Godsforsaken

Chapter 10: The Gallant Knights Of King... Mordred?

After finding the Sea Breeze Tavern and Inn, the place where the delegation from Albion was allegedly staying, we found ourselves another inn close by, with the very original name “Ale 'n' Eats”.

The food ended up really good, fresh fish with sea beans. Yume was ecstatic and got even more excited when she pulled out one of the bottles we'd bought from Southern Gems and added a bit of the thin dark sauce to the fish. I had to admit it was good but I just couldn't get over what it was. In fact, it was so good I wished she hadn't told me how the stuff was made. They mixed boiled beans with moldy rice and set that to ferment for two years and this brown sauce was the runoff you could gather from that sludge once every month. Just... yuck.

But what was really interesting was the barmaid. I'd heard there were beast-folk other than just cat-folk, dog-folk and rabbit-folk but I didn't think I'd ever met a chicken-folk woman before. But that was clearly what she was, given the snow white wings on her back and the bird claws she had for legs. But she was also really cute, with light red, almost orange, hair in a bob cut and a killer figure. And when a human and elf adventurer at the table next to us made lewd jokes she showed them that her clawed legs weren't just for show.

When we were finished with dinner we set up a guard shift. Annabella had her own room and we placed someone to watch over her throughout the night. Now, with four people in our party that just meant two hours less sleep per person, which wasn't actually that bad if it meant keeping our princess safe. Of course nobody tried to attack her in her sleep, but that might have just been because we had stood watch all night long.

The next morning we each had a big bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, quite a bit worse than the one Alisha made by the way, and then got ready for the negotiations. My girls and I all put on our normal battle garb to show a discreet hint of muscle while Annabella unfortunately had to cram herself into the golden dress she'd worn when we'd first met her.

Once we were all ready we headed over to the Sea Breeze Tavern and Inn for our first meeting with the delegation from Albion.

What awaited us were four knights in quite literal shining armor. Their armor was polished to a mirror sheen and they wore royal blue tunics underneath and blindingly white cloaks over it. The center one was shorter than average with hair cropped so short I thought at first glance he was bald.

He rose up out of his seat to greet Annabella and gave a refined bow as he said:

“Greetings from Albion, your highness," he said. “I am Sir Nathan, here at the behest of King Mordred of Albion.”

Annabella gave a deep formal nod. “I welcome you and yours to the Trismegistian kingdom, Sir Nathan. I am Third Princess Annabella Zafira Trismegistus. My mother the queen sends her regards.” Then she gestured at us. “These are my guards. Please pay them no mind.”

“Of course, your highness," Sir Nathan said. “Shall we take a seat?”

“Certainly," Annabella said.

From what Annabella had told us, this was now the time for small talk, before the serious discussions began, and Alisha wasted no time in getting to it.

“Did you say King Mordred?" she asked. “I thought Arthur was the king, with Mordred being his son.” Specifically, if I remembered Alisha's stories correctly, Mordred had been destined to murder Arthur and usurp his kingdom. This might be bad if we were dealing with soldiers sent by a bloodthirsty tyrant.

But Sir Nathan didn't immediately answer Alisha. Instead he boggled at her. “You are... a Wood Elf, aren't you?"

“I am," she said.

“Interesting," he said. “I wasn't aware your kind lived in this kingdom, too. But your information seems a little out of date. King Arthur passed away years ago and King Mordred took over rule of the kingdom.” He noticed her frown. “Ah, I guess you heard rumors about Mordred and are wondering if they are true.”

“That's right," Alisha said.

“They aren't," Sir Nathan said. “I used to be a good friend of Arthur's and I am a good friend of Mordred's. While it is true that they used to have differences of opinion, even violent differences of opinion, they put them aside years ago. Arthur's passing was due to... other circumstances.”

Alisha nodded and Annabella took over:

“Which brings me to another issue. My mother the queen sent a princess to these negotiations while your king sent only a group of knights.”

