..In Kami Miyako...Slane Theocracy...Council room of the cardinals...
"Gods be damned things are getting worse!" Dominic shouted to the other cardinals. "The massacre of Kedyn turned into the massacre BY Kedyn! Black Justice is stronger there than ever before, and these 'Red Paladins' are manifesting their own abilities, and these priests of theirs are now moving around wherever they please and are starting to trickle into the South! Exactly...WHAT do you all propose to do?!" His voice turned harsh as gravel and he stood and hunched over the table, resting his body on his fists.
Ginedine held his face calm as Dominic ranted. "Its not all bad. King Caspond is dead and the holy book he was given has been taken and is on its way to us to see its contents for ourselves. Handor is a front runner for the crown and with our support he'll get it. Not that I like the man much, but he'll be useful in uniting North and South, and he's no friend of the Sorcerer King or his worshipers."
Berenice interjected, "And lets not forget that Remedios has turned out to be a very useful asset, I really thought we'd have to put more work into that spiritual heteromorph stuff to convince her to go along. Plus with all those agents of ours in the South, she's drawing in more and more every day, she'll have a fully trained army strong enough to take on the North in no time."
Yvon's narrow eyes went all the more narrow as he spoke, "Granted, but can she deal with the Sorcerer King OR his armies? We all saw what he put onto the Katze Plains, even if he can't use that spell again, according to Jircniv he has a number of others at his disposal, not to mention his legendary undead."
Maximillian leaned back in thought, "Well lets see...if our current projections are accurate, Remedios can command an army of perhaps forty thousand, but if we raise the nobles of the South to the cause as well, that adds another one hundred thousand. If we send most of our own army to unite with them, that will be two hundred and fifty thousand moving North, I don't know how much of the North still supports us, but lets say we can draw fifty thousand, that gives us three hundred thousand to our cause. If Handor 'invites' us in to help restore order, that will give us a number of diplomatic advantages..." He tapped his finger thoughtfully against the table. "I have a proposal...but I don't know how you all will see it."
"What?" Raymond asked hesitantly.
"I propose we do two things...we draw in nobles from the Re-Estize Kingdom and we make peace with the Elf King and forge a grand alliance to bring this threat down." Maximillian said boldly.
Dominic stared at him like he'd grown a second head. "You're not serious."
Ginedine held up his hand before Dominic could start to rant. "Its not a bad idea, the Elf King never cared for our territory, that much has been obvious, he's been trying to create strength in his people and...well...failing. If we tell him that he can have first pick of any powerful females we find during the fighting, he'll listen. Like him or not...he's absurdly powerful and should be able, by himself, to handle many of the dangerous undead that we would have trouble with."
"But would the Re-Estize Kingdom nobles really join with us?" Yvon asked doubtfully.
"Maybe." Raymond replied, "The massacre raised a lot of inept and egotistical fools to positions they were not prepared for, as a result they're equal parts incompetent and hungry to prove themselves, plus the shame of defeat and their own poor opinion of their betters before them might make them open to siding with us. The Re-Estize Kingdom has an enormous population even after the massacre, we don't even need them to fight that hard, just the weight of numbers alone would force the Sorcerer King to respond.
"Do you really think that the peasants of Re-Estize will fight for us just because the nobles say so?" Dominic asked skeptically.
"No, but if we promise to feed them, that'll do the trick." Maximillian said confidently. "Starvation is a slow death, a spear in the face is a quick one, even with the Sorcerer King's help, they're not in great shape."
"Maybe, but what about the King? He may not be steady on his throne, but he has enough sway to keep that from happening, he's no fool after all, he was there at the Katze Plains, he won't want to risk his people against that again." Dominic objected strongly.
"So he dies." Yvon said flatly. "He'll be easier to kill than Caspond was, and then we take a few hostages from some of the noble faction families and force Zanac to capitulate, even if he responds unenthusiastically, it won't matter, by drawing in so many of his nobles and his own people, his armies are effectively hostages if he tries to sell us out, and the death of his father will certainly be...illustrative."
