...Illyana's House…
Neia looked over her shoulder again as Vanysa walked away, the sadistic demoness was skipping away the way she often did when she was happy, it was flatly bizarre, but somehow it seemed to come so naturally to the woman that it never occurred to anyone to question it. Neia recognized it as an indication of some form of happiness, and she supposed that was good. As her demonic escort vanished, Neia followed the gentle pull of the nurse on her hand. She took a deep breath as her surroundings passed before her. The walls had murals aplenty and were painted in cooling colors, blue light, soft like that of the reflection of light off of water, was emitted by stones enchanted with specialized continual light spells. The floor was a cream colored marble of magnificent cut, in a few words, it had all been designed with the words 'beauty and tranquility' in mind.
There was no distressing sound to be heard, just the gentle tapping of their feet falling on stone. The nurse caressed her hand as Neia caught up to her, walking beside the elf woman instead of behind her, Neia didn't know where they were going, but she wasn't in a mind to question it. "Oh god… does Skana know I'm here now… she can't be kept in the dark forever… how do I explain this to her…?" Neia wondered with dread.
As that thought was fading, the nurse reached another door, there she stopped and turned to look Neia in the eye. The Mad Eyed Archer, destroyer of breakers, rider of dragons, the conquerer of cities and the bane of fallen paladins, the black paladin herself, was never one to shrink from another's eyes, and so she looked at the nurse's gaze in turn. "Before we go in, I wanted you to know some things." The elf woman said softly, her voice was soft as velvet in hand, and Neia nodded for her to proceed.
"I don't know what happened to you, I won't even pretend I could possibly understand, given all you've done, witnessed, and all that was done to you, we all know the stories and legends, but the first thing you should know is… You are not weak for being here. It is not weak to sleep when tired, bandage a wound, or die when very old, so it is not weak to get help when injured here." She said and touched her palm to Neia's forehead.
"The second thing I want you to know is… whatever you went through, whatever happened, it wasn't for nothing. I'm alive because of you, you got me out of that nightmare, and as long as I live, I will always be grateful. You're my hero." She said, and clasped Neia's hand firmly, "I never got to thank you before, so… thank you ."
Neia started to tremble a little, she struggled to find words that wouldn't burst out in tears, and in that she was unsuccessful, so she gave a little series of nods. "It's OK, where we're going is through here, I'm on duty at the desk, but I promise I'll come back later."
Neia looked at the door, it was of solid oak construction, carved with intricate designs of springs breaking through the earth, tall mountains behind, and beautiful, winged beings in flight. "I… ah… what's in here?" She asked in a small voice.
"Paradise." The nurse said with a small smile, the door opened, and Neia was not disappointed, it lived up to its description in full. There were small rolling hills of perfect green grass, creeks where water ran, cutting channels into the earth, babbling gently over smooth stones, small trees swayed in the wind, and a warm light cast down over the ground.
"Are… aren't we indoors?" Neia asked.
"Yes. This is the fruit of his majesty's efforts, come with me." She said to Neia and stepped within. "You can leave your shoes by the door." The nurse said softly, and Neia removed her boots and set them aside.
"Come along, we'll find a space you like." The nurse said, "I believe Pestonya will be coming to see you personally soon, but we'll make you comfortable first."
"If you say so…" Neia said uncertainly as she crinkled her toes over the grass again.
...Arwintar…
Skana cleaned up quickly and was ready before Lakyus or even CZ. Her energy was high, and fueled by anxiety, anger, frustration, and one could say outright fear. She reached back and pulled out her knife, it was the one Neia had taken and then put back in the wrong place to hide what she'd done. Skana couldn't take her eyes away from it, every time she put it away, she'd pull it out and look at it once more, cursing herself for not saying anything sooner. Nobody knew that she knew, and she wasn't going to reveal it, save perhaps to Neia when the chance came to talk… privately, and that, that she couldn't even say when. Tomorrow, a week, a month, in their old age, assuming either or both of them even got to that?
A knock came at the door and she put the knife away again and went to open it. CZ was standing there, so she stepped aside and let the demon maid in. "Hi." Was all she said.
"Hi." CZ said in return.
"Where's Lakyus?" Skana asked.
"Not long behind me." CZ responded.
"I see." Skana replied.
"OK?" CZ asked.
"Are you?" Skana sort of asked, but could more accurately have said to be 'retorting'.
"No." CZ answered in her usual monotone. Skana looked at her in surprise.
"Really?" Skana asked.
"She's a friend." CZ replied, as if that was answer enough, and answer enough it was.
"Thank you." Skana said, she was sincere in what she said, but her tone was closer to CZ's than her own.
Another knock came at the door, CZ chose to act while Skana lost herself in thought, and opened the door to admit Lakyus. The adventurer entered and wasted not a single breath, "Are we all ready to go?"
