Matoska's stance relaxes slightly and the Shoanti steps forwards slightly to get a better view. "Callie, are you alright?"
"Very well creature, I am willing to hear you out."
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Perhaps, had anyone but Teodor urged for speaking, Callie would have driven the offensive regardless. Indeed, as it was, and despite her considerable injuries, her blood boiled and she would see this creature dead sooner rather than later. Given the creature's initial deceptive approach, her gut screamed not to trust it.
But when the seemingly-oft reckless priest of End Times asked for words rather than swords, she sheathed her blade. If he felt it was time to talk rather than fight, it probably was.
"I'd feel better if either I or this thing steps away from the lever. Or else it will pull it as soon as we fail to tell it what it wants to hear, and take me with it. Then I will be dead."
Korriban scowls at the Fake Vencarlo. When the others seem to go for diplomacy, the young man lowers his blade, but doesn't sheathe it. "I'll listen. But I won't like it. If it f***s with us, I swear..."
“Vencarlo” puts their hands up and steps carefully away from the lever. “By all means. I want only to put you at ease. I do suggest, though, that you all step into this room...Sivit, the darksphinx that stalks these halls, knows of the levers’ use, and she might pull one any minute. You’d not want to meet her alone, I promise you.”
Regardless of whether you do so or not, they sheathe their kukri. “Now, I believe you asked for answers...” With a simple gesture, the stranger passes one hand over their face and wipes away Vencarlo’s features and form. In “his” place (though wearing the same clothes) stands a beautiful Vudrani woman, with hair tied into complex braids and alluring violet eyes. She seems to be just over thirty, and she smiles crookedly at you all. Korriban and Teodor might recognize her, but she introduces herself.
“I am called Meliya Arkona, only sibling to the head of our house. I apologize for deceiving you, but I worried that you would balk at my request for aid against my brother. For many, many years I’ve hated him, but most people confronted with such a conflict, would stop short of fratricide. I, however, have no such compunctions.” Her smile has a knife’s edge to it.
“My brother is powerful, but not invulnerable. He boasted to me of sending you in here to your death, and he is indeed holding Orsini and the seneschal of Castle Korvosa, Neolandus Kalepopolis, in this dungeon. He hopes to use Kalepopolis to replace the Queen with a monarch he can control, perhaps even a member of our extended family. I will happily set these prisoners free with you, but I ask one thing in return: help me slay my brother, and bring my family’s enterprises under my control. What say you?”
Callie pulls a flask of cure moderate wounds out of her haversack and drinks it.
Callie wouldn't put shapeshifting past the Arkonas, let alone backstabbing. The woman certainly seems sincere , particularly, Callie imagines, in her interest in killing Glorio, though their circumstances harbor several questions in her mind, including how she got ahead of them if she spoke to Glorio after they entered the Labyrinth--but that remark would wait.
Instead, Callie takes a different tack, raising an eyebrow at her. "Have you seen what the Queen is capable of? She is the source of the plague among many other things, and many as powerful as your brother have already fallen to her. While I risk our lives by declaring us useless to you -- your best bet to off your brother would be to let him continue his plot. The Queen would no doubt finish him and Kalepopolis without any effort whatsoever on our parts."
"I'm sympathetic that you might be impatient, of course, but your family is will known for playing the long game and better than most. If what you've said is true, it'd be far more fabulous to let Glorio hoist himself onto his own petard then hope a bunch of ragtag adventurers defeat him. After all, our audition against you was rather disappointing."
Callie tilts her head. "How about this? You take us to Orsini, we let you keep Kalepopelis for you to influence instead, then use what he can provide you to turn your brother over to the Queen. I'm sure he'd suit well as the Grey Maidens' next plaything."
"Honestly, I assumed we'd kill him eventually anyway."
"Well, that too, but if he torks off the Queen we may not have to."
Korriban blinks as the newcomer shape shifts. When she says her name, his mind stops. He remembers exactly where he heard her name before. With a scowl, he points his rapier at her (but doesn't attack). "It's you. It's been you this whole time! You gave that snake dagger demon thing to Verrik and it wound up in my possession. You've been spying on us this whole time! Wasn't it, you snake?!"
