For My Next Trick.... [Plot]

[Darastrix]

Well, this was a familiar sight, wasn't it? Him, his surviving priests, sacrificial slaves of Water and Ice, the volcano.... Ah, nostalgia. As the preparations were made, Die wondered what would happen if two such portals were open at the same time. There was that cave-village in Talen'sul. Kill enough Winds under the earth.... Hm. Maybe later.

Since the doorway was still open, the use of (un)holy water would have been redundant--it would have been like adding salt to a pickle, honestly--but the symbols for 'water' were once more carved into the mountainside and the ground 'anointed' with ice, because dammit, you had to have showmanship.

The slaves and unfortunate citizens who happened to be of the proper signs weren't as ignorantly hopeful as the first bunch had been, but that was all right. There were more than enough thralls with them to keep the slaves in line.

Die turned to his demonic second, grinning beneath his mask. "Would you like to do the honors of throwing the first one in?" Zarhiel hadn't killed him yet, so that was worth giving the man a perk.

[Kender Bard]

"Sure," Zahariel agreed. Though the demon wasn't wholly extroverted, he'd gotten along with Die quite well and had said as much on at least two occassions, making note that his Lady Blue was most likely going to take well to Die and vice versa. Perhaps the two of them could find that... Useful.

Grabbing a slave, Zahariel chucked it in without much more ceremony. Now that they were close to their goal, he was getting antsy to free Terza.

This time it took less slaves than last time--a quarter less. Rather than prepare to explode again, however, the ground and air began to grow increasingly colder. The volcano belched not ash and smoke but white steam and the lip of the volcano began to become rimmed in ice. As the humans gathered were beginning to shiver from the sudden cold, there was an upward gush of sludgy snow-like material from within the volcano and from it emerged a slender, lithe feminine form.

Most of her appeared similar to that of a well-bodied human woman, though her skin was a pale light blue, like the color of a winter sky when the sun was out. Her head was decidedly very not human; she lacked eyes or nose or ears, and in fact her entire head was a smooth, blank mask save for a giant, grinning mouth situated in the center of her 'face' that stretched from nonexistent ear to nonexistent ear. Whether it was locked in a perpetual smile or not remained to be seen, but for now she was beaming broadly. A single horn jutted up from the center of her head for a few inches, before splitting slightly to create a V shape of horns made entirely from icicles. Indeed, it looked as though she had been hanging upside down and allowed icicles to form on her head, though in truth they were much, much sturdier than they appeared.

Her body was covered, in pieces, of the same odd material that made up Zarhiel's sword; though given how tightly it wrapped itself around her body (and in pieces, covering her in a mismatched pattern), it seemed more like a second skin. A row of spines jutted out from her spine down her back, these looking more like spikes made of snow and exuding a soft cold mist off of them. Long, curving nails made a question of whether or not her hands were hands or just delicate claws.

Though she had no wings and seemed incapable of flight, the snow-slush that she had risen up on moved her effortlessly with her will. In this, she seemed akin to a three-signer Ice in his element, except that unlike those poor chump mortals, Terza had no need to be surrounded by her element. She could make quite well to do wherever she was.

She laughed as she was deposited, lightly, in front of Zarhiel. "Hello my second," she greeted him. Her voice, when she laughed, was somewhat unpleasant. It struck a note that was almost painful to the human ear. Mercifully, her speaking voice was not quite the same but she did give the impression that it was a voice meant for screeching. "Good job on bringing me through. And now now, what do we have here?"

"My assistance in your task," Zarhiel replied. "Lady Blue, this is Die, the High Priest of Evil in the human land of Morilanta. He also orchestrated the freeing of Lord Red."

Terza's grin didn't waver one bit and she held out her hand to him carefully. "You are a busy, busy human, aren't you?"

[Darastrix]

"You have no idea," Die told her cheerily as he clasped her hand lightly (he had no idea whether his Ice element would protect him from her cold) and bowed his head over it.

"A test run in a swamp, opened a portal, freed the demons, freed a lord, marched some thralls down to get more sacrifices to free you, possibly ruining Saul's dear alliance with his pirate friends down south since we did raze the place in Morilanta's name--oops--marched back here and now here you are. I'm having a marvelous time, and it's a great pleasure to finally meet you, Lady Blue."

[Kender Bard]

Her hand was cool, but not overly cold. It seemed she was safe to touch, if one minded the nails. Terza laughed again. "I like you!" she declared. "And what is my dear Lord Red up to?"

"At last report, he was making steady progress northeast of here towards the the land of Love's children, gathering thralls with intent of conquering the land," Zarhiel reported dutifully.

"Of course he is," Terza replied with a touch of scorn. "Oh boys and their wars! So dull. Karau doesn't know a good time until it bites him right in his ass." She chomped her mouth pointedly then gave off another peal of laughter. "I guess it's once again up to me to arrange for the after-party." Honestly, what would he do without her?

