God Rising
Chapter 128
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
...North of Crossroads...
Enri personally went to see each of the prisoners that had been returned to them, hoping to see Moira's face among them. She stood on a low rising grassy knoll with the breeze blowing her cloak behind her, a chill wind might have brought a shiver to her body, but her own feelings had done it first.
Beside her Lupusregina had a rare stern expression on her face, she didn't look over at General Enri, she just asked, "Are you alright?"
It was little things like that which reminded Enri that Lupu was actually a friend, and it felt good to have her here for this, even if the sadistic werewolf couldn't feel the same concern over strangers that she did for companions.
"I suppose so." Enri said softly, her lips barely moving as she watched the formation of prisoners, there were twenty two in total, of them there were only two women that she could see, neither of them were Moira. She wanted to bite her lip with concern, but she held the stone expression she'd learned to make, and kept her eyes hard. She looked to her advisor, the Goblin Strategist. "Sun," she said to him, "there are twenty two here, therefore please go see to it that forty-four are returned to General Boabdil immediately, I will address the troops."
He turned and bowed to her, "I will see to it at once, General Enri." He then turned and walked away from the formation, she didn't look to see him go.
Enri, for her part, kept the heartache for the little boy in Carne buried within her breast. Also, she did not bother to ask the gathered band about the missing woman. 'If she isn't there, then she's dead. Damn it Moira...' Enri thought with frustration, she kept her hands behind her back so that they could not see how she clenched her fists.
At last she spoke, "All of you are heroes! You did not defeat an army of eighty thousand, but you took eighty thousand out of the fight! You saved countless lives, you who survived will go down in history, you and your honored dead alike, will be remembered throughout the ages as legends of courage and duty and sacrifice! Every single one of you who survived will be recommended for the highest award that can be offered, a lifetime stipend when you return home, and land in any region under the Sorcerer King's control at the end of your service. Which as you know, will be almost everywhere." She smiled at them, the radiant smile that she knew could light up rooms and lift up hearts.
"Your fallen brothers and sisters who do not stand with you will not be forgotten either, all of them will be given similar accolades, and what rewards would have been theirs, will instead go to their families or any other they designated." Enri's voice rang like a silver bell to their ears, she was not still as a statue as she spoke, she moved about, pacing before them as she harangued them with her praises. Finally she paused and her gaze swept them over.
"Now, a moment of silence." She said, and turned her gaze to the grass at her feet, and every gaze turned down, just as hers, for a moment the stillness could have been broken by the sound of a twig, and then her eyes lifted to them once again.
When her gaze lifted, she me their own and said, "There is one final matter before I dismiss you to a well earned rest. I know I can ask nothing more of you than I already have, your matchless courage has already won us a great victory, and so many... many of you fell to achieve it. Yet for all that, I tell you that we are going into battle again, we are going to attack the city of Crossroads, it is a well defended place, with a large population ready to fight. If you wish to discharge back to your homes, your rewards will still fall to you. But if you have the will, I ask that you lend me your strength again, fight with us when the time comes, help us take that city, help us bring this war to a close. Will you follow me once again? Or will you go home?" Her voice was thick with emotion, the sorrow she felt as the five hundred who rode into death's maw had been reduced to a mere twenty two, was impossible not to see.
"Who will fight?" She asked, "Step forward."
As she'd been speaking, others of her army, seeing what was taking place, had gradually gathered, word swept the camp, and so focused had she been, that she did not realize that most of her force had descended on the area to see what was going on. Ordinarily this might have been of no great importance, however Enri was wearing her command armor, it was heavily enchanted, it gave her voice more power, more authority, charisma all but seeped out of her, she seemed 'more' than she was, which as Lupusregina had long since concluded, was already considerable, just on her own.
So her words carried far beyond her intended audience, thus she touched more ears, hearts, and minds than she planned. She held her hands out to them, as if offering to help carry a heavy burden, her elbows slightly bent, she saw nothing but those before her, her loyal soldiers who had survived the near impossible, and she felt a matchless guilt in asking for their strength again. But duty must be done, no matter the desire, and so ask she did.
Twenty two feet stepped forward as one, and thousands upon thousands upon thousands of soldiers cheered. Enri blinked away the sudden rush of wetness to her eyes and looked around, suddenly brought back to reality by the noise that was surely carrying all the way to the very walls of Crossroads.
She let her hand fall to her sword and drew it, lifting it above her head, "Tomorrow we attack! And we will bring that city down!"
The butts of spears and halberds struck the earth, fists pounded chests, and swords stabbed at the sky. Whatever tomorrow would bring, defeat did not seem like it was possible.