"Yes, but where do we start?" Skana asked.
"We have two options." Lakyus said as she went to the bathroom and picked up the bottle from the counter. "The first is we can go to where this is made, I'm not one to gamble, but I'll bet that these aren't mass produced, the workmanship on it is too fine, this is high end material, and I have absolutely no doubt that the ones who made it can tell us whose perfume normally goes in here."
"And the second option?" Skana asked thoughtfully.
"We go searching for the poison first, there are only a few places where this type of hemlock grows, and I'm quite sure that if we find that, we'll also find the poisoner." Lakyus said with profound confidence in her tone of voice.
"Both." CZ suggested.
"OK so we have three options." Lakyus said with a shrug. "But whatever we do, let's do it now, I want to come back here to inform Neia that we found your killer, her would be killer." The slender blond adventurer shuddered.
"You know," she said thoughtfully, "as an adventurer, I've always been prepared to die violently, a sword in the gut, a venom from some dangerous monster, a mace to the head, any number of things, I know you all were never in that line of work, but you were soldiers, fighters, the ones who wanted to kill you all were no different, and there is a kind of… integrity to it. The one who wants you to die, shows you their intent and you can fight against it, your skills and abilities can let you prevail. But this? This?" She asked in disgust as she held up the bottle of toxin.
"There is nothing decent or honest about it, how do you prepare to go this way? Honestly if I knew nothing else about Neia Baraja, I'd want to bring down this poisoner just for being a poisoner."
All Skana could do was nod numbly, "Who goes where?" She asked abruptly.
"Preference?" Lakyus asked.
"Whichever one is more likely to let me hurt someone." Skana said emphatically.
"The hemlock region then." Lakyus said, it's not too far from what is left of Kami Miyako. CZ and I will go find the perfumer." Lakyus had a malicious smile on her face, it wasn't something Skana was used to seeing there, but it… fit, at that moment.
"Fine. I'll head to the city when I'm done, we'll meet in the main square at the center of the city with our results, and if one of us isn't holding a severed head, I'll assume we'll know where to get the one we want after we're done." Skana said viciously.
"Safe bet." CZ said in a monotone that hid an underlying anger, a sea of it that Skana and Lakyus could only detect through considerable exposure to the maid demon.
"Open the gates then." Skana said.
"On it." Lakyus replied, and removed the scrolls she needed, a moment later, the trio traded looks.
CZ reached out and touched Skana's hand, it was a rare physical gesture, and it got Skana's full attention. "Capture first, kill later." She said in a stern monotone, and after that was acknowledged, the three stepped forward and walked through the holes in reality that took them to their respective locations.
...Outside of Kami Miyako…
Lakyus looked at the ruined walls of the once great city. There were still great big gaping holes from the recent siege, the rubble hadn't even been cleared away from most of it. The gate was off its hinges and cast aside as if thrown by a giant. The city had, simply put, seen better days.
"Well, this place has looked better." Lakyus said dryly. A wind picked up from the opposite direction, and Lakyus wrinkled her nose. "It has smelled better too."
CZ shrugged. "Stupid decisions make bad ends."
"They do." Lakyus replied, "Let's hope we don't have to remind too many people of that before the day is over."
CZ didn't respond to that, not with words. Instead she simply unholstered her spell gun and walked towards the ruin of the once mighty gate.
Lakyus was only a quarter step behind her when she started to move. Entering the city was… sobering.
Buildings were wrecked and destroyed, most of them had at least one gaping hole, though some enterprising residents had managed to at least cover it with a cloth to keep the cold out. While she was sure that the maid demon didn't feel a thing, Lakyus felt a terrible chill. It wasn't intolerable, but it was anything other than comfortable.
"CZ, can I ask a question without causing offense?" Lakyus asked as they walked the shabby, dirty, ruined streets of the once great capital.
"Ask." The demon maid said flatly.
"Is the Sorcerer King… is he punishing these people?" Lakyus asked in a measure of discomfort and disbelief with her own words.
"How?" CZ asked as she looked around.
"I've been to Ikari, I've been to Wheaton, I've been to a number of towns and villages along the way when I was traveling to the Synod after the war ended." Lakyus said, then went quiet as she saw a child chasing after a rat.
"Yes?" CZ prompted.
"And in all of them…" Lakyus clenched a fist in frustration, she unclenched and reclenched it several times and ground her teeth, "I saw better than this." She said as CZ looked at her in silent expectation.
"I fought for the Sorcerer King in Prart, I'm going to be speaking up for him in the Synod, I… did I fight for 'this'?" She asked as she waved her hand at a group of peasants huddled around a fire.
