AN: If you haven't guessed, shit is going to start getting a fuckton darker as this story progresses towards the end. Reviews welcome, discord invite is in the author page, or just search discordbee for 'Overlord Fanfiction'.
...South of Prart...
"Neia!" Lakyus shouted from a distance well beyond the army. Though it was a distance, in the half light of the setting sun as it cast it's rays through the great trees, even if Lakyus had not said a thing, Neia couldn't have failed to recognize her. Lakyus waved enthusiastically and the call to halt the line of march was made as the three women at the head of the column rode over the distance to meet their companion. Lakyus trotted over with a welcome expression on her face, followed quickly by her sisters who stepped from out of the woods once they were sure there was no trap or illusion at work.
"Lakyus, good to see you." Neia said, embracing the woman. "Have you all been... busy?" She asked enthusiastically.
"Very, very busy. One group got past us, but we took out two others before that, I hope they didn't give you any trouble." Evileye asked with a small measure of aplomb. "That one had scripture members so..."
"Had." Neia said. "It 'had' scripture members, they're corpses now."
"Oh, well good." Gagaran said gruffly, raising her thumb up.
"Yes." Tia said.
"Agreed." Tina added.
"But wait... why are you... here?" Lakyus asked, taking Neia's hands in hers, "Is everything alright?" Her eyes shone with concern as she asked the question, but Skana only laughed beside her wife.
"The only thing wrong is that my wife is very, very pissed off." She said proudly. She put her left hand on her hip and rolled her right hand casually as she explained, "See, it turns out Calca doesn't really have the will to butcher half the country for her crown... I guess there are worse things but... well, she's following some kind of plan from his Majesty to let the South go free and independent. My wife though... wants to give them a good hard kick to the crotch before they walk away."
CZ punched one fist into her own open palm for emphasis.
"Oh... yes, Yanana is where they..." Lakyus started to say, then snapped her mouth closed. "No, sorry, I shouldn't have said anything." She corrected herself as she saw a moment of distress on Neia's face, even with the visor there, the way her lips twitched for a moment spoke volumes.
Neia covered for it quickly, painting a smile back into place. "It's fine, everything's fine, don't worry about it, all that is behind me now. Well... though I'll admit I'll enjoy seeing what they have to say now with an army at my back." She let out a laugh that might as well have been ripped out of the mouth of shadows, and then it was gone, cut off when her mouth closed.
"So, you want to come with us or keep up with all the little raids and scouting you've been doing? I promise the food is better with us." Skana asked with a pleasant and welcoming tone.
Blue Rose required only a glance, and they were in agreement. "Absolutely. We're with you." Lakyus replied.
"Alright, then fall in, can't keep this army standing around all day. Draw some unused horses from the back, then come and ride up front with us." Neia said and pointed her thumb over her shoulder to the line of march on the road behind her.
"Yes, ma'am." Lakyus said with a smart salute, bringing her fist over her chest.
After Blue Rose had all received undead horses, they planted themselves confidently at the head of the column while Neia gave them the rundown of events that had transpired since their departure. Blue Rose listened attentively, inserting the occasional question along the way, and apologizing profusely for letting the scripture backed assassination get around them.
"Don't sweat it." Neia shrugged it off, "I enjoyed handling them myself, I owe the scriptures pain." She was oblivious to the way it chilled the blood of 'most' of her companions to hear the icy way in which the Black Paladin spoke.
"Now how about you, what else have you been up to, did you reach as far as Yanana?" Neia asked, her voice changing rapidly as she shifted the topic away from herself.
"Ehr, yes, we did. Tia and Tina slipped in easily enough to check out the underbelly, while Evileye walked around and scouted out the common environments of the public sphere. Gagaran and I... well... we stand out a bit too much, so we waited outside the city." Lakyus explained.
"What did you find?" Neia asked in a tone that was all business. Her lips pursed tight below her visor.
