God Rising: Cult of Ainz
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 135:
...South of Prart…
Neia could barely believe what she was hearing. "Let me see if I've got this straight." She said in disbelief. "We've killed Remedios, crushed the Theocracy, defeated Astraka, and we have the remains of their army fleeing south, where we've already dispatched Blue Rose, and we ourselves are on our way to launch a counter invasion… but Queen Calca wants us to 'stop' because the Southerners are petitioning for… and this is the part that confuses me, 'peacefully granted independence from the north?'"
"Yes." Skana said as she set aside the missive.
Neia paced her tent, folding her arms in front of her angrily. "After everything…"
"Yes, after everything." Skana echoed, clearly no less unhappy. "Inta and our survivors in the south are already pulled out."
"Damn it!" Neia cursed and slammed her fist on the table hard enough to break the corner off and send it flying down to the ground, her face twisted in anger, while Skana kept her face neutral.
"I know, but she feels she couldn't rule the south without wiping out most of the population and…" Skana started to say, only to close her mouth in surprise as raw fury overtook Neia's face.
"After what the South has already done, I pity them not a bit even if most of them die." Her voice was cold and her eyes turned black with wrath.
"Neia…" Skana said gently, "Don't…" She approached her wife and, setting the letter aside, she put her hands on Neia's shoulders. "Please." It was a statement, not a request, and the wrath fell away from Neia's face. Her eyes of terror became 'normal' relative to herself again, and she lowered her gaze away from that of her wife.
"Sorry, it's just… after what her volunteers did, they came from there, remember, they started by abandoning us all in the north, abandoned you, me, cut our country off like a diseased limb. Then they invade when there is hope for our future? They invade not to save us from horror, but to punish us for heresy against gods who did nothing to save us… I… I just can't." Neia's voice was full of anger and frustration as she spoke, while Skana responded by drawing closer and pulling her wife into an embrace.
"A half-victory after everything?" Neia gasped out in frustration. "No…" She shook her head and balled up her fists, "There's one place I want to see, and terms I will see imposed." Neia stepped back and took Skana's hands in hers. "Are you with me?"
"To whatever end." Skana said faithfully, her bright green eye shone affectionately in the whorling darkness of the Black Paladin's eyes.
"They want peace now? To bow out of the fight they started after burning our people as they marched north? In the name of His Majesty, I will ensure they learn another lesson that they will never forget, what happens when they march north." Neia seethed. "They may be given what Queen Calca wishes, but they will know it is her benevolence, not her weakness, her mercy, not her fear that gave them a peaceful end."
"What will you do?" Skana asked, deeply concerned.
Neia turned and walked out of her tent, Skana followed after as fast as her feet could carry her.
"Rally the soldiers for the march, we're going to do a forced march into the South, we're going back to Yanana, let's see if anyone dares to raise the whip to me a second time." Neia said with a laugh as she walked to her undead horse. "Bring all divisions to order, and have CZ join me, I want to make sure our Lord knows what we intend."
"Arise! Arise! Soldiers of the Holy Kingdom! Soldiers of the Sorcerous Kingdom! Arise, you people of the book and the sword! Arise, you who desire to avenge your fallen! We do not rest! We march to the south! To burn down the gates that guard the heart of darkness!" Neia shouted with her glorious evangelical voice, it carried the wind on its back and stoked the wrath of every soul in the army.
It didn't take long for such energetic bodies to get moving, not even in the darkness of the twilight, with a little magical light for assistance.
When they were on the road again and CZ rode beside the shadow eyed Neia and she heard everything Neia had to say, she responded with, "Are you serious?" Her face was neutral, but there was a hint of disapproval.
"I am." Neia said even more succinctly. "They will be punished, they will know what it is to face divine wrath, they burned our brothers and sisters, they made me kill my people to spare them torture, now they've lost their icon and their false king and they think to turn me aside by pleading with the Queen they rejected, coming for peace when I'm ready to open up their guts?!" Her grip tightened on the reins and she shook her head.
"They will not disgrace the Sorcerer King with such an insulting offer, there will be no white peace, perhaps the Queen will negotiate with them for a form of independence beyond father's rule, but I will make damn sure they know we don't have to give it to them. We'll hit them again, lay the south naked to my sword, and then her grace, his mercy, when it falls on them, will be known for what it is, a gift. They will win nothing, they will take pride in nothing, they will be shamed and forced to give up everything I damn well tell them to give up in the name of His Majesty."
Skana trembled a little within as she wondered just how far her wife was willing to go, the memory of her body being ripped apart on the wall was still raw, she understood how Neia felt, after everything that had happened, to just call it quits? So many dead, and for all that the Kingdom of their birth gets ripped in half? It grated.
"So you are serious." CZ said emphatically.
