One hour later, in the Dreamless Crypt…

Built within the second floor of the Chandra Mahal, the Caliph’s apartment was easily a home worthy of any Archon in service to Elicia, a place where one could easily dwell within forever, detached from the rest from the world. One could easily gaze upon a vista of silver mists and dark skies from the balconied walkway leading into the apartment proper, amidst veiled servants in waiting and everburning torches ensconced upon marble pillars. Where down upon the earth, lay the palace gardens spanning out yonder past the gilded gates of the Chandra Mahal, and into the City of Dreams.

Belial Alhazred, Sand Wraith and Vizier in service to the Caliph of Oasis, moved quickly through the balconied walkway, walking gracefully upon the balls of her feet as she made her way past the waiting servants who held the doors open dutifully for her passing. Her surroundings darkened with every step forward, and amidst the scent of wine and blood left to ferment and fester, she strode purposefully upon the quickest path she knew that led directly into the Caliph’s bedroom, where that scent of wine and blood had grown nearly unbearable.

It was one of those nights again for her Archon mistress, she was sure. One of those long and strange nights, where the moon up in the silver mists was full and blue. And when she stopped just outside the bedroom, and when her knuckles rapped gently upon the bejewelled doors left ajar, a part of her was quietly glad to herself that she had asked for the Elician Jewel to wait at the parlour downstairs alongside the visiting Vizier of the Eye who had claimed her as a servant, that elven Lich in red who held her vampiric servant closer than a proper mistress would.

“Lucy! Lucy?”

In the face of the haunting silence that answered her and lingered amidst the darkened bedroom before her like a bad omen, Belial frowned. And this frown of hers deepened when her red eyes spotted the familiar shape of a slim and feminine silhouette taking refuge under the sheets, the tips of her elvish ears and the fringes of her pink hair still visible from the edges and in the dark.

“Lucy! You’re in there, aren’t you?” Belial exclaimed, once again. “Elena de L’Enfer is here! Won’t you see her soon?”

In response to those words, the figure underneath the sheets muttered something utterly unintelligible and shifted herself slightly, pulling the sheets up and over to cover what had been accidentally exposed despite the darkness.

“Please, Lucy!” Belial added, crossing her arms with a huff. “You know I can see well enough in the dark, and I can see you under those sheets!”

“Go away, Bella.”

When her pleas were left unanswered and rebuffed by a voice melodic yet slurred with weariness, she began her efforts anew. It was the best tactic available to her, confirmed from two centuries of servitude to her beloved Lucy, the Vampire Lord and Death Knight of the Alyssian Empire of old, who the world at large knew as Lucid II.

“Please don’t be like that, Lucy! Pretty please?”

“What do you want, Bella?” Lucid II uttered in reply, as she glared at Belial with one eye open and the other still closed shut. “Will you not leave me be?”

In the darkness, Belial smiled a gentle smile to herself. From previous incidents best left unsaid, the sight of her mistress’s pink eye and its vampiric pallor now peering out from beneath the sheets and piercing through the darkness between them to glare at her, was easily half the battle won.

“Like I said, Lucy! Elena de L’Enfer is here to see you!”

“Elena... de L’Enfer?” Lucid II asked in reply. “Who is that? Her name sounds... familiar. Tell me, Bella… do I own her?”

“No, Lucy! Not yet. She’s Lady Mezalune’s Vizier, and…”

“Then tell her to leave at once!” Lucid II declared angrily. “I am not… in the mood. Not now, or anytime soon.”

Belial shook her head. The vampiric and one-eyed gaze of her Archon mistress staring out towards her, remained unblinking.

“Bella, you are my Vizier. You are supposed to do as I say.”

“But…”

“No, Bella. Leave me be.”

“But Lucy… you promised Lady Mezalune you’d help!” Belial whined, drawing out her words slowly and playfully. “Remember? And besides, staying like this isn’t good for you!”

“I do remember that…” Lucid II said in reply. “But you know that I cannot say no to her! Because unlike me, she will never tire…”

“But, but… her Vizier did agree to your terms! Lady Mezalune did say you can ask anything of her, and you did!”

Upon hearing this, the pink eye of Lucid II was joined by another. And together as a pair, their harshness slowly softened into gentle acceptance.

“Ah, did she? Why, that is good to hear…”

“Yup!” Belial answered excitedly with a smile. “So… Lucy, won’t you make ready to meet to her servant? Pretty please?”

“That newborn Vampire that Lady Mezalune mentioned in her letter, you mean?”

Belial nodded.

“Yes! She needs your… guidance, remember? Besides, you had something prepared for her arrival, no? I’d tell you who she is, but…”

“But? Is she another person that does not belong to me?”

“It’s a surprise, Lucy! And you’re right about the second bit… not yet.”

Lucid II nodded.

“I see, Bella. I suppose I did arrange for something. And I did want to meet her, if only so these feelings of mine would not hold me again…”

With the sheets still concealing most of her, she shook her head.

“Sorry, Bella. You are right. Go and tell the servants to draw a bath for me, and to prepare some wine. And also tell them, to have the Vizier’s servant brought here to me in two nights, and to attend to her needs in the meantime as they would mine. I will commit… to the promises I make. An Archon’s word holds the weight of the world.”

With a big smile, Belial playfully saluted her Archon mistress.

“Yes, Lucy! Right away!”

“And you will be aiding the Lich in my request, I trust?”

Belial nodded.

“Yes! I’ll be there to make sure she succeeds. And if that’s all, I’ll be going now…”

“No Bella, not yet,” Lucid II added as she pulled back the covers of her bed, smiling gently at her Hellbourne servant as she did. “Not yet...”

For a moment, Belial stood in silence. Now, in the darkened bedroom ever so familiar, her Archon mistress lay before her on the bed with her pink hair fanned out upon her pillow, the nakedness of her delicate figure draped in the colours of the night and her pink eyes gazing out at her and the light, forlorn and strained with sorrow and pained longing.

“First, Bella…” Lucid II uttered breathlessly. “Twenty minutes.”

“Yay! I was hoping you’d say that, Lucy!” Belial exclaimed in reply, a mischievous smile forming upon her lips as she tread forth into the darkness of her mistress’s bedroom, her hands reaching for the back of her silken regalia. “We’ve got plenty of time, especially when eternity is ours…”