The Trial: Journey's End
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 40: Bloody Mother & Bravery
...Nazarick Lab…
"Explain yourself." Albedo demanded, "I've already seen what she did to the Devor raiding party, she did an excellent job, tore them to pieces without a problem and without killing anyone she shouldn't have."
Vanysa's grip didn't slacken… "People are most in danger when they think they're safest, most vulnerable when they're at their most relaxed. I love Demiurge, I'm proud of him, but you know our strategy, show her to be an indiscriminate monster, and she'll be convicted. What better way than to put her into a berserker rage right when she's least prepared for it, when she thinks she's succeeded, she's on her way back from the border, and that's when he'll hit her with a followup Devor attack. He was hoping she'd kill everything in the fort and save him the trouble, but when that didn't happen…" Vanysa's eyes welled up, "Please don't tell him I told you, at least until after the trial is over. But… you have to get her out of there, if she kills a bunch of minotaur civilians during a Devor raid… it's all over."
Albedo looked down at the demoness, who clung desperately to Albedo's arms the entire time, "Why are you telling me this 'now', why not before?"
Vanysa's eyes were as resolute as they were vulnerable and clouded, and her words were a choked struggle as if she were trying to drink and speak at the same time. "I...I have my orders. I work directly for Demiurge, and my orders were to prosecute her. But His Majesty also gave me an order, that 'outside of court' I was charged with her absolute protection, even to the cost of my life. I only just learned today that she's out of custody. That gives me the 'opening' to tell you this… it's a loophole, but it's one I'm crawling through… please… if she falls into his trap, and walks into court covered with minotaur blood and fur, they'll convict her for that alone!"
Albedo looked down at the little demoness, and found no lie in her. "Alright, I'll need my armor, she should be crossing the border today, I'll just have to dispose of the trash he sends out, and we'll have no problem."
"Yes… that will work well too." Vanysa said as the sweating and hard breathing began to ebb. She wiped her golden brow and then bit her lip, "I guess I've got to turn myself in for punishment though." She pouted, "I kept one order but broke another to do it."
"I am the Guardian Overseer, I'll determine your punishment later. Like cleaning up after one of Shalltear's 'sessions' with her vampire brides." Albedo said it haughtily, but the sparkle in her eye was mocking, though it caused Vanysa to shudder.
"And I thought 'I' was the sadist." She muttered, and Albedo walked out laughing as she went to don her armor.
Within an hour, she was beyond the Devor border, her invincible armor on and her bardiche in hand. Concealing herself was a simple matter, she thought back to the way Demiurge liked to operate, big flashy entrances, a dramatic show of power, and then let his terrified subordinates handle the grunt work. But here, he would likely have disguised himself as some form of beastman, carrying out orders to draw others out. A smile formed beneath her armor and her golden eyes shone like the sun. 'May the best demon win… indeed.' She thought smugly. She went first to the fort and confirmed that he'd led soldiers of the Devor to it, though she was idly curious about what story he'd spin to get… her thoughts halted. 'Wait… how many would it take to drive her to extremes?' Albedo pondered the matter for a moment. 'Not many.' She answered her own question as she sardonically thought of how far she went to punish those who made her angry.
She dismissed the matter, and resolved to ask Demiurge about what lie he'd spun when the trial was over.
She left the burnt out ruin that her daughter and her daughter's companion had made, a look of almost maternal pride hit her as she looked at the pile of burnt up corpses, shattered, broken, cut, it was like she had the undead's innate hatred of the living buried somewhere in her soul. "Hmmm, My Lord did bring her back from the dead… she's devoted herself to him, tapped into his power, perhaps she's tapping into his nature too, given enough time, I wonder… what would she change into?" She pondered that aloud and looked one more time at the pleasant vista of destruction the Scourge of God had wrought, and stepped through the gate to the next logical ambush point.
She heard shouting in the distance as soon as she came through the gate, her keen senses picked out Neia's voice, but also abundant shouts of joy, as the minotaurs she'd rescued made it over the border and were suddenly reunited with loved ones that believed their family and friends to be lost forever.
