...Fortress Alaf…
General Leinas Rockbruise was a very happy general. She and Aureole Omega turned out to make an amazingly effective pair, not only had they taken the most important supply station in the west of the Slane Theocracy, but between the wave of terror that had struck the Theocracy and, according to scouts and raid teams, slowed down the Theocracy and Elf armies by quite some time as they tried to recapture the lost horses, (most of which her own scouts managed to capture or kill), but it had utterly demoralized potential resistance in the nigh impregnable fortress.
The cold mountain wind was nothing, every time it had an impact on the army, Aureole Omega either buffed everybody to be resistant to it, or she simply used one of the scrolls the Sorcerer King had provided.
"The gloves are off." She said to Leinas, who promptly asked what the hell that meant.
"It's a First World expression. From what I understand, the gods used to fight each other for fun, and they would wear mystical protective gloves so that they wouldn't destroy a world while fighting, but when 'the gloves came off' that meant they were fighting in earnest."
The awe Leinas felt for the supreme beings redoubled at the explanation.
Sometimes she'd use weather control to keep the fortress area warm while the outside was cold. It would feel like late Spring or early Summer, but then one would venture beyond the walls and it was the 'Winter chill' of a mountain in Autumn.
The end result was that the large Theocracy population that resided there had been utterly and completely cowed. The demihuman, human, and undead forces at her command proved an intimidating sight, but at the same time work still had to get done. She paid those who worked for their labor and paid nothing to those who did nothing.
For the first week to three weeks or so, people shouted and blustered about the Slane Theocracy's retribution, but like someone calling down the wrath of the gods, when no gods answered, they were quickly ignored. The few slaves that worked the fortress there had been immediately freed and most volunteered to join the occupiers, they proved especially useful in identifying people who would be a problem, and potential leaders of an internal resistance were quickly rounded up.
When one of them asked incredulously, "How did you know to look for me?"
Leinas held up a copy of the Book of Black Justice and said, "If you wish to know how many enemies you have, you must first count your slaves." His mouth had become quite 'fish like' opening and closing wordlessly until he slumped in his cell, clasped his hands to his head, looked down at the ground, and rocked back and forth a broken and defeated shell who realized he'd undone himself.
Still, she was under no illusions about her current ability to hold off the combined might of the elf king and the Slane Theocracy, and she'd called for Aureole Omega to join her in the command building for some wine and a planning session.
As soon as the pretty girl entered, Leinas set down a cup of the good stuff and poured one for herself. "Thanks for coming, Aureole Omega." She said warmly.
"Just Aureole is fine, we've known each other for months now, marched together, lived together, I'd like to think of us as friends at this point." She said with a winsome smile.
"Alright, on the condition that you'll just call me Leinas." The general replied with equal warmth.
"Deal." The shrine maiden general said happily as she took the cup. "To victory and tomorrow."
Leinas raised her own, "To tomorrow and victory." They drank and set their cups down in unison.
"So, I've got to be honest here." Leinas said with a heavy sigh, "The way I see it, we're screwed."
"How do you mean?" Aureole Omega said with some concern.
"I have looked at every map and every list of supplies in every way I can, and I can't think of a single way to defeat both the Elf Kingdom and the Slane Theocracy at once, and despite their huge slowdown before, they're back on track now and they'll be here soon."
"Oh, don't worry, you won't have that problem soon." Aureole Omega said sweetly.
"Say what now?" Leinas asked, incredulously.
"Remember how I said we needed another front?" She asked with a knowing grin.
"Yes…" Leinas said, a smile beginning to form on her face.
"Well, not only is there already one with the invasion of the Draconic Kingdom that just recently got started, but an entire army led by General Zesshi Zetsumei is about to invade the Elf Kingdom, once they disembark at Fortress Igan, they'll be heading straight for Crescent Lake, and what is more, she plans on making sure the Elf King knows that she's coming."
"Wait, won't that make things harder for her if he turns back to protect his capital city?" Leinas asked.
"Sure, but it cuts the army we have to face, down by about half, and we can harry him all the way with small numbers at least. So pretty soon it will just be the Slane Theocracy." She said.
"OK, that is great, but we'll still be outnumbered many times over." Leinas said, "We don't have much over ten thousand, even fortified, they can surround us and scale the walls and we're done. We can't defend everywhere." She said with a shake of her head.
"Not for long we won't be." Aureole Omega said with an even larger grin.
"Why? What else did the last communication say?" Leinas asked, a smile was now broad on her face.
"Well, His Majesty went to the Understone Empire, and he sent people to the Dark Elf plains, and both General Zaryusu and King Zanac have almost completed taking back Re-Estize, they'll be joining us soon." She said.
