“You know, I saw you one other time before this,” I said to the demoness sitting across from me.

“You mean besides the time you defeated my ants?” If she held a grudge about losing that time, she showed no sign of it. If anything, the opposite seemed true.

I nodded and took a sip of the tea. Figures it was just as scrumptious as the cookies, not to mention unlike any tea I’d had before. It wasn't something I had in my cupboard, she must have brought it herself.

“I saw you in a vision I received when I took over the labyrinth.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

“Amazing tea, by the way.”

“Thank you. It comes from a very long way away,” she said. “Now about this vision?”

“It was just fleeting, but I saw you leading a horde of monsters against an army of the labyrinth’s creatures.”

“Interesting. You know, I ought to be very cross with you.”

“Why is that?”

“Do you have any idea how hard it was to convince the Minotaur to overthrow Daedalus?”

“So it was you who put him up to it," I said as a few things started clicking into place in my head. "How demonic."

So that’s why she was interested. I’d foiled her plan with the labyrinth, and the Shadow Demon’s plan with the blight. I was being assessed.

She looked straight at me with those silver eyes and I got a glimpse of how easy it would be to sink into them forever. I was glad this was mostly a social call. If she’d come here in her professional capacity as a demon seductress, I’d probably be in deep, deep snow. It was easy to see how thrashed I’d be. How would a numbskull like the Minotaur be able to resist her?

"Honestly, I don’t imagine it was hard for you at all,” I said.

She leaned back and smiled. “You caught me in a lie,” she said. “He might be half bull, but he’s just another man, after all. It was frightfully easy to get that beast to do whatever I wanted.”

“So the bull isn’t a symbol of virility for nothing, then?”

Another laugh. “Oh dear.”

“Something the matter?” I said.

“I wasn't sure about coming here but now I'm glad I did.”

“Why's that?”

When she finally stopped laughing she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “I don’t think I’ll tell you.”

“A lady’s gotta have her secrets, huh?”

“Something like that.”

I sighed. “Well I am sorry to disappoint you,” I said. “I’m sure you were expecting someone a bit more...well, a bit more.”

“I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I can assure you I am not disappointed. I find you quite interesting.”

“That’s nice to hear. I think. I don’t know if arousing the interest of a succubus is necessarily a good thing.”

Why did I have to go and use the word arouse?

She turned her silver eyes on me again, this time leaning forward and gazing at me from under the shade of the dark hair hanging around her face. I felt a lump in my throat and did my very best to keep my eyes on hers and not let them glance down to the tantalizing cleavage that her new posture revealed. I would not be that guy.

“Arousing the interest of someone like me is not necessarily a bad thing either, you know,” she purred.

All that time I’d spent with Jane and Sigrid over these many weeks here hadn’t been wasted. I’d built up some pretty strong defenses against being teased by attractive women, and I wasn’t about fall for this demon temptress either. At least, not that easily.

“Let’s play a proper game,” I said, changing the subject to the first thing that came to mind. I rose and went to a shelf built into the curved outer wall of the tree. I pulled out a thick wooden game board and brought it back to the table.

“Isn’t that the new elvish game that everyone’s playing here?” she said, looking interested. Without being told what to do, she pulled open a drawer from one side of the board. She reached in and withdrew a handful of small, smooth disks of polished stone.

“How do you know about that?” I said.

“Don’t look down on me,” she said, studying the stones in her delicate hand.

"Sorry," I said. I opened the drawer on the other side and pulled out some similar stones.

“I suppose you learned this game during the many days and nights you spent here in the elf village lately,” she said.

“You know where I spend my time too? You’re very well informed.”

She rewarded the complement with a coy look. So she had been watching me and she wanted me to know it. But did she know her comment told me she wasn’t watching me all that closely?

“But your information is imperfect,” I said.

She pursed her lips. “How so?”

“I didn’t learn it here. This is an old game from...far away. I was the one who taught it to the elves, and they started making these boards to play on.”

I rolled one of the game pieces around in my hand. It was so smooth it could be polished glass, but the marbled veins of gray and blue shooting through the blackness revealed that it was natural stone. The smoothness was soothing in my fingers.

“These sets are quite exquisite. I have one myself,” she said, shaking her stones in her hand, ready to begin. Like my black ones, hers were made from similar natural stone, only they were white slashed with faint, grayish lines.

“I won’t ask how you got your hands on one.”

“Probably for the best,” she said.

Go is a great game. The rules are simple, but the gameplay is deceptively complex. I've heard it called the lazy person’s chess, but that’s being unfair to both games. Go has been around a lot longer than chess, and there’s a reason why it’s still popular today.

We started to play.

“I think I've figured it out,” I said after placing my twentieth stone. That was the first thing either of us had said since the game had started. We were very intent on the game and it was clear neither of us wanted to lose.