In the opposite direction of the border, she picked up the sound of fast approaching beastmen. Their feet pounded on the ground and gave it a definitive quake, they weren't within hearing range of Neia or her company of rescues yet, but Albedo knew how many there were without any effort at all. 'A company, around three hundred, their pace says they know their prey is over the border, Demiurge no doubt informed them, showed them the site, and drew them here ahead of when they otherwise would have, clever Demon, either Neia would kill her own by accident, or she'd get the ones she rescued, and the rest, all killed trying to save the ones she did… either way, it would be the end for her at trial.'
She let out a sadistic grin as she listened more closely, trying to find Demiurge's voice, and finding it absent. 'Figures. Probably spun a yarn about reporting it and then left like nothing happened.'
She stepped casually out onto the road, and tapped the butt of her bardiche into the dust impatiently. She didn't trade words, they appeared on the horizon, saw the lone armored warrior, knew she could not be one of them, and they did not wait either.
Howls for blood carried to her ears, and they waited for the inevitable flight, and then her wings, undetectable folded behind her, sprang out, though it did not pause their charge, it paused their hearts. And the demonic howl burst out of her mouth and stilled their roars, she flew like a crossbow launched from its stock, her bardiche held in both hands, she was near their front before they understood she was taking the fight to them.
The bardiche cut through seven of them, and would have done more had its blade a longer reach, and knocked another four flying into their comrades with such force that skulls and bones all broke and shattered. "Die!" She howled as the next rank tried to close, only to find that she snapped the first arm to come close and she then used the hapless body of the bear man as a club to bash the next four to him into the ground hard enough to kill them.
Her own aura smashed down, squeezing the life out of the weaker, but she restrained it… just enough, that others would live… and regret it. "You dare! You dare come for my house! You worthless lower lifeforms!" She howled her hatred and grabbed a tigerman by his fur, and ripped skin and muscle off down to the bone, peeling him away like an orange, and casting the pelt over another, who was lucky not to see the bardiche sever his body in half from head to balls. Her bardiche cut through their finest armor as if it wasn't there, and howls of sadistic pleasure ripped from her ample bosom as the faceless nightmare knight seemingly ripped from the nightmares of beastmen themselves, emerged impossibly from the stories told to frighten their young, descended on them.
But cowardice was not in their nature, and those hundreds alive, swarmed around her, their worthless blows were a light and gentle spring rain to a mountain, and her hands ripped into flesh, ripping bones out of the living and using them as weapons on the brothers in arms nearest them, her bardiche could not even be nicked, and she laughed at their weakness, shredding their flesh, far more slowly than she had to, as this was more to her than a mere massacre… 'Punishment… they must be PUNISHED for what they came to do!' As she could not help but laugh as she recalled the same words coming from Neia's own lips on more than one occasion in some form as she exercised the power of their common Lord.
Tl'katan was transfixed by the horror before him as the armored woman ripped into his comrades and tore through them like their armor wasn't there and their bodies were wet paper to a sharp blade. The faceless horror tore his best friend in half, and without flinching or showing any effort, threw half the body into someone else hard enough that their skull shattered. 'How… how can this be?! We were supposed to chase down one interloper and a handful of escapees! What in the abyss is this?!' He shouted inside his head as he roared like the lionman he was and attempted to imbue her with fear, only to hear the thing laugh at him, and make him her next target.
He tried to bring his ax to bear, but she was gone in a flash, he froze, and managed to look behind him, she was standing in a battle posture used by someone who had finished a swing and blood dripped from the massive bardiche, he looked down. His arms were gone, and his torso was sliding off his legs. He toppled back with a howl of pain a moment later, and screamed out his last, flopping in the dirt. He never roared again.
Albedo reveled in the slaughter, sometimes soaring above them just for mockery, just out of reach, to catch them if they tried to run, and whittled them down, there were no words but her occasional soul shattering demonic cry, and every second they were losing more.
Tl'minka was breathing hard, his company of three hundred was down to two hundred within the span of a minute, and to one hundred by the next minute, and the demon that found them was just mocking them, almost dancing through the air as she floated overhead in a lithe little bounce in front of their ranks before she swooped down and peeled off another layer of their formation, or dropped down in the center to rip some apart before rising again.
'What did we do! Lords of the Abyss! Save your servants! Sun Lord, give us your light that we may see through this shadow!' he prayed fervently, but the tigerman heard no answer from the sun or the abyss, there was only a demonic cry that reveled in killing his warriors. Anyone who fled, was instantly skewered and then torn apart, anyone who didn't flee, died anyway.
