AN: I did say shit was going to start getting dark.
...Yanana...
Twenty thousand Slane Theocracy soldiers, and the thousands of surviving fanatics of Remedios Custodio, tipped the political scales within the city. Yuri deputised hundreds of inquisitors. "Here are your guidelines. If they admit their guilt, they are by definition... guilty. If they run, then they must be 'guilty' because only the guilty would run away. If they admit their guilt under intense questioning, they are 'guilty'. If they level accusations against you, they level them against the gods, and are therefore, guilty. If they resist, they are guilty. If they cannot prove their loyalty to the six or the four, they are 'guilty', and if they assert their loyalty to the proper gods, well the followers of the undead will lie, therefore you should think them 'guilty' for lying to you. Do not let them look you in the eyes, they will attempt to elicit sympathy from you, that is their dark magic at work, if they attempt this, they are by definition 'guilty'."
Yuri stood center stage with her hands behind her back as she looked down at her white robed deputy inquisitors, they raised their voices to the heavens and praised the gods with arms outstretched. "To your laws, we commend our souls!" They intoned.
"Any questions?" She asked archly.
Given the hours of briefing, there were none, and so she said with a joyful smile of absolute bliss, "Go then, and for the gods, purge the wicked."
When she rejoined General Suchala, she had a smug smile on her face. "Well, that should make it easy to get rid of the fifth column within the city. And we'll burden Neia's supply lines as well. Assuming she doesn't just decide to massacre everybody because they're inconvenient!" She threw her head back and laughed long and laughed loud as she imagined death's child slaughtering the naked civilians they were sending to her.
"It's a start, I don't care how we get them out, death or exile, but we can't have people inside the walls who will open the gates." Suchala said fervently. "Sending them out, no matter what Neia does, is probably for the best, even killing them like she did the hostages would take time. She's bloodthirsty enough that she might go that route." He rapped his knuckles the desk in front of him, "Try to be quick about whatever you're doing though, we don't have abundant time."
"It'll be easy." She said maliciously as she leaned over his desk and slammed her hands down on it, palms flat, she had a wild smile on her face, "Many of her supporters started living openly as such, we'll get those first."
"Whatever, just do it, you can talk yourself into bliss later, I'm busy." Suchala said pointedly and rubbed his temple as he tried to focus on the task at hand.
Yuri was not wrong. One thousand. That was how many they managed to find within the first day without even trying. She looked out over the thousand crowded into the court of justice, the place where Neia had nearly been martyred, she hugged her body to restrain her enjoyment. When she regained control over herself, she rapped the gavel several times, there were numerous conversations and discussions among the captives, who clung together in family groupings under the smug, hateful, or vengeful eyes of inquisitors and soldiers.
"You are all apostates to the true gods!" Yuri opened with a shout. "Normally, you would all be killed for that! Because the gods require that we enforce their rule. However!" She pointed the gavel at them dramatically as they stared at her in open mouthed disbelief, mothers clutched to children, husbands to wives, some looked at her with fury, clenching fists with anger while others looked at her with horror or fear, she drank it all up with joy.
"On this occasion we have chosen to be merciful!" She clutched the gavel to the cleft between her breasts and closed her eyes, she looked down and away, enjoying the dramatic effect, "For mercy too, is the way of the gods!" Relief swept over the gathering. Even with her eyes closed, she could feel it.
She straightened herself and put her hands on the edge of her podium, "Therefore you will all be exiled... naked. You will go north, out of the lands of the gods, let them decide what to do with you from there." She said as silent disbelief swept the prisoners.
Tears and struggles were the response as inquisitors and soldiers came down and began tearing clothing from those who would not willingly disrobe, more than one father or mother was struck by truncheons or held at halberd point as daughter or son was deprived of the dignity and warmth of their very own clothing. Regardless of their efforts, bound as they were, there was no real chance to resist, and as a result, there soon stood a thousand naked humans trembling as much from the cold as from their anxiety.
"Walk them to the gate! Cast them out and let the gods decree their fate!" Yuri said in a powerful, commanding voice.
The shouts renewed as halberds lowered in unison and the sharp points forced people to trudge up the stairs and out into the streets, people watched in wide eyed fascination at the naked parade, some laughed, a few bolder ones threw rotted vegetables, priests of the old gods proclaimed divine justice and exhorted any whose faith was flagging or who had slipped from the fold to come to the temples and see it renewed, lest they suffer the fate of those unfortunates.
The sound of trudging feet and cries of indignation, the wailing of children, from little ones at the breast to the younglings who were able to walk on their own, broke the hearts of their parents. But if it moved any hearts among the observers, then it did not move anyone enough to do anything.
When they were forced out of the city and the gates slammed shut behind them, only one guard remained, he marched them a bowshot from the city before he took out a key and released them from their chains. "Go. Stick to the road, perhaps you will run into General Baraja and... good luck to you." He said sympathetically.
"Good luck?" A prisoner asked with disbelief as he rubbed his sore wrists. "After that, you wish us luck?"
"Never in my life have I performed as sad a duty as this one, but I'm only following orders, and this is what the gods have commanded." He said somewhat sadly.
