The Trial: Journey's End

Written by: AtheistBasementDragon

Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots

Chapter 36: An Offer He Can't Refuse

...Menowa...

Nua dismounted easily from the cart. Hopping gracefully over the side without touching the barrier at the side. She landed on her toes and easily bounced, revealing a hint to Mu'Sula of the martial training she had surely received. She looked around idly and in a smooth motion now familiar to Mu'Sula, she reached into her pouch and took out a handful of coins, and per the usual agreement, he handed her three back. "Fascinating story... but how about your return trip? Will you be here long?" He asked with a covetous look down at her coin pouch.

"That depends on the farmer, but from the looks of things, I don't think I will be. But... where are the others?" She frowned slightly.

The land was not in the best of shape. Her lips pursed tight and turned down slightly at the corners.

"Others?" Mu'Sula asked with sudden curiosity.

"Yes, I sent invitations to all the others in the area that a great offer would be made to them, if only they showed up at this farmhouse on this day, around this time." She said without looking at him as she crouched down and ran her hands through the soil. Far from being the dark, rich soil she knew from her time in the Slane Theocracy, this was dry, parched, and frankly half dead.

"Mu'Sula...?" She said as she patted the ground and watched the dust come up.

"Yes, Lady Nua?" He asked as he felt the authority in her voice.

"Do you know anything about farming?" She asked with some gentleness in her tone.

"Not much, father was a merchant, mother, I don't know. Why do you ask?" He cocked his head and scratched just under his jaw as she went quiet after asking.

"I used to specialize in potions when I was a slave, I was really, really good at it. But in between those times, when I wasn't warming beds or mixing ingredients, the Slane Theocracy often used me for farm labor out in the fields, and you know, if you do something long enough, you get good at it. And as I look at this soil, I know two things." She stood up and began to dust off her hands as she looked around and noticed the scarcity of crops that were growing on the land, and what there was that was still growing, was not in the best of shape. Her elven eyes told her that the leaves were brittle, their pale color spoke of poor nutrition and perhaps limited water access, it wasn't hard for her to see the problems that this farm had, even within a few minutes looking.

"And?" He asked idly as he climbed up and sat in the cart, stretching out his long, thickly muscled legs.

"Well, the soil is bad, they're overusing it, and the water is insufficient, they're trying to grow more than they can. The best I can figure here is that the kingdom is trying to grow too much on too small a space, and they're destroying the soil." Nua turned and gave him a smile that looked somehow both sweet and sharp at once, with her eyes closed, her head cocked to one side, and her lips pursed with the corners turned up, it was more like a mask than a genuine expression.

"That means this'll be less expensive than I thought. We may have to go to a few other farms if nobody else showed up, but by this time tomorrow, all these farms around here will be mine, which is to say, I'll be putting them into temple care. When that happens... I was thinking..." She said with a kindly, gentle expression that somehow set Mu'Sula on edge.

"Yes...?" He asked as he sat up and looked at her with interest as he sensed opportunity rising.

Nua's smile deepend as she hopped back into the cart and stood over him. "How about you work for me full time? I could use a man with connections to both the legitimate and the illegitimate areas of the Minotaur Kingdom. You'll be extremely well paid every month, instead of scrounging day after day, and what's more..." She reached out and put one hand under his chin so that his eyes met hers, "you can finally stop plotting to kill me and rob my corpse, you'll make far, far more alive and serving my God, than you ever could 'trying' to kill one former slave servant and snatching the coins off her corpse."

Mu'Sula sputtered and scrambled up as he spat out the denials, she only stepped back from him, giving him space.

"Oh... Mu'Sula..." Nua shook her head sadly, "I'm an elf female who lived a life full of betrayal and abuse, that is easily five times longer than your entire life put together. When you go through that, you get good at spotting the nefarious, or you get dead. My life depended on me being able to read the people around me, and what their intentions were. It was obvious from the moment we met, that you were plotting to rob me, and probably kill me."

She gestured to the wagon seat where he'd popped to his feet, "Sit." She said, and did so herself to set him at ease, resting her forearms on her knees and closing her hands together between them.

