Shadows moved over the border of the Tlalmok Empire. They bore knives ofenchanted adamantite, boots enchanted for speed and silence, they were enhanced in every single way the Queen of Vexation could make happen. The group of six did not make even a sound as they went from safety to danger. Their feet did not create the sound of bending grass with even the heaviest of their already light steps.
No sound passed the lips of the demon-elf elites, they spoke with looks alone, punctuated by the occasional hand sign, and when they were sure their way was clear, they crouched down into a sprinter's position, activated their martial arts, and ran. Legs and arms pumped like mad, and they ate up the ground beneath their feet. Their dark purple ears flicked about to search for sound, but on the wide open ground beyond the Tlalmok border, the team heard nothing. If they heard nothing, then there was nothing there to hear.
For hours they ran without interruption, enhanced by martial arts as much as by equipment, they went deeper and deeper into the mouth of hell. Blood raced through veins, but it raced as cold as ice, unafraid of what they might encounter.
The only sound was wind over grass, bushes, trees, and only the light of the bright moon above threatened to expose them. But with the tight restrictions on travel, the chance of exposure was low, and they knew it. When they reached the road, the six slowed to a stop and they threw back their cloaks and briefly removed their masks. The tallest of them was the first to speak, glancing down at his comrades, he spoke swiftly.
"Right, we've got this in our hands, so, do we wait for a patrol or do we raid a village?" He asked in a deep, rich voice.
"What's easiest, Gowlin?" The feminine voice of his nearest companion asked with a sparkle to her bright solid blue eyes.
Gowlin scratched the long horn that grew from the side of his head and glanced down at the one to speak. She was slender, shapely, built like a sprinter, and yet he knew the strength of her hands could tear a limb off of a body when she wanted a club. "To wait here. But it might take days, or even longer, before a patrol comes past. Plus patrols are missed, villagers? Who gives a shit? And we can be done sooner by raiding a village. So you tell me if it's really easier to sit on your ass or not, Forli."
The blue eyed demon-elf pursed her lips and scratched her horn. "Shit. That does make it tougher. Whatever, look we need stronger bodies, right?"
The collective set of heads nodded in unison.
"So, a patrol is easier, and we'll probably get fiercer beastmen. Besides, when was the last time anyone gave a shit about rank and file anything?" Forli asked and looked down the long and empty road that shrank far, far into the darkness of the night.
"Fine, we wait here." Gowlin muttered and glanced around, "We'll camp in the woods and wait in shifts. Forli, you're first." He pointed to the low rising hill, and Forli shuffled her foot playfully on the grass.
"Damn it Gowlin, you're just pissed off that I want the easy option…" She pouted, and he nodded hard.
"You're damn right, easiest isn't always best, you know that." He said with a critical eye looking straight down at her.
"It is when it gets the job done the best way…" She sighed with exasperation, "Fine, whatever, I'll do it, just get out of here and relieve me in a few hours." Forli gave in and lay her body down on the hill and looked in the direction of the distant patrol base.
He didn't stop grumbling until the simple encampment was laid out within the protection of the forest, and he started up again when it was his turn to take the watch for their precious, precious prey.
The cheers of the Komestran population when the city came into view could have deafened the stars if they'd had ears to hear them. Hands waved, swords and spears were lifted up as if a great battle had just been won. The march halted in its place without orders as men and women grabbed their mates in a moment of spontaneous kissing, claiming lips in celebration. Children too young to understand the joy of their parents were caught up in the moment for its own sake, music struck from fifes and lyres and drums and songs belted out from throats both gifted in song and… not so much.
The wave of noise hit Nua and her party like a charging enemy horde, cavalrymen of the Komestran forces reared their horses back on their hooves, old men and women fell to their knees where they stood and wept with relief.
"Home." Nua muttered and looked to the distant west. Somewhere far beyond the border of the Tlalmok Empire, far beyond the Devor Empire, far beyond the Minotaur Kingdom, the Draconic Kingdom, and even what was once the Slane Theocracy, lay a land she once called home. With trees so tall the tops were beyond sight, and people who she now wondered if she could understand at all.
At her left hand, Kaiji was openly weeping and holding her face in her hands, trying and failing to comfort herself beside her mistress while the reality of what was about to happen set in and became real.
"You did it… you really did it. I knew… I believed… but…" Kaiji's hands came together at her breast and then went out together toward the city, "Now? Now it is real. Sacred Komestra… a city of its own again. You're more than a woman… more than an elf… you're a goddess… only a goddess could accomplish something so… impossible…"
Kaiji wanted to look at her mistress, she wanted to gaze lovingly and worshipfully at the one from whom every good thing she now had in life flowed, but she could not tear her eyes away from the city. Her sharp eyes caught the distant dots of people still working, laborers hired some time before who had been rebuilding walls, gates, homes, estates, gardens, roads, and so much more.
Nua didn't respond to her praise, her calculating and shrewd eyes moved over every inch of visible wall, appraising its defensive capabilities.
"You seem less than enthusiastic", Rasgen remarked quietly to his wife at his side.
