The day of rest had done everyone good, Lilith thought in satisfaction. As the caravan moved out, she lead the way back towards the normal trail. They'd reach it about nightfall tonight, she figured. As she talked with Xenith, she almost casually mentally assessed the effects of the events from yesterday and last night upon her apprentice. Lilith's efforts were hampered, though, because something kept bothering her. At first she tried to push it down, but after catching herself brooding about it for the second time, she decided there was no help for it. "Apprentice, continue to lead the caravan on in this direction. I'm going back to have a talk with a couple of foxes." Xenith agreed gladly, pleased at being given the responsibility when they weren't even on the main trail anymore.

Lilith pulled back, and after calling out to Serans that Xenith had the lead, she dropped further back in search of her quarry. She finally located him, and was pleased to see who his seatmate was. This, she promised herself, was going to be fun.

To say that Trons was feeling disgusted was to underestimate the depth of his feelings. It hadn't taken long this morning to find out that Kors was being his usual idiotic self. This time, though, his idiocy was aimed at trying to discredit Trons himself. It had finally gotten to the point that Trons had simply yelled the truth of what had happened to Kors, and told him to shut up about it- that he didn't care to hear any more nonsense. Kors had lapsed into a sullen silence, and Trons was still staring straight ahead, somewhere between anger and indignation. It was this atmosphere that Lilith's voice broke into.

"So there you are, Kors. I've been looking for you."

Kors' eyes snapped around and at the look he got in return, he cringed. "Well, you found me," he muttered. He shivered at what he saw in response. Kors was used to hatred- it was his home, you might say. Hatred and anger, even fury, he could have stood from anyone. But the bright, glittering look in Lilith's red eyes was not just malice. It was a malicious glee that he had seen only in the eyes of sickoes getting ready to pull the wings off of flies. A painful catch at the back of his neck miserably informed him that he was the fly.

"So I did. I usually do, when I want to. Would you care to guess why, or is your conscience silent about your latest crimes?"

"Huh? Wha... I dunno what you're talking about."

Lilith's soft laugh etched Kors with its acid. "No, you wouldn't. So let me make myself clear. You talked to my apprentice. You will not talk to her that way again. Ever. End of discussion. Understood?"

Kors shot a sulky glare towards Lilith, but it ended up directed toward her thigh. The heat from her gaze was too much to confront. "Trying to protect that little weakling? Bah. She's hiding behind your skirts now, isn't she." It was a great line, but his heart wasn't in it.

Lilith sighed in satisfaction, and she smiled widely as she said, "Oh no, you don't understand. Xenith is mine, Mr. Fox. She is not yours to meddle with or do anything about without my permission. You will live to regret it if you do. How long you'd live might be open to debate."

"Yeah right, kill me and get rid of the evidence. How handy." A sudden painful catch in Kors' throat told him that Lilith's toying was over. He looked at her in panic as his breath began to whistle, though, and saw her simply sitting there looking at him. The sparkling look told him that it wasn't over-- it had in fact just begun.

"Kill you. How dull. How unimaginative. Totally unsatisfactory, I assure you." The scorn dripped from Lilith's tone, then turned to something a bit more matter of fact. "No, what would be best would be something along the lines of a little public humiliation. Perhaps... it would be what would happen if you had to scratch your nose." On cue, Kors' nose itched, and he scratched. But instead of going away, the itching got worse. He scrubbed, but it did no good. He almost howled in frustration, but it suddenly stopped. As he stared at Lilith with tears in his eyes, she continued in a musing tone. "Perhaps a little too subtle. Sneezing might be more fun." Kors sneezed. And sneezed. And continued sneezing, bent over with the wheezing of trying to catch his breath and sneeze at the same time. Trons thoughtfully relieved him of the reins and sat back to enjoy the show.

