The Trial: Journey's End

Written by: AtheistBasementDragon

Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots

Chapter 24: Resolute

...Menowa...

Nua stood at the same spot where she'd been dropped off the week before, and just as she expected, within a few hours, Mu'Sula was pulling his empty cart up, though from the opposite direction.

"Need another supply run?" He asked jovially, patting the cart behind him.

"I do, and I assume it's the same price as before, five silver for the ride, two if I keep you entertained?" Nua asked with an equally jovial smile.

"Thasright!" He couldn't smile the way she could, but he had such a pleasant air about him in the way he said it, with casual gestures that made you forget that he was almost seven and a half feet tall and that she had to crane her neck to look up at him.

"Alright, well wait till I tell you this one, about the time I faced the Demon of the West in a dead city, and so saved Kami Miyako from the worst genocide of humanity in six hundred years." Nua said as she jumped easily up to the cart and sat herself down, she put her legs up on an empty barrel and relaxed backward as Mu'Sula began to pull.

A few hours later they reached Hilloa and pulled up in front of the general store. "So that was how I got the demon to show mercy, and did what the last and greatest General of the Slane Theocracy, and the only surviving Cardinal of the same, could not do."

"OK... now that is definitely a story worth hearing, but... when do you head back to the city?" Mu'Sula asked hopefully. 'OK, that has to be the last story that she's got... I can kill her on the way there, the money she's got in that pouch, I could live off for ten lifetimes.'

"Wait here a moment, and I'll find out, if you want to make some extra hauling the stuff I'll need, back with me, well I'll pay you ten silver for the trip." Nua proposed as she hopped down and landed with the adroit ease of an elf, and walked with the grace of a dancer.

Her clothing, black but for the rising sun, was eye catching in its quality, and from behind her, Mu'Sula looked at her with avaricious eyes. "Twenty." He said, then added, "Fifteen if you've got a story as good as that one."

Nua didn't look over her shoulder as she opened the door to the crude store, "Oh I do. Wait till you hear about my time living with the Serial Killer of Kami Miyako."

Mu'Sula did not leave, he waited eagerly until she came back outside, chatting amicably with the store owner, he was bare chested, but wore an apron around his thick waist, and snorted as she asked if he could load up the cart with enough supplies for a month at the price she offered.

"Thanks to your last big purchase, I could fill five such wagons, but you're being very generous... so... why?" He asked.

"People who have no money, spend no money, people who have it but don't spend it, don't help those who don't have it, make any. So... I'm spending well, my generosity would please my god, surely you've heard of the one God, the Sorcerer King?"

He raised a brow and shook his head, Mu'Sula paid only half attention as he caught a few words here and there as she talked and the shopkeeper worked to get the cart loaded up.

Nua's attempt at help was brushed aside, "You're the customer, my best customer, and this is 'my' job." The shopkeep said resolutely, so Nua waited aside and chatted him up as he worked, until he was done. "Oh, and refill my friend here's water skin with something decent to drink, tack it onto the bill." She said and jerked her thumb at Mu'Sula, whose mouth fell open in surprise as he found himself handing over his water skin and the shopkeep filled it up with fresh juice.

"Best I've got." He said and handed it to Mu'Sula.

"Thanks." Mu'Sula said in barely coherent understanding at what had just happened.

"Alright, let's go." Nua said as she hopped back up into the cart, and Mu'Sula started pushing the cart forward again and was a quarter mile down the road before he even really realized what had happened.

"So, about that serial killer story?" He prompted as she finished her meal and drink behind him.

"Oh yes, you'll love this one." She said with a proud little smirk.

By the time they'd returned to the front of what she intended to be her temple, he realized something else. 'Damn it, I can't kill her this time either... sure it's dark and I might get away with it, but... you don't get stories like this every day.'

"Same time next week?" He asked.

"Well, I've got a month's supply here, but there is something I need that maybe you can help me with." Nua said hopefully, he looked down at her with interest after he unloaded everything and put it inside.

"I need laborers, skilled laborers, people who can work with stone, wood, that kind of thing. I'd prefer master craftsmen, but they're probably hard to come by." Nua stroked her chin, only to stop when Mu'Sula shook his head.

"Nobody's hiring anyone that good these days, how many do you need?" He asked.

"I need enough to build a good temple out of this place, I'll pay gold for supplies and labor, you deliver plenty of both to me by the end of the week, and you'll get a commission on every laborer, say a silver for every week of their labor." Nua said, and watched the spark of opportunity light in the eyes of her industrious friend.

"If I can bring them tomorrow?" He asked.

