All but one of the candles have been extinguished now, the soft light mixing with the glow of the Procession that spills in through the narrow windows. There's a slight chill in the air, but the occupants of the room are cuddled together so that they can share body heat, and so don't notice it as they sleep.

Alptraum's eyes ease open and he stifles a quiet yawn. He smiles slightly in this half-awake state, arms and wings wrapped around the green Eeee. "Well, even if it has no results, that was … fun," he thinks to himself as his mind clears. Careful to not wake her, he shifts his head and ears around a bit, listening for the others in the tower. It's also about now he starts worrying a bit about Lilith and hopes she's faring okay.

"And to think I was actually worried about you," whispers a by-now-familiar draconic voice from the far corner of the room, where the candlelight reflects faintly off of a blue scale.

"Heh, well, I was worried about me too. But so far it's been all right. Well, at least tonight was. It's going to get a lot uglier soon, though," Alptraum whispers and carefully goes about extracting himself from the Eeee he's holding.

"So, you didn't just give the dagger to that crazy woman just so you could have some private time with your little green friend, I take it?" the dragon whispers.

"No, they took it from me. I tried to get it back, but seeing as how I'm effectively a prisoner of theirs, and one of them Roogi, claims ownership of me, what was I to do? I'm a bit outnumbered here," Alptraum whispers and sits up.

The dragon shifts a bit in the darkness, then whispers, "So, do you want her to give it back? She sacrificed some barely conscious canine type earlier, and there was enough blood and magic to let me get into her dreams. Right now she's lounging in some extravagant garden in Babel, being fed grapes by you. Well, at the moment anyway."

"Bah, she used the dagger? Figures. And yes, I want it back … at some point. There are some issues to deal with and she may prove useful in dealing with them. You said it would be dangerous to use the dagger against a monster, yes? Well, there's a monster here and I was thinking of tricking her into using the dagger against it and remove two problems at the same time," Alptraum explains and walks over to the dragon. "And about this dream, er, can I get in there? I don't like the idea of her imagining me serving her. Bleh."

"Let her dream, I put your image in there myself," Kaira explains quietly. "Better to condition her to like you. Now then… you want to get rid of her and this monster at the same time? I assume you want her to stab it with the dagger then, right?"

"You put me in there?" Alptraum whispers and eyes the dragon suspiciously. "What sort of dreams do you have about me?" He shakes his head, then answers the question, "Yes, I do."

"Is it a large monster?" Kaira asks, getting a shrewd look in her eye.

"Huge plant monster, apparently," Alptraum notes. "I haven't seen it myself, but it can supposedly reach across the lake."

"Ooooo, this could work out nicely then," the dragon hisses. "It will require a bit of preparation though, in order for you to influence the blade while you aren't holding it. There's an easy way and there's a fun way to handle that."

Alptraum grins and reaches out to try and touch the dragon, out of curiosity. "Is that so? Well, care to explain both to me?" he asks.

Not too surprisingly, the Eeee's hand passes right through Kaira. "Well, the easy way is to just commingle your blood and hers on the blade. That will give you the needed link. The fun way is for you to drink her blood while sharing some of your own intimate bodily fluids with her. Although you'd have to act quickly afterwards."

Alptraum blinks. "Ah, heh. I see," Alptraum remarks and rubs the back of his neck. "Okay, I could see how that would be fun, and she did express the desire to see me after my visit to her," Alptraum replies and motions to the sleeping green Eeee. "Though, I suspect that is more of a desire to get my abilities than be intimate with me."

"Well, that is the 'hook' for this fish," Kaira says, grinning. "Because you can give her immortality. I'll have the image of Zakaro appear in her dream and explain it to her, give her the whole 'awesome power' and 'founding a new temple', 'you're my new high priestess' spiel. She'll come to you then, with the whole scheme being her idea."

Alptraum smirks. "That's terribly evil. But, it could be entertaining," he admits. He then looks to Phlagaea, brow furrowed. "I wonder how she would take the plan, though. I'd rather not upset her," he remarks. "And hey, could she see you if I woke her now?"

"She could, so I'd prefer that you didn't wake her," Kaira says. "There isn't a lot of magic left, and the more people that I have to appear before the shorter time I'll have. And I still have to tell you how to pull off the illiaster transfer."

"All right, I won't then. Okay, tell me how to do that. There's also the matter of getting the dagger back afterward, so I need to make sure it's in a place I could find it after the fact," Alptraum remarks.

"Well, there shouldn't be too much of a mess if it all goes right," Kaira explains. "Once you have remote control of the blade, have the priestess stab it into some part of this plant monster. Then, you just have to use the blade to do a spirit transfer from the monster into the woman. Since the monster is alive, its spiritual life force, or illiaster, will be transferred to the Eeee. Then, you can start pumping her full of souls that I'll have ready and waiting. If there's enough life force in that monster, then Hekatt could possibly hold hundreds or even thousands of souls before it's all used up and she bursts."

Alptraum hmms and nods, "Ahh, I see. I was thinking a reverse of that." Alptraum smirks and shakes his head, commenting, "All this is terribly evil, but … it'll help thousands of souls and remove a dangerous and crazy woman from threatening or killing anyone else. So, it's worth it. I think we should go for it."

Kaira grins, then suddenly puts on a serious expression. "There is one other thing, Alptraum. You must never use the illiaster transfer to give yourself more energy or to save the life of someone else. That is the path to true vampirism, and there's no turning back once you start on it. Anyone who receives illiaster like that will become dependant on it, and will become a true vampire."

