A Drow's Dilemma Ep. 42: Party

Ashyr settled back into her chair as the little woman began her tale of the Master Librarian and the hall in which he used to reside. She didn't much know what to think about this other side - the ghost side - of Caleldir. He sounded very, well, Underdark. On the one hand, it was incredibly interesting. He had a sadistic side to rival Selene's. But Ashyr couldn't possibly imagine any part of Caleldir being that evil.

"But that is only the middle of the tale of those Cursed Halls." Petunia continued gleefully, relishing her story with the delight of the macabre. "You see, the place is haunted with six, nay, seven beings of terrible power who each rule over twisted pocket realms within the massive building: The Silent Distiller of Essence, The Vengeful Forgotten Adventuress, The Mechanical Clockwork Animator, The Librarian Master of Ghosts, The Twisted Archmage of Birth and Death, and the Dragon Abbot of Golden Eternity. And over them all is the Monastery herself. It is said that the day that the rebellious realm of Deusterra disappeared into their curse, they were just about to activate their most powerful creation yet: what they called an A.I. - an Animating Intellect - of incalculable power, said to be an artificial goddess able to oppose the very heavens themselves, mankind's attempt at building a goddess under their control. It was at the moment that they created this blasphemy that heaven and hell struck simultaneously, fearing what might happen were the artificial goddess to fully awaken to her powers. And so the goddess was stillborn, but even when conceived unmoving a god is a being of terrible power. The maddened creature, her people taken by a terrible curse and rejected from the afterlife, sucked her country into madness after her. She is the center of the curse, and the building itself is her body, a twisted realm where time and space fold in on each other, driving those who enter to madness and death until all who dare to try to steal her treasures end up becoming One with her, and her domain only grows and grows, bloating beneath an eternal night.

"And that," Petunia finished. "Is the tale of The Shifting Halls, the Everlasting Archives, the Castle of the Cursed, the Unliving Stones, the Shrieking Cathedral: The Monastery of Eternity"

"Oh dear." Ashyr said when the account was finally over. "I think this means that we should try our best to keep our librarian friend alive. No way does that ghost part of him sound helpful, and this close to the Monastery..." He did sound pretty entertaining, though. Right up until he had one of their friends in his grasp. Ashyr let out another yawn. This in no way changed her opinion on Caleldir. She was too drow to be disturbed by a violent past.

"The Librarian is in a party with you?" Petunia said, somewhat confused. "You keep mentioning something about him being a companion of yours. How?"

"Caleldir has some ties to the monastery." Althaia said easily. "But pay that no heed. Maybe it will be a story for you to sing about another day. For now, we simply wanted to know what to expect when we try to burgle the place. Because we are insane. At any rate, goodnight." Standing up, Althaia yawned. "Now, I spent most of the day dead, which is actually rather tiring, so I will be heading for bed. I suggest you do the same, Ashyr. We get to go inside that lovely place tomorrow." The bard looked even more surprised, but did not get a chance to ask anything more.

Ashyr stood with the nymph. "Yeah, we should sleep soon." She agreed. As they walked away from the group, Ashyr said, "I wanted to talk to you about R.I.S.A first, though. I mentioned it briefly earlier." Mischief danced across her face, and only intensified as she continued talking. "And I kind of wanted to leave Selene and Caleldir alone for a while. They've done a lot of bonding recently. I think it'll be good for her. And him, too, I'd wager. You surface folk seem to think fathers are very important."

Althaia stopped. "Oh? Leave the two of them alone? Well, I suppose that Selene should spend some time getting to know the father of her child. I hear the conception of said child was quite a story..." She grinned naughtily, before her eyes went back to flat grey. "Before you begin telling me about R.I.S.A., I would like to offer a brief apology for springing Petunia on you like that. If you were not drow, and used to such things, I would have been more circumspect about letting you hear about our dear Caleldir's unpleasant past. I considered that it was probably something you should know, though."