When Callie offers to leave Kalepopelis behind while they get Vencarlo, Korriban snarls. "Like hell! I'm getting both of them out of here! I'm not leaving the Seneschal with the Arkonas! Let alone her! Besides, how do you know she won't just try to kill us when we do her dirty work?!"
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Matoska eyes Korriban warily, but when the young man doesn't immediately move to attack he shifts his full attention back to Meliya. "You said your brother boasted of our impending demise to you? Yet you found your way here and adopted your disguise to await us...that tells me you have shortcuts in and out. I'm curious to know more about that."
He gestures to Callie. "But I share my companion's question: why do you feel such urgency to dispose of your brother now? The Queen is by all accounts a very dangerous enemy, what does Glorio have planned that you believe he might succeed?"
Meliya laughs at Korriban. “Yes, Korriban dear, that little fiend was my spy. I told you I was not without my own abilities...if it helps at all, you weren’t the original target of the stupid thing. That was Verik Vancaskerkin, back when I still thought it might be useful to have a Korvosan Guard under my thumb. But when you and your friends trounced him, well...I thought you might prove a more interesting group to watch. And I was certainly right!”
Turning to the rest of you, she says, “You’re not wrong that Queen Ileosa is powerful—and therein lies my problem. Glorio clearly knows this, or has realized that something is amiss, because he’s in a holding pattern. He hasn’t allowed me to interview Kalepopolis alone, but I think the seneschal knows something about the Queen that’s given my brother pause. If I don’t act now, I’m afraid my brother may back down and choose to watch and wait, or even leave Korvosa entirely. And I’ve grown rather attached to the place.
“But truth be told, my biggest opportunity here is you. Despite getting in over your head with me, you’re all quite capable—and what’s more, attacking Glorio we’ll be forewarned and forearmed. To be clear, I’m not asking you to kill him for me—I want you to kill him with me. Together, we stand a decent chance. After that, I’ll be too busy securing control of my empire for me to bother with the Queen or Kalepopolis, so as far as I’m concerned you can have him. As for getting out of here, I teleported in using a scroll, but I know the layout well. I can get us out again. The only question is where Sivit has gotten to. The darksphinx is loyal only to my brother, and she’ll kill me in a heartbeat if she can.”
She looks around at you all. “So? What say you?”
"Sivit? I thought it was a fiend named Bahor you wanted us to slay?"
"I'm also confused about what your problem with Glorio is. Is it that he's plotting to depose the Queen or that he isn't? Do you need some time to get your stories straight? I'm sure the complexities of a typical Arkonan plot takes some time to manage. We could go exploring for a bit and meet you later."
While chatting, Callie goes ahead and casts cure light wounds on herself.
Meliya scowls in annoyance. “Are all of you as slow as she is? Well, let me lay it out plainly.” She clears her throat and speaks slowly, as though to a small child. “I have hated Glorio for years. For reasons many and personal. This is not a response to his actions; merely an opportunity. I don’t care for the Queen, but I thought you might have some concern about my brother becoming puppet ruler of your city, and be interested in stopping him. But I’m worried because I can tell he wanted to act and hasn’t yet—that means he’s concerned, even scared. If he is, he may withdraw and become wary. If he does that, it’s harder for me to do what I want—namely to kill him. Which, I point out again, would do you the favor of keeping him from becoming the shadow ruler of your home!”
She folds her arms. “As for Glorio and Bahor...they’re the same person. I apologize for the confusion—you caught me off-guard earlier, when you attacked. As you may know, our family made their fortunes in Vudra, and ever since we’ve had a tradition of personal, family names in Vudrani. My brother’s is Bahor. But we go by Taldan names in Korvosa to put people at ease. Sivit is the darksphinx in this labyrinth.”
Lantressa was quite startled by the chain of events and information that they received. It seemed that this Vencarlo was actually a woman and a shapeshifter and even more that implied that their "employer" was too. Their method was strange as well, not the usual magic she thought, it wouldn't last that long, but more of a true change. She knew there were beings that could do this but she didn't know much or anything really beyond that.
