...Prart...
Neia woke up in the morning after a long night with Skana, she woke up warm...happy...comforted, and had not had a single nightmare to disturb her rest, the warm embrace of the woman she loved had left her with a sense of security in a moment of sadness that she had not realized was very badly needed indeed. But morning is not as kind to lovers as the night, and when the light struck like an arrow and it pierced the one good eye that Skana the bold still had. She rolled over, away from the glare of morning light and murmured something unintelligible about how much she envied the undead not having to deal with those first rays of sunshine.
Neia was already out of the bed and drawing a bath, the running water created noise that was as much pollution as the sunlight to poor sleepy Skana, and the bed bound woman grabbed Neia's pillow and covered her own head with it with a determined 'harumph' of disgust with the daytime.
Neia laughed, "You going to stay in bed all day?" She asked from the bathroom.
"You going to let me?" Skana replied, her voice muffled under the pillow.
"Tempting as it is to keep you there love, I did say I'd go meet with the temple today, and I'd also like to walk around the city a bit and see what has become of it since we were last here. We saw part of it walking to the temple, but that is only a small part of the whole. We still don't have to really work until tomorrow, but that doesn't mean I have nothing to do today." Neia shouted as she slid herself into the warm soothing water and began to scrub her body clean.
"Does that 'I' include me, or can I stay in this perfect comfy bed and just stay dead to the world all day?" Skana asked as wakefulness cursed her to stir.
"No, you can stay and relax, I honestly won't be long, just meeting with a few people and making arrangements for new arrivals joining the army, we're going to officially declare our support for Queen Calca as a city just as soon as the ranks have swollen some more. Kedyn we already know is going to do that too, and I don't know how many other places, we should have most of the north on our side, all we need is for someone to go first, and that will be us. It'll make us a target for Hoburns & King Astraka, to take the first city to support the Queen would be a damaging symbolic blow, and Prart will not fall again." Neia said as she washed her hair.
Skana sighed, "You give to many speeches my dear, you don't have to persuade me of anything, I'm with you to the death no matter how things turn out from underneath these covers without breakfast."
Neia laughed, "You promised Tinamoc you'd join him for breakfast shortly after sunrise, remember?"
Skana rolled out from under the covers and lay splayed out on her back looking up at the ceiling. "Shit. I did say that, didn't I." She let out a heavy sigh and got up, alright, that bath is big enough for two of us, and I'd rather not have him knocking while I'm dripping wet and naked, so make room." She laughed and Neia scooted aside.
A short bath and a change of clothes later, Neia was out the door on her way to the temple, it was a short trip, she could never forget the way there, and she arrived just as the priests themselves were walking up the steps.
She shouted for them and waved as she went up the steps, and they waited until she caught up with them. For a moment it seemed...so strange. Neia was not a tall woman, a grown up...sort of, in her early twenties, the very flowering of the beauty she'd carry life long, she hid only one part of herself, the one thing to stain it, which was her greatest strangth, the eyes of the Hellwalking Evangelist, the eyes of terror, fury, and wrath. With her visor on, she looked like an ordinary well to do girl, perhaps a young adventurer from a well off family that bought her some good armor, a good cloak, and good equipment to start her off with, but as you grew closer and saw the little things...small and trivial details only...how she walked, with light confident steps, the way her ear turned to noise, the ease with which she moved in the armor set she wore, a trained eye would see her for someone who was more than a little experienced, and yet when her visor came off, she bore the eyes of a torturer of demons.
Everybody knew about her relationship with Skana, it had been going on for long enough, and for that matter, most everyone knew Skana the bold as well, the veteran warrior of Black Justice who helped take down a scripture and stormed a Theocracy headquarters...but reputation or no, the old man watching her approach could never understand how the one eyed warrior could look lovingly into the eyes of Neia Baraja, a lovers gaze was often tender, warm, inviting...but it was impossible to imagine Neia's face ever allowing for that. He mentally shrugged his shoulders as she came close, didn't matter, she was on the right side, and that was good enough.
