The three agreed that they should give the princess' party fair warning first, so the next morning Katari broached the subject soon after meeting up with the three at the citadel. "I would like to ask you all something," she said.

  Ser Brandis looked up from the papers he had been poring over. "What is it?" he asked. Beside him Princess America also looked up interestedly. At one end of the small table, Cassia, who in contrast to the other three was sitting instead of standing, put down her quill and turned to face Katari as well.

  "Do you remember when I told you about making friends with several succubi?" Katari directed towards Cassia. At her nod, the small oni continued, "I have a confession to make. They have actually come to the capital with myself and my lord, and they have been helping gather information from the shadows. Last night, one of them discovered something, and they would like to begin helping more directly." Before she could say anything more, Ser Brandis cut in.

  "What's this about succubi? I haven't heard about this." His brows contracted as he directed a questioning look towards Cassia.

  "Oh, it was just a conversation Katari and I had several days ago. We got to talking about Dark-races and she mentioned how she made friends with several succubi, and how she didn't think they were really all that different from humans." Cassia gave Katari a keen gnce. "You mentioned they had a master they liked; would that by any chance happen to be the same person as your patron?"

  Katari blushed slightly, but nodded. Looking at Ser Brandis, she said," They are not very powerful yet, but they are clever and resourceful, and they are fully committed to helping take down the trafficking ring. Could you give them a chance as you did me?"

  Ser Brandis frowned. "I'm afraid I'm going to need more information than that. How many succubi are we talking about, and what assurance do we have that they actually mean well? How can we be sure that they won't try to enthrall us?"

  "Put simply, the difference in power is simply too great for them to have any hope of enthralling you. I admit, I do not have any proof that their desires align with your own, but I can give you my word that saving Lady Cidrin is all they want, both because my lord all but ordered it and for reasons of their own. They will both remain on their best behavior for as long as they remain here."

  Ser Brandis' expression did not rex. "And just who is your lord? Having an oni for a servant is unusual enough, but two succubi?"

  "I'm sorry, Ser, but I have not been given permission to reveal that information." Katari fought the urge to fidget under Ser Brandis' penetrating gaze.

  Fortunately, Cassia quickly came to her rescue. "Oh, come now, Flint. Katari's been nothing but helpful. If she vouches for them, I see no reason why we shouldn't at least give them a chance." Beside the veteran knight, Princess America nodded, looking intrigued.

  Looking between the two women, Ser Brandis' shoulders slumped and he sighed. "Fine, fine. If they behave, they can help. But we'll have to work out some way to keep their arrival quiet. Katari's appearance has already raised quite enough controversy, and no matter how much she vouches for them, I doubt the popuce would be too happy about two succubi anywhere near the city, let alone in the citadel itself."

  "That should not prove too difficult. Succubi have ways of moving quietly if the need arises," Katari replied, thinking of the S.E.P. cloaks. "Thank you."

  "Don't thank me yet. They'll be on strict probation for as long as they remain here. One pse in behavior, and they're gone," Ser Brandis warned, but out of the corner of her eye Katari caught a knowing smirk on Cassia's face.

  Standing, the older woman said briskly, "Now that that's settled, you mentioned that one of them had discovered something? I assume it would be best to hear it directly from her, so how soon do you think we could get them here?"

  "If I go to fetch them immediately, they could be here by noon," Katari replied.

  "Then please do so. I know you've been chafing at how slowly we've had to move, and to be honest with you, so have I." She gave Katari a commiserating smile.

  True to her word, Katari was back with the two succubi in tow before lunchtime, all of them enshrouded in S.E.P. cloaks. The security in the city had been tightened in the wake of the Saintess' disappearance, but as the gate guards were not yet checking individual people, it was simple enough to use the constant stream of people to slip through unnoticed, thus allowing them to bring their cloaks in without triggering the rune circle in the sewer.

  Kira tried her best to ignore the butterflies dancing in her stomach as they entered the citadel through a side door which was silently opened for them by a guard. His eyes widened slightly as they fell on the two succubi, but otherwise he maintained perfect professionalism. Resisting the urge to tease him a little to see if she could break though his stoic facade, Kira followed Katari through several passages, eventually ending up in a room almost severe in its ck of decoration. There was a rge desk, a row of cabinets, a firepce, several chairs, an armor stand, and a table, but in comparison to the opulence on dispy in the rest of the citadel, the room was starkly functional.

