The Trial: Journey's End

Written by: AtheistBasementDragon

Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots

Chapter 18: Mysteries

...Minotaur Kingdom...

Mu'Sula got into the cart after they'd finished the minor errand of assisting Nua in acquiring the goods she needed. The crude building had seen better days, the wood was damaged, the floor was just dirt, but the keeper was friendly enough, if somewhat uncertain at the unexpected elven customer.

Still, she saw the slight widening in his already large bull eyes when he saw the platinum coin she drew out and laid on the counter. "M- I can't change this?!" He'd said with breathless awe.

Nua reached out and touched the keeper's arm. He was bare chested, as most of the minotaurs seemed to be, and so bare armed. She noted the unexpected softness of the thin coating of brown hairs that covered the flesh beneath, where hardened muscle lay. "This isn't just for my goods for today, I'll be needing regular resupply. I expect I'll be passing back and forth between here and the capital a great deal."

The minotaur shopkeep huffed and stamped his right hoof eagerly, "You have a bargain!" He said and pumped the fist with the platinum coin. "Get what you need, twenty percent off on everything, to celebrate our new... partnership, of sorts."

Nua walked out with an oversized pack loaded with goods, and with Mu'Sula staring at her like she was something out of a myth.

"What?" She asked blankly as she looked at him as she rucked the pack toward the cart he pointed out.

"How the hell did you get that much money?" Mu'Sula asked, his brow furrowed, "Are you some noble woman or something?"

Nua laughed loudly, "No, farthest thing from it. I'm just an ex-slave that got her back wages from the hand of god himself. But that's a story that is going to earn me my discount for the ride."

"I believe you." He said, and as she tossed her pack into the cart and got up in it, Mu'Sula braced himself at the crossbar and started to push, listening intently as Nua told the story of the fall of Kami Miyako, the last city of the old gods authority. Mu'Sula didn't utter a word the entire way. Not until she began to wind down the story, and the cart finally ground to a halt as they reached their destination.

"So... I saw miracles of all kinds in those last days of the war, out of the city I was dragged into as a plaything and a slave, I walked as a wealthy woman, and above all a free one. Now I'm here, to spread the glory of His Majesty, and free others from their weakness, as I was freed from mine. I still greatly dislike violence. But..." She smiled sweetly at the minotaur who now turned to look at her, and her eyes glowed with golden light, "during my training to become a priest of the holy lord, nobody could take a hit like I. I became the mistress of pain, because pain could not master me anymore. The one good thing I got from those Theocracy fucks, other than Raymond. So... did I earn my discount?" She asked sweetly as the golden light faded from her eyes.

"Yes, yes you did. How long will you be here for?" Mu'Sula asked with unexpected eagerness to hear more as coins changed hands.

Nua looked away and thought it over briefly, "I think I've got enough supplies for the week, shouldn't be hard to manage everything else, tell you what, I'll come out here at this spot next week, if you're here again, I'll take a ride back and tell you another story about what happened out there."

'Well... shit. I can't kill her now... I want another story!' Mu'Sula thought to himself and nodded intensely.

"That'll be a bargain, I can't wait." He said with a boyish kind of intensity to his voice as he stuck out his big, meaty hand. Nua took it, and he was shocked at the firmness of grip in the small palm.

"See you in a week then!" Nua said, "Next time I'll tell you about the day I met the voice and bloody hand of god." She managed a smile that was friendly enough, but when she spoke of it, he saw the tinge of gold spark in her deep blue eyes, and wondered what possessed the little elven woman who had, not long ago, seemed like such an easy mark.

...Nazarick...

Pain. Neia woke up in horrendous pain. From black nothingness, to white hot fire tearing through her skull. "It huuuuurts!" She wailed and shot up to a seated position, clutching her skull. "Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop!" She wailed, for a moment seeing nothing and recognizing nothing, not even she felt herself being pushed down to some impossible softness beneath her. A grip harder than iron on her shoulders. A voice, beautiful and motherly, terrible and commanding.

"Do it!" The voice ordered, and she heard the pop of a cork and the press of a substance against her lips, liquid ran over her tongue, and the pain began to fade away, until she felt absolutely nothing.

Her vision began to return when the pain ceased to blind her, and she looked around. Over her was standing one of her prosecutors, and her defender. She took in the room, and understanding slowly began to dawn.

"Where am I...? Lady Albedo? Vanysa? Is this...?" She didn't finish the question.

"This is the bed of the Sorcerer King." Albedo answered, and released her grip as it was evident that Neia had calmed herself.

"What happened?" Neia asked anxiously as she reached up and touched her forehead. She blinked in amazement when she saw that there were no chains on her wrists.

"What do you remember?" Vanysa asked in a far more delicate voice than Neia expected.

She looked down at the expensive covers that were over her lower body. "I... remember Dasis. I... you broke me. You broke me and... I killed him. I couldn't bear another word... I remember him talking about going free, I couldn't bear it and I tried to shut out the poison from his lips, I couldn't do that, and when he told his stories and I knew he'd walk free... I killed him. In front of everyone." Neia said in a hushed and quiet voice, smaller than she'd had in a long, long time.

