Things had moved quickly for Neia after the city was in her hands. Word spread like wildfire in a hot windy summer, and the people gathered in a mass. The few survivors, mostly paladins wounded in the initial skirmish who had fallen unconscious, were bound and secured on their knees between Neia and the crowd in front of the governor's manner. There were a few surviving city guards and priests as well, there were a few fires, but under the guidance of Neia & Tinamoc's men, they were under control and dying out, she wished to be with them, but she had her own work to do.

'People of Prart, you have shown your strength is enough to give you justice! Well done!' She shouted.

The people cheered, a sudden stink nearby told Neia that one of the priests had soiled himself. She crinkled her nose, it was not a pleasant odor, but then, it was more or less what Prart smelled like anyway.

'But now that you have purged the evil of your leadership, there is much to do, strength that does not work, is as useful as water you cannot drink, the first is the simplest of tasks. The disposal of these survivors who sided with the corrupt, who sided with the evil of the former governor!' She shouted.

'Where is the baron, where is that shit heel of a governor?!' Someone shouted.

'I have handed him over to the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown will see to his suffering. Recall how he burned even a demon? Now the former abuser of this place is in his hands.' Her wolfish grin was met by a sea of matching grins from the crowd. A guard soiled himself. 'If you wish it, I will request that the Sorcerer King send him to us, that he may be seen for the worm he is, when I captured him, he was hiding under his bed like a child afraid of the darkness, that is the terror you put into evil when you sought to right the wrongs done to you! Strength lies within all, and you could have had him brought low at any time, had he not convinced you of your weakness, never be so wrongly persuaded again, rid yourself of the sin of weakness, and you will enforce a justice that will make your city a place to be proud of, a place where corrupt worms hide under their beds rather than face your wrath!' She shouted again.

The crowd cheered, the prisoners, save for the paladins, had begun to shake.

'Now we must decide what is to be done with these men who were captured. We can throw them in to the prisons, we can exile them, we can put them to work, we can kill them here and now, we can request that the crown take possession of them, or we can offer them to the Sorcerer King.' She said, and walked down to the few priests, she removed their gags and said, 'Though it may pain you my people, to hear the voice of the oppressor, you are strong enough to bear it, let each man speak in his own defense, or request your mercy, or request a sentence of his own devising. But this I swear, whatever sentence you name, will be carried out instantly, if any bear grievance against a single man here, let him step before the crowd and speak it before sentence is passed.' Neia said, and she placed her hand atop the head of the first priest. 'State your name.' She said to him.

'Fuck you! That's my name!' The priest said, 'I'm head priest Tapir, I command all the priests of this entire region in this city and in the villages beyond, my will is the will of the gods, and you will release me immediately or there will be no blessings for you, kill me, and I will condemn you before the gods when I face them, I did nothing wrong, the temples must have their due you faithless heretics! Blasphemers! I will see you all rot for this!' He shouted, and his voice was drowned out by the crowd booing, and Neia held her hands aloft to silence them, and after shoving the gag back into Tapir's mouth, she said, 'Are there any witnesses against him?'

A woman stepped forward, she was young but somewhat weathered as commoners tended to be, but still beautiful despite that, her head was bowed, her steps small, and her hands were folded in front of her, she rose to the middle step between the crowd and the priest. 'A few days ago...I went to Tapir...begging him to heal my child when she was sick. He asked if I could pay the fee...I...I couldn't. The guards had taken my last coin to pay the rent on the rebuilt home the governor held, I had to have that...bec-because the rain coming down was making her worse, so-so then he said there was another way I could pay, 'the woman's voice began to pick up, going from fearful to furious more and more' ...he touched me, he told me to do...things...for him. He said it was a sin to refuse a priest, he said it was a sin if I let my daughter die, so he did things to me...promising he would come after to heal her since my daughter was to sick to move and I could not carry her...like this' Her eyes seemed to catch fire to Neia as she looked up at him, and then hell flew from the woman's mouth, 'THIS IS WHAT HE DID TO ME!' she shrieked, and reached up to her shoulders and pulled her simple clothing off, letting it fall and leaving her naked...in other conditions, this might have aroused the lust of the crowd, but not now...not ever now, a gasp of horror was drawn from the crowd, and from the paladins who were still bound, several of them were weeping openly at what they saw from their bound position, because her body was bruised and beaten, barely an inch of flesh or more in all the places no one would see her, she spun to the crowd, screaming, 'HE DID IT! HE DID IT! HE DID IT!' She spun to him, 'Do you see what you've done!' She screamed at him. 'And for all that,' despair filled her voice, 'because I was to weak to carry her when I was finished enduring this, he'd promised to come do it himself, but he didnt! He DIDN'T! He didn't and she died oh by the gods she died because he didn't...this was all for nothing...!' She collapsed from the sheer stress, a naked mourning heap of a woman, there were few who were not mourning with her, but there was one that wasn't.