"In a few hours, the real work begins. I'm proud, I'm relieved, I'm even happy." Nua said without breaking her steady tone or her steady gaze at the city in front of them. "But I'm acutely aware that this changes everything… and the hardest part of everything begins."
"Welcome to the throne." He said with a boyish smirk above his thick dark beard. "Yanmelu might have been a lot of things, but he did take his role seriously, he worked long hours, and still… you happened to him. The throne is an uncomfortable seat, everybody who looks at you from in front of it, they want something. If you give a gift, a position, really anything to anyone… you'll create one thousand malcontents and one ingrate. Your only friends will be on thrones of their own, they're the only ones who will understand your troubles. They will be your very closest companions… but they will also be the ones to hale you down and destroy you… look at Sado if you ever doubt it." Rasgen's voice was calm and even, but she could feel the emptiness like an ocean roiling beneath the surface.
"Is it worth it?" Nua asked him, finally giving a sideways glance.
He didn't answer, not right away, but when he did, it began with a humble nod. "If you rule for the right reasons. My people love me because I work hard for them and everyone knows it. Much like they began to love you, with your public works projects that you've got going about the city. You get to reward your friends, punish your enemies, and take on challenges that have you remembered for ages beyond even an elven lifetime. I won't deny it is hard to be the Prince. But I would choose no other life. That is part of why I pity Sado so much."
"Don't pity him too greatly." Nua interjected, "He may have fallen, but he's found value in his life, and that counts for a great deal. He may never rule again, but nonetheless, he won't have cause to hate his life by the time it finally ends."
"I hope you're right, my wife. Should we go? The cheers are finally starting to die down, and it sounds like the dancers have calmed themselves." Rasgen gave a bemused look over his shoulder at the still joyful masses, and Nua thought it over.
"Let them go ahead. Komestrans should be the first ones to enter it." Nua finally said and wheeled her horse around to the masses.
"In a moment, I and my companions will move out of the way of this road!" She announced as loudly as she could, "When we've moved aside… you can run home yourselves! You who were free, remain free, you who were slaves, remain slaves. But if you had a home in that city, it is yours to live in again. For weeks my servants have been rebuilding it all, how much is done, we'll know when we enter. However…" She let the statement hang in the air for a moment and taking out her knife, she held it high over her head, shouting, "You have come home!"
Deafening cheers came up all over again, "Aiwenor! Aiwenor! Aiwenor!" Her name was shouted by the masses ceaselessly for several minutes until her other hand came up and she called for silence that slowly settled over the thousands.
"Those who lived in the villages and towns, your homes will be rebuilt, your towns renewed, every blade of grass and scrap of land you farmed, will be yours again." Nua announced, and had to wait as another round of cheers went up.
"Those carts bearing our supplies, wait with our food and other goods outside the city walls, warriors, march in order… the rest of you… be careful of the very young and very old… I'll let you run there on your own. Let the first to enter the city be the ones who made up its people. Go… run. Run. You've earned it! You've endured enough. Komestra is yours, again!" Nua shouted, and barely able to believe their ears, permitted to savor a moment not experienced by any in all the history of Mict'aratz, the people of Komestra who could not or would not run, stepped aside.
And the rest… they ran! With whoops and hollers and almost childlike happiness, Komestran citizens who believed in their heart of hearts that their hope would turn to ashes, and instead saw it blossom like a spring garden, ran like men and women possessed. Nua watched their arms and legs pump as people ate up ground, each striving to be the first to enter, the ground beneath their feet echoed like a mountain avalanche and the shouts and cries were like families finding that those believed lost, still lived.
Nua sat still and quiet on horseback as the stream of people, orcs, humans, elves, and the blended races who called the city home, swept around her. "Freyjin should have been here." Nua said with a regretful voice when the last runners passed them by.
Rasgen could say nothing to that, he moved his horse a little closer to her own.
"She's still with us." Kaiji said tearfully, wiping her eyes vigorously at last. "The dead are never far away, the memory of who she was is carried by her daughter, and those she loved."
Nua closed her eyes, "It's not enough."
"It will have to be, it's all we've got, mistress." Kaiji replied and bowed her head.
Far behind, Sado rose from where he sat in the wagon and looked on the damaged walls of a city he had not truly believed he would see again, and lost sight of it through his own happy tears blurring his vision. "My city… my home…" He touched the golden collar around his neck, then looked away from the distant walls and turned his blurry eyes toward the front of the wagon train of thousands. "As long as I live, as long as I have breath or strength, the one who gave this city life again, will be the one to sit on the throne."
AN: I know, it's been quite a while, things have been hectic, wife caught Covid, daughter caught Covid, life has been rough for the last few months. Family is fine now, but everything stayed busy. On the good side, I refurbished the Who Endures series into an original work, and the first six novels are on Amazon starting with 'Who Endures: Strange Lands'. I'm working on another one 'Conflicted Duty' which is 1/3 finished. And I'll have published twenty novels all total by the end of the year, I hope you enjoy them! :)