"Fast or not, I'd be happy to scatter its ashes into the lake to sink to the bottom, and let the whole city be forgotten forever." Neia said savagely.
There was a knock at the door, and they watched as Neia stiffened up, it was unusual for the unflappable woman, so Skana knew something was intensely bothering her. She decided to wait until after this interruption to find out just what that was, only to soon find out on her own.
When Neia opened the door, a young female elf wearing chains about her wrists was found standing there, eyes downcast, she stepped into the room as Neia, shocked, stepped out of the way and let her in.
"Good afternoon, noble guests of the Golden Roan. I am called Illyana, I am..." she paused and swallowed nervously, her body started shaking, "I am yours for the duration of your stay. If you require nothing of me, I will retire to m-my corner until you wish me."
It took a moment for the meaning of that statement to sink in for Skana, and she went from looking at the trembling young elf, to the stone faced Neia, whose face was now carefully neutral.
Skana's eyes had gone over the room the instant she'd walked in, and some mysteries had been immediately raised, the loop secured to the wall just above the head of the bed, as well as the unusual loop posts at each corner, as well as the large cushion on the floor with the loop secured above it to the wall. At first she had assumed the cushion was for the pets of nobles who stayed here, and the loops were a local artistic flare...but as she understood what the elf woman said, a far darker use for them all became obvious. This prisoner...came with the room, an amenity no different than the bed, the chair, or the table.
She started breathing hard as the nature of the girl's situation hit home.
The shaking female elf seemed unnerved by the silence that her statement was received by, and she said hurriedly, "If...I am not to your taste, I can fetch a...another, if you tell me your wishes."
The name of the hotel sprang back to mind, and its name, seemingly whimsical at first, suddenly took on a much different meaning. The Golden Roan...the elves were all blonde...a roan was an animal to be ridden. Neia felt sick all over again, and Skana clearly felt no better. CZ sat with her customary impassive nature, but Neia and Skana both knew her well enough now to know that she was unsure of just what was happening. In other conditions, the notion of a naive and innocent maid demon was enough to be laughable, but neither of them felt like laughing now.
The shaking of the female had begun to get worse in the silence that greeted her, she had been staring at the floor, but her confusion made her brave enough to raise them briefly, then immediately lower them as she caught herself, only to raise them again and look at the guest's faces.
"Illyana, please sit." Neia said, only to be promptly dumbfounded when the girl knelt on the floor and sat on the heels of her feet, keeping her eyes lowered and her shaking hands in her lap, so that she could not help but see her chains.
Neia promptly glanced at Skana with surprise and uncertainty, and Skana reacted by immediately grabbing another chair and bringing it over to set it at the table. As she did so, Neia reached out and touched the girl's head just above her ear. The woman started to flinch and caught herself, holding stock still for whatever was going to happen.
Neia knelt next to her, "Illyana, its OK, look at me." She said, glad that she still had her visor on, because Ainz only knew how she'd react to Neia's murderous eyes.
Illyana lifted up her gaze slowly, hesitantly at the sound of the soft voice. "Its OK, please be seated at the table with us. I promise, no harm will come to you."
"I'm...not supposed to be on furniture except...that, for awhile." She said, and gestured to the bed. Neia was relieved she had nothing left to vomit. Skana, was glad she'd skipped a meal and so had nothing in her stomach to lose.
"Its OK, we're not like that." She said, and placing one hand on her shoulder, and taking the elf woman's hand, she gently and slowly stood, "Please, sit with us at the table."
Uncertainty warred on her face, but she slowly stood as she was instructed, and sat at the table, she seemed quite uncomfortable, as if it had been some time since she'd done that.
Silence went on for a little while, before Neia asked, "How long have you been here?"
Illyana thought for a moment, and then answered, "I can't really be sure mistress, I-"
Neia held up a hand to stop her from speaking, and Illyana immediately closed her mouth and looked terrified. "Its OK." Neia said, "I only wanted to tell you...don't call me mistress. You can call me Neia."
The elf woman's mouth dropped open. "May...I...may I see your eyes?" Illyana asked.
Neia's face became curious, but she replied, "Well, I suppose so, just try not to overreact." She closed her eyes, reached up, and took her visor off, and with her face turned towards Illyana, she slowly opened them.