If there was a reason for the slaughter, he couldn't fathom it, until inspiration hit him when the demon went above their formation with one of their own, and ripped his body in half at the torso, and dropped twitching legs and screaming torso down on the remainder, injuring several who couldn't get out of the way. "You! You're a summon of the Minotaurs aren't you! Those bastards found a way to command you! Tell your summoner we'll pay them well to work for us, even if they're a minotaur, power like yours… is worth overlooking anything, if they want females, we'll give him all the females they want to use, if they want males, well so what, the same! If they want wealth… just stop!" He cried out, hoping that the summoner on the other end of the demon puppet would hear.
For a moment… he felt his mouth fall open in a near laugh of relief, the demonic being stopped, and simply floated there in front of the remaining thirty-one of the beastmen.
It seemed whoever was on the other end, was considering the offer, then the thing moved so fast it wasn't even a blur, and all thirty fell with their legs cut off just above the knees, and the demon stood in front of him, he looked down as her hand took his throat with impossible strength and started to squeeze. Her bardiche was being slowly pushed into his body.
"No… pl-ease." He gasped out and clawed desperately at the vice that was her hand, his gold eyes bulged with terror as he realized she was picking him up… with the blade in his body, effectively sawing him in half from the inside. He gurgled and broke his teeth with the force of his desperate clenching of his jaw.
"I am no summon, you pathetic insect." Albedo said as she lifted him up, blood and entrails began to slip out. "I'm just being 'me'. Do you know the difference between a good mother, and a great one?…" She whispered the question to the dying tigerman as another inch of his body was cut open. Blood came out of his mouth and spittle flecked madly as the pain drove him insane.
"A good mother… she bleeds to protect her children from those who would harm them. But… a great mother, she makes the ones who would hurt her children, do the bleeding instead. Now… bleed for me, and make me the best of mothers." She laughed as she lifted him up further, and the bardiche cut its way down his body as he was pulled through the unmoving weapon, his legs kicked and spasmed, entrailed began to fall down to the dirt below, and the light left his eyes just as it was reaching his groin.
She felt his death throws, the body was dead, and that was that. She dropped him in a heap, and looked around in smug satisfaction. "That is 'Check' Demiurge." She grinned with satisfaction as she listened in the distance, those beyond the border had heard nothing, and Demiurge would not know his gambit had failed.
She then opened the gate, and was gone. Leaving only the dead, and already from the evertree, animals were crawling out, and dragging the bodies away, or eating them where they fell. Within a day or two, there would be nothing but red dusty stains in the road, and within a few days after that, nothing at all, but some bones deep within the wood that would never be found, and a mystery that would never be solved.
...Crescent Lake...
Bertra's eyes lit up like stars. "You... believe me?"
Zesshi set the dress aside gently. "I do. But you're asking for the harder path. You're asking for justice, not just revenge." She put her hands on Bertra's shoulders. "I'm sorry I was rough with you before, when I realized it was you... well, court politics isn't something I'm good at yet, I thought you were playing at something, because how could anyone take advantage of someone like you?"
Bertra smiled bitterly, "Not all strength is physical, he's a rich noble, I'm a bookshop owner with a few friends, maybe I'm not exactly poor, but I'm a peasant now, he could ruin my life by sitting behind a desk, signing a few papers, and he wouldn't even get tired. The only way I had to fight back... was just another way to ruin everything. Financially, publicly, or legally... I was no more powerful compared to him... than Aorli was compared to you."
"You still should have come to me." Queen Zesshi admonished her, "We might not be friends but, I have kept your secret, nobody knows who you are, or were at least. And I haven't forgotten what you said that day, I haven't forgotten either, all the work you did beside Raymond to save what you could of my people. You finished right, and for the right reason. I'm not as wise as His Majesty, but I'm not so petty that I'd sit on my throne while savoring some cruelty toward you because it is ironic in some way."
Bertra's lips parted as she breathed slowly and went on. "And I'm still a peasant. We don't visit the palace much, you know. I haven't seen you since the day you came into this shop, except at a distance, and that's fine, you have your job, your life, and I have mine. I'm grateful enough that you let me have that." Bertra fixed her hair with her hands as Zesshi helped her to her feet.
