The Synod: The Book of Black Justice

By AtheistBasementDragon

Edited by The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots

Chapter 23: The Things You Get Used To

...Nazarick...Three Months Post Synod...

"So the temples over most of Baharuth have been modified, the dwarven sculptors and stone cutters have been working nonstop to add Your Majesty to the reliefs of the former Six, and without prompting, they set you atop them all." Albedo read the document before the assembly with glowing golden eyes and a body that did not even try to disguise her trembling excitement.

"On my last trip to Re-Estize, I saw lines out the door to join the fighting orders and other academies of Black Justice and it's order, everything from paladins to priests, applicants are everywhere." Shalltear added as soon as Albedo stopped speaking.

"In the Holy Kingdom, Calca has offered special identification cards to students and members who are Your Majesty's devotees, these give them discounts on the use of special government services and licenses. The cards are sponsored by the merchant guild under Tinamoc, and they will use no escorts but our own." Sebas reported with quiet dignity in his voice.

"An excellent idea, the mute merchant and the queen were worth reviving." Ainz remarked in passing, "Ensure that word of their actions spreads far and wide, and try to allot some small bonus benefits to those who thought of it first. Quietly, of course." Ainz ordered as he folded his hands together in his lap.

"In the Dark Elf Kingdom they now call you the father of the Everplains, and in the Understone Empire they call you the father of Stone. The Sons of Iontariil remained banded together, and draw more from the demihuman tribes in the Abelion Hills, they're forming new schools as well, larger settlements are forming that serve as both military camps and the foundations of great cities in the future." Demiurge reported, "We're having supplies dispatched to them to aid in the construction, along with undead labor for further support."

Aura read off her own document next. "The Beastman Kingdom is asking for official integration, but..." She frowned, "Master, they seem so... weak, are they really worth it? If we wiped out the whole place I could turn it into one big ranch for all my monsters." She scrunched her face up with some distaste.

"S-Sister you're being rude!" Mare said in his nervous sort of way as he wrung his staff in his hands and held it close.

She rubbed her head and looked down with a grimace on her face, "Ah, fine, they're also saying that the other two beastman kingdoms are stirring up trouble at the borders, big countries... kinda. They didn't really know much, just that they've seen skirmishes start happening and King Rargnan is worried."

Silence swept over the throne room. "I took the time to see that they are rebuilt. Threatening the place I took my precious time to save is an insult that will not be forgiven lightly. It'll be a massacre." Ainz said as he looked over to Demiurge.

"Demiurge, have you made any progress in replicating Neia's abilities with other subjects? Her... what did you call it?" Ainz asked.

"Sacred Death Magic."

"Holy Death Magic."

Albedo and Demiurge spoke at once and looked at one another with annoyance over their masters head, they then looked down at him expectantly.

'Oh, my decision... shit.' He paused, then raised one finger, "Yes, that's it." He answered.

'I've gotten better at this but... I feel like a terrible boss when I do this kind of thing to them.' He thought with a brief moment of despair.

"No, no my lord, forgive my incompetent self..." Demiurge immediately began to apologize, only for Ainz to raise his hand to cut it off before it got out of hand.

"It's fine, it hasn't been that long, but make it a priority, along with 'The Project' for the morphomantic item creation, there is no need to respond 'yet'. First we'll integrate Rargnan's kingdom first, but do nothing to discourage or encourage their neighbors. Let them hang themselves by their decision, or step away from the noose. But when they come, I want a massive army of hundreds of thousands of Black Paladins, Red Paladins, and more, to flank my undead. If they choose war, then the many races of my subjects, from the humans and elves to the demihumans, heteromorphs, and beastmen worshipers, will know the wrath of this Imperial God." Ainz said with icy coldness as he easily pronounced the path of desolation.

"Will you make her a general again?" Vanysa asked from down below as she waited for her turn to report.

Ainz looked down to where the demoness stood, she looked up at him with her adoring eyes, but he detected something in her expression that gave him pause.

"You have some doubt about using her this way?" Ainz asked.