Lantressa noticed the ups and downs of the conversation and sensed that it might be going a different way than Meliya intended. Lantressa found no particular deceit in what the woman wanted, and she was more than a little attractive which tickled her darker nature as much as the task that was asked of them. While committing fratricide seemed extreme she thought that at the least letting the two weaken each other in the fighting would make the survivor easier to deal with if it came to that.
Lantressa gave the woman a curious look and said, "Obviously you are not what you appear, that shape change was far too smooth. You ask us to trust you about what you want but still could be hiding who or what you truly are." Lantressa slipped through the group to stand before Meliya and said, "Why don't you show us the real, as a sign of goodwill?" She reached out with one hand, palm up and waited to see what would happen next.
Callie tilts her head toward the hotheaded thief. "Maybe she hasn't been spying on us after all, Korriban. If she had, she would know anyone trying to depose the Queen is, if not a friend, certainly a mutually convenient ally of ours. After all, any well informed soul--especially one privy to the things we've discovered--who loves Korvosa knows Ileosa means its utter destruction. When Ileosa's done, there will be nothing left of Korvosa for the Arkonas to profit from, no matter who is in charge."
She turns back to Meliya. "So, in addition to fulfilling our erstwhile sorceress's reasonable request, mind telling us how YOU can help us stop the Queen? Then we'll consider helping you against Glorio or whatever his name is." Callie wonders why, when particularly disguised as Vencarlo, she would have used the name 'Bahor,' but she decides to leave that be. "Otherwise, everything you've told us has, much to my very surprise and extreme disappointment, let us know that your brother is a much more useful person to keep alive than end. He is decidedly the lesser of two evils--compared to Ileosa, of course."
She also casts another cure light wounds spell upon herself.
"We all want the same thing, and are stronger together. Don't mind the boy, he speaks without thinking."
Korriban scowls as Meliya laughs at him. He listens to everyone talk before turning to Callie. "She said that she has been watching us. If she wanted our help, she should have gotten in contact with us." He frowns at Teodor's statement. "Don't talk down to me. I know what I'm talking about." Turning to Meliya, he says, "I agree with Lantressa and Blue. You really haven't told us how you can help us stop Ileosa. Also, I can tell that you are either lying or exaggerating when you said that you're attached to Korvosa. That really doesn't inspire much reassurance in me. How do we know that when this whole mess is over and Ileosa's gone, you won't try and do the same thing as Bahor? I also want to see what you look like. Consider it a sign of trust. Otherwise, it's going to be hard for me to believe you're really on our side."
Meliya frowns, looking back and forth between you all. "Should I...? Perhaps. Perhaps it will convince you at last that his intentions are not good. Perhaps..." She smiles suddenly, and viciously. "Very well. Don't claim later I didn't try to do this in a more friendly way."
Her features begin to ripple and change, her nose lengthening and merging with her mouth as reddish fur begins to sprout from her face. Her hands twist too, the fingers inverting themselves with a series of sickening cracks until they're curled backwards, away from her palm. In a few blinks of an eye, the figure standing before you is a fox-headed humanoid with backward-facing hands.
"So now you know our family's secret," she says, sounding smug. "Among the first Korvosans in decades to learn it...though not the only ones. I am a being known as a rakshasa. So is Glorio, and so are our closest servants. We are far superior in cunning, in combat, and in magic than mortal fools like yourselves. So, tell me now: will you join with me and slay my brother? If not, I'll happily leave you all to die in this labyrinth."
Matoska takes an involuntary half-step back, invoking guardian spirits in his native tongue and half-dropping into a fighting stance before catching himself.
"I know of your kind, rakshasa," he whispers. "Spirits of deception and hedonism, who defy the gods and possess the bodies of mortal babes at birth. If...if we agree to this alliance, how do we know you will not simply double-cross us to keep your secret? What assurances do we have against betrayal?"
Lantressa was surprised at what it turned out that Meliya actually was. She had thought the woman was attractive before but this new form was maybe more so. Or it could just be that Lantressa was more than a bit twisted in her tastes due to her dark side. Still she had requested this and it went a long way to make her willing to change sides.
