God Rising: The Cult of Ainz
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 201: The Ritz
...Kami Miyako...Raymond's Bathhouse...
"I don't know you, who...?" Raymond began to say when he closed the door behind him and saw the sleeping figure on the bench.
The man began to wake up, eyes fluttering open. "Dominic...?" Raymond asked in a slow, doubtful voice as he loomed over his fellow Cardinal.
"Yes, it's me." Dominic replied with a rapidly dissipating groggy tone. He slowly sat up.
"Your hair? What happened?" Raymond asked, furrowing his brow at the odd looking baldness.
"Simple, I shaved it. Found an empty house, broke in, borrowed a knife and used it to shave all my hair off. Then took a set of clothes... I left a gold coin behind for the trouble, and ran off. People so notice my bald head that they barely notice my face at all. Even if they did, well... it's a funny thing about hair, it really frames the rest of the face, remove it, and the rest of you looks very different." Dominic remarked cockily as he stood up and stretched.
"Alright, yes, I didn't even recognize you at first and I see you all the time, good work." Raymond remarked with begrudging admiration for his enemy.
"I know. But on to the real issue, Yvon has launched a coup, I'm sure you've heard all the noise by now, and I need your help." Dominic said with confidence despite his ominous words, while in the back of his mind he was martialing arguments to sway Raymond over to his side.
"Alright, you have it." Raymond said without hesitation or flinching.
"That was... easy." Dominic said suspiciously. "I thought you'd hold out some." He replied.
"I have one condition." Raymond raised a finger sharply between the two of them.
"What is it? If this is about letting the slaves go..." Dominic began to say, only to stop when Raymond shook his head.
"You've made your thoughts on that clear, no, I want something else. I want you to leave one district alone, let me keep noncombatants there, safe from the fighting, do that, and I'll have my little birds tell me the names and locations of every key Yvon supporter, give me your word that you will not let a single soldier, regular or Agante, enter the district of my choice either during or after this coup, and I'll hand you the means to defeat Yvon." Raymond promised solemnly.
Dominic folded one arm across his body and rested the elbow of his other arm atop the back of the folded hand, and rubbed his chin as he looked down in thought. "I don't see a downside for me here, but what do you mean, the means to defeat Yvon?"
"Information, when I give you their locations, it'll be as tight as a garrote around their throats. You can eliminate his key supporters, then storm his position and get rid of him." Raymond explained patiently as he folded his arms behind his back.
"How can I get that many of them? My Agante are the best of the best outside of scriptures but... even they have limits, and I lost some in the fighting last night." Dominic objected doubtfully as rage began building on his face. "Yvon even got my personal slave, though I don't know if he's alive or not."
Raymond shut his eyes tight for a moment when he saw the wide eyed look of anxiety on Dominic's face. 'An elf, and he's... well that is unexpected.' Raymond thought to himself as Dominic shook with anger.
"To answer your first question, I'll bet I know where he is, if he's alive. Yvon keeps a room in his house for disciplining slaves, if your man is alive, he's there being interrogated. If you're still here and he knew that you were going to go this way, then he's holding out under horrific torture." Raymond kept his voice even as he went on to describe the contents of the room as if he'd been there, throwing in tidbits about what sorts of things were likely happening to Dominic's slave, he watched the anguish on his fellow Cardinal's face with a detached kind of curiosity before cutting himself off by saying, "It doesn't matter though, he's only an elf, buy another after Yvon eats that one or serves it to the soldiers following him."
Domnic shouted in sudden rage and tried to swing a wild fist at Raymond's face. Raymond leaned back, allowing the fist to pass in front of his face, brought his hand up, and pushed the arm away to further exaggerate the motion, and then hit Dominic square in the kidney when his side was exposed. Exhausted still from fighting and uncomfortable rest, Dominic's body spasmed from the blow.
Raymond immediately stepped back before his counterpart could recover, rage was boiling over in Dominic's eyes. "But if you want to rescue him, we can." Raymond remarked calmly, and the rage began to fade away from Dominic's eyes.
"Simply put, I'll make sure they're all together at the same time, then you can kill them all in one blow. First though, I need to get you a place to use as your headquarters tonight, stay here in the bath house for now. Can your slave hold out under torture for the day?" Raymond asked pointedly.
Dominic thought about it furious silence, "Yes. I think so. If you took the suffering of any ten elves anywhere in Kami Miyako, all their pain combined could not compare to what he endured. He will hold out, no matter how Yvon hurts him." A note of pity and pride touched Dominic's words, which gave Raymond a pause of pity for the man.
"Alright, fine. I'll get you a place to stay tonight, a decent sized manor, but in return, the artisan district remains off limits to 'all' of your soldiers, and all of your Agante. Swear it in the name of the gods, the eternal rest of your family, and on the courage of your slave." Raymond demanded firmly.