"Fine then." The former prisoner said and turned on his heel in disgust, he started to walk north, "Come on, it's a long way north and it isn't getting any warmer!" He shouted to his fellows, and as if galvanized by the order and by his anger, they began to walk away, and the guard returned to the city.
...Elf Kingdom...
"By all the gods..." Zesshi said, falling back on habit when they crested the hill and found herself looking over Crescent Lake to the city beyond it. Her customary unflappable indifference was shaken deeply as she looked at what she would have thought impossible.
"Welcome home... Princess Zesshi." Thirg said with a wide mouthed grin that exposed his fangs, his maul was over one shoulder and his red vampire eyes fixed firmly on the sight of his homeland's capital.
"What... am I seeing?" Zesshi asked in abject disbelief.
"You are looking at what happens when elves decide to 'grow' a city." Tefl said proudly, "There is none other like it." As she looked at it, even from across the lake, Zesshi was not inclined to dispute the claim. A single enormous tree was in the center, its branches turned up into towers, even from there, she could see people walking along the wooden paths with rails grown straight out of the branch. Tree connected to tree and branch to branch, birds made nests alongside the homes of the elf inhabitants. Down below the great tree were many smaller ones, these had complex interconnecting lines that, at a guess, suggested familial relationships, where down below, streets of stone provided common access to various buildings.
"I've got to see this up close." Zesshi said breathlessly, her blood was up and telling her to go, not in this moment, for hostages or for her revenge, but because she felt drawn to the place as if by some invisible force of nature itself.
"You will, but wait for nightfall. I doubt you'll face any real opposition, at least until you get to the palace." Thirg said thoughtfully as he rubbed his jaw, "It isn't that the guards there are more loyal to the king, everyone hates him, even I remember that much. But if they work in the palace, then odds are their families are constantly with him, he went with the Slane Theocracy. That means that he's got some hostages with him now and so people will fight to keep you at bay."
"That is unfortunate." Zesshi said calmly. "So, do you know the way down to where they are?"
"That we don't." Tefl answered, shaking her head as she twirled one of her knives in one hand. "But before we were sold, we did hear things about it."
"What did you learn?" Zesshi asked intently, tearing her face away from the stunning sight of Crescent Lake only with the greatest effort.
"Gah," Thirg began, rubbing the back of his head unhappily, he didn't really meet her gaze, "crazy stuff mostly, rumors and stories. Underground writing in a weird script nobody has ever seen before, unbreakable stone, and it runs several levels deep. Nobody knows who built it, and one of the stories said that it just 'appeared' there beneath the palace and the king emerged from it and... well, it's all just crazy stuff. The place exists, but the rest of that?" He took the maul off his shoulder and rested the head of it on the ground, then leaned on the handle and said, "Well, you know how stories can just spring up sometimes. I don't buy it. It's enough to know that the place exists and can be accessed from the palace. We can find our way in from there."
"I think, brother mine, that it is very unlikely that anyone 'in' the palace, will actually help with that." Tefl pointed out sarcastically.
"Agreed, but there are hostages from here in Crescent Lake, you can count on it, and that means there will be someone who can tell us how to get there." Thirg pointed out with an equally caustic voice.
"An interesting thought but... I'm afraid we can't let you do that." A voice from the forest said in passing.
Zesshi whirled to face it, as did her comrades.
"Get out here." She said in a voice of ice,
"Really Zesshi, after all this time, you don't know me by my voice alone?" The hidden speaker said with a laugh.
"Of course I do! But I want to look you in your eyes, and I want you to see into mine!" She shouted.
There was silence for a moment, and then a rustling from beyond, that last only until the Captain of the Black Scripture stepped fully into view, along with the rest of the surviving seats.
"Hello again Zesshi, or should I say... traitor?" The Captain said unhappily, looking slightly away from her.
"Look at me, Captain." She said coldly. "Notice anything different?" She asked.
He did as she asked, "Your hair is pulled back." He said, stating the obvious.
"That's right. You can look at them now." She said calmly.
"Hey cappy, we were supposed to read Raymond's note before confronting her, r'member?" The second seat said with annoyance.
"Ugh, you're right." The Captain said with exasperation, "Well Zesshi, since you weren't planning on anything until tonight anyway, can we maybe wait two minutes before killing each other? Raymond left us all a letter when we were in Kami Miyako, with strict instructions to read it before confronting you."
Zesshi looked at him in surprise, "A letter? From Raymond?" She was brought up short by that, and to the Captain's surprise, she nodded emphatically.
"Yes, read it, I'll wait." She said and stood her scythe up beside her.
The sound of multiple envelopes being torn open and cast aside, broke the stillness of the moment and a multitude of eyes scanned the script in front of them. Finally the captain lowered the document and simply said, "What the hell is this shit?"
...Crossroads...
Missing. Such a simple word, but even as a sentence it led to endless questions. Questions which, as far as the trio of Owl, Moira, and Rascal could tell, had no answers. That was why they were sitting across from Kirak and Shanda once again.
"We got your goods, now where the hell is Petyr?" Moira asked passionately.
