the crime scene

	Lumira giggled drunkenly as she looked into the empty bottle she had liberated from the party.  “Wow!  I didn’t know I had it in me,” she managed.

	Slicce looked proudly at her friend.  She had barely had to use an ounce of her strange new magic on her friend!  Lumira hadn’t needed more than a few moments’ prompting to follow her out of the town past the startled guard when the sun had begun its approach.  She had just winked at Lumira, gestured to a few truly committed partygoers, and the two satyresses had led them all out in their own little wild march to the fields outside the town.  There, they had drunk and sang and danced and fucked until the sun had crawled high in the sky and morning had begun properly.

	Lumira gingerly shoved one unconscious human aside and wobbled to her hooves.  “Stars of the Wild, Slicce, you know how to throw a party!” she said with lubricated cheer.

	“Oh, I’m an amateur compared to the Dance Lord,” Slicce said coyly.  “Trust me.”

	Lumira whistled as she surveyed the handful of villagers that lay sprawled all around them.  That elf from before, a few strapping young lads with big, confident dicks, a woman with a harp who had joined in late last night, a handful of the construction workers… a fine cross-section of the town’s best hedonists in denial.  “What a lovely way to spend a vacation,” she hiccupped.  She pressed a hand to her forehead.  “Woo, I’m ten cups to the moon,” she said.

	“Come home with me, Lumira,” Slicce said playfully.  “We have such fun.”

	“Oh… but I have a job,” Lumira said, as if she was just remembering.

	“But I thought you said Viridian was fine, just resting,” Slicce needled.  She started slowly laying on the magic that the Dance Lord had showed her, and Lumira’s eyelids drooped more.

	“Oh… true,” Lumira said.  She stretched.  “Mmm… Greenwater hasn’t thrown us a party like that yet,” she giggled.  “Limbre will be so jealous.”

	Slicce smiled tightly.  It was working.  “How are they?  Bored out of their skulls, I bet,” she said casually.

	Lumira found her pipes and eventually managed to sling them around her neck.  “Oh, you know… Quicksnow is pregnant, by Greenwater.  We’re all so happy for her.”

	“How nice,” Slicce said, filing that away.  Maybe Limbre and Lumira could both be tempted away?  No, too much risk.  Better to just focus on the satyress in front of her rather than to hope for more.

	“Mmm.”  Lumira giggled in sleepy mirth.  “Good thing there weren’t any fey lads here last night… I’d probably be pregnant right now, after all those nice strong boys helped us out.”

	“That’s the spirit,” Slicce said under her breath.  Something was interfering in her attempts to keep Lumira’s focus.  Was she that drunk?  She was a satyress, that shouldn’t have been enough to get her so drunk that the Dance Lord’s magic wasn’t working properly.  The thought of her potential failure curdled in her stomach.  No, she wouldn’t fail the Dance Lord, she assured herself.

	Inspiration struck.  “Do you think you’ll get in trouble for this?” Slicce asked, pointing around at the group of unconscious Primes.

	Lumira frowned.  A jolt of sudden concern punctured her alcohol haze.  “Oh, Viri did say something about that,” she said uncertainly.  “She must have been exaggerating, though,” she added.  Doubt colored her words.  “I mean, she must have been.”

	Slicce rose and turned her back on her friend.  “Well.  If you want to have this much fun every day for the rest of your life, come find me at the treeline in an hour, and bring Viridian if you want to share,” she said airily.  “Leave the Feywild to the Dukes and Counts and whatever.”  She smirked to herself as she walked away.  That ought to do it.


	Viri stared with a sense of alien shame in her stomach as Lumira came staggering up to the north gate of the village.  “Oh, Lumira,” she muttered.

	Linus had both hands on his belted weapons as he looked over the drunken satyress’ shoulder at the bodies in the field behind her.  As soon as Lumira was in range, he reached out and grabbed her by the throat.

	“Linus…” Viri said uncomfortably, but Linus was entirely done with holding back.

	“Eyes open, bitch,” Linus snarled, and Lumira’s cloudy vision locked on him.  Her face twisted into a scowl.

	“Oh, it’s you,” she muttered.  She looked over at Viri.  “Time to go?  You got to see your friend.”

	“Try to escape and I will skin you with pliers,” Linus snarled, and sudden fear rocked Lumira’s fogged brain to wakefulness.

	“W-what?  What is it?” Lumira sputtered.

	Linus effortlessly hefted her clear off the ground and held her two feet over the ground.  His magic gloves dug into her skin.

	“Linus!” Viri gasped.

	“I command you, Lumira of the Oldest Glade,” Linus said darkly.  “You shall tell me what happened last night.  Who was the other satyress?”

	“Hey!” Lumira said indignantly.  She struggled at Linus’ arms, but it was like trying to cut a tree with a fish.  “Let go of me!”

