...No Man's Sea…

Zesshi had decided that she definitely did not like boats. All that rocking back and forth, it was like sex with someone who didn't know which way they were supposed to move. Extremely unpleasant. Now here she was on an even smaller boat, and she was enjoying it even less. The waters rocked the little boat as she rowed it along. The one saving grace was that she didn't have to go all that far, a few miles, and she could row very, very quickly thanks to her inhuman strength.

So it wasn't long before she found herself at the base of the cliff overlooked by Fortress Igan. She approached the sheer rock face, activated several enhancing martial arts, put the ropes over her head and across her body, and punched the stone, creating a deep hole. About two feet over from that, she did it again.

She stood up in her boat, and jumping up, she swung her scythe, embedding it into the rock. She punched again, making more small holes. Foot by foot, inch by inch, she created a 'ladder' in the stone that she could haul herself up, and that her soldiers could use to assist themselves afterward.

She wondered what Queen Draudillon was up to. The Queen had made a very poor first impression on Zesshi but… after a little time, she found that the woman was not that bad. She even found an inkling of 'fondness' for her, or at least hopefulness, after seeing the woman obsess over that bottle. They'd parted on good terms, so she had a distinct feeling that when they met again, they'd part afterwards on even better ones.

It wasn't that long before she'd reached the top of the cliff, and she saw that the wall of the fortress was built almost right at the edge. It made the guards evidently sloppy, because when she stood on that very narrow ledge, no more than two feet wide and craned her neck up, she didn't see anyone. Nor did she hear anyone, there was no sense of anyone on this wall. Either the fortress was empty, or minimal manning meant that they'd abandoned defending the one area that 'couldn't be attacked'.

"Easier than I thought." She said softly to herself. The stones forming the fortress walls were big ones, but they weren't smooth and actually jutted out a little in places, meaning she no longer needed to 'create' hand holds or foot holds for herself. Her agility and dexterity were sufficient to let her come close to the top with ease. She got up close to the top of the wall and paused to listen once again.

No one. She took the ropes off of her shoulder and secured the grappling hooks. Being the same color as the stone, they were almost invisible unless you were close. She listened very carefully, there were other voices, the sounds of footsteps. They may have been sloppy, but even these guards were not that careless.

As the sun began to descend, she looked over her shoulder. In the distance she saw tiny dots, her ships, her soldiers. The ropes dropped down to the base of the cliff where it met the sea. She saw the little boat she'd come in, drift away, bumping against the cliff face with a constant 'thonk' sound. She hoped it would smash, she did not like that boat, or any boat for that matter.

Zesshi grabbed one of the ropes and secured it under her foot, resting one over the other so that she could effectively 'stand' all but indefinitely as she held herself to it. She swayed slightly in the breeze as she looked out over the freshwater sea. She did not like boats, but the view from here was truly spectacular. The golden light of the setting sun played havoc with reflections on the moving waters, she wondered how long it would be before she saw a sight like this again.

She shook herself out of her reverie as she watched the distant ships load her soldiers into small boats like hers, they slowly grew in size as they advanced towards her position. There were a great many small boats in the water in no time at all. The captain might have been an annoying bitch with her sing-song rhyming, but… she ran her ship well.

The first group that got to the base of the cliff was grabbing the ropes and awkwardly began their ascent. They made effective use of her improvised stone ladder as they scaled the cliffs, and within minutes they had reached her position. She was the first over the top. Nobody saw her, or anyone else at first. They were all looking 'outward' for danger. Nobody was looking in the direction from which they could not be attacked.

She ran stealthily along the wall and down the stairs of the tower, successfully escaping the guard's attention. For a moment she entertained the blissful thought that she might get most of her damned army inside before the watch even noticed. Which of course meant that this is exactly not what happened. A soldier emerging from a billeting area came out just in time to see her. He let loose a cry of alarm before she silenced him by removing his head with a swing of her scythe.

