"I'm so glad you like it! The index book was probably one of the two trickiest enchantments I've made. The other is the big display in the office. Would you like to try it out?"

"Oh, I'd better not, I'm going to be way too tempted to dive into a beanbag chair with an old favourite."

"Reasonable." Cheek kiss. "There'll be plenty of time to show it off in detail later."

She leads the way down again, to another circular landing, with two double-doors opposite each other.

"Ballroom and conservatory. I have never yet hosted a party here, but I figured one day I might, so I prepared."

She opens the doors simultaneously with tentacles.

The ballroom is very open, with polished hardwood floors and glittering amethyst chandeliers and some seating and tables around the edges. The conservatory is full of trees and shrubs and flowers, purple leaves and blue petals and black trunks, with little paths winding through it all.

"You know, I do like the vibes, but there's a part of me that was expecting to see green leaves and is disappointed. Maybe I should get a little potted plant for my windowsill."

"We can absolutely have some green plants if you want. It doesn't have to be all purple in here. And I definitely support little window plants."

"One of those succulents with the round little leaves, I think. Jade plant, maybe?"

"I love it. Probably not right now because I'm a little distracted for good conjuring, and we're in the middle of a tour, but definitely."

Sable can say no to Esme. Really. It promises.

It's just very glad there's so little it needs to say no to her about.

"Of course, of course. Houseplant shenanigans after the tour is complete. Please, continue."

Down they go another floor, reaching the entry hall. This is another double-height floor, with enormous pillars and arches and sweeping stairs and double-height stone doors. "Big fancy entry room, doubles as a defensive chokepoint if anyone ever figures out how to attack here. Shouldn't be possible, but I would feel like such a moron if it was and I didn't have all the fancy magitech turrets hidden in the pillars, and the extra layers of walls I could deploy."

"...the first objection that occurs to me is, if entering your world without your permission should be impossible, then if someone is already entering your world without your permission what's to stop them from doing it directly into your bedroom?"

"If someone actually manages to scry inside the tower, you're absolutely right. It'll be easier for people to just aim blind at the world itself, though, in which case they'll wind up somewhere out there and need to come in through the entryway. Also, if I manage to turn the outer reaches of this world into a broadly accessible afterlife, it'll be populated and people might try to make trouble."

She frowns. "You're right, though. I should probably put proper defensive magics up, just to make the tower even harder than the rest of the world to target. I've yet to find any magic on this Earth other than my own, though, and I haven't granted powers to anyone yet apart from some transformations. So there shouldn't even be anyone to try. But assumptions can be dangerous. So yeah, I should do something about that."

She pulls Esme close and kisses her forehead. "Smart point. Thank you. Good, clever girl."

"I try!" Happy snug.

Some more cozy snug for a moment.

And then down they go.

"Last stop before we go back up to the office: the new dungeon."

The basement dungeon is a massive room, with barrel horses, ribbed silicone-topped sawhorses, swings, St. Andrew's crosses, cages, and cabinets full of toys and ropes. Every surface is padded, and there are hardpoints everywhere. In addition to the usual dungeon features, though, are two unique items. On one side of the room is a large four-part table, split down the middle by a pair of deep grooves, with wheels on the bottom to allow them to be rolled apart from each other, and latches to hold them together. Above it is an enormous circular saw on an articulated arm. Across the room from it is the other rarity, an iron maiden.

"Well this all looks fun." She is trying not to indulge in fantasies because when your powerful demonic captor is reading your mind at all times and you're both trying not to get distracted from tasks it is rude to fill your mind with detailed and appealing suggestions for distractions you could try.

"I'm really looking forward to putting you through all of this. Before we go back upstairs, though, lemme show you one neat feature of the iron maiden."

It sashays across the room to the enormous torture device, pushes it closed, and then flips three latches. Then it puts its hands on the seam and swings apart, as though to open it.

What happens instead is that the iron maiden's outer shell opens up, revealing an inner cage the spikes are mounted to, still locked in place deep enough to pierce through the occupant.

"Display mode," it teases with a grin.

"Oooh, clever. Okay, please take me back upstairs before I get too tempted."

How about if it scoops her into its arms and tentacles, giggling madly, and carries her upstairs in a princess carry while peppering her face with kisses?

Then she shall have an armful of happy cozy wigglesome Esme!

A very pleased demon then carries its Esme up to the office floor.

It opens doors with tentacles. One door reveals an electronics workbench, with soldering irons and circuit boards and other supplies. Another reveals an enchanting workshop with crystals and assorted reagents. A third is full of servers, blinking as data flows in and out.

The last, though, leads to a large office. Much of the outer wall is dominated by an enormous parchment display. The center is occupied by a world map, with symbols of various polities, corporations, and other organizations on the map in various colors. A few warning icons are drawn attached to a few cities around the world. A list on the side notes each warning icon attached to a short status description. A list on the opposite side provides a short status description for each organization.

"This thing integrates all the intel sources I have, everything from new bills being proposed in legislative bodies to contract discussions on corporate servers. Generally I try to keep important things moving toward more support and kindness and human rights and such, and this is how I find out when they're going off-track."

"...I know this is silly of me but the first thing I think of when I look at that big map is that I want it to be a globe. I know it's easier to see everything at once this way, but... a globe is how the world is shaped!"

Okay she can't help but giggle. "You're adorable. You're absolutely adorable, and I had — still have, honestly — the same thought. I'm just torn between that and the convenience of seeing everything at once. I suppose one argument for your point is that it's not usually going to be a matter of the seconds lost by waiting for a globe to turn making a difference, and if it is I probably need a different type of warning."

"You can also put the globe in the middle of the space so you can walk around it - and maybe give it a way to raise and lower, or turn on multiple axes, so you can study it from more angles? And the big map could show multiple different views of it, even! I think this is an idea with a lot of potential."