EPILOGUE
General Leaman could not jump to his feet as he had in his youth, but when the soldiers burst into his home and the sound of booted feet and clinking armor filled the dining hall… followed quickly by the sound of wood snapping down into a dozen palms, when the full plate armored soldiers lowered the tips of their halberd’s to his fat throat? Well, that made him jump out of his skin.
Servants screamed, and shrank into tiny versions of themselves, cowering in corners, the rich, bright, cloth of maids made poor hiding places, and the handful of guards were caught completely by surprise. They reached for their weapons and tried to rush to the aid of their lord, the sound of their few heavy feet contesting poorly against the many of those who invaded the estate.
“In the name of the Prince! Do not move an eyelash if you want to stay alive!” A strong youthful voice called out.
He immediately began to sweat, his eyes went huge and he leaned back as far as he could before demanding, “What the hell are you doing here…?”
His question was quickly answered when a young man in armor like the rest, but with a crest affixed to his chest marking him as head of the royal guard, stepped forward. “General Leaman, you are under arrest for the attempted assassination of Duchessa Nua Calen Aiwenor.” The words were stiff, formal, polite… and he knew, completely correct.
That, however, did not stop the old general from lying through his teeth. “I. Deny. Everything. Take me to the Prince!” He glared at the sandy haired young man, and rose very slowly to his feet, taking out his sword, he laid it on the table and slid it to the hand that rested there waiting for it.
“Gladly!” The youthful guard replied with an equally unhappy glare.
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The Tlalmok ambassador looked over at the correspondence on his desk from that… absurd human. The ocelotman was more than a little annoyed, his ears batted back and forth, his padded furry mottled fingers and the claws that sprang from them, raked over the table. “Stupid, they’re so stupid… why would they think the God-Emperor would give a damn what any of them have to say about anything…?” He growled like the letter was prey and wondered if he should keep it or send it.
‘Likely they’re just trying to use us to kill off a rival again… ugh, if that’s the case I’ll support a full fledged invasion again, I swear it!’ He groused with very little sincerity, ‘Who cares what they have to say… what concern is it of ours?’ He grumbled again and took up the sealed envelope.
Finally, he shrugged and put it from his ‘Stupid meat’ stack of documents to the ‘low priority probably waste of time but send it anyway’ stack of documents. ‘Pass it on up, let the bureaucrats deal with this, if they want to say it’s a waste of time, let the God-Emperor blame the one that brings it to him, not me.’
He then took up the thigh bone of an orc and took a hearty bite, and went back to relaxing and enjoying a nice, easy post far from the hassle that was responsibility over the border.
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God-Emperor Ax’Ayact stared down at the noble in front of him that was secured by his sons. One of the few bearman nobles, his face was a mess, fur cut and stripped where liger claws had mauled him, he was prostrate, bearing the heavy stomping feet of the brothers. “I did nothing… nothing sire!”
Ax’Ayact put his hand to his forehead, ‘Those boys… they’re acting out quite a bit lately, but this is a bit much even for them.’ A pain in his head throbbed mercilessly.
“He insulted us!” Xo’Tzin snapped with a vicious baring of his teeth “Especially me!”
“But not as badly as I!” Ahui’Tzin snarled and dug a claw into the nobleman’s side. The court looked on, horrified as one of their own was brutalized.
“What… insults?” God-Emperor Ax’Ayact demanded wearily and sat down on his throne.
“He said my brother was faster than I!” Ahui’Tzin roared.
“He said my brother was stronger than I!” Xo’Tzin added.
Ax’Ayact groaned more from the pain they were causing him than the pain in his head. “He was telling the truth, if you don’t like the truth, then change the truth by becoming stronger and faster than the one you’re compared to. Apologize to the Minister of Meat… immediately, or go hungry for the next week!” The God-Emperor ordered, and it was no idle threat.
