Purpose

I received a question, or perhaps more of a thought, on my Tumblr blog:

“What are the original purposes for Succubi/Incubi being among us? What is their mission for us and for their own evolution? Now do not get me wrong. I love them all, it’s just that no one seems to ask.”

I think it is an interesting question and I have thoughts about that … because … there is always a …

Purpose
By TeraS

One of the most basic questions that can be asked is … “why?” That is, of course a very broad question, and the answers can be as difficult to define as the question itself. That does not mean, however, that the question shouldn’t be asked, or answered.

To be clear, not everything—or everyone, for that matter—has all of the answers … well, with the possible exception of Tera and her Eternal … but the thing of that is: one cannot give the answer if the question isn’t asked. From that realization comes the explanation of why it is that Tera always, in all ways, makes time when someone in the Realm poses a question to her.

“Tera? Umm … Why are we?”

The question was asked by a purple-tailed succubi who was serving Tera a cup of tea at one of the Realm’s many, many tea shops. While, in the background, two black-tails talked loudly over their pie, Tera thought about the question for a moment. She smiled: “That sounds like how I would ask a question. Have you been taking lessons from me?”

Sybil, the purple-tail, replied with a faint smile: “Uh … a little? Kind of cute, you know.”

Tera picked up her tea cup: “Yes, you are. Come and sit with me for a bit. I’m sure that will not be a problem.”

Sybil was going to reply that she was working and needed to look after the other tables, but a look from Ester, the orange-tail that was serving customers with her that day made her change her mind and sit down with Tera.

The look was: “Dummy, she’s the Queen. Sit the hell down.”

After Sybil had done so, Tera regarded her as she traced a fingertip around the rim of her cup: “You ask “why?” My first answer is … ‘Why not?’”

Sybil sighed a bit. She was well aware of Tera’s mannerisms, she had been one of the Succubi for just over two millennia, and so she wasn’t all that surprised when Tera turned the question on her.

“Tera, please … I know you love to do this, but, please, could you just answer the question?”

“It is a bit difficult when you aren’t exactly sure of what the question is. Reminds me a lot of how the answer to the meaning of life is forty-two. We have an answer, but not the question.”

Sybil smirked: “Okay. What’s the question if the answer is ‘forty-two?’”

Tera lifted her tea cup to her lips and replied just before taking a sip: “How many licks does it take to make Sybil …”

Sybil’s eyes got really big and she waved her hands at Tera: “No! Stop!”, and at the same time she looked in the direction of Ester, who was trying not to be obvious in overhearing the conversation.

That question was one that Sybil did not want Ester to know. She’d been on the receiving end of many of Ester’s licks and did not, ever, want Ester to know what forty-two licks would do … probably. She’d have to think about that again.

Tera sipped at her tea, her tail swisching behind her slowly: “You asked. I was going to answer. That is what you wanted, is it not?”

Sybil shook her head and then sighed: “Tera, you know full well it isn’t.”

Tera shrugged and continued to enjoy her tea, occasionally looking at the two nearby incubi who kept looking in the direction of Ester, all while smiling to herself.

After a bit of time, Sybil asked: “Why are we not … well …”—she did finger quotes in a very Tera-like way—“Evil?”

Tera put her teacup down and then replied: “Evil is, to be blunt, boring. To be so is to act in a way that everyone expects you to. It’s boring to do the same things over and over again simply because you are …”—this time it was Tera who was doing the finger quotes—“Evil.”

“Okay, but that doesn’t explain the why.”

“The why isn’t all that complicated. Love is better for us. Lust is, as well. Passion, too. All of the positive things that we can do, can share, can be, makes us better and those that accept us better, as well.”

Tera pointed a finger in the direction of the two incubi: “In another place, another world, they would be seen as evil, corrupt, or worse. The same is true of every one of us. There are some places where we go and find that others, similar to us, have done much evil, and we have to deal with that.”

“So, why? If things are so stacked against us, what’s the point?”

Tera wiggled that finger: “My usual answer is, ‘Just ‘cause.’ But I’ll do better than that. The point is that we can change things. We can do things that others cannot. We can make dreams.”

