The Trial: Journey's End
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 43: Backwards & Forwards
...Menowa...
Nua sat content in her cart on the way back to the temple after dropping off the last of 'her' farmers. She stretched out comfortably with her arms behind her head as Mu'Sula pushed it along. No sooner had she wrapped up a story about the black river, than he asked, "Say, weren't you talking about getting 'discounts' from those farms before? But you bought them all?"
Nua lazily held her hand up in the air and danced it around a buzzing insect. Putting one foot over the other, she glanced a little in his direction, "Why Mu'Sula, I'm shocked at you," she said with a pleasant little knowing smile on her face. "Don't you know that the best discount is a profit? Really, I hope you're more skilled as a merchant than I'm now thinking."
He burst out in the huffing laugh of a minotaur, "Lady Nua, you are just full of surprises, aren't you? I think I'm going to enjoy working for you."
"Yup, because those who can surprise you, can kill you. I've got the better part of a thousand years of life left in me, I don't plan on dying stupid because I got caught off guard. It's strange to me you know, how some people enjoy killing as much as they do, they get addicted to the blood, the death, the pain. That ever happened to you?" She asked seriously as she glanced back at him after briefly focusing on the sky.
"Not really, I guess you've concluded that my hands aren't virginal about the ending of other lives, but I never enjoyed it, not once. It was just something I had to do to stay alive." He said as his muscles strained against an uphill slope.
"Do you know why they called her the Demon of the West?" Nua asked.
"Just a guess from your stories, but because she was scary as a demon or because she killed as many as the worst of them?" He suggested tentatively.
"No, it's because she seemed to enjoy it. She said she didn't, to my face in fact, but the few occasions I stood in her presence I got the feeling that there was a hunger in her to spread death. Whether she knew it or not, something inside her wanted to end lives. She was less like a demon, and frankly more like an undead. After getting in between her and Raymond in the dead city, nothing scares me anymore, but do you know what the greatest irony in all that is?" She asked as a low laugh began to come up from within her breast.
"No..." Mu'Sula asked as he sighed with relief when they reached the top of the long hill.
"That I'm worse than she is." Nua chuckled, "Oh, I've barely ever killed anybody, but... I sold my soul to a demon, you might say. Near the end of the war, when Raymond's life was on the line, I bargained with a demon. All I asked was that she went to her master to ask for his life. Do you know what she asked me to do to save him?"
"Dare I ask?" Mu'Sula asked.
"I tortured a woman to the point of death. Skinned her alive, cut off pieces of her while she lived, I did everything Lady Solution told me to do. Oh she 'had' to die, she killed and ate my people... but the Lady Solution told me to make it hurt horribly. So I did... "I ruined my soul to save a man who participated in the enslaving of my race and supported the abuse of so many of us, for years in hells of sweat and lust." He was also one of the finest, most principled and noble people I've ever known... he bled for my kind when our corpses were just garbage and our lives trinkets, nearly died for us, threw everything away... for us and for me. Neia may have hurt people badly, killed many... but she wasn't a torturer, or not much of one anyway. Now here it is, and I've found him again, and... I don't know what to do."
"Why are you telling me all this?" Mu'Sula asked as the outskirts of the city came into view.
"I guess I had to tell someone, you're here, and who could you tell?" She asked rhetorically. "Besides, I'd say I'm about as close to a friend as you've got, and since all my friends from the temple training time have scattered to the winds, you're about as close to one as I've got."
"I suppose that's true." Mu'Sula admitted begrudgingly. "Well, we're almost there, should I just drop you at the temple?"
"Yes, it's been a long day, I think I'd like a drink and a rest. The profit from those farms will be enormous. From there I'll start investing in businesses around the capital, I'll sponsor hiring new merchants, but... of those from my congregation. From there the temple's wealth will be used to increase our outreach. I will speak for my god daily to an ever growing audience, and as my converts grow stronger and more numerous..." She began to grin, "Then I will have 'begun' to repay my debt to the god of our dark savior."
"Did you just... call her a 'dark savior'?" Mu'Sula asked as if he hadn't heard her properly.
"Sure, you've heard my stories, you've heard by now how they won't even have her in the court here unless she's hooded and gagged, even the adjudicator and his cohorts all wear hoods to keep their identities secret out of either fear of her or her father. And it wasn't that long ago she killed a witness in open court and delivered a promise of destruction to this very Kingdom. What would you call her?" Nua asked as if he were an idiot, and sat up in the cart.
"OK, I guess that fits. But do you really think she's evil?" Mu'Sula asked.
