Tara has plenty to talk about.

Something bothered him about her status effects, but he put the issue aside when she finally spoke. "Where do I even begin with you?" Tara's words were accompanied with a low grumble, like a furnace. "I mean, this is your fault, right? I can barely even remember what happened, except a whole lot of..."

She grimaced, but John knew precisely what she wanted to avoid saying. "These are my orders from now on," he began.

"Excuse me? You think I-"

"Please, be quiet for now." Her voice cut off, and her eyes were wide with fury. "You're to calm down and stop casting spells. You'll only cast spells in this temple when I tell you to, and you're to avoid burning anything here or anywhere you know I don't want you to burn things."

Seeing her tremble with the effort to speak, he permitted it. "You piece of shit! Let me go! You've got no idea who you're messing with, and if I want to burn you to ash then I will-"

I'd hate to see how she talks when she's below +1... "There will be no lies in this temple," he interrupted, halfway meant as an experiment. The walls shimmered, he was sure of it this time. What did Alysha call my rule about no fighting? A "Commandment"... are those different than my other rules? Maybe it just means something to dark elves... but I wonder if they notice it, too... Notably, Tara had grown quiet and now struggled to come up with something true. He tried another. "Those in my temple will always act to support me." Again the walls shimmered, brighter this time, and he nodded in satisfaction.

"You fucking... son of a bitch..."

John frowned. "You were going to kill all of us, even yourself. I had ****-"

"I was bullshiting you! Look-" She motioned as if she were about to cast a spell... and her arms trembled until they aborted the somatic component of whatever she intended. "Fuck, just let me... just let me cast spells again so I can show you." John nodded, ready for any kind of betrayal... and watched as the flames of her body lowered until even the flames of her flesh slowly turned human again.

Tara casts Douse! Tara's mana reduced by 109.

With the way her magic worked, John knew this meant she could cast even more without worrying about overheating... and the peaceful expression on her face (however brief it was) convinced John to check the spell on her sheet.

Douse lvl3, 0mp
Douse: lowers the Hellbat's current mana pool by [skill lvl x 20] - [skill lvl x 50], or down to her maximum if she's Overheated, or down to twice her maximum if she's Incandescent. Using Douse while at 0mp will instead return the Hellbat to a completely human form and halve the damage of all fire spells for one minute. Douse cannot be cast more than once every five rounds.

So that's how she could hide in the real world... but if she did, then she had to cast a spell every minute spent in the public eye. That answered one question for John, at least.

"See? I was never going to kill myself just to spite you fools; you're nowhere near worth it- Hell, no one is!" She crossed her arms under her heavy chest, and pouted her lips as if she had made an insurmountable point. "So there you go. Now let me go, or the... fuck. Fine: I can't guarantee the Cabal will get you. But the Cabal will know you could've had something to do with me vanishing!"

"Why's that?"

Tara narrowed her eyes. "You... listen: I can't lie to you, and I have to help you, sure. But this isn't right... you know it isn't, right?" John returned her grimace. "Or maybe this is right for you: having your own black **** in your pearly white temple-"

John blinked in stunned silence before sputtering, "I-It's definitely not about that!" It really wasn't, but it sounded too eager coming out of him here and now.

"It is for me." John stepped back as if struck. "You've got a nice little zoo coming along in here... and the real fat one tells me you even managed to put babies in some of the exhibits. The Cabal would be interested in that. They'd be interested in how you caught me, too, or how you managed to keep me from contacting them... these are all very interesting things." She took a step towards him, uncaring for nudity, uncaring for the power of the master over the ****. "If you let me go, I wouldn't tell them any of these things, John Newman who lives in a two-story house with his mother, Brenda Newman, on the second block of-"

"Enough!" It wasn't a command for silence, but Tara knew she made her point. "Enough... I do regret having to do it. Your bluff was convincing; you left me **** except to let me and others die. That's why I had to do it..." John remembered putting his mark on her... and then how his mark had come to change. "Show me your tongue."

Tara made a noise that was likely an objection, except she was already sticking her tongue out. With a motion of his hand, she walked closer and bathed him in her warmth as she leaned forward, letting her huge udders hang as he examined it.

Gamer's brand, unique mark. Invisible to all naked eyes save those of the owner, the Gamer's brand marks this creature as the summon and/or **** of the Gamer. It gives no other information even when scryed.

His mark glowed there, and despite being put down as a summoner's brand it had already taken the new form. His eyes drifted to her tits and his pants tightened, and he recalled what he did to her in their last meeting... and the particular augments he laid upon her. He checked her status effects again, and realized what was bothering him: she wasn't pregnant.

"Thatified?" He nodded, and she stood back up.

"... Is your body hot on the inside, too?"

"What? Yes, but what's- no, look, cut the shit. What do I need to do for you to release me? If you're looking for a ransom, they won't pay it- fuck! I mean... damn it..." Tara struggled to accept the flawless lie prevention of the temple. Working within the truth as an ex-spy-smuggler proved difficult. "I... I mean, you seem like you're not eager to be the piece of shit I thought you were."

