AN: You'll note that there is some exact and nearly exact textual overlap between some of this and 'God Rising' C61 & C62. The reason…if it wasn't obvious, is because the stories are now overlapping as this one has caught up, and you're going to see what plays out here. If you enjoy this story, please feel free to join my discord community, invite visible next to my profile image, OR just go to discord and search for 'Overlord Fanfiction'. If you want to support the author…well I don't take money myself, but you can donate to my charitable organization, bdgiving dot org.
OK, let's begin:
…Kami Miyako…Climb's 'Quarters'…The day of the Cardinal's return from the Draconic Kingdom…
Zesshi had come to see him a lot lately, probably because she was expecting to leave him soon, he'd come to think she actually rather liked him, kind of like how 'Blue Rose' did, like he was a kid brother or something, well but considered utterly hopeless and occasionally maddening. Their weeks had become a pleasant routine, she'd come in, teach him something, kick his ass, heal him, they would talk, they would drink, she would give him something else to learn, and then it would happen again, it was always that way when they were alone.
Their time together was actually...enjoyable, though it helped knowing he was keeping his princess safe, and though he had come to trust Zesshi, he was not willing to reveal that he had an easy way out or was still seeing the princess...or all the other things he'd learned.
This evening was like most others, and when she'd helped him to his feet and to get seated in a chair, she'd slid him the healing potion and, in a few moments, he was good as new. He broke out the wine and poured her a full cup and himself a half of one.
"Can I ask you something?" Climb asked.
"Please." She said, waving her cup in front of her invitingly.
"Why do you do it?" He asked her.
"Do what?" She asked in turn.
"Why do you want to be 'humanity's defender' and all that?" He asked.
"Why do you defend the princess?" She asked him.
"She's the world to me, she saved my life, nursed me back to health, she's given me everything. Of course, I will offer everything in return." He answered incredulously.
"What makes you think it's not the same for me?" She asked. "Father is an elf king, he made me by an act of rape, kidnapping and abusing my mother, the Theocracy rescued her, she bore me, birthed me, raised me, and they trained me and gave ME everything." She said. "You know all these things already...so why are you asking now?" She asked curiously.
"Seems to me that they're just using you." He said. He looked away a moment and said, "I've got a window up here, I can see down there, I've seen how when you walk by, people don't look at you, or if they do, it's only to avoid you, how they stop and talk when you have moved on, nobody seems to ask you anything about yourself, I've seen camaraderie, I've had camaraderie...it's just...who are your comrades?" He asked in confusion.
Zesshi was shocked into silence and thought about it for a time.
"If you have to think about it..." he began.
"Who are yours!" She snapped at him.
"First there was Gazef Stronoff, but there is also Brain Unglaus and all of Blue Rose." He said unhesitatingly.
"Oh...well...Raymond and I are very close." She said.
"Does he ever propose a change to the religion, you know, one that says elves are people too, so you're not considered halfway inferior?" Climb asked.
"Well, no... but he is a Cardinal, remember. He has his obligations to the gods." She said.
"Comrades...true comrades...wouldn't hate half of who their friends are, you can't have half a person, you get all of who they are...or none of them. Didn't you say something like that to me once? I can understand why you'd say it, but you were talking about your...sort of your...whole country. So... why don't you go ask Raymond about that, ask him directly how he sees you and your elven heritage? Wouldn't you want to know if he really is a comrade or not?" He asked.
Zesshi didn't answer, she looked down at her cup and quietly topped it off.
"You said once that you didn't know if you were truly brave or not, since you always won every fight you were going into and you knew before it happened that it was inevitable that you would win. So... here's a different kind of fight, test your courage there." Climb said simply.
"Alright..." She said softly and left without another word.
...Office of Raymond...Slane Theocracy...
Zesshi was just about to knock on the door to Raymond's office when the voices gave her pause.
"You really want to let the elf king rape human women as the price for his help?" Raymond's muffled voice said.
"You can't have qualms about it NOW, we already made the agreement." Dominic's voice answered, "And if we get another one like Zesshi out of it, well it's for the greater good! Why can't you see that?!" Dominic shouted.
