God Rising: The Cult of Ainz
Chapter 92
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
AN: Chapter is a little shorter than normal, but still over my minimum acceptable size, so enjoy. :) Kind of tired today, otherwise I'd do two of them.
...Prart…
Tinamoc was alone when Neia went to see him the next morning. He was at the gate with a decent horse but not an extravagant one. He wore ordinary travel clothing and carried nothing but simple ordinary gear, a purse of coins, simple camp tools, very basic materials. "You look different." Neia said with a little smile, waving to him as she approached.
"Well, I'm missing a bunch of wagons. That might have something to do with it." he said with just a hint of sarcasm.
"Maybe so." She replied. She smiled, and then her face became serious as she took off her visor and met his gaze.
"Traveling inconspicuously may be a good idea, but it isn't without risks. So, you take care of yourself out there." Neia said softly, "I don't have a lot of friends, never did, but I don't want to lose any of you."
He met the eyes of she who had made a dragon quake, and felt no fear. "It's been quite a journey for all of us, but whatever happens, I have no regrets, and let's be honest, you're at greater risk than I am." His voice was warm, and also proud.
"It's been amazing. To think it all began with a simple trade mission…" She sighed almost blissfully.
"Great events from small causes, precious friendships from great events." He said, and got off his horse.
"I'll pay you back for all the costs you incurred because of me." She said kindly.
"What you did to that idiot uncle of mine is good enough, not to mention… everything else. And you know what? After all this is over, I think I'll be able to get some really good deals trading with the freed elves, so… call this whole thing the biggest long term investment of my career, and we're even." He said with a knowing grin.
Neia laughed. "Always a merchant, aren't you?"
"Damn straight." He said with a wink.
"Where will you go from here?" Neia asked, "I'd like to know where to find you, so we can have a drink after all this." She asked.
He stroked his chin and looked away for a moment, "I suppose I could go home to my wife, but after all the peace and quiet we've had over the last few months, all that noise at home might get to me." He winked at her as he said that, and Neia playfully slapped his arm.
"Careful, or when I meet her I might tell her you said that." She winked in turn. "Of course I might 'forget it' if you buy the first round next time I see you."
"Now who's a merchant?" He asked with a hearty laugh. "But seriously, I think I'll head to my country home. It's north of Hoburns, in the woods, not a big place, few people know I have it. It is my own private little getaway. I'll stop off, get my wife, and we'll enjoy a few weeks or months there until the war here is over. After that, I'll send you a letter, and arrange to meet you where this whole thing began, at the gate of the capital."
"It's a date." Neia said with a broad smile.
"Don't tell my wife you called it that." He laughed, "And I won't tell Skana you did either."
"Now there's a merchant's bargain, everybody wins." She said with an enthusiastic nod, which he mimicked.
"So what about your other merchants?" She asked him.
"They're staying here, they're unknown, and it is easy enough for them to blend into the population, we'd all look suspicious if we left together anyway. So they suggested I leave so that my 'isolation' will serve as a kind of disguise. Just another somewhat overweight traveler." He said and patted his ample stomach with a chuckle.
"Uh huh! Well, you just stay well fed and safe, OK? I won't hold you up anymore, get going." Neia said, then spontaneously she went close, and hugged him. He was surprised, she wasn't an affectionate person in most respects, but he was not unhappy. He returned the embrace.
"Thanks for everything." They said in unison, laughed one more time, and then he got back on his horse before riding out of the gate.
They waved to one another, and Neia turned and went back to speak with Queen Calca, the sooner they got word back from the priest of the old gods, the happier they'd both be.
...Kami Miyako…
Raymond slapped the document down on the council chamber. "Well?!" He asked. "What do we do about this?!" He asked.
"Do about what?" Dominic asked with annoyance.
Raymond sighed, "Absolute power and you don't read reports?!"
Dominic turned red. "Just spill it." He said and set aside what he was writing.
"We have infiltrators." Raymond said.
"No." Dominic said with a frown.
"Yes. And don't pretend to be surprised. The Sorcerer King killed off our entire intelligence operation. The only ones left are the paramilitary corps of the Agante and they've been mostly occupied keeping the dark elves from coming for our throats, but hey, good news about that." Raymond snapped.
"Which is?" Dominic asked.
"Oh some of the Agante were captured and the rest have been fleeing the plains. So they're free to conduct operations elsewhere now. I guess they can act in place of all our dead intelligence agents." Raymond said sarcastically.
"I haven't seen that report at all." Dominic said, red faced.
"That's not your fault at least, it just came in this morning along with this one about infiltrators Look, we need extra security in the city, because any infiltrators there might be, will come here. Now as far as the dark elves go, there's a new Khan over them, his name is Chindai, and he's united the tribes. Guess what he rides?" Raymond asked.
"What?" Dominic asked with dread.
