Understanding the Opposition

Yorresie was just leaving the conference building when she saw Administrator Nsukula leaving arm in arm with that conniving knight. What was her name again? Zaida. As much as she wanted to forget it, each unwelcome encounter with that insincere thug further entrenched that name in her memory. Just the sight of her cosying up to the administrator made her jaw clench. She forcefully pushed it from her mind and went on her way.

The teacher entered Merridian's town library. It was a large building with beautiful design containing a plethora of books, scrolls, and the like. It was a disproportionately impressive structure for the town that held it. Books are only worthwhile for the literate; literacy takes education; education takes spare time, money, and traffic; and those three factors scale with the size of a settlement. Merridian was no metropolis, but its library was almost worthy of the capital. That day there was only a handful of others present, leaving the place largely empty; average for a library. The nun approached a handsome young man with dark hair who was replacing tomes on a shelf.

"Pardon me, where might I find texts on demonology?"

The librarian directed her to the appropriate section. The entirety of the available books on demonology comprised less than one level of one shelf in the whole library. Yorresie, however, thought the collection expansive for something outside the school of sorcery.

The young man leaned on the shelf nonchalantly. "If you don't mind my asking Sister, what's the interest? You don't look the sort to encounter many demons."

Yorresie did not feel inclined to recount the administration's looming mandate, nor her own initiative to research. "Call it personal interest."

The librarian got the wrong idea when she said this while pulling a text on incubi from the shelf. "Oh..." His lips pursed and his eyebrows climbed. "I'll... leave you to it." He got away from her as quickly as he could without being conspicuous.

One by one, Yorresie stacked the books in her hands until she was carrying the entire collection in a single tower. It was heavy, and she nearly dropped the lot of the them multiple times, but she eventually set them down on an open reading table. The nun took a seat and drew a random text from her pile.

"Observations and Theories on the Behaviours and Workings of Lesser Demonic Beings by Juanita Velázquez," she read. "Well that does not at all sound dry and clinical."

The pace set by Eposi was easy and calm. She had a destination, but no reason to rush there. By the way she clung to Zaida's arm, the knight guessed she was enjoying more than the scenery.

"What brought you to the church grounds?" the administrator had asked.

"Some folk asked for a hand; I obliged," Zaida put it simply. "Why were you there?"

"Dear, I'm a school administrator, remember? That was a session for the church school you caught me coming out of. If I had known you were coming, I would have dressed up a little more."

"I would say you already look lovely." Zaida could play the flattery game too.

"Oh, you're too kind, too kind." By the grip Zaida felt on her arm, Eposi was pretending to be more dismissive of the compliment than she truly felt. "I should apologise though; I wish I could have slipped away with you before you encountered Guyld."

"Who was that woman?"

"Guyld Saint Vendigeld III is a noblewoman in Merridian, though only in the official sense. She had the nobility of a street cat and is as much a woman as a schoolyard brat is. I thank the powers that be every conference that she does not sit on the administration. However, she often makes a point of attending the conferences if only to feign interest. She's a power-hungry bully who does her best to impose her will wherever she can. I truly believe that her involvement with the church is solely attributable to the ease of buying influence there."

Wow, Zaida thought, that sounded practiced. "I believe I saw another there that looked like her. A relative, perhaps?"

"Very perceptive." Eposi smiled and tapped Zaida's arm in a laudatory fashion. "That would be Guyld IV, her daughter. Regrettably, she has much in common with her mother, though I've often felt that the toxic qualities she shares were less pronounced in her. Even so, I'd give it ten, maybe twenty years before she's an utter facsimile."

Zaida could not produce a response to that. The took the next strides wordlessly. "Before leaving, Guyld - the senior one - made a remark about your family. Something about it struck me as impolite, but mayhap I misunderstood."

"Again, very perceptive." Eposi did not sound as gleeful this time. "Guyld comes from a life of wealth and privilege. I am no pauper myself, but the gap that separates us is a proper chasm. Whenever she lacks for a more glamourous witticism, she resorts to my comparative inadequacy as a means to disparage."

Zaida knit her brow at that. What did wealth have to do with character or worth? Did humans use that as a metric somehow? She asked a different question. "How does bringing up your family allude to that?"

"We live in a relatively small house for the number of us that there are." Eposi noticed the lack of acknowledgement from Zaida. "The size of one's home is one symbol of wealth," she elaborated.

"That seems like a hefty number of connections to make for an effective insult," the warrior said with a skeptical tone.

Eposi laughed merrily at that. "Yes, I suppose it is."

After nearly nodding off reading the first book's introduction, Yorresie skimmed much of the remainder of it and moved on to the next one; Feral Entities From Hell by Islah Abid.

