I yawned and rolled over feeling a lump beside me. I pawed my hand around and found a warm body, and as my hand drifted down I felt something soft and twitching. I cracked open my eyes to see Bazz was face down in some pillows and his tail was in my hand. He let out a purr and I rubbed his back before looking around us. We were in a huge soft bed in one of Martha’s bedrooms, I saw a dresser and a mirror, where a haggard looking Willow stared back at me.

“You're cute when you first wake up,” Raven said.

“Oh great, this is going to be a permanent thing, isn’t it?” I asked back, bleary eyed.

“Seems so, but I’ll try my best not to distract you,” Raven promised.

“Do you still see through the sword?” I asked.

“Or your eyes, this is a wonderful development!” Raven said excitedly. “I can view the world and offer you advice when you need it.”

Perfect, I had someone looking over my shoulder that was going to commentate my life. I didn’t know if I should consider it a mild annoyance or a curse. I found my equipment and clothes beside the dresser. They were cleaned to the point of being spotless, and Martha had gifted me a new outfit.

I pulled on the new long sleeve blouse and touched the fabric. It felt incredible between my fingers, genuine high plains elven weave, and best of all it did a good job of covering me up. I looked down to see a new bra with a matching green colour to my panties and I put them on first, checking myself in the mirror.

“Looking wonderful darling,” Raven purred.

“Hey, I thought you said you wouldn’t distract me,” I said.

“Can’t blame an artist for complimenting a masterpiece,” Raven hummed.

I tried to ignore her, but did feel my spirits lift. Everyone liked a compliment. Martha had also laid out a set of padded armour, braces and shin guards. They showed signs of recent modification, and holding them up I could see the chest armour was made for someone with a bigger bust and curvier waist. I put the new clothes and armour on and found they fit perfectly to my form.

“Hey, you look like a pro ranger,” Bazz said sleepily.

I saw Bazz yawn and sit up in the huge bed, stretching. He looked like he had enjoyed a deep hibernation and was only now waking up. I told him I was going to talk to Martha and left him so he could get dressed in peace. I couldn’t help but sway my hips while walking, feeling the soft fabric rub against my skin. The outfit really suited me and seemed to flow with my pace.

“Professionally enchanted gear. That armour, while made of cloth, should be able to stop low level spells and heavy crossbow bolts. It would be within your budget to buy, but don’t look a gift unicorn in the mouth,” Raven said.

“I’ll be sure to thank Martha,” I said.

I found Arronold and Martha in sleepwear in the kitchen, the sun just peeking over the horizon in their window. I must have slept the day away, and it made sense, I was dead tired when we managed to stumble our way into Martha’s home. Martha was humming a tune at the stove while Arronold was half asleep with a cup of hot tea in his hands at the table.

“I don’t know what to say except thank you for the armour,” I said, blushing. “I could pay-”

“Nonsense, it was our daughter’s when she was sixteen. She outgrew it a long time ago, and it was just sitting around. I’m glad to see it fits, Arronold still has a good eye for tailoring,” Martha smiled, sliding a plate of sausage, eggs and bacon in front of her husband. “That good dear?”

“Wonderful my love,” Arronold said, clasping his hands. “I thank the gods everyday for meeting you.”

Martha turned back to the stove, but her tail coiled onto Arronold’s shoulder, brushing his cheek. The elf planted a kiss on the tip of her tail and Martha slid it off him so he was free to eat. I sat down across from Arronold and looked down at the stitching, seeing glowing blue threads.

“Your daughters?” I asked in awe. “She must have taken her form from Martha.”

Arronold laughed. “She was her mother’s daughter, only inheriting an elven look from me. She was quite the ranger in our group before she found her own team to join. I’m sure she would be happy if her old gear went to a friend of ours.”

“You guys quested together?” I asked.

“A family that slays together, stays together. Or so the old dwarven adage goes,” Martha grinned. “Willow, one egg or two?”

“Just one, I don’t want to overeat for what I’m about to do,” I sighed.

Martha and Arronold pushed me to tell them what I meant, and I hesitated. Summoning a hellish aspect sounded dangerous, not to mention completely illegal. If it wasn’t it was pretty on the nose of the laws, and getting more people involved could end in pain.

“Sadly I think you need the wizard’s help if you want to do this soon, rather than me teaching you two to three years of summoning theory,” Raven said.

I sighed and told them about my dream. I told them about Raven, my ancestor and what he did, and how I planned to free Raven. As I told them about the fiendish contract it magically appeared in my hand as if summoned by my call. Martha slid me a plateful of breakfast and took a look at it with a critical eye, before giving it to her husband.

