"I apologize, Annie. I had not considered…"

There was a slight rumble, and the rays of the two suns were slowly blocked by a rocky outcropping that had grown out of the ground to cover them, as if by magic.

Annie whirled around, gawking at the clear use of actual magic and barely even noticing that the portal behind her had disappeared.

Until she did notice it.

"Um, you can send me back, right?" she asked, feeling her anxiety rise up. Ugh, this was so stupid! I'm not a fucking kid! I can't just run off into another world and leave Carl and the girls!

"Yes," the succubus said in a tone that conveyed total confidence. "If at any time you wish to return, I will open the gate once more."

Annie sighed in relief, feeling somehow that she could trust the horned, purple-haired demoness despite the obvious implications of such a supernatural being. She examined this feeling further until she found its source. "You, um…" She lost herself again momentarily in bright green eyes.

"Yes?"

Get your shit together! Annie looked away to avoid getting distracted again. "You were with Carl yesterday?" she asked. "When I was eating lunch?"

"Lunch?" the succubus replied, seeming uncertain. Her tail swished lazily behind her, capturing Annie's imagination once more in a very different way after her own, admittedly brief, experience wearing a tail recently. "Ah, I understand. Yes, I created the gate, and he passed through."

The statement brought Annie's thoughts together. Wait, what the fuck. "Carl," she said, giving the tall succubus a look. "As in, my Carl, was here with you twenty four hours ago?"

The succubus—whose name Annie really wished she could recall, but all she could remember was that it was not a name she'd ever heard previously—gave her a puzzled look. "I have no method to determine time as you would, but I would estimate that only half that amount of time has passed since I last saw you."

Annie frowned. Half that? As in, twelve hours? A suspicion formed in her mind, but she forced it away in order to get to the bottom of her question. "But that was Carl? Carl Weathers?"

The succubus seemed surprised. "He has not told me of a second name." A look of understanding crossed her face. "Ah, he has taken your second name?"

Annie smiled in amusement. "No, it's his, as annoying as he finds it."

The succubus's tail waved back and forth, and her skin gradually faded from blue to light purple.

Annie stared. This is so fucking surreal. Where even am I? And she can just cast spells to open portals and move rocks around like it's nothing? Carl, what the fuck have you gotten yourself into? "Anyway, you wanted to talk?"

The demoness started and watched Annie for a moment before turning her gaze away. Then, slowly, she came down onto one knee, looking up at her. "Annie," she said in a serious tone, placing her clawed hands on her knee, "I am Ir'alith, daughter of Seth'tith and Ira'unne. I have not known Carl, your husband, for long, but I have become fond of him. I know well of his devotion to you and your daughters, the youngest, Bobby, and the eldest, whose name I do not yet know—"

Annie's eyes bulged. What the fuck.

"—and I have no desire to alter this," the succubus, Ir'alith, who knew a disturbing amount of information about their family continued. "I wish only to receive your permission to seek my own happiness with Carl, should he have the same—"

"Wait, wait, wait," Annie cut in, feeling like her brain was melting at the earnest words of Ir'alith, who was maybe not human, but was definitely a woman. "What exactly do you want?" she asked. There's no fucking way…

Ir'alith stared up into her eyes without blinking. "I…" Her skin again changed color, this time fading all the way to a dark shade of pink. "I wish to court Carl," she said, speaking more and more quickly, "even if it is to be only as a second wife to you, I—"

"What the fuck?" Annie exclaimed, staring down at the succubus who had brought her to another world because she apparently wanted to ask permission to marry her Carl as his second wife. "Is this some kind of fucking joke?" I can't even process this.

The demoness's skin and eyes instantly shifted to a bright shade of red, and her very sharp-looking, clawed hands clenched on her knee, though she remained otherwise immobile. "My people do not speak of such things in jest, human," she said, her voice now lower and sounding much more like Annie's expectation of a demonic being.

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Annie gulped. Oh fuck, I think I pissed her off. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Carl, I love you, but this is some really weird shit you've gotten me into right now! "W-wait, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you!" she said quickly, now imagining what other kinds of magic someone who could make portals and move earth could do, specifically the kind that might involve her not ever being able to see her daughters or husband again.

"I…" Ir'alith lowered her head, and her skin returned to a deep shade of blue. "I apologize, Annie," she said in a quieter voice. "My hostility is not excusable. Know that I would never allow harm to befall you." Her tail thumped softly on the ground. "It seems I am the weakest in the ways of love."

Seeing the other woman grow so obviously depressed at her sudden, hotheaded reaction reminded Annie of herself when she'd been younger.