  Kira did not have much time to dwell on her surroundings, however. As they entered, three humans looked up from the table, which was covered in papers and maps, to greet them. Katari introduced them to each other, but she needn't have bothered as far as Kira was concerned. She was easily able to pick out the identities of the three humans from the oni's earlier descriptions.

  Once introductions were exchanged, Cassia spoke into the silence which had naturally descended. "Well, now that we know each other, let's get down to business. Kira, it was you who discovered the new information, wasn't it? Why don't you share it with us?"

  Trying to ignore Brandis' suspicious gaze, Kira stepped up to the table. "Right, so st night I wayid the priest, Carrow, and enthralled him. Only for a couple hours!" she hastened to expin, seeing Brandis' brows contract darkly, "But that was easily enough to get everything he knew about the trafficking ring out of him. And I made sure he doesn't remember any of it either, so our cover's still intact. But anyway, here's everything I was able to get out of him..."

  "...So you can understand why we wanted to do more, because at this rate we'll never reach Safara in time." There was a moment's silence when Kira finished speaking as everyone digested the new information.

  "This is much rger than I anticipated," Brandis eventually admitted. "I expected they would have some contacts outside the city, but from the sounds of it Mavenia is only another branch of the svers' operations, and not where they have their headquarters as I would have expected." He shared a gnce with America.

  "Well," she said, "we can't do much about the cells in the Empire or the Wildnds, but we can eliminate their presence in our own kingdom. Maybe we can also eventually strike a deal with the Empire to get rid of them there, but for now let's focus on ridding Mavenia of the scum. Thanks, by the way," she added, turning to Kira. "This is really useful information. With this, we can move our timeline up by at least a few weeks, right, Flint?"

  "Maybe more. This in particur is invaluable," Brandis replied, picking up the paper on which Carrow had written directions for reaching all the buildings used by the trafficking ring. "Once we've vetted enough guards, we can move on all these buildings simultaneously, and with any luck we'll be able to shut down this branch of the ring in one fell swoop. This likely isn't all the buildings used by the trafficking ring, but I expect it will be most of them."

  "What about the Cathedral?" Cassia asked thoughtfully. "If we arrest the bishop out of nowhere, that's going to cause quite a stir, not to mention creating a lot of tension between the city guard and the Vigil."

  Brandis nodded soberly. "I hate to admit it, but we may have to let him go for now. If we can find proof that he's a part of this organization, the Vigil might deal with him for us, but trying to arrest him ourselves would undoubtedly be seen as overstepping our bounds, proof or no."

  "What about Safara?" Chellise burst out, no longer able to keep silent.

  "Chill, Chell," Kira replied. "Until we know where she's being sent, there's not really anything we can do."

  "Yes, but what are we gonna do to find out?"

  This time it was Brandis who responded. "With any luck, one of these buildings will hold the answers we need. I promise, as soon as we know where to find her, we will do everything we can to rescue her." He gave Chellise a comforting smile.

  Gncing at Cassia, Kira saw an amused smirk on her face as she watched the knight. When she spoke, however, her tone was warm and genuine. "Don't worry, we have no intention of abandoning your friend. We'll find her, whatever it takes."

  Chellise did not look entirely satisfied, but she nodded nonetheless.

  "Now, how about we stop for lunch?" Cassia said briskly, cpping her hands together. "We can figure out exactly what we want to do with Kira's information after we get some food in our bellies." A general murmur of assent went around the table, and soon they were comfortably situated in an adjacent sitting room, digging into a delicious meat pie dish brought up from the kitchens by an unfppable butler whose only visible reaction to seeing two succubi sitting and chatting with the princess was a miniscule raising of one eyebrow.

  America quickly drew Chellise into conversation, clearly ravenously curious about her and her race. Kira kept half an ear cocked towards them even as she chatted with Katari, Cassia, and Brandis between bites of her food.

