***The Infernal Plane of Lust***

***Amon***

We returned to headquarters together and encountered Kitia in the entrance lobby. She had been waiting for us and gave me quite an eager greeting when we returned. Apparently, she had been worried, which honestly surprised me. I hadn’t expected that the others valued me quite that highly. But then again, I was responsible for their rapid ascension.

Who would want to lose their golden goose?

From Kitia, we learned that everyone had made it back safely and that they were waiting at Ebandon’s office. Then she exchanged a few quick words with Jebril while excluding me from their conversation. I had no time to wonder about the hidden exchange between the two females, since my companion excused herself, supposedly to clean herself up before we met the others.

That was something I also direly needed after being chased through the dome’s backstreets, so I allowed her to take the necessary ten minutes before we reunited at the lounge in front of the office. When I arrived at our meeting point, I found out that Jebril had actually been quicker than me and was waiting with the others and our prisoner.

I was about to comment on their good performance when I realized that someone was missing.

“I am here, I am here!” Isabella’s voice came from down the corridor and I turned to find her running towards me with her tits bobbing quite enticingly.

Frowning, I quickly averted my eyes from the spectacle and asked, “Where have you been off to?”

“Oh, just a quick clean up.” She ran a hand through her perfectly maintained hair and threw me a wink. “A succubus has to take care of herself.”

It may be that she had a point, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off with this situation. Didn’t she have more than enough time to clean herself up while I was on my little stint with Jebril?

I caught my eyes drifting south once more and bit my inner cheek, wondering why I was still infatuated with this woman despite having had other females.

The sad truth was that my short encounters with Kitia and now Jebril had been nothing like the single night that Isabella had spent with me. I had tasted the forbidden fruit and now all other women lacked a certain something. Which wasn’t to say that Jebril had been bad, but there was something missing that I couldn't put my finger on.

“Anyway…” Philomena interrupted my thoughts and pointed at Rar’moth, who was cuffed and gagged with big chunks of ice to ensure that he wouldn’t escape. Of course, I recognized Kitia’s handiwork. “Could we deliver that? I don’t want him to freeze to death before we can claim our reward.”

“Find… again…” Shax muttered, likely implying that we would have to hunt down Rar’moth a second time, should he perish before we could deliver him to Ebandon. Only that the rat would know this time around who was after him. We wouldn’t have it as easy as walking right next to and grabbing him a second time.

I decided that the most important thing right now was the matter at hand, handing Rar’moth to Ebandon. Though, the thought that I was missing something was still nagging at the back of my mind.

It was at that moment that Isabella stepped up to me with a charming smile and offered me a stick with some grilled meat on it. “Here, have a snack. I am sure that you totally forgot about food in that bar.” Then she practically forced me to take a bite, like some caring mother. “It’s tongue, I know that you love that.”

Where did she even get freshly grilled meat on a stick?

Now I knew that something was off, but weirdly enough, the other didn’t have anything nasty to say about the situation, so I dismissed my suspicions for the moment. The other hadn’t missed a chance to comment on my stupidity so far, so whatever the problem was, it could wait for now.

“Let’s go.” I gestured for the others to take the lead and Shax picked up our charge, lifting the rat-demon by the scruff of his neck without any effort. Uphir opened the door to Ebandon’s room and we entered as a group.

Everything that happened afterwards was somehow anticlimactic.

Just as Ex had forewarned, Ebandon revealed that we had been watched the entire time and that our performance had been satisfactory. Aside from the fact that we took a great risk by stealing Rar’moth directly out of an opposing warband’s headquarters, our leader had nothing to complain about.

It was clear that he would have preferred it if we had taken the time to ambush Rar’moth in some dark alleyway without anyone being the wiser about his whereabouts. On the other hand, snatching the traitor right out from another warband’s nose was also no harm to our warband’s reputation. It showed that there was no ditching Ebandon's group without repercussions.

We were paid our souls, and surprisingly enough they weren’t even weak ones in terms of quality, which made our venture more profitable than we originally expected it to be. The souls weren’t great ones, but they didn’t belong to some useless mortal farmer either. What we got had been decent warriors and mages in life. It reminded me that the quality of a soul shouldn’t be disregarded when it came to payment in a contract.

The experience of a thousand peasants might make up for one decent soldier, barely.

Then the briefing was over and we were ushered out of the room, leaving Rar’moth behind. It was clear that our esteemed warband’s leader had no desire to share the drama of what was going on with the rat demon, or what his fate would be.

I couldn't care less as long as I was paid.

With that taken care of, the others decided to call it a day and retreated to whatever occupation they preferred to spend time on.

We had taken the first real step on becoming full-fledged members of the warband, and all that was left to do was to wait for the next mission and to increase our power in the meantime.

Little did we know that a real test of our powers wouldn’t be too far off in the future.

***The Infernal Plane of Lust***

***Isabella***

Amon remained in the lobby even after the others were gone, looking at a wall with that lost expression he often wore when he was deep in thought. It was his own fault for letting down his defences, so I took the chance and hooked arms with him.