"A city divided against itself." Evileye said breathlessly. "Your religion spread like wildfire there after what happened, but the older ones, and the ones in power, remain loyal to the temples and the old gods. Tensions were high, and that was 'before' the army under Suchala and Yuri entered the place. I very much doubt things are better there now. Probably worse."
"Well, at least that means we'll have people inside we can count on to help us from within." Neia said hopefully, "Of course, there is the question of how to face the place but... I think I have an idea about how to handle that."
...Crossroads...
Evening came on fast, with the remaining six gathered in a single room. "I still can't believe you were a scripture member." Moira said to Rascal in wide eyed disbelief.
"That's why I was good at it." He explained with a cocky grin as he sat on the bed with one leg up on the frame as he passed out bottles of liquor. "One drink for the dead, may he be the last." He said, and they uncorked their bottles, raised them in toast, and took a heavy swig.
Moira started hacking immediately, much to the laughter of her peers. "Not used to the hard stuff?"
She grinned, "Not really, but no better time to try it." She said with a progressively sillier expression forming on her face as she went cross-eyed and giggled.
A knock came at the door and the room tensed, it pushed open slightly and a small girl, not even a teenager poked her head in. "Shanda says it's time."
Nagi and Romare recorked their bottles and put them into their shirt pockets. "Alright. Wish us luck." Romare said with his customarily sour expression on his face. He scratched his bald head and hesitated, then spat out, "Just in case... Moira... thanks." He said reluctantly.
"Yeah... thanks." Nagi echoed, she rose to her feet and rendered a sharp salute.
"It's been an honor, men." She replied. The rest of the party stood, and rendered salutes in turn.
The two then walked out of the room, following the girl's lead.
"That was serious enough that... I don't think one bottle will do. You'll excuse me?" Ham asked those of the group remaining in the room.
"If I can join you." Owl replied.
"You two go ahead, there's a pretty girl I'd like to visit. I'll come back in the morning." Petyr said, rising to his feet like the others.
"You joining us Moira, Rascal... Rascos?" Owl asked invitingly.
"No, I'm not much for crowds tonight." Moira said with a wan smile.
"Suit yourself." Ham said, "Rascos?" He asked, turning his eye to the former scripture member.
"Just Rascal now." Rascal replied, "But no, I don't think so, you have fun though, and... here." He said, taking out his coin purse, he removed six silver and handed it to Owl. "You two have some extras on me."
"Thanks!" Ham said and eagerly headed out the door, followed hot on his heels by Owl.
Alone in the room together, Rascal popped the cork and took a swig.
Moira did the same. "Do you think we made the right call?" She asked seriously.
"I think we made the call we had to, but if you're asking if I think we'll get through this alive?" He shrugged dismissively. "Don't know, but I know we didn't make the call that would ensure our survival at least."
"Any regrets?" She asked as she took another drink.
"Lots, but about this?" He shook his head. "None."
"Thanks, that makes me feel better." She replied appreciatively.
"Is it really wise of you to do this, you could still pull out, don't you have a son to go home to?" He asked considerately.
Moira's eyes welled with tears, "Yes, but that is why I do this. He's alive because of our king, this is a life debt, one I can't repay by playing it safe."
"I can respect that. You're one helluva woman, Moira." Rascos said admiringly.
"Well, that's a first." She said with a wry grin.
"What?" He asked uncertainly.
"Usually when a man says that, he's checking out my boobs." She replied with a laugh. "God, you men latch onto 'em as babes for awhile, get a little older, and then spend your lives trying to find another pair." She rolled her eyes melodramatically.
Rascos laughed uproariously. "Well, it's going to rain again tonight if you want to go stand out there and give me another look at them like last time."
Moira set the bottle aside and gave him a lecherous look, "I'd rather not get 'em all chilly again like last time, this way'll be easier." She said and peeled off her shirt. Within a few minutes, they were too distracted to hear or care about the crash of a boulder smashing a nearby building as another bombardment began.
