The next day, it took Toga only an hour or so of travelling through this barren wasteland to conclude that Olga had been a mage of not insignificant strength once upon a time. The curse was old. A few centuries old at least, and he had a feeling it was just as powerful as the day it had been cast.
Through, he did wonder what sequence of events would compel a ruler to destroy her own lands. And the best way to find that out was to ask.
"What led you to curse these lands?"
Olga slowed her pace briefly at the question.
"Ah, yes. I was wondering if you would ask."
Her gaze lingered on Chole, who had been steadfastly ignoring him ever since they set off for the settlement in the morning, before looking up to meet his eyes.
"My people were originally partially nomadic. Before I left the curse we would wander our lands in clans, and trade with Celestine's kingdom in the warm months, before settling in our clan's lands for winter."
That sounded quite similar to how the Youkai in his lands, and how Toga himself had lived. Wander in the warm months, and settle to wait out the cold
Even the most powerful of Daiyoukai would pause before traveling in the winter. It was possible, - Toga had been forced to patrol his lands in the winter in times of strife - but it was not an occasion he was ever in a hurry to repeat.
Olga once again glanced at Chloe before continuing her tale.
"But then the humans in Celestine's kingdom began to steal my people from their clans and enslave them. They would take young girls and boys to grow up as pleasure slaves for the rich and powerful. At one point, they were even capturing entire families so that the parents could serve as breeding stock so that they wouldn't have to steal children."
Toga felt a low growl begin to rumble in his chest at the tale. Any ruler worth their crown would immediately and decisively destroy any who decided to participate in flesh-trade. Especially when it centered around the exploitation of children.
"Celestine and I were friends and well as allies at the time. I begged her to take a more decisive approach to ending the slavery in Eostia besides merely making it illegal, but nothing she did worked. So I took matters into my own hands."
Olga gestured at the wasteland around them as she spoke. "These lands were at one point lush and fertile. I twisted them into this, so that the humans could no longer live off of them long enough to attack my people. I left seven oases for the seven clans I rule, and my people settled into cities hidden by magic to stay safe. I even cursed the monsters to be unable to touch a Dark Elf in lust or violence."
Olga's lips curled into a cruel smile at that last sentence. "Of course, this had the added benefit of the monsters attacking Celestine's people more now that they could no longer slake their appetites on mine. Celestine demanded that I break the Curse. I refused, because if she would not protect my people, then I would not do the same for hers. And ever since then, there has been war. But there have been no new Dark Elves captured and enslaved. The only ones remaining are the ones born into it, and I and my people work every day to free as many as possible because Celestine still will not take action."
Left unsaid was the fact that Olga's control over the lesser youkai, monsters as she called them, had clearly waned along with her magical prowess at some point.
Toga considered Olga's tale in the silence that fell after she finished. Her choice to Curse her lands and the monsters that dwelt in them was a rather extreme one, to be certain, but he was of the opinion that it was warranted.
It was a ruler's duty to protect their people, no matter the cost. Was it the decision he would have made? Perhaps. Perhaps not. He had never been in a position like Olga's.
No one would come between a youkai and their young unless they had a death wish. And to be perfectly honest, a youkai cub was a match for many adult humans. The youkai he had ruled over were many things, but vulnerable to the evil Olga had described was not one of them.
Toga made to give a response to Olga's story, but his words were aborted when the wind shifted, and he caught the scent of blood in the air.
"Wait," He commanded, as he focused. His ears were less sensitive than his nose, but they were still far superior to that of a human.
"What is it?" asked Chloe, acknowledging his existence for the first time that day. She unsheathed her sword as she spoke. Toga felt Olga gathering magic from the land through their pact.
It was faint, but he could detect the sounds of screaming and the clash of metal on metal from up ahead.
"Blood. And screaming."
Olga's magic began to manifest visibly. "Olassari…we're only a few kilometers away."
Toga nodded and gathered his yoki into his claws in preparation for combat
"Then we must make haste."
"Take my hands," Olga demanded. "I can teleport us in."
Toga did so, and saw Chloe do the same. The trio vanished the moment they made contact, only to reappear on a battlefield.
Toga wasted no time in diving into the thick of it, forming a whip of yoki to rend an ogre reaching for a terrified woman in battered armor in two.
