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Penny's Dungeons and Dragons: Hard Bargains

"My brother?" The woman's face falls. For a moment, she forgets to work the pedals to Zeona's machine, giving her some respite. "His experiments, no - well, yes, but - it - it was complicated."

She blinks rapidly and takes a deep breath. It seems to help, and she regains her composure before she starts to work the pedals again - but far less severely, now. "My mother is...without wasting time on details, she is politically ambitious - enough so for Szass Tam to exile her from Thay. Everyone and everything is a tool to her, including Ossimar and my brothers and I. But Kandik wasn't the tool she wanted. He was a deeply intelligent wizard and researcher, but he had no interest in courtly intrigue and subterfuge. He couldn't and wouldn't play the political games she wanted from him. That made him more useful as a sacrifice than an asset."

She scowls bitterly, but it's not directed at Zeona, and the machine's dildos remain merciful. "Again, without wasting time on the details, my mother can earn goodwill and sympathy from various nations if a Cormyran assassin slaughters her own family in her own city. If that family is inconvenient to her, so much the better, in her mind."

She sighs softly before continuing with Zeona's other questions. "My given name is Azara. I never had any others - none that would give my mother pause. I won't take your place on the gallows, but you could wear my face as an illusion. It won't fool her for long, though. She mastered wizardry before I was born - she'll know the magic when she sees it. But I'm a mage myself, and I have agents loyal to me. We'll strike when she's distracted."

She thinks for a moment, touching a knuckle to her lips. "Your clothes from the ball? It will be unusual, but I can arrange for you to be wearing them on the gallows, so long as they provide - " She grimaces slightly. " - access to your body. Your ring and the money will be among them. You're sure a hundred gold will be enough for ship's passage?"
 
Resting a little as the movements of the wooden dildos stopped, Zeona tried to clear her head and think. "I really hope I could slip away and find the ship I already found. That much gold would have to be enough, can't just carry around more, and passed to me secretly, unless you add some platinum coins, gems, or jewelry... My clothes I exchanged for the ball gown that got lost in my ordeal should be good enough, they are travelling clothes... I shouldn't have to wear them on stage, just be at hand for when I flee. Feel free to find something distracting of your own, and a hooded cloak over them... How else can we play at being it being you there? ... I also have to get a better look at you, Azara, one your mother would surely have. The longer this little play is distracting her, the easier your thing will be with your help. Oh, and by the way, I heard there is possibly to raise the dead, so maybe you can bring him back? If you get it done fast, he could be another surprise.... And of course if you can not do that, animating his body, or just putting someone else as him... even an illusion... could serve us right."

The half-elf was having serious doubts about the plan, some even about Azara, but if she wanted to get away, there wouldn't be another chance if they wanted to kill her. Shuddering at the rape on stage idea, that one she could at least offer up to her patron, and who knows, maybe she would even like it, like she was this contraption and torture... Azara definitely wasn't too heavy handed with it.
 
"Platinum coins." Azara raises her eyebrows thoughtfully. "They're not commonly used, but I can access some. I'll provide gold and platinum both.

"Clothing is no trouble. We have everything you had when you were captured, and can provide a cloak. If you don't want them on stage, I will arrange for it to be nearby, but there is the risk you will be unable to retrieve it as you flee. The people of Ossimar think of you as your enemy. You must assume everyone you see is against you, so don't dally in leaving the city.

"I cannot raise my brother before your execution tomorrow." Azara goes quiet and sighs morosely. "There is no one in the city strong enough in that magic. Even if there were, they would not act against her. She must die before he can live again. But an illusion may be possible. That would give her pause."

She cocks her head to the side slightly, giving Zeona a probing look. "What do you mean, a better look at me?"
 
"As naked as I would be... or as I am now. After all, if I want to capture the Matron Mother's attention, there should be flawless copy of you being there in place of the 'enemy of people of Ossimar'... Get that mage who put up that false picture of me to show it again with a little more exaggerated, to make the difference all the more evident... I can provide that outlook too, maybe my real one will be less obvious." Zeona counted on making a distinct enough difference between the hated idea and her fleeing self so no one would give her a pause after she duck out of sight.

