Peter glares at Xenia, sohow managing to look as if he deserved to be in charge despite his current occupation as 'shirtless man strapped to a torture table'. "Prince Xenon Darkstar. What, suddenly going back to full titles now, are we?"
"Xenon?" Xenia looks down at herself, before chuckling awkwardly. "Right, right, dude run. Should've noticed my voice change." The young man gives the dungeon master a confused look, while Xenia looks at him with pity in exchange. "...Peter, Peter. I suppose I'd start my apology tour with you, except you're not real, so it'd be a waste of ti. ...Also, you were kind of one of the worst of the lot, after you were at it for a couple of years. I get so of the bla for that for putting you on that path, sure, but you got so responsibility for your own actions too, kiddo."
"...What on Earth are you talking about, villain?"
"Ah, yeah, that phrase. This is when we're supposed to find out we're both from Earth, and start finding common ground and all that, right?" Turning away, Xenia instead looks around until she finds the doorway out. "Unfortunately, I might be on the clock here. Sorry, Pete. Don't wait up for ."
As the Hero continues to shout questions at her, Xenia makes her way out of the torture chamber. When she opens the door and steps into the hall outside, she finds a small army of won waiting for her, so leaning against the wall, so sitting on chairs and drinking tea, all of them grouped into pairs and dressed in so of the scantiest outfits the Tower could provide. A pair of orcs stand closest to the door, chatting with a pair of purple-skinned imp won, then there were vampires, dark elves, even a pair of human knights from the Sisters of Seduction order. They all begin to co to attention as they spot Xenia's arrival, and the closest orc greets her with a quick salute.
"Finished phase one already, Prince? Well, you are famous for your competence! Have you determined the man's preference yet? Tell it's not n, we can have the other squad here in twenty minutes but I'd hate to have oiled up these abs for nothing."
Xenia tries not to smile as she begins to rember the faces, even as she fails to rember the nas. "His preference? Eh, fuck if I can recall, but I don't think he was exactly picky. Whatever, I've got business in the chapel I need to take care of first, just ca up." She begins to make her way down the hall, before pausing to give one order. "...Bah, fuck it. Go on in and offer him the full buffet if you like, yeah? Live like you've only got one day left to live."
An imp squeals in excitent. "Always do! Thanks, Prince, you're the best!"
"...Wish that was remotely true. Have fun, though."
It was a short walk from there to the tower's main staircase, where Xenia started going downwards, not up. The dungeon was actually located fairly high up on the tower, given that breaking Heroes was one of Xenia's primary personal responsibilities, and one of the perks of nobility is not having to climb an entire damn tower every ti you needed to get to work. The chapel anwhile was located at the middle floor of the tower, having been designed to serve tower residents while other facilities served the city outside. As Xenia walks into the space she finds it largely empty, but not in too bad of a shape. There was of course so damage from when the tower had first been captured and sacked, but the floor had largely been left alone after that.
As she walks through the chapel's main room, Xenia muses to herself. "Lucky that it's still in good condition right now...wonder if that was on purpose that I ca here now, cause I knew I needed to swing by? It was probably a year or so after this we finally got around to hosting the orgies in here. Tuesdays, Fridays, and occasionally Sundays when we had the energy, right? Heh." Xenia narrows her eyes at herself. "...How the fuck do I not rember the gods but I rember the fuckin' orgy schedule? ...Guess that ain't too surprising, actually. I actually liked the orgies."
Muttering a bit under her breath as she makes her way, she adds one further comnt to herself. "...Wonder how many Kahlia-points I earned in this room? Guess it was good for one thing, at least..."
She continues on into the small library built into the back of the chapel, a modest space containing perhaps a thousand various tos, plus a larger amount of paperwork that was no longer relevant to Tower operations. Xenia makes the turn around the first bookshelf in the room, and is actually rather shocked to see soone else inside. Sitting at a desk, a green-skinned elf is reading away, wearing the robes of a priestess and a collar around her neck. "Fuck! What are you doing here!?"