"Joining us 'soon' isn't there a mountain range in between them and us?" She asked, "and what about the Understone Empire and the Dark Elves?" She asked.
"Well, my master sent out Gargantua, and he's going to have part of the mountain 'removed', he's probably already started, I last heard from them the day Gargantua was dispatched, but soon we'll have thousands of Dark Dwarf, Dark Elf, and angry Re-Estize soldiers marching to join us, if they can't make it in time by conventional means, as our master says, 'the gloves are off' and he's incredibly angry, he'll just gate them to us. As it is, he wants them to march in, he wants them to know they spent all that time and effort to just walk here and die. The abject futility of it all will be rubbed in their faces to punish them for everything, before he takes all hope of victory away, and their lives with it." She said boldly and proudly.
"For all their best efforts, they will get nothing but despair." She concluded with a warm smile at General Leinas Rockbruise.
Leinas let her mouth fall open. "Truly he is great, terrible, noble, and wise. I am on the winning side, of that I have no doubt, and I can, for once at least, relax." She let out a heavy sigh.
"Feel like celebrating that with another cup of wine?" Aureole Omega asked.
"You bet I do, Aureole." Leinas said and reached for the bottle with a smile and a beaming face.
...Southern Holy Kingdom…
Inta was running, so were his siblings, the deception Gustav Montagne had pulled off had done exactly what it was meant to, now he and a handful of his soldiers were in full retreat from the entire might of the remaining Southern nobles who had raised all their troops, and under the leadership of the most powerful Black Scripture and Holocaust Scripture members, they were having great success in their game of cat and mouse.
Gustav caught up with Inta as their part of the army broke into a dead run for the trees. They were outnumbered more than ten to one, but with small forces having broken off everywhere to deceive the Slane Theocracy and the Southern noble allies who were loyal to Astraka, it had created a desperate game of predator and prey. Some bands had already been annihilated, against this, nothing Gustav had could win in a stand up fight, and the experts in covert operations could outdo himself most of the time.
"Well, it's near the end for us, isn't it?" Inta said as Black Scripture elites drew ever closer.
Gustav looked over his shoulder, if things continued as they were, that was going to be the case. He looked over at Inta, the vampire and his family had become good friends over the course of all this, and there were others too, they'd done so much with so little on a mission where he was the only one who truly deserved to die.
He'd hoped to fight another day, he looked quietly at Inta. "No..." he said, his heart pounding in his chest. "Friends with a vampire, never saw that coming. Glad of it though." He grinned, "Keep a chair out for me where you go drinking, and think of me sometimes." He said and slapped his friend on the back.
Inta looked at him in confusion, then he realized that Gustav was slowing down, there was no need for him to do that, on his undead mount, it could go infinitely, if it weren't for the buffs of the Black Scripture that gave them greater speed at least temporarily, they wouldn't have any trouble.
"Goddamn it!" Inta shouted, "Goddamn it, no!" He shouted, "You can't be serious!" Gustav was already wheeling his horse around.
"For all my sins, and all her sins that are mine." Gustav said as he turned to face the black. Inta looked over his shoulder, every ounce of him said to turn around too, but to do that would be to throw away what Gustav was going to do, so he rode on.
Inta looked back to watch, he owed his friend that, Gustav pointed his sword at the advancing band, and then kicked into a terrifying gallop screaming a warcry that would terrify the dead. The vampire vision of Inta could even see the flecks of spit flying backwards in the wind as Gustav Montagne drew closer to the Black Scripture members, his sword flashed out and his terrible mount knocked two of their numbers flying with its undead strength, his sword rose and fell like a man possessed as the entire body was tangled up in one impossible knot of flesh and steel and splashing blood. Gustav was not on par with the black, but he was a paladin, arguably once the second strongest in the Paladin Order, and he wasn't that for nothing. He gave them hell, holding them back and slaying their mounts to deny them pursuit, his undead horse's hooves threw bodies back by yards. It was an eternity and it was an instant and it was a bright and shining moment of valor that neither Inta, nor Gustav's soldiers, nor even the Black Scripture would forget for as long as they lived.
Then it was over, and the mighty paladin fell from his mount, and a sword found its mark, and the darkness took him as the light fled from his eyes, and that was when Gustav Montagne finally died.
As he fell, the Black Scripture looked ahead of them, the rest of his men were out of reach, the buffs they had would expire before they would likely catch up, or… perhaps they could have, but as he fled, Inta saw that whoever led the band that had killed his friend, raised his sword, and saluted their retreating backs.
...Prart…
Neia sat at dinner with the members of Blue Rose, Queen Calca, Ulthis, and Tinamoc. Dinner was a healthy serving of meat with a side of vegetables and buttered potatoes, with a few bottles of red wine to split between them.
