To say Hanna was holding back was the biggest understatement of all time, her plan was to take revenge and cause as much damage as possible to one person and that exact person was now standing in front of her, holding a speech with only a single old butler besides her. She wasn’t even 5 meters away, the urge to jump at her and rip out her throat was strong and oh so deliciously tempting, but Hanna held back as best as she could.

She had promised herself to not fall into her primal urges as often anymore and as much as the monster inside of her screamed to just do it, she resisted for she knew if she did the adventurers around her would make quick work of them, short term gratification will not do, especially if she would most likely die in the process, no, she wanted this old hag to suffer unbearable torment for as long as possible, that death would be a mercy, mercy she wouldn’t give.

But how would she archive this goal? She had her methods of torture all in order, but how would she get to that point? How would she be able to get the old hag in her binds? She obviously needed to get rid of all the adventurers first, they posed the biggest threat after all, but how would she do it? A straight up fight she and her group would lose, no doubts about it and considering they were supposed to travel together at all times picking them off one by one seemed impossible, so what to do?

"I want to take this moment to thank all of you, for you will be risking your lives in this mission and yet you still have chosen to embark on the quest and I admire you for that. This is a threat for the entire kingdom and though I am sure his majesty will take measures appropriate in such times, I know of the danger this beast can be and how easily it can destroy all lives it comes into contact with, it did so with myself, destroying the life my beautiful daughter once had in a pursuit of its own twisted needs.

"I will not stand by idly and watch as it goes around our beautiful kingdom and destroys life after life, family after family, while waiting for the slow decisions of the armies or generals, when I know I could be the one to stop such a tragedy from happening again, like it happened to my own flesh and blood, her body mutilated, her health forever weakened by poison, being plagued by constant nightmares, just mentioning the beast sends her into a spiralling abyss. I want to prevent such trage-…“

Hanna had stopped listing to that cliche of a speech long before it was over, one to save herself the headache it would bring to actually pay attention this piss poor attempt at self righteousness and justification to go against what the king wants. It’s not like Hanna doesn’t understand, however you could be pretentious about it.

The second reason was that her mind was running at absolute maximum speed coming up with new and improved ways of torment. With her being but a simple philosophy student in her old life, she was anything but an medical expert but she knew enough to recognise PTSD, which had opened a whole new perspective for her. Her original plan of burning everything down and physically torturing the old hag seemed less and less appealing with every passing second, compared to the juicy new ideas that sprang into her mind. Family bonds and the love for ones family, many saw it as a strength of a person‘s character, but for Hanna it was nought but a weakness to be exploited for her own perverted pleasure.

Of course, even if the methods of torture became more and more sweet in Hanna‘s mental eyes, she still had to overcome the same hurdles as before, it’s not like the adventurers suddenly disappeared because she had other torture methods available to her, however she had a far better chance then before.

The idea of just grabbing the hag from behind and threatening to kill her if any of the adventurers stopped them had always been swimming in her mind, it was the easiest and most obvious solution to the dilemma she faced after all, however she feared the old hag would value her own life less then getting to kill Hanna, she would probably screamed how her death wouldn’t matter so long as the beast is killed and then, well, as previously concluded, the chances of winning in a straight up fight were astronomically small, so that plan went out the window, but now she had the better option.

She came up with a plan, it was anything but good, however all she needed was to get to the lovely daughters, everything afterwards she could change at her leisure, all she needed was for that one single gambit to pay off.

The speech was long over by this point, most adventurers were making their final preparations to move out, her own group was staring at her with concern in their eyes, Hanna noted. Then the old hag came up to them together with her butler, Hanna had to do her best to keep up the nice facade and not jump at her, in her mind she repeated a mantra to calm her more monstrous side.

'Stay calm, if you go through with the plan it will all be so much sweeter in the end.'

"Are you alright? I hope my masters speech didn’t frighten you to much. You can ignore most of the speech as dramatic flair if you want to, she likes to exaggerate." The butler spoke, earning him a smack on the shoulder and a glare with no real anger behind, it was obvious that these two had more then just a master and servant relationship, probably a very deep friendship reaching back multiple decades.

Hanna wanted to wrench at the thought.

She looked back at her companions, Vex was shacking, clearly terrified, Adeline was shacking and looking at the ground, clearly extremely pissed, Hanna was kind of astonished she manages to stay put, and Luisa was just unmoving, her face completely sealed by the darkness of her hood. She turned back around slowly, it was now or never.

