God Rising
Chapter 120
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang Of Drunken Perverted Idiots
AN: Tomorrow will be an intermission/aftermath chapter detailing the immediate results and giving some opposing perspectives, and probably an opposing look at how the battle played out from a scripture perspective, then you can expect a reversion to our previous way of doing things with chapters showing different aspects of the war, but as I said before, I might need a day or two to reread presiege chapters because this climax took longer than many people's entire stories put together. (Seriously, I'm not exaggerating there, the siege began either with Chapter 101 or 103 depending on whether or not you count the meeting between Calca and Remedios, and we're now up to chapter 120 with the minimum chapter length being 3,000 words). I'm terrible at these estimates on story/chapter lengths, lucky you, eh? :) Reviews are welcome, and don't forget the GR side stories that explain other events taking place in this universe.
...Prart…
When Neia returned through the gate she found herself standing outside her room. She felt at ease, relaxed and at peace, but she knew it wasn't going to last. It was the afterglow of the comfort of the one true god, his kindness and warmth toward her belied his undead nature so much that she sometimes felt she could see flesh over the bones of his face. Like she could 'see' a smile she knew wasn't there.
She vaguely felt like she was a little girl again presenting a toy she'd made to her father. She'd been so proud when she finished it and gave it over to him, but she never did see it after that. She shook her head at the memory, when she'd been little she thought maybe he didn't care for it, but she'd been too upset to ask. As she grew, she accepted that he'd probably just thrown it away minutes after she was out of sight. It was a petty matter in retrospect, considering the way the years of her life had gone since.
She took a deep breath and opened the door to find Skana waiting in anticipation. She was laying sideways on the bed wearing a smile, and nothing else.
"So I saw Tinamoc." She began, "And I thought you'd like to celebrate things, and… well I wanted to make up for not having been there with you when you went to see him. So come on over here, my love." She said and held her arm outstretched and curled her finger towards herself.
Neia began to undress and shook her head, "No need to apologize, you had work to do, and if I don't hear about how it went, it'll bother me all night long and I'll be too distracted to enjoy you."
Skana rolled her good eye, "Fine, but I'm only explaining until those clothes come off."
"Deal." Neia grinned, beginning to slow down the process of removing her clothing.
Skana rolled her eye once more, snickering, "That's cheating." Neia sent a winsome glance her way.
"Too bad, now fill me in or I slow down further." Neia demanded playfully with a wink.
Her wife exhaled heavily in surrender, her hands up in the air, "Fine, so I sent the most rested cavalry out and dispatched a handful of people with continual light magic stones to look for survivors, priority is retrieving the wounded followed by identifying important dead. The few reports we've gotten back is that survivors have gone to ground."
She grinned hungrily, "We'll bury them there eventually, but we don't expect to find anyone else tonight, but unfortunately it looks like someone was smart enough to start pulling people out early, based on tracks and other indicators of hastily grabbed supplies, and that means there may be a small but substantial force out there somewhere that we have yet to find and eliminate." Skana's tone was professional, but her eyes were salacious and wandering over the toned and steadily more undressed body of her wife.
"That'll be a problem, we need to move south as fast as possible, have we heard anything back from the far south?" Neia asked as she began to slowly untie the laces of her boot, until Skana, impatient with her teasing slowness, got down on the floor herself and unlaced them both, and then gently pulled them from Neia's feet. Neia tried hard not to laugh as she continued to address the issue of her concern. "No coded messages have come to me, but based on the urgency of their siege I think it's safe to say some activity was disrupting their supply lines."
Skana shook her head, "I've heard not gotten anything either, but I also instructed the riders to seek word from farther afield, but also to be cautious, I don't want to be fighting Remedios's people in hiding until they've died of old age in the woods or a cave somewhere because we missed them early on." Neia conveyed emphatically as she began to pull off her armor. "We find them, we eliminate them with extreme prejudice, and we move on."
"Of course, so did anything happen in Nazarick?" Skana asked as she began to undo Neia's belt.
Neia smiled broadly, it was a radiant expression that filled the usually neutral face with a rare warmth. "Oh, yes! The Sorcerer King was pleased enough that he offered us a weekend in Nazarick while things are settled here. Before we go south, it'll take a few days for tending to the dead, loading supplies, getting all the wounded healed, and so on. So we'll appoint someone to the task of overseeing it all, then we have two whole days with just us and all the amenities they can offer."
Skana had an enormous smile on her face at that as she tossed Neia's pants casually over her shoulder to the other side of the room, and then helped her out of her gambeson, she said, "Time's up, get over here." And then she tugged Neia down onto the bed with her.