That shook him out of his stupor and he finally turned his attention to me, as it should be.

“What is it, Isabella?” he asked, knowing that I wouldn’t be shaken off that easily.

“I wondered whether you want to go on a date?” I replied and laced my fingers with his, hoping that he would catch the subtle hint of affection.

“A… date?” His words were filled with incredulity as if he never expected to ever use the word ‘date’. “We are demons.”

“And who says that demons can’t go on dates?” I quipped back. “But there is no helping it if you don’t want to. And there I thought that we would spend the evening on something productive, like using my family’s information network to research the whereabouts of your spear-thingy. You mentioned that a certain Sozzudon took it?”

I knew that I had him when his face lit up at the mention of his heritage. “You really think that you can find out something meaningful?”

“My family controls one of the most sophisticated information networks on this plane,” I explained and pulled Amon towards the exit. “If we have nothing on this Sozzudon, then that would be very telling on its own.”

Amon frowned. “How so?”

I explained while we left the warband’s headquarters. “Okay, let’s just say that every demon who reaches his adult evolution and gets older than a century leaves a record in their quest for power. After everything you told me about Amon-”

“Actually, I haven’t told you all that much,” he interrupted. “Have you been rooting around in my memories?”

I rolled my eyes. Now he was just trying to get me off balance in order to glean some information. And it was a clumsy attempt on top. “I think we already established that. Forgive me for phrasing it a little bit differently. I was just trying not to twist the knife inside the wound, so to speak. Can I continue now?”

He grunted as we made our way along the balustrade of the inner dome. “Go on.”

“Okay, so here is the thing. Sozzudon has an adult evolution, and during his conversation with your caretaker he revealed the caretaker's name, Faras. This implies that he knew him a little more intimately than you might have assumed.” I gestured for Amon to keep his questions in check. He probably wanted to know just how detailed my knowledge of his memories was, but for that, he could ask any knowledgable demon.

Then again, he probably should know, or he would likely stumble right into a trap once he met one of my sisters. “Let’s just say that being ridden by a succubus allows her to read you like an open book. Please avoid fucking other succubi if you don’t want your secrets leaked.”

“Now, where was I?” I asked myself rhetorically, just to get the conversation back on track before it derailed too much. “Ah, yes. Your time with Sozzudon was brief, but it revealed some things that should make it easier to find him. First, he knew the caretaker, Faras, so that is a connection which we can follow. Second, he is an adult demon, probably old. It appeared like he was low on souls when you met him, but he talked as if he was used to travelling the planes.

“You might not be aware of how difficult it is to travel through dimensions if you aren’t a god or a Planar Lord, but us average demons can’t just decide to go on a weekend trip to Gluttony or Envy and come back in the evening.” I raised my hand and rubbed my fingers together in the universal gesture for money. “That takes souls, a lot of souls. I won’t bore you with the details, but it should suffice to say that people who travel the planes through the Lode Stones are being logged by whatever principality has control of them.”

Amon grunted appreciatively at my explanation. “And it isn’t possible that he simply allowed himself to be summoned to Gluttony?”

I dismiss the possibility with a wave of my hand. “That isn’t how the Infernum works. You don’t get to be summoned by other demons unless you do it from a mortal plane. Easy travel through summoning rituals is only possible between an Infernal and a Mortal plane, the Planar Lords are seeing to that. You can't cheat by allowing yourself to be summoned back and forth either. And while I admit that there are ways to avoid usage of the Lode Stones, it is unlikely. If Sozzudon had been capable of such a feat, he would never be short on souls. Everyone with a hint of power would be sticking to him like glue…”

I continued to explain my reasoning to Amon, who listened with rapt attention.

Finally, he nodded and summoned up my conclusion. “It indeed seems like your information network should at least have him on record. And if not…”

“If not, it means that your Sozzudon is either a very, very powerful person in hiding or someone with very influential backers,” I concluded and smiled.

We had reached our destination, a brothel on the dome’s first floor. If the sign that read ‘Ashley’s Pleasures’ wasn’t enough of a hint, the many illusory advertisements on the locale’s front didn’t leave any doubt, as they promoted the business’s many employees who would be able to satiate most tastes.

“A brothel?” Amon pulled down the corners of his lips. It was clear that he was wary of me bringing him to such a location. “Are you serious?”

“Hey, you are talking about a family of succubi!” I pointed out. “Just think about it. We succubi can read the thoughts and memories of our partners. Not only here in Lust, but all throughout the Infernum, secrets run through places like these, carefully sheltered and guarded by my sisters and others with similar powers.”

He sighed. “Just don’t use this to play some sick game with me. I have my guards up.”

I mentally poked him through our shared connection. “That’s right. Always be wary when you enter a succubus lair. But do not worry!” I pumped my fist, eager to show off the benefits of having me at his side. “You are mine, so I will protect you against anyone else who tries to get into your pants!”

