The dragoness had a large fang filled smile on her face as she walked through the streets of Vipamolan, having a single goal in mind. She had heard of a new Goddess rising in the lands, one that was wicked in so many lovely ways, she just had to meet this new Goddess in person! With the loss of Chaos as an Aspect of one of the Deities of the lands, Xyaban had been a bit lost as to what Deity she would send her prayers to as she went about her own chaotic life. She had known about the last Goddess of Death but from what Xy had learned of her, well, she just wasn’t evil enough for Xy’s liking. But this new Goddess, if the rumours that Xy had heard were true she hoped they’d get along well. Death was what was Xyaban was enjoying since her mate and child had been killed, taking many more lives herself since then. All in the name of trying to slake her own rage at her losses, so when she heard that the new Goddess now had Debauchery as an Aspect Xyaban couldn’t resist.

Stepping like she always belonged there into the Second Circle and smiled as she looked around. She drew a few looks, because, if it wasn’t for the fact she had the hood of her robes down, she’d look like a child. At only five feet tall with a slight build, Xyaban’t stature wasn’t intimidating, not in the least. However, her poison green eyes with a constant look of madness on them, plus the scales that ran along her joints to protect them, the quills sticking out from her forearms and, now that she was inside and liked what she saw, longer quills rising from the back of her head, did make for a more intimidating figure. Her four-foot-long tail swished lazily behind her as she walked further in like she owned the place, she had no fear left in her, everything had already been taken from her, there was nothing anyone here could do that could threaten her.

Walking up to the bar Xyaban smiled to the handsome man that came over to serve her, eyeing her wearily. ”Can I help you, miss?”

”Yes! I’d like to talk with her, but I’ve never met a Goddess before so I don’t know how to go about it, handsome.” Xyaban smiled and giggle that came out just off enough to more scary than cute.

The barkeep nodded, seeing the madness in her eyes that was hard to miss, ya, she might as well meet the Reaper. ”Touch the tapestry and you’ll be taken to a place with a bunch of doors, go through one and see what happens. You want a drink before you go?”

Xyaban glanced over to the tapestry in the shadows and smiled and then looked back to him. ”Thank you, young man, and, do you have any milk? I’m not one for alcohol, it, uh, makes me a bit crazy.” The keep raised a brow but shrugged and got said milk for Xy after heading to the back for a moment. Xyaban gulped it down and tossed a few coins on the bar top with a grin and made her to the tapestry. She studied it for a moment, a wolf with a snake around its neck and some kind of flowers on its head, nice enough but Xy wasn’t interested in such things. She placed her hand on the tapestry and sucked in a breath.

Opening her eyes she found that had been transported somewhere else, indeed a place with many doors along it. The sounds, oh the sounds that Xy could hear were just lovely! People screaming in pain, or sounds of lust, it was all a beautiful tune to Xy’s ears. Excited Xyaban half ran half skipped over to a door and pulled it open and walked in with no hesitation.

Inside she found herself in a well lit cave with piles and piles of treasure around, it was her own cave! Confused for a moment Xyaban spun around in surprise when she felt a hand on her shoulder only to see a familiar chest in front of her. ”Hacesh?!” She looked up to see him smiling down at her, at seven feet tall the height difference between them two of them had been almost comical. Without a word the taller two legged dragon leaned his head down to put their foreheads together for a moment and Xyaban closed her eyes now that he was. She yelped in a sudden surprise and then moaned in pleasure as Hacesh had opened her maw wide and clamped his sharp fangs around her left shoulder. ”Oh yes, Hacesh.” She moaned as Hacesh started to apply more pressure and grind his jaw at the same time, making Xy moan more. She was a lover of pain, feeling it more like pleasure, and having Hacesh bite her like this had been one of her favorite things to do when they had made love.

And things continued Xyaban felt another presence behind her and crane her head back in time to see a werewolf step up behind her. He too clamped his jaw around Xy’s other shoulder and the dragoness was in utter bliss! While she wouldn’t turn to a werewolf from a bite, she would still feel a burning sensation around her body as it disposed of the venom from its saliva. Normally painful, again, Xyaban found this most pleasurable.

