God Rising: The Cult of Ainz
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 190: On the Edge of the Seat
AN: I love writing, hope you love reading. :D
...Forton...
Shalltear was skipping down the halls with absolute delight as she made her way to the office of the Sorcerer King. It wasn't her usual method, but strolling was too casual, and running, much as she wanted to, did not properly let her savor the anticipation 'or' express her overwhelming happiness. So skip she did. Hands on her parasol, her dress immaculate. Perfect, even, except that the knot in the back was just a little loose... 'In case he wants to unbind it quickly.' She thought with bliss as she came to the door.
She knocked three times, and when the last knock faded, she heard him summon her within.
She opened the door with a single hand and strode purposefully within, closing the door with a dainty push, she knelt a few feet from his desk and bowed her head. "I come as my lord commands to report on our many successes in his name." She said formally as her hand came up and touched her breast. She felt a flash of frustration as she felt the padding beneath, but it did not show on her face in the least.
"You have indeed had great success, Shalltear," Ainz pronounced as he struck 'Noble King pose two' with his jaw thrust out with a slight upward gaze and his hand outstretched in front of him. "How then can I reward you... within reason." He added cautiously, and suppressed a shudder when he saw the faint pout appear as her no doubt 'unreasonable' request that he claim her body, come to mind and be shoved aside.
Her face brightened, "While service to the supreme ones is reward enough on its own, if it pleases you My Lord, I would beg one humble thing..."
"Yes...?" Ainz asked, struggling to keep the anxiety out of his voice as he broke the pose.
"Reward me with... the same punishment you gave me last time, My Lord!" She exclaimed and thrust herself forward to all fours. "Let me deliver my report to you as you claim me as your seat!"
'Peroroncino!' He wailed inside his head, but lacking any way to refuse her, he stood and walked slowly to where she waited. Shallchair was already breathing hard, her eyes brimming with hopeful expectation, her lips parted as she huffed and puffed with deep desire. He reached out, his skeletal fingers stroked her little back, she felt so delicate and childlike. 'I'm a terrible boss... how can I do this to my friend's child... but what else is there?' He thought, at once glad that he did not have a stomach for bile to rise up in, and wishing he had one so that he could expel the sick feeling that he was exploiting Shalltear's loyalty.
She shivered at his touch, bringing a shudder to him that she could not see when his fingers withdrew, and then he turned, and sat down on her back. "Deliver your report, Shalltear." He said, then added, "But do not take overly long, I must wrap matters up here, Outer Guardian Renner is due to arrive soon to brief me on her reconstruction efforts and to present a list of acceptable candidates to offer contracts for the reconstruction of her nation, and I must do the same with Calca after that. There are bidders from multiple countries thanks to this gathering, so it may take some time."
"Forgive the stupid question, My Lord," Shalltear began as she breathed heavily through her desire, "but, why are you offering contracts to outside countries?"
"A proposal drawn in part from something Neia suggested after learning trade from Tinamoc, apparently he helped draw some of it up along the way during their travels. The outsiders will work through established guilds for labor and provide their own for any shortfalls. They will then be exposed to undead labor for its practical purposes, guarded by Black Justice paladins and cared for by our priests, the economics and ability, combined with the absolute reliability of our system to enforce justice and pay generously as well as on time, will make the faith of our Empire very appealing. Once exposed to these many benefits, they will petition their homelands to welcome our priests so that we will open temples, these temples will lease undead labor and further enrich the empire, while our paladins and priests provide security and health without regard for race, and further spread the Black Book. In time, perhaps ten, twenty, or a few hundred years, they will seek to join us of their own free will. They will give themselves freely, and there will be no need for another great campaign such as the one in which we are now engaged. We will not need to destroy our prize to claim it." He explained patiently and patted her head.
"I... see." She gasped and shivered in release as he patted her head. "On-on to my report." She said duskily and detailed it all, though she longed to slow it down, she couldn't bear to disobey to draw out her reward. So instead she simply told him everything in the reports she'd written, as well as her own personal opinions and observations, before finally coming to what she privately knew he really wanted, to hear what she herself had learned and how she'd grown.
"Very good, Shalltear. Very good. You are learning, you are growing, you are not the one you were when you left, and I am very proud of you." He said, and impulsively began to stroke her head, so lost in her words had he become as she related everything, and so proud was he, that he barely noticed when he responded "Enter!" when three knocks struck the door.
He however, was immediately brought back to reality and realizing just what his circumstances were when in walked Renner in her archangel form, with Brain Unglaus standing just behind her right shoulder.
The first thing Renner noticed was the incomprehensibly powerful being, a creature she knew could and did kill tens of thousands of warriors in mere minutes... being used as a chair by an even more incomprehensible being. Immediately glad her white eyes did not register surprise and so disgrace her, she acted as if nothing were amiss and walked within and knelt before the seated monarch with her wings folded humbling around her body as her eyes turned down and her head covered her breast.
Behind her, Brain's face contorted in shock and terror, his breathing quickened and his heart beat a hundred times faster than in his hardest battle. She saw his face, but on it he saw no recognition, only twisted desire and longing as she told her master everything. "And that is all, My Lord." She said reluctantly.
"Very good, Shalltear, please wait outside with the Princess's bodyguard." Ainz said as he stood, he held out his hand, which she daintily took, and rose to her feet with a slight tug of his arm.
She walked out of the room, past the princess, and when Brain exited as well, backing out as fast as he could, she shut the door to leave the royalty alone.
"Outer Guardian Renner reporting to her Lord." She said without a quiver in her voice. `I want to do that with Climb! It is... inspiring! Wonderful! Amazing! How did I not think of that?! Is there anything this dark genius cannot imagine?!' She wondered with a sudden leap in her devotion that shot her already considerable loyalty up beyond the heavens.
When Brain was alone with Shalltear, he immediately fell to quaking and could not look away from her.
She ignored him at first as she leaned against the wall beside the door, her eyes closed haughtily she tapped her closed parasol on the floor with annoyance. "Are you just going to stare at me? I know I'm beautiful and all that, but I don't think I've made anyone tremble because of it before." She laughed a little at her joke, she could taste his terror in the air around him, and breathed a little deeper to savor it further.
"It's you... it's really you..." He repeated the words she'd first heard him say, fear etched on every inch of his face, his lips never closed but to repeat the phrase.
"What exactly do you mean 'It's you' I mean, 'Me' I mean... you know what I mean!" She snapped in annoyance and opened her eyes to look at him. She put a hand on her hip as she faced him and pointed her parasol at him. "Haven't you any manners! Don't you know how rude it is to just stare at someone and repeat the same two words over and over like a crazy person! Explain yourself!" She demanded in annoyance.