Scripture or no, Rascal barely had time to realize what she was doing before she was up and pressing her lips to his, pressing him into the bed.
It didn't take long for Nagi and Romare to reach the residence of their target. Though it was early evening still, that just meant they had time to scout the area. "When the window opens, that will be your chance." The child said, and then she was gone after pointing out which window she meant.
The two men traded a look. "Imposing, isn't it?" Nagi asked.
"A little." Romare said as they looked the building over. It was several stories tall and the window the girl pointed out was very high. The building was baked brick rather than stone, but it was a large, wide building and even from where they stood they could see that it was a fairly secure place. They walked around the outside wall that kept the residence private, looking for any gaps or holes, and finding none.
"I can get us up there pretty easily, in spite of..." He waved his hand out in front of himself as if to encompass the area, "all this. However, can you keep up?"
Romare thought it over. His sour expression did not waver, his lips stayed pursed and wrinkled together and he stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Yes, as far as it goes, I mean I can't scale that, but if you can get up to the roof and lower a rope, I can climb up easily enough."
"That'll have to do. We don't have a big window here." Nagi replied.
Romare looked up at the window and then back to Nagi. "Looks big enough to me." He said, tilting his head to one side in confusion.
Nagi slapped his own palm to his face. "Of time, man, a big window of time."
"Oh. OK, no, we don't." Romare replied sheepishly as he rubbed his bald head in embarrassment.
After watching the area discreetly for awhile longer until the darkness set in, they finally saw the window open. They scaled the wall easily enough, it was more to mark the property off than to secure it, and they moved through the shadows to the wall, sweeping stealthily over the grass with low profiles moving along the ground.
When they reached the wall, Nagi began to scale the heights. His fingers carefully found purchase, and brick by brick he ascended as easily as an insect might, and with no less speed.
"Wow, fast." Romare muttered with wide-eyed disbelief. When Nagi reached the roof, he secured and lowered a rope down to where Romare stood. Romare began to ascend, walking himself up the side going as quickly and quietly as he could until Nagi held out his hand. Romare clasped the offered forearm and grunted as Nagi hauled him up. He quickly reeled up the rope and then they laid themselves flat on the roof to avoid giving a silhouette against the sky. The moon was bright in the sky that night as they lay there and looked up.
The first drops of rain began to fall. Down below, they could hear the sound of moaning through the roof. Fake, clearly fake, even obvious to them through the roof 'fake'.
"Great, he gets laid, but 'we' are the ones who get wet." Nagi laughed at the joke.
Romare turned his head to look at his companion, "Well, we're in the rain though..."
Nagi sighed with exasperation, "Never mind. At least it won't take long."
A few minutes later, the noise stopped. Nagi lowered the rope again and eased himself over the side. Romare followed. Nagi then began to kick his legs back and forth, swaying the rope until he came close enough to the wall to push off of it with more force, then when it swayed much harder, much closer to the window, he let go of the rope and flew quietly through.
Romare followed his lead, and Nagi caught him gently and quietly, helping him to land silently within the room.
They crept to the door to the bedroom from the antechamber into which they'd landed, the guards had yet to return. 'Pathetic, he doesn't want anyone to know how little time it takes him to finish either.' Nagi laughed in his own mind.
The pair pressed their heads against the door, there was silence within.
Romare took his bow from off his back and nocked an arrow, Nagi nodded as Romare positioned himself so that they would not be an impediment, he crouched down and gently turned the knob, then pushed it open slowly.
Two unfortunate things happened just then. The first was that the bed was positioned against the side wall, and the whore was in the way of a clean shot, laying on her side next to their target. The second unfortunate thing was that the door creaked and the mage heard it.
'Shit.' Nagi and Romare thought in unison as he leaned up from the mattress and saw them. He was an older man, and somewhat waifish, with a long white beard and a great many wrinkles. However despite his evident age and his... lack of skill with women, he was not unfit, and he was not inexperienced in combat. He immediately shouted [Fireball] and sent a blast of flame hurtling toward the entryway to his room.
