Abyssal Road Trip

The weight of Palia’nitr’ghi’s gaze was intense to Julia. A sheer force of personality reminding her of Usd’ghi, even though her name seemed to show she was far away in the lineage. In appearance, though, she was as youthful as Salia.

Analysis

[Name: Palia’nitr’ghi

Species: Abyssal Stone Hag

Class: Priestess / Coven Hag

Level: 10 / 50 / 30

Health: 1,155

Mana: 1,960

Melee Attack Power: 62

Combat Skills: Claws [M] (2), Dread Gaze [M] (1), Foresight [Ad] (44), Assorted Blessings and Curses

Details:

A Scion of Usd’ghi’s lineage, the primary thing they currently lack is age and experience. Despite this, she has still gained postings in Coven businesses generally held by members four times her age.]

((She travels a deep road. Hags stem from a time when even Elves were primitives. ))

Salia had shown her through to a warehouse similar in layout to the large chamber in the Ùeqräkas branch, though it didn’t seem as large. The status of Palia as an assistant was clear; instead of an office, she had a larger desk on the edge of an open area. Julia wondered what Power the Hag worshipped and if the rest of the Coven followed it.

“The honoured ancestor has made an exception for you in our normal business dealing,” said Palia, gesturing to a chair near her desk. The words themselves sounded like a compliment, but Julia’s ears picked up the edge of doubts.

“We do not bring most back within one storehouse, let alone a second.”

{{Grumpy bitch quit your mewling. }}

((She’s annoyed at both of you. Is Usd’ghi developing clay feet to her? ))

“Information can be a risky thing,” Julia said, nodding acknowledgement.

“You are perceptive Viper, or should I say J of the Sisterhood,” said Palia. “I hope you’re perceptive enough to know the lines you toe near at present.”

[Sense Motive [Ap] (8->9)]

Touché. But you’re still a bitch, looking to put me in my place.

“I have no intention of disappointing your ancestor. It best to complete preparations before commencing some jobs,” Julia said.

“Excuses are easy to make and painful to regret,”

“Regret can come from many things. Sometimes even success if you don’t plan for it well enough. Victory can be deadly,”

The hollows of her eyes narrowed till the stars seemed to press together in the darkness within them.

“Lêdhins was here enquiring about you some time ago,”

“I need to sell some things, not to talk about admirers,” Julia replied,

“What do you have?”

Julia set one bag and then another on the floor beside the chair, their appearance raising Palia’s eyebrows.

“Those bear Lord Qjiadlóv’s crest,”

“The armour, weapons, and ingots inside them do as well,” Julia said,

“The free miners have bounties on their patrols and convoys,”

“Anything, in particular, I need to claim them?”

“Proof of their destruction, which if you have their armour and weapons is sufficient,”

{{We were glorious in their destruction. They were like all those thousands of bugs we crushed.}}

((There is no need to be boastful. The need for violence is a sad path; however, required it may be. ))

“Eighteens sets of Hümsi gear along with arms and armour belonging to a pair of Bãrftiz. The workers fled into the tunnels while I was playing with the guards. Plus a load of ingots from whereever they’d been returning from,” Julia said. Her goal to keep the details to a minimum; She ignored the memories of using the guards’ weapons against them in the massacre. They hadn’t handled the ambush that started with primordial spikes and the deaths that occurred in the whirlwind of fighting that followed. Palia didn’t comment on the wintry smile turning the corner of Julia’s lips in that moment of silence.

“Did anyone else get away?” Palia eventually asked.

“A succubus named Gla’lixa,”

“How do you know her name?”

Crud, giving the game away. Should have just said a Succubus J.

“It’s a knack,”

“One you share with Lêdhins from what I’ve heard,”

“Really?”

“Put the items for sale over there. I’ll have to see them to determine the price. Though I’ll need to get the branch manager to release the applicable bounty to your account.” Palia said, gesturing at an empty place against a nearby wall.

Julia watched through eyes set on wings and noted the interest paid to the equipment and goods she laid out.

{{Look at my shiny goodies. Now I just need someone to polish the pearl. }}

((Not just greed. She watches the ease of your movements, assessing the damage to the armour or lack of it. ))

[Acting [Ap](22) -> [Ap](23)]

Julia tried to sit within the calm of the Ki even as frustration and concern about the intensity of Palia’s gaze wiggled in her awareness. After unpacking everything, the dimensional bags returned to her inventory.