"In the other places, he adjusted the weather directly over the villages so that people would be warm, he had the captured supplies of grain returned so that people wouldn't starve to death, his priests and red paladins travel to those places and provide healing, and I even saw undead working as laborers in a few places. But here? Here you'd think the war ended just this morning. Winter is only going to get worse, how many people are going to freeze to death or starve when that happens?" Lakyus asked in an agitated voice.
"They do it themselves." CZ said in her customary abrupt fashion.
"But the war is over." Lakyus said in a voice that was almost a plea. "Why are they being punished, they're broken." She said sadly as she looked at a man with a missing arm, he lay huddled against a wall in the remnants of a theocracy military uniform. She caught his eye, and she saw recognition in it.
He got up as fast as he could and scrambled away, running as if in a rout all over again, his wail of terror fading in the distance. She wondered if his feet hurt, he had only one boot, and that was badly worn down and frayed. At his reaction, she guessed he was either at Kedyn, or he was at Prart, either was possible, but now she'd never know.
"He could have been healed, gotten warm clothing, been allowed treatment somewhere, something. Must he be punished still, forced to live like that?" She pointed to where he'd been crouching against the wall, a raggedy military bag sat there abandoned, several grimy children charged at it and dumped its contents, they scrambled for the chance to take his meager possessions while the chance was there. Meager, from what Lakyus saw, was a generous word, scraps of clothing, a water pouch that had seen better days, a sack spilled open revealing rotted meat and moldy cheese, which they eagerly took and stuffed into their mouths as happily as if they'd been eating sweet candy.
"They do, not did." CZ clarified.
"Wait, you mean to tell me that this festering pile of ruins has been refusing aid?!" Lakyus said in absolute outrage.
CZ gave her a grim nod.
"They'd kill their children to keep their faith?!" Lakyus's face went white as a sheet, and her memory flew back to the day of her own fateful choice, when her precious little sister Keeno had bared her face and revealed her vampire eyes. The sight of her standing there with her arms open to be embraced or killed haunted Lakyus still, and would haunt her until her dying day, not because she could have killed her sister. To her the choice, though stark, was not even a choice. What haunted her was how badly she must have wounded her sister over and over again, that Keeno felt it likely, even nearly inevitable.
It was an impossible thought, but here as she looked around at the filth, the shivering, the hunger, the wounded in body and mind, she realized something absolutely awful. She barely found the breath to give it voice. "By god… they've got to be mad, all of them, utterly mad." She said so softly that CZ herself could barely hear it.
"Yes?" She asked.
"They'd sacrifice not just their own lives, but the lives and futures of their children, to what… pass some test of their gods, to please their gods… I just… I can't." Lakyus said, equal parts stupified and horrified.
As they walked, they passed a beggar who was reduced to little better than skin and bones. "Food, please…!" he said hoarsely.
Lakyus opened her traveling cloak, crouched next to him, and reached into her pack. "Of course." She said with a sad expression on her face, he looked grateful at the well to do woman, until his eyes fell to the contents of the pack and he saw a copy of the Book of Black Justice.
His eyes turned hateful. "No! Get away from me!" He snarled and tried to spit at Lakyus's face, however he was in no state to do that very well either, and most of it simply flopped out and fell into his ruin of a beard. "Go away servant of evil!" He flailed his sticklike arms and tried to spit several times, "I'd kill you if'n I still had my strength, just leave me alone, I'd rather die than take your evil into my body!"
Lakyus wiped a fleck of spit from her face that had managed to bridge the gap between them. She stood silently, closed her pack, stepped back from the hateful glare, then turned, and walked away. CZ walked with her.
"So I'm not the hero of humanity anymore, not here anyway." She said.
"No." CZ said. "Not here."
"No healers?" She asked CZ.
"None." CZ replied.
"What about trade goods." She asked.
"Few. Just artisans." CZ replied.
"That district is intact?" Lakyus asked, surprised.
"Spared." CZ replied in a casual monotone.
They walked silently for a long time, past burned down homes and homes being stripped of things for people to burn to fend off the winter chill. A few kids were hurrying across the street carrying an intact door, they looked like they'd just found treasure, perhaps they had.
"You know where we're going, right?" Lakyus asked as she looked around at the devastated and unfamiliar surroundings.
CZ nodded slightly.
"How?" Lakyus asked.
"Doesn't matter. Just follow." CZ answered. They reached the main square, the gallows was still intact.
Lakyus gestured to it. "I wasn't here when the hangings happened. How many?"
"Many." She answered again.
"Did they deserve it?" Lakyus asked.
"You saw Feron? You saw Wheaton?" CZ asked, the question was rhetorical. Lakyus went pale again.
"I withdraw the question." She said softly.
As they walked further, the city started to 'improve' with fewer holes in buildings, and bigger buildings. The people moving through that district about their business were 'somewhat' better dressed, but it was readily apparent that they'd seen better days as well.
Lakyus tensed when they passed through the part of the city where slaves had been sold. There were still platforms intact, a few still had chains attached where slaves had been 'positioned' in various ways to show off to the buyers.
