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”Oh,” Lalazrue lets out, leaning back into the sofa she starts tapping her chin. ”That’s a good question, I wonder what all is obscured here... let’s see,”
Getting to her feet she begins to pace as she studies the remaining women. ”You,” she starts with Yelenn, ”Your outfit is a mix of of casual and practical, not the garb of a soldier, nor do you have the physique of a savage. You carry no side armaments but keep both your hands free, so rather than some foppish duelist you have some extra tricks up your sleeve. An assassin with hidden daggers? No, magic to aid your fencing if I had to guess.”
She then turns to Yasmin. ”This one’s outfit is even more impractical. I like it by the way. But with that bow she’s clever enough to stay away from any tooth or blade that wants to gouge that delightful flesh. At least when outside. Do you have any magic as well? Even without you certainly have experience with getting in over your head, and yet you stand, shaken but resolute.”
Finally she comes to Nalada. ”With your skittishness here and lack of anything aside from your physical assets lead me to guess you’re simply a scholar with too much theological or planar academics on your brain. Care for an interview?” she finishes with her hands open and a pleasant smile on her face.
”But!” she says sitting back down, ”I know you’re all on edge and wandering around in a place that you know absolutely nothing about. That’s quite dangerous. Treasure hunters? Adventures? No, just three delicious little lambs that wandered far from home, and have places they much rather be.”
"You speak as if you know something about this place," says Yasmin, looking a bit uncomfortable. "We are not exactly helpless. And we mean to know more about this house and the lands around it, and the creatures thereupon. Help or hinder, your choice, and that will determine how we interact with you. I would imagine that you could spend a lot of time very lonely if we decide that you aren't someone we want to interact with."
Lalazrue smirks when Yasmin protests being helpless. "And you would be so cruel, like the barbs of your arrow when I eagerly extend my palm awaiting yours in turn."
Reaching out she feels the tip of one of the horns growing from her back. "Luckily I enjoy a good spar. I am more than happy to offer whatever wisdom you may seek, provided it doesn't break any confidentiality with Gio or any of my other clients. A generous devil I am not though, for I wish to continue to interact with you all, to continue to let the words from lips linger on your ears, your mind, you chest, my pretty little lambs."
"I will even commit myself to seeking out any information you may need, for a price." she adds, her voice muddying from a purr into a hiss as she smiles hungrily at the Sha'ir.
"And therein lies the greatest danger I think, what price would we be willing to pay to gain the information we want?" Yelenn comments.
"Quite so," says Yasmin, crossing her arms self-consciously. "What's the price?"
The devil’s smile loses it hunger as it takes back on an affectation of friendliness. ”That entirely depends on what you ask, I’m open to negotiations of course.” she says while holding her hands out, palms up.
Yasmin glances at her traveling companions, then says, "Why was this place made the way it is? I mean, the town outside - it's filled with creatures that certainly aren't human but think and act like they are, and this house is somehow connected to some kind of extradimensional prison. What's the reasoning behind this?"
The Devil's eyes drift up and her head tilts from side to side in thought."Mhm hmm hmm, dancing around confidentiality" she says in sing-song, "... Gio had this building intentionally constructed here as a retreat to work from. And well, you already know what's underneath us so I don't have to say anything there."
At that point Nalada crouches on the stairs to watch the Fiend, who happily waves her fingers at the drow in greeting.
"He also wasn't big on entertaining unscheduled guests. Or the invited ones for that matter" she continues with an annoyed click of her tongue. "He had mentioned one of his workers had gone to the town one day but never came back. Other than that he was content that no one from there ever came snooping or tried to hawk something at his doorstep."
"Do you know how long ago that was....in the way mortals perceive time?" Yelenn asks.
”Hmm, good question. Let me check with my agenda. We’re on Taryn, right...” she murmurs as she quickly looks over one of the parchments hanging from her horn, the same one she had been reading when the group first came upon her, before producing a small leather book from somewhere. Quickly flipping through the pages she lets out another hum. ”Two hundred and fifty-two years going off the most standard calendar here.”
"So it is entirely possible that he is long since dead and gone, or moved on to something else." the witchblade ventures.
"Not how this works!" Lalazrue replies with a wide grin before tapping the parchment. "These are rather quite binding, infernal crimson tape. If he had perished I'd be sitting prettier with his soul, no effort on my part."
