When the ranks of soldiers stood in front of the city, any doubts anyone had about the nature of the threat were quickly erased. They stood with halberds and spears glinting terribly in the noonday sun, as if to reflect the fear of their enemies back upon them. Yamoc mounted the stairs of the tower and went to the top of the wall, he climbed up on two stones that made up part of the crenelations, and put his back to the enemy, he held up his sword to draw their eyes.
"People of Kedyn, there is but little time to spare before battle is joined, but for the brave, a few words are as good as many, and for the coward, infinite words will not create courage where there is none, so I will be brief! Your enemy is in front of you, come and kill and burn all that you have built. Your families are behind you, and it falls to you and no other, whether they live or die. There is only ONE thing I ask of you, one thing your loved ones need of you, ONE thing you must do if you wish the children of this city to see another dawn!" His voice was loud, deep, and echoed from wall to wall, carried by a fortuitous wind, the citizens of the city who bore arms were held spellbound by the Viscount as they waited for his order.
He inhaled deeply, and bellowed the last line out as loudly as he could. "Hold the wall! Hold the wall! Hold the wall! Even if you die, die as a barrier! hold...this...wall!" Yamoc shouted, he let loose a battle cry and stabbed at the sky with his sword, where the points of the enemy beyond wished the gleaming blades they held to reflect fear, the Viscount's shining edge reflected back the best of them, the best of all mankind who were prepared to die for something more than petty personal survival. The earth shattering cheers threatened to demolish the wall they were eager to defend, and in like fashion they stabbed at the sky with weapons of their own, holding them up, their fears extinguished for the moment, all vice burned away in the terrible crucible of necessity, where life only matters if it can still be spent in noble cause.
A terrible part of Yamoc's mind thought that this would be the greatest moment of his life, even if he was only hours away from his death. He was, after a fashion, correct, as an arrow loosed from the enemy ranks flew out at the opportunely presented back of the Viscount, and in a one in a million chance, struck a gap in his armor, penetrating him under his arm and sinking into his chest.
Yamoc staggered off the place where he had been standing, his insult to this unfamiliar enemy being answered with his life, yet even in that moment he showed his virtue, and with his lung not penetrated he managed to shout, "That's one less arrow against the rest of you! Now HOLD THAT WALL!" Then he fell forward the rest of the way into the shocked arms of two of his men, who urgently carried him away from danger as his eyes closed.
Perhaps the attackers had intended to inspire fear, what they succeeded in inspiring was rage. Though the attackers summoned angels and sent them to the wall to cover the ground attackers, even with superior numbers they were not all capable of doing as they wished, and the unopposed areas of the wall were free to send arrows into the advancing number. Gagaran stood atop the wall and waited patiently, occasionally destroying an angel as it came too close to her, and under the protection of angels, the ground troops advanced bearing ladders to the walls.
Those ground troops however, were made slow by the butcher's bill they found themselves paying, beginning with a single shriek that was cut short as a man fell into the deadfall, it was quickly added to by others, at first they tried to just march through it and take the losses to get to the wall quickly, but soon they realized at each wing, they would have to go slow, and as they went slow, the archers on the wall punished them for their slowness, the many shields offered some protection, but here and there an arrow found its mark, a scream began and did not stop, or was less lucky and it began and was cut short immediately thereafter by a quick death.
"Tina, link up with Tia and help defend the wall to the right of Gagaran, focus on the angels, those basically double their numbers and are endless as long as there is more mana to spare, Evileye and I will do the same on the left of her." Lakyus said, and Tina quickly sped off, while Evileye and Lakyus did the same, heading towards the wall as fast as they could.