Dominic did not hesitate, he held his hand to his heart and said, "In all those things, by the gods, by the rest of my family in their graves, by the courage of my slave, and by my own life, I swear to you that district will be yours to administer as you see fit. No soldier or agent will enter, even if they have to march all the way around it to get to where they're going."
"It's done then, break your word to me, Dominic, and you'll feel a lot more pain than a stinging in your kidney." Raymond said with the quiet pronouncement of death. Then his tone changed to one more amiable, even friendly and he added, "For now, relax here, I'll have someone bring food later, we don't have much left, but you'll get something."
"Thank you." Dominic said in a shockingly genuine voice as he sat back down on the bench and lost himself in his own thoughts.
'Food is scarce... I shouldn't be surprised, even he understands it is no small thing to give away food, he has no idea that, thanks to His Majesty, mine is the best fed house in the city.' Raymond thought to himself as he left the man alone and returned to the interior of his manor.
...Kami Miyako...Yvon's Discipline Chamber...
Yarvin woke up to the sight of a female elf, naked except for the collar around her throat. He felt no desire for her, nor any in her. The platform to which he was secured was now upright, and against the wall, his chains held him fast. The smell of blood, his blood, was thick in the air in the dim chamber, but his elven eyes saw clearly in spite of that.
"I know you... you're... Misu. The one who came to my master's house." Yarvin croaked out painfully.
She nodded mutely. "Captured there, eh?" He asked hoarsely.
She gave another tiny nod, and he noticed the bucket she carried.
"What are you doing?" Yarvin asked unhappily, "Are you here to torture me? To maybe get out of being tortured yourself. Fucking elf scum." He spat at her, it struck her breast and ran slowly down her skin. She ignored it, her eyes were hollow and haunted, as if she could not feel his contempt.
"I'm here to clean you... to see that you're recovered... enough for... for another session." Misu answered pitifully.
Yarvin's voice shook, "Kill me. Help me by killing me. I can hold out a while longer, but I don't know how much... come on you worthless trash! Let me die!" He hissed out desperately.
He shook and struggled in his bonds, he frothed at the mouth as he banged his head back and forth, "I can't bash my own head in against this soft wood!" He growled, "I can't open up my veins, come on bitch! Help me!" He demanded as he gnashed his teeth out as if to bite her.
"H-How?" Misu asked helplessly as she wrung her hands.
"God you're almost as bad as that other bitch... if it weren't for her I wouldn't be in this mess..." Yarvin said as he flung his head back and thought back to the last elf he'd ever tried to help. "Now thanks to you being as weak as she was stupid, I can't get out of it."
Misu wilted under the criticism, "I've never... hurt anyone, what can I do?" She asked as she took his hateful words as if they weren't there, and stepped closer in small, inchlike stages and set the bucket down at her feet. She drew out the brush and began to scrub the blood from his body. The water felt like stabbing knives from the cold, and Yarvin gasped in the agony of it.
"Are there any knives around?" He asked as he tried to take in more of the room.
She shook her head, her long hair bouncing with the gesture, it was the only free thing in the room.
"What about a hook, like a meat hook or something?" He asked, she paused and set the brush down, then went over to a drawer.
"Master keeps them here..." She said fearfully as she withdrew a wicked, hook with a palm sized handle that made it suitable for swinging easily.
Yarvin looked it over as she brought it close. It was ugly, it was barbed, it was clean, it would do. He spoke with urgent desperation as he gave her instructions, "Listen to me carefully, I need you to take that thing, and jab it in the thigh, in the center, near the groin. Hit there and I'll bleed out in a minute or two. Just begone and let it happen. And if you survive, do one more thing when my master comes here. Tell him I never broke, that I was a faithful servant to the end."
"I... alright, I will." Misu whimpered, holding the hook up overhead, she hesitated for a second.
"Don't worry about being punished you little coward! Just do it! Tell them you came to clean me and found I'd bled out and died, just put the hook away and they'll never know you did this!" He whispered urgently, shaking in his bonds, he shut his eyes, as did she, and a moment later he felt the sudden pain of the hook piercing his flesh, and being withdrawn.
He looked down, the blood was spurting wildly. Yarvin watched as it sprayed like a fountain out over the floor, "Good, good!" He said with relief. He felt his body grow weaker as the seconds ticked by and Misu stood and watched him die.
"Least I found one useful elf before I died, now get out, elf trash, I don't have all day... heh, I don't have a minute, and I don't want an elf to be the last thing I see." He grunted out as his head began to feel impossibly heavy.
Misu shook with fear as she rushed to put away the dread implement, and fled the room, leaving Yarvin alone to die, with terror in her eyes.
