863 - She Titillates to Conquer
It was Nenet’s presence that saved him.
“Well?” cooed Adagio when Lex failed to retrieve the washcloth. “Are you going to give me what I need? Or are you going to leave me here, wet and waiting?”
The comment brought a snarl to his lips, but the sound was one of desire rather than anger. He knew this was a trap, knew that she was trying to seduce him, but the beast inside him didn’t care. After being denied for so long – fighting battle after battle with nothing to show for it but scant instances of bland fare and a single romp with Kara that had stoked his appetite rather than sating it – his instincts, which had been enhanced alongside every other aspect of his mind, were screaming at him to accept what was being offered to him now.
Worse, those instincts were fully in accordance with what Lex knew he wanted. Even before he’d merged with that creature from Darkest Night, he’d repeatedly failed to resist the temptations of alluring mares. Whether it was Sonata throwing herself at him in that abandoned warehouse, Aria teasing him in the train station, or even Thermal Draft peeling his clothes off back at their inn, the erotic appeal of a beautiful girl offering herself to him was something he found impossible to deny.
The same way he couldn’t deny how much he wanted Adagio now – the Siren still swaying slightly beneath the steaming spray, the soapy lather and damp ringlets of her hair obscuring just enough of her curves to make what he could see that much more enticing – despite knowing it was the wrong decision.
But it’s not the wrong decision, he debated inwardly, his foresight showing him a lascivious tableau of ways that Adagio would continue to tempt him depending on how he responded. Kara showed me what she likes, and I don’t feel fatigue anymore. I can take her again and again until she’s begging for mercy.
Not that he had any intention of being so kind.
Lex barely noticed what he was doing as he cast his contraceptive spell on himself, his clothes starting to undo themselves in accordance with his will. This was what he’d promised Sonata and Aria; that he’d find their sister and make her love him. And the first step in that process would be teaching Adagio to enjoy being put in her place.
His awareness of the future changed as he saw himself entering the shower, Adagio smiling as she flung her hair back and presented herself to him-
And then he foresaw Nenet’s reaction to what he was doing.
In his mind’s eye, he registered her shock and betrayal at seeing him willingly succumb to the charms of the person who’d ruined her life, using and manipulating her with none of the love or caring that a mother should have for her daughter.
He saw the distraught expression on her face, and the way Adagio snickered at her, taunting Nenet even then.
And he saw himself, wracked with guilt over having made the wrong decision.
Then the future in his foresight changed as Lex fixed his clothes, his lust now replaced with fury.
Moments later, Nenet burst into the washroom. “Master! Don’t-”
It’s alright, Nenet. I know what she’s doing, and it’s not going to work.
He registered relief coming from her then, but didn’t pay any further attention to the sphinx, instead keeping his eyes fixed to Adagio’s as he bared his teeth at her. “Get out of there and get dressed,” he ordered the Siren coldly. “It’s time for you to answer for the crimes you’ve committed.”
Placing one hand on her hip, Adagio raised a brow as she turned to face him directly, putting her body fully on display. “Let me guess. Nenet’s filled your head with all sorts of horrible stories about me, hasn’t she?”
“Everything I told Master about you was true!” shot back the sphinx. “You killed innocent ponies and sold their souls to daemons! You promised them your own childrens’ souls! You lied to me about my father! You-”
“I’ll give you a chance to speak on your own behalf later,” interjected Lex, knowing that if Nenet kept going about everything Adagio had done, she would work herself into a fit. “After you’ve turned over all of the magic items in your possession and been restrained from using your powers.”
Adagio gave a throaty laugh at that. “You know what I think? I think now that she’s growing up, Nenet’s starting to get jealous of her mother.”
Opening the glass door, the Siren sashayed out, dripping wet and looking absolutely magnificent. But Lex was less concerned about that than he was with what was about to happen.
“Why don’t you be the judge?” Adagio purred, giving him a sultry smile. “Nenet, come here and change into your humanoid form.”
Like when she’d been humming before, the words contained a thread of magic in them. But this wasn’t the mild suggestion that had been laced into her wordless melody. Now, her voice carried a compulsion, one designed to override the target’s will and force them to comply.
None of which surprised Lex in the least. What did surprise him was that in his foresight, Nenet fell victim to Adagio’s command, the words somehow slipping through the dark magic that should have protected her mind.
That shouldn’t have happened. Adagio had tried to use her magic on Nenet yesterday, when the sphinx had stolen his spine back, and the protection she had as a result of their bond had protected her then. So why was it failing her now?
