(no subject)

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

Date: June 20, 2000
Setting: Lobby, Bar
Status: Semi-private (Ellie, Beelzebub, Belial)
Summary: One of Ellie's worst fears is realized, but help is at hand.



It was, of course, inevitable. There were so many high-powered, high-profile beings present or arriving or leaving the Manor at any given time; and while this meant that Ellie, with her null aura from any other demon's point of view, could easily be overlooked and passed by...it also meant that sooner or later, one of Hell's agents (apart from the incompetent Ligur) would see and recognize her for what she was. The only questions were who, and when.

Just her luck, she later reflected, that it would have to be the slimiest sycophantic freak Hell's upper eschelons had to offer.

She certainly wasn't looking for trouble on that particular day. Her mind was somewhere else entirely as she descended the western staircase and started across the lobby toward the restaurant. Several places, in fact--part of it was mulling over Hermes' ongoing, slightly worrisome behavior, another part was fretting about Aziraphale and Crowley and the awkwardness whenever she'd been in the same place with both of them recently, and the rest was wondering just how long it was going to take the Snob to get back to her with some answers. She had half a mind to go and pester him about it, but (she admitted only very privately and very reluctantly) she was a little scared of what he might have learned. She honestly wasn't sure what to hope for. So she let it be, for the moment.)

And then there was John, who represented a whole category of problems and anxieties on his own. He'd been acting so....flaky on and off since his precipitous deperature and sudden return. She was trying not to worry about him, but it was difficult when he was tied to a greater or lesser degree into most of the other situations she had on her mind. Impossible stubborn disaster-prone clod of a human...

Deep in thought, she was almost completely oblivious to her surroundings as she walked past the front desk, arms folded, head slightly bowed.

Comments

[apocryphalwords.livejournal.com]

Beelzebub had been leaning against the lobby wall, enjoying a lack of noise that left his ears ringing pleasantly, eyes closed and head tilted back, arms crossed. Languid, he lifted his fingers to his mouth and yawned discreetly. Bored.

A curious ripple moved across his senses, a blackness, an indescribable negativity where there should have been nothing. It was tall, but not wide, and vaguely bipedal-shaped to his supernatural senses.

He opened one green eye, noting the lithe female figure, head down and mind obviously elsewhere from her expression, and grinned ferally. A succubus in the Manor? And one without an attachment to Hell?

How queer.

Beelzebub licked his lips and fell in behind her, waiting to see if she would realize he was here.

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

She'd gone a few steps more before the slight prickly sensation at the back of her neck made Ellie aware of the Crown's presence.

Faltering in her stride as her awareness snapped back to the here and now, she cursed silently, unable to identify the powerful aura of the person following her. But it rang distinctly of the infernal, and as such, it most certainly wasn't Belial, which narrowed the possibilities to a discouraging few.

Hurriedly assessing her options, she decided there were marginally more possibilities to be found toward the western end of the lobby than the other, and came to a halt just past the desk, slowly turning to face her silent pursuer.

And wished devoutly that she hadn't.

Beelzebub. Oh, fuck me...

[apocryphalwords.livejournal.com]

"Hello, pretty," Beelzebub purred. "I haven't seen a succubus in six hundred years, this is such a treat." He stepped to her left and circled around once, looking her up and down.

"Why have you strayed so far from your garden, hmm? And what, pray tell, are you doing without an infernal aura. That could be very unhealthy for you."

Beelzebub, as a rule, did not like physical confrontations, but there was little he could do against the charms of a succubus if she so decided to turn her wiles his way, he knew. But she was severed from Hell, and would make a charming prize on his list of accomplishments for Lucifer; Belial could rot, for all he cared, but if these free demons kept popping up everywhere, then Lucifer would have a problem.

This was, by far, the most interesting thing that had happened at the Manor since his arrival.

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

Never let them see you sweat... Ellie lifted her chin and stood ramrod straight, doing her best to appear disdainful and unconcerned, though she feared she would only succeed in looking petrified.

"On the contrary, I find it wholly agrees with me," she said stiffly, pointedly leaving off any of the honorifics she might have used when addressing a Crown in Hell (had she been unfortunate enough to attract the attention of one.) "And if you don't already know, you must be even further out of the loop than rumor suggests."