“Not wanting to sell those as well?” Palia asked, “The seal at the collar could bring you trouble if the wrong individual sees them on this plane.”

“I will keep that in mind. Shall we get to the haggling?” Julia asked.

“What did you want to sell first?”

“With this ingot examine its quality casting, the care taken in the pour,” said Julia, picking up a single ingot from the nearest stack.

“No.”

“You can’t see it?” Julia asked, extending the ingot towards Palia.

“We will not haggle on individual bars,”

“I’d hate to get taken for a ride,”

“It’s quite obvious you’re just looking for an excuse not to deliver on your obligations in a timely fashion,”

“No, actually, I want some practice haggling so that I can do a better job dealing with your ancestor next time,” Julia said.

“What?” Palia sputtered, “You dared to haggle with her?”

“She enjoyed it. Maybe you should try it next time you deal with her,”

“Succubi always about pleasure,” said Palia, frustrating and contempt colouring her voice.

{{Hardly. Frigid bitch is chapping my arse. Have so much dust already it will need a backhoe to clear}}

((Killing Demons is indeed a pleasure, as is frustrating their plans. She holds you in low esteem. ))

Julia smiled even as the memory of meetings churned in her mind; Senior colleagues, male and female alike, working harder on stealing credit than they had at resolving issues. The Ki giving her shelter as her fingers flexed, and Palia watched the cold flames lick along the skin. Flame shining with deep blackness reflected against the claws, shining with an eerie light.

“I only have an agreement to sell Souls I harvest to the Treasury. Nothing else. Should I let your competition profit from these and claim the bounties for me?” Julia asked; coldness letting Dominion creep out in force.

“You can also explain to Usd’ghi when I deliver the bare minimum of my agreement with her.”

“What?”

“Making it clear I will not tolerate your shit. Eighty percent of market value,” Julia said, her voice low and quiet.

“That outrageous no one will give you that price.”

“You can also explain when I sell harvests of the Souls she particularly likes to others.”

“WHAT!”

“Scream at me again, and I’ll make it ninety,” Julia said, rolling the purple coin across her fingers, its motions drawing Palia’s gaze.

“I can’t agree with that. The highest I’m allowed is thirty percent and fifty percent of the bounties if we’re claiming them on your behalf.”

{{Crush her. }}

((If you appear weak to them, it is to risk a dagger in the back. In the space of seven breaths, decide and act. Is that not what it says? ))

I’m so done with this shit.

“How does seventy percent of nothing work out as profit?”

“What do you mean?”

“I get seventy percent of both, or I’ll take the lot to the miner’s representative. I understand they have their operation, like the Treasury. Also, my agreement with Usd’ghi means I have to provide her with a certain number of Souls to keep my share of things. Our agreement has no penalty for providing her nothing, other than I also get nothing. Not that I’d be that rude to her. Yet you were rude to your ancestor.”

“I wasn’t,”

“Your words were all proper, but your tone and the set of your face. Well that told a whole other story. I could replay her the memory, let her judge for herself the way you came across,”

“You are playing a dangerous game, Succubus,”

“You’re wrong there. I’m not playing,” Julia said. The coin disappeared as she brought the first-dimensional bag back out.

“Stop. I’ll speak to the branch manager,”

“You go do that while I pack. If I like the answer, I won’t have to leave. Also, buying anything through your branch. That’s off the table now,” purred Julia.

“I don’t know who you think you are, little whore. But I’ll crush you for this.”

“Palia!” said an older looking hag from the office doorway, causing Palia to spin about. With a grimoire held carefully in its hands, she regarded them both before hissing echoing words at Palia. The intonations tugged on memories of muffled words behind the chamber door, but ‘Translate Languages’ made no sense of them.

As the older hag stared at Palia with focused ire, Julia risked the use of Analysis. As tones of anger growled against the air, it provided only the name of Nlia’nitr’ghi. With everything else a stream of unknowns, it left Julia to wonder at their exact relationship.

I guess everything in the Covens is Nepotism. Does it balance it out?

Analysis: Languages

[Unlocked languages currently possessed by the enquiring entity are:

Abyssal, Infernal, Celestial (Common), English, Norse, BrÍn Hand sign, High Elven

Languages that experience has exposed the enquiring entity to:

Egyptian

Latin

Elvish - Moon Elf dialect

Primordial Abyssal (Rare, Magical)]

Sneaky, sneaky, why doesn’t translate work on it.