"I am." Neia said again. "Please notify Nazarick of my intentions, if possible I'd like to link up with Blue Rose again, I know they've got a head start, but frankly they'll probably come to me when they hear where we are so… I don't think I need to worry about searching for them or sending word through Nazarick that I want them to join me for the offensive."
"The Sorcerer King has given his approval for their independence though." Skana reminded her gently.
Neia shook her head, "No, he said he approved of negotiation for purposes granting their independence on favorable terms, but the Southern Holy Kingdom hasn't even chosen their representative yet. That means we don't have a truce, and that means we have time to make sure that the terms we negotiate are absolutely favorable to us. If I'm going live to see my country ripped in half after all this, then I'm going to make sure it is on mercilessly favorable terms that ensure we don't see 'another' southern invasion of the north ever again. Any questions?" Neia asked in a tone of some rebuke.
"None." Skana replied gravely.
"CZ, would you send the message?" Neia asked.
"I will." CZ said, agreeing in a tone that suggested more approval than she initially felt.
"What about Queen Calca? She won't like this." Skana asked unhappily, her lips turned down in unhappiness.
Neia shrugged. "I work for His Majesty, for the god that I call father, not for her. Her feelings on the matter are secondary to me." She said bluntly.
"Neia, she stood for us! She backed us! She's joining with His Majesty!" Skana rebuked her firmly and Neia's face softened.
"You're right, I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound so harsh, I do respect Queen Calca, but her resolve to strength, no matter how real it was, will take time to build, and so we will act and crush one more city of the south, this will give her the firmest possible negotiating position to create a transition to peace. Favorable peace, peace that will ensure their independence is as short lived and humiliating as possible." Neia said emphatically.
"If that is what has to be done, well as I said, I'm with you come what may." Skana said, and reached beside her to take Neia's hand in hers. Mailed hand clenched mailed hand, but even through the metal, each one felt sure they could feel the warmth of the other.
"Thank you." Neia said, then looked behind her to the long column of soldiers, and it seemed in the early dawn that was just breaking over the horizon, that every spearpoint carried its own little sun, and the line stretched on forever.
…Crossroads…
Romare was in a good mood, despite the hours of work they'd put into things, he felt energetic and positive about his part in things. His companions were looking tired, but this was fine by him, hunting necessitated long periods of boredom. A little grinding at wood and shaving away at the draw point for a bow string was nothing by comparison, at least it was 'doing' something other than just sitting there.
So when his 'shift' finally ended he was indifferent to the end, while his comrades could only stand up and stretch. "That was productive." He said as he set aside a bow back into the place he'd gotten it from.
"Yes, but I wish I could see their faces when the feathers fly off and the arrow goes wild, or when the bows snap at the bend, or the strings break… ahh to be a fly on that crenelation when that happens." Owl laughed with amusement as he stretched out.
"Yeah, yeah, enough talk, for now we move." Nagi said, and rushed for the nearest window, he listened with care, then clambered out and one by one they followed him out, then into the street as if they'd just come from that direction.
The sun was rising when they reached their temporary residence in the rundown inn just as Moira was handing over payment for another day to the equally rundown innkeeper. The grimey hand folded over the coins like they might vanish in an instant if she didn't grab tight and fast, then she nodded indifferently and thumbed them towards the stairs.
They followed Moira up the stairs and into her room on the right side, finding the rest of their comrades waiting there except for Rascal. "Where's Rascal?" Nagi asked first.
"Right here." He said as he walked into the door without making a sound.
Nagi almost jumped out of his skin as his head shot over to the door at his back. "How did you do that…?" He asked in disbelief.
"Do what?" Rascal asked innocently.
"Nobody can sneak up on me." Nagi said with his eyes wide with disbelief.
"Obviously it isn't that hard." Rascal said with a passive shrug of his shoulders. "Here, I need you all to sign this." He said and took out a letter from his pocket and handed it to Moira.
"What is it?" Petyr asked.
"A letter, it's 'payment' for some help we're going to be getting while we're here, they won't throw their lives away, but it should give us information that we need to accomplish more, and if any of you are captured, well you won't live long enough to be interrogated." Rascal explained with a straight face as if he were describing the contents of his breakfast.
"Say what now?" Mananak demanded. "Who is this for exactly?"
"The local… well I guess you could call them a kind of 'underworld' they move in this city and a few others, I've got, well how do I put this?" He paused to think of how to put it.
"History with them?" Moira guessed neutrally.
"Yeah. That." Rascal said, pointing at her emphatically. "I helped them out a long time ago, now I'm calling in the favor, we'll have whatever we need, I just have to deliver it."
Moira read over it, "Pardons? For all actions taken prior to the delivery of this letter…" She lowered the letter and raised her eyes back to Rascal who looked back at her passively.
"Exactly why would this make it all the way up to General Enri? Exactly how much help are you expecting us to get? Exactly what are they getting pardons 'for' that is worth this much help?" Moira demanded fiercely.
