After the execution of the lords, I had hurried through the streets in cat form and taken the portal back to my previous location. Still, in my cat form, I slinked into the brothel that I had rented for me and my men. It was, of course, the most expensive brothel, which would wipe out almost any profit made on this trip. The men and women in my employ were greatly enjoying it. It was a true debaucherous party going on.
Inside the room that I had commandeered, which was guarded by Nishka herself, the four ladies of the nights were unconscious, just like I had left them. With a gentle touch, I implanted the memory of a wild orgy in their minds. I also used my healing magic to bring them to several climaxes, while still unconscious.
Over the last couple of years, I had experimented a lot with my healing magic. I had even used some of the heretical weapons, which destroyed the soul, on some animals that were about to be slaughtered. No matter what I tried, I could not heal the injuries.
However, I learned that the healing magic was not just useful for healing, but could actually be used to heighten sensations in the body as well. Something my wives enjoyed a lot. It was also the only way I could keep up with the five of them.
I had one last thing to do, which was to pour some of the wine out over myself. Preparations done, I buried myself beneath the pile of naked women. I was certain that I would be blamed for what happened to Wilbur, our enmity a public secret by now. It was why I went to such great lengths to cultivate an alibi. I would most likely be placed under arrest, at least under surveillance, despite me being so far away.
Which was why Alan and his Ghosts would make four simultaneous attacks tonight. Their three minor targets were the Cardinal and his church in the high hold Anders resided. Another magic school, this one a fideomancer school, in another kingdom. This one would have very few slaves because it was the one who exclusively trained the clerics of Ghidana. One of the summoned lords in another kingdom. According to Chione, this guy was a sicko, one who bought fully into the whole white supremacy thing. It would be doing the world a favour dispatching him.
The main target was in Central City. Alan would lead that platoon himself. Their target was the Great Bazaar itself. Unfortunately, because of the location, we would be unable to extricate the slaves. They would try.
Ethan would slip in with them, construct a portal and begin evacuating slaves to Sanctuary. The Ghosts would kill the guards, the few merchants sleeping there, and prepare my gift for the populace of Central City.
An hour before dawn, spell crystals all around the city would start playing loud music. Waking up people. Ten minutes later, fireworks would go off above the Great Bazaar. Two minutes later, when as many eyes as possible would be at the Bazaar, it would explode. I just wish I was there to see it.
With my thoughts focused on revenge, I fell asleep, with four gorgeous naked women sleeping on top of me.
My sleep was interrupted by the crashing of wood. Bleary-eyed, not faked, I looked up and saw the blue uniform of the Unifiers, as well as the black robes of a priest. I had been prepared for this to happen, but I had to sell it, so I attacked the intruders. Non-lethally of course.
The broken door warped and wrapped around the nearest Unifier, while the floorboards rose up to tangle up the rest. The priest waved his hand. While I could easily have overpowered his mana, I let his mana win, and the boards that tried to ensnare him fell to the ground.
“What’s the meaning of this?” I roared, scaring the sleepy women laying on top of me. They had looked around confused at the crash, even elicited small shrieks of surprise.
“Apologies, Lord Karth!” the priest shouted. Clearly surprised that I was in the room. “There’s been an attack—”
“Is my wife okay?” I immediately demanded. As I sat up, I sent the whores rolling off me.
He nodded. “High Lord Wilbur, and a couple of other lords, have been attacked. Given your less than cordial—”
I interrupted him again. “Where’s Nishka?”
“Who’s—”
“My bodyguard,” I demanded. “Where is she?”
The priest blanched a bit. “Uhm, she didn’t—”
I ignored the rest of what he was saying and leapt from the bed, accidentally knocking one of the ladies to the ground, eliciting a painful grunt from her. She shouted “Bastard!” after me. A Unifier who had not been snatched up by the boards tried to stop me from getting close to the priest, but a blow to his stomach left him dry-heaving on his knees.
The priest was smart enough to step to the side. Outside the room, I saw Nishka lying in a pool of blood. Blood pumping out of her throat that had been cut. She was still alive, if barely. I poured healing magic into her, closing that wound and several others she had.
“M—My—My apologies, Lord Karth, she would not let us in,” the priest stammered.
“Who did this?” I asked in a low whisper, my eyes taking in the Unifiers standing around the room. Most of them had weapons drawn. The survey assured me that none of my other people had been hurt, but they looked pissed. My eyes zeroed in on two Unifiers, whose blades had blood on them.
“Lord Karth, wait!” the priest shouted, but it was too late. I had already grabbed one of Nishka’s daggers and teleported the short distance to the closest perpetrator. Before he could react, his throat was cut and I had teleported to the next guard with blood on his sabre. He had turned to face me, but I had teleported behind him, so his throat was cut as well.
I had given no thought to making it efficient or silent. In fact, I had gone for maximum pain and carnage. In a matter of two seconds, both of the Unifiers had their throats cut, falling to their knees, with blood fountaining from their necks.
The other Unifiers reacted immediately, starting in my direction, dark looks on their faces. A voice rang out, “Stop!”
