Dro Thinh sat in her office, elbows on her wooden desk and palms pressed together. She'd just dismissed a Shade, a lesser demon who hadn't quite managed a physical form. The poor creature had just informed the demoness that her latest attempt to corrupt Thanati hadn't been... as successful as planned. She had been hoping that her own demonic presence would slowly turn the people but one demon, no matter how powerful, didn't seem to be enough.
The Shade had pointedly reminded her of this.
But it wasn't all bad news; the Shade had informed of a way to allow Shades and other evil spirits to gain physical form. This was a gamble though, as Thanatos was full of priests and exorcists and demons were not known for their loyalty.
A gamble worth taking, she thought as she summoned an Inquisitor and ordered him to summon a priestess from the morgue. More than likely it'd be a flesh-sculptor. Seemed like the temples were just overflowing with those.
The Inquisitor bowed to his commander and exited the demoness' office. Dro smiled as she considered how loyal the House of Justice truly were to her; how much they would do for her.
"Not even the Maharani has such loyalty," She said to herself quietly as she summoned a ball of fire, a small act of defiance against Thanatos but one that left a Chesire-grin on the demoness' beautiful visage.
Zea Misra--as usual--had been working on something important.
In this case, it was gallstones. One of the more alchemically-inclined of her colleagues had a line of inquiry about them, about some kind of correlation between the obsessions of the living and the little solid rocky bits that coalesced inside their bodies. As Zea understood it they were quite painful, and as she rolled three around on her palm she could see why.
And then had come the summons. Probably this was one of those periodic psychic checks to make sure she wasn't committing murder or practicing slash and burn agriculture. Zea did not go in for such inefficient farming practices, so the commute was the only really irritating part of the process resulting as it did in Zea standing while she was scanned and then immediately leaving again.
She did the Inquisitor and their boss the courtesy of washing the bile from her hands.
By the time she had allowed herself to be escorted onward to Dro Thinh, the outside heat and brought up a layer of sticky sweat that left her curly dark hair adhering to the back of her neck. The Inquisitor preceded her into the House Head's personal study.
Zea bowed once she was waved in. "Priestess Zea Misra," she offered, not expecting high-ranking officials to keep especially careful track of every member of her caste. "It's an honor to be given the privilege of a moment of your time."
Did her hands still smell like bile?
She thought maybe her hands still smelled a little like bile.
Dro flashed a friendly smile and gestured for Zea to take a seat. She studied the woman for a moment, using her Psionics to allow a steady stream of memories and experiences to flow into the demoness' mind, mainly to distract herself from the revolting smell of bile.
"You conduct experiments," The Arbiter said, an observation more so than a question. More memories and knowledge flowed through, like a river. It seemed this woman could be exactly the person Dro was looking for. What luck.
"You wish to fix humans," She said as she sat behind her desk. "Why?" She already knew the answer, of course. That had been very close to the front of Zea's thoughts, but the demoness was curious how she would answer.
Zea dusted herself off and stared placidly at Dro Thinh as she undoubtedly sifted through what was findable in Zea's mind. Zea was perhaps a little heterodox in practice, but her beliefs were spot on and she did good work without embarrassing the temple. Any half-worthy Iniman official ought to be inspired by what they found in Zea Misra's thoughts, at least in her opinion, and perhaps someday one of them would be. Then maybe she wouldn't have to bear all the responsibility alone. Just most of it.
At the assessment that she conducted experiments, Zea merely raised her eyebrows in assent. Of course she did. She couldn't well teach anatomy worth a damn if she weren't willing to have a bit of a poke around inside of a corpse.
This question, though.
For a moment Zea blanked. The answer was so baldly simple that if Zea just said what she thought Dro Thinh might think Zea was being insubordinate or at least rude. How could she break it down beyond that, though? Her reasoning was so basic, so obvious, that it said more about the rest of the world than it did about her that Zea was the one who'd followed it to its natural outcome.
"Because they could be better," she managed. "When my roof leaks, I patch it. When we learn to make a better roof we make a better roof. A better human body would..." What the hell line of questioning was this? "...be... you know, better."
Obviously. What the hell. This wasn't nuanced stuff. Better things were better.
