When Sairek came to, the first thing he recognized was the insane ache he felt at the back of his head, which he vividly remembered that bastard incubus clubbing him to knock him out - not something he expected from a race that was supposed to be "rather powerless" from being banished. He quietly groaned as he was laying on his left side. He tried to move his arms to hold the spot where his head was throbbing with a dull pain still, but he found out he couldn’t move… Was the poison still active…?
He looked around a little and he could wiggle his fingers without much resistance. No, the poison seemed to have passed through his system by now, but he still couldn’t move his arms from behind his back. Wriggling where he lay, he heard the distinctive rattling of chains.
Ah…
He didn’t know where he was. He wasn’t blindfolded, but the room he was in was pitch black. With a grunt of effort, he managed to roll himself upright. “Dammit…! Damn, damn, damn…!” He hissed to himself over and over again. If he was tied with rope, getting out of them would have been easy with magic, even without the staff. But chains…? Not happening, not without some serious force, and that may not work still. He had no staff, but he could still feel the jewel was with him. Apparently the demons didn’t know the importance of it. If they did, he was sure he would have been stripped out of his shirt immediately. "At the very least, I still have clothes on..." he reasoned to himself bitterly. With how that incubus was treating him like fine-cut meat, he would have thought he would have been stripped down to nothing before being tied up. Maybe the demon hadn’t had time, though? Surely the others by now were looking for him and perhaps were making a lot of noise while doing so…
Despite the room being pitch black, he looked around again and he could see the faintest of lights coming from under a small crack near the floor. He assumed perhaps there was some door or something in whatever enclosed room he was in that direction. From that light, he could make out Lamen’s make of stonework, meaning he had not in fact been carried out of the city yet. That was good…
He wriggled himself again, trying his best to not make his chains rattle. He pressed up against a wood surface with his face of which what he assumed to be the door, to see if he could hear anything, but it was quiet on the other side.
If he had been thrown in a closet or something, it was sure to not have a lock on it, but they could have put something in front of the door to reinforce it closed just in case, or to prevent someone else from noticing the door itself. Still, if he was stuck here, what else could he do? Waiting wasn’t productive. He needed to try and get out of here… so he shuffled himself back against a wall and used it for leverage as he slowly, quietly, clambered himself upright awkwardly, where he realized his ankles too, were tied together and not just his wrists.
Great...
He turned himself around to press his back against the door and tried to inch himself to sort of climb the wall by pressing his back against the door and pushing with his feet against the wall in front of him. He grunted with effort, and only got a few inches up before he hissed and fell on his butt and made a loud thump while bonking his head faintly on something metal, possibly the door knob.
“Ugh! Dammit…” He groaned. This wouldn’t work. Opening the door with his hands behind his back when he couldn’t even see where the knob was in this pitch blackness was a futile endeavor. How infuriating… He doubted he was tall enough to reach the doorknob with his hands tied behind his back as he was.
Sairek wiggled his hands, desperately wishing he had been better with magic without his staff than what he was, though he still felt dizzy from being knocked out. It was possible that with the massive headache he still had in the back of his head, that even if he had been skilled at magic, it would already be even more difficult in his current state.
Regardless… all he could do was wait. Either for his salvation, or his doom. Whatever came first. But if Cyial and Nayleen had noticed him missing by now, then surely the city would lock itself down from all exits. He just hoped he would be fine until then… and would be able to stall for time, if possible.
After a few minutes of silence, he heard a sound, then footsteps approaching the door. He tensed himself in preparation, his stomach twisting into knots and he broke into a cold sweat, before light came on in the room behind the door he was in, and it swung open and the light from the doorway momentarily blinded him. He squinted his eyes, and cried out as he was suddenly grabbed and dragged out of the room out of the closet he was in and hauled up onto his feet.
He had to blink a few times to adjust to the light, where he saw three figures… Pararis and two other women, who if he had to guess from Pararis’s words earlier, the two women were succubi… One of them was tall and blonde with straight hair down her shoulders and the other one was even taller with black hair, fixed down into a long ponytail. Their outfits left fairly little to the imagination, and Sairek would have perhaps blushed had he not felt so pissed off and angry at them in that moment.
“My my my! Well aren’t you just a cute little thing!” The blonde one spoke. “Aww, but you ruffled up his hair a bit, Pararis.” She finished with a pout.
“I couldn’t help it. He was much heavier to carry in the sack than I would have thought, given his rather… diminutive size.” Pararis grumbled, holding Sairek steady from behind.
“Oi…” Sairek growled back at his comment, craning his head back to glare at the incubus.
“But besides that, he was distracting me. If I didn't know better, I would have sworn he was enjoying me violating him, trying to keep me there for longer so I’d get caught.” Pararis continued with a wicked grin on his face.
“W-What–!?” Sairek let out in disbelief. “You think I want you to violate me!? You’re even more twisted than I thought!”
Sairek gasped as he felt a hand tugging at his belt, and he whipped his head around and immediately began squirming in Pararis’ hold as best as he could. Unfortunately, bound by both his ankles, wrists and an adult demon holding him even further meant any resistances he managed were rather easy to overcome… Still, he managed to get a few good kicks in.
“My, you want to see the goods already, Natalie?” Pararis asked, as the dark-haired woman eventually yanked the belt away from Sairek’s body and tossed it on the floor with a clatter.