Black Justice earned its reputation in the city that day, their one handed methods made them theoretically vulnerable to arrows, but when the ladders came close, they frequently used their free hand to take control of their opponent by grabbing his shield, more than one man climbed up the wall only to be pulled so hard forward that he stumbled to his death by falling off the edge and right down into the city itself. Meanwhile a ram was marched to the city gate along with two thousand soldiers behind it. "Evileye!" Lakyus shouted, "We've got to stop that ram, the city can't stop a breach!" She gestured with her demonic blade and cut down a renegade paladin. "I'm behind you sister!" Evileye shouted and they rushed along the wall, up above the gate. The ram was hanging suspended within a roof shaped cover made of wood, and wet leather to minimize damage by fire from above, it rolled on large wheels roughly the height of a grown man at the shoulder, it was sturdy enough as far as it looked at least. But either way, how much damage the gate could sustain, Evileye was uncertain.
"Crystal Wall!" Evileye shouted, and a wall of crystal presented itself, this thing had stood up to the punch of a demon maid, at least temporarily, she was sure as it appeared in front of the ram, that it could sustain a few blows. "Shard buckshot!" she shouted, and crystal shards slammed hard into the massed target. She was now a major threat, and the soldiers responded by summoning angels to keep her distracted.
Lakyus compensated by using unleashing waves of darkness from Kilineiram, and summoned her floating swords to strike at those hiding under the protection of the cover for the ram.
The soldiers atop the gate poured boiling water, and the screams of the people struck by it carried all the way to the top of the wall with great ease. It would have been disturbing, but the two petals of Blue Rose were suddenly distracted by the sound of a new booming noise, and the banner of the official Paladin Order was high in the distance. The long awaited Gustav had made his appearance. Evileye's excellent vision let her see what was coming before anyone else, and while she was relieved, she was also confused. That had to be Gustav, and some of the men with him were clearly paladins and their squires, but their numbers of those were fewer, perhaps half what she expected, too, she saw along the flanking positions there were others who wore a different armor, they wore red, as opposed to white, and carried a different banner. They were not many, perhaps only two hundred strong, but they moved well and held their lines firm, and it augmented the diminished numbers to roughly seven hundred. Some fifteen hundred of the two thousand sent to take the gate, whirled to meet this new threat, while the remainder focused on the gate.
With only Evileye and Lakyus, along with a handful of a hundred to two hundred men to hold the gate, it was not a pretty situation. Even an adamantite adventurer was not a god, and an arrow in the eye would kill an adamantite human as easily as it would a copper plate. But vampiric strength and speed and a blade of darkness cut through weaker foes like butter, while Fel Iron wrought a terrible cost in mana as Gagaran's prodigious strength swatted them away like flies. Yet every time the city maneuvered troops to one position to strengthen it, the enemy beyond the wall bolstered the opposite position, keeping the defenders jumping back and forth. Hundreds of the dead were pulled back and replaced with the living, and hundreds of others fell before the wall without ever setting foot on its stones.
Gustav Montagne was outnumbered, Evileye and Lakyus could both see that, but neither could they do anything about it. If it mattered to him one way or another, he gave no sign of it as he ordered his men to advance. Red armored men clashed with white, the latter usually outperforming the former, but they were not without cost of their own, and the seven hundred became six hundred and fifty. Evileye took a moment to turn her eye to the sky, the sun was their ally, the people on the walls were growing tired, they needed time, they needed nightfall.
...In Nazarick...
"What did you think of my little trick with the wind my lord?" Demiurge asked his lord.
"Nicely done Demiurge, I'm sure they heard every word Yamoc said. Cocytus, do you think they have a chance?" Ainz said, looking over to the insectoid warrior.
"I find their fighting spirit admirable, but...if the battle continues for much longer, no, they are outnumbered and except for the adamantite adventurers, of roughly equal skill, or slightly imbalanced in the favor of the aggressors." He said confidently.
"Well it wouldn't do for a city filled with my followers to be slaughtered, then I'd be no different from these false gods the people here are so fond of, and who serves a god who does nothing all day?" Ainz said casually.
Demiurge folded his arm in front of him and bowed, "It is as you say my lord Ainz, it would stain Nazarick for those we support to be defeated, but we cannot do all for them either."