She nodded. "I do, master... I took her to get help'n... I don't know if she c'n do all that stuff again. Ah mean if'n yer ok with her dyin, well OK, but ah don't think yer want'n that. Maybe'n ten years she'd be able to again but... ah dunno." The spark in her eyes had faded as she spoke, but it gradually began to return.

"I will keep alternates in mind." Ainz reassured her. 'Though... I have to admit, I wonder if she could unlock the Crusader job class if I sent her on such a campaign?' He shook off the thought.

"What else do you have?" Ainz asked.

"Sire, the elves have set up temples great and small, but they have a shortage of priests to tend them, some have taken to traveling the roads, and there are some disappearances. Not many, but some, between that and the fact that Meidhall's hunt through the former Slane Theocracy for any remaining Agante has taken her South, I think some angry ex-Theocracy people have taken to hiding in the Elf Kingdom in search of revenge." Vanysa said, biting her lower lip with her fangs, it was only that, and the fact that her talons pierced the paper as she clenched it, that told him she was angry. Very, very angry.

"Set some death knights to patrolling the roads, and commit a thousand skeletons to a grid search of the areas where disappearances have happened." Ainz said decisively.

Albedo sighed lovingly as he quickly addressed the problem. He didn't need to look at her to know what was going through her mind, he discreetly looked up at the eight edge assassins on the ceiling, they were already tensing up. 'I'll need to call for containment protocol soon...' He thought to himself, he sighed mentally, 'When did I become used to 'this'?'

...Illyana's House...

Neia sat across from her wife in the lightly furnished quarters she'd been living in the last few months. "I want to go somewhere... and I don't know how I feel about it, or how you feel about it, but... I don't think I can go alone. There's things I want to say, want to see, but the people I want to say them to... they're all gone. But the place might still be there, and maybe... if you don't mind, I'd like to have someone to talk to, not just ghosts and memories."

Skana nodded solemnly, she reached over across the small round table and took Neia's shaking hand in hers. "I go, where you go, even if it's to hell itself."

Neia gave a warm, but weak smile to her, a mild flash of her white teeth emerged for a moment, before she stood up, and called for the gate.

...Northern Holy Roble Kingdom...Neia's Village...

Neia's heart pounded in her chest. She hadn't seen this place in almost ten years, but she'd never forgotten it. Nor had it changed much since the last time she'd been there. It was still a burnt out ruin.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Skana asked, taking her hand and giving it a small amount of comforting pressure.

"No. I don't, I really don't, but they said it might... help me come to terms with things." Neia replied.

They stood on blasted ground, still hard from the heat of Jaldabaoth's flames so many years before.

"If you say so, my love." Skana said uncertainly. "So where are we standing right now?" She asked.

Neia looked around her, the outline of the place was still obvious. "This would have been my parent's bedroom." She walked a handful or so of steps away, still holding her wife's hand and drawing her in. She stopped a few moments later.

"This... was where my bed was, in my room." Neia said softly.

"So... this is where... you were born, huh?" Skana said. "Every blasted remnant?"

"Was a house, yes, someone lived there, was born there, and probably died there." She walked over the shitwrecked ruin that was nothing but a black outline anymore.

"Over here..." She said softly after walking for a minute, "I first told a boy I liked him. He cried and ran away. I didn't know why he did that, but I figured it out by the third boy." Neia said, biting her lip.

"It was these." She said, pointing at her eyes. "I figured it out over there." She said, and pointed to what was left of a tree trunk. "Back then it was still alive and strong, the other kids had carved their names into it with their crushes." She said as she walked over and touched what was left. "It's all gone now."

She touched the black, blasted trunk. Next to it, the broken part of the tree lay still, it was rotting. Holes were appearing over some names where insects ate their way through the evidence of those who once lived there. Other names were broken off in whole or in part, and the bark and wood beneath long since blown away. "All their names are either already gone, or will be soon, didn't know that until just now. It was still standing when I left this place." Neia said. "The boy I told, I asked if we could carve our names together and I pulled out a knife... he called me a bandit and ran away, there was a little puddle from the rain, it filled up right there." She said and pointed to a hole nearby, "I looked into it by chance and saw my reflection, I'd never really realized what it seemed like until then." Neia shook her head, "I went home, I was really upset, told my mother who said I had eyes like my father and not to worry, I told her how frustrating it was that I wished I didn't have his eyes. That was when she hit me." Neia said as she walked back to the outline of her childhood home.