  "You eat normal food, then?" Cassia asked her.

  "Succubi, you mean? Yeah, we can eat normal food, but we don't like only that. If we can, we prefer to live mostly off of sex and only eat a little other food to fill in the corners, so to speak. You don't need to worry, though," Kira grinned at Brandis, "I won't try to seduce you or anything. I got my sex needs handled already." Her smile slipped slightly as she remembered where that handler was at that moment, but focusing back on the conversation, she continued, "This stuff is pretty good, though. Better than I was expecting."

  Cassia nodded. "Yes, Charles is a master at his art. If he has a failing, it would be his horror of simple food of any kind. A meat pie is about the lowest he'll stoop to."

  Kira nodded in acknowledgement, gncing over at Chellise and America.

  "No, this is my traveling gear," Chellise was saying. "What I normally wear is way more comfortable than this. I was going to wear it to come here, but Kira thought it'd be too risqué, so we wore our travel stuff. It could be worse, I guess. I can't imagine trying to move around in what you're wearing." She gave America's voluminous skirts a dubious gnce.

  America ughed, a clear, musical sound. "Oh, it's not so bad once you get used to it. I admit, it's a lot easier to move and fight in my armor, but dresses like this make me feel regal and elegant, and they're so pretty, too! But if you don't usually wear that, what do you wear?"

  Chellise described her normal ensemble, causing America's eyes to widen. "But that would cover so little! Don't you feel embarrassed?"

  The young succubus looked confused. "No...? Why would I?"

  "Well," America began, giving Chellise a quick once-over, before stopping and ughing again. "You wouldn't, I guess. You're pretty much fwless, so I suppose there wouldn't be much for you to feel ashamed about. But how do you feel when men leer at you?"

  "Umm... I dunno. I've never been around men a lot, besides Da- I mean, my master."

  "And him?" America prompted.

  "Fttered, I guess. And a little excited, but he's special, so I dunno. Do you think I should feel embarrassed?"

  "I have no idea, that's why I'm asking you. I know I would feel embarrassed, but then I'm not a succubus. Do succubi usually wear as little as you described?"

  "Sometimes. It depends. What Li- one of my sisters wears covers more, but it's still nowhere near as much as your outfit. Honestly, it feels like humans are trying to smother themselves with how much clothing they always cover themselves with," Chellise said.

  America's lips twitched. "You've got a point, I suppose. In comparison to a lot of Dark-races, humans do wear a lot. But then, I think we get cold more easily than a lot of other races do. Do you have a lot of sisters then?"

  "Sort of, I guess. We don't use sister in the same way humans do. I'm not sure how to expin it, but basically, a sister to me is just another succubus that's, like, close? Or something like that. I think humans would just use the word 'friend' instead, but that doesn't feel right." Chellise frowned. "Sorry, that doesn't make a lot of sense."

  "No, I think I understand what you mean. We sometimes use sister like that too, but it's not as common. So what's your master like?"

  "Oh, he's amazing!" Chellise gushed. "He's huge, and crazy strong, but he's always really gentle with us unless we-" then she cut herself off as she caught Kira's warning gnce. "I shouldn't say too much, though. You're okay, but a lot of humans would probably try to kill him if they knew about him. Kind of like us. It doesn't seem to matter to them what we did or didn't do, they want to kill us just for existing."

  America gave a sober nod. "I understand. Sorry for asking about him."

  "It's okay. I wish you could meet him properly, but..."

  America tilted her head curiously. "What do you mean, properly?"

  Chellise's eyes went wide in horror. "Umm, I mean, you know, face to face! That's all!"

  "Oh, okay," America said, taken aback by the succubus' sudden vehemence.

  "So, uhh, what's it like being a princess?" Chellise asked quickly, trying to shift the conversation away from such dangerous areas.

  America blinked at the sudden change of topics, but accepting it without comment, she began to tell Chellise about court life. Kira breathed a sigh of relief. Chellise had come far too close for comfort to letting far too much information slip. 'I'll need to talk with her ter. These people seem nice enough, but that's no excuse to trust them too much too quick. They are still Light-races, and when it comes down to it, we're already taking a big risk just being here. No need to jeopardize things any more than we already are.'