"If it counts for anything I can retell the truth to how it happened, if you get someone here who can cast a spell you will believe. I wanted to offer all the help to your family to get the real killers, but as it seems your mother stands behind it all, I give this to you, if you want to." the half-elf offered, thinking how one step further would be something out of stories she read about far away places. But no, she wouldn't offer to be the dead's wife, just to accompany him on his way to the afterlife... nor did she wanted to be the slave of his in the other side. Still hoping to have the interesting young man back in life for his sister's sake, Zeona wasn't feeling ready for marriage.
 
Azara hesitates. "My mother has not seen see naked for years - nor anyone else in this city. But...no, of course. We must leave as little as possible to chance."

She flushes red and avoids eye contact with Zeona as her slightly shaking hands move to undo her robe. After a moment, she pulls it aside and lets it drop off her shoulders to the floor. She wears nothing underneath. She has little to no muscle tone, but is slim, all gentle curves. Her skin is milky pale, her pink nipples distinctive and visibly stiffening in the open air. Her pubes are neatly trimmed - unusual for a red wizard, who typically shave their entire bodies.

"Is this...enough?" Azara lifts her arms above her head and blushes beet red. "No...obviously. Sorry."

She turns around to give Zeona a look at her back. "Anyway," she says, her voice quavering, "y-yes. Tell me what happened. No spells necessary. And, while you're at it, tell me exactly what you plan for tomorrow, just so I know we're in agreement."
 
Eyeing the naked woman Zeona hums a little, trying to put what she is seeing to memory. "Do you have any birthmarks? ... Does anyone know you did not bother to shave? But it would be obvious because of your hair... Thank you the opportunity to see... I wouldn't mind able to touch either." the half elf slyly tried to make Azara think about it and at least blush more and be bothered about it, or who knows, maybe flush and be curious about how that would feel...

"When I was introduced to the room, and walked in with my entourage, I overheard something from above. It was Lord Kandik, as later I realized, and your mother....
"Must I stay the entire night, mother? What's the point of talking with these people? Look at them. Look at their empty eyes. Half of them are already drunk."
"There's more out there in the world than your studies, Kandik. Maybe you'll even meet a girl. You can't just sleep with the servants forever."
"Can't you just arrange a marriage for me? My experiments - "
"Are already being taken care of. Go, Kandik. Do it for me. I promise, you won't be missed."​
So of course I tried to welcome him when he came down with a lift of my first glass to the success of his experiments, before disappearing into the crowd, you know, just to make it more interesting for him. Now, as I try to remember, I realize that while my girls was conversing mostly with others of their position or lower, Safira chatted with a very interested looking young noble man dressed in Sembian fashion. Hm. Anyway, it was several minutes before who was introduced as your brother managed to catch up with me and say hello, asking for a dance that just started. I liked his smile... Of course, it is always a honor to dance with the host ... even more so if he looks like a prince. I said that too, trying to keep his attention away from my meager dancing skills... Then we danced and conversed, he spoke about his studies, and how even his clothes was chosen by his mother, and that he knew that she was working with foreigners to set all of it up including the arrangements... It is really unfortunate that his divinations did not spoke to him about what would follow. By the way, maybe they did. You should check his notes or journal, he must have kept some notes for himself, even if his tutor could know something too. ... He kept monologuing, getting more and more inebriated. That must be why he grabbed my derriere, which earned him a light slap. I also left him there at the focus of the crowd, leaving the parket, but wanted to turn back for him on the side... But that is when he was shot in the neck. Must have been to stop him from casting or shouting... the next arrow got him in the back. And a dozen or so more starting hitting people all around. I went to the floor too, trying to get close to him, to see if I could help, but it was no use. My dear Carran came for me to protect and get me to safety."

