Well, the reactions to the execution went better than I expected.

New beginnings

Mercury POV(a week after the execution)
Mercury sat cross-legged in a rather uncomfortable chair with two bare wooden armrests and a stiff back, where he was reading one of the reports that he had brought with him. Across from him, sitting on the sole bench in the small stone-walled square room with only two doors in it, was his escort for today, Kolrka of the Varangian Guard.

Unlike during last week's executions, Mercury's Varangian Guard actually rarely dressed in the formal plate armour unless they were to be on public display or expected to be in serious battle. Instead, Kolrka was dressed in a simple chainmail with a black vest, which had the Varangian Guard's motif on it, on top of the chainmail and a sword at his waist.

The scraping sound of the sword being drawn halfway up from its sheath and then being dropped down again was continually heard from Kolrka's side of the room. The sound of tapping feet soon followed the scraping of the sword, which was made all the worse by the metal knobs underneath the soles of said feet.

Mercury sent one look towards his noisy companion, upon which he immediately seized all movement with a very forlorn expression lingering on his face, before Mercury returned his attention back to the documents in front of him.

He had barely finished the page that he was on before the scraping noise began again, but this time, he chose to ignore it. By the time Mercury turned over the page with a black leather-gloved hand, the sound of a finger being tapped against wood could be heard.

Great, this one needs to be signed too, Mercury thought irritated at having to once again bother with the task.

He drew a pen and a jar of ink from the stack at his feet, before he manoeuvred the sheet of paper so that the place that needed the signature at least had some support from the left armrest, before he proceeded to sign it.

As he removed the pen from the paper and meant to put it back in its place, a drop of ink fell from it and landed on his clothes, but it was alright, because he was wearing a black doublet with silver fastenings today, so no one would be able to see the stain.

The sound of tapping feet once again joined the symphony that his guard seemed to be composing, and because his patience was generally a lot thinner these days, combined with it already being tested right now, Mercury snapped at him to bring them both something cool to drink.

Yes, they had been here for hours, and yes, they were both well aware that just on the other side of one of the doors, blood was being shed, a person's limits tested and screams of agony, which occasionally filtered through the door, were being released with a near constant interval, but that did not mean that they could not be reasonable and polite on this side of the door.

Mercury understood that Kolrka was highly uncomfortable with just sitting there and doing nothing, but if he could at least be quiet, then Mercury might at least get some work done while they waited. Then again, perhaps he was judging the man a little too harshly. After all, Mercury was so used to what was happening on the other side of the door that he did not think overly much of it.

When Kolrka returned a few minutes later with a goblet in each hand, Mercury noted that he looked considerably more relaxed than he had been when he left. After setting one of them down on Mercury's armrest, he returned to his seat, where he kept his hands busy with simply holding the goblet and occasionally drinking from it.

Just as Mercury reached for his own goblet, another scream cut through the door, but his movements did not falter even in the slightest as he grabbed the goblet with his right hand. The cold metal felt soothing against the burning inside the glove, but as Mercury brought it up to his lips to take a sip from it, he recognized the liquid as wine cooled with ice.

He could not have alcohol, could not allow his will to be dulled even in the slightest at the moment, so instead of drinking the cool liquid that might have quenched a part of his raging and rather annoying headache, Mercury had to settle for simply using the goblet and its contents as a rather expensive ice-pack against his hand.

"Do you think that it is going well?", Kolrka asked for the umpteenth time since they had gotten here.

"If it was not, I am sure that we would have been told", Mercury falsely reassured the man.

In truth, he knew enough of what was going on the other side to know that if something was going awry and they spent precious time coming out here to inform the two of them of that, then he would probably snap at the person to get back in there and do her job instead of standing out here talking.

Well, under normal circumstances, he might have snapped, but as his patience was right now, Mercury could not be sure that he might not accidentally break his chair in a rather creative way while explaining just why she should be in there instead of out here in a VERY unnerving tone.