Dominic actually smiled, it was a rare thing for the whirlwind of wrath that was the hot tempered cardinal, and it was as unpleasant a smile as one would expect.
"Only one problem." Ginedine said. "The Golden Princess presents a possible foil, a rallying cry for opposition. Should we try to capture her, kill her, or turn her to our side?"
Raymond tapped his fingers on thet able and spoke up, "I don't think she matters as much as all that, the Re-Estize Kingdom has never had a woman on the throne, and she's never had much clout, she can safely be ignored for now and we can have her put down if necessary. But there is one thing we can do to ensure beyond question that she won't turn on us."
"What?" Berenice asked.
"She has a special attachment to her bodyguard, she's had him with her since she was very small, if we capture him, she'll keep to the sidelines. There's no reason to expect she won't once we have that leverage, what else can a woman in her position do then?"
There was a short round of general agreement.
"Now, how are things going with the army?" Berenice asked.
"Good, we've routed most of the remaining elf armies now, though not without cost, and lucky for us its only a relatively short march from there to the ports, the navy can take ship and land near Wenmark in no time. So we'll be well positioned to begin the fighting. All I'd really like to do is bring in any other forces we can gather first, Re-Estize, Elf, doesn't matter, both would be even better, it'll take a few trips and a lot of ships, but when they're all landed, no army in the world will be able to face what we will field when we include the Southern forces." Dominic said, he was shaking with agitation, eager to just get the fighting started, it was all he could think of.
"Alright, so we'll dispatch a letter to the Elf King with our offer, and then send the black scripture to deal with the King in Re-Estize and to take any hostages we can, the families of the nobles who side with the crown first and foremost, but also, we'll capture the young man who goes by the name 'Climb'. Anything else?" Dominic said as he wrote out a few notes.
With no other matters to attend to, they council stood and went off to see about their individual duties.
...Hoburns...Capitol of the Roble Holy Kingdom...
The death of Caspond sent a wave of uncertainty throughout the city that echoed throughout the country, he had no children, no living heirs in the form of an extended family to turn to, the dynasty was dead, so factions quickly sprang to life supporting this or that candidate, and murder was quick to follow, internally within factions as much as between them. However there was one figure who had things going for him that others did not, not only did he have ties to both North & South, which allowed him to build the only truly cross sectional noble faction, he also had the outside support of the most powerful human nation. Count Handor, with the aid of their assassin contacts, his own copious wealth and the augmented resources they provided to him to bribe others to leave their factions, the issue of who would be crowned King was settled in a handful of weeks.
He was confirmed by the nobles under the watchful eye of priests and guards alike, they gave his name their support in the stone walls of the palace where Caspond & Calca had ruled, some of them did so fearing the rumored promise that a hand that did not go up for him, would be confiscated, some did so because of hostages that had been taken in secret, others because they had been paid, still others by common interest. There was little enough love for the man, but there he sat on the throne as the nobles pledged their loyalty and the priests of the old gods conferred their blessing.
Notably absent was a priest of Black Justice, or any form of representation by their segment of the population. Handor had refused to so much as invite them, it was a clear insult and out in the streets many of their members were outraged. Still others held the opposite position, that his invitation to them would have stained their dignity and their justice. Count Handor's reputation was well known by then, but who listened to the complaints of commoners?
The coronation was traditionally a holiday for the capitol city, and this was no exception. However holiday or no holiday, Robel & Gilcrest had much to do.
"I want to start moving our people out of the capitol as soon as possible." Gilcrest said firmly.
"Look," Robel replied, "I don't disagree with you, but we have to think this through, we can't empty that much of the city, and he can't kill or imprison that many people, hell, we still control the city guard and we still have most of the people."
"True, but he has the army, the priests, about half the paladin corps is still loyal to the throne, and we don't have the 'entire' population, just a lot of it, maybe even most of it, and a good many of those we do have are either to young or to old to fight." Gilcrest said.
"So lets just get 'those' out. The pregnant, the lame, the very old and very young, we can sponsor those to distant villages. Shit is going to get bad here and we need to look after our own." Robel replied fervently.