They were four candles down before they finally slept, and the dancing fire on the wick neither cast its shadow over the writhing entwined forms, nor kept its motion in imitation of their rhythm, the light died, shadow covered them, and sleep took them away to dream of more of what they had just done.
When they rose in the morning, the sun was already peeking over the horizon. It was a later hour than Neia anticipated. However, after the day and the evening everybody had previously had, it was no wonder nobody had knocked to awaken them before they got up on their own.
So with that understanding in mind they made their way to the manor's dining hall, where they found a number of familiar faces. Evileye, Lakyus, Ulthis, Gagaran, Tia & Tina, and much to Neia's relief, 'Tinamoc', since she had feared upon waking that his revival was nothing but a dream.
Momon was notably absent, which she found room to regret, but she kept her face a pleasant mask of happiness as she sat next to her wife and joined the others at the table. An elf woman approached who had cut ears and still bore scars on the lower arms, and in a lyrical voice asked, "What can I get for you?"
When she leaned over and realized she was asking Neia Baraja what she'd like to eat, the warrior pope saw her eyes light up. 'None of it was for nothing.' Neia thought, but chose not to inquire about why she hadn't been healed of the marks from her days of servitude, it was enough that the option was there.
"Eggs, scrambled. Juice of some sort if we have it, I don't care which." Neia mentioned her orders, her hand over her yawning mouth.
"The same." Skana added, gesturing to what her wife just ordered.
"Didn't sleep well?" Ulthis asked with some concern.
"For all the best reasons." Skana said wickedly, drawing a blush to Neia's face and a laugh from Lakyus and Gagaran, with eye rolls from the rest of the table.
"That's enough out of you, Skana." Neia chided and pinched her wife on the cheek.
When she let go, Skana rubbed her cheek melodramatically and turned to Evileye, who now sat maskless at the table. "I thought for sure you'd go back with Momon."
Evileye pouted, "Maybe one of these days, but he did call me pretty, kind of. So I'll call that one a win." She said.
"He spends most of his time with the Beautiful Princess Nabe, so yeah, you should." Gagaran remarked bluntly, with a grin. Evileye shot her sister a glare, her red vampire eyes might have appeared threatening in other circumstances, but as the time since her sisters had come to accept what she was had grown, the glare came off more comedic than anything else to the behemoth of a woman.
Chatter around the table was blessedly free of business for once, as if a silent unspoken truce had emerged that everyone needed a break after the conclusion of the siege.
But all good things must come to an end, and one by one the plates were all cleared, the last cup was emptied, and as if they all understood that the truce was over, Neia stood and called for their attention by rapping a spoon on the table.
"OK, let's make this quick because there is a lot of work to do." She stated and their side conversations faded to nothingness as they turned to look at her.
"First, we need to prioritize tracking the ones who escaped from the battle. Skana has already dispatched scouts and is letting villages know to be on the lookout, the various adventurer teams that have been contracted to protect my Lord's followers will probably be enough to keep the fleeing soldiers at bay, but we'll want to start contracting them away from the low risk areas as we go farther and farther south, eventually…" Neia paused and took a map from against the wall and laid it out on the table as soon as the elves finished clearing it of dining utensils and empty plates.
"We will contract the positions to here." She said and pointed to the pass between the north and south. "We're going to invade the south and finish this mess here once and for all, they won't be able to break out and we'll hunt them down to the last, occupying villages and estates as we go. Queen Calca's declaration of amnesty and the recent victory of ours should go a long way to settling the matter of the proper ruler for this country beyond any further dispute." Neia lowered her head and rubbed her forehead just above the eyes and all the way to the bridge of her nose before continuing.
"But fanatics will be fanatics, and they won't quit easily. Lakyus, I want you and your Roses to venture out before us. Race to the south and link up with Gustav, I want you to be as familiar as you can with the terrain, woods, everything, before those survivors get there, and as soon as you start seeing them, kill them. Don't take unnecessary risks, but don't let them get away either."
"How long till we should depart?" Lakyus asked in the crisp professional tone of an adamantite adventurer.
"As soon as you're all able, if you need an hour or a day, fine, but try to make it before that." Neia brusquely instructed.
"Consider it done, we'll leave after the noon meal." Lakyus said, and her team stood up from the table.
As they began to leave, Neia looked over at them, "Oh, and… Lakyus?" Neia said calmly.
"Yes?" Lakyus asked uncertainly.
"You all be careful out there, OK?" Neia said personably.
Lakyus gave a warm smile to the warrior pope, the corners of her lips turned up and she winked, "We will, and we'll meet again at the coronation that finally ends this front of the war."