"My job, Berenice... or Bertra now, I guess, is giving justice to my people and governing well. If I allow him to do that to you, and to my other people, I'm failing you all. Aorli would never look at me the same way again if I just let this go. His Majesty has a special hatred for certain kinds of crimes, this being among them. He'd never permit me to let that happen to you as some form of petty revenge for a conversation we had what... almost five years ago now?" Zesshi reached over and handed the dress back.
"Th-Thank you... but what will you do? You're not wrong, it's harder to get justice than revenge, and all I can prove is that I invited him over, drank with him, and... well, he'll just make me out to be some whore who rutted with him to get something out of it!" Bitter tears forced their way out again, but she wiped her eyes fiercely and held the Queen's eyes in her own without flinching.
"Are you willing to come forward publicly?" Queen Zesshi asked.
Bertra's mouth closed. "I don't know, what if nobody believes me, I could lose my friends, my customers, I could lose everything! Do I have to... Your Highness?"
"Think about it for now, but no, I won't force you. Do what is best for you. But if you want justice, well, only his victims can get him there." Zesshi took Berenice's hand in between both of her own, "Come to my home tomorrow, and tell me your decision, whatever it is."
Bertra nodded, "Alright, I will. And... thank you."
Zesshi didn't answer, there was no need, she simply walked out of the shop, closed the door behind her, and walked back to her palace in the darkness.
Bertra went to bed, and laid there staring up into the empty void, she usually preferred to sleep without clothing, the warm night air made that most comfortable, and her home was a place of safety, but this night, she laid uncomfortably in night clothing. 'Another thing taken away... even in my own bed in my own home... I feel like I need protection.' She pondered as she stared up into the night, she thought of one of the biographies she'd edited recently, the elf remembered the words of the woman now on trial so far away. "Your choices are only limited by your fear of the consequences, overcome those, and no fear can touch you, then you can do anything. That way you'll have the strength to seize justice done for yourself, with your own hands, and nothing short of death can stop you."
"Never thought I'd take advice from the Demon of the West." Bertra said out loud as she slid out of bed, tore off the uncomfortable clothing, and took her choice, and her comfort, back. She made her choice, and went to sleep.
When morning came, she bathed, dressed, and got ready to go, but no sooner did she open the door, than she saw Soren standing there, he hadn't made to open the door himself, he was just... standing there.
"Soren why..." She was about to ask when he cut her off.
"Are you OK?" He asked with his eyes expanding as he stared down at her. She craned her neck back.
"Yes, or, rather, I will be." She said.
"It was him wasn't it? Lovien." He whispered.
Bertra nodded, "You worked it out?"
"Wasn't hard. I may look it, but I'm not stupid, just a bit dirty sometimes, the way you reacted, couldn't be anyone else... that's how I got such a good deal." She wasn't sure if he was asking, or suggesting.
She stepped back and motioned him into the Brighter Days Book Shop. He ducked his head under the door, and entered, then she shut the door behind him.
"Yes. I was... I was just, well, he was making threats, sort of..." She began and he cut her off.
"You don't owe me an answer. You didn't have to do that for me... I'd rather go under, than get my friends hurt." He insisted with a vigorous shaking of his head on a thick, thick neck.
Bertra put her hand up on his chest, "It wasn't really about you, not for me... I just... I wanted to feel like I had control again, like I actually had a say, a choice, to use that as an excuse to pretend there wasn't something wrong with what was happening. I just wanted my life to feel normal again... it didn't work but... this will."
"What's 'this'?" He asked as he shuffled his feet and looked at the floor, unable to work out what to say.
"I'm going to accuse him publicly, I know he's been saying all kinds of terrible things about these anonymous accusers, cowards, sluts, jealous whores, conspirators against the very crown, well, lets see what he does when he's got someone to aim at. I'm not going to let him have this one, I'm taking my justice in my own hands, with my own voice, I'll tell the whole damn world what he did, and let them believe me or not, but one way or the other, he's NOT going to have any more control over my life after this!"
"Well... would you like some moral support?" Soren asked gingerly, "I'm a bit dense on these things but... nobody should stand alone against anything that can hurt them, if they don't have to."