The whore screamed and tried to scramble out of the bed, Romare dove in to one side of the room and loosed his arrow, [Protection] however, had already been cast even as he was rolling in, and the arrow skittered away.
Nagi rushed in with a knife and a short sword as he dove inward to the left to avoid the flame, but he had not gone five feet when the mage snapped [Lightning] and Nagi froze in place, screaming as the electricity ripped through him.
Romare drew another arrow and fired, it too bounced away, however he was already rushing in with a short sword, just as his instructors taught him. The magic caster snarled and grabbed the screaming whore by her hair and flung her bodily in Romare's direction, so that she staggered into his path and fell, forcing him to avoid her and slowing him down.
Nagi hurt, everything hurt, his limbs, his legs, his eyes, his fingers. But at least the lightning had stopped when the caster turned to deal with Romare. He took his knife and drew it back to his ear and threw it forward as hard as he could. The old magic caster's spell protected him from the tip penetrating his flesh, but not from the force of impact, and it had struck him square in the temple, he snapped back, and his next [Fireball] went wild, the room was on fire, the guards could now be clearly heard rushing back to the rescue, the whore ran screaming from the room as soon as she'd disentangled herself from Romare.
Romare sent another arrow at him, staggering the magic caster farther. 'Shit, how the hell are we supposed to kill this guy?" He asked himself.
The old magic caster was still naked and laughing, as if his nudity was a mockery, he'd begun to relax in the process of killing the two would-be assassins.
'Damn fools, did they think I could be so easily subdued?' The old man thought to himself, 'I, who once studied under Fluder Paradyne himself? No, I am not so easily beaten!'
His arrogance proved a fatal mistake. [Poison Cloud] He said, pointing it at Nagi, and he turned to look at Romare as Nagi began to die within the cloud. It was because he'd turned away that he did not see the bottle come flying out of the cloud until it shattered against his body, soaking him thoroughly.
Romare saw the way it soaked the caster and realized what Nagi had thought of. He grinned with teeth bared and popped the cork from his bottle just as he pulled it. The caster was distracted for a moment as his skin was drenched in the pungent alcohol. It was the only moment Romare needed, the bottle flew from his hand straight and true, trailing alcohol through the air, just as the flame of yet another fireball flew out, the fire caught the liquid and raced along the trail and burst the bottle just as it struck the magic caster. The burning liquid soaked his skin and the fire raced over the parts already drenched, just as the last fireball struck Romare full in the chest and the explosion flung him back against the wall.
The magic caster screamed like a madman as he tried to bat the flames out, rolling desperately as it the fat popped beneath his skin and his eyes melted in his head, and his hair caught fire and the flames tore apart his scalp as if it were a living thing desperate to consume him.
"Maybe not! But you will be by mine!" He shouted and stumbled forward in a desperate rush.
Burning or not, Romare was young, strong, and determined that he and Nagi should not fail their mission and pass into death by themselves. But all he could do with that determination was lay there against the wall and watch.
The magic caster's desperate rolling sent fire everywhere, the bed caught, the curtains caught, the rug caught, flame was spreading with every mad and desperate gesture.
As Nagi lost himself to the poison, he made out the faint shapes beyond the killing cloud, and saw that their frantic motions were slowing down to nothing. 'So it ends, but my job is done.' He thought, and then the blackness took him.
Romare felt his flesh burn to nothing, but even as he died, he saw that he did not die alone, the magic caster perished just as the guards entered, some ran himself and Nagi through with their spears, while a few desperately tried to save the life of their charge by pulling him from the room as it filled with smoke and the stench of burning flesh.
As the light faded from his eyes, Romare could only think, 'A fitting, final end. Namila, I come home to you...' He tried to whisper to people only he could see, only for the words to come out in a spray of blood, then his body relaxed, and he joined Nagi and their target in darkness.