“Obviously. The chains are in the way, though.” The dark-haired woman said. Her voice was deep, husky, and had a tone of annoyance at being kicked.
“Of course. But he is a feisty one, I’ll have you know. Holding him like this is not easy.”
“I guess I’ll just have to fix that, then.” Natalie murmured, her hands coming up to grip Sairek’s shoulders tightly.
“You can fix it by letting me go, you crazy bitch!” Sairek yelled venomously at her.
“...Bitch?” Natalie blinked, as if she hadn’t heard the word before. Then she smirked. It was a smirk that was just as wicked and untamed as the incubus. “Well, I was going to go a bit easy on you. But after kicking me and calling me a bitch, I’ll just give you a full dose.”
“Full dose? What are—AGH!! OW!!”
Sairek’s body stiffened as she grabbed the back of his hair, yanked his head back to expose his throat then bit into his neck, right under his jaw. The pain was sharp and immediate and caused him to soundlessly gasp. She held himself there and he whimpered in uncertainty, discomfort, pain and the sheer violation he was experiencing. She backed away a few seconds later, releasing him as she stepped back. The bite didn't feel like it was too strong on his skin, but... what did she just do to him...?
“Oh, Natalie, that’s mean. You’re going to have him drooling if you’re that aggressive.” The blonde woman pouted again.
“Trisca, he just called me a bitch.” She replied evenly, then tilted her head with a smirk. “And before long, I think we will have him begging to apologize… among other things. So, how do you feel, boy?”
Sairek gritted his teeth. He was beginning to feel… hot and feverish or... something, especially where he had just been bitten. He was also beginning to feel something that wasn't quite nausea, but it felt pretty close. He was beginning to break out into a sweat. “W-What did you just do to me…?” Sairek rasped. The heated feeling was starting to become centered in his lower half for sure...
“Well, I guess you could say it’s a sort of poison we ‘cubi’ emit in our saliva when we are desperately hungry…” Pararis explained. “It makes the prey… more accepting to our advances, lets say. In other words, it acts as an aphrodisiac.”
“...I have no idea what any of that means…” Sairek growled out, gulping dryly.
“That’s okay, sweetie. If an explanation doesn’t work, then I guess a physical demonstration will just have to do, right?” Trisca smiled sweetly. “But it’s been so long… and you’re a veeerrryyyy special prize, so I do want us to take our time with this… Don’t worry, soon you will be swimming in pleasure... or pain; depends how the black magic reacts inside of a human! I guess we're about to see~“
Sairek’s eyes flicked back and forth around the room nervously as he panted for breath while the three demons began to enclose around him…
* * *
Cyial shoved open the monastery doors with Lavian running behind him. “Father Abbot, Father Abbot!” Cyial yelled for him. He saw many of the acolytes in the building were looking at them both as they ran by, murmuring and quizzical looks of confusion being given his way. When they passed by the double doors into the ritual room, Cyial paused for a moment, catching his breath, as did Lavian. She looked even worse than he did, but then again, she was running in armor. “This—This is the ritual room…” He breathed, feeling sweat dripping onto his eyebrows, he raised his left arm to wipe it away from his forehead. “If we’re going to do as you planned, I need to get materials again from my room to—to get it ready... I don’t know if it will work though…”
“It may be worth a try. Go to your room and get the items, I’ll ask around for the Abbot.” Lavian ordered him through heaving breaths of her own.
“O-Okay.”
Cyial continued through the ritual room onto the other side and sprinted down the hall, holding his book in his left hand and Sairek’s staff in the other, hugging both items closely to himself. His lungs felt like they may burst at any moment. He had been running around for several hours now. All around the monastery, all the way from one side of the city, then all the way back… but he couldn’t stop now. He needed to find Sairek. Nayleen was probably feeling a similar burn by now as well. She had been looking outside the city looking for Sairek the entire time, and without her coming back, chances are she probably hadn't found him yet, either.
His legs felt like they were about to collapse under his weight by the time he slammed the door to his room open, and he had to take a moment to half collapse on the bed to take a moment to breathe. His eyes were closed from the exertion and when he reopened them, he pushed himself off the bed a little, head looking downwards when he froze and the air in his lungs became trapped for a few seconds.
That droplet of liquid he had seen last night… he had forgotten all about it this morning and because it had been so dark, he couldn’t make out its color, but now that he could… what he had mistaken as perhaps a drop of the stew was not in fact that at all. The drop on his floor that was staining was… turquoise.
Cyial thought back to the man he saw, mixing that solution, attempting to make it turquoise…
It was like all the puzzle pieces slid themselves together all at once.
No wonder Cyial never recognized the man. Did someone seriously come and disguise themselves as a senior monastery member and concoct something and give it to Sairek as he slept…? What other explanation was there?
Mudwort… it did have a paralyzing effect, a very powerful one. It could kill if used in large doses, that was why they at the monastery were very liberal with its use. Used sparingly, it could be used to lock the muscles and decrease blood flow temporarily, the monastery used it for serious emergencies, like a decapitated limb or cut artery or something critical like that as a temporary stop-gap. Sairek did mention he was feeling a bit numb… mixed with etherweed, it would slow down the poison, but if there was enough mudwort, it would get through eventually... and then the subject would be totally helpless for a while.
“Dammit–!”
Cyial swore loudly. The problem had been right in front of him the entire time and yet he somehow still failed to see it and failed to protect Sairek even though Sairek had protected him.
