The Trial: Journey's End
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 23: Harsh Reality
...Eastern Minotaur Kingdom...Penitent Fortress 'Last Home'...Days Later...
Mu'Anik sat behind his desk and listened to the report of the scouts. There was nothing on the wall on either side, except his ax, and nothing on his desk, except his weary hands.
"...So the Devor scouts have appeared in increasing numbers, our skirmishers are delaying them, but as long as we refuse to cross the border, our ability to come to grips with them is limited, what are your orders, Sir?" Mu'Bin asked gravely.
The pair were polar opposites, Mu'Bin was young, powerfully built, vigorous, and though not especially tall for a minotaur, the skin over which his dark fur lay, struggled to contain the muscle within, and unlike Mu'Anik... his ax was carried instead of laid aside.
Mu'Anik was gray of fur with age, his eyes lost the sharpness of youth, and he seemed slothful even sitting still. His muscles were faded and his entire body seemed to be a jest of the idea of minotaur vigor.
"What we always do. We keep them back, warn the villages, and withdraw to the fortress, and hope they don't come for us. What else is there?" Mu'Anik added, "Oh, and we tell King Mu'Fidelius how bravely we fought and fended off another invasion." He tapped his fingers on the desk as if he were bored by the report and just waiting for the young bull to leave.
"Sir..." Mu'Bin began urgently, "the ones closest to the border haven't a chance of escape, not even a little."
"Then that just means they won't invade farther into the interior, or come for us now, doesn't it?" Mu'Anik said coldly. "As long as the Devor harvest enough on the border, they won't do worse, will they?"
Mu'Bin felt sick. "Sir... no sir."
"Relax, we're getting a new prisoner soon, someone 'special' just make a space for it, but not much, it's fairly small and it'll probably die in short order, oh and... when it arrives, put it to a 'dangerous' use very quickly." Mu'Anik added with the sort of conspiratorial calm the dullard of a commander used whenever he expected to be getting some dirty work done.
"Do I brief the prisoner when he arrives or just throw it out there with a weapon to die?" Mu'Bin asked with the tired resignation of a minotaur who had seen it happen a thousand times.
Mu'Anik reached into the drawer of his desk and read the order, "Ensure the 'quick' deployment of this 'dangerous' element and 'end' the immediate threat." As orders went, it wasn't subtle.
Mu'Bin groaned internally, wondering what the poor fool had done to get a personal order for a suicidal position from the king himself. "As you say, Commander." He couldn't bring himself to salute, he simply spun about and left the office.
...Nazarick...
Neia was again dressed in the clothing she wore at her trial, sitting upright in the bar across from Pandora's Actor. "So you really think I still have a chance?"
"Mein sister, you are not dead, therefore there is..." He pointed at her dramatically, "still a chance for you! Lord Demiurge and his paramor may have hit you hard, but we will hit back harder! While you are held in bondage, we will question Raymond before the world, he will tell the truth, all things will come to light, and when we are done... what you have done will seem as nothing!"
Neia frowned and looked down at the thick beer that she held in her hand on the table. "Arrogant Bastard Ale... can't ask for better stuff than this, drank it on my honeymoon here, you know. Going to miss it while I rot out there." She said, half distracted with his words and her own tumultuous thoughts.
"Should it really be that way?" She finally asked as she looked up at her father's son. "Should my actions really be trivialized? A lot of people died because I couldn't keep my shit together. I didn't mean for a lot of things to happen... but I 'did' mutilate people, and I 'did' influence my army well enough to make berserkers out of them. Maybe that nation was the worst of the worst, but their children weren't, and many were guilty of nothing but living there. And... I did strike so much terror into them that many fled out into the freezing winter, and died there. I didn't 'force' them out, but terror is a force all its own."
Pandora's Actor stabbed his finger down hard on the table as he made his point in his most dramatic voice, "Mein mittel sister... you did not ask for war, you simply went to end it. And for our lord's world to be, those places had to fall. Mein fellow creation, the demoness who prosecutes you, told them... 'If they hate demons so much, they should stop making them' well if they revile war and retribution so much, then they should have ceased to wage them and ceased to call wrath down upon their heads."
Neia was quiet, and so it was easy to catch the voice when she was addressed. "Neia Baraja." Albedo said calmly as she entered the bar and approached.
"It is time to go." She said with a more gentle voice than Neia had heard out of her before.
Pandora's Actor looked over his shoulder at the Guardian Overseer. "So soon? Not another day?"
Albedo approached and stood behind Neia, then placed her hands gently on the shoulders of the Black Paladin before answering Pandora's Actor. "No. Lord Ainz's orders. Apparently she's being transferred farther from the capital. Her... performance... seems to have caused some concern in some quarters, and Mu'Fidelius and his Queen, to appease the fears of weaker hearts, are putting her in a fortress called 'Last Home'."
Pandora's Actor looked from Lady Albedo to Neia, "I smell a trap."
"I also." Albedo remarked calmly.
