AN: And here we go again, like fingers closing into a fist.
...The New Road...
Shalltear and Zaryusu waited for several days at the base of the mountain pass. The sun passed overhead and then set, that was all. There was little to do. Zaryusu could be at ease with this, Shalltear... not so much. "I'm soooo bored!" She exclaimed to him when alone in the command tent. She held her hands up beside her head with her fingers up and shaking with annoyance.
Zaryusu leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the field desk. "I sympathize, Lady Shalltear." He lied, "but bringing order to the capital took time."
"It shouldn't. The one who rules commands, the rest obey and perfectly so." She said somewhat snarkily.
"This is true," he said, but raised one green finger to show he had a caveat, "but it only applies to the mortal races in two conditions. Either the first, where the king or queen is so absolutely loved that the power of their reputation compels instant compliance... or the second, where their power and the fear they create is so total that nobody can consider any other option. The supreme one's power is widely known, yet it takes time for people to accept a new ruler and understand what has changed."
Shalltear snorted, crossed her arms, and put her back to him.
'Pouting eh, you must be even more bored than you said.' He thought.
"I'm truly amazed by Gargantua's work." Zaryusu said, changing the subject. He wasn't lying, for his first two days there, all he could do was stare at the hole where the mountain 'used' to be, and the road that had been 'punched' through it by the massive golem. Rubble still lined the thing, and on arrival his first task had been to send his army to remove the rocks in the way, the Dark Dwarves of the Understone Empire had been quick to offer assistance and trade began between the army and the new vassal state.
"Well you should be. Gargantua is a very useful and valuable servant of Nazarick." She said dismissively waving her hand in front of her and closing her eyes smugly.
"Is he going to be with us while we... work?" Zaryusu asked hopefully.
"Oh yes, he's going to be used on that other fortress... what was it called..." She stroked her chin and thought for a moment.
"Fortress Cross?" Zaryusu suggested.
"Yes, that one." She snapped her fingers smartly and pointed at him.
"So... let me see if I'm clear on this. Fortress Alaf is a focal point to draw the rest of the Theocracy's manpower into place, and then we force them to collapse under the weight of one single defeat?" Zaryusu asked.
"Well, that's what I'm told." Shalltear said when her shoulders slumped, she took on a pouty look to her face and sighed beautifully, with so much grace it was easy to forget that she was the consummate sadistic predator. "I've got no head for strategy though. I'd much rather just kill everything and get it over with."
Zaryusu didn't laugh, because she was definitely neither joking nor exaggerating.
Before he could respond, a messenger rushed into the tent, he immediately knelt and yanked a paper out of his satchel, then held it up for Shalltear to take it.
He didn't say anything, messengers seldom did when they beheld the odd pair, just kneel, hand their documents over, and get away as fast as possible. Zaryusu rolled his eyes. "Humans." He said dismissively as Shalltear tore open the seal and started to read.
"What about them?" She asked as she started to read.
"They're a nervous lot." Zaryusu said, his mouth falling open in something of a laugh. "I guess it makes sense, so many more powerful beings, even I am stronger in body than the average human. So many must just walk the world from birth to death wondering when they'll be preyed on like I do on fish and you do on... well... everything."
Shalltear handed over the document the way she'd done a hundred times, his hand reached out automatically to take it, their working relationship had fallen into a kind of dance like synchronization.
"But then you've got exceptions, Leinas Rockbruise, Blue Rose, and of course the one I trained and trained with most closely, Neia Baraja." Zaryusu relaxed as he read the paper over. "I hear she's become a real embodiment of nightmare now. I haven't seen her for what feels like forever."
"Whatever, a human is a human, as long as they please the Supreme One, that's all that matters. Though..." She touched a finger to her lips and thought for a moment, "she did try to kill herself immediately when ordered, I guess some servants are better than others at least."
Zaryusu took the document and set it aside, "Maybe." He said with an edge to his voice, "Those fools at the last city certainly didn't know how to make themselves valuable at least, now, shall we go, Lady Shalltear, looks like King Zanac and General Nimble will be here shortly, I'd like to get the march started as soon as possible."
"Of course, 'General' Zaryusu." She said with what passed for terrifying sweetness when she seemed to be paying him a kind of compliment. He brushed off the condescension since she seemed unable to not use it, and went out to get to work.
...Yanana...
"Fear is so very powerful, isn't it?" Suchala asked in his somewhat creaky voice as he handed a cup to Yuri. "The undead, he understands this, Dominic... he understands this... and as much as I'm loathe to admit it, Neia understands this, and both you and I do. But so few... and I'll never understand why. It is so obvious after all." He said as Yuri took the cup and drank from it. "Give people something to fear, you can make them do anything."
"I don't really care about power." Yuri said indifferently. "All I want is... proper release. Only one way to get that." She said archly.
Suchala looked at her with a mix of distaste and intrigue.
"Don't give me that look... Suchy." She said with a playful smile, "You need people like me, ones without compunction who will do anything to anyone. And who are you really kidding." She whispered duskily as she drew close to him. "Nasty old man, I've seen you watch people go up in flames, your face... like mine... but with wrinkles." She put her hand to his cheek and started to laugh.