Sir Nathan shrugged. “King Mordred doesn't have any heirs yet and so she sent someone trustworthy.”

“She?" Annabella asked.

Sir Nathan chuckled. “Right," he said. “Despite clearly being all woman, Mordred insists on being referred to as 'King'. Something about nobody taking a 'queen' seriously as a warrior or some nonsense. I apologize for the confusion.”

“No need," Annabella said, “but the point remains.”

“We have a saying in Albion," Sir Nathan said, calmly but firmly. “'Blood shed is as blood shared'. None of us are Mordred's kin but all of us are her comrades in arms. All of us have bled with her. Short of coming herself, sending us was the biggest sign of respect the King could have shown you.”

“Very well then," Annabella said. “I suppose we can deal on even footing then. The Trismegistian kingdom and the legendary kingdom shrouded in mists.”

Sir Nathan and his men all gave a hearty chuckle. “Gods below, what have people here been saying about us?" he asked.

“All the stories we know of you come from the worshipers of the Tuatha Dé Danann," Annabella said. “So far we thought your kingdom to be nothing more than a legend. And suddenly you show up in our port, large as life, when all our expeditions to find you have proven fruitless so far.”

“Yes, well, the mists of Albion are rather treacherous to navigate," Sir Nathan said. “If you have no knowledge of how to sail through them, you wouldn't be able to find us.”

“Which I consider a problem," Annabella said. “You can reach us but we cannot reach you. I hope you understand why that might be an issue?”

“Of course," Sir Nathan said. “You are worried that, if we were to be hostile, we could attack you but you could not retaliate. And you are also worried that I might use that to negotiate from a position of power.”

It was faint but I did notice Annabella grinding her teeth. “I am glad we understand each other," she finally said.

“I will alleviate your worries," he said, “but first I need to ask you a question.”

“Go ahead," she said.

He looked at her, then over to us, then back at her. “What do warriors of your kingdom do when they find worshipers of the Outer Gods?”

I felt a predatory smile creep over my lips.

“We pull them out by the roots and eradicate them, then we salt the earth we found them in," Annabella said. “I hope you don't have an issue with that.”

Sir Nathan smiled. “Very good," he said. “That was our only worry. So, to come back to the earlier discussion: We have no intention of attacking you and no, I will not use our invulnerability to negotiate from a position of strength. What we want is an alliance against the Outer Gods.”

Annabella's eyebrows rose. “So," she said, “can I assume that your previous king's passing can be traced back to Outsider activities?”

He nodded. “Yes," he said. “While the mists keep us safe from other kingdoms, they do precious little to protect us from Outsiders summoned by cultists in our own lands.”

“My condolences," Annabella said. “But... what do you expect an alliance to accomplish? We deal with the same issue.”

“Sporadic attacks by Outsiders and their cultists we can deal with... usually," Sir Nathan said. “What we are worried about is a large scale attack by them. No army can reach Albion, except one that can appear right in our midst. And you must have noticed it, too, right? They are growing restless. We've even heard murmurs that the Black Goat chose a mouthpiece to represent her interests in this world.”

I kept my face as still as I could, but I didn't dare to check whether my girls managed the same.

“So you want a defense pact, then?" Annabella asked. “Wherever that large scale attack you're expecting takes place, we'd pool our forces to drive them back, is that it?”

“Precisely," he said. “Albion has only ever cared about Albion, but... empty night would affect all of us, wouldn't it?”

“That is certainly true," Annabella said. “Very well, I believe this would be mutually beneficial. I would also suggest other ways our kingdoms can cooperate, but it seems we have a good basis to come to an understanding.”

“I am glad you agree, your highness," Sir Nathan said. “So, I am curious about your companions. They seemed eager at the thought of killing Outsiders.”

“I'm afraid I do not know much about their history," Annabella said and turned to look at us. “Are you experienced in killing them?”

