The... """"Lair""""

Flourescent lighting didn't exactly set the mood for a witch's lair, but they didn't really find their way down into one. Instead, the stairs led down into what looked like an ordinary basement for a commercial building. At least in terms of shape, if not content. The basement had a number of boxes and plastic containers scattered around, labelled with post-it notes and scratchy writing. An amateurishly constructed wooden wall frame with some cheap drywall installed formed a divider between the initial storage area they were in and what Tom figured must have been the place the witch actually lived in.

Taking a few steps forward toward the wooden divider, Tom stepped into the hole where a door was obviously supposed to go, even if one wasn't present at the moment, or more probably ever. Still trying to maintain some amount of courtesy, Tom tapped his knuckles on the wooden frame to announce their presence.

"Rent tomorrow, Luis. I will have it by then," Nadiya's voice called out dismissively from within immediately after knocking on the divider. "But you will have to fix the bathroom sink first. It squeals when I turn on the hot water."

"Sounds like a real problem. Should we come back later?" Tom responded dryly, turning his head to give Sarah an amused look as he did.

"Ah!" There was a brief second or two of shuffling noises before a proper response came. "The husband! No, no. You are- Yes, it is the time I told you to come." The witch's voice came closer and then Nadiya appeared from around a corner of the constructed apartment area. She was wearing a loose t-shirt for a local university and jeans that seemed like they had been slept in about as often as they were worn around other people. Her hair was flat in the same way Sarah's got when she didn't bother to do anything with it, and the lighting of the basement didn't do a lot to improve her already notably pale skin.

"You really don't care much about keeping up the whole air of mysticism thing, huh?" Sarah spoke up with a slight hint of snarkiness.

Nadiya glanced at herself in a manner that was almost discreet, but quickly huffed and waved away the comment entirely. "Magic does not care what I am wearing," she said simply. "And your own attire gives you little room to criticize."

"I'm still BLUE!" Sarah complained, emphasizing it by pulling the hood of her coat down in frustration and shaking out her slightly messy hair. "Unless you're fine with Luis or whatever his name is asking questions about me, then I've gotta be wrapped up in this thing!"

Nadiya shrugged at that. "Luis is aware of magic and my work in general, though not in specific. He likely saw your appearance to some degree and simply chose not to comment on it. He is an observant man, among other things," she explained coolly. "But fine, we can work on solving the issue of your demonic appearance. It was one I had assumed to be the highest priority already, though handling it will require some... sacrifice."

Sarah frowned at the last word, not liking the sound of it. Tom could tell. The way she wrinkled her nose and squinted her eyes was too adorable to be an expression of any other kind of emotion.

"Wait, so you have an actual solution for the whole blue skin thing?" Tom asked, prompting Sarah to give him an annoyed glare for having apparently being willing to go alone with whatever 'sacrifice' might mean. "I was thinking that maybe it would take a few tries to get things right, but I guess I was wrong."

"The controlling of one's appearance is a standard power for a succubus to have, no?" Nadiya asked, though the tone of her voice made it seem like a rhetorical question. "My soul anchors and ties us together, but we can adjust the allowances of power between us. If I put more in, it can take more out and use it to access supernatural powers... Within bounds that I plan to keep full control over."

Sarah's annoyed look shifted back over to the witch. "So you're saying I can make myself look human?"

"Yes," Nadiya nodded, motioning over for the two to follow her further into her makeshift apartment. "Though ironically only because the demon would be given more power."

"Yeah yeah, I got that." Sarah brushed off the witch's words and followed her in. "What do I have to do then?"

Nadiya stopped to look back at the two of them for a moment before continuing onward. "Well, it will take some time to prepare, but not much," she said. "Physically, you need only participate in the uh, sealing of the deal, as it were."

"Oh, we're going to fuck, then?" Sarah asked bluntly. "You can just say it. You already sat on my face the other day, and I'm still kinda really horny like all the time now, sooooo..."

"So things are simple on your end, which is good, as I do not have to expect much competence out of you," Nadiya responded with a snort. Ignoring Sarah's noise of annoyance at her words, the witch led the two into a larger living room area. It was simple, with a sofa and coffee table in front of a rather old looking tv that sat on a set of shelves with a number of other electronic and mechanical items on it. Most of the rest of the living room was occupied by stacks of books and magazines, or various pieces of paper taped or otherwise pinned to the walls. Although a bit messy, nothing stood out to Tom as particularly strange or magical. It was just a messy basement apartment that looked like it belonged to a hoarder or conspiracy theorist. Or a hoarder conspiracy theorist.

"But as I said, that is how the deal is sealed. I am still figuring out what exactly the deal shall entail." Nadiya explained as she picked her way through the clutter toward a desk that sat against one of the walls. In comparison to the rest of the room, it looked nearly sterile, with only a laptop computer (that looked old enough to have run Windows XP sometime during its life) and a notepad set upon it.

"Not to be rude," Sarah began, the tone in her voice saying that she was about to be anyway, "but you're a witch, aren't you? You're the one with all the books and magic crap, but you don't already know what you're doing?"

"Do not mistake lack of resources and information for incompetence. Demon hunters make a point to suppress information regarding demonic contracts, and I think it is obvious that I am not in a financial position to easily secure what information they do not," Nadiya retorted in an even tone. "As it turns out, fleeing your home country leaves you with few assets."

"You could be like a normal person and get a job," Sarah fired back.

"Yes, I am of course a witch as a mere hobby. My true ambition is stocking shelves at a Walmart," Nadiya replied with dry sarcasm.

"Maybe you won't get rich, but-"

"Is this actually an important argument to have?" Tom finally stepped in, trying to head off the bickering between the women before it got out of hand. "I'm pretty sure you need each other, right?" Both Nadiya and Sarah turned to look at Tom as if they had forgotten he was there.

"Well, you're not wrong..." Sarah said while Nadiya just gave an affirmative nod.

"And while I can see the attraction of sniping at each other, I'd really rather get this sorted out so my wife can stop wearing a coat in the middle of the spring," Tom continued, looking to each woman in turn, before focusing back on Nadiya. "So, how can we help?"

Nadiya paused for a moment, looking like she was searching for the right words. "Unfortunately, it is... Somewhat up to your wife. To my understanding, our goal is to add additional layers of power into the exchange. More of my soul and the demon's essence are pooled together, but we both shape what that additional power can be used for. I allow the demon, and by extension its host, to access more of my soul in order to alter its appearance at will. In exchange, it supplies me additional power with which to..." Nadiya pauses in speaking again, but after a moment it starts to feel as though she wasn't just thinking of how to finish the sentence.

She was prompting Sarah to finish it instead.