It was the priest. He was ordering the Unifiers to stop. He looked at me. “Don’t make an enemy out of the Church, your bodyguard was saved, so save these two men as well.”
“Fuck you,” I growled, but still reached down and healed them. The men scrambled away from me, fear in their eyes and piss and shit in their pants. “Now, what the fuck did you attack me and my people for?”
“We had to be sure you were here,” the priest lamely said.
“I might be able to teleport, but you know it’s just short-range, so I could possibly not attack that slimy bastard Wilbur. Is he claiming I did it?” I said, standing naked in the middle of the room. Bloody knife in one hand, blood from the first Unifier soaking me.
“He’s dead, Milord,” the priest replied, a bit more deferential.
I started laughing. “Best news I heard in a long time. Barkeep, a round of ale and pussy for everyone.”
That met cheers from my troopers. Well most of them. The Wolf Guards I had hidden amongst the normal troopers were just faking it. They were highly alert, though they knew nothing of the plan. Only Nishka did.
“Milord, you and your men have to come with us,” the priest said softly, almost sounding a bit afraid.
“What the fuck did you just say?” I growled with my eyes narrowed, as I took a step forward. My troopers immediately tensed, so did the Unifiers. The air was full of the delightful aroma of sex, the stench of old sex, stale spilt ale, and the coppery smell of blood, and the tension in the air was thick enough to cut.
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The priest took five steps backwards, putting his hands up in front of his chest, trying to placate me. “Just routine, Milord. We’ve to take you in to be read by the clerics of Ghidana.”
“I’m two fucking weeks of travel away from the place, and you still suspect it’s me? Me, the fucking Hero of the Bastion? Are you fucking kidding me?” I roared.
The priest scrambled further away from me, despite that fact that I had not moved closer to him. If I really wanted to, he was still within range of my teleport magic. The priest stammered, “I—I, ehm—Those are my orders.”
He gulped loudly before continuing, “You—You could’ve ordered an attack.”
“Fine,” I spat. “Let’s get this farce over with. Trust me, people will hear about your treatment of me. You should heed this warning. You’re losing powers. The last decade you’ve lost more and more power. Especially since you summoned us. The people are getting restless.”
He did not respond, so I walked over to Nishka and handed her her knife back. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, but I could see a rage simmering in her eyes. “I’m sorry I failed you, Milord. They were too many.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said and stroked her cheek. She was not my wife, but the wives called her a Concubine, one of those I was allowed to fool around with if I wanted. Stroking her cheek, was to allow me to pass her a message through memory magic. As well as making a couple of other preparations.
In the memory, we were lying in bed, me holding her safely in my arms. “I’m sorry that you got hurt. I did not think they would react with such fervour. We’ll make them pay. One day their blood will paint the streets and rivers red.”
Stepping away from Nishka, I started walking towards the door. Everyone was staring at me. When I reached the door, no one had moved. Looking back, I asked, “Are you coming or what?”
“Uhm,” the priest flushed. “Could you please put some clothes on?”
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After I got dressed we had all been hauled off to the high lord’s manor, where the questioning would take place. It was done in the dining hall, with a lot of onlookers. Mostly armed guards and the high lord.
I smirked at the priest. “The way all of you keeps staring at me, I shouldn’t have gotten dressed. At least you all would’ve had a reason to stare.”
“Are you willing to be read by the cleric of Ghidana?” the priest asked, ignoring my comment.
“Yes, yes, let’s get it over with,” I said with a yawn. The old cleric touched my temples, and I felt his mana reaching into my brain. I also felt another mana signature sneaking its way in, which coincided with the priest taking hold of my wrist. I almost scoffed out loud. I knew this would most likely happen at some point, so I had found a new way of tricking the truth mages, without altering their mana.
It was a good thing that I was already smirking because while I could hold in the scoff, I could not hold back the smirk. The cleric cleared his throat. “Are you Karth, Lord of Wolf Ridge Hold?”
“No, I’m your father,” I mocked.
“Just answer the questions, please,” the priest said.
“Fine, yes, I’m Karth, Lord of Wolf Ridge Hold and the Great Hero of the Bastion. Slayer of elves, defiler of women. By the way, the good high lord’s daughter looks mighty fine. Perhaps we could talk about arrangement later. How much for a single night?” I said.
“Truth,” the cleric said.
“I’ll not have you speak like that!” the high lord roared. The lady in question was a plump nice-looking woman in her mid-twenties, who at the moment was blushing furiously.
The priest shot him a look. “It would be better if your family left. It might get bloody.”
“Fine,” the high lord grumbled. His family left, the sons and mother sending me scathing looks, while the blushing daughter sent a speculative look. I gave her a wink.
“Can you ask the next question, please?” I asked, turning serious, now that the entertainment had left.
“Did you kill High Lord Wilbur?” the priest asked.
“No, I wish I did though. Fucking bastard,” I replied without hesitation.
The priest looked expectantly at the cleric. The cleric proclaimed in a loud voice, “Truth.”