Cursing inwardly, Lex held his wire-wrapped foreleg out toward Nenet. “Remain as you are!”
As he’d foreseen, the Charismata’s order countermanded Adagio’s, saving Nenet from the sense of violation he knew she’d have felt if Adagio had forced her to change. But his success was a near thing, and Nenet groaned under the strain of being caught between two opposing commands, her distress transmitted to him over their link. M-Master...it hurts!
“Aw, now that’s no fun,” huffed Adagio, sauntering toward where Nenet was trembling. “Don’t you want to put the two of us side-by-side and see who’s-”
But she stopped as Lex reached out to grab her by the throat and slam her against the wall of the washroom, having foreseen that she was about to issue another magical order. “Let’s see how well you can play games without your voice!”
His horn glowed as he laid a curse on her, the same one he had once put on Aria back in Vanhoover, robbing her of her power of speech.
A shocked look came over Adagio’s face then, and one of her hands went to her throat-
And Lex braced himself as her other hand grabbed his claw just above the wrist, and tore it away with strength that was comparable to his own. Nor did she stop there as she flung him away as though he weighed nothing, sending him flying back through the doorway and into her bedroom.
Already arresting his momentum through will alone, Lex landed on his claws, turning all of his attention to Nenet. An instant later, she appeared behind him, summoned across their link, as Adagio...
Tore his curse apart, a scream of rage ripping itself out of her throat with such sonic force that it destroyed the washroom completely. Glass and stonework exploded into overlapping bursts of shrapnel, the entire room shaking under the force of her furious roar as part of the ceiling collapsed.
Nenet wasn’t like Solvei; she hadn’t gained the impressive physical defenses that the winter wolf had as a result of their bond, nor could she wrap herself in black crystal armor. If she had been caught in the torrent of destruction that Adagio had just unleashed, Lex knew she wouldn’t have escaped unscathed.
Unlike Adagio, whom Lex knew was about to emerge without so much as a scratch on her.
Nenet, I want you to fall back, ordered Lex, knowing that the sphinx could still move despite still being caught between two opposing compulsions. Secure the area in case Adagio has reinforcements hiding somewhere.
I can help! Her mental voice was strained, but Lex could feel her resolve, clearly knowing that he was sending her away for her own good rather than to procure any sort of tactical advantage. I promised Solvei that I’d protect you!
You already have. If you hadn’t been there, I’d have fallen for her charms.
Despite the pressure she was under, Nenet’s eyes widened. Really?
Nodding, he started casting a pair of defensive spells, layering additional mental protections onto himself. Between Adagio’s seductive display, and her newfound ability to bypass what should have been an impenetrable defense around Nenet’s mind – the same one he relied upon – he wasn’t about to risk being beguiled again. I wasn’t prepared to be tempted so strongly, but you brought me back to myself. Thank you for that.
Despite the fact that she would have been heartbroken to see him succumb to her mother’s feminine wiles before, hearing that she’d prevented that from happening sent a rush of pride through Nenet, as he’d known it would. I’ll go make sure the rest of the place is clear, Master! she chirped, wings flapping as she turned and rushed back out into the hallway. Don’t let her fool you again! Remember, her last name is “Dazzle!” It means “to overwhelm!”
This time, she’ll be the one who’s overwhelmed, he vowed, continuing to augment his defenses.
But he only had a chance to cast a few more spells before the present caught up with his foresight.
The lingering clouds of dust couldn’t obscure Lex’s vision, and as Adagio stepped around a large piece of the fallen ceiling, he saw her rub a bracelet that she’d donned in the aftermath of her outburst. It glowed softly – both in the visible and magical spectra – and Lex watched as it turned into a long, flowing dress, one that was woven through his protective as well as enhancement magic. The two rings on her opposite hand were shining as well, and he recognized them as the telekinetic and spell-storing baubles that Nenet had told him about, but hadn’t been able to take back with her.
Stepping over the fallen glass and pieces of rubble in high-heeled open-toed shoes that gave her no trouble despite how poorly they should have fared in the uneven terrain, Adagio exited the razed chamber with a sneer on her face, not having so much as a speck of dirt on her. “You know, I was looking forward to trying out the guy who killed Hvitdod all on his own. But you just couldn’t do things the easy way, could you?”
“Ease is the metric that cowards and weaklings use to measure their lives,” retorted Lex, his eyes and horn lighting up. “I am neither.”