Neia was the first to speak, "To the end of all this, and what begins after." She said.
The rest of the glasses came up with the toast, and they drank and began to eat, an elf servant made it her business to mind that everybody had wine, she was a volunteer, one of those that had made it safely to the city, there were a lot of volunteers to attend when Neia required assistance of any kind. She'd become a saint like heroine, and almost all of them were now members of her religion.
"CZ isn't joining us this evening?" Tinamoc asked.
"No," Neia said, "She's a ranged weapon specialist, so she's outside the walls marking ranges for siege weapons, bows, spells, and so on."
"What the hell does that mean?" Tinamoc asked, clearly lost.
"See certain weapons work reliably well at certain distances, you don't want to aim at a target you can't hit, so she goes out, marks the distance from a fixed point, and then we know what weapon to use when the enemy reaches certain markers as they advance." Neia explained.
"Oh, smart." He said.
"Yes, yes it is." Neia said agreeably and took a bite of her steak.
"So, what do you think of those reinforcements from Kedyn?" Queen Calca asked.
"They're very good, all things considered." Lakyus answered.
"They'll die before they let that wall go." Evileye added.
"Rather it not come to that though." Gagaran said uncomfortably.
"It will." Tina said.
"It definitely will." Tia added.
"We're proud of our will to hold walls." Ulthis added with a voice full of city pride.
"The goblin, ogre, and orc mercenaries that got here this afternoon are going to do very well too. Where'd they come from, I haven't gotten to talk to them?" Tinamoc asked.
"The Understone Empire." Neia said, "They call themselves 'The Sons of Iontariil' apparently he was a slave who rebelled, they ended up free and His Majesty got a new vassal state, or that is the short version anyway."
"Incredible." Queen Calca said with breathless admiration. "He seems to have the most incredible luck when it comes to finding allies in unexpected places."
"Better than mine." Neia said, and fought back rage as she remembered Sudaj, who she hoped was suffering a great deal right now.
Calca went quiet as she remembered observing that private moment between herself and the Sorcerer King. She could never say anything, but barely a day passed without her remembering the most noble moment she'd ever seen in all her life, too, it had… changed how she saw Neia Baraja. Most who opposed her looked at her and saw a terrifying monster, someone who wielded terror and violence without remorse. Those who followed her saw the avatar of justice, the first true servant of the only remaining god who was changing the world for the better. Skana, from what little Calca knew, saw her as a loved one, as a lover. But for herself, for Calca, she looked at the pope and saw a mass of desperate pain and a longing for things to improve, she saw a woman subjected to horror, who became a horror herself in order to survive and to win so that she could in turn end horror. In short, Queen Calca saw a human sacrifice, and it moved her to private tears that any of her citizens should ever have had to suffer so much for the sake of her kingdom.
That however, was her own secret, and she could live with it.
"Even with all that, your majesty, I really wish you would consider leaving the city. Forget confronting Remedios, she's gone, the woman you knew is dead and all that remains is a walking atrocity." Neia bit her lip, it still stung to say something like that about someone she once admired. It was easy to forget that the war was not yet a year old, it felt like a lifetime.
"I can't do that." Calca said resolutely. "I put her in the position she was in, I put her on her current path, there is no other way but forward for both of us, and this is forward for me."
"I get it." Lakyus said, "There is no going back, there is only making up for what is back there."
"Maybe, but this could get a sword in her throat, and I don't want that to happen." Neia said firmly.
Calca shook her head, "I'll just have to not let that happen." she said, "You'll help me, I assume?"
"I'll do my best." Neia said softly, her voice shook a little as she remembered that her 'best' did not always have the best outcome.
She looked over to Tinamoc. "You however, have no reason to be here." Neia said bluntly.
"Ouch." He said with a pretend grasping of his heart. "You wound me, oh terrible Black Paladin."
"Uh huh." Neia said sarcastically. "All the more reason to evacuate you then." She grinned teasingly.
"Jokes aside though, she's got a point." Evileye said as kindly as she could. Oddly, to her still, she was able to be at this dinner without her mask, the servant attending them was reliable, and everybody at the table either already knew beforehand, or wouldn't have given a damn when they found out. It felt good to be without it, it was a tiny glimpse at a wonderful tomorrow, like she might wake from a dream only to find that her dream was real.
"We should get everybody out of the city who is not able to fight or support the defense of the walls, we can hold out longer that way." Evileye added.
Tinamoc looked over at Neia, "Do you really feel that strongly about it?" He asked.
"Call it one of my last calls as your security officer." She said with a smirk as she reminded him that she'd come on to guard a trade caravan three kings ago.