	“I will personally drop you into the darkest cells in Carceri the Black Prison if you do not ANSWER ME!” Linus roared in Sylvan, so loud that nearby villagers looked over in shock.  Lumira’s eyes bugged out as he applied the faintest bit of pressure in his grip.  “WHO WAS THE OTHER SATYRESS?” he screamed.

	“S-Slicce!” Lumira gasped.  “She stayed with Gillint!”

	Linus took three paces forward and slammed her into a window, not quite hard enough to break it.  “Where did she come from?  Why was she here?”

	“Help!  Please help!” Lumira cried, but not one villager in the growing circle took a step forward.

	Viri tried pulling at Linus’ arm.  “Please, stop hurting her!” she begged.

	“You’ve never seen me hurt somebody before,” Linus said in a voice from the pits of Hell.  He released the gasping satyress, and she fell to the ground coughing.

	“Linus, I thought you were a gentler man than that,” Viri protested.

	In truth, a black cloud of rage was clouding Linus’s mind.  He had to force himself not to reach down to Lumira and begin removing her organs, so great was the force of his rage.  Then, a silver mote of cold air blew through his mind, and he grasped it.  No.  This was not the way of Torm.  Torm had chastised him when he had done this to the kobolds in the Cult of the Dragon.  He would not repeat his error.  He would not give in to his sin of wrath twice.

	“I… want to be,” he said.  He loomed over the coughing satyress and let some of Torm’s magic spill from his eyes.  “I command you to tell me where this Slicce is, and why she was here,” he said.

	Lumira backed up to the wall of the house, looking around for salvation, but there was none to be found.  “She… she lives in the forest, with her new tempt, and she… she came to recruit me and Viri!” Lumira said.

	Viri stared.  “Recruit me?  Recruit me as what?  Fauns serve no purpose in a pure tempt but as a wife for the Dance Lord.”

	Lumira struggled to rise.  Linus made no move to stop her.  “I… you’re a monster, Paladin,” she spat.

	“And you’re a rapist,” Linus said coldly.  She recoiled, but he reached forward and grabbed her wrist.  “Come, see what you’ve done.”


	When Linus marched the two women into the house, August had managed to wake most of the partygoers.  Some were stubbornly unconscious, and August had tasked one of his two subordinates to drag those to the temple for proper healing.  The other was passed out on the floor beside him, and he was gamely trying to wake her.  “Chauntea shield your spirit, little sister, and turn you back from the poison the fey have unleashed in you,” he whispered in prayer.

	When Linus returned with Lumira in hand, she looked around the room in cold contempt.  “Hmph!  What do you want, Paladin?” she said.

	“Look at these people,” Linus said scornfully.  “See your crimes.”

	“I see a good time well had by all,” Lumira said dismissively.

	“A good time is using mind control to cause siblings to have sex?” Linus grated out.

	“Oh, enough!” Viri said.  “Lumira, what you did was wrong!  Get over your pride and help us!”

	“Help you with what?  He’s done nothing but threaten me!” Lumira protested.

	Linus grabbed her wrist again and dragged her over to where the claw-marked lad stood.  “Look.  Present your fingers, Lumira,” he said.

	She blinked.  “Is that a joke?”

	Linus tightened his grip and wrenched her arm the other way over.  Sure enough, she had normal human fingers.  They didn’t match the claws on the boy at all.

	“Did you lie with this boy?” Linus demanded.

	“No,” Lumira said, though she wasn’t sure.

	“No,” the kid said, looking dumbly at her.

	“Why does Slicce have claws?” Linus pressed.

	“Claws?  She doesn’t have claws!” Lumira protested.

	The boy wordlessly held up his arms.  Sure enough, his ribs were marked with deep cuts, bloody cuts, from claws as far apart as human fingers were on a normal hand.

	He wasn’t alone.  In the next two minutes, August found three more men with the same marks, and two women.

	By the end, Lumira looked away from it.  The accusation Linus had leveled was bad enough, and the stares and fearful looks from the people who had been all but worshipping her the previous night did not make it better.  That, and Linus still made her fear for her life.  “We’re leaving,” she said to Viri.

	“No, you aren’t,” Linus said.  “Your victims deserve answers.”

	“Stop treating me like a criminal!” Lumira snapped, but she recoiled in fear when Linus gripped the hilt of his blade.

	“You compelled thirty of my protectorates to rape each other, Lumira.”  He moved to block the exit.  “Where is Slicce?”

	“Do not threaten my life!” Lumira shrilled.  She backed up against a wall and looked around desperately, but none of the incapacitated people were in any shape to help, and most of the mobile people were watching in silence.  Some were crying.

	“This is your last and only chance to get out of this alive.  Where is Slicce?” Linus repeated.