Stories of my brain

The party walks with Damon back towards the paladin order. The headquarters of the Hallowed path buzzing with life, many paladins running around making arrangements, but Adaly asks for a private conversation with Damon.

“What do you want to talk about, Adaly? Or should I say Itaniel?” Damon jokes when they enter his office “Please do keep calling me Adaly. Itaniel is a reputation, not my name.” Adaly smiles and goes to sit down. “Itaniel is a name several devils have asked about in the past years… It now makes a bit more sense.” Adaly laughs nervously and rubs her head “Yeah, devils don’t like me.” That comment makes Damon laugh.

“So, what can I do for you Adaly?” Damon asks when sitting down. Adaly takes a deep breath “I need to ask a favor of you… If I come back in a month, alone. Please kill me on sight.” Damon’s eyes go wide “Why?” Adaly sighs “If I come back with Amara, Sam, or anybody of the shadowed blade, everything is fine and I would like to live. However, if I come alone…. If I am alone, it would mean we failed, and my father has won…. And if he has won, he might want revenge on this kingdom.”

Damon swallows, looks her over “Okay… I do not like this, but I trust you…” Adaly kindly smiles at him “Neither do I…. But if today has thought me anything is that I shouldn’t underestimate him.” Adaly remembers the day and hesitates before continuing “I also wanted to apologize for yelling at the mansion… Things happened in that basement…. Things I would like to forget…. But that didn’t give me the right to yell at you.”

Damon smiles kindly at her “Thank you, but that is alright. We deal with high stress situations all the time. Sometimes yelling is healthy. I know it wasn’t personal. Thank you for your help today. Nobody on our side died, which I think is because of your and Amara’s work.”

Adaly sadly smiles to Damon “Because of Amara… She is the fighter, I am the talker” Damon chuckles once more but reacts a bit more serious. “I have seen you in action, remember. I know you are strong and would have contributed significantly. But I understand trauma. I hope you succeed, and if you want to settle down after your mission, Escia would happily take you.” Adaly politely smiles, says “Thanks” and starts leaving.

They walk towards the teleportation hall while Adaly uses the sending stone ‘Jeremy! We got a decree to parley if Heskeni can help with the investigation into the vault. Be in Ingry on the 37^th.’ Within seconds Adaly gets back ‘Heskeni is going to be very happy about that. Good luck!’

Adaly takes the note Jeremy wrote and hides it under the sending stone “I just send a message to Jeremy to come here with Heskeni the day after tomorrow… But seeing as this is the only sending stone we have left with Jeremy, I thought you should have it Sam…. He is your friend.” And hands the sending stone together with the note to Sam. Sam notices the notes, looks at her in surprise but quickly pockets the note. He seems to understand she is trying to do it sneakily.

After teleporting to Witterheim they start walking once more to the Leviathan, the very familiar path by now.

They set up camp and Sam immediately approaches Adaly “Could we go for a walk?” Adaly swallows and looks at Amara for a second before nodding in agreement. She doesn’t want to talk to Sam about today, but maybe she should talk to him about the blood vials. After having been controlled by Ilhoketh she realizes she really shouldn’t have any of her allies.

Adaly keeps a few steps to the side of Sam, not allowing him to come close, not wanting to deal with those emotions now. She stares at the ground while walking.

“I really don’t want to talk about what happened.” Adaly almost whispers when they are well enough away from camp. Sam swallows, he stops walking and goes to grab her hand, but she takes a step back. “I… I understand, if you change your mind, know that I am here for you…. But I also wanted to talk about something else.”

Adaly now swallows and makes herself look at Sam, the man she loves, the man Ilhoketh could use against her. She tries to smile but knows she is failing “So what is up?” Adaly asks while nervously hugging herself.

Sam hesitates “I…. I wanted to thank you… for the note. I know that must not have been easy.” Adaly nods and now genuinely smiles “Yeah, I made Jeremy swear not to say anything, I originally wanted to do it myself. But he found a loophole. I did think it was a sweet note, so… you know…” Sam chuckles “Finding loopholes is a bit off Jeremy’s specialty. I also wanted to say, I… I am not happy you took his blood, but I understand… And I hope that after the mission is over you will also destroy mine and Livia’s vial.”

“I don’t have your blood” Adaly says a bit surprised. “You don’t?” Sam looks a bit relieved at her. Adaly rubs her head “I mean… It is not that I have never tried. But you don’t let people close, until, you know… and once I had feelings for you, it just didn’t feel right. I…. I did get Livia’s blood, but after today I did want to destroy it.” Adaly grabs the blood vial of Livia and hands it to Sam.

Sam takes it and holds it in his hand, he looks her over and looks at the vial, “You should tell her…” Adaly chuckles “After the mission… She is suspicious of me already. This could break trust and break the collaboration. Is that…. Is it okay with you that I wait a bit, before telling her?” Adaly asks insecurely.

He nods but smashes the blood vial. Adaly closes her eyes, it always hurts when something she created get destroyed. Adaly steps back towards the camp “I should talk with Amara. I also need to destroy hers but destroying it myself is hard.” Sam grabs Adaly’s arm “Adaly… I mean it if you need to talk about anything…. I am here for you and love you.” Adaly sadly smiles at him and nods “I know… I love you too and that is part of why this is so hard.” She steps away from him and walks back to camp. Hiding her face, hiding the tears streaming down.

She wipes her face before they reach camp and Adaly nods at Amara who immediately follows her in the woods. Adaly grabs Amara’s blood vial from the bag of holding and hands it to her. “My father demonstrated today that it is risky for me to have this, so I wanted to give this back.” Adaly says and Amara takes it, “Are you sure?” Adaly nods “Yes, but it is something I created, I find it difficult to destroy. Jeremy already destroyed his, and Sam just destroyed Livia’s, now you can destroy yours.” Amara nods and smashes the vial.