He could feel a voice inside of him agreeing that that course of action was exactly what he should do, but he quenched the voice and spent the next few minutes patching up the hole that it had used to escape from its prison.

"My lords, they are ready to receive you now", one of the female healers suddenly said.

Mercury had been so deep in thought that he had not even noticed the screaming ending or the door opening, but it did not matter overly much, as he simply calmly put down his work and rose to follow the healer inside, sensing that Kolrka was followed only a step behind him in trepid anticipation.

The first sensation that hit Mercury was the smell of blood, a scent so familiar to him that it was practically second nature, but he did not have time to muse on all the times that he had been bathed in blood, as a squealing babe robed in a white blanket was suddenly and abruptly thrust into his arms.

"…So?", Ilumëo asked weakened from her blood-covered bed in the middle of the room, "what do you think of him?"

As she asked this, Mercury took a closer look at the grey-skinned bundle of fat and tears in his black leather-gloved hands. With the exception of the colour of its eyes, which were a marine blue, it looked exactly like Ilumëo, both of her brothers and all of their ancestors going back to Naina's children, had looked when they had just been born.

Mercury had been there at the birth of every child of one of his aides, to the point that he considered it an unspoken rule that he should be there, and he had pretty quickly learnt that it was not wise say that the babe, which they had just used the past while to give birth to, practically looked like any other babe of the same species.

For some reason, the mothers never took kindly to hearing this. It might have to do with their difficult emotional state after the immense ordeal, the fact that they wished for their child to be special and unique or an entirely different reason, but it was best just to smile and play the part. Well, except that Mercury was not exactly known amongst his aides for his excessive use of smiles, except for when he grinned, smirked or plastered one on to put strangers at ease, so smiling was actually a dead give-away, as he had quickly learned from experience.

"He looks to be a strong healthy babe with his father's eyes and your hair and nose. I am sure that he will grow into a fine young man one day", Mercury complemented the babe in his arms. In truth, Mercury would not have been able to tell that it was even a boy if he had not been told, as the white blanket covered most of the body.

"He does indeed", Ilumëo agreed happily, practically beaming at the little child, "what should we name him?"

It was a custom, if a strange one at that, that Mercury would name each child of his aide. It had started with Naina simply giving him the honours of choosing the name of her firstborn and had since developed from there to the point that none of his aides ever even thought of a name by themselves.

So, as he looked into the eyes of the squealing babe in his hands, Mercury began to ponder on what to name the child. It was during this thought process that for some reason or another, the babe grabbed his left index finger with its little hand and tried to pull it towards it.

Mercury, amused at the action, allowed the babe to pull his finger as it wished, and within moments, he found his left index finger being used as a pacifier. It was truly amazing that this little creature, so innocent and ignorant of the troubles of the world, would find comfort in his hands, the very same hands that had been steeped in so much blood and had done so many unspeakable things.

Mercury's path had been filled with lying, killing, assassinating, slaughtering and oh so much manipulation that it would make even the most merciful gods, if they had existed, cringe and turn away in horror. Mercury had actually at one time tried using an anonymous confession chamber of the local church in the province of Artaxia to confess all of his sins.

He had not done it because he thought that he would be absolved of his sins by doing it, as that in his mind would be like denying his responsibility to the victims of those sins to continue on doing what he had started, so that what he had done to them had not been in vain. In fact, it had more or less been a case of 'why not?', a sudden idea that had been sparked inside of him when he had ridden by the building.

He had felt a little bad about the priest's heart attack though, which had prompted him to leave a substantial donation when he had left the church afterwards.

But looking at the babe softly sucking on his leather covered finger, Mercury felt a calm of mind that he had not felt for over a year now, and he remembered that part of why he was doing all the horrible things that he was, the largest and most important reason for it all, was not because he felt guilty towards the sacrifices that he had had to make in the past, but because he fully believed that new generations, this generation even, would be far better off than if he had not decided to take matters into his own hands.