Nua laughed a pretty, silvery laugh and went to the front of the wagon. She leaned forward so that she was close to his ear, "Mu'Sula... in this twisted world, evil is the only good there is. The ones willing to kill everything in the way, the ones willing to warp their souls so much that they don't even recognize themselves anymore are the only ones who can ever save anyone. Everybody in the world is just stuck responding to those people who take the initiative and pursue their goals. Everyone else either learns how to play by those rules or they die. That is why His Majesty is the ideal king, because he applies evil as judiciously as good. His incredible genius makes him impossible to comprehend, his power too great to defeat, and it is he and he alone who can carry us all into a new era. I don't know what kind of God your Kiril is... but I can tell you this. If the Beastmen struck at my god's people, the Beastmen would cease to exist. We can't say that Kiril is doing the same for his own."
She snorted, "I'll pick the dark god of deeds over any more ideal dead and do nothing gods that are spread over the rest of this world. Worship who you want, but see where it gets you."
She brought a hand to her mouth and yawned as she started to stretch out. "How much longer."
"A few minutes, just relax, we're almost there, Lady Nua." He replied with the height of new respect in his voice.
"Good." She said and idly drew a knife from her belt and began to clean under her nails.
"Nice knife." He said when he happened to glance back.
"Thank you. The bones are those of my former master's wife, and the flecks of silver are the coins that her husband got from selling me on the auction block after he got me pregnant. The rest is adamantite, and it is heavily enchanted. I used it to cut apart the woman who treated one of my people like food. I'm absolute shit with a sword but... I'm not half bad with this. The maid demon who taught me to fight, along with the Cardinal on trial, seemed to know what I'd prefer. I think I actually take to it a little bit, because Raymond himself used a knife when he started killing to save my people." Nua didn't smile as she spoke of the blade Aalon had given her, there was little about it in her mind to smile about.
Mu'Sula didn't know quite what to say, he turned his eyes ahead as they entered the city and headed for the temple. "What was temple training like?" He asked idly, eager to change the subject and fill the last few minutes of travel time.
Nua felt the smile spread over her face.
"Oh that was wonderful. Hoburns is a lively place, huge population now. It has some remarkable sacred spaces: Gascon's Aqueduct, the first temple, the one Neia had built, the place where Remedios tortured her during the first attempt at purging her god's followers. They say it's the last place the dark savior sought peace before blood. But the training itself was rough. Martial arts are part of our beliefs; we train with swords, bows, knives and staves. The founding art focused on sword, bow, and grappling but... we've changed a bit since then." She giggled a bit, "mostly for the better."
"How so?" He asked with the martial interest of a minotaur.
"Well if you're better with a knife, or you've got the build for a hammer, focus on that, so there are now different combinations that people use, but the basic principle is 'always' the same. Be adaptable, be flexible. One distance weapon, one close weapon, and no weapon."
"You've only got a close weapon though..." Mu'Sula began as he looked over his shoulder, only to see the shit eating grin on Nua's face as she reached into the cloak and drew out a few darts.
"I use these. I can carry more of them than I can arrows, they're easily concealed, and require nothing more than a wipedown to take care of." She winked. "Anyway, we would train for two hours every morning, toughening our bodies and training with our weapons. We would then attend classes where we would learn public speaking, reading and writing, mathematics, and simple survival skills. Advanced students who could already do some of that, took second year courses in their first year. There we learned simple magic if we had an aptitude, or more advanced combat. We learned rhetoric and both studied and debated the words of the great faithful."
A bitter look came over her face, "The biggest debate topic of the year was over who was right, General Enri or General Baraja, but we had to be able to argue both sides. In our more advanced classes, we were taught some of the sacred learnings of First World that our god bestowed on us to make us better thinkers, and finally we specialized. Some would go on to martial paths, wanting to become generals one day. Others focused on magic to the exclusion of the rest. I wanted to travel, so I focused on international studies to learn the cultures of the places I would see. I can read your nation's language, and write it almost as well. I know your holy days and what is expected of me as a dinner guest. It's why I knew to speak to you with a blunt tongue when it came time to 'settle' things. I learned it all there."
A laugh started to creep into her voice, "It wasn't all work and fighting though. We got to drink, we had days off, we could earn money and spend it how we liked. It was strange to actually celebrate just for the sake of doing so, no holy day or reason needed. I had great friends, though it took awhile for that to happen. But they were good years, and I wouldn't trade them for anything."
Her words were cut off when she noticed the group of minotaur soldiers in front of her temple. "Thanks for the ride, "Mu'Sula, but I've got a bad feeling about this, come by and see me later for your coins..." She jumped out of the cart and ran as fast as she could, leaving him stunned behind her as she charged full tilt, leaning into the wind, to get to the front door of the half built temple.
"I'm Nua Calen Aiwenor, priestess of this temple, is something wrong?" She asked as she came to a dead stop in front of a large minotaur armed with a double headed ax on his back that was almost half the size of his torso.
He looked down at her, "No, nothing, it's just that there's a request from a prisoner to see you. The human, Raymond, is going to be hanged in the pavilion in a few hours, he wanted to say goodbye to you and..."
