Chapter 49: Fire and Flames and She Is Fine

Fuck, there is no way. They’re all dead if there’s a fight. Now what…

He did not seem the slightest bit in a rush to fight, however. The first thing he did was snap his fingers with a loud, extra echo and say something in another tongue, likely what the imps spoke. He then gestured at the portal in a very ‘let’s go children’ sort of way.

All of the imps disengaged at this point, giving unique yipping noises in a very relieved manner. Many of them grabbed things from bodies along the way — weapons, pouches, and so on — whatever they could easily get while still moving.

The hyena dogs went too, limping, hanging their heads, ignoring the soldiers, wagging their tuft-ended rat tails briefly at their master but mostly avoiding his gaze. One did stop before him and look up, as if for attention. It was perhaps a younger specimen.

Zadkiel blinked and looked down, then leaned to ruffle its mane of hair and give it a scratch behind the ear. “Good boy — go on now.” He patted its back and it darted through the portal.

A portal. I have to consider the implications. What does it mean? This can’t be common. Something to do with demons? Or simply Zadkiel?

Carlisle had not exactly just stood there the whole time. He’d motioned to the men, getting them to consolidate into two loose groups, skirmish-type formations. He called over from his group, “State your intentions, Demon Lord!”

Zadkiel raised his brows and laughed, shrugged. He glanced over at the charred, somehow probably still alive body of Thadeus — dismissed it — then saw the crown. He gestured with a hand and cast a quick spell — some sort of telekinesis — and the crown shot over to his hand. He put it on his head, the ‘rings’ fitting over the horns.

Fuck… of course he’s a Wizard. Why wouldn’t he be? Fuck.

“My title,” Zadkiel said conversationally, “is Imperial Majesty, though I suppose I’m lacking authority in these lands. And you are?”

“Lord Carlisle will do. And you?”

Zadkiel smiled. “How about Lord Talldrink? They do say that about me. Well. Now that pleasantries are out of the way…”

The spell was so quick, like the telekinesis, that only one person reacted fast enough — Mekias. He flung a dagger right at Zadkiel’s face. Zadkiel, smiling around his incantation, dipped his head to parry it away with his horns, his expression one of glee, as if he appreciated the attempt.

An instant later, after a gesture, a massive wall of fire rose up in an area enough to wrap around both halves of the party, and they immediately had to back away from the heat of the flames.

“Don’t let anyone try and run through!” Sammy sent immediately to her Followers. She understood something of the spell, knew it was extremely high level and almost certainly death to test.

“I’m afraid I need to finish matters here,” Zadkiel continued from the other side, apparently while walking, “but I would like to spare… ah… one or two of you? Who would like to be spared, hmm? You’ll have to come with me to my lands, of course. But you’ll be treated well! And would merely have to be kind enough to answer some questions.”

The men all looked at one another, and everyone scowled and shook their heads.

“No one?” Zadkiel asked into the silence answering him. “Not even… the illusionist? I’ll be honest, it’s kind of you I want. It seemed like some… artifact you have helping you, rather than mere spellcraft. Well? Anybody?”

“None will betray the other here,” Carlisle said stoically.

Bunch of heroic fools… She wanted to cry right then. But she had no time for that. I can’t stay silent. I have to make a play. But how to do it without revealing more than I want…

Zadkiel laughed. “It really is a beautiful novelty. It warms my heart. I usually have to utilize traitors, you know. But really, I’ll get what I want regardless. Firstly, there’s this marchioness issue, so if you would-”

Sammy constructed a ‘prayer’ to Zadkiel, a communication of an angry, disturbed boar getting ready to charge, the feel in a deep, dark jungle of its judgment on an unsanctioned hunter. Wind whipping violently through the trees.

Forming the voice of Redberry, she sent, “Zadkiel! Enough of this nonsense in my deep woods! My cave. These people are under my protection. Release them immediately.”

In the real world, it felt like Zadkiel had literally stopped cold, and there was nothing but dead silence.

