Shale considered the man’s words. He was right. It didn’t make sense for the Collective to snatch up everyone in this family for an army. Not if it were a traditional force. Winter’s bite was settling on the land, and the elderly and young were more susceptible to exposure than strong men. Looking at the family’s composition, there were a few men who would be typical for recruitment, but the rest were simply going to die from the lack of nutrition and the weather
Unless that’s precisely what the Vallyr are hoping for, she thought
“Have you heard of the soul-forged?” she asked the man.
The man’s face went white as if she had asked him if he believed in ghosts. She supposed that was the proper response when talking about the soul-forged.
“Y-yes,” he stuttered. “They’re just rumors. The Vallyr are supposed to use them fer war when they need ’em on the front lines. They ain’t never been used within the Collective’s borders. They’re only made from slaves and captured enemies. The Vallyr have never used their citizens fer the abominations.”
Shale gave the man a level look. “Surely, you don’t believe that?”
He looked around like there was someone that could overhear what he was saying. Realizing that there was no one around but his family and the woman that had killed a Vallyr with a single strike, he decided to be honest
“No,” he said gently. “No, I don’t. But like I said, we pay our taxes. Typically, it’s the people who are late or light in their payments who find themselves on the wrong end of a Vallyr patrol.”
The man gestured to the corpses around him. “In all of my long years on this farm, I have never had an issue with the Collective. We secured our writ, we lived our lives, and we paid our dues. We should’ve been safe.” Tears started to fill her eyes as he reached forward and clutched Shale by the shoulders. In his emotional state, he didn’t notice the tail blade that was poised to plunge itself into his groin. “We should have been safe,” he said again.
Shale gently extricated herself from the man’s grasp and looked around the farm. She could feel the other members of the Scourge finding other scouting parties. This was just the beginning of the ire she was expressing. She knew that she needed to savage the Collective forces as much as she could in this beginning phase. Right now, the Collective still thought themselves the undisputed masters of their territory. They were confident and reckless when sending out their troops. Once the death toll rose in their ranks, they wouldn’t be so careless. Larger parties would be sent out. More elite forces would be used to hunt down the members of the Scourge. It was all according to Slate’s plan. They would slow the Collective while he removed one of their flanks. Shale looked back at the man.
“Well, you’re not safe now. The Collective will come, and the Scourge is not going to be in the area forever. We need to take the fight closer to Ithicus, and we can’t afford to leave warriors behind to defend your family on your farm.” Her voice carried the weight of a queen speaking to one of her subjects. The family felt a sense of loyalty to the mysterious woman that saved them.
The old man was the only one to speak. “You’re not taking over the territory?”
Shale studied him and debated about how much she should reveal to a random farmer.
“No, we’re not,” she said finally. “If you want safety, travel east to the city of Bastion. The Scourge has decided to call the city home, and the Collective will have to claim it over our dead bodies. Right now, we’re just making sure the Collective is too wounded to attack our city. We love our families and our home just as much as you do.”
The man nodded. “Will we survive?” Even though wrinkles cut ridges into the man’s face and his back was bent by age, Shale was reminded of a child asking their mother for reassurance.
“I don’t know,” she told him. “I know you’re not safe here. I know your life as you knew it is over, but I hope you can find peace among our people. At the very least, you won’t have to worry about the people you love becoming fuel for weapons of war. The Scourge are many things, but we are not Vallyr.”
With that, she left the man. Her scouts reported her next series of targets, and she was anxious to continue her journey. There were still plenty of the Collective that needed to die today before she could return to Refuge. Dragging her feet wouldn’t make the task any easier or quicker.
She hoped that what she said to the man on the farm was true. It would be a long time until Somnium could know complete peace. She knew that, and Slate knew that, but it wasn’t the message that the people needed to hear. They wanted to think that peace was around the corner and that the fighting and the killing that had marked much of Somnium’s history would go away once the Scourge defeated the Collective. It was a dream, but it was a dream that Shale was very much in favor of. It brought the people together, it uplifted them, and it brought a measure of peace to regular people who didn’t have to fight on the front lines of the war. Shale didn’t mind that the farmer thought he escaped the manipulations of the Vallyr. He had simply tried to do what was best for his family in a hard world, and he had largely succeeded. Shale would bet that the young girl that Lynia had saved would have grown up loved and safe had this nasty conflict never begun.
Shale wanted to believe that she could help create a world where that young woman could be safe again. Shale had never had that life. Her past was marked by pain, abuse, and the worst that life could offer. However, her pain made the small moments of mercy and the periods of pleasure that much more important. She loved to fly. She never thought it would be something she would ever experience, much less enjoy. But she missed flying through the air with her mate by her side. She liked the feeling of warm currents carrying her above it all. She could be above all the pain, all the hurt, and all the turmoil. The sky simply was. The sky was freedom, and it was a kind of freedom to think that she could create such comforts for someone else. She could be the warrior that brought peace and security to others.
