AN: Just a question, where do you rank Neia's overall Karma 'prewar' versus 'present'?
Chapter 146:
...North of Yanana…
Neia never imagined it would be so hard to do nothing. Two raids had come her way, and both times she'd had to stay back and simply 'direct'. Both had been quickly dispatched, but nonetheless, it rankled.
"You're cross, my love." Skana said patiently.
"You're observant, my love." Neia quipped as they rode together.
"Want to tell me why?" Skana asked, fixing her one good eye on her wife.
"I'm used to fighting, leading from the front is second nature. Staying back… it just feels wrong, like cowardice. Like I'm asking people to do what I'm not going to do myself." Neia answered in a tired sort of voice.
"I can understand that, but you've already been a front liner, you've proven yourself in every way, nobody will accuse you of lack of courage." Skana said gently, reaching from where she sat on her horse, to take Neia's hand in hers.
Neia allowed the touch and then gave her a crooked smile, "One person would."
Skana looked outraged, her jaw clenched and teeth were bared and her one good eye narrowed dangerously. "Who, name them and I'll tear them a new asshole."
"Vivid, but… that person is me. I'd accuse myself, and when we accuse ourselves, we're always guilty, even when we're not." Neia whispered and gave a gentle smile in return for Skana's misdirected outrage.
"You don't have to spend your life proving yourself, you know." Lakyus said reluctantly.
"Maybe not, but I don't feel right being anywhere but the front." Neia said fervently.
"Neia… can I ask you something?" Lakyus gently asked.
Neia nodded, "Of course."
"Are you…" she began, then struggled to find a word that wouldn't offend her, "alright?" she finished.
"Of course I am. I'm fine, everything is fine, I'm alright." Neia repeated herself several ways and several times in rapid succession.
"Neia, you're talking about wiping out a city, a city that…" Lakyus began to answer, only for Neia to interrupt.
"That is hosting the fanatics who burned my followers alive, that hosts the Slane Theocracy, who helped them do it, that stripped me to the waist so I could be beaten for questioning their priests. They chose to go the route of war, I'm just making sure that they really know they've lost it." Neia's voice was dark as she answered, and Lakyus might have questioned her further, except for the return of a scout who rode up in a desperate hurry to the head of the column.
"General, we have a problem!" He said urgently.
"Well, what is it? An army? An ambush? A disaster?" Neia pushed urgently for an answer, leaning forward on her horse and reaching instinctively for her bow.
"Not an army really but… the city of Yanana has expelled our people, all your followers and… they're naked." He said as if he could barely believe his own words.
"Naked? What do you mean, naked?" Neia asked in disbelief.
"No clothes, nothing but their skin and hair." He said firmly.
The chill wind became much more obvious in that moment to the warrior pope, but it had nothing on her sense of rage. She turned to her Vice Commander. "Skana, ride to the rear and have wagons reshuffled, empty as many as you can and rush those ahead of us, have them packed full of people and bring them here."
"Got it." Skana said and wheeled her horse around to head back to the supply train.
"CZ, we'll need blankets, clothes, have a dozen wagons loaded with those." Neia added.
"I will." CZ replied, and went down the line of march.
"This bring back memories?" Neia asked that evening as she and her companions sat around the flame and waited for the stew to be ready.
"It does." Skana said in a voice frostier than the chill night air.
"What?" Lakyus asked curiously as she stirred the pot.
"Before things got to this point, we saw occasional expulsions, well… a lot of expulsions. Sometimes inquisitor led, sometimes spontaneous, but whatever the cause, yeah, people would sometimes get cast out by their community." Skana said unhappily.
"We saved the ones we could but… who knows how many died alone in the wilderness?" Neia said in a shallow voice as Lakyus held out her hand to accept a bowl.
"Or were cut down by either their own neighbors, or by bandits, or by overzealous inquisitors or…" Skana shivered with rage.
Lakyus was quiet, a sense of shame washed over her as she recalled the faith she'd followed, and all it had caused her to do, taught her to believe. She wordlessly laddled stew into bowls for them all, then herself, then took a seat in the circle.
As if sensing her distress, Neia looked over to her. "You're not responsible for everyone who shared your faith. Maybe you've done a few wrongs, but if they're yours, just do what you can to fix them."
"You sound like a priest." Lakyus managed to crack a smile at that, which broke into a laugh when Neia was taken aback by the statement and let her mouth fall open in surprise.
She relaxed a moment later and started to laugh, "I'm the pope of a new religion, I suppose that makes me kind of like a priest."
"How long did you spend with the refugees?" Lakyus asked.
Neia blushed, "A few hours."
"Yup, priest." Lakyus pointedly and smugly replied.
"You keep wearing new hats my love, you'll need to grow another head to fit them all." Skana said as she dipped her bread into the stew.
Her sense of humor lightened the mood for a bit, but it couldn't last. "H-How many did they say we should expect?" Skana asked hesitantly.
"Thousands." Neia replied calmly. "We can't handle that kind of increase on our supplies. They can't stay with us."