Dro grinned inwardly, this woman was fantastic. There was the problem of her being a priest but in Dro's exceedingly long life, she'd learned all mortals had their price. Being able to sift through their memories certainly did help find the price, too.
"Zea, I am about to do something at great risk to the both of us," Dro said, standing from her chair before clearing her throat. She chanted a few words in a devilish tongue and a blood-red glow overtook the room. Suddenly the Arbiter did not seem so beautifully captivating. Her eyes were orbs of blackness, deeper than the night. Her white hair faded to a dark grey and rose upward, almost as if the strands were forming themselves into horns. Fingernails grew to claws and teeth to fangs.
"I am a demoness, Zea." She said when her transformation was complete. "And I'd like to make a deal."
Risk. Well, being trusted by someone in Dro Thinh's position was... oh wow.
She was doing something to the room. The eyes were nice and the hair floating was actually fairly compelling and attractive and Zea sort of wanted to learn how, but the fingernail claws? Zea would have to file that shit daily or she'd never get anything done. As it was, she kept finding little dark flakes under hers.
Fingernail hygiene and their impact on dexterity was not the point, though. The point was bigtime different than... than that.
"Ahhhhh...."
Zea closed her mouth, realizing that at some point it had dropped open.
This was bad. This was very very bad. Zea had worked very hard to avoid getting involved with demons and their conniving monkeyshit and somehow they always seemed to fucking find her. This was the worst. Why couldn't she just live her life in a lab doing her job? Why? Why was that not acceptable? Was Inima fucking testing her? Because if so, that was rude.
"Hey... so, uh..." Zea needed a way to let this thing down easy so that she could survive a few more steps out of the room to find the Maharani or perhaps a team of half a dozen assassins. Carefully she raised both hands in a placating gesture, avoiding any sudden movements. "Hey, I am flattered. Really. And I'm sure you've thought this through but with all due respect, no thank you. At all."
A dozen assassins. Were there guilds for that? Could she get a guild?
Dro chuckled, changing back to her more... friendly appearance. "Three dozen assassins couldn't kill me, Zea. And no, I'm afraid your goddess has no power in this room." She had underestimated Zea, the demoness realized.
The sheer stubbornness was undeniable.
"Calm down, Zea. At least hear me out, I do not want to hurt you, but I will if need be." Dro sat down, smiling friendly.
Oh well. Mind reading. Of course.
Zea tried to be polite. She tried to behave and be good. She was a civilized person in a civilized society who had a lot of good to do and could not do it if she was constantly alienating everybody and exposing herself to excessive scrutiny. She also couldn't do her job if some bizarre demon beacon kept drawing these fucking creatures to her no matter how well she behaved.
"Of course you will." No point in mincing words with mind reading going on. She lowered her hands into her lap and decided to be straightforward to save time and effort. "With all due respect, you're not my first demon. If you wanted to hurt me, you just would. But you want something from me that you can't get if I'm just dead, or else you'd be murdering people and badgering their spirits for bargains."
Harassing dead people would be an even worse idea than harassing the living. Zea did not intend to become a ghost ever, but she had little doubt she'd be an exceedingly talented one.
"So why don't you offer me whatever it is you think I'm willing to sell myself for and then I will tell you no, and then I can learn what you do with people who don't make pacts with demons."
Just... just... rude, Inima! Rude. Zea had work she could be doing.
Dro nearly laughed aloud but held her tongue. She knew she wasn't Zea's first demon and doubted she'd be her last.
"I want to test your experiments." She said, pouring herself a glass of wine. "And I won't kill you or curse you, merely wipe your memory of this day and let you think it was a standard check up with the House of Justice." She offered a glass to Zea, wondering if the priestess drank wine.
Zea blinked once, slowly, and then stared down at the glass.
Was this demon serious? Was she really going to resort to Zea said no so let's see what happens when she's drunk?
"I don't want you involved with my experiments at all." Zea held up a hand between herself and the wine, because no. There was a more important matter to discuss, though, than whether having demonic assistance would help Zea. Transactional relationships were one thing--they were what made the world go round--but making her success contingent upon the assistance of an inherently treacherous collaborator? No.
