AN: Two questions...
1. What has been your favorite or most personally meaningful scene to you in this series so far?
2. Who is your favorite OC character in the God Rising Universe so far? (across all side stories and the main one)?
...Prart...
Touring the city proved a comforting distraction to both the Pope and the Queen. The streets stayed remarkably clean thanks to the army of volunteer laborers keeping any and all debris clear and repurposing any refuse to put into bags to reduce the impact of any blows against the gate. A few dwarves that had settled in the city worked round the clock or nearly so, preparing weapons above and beyond the standard used by many full time armies, and the Sorcerer King continued to dispatch a trickle of runic weapons and armor to the city's military forces.
Per a suggestion by Lakyus, units turned training into contest, with the winners able to get first pick of the incoming elite quality gear. Neia's hundred had taken to decorating themselves, adopting as their unit designation the number which they totaled. The esprit des corps for that unit shot through the roof, pride and confidence were at all time highs, and other units adopted the same practice not long after. The Vines took to embroidering vines on a willow tree, the Blood Miners put a dead man with a pick sticking out of his chest on their shoulders, the Sons of Iontariil put on their shoulders an upright replica of their hero's weapon, free elves liberated elsewhere used a broken chain... before the sun had set, every unit had something.
"They're looking confident." Neia said to the Queen beside her as they turned a corner and were rendered a hundred salutes by those who saw the pair.
"They are, and they should be." Queen Calca replied as she waved back to the smiling, enthusiastic crowds. "You've done everything you can for them, and they know it." She added.
"Not just me, Your Majesty." Neia replied, "You've worked hard, and they'll be lucky to have you, when all this is over." Her voice was gentle, not a very common tone from the hardened pope, but it was undeniably sincere.
Calca gave a very small smile at the praise, her lips turned only just up at the corner while her eyes looked ahead, rather than at Neia. "I appreciate your confidence, but after the debacles before my death, well..." She shrugged.
"Don't let that define you." Neia said firmly, "It was a mistake, and you've learned from it. Now that I've gotten to know you better, I know you wouldn't have let things in the Southern Holy Kingdom go on as they did if you'd known of them."
"Definitely not." She said, and paused at a vendor's stall. She took out a coin and handed it over to the merchant, causing his eyes to widen for it was gold. "Majesty, I can't make change from this, it's too much."
"Keep the difference." She said with the casual generosity of a noble.
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" he said with gratitude, and he took a basket and filled it with various fruits and a few loaves of bread. He looked over his shoulder and shouted, "Hansel! Hansel get over here!" A little blond boy rushed over, decently dressed as peasants went, probably the man's son. "Take this basket and follow the Queen and the General, hand them whatever they wish, attend to them until they dismiss you, then come back, understood?"
"Yes father, but what if I should get lost?" Hansel asked.
"Don't go outside the walls and you'll be fine, drop some breadcrumbs if you need a damn trail, I don't know, just go and don't keep the ladies waiting!" He said with exasperation.
The boy blushed and took the basket in hand.
"For such generosity," he said, turning again to the Queen, "at least I can ensure you needn't bear the goods yourself. My son will follow after you as you go, he's a good lad but... always worried about getting lost for some reason." He chuckled and rolled his eyes.
The women shared in the laugh at the frustration of parenting and Neia said to the boy as she took an apple from the basket and handed it to the Queen, "Just stay with us, we will be wandering back this way eventually."
The boy gave a toothy grin, and at a questioning glance from the Queen, he took out an apple and handed it to Neia as well.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Neia said politely as they resumed their walk.
"When all this is over, what will you do?" The Queen asked casually.
"I have the Synod to attend, I will speak for His Majesty's godhood, then I will settle down somewhere with Skana, assuming we both survive that long, maybe have a shot at a life, that'd be nice." Neia said with a wistful voice and a faraway look in her terrifying eyes.
"Could I persuade you to remain in my Kingdom?" Calca asked curiously.
Neia went quiet, and for a moment conversation was halted as they came to an armorer's shop and the Black Paladin paused to praise the workmanship and trade a few encouraging words with admirers as the Queen looked on. When they resumed their walk, Neia still hadn't answered.
"Is there a problem with the question, Lady Neia?" Queen Calca asked cautiously.