"Ten silver. On delivery only. None of that, 'they'll be here soon' nonsense." Nua said, and stuck out her hand.

"Be up early." He said and took her hand in his. "See you tomorrow." He winked and wheeled his cart around and began to push it back the way they'd come.

He was as good as his word, when Nua got up the next morning, a group of laborers and three wagonloads of materials were parked outside.

Nua counted out ten and put them in his hand immediately. As if to show them he was serious, Mu'Sula held the coins up between his fingers so that the laborers could see it.

'I did not know minotaurs could move that fast!' Nua thought as they scrambled out of their carts and presented themselves in a line in front of her. She looked over to one side, many a minotaur just sat around, a few ambled hopelessly, wearily, more than a few looked bereft and hungry, if any had a purpose, it was beyond her to tell what it was.

However the actions she was undertaking, had drawn some curious glances.

"I'll make it simple, you build me a temple worthy of a god, I pay you well, you put forth your best effort, I pay you what you deserve for it. And believe me, I 'will' know real effort from fake, and I don't pay slackers." Nua said using the powerful speaking voice she'd been taught to project in class.

With her shoulders back and her body straight, she displayed confidence unthinkable to her a few years earlier, and with her eyes piercing and golden as she pumped mana into the power of her expression, she was the image of 'presence'.

Though she held up a single gold coin in front of her, and 'that' drew far more. "Ten silvers per day, with one gold coin bonus at the end of the week for the best performer."

They would work themselves half to death.

"Also... you can hire from this area if you want extra labor, I'll pay unskilled labor ten coppers per day, just tell me what you'll need. Try to cheat me though, and you'll lose everything. I'm generous, because it is the will of my god that I be so. But do not mistake that for weakness. Because weakness is a sin, and I will not live as a sinner!' She pronounced her words loudly and with force, and ensured that those in the square nearby heard every word, the promise of coin had the shiftless and motionless moving, and as she dismissed the skilled laborers to get to work, they were immediately beset by other minotaurs asking for work.

"This will be an excellent start." Nua said, and set up a few boxes to stand on so that she could preach the message of her god, to skilled and unskilled alike, as they worked to build a temple worthy of his glory. 'I will repay you, Demon of the West, and God of this world...' She thought resolutely, and then began to preach.

...Crescent Lake...

Bertra was just about to close up shop when she saw the familiar face of Lovien of house Alu approaching. She opened the door for him, and smiled warmly. "Welcome to 'Brighter Days Book Shop' she said, and waved him in with one arm extending out to encompass her little business.

"Nice, have you been here all that long?" He asked curiously.

"No, not really, I got started shortly after I settled into Crescent Lake, but this is a relatively new thing for me. I haven't lived here but a few years." She said as she closed and locked the door behind her and began to walk to the back of the store.

"Oh, can I ask where you were before that?" He said, and she missed a step as the question caught her off guard.

"N-North." She swallowed hard.

"Oh... sorry... I guess you don't like talking about that, I of all people should know better than to ask something like that." Lovien apologized, shamefaced, from behind her.

"No, it's a natural question, and are we going to spend the next thousand years unable to ask each other where we used to live, out of fear of unpleasant memories?" Bertra shrugged at the question and opened the door into the back, a table awaited him, and she gestured to a chair.

"I hope not, I've got to be honest... I'm not very good at this kind of thing." He said as he moved to take the seat she motioned to.

"It's alright," she smiled warmly, "writing is a skill just like any other, you get better with practice, if you want to write well, write often and look for your mistakes, and try to correct them until you stop making them. I'll help you as much as I can, of course."

He shook his head, "No... I mean... I do intend to do this and I definitely need help but... I was honestly hoping to get to know you a little better too."

Bertra stared at him uncomprehendingly.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" Bertra asked, her wide eyes locked on his.

"Maybe I should go... I said I'm not good at this, and I've made you uncomfortable. Forgive me." He made to stand, and she shook her head.

"No, no, it's alright." She went over and put her hand to his shoulder and lightly pressed him down to his seat.

"It's just... I didn't know how to take that. I was... well, thank you. Why don't I make some tea, this might not be the best subject to get to know each other over, but you came all this way." Bertra remarked, and quickly moved out of the room as he set himself to writing.

'You can't be serious Bertra, he's an elf and you're... ok yes, an elf, but you used to have his kind, your kind... enslaved. Hell, don't worry about it, just... just do this for the right reason and don't worry about the rest, he'll lose interest in you before his story is done, and then it won't matter.' She pondered in an instant as she began to pour tea into the pot and sparked the plate beneath to heat the water.

...Nazarick...

