The little succubus sighed. "I'm not a princess. We just happen to look alike. I am, or was, Princess Dana's body double for public events, carefully chosen for our nearly identical appearance. So, when I shrunk myself, I still look like her, or rather, I still look like myself.
But I've signed a Familiar Pact, and that's binding, you can't send me home."
Wolfe just shrugged. "I didn't intend to, I just needed to know why a witch would awaken her aura five years too soon. But now that you're here at the party, you can keep your witch company and prevent her from running away from her guards again.
She does it every time that she's at one of these functions, and she's going to give them and her mother a heart attack one of these days."
The old woman glared between Wolfe and the Demoness.
"Are you not going to put a spell on her to keep her from reversing the Familiar Bond and running rampant in the city?" She asked.
"There is no need. I put the Kind Intentions spell on the city last time that I was here, so if she was planning to reverse the bond or harm her Witch, she wouldn't have been able to create it in the first place.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtAs things stand, Miss Tian is going to rapidly grow to the Second Rank, and then the two of them will balance out and progress from there forward. It will be something like my bond with the Witches, but more benign." Wolfe explained.
Only Priya actually understood the reference, the rest were just confused as to how a bond with a Succubus could be more wholesome than Wolfe's bond with the witches.
What they didn't understand was that a Succubus feeds on pleasure, not just sexual pleasure or Lust. Sure, that was the most concentrated form of it, but the joy of a child was still an excellent source of nutrition, and if she needed more, she could always sneak out to go visit with the unmarried men using her natural adult appearance.
"Well, we might as well add one more to the group, I suppose. What should we call you, Little Succubus?" Priya asked.
"Princess T." Tian insisted.
"My name is Tammi, and as I explained, I am not technically a Princess, despite the outfit."
"The dress stays, I won the bet." Tian reminded her.
"Yes, you won the bet, so I will keep it on all day." The succubus laughed, holding out her hand with one finger extended for Tian to take in the gesture for a pinky swear, a childish form of promise.
More of the Witches from the top families were coming into the main room from where they had gathered off to the sides to socialize with friends, and the Succubus quickly hid her wings and tail, then altered the dress to mend the holes, which left her looking like a regular tiny witch child with shockingly pink eyes.
It would limit her power, but it was better not to cause a big scene here, now that she knew that she hadn't been called because her Witch was in danger. They were definitely going to have some words on the appropriate time to call her, as if she had remained in the house, nobody would have known that she was a Succubus at all.
Now the gossip would spread about a Demonic Pact affecting the next leader of the Priya Family, and that would cause all sorts of headaches.
The Succubus snapped her fingers and pointed at Wolfe as a realization hit her. "I've got it. I know the way to cover for this."
Wolfe gave her a curious look and waited for her to continue.
"I will blame it all on you! It's kind of your fault anyhow. If you hadn't stolen my job by taking Dana away, I would have been under too much surveillance to ever escape in the first place. So I can blame you for the deal, and tell them that I am just here to watch over the family member of one of your favourite witches."
She was so excited about her brilliant plan that a bit of her natural hypnotism power was leaking, making the nearby witches nod along in agreement. If the cute girl said that the early awakening and the Succubus guardian were Wolfe's doing, then their minds said it should be true. After all, Demons don't lie, or so the Witches believed thanks to their dealings with the bound reincarnated 'Demons' that were normally summoned as Familiars.
"You know, you're just making my life hard here. You could have just made them forget that you were a Succubus at all, and that would be the end of it." Wolfe reminded the little girl.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"I don't have that much power. Some of these are Rank Two Witches, it wouldn't stick. Plus, there's your favourite standing right there, and she's way more powerful than I am." Tammi sighed.
"Well, we will do damage control for you and try to smooth it over. Just take tips from Millie here, and bodyguard your little charge, she's entirely too energetic once she's loaded up on melon juice." Wolfe laughed.
The old witch looked around. "Speaking of which, shouldn't there be actual bodyguards looking for her by now?"
Tian whistled and looked away, showing off what might be the world's most awful poker face.
"You used an illusion charm to make someone else look like you, didn't you?" Wolfe asked.
"I would never. I switched outfits with one of my friends, I didn't come to the party in this dress." She muttered.
Wolfe set her on the ground, and the two little girls linked hands to walk in front of him, while Tian introduced Wolfe to all the Witches that she knew like a proper little host while Priya whispered the details of their relations, power and jobs to him in the background.
All the guests were too bemused by the sight of two tiny girls leading around the Forest Grove dignitary and the Priya Family Leader to question who the other girl was, and those who knew found it perfectly natural that a witch and Familiar would walk together, thanks to Tammi's magic.
They had nearly completed a full loop of the room before the Coven Council Leader made her way to the stage at the front of the room and turned on the microphone.
"Thank you all for coming on such short notice. As many of you have seen, we have a foreign dignitary here today, though after what I have to tell you, he might not seem like so much of a foreigner at all. Significant changes are coming to Sylvan, and we will be revealing the first of them to all of you tonight." The old woman announced.
The whole room turned to look at Wolfe and Priya, while the Coven Leader gestured for them to come up on the stage for the next part of the announcement. It was going to be difficult for some of the Witches to accept the news, the Coven Leader thought, so it was better if she could show them that everyone was on the same side, and that this was not a hostile foreign imposition on the sovereignty of the Sylvan Coven.