Pseudo tears, feigned sadness, dejection, and guilt. Her shoulders slumped under the supposed weight of it all, and her eyes were clouded as she looked to Valentine. Her expression did not give away that it was all a performance.
"I did not ask Khoss to do any such thing, although I admit he did do it for me. I was wrong to go after you, Valentine. I was wrong to kidnap Lyric, and I have apologized to her for it. I am sorry her Mother is dead, but I know her Mother never wanted her, either. I do. I want her, I want to teach her. She is my ward, under my protection." Sip of port, a sigh, a hand reached across the bar to touch Valentine's. Her eyes were pleading, begging for forgiveness. "I am half Fae, Val. I can call you Val, can't I? I can teach her what her mother never would, I can give her the love her mother didn't. I can teach her to use her powers, help her become the Queen she was meant to be."
Tears welled in her eyes, turning them bright turqoise. A hiccup, holding back a sob. "She is not here. She ran away from me, from us, from her home here. My Koya tells me she left a note, about running off to Kalasal Kingdom." Her act was a good one, the grieving mother, the concerned parent of an unruly teenager.
Dalia dipped her head, hiding her face behind the fine crystal glass, the bulbous snifter of port. A smile danced across her own ruby stained lips as she projected an image into Valentine's subconscious mind. She drew a face from what she found there, that of Jial. His face was tied with passion, lust, love, and tremendous pain. Perfect.
Using his face, she gave Valentine a vision, but hid it deep, so it seemed Val had the vision on her own. Jial and Lyric, entwined on Valentine's own bed, locked in sweaty passion, limbs gripping at each other.
Sniffing, as if recovering her composure, Dalia looked up at the woman again, tears standing in her liquid teal eyes. "I went there to bring her home, to take her away from whatever man it was she ran to. They wouldn't let me near the castle, let alone Lyric. They are hiding her from me, and I cannot get to her. I know you have no reason to trust me, Val, but I am sorry for my past sins." Her posture, expression, sadness...everything expressed repentance.
Suddenly, pleading, she whispered desperately,"Please, Val. You could help me, couldn't you? You could help me get in to my Lyric, my heir. You could help me get her back from that man, the one who would cause her to leave the family that loved her in order to corrupt her? What man would do that to a misguided, young girl?" On the verge of tears again, her voice choking on the sobs.
Oh, she had her now, did she not? Dalia pleaded as she sent another image into Val's mind, this one closer to the surface, flitting across her mind's eye: Jial and Lyric laughing at her, making fun of her as they f*cked in her bed. Would it do the trick?
