The Pact of Lysaga and Urax

Urax

i c'dn't m-move, everything c-collapsed, everything pushing into me, but d-drowning in the r-r r-r-rotting pit with, t-time t-too down there, everything inside o-out of itself, but i knew, in the dark, a w-weight of words p-pressed p-p-prescience into m-me-me

Babushka Lysaga

Our seers thought you were just some snivelling fever dream, but then you described the valley of the dusk who we neighbour. Our trade with them had been disrupted, but

Urax

Weren’t your markets, where your clan had been swimming—swimming—deep in b-blood in slaves in b-blood, they were s-starving, no moon bathed f-flow-flowers from above, the re-reagents stopped fl-flowing...

Babushka Lysaga

You remember so well, Urax My Trembling Voice of Prophecy. Nothing is secure within our crucible of ambition, our clan could not expand without control of the trade from above. And Lolth? She demands ever more—her whispers bind and twist us into designs only she knows.

Urax

N-Nothing to h-heal, everything to harm, But you were chosen to s-shape the prince - d-did, y-you just—.

Babushka Lysaga

I was not the one chosen— but Lolth’s gaze is unyielding. My clan chose their warrior. But at the ceremony, I stepped forward and unleashed their entrails across the temple floor, my judgment proved them 'unworthy'. The Dobrudzhian prince was still a child, — the Swine Sycophants who birthed him had no interest in the dusk elf valley above us. But your words, your promise that a prince of ambition and shadow will be summoned ... to be a vessel of insatiable destiny....

Urax

Hm! I'm... I'm the one who knew! U-u-umm, my work—it, uh, it was—

Babushka Lysaga

Yes, Urix, your role was undeniable. You were the last maggot left crawling in a corpse crushed beneath your own creation. Our fates fused together that moment your painful whispering was first heard...

Urax

Ah! O-only whispered because y-yo ye—you’ forced it out like I had a-a choice. I…I did n-not want you— m-mean! —

Babushka Lysaga

Prophecies are chains, and Urax, you are fortunate yours connected to me. My clan bowed as your prophesy led me above into the world rampant with the Dalmarian piglet breeders. Our traders had nothing to bring back but the dead, the Dusk Elves had become butterflies without wings, slowly drowning where they once danced. But the real tragedy, Urax, was that it stole our access to moon reagents. That commodity had become the driving force behind our dance within the great flow of the Underdark. We spent great effort searching before we found your voice. No less than a priestess of Lolth herself has confirmed your prophecy and my Duty to unleash the power that will return the valley to stability. But I'm beginning to think something is missing Urax, my Quivering Key. My Dobrudzhian has been sent into military service, I nurtured his potential but-

Urax

The prince. He-he still needs deepening, Yes! Y-Yes? The whispers depend—he, must be hollowed out before he can be used—

Babushka Lysaga

Enough Stuttering Riddles.

Babushka Lysaga

Listen well, Urax. Above, I was sent to weave not silk, but shadows. Before blood would stain his household, before assassins and trust alike fell to my intrigue, I was forged in the deep cold wells of Menzoberranzan's manipulation. Walls carved into a glittering abyss of calcite, blue and violet fire lighting its ancient dark—each webbed motif a sign leading us towards the destiny that Lolth has determine we shall give birth to in this pact.

Urax

Y-yea, but, uh, destiny is v-vomit...vomiting— very wrong ingredients! Oh, oh, h-Maybeysh?

Babushka Lysaga

Ah, Urax, you spoke of "ingredients," yet fate's cauldron had already begun to stir long before. Do you recall when our paths converged, you became my honoured patron, your broken form at last finding use .. Remember our pact Urax, a link we sealed with you under the rotting remains of your last experiment, a godling unmade. Remember how you burst it like an overfilled balloon. Its lifeblood evolving into the prophesy of Dobrudzhian prince —it shaped words, you will recall them all for me. Recall them for me now, dear Urax, recall the words, perfectly.

Urax

Ohhh, ohhh I d-don’t—don’t r-remind m-me. T-th death decay. It... i couldn’t even b-breathe just gug-gurgling, my breath inside the greedy huh-husk, each time i breathed o-out, it s-s-sucked in, sounds of its juices s-slobbered into me —b-but—it wasn’t blood! Not exactly.

Babushka Lysaga

Not precisely blood, no. We saw it was something far darker. A twisted quintessence spewed from that broken wheel of time, it was feeding on its own flesh until you forced a reservoir of souls inside it. And, you, trembling Urax, you hid—tell me again of the words that came from that cohabitation?

Urax

I-I-I didn’t just hide! i had been stuffed full up with a human heart pump, pumping fear, pumping the disgust into our laboratory. Not just hiding was I-I-it was—it w-was self-securing! But—but then y-you caught me in your webs —

Babushka Lysaga

Ah, yes we came, the Dalmarian crusade against the Tel-quessir above forced us to trawl our divination far down into the Abyss . To seize what fiends would squander. To your words, quivering in the last of your experiment's marrow, where potential was moulded and our restoration anchored. Your stammered truths fell into our webs; what was it you whispered?