By this point her thoughts were coming out the way they'd formed in her mind, layering on top of one another in nearly-synchronous harmony.
"And insofar as my consent is required for you to do your fucked up mind rapey bullshit, you should know I deny consent. So you're gonna do what you're gonna do but there is no way that I'm gonna make room for you to say that I invited your infernal mess into my life."
Demons. So goddamn insulting. They were all about unbalanced exchanges that they then blamed people for making with them. Shit like this was why nobody could have magically-granted nice things.
Dro sighed loudly. Why did all mortals think it was only demons? The hells had a number of denizens; fiends, devils, fallen angels, the list went on. Even a demoness was incredibly different to a demon!
"Demons and fiends are liars and backstabbers, Zea. I'm a demoness, there's a legit difference." She drank the glass in a single draught. "Mortal wine is just amazing, never'll get used to it." The demoness said more to herself than Zea. She turned back to the priestess.
"There isn't anything I can say to convince you."
Inima's tits. What the hell did Zea have that this creature wanted so damn much? Just her research? Of course, anybody would want that, but Zea wasn't all researchers. She shared her findings and should she do what so many of her colleagues did and accidentally kill herself in her lab, at least there'd be copies of her work out there to prevent others from repeating her mistake. In that way she would still be contributing to the forward march of progress. So of course, it was worth wanting. But why this?
"That depends." Fuck it. Politeness wasn't an option. It was like talking to her mother, only with more imminent psychic danger. So fine. Whatever. "How likely are you to agree to immediately and completely destroy your own essence and the essence of every other infernal critter on this plane? You going away forever sounds pretty appealing, especially if it's part of a species-wide extinction."
"Had I the power, I would agree to the latter part of that because no matter how powerful, denizens of hell cannot destroy themselves," Dro explained, drinking straight from the bottle of wine. "I want let spirits walk around in the bodies of your experiments so that they can gain a physical form of their own quicker."
That wasn't exactly true, but Dro was getting desperate.
Maybe this thing couldn't destroy itself, but it could certainly turn its back and exit whoever the hell's body this even was, and let Zea rip it to shreds and scatter its essence to the proverbial winds. Clearly this wasn't actually on offer, which was a damn shame.
"What? No."
Zea leaned forward and counted off on one hand. "First off, you do not let anything do anything with my research. If you calling the shots was worth a damn academically this problem would already have gotten solved. Secondly!" Ugh. "It is unhealthy for spirits to get too attached to a world they aren't part of, and until I have a proper alternative to teasing them with temporary corporeality, it will remain unhealthy for them."
Spirits didn't deserve consideration any different from any physically manifesting sapient being, and that meant Zea was at least as responsible for them as she was her living neighbors. Dro Thinh wasn't a priestess. Hell, she wasn't a Khan. She was barely a person. She was just some body hopping demon.
"I mean, are you new here? Have you learned absolutely nothing from parading yourself around in a temporary meatsuit pretending you belong here? Spirits aren't toys."
She'd been intending to think of a third point and then had gotten too angry.
"Oh and third, please go choke on a barrel of cocks literally forever."
There. No proper rant was complete without cocks.
Forever? A hundred or so years ago, Dro wouldn't have minded that at all. But now? She was growing tired of this priestess.
"Oh by the gods and the hells, you're an idiot." She all but shouted, knowing her warding of silence wouldn't let any noise travel outside the room. "Not, spirits, demons. If I let a demon possess a body that has no soul, they will develop their own bodies faster. For someone so brilliant you are godsdamned stupid, Zea. And no, I'm not just a body-hopping demon," She stood, fire burning in his eyes. She'd had enough of this disrespectful bitch.
"I'm a demoness from the dawn of the hells. I don't know if you're aware, but it's been around a long time and I've survived. So you're gonna show me some respect before I drag your soul to the abyss and devour it into the void!"
Zea leaned back as the pretender to the head of a House completely lost control of herself and had some kind of entitled tantrum. It was like watching a toddler scream, if that toddler could completely wipe her mind down to flat emptiness and flay all her skin while leaving her able to scream. So maybe not the average toddler.