"Your Majesty, that is a difficult question." Neia said with a hint of an ache in her voice. "I don't know where I'll go after all of this. My village is dead, I'm fairly certain I'm the last survivor, my parents are gone, and finding a scrap of earth anywhere in this country that does not have a painful memory tied to it is going to be all but impossible for me. I am, in a very real sense, a homeless vagabond while here. Skana is not so different than I in that regard. The invasion tore our lives apart, and neither of us had marvelous lives before that anyway. If I were given my pick of places to settle, I would want to live in E-Rantel, or Carne, or perhaps his Majesty would allow me a little place in Nazarick to retire to one day, it seems like that might be a nice place to die when the time comes."
"My nation has not been kind to you, has it?" The Queen asked, slightly frustrated.
The conversation paused as the Queen stopped to praise a hard working groomsman caring for a horse, but when they resumed their walk after disposing of the apple cores and being given two more by Hansel, Neia thought through her answer.
"If I were to be truthful, the answer is no, it hasn't, Your Majesty. I suppose my life was no worse than most but, while I have full confidence that you will make this place a wonderful one in which to live, I feel myself being pulled elsewhere. I almost left with the Sorcerer King after the war with Jaldabaoth, I remained only because he had expectations for me here. I strove to live up to them but have had 'mixed' success in that respect." Her face twisted bitterly before she let it fall away.
"So when all is said and done, and I can finally live in peace, I need to live somewhere that my heart can be at ease, and I know of nowhere here that it would be possible for me. I pray you forgive me, Your Majesty, for any offense this answer causes you." Neia said honestly.
"I take no offense, I understand. The religion you have begun has taken hold here, so it won't require you to be expressly present in order for it to thrive, therefore you will be free to live where you choose. Still, my nation will be poorer for your absence. I wonder how many will feel as you do?" She asked, speaking more to herself than to Neia.
"An important question." Neia said thoughtfully, "But one that is not without solutions. There will be many looking for new homes after the last sword is sheathed. To help you, I can encourage my followers to settle in your country from overpopulated areas. Our temples have already developed some experience with this. To hide our followers from the wrath of the fallen paladin and the lackeys of the Slane Theocracy, we created a sponsorship program that scattered our people to various villages around the kingdom. With a little administrative improvement, we could sponsor resettlement to these lands from elsewhere. You will not rule over emptiness and ashes, Your Majesty. If I survive to the end of all this, I will make sure of it." Neia promised, her voice thrummed through Calca's breast and seemed to caress her heart.
"Thank you." The Queen replied, marking down in her heart's ledger a debt to the Black Paladin that she could never hope to repay.
"Neia!" Lakyus shouted when they rounded a corner and saw the leader of Blue Rose talking to a fresh faced young man holding out a sword for inspection. She quickly excused herself and rushed over to the Black Paladin and the Queen. She bowed to the royal, then immediately said, "You're... back." She said, changing whatever word she had first intended to say, to something much more neutral.
"I am, and none the worse for wear it seems. His Majesty's view of my performance was rather better than my own." Neia said with a measure of surprise still evident in her tone of voice.
"I told you." Lakyus said like a teacher who warned a worried student not to worry so much. "You take too much on yourself. We're a team, all of us, you can't be responsible for everyone and everything all the time."
"It is my job to be exactly that." Neia said firmly, "I will not let His Majesty down." She said with the resolute voice of a closing portcullis.
Lakyus sighed, "Just try to relax a little, too much tension snaps a rope." She reminded the pope.
"I'll try, but 'after' all this is over." Neia qualified. "Where are the others?" She asked.
"Gagaran is working with one of your instructors, Tia and Tina have gone out to keep a watch on the armies of Remedios and the Slane Theocracy, and Evileye is coordinating with the other magic casters. It really won't be long now, will it?" Lakyus asked gravely.
"No, not long now." Skana said as she stepped out of a black, swirling gate directly behind Neia.
Neia whirled to look at her in shock. The one eyed auburn haired girl had an enormous smile on her face as her lover gaped at her with her mouth open wide enough that Skana could see the back of her throat.
"Hi there." She said with a playful wave. "I'm back."
Neia pulled her into a tight embrace, leaning the woman back and kissed her fiercely. Skana laughed into her lips, before locking her own and wrapping her arms around the living nightmare she loved.
