Author's Preface
Control.
It was all about control.
Étaoin craved to have any measure of it back with the way Dagon sought to puppeteer her around.
Basil’s company had been nothing short of a reality check. In spite of literally having another person with her, it was a moment she had for herself, where she could enjoy having agency in her life again. The intimacy she had enjoyed with him was admittedly pleasant, too. Besides the obvious physical and sexual relief, it felt good to be desired rather than owned. It implied a sense of self to be given the choice to accept or refuse. Dagon would've just taken her if he could do such things. The thought made her blood boil.
She had to get control back over her life.
The worst part was that she had to play along with him. It was because she had to play along with his stupid games for so long that she eventually fell for them. She wasn't going to let that happen a second time. She had to consider her options.
Option 1 was Cecaelya. It was her most risky bet. Cecaelya wasn't exactly reasonable, but Étaoin had information that was valuable to the creature to sway her. Cecaelya also had an affinity for magic, which could definitely make the actual escape easier. The aforementioned irrationality however made it more likely that she would still pick Dagon’s side.
Option 2 was Zelum. He was just a tired personal slave, really. If Dagon hadn't been playing everyone he might even have had some sympathy for her situation. It would likely be easy to sway him into wanting to help her. The problem was whether or not he could commit, and if his hesitancy would ruin any plan before it'd even start. He wouldn't be able to walk away from this unscathed. She didn't really care about the consequences for him, but obviously he did.
Option 3 was trying to convince castle staff. These nameless creatures would probably get away with it the easiest individually, but Étaoin could already predict that Dagon would punish the entire body of them if he had reason to believe one of them was responsible. That wasn't to mention the likely rule that prevented them from interacting. Trying to find someone who she could crack into opening up to her would take ages, and then the question remained whether they would be willing and capable to help her.
Each came with their own risks and dangers. If she failed, it could take decades before she could try again.
It had to be flawless from the get go. She had to eliminate as many factors out of her control as possible.
All she had to do was say things just the right way. She'd bend everyone to her will to control their behavior and guarantee her escape.
Much as she loathed to admit it, option 1 seemed like the best one for that. That didn't mean she had to discard the idea of recruiting anyone else outright, however.
It was time to get back to work. While she might've been reliant on someone else to get her out of this place, she needed to be ready for anything as soon as she was free. She needed to survive this dreaded ocean. The sooner she could figure that out, the sooner she could return to skin that snake.
She yearned to be in control.
Sometimes Étaoin wondered if time was forever stuck in slow motion because of the way the days crawled by. It was an ironic thought, given that in her home plane there were places where this was just reality. Maybe it was exactly because of how time would fluctuate in Tir na Nog that she was so bothered by its steady and, in her mind, slow progression here.
She had been spending her time as best she could, however.
The first week after Korrigan had departed Dagon had been exceptionally strict with her. It was obvious that he was disciplining her for her disobedience. She just went along with it.
If anything, she had spent a lot of her time playing up her companionship, being more affectionate and pleasing to cater to his every desire.
The additional effort didn't go unnoticed, and Dagon mellowed out quickly. She couldn't shake the feeling that this disciplinary supervision would have gone on for much longer had it not been for her servile fawning.
When she did choose to object or refuse, she picked her battles carefully. Almost always, it was at her own cost and at the benefit of those around her. She had to get people to like her in spite of how Dagon wanted them to see her.
Sometimes it would be assuring the snake that a mistake Zelum had made wasn't so bad at all, and insisting the octopus truly did his best and deserved to be recognized.
Sometimes it was taking Cecaelya's side in one of their many spats. She made sure to wait for moments where it was easy to agree with the sea witch while disagreeing with Dagon wouldn't be so bad. In spite of their arrogance they weren't entirely unreasonable creatures.
Still, they were all fools. Including her, she wouldn't delude herself by thinking otherwise. She might've been the biggest one of all. It's exactly because of that that she had a chance of escaping right under their noses.
Étaoin could tell the tides were turning, even if the literal water itself was near perfectly still.