Meeting Ursula

5/15 morning

I woke up after a few hours of mediocre sleep. I might be immune to stress, but apparently nervous tension and excitement leading to a lack of sleep was not included in the category of “stress.” Well, maybe it was partially effective; I was able to sleep a bit, and at least I didn’t wake up exhausted.

I had breakfast with Lividia and took the opportunity to have a hard talk with her. “Lividia. I’m sorry, but I need you to do something for me in the swamp. My best hunter is coming along on the fight with Ysondre. I need you and Doris to go and help make up the difference on the hunt. A dragon’s eye from above might help them catch the prey, and this is time sensitive.”

She pouted. “I suppose if I must. Are you sure I have to?”

I had a thought. “Yes. I think it’s about time for Doris to learn how to function as a dragon sometimes. You will need to show her how to fly properly, and later you might need to be the one to explain how to take on a visage, since you’re so much better at it than anyone else.” That wasn’t pure flattery; I’d seen her fluidly shift between forms in the middle of a fight, using the change in size and mass to her advantage. “Doris will probably still fight in a humanoid form, but whenever she learns how to use a visage properly she will be much stronger and tougher.”

I called in Doris from the field. I’d had her supporting the Lions after the situation at the tower, basically just hunting the gnolls. I’d had her put on the face of a Blackrock Orc to deflect any reprisals, but it was basically just a case of keeping her busy productively.

“I need you to be someone new.”

Her eyes went foggy and she looked at me with distant curiosity. “Who am I?”

“I need you to be a black dragon, one that lives for the thrill of the hunt, and wants nothing more than to efficiently eliminate targets for me by any means necessary. Poison, sabotage, seduction, capture with jewels; absolutely nothing is off limits unless you think I would disapprove, and you can emulate any of your other personalities or create new ones in order to operate more effectively. You will do anything else I command, but an efficient kill or capture is your favorite.” I figured that a single minded assassin with superhuman strength and endurance would be an excellent addition. Doris was already pretty lethal, but I figured that someone with absolutely no thoughts beyond finishing the job and returning for the next one would work well for solo missions.

“What is my name?”

I had a thought. “Your name is Amelie. Your preferred humanoid form, when you aren’t disguised as something else, is a light blue skinned night elf woman with a black ponytail.” She wouldn’t be able to turn into a real night elf until I had captured one, but she could turn into a human or high elf and disguise herself just fine. She was just pretending either way. I worked with her until she looked like her namesake: Widowmaker from Overwatch. It was a little silly, but I wanted to have my very own Widowmaker and the opportunity presented itself. Sure she used swords instead of a sniper rifle, but I could probably have her expand her repertoire if I felt like it. I had a creeping suspicion she’d be getting a regional mission upgrade at some point, even if I didn’t just get talent sharing for soul or martial talent.

I sent the two of them along to the rogues on their hunt and checked my timer; Ursula would be captured very soon. I confirmed with Vanessa that the robot army was on track; it seemed they wouldn’t get to the target location until around five. I supposed that meant I might have time to study fel magic after all, as long as I didn’t get too active with it. No sense hurting or exhausting myself.

••••••••••

Ursula Deline, as it turned out, was quite well off. I arrived at her dining table to find her and Drusilla eating omelets and chatting. She was a redhead, and to the surprise of no one familiar with how these amulets interpret “optimizing a woman’s body” she was both physically fit and fairly pretty. Both women were wearing expensive looking dresses and Drusilla looked like her hair had been styled since I’d sent her to find me a tutor.

https://imgur.com/a/1T58quq

I looked around the room, and saw one servant as I sat at the table. Drusilla had a relieved grin at the sight of me, Ursula seemed confused but intrigued.

“Hmmm? Who might you be and what are you doing in my home?”

“This, Ursula, is my student.” Drusilla leaned in close to the redhead with a smile, “and my owner. Yours too, I imagine.”

That got a distinctly skeptical look and far less discretion. “Owner? How exactly have you reached that conclusion?”

I checked my necklace and confirmed that she was, in fact, captured. “It’s that necklace. It belongs to me originally. I’m pretty sure she just thinks that the debt transferred to you when she gave it to you.” I winked at Drusilla and looked meaningfully at the stone faced servant. No need to just tell everyone the score in mixed company, eh? “Lucky you, that’s not how it works. But I am hoping for a teacher in the arts of the warlock, if you’re interested. I can pay well, just not in gold.”

