Another fifteen minutes pass of their bodies just taken each other in, Adaly stands up and starts putting the dress back on. “Mmm you are truly stunning…” Sam moans, and Adaly smiles but throws his clothes to him “Now you wanted a normal date, let’s pretend we can do that.” Sam laughs, but quickly puts his clothes back on, and gentleman like offers her a chair before sitting down himself.
“To us” he raises his glass and Adaly smiles “To us” she replies while raising her glass a second time. They eat, well mainly Sam eats, Adaly takes a few bites. Sam looks concerned at her “You don’t like the food?” she kindly smiles back at him “Just not that hungry” Sam sadly smiles at her “You never seem to be what is up with that?”
Adaly thinks about that “I am very used to periods going without food. Typically those were stressful moments. So now when I have stress, I don’t like eating. I will eat… I care enough about survival, but eating for eating, never was my thing.”
Sam nods in understanding “It must have been rough being alone so long. Nobody to take care of you.” Adaly smiles “I can take care of myself, Muddy thought me well. She anyway had her yearly conference, where she went for a week, so from a young age I learned how to survive alone.”
Adaly remembers those weeks. She considered a few times to go out and find the humans, but never did, always stayed loyal to Muddy. “I am going to ask again, but feel free to decline answering. What was Muddy?” Sam asks.
Adaly smiles “If we are discussing hard topics, I do want to hear the story about why you stopped following S’Iltaya” Sam swallows, takes a big sip from his wine “My ‘ex’ and I both followed her, until Elsin died…” Adaly grabs his hand, and looks concerned at him but he continues.
“Elsin had been revived before, so when I asked S’Iltaya her soul back so I could resurrect her again, they declined. S’Iltaya is not a strong believer in second chances, and even less in third chances. I still tried other ways of getting her back until I got a vision of Elsin requesting me to stop… I… it was rough for a while… I wanted her back and felt betrayed… one of the ways I got out of it is by believing more strongly in second chances. Arilana’s church was exactly about that. Since then, I have been in her service.”
Adaly squeezes his hand “I am sorry for your loss. But both of them sound like bitches” her joke makes Sam laugh “Thank you… you don’t have too sooth me, I dealt with this a long time ago.” “How long?” Adaly asks and Sam rubs his neck “Like 50 years ago”
Her eyes go wide. She knew his age, so this shouldn’t surprise her this much, but it still does. He chuckles, clearly entertained by her reaction “Now it’s your turn”. Adaly kindly smiles and doubts.
“I just know you are going to have opinions, but I loved her, and I think she loved me too. She was truly my parent, more than either of my biological ones…” Sam nods in understanding and this time holds her hand, before Adaly continues. “Muddy, is a nickname for the Mud Mother, forest witch of Suzal, she is of the hag species.”
Sams eyes go wide, he grabs his glass and takes another big sip. “That… that is something” Adaly chuckles this time. “I know… it is not as bad as it sounds. She would have hated you, but the patient man also hates me so we are even” Adaly winks.
“The patient man doesn’t know you…” Sam starts replying before Adaly intervenes “And Muddy would have killed you before you would have gotten a chance to introduce yourself. Quick judgements might be wrong, but are defining. I don’t care that your mother hates me, she is not wrong to distrust me”
He squeezes her hand once more, but keeps quiet. “So back to your thing… would you want to be resurrected if shit hits the fan on our mission?” Adaly changes the topic. Sam looks at her while he considers the answer “I would… I am curious what that would do with the demon, but yes, I would. I like living. What about you?”
ADaly considers it, plays with her wine glass in her hand, swirling the wine within. “Depends on the situation. If the mission fails, I die, but my soul goes to Grishbalan, I prefer to stay there. If mission succeeds, then yes, I want to live. Finally free from Ilhoketh. Third option, mission fails I go to Ilhoketh, well I would like to be resurrected, but I think that would be a hard bargain.” She thinks a bit more. She wants to talk to Sam about the devil option, but she knows his opinion so rather not start that whole thing.
“Do you think Ilhoketh will let your soul escape?” Sam asks and she chuckles “I think after our last interaction he is more determined than ever that I am his… so I do think he will try to get my soul… but he wouldn’t risk lowering his powers even more, I think. So you know, a coin toss.”
Sam grabs her closer, into a hug “What happened in the mansion?” he whispers, before letting her go once more.
Adaly rubs her neck, finishes her wine glass and fills another, doubting how to answer “He was his scary self. I wanted him to believe I could be a good obedient daughter, so you know… he would consider me for the ritual. For the longest part everything went fine. Up until the moment he turned on us…” Adaly swallows and Sam holds her, whispering ‘It’s okay’ in her ear.
“He… he showed me he didn’t need me to be obedient, he could force me to be an obedient girl. Thankfully his control on Amara didn’t hold. She saved me.” Adaly finishes her glass and quickly wipes the tear that came down.
“He cast dominate person?” Sam asks “Something like that, but higher level… I tried to counter spell it, but my counter was too weak, while it would have been powerful enough to stop dominate person” Adaly answers while looking at the man she loved. Ilhoketh could force her to kill him in that state, that is a nightmare scenario.
Sam kindly smiles “Calm emotions is affective against that. I could have that up while we fight him next time, to prevent that from happening.” Adaly looks happily at him “Really? That would work????” and Sam smiles and nods in confirmation.
She hugs him and starts kissing him, the chair not holding their combined weight it falls over. They both laughs while laying on the floor. Their hands intertwine and Adaly smiles at him. “I… I cannot believe how lucky I am, having found you, so close to the end…” she says the last bit almost in a whisper.
“Well let’s hope it is not the end” Sam sadly smiles. With her free hand she gently strokes his hair. “I am mortal, Sam… you will outlive me… how… how do you feel about that?”
He gently moves her hair out of her face “I never look that far ahead. 10 years at a time. Our work is dangerous, the chance of me dying just because of a wrong place wrong time type of situation is quite high” he smiles, avoiding answering her question. “So what is the plan these 10 years?”
His fingers starts playing with her fingers, his gaze down towards them. “Hopefully spend them with you… but mainly of course trying to get the prince’s war to last as long as possible. What are your plans?”
Adaly chuckles “No plans for after the mission. I never thought surviving this ordeal was an option before I met you guys. But you know I have a patch of land here, so maybe settle down… I don’t know.” She goes to lay on her back and Sam lays his head on her breast, gently his hands explore her body.
They lay like that for a while but eventually extinguish all candles and walk towards the inn. Their hands still intertwined when they go lay in bed and sleep quickly finds them.