Putting demons into temporary bodies to give them their own was... it was an idea that had merit, but Zea didn't particularly trust the suggestion from Dro Thinh. Even if it seemed from Zea's point of view to be a good way to circumvent demons taking possessions of mortals as a matter of necessity, it wouldn't stop them from doing it for fun, and for Dro Thinh to suggest it that meant there had to be some reason it was a terrible terrible idea. Zea tried to do as few things as possible that she knew from the start that she'd regret later.
"If I were more useful to you getting devoured in the Abyss, you would have done it already instead of trying to bully me into accepting your proposal. So in light of that."
Being juvenile didn't seem to sit right with this demon. If she flipped out and Zea didn't, that did sort of mean Zea won. She could absolutely still die or get mind-wiped, but moral victory did count for something if it was the only kind available. So Zea made a circle with her right hand in front of her face and pushed her tongue into her cheek, staring directly into the demon's eyes as she mimed fellating a nice big cock. First of the barrel! First of an eternity's worth of a barrel.
Wasn't as though Zea could actually win here anyway. Why the fuck not.
Oh, damn it.
Those were the words running freely through Dro's mind as she sat down again. She'd lost her cool, she'd broken her composer. This little bitch had won, it was only a moral victory but still. It only increased the demoness' desire and respect for the priestess.
She narrowed her green eyes and grabbed Zea's mind in a web of Psionic energy. She didn't sift through her captive's memories this time. It was a contest of wills and it wasn't long before the demoness had one--she found it worth noting that the priestess had lasted longer than expected. With her captive fully under her control, the demoness considered implanting a subconscious desire for the woman to obey her but dismissed the thought as easily as it came. No one owned Zea, Dro realized. That's what made her special. To take that from her would be to destroy the very thing Dro wanted, it simply wouldn't do.
Instead, let the memories flow again and did her work like only a Psionic could.
Zea Misra--as usual--had been working on something important.
Probably this was one of those periodic psychic checks to make sure she wasn't committing murder or practicing slash and burn agriculture. Zea did not go in for such inefficient farming practices, so the commute was the only really irritating part of the process resulting as it did in Zea standing while she was scanned and then immediately leaving again. She'd done Dro Thinh the courtesy of washing her hands, or else this would have been a very short and unpleasant meeting indeed.
Evidently she'd been summoned specifically, so at least she didn't have to introduce herself. They were already seated and everything, so hopefully they could just get on with it so Zea could get back to real work.
"Arbiter. It's an honor to be given the privilege of a moment of your time."
Dro smiled toothily, friendly as ever. She cocked her head to the left narrowing her eyes curiously. She wondered that if, perhaps in another life, if she could've been partners or even friends with this woman. She liked to think they would've been.
"Tell me of your experiments, I'm very curious to hear your progress." She said at length, offering Zea a glass of red wine.
Now this was a privilege. Maybe now Zea could get a sense for whether people really did respect and appreciate her work or if they were just tolerating her because she wasn't far enough outside the lines of Iniman orthodoxy to be worth the conflict. Or maybe Dro Thinh was just trying to get Zea's research into her surface thoughts to make the sifting easier. If Zea were psychic, that seemed like the sort of thing she'd do to save herself time and effort.
So. Fair enough!
"No, thank you. I still have work today. So far I've just been retrieving components for colleagues, but hopefully later I'll be able to get a little progress made for myself. Let's see..."
Zea looked upward and thoughtfully tapped her index finger against her lower lip.
"The last thing I tested was whether a human body can be combined with plants more easily if I use carnivorous plants as a graft." She lowered her hand and her shoulders dropped before lifting again in a brief shrug. "Didn't have immediate success, but that doesn't always mean anything. I could have just done it wrong."
She'd been hindered somewhat by a rather uncooperative subject.
"But I'm going to work on something else for a moment. I don't want to get frustrated, then get sloppy, then fail more, then get more frustrated and get sloppier. That's just a waste of everybody's time. Hence me digging out gallstones for alchemists."
"Have you tried using plants that have regenerative properties?" She sad, pulling open a drawer from her desk and extracting a small potted plant with bark white as snow and leaves like silver.