"Because we're talking about an act the god's themselves abhorred, something so sickeningly wrong that even the undead expressly moved to prohibit it! And what do we say to them? How do we tell Zesshi that we can't let her kill her father until he's at least raped his way across the Holy Kingdom for us first, or that we might not even let her try at all if it turns out we can easily take away any women he impregnates. How do we tell her mother, one of our own scripture seats, that we're endorsing what was done to her?!" Raymond snapped.
"Your fondness for the half elf is tainting your thinking!" Dominic snapped.
"No! My value of my COMRADE is keeping my thinking clear! She'd never forgive us for this, and I wouldn't blame her, I blame myself for letting us get dragged this far into this monstrous agreement. What good is an army if we trade away our humanity! This won't end well for us! You mark me!" Raymond snapped.
"Blasphemer! Anything done for the faith cannot be sinful! Anything to ensure that our gods reign supreme and their worship and their servants are not threatened, must be acceptable or we are all done for!" Dominic shouted. "Why did you even ask me here?!" He snapped.
"I hoped in private you'd be able to keep your temper and see sense...but you didn't, now get out of my office!" Raymond snapped. Dominic walked away and reached for the handle, "You mark me Raymond, if we do things your way, there will be nothing left of us, we're battling monsters, so we must fight as they fight or we will be no more. "We'll kill the boy in the tower, and the princess for good measure, we'll use the soldiers of a mismanaged Re-Estize to reclaim E-Rantel, and in thirty years when we're retired, you'll swallow your pride and say I was right all along." Dominic said rapidly and angrily, until the end when he laughed.
"Everything will be fine, don't worry, the gods will it." Dominic said, and he exited the room. Zesshi however, was not seen, she had concealed herself to eavesdrop, and was displeased with much of what she'd heard.
She considered entering to speak with Raymond...but instead...decided she had somewhere else to be and began the walk back to the tower where Climb was no doubt swinging his practice sword.
Zesshi returned to Climb's room and closed the door behind her.
"They're going to kill you." She said bluntly.
Climb stopped swinging his sword at the target and set it down.
"Say what!?" He asked.
"I said, they're going to kill you. And your princess." She said.
"And you're here to do it?" He asked with resignation.
Zesshi approached in a quick stride of several loud clicking steps of boot over stone and slapped him hard across the face.
"No, you ass. You kept your word every single step of the way with me and…" She paused. "I'm not going to kill one of my only friends." She said.
He smiled as he rubbed his cheek. "You just about did with that slap." He said. "That'll leave a mark for a while."
Zesshi rolled her eyes, "I don't know when they plan to do it, but it will probably be soon, I read through the reports I got today after their return, if this 'Philip' fellow doesn't already have the throne, he will soon, and that means the royal family of Re-Estize is done for. If they're done for, then there is no reason at all to not kill the princess, and even less reason to keep you alive, so unless something changes, I give you a few weeks alive here at most before they do you in." She said urgently, and a knock came at the door.
"Enter." Zesshi said, and Aorli walked in, she glanced down the stairs behind her, as if wondering if anyone was listening.
"Mistress, there is an emergency meeting called by the cardinals, pushed up from yesterday to discuss the serial killings and the fires, they would like you to attend." She said softly with her eyes downcast.
Zesshi's blood boiled as she watched her little sister, still barefoot in a potato sack, lower her eyes to the floor, but she suppressed her outrage and as the message conveyed to her hit home, she smiled and touched her breast where within the pocket, her copy of the Draconic Accords sat neatly folded. That paper in her pocket held her heart's desire. It would free her little sister. It would end the practice that had destroyed her mother and ruined…or defined her life.
"Climb, go ahead and get some rest, we'll speak when I come tomorrow, Aorli, just lay low for a bit." Zesshi said and walked out the door.
Her brow furrowed as she walked down the stairs, Dominic was a Cardinal, but he wasn't the only one. Raymond would side with her, that much she had already confirmed by what she'd overheard.
