Excerpts from the wise dragon’s demonicon: the grief wing succubus:

…..when a succubus is traumatised or has somehow experienced an almost mindbreaking and painful moment there is a rare chance for them to change into a variant of deviant succubus that has only seldomly been documented, the grief wing succubus….

Grief wing succubi are seldom emotionally stable, the amount of trauma necessary to break the mind of a succubus is not something small, most of these succubi are either unhinged creatures that want to inflict harm and pain the likes of which they suffered onto others, there are some however who remain relatively sane and who are forever scarred by what happened….

….Most of these succubi are verry emotional, they are pessimistic and sympathise with others who have dark thoughts, they are miserable creatures and the only chance for them to regain hope and to heal from the trauma is to accept what happened to them and to not let it define them, this is by no ways an easy task and only then may they become truly functional once more…..

…these fiends are able to manifest illusions so real that they can break peoples minds or make them braindead, they also possess telekinesis but illusions are what they use the most, when in control or stable enough to actually use them they can confront people with their worst fears, make friends kill friends and make people die by stopping their hearts by using their own fears against them…

…Most of them however are unable to do this for they are not stable enough to do it or because they are unable to act due to their traumas…..

………..

Thorn liked Iskander, she really did, but sometimes he really did stupid things, challenging a magus in a duel while also keeping your real power and your literal inner demons in check was just a plan that did not work properly!

She was a warrior, from the moment she’d become a stormwing and was forced into the arenas to battle others she’d learned to fight to kill and to defend herself. Iskander could not always do that though and she felt pity for him, as a warlock of the chain, a warlock who had taken his curse and had used it to control those that had originally put this curse upon the mortal races he had to be verry careful with fighting or emotions. The sheer fact that Iskander had been able to gather this many fiends without getting possessed or becoming a living portal to the abyss or hell was a miracle on itself.

She had to admit though that that last thing was probably because not all the demons and devils the warlock contracted really wanted to do that, the imps, by far the most numerous of devils in the pocket dimension of Iskanders book even went so far that they would die for him if necessary. Why this was important, because every demon or devil loyal to iskander never tried to possess or to kill him.

Thorn had been confused when she arrived in this dimension, a large plain with various biomes for all kinds of fiends with in the middle a stone circle where a fiend entered when coming here. Never had she seen devils, demons and fiends of so many species living in relative harmony with each other before, there were even some high ranks like forest demons or cross road devils, creatures which normally would do everything in their power to stab their “master” in the back.

Iskander had some kind of natural feeling around him after all, Thorn always felt it when she saw him, an aura of grief, suffering, fury and power, for fiends, who had been linked to emotions of mortals by the gods, he would at first seem as easy prey, a desperate mortal thirsting for salvation, but they’d be wrong. When you looked better you saw them, the swirling “broken chains”, a mark that marked one as a warlock of the pact.

That was what most demons and devils agreed on when meeting him, that this kid that stood before them was an enigma, how could a warlock of the chain, one who has to control so many emotions, become so powerful? For most lower ranked devils and demons like imps this aura made them subservient and fearfull, seeing iskander as their master, however that fear somehow changed into adoration when they made a pact with him.

As a deviant succubus she had experienced first hand what fiends did to each other and she had still been a succubus, not an imp. Low ranks were treated worse than slaves, used as their superiors saw fit, to get a powerfull master with a sense of kindess and mercy to his minions like iskander was had to be like a dream to them. Some of the higher ranked ones also felt that way about him and those demons who had since then become mid ranked through gaining more power still saw Iskander as a good master.

She had to admit she did not know how he had managed to get many high and mid ranks in line but she knew verry well how convincing the warlock could be to those fiends that had suffered. She was not the only example of that, onewing for example, a deviant succubus like her who had her face scratched up and a wing torn off by a demon lord before being given to a follower as a toy.

The poor demoness had not just become traumatised (a rare but known affliction of some more emotional succubi) but she had lost most of her demonic personality, the things that the other demon did had done things to her that Thorn did not dare to imagine.

Onewing had joined Iskander when he freed her but before she signed a pact she had cried and even hugged him out of fear and sadness, Thorn had assumed the role as her caretaker and though she had become a bit better she was still far from okay.