CZ moved herself a little closer to Lakyus, it was a minor gesture. It meant a lot.
They passed in silence through the area, Lakyus didn't bother commenting on the blood splatter that was still staining stones, the violence done here would be written of for a thousand years, and remembered life long by people for whom a 'lifetime' was a laughable concept.
Eventually they made it deep into the city. "This was the heart of their government." Lakyus said quietly, "It looks so… normal. I was expecting something 'else'."
"Evil wears fine trappings." CZ said dismissively, she moved on, Lakyus almost didn't notice as she stopped to let her gaze linger at the husk of the building. A government still existed here, and it was every bit as stupid as the last one. It wouldn't last, that much she was sure of.
She rushed to catch up with CZ, and eventually they found themselves moving out of the governing area and into the arts district, this was the one area of the city which had been almost completely untouched, the place where books and fine crafts were made and sold, it was once the richest part of the city.
It still was. It was just that 'richest part of Kami Miyako' now had a very different meaning than it did not that long ago. The doors were intact and the people who worked there still had intact clothing, the streets were not exactly 'clean', but there were no children chasing rats and they even saw a few guards with intact armor and weapons, but none wore the old symbol of the defunct Slane Theocracy.
They checked the windows and signs as they walked along, and eventually came to one indicating it was owned by a glass maker. Lakyus entered first with CZ in tow, even as shops on this block went, the place looked to be doing fairly well.
"Good day, sir." Lakyus said as she spied an old man behind the counter, he was wrinkled as could be, with hard looking hands for his evidently advanced age, his head was bald but for a few wisps of gray hair, and he was clean shaven, a rarity now in the city.
"Yer not from here." He said as he put his hands on the counter and leaned forward.
"Wait, how did you know that?" Lakyus asked, incredulous at the rapid conclusion.
"No good days left in Kami Miyako." The old man said sarcastically.
"True." CZ said indifferently.
Lakyus half expected him to glare at her, but he didn't, he shrugged. "Well, you're right, we're not from here, but we're looking for something we think might have been made here." She said in a hopeful voice.
"You want me to identify something for you eh? Well, I suppose I can do that. It'll cost ya though." He said, biting his lip with some evident anxiety. Lakyus wasn't stupid, she guessed he was anxious for every coin he could get, even if he was doing well compared to others.
"What do you have?" He asked.
"Are these OK?" Lakyus asked and laid out three gold coins of the Sorcerous Kingdom on his counter.
"Hell no." He said flatly.
"But… it's gold" She said, dumbfounded.
"Yeah, from the undead what destroyed our country and our city." He said, frustration evident in his voice.
"But…" Lakyus said and then paused as he slapped his hand down on the counter, concealing the coins.
"Ain't no 'but' lady." He let out a slow breath and calmed himself, "Listen, I'm sure you didn't come here just for any old thing, but I can't take these coins. I can't use them, ain't nobody in Kami Miyako that'd take all three of these in trade for a bucket a warm spit. You get me? I… can't… use em. Even 'having' these coins, could have some rabble rouser turn on me, then where'll I be? Dead in a ditch, that's where. Got somethin else?" He asked.
"No…" Lakyus said.
"Then I don't know a damn thing." He said.
CZ started to lift her weapon, only for Lakyus to dart her hand out and catch the top, she held her hand in place, CZ lowered the weapon again. "Wait," she said as the disinterested shop keeper stopped himself from walking to his back work room.
"What?" He asked.
"What if we gave you something else, something more valuable." Lakyus asked thoughtfully.
"That's right kind of you lady, but ole Vepyr here is just a little too much your senior for that." He guffawed as his joke brought a blush to the adamantite adventurer.
"No… not what I meant. What if we got you a chance to start over, new shop, new equipment, new location, your pick, anywhere in the Sorcerous Empire." Lakyus said, and that sparked a gleam in his eyes.
"You can do that?" He asked.
"I can." She said, "I offer my personal guarantee that if my backer does not support my offer of compensation, then I will out of my own pocket, ensure my promise is kept."
"What the hell is so damn important?" He asked in shock.
"This." Lakyus said and took out the ornate glass perfume bottle, and set it on the counter. "I want to know who made this and where it went."
"Well, that's easy, this is my work." He said, "But why're you looking so hard for me?"
CZ's weapon was up again, much faster than Lakyus could move her hand to stop the motion, the muzzle squarely pointed at his face.
He might not have known 'what' her weapon was, but he was sure that it was a weapon, and he froze where he stood, only his bowels moved, and he decided that if he lived, he'd ask for a new pair of pants to be thrown into the bargain.
"Wait CZ…" Lakyus said softly.
CZ waited, but even through the cold and indifferent face she wore, Lakyus could detect that she was not happy about what had happened to Neia and her wife, and she was eager for payback.