She looked to meet Vanysa's storm gray eyes. "Congratulations, I guess. You win, even if they don't hang me... I'm never going to be free. Not after that." Neia said, and turned her eyes to Lady Albedo. "I'm... sorry, My Lady. You and Pandora's Actor worked hard, but I screwed it up, I lost all reason, and now it was all for nothing, and Gagaran will have been proven right."

Vanysa kept her lips pursed tight. When Neia finished speaking, the demoness of vengeance said a gentle, "I'm sorry. I really am. But... before we get to that, that is the last thing you remember? Nothing else?"

"Was there more? Oh god!" Neia's eyes flew open wide, "How many? Did I hurt my friends! Who else did I kill?!"

"None. That isn't why she asks." Albedo's voice was very quiet, "Before you ask... His Majesty is speaking with Demiurge in his lab. After you killed Dasis, you turned your attention to the other minotaurs and, some say threatened, some say warned, that unless they submit, that they will die. You remember none of it?"

Neia slowly shook her head. "No... I remember... pain, so much pain, but it wasn't really mine, even though I felt it."

The door to the bedroom opened, and Neia looked to the sound in time to see Ainz Ooal Gown enter the room with Demiurge following behind him.

"You caused quite a stir, my child, how are you?" Ainz asked as he approached and stood near Neia's head and reached out to touch the cheek of the Black Paladin.

"Horrible, father." Neia replied and covered his finger bones with her hand, "I screwed it all up, I killed that man, and now there's no chance for me in that trial, the whole empire saw a monster. Nobody is going to say 'let her go' after that. I'll be lucky if I'm not just executed. People like it when the monsters defend them, but that doesn't mean they want us wandering free."

"Don't think about that for now, you were returned here for immediate treatment, the Minotaur Kingdom couldn't agree fast enough after you borderline threatened them with extermination. Though there seems to be some debate about that." Ainz replied and moved his hand up over her forehead.

"I suppose I should congratulate you too, Lord Demiurge." Neia said unhappily.

"Congratulate me?" The demon inquired.

Neia managed a self deprecating smile. "After that, well I know you've been chomping at the bit to see what you can do with me, looks like it'll be sooner rather than later, I mean you did get me to kill a witness... not that I'm about to apologize for it." Her sky blue eyes faded and dulled, "He deserved it, worse than that. I couldn't let him just go back to his life but... it was ill advised of me."

Demiurge inclined his head and pushed his glasses up against his eyes, "Thank you, it was one of my more well thought out plans, after learning that His Majesty intended to launch an investigation, I knew quite well that I would be chosen to bring you down, and the best way to do that, was to attack you where you are weakest, with the mistreatment that got you so enraged in the first place. It was easy to secure a breaker or two, someone who didn't look like a person who would do the things they did routinely. A promise of freedom and a return to normalcy like they'd never worked their atrocities before... you wouldn't be able to let that go. Though I didn't think you'd go as far as you did."

Neia flung herself back on the bed of her father with her arms open out wide across it and stared at the ceiling. She laughed, "You knew me better than I knew myself, and from the look of things, you had help with that, didn't he, Vanysa?"

"Yes, lots." The demoness remarked unhappily, "It wasn't personal, just orders and... in a way, it was for you too. If you walked away from all that, your sense of justice would never let you rest."

"Maybe not." Neia said noncommittally, "So, why are you here anyway, come to gloat?" She asked with resignation.

"No, they're here to tell you what happened. And to take care of you while we find some way to manage it." Ainz explained and stroked the straw gold hair that fell and framed the worn out expression of the warrior pope.

"I see. I think. Well... what can you tell me?" Neia asked with trepidation.

"Bluntly put, we think you're a prophet." Demiurge said and then shut his mouth.

Neia gave him a look of blank incomprehension with her lips pursed tight.

"You see possible futures. It took a little reading in the archives, but according to some books of the supreme one, devoted servants of god could know the future before it happened." He elaborated with an intrigued smile as he looked at her, like an interesting specimen in his lab.

"But... I know no such thing!" Neia exclaimed, "I've never... why now?" She said as she looked up at the skeletal face of the Sorcerer King.

"My followers grow in number every day, as they grow, so does your capacity as a servant. Though it appears to have a terrible price for you, which we do not yet understand. In the second world, 'prophet' was a job that certain faith based classes could acquire, it gave them foreknowledge of threats as if they were present when the decision to make threats was first uttered. I would surmise that your actions in Kirakira prison have set the Minotaur Kingdom on a path to conflict with the Devor Empire, and through them, the Mixtlan Empire and the Tlalmok Empire, all three members of the Triumvirate in the center of the continent. What you said, suggested that the minotaurs will face an unwinnable war, and that they will either turn to me, or die. Or so I interpreted it." Ainz said as he continued to stroke her hair.

"The pain... why so much pain...?" She asked with her pupils growing and shrinking as she looked up at him.

"That was the pain you foresaw. I suspect." Demiurge remarked clinically.

"I... don't know what to say, although perhaps ironically it should be to ask, what happens now?" She smiled bitterly and caressed the back of the Sorcerer King's hand.

