Ben wasn't sure what he expected from the home-nation of the succubi, but it wasn't this. Giant trees with crimson leaves that would put the redwoods of Earth to shame filled the city, and buildings like skyscrapers scattered around them. Metal poles jutted up around the earth, and it took Ben a minute to figure out what they were for, but the city was far enough away from Vanasil that it was later in the day and night was falling. He could see a light gathering on the top of each pole and it clicked. Street lamps. This nation actually had street lighting set up. That fact alone left him more excited than the metropolis before him, and he couldn't wait to see what the city had to offer. While he was at the church he had learned a bit about Anailia, the land was rich in magical metals and as a result self-powering enchanted items were common. So common that apparently the metal could be used to keep lights running when it got dark instead of people just lighting a torch if the need arose.

Until this point Ben had been under the assumption that the world was an odd mix of medieval and what he would consider more modern technology, but he would need to re-evaluate that thought. Sure Stonewall wasn’t super advanced, but enchanted items were common enough and replicated many of the creature comforts he was used to in his homeworld, and now he would get to see just what a magical society could accomplish if it had the resources for it.

"Wow, this is incredible." He said honestly, though Thera seemed uncomfortable.

"Yeah, it's been a while since I've been home." She shifted about awkwardly for a moment before walking off. "Anyway, it's getting late. Let's meet my parents and if you want, we can explore a bit tomorrow."

"Sounds good, I'm going to be jet-lagged for a few days from the looks of it."

"You're going to be what?" Thera asked, confused.

"It means tired. Don't worry about it."

They walked on in silence, Ben looking back and forth at all of the new sights around while Thera shuffled on, lost in thought for a while but knowing she needed to get what she needed to say out before they got to their location. Unfortunately she put it off for far too long and they were now standing in front of a large, gated building, constructed around one of the giant trees.

"Um Ben, before we head inside there's something I should probably mention." She said while fidgeting about, not meeting his eyes.

Curiously and anticipation filled his face. "Hm, sure what's up?" He asked, trying to sound casual, but the excitement of the day was making it hard.

"It's about my parents-" She started, before a voice cut her off.

"Lady Thera!” A succubus guard who was standing by the building called out to them. “We've been expecting you, please right this way."

Having been spotted before she could get a word out, she couldn’t help but deflate. "Oh I really should have mentioned this earlier. Just try to relax."

"Don't worry, everything will be great." Ben told her with a level of confidence she envied.

"I really doubt that but come on."

The two of them followed the guard through the building, passing numerous rooms and hallways as they went, before entering two large, ornate doors and finding an expansive, well-decorated room within, and a single woman sitting on a throne at the other end.

"Approach." She said in a firm voice, and as they got closer Ben couldn't help but see her resemblance to Sonya, while Thera muttered under her breath. "Gods she's really doing this."

"Greetings Thera, you seem well." The woman said with an air of dignity and command, which Thera greeted with a neutral, though slightly exasperated tone.

"Hello mother, as do you."

The woman turned to Ben and spoke up "Greetings Ben. May the spirit of Anailia ever guide you."

Thera quickly turned to Ben to try and whisper at him. "I'm sorry I didn't think she would do this, just repeat after me-'' But instead of listening to her he took two steps forward, got on one knee, and placed one fist on the ground and the other over his heart before speaking up. "Greeting to Pelenia, queen of the succubi. May Anailias warmth fill you and her love protect you, I am humbled to be in your presence."

If Thera's face was visible everyone would have seen her mouth hanging open in shock. Queen Pelenia for her part maintained her dignified air for another moment before slouching down and pouting.

"That's no fun," she said. "Sonya said you didn't know. Don't tell me Thera worked up the will to tell you before you got here."

"Not really happy that you tried to pull this, or that you were betting against me for that matter mother, but I didn't. Ben, how did you know to do that, hell how long have you known about all this?" She said, gesturing around her.

He could only shrug and smile. "If by all this you mean that your mom's the queen, I've known since before everything went down with Roan. I did tell you before that I received some lessons at the church about general world info and what they thought it would be good for a craftsman to know, right? You don't think they would fail to mention the fact that the price of magical metals has been plummeting for the last couple decades since the current queen was married to a great earth spirit. After you told me about your parents it wasn't hard to put two and two together. I was waiting for you to bring it up yourself, but since you never did I asked Falk on how to make a good impression."

He was feeling pretty pleased with himself, but he was rewarded with a firm punch to the arm. "You ass. Do you know how worried I was about telling you?"