Urax

Y-y-you shaped... shaped the p-promise to—for—oh, it—it—it wasn’t a single whisper, it was—

Babushka Lysaga

A symphony. Whispers enmeshed in prophecy sculpted by the work of your laboratory and delivered by fate itself. The profane avatar of our restoration had been delivered into the world —but he was so incomplete. My hands would be required to carve where his will faltered.

Urax

N-not carved! Sh-shoved. St-stabbed. Pushed-pulled. And h-he was a child, he wasn’t ready! He-he-he w-wouldn’t...

Babushka Lysaga

He was clay, Urax. Ready enough under the right hands. Mine. And you… You fed the fire. A demon who whispered keys, unlocking unimaginable doors.

Urax

Y-you—you call it keys but itc-iti- it bound us both! I-I b

Babushka Lysaga

Ah, but the lines can blur, Urax. As you cowered, as I rebelled against the labyrinthine schemes of Lolth’s underlings, only chaos defined us both—and chaos favors bold pacts.

Urax

Y-you grab-grab more than—more than b-b-boldness! Y-you

Urax

Urax

Y-Yo y-yo-you seize on in-intentions even d-devils ignored! I... I c-c-can’t even—

Babushka Lysaga

Shhh. Shhh, Urax. Our pact has been confirmed, I pulse with your abyssal secrets. While you? Your knowledge—bent, broken though it was—are my beacon in the Abyss.

Urax

But-but... S-so many fractures! Too many d-destruction! W-we unleashed what?!

Babushka Lysaga

Unleashed? We weave. Our fragility entwined fates, steering darkness to its origin. Soon, I would don veils of shadows over innocence itself... But recall, dear trembling muse, remember the words made in you.

Urax

Oh, n-not muse! N-no! Wait, what —s-signals means—oh, i-it’ll unravel worse! A pact’s next step, re-requires—it n-needs... oh-who? step-two? W-what’s c-coming!?

Babushka Lysaga

Feel it, Urax? The shifting weight? The threads pulling tighter, drawing us into the heart of the prince's ascension, but something is missing Urax. I have been banished from Ravenovia's house after requesting I accompany the prince while he was sent into service as a hostage for their Dalmarian Oinking Overlords. The Dobrudzhian is still no stronger than a stillborn, the avatar has not been embodied.

Urax

Blood was your key to open their house! Fem- fe femoral artery severed, you sliced, and you slipped in, d-didn’t you? T-that… uh, the prince's poor nursemaid! Wh-what did they call her? Oh, oh the Pie- pious girl from Nova Vaasa! W-what—what ...

Babushka Lysaga

Ah, the real Isolde. The Dead, innocent, trusting clot. Her kindness dried up somewhat in my impersonation. Her life was a simple mask i used for those years of his early life. We are nothing but empty Masks unless we have the ambition to use them.

Urax

No Non no—not just masks! Many p-people erased. How-how did the R-royal f-family not, like—know it?!

Babushka Lysaga

Your magic protected me, Urax. In their wealth and glory, The Dalmarian Doormatssaw what I allowed them to see: a servant who would nurture their heir, shield him from harm, and, if need be… orchestrate his destiny. I ensured the Dobrudzhian prince was not overly marred, by the world’s cruelties… beyond those of my specific choosing.

Urax

S-so, y-you set him up… w-without the prince knowing? I-I mean? Like, l-like a doll - strings n’ puppets n’… oh oh no. Wh-what if he HAD found out? I-I bet he’d’ve...

Babushka Lysaga

Found out? What child remembers whispers in the dark? What heir watches the changeling hands that guide him? No, my dear co-conspirator, there was no “finding out.” There was only progress, destiny weaving tighter until he could no more escape it than you can silence the words of promise that has been pressed into you.

Urax

d-destiny always comes with, uh-gah! Blood Payment! F-fangs for mortals and death! S-so what did, um, what did you're meddling even cost you?

Babushka Lysaga

What has it cost me? It cost me nothing, Urax. The sacrifices are borne by others. Innocents claimed. Trust shattered. And yet—for power—for his ascension—the price is trivial. Consider it an investment in cruelty, words that reverberates through the valley even now. What were the words of promise pressed into you? Relax Urax, the words of prophesy are heavy, you don't have to carry their burden alone, share the weight with me...

Urax

T-to-too much weight, much t-too much to hold, I h-hear the-he-h d-deepness a-ah-again....

Urax

Babushka Lysaga

Yes, these are the words that brought us to our pact, the weight that is needed to plumb the true path, go on Urax, there must be more, release them all...

Urax

-in me, yes, t-take them-

Urax

Babushka Lysaga

That, dear trembling Urax… is what we have been waiting for. So, I will be joined by an Archivist from the slow drowning Dusk elves. Let the echoes of your whispered sins linger, as shadows do when the faintest flame flickers. For now, I must return to the realm of Miyeritar above, they are weakened and bound, but one with a garotte will become my local guide … Adieu, my snivelling patron.