  Focusing back on the conversation between the others, Kira marveled at how rexed the atmosphere was. Despite there being two demons and an oni in their midst, the three humans seemed entirely unconcerned. 'Well, maybe not entirely,' Kira thought as she caught sight of Brandis' quick gnce across at the princess. 'Brandis hasn't lowered his guard yet, but they're all acting like we're old friends. We just met this morning, for fuck's sakes.' But try as she might, she couldn't detect even the slightest hint of insincerity in any of the humans' behavior.

  Before she could contempte it further, however, Brandis called an end to the lunch break and soon they were hard at work again. Many of the pns already id out needed to be revised to account for the new information, and each building required a specific approach to be worked out to give them the best possible chance of capturing any and all personnel which might happen to be present. But ideas flowed freely, and between the six of them they had most of their work done by nightfall.

  "Annnd there," Cassia said, writing down a final line and putting down her quill. "That's everything we need but the guards. How soon do you think you can have enough trustworthy guards on standby?"

  "That will take a bit longer," Brandis admitted, stifling a yawn. "We have to be extremely careful on that end, since one false move could have the entire trafficking ring slip through our fingers like smoke. It would be foolish not to assume that they have informants in the city guard, and we need quite a few men to pull this off. Two, maybe three days more should do it."

  "Good thing we started building our roster of absolutely trustworthy guards ages ago, isn't it, Flint?" America asked, her excitement at the progress made overpowering her exhaustion temporarily.

  "Agreed. We turned out to need more than we thought, but it's looking like we'll be ready to strike a decisive blow against this organization before the week is out."

  "And it's all thanks to the information you were able to get out of Carrow," Cassia stated, turning to give Kira a warm smile. "Without that, it would have taken weeks, perhaps months to get to this point."

  Kira resisted the urge to preen, instead saying, "Just make it count, yeah? The sooner we can save Safara, the happier I'll be."

  In three days, as promised, Brandis reported their readiness. The intervening time had been spent mostly at the citadel, even though there wasn't much to do. Still, the five women had gone over each of the pns multiple times, trying to find any weak points. When they weren't doing that, they mostly sat and talked. America managed to coax Kira into sparring with her once she heard that Kira had been training with Katari, and Kira found the new sparring partner extremely instructive, though her several weeks' worth of experience had no hope of competing with America's half decade. The princess also wanted to spar with Katari but the oni politely declined, refusing to say why, only mentioning that her lord had not given her permission. Kira refrained from mentioning that, technically speaking, she hadn't been given permission either.

  Chellise had taken Kira's warning to heart and was now carefully watching every word she said. She had rather unexpectedly hit it off with Cassia, the two sharing much the same sense of humor, and the older woman seemed to do her best to keep Chellise's mind off of Safara's plight.

  Kira had to keep reminding herself that these people were Light-races and their alliance surely couldn't st. Even Brandis, though he was around far less, being busy with evaluating potential men for the takedown of the svers, seemed to treat them with a genuine warmth which Kira rarely saw even from other Dark-races. And as for the two women, well, the three Dark-races may as well have been long time acquaintances so far as their behavior was concerned.

  Much as she disliked the stifling nature of her traveling gear, she was grateful for one of its qualities; it had so far concealed her steadily growing baby bump. If the humans knew she was pregnant, that might open up some very awkward lines of questioning, many of which she really had no answer to. Her unborn children did add yet another concern to her list of worries, however; if they took too long to find out where Safara had been sent, she would not be of much use in the pursuit and the rescue.

  For the time being, however, she tried to put such worries out of her mind, instead focusing on the upcoming assault. The six of them pnned to join in attacking one of the ring's establishments, the one which they believed to be the center of operations for the city, which also happened to be where the 'packages' were sent to be inspected. Meanwhile, handpicked soldiers would simultaneously assault all the other buildings Carrow had pointed out, taking all inside prisoner and securing any and all evidence.