This scene continued for a while before something clicked in Xy’s head; Hacesh was protective, he would have never allowed another male around when they made love! Coming to see this realization the scene slowly started to fall apart. The werewolf vanished and Xyaban pulled herself away from Hacesh. ”No, no, this is wrong, you’re dead, this, this is a dream.” Xyaban breathed and took a few steps back from Hacesh who only watched her.

But Xy suddenly screamed in terror as the image of Raith appeared behind Hacesh and ran him through the chest with a sword. The image of Hacesh’s killer then had Xyaban’s baby, Kirin(who was actually a stuffed dragon toy Xyaban had made), in his hand and ripped the doll in half. Xyaban screamed in utter rage and lunged for Raith, only to have her head smack against some invisible wall. Shaking her head when she looked up Hacesh was standing there again and again Raith appeared behind him, killed him and then ripped the doll in half, of course what Xyaban saw was her baby being torn in half. Xyaban screamed again and threw a fireball at Raith.

Again it struck some unseen force and when the fire settled the scene repeated itself, each time it restarted every time Xyaban lost sight of it for a moment. This went on for a bit before something caught Xyaban’s mind; she had already tried once to kill Raith and she hadn’t been there to see him her mate and baby die. Once more, now that that was in her mind, the scene stopped repeating itself after this last time it finished. Leaving Xyaban standing there ragged and in a rage that slowly cooled as she thought back to having Raith and his lover tied up while she tortured them. They had gotten away, but next time they wouldn’t.

Breathing Xy looked around and saw that another door had appeared in the wall of the cave. Wanting out of this place she walked through and into, the Second Circle again? No, this was slightly different, it wasn’t the same tavern as before. Walking over to the bar again she smiled to the beautiful woman attending it who came over to greet her. By that time Xy had calmed down again, repeating her torture of Raith and Ria in her mind as to block out the scenes she had had just witnessed in that room.

”What’ll it be, lovely?’ The woman asked with an easy smile.

Xyaban blinked and looked to her, Xy’s eyes going back to their usual crazy look. ”I’d like to meet with the Goddess.” Xyaban answered and just waited, ignoring anything else the barkeep might say to her at this point.

While on occasion Serafina liked to impersonate her female barkeeps in the foyer of the Hall of Indulgence, she found that she could not do it every day. While she was new to godhood, she was still someone who was easily bored. Fortunately for her, godhood had presented her with many more options to alleviate said boredom than she had previously. True, being a vaewolf had allowed her quite the assortment of entertaining activities, but godhood had expanded her horizons of such even further.

The day that Xyaban chose to visit the Hall of Indulgence, however, was not a day she chose to impersonate a bartender. No, on this particular day, Serafina was in her private chambers in the Hall of Indulgence, lying on her canopied bed. A naked man lay in the bed with her, puncture wounds scattering his neck, thighs, and chest in perfect pairs – clearly from Serafina’s fangs. He was clearly dead at this point, and the goddess was sprawled rather decadently back against her pillows, blood smeared around her mouth and dripping down onto her cleavage. She had clearly been enjoying herself.

At this point, Xyaban had approached the bartender in the foyer, who had complied and was now sending Serafina a message via their mental link to let her know that she had a visitor requesting her presence. The bartender’s face went blank for a moment, as though someone had hit pause, before she seemed to regain animation and gave Xyaban a coy smile. “She’ll receive you in the library,” she said, gesturing towards an ornate set of doors towards the back of the foyer. “Head through those doors and take the sixth door on your left,” she said.

Serafina had made her way to the library already. She had quickly taken care of wiping the blood from her face, but a small trickle still remained splashed across the top of her breasts – she knew this, but it did not bother her. After all, this visitor was coming to see the goddess of Death, what would they be expecting? She was reclined in a settee with a goblet of blood in her hand, awaiting the visitor. A table was set near a very luxurious reclinging chair, with various drinks upon it, both alcoholic and non alcoholic, in preparation for her guest.