Tapir had an erection. Neia didn't see it from where she stood, but someone else did, and pointed it out, and the bloodlust of the crowd was in a frenzy. 'Someone cover her up.' Neia said, and one of her people stepped down and put a cloak around her, and helped her up to remove her.

'Anyone want to speak for him?' Neia said. Nobody did.

'Sentence?' She asked.

'Death!' they said.

Neia's every instinct said to make this man suffer, she remembered the ways various executions were described in the books she read. Crucifixion, impalement, and others went through her mind, but all that took time, time she didn't want to have, and the notion of him living any longer, even in pain, disgusted her. Still, as a woman she felt something extra was necessary.

So she stepped in front of the crowd, spun, and slashed her sword in front of Tapir, it wasn't immediately clear what she'd done, as she stepped back to her former position behind the prisoners. Had she missed? Tapir seemed to think so as he sounded like he said as much through his gag, but a moment later what she'd done became obvious, a part of his clothing had fallen away, sheered by Neia's magically enhanced sword's superior cutting skill. But it wasn't just a part of his clothing, the part behind the clothing came with it.

Tapir's eyes went wide with disbelief as he looked down, and saw his erection was missing...and rolling away from him down the stairs, trailig blood behind it. He screamed through his gag as the agony hit, and he didn't stop screaming until he bled out. Neia let him fall.

The distraught woman saw, and smiled.

'State your name.' Neia said, moving to the next man.

'Taki.' The man said as his gag was removed.

'Do you have anything to say in your defense?' She asked.

'I am not Tapir.' He said in disgust and spat on the corpse next to him. 'I have never refused to heal anyone, even against temple policy, I have never taken a bribe, and I have never done anything but serve the gods by serving the people...I am just a common priest, I don't know anything about what supplies go where, I don't keep accounting on projects for rebuilding, all I do is work in the building and tend those who come to me, what else could I do, even if I knew how corrupt...he...was, I wouldn't have had the power to do anything.'

'Will anyone speak for him?' Neia asked.

Several from the crowd stepped forward and confirmed that he had healed them or loved ones at no charge when they were poor, one said that Taki had given him coin to pay rent to the governor, a few spoke of him being of good character in general.

'Are there any specific accusations against him?' Neia asked.

None stepped forward.

'Then he is guilty only of being a priest in a city of corruption, guilty of being here and doing nothing, and until today, everybody was guilty of that. What punishment he is given, should fall on all, so do we free him?' She asked.

'Free him!' The crowd echoed, and Neia cut his bonds and helped him up.

'Go back into the manor,' Neia said, 'and await me in the governor's office.' He stood, and walked back into the manor.

The next few priests were a mix of guilt and innocence, two were exiled for simply taking bribes or refusing to help the people, but one more was executed immediately after he was exposed for his responsibility in the blasphemy charges of numerous citizens who had opposed the regime or spoken for the Sorcerer King.

The guards were easy, none of them were not corrupt, and none of them were particularly brave, they were capable bullies, but faced with real power, their courage shrank. One was executed and the remainder were exiled...only they were exiled naked, with nothing but a water skin and a sack of stale bread. This included the guard Neia recognized from the entrance, she could not help feeling a bit of smug satisfaction with that one. It was a slightly worse deal than those who had surrendered in the manor got, but they kept their lives regardless.

Lastly, they came to the paladins. There weren't many, the Paladin Order had been decimated in the war against Jaldabaoth, and though more survived in the Southern Kingdom, the North had only a handful, now, thanks to what happened in the city, there were fewer.

Still, Neia had been considered part of the Paladin Order even as a mere squire, so this struck home for her. One by one she took their names, asked if anyone would speak for them, few did, a few remarks of generosity, but not a single instance of a paladin standing up to a guard or an abusive priest was brought to light. But at the same time, save for their inaction, nobody levied charges against them.

'These men then were complicit by inaction, their weakness was a moral one, where they did not have it in them to defy authority, even when that authority is wrong. They are not fit to be paladins, who must stand first for justice and second for authority, the power they wield must not only be of arms, it must be of a will to act, and they had only the former. I cannot condemn them to death for that. People of Prart, will you leave their sentence to me? As a former member of the Paladin Order, I must set this right.'

The crowd agreed, and Neia turned to her fighters, 'Take these men to the governor's office, I would have words with them first.'

'Now we must settle on how this city is to be ruled...' she began, only for cries of 'Governor Neia!' to be hurled back at her.