"May this humble and worthless servant offer a suggestion?" Sebas asked.
Ainz gestured with one hand out and palm up, "Of course Sebas, what do you propose?"
"These people both need a miracle to survive, and desire a miracle in order to know their faith is not misplaced, so may I propose we give them what they need? Let us give them darkness and force an end to the fight for the day, the rest will give them time, and that is enough for now."
Ainz laughed, "Very good suggestion Sebas, that is the kind of thinking I treasure in my servants. It is proof that you have grown. Touch me would be proud of you."
"You humble me my lord." Sebas replied.
Ainz thought the matter over and then selected a spell as he watched the scene play out before him, and then his memory flashed back to the battle against Nigun, and he settled on the spell to use.
"Gate." Ainz said, and stepped through it. He looked around, he was outside Kedyn, but nobody was looking at him as far as he could tell, not that he could blame them, what with the angels attacking the city and the fighting and dying going on, from his relatively distant position, he was a dot, compared at least to the mass of bodies people were contesting against. He raised his skeletal hand, He pointed to an area of the battlefield where the fighting was most intense and said, "Black Hole". When he was satisfied with what he saw, he said "Gate" again, and walked back into Nazarick.
...At the Battle of Kedyn...front lines...
The angels were a problem, they just kept coming and augmented the men on foot, and despite excellent showing, the tide was turning against the defenders, Ulthis was praying for a miracle as his vampiric strength ripped apart another angel and he kicked yet another ladder away from the wall just as a man was about to step off of it. The man's face was a comical mix of disbelief and horror as the ladder came away from the wall, slowly tilting backwards, until it was to far and it fell back to the ground with the man screaming "ohhhhh shiiiii..." before he could finish the word, he was dead.
Then Ulthis got the miracle he prayed for...a single black dot appeared in the air near the center of the battle, and a moment's common question from both armies was answered when the angels were uniformly sucked into the dark point as if it were an all consuming void, and when it vanished the sky turned black, the stars were out, and it was no longer possible to fight without easily accidentally killing one's own allies. This prompted the enemy fighting Gustav, as well as Gustav himself, to use drums to call their forces to orderly withdrawal, and the ram moved away just after it shattered the crystal wall. All that work for nothing.
The sudden darkness was a welcome relief and a huge boost to the city. Ulthis was quick to take advantage of the occasion, "Black Justice, our god has heard my prayer, he has given us this miracle, this darkness that our strength may be preserved, the battle is OURS to win, but we have the power of the Sorcerer King favoring us, the darkness is his gift, that we not be overrun by those who would take our lives, now tend your wounds and prepare for tomorrow, for when the dawn comes, we will have to prove ourselves worthy once again, and as Viscount Yamoc has said, I tell you now again, "Hold the wall!"
"Hold the wall!" The cheer was taken up, even those who could only gasp out a whisper, whispered "hold the wall..." as they fell exhausted against the wall they vowed to protect, and dropped to the stone beneath them to rest.
Evileye and Lakyus stood together in silence, enjoying a brief moment alone.
"So...was it different fighting next to a vampire?" Evileye asked.
"No, not at all." Lakyus said with relief. "I felt only yourself when I was near you, your skill with magic as worthy as ever...I think this is going to only get easier for me as we go along." Lakyus gave her a thin and fragile smile.
Evileye took off her mask, comfortable in their quiet moment, and gave Lakyus a broad grin, "I know, but I also know everything will be just fine. So just take your time and become comfortable with me as you now know I've always been, and when you're ready to embrace me again without any of the fears and thoughts coming up, just tell me, and I'll be here." The woman of legend replied.
They might have conversed for longer, but Lakyus said, "We should speak with Ulthis, I saw him taking control over some of the battle, we need to know what we've lost, and it looks like Gustav has finished reforming his lines for the march and is going to be able to enter the city unopposed. I'd rather talk to Ulthis before we deal with a paladin we don't know. Besides," Lakyus looked embarrassed, "I owe him a real apology."
