Lilith: Origin of Succubi

Chapter 352

<~> Chapter 352I sighed and put down the dip pen I was using. I've dealt with everything that I can before I leave, so other than checking up on everyone, there shouldn't be anything else to prepare. It's been about a month since my daughter was born, and as much as I'd love to continue to spend time with her and Bella, the trip to negotiate with Goldenhearth was quickly approaching.

Standing up, I walked over to my incomplete teleportation ritual circle designs. Even without proper references, I've been able to reverse engineer a lot of it. It was still far away from being useful, but I was starting to understand how it worked. Unfortunately, I was also learning that this ritual would take a lot of magic to function. Without a dungeon, it would require a powerful energy source on both sides of the teleportation array. Still, the potential benefits of something like this would be immense. The only thing more useful would be a faster and more reliable way to contact other people than letters.

As if summoned by my inner thoughts, there was a knock on the door to my office. "Come in," I said.

"I have a letter for you, it's marked as urgent." My assistant and secretary peeked in the room. She was a fox demi-beastfolk woman who's been working with me for a few months now. I'm going to have to rely on her to take care of a lot of my duties while I'm gone, but she was a rather reliable person.

"Thank you, Amber." I took the letter and sighed out a breath of relief when I saw who it was from. My name was written in Silva's recognizable handwriting. She should have already returned by now, which meant her plans changed along the line, but at least she was able to get a letter to me.

Amber left the room and closed the door behind her as I made my way over to my desk. With a quick swipe of my letter opener, I pulled out the message. As always, her letters were short and much more sparse on details than I'd like, an old habit from her time as an assassin.

***

Lilith,

There is some trouble in Port Korland, so I'm leaving with S to help head it off. Everything else has gone smoothly so far, but we had some trouble making contact, which is the reason for this late letter. Things are getting more dangerous outside of Traehall. Each city we've visited has been raising armies for the civil war, and I've even seen paladins creating regiments to join them. That used to be firmly against the Divine Accords. It seems like confirmation that the Tamin church has fully broken them. The presence of demons has grown considerably across the country as well, leaving many cities vulnerable. I will be unable to return for a while. Please tell everyone to be safe.

Your friend,

Silva

***

I sighed and set the letter down. This was bad news. I would have liked Silva to return before I left on my trip, but that would be impossible if she is headed in nearly the opposite direction. Nelly has thankfully not been needed much with the baby, so it would probably be fine to take Nelly and Kal'daeryn with me on the trip in place of Bella and Silva. I didn't like leaving Bella here alone, but all of the succubi in the city, plus the people on the town council, would be able to protect her for me. Raya needed to stay to take over for Morrigan, and Sibyl would naturally stay with her. That would reduce my party down to me, Morrigan, Torien, Lori, Mimi, Nelly, and Kal'daeryn. Cecilia would be coming with us as travel support with Fellia and Maddy too, but they would be trying to avoid fighting unless necessary.

That's probably fine. I initially traveled with fewer people, but it would be weird going on a trip without Bella. This would be the first time we're splitting up for any length of time since I met her, but it's a bit too early to travel with the baby unless we have to. Ashe was growing up faster than a normal child, but she was still a baby. If I'm honest, I would have preferred to stay here with her for longer, but we couldn't put off this trip anymore if we wanted to negotiate before it was too late.

I folded the letter up and sighed. Things in my life were rapidly changing. I was a mother now. I love my baby to pieces, but actually being a parent myself feels... strange. Like it was something I never thought would be possible for me. I pulled out the poker chip I kept in my pocket and set it on the desk in front of me. Maybe it was time to face my past. More and more, it felt like my old life was creeping into my current one. I've put off regaining my past life's memories because everything has been so hectic, but maybe it's time to actually face those fears. I'm a little worried about unbalancing myself right before such an important trip, but maybe I'm already imbalanced. My past seems important now. I feel like I need to understand my relationship with Fortuna before the next time I encounter her. I don't doubt there will be a next time. She's been cagy about it, hinting at things while also telling me it's not in my best interest to regain them.

That might be the crux of the problem. I need to know what our connection is before I can feel comfortable trusting her. Now that Sorsette has died, I need to know who my true allies are. Fortuna acts like an ally sometimes, but it's impossible to trust her as long as she continues to dangle this mystery over my head. I tapped a finger against the desk before picking the poker chip up again.

Heads, and I put it off longer. Tails, and I learn about my history before I leave on the trip.

I flipped the poker chip and it spun in the air. I caught it and flipped it onto my wrist before taking a breath. Luck has served me pretty well so far, it felt appropriate to put this decision in its hands. The way I understand Fortuna's powers and how they relate to the large luck stat I had before System's End, this shouldn't be the kind of thing she can interfere with. If my luck is good, the coin will tell me the correct choice. Either that or I'm being superstitious. I snorted and took another breath. I pulled my hand off the poker chip and looked down at it.

Tails. I would regain my memories before the trip. I took another breath and set the poker chip down. There were butterflies in my stomach. I don't know which choice would be better, but this was the choice that gave me the most anxiety. Still, I would go through with it soon. I would do it tomorrow... I'll spend the rest of the day checking up on things, and then I'll speak with Nelly about regaining my memories... just in case it caused problems.