"You don't... recognize me?" He asked, "We've met. We... well, 'I' fought, you weren't really fighting, I bored you. You toyed with me and broke my pride to nothing, I could never forget you." Brain said emphatically as he found his voice again.
"Oh?" Shalltear touched the dimple in her cheek and looked away thoughtfully, "I'm afraid I don't remember you, I guess it could have been when I was controlled, that happened some years ago. I'm afraid after I was killed, then resurrected to break the control, I lost all memory of what happened before."
"Oh. Well... I guess I don't feel bad about being forgotten now." Brain responded uncomfortably. 'Killed, this… she… killed?! How could anyone be strong enough to do that?' He wondered, aghast.
"I'd also forget you if you were too weak to bother with." Shalltear remarked as she tapped the tip of her parasol back down on the floor beside her foot.
"Is there anyone that doesn't apply to?" He asked on a sardonic impulse.
"Few. Lord Ainz, Albedo, Cocytus... Mare, Momon, and possibly Sebas, but even most of the guardians are no match for me alone. Although..." She paused the tapping of her parasol and looked away thoughtfully again.
"Although?" Brain asked with an urgent impulse that some secret of strength might pass from her beautiful, terrible lips as his mind raced, 'Sebas might be her equal… and 'Momon!' the human?! Can it be that humans might reach the peak after all?!' He wondered with a sudden joy in his heart
"One thing I don't know, and I don't think anyone knows yet, is whether the 'created ones' will be able to grow in strength to compare with us, or whether they're as evidently limited as most of the beings of this world." She said casually.
"Created whats?" He asked with fading hope, his words like those of a drowning man grasping for a rope that looked liable to break if he pulled on it.
"Like your Mistress, Outer Guardian Renner. Or the demon girl." Shalltear explained with a little annoyance.
"Sorry ah... demon girl?" He asked, "I don't know any demons."
"Oh." She rolled her lovely eyes, and a playful impulse took her, she approached Brain, slowly, a step at a time, he stood rooted to the spot as she looked up at the tall, broad, powerfully built human that she could have broken with her pinky finger.
"Years ago, there was a human female who, alone among her people, followed our master as a servant, just before this war, she was taken by humans who learned of her existence by accident. She was tortured to suicide, and raised back to life as a demoness of vengeance. Humans..." She giggled with a whisper, "you're so often weak as a species, and yet, your souls vary so wildly. Like you only have your flesh in common, but within lie the spirits of demons, angels, vampires, werewolves... your versatility is your saving grace."
Brain held firm, though every fiber of his being told him to run. 'I swear, Climb wouldn't be shaking like this, barely holding back pissing his pants. If it weren't for Sebas... I might have already done so.' He thought to himself as he inhaled the scent of blood and beauty from the dainty monster that looked up and touched his flesh. A single gesture, and his face would be torn off.
He screwed up his courage and said quietly, "You won't do it."
"I won't?" She said sweetly.
"No, you're teasing me, playing with the fear you feel from me, but you won't, because I serve a servant of the master we have in common. You won't do anything to me without his permission." He said with as much confidence as he could muster.
Her hand fell away and she let out a sigh, "You're right, but it was kind of fun to tease you, and I did mean that, your species is versatile, you can become so many things, be so many things. If our power is deep, yours is wide, I saw this in Re-Estize. You are a useful people to rule, when guided by the wisdom of our god. Absent that...?" She shrugged indifferently.
"Another question?" Brain asked, eager to turn the conversation away from that subject.
"Fine, might as well, it's boring here without Lord Ainz to serve." She grumbled, and Brain forged ahead.
He held the words back for a moment, as if fearful of the answer, but spat it out rapidly when he gathered his will. "You said these 'created ones' gained power, Renner I understand, got an object. But you said the other one was simply changed by magic with no item, why? And did they become equally strong?"
Shalltear felt a sense of relief at the simple questions cast her way, it was difficult to seem supreme herself, even to an insect, when they had questions she could not answer. As she could, she spoke with arrogant confidence and the vanity of the strong. "Items like that are rare, the one used on Renner was brought from the other world of the supreme ones, they are not lightly used. On Vanysa, I know our Lord used a scroll, which was had in greater supply. But that required that she be dead first. As she died in our master's service, giving up her life to protect the almost worthless knowledge so that she couldn't hurt him even in the smallest way, he chose to use one of those scrolls. Those are also not common, but more might yet be made, far sooner than items."
"And their power?" He asked hopefully.
"Without direct observation it is difficult to say, but I would put Renner as roughly equal in strength to a Death Knight, thus making her impossible for almost any lone adamantite adventurer to defeat. Though a team of such, that might succeed if they had to fight her, depending on their tactics, equipment, and teamwork." Shalltear answered thoughtfully, and stunned herself, 'Did I... just do that? I did! I did! I thought about a way to win without just barrelling in and killing! I assessed someone I didn't have to and did a good job!' She felt an enormous and joyful expression forming on her face that she couldn't keep back.
She could see he wanted to ask her what brought the smile to her face, but eager to do the same thing again, she barrelled ahead, "In the case of the demoness, she lost strength by dying, but her new form was much, much stronger than her other one. I would put her above say... Neia, but below a Death Knight. She also gains strength in strange ways though, and I haven't seen her in about a year. So that might have changed." Her grin only got larger, 'I did it again! I did it! I not only assessed strength but the weakness in my knowledge... my master was right... he was right... he wasn't just being kind in praising me...' She thought to herself.
"Lady... Shalltear?" Brain asked as she began wiping her eyes above the broadest smile he'd seen in a long, long time. "Is something wrong?" He finished the inquiry as she shook her head.
"No, something is right, something I just realized, and perhaps I wouldn't have, if you hadn't pushed with your annoying questions to pass the time." She laughed at the joke.
He didn't. "Oh, I wasn't trying to be a..." she waved off his words.
'Why does nobody get jokes in this world?' She wondered before moving along. "It's fine, it's fine. I realized something wonderful, and I suppose I owe you for it, go ahead, ask me for something. My Lord insists that good work is to be rewarded, and that I think, includes happy accidents." Her face turned serious and she tapped her parasol on the floor a few times as she waited out his surprised silence.
"I want power. Tell me. My 'humanity' is something I would trade away in a heartbeat for even a fragment of the power in your pinky finger. I've refined my blade to the limits of my ability, no mere human could defeat my blade, I'm sure of it. Others might compare, they might contest, but all things being equal, sword versus sword... I am the best. And yet I remain an insect who can never scale the peaks of the mountain! It is... in a word, torture, agony. Tell me what I can do to 'earn' a change like Renner or the other one! Please!" he dropped to his knees and lowered his head. His sword he drew and held it in his open palms up above his head.