He reluctantly obeyed, still stunned, she didn't wait for him to ask the obvious.

"Because you never asked where in the capital I was going, that meant it didn't matter, because you didn't plan on me reaching my destination. Because every time we stopped, your eyes were on the place I kept my coins, because you were the only healthy minotaur in that town, and there was no way you were staying that way on the profits of those meagre goods you were hauling when we met." Nua sighed as he looked at her with dismay, his large body went completely limp.

"It was pretty obvious that you wanted what I was carrying, your questions about my status, at best, could have only meant I'd be a hostage held for ransom, but all that would have meant is a later death for me, Black Justice does 'not' make bargains like that. Prisoner exchange... sure, but you'd have gotten nothing if you'd tried to sell me, and..." Her eyes glowed with golden light and she stared at him angrily, "I will never... ever be a captive again. You want to take me, you'd better kill me, a corpse is all you're getting. I'm free, and will never be bound again. Not by anyone." Nua's forceful demeanor was clear and to the point.

"So... you knew the whole time..." he gave in and his face fell, then it shot up to look at her again, "wait... then why are you offering me work?!"

Nua shrugged, "I'm used to working with evil, I lived surrounded by evil for most of my life, had to work under it, alongside it, and every ruler ever born has been evil to one degree or another, even the good ones. You're capable, smart, ambitious, and sensible enough not to act stupidly for short term gain. Plus..." She smiled slightly, in what almost could have been affection, "you like a good story, and I find that endearing. Once I realized you and I had that in common, I didn't want to kill you, I figured you'd be more of an asset anyway, but if that is going to work, we have to be frank with one another. All our cards are on the table, if anything happens to me, well I've already sent a letter to the Papal Estate. You'll be assumed to be responsible. And... remember, this is the same organization whose head burned down an entire city to kill six assassins, and another to avenge one dead whore. Even if the founder is killed, her wife is as dangerous as she is, and won't be in a forgiving mood for a good long time." Nua laid out the terms very starkly, and held his eyes on hers without flinching or blinking.

All he could do was listen as she went on.

"Besides that, I doubt you're good enough to kill me. I finished top of my class in self defense, that's why I got the explorer qualifier to come here. I don't like it, but I was an extremely dangerous demon, I can take any pain you could inflict in trying to kill me, and unlike when I was mere livestock, I learned how to give it right back. Questions?" Nua asked with a sweet girlish smile on her face that made Mu'Sula's mouth fall agape.

"I... ah... wait, am I being 'offered' a job, or told I have one?" Mu'Sula asked as he felt the rug being pulled out from under his hooves.

"Little of one, little of the other. I can't have you running around committing crimes after having been associated with His Majesty now, can I? If you do bad things, that might come back to me, and if it comes back to me, it comes back to my god, and it may hurt his reputation, and I'd kill you ten times over to prevent that. Simply put, Mu'Sula, you're being offered a choice between considerable wealth, comfort, and ease, for the rest of your life... or..." She shrugged, "People disappear all the time on the road, don't they? Didn't you say something like that to me when we first met, or thereabouts?"

Mu'Sula threw back his head, grabbed his horns in his hands, and laughed uproariously.

"Oh by god, Lady Nua, you should have been born a minotaur bandit. You've made me an offer I can't refuse, comfort and wealth or death..." He huffed hard and folded his arms over his legs, and hunched forward toward her.

"Fine, you're right about everything, all my connections for disposing of goods... or if you need it... people, are yours. That's why you chose the stories you did, isn't it, so that when it came time for this conversation, I'd know better than to fuck with you people, isn't it?" His friendly demeanor was gone, but she didn't flinch from the stone cold figure who now sat across from her.

She smiled sweet as poisoned pie right back at him. "Exactly. See, you are smart, live an honest life in service to my god, and you'll be safe from retribution, it'll be decades before this country becomes his, and by then you'll able to die fat, happy, and old, and if I should 'forget' all your past misdeeds in exchange for your faithful service the rest of the time... well, I'll be very busy for centuries to come."