She’d been about to place a stone, but instead withdrew her hand and leaned back. “Do tell,” she said.

“For whatever reason, you want to lead monsters against the city. There has been a rash of attacks similar to your ants invasion lately, so it's probably not an unreasonable assumption that you are behind all of them.” She neither confirmed nor denied the assertion but silently reached out to place her stone, so I went on. “I’m gonna guess, since you said we're neighbors, that you have some kind of base or stronghold somewhere to the Northeast.”

“What makes you think that?”

“A few things. That’s the direction your ants came from. That’s the direction of the labyrinth. And I just happen to control the hexes to the direct East and Northeast of the city.”

The flawlessly smooth skin of her forehead crinkled adorably as she frowned. “Hexes? Like curses?”

“Sorry, I meant geographic regions.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Ah,” she said. The frown vanished. “I’m the one who should be sorry, I interrupted when you were on a roll. Do go on.”

“Assuming you are from somewhere Northeast, you'd need to cross my regions to get a straight path to the city. When Daedalus was in charge, he used the labyrinth’s creatures to stop you, which is what I saw in that vision. Hence the coup you staged using the Minotaur. I imagine part of that deal gave you a free pass to move your forces through to hit the city, which would explain the recent rush of monsters moving upon it. Now there’s a new sheriff in town, so you’re here to scope him out and see what that means for your plans.”

She leaned back in her chair. “What an interesting theory.”

“Am I close?”

“That would be telling.”

“Another secret, huh?”

“I’m so glad we seem to understand each other,” she cooed.

“You think you understand me?”

“Daniel, it’s my job to know the minds of men. I understand you completely.”

“Are we on a first name basis now? Shall I call you Daruka?”

We’d been playing stones throughout the conversation, but now she paused and stared at the board. “Pass.” She’d started to figure out the game had already been pretty much decided, but wasn’t quite ready to throw in the towel yet so she declined her turn to place a stone.

“My friends call me Ruka.”

“Are we friends, Ruka?”

“I suppose we are. You just called me Ruka, after all.” She sighed heavily. “I pass again.”

“If you understand me, Ruka, then you must know you’ll need to find another path for your monsters to get to the city from now on. You can’t come through my territory anymore.”

“I knew that the moment you used your labyrinth’s creatures to defend your elves today. Nice move doing that, by the way. Totally unexpected. Pass.”

Unexpected? Unexpected by whom?

“Don’t tell me. You were behind that too?”

She shrugged. “Don’t you just love secrets?”

“Not as much as you, apparently. What’re the odds that if I searched you I’d find a cube that glows to send a signal?”

This made her laugh again. “You can frisk me if you like.”

“If you were going to deny it you should’ve said what glowing cubes? Those things aren’t exactly available wholesale in the city.”

“You don’t miss much, do you? For the record, I was not behind the attack today, though I may have intervened just a smidge through an intermediary once I learned it was being planned.”

I sat there trying to sort out my feelings. There was no point getting mad at her about it, just like how it was pointless getting angry with the Players she'd helped. That was the game, and we were on opposing teams. What did I expect? She was a demon, after all. It was her job to do those kinds of things.

She’d seen an opportunity and made a move by helping to coordinate the attack, and I’d made a move to counter it. It was just a game.

“Better luck next time,” I said.

She leaned back and studied me with those silver eyes. “No,” she said, “I’m not the least bit disappointed.” Then she looked away and gestured at the board where my black stones had a clear and unsurmountable advantage. “I resign, by the way. You’ve played this game a lot, haven’t you?”

“Some. More than you, anyway, and that’s the only reason I won. You’re very good.”

“And you’re even gracious in victory, too. It’s hard not to like you.”

“Aw, you can’t go around saying stuff like that right before I kick you out.”

“Kick me out? I’m sorry,” she said, “but you can’t do that.”

Was she going to try to pull something? I realized I’d been lulled into treating this like a normal visit, and not a sudden demonic break and enter.

She placed both hands on the table and stood. “I have to be the one to insist it’s time for me to go before you have the chance to ask me to leave. Although it has been a pleasure, I have seen what I came to see, and I am much too busy to squander more time on such frivolous exercises. I hope you understand.”

“I understand completely,” I lied. I like puzzles, but I’d long since given up trying to puzzle out the mystery of a woman’s mind. Especially not this one’s.

She started toward the door, and a lot of conflicting thoughts and emotions flooded through me. One overriding thing rose above them all: I had really enjoyed this.

“Don’t go,” I said.

She stopped, but didn’t turn around or say anything, she just stood there.

I couldn’t 100% trust what I was feeling, I had no idea if she was somehow manipulating it or not. But my gut and the fact that the buffs and other defenses I’d put up hadn’t been triggered told me she wasn’t doing anything nefarious. And I genuinely enjoyed her company.

“I changed my mind. Let’s play one more game,” I said.