"Asking me for the sixth time in two hours will not change my answer. We don't know, we didn't know, and maybe we won't know. He could have gone to ground, or been caught, or be dead in an alley from a random encounter with an unexpected robber." Kirak took a swig of wine and slammed his cup down.
"Perhaps you should worry more about yourselves. You're dropping like flies lately and now there are only three of you. They've got your faces most likely, and after the robbery last night, you think the guards were out in force before? They'll be several times worse now." Shanda said, narrowing her eyes and staring at them as if they were imbeciles.
"Well, what do you plan to do?" Owl asked.
"We plan to hide you out, you're not going to see the outside for a bit, because while you're in hiding, you're going to be working." Kirak said confidently.
"Working on 'what' exactly?" Rascal asked skeptically as he tapped his fingers over and over again on the table in front of him.
"Tell me, what do you know about the way gates are rigged?" Kirak asked with a clever smile on his face.
The trio looked at one another and collectively shrugged. "Not much, why?" Rascal asked, narrowing his eyes and staring at them with suspicion.
The two smirked. "Because if you want to make sure this city falls, you're going to need to know something about it. We promised help, we've given plenty, but there's one more thing you'll need to do. Succeed, and the city is yours, but it will take lots of practice." Shanda replied.
"We're having a replica of a mechanism made for you, you're going to learn how to break it. Get the gate open, screw that mechanism up so that it can't close, and General Enri gets to drink with General Boabdill in his private office. You get me?" Kirak asked.
"But what about Petyr?" Owl asked flatly.
"We're putting out feelers, any hint of him, and it'll turn up, in the meantime there is nothing more you can do about it, so just be productive. You'll be eating, sleeping, and drinking gears until you can do it under any conditions, then when you're ready, we'll present the opportunity to strike. If we get word about your companion, we'll let you know. If we don't, then nobody knows where he is and it is no problem, at least, not that sort of problem." Kirak retorted smartly and he called a server bearing wine over, she poured some for everyone at the table. Shanda smiled in her most broad, charming fashion and raised her cup. "To life, to victory, and freedom from the past." She said. It was echoed by all, albeit with some small reluctance from those concerned for Petyr's life... but echoed it was, and they drank deeply till their cups were empty.
...Crossroads...Theocracy Headquarters...
General Boabdill was of mixed emotions as he sat at the table with his staff. "So, we've killed several of these, there are only three left now, right?" He asked.
"Yes, Sir." Commander Heikeren replied as he read off a document.
"How much did it cost us?" General Boabdill asked flatly.
"Well thirty soldiers burned to death in the fire, along with twenty civilians... in that building. Twenty five more citizens burned to death when the fire spread, until it could be contained and put out. Five buildings went up all in all, it could have been a lot worse, but we got lucky, sort of. It had rained before that, so the damp helped contain the flames." Heikeren replied unhappily.
"In addition, the one cornered at the bar killed two and injured two more. The remaining three are still at large, and the night the one at the bar was killed, there was a robbery. This morning when the shipment of weapons and armor were delivered and the crates opened, there was nothing in there but rocks We've arrested the relevant blacksmiths for failing to properly secure their goods, terminated their contracts, and their shops have been confiscated. It's a hollow gesture really, but... well, that is the law." Vice Commander Ira said unhappily as she gently set her own document down and smoothed the cheap paper out over the desk.
"Any more movement out of General Enri?" General Boabdill asked gravely.
"Little, her dragons seem to probe our defenses, checking out our deployments and where we concentrate our soldiers, and we've noticed that their mangonels seem to adjust their fire afterwards, the damage to the city has been rather light, and they've given up on taking the walls down with rocks. I don't get it." Commander Heikeren said glumly.
"I get it." The Vice Commander replied, "Our injury to the dragon spooked her and she saw we could hurt them. She relied heavily on the use of her dragons to deliver soldiers who could outflank or surround us, to strike from within and sow chaos. Now she doesn't think they'll get through and she's trying to find a way to make sure they do."
"I agree, that seems the most probable thing, have we gotten any word about the new divisions coming from Kami Miyako?" General Boabdill asked hopefully.
"Yes, Sir. Three weeks, and they'll be here with another seventy-five thousand soldiers, infantry and cavalry... no siege weapons, too slow, but with that many we'll have a significant numerical advantage and the city to anchor us." Commander Heikeren said with a smile growing on his face.
"That may be enough, but really, three weeks?" He asked.
"Yes, Thousand Mile Astrologer reported a massed army of twenty thousand elsewhere that they had to go and deal with, it isn't a large divergence, but it adds a week." Heikeren added. "Unfortunate, but they can handle it." He shrugged, "We've held out for awhile now, we can hold out a while longer."
"I suppose we'll have to, but if she knows they're on the way, she may attack before then, I want triple the soldiers on shift and a thousand in reserve at the center point beyond each wall by twenty yards, take down buildings to make space for them if you have to, but I want them able to respond to any assault on the walls at any position within a matter of minutes." Boabdill said thoughtfully.
"It will be done, Sir. Anything else?" The Vice Commander asked with a predatory smile.
"Nothing for now, keep me informed." The General replied and stood up, signalling the meeting's end.