Part 3
Xellma was led several floors down deep into a dungeon beneath the main fort of the growing town. In the dark, she was taken to the cells of the condemned, various criminals and captured soldiers sentenced to die.
"What are you going to do if it doesn't work?" Syndra asked.
"Then you get to watch first hand how a Demon Queen tortures someone to death." Xellma said, snapping her fingers, and returning to her demon form, her fingernails elongating into talons, growing in height by nearly a foot, and her figure filling out to form a beautiful hourglass figure. "I wonder if you're evil enough to become a demon."
"What?" Syndra asked.
"Oh, nothing." Xellma said, waving her hand. "Just thinking out loud. Take me to the first one."
In the first cell was a male elf in rags, chained to the wall. He didn't react even when Syndra shouted at him, and seemed to be breathing at a slow rate. He was most certainly still quite robust, and able to take some punishment.
"Open the cell door." Xellma stated.
The guards nodded, and Xellma entered, the door clicking shut behind her. She regarded the wretched man, and a new idea sprang to life, upon noticing he couldn't stand due to the length of the chains. What happens if they're commanded to fulfill an impossible request?
"Eldrin, stand up and face me." Xellma stated, and watched.
Eldrin immediately began to try to stand, but the chains stopped him. He started to pull and pull on them, straining until he was panting, to no effect. He continued to exert effort on them until he collapsed in exhaustion, panting.
"Xellma, I can see it. The command is still on his soul." Syndra called out from the other side of the bars.
Xellma patiently waited until he recovered, at which point he began to strain again, the cycle continuing for over an hour with no pause. Xellma was overjoyed, until a command was completed, they could not do anything else but attempt to complete it. She grabbed the chain and ripped it out of the wall, and finally he stood and faced her.
"Eldrin," Xellma began, her eyes glossing over as she pictured what might happen, "die."
To her great amusement, he did not simply fall over dead on the spot. Instead he placed his hands on his head, and snapped his own neck, falling over dead on the spot.
"Slightly disappointing, maybe I'll be more specific with the next one." Xellma said out loud. "Let's move on."
When they reached the next cell, Xellma frowned. This wasn't an elf, or even a human. This was clearly a rusalka, and she was close to death. Slightly angered, Xellma turned to Syndra.
"Why is there a rusalka in your prison?" Xellma asked. Syndra didn't reply, which made Xellma angry. "Why is one of the rus in your prison, elf?" Xellma shouted.
"She was caught eating a ranger, Demon Queen." One of the prison guards replied.
"Did you ask her why she was eating one of her allies?" Xellma asked, still hostile.
The guards didn't respond, and neither did Syndra. Enraged, Xellma ordered every single guard on the floor out one by one, until it was just her and Syndra left.
"You will wait here Syndra, while I speak with the rus. If you try anything, I will do more than break our arrangement, I'll drag you to Hell myself."
"Why do you care so much about a water spirit?" Syndra asked dismissively.
Xellma said nothing, and crushed the lock on the door, and walked in, returning to her mortal disguise as she did so. Kneeling down next to the starving rusalka, she spoke to her gently in rusalki.
"Rus, what is your name?" Xellma asked. The rusalka stirred slightly upon hearing her native tongue. "My name is Xellma, I'm here to help you."
"Mira." She replied softly.
"Mira, I'm going to bring you an elf. Once you eat we'll talk more." Xellma said. Hearing a gentle moan from Mira, she rose and retrieved Eldrin's corpse, walking past Syndra twice, who said nothing and merely observed.
"For me?" Mira said quietly, upon seeing Eldrin's still cooling body.
"Yes. Nobody will see you, eat up." Xellma said, activating an isolation barrier around herself and shrouding the entire cell in pure void.