Without a word she turned around and came back. She sat. I poured her more tea.

“You’re doing it wrong,” she said.

“Show me again.”

I watched closely as she refilled my cup.

System: You know Tea Ceremony

Why did it take longer to learn this than kung fu? That is one complicated ceremony.

“I think I’ve got it.”

I poured her some more tea, this time using my new skill.

“Fast learner,” she said.

“You’ve no idea.”

We cleared our respective stones off the board and started another game of Go. We played in silence for a while, then Ruka spoke up.

“Why did you change your mind and invite me back?”

“You mean after I was so cool and kicked you out?”

She laughed. “Yes.”

Let’s see how she would handle the naked truth.

“I wanted to spend more time together,” I said.

The hand holding the stone she’d been about to place hovered over the board for a moment. “Oh?”

“I can’t explain why, but this feels really...comfortable.”

“And here I thought you were about to say you’d finally found a worthy adversary. Aren’t you worried that comfortable feeling isn’t just my succubus powers luring you in?”

“I considered the possibility, but I don't think you're using any form of coersion. If I had to guess, I'd say you’re just being yourself.”

“Good guess.”

“I haven’t felt like this with someone since...”

She quirked an eyebrow. “Since?”

“Let’s say it’s been a long time and leave it at that.”

She sighed. “For the sake of harmony I won’t pry, even though I am dying to know.”

"A guy's gotta have his secrets." I placed a stone.

“That was a mistake,” Ruka said. I frowned, not knowing what she meant, then I saw it.

“Darn,” I said. “Don’t suppose you’d let me take that one back?”

“I don’t play that way.”

“That’s fine. Me neither. Go on, do what you have to do.”

I’d lost focus for a moment, and it cost me. The stone I’d placed left me open and she quickly captured a number of my stones. It was all the opening she needed, and I wasn’t able to recover. The game soon ended with her win.

“Well, that was humbling,” I said.

“But fun,” she said. “Thank you for the chance to redeem myself after that first game.”

As though reading each other’s mind, we both got up at exactly the same time. I walked with her to the door.

“Thank you for visiting, Ruka, and for the lovely tea and cookies.”

“Thank you for an entertaining evening, Daniel. For what it’s worth, I found this time together surprisingly comfortable too.”

“How about next time you give me a heads up first so I can be here when you arrive. It’s considered bad manners here to enter someone’s home when they aren’t there.”

“Oh, it’s bad manners where I’m from too. But what can I say, I’m a naughty demoness.”

I had to laugh at that. The face she made when she said it was just too cute.

“Wait,” she said. “You said next time. Does that mean I’m invited back?”

“That depends,” I said.

“Upon what?”

“You’re invited back if next time you teach me a new game, something from the demon realm.”

A strange glimmer danced in her silver eyes and she leaned toward me, mouth opening to say something, then it snapped shut. She stood up straight and her eyes went back to normal.

“You were about to say something dangerously flirty, weren’t you?” I said.

“Guilty. Sorry, call it force of habit or occupational hazard, but occasionally it just slips out.”

“Just can’t help yourself sometimes, huh?”

She chuckled. “Something like that.”

“It’s okay. I know other people who have the same problem.”

“You’ll be pleased to know I can think of a few games I’d wager you’d quite enjoy,” she said, without a hint of innuendo.

“Next time I’ll do the tea service.”

“Then I shall look forward to you servicing me.” The smile that came with her comment could’ve meant anything, but that time I was pretty sure the innuendo was there. Guess she really couldn’t help herself sometimes. Naughty demoness.

She reached into her pocket and I had to laugh when I saw what was in her hand when she pulled it out.

“Here,” she said, handing me the little cube. “Take this. And don’t stuff it into your extra-dimensional holding space or it won’t work.”

“Should I assume that when it glows I can expect a visit?”

“You should. It vibrates too,” she said with a wink. “See you around, Daniel.”

“See you around, Ruka.”

She peeked out the door, then seemingly satisfied that nobody was looking, walked out a few steps. She glanced back, just for a second, then disappeared in that beam me up, Scottie twinkle I saw her use to escape from the foiled ants invasion.

Huh. If she could do that, why’d she let me walk her to the door anyway? Maybe she can’t beam away if she’s not out in the open?

Trying to silence the questions in my head, I stumbled to my room and crawled into bed, certain that I’d wake up and realize this whole succubus thing was just a bizarre dream. But when Sigrid came to wake me up for our run in the morning I was pestered with probing questions about why my kitchen was cluttered with the shambles left behind by the baking of cookies and a Go board was still on the table beside a pot with the cold dregs of tea still left in it, and two cups.

I considered telling Sigrid the truth, for all of about half a second.

“A guy’s gotta have his secrets,” I said.

“Well look at you,” she said, beaming like a proud parent. “You’re finally learning.”