A Revealing Exchange

Kargath swept some dust off of his suit- dust that wasn't there to begin with, of course.

"You're expecting some tedious bargain, aren't you? That's all we demons ever want, bargains."

Sadarth straitened her back. She knew this game. The demon was just trying to make her , to make her offer more. A classic bargaining tactic.

Unfortunately, she was . So, she would play this demon's game.

"Why, mighty Kargath," she pleaded, "I would not bargain with one so powerful as you. After all, what do I have which you would find worthwhile. No, I ask a boon of you, and offer as-"

"I'm not interested in bargaining. You're right, you don't have anything that interests me that I'd take as a trade. Perhaps if you ask again in a century or so my mood will be different. For now, good day."

"Kargath!" This would not do at all. She needed him!

"Oh, yes, that army by your gates. I'll tell you what will happen. They'll be frozen whenever you're naked."

Someone of less willpower would have let her jaw drop. Not Sadarth. "That is your... offer?"

Kargath looked at her with the cold, dead eyes of a demon. "I'm not making any offers. I will expend a trivial amount of my power to keep that army of yours frozen like statues for as long as it pleases me. And it will please me so long as you are in the nude. Why? Because it pleases me to make the world stranger."

Sadarth narrowed her eyes at him, considering.

"Stop considering. I have told you what will happen. Now, I suggest you get to burning your wardrobe before those clerics do that to you."