Freyjin’s carriage rolled up as close as it could to the site before it was unable to proceed between the narrow ways meant only for carts. Thankfully it wouldn’t be much of a walk, so she emerged from the carriage and wrapped a thick cotton cloth around her face and marched through the filthy alley without waiting for her escort to follow her. A single soldier in light chainmail armor. She was young and surprisingly slender, but moved at Freyjin’s back as lightly as a feather blown in the breeze. The escort quickly caught up to her charge, but Freyjin gave no indication that it mattered if the guard was there or not.
Freyjin’s focus was on her destination. The stink in the air hung like heavy training weights even while she did her best to pinch her sensitive elven nose shut.
That however was forgotten when she reached the place where bodies were laid out in a long series that had become a triple row beside the foul waters. Several workers cutting open the sacks when Freyjin approached. “Show me the best dressed among them.” She said peremptorily, they shot up straight at the sudden commanding tone.
She felt the eyes on her, roving over her fine green shirt and clean black pants with the gold embroidered thread that screamed ‘money’. For good measure, she raised her chin to reveal the bronze collar around her neck. ‘If I can get something useful… maybe… maybe I can free more than one of my children. When Vargas comes back, I have to thank him for the gift of liberation… but who do I choose? Lenah or Straen? Shi… I know the mistress won’t permit, not for years. But how can I free one and not the other…?’ Freyjin’s mind turned the question over in her mind while one of the workers stepped over a body and led her over to a spot where one had been set aside.
“This’s him.” He pointed down at the cut open sack, even ruined, waterlogged, and ripped, Freyjin recognized the uniform of the Hotel Notillian.
“So I was right, he is dead. I suppose I should make sure Kara is notified… they were friends after all, maybe she’ll want to do something for him…” Freyjin murmured and crouched down over the corpse. She grabbed the sack and pulled it taut with a gloved hand, then drew a knife from off her leather belt and cut it further, the cheap fabric tore easily and exposed more of the corpse. The worker behind her was shuffling his feet and standing behind her, waiting expectantly. She ignored him and dropped the fabric, then began to poke her knife about the corpse. “I hope for his sake he didn’t drown in this.” She shuddered, and the watching worker covered his mouth and darted away retching.
The waterlogged and bloated body had a hideous blue tint to it, it had obviously been there for some time, but notably, there was an abundance of human waste in the sack. She poked about the body further, dragging the tip of her dagger along the fabric until she found a gap in the shirt. There were darker discolorations around the gap, and she immediately knew. ‘Stabbed, I’ll bet a skull platinum that if I flip this corpse over, I’ll find a wound in the back in the same place. A sword did this.’ Freyjin concluded. ‘The goblin used an axe, the orc used a blunt weapon, the body in the alley before had a knife wound… but the half-elf we caught, he had a sword. I’ll bet double skull platinums that if we take his sword and fit it to this wound, it’ll be a match.’ Freyjin snapped her fingers and stood up.
She then looked over the sea of other bodies, “Fuck.” The elf woman cursed. She looked down at the sack, stones tied at both ends of Karlo’s sack coffin, and the same was done for row after row of corpses.
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Nua entered the palace of the Prince with the same confidence she held on the day she carried the now dead Bracer in to answer to the Prince for his misdeeds. With word everywhere already about her acceptance of his proposal, spread by his criers and her own, nobody tried to stop her or questioned her entry into the hall.
A guard however, met her as soon as she arrived. One of the few in full plate, and towering over her as he did, forcing her to crane her neck back to look at him, she wasn’t forced to ask what he needed. “The Prince asked for you to be brought to a private dining chamber.”
Nua extended a hand out in the direction he’d come, “After you.” She said, and with a crisp turn unusual among those militaries other than her own so far, he marched to a door off the main hall.
His footfalls were a steady rhythm over the stone, and it was impossible for her professional senses to not notice it was a practiced cadence. “Are you Komestran?” Nua finally asked.
“No, Duchessa, I was born here.” He said without looking behind him.
“You move like a Komestran infantryman.” She said, putting her hands casually behind her back.
“Thank you.” He answered in a voice made deeper by the helmet that covered his face. The pride in his voice was unmistakable, “After the war, a few of us were trained to fight in the Komestran way, we serve as select guards for the Prince within the inner palace, arena, and a few other locations.”
“Why only a few? With a few thousand disciplined Komestrans I can crush the standard infantry squares and long lines of the south, as long as they’re well supported.” Nua remarked and sped up her step for a moment to walk beside her escort.
