“There must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could have said -- no. But somehow we missed it.”
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
“There must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could have said -- no. But somehow we missed it.”
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
It's probably also the company. This Count of Hell looks like a chiseled naked male form composed entirely of out of writhing white maggots, each maggot so tiny that seeing him/it from across the room, you might only notice a moving white statue of a man of an odd texture.
Not that the appearance would be that disturbing on its own, of course; but it/he is also scary.
When Pilar's parasite has completed its negotiation with Dispater, she is escorted out by some black-winged many-clawed servants, to the meeting hall where soul-sales are ongoing. The sights to see along the way are marvelous; Dispater's palace is the most civilized place in Hell. Agonized souls do get used for the building material, but tastefully; petrified angels do gaze desperately down on the passersby, but they're very pretty ones and no one has recently dumped acid on them or smeared them with entrails or anything.
The air is tastefully scented of lavender. There's a waterfall of blood.
It doesn't really bother her.
It doesn't really bother her, she's seen Hell scryed to her before.
It doesn't really bother her, she's seen Hell scryed to her before; maybe she wasn't there in person, but she was shown more tormented things than this.
It doesn't really bother her even when she sees the elegant dancers with the desperate eyes, but she does feel curious, then.
"Are they being punished? Shaped?" she asks one of her black-winged guides.
"Curious about what they did to turn into decorations or how long they stay decorations - that one, say." Pilar points out the dancer nearest to herself.
"Oh - striking facial features, interesting poses, expressive eyes, long limbs - just because longer limbs translate better to most poses - angels are popular even if they're kind of ugly angels - musculature, that sort of consideration. These were a gift from the Duke Kyzzarafhar, when this wing of the palace was built nine thousand years ago, Lord Dispater doesn't change up the displays much."
Makes sense. Probably the dancers don't remember either, at this point, how they failed Asmodeus so badly.
Maybe she's just tired. It's been something of a day. That could be why she's feeling - vulnerable, like this, in a way she didn't feel when she was trying to defend her beliefs to azatas in Elysium.
The repurchase of the Project Lawful girls is going much faster than the negotiations with Dispater did, in terms of objective time. His subordinates have been ordered to sell, and most of them have just sold, with some angry resentment that they're not profiting more, but not wanting to waste their own time on foregone conclusions. The time just seems longer, because the lesser nobility of Hell are so much more tiring to deal with.
Last among the sellers of Project Lawful girls to Sevar: Asmodia's most recent owner of record, who bought her cheaply compared to the other nobility of Hell commanded here to exit this market. It is but a Seigneur of Hell, taking the form of a sheep-headed humanoid devoid of genitalia and with empty bleeding eyesockets. It bought Asmodia speculating that the price of Project Lawful girls would soon recover; and it seems to think that Carissa Sevar looks tired enough to eventually pay over a price closer to that of the other Project Lawful girls, if it goes on arguing for why its investment was clever and risky and deserves more than mere repayment. There was an attempt made to resurrect her by a non-Evil caster, and a less alert owner might have let that go through when its possession had already been kidnapped away to the Gardens of Erecura! Asmodia's soul is only safely where it is due to its own cleverness!
It is true that it would have been very bad for Asmodeus's interests if the idiot holding Asmodia's soul had permitted a resurrection by a non-Evil caster. This Seigneur is richly rewarded by continuing to exist.
Being a mortal favored of Dispater does not give her the dominance to talk to a Seigneur of Hell like that.
She is violating her order and place in Hell, not realizing that Dispater's orders to see this transaction done cannot protect her from the later retribution that her slights will see visited on herself.
"Either I shall rise in Hell to become a Power in my own right, so precious to Asmodeus that you will quake in centuries in terror at the thought I might remember your name and see fit to crush you, or I shall fail, and be destroyed for it; any lesser nonsense is entirely irrelevant to me. Sign the contract."
"Well done on completing your collection, Carissa Sevar! Just so you know, if Asmodia is in pristine condition her soul's ownership can be traded to Otolmens for a favor! Like allowing Asmodeus to intervene once inside the nonintervention zone, for example! Though you'll not be wanting to trade her in the immediate future."
"It works for Cayden Cailean," she tells the sheep-headed thing irritably. "You should kill it."
The sheep-headed thing stares at Pilar with its empty and bleeding eyesockets.
It turns its head back, giving Carissa Sevar an empty-socketed expression that somehow still conveys skepticism.
Then it stalks off, showing a terrible anger and dignity that would be more effective if it did not also somehow seem to be running away.
"Snack Service is saying that you being known to have gotten one over on Lord Dispater's subordinates will help with your reputation in Hell, and it's complaining about how you're not being grateful for that or for the favor it did you of making sure you made the right trade."
"I was really, really hoping Lord Dispater would eat it."
"As was I. I guess we'll just have to do it ourselves. What do you suppose Otolmens wants with Asmodia?"
"Well, I'll think about it once I'm smarter, and if I end up concluding that Snack Service did me a favor a mortal should be grateful for, then I still won't be grateful because that is my due."
Now let's sign some options on Security-souls!
It goes quickly, possibly because Pilar is standing behind Carissa Sevar in the position of something subordinate to her.