Chapter 46: Verge of Tomorrow
...Crescent Lake...
Zesshi's time in the bookshop was brief, there was little to be said, in truth she had only one question. "Are there others?" Her warning to her nobles was clear, but the existence of one so close to the throne, put her ill at ease and wondering if there might have been others. Goosebumps over her flesh kept her skin atingle and her senses sharp as if she were about to enter battle. In the privacy of the shop's meeting area, none reported any other perfidy by the nobility, but it didn't set her mind at ease.
When the last of the women had answered her in the secure privacy of the shop, Zesshi prepared to leave the room that had been depopulated down to simply herself and Bertra, only to pause at the door.
"Wait... My Queen." Bertra said, and sank to one knee and lowered her gaze deferentially, "You gave me justice, Your Highness. Thank you."
Zesshi left her hand on the handle of the door, and turned aside to look at the kneeling former Cardinal.
She then let go of the handle and in a few graceful steps, stood in front of her, and the hand of the young half elven Queen rested atop Bertra's golden hair.
"I am your Queen, that is my job. I am only sorry you had to suffer injustice at all. I've forgiven what you said before, as the ill thought words of someone who didn't know the reality of their words. Like most, you were blind to what you were born into, and I haven't forgotten that when it came down to it, the pain you saw mattered more to you than the comforting familiarity of what you were born into. I'm not exactly wise, not even especially well educated... since I was raised to be a weapon and all. But I'm trying. Maybe what was allowed to happen here under my rule was both my first failure and first success." Zesshi took a deep breath through her nose, then let it out.
"If it means anything coming from the Cardinal of a dead country, I think you'll do fine." Bertra said gently, then reached up to wipe a sniffle away from her nose.
"It does, but you know, I could always do better. During my brief stay in Nazarick while I was waiting to lead my army south, I heard a saying from the librarian there, he said, 'A smart man learns from his own mistakes, a wise man, from the mistakes of someone else.' I didn't give it much thought at the time, however, my late father grossly neglected the royal library, it needs to be rebuilt. Perhaps you'd like the contract for that job?"
Bertra let the corners of her mouth draw up into a smile. "I'd be honored, My Queen."
"Come, let's take a walk, tell me what you'd propose." Zesshi said as she gestured to the door.
They were deep in conversation as they walked the streets of Crescent lake, and found themselves suddenly frozen as they reached the square where the trial was being broadcast.
"Oh my god... Raymond..." Bertra whispered in a hushed voice as they watched the elf girl land in front of him and draw her knife.
"What the hell is happening...?" Zesshi covered her mouth when she saw the gallows behind him.
"I... I don't know, I've been so caught up with myself that... oh no, they can't...?" Bertra swallowed hard when the elf girl who tried to save him collapsed, and her desperate sobs came through the mouths of the demons overhead providing audio accompaniment to the grim tableau.
Zesshi closed her mouth and lowered her hand, "Raymond and... I guess that girl must be one of his rescues, I think I saw her with him at the surrender."
They listened to his final words, their flesh shook and Bertra clasped her hands together in front of her mouth as if to pray to gods she'd abandoned years ago. "No... please no." She could barely get the words out as he spoke and the elf in front of him looked up from her knees.
Zesshi's face became grim, her lips pursed tight and her eyes transfixed, the chair was shattered, and the inevitable happened. "Goodbye..." The Queen over the wood elves said sadly.
Bertra though, could not keep back her own emotions as she watched him die, be cut down, and carried out, she tried to wipe her tears, but they came fast enough and many enough that it was a losing battle.
The reaction around them in the great square was profoundly mixed, some among the elves were cheering as the 'last Cardinal' died in the noose, however others were silent, introspective. Perhaps recalling their own rescue, others, seated with their companions at various small tables, had already begun to argue about his fate.
The parting words of the evidently dangerous elf that had tried and failed to save his life, hung in the air long after she'd departed and the pavilion where the trial took place had emptied.
"I... I think I want to go get drunk." Zesshi said sadly.
"Same here." Bertra muttered.
"Join me?" Zesshi asked brusquely.
Bertra shook her head after she wiped her eyes again, "The honor is a great one... but you're still a Queen, I'm still a peasant, and given everything today, it wouldn't look good. But... when you get time, perhaps late one night, come to my home alone, and we'll drink to his memory together."
"I'll do that. And I'll send someone over later about the library. You... you take care of yourself 'Bertra'." Zesshi muttered.
"I will, Your Highness." She replied softly as Zesshi touched her arm with a brief caress, and they parted ways, returning to their respective homes, alone.
...Devor Border...Evening...
"You didn't have to stay with me, you know." Neia stated as she sat on a log and poked at the fire. She didn't really look at those nearby, the peasants she'd rescued and their family members had insisted on making camp and not moving from where she'd stopped.
Mu'Ulm chuckled wryly, his huffing laughter as he sat beside her was the only laughter there was. He drew as many looks as she, still clad as he was in his impressive gear.