When Xyaban entered the room, Serafina greeted her rather informally. “Welcome to the Hall of Indulgence,” she said, and gestured for her to take a seat. She was studying her rather intently, as though she were trying to decide just what sort of being she was. “Do you seek the Infernal Queen, perhaps retrieving a loved one from the depths of Inferos, or do you wish to send someone to its depths? Or perhaps you seek the Temptress, to delve into your deepest indulgences with no limits? Which is it? What brings you here?” she asked, leaning forward slightly with a sinister smile on her crimson lips.

When the bartender’s face went blank for a moment Xyaban almost reached over the bar top and poked him to see if he’d notice or fall over. But before she could commit to that action he opened his eyes again and said that she would be seen in the library. ”Sixth on the left, thank you.” She nodded and headed in the indicated direction down the hallway. She counted the doors as she went, very curious to know what was behind all of them, but Xy resisted and only went through the sixth door as told.

Stepping inside she saw the Goddess sitting waiting for her, welcoming her and gesturing to a seat. ”Thank you for seeing me, Goddess.” Xyaban replied with a slight bow as she took a seat, adjusting herself a bit to account for her long tail as she felt the Goddess’ eyes studying her. Xy’s own poison green eyes watched the Goddess in turn, listening as the Goddess asked why Xyaban was there, what she was after to bring her to this place.

At the words the dragoness couldn’t help a wicked little grin spread across her pretty face. ”Oh that all sounds delightful!” She giggled, a giggle that was just teetering on the edge of being a big too creepy, the look in her eyes didn’t help. ”I’m here to meet you, to see who you are and what you are like. I was a follower of Chaos until that aspect disappeared from the world, such a sad day when I found that out. I would have followed the last Goddess of the Death, but she was, how do I put this? Not up to the standards I would have hoped, though I never did meet her in person. But, from what I heard of you, I think Death and Debauchery sound like the most fun combination I can think of.” She smiled leaning forward in her seat for a moment. ”I have nothing left in my life that I love, it was taken from me, and I will end the one who took it from me. All I have is my lust and my love for killing,” Her smile went a little mad. ”to have my hands, small as they may be, wrapped around another’s throat and slowly, ever so slowly, squeeze the life from them and watch as it fades from their eyes, oh, just, so much fun.” She laughed, Xyaban didn’t seem to have a filter on her, she was speaking to Serafina like she would pretty much anyone else.

”Oh!” Xyaban jumped from the chair to her feet as she seemed to remember something. ”I have an offering for you.” Xy turned and raised a hand on the air and then stopped and glanced back to Serafina. ”Is it ok if I open a gate back to my home?” At Serafina’s consent Xyaban made a gate back to her cave home. At the angle she made it at Serafina could see in and see piles and piles of gold, gems and other treasures, a literal dragon’s hoard. Xyaban stepped inside out of sight for a moment before a groan was heard and a panicked muffled cry. ”Quiet!” Xyaban snapped and it sounded like she slapped something.

Coming back into view the short dragoness was bent over(which helped to show that she wasn’t actually wearing anything else under her robes) as she dragged a bound man through her, a gag in his mouth. Without any visible effort Xyaban lifted the man who was easily at least twice her size, if not a bit more, into the chair she had been sitting before. The gate didn’t close, however, because Xyaban stepped back inside for a moment and the sound of jingling coins could be heard. Xyaban stepped back in again, this time with a heavy cauldron in her arms that she was just able to her arms around. It was over flowing with coins, gems and even some random bits of jewelry, and stuff dropped to the floor as the dragoness walked through the gate, coins plinking happily off of the floor. With a small grunt Xy set the pot of gold on the floor, more stuff spilling out. Xyaban was nearly three hundred years old and had been actively hoarding since she was just over a hundred, so on her own she had had a decent hoard going. However, she had access to Hacesh’s old hoard, and he had been over three and a half thousand years old when he was killed. His hoard had eclipsed Xyaban’s twenty fold or more, and in fact Xyaban had had to move all of her hoard into the cave Hacesh was using since her cave hadn’t been large enough to put Hacesh’s hoard into.

This whole time the bound man was just staring at Serafina wanting help from her.

