On the heels of her words, moans of passion drifted in from the right. The light coos emanated from past the wire-leaf door, where purple shadows swallowed the parlor's yellow glow.

"Well, someone's enjoying themselves—" Tash's tones dried out to desert aridity. "—in a magically-sealed dungeon underneath an ominous fortress of doom."

Séa stifled a hearty laugh, but her wide grin was unstoppable. "Why should this enterprise cease being weird now?"

Ghomarck whispered, "We might as well be intimidating when we interrupt. Lady Séa, hold still. I will cast 'enlarge' upon you. Our goal, if you'll allow me to repeat myself, is to find the mechanism necessary to escape the way we came. Whoever we are about to meet might know."

Tash's face scrunched. "We don't have much to bargain with besides 'we won't kill you.'"

Séa snorted. "It does sound thuggish when you say it like that. Maybe they have chores they want done."

"Eh?" The rogue shuddered. "No. No chores. Parenthetically, the wire door's unlocked. Flimsy thing, anyway." Tash swung it open.

The paladin watched with wide eyes as the wizard transformed a pinch of powder into a spectral fan of light. Wizardry's always so pretty. Bathed in the multicolored radiance, a wholesome, fizzy feeling coursed through her limbs. Tash, Ghomarck, and the furniture shrunk significantly, and the ceiling lowered. Séa saluted the shortened wizard, then ducked her head to pass through the wire doorway.

The juicily organic smell intensified as Séa traversed a short tunnel. She straightened up in a second domed room. Magical sconces held purple flames that consumed nothing. Softly, the purple magefire illuminated royal furnishings dominated by a huge bed in the center of the room. Séa gained a brief impression of two entwined bodies writhing among tangled sheets.

"Excuse me," she said. "Could we ask—"

A shriek cut her off. One of the sweaty bodies on the bed, a fair-skinned woman, rolled away, taking a sheet with her. She retreated to the far wall and held the sheet against her naked body as she gaped at the intruders. The other half of the couple spun to a sitting position, hands splayed out as if about to launch into the air. After the initial reaction, this second individual composed himself into a rigid imitation of a relaxed posture. A lean-muscled male chest gleamed with sweat. Where dark fuzz gathered in his crotch a male shaft protruded, agleam with the sheen of borrowed fluids. A feminine flow of long, dark hair only accentuated the manliness of his hairless face. He spoke in a baritone, slightly fear-strained. "Peace, giantess."

Séa's eyebrows knitted together. "I'm not threatening you. Who are you? And is that Chantelle of Mevia?"

The young woman against the far wall hugged her sheet tighter to herself and emitted a squeak. "Are you here to rescue me?"

Ghomarck wheezed from behind Séa's right elbow, "It is Princess Chantelle."

The male's eyebrows rose. "Amazing. Rescue so soon."

The paladin padded forward a pace, but could go no farther without stepping on the bed. She huffed. "Sorry to interrupt your fun and all that, but it's time for introductions. I'm Séa. Your turn."

In the soft purple light Séa guessed the male figure's skin color as a reddish tan. His ears came to a subtle point and his eyebrows angled upwards into his temples. Despite those features, he didn't strike Séa as being particularly elvish. No blemish marred his handsome features or exquisite physique. By degrees, her eyes narrowed.

He rose from the bed and bowed. His shiny penis dangled and drew the eye like sparkle on a gemstone. "I am called Zorexis. This is, as you have surmised, Princess Chantelle of Mevia." He lifted his chin defiantly. "My beloved."

"Oo, plot twist," Tash drawled from Séa's left side.

The enlarged paladin loomed over Zorexis. Her eyebrows drew together, and a queasy sensation crawled in her gut. She stared at the odd whorls of his pointed ear, the shape neither elvish nor fey. The paladin pronounced, one word at a time, "You are not what you seem."

"Don't hurt him!" Chantelle cried. "He can't help being what he is."

Twin blasts of air shot from Séa's nostrils. "So he is an incubus."

"Oh, another plot twist!" Tash's eyebrows climbed high.

The wizard tottered forward. "Lady Séa will not hurt Zorexis."

Séa leveled a sour glare at him. "Won't I?"

Ghomarck forged ahead. "She will not. We merely want to accomplish this rescue. I'm sure we can negotiate a satisfactory arrangement."

Chantelle wrapped the sheet around herself and fluffed her sandy, shoulder-length hair. "Which side of the border are you from?" She and Zorexis drifted closer to each other. Tash began browsing the furnishings of the room, as if on a shopping trip in a bazaar.