Alptraum looks rather surprised by the comment. "Did you think I would ever even consider doing that? That's horrible. I can't even bite a person without feeling grossed out by it, you know. Sucking their soul is … no. I could never do that," he says firmly.

"Good, we don't need a new Vorgulremik on the loose," Kaira says, smiling again. "And don't stand too close to the priestess once you get things going. A bit of flying skull could give you a nasty cut or bruise."

"Uh, yeah. I don't need to be sprayed with body parts again, thanks," Alptraum remarks, skewing up his muzzle.

Kaira smiles again and pats Alptraum's shoulder with a ghostly hand. "Try to put some pants on too, if you can manage it," she adds, then winks.

"How can I? They keep stealing them!" Alptraum huffs, looking annoyed. "And if I didn't know better you sounded jealous when you found me with her," Alptraum adds, motioning towards the green Eeee again.

"It's the color," Kaira explains. "Green isn't my favorite. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to pretend to be a power-mad, insane Babelite goddess of sorcery. And I'd appreciate if you refrained from any comments about how much of a 'stretch' that would be for me."

Alptraum smiles sweetly. "Would I ever say anything like that?" he asks innocently.

"Without Arkold around, I have a sense that you'd actually feel obligated to," the dragon says, and starts to back away into the shadows at the corner of the room.

"Nah. I don't see you as all that evil and power mad, just draconic. Remember, we did talk while on that watery world," Alptraum points out and waves. "It was good to see you again, by the way."

"Be careful, Alptraum," Kaira's fading voice says. "I don't want to have to wait for another trainable demigod to show up… "

"I am not trainable," Alptraum insists as Kaira fades. "I'm no one's 'pet'. Hmph."

"Whom are you talking to?" mutters Phlagaea, as she gropes around the bed for Alptraum.

"My dragon ally. Her spirit form just left," Alptraum explains and heads back to the bed to curl up with Phlagaea. "Well, a plan has been set into motion. Expect Hekett to come for me in the morning. I'll have to go with her for a bit to ah, set up linkage so I can manipulate the dagger remotely."

Phlagaea cuddles back up against Alptraum, and rests her muzzle against his chest. "Mmmm? I don't trust the Yodhzakaro… you be careful… " she mutters.

"I don't either," Alptraum notes and lightly combs through Phlagaea's side fur with his claws. "But, it's our best shot at dealing with the plant and her. I just don't like the idea of having to be … intimate with her. Bleh."

One of Phlagaea's eyes pops open at that. "Then don't be," she hisses. "She's probably crawling with fleas and other parasites, and has horrible diseases."

"It's one of the more effective ways to set up linkage to manipulate the dagger," Alptraum remarks and sighs. "So, er, what sort of diseases does she have?"

"I haven't decided yet," Phlagaea says, ominously. "Is that the only way to do get what you need?"

"One of. The other is to intermingle blood on the dagger. I'm not sure which would be the most convincing to her, unfortunately," Alptraum remarks and eyes the green Eeee. "Keep in mind there's no point in cursing her, simply because once I'm done … uh, she's going to explode when she stabs the plant."

"But she could hurt you," Phlagaea claims. "She's probably into all sorts of torture and deviant stuff… but then, I can probably make you forget all about that option," she says, smiling toothily.

Alptraum rubs his temples. "I'll use whichever method is most convincing at the time, okay?" Alptraum says pleadingly, then sighs. "I can take care of myself. I'll work the angle of intermingled blood on the dagger. But, she may want more, since the trick is convincing her she will become immortal. And it's not like I think she's even remotely attractive, you know." He leans his head down and kisses the bridge of her nose, adding, "You I do. And I wanted you to know you could trust me, so that's why I told you about the two options there are in the first place."

"Okay," the green bat agrees, reluctantly. "But whichever one you use, you'd better not enjoy it. And just to show I trust you, I won't make love to you before you have to go."

"I won't enjoy it, don't worry," Alptraum notes and shudders at the thought. "Tricking her I'll enjoy, but touching her … ew. And wait, that's trusting me? We already did that last night. Er. Or is that more of trying to wear me out?"

"It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make, so that you'll be at full strength," Phlagaea says, sounding terribly put upon. "After all, it is unlikely that Mave has any more of that potion ready, so you'll have to… just will yourself to go through with it."

"Yes, I know. I'll just have to imagine you," Alptraum notes and nips one of her ears lightly. "And I'll make it up to you this evening if we survive all of this and escape. Anything you want."

Phlagaea grins at the promise. "I'll look forward to that," she says.

Alptraum hopes he won't live to regret that promise. "Anyway, we should both get back to sleep," he notes, hugging the Eeee. "Tomorrow will be weird, and kind of gross."

"I hope you manage to find something to… you know, eat, before doing anything dangerous," the green bat says, sinking into the hug.

"I imagine I can convince the Yodhzakaro to present me with something I could eat," Alptraum remarks quietly. "Of course, knowing my luck, she'll be as freaky as that strange scientist was." He shudders again.

"So I'm your first non-freaky lover then?" Phlagaea asks cutely.

"Quite. Out of all the people I've met, you've been rather normal; you don't want to be bitten by a vampire or anything. Plus, you do realize you're the second I've ever at, been with. The scientist was the first," Alptraum admits.

"I suppose I can live with that," Phlagaea says, grinning. Then she yawns. "Now… should get some more sleep."

Alptraum yawns widely too. "Yes, we should," he agrees and lets his eyes close again.