The Roses saluted in unison, and as soon as Neia rendered one in return, they departed.
"Next," Neia said as she returned to the business at hand, "Ulthis, you showed a great deal of tactical acumen in this struggle, I know Cersei would like to have you home, but I'm afraid I can't let her have you just yet. Like it or not, this city is now more than the linchpin of the northern defense, it is now the central command for the northern offensive. I can't leave this place in any hands but the best, so I want you to take over temporarily. Starting tonight, you have two days to get accustomed to it all, my wife and I are going to be in Nazarick during that time, so it is 'sink or swim' for you, can you handle it?" She asked gravely.
"I can." Ulthis said, "I've had some practice with Cersei and I am a decent enough commander that I can defend the walls against any sudden offensive, and I'm not going to be easy to assassinate either." He gave a fang baring grin as he finished speaking.
"Fine, then here, take this." Neia said and removed a key from around her neck and tossed it to him from across the table. "That is the key to my office, everything you'll need is there, go ahead and get started now."
"I'll do it." He affirmed, and after rendering his salute and receiving one in turn, he too was gone.
"Tinamoc," Neia said with the same relief she'd thought earlier, "I know I had you leave the city before, but now, if you can bear the place a little longer, it would be helpful if you'd oversee supplies for just a few days, you know more about this than anyone, and Ulthis could probably use the support, even if he wouldn't admit it."
Tinamoc stroked his beard thoughtfully, "I can do that. How long will you need me here for, and what then?" He asked.
"Just until the bulk of the army has left, after that…" Neia's voice suddenly faltered.
Skana looked worriedly over to Neia as her wife trailed off. She knew very well what that meant, and even if she hadn't, there was a small shake that started, which Neia immediately killed.
When Neia had regained full control over herself, she looked up from the map, "After that," she resumed, "I want you to go home."
"Wait, what?" He asked in disbelief, his wide-open eyes staring at the evangelist.
"Go home, go back to your wife, maybe both of you should go to Hoburns where the queen is, you should be safe regardless, now that this is over and Astraka is… well if he's lucky, he's dead. The north is effectively ours again, or will be within a few days. I will however, be sending guards with you this time, a hundred of them, and don't even think about objecting." Neia insisted firmly.
"Your part in this, at least all the dangerous things, is over. Go embrace your wife, make love to her, tell stories, send out the younger merchants again while we make things safe for them the way it always should have been. Skana and I will finish the fight on the front lines, and the next time I see you, I'll apologize to both you and your wife for dragging you into so much danger in the first place." Neia tried very hard to make her smile a positive one, but even at a glance he didn't care for what she'd had to say.
He sat with pursed lips for a time, looking over at Neia, a complex array of emotions ran over his face, anger, sadness, happiness, satisfaction, frustration, all passed through his eyes.
"You know, I was going to wait to tell you this." He began, then paused and took a deep breath. "I stayed up all night trying to think of some way to atone for what I did."
"Tinamoc…" Neia said with a small voice, but he shook his head vigorously.
"No, let me finish." He maintained, "I'm thankful you've forgiven me, but that doesn't tell me how to forgive myself. I sold everybody out, I told them about you, about Skana, I told them how many soldiers I'd seen and where, I gave up every single thing I knew, just to buy myself a few minutes free of pain." Tinamoc's voice was filled with self hatred in that moment, so much so that neither Neia nor Skana knew what to say to him.
"When I was a boy, I heard a bard playing a ballad, one of great heroes of course, and I stopped to listen, because of course I did. When it was over, the bard stayed around to let children like me ask questions, and I asked him if he'd ever met any heroes, do you know what he said?" Tinamoc asked.
"No." Neia and Skana replied together.
"Only in stories." Tinamoc chuckled at that memory before he continued, "That was what he'd said, he told us he'd been an adventurer and had known many great fighters, warriors, mages, and so on, but then he told me something else I never forgot. He told us that if we were ever captured by some savage, violent demihumans and they wanted us to talk, talk, say whatever we had to say, because if we didn't they'd hurt us till we did or till we died, so there was no point in trying to play hero, do what we had to do, and we'd get a chance to continue living." Tinamoc's body shook in his seat and his voice, still somewhat hoarse, cracked.
"I was a precocious boy, and if you ask my wife, she'll say I still am. Plus I still had all kinds of heroic notions in my head at the time, I was surprised by what he said, but then I asked him how, if we do what he said to do, are we supposed to live with ourselves afterwards?" He looked from Neia, to Skana, and back again.
"Do you see?" He asked, "He didn't have an answer for that then, and now here I am all these years later, and I don't have an answer for that now."