"Oh!" She put her hands on her hips, giving off the impression of being more alert suddenly. "You know, while I was passing through that portal, I got the impression that it was widening. Like... Tearing! You know, like when you get an itty bitty little demon and a great big brute forces-"

"The passage was easier?" Zarhiel interrupted, intrigued.

Terza frowned at him briefly. "Yes." Her tone was a touch petulant for being interrupted. "Still, it closed up behind me, but not as tight as I perceived it to be before my passage. I think that each time one of us comes through, it becomes a little easier to bring others through. That should be interesting! Perhaps when I start needing diversion we might bring Nefriti through. But not right now. Right now I want to just have some fun."

[Darastrix]

Die’s brows rose at Terza’s observation. That was interesting. If enough lords came through, the doorway might be permanently wide enough for the largest of them to come as they pleased. Or go. He wasn’t sure whether the passage was one-way, and that wasn’t the sort of thing one mentioned, lest one become a convenient test subject.

“Finally,” he sighed instead, “I think I have found someone much more like-minded. I quite agree. ‘Raze this, conquer that,’ and then after you conquer everything, it’s still nothing but work-work-work to keep everything running smoothly. What kind of fun did you have in mind, my Lady?”

[Kender Bard]

"Oh I don't know," Terza replied with a renewed grin. "I've never been to this plane of existence before, though I've heard all sorts of interesting stories from the souls we get. You seem like a fellow who knows how to have a good time though. Do you have any suggestions? Otherwise I'll probably just go wander around and see what humanity has to offer."

[Darastrix]

"Well, if you have the ability that some do to make yourself blend in with humans, there's a few more options, but if not...." Die tapped a finger against his cheek. "Mm, it's too bad the last demon incursion and that faerie thing later will have people being so suspicious or we could see how many people would want to worship you as a Force or even try to pass you off as an Element born back when the Ices started popping up."

"The Outcasts would worship you as you are, though. Showing up in Morilanta will probably start another civil war-- 'Civil war.' I love how contradictory that phrase is, don't you?" He grinned behind his mask and started meandering about the slope, hands clasped behind his back. "That would be the likely result if the news has gotten back to Saul about Ekaitz. His supporters versus mine, leader versus high priest...the chaos is lovely, but it's really still just more of the same old thing. I think it would drive him more crazy to not have me around to point at or make an example of, anyway. He's so caught up with 'appearances' and trying to make the other nations think we're not that bad, though his little stunt with Grandisle pretty much lost him all of the face he hoped to get with most of them, anyway."

"Anyway, we could just say 'hang the plan,' wander into one of the next nations over and just see what happens. You'll always have a surprise that way."

[Kender Bard]

Terza watched Die with some amusement. "I do like some worship," she replied merrily. "But I don't crave it like some of my brethren do. I am a little wary of wandering into the nations though. From the sounds of things, between this world's history and my own consort tearing a path of conquest, won't most mortals try to kill anyone as, hmm, unusual looking as me on the spot? This beautiful body is the one I'm stuck with. Nefriti is actually the shapechanger in my merry band of allies."

[Darastrix]

"Prooooobably," Die conceded. "Though you never know. But, well, it's kind of hard to think of something fun or otherwise that humanity might have to offer if we can't actually go around them. Unless you have something in mind, my Lady?"

[Kender Bard]

"I may," Terza replied, rubbing her hands together a little as her mind whirled. "How guillible would you say mortals are these day? You say they're on their guard... But do you think they could swallow the idea of a savior-monster? I think it'd be highly amusing to get people riled up in my favor, let them think I'm going to protect them or lead them on a path to bring down Karau... only to double-cross them and drop them on his lap for consuming."

"Or we could leave Karau out of it--he has no sense of humor, you know--and see how many people we can just plain dupe into believing you are going to aid them. I could put on a convincing show of being another big, bad demon and then you could 'slay' me. When you have a suitable following, then we fuck them over somehow, for giggles."

"Or, and I'm not as enthused about this idea, we just work on bringing Nefriti through so she can do her shapechanger thing and go cause mayhem for us."

[Darastrix]

"With the last incursion and all the monsters that have given people all over trouble in the past few years, I don't think the first one will fly very well. And, like you say, no sense of humour. Idea number two has promise, though," Die said.

[Kender Bard]

"Then let's do that," Terza agreed. "Where do you think we'll find some gullible people to have our fun with?"

[Darastrix]

"Mm, smaller villages, likely. Ones too small to be much more than a bunch of houses. The ones in Reave may have promise; they're mostly Clears there," Die explained, "so there's not a lot in terms of elemental attack power to begin with."

[Kender Bard]

Terza chuckled, a low and amused sound, as she rubbed her hands together. "Well then. Let's go put on a show, shall we, my most amusing mortal?"

[Darastrix]

"Let's," Die agreed with a bow. "And who knows? I might even take off my mask for it; it'll be the best disguise I could possibly conjure."