“I do not know. I do know that Evil men do not like being slaves, and that is all they will end up being if they choose the wrong path. Whether they can choose the Right Path is something completely different.” They were already on the path of serving Dark Powers who gave their people horrible afterlives. It really came down to whether they cared enough to doom all their descendants to the same thing. It was REALLY hard for Goblins and Orcs to shake off the influence of their gods once they were born into a society worshipping them.
“What was the secret Shvaughn had in Memphis for you?” I asked curiously.
They frowned slightly as Sleipner pulled away, heading cross-country, across the continent of Africa towards the middle of the lands, where jungles and savannahs reigned the most... and other things might be present, too. Since we were already here, seeing if there really were timelost lands deep in Africa was just something to do.
“The last Poison Kiss Warlock in the world,” they admitted after a moment.
I lifted an eyebrow. “Poison Kiss?” I repeated. “What would that have to...” I put together the place. “Ah, she was in Memphis. That was the last Pact she Granted...” I narrowed my eyes. “And she hadn’t Consumed a man yet, had she?”
“No, ah hadn’t. Thinking about it now, it was really stupid to take the Pact in the first place.”
I tilted my head at the new voice, and the blonde hair that was now running walnut brown. “That is totally true. Who are you, and why did you do it?”
“Ah’m Lillabelle Jefferson. Ah wanted revenge on the bastard who raped me.”
I could barely roll my eyes. “Do you have any idea how many Amazons are out there who would be happy to take revenge on your behalf for anything like that? Not to mention Aethrans, Eryllians, and Powered women in general?”
“It was Malcolm Jonez,” she muttered, the defensive statement still falling flat.
I frowned. He was a famous country singer... and single, and known for being a womanizer. Still, proving she was telling the truth... didn’t mean they could make him do so, and he could convince himself she was just playing hard-to-get. Add in peer pressure and other factors... “And?”
“Well, y’all can now bring up the shocking scene o’ his death at his sex-shop mansion outside Memphis,” she declared in satisfaction. “Ah was goin’ t’ Consume him an’ take his place an’ really get revenge on the fucker, but ah guess ah’m going t’ have t’ be happy with putting three bullets in his fucktard face.”
A quick inquiry from my techies confirmed that such an event had indeed happened. As a matter of fact, Legion had also filed a Valusar Drunken Writ on it, and elders of the Church of Harse were reading it and verifying the facts within.
“They worked pretty fast for you,” I noted for her, and she sighed.
“Ah definitely was going t’ eat the bastard,” she said, knuckles popping on Sleipner’s handles for a moment. “But that won’t happen now. Ah wasn’t that bad a person, until...” she trailed off, and I gave her a hug from behind.
“Stop. You know what color you are.” She hesitated, and nodded slowly. “Maybe you could have gone to Penitent Hall, sure, but that Pact you have would have sucked you in sooner or later. I’m guessing the only reason you didn’t take action is you felt your Patron get Consumed, and you were terrified of being caught out.”
She nodded, flushing. “Yes, and right after ah swore the Pact, too.”
“But you were working up to it.”
She grimaced in front of me, but nodded again. “Ah was.”
I had to shake my head. “They really hate that Pact of yours, you know. And now they’ve got access to it if they need to devour men.”
Her face worked around a minute. “Uh, they’re saying we-all still can’t turn to a man because the Amazon Pact is locked now?” she half-asked, half-wondered.
“I’m aware. I’m also aware that the men you all might Consume are as bad as any of the women, if not moreso, judging by the Hungry Kiss Warlocks they’ve eaten.”
Her dark eyes flashed as new memories were made available to her, and she snarled, “Fucking bastards! Ah wish, Ah wish...” she trailed off and ducked her head again.
“You’ve got a lot of angry company in there. You’ve also got a tremendously steady man.”
She took a deep breath, visibly calming herself. “Yes. He’s so calm. Ah know he wouldn’t evah do something like that t’ me, and the main reason they Consumed me is because ah swore the Pact, and they just couldn’t tolerate it being out there... and, uh, ah emptied a whole clip into them to try t’ stop them from taking me.” Well, that would just kinda spur a response on the moment. “They think Shvaughn basically guilted them into it, so she doesn’t have t’ Consume all the male Warlocks whose Pacts we-all are tying up.”
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“They are no doubt absolutely correct on that point.” And Shvaughn would be totally unrepentant about it, too. The fact they’d gone ahead and done so, and their Heavenbound Pact was still active, meant that it wasn’t a wrong decision, either. “You’re all such a bunch of idiots, you know that?”
She managed to snort, and wiped away a tear from her eye. “Whatevah. This is still bettah than goin’ t’ Hell.” She stretched out despite herself in my arms, and I had to smile, especially when she suddenly blushed and turned her head to look down at me, then away. “Uhhh...”
“Oh, no, please continue.” Sacred energies began to dance on her skin as ki swirled between us, and she sat upright sharply. I just leaned into her, effectively weightless at her level of strength, and indulged in touchteke fun. “You needn’t worry. I’m very familiar with the Cohort you’re a part of now.”
“She definitely is!” the rest of the Cohort supplied helpfully.
“So tell me about yourself, Lillabelle,” I said into her ear, and she swallowed, which was quite enticing. “I’m a very good listener.”