"Omnius. I'm a representative of King Pharing's court. Call me Ghomarck." The wizard swept a bow. "This is Tash, and you've met Séa, paladin of Torugg."

Zorexis wrapped an arm around the princess. He wore an expression of aggrieved nobility.

A residuum of haughtiness colored Chantelle's reply. "Pharing's folk arrived first." Her voice acidified. "Of course they did. My family is useless."

Tash commented from the far side of the room, where she poked into a curtained alcove, "Oo, nice privy. Gold plated. Pure class." She glanced at the couple. "So what's this all about? Are you the bait in your own trap?"

Séa felt the magic tingles drain away and she began to shrink. Soon, she could look the demon in the eye, although he avoided her direct gaze. She expected his ocular orbs to be exotic and odd, but they appeared blandly human. He smelled of perfectly ordinary sweat. Only the chiseled perfection of his face and body might be seen as aberrant. Regardless, his presence made her skin prickle. In a creepy way, not a good way.

Chantelle leaned into Zorexis. She shared some folds of her sheet with him so that his admirable dong disappeared from view. She said, "I came here willingly, you know. I helped plan it. But it has all changed, now. I just want to get it over with so I can be with Zorexis."

"Come again?" Ghomarck said. "It was said that you were abducted, kicking and shrieking."

"I have a theatrical nature." The young woman smiled, but the expression held little joy. "It was all prearranged. I ditched my own bodyguard to be at the street corner where Brant grabbed me. Rest assured, the moment we were in the carriage, it was all breathless laughter and mutual congratulations."

"Who's Brant?" Séa said.

Tash had discovered a wardrobe. From within the ornate container, she selected a tunic and a dress. She patted the items down and searched each pocket. Séa twitched at the sight. With conscious effort, she refocused on the princess.

Chantelle fluttered a hand in dismissal. "A courtier. One loyal to me, or so I presumed. But now that they locked the doors on us, here, I'm not so sure where Brant's loyalties lie." Tash offered Zorexis and Chantelle items of clothing and the princess inclined her head to the rogue. "Thank you, dear."

Tash mocked a curtsy. "Some prison this is. Luxury everywhere." Her eyes roved. "Well, maybe the lack of windows is a clue."

Séa narrowed her eyes at the couple. "Who's holding you prisoner, and why?"

Zorexis slipped the tunic on, then criss-crossed his arms behind his head to drag his mane of flowing black hair from under the collar. His smooth baritone emerged, effortlessly sexy. "My guess is that the whole intrigue is in service of Vawl."

The rogue drifted to a chest of drawers and moaned. "This story again? Where a god hires gnomes to snatch a princess? Except the gnomes were demons in pointy hats, which makes it even more ludicrous."

Chantelle's head emerged from the collar of the dress as she wriggled into it. Her arms inflated the sleeves and the hem dropped to her ankles. The sheet slithered to pool around her feet. A line of puzzlement bisected the space between her eyebrows. "Vawl? But you said it was Bo-Fads or something, Zo."

The syllables settled in Séa's consciousness and sloshed around for a moment. Then they resolved into, "B'Fadzh? Planelord of Hachta?"

Zorexis seemed placid. "Yes. Perhaps I should simply tell the tale from the beginning."

Ghomarck conjured a bright mote to dance above his hat, then wheezed, "In a moment. First, where does the second door lead, and will anybody be coming in?"

The incubus tenderly claimed Chantelle's hand. "It leads to an escape tunnel, but don't go that way. It's trapped and guarded."

The wizard shook his head and beard from side to side. "No, the other door."

Zorexis's unnervingly ordinary eyes blinked several times. "Oh, I assumed you came from the one that, well, it ascends through some old chambers and passageways to the keep above. As for company, no. I can assure you that no one will bother us. Nothing can pierce the arcane curtain." He squinted as he examined each of the trio. "Except you, apparently. How did you manage it?"

Séa palms itched. She could feel Zorexis's presence like a sun that removed light from the room instead of filling it. The portions of Séa's skin that faced the demon crawled with an unnatural chill. Renna fooled me completely, but he didn't for long. Maybe I'm learning. Along with the pain of her wounds and the creep of growing exhaustion, the persistent demonic discomfort fed a rare gush of grumpiness. Acid colored her reply. "Clean living. Purity of heart. Truth."