I nodded. “Very much so, your highness," I said. “Our last quest in particular had us fight quite a few of them.”

“So, what have you killed?" Sir Nathan asked and I was reminded that he was not just a diplomat but a warrior. And warriors always loved sharing tales of their exploits.

So I put my cards on the table. I reached into my bag of holding and pulled out a huge curled horn. “This is from a Jabberwock we slew," I said and Sir Nathan all but salivated at the trophy.

“You killed a Jabberwock?" an older knight asked.

“The four of us did," I said. Well, there had been five of us back then, but he didn't need to know that. It wasn't as though the Chosen One had done much, anyway.

“Amazing," Sir Nathan said. “How did you deal with its breath attack?”

I nodded to Alisha. “Our cleric has a miracle that can protect even from their vile Darklight fire. But the main trick was to shoot it out of the sky and then kill it before it could use that breath too many times.”

The knights laughed boisterously.

“Just kill it before it can attack? Yeah, that's some sound advice.”

“They just shot a fucking goat dragon out of the sky? I love these people.”

“If I had to fight one with different resources," I said thoughtfully when they had calmed down a bit, “I would try to find a wizard with the ability of astral projection. Jabberwocks mostly see through spirit sight. They see spirits, not bodies, so astral projection easily confuses them.”

Sir Nathan blinked. He clearly thought I had been a fool who had won through dumb luck before. “That... is actually very sound advice," he said. “I will pass that on as soon as I can.”

“Also, do not rely on clerics with the Cleanse miracle," I added. “Jabberwocks move too fast and the incantation takes too long. And if you shoot them to the ground first, your clerics will be too busy healing and defending.”

“That sounds as though you learned it the hard way," Sir Nathan said.

“Yes," I said. “Cleanse is a very powerful miracle that shreds through Outsiders, but against Jabberwocks it's not practical. But now I'm curious. How did your king die?”

Sir Nathan winced. “A Blessed of Shub-Niggurath attacked him while he was out on a mission," he said. “We... failed to protect him.”

“A Blessed," I said. “How did you deal with that?”

“What's a Blessed?" Alisha asked.

“Remember those cultists we fought near Hero's Rest?" I asked.

She nodded.

“The ultimate ambition of cultists of the Black Goat is to become a Blessed," I said. “They are reborn through the Black Goat's womb and the result is something that looks a bit like a Satyr. They are incredibly powerful sorcerers, physically capable and worst of all they are utterly immortal, similar to how the gods reform if their bodies are killed, except unlike the gods they aren't dependent on worship to continue their existence. They will keep regenerating until the sun burns out.” Then I turned back to Sir Nathan. “Which is why I'm so curious how you dealt with it.”

“We impaled it with five enormous stakes and then fixed it in place with powerful magic," he said. “We have to shove the thing down onto the stakes once a day because its body keeps trying to push them out, but at least we can keep it from acting.”

“Inefficient," I said, “but I guess the spectacle makes up for it. No better way to show what happens to those who attack the royal family than by continuously making an example of them day after day, right?”

“Yeah, pretty much," he said. “We could have also caught it in concentric sacred circles so its flesh would be continuously burned off, but we weren't exactly drowning in options after that piece of filth killed our king.”

I smiled. “Oh, that's a good one," I said. “I need to keep that in mind if we ever have to deal with one of them.”

“Now then," Annabella said. “If you boys are quite finished planning deicide, I suppose we should get back to the negotiations.”

“I think we might as well break for lunch first, your highness," Sir Nathan said. “We can stretch our legs and have a bite. Now that we know we share a common enemy I believe our negotiations are sure to bear fruit.”

“I suppose," Annabella said.

**

And so we ordered lunch, though we sat at separate tables as we did. Lunch was a light fish stew and perfectly adequate, but I noticed something off about it, so after we finished our food I asked Annabella to come with me to the back alley behind the building.

“So, what did you want to talk about?" she asked and I activated my cone of silence.

