God Rising

Chapter 109

Written By: AtheistBasementDragon

Edited By: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots

AN: Here you go, wanted to have this up yesterday, editing wasn't done. May or may NOT have a chapter done today, internet service is up and down here, I'll see what I can do. Truth be told, it may be a day or three before I can do more. In the meantime, reviews and whatnot are happily received.

...Prart...

The arrows fell on the attackers. These were more heavily armored soldiers, and it was definitely not a probe, this was an assault. They'd endured quite a bit of this, a fact that Neia reminded Skana she'd brought on them by wishing for a break to the boredom. Her wife rolled her eye every time and reminded Neia in turn that she'd constantly asked for them to come and get them. They were not good jokes, but they didn't need to be, any laugh was a good one when it might be the last one.

CZ sniped relentlessly at anyone who looked important who came in reach, and those who did make it up found themselves in the unenviable position of facing off against a dazzling array of different enemies. Their difference had made for strength. The Sons of Iontariil had been made powerful by many years of breaking stone, and their muscles were thick enough that their armor scarcely held them in. Orcs tended to favor the heavy blunt weapons, maces, hammers, mauls, while the traditional combat of Black Justice stuck chiefly to sword work and grapples. More than one enemy was 'helped' over the wall… and all the way to the ground on the other side. Neia's voice called for courage in her allies and broke it down in her foes. Skana's dread reputation, the one eyed Skana the Bold, had grown immensely since her killing of Braunin and her many successful raids. Her auburn hair flashed bright in the sun as she danced with the attackers like she had with the farmboys of her youth, but it was a deadly dance and she did not stay with a single partner.

Blood spilled as bodies flung themselves over the wall as if desperate for something beyond it, and if what they longed to find was a place to die, then the city of Prart obliged them happily.

Mangonels fired high over the walls, and in the moments between battle, Neia saw that the field before the city wall had been splattered with the blood and bodies of those their stones and arrows had struck. Fluder of course, along with the few mages they had, were happy to lend their magic to burning ladders and people, with the result of screaming people falling to their death at the base of stone. Some rolled desperately to put out the flames, others ran screaming as their flesh was scorched, neither made it very far.

Neia shouted over the side with her sword aloft, "Come on, Remedios! Is this all you've got for me!" Her voice was filled with abject contempt. She thrust her sword into the neck of a man who had fallen to the ground, at her feet, and after almost an hour, the attackers who were still alive lost heart and fled. Neia drew her bow and took aim, she released her arrow and a soldier fell with an arrow through the back of his brain, her face was filled with a pounding rage. "If you come to these walls with swords in hand, do not expect to leave with your lives!"

The rest of the bow bearing ranks drew as if that were an order, arrows flew, many fell. Skana did not draw her own. "Cease fire!" She shouted as she thought about her last ambush before coming back to Neia.

Neia looked in her direction, Skana was already moving to hers, she kicked aside some entrails that had fallen in her path, they fell over the wall inside the city, she heard some unfortunate shout in disgust as they evidently landed on someone. She paid no mind to it. "Neia, NO." Skana said firmly and put her hand on her shoulder.

"They're still combatants." Neia said with iron in her voice.

"It's still too far, please, just trust me, you don't want to do that." Skana said forcefully.

"The hell I don't." Neia snapped and turned to the ranks of soldiers, "Fire again!" They drew and loosed, the last of the ones in range fell with piercing wails.

Skana let her hands fall away from her wife. "Neia, please…" Skana said and reached for her hands, "For my sake, just… you trust me, right?" She reached up and took Neia's visor off, the pounding drum like rhythm in Neia's eyes had not faded even slightly, however they did soften as Skana gently caressed Neia's hand, only now noticing that it was shaking like a leaf.

"I… yes, I do." Neia said ruefully. "Kind of dealing that card from the bottom of the deck though." She said wryly.

Skana felt her emotions getting the better of her, she forced herself to choke back tears, "Wifely entitlement." She said and wiped her nose, "Just trust me, you don't want to do again, what has just happened. Promise me." She said firmly.

"I promise on my life." Neia said seriously.

"No, you're too reckless with that one, promise on mine." Skana said in a sweet and affectionate tone that belied the blood coated swordswoman at the conclusion of a life and death struggle.

"Fine, I promise on your life, the life of my wife, if anyone runs away, I will not give the order to kill them." Neia said with great solemnity.