She flinched as the blood splattered her body, but Toga was already moving on to the next youkai, moving so fast that he seemed to be nothing more than a white streak on the battlefield, leaving the bloodied corpses of monsters and men in his wake.
He sensed Olga gathering her magic shortly before an explosion that he could feel in his bones rippled through the air, followed by the screams of the Kuroinu as they were burnt alive under the force of her magic.
Toga saw, as he tore the throat out of a Kuroinu with his claws, Chloe stab an ogre through the heart before smoothly turning to decapitate a man trying and failing to attack her from behind.
The Dark Elves rallied at the appearance of their Queen, fighting their foes with renewed vigor.
Flares of magic in the form of fire, electricity, and frost came from the exhausted, but reinvigorated mages, even as those wielding weapons on the front lines began to push back the invaders with renewed power.
Toga ducked under a sloppy swing of a greatsword form on orc, but before he could disembowel the creature for the audacity of existing, its head fell from its shoulders, and it collapsed revealing a tall dark elf with hair and eyes the colour of Olga's.
He glanced in the direction of the mages, who Toga could feel gathering a massive amount of power, before his eyes widened and he ducked. Toga, not being an idiot, did the same.
A wave of dark purple magic flowed over the battlefield. It passed harmlessly over Toga and the elf, and instead sank into the few remaining lesser youkai.
They roared in protest as the spell washed over them, but then turned and began to attack the remaining Kuroinu.
Toga followed the spell back to the origin to see Olga standing in the middle of a circle of mages with their hands outstretched to lend her their power. Her body was haloed in her dark purple magic, her hair and clothes whipping in the artificial wind created by her power.
She looked every inch the Queen that Chloe had proclaimed her to be. Toga did not stare, though it was rather tempting - he very much recognized that Olga was a beautiful woman, especially when she was bathed in her power, but he did not allow himself to linger on thought considering the circumstances of their meeting - and instead took the opportunity that she had provided with a predatory delight.
He presented himself as a civilized being more often than not, but at the end of the day, he was inuyoukai. And as an inuyoukai, there were not many things better than the feeling of his prey's blood on his claws, and the sound of their dying screams.
Toga walked towards Olga after the last of the Kuroinu died under his claws, idly burning the blood off his hands with his yoki as he did so. He would need to be more vigilant on the battlefield in the future, he decided. He was bound to protect her, and he couldn't do so if he strayed from her side in situations like these.
It was not a problem now, as this was little more than a skirmish. The people of Olassari would have been able to repel the Kuroinu on their own, albeit with more casualties, if he, Olga, and Chloe had not come when they did.
But he would be a fool if he thought that this would be the worst battle he would face in this world. And he would be worse than a fool if he believed for a second that Olga would languish on the side lines. He had only known her for little over a day, and he knew that she would be in the thick of it.
The elf from earlier was standing before Olga, head bowed in respect. His bloodied sword was lowered by his side.
"Queen Discordia? We believed that you had fallen."
"I had. And now I have not." Olga answered before looking over at Toga. The man followed her gaze, curiosity appearing on his face now that they were not in the middle of an active battlefield.
Toga was rather curious as well, though for different reasons. Now that Olga and the elf were standing by each other, he could see that they had a great deal of similarities in their features. And their scents held a certain likeness to each other, the same type of likeness that denoted a blood relationship.
"Toga, this is Krugan Discidium, my cousin and the Duke of Olassari. Krugan, this is my trusted ally, the Inu no Taisho. He is the one who freed me from the Black Dogs. You will afford him the same respect you would me."
Krugan's eyes widened, and he bowed his head at Toga before answering his cousin.
"As you say, your grace."
"Good. I assume Maert is organizing the triage?"
"Of course," Krugan said before raising his voice, "Maert!"
A slender woman with dark eyes and darker hair approached. She had three piercings in her left ear and one on her right, and was wearing robes the same shade of dried blood. She, unlike Krugan, wasted no time on niceties and only dipped her head in acknowledgement for her Queen and Duke before getting down to business.
"Your Grace, those with cursed wounds are marked with orange magelight. Your assistance would be of great help."
Olga hesitated before going to assist the healers. "Toga, do you have any talent for healing?"
That was a question with a rather complex answer. A complex answer that he was perfectly willing to give her when they had more privacy.
Yes, they were among allies. But Toga was not in the habit of explaining the finer details of his powers in public for all and sundry to hear.
