The Longest Road, Part 31

Lily plops back down into her chair with a thud, her expression both drained and relieved, as it finally sinks in that her plan has taken its first successful step forward. She's just seen the first real evidence that this might work after all.

You approach and sit down on the corner of the writing desk itself. "This is only the beginning," you say. "But it's a beginning worth celebrating."

The girl looks up at you, gratitude shining in her eyes. "I can't thank you enough," she says. "This is all because of your efforts."

"The accomplishments of the summon are the accomplishments of the summoner as well," you reply, affecting modesty with an easygoing smile. "It just goes to show your good sense. Both in the tactics you chose and the help you recruited. Delegation is an essential skill for any good ruler."

"I suppose," Lily says, staring down at the document she'd been working on when you interrupted. "Though I wouldn't say I'm a good ruler. Most of the time it feels like I'm making it all up as I go along."

"Didn't they give you any training for this while you were growing up?" you ask. Obviously they didn't, but it's a question that will angle the conversation toward her mysterious past.

Lily lets out a little laugh. "Would you believe that I spent most of my life in a convent?" she asks. "The Blessed Refuge of Saint Theodosia. I was one of the Sisters of Selal, entered into the novitiate so young I can barely even remember it. Our order was located in the far north of Nelin, the most remote place you could imagine."

With that explanation, several pieces of the puzzle click into place, and you're beginning to see the shape of the larger picture. "Do you remember anything from before you joined the Sisters?" you ask.

"Not really," says the Witch Queen. "I was just a child. Although... sometimes I have nightmares that... feel like memories. But they're never clear. I just see... fire. And I hear shouting. And I'm afraid."

"Did you enjoy it at the convent?"

"I did, actually." Lily swallows, but presses on. "Ceilyn always laughed at me for that. She was the only other novice—the only one even close to my age—and she hated it there. She wanted to leave and see the world more than anything, so she was always butting heads with Mother Superior."

"But I... I loved the hymns, and the prayers, and the stories about the saints and heroines who would go around helping the needy and defending the weak. I just... wanted to be like them. Like Lady Alicia. When I heard that Selal had found a new Chosen One—when I heard about the miracle she performed to save us all during the war—I wanted so badly to meet her one day."

Then she lets out a broken little laugh. "Well... I ended up getting my wish."

"If you were in the convent at first, then how did you end up here?" you ask, quietly. You already have a pretty good guess, but the details may be important.

"They came during the night," says Lily, her voice wooden. "While I was keeping vigil with Sister Hessalia. Orcs and humans, dressed in black robes, using horrible magic. Acolytes of Melca, I found out later. Sister Hessalia... she... she died before I even realized what was going on. And I just... panicked. I ran. I ran away without even trying to do anything. But..."

The girl stares down at her hands for a long time. You give her time, until finally she continues. "I think some of the others got away. I hope they did. Mother Superior was fighting back, calling on Selal's divine power. And she was holding them off! At least... she was until their High Priest joined the fight. But they caught me. I ran right into one of them, like an idiot."

"After that... it's a blur. They dragged me back to Kovora. They told me... they told me I was the Chosen One of Melca. They told me I had to defend Kovora from being overrun by its enemies. They told me I had to crush those enemies and bring them to ruin. I didn't believe them. It didn't make any sense. But then they performed the Rite of Investiture, and... and..."

Whatever she's remembering, it terrifies her to the point that she's starting to hyperventilate, tears forming in her eyes. You immediately reach across the writing desk, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. The touch startles her, and she looks up, allowing you to give her a reassuring smile and a firm squeeze, projecting confidence with every bit of charisma you have. "Hey. Don't worry. No matter what you're up against, I'm going to get you through this. That's what you summoned me for, after all."

Lily runs her arm across her red-rimmed eyes, giving her face a few more ink-smudges in the bargain. "Thank you," she whispers, placing her small hand atop your demonic one. "Thank you." You offer more soothing reassurances as she gradually composes herself. But underneath your warm smile, your mind is racing as you think through the implications of what you've learned.

It certainly explains why Lily is so unlike the usual Kovoran Witch Queens. But it only deepens the mystery of why those Acolytes of Melca felt they could just install someone like that as Queen and assume that she would continue to prosecute their conflict. It only deepens the mystery of why Lily is continuing to prosecute that conflict... albeit through the most non-violent means she can manage.

And there's one other crucial detail that Lily let slip. If your interpretation is correct... if someone really did place Lily in that remote convent because they were trying to end her bloodline without having to kill a child...

...what might it mean that there was a second young girl at that convent, also apparently sent there without ever agreeing herself to join the order?

But any further discussion is interrupted as behind you, the door to the queen's study opens. Lily leans around you to look, and her eyes light up. "Rysanial!" she calls out, sounding very relieved to have a distraction from her memories of the past. "Did you hear the news?"

"I heard," comes your succubus' amused voice as you turn around yourself. "The rumors are already spreading like hellfire through the fortress. Didn't I tell you not to worry? No prissy heroine was ever going to be able to resist him."