She made the trip to the inner sanctuary where the Cardinals just seated themselves after they finished cleaning the room.
She leaned up against the wall, folded her arms over her chest and put the bottom of her left foot against the wall as well, for all the world she was as casual as could be.
Her hairstyle drew some shocked looks, however.
She could see a few wanted to comment on it, however before they could, Dominic slapped a document down on the table and exploded. "Seven brothels…all patrons dead…all slaves…gone! Thirty-seven murdered, some brutally…all slaves…gone! Four holding facilities burned down…all slaves…GONE! And on top of that, there have been thirteen dead guards, and twice as many people missing…just since we've been away!" He shouted.
"Calm yourself, you hot headed buffoon. You already made us look bad in the Draconic Kingdom, don't do it privately too." Ginedine said with exasperation.
"The real question isn't how many dead there are, but who is doing all this?" Raymond said reasonably.
"Elf slaves?" Berenice suggested.
"Hiding where?" Raymond asked pointedly.
"What do you mean?" Maximillian asked uncertainly.
"Look, it simply cannot be an elf or group of elves in the city." Raymond said, and before they could object, he raised his hand to stop them, "Hear me out, this is a very large city, however a group of elves of sufficient size simply couldn't hide here indefinitely, and with all the damage and destruction and death they're dealing out, people will be looking for elves. It seems to me that it is far more likely that we have human agents here." Raymond said.
"Such as…Black Justice." Yvon said with a dark expression.
"We all know how they feel about elf slavery, they've liberated thousands upon thousands of them, Neia Baraja burned Wenmark to cinders though given what rumors swirled around about that place…" Raymond let a shudder express his thoughts on the matter, and Zesshi watched with interest and an internally smug sense of satisfaction as they cluelessly discussed the killer, while the killer was in their midst.
"It wouldn't be beyond imagining for one or more, perhaps a whole squad of them, infiltrated our city just to cause chaos and panic, humans blend in, there are abandoned homes, or the Sorcerer King might have agents here providing a safe house for them. This is the unit that wiped out the Gray Scripture, this is the unit that led a riot to bring down the government of Prart, we cannot underestimate their devotion to their cause or their ability to see it to its end." Raymond said.
"OK, fine," Dominic said, "Say it is a handful of these 'elites'. They're going around, freeing elf slaves here like they did in the Holy Kingdom. So now they're here…so…how do we catch them? How do we end this threat?" Dominic said, reining in his temper for long enough to ask the question, perhaps more even tempered now that a solution had been proposed. Zesshi looked at him with hate carefully hidden with a mask of boredom. She touched the precious document in her breast pocket.
"You already have your answer." Zesshi said bluntly.
She rarely bothered to say much in these things, though it was her right to do so because…who was going to stop humanity's trump card.
"You? You mean?" Maximillian asked curiously, "I'm sure you could defeat them, but how will you find them?" He asked.
"No." She said, "I mean this." She said, and she lovingly took her copy of the Draconic Accords and set it on the table, her heart pounded in her chest.
"You all signed this, it means no slavery for prisoners of war, no more raping or torturing of captives, this ends all the things that gives the killer their motivations in this city." She said, "Do that, and…I'm no military strategist, just a battle maniac, but I know motivation when I see it, and you deprive the ones responsible of their reason for the actions they're taking. Plus you're not acting out of fear, you signed this weeks ago." She said, trying her best to keep her voice passive as her heart pounded in her chest and she scanned their faces.
"All this really means is acknowledging that elves are people…" She started to say, only to be interrupted by Dominic snatching the copy of the document from the table and tearing it in half, then tearing those halves in half, and throwing it on the floor. He pounded on the table and snapped out, "Elves are NOT people! They're a subhuman race that doesn't deserve to exist outside of chains, only marginally better than demihumans! You should know, look at your father!" Dominic's face burned with wrath.
Months ago, Zesshi might have thought nothing of that statement, now…the hypocrisy of it, knowing what humans were doing to elves they'd taken prisoner, having found that she had at least one suffering sibling…the hour was late now, Aorli would be shivering on a cold stone floor, and that was if a new prison commander didn't catch a look at her pretty face and give her a warm bed for a terrible price.