He held out his hand to her, and she clasped it firmly, but relaxed enough not to hurt his withered old hand.
"Feeling better today, Pope Neia?" He asked.
"Yes, much, I was truly worn out after yesterday...well...after a lot of yesterdays." She said with a sigh, "Still, I hope I didn't keep you to long before you got my message."
"No not at all," his fellow priest said, "your woman CZ was very direct and prompt, why the meal was still hot when we found out you weren't going to make it, so we didn't even suffer cold food." He was jovial in his attitude, and Neia's temperment matched.
"Well I'm glad to hear that, there's just a few things we need to go over, and then if you have nothing more, I want to walk the city...and there is somewhere else I want to visit." She said, and gestured to the great double doors.
"Of course, lets go." They said and walked together into the temple, each in turn bowed before a stained glass window bearing an image of the Sorcerer King's victory over Jaldabaoth. It was a marvelous representation, the artist must have been truly talented, Neia stopped to look at it as they moved on, when they realized she was standing there looking at it, they paused and looked back at her.
"Remarkable isn't it?" An old priest asked, "The man who made it survived both the prison camps and the war against that monster...only to end up being imprisoned in the city he helped liberate. After you came here and he was freed, he set himself to that every waking hour until it was done. Masterworks like this are the product of time lovingly spent, not only on the work itself, but on the refinement of specialized skills to create the work itself." He said, and gave a crooked little smile.
"It is remarkable, he perfectly captured the moment of Jaldabaoth's death, the way the Sorcerer King seemed to descend to the ground as if from heaven above to save us...it is...truly beautiful." She said, and then moved to catch up with them. They sat down in a quiet office and a young woman entered bearing tea. She set each cup down with gentle attention and set out a pitcher of cream in the center, then she bowed and left as quickly as she'd come.
When the door closed, Neia leaped straight to the matter at hand. "War has been declared I'm sure you know."
"We do." They said, and nodded in assent.
"Black Justice is going to officially declare for Queen Calca's reign, and we are going to do so from here in Prart. You know what that means, right?" She asked.
There were numb looks her way.
"It means that the armies of Astraka and Remedios and the Slane Theocracy will see Prart as a primary target, as the first city to declare for the Queen, and as the city with the largest membership of Black Justice, and as the linchpin of the defense tying all the way down to Kedyn...they can't ignore us, and we won't let them." She said bluntly.
"Can we win, or are we just going to die gloriously?" A younger priest asked with a furrowed brow. "I'm OK with either, but I'd like to know what I'm walking in to." He said.
"I plan on winning." Neia said with conviction. "We have more coming in every day, this city is filled with people who have experienced sieges, and I assume the defensive structures have been considerably reinforced?" She said the last of her statement as a question, raising her voice inquisitively.
"Yes, we are well prepared for a siege, we have abundant supplies and the storehouses of our warehouse district are used by most of the farmers in the surrounding villages, the roads are good and we have ample patrols, under arms since more refugees and 'hosted' people from Hoburns have arrived, we have over over thirty thousand ready to fight, and more every day are coming in." One priest said confidently.
"Good, but not enough if they hit us with a concentrated force. We need to up the odds further. We don't have to 'win' the siege, we just have to make sure we don't lose it. If we tie up more of their soldiers here, that will free up more people to fight them elsewhere, but more importantly the capitol has to fall. We need to take Hoburns, and we need to capture King Astraka AND Remedios Custodio. If we can do that, we'll cut the head off the snake." She said eagerly.
"I hate if." The old priest said.
The rest of the next two hours were spent detailing the equipping of the new recruits, training times and progress, and a short discussion on the doctrine of the church. Eventually however, Neia stood and bowed to the group of priests, who stood and bowed in turn, and then she left to walk the city. She enjoyed seeing the recovery the city had made, while guards walked the streets like before, these were smiling, they were well armed and armored, moved in disciplined ranks and not like spoiled bullyboys looking for a brawl. The citizens did not try to avoid them or look fearfully at them, this was evidence to Neia that the guards were now truly servants of the people.
