Worthy Core

Sincere scoffs at Beatrice's question, even as she helps him back to his feet. "Now what? Were you also hired to pursue me for crimes against fashion?"

Sely tries to contain a laugh, and fails. "I think calling it 'fashion' requires at least an attempt, bucko. Seriously, even incubi wear something."

The demon attempts to look unaffected by the laughter. "It's simply unimportant. There's not exactly a lot of inclement weather down here to be concerned about, and it's not as if elementals have any complaints about what I wear. But certainly, if you insist, I will find something to put on for our return journey."

Beatrice puts a hand on his chest before he can make a move towards his camp. "Hold on, there, we'll find something for you. Sely, find the man some pants, will you? In the meanwhile, what's the rest of all this you've got set up here? What were you trying to do, anyways?"

Sincere crosses his arms, putting on a show of stonewalling the questioning. "I said I would be willing to talk to your 'employer', not answer the questions of hirelings." From his confident, if not arrogant attitude, it seems clear he wasn't lying about finding clothing unimportant at least. Despite standing in the center of the group completely bare to the world, the demon still manages to give the impression that the adventuring party is more than a little beneath him.

"You'll get your chat, but I'm not letting you anywhere near her, or packing up any of this shit until I know it's not a threat. So you can either answer at least a few of our questions now, or we smash all this and see if you can manage a multi-day hike while trussed up."

Sighing, Sincere gives in, at least somewhat. "Nothing I have here is of any danger to you. I carry no weapons, as you may have noticed earlier, and the remaining elemental cores are now yours to do with as you will. With the floor core now destroyed, there's nothing else of value here save my books and other research materials."

Beatrice looks around, but the rather sparse camp supplies seem to confirm the claim. "Floor core, huh? You'll have to explain that one. Hrm, though lemme check something real quick." Raising her left hand, the warrior triggers her Item Box and fills her empty palm with a small sundial. Despite being an unknown distance beneath the surface, light and shadow play across the surface as if it were still within the dying rays of the setting sun. "Hmm, getting pretty late in the day, suppose we may as well make camp here. Which means you get to tell me all of your stories while my team secures the place. So, next question: do we need to worry about any more elemental patrols coming back here and messing with us?"

Sincere shakes his head. "As elementals don't require food, I simply told them their orders and to come back in a week with their findings, unless they came across something urgent. I set up three defensive chokepoints, and three wandering patrols, though I don't know how many of those might remain given your presence here. There'd be about, oh, four days now before I'd expect them back."

The warrior sighs. "Well, we're not going to go wandering around in here for a couple more days trying to track them all down. Guess we can leave them a note or something, let em decide to stay down here or come find us, if they want to be friendly. Taly, you help your sis with securing this guy's shit, make sure there aren't any surprises, Roxxy, get Slooshy down here and see if the two of you can start setting up our own camp. Grizza, you stick by me, I'm going to need a magical advisor with this one, I think."

As Grizza steps forward, Sincere eyes him and snorts. "You were the one flinging those Light Bolts, weren't you? Do you even have Advanced training yet?"

Standing up straight, the drider does his best to seem unbothered by the comment. "I have not, but I am curious to learn more about what your goal was. For example, floor cores - we know this is a lost dungeon, yes, but dungeon floors don't have individual cores. What was that thing you were studying?"

"Ha!" The demon rolls his golden eyes. "Of course dungeon floors have their own cores! They simply reside on the metaphysical plane, is all! Certainly, it's not easy to coax one into showing any of itself on the material plane, and it was even harder finding one down here still in good enough condition to be of any use at all. So much wasted effort..."

Glad at least that he can apparently use his own ignorance to provoke Sincere into answering, Grizza continues. "And the elementals? Did you bring those all down here just to use the floor core to charge them up?"

"What a waste of effort that would have been. No, the elemental cores are one of the unique features of this dead dungeon. The only dungeon that could spawn fully-sapient elementals, rather than just nature sprites. That alone would be worth my attention, for you see, this former dungeon is where elementals were invented."

At that, Roxxy looks up from where she was setting up some tents a short distance away. "What? How do you invent a species?"

Grizza has his own followup. "That's nonsense. Elementals are found all over the world, at least as far as I know. Elemental cores are naturally-occurring."

Sincere grins, showing bright, slightly-pointy teeth. "They're naturally-occurring now. But only after the gods were so impressed by their design that they took the idea and scattered them across the realm. As for the first question, how do you invent a species, that's one of the questions I came here to find the answer to myself. It took time and effort, I know that, but the details are still unknown to me."

Beatrice speaks up, asking her own question. "You said that was one of the unique features of this place. What were the others?"

This time, the demon doesn't seem so forthcoming. "For the rest of my secrets, I'll have to hold on to those until I speak to your employer. I need to ensure I retain at least some value alive, after all."

"Ugh, fine. I have a feeling most of this would be over my head anyways. One last question for now, though. You understand if you try to escape, or fuck with us, we're not taking prisoners the second time?"

Sincere grimaces a little, but nods. "To be expected."

Beatrice nods. "Good. I'll refrain from tying you up then, given that we've got a long few days ahead of us, but make sure you stay on your best behavior. Alright folks, let's set some shifts and get some rest - tomorrow we're heading home!"

