The Trial: Journey's End

Written by: AtheistBasementDragon

Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots

Chapter 22: Pushing Forward

...Nazarick...

Vanysa stretched out languidly and put on the change of clothes. "You didn't have to tear up my clothes you know, I'd already taken them off." She snorted derisively. He knew it hadn't been necessary, but he'd enjoyed it. She rolled her eyes at his cocky expression.

"True, but it was more enjoyable to use them that way." His crystalline eyes twinkled.

She laughed, "One of these days I'll forget to keep a change of clothes in your office, and I'll have to walk back to our quarters naked, do you really want the whole tomb to get an eyeful?"

She winked, "Or do you... pervert?" She grinned lasciviously as he straightened his tie.

"Forget one day, and find out." He answered and threw her a healing potion, she caught it and downed it easily, then set the vial aside for later reuse.

"Don't tempt me." She teased, and then her lewd expression was gone, "She'll be waking up soon, I'm going to go take care of her. I mean 'really' take care of her. Get her dressed, get those damn chains off her, and tell her what we can do to help her."

"Can you really help?" Demiurge asked with more curiosity than concern as he sat back at his desk.

"Yes, not tremendously, but because we don't know how much her body can take, the best thing to be done here is to modify a calm spell charm, something that will activate on its own, it'll need to feed off her own mana to restore itself, and she doesn't have a lot of that, but... I don't think that will be a problem since it only seems to really hurt her when something extremely bad comes to mind. For small things, she probably has brief flashes, visions, but if I were to guess she would just feel tired or have a minor headache. Nothing requiring work to fix." Vanysa suggested thoughtfully.

"She'll have to remove that charm when on trial, no magic, we may have to break her again if Albedo and Pandora's Actor generate sympathy. Ideally I'd get her to kill somebody who was innocent, in front of everyone. That would be difficult however." Demiurge pondered and stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Not possible, Demi. The only way you'll do that, is to put her into a situation like Wheaton. Where she's so overwhelmed by what she sees, that she makes everybody into monsters. You won't get that chance in court." Vanysa remarked calmly.

"I don't need a court for that." Demiurge said bluntly. "Go, 'take care' of your friend, this may be a gamble, but if it is successful, we'll destroy whatever is left of her chances in the next few days."

"As you like, lover." Vanysa's wild insane eyes stared at him with intensity that would have unsettled a lesser figure, and she spun on her heel and skipped out humming the same song she'd hummed to herself when she'd gone to torture Astraka and Tesug.

Neia was just starting to come to when the storm grey eyed demoness came in. She knew immediately something was wrong, the musical melody the demoness hummed, she'd heard whenever the girl had talked of torture. Neia felt her heartbeat increase wildly as the door to the lab shut with a little click, and without a word, the blonde girl pulled up a chair and sat next to Neia's head.

The pope looked up at the ceiling as the demoness in human skin stayed silent and stared at her. She felt the grey eyes boring into the side of her head while she hummed. But neither said a word.

"If you're trying to decide how to hurt me next, be quick about it at least." Neia said, as Vanysa reached out and stroked her cheek. She could feel the insanity whorling around in the woman who sat beside her.

"I'm... so sorry... I know... I said it... But I meant it. I didn't know I'd be this way." Vanysa continued to stroke Neia's cheek, it was an affectionate gesture, at least in name, but it 'felt' like a beast taking a taste of prey.

"Who does? You think I saw myself ending up 'here' like 'this' twenty years ago?" Neia asked bluntly, turning her head to look into storm grey eyes with eyes of blue sky.

"No, none of us know who we'll be until we're that person. But... I didn't come to hurt you, I just... I don't know why I want to do such... terrible things to you, you never did anything to me. You held me in our sessions, as I did for you, we were clawing our way out together... but my instincts tear at me anyway, telling me I should do things... when all I really want is for you to... to go free, to get better!" Vanysa said as she clutched at her thighs with her hands.

"Well... if you're feeling out the room, I have an opinion." Neia said with a sardonic laugh.