"Oh look, they're adding another ram." An orc said, resting his heavy hammer over his shoulder and pointing out over the field.

"Second wave!" Neia shouted, "Deploy relief!"

Several ranks of soldiers made their way up the wall from where they waited in reserve. "Gate squad, prepare for ram!" She shouted further orders.

"How long before they start using angels, I expected I'd see them by now?" Skana asked.

"Holding them in reserve I think, not wanting to reveal how many they have. I expect we'll see them when the towers start rolling." Neia said thoughtfully, then with a regretful sigh, she clenched Skana's hand. "Go to your command post Skana, I've got it from here." Neia said and touched her cheek, "I promise." She leaned up on her toes a little, and kissed the cheek of her wife. Skana nodded quietly and walked away, letting her hand fall away only slowly and reluctantly, before speeding to her position.

Arrows fell, but the Theocracy soldiers and Remedios's fanatics had shields aplenty, and though here and there someone fell, by and large the arrows glanced off. There were two exceptions to this, Neia's bow and CZ's spellgun. While the bows of her hundred were far and away superior to the average, all being runecrafted custom work made expressly for the best of the best, these were thick, heavy shields and penetrating them was no easy task.

Arrows riddled shields, but the better shots focused on weak points and sought to cripple more than they sought to kill. Still the advance came on. Neia looked behind her, "Unleash bones, five thousand!" She shouted, the command was echoed, and before long she saw someone leading a hoard of skeleton warriors from where they had been stored. They were not especially strong, but they didn't need to be.

The gate was opened, and the one leading them ordered them to kill everything outside the wall, it was a simple command, and the undead shout pierced the hearts of those who heard it. Skeleton warriors charged in earnest, the living who advanced, were frozen for a moment in horror when they realized that the dead had been called upon to defend the city.

Neia still paced the wall, she smiled as the struggle continued, "Loose!" She shouted at the same moment as Skana as they read the moment as ripe for an attack, arrows filled the air and, mostly passed through the skeletons, very few of their own fell but it forced the living to protect themselves from one hazard or the other, not both, they were not trained to expect to face a rain of arrows in close combat with an existing enemy.

It took several minutes in a waking nightmare before the skeletons fell in sufficient numbers to resume the advance, and just as the ram was getting close, the gate opened and out came three legendary heroes followed by a very angry number of former elf slaves. They charged the shocked crew. Tia and Tina flashed about the combat space dealing death from a distance, while Lakyus reaped a harvest of lives with her flying blades and her cursed blade. The former slaves fought like madmen at the coming of the longed for vengeance. The soldiers of the Theocracy had tired themselves from one fight already, their armor was heavy, their shields were heavy, and the constant haranguing of the evangelist nightmare, and the bowshots of the elites picking their numbers off, gradually broke the spirits of the remaining numbers, none made it onto the wall at that time.

Lakyus, for good measure, used her swords to shred the ram behind her as she walked away, its collapse emblematic of the entire effort. A number of survivors were fleeing desperately away from the wall, Neia gave off a heavy sigh, and let them go, watching their backs as they fled for their lives.

...Astraka's Encampment, morning...

She did her little ghost bit with Astraka again the morning after forcing him to get drunk. She watched as he staggered out of his tent after waking up late again. It had been a joyful thing to see, his face was haggard and red, he'd obviously spent the night crying in his restless sleep. Her 'ghost' was crying again as she pointed to him, again he ran for aid, and again she was gone with her props and no magic was found. When she was well out of the way, she wiped her face. The tears she shed had not been false ones, even though it had been the better part of a year since she'd suffered it all, it was still raw. She wondered if it ever wouldn't be? Would she be a two thousand year old demoness one day, and still wake up in terror from the nightmares he'd given to her? Was her pain to be his only legacy? It was a bitter thing to contemplate, and made her urge to avenge herself on him all the greater. Only when she was well out of sight and would not be seen, did she take to the air and head for her next destination.

...Hoburns, hours later...

Vanysa was enjoying the cold. When she'd been nothing but a perfectly ordinary human, the winter had always frightened her, things died around her, crops wouldn't grow, warmth became a luxury. When she'd shamed herself by letting the nobles of the Draconic Kingdom steal her reward, lost her home, and been reduced to living in a ruin, the snowfalls left her all but whimpering. The winter chill would not be stopped by the flimsy walls and damaged wreck of a door, she had to cuddle in the only warm thing she had, the pandaskin coat.