And then finally a return reply both amused and a little disturbed, “Unholy fucking hell! Nice. Fucking. Try! Damn. I was convinced for a moment. But the nature of this, well… I know it isn’t her. Who the fuck is this?”

Anticipating the possibility, Sammy switched to her Greenleaf persona and sent a frustrated sigh, a whip of wind swaying leaves and twigs. “Fine, sure, you caught me. I’m Greenleaf, Redberry’s demigod daughter. Could you please cut me a break? I got a Follower here, and I’m trying to do things in this forest and grow, you know.”

Zadkiel’s curiosity could be tangibly felt in the communication back. “Greenleaf… why does it ring true? But demigods are rare… fit for different environments than this world. And someone called Greenleaf doesn’t really add up with all this illusionary madness… something more here…”

Sammy had no immediate answer for this, so she let him puzzle it out himself. Meanwhile, she sent calming thoughts to her Followers: stand by. She was trying to save their asses. Keep cool, wait. She checked on Merril — alive, though he’d discarded her mask on the floor in his fear. He was huddled, hiding in a crack, shaking and afraid to come out.

She sent a warning to the reinforcement group still racing through the tunnels, to hang back. There was no current point to them coming, after all…

Zadkiel seemed to suddenly have a eureka, then he laughed in her head. “Oh ho ho ho, I know what it is now! That sly little minx! I can’t believe she finally managed it after all this time in seclusion. Of course you would be a trickster! Completely natural for the fae. And what better service to illusive denizens than that?”

“Am not!” was all Sammy sent back, denial and a tiny bit of annoyance. Youthful petulance. Playing into it.

An up-jumped spirit, basically? Guess I’ll have another persona if this works. A pretend persona pretending to be another pretend persona. Lies on top of lies. Fuck me!

Feelings of smug conclusion came through the connection from Zadkiel. “Ohhh, I think so, little bud of the leaf yet to blossom. What’s your real name, then?”

“Greenleaf,” she sent back with a touch of sullenness. “Anyway, what does it matter? You know I exist, you can contact me with ease. So, will you do me a solid or not?”

“Do you really think you are in any position to withhold information from me?”

“I do. The instant you knew there was a deity aware of your dealings you had a new problem on your hands. You can’t remove me as a witness. I even have it recorded, by the way. Everything.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes.” After a pause, she sent more playfully, “Besides, what’s life without a little mystery dangling?”

That certainly intrigued him. “Well, that is a point. Depending on how it unravels…”

He does like to chase after completely unattainable women, after all.

Sammy flashed the feminine silhouette in the tree, alluring green eyes briefly visible. Coy… a bit shy but being daring past it. “It can unravel so many interesting ways, the exploration of new things… I admit to curiosity, though Redberry wouldn’t approve of involvements with your ilk…”

Amusement. “My ilk? Oh, we get a bad rap, truly.”

“You mean like backstabbing and murdering a pack of frogmen, and sacrificing people for rituals?”

“Those frogmen were murdering bandits and outcasts themselves, reviled by their own people, smearing their name and reputation. Scum. I planned on reporting their deaths — under an alias — to no less than three tribes, who’d thank me for it as vengeance. As for nobility, none of them — or us — are innocent. We’re all figureheads lording over the weak by right of might. We’re all sons of bitches and we’re all competitors. If you aren’t my ally, you’re my enemy.”

“You don’t have to be pushing the envelope. Stirring war will magnify the suffering.”

“Temporarily.” After a pause, he said in more amusement, “Perhaps your ‘involvement’ could soften my ways, you never know. In any case, we have the same enemy. The Dominion would burn your blooming spurts of growth before they flower to full splendor.”

In her domain, Sammy made a gag face at his blatant euphemisms. But she sent, “Something we’d both like to see, wouldn’t we? But I can’t fight them directly, not for a long time. What makes you think you can?”

“Now that would be telling. Life’s mysteries, remember?”

“Right… okay, so what about that solid?”

“Let’s discuss it after I dispose of this old hag in the proper-”

“No! I need her spared, too.”

“Why?”

Sammy hesitated to simply come out with altruism, something that Zadkiel might understand but hardly respect. “I have a quest to save her.”