Anger and frustration surged through him as he got up off of his bed and the floor. He rummaged through his desk frantically, pulling out bits and bobs needed to redraw the ritual symbol again. At the very least, he knew who the culprit most likely was. If that person had taken Sairek, then surely someone must have seen him outside the monastery or something as well if this plan didn't work?
Cyial stuffed small pouches of salt and chalk into his robe as well as some tiny crystals, and dashed outside of his room to tell Lavian what he realized.
* * *
“Argh…! G-Get off of me…!” Sairek demanded through a bated breath. The ‘cubi’ as they called themselves were 'generous' enough to remove his restraints, but it did little for him as they had pinned him and the rest of his limbs down onto the floor with him on his back, Pararis holding his arms and hands pinned above his head, forcing his head to rest in the Incubi’s legs, while the blonde succubus kept his legs pressed down on the floor. By now, the dark-haired one, Natalie, was leaning over his form, hands and legs on either side of him, where she rested her weight uncomfortably seated right on his lap and stomach, causing him to gasp and wriggle in discomfort from all the weight sitting atop of him.
“I see the saliva is starting to work well. You are a well-formed despite the rest of you being so small.” Natalie purred, causing Sairek’s face to flush and he flinched again when he felt her hand slide under his shirt, caressing his skin. It caused him to shiver goosebumps, yet there was a tingling sensation; very similar to what he felt from the bite and her fingertips were wet. Did she wet them with her own mouth...?! "Y-You're disgusting...!" Sairek scowled sharply.
Fortunately for him, his mind still seemed to remain sound, but it didn’t help with the effects he was feeling physically as she slowly revealed more of his body while the fabric of his shirt was drawn and tugged further up and up. Then her other hand joined in, roaming and exploring his skin, up to his chest.
“Ungh… dammit…!” Sairek cursed, writhing and buckling underneath her. “What is it with you people—Angh!?”
“Oh, you’re quite sensitive.” Natalie noted. Her tone was neutral, almost surgical in her observation. She didn’t sound threatening, and yet that lack of emotion is what made Sairek even more afraid with how this seemed so... normal to her. He was livestock to her. She literally saw him as nothing more than a means to an end. An object. Food.
“I noticed that before I brought him here.” Pararis agreed.
"Of course... I'm sensitive! You bastards... are touching me inappropriately!!" Sairek swore angrily, renewing his fruitless struggling.
“Pararis, you took him already?” Natalie said to Incubus, ignoring the flailing boy beneath her like he was just white noise in the background. Her tone had a hint of an feral growl to it.
“No. I only sized up the meal. It was not like I had the time. I did bring him here, you know. It was just a little lick of a taste.” Pararis reasoned. "You should be more appreciative I'm letting you go first, you know, after all the hard work I did to capture the stock..."
“Jackrats…!” Sairek hissed, holding back a sound that wanted to release from his throat as the touches on his body continued. He couldn’t stop a moan of relief that came from him afterwards however, when Natalie shifted her weight down below, finding a more appropriate purchase between his legs that felt more comfortable from the suffocating weight of her sitting down to pin him on his stomach. Relief at that...? Just what in the Flaming Lands were these demons doing to him…?!
“Oh~ You liked that finally, did you?” Trisca said from behind Natalie, teasing the sound Sairek made.
“N-Not at all…! I hate all of this!” Sairek growled, renewing his struggles, trying to pull his leg and arms free, again a fruitless endeavor. “Just… P-Please stop! I won’t say anything if you let me go right now…!” He begged. “You realize the whole city is probably out looking for me right now!? You do know who I am, right...?!”
“Do you not understand how big Lamen is? It is by no means the capital of Kior, but even if the whole guard was searching, it would take them days to search every nook and cranny… We could be anywhere.” Natalie purred, moving a hand to cup his chin to tilt it to look directly into her eyes, though Sairek averted his pupils gaze off to the side. He didn’t know if they possessed any hypnotic abilities like Balgira may have initially suggested with Cyial, but he was taking no chances if just her biting him in the neck has caused him to sweat feverishly and feel dizzy and weak. “Besides, we have a plan for that…”
“Is each of your hunger so demanding that each of you are honestly willing to risk all of this and break so many laws, just to sate yourselves...?!” Sairek whimpered, wincing as Natalie’s advances along his body continued.
“Obviously,” Pararis replied, his tone dry and weary.
“Th-Then surely there’s a better method to this madness than—than this…!” Sairek gasped, twisting as best as he could in reaction to more touches along his skin.
“Oh, are you showing us sympathy? Perhaps that little incubus friend of yours is controlling you more than I thought.” Pararis replied, amused. “I’m sure within time, he would have fed off of you as well, just like we are going to do, you know.”
“Unlike you bastards, he at least warned me of that possibility and he certainly didn’t drug me in my sleep and kidnap me to be used!!” Sairek barked, his temper flaring. He’d had enough of this. He began pouring energy from his jewel, beginning to form it into a spell—
“...Unnh—H-Hey!” He groaned when he felt Natalie shift her weight against his lower half again. It caused him to shudder and break his concentration immediately, which turned into alarm when she felt her place her hand where it most certainly should not be. “Don't you DARE you bitch!!” He spat. “I mean it!!”
She gave him a 'who, me?' look, grinned, at him, and repeated the motion despite the threat. causing Sairek to release a strangled sound from his throat that was half bewildered, and half feral rage.