Gilcrest blinked. "OK, so you want to split up families and send the ones least able to handle things, out of the danger zones to be...what...'fostered' I suppose, by our fellow members in various villages and towns? Or do you want to send them off to the Sorcerer Kingdom in the hopes that he'll take them in as refugees when the war breaks out? Say we do that, how do we get people brought back together when its all over?
Robel thought for a moment. "We create a registry. Send word out to all the villages that have a sizable population of Black Justice members asking for people to volunteer to take on a person or two, and at services we post listings of different villages and volunteers, people take one, make one copy for us, and then we have a schedule made for departures using Red Paladins as guards or hiring space with various merchants, with our next payment to the Sorcerer King, we send a letter asking for him to store the paperwork for us so that after everything is over, people can be reunited, that way it will surely be safe and we don't have to worry about espionage...because fuck this city leaks like a seive."
Gilcrest thought it over. "Its workable. Alright, we'll send the undead mounts to as many villages as they can get to, its not perfect safety, but Count...King Handor has made it clear he's looking our way. Everybody who remains, triple the training regimens, I do not want to have everybody end up like Gascon."
"No...neither do I. Hail Gascon." Robel said and raised a mug to the first martyr of the faith.
"Hail Gascon." Robel said, raising his mug in turn, each wondering how many more martyrs there would be before a final peace came to the Holy Kingdom.
...In Nazarick...
Demiurge stood next to the roaring dragon while he skinned it. It didn't threaten him anymore, it had learned that this would 'slow down' the skinning progress, as if to punish him for his temerity. "Still regretting your defiance of the supreme being Olasird'arc Haylilyal?" Demiurge said in a whimsical tone. "Its unfortunate for you that the last batch of scrolls we made from your skin were all used up, we still have some from your son Hejinmal though, but I'd rather not run out."
Olasird'arc looked at him in surprise, he was so surprised that he actually spoke. "You're using Hejinmal too? Didn't he surrender to you?"
Demiurge had paused from the skinning to answer, "Well yes, yes he did."
"So you're torturing him then, surrender bought him nothing." Olasird'arc said, almost relieved, his pride as a dragon hadn't cost him anything that was going to happen anyway, and at least he didn't go the route of his worthless son, or so he thought, until Demiurge started to laugh.
Olasird'arc felt the illusion shatter even before the inhuman being spoke, but listened anyway, "Oh my no. My lord is a merciful being. Hejinmal volunteered to be skinned, trading his skin for more books to read, and in exchange not only did he get the books, but he was treated by Pestonya, in short, the taking of his skin was done completely without any pain, then he was carefully wrapped up, and has been given the greatest degree of comfort and respect he could be afforded for his diligent and devoted service." As he saw the dragon's face fall, he resumed skinning, and the musical screams and wordless roars kept Demiurge happy the entire time the dragon was cursing his resurrection.
...In Wenmark...
Tinamoc still thought about the man he'd killed, but oddly enough the thought didn't trouble him as much as he thought it would, he was more disturbed by how close that lead to him getting caught. Everything could have come undone, and it would have been all his fault for being careless in the wrong moment. He shook his head as if to shake off the thought, and went about the marketplace buying up the materials he'd need to make the Golden Roan a more sexless place than a bad marriage. It was relatively easy to grab the materials without suspicion, individually they were common enough, and valuable enough trading commodities that nobody thought anything of the famous Tinamoc buying up quantities of them for delivery. His only concern was delivered to Neia that afternoon when they spoke privately.
"To make enough of this 'whiskey dick powder'..." he began.
"Is that what we're really going to call it?" Neia said, scrunching her face in distaste.
"Well I just assumed..." He said.
"Assume something else, that name is awful." Skana said in agreement with Neia.
"Fine, call it 'tripod powder'." He said flatly.
"What...?" Illyana asked.
"Tripod, its a thing with three legs, used in surveying, the third leg always points down, never goes up." Tinamoc said.
The three women froze for a moment, then laughed at his play on words.