“Hmm. I’d need to know your rates.” She seemed amused, but she was alert. She dealt with demons routinely; she would at least go through the motions of skepticism even if the amulet around her neck made this negotiation a foregone conclusion.

“If you do something for me, it will be the most enjoyable experience of your life, capped off with the best sex you’ve ever had.” She snorted at that. I edited her settings quickly while she considered her response.

Following a direct order from Erich Bismark: extreme Euphoria

Being thanked by Erich Bismark: Maximum Orgasm

“While I’m sure you’re acceptable in bed,” she rolled her eyes, “I don’t actually do such things with men.” I noticed she still gave me an appreciative sidelong look; the necklace had no tolerance for people not attracted to me. I probably wouldn’t push it though. She can keep self identifying as a lesbian even if there was one exception; I have dozens of women to choose from.

“That’s unfortunate, but fine. I don’t need to touch you once. Allow me to demonstrate. Hand me your fork.”

She smirked, ready for some parlor trick, as she handed me the fork. She’d assumed it was going to be a prop, but her eyes lit up as she picked up the fork, and she was beaming at me when she handed me the utensil. “Thank you” made her moan with pleasure, leaning back and sliding down in her chair.

“Anything you do at my command will feel wonderful, and all I want is for you to teach me as you have been teaching Drusilla here. Oh yes, and to use your powers in the service of Stormwind. There is a rather dangerous threat in Duskwood, and I wish to have it defeated. Your powers would be very helpful for that. She is far more powerful than you, yes Drusilla?”

Drusilla gave a so-so gesture. “She is actually a bit worse than me at channeling fel magic into fire, but she spends enough time studying just for the joy of it that she has quite a few more specific techniques mastered.”

“Curses? That kind of thing? You know what, I can’t afford to burn too much energy today, might as well get a tutorial. Ursula, tell me what you can teach me.”

She seemed a bit irritated at my tone, but remembered the fork and shrugged. Yep. Hedonist. “Though she disparages my ability to channel it, I’m quite familiar with all of the generally agreed upon forms of felfire manipulation.” She started to speed up as the euphoria kicked in, “I’m somewhat specialized in the use of souls; both creating and using soul shards, as well as gathering or donating health and mana through a soul tether. I haven’t fully perfected them, but I can make health, soul, fire, and spell stones.”

I nodded and let her continue. A healing potion, a safeguard against death, a fiery weapon enchant, and… what did spell stones do? I never played a warlock much when it was a game. “Spellstones, tell me what they do.”

She took a breath; the euphoria cut off as I interrupted her, but resumed when she changed tracks. “They absorb and focus magical energy away from the holder, making spells more potent and blunting the harm caused by one’s opponents, should they be using primarily magical means. They last about a day and can be stored anywhere on one’s person, assuming they are not destroyed or overloaded.”

Excellent. I wanted that. Ysondre was supposedly a magically inclined dragon; antimagic rocks sounded like exactly what I needed. The rest of the information could wait, or I could get it from Drusilla. “Tell me how many you can make.” As a courtesy, I phrased it as a command instead of a question so that she’d have the opportunity to follow my orders and be rewarded. “One for each soul shard I have. So at the moment that would be thirty?” She might as well have told me that it was Christmas.

“Can you make multiple soul stones?” Please say yes, please say yes.

“No. It takes too much of a draw upon my own soul to do so, and Drusilla hasn’t managed one yet.” She seemed a bit disappointed as she answered.

“I need twelve health and spell stones, each. Make them before noon today if you can, or before around four otherwise. Prioritize the soul stone and the spell stones.”

“What? That’s nearly my whole stock!”

I shrugged. “I need this to go well. Lives are at stake. Now nod and do as you’re told without any further complaints.”

I smiled at Drusilla as Ursula left the table with her omelet half finished, a smile creeping across her face as she called for the servant to join her. “So you tied her pleasure to obedience? Good approach for that one. You may want to try validation too. She loves to feel important and respected.”

“Wow. So was she the strongest warlock you could get your hands on? Or did you pick her because she was pretty and you thought I’d like that?”