So she'd lain in bed, warmed by the flimsy candle and read books by its tiny warm light. Her brief visits to the Sorcerer King in winter to return books and replace them with new ones were the happiest hours of her life, even 'if' she felt the incessant need to absolutely avoid the two guardians. Many times she'd almost told him what happened, but shame stopped her every time.

Now, she felt differently. The building winter chill did not touch her, not even as she soared in the sky. Her demonic blood gave her safety from such common things, and she embraced the brisk feeling as rather pleasant. She fully expected snowfall soon, perhaps even within the next few days, and that made her even happier because of 'why' she was over Hoburns, and why she was descending to it. She aimed herself towards the palace, that was easy. It had four great towers on the corners and one thrusting up from the center, it was remarkably well made, rather nice to look at really. She snickered as she thought about the next time Astraka would be seeing it.

She shook her head to get her mind back on track as she thought the matter through, the hour was late, so there wouldn't be any court being held, so she went to the tower her report indicated that the city governor slept in, in the absence of Astraka.

She stopped when she got to the window and perched herself outside to briefly run through what she knew of Baron Stono. She took several deep breaths, preparing herself mentally for this part. When she had her heartbeat under control, she used one of her long talons to lift the inner latch of the shutters, and slipped into the bedroom.

Baron Stono was asleep alone, his wife was away, however the guard was outside the room, that much she was sure of. She paced the bed, and held out a talon. It would be so easy, slit his throat and the city would be in chaos, he would die, she would leave the way she'd come, and that would be that. But Stono was innocent. Her wings trembled, she'd searched every single scrap of material she could find to indicate he'd done something to justify killing him.

But there was nothing. Not a damn thing. She wanted to do it anyway. She closed her talon back into her waiting fist. It didn't matter, there was leverage, and he wasn't particularly brave.

She pulled out a scroll and used it on the guard just beyond the door, he would be asleep for awhile, the shift had just changed, nobody would bother them.

She took out a chair and sat it next to his bed. When she was comfortable, with the back of the chair roughly even with the enter of his torso, she took out another scroll and prepared to use it. First, she placed two of her talons upright on his chest and began to walk them up the length of his body, talon by talon, in imitation of legs. "Stono... oh Baron Stono, wake up Baron Stono, you have a guest here to see you." She said duskily as she leaned forward to whisper into his ear.

He began to awaken grogely, his eyes fluttering slowly open. She sat upright so he would see her face, and as soon as he did, she used the scroll in her other hand, and he was paralyzed.

"Hi there." She said sweetly. The terror was stuck on his face, and she kept her talons visible on his chest, they tapped patiently.

"You don't know me, but we're going to be very good friends very soon." She said happily.

He didn't say anything, paralyzed people seldom did.

"You see, I'm going to save your life, and I'm going to solve a very big problem of yours, and I'm going to make you very rich, all in the next five minutes, are you going to hear me out?" She asked sweetly.

He didn't object. Paralyzed people seldom objected to anything. She gave him a winning demonic smile that was made more terrifying because it was evidently intended to be very sweet.

"First, the problem I'm here to solve, your wife has a nasty habit of spending money when you're not around to keep a handle on things, it's why you're in this position, because Astraka bailed you out several times, you owe him money, it's why he trusts you. What you were afraid of is, your wife was going to do more of what got you in trouble, and you'd owe him even more. Well, guess what?" She said practically and reached into her satchel, she held up a large receipt.

He didn't move to take it.

"Oh right, the paralyzed thing." She teased him lightly and stuck her tongue out, she was enjoying herself. She held the receipt out over his face where his paralyzed eyes could read it. "Congratulations, you're the proud owner of a new summer home." She could feel his urge to groan, "She borrowed some money for this one, want to guess where she borrowed it from?" He didn't, she knew she didn't.

"Yup, Astraka's family." She smiled. "But now to solve the problem." She could feel his skeptical optimism.

"The Queen is going to rule this country and reform the banking and lending laws, no one will be able to borrow more than their total asset value, credit blocks and limits will be placed on non-income earning dependent family members, so basically your wife will never be able to borrow enough to ruin you, nor will any irresponsible children bankrupt their parents. What is more…" She put away that document and held out another where he could read it, "I got this just for you after learning of your situation. The Sorcerer King has promised debt forgiveness for every noble who abandons King Astraka, so when Queen Calca takes over, she won't call in those debts, he'll pay them for you. Her Majesty was quite taken with his idea, and copies of this are being sent to every noble house under the usurper king." She grinned enormously.

