Penelope smiled at the bashful young demon Azalea as her young mortal summoner and his very first partner fell asleep in each other's arms. Ivan was out like a light. He was tired even with all the energy and stamina he had. Still his mind and body had the instinctual knowledge of when it was time to sleep and when he needed to push on. Right then Ivan seemed to have made a perfect meld of the two, and was sleeping more deeply than he had in weeks.

Penelope stretched and couldn't help but grin at the recent events.

She felt invigorated. Ivan's intense sensations, even fed on passively, were enough to keep her going for a few days. The boy seemed to have enjoyed his first time and Penelope was glad for him. Myrn was a lovely partner, and willing besides. As Ivan spread his own version of Penelope's succubus corruption to her it would only be easier for her to go along and see things their way.

Right now might not have been a bad time to reveal the truth either since the girl knew or could guess at about everything, but of the Black Arts Ivan had committed himself to. She would see though. Penelope would make sure of it. One way or another. Ivan was focused, and set on a direct path. It was time for her to take some actions of her own in the mortal realm.

Already Samiel had moved and had identified targets, and sought out information for false leads to keep the Hero and advanced forces away from Ivan. Her contacts in the Ek'thun were having success in subtly manipulating and encouraging demon activity in the Southern Islands where the Fate and her forces lie in continued contest against the very occupied Lord of Light.

“Will you be going out again Lady Penelope?” Azalea asked, finally recovered from her mortified state Penelope had needed to comfort her through as Ivan very thoroughly lost his virginity.

Penelope begrudged him that she could not so readily discard her own, or trade it for his own, but the time would come. There were rites and rituals to be done in the future, and some of those had very, very specific requirements that could not be bent.

Penelope took a moment to remember his honest, and completely sincere gift of oral sex he had given her. In truth that was as far as she had ever let a summoner go on her conjured body. Any who had tried more...even with using magic to try to command her for such...died. Penelope shuddered and suppressed her conjured succubus body's desperate and jealous desire to be in the very position Myrn was now.

“I think so little lamb. Watch over him again tonight, and do what you can to push back my corruption while I am gone. He was closer than ever tonight, but resisted in a fantastic manner. His control was perfect and he did her no harm whatsoever.” Penelope answered as she finished her full body stretch.

She leaned down and kissed the top of the Demon's head. Azalea seemed to blush, embarrassed by the honest affection, and her lamps flared about the garden extinguishing what little corruption was exchanged in the act. Doing that made Penelope grin.

“Be careful Lady Penelope, and I will watch over him as you say. The one you call Samiel is still listening on the borders of the Shroud?” She asked.

“Yes, little lamb. Call for him if there is danger and I will return, but we should be plenty safe here. I am going out to ensure it stays that way a little longer until our master can have some little more advantage over our enemies.”

Azalea nodded.

“I do not like the feel of him when he watches, but I will trust what you say about his reputation and his contracts with our Master. Again, please be careful Lady Penelope. I sense that he cares for you very much and may panic if you were eliminated. You give him much confidence.”

Penelope stopped and looked down at the demon girl. She considered what she had said, and had to ask.

“What makes you say that?” She asked.

“The gray light of my progenitor's memory gifted to me as a source of knowledge is filled with images of him. He is a somewhat needy person, but feels strongly for those he cares about. His feelings have depths my progenitor was convinced that other people, even herself, did not feel. You are precious to him, as I am, and Lady Myrn. It would wound him to see you defeated even if you are easily summoned to his side once more. I believe that from what I have seen so far, and what I know of him that it would enrage him if that were to happen to either of us.” Azalea explained.

Penelope ran her knuckles over Azalea's hood softly, and bumped her head gently besides.

Azalea looked up at her. Her face was mildly pretty, and would have been more so if she did not display the gaunt and thin features of someone long sick with fever. Her eyes were nothing more than a pair of glowing blue gray balls of fire in that pretty little face.

Penelope knelt and looked into her eyes.

Azalea did not flinch or turn away as she might have in Hell. Together here in the Shroud the two of them could do little to harm each other. They might argue or insult one another if it came to that, but Ivan's will would crush either of them in this place, almost in immediate reaction to any sort of violence. Yet that didn't seem to be what gave young Azalea the confidence to meet her gaze.

