"Good," Morrigan said. "Bring him to me."
"Milady?" the huntmaster repeated. "He's very..."
"Dangerous?" Morrigan asked. "Remember who you are talking to."
"Yes, milady," the huntmaster said, almost panicking. "I'll have him brought to you."
"At once, and as undamaged as possible," Morrigan insisted. The huntmaster nodded and left to collect prisoner as Morrigan stared out of the window of her throne room.
The sound of muffled growls and snaps announced the approach of Jon Talbain and her guards. They came into her room as a loud raucous jumble. The bound werewolf was shoved across the room away from his guards, who stepped several paces away from him now that they had reached their destination.
"Leave," Morrigan said. The guards hesitated. "Now!!" And they left the room.
"What do you want Morrigan?" Jon asked.
"Do you see them?" Morrigan asked. "They're protecting me. Feh. They think I'm weak, scared. That I'm hiding in my castle. Fools."
"Spare me the nonsense," Jon snapped. "I was doing nothing against you, what do you want, a battle. A fight to prove your strength?"
"Make yourself comfortable, werewolf," Morrigan said. "You and I both know that bound as you are, you can't stop me if I want to kill you. Or I could turn you over to the gargoyles, they want a little retribution for the trouble you gave them."
"You sent for me to be captured so you could talk to me?" Jon said. "Are you insane. You'll send people to die for conversation?"
"I send people to die for amusement," Morrigan said. "Or haven't you attended the gladitorial arena?"
"Feh," Jon said. "You've stooped to watching others fight then?"
"The amusement of others," Morrigan said. "I don't attend when I can avoid it. Now cease talking so I can say what I brought you to hear."
"The sooner I get this over with the better," Jon said.
"I want you to swear that this goes no further, werewolf," Morrigan said. "Swear by the souls of all your ancestors." She turned to look at him and narrowed her eyes.
"That depends on what I hear," Jon snapped.
"Not good enough," she said. "If you're going to be stubborn, I'll just give you to those gargoyles." It was a bluff, an obvious bluff, but this was important. Jon was curious.
"As you wish," Jon said. "I'll keep this secret for you."
"You'll regret it if you don't," Morrigan promised. Then she took a deep breath. "I have a daughter."
"That's your big secret?" Jon said, annoyed. "The makai is full of upstart half-breeds that claim you as a mother."
"I'm not talking about one of those brats born from one of my weak little harem girls," she snapped. "I have a daughter bourne from my womb and fathered by...Dmitri Maximov."
"You and the vampire?" Jon said after a long moment's silence.
"I claimed the father was one of my harem," Morrigan said. "One of the biological males I believe. There was one with enough potential power to have possibly produced my daughter."
"And how did this happen?" Jon asked. Morrigan glared at him. "You want me to do something for you, I want to know everything. How did this happen?" Not to mention it would give him some better idea of what Morrigan's motives were to learn how much she was willing to tell.
"I wasn't in my right mind," Morrigan said. "When Lilith rejoined me, I was...disturbed. Confused. Vulnerable. The vampire took advantage of that to break through my mental defenses."
"You were raped?" Jon asked. An instant later he was slammed against a wall with Morrigan in his face.
"I was under hypnosis, I was seduced," Morrigan. "I was not..." She released him and strode gracefully back. "Back to the business at hand. The girl was sent to Earth realm for her protection. Spells were cast to seal her powers and hide her among the humans. An ifriti prince was watching her, but he died somehow."
"And what does this have to do with me?" he asked.
"Her power awoke," Morrigan said. "I felt her fighting...with Pyron. I felt it all the way from Earth. Maximov is sure to have felt it as well. If he wasn't distracted by Pyron, he'll have guessed who the sun-god was fighting by now. He'll approach her, and he'll turn her against me."
"And that's what you plan for her," Jon reasoned to himself without speaking aloud. It was hard to imagine Morrigan Aesnland as possessing a maternal instinct.
"I can't leave to investigate," she said. "That will only confirm what he'll suspect."
"And letting me go free won't confirm that?" Jon asked.
"Of course it would," Morrigan said. "That's why I'm not going to let you go. You're going to escape." A wing shifted into a long tentacle and reached out to strike Jon's bonds weakening them in several places before returning to her back and it's normal form. "Hold back for a few hours. Get to Earth, there's a portal in third floor library that should bring you to the correct time period, go to Japan. From there it should be obvious. Do we have an agreement?"
"Is there anything in it for me?" Jon asked.
"Your life," Morrigan said grimmly.
"You've got time to find someone else and give this same speech to?" Jon asked. Morrigan's elegant face snarled.
"You can name your price, werewolf," Morrigan snapped. "Jewels, title, land, gold, spells, items of power, you can take your pick from my harem! What do you want?"
"Anything?" Jon asked.
"Anything," Morrigan asserted.
"Then I'll name it later," Jon said. Morrigan froze, this was perhaps the most dangerous contract one could enter.
"Agreed," Morrigan said. She walked to the wall and pulled a rope. Soon the guards came back in. "I'm finished with him, take him back to his cell."
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(Posted Sat, 08 Feb 2003 21:58)
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