Love's Labors, Part 12


You stand up, undoing the shapeshifting that you'd used to quickly remove your clothes. Then you reach down to offer Moghi a hand. She hesitates, but then grudgingly accepts, and you spend a little while getting her clothed again.

Once she's presentable, you gesture in the direction that Nevati fled. "Come on," you tell the abashed vampire. "Let's hunt some intruders."

She still eyes you suspiciously, not sure what to make of this demon who has appeared without warning and upended so much of her world. But, in the end, catching Nevati is her task. And she's already seen how well she fares against you.

"Well... stay close," she huffs. "The skeletons will obey me. But if they don't see us as together, they may try to attack you."

The five of you set off, Moghi in the lead, with you walking just a step behind and to her right. Ceriss and the two elementals bring up the rear. It looks like Ceriss has guessed what you intend—even without you having to say anything—and she's keeping the other two occupied so they don't distract from further plying your newfound (and newly-fucked) ally with your questions.

Nevati's trail isn't hard to follow; she and the remaining two elementals have plowed a path through the skeletons as they fled further into the depths of the crypt. You notice that these skeletons, unlike the previous ones, are slowly pulling themselves back together. Nevati is panicking now, and no longer has time to release the animating spirits back to the Plane of Death as she goes.

Still, the bony defenders all part silently before Moghi, allowing your group to pass through unharried. As you walk, you glance over at the vampire. "So..." you begin. "If we do encounter your mistress... which of the Witch Queens will I have the honor of addressing? I'd like to give proper respect to my own mistress' ancestor."

Moghi puffs up a little with pride. "My mistress is Her Royal Highness, Queen Adeli Melcavan the Fourth," she says. "And you would do well indeed to remember your respect should you meet! You may have defeated me... but I am merely her unworthy servant. She is far more powerful than me, more powerful than any other vampire!"

Of course, you rather doubt that Moghi possesses anything close objective viewpoint regarding that claim. Still, if the Witch Queen's corpse retained even a fraction of her power it had in life—and that on top of her being an ancient vampire—it could very well be the truth.

But more to the point, it's an opening to inquire further. "What about the vampire who turned her?" you ask. "Is she not beholden to her sire? Or has she surpassed her creator?"

Moghi scoffs, smug. "She has no sire," she explains, boasting of her mistress' achievement. "She sought out the ancient ritual for becoming a Queen of the Night, and enacted it on her own. In undeath, she is the first of her bloodline! And she made me her first and only childe, so that I might keep my oath to serve her loyally. No matter how many centuries pass."

You resist the urge to frown. What she just said... Given what you know about the undead, that doesn't make any sense. Or rather... there's only one explanation you can think of that does make sense. And it's not a pretty thought.

"What prompted her decision to pursue such a ritual?" you ask, choosing your words carefully. "Few seek out a life constrained to the shadows of their own accord. And does not Dread Melca already provide her Witch Queens with true immortality?"

At that, Moghi glances away, her face falling a little. "It... wasn't her majesty's fault!" she blurts out in protest, not quite looking you in the eye. "I... don't know exactly what was happening at the time. I was only her bodyguard, and such matters were beyond me. But... but Melca, she..."

The vampire hesitates for a bit, before continuing in a quieter, sadder tone. "It wasn't fair..." she protests, her fists clenching. "Melca expected so much of my mistress. Expected her to win. Expected her to slaughter her foes. And her majesty tried! She tried so hard. You have no idea how many late nights she spent. Trying to find some spell, some strategy that could give us an edge against our enemies to the north. I was the only one who saw it. I was the only one she... let in that close."

Moghi kicks a loose piece of stone debris as you walk. "But Melca didn't care. She didn't care how hard her majesty was trying. She only cared that she wasn't seeing any victories. And then... I don't know why, but... her majesty started to get more desperate. More afraid. She... even started checking herself in the mirror multiple times every day. Looking for... gray hairs."

With sickening inevitability, you listen as Moghi's story winds toward the conclusion you suspected from the beginning that it was heading toward. Reading between the lines, you can fill in some of the gaps that Moghi either doesn't know, or isn't willing to say.

Queen Adeli Melcavan the Fourth. A Witch Queen who—like Lily—Melca seems to have considered unfit. Inept enough to threaten with the revocation of her immortality. And despite Moghi's protestations... you suspect there was at least some truth to Melca's unkind appraisal of her ability, if only in terms of Queen Adeli's aptitude for magic.

It would explain how she could make such a horrible mistake.

"But my queen found a way!" says Moghi, an exuberant smile returning to her face. So very proud of her liege's accomplishment. Proud of how she beat the system arrayed against her. "Even if Melca rejected her, she still managed to keep her eternal existence. On her own terms! And she even turned me into a vampire as well. Graciously allowing me to continue serving her, even in undeath!"