“Ah’m, ah was, a back-up singer for that rapist fucktard,” she managed to get out, clasping my hands softly and trying not to let her eyes roll. “Oh, oh, Nuava...”
“Needs experience,” the Cohort whispered out her lips.
“Everyone starts somewhere,” I answered without blinking an eye. “You just keep talking, Lillabelle.”
“Ah, ah grew up in Savannah, Georgia...” she mumbled around the way everything was reacting about her, and when some of their fuzzy tails popped up and wrapped around me possessively, she sort of meeped... especially when mine came out to do the same.
---------------
-Oh, ho. Remember what I was saying about deepest, darkest Africa?-
-MmmMmmmMM!- was their /reply. -Remind us!-
I broke the lip contact, and tongue contact and throat contact and horns contact, and pointed ahead to them and Sleipner. Softly cursing the world for dutifully interrupting our moments, they turned to look ahead, fact-finding expedition and indoctrination with Lillabelle’s Amazon lips going to have to wait a bit.
“That, that...” gasped Lillabelle.
“You seem somewhat surprised,” I said, while the dimensional Rift in my Commune with Nature split the Veil open in an isolated and quite abandoned canyon ahead of us. By the weathering of the rocks, the defile might not have gotten there in the regular, natural manner.
“Ah’m not used to responding to women this way...” she trailed off, but her eyes were bright. “Ah don’t mind...”
“Well, that’s good, because neither does the rest of you.” Her eyes looked away, and she promptly blushed right to the tip of foxy ears, if you knew the signs. “Seriously, your body is sharing genetics with Hell’s angels, soul-sucking fey seductresses, and succubi, the demons of lust, along with thousands of sex slaves to said succubi. In terms of sex drive, you’re going to pretty much respond overwhelmingly to anything you find attractive.”
She swallowed, and blushed even hotter. “Definitely bettah than Hell,” she muttered softly.
“Oh, you so are,” I agreed, putting my head up next to hers, letting our ki mesh and mingle, holy magic and Pacts spark between us. She relaxed like a boneless pillow, and was still strong enough to support both of us effortlessly.
“So, there’s something here; why isn’t it wide open, like the South Pole?” Legion asked, humming happily.
“It is. It’s just in another space. The Shroud has wedged it open.” I had Sleipner adjust course, plotting out the coordinates of the place, but shifting course to a different vector over the high grassy savannah we were currently on. “That is not the key point. Given the tales and rumors, there should be either more than one entrance, or more than one space.”
The fun thing about having longer tails with reach is being able to hold and caress regardless of current body position, and when you have so many, telekinetic control is definitely part of things, with enhanced tactile sensitivity going hand-in-tail.
I hadn’t paid the Karma to access the hu hsaio Tail Powers, an arrangement of fairly potent Charm and Illusion-centered magicks that were the source of much of their reputation. That didn’t mean I couldn’t borrow the Tails themselves as basically extra limbs, although they had no combat ability unless I applied some shapechanging effects so they could act like whips, and then Enhanced them with Magic Claw or something.
Which was something to think about. Legion didn’t have quite the same issue, as their primary lilitu Tail was already a dangerous weapon, and having nine of them just made them a blizzard of lethality in close combat, given that each tail could smash a hole in a brick wall with a crack like a steel whip.
But the real power was naturally in a lilitu’s status at Seventeen Hit Die, i.e., effectively being a Seventeen. That made Legion eligible for a whole lotta stuff nobody else around was.
Improved Natural Attack (tail) upgraded the Tails from a d6 to a d8. That wasn’t anything unusual, until you stacked on Profound Natural Attack, and added Monk Unarmed Strike upgrades to them. At +17 Attack Bonus with Superior Unarmed Strike, there were seven of those!
D10, 2-12, 3-15, 3-18, 3-21, 4-24, 4-28 was a major damage improvement just on the face of it. Sure, they were Secondary Attacks and only added half-Strength bonus. There were still potentially NINE of them, and oh, darn, they only added +28 damage... each!
Add in Versatile Unarmed Strike for slashing or piercing damage on demand, and I had watched them whip-chop through a two-foot maple tree in one blur of nine rat-tat-crack whipping strikes... than casually catch the sixty-foot tree and toss it carefully off to the side, whereupon they proceeded to de-limb its branches in a thunder-cracking display of whipping tail coordination at almost a normal walking pace.
And if they got all nine Tails around something and squeezed like chain-razors of steel... well, I watched them pressure-cut a ten-foot log down to manageable chunks with a flexing of their Tails. Took seconds. I confessed to being quite impressed, especially after feeling just how feathery elegant those Tails could be.
The real upgrade was to their hands and when wielding Idiot, of course.
A lilitu’s hands were empowered by chaotic energy, and were fast and powerful, basically the equivalent of a ki-empowered Monk’s strikes, and with no penalties for wielding two weapons at all. They were powerful enough to shred stone and metal all by themselves, some of the best natural attacks that existed among demonkind.
Naturally none of them had ever managed to stack ki on top of that, as they were Chaotic creatures and didn’t have the mental discipline to use the ki-based IUS damage progression of Monks.
Legion, however, did.