The declaration made Adagio’s lip curl. “And that’s the charm that made my sisters fall all over you? Honestly, I knew those two were pathetic, but this is just sad.”
Lex was already frowning, the comment having thrown him despite having seen it coming. “How do you know about my relationship with Sonata and Aria?”
The question earned him a crooked smile. “I’ll answer that if you’ll tell me where Nenet hid your old backbone. Or I can tear your new one out instead. Your choice.”
This time it was Lex’s turn to smile. Normally he knew it was folly to give an enemy any useful information, but after the humiliation of almost being ensnared by her beauty, and her surprising him just now, he wanted to see the smug look wiped off her face. “Certainly.”
Standing upright, he pointed one dewclaw over his shoulder. “It’s right here, where it belongs.”
“Oh please,” scoffed Adagio. “You honestly expect me to believe that? The spells I put on your spine weren’t finished. If you’d actually been dumb enough to put it back in your body, they’d have unraveled almost immediately.”
“Allowing the godsblood you applied to it, using Hvitdod’s death curse as a conduit, to be completely unleashed,” replied Lex evenly. “I’m aware. It was almost more than I could handle. Almost.”
“You’re lying.”
He smiled at her in response.
“You’re lying!” Her brow furrowing, Adagio clenched her fists at her side. “A mortal body can’t withstand even the tiniest amount of raw, unfiltered divinity! I’m overflowing with aristeia, and I couldn’t have done it! It can only be put into an artifact that’s been specially made to handle it! You couldn’t possibly have mastered it on your own!”
“I didn’t do it on my own.” Raising his left foreleg, Lex held the barbed wire out in front of him. “I had a goddess who taught me that it’s about what your will can overcome, rather than what your body can withstand. It was because of her that I was able to triumph, and make that divinity my own. Along with the leftover aristeia from Hvitdod’s remains.”
Baring her teeth, Adagio glared at him. “That’s not possible!”
Deciding that he’d gotten enough satisfaction from her, Lex called a spell to mind, looking over how things were about to unfold. “Allow me to demonstrate otherwise.”
Then he began casting.
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Good thing Nenet was there or else Lex might have very well succumbed to Adagio's charms, especially since she was somehow able to bypass the defenses around Nenet's mind. As for how she forcefully dispelled Lex's curse, I'm guessing the aristeia inside her body allowed her to do so.
11685089 It was highly likely that he would have, by his own admission. Fortunately, Nenet's presence put things in perspective, and he was able to resist Adagio's allure...at least, for now. Given that things seem to be about to degenerate back into a fight, he's unlikely to fall for her charms again, and she seems disinclined to try, but you have to wonder if Adagio's really going to give up that easily.
I wonder what equivalent level of MEND would be nded to repair the shower room, and just how good Pinkies favourite builders are. The Ponyville Assistance Reconstruction Pony Squad?
11685426 Fixing broken objects is fairly easy under the d20 System, as per the mending spell (which is a cantrip, i.e. it's a 0-level spell, the very easiest to cast). If there were any magic items involved, a make whole spell would be called for, but that's a moot point here as far as we know. The difficulty comes from the fact that there's a roomful of destroyed objects (the spell would have to be cast on each one individually), but that's an inconvenience more than a serious setback; almost all classes capable of casting 0-level spells can do so continuously, and even if they can't wands (which have fifty casting of a single spell) aren't prohibitively expensive for most characters above the lowest levels (though they're usually out of the price range for non-adventuring people, which to be fair is most of the world, but those aren't usually the people spotlighted in adventure stories).
As for the room's structural integrity itself being compromised, that's sort of a grey area where the aforementioned spells are concerned, as they're concerned with repairing small objects of modest mass. Leaving aside enhancing them with some sort of metamagic, however, the entry for "broken rooms" over on this page tells us that repairing a room is one-half the cost of building one; in the case of a bath with the furnishings augmentation, this is a net cost of 215 gp...which is slightly less than what your typical tradespony on Everglow will make (after taxes and living expenses) in a year.
Cool one liner.
This one was close. Good think his ability to care is stronger than his desires. Only thing I didn't expect is that adagio have the same physical strength as Lex.
11685893 Even Lex manages an impressive line or two every so often.
And Adagio being supernaturally strong has been hinted at here and there, such as when her slamming her hands on the other side of her mirror was enough to dent the stonework. Likewise, she's got impressive magical strength as well, to be able to break through his curse like that. Now, though, it looks like we're about to get a showdown, so the real contest between their powers is about to begin...