[Power, Success]

  Rose stares into the void Hello Jaq, Jaq are you there.

  “Why you little _itch, I criticize one line of your damn story and you really do send me to Literal Hell.”

  “Jaq you must have had fun, you did sign up for the sequel.”

  “No, I did not sign anything.”

  “No it was a verbal agreement, I quote.

  “I’m coming too, but I’m bringing Frida and Nyx, we young ladies need to stick together.”

  “Then you had Groucho and Nyx make fun of my breasts for like the five hundredth time. You stripped me naked and had me tortured countless times and you expect a sequel. I suppose it’ll start with ‘It was a dark and stormy night’.”

  “How would you have started your story, it was night and rainy. Besides just think of the reader, snug in their bed, maybe a nice cup of tea to warm them up and they read the line ‘It was a dark and stormy night’. Now anything can happen. Towers can appear or you can find a body in the library or an enemy to lovers romance can begin. You can’t tell me that you could have guessed the ending after that opening, right from gothic horror to Orlando theme parks.”

  “Yeah, that’s another thing Rose, what you did to poor Frida.”

  “What did I do, it’s Florida, even in a bra, she still had on more clothes than half the state. What’s it even noted for, besides the theme parks it’s most famous feature is a swamp, the roller coaster is the highest spot in the state, you can’t say gay. As for Frida, she’s a good sport, her opening scene she shows up in your room, topless. I don’t hear you complaining about that scene, Jaq. But if you really didn’t mean that verbal agreement I guess I could get Giulia to take your place, when I tell her about the two beautiful women she’ll get to sleep with every night. Yeah that could work and we’ll make her Jules, Jaq’s evil twin sister. Yeah her and Nyx could really get up to some trouble. Poor Frida, two bad girls vying for her affections. OK yes I release you from your verbal contract. Are you happy now? They’ll make a beautiful thruple.”

  “Now just you wait a minute Rose, I didn’t say that I was ending anything, this is just you deciding everything on your own. If Frida and Nyx are doing the sequel then I’ll do it as well.”

  “Alright that’s more the spirit.”

  “But cut down on the gratuitous nudity will you.”

  “If Nyx is in a scene, it’s already been established that demons instinctively crave gratuitous nudity, it’s baked into their DNA. So I checked with the authors' guild and they said if it’s a biological imperative, then of course it isn’t gratuitous. Now if you don’t want to get naked with Frida, I can’t force the issue, I’ll just have to write you out of those scenes where Nyx and Frida are naked and bring in another woman. Maybe that Skye, she seems really nice, is quite attractive, and has a very impressive figure. What do you think of her Jaq?”

  “I think you win Rose, but I do think you are evil.”

  “Not evil at all, no one was coerced to do anything, except those poor Kens and Barbies,congratulations on taking down all those evil churches, Jaq, and freeing them all, it really was a masterstroke.”

  “Thank you Rose, that's nice to hear. I must say I did enjoy the cast of characters you assembled.”

  “Thank’s Jaq, Draco’s a close friend, he lives in the tower we live in. This is his second story with me. He was one of the stars of the first novel”

  “What’s that one called? Maybe I’ll pick it up.”

  “It’s called ‘The Slutty Princess’. It’s about how a lawful good paladin abandons a princess to wolves all because she’s not a virgin. She gets her revenge. I’ll give you a copy, my librarian can make copies of any book, movie, record.”

  “I don’t read smut, Rose.”

  “It’s not smut, Jaq. There is not one spicy scene in the book. Draco made up the title. The King sacrifices his daughter even though he knows she’s not a virgin. Now the princess thinks she is a virgin, because the girl she lost her virginity to claimed that girls don’t count.”

  “Girls count.”

  “Well of course they count, they’re people just like men.”

  “Yes, I’d like to read it, Rose.”

  “Here you go, Jaq, I will contact you in a couple of weeks, I’ll want your input on Merlin as well as Draco’s before we can start to plot out the beginning to the sequel.”

  “Thanks for the book, and if I’m being honest for the most part I really did enjoy working with you.”

  “Thank you Jaq, that’s really nice of you to say. Rest up we’ll need you in top form, sequels always try to out do the originals.”

  Rose stares into the void Hello Frida Ricci, Hello Frida, Frida

  “Hi Rose, what’s up?”

  “I just wanted to check in with you to see if you’re willing to be in the sequel, you weren’t in that final scene where everyone else decides to help Draco in his quest to locate Merlin in the tower. It won’t be happening for a couple of months. I was thinking of making your character the head of a small new modeling agency, based in Wales. Your offices would be in the mansion, your relationship with Jaq and Nyx would be deepening.”

  “Will Nyx and I be doing any more of those ‘scenes’ Rose.”

  “Not if it makes you uncomfortable, Frida. That’s why I did that close door scene, with only sound effects, I didn’t have time to get your consent.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t mind Rose, not if it’s with Nyx, I feel very comfortable with her, and with Jaq as well, but especially with Nyx.”

  “I hope you didn’t mind that opening scene, I wanted to shock Jaq and in turn I wanted to show that women can objectify women just like men can.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “No, I actually loved it, Jaq couldn’t take her eyes off my breasts, then when she finally looked me in the face, she realized how long she’d been staring at my boobs, she turned tomato red. It was so cute.”