He closed his eyes tight against the throbbing pain he could never admit to, and so missed that as they whispered half hearted, ‘sorries’ more grumbled than spoken, the two brothers glared at one another with angry, jealous eyes.
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Prince Rasgen sorted through the list of potential candidates to replace his ministers, they were younger men and women, ambitious, eager to prove themselves. All of them were intelligent, but only one problem held him back. ‘Loyalty… I have to dismiss the ones I have now… but they are at least mostly loyal… imperfectly so… but still. I can’t work with them again, not after… after Lodira. They might as well have killed her themselves…’
He shook his head and set a paper with one young name on it aside, ‘He’ll do well…’ Rasgen thought, and then took up a blank piece of paper. He laid it down in front of himself and considered the Duchessa. He did not have to think for long. ‘After what she did for Sobella… and… besides, I can’t very well propose to her and exclude her from this…’ He scrawled her name in giant letters and nothing else, clear across the page at a downward angle from the upper left corner, and slapped it on the ‘accepted’ pile he now had only two names to, and moved on to the next one. ‘I’ll give her a little time at home, as she asked, and then go see her in person… I owe that much to the one who walked through that hellscape.’ He thought, and reached for his sixth glass of wine.
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Nua stood before her assembled soldiers, “My soldiers! A moment of silence for the one who died for you…” Nua shouted, and bowed her head, as did all others save for Solution.
When her head came up, “Out there at the top of the Tlalmok pyramid of sacrifice, I watched a concubine, a courtesan, a common whore, lie naked before a monster. She took my hand in hers and said as her last words, ‘I am not afraid!’ In this way, did she die without fear! She loved her life, her city, her mate and those who had become her people! If even a common prostitute can find that resolve in the mouth of hell, what will you do on the battlefield for the sake of your loved ones?! If all has gone as I wished while I was away, villages wait to house your wives, husbands, sons, brothers, fathers, sisters, and more! I must catch up on all that I missed, but know this.” Nua pointed upward to the sky, “Komestra was not built in a day, but we will rebuild it… in the span of a single year!”
“Aiwenor! Aiwenor! Aiwenor!” The voices called out as one, and Nua held both hands out to calm her warriors.
“Today… you may have a holiday all to yourselves, to celebrate my victorious return to the city, and to you, and the peace of the next year with the Tlalmok Empire… and to drink to the memory of the one who died for you to have it all. Dis-MISSED!” She shouted out, and the cheers all but deafened her.
When the soldiers began to run off, Nua approached Solution first, and opened her mouth without saying a word.
Solution smirked, touched her cheek with one hand that might have been mistaken as a gesture of affection.
Nua briefly felt the inside of her cheek sizzle. “You came back, and in time… I knew you would.” Solution smirked her usual cocky ‘know it all’ smirk. “Hurry up here, you’ve got a lot of work to do.”
She then wheeled about and took off, and Sado, as though he sensed Solution was about to call him after her, rushed to the fore and knelt. He reached into his pack and took out the fruit of his labor. He bowed his head low and raised it over his head.
With a low and deeply humble voice, Sado then spoke to her. “Mistress… to show my… devotion, my understanding, and my worth, I have, in time given to my own, prepared this. A copy of your sacred text, translated into the language of the City States… with this, you can tell all our people of your faith… your faith… and mine. I cast off my stars, I accept your faith. Your god is my god, just as your will is my will. That is my justice… that is all I have to offer, and it is yours, if you will have it.”
Nua slowly took the book and flipped through the pages, she caught the way his ears twitched with every sound of her turning a page, she read swiftly, selecting a few random passages. “I will read the rest later but… Sado… truly… I am moved…” Nua clutched the book to her chest as if she were afraid it might fly away from her.
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“I thought it would be years… years before I could take the time to get this done…” She blinked back tears and cleared her throat to keep the feeling from her voice.
“No… it took a recognition of what needed to be done, and I have Lady Solution to thank for that…” Sado said without raising his head, and Nua laid a gentle hand on it.