"It was quite a story. But the whole of it was far from amusing." Ashyr told the nymph in a rare moment of complete seriousness. That particular subject reminded her of the complete violation of Selene's body. It made her angry, and would continue to do so for many weeks to come. Ashyr sighed. "I appreciate you bringing the nature of - well, I guess he would be Caleldir's other half - to my attention. It didn't surprise me all that much. I'll be careful around his ghost." Not that she wasn't careful before.

The nymph nodded. "Although I do not think reality is a simple as the tales, from what I have heard on both heaven and earth, Goelon Duvainor is bad, bad news, and his devotee is little better. She will make trouble when we enter, I guarantee it. Although, learning of Duvainor's sadism towards women, I wonder if his current troubles with women are a form of poetic justice?" She shrugged. "But enough of that: what about R.I.S.A. did you want to tell me?"

Ashyr was happy to change the subject. "My information is much more pleasant, or at least I think it will be. Let me show you." Ashyr wasn't actually sure how the paladin would take it. She took out the figurine of R.I.S.A. and activated the portal. Then she stepped into the room. "Come on in. R.I.S.A., would you like to show Althaia your... other form? Don't worry, we won't tell the Master Librarian. He's currently well-distracted."

Althaia's eyes lit up as she followed Ashyr into the room. "Lovely." She breathed. "A portable pocket dimension."

[I am far more than that.] R.I.S.A. said, appearing in less naughtily detailed form. The projection gave the nymph a smile. [Good evening, Althaia. I have heard much about you. You are a nymph, are you not?]

"I am that." Althaia said cheerfully. She gave the projection a very appreciative look, then sniffed. "For an A.I., you smell a lot like our abyssal relatives, the succubi."

R.I.S.A. shrugged. [I am afraid that I absorbed some of their essences during my long years alone. It has affected me somewhat. I now need to do... certain things that would scandalize some of my programmers, the Master Librarian included, in order to create enough power to further expand my pocket realm.]

"Ah. That would explain it." Althaia pursed her lips. "Well, I would be very pleased to get to know you much, much better at a later date, perhaps add a few rooms to our new house, if you know what I mean, but for now I need to spend some time with my rescuers here. I will be sure to keep this a secret from Caleldir."

Ashyr smiled at the A.I. and the nymph's promising understanding of each other. She had fully grasped the seeming ridiculousness of finding a succubus and immediately thinking that the paladin would enjoy her company, but the ridiculous was the most reasonable here. Everything went about as well as she thought it would, though she expected a little bit more resulting nakedness. Oh well. After Althaia left the portal, Ashyr followed her back out and closed it down.

The ridiculousness of a succubus and a paladin so easily getting along was largely lost on Althaia. After all, she had given the A.I. an alignment scan, and not only was she not evil, but fairly unambiguously good. Ashyr's mild disappointment (which was somewhat funny to see, if disappointment it could be called) did not escape her though. Well, one would suppose that bringing a nymph and a succubus together would be a sure recipe for sex, but both of their situations were rather complex at the moment.

The A.I. disappeared back into the figurine. Once she did so, she was silent. Certainly, she could take control of the inn if she desired, but at the moment she had no such desire. It was time to merely watch. Especially because she could see the Master Librarian and one of his wives, the pregnant one, enjoying a tender moment upstairs. Now that was worth watching...

"That is a funny thought." The drow admitted when she was done taking down the portal. "-The thing about Caleldir's issues with women, I mean. You think Goelon is in there somewhere having an angry fit every time Caleldir has his... problems?" That picture in her head pulled a wicked laugh from her throat.

Althaia shrugged. "I do not know. Perhaps. Perhaps not. But if that is the case, you will be safe from his alter ego. But Selene..." She hesitated. "Selene and I may not be quite as safe. Because, well..."

