Stories of my brain

Adaly tries to activate the tattoo Es-Grenalieth gave her, giving her sister a heads-up but Ilhoketh grabs her wrist “Let’s leave it a surprise, shall we…” Adaly swallows but nods. A few servants are running around preparing a lunch buffet for the four of them, before they are left alone again.

“So, where did your friends go?” Ilhoketh asks while filling a plate of food. Adaly grabs an apple and sits down on the throne. Throwing her legs on the armrest, sitting a bit nonchalant.

Amara fills her plate and stays close to Adaly, which Adaly is very grateful for. She takes a bite out of her apple before answering “Protecting the king and his family…. You know how paladins are, always trying to do the right thing.” She rolls her eyes trying to appear as relaxed as she can in the situation.

Ilhoketh laughs “Oh sweet baby girl, why are they working with you then?” Adaly sits straight and does her best puppy eyes “Because I am such a good person” but she herself cannot even keep a straight face. She starts laughing and once more throws her legs on one armrest while her back and elbow relax on the other one. “They are good at devils slaying, and I am good at devil slaying, perfect match. These ones specifically hired me to kill a demon in the north. But when Es-Grenalieth harmed one of them… well let’s just say they are vengeful” Adaly says with a wicked smile.

Ilhoketh laughs while she finishes her apple. She is not hungry but not eating anything would have been a death giveaway to him how she is feeling. Her entire instinct is telling her to run, but that is a sure way of getting a bunch of people killed, and endangering her mission, she needs to sit this one out.

Ilhoketh goes to sit next to her, eating his lunch while the woman who summoned him stays a bit at a distance. “Now I must say I was surprised by your little trick in contacting me… I rather you didn’t do that again. But I am here now, you can ask me anything.” Ilhoketh says while he smiles at her.

Adaly considers this, she grabs a second apple, plays with it. “The downside now of course is that you can lie… and no offense father, I don’t trust you. But sure, let me ask this, did you send Es-Vahelieth to kill me?” he looks a bit grumpy at her “That was something he decided on his own. I told him to capture you, preferably alive. He was of course allowed to kill you, but not even to try to capture you alive. That was a mistake on his part.”

She comes a bit closer to him “That was a risky move from him…. I by that time already had some safeguards in place… I would have truly been lost if he succeeded” Adaly seductively shows her hand, the mark of Grishbalan.

She smiles broadly lowering her hand, but he once more grabs her wrist, looking at the markings. Stroking it with his other hand, it makes her uncomfortable, but she lets him. Amara is clearly not okay with him touching Adaly stands up behind her. He chuckles and lets her go. She instinctively rubs her wrist. He didn’t hurt her, but just his presence. She feels like a prisoner, at the same time as she wants to make him proud. It is a very weird sensation.

“The ritual will make short work of that contract.” Ilhoketh says and Adaly smiles “I already expected that, winwin, don’t you think.” He rolls his eyes. “You are a strange one… call me fascinated darling daughter”

Her heart jumps, his validation giving her a satisfactory feeling… she pushes it away while once more looking at him and the lady carrying her future brother or sister. “Why kill Muddy?” he crosses his legs and looks at her “She refused to give me what I was owed. I always get what I was promised” Adaly looks at the pregnant lady, she never understood the woman who would want to get his kid. But being this close to him, seeing the desperation on the woman to keep her child, it is starting to make sense.

Ilhoketh cocks his head “You are curious about your mother?” he says while narrowing his eyes. It shakes her back to the reality, she hates her biological mother, just as she hates this woman here. Throwing away her child’s life, like it is nothing.

“Not really… I had a moment of weakness… She… her gift has kept me safe.” Adaly looks at Ilhoketh who looks her over inspecting “I think you would have liked her… She is a… how do I phrase it, an impressive woman… however she betrayed me, so I would love to kill her. She has been good at hiding. Your amulet… that is her work. She knows how to hide, even from great powers.”