"You're her, aren't you?" Illyana asked.
"Who?" Neia asked in return.
"Neia Baraja." The elf woman replied breathlessly.
"I am." Neia replied.
"I've heard of you. You're the squire of the Sorcerer King, you're famous. Most elves here have heard of you." Illyana said.
"What...why?" Neia asked.
"The Sorcerer King killed an entire Slane Theocracy scripture by himself. He's famous, and we heard about him in the Northern Holy Kingdom, and how he was served by the mad eyed archer, the squire Neia Baraja."
Neia rolled her eyes at the name given to her by the demihumans, but it was a relief that Illyana felt more comfortable knowing who she was.
"So you get rumors and stories even in...your position." Neia said.
"We do." Illyana said with somewhat greater comfort. "When men finish, they often babble, we hear a lot, even with our mutilated ears." The bitterness was deep in her voice.
"So...you've been here awhile then." Neia said.
"Since I was sold here after the Slane Theocracy took my town. I was one of the first to suffer under the great breaker, Justicar." She said with hate in her voice and tears in her eyes.
"Justicar...why do I know that name?" Neia asked.
Skana was quick to answer, "That was the name of the inquisitor priest whose head was taken at that village a few weeks ago."
Illyana's eyes snapped wide apart as she stared at Skana. "The great breaker...is dead?" She asked in awe.
Neia stood up and went over to her pack, she took from it a small ornate box, and brought it over to Illyana, placing it in front of her on the table, Neia opened it. "Did he have eyes like these?" She said savagely. "I had him killed for targeting some of our people, his head was severed and stuck to a gate, and his eyes were gouged out for good measure. From what I understand, it was a painful death, if not as painful as he deserved, and he saw everything that happened to him as he died, until his eyes were removed out before his last breath at least. I doubt he saw much after that." She said with sardonic savage pleasure.
Illyana's face went from Neia's, to following her arm down to the box, to looking at the bright green eyes Neia had preserved, eyes that had haunted Illyana's nightmares for years, that had consumed her every fantasy of revenge, that had seen her wake in a cold sweat, and now they stared up at her again, but without a head or face to go with them, but even without those, she knew those eyes as well as she knew the eyes of her own mother and father.
She immediately fell at Neia's feet, down to her knees and hugged her impulsively, sobbing beyond all her ability to control herself. "Its him, it was really him. Thank you, thank you, thank youuuuuu..." She sobbed and buried her face in the leg of Neia's breeches. Her face snapped up and she looked up at Neia with shining eyes, "Anything you want of me, anything at all, its yours, no matter what, I can never repay this."
Neia looked at Skana with uncertainty and great discomfort, and the two women gently got her to disentangle herself and sit back at the table. CZ simply watched the whole thing unfold with her chin resting in her palm and her elbow on the table.
"There are things I need...but...not that." Neia said, "I need information, I need lots of information, on everything." She said.
"Anything." Illyana said.
Over the next few hours Neia and Skana asked for information on everything Illyana knew about how the city worked, who was important, who had what interests, and how things worked, her time at the expensive hotel had exposed her to wealthy people of low morals and loose lips, or at least, loose with those they didn't think mattered. What Illyana didn't know, she said she could find a source who did among the many elf slaves of the city.
"So...you don't leave the hotel though...how then...?" Skana began, and Illyana answered simply.
"We communicate through one another, I don't leave, but others do, they run errands for the hotel, picking up supplies, dropping of sheets to be washed, relaying messages to other people in the city, because many meetings are held here, we often even have some of our own attending to serve the attendees, so there is very little we don't know. We cooperate as best we can, because our lives depend on it. We don't hear much about what goes on in the farming areas, since they'd never let an elf leave the city except for the docks or the mines, but occasionally one of them is brought in and we hear things." Illyana said.
"Do you cooperate with the human prisoners?" Skana asked.
Illyana shook her head, "Almost never. They'd sell us out in a heartbeat to get their own freedom, occasionally we trade in small things, but the short timers can't be trusted and the lifers are usually dangerous, at least here in the city, I don't know about out in the mines where they're in closer contact."