Vanysa didn't laugh, she kept looking at the bound woman with her gray eyes turned silver with shimmering frustration pooling within.

"Nobody gets jokes... even here." Neia rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. "If you can't stop yourself, well I can't stop you, and who the hell am I to tell anyone to 'control themselves'?" She exhaled deeply and closed her eyes.

Which is why she didn't see when the chains were unlocked and her hands and arms were released.

She did however, feel when they were removed.

"I will ask the Sorcerer King if he has any insights, why I am in conflict but... I have a job to do, and it doesn't involve making you suffer... not right now." Vanysa said as Neia sat up. She handed Neia a robe, "You'll want a trip to the baths, I expect."

Neia nodded mutely.

"The good news," Vanysa pushed on as fast as she could move her lips, "is that we can help you, a calm charm that feeds off your mana that will help keep your memories from overwhelming you. You won't be allowed to use it during the trial..."

"So you can break me again, because of course once wasn't enough." Neia interjected coldly.

Vanysa nodded her ascent slowly, "Yes. So we can make you out to be a monster and get you convicted. We're both faithful servants, Neia. Your job is walk out of there, my job is to make sure you don't. I may hope I fail, but that doesn't mean I won't do my best not to."

"Yes... faithful servants." Neia hung her head, "I shouldn't forget that you don't really have a choice here. No more than I do."

The demoness put two fingers under Neia's chin and lifted it up, "It's alright, you're only human, no matter what else you do. Hold on to that, I've lost my humanity, almost all of it, but you've still got yours, and that has value too. So don't lower your head to me."

Neia gave her a wan smile, "You really meant it though, you really were trying to help. Can you explain what it is you found?"

Vanysa put her hands on Neia's shoulders as soon as the Black Paladin put on her robe and approached, "Believe me, I'd love to, but it wouldn't make the slightest sense to you. Not that you're stupid but..."

Neia blinked both her eyes, "Magic stuff, just leave it at that, it's fine. I care less about what you found than how to fix the problem."

"The easiest fix would be to take your humanity and give you a more powerful body... but I don't think you want that. Do you?" Vanysa asked simply.

"No." Neia replied, and stepped around her to head out of the door.

"I'll have an item ready for you before you leave." Vanysa said to a silent back as Neia left her behind and headed for the baths.

Reaching the ninth floor was easy for her now, no help needed, and soon she found herself stepping into the women's bath alone. She laid her robe aside and let the water take her as she let herself go into its depths.

The water was hot, inviting, soothing. The high walls that divided it from the mens' bath, reminded her vaguely of the walls of Kirakira prison. "Walls." She said as she looked at it, "You made a house possible, a home possible, you made safety for people... now you're a prison keeping me apart from everything I love... and I've come to hate you, I hate walls. Whether I'm fighting or dying on them... they're always a place of pain for me." She reached out and touched the smooth stone. "If I get through this, I never want to be trapped like that again."

"That wall at least, is a massive inconvenience." A well known voice said.

Neia snapped her head over and looked up to see the naked form of the Guardian Overseer standing next to her.

"Lady Albedo!" Neia exclaimed with surprise. "How long have you been here?!"

"Long enough." The Guardian Overseer replied, "Come, sit with me." She said, and putting her hand on the small of Neia's back, she gestured to the seating area within the waters.

Only the ripples disturbed the quiet as they moved to an area within the waters where stone seating was available, 'She's so... otherworldly in her beauty... in the stories, the king always has a beautiful queen, she would make them all appear to be hags.'

Against her will, Neia's lips began to tremble as she sat. Albedo sat down beside her. Nobody spoke for a bit, there was just the water, the steam, and the heat from both. "I asked Demiurge to throw the trial." Albedo said finally.

Neia felt the shock wash over her like the water that surrounded them both.

"Why...?" Neia asked with such disbelief that she overlooked the title.

