The Report

Delilah stood in the dark corridor outside of her Master's office. She had her long, dark pigtails tied in black ribbons, and had on her best black dress with white petticoat and bow. Her trusty little knife was hidden securely under the big bow around her waist, as it always was, though she knew she wouldn't need it here. She wasn't very fond of wearing black, but she knew that her Master preferred it, so she always dressed up a little when delivering reports.

She'd never been very patient when she was young, but her many years of training had taught her the value of waiting. While she stood outside the door, she could hear the guards talking, and made a point of looking like she was definitely not listening. It was easy to do when one looked so young. She simply swayed back and forth on her feet, looking up at the ceiling and pretending she was a bored child. It worked wonders, the guards didn't pay her the slightest bit of attention. Unfortunately today they weren't discussing anything of import- merely complaining about their jobs, as if they were anywhere near as difficult as what she did- but she had gained much valuable information using this method in the past. Plus, she could always use this against them if either one of them tried to steal her job.

Finally the door opened, and a very sheepish lower level demon exited the office. Great, from the looks of him Delilah was going to be dealing with a sour Master. Why did the others always have to be so disappointing? Really, from the size of this guy and his immense muscles, whatever he'd been tasked with should not have been all that difficult. She rolled her eyes at the other demon as she entered her Master's office, closing the door on his stupid face. She turned to her Master, and gave her best little girl smile.

"Don't worry Sir, I'm here to make all those worries go away." She assured, to which she merely received a grunt. In fairness, that was actually a more friendly response than she had been expecting. Clearly he was very eager to hear this report. She took a seat in front of his desk, knowing very well that if she waited for him to offer she'd remain standing through the entire report.

"Well, get on with it Delilah." Her Master scowled, slouching sullenly in his chair. Today it seemed that nobody could do anything right, and he just hoped that Delilah could bring some good news. All day he'd been dealing with idiots who couldn't seem to manage even the simplest of tasks, but he'd come to learn that he could usually count on Delilah. Not that he would ever tell her of course. The key to keeping his subjects in order was to make sure they never felt like they'd quite done enough to earn a reward. It made them work harder.

"Well, the people that I talked to yesterday were very enlightening. They said that Sakareth is holed up in the south. They didn't have an exact location, but they assured me she's no more than a few miles away from the Seers' Fountain." Delilah paused here to give her Master time to digest the news. This was a huge win for them. He'd been searching for Sakareth- Currently the most famous necromancer in their region of the underworld- for years. Her followers were loyal, and would rather die than give her up. Most of them even withstood torture, choosing instead to end their own sorry existence if the pain became too much. He'd tried going through her drones- this is what he liked to call the souls necromancers resurrect and enslave- but of course they had no minds of their own, so couldn't give up her location without her permission, which she would obviously never give. So now he had turned to her rivals, gaining what little information these necromancers could obtain.

"That is indeed very enlightening." He murmured, using his spindly hand to hide a simile that was curling his lips. Once again Delilah had proved to be invaluable, but he didn't want her to know that. When she simply continued with her delivery, he knew he'd managed to hide it.

"It is, and there's more." Delilah grinned. She knew the next bit of news wasn't exactly great, but any information they could get was useful. "She's gathering strength. Apparently she'd started resurrecting way more people lately. Looks like she's torturing them to weed out the weak, and keeping the rest for some sort of army or guards or something. Seems like she knows someone's getting close."

"That is very interesting." Delilah watched as her Master mulled this information over. He was clearly displeased about the fact that they no longer had the element of surprise, but the amassing of forces meant that Sakareth was afraid, and that pleased him greatly. She had evaded him for far too long. He would get what he wanted from her one day, and that day seemed to be ever closer. "Did you gain anything else from your encounter?"

"Unfortunately no. Sakareth is too secretive, these lower level necromancers didn't know anything else. She is well hidden, never leaves her hiding place, just sending her little pets out to do her dirty work. Nobody's even seen her in years." This was not news to either of them, but Delilah felt her Master needed reminding that the slight bit of information she had gathered was a great achievement.

"That will be all, Delilah." Was all he said in return. He knew exactly what she was doing, and frankly it irked him. She had no right to be telling him what he already knew. She would get no praise for simply managing to do as she was told. He turned his attention to the Scotch on his desk, a clear dismissal.

"Thank you, Sir." Delilah muttered dutifully before swiftly leaving the room. Even though she was disappointed at the lack of a reaction from her Master, she still gave a big, gloating smile to the idiot guards on her way out. She skipped and whistled her way back to her own quarters, knowing full well it annoyed the hell out of all the other demons. She had done well, and she wanted them all to know it.