"They need to be sent to Prart. They can make that journey easily enough with some carts and some food, but then we're in a bad way after we finish." Lakyus said what they were all thinking, but then added a suggestion. "The Sorcerer King's ability to simply move from place to place, does it have a limit?"
"A limit?" Neia asked. "What kind of limit?"
"I mean, does it only work for him or can he move groups, large ones, like an army?" Lakyus further explained.
"I honestly don't know but… I can ask. I was going to request to visit Nazarick soon anyway, I wanted to borrow the Dagger of Paradox from Lord Demiurge. So… I suppose I can ask then." She replied optimistically.
"The dagger of what now?" Lakyus asked in a quizzical voice.
"Dagger of Paradox. It was used to… test me." Neia shuddered at the memory, "I passed." She might have shuddered, but her voice was full of pride.
"What makes it so special?" Lakyus asked as she set aside her empty bowl.
"You can't do what you want with it. If you try to hurt yourself, you'll fail, try to hurt someone else, you'll only hurt yourself." Neia's voice was very quiet as she explained, and this gave both Skana and Lakyus all the information they needed about just what kind of 'test' Neia had passed.
'No… they couldn't… they didn't… wait… it was Lord Demiurge. He could, he would. Did Lord Ainz know? Was he behind it? No, couldn't be, he's never shown anything but confidence in her. My god…' Skana wanted to clutch her head and close her eyes as she pictured the scene, Demiurge handing her the dagger, telling her she had to die… nobody knew better than Skana what that would do to Neia, what she would do, what failure would do to her… 'Neia… why didn't you tell me, what must it have been like for you, to hear that order, to follow it, to try desperately to cut into your own breast or slash your own wrists. I can't even…' She forced herself away from those thoughts, ripping them away like a scab over a wound and made herself ask a more 'practical' question in the most even tone that she could manage.
"But what will you do with it?" Skana inquired.
"Career soldiers value their reputation, their legacy, and their honor, well, as they see it anyway… above all other things. General Suchala was undefeated, now his back is to the wall, his soldiers will look to him for courage and strength of will. So…" Neia's eyes went to a shiny black that reflected the fire before them as she finished her answer, "with this, I will destroy everything General Suchala values in himself."
...Nazarick…
"So, they're really that far gone are they?" Ainz asked as he listened to Demiurge's report on the current state of the Slane Theocracy.
"Yes, My Lord. They've scraped the bottom of every barrel in their attempt to continue the fight. Their magic schools are almost completely shut down, the food is down to half rations in the areas they consider threatened and impossible to hold, and they're now using criminals as soldiers." Demiurge replied. "My Lord… may I make a humble request?"
"Ask." Ainz said politely, holding his hand out as if to accept an offering.
"Their criminal division, I know it would be trivial to let them simply be defeated on the field, but may I instead ask to have them for my use?" Demiurge asked hopefully.
"Do you have room enough to store them?" Ainz asked curiously.
"I would require Mare's assistance to create a large enough containment area… but I promise, My Lord, it would only take a few days, and we'll have subjects enough for our experiments to last for years." Demiurge explained enthusiastically.
Ainz thought it over… "The humans of this world are very bad at determining who is truly deserving of punishment, more than once we've been sent a murderer and found out they were framed or falsely accused. Or we've been sent the petty or the desperate who would not have been criminals but for the need for food or potions…. Yes, you may have them Demiurge, but have your assistant winnow the ones deserving of it, from those not."
"And what of those 'not', My Lord?" Demiurge asked.
"Deliver them to a prison camp as prisoners of war. Accord them all rights that other prisoners get. No more, no less. We will have a use for all of these people when the war ends after all, it is insensible to destroy our own subjects, even if they don't recognize themselves as such." Ainz said as he leaned back on his throne.
"How are the legions of Jircniv performing?" Ainz asked, eager to move the subject before he could be asked any questions.
Demiurge flipped to another document without missing a beat and said, "Very well, as humans go, order was restored in the capital under Zanac, and the purges of the old nobility are under way. They and the army of Re-Estize are marching south with Shalltear and Zaryusu. Also, Hilma has remained in residence in the capital, and has reported that she's finished training her replacement, and will move into an advisory role to transition the new one until the war ends."
"Very well, now what about… (*AN: Events referenced here feature material from 'Blood in the Streets) our replacement Thousand Mile Astrologer, and our little 'resistance' within Kami Miyako?" Ainz asked.
"Enlaith has been providing steady lists of names and other personal information on the people who may create problems when the final engagement takes place, and Doppel One has provided misinformation to Dominic at every turn. His trust in 'her' has led him to mistrust members of his command that should have been trusted. As a result, when his Agante took their long knives out to do purges of the ranks of potential dissidents, he accidentally eliminated some committed allies." Demiurge was about to continue further, when at Ainz's side, Albedo lost her decorum.
"Oh my Lord… you're so amazing, only you could so make your enemy dance in the palm of your hand that they kill their own!" Albedo fairly cried out, she clutched her body tightly, her eyes burned bright with absolute fanaticism. "I…I...I Oh My Lord just…!" She paused and reached for him.
