No.

“Woman.” I corrected, almost without meaning to.

“Oh!” The man’s eyes widened slightly, and a faint blush appeared on his cheeks. “My apologies, miss, I’ve never had a good sense for that sort of thing like other folk do.”

“She’s standing here, naked, and clearly disguised as a human. I think my suspicion is justified.” The woman cut in.

“I am a human.” I corrected again. “At least, I think so. I can’t remember.”

“You can’t remember if you’re human?” The woman asked, her eyes narrowing.

“I can’t remember anything. Where am I?”

“If you truly are a human, you’re a long way from home. In fact, I’m not very well-versed on matters of the metaphysical, but I was pretty sure it was impossible for humans to be here.” The man said, narrowing his eyes as well, but in his case, it was clearly because he was in deep thought.

“It is impossible. Which is exactly why we shouldn’t trust her. She’s clearly lying.”

“She’s not.” A voice said from behind me.

I spun around in reflex and even entered something one might consider a combat stance. In my case though, it was just to have my arms outstretched and left hand open while my right hand grasped the red book tightly and keeping myself hunched and low to the ground. This posture didn’t feel like it would have much of a practical purpose in a combat situation, but it was evidently muscle-memory that guided my body into it.

The voice that spoke belonged to an absolutely gorgeous woman with a slender frame, pale skin, auburn hair, and red eyes. Like the man, she had pointed ears and black sclera, but she also sported a pair of small horns protruding from her forehead and a long spade-tipped tail that was swishing behind her. She was dressed in a pair of leather pants which were tight to her shapely thighs and a pair of heeled boots. On her top she only wore a wide belt over her modest breasts. Strapped to the sides of both of her thighs in holsters that hugged the legs of her pants were a pair of ornate daggers.

The moment I had turned around, her eyes were only on mine very briefly before quickly shifting downward toward my exposed loins. She eyed my lengthy penis and licked her lips before she turned her gaze back to my eyes and winked. She otherwise did not react to my “combat” stance in any way.

“Korivia?” The woman on the cart called out. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I’ve been stalking her for about an hour now and she’s telling the truth. She genuinely doesn’t know where she is or even who she is. So, you can calm down now, Veshra.” After addressing the other woman, the auburn-haired beauty, evidently Korivia, turned to me and smiled. “My name is Korivia. The suspicious one is Veshra. We’re mercenaries protecting the guy with the cart, he’s Artor.”

“I’m…” I began on instinct before I realized I didn’t quite remember my own name. Then I heard the strange and comforting voice echo the name it spoke in my head. “Silus.” I finished. Even if that wasn’t my name, it would serve as one just fine.

“Well,” the man, Artor, began, “if you really are a human and you have no idea why you’re here, you’re likely to have a lot of questions. Why don’t you come with us and we’ll explain a few things on the way to Cantis.”

“Now we have to babysit her?” Veshra asked as she finally sat down in the back of the cart.

“You don’t have to worry about a thing, Veshra, I’ll make her my responsibility.” Korivia answered.

“You gonna charge her for the protection?” Veshra spat, but then rolled her eyes. “Why did I even bother asking, of course you aren’t.” She then folded her arms and looked off the side of the cart in a huff.

Taking Artor up on his offer, I climbed up into the back of the cart and sat down across from Veshra but close to the coach, as I was eager to get some answers about my whereabouts. The man said something about their destination being Cantis, but this name held no meaning to me, it didn’t even sound familiar. Korivia hopped up into the cart as well, and seated herself right next to me, very close to me in fact.

“Well,” the man began as he touched the red orb in front of him and the cart started to move again of its own volition, “this may be a bit of a shock to you, but you aren’t in the human world. You’re in Abyssia.” This was a name that held meaning to me. I knew it to be the name of a parallel plane of existence to the human world, a place where the souls of sinners go to work off their moral debts. Suddenly I was gripped with fear.

“Am I going to be tortured?” I asked, swallowing hard. “Am I dead?”

“No, and no.” Korivia corrected.

“In fact, you not being dead is kind of strange.” Artor continued. “Humans can’t normally get here while still alive, I’ve been told it’s impossible in fact.”

“Not technically impossible,” Veshra said, sighing, which surprised me since she was the one who said it was impossible initially, “but it requires extremely powerful magic cast by a demon, probably an archdemon in fact. And it would require somehow making it through the previous three layers without being caught by the King’s Guard. Even if a living mortal somehow managed to do all of that, they’re forbidden to be here.”

“Though you needn’t worry, love.” Korivia cut in as she placed a hand on my thigh. I assumed this was meant to be an assuring gesture, but given my state of nudity meant her hand was also very close to my bare penis. “Abyssia is a series of layers, like a cake, and each layer is ruled by its own duke or duchess.”

“All ‘cept for this one.” Artor finished. “This layer hasn’t had a ruler in centuries. Some crazy knight-lady is guarding the throne and won’t let anyone take it.”

“So basically,” Korivia began as her hand idly rubbed my thigh, “you get a pass to be around here since there is no duke or duchess to enforce the King’s law. Just steer clear of the King’s Guard, you’ll know ‘em when you see ‘em.”

Though Korivia seemed to be doing her best to distract me, I managed to soak it all in without issue. It was strangely making a lot of sense to me, and I had the feeling I had heard it all before.

“What’s with the book?” Veshra asked suddenly.

