Drow's Dilemma Ep. 127: Born

Unlike with the Prince-to-be, he focused more on a version of Aida's abilities and powers to make her interesting to the rusalka, talking about her color-changing prehensile hair made from rusalka essence and noting that she could breed in the same way as they could. "So, I would like to install her immediately. If you help me by each taking a single one of these crystals to the outermost parts of the Port Afron underground, then I can finish very rapidly and you will be relieved from your bargain, free to do as you please."

Rostimira and Nemanja tried to appear aloof, but the other two couldn't hide how impressed they were by Caleldir's design. It wasn't as perfect as a Rusalka, but none of them needed to feel degraded by being replaced by such a being. "We will assist. I suppose," Rostimira agreed with false carelessness. Then she gave Caleldir another toothy grin. "We will need payment once our time is free."

"Or you could just leave right away," Selene suggested, annoyed. The rusalka were not her favorite race, though there were a lot of similarities between them and her own. ... which may have been the problem.

Cruel giggles echoed in the chambers for a moment. "With such interesting people near?" Nemanja asked. "No, we stay, I think. The motherland can wait a day more."

"Or two," Rostimira agreed. "I know a good center. We will take you there. Miloslava, get Mirjana and Danica. Meet us there." With that, she turned and began walking back down the passage, expecting to be followed without inviting their 'guests' to do so.

Even if Rostimira and Nemanja tried to appear unimpressed, Caleldir was gratified to see how his explanation affected the others. He had just saved himself a huge amount of time and work by enlisting their help. "Remember our deal: I get to try to escape from you once we are all back here," Caleldir noted to Rostimira. "And if I can, I am no longer bound to be your breeding stud." Crap, he had forgotten about that until this moment. He had not prepared anything. Oh well, with Dahlia at his side, he should be able to escape the rusalka.

The rusalka all looked amused. "Oh, we will keep that deal," Rostimira said, though clearly, she didn't think that he would ever be able to. "No cheating, though," she said as she gave the succubus a pointed look. What would count as cheating, however, wasn't explained.

"No cheating," Dahlia agreed. "Just don't make us desperate; if you're too sadistic I will be very offended," she warned.

"Ha! This coming from a soul-drainer denizen of Hell!" Nemanja laughed.

"Whatever you do, just leave me out of it. I have a daughter to take care of up in the castle," Selene said irritably. Not that Ylene was incapable of taking care of Iondae for even a whole day if it came to it; she was good with children and could tap into the supply of milk Selene stored just in case.

Selene's irritability was understandable. The rusalka had threatened to kill Iondae, after all. They had utterly failed, but they remained rather terrible people. "I am sure that the rusalka have no interest in causing you any more problems, Selene," Caleldir assured her. "You should be fine."

Aside from Selene's irritability, though, the conversation was (mostly) genuinely light-hearted. For a conversation between two 'evil' races about a prize that they both wanted to keep. As they walked to their destination, Dahlia began to engage in other conversation with the rusalka. They had a common interest in punishing the wicked as long as they were wicked men. In those cases, they both found amusement in poetic (often sadistic) punishment. There were a couple of times, however, when even Dahlia thought the rusalka went too far. Just killing their prey seemed like such a waste when they could hand them over to a succubus who would feed on their energy. She suggested a deal, but it was waved away with a laugh; they liked the killing part.

Listening to the conversation between Dahlia and the Rusalka was a surreal experience for Caleldir. One of those times that he wondered how his life had come to this point.

Caleldir followed the rusalka to the central location Rostimira spoke of. It was perfect for his purposes. He rubbed his hands together, glee on his face. "Excellent, excellent, excellent!" he said cheerily. He handed each of the eight women present one fist-sized clear crystal. "Can you go and place these at the perimeter? Selene, maybe you can put yours at where we entered Port Afron back then? And when you are done, you can either come back here and see Aida activated or return up to Ylene and Iondae."

And then, the rest of the rusalka appeared, took the crystals, and raced off to their various agreed-upon corners. "I will check up on things here once I'm done," Selene told Caleldir. "But I don't think I'll stick around for long." She gave the retreating rusalka a suspicious look.

He clapped his hands together. "Understood. I will set up here. Thank you all for your help!"

And with that, Caleldir was alone.