The people themselves looked healthier, the buildings were rebuilt, and the merchant quarter was clearly thriving, in three hours walking the city streets she did not once feel as if she were going to have to start or finish a fight. Prart was as it should be, as it always should have been, and as it was going to stay, she paused at a stall briefly and bought a gift, and went back on her way as she thought about how much the place had changed from its lowest point.
But for all that on her mind, there was one place...one place she had to visit, a place she'd only been once, after the burning of Wenmark. She went back to her hotel and took her undead mount from the stable and trotted it to the gate, she knew the way, she'd never forget it. She didn't rush when she got there, there was no reason to rush. The one waiting, wouldn't be going anywhere and wouldn't complain if she was late. It didn't take long to arrive, no more than an hour, and then there she was, in sight of her destination.
To her surprise, her friends, her companions, were there waiting for her. "CZ, Skana, Tinamoc...how long have you been here for?" She asked as she dismounted her horse and approached.
"As long as you needed us to be." Skana said with a little smile, and took Neia's hand, the other two wore solemn looks and approached the grave beside her.
Neia knelt at the grave of Illyana and laid the flowers down that she'd bought.
It was a nice arrangement, the shade of elvish green and the color of Illyana's long hair, representing all that she was. The grass crunched underneath and the arrangement rustled as Neia let it go, and they bowed their heads in silence when she rose and stepped back.
Softly, Neia spoke to the resting place of Illyana. "Well, I'm here again my friend, still free, still fighting, you know...we freed a lot of your people...and that city of evil is gone, we even got miners out, and we took down the people who were charged with ambushing and killing us. It wasn't for nothing, but its also not over yet, Remedios is still out there, the Slane Theocracy is coming, and sick as this may sound, the elf King is siding with them. We still have a lot of work to do, but every time we shed blood, its making the world a better place...I know that seems strange, but we're careful about who we kill, and...I'll be honest...I almost went over the edge a few times. Killed a sentry in the woods, must have been just a kid, heard his last words, heard him call for his mother...didn't feel a thing, just went on to kill someone else. I had to...but that doesn't make it better I guess. I had the nerve to tell CZ I hadn't wanted prisoners, only to find another kid among the captives who seems to have just been duped into fighting...he's alive, and we'll send him home after the war. I stepped back from the edge, thanks to CZ, Skana, and definitely Tinamoc, he saved more people than I did, gold was stronger than steel this time...but...anyway, I just wanted to tell you that we're doing OK, we're all still with you, we still think about you...and...well I'll come back and visit you again when all this is done, hopefully the seed we planted isn't a giant by the time we get back..." she sniffled a little and then finished, "but whether its old or young, whoever is still alive at the end of this, will come back and see you again."
She stood staring at the grave, the mark of her greatest failure, and what almost turned her into a butcher, and then turned and walked away with her friends. At the grave behind her, beneath where she'd laid the flowers, unbeknownst to Neia Baraja or any other, a little sapling began to punch its way up through the soft grass.
...Draconic Kingdom...Royal Palace...
The cockroaches swept over everything with incredibly intricacy, and soon there were several blonde hairs on the table in front of Ainz, they'd been found in different locations, and the 'children' had begun moving out into the city at large, much to the disgust of a number of citizens.
Queen Draudillon & Vermillion looked at each other in askance, each hoping that one of these would be the hair that hauled them out of trouble. Ainz laid them out neatly from left to right, and cast a spell on the first one, hoping his luck stat was high enough to give him the first one right away. No sooner than he had an answer, than he dispatched one of his eight edge assassins out to check out the location, they came back with a negative. He checked the next hair...this one was a little farther away, but she was also revealed by the team to not be Vanysa. The Queen and her prime minister were visibly sweating. Ainz found it hard to feel empathy for them over their emotional state.
He cast the spell on the next one...and found...nothing.
"Strange." He said.
"What is it sire?" Queen Draudillon asked.
"The 'companion' to this hair is far out of range, I have a direction, but nothing more." Ainz said, a bit miffed.