"I swear on my blade, I will always use my strength for the cause of our master, only tell me how to truly reach the peak, so that I never fail again." He asked with a desperate, aching humility.
Shalltear touched his blade, his remark of his own failure stirred the unhappy memory of her own, a press of her finger and she could shatter the object, silence held between them.
"Isn't it clear?" Shalltear asked cockily, "Provide the best or most faithful service that you can. Renner delivered my master a kingdom, Vanysa died in agony to remain a faithful servant. If there is another way to gain the recognition of my master to gain such elevation, I do not know it. You might beg him, but to beg a favor of a king whom you have not served personally is... not likely to end well. And if you go to him seeking the path to reward instead of the path to good service, you will also fail to get your heart's desire."
Brain thought that over, "There is a kingdom now, isn't there? That tore itself away rather than submit the way they should have? If I made myself its king, and handed it over, would that prove my worth and loyalty?"
"Perhaps." Shalltear shrugged, "Only my master can say, if you wish to chance it, you can ask him." Shalltear traced her finger back and forth along the blade, a faint memory came to mind of it clipping her fingernail. "Somehow though, I don't see you as the 'asking' type."
With his head still bowed, Brain managed a grim laugh, "No, not really, I've lived by my sword my whole life, chance and life have carried me this far. I'll let it take me farther. I'll seek Princess Renner's permission for a quest of my own at the first opportunity. Thank you, Lady Shalltear."
Shalltear took her hand away and leaned back against the wall, "I suppose you're welcome. That makes us even, then."
"Yes! For everything!" he said cryptically as he put his sword away and stood, his fear was gone, and a renewed sense of purpose swelled within his breast beyond the mundane existence of ordinary life as a bodyguard that wasn't needed and a stale existence in the capital. He relaxed with ease against the wall, just as the door began to open and Outer Guardian Renner exited the room with a pleasant smile on her face. "Alright Brain, let's go mingle a bit before we go home."
"Yes, Princess." He said as he fell into step behind her.
"Shalltear," Ainz said from within, "Go and see that they're able to get back as soon as possible, the same for General Enri and Lady Lakyus, as well as King Zanac, Queen Zesshi and Chindai Khan. Then after I've finished with all the other attendees in some trivial late afternoon discussions, [Gate] all the other delegates home as well, then return to the army yourself, and let's finish this... team building exercise the Slane Theocracy calls a war."
"With pleasure, My Lord!" Shalltear said with a bow, and headed back to the main hall with a smile on her face that just would not go away.
...Crossroads...Following day...
Enri walked into the office like she hadn't ever left. The gate opened, and there she was in full armor, her long hair unbound, wild, even glorious. A hardened expression in her eyes which reminded Lupusregina more of Neia Baraja than Enri Emmot-Bareare. Seeing her ward and friend return, Lupusregina left her position standing beside Sun, who sat at her desk, and went to embrace her.
"Welcome back, General." Lupusregina smiled broadly and kissed Enri on the cheek. Enri returned the gesture and they gently embraced for a moment before stepping back. The Goblin Strategist looked up from where he was writing.
"Welcome back, General." He said in the aged but wise sounding voice he always had, and set the quill down with which he was writing. Opposite him sat a prisoner Enri hadn't seen since the conference had begun.
She was not laughing this time, as Enri walked around to the administrative side of the desk, and the goblin strategist stood up and yielded the seat to her. Enri sat down and looked into the eyes of her highest ranking prisoner. "Things didn't work out too well for your people, did it?" She asked calmly.
Ira shook her head in a small way that was reserved usually for children who knew they were in trouble.
Enri folded her hands together on the desk in front of her, "Would you like to know how many out of your country are now wiped out? I'm sure General Nimble has annihilated every village that slaughtered its occupiers, probably even destroyed a few rebellious towns. And by the way, not sure if you noticed this, but it's cold outside, I doubt we'll ever know how many of your people just plain froze to death. Why aren't you laughing? Wasn't it oh-so-funny awhile ago when your little rebellion began and your insurrectionists started killing my soldiers? Wasn't it hilarious when my generosity toward your people was returned with ambushes and blood in the streets?"
Vice Commander Ira looked down at the surface of the desk and didn't meet Enri's eyes. "You wanted me to be Neia, didn't you?" She demanded.
Ira shook her head. "Didn't you?!" Enri all but shouted, "Well?! Speak up! Or should I let Lupusregina show you how she puts down opposition?!" Enri yelled, and Ira straightened up with a start.
"Do you have 'any' idea what you've done?!" Enri exclaimed. "Do you know where I was?!"
Ira looked at her with a blank and silent expression.
"I went to a conference of world leaders, and while there I was confronting General Baraja about her brutal methods! Thanks to 'you' or at least 'your people' General Baraja had the perfect rejoinder to my criticisms. That 'her' conquests had no rebellion, while all of mine had risen up! Don't you understand?! You made her look right to slaughter your entire country!"
Ira's blank look became wide eyed with fear. "General Baraja has already returned to her army, and your country's stupid exercise in futility all over the north gave her the exact justification she needs to leave nobody alive from Wheaton to Kami Miyako, and out of all the ones with her who have the power to argue against it, who she might listen to, only one or two might even consider it."
Ira opened her mouth to speak, the chains on her wrists clinked as she began to wring her hands together.
"Was it worth the laugh before?" Enri asked her coldly.
"No..." Ira responded quietly. "I'll... help, Lupusregina brought me an offer, to save Heikeren, and all our soldiers, if I help bring the army down. She told me Boabdil is not likely to be in command, but... I know Heikeren, we came up the ranks together, he's like an older brother to me."
"Alright." Enri said as her body began to relax at the sign of cooperation, tension drained from her like water from a pail that had sprung a leak. "Tell me more."
Ira took a deep breath, "He relies heavily on the General for advice still, same as me, actually. If Boabdil is gone, then... then it depends why. Our General doesn't spend lives like coppers, he values his soldiers like his children. The situation was desperate when you caught me, if that hasn't changed..." She looked inquisitively at General Enri.
"If by 'changed' you mean 'gotten worse for you' then yes, it has. The Sorcerer King wiped out your only other army, just by pointing at it, with leaders from the surrounding nations watching in awe. I believe you would call his circumstances a 'position of strength'." Enri replied coolly.
Ira swallowed hard, "I... see. Then if General Boabdil is aware of this, and I assume he is, he'll tell Heikeren to surrender, but he won't do so unconditionally. I know him like I know my brother, Heikeren is proud, but also affectionate, and not to flatter you but... he holds you in high esteem."