"You're what a friend is supposed to be, thank you." Bertra grinned high up at the big blushing face.
"So where are we going?" He asked, scratching his head uncertainly.
"The Palace, but... in a roundabout sort of way. First stop is the square where the trial is normally broadcast, if I remember the schedule, a minotaur holy day is taking place today, so there's nothing going on." Bertra answered brusquely.
"What do you want to do there?" He did not look less confused, or scratch his head less.
"Well, I want 'you' to handle a few barrels for me, you're taller than I am, and I want to be seen, then, just stand there nearby so I know I have one friend at hand." She let her hand drop away from his body and asked, "Can you handle that?"
"Yeah, yeah I can." He said with a cherubic grin.
"Then come on." She said, and left the Brighter Days Bookshop, and strode with back straight and full of purpose directly to the great square where booths were plentiful and foot traffic was even moreso.
It was a busy day, even by midmorning standards as she made her way to the spot where Zesshi had laughed at one of Lovien's jokes. A few barrels and crates sat in the alley that jutted out at an angle from it, and she pointed to them. "Those will be fine, just make a stairway so I can get up easily." She said to him, and he didn't respond with anything but action, he went and promptly pulled them out, handling the enormous things like they were individual books.
Soon a small crude stairway of barrels and crates stood up, two wide, with two flat crates at the top for even footing. "Thank you, Soren. Now this part is up to me." Bertra said, and raised her knees high as she climbed up to the top, she looked out over the square, her heart pounded in her breast, people began to notice her standing up there, she wore a simple dress of vibrant green and eye catching white, her hair hung long behind her, she didn't have to emphasize anything about herself to be noteworthy, even among a comely people like the wood elves.
But most of all was the oddity of her standing up there looking out over them like a figurehead at the bow of a ship. The analogy occurred to her, and she closed her eyes, 'Someone has to lead, and if that's to be my final act in this city, so be it, but I'd rather leave it with my soul intact, than live here with him holding onto it, while he does who knows what to others who cross his path.'
Her eyes popped open, and the 'figurehead' spoke. "My name is Bertra! I am the owner of Brighter Days Bookshop. And..." her loud voice, shouted over the din, and her prominent position gave people pause, heads turned from where people sat, servers stopped taking orders, sales halted in mid-transaction, she swallowed hard. "And I was raped by Lovien of House Alu!"
A pin could have dropped. She went on to tell her story. When it was finished... she began again.
"My name is Bertra! I am the owner of Brighter Days Bookshop..." And so she went, repeating her story louder and louder, she said it four times before she added something else.
"Yes, I wrote the first words accusing him! I'm the one who was first called a jealous whore, a grasper, a slut, a conspirator, and who knows what else! But I ONLY wrote once per night! All others know why they wrote!"
She then began again, "My name is Bertra! I am the owner of Brighter Days Bookshop..."
On the far side of the great square, a woman selling apples was looking at her with rapt attention, and her customer, a young man she'd called a friend for seventy years, said, "Can you believe her, saying something like that about a great man like Lord Lovien?"
The merchant girl looked at her companion, her eyes wet, her hand shaking, she gave him back his money and closed his fist over it. He looked confused. His eyes going down to his hand and back up to her face.
"Wait here." She said softly, and walked across the square where Bertra was on her sixth retelling of events.
She approached the improvised, crude stage, where the behemoth of an elf stood watch, as soon as he saw her face, he stepped aside, and, she smiled weakly, and walked to the crude steps. She climbed up behind Bertra, and tapped her on the leg.
Bertra's eyes went down behind her, and she held out her hand, and helped the woman up, once she was up. Bertra hopped down.
She did not have the skill or projection of the practiced former Cardinal, but she was herself, and that was all she needed in that moment. She shouted it out, choking sometimes, but yelling as much as she could for all to hear. "My name is Iyara, I am the fruit vendor who sells here in this very square! I was raped by Lovien of House Alu..."
When her story ended, she began again. "My name is Iyara! I am the fruit vendor..."
In the crowd, the cobbler sat with his wife, enjoying a pleasant day off, he watched Bertra with mute incomprehension. "Why would Bertra lie like that... she never seemed the sort...?"