“Willow…” Arronold said, unsure of how to put it. “You live an interesting life. I will say your negotiating skills are phenomenal, I don’t think I’ve seen a fiend offer such a clear deal before.”

“Ask him for a paper and quill, I have an idea,” Raven said.

I asked and Arronold was all too happy to oblige. I felt a presence trying to move my hand and when I narrowed my gaze and tried to look for the flow of magic I saw a ghostly shadow of a hand. It looked just like Raven’s hand, and she confirmed it was. She led me to draw an octagon with crossing lines and various shapes around the perimeter. She also helped me write a short phrase in a weird language and a few runes.

I also jotted down a handful of materials we would need with Raven feeding the words into my ears. Things like eye of newt, toad skin and bottles of vinegar. Salt would be needed to outline the ritual circle for protections, and we needed something to do with the aspect. Such as a lust potion.

“Not too difficult of a summoning spell. We can use my tower to perform the ritual and I have most of the components we need to do this. I am out of lust potions,” Arronold coughed, looking at Martha out of the corner of his eye. “It’s typically hard to source too.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“I have a guy, let me run to the Underside,” I said, finishing my meal. “Thank you for breakfast, the clothes, letting me stay here-”

Martha started to laugh and tousled my hair. “Darling please you don’t have to list everything. It’s my pleasure to help, besides it’s been so boring since the kids left. I've been looking for something fun to do.”

Arronold nodded. “It’s been a bit too quiet for my liking and the guards lately have put us on edge. This is a good distraction and we get to help out a lovely young couple.”

“C-couple?” I stammered. “Oh no, I saved Bazz from a dungeon because his party ditched him. We are just party members, friends.”

“That’s how we started. Just keep an open mind is all,” Martha said, ushering me towards the door. “We can make sure he's caught up, you get what you need. I have a feeling the Underside might be under lockdown soon.”

I made my way swiftly towards Underside, seeing the guards were out in number. Paladins were also marching the streets with them wearing deputy badges. Now it was a full on emergency. If you gave a paladin any level of authority it went straight to their heads. I did my best to avoid any of them, or I simply hid under my cloak to avoid detection.

I made it to Underside without incident and heard a stampede within. I hurriedly made my way to the shops I knew and saw everyone was packing up and running for every exit they could find. I ran past a group of rat folk with a cart packed to the brim with bootleg ale and a group of dwarves moving hand carts with automatons that looked like human women in maid outfits.

I quickened my pace and headed down a familiar street to see Sergi had bags filled with his wares. He was helping Rhast move a rickety cart full of knick knacks towards a canal barge that was already overstuffed with knock off trinkets. The cart was falling apart and Rhast was cursing up a storm.

I ran up to them. “Rhast, I need a-”

“Back you tramp!” Rhast said, brandishing a shovel. He came around swinging and when he saw it was me he relaxed. “Sorry, bit of a pickle lass.”

“I need a lust potion, now,” I said.

Rhast growled. “I can’t just dig in my cart for one item. I have to save my whole shop-”

“How much?” I asked. “I’m in a hurry and need to head to a wizard tower.”

There was no hesitation as Rhast held up a bright pink bottle with a heart on it. “High quality lust potion, top shelf stuff. I could sell it for one hu-”

“One fifty,” I said, pulling out several gems and high face gold coins.

“Lady, for that kind of money I’ll personally carry it wherever you want. If we get caught I’ll claim it’s my heart medication,” Rhast said, swiping the money off my hands and bowing.

“Hey if you got a place to hide out I’ll offer my services. I do have your bow buried in here…” Sergi smiled. The buff minotaur man patted one of his satchels that was splitting at the seams, and winked at me. “Always need a blacksmith to keep your gear repaired.”

“I don’t know about so many people…” I said nervously.

“Bring them, they might prove useful as this adventure goes on. We might need to go to lands far and exotic, and I have a sense these two have many skills they hide,” Raven said.

A nearby cart fell over and the sound of boots marching in unison could be heard. A man screamed and ran by an alley, several paladins chasing him. Rhast clasped his hands and started pleading, Sergi knelt beside him and copied him.

“Fine, grab your stuff, let’s go,” I said.

Sergi tossed away a few heavy axes and swords that weren’t enchanted and tightened his bags' straps. Rhast grabbed two overfull knapsacks and threw one at me. He tossed a flask at his cart over his shoulder, setting it ablaze. Sergi and I both looked at him in confusion.