To her, there could be no higher calling. She would give her life and her loyalty to the Scourge because it was the best way of bringing such a future to the people of Somnium. She only hoped that, in the process, the Scourge wouldn’t lose sight of that future in the pursuit of their goals. War was a nasty business, and it was easy to commit atrocities while chasing victory. It truly made no difference to Shale whether Lynia dropped that fireball on the house or the barn, but she thought it was important that she chose the barn. That was the difference between the Scourge and the Vallyr. At the end of the day, it was their actions that separated monsters from men, and it was essential to their future that the Scourge could recognize the difference.
CHAPTER 20: THE QUEEN ATTACKS
AMBASSADOR DAISHI HAD a frustrating couple weeks in the city of Bastion. She had tried to request a meeting with the Scourge leadership, and she had been summarily rebuffed each time by polite, yet impassive Guardians. A part of her was impressed with their discipline. The city guard in Homus could learn from their stern and unflinching countenances, but when such actions were directed at her, she found it more annoying than helpful.
She hadn’t even gotten the chance to speak to the eloquent and friendly man that initially guided her to her room. Since then, she had been a prisoner all but in name. It was an irritating change of circumstances. The Guardians allowed her supervised visits around the palace and out among the city, but there was always an escort of stone-faced warriors to accompany her everywhere she went. Even when she used the bathroom, they remained at the door and waited for her return. She had started to grow depressed that she would be unable to accomplish the holy order that the Emperor, blessed be his name, had given to her.
She knew that the sword was stored in one of the lower levels, but so far, she hadn’t been allowed to wander that deep into the palace. Not, at least, until she recognized one of the Guardians who frequently served as one of her escorts and struck up a conversation with him. A few days later, Daishi was able to work some magic, nat
ural and supernatural, on him, and he wanted to share all of the secrets of the palace with her.
“Sweetheart, what are you doing inside my room?” She asked him. It was late at night about a week and a half from when she arrived in the city.
“I-I just wanted to check up on you, Ambassador,” he replied suddenly unsure. He was a bear of a man. From what Daichi had learned, none of the Guardians originally had the speed and strength that they now possessed. It seemed that the transition imbued them with power from Lucidus. Daishi also noticed that the Faithful, and to a greater extent, the Guardians, could not even think about betraying Lucidus without feeling the urge to report themselves to the next immediate authority. She discovered the irritating tendency with the previous Guardian she had tried to seduce.
Thankfully, she learned her lesson, and Pyrun Earthdreamer wasn’t intelligent enough to realize that he was being manipulated. “Well, come on in out of the cold, then, Guardian,” she said suggestively. She was lying in her comfortable bed in only a sheer crimson-colored nightgown. It was stitched with patterns resembling climbing flames. It looked like it flickered over the swell of her breasts and the width of her hips like living caresses. The conversation was a pretext, and both the woman and the man knew it.
Daishi had been bedding him for the last few nights now. Pyrun was finding weaker and weaker excuses to present himself to her every night. Daishi didn’t mind. Once the man exhausted himself into her, she took the chance to stroke his hair and asked him questions about himself while offering limited information about herself. It was an old spy’s trick. When one provided information, the other felt obligated to reciprocate. The unwritten rules of propriety and politeness were a spy’s best friend. That’s why, the previous night, Pyrun had described his patrol route to the Ambassador. He didn’t know that the information was important. After all, there was nothing to guard in the treasure room other than a small amount of gold and an old Vallyr sword.
When he complained to Daichi that he hated patrolling the vault and that he would much rather be guarding her, she smiled and told him that he had to do a very important job and that she always felt safer when he was around.
Tonight, Pyrun was already rearing to go. When Daichi invited him into the bed, he stripped out of his white padded tunic and silver armor like they were burning him. He stood before her naked and ready for the evening’s festivities. The man was solidly built with well-crafted musculature. Daichi had rarely seen a man so casually in shape. Typically, the men in Homus were lean and wiry because of their diet, and the back-breaking labor most had to endure. However, Pyrun wasn’t nearly so starved for nourishment. Daichi loved the feeling of his tree-trunk sized arms as they wrapped themselves around her body. When he plunged into her center, she couldn’t help but appreciate how comely his body was and how soft his skin felt against her own. It was a shame that she couldn’t take him back to the Ignatum Empire as a pleasure servant. She couldn’t marry him; that would be preposterous, as he was not part of the Ignati and thus did not come from the Origin Flame. As such, there could be no honor to the flame with their union. However, Ignati society did not frown on the powerful keeping pleasure servants if they were shapely and beautiful.
When Pyrun shot his seed into her, and he relaxed against her chest, member softening within, she channeled fire and burned away the seed before it could travel to her uterus. That was one of the first tricks an Ignati woman learned. In a culture where casual sex was encouraged, and passionate love was commonplace, a woman needed to be sure that she only had children when she desired to have them. Her control over her powers was so adept that Pyrun would only feel a slight warmth around his spear.
The lovers lay in the bed, comfortable with silence. Daichi knew that the best way to gather information was to allow the other person to ask the first questions. If the conversation drifted into uncomfortable or sensitive topics, the other person was more likely to continue past the point of safety if they were the one that initiated the topic. Finally, Pyrun sighed.
“I can’t stay long tonight,” he said softly.