“Be sure to practice those stances he knows, as much as you can manage. The Warrior Arts? The human cultures Ivan knows have expanded the styles available poorly, but they will serve in teaching you.” Penelope told her.

Azalea sat straighter, and lifted her hands toward Penelope. The Succubus grinned as she conjured a small book, a stylized fighting manual, conjured from Ivan's own mind and handed to the young demon.

“Thank you Lady Penelope. I will do my best.” She said and immediately opened the book.

“Just make sure you get up and practice them a little this time. He won't wake easily unless you make a great deal of noise in here, or address him directly. Even then it's more about your intent that will wake him.” She told the girl.

Azalea nodded in understanding.

Penelope stroked the ragged cloak atop her head once more before she vanished and stepped out the shadows around Ivan's bed. Using her shadow magic she moved in the darkness without sound or sight. She moved down the hall and into the empty common room, and then went outside using a shadow that crept under the door. Still she remained unseen in the shadows, an illusion of light and sound surrounding her that could not be easily pierced.

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As many settlements of this world typically held, the streets and houses were lit well on the outside. Many houses even kept rooms lit against the darkness with their sleeping occupants. Penelope took a deep breath of the air of the world she had once hated. It was her birthplace, but nonetheless when she had first gained the power to do so she had come into this world and become a terror in the night.

She might even have some responsibility in Theadus's own rise to power, but her actions then were filled with rage and regret more than anything else. She remembered friends, demons, and allies that had been at her side, and traded favor with her to raid and pillage these very lands thousands of years ago. And finally, as she strode through shadows and down to the cliffs nearing the coast she sat and considered what she had become.

For a little while she sat and looked at the stars of the mortal world denied her. She took in its beauty for what it was, and imagined what it could have been had her mother spared her life. The feelings of that betrayal were mostly gone now. She had terrorized her mother and her followers for thousands of years before the advancement of humanity on this world and her mother's meeting with other gods was finally enough to push demon kind almost entirely out of the world of Ballenlight.

The galaxy above was unique and special to this world. She stared some little time up at those stars, and far away nebulae. There were souls out there in the far stars. She knew them from various curious adventures she had as she rose in strength in both Hell and various material worlds.

Though she was a succubus she had always been one to dive into combat. Her uniquely potent allure was stronger than most Incubus's and she was able to employ it for more than just seduction. It made her foes' blows weaken before they struck her, or caused them to miss out right. She had always been extremely quick and nimble besides, and had allowed herself a variety of forms in the grand tale of her life.

Now she was wearing this lovely skin. Ivan's desire made manifest, and combined with the true nature of a succubus. It was a powerful and potent body that she liked very much. Ivan was growing stronger and each day she had more and more control of this body's raging impulses.

It was always so much more difficult when in a temporary body placed within the mortal realm. The soul of a demon longed for the life and flesh it had been denied, and that sometimes made it hard to remember one's plan when the whole of their mind wasn't there.

Penelope sighed and conjured forth what she could of her Grand Scholar's Scroll. It too was covered in an illusion of darkness that would keep its light at bay, and no eye but her own could see it.

She stared at the last entry there upon its log.

You have been gifted the Divine Rite of Restoration by the Fallen Goddess Istania. It is her wish that in its giving you might find a way to right the wrongs she made against you.

A fae wind, delighted with magic, and too sweet by far moved the trees and rustled their branches in the calm of the night. Penelope didn't stir, but she was surprised as she heard the ghostly sounds of her father's flute ring through the hills and down over the distant ocean.

She was about to turn and look behind her when he finally appeared near to her side. He was large, nearly half again her size, goat hoofed, and as bare chested as she was though it hardly looked like it. But where she had black light eating demon fur that ate the light her father's coat was brown and lustrous. Even the copious hair on his chest gleamed with a nigh on glorious vitality and a certain amount of undeniable majesty. He finished whatever little spell tune was probably hiding his passage through dimensions and came over to her where she sat along the ragged cliff face.

She didn't even want to consider what kind of wild fae magic he used for such things.

He huffed and snorted until he found a good place to sit among the rocks with her. It was a trouble sometimes to go about naked, but that was how they both were.