“You mixed something into our food," I said evenly.

“You noticed that, did you?" she asked.

“I did," I said. “I would have refused to eat it but you put it in everyone's food, even your own, so I doubt you were trying to poison yourself. So, what was it?”

“Are you sure you want to know the answer to that question?" she asked.

“We are supposed to trust each other with our lives, so I'm going to have to insist," I said.

She let out a huge sigh. “It was an antidote."

“An antidote?" I asked. “For what?”

“For the poison an assassin put in our food, obviously," she replied.

“Wait, what?" I asked. “Why didn't you say anything?”

She rolled her eyes. “I am a princess. Poisonings are routine. I'm the last in line for the throne, so at least I don't have to worry about my siblings trying to have me killed, but someone is always trying to get rid of me.”

“I can't believe you're this nonchalant about someone trying to poison you," I said.

“Mister Mercenary," she said, “would you like to know the best way to deal with poisoners?”

I nodded.

“Eat the poisoned food they trick you into eating and smile about it," she said. “Show off how their best tricks have no effect on you. Usually they'll give up pretty quickly. Although I must say the current one is pretty dense. The idiot has used the same poison on us three meals in a row. What, did he think third time's the charm or something?”

“Wait wait wait," I said. “You're saying our dinner and breakfast were also poisoned?”

“Yes," she said. “Which makes me assume our messenger might be dirty since very few people should know I'm even in this city.”

“And what do you plan on doing about it?" I asked.

“What do you mean?" she asked. “I'm not going to do anything. I could have the kid hanged, but what purpose would that serve? He's just informing someone else. Someone else he probably never met in person. Meanwhile, I can fend off any poisonings and if they graduate to direct attacks I have a team of adventurers with me, don't I?”

“You're right, but still," I said, then admitted after a pause: “I'm mostly just angry at myself. I have a magic item that detects poisons in food, I just didn't think to use it.”

“I'm glad you didn't," she said. “You would have tipped our hand and forced them to escalate. As I said, the best way to deal with poisonings is to eat the food and show off how little effect it has.”

“I think I get it," I said. “But how did you know about it?”

She tapped her nose. “Herbalist, remember?" she asked. “I can smell most common poisons, even trace amounts through over-seasoned food.”

“Is that a talent or a trained skill?" I asked.

“Six of one, half a dozen of the other," she said with a smile.

**

Once we got back it was almost time to reconvene for the negotiations and so we sat back down with the knights. And after that things got really boring really fast.

We had to watch out for the princess' safety but the people she was negotiating with were a civil, not to say gallant, bunch so there was very little danger to her life. The one time someone approached us it was to ask the princess for an autograph.

And, other than that, all we could do was sit there and listen to Annabella and Sir Nathan go on and on and on about the terms of the treaty they were drafting. I had assumed that would be kind of interesting to sit in on but most of it consisted of setting up quotas, over which they bartered like grannies at a farmer's market. They didn't even stop at a defense pact. Since the royal family had the chance to deal with Albion for the first time ever they tried to find common ground in just about any area they could think of, drawing up all kinds of trade agreements, training exchanges and things that just straight-up made my eyes glaze over.

And so it was that, a few hours before midnight, they finally finished up for the day with a promise, nay threat, of more to come the next day and probably the one after as well.

So when we walked back to the Ale 'n' Eats I admit to being exhausted and not quite as on guard as I should have been, so the first thing we noticed of the ambush was when both exits of an alley were blocked off by robed figures, with us stuck between the two groups. There were seven attackers all told, four in front and three behind.

Seven humans weren't really something we needed to worry about strength-wise, but one, these were humans and I had much more issues killing humans than I did goblins and two, they were clearly assassins, which usually meant poison. If we took the time to disable them non-lethally some of them might have time to throw some poisoned daggers. But we had an ace up our sleeves.

“Yume?" I asked.

