Before departing, we needed to come up with a plan.  “We can talk freely here,” I started, “but as soon as one of you carries me out of the circle, Kirinhalut will re-establish her link with me.  Anything you say she’ll here, and she’ll be waiting for us.  We need to make our plan now.”

“So we won’t carry you out,” Margret replied.  “We just need a bit of her hair, right?  It’s simple: I’ll hold her down, Sondra will cut it, and Bushwack will bring it back here.  No big deal.”

“No, he needs to do it,” Bushwack said.  Everyone turned toward her, and she elaborated.  “I’m not trying to throw him into danger pointlessly, there’s a good reason for it that even he might not understand.  As a tiny person in an adventuring party, he’s… limited in what he can do.  I went through the same thing, trying to find ways I could contribute to the group, and if we do this for him it’ll just get worse.  We need to treat him like an adventurer because that’s what he is, not some wounded bird we’re nursing back to health.  He needs to prove to himself he can break the demonic influence, not to us.”

“But what if he gets hurt?” Sondra asked.  “If she hears what he hears, she’ll know he’s coming.  If he gets smashed again, he might not…”

“And what if you get hurt fighting his battles for him?” Bushwack shot back.  “Do you think that’d make him feel better somehow?  I went through this with Llelwyl when we were just starting out.  She wanted to do everything for herself and just keep me around for company, like I was some sort of novelty.  You wouldn’t treat me like I’m incapable, and you shouldn’t treat him like he is, either.”

“She’s right,” I said, stepping into the discussion.  It seemed fitting, since they were talking about me.  “I can do it, and I don’t need anyone else to fight for me, physically or verbally.”  I shot Bushwack a look, then turned back to the group before continuing.  “Besides, it’ll be more satisfying if I play a role in breaking her control over me.  But you’re also right in that she’ll see me coming, even if I’m invisible.  We need some way to keep her from getting inside my head.”

“I think I can help with that,” Margret offered.  “Kirinhalut is a succubus, succubi are demons, and demons are evil.  Right now, we’re standing in a circle that protects us from evil, aren’t we?”  The diviner nodded, and Margret continued laying out her plan.  “I can easily give him a personal version of it that’ll move with him and won’t risk tipping her off.  The only issue is the duration; by the time he gets to her and climbs to where he can snip some of her hair, it’ll wear off.”

“I’ll fly him to her, then,” Bushwack said.  “It’ll keep me hidden from her too, right?  So cast it on both of us, I’ll put him on her shoulder and pull him back out once he’s done.  Shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes.”

“That seems awfully close to doing it for him,” Sondra cut in.  “Why don’t you just take a bit of her hair while you’re at it?  It’ll save Margret a spell and reduce the amount of things that can go wrong.”

“It’s not much different from someone creating a distraction so I can get closer,” Bushwack replied, “and unless one of you wants to just throw him at her, it’s the only idea we’ve got.  What do you say, little guy?  Are you okay with me carrying you to her?”

Aside from a pixie calling me “little guy,” I was fine with the plan.  Everything they brought up was a valid concern, and if it was between being carried and having someone throw me, I would take someone carrying me.  “Yeah, let’s do it,” I declared.  “Get me onto her shoulder and I’ll get what we need.”

Bushwack leaned forward and reached down, placing a hand against the side of my body.  Her fingers curled around me securely, gripping me so just my head poked out from her fist.  She flew up from the table and returned to her perch on Sondra’s shoulder, then gave her two firm taps, the sign she was ready to go.  The two regular-sized humans thanked the diviner and left, taking me and the pixie with them.

I did my best to blank my mind before leaving the circle of protection.  My connection to Kirinhalut resumed, and I did not know how deep she could probe into my mind.  Any inkling of the plan could tip her off, leading to a fight when we got there.  Combat would be messy, and if the succubus got sent back to her home plane during it she might take me with her.  We would certainly not be able to break the bond she had forced between us, and I would remain her property.

To keep my mind off the coming task, I focused on Sondra’s face beside me.  Daylight reflected off her pale skin, making her seem to gleam under the sun.  Every small flare of her nostril as she breathed was obvious to me, and there was little difference between the sky and her eyes focused ahead while she considered the coming encounter.  She had been stunning last night, and being this size only magnified her beauty.  If we both made it out alive, I looked forward to travelling with her and her companions, regardless of any other outcome.

When we reached the inn, we went back to our rooms and Margret began the preparations.  She cast on Bushwack first, both to give me the most time possible and so my bond with the succubus would not be broken for as long.  When her magic wrapped around me, I felt the rush of freedom as Kirinhalut was forced out of my mind.  With her telepathy blocked, she would not be able to force her thoughts into my mind, nor tear mine out of it.  For the moment my soul was still hers, but as far as she was concerned I was a complete non-entity, this time in a good way.

Bushwack took flight from Sondra’s shoulder, clutching me tightly as she entered the hallway.  She turned the corridor and flew along it until reaching Kirinhalut’s room, then turned again to enter.  The door was open, and Kirinhalut stood motionless in the middle of the room, her eyes closed.  Her arms were at her side with fingers spread wide, like she was deeply focused on something.  We both knew that if Margret was wrong this would be a very short mission, so Bushwack approached her shoulder with caution.