He growled and slapped her hand away. "I do everything for the gods! For the Theocracy! I'm not like you, and don't call me Suchy!"
She reared back and giggled, "Unless you worship the three and that includes your cock and both balls, you're lying to me old Suchy. I've been around enough like me to know one on sight. You don't do those things 'for' the Theocracy or the gods... you serve the Theocracy and those gods, 'because' it lets you do all those things you really like." She brought her face close to his and curled one finger underneath his chin.
His hand darted up to grab her throat, she didn't move, she looked into his eyes and whispered, "Do it... do it... you want to, you know you do... I see it in you." She whispered. "This is how things end for people like me, and you know what..." She gasped out as he started to squeeze, "I like it."
He squeezed tighter, she didn't pull away, she just kept looking at him, faint groans coming out of her lips, suddenly she thrust herself forward against him, for a moment he thought it was an attack. In a way, it was, but she wasn't tearing at flesh, rather she tore at clothing. She was in a frenzy, one that was rising in him as well. 'What have I gotten myself into?' He wondered as she tore away his pants, neither noticed when the wine spilled and the bottle rolled away off the table, to smash and spill the remainder of the red liquid, and staining the stones red around it in a large splash.
He woke up in the morning with a kick to the ribs. He reacted immediately, darting his hand out, grabbing behind the foot, and lifting it up, and pushing off, sending Yuri staggering back. "Relax, 'Suchala'." She said teasingly, "Just a little foreplay." She grinned, she still wasn't dressed.
"We've got a lot to do today." She said enthusiastically.
"You have something in mind." He said with a grunt as he got up and rubbed one of the many bruises she'd left on him.
"Yes. Now, you know how much I'd like to just light the way to the city for that bitch of a paladin, but I don't think it is the best idea. Instead, we get to play an all new game." She clapped her hands together and her face lit with the joy of a child given a new toy on her birthday.
"What?" The General asked as he put his clothes on.
"We get to do an inquisition, we start getting people to turn in their neighbors, their friends, their own family members. Oh, the look of betrayal on their faces... it'll be so... so wonderful. We can come up with all kinds of ways to ask them questions. All the water in this city, we can try holding people under, lots of smiths work here, we can make all kinds of implements. And then..." She held her insane smile as she looked over at him, the only change to her expression was that she blinked.
"Yes?" He asked indifferently.
"Yuri's twisted expression grew even more pronounced as she curled her fingers tight and she added, "We throw them out. We make them all start walking to Neia's army. We can keep a few to screw with her if she besieges the place, but most of them, yeah, we send them out without even the clothes on their backs. They can walk to her, naked and with nothing. I wonder how many will freeze, or get sick or... if she's far enough away, will they go mad, will they turn on each other... oh, how I wish I could see..."
Suchala's indifferent expression little changed as he responded. "I see, she takes them in, she has a food problem, she doesn't, she looks bad, her god looks bad, and she can't go very far."
Yuri's expression went curious as she asked, "By the way, find someone suitable to take power in the South?"
"I don't know what they're playing at with the whole 'OK you can go' crap, but I know Neia's army is coming this way, someone should probably be in power before final negotiations." Yuri added as she put her clothes back on.
"A Baron, named Kailen." He replied as he strapped on his sword belt.
"I know that one, hard nosed, efficient, brave. The nobles will accept him." She replied as she put on her breastplate.
"Doesn't matter, as long as he's willing to work with us." General Suchala replied patiently.
Why Yuri started laughing when she walked out the door, he did not know. "I'll get the inquisition started, we can probably round up most of them well before Neia gets here, but I'd like to slow her down just a little if we can."
He didn't get a chance to answer before she shut the door.
...Holy Kingdom...Neia's Line of March...
"Another one?" Neia asked.
A sad expression was her only answer from the scout.
Neia's jaw was clenched with anger. "Neia, calm down." Skana said gently.
"I am calm." Neia said with a voice of ice.
"No, you're angry." Lakyus pointed out abruptly, "Not that I blame you, but you can't be surprised about the fate of these villages close to the border."
"I'm not surprised..." Neia said as she dismissed the scout, "I'm just... I had hope. I mean, we're supposed to be the same kingdom, how could they? Did we really lose so much to demihumans and demons, just to rip each other apart?"
She looked to her companions and to her wife, "It was one thing for it to be demihumans and demons, hell, it was even another thing for it to be Astraka and the Slane Theocracy. But... but peasants, ordinary peasants would have done those things. To people literally just like themselves, dressed like themselves, living the same lives... farther north it was mostly outcasting, or if there was barbarism, it was incited by Theocracy priests... but these had to be done by scouts, outriders foraging. They made... well... they made a conscious 'choice' to do those things."
"Maybe it makes it worse, maybe not, but dead is dead." Skana said practically, "It's sad but..." She shook her head, "What can you do?"
"Avenge them of course." Neia said, suddenly laughing, "Send a rider with a message, tell the city of Yanana that if their army stays there, I'll leave them alone, I'm just going to visit some of 'their' villages with the same thing in mind as what they did to ours in the north."