"It is called the Tree of Angels," She explained as she set the pot down. "It is a most rare thing, growing only under several feet of snow. It is almost impossible to find. It can cure most poisons, never encountered one it couldn't." Dro pushed it towards Zea. "Try it and let me know how it works."
Zea's mind was whirling through the plants she knew of that could regenerate more than the average. Compared to a zombie, all plants had regenerative properties but... the Arbiter had something specific in mind, evidently. She had something specific in mind and it was right here.
That must have been a sturdy plant, to be so happy in a drawer. What about a drawer replicated deep snow, besides the dark? Clearly a full shade plant, so it'd be one for the basement. But... should she?
She leaned forward, paused, and then got up to finish her approach. With the tips of her fingers she carefully rotated the pot to get a better view of the plant. This would be worth trying to graft just to retain a fair supply for personal reasons. Zea was too high-caste to straightforwardly murder under most circumstances, but poison was deniable and could be covered up as an experiment gone wrong. A contingency plan might be worth it.
Still...
"This is a really valuable thing." Zea looked up from it to Dro Thinh, and said gravely, "But there is risk of damage to it, regeneration or no. I can take care of a plant but it's only fair to let you know that not all plant tissue responds well to all kinds of magic. If you're relying on this, I just want you to know the drawbacks to lending it for research."
Dro pushed the plant towards Zea. "I trust you will take care of it to the best of your ability, Zea. But I won't lie to you-- I cannot lie to you. My relationship with you is because of the House of Justice. I cannot explain why, but I believe it imperative the priest and priestesses have a good relationship with my House." She took a sip of her wine. "I hope you do not believe me shallow and that I am attempting to buy your friendship." Of course, the Arbiter didn't worry about whether or not the priestess would think her shallow; she'd welcome the help regardless.
And if she didn't, Dro always did have her Ace. "It isn't my intention, you must know."
As long as Dro Thinh knew Zea would do her best, that should be doable. She just didn't want the Arbiter to assume that her research was completely risk free and everything was definitely going to pay off with no drawbacks. Sometimes people who weren't researchers themselves assumed that identifying a problem meant the solution was immediate and sure.
"That wasn't really what I was getting at, but that's... good to know, too?"
Why would anybody want Zea's friendship badly enough to barter for it? Something about that just did not follow from what Zea knew about the universe and the creatures which inhabited it. Maybe it was just because she was a priestess, but Arbiters didn't need priests and priestesses for friends. The gap was so wide that while their organizational areas ought to be professionally cooperative... Zea wasn't sure if anybody else actually... talked to people that far up, aside from social climber types who aspired to a lifetime of tedious paperwork and even worse conversation, obviously.
One thing was sure, however obvious Zea's genius probably was, she was not a particularly useful friend and had no intentions of becoming one. But... well... Arbiters. They were all a little weird anyway.
"It isn't that I wish to barter your friendship, Zea." Dro explained with an understanding smile. "Merely that I have found that helping one with their pursuits, or even trying to help, can go a long way in forming a friendship. I.." She frowned, searching for the words that best fit. "I have been informed that there has been a change of status regarding the innocence of the House of Judgment. I fear an uprising and would like to be prepared if such a thing happens." Inwardly, the demoness was laughing wildly. An uprising, indeed!
The House of Judgment would fall soon and after that, who else could stop Justice?
It wasn't that Dro Thinh wanted to barter for Zea's friendship. She just wanted to make sure they had enough of a working relationship that if Zea chose some kind of political allegiance... she'd have some reason to believe Dro Thinh was the one who'd value her and her work the most.
Fucking politics. Fucking terrible terrible politics.
Obviously it was good to know that there was some kind of friction going on between the Houses, but all Zea wanted to do was stay out from under their giant clumsy clomping psychic feet. She had work to do, and her work emphatically did not have anything to do with the pathological need of her betters to jockey for position forever.
"Duly noted," she replied, hoping that if she kept her tone light enough it would forestall further discussion of Zea playing some kind of part in a coming Thanati House kerfuffle. "I'm sure if you all do enough psychic rummaging you'll have it sorted out in a blink. It is your job, after all, and I have every confidence in you."