With that on the ground Xyaban reached into her robes and removed six vials of black liquid and set them on a table near Serafina. Xyaban had a large grin on her face. ”This is my own natural toxin.” Xyaban explained as she held her left hand up and from the bottom of her wrist out snapped a syringe like blade about eight inches long. ”It’s very deadly, I haven’t yet found a non-immortal being that has been able to survive an injection of it.” A noise from the man caught Xy’s attention and she rolled her eyes and turned and from her right wrist out snapped a three foot blade of bone and scale that she poked the tip of into his kneecap. ”We’re talking over here. Humans can be so rude.”

Snapping the blade back into her body again Xyaban looked back to Serafina. ”It turns blood into black jelly almost and it makes the victim bleed from… everywhere.” She giggled. ”I can fill about six of those vials a week, each one is one dose that I would inject into someone. That’s if you like the idea of that kind of poison, I can create others naturally as well, but I can only create and store one at a time, and it takes a bit of time for me to adjust to make something else.” Smiling again her eyes gleamed as she stepped back from Serafina and behind the man who was terrified but unable to go anywhere.

”As a demonstration.” Xyaban without hesitation jabbed her needle like blade into the man’s neck, she only needed a bit of it in but she rammed the whole length in because, well that was more painful. Finished Xyaban stepped back as the man groaned in pain before he started to convulse and twitch and, as Xyaban promised, black goo that was his blood started to weep from his eyes, dribble from her ears and out of his nose and mouth. He looked in a lot of pain as the toxin slowly started to shut down his organs as well one by one. It was not a slow death, in fact it took nearly a full minute of what was obviously torturous pain before he was a corpse on the floor.

Xyaban smiled and looked to Serafina to see if the Goddess was pleased by the offerings and the demonstration. But something then clicked in Xy as to something that Serafna had said at the start. ”What, uh, what did you mean you can retrieve someone from the depths of Inferos? If I have a loved one I wanted to see again, is that something you’re then capable of making happen?”

Serafina had not quite expected the mania that Xyaban seemed to carry in her demeanor – usually, those who came to her realm seeking an audience with her seemed rather timid and afraid of her. The dragoness before her seemed to be none of those things – in fact, she seemed excited more than anything. She allowed her to continue on with her explanation of why she had come to the Hall of Indulgence, finding it interesting when she laughed at a point where a normal being would most likely be on the verge of tears, speaking of the loss of everything they loved.

Of course, when Xyaban requested permission to open a gate to retrieve whatever gift it was that she had obtained to pass on to Serafina, the goddess obliged openly. She remained silent as the dragoness pulled the bound man from the portal, along with the heap of treasure. The treasure, while appreciated, did not pique her interest as much as the presentation of the prisoner.

As Xyaban produced the toxin that she created and began to explain it, Serafina took a quick drink of the goblet of blood she had been holding and set it to the side, leaning forward and placing both feet on the floor as she looked closer to examine the vials. A devilish grin spread across her lips as Xyaban explained its properties. ”Fascinating that you secrete this naturally,” she said, nearly breathlessly. When the dragoness moved so much as to demonstrate its abilities, Serafina stood up to watch – and sure enough, Xyaban had not exaggerated. Serafina delighted in the gruesome demise of the man before her, clapping her hands together in appreciation after he had finally perished.

”That was just amazing,” she said, turning her gaze back to Xyaban. ”And I thank you for the gift of your toxin, as well as that demonstration. I feel it will come in handy when I have some… tougher to crack nuts, if you catch my drift,” she added, even going so far as to offer the dragoness a rather quick wink.

Serafina’s smile faded briefly as they switched topics to something a bit more serious. ”Well, while I possess the ability to remove someone from Inferos, there has to be a very good reason for it. I am a firm believer, much as Lady Dalanesca was before me, rest her soul, that what is dead should stay dead,” she said. With a chuckle, she added a footnote. ”Ironic for someone such as me, don’t you think?” she quipped, clearly speaking of the fact that she was part vampire. ”However, I would be happy to accompany you into the circles to see a loved one again, it would be a reunion, but it would be rather brief,” she said. ”Tell me, who is it that you desire to see again?” she asked, and there was a sincerity in her voice that did not appear all too often. She got a good feeling from the dragoness, and something deep down inside her wanted to repay the gift of the toxin she had provided. Besides, the lunacy and mania that Xyaban exhibited piqued her interest, and she thought that perhaps having a positive relationship with the creature would become useful in the future.