Enri dismissed the twenty two survivors after having all their names taken, that day her army was granted a day of rest, save for the outriding core meant to rush to seize areas and establish new camps that would surround the city. It was a rare move, but she wanted Crossroads to have its guards tired and on full alert, the Theocracy was on the defensive here, she wanted the stress ratcheted up to eleven. She'd move out at night to occupy the camps her advance parties would establish.
It didn't hurt that she wanted time to herself. And that was why twenty minutes later she was alone in her quarters, except for Lupusregina who refused to leave her be. "So... you're going to disobey my orders to leave me to my own company?" She asked the werewolf queen.
"Yes. I only 'have' to obey the Sorcerer King, and his orders are to protect you, I only listen to you when it suits me." She had a smug smile on her face when she said that, and all Enri could do was roll her eyes.
"Fine." She sighed, "Probably for the best anyway, having your company is always better than not having it."
Lupusregina gave Enri a salacious grin, "So next time you and Nfirea are at it, you want me to maybe... oh how scandalous!" She gave a mock shriek as Enri blushed.
"Damn it Lupu! Not then! Stay away from my bedroom window!" Enri laughed as she took up a bottle and poured two cups before sitting down at the table in her tent. "You might as well join me for a drink, it's decent wine, not Nazarick good, but what is?" She asked rhetorically.
"Still torn up about Moira?" Lupusregina asked.
Enri nodded. "Stupid decision, if I ever see her corpse I'll give her a piece of my mind."
"Worried about Goan too?" Lupusregina probed further. "I told you, he'll be taken care of, the Sorcerer King has put a lot of thought into all this, he'll want for nothing."
"He'll want for his mother, for the rest of his life." Enri said as she drank, her back ramrod straight against the chair.
Lupusregina leaned back and put her feet up on the table, crossing one ankle over the other as she took a sip. "You weren't kidding, this stuff isn't anywhere near Nazarick quality." She took another sip anyway. "Look, you've done your best, maybe she made the wrong decision, but it was 'her' decision, and isn't that the point of it all, for you who are born outside Nazarick to... you know, make decisions for yourselves? Isn't that something you all like doing?"
"Not the same, Lupu, honestly I'm thinking less about her and more about the one who pays the price for her choices. But you're right, I shouldn't dwell on one soldier, even if I do know her child and he's a friend of my little sister. I'll drive myself crazy if I try to take all the troubles of everyone on my own shoulders." She sighed heavily, "I'll just have to work hard and make sure there are as few Moiras in the army and as few Goans back home as possible."
She downed her cup and refilled it, Lupusregina did the same and offered her own out to be refilled, when both were topped off, Enri raised her cup and said, "To His Majesty's victory, and the peace thereafter."
"I'll drink to that." Lupusregina said and leaned over to touch her cup to Enri's, then they drank their cups empty in a single swift motion before slamming them down in unison and gasping.
"Another?" Enri asked.
"Please." Lupusregina said with a smile and held out her cup.
...Inside the City of Crossroads...
"So what you're telling me is that several enemy soldiers escaped... escaped mind you, while under lock and key in the dungeon of our own headquarters?" General Boabdill asked in utter disbelief.
"Yes sir. We sent one prisoner South to Kami Miyako for special interrogation, apparently prisoner zero zero seven had a first hand encounter with the Sorcerer King during their time in the Draconic Kingdom. The other prisoner was left alone, when the guard came to feed prisoner..." The soldier flipped a document over and cleared his throat, "zero zero six, they had loosened their chains and used it to choke the guard to death. They then stole the keys, disguised themselves as a guard, and broke out several other prisoners under the pretense of punishing them for some infraction."
The soldier's voice was crisp and professional and devoid of any tone of contempt for the laxness those working below had shown in their tasks. Contempt that in Boabdil's view, was heartily deserved.
"Do we already have people looking for them?" He asked.
"Yes sir, one was caught just a few hours ago, but died while resisting capture. Apparently the first thing this one did was get drunk, then pass out in an alley. When confronted, they grew belligerent and slurred out some threats, one of the city watch put them down." The soldier's voice carried a bare hint of satisfaction at the report.
"I see, well one down, we'll find the rest, a shame though, prisoners are always useful, bodies... not so much unless you delve into necromancy." Boabdil said, marking something down on a sheet of paper on his desk.
"Do you have the report on General Enri's army?" He asked.
"We do sir, we estimate that they lost between five and fifteen thousand in the last engagement..." The soldier began, but Boabdil interrupted.
"Between five and fifteen thousand? That is a rather broad estimate, why is that?" He asked thoughtfully.
"Sir, I spoke with the scouts and with the survivors and it seems that some areas are overly inflated estimates, while in others the estimates are understated. So we can't get a reliable count, their casualties were not light, but our own..." The soldier swallowed hard and trailed off.
"Yes, they were bad, you don't have to tell me, Corporal." General Boabdil gently rapped the table in thought, "Tell me, from the point of view of the common soldier, how do you see the situation."