“That’s a big announcement,” he mumbled and allowed me to drag him into the establishment that was run by one of my sisters. “I notice that you made sure to exclude yourself from not getting into my pants.”

I ignored him and led the way into the brothel through an extravagant door with a lifelike carving of two entangled succubi in the throes of passion. The material was white bone, likely taken from a gigantic creature. The carving was a work of true art and gave the impression that you could almost reach into it and become a part of the scene.

Of course, given my family’s most guarded secrets, such a thing was entirely within the realm of possibility. It was for that reason that I positioned myself between the door and Amon to protect him from accidentally touching the magic that was woven into the entrance gate.

Inside, we were received by several scantily dressed demonesses who went instantly for Amon with all kinds of goodies like food, drink, drugs, and other items of pleasure. But I spread my wings and warded those lesser members of the trait away.

It helped that a few of them recognized me.

A demoness with the lower body of a serpent bowed and the golden jewellery in her horns jingled with the movement. “What is your desire, Lady Isabella? We weren’t informed that you would come here.”

“I just wanted to pay a visit to my dear sister, Hellith. Is she in her office?” I gestured towards the door that led to my sister’s personal quarters. Mother always had one of us stationed here, since it was the closest settlement to our castle. Knowing what was going on right next door was never a bad thing.

“The Mistress is in her office, but I think she is busy with another of your sisters,” one of the servants informed me.

That made me somewhat wary. “Oh? Who is it?” We might have to cancel this visit if it was one of my less trustworthy sisters. Not that I thought any of them would actually want to hurt me, but a few of them would run straight to my mother and blow the whistle if they thought I was up to something.

“Jada,” the snake-fiend informed me.

I relaxed slightly, knowing that Jada and the rest of the triplets were already in on a part of my plan. If they hadn’t ratted me out yet, they wouldn’t do so unless something important happened.

The employees didn’t dare to stop me and Amon when I went for the next door that led sideways from the entrance hall. Once more I made sure to shield Amon from the protective carving and then we went down the long hallway that led to Hellith’s private quarters.

We found Hellith at her office desk, hidden behind stacks of papers.

Jada was sitting in a very relaxed pose across from her and drinking tea. She turned to face us when we entered the office. “Little Isa, what brings you here?” Leaning slightly sideways, she threw a sly smile at Amon. “And you even brought your significant other.”

Amon coughed but apparently didn’t dare to deny the statement in the presence of two of my sisters who were eyeing him like a piece of meat. If I had to take a guess, he probably thought that having one succubus after him was more than he could handle at the moment.

“Information,” I replied nonchalantly, hoping that Claire’s recent training made me somewhat more capable of hiding my true feelings. “Why are you even here? I thought you have your own interests to follow?”

“Oh, don’t worry.” Jada took a sip from her cup of tea. “Mother sent me here with an urgent message for Hellith. But I have every intention to pay my Shaxy baby a visit once I am done here,” she purred. “The chastity belt is finally off.”

“I will make sure to warn Shax,” Amon whispered behind me, more so himself than anyone else in the room.

Hellith was apparently not in the mood for small talk, because she inserted herself into the discussion. “So, what exactly are you searching for, little sister?”

I gave Hellith a quick summary of all the important details that would make Hellith’s work easier. She was one of the very few who had access to our family’s entire network, and if someone could find something on Sozzudon without much hassle, it was her.

Hellith didn’t waste any time and went to a walk-in cabinet that covered the right side of her office. Each compartment was filled with hundreds of folders and it became clear that this wasn’t just a simple storage space when she pulled out one compartment. It was a circular contraption that held the folders, and when she spun it, none of the documents repeated itself even though it should have happened by now several times.

“It’s funny that you are asking after Sozzudon. He is quite a well-known figure in the Infernum if someone knows to ask the right questions,” Hellith mused while file-numbers zipped past her fingers at increasing speed. She even gave the contraption a few more accelerating spins to go faster through the files. “I am afraid that aside from his most recent history, I don't have much. For more than basic summaries of his older exploits, you will have to visit the castle.”

“The recent stuff is fine,” I assured my sister.

“Powerful?” Amon asked.

“Not so much powerful, as he has a talent for being in the right place at the right time. He goes by many names and has served many masters in the pursuit of his own goals. From the very powerful to those who only play a minor role in the grand scheme of things.” Hellith placed a finger on the spinning file-holder, slowing it while drawing a few sparks with her fingernail.

“One thing I can say for sure is that he is old and has connections. Demon Lords have taken his services and it is rumoured that one or two gods travel his doorstep.” The file holder came to a halt, and Hellith retrieved several folders. “This is what I have, or at least, what I think isn’t just baseless rumour.”

I pursed my lips when I studied the heavy stack of papers, wondering how long it might take to search through them for information. “Amon, we might need a private room and a few hours.”

He eyed the stack and nodded. “Likely, unless you can speed-read? I guess there is no other choice but to go to work.”