“It is deeply welcomed… I believe I felt Teacher’s eyes on you before she walked away, go see her, and we will speak later.” Nua ordered, and he rose slowly to his feet, he bowed again, and began to withdraw.
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Freyjin knelt before her mistress. “Your temple… it is ready, mistress. I have also planned the ball, and… there is ample correspondence for you, I have already vetted and sorted it into categories. One for broader affairs such as the management of your domains, those are held with your Majordomo. Another for military affairs, handled by Onimeus, and finally I am handling domestic matters pertaining to the estate and its holdings inside the city… and…” She coughed uncomfortably, “your marriage proposals.”
Nua frowned, the corners of her lips going deeply down, “I made none of those.”
“Forgive me, mistress, I mean that these are to you, and they are… many.” Freyjin suppressed the almost laugh in the face of necessity. “Also… mistress…” She blinked hard, staring up at eyes that somehow seemed to stare into her heart.
“Yes, Freyjin?” Nua asked innocently, cupping the woman’s cheeks.
“I want… I want a chance to fight you again… I want to fight for the freedom of Lenah and Straen… or at least… at least I want a post where I can have a chance to win them their freedom. Please… I beg you… I beg you.” She lowered her face and pressed her lips to the top of Nua’s boot.
“Are you afraid I’ll harm them, slave, because you ought to know I am not so cruel as all that.” Nua answered, looking at the back of the head that pressed itself to her boot, torn between pity, offense, and affection for her Steward.
“I know… but… even if you don’t or won’t, I can’t bear even a ‘could’. So to your nameless god I prayed, and I trained almost every day for hours with Sergeant Vargas. I would rather you beat me every day, stripped my back raw… than that you be allowed, even if you wouldn’t do it, to hurt my little ones…” Freyjin said with desperation, “I know it is… treason, if you strip my bronze I understand… but I cannot help the fear of ‘could’ again. So? I will fight the could until it becomes a can’t, or I’ll die in the process.” Freyjin’s voice and words were utterly at odds with her deeply submissive posture, and Nua did not mind at all.
“You will get your chance. But not just this moment. Go, and wait till I call you… and also… good work. Take two silver for yourself and the little ones… and that one, her name… for now, is ‘Number Four’.” Nua pointed to her horse where Number Four sat staring with quiet expectation.
“I plucked that one out of hell… you will take care of her, and we’ll sort it out later.” Nua gave the order, and Freyjin rose, looking in dismay at the girl on the horse.
“Oh… of course my Mistress.” She wondered what she was to expect, but what she got, ‘This I did not expect, none of it but her return.’ She thought, wondering how to process the sudden arrival of yet another, as well as the calm acceptance of a challenge that in any other house, would bring the offer a death sentence.
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Number Four picked at the cloth that covered her body. Her dark blue hair was bound in a single braid behind her back, and she looked at the curly haired blonde woman with a sense of awe and reverence. To her left and right stood Veema, Straen, and Lenah, who she looked at with equal uncertainty.
In front of them, an inhuman smile spread over the monster’s face. “Do you know what I both dislike, and like, about those who are not made by Supreme Beings like myself?” She asked as she walked past and handed them short wooden knives.
The young girls took them without thinking, and shook their little heads in unison.
Solution handed the last practice knife to Veema and centered herself on the four with her hands folded behind her back. “I dislike that you’re born useless, none of you has a reason to exist. But what I like…” She took out a practice knife from behind her back, “is that you can be ‘made’ useful… one way or another. It may take time, but as my student has proven, you may be born useless, but that doesn’t mean you have to stay that way. Now… let’s see what we can make of you… one way or the other. Take up this position.” She said and slid a foot back behind her and held her knife loosely in her left hand.