The conversation went on until darkness set in, and Neia said, "That will be enough for now, but there is a lot more we need to know, Black Justice is not an organization known for its tolerance for injustice, and I don't know how long we can stay in this city without doing anything. But we're all tired and can't do anything right now, so we need sleep." Neia said.
Illyana looked down at the table again and said softly, "I...meant what I said. I've never been willing, not once since my capture. But I am now, for what you've done for me by killing Justicar, its the only way I really have to say thank you." She said.
Neia traded a look with Skana & CZ, and then turned back to Illyana.
"Help me in what I want to do, and that will be thanks enough. You can go if you want, and return tomorrow morning, we'll have more questions then." Neia said.
Illyana turned pale. "If you send me back, they'll assume I wasn't satisfactory and they'll punish me." Neia frowned darkly. "I see."
"I can...use that space." She said softly, pointing to the corner where the cushion was.
"You're not a dog." Neia said, emphatic that she wasn't finding that acceptable.
"She can stay in my room." Skana said, "I'm staying here anyway."
"That will do." Neia said, and Skana handed Illyana a key with a room number tied to it. "Go stay there for the night...lock the door, and by the god of justice...please use the bed."
Illyana nodded numbly, stood, bowed, and left.
"Anyone wonder why I want to burn the city now?" Neia asked.
There were no questions asked.
"Now, CZ, I need your help with something." Neia said, and CZ looked at her expectantly.
"I want to request help from the god of justice, can I ask you to arrange an audience?" Neia asked.
"I will. But prepare well." CZ said.
"How so?" Neia asked with a little confusion.
"Lord Ainz came to your country to take I and my sisters. He wanted benefits for his people. What do you offer like that?" CZ said, keeping her words few as she usually did, Neia took a moment to understand.
"I see..." she said when it dawned on her, "Yes...he is a king, he cannot simply throw his generosity around, he must have a reason, even if he wishes to help."
Neia thought the matter over. "How heavily populated is the Sorcerous Kingdom?" she asked CZ. "When I was there I saw only the city of E-Rantel, so...is it overcrowded, underpopulated, what?"
CZ thought it over. "Underpopulated." She answered.
"Sounds right." Skana said. "The massacre probably took a great many lives, if it is even half what I heard, and many survivors would have fled before he took over, even if it has been awhile, I doubt it has a large population still."
"What if we can offer him that? If we can fill his nation up with citizens to labor and produce goods, to farm, to mine, and so on?" Neia asked.
"Might do." CZ answered cryptically.
"I hope so." Neia said, "Can you ask, and tell me in the morning?"
CZ nodded. "I will." And shortly thereafter she stepped through a gate that appeared, leaving Skana and Neia alone.
"I'm tired. This has been a long day." Neia said as she began to undress.
"Ditto." Skana said, "I'll be honest...I was looking forward to some time for fun with you this morning...but after all we've seen...its ruined my mood."
Neia didn't argue, "Bold as ever in your words..." she replied to Skana, "but since we're being honest, I agree. Seeing Illyana that way, there is a miasma of evil that just lays over this whole city, I feel drained, like its sapping me of my vigor just by hanging onto being myself here, its sick."
Skana put one foot up on a chair and started undoing her boot. "I know what you mean, Jaldabaoth was a demon, that explains him...but what is this city's excuse?" She asked as she slid it off.
Neia removed her armor and set her sword beside the bed. "I know. If I'd seen this city before the invasion, I think I'd have just abandoned the country as not worth defending."
Skana removed her other boot. "Oh come on, you're exaggerating now, no way you'd have done that."
Neia rolled her eyes as she began to remove her belt, "OK probably not, but I'd have questioned my decision to fight."
Skana nodded as she reached for her own belt. "Me too." She watched through her one eye as Neia stretched in the candle light, and admired her slender muscled frame, before the young woman lifted the covers and slid herself underneath. Skana slid in on the other side, and curled up close to Neia, and Neia whispered a quiet, "Good night" before the candle went out and left them immersed in the darkness. Only Skana's words, "good night' pierced the shadow after that, and then silence and darkness was all there was, and neither of them minded that even a little.
AN: I'm on a spree, can't stop writing now. Reviews please! :)