If anything, the priestess is perhaps even more shocked than Xenia is. "Prince Darkstar! I - I didn't know you'd be coming here today! I'm sorry I wasn't ready to greet you properly!" She quickly stands up to her feet, before giving a low bow, but Xenia waves it off.
"No formality today, please. But, again - who are you and what are you doing here? Are you...one of the original Tower priestesses? Why are you still here?"
The woman swallows before answering. "I...chose not to evacuate with the other civilians, as I wished to protect the knowledge stored here. I hid here in the library during the sacking and...one of your dark knights found and collared , and that was, um. More or less it. No one ever told to do anything else, so I've been continuing my duties since then, as best as I can."
Xenia stares at the woman, wide-eyed. "...Seriously? That had to have been months ago. What's your na? Did...do all of my dudes hate reading so much that they never noticed there was an elf living in the library?"
The elf looks downward, not eting Xenia's eyes. "I am Tower Priestess Opal Brightsky, your majesty. And...actually I do have so library regulars, as it happens. I, um. I've rather implied to them that I'm supposed to still be working here, and none have ever complained."
"Really? Damn, well, good on you. Making it work, not that 'living in a library the size of an average basent' is exactly the dream, but better than most prisoners, I guess. Fuck, though, I know you weren't around when we turned this place into the orgy hall, I would've noticed you for sure. Did you end up signing on? Did we release you? Or, fuck, maybe one of the fallen Heroes grabbed you when they found out you were squatting. Well...whatever it was, Priestess Brightsky...I'm sorry. You're still not real, but I think you deserve that more than Pervert Pete does, at least."
"I...um...thank you?" The woman's response is clearly a little bewildered, not sure whether to respond more to the apology from the scion of Evil or the 'you're not real' part of the statent. "Can I, ah...help you, though? I would very much prefer to continue my service here in the library if I may!"
"Yeah, no problem, I imagine you'll be in this room for the rest of your existence." Xenia winces at her own turn of phrase. "Fuck, that sounds extra dark coming from . Sorry, again. What I an to say is...yeah, I could use your help."
"Of course! Whatever you need! ...Please don't kill ."
"Don't even worry about it. Look, what I need is a listing of the deities in the local pantheon. Especially those the elven kingdom would've worshiped."
"The...the local pantheon, my liege? Are there others?"
"Ugh, I literally just went through that like thirty minutes ago. Just...can you help point out a text with a list for ? This is a religious library, I'd bet money there's a hundred of em in here."
"Imdiately! Let's see, we have an overview prir...ah, here we are. This to is mainly intended to describe the various religious orders of the world, but of course you can't do that without knowing the deities, right? Haha!" The priestess gives a too-cheerful laugh as she pulls out a book from a nearby shelf and begins to go through it. "Let's see...there's the Five Dark Gods, I imagine those are the ones you're familiar enough with, yes? Did they never teach the others in your holand?"
Xenia has to give it a mont's thought. "I'm pretty sure I never gave a shit about religion of any sort, at least around here. Dad did do like...annual rituals and sacrifices and stuff, but they were, uh. Never really my thing." Even on most worlds, Xenia's primary qualifier for going to a temple was how hot a given deity was, and Dark Gods tended to be a little high on tentacles and spider legs for her tastes.
"I see. Well, there's also the seven Wandering Gods, worshiped by the various nomads of the world...and here we are! The twelve gods of the Pantheon of Light!"
"Twelve of em, huh? Guess that increases the odds of being able to find at least one, I suppose." Xenia takes the book and begins to read it over, trying her best to morize the nas on the list before her ti might run out. "Hrmmm...Deliar the Sky Lord. Grenfelda the Lady of Hunts. Lipsolde the Lady of the Forests..."
The elf leans in, trying very hard to continue being helpful. "Is there anything more specific you were looking to find out? Rituals, practices, that sort of thing?"
"Rituals wouldn't help , not where I'm from. Ah, hold on, which divinity is this chapel actually for? I suspect they've got extra reason to be pissed at . Orgy hall, and whatnot."