"Because... Lord Ainz... he loves you. He really does. You 'are' a daughter to him." Albedo answered. "I wasn't entirely sure it went that far, not at first, not even when I asked that of Demiurge, it was more a guess I wasn't willing to chance not making. But I became sure of it soon enough."

Neia looked up at her with shimmering eyes.

The Guardian Overseer continued, "He watches your trial every day, and oftentimes, he watches over you inside of Kirakira Prison. Of all the people in Nazarick, I know him best, and I love him most." Albedo said, and took Neia's hand in hers.

"I can read him like a book, for a long time, I couldn't believe it, because you are after all, 'human'. But the way his eyes move and follow your every gesture, the rapidity of his response when you are in danger, the pride he has in you when he speaks of your relentless efforts... it is more than a master for a servant. If you were but a tool, he would not speak of you as he does, when you were not present. When you 'broke' out there, and we rushed you to Nazarick for immediate treatment, I could hear it in his voice... that sound was what I heard in my heart every time I picture him holding the child I will one day bear for him."

"I... why are you telling me this?" Neia finally asked as she rubbed her eyes.

Albedo put her arm behind Neia's back on the long bench and continued. "Because you called me 'future empress' and that would make you, who are a daughter to him, a daughter to me also. You are not just loyal to him, you love him."

"I... called you an Empress? Oh... one of those moments, I don't remember it." Neia added. But she beamed as she craned her neck to look up at the statue of beauty incarnate. "Father will finally get what he deserves... the truest of companions, a devoted mate!"

Her voice became almost frantic, filled with unexpected longing, "Maybe then, one day, after I am gone, you can... you can have children." Neia grinned with genuine happiness, and clasped Albedo's hand, catching the demoness by surprise by virtue of not only the intensity in the grip, but more by the intensity of Neia's face as pure happiness filled her face. That would be amazing, to have such power and wisdom, grow up being nurtured by parents who truly love them..." Then her face went blank as if she saw nothing around them, and instead saw something only visible to herself.

"And the year of the first birth of the children of god will herald the coming of a master of conspiracy from the world's tree, who will threaten to lie the empire to ruin, unless he is brought low, killed, and broken by what he cannot fathom." Neia's voice was not her own, and when her words had come and gone, she squeezed her eyes shut... "It... hurts..." She clenched her teeth shook with obvious agony and for a moment Albedo looked with rare surprise as the birth of her child was foretold, and a threat to their master with it.

"I've got you... I've got you..." Albedo whispered, "Mother has you..." and pulled Neia against her body, and caressed her as tears of pain poured over Albedo's breast and down into the waters, and she did so, until Neia was herself again, if only in an unwilling slumber brought by pain, from which she did not wake, not for a very, very long time.

'I must win.' Albedo thought grimly, 'If this is how it is to be... then I cannot lose, for his sake, my sake and...' She looked down at the unconscious human, 'her sake.'

...City Squares around and beyond the Empire...

"The sudden collapse of the accused, Neia Baraja, pertains to some previously unknown condition, as a result, until it is understood, she is unfit to take the stand, and will be under care as an attempt is made to understand what has happened. She will return to trial soon, as she is 'expected' to make a full recovery, however she will be confined to prison after treatment, until such time as her testimony is needed, or an accuser against her comes to speak."

Or so the demons announced, and gossip poured from countless lips.

But more than that... were the protests.

"Let her go! Let her go! Let her go!" There was barely an elf in the Empire that wasn't shouting it loud enough that, watching from the mirror of Remote Viewing, swore that, even though they made not a sound, he swore that their words carried all the way to Nazarick as they shouted for the Minotaur Kingdom to hear their cries.

For her part, Skana stood atop the platform in Hoburns, she did not try to hide her pregnancy in the least. She took a deep breath, and looked over the temple that they'd all worked so hard to build. Every stone to her, seemed stained with the blood of their martyrs. She looked over the sea of faces, many wore uniforms that were clearly official, others wore common clothing, but wore some emblem of their greatest value. Some symbol of the nature of their worship. Some were clear, swords, closed fists, shields, quills, others were not clear. Flowers, white trees, open hands, and others.