"You're asking me, sir?" He asked with wide eyed disbelief.
"Do you see anyone else here?" The general asked with some degree of sarcasm.
"Uh, no sir." The corporal looked flustered first time and looked around, prompting a mild laugh out of the general.
"Go on, speak your mind, I truly want to hear your thoughts." General Boabdil said in a kind tone of voice.
"Sir, if I may be blunt... we're scared." He said, lowering the document to his side and folding one hand behind his lower back.
"Please, tell me more." The General said patiently, folding his hands in front of him on the desk after setting aside his quill.
"Sir, we've never seen anything like this, it's confusing, it is chaotic. We've all fought before, we've all trained for fighting, but we've got dragons flying overhead and dropping armored trolls behind us, we've got humans in black armor fighting next to orcs, vampires, and elves, we've got goblins of impossible strength and discipline walking straight into our lines without gibbering or fear, I myself saw an honest to the gods werewolf, fighting beside a human woman riding an undead horse. This isn't a war we're fighting sir, we're in a story out of myth and legend, we're seeing impossible magics on top of all that, and we just don't know what to do."
General Boabdil listened as the corporal vented.
"Sir, we don't plan on losing, but we don't see how we can win either. The soldiers love you sir, we'll stand and die if you tell us to, but... we want to actually win." The corporal's stern demeanor collapsed in a shudder.
"I see. Thank you for telling me the truth Corporal. Leave the rest of your report here, you go ahead and get something to eat, unless I miss my guess we're in for a siege tonight, you'll want to be well fed and well rested."
"Sir." The soldier saluted, then placed the documents on the general's desk and walked out.
After he was gone, his vice commanders entered and sat at a small conference table, along with several nobles of the city. General Boabdil got up from his desk, and claimed a seat for himself. This table, unlike the more formal one in the office off of his own, was small and round, meant to illustrate the relative equality of those who sat at it. It was more intimate than the formal setting ready for use only a few steps away, and that suited him just fine.
"I'll be blunt, we don't have much time so I want to know everything, I want to know it yesterday, and I want us all to get back to work as fast as possible, so make this quick." General Boabdil said.
"Yes sir." Vice Commander Ira said, casually brushing aside a lock of brown hair from the side of her face. "Sir, the slaves are almost all ready to be taken out of the city to be sent south, however some nobles have been... well, putting it bluntly sire, they're holding out."
"Of course we're holding out, we don't want to just 'give up' our property you know." A slender, youthful looking woman said emphatically.
"Lady Keevara, I understand your concern, but please know that this is for the good of the Slane Theocracy, slaves inside the walls during a siege that is being waged by people who are known to 'free' every slave they find, particularly elves," General Boabdil looked at her with daggers in his eyes, "can only lead to our undoing. As long as you maintain an accurate record, you will get your property back when it is safe for them to be returned to you. Until then, every slave in the city is to be sent south to Wheaton, Kami Miyako, and other surrounding areas to be put to work for the good of the nation."
"You could at least offer us compensation for the loss!" She snapped out.
He wanted to slap the ditzy idiot. "Lady Keevara, you are not 'losing' your property, only relocating it, you can live without servants for a handful of days, until we defeat this siege. When Ikari fell, part of 'why' it fell was because the elf slaves within rose up, tell me something, would your slaves kill you if they had the chance?"
That brought her up short. She tried to speak several times. Then her gaze fell away. "I will... have mine joined with the rest as soon as we are finished here."
"Good. Next item?" He asked.
Vice Commander Heikeren was the next to speak up, "Sir, we have enough provisions to hold up for one month, two with the slaves all gone, three on half rations, and four on quarter rations. However I fear on quarter rations we would be too weak to fight. Is there any chance of reinforcements?"
"Some, but we're fighting on three fronts, not to mention the forces we dispatched to help Remedios that headed to Prart, I honestly don't know how much help we can count on getting from Kami Miyako." General Boabdil replied fatalistically.
"What about if we defeat General Rockbruise in the west?" The Vice Commander Ira asked hopefully.
"If we leave the elf king to move west then perhaps they'll move a part of the army to us, but we have to hold out for a long time for that possibility to be borne out. I wouldn't count on it." The general replied with some discomfort in his voice.
"So any reinforcements will come from the levies then." She said unhappily.
"Yes, so they'll be raw, untried troops going up against veterans of a general that now has a slew of victories and successes. Not an ideal situation." She said discontentedly.
"Agreed." Vice Commander Heikeran said, "But it would give us at least temporary local superiority over one segment of her army. We don't have to crush her, just force her away from the city, if we inflict that much of a defeat at least, her reputation will suffer, and our soldiers could really use a win about now."