"It's a bargain, then. We can work out the details of my full pay, but one thing I want thrown in at the outset. One thing I've wanted since I was a boy, give me that, and I'm yours for life." He replied calmly as he extended his hand.

"What is that?" Nua asked as she looked down at the hand outstretched in front of her.

"I want a nice house in a nice place, and... a secretary and one servant. You provide those, and good pay the rest of the time, and hell, crime is a necessity, not a hobby, I'll gladly give it up for a better option, and if that includes opening up the smugglers and so on to you, well, I get the feeling that however they think of it at the outset, they'll come away happier for it." Mu'Sula replied, and Nua stuck out her hand and shook on the bargain.

"Good choice." Nua said, "Now wait here," she glanced over and saw a number of minotaurs strolling over the land toward the farmhouse, "I've got work to do." She then hopped over the side gracefully, as Mu'Sula waved casually to her and replied...

"You got it... boss."

...Crescent Lake...

When Bertra opened the door to her shop after hours and admitted Lovien into it, she had a smile on her face that matched his own. He flashed his charismatic smile with his perfect teeth, and it seemed to light up the room, in his hand, he carried a wooden tray covered with a wooden lid.

"What's that?" She asked, her eyes darting to it cautiously.

"Dinner, as promised." He replied, and took it over to the table in the back and set it down. Her eyes went over to the spot on the wall where he'd pressed her, her fist clenched and her teeth went briefly on edge, but he saw none of that as he worked with the tray.

"This one is a real marvel." He said without looking at her, "It's a new item for the dwarf kingdom for keeping food warm away from the fire. It's got a pair of fire runes engraved in it in two places, but the board for the tray is actually slightly separated into three parts, and those have a rune for 'cold' so one spot is hot, and it's a few inches deep to hold plates or bowls, while the rest of the tray is kept cool, all connected by rods underneath that attach to these handles on the sides. Keeps the food warm and the tray won't burn, very clever, really." He set the lid aside and quickly laid out the plates so that they sat across from one another, along with a fork, spoon, and knife each.

"I'm afraid I didn't bring anything to drink... circumstances being what they were... it didn't seem appropriate." He said, a tinge of embarrassment coming over his face before he gestured to the seat.

She looked over the meal, it looked expensive. She sat down at the table opposite her guest, "You never really talk about your house much, you've said you're part of house Alu, but you didn't mention it was part of the wealthy class."

"I just assumed you knew who we were when I said it, you must not have lived anywhere near here before your time in... the North. House Alu has been an established part of elven nobility since before the Elf King rose to power." Lovien said in passing as he cut into his steak in sync with Bertra.

She blinked, startled, "No... no I wasn't anywhere near here. You might say it was so far away that it was... nothing like this." She looked toward the door that led out to her shop, and from her shop out into the great city.

They spoke for awhile as the sun set outside and the magic candles flared up between them. It became steadily easier, as he laughed and joked with her, she found it easier and easier to put that memory out of her mind, to blame the wine, to blame the intensity of emotion, to pretend... it never happened, or if it did, it didn't happen 'how' she remembered it, and to blame the wine again for her 'poor recollection' and to give more weight to his apology.

"I see..." He replied to something she'd said of her nonexistent past with a pleasant smile, "But... you didn't get table manners like that from a village."

She froze. 'Shit.' She thought, but smiled outwardly, "I'm amazed you noticed, but..." She flailed about for an excuse until she hit on something, and turned her face down, "I learned it in Kami Miyako."

He stiffened. "I'm sorry I asked. It's strange isn't it... how easily we've all decided the same thing."

"I don't understand?" She asked him as she dipped her bread into the thick, rich stew that sat beside her plate. The fragrant juices of the meat hit her nostrils like sweet perfume as she breathed it in, whoever had prepared this for him had been a master of kitchen craft.

"Well, since things ended and people started coming home, if you say, 'I learned it in Kami Miyako' we all immediately shut up, we know not to ask about it, it makes sense, we want to forget that terrible time, those terrible things... pretend they never happened. But then... you have others, like you, like me... who try to preserve that history. If we don't write down what happened, then one day nobody will remember, people may even deny it because... well. why didn't anyone write about it, if it was so widespread? But to write about it, to speak about it, is to make sure we don't forget, because we can't forget what happened there. It's a disservice to everyone who suffered there and didn't live to say anything, who can't speak up anymore." He said passionately as he cleaned the last of his stew from his bowl.