The spring in the warrior’s step picked up and he raised the plate over his face, revealing a pale faced young man around his twenties with a thin auburn shaded beard and bright, intelligent green eyes. “Because this is Pas’en, Duchessa. We’re the horse tamers, the greatest cavalry there is that’s not born with horse legs, and I wouldn’t bet on the centaurs against us. Every noble’s son learns to ride as soon as they can walk. Anyone with money has a horse to bring to battle, infantry is seen as… a necessary evil. Like a latrine pit, you’ve got to have it, but you don’t want to spend time there.”
His eyes widened in panic. “Forgive me, Duchessa! I shouldn’t speak so crudely!” His deep voice became something of a squeak.
Nua laughed it off, “I won’t tell anyone if you don’t, soldier. But you don’t speak like a person from a lower class.”
“I’m the illegitimate son of… well a nobleman, not the Prince. I was in the cavalry, but after the war when the Prince saw that Komestrans embraced having at least some cavalry, he saw no choice but to embrace having infantry. A few of us volunteered. The cavalry still say we’re just shit wrapped in metal, but we aim to change some minds about that.” He winked as they went down a long hall on an upper floor.
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Nua returned the wink, “I will do the same. It’s absurd for the middle finger to hold the thumb in contempt, or the thumb to hate the palm, when everyone works together as one…” She raised her left hand and made a fist, and she could see the fine hairs on his neck stand on end.
“My… My lady! We’re here.” He said, flushed and suddenly a little thrown off his disciplined pace, he hastened to a door and reached out to the steel handle. “Congratulations on your pending marriage, my lady, thank you for letting me know your thoughts.” He said and lowered the face plate again before opening the door.
“A pleasure, soldier, and thank you for escorting me.” She gave him the salute of her company and entered the room.
The door closed behind her and she found Rasgen waiting with two half elven servants in maid outfits similar to those her own staff used, black and white dresses with small white caps on their heads. The table was unexpectedly small, and he hadn’t been kidding about the room, it was anything but large.
A rectangular shape, there was a single table, space to walk between it and the wall, and then a serving cart in a corner. The table and chairs were of typically fine make, smooth polished, lightly colored wood, a window on the wall to let in light, but there was a chandelier overhead with unlit candles, and a trio of candles on the table itself.
Rasgen stood as soon as she entered, he wore a rich, deep red shirt with smooth black pants, surprisingly, no ruffled collar, though the front of his shirt puffed out with a few ruffles that hid the buttons which secured it over his chest.
Nua compared it to herself, without thinking, she’d worn her knife on her belt, ‘Kaiji probably figured I wouldn’t be comfortable without it… how does she know me so well?’ Her own clothing was otherwise suitable, a shapely green dress embroidered with golden thread woven into spiral patterns and laced up the back, secured at the waist with a formal leather belt that… held her knife at the back.
She flashed him a welcome smile, “At least I am properly dressed this time, Rasgen.”
He suppressed a laugh and waved to the chair opposite himself. One of the half elven maids approached and stood behind the seat, moving it back for her. Nua moved into position, allowed the seat to be moved beneath her, and then sat.
“There has yet to be a time when I’m not glad of your company, Nua, regardless of how you dressed.” He looked at the long dark gloves she wore that covered her hands. “You can take that off if you like, I’ve already seen it, and even if it isn’t exactly public knowledge, these two can be trusted.”
“Are you sure, Rasgen?” Nua asked, glancing to the tranquil faced blonde half-elves.
Rasgen spoke with confidence when he answered. “Absolutely, they’ve been with my family for generations, nobody knows which one of them is the slave, and which one of them is free… or how they get the collar off… it’s become a running joke that has run for decades now. But one thing I know, I would trust them with my life.”
The pair silently preened a little, tiny winks from opposing eyes, were given in Nua’s direction.
“It wouldn’t be a good beginning if I argued over that now, would it?” She asked rhetorically and removed her gloves, exposing the false hand that took up most of her forearm.
“But the truth is, I was more concerned with you, Rasgen. Men like you don’t typically favor the mutilated.” Nua answered and cursed her loose tongue.
“Kind of you to think of me.” He said with a dry voice and a long stare, “But I know what it is to make trades of dear things for the sake of necessity, you lost it to a monster, and got something better. And if you don’t mind my saying so…” Rasgen stood, approached the other side of the table, and with a sudden bold motion, took the white metal hand with its glowing blue gems for knuckles and the black cursing gem of death in the palm and he kissed the back of that hand. “I find it beautiful. Like jewelry that has been made part of you. I would venture that there’s nothing like it in all the world.”