Lantressa gave the foxy woman a smile as she looked the rakshasa over and said, "My my, my, aren't you the lovely one Meliya?" Shaking her head slightly to gather her wits at this turn of events and shove down her dark side Lantressa said, "While what you are should mean I trust you less the fact you were willing to show us this makes me willing to accept your offer if the others agree." She cocked her head to one side, "Of course my friend," she gestured at Matoska, "brings up a good point, there must be some trust you won't turn on us when this is over with and you do have ample reason not to let us get away." She considered a moment and then said, "Is there anything you would swear on, that would be binding to you, to relax their," she gestured to her companions, "concerns?"
Teodor shrugs. "I'm not concerned."
Seeing Meliya turn into a fox woman, Korriban takes a full step back in surprise. "Whoa!" A flash of insight goes through his brain. He understands what they're dealing with. Matoska tells everyone what she is. Frowning, he adds. "Yeah. And rakshasas are known for corrupting societies. Not really reassuring me there. Despite looking so fluffy." He keeps an eye on her and watches her body language, to make sure she's on the up-and-up.
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"LORD, LET ME NOT END THIS BOY BUT TEACH! ...Korriban, what alternate strategies do you propose? It doesn't matter who likes whom. It matters we get the job done. Don't lose sight of that. Your, my, anyone's pride is nothing compared to the good of the people."
Korriban looks at Teodor. "I don't have any other ideas! And I know that we have a job to do! It just doesn't sit right with me. Plus, we don't know what kind of consequences this may have." He turns back to Meliya. "No offense."
"This is the first friendly thing you've done," Callie comments, remarking upon Meliya's utterance before she changed shape. "Thank you."
She had more questions. She still didn't see, now more than ever, what the woman (fiend) really wanted from them, when she had an army of lovers she could turn against Glorio, and the party was already in over their heads with the city's politics and likely to just draw unwanted attention to Meliya if they got involved. She also still wanted to know what Meliya's position was with regards to Ileosa.
But with the flurry of activity, and Lantressa's request, she held her tongue for the moment.
The rakshasa laughs cruelly. "Something I could swear on? No, pitspawn; nothing I could say would or should give you more reason to believe a word I say to you. If your friends know what I am they know of my lineage. Among my people it is held as a truth that the first of our kind chose exile, to walk among you mortal fools and use you as prey rather than to serve the whims of a god who thought themselves above us." She bares now-canine fangs. "So what do you think I could swear by that would reassure you?"
She draws a slender wand from her belt. "Choose now, and be done. I'll not slay you - perhaps you'll still have the chance to kill Bahor for me. But the longer we talk here, the likelier it is that he'll listen to us through the ring he gave you and know we're coming. So if you'll not ally with me now, I'll take my leave."
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"Well, I'm with you. Easy decison."
When Maliya mentions Bahor listening through the ring Matoska's eyes snaps over to Lantressa's hand and he gives the tiefling a significant glance. Turning back to the rakshasa, he sighs. "We're not here to pick a fight with the Arkonas, the Queen is our true enemy. But if an alliance with you will allow us to rescue Orsini...then I accept."
Korriban scowls at Meliya as she backs them into a corner. Letting out a deep sigh, Korriban lowers his rapier. "Fine."
Lantressa looked down at the ring as it was mentioned and sighed in annoyance. She really liked the ring but it seemed everyone was saying the same thing. With a sigh she slipped it off, wrapped it tightly in some cloth, and dropped it into her pack. "There, if he is trying to watch us through it all he'll see now is the inside of the cloth and the backpack and it should muffle sounds so he can't hear much."
Lantressa looked back to Meliya, "Your words make sense and the fact that you have both revealed your true self and told us the unblemished truth about whether we could trust anything you say as far as guarantees of not turning against us makes me willing to help you. It seems you have as much to lose as we do if you turn on us, at least while your brother lives. I'm in agreement that we should help you."