"I see." Vermillion, who definitely did not see.
"It means she's very far away...very...far away." Ainz said.
"Like out of the city far away?" Queen Draudillon asked.
"No, out of the country. One of the delegates took her." Ainz said, though his face was nothing but bone, they could feel the fury coming off of him.
"Is there a way to tell which one?" Queen Draudillon asked gingerly.
"Send someone out with the hair and the appropriate spell, then keep heading in that direction till you're close enough to get a poin point location." Ainz said with severe unhappiness.
"If you had several hairs, couldn't you send out several at a time?" Queen Draudillon asked.
"Yes." Ainz answered.
"Well her residence probably has many if she's lived there for very long, so have the...ahem...ah...children, go there, find what you need, and send out someone to every country at once. That should do it, right?" She said hopefully.
"You just saved your throne." Ainz said softly, "I was waiting to see the queen Vermillion spoke so highly of."
She gave a slight smile, "I'm not just lolicon bait with an alcohol problem."
"Evidently not." Ainz said, and he sent the roach children out again to Vanysa's residence after briefly giving directions, and in short order he had over a dozen hairs, more than enough for the task at hand.
"I am returning to my home now to provide these to those who will be tasked with finding Vanysa, while I am gone arrange for a gathering of your nobles, ask for volunteers to take a position in the military force you will be raising. Those who take that risk of their lives, for my cause will find their penalty lessened, those who do not, well make a list of them, and I will return to visit again." Ainz replied firmly, resulting in the pair kneeling and bowing their heads.
"As you will my lord." They said in unison, and before they knew it the entire scene had ended, when it was over and they were alone, Queen Draudillon stood and slapped Vermillion across the face.
He touched his cheek in surprise, and then saw the wet tears in his queen's eyes.
"Don't you ever try to throw your life away for me like that you idiot." She balled up her fists, and she shook with fury and fear, "I thought I was going to lose you there for a moment, you don't get to throw your life away on noble gestures like that...understand...you're stuck with me till you die...of old age." She gave a crooked smile through her blurry eyes and he returned it to her.
"Ahhh...yes...sorry majesty, can I get you some wine to make up for my ahhh...breach of protocol?"
She raised her hand as if to say yes, then paused, lowered it, and then shook her head no. "No, not this time, I don't think I should." She said softly, "Instead lets get to work on raising those troops."
"A fine idea sire, lets get to it." Vermillion replied enthusiastically.
...Hoburns...
It had been late when the priest arrived for the king's injured arm, and King Astraka was in a foul mood, he was not used to being insulted, defied, denied, or attacked...and the new prisoner had imposed all four of those on him, and all in the same day. Worse, he'd failed to find out what he needed and she'd slipped into unconsciousness first. He spoke out loud to the empty air, "No...its not a failure, its not a failure till she dies from this." His voice was smug and enthusiastic, and when the priest had arrived to heal him, well that presented a new chance to rub it all in.
So rather than be healed in his quarters, he told the priest to follow him, and he lead the man down to the dungeon, he hoped she was asleep, he'd get to wake her up, but if she wasn't, well it would feel just as good to have his minor injury healed in front of her as she lay there in agony, perhaps she'd beg for it, beg to be healed, beg for a spell to be cast to numb the pain, perhaps she'd offer herself in exchange for an end to the agony, or maybe she'd just lay there on the floor, naked, stubborn, and bleeding, there was no downside that he could find to any of those scenarios.
So he had a smile on his face as he unlocked the door and entered with the priest. "Oh Vanysa..." He said loudly, letting the echo of his voice off the walls I thought you might need to see a healer...you won't get to use one of course, but you can see one." He said as he turned and closed the door, laughing at his own cleverness.
She was on her back, he rolled his eyes, worst place to be with those injuries. He went over to her and looked down at her unconscious form, she really was beautiful, she had three small pinkish freckles over her left breast, as if it was the finishing touch of an artist, and fawn like legs that must have made her a sight to see when she ran, her stormy eyes had been like rain clouds, and when they lightened it was like seeing the sunshine behind them, and when she darkened with fury it was like looking at a coming blizzard. He sighed to himself, he really didn't enjoy hurting something like her. Curiously, she'd written 'faithful servant' on her chest.