Xyaban smiled brightly when Serafina said she was fascinated by Xy’s ability to create it naturally. ”I can create a toxin that prevents sleep by inducing night terrors the moment they even think of drifting off. Kept a human alive and awake for four days once, have you ever seen someone try and live for that long on no sleep? I didn’t do anything else to him but keep him awake, he was seeing things, talking to himself, until finally he just died, I guess his mind couldn’t handle it.” She giggled as she jabbed the man to demonstrate her current toxin after explaining what it would.

Again Xyaban was delighted to see Serafina’s reaction to how the toxin worked, excited that the Goddess was pleased with the offering. Xy gave a small bow and grinned at the Goddess’ wink. ”You are most welcome, and I don’t mind getting up close and personal with those tougher nuts if needed.” It was surprising how many beings in the past had underestimated Xyaban because of her small size and cute looks. They were all dead of course, only those that bothered to look and see the madness in her eyes would exhibit more caution around Xy as not to set her off.

Xyaban made her request then to see someone that had died, and she listened to what Serafina said about how that would work. ”I understand, I only wish to have the chance to say goodbye. His name is Hacesh, my mate, he was murdered along with my infant son Kirin… would there be a chance that Kirin would be here as well? Maybe with Hacesh?” Xyaban asked hopefully, and oh what an interesting conversation this would all be!

Hacesh would most likely have found himself in the Cupiditas circle, he was a dragon and a voracious hoarder even for his kind. Other it was possible that he would have ended up in Libidine, since he did enjoy sex, a lot, male or female he didn’t really care either way. As for Kirin, well, not that Xyaban would accept it, but her ‘infant son’ had been a stuffed toy she had made to look like her baby. So there was no chance in that reunion.

”I can repay you for letting me say goodbye. I can bring you more gold, more toxin once I create more. Or I can work in your brothel, for free, until I pay off my debt.” She paused a moment then shrugged with a small wicked grin. ”Then again I’d work in your brother for fun anyway.” She laughed.

The goddess could not help the sickeningly amused smile from spreading over her lips as Xyaban described what she had done to one of her victims involving sleep deprivation. She had not exactly tried that herself, but it was certainly something she was going to put to task now that she had learned of it. The smile, however, faded as Xyaban began to explain who it was that she wished to see again. For all of the heartlessness she seemed to possess at times, she still felt the pangs of loss from Xerxez’s disappearance. This caused her to feel sympathetic not for the fact that Xyaban had lost someone she clearly had loved and had been unable to say goodbye. The mention of her child, however, caused a pang of a feeling other than sympathy. It caused Serafina to think about the child that Celeste and Nemesis had together, and how she had felt so pushed out from the family.

After a moment, she pushed the feelings of anger towards her family away as she knew there was no sense in feeling them. She had already dealt with them on one level. ”Hacesh…” she breathed, as though she were trying to remember something. ”Ah, yes,” she continued. ”I know of him,” she said, a smirk on her face. The Goddess was familiar with every soul in her realm, including which Circle they had landed in. ”I can certainly take you to him,” she said, nodding. ”Though I don’t know that I remember the infant son. Perhaps he passed on to Angela’s realm, rather than my own,” she said, hoping that Xyaban would understand what she was telling her.

”Cupiditas, if I recall,” she said. ”And there will be no payment necessary for this visit,” she continued. ”The toxin you brought me is more than enough. I am assuming I can call on you in the future for a resupply if needed, perhaps of a different kind?” she said, with a smirk. ”And I can always use more help in the brothel,” she added. ”Swing by any time, and I’ll… put you to work,” she said, before getting up.

”Come, we will go to Cupiditas,” she said, extending her hand to Xyaban. ”Let us see if we can recall Hacesh for you to say your goodbyes.” WIth that, the pair disappeared from where they were sitting and reappeared in Cupiditas. They stood atop a large hill, a massive Sphinx not far from them. In any normal circumstances, the Sphinx would have attacked them, but with Serafina being present that was highly unlikely to happen. In the distance, the tortured souls of Cupiditas pushed their mine carts up and down, consistently losing their fortunes.