  So the evening after Brandis reported their readiness, the 'citadel group', as Kira had come to think of them, stopped in an alleyway behind a nondescript warehouse, to all intents and purposes identical to any of the myriad others in this district of the city. With them were eight city guards, filling out the number that had been thought necessary to successfully secure this building. America was dressed in a set of simple but well-fitting pte armor, simir to Ser Brandis' much more worn though equally well polished set. Cassia on the other hand was wearing a very well-worn leather jerkin patched in several pces, with a bow and quiver of arrows slung over her shoulder, along with a long dagger at her belt. She had also traded her skirts for leather pants. Kira thought it suited the wiry woman better than the long dresses she had donned every other time she had seen her.

  They waited in silence for about ten minutes until faintly they heard the tolling of a bell signaling the hour. "It's time," murmured Brandis. As prearranged, four of the soldiers moved around to the front of the building to forestall any escape in that direction, while the remaining four readied themselves along with the citadel group at a rear door. With one st gnce around at the party to ensure they were all ready, Brandis gently inserted a key into the lock and turned.

  They poured into the warehouse quickly but quietly, trying to preserve the element of surprise for as long as possible. A short hallway quickly opened up into a rge open space, partially filled with boxes stacked in neat rows. Kira paused to examine them momentarily, a cursory gnce revealing most of them to be much too small to be the 'holding cases' Carrow had mentioned, but several seemed suspicious. Of more immediate interest however was the row of offices along the far wall. Light showed under the door of one, and as they gathered outside it, two voices could be heard in conversation.

  Brandis tried his key again, but this time it refused to turn, so stepping back slightly, he lifted a foot and with a single powerful blow next to the doorknob he smashed the door wide open. The two men inside jumped from their chairs at the sudden interruption, one whipping a long dagger from his belt while the other leaped for a door on the far wall. Brandis immediately bore down on the man with the dagger while America and Katari sprang after the runner. The man with the dagger made several feints, but he was no match for the veteran knight, and in moments he was on the ground while his dagger skittered across the floor. The runner, on the other hand, made it through the door before he could be intercepted, though America did make it to the door in time to prevent his closing it in their faces.

  He tried to force it shut for a moment, but when Katari added her weight he gave it up, and abruptly releasing the wooden panel, he bounded across the second room. America stumbled at the sudden ck of resistance, being forced to grab the doorknob to avoid falling, but Katari slipped around her with surprising nimbleness and gave chase. Recovering her bance, America followed with Kira and Chellise hot on her heels.

  The man led them on a chase through several offices, until finally he fled back out into the main room of the warehouse where he had more room to maneuver. He had not made it more than twenty feet, however, when the sudden twang of a bowstring announced Cassia's presence. An arrow abruptly sprouted from the man's thigh, causing him to scream in pain and fall, sliding a short distance across the floor. Katari was almost instantly upon him, threatening him with the point of her sword when he attempted to move.

  Leaving two soldiers to guard the captives the citadel group cleared the rest of the building, coming upon and capturing four other men in the process. Then they turned their attention to finding evidence. Most of the offices had nothing of interest, but the first one they had entered contained several ledgers and other loose papers, all encoded. There was little else in the offices, so Kira turned her attention back to the boxes she had found earlier. With a little help from Brandis she forced one open with the crunch of splintering wood to reveal a terrified-looking human girl, securely bound via padded steel restraints which, as Carrow had described, completely immobilized her. The restraints required a key to open, so while Brandis went to search the prisoners for one, Cassia attempted to calm and comfort the girl, and the rest of the girls looked for other cases. They found several before Brandis found a ring of keys which fitted the case's locks, dragging the boxes out where they could easily be accessed.

  "Shh, shh, it's okay, you're safe now. We'll have you out of there in a jiffy, alright? I promise, they can't do anything to you anymore. You'll be okay," Cassia said soothingly, stroking the girl's forehead, which was about the only part of her head that she could reach.

  Now that Kira took the time to look at her, she noticed that the girl was strikingly beautiful, with full breasts, fred hips, and a small waist. She was extremely securely fastened, however, a yoke-like device constraining both her neck and her wrists with leather straps encircling her head for the double purpose of holding it in pce and covering her eyes and mouth, though her mouth had a removable plug to allow her to eat and drink. Further down, her torso was secured by the same padded steel restraints in three separate pces, directly below her breasts, just above her navel, and at her hips. These restraints seemed to be designed to show off as much of the captive's body as possible while still keeping her from being able to move any part of her body an inch in any direction. Even her elbows were secured to a raised portion of the case with leather straps.

