As effective immortals, succubi planned in the long-term. Geneva had the luxury to make careful, calculated moves for centuries if that’s what it took to achieve her goals. The patience as well. Piling stone after stone until she had built an insurmountable mountain.

However, she also knew there were times when being careful could mean missing an opportunity and that the progress that could be achieved from a metaphorical kick in the rear end was not to be underestimated.

Her summoner, Lourianne Tome, had the most potential of any creature Geneva had ever encountered. Unfortunately, she did not have similarly sized ambition. The girl, who had lived a life of emotional deprivation, was more than content to lounge in the arms and overflowing affection of her lovers. At this rate, it would take years before Lou had the capacity to want something besides beautiful women fawning over her.

Oh, she was invested in other things. Summoning and personal growth most of all. Yet those things took a very distant second and third seat to her romantic pursuits. That was clear from her summoner’s relaxed approach to her studies. Seven affinities. With proper training, she could turn the world inside out, yet Lou groaned and moaned over studying a few magical theories.

Geneva couldn’t force her to learn, not just because of the conditions of her contract. She was still in the middle of gaining Lou’s trust. The summoner remained cautious but her suspicions waned as her confidence grew. The silly girl seemed to think that she had cowled the succubi. Geneva was forced to be a little more careful but she was far from beaten.

However, this trip to the north provided an opportunity. If there was one thing that could motivate Lou, it was her ‘wives’. If Alana prompted her, her summoner would burn down the whole of Victory and rebuild it with solid gold for the blond to lord over.

Lou was also weak to power. Currently, her aversion to responsibility and the pomp of ruling kept her from making a ploy for political power. She also believed that might was all she needed to make her way in the world.

Not a wholly untrue belief but there were certain things that needed social influence to accomplish. Certain things Geneva needed social influence for. Her leeway to move in the capital was good start but her restrictions meant it would take two generations before she had unquestioned control of the kingdom. With Lou’s cooperation, she could have Harvest eating out of her dainty hands in five years, even using less bloody means her summoner preferred. Maybe less.

She had a strong feeling that once Lou had a taste of ruling, in her own way, she’d be hooked. Or, if not, she would feel too responsible to her little kingdom to leave them to their own devices and would shuck the unwanted trouble to her elementals, as she usually did. To Geneva.

Victory presented a prime opportunity. It was full of strong individuals, relative to the rest of the kingdom, already susceptible to mental influences and accustomed to venerating others. Rather than shape their loyalty, all that was needed was transferring the generational loyalty to the James to her summoner. Even better, there was already a very easy way to do so.

The orders of Victory believed in the James family because they trusted them to lead the war against the north. By that same measure, whoever led the war had their devotion. Lou wanted to make a mark but she needed to go all the way. If Geneva could convince her to wage the war in earnest, and win, Lou would have Victory. Better, she’d have the whole of the north, a kingdom in itself with a little work.

Once they had the north, it would all be a matter of time before they had the rest of the kingdom. It didn’t take her sources in the capital to know the royal family had longed feared the day Victory tired of their impossible war and turned their soldiers to the south. If they ever achieved their namesake, the crown would undoubtedly be frightened into trying to subdue them.

It wouldn’t take much to incite another war. The capital would be anxious for it. If it came to violence, they’d want to strike before the north had time to recover. They’d bare their fangs, thinking they could corner weakened prey, only to find a hungry predator waiting with its jaws open, ready to swallow the continent whole.

But first, Victory. Alana’s grudge against her family ran deep but ultimately, was harmless. She wanted their acknowledgment, not to grind their mangled corpses into the ground. The elf loved conquest but cared little for ruling. That eliminated exciting Lou through her women. That left only one avenue of rousing the summoner’s interest, a challenge.

Specifically, a copious amount of insults from the right party. Whether it was influence from the elf, the trauma of her childhood, or a natural facet of her personality unleashed by her sudden rise in power, Lourianne Tome could not tolerate insults.

Even her inability to tolerate insults against her wives was an extension of her vehement defense of her own ego. The noblewoman had yet to throw away the morals that kept her from beheading anyone who said a wrong word but she certainly held it against them.

All it would take was for the residents of Victory to deliver an unparalleled insult to her summoner. Then, Lou would retaliate. This wasn’t Quest, where the lord was a coward unused to conflict. The duke would have no choice but to move against Lou, to preserve his authority.

Alana would be a calming influence but the elf would be the opposite. She didn’t do half measures. If there was war, she would make sure the James were exterminated to the last child if she had her way. Between the two of them, Lou would thoroughly subjugate them, making way for a new ruler.