Vanysa was sorely troubled. So much so that she found herself sitting in the bar drinking with Shalltear. She kept her demonic form as a matter of course, it was more comfortable for her. "You know," Shalltear said as she drank, "people come here to be happy, not miserable."

"So I've heard." Vanysa replied, "But I've also heard how you came here after that incident with His Majesty, so it seemed like a good idea."

Shalltear grumbled a bit and took a long drink from her mug. "Maybe I did, but I tried to kill my master, at least I had a reason to be miserable. What's your excuse?" The vampire asked grumpily.

"I almost tortured his daughter." Vanysa said bluntly, and drank her mug all the way down and raised it up way overhead. "Gimmie another!" She shouted.

"Oh well is that a..." Shalltear began, and then sprayed her drink all over Vanysa's face as she heard and understood what was said.

Vanysa calmly wiped her face with the cloth. "Proly shoulda waited fer yah to swallow b'fore ah answered'ja."

Insanity danced like nobles at a ball in those storm gray eyes and she snatched up the mug and began to drink it as fast as she could, the barmaid hadn't gone six steps before Vanysa raised the now empty mug overhead and shouted, "Another! An keep em comin!"

Shalltear was very, very quiet as thoughts ran through her head. 'That was not what I expected, I thought they were friends?'

"She's mah friend, on'a mah only friends... an not only do ah gots tah try'an kill'r out'n court... ah had tah hurt her here tah try'n help'er. An if that ain't bad'nuff..." Vanysa's gray eyes went hard as steel beneath shimmering pools...

"When I saw her on the table and sat beside her... all I wanted was to make her scream for me. It makes no damn sense!" Vanysa shouted, finished another beer, and threw her mug down onto the floor where it shattered into a thousand little pieces.

"Did she do something? I mean, isn't knowing what somebody's done to deserve that, kind of your whole thing?" She waved her hand up and down in front of the demoness's body.

Vanysa nodded emphatically. "Yes! And I tell you Lady Shalltear, I know that girl really... really well. Sessions like what we've sat through together are... intimate, no not that kind. But we get to know each other very well, it's the only way to move past the things we've had to deal with, so I should see every bad thing she's ever done to deserve..." She held out her palm and pointed her sharp talons up for emphasis, "these. But somehow, there's still obscurity, and as I've gotten stronger lately, the urge to hurt her has only grown. I want to help her... I do, but still... when she was there..." Vanysa squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

Shalltear frowned. "We're not exactly friends, you know. Despite our occasional overlapping amusements."

Vanysa nodded slowly. "No, I know."

"But I will give you some good advice." Shalltear said and pointed at her sharply. "There are only three people who know what is wrong with you. You. Her. And Lord Ainz. Neither of you have gotten to the bottom of it yet, but I bet he knows, because he knows everything."

Vanysa lowered her eyes. "How do I ask him... this?!"

"You don't ask, you confess." Shalltear said calmly, "You almost hurt her, and to damage one of his servants is a terrible crime. If you can't keep your head right around her, you need to admit it to him and beg for merciful forgiveness before you offer your life to atone."

Vanysa looked down into her beer, her miserable expression reflected back up at her. "Yeah... yeah that's right. I have to take responsibility... but... I think I should be sober first, I'll wait here until I am... then I'll go see him."

...Fortress of Last Home...

Neia stepped out of the gate in front of the Guardian Overseer. "This place looks like shit." Neia said bluntly, "At least I won't have to look at it much." Neia said with a sigh.

Albedo looked around as the gate vanished. The Pope was not wrong. Thick forest was nice enough, but the 'fortress' was one step removed from ruin, chunks torn out of lots of bits of stone, crenelations were broken in places, blasted, burned waste in front of it, a stink of garbage and excrement hung in the air.

Neia turned to face Albedo. "Please just make this quick... 'mother'." She said awkwardly, "I... I hate this degradation. But for father's sake... I'll bear it." She opened her mouth and shut her eyes to await the gag and the hood, and held her hands out with her wrists close together for the chains.

Albedo looked down at the implements in her hand and squeezed her hand into a fist, bending the adamantite chains into a ruined mess.

"No." Albedo looked down at the hood, chains, and the humiliating gag that shoved metal into Neia's mouth to silence her for the hand off. Her golden eyes flashed with anger.

"You're the equivalent of royalty to these insects. Lord Ainz himself elevated you, and if he's your father, that makes me 'mother' and I won't do that to one of mine." Albedo snapped, and Neia closed her mouth, opened her eyes, and lowered her hands. "Let them complain to the king if they're too cowardly to look into your eyes. We're done with this garbage, at least outside of the court." Albedo threw the items back into her pocket dimension with the utmost contempt, and her wings shook with anger as she stormed toward the gate of the fortress. "Now come with me."