  Her legs had been given much the same treatment, restraints encircling her upper and lower thighs, just below her knees, and at her ankles. The restraints at her hips were angled to force her ass back against the bottom of the case, which had a small panel that could be removed for easy access to her holes. Attached to her pelvis was an odd device which Kira could not at first determine the purpose of, but she eventually decided was to take care of waste, both liquid and solid. Her feet rested on the bottom of the case, and were fastened to it by a solid sheath of leather. 'No doubt to keep her from even moving her toes,' Kira thought. 'That's fucking diabolical. And yup, there's the openings to hold the sex toys. Those could be fun to py with. I wonder if there's any way I could get my hands on some...' She dragged herself back to the present as Brandis approached with the keys and began releasing the captive.

  He started with her head, opening the tiny padlock which held a buckle closed. As her eyes were uncovered they darted between the faces above her, wide in terror. Next the panel gag which covered her mouth was released, and Brandis made a sound which mingled surprise and disgust as he pulled the rge cock-shaped gag from her mouth. Kira estimated it was big enough to have almost entirely filled her mouth and long enough to have reached the back of her throat. As the rge gag came free, the girl coughed violently before taking a gasping breath.

  Brandis wasted no time in continuing downwards, loosing the shackles which held her wrists and gently pulling her hands free of the leather mittens which encased them, before moving on to the next set of restraints. Quickly he unlocked each steel mount, swinging it outwards on sturdy metal hinges, while Cassia and America did their best to comfort and calm the captive. The three Dark-races hung back, unsure whether the sight of them might worsen the poor girl's distress.

  Before long she was entirely free, and Cassia and America helped her carefully out of the crate, wrapping a cloak around her shoulders and helping her to sit down on a nearby box. With convulsive sobs she clung to Cassia, who held her close, patting her back gently and stroking her hair. "It's just the reaction," she murmured to a worried looking America. "Don't worry about her for now. Go on, help with the rest."

  Brandis had not paused. As soon as the girl was entirely freed from her restraints, he had moved to the next box, this one holding a catfolk. She did not react to the lid being lifted or her restraints being removed, not even when Brandis gingerly pulled a rge vibrating dildo from her pussy. "Poor girl's entirely withdrawn inside herself," the knight commented sympathetically, but he let Katari pull her upright, instead moving on to the next case. She did not resist the oni's guidance, but her empty eyes attested to the trauma she must have suffered and she did not attempt to move unless prompted.

  The third crate, which was almost a foot longer than the others, contained a desperately angry Amazon woman who still gred defiantly up at them when her blindfold was removed, despite the enthusiastically humming dildos in both her ass and pussy and the juices which drenched her legs and pooled in the bottom of the case, proving that she must have orgasmed many times since being pced there. Kira estimated her to be about seven feet tall and heavily muscled, a brilliant blue mohawk pushing out between the straps holding her head, with breasts almost as rge as Kira's own.

  Her defiance gave way to confusion when, sitting up as soon as it was possible, her eyes fell on the people around her. Kira had to admit it was a rather strange sight. A half-lit warehouse, a leather-cd ranger comforting a sobbing girl who was entirely naked aside from the cloak wrapped closely about her, a simirly naked catfolk who seemed only a shell of herself gently being guided to a seat by a diminutive armor-cd oni, two humans in guard uniforms standing over several other securely bound humans, while two other armored humans and two succubi worked together to free the Amazon herself.

  As he worked on the bonds which held her legs, Brandis spoke. "It's okay, you're safe now. Can you tell me your name?"

  "You first," the amazon spit out, some belligerence returning to her expression, "And where am I?"

  "My name is Ser Flint Brandis, personal bodyguard to Princess America of Mavenia, in whose capital city you now are. As you probably know, you were captured by a svers' ring and ended up here. We have just made our first move against the ring, made possible by the information and assistance of these Dark-races you see here, so please treat them with civility," Brandis finished somewhat wryly, undoing the st buckle which secured the amazon's feet.