“Miss, you’re not listening to me.” A little aways from her, an annoyed stable hand faced down a slightly smirking Cloud. “We don’t have room for those many beasts. You may as well try your luck in the village as they’re not coming into my stalls.”

“The sky does not set aside the waters that will flow over the banks of the river.”

“What?”

“This is a stable. It is meant to house the brethren. Therefore, it will house them. Lest you wish to open your own home, you have no right to kick them from their shelter.”

“No right?! Miss, my family has been running the James stables for generations. Of course I have the right and I’m telling you to get the hell out of my stables before I throw you out!”

“Then we will settle this with the rule of earth.”

“For the love of the sun, speak plain Common, you madwoman!”

The tamer grinned. “The first to kiss the earth leaves.”

“You little…”

Oh, she did love how the simple minds of humanity accommodated her manipulative desires so readily. Opportunity abounded if only one was willing to seize it. The bare bones of a plan came together but for it to work, she needed someone other than a simple stable hand. Someone with authority. As for how best to bring them? Well, what did the weak do when scared out of their minds? The took shelter behind the backs of the strong.

“What is going on here?” she did, her tone eighty percent sharp reprimand and twenty-percent bloodlust. It carried the implied authority those of Victory were weak to. Before he registered her presence, the stable hand straightened reflexively, subconsciously recognizing a superior. His attention slackened to confusion when his eyes found her, brows furrowing.

“What the—"

“You didn’t answer my question,” Geneva snapped. “I asked what’s going on here? It looks like a servant of the James stable is harassing the driver hired by Lady Alana James and preventing us from completing our orders but that certainly couldn’t be the case. It’d be so disgraceful, I couldn’t even laugh at it as a joke.”

The stable hand flinched. “Wait a minute. No one said anything about Lady James.”

“Do you not have eyes or ears? We didn’t arrive in the dead of night on ethereal steeds that never touched the ground. Did you bother to ask? Or did you see an outsider and immediately assume we weren’t worth your time?”

The stable hand looked anxious. “I didn’t—"

“No, you didn’t do much of anything, which is my problem. You can solve it by putting away the beasts. Quickly, boy. I have other things to see to.”

Anxiousness turned to hesitance. “I can’t—"

“THEN FIND ME SOMEONE WHO CAN, IMBECILE!” she shouted, oozing bloodlust. Primitive instincts sent the young man scurrying into the building, the weak seeking the strong.

Beside her, Cloud stretched, cracking her neck. “I hope you do not mean to make me fight the keeper of this den and his pack alone, ash moon.”

Geneva smiled. She rather liked the nickname given to her by the tamer. Ash for her skin and moon for her ever changing appearance but constant nature. The woman proved insightful and poetic. “No need to worry. Lou wouldn’t want you to come to harm and this requires a particular…touch.”

The smile melted from her face, replaced by a deep scowl. A moment later, the door to the room was kicked in. A bigger, burlier, older version of the young stable hand stomped into the room, axe in hand. He grasped the handled with both hands, his eyes searching the room and landing on Cloud. “You! You think you can—"

The rest of his words were cut off by the sharp clap of Geneva’s tail slapping him across the face. He grunted in pain and stumbled to the side. Two drops of blood fell from his busted lip before he recovered enough from his shock to raise his head. His dark eyes were complicated as he looked at the sneering succubus.

“I told him to bring back someone with some sense, not a howling dog,” she snapped. “I can see now that everyone in this place is useless. Cloud, get the animals situated. If there really isn’t any room, kill the old and weak ones. I’m sure the soldiers could do with the extra rations.”

It was an empty threat. Cloud would sooner sleep outside in the cold and snow herself than mindlessly slaughter innocent animals but the two wide-eyed men didn’t know that. And the tamer was wise enough to the games of men that she knew not to tell them. “The new moon graces the sky tonight it seems.”

With a shake of her head, Cloud left the room to see to her animals.

“As for you two bumbling fools, you can run up to the main house and fetch a few servants. Lady James has brought many supplies and they all need to be put away. Or perhaps you want to try using that ax? I warn you, if you dare, the least I’ll take from you in turn are the hands you would raise against a servant of the James household.”

The silence after her words was heavy with tension. Finally, the older man lowered his ax. Turning to the stable hand, he nodded and the young man ran off. Geneva grinned as the older man turned to her with eyes full of repressed anger.

All according to plan.