"Undead horses. They call them 'Horses of the Everplains' or 'Everplains Horses'. Do we know anybody who deals with raising undead beings?" Raymond asked sarcastically.
"Damn it!" Dominic said, clenching his teeth.
"If finances are a problem, we could tax the brothels and the slave traders?" Berenice suggested tentatively.
"No. We already considered that." Yvon replied. "They donate a lot to the temples and the temples help spread our message."
"So tax the temples." Ginedine suggested as he sat down, "Excuse me for being a little late, I had a slave act up, I had to take care of it." He said with a cold expression.
Raymond mentally sighed with relief, he knew what that meant.
"We can't tax the temples, they do the work of the gods and help keep the people calm." Maximillion said with annoyance.
"Well, the money has to come from somewhere." Yvon pointed out.
Dominic looked tired. "We already got one infiltrator, though the inquisitor tells me that he insists he's innocent. It would stand to reason that there are others. When the Agante come back, have the few surviving intelligence agents brief them, then start sending them to other cities. We will increase the budget for them, taking some of it from the public works allocations."
"That might work." Raymond admitted cordially, "But there is one other thing we might do." He said.
"What?" Dominic asked.
"The percentage of slaves in this city is fairly high relative to the population. We could cut our security risks and increase productivity if we licensed a few businesses to start farms and other production sites outside of the city. Allow those to operate as 'public enterprises' growing food or making weapons and so on. Make them responsible for their own security, then the food can be sold or given to the public to ease their concerns, and compensate for the increased security costs within the city itself." Raymond said reasonably.
"That isn't actually a bad idea." Yvon said thoughtfully.
"Let's draft the details, then I'll start selecting companies today." Dominic said with a grin that, to Raymond, had come to symbolize evil itself.
...Forest...West of Ka'ra (Southern Holy Kingdom Capital)
Inta and the survivors of Gustav's band had managed to rally deep within the woods. They would be difficult to pursue and, for now at least, the Southern nobles wouldn't be capable of doing so, since they only had living mounts that had been ridden to exhaustion, while Inta and the survivors had undead mounts that would never tire.
"What do we do now?" Inta asked bitterly.
Hilda shrugged. "Brother, if I had any ideas, you'd know them."
"Gustav… damn it all! I can't believe he's dead." Inta's voice was wounded as the impact of his friend's passing began to hit home. He whirled and punched a tree. It cracked and fell under the power of his vampire strength.
"I know, but his problems are over, now we've got to deal with our own." Hilda said practically.
"His problems are over?" Inta whirled on her angrily, "He just died for us! At least speak of him with respect!"
Hilda kept her face neutral. "I did respect him, and I do respect him. But the fact remains that he is dead and we still have a job to do."
"Yes… that is what he'd want." Inta said, forcing himself to calm down. "How many do we have with us?" He asked.
A few minutes later after she had finished taking an account of their forces, she returned to where he waited for her. "We have five hundred. There may be more among the more widely scattered bands but… we have only five hundred here." Hilda replied.
"Not much, but that doesn't mean they'll let up, and let's hope they don't." Inta said, baring his fangs.
"Agreed. As long as they've got a scripture hunting us, they won't be north, so do you have a plan?" She asked.
"One begins to form." He said, "I spent a lot of time with Gustav, the man may have been a paladin, all honor and sword swinging, but he was also a thinker and relied heavily on deception and misdirection. I learned a little bit from him, and I think we can keep their focus here even with our tiny numbers." Inta said firmly.
"And how do you plan on doing that?" She asked with her hands on her hips.
"I'll figure it out." He said simply, "As I said, I have the beginnings of an idea."
"It had better be a good one." She said firmly.
"It will be." He said, "Just go see to the disposition of the remaining soldiers, I have to think this through."
That night, as he led his remaining forces out of the forest and they rode towards a small city, he explained his plan to them. They secured their mounts beyond the walls and trickled in slowly, ones and twos and the like, to avoid suspicion. And then, the flames were seen.
Five hundred and one in number, they set fires all over the city, and screamed warning about the 'enemy attack'. People ran out of their homes in fear and panic, his few hundred shouted warnings about ten thousand soldiers coming for them, and allowed terror to work its way into the hearts and imaginations of the population, the city guard struggled in the night. They were fewer than three thousand, and the sudden chaos, combined with fire and shadow, made them easy prey for the prepared little force.
Within a few hours, he had them withdrawing while he and his sister tore their way through the home of the minor noble who governed the city. For a pair of combat veteran vampires, a few household guards of limited experience, in terror of their lives and caught unprepared, was nothing to worry about.
The siblings found him shocked awake and in a state of terror as they smashed through the door of his court, casting it into splinters and strolling in as if they owned the place, which… they effectively did as far as he knew.