"Ah, well...the chapel worshiped all of the twelve, of course, but our primary patron was Theolif, Lord of the Shield. Given that we are...were...right on the border with your kingdom, we particularly prayed for his aid in defense."
"Guess prayers only do so much, then." She reads though the list five more tis, until she's eventually satisfied she has it all down, and sighs. "...Alright. Hope this pays off, cause if none of these work I'm out of ideas."
"Is there...anything else you need, Prince?"
Xenia leans back into a chair, and gives the priestess a long looking-over before answering. The elf starts to grow a little nervous, but Xenia takes the conversation down a different turn than she may have been expecting. "...Tower Priestess Opal Brightsky. Another na for to try and rember. Tell about yourself."
"!? I...I don't see why I would be of any interest to you, your highness."
The princely woman shrugs. "Well, for one thing, it seems like I have so ti to kill. I sure ain't going back upstairs to watch Peter getting his...'enticents'. But mostly...I suppose I owe you at least that, to hear about one of the lives I wrecked. And, hell...you are an elf, after all. Maybe if you're lucky, you're still around. I hope it all turned out alright for you, though I gotta admit, the odds ain't great." Xenia waves off the confused look the elf is giving her, and refocuses the question. "Ignore my rambling. So, who's Opal Brightsky?"
"Ah, well, your highness...I suppose I'll start off by saying I'm the youngest of three sisters. My father is a tailor, my mother worked in the Tower as a scribe. My oldest sister works with my father, the middle sister...she was part of the City Guard." She pauses there, watching Xenia for their reaction.
"...Do you know if your family are still around?"
"Most of them should have evacuated before the siege started. My sister in the guard, Tina...I heard she fell in the battle for the city, fighting bravely."
"...I'm sorry to hear that. God, that sounds so fuckin' hollow, and this is just a practice round. Sorry doesn't an much to you, does it?"
Opal eyes Xenia carefully, and after a while they begin to narrow. "...May I speak frankly, Prince Darkstar? Without...being thrown from the window or such?"
"Go for it. Hit with what you got."
The elf takes a deep breath. "You're not...a person, to . None from your kingdom ever were, not really. You were just...a force of nature, puppets of the Dark Gods. Our purpose was to fight you, defend against your armies, the way a...a fire brigade might fight fires, or a hunter would cull forest monsters. You just...were. A thing that existed in the world and probably always would. But now...I don't know what you are. Are you evil? Do you have a purpose for what you did? Destroying this city...killing my sister. Did it an sothing for you? Was there ever a reason?"
Xenia stares at the elf for a while, her spirit plumting as the answer cos to her lips. "Right now? I don't know what I am, I suppose. I'm trying to figure that out, sotis. But when I did those things?" The dungeon master shakes her head. "I...I was hurting. I thought the world was fake, and I wanted to prove how fake it was. Good versus Evil, the eternal battle, right? Evil rises but Good always triumphs in the end? Well...I could break that system. Tip the scales. And...so I did it. Because I could. Spit in the eyes of the gods and the stories and the systems."
"Then you were evil after all, causing suffering for suffering's sake." Opal walks over to the seated Prince, and leans down to look into Xenia's eyes. As she does so...Xenia would swear a different light suddenly shines behind them, although she doesn't get the chance to ask what could cause it. "...I suppose it would make a hypocrite then, to say that I'm glad to see you suffering. But I am glad for that, and glad that I found you before he did. But I'll tell you this, Reincarnator Extraordinaire. Things are rarely as fake as they may seem."
With that, the priestess suddenly winds up a punch, slamming her fist into Xenia's jaw before the Prince can react and sending her tumbling to the ground.
As her eyes reopen, taking in the sight of the dungeon room around her, Xenia gasps. "What the FUCK was that!?"
Far to the south, the Dragonlord stirs from their ditation. Although no one is present to hear them, the dictator murmurs a question. "...Now just who in the blazes was that?"
User Comments
0 comments from readers