"So, this is your work, it is… exquisite." Lakyus said as she praised Vepyr.
"Yeah, thanks ah, can she not point that thing at me?" He asked as his breathing increased with his fear.
"CZ?" Lakyus asked, and the demon maid reluctantly lowered the weapon.
"My comrade here seems to have gotten ahead of herself, I suppose I should explain. A bottle, just like this, was used to hold poison, that poison was used in an assassination attempt on the pope of Black Justice, you know, Neia Baraja, the woman who reports to nobody except for the Sorcerer King himself."
Vepyr looked, and felt, like he might fall over then and there. "Did… is she dead?" He asked in surprise, thinking he had a very big problem on his hands as he asked the question.
"No. By lucky coincidence… if you want to call it that, the attempt failed and they killed her wife instead." Lakyus's voice went very cold as she explained the situation. "You made this, you say?" She asked again, and set it down delicately on the counter, the threat was heavily implied, but not outright spoken.
"Well, yes, but I made it to hold perfume, not poison!" Vepyr said defensively.
"Well poison it held, now I don't believe you had a hand in that change of contents, but you do know where these bottles go, how many do you make?" She asked.
"About a hundred a year." He said, her face fell.
"But, every batch is a little different, so I can tell you where this most likely went, I can narrow it down to about a dozen candidates." Vepyr said ingratiatingly.
"Better, but that is still quite a few." She said, and CZ casually stroked her firearm.
"Well, most of them are dead. This attempt was recent, so unless they bought a long while ago, it's going to be one of… just a moment." He said and reached under his counter and took out a book. He started flipping through pages one after the other while sweat beaded on his bald head.
"Ah, here we go." He said as he came to the proper page, he lowered his finger down the length of it, and then on a piece of stray paper he wrote down that person's information, and then did the same with two more.
He handed it over to Lakyus, who took it brusquely from his hands and looked it over.
"Those are the only three that got these from me in the last month, who are also still alive. You find the one who ain't got his bottle, you found the one who went and wasted perfectly good perfume." He said confidently.
"Thank you." Lakyus said sincerely, "When all this is over, or before if I can, I'll send someone to help you move out, pick where you want to go before we arrive." She said appreciatively.
"Uh huh, you just take care out there, lotsa unpleasant folk about." Vepyr said and gave them a little wave as they walked out of his shop and the door shut behind them. He wiped his brow and said softly, "Phew, there sure are some scary people in this world."
...South of Kami Miyako…
Skana stepped out of the gate and onto dry grass. She looked around and smirked. There were people, not many, but a few, and they were going into the woods not far from where she stood. They hadn't seen her. There weren't many good reasons to go there. At least no reasons that fit them, they were obviously not hunters, not with the lack of bows or other hunting equipment.
She waited, their backs were to her so they hadn't seen a thing, it was trivially easy for the Black Justice front liner and former scout to follow them without being seen. She ran through the options in her head. They were violent looking people, but as the one who killed Braunin in single combat, and the one who had a hand in killing Remedios Custodio, she was certain that however good they were, she was better.
That meant she had choices, she could…
Kill them all? Satisfying but… she wouldn't gain information.
Disable them all? Possible but she couldn't be certain that none would raise an alarm.
Secure them one by one starting from the back and going forward? Sentry removal was heavily emphasized for scouts, and this was the same thing or nearly.
She was getting angry. She watched the way they moved, it was sloppy, arrogant, and they were all well fed, five of them. There was no way in her mind she could see that they could be as well fed as they were compared to others without some really dirty dealings or some really important ties to powerful people, or both.
"Fuck it." She said softly to herself and waited until they came to a clearing that left her enough room to move around, one of them would know what she needed, the rest didn't have a use. As soon as they were near the edge of the clearing, Skana revealed herself.
"Cough, cough, really big damn cough." She said contemptuously, not even bothering to pretend the cough was real. They whirled around in shock to see her standing behind them. Skana wasn't that tall, not but a little taller than Neia herself, but she was well toned from her time in training and in combat, her auburn hair hung lower than it used to, but not by much, it bounced freely behind her as she stepped into the clearing from concealment. Her one green eye shone bright even in the shadow of the tree cover.
Before they could speak, she did, and as she spoke, they spread themselves out. 'Oh good, a fight.' Skana thought happily.
"I'm not going to waste my time the way you've wasted your lives, whatever you're out here for, it isn't hunting, you're thugs, you've either got a gang or a stash out here and I don't care about either." Skana said bluntly, throwing them for a loop with that statement.
"I care about one thing and one thing only, anyone who tells me what I want to know gets to live, everyone else is disposable." She said with a hard edge to her voice.
A large black bearded figure who stood at the center of their formation took a step forward, "Ay you think you can kill all five of us little girl?" He asked mockingly.