"Couldn't we all?" General Boabdil said with a sigh, "Speaking of her, what did the prisoners say of how they were treated, were they abused, tortured, did she do anything to them?" He asked with evident care and concern in his voice.
A priest General Boabdil recognized as head of the largest church in the city, spoke up. "Nothing." He said in absolute disbelief even at his own words.
"I'm sorry?" He asked, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, she did nothing. In fact they spoke of how well they were treated, she had all their wounds healed, not a single coin was taken from their pockets, and..." He tapped his staff impatiently at the floor and shook his head again in further disbelief...
"They're calling her 'The Grand Matriarch'. Apparently she was seen tending to the dying as if they were her own children, and she did this for both sides. She's widely admired among the common soldiers." The priest said with marvel in his voice.
"Could they be charmed?" General Boabdil asked.
"Not a chance, we checked." The priest replied flatly.
"I suppose there are worse things to fight than a general who doesn't throw lives away like coppers." He said thoughtfully.
"Maybe so, but she must still be fought, we've got the scorpions ready and they've been enchanted as best we're able, we should be able to bring down smaller dragons with relative ease with concentrated fire from those, but if they send the father or the mothers of those things, we'll be in trouble. Which isn't to say it is hopeless, but..." Vice Commander Heikeran let the sentence hang, nothing more needed to be said on that matter.
"Anything else?" General Boabdil asked.
The next hour was taken up with the concerns of nobles, the store of food, ammunition, and the readiness of the population to fight, but in the end the same conclusion was reached that he'd expected. They'd prepared as best they could, and now there was nothing to do but wait for the onslaught of the general who might as well have been a daughter of the undead, the Grand Matriarch, Hard-Eyed General Enri Emmot-Bareare.
...City of Crossroads...Southern Gate...
Moira looked at the line of slaves, they wore a lot of different types of clothing, some were formal, some were barely clothed in rags, some were clearly dressed to show off their sexuality, still others were dressed in clothing that identified their trade skills. What united them was the blank, hopeless faces of the broken who had learned to survive by showing none of their real thoughts... and the fact that in addition to hopeless faces, they wore chains and all had ears mutilated exactly the way Rascal had done it on the blond girl he'd killed for her clothing, the clothing Moira now wore.
The line was long, even five abreast, there were clearly thousands of slaves.
"So you think we can get out of that gate?" Romare asked as they leaned casually against a wall, looking for all the world like just a group of friends hanging out on an off day.
Rascal was frowning, "That was my thought, but I doubt it now."
"Why?" Moira asked, "We'll just grab a few whips and walk beside them, people will think we're overseers and..."
Rascal was shaking his head, "It won't work."
"Why won't it work?" She asked.
"It just won't, trust me." He replied, the joking manner gone from his serious face.
Mananak looked up at the soldier he'd often thought of as a playful oaf and didn't recognize him. "You know something."
"Lots of things, none of which are your damn business, just trust me, we are not getting out that way." Rascal said both sharply and emphatically.
Moira wanted to say more, but as the slaves started their sullen trudging out the southern gate, she saw something altogether unexpected. Rascal was always a playful, flirtatious oaf, quick with a wink, a smile, a laugh, even when they'd been riding full tilt toward the Theocracy fully prepared to die, he'd preceded the charge by asking her for a date after they 'won'. He was never serious, never seemed to feel anything but a kind of heedless happiness.
But as the trudging started he stopped looking at his companions, the rattling of the thousands of chains seemed to dictate the very beating of his heart, and all he did was stare. Or rather, that was all he did, until his body started to shake and his fists held folded in front of his broad chest, clenched tight enough that Moira saw a drop of blood come from the space beyond his fingers.
AN: Well here you go, I hadn't planned on doing another double release day, but I finished two chapters yesterday so... fuck it? You get two this time. :) I will be briefly pausing for a bit while I work on two commissioned stories, but fear not, these won't be big slowdowns, I love to write so... it just means you'll get updates semidaily instead of daily while I wrap up those two. If your curious... the first commission is a rewrite from Taming of the Beasts as a lemon story. I've finished most of it already but the recent instructor training kept me busy. The second commission is a story featuring Climb and post change Renner. Whether they'll end up on FFN or not is up to the patrons, but at the very least you'll be able to find them in the discord exclusive content section.
Oh and on a related note, if you're not reading the side stories...well you probably should, lots of things in the main story will seem unbelievable without the side story's events to explain them. The truth is, there are NO side stories, they're all part of God Rising, and all explain different events to develop the characters and show who they are and why they are in this main one. Blood in the Streets, aside from developing a new cast of characters, will explain some of the goings on in Kami Miyako and show things more from the Slane Theocracy perspective. I think you'll find it worth the read. Anyway, related note, if you want unique content and a great environment for writers and readers, join the Overlord Fanfiction Discord. That is all. Have a great day. :)