"She beat me right over there." Neia said softly, pointing to the empty space where a door once stood.

"She didn't tell my dad why, I kind of wish she had. But I started staying away from home after that, and..." Neia paused and bit her lip.

"And?" Skana asked.

"Well my dad noticed I was staying out, I started spending more time in the woods, I tried to say I was practicing hunting, and sometimes it was true. But eventually he figured out I'd leave whenever mom was home."

"He confronted me about it, wouldn't let me leave unless I told him what was the matter." Neia said softly.

"And he hit you?" Skana asked sympathetically, drawing closer by a fraction of an inch.

Neia snorted. "No, frankly if he had that would have been easier, he looked at me like he was embarrassed. It was a long time before I felt comfortable with them again. Funny thing is, all that time in the woods alone made me good enough to become a squire. I suppose they did me a favor." Neia said with sardonic bitterness dripping from her silver tongue.

"The thing is, I always thought that because of these," she pointed to her eyes again, "They were harder on me, not because they didn't like how I looked, or because they didn't like me, but because I looked tougher and more defiant. Like the things they said or did wouldn't hurt as much or at all."

Neia's voice trailed off as she walked the village. "Over there was where the priest lived." She rolled her eyes, "I looked up to him. He seemed to know everything, always had an answer. He actually gave me the idea to serve, like my mother before me."

"My mother didn't want me to do that, and the funny thing is, that actually brought me closer to her, since I knew she was being protective again."

Neia laughed at herself as she said that, "Helped with my father too, since he actually supported me, though I still think my mother was cheating a little bit to expect me to do well against her after all her years of experience, when the only experience I really had was hiding away in the woods so nobody could see me."

"Surely you had friends though..." Skana asked gently.

Neia thought for a moment, "I don't know, I mean does it even matter? They're all dead now."

"How do you know?" Skana asked with a small, doubtful frown.

"I'm the Pope of Black Justice, if I want somebody found and they're alive, they'll be found." Neia said emphatically. "I put in a few inquiries here and there, asking about this or that person I knew from childhood. Trust me, they're all dead, every single one of them. All that is left of them, is this." She said and thrust her pointed finger damningly at the ruined ground of the once village where she stood.

"I'm the only clue that any of them ever lived at all, I remember their names, their faces, what their parents did, it's all up here." Neia said and touched her forehead. "I sometimes wonder why I'm not crazier than Vanysa." She laughed, or one might say, cackled.

"Then I remember," she said and her eyes snapped down to meet the green eye of her wife, "Oh yeah, I'm the one who drew a sword on my wife, shot at and killed children, tore up her own nails and head, tried to kill myself with my assassin's own poison..." Neia's eyes were alight as she spoke, "How could I be more crazy than I already am? She's got nothing on me in that dep-" she started to say when Skana's form fell in on her and her embrace went instantly tight enough to cut off speech.

She buried Neia's face in her chest, and put her hands behind her short hair and stroked gently. Neia's arms were limp at her sides, but Skana did not care, she held the embrace. "You're not crazy. You're NOT. You weren't going to hurt me, I know you weren't... you were just scared, everybody gets scared..." Skana whispered.

"You did what you had to do..." Skana added softly, "If I'd been with you... my bow would have been doing the same as yours."

Neia pushed herself back and looked up at her wife. "That doesn't change anything, how can it? Even if I had no choice because the city would have fallen, that doesn't tell me how to live with myself afterwards! How can I deserve to feel love after that, how can I deserve to have children of my own after... after... that? Can anyone deserve to be a mother, after putting arrows into the hearts of other people's children?"

Skana didn't say anything. What was there to be said? She thought.