"Albedo containment protocol one!" Ainz shouted in alarm, prompting Cocytus, Sebas, and the Eight Edge Assassins to rush to tackle her and drag her from clawing at her lord's robe.
"Three days confinement, as usual." Ainz said with a frustrated sigh as he brushed off his royal robes and reseated himself in the Throne of Kings. Her wail of unhappiness and desire cut deep as the guilt for his actions welled up in him again, only for it to be gratefully suppressed and leaving him frustrated instead.
"I wonder if anyone else ever has to put up with this?" He asked himself now that he was, for the moment at least, blessedly alone as Demiurge assisted in dragging Albedo away.
...Crossroads…
Rascal tasted copper in his mouth, which is what you usually tasted when you had blood in it. He kicked, hard, and knocked the attacker backward down the stairs. "Are you done over there?!" He shouted to Moira, who was fumbling desperately in the dark with the mechanism.
"Almost! Give me a few more seconds!" She shouted back.
"We don't have a few more seconds!" Owl snapped, "Screw it!" he shouted and flung himself bodily down the stairs, toppling the entire series of attackers down to the bottom.
"Got it!" Moire shouted and flung the removed components away.
"Alright, halt!" Kirak said from where he was sitting in the corner of the room. Everybody gradually disentangled themselves, some with groans, some with laughs, some with apologies of one sort or another, but back to their feet they got, sore and tired though they were.
"Not bad, not bad at all." Kirak said with a laugh, "You've cut time considerably even in the dark.
"We ought to have, it's been two weeks, day after day, hour after hour fending off mock assaults and all of us just taking turns disassembling your damned replica. Ugh, I swear if I live through this I'll have nightmares about gears for the rest of my life." Rascal said with a roll of his eyes.
"Same here." Owl added.
"Still, nice move flinging yourself down the stairs, not exactly lethal, but it buys time, and time will buy you this city." Kirak said with enthusiasm. "Wait till you see her move, and then strike."
"Remember, you must hit the gate house, and hit it hard, you won't be able to 'damage' the equipment since most of it is adamantite, goodness knows what it cost to make, but it is 'meant' to work together. So you can, from the inside, disassemble some of it. Do that long enough to throw the parts beyond the wall, and…" Shanda smirked as she spoke, "well if this city were a woman, she wouldn't be a virgin for much longer after that."
"Any chance we'll get any help on this?" Rascal asked hopefully.
"None." Shanda and Kirak replied.
"I'm sorry, really I am, but I'm done with all that, we both are. We fought our fights and we're repaying our debt to you, but we're not throwing our lives away." Kirak replied with some small guilt tinging his voice.
"Is that what we're doing?" Moira asked softly.
"Probably." Rascal said with resignation.
"For what it's worth… sorry." Owl said sadly.
"You, you're sorry?" Moira said with disbelief.
"Who?" Owl asked with a smirk and he pretended to look around for the source of the sympathetic expression.
"Uh huh. Well, if we're all done with that, we need to check out the gate house, I'm sure it is heavily defended." Moira rolled her eyes at Owl's absurdities as she got down to practical matters.
"Sure, just schedule a tour at your noon meal." Shanda said, closing her eyes and waving her hand as if it were a trivially easy matter.
"Wait, really?" Moira looked at her suspiciously.
"No, she's screwing with you." Rascal said dryly. "So I remember something of the gatehouse from my time here years ago, any chance anything has changed since then?"
"None at all." Kirak responded with a shake of his head, "Those are some of the best defenses in the Slane Theocracy outside of Kami Miyako, how can you upgrade to 'better than the best'?"
"True enough, are they still keeping a solid fifty soldiers there?" Rascal inquired as he looked away, running the numbers through his head.
"No, it's up to a hundred now, General Boabdill is a cautious one." Kirak answered in an admiring tone.
"Those were always trouble…" Rascal's words trickled off as he pondered further.
"Yeah, but I see that look on your face, I've seen that before, what do you plan on doing?" Shanda asked as a cunning smile formed on her face and a twinkle appeared in her eyes.
"I was a scripture once…" Rascal said with a quiet, deadly voice. He then began to laugh uproariously, to the bewilderment of his friends, he clutched his belly with both hands and laughed so hard that he cried.
"What, what's so funny?" Moira asked with a smile creeping over her face at the sight.
"I was just thinking… we're about to show the Sorcerer King's armies just why scriptures are the champions of humanity… while on his side… taking a city from the humans who taught me." Rascal tried to wipe his tears of laughter clear, only to see that where he left off, Shanda and Kirak picked up, when they too had finally stopped laughing, they traded a look between one another.
"Hell, after that, I guess we have to help you. Don't plan on any last stands from us but… alright, one last mission together." Shanda said and stuck out her hand. Rascal took it and shook it hard.
"Like old times." He said with a wink.
"Not quite, you're not getting laid this time." She said with a salacious wink.
"Oh yes he is!" Moira interjected. "Damned if I'm going out there without one more good time."
"Oh good god, what a squad I got myself into." Owl said with an exasperated sigh.
"So, what did you have in mind?" Kirak asked with an interrogative cough, trying to draw them back to the important matters.