The anthill had been kicked over, there was no stopping the chaos now. Soldiers clamoured and shouted, awakening those resting and drawing out of the doors desperate men who did not know whom they were fighting. There was no more silence from Zesshi or her soldiers. "Kill them all!" She shouted, "Kill the Theocracy scum!" She set the example, rushing with her scythe and nightmarish power. She kicked men hard enough to splinter bone, and those that survived the impact died when they hit the stone behind them and crushed anything that wasn't shattered before. Her scythe was a whirlwind of bloodshed, but the elves who followed her were not to be denied their revenge against a foe they hated far more than they loved their lives. Thirg and Tefl Dahn were in a vampiric blood fury, such that they did not even remove their weapons from the corpses. They fought with tooth and claw and beastial fury.

Swords rose and fell, the scattered humans of the Theocracy tried to rush to stem the tide, but the dam was breached and there was nothing they could do, they were too few, and Zesshi had an entire army bearing down on them and no defensive positions were available to funnel her into a place where her numbers could be 'managed'.

The moonlight shone off of gleaming swords before they were camouflaged from its piercing rays as they were made slick with the blood of a thousand thousand vendettas.

Against elves, the Theocracy was not going to seek mercy, against former elf slaves they were even less inclined. There was no point to asking in their minds, and if they were right or wrong, well who would fault either end?

Bodies fell and someone broke the door to the interior of the fortress, that was where Zesshi knew she needed to be. She entered the darkened hall with her scythe out in front. A soldier charged wildly at her with his sword up and a scream on his lips and it died there. His fear and hate were plain on his face, her contempt was plain on hers. She punched, his head exploded, his body fell and that was that.

More and more of her soldiers were pouring in and seizing rooms, floor by floor they advanced like a rising tide that could not be stopped, as if the sea were rolling in over them, only that sea was their own blood, and they were choking on it.

Within the hour, Zesshi had reached her final goal, the inner sanctum of the fortress. If there was anyone left alive who happened to be in charge, this was where they would be. She found herself in front of a thick oaken door. She kicked it, and the door flew back, exposing the room within. Zesshi strolled through the empty doorframe with her scythe out, her eyes scanning the interior from left to right.

A brutish-looking man in armor with a thick brown bushy beard held up a mace. He had heavy armor of reasonably good quality and angry dark eyes.

"Good, you're not going to surrender." She said happily and approached.

"Hell no, you half-breed bitch!" He said and rushed her with his mace.

He dropped the mace when he lost his hand. She didn't waste time, she had a message to send. She thought of her little sister, her mutilated ears, all the time she'd spent hiding her own so nobody would know what she was… so the next thing she cut was his ears. She hit them with the edge to sever them in half, letting the mutilated parts fall to the floor. He fell to his knees, clutching the stump and screaming.

"Shut up." She said coldly, and hit him in the back of the head, which was the only real 'favor' she offered to the garbage that lay at her feet. A few minutes later the fortress held almost no one but elves, a few demihumans, a pair of vampires, and those few humans of Black Justice that had been with them since the start. There was not a single living Theocracy citizen or soldier in the place, except for just the one, the one she had a use for.

She dragged him down the stairs by the bleeding stump that was once his hand, avoiding injury to his head but indifferent to the rest, it was a long walk down the steps and out into the courtyard.

Her soldiers were cheering, for them this was an enormous success, their second battle and second victory, and a great strike against the Theocracy. Morale was sky high for the lot of them, swords and bows were striking at the air and laughter and smiles filled the night.

"First, secure the fortress entirely!" Zesshi shouted, "Set a watch, gather the bodies, toss those of the Theocracy into the sea! Find any and all important documents we may claim, then go break out their booze! You've earned it all tonight!" She said with a burst of joy in her breast.

"Oh and someone bring me a bandage!" She said as she crouched next to the unconscious heap at her feet.

A moment later one was handed to her, she wrapped the stump where the hand used to be and treated it with a minor poultice she kept on her, so that he wouldn't die. She didn't want him to die, not yet at least.

