How to Romance a Succubus IV

In a way, everything had changed for Kavros that night. In many ways, however, nothing had changed. He was still poor, hungry, and needed to work if he wanted to buy anything. A squirrel pelt wouldn’t impress anyone. The deer might be worth more, but that was a task that would take quite some time. More importantly, he didn’t want the townsfolk to question where he was and what he was doing.

That meant there were latrine pits to dig and stables to muck out. He’d have freedom upon receiving his daily pay, without starvation nipping at his heels. Usually just a few coins and some half spoiled food, but he knew better than to be blinded by his pride. This was the least of his indignities, and now more than ever it was a temporary affair.

Lady Norcombe, one of his most frequent employers, came to inspect his work and deemed it adequate. He politely declined an invitation to eat with her, partly to avoid the awkward small talk that such an invitation always included and partly so that he wouldn’t need to clean himself quite so thoroughly. Instead, he took his meager pay and washed up in the river on his way towards town. He felt foolish even as he walked away, but he had food of his own back at his camp. It felt pleasant to turn down charity.

He stopped by Miller’s store, where he fished the cleaned squirrel pelt out of his bag before he even entered. There, he found a bright eyed young woman who smiled at him immediately. Caroline, his sister, was the only person who reliably graced him with such an expression.

“Colin!” She said warmly, “I wasn’t expecting you so early today.”

“Hello, Caroline.” He said, giving her a weary smile of his own. “I finished early and the Norcombes had nothing left for me to do.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, and wrinkled her nose at the smell.

“I suppose you didn’t receive an invitation for dinner then?” She asked, “That is quite unlike Lady Norcombe, though I suppose I can’t blame them for wanting to avoid the smell. Here, have a bit of soap and wash up in the pack. I have no interest in banishing you for the shop, but I’ve grown delicate in my sensibilities as of late.”

Kavros sighed, but was more willing to accede to such demands when they came from Caroline. She directed him to a bucket in the back of the shop, next to the door into the apartment she shared with her husband, and there he did what he could to make himself presentable.

“You seemed distracted at the temple, Colin.” She said, her tone probing. “Is everything alright?”

Kavros tensed involuntarily, and very deliberately regulated his breath. Of course Caroline noticed. He’d been praying to Valor for strength to do what needed to be done, but he couldn’t explain that to her. She wouldn’t understand.

“I… was praying for guidance.” He admitted. “I have been thinking hard this season.”

“Oh, Colin.” She said, her eyes softening. “So, what brings you here today? I wish I could believe you were here merely for a social call, but I know better than that.”

Kavros silently thanked Caroline for her restraint.

“I have had some luck with hunting recently.” Kavros said stiffly. “I should have a squirrel and a deer hide ready for sale in a few days. I was wondering if you had any rifles from the goblin woods in stock.”

Caroline pursed her lips. Her eyes sharpened at the mention of the deer.

“Well you know how Nathan feels about guns.” She said, “I can keep an eye out, but no, we don’t have one in stock. Should I send for one?”

“Perhaps, but don’t strain your books on my account.” Kavros said, “I have other uses for the money in the meantime. I… will need to buy a new coat.”

“Oh Colin!” Caroline said, “What happened? Can it not be salvaged?”

“I fell into a nest of brambles.” He said woodenly, “Down a hill. The tearing is immeasurable. A total loss.”

“I… see.” Caroline said, “I think we have a few secondhand that you might pick through. No charge. Honestly they have been cluttering the store.”

Kavros’s eyes narrowed, and he retrieved his coin purse from his belt.

“No, I can pay.” He said, “I insist. I have a few shillings here.”

Kavros caught just a hint of pity in Caroline’s gaze when he held out the coins, but she took them readily enough and set them aside. She fetched a few reasonably smart, if oft patched, coats from a chest in the back. They were suspiciously well fitted to Kavros, he noted, and she hadn’t needed to search for them overmuch.

“So you know, Lady Norcomb asked about you the other day.” Caroline said, writing up the exchange in her ledger, “Edith is old enough for a husband soon.”

Kavros’s eyes widened, his mouth went dry. Caroline gave a rather unladylike smirk when she saw his astonishment.

“Whyever would I be relevant to that concern?” He spluttered, “I’ve nothing to offer a wife!”

“You undersell yourself. For all your shortcomings, I’d say it’s a good match.” Caroline said, “Lady Norcomb is almost as enamored with the name of Colin Greymount as you are, and more importantly she knows firsthand that you are not the kind of nobleman that fears labor.”

“Quite impossible.” He said, shaking his head, “I prefer it to begging, but I’m no farmer.”

“Damnation, Colin!” Caroline snapped. “You are a beggar in all but title! By choice, I might add. You aren’t going to get a better opportunity than this!”

Kavros looked at Caroline reproachfully. She was far too dear to him to voice half of the things he wished to say in that moment. Instead, he quietly gathered up his coat and left her husband’s shop. She might be willing to swallow her pride and marry down. Kavros would do no such thing.

••••••••••

Ears make terrible limbs for locomotion. Unfortunately, Xorova didn’t have a lot of options. She was bored, hungry, mostly paralyzed, and with a very limited level of control over her body’s more complex functions. She needed to retract her hair and horns, but she could only do so much with matter she’d already rendered mostly inert. Over the course of about half an hour, she slowly and carefully reshaped her ears into legs similar to an insect’s. Naturally this rendered her almost completely deaf, but she just wanted to grab something.

Her neck was killing her by the time she’d used her new limbs to drag herself over to the campfire and grab the pot with her tongue. She could only extend it out about as far as her forearm if she wanted any kind of dexterity or strength, so in practice she just nudged it along with a stick and pulled herself by the head back into the barn to hide amongst the hay. There, she passed the time by licking the drying juices out of the pot with her still extended tongue. He’d left so much just sitting in the bottom of the pot, and Xorova didn’t care much for waste.

She had to be careful; it was iron after all. It had been forged, so it wasn’t as bad as it could be, but she still got a mild but unpleasantly cold shock whenever she put too much pressure onto her tongue while licking. She was fairly certain she looked ridiculous, but she was too hungry and more importantly too bored to stop. The careful precision, scouring the pot clean without applying too much force, kept her occupied for quite a while. She turned her ears back, of course. She was fairly sure those would be a turn off, and she wanted to be ready when someone returned.

Hopefully Kavros; she’d have way too much difficulty eliminating witnesses if someone else arrived, and her master obviously wanted to keep her secret. When her tongue got sore, she lay there and tried to figure out how exactly to broach the topic of operational security. She couldn’t be too direct or he might think it was part of the scene, but it was obvious that he had been thinking way too much about how to make this fun for her and not enough about how to make it work.

It would help if she knew a bit more about his situation. So far she knew broad campaign goals but not much at a more grounded level. She didn’t actually know why she was a secret, for example, but he obviously thought it was important.