Zeona's eyes glass over with the bad memory, her voice turns monotone as she sags in her manacles. "Sara, lying on the floor with an arrow sticking out of her ribs, calling out for us... Carran urging me towards the door none the less... A woman stepping into view on the second floor, overlooking the door, resting her hands on the banister. "Stop!" she commands, her voice authoritative. Carran stops, staring up at her... It was some kind of magic." Zeona shakes her head, trying to clear her mind. "She commanded her to kneel, and Carran fallen to her knees, the shield falling with her, as the attackers started spreading out the ballroom itself. They killed her and Sara too. Caught Minara and made her kneel next to the half-elf boy who was manning the door. Then Safira came forward and made it obvious she was with the attackers, and not just some henchwoman either. She stopped them taking advantage of their upper hand over me, shouting that nobody would be paid if I wasn't still a virgin when they got me where they wanted to take me. Of course I fled when I could, and was trying to leave the city, after it became obvious they made me the main enemy." She does not say that it was the Matron Mother or not orchestrating the capture, but it definitely wasn't Safira up on the balcony.

Zeona is too lost in the past and the horrific memories to think and speak of the future or any kind of plan.
 
"Birthmarks?" Azara sighs testily, flushing deeper. "I'm already naked. What you see is what you have. And it's not that I don't bother! ...I just like my hair. My mother is Thayan, but I was born here on the Sword Coast. Anyway, no one knows besides my handmaidens, but that's enough."

She gives Zeona an annoyed look. "How could you touch? You're chained up. I'm supposed to be torturing you, remember." Suddenly reminded, she puts her foot on the pedal and pushes the dildo into Zeona, though not harshly.

She keeps pumping the dildo as Zeona recounts her story, maintaining a steady and not unpleasant rhythm. It soon becomes clear that she's doing it without thinking, because Zeona's story makes her too angry to think about anything else. Embarassment over her nakedness disappears; her flushed cheeks remained, but it's clearly the result of burning fury.

"It's not enough that she killed him," she mutters. "She had to mock him! You won't be missed, she said. She's wrong and she'll die for it. Shot in the neck...the cowards. Craven, clever cowards."

She takes a deep, slow breath to calm herself...slightly. "I don't know Safira or this Sembian. They may be involved with the Waterdhavian. As for my mother, I'm sure she wasn't there for the massacre. She doesn't do her own work anymore. She's old and out of practice, which is the only reason we have a chance. She's still an elite wizard - strong enough to conquer this city decades ago. The same for her personal bodyguard. Some of the family guard is loyal to me, but he answers only to her.

"Here's my plan. We have to convince the crowd that my mother must die. If you can disguise yourself as me, then we can pretend she is disguised as well, and trying to kill the Charr family. In the confusion, we can launch a surprise attack on my mother and her bodyguard, and you can slip away. You must get away unnoticed so that no one can tell that you aren't actually me. Do you understand so far?"
 
"If only..."Zeona murmured when Azara flushed, making her eyes follow the reddening of skin spreading on the speaking woman. "Oh, I could find a way if you would step closer, my tongue is very agile..." she teased, but then the restarting of the dildos helped her focus on her story. While her mind was away in the past as she retold what happened, her body shook with the opposing sensations and feelings, the only common ground being the heat that burned with the various sources of fire - making her flushed and ready for anything, reaching for the fires that was hotter than the material plane, to the fires of hell that could stroke lust, hate, and burn the very soul to cinders...

Then Azara's 'plan' helped Zeona focus on something else than the past and present, planning for the future. "I can look like you, maybe even act like you, but I do not know your words and what would you say. Care to coach me, Azara? Or instruct me to what is to your liking? But come closer, better nobody hears your full plan just I... Come, sit on my lap, it would be torture to feel you and not able to touch with my hands..."

Zeona tried to invoke her Patron mistress with her thoughts, hoping that Azara would get close enough to embrace with the otherwordly leathery wings of lust for revenge. She knew that her meager new knowledge and few magic tricks wouldn't make it possible to do the get away unnoticed part without some serious luck or help.
 
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