Zymaan and Grim both knew immediately that they were in trouble.
Neither could believe that Nyneve would abandon them at the height of the fanfare of delivering her to the Courts of Chaos. But after Grim, a lowly male, had dared to intrude on The Eternal Empress’s first daughter, the firstborn of the third house, betrothed to Prince Zymaan of the Seventh House, the seventy-first child of the Mighty Grazz’t, son of Azmodeus, but now first in line to that house…
Prempress (Princess of an Empress) Cambion, who had been holding court with four of her friends from other houses of the Courts of Chaos, was suddenly interrupted by her guards who informed her that the Zangbegon (aka: Grim; meaning halflng-member-of-the-Soul-Drinkers-and-bearer-of-a-mark-of-the-third-house-at-the-Prempress’s-pleasure), urgently needed to speak with her.
She allowed the request but was surprised to see the Zangbegon rush in and begin to make loud pronouncements about her future husband Zymaan’s recent accomplishments. The Zangbegon claimed that contrary to the whispers in the Courts of Chaos that no agent of good could ever be converted to evil; that contrary to the aspersions assuaged against his master Prince Zymaan that the Abomination (aka: Nyneve; meaning impossible-progeny-of-Morgan-and-Alandra-and-bringer-of-doom-to-the-Lords-of-Light-if-she-ever-joined-the-Courts-of-Chaos) had been raised by Alandra de Winter and could therefore never be convinced to join the Courts of Chaos against the Lords of Light thereby fulfilling her epic destiny; that the mighty Prince Zymaan had in fact accomplished this unthinkable task and had brought the Abomination here willingly.
Perhaps it was the giddiness of the aperol spritz’s they had been drinking all afternoon, but Prepress Cambion was moved by the Zangbegon’s words and agreed to depart her comfortable seat at court for the docks of all places where, she was promised, the astral ship the Sea Ghost awaited to present her with the impossible – the Abomination converted to the interests of the Third House; a wedding gift of sorts from Prince Zymaan of the Seventh House.
But the mood turned terribly sour when the Abomination did not present herself humbly to the grand presence before her. Prempress Cambion cast a look back at her friends who giggled as they had not yet figured out that something was wrong.
The mood turned murderous when whispers could be heard that Nyneve could not be located onboard the ship and that her friend Valaria was also missing.
The mood turned long-and-slowly-torturous-before-you-die-begging-for-your-mother when it became clear to Prempress Cambion that Prince Zymaan and the Zangbegon were having a grand ole time mocking her in front of her friends, perhaps with the intent of frustrating the wedding to which Prince Zymaan had never been entirely in accord.
She resolved to kill them both slowly and extremely painfully. They would scream until the weight of those screams matched the embarrassment she felt right now listening the her friends giggling at her future husband’s limp performance.
Prempress Cambion’s red hot eyes glared at Prince Zymaan who tried to explain, but he ended up bow-headed and speechless under their heat. She looked at him with such scorn and baleful hate that he knew bad things were to come. Still he wondered why Nyneve had done this to him?
Prempress Cambion’s gaze turned to the Zangbegon and she frowned deeply. The Zangbegon struggled against the will of her gaze but he too crumbled beneath it, her powers too great in the heart of her domain.
“Take them both to the Crucible of Hate. Give them to the Lady of Pain.”
Soldiers of the Third House advanced and quickly grabbed Prince Zymaan and Grim. Grim tried to resist and slip away, but Zymaan surrendered immediately and nodded at Grim that they cannot win this fight, at least not in this moment. Grim could see too that his friends still aboard the Sea Ghost were not drawing blades to fight.
Ultimately, Prince Zymaan and Grim are placed in magical shackles and led away.
Prempress Cambion orders the Sea Ghost impounded and its contents searched and seized.
[Next story post: Nyneve and Valaria.]