"I don't." Neia frowned. "But it doesn't matter. Trap? No trap? The will of my lord will be done. If I'm to die, it will be under the justice of my father, if I am to live... it will be the same, and if I am freed, it will be the same. I am not much for conspiracies. I am a warrior of the divine, and nothing will bar the ascendancy of my god. His will be done, in all the world, as within these halls of mighty Nazarick."
Her blue eyes were bright as a clear sky as she met the gaze of Pandora's Actor.
Albedo crouched down and whispered into her ear, "Very good.. Yes... very, very good. That will make mother very... very proud of you."
Neia finished her beer, and with eyes of steel she looked at the blank face of Pandora's Actor and stood up as she spoke. "Take me back, brother. I am grateful to both of you for your protection in this desperate time... but I won't put off the inevitable out of fear. I have a job to do after all."
"You do, but also... take this." Albedo said gently, and slowly turned Neia around to face her. She tilted Neia's face up, and put a necklace over her head. "This will help keep back your... prophetic states."
Neia reached up and touched the necklace, but kept her blue eyes on the gold of the beautiful succubus. "Th-thank you... mother..." She said, it felt strange, her heart skipped a beat. And then it skipped a few more. 'How… strange that felt to say, but also good.' Neia thought to herself as she savored the thought of being held in such regard.
Albedo waved the appreciation away, "It is what a mother does to protect her young... Now, we must also see to protecting you from what awaits you. Bear what you must, but know that we are working hard."
"I know... I know, and I..." Neia looked down at the necklace that she had raised up in her palm, a small teardrop etched with tiny writing that she couldn't read, with intricate designs around it from top to bottom, at first glance it appeared very simple, but with her sharp eyes, it was obviously a masterwork of priceless value.
"I am grateful, for everything." Neia finished at last. "Can I see him, you know, before I go?" Neia bit her lip at the question which she was sure she already knew the answer to.
"No... but know this..." Albedo tilted Neia's head up to meet her eyes again, "He will be watching you."
"I will be worthy of that faith." Neia said boldly, "Now... shall we?"
"Yes." Albedo answered, "I will be taking you myself however, Pandora's Actor will be visiting your 'former' prison, to collect Raymond."
Albedo reached into her pocket dimension and drew out the things she would use to deliver her, and Neia opened her mouth to accept the gag, and the Guardian Overseer looked down at the items she held in her hand.
"No. Not here. You will not have this done to you, not here." She said firmly, and when the gate opened, she said with a barely concealed anger, "Go as you are, let it be done in the place where cowards live, never here."
Neia broke into a smile, and walked through the gate with her back straight and without hesitation.
Albedo followed after, and then they were gone.
...Kirakira Prison...
Mu'Ulm was displeased. In the absence of the human General, the instructors continued to provide their guidance, and the human Cardinal inserted himself as a kind of 'right hand' though as he looked down at the human walking beside him while they appraised the formation, he got the sense that unease racked them both, but that it was not of the same sort.
Fifty minotaurs, five ranks deep and ten abreast, marched with shields out and, and demolished the loose ranks arrayed against them like they were not even there, a suggestion of the Cardinal to 'test' the efficacy of their new methods.
"By Kiril's balls..." Mu'Ulm said, for a moment forgetting everything for a moment as the strength of a formation was demonstrated against individuals.
Up above, the guards pounded their hooves in acknowledgement at what they saw. Faint whispers of 'warriors' came down from above, as the occasional recalcitrant guard which had held out against seeing the prisoners as more than beasts, was shocked out of disbelief by undoubtable iron discipline.
"They cut through them like butter... a mere fifty... cut through twice their number. What would that do to the beastmen, if we numbered in the thousands, and held real weapons?" Mu'Ulm wondered aloud, with breathless awe in his voice.
"To borrow a phrase from my... former enemy, I believe she would say that 'You would fucking kill them all.' Raymond answered crudely, and the elf instructor who approached, could not keep back a grin.
"She would definitely say something like that. But... why are 'you' assisting here?" The elf asked with a furrowed brow.
"Because I have nothing better to do. I was supposed to testify days ago, but she hasn't come back, and nobody has come to take me or tell me anything. The least I can do is help make warriors stronger, and it beats sitting with my back to the wall looking glum." Raymond answered in a very banal voice.
"It is true I can never really forgive her for some of what she's done... she drowned twenty thousand of my soldiers after I begged for her to spare them. Not to mention the rest of the city, which she then had completely erased, though that at least wasn't in my kingdom. The slaughter of Wheaton will taint her name forever, not to mention the fates of those who fled and froze, or those she mutilated, or how I begged her to spare my city... I... I know how you feel about us. But they were still my people, and while I tried to save bodies as much as souls, she killed so many that it will be generations before my... 'former country' recovers its numbers." Raymond fidgeted with his fingers, gripping his prison garb.
"But I know 'why' she did it too, how it came to that, and how we could have prevented it, and that too is part of history, a history I won't let be forgotten to set us up for a future conflict by painting some foolish image of ourselves as innocent victims. We did have innocents but, as a nation? We were a lost people, we raised up demons, it is no surprise they came for us." Raymond didn't flinch as he spoke to the elven instructor, but the hollowness of his tone said well enough how the conflict had marked him.