"Relax, I'm not going to treat you any different because you're a princess."

"I'm not a princess! We're an elected matriarchy, just because my mom has the role doesn't mean I'm taking over." She hit his arm again for good measure while he laughed.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry."

He was happy to keep their little back and forth going on longer, but some laughter began to leak out from the throne so he turned to give the royal some proper attention.

"Ah, I have to say it's nice to see you aren't as stiff as your teacher can be. Enough of the formalities, it's nice to finally meet you Ben, I hear you've been treating my daughter well."

"Oh he treats me very well." He felt bare arms wrap themselves around to his front and scratch at his chest while Thera's head placed itself on his shoulders in a display he'd never expected from her. He felt blood rush to his face and didn't know how to react to the unexpected development.

"Thera what are you doing-" As he tried to ask he was cut off by a staff smashing into her head and knocked her to the ground.

"That's not me!" A still very cloaked Thera yelled angrily. "Dad, what have I said about taking my form?"

The imposter gave a small 'tee hee' before their shape changed to that of an impressive man, seven feet in height with marble skin like Theras, thick golden hair and a beard to go with it, wearing a matching outfit with the queen, a dark green toga.

Ben was able to be impressed with the transformation once his pulse slowed a bit from the shock, but Thera seemed emotionally drained by this point. "Ben, let's just go back to Stonewall already, uncle Falk definitely has other contacts you can work with."

"Oh come on sweetheart, don't be like that, your mom and I were just having some fun with your new friend." Theras' father said with a powerful laugh, though still rubbing his head.

"And there's still so much to talk about." Pelenia said, pulling out a couple of letters. "Falk and Sonya have mentioned most of it I believe, but I'd like to hear the details from your own mouths for now. Thera enough with the cloak let me see my dear daughter's face, we paid a fortune to ensure everyone working here could have an amulet, it would be ridiculous not to put them to use. Sweetheart, would you be so kind?"

With a smile and a nod her father raised his hand slightly in the air, and from the ground emerged four stone chairs and a small table to go with it. Penelia and her husband both moved to take seats so Ben and Thera did the same, though Thera still seemed reluctant, and together they gave her parents a rundown on the past couple months.

Their story wasn't long, but by the end of it her father looked like he was going to fly off in a rage while his wife put a calming hand on his arm.

"Honey, why is this my first time hearing about this? No that doesn't matter right now, if you don't mind it looks like I have some business to attend to, it shouldn't be too hard to find where this man is located and deal with him." His voice was low but firm and there was a small violent glint in his eyes as he spoke, but his wife was having none of it

"This is exactly why it's your first time hearing this. They’ve already dealt with it by this point and I didn't want you doing anything rash."

"What are you talking about? I'm always perfectly reasonable. Now if you'll excuse me it sounds like he’s a zandalian, which means he must be from Flanlal, I'm just going to drop a small meteor nearby as a warning."

"Abrus, with the invasion a few years away I can't have you starting a side war now, assuming we survive that you can do what you want after.” The queen said to reason with him.

Ben felt a small shiver going down his spine from the conversation when Thera leaned over to him and whispered into his ear. “Don’t worry too much, mom just said that so dad would take some time to cool down. He can be a little impulsive when he’s mad.”

“Don’t make him mad, I hear you loud and clear.”

“Anyway,” Pelenia continued, “As displeased as I am personally about everything that occurred, that's not why you’re here. Falk tells me you’ve come up with a way to block passive magics and asked me if I would provide assistance to you. There are plenty of charlatans around who have used the same line to try and gather wealth and resources from me, but given the fact that it’s my old friend saying it I’m sure there's something more to it?”

“I’m not sure how much Falk explained in his letter. There’s been some success and some failure. I was able to restrain Sonya’s magic without issue, but unfortunately I only slightly reduced the power of Theras. I was told you might be able to help gather more subjects to test it on?”

The queen gave a small nod. “We’ve set up a number of appointments for you tomorrow. Starting in the morning you’ll have a variety of succubi and incubi, as well as diplomats with different passive effects from various embassies in the city coming by to be fitted with one of your enchantments.”

“Okay, wow this is happening a bit faster than I expected.” He couldn’t keep the surprise from his face or voice.

Theras' mother gave him an alluring smile. “Assuming this works as well as I’ve been led to believe, then as queen I have no choice but to support your work for the sake of my people. We have plenty of braces and armbands already made up for you so you’ll just need to set up the enchantment, correct?”

“That's right.”