John opened his mouth for a sarcastic comeback, but thought better of it.

"You've got plenty of girls already, and I'm... I'm a human being, even if I am a Hellbat. I need freedom, and whatever this is... it isn't right. You can understand that at least, right?"

John stared at the golden statues of women dotting each pillar of the hall, and glanced up at the gorgeous blue sky. The changes to the temple represented something, he was sure of it. Hesitantly, John nodded. "I do... but you're also a criminal, aren't you? I mean, have you ever hurt people to get what you want?"

Tara's lips trembled. "Don't make me answer that. Even if I did, it isn't worth slavery... it ain't even fair-"

"I'm not saying that's why this is right, but I need to know: did you?" He looked at the walls as he continued to speak. "All those in the temple will answer me truthfully," a pulse, "completely," another shimmer, "and for any question I ask."

The walls glowed as the words flowed from the Hellbat. "Fine! Hurt people, you brat? I've killed people! I've killed people who couldn't fight back, I've killed kids used as mules to pull condoms out of their innards, I've cooked a cripple alive to steal his transport- hurt? You don't hurt people in the Abyss, dumbass: hurt people get ****. Hurt people write contracts for killers. Hurt people get strong enough so they can kill, not hurt, you back. You kill, or you get killed. That's the law of the real world, and you're just a stupid kid if you don't know it- and hey, you're no better!" John raised an eyebrow at that. "Those bitches of yours told me what you did: you up and killed Yarrick, though I'll be damned if I can figure out how. You turned in Rurik, and to the Brightons no less! You might as well have cut his head off yourself! You're even signing on with Extinction Kings- I mean what do you think those people do? It's in the fucking name-"

"That's enough." It was a whisper, and Tara barely heard it over the building flames of her anger. "Douse yourself until you're completely human."

She went through the motions, and a cold expression was mismatched with the vibrant flames that only partially diminished. "So what are you going to do now... Maaastah?"

The sarcasm in that label may as well have been molten with how it wounded him. "I don't know how to remove the brand."

Tara stared at him, and her face betrayed an internal struggle. The temple was a place of peace; she couldn't cast spells even to get rid of her bubbling fury, and couldn't raise a hand against him. She hugged herself as if falling cold, and her strength began to recede as she slowly crumbled. With a twisted face she doused herself again, and on completion fell to her knees, struggling to not cry. Her hands, one of flames and one of trembling flesh, covered her face as she failed.

"I don't want to enslave a human again... and if I can find a way to grant you freedom... well, it'll depend on whether or not I can keep you from going back to that life." She didn't answer him, and lowered her hands as she overcame the wave of panic. "You... you told me you were a **** for the Cabal, too. Are you still?"

"Their... hah... their slavery was simpler: they could find me wherever I went, and kill me if I misbehaved. It wouldn't be hard for them: my contact was powerful, and she probably answered to someone even stronger." A tired, strained laugh escaped her as she doused herself again. She was hovering near zero mp now, and her passive drain would take her there before she did it again.

"The Cabal..." He had heard the name enough times now to become curious.

"Don't bother asking me." Tara worked to stand, clearly angry with herself for her moment of vulnerability. "I never met anyone except the Hellbat who taught me and our mutual superior, and that Hellbat died on the field. Everything else was need-to-know, and I only know the rumors beyond that."

"Well let's start there: who was your superior?"

Tara stood at full height now, regarded John with a worryingly neutral expression. "A hobbit named Juniluny Snickerbottom."

John stared at Tara for a time, and somewhere behind their exchange of blank stares echoed the happy frolicking of Captain Wolfroot in one of the reflecting pools.

"... You already know that's the truth-"

"I do, I... I just need a minute..."

Tara's face grimaced, and her hands went through the motions to douse one last time.

Tara uses Douse. Tara has gained the Smouldering status.

Her fiery patches fused, solidified, and formed along with the solid flesh. Her fiery hair vanished, leaving nothing but a bald scalp behind. Her eyebrows and pubic mound were similarly hairless, and so the perfectly cleansed, human form of Tara became apparent, and only now did John truly feel he was here with a naked, human woman. John found himself missing her usual warmth. The tight feeling in his pants bore entirely different longings, but he did his best to try and control it without relying on Gamer's drive.

"So can I wear some clothes now? It's chilly in here."

"I'll make you some... but talk to me while we walk. Tell me what the Cabal is about."

"Power... I'm afraid that's all there is to it. I'm there to get things for Snickerbottom, and Snickerbottom's there to pass things up the food chain, to someone I'm not supposed to know about, and don't."

"Great..."

"You're not going to leave me here, are you?" John stopped just at the mouth of the wing, but didn't turn to face her. "H-Hey, it's bad enough that I've traded one master for another... but at least I could live in the real world with the other! Please... you can't just leave me in this place with your pregnant whores." Her voice surely carried, but none responded.

"I can only keep so many summons out... and what if they do track you down-?"

"C'mon, that's... that's not funny. You have to let me out of here when you leave! Don't make me beg for this... John."