If there was a slight emphasis on your job, it was only as much as would have been polite. If Dro Thinh could do her job, and Koda Thanh his, Zea would do her best to do literally anything else in the entire world, and their squabbling would hopefully not bother everybody else overmuch. Sure would be nice. Inima willing, it might even happen.
Dro stood from her chair, having heard Zea's thoughts as loudly as if she had spoken them. Politics? No, the demoness would never stoop so low as to get mingled in that. Politics was the game of lessers, of fiends who bargain for souls and deal with vile wretches like the Demon's Merchant.
Dro Thinh didn't play politics. She played war and there were none better at her game.
"I speak not of politics, nor of tasteless cold-wars between two houses. I speak of an uprising, of a war that may - who can be sure? - cripple this nation. I cannot express my concerns directly, as I am of Justice but," She leaned forward, bringing her face to be only inches from Zea's. "I am concerned and I will do what I need to protect my House and my nation."
Damn politics. Dro would never stoop so low.
Oh great fucking fuck. Zea'd done it now. She was going to get chewed out by the Arbiter of House Justice and then Dro could just sort of roundabout imply that Zea may potentially have had opportunity to do ghastly things and refuse to defend her, and then Judgment would have her exiled or her soul destroyed and then all of the humans everywhere would die. They wouldn't die immediately, of course, but they would eventually, because Zea couldn't stand politics or politicians.
Zea clenched her jaw, kept very still, and took a long careful breath.
"Begging the Arbiter's indulgence, but this one is only a priestess. This one's duties are individual spirits and individual students. Concerns of uprisings and who may or may not be fated to cause them are for people who were fated to be in a position to do something about it. They are for those of loftier birth and achievement, and it would be presumptuous of this one to even begin to weigh the wisdom of allegiances between Houses."
After all, it wasn't as though one House were significantly different than the other, not as far as Zea could determine. They had different jobs, sure, but in the end they were still the sort of people who occupied themselves micromanaging others. Whether Justice or Judgment got out of line and effectively went rogue, it wasn't Zea's business. Siding with either was the same as siding against either; either was treason.
Zea just plain did not have time for treason. Dro Thinh presumably had plenty. Maybe Dro could get to it and Zea could get back to teaching kids how to make pen nibs out of teeth.
Dro gnawed her tongue and sat back down. This had been the second time this priestess had gotten her to lose her cool, had made her lose her patience.
How she wanted her! But no, that would not happen. Not anytime soon, anyway.
"It is not my place to have you exiled or your soul destroyed and even so, I wouldn't dream of such actions." She sighed and rubbed her temples. "Influence is a plague, an infection that will spread - sometimes slowly and sometimes quickly. You may be a simple priestess that seeks to fix humanity, but I have no doubt that others would follow you. None can know the extent of corruption that might be in the House."
Dro looked up and stared at Zea for a moment. The demoness' swore that she'd have this priestess and no one would deny her prize. "There is a spark about you, Zea, and people will follow that light."
A deep chasm of revulsion opened up somewhere in Zea's mind at the notion of anybody following her. What a horrifying thing, having a bunch of weak-minded underlings looking to her to make or evaluate all their decisions. It would be like having children, except that these ones would be making far more advanced blunders and giving far more elaborate rationalizations for why they were right and she was wrong while simultaneously demanding her opinion on absolutely literally fucking everything they did. At least with a child, the biggest concerns were things like whether the kid was due for a bowel movement, not whether they were going to irreparably fuck up the entire future of Thanatos.
No, that sounded terrible.
Zea needed to handle this delicately, or else she was going to get pegged as some kind of queenmaker whether she had any interest or not. If she were so designated, it was entirely possible that there'd be nothing she could do. She had to stop it before things went that far.
"If the Arbiter has concerns about the future of her homeland, this humble priestess can only assume that she is availing herself of spiritual counsel which can give glimpses into what Inima has laid out for us all."
Secular authorities. Was it just easier for them to forget how little control they really had? What would happen would happen, and she that was born to be hanged could never be drowned. So it went.
"It is, after all, the limit of a priestess's authority. A priestess can be of no further assistance."
Maybe Dro Thinh would ask Zea to throw some chicken bones and see what was what, and then Zea could leave and pretend that people weren't looking at her as some kind of big player in Thanati politics. Maybe then... maybe then Zea would not ever have to waste her time on something so small and ephemeral as rising and falling nations. She had so much yet to do.