"I will be most useful to those with mortal wounds." He answered in lieu of an actual explanation.
Olga stared at him for a moment, before nodding her head and continuing on towards the beginnings of the triage with Krugan in two, leaving him with Maert.
Toga took that to mean that she would be asking him no few questions at a more appropriate time. But right now, his attention would be for the dead and dying.
"How mortal must the wounds be, my lord?" Maert asked.
Toga, instead of giving her a verbal answer, walked towards the body of a young elf woman. There was a black ball of magic hovering over her body, one that Toga assumed marked her as dead.
The power to bring life to the deceased was something better demonstrated than explained.
So that was what he did.
He gathered his power into his claws, and watched as the pall-bearers faded into view. Her soul was already in their hands. If he had waited even a minute longer, it would have been too late to bring the woman back.
His claws passed through the pall-bearer's bodies, dispersing them back into the Beyond. The soul fell back into the woman's chest.
One one breath passed by. Then two. And on the third, the woman's chest began to rise and fall as her wounds closed, and life returned to her body.
"She will sleep for a day." Toga said quietly.
Maert stared at him, awestruck, for a moment before she visibly gathered herself.
"What are the limitations to your power?"
"If the soul has yet to move to the beyond, I can reunite it with its flesh. However, the body must be intact, and the dead can only be brought back once."
A rather bare summation of his abilities, but it was the most information that he was willing to give.
"I see…Krelis!" Maert's voice raised to a shout. A thin dark elf stood from where they were examining the body of one of the lesser youkai. He was wearing black robes that contrasted boldly with his stark white hair, and his eyes were slate grey. He, like Maert, possessed three piercings on his left ear, and one on his right, though his were the same black as his robes. In his hand was a staff made of dark petrified wood.
"You called?"
"I need you to keep the souls of every dead dark elf with an intact body from the Beyond for as long as possible."
Krelis raised a brow, even as he lifted his staff to do as Maert had said.
"May I ask why?"
Maert gestured to Toga, who was watching the proceedings with interest as he sensed Krelis's energy stir through the air. It took him a moment to place it, as the magic of this realm was different than that of his own, but the feel of necromantic power was not something one could forget too easily.
"I can bring back those whose souls have yet to move from this realm." Toga explained.
Krelis's second eyebrow joined the first.
"Well. I have a feeling that we'll be seeing a lot of each, then, my lord."
A wave of grey magic broke from Krelis's stave, etching a large magical seal into the ground. Toga felt, more than he saw, that same magic race across the battlefield, lingering over every dead elves and sinking down into some to artificially tether soul to flesh. Krelis knelt in the center of his seal, and rested his glowing staff horizontally across his lap.
"I can maintain this for a little over an hour. Will that be enough time?"
Toga approached the next body marked with black light. It was now wreathed in Krelis's magic, and as Toga gathered his life-giving power into his claws, the pall-bearer's of the Beyond faded into view. They were bound fast with purple ribbons of necromantic magic, preventing them from taking the elf's soul to the next world.
He dispersed the pall-bearers with a flick of his claws. The elf's wounds closed, and his chest began to rise and fall a few moments after.
He cast his eyes over the rest of the battlefield, and saw that the triage was well under way. He could sense Olga's magic some distance away, and he could see Chloe and Krugan kneeling with the healers over the wounded. Maert was barking out orders even as she attended to the more severely wounded elves. And most importantly, those who were able bodied were beginning to line up the dead close to himself and Krelis.
If Krugan, Maert, and Krelis were of any indication, then Olga was a very effective ruler, indeed.
Toga was growing more certain by the minute that he had been summoned by a woman of remarkable quality.
"That should be more than enough." Toga responded, as he kneeled over the next elf to reunite soul with flesh.
Maert and Krelis are married, and function as advisors to Krugan. Mart is the head healer, and Krelis commands the mages in Olassari.
I believe the only things established about Olga in canon are a) that she is Queen, b) that she cursed her lands, and c) that she can control the monsters to some extent. So there's a whole lot of grey area to take liberties with, so I decided to go with this.
hellfire45 - I'd feel weird about a Toga/Olga/Chloe pairing as I plan for Olga and Chloe to have a caretaker/ward relationship in this fic.
Next chapter: A plan for taking down the Kuroinu, as well as relationship building for Olga and Toga
