly selfless, since I'm getting energy out of it, but I promise - all I want is your permission to serve you. All that matters to me from here on out is making you happy. But for both our sake, it has to be done willingly. I'm obviously eager for it, so it's all up to you what happens next."

"According to her sheet, she won't even last another minute. I wonder what would happen to her if she disappeared? Her version of 'Hell' probably doesn't even exist here."

The possibilities were numerous, and none of the ones that came to mind were exactly pleasing. Create a new world, or inhabit some pocket of space that already existed, and reform it into the Hell she envisioned? Exist as some kind of spirit without a body, or just get shunted back to the old world? Would she vanish for real, just disappear altogether?

"Fuck. I can't risk any of that... especially not letting her just die because of me. Well... blonde hair. Red eyes. I really hope I got the 'good at heart' part right too."

"Alright. If there's no price to myself beyond the residual energies you mentioned, and what you've said is true, then I agree to let you serve me. For as long as we both agree to it."

John nearly flinched as his fingers touched the demoness' eager palm, expecting some sense of revelation, or a flash of mana-fueled emerald light.

But nothing happened to him—other than a very vigorous handshake, as Arryaces clasped her palms around John's and began to jostle him ferociously. Her missing half had reappeared so suddenly that John didn't even realize it until it was being used to aggressively appreciate him.

"Thank you! Thank you so much. Oh, gosh, I've been dreaming about this day for so long, it hardly feels real!" Arryaces' smile threatened to split her face in twain, with only slits of her red pupils visible from how wide that grin had grown. "I promise you won't regret this. I don't have a lot of experience, but I'm eager to learn, and I'll tough it out through anything you need! Physical labor, housekeeping, bookkeeping, pampering, sexual favors for you, sexual favors for other people, sexual favors for myself but you're into it so you watch and kinda do your own thing in the-"

"Yes, yes, thank you, Arryaces," John interrupted, clamping off a snort when her 'list of duties' devolved so abruptly.

"Oh! Right, um, now that I'm not about to get banished or anything, I should introduce myself a little better," she said, a noticeable blush darkening the red marks on her ivory cheeks. "Sorry, things usually go a little smoother than this. Or, y'know, so I've been told. I've never actually been summoned before."

"It's okay, this is all a little odd. For both of us." John let a smile finally reveal itself, the first time it had felt more genuine than **** since this startling interaction began. He eyed his status window again to make sure, but there was no sign that there were any lingering effects. Even her servitude didn't come with a status change—only her same character sheet available to view, now updated slightly. "And I think we've both got plenty of introductions and explaining left. Now that we have more than five minutes to do it in."

"Exactly!" Arryaces released her grip on John only to straighten herself up slightly, taking a more formal posture as she reached out her own palm in return. "So, with that in mind, allow me to officially introduce myself! My full name is Arryaces bat Melkian, but please, call me Aria! True names are so formal."

"I'm John Newman, but John is fine, please." John shook Aria's hand more gently than she had his, not that it seemed necessary. Despite her frame bordering on inhumanly slender, she was anything but dainty or fragile.

"Casual names are always the best," Aria acknowledged with a slight giggle. "Ooh, or you could give me a totally new name! I mean, you're my master now, so whatever you want is fine. Anyway, I don't really know what humans like to know about demons, so I can just give you the quick bits. I'm eighty-seven years old, which is super young for pretty much any demon other than, like, imps. Oh, and I've never been to Earth before, but I've spent pretty much my entire life studying up on human culture."

"Oh really?" John kept his skepticism concealed, not sure exactly what the 'Earth' of her memories would be like. "What kind of things?"

"Anything and everything that would be useful. Anything that could make someone happy, really," Aria said, shrugging and tapping idly on one hand while she thought. "Cooking, cleaning, lots of arts and crafts stuff, a little work on proper form for manual labor, fashion and decorating, a lot of time spent learning all sorts of hobbies for whatever someone might be into, plus tons of practice at more carnal pleasures. Still got a lot to learn and no real practice, but I've spent tons of study time with dildos, strap-ons, butt plugs, vibrators, gags, blindfolds, handcuffs, bars and spreaders, full-body bondage, chastity, latex, crops and whips, tickling, cosplay, roleplay, free use, somnophilia, orgasm denial, pet play, human furniture-"

"Wait, wait, hang on." John had intended to let her go this time, curious just how long she could keep listing, but he hadn't truly expected her to have a list that long—at least, not one ready to go that she could quote off at will like that. More to the point, and he had to check to confirm that he'd seen it right, she was listing off an awful lot of things that seemed hard to practice without a partner. "You've practiced all of that? With other incubi, I'm guessing?"

"Does it count as 'other' if it's also me?"

Before John could ask for clarification, Aria's form seemed to blur for a moment, and then an exact duplicate of her seemed to step right out of her body, separating from her original form in a way that was seamless and clean, but looked like it should've been some kind of body horror.

