The Ritual

5/13 noon

Katrana, for that is what she must be in this setting, rushed to her king's side. The dwarven king Magni Bronzebeard had arrived early in the day via the Deeprun Tram, and managed to get an audience with Varian alone. It was unlikely she couldn't salvage it, but if someone like Magni was allowed to influence her puppet, he may act out of turn. Even as she entered, he was nodding and looking thoughtful as his fellow monarch ranted.

"The Dark Iron clan have left their capital and are making incursions throughout the Wetlands, the Badlands, even Dun Morogh! I understand you are more concerned with the Blackrock orcs on your doorstep, but they are fighting a losing war and will keep dwindling away into nothing so long as you keep up a good defense."

Varian stroked his chin. "I suppose Lakeshire is doing better. They were recently reinforced, so we might be able to pull some troops out of our garrison there." Who told him about that? If he gave an order like that it would be horribly difficult to maintain the illusion that Lakeshire still had its full garrison. Reports were filtered through Fordragon and Shaw, whom she had firmly within her power, so she could normally say anything she wanted and it would be accepted. If Varian started getting directly involved in military decisions, though? He'd need constant monitoring.

"The Dark Irons worship an elemental god known as Ragnaros, and he is very real. Even taking that fiery leviathan out of the situation though, they threaten to cut off our access to Lorderon. You heard about the attack on Thandol Span, yes?"

Katrana cut in, "I hear what you're saying, Magni, but I've also heard other things that make me worry. You're sure it's the tactical situation, rather than the rumors that your daughter is having a dalliance with their king?" Magni went red with rage. Good.

"That is no dalliance! My daughter was captured and seduced through magical means, on a mission intended to aid you!"

"Really? And you haven't declared war on them yet? Or are you just here to get allies to assist you in that? We have quite enough to deal with already, without getting involved in a personal dispute between two dwarven kings." As she spoke, she sashayed over to Varian and placed a hand on his shoulder. He smiled up at her.

"Look," Varian said, trying to diffuse the tension, "I'd be happy to send an emissary, maybe get a bit more information about your daughter. For now, enough doom and gloom. I was planning on a boar hunt this evening; we'd be happy to have you along. Oh, and we just hired a few jugglers to entertain the people at court!" This Varian still had all the skills his life had taught him, but he entirely lacked the stomach for any kind of conflict where he had to upset someone. He looked a bit sad as the dwarf king spluttered in rage and stalked out of the room, but with a kiss Katrana banished the memory of the meeting. It was almost too easy. Now she just had to get through another day at court with this dupe.

•••••••••

Auffrey relayed the message. The king was on the way to the throne room, and would be there with Lady Prestor for a few hours at least. It was time to get to work. Vanessa had really come through; a medium sized clearing had a platform erected on it, and I had all the materials I'd requested.

The lookalike was passable; she looked like a decent cosplayer at Blizzcon. Auffrey sent me a picture of the real thing and they looked pretty close. I checked, the picture didn't count as a powerful enough arcane link to get me another point of resonance. Neither was the cosplayer, at least not on her own. She would be a prop, though, not a participant.

I set the chair on one end of the stage, where she would have a good view of the whole event, and gave her the dose of happy powder provided by Vanessa. I didn't want her to react to anything; she had strict orders to sit there and quietly watch the whole event without participating, except as directed.

Effort was important, as were symbolic connections, and an infusion of sexual energy. Vanessa had come through again here, providing me with a hairbrush used by Lady Prestor when she came to stay in Moonbrook. It was a bit of a surprise that she had something like that, but certainly a welcome one. It wasn't worth a point of resonance on its own, but it primed the pump and established a sympathetic connection.

I'd chosen my assistants carefully; Lividia, Talaada, and I were all dragons; three participants, one point of resonance to start. All black dragons disguised as humans in particular; a connection worth my second point of resonance.

To begin the ritual, the three of us painted a precise design together in meticulous detail. I'd chosen a very large version of the Eye of Dalaran, the flag of the mage city, both for the mysticism of the magic city and the association with vision and inquiry. All that was worth a third point of resonance, and it ate up a solid hour of our time. The very act of stretching it out to two hours of continuous work would be worth a fourth point of resonance. We already had enough to target her alone. 

••••••••••

Katrana sat in during court, stepping forward when necessary to correct the king's more reasonable impulses. She was actively working to drive a wedge between noble and peasant, so anything she could do to reinforce the idea that Varian was a spendthrift would be to her benefit, so long as it could be justified.

That was the real reason she'd encouraged him to hire clowns and jugglers to entertain the people who had come to seek audience with him; not to diffuse tensions with laughter, but to inflame it with waste. After all, if he has enough money for mimes then why hasn't he put any of that towards ending the war with the Defias, or clearing Duskwood, or any number of other vitally important tasks from fighting the gnolls to cleaning the streets. The people who came to see the king were here to be reassured and helped, not entertained.

She couldn't help but smirk, though she managed to disguise it as a flirty glance at the king. Humans were the biggest threat to the black dragonflight, possibly even greater than the other dragons. Economics were key to making them destroy themselves. Every waste of money would be taken as a deadly insult by the Defias, especially with her fanning the flames. It was taking a long time, but Katrana was fairly happy watching the human kingdom crumble through simple mismanagement. In time, of course, it would be weak enough to wipe off the map. She directed her dreamy smile towards Varian; it was so annoying how expressive human faces were at times.

••••••••••

As the improvised ritual design was completed, we moved into the second part. Lividia would be doing much of the precision work now, as a direct daughter of the target, her blood providing a fifth point of resonance. Talaada and I would be participating differently, generating raw power to the spell through sexual intercourse. It seemed odd that sex was allowed as a filler in any ritual, but The Company seemed to be a bit horny and this was, after all, specifically a tantric ritual. As a virgin, Talaada's participation was extra valuable, netting me a sixth point of resonance. I stripped her of her priestly vestments and she did the same for me, though she fumbled far more than I did. Whenever she got too excited, I would kiss her and tell her to relax. Before we began, I replaced her necklace with a copper and ruby collar. As the hour passed I ran through different sexual positions in ten minute increments, paired off in vague opposites just to make it more ritualistic. Cunnilingus and blowjob, reverse cowgirl and mating press, anal and spooning.

While we "worked", Lividia let her claws out and scratched out the pupil of the giant eye, "blinding" it. It was mostly there to keep her busy for a bit and make sure we actually used the design as part of the ritual. Once she was done, she came over and took Talaada's collar off of her, infused with the energy of the sex. She strolled up to the drugged up Lady Prestor, "a gift for you, mother. Put it on."

The lookalike put it on willingly, with a dopey grin. Seventh resonance gained through symbolic reenactment. Finally, we flickered into our dragon forms and back to our human forms, resetting us to being clean and finely dressed. With a smile, I sacrificed the Waters of Lethe by giving it to the lookalike, who drank it. Her eyes misted, and she forgot the whole ritual. Nice and symbolic, wiping away her awareness of anything odd, and an eighth point of resonance at the end of the spell. I was finally able to stop thrusting and collapsed next to Talaada.

I checked my app for Onyxia, and found her. I'd reworked the ritual in my head repeatedly for the last few days, and I thought I settled on the right one.

Active ritual effects: shackle (wear this collar) 1, bonds (apathy towards the collar once it was worn) 3, bonds (romantically love Erich Bismark) 3

That left extra point of resonance that would have gone into an aoe effect. Hopefully I got some good secondary targets.