That sealed the issue for Evileye, and they set out to go meet with the priest of Black Justice, casually telling several soldiers to open the gate when Gustav's men reached it, and close it right after.
When they found where he was, they saw Cercei, Yamoc's wife, was kneeling in front of him, and they heard her finish speaking, "...on my name, my life, my unlife, I swear this oath." She said with deep conviction in her voice.
"I'm...sorry...I didn't mean to interrupt." Lakyus said, drawing a look of surprise from Ulthis at the courtesy she was now showing to him.
"Its alright." Ulthis said politely, "We just finished, the Viscountess here chose to take the Black Justice oath and join us." He watched to see how Lakyus and Evileye would take that information, and he was pleasantly surprised to find them both nonplussed by the information.
"Can I have a moment with you alone Ulthis?" Lakyus asked.
The Black Justice priest looked at her with a dubious expression, but then nodded reluctantly. "Please wait for me here Cercei, I will answer your question when I return." The woman nodded and remained where she knelt.
They walked quietly for a time until they reached the Black Justice temple, and he politely opened the door for her. Lakyus walked in, took a few steps forward, and then turned and met his eyes. "Please, for this, can you drop your illusion." She said.
He looked wary, but dispelled it, revealing the blood red eyes and sharp fangs of a vampire, and it was as he did so that to his surprise, Lakyus knelt in front of him, though she did not break her blue eyes locked gaze on his red ones as she did so. "I owe you a deep apology, truly I do. What I said and how I treated you was wrong, I know that now." She opened her arms out in front of her, "All I can offer as an excuse is my ignorance, my fear, and the habit of long years that I never knew was a bad one." She said. "May I please ask that you grant me your forgiveness?" She said formally.
This threw him for a loop, and Ulthis said, "I don't really blame you, it's true most vampires do prey on humans, its not like you held your belief without any reason, it's just you didn't know there was any other way for us to live. Go on, stand up, I won't hold a grudge against someone trying to protect my followers, lets put it behind us, and I hope after this is over, you'll join me for dinner at least once before you leave." He said, revealing his confidence that the city could win the battle.
"I'll take you up on that." Lakyus said, and held out a hand, which Ulthis took and shook firmly.
"Since we are alone, there is a question I would like to ask you." Ulthis said, and Lakyus inclined her head, indicating that he should continue.
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"Cercei has converted to the religion of Black Justice, however she is asking as part of that, that we give her the means to avenge her husband. She is not well trained in combat, few noble ladies are, but she asks for items necessary to fight anyway, even if it just means dying." He said.
Lakyus's eyes went wide. "You're not serious."
"I am, that is what she said. However I consider that a waste, so I was going to offer to turn her, to make her a vampire, and take her and Evileye out tonight to raid the enemy lines." The wideness of Lakyus's eyes did not diminish when she heard that. She felt the old hate come up, the bigotry against his kind, and again she mentally spat on it and pushed it down into the pit of her stomach.
"So what do you want my advice on?" She asked him.
"Well you've already answered some of my concerns." He said, "I had feared you would try to put her, and then I, down when you learned of it, but I see that is not the case. The other matter was contingent on your answer to the previous concern, and that is whether or not you would support her appointment to rule the city, even knowing what she'd become, in the place of her husband. You are going to be the heroes of this city when this battle is over, an endorsement from you will eliminate virtually any opposition."
Lakyus took a moment and sat down as she imagined a Black Justice vampire noblewoman ruling a city. She touched her forehead to see if it was burning, as if she might be having a fever dream.
"Is that a no?" He asked of her silence, his voice full of disappointment.
"No, it’s...it's not." Lakyus said, "I'm just having to deal with a great deal as my world turns upside down and you've thrown me for another loop. I guess my first question is...what happens when she's turned?" Lakyus asked.