Serafina turned to Xyaban. ”Do you see him anywhere?” she asked. She knew of the names, but she didn’t know the appearance of many of the souls. She assumed that Xyaban would be able to pick him out easily if he were among those being tortured.

Xy smiled brightly when Serafina said that she knew of the name Hacesh, but that smile faded a bit when Kirin wasn’t known to the Goddess. Yes, it would make more sense for an infant to be carried to Angela instead of Serafina, well, if that infant had been real of course, which, in this case, it wasn’t. ”Of course! I have to eat a lot to give my body what it needs to create the toxins it can create, but that’s ok.” The needle like blade snicked out and she flexed her muscles for a moment before it snapped away again. ”I have about half a dose already made, if you’d like me to make something different now would be the best time for that.” She explained. She had learned everything she knew from experimenting over her two hundred plus years away from her ‘parents’, and knew her body and capabilities very well. Hacesh had been able to give her more details on what kind of dragon she was, and she did learn that because of her upbringing her height had been stunted. While she was only five feet tall now, she should have been closer to an average of six feet, upwards of Hacesh’s height of seven. At the words about the brothel work Xyaban grinned. ”I don’t mind taking on any of your more… enthusiastic clients.”

The dragoness took the Goddess’ offered hand and soon found herself transported to another location. She looked out over to those being tortured for their sins in life, and Xyaban was not unaware of the fact that, in her death, she would find herself in this place. It didn’t take Xy long to spot the seven foot tall dragon among the people as he pushed a cart of valuables. Excitedly Xyaban took off at a run towards him, he had his back to her so when she was close enough she jumped and landed on his back and latched onto him. ”Hacesh! My love!” She squeed in joy as she hugged him.

For his part when Xy’s light weight hit him in the back between his wings Hacesh snorted, until he heard the voice and then growled as his eyes went wide. He shook her enough to make Xy drop to her feet and he turned around and looked down at her, rage in his eyes, but hers were filled with love. The big male dragon reached out and Xy was expecting him to place a gentle hand on her cheek, instead, her large hand wrapped around her throat and he squeezed, hard, strangling her.

With ease Hacesh picked Xy up by her throat with just the hand he held her with and roared in rage in her face. ”YOU! Why are you here?! Can I not be away from you even in death?!” He roared, Xy tried to speak but Hacesh’s grip tightened and he drove his free hand into her gut in a solid punch. ”I don’t care what you have to say. You drugged me, tortured me and brainwashed me into believing I was your mate! You’re a fucking monster.” He snarled and just released enough to let her breath in before tightening again. ”I want to kill you, Xyaban, I really really do, but that would you’d be down here with me and I don’t want that.” He snarled and dropped her making Xy sputter and cough for breath, her skin around her throat already bruised from him nearly crushing her throat.

Xy looked up at him when she had enough breath to speak again. ”But what of our baby, Hacesh, what of Kirin.” Xy pleaded, it was like she hadn’t heard anything that he said before. Her defensive mechanism against any facts that would go against her world view.

In reply to that Hacesh roared again and kicked out, catching Xy in the chest and lifting her from her feet. As she was in the air a bit Hacesh grabbed her one wrist and swung her over his head and slammed her down on the ground on the other side of him. Clearly some bones in Xy had broken if the cracking noises were any indication, and some of her quills had broken as well, there was even a dent in the ground to show how much force Hacesh had put behind that slam. ”That was a doll!” Hacesh snarled and lifted a foot to stamp down on Xyaban, who saw it at last moment and rolled away from it. But Hacesh followed up by kicking her again, this time catching her in the face and sending her sprawling. ”That wasn’t a real baby, Xyaban, that was a stuffed toy you probably made in a haze and convinced yourself was real! The world would be better off without you, and I’m thankful I’m away from you now, even if it means I’m dead and down here. At least I have my own mind back again.” Hacesh scanned the area and his eyes locked onto the Goddess, he was ignoring the Sphinx. ”I think I’m being tortured enough for my sins down here as it is, please, do me a favour and keep her away from me. Better yet, let me kill her here and now and then I want to watch as you utterly destroy her soul.” While he spoke a now blooded Xy came back over to him and was about to talk again when Hacesh clammed a hand around her mouth to stop her and lifted her again. ”I assume she’s only here because she’s trying to gain favour with you, Serafina, right? Trust me when I say she’ll be more trouble for you than anything. Get rid of her now and don’t lose sleep over it. Otherwise," Hacesh threw Xy by her mouth as far as she could back towards the Goddess. ”leave me alone down here.” He turned and went back to his treasure to burned glaring at the Sphinx as it eyed him.