Subduing her smile she adds "If he had, somehow, found a way out of it the contract's sudden abeyance would alert me. I know you mortals like your fables and bed time stories about outsmarting the devil, but they're just that, bed time stories for children. If you wanna gamble, you damn well should realize what you're betting, because the house keeps this buy-in."
Nodding firmly Mylyna says, "If you say so." Hearing Nalada's words caught Mylyna's attention and she realized this probably wasn't a very smart thing to be doing. Having realized that she didn't hesitate to attempt to scoop Wallace up and slither out of the circle and down the stairs with him.
"Is she a bad lady?" Wallace asks the Lamae holding him as they wait for the others.
Yasmin hesitates momentarily, then says, "Well... she seems to be... dangerous. She probably won't try to hurt us physically unless we do something to her... but if we aren't careful she might take advantage of us, or try to trick us into doing something that we don't want to do."
"But we won't know for certain until we know her better."
"Should... we invite her for dinner?" Wallace thinks aloud after Yasmin brings up getting to know her better.
"I... hmm, I would want to discuss that with Yelenn and Mylyna first. She might not eat the kinds of things we eat, though of course we won't know unless we ask her."
Mylyna just shrugged in answer to Wallace's question and said, "I don't know, she seemed nice enough." The lamae drooped slightly as she said, "But what do I know I'm just a dumb plaything for people to have their way with." Her tone was rather sad as she spoke, like she realized what her place in life was and though she might try to ignore it knew she could never escape it.
"Mylyna! That's not true," says Yasmin. "I'm just cautious around extraplanar creatures like that... they often have agendas, or so I've read, and there are only a few of us here and I am wary about strangers. We can't risk getting into much trouble! But it would be better to make friends than enemies."
Wallace wiggles around in Mylyna's arms in order to give her a hug. "You're a brave and awesome adventurer like Yasmin and Yelenn."
"I agree," says Yasmin with a soft smile, reaching up to rustle Wallace's hair. "You have many talents in addition to your sensual and seductive side."
Wallace beams at the affection, showing a smile to Yasmin then to Mylyna in hopes it spread.
"So what do you think, Mylyna? Do we invite a devil to dinner?" Yasmin asks the lamia.
"Understood." Yelenn says in a non-committal tone.
Turning and heading back downstairs with Nalada, she hears the exchange. "You definitely do Mylyna, and we consider you just as important as anyone else in this group."
”Ta-at for now, lovelies.” Lalazrue says as she waves them off, even blowing a kiss at the scowling Drow.
Meeting back up with the others Nalada opens an eye. ”Thou arst a most wondrous and kind soul Mylyna, there’s much more to you than simply pretty scales.”
Mylyna seemed a little happier after all the praise but she didn't outright agree they were right. Deep down she knew what she was meant for, what her entire subspecies were bred for, and no amount of being told otherwise was likely to change that.
As the conversation shifted to whether they should invite the devil to dinner Mylyna was startled at the idea. She'd realized that the others were extremely nervous of being around her at the least, and that it was likely for good reason, but she did find the devil kind of funny. "It's probably lonely up there all alone all the time so she'd probably like to come down to dinner but...do devils even eat?"
"I honestly don't know," says Yasmin. "That's a good question. But if she's been... stuck... there for years, then she probably doesn't need food in the same way that we do. Still, it might be a good way to at least know more about our... neighbor? Roommate?"
"Wh-who are you?" stammers Yasmin. "How long have you been in this house?"
The crimson woman’s yellow eyes noticeably widen in interest when Yasmin steps out. ”You may call me Lalazrue, but I prefer Lala. And what or who can I call you?” she coos back but then continues before the Sha’ir can respond. ”Not long, an hour or two? Or three? I was alerted to the door opening so I thought Gio had returned but it was just this little puddle of fluff snooping around.” she says while indicating the pup.
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"Does anyone have a strong objection to having her share a meal with us?" Yelen asks, considering the points brought up.
”Yes,” Nalada chimes in. ”But I have feeling I’d be outvoted there so as long as it’s just used as a learning experience and no one signs anything it shouldn’t be too horrible...”
Yasmin thinks about this for a bit, frowning as she does so.
"I don't like it. I mean, we need more information. We have to figure out how we can survive here - I presume the food in the cooling-box won't last forever. We need to make sure we never accidentally do something that causes the creatures outside to become hostile."
