As one, the group leapt to their feet. Andra attempted to open the door but found that she couldn’t.

“It’s stuck,” she said. She stepped aside to let Fiona force it open, but Fiona just stood there staring wide-eyed at Andra.

“Open it!” Andra shouted. Fiona tried to push the door open as Andra had, but it remained stuck. Finally, she got the message and rammed into the door with her shoulder. However, it still remained closed.

“Hold on!” Riven called. Then, to the person inside, she said: “Look, everything’s okay. Jon is fine. I’ll explain everything in a second.”

A moment later she called out to the party again: “Okay, you can come in.”

Fiona pushed the door open, revealing that Riven’s visitor was a muscular, shirtless man in extremely tight pants. Huge, batlike wings protruded from his back and his hair was long and curly.

Kaylen, ignoring the plan, shouted “Die, demon!” and began to rush through the door, brandishing her mace. Riven calmly lifted a hand and whispered a magic incantation, sending a wave of magical energy at Kaylen which crashed into her and sent her flying into Fiona, the two collapsing in a heap.

“Please don’t mind her,” Riven told the frightened-looking demon. “We were told you were attacking people, but I’m guessing we were lied to.”

The demon stared wide-eyed at the group in the door and began to slowly step backwards, towards the wall. “I didn’t hurt anyone,” he said. “I’m not here to hurt anyone.”

“What do we do, boss?” Fiona asked, peeling Kaylen off of her and standing. “Attack?”

“No, let’s hear him out,” Andra replied. She fixed the demon with an appraising glare. “If you aren’t attacking these monks, then what are you doing here?”

“Well, the truth is,” the demon said hesitantly, “we’re lovers.”

“Oh, that makes so much more sense!” said Kaylen, who had picked herself up off the floor and was currently trying to fix her mussed hair. “That’s why the supposed victims all lost their powers. I thought that was weird. Roolius is strict, but there’s no way having your energy drained would count as sex. They must have just come up with the story of being attacked as a way to explain why they lost their powers.”

The demon nodded. “I told them to blame me. Since I can move through walls, I figured there was no chance of my being caught.”

“Wait, but why did they claim that they were being attacked by a succubus instead of an incubus?” Fiona asked.

Kaylen shrugged. “Homophobia, I guess. Straight sex is bad, according to Roolius, but gay sex is even worse. It was probably a way of trying to save face.”

“Why would five gay guys become worshippers of a homophobic god?” asked Riven, kicking off the blanket and sitting up. “I mean, Roolians actively proselytize. They’re working to spread that homophobia.”

“Look, try not to judge them too harshly,” said the incubus. “They haven’t had easy lives. They all grew up in the church. Can you imagine growing up thinking you’re a monster?”

Riven raised her hands appeasingly. “Alright, fair enough. Besides, there are more important questions to answer. Like why are there suddenly demons showing up in Rampart City?”

“Well, I can only really speak for myself,” the incubus said. “How much do you all know about the current state of politics over on our continent?”

He looked over the group, who each shook their heads.

“News from your side of the ocean is hard to come by,” Riven explained.

“The whole continent is in chaos,” the incubus explained sadly. “People think the Demon King has gone mad. He’s consolidating all of the demon lords’ armies into a single military force. If anyone objects or refuses, he turns his armies on them. When my lord’s land was invaded, he destroyed all of his contracts, freeing us before the king could claim them. I fled to this continent rather than let the Demon King press-gang me into his service. I figured Rampart City was the farthest place from the Demon King’s grasp, but it’ll reach here soon enough. Everyone says the Demon King is planning to invade.”

The team stared at the demon, collectively stunned into silence. Demons hadn’t fought with mortals since the veil that separated the worlds of the living and the dead had been torn open during the Calamity. In the following centuries, there had been little contact between the mortal-controlled northern continent and the demon-controlled south.

Kaylen was the first to regain her speech. “That’s… bad.”

“Are you kidding?” said Andra. “This is great! We can bring this news straight to the castle! We’ll be heroes! Of course, we’ll have to sort out our lie, first.”

“Lie?” asked Fiona.

“Well, yeah. We can’t exactly explain that we let the demon go because he was nicer than the other demons. How will that make us look? Of course, we can’t say that we failed the mission and the demon got away, either. And if we try to say that we killed the demon and the ‘attacks’ continue, that won’t be any good.”

“Don’t worry about the ‘attacks,’” said the incubus. “I won’t be staying here any longer. If one group of adventurers can find me, then another can. I need to find somewhere else where I can be safe.”

“What about your lovers?” asked Fiona.

The incubus hesitated, staring at nothing in particular while he considered this. He started to speak, but his voice caught. A moment later he tried again. “They’ll have to take care of themselves. I’ve tried to help them see that there’s nothing wrong with being who they are. Hopefully they’ll remember that. But my being around them puts them in danger, too.”

Riven stood and placed a hand on the demon’s shoulder, the demon leaned into her and a moment later they were hugging. “I’m really sorry that we forced you into this situation,” she said.

They stood like that for a few moments while the incubus composed himself, then he broke the hug. “I’d better get going. But before I do, I have a question for you.”

“What is it?” asked Riven.

“When you first surprised me, I instinctively tried to use a charm spell on you, but it didn’t work. Why didn’t it work?”

“Oh,” said Riven, looking uncomfortable. “Look, I’m sure you’re very nice and all, but I’m just not into guys.”