She wasn't moving, the priest stepped forward asking if he could assist in waking her, and froze in mid sentence, he stepped on something, it made an awkward squelching noise, he lifted his foot, drew it back, and looked down.
"Bwagg what the hell?!" The portly priest snapped as he staggered back to the door, "Is that a tongue?!"
Astraka's head snapped back to where the priest had been standing and looked down at the floor where he pointed, it was indeed a tongue. He turned back to Vanysa's form, his eyes widening.
"No...you didn't...you couldn't?!" He snapped out and grabbed her jaw and opened it up, there was a thick well of blood in her mouth, it didn't take a genius to understand what had happened. He flung her head to the side to drain it out, but as he touched her, he felt that her body had already gone cold. The warmth was gone from her flesh and it had not been just the light of the torch giving her skin its more pale appearance.
Astraka fumed, he slapped her dead face several times in anger. "Damnit you bitch, you bitch, you fucking bitch!" Her head moved back and forth, unresisting with every blow as his will was foiled by...of all things...a fucking peasant.
He stood up, breathing hard and roiling with furious anger, he had planned to kill the bitch to keep her quiet after taking what he needed from her mind...but she'd deprived him of both her knowledge and the satisfaction of victory.
He looked down at the dead meat that had been a beautiful young woman and said, "I'd planned to at least give you a decent burial for your courage, but now you've made me angry, make a mockery of a king's will? Think death is an escape from everything? I've still got your corpse, you won't even go in a hole, you can go in the damn river, thrown out like garbage and forgotten." He snarled and called a pair of servants to him.
He drew out the key and tossed it to one of them. "Take that thing and dump it in the river, don't even bother to weigh it down, let it float all the way out to the endless sea and be torn apart by animals and the elements." He said with disgust and contempt.
He walked out with the priest, leaving the servants to their work.
They obeyed, as servants tend to do, she was loaded onto a wagon that was piled up with waste, and taken out to a river, it was a long one, it cut a wide swath through many regions, though as they'd never been much beyond Hoburns, they had no idea how far it traveled, or how many tributaries it had, and since they were also dullards, who looked with awe at how a button fit through a button hole...they also didn't care. They simply dumped her corpse along with the other garbage and went back to their lives.
Astraka however, was not a dullard, he had a war to win. The army was called up and the South was rallying, support for his rule was...oddly enough, very low in the North, and very high in the South. A curious thing to him, given that Calca failed the North most of all. But curious as it was, it didn't matter, what mattered was imposing his will and ensuring this matter got settled as quickly as possible.
Unable to sleep, he went to his private office and wrote out his instructions. Thirty thousand soldiers would march East to face off against the Sorcerer King's Abelion Hills, he selected a general he knew to be loyal to him, and attached an appointment notice.
He wrote out another, twenty thousand would be dispatched to secure villages, to be split up as needed on site based on population size and how his people were received, overall operational control would fall to one man...another loyal general, a southern nobleman this time, was appointed to the task.
Finally...he looked down at the map, there were other cities, but some would pose a special problem, but as he looked at the map...when he interposed his own vision of what he knew of the spread of Black Justice, they were found all over the place. He sighed heavily, he reached into his inner pocket over his chest and pulled out the treaty he'd made with the Sorcerer King.
"They really were nice terms." He said to the paper. "But you can't fight a war that way and win." He shrugged, and tore it up. If some peasants had to die, then they had to die and that was all there was to it. He uttered a prayer to the gods, asking that they grant him wisdom in the battles to come, and began writing orders.
...Remedios's army...
"What the hell do you mean "Calca is alive?!" She snapped incredulously at Yuri as they rode at the head of the army.