Spend Knowledge Point on Language, Primordial Abyssal.

Julia almost groaned at the weight of knowledge hit, words and concepts so alien to anything she’d experienced. The names alone, carrying so much power, that knowing them in a rush made her mind ache with the strain. Mental Hardening and sheer Willpower mind shouldered her through the pain. She suddenly felt as if standing in the shadows of things looming far above her, their words, their names echoing through the foundation of reality. A riptide drawing the sand from underfoot, as an understanding of realities foundations tried to crush her mind.

[Mental Hardening [Ad] (1->5)

{{Oh Gosh indeed. }}

((Child, stay in the shallows. Think only of words. Do not utter their True Names. ))

((They are beyond compelling, only dangerous attention drawn before you are ready. ))

((Think only of the simple words, facts, the mundane subjects. ))

((Hold fast to the shore. Do not let the deep consume you. ))

Endless eons of words, concepts, creatures and names tried to sweep her away in its floodwaters. Julia felt something push her awareness upwards, and memories of being lifted by a lifeguard stirred. Simple words for water, sand, foam, limbs and hands, ground her back to the reality she knew. The connections between languages providing a life raft as the black waters surged all around.

The memory of a chiming ring echoed through her Soul and sounds became a buffer—the sound of the hammer, the rustle of beating wings, flesh slapping on rough stone. Running, fleeing, flying between one blink and another, Julia let Harmony and Ki lift the raft above the blackness all around. Yet it was as something pushed her aboard it and pressed her flat to avoid being swept away.

[Abyssal Lore [J](3->37)]

[Achievement: Some things man or demoness wasn’t meant to know.

Condition: Unlock a Primordial knowledge before you are ready, but having the strength of will to stay sane

Reward: Knowledge is its own reward, especially if it’s a dangerous thing.

Bonus Condition: Guided path.

Bonus Reward: ]

Holy Fuck! So much for unlocking things being easier.

What the hell was a guided path? The sound of a smithy hammer?

Was something there with me? What’s in my mind with me?

{{Play with them. }}

((Leave the profound words alone. There may be a need in time. Yet that is not now. Cling to these. ))

The words exchanged between the hags trickled across the surface of the floodwaters, allowing her to skim safe sips through her awareness. Memories and concepts warmth of a blanket weighing her in bed, sipping warmed sweet milk, and then laughter echoing with friends cooled the pain. Will locked her knees, keeping her upright, as Julia blinked and found balance again. The words still hissing between the Hags in the ancient tongue now clear to her.

“By the deep ones, can’t you feel the Dominion Aura going. Stop taking this as a contest to win. She has the ancestor’s approval, so put your business hat on. She provoked you easily. You lost face; calm down and deal with it.”

“She’s a pathetic, lesser Succubus. It doesn’t even cause a ripple in the mists. How could it have something like that? Aunt, she’s an arrogant whore who needs to get smacked into place. That cunt Naz’rilca is pulling something with the first,”

“I agree Naz’rilca is a cunt,” Julia said, interjecting in the same tongue, and watched them both freeze in place. “By the way, Palia.”

Julia turned Dominion off and watched the Hag’s hollows widen even further in shock.

“I’m not pathetic, and I’m not a whore,” said Julia, with a smile, before Dominion turned on again, joined by Stimulation. Will and powers focused purely on Palia, using the peak of the memory that had surfaced outside the club.

[Stimulation (Success) boosted by Dominion

Willpower: 82 vs 72.

Level: 128 vs 105]

After Palia had finished screaming in pleasure and settled into whimpering with the aftershocks, Julia stopped the effect.

“Naz’rilca is a cunt, no question, but I’m not her. I can be a handy ally if you remember not to cross me.”

{{Someone else gets to orgasm, again! I want to cum too!}}

Perhaps she’ll turn a new leaf, or at least a fresh pair of underwear. So she now needs a drip tray?

(( You have strange phrases. But safe ones. ))

Both Hags looked at her in confusion as a feeling of irony and frustration made her snort with laughter, and Julia switched Dominion off. It was an effort to keep her breathing steady as the memory she used rippled within and twitching deepened again.

“Very amusing,” said the older Hag as Palia sat upright.

“Act as her agent for selling all the items she wishes to dispose of and claiming the bounties. Ten percent flat fee on all.”

