Devil's tale

Devil's tale chapter 22

It had been a while since Avarice had felt humiliated. He'd always thought of himself as humble so he'd never had that much pride that could be hurt. But sitting in the back of a cage-like carriage with his mouth gagged, his hands and feet tied up and his sword gone was a special kind of degrading. It didn't help that Jazz and Emily were in the same carriage and could see his humiliation clear as day. He spent the first hour or so of captivity avoiding his friends eyes, as he felt it was his fault for letting the situation come to this. He'd had a plan to escape but the plan required the use of his magic. Now however, he had no choice but to sit there, completely powerless. He'd always been able to think or talk his way out of problems he wasn't strong enough to solve with force, but here, he could do nothing, and it was a feeling he despised. For the first time in his life, he was totally, completely helpless and at the mercy of someone else. Eventually, he had no choice but to look at Jazz and Emily, both of whom had remained silent up until that point. Emily still had her holy-symbol, as she wouldn't be able to cast anything significant with a dozen other clerics nearby, blocking her magic. Emily and Avarice's eyes met, and a look of sudden understanding passed between them. Avarice realised Emily had probably figured out he had a plan of some sort, though he had no way of telling her what it was. He saw her mind racing through the windows to her soul that were her eyes. After a minute or two, she blinked as if she'd suddenly had an idea She spoke up, asking.

"Sir Farris?"

"Yes, lady Emily?" Farris replied, his polite and friendly tone towards Emily feeling weirdly frustrating for Avarice for some reason.

"Um, I am certain you are aware of how important prayer is to someone like me. I do not ask that you let me out of this carriage, but there's a certain thing I was helping Avarice with before you captured us. You see, I was hearing his confessions and helping him through them. It took me ages to get him to agree to it and I don't want that work to go to waste. Could you please remove Avarice's gag, if only just for a few minutes, so we can continue our counselling."

Farris stroked his smooth, young chin, then nodded.

"I beg your forgiveness my lady, but if I allow this, then one of my men will have to listen in on it to assure the devil does not attempt to use magic to escape. I profusely apologise that I must intrude on the privacy of your practice, I hope you understand." He said.

"Of course. Thank you so much." Emily answered.

One of Farris' men removed Avarice's gag and the devil looked at Emily gratefully, and with some admiration.

"You're a lifesaver!" He said excitedly in angelic.

Emily blushed. "You're exaggerating. Now come on, it's my duty to help people accept their woes, and I know you've got plenty."

Avarice nodded, understanding he'd have to play along with the ruse for now. At least he now had the chance to do what he wanted, though he'd have to figure out a way to cast the spell he had in mind without alerting the guard. For the moment, he thought of some sort of fake problem he could talk to Emily about.

"I've been thinking for a while, about how I felt drinking so much back at the festival. It's a vice I'm not proud of, but-" He began.

Emily scowled sternly at Avarice. The minstrel stopped talking and looked at Emily confused.

"You barely drank anything that night, as far as I can remember. Addiction's never been a problem for you." The cleric said.

Avarice internally flinched. Was Emily serious about this whole therapy thing? He kept talking.

"I mean, I don't really have anything else to-"

"Yes you do!" Emily insisted, as she looked Avarice in the eye with a deathly serious expression, as if to say "this is our only chance! Don't screw this up!"