"On the flip side, legends are replete with stories of people who thought they were going to get something out of a devil, who thought they were clever enough to avoid its entanglements and that they might trick it into giving something up, but in the end turned out not to be as clever as they thought."
"I think it's a risk. I just don't know yet if it's a risk that we need to take because of our circumstances."
"Honestly, while I do have my academic curiosity, it's gotten me into more than enough trouble in the past that I can agree that certain risks aren't worth it." Yelenn says after some thought.
Nalada arches an amused brow after Yelenn gives her thoughts after vaguely divulging some history on herself, but doesn’t otherwise comment on it.
Somewhere inbetwixt and inbetween
After days of walking through the forest she once called home the young Druidess managed to maneuver the correct paths and steps to free herself from the tree line, emerging into a field.
It was barren, save for a decorated carriage and horse stationed off a ways from the trees, morning light from a grey sky slowly illuminating the scene.
Far past she saw a lake with a manor overlooking it.
Whew. Can't remember the last time I walked so far.
The green-haired girl brushes off some dust from the hem of her modest earthen-brown robes. A strong wind blows through her hair and almost knocks her off her feet. She lets out a "Whoa!" and staggers.
Behind her, a grey-furred wolf darts forward to help her back to her feet. She smiles and gives the canine a pat on the head. "Thanks, boy. My, we've gone far, haven't we?"
The wolf lets out a little growl and looks over at the nearby carriage. His eyes are drawn to the horse, his ears perking up and twitching.
"Maybe we should ask for directions?" Neilina starts to walk over to the horse on the carriage, tapping on the length of birch wood in her pocket. Her wolf follows behind her.
The horse’s ears twitch in semi-awareness of the girl and the growl.
Neilina abruptly freezes. Oh my--that poor horse--those cataracts--wait, did something just move in that carriage?
"...hello?" The druid asks, seemingly directing her question towards the horse.
The wolf's ears furl back and he moves to put himself between Neilina and the carriage.
As the Druid greets the horse it turns his head toward her voice and snorts.
”Hello?” a gravely voice echoes from inside the carriage.
Neilina blinks and takes a tentative step towards the carriage, coming up next to her wolf.
Finally, someone else to talk to!
"Yes, hello. I've never come down this way before--could you tell me where I am?" She looks around, trying to get a feel for the carriage...
Her wolf's hackles start to raise, but he doesn't start growling.
”Never come this way?” the voice repeats before chuckling. ”You say that like you’ve been here awhile, and yet you’re still confused?”
The green-haired druid scoffs a bit. "Of COURSE I'm not confused. Just a bit turned around, is all. Bein' in the woods for a while will do that to ya."
"Say, who owns that big fancy house 'cross the lake there?"
There is a delay before the gravelly and male voice responds, which the owner of the voice does so by unlatching one of the windows and peering out, barely revealing a hood over a layer of bandages and scarves. "You may not be lost, but what else would you call coming out of a row of trees that weren't there yesterday?" he simply asks.
"And the manor on the cliff? Dunno, been trying to work up the nerve to investigate it myself." he adds.
The pale horse whinnies peacefully, not bothered in the slightest by the newcomers.
Wasn't there yesterday? Reckon that means the Green Provider's magic is still working.
Neilina glances back at the treeline she just emerged from, looking for the telltale signs of Her magic.
"Aye, that's a bit odd, I'll admit." The druid shrugs and turns back to the carriage-man.
"You've been tryin' ta work up the nerve to go up there yourself, eh?" She grins and pats her wolf on his head. The animal's ears perk up and he sits down. "What do ya reckon's up there ta be scared of?"
It might be the place I need to go...
Neilina doesn't notice anything familiar within the trees. Or the trees themselves. Was that really the forest she just came out of?
"Death. Monsters. Death. Nightmares. Death. Traps. Death. Relatives. Death. Plague. Death. Madness. Not-Death." he promptly responds.
"Ah."
Sounds like my bailiwick, then.
Neilina shrugs. "Doesn't sound too much different from home, really."
"If you're goin' up that way, ya reckon you'd like some company?"
”... sure?” the man responds. ”Just a head’s up, I’ve caught a few nasty things here, so best keep your distance if you do, and stay upwind.”