Epilogue 4 - Crypts

Clark mused for a while and then came to a decision. He raised one hand and cast a strange spell. A swirl of mist beside him coalesced into a winged naked redhead.

"Clark! You haven't summoned me for centuries! What makes you think of me now?"

Drelka could see that they had their weapons sheathed, and there was no immediate threat. Since Gilda was standing next to Clark fully clothed, it didn't look like it was a party, either. She put away her wings, and a thin garment formed around her.

"Gilda, meet Drelka, one of Azura's Seducers. I was granted the ability to summon her for a task I performed for her mistress.

"Drelka, this is my mortal apprentice, Gilda. She needs a better explanation of the Seducers than I can manage, and I might need your help later with some Succubi."

"Succubi? Is Clavicus Vile still doing those?"

She didn't wait for Clark to answer, but told Gilda everthing she wanted to know about Succubi, and the others.

She explained how the Winged Twilights, who were the strongest fliers, also had the sharpest claws and could attack with their tails, but weren't much as spell-casters. They didn't need magic attacks so much when their physical ones worked better. Some of them had arms as well as wings, and didn't fly so strongly. Azura generally used those as messengers, as they could carry a package, as well as a spoken message.

The Daedra Secducers, such as herself, could sprout wings when they wanted to, but they couldn't sustain flight. It was mainly a way to intimidate, or help them jump. They were better spell-casters than any of their relatives, so it was only fair they gave up a bit on flight.

Succubi had wings, but they didn't work. They were just there for balance, because they were a bit too big in front. Their spells were powerful, but slow, and they didn't know many.

Shrikes used spells more, mainly with the aid of staves, and also couldn't fly. The Aureal and Mazken were seducers, too, but they were weapon-skilled, and had no wings at all. Their spells were few, but competent, like those of the Dremora, who weren't seducers at all. And nor were Nymphs, who were just naked women who cast spells, and giggled a lot.

Clark thought it a bit biased towards her own race, but Gilda would see that, anyway, so it didn't matter.

And then she disappeared again, as the summoning expired.

"What kind of help did you mean?" Gilda inquired. "We can handle them easily enough with your ward."

"Well, the Seducers have a natural passive spell reflection that makes them almost immune to a Succubus' spells, plus a Drain Health to regain any losses if the spells do affect them. That means that a Succubus is almost powerless against her. And they know it. I'm hoping they'll just give up, and not fight us at all."

Clark summoned Drelka again. He asked if there was anything he could do to persuade the Succubus to help them find Greta.

"Of course, you just seduce her, and she'll do anything you want. Just like she's hunting you by temptation, she can be manipulated the same way."

"And how do you know this?" Clark asked.

"Because I'm kind of the same myself. When you summon me, I come ready for anything. So I'm naked, because that's the way I fight, and it's useful for the other situations I'd prefer. Except for now, as I already know what's going on. The succubi are under Clavicus Vile's thrall, and don't have much control of their minds, so they really only expect a fight or an orgy.

"If the three of us start having fun, she'll want to join in."

"But I can't keep you here for long," Clark reminded her. "That's the problem with a summoning."

"We just have to make a start, and Gilda's still going to be here when I go back, anyway. Once you've got the succubus to join you, give her all your attention, and she should completely forget about fighting you."

"And how do I know you're not just suggesting this because you want some attention?" Clark asked.

"Of course I do, but you also know I'll hate it when we get interrupted by the spell expiring. Would I suggest this, and then miss out on most of it, if that was my motive?"

"Fair enough," Clark conceeded. "Gilda, how do you feel about the idea?"

"Greta's my cousin, so I'd do almost anything to help her. And this doesn't sound too arduous," she grinned.

Drelka cast a spell, and not only did her clothes disappear, but so did Clark's and Gilda's. Unfortunately, that included Gilda's amulet, and she felt the loss.

"I'm starting to feel a lot of sympathy for Greta right now, so let's make this quick," she told them.

By the time Drelka disappeared, they'd definitely got the attention of the succubus. She was stretching one arm through the bars of the cell, trying to reach them. She licked her lips, and whimpered plaintively. Clark and Gilda pretended to ignore her, but moved closer to the bars, almost into the range of her fingertips.

He let his hand dangle closer to the succubus. She grabbed it and pulled to her breast, stretching her other arm out towards Gilda. "Let her have your hand, too," Clark suggested.

Once Gilda's hand was on he other side, the succubus smiled at them, and reached out to touch in turn. Clark let his hand explore more of the succubus, until he felt confident enough to open the cell door.

It was a lot of effort for not much result. The succubus didn't know a lot about where Greta might be, and her vocabulary was very limited. They had to be mindful all the time that she could become hostile if she wasn't getting enough attention, and she was pretty much insatiable.

"I don't think she noticed that she was doing all the work," Gilda observed, as they slipped out of the cell, and locked it behind them. The succubus was dozing on the bedroll, looking quite contented.

"Drelka prefers being on top, too," Clark responded. "It's because of the wings, but that played to our advantage."

"And I wanted to be on my back as much as possible, without my amulet to take the weight. Get Drelka back here, and find out what she's done with our things."

Clark did so, and despite Drelka trying to ransom their clothes for some attention of her own, she did summon everything back. He gave Gilda's back a rub, just in case she needed it.

"He's going to want to interrogate every succubus we meet, now," Gilda told Drelka, half-seriously. "I expect you to see that we don't need to do that."

Clark whispered to Drelka that she shouldn't ever take Gilda's amulet away in future.