This pocket dimension had since become some sort of safehouse for many fiends who were unwanted in the abyss or in hell, many demons and devils lived here and had formed alliances and sometimes even friendships as a result, if they ever went back then they would definitely aid each other, something she could have never imagined before.

That sense of belonging was probably one of the reasons why she and many other demons while finding iskanders decision to duel the magus questionable were yelling words of encouragement while watching the fight through Mephistos scrying card. The gigantic card floated in front of the crowd of gathered fiends who were all sitting, flying or standing while watching the fight.

Mephisto wearing his fancy tophat and clothes as usual gave comments, “and a nice move of Iskander, an arcane shield.” The imps cheered and chanted “Is-kan-der, is-kan-der.”

Thorn and many others cheered with them and gasped for breath as their master was knocked into the wall. When the fight ended and Iskander revealed himself to leon Mephisto called the scrying card back to him and the crowd dispersed. Many were disappointed the magus had not been killed, but at least they had seen their master showing that even with low tiered spells he could compete against a magus.

Thorn walked towards the card devil, “Mephisto wait a second?” Mephisto turned around and waited for her to reach him, the card devil to his credit took off his hat and bowed politely, “miss Thorn.” Thorn smiled, she did not really like card devils but their politeness was something even she could appreciate, there were not many devils or demons who would act like that towards someone like her.

“I wanted to thank you for telling me about Kratos, she said, I wanted to tell that earlier but you were in your secret room again.” Mephisto grinned nervously, his small beard made it look somewhat comical, “you know Thorn, I am happy to help Iskander, Kratos did not play fair by attacking him while weakened.”

Thorn chuckled, “and you expect me to believe it is only because of the standard card devil reason that you helped him?” The card devil sighed and put his hat back on, his eyes shone with a yellow light, “okay then Thorn, I am concerned about him, he is someone that has beaten me in a game remember, I can not be disloyal to him now can I?” He sighed and looked the succubus in the eyes, “now tell me what you really wanted to ask me Thorn, don’t think I didn’t realise you aren’t here just to thank me.”

The stormwing succubus nodded, “could you give me the amulet?” Mephisto looked taken aback for a second, then he slammed with his can on the ground and the environment around them blurred as he put up a barrier, “what did you just say?”

“the amulet, Thorn answered, I am planning to go out and take someone else with me.” The card devil frowned, you are going to the mortal world, but why would you….” Then realisation hit Mephisto, “I see, there is a weapon shop in the town isn’t it?” Thorn tried to look innocent, the card devil had read that part of her plan like a book but maybe she could fool him?

“I see you blushing and waving with your tail Thorn, Mephisto with a plain voice as if it was an undeniable fact that she always did that when her plans were seen through, which was technically true. “And I suppose that you plan to take someone with you to carry all the loot, Mephisto asked, by the rings of hell Thorn, has our master not enough problems already?”

Thorns eyes shot fire as she felt rage and anger boil inside her, “you know gods damned well who I plan to take there, she needs some fresh air!” For a moment the card devils expression was that of surprise, then he knew who Thorn was talking about, “onewing.”

……..

Onewing cried, she always did, what else could she do? Flying, she had one ragged wing left, seducing and tricking, she had lost most of those powers and had been mutilated. Onewing knew she could cast illusions now, that she was a deviant succubus like thorn was but she still could not get over it.

The experiments on her by that demon lord, the humiliation while her own family had to watch, it had broken her, she cried, a broken demoness that was all she was now. She could no longer fly, no longer use most of her former powers, she could no longer deceive mortals to give their souls, whe was useless.

Thorn had told her she wasn’t, that she was still herself but she did not believe her, She had been beautifull, charming and feared as daughter of a feared matriarch until that demon lord got her. She cried, what did it matter anymore, she was gone, that former her was gone, only a remnant scarred and broken was left.

Suddenly she heard a voice behind her, obviously it was Thorn. “Onewing, I have something planned for tomorrow that will cheer you up!” Onewing snorted, she like Thorn but her attempts on helping her had not been so successful. She shook her head to rid her eyes from the remaining tears, ‘what does it matter anyway, I’ll just do what she says, not like I can do much else.’