With a look at Julia, she added.

“You can’t have the coin straight away, but we’ll just take a commission on sale instead. If you provide us with a list of spell forms you are after, we can source suitable grimoires. With a ten percent finder’s fee as well, provided you purchase them through this branch.”

“What’s in it for you?”

“The ten percent. That and hopefully, my niece learnt a valuable lesson this cycle that might save her existence at some point,”

“Assumptions can get you dead?”

“Precisely. She was helpless to that effect, and you could move. If she were outside, it would have been simple to cut her throat,”

“Little niece while I can make use of your corpse. You are more useful, not locked to one plane or destroyed. Now, what was that?” asked Nlia, wiggling her hand in an echo of Pila's writhing motions.

“It’s called an orgasm. It’s something mortals get,” Julia said, with a shrug, not sure what to make of the Aunt yet.

“Fuck mortals,” said Palia, her voice sounding like she wanted to be angry but almost mewled instead.

“That’s the idea. One lot of mortals calls it the little death,” Julia said.

“What a delightful way to view such,” said Nlia, gleeful laughter almost making her words dance. “Do they have many death cults? They’re always so amusing to pander to. One time, my sister and I got over three hundred adults to set themselves on fire with all their lovely children. We waited on the shore of the lava pits for the parents to arrive. Such glorious flaming stars they made on their way down.” said Nila, with a happy nostalgic sigh.

“Aunt Nlia, please, we have deals to discuss.”

“You have a deal now that you almost lost. I’ll be in my office; you girls keep the shouting down. Maybe you should find a mortal to corrupt together. It’s a bonding experience. I should go revisit the lava shores; I’m sure they’d still be there.” Nila said before walking back into her office, humming happily.

“Elders,” said Palia, the mutter barely audible. “Is the commission terms acceptable to you?” she asked.

“That sounds acceptable,” huffed Julia.

“I’m so pleased,” sneered Palia.

“No, you’re not, but if you play straight, I’ll let you feel that again,” offered Julia.

“Really?” asked Palia, her expression lighting up from sullenness.

“Never had an orgasm?” asked Julia.

“No, never,” said Palia, her tone firm, before she bit her lip and continued softly, “That was interesting I’ll have to study it.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’d like to; many get very focused on it,” laughed Julia.

{{Just my luck. I’m with one that just lets her fingers do the walking.}}

((Just like a girl's night discussion. Though why you take amusement in such things is not for me to know.))

“Let’s get everything identified and written up, shall we,” Palia said, her attitude trying to come across as firmly business once again.

Memories of conversations about guys, with her girlfriends spilling details of the fun she was missing out on, came to mind. Julia forced herself the memories away and focused on the moment.

“Well, two sets of breastplates, greaves, arm guards, and axes for Bãrftiz, or other giant types with two arms and legs,”

“One is heavily bloodstained, and the other looks a bit charred,” said Palia, pointing at the marks.

“They’ll clean up,”

“Will you handle that before you go or require our services?”

[Sense Motive [Ap] (9->10)

Haggling [Ap](18->22)]

“How many would an orgasm be worth cleaning wise?” Julia asked.

I can’t believe I said that. My mind still feels leaking out my ears from those words. No, stop, don’t think about them. Listen to her words.

“I’ll take care of cleaning everything. Let’s say three?”

“As long as you’re not expecting long orgasms,” haggled Julia.

“How long can they go on for?” Palin asked in surprise.

“Let’s focus on this for now,” said Julia, not understanding how she’d come to peddling even sexual sensation as favours.

{{Fuck, can I have three in a to-go bag. The power of cum. Don’t I wish? }}

((Laughter ))

Mokilian started upright as Julia opened the door to Klipyl’s office. It had taken a while to get clear of Pila’s attentions and hiring Khalrzo to help guard the Brothel for now. The bard, however, didn’t look worse for wear, instead looking rested. Julia, considering what she was going to do again, stepped inside and closed the door.

“Time to talk,” said Julia.

“What did you wish to talk about?” Moke asked.

“Nothing here,” Julia said, drawing a dimensional bag from her inventory, “Put your hand in this bag.”

“What?”

“I can’t teleport with you unless I have you stored in something to reduce weight. So put your hand in here. I’ll get it to store you and take you somewhere to talk,”

“How will I breathe? I’m a Cambion. We need to breathe,”

“Some of Cambion do. Fine, I’ll store you and then draw you back out. Take a breath when you’re within, see if there is air. If not, we’ll go outside before I tuck you in the bag,” said Julia, her tone firm.