Dro couldn't help but smile - though whether it was friendly or predatory, she didn't know or care at the time. Over her years she'd learned that to control someone you must be able to deliver what they want, which means you must know what they want.
But sometimes, the demoness knew, it was just as important to know what they didn't want.
"I can make sure that happens or that it doesn't." She explained, having some of her wine. "All you have to do is make sure that if the time comes, and I'm not sure it will, but if it does, you and the other priests will support Justice."
That bitch.
Arbiter Bitch, to be as polite as possible within her own thoughts, but a telepath had to develop a thick enough skin to hear the occasional coarse response, or so Zea reckoned. If not, she would have no further explanations for how this conversation had gone on so long. If Dro Thinh were so sensitive, it stood to reason that Zea would already be dead.
She was still a bitch. Being given responsibility as a punishment was not the kind of thing Zea would ever have considered. Even if it resulted in a pointless pissing match for the rest of Zea's life in which she just escalated the damage she could deal every time Dro lengthened her reach just to irk her, it would waste so very much of Zea's time. The thought did not appeal. Whether she agreed to try to rally the Temple caste on the side of Justice against Judgment or not, Zea would either be choosing politics to avoid politics or being forced into politics because she hadn't chosen it.
Dro Thinh was still insane, but it was a capable sort of insanity. Zea had to concede some grudging respect for the Arbiter's willingness to endanger the future of the entire nation of Thanatos for the sake of getting Zea onside one way or another. It wasn't nice to be wanted, but it was just slightly reassuring to know that Zea was not the only one in the world with absolutely no sense of scale when making sacrifices for a higher goal.
"Fate leads those who are willing but must push those who are not, and each of us land precisely where we are placed," she answered, retreating further into ever more orthodox Iniman doctrine. Every Thanati from the esteemed Arbiter to the least literate child knew that Inima laid the path; pretending otherwise was not only short-sighted but a little tacky and distinctly un-Thanati. "The choices we make to arrive in our places are merely the shadows cast by our future onto our present."
Zea closed her eyes in an outward show of humility, lowering her head in deference to the goddess that ruled believers and unbelievers alike. "This one is Thanati, and would never presume to believe that her choices decide her fate."
Dro was going to do what Dro was going to do, and Zea's involvement would be whatever Zea's involvement would be. All Thanati knew this, even if sometimes it was a comfort to forget. Zea looked back up again. Perhaps the wise and esteemed Arbiter might benefit from some Temple meditation herself, to get back to basics. She could sit with the little children.
"Yes." Dro answered, simply. "None can escape our fate and we all do as Inima desires." She leaned forward, grinning. "That means whatever I do--either to you personally or politically-- is Inima's will or could not happen.
"So that means I will continue to warn you against what may happen to you until you do as I say and that is what Inima desires. Else I could literally not do it." While Dro could truly never believe in a deity that took responsibility for everything it's followers did, she had to admit it had it's perks.
Finally, the Arbiter was talking sense. If things had kept going as they were, Zea might have had to try and muster an appropriate level of concern for the Arbiter's fate in her next life. Thankfully Inima was merciful and did not appear to be putting Zea into a position that required her to care.
"It is as the Arbiter says," Zea answered gratefully, still hiding too far behind the most excruciating formality to refer to Dro Thinh in the second person. Maybe Dro Thinh would take the hint and join her about thirteen steps away from the very idea of them being peers or--Inima forbid--co-conspirators. "We are placed on the stage if and only if Inima wants us there, and removed at her whim and however she ordained."
Could Zea go yet?
"Yes, you can." Dro said, beginning the process of removing her own mind from Zea's. "I would like you to know that I am truly not your enemy and so I offer you a token of friendship. There is a certain man--slightly mad--but incredibly useful to your work, I think. He's a wizard, with a very unique spell." The Arbiter smiled slightly, friendly as ever. Psionics were strange, and loosening the bond was like peeling spider's web off your body. It would be over soon, she told herself.