Her arms were folded over her chest and her fists clenched tight. She scanned the faces of the Theocracy members as she walked over and picked up the scraps of beautiful paper that Dominic had thrown on the floor, she got a look at all of them. The faces of Yvon and Maximillian looked like they had all the sympathy of a pile of rocks, Dominic's view was quite clear…but she looked at Raymond and Berenice, and saw…something different.
The room was silent for a moment, Raymond's eyes met Zesshi's and Zesshi's met his own. The half elf he saw as friend, comrade…even feeling, despite the age gap, as if she were a daughter, was in terrible pain, she clutched the paper in her hand very gently, as if she were a little girl whose kitten or puppy had been run over by a wagon, and she was looking at him as a such a child might to a parent, eyes pleading with him…"Please…fix it…fix it…make it better…" as she moved back to the wall, her gaze never left his own…and somewhere inside the youngest of the cardinals, something broke.
"I would like to propose we accept Zesshi's suggestion. I would further say that we should consider revising our doctrine, the elves were our allies in the past, if that had displeased the gods, we should have been punished for it, we were not.
"I second the motion." Berenice said. "I admit I was skeptical before, but look at these, these rules protect humanity too, it holds everyone accountable, and it gives us a military advantage, and what does it cost? We just let prisoners of war go and free slaves, the elf King is our ally now anyway, it would be a gesture of good will and a military advantage if we gave him more of his own people to fight for him."
Dominic snorted. "There is no debate here, they're worth too much in their labor, and the taxes on the sale of elves funds a good portion of our military budget…besides, the gods chose humans, not elves, therefore they only get to exist in chains or in graves, like everything else that isn't human. But fine, we'll vote."
Zesshi held her breath, this was her country, these were her peers, she'd served the Slane Theocracy loyally for longer than any of them had been alive, they couldn't deny her this. She did not dare to make a single gesture of nervousness or anxiety, she bit her tongue instead of her lip, she tasted blood, she'd broken its flesh. She gave no hint that it happened, she only stood and watched.
"Votes to enforce the Draconic Accords and free the captive elves as 'former prisoners of war'?" Dominic said.
"Nay." Yvon said.
"Aye." Berenice said.
"Nay." Maximillian said.
"Aye." Raymond said.
"Nay." Ginedine said.
"Nay." Dominic said. "That settles that question the way it should be, but just for good measure…vote for a revisiting of doctrine on the exclusive status of humanity as the chosen race of the divine?"
"Nay. And it was stupid to bring up." Yvon said angrily.
"Nay. And I second Yvon's opinion." Maximillian barked.
"Nay. While they are close to us, they are not us." Berenice said.
"Nay." Ginedine said, his voice obviously betraying that he was annoyed he even had to say it.
"Aye." Raymond said, "There is something wrong in our doctrine, and it needs to be addressed, I pray to the gods you all see it before it is too late." He said with some regret.
"And of course, nay." Dominic said smugly.
"Well, perhaps instead we impose some treatment standards on how they're to be handled, for example, at least prohibit sexual violence, that seems to be really setting the serial killer off, given how he burns down the brothels and kills all the customers." Zesshi said, forcing her voice to be reasonable as her heart tore apart inside her breast and rage began to fill the gap. "I've always been told that this war against them was to avenge my mother, I don't think she'd agree that raping more women does that." Zesshi said, keeping her tone carefully modulated as she strove to find the soul of her country among its leaders.
Dominic sighed as if he were bored with the whole affair. "If it gives us another trump card to play, it must be tolerated…even if it is…distasteful." He said as if he'd accidentally drunk old milk. "But fine, we vote." He said.
"Those in favor of prohibitions on this use for captured elf females?"
"Nay." Yvon said. "Those brothels are good business. It just doesn't make sense to close them."
"Nay." Maximillian said, "The soldiers of humanity should have some place to relax after all."