Deliberately, she took a large step to his right and started past him, anticipating that he would turn and try to stop her, but that was all right; badly as she wanted to cut and run, she would settle for moving incrementally closer to the western end of the lobby. If she was lucky, he would think she was going for the stairs, and would back her up against the far wall, near the bar entrance.

She came very close to praying she would not need to employ her own power against Beelzebub. Kissing Ligur would be preferable by far. There was physically repulsive, and then there was the kind of inexplicable wrongness that made the skin want to crawl right off the body and flee. It took a special kind of talent to creep out a demon, and Beelzebub was the undisputed master of the art.

[apocryphalwords.livejournal.com]

Her insubordinance was unsurprising; a succubus without a demonic aura would not likely have any binding ties to him or to his kin, and their sort of practices were more suited to Belial and his ilk than Beelzebub's. She would hold no loyalty to his spying ways.

She stepped aside, and he circled around to block her path again, halting her escape. "I'm hardly out of any loops, darling. Tell me, little succubus, little demon, what's your name?" He had found something interesting to prod at, and he knew that he could overpower her if she tried to attack him in earnest.

Not that fighting was his specialty. He gave her a slippery smile, but his eyes made it perfectly clear that he was impatient for her answer.

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

Fighting down a rising sense of panic, Ellie balled her hands into fists at her sides. "We're on neutral ground, Beelzebub. I do not have to tell you a damn thing, so do be a gentleman and get the fuck out of my way."

[apocryphalwords.livejournal.com]

"Don't be that way," he growled, a bit louder, not budging. "And your language is positively abyssmal. Little demon-whores don't speak to me that way."

Snappish, he wiped his hand across his lips, smudging the gloss stickily across his hand. Little bitch, no call for her acting like that.

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

Ellie's eyes glimmered redly for an instant. She'd been called much worse (and less accurate) things than a whore, but such an undertone of contempt coming from Lucifer's pathetically devoted vassal cut deep. Fear now mingled with anger. That was never a good thing; it made her reckless, and even here, under the mantle of Adam's power, that was incredibly dangerous.

Honestly, though--if Beelzebub didn't know who she was, then the only reason he could be dogging her now was an attempt at favor-currying, and/or his own sick amusement. She'd paid several times over for whatever crimes she had committed against Heaven and Hell alike, and she was weary of skulking and hiding. Why couldn't they all just leave her in peace?

"If you don't like my attitude, then stop talking to me," she snapped. "We're not in Dis, and there's no Morningstar here to back you up. His kid frowns on the guests harrassing each other, so unless you plan to grow a pair and challenge Adam's authority, I will say to you again--let me pass."

[apocryphalwords.livejournal.com]

Beelzebub flinched visibly at the mention of that brat-child's name. Adam held a sway over him that he disliked in the worst of ways, in a way that he had never even been given the chance to resent Lucifer for, and it made his curious dislike for this auraless succubus intensify tenfold. He knew what she was, and the trouble she had caused, and she was a symbol for all that he thought was wrong. If one thing, he was loyal to Lucifer, and to betray one's own nature so hideously was to betray, above all things, Lucifer.

"I don't like anything about you," he shot back. He rarely raised his voice in anger, but her flippish way of describing her betrayal wriggled under his skin. "And neither am I afraid of Adam. I do what I want. I go where I want. I ask whatever I want." He was very aware of how haughty he sounded, how confident that Adam would never harm him, and he knew he was lying through her teeth. But she didn't need to know that he knew.

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

"Then we do have something in common," Ellie snarled, her eyes burning brightly now, claws extending. "But unlike you, slave boy, I really mean it. Last chance, Beelzebub, I'm through asking nicely."

She was certain she couldn't take him and didn't know what Adam would do, but the alternative was to run (futile, she was pretty sure) or to meekly submit to his demands, which was completely out of the question. She wasn't the only one who would suffer if Lucifer got his hands on the wrong information.

She only hoped that the terms of the enforced truce precluded kidnapping. Beelzebub unquestionably had the power to take her out of the Manor against her will, and if he did that, she was well and truly screwed.