"Besides... if... certain people to whom I was very close, were around right now, they'd want me to help here, and see strength blossom." Raymond paused and looked at the western wall, "I don't know if one of them is even still alive, but I hope she is, and that she's happy, whatever she's doing with the life she got back." Raymond lost himself in thought and his memories ran through the faces of the elf slaves he and his friends had liberated and hidden away, the children had almost certainly been fostered out the day they were taken, most of them probably to the eastern province bordering the Beastman Kingdom. 'Are the little ones happy... did they find their parents... did their parents survive? I guess those are things I'll never know. But they lived, they're free, I suppose that is enough.'
He was so lost in thought, that he didn't even notice the hand of the behemoth minotaur on his shoulder until it shook him.
Raymond snapped out of his stupor, and looked up to Mu'Ulm, who pointed behind him.
Raymond turned around, "I know that one. Excuse me... it must be time." He said, and inclined his head to the elf and the minotaur, then turned to approach the one he knew as 'Pandora's Actor'.
"Is it..." Raymond began, only to be interrupted almost immediately.
"You, are you one of hers?" Mu'Ulm demanded brusquely as he jogged behind Raymond.
Pandora's Actor looked up at the massive minotaur. "Are you hers, mein gut bull?"
Mu'Ulm didn't hesitate. "Yes."
Pandora's Actor bowed dramatically, "The frauline you speak of es mein sister... of a sort. We are servants of the one god, and I am her defender in your country's court."
Mu'Ulm felt his head swim as the information was just dumped upon him by the bizarre creature.
"Ah, well, where is she?" He asked bluntly, forcing out the big question and quietly filing away all the others for later asking.
"There was an incident, she lives, but you do not need the details, I am sure they will filter to you anyway, as your guards learn of it. Suffice it to say, she will not be returning here, in terror of mein sister, your Ard Rhi has consented to requests to move her to the Fortress of Last Home in the east of your kingdom."
Mu'Ulm stamped his hoof hard. "Get her out!" He said urgently.
Pandora's Actor looked up at him. "Why?" He asked.
"She will die there." Mu'Ulm said with his large brown eyes growing wide, he stepped imposingly close to Pandora's Actor.
"What is dangerous about that place?" Pandora's Actor inquired further, his blank face seeming somehow more intent as he inched closer to the giant minotaur.
Mu'Ulm snorted angrily and his eyes turned red with wrath. "I am from the east, I know that land, it is the raiding ground of the Devor Empire. They call that fortress, 'Last Home' because nobody gets another afterward, they die there. Trash units, incompetent commanders, trouble makers or inconvenient persons end up there. They are 'supposed' to defend the border. In fact what they actually do is warn the surrounding area, fight a few skirmishes, and then let the Devor come in and take who they want and go home. Anyone sent there can expect to fight stupid battles, get captured sooner or later, and eaten. The commander there for the last twenty years has only lasted because he's sacrificed the surrounding areas and left the raiding parties alone when they cross back over the border with the harvest of our people. If they don't get enough of us, the raiders strike the fortress and he sends out his warriors as 'sacrifices' to stave off a siege."
"Then why has he not been replaced?" Pandora's Actor asked with sudden interest.
"Because he has boasted about 'keeping them from the interior' if General Baraja is being sent there, I promise you they're expecting her to die." Mu'Ulm said with unshakable certainty and stamped his hoof with rage.
"Why would they want mein sister dead? They're already trying her. They can just find her guilty and have her executed." Pandora's Actor pointed out, but already he was connecting dots as he watched Raymond with interest.
Raymond's mind went into absolute overdrive as he considered everything he'd just heard. 'Are they insane? Are they stupid? No... no they just don't know what they're dealing with, they're just like we were before everything went to hell. Mu'Fidelius you fool... or... should I be mocking the Devor. If they really do kill her, who knows what horrors will be unleashed? Her wife will call for a holy crusade, the Sorcerous Empire might mobilize, the Sorcerer King himself might take the field, and I doubt very much they'd forget who put her in danger by stationing her there.' All that passed through Raymond's mind in a moment, but when he noticed Pandora's Actor looking at him, he answered bluntly, brutally, and without any merciful padding of the facts that would make Mu'Fidelius or the Minotaur Kingdom look any better.
"Because they want to use the Sorcerer King. If the Devor kill her, it's their fault, the Minotaur King offers his condolences and allows the Sorcerer King to send his armies through... best case, the Devor are defeated and badly weakened for generations, worst case, the Sorcerer King is defeated..." Raymond paused to laugh at the notion, and when it faded, he continued, "and the west won't pose a problem later. He's playing both ends against the middle, and gambling with the life of Neia Baraja." Raymond said with confidence.
"A sensible conclusion. But one which has an end they have not considered." Pandora's Actor replied.
"Oh?" Mu'Ulm and Raymond asked at once.
Pandora's Actor looked to the east, and though his face was blank, they felt a very pleased sense of amusement coming off of his body. "Ja, zat mein guten sister educates the Devor on why she is called the 'Demon of the West'."
