Ghere finished his supper, then stacked the plates for washing and checked to make sure Mrs Beasley (the housekeeper) had in fact actually left. He didn't need the kind of trouble that knowledge of Lilith could cause. Satisfied, he barred the door and headed into the bedroom. It wasn't everybody who had a pentacle inlaid around their bed but his explanation that it was a sleep ward had been accepted (and it would actually work for that too) and the nature of his bargain required it.

Assuming lotus on the bed, he chanted the summons.

Nothing happened.

He closed his eyes and tried again, chanting slowly, meticulously, each syllable pronounced with utmost care.

There is something actively trying to stop him from performing the summoning. It is as if Ghere's chest was being compressed from without by icy chains. The pressure increased until he finally gasped, out of breath, and opened his eyes.

The walls were bleeding. The pentagram burned in slow motion. Hypnotic swirls of blue with jagged black pupils hovered mere inches in front of his face, and suddenly became eyes of a woman he already met.

Her gaze locked with Ghere's; her grey cloak moved slowly, lazily, as if it was underwater, letting pale skin flash here and there.

"Your scent is stronger now." Her lips moved - but there was no sound - still, he could hear her. She smelled of roses, and broken promises. "Only pain lies down the road you have chosen. You can still turn back, and no one will ever know." The smile on her face belied the suffering in her eyes. "Think about this."

Ghere took a slow breath, refusing to be panicked by the apparition. The pentagram would either keep it out or it wouldn't. "So I should follow your path instead" he retorted. "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I have no reason to believe you and your eyes carry the weight of broken dreams.

Silver chains broke through the walls and whipped around the room, their tips glimmering with sharp hooks. Some grazed Ghere, leaving shallow cuts on his skin and rips in his clothes; but their target was the woman trying to warn him. The sound of meat penetrated by sharp metal fills the room as more and more chains bite into her. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as dozens of chains ripped into her. Blood flowed from her body. The chains move her like a grotesque marionette.

Her struggles only made the invisible puppeteer chuckle.

"That's right, Ghere. You will follow your own path. It won't be like hers at all." A soft, seductive whisper just behind him.

The chains tightened around her limbs. There was the sickening crunch of bones being broken, then the wet sound of flesh being rent from bones. The woman convulsed in agony, her screams disturbingly soundless.

"She is just a broken, worthless puppet anyways. Do you want her for yourself, now that you have enough power to call me?" Invisible hands traced his shoulders, with a lover's touch.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:03, Wed 04 Nov 2015.

"I knew what I was getting into" Ghere replied with cold certainty, not bothering to look around. He knew who it was. "I made my choice and will stick to it." He brought his hands up, resting them on hers. "You asked me to advise you where I can, here is the first piece. If you seriously wish to become the Goddess of Lust, downplay the gleeful torture, a lot. Most of your worshipers won't like it. I don't like it."

"And yes, I want her. Can you bind her to me and stop her drain?"

"Gleeful torture?" The voice chuckled again. Askew shadows of demonic wings flashed on the blood-covered walls as the chains fell from the broken toy. "It is merely... gentle punishment. She disappointed me. But I'll let you have her. To... please you."

The girl fell to the floor with a heavy sound, grey robes draped over her like wet old rags. Slowly, she curled up into a fetal position, shoulders quivering with silent sobs. The injuries from before seemed mended, but the robes were still soaked in her blood.

"There. I bet you will have much fun with her."

"I am sure I will. Meanwhile..."
Ghere turned to Lilith.

Fade to black.

Later, Ghere held the ghost girl close, pondering what he had learned. It was amazing what a little kindness could get from the Servants of the Dark, none of them seemed to have any defenses at all against it.

The ghost girl was a ghost no more, her eyes just normal sad blue. She was still mute, however. Her skin was pale and she was perpetually shivering, as if unable to shed the sensation of cold things touching her skin.

"Come on" Ghere told her. "Let's get some food in you, then a hot bath, warm you up. We probably need to replace those robes too, for more reasons than one."

She turned out to be mute. Grunts and other sounds were quite within her vocal capavilities, however. Perhaps, given that her prior existence as a specter was without voice by magical intervention, she would recover in time.

She cleaned up well and ate like someone who was starving for years. Of course, she overate and was sick because of that. But it felt so good to be alive! Even throwing up was a great sensation. Once Ghere got her cleaned up (again), what followed was even better.

After all, she was Lilith's toy, and he had her scent.

She gave her name as Nait. She was he daughter of a wise woman of a nomad clan in the notrhern steppes. The story seh told was nothing new to Ghere. The strange happenings in childhood, the sparks of magical happenngs, her mother's mysterious behavior. It was her mother who sent her away from the tribe, afraid for her safety. Lilith appeared to her for the first time not long after. There were wanderings and adventures, until she fell prey to a horrible knight made of darkness. Her script grew shaky as she described the glowing red eyes and icy touch, and the agony of having one's sould rent and forced into an undead state.

There is no telling how long she was a specter. It might have been a day, or a hundred years.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:09, Fri 06 Nov 2015.

Ghere read over her shoulder, his arms wrapped around her. There was nothing (for once) sexual about it, only the simple comfort of touch. "You have been given a second chance Nait" he told the top of her head. "Best you make good use of it. Hmm, shaman covers a multitude of things, what is it that you actually do?"

She once was a warlock, just like Ghere. But the way her life was rent and her existence as undead wiped her past magic clean from her. What remained is what Ghere held - a mute, powerless girl. But she was a alive, again, so the possibility of regaining her former power remained.

"You have a larger decision to make first Nait. You must decide if you will once again take up the path of adventure, or if you will content yourself with a normal life."

She shrugged. Power is an intense motivation, as well as aphrodisiac. She'd need help to recover her power - lots and lots of it.