Soon, but still quite far away yet, the final pieces of the puzzle that he had been assembling for just shy of the last four centuries, would be assembled and his masterpiece would be complete. By the time that this babe had finally grown up to understand the concept of what his ancestors had trained for their whole lives, there would no longer be any need for him to do so. By that time, Mercury would have transcended the need for such mundane matters.

"He shall be named Blöthrren", Mercury declared, and as Ilumëo tasted the name for herself, he could see that she fully understood why he thought that the name would fit.

"Here, you try holding him", Mercury suddenly said as he dumped the babe into his father's arms, which made him cry at the loss of his pacifier, before Mercury turned to head out towards the door again, but before he left, he turned his head over his shoulder and said, "you did well, Ilumëo, and to you, Kolrka, I give you the rest of the day off. Enjoy".

And with that, he headed out and gathered his things to begin preparations for the meeting later today about the general financial situation of Albion and whether they could afford to begin the construction of public schools and hospitals yet. It was not that he was particular eager to be at this meeting, though it was mandatory for him to be there, but he would rather not infringe any further upon the family's moment.

Besides, near the end, the urge to devour the babe had begun to manifest in him.

Loivissa POV
It had been two weeks since the genocide had begun; since Mercury had crossed the line so thoroughly that he would need a telescope to even hope to see it again. It had been an event that would follow Loivissa for the rest of her life, but it had had its uses as well.

Because of Mercury's actions, Loivissa had been able to convince her brother to finally come out of his shell and stop drinking, though she had had to heavily use said genocide in her arguments. It had felt too much like manipulating his emotions by constantly playing on his anger and feelings of guilt for what Loivissa was normally comfortable with, but she had pushed such concerns aside for the time.

They needed every able-bodied person that they could get to win this war, so it was alright to cross the line just a little to stop Mercury. He had already crossed it a long time ago after all. Still, even in his drunken state, Evandar had still managed to pick up on her manipulating him, and he had not been happy about it, but he had accepted that he could no longer afford to wallow in self-pity and despair.

When she had last seen him sober again, he had not thanked her for taking care of his duties in his stead, and because he had still been angry about her manipulating him, he had told her that if she was so good at it, then she should just do it from now on.

And so she had. She was the only one left that was qualified to lead this group to victory, and once her brother calmed down enough to realize that it was all done for the good of Alagaësia, he would thank her and say that was she had done had been the right thing to do.

Currently however, Loivissa, Evandar, Dweyrn, which had a mental connection to Augms, and Vanir were gathered in their headquarters to discuss what their response to all of this should be. Earl Karl had had to remain in Ilirea to keep up his cover, and since it was uncertain whether he was being watched, communication between him and Aiedail had had to be limited to only the strictly necessary, while his last remaining son, Garth, could not afford to make the trip from Carvahall to their headquarters, but he was still representing his father's interest via a magical mirror.

"We should help the elves with their rebellion", Garth suggested, "they are right on our doorstep, and if they succeed, then the rest of Alagaësia will soon follow".

"Do you remember even in the slightest what has happened each time we have gone up against the traitor's forces directly!?", Vanir asked angrily, "the first time, we lost the entire coastline and were unable to even take him down when we had him outnumbered and alone, the second time, we lost a quarter of a million of Alagaësia's population, while his other forces meanwhile rolled over Du Weldenvarden and the dwarven kingdom like they were nothing, and the third time, your brother, Delvaria, Nari and three dozen villagers were butchered in a curb-stomp battle. We cannot win by direct means!"

Vanir had come a long way after almost blowing their cover in Ilirea two weeks ago, partially because Loivissa had delivered the same arguments to him that he was now giving to Garth, and it gladdened her that it was he, and not she, that answered why they could not afford to become involved in the elven rebellion that had sprung up the last few days, as word of Special Order 66 began to trickle in.