They imitated her clumsily, and in response, Solution walked behind them, tapping them into position, a little harder than necessary, but making their postures ‘flawless’, with knives out, feet back, body centered in the ready state . “When I say position one, this is what I mean. Do it immediately and perfectly… and in time, you’ll be excellent… excellent killers. Then I’m sure the mistress of this house will be pleased. Now hold that position, while my ‘assistant’ demonstrates how a skilled killer easily brings down my brainless brute.” She waved her hand and Sado came roaring at her through the open door with practice sword overhead, straight toward their teacher, who dropped the practice knife and pulled out the real thing.
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Diana knelt to her mistress with her pleasant smile as always pasted on her face. “Our task was successful, Mistress. Within a few months, I believe we can expect a civil war in Hanak’sen, and then you should have no trouble at all with getting them to sell to you, one way or the other.”
“Well done… if everything goes my way, what reward would you ask of me?” Nua placed a hand on the beauty’s cheek.
“You agreed to the only thing I cared about…” Diana began when Nua cut her off.
“Correct, this is a reward for your present service, not what you have already earned and what I haven’t given you yet. So… what do you want?” Nua asked, taking her hands and opening them in front of Diana and offering a present from her empty palms.
The raven haired beauty chewed on her ruby lips a little back and forth before she finally lowered her lips to Nua’s boot.
“I never had a home of my own… and I know… one day my looks will fade, I won’t be able to do this anymore. When you want me to retire… can I ask… can I have a house, mistress.” Diana asked, a glimmer of emotion appearing just before her eye could shut to hide it.
“I will give you Kaiji’s old home. Such a reward will be… telling of my valuing good service, when the time comes.” Nua said decisively and gave a sharp nod. “Besides, your mistress will not need it ever again. You might go free one day. But Kaiji never will.”
Diana snapped her head up in awe at the tremendous reward, “Mistress I… so much… you were truly serious?”
“For what you’ve handed me on a silver platter? It is the least of what I can give you, now go enjoy the rest of your day off.”
Diana sprang to her feet, bowed with genuine depth, and departed.
Nua’s next order was direct, “Kaiji, Priceless, meet me in my quarters, I will hear you out when I change.” Nua said before they could make their report. For a moment the two appeared stunned, but, catching the way she looked to Onimeus, neither thought to protest.
When they were gone, he rendered the best of the salutes he knew, and he did not wait for the question. “Mistress, there are fourteen requests for your mercenaries in the coming campaign season. It will be a short one, but it will also be critical. Shine on the battlefield as you have elsewhere, and you will become one of the most powerful women in the city states.” He then mouthed to her, “And Komestra can be rebuilt.”
“Excellent work, Onimeus, it seems Kaiji was right about your worth.” She tapped him on the shoulder. “When we’ve won our first victory… I will let you be the one to christen the rebuilding of Komestra’s great gate.”
“Mistress. Th-thank you…” He bowed his head with deep humility, and then… Nua stood briefly alone.
Her return to her quarters saw that Kaiji was alone waiting for her.
Nua looked around, “Where is Priceless.”
Kaiji approached, knelt in front of her mistress, and began to undo the laces of her boots. “I convinced her to prepare some refreshments for you… you must long for good food again, mistress.”
Nua’s hungry stomach growling answered that decisively.
“I was being selfish though… I just… I wanted to show you… I missed you…” Kaiji said softly.
“You’re not even a little upset I promised your home to your former slave?” Nua asked, only for the demon-elf to violently shake her head.
“Give it to her, give her her freedom, give her wealth or power… only let me give you my service.” Kaiji said with a passionate voice as she pulled off Nua’s boots one by one, before pressing her lips to the skin she exposed.
“Granted, you have become… vital to me.” Nua admitted and began to stroke the demon-elf’s dark hair.
“My goddess…” Kaiji uttered in reverence, prostrate before Nua. “I am prepared to be punished for what I say next… but I cannot help it. I will not let you go on a venture like that again, not without me. I bore it because I knew somehow you would make it back, but that… that was still too much. If you leave like that again… I will chase you. I will chase you and stay by you even if you punish me for it at every stop. You cannot become empress if you die, and I… would be lost outside of your will. Now… that I’ve promised defiance… should I bare my back for punishment?” Kaiji said it all with the utmost sincerity, her face nuzzled lovingly into the giving hand that Nua extended out to her, she kissed the palm of her mistress with devotion.