“Did you order someone to kill High Lord Wilbur?”
“Darn, you got me. I ordered a bunch of giants to smash the hall and eat them.”
“False,” the cleric dutifully pronounced.
The priest sighed. “Please take this seriously, and answer my questions.”
“Fine. No, I did not order anyone to kill High Lord Wilbur,” I replied with a sigh.
“Truth.”
“Do you know who killed High Lord Wilbur?”
“Nope, I wish I did, so I could handsomely reward that person,” I replied.
“Truth,” the cleric announced.
“Great, are we done yet?” I asked with a yawn.
The priest frowned. “Yes, but I still need to question all your men.”
I shrugged. “That’s fine, I got a date with a high lord’s daughter.”
“Get out!” the high lord roared. His guards walked up to me, clearly intent on escorting me out.
“If I leave, my men leave,” I told the priest. Completely ignoring the high lord.
The priest looked back and forth between the high lord and me. He nodded. “Okay, we’ll just question your bodyguard. You can observe.”
“Go ahead,” I said with a disinterested wave of my hand. I walked up to the high lord’s table and grabbed the pitcher of wine. I started drinking from it to the great protests of the high lord. I ignored him and downed the wine. Well, the water, because I used magic to replace the wine with water.
The questioning of Nishka took only a couple of minutes, they did not find out anything. Just as I knew they would not. Without much fanfare, we were led from the high hold, cleared of all charges.
As we left the manor, I stroked Nishka’s cheek, unsealing the memories I had locked down earlier. She gave me a grateful smile. When we were halfway back to the brothel, she said, “It worked, Milord.”
I gave her a smile. “Indeed it did.”
“I don’t know how you fooled the priest? He must have touched you to see if you manipulated the mana,” Nishka asked. She knew how we usually fooled the fideomancer. Heck, most of my bodyguards were equipped with spell crystals that changed all fideomancer’s mana into reading the statement as the truth.
However, I could not do that with a priest hovering in the area, and I had deactivated Nishka’s spell crystal before we were escorted away from the brothel. I gave her a smile. “I simply replaced the memory of the cleric. So when I wanted him to say truth instead of false, I simply changed his memory of the reading. The way that the priest was looking for tampering, he could not detect that form of magic. Heck, they probably don’t know it exists. So much knowledge has gotten lost over the millennium. That is if they ever knew about it.”
“Did you have to tease the poor woman so much though?” Nishka asked with a frown.
“I meant what I said. She was good looking,” I said with a shrug. “And I do have a reputation to uphold.”
She just shook her head, as we continued back to the brothel. The day after we left.
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The caravan left without me. Well, it looked like I left with them. A spell crystal with illusion magic would make it look like I was with the caravan the entire way home. They would not stop at the usual stops, citing a need to hurry home if any asked.
I made my way back to the transport office and the portal, using illusion magic to appear nondescript. When I came home, I found that someone was in my office. Again. This time it was not Maeve laying in wait, but Quill. My little boy was a bit different from most of his siblings. Most of them had inherited Emma’s black and white colour or a grey like Maeve. Quill, on the other hand, was an orange tabby. Orange, white, and black stripes. Regular little tiger.
His name was actually Kurik, but we called him Quill, because of his love of books. Not that he could read, but he was fascinated with the books in my library, and he loved listening to stories. The other loved stories as well, but not to the same extent as Quill.
“What are you doing?” I asked as I stepped out of the hidden room.
He was sitting on the table, intently staring at the book in front of him. It was just the ledger of our trades with the dwarves, which I had been looking over before I left. He looked back at me and meowed a greeting. He looked back at the book, his tail flickering back and forth.
“You don’t want a boring old ledger,” I said and scooped him up. His meow voiced his displeasure and complaint at being taken away from the book. I grabbed another book from the shelf and went over to the couch. Lying down, he settled on my chest, and under his watchful eyes, I opened the book. It was a handwritten book, where I wrote down the fairy tales I could remember from Earth. I had started the first time Lily asked me to tell a story to Garion.
“Once upon a time in midwinter…” I started to read what I had remembered of Snow White. For the next hour, I read fairy tales for him, he just sat at my stomach, staring at the book as if it was magical. His tail waving in the air, showing how happy he was. Every time I started to slow down or considered stopping, his meow urged me on.
After an hour, the little tyke finally fell asleep. Shortly after, Emma padded into the room with all my other kids, except for Zac. With a happy smile, she changed into her cat form, so did my kids and all of them clambered onto me. Finding a spot on my body to sleep. Emma lay on my chest, so her head was snuggled against my neck. I felt her lick it a few times, before she fell asleep, Purring as Maeve and Baldur curled up next to her.
With a smile on my face, I fell asleep as well. Happy to be home. Home, a strange concept to me. I had never felt at home in any place. Moving from spot to spot, from one job to another. The longest time I had stayed anywhere after I got out of the orphanage was the prison. Which was hardly a home.
This, however, was home to me. Surrounded by my family. A place of love. And sorrow. A sorrow that would be repaid a million times over. Even if it meant bathing the world in blood.