She shook her head as she raised her hands to still the crowd. 'I cannot do this, but someone must be appointed to do so.' she began, and inspiration struck as she remembered something from a book, 'Go to your districts, and select from each district, one whom you will appoint to represent you, with every adult lending their voice to the one they favor, each district will appoint one representative, and they will form a council that will decide the issues of the city until a new governor can be sent from the capitol. I will remain here for a few days while this is decided, and I will have the merchants who have come with me, pour over the books and determine the depth of corruption. Those exiled already, and those who are found to be corrupted, will have their property confiscated and their wealth returned to the people as compensation.'

The sheer novelty of the concept caught the crowd off guard, and it began to disperse as the issues in their mind were on the way to being resolved, Neia however, had more to do while she waited for the blasphemers and heretics to be released and brought to her, and what she had to do was confront the priest and the paladins. They were waiting in silence, sitting in front of several members of Black Justice and...no longer surprisingly, a few of Tinamoc's personal guards.

'I will deal with these in a moment gentlemen, but first...I must seek the permission of my god for something related to them.' She said, and prompting looks of confusion, followed by shock when after a brief message, a gate opened and she stepped through like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Finding herself in throne room before the guardians and her god, she knelt with head bowed, and Ainz quickly told her to raise her head, and asked her to speak her mind.

As she related the events of the day, the guardians looked rather surprised, and more than a little pleased, and Neia presented her idea to the Sorcerer King, he peppered her with questions, and laughed loud and long.

'Neia Baraja, you have read to the very heart of my desire, your service is above and beyond that of all the mortals who have knelt before me.' He said.

Neia sputtered out quickly, 'It is my purpose to serve his majesty's justice, had you not made it clear to me through your gift of learning, I never could have known your will.' She said, prompting another laugh from her treasured god.

'When all is done, I will see to your reward, but for now, you have a lot to do.' Ainz said, and opened the gate, and Neia took the hint and departed.

Neia walked out of the gate, and purposefully moved in front of them and sat behind the former govenor's desk, as if she had NOT just stepped through a hole in reality...twice...to speak to a god.

'I will speak plainly, you're not all on equal ground here.' She said. 'Taki, you did nothing, but you remained oblivious to such a degree that I must conclude that you did not want to see. I knew the moment I walked in to this city that it was a cesspool of corruption and abuse, you lived here, and never noticed the depth of corruption? Either you didn't want to see, or you are hopelessly naive.' She sighed, 'But...you didn't do anything wrong, except be blind to evil, I'm not going to hurt you, but as a priest you have an obligation to penitence when you sin, especially one that you have to engage in daily.'

The priest lowered his head and nodded. 'But you also did a lot of good even in spite of everything, so I have to take that into consideration.' He looked up, curious as to what she'd say next.

'Priests are not perfect, but in their imperfection, they get a chance to show that the grace of their nature, so we will begin something new with you, something the world needs.'

There were blank but hopeful stares in her direction.

'The temples policy of charging for healing kept them out of politics, but it also kept them from doing the one thing they should have done all along, taking care of the people. For years there was no answer to how to cope with this, but I believe I've hit upon an idea, something that you paladins, and you Taki, are well positioned to do.' Her smile was genuine, and they leaned in and listened with care. 'I cannot take full credit for these concepts, were it not for the God of Justice, Ainz Ooal Gown, and his books, I might never have had this thought.' She said.

'We will begin a new order of priests. Given the nature of things, I will call them 'The Chained'. Their responsibility will be nothing but the care of the people, in healing and good advice, they, beginning with you, will travel the land and care for all with your skills, never stopping for to long in one place, until your vow to them is complete. The corruption of this city endured for three and one half years, give or take, therefore that will be the duration of your vow to carry this out. However, to mark your penance, there must always be a few links of chain around your wrists, until your vow is ended and they are removed.'

Taki looked profoundly enthusiastic about the idea, but he asked, 'How will I...you know...eat...and live, in all that time?'

Neia had a ready answer, 'Black Justice is going to establish a temple here just like what we've done in the Capitol. But we will sustain ourselves economically not by charging for healing, but by acting as brokers for the Sorcerer King in the rental of undead for various tasks, we can collect the surplus for transportation to his realm, and take a commission on what he provides, this coin will pay for the upkeep of the temple, and that will pay for the supplies you need to continue to travel and to heal.

Their heads spun as they imagined what this represented. Paladins were capable of healing, to a degree at least, but more than one had the heartbreaking task of refusing because of temple policy. This erased that completely.

'But...what of us?' A paladin spoke up, 'It sounded like you had a role for us in this?'

'I do.' Neia said. 'You are able to heal, but your chief skills are in combat, you will have two roles, which will require an entirely new order of Paladins, and if you accept this, you will be the first. Let us be truthful, you DID have a role in the oppression of the people, and you did, however halfheartedly, fight for the oppressors when the riots began, even if you did not know the extent of what you were supporting, you were guilty of making it possible for men like Tapir to get away with doing what he was doing.' One of the paladin's retched at the memory. 'So I would say you owe a debt of honor if not of blood.' Neia finished, politely ignoring the well justified retching and the slight mess it left on the floor.