“Hey, if I can’t make cash from it, no one can,” Rhast said. He shrugged and then saluted the blazing cart. “So long retirement fund.”

The blazing cart drew guards towards us and I ran towards the nearest alley. The two merchants followed me and I led them between houses, shops and under a bridge connecting two brothels. The sound of the guard’s chainmail let me hear them before I could see them, and using my sharp senses I could always be two steps ahead of them. I managed to evade a patrol by dragging the two men under an overturned cart, and when the squad of guards passed we crawled out and made a break for it. Ahead of us I heard more men and I slid to a halt and panicked, looking around wildly.

“Cut down that alley on the right. There’s a hidden exit only known to inner members,” Rhast said.

Rhast led the way and took us to a dead end. He threw aside a rotting barrel and tapped the stone wall with a flurry of knocks. The wall slid open and a dragon stuck its head out of the hole. Not a dragon person, a full on four limbed, winged dragon whose mouth was big enough to swallow me whole. I felt my heart skip a beat, fear setting in as my pulse rose to a frantic fury. The dragon I had made a fool of was back for revenge. But then I noticed this dragon was blue, and its horns were different from Orinda’s.

“Password?” the dragon yawned.

“Electa, not now. It’s an emergency!” Rhast hissed.

The dragon glared at him, clearly not amused. Her voice dripped with fury, and let Rhast know he was on thin ice. “Tell me the password or I will turn you to soot. For the record, my name is Electanna van Karsonn.”

“Fuck,” Rhast said, squishing his raccoon cap down. “Hey, listen I know our break up was bad but come on, for old times sake.”

There was a puff of smoke and Electa changed. She was now a gnome, standing an inch taller than Rhast. She was dressed like a rogue with light armour, knives and lockpicks on her hips. She leaned against the entrance with arms crossed.

Rhast fell to his knees and kissed her boots. The gnome woman hissed, her long blue forked tongue showing. She stepped back and kicked Rhast in the face, knocking him back towards us.

“Promise to never do that again and you can pass,” Electa said.

“D-deal,” Rhast stammered.

“Oh, and if you tell anyone we used to date…” Electa held out a shimmering enchanted dagger and held it in front of her throat, the threat clear. “Are we clear?”

“Crystal,” Rhast nodded.

Electa stood aside and ushered us through the wide opening. Rhast took off, running down a series of underground tunnels with Sergi and I at his heels. I saw dozens of doors branch off the twisting labyrinth of carved out tunnels, and we weren’t the only ones here. We had to pass other groups running by with their own bags of loot, running for safety.

“Where’s the place?” Rhast asked.

I told him where Martha’s house was in the living quarters and Rhast ducked down another tunnel with a high ceiling. Dwarves with mining equipment lazed around on boxes full of supplies, a sign behind them reading ‘Union Work means more Breaks!’. The dwarves whistled at me and I nervously waved back.

Rhast reached a wood door that he threw open and stormed up a set of stairs, focing Sergi and I to sprint. For being a man with short legs he certainly knew how to run. I was a wood elf, people famous for our speed, grace and agility. Yet here a gnome burden down with a huge bag was outpacing me, was sure footed, and barely made a sound.

“You're a rogue!” I huffed, trying to catch up to Rhast. “A good one too.”

“Twenty six years as leader of the thieves guild till my bastard captain stabbed me in the back. Now pipe down, we are almost at the surface,” Rhast whispered.

The stairs ended at a short rope ladder that Rhast shot up like a squirrel. He pulled a lever next to a trap door and it sprung open, sending dirt into the air. Sergi and I crawled up behind him and heard several women scream. We were in the middle of someone’s wedding party that they were holding in their backyard garden.

Rhast slammed the trap door down and kicked the lawn turf back over it. He turned and bowed, lowering his hat to the ground, covered in sod. “Looking lovely my dear, I pray you and your husband have a wonderful union. Please, take this as a gift.”

He tossed her a pearl necklace and the fury left her gaze, replaced by a look of wonder. Rhast tugged my hand and led me out of the garden, making it back onto the street. I saw Martha’s house and the tower sticking up down the street. We made a break for it, sprinting as fast as we could. Bazz opened the gate and waved at us, and just as we were about to make it, I heard the sound of chainmail.

“Pardon me miss,” said Bates, walking around the corner with eight armoured thugs beside him. He bit into an apple and winked at me. “Can we have a word?”

Rhast, Segi, Raven in my head and I all said the same thing. “Fuck.”