Knights of Tezoth

- Hmm-m-m, heh-heh-heh! Once upon a time, a curious story happened to a fellow countrywoman of mine — she disguised herself as a human and made an important man fall in love with her. They did all sorts of trivial things common to your kind: read books together, held hands, went for walks admiring the scenery, whispered sweet nothings to each other. But one day, her illusion faded, and her true nature, including our ears that are long compared to yours, was revealed before his eyes! She immediately grew wary, her face twisted, and she asked him with disdainful anger, "How did your heart manage to overcome my charms? That shouldn't be possible!" And he said to her, "Life saw fit to endow me with a mind different from ordinary human minds, and I am, alas, incapable of losing my own will." This answer puzzled her even more than before, and she nearly shouted at him, "So it turns out you knew everything from the very beginning?! What were you after, pretending to be a fool?!" And do you know what he replied to her? "I never pretended to be a fool; I am a genuine fool through and through." And she said to him, "Are you trying to say that you knew everything, but it was still real to you? Ha-ha-ha! What absurd words are coming from your mouth now! Don't you know the nature of my kind?" Ugh, so much emotion in this dialogue, and the ending is just a bombshell! He declares to her, "I know you will never love me, and that like any other human, I am worse than cattle or a toy to you, someone deserving only contempt. But that doesn't matter, because my feelings for you are true, and I can do nothing about them." Can you imagine? What an idiot! Well, it ended with him being unable to betray his duty to his "homeland" at that moment and throwing himself into the river along with her.

— Truly, a curious tale to hear! I'd even call it romantic in a certain shade... Hmm, that probably sounded strange! But still, such an outcome is infinitely better than if that man had used his immunity to separate your friend's head from her body or do something else to her, for instance? The curiosity of our kind often borders on madness. Or the opposite story might have happened, had he not possessed a fortified mind, hmm? Or perhaps they would have continued coexisting until all his loud "love" turned into the poison of a corrupted heart? In our world, only death is a constant, and the pursuit of euphoria always turns into vile betrayal.

— Ha, forgive me, forgive me, sometimes my imagination gets carried away with the image of a thousand-year-old crone. But the motive is now quite clear to me. The Iron Realm is full of such tales, and you will still have plenty of opportunity to indulge your curiosity in the perverted shades of human nature.

Luciferia gasped and pressed her palm to her cheek.

- Sometimes it seems to me that inventing new methods of torture for your kind is excessive; you yourselves, without any outside help, always find ways to destroy yourselves, especially in spiritual senses. Accept my condolences, my lady. I hope that in your next life you get to be born as something else, perhaps a flower, or maybe a unicorn.

— Indeed, it seems to me that without the threat in your and the crater's visage, we would devour ourselves faster than we do now.  — She casts a brief glance at the arena, where the fighters continued to argue and bicker with the judges and each other. — Physical captivity and mental fear keep our nature from introspection and self-destruction. Well, without us, you would find it more boring and pointless to rule over the void. Does this mean that our kinds are actually co-existent, hmm?

Beckoning one of the servants scurrying through the hall, she orders a new treat.

— To be reborn as a mindless animal or a plant in a dirt pot is, perhaps, just as meager a fate. Such cold matter does not inspire trust in my nature. Life is given only once, and seeking a second chance is naivety or self-deception. — She offers one piece to the Sith woman: — I hope the food we are accustomed to is acceptable to you? I would not want to discover that my servant requires a special diet.