"I see." Enri said neutrally. "When you say affectionate, you mean...?"
"He has a love of the common folk, he was one. Not many people know that. He spent the first twelve years of his life as a street kid. Saved some rich man's son from drowning in the winter, kept the kid alive, and was rewarded with an adoption, an education, and now here he is. The funny thing is... if he'd been where I am when the insurrection started, he probably would have cried, rather than laughed." Ira's face twisted into a bitter one. "Because he'd have seen all this destruction coming. But I didn't."
"I see. Sounds like he was the wiser of the two of you." Enri said with a harsh voice.
"Agreed." Ira replied bitterly. "He will surrender, but not lightly, he'll demand some kind of concession, he always puts his own twist on the General's plans, almost always for the better. He's... I hate to admit this, and if you tell him I said this I will deny it forever... but he's a better officer, better commander than I am."
"Can he be trusted?" Enri asked calmly.
Ira nodded, "In a game of cards, not even slightly, but in all else? Demand an oath in a certain name, and he will keep it even if it kills him."
Enri leaned forward with interest, "What name?"
Ira bit her lip and looked away in discomfort, rattling the chains on her wrists again. "He told me this in confidence, if it comes from you, he will know it came to you through me. If I tell you, you must swear on Nemu's life that you will give him the most generous terms you can, and keep them in letter and spirit."
"How do you know my little sister's name?" Enri asked with sudden frigidity in her voice and a look that promised death for a displeasing answer.
Ira looked at her as if she'd become dense, "I'm a Vice Commander under General Boabdil. You are chief of the village where your Sorcerer King first appeared and wiped out the Sunlight Scripture. Do you really think we would never bother to check the place out or learn who did what out there, or anything we could about them? General Boabdil is thorough, and made sure we learned all about you since we were going North and... as stupid as it seems now, we wondered if we might end up at Carne ourselves."
"I see." Enri said as she understood, after which she didn't even blink, "I swear, on Nemu's life, I will do as you have asked."
Satisfied, Ira looked at her again, "Tell him to swear an oath in Eostre's name, and he will never betray it."
"Good, now, what demands is he likely to make?" Enri asked, relentlessly.
"Food, water, blankets, shelter for his army. He'll likely ask to let them winter here in Crossroads as opposed to going north. He'll likely ask for some kind of task for them to keep them busy, rather than formal imprisonment." Ira suggested tentatively as she thought the matter over.
"Not unreasonable." Enri said thoughtfully, "The city itself can be treated as a prison of sorts thanks to its... reduced state." She paused to glare at Ira, who had the good grace to look down at the chains on her wrists and reflect bitterly on her ill thought through laugh. "Is that all?"
She shook her head. "No, no it isn't. If he can be said to respect you... look... I don't even know what to believe anymore. The stories about you that were spread to the population were all complete and total horseshit. We knew at the command level... but... the stories about Neia were so over the top that we wondered if we were being lied to as well about her. But even thinking that was the case, fear... he's afraid of her. Whatever he asks you, will in some way pertain to that one's advance on Kami Miyako. He might ask that you rush to the city, or try to talk her out of slaughtering it... I don't know, but I know that fearing what she'd do there kept many of us from a good night's sleep."
"I see." Enri said succinctly, her stone eyes did not blink even once as Ira went on, and when the Vice Commander finished speaking entirely, and Enri had acknowledged her words, she replied at greater length and with greater force. "From what I've been hearing, if ever there was a city that caused its own destruction, it is yours but... I have no love of slaughter. I will do what I can, but I will not promise I can avert her bloodlust. You may as well be asking me to bind the wind before it blows in your faces."
Ira went back to wringing her hands, clinking the metal chains again as if it were music to accompany Enri's grim pronouncement. "I can't tell you anything else, really, we were short of food before, he won't be bargaining from a position of strength, he's going to use what he has however, as well as anyone ever could. He knows you want to end all this, and that is what he'll appeal to."
"I'm content to let him do that." Enri replied, "Even to the point of... dealing... with Neia."
"Lupusregina, have the prisoner bathed, return her military equipment to her, allow her to dress the part, then walk her through Crossroads so that she can see the results of what she thought was so damned funny before. Then please ensure that she's fed a proper meal, and get the army ready to go. I assume of course, that all dissident elements are put down?"
Lupusregina gave a malicious grin. "Painfully put down, from the most northern, eastern, or western villages of Ikari, to the same for Crossroads, nobody will dare raise even a whisper of defiance. And in some places, there is nobody left to whisper at all, thanks to the timely arrival of General Nimble's forces to some towns and villages scattered about the area."
"Good." Enri said crisply, "Then see to all that and let's be ready to move, pull out some sixth tier scrolls for localized weather control, I want a nice spring weather in front of us all the way to where General Heikeren's army is freezing their balls off. That should be further 'illustrative' of his circumstances, just in case they had a mind to forcing us to cut those off." Enri made a sharp 'chopping' gesture with her hand, and as Lupusregina laughed at the ribald joke, Sun instinctively winced in male sympathy at the joke and the gesture that followed it.
"You got it! -su" Lupusregina replied as she went and clasped the prisoner by her shoulder, "Oh, and it is good to have you back, Enri. -su"
"Good to be back, Lupu." Enri smiled warmly at her friend and was just turning to Sun to inquire about further details, when Lupusregina added...
"After all, my nights are so... lonely...-su" She winked and laughed as Enri turned strawberry red in the face again.
"Damn it, Lupu! Get!" She shouted as she tried and largely failed to suppress a laugh as she pointed out the door while the grinning Lupusregina led Ira out of the room. As Ira left, all she could think was, 'The right to laugh belongs to the victors. I wonder if I'll ever laugh again?'
...Kami Miyako...
Left by himself, Raymond could barely stand, and as Solution closed the door on him, it was all he could do to stagger himself to his desk and fall into a chair. Time ceased to hold meaning as he stared into nothingness. 'A lifetime... and I'm really throwing it all away...? Maybe this was inevitable? Maybe I just didn't want to admit it, but perhaps it became inevitable the day I chose to accept gold from the Sorcerer King. Or even before, from the moment Zesshi said goodbye and I was forced to make a choice. From the time I picked up my knife? From the time she sat with me at our last meeting? From the time I first felt sympathy for a dog as a child? If I'm not a follower of the gods anymore, what am I?'
He lowered his head to the table and brought his hands over the back, he squeezed his eyes shut tight, 'Gods, any of you, all of you, if you're really listening to us, really watching out for us...' He began to think, all but weeping with a desperate longing that he be heard as he made the prayer, only to freeze in mid thought, and a boiling rage rose up from the pits of his soul where the blood of thousands rested in his conscience.