"Absolutely, I killed Braunin in single combat, I helped kill Remedios Custodio, I'm the vice commander of Black Justice, one of the hundred escorts of Tinamoc, I helped burn Wenmark and bring down Hoburns, killing you all is no more difficult than wiping my ass, only difference is that my ass is cleaner. My name is Skana Baraja, wife of Neia Baraja, and you will talk... or you will die." As she spoke, they froze, the largest thug stopped in disbelief.
He, and they, looked more closely at her, as if comparing her appearance to those stories they'd heard about various figures in the war. "You're in charge, yeah?" She asked, and he nodded without thinking.
Skana had her bow out and loosed two arrows in rapid succession, putting an arrow into the eyes of two bandits and sending them falling to her back. She was already moving forward as they processed what had just happened. They were slower in body and in mind than she was, and her sword was already in hand.
Men of violence are not easily frightened, death is a constant companion, but it is not often in a lifetime that one meets an agent of the god of death in battle, and that threw them off their game considerably. When the stakes are life and death, one's game cannot ever be 'off'. Skana kicked the big, broad thug in the knee with her orichalcum tipped boot, it shattered… his knee, not the boot. He fell, buckling over to one side with a scream as he clutched the wounded part. The remaining two were thinner, smaller, and they'd just lost their three comrades.
They charged desperately, driven by the last ounce of courage in their bodies, they moved to try to bring her down by way of reckless effort alone, their swords went high to try overhead swings down at her head, neck, or shoulders. 'Pathetic.' She thought, her sword arm was a blur as she ducked, spun, and brought her sword up to the middle of the first man's arm, and then as she passed them in the spin, completely over her head and then down into the wrist of the second. When she completed the motion she was beyond where they were still stumbling forward and she struck a side stance watching them stumble forward screaming as they looked for their lost 'pieces'.
She sniffed contemptuously and walked back over to them, they were not paying attention to the rest of the world. The first she killed took a sword in the back. The second she killed took it in the back of the head, he lived long enough to see the blade coming out of his mouth.
Their erstwhile leader was still crying out on the ground, he'd seen what had just happened to his people. Terror and pain were filling his eyes as the grass and leaves crunched under the footsteps of the wife of death's avatar.
She stomped his other knee. It shattered. He bit so hard that foam started to fleck past his lips.
"Do you believe me now?" Skana asked as she walked around his prone form.
"I asked you a question." She said, "Do I need to do your elbow next?" Her shining eye was savage and violent, and poured hate out onto his like it was burning acid. He nodded in terror.
"I want to know where hemlock based poison is made, or who sells it. Tell me what I want to know, and I promise in the name of the wife I love, that you will live, that you will die an old, old man, many years from now, you may even be cared for by a very beautiful woman, I don't know about that, but… you'll die old." Skana said firmly.
"Swear it then." He sputtered out, still writhing on the ground, trying to inch himself away from her and failing.
She put her boot down on his sternum and applied pressure. "I, Skana Baraja, swear on the life of my wife, Neia Baraja, that I will let you live if you tell me what I want to know. I will ensure that you do not die of anything but old age, in our names, I so swear." Skana said formally.
"Ghah…" he gasped out, "Alright, alright I'll tell you, deep in the woods back here, there's a cabin, it's almost impossible to find if you don't know where it is exactly, girl who lives there, she grows and makes the stuff, I can take you to her, alright?" The agonized voice of the bear like thug was desperate.
"Heal my knees, you gotta have a heal potion right, heal me, and I'll take you to her. Please, you gotta… hurts so much…" He arched his back at the pain, only for her to press back down with her booted foot.
Skana pretended to think it over.
"Fine." She said, "I guess that would make it easier. But first this." She said, and moved to one side of him, she rolled him over onto his stomach, prompting another cry of pain as his knees hit the ground directly. She grabbed his arms and pulled them behind his back. She tied his wrists firmly with a piece of rope she'd taken from her pack. He was whimpering in pain. She didn't care.
When that was done she stood up and pulled out a potion, she poured it over his body, and a moment later the pain and injury was obviously gone.
"Get up." She said, and he gradually worked his way up to his knees, then to his feet. "Now lead the way, and bear this in mind, you try to lead me into a bandit camp, it doesn't matter if you've got ten, twenty, or fifty of them, because I'm the lioness, and you're the fucking deer. Understood?" She asked.
He nodded dumbly and walked forward. They stepped into the thick of the woods again and left the corpses in the clearing behind.
"C'n ah ask somethin at least, thout gettin a sword in the throat?" He asked after a few minutes.
Skana was annoyed, but seeing no harm, she said, "Fine, ask."
"What'd we do that broughtchu after us?" He asked, mystified. "Ah believe yah are who yah says but… we's just ordinary bandits'n all, so what…?" He trailed off as he sensed her renewed rage growing behind him.