It gave the many passers by pause, one did not often see such a public and fierce display of affection between armed and armored figures.
When the kiss finally broke, Neia had only one thing to say. "The answer is yes! Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!" She said joyfully.
"I thought you'd say that." Skana said with the playful smugness of her nature.
Lakyus and Calca, watched all that play out in silence, not wishing to interrupt the reunion, but it was a delicious kind of silence, the sort of empathetic pleasure one gets from seeing happiness bloom out of nowhere.
Neia's voice had long been all but bereft of real happiness, even her laughter when it came, was tinged with the very real weight that came with having the fates of nations on her shoulders. Though she could be kind and gentle of voice, the somber nature she bore when not having to put herself on energetic display clearly took its toll.
Yet in that moment when she heard her lover's voice, all that vanished and they heard her for the first time as she must have sounded when not struggling to bear the burden of her role. It was a very... unexpected sound. Light and airy, the woman who seemed to be far older than her years in her carriage and conduct, had become again the young girl in her twenties that she truly was.
"How? Why? Now?" Neia asked, stunned.
"The great orator has forgotten how to form sentences." Skana said with a snicker that was shared by the Queen and the leader of Blue Rose.
Neia blushed.
"The Sorcerer King, he felt we would do more good here, so the rest of our soldiers and Fluder, were brought to training grounds, but I asked that the Sorcerer King dispatch me directly behind you. Apparently he found the suggestion to surprise you to be... as funny as it turned out to be, and so he agreed, and now here I am." Skana said, explaining it with a joyful smile on her face.
"I see." Neia said grabbing Skana's hands tightly. "I'm glad I don't have to face this without you." She said.
Any response of Skana's was cut off by the sound of a horn blowing from the wall, it echoed throughout the city, and the sound of soldiers in armor running followed hot on the heels of the horn.
Neia and her companions instinctively looked in the direction of the wall, the sun was already setting, the light of the evening turning everything golden red as the sun set in the distance.
"They're here early." Neia said gravely.
"Probably just the advance parties." Lakyus said in a pragmatic voice. Whether she believed that or whether she just wanted it to be so, the others never knew, but as it was, Neia did not stay to find out.
"I'm going to the wall. Skana, take the Queen back to her quarters and then join me at the top of the main gate. Lakyus, get the rest of your people together and then go and guard the Queen with your lives, if Remedios has gone to the opposite extreme when it comes to Queen Calca, she may make an assassination attempt out of nothing but spite."
Behind them, Hansel picked up on the sudden tension and went pale with fear. Noticing this, Neia approached the boy and touched his shoulder. "Listen boy, there are some bad people beyond those walls, but people like me and like your father are going to keep them out. You'll be fine, but you need to go back home, do you know the way?" He nodded rapidly in mute fear.
"Then go." Neia said, and the boy shoved the basket into Neia's hands and took off running.
"We will." The other women said in unison as if Neia had spoken to them as well.
She didn't take the time to laugh at the absurdity, instead she ran like the wind until she reached a tower. The echo of her footfalls rang in her ears, she breathed hard enough to hear it, and her heart pounded in her chest. When she reached the top of the stairs and stepped out onto the thick wall of Prart, her famous green armor and terrifying aura made it easy to walk forward, people gave her a wide berth.
She looked out over the walls in the fading light of the day and saw shapes far away, Tia and Tina were beside her a moment later.
"How many?" Neia asked, neither knowing nor caring to know how they'd gotten back to her so quickly.
"A few companies." The twins said in unison, and then spent the next little while informing the Pope about all of various equipment and types of soldiers they witnessed during their scouting expedition.
"So a flying column, here to establish a camp till the rest arrive. The only reason to do that is if there is going to be a forced march to draw the bulk of the army here early. They're idiots." Neia smiled happily.
"How so?" Skana asked as she came up behind Neia.
"They're acting like they can pin us down the traditional way. Like they expect to be able to starve us out and break us, as if we could run out of food or water, or the dead will choke us with their stench, or we could run out of arrows or potions. Those fools, those foolish, foolish fools." Neia began to laugh long and loud, and with an undercurrent of malice and hatred that Skana raised an eye at when she noticed it.