I had almost forgotten I had it in all the excitement. “I don’t know. It was lying on the ground next to me. It’s totally blank except the first page.”

Veshra’s eyes seemed to narrow, but not in suspicion for once, just in deep thought. After a few moments of silence she spoke up. “So what are we going to do with her?”

“Well, I know a lady in Canto that was lookin’ for an extra pair of hands around her tavern. She’s got a spare bed too. I hope you don’t mind workin’ for your keep. It’s just how things go ‘round here.” Artor said.

“I’m not really sure what I’d be good at, but I don’t mind.”

Artor shrugged. “She owns a tavern and manages it mostly by herself. I don’t think she’s looking for any skilled labor.”

“Oh, is it Ivy?” Korivia asked and Veshra’s lip twitched at the name.

“Aye.” Artor confirmed.

“She’s gonna like her.” Korivia giggled.

There was silence again, but I was content with it this time. I had a lot to think about. I had no memory of how I got here, but it would seem the only way I could have gotten here was through some powerful magic cast by an “archdemon”, whatever that was. Which probably meant that getting out would require similarly powerful magic. The way Veshra talked about it, it sounded like finding one that could do it would be difficult at best. And even if I managed to find one, I would have no idea where to have it send me.

It seemed that all roads led to one singular conclusion. I would be stuck here, so I needed to start treating this place like my new home. At the very least until I knew more about my past and why I was here in the first place. If that was going to be the case, however, I had some burning questions that I needed answered.

“What’s Cantis?” Was the first of them.

“It’s the capital city of Dystopia. It has the largest congregation of demons throughout the layer, which ain’t saying a whole lot. Compared to other layers, this one doesn’t have many folk.” Artor explained.

“You’ll get along just fine here.” Korivia added. “This place, as you can probably tell, looks pretty similar to the human world. Dystopia’s last duke made it that way, he was fascinated by humans.”

“Might’ve noticed I don’t look very demon-like.” Artor turned his head and smiled at me. “Folk like me are called ‘omen’ I think, we’re demons that were designed by our last duke to look as human as a demon can. At least I’m pretty sure that’s right.”

“Okay, what about you two then?” I nodded to Veshra and Korivia in turn, the latter of which was rubbing her hand so close to my cock that her finger actually brushed against it.

“I’m an ifran.” Veshra said. “You can tell because of the red skin, horns, eyes, and tail. Most of us look like this save for a few.”

“And I’m a succubus.” Korivia grinned and finally took the plunge, wrapping her petite fingers around my cock and starting to stroke. She seemed to guess, rather correctly, that I wouldn’t mind given that I hadn’t stopped her yet. She was gorgeous. “And there really isn’t a good way to tell a succubus from anyone else. We can change our shape to look like whatever we like. Or more accurately, whatever our partner likes.” She wiggled her brows at me and stroked a bit more intensely.

“Okay next question,” I began in a slightly strained voice, “I’m certainly not complaining, but is what’s happening right now normal?”

Korivia laughed and Veshra rolled her eyes, a gesture I could only tell she did because of the movement of her head, as her eyes did not appear to move at all.

“Pretty normal.” Artor said. “I don’t know much about the human world, but I do know that your kind has a slightly different outlook on sex in general. For us, sex is just another recreational activity. There usually aren’t any special rituals or even major connections involved, and if there are, they’re usually coincidental.”

“And as I understand it,” Korivia began, expertly twirling her thumb around my tip as she spoke, “humans use sex to reproduce.”

“Really?” Artor asked, sounding shocked. “That’s weird.”

“As you might have guessed, demons don’t reproduce that way. We spawn from pits that are spread throughout Abyssia. So, while humans might arguably have good reason for the rituals and courtship that you’ve built around your sexual instincts, demons don’t have any such reasons.” Korivia explained while sliding her hand up and down my growing length. “We just embrace what feels good.”

This didn’t sound like such a bad philosophy to me. Despite not being a demon, I felt at home with this knowledge and this place. The puzzle of my past was beginning to put itself together based only on how I felt about this whole situation. Clearly, I was someone who was somehow involved in Abyssia and its inhabitants, though in what capacity I wasn’t sure yet.

“I have to ask,” I said, trying my best to ignore the skillful hand of the succubus, “that if sex is a recreational thing around here, am I going to get… um… assaulted?”

There was an air of confusion among the three of them. Korivia seemed to be the one to understand what I meant first. “Oh! You won’t need to worry about that. Artor alluded to this earlier, but most demons can innately tell what gender other people identify as. You’ll rarely find yourself in awkward situations like earlier, Artor is just unique, his sense isn’t as sharp for that sort of thing.”

“Good to know. And I took no offense.” I said. To be frank, I hadn’t even thought about it until he brought it up anyway. “What does that have to do with what I asked though?”

“Well, demons also have an innate sense for when someone is attracted to them, and it actually factors into their own assessment of how attractive they will find you. In other words, if you aren’t attracted to them, they won’t be attracted to you.”

“But perhaps most importantly,” Veshra cut in, “since sex is just a recreational thing and not a big deal, nobody is going to feel insulted or personally slighted if you turn down their offer. You may be surprised to know that we actually take consent pretty seriously around here.”

“You’ll learn more about that from Ivy, probably.” Korivia added. “Now are there any more questions or can I suck this gorgeous meat-pole already?”