Inta put on his most arrogant expression, and his sister, with her delicate, noble, beautiful features, did the same. The court was nice enough, well to do if not luxurious and the minor noble, nothing more than a marquis, was an older man in his fifties. He had a neatly trimmed beard that had not gone entirely gray yet, and his strong jaw and firm face spoke of good constitution for his age. However, nobody looked all that dignified in their nightclothes, and he was no exception.
He had only two guards with him, who charged at the pair of vampires as soon as they entered, only for the siblings to quickly snap their necks and push them aside in opposite directions.
"I am General Inta. I have twenty thousand soldiers ready to raze this city to the ground if you do not surrender." He said perfunctorily.
"He won't do it, brother." Hilda said with a snicker, "You know how these Southern nobles are, they'd rather end their lives as the ones who lost their city and be remembered for their abject incompetence, than live and work hard to fix their reputations." She laughed and took Inta's arm as they drew closer.
Inta mentally wanted to facepalm, Hilda was always prone to overacting and laying things on just a little too thick.
But, the specter of such a legacy had struck a nerve in the marquis and he froze, looking at them in horror.
"Surrender, and the only thing we'll demand are the supplies you were going to send north. You can even claim that you 'drove' us out of the city and save face. Refuse, and my twenty thousand will level the whole place to get at those supplies, we're not really supposed to do that… but accidents happen and you won't be alive to complain." He closed his eyes and laughed as he shrugged the threat away as if in dismissal.
The noble gritted his teeth and shook with rage.
"Fine. Spare this city, and I will do as you ask." He said hatefully.
"I'll order the withdrawal then." Inta said, and took out a horn. He then went to a nearby window, and blew it three times.
"Ah good, today is your lucky day, do you see that?" Inta said as he pointed out the window.
The noble approached hesitantly, fearfully. The fires lit up the night. "What… are you burning the forest down?" He asked in disbelief.
"No, those are signal fires, the rest of the army is acknowledging the withdrawal order, and there, down below, is a tiny fragment of my forces heading out of the city." He said smugly.
"You call hundreds a… tiny fragment?" The noble gasped out.
"Well, when you have twenty thousand, a few hundred is nothing." Hilda shrugged.
"I will wait with you till morning, my army will be monitoring everything from the woods where we've made camp. Your city is hostage to the safety of myself and my sister until I see every single supply you intended to send north, burned or destroyed." Inta said, looking coldly at the shaking noble, he bared his vampire fangs with savage satisfaction, something imitated by his sister who leaned over and put a finger under the chin of the lord, tilting his downward gaze up to meet her eyes.
"Try to betray us, hold anything back, and I'll turn you and leave you here. You know what they do to 'our kind' and we know how much you like fire. They'll assume you were a collaborator secretly on our side. They'll assume you were always one of us and this was just some big plan you were prepared for, and then they'll burn your unliving flesh to ash." She said in an almost dusky voice.
"Hilda, don't play with your food, he probably worked that out already in his own head, just being human doesn't make him stupid, you know." Inta said casually.
"You'll all die for this…" He said hatefully, but lowered his gaze again, "But it will be done."
The following morning the city was assessing the damage, which hadn't been quite as bad as first thought, those guards who survived were glaring at Inta and his sister as they stood in the town square. They badly wanted to act, to strike, to draw sword or level spear or even throw a rock… but their city was now hostage to a vastly superior force. The many, many pillars of smoke coming from the woods spoke of thousands upon thousands of cook fires, and nobody wanted their city destroyed.
So there in the square, a mountain of supplies was formed, grains, salted meats, wooden parts, tools, armor, weapons, paper, medicine, potions, everything an army needed. A handful of city mages reluctantly came forward, they glared at Inta and Hilda hatefully, but the vampire pair only looked a combination of smug and bored. "Go on, get on with it. If I'm not out of here in the next hour, they'll come back, and don't expect them to respond well to some offense against either of us." He said with a very pronounced, threatening tone.
The mages clenched their jaws in frustration, but the noble gave a defeated nod, and fire shot from the hands of the mages, the armor melted, food, wood turned to ash, paper all but disappeared, everything that had been compiled to send north was reduced to uselessness.
Inta and Hilda smiled as the smoke rose in the city center. "Thank you for your cooperation." He said cryptically, then he turned and walked straight out the open gate.
"Bye bye! See you again soon!" Hilda gave a playful wave as she ran after her brother.
When they were well beyond the walls and almost back to the woods, Hilda finally spoke to him. "I was not disappointed, brother. Very, very well done! Gustav would be impressed." She said seriously.
"Thank you, but we've got to move on. It won't take long for the word of the 'twenty thousand survivors' to spread from here, they'll probably send an investigator, but by that time the rumors of how many we were, will have been firmly set in people's minds as fact, thanks to all the chaos last night. However, even if they suspect anything, they'll never admit that they destroyed all those supplies because they were tricked. They'd rather be dead than be seen by others as being foolish." Inta said confidently.
"Agreed, now let's get going, we've got a lot of work to do to evacuate our 'camp'." She said with a playful smile.