"I mean what I said. They are saying that Queen Calca is alive, and that King Astraka is just a Theocracy puppet." Yuri kept her hands folded behind her back and tried to keep her temper from getting the best of her, she was heartily tired of the idiocy of Remedios.
"King Astraka has declared that she is an impostor, or that if she is real, she's under the control of her primary supporter." Yuri continued.
"And that is?" Remedios asked with anger and trepidation.
"The Sorcerer King." Yuri answered flatly. "He is sending an army to put her back on the throne, Gustav Montagne has declared his army...whatever is left of it, to be hers, which means he's gone from outlaw to either rebel or loyalist...depending on what side you're on."
Remedios's eyes went mad, they went wild, "Of course! That is why she has not spoken to me...she IS alive again..." Her gaze turned dark and she looked away, still speaking out loud, but not evidently to anyone. "But...the Sorcerer King is backing her...no...the Sorcerer King is holding her prisoner, we've got to save her!" Remdios said and grabbed Yuri's shoulders so tight that Yuri felt her armor give.
"Well then, aren't you glad you listened to me now?" Yuri winced and said, "Since you abandoned chasing Neia and linked up with the Slane Theocracy that gives you over one hundred and forty thousand soldiers with which to save her. And with the Southern nobles rallying in earnest all over the South, that will be another one hundred thousand following behind." Yuri said enthusiastically. As she imagined all those bodies...so many dead...she felt herself growing excited...she wanted to be alone now...just to find the sweet release that only death on a mass scale ever gave her. Remedios was now an inconvenience to her desires...but one more thing had to be said.
"The Sorcerer King by the way, made a treaty with King Astraka, the Slane Theocracy, and all other involved countries. A treaty regarding the treatment of citizens in this war." Yuri said, barely believing her own words.
"And...what does it say?" Remedios asked. "Does it require that the dead be turned into the undead, that particular methods of torture be used?" She asked, miffed and indifferent at the evil undead's desires.
Yuri took a copy out of her pocket. "This was being distributed everywhere, one of our contacts gave it to me, its supposed to be the terms of the agreement."
Remedios snatched it away and read it. Her face darkened, "He didn't write this." She said flatly.
"I assure you, the information I received was accurate, he presented this himself. You'll see his name as the first signature on it, Queen Calca's is right below it." Yuri said, "That wouldn't make sense unless it came from him first."
"He didn't write this!" Remedios shrieked, "Only Queen Calca could do this!"
"But...wait...what are world items?" She asked Yuri with uncertainty in her voice.
At that Yuri could only shrug, "I don't know. I've asked a great many people, and nobody knows, the only real lead I got was that they were unusually powerful magic items...but what they do or where they are remains a mystery."
"Its fine." Remedios said, "Its a good thing I decided to abandon Neia for now and link up with the Slane Theocracy, between all this, the rebels in the North don't have a chance, no matter what they bring to bear." She laughed with grim satisfaction and Yuri shrugged and rolled her eyes, it didn't matter that Remedios had stolen credit again, let the idiot pretend she had a good idea.
"The real question is...do we abide by it?" Yuri asked. "Queen Calca is a signatory on it, but you're on Astraka's side...aren't you?" Yuri's voice suddenly went doubtful as she thought that through.
Remedios was quiet for awhile..."I'm always on Queen Calca's side, and she's a prisoner of the Sorcerer King, goodness knows what tortures he's putting our beloved Queen through, what vile degrading acts he had to make her endure just to get her to sit quietly at a table with him." Remedios clenched her teeth. "We will defeat the Sorcerer King and his allies, rescue Calca, and then after that I don't care what happens to Astraka, maybe they can marry and unite both sides, but Calca will be in her throne room before that damn Synod and the undead worshipers are all going to die."
Her eyes glazed over, and there was no further point in discussion, Yuri rode in silence, focused on all the suffering she'd get off to later.
...Kami Miyako...
Climb was still practicing when Zesshi entered the room. She never knocked, it had lead to at least one embarassing incident, but she didn't start knocking after that either, he supposed that was grateful enough for all the lessons she was giving him, even if she was even more lacking in decorum than Gagaran after a barrel of mead.