A raw, boiling fury flew from his soul at those who taught him to be the man he'd been... at all the teachings that led him to ride past pain a thousand times and pretend it didn't matter because it was 'divine will', and the whispered prayer of longing became a hateful curse of a demand, 'Then strike me down! I reject you! I am an apostate! You want Zesshi's blood, you want Nua's misery and that of others like them who dare to merely exist?! Curse you! Curse you all! Strike me down if you have any power left! I dare you! I demand it of you! Strike me down or I will strike the brick from every temple! I will turn my knives and my skills to demolishing every scrap of faith still placed in you, unless you strike me now and prove yourselves masters of something other than hiding!'
For a moment the years of living a life of faithful prayer roared back within him, and demanded he beg forgiveness and return to the fold, but he did nothing. Raymond did not fall to his knees, he did not beg the gods spare him or seek the salvation of their embrace. Instead his rage became a bitter pit of bile, and he raised his head, then spat it out in disgust on his own floor. 'Damn you all. Your ways are done. You will not hurt Zesshi, or Nua, or the little ones I hide here, nor any other while I can lift a knife.'
He drew a deep breath, exhaled it, and drew another. Then another, then another, then another. In and out, he felt his chest expand and contract. He put his hand over his beating heart as he leaned back in his chair, letting his head fall over the back so he was looking up at the ceiling. "I'm not dead?" He asked with a wonder. "I'm... really not dead?" He repeated, as understanding dawned that he was not going to be struck down by divine wrath.
"Not so as I can see it." Solution said as she came back in, "Have you been there this whole time?" She asked incredulously.
"I guess." He replied as he brought his head forward to look at her. "How long has it been?" He asked tiredly.
"Hours, like, a bunch of them, I guess." She pointed to the window, and he looked back, it was pitch dark out, only the candles of his office had kept it alight within.
"Oh." He said disinterestedly. "Find anything?"
"Sure thing." Solution grinned, "It's me after all." She smugly closed her eyes and lightly touched her breast, "Following an elf scent from the front of this place was easy, tracked him back to Dominic's house. Don't know why he came this way, but maybe Nua would know if you asked her. And before you ask, yes, she's asleep and no, I didn't wake her. It can wait. Nothing can threaten her while she's in these walls." Solution's tone was very 'matter of fact' and Raymond was not inclined to argue with such an obvious statement of fact.
"So what was all... that?" She asked, "The death talk, I mean."
"Just asking the gods something, and... I suppose you could say, threatening them." He said with resignation. "Call it a 'test' I guess." He replied with some reluctance.
"Oh, Lord Demiurge does lots of tests, and Lord Ainz encourages testing as a means to knowledge, not really my cup of tea, but I can't argue with the results." She said in passing as she went to offer her hand to him. "Come on, let's get you to bed, Illal woke up and is downstairs having a small meal with some of the elves that have trouble sleeping at night. I'll put her in one of the guest rooms when she's done."
"You're not going to melt away my hand, are you?" Raymond asked reluctantly as he paused the reaching out of his hand to take hers.
She giggled, "I've seen your knife work, I'd as soon smash a stained glass window as an artist like yourself. I wonder if His Majesty will let me turn you into a demon... or maybe a slime after all this? After all, he did raise a dullahan like my eldest sister."
Raymond sighed heavily, having the distinct feeling she'd been quoting something he hadn't heard, and unsure if she was joking or not about the second, he was also too tired to care. He let her take his hand, and she, in a perfect representation of the ideal maid, helped the master of the house to his bed when he was at his most weary. He closed his eyes, and instantly fell into the deepest slumber of his life.
...C'Teon...
"There's barely anybody to hang." Leinas said in disgust as her army frantically swarmed the entire remains of the city. She said this while seated around a conference room table with Chindai, Aureole Omega, Zanac, and Zaryusu. Nobody argued the sentiment, and save for the more fixed features of the lizardman, profound disgust was etched on a multitude of faces.
"So what?" Chindai asked as he leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the shiny polished table.
"So people need to pay for... those things. Wouldn't Khava agree with that, at least?" Leinas asked urgently.
Chindai blinked a few times, "No, she'd want people to die slower, and they will, how much do you think people took with them when they ran? Maybe your time at Fortress Alaf colored your perception, but'cha know it's really cold out there. Even being used to these temperatures, they're not going to be in a good way. I figure most of the guilty will die frozen in the snow before they reach safety. Anyone who survives, we can question later."
"That's cold." Zanac said, and Chindai snapped his head over to the King, about to rebuke him, before he saw the grin on his face, recognized the pun, and burst out laughing.
"How much of a head start are we giving them? It's been almost what, a week now?" Zaryusu asked with some evident impatience in his voice. "I am eager to end all this, I want to return to my village, to my wife, to my son. Every day we delay, delays that as well."
"Not much more, resting the armies and letting them enjoy themselves, as well as securing what is left of this place of any useful supplies, intelligence, and of course, liberating the prisoners, the brothels, the surrounding farmlands and the like, was not going to happen overnight." Aureole Omega pointed out as she waved his concern aside.
Zaryusu took on a somewhat depressed air for a moment, before Aureole Omega went on. "Fear not, we haven't been idle, the Dark Dwarf outriders and many other cavalry have been capturing the villages and towns all around the region, as far west as the outskirts of Feron. Aalon has completely taken control there now, there is no human settlement anywhere along the mountain range to the border of the Elf Kingdom that is not under his control. Sadly he doesn't have the people he needs to join us in the march to Kami Miyako. But... he has enough for his part. When we move, we'll move quickly, so please be patient, General Zaryusu." Aureole Omega's voice was light and encouraging, and she felt him perk up a bit as he understood they were not simply 'idle'.
"Good, my lizardmen utterly hate the cold, and though it does not much bother the quagoa, the snow is not to their liking. It's the same for dwarves and all of the others under me except for the few frost giants. Speaking for myself, I don't like it either." Zaryusu said and let out a voluntary shudder to emphasize his statement.
There were nods of agreement from the rest of the table when Leinas spoke up. "Well, the good news is, we won't be marching through snow or 'winter' weather when we leave. We won't be here for long, but since we've held back the use of our scrolls so much, we'll be using our sixth tier localized weather control spells to give us a bright early summer day to walk through from C'Teon all the way to Kami Miyako. Let a false summer spring forth and surround the winter city at its fall."
There was a collective sigh of relief from the table that was instantly followed by groans at her excessive use of puns. "I'm pretty sure that His Majesty has made the use of so many puns in one sentence, a war crime." King Zanac said with a roll of his eyes.
"If he hasn't, I'll propose it." Chindai teased with a shit-eating grin.