He stopped when the fruit vendor got up. "Oh, well sure there can be two liars, who knows why, but Lovien's been good to us. We know better..." He stopped dead when he saw his wife's face.
"Where do you think I went last night? He did it to me too. Why do you think you got such a 'good deal'? While you were gone... that's why I was in bed for two days after you got back..." She whimpered out.
"You... he... but you told me you were sick..." He stammered out as he stared at his wife as she failed to look him in the eye for the first time in their ninety year marriage.
"Sick... because of what he'd done to me, I couldn't look at you, couldn't look at our house, I thought... all this time, I thought I was the only one, he made me think I'd asked for it, so that you and I could get a better deal... but he implied we might get nothing... and all that work… so when he reached out... when he touched me, I asked..." So the story spilled out of her at last, as her husband swore and cursed under his breath.
"You couldn't protect me from the Elf King. I never resented you for that, nobody could have fought that monster back then. But now? Now either you believe me, or you leave me, but it's true. What they're saying is TRUE." She said forcefully and fiercely.
"Make up your mind, but if you don't believe me when I get back to this table, don't be at it." She said sadly as he stared mutely as his world turned upside down and his 'benefactor' was flipped into a predator in the span it takes to finish a cup of iced tea after a hard run. She walked across the square, and mounted the improvised stage, and took her turn.
Word spread like wildfire through the city that some of the accusers against Lovien had become public. As word spread, the question of what to do about the disruption became more and more demanding on the city guard. The crowd just kept growing, two more women showed up and took their places on stage, and by midafternoon the women speaking were ten in number. It was only then that guards began to push their way to the fore.
"Please, come with us." The guardsman asked, uncomfortable and confused as he looked at the women who had arrayed themselves in front of the speaker.
"Are we under arrest?" Bertra snapped out.
He shook his head, "No, we're escorting you to the palace, you're going before Her Royal Highness, Queen Zesshi."
"Good. She's been expecting me, I hope I didn't keep her waiting." Bertra said, and reached girl at the top crouched, took Bertra's hand, and hopped down with a little help.
"Mind the shop for me, would you Soren? I don't want some petty revenge by Lovien on my place, and I'm sure he's heard of this by now." Bertra asked.
He grinned sheepishly, "I've got it."
"And I've got this." She said with a fierce grin on her face that reminded him vaguely of a wolf that has smelled blood.
The guards took up a wing formation on either side of the women, but they didn't walk quietly. Bertra immediately began yelling when they broke through the crowd, repeating her one sentence assertion for anyone and everyone to hear, stunned at first by what she was doing, the others walking behind her picked it up... and carried the phrase like a battle cry all the way to the doors of the palace, under the uncomprehending eyes of elves who never expected their day to have a sight like that.
When she was in the palace court, Bertra went down on one knee, fist to the floor and eyes downcast.
"Well, you've been busy." Zesshi said flatly.
"Yes, Your Highness." Bertra said, adopting the unofficial status as spokeswoman for the little band.
"What do you have to say for yourself?" Zesshi asked evenly as she steepled her fingers together in front of herself on the throne.
"Your Highness, I, and all of these women here, were raped by Lovien of House Alu, and in your sacred title as Queen, and in the name of His Majesty, the Sorcerer King, who rules over all, I ask in all our names, that you grant us justice for what was done."
The words hung in the air, nobles and other patrons of the royal court were looking back and forth at one another as they struggled to catch up with the events of the day.
"That's what the other four said also, more or less." Zesshi said bluntly, "A few got caught doing graffiti last night as it turns out, one... got away, but the other four say the same as you. Well... a public accusation has been made, so it must be answered. We'll hold a trial here and now, and, and my two chief advisors here, will judge." She gestured to Thirg and Tefl Dahn.
"Now, someone go fetch Lovien of House Alu, he's going to answer for these charges, and bring him here yesterday." Zesshi said without any evident passion in her voice, but Bertra, who well remembered Zesshi from her Theocracy days, saw a little spark in her eyes, and little gestures with her hands, that suggested there was more behind her blank expression than her body language suggested.
"As you say, Your Highness. I'm eager for justice to be done." Bertra replied, and fell quiet as the Queen nodded in agreement, and the door behind them slammed shut as guards rushed to go and find Lovien.