"Aye." Berenice said, "The gods abhorred that behavior, even the undead reviles it, we should too." Her voice was passionate and angry, the accords seemingly having gotten to her.
"Nay." Ginedine said pitilessly.
"And of course…Nay." Dominic said coldly, "What else would we do with them?"
"Aye." Raymond said, "Nobody deserves that…nobody." His voice was low and regretful, and he turned his eyes to Zesshi, and he watched as her eyes reflected utter heartbreak as the nation that raised her, utterly betrayed her. He could only see her agony for a moment, but in those heterochromatic eyes, what he saw would haunt him till his dying day, the feeling of the deepest of betrayals swept like a passing wind across her face, but if anyone saw it other than he, they gave no sign.
"That settles that." Dominic said with finality.
Zesshi pushed herself off the wall where she'd settled herself during the voting and she headed to the door.
"Where are you going?" Dominic asked curiously.
"I'm just going to throw this trash out." Zesshi said as her fist tightened around the shredded copy of the Draconic Accords, "We don't need it anymore, right?" She asked.
"No, definitely not, I'm actually glad to have it out of here, it was like it was infecting the place. Damn the undead and all its worthless words." He said venomously.
"Yes, truly worthless words, and worthless trash." She repeated his words back to him, "I think I'm done for the night too." She said, sounding exceedingly bored.
She walked out of the room and closed the door behind her, she moved quickly but not dramatically so, it was a needless precaution, nobody was around to bother her, she rushed out, and when she was in the cover of night she leaped up to a nearby rooftop and ran along the top of it, she jumped from one to another until she was atop the wall overlooking the city. The moon was bright in the sky, so much so that it didn't even require the use of her elf senses to see the pieces of the paper, the Draconic Accords, it would have freed her little sister, it would have kept the horror, the atrocity that had made her, from being a routine and made it a crime, and they had torn it up in front of her and thrown it on the floor like garbage, and as she saw it…they'd thrown her away with it.
She thought of what Climb had said, "They can't have half of you…it's all, or it's none." Or something like that. He was right, they'd made their choice.
A guard pacing the wall saw her there, kneeling over the paper as if it were a fallen loved one, he lowered his halberd as he stepped carefully closer, "What're you doing here, this area is off limits." He said as he came closer, then he noticed her ears.
"Elf! No elves are allowed here, how'd you even get here?!" He snapped, suddenly on high alert.
She looked down at the paper as she took it up gently and began to put it back into her pocket piece by piece. "Oh, I know." She growled out, "I know…I'm not wanted here…I'm not welcome here…I have no home here…you're not my people…I know all that…now." When the last piece was put away she looked over her shoulder at the soldier, her eyes raw and red with pain.
"I'm not one of you, am I?" She asked as she stood.
"No, you're not." He said as the dangerous aura began to come off of her, he started backing away as he felt more nervous, looking around for someone to call out to for help.
"I should go, shouldn't I? I should leave you all and never come back." She said with ice in her voice as she walked closer to him.
"Yeah! Get out of here!" He said, putting false bravado into his voice.
"Fine." She said.
"What?" He asked.
"I said fine." She replied.
"Oh, good." He said.
"But you should leave the city first." She added.
"What?" He asked in confusion.
Then she moved towards him faster than he could respond to, caught him by the neck, and drew him towards the wall and pushed him over the edge. A few moments later there was a sickening thud, and she saw he did not move, he was very…very dead.
Zesshi went home that night and thought it over, she contemplated killing all the cardinals…well…except for Raymond, and perhaps Berenice. But as she considered the matter further, it occurred to her that it wasn't real revenge to do that…not right away at least.
She looked over on the wall across from her bed, she saw the Slane Theocracy banner she'd hung there, she approached it, looked at it, long and hard she stared at its intricate work, and she spat on it. "No…first…first I take everything from you." She said softly, and then she grabbed it and violently ripped it off the wall and tore it into pieces.
There were four more murders and eight more 'escaped' slaves that night before Zesshi Zetsumei went to sleep, but when she did finally sleep, she slept very…very peacefully.