It was dark here. A nothingness that seemed familiar. There wasn't any pain this time, that was good. A place of nothingness and no pain, I could live with that.

There were small needle points of light in the distance. Why did they disturb my darkness? I wanted them gone. Why wouldn't anyone turn them off? Damn, if you wanted something done, you had to do it yourself.

I willed myself to those dots. Floating in the darkness was like floating in the ocean. I could feel waves of darkness pushing against me. Trying to push me away from my goal. No dark ocean wave was going to push me out of the way. I was going to turn off those lights and sleep.

The first light was the brightest. The brightness dimmed a bit as I neared it, or maybe my eyes were just getting used to the light and it just didn't seem as bright as before. Either way, my goal hadn't changed.

The light wasn't just a light. It was a window? Mirror? I could see an island through the light.

It probably had once been a tropical paradise. Now it was burning. Thick black smoke obscured most of the view. There were bodies piled up in rows along the edge of the beach. Far enough away that high tide wouldn't claim them, but as far from the burning areas as possible.

Who had lined up the bodies? Were there people down there? What had happened to cause so much destruction?

Curiosity was getting the better of me. What sort of a disaster had hit this island?

"I guess you could say it was partially our fault."

Edomael was suddenly beside me in his winged shiny state. He looked like he'd just gone four rounds with a champion boxer and was KO'ed at the end. It didn't look like there was a place visible on him that wasn't burnt or bruised.

"We were serious when we told you we were in the middle of an emergency." He waved his hand at the image of the smoking island. So this was why Amoris looked like she'd survived the apocalypse.

"We all managed to survive, unfortunately, we weren't able to save the majority of the mortals. We failed. When gods fail it's not usually on this epic of a scale." His wings drooped and his tail swished behind him agitated.

"What happened?" I was really very curious.

"Foolishness happened," he sighed deeply. "I believe I understand why my brother wanted you here in Elrich so badly. I think he saw this disaster coming."

"Why didn't he stop it? What do I have to do with it?" I was beginning to lose my apathetic feeling. A burning began in my gut.

"It's more that he had a feeling something like this would happen. He didn't know when, where, or even how it was going to happen, but he knew something would happen.

"I think he brought you here because of your odd fate. It's all over the damned place. Not even the best of us can predict what is going to happen to you next. That will be a huge asset in this case."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't tell you much right now, but I can tell you that some gods are involved in what happened down there. They are directly responsible for this," he waved at the island. "While the rest of us are indirectly responsible for not seeing it and preventing it from happening."

"If you didn't know it was going to happen, how are you responsible? Sounds like you are blaming yourselves for something you can only see in hindsight." Here I was giving advice to a god. Man, I really needed to get back home to my sane space. This was crazy and even crazy me knew it.

"You're not insane, you can't afford to be. You are going to be needed by the survivors of this disaster. We are sending them your way. It will take them some time to get there, but when they do I believe you'll figure out that everything has a reason for happening. We may not know that reason, but there is one." He ran his hand through his hair but came up against his white feather crown and had to stop. He let his hand fall to his side.

"You're a god, aren't you supposed to know why things happen?"

"We only have limited omnipotence. Not even we can guess at all the reasons or whys. We can predict things up to a certain point, but the fascinating thing about living is that life can sometimes become unpredictable even to the gods."

"So you think it's a good idea to send them my way? Why?"

"You are in a unique position to help at least one of them. The other will probably follow. When they find you, then you will know when it's time to leave Yellow Springs. Until then, work in the background to keep a low profile. Level up. Learn skills to survive.

"Amoris warned you against leveling up past 10, but she failed to mention that is only for skills that others will be seeing you use. The Priest's healing is something he uses nearly every day and it would draw attention. However, if you were to level up something like Illia's Trap Detection then it wouldn't be used in front of anyone but members of your party. Or in the rare cases when you have tagalongs, like your current situation, you can use a high Deception skill to bluff your way out of the problem.

"My point is, be smart about it. You can do it, but do it wisely. Understand that there are people in the world who do have levels above 10, but they are rare. They are usually forced into a situation similar to the Priest's grandfather. So do not level up any skills that would be too showy. No level 10 sword skills, understand?"