"Neia, you can't mean..." Lakyus paled.
"No, but this'll draw them away from the city, and that is all we need." Neia replied with fury in her voice. "Just one thing, and remember this, I do not plan on offering surrender, when I'm done, Yanana will cease to exist."
"Neia..." Skana whispered softly. "Come back..."
...Crossroads...
"I don't think he'll be joining us." Rascal said grimly.
"Why is that?" Moira said when he stopped in front of them and looked back.
He pointed to the rising column of smoke. "Because we were staying right about 'there' and I'm guessing he didn't get the message in time... but... I doubt he was captured either."
"That ought to slow pursuit some, at least for a little while." Owl remarked, "But then it'll get worse."
"Worse?" Petyr looked at him in disbelief as they resumed their hurried stride. "How could things possibly get worse?"
"Because now they're going to flood the streets looking for us, and depending on what they've managed to learn, they could flood the streets with soldiers knowing exactly what we look like." Rascal remarked critically.
When they reached the warrens they followed Rascal all the way to an alley. A thug was leaning against the wall, a busted up but familiar face to Rascal. "Going to let me in this time, or do we have to go again?" He asked.
The ugly mug let out a grunt and got out of the way with an obedient nod. Rascal knocked, "It's me, I'm here to see Kirak."
The door opened quickly and they wasted no time rushing to the back room.
"Well, you all fucked that one up pretty quick, didn't you?" Shanda said immediately, waving them to a seat from where she sat next to Kirak.
"No, definitely not. Well, that depends on how you define that." Rascal said as he took a seat. "The target died, and... I guess you probably heard about the fire before we got halfway here, thanks to our little roundabout route."
"We did, I'm assuming that your comrade didn't make it. So that is good at least, no captives. Probably a fair number of casualties too, but let's get down to business." Kirak said coldly and put his feet up on the table, he crossed his ankles and folded his hands in his lap.
"You've got two choices, you can run another mission or you can hide out until the siege ends. What'll it be?" He asked bluntly.
"What did you have in mind if we want to keep at it?" Owl asked curiously.
"A weapons shortage." Kirak replied with a pleasant smile curling up on his face. "Simply put, you were able to do some damage to a fair amount of their equipment, and they still don't realize it since your General has not seen fit to assault the walls in earnest yet. However you can do a lot of 'obvious' harm by say... burning down a warehouse or stealing a weapon shipment. There are a few smiths in town who have had extra work lately. You steal a few loads, I hide them away, the Theocracy lacks enough weapons for their new recruits... as good as killing a soldier is depriving him of the means to 'be' a soldier. Savvy?"
"You've got our attention." Rascal said intensely, leaning forward with fists firmly held to the table surface.
Petyr felt a growing discomfort in his stomach. "What about the warehouses instead?" He asked hopefully.
"I was being sarcastic about that, you don't have a chance of getting in there, even with all of you together, there are scriptures watching those. No, the best you can do is rob the smiths directly, get a few loads out, and..." Kirak started to explain.
"You'll take the equipment and sell it off after the siege is over and make a very hefty profit." Petyr guessed cynically.
"He's a smart one." Shanda said with a playful smile.
"Exactly right." Kirak replied with an affirmative nod.
"What about the smiths?" Petyr asked, "They're just tradesmen doing their jobs, what happens to them?"
"My guess, they'll be imprisoned, lose their shops, lose their contracts, lose their goods, what we haven't stolen anyway... that kind of thing." Kirak replied disinterestedly. "This bothers you?" He asked Petyr.
"I'm a smith, damn it! There's a... a boy I've been helping, his father is at the wall and he's trying to do his father's work and..." Petyr started to explain, only to close his mouth when Shanda covered her mouth and laughed.
"I take it back, you're not smart. This is a war, you don't get to play nice 'and' win." Shanda's seductive eyes turned hard and cold and she clenched her jaw tight, "You kill him, or rob from him, or burn down his shop, or I don't care what or how, but get this through your head, mister 'smith'. There's a war out there and it is going to come in here. Every sword you helped make is going to be used to kill your friends outside those walls, now what'll it be? You can go to ground or you can save some lives. Whatever you want to do, decide on it quick before the decision is taken away from you."
Petyr looked down, shame-faced. "No, you're right. You're right. We don't really have a choice about this."
"No, you don't." Rascal said unhappily. "I get how you feel, but you can't be on both sides."
"Damn it!" Petyr exclaimed unhappily.
"I take it you have a plan then?" Owl asked.
"Yup, just a little switching things up. I had some crates prepared, they're full of rocks, nice of General Enri to give us all that rubble to work with, you sneak over at night, a few whores will be keeping the patrols busy, you swap out the crates so that the delivery on the following day is ruined, put the ones full of equipment onto one cart, and when they load the others tomorrow, well you get it." Kirak remarked with a sly grin.
"After that, well... assuming you survive, there's one more thing you can do." Kirak said optimistically.
"Which is?" Moira asked, her lips pursed thin and her eyes focused on Kirak.
"Bring down the gate, and make sure this city falls." He said, and he started to laugh, as did Shanda, when their mouths dropped open in disbelief.