The sneezing ended just like the itch had, but just as Kors caught his breath that horrible monologue continued. "Actually, drooling might be best. It would sort of show furs how you can run off at the mouth." Kors gaped in horror, then winced in pain as his saliva glands erupted into action and continued in a steady stream. He spit and slobbered, but it didn't do much good. Then, just as he began to wonder desperately about dehydration through excessive drooling, it too stopped. "Yes, I do believe that would be best. Of course, you could be the type of thick-headed fur who wouldn't know humiliation if it kicked him in the tail and then snipped the end of it off for a duster. If that's true, we can always take it to a more private venue. You really don't want that, though."

By now, Kors was simply getting his breath back. He'd temporarily forgotten what had started all this, but as his senses collected themselves he found enough to reply, "you wouldn't dare!" He winced at the pain that came next. Definitely the wrong thing to say, he thought, and then conscious thought siezed up for a bit as his whole body erupted into pain. He attempted to yowl, but his muzzle was fastened tightly shut and he couldn't move a single muscle anywhere. The pain went up and down him in waves, and he managed to squeeze his eyes shut as he attempted on an instinctual level to flee the situation by losing consciousness.

The pain ceased as abruptly as it started, and Lilith's voice seemed to echo in his skull. "There is only one simple little thing you need to do to avoid all of this. It will all be gone if you simply leave. my. apprentice. alone." The last few words dropped like bombs in his guts, as they clenched in rhythm along with Lilith's words. "Do you understand?" He forced a whimper past the hold on his muzzle as the clench that came with that last question threatened to empty his bladder on the spot. Desperately, he nodded, and the hold was released. "Did I hear something, Kors?" the gently insinuating tone asked.

"Yes! Yes! I'll leave her alone!"

"Very good, Kors," came the purring reply. "You really do understand things when they're put properly, don't you." Kors drooped as the sarcasm hit his shredded psyche. But Lilith had one last shot before parting. "You loved what you did to Xenith, didn't you. Too bad for you that you are totally out of your league. It's been tried before by a lot better than you. The lucky ones were the ones that died. And with that cheerful thought, I will leave you to this beautiful day." She grinned, winked at Trons, and was gone.

"Wow." Trons breathed. "She did a number on you, didn't she. Maybe now you'll believe me when I tell you she's more powerful than you can imagine."

"I don't want to talk about it," Kors choked. He leaned over the side of the wagon and emptied the contents of his stomach on the ground. Trons chuckled as Kors stopped retching.

"Now that is what I call getting upset about something. Wonder what she would've done if she hadn't been in a good mood this morning."

"Do me a favor. Shut up." Kors sat up, feeling the weakness that so often comes after a good cleansing. "I think I'll go lay down for a bit. You enjoy driving so much, you do it by yourself."

"Well of course, if you aren't in the mood for it."

Kors was too weak to get angry at the flippant tone. He crawled into the back and simply lay there for a while, letting his aches fade. It took a while- most of them weren't physical.

The caravan had stopped, and everyone had things put up for the midday break. Kors' mood had by this time turned to one of simple fear. He jumped at almost the slightest provocation as he searched for Turins. He finally found his friend simply staring off into space. It looked like Roweth was doing all of the work herself again, not that she wasn't completely capable of doing it without even turning a hair. Just the thought of her placid competence was enough to irk Kors right now.

"Turins!" he hissed. "We've got to do something!"

Turins looked around with a dull look. "Do something about what?"

"Those guides! You were right, that adept is a monster! She's going to kill everyone for the fun of it if we can't get rid of her!"

"Get rid of her where?" was the rather apathetic reply.

"Anywhere!" As Turins simply continued to stare, Kors grabbed his shoulder and shook him. "You don't know what she did to me this morning! I tell you, she's a fiend!"

A glimmer of interest came into Turins' eyes. "So what did she do to you?"

"She... she..." Kors' tongue locked up on itself as the shameful episode began to surface. He suddenly knew he wasn't going to tell the horrible details of that one. "Never mind what she did. It was awful, trust me."

"Oh. How surprising."

"But you...." Kors stopped in frustration. "Don't you care anymore??"

"It's safer not to care nowadays, cousin. Or didn't you notice?"