I hope CPR works if the air is bad.

“Why can’t we just talk here?”

“Idiot Cambion. Put your hand in before I shove you in it headfirst,” demanded Julia.

Moke flinched and hesitantly stuck his hand out. “Alright,”

When Moke put his hand into the bag, Julia willed its magic to draw him in, and the human disappeared. Julia mentally counted to five before drawing him back out again. The bard blinked and lowered a hand glowing with light.

“Dark in there, was it?”

“Very. The air smelt metallic and musty, but I could breathe it,” admitted Moke.

“Well, you won’t need to breathe it for long. Now get back in,” Julia said.

When they vanished again, Julia teleported downstairs and quickly left Zôhma behind. Teleport placed Julia as close to the 'Buring Grotto' as possible, a passageway that instead of smooth rock, was now a ruptured mess of broken stone. The edges of rock wombs overlapping when they weren’t layers deep. It had been a killing field for spawning Nox, as Julia lured them closer to the Song. The trip to Zôhma had shown Julia the Elven Souls far from the cavern being captured by the Abyss after their shell’s destruction.

So she’d set about luring them as close as safely possible through each cycle. A process that had left potholes in every passage Julia had found close to the cavern’s edge. The song’s perimeter, no longer extended just within the cavern’s crater but reached far down surrounding passageways. The cavern’s influence initially surged with each Soul freed, but the progress eventually slowed, only extending due to sheer numbers after a time.

With Soul Sight showing no demons, bestial or intelligent about, Julia drew Mokilian out from the bag again. Mokilian blinked and drew breath enough to scream as soon as he appeared. Reptilian talons emerged from their fingertips as he clawed at his own flesh. The brilliance of his Soul moulted with pain as the curse and the Abyssal blight dug deeper still. Wrestling him enough to capture a thrashing foot in the bag, she willed him into storage again.

What the fuck! Well, there goes hoping I could send him to get help from the Elves.

Teleport took her further away, frog hopping passageway length till the song no longer resonated within the tunnel. When she released him wide-eyed into the stone passage again, he shuddered and looked about in fright.

“What was that?”

“Your curse and Abyssal blight reacted to the song,”

“What are you saying? I’m not cursed. I’m Cambion. What region of the Abyss did you take me to?”

“Moke!” Julia said, her voice stern but without Dominion crushing against him, left him blinking in surprise.

“That’s not my name, it's Mokilian,” said Moke, as he tried to draw himself to his feet. The damage he had inflicted was bleeding with every motion.

Julia held up a hand and formed lengths of cloth bandages and willed them free of her forearm, as he looked at her dumbfounded

“Use these to bandage your wounds. I don’t have healing magic. Are you using an item or a spell to protect your mind?”

“I don’t know how to do that,” argued Moke.

Okay so he’s ignoring the other question. Fine.

“Take off your shirt and sit down. You’ve gouged right through the cloth. I hope you didn’t get crap in the wounds,” Julia said,

“Take me back to Zôhma. I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Moke, Bard from Thebes, cursed by a High Priest of a Dark Power, which you had better not name here. Take your shirt off and sit down. I need to bandage your arms and chest from the looks of things.”

Her words uttered with Ki’s coolness were like throwing a spotlight on a kangaroo. Frozen for a moment, he looked ready to jump away.

“Where would you run to? Do you know where Zôhma is? Plenty of things to kill you in these tunnels? Take your shirt off and sit down so I can tend your wounds.”

“How did you know?” asked Moke.

“I know. If I wanted you dead, you’d already be Abyss bait. Now, remove your shirt and sit down, before you fall,”

Julia worked to produce more cloth sections, even creating the padding she remembered from first aid kits. While she didn’t know if they’d be sterile, no matter how she imagined them, she tried regardless. His shirt removed revealed the gouges through scale with fragments of cloth embedded in the wounds. By the time she’d pulled them free with shifted tweezers and finished with the bandaging, he’d grown quiet. Julia, crouching next to him, contemplated what to do next.

[First Aid (1 -> 5)]

“Do you speak this tongue?” Julia asked in Norse.

“Yes, but why are we using it?”

“Not everything in the Abyss speaks or can understand mortal languages, and I don’t speak Egyptian. Do you have any spell that can guard against scrying?”