His soft hands folded into fists ashe started to raise his voice, "I sold everybody out, my friends, my comrades, everyone, just to save myself, just to save one middle-aged merchant with most of his life behind him, I very well could have gotten all of you killed!" Bellowing, he slammed his fist down on the table, startling Neia and Skana.
"Your forgiveness," he said with his voice suddenly going soft again, "...means a lot to me, but that doesn't mean I know how to quite forgive myself. So last night I didn't sleep, I couldn't have even if I had wanted to, I need some way to make up for what I did, some way that lets me live with finding out that my tongue can't be trusted when I'm threatened hard enough, by enough, and I found an answer."
"Which is?" Skana asked, concerned at the direction he is going in.
"I'm going to do what you ask me to do here, but before I carry it out, let me make that clear first, this work is far too important to make it hard for anyone to work with me. But as soon as I've gone home and explained everything to my wife, I'm going to have my tongue removed. I will never speak again. I hate the sound of my own voice, because every time I speak, I hear treachery, weakness, cowardice, and betrayal rolling past my lips." Tinamoc said angrily.
"You can't be serious." Neia said, sitting down and staring at him in disbelief.
"As serious as they come." Tinamoc said bluntly. "What I did can't be forgiven, at least not by me, and if that part of me lets me play the coward, then let that part of me be cut off and cast into the gutter with the trash where it belongs."
Skana and Neia exchanged glances. "You're really going to do this?" Skana asked, "You know you don't have to, it's an extreme measure to go to." She said tentatively while she struggled to think of a way to talk him out of it. Especially as someone who has lost an important part of her body, she wanted to stop him from doing that to himself intentionally.
"What happened was extreme, and you know, it won't hurt that much, not compared to what was done to make it wag like a whipped dog for Astraka and Remedios. Maybe, some day, I'll be comfortable having the wound healed and regaining my powers of speech but honestly, I don't see it. I'd rather live with myself as a mute, than spend another hour whole and hating the very sound of my voice."
Neia bit her lip and scratched another tick into her heart's ledger. "What will you do if you're captured and they tell you to write?" She asked sarcastically, "Pretend to be illiterate? Cut off your hands?"
"If necessary." He said flatly, "I will never break again, no matter how much all that hurt at the time, nothing feels worse than knowing I almost got so many others killed, nothing I felt then, feels worse than this does right now. This is my atonement. I'll keep my voice just for these few days, just to finish this job, my last spoken words will be for my wife, she should be the one to hear them." He said with steel in his voice, and Neia leapt on the last statement.
"What about her? Shouldn't she have some say in this? Won't she object to what you're talking about?" Neia's voice rose in pitch as she grew more restless. Skana covered Neia's hand with her own.
"My wife may look like the soft matron of a merchant's counting house… and she is. But she's also endured the fear of me traveling either alone or under often dubiously reliable guard for over twenty years now, she's got the heart of a lioness, when she hears my story, she'll fetch the pruning shears and clean up the blood for me." He said confidently, denying whatever Neia was hoping for.
Neia leaned back in her chair and let her arms fall limp at her sides. "I can't talk you out of this madness, can I?" She asked in a small voice.
"No. Absolutely not. I'd cut it off here and now if I didn't still need it for one last purpose." He said with a boldness she hadn't realized he truly possessed.
"I see." Neia said, her face went neutral, neither happy nor sad, and her voice came to a profoundly even tone, "I hope then, my friend, that this allows you to live happily for the rest of your life. For now, go ahead and get started, Skana and I need to walk the city, do a victory tour, and wait for the results of the casualty evaluations, that kind of thing."
"Of course." He said and stood up, when he did, he rendered a salute to General Neia and then walked out.
Skana and Neia were left alone together and they sat in silence for far longer than either of them liked.
Finally, Skana spoke up, "Neia, let's go get started, we've got a lot of the city to see, and a distraction will do you good."
"Yeah, yes, you're right, you're right. I shouldn't just sit here brooding all damn day." Neia's voice was tired as she answered, but her step was long and energetic as she moved towards the door. As she went, she looked over at the elf servants who had lined the wall. "I apologize for any upset these outbursts have caused you. Please, return to your tasks and think no more of this." She said with gratitude.
"Come on, we've got work to do." Neia said over her shoulder. Skana was jolted out of her own sudden reverie, and she stood up fast enough that she almost toppled the chair backwards before she moved to join her wife.
"Alright, let's do this." Skana said, projecting confidence to disguise the upset they'd suffered as they walked out of the manor and into the light of the city they'd saved.