"Seems weird to think it began with a simple trade mission." He said, "Everything is so different now. In a way it is desperate, but… it's also brighter, like that brightness when the Sun penetrates storm clouds."
"It is different." Tia said.
"But better different." Tina added.
"Look, I'm a musclehead, give me a hammer and something to swing at, and I'm set, I honestly don't know for sure if we're on the 'right' side, but I know the other side is the wrong one, all that matters to me is where my sisters are, if we're right, we're right together, if we're wrong, we're wrong together and if we go down, we go down together." Gagaran said confidently.
"I can drink to that." Neia said, and glasses were held up for refills, and when the servant had done her work Neia made another toast. "To what Gagaran just said." She grinned and her eyes, for once not terrifying, shone brightly as they all drank again.
"If you really think it best that I get out of the city, along with whoever else, I'll do it. But you'd better survive this, 'Pope' Neia Baraja, or I'll bankrupt my trading empire to pay for your resurrection, and I will charge you interest for paying me back for it." He said in mock seriousness.
"Always the merchant." Neia said with a grin.
"Damn right." He said.
"So is there any other way we can delay their arrival?" Lakyus asked seriously. "The surviving Blood Miners and Vines have started to trickle back to the city, if we don't do anything else, Remedios and her people will probably arrive tomorrow, and every hour we buy is another hour to make arrows and to prepare our people for combat."
"There is one thing." Calca said.
"Yeah?" Gagaran asked.
"We set a meeting, under a flag of truce, she'll stop for me at least, I had planned on confronting her but… well, instead of from the safety of the walls, let's set an open meeting, if we send a priest of the old gods, they should be safe, and they should at least listen to what we have to say." Queen Calca said reasonably. "It might not be much, but given how long it takes for everything, even if I delay her only by a few hours by talking into the evening, that will buy another night and part of the day before they can resume. It's something, isn't it?" She asked plaintively.
There were looks around the table, nobody was certain of anything. "It… it is dangerous." Ulthis said doubtfully.
"So was Jaldabaoth." Queen Calca said.
"Yeah... and he killed you." Tia said.
"Tia…" Tina said softly.
"Sorry…" Tia apologized and looked down at the table.
"Look, this is my kingdom, those are my people out there, and these are, well mostly, my people in here, and they're about to kill each other. It is my job to do everything I can to end this with as little loss of life as possible, my country has suffered enough for a hundred generations, don't get in my way in this, I will walk out those walls by myself if I have to." She looked around and her face was resolute as stone.
"If I perish, I perish, but I won't die without having done the right thing first. My failure to rule well led to so much suffering, even before Jaldabaoth, I see my sins every time I walk the streets, and see the severed ears of elves from Wenmark, I hear of my sins, every time I hear that someone saw Remedios burn another person. Making all that right is… it is impossible. I won't even pretend it can be done. But I can spend my life 'beginning' to make it right, 'beginning' to make up for it all, and that means I have to take a risk. Now, will you help me or will you not?" She asked.
"And they say I give stirring speeches." Neia said with exhaustion in her voice. "Fine, your majesty, this Black Paladin will back you up." She looked over to the servant who was watching everything with wide, intent eyes.
"Go to one of the temples of the old gods, tell the priest to ride out as fast as he can down the road under a flag of truce, ask them to set a meeting tomorrow when the sun is at its zenith, Queen Calca wants to speak to Remedios Custodio." Neia said with no small frustration in her voice.
The servant nodded numbly and scurried out.
"And as for you Tinamoc." Neia said, "As soon as we finish dinner, I want you to gather all of your merchants, pack what you need, and ride east, I want you well beyond the battlefield before this goes on, if you leave tonight under cover of darkness, you should have plenty of time to be out of harm's way."
"Alright, but like I said, you'd better survive." Tinamoc said, pointing at Neia with a friendly expression on his face.
"I… almost always do, it's the people around me that I worry about." Neia said seriously, suppressing a shudder and carefully controlling her tone of voice to keep it neutral. "Pass me that bottle will you?" She said to Tia, "I might as well finish it off."
"Sure thing." Tia said and handed it over.
AN: Well, 16 chapters uploaded after four days of writing for various stories, including 12 of them which begin and end the 'Dark Plains' Aura/Mare story, which takes place concurrently with Chapter 85 of 'God Rising' and and 'Under the Stone Sky' the Dark Dwarf arc, enjoy that you greedy, greedy readers. :) I'll be away for a few days working on a few chapters for a privately commissioned piece, but IF you've enjoyed my work so far, all donations go to charitable use, you can donate a dollar or so to: bdgiving dot org.