* * *
Cyial kept his eyes closed, trying to stop a tidal wave of thoughts and concerns running through his head, trying to keep them at bay and to keep his mind clear. He held Sairek’s staff in his lap, just like the Prince himself had done.
He wasn’t sure if binding his soul to the staff would work to also help him find Sairek. It was Lavian’s idea, but he supposed it was worth a try. There was nothing more that he could do anyways. Searching the streets so far had come up with nothing and there were already possibly a couple dozen knights searching. Sitting here while Father Abbot did his work was all he could do...
It only felt like a couple minutes had passed when he felt a surge going through him and he blinked his eyes open immediately, looking down at the staff in his lap.
“...So this is what it’s like when he holds it…?” Cyial mumbled to himself. It was like having another set of senses open to him. He couldn’t see ethereal around him, but he could sure feel it. It was like being able to sense the flow of the wind without feeling it on his face. Cyial opened his eyes, looking up at Father Abbot and Lavian.
“Well, what do you feel?” Lavian asked him.
“U-Umm…” Cyial began, closing his eyes again, concentrating hard. “I—I don’t know how to do this, exactly… It’s not the same for humans and demons like myself…”
“The best way I can describe it for you is as if you’re trying to reach out with your consciousness, Cyial.” Father Abbot said to him. “That feeling you have when you know you’re not alone, that you can feel the other’s presence is what you’re looking for, lad.”
“Okay, I'll try…” Cyial inhaled deeply and exhaled, trying to calm himself. He tried to remember that feeling and tried to expand his consciousness out. He wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but he assumed it meant trying to just notice everything, pick up every little detail in what he was feeling, concentrating on the gentle weaves and flow of ethereal he felt… but in a city like Lamen, there was a lot of noise within those waves. Thousands and thousands of people living in one location caused a lot of white noise it seemed.
Then there was something, faint, distant and distinct, it was just a blip and the realization that he felt this made him lose it again, but he opened his eyes in sudden realization. "I think I… it, it was that way…!” Cyial said, pointing. "It didn't feel far... They must be hiding somewhere close; they probably couldn't carry him far!"
Lavian took a moment to orient their direction to where Cyial pointed. “That’s… south east of the city, isn’t it?”
“Yes, then it seems the Prince may be near the docks, the merchant goods storehouse specifically I believe. Not a lot of people would be around there at this time of night. It makes sense." Father Abbot said thoughtfully.
“You're probably right, he may been taken to an old warehouse or something.” Lavian agreed, making Cyial yelp as she outright lifted him up from his seated position on the floor and settled him onto her back. “Sorry sir, but I’m borrowing this acolyte for a bit!”
“Of course.” Father Abbot smiled.
“This might be a bumpy ride, but keep trying to concentrate Cyial!” Lavian told him as she began to spring out of the monastery with the small incubus on her back in a full sprint.
* * *
“Grrnnh…”
Sairek growled and shuddered, twitching and writhing. This was all kinds of embarrassing, shameful, wrong. Why in the world was his body beginning to welcome this kind of abuse when he despised it many times over...?
With his several attempts trying to cast a spell failing over and over, the demons at this point had either become privy of what he was trying to do, or had just moved on and had taken his shirt off, leaving him bare regardless from the waist up as he still struggled to try and get Natalie off of him. It was causing him to make strangled sounds. Some of those were of course in displeasure at the situation, but not all of them. And that terrified him.
“I think he’s about ready.” Natalie purred after a couple more minutes of this.
“S-Seriously… are you going to do this…?” Sairek growled with a groan. "How do you even know our species are... c-compatible in that way?!"
“W-What...? Gracious, no! That’s not how us ‘cubi’ feed at all!” Pararis chuckled in amusement moving to brush a few bangs of hair from Sairek’s face, which by now the Prince's forehead was covered in a light film of sweat from his constant struggling and the exertion of this torture. “Though, it can be enjoyable for us demons, just like you humans… but we don’t need to do anything at all. It’s all centered around you and the energy you let out.”
“G-Great… S-So how about you do this with each other and leave me out of it…?!” Sairek spat through a strained voice, biting his bottom lip.
“Demons are much the same way, too, but other ‘cubi’ cannot satiate each other in that way. Well, in theory we could, but it would leave the other drained. And all three of us are empty anyway.” Pararis explained to him.
“D-Darn... Wh...What… a pity… grrh…” Sairek groaned, squeezing his eyes shut, fighting back another embarrassing noise. He didn’t know how much longer he could resist this… It felt like this had been going on for hours, but in reality, it was probably much shorter than that.
He realized that he would just have to try something anyway... Just because he didn’t have his staff or his jewel now, did not mean magic was gone from him - though judging from the saliva, which was most likely filled with black magic, it must be fading fast from him.
Even if it was only a little, only a fraction, not even a spell, he could probably hurt them, but he struggled to even get a spell off with the jewel... how could he gather energy into his hands like that with enough build up to buy some time with?
There was also the problem that Pararis was still holding his wrists down, while Trisca was holding his feet down… so his limbs were not viable options, though, magic could in theory be projected out of anywhere. Even one’s mouth if they felt like it—
...Oh. That was an idea...
An insanely risky and strange one… but he couldn’t think of anything else in his desperation...
