There were few things enjoyable about this backwards, inferior world that Celephai enjoyed. In fact, she hated it's inhabitants, their beliefs, their pathetic notions of logic, time, and space, and just about everything else. However, in a nearby swamp, she had found something fun and enjoyable, and possibly even worth saving on this worthless rock they called a home: Mud.
She had found a fairly deep pond, and began rolling around in the thickened mixture of soil and water. It was fun, enjoyable, warm, soothing, cleansing... it was just wonderful to BE IN. How come more of these foolish mortal races didn't wallow in such a treasure trove of wonderful sensations? Were they truly so inferior and ignorant? Did they despise pleasure and enjoyment... or did they just not want to get dirty?
Fah, it didn't matter, Celephai was going to be content with her mud bath, damned be the consequences of getting caught.
Cel stopped, sinking up to her nose in mud. Oh, goody, he was here. It had been awhile since they'd spoken, but at least they were still on good terms. She slowly turned around, eyes searching the surroundings to find the source of the voice. It had been far too long since she'd thrown something at him...
Cel's projectile, a fruit had fallen from a nearby tree, whizzed over his head and promptly became a pulpy mess when it contacted a rock behind him. She sunk back into the ooze, glaring at Grayell with mixed annoyance and disdain.
"I do as I please, for the most part. How have you been, Grayell?"
She drifted to and fro in the muck, watching him carefully for any signs of suspicious movement. Cel trusted him not to kill her, but he was as unpredictable as herself, and that was mildly unsettling.
Celephai crept toward him, maintaining about three feet between them. Her face softened slightly, looking more amused than standoffish.
"You know as well as I do, Grayell, that I am trouble... but I've kept quiet for now. So little to disturb for the moment, but I may begin expanding my horizons. I'll even be a future prisoner, someday."
Cel chuckled. Of course she was up to something. She always was.
"Margrett wishes to help expand Wistvale and create a force of law and order. I have been contracted to assist her in her endeavors until such a time that I am no longer needed. When that time comes, I shall have constructed a prison to hold me, and in the end I shall tell her I am going to betray her, forcing her to imprison me or else permit her greatest liability and enemy to run free amid her new empire... It's very convoluted. Either way, she has plans for Wistvale, and I'm willing to do everything I can to make them into a reality."
She smiled knowingly. Maybe the pieces would move themselves...
"Why is it a shame? She is furthering the cause of your mortal races. Extending your capacity to fight the beings of chaos which I wish to set upon this place."
Well no, She's pushing a personal agenda that considers only her viewpoint of what benefits society.
Meanwhile, you're looking at raising hell for an empire that won't see the light of day in her lifetime - and for what? So you can destroy one measly segment of humanity? One city?
Grayell shrugged.
She doesn't have the money or the clout to pull it off and that aside, it's an extremist approach to a simple problem. She might have dreams but they are hers alone.
But that has nothing to do with what I was saying. You've already signed up so...
Grayell shrugged again and looked like he couldn't be bothered with it.
Nah. You go for it. Have fun. I don't need you anyways.
Celephai straightened up, giving Grayell a curious look.
"Grayell, that's a very shortsighted view on the matter. If she raised this city to be larger, more prominent, even decadent, it's rich and prosperous shall seek out the forbidden heights of ecstasy, it is then that they will be shown the ways of my masters. The city, then, will begin to infect its neighbors, the contagion of madness spreading throughout the nations, and become a cancerous pustule on the face of the world."
She grinned maniacally, clenching her fist in front of herself as if celebrating a great victory.
"Don't you see, Grayell? She wishes to grow Wistvale into something great, but the very thing she seeks to do will only further my agenda... In fact, it surprises me that you do not share her dreams of forging a great city, a paragon of good and righteousness among the corrupt nations and rulers of the world. Someone like you could certainly make no small amount of difference in that effort."
Grayell lays back now, but then drags off his shirt and spreads out in the mud.
Yep. You pretty much pointed out everything wrong with it already. You want that, there's plenty of it out there. Why we need another craphole like that is beyond me.
Celephai leaned back with a look of mock-revulsion.
"But why would I want their brand of corruption when I can have my own? Besides, how else am I going to come up with the amount of sacrifices necessary to doom this world? I could plead with the peasantry, urge them that a higher power wishes their freedom to be gained in blood, and lead a revolt against their leaders, but that just seems like too much trouble... Better to spare the rod, and let the powerful, the strong lead in a new religion of chaos and disorder."
She waved a hand dismissively.
"In either case, contractual clause states that I leave when I am no longer needed, even if I do imprison myself, there are other ways to conscript the numberless masses to do the works of chaos. Methods which no one can escape from."
Cel smiled with satisfaction, as if she can created not a possibility, but an eventuality, that she had already won.
"The difference is, I don't wish for any other outside force to take this world. It is mine to give to my masters, and the Elder Gods will not be denied their prize, Grayell, so you may consider me an ally until I decide that it is safe to proceed with my task."