"Ta-da!" the second Aria said, waving her hands for a brief moment. "I learned this one pretty early on. It's a little complex, but it's considered an essential technique for incubi. We don't generally practice with each other. The energy we feed on from humans is sort of a byproduct of your existence, but if an incubus feeds off another demon, they leech off their power permanently. I mean, we can turn it off, but demons aren't exactly a trusting bunch… besides, it's a pretty handy technique, or so I've heard. Apparently you humans are super into threesomes?"

"I suppose we are." John continued to glance between the two forms, unsure of where he was supposed to be looking, until the second Aria gave a last wave and then stepped right back into her old self. The original Aria gave a slight shiver, but seemed mostly unaffected by the process.

"So yeah, that's how I practiced most of that." Aria gave a casual shrug, as if splitting herself off like that was just that simple a matter. "I even did a few orgies. I think I need someone who has actually been through one, though. Every time I did it, they were just sort of chaotic and messy."

"I think they always are," John said with a laugh.

"Oh, you've had some?" Aria asked, the excitement returning to her gaze.

"Maybe I wouldn't go so far as to call them full-blown orgies, but I've got quite a few partners, and they do enjoy grouping up on me sometimes," John admitted, a flush coloring his cheeks.

"Can we go meet them? Ooh, do they know you came here to summon me? I don't want to make anyone jealous. As long as you're happy, it doesn't affect my intake, but I still don't like the idea of causing drama. I used to have nightmares about getting conjured up by some horny guy only to have his wife chase me out of the bedroom," Aria admitted, grimacing as she rubbed her upper arms protectively.

"No, but it won't be a problem, trust me. We've got quite a cast here. They don't know demons any better than I did before we had this little talk, so, uh, introductions could have a few awkward moments, but I promise they'll adore you once they get to know you."

"Great!" Aria clapped her hands with glee and bounced to her feet, offering her hand to help John up before he had even started to rise. "Just let me go ahead and scry your desires and we can get going!"

As Aria helped John up, she took a step forward, closing the already small gap between them and raising her hands toward her head. John reflexively stepped back and raised his hands to hers, though his touch was gentle as he tapped her wrists to stop her.

"Scry my desires?" John repeated, giving her a questioning look.

"Yeah! I'm a shapeshifter, remember? Incubi aren't really male or female? All that stuff we just talked about?" Aria said, tilting her head, seeming baffled by John's concern. "I mean, you could just describe what you'd like me to become, but a lot of mortals are really wishy-washy, or they change their minds a bunch. If you let me scry your subconscious desires, I can get a vision of the form that would make you happiest. Something you find cute, endearing, undyingly gorgeous, and irresistibly sexy, too! I can change any time you want, like if you've got a specific roleplay or you want me to pretend to be some celebrity or something, but this is a surefire way to make sure I have a base form that you're always happy to come home to!"

"I don't want you to scry my desires," John said, voice firm, pushing her hands back a little bit further and eyeing them warily. "And you don't need to transform. Why would you? You're really pretty, Aria. I don't know where you got this appearance from, but it's just human enough to feel familiar while still being otherworldly. Trust me, you're beautiful as you are."

"O-oh! I mean, I didn't..." Aria actually seemed to become bashful for the first time, blushing deeply, and this time not out of shame for the state of the field. "I didn't get this appearance from anywhere. This is just my normal demonic appearance. I mean, we're shapeshifters, this is just whatever my essence happened to form into naturally when I was created. But you, um, you really think it's pretty?"

"Absolutely stunning," John replied without hesitation, reaching out to rub one of his thumbs along her adorable blush marks.

"O-oh! I can feel you really are happy about it... that makes me feel really good. Nice and warm," Aria whispered the last words, unabashedly nuzzling her face into John's touch. Despite the gesture being so small and simple, she actually shivered at his touch. "I think I'm going to like serving you, John."

"And that makes me feel good," John mirrored, smirking as he reluctantly pulled his hand away. "Speaking of warm, what exactly happened when you were 'summoned', anyway? Is that normal for a demon's summoning, or did I mess it up somehow?"

"N-no, I did..." Aria's face fell as she glanced around, biting her lip while observing the scorched field surrounding them. "I don't know exactly how, I'm not even that good at that kind of magic! Most incubi aren't—we're pretty much the origin of the phrase 'lover, not a fighter'. Mana gets a little, err, wonky when you're being transported across worlds. I'd heard that from some of the others, but I've never actually experienced it myself. I just got so excited, and then that excitement was turning into spells without me meaning it to, and, well, I popped into your world! And... so did a whole patch of hellfire. I'm really, really sorry about that. I didn't hurt anything important did I?"

"No, just some grass. I can fix it with a few points, I think. Pretty sure I saw a repair option in the menu," John said, already opening up the menus for his new world.

"Right. Points," Aria said, her tone leaning towards confusion and skepticism. "What exactly are those things that keep popping up in front of you, anyway? They kinda look like something out of a video game."

"Oh, right, you actually know about those. That simplifies things," John began, awkwardly smirking as he opened the map and zoomed in on the zone they were in. "Well, like I said earlier…"