"Ahem," Leinas faked a few coughs, then went on, "The good news is that the slaves we've liberated are all regaining strength and are not only willing, but eager to help us on the campaign's final stages. More are coming in from the farming estates, but not as many as I'd expected."
"It's not really a surprise if you think about it." King Zanac pointed out, "Back when my nation practiced slavery, it was fairly common for farmers on great estates who felt threatened, to sell or lease their slaves to others in a safer region to minimize their losses, and I seem to recall reading that General Enri believed that General Boabdil had done the same thing with the slave population of Crossroads, and most of the surrounding regions. In all likelihood we'll find that most of the slaves here are in fact being kept in Kami Miyako."
"That makes a grim sort of sense." Chindai Khan remarked as he inclined his head to the lumpy looking Zanac. "Whenever we fought one another on the plains, we kept valuables as far away from the destruction as possible, it stands to reason they'd do the same with the backbone of their labor."
"Curious thing though, no breaker academy here, no school for overseers." Leinas added thoughtfully, "We've searched this city fairly thoroughly, but... the only thing of note that we've found is a large number of warehouses that obviously haven't been used in months at least. Maybe more."
"Anything special about them?" Zaryusu asked as he rapped his claws on the table impatiently.
"Nothing I noticed, just scraps of paper scattered about, lot numbers I guess. I've had them all recorded in case we find records for the goods that they refer to. Minor mystery, I guess. I've put a copy of the symbol into the latest report, along with the list, and that'll be sent out to all the other generals and the Sorcerer King, along with tomorrow's dispatch. I'm sure nothing significant will come of it. But since you never know..." She shrugged as if to say, 'why not?'.
"Can't hurt." Chindai said thoughtfully.
"Right. So, next item." Leinas said, reaching for another document.
...South of Crossroads...Road from the Last Army of the Theocracy...
Boabdil rode his horse like a madman, as did his small escort. What enchantments they could manage to boost the speed and energy of their mounts, or at least stave off exhaustion, were used. For good measure, each of them carried a few herbs known to result in an incredible energy boost, but at great cost later, including potential death. 'It was the last of that, too.' Boabdil thought to himself as he unthinkingly tapped his saddlebag.
The cold wind bit his face, but on he rode. With every sound of the horses hooves pounding on the hard ground beneath the snow, he wondered again, 'Is it all futile?'
Around him branches blew back and forth in the wind, the wind forced them to point in the direction from which he and his escort had ridden, 'It's like nature itself is telling me to turn back the way I came.' He clenched his jaw, and soldiered on.
The thunder of hooves seemed impossibly loud as the twenty one man army barrelled south heedless of the cold, heedless of the snow that sometimes came down and blinded their ability to see more than a few feet in front of themselves. They clutched the reins of their horses, and of the twenty one, twenty prayed to the six to guide their commander. The miles were eaten up as their mounts went on until the magic that Boabdil now counted as feeble, finally wore out and they were forced to stop and use the last of the energetic herb, they took the opportunity to relieve themselves, each one separately fearing that the freezing cold would cause their piss to freeze before it had fully evacuated from their manhood.
As the herb was consumed they remounted their horses and rode on, driving the beasts beyond all reason, until one by one the animals' hearts burst in their breasts dying on the run and simply collapsing, until at last there were twenty one men on foot, just as the city came into view.
They trudged forward on sore legs, leaning forward into the wind, their muscles aching all the way, hands clutched to cloaks and their eyes downcast to keep the snow out of their eyes. Finally, they drew close enough to excite the attention of disbelieving guards. As they did so, Boabdil looked over his shoulder to his following escort, "When we go in, I will not compel any one of you to remain with me, this is dangerous, and I am already considered dead. I have no idea what Raymond's connection is to all this, or why I was informed that my wife was sent to him, the goings on in the city are a mystery. If you wish to save your lives, go, and I will never blame you for it."
"Never." Was the uniform response of the twenty young men.
"You're damn fools... but I'm very proud of you." Boabdil said, wiping away a brief flash of emotion from his eyes so that it would not freeze to his face, and he turned again to the city, then walked on.
The gate was shut, and gave no sign of opening as he and his men approached. That by itself caused his heart to beat faster, but as he beheld the sight of the seemingly impregnable gate, he saw something else, and turned his gaze up the length of the wall to be sure of what he thought he caught a glimpse of. An elongated wooden platform with short, waist high rails affixed to it, and a single soldier standing in the center, was being lowered down the outside of the wall. It had a double pair of pulleys and a rope attached, which in turn had a matching set at the top on an improvised platform secured to the crenelations.
"This... is definitely new." Boabdil said numbly as he watched the soldier being lowered to the ground dozens of feet below. His warrior eyes were transfixed, 'I see, he doesn't fidget, he doesn't appear nervous at all, either he's uncommonly brave, or they've been using this for a good little while now at least.' He thought to himself.
When the soldier reached the ground, he trod out with a hand on his sword and a crisp, disciplined look in his eye. Boabdil and his escort waited patiently a dozen yards back, and drew themselves up as if for inspection.
"St-state your business." The soldier stuttered out through chattering teeth.
The soldier's skin was slightly jaundiced, and his body seemed thinner and less muscled than it should have been, though his eyes were disciplined, and his stance, a foot back, hand on a sword, was combat ready, it was clear he'd seen better days.
"I come from... General Heikeren in the north on urgent business with the Cardinals. These men are my escort." Boabdil said diplomatically but firmly, leaving his hand off his sword to ensure no 'misunderstanding' occurred.
The soldier looked them all over, and narrowed his eyes, "Please move back your hoods, and remove your helmets."
"Wh-" A soldier began to demand, Boabdil held up his hand at shoulder height, bent at the elbow, indicating an order to be silent. The soldier looked at the back of his commander's gesture, and snapped his mouth shut.
"Fine. But may we know why?" Boabdil asked as he moved his hood and unfastened his chin strap to remove the helmet.
"Order from the Cardinals, fears that some races 'close' to humans, might try to sneak in disguised as humans, and you all looked a little too well fed so..." The guard shrugged and started to relax as he saw their human faces.
"Oh, well if something isn't done soon, that won't be the case for anyone out there. So we urgently need to be about our business." Boabdil said with the utmost courtesy, he put the helmet back on, resecured it, and put his hood back up with a final shiver at the winter chill.
"I understand, Sir, it's fine, we can take four men at a time on the lift, it'll just be a few minutes to get you all up, should I send word to the cardinals of your coming?" The guard asked with a much more relaxed air as the familiar and easy tone of Boabdil continued.