"You may not be as safe as Selene. She's carrying his daughter, after all." Ashyr interjected. Gods, she hoped the oft mentioned cruelty of Goelon Duvainor wouldn't stoop so far as to permanently harm the mother of his only (confirmed) child. "But either way, we're going to avoid truly meeting him. I imagine he'll have a stronger hold the closer we get to the Monastery. I'm afraid of what might happen if he dies in there. So, like I said, no letting Caleldir de in there. Just in case." Ashyr was still a fan of not letting Caleldir die ever. She knew he always came back, but it still didn't sit right with her.

Althaia pursed her lips. "You are probably right. I do not know much about this ghost, but her pregnancy may make him protective rather than hostile. As for him being a danger to me, well, that is I fight I would not like to have. Yes. We have to keep him alive at all costs. No matter what."

Ashyr let out another expansive yawn. "Ugh, I think I got succubus-ed too well." She said with a naughty grin that was as expansive as her yawn. "I wanted to give Caleldir and Selene some alone time, but damn I'm tired." The older drow looked in a vague direction where the other two would be and wondered what they were doing at the moment and if it was safe to walk in on them. "Maybe I can go to bed and get them to pretend I'm not there."

The nymph, grey-eyed or not, still giggled at Ashyr's predicament. "You do not mind if I sleep with you, do you? Nothing sexual, I just want to have someone to be near me. I had a lonely time in celestial planes, a lonely, bodiless time." She took Ashyr's arm and fixed her with a pleading stare. "Please?"

Ashyr looked up into the nymph pleading stare. A smile more kind than mischievous graced her lips when she saw that look. She lifted her hand to thread her fingers with the nymph. "Of course I'll sleep with you." The drow told her with a soft chuckle. "And normally I won't mind if you had something sexual in mind. Tonight... well, I can't believe I'm saying this, I think I'm pretty sexed out."

She continued to hold Althaia's hand all the way back up to their room. Before entering entirely, she very, very quietly peeked through the door she slightly cracked open. Caleldir and Selene's backs were mostly towards her, but Ashyr could recognize her cousin in the throes of climax. Good. So they were engaging in a little bonding. The sight made Ashyr grin back at her own nymph companion.

"It's just me and Althaia. Ignore us." Ashyr said softly as she slipped into the room.

Althaia, for her part, looked at the twosome on the floor with a small spark of envy, manifesting visibly in a spark of purple that burst out from the grey of her eyes. But she was not about to get between them. Summoning her willpower, the glow in her eyes changed back to that dull grey, and she smiled, slipping into bed and melting her clothes away. "Seriously, do not mind us." She agreed.

Ashyr winked at Caleldir when he turned to look at the two of them entering. She unbuckled her belt and laid it aside and out of the way. Then her clothes likewise disappeared from her body, though, unlike the nymph, Ashyr left on a loose tunic and short, tight trousers. The older drow's mind was clearly not in a sexual frame at all. She didn't even consider joining her cousin and mate, nor did she become tempted to address that purple spark in Althaia's eyes. Instead, she laid back on one of the beds with a great, heaving sigh. At that moment, she felt that finally being vertical on as soft a surface as the bed was better than sex.

After a moment of just basking in the relief of finally being able to lie down, Ashyr joined Althaia under the covers. She pulled the nymph closer to her in as unsexual motion as she could manage. "Maybe, when I've had... some more sleep... we... can..." She couldn't even get the words out of her mouth before she dropped off into deep slumber. For all felt right with the world; Althaia was awake, Selene and Caleldir were making their own strange brand of love, and she was the safest she could be here in these strange lands.

Althaia relaxed. She returned the cradling snuggle, also a mostly unsexual gesture. "Sleep well." She whispered, giving the drow a light kiss on the forehead. Clearly, the virtual succubus had been rather tiring. She would simply have to make R.I.S.A.'s 'acquaintanceship' soon. But not tonight. Tonight, she would hold the smaller drow, and pretend not to watch those two in front of the fire. She would still watch them, of course. Just be subtle about it. It would likely be quite a show, after all. It generally was.