According to the information that Vanir had managed to gather, it was being led by the very same elven group that Nari had been a representative of. Neither the dwarves nor the humans or urgals had followed suit, but Loivissa had not expected them to either, as Mercury had managed to convince the people of Ilirea that the genocide was a good thing, and the other races had never cared as much about the dragons as the elves had anyway.

"We will not involve ourselves in that affair, as it will no doubt be nothing more than another meaningless slaughter", Loivissa cut through, thereby ending the discussion before it could get up and going, "but neither can we allow Mercury to continue getting away with what he is doing, so I am asking each of you whether you have any ideas, no matter how crazy they may be, of finding a way to successfully negate any or all wards that he might have placed on his person?"

"We could try the amethyst-things that he is using against us? Turn his own weapon against him", Vanir suggested.

"But how would we get a hold of them?", Dweyrn asked, "I doubt that they are just lying around unguarded, and I do not know about you guys, but I am not willing to try and fight my way into one of their supply depots to try and get one".

"No, he has no doubts secured any and all stashes so well that it would take a small army to get in there, so we cannot hope to force our way to one", Loivissa agreed with the dwarven rider, "besides, I find it highly doubtful that he would implement a weapon like that without having some kind of defence against it. His body is still as frail as any human's, so he has to have some guarantees against that kind of attack. Anything else would be against his nature".

"Then that does not leave us with very many options", Vanir concluded.

"What if we were to find out what kind of defences that he might have against such attacks? Could we then try and negate them?", Garth questioned.

"We could try, but unless we know of someone that knows all of his dirty little secrets and is willing to tell us of them, then I highly doubt that we could figure out a counter simply by guessing", Dweyrn shrugged apathetically.

"There is one that might know", Evandar suddenly said and turned to look at Loivissa, thereby saying something for the first time since the meeting had started, "you said that his aide was the one that helped you out back when you were imprisoned in Teirm?"

"Yes, she was?", Loivissa confirmed, but did not see where he was going with this, "but as I mentioned then, she was doing it out of some loyalty to her master, so I doubt that she would be willing to help us just like that, and if we somehow managed to capture her and forced her to tell us what we want to know, then Mercury would no doubt expect that she broke and take precautions".

"I know, but you also said that she was not acting on Mercury's orders at the time", Evandar continued.

"…Which would make her actions not only be an act of treason against the Alliance, but also Mercury himself", Loivissa figured out where he was going with this, "so if we can get a chance to blackmail her by threatening to expose her involvement, then she would have no choice but to tell us, lest she suffers her master's wrath".

Loivissa knew that Mercury had never taken well to being betrayed, and she doubted very much that that trait had done anything but grow in the last four centuries. It would be just like him to employ such extreme retaliation against those that betrayed him that anyone that thought of doing it in the future would think twice about going through with their betrayal.

"But then we still have to find a way to get to her unnoticed", Vanir pointed out, "from what I have seen so far, part of the Varangian Guard is also responsible for guarding her, and I doubt very much that she even leaves Ilirea castle all that often".

"We could have the earl be the one to approach her?", Evandar suggested.

"No good, my father is on thin enough ice as it is", Garth objected, "one wrong word or move and he will be locked up forever, or worse".

"I will find a way for you to get to her", Dweyrn said to Loivissa, "since many of our traditions and customs were left untouched after our cities fell, most of the dwarves chose to ignore that anything had changed at all and were therefore more cooperative than the other races, so we are not looked upon with the same degree of suspicion by the Alliance guards. Plus, I was never captured or otherwise a leading figure, so it is doubtful that even the Varangian Guard will know of my existence".

"Then you shall do it then", Loivissa decided, "good luck to you, and may the stars watch over us all".

I always chuckle at Mercury's last line. It gets even funnier because whenever I read it, I keep thinking that if you in a classical folk's tale ever want to make a character irredeemably evil, your introduction of him includes "and he eats babies".

Oh, and is Loivissa and Aiedail beginning to gain momentum again? Only time shall tell.