"Yes, I think I get it. I just don't know why..."

"You are going to need to become stronger. You are going to be needed, in a desperate way by the survivors. They need you and you will need them. I'm certain that they will join your trusted circle of friends in no time."

"Do they know what I am, or will be?" Acid fluxed in my gut. Could you be sick in the Abyss?

"Believe me when I say they won't be fazed one bit to find out. They've been through a lot of crazy changes recently, not unlike yourself. They will understand. We've already told them you have a skill that would be uniquely beneficial to them. So when you feel comfortable enough, you have permission to give them both the Succuba Star. The sooner the better, though, they won't be able to function in normal society without you." He patted my shoulder and smiled.

"What do you mean?" He was giving me information, but only in little sips. It was getting frustrating.

"I can't tell you everything. My brother has specifically asked me not to give you the details. Just an overview of the problem you will be facing. Free will is paramount to everything we stand for, he's concerned that if you knew the details at this point you would feel manipulated. That isn't what we want at all.

"We might guide events along a certain path, but a person always has a choice on if they are going to follow that path. There are literally dozens of paths a person can take in any given moment. They are always free to choose those paths. Free Will. We don't often interfere with it. It happens, but it's very rare. We hold the right to stand judgment above the mortals, but we try not to interfere in a way that free will is taken away."

"Killing those guys, they don't have free will anymore."

"That's both true and untrue," he shook his head in negation. "While they are dead, their souls still live in the Abyss and can still make choices. We try to make things as balanced as we can. We have to be careful that excessive amounts of negative energy don't appear in this world. We failed in this case though." He gestured to the image of the burning island again.

"Aren't you able to sense the bad juju rising? How did you miss this?"

"In this case, other gods were involved in keeping it hidden. I can't tell you more than that."

"So you won't give me details because you think it will affect my free will, but you are ok in affecting free will if something will cause too much negative juju. You need me to help out these survivors, but you won't tell me why. What are you planning?" They were planning something, I wanted to know what.

"Even if we did plan something, your actions would toss all our planning out the window. My brother seems to think that you will be of help to us, but I don't think even he knows how you are going to help."

"And if I don't help at all?" I wasn't feeling very helpful at the moment.

"That's fine. We just ask that you take in the survivors. You will understand why you are so desperately needed when they get there.

"By the way, you need to pull yourself together. You went and disconnected your tether again you know? You need to stop doing that. I'm here holding you in place, but eventually, you're going to have to learn to do this yourself or stop pushing your soul out of your body."

"Did I die?"

"No, you are just sleeping, but without me keeping your body connected to your soul, you would be dead."

"Shit," I swore.

"Shit indeed," he chuckled.

"How do I keep myself inside myself?"

"I think it would be easier to show you how to stay tethered rather than try and prevent all your freakouts."

"I'm not a hysterical person," I grumped.

"Could have fooled me. This is twice you've broken your mind enough to leave your body."

"My mind isn't broken."

"Yes it is, and you broke it. You aren't stable, Eri. That's not really your fault. You literally aren't stable. Not just your mind but your body is in a constant state of flux. Normally, you freaking out wouldn't be an issue, but you trigger a fight or flight response within yourself. Since we can't stop this from happening, we need to work on ways to prevent you from dying when it does happen."

"I am crazy?"

"Not in the way you think. Your soul is having problems staying within your body, so it's affecting your mental stability. You'd normally just fall into a funk or a depression when something shocking happens. You, on the other hand, your reactions are exaggerated. I think that you will stabilize more after your transformation, but I can't be certain, so I am here to teach you how to literally pull yourself together."

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"Fine," I wasn't sure I understood everything, but I got the gist of it. I was unstable, mentally and physically, and I needed a skill to keep myself from accidentally killing myself.

"Ok, think of your soul as knitting. Right now you are just a ball of string. You need to knit yourself into your body."

"I know nothing about knitting." What the heck was he talking about? My soul didn't need a sweater or even a teapot cozy.