[lordofthesouth.livejournal.com]

Belial had heard the voices out in the lobby briefly as he passed from one side of the barroom to the other, the muffled sound of normal conversation that echoed slightly in the lobby's hollow openness. Unworried, he had gone about tidying up after himself, catching dust as it stubbornly collected on the counters. Fucking dust.

He stopped abruptly when he heard Beelzebub's voice distinctly, raised, irate. And then Ellie retorted with an edge of violence in her tone. His rag fell to the floor and he moved towards the doorway swift as a flickering shadow, eyes impossibly dark with fear and a touch of anger.

Ellie looked ready to fight, claws out, eyes burning terribly, and Beelzebub was herding her, prodding her with sharp comments. Bullying because he knew she was weaker.

Belial darted between them before either could notice him and pushed back against Ellie, keeping himself between her and Beelzebub. "What do you think you're doing to her, you fuckwit?"

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

Caught by surprise, Ellie froze for a second, unsure what to do. In her very long existence, nobody--not once--had ever charged to her rescue before.

The part of her that remembered her Infernal origins was spoiling for a fight. It wanted to boil to the surface, shove Belial out of the way and tear into Beelzebub, rip up that sneering too-pretty face and hang the consequences.

She fought it down, drawing deep breaths and letting them out slowly, leaning into Belial's reassuringly solid back to steady herself and silently express her gratitude as her claws slowly retracted. Steady, steady...let him deal with the son of a bitch...

[apocryphalwords.livejournal.com]

Beelzebub halted all motion abruptly, his face draining of what little color the porcelain skin held. He bit his lip, the only thing that betrayed him as being less than a lifeless statue.

The expression on Belial's face made him shake inside, fearful. Stupid, manipulative bastard, always coming in and ruining his fun. Beelzebub took a step back and narrowed his eyes. "Can't you ever leave me to play?" he said, voice unwaveringly arrogant.

[lordofthesouth.livejournal.com]

Belial reached one arm back and rested it on Ellie's side, reassuring. "You don't play with us here. Don't fuck with my friends."

He turned and swung Ellie into his arms for safekeeping, askance from Beelzebub so he could watch the demon. Belial had no love for that slimy git, nor did he care what happened to him. He would fight, if he must, but he didn't want to drag Adam into this, or bring down Lucifer's wrath if he ever stepped a foot outside the Manor. Beelzebub was always watching, but what Beelzebub didn't know was that Belial had always watched him. "Are you well, Ellie?" he murmured softly, not letting his eyes waver from Beelzebub.

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

If anyone had told Ellie just a few months prior that a former Crown of Satan would one day swoop in and play the gallant knight on her behalf--versus another Crown of Satan, yet--she would have called them delusional. Sometimes it was extremely satisfying to be wrong.

Lopping her arms with pointed familiarity around Belial's neck, she glared at Beelzebub with undisguised venom as she replied, "Quite well, thank you. I regretfully seem to have misplaced my flyswatter."

[apocryphalwords.livejournal.com]

"You little bitch," Beelzebub hissed, flushing. He hated, hate hate hated, when someone made references to his ridiculous religious moniker. Fisting his hands in his shirt, he imagined squeezing both their heads until they popped like little bubbles.

And it was all fine and good that Belial would come to this little tramp's rescue. Beelzebub knew that the dark-eyed demon had always had a thing about rescuing damsels in distress and doing what was right. It had always put him off, even without Belial's abrasively physical manner of existing.

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. It was childish as well as unwise, Ellie knew, but she just couldn't help it; after millennia of being forced to pretend deference to Beelzebub and his ilk, and years spent hiding from them, the opportunity to taunt the rat bastard as he had taunted her was simply too tempting to pass up.

"Bzzzzt," she answered mockingly. "Belial, dear, let's go find someplace more pleasant to catch up on things, shall we? This room seems to have developed a pest problem."

[lordofthesouth.livejournal.com]

Belial's muffled laughter squeezed out between his tight-pressed lips, despite his best efforts. He pressed a hand firmly to the small of Ellie's back and steered her towards the bar; however amusing it was to him, neither of them could afford to run afoul of Beelzebub and the influence he carried in Hell if they were to encounter him outside of Adam's protection.

Ignoring Beelzebub, he said, "How have you been, darling? I haven't seen you in ages."

