Continue sneaking through the village

Tally stood there panting, and heaved a sigh of relief. He peered in the direction in which his assailant had run off, but there was no sign of her. “She’ll be back,” said Brim confidently. “Anyway, as I was saying, don’t you think this loaf of bread here looks extremely alluring?”

Tally ignored her suggestion and trudged on forward, hoping dearly not to run into anyone else. His luck might not be as generous next time. The soft clinking of his suit of armor and his own metallic breaths were the only sounds that accompanied him through the deserted ghost town- apart from, of course, the literal ghost, who was chattering away at all times as if she didn’t need to pause for breath; which of course she didn’t.

“You’re still horny,” Brim pouted, “I can feel it too. It’s driving me nuts, how the hell are you coping?”

“This isn’t the best time to do anything about it, Brim,” said Tally wearily. “I’ll just have to put it out of my mind. And I’d have a much easier time doing that if you didn’t keep talking about it all the time,” he continued, pointedly failing to notice Brim fingering herself in his peripheral vision. “You’re no fun,” said Brim, “I wish you’d fucked that bread back there when you had the chance. If you’d listened to me then, this would not be an issue right now.”

“Another time, Brim,” said Tally robotically.

“Oh come on, please! I have to live through you, you know.”

“Go possess someone else, then, if you need it that badly.”

“What, and leave you defenseless?” Said Brim in mock indignation. “I’ve already saved your life once today, how long do you think you’d last without me?”

Tally soon decided to make a pitstop at one of the more intact-looking of the ransacked houses the invaders had pillaged. It was clear from the overgrown look of the place that whoever had lived here was long gone, but perhaps there would be some supplies worth taking? Either way, Tally needed a safe place to rest. He tried to open the door- it collapsed inward at his touch- and let himself inside.

Inside, there was a short hallway which turned right and had doors into several rooms. Peering his head around the corner and looking down this hallway, Tally noticed that the door at the far end of the hall was ajar. Tally made towards it first, but froze just in time- right as his hand was inches from the doorknob, he noticed the muffled sounds of voices coming from the other side.

Brim brushed past Tally intangibly and stuck her head straight through the door in front of him. Invisible to anyone but Tally, she was able to get a good look into the room without being seen in return. “Looters,” said Brim, after pulling her head back out from the door. “They heard the sound of the door falling in, they’re talking about what to do next.”

As she spoke, the door swung open, and Tally was suddenly face-to-face with a small gang of bandits. The nearest, who had opened the door, looked at Tally for a long and awkward moment. This hallway was too cramped for Tally’s sword to be much use, and the bandits all were brandishing daggers. “Excuse me,” the nearest bandit said, “we’re busy.”

Recognizing himself as outmatched, Tally politely nodded and slowly began to back away from the door, not daring to break eye contact with any of the looters. “Right,” said Tally, “carry on, sorry to intrude, I’ll just be on my way.” They laughed and mocked as Tally walked backwards all the way down the hall and rounded the corner out of sight.

“Aagh!”

The looters stopped laughing. Tally’s muffled yelp was followed by the sounds of a brief struggle, then silence. “…You alright?” One of them called, nervous.

As soon as he had backed round the corner, Tally had bumped into something behind him. Before he could turn around and look, a hand clamped over his mouth and held him firmly. He tried to break free but to no avail; whoever was holding him was much stronger than he was. As soon as his initial shock subsided, Tally was released and allowed to turn to face his captor. It was Mi Iau, the woman he had attempted to brainwash earlier. She held a finger to her lips to keep him quiet, then strode past him through the hallway into the next room.

“Hello,” said Mi Lau to the looters, and drew her twin swords out with a dramatic flourish. “Oh dear,” Tally heard one of them say. Mi advanced forward, causing all of the looters to immediately drop what they were doing and scramble to get away. Tally heard a window smash, followed by several sets of rapidly receding footsteps. Brim, who had drawn up beside Tally, leaned over and said, “I think she’s ours.”

“They’re gone,” called Mi from the next room. Tally cautiously poked his head round the corner and looked. She was standing alone in the now empty room with her swords down at her sides, surveying several bags of supplies that the looters had abandoned in their haste to escape.

“Uh… thank you…” Tally said cautiously. Brim walked forward into the room ahead of Tally and started slowly circling Mi Iau, looking her up and down appraisingly.

“Sorry it took so long for me to turn,” Mi said, putting her swords away, “but when I did, I came looking for you as soon as I could.”

“Turned? So… you mean it worked?” Tally asked.

“Oh it worked,” glowed Brim, “look.” She pointed down at Mi’s crotch, where there was a large wet patch. Mi noticed Tally’s eyeline and looked down at herself too. “Ah, yes, um… was that something you did to me? I don’t know what’s got into me, I shouldn’t care about what happens to a little human like you… but here I am.”