"Fine, have you ever read about people who use ropes to spirit walk in novels?"

"You mean that they have a rope attached to their sleeping body on one end and they go zooming over the earth with the other end attached to their ghost?"

"That works, it's basic but we need to work within your understanding." Hey, I wasn't stupid.

"You need to be mentally connected to your body at all times when you end up here. That's the important part. Imagining that mental connection as a string is effective. If there is another way you want to picture that in your mind, be my guest and come up with something else."

"We can use a string," I conceded.

"You know the idea, you have one string attached to you and one to your body. Imagine that. Picture that string in your mind and make it a reality."

Fine. I closed my eyes blocking out the mirror window and Edomael. I thought about a rope, a thick rope. Didn't want that rope to break because it got caught on some pokey bit of the Abyss. Now tie that rope around my ankle. Heck, that was itchy and uncomfortable. Who'd want to go joyriding in the Abyss with this hanging from them?

"That's it," Edomael muttered. "Good job on making it uncomfortable, the reminder of it will keep you more grounded. Now think of your sleeping body. Tie the end of your rope around it."

I thought of my body, but since I didn't know where my body was at the moment that was difficult.

"It doesn't matter where it is, only that you imagine it."

I was laying in the tent in the middle of the woods. That would do, didn't matter if it was true or not apparently. I went inside that tent. Saw my sleeping body curled up on its side. I secured the end of my rope to the foot of my body, boy scout knotting class for the win. Now what?

"Open your eyes," Edomael touched my arm.

I opened my eyes. I glanced at Edomael he pointed down.

Attached to my foot was a thick glowing cord. It was odd that it was glowing since the cord was black. Still, the glow was the color of a black light, that purplish color. The glow of the cord extended into the Abyss. I couldn't see the end of it.

"You are attached to your body. If you follow your cord you'll eventually find the star that will take you to your body."

"Star?" I wiggled my leg a bit to see the cord whiplash through space. I was my own mini rave.

"These windows are what I call stars." He gestured to the image of the burning island. "They are ways that I can keep an eye on the events of Elrich. If I'm not paying attention to it no star."

"So if you aren't paying attention to me I won't be able to find my way back?"

"No, you have the Abyss Walker skill. That means you have a permanent star where your body resides. You'll be able to find your way back to your star as long as you have your tether."

"So when I get to my star then what?"

"You climb through it. Once your body is through you'll automatically reconnect with your body."

"So, I can't go wondering Elrich all ghostly?"

"No," he laughed smiling a huge smile, "It is an out of body experience, but you can't use it to peek in on the girl's area of the hot springs."

"That's not..." I could feel myself flushing. Damnit.

"There is something else I'd like you to see. Events have been happening in Yellow Springs while you've been out chasing bears." He took my elbow ignoring my embarrassment.

Then he flapped his wings and we practically shot forward. Shit, this was nothing like floating in the ocean. I could feel the pressure all around me and I had to duck my head to protect my eyes. It felt like I'd just dove into the swimming pool head first, but the dive was never-ending. Water rushed along me, the pressure pushing my arms towards my sides. Then the pressure let up and we were floating again.

I took a deep breath, shit that was intense.

"Eri, look."

I looked around. Around us were a handful of the mirror stars. One of them had the end of my rope going through it. The others showed images of Edmond the old guy who Illia kicked out of the library, Murry, Edomael's head priest, and a few others I didn't recognize. Crue was in the image with my rope. I was in a tent and Crue was sleeping beside me. When the heck did I become the little spoon!

"Over here," Edomael got my attention and pointed to the star he'd lead me too. "I'm going to reverse the time on this one a bit for you. Only a few days. I want you to grasp the situation." A lock of his white hair fell into his eyes. He blew it out of the way and reached out with his hand to touch the mirror star.

The mirror went blurry. Then a clear image of Ave. She was in a dark room meeting with a person in a dark hooded cloak.

The image changed and she was standing outside of Amoris' Temple watching Crue, Illia, and I prepare for our run.

The images kept changing almost as if I was watching short clips of her life in fast forward.