"She will have a blood frenzy and need to feed for the first time. She will be an especially formidable combatant during that time, at least for a short while. I want to turn her while she's near enemy lines in the darkness, and between she, Evileye, and myself, we can do substantial harm to enemy numbers and their night's rest." He said.
"Will she return to herself after the frenzy passes?" Lakyus asked.
"It doesn't take that long, once the first is done, it will start to fade, being completely gone within a few hours." Ulthis explained.
"And how will she hide this part of herself afterwards, you have your illusions, Evileye has her mask, how will she be protected afterwards?" Lakyus asked with concern.
"I will give her an item, a ring, as long as she wears it, her face will be illusory, showing her normal eyes and a smile without any fangs." Ulthis replied.
Lakyus rubbed her temple like it hurt, "I shed blood with two vampires together against a group of humans dedicated to slaughter...at this point, how much more can the gods damn me if I allow one more to be added?" She replied. "Very well, I owe you some degree of trust at least, and I saw what kind of person she was, and the nature of her husband, if she's as upright as that, and vampires can have love and loyalty like humans, then I believe Blue Rose can justly back her, assuming she survives the battle...and so do we." Lakyus replied, hardly believing her own words.
"Good." Ulthis said, "Then let's get back, I need the casualty reports and to propose this raid to Evileye." He opened the door, and they walked back out of the temple. When they returned to where Evileye and Cercei waited, Ulthis walked in front of the kneeling widow and took her hand, "I will give you what you ask," he said as he looked into her eyes, "but it is not the way you ask it, I can only offer this chance to you. If you refuse it, I will not hold it against you." Ulthis said comfortingly.
"Anything. Anything to avenge my husband." Cercei said. "He was all I had left, and they took him from me." Her voice was filled with fire, and Ulthis leaned in close to her ear and whispered, "I can turn you into a creature of the night, a vampire, and with the strength of a vampire, you will end many lives among the ones who took Yamoc from you."
Her eyes widened in shock as she leaned back to catch his eyes, as if searching them to see if he was serious, when he looked straight back at her, she understood that this was no cruel joke, he was serious. She nodded vigorously. "Do it." She said.
"Not here, we will get out of the city first, your first moment of turning will be a frenzy, I want you ready to fight the right people." He said.
"As you wish." She replied.
Evileye looked at them, and at Lakyus, with shocked eyes.
"Evileye, would you care to accompany us on this raid, three will kill more than two." He said.
Evileye looked over to Lakyus, and with a predatory smile, Lakyus nodded to her, prompting Evileye to turn her gaze back to Ulthis.
"Let's do it." She said.
Getting out of the city unnoticed was easy, everybody was always looking for those trying to break in, so nobody ever thought about a person trying to get out, so it was easy for them to find a guard with his back turned at a tower, and carry Cercei over and leap down from the crenelations and into an isolated shadow. It was when they were hidden beyond the camp and well outside the city, that Ulthis looked over to the human woman and asked, "Are you ready?"
"Yes." She said firmly, and inclined her head towards her shoulder, baring more of her neck to the vampire priest, he held her firmly, holding close to the base of her skull, his other arm wrapped around her, his mouth opened wide, and his fangs pierced her flesh. He drank deeply of her blood, until at last she fell hard on the ground when he released his hold on her body.
The turning began with a shriek as vampirism took hold in her body, two of her teeth reshaped into fangs, and her fingernails hardened and extended like claws, she felt her body grow tighter, lighter, and stronger, and her eyes began to turn color until her natural shade had gone away and only blood red remained. She looked around with a vampire's eyes and said, "So...this is what it looks like for you...us. I'm...so hungry." She licked her lips, and her vision and her scent told her there was prey nearby. She began to run, not as a person, but more as a beast, charging full tilt as fast as a dog on all fours, and far more fierce. The more stable and experienced vampire priest and Evileye quickly caught up, just as she leapt on a man and tore his throat out with a bite. Evileye began to use spells left and right, striking guards dead with crystal buckshot while Ulthis focused on his claws and teeth, and he used them very, very effectively.
