Part 1 - Note: Hello! This is my very first writing ever and I am looking to improve but also entertain! If it’s well received I plan on doing more! Thank you!❤️ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The adventuring party was gone. Not dead. This is what I had to keep telling myself. I still regret bringing the bounty to my friends saying “this reward could be ours”. Little did I know that succubus would charm my friends and turn them into her puppets. I can only imagine what gruesome, fearful and ill-begotten things they have to look forward too.

It’s been a week and I still remember their faces. Keyrin our elvish enchantress who found out charming the devil wouldn’t work. Bran our meathead warrior who fought tooth and nail but finally submitted. Not for lack of trying… He was just too dumb to thwart off her magic. And Davis our clergyman. Who despite never taking off his chastity belt watched in horror as with a snap of her fingers caused the metal to clatter to the ground.

I felt a tug on my pant leg as I was lost in thought in the now empty tavern room with memories of friends lost. What do I see but a devilish creature. Short, stumpy, red and all the features of a classic devil.. it was an imp.

“Here to gloat?” I asked too depressed to shoo it away.

It smiled eagerly. “Wise of you to know I am a messenger. But fear not hero. Your friends are not dead. In fact my Mistress has an offer of great honor for you.”

“Let me guess. She claims me too with false promises of their release and I am a slave forever?” I said this with utter disgust. Me, the Hero of the Four Lands be a slave to the devil? What would the people think of me.

He began cackling as I said this. “HAH! Funny mortal think all she craves is sex and pain. It’s not entirely inaccurate. But perhaps you read this-“ He pulls out a slightly charred parchment with infernal printed ink lathered across the page.

“NO DEALS!” I screamed with ferocious intensity. Without thought my hand grabbed my chair and hurled it at the imp. And in a flash of a small ash cloud, the imp was gone. I breathed heavy for a moment. I stared at the now broken chair and then to the paper still resting on the ground nearby.

“No.. no no no..” I thought. “I.. I will get my friends back. I should sleep on this.”

I went to sleep that night. And many many thoughts poured into my head. When I finally dreamt all that appeared was her.. the horrible things she was doing to my friends.. Slaves that are led around by leashes to do the bidding of a succubus in all of her naked glory.. I couldn’t dream much in detail, as if every thought I had I kept swatting away.. and then just as fast as I fell asleep, I woke up.

It was still night out, I didn’t sleep much or really well.. but then it caught my eye. That paper on the floor left by the imp. I.. I could at the very least read it right?

I lit a candle and sat at the desk unfurling the paper ready to soak it all in.

“Hero, you know who and what I am. And you’d be right knowing that I know who you are.. and your friends.. if all goes right hopefully your wishes and your dreams as well. But fear not I will keep this short. Your friends are of lesser importance to me. They have not the renown or fortitude for long periods of change. But I will offer you strength to withstand at the likes that they are not able. To still have the freedom that they do not. All for the bragging rights of being able to occasionally be with the Hero of the Four Lands. And with the strength I can offer you imagine the people you’ll be able to help. Already you are powerful. Let me make you more. Just come and wear my collar. And the let rest of the pieces fall into place. When you are ready, I will know.

With Love, Sylvaira”

My hands were trembling holding the piece of paper. This doesn’t sound awful for the freedom it could bring my friends. Is this my penance for putting them in this mess? How do I find her or ask more questions?

I reached up and touched my collar bone.. the memories of a collar I used to wear for a mortal. Am I ready to do this again?

I thought on it all night long. The thoughts of what would be done to me. What may already be done to my friends.. The more I think about it, I need this. I need my friends alive and well. I need to stop falling into this train of guilt every time something happens. Above all else I think there is something she can offer me…

After last time, I need to feel something again.