“H-How drawl…” Sairek grunted, resisting the tensions he felt in his groin. “I would h-have at least expected you guys to m-make this a b-bit more...s-sensual at the very least…”
Natalie stopped her movements for a second to look at him with a quirked eyebrow. “Oho, is that so...?”
“Y-Yeah…!” Sairek grunted. "H-How can you expect any human to e-enjoy this... if you're being so... so clinical about it...!?"
Gracious, he felt so embarrassed right now. What exactly was coming out of his mouth?
...Oh well, as long as it worked... if it didn't... he didn't know if he would be able to handle it.
“...Fine.” She crooned, leaning over him, shifting her weight as her face neared Sairek’s until she was only a couple of inches away from him. “I’ll allow you to swim in a pleasure so blissful in your little mind, that you—”
It was then that Sairek lifted his head up, bit her hard on the nose and released as much raw ethereal that fizzled out through his mouth and his teeth as he could. Unlike her - he didn't leave it at just a firm press. Sairek felt a vague taste of copper in his mouth by the time she managed to pull away in reaction.
“That's what you get for biting me, you damn bitch...!” Sairek gasped as she jumped and fell backwards. Her scream of pain was satisfying to him. The release of her weight off of his crotch was even better. He tried not to pay any attention to the sizable lump evident within his pants as Natalie jumped up and bumped right into Trisca, causing them both to tumble to the ground and off of him. That left his bottom-half free from the two women, now all that was left was Pararis still holding his arms, which he was about to wrench free from, until the oxygen from his throat was sealed off and he let out a choking cough.
“Now, that wasn’t very nice of you to do, was it, boy?” Pararis sneered. The man's tail had quickly wormed its way around Sairek’s throat and was tightening considerably, cutting off any and all chance Sairek had to breathe or formulate a retort. It was hard enough trying to draw in ethereal, handicapped as he was, along with the feelings the black magic of Natalie's 'aphrodisiac' as she called it, going through him, but trying to do so while he was panicking from being unable to breathe from being choked out was even worse… Pararis leaned down closer, not as close as Natalie had done though, and behind Sairek who currently couldn't even even turn his head. He whispered low and deep into Sairek's ear. "Do you remember what I said my favorite 'flavor' was...?" The incubus reminded him with a wry smirk. "I think it's my turn now to finish the appetizer..."
* * *
Cyial wrapped his arms around Lavian even tighter. It was incredibly hard to concentrate with how bumpy this piggy-back-ride of hers was, but he was trying to make do as best as he could.
“Where?” Lavian asked him, possibly for the seventh or eighth time now, he had lost count.
“I-I don’t know! It’s hard to concentrate like this you know! C-Can’t you just let me down?” Cyial protested.
“Alright, fine. We have to be close, I guess.” Lavian lamented, kneeling down to a crouch, where Cyial let himself slide down her back onto the ground. His legs felt a little wobbly and he had to hold his arms out with the staff in one hand and book in the other for balance for a few seconds.
“Where?” Lavian asked him again.
“G-Give me a second!”
Cyial closed his eyes in deep concentration again. It really did only take him a few seconds. Sairek was close, he could tell, he just needed to find out where.
It was almost like a cruel game of hot and cold. They’d move forward, stop, he’d figure out the direction, then they’d go again and stop, then have to correct… and it was taking far too long for Cyial’s liking, and evidently Lavian's as well. The sun had long set by now and though there were less streets and buildings as well as pedestrian traffic to have really gotten in the way over here compared to the rest of the city, Lamen was still big and fairly crowded, even if the dock portion of the city was far more open and expansive in comparison to the rest of Lamen.
Cyial felt that strange feeling in the distance again and slowly he turned himself towards it and began to slowly walk. He raised his other hand with his book at Lavian, feeling she was about to ask him ‘the’ question again, and that held her back. He heard her beginning to follow behind him with her sabaton boots clacking fairly loudly on the cobblestone streets. Cyial kept walking slowly, forwards at a rate as if he and Lavian were only having a leisurely walk.
While he could sense the direction Sairek was in, it wasn’t that simple. It wasn’t like a needle, it was like being able to smell the general direction of where a scent's source was coming from downwind, but not able to directly pinpoint the exact location to the source, but he knew it was pretty close. Eventually he made it to a structure. Lavian was about to warn him to watch out but he instinctively held out his hand with the staff, bracing against it. He paused for a moment and ran his hand and staff along the building, walking along it until they passed by the corner of it. It wasn’t that one, Sairek’s presence was coming further away.
Cyial opened his eyes, breaking the concentration but looking at the scene in front of them. There were still a couple of large buildings. A couple warehouses further to his left, and a few taller buildings to the right of those a distance down the street. “It has to be one of those warehouses.” Cyial said, a growl in his throat. "Perhaps Father Abbot's original assumption was right..."
“Are you sure?” Lavian asked, but Cyial was already ahead of her, sprinting towards them.
When they got closer, Cyial tried it again, standing between one on his left and one on his right. He quickly began sprinting inside of the right one towards a backdoor behind the building facing the ocean. “So close to here… h-how do we get inside though?” He asked.
“Step aside.” Lavian ordered him, to which he did. She stood in front of the door, raised her metallic boot and gave one hard stomping kick to the door, slamming it open hard and bending the door from its hinges in a single blow.
“O-Oh. That works, I guess…” Cyial gulped. “Won’t the workers get angry you just damaged the door, though?”