A man charged at him as the alarm went up, and Ulthis used the combination of his combat training and vampire reaction speed and strength to grab his sword arm at the wrist and literally twist it off his body, sending the man screaming and writhing on his back, clutching at wrist that had been freed of its hand as blood gushed out of him.
He whirled on another man, and slashed upwards with his claws, tearing chunks out of his jugular before he could even raise his blade. He grabbed another man and flung him at the ground where a trap lay, breaking the trap cover the army had put over it, and leaving him screaming and impaled on several stakes. They were twenty kills in before the entire camp had been roused to understand that they were under attack and where, and the priest took advantage of their slow realization to take up a stray torch and throw it against barrels containing supplies, he created chaos and confusion as he went, using his charmed eyes to get guards to wander off into the woods, instructing them to never stop walking, taking them out of the battle as surely as if he'd killed them. The fighting was intense, but it was turning into a disadvantage as more of the enemy came baring down on the trio. Cercei wailed like a banshee, dragging men by their hair and flinging them into entire groups, tearing out chunks of flesh, even pulling off one man's arm simply to beat him with it, before she held the arm over her head and opened her mouth, allowing the blood inside of it to fall into her waiting mouth. She licked her lips clean, and threw the arm away when there was nothing of it left to drink, and she might have killed many more, but with the numbers bearing down on them, there was no time to linger.
"GO! GO!" Ulthis snapped to the two women, we've lost the advantage!" he shouted, and as he ran, he grabbed each of their wrists and pulled them as he fled, getting them to move with him, he quickly let go and they darted to a distant side gate, their vampire speed far outpacing the pursuers, the enemy camp was in an uproar, and when Ulthis, Evileye, and Cercei reached the gate, Ulthis tossed Cercei up to the top of the wall, and before he could offer to do the same for Evileye, she had grabbed him by the belt of his pants and tossed him up as well. She then cast 'fly' and drew herself up to the top of the wall before cancelling the spell. The three of them left the area immediately, satisfied that they had sewn considerable chaos among the ranks of their enemies.
"Here." Ulthis said, and pressed a ring into Cercei's hand. "Wear this, your vampiric features will be hidden." She looked surprised, but then with a mumbled thank you, put it on, and the vampire widow had returned to simply being a widow. Her eyes and teeth reverted to their normal state, and Ulthis restored his illusion, and Evileye turned her masked face to the approaching Lakyus, Gagaran, and twins.
"That was..." Tia began
"Productive." Tina finished.
"I like to think so." Evileye said.
"They'll be very tired tomorrow." Gagaran said with a grin.
"They will be, but we have another problem to deal with before we can get any rest." Lakyus said. "We have to find the insider or insiders who are tipping off the armies outside about our movements inside. Every single time we redirected our forces to try to make it seem stronger, before they'd even arrived, soldiers outside were moving to somewhere weaker. They ran us ragged out there today and I can't even begin to guess how many lives that cost us. If they keep doing that, we're in trouble." She replied.
It was then that she heard an unfamiliar voice, "I have an idea about how you might determine that." A well built man in paladin armor was approaching.
Lakyus saw him as soon as he spoke, and she took an educated guess as to whom he might be. "You must be Gustav Montagne." She said and approached with a hand outstretched, which he happily shook. "A pleasure to meet you, even if the circumstances are not." She said.
"The same. You must be Lakyus, and I'd wager your companions are Blue Rose, if I'm to judge by what the stories say about your appearances. And the rest of you would be...?" Gustav asked.
"I am Ulthis Ndarion, priest of Black Justice for the city of Kedyn." He said and offered out his hand, which Gustav took, though not without any discomfort.
"I am Cercei, Viscountess of this city." She said, extending her hand, which he took rather warmly.