With Hacesh gone back to what he was down here for, a beaten up Xyaban made her way the little distance left between her and Serafina. But, proving that she was resilient and durable despite her size she didn’t seem to be in pain, though she was moving like she should be. She was silent for a long moment, her mind processing what had just happened, justifying everything in a way that would make sense to Xyaban. As she stood quiet her body was already starting to heal. ”Aw, he’s still angry at what happened, angry at our baby being killed and being murdered and sent down here. I will avenge him though.” And there was it was, despite what had been said to her, what Hacesh had done to her, she still managed to justify it in a way that made sense to her and put the blame back onto Raith. Make the focus of Hacesh anger the death of their ‘baby’ instead of Xy herself and that allowed Xyaban to keep thinking what she wanted, or needed, to, in order to keep her world view where she wanted it.

The question, of course, was, what would happen to her if someone somehow did manage to break through that mental barrier in her mind and show her the truth without her justifying things like she had?

She looked to Serafina again, nose broken but starting to go back into place on its own, and some bones creaking as knitted themselves together. ”Thank you for this opportunity, Serafina.” Xyaban smiled, poison green eyes bright with the mania that was always behind them.

Once the pair had traveled to Cupiditas and Xyaban had found Hacesh, things took a turn in a direction that Serafina had not been anticipating. Apparently, from what she gathered, Xyaban had drugged the dragon and forced him into loving her - and the child that she sought out was a doll, not a child at all. Had she known more of the backstory, she most likely would not have escorted the poison secreting dragon down to that particular circle. She offered a few rather serious apologies to Hacesh when the two dragons had finished fighting. She had not intended to accentuate any of the punishments and tortures that had been set upon Hacesh. It was unfortunate, really - the goddess had a handle on who was in what circle, and where they could be found, and perhaps what sin they ended up in that circle for - but, she did not always know what had happened in their previous lives. There were far too many souls scattered throughout Revaliir’s underworld for her to be apprised of everything about each of them.

In her expansive apology to Hacesh, after shooting Xyaban a rather unhappy look, she made him a promise that she would make up this…. situation to him in the future.

When Xyaban returned to her, Serafina could see the wounds that Hacesh had inflicted upon her healing. The goddess had half a mind to rebreak her nose as it started to mend, but she held herself to a higher standard than that, at least at the current moment in time. ”You were not entirely truthful with me, were you?” she asked, her voice giving way to the fact that she was rather disappointed in what had just occurred. WIth a wave of Serafina’s hand, the pair was back in the Hall of Indulgence, back in the room they had been in before they had seen Hacesh.

”I understand that you did not lie to me, but you omitted some rather… important information about the circumstances under which you and Hacesh were involved. You put me into a situation that I do not appreciate having been put in,” she said, hands finding their way to her hips as she eyed the dragon with an air of suspicion. ”I suppose I will overlook this transgression, but be warned. While you may be useful to me, and I may have an appreciation to your talents, I will not be made to look like a fool, especially not in my own realm,” she said, and as she spoke, her voice took on a sharp tone, and her eyes flashed a blazing red.

Moments later she had calmed down, and she found herself realizing that perhaps Xyaban wasn’t really aware that she had misled Serafina. A thought struck the goddess. Perhaps there was a way for her to dig a little deeper into the madness that seemed to envelop the dragon. ”Why don’t you tell me a bit about how you and Hacesh came to be together?” she asked, gesturing for Xyaban to take a seat as she did the same. ”About the birth of your child… I’d love to hear the history,” she said, pouring a drink for herself as she prepared for the unknown story to commence.

