Lyall wondered if the scene before him was anything like how his female peers in Luteria gossiped at their childhood overnight get-togethers. He’d asked to join them once, and he might as well have been blathering in ancient Gwidrach for the blank stares it earned him. Aurae had snatched a larger tent in which to join Lyall and Luther without hesitation. The extra space allowed them to spoke their bedding gear towards the center to face each other and chat. 

Lyall sat cross-legged with a blanket over his shoulders and his journal in his lap, slowly writing his daily entry while listening to Luther and Aurae. Both were in their nightclothes with hair spilling over their shoulders and pillows pulled to their chests while Luther dramatically recounted the despair over losing his coin to the thief. When he explained how he taught a class at Zaphreal to earn enough to refill his spent spell components, Aurae wondered why he didn’t borrow money from his parents. 

“I know I attended Zaphreal, but my family isn’t rich,” Luther chuckled. “We were comfortable enough in our financial security, but the funds certainly weren’t there to send me to the capital. It was only when I secured a scholarship at eleven that I was able to attend classes. After graduation, I earned enough to turn the small herb shop my parents ran into the perfumery they wished for. This is my favorite of our unique blends.” 

Luther rolled over and dug into his bag for the glass bottle of cologne he passed around. Sure enough, it was the source of the huckleberry and honey scent, which made it all the more confusing how Aurae smelled of it. 

“I’d love to visit the shop one day,” Aurae gushed. “Do you have any siblings?” 

“I’m an only child.” 

“What’s your family like, Lyall?” 

Lyall recounted the tale of his parents’ brief relationship and leaned in gently to his and his mother’s struggles with poverty. 

“The short of my mother’s situation is that her parents loved to do the act that leads to children but didn’t like taking care of the many children they created. Mother ran away from her home when she was fifteen and has gotten by however she could. Things shifted to the better for us when I turned sixteen, for that was when Mother permitted me to go out with Thorne, my combat mentor, on jobs. I joined Luteria’s guard when I was eighteen, but I began this work six weeks ago for the increased payment prospects.” 

“Is there a grand goal behind the switch?” Aurae nudged. 

“I merely want a lot of money.” 

“Straightforward, but that’s not bad!” Aurae raised a supportive fist to the air, although Lyall noticed Luther’s lips pursing. 

“May I ask on your experiences growing up?” Luther nudged the topic to their newest companion. “Is it too much to wonder how you came into Priest Khessyd’s care?” 

“Not at all! It’s rather simple—my mother abandoned me,” Aurae admitted nonchalantly. 

“...As an infant?”

“No, when I was twelve. My father is some incubus who seduced my mother while disguised, and Mother, already experiencing repercussions from becoming pregnant by a wandering man, wasn’t happy when my birth revealed the truth. She did try for several years to raise me herself, but she ended up abandoning me for the first time when I was five.” 

“The...first time?” Luther’s voice went higher in pitch, and Lyall had only a helpless shrug at Luther’s glance of disbelief upon him. 

“Oh, Mother abandoned me many times,” Aurae expressed enthusiastically, as if it was a fact to impress. “I didn’t realize what she was doing. You see, she brought me somewhere away from our home, such as another town, and said we were playing a game of hide-and-seek. Then, well, it often took me quite a while to find her. I managed to find her quite fast that first time—only three weeks—but when she went to Caetshire almost a year passed before I figured it out. I honestly thought it was a fun game,” Aurae spoke nostalgically. 

“But you did understand the matter eventually?” Lyall prompted, a cringe tightening his jaw. 

“Yes. In that courtyard between the temples in Idellum. That’s where I found Mother after ‘seeking’ her out, and my presence broke her down. She screamed at me that I was demented and asked how I couldn’t see that she didn’t want a monster like me in her life. When I told her I thought we were simply playing a game, she belted out for everyone to hear that she’d been trying to get rid of me and wished to never see me again. I asked her where I should go. Mother cast her hand out at the temples around us and insisted I pick one. Then she stomped off. I looked at the temples figuring out which seemed the nicest when Khessy was the one to move to me even though everyone else was so still and offered for me to stay with him.” 

“I understand now why you said he was like your father,” Luther nearly mumbled. 

“Mmhmm! I love him a lot.” Aurae giddily squeezed her pillow. The palpable silence following her joy undid that tension. “You know, everyone wears expressions like yours when I tell this story. I get it, but I don’t get it.” 

“What is it that you don’t get?” Lyall wondered. 

“The sadness. The pity. I understand why it’s there, but it’s hard for me to accept because I don’t feel sad or pity myself over what happened. I’m certainly not demented, but my mother was correct pointing out that I’m different. It’s impossible for me to feel hurt.” 

“I don’t quite get that.” 

“The lone, logical explanation is it's because of my distinct fiendish inheritance. A succubus is meant to attract others, and sympathizing with their emotions would do that where burdening others with my emotions would not. Nothing I’ve experienced in life has caused me to feel bad for myself,” Aurae rolled her hand. “My mother trying to abandon me, her shouting at me, others calling me mean names, the priests from the other temples shooting disgusted looks my way—it doesn’t do anything. I’ll get all riled up if I see other parents hurting their children or hear anyone speaking poorly of Khessy though. I also feel sad that you two feel sad right now.” 

“I...” Luther grunted an odd, disconcerted noise. “That makes me confused. I trust that you know yourself well enough to speak your words as an accurate assessment, and I see no lie in your expression that the emotions are merely being withheld. It’s not that I want you to feel upset either, but I...I don’t know...” 