"A pleasure to meet you all, I suppose I should say I'm sorry it took so long, but we ran into trouble. Someone knew we were coming, they sent hundreds of men to try to stop us, we suffered raids and various attacks every step of the way, and I lost almost half my men. Those red armored fellows you saw, those are Red Paladins who chose to support us, Black Justice members, they've developed some unusual martial arts, which was good for us, because otherwise we might not have made it at all."
They shared a common look at one another. "To know you were coming required inside knowledge between the council chamber, the capitol, and you." Lakyus said.
"And whoever knew it, knew what we had, and tried to block our entry into the city, they'd have succeeded too, if it weren't for that sudden darkness that forced them to withdraw for want of the cover of angels and the fear of injuring or killing their own." Gustav added.
"We need to find them." Tia said.
"Fast." Tina finished.
"You said you had an idea Gustav?" Lakyus asked.
"I do." He replied.
"Please, tell us." Ulthis said.
"Whoever was telling the enemy about our movements also knew about what took place in the meeting where you discussed me, so we're looking for someone who..." He held out his hand, fingers extended, and then drew them closed to a fist as he ticked off the characteristics, "Hates Black Justice, is siding with Remedios Custodio, has first hand access to the meetings that take place in the private councils here, is going to be positioned high enough and far enough back to observe our movements, and have the ability to silently signal our movements from their position, probably through flags, lights, or some other simple object. Does anyone fit that description?" He asked.
"The priests of the old gods do." Ulthis said, "Their high priests are not native to this area."
Lakyus's mouth fell open. "The six...!" She exclaimed, prompting their heads to turn towards her questioningly. "When I first arrived here, I sought the counsel of a priest here, he made reference to 'the six gods' the Slane Theocracy worships the six gods...priests in this country worship only the four, he's a member of the Slane Theocracy, probably one of their agents embedded here." Lakyus said.
Cercei stroked her chin, "The priests have been highly antagonistic to Black Justice, even for zealots, I attributed it to them being from the South, where the Sorcerer King is little known and less revered, but it makes more sense if they're Slane Theocracy, they wouldn't hesitate to goad violence, and they tried to start a riot when my child was killed, they blamed the Black Justice temple, and that could have torn the city apart."
"If he's embedded..." Tia began
"The rest probably are too." Tina finished.
"So, to know where they are, we're going to have to lay a trap." Gustav said, "They're definitely watching, which means they have to be up high and well back, there are only..." He paused and counted the tall buildings in the city, "five areas that give a good vantage point. We need to observe each position and watch to see what changes when we maneuver our soldiers."
"On it." Ulthis said, "I'll march a unit out of the city through the western gate, they won't be able to miss that, and they'll have to respond by shifting the position of their own soldiers. When you find the spot they're signalling from, hit them hard and take them dead or alive."
Carrying out that plan did not take long, Ulthis roused four hundred men, and marched them in full gear out the western gate just as promised, while Blue Rose, Gustav, and Cercei watched each of the buildings upper floors and rooftops for any hint of a change. It wasn't long in coming. A set of shutters opened, and a lamp was lit, it blinked out, then blinked again, then blinked out, then blinked on again as if it had been covered and exposed repeatedly. "There!" Cercei said as soon as she saw it.
"Gagaran, Tia, Tina, Evileye, find them and capture them. Then bring them to the Great Hall's dungeon." Lakyus said. "I'll meet you there, don't regret having to put them down if you have to, but seize them. While we're gone, Gustav, please take command of the wall, just in case."
The four adamantite ranked adventurers were second to none in Re-Estize, and they were not lessened in their status by coming to the Roble Holy Kingdom. They moved through the moonlit night with the smooth easiness of the moonlight over water, and they quickly dashed into several buildings and caught their charges by surprise, each of the four priests were snatched with ease, barely getting time to protest for half a word before they were hit and knocked unconscious.