It was half an hour before he came to and looked around in confusion. He saw himself looking up at the features of a half elf and reacted with violence, he tried to hit her. She grabbed the arm twisted, and snapped the wrist, drawing a cry of agony from him.

"You half-breed bitch!" He snarled at her. She hit his elbow and cleanly snapped his arm.

"Want to do that again? You've got more bones." Zesshi said with a cruel smile on her face.

"Gah!" he was breathing hard through the pain of the injuries she'd just given him. He tried to wriggle and writhe away from her, but she held him fast and looked at him with the expression a sadistic child might give to a dying animal.

He went silent.

"First smart decision you've made." She said. "Now, do you know who I am?" She asked.

He shook his head. "Just some…" he paused, she was one hundred percent sure he was going to say 'half-breed bitch' again, but evidently she had 'talked' him out of that, because he said 'half elf' instead.

"OK, I'll tell you. My name is Zesshi Zetsumei. I'm a former member of the Black Scripture of the Slane Theocracy. Before I left, I was considered to be 'humanity's trump card'. In short, I 'was' the most powerful fighter in the entire Slane Theocracy." She explained patiently.

He looked at her in silent disbelief.

"OK, you need proof?" She asked.

She approached the wall facing the sea, and kicked it. She kicked it hard. Stones tumbled and flew into the sea, and a three foot gap now stood there instead. She returned to the only Theocracy captive.

"Do you believe me now?" She asked. His expression said he was now willing to credit her story.

"So you're a traitor!" He spat, "Might have figured that from a…" She cut him off, grabbing him near the back of either side of his jaw and starting to squeeze.

"From a 'what'? Choose your words carefully, you pathetic little weakling!" Zesshi said, moving closer to his face. Her white and black hair blew in the breeze that could now reach her, like the tendrils of death at her back, in the darkness only the white was visible, but it was like a skeletal hand was beckoning him, he went silent again.

"And by the way, you betrayed me, the Slane Theocracy betrayed 'me' first. They abandoned 'me' first. And this…" she stood and opened her arms to encompass the fallen fortress, "is the result of that betrayal of theirs."

She got down next to him again, her heterochromatic eyes locked on his, "They tortured my little sister, rubbed it in my face, denied me a place among them, and did it a thousand times a thousand times over. If it hadn't been for their own stupid overreach with that boy 'Climb', I might never have even noticed what they were doing. But I did, and now I have a task for you, you pathetic little worm."

He was angry, but he was silent, and that was enough.

"You're going to go 'back' to Kami Miyako, as fast as you can, and you're going to tell them what happened here. Tell them that General Zesshi Zetsumei is coming for her people, tell them we still have business to settle between us. Oh, and tell them that for every elf I see with cut ears, people had better be prepared to have ears like yours. Do you understand me?" She asked.

"But the accords…" He started to stammer out. She grabbed his jaw and squeezed.

"The accords! The accords! Dominic tore up the accords in front of me, called them worthless trash and threw them on the floor. You dare bring them up?!" She snarled down at him, she squeezed tighter, she could feel his jaw begin to dislocate.

She relaxed her grip. "You need your jaw, and your tongue, or I would deprive you of both for that." She said with hate pouring from every syllable.

"But I won't be breaking the accords, I'll do what I did to you. I'm the best of the very best, outside of His Majesty's inner circle at least. I'll take their ears in honest battle." She said with a happy voice that reminded him of a child finding out they had overlooked a present at their birthday party.

"Why?" He asked in mute horror.

"On your way back to the Slane Theocracy, take a look at the elf slaves you see along the way, and if you still ask that question, you've got to be an even greater villain than Cardinal Dominic."

He went very quiet, until she grabbed him by his broken arm and hauled him to his feet. She shoved him over to where several elves were standing by watching.

"Take his armor, take his clothes, give him a few days rations of food and tell him to get walking. If he stops moving at any point, he's to be considered a hostile target." Zesshi shouted out her orders, and his pathetic injured struggles were of no use.