  “So was how you put her in the friend zone, she had a whole inner monologue first about objectifying you, then about how you put her in the friendzone twice. It was hilarious. I’ve been living with Draco for a while, I think he’s starting to influence me.”

  “I thought you have a girlfriend and you’re living with a dragon, wow.”

  “No, that came out wrong. Lu, my girlfriend and I live in this giant tower, Draco also lives in the tower, in his own section, in his lair. But back to the sequel, did Groucho’s comments make you feel uncomfortable? I’m going to tone down his harassment in the sequel. I’m sure he’ll still make fun of Jaq.”

  “No honestly I think Groucho is sweet, and I just take his remarks as raw honesty and compliments. He can say anything he wants, and look at what he said to Lola and she just shot right back at him then they started dating. He’s such a sweet kid he didn’t even blame Lola, after her boss trapped him.”

  “That’s great Frida, thanks for the great work in the first book. I look forward to working with you on the sequel, I’ll contact you again.”

  Rose looks off into the void Hello Nyx, Hello Nyxophilia, Nyx

  “What do you want, human?”

  “Nyx, it’s me Rose, are you okay?”

  “Sorry Rose, these teenage boys keep on summoning me, it’s getting really annoying.”

  “Nyx, you’re naked, put some clothes on and they’ll stop, I’ll bet you anything.”

  “You really think that’s why they keep summoning me? Just because I’m naked.”

  “Yes, I’m sure of it, next time they try it just wear something formless and if you have a scary or ugly mask wear that as well. That ought to cool them off.”

  “Thanks Rose, I really hope it works. Did you want to talk about the sequel?”

  “Yeah I just wanted to make sure you were still interested.”

  “Yes for sure Rose, I want to play a dual role again if that’ll work for you, both Nyx and Nyxi. I never realized that cats had it so good, everyone loved me, petted me, cuddled with me. We demons don’t get much of that, mostly we get people running in terror. My only problem, Rose was that my alignment shifted. I went from chaotic evil to chaotic neutral.”

  “Well, Nyx, I don’t think you can do evil things to people you genuinely care about. Do you want Frida and Jaq to like you as both Nyx and Nyxi, then I think you’ll have to settle for neutral over evil. If they saw you committing evil deeds, their empathy would cause their opinion to go down. For instance when you threatened to flay Cheryl alive for what she did to Jaq, Jaq started having feelings for you, for defending her. But if she had to watch as you actually flayed her alive she’d probably look at you with horror. Do you understand the difference?”

  “Yes, I see, working with you was the first time I’ve had a positive experience with humans. I look forward to working with you on the sequel.”

  “Me too Nyx.”

  Rose stares off into the void Hello Groucho, Groucho

  “Hiya Rose nice se….”

  “Don’t say it if you want to work on the sequel.”

  “I was just going to compliment your…”

  “I mean it, Groucho.”

  “You have a dirty mind Rose, I’m talking about the bookends, that’s Gandalf and Aragorn, right. Two of my all time favorite characters. Get your mind out of the gutter.”

  “Sorry Groucho, I wanted to check in to make sure you’re interested in the sequel and to say you’ll probably still harass Jaq, but have you tone back the harassment of the other women. We could bring Lola back, that way you wouldn’t harass other women in front of her.”

  “Sure I’d love to work with Lola again, she’s funny and she shoots back the zingers just as hard as I do. I’d like to get the chance to use that staff the monastery gave me. It makes me super powerful.”

  “Yeah we can do that, maybe Merlin sets some monsters on you, twin monsters, you handle one with the new staff and Draco can take on the other one. How would you like that?”

  “That’d be great, otherwise that whole scene at the monastery was just a waste right?”

  “No actually, I shouldn’t be telling you this, you’ll take this the wrong way. But Jaq had an inner monologue, you were pretty toned down in the monastery and Jaq wanted the old you back. But if you just keep on using the same old jokes over and over, you won’t grow as a character and you won’t be as popular as you are in this book. People will think he doesn’t have the brains to change. You want to tell jokes, you don’t want to become a joke. If you see what I mean.”

  “I understand Jaq, and I want to make the chimpanzees proud.”

  “Great you can still tease Jaq, she’s like your sister, found family, that’s how you show affection for her. Keep up that Bro stuff. Alright I’ll contact you in a couple weeks.”

  I walked down the hallway to Draco’s lair and knocked on the door.

  “Come in, Rose”

  “How did you know it was me?”

  “My nose Rose, I have an excellent nose. You didn’t use it at all in the tower story.”

  “Sorry Draco, well you’ll be the star of the next book if you agree to be in it.”

  “Oh, I’ll be in, in fact I’m looking forward to it.”

  “That’s great because we can’t do this one without you. I mean the whole point is you track down Merlin and figure out what went wrong with the tower. Any character you particularly want to work with?”

  “Jaq, I think we have good chemistry and we work pretty well together.”

  “Ok get some rest, work will start in a couple of weeks. See you later.”

  “Bye Rose.”