Bertra nodded along with him every step of the way, "You're right, of course, Lovien, that's why I've worked hard to record these things, though I'm also glad in particular that there's a chance of helping His Majesty's daughter."

"Yes... yes, there is that." He said, and then asked, "I hope you don't mind but... that meal was quite good, and now I'm thirsty, and I didn't bring anything, do you maybe... have any wine?"

The sound of the bottle falling to the floor struck her mind like a clap of thunder, but she covered it, 'Of course, that was just a mistake, he didn't really mean for things to go that far before. Just one should be fine.' She thought as she stood up.

"Of course, I'll be just a moment." Bertra stood and moved to the small kitchen area where she kept a few bottles of decent wine and a few cups for drinking, she took two cups and held them upside down in two fingers as she put the black bottle under her arm and returned. She found when she returned, he'd changed seats so that he'd be next to her.

'It's only natural to sit next to someone, it's no problem.' She thought, and set the cups down and opened the bottle. She poured one for each of them, the dark liquid sloshed slowly into the carved stone cups, and she set the bottle aside.

"To pleasant days and nights from here on out." He said, and held out the cup, she echoed the toast, and they drank. "You know," he said, "I've been giving it some thought, I was thinking I'd put some of my money to good use, open up a chain of bookstores. I had originally thought to open my own, but I like what you've accomplished with what you have here. Maybe I should invest... in you." He said halfway through his second cup.

Something tingled in the back of Bertra's mind, a forgotten sense, not needed in a very long time, she refilled his cup when he asked it of her, and had another for herself.

After their fourth cup from the bottle, she acknowledged, "Not exactly the best, but..." She shrugged, "I'm just a bookshop proprietor, you want better, go to Queen Zesshi."

Lovien smiled, his eyes sparkled in the candle light as if they'd captured the flame. "It's not the quality of the wine, it's the quality of the company." He said softly.

Bertra felt a sudden presence on her thigh and looked down, his hand was there, she looked up, opened her mouth to speak, and then Lovien's lips were on her own and his cup was knocked to the floor, the remaining wine ran down with a loud dripping and the cup rolled away out of reach as she felt his tongue engage hers, his hand slid up her thigh and reached for her netherlips with hungry fingers as his other hand touched her sensitive ear, sending shivers and shockwaves of sensation through her that she both loved, and hated. She managed to break for a moment to say, "Lovien...… no...… I'm not...…"

She started to use her greater strength to force him back, uncoordinated as she was from drinking, he seemed frantic...… urgent, his eyes were glassed over, "I know you need this, he said urgently, why else would you have me over...… drink with me again...… don't worry...… it'll feel good, I'll 'protect' the life you've made here...…"

The implication wasn't lost on her, that he could use his position to harm it just as easily, she was politician enough to know that his promise of favor was a promise of destruction if she wasn't cooperative.

'He's an important noble here... I don't have anyone I can go to... and who would believe me anyway? Entoma... maybe, but I can't let her just kill him, not with him being who he is in this country...? Zesshi? She knows who I am, she might be leaving me alone because I helped her people once, but I doubt she'll ever forget what I said in my office... and what about the life I've built here? My business? He might destroy all that... I don't want to lose everything again! I worked so hard for it all! Even if I'm nothing but a foreigner in a foreign land, I don't want to give this place up! There's no other home for me anymore! If I kill him... or hurt him myself... Zesshi might even think I was just setting him up... and who would blame her for thinking that...?!'

When he forced the kiss again, she relaxed herself until he broke it, taking the end of her resistance as her consent, he whispered into her other ear as he touched her sensitive body's most sensitive places, "You're wise, to stick by me... to invite me into your home... invite me... into you, just relax, I can feel how you want it." He covered her lips again and Bertra closed her eyes to just get it over with. 'I hope he finishes soon...…' She thought as she lay limp for him to do what he wanted.