Once the camp was fully established and secured, Beatrice took it upon herself to volunteer for the bulk of 'watching the prisoner' duty. Despite a general feeling of caution around the camp she approached the task in a casual manner, simply sitting nearby at the campfire, keeping one eye on the demon while snacking from a bag of nuts and berries she'd packed. As for Slooshy, the water elemental had proven to be more or less harmless to the group in both intentions and capability, so she'd been left in Roxxy's care for the time being. As Beatrice pops another nut into her mouth though, she notices that Sincere is keeping an eye on her as much as she's watching him.

"You're really paranoid, aren't you?"

Sincere snorts. "As they say, it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you. I've been accosted by mercenaries, ones specifically hired to assault me, mind you, at least three times in the past decade alone."

The warrior grins. "Well, as a friend of mine once told me, if you run into one asshole, you ran into an asshole, but if you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole. I don't suppose you've done something to deserve all that attention?"

"Greed and jealousy, some of the most common mortal sins. ...Granted, there may have been perhaps some minor trespassing and theft involved for at least one of those cases, but that was a mere trifling offense."

"I've noticed this before, but you seem to have a real ego about you. Seriously, what makes you so important?"

Sincere studies Beatrice for a while, looking her up and down, before sighing. "As you might know, arcane demons are typically known for our esoteric knowledge of the world, and the mysteries it contains. I, however, am not typical. I was not born here - I was summoned. One of the few remaining 'original' demons from the Age of Warlocks. The knowledge I've collected over the years is, if I can be so humble to say, extensive."

Beatrice whistles. "Whoo, so that makes you, uh...pretty old, right? When was that again?"

This time, Sincere studies Beatrice with a different look in his eye. "...You have the air of a world-traveled adventurer to you, but you don't even know that much about our history?"

Beatrice sighs, falling into her usual excuse. "No, it's just that I'm from pretty far afield of here, so - " She stops as she notices a green glow to Sincere's eyes, and quickly pulls a knife from her Item Box. "Stop what you're doing, unless you want this thing sticking out of your glowy peepers there."

Sincere blinks, and the glow fades. "Apologies, just confirming a theory. You weren't born here either, I see."

"...It's that obvious?" Though still a little uncertain, Beatrice stashes the knife away once again.

The demon gives a half smile. "To me, very, but few practice my particular branch of mysticism. And don't worry, your secret is safe with me - I am a master of secrets, after all. Not to mention finding that out was a delightful little snack, so I owe you that much." He gives Beatrice a third looking-over, this time with yet another attitude on his face - one of appreciation. "As a matter of fact, allow me to formally apologize. Both for putting you through all this trouble, with the journey and the elementals, but primarily for my assumption that you were simply a common sellsword. I can see now that you are quite a deal more than that."

The warrior scoffs, trying to brush away the flattery. "Yeah, I'm a sellsword with a king's ransom in magical gear. It's probably putting sparkles in your magic eyes."

Sincere shakes his head. "Not at all. In case you're unaware, arcane demons feed from the spiritual energy of knowledge being discovered, and secrets revealed. And you, my dear, look delectable. A visitor from a world unknown? A single story from you would make my week, at the least. I would give a great deal to know you better, in whatever manner you might allow."

Beatrice rolls her eyes, again trying to look unimpressed. "Pfft, what is this? I thought it was the incubi demons who were supposed to be the seductive ones."

At that, Sincere laughs out loud. "I wasn't necessarily intending to be seductive, but I wouldn't be opposed, either. You know, society misunderstands and misrepresents the effects of our spiritual diets in a number of ways. People often assume that succubi and incubi are always on the prowl for new conquests, but all they truly require is pleasure, which they can find much more easily from a devoted, monogamous partner. If they were more familiar with my sort, they'd understand that it's we arcane demons who are more driven to become, shall we say...widely experienced, and inventive in our forms of lovemaking. It's learning the ins and outs of a new companion and their interests that feeds us, after all."

Slowly chewing on another berry, Beatrice gives the demon a new look of her own. "You really are trying to put the moves on me, now? After we came in here and wrecked your shit? Hells, I've even got the helmet off now, most men I've met change their mind the instant they see my face."

"It's their loss, if so. And as I said, I can see now the fault was my own. So...why not allow me to begin to make matters up to you, in whatever manner you feel is best?"

The Dragon Slayer takes a moment to consider. Despite her heroic reputation back home, she hadn't been lying about how most men react to the scars she wears with pride, and given that she's no longer the youthful girl she once was...well, she'd spent more than her share of nights alone these past few years. And she had already seen everything the demon had to offer, at least in physical terms, and it wasn't exactly anything to laugh at. Thinking further, she recalls there was a small side-chamber down the hallway not far from here...

Mind made up, she climbs to her feet and makes her voice heard across the room. "Roxxy, Slooshy, keep an eye on things down at the last junction, yeah? Sely...feel free to do some more of your training tonight, if you want. The demon here and I are going to be stepping out for some...private interrogations. If there's no complaints?"

The sisters both grin, and though Grizza tries to remain stonefaced, it's hard not to notice the sudden look of anticipation that crosses his face. For his part, Sincere looks up with a smirk. "Oh, my. Well, it seems I am at your mercy, oh captor of mine."

Beatrice tries not to blush as Taly gives her a knowing look. "You got that right. Now let's see what it takes to make a demon squeal..."