“Sounds like a business card.”

Tera had the oddest smile as she replied: “Yes, actually it is. But you wouldn’t be aware of that; you’ve never been outside of the Realm since you came to be. We’ll have to do something about that sometime.”

Tera looked at the two incubi and saw that they were surrounding Ester and she was becoming a bit flustered. Turning to Sybil, she commented: “But, for the moment, your girlfriend has her hands full with two horny incubi, and I think you had better go help her.”

Seeing that Tera was right, Sybil excused herself and went over to “help” Ester with the problem. At the time, Sybil didn’t think anything of what Tera had said, but, the next morning, she found a note by her bed that read: “Sybil, would you and Ester please see me?”

Sybil considered the tangle of limbs, tails and sheets around her and sighed: “Me and my big mouth.” The muffled answer from Ester left her with a blush that was still on her cheeks when the two of them finally arrived at the Realm Castle, where Tera was waiting, standing just outside of the main doors.

Looking at them with a knowing smile, Tera asked: “So … had a nice time, I hope?”

That blush of Sybil’s turned contagious as Ester blushed as badly as she did. Then Sybil asked, in a very embarrassed tone: “Um. Why did you ask us here, Tera?”

“I have an answer to your question of ‘why.’”

The confused look that Sybil had was nothing compared to that of Ester, who had no idea what was going on.

“Okay. But why are we here?”

Tera’s tail pointed in Sybil’s direction: “And there is the question, is it not? Why are we here, exactly?”

In reaction to Tera’s answer, both Sybil and Ester began rubbing their temples as their migraines started. However, Tera simply smiled in response and pressed onwards. “If we were anything other than who and what we are, none of what happened to you at the cafe and last night would have. There would have been no passion, no love, no need, no desire. None of these things would have been part of you.”

Tera looked at the Realm beyond where they stood: “None of what is would have been. All of this would be nothing.”

She turned to them once again: “Why we are here, why we exist, is because we do. Why is not the real question. How is the better one. How is it that beings like us can exist? How is it that we can do what we can? How does it happen that beings like us, that look to some to be evil, are not?”

Ester, a white-tail, answered: “Because we made a choice?”

Tera smiled: “Exactly. We chose to be. We decided that this, all of this, was what we wanted to be.”

Sybil was still rubbing her temples: “Migraine … getting worse.”

Ester had a slightly mischievous smile: “We’ll take care of that soon. I think forty-two licks will do it.”

Sybil froze and then rubbed her eyes: “Oh, geez.”

Tera giggled lightly: “It is a nice thing to have problems like that, isn’t it? To be able to be different, to feel something that others cannot … to have a purpose?”

Sybil looked at Tera: “A purpose?”

Tera ticked off her fingers in turn as she replied: “To give, to receive, to share, to belong.”

Sybil just blinked at Tera’s answer, so the Queen continued: “To have a purpose, to be able to make that choice on your own, to find your way; that’s why and who we are. We exist because we have a purpose. It’s simply to be. That’s all. Everything else is optional.”

Ester tapped Sybil on the shoulder: “If you haven’t figured it out yet, the answer is that it doesn’t matter why. It matters that we do the best we can and be all that we can be.”

Tera winked and then waved at them: “And that’s the answer to the question … or at least the one for today. There will be more, there always is more. Now go on. You have better things to do than be here.”

Tera watched them leave, smiling knowingly and waiting patiently. Just after the pair of succubi had left her sight, she felt a familiar and beloved presence at her side.

“You know you didn’t answer her question.”

Tera looked at her Eternal and batted her eyes: “Didn’t I?”

Keith chuckled: “No. You didn’t. You danced around it really well, confused them to no end, but you didn’t answer it.”

Tera kissed him as she hugged him tightly: “They’ll figure it out soon enough. How does it help if I reveal to them something that they need to find on their own?”

Keith kissed Tera on her horns: “Right. I forgot how much you like riddles.”

“Oh I do. But there’s one riddle that I know the answer to: the one that gives me purpose.” She looked into his eyes, smiled knowingly, and took his hand in her own.

As they walked off down the path together, Keith replied: “The best one of all.”