“I would be beyond all sanity to punish loyalty like that. Especially when…” Nua turned her eye to the window in her quarters and looked outside, recalling the way her need for help was treated by her peasants, the assassination attempt by Leaman and Ulmin, the successful instigation of the rift between cousins by Diana, and the sacrifice of the former slave, Sobella.
“Mistress?” Kaiji asked, pausing in her worship of the divine warmth of Nua’s hand, looking up to see a troubled face.
“Especially when the only people I can trust are slaves.” Nua finished and clenched her jaw tightly.
“Thank you, mistress.” Kaiji whispered and cradled it in both of her own, pressing her lips to it again and again to make up for lost time, she stopped only to put it beneath her chin and use it to lift her gaze up from her knees. “On that… as your advisor, I must first advise you that the Lur’gin Slave company suffered some unfortunate losses due to your actions on the market. The crash we glutted on, and the high we peaked it to, created so much uncertainty among the public and private market, that they’re in a bit of a financial spot.”
“How do you mean and how do you know?” Nua asked, her interest suddenly piqued.
“They had many loans with the bank of Pas’en, now that fewer are selling what they have and you’ve been acquiring their Komestran stock and keeping them off the market, well, a company with nothing to sell is in trouble. You could buy their whole enterprise if you bought up their debt.” Kaiji proposed, and went back to her devotional worship while Nua thought that over.
“You want me to dissolve it?” Nua guessed, and Kaiji quickly shook her head.
“No, mistress. I was actually thinking that we should prepare Priceless to run it. If you leverage ownership of their loans, you can buy a controlling interest, and use it to buy back every single Komestran citizen that still lives, and more besides. You can remake Komestra with ease, and have your pick of talent to do it.” Kaiji said it enthusiastically and inched herself closer to her goddess.
“Priceless? Has she come so far while I’ve been gone?” Nua asked, and Kaiji nodded rapidly.
“She tasted the power of the purple, she is smarter than she thinks, with proper guidance from Lur’gin’s most experienced, she will do very well running that enterprise, and she is loyal to you.” Kaiji added with eyes of brightening red that were radiant as the sun when she looked up to Nua’s face.
Nua gave a very slow bowing of her head in assent to the advice. “That is… reasonable. It offers other useful benefits as well… alright, do it. Tomorrow. For now… for now… after everything that has happened… I just want to forget it all for a bit.”
“What should I do to help you with that, my lady?” Kaiji asked, her heart cracked a little within her breast when she saw the wave of grief pass over her mistress’s expression until tight shut eyes wiped it away.
“Just keep doing as you are… your devotion soothes me in the face of… what is out there waiting for my attention.” Nua replied and sighed with deep relief as Kaiji’s lips found the palm of her mistress’s hand again.
“I don’t understand?” Kaiji paused to ask, before she went back to her display of submission.
“I am slowly growing surrounded by enemies within this city, and that will quickly grow beyond the walls. You also know of the contract requests for my soldiers and I, I’m sure.” Nua answered, clenching her left hand into a fist behind her back. “There are many out there now who are waiting for me to bring hell to the battlefield, and like the ones who have made themselves my enemies, and like hell itself... nobody will escape me.” Her gaze turned outward, to the window and the city beyond her walls, and the world beyond the walls of her city. Enemies waited, knowing or not, for retribution. An empire she despised, a faith to destroy, nobles in her path, and at the end of all, a promise to be kept, or a grave to lie down in. She saw it all, through glowing, golden eyes while devoted lips pledged loyalty to the giving hand, and within his realm, Yersin looked out on the horizon, wondering what he would build from her gifts tomorrow.