"They're either unaware of His Majesty's ability to simply 'appear' where he wishes and send others in the same way, or they have not recognized the implications of it. Remedios I could understand, but Suchala should know better, which means he is probably unaware of it entirely." Neia said as she thought the matter through.
"I wonder how long it will take for them to figure it out." She bared her teeth with the smile on her face, and the expression spread to all those who heard her.
"I see, well then this will be interesting." Skana said thoughtfully, "But do you know what would make it more interesting?" She asked with her lips pursing together with one corner turned slightly up, her eyes narrowed slightly, she looked like the cat who had swallowed the canary, smug, self satisfied, salacious, and to Neia, the most beautiful woman in the world.
"You're thinking of something savage, aren't you? Out with it." Neia said, her voice filled with anticipation.
"Well, you said 'yes' to my proposal, so why don't we treat this oncoming army as guests to the wedding? We marry here, on the ramparts, in full view of the advancing host, let them watch. Ideally we would ask our Lord to do the deed, but that might be a little excessive, perhaps we can ask for a monster to do it? Or perhaps Lakyus? We may kill half that army with just the shock of our blasphemy." Skana's expression did not change, but Neia's did, to one of utter delight.
"A wonderful idea. Let's do it. I don't want to enter the next fight without my 'wife'. I wonder if it would be too much to ask His Majesty to bless our union in some way?" Neia asked thoughtfully.
"Well, we might as well welcome them to the wedding." Neia said, and wrapping her arm around Skana's waist, she waved to the small but growing dots. Her wife-to-be waved in return, and laughter greeted the coming storm.
...Nazarick...
Ainz watched through the mirror, it was a pleasant sort of scene. He thought about his guild mates, some of them had been more than friends from afar, a few had been married to one another, and he remembered fondly how happy they'd been when they talked about their weddings and their daily lives. The world he knew back then was bleak. His life, save for Yggdrasil, had been empty of friends and family. So looking down at Neia and Skana as he did, he could not help but feel a hint of envy. More than that, though, he wanted it to end well. Watching them wave at death marching towards them as if it were an old friend come to celebrate, he found their bravery commendable.
Sebas stood at hand to attend him as he looked on, and from behind himself Ainz could feel the curiosity at what had so fascinated him. He moved aside, "Sebas, would you like to see?" He asked generously.
Sebas approached and looked on, "They appear to be celebrating something." He said, "Are they that eager to fight the armies coming to destroy them?" His voice was somewhat critical as he asked, but Ainz shook his head.
"No, it's because of 'how' they will face their enemies. Those two have passed through fire and come out fused on the other side. They get to fight together and, unless I miss my guess, they're discussing a wedding. Perhaps I should provide them with a gift, but what to get them..." Ainz thought casually.
"I'm sure if it comes from you, My Lord, they will be eternally grateful, no matter what it is." Sebas replied.
"True, but it is a tradition to give a newly married couple things they can use to begin their lives. Do you know the state of their homes?" Ainz asked, stroking his chin as he thought.
"They have none." Sebas said in a neutral voice. "When Demiurge took on the role of Jaldabaoth, in addition to killing both Neia and Skana's parents, their villages were both entirely wiped out. There is nothing left of either of their former lives but ashes and outlines where homes used to be."
"I see." Ainz said in a neutral voice as his emotional suppressor kicked in hard. "I should do something about that. I will provide a home for them when the war is over and their duties are discharged, also, have Pestonya select a few people nearly of age at one of her orphanages, there will surely be those wishing to work, therefore there are some who can be trained as maids, butlers, or other servants. That will be their wedding gift."
"An excellent suggestion, My Lord. No doubt they will be deeply appreciative." He said in a deep, reverential voice.
...Astraka's camp...
Vanysa walked with the doppleganger to the tent of Astraka's mistress. There was a copious amount of 'guilt' from her, but also an abundance of shame. The demoness regretted that she would not have enough time to get to know the woman a little bit better, she was... curious. Curious and hungry at what she would offer up. It didn't matter though, she had a different goal in mind.