“I already got a mountain of paperwork to get through. What’s another stack to me?” She reasoned. “If you’re right, the Prince can pay me to levy the fees. If you’re wrong though…”
“I, I see…” Cyial gulped again. He hoped he was right. The Monastery was mostly non-profit, after all. It wasn't like he got paid much in seru...
“Now stay behind me.” Lavian ordered him and moved in, brandishing her sword and gripping it, leaving it poised with both of her hands, but lowered to her right side as she jogged inside, looking frantically around to observe their surroundings. “If I remember correctly with the floor plans to these buildings, there should be some backrooms somewhere. Stuff for the workers to take lunch breaks and that kind of thing. That’s probably where the Prince was taken.”
Following her own theory, she began moving on through, weaving through wooden boxes, crates and barrels left about rather haphazardly on the ground floor while Cyial sprinted after her. There was a back wall leading up to a long flight of stairs, to which they climbed. As they did, Cyial glanced over at the railing as they ascended to see how many crates and barrels there were. “What’s in all of these containers anyway...?” Cyial asked through his exerted breathing.
“Well, nothing right now, probably.” Lavian replied. “Usually they’re loaned or sold off to merchants either to temporarily store things here, or for them to have their cargo off-loaded into either caravans or ships to sell out.”
“The ships would have arrived a couple days ago, it would be quiet here… Even more so at this time of night.” Cyial reasoned, looking back ahead at Lavian.
“Exactly. Nothing to really steal here, so nobody’s around and not a lot of witnesses on the street either since most of the workers are off duty by evening. The best place to hide somebody temporarily without risking being seen, and it's not too far from the monastery to carry somebody.” Lavian agreed.
They reached the top and went through a door, only to look down and see another flight of stairs going back down on the inside of the wall. “Son of a bitch…” Lavian groaned and began marching down those too.
There were a few “levels” of stairs, three in total, each with separate doors in them. Lavian stopped at the first one and tested the door to see it was locked, she was about to raise her boot to break it down, when a muffled screaming sound caused Cyial and Lavian to both take a moment to pause and look at each other.
“Th-That was at the bottom, I think!” Cyial hissed.
Lavian wordlessly turned around and began descending further down the stairs with Cyial right behind her. She was taking the steps nearly two at a time, while Cyial used his own tail to grip the railings for balance as he bounded down each step as fast as his smaller body could. Lavian reached the bottom much faster than he could, though it still took her a couple of moments. With her sword ready, she slammed her body into the door once, twice, three times before she burst through. “HALT!! All of you, stand down, NOW!!”
"All of you...?" Cyial asked himself in worried thought. Just a couple of seconds later he reached the doorway and entered behind her, and his stomach fell at what he saw before his eyes.
Sairek only had his pants on which looked crooked and pulled down somewhat to one side, exposing the bony side of his left hip, and he was being held up by another man, who had one hand over Sairek’s mouth, another on his lower stomach and an incubus tail around his throat and half tied around his body, securing the Prince's arms to his side.
He looked around the room, and he saw two women, who he noted were also succubi, given their tails. One was holding her face with one hand and both were behind the incubus.
Cyial’s temper flared.
“RAPOLA–!!” He shouted, holding both his book in one hand, and Sairek’s staff in the other. A thin bubble of ice formed around Sairek body, causing the incubus to hiss and screech. Cyial compressed the bubble closer to Sairek, causing the incubus’ tail to be caught within the energy.
“GRAH! Shit—!” The incubus screamed.
“Submit NOW! I won’t say it again! You have nowhere to run!” Lavian warned them, readying her sword. “Let him go! It’s over, don’t make this worse than it needs to be!”
The incubus growled, both in anger and in pain. Reluctantly, his tail moved, and released Sairek and he shoved him away and to the ground, where he fell on his knees and one hand, another gripping his throat as he coughed, but he looked at Cyial and pulled his hand away from his throat, leaving his hand open with an urgent grabbing gesture as he scrambled slightly closer.
It took Cyial a second to realize, but he understood and tossed the staff at Sairek, who caught it with his hands and shakily, he pushed himself up and turned around, a look of intense heat etched on his face as he pushed himself up and used his left hand to clasp and massage his throat again, letting out a couple more weak coughs as he inhaled and staggered back towards Lavian and Cyial.
“Sairek…!” Cyial whimpered, running over to him and hugging him dearly. He felt Sairek twitch and shudder at the touch, almost like he was about to shove him off, but he let out a shaky breath and settled down.
“Dammit… we were so close…!” Pararis growled angrily, both of his hands cupping the middle of his tail as it had been burned by Cyial’s spell like it was fire.
“Idiot, why did you let him go? If you at least kept him as a hostage we would have had leverage!” Natalie criticized Pararis.
“Why did it take you so long!? I was the one who grabbed him, I should have been the one to feed from him in the first place! You and your stupid foreplay! As if we ‘cubi benefit from such a thing!” Pararis snapped back at her.
"As if you weren't enjoying it yourself!" Natalie spat back.
“There’s three of us and three of them, we aren’t outnumbered, we can still take them!” Trsica began to argue.
“How about the three of you shut up?!” Sairek growled venomously, pushing Cyial away gently. Cyial watched as Sairek readjusted his pants back up and noticed the uncomfortable lump in them. His stomach sank even deeper at that. It confirmed his worst suspicions about what had been happening... He felt sick to his stomach.