“On it," my little fox said and light blue mist exploded from her, but then her face scrunched up in a frown. “They're warded," she said. “It's not a strong ward, but I can't affect more than one at a time.”

Fuck.

And then their leader spoke up.

“You could have just let us poison you, but instead you had to make this difficult," he said, his voice arrogant and self-assured.

“You are aware that trying to assassinate a royal carries the death penalty, right?" Annabella asked, her voice loud and clear.

“Only if we get caught," the leader replied.

“Your highness," I said. “How would you like us to handle this?” Will we get in trouble if we kill them? I didn't ask out loud, but everyone could hear the subtext.

“You may feel free to kill," Annabella said. “On my authority as the Third Princess of the Trismegistian Royal Family.”

“Thank you, your highness," I said while telling myself that they were dead anyway even if we took them alive. In fact, I kept thinking, just killing them in open combat was probably more merciful than whatever method of execution awaited them if we took them alive.

I drew Helios Edge and a small parrying shield and then said: “Alisha, wind barrier and support, Yume, disable and then attack, Selene, cover our backs.”

Of course I knew what Selene would make of 'cover our backs', namely she'd cast one of her miracles and then hold her shield up until the miracle had time to kill the three behind us.

Instantly a barrier of almost solid wind sprang into existence around us. It wasn't strong enough to stop anyone stepping through but it would easily deflect any arrows or throwing knives targeting those inside it.

Soon after light blue mist coiled up like a snake and then struck one of the assassins in front of us. Only once had I ever seen Yume send such a concentrated attack to break through someone's mental defenses and back then had been a giant manticore she'd tricked into thinking it was on fire. Well, technically I'd seen her use that much illusion mana twice, but the other time I'd been on the receiving end and I hadn't actually had time to appreciate the intricacies of the spell because I'd been too busy trying to keep my brain from running out my nose or falling to my knees worshiping a goddess with glowing suns for eyes.

I didn't know what she was showing the assassin but from the way he was staring at the moons and weeping I was pretty sure I didn't want to know.

And then I was on them.

The first guy drew a rapier and stabbed at me but the weapon glanced harmlessly off my shield, the second swung a scimitar at me that I ducked under and the leader drew a long sword and blocked my attack. He pushed back against me, jumped back and then threw a handful of poisoned needles at me, which I defended against by spinning around and letting my cloak take them. The cloak was spelled to stop projectiles just like these and did its job perfectly, but I'd need to remove them by hand later.

Much more importantly, spinning away like that put me right back into the sights of the scimitar wielder and I was about to raise my shield when Yume's voice rang out:

“Swallow Cutter!”

Then she appeared right next to me and put her sword back into its sheath. I was left wondering what that had been about before scimitar guy fell apart into five pieces, three cuts appearing over his body all at once. Just then rapier guy wound up another attack and I grabbed Yume by the neck of her outfit and hauled her away from the stab as I kicked upward, hitting his arm from below so that he ineffectually stabbed the area above my shoulder.

Completely overextended as he was I grabbed his wrist and twisted into him so that my shoulder pushed into his armpit. I leaned forward and down, making him tumble over me to land in a heap against the alley wall. That was a trick Yume had taught me. It had nothing to do with Qi and everything to do with using the opponent's momentum against them.

From behind me I heard a loud gale that I was pretty sure belonged to Selene's ice storm miracle so I knew the three idiots behind us weren't going to be a problem for much longer.

Yume and I each turned to one of the incapacitated fighters. She stabbed her sword down into the one I'd thrown onto the ground while I slit the throat of the one she'd hit with her illusion magic and then we rounded on the leader and advanced toward him.

But as we did I noticed that he wasn't staring at us. He was staring right past us. I didn't dare turn around to look but then Annabella's heeled shoes clicked on the cobblestones as she walked between us. Except this wasn't the Annabella I knew. This was the Third Princess wielding the power of the Trismegistian bloodline.

