With Xallia this distraught? You have to go.

Soon enough you're heading back the way you came. Xallia spends the time alternating between sitting quietly, looking sad and occasional moments of fury. By nightfall you've reached the crossroads and turned up the path to Veranna. Finally it gets dark enough that you must stop for the night or risk driving off the road. Anya starts taking care of the horses, Glenda starts dividing up some dry rations, which leaves you and Yulia with the task of talking to Xallia. None of you felt comfortable doing it while you were still traveling.

You look into her eyes and Xallia lets out a long sigh. "I'm sorry. Every time... I **** up just thinking about it. But you should know." She curls up against you, shivers and starts her story. "I'm sure you know that succubi will take almost any chance to get to the mortal world. It a chance to seduce and capture women and men. A succubus who leaves the realm and returns later with a few slaves is in a fantastic position compared with one who stays behind."

She twists in your arms and somehow presses more of her body against you. "But it's not just the power after we return that draws us. It's also a chance to escape the power struggles of the daemon realm. That's why so often there are stories and warnings about a succubus seducing some lord or powerful man and then staying with him, draining his essence. The stories always say we are plotting - and when we are eventually driven back to the daemon realm that is certainly the story we tell, but sometimes the truth is that we just want our time in the sun."

"Anything to get away from daemons like Thoros?" asks Yulia.

"There are many lesser lords who are a pleasure to work with but there are some who only enjoy having servants and underlings who are so indebted or fearful that they would lick the lord's boots without a second thought. But in the mortal realm? We're the 'big, swinging dicks' as some humans say. After leaving school and dealing with the harsh realities of the daemon realm a young succubus will throw her name out there and eagerly wait for someone to summon her. Even though it's almost always a mage who knows what he's doing it's still worth it. Some of us are all but addicted to the air of this world."

She sighs and breathes, perhaps reliving some happy memory before proceeding. "I was young and dumb. I did all kinds of favors and made sure my name was out there. Finally, I felt that pull. I didn't know what it was, but it was different. I followed the path and landed in a summoning circle. Outside was a rather young mage who looked quite pleased with himself. It was his first time as well. Unfortunately for me he was well aware of the dangers and had created his circle perfectly."

"What did he do to you?" you ask, tensing up.

Xallia lets out a sad laugh. "Neither of us knew what we were doing. It was so much like having sex for the first time. It took weeks before he finally settled on a series of pacts that would allow me freedom of movement but that would protect him and the town he lived in. I finally had the pleasure of looking out on the world of blue skies and green grasses. Instead I went to the window and saw bleak gray sky and snow packed against the sides of trees."

"I was so distraught - I actually said 'this isn't what I bargained for!' and it broke the veneer of the act we had both been playing. He laughed. I remember it was an honest, kind laugh, and he asked me 'What? You've never heard of winter?' I was such a weak little dummy that I started sniffling. He was so wet behind the ears that he got me a blanket and made me some hot chocolate. Then he accidentally promised me that I'd get the chance to see summer."

"Oh, you mean like, promised?" asks Yulia.

"Yes. And from there things got interesting. He didn't have any way to keep me hidden that long without my help. Within a month we were working together quite closely. He learned a great deal about illusions, I learned so much about your world. I mean, when you don't know about the seasons there's a lot you can learn."

"But what about feeding?" you ask.

"After a lot of promises I did convince him to have sex with me. In time I also convinced him to let me out so I could have fun in the town - carefully." She squeezes your hand and says "But... the thing is, I was so dumb back then. He was surprised by my cock and it was obviously putting him off. And I offered to get rid of it for him." She shakes her head. "Dumb, dumb, dumb! I told him how I could be all man or all woman for him with a little mana."

"So you changed to be like you are now" says Yulia. "That's not too bad, as long as you wanted it."

"Yes, but I wasn't... I didn't..." she sighs and collects herself. "I had never tried changing into an incubus or gyno-succubus. I knew there were some differences, but I said to myself 'Pfffbt - I can deal with that. Whatever!'" She shakes her head again and says "You know how feminine and submissive I get. He was handsome and kind... Falling in love with a mage. It's the first on a list of things we succubi are not supposed to do in the mortal realm. But stupid little Xallia did just that."

"Oh!" says Yulia. "It sounds like something from a song."

"It sounds like something from a bawdy tale" replies Xallia. "But yes. And... it worked out really well. Havian and I were a team. He burned marriage proposals gleefully whenever they showed up. He took me all over the place, even to parties, I slept in his bed, I even tried to cook him dinner. It was not how any normal mage would treat a succubus."

She starts crying. Through the tears she says "Then the clothes he bought me started to get tight around the middle. I... I had never been pregnant before. I missed all the signs. I told him, I thought he understood. But now... <sniff> now I know he started playing me. We spent a year and a half together. He was my world. And finally I gave birth to our daughter. We were both so happy. He rubbed her little horn nubs and kissed her on the forehead."

Now she really starts to **** up. "But it was all a lie. A month later I was out in town and I suddenly felt this pull. The circle was broken and I was being pulled back to the daemon realm. A brokenhearted succubus with no slaves, no grand plots, to show for her long stay in the human world. I got passed around after that. Daemons knew what to do with a young, submissive succubus. I bartered my body again and again, trying to get enough energy to change into an incubus. I didn't want to be so weak again. I was so very careful with every other mage who summoned me."

She shudders. "But to truly clear my debt I had to barter with a powerful daemon. He **** me to turn back into a gyno-succubus to carry his child. That horrible year, chained, submissive, pregnant and at his beck and call - that was what it finally took to pay back what Havian did to me." Crying freely she says "It took years for me to get over it. And that's not the worst of it. What did he do with my daughter?!?"

"But she's his daughter too" you say, gently stroking her cheek.

"There are things mages can do" she whispers. "Daemonic sacrifice..."

Yulia hugs Xallia tight and your succubus stops talking.

You tell her "Xallia, if your little girl isn't safe and sound then this Havian is about to have the last visitors of his life."