She was watching me tell off the Sisters. She spoke with someone nearby briefly then she went into Marge's Tavern. This was when we first met. She had gobbled down that spicy stew.

Then she was meeting with the hooded cloak again. I couldn't see their face, but their body language made it clear, they were angry, very angry. She was calmly trying to reason with them. They stormed out of the room the door slamming knocking a picture off the wall.

She was picking at food at the cafe, we were talking. She suddenly gets up and runs off.

She finds the cloaked figure again this time they are standing in an alley along the Red district. She tries talking to them. They seem calmer than they had been, but unnaturally so. Ave and the person have a conversation. They leave, she is left standing there looking up at the sky.

She is watching men load a woman's body into a cart. You couldn't see much of the woman from the angle Ave was standing at, but it was enough to know she was dead. Her blonde hair was done up in a braided crown on her head. It was stained with blood. The woman's lifeless hand flops out along the side. One of the men moves it so that it rests across her chest. Ave punches the brick wall leaving a large fist-sized hole.

Ave sitting in the Guildhall. I was up on a table. I looked like I actually knew what I was doing. I looked confident. I certainly hadn't felt confident at the time. Ave wasn't looking at me though, her focus was on a person in a hooded cloak in the crowd.

Another body, this one I recognized as one of the town guards. The red-haired one that had been on the executioner's platform with Sturgis. His face had been sliced up and his hair cut off. Guards were examining the body she couldn't get too close, but she had seen enough.

She's watching the cloaked person again. He's leaving town, following Edmond's cart of dead bodies out of town. There was a significant amount of traffic at the gate, adventurers coming back with carcasses of dead Red Wolves. Only the cloaked figure and Edmond were leaving.

One more body found, another guard. One that was only vaguely familiar. I'd seen him before somewhere. I just couldn't place where with his face all slashed up.

"He was actually the second victim, they just found him last," Edomael commented. I nodded that I heard him as I watched Ave. She went into a building, I'd never seen before, but I assumed it was the guard offices since there were an unusually high number of guards in the building. She spoke to Commander Tagert shook his hand and left.

Edomael touched the screen again. Ave was walking in the woods. I could see the beginnings of the stone outcroppings I was familiar with. She was really close to where we were camped. That was the honey hive.

"Is this real-time?" I asked Edomael.

"Yes,"

"What is going on?" I thought about the dead bodies and the cloaked figure.

"She has no proof. She can't act without proof. She knows who the killer is, but she can't tell anyone how she knows. So she is stuck trying to stop a serial killer by herself. When that person left the town she formulated a plan to get help. You."

"Me, why me?" That just made things even more confusing.

"Well, on the surface, she's been sent to fetch Captain Sturgis. The young man with the red hair was the other captain of the town. Both work under the commander. Now the commander is down both of his captains. She's been sent to fetch him back."

"But her real goal is me? Why?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Why not?" Stop being cryptic dammit.

"It's that pesky free will thing again, I'm afraid. I can't tell you because if I did it would affect your decision making and could infringe on your free will."

"At this point, I'd give up some of that free will for some answers."

"You say that now, but if I actually took you up on the offer you'd regret it."

"How do you know? You said my fate is wonky, that I don't react the way you expect."

"True," he nodded and smiled. "Still, we can't risk it. Remember that island? Well, there is a lot that still needs to be done about that. I can't afford to be placed in a version of godly timeout because I messed with your free will permission or not."

"Godly timeout..." Had I heard that right? Was it like jail for the gods?

"Yes," he chuckled. "Amoris has been there more than once. It's not like jail, more like a room where all you do is stare at the walls for years on end. Very dull, very boring. You can't interact with the world if you're in timeout. I guess it could be considered more like a godly isolation chamber, but we prefer to call it timeout.

"How are you feeling right now?" He suddenly changed the topic placing a hand on my shoulder.

"I'm fine." Why did I suddenly fade out or something? I looked down at myself. My body seemed just like my normal body, solid. Except I had a black light rope tied around my ankle.

"Not what I meant. I mean have you come to terms with your new Hidden Among the Masses skill?"