"You really want to know?" Skana asked.
He nodded. "If'n my day is gonna go as bad as all this, might as well know why." He replied.
"Fine, someone used a hemlock poison to try to assassinate my wife. I've grown attached to her as you might guess." Skana said with scathing sarcasm. "As it happened though, they missed her, they killed me instead." She said bluntly.
"But you're…" He started to stammer out.
"Alive? Yeah, I got better." Skana said viciously.
She could see his nervousness increase, that was good as far as she was concerned. He was silent for the next two hours. The woods were only getting thicker, darker, they were very deep now, shadows were cast everywhere in broad daylight, but this was nothing for the veteran scout, and if her prey stumbled a bit, she was in no mood to give a damn.
Finally they came to a hillside, various rocks were jutting out from it. "This is the place." He said.
"What are you trying to pull?" Skana snapped.
"Nothin, I swear. See them rocks over there, the ones with that big bush between em?" She nodded.
"I do. What about that spot should I notice?" She asked.
"That bush comes away, hides a door under them rocks, painted to look like the hillside, an that hillside ain't a hillside, it's a cabin, she done covered it with dirt and planted grass an stuff all over it, now it looks like a normal hill, but she gots a nice place in there." He said fervently.
Skana was taken aback at what he said, she looked more closely, now that he'd said it, the shape of the hill was ever so slightly off, she rarely saw straight lines in nature, yet if she looked closely, she thought she could detect the shape of the angles on the top of the hill where the 'roof' must be.
"Alright, fine, I believe you." Skana said, "Will she be there?"
"We were going to see her, so, I think so." He said nervously.
"I see. Who is she, what is she, and what is she capable of?" Skana asked, putting the tip of her sword to his back.
He stank of fear. "She's just a poison master far as I know, never seen her do nothin else." His voice had not lost its anxiousness, and when the tip of the sword pressed slightly, he put the smell of ammonia into the air. Skana ignored that.
"Fine, I believe you." Skana said.
He sighed with relief, "So you let me go now?" He asked.
"Let you go?" Skana asked curiously. "When did I say that? I said you would be allowed to live, and to die of old age, I never said anything about letting you go."
He barely had time to understand what she meant when she hit him in the back of his head with the pommel of her sword and robbed him of his consciousness.
...Nazarick…
Burl woke up, he shook his head, he had a horrible headache. He looked around, he had no idea where he was. He stopped looking when he saw a beautiful peasant girl sitting on a chair directly in front of him. That was when he noticed the chains on his wrists.
"Ugh, where am I?" He asked.
"What is the last thing you remember?" The lovely girl asked gently.
"I-ah, I was takin a woman claiming to be Skana Baraja ta see… a friend ah mine, I got hit in the head, that was it. Now… can yah tell me where ah am?" He asked again. "An… who're you?" He asked as he looked her over. His face fell to her breasts.
"Well, to answer your last question first," she said, "my name is Vanysa." She took a deep breath through her nose, as if smelling a flower. "Oh that is so wonderful… you're so very proud… aren't you? Of everything you've done. I can see it, smell it all so clearly, by god I can almost feel how good you felt every time…" She was talking, but it didn't feel like it was to him.
He was concerned, she wasn't making sense, nothing made sense, he tried to move, the chains rattled.
"I…" he started to say, but she was walking seductively towards him, and the part of his brain that used higher thought, lost the argument with down below on which way the blood should flow.
"Can I kiss you?" Vanysa asked shyly.
"Course." He said arrogantly, figuring whatever strange thing was going on, might as well be fun.
She took the sides of his chin between her thumb and forefinger, and smiled lustily at him, she smelled like a noble woman, of perfume and lavender, he wanted her, he closed his eyes for the kiss.
"No, open them." She said duskily, and when he complied, he found himself looking into the face of nightmare, the grip of her fingers went from gentle and seductive, to cracking his jaw, she pressed her lips to his when he had only a moment of horror to process her fangs, wild eyes, and golden skin.
Her lips covered his, her fangs pierced them, and she tore them away, she stepped back as he started screaming in futility.
"As to where you are, Mr. Bandit," she began to laugh wickedly, "you are in Nazarick, in my… personal care, and it is where, in accordance with your promise from Skana, you will get to live until you are a very, very, very old man, just as she said when she gave you her word." Her mad laughter echoed in the room, and every day for the rest of his life, he envied the two who had died first in the woods that fateful afternoon.
...Woods…
When Skana had disposed of the bandit, she scouted the area around the residence, she searched for traps and alarms, and found none. At first glance it seemed odd, and she was worried that the woman who lived there was unusually good at laying them. Then it occurred to her that no… this reliance on concealment was her best protection, anything else, if found, would make the area suspicious.