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

"I suppose I can't complain," Ellie said, tempted for a moment to spill everything that had been worrying her to the former Crown. There was no question he was in a better position than just about anyone to light a fire under Gabriel. But that really wouldn't be fair. "I feel like I'm in a bit of a holding pattern. It's good to have a safe haven--well, mostly safe," she amended with a disgruntled glance back in the direction of the lobby, "but sometimes I almost wonder if I wasn't better off staying under the radar on my own. The place gets to feeling almost a prison sometimes."

Of course, she had no one but herself to blame for that. Unlike many of the Manor residents, she was here entirely by her own choice, not by Adam's summons. Just her bad luck that everyone she cared about in the slightest happened to be here too.

[lordofthesouth.livejournal.com]

"Don't worry about him," Belial said, comfortingly, but with a deadly edge in his voice. "I won't let him trouble you."

He looked down at Ellie, expression tender and sympathetic. "I know how you feel. Sometimes I stand outside, on the Manor lawn at night and look at all the stars, and know that if I take too many more steps towards the trees, or the road, or anywhere else, I might get snatched up."

There were things that Ellie wasn't telling him, he was sure, but he wouldn't push his luck with her. If she told him, it would be in her own time.

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

Ellie took his hand and squeezed. Long since severed from the Presence, and now cut loose from Hell's influence as they were, she and Belial were the only members to date of a very exclusive club, and none of the other Manor residents were really in a position to understand. She had asked Aziraphale once what they were--something new, or nothing at all--and though he had given the appropriate comforting response, there were times when she still wasn't sure.

"Still, better captive here by own own will than playing free at the end of Hell's leash."

[apocryphalwords.livejournal.com]

Beelzebub, for a moment, stared at them blankly as they walked away from him. His cheeks reddened and his ire grew; shunned, mocked, and now ignored, he clenched his fists and stalked after them with a leperous smile.

How dare they brush him off like that? Belial was always getting his way, always doing what he wanted, and Beelzebub had done nothing about it, tired and angry and fiercely jealous as he was. Belial was Lucifer's little lap dog, albeit an unwilling one, but a lap dog all the same.

His hand touched Belial's shoulder, and he felt a shock of sensation that he was unaccustomed to feeling--the feeling of warm flesh beneath his fingers--and he made himself grip, tugging Belial around to face him.

[lordofthesouth.livejournal.com]

"At least here we're sa--"

Belial's jaw snapped shut as Beelzebub yanked him around, and he used his momentum and anger to snatch Beelzebub, one hand on his wrist and the other on his hip, and shove him up against the wall. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" he asked flatly, digging his nails into Beelzebub's thin wrist.

Belial leaned in and exhaled softly on the demon's cheek, making him turn his head to one side. Still submissive as ever, and terrified of being touched.

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

Ellie spun around and watched wide-eyed as Belial put Beelzebub up against the wall and intentionally breached his closely-guarded personal space.

Under other circumstances, with other beings, she might have found such a sight provocative. With these two, though, it was just frightening. Too much power, too much repressed violence, and the physical absence of the third party in their perverse little triangle in no way diminished the shadow he cast over the tableau.

"Don't push your luck, Beelzebub," she said, echoing Belial's tone. "I can't speak for Belial, but exile from the Manor is a price I might just pay to see the Morningstar deprived of another Crown."

It was a lie, of course, but the underlying sentiment was genuine, if the implied threat wasn't.

[apocryphalwords.livejournal.com]

A cold feeling of despair bubbled over his anger, over his hatred for Belial, and terror seized at his consciousness. He felt dizzy, half hating, half wanting Belial's closeness for the sheer strangeness of it. Beelzebub was afraid of his own desires, afraid to let himself open, let himself falter and be vulnerable.

And in this, he made himself more vulnerable than accepting his desires ever could. "Stop," he gasped, wriggling back against the wall; there was nowhere to go with Belial's sheer, anger-fed strength holding him prisoner. It was so easy to forget how powerful they were, masked by these weak bodies, so easy to forget the locomoting force behind it all. The hard wall behind him would give before Belial did.