The pixie hovered behind Kirinhalut’s shoulder blade and set me down, my feet lightly dimpling the bare skin of her shoulder.  She descended to the floor and landed behind the succubus’s ankle while I looked at the titanic demon.  It had been a while since I was this close to her, but I vividly remembered my time trapped in a tiny cage attached to her choker.  From my vantage point, I could now see that the golden choker was taller than me, and her head alone towered over me.  I had to crane my neck back to see her ear, its opening large enough for me to climb into, with a thick lock of black hair tucked behind it.  Her hair trailed down to the small of her back, giving me more than enough to work with.  Surely she would not miss a strand or two.

Tentatively I took a step forward, then froze when Kirinhalut snapped her head toward me.  Her full, pouty lips were right above me, with sunlight from the windows reflecting off her dark lipstick.  They were massive – her top lip alone was nearly as tall as I was – and stretched dozens of feet to each side.  If she brought them down even a little bit they would engulf me, and I would likely end up stuck to her lipstick.  From there it would be a simple matter for her to slurp me up, and I would be moving down her throat before Bushwack would react.

While I pondered the short, grisly end to my adventure, Kirinhalut scanned her shoulder for what had disturbed her.  Her enormous, dark brown eyes scanned the bare skin, darting back and forth while she searched every square inch for the irritant, and I remained perfectly still, not even daring to breathe.  She looked right at me and paused, and I braced myself for a crushing slap.  Instead, they kept moving, looking progressively closer to her neck for something she simply could not see.  With a booming “Hmph,” she gave up and returned to what she was doing, and I let out a sigh of relief.

Carefully, I crept forward until I was at the base of her neck, then grabbed the bottom of her choker.  I leaned away from her, using the choker as an anchor, and took the sliver of sharp metal Margret had given me in my free hand.  In a wide arc I swung it at a strand of her dark hair, slicing it cleanly.  Quickly I grabbed it before it fell too far, straining to stretch my fingers to grab it.  My hand grasped the hair like a thin rope, but I was overextended and felt my grip on her choker slipping.

I was past the point of no return, and my fingers lost their hold on her choker entirely.  With nothing keeping me on her shoulder I plummeted down her back, the bare skin rapidly scrolling by as I fell.  My hand slid along her skin during my descent, and I wrenched my shoulder when I grabbed onto the back of her low-cut dress.  It had stopped my fall, but my arm seethed with pain as I slammed face-first into green velvet.  Kirinhalut’s thick hair fell over me like a curtain, obscuring me from view while I dangled from her dress.

If she could not see me, I had to trust that she could not hear me, either.  “Bushwack, help!” I called out.  “I got the hair but I fell off, I’m dangling from her dress!  Hurry before the spell wears off!”  My pinkie slipped from inside Kirinhalut’s dress, then my ring finger.  The strain of holding up even my weight became too much for the two remaining fingers and they slipped out, sending me falling toward the floor again.  With the spell blocking the succubus’s power, I was not sure which abilities remained.  There was a good chance I would end up splattered on a floorboard and she would end up tormenting me for eternity.

My fall was unexpectedly short, with a much softer landing.  Instead of hard, unforgiving wood I landed atop soft flesh with fingers raised to form a bowl.  “Caught you!” Bushwack exclaimed, veering sharply to the left.  Her fingers clamped down to hold me still, and while I could not see anything but the bottom of her fingers I did not mind.  I was safe, and soon I would be out from under the succubus’s thumb.

Bushwack flew back to our room, where Sondra and Margret were sitting on the edges of their seats.  When they saw the pixie enter they stood up and approached, and Sondra held her hand out as a perch.

My savior had barely landed before the humans started in with questions.  “How’d it go?”  “Did you get it?”  “Is he okay?”  They came so quickly I could not distinguish who was asking what, and a finger blocking my view I could not see their lips move.

Bushwack opened her fingers but kept her hands cupped, and I unsteadily got to my feet.  I stood astride the gap between her hands, planted my feet on the heels of her palms, and triumphantly held the single strand of hair over my head.  Margret and Sondra leaned in closer so their gigantic faces loomed over me and squinted, making me feel unusually puny.  “That… doesn’t really answer the question,” Margret boomed, adding insult to injury.  She was close enough that I could feel her hot breath when she spoke, and she still could not see my trophy.  “Did you get something or not?”

“Yes, I got something,” I answered, waving the single hair over my head.  “Now let’s go break a demon’s hold on me!”

“I hope it’ll be enough,” Sondra said, still squinting.  “It looks really small.”

“Unless you’re sending us back in there, it’ll do,” Bushwack said resolutely.  “Now put your arms down unless you want them to get stuck that way.”  I complied, and the pixie grabbed me in a firm fist again.  Both of my hands gripped the hair like it was a lifeline thrown to a drowning sailor, unwilling to accept even a chance of dropping it.  The pixie held me against her stomach and flew up, taking her spot on Sondra’s shoulder.  When she was ready, she slapped the skin twice and we were off.