"No, nobody but they are to know of our coming, were it not necessary for entry, I wouldn't even be informing you, so just bear that in mind, would you?" Boabdil asked with a friendly, but grave expression on his face, his eyes briefly taking on a haunted look again as he remembered witnessing the destruction wrought by the Sorcerer King, the guard nodded with understanding.
"Y-Yes, of course. But... who shall I put in the logbooks?" The soldier asked as they walked back to the lift.
"Vice Commander Graves, and his escort, will be sufficient." Boabdil said in a voice that began to feel even to himself, heavy with exhaustion.
Boabdil stepped onto the platform with the guard, and two of his men. "Clever device, what do you call it?" He asked curiously.
"I and the other guards call it a lift, but the guy who invented it, calls it an 'elevator'." He rolled his eyes with annoyance, "What a stupid name. It's clearly a 'lift'." He snorted derisively.
Boabdil shrugged, "As long as it doesn't collapse when we're up high, you can call it a dongovator, for all I care."
"A dongovator, sir?" The soldier asked as he did a double take.
Boabdil nodded sagely, "Yes, goes up and down all the time, but the only reason for either is it's being ridden." He smirked smugly, a slight upturning at the corners of his mouth and a sparkle in his eyes as he tried to hold back his laughter.
The soldiers with him had no such compunctions, they started laughing uproariously, and Boabdil, unable to maintain his straight face, joined them in laughing all the way up to the top.
A few back and forth trips, each one accompanied by laughter as the joke was told again, saw the entire party atop the walls, and a retelling to the others atop the wall saw the same result, with long absent laughter briefly returning to the hungry city as Boabdil and his company made their way down the stairs and out into the streets.
Boabdil looked out to the distant sky, darkness was fast approaching, as they moved through the street, Boabdil kept his pace just barely under a run, behind him, his escort found it difficult to keep up under the weight of their armor, despite their youth relative to their commander. He cast a glance over his shoulder, "We need to move quickly, every minute we delay, is a minute that may bring the demon closer to our city. If even half of what they say of her is true, we cannot let her come without having prepared some reason for her to spare the population, for that, we need time, even a day might be enough, even an hour, but we can't waste a second!" He whispered with hoarse urgency. "And worse, what if her master chooses to make an appearance? What do you think he'll do?"
The sound of their heavy booted feet pounding the pavement hard and fast was redoubled, then redoubled again. As they moved through the streets they took horrified note of everything they saw. The once proud city had become destitute, the streets were crowded with people, almost all of whom were filthy, a group of brawlers, some of whom had Crossroads accents, and others whose accents clearly marked them as local residents, fought over a sack of grain barely large enough to have been called a coin purse. They pulled no punches and blood was quick to flow.
They passed by a gallows where a half a dozen people were dangling from ropes around their necks, signs revealed their crimes as 'Blasphemy', 'Inciting a Riot', and 'Cannibalism'. Lumps formed in over a dozen throats at the crimes they saw, crimes unthinkable a year ago.
"What the hell happened to this place...?" A young officer asked with eyes already haunted from his own inability to accept what he was seeing all around him.
"Failure." Boabdil said in a voice of utter loss, "Our people... this is what happens to those who lose, I've seen this in the aftermath of countless battles, I've seen it among villagers who lost everything, even their self respect, and now it has come to Kami Miyako. Death would almost be a blessing for a city come to this kind of ruin."
There was no answer any of them could give to a statement like that, and they remained in silence until they came to the front of Cardinal Raymond's estate.
Boabdil took a deep breath, "Remain close, but remember, we're visiting a Cardinal, display the utmost respect, no matter how suspicious you find anything to be.
Silent acceptance was given through slow salutes, and their hands fell away from their swords as they formed up into four ranks of five behind their General. Boabdil went up the short two to three steps to the door, and knocked slowly but firmly.
An answer was not long in coming. A buxom blonde woman in a maid outfit who, the instant he saw her, caused hairs to stand up on end all over Boabdil's flesh. He almost jumped back and reached for his sword, only discipline from a lifetime of service kept him from reacting by more than a sudden stiffness in body and voice. She saw, and smirked, and he thought for a moment that she gave an appreciative, if very tiny, nod of acknowledgement of his good sense.
"I-I'm here to see Cardinal Raymond." He managed to fumble out.
She looked over the massed ranks. "No. He's been in bed since some... unpleasantness the previous evening, and he is not taking unexpected visitors."
"He'll see me." Boabdil insisted.
Her gaze narrowed at the men behind Boabdil.
"Are you planning on taking him somewhere?" She asked, and his skin tingled as he felt the rising danger.
'I must not antagonize this one.' He thought solemnly to himself.
"No. These are my escorts to ensure my safety on the way here." Boabdil said reassuringly as he extended his arm out to encompass them all in a single sweeping gesture.
Her eyes did not shift from the narrow look at the unexpected claim. "I will permit 'you' to come into the threshold, but if what you say is displeasing, do not expect to leave, and do not expect your 'escort' to have been enough."
Boabdil felt tense as stone, like a frog looking up at a hungry stork. He looked behind him, "Wait here." He said succinctly.
Then the maid moved aside, admitted him, and the door closed as quickly as it opened, before his soldiers could object without making a scene.
The interior of the house was what you'd expect of a Cardinal's estate, wide, but functional, well decorated, but without a superabundant excess. Even less surprising, there was an abundance of elves moving about the residence, then it hit him.
"No... collars...?" He asked mutely.
Solution pointed to the floor where he stood, "Move from that spot before I return, and I will dissolve your brain in your skull and I'll get to it by going up your cock." She said with a savage smile.
"You're no ordinary maid." General Boabdil said bluntly.
"You're a master of the obvious." She said in an equally blunt voice, and showed him her back as she went up the stairs. "Who by the way, should I say is here?" She asked without looking back.
"General Boabdil." He answered calmly.
She didn't miss a step as she went to Raymond's room.
He waited for what seemed an eternity as hostile elven eyes were cast on him, but he kept his own gaze firmly up the steps.
Eventually the maid reappeared at the top of the steps. "He'll see you, come on up, oh, and your wife would probably like to see you as well." Solution remarked in passing, Boabdil moved even faster than before, and followed where the maid led him, she opened the door unceremoniously and found Raymond sitting up in bed. "I'll go retrieve your wife, and return promptly. Raise a hand to him..." Solution said, and winked, then closed the door and left them alone with the unfinished threat in the air.
"Forgive my disheveled state, recent events have been... hard on me." Raymond said immediately as Boabdil entered, and gestured to a nearby chair.