"Imitate her." Vanysa said, and the doppleganger's shape formed into that of a beautiful, buxom blonde with hair hanging loose down her back. Vanysa's face took on hateful look, glad of her invisibility in this moment, for the woman looked shockingly like Vanysa herself. She wondered if that played in to Astraka's choice of playthings, or if it was just a general preference of his. Suddenly, his eyes over her when she'd been his captive made much more sense.
She clenched her talons into a fist. Vanysa then entered the tent while the woman's back was turned and hit her on the back of the head. The woman awoke an hour later sitting alone in a room, four wooden walls, a door, the chair to which she was bound, and against the wall in front of her, a nightmare leaned with wings folded in, talons out, fangs bared, and feet crossed in front of her golden body.
...A Cabin in the Woods...
"Hi." Vanysa said, scratching a horn casually as the woman's mouth fell open in a scream and her eyes widened with terror. Vanysa didn't move, she just waited. The scream cut off when she ran out of air, then she took a deep breath, and did it again, leaning forward and shrieking for heaven's help, her body shook and there was a faint smell of ammonia coming from where she sat
"Let me know when you're done, I have time." Vanysa said casually, looking at the beauty through coldly rational storm gray eyes.
Eventually the woman ceased to scream and started to beg. "Please... whatever you're going to do to me, don't do it, don't, I don't deserve it..." She said frantically, tears streaming out of her eyes and being cast about the floor.
"Well, we both know that isn't true, but I'm not here to hurt you." Vanysa said. "I have a question, and depending on how you answer, well, that will determine where we go from here, just know that if you lie to me..." She put a talon under the woman's chin and forced her head to either raise or bleed. It rose, and she met the eyes of the nightmare from inches away.
The woman nodded, although it was more of a quiver, Vanysa was sure she understood.
"First question... do you love 'Astraka'? Vanysa asked.
The woman froze, of all the questions she imagined, that was not on the list.
"N-no. I'm his concubine, his mistress, his whore if you want to be crude about it." She spat the words out as fast as she could and went quiet.
"Good. I know almost everything about the lot of you, but emotions are harder to quantify." She scratched her horn again and started to pace in thought. "It really is a bother, it makes the predictable turn unpredictable and the rational turn irrational." She put her thumb and forefinger to her chin and looked away in thought, "I wonder if it could be calculated mathematically via a point system based on familiarity and activity..."
The woman looked at the demoness like she was not only horrifying, but incomprehensible.
Vanysa shook off the thought, "Doesn't matter, not now anyway. Good, that makes this easier. Now I'll make this simple, I know you're screwing his best friend, and I know his best friend has some unsavory habits that would make you regret screwing him if you've got any standards at all, and you seem to have at least a few." Vanysa reached into a pack and pulled out a sheet of paper. "You actually have a daughter, Aela, and she lives with your mother and you give them some of your money every week, you attend the church of the god of life, and you're screwing the priest there... and a few of the congregation members, and I'm guessing Astraka doesn't know, isn't that right, Lohra?" Vanysa asked, but she was not guessing.
"Please... not my little girl, not my little girl... she's innocent, she didn't do anything!" Lohra screamed and struggled and kicked in her chair.
Vanysa waited until she was breathing hard, then forced her head up with one talon again. "You're right, Aela didn't do anything, and at least when it comes to me, neither did you, which is why I'm not going to hurt you, any of you." Vanysa said.
Relief and doubt both filled Lohra's eyes. "My target is Astraka. He and I have a history, and it has left us with unfinished business, so I'm borrowing you for that end. See, I used to look just like 'this'." Vanysa spoke and withdrew her wings, returning into the shape of a human girl that might have been Lohra's sister.
"Then he did things to me, and now I am 'this'." Her wings came out and her fury form was restored, her arms crossed in front of her and she looked down at the woman. "He kidnapped me, beat me, had me tortured with whips, with rack, with another device I know not the name of, but when he attached weights to my ankles..." Vanysa shut her eyes and clutched the side of her head and stepped back, shaking and fighting against the memory, before she straightened up.
Lohra listened in quiet terror until Vanysa stood straight and terrible again, and pointed down at the bound woman.
"So 'ere's the deal girl, ahm gonna letcha live, but far away. Gonna give you enough money fer you, yer lil girl, an yer momma ta go far, far away, ah'l even make sure yah got safety so yah can get there intact an all. Butcha gotta do somethin fer me." Vanysa said, her mad eyes came an inch from Lohra's.