Callie stares at the others incredulously for a moment, then shakes her head. "I've gone through a lot in my life to avoid entanglements like this. But there's too much at stake to keep fighting. If they agree," she waves to the rest of the party, "I'll go along with it, but the deal with you ends the moment Glorio is dead, or the moment you harm one of us or our allies, whichever comes first. I know you have scores of lovers, of allies, Meliya, and you don't need us for jack s*@* save that our presence here is convenient. Likewise, we don't need jack s~!% from you save that right now you're between us and what we need. When those circumstances end, I understand exactly what our relationship will be and look forward to the rematch."
The rakshasa smiles and, in a rippling blink, transforms back into Meliya Arkona (the human). "Excellent," she says, clapping her hands lightly. "Now, first things first. Shall we exit this vile maze? Afterward, will you want to rest and prepare for our attack on my brother, or shall we head upstairs immediately?"
"First thing first is Orsini. Non-negotiable."
"Agreed."
”Hear here.”
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Meliya's smile thins slightly. "Very well. I think that Sivit has him in her chambers...getting him free won't be as much of a problem as getting him out past her. But follow me, and we'll get there in due course..."
Korriban nods and waits for Meliya to take the lead, keeping on his guard.
Callie follows along, muttering under her breath that she would far rather would have just gotten lost in the Labyrinth than deal with this monster they've "befriended."
Meliya smiles and, making sure everyone's braced themselves, throws the lever. The dungeon grinds and the walls rumble once more, turning you all about in a different rotational direction than before. When you come to rest, Meliya leads you into the newly opened room, the walls of which are decorated in a complex mural. The mural shows scenes of a hot, steamy jungle brimming with hungry life. Predators of every sort stalk and maim and feed on dozens of hapless people. In the canopy above, monkeys, snakes, and birds seem to chatter and mock the victims below.
Although the hallway seems to end in a niche leading to two facing doors (clearly not part of the rotating dungeon, given the way the walls line up), Meliya stops short of that niche. "Now to see if Sivit has access to a lever...come on, you cursed fiend..."
After several minutes of waiting, Meliya grits her teeth. "Damn. Either she's far from a lever, or she's already tracking us and knows what I want to do." She turns to face the rest of you. "Here's the challenge: I know you don't trust me. I can get you to your friend Orsini quickly if you like - but I don't know that you'll believe me, so if you refuse, I understand. When this room is rotated again, that entrance" - she points toward the one currently facing the two doors - "will be opening into a room with four spheres that teleport the user to different places within the Labyrinth. But to rotate the room..." she points back the way you came, "...someone will have to throw that lever, and be left behind in that room. Now, I'm willing to have it be me if you trust me enough to try the teleportation. But if you don't...we should all go back into that room and rotate it at least once or twice more. We can still make our way there, just more slowly."
She folds her arms. "So? The fast route that relies on you trusting me? Or the slower route?"
Callie shrugs. "If she really needs us like she says, then she's not going to get us lost in the Labyrinth now. On the other hand," she tilts her head toward Meliya, "You'd probably be helpful dealing with this Sivit." She turns back toward the others. "I'll go by what the majority of you prefer."
"If this Sivit is as dangerous as you say, it would be foolish to split up. We should remain together, even if it costs us some time."
Korriban nods. ”Yeah. We should stick together. I don’t think anyone wants to take on this Sivit alone.” He looks at Meliya. ”By the way, what is Sivit, anyway? A dragon? A rakshasa like you?”
Lantressa considered Meliya's suggestion and then nodded her agreement with the others. "I agree, we'd best take longer and stay together. If this Sivit ambushes any one of us it will go very badly."
"The phrase 'dark sphinx' has been used, Korriban, but I'm not certain what that means either. What are Sivit's capabilities?" This latter question is directed to Meliya.
As the group starts to execute the new plan, Matoska hangs back a moment near Callie.
"I recognize that I preach to the converted, but I'd like your help watching the rakshasa," he whispers to her. "You've greater knowledge of magic than I, if she seems to be holding back or conserving her resources that may be the only forewarning of treachery that we get. I've got her scent now, but maybe she can change that too. Best not to let her out of our sight, for even an instant."
Callie gives Matoska a brief, subtle nod.
"I'm fine whatever we do. I haven't killed anything in too long."