“I picked her because she’d be easy and profitable. She was easy enough to manage even before she became yours, and… well?” Drusilla broadly gestured at the dining room around us. It looked old and very fine. The silverware seemed like it might be real silver, all of the furniture was finely carved and well maintained, and Drusilla herself was decked out in finery. The table was large enough to support thirty guests easily, and I wouldn’t be remotely surprised if there were a ballroom right next to us. “You aren’t exactly wealthy, and she’s a bit frivolous; she’d call it generous. As an added bonus, the coven doesn’t really care what she does as long as they can keep the Slaughtered Lamb open. So she needs to stay alive and maintain her reputation somewhat. I think you can manage that.”

“You really thought this through. Good job, slave.” She was caught off guard, dropping her fork as she came, but she didn’t seem to mind. “I’m serious about the big fight by the way. I don’t think I’ll be bringing you; I’m erring on the side of a small elite force.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “Interesting way of telling me I’m too weak to be of any use.”

“Well? Kinda. Against something like this at least, yeah.” I filled her in on the dragons of nightmare. She didn’t seem to know much about the dragon aspects, which was a bit jarring given her generally wide ranging knowledge, but she kept up with my explanation and accepted that she wasn’t being snubbed.

“You’re on the borderline; I might bring you if someone else can’t make it somehow. In the meantime, I have a few hours to kill, and I’m hoping to test a few theories and bind a specific willing demon. Can you help me to do that?”

“A willing demon? Easily. Have you already summoned it?”

“After a fact. She’s been bound by a necklace; if my understanding is correct, Mezzo got stronger when he was summoned and bound.”

“Well the most important benefit he got was near immortality so long as you’re alive. If he dies here, he will return to the twisting nether and be fine within a day or two. If he dies there, he will be banished here in a weakened state, but will recover in a few weeks.”

My greedy little munchkin mind started to go wild at that revelation. Immortal servants? Jackpot. I was planning on taking over the Druidic UN just to get my hands on a similar benefit. “Is that true for all demons bound to me?”

“Essentially. There are occasional wrinkles, and it gets more complicated with less willing servants, but that doesn’t seem like it’ll be a problem for you. So what is this demon? A succubus?”

“A satyr.”

She gave me a golf clap. “Good for you. You’ll get to find out what they do.”

“What do you mean?”

“Different demons can facilitate different types of magic. It seems that binding a voidwalker makes it easier to use curses from our testing, Sayaad allow you to more easily manipulate minds, fel stalkers make soul magic easier, and you know about imps and felfire. From what I know of Satyr, I imagine they will facilitate something associated with corrupting nature or channeling fel magic directly into others.” She thought for a second. “Or illusions, perhaps?”

“Ok, so I want all of those benefits,” Drusilla’s expression told me that I was stating the obvious, “but I’m going to focus on Zelena first.” I picked up my amulet and checked my notes. Mezzo was in position. I warped myself to Zelena’s cabin, where Mezzo was quite contently enjoying a small steak made from that strange greenish meat. Zelena, for her part, was quivering with nervous tension and excitement. “Alright you two. Mezzo, I’ll be keeping you here for now, but I’ll be summoning you soon. Zelena, follow me.” I opened a door to my apartment, then checked around to see who was available to stand around.

Yanca was the lucky girl today, and I ordered her to stay in my apartment and do as she pleased. She might learn some uncomfortable truths by talking to Nadira, but she’d accept them. The girls all did; even something that she’d find upsetting wouldn’t bother her long, thanks to stress defense. I wanted to be able to have both demons at Ursula’s home at the same time, so I needed a way for them to get back to Xoroth when I was done. They could teleport to Yanca, then walk out the front door into Zelena’s home.

When I got back to Drusilla, she was walking down some stairs, apparently to a basement ritual space of some kind. The process of binding Zelena to me properly was almost comedic in its simplicity. More than ninety percent of a warlock’s demonology rituals were focused around controlling the demon and assuring that it would not abuse or subvert the bond. A demon that was fully under my command already, and could be trusted to stay that way, required the mystical equivalent of a handshake and a verbal agreement.

There didn’t seem to be any immediate physical changes to her or me, but I hadn’t sensed the ability to throw around hellfire immediately after summoning Mezzo either. I sent her back to her hut through my apartment and then summoned her through a ritual using a soulshard Drusilla provided, just to be sure it worked. Apparently without one, the rift a typical warlock could create was too small for anything but an imp to slip through. Speaking of which, I summoned Mezzo.

“Alright little buddy. You ready for some experiments?” The imp gulped audibly as the three of us smiled down at him.