"Go have more fun?"

"Don't steal my thunder.  You're supposed to say 'What?' and not skip to the punchline, it lacks drama."

"As I was going to say dramatically:"

"We're going to go back to the party to celebrate Cheliax's conquest of Nidal, and also, as they'll be told by the end, your sale personally of your soul to Dispater, and as they are not to know for a time, your compact directly with Asmodeus Himself.  We'll go back to the party, and celebrate all of these things, as we were before this complication happened."

"I decided when I threw this celebration that if I was tempting tropes by daring to celebrate anything, then so be it; and if by inviting you I was calling their attentions directly on us all, so be it; and that if, by my telling you that you might have me after or be had by me, I was tempting some romantic complication to occur in our lives immediately after, so fucking be it.  I'll not live the rest of my life cowering from all fun, for fear of plot complications, for fear of humorous or tragic comeuppance if I'm ever seen by the story to be enjoying myself or celebrating anything."

"We're going back to the party, and we're having fun."

" - I was going to say.  But now, I suppose, it falls flat, and the tropes take us all."

"I wouldn't say it fell flat, your majesty. Whatever I am, it's what you made me, and so I suppose it's not very surprising that I'm having the time of my life."

"Did you find anyone worthy of our mutual attentions, yet?  We'll need a victim, if you're not just to be mine own."

"You trick them too often. They all suspect something. There's probably something among the men who were looking at me like they're not used to pretty things they can't touch, but I have yet to conduct an extensive survey."

"I want to say that they ought to have courage and storm ahead, but I must admit that I am in fact laying a trap and maybe not an especially subtle one... I am a little tired myself too, to be honest."

"You're allowed to go hunting, you know.  Find one you'd enjoy hurting or want me to hurt, lure them into some arguable sin against you or I."

"You command and I obey, your Majesty."

"I'll not escort you back.  We can't be seen returning together, after all."

"Also, be it clear that, if we're interrupted before we can conclude this tryst, I'm declaring right now in front of any possible audiences or readerships in the Dark Tapestry or beyond that the event was overly predictable and the writers are hacks."

Abrogail lays a brief kiss upon Carissa's lips, and goes back to the victory celebration.

And Abrogail's lover will go a-hunting! She'll get herself some more to drink, and drink rather more than is a good idea, and wander towards the men whose gaze she was flinching from earlier, out of old-Carissa habits of avoiding people like that, stories that start that way. 

She's untouchable. It's safe. She can wander right in, drunk, while powerful Chelish nobles eye her hungrily, and she is the dangerous one. 

It feels like there's some important insight about Asmodeanism, here. 

She is so very interested in hearing about all of these peoples' gossip. 

He'll make his move when Abrogail's beautiful, harmless-looking, slightly-drunk nameless possession is listening wide-eyed to some skeptical wary Chelish noble's account of what she might have to fear at Egorian's court, if she dares to get herself more involved there.

"You know, the one you really ought to be worried about in the Palace, I'd say, is Carissa Sevar."

- he knows. He has to know, he's met her, she doesn't look that different. 

So he's playing a game too. You know, fair enough. 

"You think Carissa Sevar would be jealous?"

"I hadn't heard myself that Carissa Sevar was the jealous type.  Rumor certainly doesn't proclaim her to be monogamous."

"Well, she's more dangerous than she looks, is the thing.  I was among the first to see Carissa Sevar after she came into Cheliax, do you know?  When I was but about my own business eating dinner, I saw her.  Most of the fools in the palace refectory did laugh at rumors and make a show of paying her no heed, or pretended to mettle by demanding of her to know which rumors were true; I was one of few there with the sense to keep well out of her way.  Many of those faces I never saw in the Palace again."

"What does she look like? - just, you know, so one might be especially cautious not to give offense."

"It's said that her beauty falls barely short of Abrogail Thrune's, and that only because she doesn't wish to give the Queen offense.  It's said that she bears a crown forged in Hell, only barely less mighty than the Crown of Infernal Majesty and that only because she doesn't wish to give offense."

"And she's a brunette, long hair, about yea high," holding out his hand to what happens to be Carissa's exact height.  "You'd know her on seeing her, I'm pretty sure.  She's not the sort who could walk into a gathering like this one without every single eye turning in her direction."

"I am grateful for the warning. I have no desire to make enemies in Egorian. ....really I'd much sooner be stowed away on some country estate but Her Majesty does like her games."

"Unfortunately whether or not you are Carissa Sevar's enemy is entirely her choice, and not yours at all."

"How do you all bear it? Going around being terrified all the time? Worrying about Her Majesty and - Carissa Sevar, and - that's the cake girl over there, isn't it, the one that killed someone to stop a spy plot -"

"Being a Thrune helps a lot.  I'd say that I highly recommend it, if not for the incredible implied treason."

"That was the CAKE GIRL?  I thought she gave people CAKE not DEATH."

"Well, sometimes Project Lawful girls just get mysteriously upgraded.  It happens."

"Is it so mysterious? I imagine they were generously rewarded for giving the Crown Nidal."