She was still the same lithe and attractive woman she'd been before, but over her right shoulder loomed a sapphire wing. There was no other way to describe it. It was the shape of a bird's wing, connected to her shoulder blade, but made of shards of blue gemstone, sticking out like feathers. In her left hand she wielded a slender straight sword made of the same material and held it in a stance I associated with the nobility, court fencing I believe it was called, the sword tilted upward and the hand holding the sword resting above her heart. The weird part was that I couldn't see or sense an aura around her, that film of mana covering a mage as they used their power. This felt different, yet familiar. But from the almost organic motions of the wing on her back it was very clearly magic she was using.

I had to give the lead assassin credit. Even though he was clearly shocked he wasn't shocked enough not to realize that Annabella had stepped outside Alisha's wind barrier and was thus no longer protected from projectiles, so he immediately reached into his coat to throw a handful of poisoned needles at her.

I was about to block them but that blue wing spread out to protect Annabella, the needles glancing harmlessly off the hard gemstones.

The assassin backed off and drew a crossbow to shoot her in the face but the wing twitched upward and the bolt glanced off as well. Annabella's straight sword flicked out and a moment later the hand he had been holding the crossbow with fell off.

He stared at the bleeding stump where his hand had been and then turned to run. Yume and I were about to pursue but instead Annabella called out:

“Sapphire Pinions!”

Her blue wing beat once and half a dozen crystal shards loosened from it and hurtled at the assassin like thrown daggers and as they reached him they sank into his flesh, piercing his leather armor as though it wasn't even there. He fell face-first onto the cobblestones and didn't get back up again.

And then I saw a glint from up on a roof and roughly shoved Annabella out of the way as the eighth attacker, an archer on a rooftop, took a shot at her. Instead of piercing her through the eye, the way it would have if I hadn't intervened, the arrow sank into my shoulder and I dropped to one knee in pain. I could just barely make out Yume vanishing a moment before a pained cry came from the rooftop.

I could feel the poison on the arrowhead pulsing through my veins and I could tell it was vile stuff, but I knew I'd be alright and, sure enough, Selene rushed towards me and tore the arrow out even as Alisha began chanting her healing miracle. The one she could cast on her own authority wouldn't cure poison but the one that came out of her daily allotment, the one the goddess Brigid could cast using Alisha as a conduit, certainly could.

And just a moment after Alisha finished her incantation a gentle warmth engulfed me and both the pain of the wound and of the fire running through my veins vanished and by the time the warmth cut off the hole in my shoulder was no more.

I rolled my shoulder once to test it out and then I knelt down next to Annabella, who was kneeling on the ground herself..

“I apologize for shoving you, your highness," I said and she frowned at me.

“I'd rather get shoved than getting an arrow through the eye," she said, then tried to stand up, but wobbled. Clearly I'd hurt her ankle or something when I shoved her.

We sat her down on a barrel in the alley and then looked at her leg, which was complicated a bit by the wire running through her dress to give the lower portion more volume, but we managed to push the unruly garment back and, sure enough, her left ankle had turned purple. Alisha's miracle was good at fixing damage, but it worked best when the bones weren't misaligned, so we first needed to set it.

I wanted to be the one to fix it since I had been the one who'd hurt her but then again, there were three women there and it would be far less inappropriate of them to touch her bare leg. She must have noticed my hesitation because she said:

“Go ahead. I'm a big girl.”

I nodded and said: “Very well, your high---," she glowered at me, “Annabella.”

And so I grabbed her athletic calf with one hand and her foot with the other, noting how firm her toned leg felt under my hand and that she had really smooth skin on the soles of her feet for an adventurer, and looked up at her.

“This is going to hurt," I said. “Ready?”

She nodded.

I twisted her foot back into place and her hiss of pain lasted until Alisha's miracle washed over her. After that I helped her slip her shoe back on and then helped her back to her feet.

“Well," she said as soon as she realized that her footing was sure again, “it's been a while since I've had such an exciting night out.”