Within the span of a few waves breaking upon the cliffside, he was left wearing nothing but the bandage on his stump where the hand used to be.

"Get out of my fortress." Zesshi said, and he was dragged forcefully by his beard to the now open entrance and thrown out. He got to his feet, his body ached, everything ached.

Someone threw a sack at his feet, containing only a few loaves of bread, some cheese, and a small water skin.

He took one last look at the fortress behind him as the gate began to close. He saw elves starting to man the battlements of what had been 'his' domain.

"How did it come to this?" He asked himself in a whispered voice of horror. Elves atop the battlements drew their bows and took aim at him. They would definitely shoot if he did not get moving.

He started walking. He did not stop, not even when he had to relieve himself, turned out that pissing while walking naked was easy, though unpleasant. But it was even harder to do with a broken arm, fractured wrist, and a mutilated stump for a hand.

It had been a truly terrible day.

...Kami Miyako...Two weeks later...

The former fortress commander for Fortress Igan was looking much better, he'd found a healer by chance after two days of wandering naked on the road, who had taken care of his arm, but sadly the man wasn't a mage, just a man with some medical knowledge and some poultices. However, he could swing his arm again. He'd also changed the bandage on his hand and found no infection, no pus, no evidence of rot. He wasn't going to die from such a pathetic injury.

The man had also been kind enough to get him a set of clothing at the next town, and when the commander had explained what happened, a horse and a letter of authorization to requisition more had been given to him straight away. He rode as fast as he could for Kami Miyako, while attempts at getting someone to use a message spell for him had failed. When he sought an explanation, he was told that the Cardinals feared eavesdropping too greatly.

As he considered it, that wasn't entirely unreasonable. So a hard ride it was. Swapping out horses as soon as they burned out, until at last he rushed in to the capital and without pause, made his way straight to the meeting room.

A guard attempted to stop him as soon as he approached. "I'm sorry sir, they're in session right now."

"I know." He said, "I'm the commander of Fortress Igan, I have urgent news for the Cardinals." Following a momentary pause and a verification of identity, he was allowed access to the room.

After he gave his report of what happened, and the message from Zesshi Zetsumei, the room descended into a heavy silence.

Dominic was the first to speak. "So, you're the only survivor?" He asked.

"I am." The commander said.

Dominic's eyes narrowed.

"You survived the fall of your fortress, and came all the way back here? They just let you go?" The Cardinal asked.

"To come tell you all this, yes." He said.

"What happened to your ears?" Dominic asked.

"General Zesshi Zetsumei did that to me." He said, not liking Dominic's tone.

"So… you and you alone survived the defeat of your fortress, you come here 'barely' injured and with your ears cut like an elf and tell me that 'General' Zesshi Zetsumei did it to you. That's a pretty respectful form of address for someone who took your fortress, killed your soldiers, and cut your ears." He said.

The commander started to sweat. "It's true!" He gasped out.

"Where's your uniform?" Dominic asked.

"I told you, they kicked me out, naked, I got these clothes on the road, a healer gave them to me…" He said and slowed his speech.

"For free?" Dominic arched an eyebrow, "I know of only one group that heals for free, and that clothing, lot of black there. Remind you of any people we know?" Dominic asked the assembled cardinals.

"What, you can't! You can't think…!" He stopped and went mute, they did think.

Dominic stood and called out to the soldiers stationed beyond the door. "Guards! Take the 'commander' here to be interrogated, I think we need to ask a lot more questions, and a lot harder. Gag him though, let him speak to no one until an official inquisitor comes to 'converse' with him."

"What?! No! You can't! You can't!" He said as armored men physically restrained him and began to drag him away. He struggled, one of them hit him in the gut, he crumpled, he was hit on the back of the head, and as he lost consciousness he had one final thought…

"This day is going to be even worse…"

AN: And there you go another one, you go enjoy that now you greedy, greedy readers. :)

Chapter 90 though...wow. You know my original draft had planned for 30 chapters and no side stories? :D Well, plans changed for the better I think.

Reviews encouraged.