"You don't really expect that they'd abandon you after..." he waved his arm out in the direction of the border, "that, do you?"
The numerous shaking heads from villagers and the warriors of Last Home said he spoke for all of them.
"Guess not. But I'd rather not drag you all into this. I was sent to Last Home, I think, with the intention that I die there. As you can see... I'm not dead." She glanced up from the fire, and in the half light of the setting sun, her blood stained and filthy face was not far removed from the spectre of death. Only the shining light of her blue eyes suggested that she was not.
"If that isn't clear, that could be a problem for whoever wanted me dead, most likely... your High King. Whether I hang or go home, you'll still be here when I'm gone, and I don't know if he'd be inclined to take the frustration of failure out on you or not." Neia added with a blunt, brusque voice, only to stop when laughter started to hit the air, the low huffing laugh of minotaurs was still strange to her ears, but she recognized it well enough.
Mu'Bin spoke up as he approached and knelt in front of her, "Angel of Kiril, you were sent to Last Home as a slave warrior, so were we all, we were all dead the day we got there. These are border villagers, as vital and expendable as both of those words can possibly mean. The Kingdom needs them to grow crops... but also needs them to be sacrifices to keep a Devor Empire invasion at bay. You've only seen raiders, but they've got worse out there, golems... blood mages, and more. This is an endless cycle, those who die without parents either become border village sacrifices, or border warrior sacrifices, it's all a show to just pretend for the rest of the Kingdom like we're not on the verge of annihilation."
Mu'Bin spat into the dirt and looked bitterly down at the little spot of mud it made, "We know we have a good king, because our kingdom still exists, but still, we're all walking corpses, so the notion of his 'retribution' means nothing to us. What more can he do, we're all just stuck waiting to be a meal or to breed meals for the beastmen. So staying with Kiril's Angel for a few hours, or overnight if that's what it takes, at the very least it is an honor we will never forget."
"Then... thank you." Neia said humbly. "I'm still no angel though, Kiril's or otherwise. Just a human woman, born, living, and dying like any other. Though..." She cracked a sardonic smile, her white teeth standing out against the blood and the filth that still covered her, "a little more violently than average maybe."
Mu'Ulm looked down at her from the side, "Anyone ever tell you that you've got a gift for understatement, lady?"
"Not really." She said, then turned her attention to Mu'Bin. "Get off your knees, damn it! I may be the Pope, but there's a time and a place." She folded her arms in front of her chest, "So what happened after I left anyway?"
"Chaos. He'd ordered you killed while you were unconscious, but then when you left, Mu'Anik put us all on triple guard rotation for the road and locked himself in his office. Our orders were to kill you on sight." He explained calmly.
Mu'Ulm shot to his hooves and brought his shield and axe to bear, the minotaur champion responded as quickly as he had when confronting the beastmen.
"Wait!" Neia barked sharply, then held her hand up and touched his side, "Wait..." she repeated calmly. "He wouldn't be saying this if he intended to carry out those orders. "Sit down, it's alright."
"I couldn't even if I wanted to. Could I?" Mu'Bin asked rhetorically.
The peasants beyond were stirring uncomfortably at the sudden tension, as were the warriors, uncomfortable first by the tension, and more by the admitted unlikelihood that they could have carried out their instructions.
"No, no I don't think so. If I'm going to be killed in this country, it'll be by father's justice, not an ax to the face or to the back out here in the countryside. A point is being made, one that will help to rid my father's empire of corrupted minds, who will dare defy his laws, if even I can be tried, if even I can be punished? Only madmen or fools. In war, or peace, his will is all that matters. That's what it means to be the Pope, His Black Paladin, his servant, even his own daughter." Far from resigned, Neia's voice was one of ecstatic happiness, filled with absolute certainty and confidence, and in a strange way, a sense of relief.
Neia's hand went over her heart as she stared into the fire, Mu'Bin stood aside and sat on the dirt nearby, the peasants fed more to the flames and brought it higher as the darkness increased, huddling close together as they had when chained and under guard when their fate was reduced to being mere food. An irony that wasn't lost on Neia now. "I swear to you, when I get back to prison... if my wife hasn't already done it, though I expect she has, I'll send word to ensure the full might of my faith is brought to bear in saving your people from your sins."
"Our... sins?" A warrior asked, "Don't you mean, 'save us from the Devor?' they're consuming us after all."
"No, your sin consumes you, the sin of weakness, the root of all sin and all evil. Father's great library taught me that for evil to triumph, all it takes is for good men to do nothing. But I think it was more than that, why do the good do nothing in the face of evil? Because they are weak, they are afraid, or they lack the power to act. It can't be because they are indifferent, because you can't be good and indifferent to evil at the same time. So they're good, but weak, and that is how this happens." She looked over to the border they'd just crossed.