"What are you talking about?"

"No one else cares. Well, maybe a couple. But all that you're going to accomplish by telling people the truth is to get them mad at you. No one speaks to me anymore if they can help it." The miserable look in Turins' eyes bothered Kors, but he failed to realize its full significance.

"Well of course they don't if you just sit there like a log! What did you expect them to do, hold a parade in your honor?"

"Not you too, cousin. Just lay off, will you? Admit it. That fiend, as you so rightly call her, has this whole caravan in the grip of that metal claw thing she has for a hand. The only thing harder than that about her is her heart. I don't think she knows what the meaning of kindness is, much less mercy. She's as hard and barren as this landscape."

Kors squirmed as Turins' melancholy rambling threatened to continue. "Oh, buck up, it can't be all that bad. There's still a few that know what she is."

"Not enough, cousin, trust me. At one time I thought they might, but now after her gettng water for us we're sunk deeper than that hairball well of hers."

"Well you can give up if you want, but I can't afford to. I'm going to think of something!"

Turins' lips twisted at that one. "You? Huh. I got my tail kicked, and now you want to bend over too. Go ahead if you want, and good luck, but don't say I didn't warn you."

Kors strode off. He hadn't gotten the help he'd wanted, but he still felt better about the situation. He knew he had to do something. What, he had no idea, but he was sure he'd think of something. The fact that that assumption was based on a desperate need to believe in anything rather than face the alternative of being helpless before Lilith's whims didn't occur to him. Consciously, that is.

It was that evening after they had stopped for the night when Kors overheard a very interesting conversation.

"No, wagonmaster, we aren't going to remove them. It's best to not kill anything out here unless you have to- you never know how it fits in with the rest of things around here."

"But you said those snakes were poisonous, adept!"

"Yes, and they could kill you- but no one is going over there if you tell them not to, now are they?"

"I suppose not...."

The rest of the conversation was lost as Kors quickly turned in the direction Lilith had pointed and eased out of earshot so he could hunt. This sounded good. He had no idea yet how one of these snakes could take care of the problem, but right now he'd figure out how to get one. Using it came later. He'd sneak one into the caravan, and someday.... well, they'd see.

It was too bad for him that he had left when he did. The next couple of lines of the conversation would have proved quite interesting.

"Of course not, wagonmaster. Besides, if they do wander out there, we'll be able to spot them in plenty of time."

"Yes, but could you spot the snakes if they wandered out to hunt or something?"

A laugh. "Wagonmaster, both my apprentice and I could spot one of these things nearly half a mile away. I'm sorry that you had to stop this close to them. We should have told you earlier, but I figured we could protect you anyway. It just means a little bit of extra watching. Good practice for us, actually."

Lilith let Xenith sleep that night as she kept watch. An extra net covered the snake pit, and a simple twist put them all into a torpor which would protect anyfur foolish enough to wander close. About midnight, she saw a fur walk purposefully over in that direction. Her first instinct was to call out to them to stop, but then she decided she'd better see about this personally. As she drew closer, she saw that it was Kors. Her interest piqued, she watched silently as he furtively found the pit and inspected the snakes. After working up his nerve, he quickly reached down, grabbed one, and dropped it into a sack he'd carried out. Lilith bit her lip in indecision as he returned to the caravan. She had a pretty good idea who the target of that snake was supposed to be, and if she was right the other members of the caravan wouldn't have anything to worry about beyond simple accidents. Finally, she reached a decision. She made sure the snakes continued to sleep, and she made extra sure that the one that had been stolen was not going to do anything. She returned to her watch, and her pulse speeded a bit as she mentally ran through possibilities. The stakes had just been upped in the game. The fact that she was going to have to protect Kors from himself just made the irony all the more delicious to her. The fool was thinking he had the perfect weapon to destroy his enemies, and all the time they'd be controlling it to keep it from destroying him as much or more than them.... oh yes. This looked to be a very fruitful development indeed. A satisfied sigh sounded in the night as Lilith realized that she was definitely enjoying this.