"Anyway..." He said with a roll of his eyes, getting the materials is easy, even mixing them is easy, but to make enough and avoid getting caught we need to use some of the warehoused elves to do it, and then it has to be put into the bread and other supplies that guests will be consuming while here, that might slow down hooked rope and ladder production by a day or two." He said.
"Its fine." Neia said, "We still have some time left before we have to get out of here, a day or two we can work with, and since I've already sent word to a contact in Yanana and our people in Prart, we should have at least some help on the way to receive us. I'd like to poison the water supply for the city as well...not lethally, just enough there will be a lot of sickness and weakness until after our escape...but the more we try to do, the more likely we are to get exposed before we can pull off the breakout."
"When do we go then?" Illyana asked with trepidation.
"A few days, once enough ladders and ropes are made. We'll create a distraction with a fire in the city somewhere, and that will be our go signal. I just with there was some way to slow the city down more." Neia sighed, "Perhaps a walk will help clear my head, you'll excuse me I hope?" There were collective nods, and CZ stood up.
"Not alone." CZ said.
Neia knew that tone, there was no arguing with her. "C'mon then." She said, and headed for the door.
As she exited the hotel she saw the young elf boy from before, his bruises hadn't completely faded, but there were no new ones, word had evidently gotten around that marks offended her, and she was 'in good' in high places, he dared give her a smile, and she returned it covertly after checking to ensure she wasn't being watched. CZ followed her as she went out into the city streets. It ws in times like this that she appreciated the quite company of CZ. In subtle ways, ways Neia could not properly express, CZ's quiet strength and companionship was a much needed relief, in a way that even Skana's passionate company was not. If Skana was a participant, CZ was a presence, and that made all the difference in the world right now, in a few days everything would come to a head, in a few days it would all be over and the elves would be fleeing North. The pressure of command was nothing new, the fear of defeat was never far away no matter how well she prepared, so she needed these silent times in order to calm herself.
It was for that reason that she wasn't paying much attention and knocked a young man right on his back when she bumped into him. He fell with a clatter and that snapped her out of the daze in which she'd been walking. She looked down at him with surprise, "Sudaj?" She asked.
He blinked from on the ground, and she leaned over and held out her hand, he hesitated, then took it and pushed up as she pulled him to his feet. "I'm very sorry." She bowed her head politely. "I was lost in my own thoughts and I wasn't paying attention, I hope I didn't injure you." She said apologetically.
He shook his head, "No not at all, I'm perfectly fine. My pride may have taken a minor blow, but I'm bodily intact." He gave a wry smile, and changed the subject.
"So you made it here after all." He said, "Was it what you expected?" He asked, and a distant scream punctuated the question. He winced as he heard it, a motion Neia did not overlook.
She had a very grim expression on her face. "Walk with me?" She asked, and resumed her forward stroll, CZ fell in behind them, ever watchful as Sudaj fell in to step next to her.
"Its bad." Neia said frankly.
"It is." He said, wincing visibly as a man's scream echoed out of sight, chained ones walked the streets, human, elf, and young half elves that spoke of the horrors that the female elves were subjected to.
"So...how did you end up here?" She asked him curiously.
"Guards may serve their city in particular, but here in the South the cities cooperate and shuffle people around for promotions, suppose a guard does very well in Yanana, he wants to become a shift leader or squad commander, but no slots exist in that city, he can write to the guard leadership of any other city and ask for open positions that are a step up from his current one, if the guard leaders of his current city will write him three recommendations, then the head of one or more cities may offer him a higher position, this ensures that talent continues to flow upwards and doesn't become 'stuck' because someone is holding a position for themselves and won't move on or retire or die." He said. "Its a fairly good system, I did well in Yanana, and got a squad commander recommendation, Wenmark had a space open for that, and it is close by. I don't like how this city works...but I can't do anything from the bottom so...here I am." He finished with a shrug.
A thought occurred to Neia, a way to gain an edge...however thin it might be.
"Tell me Sudaj...how do you feel about elves?" She asked curiously, folding her hands behind her head casually as she walked.