Sairek however at the moment, seemed unphased about the physical state of his body right now. His temper was clearly leading the reigns at the moment. “I warned you...! I warned the three of you several times! I told you to stop... I told you that I was even willing to forget this all if you realized the mistake you were making... I begged you, not just for my own sake, but for yours as well!
"You all chose this and so you'll reap what you have sowed... I try to see the good in everyone, I even tried to give you, demons who were banished from the Underworld a chance! Now I’ll make sure each of you three leisurely rot in jail personally for as long as I rule this country! Lay in the bed that each of you have made for yourselves!”
That seemed to spur the three of them into a desperate action as they rushed forward, something Sairek was ready for.
“Vulkenhai!”
Sairek raised his staff up with one hand, before swinging it down in front of himself and Lavian. The knightmaster moved her sword in front of herself with her right hand as if to shield herself, and raised her left arm out protectively, prying Cyial back away from the Prince. Sairek swung his staff and was thrown back from the impact of his own spell. Lavian stumbled back a couple of steps but managed to catch Sairek back onto his feet, even if it meant shoving Cyial some in the process who stumbled until his back pressed against the wall right next to the doorway.
A cloud of dust and rubble formed, and the sounds of three demons screaming in agony filled the room very shortly after. Though the explosion hadn’t blasted any of them directly, just the 'puff' of the ethereal energy alone was enough to cause each of them considerable pain to the point that they were reeling, rolling or writhing along the ground as if they had actually been doused in flames and were currently being burned alive or something by an invisible flame.
“Sweet Lands…” Sairek puffed. Cyial moved back forward to Sairek’s other side, reaching an arm up to his back shoulder to support him. Sairek watched for a few seconds, then shook his head hard. “H-Hurry up and arrest them, Lavian...”
“R...Right, yes…” She agreed, letting Sairek go and moved up, starting with Pararis as she reached into her belt and produced cuffs. Though the demon was flailing, he wasn’t putting up much of a fight, neither did the other two.
“S...Sairek… Are you alright…?” Cyial asked sadly.
“You guys came in time right before the worst had happened… Saved me before the incubus tried to...” Sairek trailed off, his silence was long. “I—I'll be fine…”
Cyial frowned. He didn’t sound like he believed that himself. “I’m… so sorry… I should have noticed sooner… I’m…”
“No. Do not be blaming yourself…” Sairek whispered. “I… I can tell… you’re nothing like those three, Cyial… B-Believe me… I got more of an explanation than I’m personally comfortable with today...” he replied through clenched teeth.
“Well, with all of that said, I still need to know what exactly to charge them with…” Lavian commented as she put the cuffs on Natalie, the last one.
“Can we just go with one count of trespassing—with two for the incubus, sneaking in through the borders, theft of Lamen Monastery clothes—only for the incubus, one count of kidnapping, about a dozen charges of assault each, and finally, resisting arrest and just leave it at that—?” Sairek swung his form around impatiently. “Look—I don't care about the stupid semantics. It's obvious enough and it's enough to leave them locked up for probably the rest of their lives anyways even with just the minimum sentences, let alone the damn maximum. The last thing I need is for my father, let alone anyone who reads their criminal record to find out what these bastards tried to do to me in explicit detail and I’d very much not want to talk about this anymore right now…! Just—arrest them, dammit!!”
“I… Alright…” Lavian said quietly, leaving it at that.
“S-Sairek…” Cyial tried.
“I… I just want to go back now… I don't want to be here anymore... Can you get me my clothes, please…? I… don’t want other people to see me like this when reinforcements inevitably arrive...” Sairek pleaded, his tone pained.
“Y-Yeah…” Cyial said. Sairek’s clothes were strewn over here and there. Cyial moved over to start collecting them for him, tossing him his shirt before anything else, which Sairek put back on with a desperate haste, as well as the rest of his items when Cyial handed them to him. When he did, Cyial tried hugging Sairek to comfort him again. He could feel the Prince was trying to keep a neutral expression, but his form was shivering, giving away the emotions that he truly felt right now.
“H-How did you guys find me…?” Sairek asked quietly to Cyial, his voice raspy and a whisper. It was only loud enough for Cyial to hear him.
“Your staff…” Cyial answered just as softly. “Lavian, she… she suggested I do the same ritual you did yesterday… With you and I both connected to it, I could sense you… just a little bit.”
“Smart… And… thank you both…” Sairek said. Cyial could hear a tremble of a whimper in his voice.
“It was all her idea… I didn’t know what to do when I realized you were missing except plead her to help me find you and... and cry.” Cyial said, looking down at the floor shamefully.
“Still… if it wasn’t for you, I… I would have been…” Sairek began, biting his bottom lip as the mask he was trying to hold began to crumble. That mask slipping away from him unwillingly had never happened before to him.
“I know…” Cyial whispered. He didn’t speak anymore, giving Sairek time to recompose himself again. Cyial was unsure if he would be able to handle such a sight... "I know..." He whispered again, more to himself than Sairek. He knew far too well...
* * *
“...So that’s what happened? Sheesh.” Nayleen replied, shaking her head at Sairek’s explanation of events. “Are you sure you’re okay though?”
Sairek flashed her a weak smile as he sat on Cyial’s bed. “Yeah. I figured something like this would probably at least be attempted on me sooner or later. I know Father kept warning me but… well, I imagined it wouldn’t be this soon, you know? It hasn't even been half a week...”