“Excellent. In that case I’ll have someone wake you in the morning. Expect to be occupied for the entire day. After we see the results of course we’ll figure out where to go from there. In the meantime let's have dinner brought in. Abrus be a dear and make the table a little bigger for when the other two come in and let’s move on to a more interesting topic of conversation. How long have you two been dating?”

Ben felt himself choke while Thera faced her mom's smile with an unimpressed look. “He’s just a friend, mother. Don’t make things weird.”

“What a boring answer, but fine for now. In that case, has anything developed between Falk and Sonya yet?”

“Also no.”

Penelia gave a long exaggerated sigh. “Master and apprentice both have such beautiful women in their lives and neither do anything about it. Ben I take back what I said about you not being as stiff as Falk, ask out my daughter immediately, I want grandchildren.”

“Infinite hells mom, are you trying to make things as weird as you can?” Thera asked with her head in her hands.

“Oh? Is the issue you don’t like him? He seems to be a nice young man. Maybe a little plain-faced but he has some nice muscles at least.” The way Penelia looked him up and down, as if appraising a piece of meat put him a little on edge, and he was getting the distinct impression that he wasn’t going to have much luck dealing with either of Theras parents' antics.

“That’s not, I mean he’s... look we’re just friends. You know why I’m not looking for any romance.” She said in a huff, already tired of being home.

He could feel Thera getting more and more frustrated and decided to try to help her out, Partially because he didn’t know what to do in this conversation himself. “Excuse me, don’t mind me bluntly changing the topic and all, but is something going on between Falk and Sonya?”

“Oh you didn’t know.” Penelia almost screamed in delight. “Falk saved my sister's life years ago and she’s been smitten with him ever since. It’s a shame he’s so focused on work and can’t even notice the beautiful woman by his side. Maybe I’ll visit in a year or so and finally beat some sense into him.”

“Is Falk even aware of her feelings?” Ben had to ask. “I know he considers her a good friend but I’ve never really gotten the vibe from him.”

“I don’t think uncle’s ever been one for that sort of thing.” Thera answered. “I’ve never seen him with any partners around at least, though plenty of people aren’t interested in other races if the resemblance between species is weak, and well, you know how his people look.”

Yeah, if the women of Falk’s race look as gorilla-like as himself, Sonya probably has quite the hurdle to face. He quietly thought to himself. He had been taking it for granted since he currently made his home in a nation founded by mixed-breeds, but the majority of people tended to reproduce within their own species.

“He’s been single for as long as I’ve known him as well.” Abrus interjected. “Of course I’m not one to judge. Romance wasn’t even a part of my culture until I met my sweet Penelia.”

“Oh Abrus you gentleman, you picked it up quite well.” His wife told him, staring into his eyes as they got lost in their own little world.

“You know, every time I come home I’m reminded of how nice it is to no longer live here.” Thera said when seeing their display.

“I think it’s nice you have parents who still love each other after years of being together. It’s sweet.”

“Maybe, but it would be sweeter if they toned it down a little when other people are around. Sorry about all this.”

“Don’t sweat it. I’m a little shocked to see your personalities are so different though.”

“We aren’t that different.” Penelia said once she was done flirting with her husband. “It’s just that she takes after Sonya a bit more. You and my sister are both so reserved all the time. That’s why Falk hasn’t noticed her yet. You need to be careful not to follow in her footsteps and take what you want in life.”

“Well I have plenty of time to figure out what it is I want so there's no rush.” Thera said dismissively, trying to keep the topic from returning to her own love life.

“You may be surprised.” It seemed like the queen wanted to say more but a knock came from the door. “Oh that must be the other two. Please come in.”

“What other two?” Ben asked Thera, but she only shrugged.

The doors opened and two figures walked in. One he recognised immediately as his former classmate Karly, but he couldn’t help but ignore her as he stared at the other person to walk in.

“You’re fucking kidding me.” He unintentionally spoke aloud.

“Yeah I reacted pretty similarly too. Nice to see you Ben.” Karly said when she came in.

Unsure of what was going on Thera turned to him. “What’s the matter Ben? Is everything okay?”

She seemed mildly concerned, but he needed a second to put his thoughts in order and process what he was seeing. He’d seen plenty of different races in this world, some that seemed familiar to various myths and some that seemed completely foreign to him, but he never expected this.

Standing at maybe four and a half feet tall, with a small body and large head, with giant black eyes but a tiny nose and mouth, and its most distinctive feature of all, completely grey flesh, the alien, what conspiracy blogs across the Earth would call a grey, stood before him.