Adaly lays her hand on her chest, feeling her amulet, but not getting it out from under her leather armor. She is afraid he will take it from her, removing her ability to hide. “She… she is a bitch. Her gift is useful, which is the only reason I kept it, but for the rest no I want nothing to do with her.” Adaly looks at the pregnant woman “I am raised outside of his influence, and I hate my mother’s guts, do with that information what you want”

Allissa swallows rubbing her now invisible belly. Ilhoketh laughs, stands up to the woman and lays a hand on her shoulder, almost lovingly “Darling, don’t worry about that. Adaly here wasn’t raised by her mother. She was raised by a hag”

Adaly rolls her eyes stands up and starts pacing a bit “Still better than being condemned to be raised in the hells. How long will you get to keep him?” Adaly asks “If everything goes as expected 8 years” Allissa answers. Adaly starts laughing “You will not even learn his name before you send him to the hells…. You…” Adaly turns around to Ilhoketh “You know I will never understand your whores. They are all the same”

Ilhoketh chuckles “Your mother is very similar to our Allissa here yes. Powerful human wizard, wanting to achieve more than the male competition, or the species with longer lifespans. You are not curious what she got out of the deal?” Adaly turns her back to Ilhoketh closing her eyes.

She takes a few second before turning around looking at him once more “It doesn’t matter… she had already sold her firstborn. She just wanted to get the most of it… you should check your whores before fucking them. Muddy was entitled to me, and you killed her for it.”

Ilhoketh steps closer to her but Amara goes to stand in between her “You will not touch her” Amara grunts and Adaly smiles at her friend. ‘Thank you…’ Adaly says using the message spell ‘Remind me again why we are not just killing him?’ Adaly swallows, putting a hand on her friend’s shoulder, and sends another message to her friend ‘We need to keep him in the dark of our plans… me wanting the ritual is a good alibi, plus pointing two devils towards each other is good for us’ Amara takes a few seconds to reply, ‘Chaos in his ranks does sound nice.’

Adaly looks at the tension in the room rising, in reality she is also afraid Ilhoketh is stronger than them. “Now we are all friends here. Why the hostility Amara?” Ilhoketh asks and laughs but takes a step back and continues eating his lunch. “You….” Amara starts but Adaly shakes her head.

“I agreed to work with you, that doesn’t mean we are friends. Now something that I am curious about is how did you feel that first year after my birth, and I never came to you?” Adaly taunts Ilhoketh while leaning against the table. “Collecting the children is not my job, I didn’t even know about your ‘escape’ until much later. Of course I was annoyed, who can blame me, I didn’t get something I was promised.”

“I am not a thing, not your property” Adaly reacts and Ilhoketh chuckles “Maybe not but you are mine… and soon a part of my ranks.” She swallows, she realizes what she has promised, what will happen when she actually goes through with it. She isn’t as opposed to it as she expected herself to be. Something about this, something about him makes her want that life.

“You said you wanted my mother death. If you know her location, or have any information about her, I would love that task” Adaly says, hoping to lower the tension in the room. Ilhoketh smiles “She is a slippery one, but yes, once we have tracked her down, it would be fitting you end her.”

“Anything you want to know about me?” Adaly turns the conversation around. Ilhoketh leans forward in his chair looking her over. “We shall have plenty of time to get to know one and other in the hells… As you said in a conversation neither of us has to be telling the truth… I expect you have a lie ready for any question I have.”

Adaly chuckles “Like father like daughter” he smiles back at her, he almost looks proud. Once more she feels butterflies, she wants his approval. She shakes the feeling and starts eating the apple she has been playing with. She is thinking about what her feelings mean, but also on high alert and worried about her friends.

“I do have one question for you… what happened with Es-Vahelieth?” Ilhoketh asks while folding his hands and placing his head on them. Adaly smiles and holds up her hand towards Amara, and Amara chuckles “He got a halberd to the face”