“What, dear father, are you doing here?” Penelope asked, her voice fond for all the annoyance she tried to convey with the emphasis she put on each of her words.

Her father's eyes narrowed as he produced a towel and some conjured or magically stored polish for his reed pipe. He looked her over sideways and shrugged.

“I was in the relative area of this part of the Cosmos.” He said idly.

Penelope dismissed her conjured scroll and folded her wings around her against the chill. What her father said wasn't really an answer. He was an ancient God, and could be wherever he wanted to be. So he was here for the same reason Penelope was.

“The form you're in now is very pretty, and I must say it's nice to see you take things in their own time for once.” He commented, wrinkling his nose, and sniffing the air as he did. “The scent of a new master not wholly given over to your corruption is upon you too. You still haven't given up on your plans have you?” He asked in a half teasing voice.

Penelope shook her head, her horns eating up the starlight as it came down through the sky. She frowned at them and lifted her hands up to the stars as though she might cup them in the palm of her hand. It took only moments for the light of the star to come again through the night, and she stayed very still so her horns would not take away the next silver beam of light for her to gaze upon.

“She was always a source of reason and provider of peace in this world. She had seen it in its worst days and lasted almost through all of its bad. Had she not spread herself so thin she might have done better against that foolish King of Lights, but then again that wouldn't be very much like her.” Her father mused after a few long moments of silence.

Penelope shook her head and closed her eyes holding back ancient tears, anger, and frustration. She had indulged herself too many times to let them get a hold of her now. She looked up at the stars again, and then addressed her father.

“Do you know why? Did you ever ask her?”

“Ask her what, darling daughter?” Her father asked.

Penelope held back the furious outrage that roared within her. Her father's ears flicked picking up on it and her efforts to control it all the same.

“She never could give me a proper answer for that. Maybe it was my fault. I had approached her in human form after all.” He said then, his voice heavy with some guilt. “Had I stayed with her I likely could have explained things...”

“But that's not in your nature...” Penelope said, finishing the thought more or less, her anger deflating somewhat.

“She gave you her Divine Rite in the end, and one to your young master too I see.”

Penelope's wings twitched at her own tension over that. She remembered the sensation of pure unbridled fury and blinding regret she felt from her mother as she used the very last of her will and mind to curse Theadus. It reminded her very much of the fury that nearly drove Ivan insane and likely caused their first meeting.

“Will you help us kill Theadus?” Penelope found herself asking.

Her father sighed, and made a rather goat-like baying noise besides.

“I can lead certain elements astray, but cannot act directly. There are forces that would act upon me were I to so directly intervene in a world not my own, and I never did raise myself up on fighting.” He admitted.

Penelope knew that was what he would say, but her stupid body felt comfort in the presence of her father and had driven her to seek out more of his kindness.

“Did they sense it? The Rights passing to us?” Penelope asked, forcing herself back on task.

“No...” Her father said just a little too quickly.

Penelope looked at him, and his ears wilted guiltily. She couldn't help but smile at him then, and stood. Her father stirred a little uneasily as his daughter came to his side and stood to her full height to kiss him on the cheek. In truth she had been very worried the literal hammer of several gods would come down upon them and the whole plan was ruined, but the day had passed and no force came down upon them.

Her father blushed and his ears flicked continuously for a few moments as she drew away.

“Thank you Father. I owe you for your kindness again it seems.”

“You are my little one. You--”

“You have very, very, very many little ones. Including many that are beasts father.” Penelope pointed out.

The God Pan cleared his throat and scratched his beard.

“You were not given your proper chance to thrive. If not in life I will see that your chances are only fair as the Demon you have become. That is my right, as your sire. You owe me nothing. My debt is to you.” He clarified, but his amber eyes shone brightly in the dark of the night. “May I?” He asked.

Penelope gave him a dark glare for a few moments, but he endured and matched her gaze without turning away. She sighed and nodded.

“Go well, and with my blessing my dear Inyx, my lovely Penelope.” He said to her, and as his word suggested, gave her some little investment that would not be detected in this world by any, even its Gods.

“Go well Father, and cause chaotic musical ruin wherever you go.” She said with a smile, her father unable to hold back his chuckle at her own dark blessing granted in return.