When Serafina spoke Xy’s only reply was to cock her head to one side in question as if she had no idea what Serafina was talking about. Xyaban didn’t have any idea, in fact, she had been truthful with Sera, at least as far as the truth in Xy’s own mind. Transported back to the Hall once more as Serafina spoke on about what happened Xy’s face only showed confusion. ”I, I’m sorry, Serafina, I did not mean to disappoint you in anyway."

However, when offered the seat and the request to hear her story Xy smiled a little as she sat. ”Hacesh and I met a year and a bit ago one pleasant night. It’s a bit cliched but it was at a hot spring, I was already there bathing when Hacesh arrived to soak in the heat as well.” She paused a moment and giggled. ”Truthfully I was kind of scared of him at first, he’s so much larger than I am, and, uh, I don’t tend to do well around other dragons.” There was no explanation on that, she moved on right as if it wasn’t something she had meant to really say. ”An, anyway, we ended up making it a night of passion and that turned into about a week of passion.” She grinned. ”Not too long after that I found out that I was pregnant, had the egg a few months later and out hatch out little Kirin. I always wanted to be a mother, I love children, so to have Kirin my life and a good father like Hacesh was just perfect.” She had to skim that part quickly because it was all bullshit. That timeline didn’t click, it was obviously false, the math didn’t work out. Xy would have been pregnant for at least nine months before she would have had the egg and at least another six months after that before a baby would have hatched. Yet she had only met Hacesh a little over a year ago? A crack in her story, for sure, but if called out on it would she accept it?

It had been nearly fifty years ago in fact that Xy had had the egg that was dead, it would never have hatched. But she had stayed with it anyway to try and hatch it for forty years, and at some point near the end of that time had created the doll that she called Kirin. For the last ten years she had been walking around with a never aging baby constantly acting like it was always a baby. Her delusions ran deep indeed and perhaps it was already starting to show that she would be more trouble than helpful. Well, if nothing else, she could be a good money earner at the brothel.

The more that Serafina listened to Xyaban, the more she realized that th venomous dragon was certainly going to prove to be more trouble than she had anticipated when she had first entered Serafina’s domain. The story she was presented with did not entirely make sense - it seemed that there were things that did not line up, but Serafina let Xyaban continue with her tale. The more she listened, the more she realized that the dragon had convinced herself that everything she was telling her was true. She would have to think twice about how much she would want to involve herself with her, going forward.

For the time being, however, Serafina thought it would behoove her if she did not confront Xyaban with such immediately. Perhaps she would let it play out a bit further and get to the bottom of what it was that was making her spin such tales. Granted, Serafina couldn’t be entirely sure that it was all a ruse until she researched it further, but she was pretty sure from the holes in the story that she would only affirm her suspicions once she began to dig.

”That sounds… horrible, Xyaban,” she said, forcing sincerity into her voice. ”I am truly sorry that you had to experience such a loss. I, too, have experienced loss - not of a child, but of a lover… more than one, really. Well, my losses were not the same, but it is still along the same lines.” She realized that offering a bit of personal information about herself would possibly make Xyaban trust her more, and she could dig a little deeper into the story.

”The man who turned me into a vaewolf - the creature that I am - I loved him, and he loved me,” she began. ”Eventually, to make a long story short, another woman came along - I loved her as well, and so did he. But they ended up creating a family together - granted, having children wasn’t something I was interested in,” she continued. ”Anyway, I left them. Not entirely as a family, but I created a vaewolf of my own - someone to be my mate,” she said, and it was clear by the tone of her voice that her mind had now become heavy with the memory of Xerxez - Xyaban may not have known who she was talking about, but she would know the relationship between the two, just from the way her words sounded.

”Perhaps sometime we can delve a bit deeper into our pasts,” she said. ”But now, I’d like to circle back to that conversation we had earlier, the one about you working in the brothel. I’ll pay you, of course - but when would you like to start? And to what kind of clientele would you like to cater?” she asked. Having the dragon in her employ would be the easiest way to keep an eye on her and learn more about her.