"Fuck." Fuck, I really didn't want to think about it. Avoidance was my friend.

"You do realize that you don't have to use it on yourself right? It's only an option." He gave me some hard eye contact with raised eyebrows.

"I'm more worried about what it means for other things." The weird not-quite- demon part of me.

Edomael frowned, then he sighed.

"I'm going to be honest with you. You don't have a lot of time left before you start your transformation. Increasing your race-specific abilities just accelerated it. It needed to be done, but now you are going to have to do something to feed that power. It doesn't use the same type of energy as normal skills and magic. Your Party, Hidden Among the Masses, and Abyss Walker all need the lust energy to keep them working. The higher they are, the more people in your Party, the more energy you will need.

I think you are focusing too much on the what-ifs. Being a Succuba isn't the end of your life. You can live your life as a male human if you want. You just have the option of becoming a Succuba too. You will have to feed sure, but that can be managed."

"Why didn't you tell me that before? I wouldn't have leveled up the skill or added Illia to the Party." Why was he the one pulling a ditsy Amoris move?

"You need companionship, it helps your spirit stay in your body. Making connections, forming relationships these things all work to help you stabilize yourself in this world. The bare bones of it are, that if you didn't do it, you'd probably have accidentally killed yourself a dozen times by this point.

"They are keeping you grounded and it's your responsibility to keep them safe. Whether you like the consequences of that or not, doesn't matter. You do it because you have to."

"But now you want me to add more people? That's not right! What about free will?" A pounding began in my head. Shit.

"You don't have to accept our request. You could refuse them, but I don't think you will when you learn about their circumstances."

"Then how is that free will?"

"You are still free to choose, Eri. We are not taking that away from you."

"But you're playing off my good nature is that right?"

"We had hoped that you would agree, yes."

"Why would I when it means that I will have to feed more?"

"That is up to you to decide. I can't force you."

"Dammit."

"I know it's not what you want, but it's the way it is. We can't change that at this point. Mistakes were made. You've benefited from that mistake, but nothing is free, son.

"The universe has a way of balancing things. You had to give something up in order to get that extra Blessing. The universe and fate intervened and determined that the result is you being a Succuba.

"You focus too much on the what-ifs Eri. Being a Succuba isn't a bad thing. You are just making it one because you can't imagine what the world of a Succuba is like. Be patient. Everything has a reason. You just need to focus on the present until that reason becomes known."

I couldn't argue that. I knew I had issues with the what-ifs in life. Not knowing gave me anxiety, but did anyone really actually know where their life was going to end up?

"I can try," I reluctantly sighed.

"That's all we ask. Please just try."

He patted my shoulder again.

"Now to show you how to get back. See where your rope is tethered to this star?"

He pointed to the mirror with me sleeping beside Crue.

I nodded.

"Climb through it." Then he gave me a gentle nudge in that direction.

"You want me to climb through a mirror?"

"It's a star remember? Not an actual mirror. They are stretchy see." He put his hand in the mirror and pulled the ends and it flexed like a rubber band.

He let go and made room for me to stand in front of it. I stuck my hand out and felt along the edge. My hand went inside and I was able to get a grip. It didn't feel like rubber. It felt like ice. If I touched it for too long I'd probably lose a finger to frostbite. It did flex like rubber though. I experimented with pulling on the edges. Then I brought my hands back out in order to warm them under my armpits.

"You're only cold during the time you are passing through. Once all your limbs are in you'll zoom back into your body and not feel the cold." Edomael nudged me again. I felt a slight warmth radiate through me from where he'd touched. He could act as a heat source, who knew?

"It's basic healing magic. You do it too with Healing Hands. Now get going, you've got a lot to do."

"Finding a serial killer, turn into a Succuba, wait for random people to show up wanting to join my Party..." I mumbled taking my hands out from my armpits and preparing to climb into the star.

"That's about it, good luck." He patted my back and disappeared. Great.

I glanced around one last time at all the other stars nearby and sighed.

Gripping the edge of my star I stuck one leg through then my head. After that, I sort of fell in and that was it.