"What?" She asked in a hushed voice, her wide beautiful gray eyes trembling as she could not look away.
"Leave 'ere an never come back. Issat simple, yah go, yah take what ah give yah, take on a new name fer each of yah, an go, then yah ain't never gotta let no man have yah no more, course if yah like yer work, an yah seem good at it, well thas up ta you, but yah gots ta go far, far from here, an yah gots ta go now. Unnerstand?" Vanysa asked.
Lohra nodded, and then from out of the pack Vanysa drew a small pouch of coins and opened it where the prostitute could see. Lohra looked within. "Gold." She said, stunned.
"An two platinum uns, now go through that door, ah gots somebodah waitin on yah, m'kay?" Vanysa said and cut the ropes securing the woman, she was gone out the door as fast as her feet could carry her. Vanysa felt a sense of tranquility wash over her, as her plan began to unfold.
Then a message came in from the doppleganger.
"As you said, he was more than eager." The doppelganger said.
"Dopple two, reel in the fish." Vanysa sent the message to the other, she'd sent in to the camp, a faux 'messenger' meant to draw Astraka near the tent of his mistress.
"Dopple one, use emasculation line one, that one worked wonders on Philip, I wonder what it will do to someone not as idiotic." Vanysa said with a grin.
...Astraka's camp...
Astraka was following the guard when he heard a man call out with lust, "Gah! Take it! Take it all!" He laughed, he recognized the voice of his best friend, Olaf always had a way with the ladies, no doubt he was having fun with one of the camp followers. He'd ask about it later.
Then he froze. "Oh god, yes! You're sooo much bigger than that needle dicked Astraka!" He knew the woman's voice.
Astraka broke off from the messenger and went straight for the source, and found himself, to his disgust, outside of the tent of his private concubine.
"You're such a better lover than he ever could be, now give it to me, god I need it so I can forget what he felt like." Dopple Lohra said with a laugh, and said loud enough to be heard outside, "Let me go to my knees for you, so that you're still on my tongue when he kisses me." She made sure to add a wicked laugh.
And she made sure to cut off that laugh when Astraka stormed into the tent to confirm with his eyes what his ears had heard. His sword was out, and Olaf lunged for the blade he had set aside, there was just enough time, their swords clashed and chaos erupted. They pushed back and forth, the little furniture found in the otherwise luxuriously appointed tent, were smashed to sticks as they raged at one another. Finally Olaf swing his blade as if to sever Astraka's head, only for Astraka to drop and lunge forward, piercing Olaf through the stomach and all the way out his back. However, he had not stopped at the lunge, he pushed forward, carrying the body of the lord all the way against the wall of the tent, tearing the fabric with the sword, and bringing both themselves and the tent crashing down over them. Olaf had lost his blade, but not his will to fight. So Astraka began beating him, pummelling him with his fists, as hands he couldn't see struggled to tear the tent off of the combatants until they were exposed to the light again. Olaf had quit fighting, as the dead usually did.
"Gah!" Astraka shouted in rage, blood soaked and furious, he walked to what he thought was his concubine, who sat there quietly, still disheveled and obviously reeking of sex. "What do you have to say for yourself, you whore?!"
"Being good with that sword won't make you any better with that twiggy one you were born with." Dopple-Lohra sneered up at him, and in a rage, he slashed his sword across her body and gutted her in the center of her stomach. She fell backwards, wondering if she were overdoing it with the screaming about the murderous king who killed his best friend.
"Throw those things in a ditch." He said, and then he went to go find some wine. It would be a long march to Prart still, but that wouldn't stop him from overdoing it tonight.
...Cabin in the woods...
Vanysa laughed and laughed as the doppelganger told her everything. She was absolutely overjoyed. She'd gotten him to kill his best friend, insulted his manhood to the point where she wondered if he'd ever get it up again, and damaged his reputation by having him 'kill' a woman that way. Tomorrow morning, phase two.
"Dopple two, take this form next." She said savagely, "Then go invisibly to his tent and enact the next stage of the operation right when the morning guard shift changes are taking place."
"It will be done," the shape changer said with a flamboyant bow it had been taught by a certain German speaking Guardian in Nazarick.