***The Infernal Plane of Lust***

***Isabella***

“Seriously! What rode you to kill one of Khorne’s generals?” I complained while I closed the door to the hidden passageway and sealed it with my personal magical signature. Nobody but the members of my family had access to the hidden passageways that penetrated the castle like the tunnels of an anthill.

Sadly, I hadn’t seen how Amon came to butt heads with his most recent victim or I would have intervened to prevent him from drawing undue attention. “Ifrael is one of Khorne’s most trusted men. When Khorne himself couldn’t visit my mother for negotiations, it was Ifrael who regularly played envoy between her and Khorne.”

“I didn’t really kill him, just took most of his souls,” Amon corrected. “I even left him his primary soul and a handful of others so that he would revive. Though, I don’t guarantee that he didn’t take some mental damage from having his souls ripped right out of his soul well. A price had to be paid for attacking me.”

He ripped them out?

Just the thought of it made me wince. The first soul a young demonling received would become his primary soul and be the foundation of his soul well. From then on, a demon’s soul well was like a magnet for souls. Without the primary soul, a demon’s entire being would unravel and be undone, a fate that was regarded worse than a permanent death by most demons.

Nonetheless, the very nature of a soul well made it enormously painful for a demon to have souls removed against his will. The soul well and with it one’s primary soul kept holding onto the souls and would be stretched and torn each time a soul was forcefully removed.

Only very few demons, like succubi, had the instinctive ability to gently pry the souls free one by one.

But having souls simply ripped out… I actually had no clue what kind of mental trauma that would inflict.

I massaged my temples. “I am actually not certain whether that’s a good or a bad thing. It’s actually hard to tell how Khorne and his men will react. Please don’t forget that they outnumber you and your people.”

“I figured that if this Mr. Noname complains about getting beaten up, it would be better to have something to demonstrate my good will rather than not having anything, and just having him beaten up,” Amon explained thoughtfully. “In fact, he was doing his best to provoke a fight. Losing and looking weak wasn’t an option. So it was either beating him up and having nothing. Or beating him up and taking his souls ransom.”

“Mr. Noname?” I asked, wondering about the moniker.

“Ifrael, you called him,” Amon corrected himself. “He never introduced himself to me, so I simply gave the rude fellow a nickname.”

I frowned, actually worried about the health of Amon’s mind. Had he really considered his actions before killing his opponent? Or had he done it out of a fit of outrage? The logical labyrinth he had apparently gone through in order to reach the current conclusion and justify his actions was a little bit too complicated for me to unravel on the fly.

Was it a problem that Amon had started to actually consider the social impact of his actions? Or would it be better if he had stayed a self-centered maniac? I would have preferred a mate that’s easier to manipulate, but having a capable one also wasn’t bad.

I took my time considering his logic. If backing out of the fight wasn’t possible and losing not an option, then beating the opponent without something to hold against him might have actually been worse than fleecing him of most of his souls. Ifrael could have run off to Khorne and spun a tale of Amon being the offender. And Khorne might have forced Amon into paying reparations from his own souls.

Ifrael could still do that, but now Amon had the option of simply giving back the souls he had taken. That would leave Amon off no worse than before, while Ifrael would look like some little demonling who had relied on his progenitor. There was also the definitive possibility that Khorne simply wouldn’t lower himself to taking care of an underling’s problem when said underling had dug a pit of his own making and jumped into it by himself.

I bit my tongue to prevent myself from saying that avoiding the fight altogether would have been best for Amon, but I doubted that Amon had intentionally picked this battle.

Oh, I wasn’t foolish enough to think that Amon was not someone who sought power by taking it from his fellow demons. He was definitely the kind of person who would do exactly such a thing.

It was just that Amon had a certain way to go about increasing his power. He did it efficiently and preferably on a grand scale. That was his way of doing things. Like, blowing up a legion or killing a titan. Amon wasn’t the kind to challenge Khorne’s men one by one in order to steal their souls little by little.

I shook my head at the idea of him doing such a thing. That just wasn’t his style.

Letting out a sigh, I decided to leave the past behind. There was the future to consider. I linked arms with Amon, who reacted like a stiff maiden to my touch, and guided him down the passageway that was just wide enough for two people. Unlike the public areas, the castle’s hidden passages weren’t decorated at all. Their sole purpose was to get around quickly, unhindered and unseen.

“I guess you might be right. Just be warned that Ifrael is someone who has some sway with Khorne,” I warned. Then I decided to add a little compliment mixed with admiration since I knew that he was a sucker for that. “How did you even defeat him? It looked so easy from my point of view.”