“You’re kind like Khessy,” Aurae patted Luther’s hand. “He said he figured out that the bothered feeling comes from a perceived lack of justice. That I have a right to scorn and blame those who wrong me, but because I never feel scorned or bothered they often get away with being assholes. To me, I don’t mind. I’d rather leave them to be judged by the world and not have to worry about their actions affecting me than have a right to be upset.” 

“Honestly, the world would be better off if everyone was that way, I think,” Lyall twirled his pencil in his fingers, staring into the space above the two. “To care deeply about others but not have the pride and grudges responsible for so much corruption, chaos, and misery? Isn’t that ideal?” 

“My agreement doesn’t come readily on that. I think there’s something crucial lost having an entire aspect of emotion kept back from an individual. Ah! N-Not that I intend to say you’re lacking in any manner,” Luther fretted at Aurae, who simply laughed and ruffled his hair. 

“You literally cannot insult me.” 

“R-Right.” 

“In any case,” she clapped her hands, ‘the mood has gotten too heavy. I am happy exactly as I am, and I’m grateful for your concern towards me.” She waited until Lyall and Luther nodded understandingly. “There is another matter I wish to address. The way you’ve both acted so far makes it clear you’re caring and open-minded individuals, so I believe there won’t be much issue with what I’m to say. Yes, I am a half-succubus. Yes, I love sex. I’ve had lots of it. I think the two of you are incredibly attractive, but I’ve promised Khessy I’m going to be entirely professional on this mission—not that I would ever dare do anything to make someone uncomfortable or press them against their will anyway.” 

“I didn’t have any concerns, but I appreciate the clarification,” Lyall said. 

“Anything specific on what makes me attractive?” Luther grinned, pointing at his face. 

Aurae recognized the teasing prompt to be drowned in compliments and playfully obliged. Lyall smiled to himself and went back to his journal when the obvious examples to give ran out and Aurae praised everything from the curve of Luther’s elbow to the way he inflexed his voice when asking a question. She checked with Lyall if he wanted her to do the same to him, but the increasing chorus of owls hooting their beckon of deeper night put that on a held request. The three slept, the three rose, and the days of travel returning to Perrine passed without incident. Lady Sabine contacted Luther the morning of their arrival to instruct them to pick up a map from the adventuring guild. 

“I wish the telepathy stone allowed me to open the channel to Lady Sabine instead of only her being able to initiate contact,” Luther squeezed the bridge of his nose. “This map...” 

They stood outside of the guild staring at the meager offering. It gave them specific directions to take out of Perrine and then up the mountain a ways west, but it soon devolved into a generic squiggle to follow with the instructions less than clear. 

“‘You’ll know it when you see it’ and ‘Find the chest’,” Aurae read. “It’s a scavenger hunt?” 

“It’s beginning to feel more like a test than a job,” Lyall clicked his tongue. 

“Perhaps. No matter what, we’ve agreed to do what’s—vaguely—being asked of us. Shall we head out?” Luther asked. 

“I’m ready,” Lyall confirmed. 

“I’m ready!” Aurae clenched her fist. 

They departed the city through its southwestern gate and followed the main road for an hour-and-a-half. Swapping stories and Luther continuing his lecture on magic kept boredom at bay, and they reached the turn north onto a narrow walking path through bristling wild grass without issue. Another hour’s passing prompted a break and their first hiccup. Aurae held down their small camp containing blankets to sit on and the tiny fire Luther made to heat cups of invigorating tea blend his parents packed for him while Lyall accompanied Luther in scouring the grass for useful spell components. They found several squat roots, loose feathers, but then a most concerning sight returning to Aurae with both. 

Lyall assumed the misshapen form on her lap was her bag. Then it moved. 

“Aurae!?” 

“Wah!” 

Lyall cried out, leaping back, with Luther immediate in copying. The two landing close stumbled them and put Luther in front, who flung up a translucent barrier pulsing purple bands of energy. Aurae tilted her head. 

“What’s the matter? Did my racoon friend scare you?” 

“That’s not a racoon! It’s a skunk!” Lyall peeked his head out from behind Luther’s shoulder. “I didn’t know they even lived in this area!” 

“Oh. I heard racoons had black stripes and got confused. A skunk is the smelly one, right? I’ve never spent much time where wild animals are. In any case, this one wandered up to me and is sweet and friendly. You two are overreacting.” 

“Being so close, getting sprayed will blind you for a time,” Luther explained. “I’d rather not risk that when we’re finally within reach of getting this job off the ground.” 

Aurae sighed and set the skunk on the ground. “It looks like we aren’t meant to be, little fuzz. Go on back to your home.” 

The skunk blinked, squeaked, turned, and departed. Lyall remained behind Luther and Luther maintained the barrier until they were sure enough safe space awaited. Aurae laughed at them gathering everything with haste to depart but frowned at Luther’s conjured puff of imitated spray for her to sniff and understand. Twenty more minutes brought them to the base of the mountain and the large boulder marked on the map confirming their place of ascent. The bumpy trail rich in clattering pebbles, fallen sticks, and hidden holes failed to claim any of them victims to falls or ankle rolls. However, Luther shoved the map right before his eyes when their meager path to follow vanished. 

“We’re to head right at this toppled tree and keep going until the line on the map turns.” 

“The nondescript squiggle?” Lyall raised a brow. 

“The nondescript squiggle,” Luther repeated dryly. 

With no other options, they turned right.

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Until the next chapter is available, these other Action Fantasy entries are sure to entertain you. Links to each are in the description below.

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