[lordofthesouth.livejournal.com]

"No," Belial said, pressing his full weight against Beelzebub, until Beelzebub was hard up against the wall, and he against Beelzebub. The demon was a bit slighter than he, inches shorter, and more bone than taut muscle, and fit well up against him. It was easier, that way, to play this sort of game with Beelzebub's head.

"I won't leave you alone, especially if you ever touch me again. You might as well go crying to Lucifer if you ever, ever lay a hand on any of my friends," he said, speaking beneath his breath, directly into Beelzebub's ear. "You don't want what I'll do to you if I ever catch you."

His hand slid between them, the back of his wrist brushing lightly between Beelzebub's legs, gentle and sensual, but also a threat that Beelzebub would do well to take seriously. Belial had no stomach for nonconsensual activities, and would never attempt anything but warnings in the Manor, but he was willing to do enough to frighten Beelzebub off.

[apocryphalwords.livejournal.com]

Beelzebub quivered, hands curved into a rictus and scrabbling against the wall. The wall would give before Belial, and he was counting on the wall to give, wanting it to, so he could fall through the wall and away from the surmounting terror and lust that gripped him so fiercely.

Belial's touch sent him into gasping fits, like he had been dunked in icy water fresh out of a warm bed. "Get off," he whined weakly, simpering now.

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

Ellie didn't like Beelzebub and had no sympathy for him whatsoever, but she liked this turn of events even less. Judicious threats were one thing, but Belial's tactics were now drawing perilously close to a line she hoped not to see him cross, now that he had a choice. It was...unseemly. Too much, she thought, like something Lucifer might do.

"Belial," she said quietly, her arms folded uncomfortably across her body. "I believe he understands. Can we please go?"

[lordofthesouth.livejournal.com]

Belial let his grip on Beelzebub go slack, hands hanging limp by his side, and stepped back. The demon before him slid down the wall and looked up at him from the floor, eyes still wide, but noticably more calm the instant Belial had released him.

"Don't be stupid," he snapped at Beelzebub. "You never were an idiot, no matter how much I hate what you stand for."

He turned to Ellie, stepping to her and resting his hand between her shoulders, head bowed and said, "Come, I'm sorry you saw this."

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

"It's all right," she said, moving all too willingly away from the pathetic Crown. "I just wish such things weren't necessary." She knew that the seeming safety of the Manor had its limits, as did the protection given by John's spell, but she valued the comforting illusion they created and hated it when anyone willfully breached it. A sorry thing for any demon to admit, but she couldn't help it. Even in Hell, the succubae had achieved a measure of peace and something resembling contentment in their gardens, a luxury they were permitted (to the envy of many less fortunate demons) so long as they served Lucifer's interests. Ellie supposed she'd been spoiled.

"So, you're the bartender. What do you recommend?" she asked as they entered the Manor's bar, trying to lighten the mood.

[lordofthesouth.livejournal.com]

"I hate seeing him like that, but there's little other treatment that will make him keep his nose to himself."

If it hadn't been Lucifer watching, it had been Beelzebub. Those piercing green eyes following him lucidly, sharply, ready to run to Lucifer to tattle about his brazen defiance of Lucifer's command. Disobediance to some measure was to be expected, there, but never to their precious Lord and Master.

He shook off the bitter thoughts and sighed airily at Ellie. "You have to make things difficult, mmm? Do you like sweet, sour, or bitter?"

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

"Oh, sweet, always," Ellie said promptly, waving a regal hand. "I've had enough of the other two to last me several lifetimes. I'll tell you up front, though, you'll have to mix something pretty special to beat the Sex on the Beach I got from Crowley a while back." She grinned wickedly.

[lordofthesouth.livejournal.com]

Belial shared Ellie's grin with equal enthusiasm. "Pity there's no real beach around here, or I'd give Crowley a damn good run for his money," he said mischievously and ushered her into the dining hall and towards the bar. "We're well stocked, and anything you have a fancy to drink that we don't have, I can get."

He slid in behind the bar and leaned on the counter, dark eyes flicking across her lovely body with a playful suggestiveness. Any being would have to be blind not to notice her. It had been a very valid reason he had avoided commanding full guardianship of the succubi--not a one of them he had trusted to not leave him lost in their wiles after an encounter that left them even a whit dissatisfied. Even Lucifer treaded their realm with a light foot. Sex was powerful, especially in a place that had no morals to hold it back.