Before she'd met Carl and become better.

I sort of want to help her because she seems so damn sincere, but this really is too fucking weird. An odd idea occurred to her, and she pressed her fingers to her temples and sighed in expectation at the only thing that could possibly cause this all to make sense, even though it made no sense. "Was this Carl's idea that you come talk to me?"

"No," Ir'alith said, shaking her head firmly. She looked up again, her eyes now the same soul-stealing blue as the day prior. "The exact words spoken by Carl were: I've got two kids, and Annie's the best, so there's no way I'd ever do anything like that behind her back. This was my decision, and he has no knowledge of it. If I have misunderstood his intent, then the blame must fall solely upon me."

Annie stared yet again down at the blue-skinned woman, her preparations to feel something disrupted by the solemn words. That definitely sounds like Carl. So… Wait, how the fuck is Carl even here, anyway? Ergh, I'll get to that later. So he's… The idea hurt her head to consider. He's just been walking around here being himself, and this Ir'alith is totally head over heels for him somehow? This went from being a fantasy story written by a woman to one written by a man really fast. She's probably not too bright, and he was the first human she ever saw or something. What do I even say to her? "No, now please send me back." Asking to come here was a bad idea. Although, she did say she'd send me back whenever I wanted…

She swallowed, her nervousness spiking as she decided to not quite lie, but to be slightly dishonest to the first magic-user she'd ever met, whom she believed was perhaps not the sharpest tack in the box. "Um, would you mind sending me back before I answer?" she asked.

The blue light in Ir'alith's eyes dimmed, and her shoulders slumped slightly. Her tail came to rest fully on the ground. "Of course, Annie," she said, rising to her feet. "I… I apologize for any offenses or discomforts that I may have caused."

Annie's nervousness abated somewhat. Then she frowned. She's acting almost like she knows what I'm going to say. Her eyes widened in alarm. Is she—

"I cannot know your thoughts," Ir'alith said, shaking her head. "But you care deeply for your daughters as Carl does, and you would fight to protect them. You are a human, however, and you cannot return to your world without my assistance, so it is natural that you would wish to ensure your safety before speaking the words I do not wish to hear."

Annie goggled. "You… You really can't read my mind?"

Ir'alith shook her head. "No. But if you cannot trust my words when I have said that I would never permit harm to befall you, then you have no reason to trust my words now." Her tail thumped weakly on the ground. "This was a foolish endeavor," she said more quietly while looking down. "I have already been defiled. None would truly wish to court one such as I."

Annie looked at the taller, not-human woman with a complicated expression. She seems totally crushed. That's not… It was a weird thing to ask! Why the fuck do I feel bad now?

"I apologize again," Ir'alith said. "I was overcome and spoke my thoughts." Her head came up, and she fixed Annie with a firm look. "Be strong for Carl," she said. "I am sure you are more worthy of his devotion and affection than I could ever be."

A portal appeared a few steps away, showing the English workroom once more, seeming exactly as it had.

Annie looked back and forth between the portal and the blue-skinned, sincere, maybe very bright woman who had brought her to another world. "You're really just going to let me go?" she asked in confusion. Why even bother with this? If it's really my Carl you fell for, you could just get rid of me and…

Fantasy novels weren't the only ones Annie read. No, she also had a penchant for reading romance and mystery novels, though she generally preferred to read only the worst romance novels as a means of amusing herself. But the mystery novels she'd begun to read as she grew older and fantasy authors somehow managed to run out of ideas tended to be thought-provoking and more focused on the characters and underlying themes rather than the mysteries themselves. As such, she was now considering that it would have remained a forever unsolved mystery if this Ir'alith woman had simply refused to allow her to return, and she could have gotten what she appeared to want had she done so.

"As I have said, I would never allow harm to befall you under my watch," Ir'alith said. "Regardless of your decision, you are the wife of Carl, and you are the one he…"

The portal disappeared.

Annie took a step back. Oh fuck.

Ir'alith's head swiveled quickly from side to side, as though checking to make sure nobody was watching.

"Shit, shit, shit," Annie muttered as she turned and began to run from the demoness who had apparently just realized that she could just kill the existing wife and—

Annie's feet stopped touching the ground, and she felt some intangible, magical force surround her and begin dragging her backwards. "Please, let me go back," she begged, turning her head as much as she was able. "I won't—"

"Quiet," Ir'alith said in a soft voice. "We are no longer alone."

"Help!" Annie screamed. "Somebody h—"

Suddenly, there was no sound when she spoke.