Amon puffed out his chest which drew my eyes to his very manly frame as he walked a little bit straighter. “I won’t say that this Ifrael isn’t a good warrior, but it seemed like his skill-set was at a disadvantage against mine. His ability to heal is formidable. I burned him to a crisp and he was almost back to being able to stand after less than a minute. I would have tested him further, but I didn’t feel like beating him up multiple times when he was so confident that I couldn’t kill him. So I decided to make it quick with soul magic. Shouldn’t the idiot have known what I am capable of?”

His face scrunched up as he considered his last thought.

I shook my head and sighed. Even if Amon was starting to consider his surroundings, he was still ignorant of most of what was going on around him. “Ifrael might have heard rumours, but I am almost certain that nobody aside from Khorne’s enemies and my mother have confirmation of what you are capable of.”

“Oh, Khorne knows, as does your mother,” Amon mentioned quickly.

“They do?” I asked. This was actually worrisome. I preferred Khorne to be ignorant regarding Amon’s combat potential.

“Yes, they searched me out and interrupted our research this morning while I was playing around in Kasdeya’s laboratory. Your sister has this really interesting artefact…” Amon quickly drifted off into a monologue about enchantment stability and sustained energy conversion that had my left eyelid twitch involuntarily. I just wasn’t cut out for stuff like that.

“Amon, that is all well and fine, but my point still stands that Ifrael might not have known for certain what you can do. He is Khorne’s envoy and therefore enters the lairs of his master’s enemies. It wouldn’t be logical for Khorne to share every little secret with a man who risks interrogation by potential opponents on a regular basis.”

“Then he is an idiot,” Amon replied. “Why risk his neck against a potential soul mage just to confirm his abilities?”

“Maybe it wasn’t so much about confirming your abilities, but hoping that the rumours aren’t true. Ifrael may have thought his position is threatened or that there is an opportunity to improve it. He saw a possibility to improve his standing among Khorne’s men,” I suggested.

“By beating up someone who Khorne himself invited?” Amon scoffed.

I sighed. “Let’s assume he would have managed to beat you up instead – someone who presumably played an important part in two major battles. It would have shown that you aren’t as powerful as everyone thought you are. Your status as a new prodigy among the power players would be in question. Khorne would have been mad with Ifrael, but he certainly wouldn’t have done something against him because his ability to lead would have to be questioned. After all, Khorne would have extended his generosity towards some weakling, instead of seeking to make a future ally out of a potential new Demon Lord. At the same time, Ifrael’s standing among Khorne’s men would have improved.”

Amon grunted as he thought about this. “I still think that this Ifrael is an idiot if that was his motivation.”

I mentally went over our conversation so far and noticed that there was something that Amon had ignored to mention. “Say, why did Ashley and Khorne look for you?”

“Oh, there was a murder in the castle. Last night, someone used soul magic to kill one of Khorne’s men. But thankfully I had an alibi!” he proclaimed proudly. “They mentioned the possibility of an Átahsaia being loose in the castle.”

I gasped. “You told them that we-”

“No! Of course not!” Amon replied quickly, turning a deeper shade of red. “For some reason, I didn’t think it proper. But Kasdeya stepped in and gave me an alibi by implying that I was with her the entire time. I really have to thank her for that somehow.”

“So she did?” I lengthened my fingernails and dug them into Amon’s upper arm. “Tell me exactly what the two of you did.”

“Research and testing! I swear by the Infernum!” Amon replied quickly.

I waited and looked towards the ceiling, but there was no blast of infernal fire or a sudden influx of souls coming from Amon as reparation for lying after swearing a verbal oath on the Infernum. “Fine. But I will have to talk to Kas about this. How did you even find her? I thought she never left the cellar.”

“Jada brought me to her after finding me at the gate,” Amon explained.

“Why were you at the gate?” I asked, but in fact, I knew exactly that he had tried to run for sure. I had confirmed that the storms had begun before I allowed myself the luxury of sleep. And honestly, it was just too much fun to see Amon squirm a little.

“Aeh…” He let out an intelligible sound. “I was talking to Felicia.”

I threw him a questioning gaze, so he quickly added, “She was sorting some seeds while I asked her about where to find my people. It wasn’t very interesting to be honest, her sorting seeds I mean. She didn’t really know, but Jada arrived while we were talking, and then she showed me around. Did you know that Jada is Felicia’s mother?”

“I see. And yes, I did know,” I replied with a smirk.