She felt dirty even saying such a thing, perhaps because, truthfully, that was an element to it, even if small. A sense of completion… a sense of worth for all the costs.

Zadkiel laughed riotously at the admittance for a spell. “Of course you do! It’s a bit of an issue, dear. I have one too.”

With dread, Sammy asked, “To sacrifice her?”

“Mmn. A tribute of blood. Well… a ‘ruler of rulers’... that would be a count or higher. Marchioness is effectively the same.”

I can’t believe I’m going to ask this…

“Can you just kill someone else?”

“I could. My contingency is well-preserved, as of now.”

“Would you do that instead, then? If they aren’t someone…” She trailed off, unsure how to complete the thought.

“What? Innocent? Hardly. Again, rulers, remember? Just another scumbag. Slightly more inconvenient to dispose of, shall we say. It sounds like you want to make a deal, dear.”

A devilish grin, self-aware at how someone like him offering such a thing would seem. He continued, “You have illusion abilities… trickery… but perhaps some other domain. Saying you can record things… your resourcefulness to even be here… seems to suggest extra capability. You want to preserve your mystery, do you? Fine, but I want your services. Information and spies — and specifically in the effort against a mutual foe. I want you as an ally.”

“I will not fight a war with you, nor send my people to die in it.”

“Did I say you should? The conquest is my department. I wouldn’t want you to singe your pretty leaves before you’re grown, after all. No, I merely want intel in lands you apparently have interest and influence within, and developed so secretly I had no clue. You could save me a lot of trouble. How long have you been entrenched?”

“Not answering that.” Sammy squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. A deal with a devil, how fucked was that? But at least he didn’t know who she really was. “Why are you even here? Why fuck with the politics here?”

“You could probably figure it out, but I’ll tell you absolutely… if you make the deal.”

“There can be no killing of innocents or needless warmongering out here.”

“I would honor the territory… of an ally. An agent growing here that is counter to the Dominion is… very desirable. As I said, you could save me a lot of trouble.”

Sammy thought she might know what his purpose was. The quest, obviously, and maybe the favor with Frogmen tribes, too, but sowing discord, even the smell of plots in the borderlands, would inevitably draw Dominion interest. Pull them one way while he was moving the other. That likely meant he already had other things happening. Someone that talked about ‘contingencies’ wasn’t one to put all their eggs in one basket.

But with her there, she could serve a similar purpose. Either he backstabs her, or he convinces her to do things that draw attention. Or he watches and sees if she fucks up herself. At least, these were all the negative ways to look at it.

Maybe it's more of a contingency if I’m not more useful as a spy network… maybe he’s just adapting for a longer play… fuck. Well, I could go around and around guessing. I still have to fix the here and how.

“I will provide intel in ways to damage the Dominion specifically,” Greenleaf offered grimly, “for two weeks as a probationary relationship. If you are found to be too much of an asshole or gearing to backstab me as some throwaway decoy, I’m certainly not going to help you. Respect for respect, right?”

With amusement and appreciation, he sent, “I’m gathering that your mind is devious enough that I should step carefully, yes.”

There was obviously some element of sheer enjoyment to it all for him. “As for my end, I’ll spare this lot. And your precious nitwit marchioness. Don’t be surprised if her incompetence gets her killed anyway, though. She should’ve had that wretched fuck Thadeus have a little accident long ago.”

“Be that as it may-”

“And I’m taking a hostage, to ensure good conduct for this little probation. It’s rather customary. And your service will be for a month.”

“I’m not agreeing to that.”

“Then there’s no deal!”

Sammy grit her teeth. We all knew this quest would be a nightmare.

After a long pause, Greenleaf said, “3 weeks. But this portal goes with you.” She actually had no idea whether that made sense, whether it was tied to something removable, but she said it anyway.

“You can do whatever you like with the rune circle, but you’ll need a lot of force to destroy it. I can’t take it with me. Other than that, my Mysterious Allurer,” — A Cheshire Cat grin, a Jinn’s smile, a devil’s wicked smirk — “I believe we have a deal.”

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