"WHY ARE YOU SUCH AN IDIOT?!?!" Sajida wanted to scream at herself for falling in love with someone who was hurting her.
For letting
anyone hurt her after how she'd been beaten within an inch of her life and turned into a piece of meat for a man's relief. And yet, Sita in her moment of rage had forgotten all that trauma that Sajida had endured and taken Sitaβs own out on her. The very moment that Sita passed out, Sajida wished for a moment that she had died of her wounds while she still could and cursed Alice for her survival, and then in another moment that she had ripped both their heads off after turning to spare herself this hurt. And then she hissed in Sita's ear, "If you
ever touch me in anger again, I will fucking rip you to pieces, do you understand?!" then kicked the prone, rain soaked body of the pathetic Queen of Nothing below before walking away...
And then the moon of Nefaris appeared, and once again Shandura calmed Sajida's heart, as if to say,
You're more than a monster. I gave you life, and now you have to give love. Until she turned around, sighed, and then lifted her over her back like a net full of fish. The progenitor of Sajida's disease weighed just as much as one too, for despite her slender albeit buxom figure, Sita was very muscular.
"You figure out what to do with this one," Sajida grumped at Kalisha, who was cradling a naked, sleeping Chloe in her arms, while depositing the lump of a woman off her shoulders and onto the couch.
"Shhhhh!!!" Kalisha hushed her vampire friend. "I just got her to calm down." With a gentle, warm bath, a massage, and a fingering that the Caledorian enthusiastically enjoyed until falling asleep after her climax. "If you wake her up, or aggravate her now, you may kill us all."
Once Kalisha got Chloe into bed and curled up next to her, Sajida reluctantly picked up Sita again, this time thrown over one shoulder, and brought her to the stables where Akari was resting. Or rather, had been, until the irritated Bamban woke her up by flopping Sita onto the hay next to her.
"Here, she's your problem now, thief," Sajida spat.
"But I'm tied up. What if she tries to bite me?!" the sleepy Gudarian demanded in a half-yawn.
"Explain the part where I give a shit, human scum." Then Sajida stormed off, while Akari spat at the vampire in the same quiet defiance she'd always possessed.
*****
Meanwhile, in Bakhara Galun...
Lord Iarmenor Tyvanwek, Lord Governor of the Confederate Colonial States of Gudaria and Klandethan and may the gods protect him, tsked at the burnt remnants of the village from atop his fearsome, fifty-foot tall
oliphaunt, as dragons shepherded the waterfeet that were being confiscated to feed the Confederate Army, alongside the women that would make for fine breeders and the child slaves that would forget their dead fathers and brothers and instead serve and fear their masters.
"Humans are such morons," he smirked at his spy. "I give them a simple choice: reveal their Shadow Accord friends, or perish. And yet, their pathetic soldiers were so surprised when I squashed them like so many flies."
"YOU! YOU TOOK HER FROM ME!"
"Wh-what was that, my lord?" the adviser wondered. Then he thought to explain it away as a mere reverberation from the thunder of a nearby
Imperial bombing raid, but the Confederate commander instead interjected-
"It's her. The so-called Mountain Queen. I'd recognize that voice from anywhere." After all, he'd helped the Klandethanis overthrow her 261 years ago (and then conquered the weakened Klandethan People's Republic three years later; again, humans were so cute with their toy nations that amused him to knock down), and taken great joy in watching Princess Rajkarnikar's eyes go dark in front of Lady Sita, since he couldn't have Leela for himself. The rebels had initially wanted to kill Sita, and he didn't blame them, but the hopelessness and fury in Sita's eyes had convinced Lord Tyvanwek to spare her life so she would roil in a prison of her own making.
That battle had also secured the services of the witch
Azariah Gilroar to neutralize her with one of the most powerful warding spells in existence. She had become a key Confederate ally to this day, which had the pleasing side effect of making him indispensable in any military endeavor, and promoting him rapidly up the ranks of nobility that he had so craved. "Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary."
He'd shared that same sentiment to his advisors when the war broke out. He'd been frustrated by Caledoria's insolence in successfully defying elvish rule during the Clockwork Revolution of 1500, always wanted to squash them again like the bugs they were, and had been frustrated as the Confederation Council sat on their delicate asses for centuries while Caledoria grew in strength until it became an Empire capable of going toe to toe with the Ananki on the world stage while the entire realm decayed, just as he'd warned would happen.
His only regret was that he hadn't been there to personally massacre every single man, woman and child in Radiant City he could the night of June 13th, but alas, duty had called. He also secretly hoped that the human who got away from him in 1890, the Gudarian who killed his best soldier and took his dagger before Lord Tyvanwek could make her into his docile, dutiful fuck toy, the one whose simpering boyfriend and parents begged for their lives before their throats were drained, would be here as well so he could finally make her love
him. He had no proof, but he had a hunch. More like...de ja vu? It was hard to explain, but an interesting feeling that needed to be investigated.
"Should we climb the mountain and attack?"
"I like your thinking, but even with the curse limiting her movements, without overwhelming force and the intelligence with which to prepare an attack, that would be a waste of useful units," Lord Tyvanwek replied. He then stroked his impeccable chin and grinned, "We need to focus our efforts on containing the Empire until we can launch incursions of our own into Bamba. The mountain will be key to that later, but I think that for now, it's time the
wolves had their fun and then reported back. And do be sure to send an expense report to the Council by your fastest crow. They'll fast track our invoice, don't worry."
He didn't expect the werewolves to win against Lady Sita.
They probably didn't expect to win either. But if even one of them survived the return journey, he would know what to expect. That was the art of war; probing for weaknesses and then striking with efficiency.
At the same time, the Shadow Accord forces lurked from the nearby woods. They were a motley crew of:
Bamban guerilla fighters and
mostly Surai assassins called Jadwan Badshahon Ka Haath- Hand of the Twin Kings, often Haath or the Hand for short- hardened by two bitter years of rebelling against the Empire, Midvadirian
Nightstalker assassins touched a bit by the Darkness, dispossessed
Thieves Guild rogues from various chapters, and
assorted mercenaries, hid in the bushes and behind the trees.
One of them raised his crossbow and prepared to brain the central figure in the bloody elvish campaign to keep upstart humanity "in their place," but then his comrade pushed it down.
"Why did you do that?" he hissed. "I had the shot!"
"Sure, maybe you would've killed one of the most powerful elves in the entire Confederacy, and then we would have all died, and for what?" she demanded, still keeping her voice down.
"That's what you said when we stood by and did nothing as this village,
my village, burned to the ground!"
"We got as many people out as we could without being seen, you insolent boy," she now growled. "If we fought every battle we wanted to, we would lose. War is about picking the battles you
can win, and make no mistake that we will still lose many. All we can do is sting the bull until he falls down tired, and try not to get swatted."
"Speaking of which," a third person, a sympathetic elf turned traitor to his own Confederacy to fight with the "terrorists," whispered, "has anyone heard from Akari?"
"No," the commander said. "But we need to find out. That's our next move..."
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