You return her smile. Fortunately, you're skilled enough to hide how false and brittle that smile is. You had your suspicions before, but now it's undeniable.

As often happens with intelligent undead, the weak-egoed death spirits that now animate the corpses of the previous queen and her bodyguard must have been completely overwhelmed by the latent memories in the bodies they now inhabit. Moghi truly believes that she is the same person who lived all those years ago. Worse, that long-ago Witch Queen undertook this venture truly believing that it would allow her to cheat the hideous fate lying in her future.

But while she might have been able to perform the ritual, the poor, doomed mortal hadn't truly understood the magic that she was dealing with. She didn't understand the true result of such necromantic rituals. She didn't understand—not until it was far, far too late—that she was killing herself, and leaving something else behind in her place.

And because she hadn't understood that, the replacement who inherited her memories probably hadn't either. The newborn vampire progenitor must have thought, in blissful ignorance, that "her" plan to keep Melca from claiming her soul for torture had worked.

So the creature Queen Adeli had killed herself to create then killed the queen's most trusted protector. All the while thinking that she was keeping Moghi close. Then the vampires fled from the sun together, into the depths of the this crypt. Two lonely death spirits, each playing out their assigned roles, unaware of the truth. Using the bodies—and memories—of two women who had both been dead for centuries.

Out of the corner of your eye you see Ceriss tense. You're sure that she's putting the pieces together just as you are. But you say nothing, continuing to walk as you mull the revelation over in your thoughts.

"Obviously, her majesty couldn't serve as queen while unable to move about in the sun," Moghi continues, entirely oblivious to the realization you've made about her own nature. "So we went down here, taking command of this domain instead. We guard the tombs of the Witch Queens, as well as the annals of their reigns."

The annals, which are what Nevati is trying to find. "And you're satisfied here?" you ask. "This role you've taken on... is it enough for you?"

Moghi nods emphatically. "As long as I can serve my mistress, nothing else matters," she says simply, earnestly. "That's what I trained my entire life to do. It's what I'm for."

Again you lapse into silence. You now understand the ruler of this domain quite a bit more. And should a confrontation ensue, that knowledge is something you could potentially use to your advantage in any number of ways. Still, you can't resist throwing in one extra little barb.

"Well, if your purpose is to serve your mistress, then perhaps you'd be interested in accepting a Boon from me?" you muse, grinning roguishly at her. "With my powers as an incubus, I might be able to give you the ability to serve your mistress in that way. You certainly seemed to be enjoying it."

Moghi splutters, thrown off-balance by the sudden reminder. "I... That's not... I could never—! She's far too..." she says, struggling for the words while very clearly imaging the scene you've put into her head. If only vampires could blush, you're pretty sure she'd be sporting an incandescent one.

Finally, she composes herself enough to make something approaching a coherent response. "Just... keep silent, hellspawn! Your temptations will not sway me! This is just a temporary alliance, nothing more! And... and... I d-didn't even enjoy it that much anyway!"

"Ah. Such a shame..." you say, a twinkle in your eye as you watch her lie furiously. "Well, I suppose there's nothing that can be done about it, then."

Even as you talk with her, you're following Nevati's trail deeper into the crypt, down dark slopes and long stone hallways. Soon Moghi looks up. "We're getting close to the Royal Archives. This must be where the intruder is holed up. It's a dead end otherwise."

You approach to the nearest corner and peer around it. Spread out before you is a huge room, containing shelf upon shelf upon shelf of books, scrolls and other records. All of it stretching far back out of sight. The sheer scale of the place is immense. This is no simple repository of a few biographies. These are the detailed records of millennia of Kovoran rule, documents no doubt ranging from the world-shaking to the thoroughly inconsequential. It's a cold place that reeks of both history and death.

Studying the immediate surroundings with your gaze, you can detect no sign of your quarry. They must have gone deeper into the stacks. The question is... how will you pursue them?

If you could catch one of the group on her own, you could try to quietly pick off and fuck another one of their number. Though without having done much preparation for such a grab, you guess that you could only manage to ensnare a single one of the elementals.

You could also try to approach Nevati more directly, now that the immediate worry about the watcher has been exposed and dealt with for the moment. She's probably more rattled now than she would have been back at the campsite, and you doubt that you'll be able to convince her in one single go... but you might be able to nudge her along the way.

Finally, you could bide your time, spying on her and learning more about how the recent upheaval has affected her understanding of the situation. That might give you more insight into making future moves more effective... though you are on a bit of a clock as well. Like Moghi said, it probably won't be too long now before her mistress makes another move in defense of her domain.

Which could create a whole different set of complications when it happens, depending.

In the end, you'll need to decide how best to both hunt your prey, and also prepare for the ancient vampire queen who is no doubt coming soon in defense of her territory and her servant. What will you do?