"What the hell is going on here Rascal?" She questioned harshly and held the letter tight in her hands, they looked at each other with arms folded in front of their chests.
"Just sign it." Rascal insisted.
"No. I want to know what the hell is going on with this!" She said urgently. "I saw Nagi creep up on a fox while it was alert! It's how we caught on to those Theocracy scouts, and you walked in without him knowing you were there? You bring a letter telling us to let people off the hook for unknown crimes for assistance we haven't even gotten yet? Enough is enough! We're supposed to be on the same side, so why all the secrets?!" She growled out in uncharacteristic anger.
The rest of the team remained silent, but mistrust was etched on their faces.
"God damn it! I'm trying to make sure we succeed!" Rascal snapped and stomped his foot furiously, "It doesn't matter who I was or how I got here, it's a leap of faith, call it that if you want! But just sign the damn thing!"
"No." Owl said and folded his arms in front of himself with equal defiance, "Look, sneaking up on Nagi is tough, but… goddamn it, I…" He looked around to his fellow soldiers and let out a heavy sigh.
"OK, I used to be an assassin, had a little guild of us, I was good, damn good, distract, delay, and death, that's what I did for a living, before I walked away from all that over some… ethical concerns with the way my guild was going and a dispute over leadership that followed. So when you laid out your 'impromptu' plans for shitwrecking the Theocracy equipment without getting caught, I knew there was more at work than what you let on. That isn't the sort of thing a normal man thinks of, and now you want us to just sign something praising the value of help we haven't gotten, from people we haven't met, who will kill us if we get caught, meaning presumably they can GET to us if we're caught. I wanna trust you man, but you've got to trust us too, and we've done all the trusting so far, time for you to give a little back!"
"You were an assassin?" Rascal asked, his voice said it was rhetorical and his face said pieces were falling into place.
"Yes. Not without my standards, thank you very much." Owl said as faces turned to him in disbelief, "People who get contracts out on their lives are not innocent very often, and I was selective about it, some in the guild weren't, so I left that life. That's the short version, but we're not getting anywhere without your story too."
Rascal's face and arms fell, he let out an exasperated sigh. "God damn it." He looked around, "You all feel this way?"
There were nods around the room. "Look these are not people you just walk up to and say howdy."
"Neither are you. If you can move well enough to get by me." Nagi said pointedly.
Rascal shook his head, "This is different."
"Different how?" Petyr demanded. "Does it have anything to do with the way you knew how to mutilate that woman's ears on our first night out?"
Rascal tensed like he was about to start a fight, a chill swept the room, then vanished.
"I'll make you all a deal, sign this now and let me deliver it in exchange for help, and I'll tell you something I really didn't want to, and after they demonstrate their usefulness, I'll arrange a meeting and you can learn the rest, alright?" Rascal asked plaintively.
Moira searched his face for signs of deception, but all she saw there was regret and upset. "Alright. Good enough for me." She said and took up a quill and signed her name, then handed it to Owl, who did the same, and around the room it went till it came back to Rascal, who made his mark and put it away.
"Well?" She prompted, and Rascal took a seat.
"I told you all how I was born in the Theocracy and lived in this city?" He asked rhetorically, to a round of nods. "Well, I was born to a slave managing household, the reason I knew how to mutilate that woman's ears so she'd look like a dead elf slave, was because I was trained as a mutilis. A mutilis is the one responsible for doing that to captive elves."
Some ugly looks came his way, his shoulders slumped, "I'm not proud of it, but damn it, it was how I grew up! I didn't know anything else, my first memories are of the elf slaves in the back of the manor, in the crouch boxes keeping them in place, and the brief cries as they had those parts removed. I got my start doing it from the time I was old enough to hold a blade, it was all I knew. I know everything there is to know about how to manage a slave enterprise. That is how I knew none of you could pass for overseers escorting slaves out. They carry themselves a certain way, walk a certain pace, bear a certain expression, it was a hundred little things about how you act that would have given you away."
He didn't meet their eyes, "I left all that behind a long time ago. If it matters, I regret all that, I'd give em all back their ears if I could, but I can't, so when I turned on my country and left… eventually, as soon as the chance came for me to return and shall we say… settle accounts, I took it. Taking part in that suicide mission was supposed to be it but what can I say? Here I am. Satisfied?" He asked.
"Why'd you stop doing that and leave it?" Petyr asked in a still, small voice as he looked at Rascal with a mixture of disbelief and disgust as he realized he slept beside, fought beside, and lived beside a man that mutilated people for profit.
"Not something I'm comfortable talking about." Rascal said, "I think I've said enough now, so are we good… for now at least?" He asked.
"It's a start. This better be worth it." Moira said in a menacing sort of voice that the expressions of her peers imitated.
"It will be." Rascal answered, and walked back out the door.
AN: Another chapter, another small step forward. Enjoy. :)