Boabdil flung himself backward into it, clearly worn out, his arms fell limply into his lap, "Same, I'll spare you the trouble of asking why I'm here, how I got back, everything. As my wife probably told you, I faked my death, what she wouldn't know is that I briefly assumed another identity and rode East to take command of another army, but that army no longer exists. I arrived in time to hear a demon, the Sorcerer King's red hand, announce its destruction. Then I saw him destroy it with little more than a gesture, all forty thousand and some, erased like a drop of ink fallen into the ocean. Then I saw another impossibility, General Oma was supposed to have been killed by the Agante, yet she came back. The Sorcerer King, he restored her to life as a legendary undead, a dullahan."
"They let you live, didn't they?" Raymond asked in a cold and broken voice.
"Yes, to come back here, to warn the city, to warn our people to surrender... before it is too late." Boabdil leaned forward urgently and clasped his hands, "Please, convince Dominic to give in, we can't win. My army is now under General Heikeren, but we haven't a chance, there's nothing we can do."
Raymond groaned and lay back down, staring through empty eyes up at the ceiling. "Don't you think I've tried to find avenues to peace already? General Baraja has warned us again and again, yet nobody listens. She sent an inquisitor, she sent a group of broken overseers, she sent children who watched their parents die, she destroyed Yanana down to nothing, the Golden Fortress is a ruin, Wheaton is now a small town... she even sent the dead population to us on the river, she turned the river red... tens of thousands of bodies and body parts floating and bobbing in the water, I am not exaggerating, the river was red for miles, were it not for the wells inside the city, and using up mana constantly for days creating water, we'd have run out of drinkable water in a day and all died of thirst."
Raymond turned his head to the side, to look over at the General. "I met with her, you know. The Red Hand, the Black Paladin, the Pope. I met with her to beg. Me, a cardinal of the six, and I put my head in the dirt and begged for mercy for the soldiers we had left in the west, the ones that had gone to Yanana after their failed siege of Prart. She told me no, and then she killed them all."
"You can't have given up..." Boabdil asked hopefully, he reached out and put his hands on Raymond's chest, "Please, you have to have something in mind."
Raymond turned his head away, "Our people have started eating the elves. When she learns of it, well... you've read the intelligence reports, I promise you they're not exaggerated, she 'hates' us for what she holds us at fault for. Our treatment of the elves has set her to madness, if she learns this, or rather, when she does... she will kill every human man, woman, and child in this city. I'm sure of it."
"Wait... eating the elves? You mean... food? They're turning the slaves into food?!" Boabdil couldn't move as he asked the question.
"Yes. Solution will make sure she knows, but even if she doesn't, I'm obligated to... damn it all." Raymond sat up and flung his legs over the side of the bed, and Boabdil withdrew his hand. "I'll be blunt... and before I begin, understand that she wasn't kidding. If you react badly to this, you will die almost immediately, and it will be incredibly painful as well as absolutely unavoidable, do you understand me?" Raymond asked in a low, serious voice.
"Yes..." Boabdil drew his hands together and held them tight in his lap.
"I'll be obligated to report it to the Sorcerer King. I've been working for him to... atone, I've been doing so since I realized our country has been not only wrong, but already defeated before the fight even began. I've been doing it in the hopes of saving our people, and to save the elves we've mistreated for so long. And as of last night, I became an apostate, I can no longer serve the six, it's been... distressing. I was just gathering my strength before I wrote to His Majesty, to report the horror that is about to befall our city. Cardinal Yvon wants to codify the slaughter of elves for food, add them to the rations, and... well... at least Dominic blocked that, so there doesn't seem to be immediate danger."
Boabdil's blood ran cold as the ice and snow outside the manor. "You've... betrayed the nation...? I... words..." The warning loomed large as his words stumbled, and he looked down, defeated. "I can't raise a voice against you, I'm here to try to hasten our defeat as well... alright, fine, let me think about this." He said gruffly, and settled into a thoughtful posture, stroking his bedraggled beard and looking out the window to the encroaching darkness.
His brilliant mind ran through scenario after scenario as fast as someone flipping through the pages of a book. Time and time again, an idea came to mind and was rapidly discarded, until he finally hit upon something.
"Wait... on my way here, I saw brawls, hangings, evidence of dissent. What can you tell me about that?" He asked hopefully.
"It's loose, decentralized, handled by an elf and a handful of humans but with no real leadership, it keeps it hard to track and so hard to repress." Raymond said dejectedly. "The elf woman keeps us informed about a great deal around the city, but very few humans know who she is outside of myself. And no, I'm not going to tell you. You don't need to know."
"That may keep them safe, but it is also keeping them ineffective. We both know that with this, there is not a prayer that this entire city will be spared. But... what if we can save a 'part' of it?" Boabdil proposed.
"A part?" Raymond asked, suddenly intrigued, his voice went a little higher and his dull eyes brightened a bit.
"Yes, if we want to bargain with the demon woman, we need to have something she wants to save. Or at least to not kill." Boabdil pointed out in an increasingly confident and canny voice.
"If you're proposing we use the elves as hostages... she'll kill them all and then kill our city anyway, just to make sure the whole world knows that taking hostages is useless." Raymond pointed out with a roll of his eyes, "You should already know that."
"No, not hostages, tokens of... acceptance. A symbol, something to show her that not everyone in this city deserves the sharp end of an arrow. It looks like you've done much, but... not enough to spare the city, nothing to negotiate for. Link me up to the dissidents in the city, I'll get them organized. We'll create an impromptu kind of... neutral zone, here, get as many people opposed to Dominic as we can, when we have enough, we can appeal to her sense of justice, get a part of the city, with nobody who supports Dominic or... Yvon, within it. We can ask her to spare 'that'. It isn't everyone, no. But I'd rather save some than save none, besides, if Heikeren does his part, we might have an inroad to meet with her."
"We can... try." Raymond said, "In the morning I will have you linked up with some of the dissidents, if they'll accept you as a central authority to dissent, you've got a shot at this. But I warn you, if any of the ones you accept are brothel owners or patrons of the mistreatment of elves... and I mean 'any' then your chances of her being merciful drop from slim to none."
Boabdil released a pent up breath, "I understand, between myself and the twenty, we can get some organization done in a day, more done in two, and within a week we'll have everyone worth saving living inside a single square of the city. If that isn't good enough, then all we can do is laugh as she kills us."
"Very true, husband." Illal said as she entered the room and rushed over to him, he stood up rapidly and wrapped his arms around her in an embrace.
"Illal, you're safe... I'm so relieved, I heard you were, but... I was, well never mind, just know that my heart beats more easily knowing you're alive and well." Boabdil said as he clutched his wife as close to his flesh as his armor would allow.
"Well, then we've got to go over quite a bit, and we've got to discuss it quickly then, don't we?" Solution asked as she entered and closed the door behind her.