“You’re correct, my Prince, you’re correct.” Nua said, radically reappraising the man and her previous belief in his more ‘playboy’ tendencies. “Rasgen, may I speak bluntly?”
“Are you capable of something else?” He asked, giving a laugh and drawing one from Nua in return before he even reclaimed his seat. “Wine.” He said, and the collared half-elf silently went to the cart, retrieved cups and a bottle, then poured for them both.
The faint sloshing lasted until the laughter passed, and Nua’s serious intent finally restored itself a moment later. “I understand the way things are here, I am doing my best to adapt to this part of the world as my new home but…” She glanced at the two half-elves.
“No I’m not sleeping with them.” Rasgen answered, and the twins shook their heads, sharing the denial.
“Oh, well, in my homeland… passions run deep, I told you about the Dark Savior and her wife… that’s how things are for us. I don’t ask that you love me the way you loved Sobella or… the way you love Tir. But I still carry the nature of my homeland in my heart.” Nua put her hand on her heaving chest. “If I am to offer myself to you, I will not be offering myself to anyone else.”
“And you want me to make the same promise.” Prince Rasgen asked, and Nua gave a quiet nod.
“If that is too much, I know I have no right to demand that you change for me, a stranger in a strange land, but…” Nua began, but Rasgen silenced it.
“Very well.” Rasgen held his hand over his chest, “I pledge my body only to you, for as long as I am your husband.”
“Even if you don’t…” Nua hesitantly asked, briefly lowering her gaze.
“Yes. I may fall in love with you, I may not. Perhaps you’ll love me, perhaps you won’t. But we can respect one another, we can trust one another, we can help and rely on one another. We can make everything better for the ones we are responsible for.” Rasgen replied and held out his right hand. “If making that promise to you is what it takes to show you I am serious, then I make it intending to keep it.”
“There’s no denying the dangers that are about. The Starwatchers tried to kill me, Leaman tried to kill me, and we still never found out who was behind the kidnapping of Priceless.” Nua took his hand in hers and held it gently so as not to hurt him.
“We’re both under siege, and it’s only going to get harder. The temples, they understand nothing. Not a damn thing. Even if we found a way to defeat our enemies, they would oppose it if that way required us to change.” Rasgen held her eyes, “Part of why I find you so… liberating, is your passion for changing things, making them better. How can I not value that? The old men, old women, old priests… they want things the same as they’ve always been. I want them better, Sado did too, he was just wrong about how it could be done. Maybe, with your help, we can make things better after all.”
Nua released his hand and took up her cup, “To making things better?”
“For everyone.” Rasgen raised his own, they touched the rims of their cups together, then drank the contents down without stopping, before slamming the cups down in unison.
“More.” They said as one, and the collared half-elf poured again.
They repeated the process until the bottle was empty.
“Now, how about something to eat?” Rasgen proposed, clapping his hands together and rubbing them eagerly.
Nua answered with a rumbling of her belly.
“That sounds like a yes.” He winked at her little blush, and the collarless elf left the room.
The pair made small talk for a time, Nua learned of the death of his father by an assassin’s hand, “We never figured out who was behind it. The assassin themselves pleaded their innocence to no end, right up until they were hanged for it, but there was no real doubt. The poison vial and payment were in his home and a witness saw him take both.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.” Nua politely bowed her head to share in a moment of silence.
“Thank you, I only wish we could have properly rewarded the witness, sadly they disappeared, likely killed by the ones behind it.” Rasgen sighed and then perked up, “But enough of depressing topics, tell me more about you.”
Nua cracked a little smile, “I thought you said enough of depressing topics?” She winked, but saw only a momentary flash of pity.
“We’ll have to do what we can to make that a less depressing topic then.” He said with a boyish side eyed wink of his own.
The food was returned before anything else could be said, and Nua found herself staring down at a ladled helping of cream colored pasta that a single bite revealed was wrapped around melted cheese, and over which was ladled thick red sauce with balls of meat the size of her fist.
Her whole mouth watered with hunger at the rich savory scent of the fresh cut basil leaves, and Rasgen noticed immediately. “While our sexual mores might be a little strange to you, it seems you’ve very much taken to our food.”
“Rasgen, if I could bring a handful of your chefs to the west and open up restaurants, as wealthy as I am now, I would be ten fold more so in a year after introducing this.” Nua said with hungry enthusiasm before they began to eat.