Rysanial takes in the room, noticing Lily's reddened eyes immediately. She shoots you a brief, inquisitive glance, wordlessly asking if she should leave. But you respond with a barely-perceptible shake of the head. You've gotten enough out of Lily for the moment. Rather than pushing for more information, you judge it better to let her find a reprieve in distracting herself with other, more pleasant topics.

Accordingly, your succubus saunters up to you, greeting you by pressing her body tight against yours, while her tail winds around to slide into your pants, coiling around your dick and stroking it. "So..." she murmurs hungrily into your ear. "Are you going to let me have a taste of this new girl I've been hearing about?"

"Patience," you reply. "First, how did your investigation go?"

"Oh, it was tragic!" Rysanial pulls away from you, bringing a hand to her brow in over-the-top, faux-dramatic dismay. "There I was! A poor, naïve little tiefling with nowhere to go, stumbling into a criminal underworld full of nasty men willing to... take advantage of my innocence! Of course, when they did, they could be surprisingly unguarded in their pillow talk afterward. Especially when they wanted to impress the wide-eyed little thing who was hanging on their every word..."

You smirk. Mortals. "Did you learn anything interesting about Mockingbird?"

"It was tricky," Rysanial admits. "She's very careful, and she covers her tracks to a paranoid extent... but I managed to put together enough clues to lead me to her primary fence, a man named Cavros."

"That could be useful," you muse. "If we wanted to draw her out or provoke her, we could use him to pass along a message of some kind. Or just keep an eye on his place for when she visits him next."

"Oh, but that isn't even the good part yet," Rysanial says, her eyes gleaming. "I got into the fence's bed before I was done, to see what I could learn from him. And he let slip what Mockingbird actually does with almost all of the money she steals."

You lean forward, even more intrigued. "What did he say?"

The succubus' toothy smile widens. "Mockingbird has him launder it, so it can't be traced," she says. "Then she has him send it through several different fake channels... to the orphanage run by Elianna Imfiel."

"What?" The protest comes from the Witch Queen, who shoots to her feet in disbelief. "You mean... Holy Mother Imfiel is accepting stolen money? That... that can't be right! She must not realize!"

Rysanial nods. "You're right. She doesn't. In fact, according to Cavros, Mockingbird was desperate to make sure that Elianna never found out who the money was actually coming from. Did everything possible to keep her in the dark."

"Fascinating..." you say. Then another thought occurs to you. "Wait. The information we were looking at before, collected by Iskro and his Thousand Eyes... it said that Mockingbird demanded to join the pact of heroines early on. Was that—"

"—immediately after Elianna joined," Rysanial finishes. "Yes, I checked. It seems the holy mother has a guardian angel. Or maybe more like a guardian devil, considering Mockingbird's line of work."

Now that is something that could be very useful in your campaign against the masked thief. "Did you learn why she's so interested in Elianna?"

"Cavros didn't know all the details," Rysanial says. "To really get the specifics I'd probably have to look into it from the cleric's end, as a part of investigating her. But he did tell me something that Mockingbird said once when he asked why she wasn't keeping more of the take. She told him that Elianna was the kindest, most caring person in the world... and that the money ought to go to helping her save kids who wouldn't fuck it all up."

Oh, this is solid gold. Not just because it's a psychological weakness in one of the heroines that you might be able to exploit... but on the other side of the coin, it was also a potential tripwire that you might have stumbled across unknowingly. If Mockingbird really did force her way into the pact of heroines specifically to keep Elianna safe, then if you did claim the holy mother it might provoke Mockingbird to drastic action.

At least now you know—should that occur—to be particularly wary of a subsequent offensive from one of the heroines' most dangerous assassins.

Once Rysanial has conveyed everything she's learned about Mockingbird the conversation starts to shift to other topics. You mention the murderous young girl who you sent back with the Corruptive Boon, but she hasn't arrived yet. Still, even though you came by horse, she had enough of a head start that even by foot she can't be too far behind. The queen promises to tell the guards to be on the lookout for her.

Eventually, though, you realize that Lily does need to get back to the work that you'd distracted her from. You and Rysanial say your goodbyes, then step back into the hallway outside.

You're at a bit of a loose end for the moment. But there is one last thing you need to take care of before you can really take aim at your next target. Khaytala has fallen hard for you, and you've spent the entire trip back to Kovora drowning her in lust, wearing down her sexual hangups and opening her up to the pleasures of the flesh. But if you're going to go after the other heroines as well, you'll first need to show her just how good it can be to ditch that pesky mortal fixation on "monogamy".

Strategy, at this point, requires a threesome. And as luck would have it, you have two possibilities right at hand. The heroine is in a fitting with Kelissa right now, and it shouldn't be too hard to pay them a visit and turn it into something much more steamy. Alternatively, you could wait until tonight, and have Rysanial show up to surprise Khaytala while the two of you are fucking.

Either way you choose, you're confident that Khaytala is ready for it. The only question is, which approach do you prefer?