The sudden appearance of the grinning cat made Alinn’sora snarl and glare with a fierce distaste. Her slick bodyguards reacted as though an extension of her will and brandished their wooden spikes menacingly. The ghastly fungoid fauna flared into bright, lurid orange life. It was clear from the nymph’s angry stance and seething persona that there was absolutely no love lost between the two beings. Even the charms in Alinn’sora’s crown seemed to jangle together with louder than normal protests.<br/><br/>‘This one is as cold as a lizard’s heart, as cold as one of your mortal graves. You can blame it on her tonality, you can blame it on the prose. She can say what she likes to me, but you I won’t permit further mocking on my situation, or yours. The feline is free, so it would like us to believe. It can come and go as it pleases and has taken great joy in tormenting me these past few weeks.’<br/><br/>A furious sigh poured out of Alinn’sora, complete with a duo of gurgling roars from her slick black minions. She stabbed a black-nailed finger in the vague direction of the cat. For a moment it almost looked as though she might be gathering herself to summon a spell, but the moment passed and the nymph withdraw her hand. She tossed her hair dismissively and finally addressed the floating feline directly.<br/><br/>‘Be gone creature. Take your bizarre theurgy with you. Your freedom is an embodiment of humiliation to all here, even the other, simpler beasts you seem happy to entertain. Be off with you, have your fun elsewhere. Let me talk to this… more fitting one in peace.’<br/><br/>With her rant completed Alinn’sora returned her attention to the drider and attempted to soften her expression. As she willed her flesh to relax, the angry toadstools slithered away into nothingness, replace by the more omnipresent black mould. She took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the speckled black spores. The action seemed to centre the nymph and allowed her to put the presence of the irritating cat out of her mind. It was almost as though Alinn’sora had reset herself, found that balance between misery and hope once again. She continued her conversation with Elir as though there had been no interruption.<br/><br/>‘Why do I seek your company? I would have thought that was obvious, truly. There’ll always be that someone, who gets lost upon the way. There’s always going to be that two or three giving their bodies away. You are clearly ready to sate your primal needs, yet you restrain yourself. Unlike the others here. Just look at them all, slaves to their own hedonism. The noble knight, raping the defenceless maiden. She in turn effortlessly conquered by a simple beast. You cellmate, the simpleminded, drone who does not seem to understand how her own body works. Not forgetting the man of splinters, seeking to rut with the irritating feline.<br/><br/>And the feline herself…itself. Untrustworthy and mocking. There are no allies here for me here except you. None as strong-willed and fecund as you. I can feel it in your presence, the strength and desire, not simply to be free of this place, but to seek the ruin of its creator. Yet…there’s more, much more to you, I am certain. That goes beyond mere thoughts of flight and vengeance. You and I seek, similar things. That need not make us enemies, indeed, I would rather we become firm<i>friends</i>.’<br/><br/>Once again her small hand reached forwards through the bars and offered itself in an unthreateningly dainty manner. Delicate grey flesh glimmered with its preternatural clamminess, but there was absolutely nothing else inauspicious about the offered hand. Even the sharp black nails tipping her fingers seemed shrunken and reduced in hostility. Yet, at the same time as her own lack of aggression it was all to obvious that she did not even remotely fear the imposing bulk of the drider. Indeed, her lips even broke out into a pleasant smile. She could have been in a tavern greeting a friend, not in a nightmarish dungeon as a prisoner without hope for all her appearance conveyed.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>