>>5583741You push against the countervailing force which resists your swing… But it is to no avail. You push against the grip of the sword with both hands, outing your weight into it… But the sword, the demon within it, fight you. Betrayal!
“Irinnile,” you take up the succubus’ True Name--known to you, after all, and wielding power over the demon. “Obey me, and kill this man!”
“No can do, big boy,” you hear her voice in your inner ear, reverberating through the sword so only you may hear her apologetic half-explanation. “It’s part of our deal, see? Don’t get my wrong, he’s a real wet blanket and no fuckin’ fun AT ALL, but he's… You know...”
The Green Knight smiles a bitter smile, taking spiteful pleasure in your obvious confusion and inconvenience.
“The demon’s pact,” he explains, lying back. “It can’t kill me, or allow anyone to strike a fatal blow against me. You might have overpowered it for a moment with whatever magic you have at your disposal… Or its name, by the way you spoke that word ‘Irinnile’. It’s not enough, not in the face of the pact -magic which defines the denizens of the Seven Hells. A succubus is a demon of desire, shaped by its summoner or master... or whomever it forms a pact with. It is bound to me, until the pact is broken. It can't even leave my sight without my permission."
You glare at the sword, and the shade dwelling within it. It slips from your grasp, hovering once more between you and its master, glowing red and ready to defend him to the death. Demons… Your mother obviously placed great trust in this one, and perhaps even had a measure of love for it, but you have never trusted the pact-making spirits of lesser darkness, putting your faith instead in your own Dragon Soul and in the Dark Gods Below and Beyond. This is exactly why: they are unreliable and unpredictable creatures, with their own agenda, and easily bound to others and turned against you.