"I look around this place..." Neia said softly, "I can hear the taunts and teasing, the rejections because I looked like a violent criminal, and when I think about things later, the things I did, that I ordered done... would you believe I actually envy Remedios?"

"You can't be serious." Skana stated in disbelief.

Neia lowered her head, "I do. She did a lot wrong, but everything she did, she believed she was doing the right thing, even when it was going to lead to more failure and more suffering, she wasn't willing to compromise on saving everybody. Maybe it did eventually drive her mad. But she died... sort of died anyway... thinking she was morally right, when she's finally gone forever, because of how she is, as far as she is concerned, it will be with a clear conscience. I'm going to die a self-confessed child killer who compromised at every turn to achieve my goals. Sometimes I wonder why people hail me as a hero at all."

"Because you actually did save people." Skana said, "You can't forget that. Yes, things went wrong, what do you expect in war? But you didn't strap kids to demihumans, you didn't turn infants into armor or shields. But ultimately your leadership probably saved many lives in that city, including mine. Did you know 'Neia' is the most popular girl's name in the Holy Kingdom?" Skana asked.

"What?" Neia asked with a raised brow.

"Yeah. Mine isn't even fifth." Skana said with a false pout. "Mothers have been naming their children after you for years, because it was through you that they were able to have their children born at all. You made hard choices in impossible times, and because you made those choices, a lot of people got to live, and you do a disservice to the dead and to the living when you forget that."

Neia went quiet, and started to walk again, with Skana falling into step beside her. "Maybe you're right." She said thoughtfully.

"No 'maybe' about it, Neia." Skana said firmly. "Look, you may see yourself as a compromised person who did terrible things for her own goals, but don't forget what those goals were, to save as many people as possible, to save our country from the demihumans, and you DID that. Not alone, no, but you gave the orders others couldn't to achieve a goal others wouldn't. So the people who lived here..." Skana gestured around at the village ruins, "didn't see you for who you were, that doesn't mean they got to decide what you'd grow up to be, and they didn't really understand you back then. They're gone, and a lot of others aren't, because you were there to make yourself a shield. You sacrificed your life for people you didn't even know." Skana said softly and took Neia's hands, she entwined her fingers with those of her wife.

"Who can ask more than that out of anyone, you literally died for that city, and you came back from it to become who you are today, and whatever blemishes there are in you, whatever stains you feel can't be washed away... I love you for them, for everything you are, every little crack is something uniquely yours, and I'll love those little cracks and jagged edges as much as I love your virtues. I'll never fear you, I'll never turn away from you, and I'll hold on to you through all of this. Maybe you can't ever go home again..." Skana said as she looked around at what was left of her wife's former home.

"But you can make a new one, we can make a new one, no more fighting, no more struggling, time to rest at last and start living real lives again." Skana's voice was enthusiastic, and she clenched Neia's fingers tightly.

"I... I don't even know how to do that." Neia said plainly.

"Figuring things out together is what family is all about." Skana retorted as she reached up with one hand and tilted Neia's chin up, so that they met eye to eye. "So we'll do it together, one day at a time, one hour, one minute if that is what it takes. You with me?" Skana asked softly.

"Always." Neia said, and Skana brought her lips down to Neia's and there she kissed her, surrounded by the ruins of a vanished life. When the kiss at last broke, Skana said...

"Always..." She smiled, "That might make for a nice name for a little girl, don't you think?"

Neia blushed, but said nothing as she moved in for another kiss.

'I could get used to this...' Neia thought to herself until the kiss broke, and she whispered to her first and only, "Let's go."

"Back to Illyana's House?" Skana asked tentatively.

Neia lowered her head and shook it slowly, "No... No, I want to go home. I'll visit that other place for help, I know I've got a lot to work on still, and always will. But... what I really want is to go somewhere else."

Skana looked at her with her one questioning eye.

"I want to go home." Neia said softly, and let her head fall to one side against the breasts of her wife.

"That... is something I can't wait to get used to." Skana said delicately as she held the embrace, until the [Gate] opened, and they left Neia's silent village behind them, never to return again.