Belial licked his lips and tore his eyes away from her, smiling wryly down at his hands. Beelzebub had just leched at her not minutes ago and he was making an oogling ass of himself already. "Myself. I think I'll start with an Archdruid. I haven't had one in decades."

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

"Hmm, let me see. What am I in the mood for..." Her eyes sparkling mischievously, Ellie propper her elbow on the bar and put her chin in her hand, making a show of considering. She'd been in the business far too long to misinterpret the interest in Belial's manner. Although admittedly, he'd surprised her before. "Oh, I know. How about a Bartender's Wet Dream?"

[lordofthesouth.livejournal.com]

Belial gave a chuckle, not unsimilar to a purr, rose from his throat in response to Ellie's request. It wasn't one he hadn't heard before, and was certainly delicious.

His hands worked without much guidance from his mind, moving phials of amber and claret liqours about in the cooling unit beneath the counter, retrieving several of the appropriate bottles.

"Single or would you like to take two at a time?" he asked, a hint of eroticism lacing his tone, hand resting on the square top of the Irish cream. It was fun, to be able to play this way with someone who could understand his humor. Lucifer had made him, and though the leash was broken, the darkness waned, he was still what he was, and so was Ellie.

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

"Darling, I've been known to find two inadequate. But that will suffice for now." Ellie smiled slyly. She had been frightened of Belial before she'd met him outside the perilous environment of Hell, but his name was whispered among the succubae like nothing so much as the name of the high school football captain among teenage girls, only with an undercurrent of fear and a lasciviousness to which few cheerleaders ever aspired. It was truly a pity he'd attached himself so tenaciously to the Snob (who could not possibly fathom how he would be envied and held in awe by Ellie's sisters, had they known.) "No skimping on the whipped cream, please. It's my favorite part."

[lordofthesouth.livejournal.com]

Belial had never found it particularly difficult to chat with females of any sort, and sexual innuendo was definitely in his ballpark. Not that he had ever had much time to practice with anyone for the past few centuries. There had been Rubicante--and a flashier incubus he couldn't have imagined--but that affair was short-lived and never amounted to anything more than the other demon having a passing interest in his silk drapery and hard liquor collection. And Rubicante had hardly had the proper implements of a female, either.

He pushed the drink across the counter, sans her favorite part, and leaned in, all dark charm and silent grace.

Hand out, he proffered the whipped cream in a line on his finger.

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

Well, never let it be said that Crowley was the only demon around here who could do interesting things with his tongue...

Ellie picked up the drink and took an appreciative sip, then set down the shotglass and leaned forward, lapping up the sweet stuff in one slow, delicate swipe with the tip of her tongue...apart from a small bit she deliberately missed and went back for a moment later, catching hold of Belial's hand as she closed her lips around his fingertip and carefully, deliberately sucked away the last remaining traces, her eyes half-lidded and meeting his the entire time.

[lordofthesouth.livejournal.com]

Belial shivered involuntarily, a bemused expression flickering across his features. Ellie was certainly lovely like that, her mouth wrapped about his finger. He could see the swell of her breasts as she leaned over and the sight sent a shiver through his bones.

"You're quite good at that," he murmured, eyes lidded thoughtfully. "Do you like that?"

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

"Mmm. Oh, yes," she murmured huskily. "Familiar as it is, it never grows old..."

[lordofthesouth.livejournal.com]

He wasn't quite sure if she were talking about the drink, or if she were talking about sucking on things.

Extracting his hand, he leaned forward until he was nearly whispering in her ear, hiding her face in a veil of sweet-smelling dark hair. "Are you going to be okay?" Belial asked sincerely, knitting his eyebrows in worry. His hand came to rest on her shoulder, and for a moment she seemed incredibly frail to him, though he knew that was hardly the case.

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, savoring the scent of him, both moved and a little awestruck that one who had served so long as Lucifer's lieutenant still had it in him to be so gentle.

"Of course," she said, smiling slightly. "I've survived worse than Beelzebub." As had they all, all those cast forth from the Silver City so many eons before. Still capable of profound suffering--perhaps that was a part of their punishment--they would never have lasted so long, had they been easily broken. "But it's sweet of you to worry for me."