"My people will come for you, because to spread strength is to spread the will of our god. We will bear weapons, knowledge gifted from the divine, teachings and training, we will do all this in his holy name, and with the coming of his will as it covers the land, you will be renewed. Strength however, doesn't come overnight. It may take twenty years... but if you live long enough, avoiding early death, you will see a day when the Devor cross the border and that empire beyond wonders... why have none of their sons or daughters come home alive from the Minotaur Kingdom?" Neia squeezed her eyes tightly shut.
She clutched the necklace Albedo had given her, her breathing became briefly labored, and then it was gone, her breathing became normal, and though her eyes had become black as the shadows of a cave, she felt no serious pain.
"That stung a little, must have been a strong one." Neia muttered, and waved off the looks of concern. "It's nothing, prophecy I think, they hurt like hell, but it seems mother's gift has done its work. Frankly I shouldn't even wear this thing, I should just go with it and let it happen but..." She shrugged, "Neither father nor mother want me to go through that pain so... I would be ungracious and ungrateful if I were to defy them, even for their sakes."
She cupped the necklace and looked down at it, "Unless I miss my guess, this was one of 'her' projects, I'll have to thank her for it later." Neia let the necklace fall and rest against her chest.
The same soldier spoke up again, "What if the Devor should... you know, invade?" That drew nervous, anxious looks, more than a few minotaur mouths opened in terror. "If we grow stronger, they may just decide to take the whole kingdom, and if they do, what then?"
"Then you will have to be strong enough to fend them off." Neia said bluntly and stared through tiny red points in hollow black eyes. "If my people are there, well, we will defend our charges. No warriors of our god have ever fled the field. If... say, a merchant caravan were to be attacked by the Devor, if our warriors guarded it, we would either kill every one of the attackers, or be dead to the last man ourselves. Cowardice is weakness, attachment to the flesh is weakness. Who we are lies within, and we teach that to pass beyond flesh, to the no mind of absolute strength, is where divinity may be found even amidst the deepest of hells."
"Ah, what?" The minotaur soldier scratched under his jaw.
Neia laughed, "Sorry, short version. We'll fucking kill them all or die trying. You want to run, go that way and don't stop till you see His Majesty's banner." Neia jerked her thumb west, and the soldier sat down saying a simple...
"Oh." But it clearly left him deep in thought, and his awed eyes did not leave where Neia sat.
"Mu'Ulm, can you set a watch for the night? I haven't slept in days, and even though when not in combat the Endurance of Unlife can go for quite some time, there's always a price to be paid for it eventually." Neia asked hopefully as she turned her dark gaze up to him at her left hand.
"You got it. Get some sleep, boss." Mu'Ulm grunted out and pushing off his knees, he stood up, towering over even the tallest of the other minotaurs, he cut an impressive figure.
"Mu'Bin, right? Got a problem taking orders from me for the night?" He asked bluntly.
Mu'Bin looked from up at the minotaur champion in the impossible gear, down to the one that champion clearly obeyed, and shook his head. "None. At least for the night."
"Good." Mu'Ulm said as Neia moved from off the log and set her back to the crowd and stretched out, before curling up, appearing even smaller than she already did. She was asleep almost instantly.
"She's not to be disturbed unless there's an attack. Set torches out every twenty yards, three guards for every direction, back ten yards from the torches themselves. Twenty soldiers to escort peasants out to gather wood enough for the rest of the night to keep the fire blazing, rotation every hour, I'll stay up for the first few hours as shift commander, you sleep near me and take the second half. Go get them appointed, see to it, and then get some rest where I can wake you." Mu'Ulm belted out the orders with the practiced ease of one accustomed to command, and when it was finally done, Mu'Bin laid down nearby.
"So what unit were you with?" He asked as he closed his eyes and stretched out near Kiril's Angel and Mu'Ulm.
Mu'Ulm shrugged, "Hornbreaker bandit chief, and then king of the Kirakira prison yard."
"But you're... you could easily have been a unit commander or something..." Mu'Bin exclaimed.
"What for?" Mu'Ulm shrugged and tore at a piece of bread a minotaur woman brought over to him. "This kingdom never did shit for me, why throw my life away for it? At least as a bandit chief I was free for awhile."
Mu'Bin couldn't think of anything to say as a yawn took over his body for a moment.
Mu'Ulm took his yawn and quiet for an opportunity, and went on. "I follow that one because she did more than kick my ass. When the kingdom does something more than barter our lives in exchange for days, let me know. Now go ahead and go to sleep, it'll be a long night, and hopefully a quiet one."
Mu'Bin did as Mu'Ulm said, for the second time, soon drifting off, and starting to snore, leaving Mu'Ulm to go from looking over the peasant rescues, their families and friends, the tattered remnants of warriors doomed to die for nothing, and behind him, the sleeping form of a very small woman whose flesh was still almost completely red from the blood of slaughter.
As he turned the events of the last few weeks over in his head again and again, he finally looked over the border his kingdom shared with the Devor Empire. He felt a swelling confidence in his chest as his eyes lingered on the long and presently empty Highway of Tears. 'You've lined your asses up to the horns over there... you just don't know it yet.'
