Yolette had closed the front door behind her before she saw the unfamiliar woman in Haden’s chair, legs curled up beneath her, a book in her lap. The stranger had time to say “Hello, Yolette” before the girl jumped.
“Who are you?!” Yolette demanded, trying to sound as imposing as Sheen would have, but falling far short of the mark. Are those her boots next to the door? Yolette wondered. She made herself right at home?!
“It’s me, Yolette. It’s Kalisa.”
But the stranger’s beautiful face was unfamiliar, and her accented voice sounded nothing like Kalisa’s. Yolette wished she had her short sword, though she still had much to learn about wielding it. “What am I, barmy? I don’t remember much, but I remember Kalisa, and you’re not her.”
“Oh, right,” said the stranger, passing her hands over her face, revealing the plain looks of the woman Yolette had encountered in Baltazo’s lair. “I’m sorry,” the stranger said, her accent gone. “Sometimes I lose track of my personas.”
“Great,” sighed Yolette, “more shape-shifters. I can always use more nightmare fuel. Say, can you read minds, too?”
“I can,” Kalisa replied, “but I don’t. It’s… rude? Unfair? I’m not sure what you’d call it, but I don’t do it anymore.”
“Oh.” Huh. What do you say to that? I feel like I should say something, even though I’ve got work to do. I overheard Sheen saying that Kalisa was like a child, that she needed a family… maybe I can be a sister to her. A much younger sister. “So, what brings you here?”
“Joris wants for us to move in.”
“Both of you? Huh… I don’t know where we’re gonna put you. Maybe in Hexla’s lab…”
“I don’t see the point, myself,” Kalisa sighed, closing her book. “One kip’s the same as another when you don’t have to eat or sleep.”
Do what now? “You’re, what, some kind of fiend?” Yolette remembered Haden saying something about Kalisa along those lines, but she was always more interested in how Haden said things than in what he was actually saying…
“A succubus, yes.”
“But you’re not evil… any more?” Yolette said, taking a seat in one of what Haden called the ‘lesser’ chairs.
“Right.”
Maybe she doesn’t want to talk? No, then she’d just tell you to be quiet, or go away… “That guy Joris, he’s helping you to be good or something?”
“Something like that.” Kalisa’s eyes flicked from Yolette to the book in her lap, then back again. “He’s trying, but I haven’t been the best of students.”
“What do you mean?”
“This book,” Kalisa said, holding it up, “was written to teach children about virtuous living. I’m nearly three hundred years old, and these stories barely make any sense to me.”
Yolette leaned foward for a closer look. It was a book of parables, beautifully illuminated – just like the one her mother used to read to her.
She fell back into her chair as a fresh flood of memories washed over her… the sound of her mother’s voice as she spoke of mercy, and forgiveness… Yolette had never cared for the stories themselves, but adored the way her mother told them. Her brother, though, could recite the tales himself.
Her brother. Yolette had once had a younger brother… What was his name? Her head was spinning now.
“What is it?” Kalisa asked, leaving Haden’s chair to kneel beside the girl. Yolette had the impression that the succubus was making an effort to be concerned, but it was welcomed all the same.
“Wow… I’m sorry, I just got another piece of my memory back. It can really take it outta me if I’m not ready.”
“Gyderic did that to you.”
“Yeah.” A sudden vision of the psion purged the dizziness from Yolette’s system, leaving her with a sensation of numbing cold, and a renewed appreciation of the nearby fireplace.
“Yolette, do you remember Gyderic – or Baltazo – ever speaking to a baatezu? I know they used their summoning circle to call devils.”
“Nope. That’s the exact kind of thing they made me forget.”
“I was just checking,” Kalisa said, obviously a little disappointed. “Don’t hurt yourself trying to remember on my account.”
“It’s all right. Why do you care about the Illuminated, anyway?”
“Back when I was part of the Blood War, working against the baatezu and their minions was my duty. I still oppose the Hells, but for… personal reasons. But now I also have the whole Abyss to worry about.”
Yolette formed her next question, but let it go when the name resurfaced in her memory. “Betzalel!” she exclaimed. “I remember – its name was Betzalel.”
“Are you sure?” asked Kalisa, placing a hand on Yolette’s forearm, a grave look on her face. “Are you certain that was the name?”
“Yeah. I’m certain.”
Kalisa looked down at her hand and promptly removed it. “That’s just what I’ve been looking for, Yolette. Thank you.”
“Do you know that name?” Yolette asked, watching as Kalisa padded across the parlor to scoop up her boots.
“I do. He’s a remmanon – a devil who lures mortals into signing pacts. And I know exactly who he serves, too. It makes perfect sense now.”
“So where are you going? You just gonna tear off and look for him?” Yolette moved into Haden’s chair while she asked this, hoping the succubus wouldn’t notice or care.
The succubus stopped, then slid off the one boot she’d tugged on. “I can’t. I promised Joris that I’d stay here until he returns.”
“That seems kind of weird.”
“He’s afraid I might get into trouble, and do something I shouldn’t to get out of it.”
“Something evil,” Yolette said, and Kalisa nodded, once. “Doesn’t he trust you?”
“Yes,” the succubus said after a slight pause, “I think so. Still, it bothers him when I keep running off. He knows that I trust him; I just need to prove that he can trust me. If that means staying here, then that’s what I’ll do.”
“Do you love him?” Yolette asked before she could stop herself, but Kalisa looked back at her with a blank expression. “I only ask,” she added hastily, ”’cause Talan’s with Hexla… and now Sheen’s got Haden…”
“Does she,” Kalisa said, smiling faintly, finding her way into a chair.
“I know it’s none of my business and all – you can fall in love, can’t you?”
Yolette was too young to comprehend the succubus’s reaction – but few mortals would recognize all of its elements, a strange alloy of astonishment, nostalgia, and regret. Finally, Kalisa said “I can, yes. I once loved deeply, and truly.”
“So what happened?”
“He didn’t feel the same way,” she said, closing her eyes.
“Yep,” Yolette said, stretching her legs out to the ottoman, “I know just how you feel. Some men just can’t see a good thing, even when it’s right in front of ‘em.” An enigmatic smile crept over Kalisa’s face, and Yolette went on: “Joris is crazy about you, though. I’ve seen the look in his eye when he talks about you.”
“Have you?”
“Oh, yeah,” said Yolette, omitting Joris’s constant worrying. “I know he’d be good to you, and he seems okay, as far as guys go.”
“But he won’t live forever – and I might.”
“What, you don’t think his short little life would be better if he spent it with you?”
Kalisa started to answer, but she stood up suddenly, a look of panic crossing her face as she reverted to her true form. “It’s Joris,” she said, voice barely over a whisper. “He’s calling me by my truename.”
“Is he all right?” Yolette asked, starting to worry.
“Something’s gone wrong; he’s back on the Prime Material Plane. He’s alone… I have to go.”
The succubus reached over Yolette to grab the longsword she’d left hanging on the back of Haden’s chair, went to retrieve her boots, and then vanished into thin air.
Yolette sat there for several minutes before she started her chores, and had a hard time concentrating on her work, which made her doubly glad to stop when the heroes came home.
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