"Ready again?" She asked him and pulled out a practice scythe.
"Always, lady Zetsumi." He said.
Two moments later he was on his back trying to get up again.
"Congratulations." She said, "You've improved."
"That was improvement?" He asked as he gritted his teeth and climbed back up to unstead feet.
"Yes, you lasted two moments instead of one, and that blow that you're standing up from was three percent stronger than the one that knocked you out entirely a week ago. You should be proud of yourself cherry boy." She gave him a wicked grin, fairly daring him to get angry at the nickname.
He didn't take the bait, he'd been baited by countless nobles who tried to manipulate him into a bad reaction so that he would bring shame on the princess, but it hadn't worked before, and it wouldn't work now.
Two more moments later, and he was down again, and he wasn't able to rise.
"You have your own strength, I'll give you that." Zesshi said, "The truth is, you're facing off against power you can never overcome, I've never had that trial, so I don't even know if I have the same strength you do. Its the other reason why I want to lose, to know if I really can just keep fighting until the end of my body's ability to serve my will." She was very casual about everything she said as she pulled out a healing potion and put it to his lips.
When he drank it and got back up again, he said, "But aren't you a powerful fighter, haven't you fought in countless battles against dangerous enemies of humanity?"
"Well yes, but it was never really a fight for me." She said.
He looked at her doubtfully.
"Think of it this way...suppose you drank a potion that made you utterly invincible, no enemy could harm you or escape you...would it be especially brave of you to go into battle?" She asked as she poured two cups of wine, and cut Climb's with a half cup of water.
"I guess not, I mean how brave is it to fight knowing you can't possibly lose?" He said.
"Cowards be more rare than feathers on a fish if everybody went into fights knowing they couldn't lose." She said as she handed him a cup and took one up herself. "I'm the strongest in the world...as far as I know anyway, I've never been in a fight that I ever thought I could possibly lose, even if I went in naked, asleep, and with one hand tied to one ankle. So...I never get my courage tested, and I'll never know if I'm really brave or not, as far as you're concerned, I AM invincible, and the same has gone for everything I've ever fought."
She finished the cup with a satisfied sigh and set it down, "So...how brave can I really be? I won't know unless I ever find a real fight, at least you have that going for you, you actually are a very brave cherry boy." She teased him as part of her praise, and he rolled his eyes.
"So what is happening now?" Climb asked, hoping for a change of topic. "You're my only source of news you know."
"Well, your golden prize...I mean princess..." she gave him another teasing grin, "is playing her part very well, the royal faction is broken and the nobles are getting more bold, all she asked for was time to run away."
"And what will you be doing all this, just playing my jailer until the end of the war?" He asked.
"No, I demanded a chance to fight, and I'm getting one, so I'll be leaving here soon." She said a little whistfully, "I'm sure there is nobody I'll be sparring against that will be getting back up, so I guess I'll miss you 'just' a little bit." She said and held up her hand, and brought her thumb and forefinger just a tiny bit apart from touching.
Climb stood and bowed, "Then thank you for everything. I cannot wish for you to win this war, but I will pray to the gods that you survive." He said sincerely.
"Till next time cherry boy." She said when she stood up, she waved behind her and walked out of the room, she didn't bother locking it behind her, there was no need, she was entirely certain that Climb was bound securely enough by his word.
AN: Well here we have another chapter, another step forward in the process of easing my constant torture of you all. :) Just a few quick notes to go with this though:
1. No the one shot with Demiurge & Vanysa in "Desires of a Demon" is not really 'canon' it was just a fan request and a fun little experiment for me to see how well I could write out something like that. Now...that said...that doesn't mean I wasn't doing such a divergence from the usual...without a reason. But I'll let you stew on that for awhile and grumble about waiting for another branch story.
2. You got another day of double releases coming, someone donated last night. You slave drivers. ;)
3. You're probably wondering when the first really big battle is going to happen. I'm not one for spoilers...so you'll just have to wait.