Less than an hour later they were bound in a dungeon, each one's wrists bound behind them to a chair, and then in turn each one bound to the other, sitting in a square formation with each man to the back of another.
They didn't move for a while, they lay there with their heads slumped. "Wake them." Cercei said.
Gagaran took up a bucket of water, and heaved the water out over them one after another, snapping them suddenly awake and shaking the water off in confusion. They sat stunned and confused, before the brief memory of their capture returned.
"I will make this plain." Cercei said. "You are all guilty of treason, and you are all going to die for it."
The four began to sputter denials before she spat out, "Do not even try it! We caught your signal, you all knew about Gustav's coming, you all have a stake in one third of this city being exterminated, and our enemy out there knew they'd been exposed far sooner than they should have. You got a lot of people killed, and you're going to die for it, I only woke you so that you'd know it was coming, and to give you the courtesy of last words. So, do you have any?" Cercei asked in a voice so ice cold that the winter snows seemed a warm summer day.
One of the priests caught Lakyus's eyes, "You! You're a priestess of the god of water, you should be helping us! You should not be protecting these people...these monsters in the disguise of humans, they're an abomination unto the gods, as a priestess, you must know this! Help us save the people from this menace!" He shouted.
Lakyus looked at him with a burning hatred, as if she were looking at the way she was so recently, and she spoke slowly, her voice dripping with venomous hatred, "I WAS a priestess of water. The gods wanted me to hate what I loved, destroy what I held dear, betray who trusted me most...given a choice between the gods and my sister, I choose her."
He began to scream at her. "Apostate! Blasphemer! Betrayer! You are not the heroes of humanity, you are unholy, you are abominations, abominations, unholy abominations!" He frothed at the mouth like a mad dog as he screamed, and Lakyus answered, "I would rather be an Unholy Rose, and whole, with all my beloved petals, than the withered one I'd be without my them." Lakyus said with iron conviction as she gestured to the other members of Blue Rose.
Cercei stepped over and swiped her fingers across his throat, cutting off his tirade. She stepped to the next one.
"You, any last words?" She asked.
"Evil abominations! The gods will not see this unanswered! You're unholy! Servants of the undead, betrayers of the faith!"
Cercei cut his words off just as quickly, with a slash to the throat with her vampire claws.
"And you? Last words?" She asked again.
"Into the hands of my gods, I commend my spirit, and you, Unholy Roses, I go to condemn you before the gods, and will wait with them to see you cast down into the torment you deserve." He said calmly, and lifted his chin defiantly, baring his throat.
"At least you're more brave than mad, but you're still a traitor." She said, and slashed his throat.
The last man was shaking with rage. "Roses wilt, whether they are blue, red, or blasphemous and unholy things before the gods, your petals will fall, and you will mourn one another in futility as the gods take you to your punishment, as they take me to my reward." He said, and tried to spit at Cercei, who avoided the last insult with childish ease, and tore his throat out with the rest of them.
Lakyus stood there trembling, the only sound was the dripping of blood from the corpses to the floor. "I never thought I'd see a day where I'd watch priests be executed, where I'd be an apostate, a blasphemer..." She said softly. "But...if you're an unholy rose, I'd sooner be one too, than anything else." Lakyus said as she looked over at Evileye, who grabbed her Lakyus's hand impulsively. Gagaran, Tia, and Tina echoed the sentiment, "Better unholy petals together, than a whole blue flower apart." Gagaran said insightfully.
Cercei looked at them oddly, "Well that's all done then. Never imagined I'd be doing that one day." She said, "I'll have to quietly dispose of them, put some story out about them being killed during the fighting. It's a better ending story than they deserve, but now what?" She asked.
"Now?" Lakyus asked. "Now we have Gustav take control of the signal station and we have him start feeding bad intel back to them tomorrow when the fighting begins, this should start to give us something of an edge, and it should be enough for us to finally end all this."
There were very angry, savage smiles on the faces of the women present...an unholy rose, was about to be in full bloom.