"Actually, m-m-my L-Lady" Hanna never thought uttering a simple sentence could be this difficult, but here she was.

"The things you described you daughter living through, we have seen it before… one of our old friends had the same thing happen to him…" She tried her best to sound sad and sympathetic, a truly momentous task for her, since she also had to speak in a higher pitch then normal, since the old hag probably remembered how she sounded like.

"We had tried a lot of things to revert the terrible fate our friend had suffered and eventually, somehow, we had done it… at least partially…" Hanna stopped to look the old hag in her disgusting eyes, who had a thoughtful look in her eyes, she gestured for her to continue, she had taken the bait.

"The problem of the situation is fear, both our friend and your daughter lived through things most probably couldn’t even imagine and they fear it happening again, it‘s in a way of defending themselves from having to experience anything similar again, but in the process they lose their abilities to be part of normal life, that is fear, so if one where to get rid of the fear…"

"With all due respect my lady, I don’t see how those backwater northerners supposedly cured a condition, while the best healers in the glorious kingdom couldn’t. Seems rather unbelievable to me." The butler interrupted Hanna, looking with very poorly hidden disgusted at Hanna‘s group, his opinion on the northern kingdom was obviously less then flattering, so it seemed he took personal offence that the north had done something this kingdom couldn’t.

Hanna was not really appreciative of being interrupted, but she kept her cool, if barley, she was shacking a good few moments out of pure anger at the audacity of this man, if she could somehow arrange it, she would torture him as well, but not now, now she had a plan to follow, a pathetic excuse for a plan, but a plan nonetheless.

The old hag stayed quite and just waited for Hanna to continue, much to the displeasure of the butler.

"My Lady, You can’t actually be taking this seriously?!" He looked sad and somewhat baffled, like he had just seen something far to outlandish to ever understand.

"The north often knew and understood things we didn’t learn until much later, it didn’t happen often but it did happen, so maybe, ju-just maybe they do have a way, I just have to try… for her…"

Ahhh Desperation. Powerful stuff, especially if it involves a family member. It can often lead even the most sane and brightest person into the winding paths of insanity, driving the to acts and decision they normally wouldn’t dream of doing. It would make Hanna‘s Plan much easier to pull of, but First she needed to continue this charade of hers, she hoped her Drama Club participation back in high school would not fail her now.

"I thank you for your trust, and as I was saying, if one where to get rid of the fear, the problem would be gone. Now of course you can’t just take fear away like you could possessions, so instead we would… replace fear with anger. I know this sounds bad, but if you think about it, anger motivates you, you want to do things to get rid of the entity that caused you pain, while fear keeps you captive and wants you to hide and face the problem ever again in exchange for not living your life."

"My Lady please, this is utter nonsense, how on earth is one supposed to replace fear with anger that’s absolutely mad talk if I ever heard any." The butler said after a few moments of silence, his face now a face of desperation as well, desperation that his Lady finally send those mad people back tot eh the filthy north where they belong to, but she doesn’t, she is just standing there in silence, saying nothing, only deep in thought.

He had served her for over 30 years at this point he had seen her at the highest highs and the lowest of lows before but even at those points she had always held her head high, trying to work her way back up the ladder, never once falling to the many, many traps of despair, but now there was none of that only pure desperation in trying to save her daughter, her last connection to her old husband before his death. He sympathised but wouldn’t, couldn’t let her Lady walk this path, it was to dangerous.

"My Lady please You have to th-…" Hanna had enough of this meddling butler at this point, so now it was her turn to interrupt his speech.

“You don’t have to let us help you, no one is forcing you, but like I mentioned, this was the only thing that had ever worked and our friend is up and at it again, living a nice calm life with his wife on his little farm. You can pick your poison, trust us dirty northerners, or let your daughter live the rest of her life in fear, never being able to live in peace, forever fearing the monster comes back again." Hanna shrugged mid sentence and had a impassive tone of voice and expression, for extra effect.

The butlers face contorts into one of anger at being interrupted but before he could speak again, the old hag raised her hand, silencing the butler, she looked at Hanna, her eyes filled with anticipation and desperation, that sweet sweet desperation, Hanna had to suppress her urge to lick her lips at the sight.

"I accept your proposal, I will allow you to try and save my daughter… please save her… please."

This time, Hanna failed at suppressing her desires, as a small smirk formed at her face and a red glint showed in her eyes, her illusion failing for but a second to reveal her crimson red eyes to the world.

"Don’t worry, I can fix her, and I will do so as soon as possible."