The beast of pursuit is a quadruped demon often mistaken for a hellhound. They stand approximately one hundred centimetres tall at the shoulder with a length of approximately one hundred and ninety centimetres. None have ever been captured in an environment to perform proper measurements, but they are very loosely estimated to weigh between sixty and a hundred kilograms. Vague reports liken them to wolves or lions, but clearer accounts firmly insist that they lack the signature characteristics of canine and feline fauna.

As the name implies, they fulfill a hunting role in the Demon Lord's army. They are swift creatures, seemingly universally capable of speeds greater than any human. Additionally, they are agile; virtually unfettered by challenging terrain. They can leap great distances and scale trees. If one is ever confronted with these monsters, it is recommended that they either stand their ground in direct combat, or attempt escape by rapidly flowing water. Beasts of pursuit can swim and attack in water, but their efficacy is significantly lower than on land.

Though armed with fearsome teeth and claws, they tend to cripple their prey rather than outright kill. Whether this is an instinctive action, or one that is trained into them by their handlers is unknown. Regardless, it makes them excellent seekers for parties of demons chasing down one or more victims.

Yorresie paused to take a deep breath. Forget her students; this research was going to keep her up at night. Such grisly creatures, these demons. She prayed that she would never be **** to encounter one face-to-face. She doubted she could meet one and come away with her wits.

"You make excellent walking company, Zaida. Tell me, is there anything in the rules of your corps to stop you from escorting me every day?" Eposi gushed.

"Not in the rules, no. But it would take some miracle of timing for me to be available that consistently," the knight responded a little too honestly for the question.

"All the same, this has been lovely." The administrator yet clung to Zaida's arm like an infatuated teenager. "This is my home up ahead."

It was not quite as Zaida had pictured it. The way Eposi told it, she had imagined something resembling a shed. It was nothing big, but neither were any of the many other houses that surrounded it. They were in a commoner residential district. Eposi's home was only a single story tall, and that was average.

"Nobody will be home at this time, but I must have you over to meet my family someday."

The proposition very quickly made Zaida uncomfortable, but she could not think of a reason why. "That's too bad. Another time then." Personally, she thought she did job of sounding sincere.

"Thank you for accompanying me, my chivalrous knight." Eposi leaned in and pecked Zaida on the cheek. It was nothing sensual, but it certainly was not the sort of thing one would give to a mere friend. "Take care." She waved goodbye and disappeared inside her home.

Zaida lingered for a moment before recovering her self-awareness. Get yourself together, girl.

Succubi are demons characterised by their relationship with sexuality. They appear as feminine humanoids, but beyond that, there is little limitation to their forms. Their skin may be that which passes for a human, or it may be a more distinct colour such as red, or blue, or grey, to name a few examples. Some varieties possess horns and/or wings while others possess neither.

It is precisely this lack of physical conformity that makes succubi - and incubi - so difficult to defend against. As mentioned, succubi are distinguished from other demons by their sexuality. Whereas other demons frequently fixate on ****, harm, or mischief, succubi prey on humans by bedding them. It is understood that the encounter somehow nourishes or otherwise sates some hunger in the demon, but little is known beyond that. There is much contention on whether the encounter siphons some physical or ethereal element from the human, or simply leaves them fatigued.

It is suspected that succubi employ some sort of charming magic on their victims as some witnesses report cases of the demons revealing their true form mid-act without spurring any reaction from their prey. If so, the potency of this magic is limited. Some claim to have resisted the advances of succubi thanks to prior awareness of their demonic nature.

Apart from preemptive resistance, it seems that the only other unique defense against seduction by a succubus is an absence of compatible sexuality. Accounts by asexual individuals, homosexual men, and like persons point to an immunity to their charms based in sexual orientation.

Yorresie shivered. A demon that preys upon humans with sex? Surely nothing was sacred to the Demon Lord. The description of succubi and their nature was almost identical to that of incubi; only seeming to distinguish one from the other in their presentation of gender. The nun read as much as she could stomach before moving on to another section. She settled on a page containing a drawing of a creature that looked for all the world like a person wearing an octopus on their head. Out of sheer curiosity she looked to the description.

Illithids are demons with cephalopod heads. In nearly every other respect, their anatomy resembles that of a human, with the exceptions of their flesh and respiratory system. Their skin is hairless and smooth. Some describe it as a middle ground between that of a human, and that of an octopus or a squid. Some taxonomists insist on classifying them as amphibious demons for their ability to breathe both in and out of water. Others hesitate on the grounds that not enough is known about the rest of their biology to decisively categorise them.

In general, these creatures demonstrate a propensity for psionic magics. They possess such abilities as mind control, telepathy, and sensory manipulation. Recommended precautions in anticipation of an encounter with an illithid include wards for the mind, and artifacts with similar enchantments.

Of course. Of course there was such thing as a demon that specializes in controlling people. It could not possibly get better than that, could it?