Yarvin groaned and tried, then failed, to look at the upper floor where Cardinal Yvon was no doubt waiting to come back down to start the process over again. "Sorry to break my promise to you, Master." Yarvin whispered to the empty chamber, but a hard glare came to his eyes as he stared at the bloodstained floor. "It's fine, I'm tired of this shit anyway, and you know what... I win, motherfucker." He said crudely as he lost first consciousness, and then the last thread of life.
And so, Yarvin died.
...Kami Miyako...Raymond's Home...Nightfall...
"Good luck. Not that you'll need it." Raymond said calmly from behind his desk.
Nua gave him a weak smile, "I killed one person already... I can do one more."
"I've got this one, Raymond, don't worry about it, even if she loses her nerve, I'll help her find it." Solution said, licking her lips sadistically. Raymond thought about the way she'd twisted his soul about whether Nua would live through the night or not, the way she'd forced him to rip himself away from the gods of his lifetime with mere words and a teasing, sadistic presence that was also somehow erotically enticing.
He held back the urge to swallow, but nodded in a very small way, "I believe you. But make sure 'all' of her survives." Raymond remarked with a raised eyebrow. Solution smirked, and approached him where he sat.
He stood up, though he towered over her, she dwarfed him still, her chest pressed against him and a lascivious smile crossed her face. Her hand came up and touched his cheek. A memory of the burn of her acidic touch crossed his mind, but he did not so much as brace himself, he only held her expression with the fearless courage of a Black Scripture veteran.
She rose to her tiptoes so that her lips were close enough that they could have kissed, and she whispered in a sultry tone, "Survival... it means so many things, doesn't it? Don't worry, she'll come back to you, one way or another, but even I can't guarantee what that means."
She giggled as she went back down on her heels while Nua looked on anxiously. "I'll be back, as I am. I promise." Nua said gently, "This morning, I was the elf who could say no to the savior of my people, and argue in favor of mercy for a place I despise, when I come back tonight, I'll still be that person, but with blood on my hands from someone who doesn't deserve mercy themselves. But I will always be, Nua Calen Aiwenor. You don't have to worry about me."
Raymond sat back down slowly, "So... that is your full name? Why did you never tell me?" He asked with a crooked smile, "It is beautiful."
"Because for all I know, I might be lying about that last sentence, and if I am, I want somebody to say my name again after I'm gone, and I only just decided that it should be you." She smiled the same crooked smile back at him. "Now, can I borrow your knife?"
Raymond's skin tingled, "No, no, you can't borrow my knife."
Her mouth opened to object, until she saw him reach into a drawer and draw something out in a white cloth.
"You have your own, Aalon had it dispatched here awhile ago, I've been saving it to give to you, I was going to hand it over when you left, but this is better." He set the white wrapped cloth down on his desk with such gentle reverence that it did not make a sound as it touched the wood.
Nua approached, she felt her breath catch as she looked up at him hesitantly.
"Go on." Raymond said confidently.
She reached out with a single shaking left hand and opened the cloth.
A curved blade half the length of her forearm lay beneath her eyes. A sheath of silver with writing in the elven language, etched down the length of it, caught her eye.
"What does it say?" Solution asked with idle curiosity.
"Penitence. I suppose that is what he's chosen to name the blade. A perfect fit." Nua said in a tender voice and bracing the sheath with one hand, she drew out the blade.
The blade itself was adamantite, but interspersed throughout the blade were flecks of shining silver, the blade wasn't smooth, it had numerous serrated teeth where most of those flecks of silver could be found. "Oh my goodness... he didn't, do you think?" She asked with breathless admiration.
"I do, count the teeth, he made one for every coin, and put silver flecks from them and all the way down to the handle." Raymond stared admiringly at the masterful workmanship that had gone into the piece.
"May I have the honor?" Raymond asked hopefully.
Nua hesitated for a moment, then extended the grip to him.
He took it up and hefted the blade, balancing it at the base of the blade right before the guard above the grip. "Perfect balance, excellent piece. It seems he's also enchanted it. From the feel of the leather, I'd say the handle beneath is bone. I don't have to work hard to guess what kind or whose." Raymond said, keeping his voice even as he extended the weapon back to her.
"Pharmakia... it couldn't be... he didn't... no... you're right, I'll bet anything he did exactly that. What a marvelous gift." Nua said as she slid the blade back into its scabbard.
"He doesn't do half measures, I'll give him that much." Solution acknowledged with a twisted smile. "Alright, let's go test that blade."
"Be careful out there, we may be a fair distance from either Yvon or Dominic's estates, but things can get out of hand fast, even in a city this large. Especially with those two fighting it out." Raymond cautioned.
"I'm monster enough for both of them, don't worry, Raymond." Solution said sweetly, and closed the door behind her as she left with Nua to send Kasa to the grave.