"You will go back to Kirakira prison and be allowed to wait out the remainder of the trial there. You will not return to the pavilion unless you are needed to testify or to hear the verdict. I assume you have much to do in the prison anyway, don't you?" Ainz asked expectantly, and a genuine smile came over Neia's face.

"Father, even you might doubt me if I said how much. Before I leave, to whatever end, another land will be on the path to kneeling before the Throne of Kings and swearing loyalty to you forever." She relaxed her entire body as sensation began to return to her flesh as the potion lost effect.

"I dare not ask to stay in your bed... but may I be permitted to rest awhile somewhere before I am sent back to prison? I find myself very sleepy." Neia asked hopefully.

"Rest here, I will have Albedo and Pandora's Actor return you when the time comes." Ainz said gently, "For now, rest without fear."

...Kirakira Prison...

"So... that was an unexpectedly good time." Raymond said as the carriage drew up to the prison where Neia was held.

Solution looked suitably smug, while Raymond felt equal parts sore and relaxed, her cocky smile was as 'charming' as ever. "Don't have to tell me, I was there." She laughed mockingly. "Have to make sure His Majesty's plan is successful after all, and you're an important witness, can't have you all stressed out and tense."

"I still don't quite understand that part." Raymond said thoughtfully.

She stared daggers at him and folded her arms in front of her ample chest as if she'd been insulted.

"Not that. What makes me an important witness." He said sardonically and folded his arms in front of his muscled frame.

"Oh." Solution responded rapidly, and went on, "Because you're a witness to what the Theocracy did, you know absolutely everything, almost everybody else who can speak with authority has perished, usually painfully."

"So why am I here? Isn't this where Neia is being held?" Raymond asked with the confusion not even slightly lifted.

"Yes, apparently she's been... busy, while here. His Majesty wants you to see this before you testify tomorrow. That is, 'if' they do it tomorrow. Nope, don't ask." Solution closed her eyes, shook her head, and held the flat of her palm up in front of herself for emphasis. "You'll find out soon enough what chaos was sown by bringing the demon you created, into Menowa."

Raymond frowned, "I didn't create her." He said through gritted teeth and his eyes flashed with anger.

Solution smiled the monstrous smile that took up most of her face, and her slime hand reached out and caressed his cheek, "Oh my, you're so scary when you're angry, such a marvelous demon in human skin... but still a bit of a fool. You had as much a hand as any of the other cardinals in what happened. Not just by what you did, but by what you didn't do. I heard that the Pope said something once, something you might want to keep in mind."

"What's that?" He asked sullenly as he tried to ignore that silky smooth caress of her hand on his cheek.

'If you're willing to bear any consequences, then there is nothing you cannot do.' "Look at her, she was willing to endure anything to destroy your nation, to free the elves, to defeat Remedios, to bring our common god to prominence. It all but destroyed her, she may very well die here because of it. But she was willing to endure, because next to her goals, the cost was nothing. You could have gone farther to save your nation, but the consequences of what you'd have had to do, were too great. You'll blossom into a wonderful demon one day, Raymond Zarg Larrenson, and I can't wait to see it." Solution smirked and drew back her hand as the last Cardinal looked reflectively out the window at the looming stone walls.

'That... hit uncomfortably close to home.' He thought inwardly, but aloud he replied to her in a calm tone, "Nobody knows the future, but I doubt that, I don't know what His Majesty wants me to see here, and I still don't understand why I am supposed to be as useful as he thinks as a witness. What can I say that hasn't been part of the public record already? That hasn't already been said?"

Solution's voice became oddly praising, "You're an important human, or were, your words will carry weight, not just with those who are in positions now that were like the one you used to hold. But also with the humans of the former theocracy who are in denial about everything their country did. Would you believe that there are humans who are denying that anything was all that bad for the elves? Why deny the breaker schools or the casual exterminations?" She rolled her eyes, "So stupid."

Raymond's jaw dropped, "Don't they run tours now in Yaksun to show the horrors that took place in that city? Don't the survivors speak up about it? The witnesses are numerous, hell there were numerous people involved in creating the implements of pain for profit, those can still be held in hand. How can anyone deny it?!" He asked, aghast.

"Like I said. Stupid. They don't want to believe it, they don't want to admit it. So... they lie. Or swallow lies others tell so that they have an excuse to not accept what stares them in the face. You Raymond, will deprive them of that comfort before the entire world as a Cardinal of the Theocracy. You will be asked hard questions, and you will speak as you and you alone can do. I begrudge you humans praise... but some of you have... gifted tongues." She barely restrained a titter of laughter before she pressed on in seriousness.

"Use the skills you honed as a leader of humans, tell the truth, as His Majesty commands. And you may accomplish the goal that matters even more to him than that, or so I think." Solution said in calm, cold detachment.

Raymond had ceased to look out the window of the carriage and turned his focus to the oddly serious maid demon. "What is that?" He asked with a troubled, furrowed brow.

Solution met furrowed brow with furrowed brow, and stare with stare, then replied with calm reason in her voice, "I'd have thought that was obvious. You're the only chance there is, to save the life of Neia Baraja."