Nua's face went pale, she turned and sprinted over to the entrance. Her heart pounded in her breast, her eyes were blurry with tears as she tucked her chin into her chest. 'Raymond... no... no... not again, not again! Not after everything! I finally found you...' She didn't take long to get there, but was moving so quickly she couldn't stop or turn on a coin, so she didn't. She jumped at the large stone arch, [Springstep] she said, and when she hit the stone, she twisted her body and pushed off toward the interior, her martially enhanced body sailing overhead.
Down below, a gallows was nearly complete. A rope was in place, hanging just behind where he stood, and a minotaur was bearing a few heavy stones over to put on the foundation to ensure it wouldn't fall forward when he dropped.
"Raymond!" She screamed as she sailed over the mass of minotaurs below her, twisting in the air so that she'd hit the ground with her heels, as those who heard the heart rending scream overhead turned to watch the elf girl as she seemed to glide through the air like a predatory hawk, directly towards her target.
...Over the Devor Border on the Highway of Tears...
Neia was still holding her hands up in surrender when the portal opened, and Pandora's Actor stepped through.
That got her to lower her hands and dismount her skeletal horse. She immediately reached out, and they clasped forearms and shook firmly. "Pandora's Actor, good to see you." She said with a grin so large that her pearly white teeth made the blood coating her face stand out all the more.
"And also you mein guten frau." He said, and the minotaurs looked somewhere between tense, awed, and, in the case of Mu'Ulm, relaxed.
"It's alright." Neia said as she dismissed the summoned mount after taking Mu'Trieu down from the front of it.
"Listen," Neia said as she addressed Pandora's Actor again, "This is Mu'Trieu, I'm taking her in, her mother is dead, she has no other family, and what happens to children here who lose both, is death eventually one way or the other. Can you... take her to my wife? I hope this doesn't violate the agreement for the 'diplomatic' use of the gate spell. If it does, I suppose she can just go with me until a carriage can be brought, but I'd hate for her to make a long journey like that with just an unknown handler..."
Mu'Trieu immediately clung to Neia's leg. "NO! I don't wanna go!"
Pandora's Actor crouched down in front of her.
Neia stroked the little snout of the minotaur girl and smiled down at her, "That's sweet, and I wish you could stay but... I have to go to a bad place now and I don't want you to have to go there with me. This nice man is like a brother, he's helping protect me, and he'll protect you too until you can get to my wife."
Pandora's Actor reached out to touch the little girl's hand, she stamped her hooves at his gentle tug, "I want to stay with the blood lady!"
Neia snorted back a laugh at the nickname she'd been given, and crouched down to her when she was dislodged. "Listen, you need to be brave, brave like your mother." She reached out and cupped the cheeks of the little minotaur girl, her eyes blue as the azure sky, she looked gently on the lost one whom she'd found. "I have to go somewhere that isn't for children... and I may not be coming back, but... you won't be alone, you'll be safe. You'll eat good food, sleep in a warm bed, my wife will look after you, and she'll teach you everything even if I can't. OK?"
"NO!" The little minotaur girl shouted and tried to pull away from Pandora's Actor.
"How about this... I promise that if everything works out, and I get home, I'll give you two stories per night, every night... for a month." Neia suggested as she impulsively scratched lightly under the girl's chin, the way she'd seen other minotaurs do. Mu'Treiu lifted her head slightly and clearly enjoyed the sensation.
Finally she said, "Three!"
"Fine... Three. It's a deal, I promise, and Neia Baraja will go to any lengths to keep her promises." She said, and standing up, she began to pat the top of little Mu'Treiu's head.
"So, can you do it?" Neia asked hopefully.
The little girl toddled hesitantly over to the faceless Pandora's Actor, who nodded slowly. "Yes, I just have to have a good reason. Returning your arms will be sufficient; give me your sword, bow, arrows, and any knives you carry."
Neia did as he instructed, removing it all and handing it over to him, he quickly tossed it all into his pocket dimension, and she reached up to undo the clasp for her cloak to remove her armor.
"Wait, no. Keep your clothing mein gut Neia, I did not bring prison wear for you today. So unless you wish to go to court naked..." Pandora's actor suggested pointedly.
"I'm wearing blood underneath still, does that count? I swear I need a bath." Neia groused mildly.
"Time enough after. I will return her, then I will come back for you. I expect them to declare that you've run away and fled custody like a coward. They will no doubt try to find you guilty by default and save themselves the trouble of thinking." He was clearly displeased by what he said, and Neia felt no need to argue the point.
"Fine," she shrugged, "I'll just have to prove that I wasn't doing that... I think friendly witnesses definitely count as diplomatic use, in this case." Neia smiled like she knew her next move was checkmate, and turned to the still silent minotaurs.
"Mu'Bin... all of you... I have a 'favor' to ask, if you don't mind?" Neia said, as Pandora's Actor picked up Mu'Treiu, and walked through the gate that appeared behind him.
