“Ah great, now let us get into the vault” Ilhoketh says, as he blasts the protective shield in front of the portal away. There is still a small purple force layer and Ilhoketh gestures her to come closer. “The last protection… it needs a drop of infernal blood to break it. So, my sweet daughter could you do us the honors?” Ilhoketh says and Adaly steps closer.
She stands next to her father, her greatest nightmare. She looks unsurely up at him, and he gestures she should open the last layer. Adaly grabs one of her daggers, she can see it shaking in her hand when she makes a small cut on her finger. She raises it up and the shield sucks it up and disappears. Revealing the path to the vault.
Adaly takes a step back from the entrance to the vault, unsure how to continue while she sees Amara raising her halberd to attack Ilhoketh, but he stops her with a hold person spell. Adaly’s blood runs cold, not even Amara can protect her anymore.
Adaly stumbles backward, when Ilhoketh turns to her with a large smile on his face “You said earlier, you don’t trust me. That is good, you shouldn’t trust me…” and casts a dominate spell on her. She saved her highest spell, high enough to counter a dominate person, but the counterspell does nothing. She feels her body locking up, her losing control, being a puppet in her own body. She wants to scream, cry, run, fight, but has no control.
“Ah that is better… I don’t know why my generals had such problems capturing you… this was easy enough” he says while stepping closer, grabbing her face possessively. With his thumb he gently strokes the scar on her throat “You are a beautiful specimen, something all my children should strive for. And this scar… mmm… it is nice to see my generals are not completely incompetent.”
He takes a step back “Now normally when I am summoned, I cannot bring anything back with me, hence me needing you. But here is the good news, we are right next to a portal to the grey city. I can bring you and the crest home with me. Now please dear, lead the way.” Ilhoketh says with the most wicked smile.
Adaly’s body starts moving on its own, entering the portal to the vault, slowly walking towards the vault door. Inside she is screaming, crying, but from the outside she seems composed and just following her father’s will.
He is 5 feet behind her, the zombie also following. They are halfway down the hallway before Adaly hears “Get away from her, you bitch!” and sees Ilhoketh getting hit in the head by Amara’s halberd. His control disappears while his body starts dissipating.
Adaly completely out of energy, falls to her knees and starts sobbing uncontrollably. She cannot… she… it would have been better… never again…. Many thoughts going through her head, but not a single coherent one. Amara lifts her up “We don’t have time for meltdowns yet. They are right behind us.” Adaly nods, feeling numb just continues walking the hallway.
Even though she is technically in control of her body now she still feels controlled by external forces. Her body knows how to walk, one foot in front of the other bringing her to the actual vault. They open the door and see a red tear-shaped crest. It flies towards Adaly and attaches to her cloak. Adaly feels the rush in power, the boon of this item, wings appear on her back, she almost seems to glow, but she doesn’t want it. She just wants it over with… she is done fighting, done living…
She retracts the wings and starts walking out. Past the zombie remains, past the corpses they created the people they killed for her father. Her brain shut down, everything on auto pilot.
Amara and Adaly walk up the stairs, out of the basement but are blocked by pink runes. Adaly goes to inspect them when she sees paladins in the library. “It is just us, let us out.” She says, her voice monotone, sounding foreign. The two paladins look slightly afraid but follow her command “Of course lady Adaly, lady Amara.” The runes disappear and they walk into the library.
“We are supposed to stand guard if anything bad comes out….” The paladin Adaly knows as Harald says. She rubs her forehead, her head aching. “Yes, that is good, in theory everything is dead down there, but there is a portal to the hells, and we killed one zombie, so good to keep protections up.” She says dismissively and walks out, needing to get out of here.
Harald runs after them “Damon is upstairs if you are looking for him…” Adaly nods in thanks and she together with Amara walk up the stairs.
Once upstairs she sees Gevaudan, who she ignores but Amara gives him a handshake. She walks past the rooms and sees Damon in conversation with Sam and Livia standing next to them. Adaly feels a rage building inside of her, don’t they understand how dumb it is for a literal angel to be here, near her father.
Once they notice her, she sees a look of relief on Sam’s face and a smile appears on Livia’s. She ignores her party and goes to Damon “What are they doing here?” she asks harshly. “They offered…” Damon starts saying but Sam jumps in “We are here to honor the mission, we are in this together.” Adaly rolls her eyes “You know the fucking dangers. What if he spotted her? What if you got killed? That would have compromised the mission” Adaly yells back at Sam while pointing at Livia.
“We all risk the mission every fight. You cannot…” Sam replies harsh, but Adaly doesn’t want to hear it, she turns her back to Sam, addresses Damon “There are portals in the basement, infernal kind. Protect them while we discuss in Ingry how to move forward” and Adaly turns around and walks away. Sam starts following “Adaly, talk to me, you cannot just…” Adaly ignores him and starts walking down the stairs.
She passes Amara who blocks Sam “I need to speak to her, let me pass” Sam still yells but Amara calmly says, “Let her go… she clearly doesn’t want to talk to you”. Adaly leaves the building before she hears the reply.
Stories of my brain 