I ran a hand through my hair before scratching nervously at my horn. I realized I didn't really want to know... but I don't think I can back out now either. It's too important to avoid, and I needed to understand what's going on with Fortuna. Knowing more about my relationship with her would guide my choices going forward. It was necessary.

With a sigh, I placed Silva's letter in a drawer and left my office. "Amber, I'm going to go check on things for the rest of the day. You can leave a note and head out too, if you want."

"Do you need any help with the paperwork?" she asked.

I smiled and shook my head. "I already took care of everything that needs to be done for a while. We'll need to talk about taking over some of my responsibilities while I'm gone, but I trust you to do a good job."

The foxkin looked nervous. "Is that really a good idea? I've only been working here for a couple of months."

"You'll do great. You're an amazing assistant. I don't know where Raksha'va found you," I reassured her.

"I- I'll do my best, ma'am," the foxkin sputtered. The only thing that Amber lacked was a bit of self-confidence, but I think that would come with time. There shouldn't be anything immediately important coming up, so she would be able to handle it.

"Alright, I'm heading out then. First stop is the eastern battlements," I said as I began to leave the office.

It was autumn now, so a lot of the nearby trees were shedding their leaves. The area was a mixed forest, so there were also pine trees around, but the majority of those were near the valley where the banshee dungeon had been before it collapsed. There was a unique and pleasant smell that came with the early shedding leaves. It smelled fresh to my nose. Wherever I had lived in my past life, I don't think I got to visit a forest very often. Without any of the pollution of my old world, the air smelled clear and clean as well. Since a lot of the city was heated through magical means, the only sources of smoke were from kitchens that intentionally burned wood for flavor and the few buildings that used a wood stove to heat their homes. Hopefully we will be upgrading those buildings soon too, now that the project has been fully delegated to Tenna.

When I reached the battlements near the east gate of the city, I spotted Kaligan nearby watching the large group of soldiers and former paladins training in one of the nearby courtyards. I raised an eyebrow at the sight. I hadn't known there were any plans to do anything like this.

Kaligan turned and looked over at me when I approached. He was one of the few people who could match my enlarged height in my true form that I had taken to wearing in public again. Now that the former Tamin church members seemed settled in, I was less worried about it causing any issues. I had even heard that a few were seen visiting the brothel, though the specifics weren't shared for privacy reasons. Kaligan grunted in greeting as I came up next to him and watched the people training in front of us.

"What's happening here?" I asked.

"Many of the new members of the city were interested in training with the city guard and the soldiers between farm guarding rotations. They're skilled, but even career soldiers can lose their edge without proper maintenance."

"There wasn't any pushback on that?" I asked.

"Not everyone was happy about it, but the new residents haven't given us any reason not to trust them yet. Things have been going well with the farming schedule, so I decided to put more effort into building camaraderie with the new group," he replied.

"Have any of them requested to join the city guard or our soldiers yet?" I asked.

Kaligan sighed. "Unfortunately, yes, but we were forced to turn them down. There are some among them that I would trust enough in either of those roles, but it's not that simple. No one has been outwardly hostile, but there are people high enough up in our guard and military who don't trust the ex-Tamin enough to fight alongside them. The frostiness has forced the former paladins to stay somewhat insular so far, which is the opposite of what we ultimately want. It'll take some time to break down the division between them, but I think we're getting there. It'll just take more than a couple months. I'm sure they'll become a lot more popular once we're forced to scrape by on food rations after the last harvest comes in. Seeing things as they are now, I would be kicking myself if we had turned them down at that meeting. The city may have fallen apart if we didn't bring them in, that's clear to me now. I'm glad I got overruled."

"That's pretty big of you to say."

The large man turned to me and raised an eyebrow. "Was that a joke, Miss Baphomet?"

I laughed. "It wasn't exactly meant to be, but I can see the humor in the statement. And please, I've said it a hundred times, just call me Lilith."

He shook his head. "No offense, but I feel more comfortable referring to you this way. It feels too casual and unprofessional to refer to you by your first name since you have a family name." Kaligan turned his attention back to the men training against each other again. "The former paladins are good. I can tell their skills are well-honed. There's a good chance we would have been crushed if they decided to become bandits instead. It's a scary thought after seeing how well they fight."

"Another reason that it's good we didn't push them away," I said.

"Yes. But I'm thinking a bit farther beyond that," he replied. "If negotiations go poorly and we're forced to fight in the civil war directly, a regiment of these former paladins will be powerful. I didn't realize it at the time, but there truly was only one right answer to the dilemma we were in, and it very well may have saved the city. If not in this upcoming winter, then later down the road. I feel like a fool for pushing back against it as much as I did."

"You were going off the information you had at the time. It is what it is." I turned to face him again. "By the way, it's almost time for me to leave for Goldenhearth. Is there anything that you'll need from me before we go?"

"Anything I need, I can get from the council or a meeting with Eira. A few of my soldiers showed some interest in becoming succubi, but it would take some coordination to make sure their new appetites don't distract from their duties. I'm sure Eira can advise me on anything I might need once some of those considerations come closer to fruition. Just send me a runner once you're actually leaving."

"I'll make sure to do that. Keep up the good work, Kaligan. I'll talk with you later."

I turned and headed to my next stop.