The Arbiter didn't see herself as Zea's enemy. This was good to know, though it was hard to imagine what kind of friendship they'd have. Their priorities were entirely incompatible and their fundamental values might well be completely incomprehensible to one another. From what Zea had heard about friendship from people who knew, those were typically important areas of commonality.
"Madness is not always any problem. Many people can be mad and yet useful. We all have to contribute somehow."
Mad wizard with good spells. Sure. Zea could add one of those to her collection of temporary hires, depending on what Dro Thinh meant by slightly mad. Worst case scenario he was dangerous and Zea handled it, and then perhaps interrogated his ghost about that spell once death had softened it up a little.
No, madness was certainly not always a problem.
Had Dro still had her Psionic web in Zea's mind, she would've commented on how this one specific wizard really only had one good spell.
"His spell allows him to, in essence, copy the knowledge of anyone in a ten-mile radius and copy it in a magic book." Dro didn't need Psionics to know how much Zea would enjoy having such an employee. "The knowledge of one topic at a time, to be precise."
Khasm, the wizard, would be furious to hear his spell be described so... blandly, but Dro Thinh was no wizard and didn't understand the subtle intricacies of spell-craft. Still, he had a habit of explosive anger when it came to arcane magic.
Zea blinked hard and then just stared at the Arbiter, mouth open in shock. By the time she could make proper words, all she could put together was, "Fuck me," after which she shook her head and added, "Uh. Begging the Arbiter's pardon."
Anyone?
Anyone.
She was going to travel to magical academies and get nine miles away and just have this person write her an Encyclopedia Necromantica which she could then take home and have copies made of and then she might actually be able to create some kind of respectable community out of all these warped savants she had for colleagues.
She coughed, trying to clear away the astonishment. "No, I think a little madness should be no problem."
There. It was done. Dro's web of psionic energy was fully disconnected from Zea's incredible mind. Normally, the demoness would just rip out her mental energy, but that tends to damage the victim. Dro Thinh wasn't going to let anything damage Zea.
"I think he'd find you to be of use as well." She said with a nod towards the door, silently dismissing the priestess.
"We can hope," she said, because it was better to hope he wanted to work with her than to invest the necessary effort to find some way to wrench his assistance out of him despite it. People already wanting to do what Zea wanted saved so much effort.
She stood, backed to the door, bowed, and then asked one last question.
"What do I need to know to find him? Do you want to just...?" Zea waggled a finger between the Arbiter and herself, signalling assent to simply receive the information telepathically. Conversation was stupid when people could just know things. Maybe if things worked out with this lab assistant she'd never have to talk to anyone again! Ever!
Dro smiled and shook her head.
"You don't." She said as she walked around her desk and to the door. "I will find him and bring him here. One never can say for certain where he is." The demoness noted she didn't lie, strange since falsehoods flow so easily from her lips. Perhaps there was some innate magical property that made her want to be honest with Zea?
Or, simply, she was getting soft.
No, it was magic, she told herself as she pulled the door open. "Oh, do me a favor," She said with a sly grin. "Don't have his soul destroyed, he's had enough of that already."
That was... well, whatever. The Arbiter was an Arbiter so things would be however she wanted them. If for whatever reason Zea shouldn't just go plop down on the grass next to him and offer him a job, Dro could just deal with the fiddly little interactive parts.
The path toward not talking to anybody was looking nearer all the time.
"Assuming he doesn't destroy or enslave any souls himself, I wouldn't allow it no matter how insane he is." She gave Dro another bow, and for a farewell said merely, "Arbiter."
She could meet this mage later, whenever Dro tracked him down. Right now, though, she really did need some wine.
Now Dro had the problem of actually locating Khasm. Last she had heard he was working as a bounty hunter. Normally she would just open a portal to Hell and have a imp find him, but she'd learned that such things were easily detected.
She sighed, walking back to her desk. It wasn't as easy as it once was, several hundred years ago. Back then you could swagger into a village and bargain for all their souls. Well, she could anyway.
For now, she'd send one of her puppets out to find the wizard. They weren't busy these days, no one seemed to be committing crimes worthy of Judgment.
"To Zea, she will be mine, in one way or another." She said after sitting down and picking up her glass. She drained it in a single gulp.