The butler glared at the group as they marched towards the mansion, his Lady had ordered him to stay behind and inform the other adventurers what the hold up was about and he would do so, this was his duty as a butler, but so was insuring the safety of his lady, he will inform the other adventurers post haste and return to his Lady as soon as possible afterwards. For the first time in his 50 years as a butler, he decided to run during the job.

—————————————————————————

Hanna and her group was now standing in front of a bed where the sleeping form of Julia lay, her chest rose and fell evenly. Hanna turned to the old hag, who looked at her daughter with a mix of fear and love, like she could lose her at any moment, absolutely revolting for Hanna.

"We will now begin, would you please leave and wait outside, the process might not be the fastest and we need our concentration." Hanna said, but obviously the old hag rejected the request.

"I will not leave my daughter alone in this, you yourself said this could be dangerous, so I will be there for her the entire time and I will intervene the moment I think a line as been crossed, am I clear?"

This time, Hanna failed to suppress the incoming growl she released through clenched teeth, much to the shock of the old hag once she heard it, but before she could comment on it Hanna explained her reasoning.

"Look Lady, I understand your concerns, but the procedure absolutely requires us to confront your daughter with her fear and as a result it won’t be a particular pretty scene to look at and we wouldn’t want you to see such things with you already fragile heart, so please leave."

Hanna used her magic at the end of the sentence to make the old hag a bit more likely to leave, but unfortunately, the old hag resisted the magic and she pulled out her blade, pointing it at Hanna‘s throat. In response Adeline growled and pulled out her own blade, while Hanna stared at the blade, both Vex and Luisa looked back and forth between the mess, one slightly terrified, the other slightly amused.

"Casting Magic without permission is against the law and you used it on a person, A First Lady no less, I have the right to kill you right now and here and if the girl won’t lower her blade she follows you onto that list."

She declared, while Hanna looked up from the blade at her throat with a rather bored expression.

"If I cared for the law, dear old hag I wouldn’t be standing here right now, so I don’t really care what I am allowed to do or not in your eyes, because in mine I can do what ever the fuck I want to do."

They stared at each other for a few silent moments one look was of anger while the other one a mix of amusement and barley hidden sadism, Hanna obviously relished the anger of the old hag, then there was a whimper, pathetically small, but in the silence it was Heard- clear as any shout.

“Oh. Look at that, we woke your daughter."

Hanna said with a smirk as Katrin‘s head shot towards the bed, horror clearly on her face, as she saw the trembling form of Julia on the bed hiding her face in her hands.

"Luisa would you please tend to our dear old hag."

Hanna asked and with a nod, Luisa raised her arm a whirlwind of dark in her palm. Lady Kathrin tried to avoid them, but they were to quick and soon chains made of pure darkness held her in place, she tried to scream and alert the staff outside or the adventurers, but before she could a ball of the same darkness made it into her mouth, silencing all potential screams.

"Thank you kindly Luisa, she was really getting on my nerves here. Now back to the main topic…"

Hanna crawled onto the bed and towards the rocking form of Julia who still hid her face, she mumbling nonsensical words the entire time. The closer Hanna got the young girl the more she lifted her disguise, revealing her tail, claws and sharp teeth for the world to see, her hair grew longer and her smirk grew wider by the second.

Lady Kathrin continuously struggled against her restrains to no avail, Luisa keeping her firmly in place and suspended in the air, to have a front row seat of the things Hanna had planned and Hanna had many plans. Luisa herself watched the scene with amusement and had to hold of on a snicker, Adeline watched from the sidelines her face impassive, but if one were to look closer one could spot a glint of jealousy in her eyes.

Vex simply chose to look at the beautiful wall and it’s lack of paintings or any other decorations, she found it extremely fascinating indeed.

Once Hanna had reached Julia she placed a single hand on the others hands who were still hiding her face, once she did the rocking and mumbling stopped being replaced by quite pleas for mercy or that the nightmare should be over already. Hanna parted the hands to reveal Julia‘s completely red face, wet from tears and sweat, the fear in her eyes was something could never forget for the rest of her life.

"Hi. Did you miss me?" Hanna leaned closer, their noses were touching now, Julia closed her eyes, her please growing more numerous and more quite.

Hanna closed the distance and kissed her, forcing the others mouth open and sticking her going right in, she forced Julia to lie down with her atop of her, muffled screams of terror flowed from Julia‘s lips only to be silenced by the Monsters mouth.

It was at this point that Luisa also thought the wall to be quite the interesting thing to investigate.