They nodded. There was no denying it.

'In memory of the blood you wrongly shed, you will be the Red Paladins. Your tasks will be to escort priests like Taki and protect him with your lives, and you will also escort and protect travelers departing from temples to holy places. You will be free to use your healing arts on any who need them, and your vow will be for the same length of time as 'The Chained' both orders will fall under the temple of Black Justice, you will at least temporarily, base yourselves out of here as you help the city, and then you will move out more widely as people are drawn in. Do you accept your 'sentence'? Neia asked.

The group looked at each other with wide eyes as they contemplated what lay before them and said in unison, 'YES!'.

'Good. Gather your things and go to the largest temple in the city. I believe I will have people to meet you there before the day is out.' She said, they bowed after standing, and quickly departed.

Not long after they had gone, one of her people returned, but without the blasphemers and heretics, 'Where...' she began, only for him to interrupt and say, 'There are to many.'

'Gather them in the courtyard.' She said in hushed disbelief.

Minutes later, her disbelief was erased, and when they saw and recognized her, a cheer went up long and loud. Just as she suspected, she recognized many from the former rescue detachment that was intended to seek out the Sorcerer King after his first fight with Jaldabaoth, there were faces she didn't know, but many she did, and when she started speaking, the gaps began to fill in, as she told them what she'd been up to, to profound cheers, especially when they saw members of the organization 'Black Justice' at her back, and which roared up again when she explained the founding of the temple in the capitol, and the overthrow here.

'I assume,' Neia said, 'That you have no intention of doing nothing, now that you're out of prison?'

That prompted laughter, as if they would do nothing when free to do anything.

She went on to explain the founding of two new orders, one of priests who would freely heal, travel, and support the people while promoting the faith of Ainz Ooal Gown and his ideals, and another of paladins who existed to protect others in the dangerous world out there, priest and pilgrim alike. The details she filled in filled them with optimism, and when she asked if they'd like to be party to any of those organizations, the only question was which group of volunteers should go where.

In the end those volunteering as healers were fewer, not least because it required talent, but she reasoned that this was acceptable, it took more people to protect one healer, than it took for actually doing the healing. And when they had divided up, Neia explained all that they would have to learn, and sent them to the largest temple in the city.

When they were gone, she thought she might get a moment's peace, until Tinamoc appeared, offering his congratulations. 'Now what?' He asked after shaking her hand.

Neia smiled broadly and said, 'First, I need you and your people with a head for numbers to go through the accounting books, find where the thefts were and where they went, and also, the wealthy manors of the corrupt here are going to be emptied and the wealth redistributed. Suffice it to say with all the money returning back to the people's pockets, I'd suggest staying for a few extra days, it'll be good business. I have to send word requesting a replacement governor and the details of our impromptu trials, the results, and the information about everything taken from the Sorcerer King. This is going to create some chaos in the court, but that can't be helped. I do wish,' her smile turned predatory, 'that I could see the Count's face when he learns what happened here. But anyway, its a lot to do and we don't have to stay for to long, just long enough to get a council established, hammer out the fine points of new orders, and I'd like to be able to dedicate the temple before I go, but we can't stay here for months, I know.'

'I almost wish that we could, I'd like to see what you'd do with Prart if you had that kind of time.' He said with a laugh.

'Me too.' Neia answered, but there's just never enough of that to go around.'

'Maybe not.' Tinamoc replied.

'But I look forward to seeing what you do with the next few tomorrows.' He said, clapping Neia on the shoulder as he walked back out.

AN: Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter, we're not anywhere near done, but laying the foundations of tomorrow is a very busy thing, I hope you like how Neia handled it all. And if you didn't, well to late, you read it, and you can't unread it. ;) Anyway, reviews are strongly encouraged, I love reader feedback. And to answer a reader's question, I DO have a , but it is unrelated to this, most of my writing is on religion, culture, science type stuff, this is just for fun. If you do have an interest in those subjects, you can find it on Facebook, search 'Church of the Basement Dragon' (named after Carl Sagan's 'Dragon in the garage' thought experiment). My vacation time is unfortunately ending, so I won't have the free time I did this week, but I DO intend to do something every week with at least one of these stories, with the occasional one shot offshoot or perhaps a larger multipart branch if it is justifiable.

Related note...which one shot would you prefer:
A. The Slane Theocracy's response to unfolding events (all of them, including the cult of Ainz)
B. The Argland City State Alliance response to the rising cult of Ainz (they'd have no reason to care about most other events)
C. The demihuman response to the rule of Ainz (Abelion Hills specifically)
D. The Adamantite heros responses to any or all of the above

Leave your answer as a PM, I'd rather not clutter the reviews with votes.