“Are you sure you are okay, though...?” Nayleen pressed. "I mean it, Sairek. I'm here for you, no matter what. No judgement or anything."
That made Sairek smile softly at her. “You are very sweet Nayleen sometimes Nayleen... That... means more to me than you know. Especially right now..."
"I do know, Sairek. At least somewhat. That's why I keep asking."
"Heh... Yes, Nayleen. I'm okay. I'm just… a little shocked and shaken up still, but I think I'll manage. Right now I just want to put today behind me and hope for a better tomorrow. The food helped calm and relax me down some.” Sairek reassured her. "I promise you that if I need you, I will seek you out for support. Deal?"
“Deal." Nayleen agreed. "Still… I should have been protecting you better than that.” She frowned.
“Not like you could have known.”
“Then I’ll stand guard here tonight!”
“That’s… not necessary. I am being very serious with that. Lavian has already posted more than enough knights around the monastery... despite my protests.” Sairek frowned.
“Of course. The heir to the country just got kidnapped but you want to keep it all hush-hush. And apparently with how much she hates paperwork, handling it like this is going to her a heck of a lot more to try and keep it under wraps.” Nayleen told him honestly, moving a hand onto her hip.
“Yeah… I’m going to see her tomorrow about that… and thank her properly, of course. Sorry, but it looks like we’ll be staying an extra day than we had planned.” Sairek said sheepishly.
“Oh, as if that’s such a grievance after you went through today? Please. You probably need a few days at least to recover from a spook like that, Sairek.”
“Nayleen, I said I’m fine…”
“I know. Just take it easy, okay? If you need a few days, it's fine, you know.”
“...Sure.”
“Anyway, I’m off. Night!” She said abruptly, bounding out of Cyial’s door, full of positive energy as always.
Cyial stood up from his chair and closed the door to his room, paused for a moment, then turned around to face Sairek. “Sairek... why did you hide some of the events from her? About how they tried to... y'know...”
Sairek looked away, paused himself, then sighed. “You want the short or long version?”
“I want whatever you’re comfortable with, even if that means I don’t hear an explanation at all.” Cyial replied softly.
“...It’s embarrassing, it would probably cause her to freak out more and… well, I’m not in the mood for it right now… I’m tired, I have a lot on my mind already and… I just want to forget it and put it behind me...” He whispered. "I'll tell her the full story later, probably, when I feel a little better. I'm sure she'll understand. I've only known her for a few days, but she's good like that. You give her an honest explanation and she won't hold you to it. I just... can't handle the whole thing right now. I need more time to process."
“I understand…” Cyial sighed and began reaching for the door.
“Where are you going...?” Sairek asked.
“Letting you sleep… You probably aren’t comfortable around me right now... after that…” Cyial mumbled. Turning the knob and pulling the door open.
“Please stop…” Sairek pleaded with him. Cyial did, turning around to face him again. “Cyial, it's not like that... Actually, it's the opposite of that… I, I really don’t want to sleep alone tonight... Not after all of that. The reason that happened in the first place was because I was left to sleep alone...”
Cyial's expression grimaced in a pained expression.
Sairek's own expression broke with guilt. "...I'm sorry Cyial. I didn't mean to imply... that you abandoned me or something after I asked you to come back when you could... I swear that's not what I meant..."
Cyial frowned, but closed the door again and stepped over to his chair, grabbing it, then dragging it back to the door, where he braced it against the door, barring it shut.
“U-Umm… That’s a bit overkill.” Sairek noted.
“After that, I’m not taking any unnecessary chances.” Cyial replied dryly. “The lock on my door has been busted for a while... It never gets fixed. I never found it to be a problem though before now..." Cyial sighed with a shake of his head. "Sneaking into my room and doing that to you… it still makes me mad at just the thought…” he growled, looking down at the floor. That detestable stain on the floor was still there. After everything that happened, he still hadn’t had time to clean it up—the evidence of his failure. “Everything was right there in front of me, and I just ignored it. I—I’m terrible…”
Sairek paused for a moment, before he began to strip himself of his clothes partially, at least on his upper half. His pants stayed on. Cyial watched him, blinking slowly, after he finished undressing and curled himself back up in the blankets. “...Why?” Cyial asked the question in a word.
“Cyial... Am I just never going to undress because of what they did? It feels… like I’m vulnerable in a way right now… but I’ll get over it. And like I said… you’re not like them. I can tell.”
“What do you mean—I have the very same thing inside of me, just like they do, Sairek...! Even worse; it's interested in you!” Cyial hissed quietly, looking away with a pained expression on his face. “The only difference between myself and them is how much I despise it...!”
“No. There’s more to it than that... Do you think they were banished originally because they were good demons, Cyial?” Sairek asked him.
“Well, I suppose not, but—…”
“Look... do you know how I can tell?” Sairek asked.
“...How?” Cyial asked, after a moment's silence.
“Because you think of me as far more than just food... more than a means to a mere end. That’s all I was to them... and that’s only one of the reasons you're better than them. There’s so many more.”
“You have it all figured out, huh…?” Cyial asked with a weak smile.
“I wouldn’t say that, but I would argue that I’m not entirely ignorant. And… after today, I trust you even more than before Cyial, not less...”
“You’re... You're so weird, Sairek...” Cyial laughed weakly.
“Yup. I am...” Sairek replied, flashing a weak grin of his own as Cyial moved to slide under the covers with him.