Nonetheless, it seemed like I would have to talk to the triplets too. I had a feeling that my stupid sisters had indeed started their own game of intrigue. Hadn’t they talked about getting involved with Amon? Unfortunately, I hadn’t taken them seriously enough at the time.

Sighing inwardly, I cursed my family’s scheming ways. Sadly, it was in a succubus’ nature to plot and play. Even if I wasn’t too happy with the situation. I certainly thought myself to be far less volatile than the rest of my family.

And yet, even I just couldn’t help myself.

Though, maybe it was a cultural thing that came with our education and upbringing. I couldn’t be certain of that.

Sighing for real this time, I spoke to Amon, “In any case, we still haven’t spoken about my true reason for coming to you. And now you are telling me that there is also an Átahsaia on the loose. One more thing I have to look into just to make sure that it doesn’t cause issues. I fear that we will have to cut this session short.”

“We do? What do you mean?” Amon asked with an expression of trepidation.

His face, together with what I felt through our link, told me more or less exactly what he thought and felt at that moment. I didn’t have complete insight into what was going on in his head, but everything that regarded me was easier to interpret than the rest.

He just didn’t know what to make of our relationship. And he would rather stab himself than to confront his feelings for me. A demon who felt attraction for another? That just wasn’t done in his book. And yet he knew that only I could scratch that itch that he felt deep within himself.

I smiled, knowing that I had gotten my hooks deep into him. Just as Ashley always taught me. No spell or mental manipulation would be as good as getting a male truly interested in a female through sex and honesty. And all a succubus had to do in order to achieve that was to actually be nice.

Reaching out, I pulled on Amon’s cheek. “Aren’t you a cute one? Have you truly already forgotten about our regular training exercises?”

He frowned. “Exercises?”

“Melt me in infernal fire! Your mental defences, dummy,” I chided him good-naturedly. “You may have gotten better, but right now you are as open as a book to me. Just imagine what would happen if I had turned out to be the Átahsaia.”

He immediately slammed the connection shut, like a student who had been caught slacking off.

I chuckled and started mercilessly teasing and testing his defences while I took him for a walk. It didn’t matter that the Átahsaia wouldn’t have a convenient opening like the connection between myself and my mate. It was better when Amon thought himself to be more vulnerable than he actually was.

He would be more vigilant that way and more likely to survive when it indeed came down to a battle of minds.

I led him to one of the viewing balconies that were only accessible through the passageways. A place which was highly unlikely to be visited by any of my sisters, since Khorne had brought more than enough men to give all of them a sufficient distraction. Whether that was intentionally or by happenstance, I couldn’t say.

The balcony was a sturdily built platform in the shape of a half-circle that protruded from the side of the castle wall. Just like the rest of the castle, it was protected by the barrier spell that my mother had cast over the castle. Without it, even the castle’s sturdy walls would have been ground down to their foundation by the storm, leaving nothing more than finely-milled sand.

A bubble of violet magic protected the platform, allowing visitors a mostly unhindered view at the surrounding landscape.

I could tell that Amon was awed by the storm season’s destructive force.

We had arrived at a time at which the storm had slowed down somewhat and allowed at least for some line of sight. The winds were still howling ominously, but most of the initial debris had already been swept away.

Nothing remained of the forest that had surrounded the castle. In its stead, a moon-like landscape of carved out rock remained, with only hints of the previously verdant soil between a myriad of cliff-like valleys.

As we watched, a house-sized boulder drifted by like a ship, carving another scar into the landscape and explaining how the current situation had come to pass.

I smiled and took Amon’s arm, laying it over my shoulder. Then I leaned into him and dug my face into his chest while I kept pulling his mental chains. My tail automatically twirled around his thigh and then we fought an amusing battle when he tried to use his own appendage to dislodge me. It was needless to say that mine was far more flexible than his.

Relaxing, I used my arms and wings to hug him, wishing that we had the time to do a little bit more than that. “Isn’t it romantic? Watching the storm together like this?”

Amon sputtered and almost lost control of his mental fortitude. Then he groaned. “You know exactly how to throw me off.”

“It isn’t all that complicated,” I admitted gleefully. “Let’s stay like this for a few more minutes before I have to go?”

“You are already going?” Amon replied a little startled.

“I didn’t joke when I said that I don’t have much time. Unless you are interested in a very quick one,” I teased. “But I doubt that we could manage that. Once we get started, it might as well become morning.”

“Riiight,” Amon admitted, drawing out the word. “Then let’s just stay here like this for a while. Khorne and Ashley told me that they want to hold a gathering in the evening. It might be bad if we are the only ones to miss it.”