Daichi stroked his short, bronze-colored hair. “Oh, why not? Do I not require protection this evening?” Daichi kept her voice light and affectionate.
Pyrun chuckled. “No, never that,” he replied. “I have to stop by the vault this evening.” Daichi noticed that he sounded annoyed at the inconvenience.
“Is that so?” She asked mischievously. “Perhaps, I could do something to make the trip more interesting.”
Pyrun leaned up and looked at her with confusion evident in his face. “How would you do that?” Part of him was suspicious, but the sex and the affection clouded his judgment. Daichi’s pleasant advances combined with his lack of desire to guard a room that he thought unnecessary to protect in the first place drove him to consider what she was proposing
“How about, I go with you to the vault.” Daichi winked. “You can show me that part of the palace. I’ve never been, and once we arrive at the vault, I can make everything more…interesting.”
Pyrun sighed. “You know I can’t do that,” he whined. Daichi could sense that he was merely resisting out of principle. He only needed a little bit more convincing, and he would break.
“Well, if that’s what you want…” she trailed off as she kissed his cheek and then the side of his neck.
“I guess that means you’ll miss out on how interesting I can make the trip.” When she said ‘trip,’ she started to trail kisses down the man’s expansive chest. He rolled over to the side to make room for her. When she made it around his hips, she kissed each hipbone before biting them gently. The sensation made the man groan in yearning
From her position, Daichi could see that the man was already at attention and ready to engage again. She drew closer to his length and kissed it gently. She allowed her tongue to run along the underside as if she were licking the nectar of an especially sweet fruit. The action made Pyrun pant with need
Daichi pulled away abruptly and returned to her previous position. “It really is a shame,” she said with a soft smile.
Pyrun’s eyes grew wide. “Why can’t we just do that here in your room?” He was incensed beyond rational thought.
The Ambassador smiled with a devilish grin and shrugged her shoulders naughtily. “Because I don’t want to, you big ogre.”
Pyrun growled, “What if I want you to?
“Then, I guess you’ll have to show me the palace, and I’ll let you have everything you want.” Her words were delivered with exquisite care. She had to make the Guardian think that the destination was just as unimportant as he thought it was. If she succeeded, then she might be able to accomplish the purpose that her Emperor, blessed be his name, had given to her
There was a silence as Pyrun tried to come up with a reason that he shouldn’t. There was another guard on duty with him, but he had been bribing the man to look the other way with these little encounters. He would just tell the man that he was going to perform a security check and would be back shortly. The way that Daichi was dressed would let the other man know exactly what they were planning to do. Pyrun didn’t think the other Guardian would have a problem with the situation. Daichi had a body that would drive any man to sin, and most of the other men were simply impressed that Pyrun had been able to walk the holy ground that they had been afraid to tread.
He made up his mind. “Okay, but we have to be quick. I don’t want my Sergeant to figure out what happened. If she knows, there will be hell to pay.”
Daichi didn’t let the success she felt cross her face. Instead, a lascivious curve of her lips graced her features. “Of course, sweetheart, it will be our little secret. No one will know a thing. You’ll get your security check completed, I’ll make it interesting, and then we can return here for the evening. Right?” She spoke to his inner worries and smoothed them away. She then made sure to turn his mind to the fact that they could spend the evening together. She was offering everything that Pyrun wanted
with minimal risk. He couldn’t help but agree.
“Okay, let’s go.”
They made their way around the mostly empty hallways of the palace. To Daichi, this was just another sign that most of the Scourge leadership were somewhere else. When Slate was around, these hallways were full of Guardians standing watch. Daichi considered whether the Scourge leaders had taken some of the Guardians with them, or if they had been reassigned elsewhere in the city. The move wasn’t illogical; she hadn’t found anything the Scourge did to be genuinely irrational. They didn’t waste resources guarding things that didn’t need to be safeguarded. At least, that’s what they thought.
Daichi made sure to hang on to Pyrun as he led her down the passageways. It became something of a game. Every time they happened upon someone else, Daichi would pull away and pretend that they were nothing but escort and Ambassador. As soon as they were alone again, she would drift close and deliver feather-light touches to his groin and other erogenous zones. She was keeping the fire stoked. As long as the man was thinking about his dick, he wouldn’t be thinking about the ramifications of his actions. She was happy that Matek wasn’t here; he would see through her tactics without a problem. She was somewhat regretful that Pyrun was on the receiving end of this particular betrayal.
When they arrived at the vault door, Daichi was a little taken aback by its mundane appearance. The door looked no more significant than the dozens of others they had passed. It was no wonder Pyrun was growing bored with the duty. Image was important. While a circumspect door deterred potential criminals, it didn’t inspire any sense of loyalty in one’s subordinates.
“Is this it?” She breathed.
“Yes,” Pyrun’s voice rumbled back. He fumbled with a set of keys at his waist. The motion didn’t go unnoticed by Daichi. She was annoyed at herself for not merely grabbing the keys from him when she had a chance. She hadn’t thought that getting inside the vault would be so simple. The vaults in the Imperial Palace had layers of security. It seemed that the Scourge didn’t possess such grand magic
Resist Page 23