  The moment the st restraint was removed, the amazon leaped from the case, almost falling headlong in her rush. When no one made any attempt to pursue her, she calmed somewhat, looking back at the group with something approaching curiosity. "Why are you working with demons?" she finally asked.

  "It's complicated," Brandis replied, "but the short of it is that they have a friend who was abducted by the svers and they wish to save her. They had information, we had resources. It was and is a mutually beneficial arrangement."

  "But they're demons."

  Kira rolled her eyes. "Look, just because we're demons doesn't mean we can't get along with humans and the like. Now are you going to calm the fuck down so we can get to freeing whoever's in that st case? Because I'll be honest, I don't really give a fuck about you, so if you'd rather you can just get out of here. The door's right over there." Taking the keys from Brandis, she set to work on the st case.

  The amazon did not move, staring at her with an expression Kira couldn't quite decipher. Then, abruptly, she announced, "Myrina."

  Brandis raised an eyebrow. "What?"

  "Myrina. That is my name. You asked."

  "Very well, Miss Myrina. If you wish you can, as Kira suggested, go your own way, but we would appreciate it if you were to stick around for at least a little while, so you can tell us everything you know about the svers. Ideally, we'd like to stamp them out entirely, and if you have any information that would help-"

  "I'll help," the rge woman interrupted. "I want revenge for what they did to me."

  "Excellent," Cassia chimed in. The human girl had stopped crying, though she still clung to Cassia as though afraid the older woman would vanish if she let go. "Would you like a cloak to cover up? I'm afraid you're being a bit distracting to our men over there."

  Myrina colored, though she did not budge from her stance with legs wide apart and hands on hips, which showed her sopping pussy pinly to all who cared to look. "Yes," she said, then added "please," as though unaccustomed to being polite.

  Kira returned her attention to the case, undoing the st lock which secured the lid, Chellise helping to lift it. Within, and quite unconscious, they found an absolutely gorgeous fox-woman with two tails. "A kitsune," Kira remarked in surprise.

  After they had fully freed her, Brandis opened one of her eyes and examined it, smelled her breath, and pcing an ear to her chest, listened to her heart. "She's probably in an enchanted sleep, if I had to guess," he finally said. "I'd prefer to have a mage look at her to make certain, however."

  Just then a guard entered the warehouse. Kira recognized him as one of the lieutenants Brandis had entrusted with assaulting one of the other buildings. With a quick salute, the guard said, "All objectives secure, Ser. The prisoners are being transported to the citadel dungeon as we speak, and all evidence will shortly be on its way there as well."

  "Excellent. Well done, Lieutenant. Ensure the prisoners are pced far enough from each other that they cannot communicate with one another. Have any other captives been discovered?"

  "No, Ser. We did find a number of those 'holding cases', but they were all empty. They're now being moved to the citadel warehouse, along with the other evidence."

  "Understood. Anything else?"

  "No, Ser."

  "Very well. Detail two men each to guard each location just in case another member of the ring comes back to retrieve or destroy any evidence. Have all evidence found pced under lock and key, make sure that the prisoners are secure, and then you may dismiss the men for the evening. Ensure each sergeant's report makes its way onto my desk by tomorrow evening. Oh, and have a carriage sent to this location to carry the erstwhile captives back to the citadel. Dismissed."

  "Ser!"

  As the man saluted again and left, Brandis turned back to the rest of the party. "Well done, everyone. We've struck a significant blow against the trafficking ring and helped save four innocent women from a terrible fate. Tomorrow we can go over the evidence we've gathered and see what we can glean from it."

  Myrina's eyes fshed at being called an innocent woman, or perhaps more at the insinuation that she had needed saving, but she remained silent. As did the other three sves, though for different reasons, all the way back to the citadel.

  Almost an hour ter, as she snuggled into her bnkets, Kira wondered whether Fenrir would be proud of them for allying with the citadel group. She hoped so, and hoped with equal fervency that they would quickly find the information needed to save Safara.

  TheBestofSome