Captured

Back in the hotel room, Nessa worked up the courage to ask her demon something. She imagined elegant ways to introduce the question, but ended up simply blurting it out awkwardly.

"What's your name?"

They stared at each other silently for a few seconds with the same scared look in their eyes until the demon finally responded, "I'm sorry... I can't tell you. A demon's name holds so much power to it. It isn't used as openly as names in your world. It's not that I don't trust you, it's just..."

"You're scared." The demon nodded, leaning her head on Nessa's side. Nessa sighed and added, "I guess I have to send you back to rest, don't I?"

"I can stay with you tonight if you dismiss me tomorrow morning."

She wrapped her arm around the demon and hugged her to her bosom, "I'm so lucky to have you right now."

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Nessa awoke suddenly, tears streaming down her face. She sobbed loudly, trembling and hugging herself.

"What happened? Are you okay?"

Nessa shook her head, "I had a dream... about what happened to me..."

The demon pulled Nessa towards her and she laid her head on the demon's lap. The demon stroked her hair softly, looking down at her.

"I'm sorry. Is it my fault for what I did?"

"No, don't say that!" Nessa sobbed, "Please... you're the only one I can rely on."

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

Nessa paused and sniffled, "She attacked me, drugged me, and raped me. At the time, I enjoyed it physically, but I was being torn apart inside. It wasn't like with you at all. With you even when you force me, I know you care. With her, I was just some filthy meat puppet for her amusement."

The demon wiped Nessa's tears away. Her heart sunk, knowing this was but the first of many nightmares to come. With a sudden coldness she responded, "You'll get your revenge. I want her to suffer just as much as you do."

"Thank you."

"You belong to me and me alone."

Nessa soon fell asleep again with the demon watching over her. This time, she stayed asleep the whole night.

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The next morning, Nessa awoke to find the demon cradling her head. She smiled up at her, but quickly realized the demon was in the same deep sleep she had seen her in before. She got up and dismissed the demon, then got dressed and went downstairs. As soon as she entered the lobby, the person behind the desk looked up and quickly grabbed a scroll, running over to her.

"This was just delivered this morning. They say it's of the utmost importance. I didn't take it to you because you requested to not be disturbed during your stay."

"Thank you."

She broke the seal on it and began reading.

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I hope this message reaches you in good health. The Alliance should not have been anywhere near the path you were given to follow. If you did indeed read the map correctly, this would mean that your route was compromised. Your mission has been put on hold, perhaps indefinitely, as we continue to investigate this issue. Please return to Silvermoon City immediately to give a full report.

Signed,
Commander Korali
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"Why thank you commander," she sighed loudly, "for telling me precisely nothing. 'Of the utmost importance' indeed."

As angry as she was with the condescending tone of the letter and its rather late arrival, she was happy to be going back home. Her journey was thankfully uneventful. She didn't need any more excitement at the moment. When she got back, a guard informed her that she was expected in the commander's office. Upon entering, she saw Commander Korali and a higher ranking blood elf she did not recognize. The other man spoke first.

"Greetings, warlock. I am Captain Kanas. Your correspondence has been met with much worry from the higher ranking officers in Silvermoon City. However, I would like to hear your full spoken report."

"Good afternoon Captain Kanas, Commander Korali," she handed Kanas the map and continued, "I have marked the approximate location on the map where I was attacked. It was a rogue, presumably night elf, using a blunt weapon. When I awoke, I had been brought to a night elf encampment. There a night elf drugged and tortured me in an attempt to extract information from me. They received nothing. When they were convinced I knew nothing of importance, my nearly lifeless body was dumped in a tall patch of brush and I was left to die. I managed to make it back to friendly territory, which is when I sent the distress scroll to Commander Korali."

"Interesting," Korali said, his hand on his chin in contemplation, "You say you were tortured, but you don't appear to have a single mark on you. What exactly did they do to you?"

"How dare you ask such a thing, you retched fool?" Kanas boomed, "Don't you think your subordinate has enough trouble coping with those memories without you asking her to describe her torture in detail? Begone at once!"

Nessa gaped as her commander sheepishly rose from his seat and hastily made his way to the door, muttering an apology as he left.

"I do apologize for his behavior, miss. He has no... experience in such matters. I'll cut to the chase. By now you know that your mission has been terminated. The information you would have gathered for us is not worth the risk of losing one of our kind. Furthermore, you will be relieved of field duty for the time being."

"I see."

"This is not punishment for failure. On the contrary, I want to place you in a research position with much better pay than your previous position. During that time, you are to focus on your training. When you are much stronger, you will be sent back to Ashenvale to exact your revenge. Please accept this as compensation for your mission." he handed her a small sack full of coins and added, "It isn't much, but consider the true reward to be your promotion. Dismissed."

"Thank you, Captain Kanas." Nessa responded, bowing. She exited and went back to her humble abode.

That is, 'humble' by blood elf definition only. Once inside her rather large and magically imbued bedroom, she opened the sack to see a rather large number of gold coins inside.

"If this isn't much, the research position must pay in uncut gems."

Looking around her room, she thought of something that made her smile. Blood elf homes, though beautiful, were not well known for being soundproof. However, she remembered a goblin engineer just outside of town who could solve this little problem. She walked out and gave a child passing by a few silver to inform the goblin that she wanted to see him for a project. She was barely back inside before he showed up.

"Zux Boomcrank, at your service miss! What's this project you wanted me to work on?"

"You certainly are fast. I almost wish you were my commander. I'm sure you understand the need for keeping trade secrets a secret, am I right? I need you to build a device that will completely soundproof a room."

"Is it standard blood elf design?"

"It is."

"Ha ha! Give me five minutes, I probably have the parts on me right now!"

"You've got to be kidding me..."

The goblin quickly set down his toolkit and opened it up. It sprang out to several times its size, containing a multitude of tools and seemingly random parts of no apparent function. He grabbed at the rather ill-organized toolbox as though he knew exactly where each tool and part was without even looking. After a few minutes, he handed her a small device that looked like a metal dome with a button on top.

"Just place this in the center of the room and push the button! It will split into four parts and go to the edges of the room. If you want to use it in a different room, you have to gather up all the parts and put them back together. Don't worry, no tools involved! Just push until they click!"

"How much?"

"Ten gold, miss!"

After paying him, she went back inside with the device. She placed it on the floor of her bedroom and pushed the button. As promised, it split into four parts which projected energy from the edges of the room. they formed a barrier which quickly faded away. She turned on some rather loud music and went out to test it. Sure enough, she couldn't hear a thing from the next room. She went back in and turned off the music. She summoned her succubus. What the demon said next put a smile on her face.

"How are you holding up?"

Not 'strip', not 'sit on the floor', but a genuine query of concern. Of course, she would have probably responded positively to either of the former as well, but the demon's increasingly caring nature made her happy.

"I'm doing well. They canceled my mission and put me in a research job, but it pays well and I get to focus on my training. Plus, my commander got chewed out for his arrogance."

The demon giggled and shot Nessa a wicked smile, "What's that strange energy field in here?"

"Oh you can feel that? I just got a goblin to make me something interesting. This barrier completely soundproofs this room."

"Oh is that so?" the demon asked, cocking an eyebrow, "We're going to have to test his engineering, now aren't we?"