"You're probably wondering what he's offering the ones who are already loyal to Calca… well… they get the lands of the ones who don't take this deal, and any war crime perpetrating nobles or anyone else who ends up losing everything along the way. So, everybody wins, except the losers." She said happily.

"You with me so far?" She asked. He didn't respond. She didn't expect him to.

"Good." She said and patted him on the chest. "Now, saving your life, it's very simple really, do what I say, and I won't kill you. I could have killed you in your sleep, and I could kill you now." She said gently she placed a talon at his neck, she could feel his fear. If his body worked he'd have lost bowel control.

"So 'not killing you' is the second way I'm going to help you." She said politely, "I'm fully justified in doing so, you're on the wrong side, making you disappear would throw the city into chaos, you're a member of the government, you're a legitimate target, but I don't want to do that, because…" She swiftly moved her face an inch above the middle aged man's wrinkled face and locked her eyes on his, her fangs were bared and she put her talons to the side of his face, there was no sense of real guilt coming off of him, wrong side or not, he was not a bad man. "You are innocent, and I prefer to hurt the guilty." She said, and sat herself back down in the chair very prim and proper.

She folded one lovely golden leg over the other, "So now the third thing, you have nothing left but debt, and I'm getting rid of it and making sure it can't become a problem again, I'm sparing your life even though I could kill you, and I said I was going to make you rich, didn't I?" She said in a jovial sort of mood.

He didn't answer, he only stared unmoving under the influence of the spell.

"You just wait right there, I have something for you." She said, and stepped into a hole in reality where she disappeared. A few moments later she came back with several chests and started dumping coins all over the bed. Two of gold, four of silver, eight of copper, all bearing Astraka's face.

She smiled warmly, "All this is yours, and all you have to do is make sure anyone loyal to Astraka is blind drunk, out of the city, dead, or imprisoned, I don't care which ones you do, though if I had to pick…" She tapped a talon on her cheek and looked away thoughtfully, "dead is the most efficient, but I'd like more time with them. Tell you what, if there's anyone vile, find some way to imprison them for a few days, all the rest, blind drunk or out of the city, it's all the same to me otherwise." She said gleefully and clapped her hands together.

Vanysa caressed his chest again and leaned in close, her storm grey eyes held on to his like a snake did with those of a wounded bird.

"Congratulations on your newfound wealth. Now this paralysis spell will wear off in an hour or two, don't bother calling for the guard when it does, he's asleep, thanks to me. And don't think of refusing my… friendship. I've already bribed half of the city guard to go along with me anyway, and if you're wondering about the other half…" She giggled as she stood up and walked back towards the window, "well they're Black Justice converts in hiding, so they didn't even need the money, just opportunity. So, do we have a deal?" She asked patiently. "Lay still if we have a deal." She laughed as he lay there unmoving.

"See, I told you we'd be friends." She said as she flapped her wings, "Don't hurt my feelings by betraying me when the time comes, or I'll come back again, and there will be no spells involved. Guilt or not, I 'can' kill you, and I can do so whenever I want." She said, and for a moment, he felt the aura of oppressive savage violence sweeping over him, then it was gone, and the terror with a smiling face that rose above the floor, headed to the window and disappeared.

She laughed relentlessly into the night as she soared far above the city, "Soon my precious Astraka, so very soon, you will have nothing left at all but your misery, fear, and pain, just the way you left me." She laughed with wild happiness, and descended to the streets, it would be a long night talking to various guards, but she now had to carry out the lie she'd told, and bribe every officer she could, to do nothing.

Fortunately she knew who the Black Justice operatives and secret leaders were within the capital, and they were able to, on request, send urgent requests for those officers that could be relatively easily bribed to come by for 'urgent matters'. She didn't even end up using most of the chests of coins that she still had, she ran through an entire box of silver and a quarter box of gold, fulfilling the lie she'd given to Baron Stono.

It was nearly dawn when she was done. A handful would probably have to die to ensure there were no problems, but that could wait. According to her last talk with Robel, he would arrive at Hoburns tomorrow, better to remove the problems at a time when their disappearance would be more problematic for their fellows.