So it was with great trepidation that Skana approached the area of the residence, she drew closer, creeping up until she was gently pressing herself against the outer wall, as she pressed, she could feel the wooden boards beyond, this much of what the bandit had said was clearly true.
Skana waited, listened, she could hear faint sounds of motion inside, and as close as she was, she could smell the faint odor of potion making. If this wasn't the place, Skana was willing to eat her sword. Now… how to bring her down, that was the question.
She took a deep breath, she'd let out some of her rage on the bandits, but this… this was the one who had provided the poison, arguably the second most guilty person in the chain of responsibility. Normally she wanted to simply charge in, smash her fist into the shocked face of the one responsible, and call it a day.
This time though, this time she had another idea. She went to the far side of the home as quietly as a low breeze over the plains. She gently struck a spark close to the side of the home, it leapt from the stone and struck the back, dry as everything was now, it didn't take much encouragement, all Skana had to do was cover it against the wind and blow it for a moment, she went to two other parts of the house, and started two more fires.
When this was done, Skana rushed quickly and silently to the space in the woods beyond the clearing and clambered up into a tree, she watched at first, then listened, the woman was crying out in shock and fear, that fear quickly became outright terror as the fire began to collapse timbers within and sections fell to collapse, a few moments later a young woman came screaming out of the house and happily, she stood at the base of the tree where Skana had perched herself.
Skana waited, savoring the distress of the poison maker as her work, her life, her home was taken away from her, but for her, this was only the beginning. After her terror seemed to have peaked, Skana jumped down, gently dropping herself from the branches, and she landed in front of the woman.
She had just enough time to be surprised as Skana gave a vicious smile, said, "Hi there." And brought her fist into the middle of the woman's face. She flew back, hit the back of her head on the tree, and fell unconscious.
"Neia would have done that a lot more gracefully, but hey, it got the job done." Skana said aloud to herself as she looked down at the crumpled body, and started cutting strips off of her dress which she used as ropes to bind her hands and feet.
It was two hours later before the woman started to groggily come to.
"Hi there." Skana said as she sat with her back to a tree sharpening her sword.
The woman's eyes flew open, they were hazel, and very expressive. 'Pretty thing really,' was what Skana thought, 'young too, damn shame.'
"Recognize me?" Skana asked casually. The woman shook her head.
"No?" She shrugged.
"Do you recognize the name 'Neia Baraja?'" Skana asked as she turned the blade over to hone the other side with her whetstone.
"Ah… yes?" She answered hesitant.
"Good, that'll make this easier. We both know that you're a poisoner." Skana said.
The woman looked about to speak, but Skana preempted her. "Lie to me, and I'll cut that tongue out, I'm annoyed with you right now, and if you make it worse by lying, I'll be very unhappy."
The woman closed her mouth.
"Smart." Skana said.
She looked at Skana angrily, but said nothing else.
"Now, I have only one question. Who bought poison from you?" Skana asked.
She remained silent.
"In case you're wondering, I ask because your poison was used to poison my wife, Neia Baraja, but the assassin missed her, they got 'me' instead. So I'm doubly annoyed at the lot of you. Do you see where I'm going with this?" Skana asked.
The woman remained silent.
"If you don't use your tongue as directed, I'll remove it as a useless appendage. I'll make this absolutely clear to you, I already know you're guilty, the use of hemlock and the bottle that is locally produced made you the only candidate. So I want only one piece of information, who bought it?" Skana asked.
"Bottle?" The woman asked. "What bottle?"
"The poison was stored in a very beautiful and ornate container, one which normally held expensive perfumes. My friends are already on their way to the glass maker to find out who the buyers were that are still alive, your only chance to leave me with your body intact is the truth."
"Now what'll it be?" Skana asked as she got up, put away her whetstone, and approached the bound girl, she put her sword at the eye of the woman. "I get by with one eye, can you get by with none?" She asked, and the woman began swearing as she looked down, when she ran out of swear words, she sighed. "Fine, I'll tell you everything."
AN: Hope you enjoyed this chapter, if you didn't, well how the hell did you get this far? Thanks for reading, I look forward to the reviews.
OH, I almost forgot, some of you probably read my little 'Dare to be Badass' author note encouraging people with plot ideas to finally write your own stories, and I just wanted to bring one of the ones to answered that call to your attention, this guy really captured the character of Ainz, the author's user name is Lutemis. He did a very interesting IQ piece that I just took a look at not to long ago, worth reading.
And last but not least...give Ultrafan123 a look, he recently uploaded Chapter 5 of his story and...had the misfortune of doing so at almost the same moment as when I dropped all 15 chapters at once soooo...yeah his work got pushed down on the list and probably wasn't seen. I took a look, its actually worth reading so far, just got through the first chapter, but the structure is strong and I haven't seen a crazy self insert yet.
That's all for now!