“Yes, it’s intended for matters requiring discretion,” replied Moke

“Fine, cast it then.”

“First, we need to be intimately embracing. I designed the spell form to protect the privacy of lovers. There are restrictions on it that make it easier to cast and maintain,”

{{Oh, yummy. We could grind our peanuts against his scale, make some nipple spread.}}

((Brillant aura yet hardily innocent. Wonder if he was cuckolding the High Priest’s wife? ))

Julia closed her eyes for a moment, feeling Moke move away, her hands tightened on uninjured flesh.

“Stop moving—great, typical bard. Of course, your spell forms make it safer to get a leg over,” Julia said, sitting down next to him and scissored him from the side, a single leg across his lap. “Hold my leg and cast your darn spell already.”

Mana shimmered in the air, and Julia caught after images and sounds of them sitting side by side; discussing the beauty of the mushroom glow and rock textures.

“It’s prattling about the local crap,” observed Julia.

“It’s so you don’t have to concentrate on anything besides your lover,” sighed Moke, momentarily distracted by Julia's pressure against him.

{{We could check his sturdy rocks and help him shift some weight. }}

“Right, let’s talk fast. This spell is just saying we have something to hide,” Julia said, “you need out of the Abyss. You’ve already got Abyssal blight digging into your Soul.”

“What sort of trick is this? You’ve discovered me. I know I’m doomed.”

“It isn’t a trick, but I don’t have a safe way to get you to the material plane. Not and ensure you’ll come out somewhere safe,”

“You want to send me home looking like this? So you can scry across the planes and delight in my family killing me themselves?”

“You are wasting fucking time you might not have,” growled Julia.

“We could do that. I know I’m doomed. I might as well have a nice send-off,” chirped Moke.

{{ Say yes, I’ll behave just scratch the itch please. }}

(( He is eager for pleasure, without considering the cost. ))

“If you fondle me, your face is going to break,” said Julia, holding up a fist.

“But you’re a Succubus? Aren’t you supposed to be dooming mortals via temptations of carnal lusts?” asked Moke.

“Don’t get me started. Now options, I can let you use a conduit and best of luck. If it goes to the right place, or at least remotely, you’re out. Then you can try to find someone to remove the curse. The second option, we could go to the grey fields and find a Patrol of a Light God to help you.

“I want revenge.”

I didn’t even get to option three, let alone four.

“What?”

“On the priest that sent me here. I want revenge. His church caused the disappearance of my friends and other groups from the Charter guild. Even before that, a whole township died due to them. I’m alive, but my friends are likely dead. Can you help me get revenge?”

{{Kill Bill!!!}}

((The path of vengeance is a slippery slope. ))

Memories of action movies and sword fights with gore splashing ending in everyone dead came to mind as Julia tried to re-orientate herself.

“Fuck.”

“Why do you say that you already threatened to slap me?”

“Darn, I said that in Norse,” huffed Julia.

“What does it matter the language if you wish to fornicate?” enquired Moke his brows furrowed in confusion.

“I’ve been to Eyrarháls, and I can get you there. However, I can’t open the conduit to the material plane; and can’t get there without a summoner or someone with a pact calling me.”

“Form a pact with me then. I’ll agree as long as revenge is on the table.”

((He doesn’t know the real price he could pay. ))

Julia’s imagination offered up images of Moke’s Soul darkened like those on the fields of Blood, and she shuddered in disgust.

“It corrupts your Soul with Abyssal energy. Why would you want that?”

“Why would you not that state? If I can get revenge, and if you’d allow it, leave behind a few poems about my victory. I would consider it well spent.”

Wait, I thought I’d need to talk him into it. Why is the shoe on the other foot? This guy is nuts.

“You’re crazy,” declared Julia.

“I’m in the Abyss, talking to a Succubus who has her wondrous legs around me and doesn’t want sex. Of course, I’m the crazy one,” laughed Moke.

“Fine, whatever. Stop the spell.”

Julia used Teleport to get to her feet, wanting to avoid any more awkwardness.

“So how do I use this conduit? Or form a Pact?”

Julia looked at him and wondered which of them was crazier, and focused on projecting the Pact’s power towards him.

[Demonic Pact Formed: Moke, child of Feme, High Priestess of Bast has accepted your Pact]

Fuck me!

[Demonic Pact (5->6)]