She put her hands over her belly, and closing her eyes for a moment to gather herself, she then began. The sun hammered down, and reflected off her face making her appear luminous and angellike to the believers who stood in observance of the second in command of their religion, and their temporary head.

"I am not my wife... I can't move others as she does... but I know for this I needn't. We are united... united in our desire to see her brought home. To see Neia Baraja free! What she did, she did for all, what she did wrong, was done because she was pushed beyond all reason and could bear nothing more. This I say with confidence, I know her heart as no other in life, and all she wants is peace, all any of us want is peace. Killing her will not bring peace, but the Minotaur Kingdom does not know her as we do, so we must show them the glory of our Lord! I ask for volunteers who have completed their training as priests, paladins, and soldiers, to join with those merchants of ours, and travel as one to the Minotaur Kingdom. Show them the virtue of our faith, and she who led us to knowing the one true god, the great king who watches over us, and protects us from harm!"

Skana spoke with sincerity, she spoke with passion, and above all as she spoke as if Neia were a mother to them as well. "Did we not stand beneath her banner?! Did she not look at you and fight to secure your lives?! She stood on the wall to protect us when we were weak... now she is trapped behind them, weakened and in pain... and we, and we alone can protect her! Go, order yourselves into companies among the temple, travel to the Minotaur Kingdom, and show them what was born of service to our lord. If they know his glory, they will know she does not belong beneath the earth or behind a wall! It is not enough to say we want her free, we must prove it, and make 'them' want her free also!"

The effect was not the electric outpouring of emotion and instant response to the call for action that was usually the result of a speech by the Demon of the West... but it was effective nonetheless.

From the balcony where Queen Calca stood watching, she appraised the crowd of the faithful.

She didn't look over her shoulder, "Well, Viscountess, what do you think?"

Cercei stood behind her Queen at her left hand. "I think it is a very good idea. It is a very long way to the Minotaur Kingdom. However if we buy those storage containers left over from the war, the ones called 'lunchboxes' and hire dragons to carry the goods back and forth, along with people, then a few caravans can leave out of Forton. It wouldn't be a bad idea to forge friendly ties with other parts of the empire."

Calca barely nodded and kept watching as the crowd slowly built enthusiasm, even from there, it was obvious that ideas were being thrown out and small groups with ideas of their own were forming. "Kedyn is lucky to have you."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Cercei said, as Calca casually held up her arm and offered it out.

"Bite to eat?" She asked the vampire noblewoman.

"You would offer your blood to me?" Cercei asked, blinking her blood red eyes rapidly in surprise.

Calca kept her eyes fixed firmly outward, and spoke with conviction, and a hint of remembered sorrow, "I died for the sake of my subjects, I changed for the sake of my subjects, I surrendered my nation's independence for the sake of my subjects. I would certainly be willing to bleed to feed one who sent her people to die on my walls. Go ahead, you are my guest after all, while we work out how best to influence the days ahead."

Cercei took the arm in both her hands, at wrist and elbow, and keeping an eye on the Queen's face, sank her fangs into the vein, piercing the flesh and making the Queen wince just a little, as she fed one of her loyal subjects.

"We'll support them, revenues are up, we can manage tax breaks to fund the sale of equipment needed for long journeys, and apply it..." She sucked in her teeth as Cercei's bite went in a little deeper, "to all intending to support the human sacrifice."

Cercei withdrew her fangs, "Thank you, my Queen. For both hearing me out, and for the trust you show in allowing me to indulge in royal blood."

"There was no need to thank me for either." Queen Calca said solemnly, "I know what she and Blue Rose alike did for you and your city. I am not the least bit surprised you'd show up asking how your city can help the Pope now. Jircniv may have been the first to bow to the Sorcerer King as a ruler... but we are the first to embrace him as a god. In that, I have bested a rival, and I have Kedyn in part, to thank for that. You created almost as many priests as Prart, all others are rushing to catch up, and with the help of the cities of the North, that won't happen. Not for years."