“It’s not that lust is - evil, per se. But strong emotions are the cornerstone of black magic, and black magic is the demonic lifeblood. Besides, it’s harder to resist mind control when all you can think about is sex.”

Teo makes a resigned affirmative sound. "I see. And mind control, corruption and creating species with impossible and amoral reproduction follows from that. How powerful is she, individually?"

"Very," Enserric sighs. "I didn't really have an opportunity to challenge her, under the circumstances, but the way demons work, she must be more powerful than her subordinates - probably more so than half of them put together - and her subordinates are not exactly small fry. However, there is a silver lining: being a sorcerous 'blank slate', as it were, you have the potential to become very powerful as well. Perhaps more powerful than I was."

"Sorcerous blank slate? You mean I could get magic?"

"Had I not mentioned that? Yes, I intend to make an archmage of you. I am a very good sword, but stabbing all of one's problems is rarely the optimal solution."

"That does make the offer more interesting. What sort of things your magic system can do?"

"My own repertoire was largely combat-focused; I learned to create blinding flashes of light, arouse my enemies to the point of distraction, imbue my weapons with power, heal wounds, strengthen my body, and burn my enemies with ethereal fire. But there's a certain amount of versatility to magic, and once you've learned to do that much, there are many minor tricks you can perform. Regrettably, since I lack a human body to draw energy from, those minor tricks are all I have left."

"Huh, does it do interworld travel and resurrection as well? Or could give you or another person a new body?"

"You could probably learn to travel between worlds; natural portals already exist, so studying one might be a good way to start on the project to replicate one. I've never heard of anyone successfully resurrecting someone, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. Making a new body... might be possible with black magic, but it'd take stronger feelings about me in particular than anyone has, at least that I know of."

"That still more solutions to my world's problems than before. Well, except travel between worlds, we managed to get FTL from here. How long would you expect to learn these things? Years? Decades?"

"With a properly directed course of study, it shouldn't take you more than a few months to get a firm grasp of magic, and not more than a few years to fully master it. Magic is much more about natural aptitude than about exhaustive study."

"I see. And my current alternative is being stuck at Milliways, permaspringing. This sounds very tempting."

"I should hope so. Why are you stuck? I thought the door was supposed to take you back home whenever you wanted."

Teo glares at the door, like he is trying to set it on fire.

"It is supposed to do that," he says through gritted teeth, "but a few months back it decided to no do that, and leave me stranded here. I can go to other people's worlds if they open the door for me. But it will vanish if I try to leave by myself."

"Well, that's certainly unpleasant. But I was going to have to open the door myself anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem. And then we can work out how to get you home ourselves, once you've defeated Lethice."

There's a certain amount of irony in his voice.

"Because it's so easy to defeat a demon queen. But again, it doesn't sound like I have a better option. Or at least I expect that, if I sit around here too long, I will get weirder and weirder worlds. I might as well take what I can get."

"That's the spirit. Shall we, then?"

"Let me grab my stuff. Do you want to wait down here or wait as I get ready?"

"For the love of Marae take me with you, I don't want to end up in the bloody lost-and-found again."

Teo snorts. He takes Enserric upstairs to his room. It's a very nice Milliways suite. The sword goes to a mahagony table. "I don't think you mentioned the tech level of your world?" Teo asks before going over a nearby piece of furniture to look inside.

"How in the world am I supposed to summarize a world's tech level? We have... printing presses, we have crossbows, we have rubber and latex, we have milking machines although those were invented by goblins and shouldn't really be considered representative..." Enserric will happily continue muttering to himself about various relatively recent technological advances until interrupted, painting a picture of a world that's mostly medieval with the occasional bizarre technological outlier, often sexual in nature, usually invented by demons or goblins.

Teo listens... while putting on a full bodysuit in a hard to identify material. 

"Is a lot of your technology... somehow related to a kink?"

“I mentioned that everyone is being constantly aroused by Lethice’s demonic magic, right? I’m sure I mentioned that. -oh, and if you’re going to stay for any length of time and you like looking like you do now, bring nonperishable food, and lots of it. Practically all of the naturally growing food in Mareth is alchemically tainted and will give you animalistic features.”

"Gah. Are the changes reversible?"

“Yes, actually, though not trivially. Black magic can be used to directly change one’s shape, but it’s tiring and you shouldn’t be doing it every day. There are also a few rare alchemical reagents that can be used to return you to your natural shape. Also, you may find some of the changes appealing and choose to keep them; I certainly wasn’t expecting to be as charmed as I was by my horns, but they really framed my face quite nicely.”