"As you wish... mother." Neia said calmly and followed behind the ungodly beauty.

As they entered the open gate, Albedo looked around with distaste, "You couldn't keep a cow out of this place..." Neia said with revulsion as she looked at the broken gaps in the walls.

Albedo moved like water over glass until a large, vigorous looking minotaur seemed to have enough sense to stop her and inquire what she wanted.

"I'm here to deliver a... prisoner. General Neia Baraja of the Sorcerous Empire."

Neia stepped out from behind the tall, statuesque woman and looked up to meet the face of the minotaur who addressed the Guardian Overseer.

"Fine, she's received, I'll put her in the cage, don't really have cells but... we do keep some dogs here, guess she can go in there with them." The minotaur scratched under his chin thoughtfully.

Albedo's golden eyes went wide with outrage, and then an enormous bardiche was under the minotaur's neck before he could understand that there was even a threat. "Offend me or my kingdom like that again, minotaur, and I will feed those dogs your face... a piece at a time. She 'is' a prisoner, but she will 'not' be a dog. Find quarters for her suitable for an officer, and bring out your commander... now, you filthy insect!"

The smell of ammonia in the air increased copiously, and the minotaur warrior raised his head and tilted back to escape the blade of the black bardiche.

Neia barely restrained her smile. Vaguely, the memory of her mother's hand coming down in a rage, returned to her mind, and then receded further into unpleasant memory. Suddenly calling the Lady Albedo by that word seemed much more, 'comfortable' as well as 'comforting'.

The minotaur withdrew, step by step his hooves carried him backward, and he left Neia along with Albedo alone in the courtyard of the fortress. "This place must have been formidable, once. At least by standards not worth mentioning to father." Neia uttered.

"Is that so?" Albedo asked with a dismissive sniff as she turned up her nose.

"Yes... mother. The walls are thick, where they still stand at least, and the towers offer a broad view of the surrounding area, it is clearly a mockery of what once was, but like a corpse on the field, you can still see what it must have been when it still had vigor to it." Neia crinkled her nose as she spoke, and added, "It does smell to the heavens though, I am amazed you didn't smell this all the way back in Nazarick."

"At least you'll avoid the cage." Albedo remarked, "But if they mistreat you..."

Neia half expected her to say 'call for me' instead, Albedo spoke as a demon would, "kill them."

Neia's eyes flashed briefly black, with tiny points of red within, and as she looked down into those depths, Albedo saw what she had not understood before. 'It is... like his... as if she truly were the child of his body. Has she cast herself so thoroughly into his service that her humanity is not what it once was? Or is this some effect of her evangelism, as she tries to become like the god she serves?' Despite her genius, no answer was forthcoming to the Guardian Overseer's mind, and so she was lost in thought until a gray furred old minotaur presented himself.

"I am Mu'Anik, commander of this fortress, I apologize for my subordinate's rude remarks, the prisoner will be afforded every ah, courtesy, while she resides here, and treated as if she herself were a minotaur, and no mere human." The minotaur lowered his head to the demon woman, and Albedo's senses tingled at the back of her mind.

'He is up to something. What is special about this fortress?' She wondered, only to be jolted out of her thoughts by the feel of Neia's hand on her arm.

"It will be fine, all will be as father wills it, no matter what that end may be, into his will, I commend my spirit." Neia's voice was so resolutely tranquil, as if no end mattered at all, that for a moment Albedo was taken aback, a state she knew shouldn't have surprised her, given what the small human had already done in his name.

Neia stepped in front of her and looked over her shoulder, her eyes the picture of darkness, with only a faint hint of red in the deepest of recesses, "Thank you... mother, for bringing me this far, I will see you at the trial, when the time comes again, you can leave me here now, I will be in... his care."

The peaceful, quiet voice of the human sent tingling shivers down Mu'Anik's spine and made his hairs stand on end, as if he were confronted with some new threat and not a prisoner. 'Being rid of this thing will be a relief.' He thought to himself when the little human stepped forward.

"Yes, I have her now, thank you, please rest assured, we will not do her any harm." Mu'Anik reassured the Guardian Overseer, and stepped aside to gesture to a termite eaten door behind where they stood.

'Idiot... it is not 'your' care of whom my daughter speaks... whatever is happening, woe to you if you anger my beloved... or myself, by what you do here next.' Albedo thought, and walked away, when the Black Paladin vanished behind a closed door.