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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2278887" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 399Embril entered a black chamber, a cyst many strides beneath the surface of the sunlit world above. At first, it appeared that the place was empty, the center cleared, the perimeter marked by regular pillars and vague shadows that might have been furnishings or other random objects.  But that was an illusion; this place was very much occupied. Embril stepped forward, enjoying the chaotic surge of emotion that filled her upon entering this place.  Thifirane was right, this was madness; yet she did not care, enjoying the sensations, reveling in her power and the insane dreams that had brought her to this conclusion. She came forward almost to the edge of the glyphs drawn in powdered black metal upon the floor.  For a split-second she had a mad impulse to break one of the thin lines that made up the diagram, but she was able to repress that feeling.  Now that would have been true insanity, she thought with a quiet chuckle. It appeared from the shadows in the corner of the room, looking at her with its usual inscrutable expression.  Its skin was a chalky white, its face alien, its six arms bent in poses that would have been painful for her to duplicate with her two. agitation“I know, my dearest,” Embril cooed, walking over to it.  “This is not comfortable for you, I understand.  I would not enjoy it either, I suspect.  But it is necessary… for our plans, yours and mine.”The spellweaver said nothing, retreating a step until it was all but lost in the shadows once more. “It holds you in contempt,” came a voice from within the diagram. “Our interests coincide,” Embril replied without turning. “Your mind is too small to conceive of its thoughts,” the voice continued.  “Your ‘ally’ will betray you, it is only a matter of time.”Embril turned to face the speaker, and smiled.  “I do not pretend to understand it completely, but it knows the meaning of gratitude, at least.”  She came forward, once again.  “But enough meaningless chatter.  I would treat with you, demon.  Show yourself, if you would.”The air within the summoning circle roiled and solidified into currents of black smoke that took on material form.  Embril had to crane her head upward to meet the blazing red eyes that took shape within a massive visage, a terror beyond mere human imagining.  Power was in those eyes, ancient power matched by a fury that threatened to bring down the walls and swallow up this place, deep below the surface of Faerûn. That stare should have stripped the sanity from a human woman, but Embril merely laughed.  “I hope that your stay with us has been… comfortable, my lord Ndulu.”The trapped demon’s anger, if anything, intensified.  “Your madness has truly consumed you, Embril Aloustinai, for you to call me here.  You know who I serve!”“Indeed.”  She looked around the chamber.  “Your master has come down quite a bit in the overall scheme of things, has he not?  It would seem that his fall from power has affected you as well.  To think, the mighty Ndulu, close in his master’s counsels, caught up in the binding of a mere mortal creature.”  Indeed, the spell cast by her ally should not have been able to hold a creature of Ndulu’s power, but it could not know that the spellweaver had burned a wish spell to augment the potency of the calling enough to snare the balor, and to reinforce the summoning circle to hold it. Ndulu exploded in a paroxysm of fury, fire and black power roiling off him in waves, but confined within the potency of the summoning diagram.  Embril waited for it to spend its anger, which happened rather quickly… too quickly, perhaps. “I do not know what you hope to gain from me, but you will never extract any benefit from this plan,” the demon said, once it had subsided.  “You cannot keep me imprisoned forever, and my master will be quite pleased to hear of the failure of your aspirations when I return to his side.”For a moment Embril’s weave of self-control cracked, if only slightly, and she shot an annoyed glance at the spellweaver.  What had it revealed to the demon?  Ndulu could not know what had transpired at Cauldron, for it had been confined here since the day before the commencement of the Ritual of Planar Joining.  Could it have somehow gained access to information through the barrier of its prison?  No.  It had to be playing her, reading whatever subtle clues she herself was projecting through her own defenses.  Demons were uncanny at finding weaknesses in their foes, and this one was one of the greatest of its race, a mere step below the mighty Princes that ruled the diverse layers of the Abyss.  She quickly regained control—the demon was regarding her intently, almost eagerly—and looked up again to meet its gaze squarely. “You can tell Graz’zt anything you wish,” she said.  “I am prepared to release you… but first you must agree to a service, to which you are bound to obey by the terms of the Compact.”The demon’s laughter was a terrible thing.  “Foolish little wench, you think to barter with me?  I will have your flesh as a throw rug, but the rest of your body will continue to feel agonies long, long after…”“Yes, yes, eternal torment, suffering of my soul, etcetera, etcetera,” she said.  “But first, the service.”“I will never deign to serve a weak mortal bitch who thinks her modest powers give her the right to treat with me,” the balor replied.  “You can take your pet abomination and...”Embril just stood there as the demon offered a series of vile threats and promises of destruction.  It spoke for a full minute before it realized that she wasn’t listening; in fact she stood there, looking off to the side, tapping her foot with a bit of impatience. “Go then, frail little mortal, go to your dreams of power, and the mad whispers of your dying god,” it finally said, its voice a deep hiss like metal dragged over stone.  “Know that your patron will never be released, and that your little cabal will join him soon enough, your screams adding to the neverending dirge of the insane in the halls of Skullrot…”“That remains to be seen,” Embril said.  “But I have not yet made my offer.”“Speak then!  So that at least I may be spared your foolish prattle.  You waste my time and yours.”“Your master may disagree,” Embril said, with an enigmatic smile upon her face.  She made a motion with her fingertips and spoke words of eldritch power.  It was a minor spell she called upon, but it had an immediate effect as an image took form in the circle formed by her hand movements, an illusion that nonetheless took on clear resolution, suspended in the air between her and the demon.  It wasn’t a very big picture, just large enough to clearly show the faces of the individuals depicted therein. The demon was silent.  Embril had not lied; its master would be very, very interested in what it had seen. Embril let the illusion dissolve, and merely waited. The two faced off for a long minute that crept into two, three… the mortal woman—powerful, but mad—and the ageless demon, lord of its kind.  Finally, it was the demon that spoke first. “Speak your terms.”</blockquote>

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