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Throughout her whole journey through the city of Anteronia, the kobold wizard Tik Tik had never experienced anything quite like the Aldevan Ball. But, while the many encounters in that party were entertaining, they were a side story in the grand scheme of Tik Tik's Anteronian Adventure. In truth, her real goal lay buried deep in the estate, where Lord Aldevan hid his family's secret: the enigmatic Allison Aldevan. It was only through a copious amount of "persuasion" that the lord was willing to give up his family's shame, for Allison was an occultist of note, and Tik Tik sought one to free her from a fell spirit that has inhabited her mind and her body for some time.

Tik Tik passed through many more incredible sights and encounters on her journey to the hidden halls of the Aldevan estate. Lord Aldevan had hired powerful arcanists in extending the dimensions of his demesne, and yet none of them have the knowledge enough to rid Tik Tik of her demonic burden. Our only hope, then, was to brave the unknown--to places where the Aldevan servants usher guests away towards more conventional and earthly delights. Where the signs of festivities and hedonistic abandon waned, we only found the cold and lonely corridors of a realm oft-forgotten.

Tik Tik stood up on her toes and jiggle the handle to the foreboding wooden door before us. When it would not yield, she reached into her bodice and produced a small pin. Without explaining a word to me, she inserted the object, pressing her head upon the door and wiggled the tool around. I had known for some time of Tik TIk's skill in mechanics, yet never had I the chance to witness it first-hand.

With the sound of a click, she chirped with joy and opened the once-locked door.

"Miss Tik Tik," I asked her, "You know I could have just slid underneath and opened it from the other side. My gelatinous form allows me more easy access to places, after all."

She slipped the pin back into her bodice, flashing me a toothy grin filled with her self-accomplished joy. "Well, then Tik Tik no show off trapmaker skill! This is Tik Tik's story, yes?" Truthfully, I was impressed at her use of wits in light of her limitations, but either way we made ingress to this place would label us trespassers, even with the Lord Aldevan's blessing. And that worried me.

With that, she slipped into the hall and discovered a place unlit, with cobwebs draping between unused lamps and particles of dust clinging to my gelatinous form. Its taste was not far different from the usual detritus that flaked off the skins of the more usual creatures, but there came with it a sulphurous aftertaste that clung to me like a particularly unwelcome memory.

"Just like back home," Tik Tik said, speaking with ennui that I had not heard from her before. Was the dreary nature of this abandoned and shunned wing getting to her as it was to me?

"Do you miss your home, Miss Tik Tik?" I asked, hoping to brighten her up with more pleasant, less-demonic times.

"Tik Tik has seen so many places, but there are still so much to see, but Tik Tik does want to see Prakibak and Kishke and Master Tikit again." She closes the door behind her and made her way through the dark hall. "But, cannot go back, not with demon still here. " It was a wise decision, and one that proved that she had come a long way in taming the beast, but her encounters during the ball proved that she would never be fully without the demon's temptations, at least not until it was properly removed from her.

The hallway continued for some distance, and Tik Tik checked every door she came across. It seemed as if the magic that enchanted the rest of the house had also affected the forgotten halls of the Aldevan estate, creating empty bedrooms of unremarkable furnishing, which must have cost a grand amount of magical power, but had the side-effect of bathing the old passages in a foreboding system of tunnels and passages.

The hall abruptly ended with a branching path, but the wall that barred further movement was marked. Scratches marred the surface, exposing the bare wooden structure beneath. And upon that structure was burned a crude artwork of a humanoid girl and of a shadowy mass that followed her.

Tik Tik approached the artwork, tracing her fingers along the cheeks of the humanoid. Her voice came, soft and broken, but certainly not from the kobold herself. The demon, Zelb, had risen up from within Tik Tik's control. Curious, because, usually, it is only the swelling of lust that arouses the demon to the surface.

"He kept the child...?"

I called Tik Tik, and she retracted her hand. Rubbing her wrist, she glanced down the hall. "We should check that way," she said, her voice her own, but distant. "Tik Tik feel something there."

Soon enough, this new hallway terminated. This time, another unsuspecting door, much like the locked one from before, barred our way. Tik Tik was transfixed by it, enough so that I had to point to her the discarded articles of clothing upon the ground. She knelt beside them and picked up one of the masks used by the participants of the Aldevan's ball.

"Lady Aldevan was at ball too?" Tik Tik asked. "Need not come all the way here if she was."

I reminded Tik Tik that there was no chance that we would have figured out who she was with the sheer volume of masked participants participating in all acts of carnal delights

She agreed and reached for the door. She froze, retracting her hand. "I... Tik Tik think Eshere should go first."

I did not dissent, and I handed her the book which she had entrusted me. I wondered as I slid beneath the door if she wished me in there first as a gesture of politeness, or as a trap set by Zelb.

By the time my core emerged into the room, those concerns had disappeared, as I was transfixed by the sight of the Lady Aldevan.

Sitting upon a stool, staring upon a beautiful humanoid figure, half-sculpted, was an undressed woman. Its skin was pale, and its body thin. Its arms and legs were longer than most natural creatures. Its legs bent in the reverse direction, terminating in hooves instead of feet. Crowning its head were two large horns, curled and sharpened. Its eyes were vacant black voids that stared at the creation before it. One long hand fondled the creation before it, shaping its breasts with an artist's touch, but its other hand ran down along its own form, casually rolling fingers over a male's shaft.

I finished emerging, passing through the doorway with a pop. The artist stopped and turned to face me fully, mouth agape, and showing off sharpened teeth. The creature shrieked, but it was the fearful cry of a lady, not the roar of a monster. She hopped off of her stool and produced a sheet, covering herself and slinking away to the back of the room.

"Y... you!? Who said you could come here!?"

I took on my humanoid form so that she would not fear me, and I spoke, saying, "I mean you no harm. I come seeking the young Lady Aldevan, and I was told by Lord Aldevan that she would be here. Are you her?"

Only the artist's startled breaths filled the room for the first few seconds, but she broke the silence finally to confirm. "My brother sent you?"

Relieved that tensions were finally broken, I unlocked the door and cracked it open. "Oh yes, as well as my teacher, Miss Tik Tik. We seek the help that is said only you can provide."

Her dark eyes widened when Tik Tik poked her head through the door, and the two matched eyes with each other, glancing with a sort of damned recognition.

Tik Tik was the first this time, but it wasn't Tik Tik's voice that said the words. "There you are... I've finally found you..."